With reference to different Committees in India, consider the following details:
| Committee | Objective | Organization under which it was formed | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | R.N. Malhotra Committee | Comprehensive reforms of Insurance sector in India | Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India |
| 2. | L.C. Gupta Committee | Preparing a roadmap for the introduction of derivatives trading in India | Securities and Exchange Board of India |
| 3. | Urjit R. Patel Committee | Preparing a roadmap for reforming bank lending to the Housing sector | Reserve Bank of India |
| 4. | Y.H. Malegam Committee | Preparing a roadmap for reforms in Microfinance sector in India | Reserve Bank of India |
In which of the above rows are all the details correctly matched?
Answer & explanation
Answer: (d) 2 and 4
Rows 2 and 4 are fully matched: SEBI appointed the L.C. Gupta Committee on derivatives, and the RBI constituted the Malegam sub-committee on microfinance. Row 1 fails because the Malhotra Committee (1993) came years before IRDA existed (2000), and row 3 fails because the Urjit Patel Committee dealt with the monetary policy framework, not housing credit.
- ✗ 1. The Malhotra Committee on insurance sector reforms was set up in 1993 and reported in 1994; IRDA was formed only in 2000 after the IRDA Act, 1999, so IRDA could not have formed it.
- ✓ 2. SEBI appointed the L.C. Gupta Committee, which recommended the introduction of derivatives trading.
- ✗ 3. The RBI’s Urjit R. Patel Committee (report January 2014) was set up to revise and strengthen the monetary policy framework, not to reform bank lending to the housing sector.
- ✓ 4. In October 2010 the RBI constituted a sub-committee under Y.H. Malegam to study issues and concerns of the microfinance sector; its 2011 report proposed NBFC-MFIs as a new category.
Remember · Malhotra: insurance reform (1993, before IRDA); L.C. Gupta: derivatives (SEBI); Urjit Patel: monetary policy framework (RBI, 2014); Malegam: microfinance (RBI, 2010).
Sources
- IRDAI: Brief history of IRDA (Malhotra Committee, 1993) ↗ “1993: Committee on Reforms in the Insurance Sector, headed by Shri R. N. Malhotra (Retired Governor, Reserve Bank of India) set up to recommend reforms in insurance sector. … 2000: Formation of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority as an autonomous regulatory body on 19.4.2000”
- SEBI: Annual Report 1997-98 (L.C. Gupta Committee on derivatives) ↗ “The SEBI appointed L. C. Gupta Committee which recommended the introduction of derivatives trading in order to provide the facility of hedging in the most cost-efficient way against market risk”
- RBI: Report of the Expert Committee to Revise and Strengthen the Monetary Policy Framework (Urjit R. Patel, Jan 2014) ↗ “The main objective of the Committee is to recommend what needs to be done to revise and strengthen the current monetary policy framework with a view to, inter alia, making it transparent and predictable.”
- PIB (Ministry of Finance), 25 Nov 2011: Malegam Sub-Committee constituted by RBI on microfinance ↗ “the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had in October, 2010 constituted a Sub-Committee under Shri Y.H. Malegam, Member of the Central Board of Directors of RBI, to study issues and concerns of the Micro Finance Sector”
Question and answer: UPSC's provisional GS Paper I (2026, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·