UPSC Notes

Centre State Relations Centre State Relations in India are fundamental aspect of the country’s federal structure, ensuring a balance of power and responsibilities between the central government and individual state governments. These relations are categorized into three broad spheres: legislative, administrative, and financial. Legislative relations define the law-making powers, administrative relations deal with the distribution…

In modern democracies, two kinds of relationships exist between the Legislature and the Executive; it can be defined by either the Parliamentary or the Presidential government system. The Parliamentary system involves a fusion of the Executive and Legislature, and the Executive is responsible to the Legislature for its acts and policies. It is also known…

Federalism is a governance mechanism in which the state’s sovereignty is distributed between different units, i.e. centre, state and local bodies. It is a vertical distribution of power, i.e. division of power between different layers of government. It seeks to define the relationship between the central government and regional governments. It institutionalises political cooperation and…

“Without the basic structure, we end up with a constitution without constitutionalism”.   -Upendra Buxi How comprehensively can Parliament amend the Constitution? Can it change the very nature of the Constitution? Can it rewrite the whole Constitution? These were the questions that our Supreme Court, the final interpreter of the Constitution, faced in the 1960s…

Fundamental Rights Fundamental Rights represents the essential human rights that are universally recognized as inherent to all individuals irrespective of their nationality, place of residence, sex, ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status. In the context of India, these Fundamental rights are given in the Indian Constitution, specially in Part III (Article 12…

The idea of fundamental duty refers to a sense of moral obligations and responsibilities that an individual should uphold as a member of society and a nation. It serves as a moral compass for individuals, guiding them to act responsibly, ethically and with consideration for the nation’s well-being. It is often associated with the concept of…

“While we want this Constitution to be as solid and permanent as we can make it, there is no permanence in a Constitution.” -Jawaharlal Nehru The Constitution of a country is the fundamental law of the land. It has higher sanctity and more permanence than ordinary legislation. However, a democratic constitution has to be particularly…

Directive Principles of the State Policy (DPSP) Part IV (Articles 36 to 51) of the Constitution constitutes the Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSPs). The Constitution added these principles to bring about social and economic justice to the people. These directive principles embody the principles of a welfare state. These directives are addressed to the…

The Crown Rule refers to the British Raj or Direct rule in India. It was the time when the British power in India shifted from the East India Company to the British Crown. The Crown’s control over the Indian subcontinent from 1858 to 1947. Since the Pitts India Act of 1784, the British parliament curtailed…

A Constitution is a set of rules, written or unwritten, acceptable to all the people living together in a country. It is the supreme legislation that governs how residents of a territory interact with one another and how they interact with the government. With the build-up of national consciousness among Indians and the decline of…