Commitees and members

• Competition Commision of India : Ashok Chawla
• Expert Committee on Road Map for coal sector reforms : T.L. Shankar Committee
• Commitee for Direct Tax Code and GAAR : Parthasarathi Shome
• Suggest Amendments to Criminal Law(existing laws on safety of women) : Shri Justice (Retd) JS Verma.
• Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court Mukul Mudgal : Walmart probe committee
• Commitee for sugar deregulation  : C. Rangarajan
• K. Kasturirangan (Member, Planning Commission) :  Western Ghat 
• Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission  (FSLRC), headed by former Justice B. N. Srikrishna
• Financing of Infrastructure sector : Deepak Parekh
• Illegal Mining in Odisha : Justice M B Shah Commision 
• 1.NBFC : A C Shah Committee.
  2.Final Accounts : A Ghosh Committee.
  3.Job Criteria In Bank Loans (Approach) : BD
  Thakar Committee.
  4.Modalities Of Implementation Of New 20 Point
  Programme: A Ghosh Committee.

Fourteenth Finance Commission

• Formed due to Article 280 of the Constitution,  consisting of Dr. Y.V.Reddy, former Governor Reserve Bank of India, as the Chairman and the following four other members, namely:-Prof Abhijit Sen; Ms. Sushma Nath; Dr. M.Govinda Rao and Dr. Sudipto Mundle.
• Shall make its report available by the 31^st October, 2014, covering a period of five years commencing on the 1st April, 2015.
• Make recommendations regarding the sharing of Union taxes, principles governing Grants-in-aid to States and transfer of resources to local bodies.
• Review the state of finances, deficit and debt levels of the Centre and states, keeping in view the fiscal consolidation roadmap recommended by the 13th Finance Commission.
• Suggest measures for maintaining a stable and sustainable fiscal environment consistent with equitable growth including suggestions to amend the Fiscal Responsibility Budget Management Acts.
• May also review the present arrangements  financing of Disaster Management with reference to the funds constituted under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and make recommendations.
• Look into issues like disinvestment, GST compensation, sale of non-priority PSUs and subsidies
• It will take the base of population figures as of 1971.

National Green Tribunal

• The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has been established under the NGT Act, 2010 on 18th October, 2010 is headed by Chairperson L.S. Panta, a Retired Supreme Court Judge.
• At present  : Justice Swatanter Kumar
• The Tribunal has been established for the effective and expeditious disposal of cases relating to environmental protection and conservation of forests and other natural resources including enforcement of any legal right relating to environment and giving relief and compensation for damages to persons and property
• Highlights
• The Tribunal has the same powers as are vested in a civil court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.
• The Tribunal is mandated to make an endeavor for disposal of applications or appeals finally within 6 months of filing of the same.
• Initially, the NGT is proposed to be set up at five places of sittings and will follow circuit procedure for making itself more accessible. The five places of its sitting are at Delhi, Bhopal, Pune, Kolkata and Chennai.
• The Tribunal has the original jurisdiction over all civil cases where a substantial question relating to environment, including enforcement of any legal right relating to environment is involved.
• The Tribunal is competent to provide relief over and above as is admissible under the Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991. In order to ensure access to justice, pollution control boards and local authorities have also been empowered under the NGT Act to file an application or appeal before the Tribunal on behalf of the affected person.
• Appeal against any order of the Tribunal shall lie to the Supreme Court.
• No civil court shall have jurisdiction to entertain any appeal in respect of any matter which the Tribunal is empowered to determine under its appellate jurisdiction

Finance Terms and commitees

Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission 

• FSLRC was set up in March 2011, to recast the financial sector legislations in tune with the contemporary requirements of the sector.
• Headed by B N Srikrishna
• Recommendations :
•  Key regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) and the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) should be merged into a Unified Financial Agency (UFA). 
• Establish a Financial Redressal Agency  (FRA) to look into consumer complaints against companies across the financial sector.
• Set up independent Debt Management Office (DMO) and a Financial Sector Appellate Tribunal (FSAT) to hear appeals against regulators.
• Establish five new regulating agencies namely UFA, FSAT, FRA, DMO and Resolution Corporation.
• Need for separating the adjudication function from the mainstream activities of a regulator in order to achieve a greater separation of powers.

Fiscal Consolidation

Kelkar's Recommendation

• The Kelkar’s committee’s recommendations were made public by the government for an informal debate by the stakeholders.
• Members: a) Vijay L. Kelkar b) Indira Rajaram and c) Sanjiv Mishra
• Objective: To devise the fiscal consolidation roadmap for 2012-13 to 2014-15
• Recommendations : 
• Pegs the fiscal deficit at 5.9% of the GDP for the current fiscal against the Budget estimate of 5.1%.
• Enforcing the proposed Food Security Bill in phases.
• Government should raise the prices of food items sold through ration shops, every time the minimum support price is revised.
• Remove the system of selling the sweetener through the ration shops.
• Instantly raising the diesel prices by Rs 4 a litre, kerosene by Rs 2 a litre and LPG by Rs 50 per cylinder. These steps, would reduce under-recoveries of oil marketing companies by Rs 20,000 crore.
• Regular raising of diesel prices until it becomes completely deregulated, and keeping subsidy at affordable level on LPG and kerosene.
• Increase the MRP of Urea by 10 per cent during the first year with any further increase being limited to any increase in the pooled gas price and in fixed.
• On tax front, the government should review Direct Taxes Code Bill as it would result in slippages for which there is no fiscal space. 
• On indirect tax front, there should be standard deduction rate from 12% to 8% in phases, pruning the list of 6% excise duty to merit goods only etc.
• The government should at least garner Rs 30,000 crore from disinvestment by making offer for sale model attractive and using exchange traded model for securities held by it in public sector units.  
• The Commission held that if the recommendations made by it are taken by the government, then the Centre may be able to cap its fiscal deficit at 4.6% of GDP in the next financial year and 3.9% in 2014-15.

20th Law Commission

• Justice D. K. Jain, Judge, Supreme Court of India, will be the Chairman of the Twentieth Law Commission of India from any day after 24^th January 2013 on his retirement from the Supreme Court. 
• The Terms of Reference of the Twentieth Law Commission include the following :
• Review/Repeal of obsolete laws
• Law which affects Poverty
• Keep under review the system of judicial administration to ensure that it is responsive to the reasonable demands of the times and in particular to secure.
• Examine the existing laws in the light of Directive Principles of State Policy and to suggest ways of improvement and reform.
• Examine the existing laws with a view for promoting gender equality
•  Revise the Central Acts of general importance
•  Recommend to the Government measure for making the statute book up-to-date
• Consider and to convey to the Government its views on any subject relating to law and judicial administration.
• The Twentieth Law Commission was constituted through a Government Order with effect from 1^st September, 2012. It has a three-year term ending on 31^st August, 2015.