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GENERAL STUDIES PRELIM 2011: CURRENT AFFAIRS PART I: COMMITTEES
PM TO Chair National Council for Tribal Welfare(NCTW) In order to send a strong message that the Government is committed to the cause of welfare of tribals, an apex body National Council for Tribal Welfare (NCTW) headed by the Prime Minister has been constituted. The proposed Apex level body has 18 members viz. Ministers of Tribal Affairs; Finance; Agriculture; Home Affairs; Health & Family Welfare; Environment & Forests; HRD; Rural Development; Woman and Child Development; Culture; Mines; Coal and Power; Deputy Chairperson, Planning Commission; Chief Minister of Schedule V and Schedule VI States; two experts to be nominated by the Prime Minister for a period of 2 years and Secretary, M/o Tribal Affairs, as Member Secretary. The Council would provide broad policy guidelines to bring about improvement in the lives of the ST community in the country. It would also review the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, implementation of Schedule-V and Schedule-VI of the Constitution, monitor the implementation of Tribal Sub-Plan and the programmes aimed at protecting vulnerable tribal groups. Meetings of the Council would be linked with the meetings of the National Development Council (NDC) to ensure that they are held regularly and the Chief Ministers are able to attend during NDC meeting. National Innovation Council to be set up Sam Pitroda to Chair the Council Objective: to prepare a road map for the Decade of Innovation 2010-2020 (Government has declared current decade (2010-2020) as the Decade of Innovation. ). The 17 member Council has been given the mandate to evolve an Indian model of innovation focusing on inclusive growth and creating an appropriate ecosystem conducive to fostering inclusive innovation. It will delineate appropriate policy initiatives within the government required to spur innovation. It will also promote the setting up of Sectoral Innovation Councils and State Innovation Councils. While encouraging all important sectors of the economy to innovate, it will take special efforts to facilitate innovation by micro small and medium enterprises. Innovation in public services delivery and encouraging multi-disciplinary and globally competitive approaches for innovations would be focused on by the Council.
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The National Innovation Council would be headed by Shri Sam Pitroda, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations. Members (note: focus on person and his/her field)
The National Innovation Council would have as its members Dr. K. Kasturirnagan and Shri Arun Maira, Members of the Planning Commission, Dr. Ramesh Mashelkar, Former Director General of CSIR, Shri Kiran Karnik, former President, NASSCOM, Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty of the Narayana Hrudyalaya, Shri R. Gopalakishnan, Executive Director, Tata Sons, Ms Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairperson, Biocon, Shri Shekhar Kapur, Film Director, Shri Saurabh Srivastava, Chairman, CA Technologies, Shri Anil K. Gupta, Professor IIM Ahmedabad, Prof. Sujatha Ramadorai, Professor, TIFR, Shri Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII, Shri Amit Mitra, Secretary General, FICCI, Dr. Samir Brahmachari, Director General, CSIR and Shri Sanjay Dhande, Director, IIT Kanpur, Shri R. Gopalakrishnan, Additional Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office would be the Member Secretary of the National Innovation Council.
Expert group of Jammu & Kashmir Government would set up an experts group to formulate a jobs plan in J&K. Group would be tasked with not only creating employment in the public and private sectors, but also increasing employability through the National Skill Development Mission. The members of the committee, headed by Dr. C. Rangarajan, will be N.R. Narayana Murthy, Tarun Das, P. Nanda Kumar, Shaqueel Qalander and an official representative of the State government. Constitution of A Commission of Inquiry on Illegal Mining in Iron and Managanese ORE The Government has appointed Honble Shri M.B. Shah, retired Judge of the Supreme Court of India as a one-man Commission of Inquiry with headquarters in Mumbai, to submit a report on Illegal Mining in Iron and Manganese ore. The Takeover Regulations Advisory Committee(TRAC) Chairman- C. Achuthan Constituted by - SEBI Recommendations: Clearly, there seems to be an attempt to balance the interests of various stakeholders including acquirers, shareholders, and target company, with the overarching philosophy of protecting the interests of public shareholders in takeover situations. The two most significant changes in proposed regulations are the increase in threshold limit for a public offer from 15% to 25% and the requirement to give an exit opportunity to 100% public shareholders via a public offer as compared to the minimum 20% now. Oversight committee for clean-up of Bhopal gas Site Oversight committee to coordinate and monitor the clean-up of the Bhopal gas leak disaster site. Chaired by Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh, and co-chaired by Madhya Pradesh Minister for Gas Relief Babulal Gaur. It was constituted on recommendation of Group of Ministers on Bhopal Gas Disaster. [Link] 2
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Technology Advisory Group for Unique Projects (TAGUP) The Union Finance Ministry has set up a seven-member committee(TAGUP) headed by UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani to advise the government on a host of IT initiatives in various areas such as income tax, the new pension system (NPS), and the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST). Rakesh Mohan committee on transport policy The Government of India has set up a High Level National Transport Development Policy Committee to create a policy environment that encourages competitive pricing and coordination between alternative modes of transport in order to provide an integrated and sustainable transport system. The framework that national governments provide for the transport sector largely determines the level of cost and efficiency in transport operations. Dinakaran probe panel/Sirpurkar panel/Aftab Alam Panel The Dinakaran probe panel has got itself a new head after Justice V.S. Sirpurkar recused himself following pressure from the Forum of Judicial Accountability. The three member panel will now be headed by Supreme Court judge, Justice Aftab Alam. Questions had been raised regarding the neutrality of Justice Sirpurkar after it was pointed out that he had sat on Division Benches with Justice Dinakaran at the Madras High Court. It was also discovered that there was also a social and personal relationship between the two judges. Sachar committee The Rajinder Sachar Committee, appointed by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was a high level committee for preparation of a report on the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community of India. The committee has recommended for setting up "Equal opportunity commission". Ranganath mishra commission The National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities , better known as Ranganath Mishra Commission, was given an opportunity to reiterate, correct and strengthen the secular fabric of our country an objective mandated and provided for by our Constitution. Madhav Gadgil committee on the Western Ghats ecology
To protect the pristine ecology of the region The 1600-km-long Western Ghats covering 1.6 lakh sq km area is one of the four biodiversity hotspots of the country. Close to one-third of the Ghat region is forest which houses 1,741 species of flowering plants, 403 species of birds and many animals.
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Bimal Jalan Committee Working and ownership norms of market infrastructure institutions (MIIs), including stock exchanges. Appointed by SEBI, had last month recommended not allowing listing by stock exchanges, putting a cap on their profits and fixing their executive remunerations etc. Favored allowing anchor investors up to a total of 49 per cent shares in bourses. Panel recommends for lower interest on farm loans Background: Prime Minister , in April 2010 during the meeting of CMs, constituted three working groups to tackle the rising food inflation. Group Head Recommendation suggested that the government provide farm loans to farmers at four per cent interest rate, raise the minimum support price (MSP) for farm produce to 50 per cent higher than the actual cost of cultivation and expand diesel subsidy scheme across the country. recommends setting up of Special Courts under the Essential Commodities Act to try offences and to constitute a price stabilisation fund for government intervention when prices become unreasonably high.
working group on Bhupinder agriculture Singh Hudda
working group consumer affairs
on Narendra Modi
working group on food Montek Singh and public distribution Ahluwalia
Pranab Sen Committee for Slums The committee was established by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MoHUPA) to examine the definition of slums and provide a more accurate statistical model for enumerating Indias slum populations. The committee was also tasked with suggesting a uniform definition of slum which can be adopted by the government for its Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) that seeks removal of slums.
Findings: A Government of India expert committee has suggested that Indias slum population is significantly higher than originally estimated and recommended new guidelines for enumerating slums in the 2011 Census. In a report issued 3 September 2010, the Committee on Slum Statistics/Census projected that Indias slum population in 2011 would be 93.06 million more than 23 per cent higher than the 75.06 million originally estimated by the 2001 Census using new definition. The 2001 census had put the slum population at 52.4 million. VISION IAS [Link] 4
Important Recommendations: New definition of slums. An urban information management system on slums should be created and each state that gets funds from the ministry should indicate time-bound plans for addressing issues concerning slum clusters. It has recommended checklists for the purpose of identification of slums and said that households having roof material other than concrete, not having facility of drinking water, drainage and latrine should be treated as having slum characteristics. Pranab Sen Pranab Sen, principal adviser to the Planning Commission and the countrys former chief statistician. New definition for slums by Pranab Sen Committee for Slums The Pranab Sen Committee has given a new definition for slums. It has defined a slum as a compact settlement of at least 20 households with a collection of poorly built tenements, mostly of temporary nature, crowded together usually with inadequate sanitary and drinking water facilities in unhygienic conditions. The new definition of slum is different from the definition adopted by the 2001 Census of India. Accordingly to 2001 Census, slum areas broadly constitute of: All specified areas in a town or city notified as Slum by State/Local Government and UT Administration under any Act including a Slum Act; All areas recognized as Slum by State/Local Government and UT Administration which may have been formally notified as slum under any act; A compact area of at least 300 population or about 60-70 households of poorly built congested tenements in unhygienic environment usually with inadequate infrastructure and lacking in proper sanitary and drinking water facilities.
As reported by the Office of Registrar General of India (ORGI), Census 2011 will use the same definition as used by Census 2001 for delineating the slum blocks in the notified, recognized and identified slum areas of each statutory town. In addition, the Houselisting and Housing Census data will be used for earmarking the slum like clusters uniformly through the country. The ORGI will also identify all the House-listing Blocks (HLBs) where at least 20 households satisfying the set criterion, as recommended by the Pranab Sen Committee exist. Shunglu Committee Government has approved the constitution of a High Level Committee (HLC) headed by Shri V.K. Shunglu, the former Comptroller & Auditor General of India, to look into the organization and conduct of the Commonwealth Games Delhi 2010 and also to draw lessons from it. Shunglu has been given the status of a Supreme Court judge.
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One-member Patil committee Government appointed retired Supreme Court Judge Shivaraj V. Patil to examine the appropriateness of the procedures adopted by the DoT in the issuance of licences and spectrum allocation during 2001-2009. Expert committee on mullaperiyar Dam The Supreme Court had appointed the committee headed by the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, A.S. Anand, (in February, 2010) to go into all issues, including the safety aspects of the dam, raising the water level beyond 136 ft as also Keralas demand for a new dam. The five-member committee includes K.T. Thomas and A.R. Lakshmanan, former judges of the Supreme Court; C.D. Thatte, former secretary to the Ministry of Water Resources; and D.K. Mehta, former Chief Engineer, Central Water Commission. While Mr. Thomas represents Kerala, Lakshmanan is the representative of Tamil Nadu. Background: The Kerala Periyar Dam New proposed dam by Kerala Govt near old dam(Mullaperiyar Dam). Issue: environment clearance Empowered committee on the Mullaperiyar reservoir headed by A. S. Anand visited the site. Mullaperiyar Dam is constructed over the Periyar River in Kerala. It is operated by the Government of Tamil Nadu according to a 999-year lease agreement made during erstwhile British colonial rule. Issue: The government of Tamil Nadu has proposed an increase in the storage level of the dam from the currently maintained 136 feet (41 m) to 142 feet (43 m). The Kerala government has opposed this move, citing safety concerns for the more than hundred year old bridge and especially for the thickly populated districts downstream. Meena Gupta Panel The panel was set up by the Environment Ministry in July to probe all environmental approvals granted to the Posco project, the implementation of the Forest Rights Act and the resettlement and rehabilitation provisions. Ms. Gupta, who was chosen to head the committee, was Environment Secretary when the Posco clearances were granted in the first place, prompting concerns about conflict of interest in some quarters. Issue: In a letter sent to Union Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh, the other three members, tribal affairs expert Urmila Pingle, former director-general of forests Devendra Pandey and Madras High Court advocate V. Suresh have pointed out that Ms. Gupta's recommendations are not only untenable but legally impermissible
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Sub-committee on MFI The Reserve Bank of India has appointed a sub-committee under the chairmanship of Y. H. Malegam to look at the governance issues. At present, only MFIs registered as non-banking finance companies with the RBI come under the central bank's regulatory control. National Council on India's Nutritional Challenges Though the PM-headed Council was formed in October 2008, it will hold its first meeting held in Nov 2010. Panel has directed Planning Commission and the ministry of women and child development (WCD) to prepare a roadmap for 200 of the poorest districts with special focus on children under 2 years and pregnant women.
CSAT (CIVIL SERVICES APTITUDE TEST 2011)
INTERACTIVE IAS PRELIM MOCK TESTS 2011: GENERAL STUDIES
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INTERACTIVE IAS APTITUDE TEST 2011
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