Important Committee And Commission -2014

1. Pitroda Committee - Expert Committee constituted by Information and Broadcasting Ministry to review the institutional framework of Prasar Bharti has submitted its report on 25 January 2014. The committee was headed by the Advisor to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure, Sam Pitroda. The committee was set up on 29 January 2013.

imageCommittee has recommended to amend the Act of 1990 to give effective freedom to the Prasar Bharti with administrative and financial powers.

2. KK Mehrotra Committee - Union Government on 20 June 2014 constituted an independent High Level Committee to inquire into the incident of gas leakage in Bhilai Steel Plant in Chhattisgarh that occurred on 12 June 2014. The Committee has been asked to submit its report by 17 July 2014

The independent High Level Committee will be headed by KK Mehrotra former CMD of Metallurgical and Engineering Consultants (India) limited along with three other members. The other three members will be-

KAP Singh, former MD of Bokaro Steel Plant
SB Mathur, Director General of the Directorate General of Factory Advice Service & Labour Institute in Mumbai
Soumitra Tarafder, Chief Scientist at the National Metallurgical Laboratory in Jamshedpur

3. Rajani Ranjan Rashmi Committee - Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry on 16 June 2014 constituted an Expert Committee to formulate National Rubber Policy. The Expert Committee will be headed by Rajani Ranjan Rashmi, Additional Secretary, Plantations, Department of Commerce.

The Committee will examine issues relating to production, development and exports of rubber and related products and make recommendations for a broad based policy relating to all types of rubber i.e. Natural Rubber (NR), Synthetic Rubber (SR) and Reclaimed Rubber (RR).

4. Ashok Lavasa Committee- The Union Civil Aviation Ministry on 7 July 2014 constituted an Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) to examine the maximum potential of the GPS Aided Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) system. The IMG will be headed by Ashok Lavasa, the Secretary of Ministry of Civil Aviation.

Tasks of the Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG)

The Group will examine the potential of sector-specific utilisation of GAGAN system for its use in non-aviation sectors

Develop appropriate work programmes using GAGAN signals that can benefit diversified users

With GANAN, India would become the fourth nation after the US, Europe and Japan to use the satellite-based navigation system.

5. Ranjit Roy Chaudhury Committee -Union Health Ministry on 8 July 2014 constituted a core group to work out a detailed action plan to eradicate the dreaded vector-borne disease, Kala Azar by 2015.

Union Health Minister, Harsh Vardhan has advised the core group to expedite the process to eradicate the disease from the country. India's progress against Kala Azar is unsatisfactory.

Earlier, the Union Government in 2004 had set a target to wipe out the disease by 2008, which has been revised twice to 2010 and now to 2015.

Members of the Core Group

Ranjit Roy Chaudhury, the clinical pharmacologist has been named to coordinate a group of experts and officials. Earlier, Chuadhury has headed WHO's Rational Use of Drugs in India programme. Other members of the group are :-

Former Health Minister, CP Thakur,
Head of Indian Council of Medical Research, VM Katoch
Director General of Health Services, Jagdish Prasad,
Specialist in pharmaceuticals, Kavita Khanna
Head of the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme, AC Dhariwal
Health Secretaries of Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh
Joint Secretary in the Union Health Ministry, Anshu Prakash

6. R S Sharma Expert Committee - Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs on 19 July 2014 constituted R S Sharma Expert Committee on Cost Records and Cost Audits. The Committee will submit the report within three months.

The Expert Committee will review the Companies (Cost Records and Audit) Rules 2014 and the need to have a comprehensive policy towards the role of the cost professions in the corporate and other sectors of economy.

The Composition of the Committee:

R. S. Sharma, former Chairman and Managing Director, ONGC - Chairman

R.K. Jain, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare - Member

Chandra Wadhwa, former President, ICWAI - Member

Aruna Sethi, Adviser (Cost), Ministry of Corporate Affairs - Member-Convener.

7.Suresh Prabhu Committee -Union government on 24 July 2014 decided to appoint Suresh Prabhu Committee to review the gas pricing formula. Suresh Prabhu is a former Union Power Minister under National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The other members of the Committee will be Pratap Bhanu Mehta, President and Chief Executive of Centre for Policy Research and Bibek Debroy of the same institute.

8. Justice SB Sinha Committee - The Supreme Court of India on 31 July 2014 appointed a one-member commission headed by former Justice SB Sinha (of apex court) to probe the 2006 Meerut Fire tragedy. The SC bench was headed by Justice Dipak Misra and included Justice V Gopala Gowda has asked the commission to submit its report by 31 January 2015.

9. Hari Gautam Committee - The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) on 3 August 2014 set up a four member committee to review the present status of Universities Grants Commission's (UGC). The committee will be headed by former UGC chairman Hari Gautam.

The other members of the committee will be CM Jariwala, former dean of law, Banaras Hindu University and Kapil Kapoor, former Pro-Vice Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University. RP Sisodia, Joint Secretary (higher education) will be the member secretary of the committee. The committees have six months time to submit its report.

The committee will suggest ways to restructure and reorganise the panel to attain better performance in order to meet desired objectives.

The committee has been given 14 items for review, which includes evaluation of the performance of UGC in coordinating and determining standards of education in universities, conducting an audit of its regulatory reach and identifying strengths and weaknesses in this aspect.

10.RK Singh Committee -Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan on 7 August 2014 appointed a committee under the chairmanship of former home secretary RK Singh to review Parliament security. The committee will comprise of other two members and they are former Rajasthan DGP Harish Chandra Meena and former Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh.

All these three members of the committee are BJP members in Lok Sabha at present. It has been asked to submit its report within a month after making a comprehensive review of the existing security set-up and suggest measures to further strengthen it. The Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari didn't object on the formation of the committee that comprises only Lok Sabha members.

Important Committee And Commission -2014

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