The Appointments Committee, the Committee on Political Affairs and the Committee on Investment and Growth are examples of:

These are committees of the Union Cabinet, set up to deal with particular areas of government work in detail before decisions are taken by the full Cabinet.

Nature of cabinet committees:

• They are extra-constitutional, which means they are not mentioned in the Constitution.
• They are set up under the Government of India (Transaction of Business) Rules, 1961.
• They are of two kinds: standing committees, which are permanent, and ad hoc committees, which are temporary and deal with specific problems.
• They are set up and reconstituted from time to time by the Prime Minister, depending on the needs of the government.

Membership:

• They usually include only Cabinet Ministers, but non-cabinet ministers may also be members or special invitees.
• Their membership varies from three to eight members.

Some important cabinet committees:

• Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs: often called the "super cabinet", it deals with policy matters relating to domestic and foreign affairs.
• Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs: directs and coordinates economic policies.
• Appointments Committee of the Cabinet: decides senior appointments, such as those of service chiefs and secretaries.
• Cabinet Committee on Security: deals with defence and national security.
• Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs: looks after the progress of government business in Parliament.
• Cabinet Committee on Accommodation: decides allotment of government accommodation.
• Committees on Investment and Growth and on Employment and Skill Development were set up in 2019, although they were later merged or changed.

Advantages:

• They reduce the workload of the full Cabinet.
• They allow detailed study of issues by the ministers most concerned.
• They help coordinate the work of different ministries.

Groups of Ministers:

The government also sets up Groups of Ministers (GoMs) and Empowered Groups of Ministers (EGoMs) to study particular issues.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Parliamentary standing committees and departmentally related committees are committees of Parliament, made up of MPs from all parties.
• ✗Constitutional bodies are created directly by the Constitution.