Narendra Modi scrapped four Standing Committees of Cabinet

Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India on 10 June 2014 decided to discontinue four Standing Committees of the Cabinet. The discontinued standing committees included Cabinet Committee on Management of Natural Calamities, Cabinet Committee on Prices, Cabinet Committee on World Trade Organisation Matters and Cabinet Committee on Unique Identification Authority of India related issues.

The functions of these committees will be handled by
• Cabinet Committee on Management of Natural Calamities: The functions of this Committee will be handled by the Committee under the Cabinet Secretary whenever natural calamities occur.
• Cabinet Committee on Prices: The functions of this Committee will be handled by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.
• Cabinet Committee on World Trade Organisation Matters: The functions of this Committee will be handled by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs and, whenever necessary, by the full Cabinet.
• Cabinet Committee on Unique Identification Authority of India related issues: Major decisions in this area have already been taken and the remaining issues will be brought to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.

Whereas, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi will re-constitute the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs and the Cabinet Committee on Security. The CCEA is headed by Prime Minister and includes the Finance, Commerce & Industry, Home and Defence ministers as other members.

 The previous government led by Manmohan Singh had 12 Cabinet Committees of which 10 were headed by Prime Minister and the other two namely the Cabinet Committee on Accommodation and Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs has Defence Minister as its Chairperson.