Under the UPA government, many matters were referred to a Group of Ministers, a GoM, or to an Empowered Group of Ministers, an EGoM. When Pranab Mukherjee became President in 2012, he was heading 24 of the 39 EGoMs and GoMs, ThePrint reported.
On May 31, 2014, the new government of Narendra Modi abolished all nine EGoMs and 21 GoMs. Ministries were to “take appropriate decisions at the level of ministries and departments itself,” Business Standard reported.
In July 2016 the same paper wrote: “Two years into the Modi government, these panels are back.”