Current Affairs June 2017 - Committees
1 - SEBI Constitutes Committee on Corporate Governance
SEBI has set up a committee under the Chairmanship of Shri Uday Kotak, Executive Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra Bank to advise on issues relating to corporate governance. The committee will submit the report within four months.
The Committee shall make recommendations to SEBI on the following issues:
Ensuring independence in spirit of Independent Directors and their active participation in functioning of the company.
Improving safeguards and disclosures pertaining to Related Party Transactions.
Issues in accounting and auditing practices by listed companies.
Improving effectiveness of Board Evaluation practices.
Addressing issues faced by investors on voting and participation in general meetings.
Disclosure and transparency related issues.
2 - Expert Committee formed to examine rules Indo-Myanmar Border
A committee was formed to examine the rules, which allow free movement of people near Indo-Myanmar border. Committee will be headed by the special secretary (Internal Security) in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The committee will prepare standard operating procedures common for all the four states so that militants and criminals are filtered at the border.
However, visa-free movement regime is already allowed within 16 km on either side of the border, but these rules are widely exploited by militants for smuggling arms, drugs, and fake Indian currency, due to which committee has been formed to examine the rules.
3 - GST Council to set up Anti-profiteering Panel
A five-member anti-profiteering authority will be established to take decisions on levying the penalty if businesses do not pass on the benefit of price reduction to consumers under GST regime. The GST Council headed by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, has also approved the anti-profiteering rules.
The anti-profiteering authority, to be headed by a retired secretary-level officer, can take suo motu action, besides acting on complaints of profiteering. As per the anti-profiteering rules, the authority will have a sunset date of two years and will decide on penalty to be levied.
4 - RBI reconstituted Oversight Committee and appointed three more members
The Reserve Bank of India reconstituted the Oversight Committee by appointing three more members. The high-level panel was formed to examine the process to resolve mounting bad loans in the banking sector.
Former chief vigilance commissioner Pradeep Kumar will head the now reconstituted 5-member panel. The other three members of the committee are former SBI Chairman Janki Ballabh, former Canara Bank Chairman and MD MBN Rao, former Chairman of L&T Finance YM Deosthalee and S Raman, member SEBI.
The reconstituted Oversight Committee would also review cases, which were restructured under the Scheme for Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets and resolution of other cases where the aggregate exposure of the banking sector to the borrowing entity is greater than Rs. 500 crore.
5 - Government constitutes a committee to prepare the final draft of National Education Policy
The government has constituted a committee for preparation of final draft of National Education Policy under the Chairmanship of eminent Scientist Dr K. Kasturirangan.
The other members of the committee are – Dr. Vasudha Kamat, Shri K.J. Alphonse, Dr. Manjul Bhargava, Dr Ram Shankar Kureel, Dr. T.V.Kattimani, Shri Krishna Mohan Tripathy, Dr. Mazhar Asif and Dr. M.K.Shridhar.
The HRD ministry did not set a timeline for the new committee to submit a report. The previous committee was constituted under the leadership of T.S.R. Subramanian by the government in 2015.
6 - BCCI formed 7-member Committee to oversee Lodha Panel Reforms
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) formed a special seven-member committee to identify ‘few critical points’ that are difficult to be implemented, in regards to the Justice RM Lodha Committee reforms.
The four contentious Lodha panel recommendations, which are delaying the implementation process, are one-state one vote, age cap of 70 for office-bearers, cooling-off period for office-bearers and the size of the national selection panel.
The seven-member committee has Rajeev Shukla, former India captain Sourav Ganguly, Naba Bhattacharjee, TC Mathew, Jay Shah, Amitabh Choudhary and Anirudh Chaudhary. The committee will be headed by Rajeev Shukla.
