Over the years, India has established numerous committees and commissions for diverse purposes — such as tax, banking, economics, social issues, and education reforms. Each of these entities contributes significantly to India’s political landscape.

Out of them, these 10 committees are frequently selected as topics for questions in both the prelims and mains of UPSC CSE.

1. Tax Reform Committee Set up in August 1991 under the chairmanship of Dr Raja J Chelliah, the committee makes recommendations for a comprehensive reform of the system of central taxes.

2. Rekhi Committee Another tax reform committee, Rekhi Committee was set up in 1992 under the chairmanship of K L Rekhi. The primary motive was to facilitate reforms in the indirect taxation system.

3.  Kelkar Committee Constituted under the chairmanship of Dr Vijay Kelkar in 2002, the main recommendations of this task force are related to the direct taxes related to increasing the income tax exemption limit, rationalisation of exemptions, abolition of long-term capital gains tax, etc.

4. Narasimham Committee Established by the former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor, M Narasimham in August 1991, the committee proposed segregation of the roles of RBI as a regulator of banks and owner of banks.

5. Santhanam Committee An economic reform committee, Santhanam Committee was set up in 1962. It recommended the constitution of the Central Vigilance Commission and administrative vigilance divisions in all departments and major organisations of the government.

6. Disinvestment Committee In August 1996, this committee was formed to evaluate and guide the government on divesting Public Sector Enterprises (PSE) by expanding markets and diversifying ownership transfers for five years.

7. C Rangarajan Committee The Rangarajan committee raised the daily per capita expenditure to Rs 32 from Rs 27 for the rural poor and to Rs 47 from Rs 33 for the urban poor, thus raising the poverty line. It was formed under the chairmanship of Dr C Rangarajan.

8. Mandal Commission The commission was formed by the Morarji Desai government to identify socially or educationally backward classes to address caste discrimination in 1979.

9. Meera Seth Committee Meera Seth Committee is known for its exceptional work in the development of the handloom industry. It was on their recommendation that a national handloom fund of Rs 500 crore was set up.

10. Committee for evolution of the New Education Policy (NEP) Chaired by former Cabinet Secretary of India, T S R Subramanian, the committee proposed an education policy, which sought to address several challenges faced by the current education system.

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