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News Excerpt:  

Once the Union Cabinet is sworn in and ministerial portfolios are allocated, the next step would be the formation of the high-profile Cabinet committees.

Formation of Cabinet Committees

• The Prime Minister sets up Cabinet Committees with selected members of the Cabinet and assigns specific functions to these committees.
• Their membership ranges between three and eight people. Usually, only Cabinet Ministers are present. 
• Nonetheless, the Ministers who do not sit on the cabinet are still eligible to join.

Characteristics of Cabinet committees

• These are extra constitutional as they are not specified in the Constitution. However, the Rules of Business provide for its formation.
• They are of two types: Standing and Ad hoc. Whereas the latter are transient in nature, the former are permanent. Ad hoc committees are occasionally formed to address certain issues. When their mission is accomplished, they split off. 
• Usually, only Cabinet ministers are members of these committees. However, it is not unheard of for non-Cabinet ministers to be members or special invitees to committees.

Presidency and Functions

• They are generally led by the Prime Minister. Occasionally, their Chairman is also one of the other Cabinet Ministers, mainly the Finance or Home Ministers. However, if the prime minister is on a committee, he is always the one in charge of it.
• The committees resolve issues and formulate proposals for the consideration of the Cabinet and take decisions on matters assigned to them. The Cabinet is empowered to review such decisions.

Cabinet Committee at Present time:

• There are eight Cabinet committees:
• The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet
• Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs
• Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs
• Cabinet Committee on Investment and Growth
• Cabinet Committee on Security
• Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs
• Cabinet Committee on Employment & Skill Development
• Cabinet Committee on Accommodation.
• The committees on investment and employment were innovations introduced by the Modi government in 2019.
• All committees except the Cabinet Committee on Accommodation and Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs are headed by the PM.

Why is CCS so important?

• With the Prime Minister helming it, the CCS has the ministers for Finance, Defence, Home Affairs and External Affairs as its members. 
• It is responsible for debates, discussions and appointments of/ in the national security bodies.
• Major decisions with respect to the significant appointments, issues of national security, defence expenditure of India are taken by CCS.
• The CCS also brainstorms on issues relating to law and order and internal security, and policy matters concerning foreign affairs on security-related issues. 
• It also considers matters relating to atomic energy.

Have alliance partners been part of the CCS earlier?

• The most notable example was the H D Deve Gowda government of 1996. Samajwadi Party’s Mulayam Singh Yadav became Defence Minister, P Chidambaram, who had formed the Tamil Maanila Congress earlier that year, became Finance Minister, and CPI’s Indrajit Gupta became Home Minister.
• In 2001, with Vajpayee heading the NDA government, Samata Party founder George Fernandes was appointed the Defence Minister and remained in the post for three years.
• In fact, as Defence Minister in the BJP-led second and third Atal Bihari Vajpayee ministries (1998–2004), he oversaw the Kargil War and the nuclear tests at Pokhran.
• However, the Congress kept all CCS positions in the UPA government, and the BJP had all four of these positions in the Modi governments.