Commodity and Sector Boards and Their Ministries

Five statutory commodity boards, all under one department

India's classic export commodity boards, the Tea Board, Coffee Board, Rubber Board, Spices Board and Tobacco Board, are all statutory autonomous bodies under the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, each promoting the cultivation, quality, domestic trade and export of its named crop. The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), though not one of the five classic boards, follows the identical pattern: also a statutory body under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, promoting marine-product exports. The National Centre for Trade Information (NCTI) sits in the same department too, functioning under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry rather than any other ministry its name might suggest. The pattern worth carrying forward: a board's job is exporting or trading a commodity, or generating trade-related information and market access, and that job is what routes it to Commerce, regardless of which specific crop or product is in its name.

Cottage- and small-industry boards sit with MSME, not Agriculture or Commerce

A separate family of boards, despite covering rural, craft and cottage-scale production, sits under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) rather than Agriculture, because their organising principle is enterprise scale, not crop type: the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), a statutory body promoting khadi and village industries, and the Coir Board, promoting the coir (coconut-fibre) industry, both function under MSME. A statement pairing the Coir Board with the Ministry of Agriculture is testing exactly this, treating a raw-material link (coir comes from coconuts) as if it determined the ministry, when the real determinant is that both bodies exist to support small-scale, decentralised production.

One further named exception is worth holding alongside these: the Central Silk Board, despite covering an agricultural input (sericulture, silk-cocoon rearing), functions under the Ministry of Textiles, not MSME or Agriculture, because its role is understood as feeding the textile value chain from raw silk through to fabric, the same logic that keeps it institutionally distinct from the Coir Board and KVIC.

The automotive sector's own board sits with Heavy Industries

The National Automotive Board, a single-window body for automotive-sector matters including vehicle testing, certification and homologation, functions under the Ministry of Heavy Industries, not the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (which administers vehicle usage, licensing and road safety) and not the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (which handles export promotion generally). The distinction worth carrying forward: a ministry pairing that sounds plausible by association, transport for a vehicle-related body, commerce for an export-heavy sector, is exactly the kind of pairing this question family tests as the wrong answer.

Quick revision points

• Tea, Coffee, Rubber, Spices and Tobacco Boards, plus MPEDA and the National Centre for Trade Information: all under the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
• Khadi and Village Industries Commission and the Coir Board: both under the Ministry of MSME, not Agriculture, because the organising principle is enterprise scale, not the crop.
• Central Silk Board: under the Ministry of Textiles, distinct from the MSME-housed Coir Board despite both covering an agricultural raw material.
• National Automotive Board: under the Ministry of Heavy Industries, not Road Transport and Highways or Commerce and Industry.