Important Committees for UPSC Mains

GS1

Pam Rajput Committee

Set up by the WCD Min in order to empower women. Submitted its report in 2015. Govt came up with a draft national policy for women based on this report in 2016. Not implemented yet.

Shyam Benegal Committee

CBFC should only be a film certification body whose scope should be restricted to categorizing the suitability of the film.

1. Refuse certification only on contravention of Section 5B (1) of the Cinematograph Act, 1952.
2. Categorisation of films should be more specific. UA Category can be broken up into further sub-categories – UA12+ and UA15+.

Justice Verma Committee

Setup post Nirbhaya case. Recommended criminalising marital rape under S. 375 IPC.

GS2

2.2 Centre-State Relations

Sarkaria Commission, 1988:

Wrt A356:

1. Should be used very sparingly and as a matter of last resort.
2. Material fact and grounds of invocation should be made an integral part of the Proclamation.
3. Governor’s report to be a "speaking document" and should be given wide publicity.

Recommendations on Appointment of Governor :

• should be an eminent person from outside the State;
• Detached person not too intimately connected with the local politics of the State;
• Appointed in consultation with the CM, VP of India and the Speaker of LS;
• After demitting his office, the person appointed as Governor should not be eligible for any other appointment. Only eligible for higher constitutional office.
• At the end of his tenure, reasonable post-retirement benefits should be provided.

The Commission felt that the State Government should be given prominence in appointing the Governor. The appointment should be made from a panel to be prepared by the State Legislature; or from a panel to be prepared by the State Government or invariably by the Chief Minister.

Punchi Commission, 2007

• Fixed term of five years for Governors.
• Removal by the process of impeachment by the State Legislature.
• Governor should have the right to sanction prosecution of a minister against the advice of the council of ministers.
• It proposed that Centre should have power to deploy its forces in case of communal conflagration without state’s consent for a short period of a week.
  

Rajamannar committee: centre-state fiscal relationship.

1. No decision of national importance should be taken by the central govt without consulting the Inter States Council.
2. Vesting of residuary subjects with states.Sarkaria Commission
   

2.3 Dispute redressal and various institutions

Justice Mulla Committee: Prison reforms

1. Government should come up with National Policy on Prisons.
2. Permanent National Commission on Prisons.
3. AIS - Indian Prisons and Correctional Service.
4. Promote research in the field of criminology.
5. Training and awareness for personnel. (Gautam Navlakha case)

Justice Krishna Iyer Committee:

Women prisons should be staffed by women only.

2.12 Welfare Schemes for Vulnerable Sections

Justice Rohini Singh Committee: OBC subcategorization.

Dr. Mohini Giri report: on welfare of senior citizens.

2.13 Social Sector - Education

Kadiyam Srihari Committee: To look into issues of girls' education.

GS3

3.1 Indian Economy

PK Mohanty Committee: RBI proposals to shore up bank boards.

KV Kamath Committee: Assess Covid related impact on bad loans.

RBI committee:

RBI Deputy Governor Anand Sinha reported upon Pricing of Credit. Bringing a benchmark floating interest rate, especially for home loans.

HR Khan Committee:

1. proposed that banks should be allowed to pledge corporate bonds as collateral to borrow funds from the Reserve Bank’s overnight repo window.
2. RBI allows only government securities till now.
3. Proposed adoption of Blockchain Technology in banks.
   

3.3 Fiscal Issues

N.K. Singh committee: To review the FRBM Act, 2003.

1. Growing trend of off-budget spending.
2. Reduce fiscal deficit to less that 2% by 2022. Current 2.5%.
3. Reduce total government debt to 60%. 20% for states and 40% for centre.
   

Arvind Mayaram committee: to rationalize the definitions of FII and FDI.

3.4 AGRICULTURE

Ashok Dalwai Committee: Reforms needed to double farmer's incomes.

1. Relaxation of ExIm norms.
2. Pledge funds.
3. Upgradation of silos.
4. Negotiable warehouse receipts.
   

Arvind Subramanian Committee:

1. to tackle the shortage of pulses in India.
2. Recommended hike in MSP and Bonus on Pulses production.
   

MS Swaminathan Committee: National Commission on Farmers.

1. Assurance of basic resources.
2. Agriculture in concurrent list.
3. Prevention of diversion of agri land for non-agri uses.
4. Access to common property resources.
5. State level farmer's commission with farmers representatives.
6. APMCs should serve an area of 80 km2. (Currently at 496 km2)
   

3.5 Food Security

Shanta Kumar Committee: High level committee on food security. Look into restructuring of FCI.

Dharia committee: PDS refoms.

3.9 Railways

Bibek Debroy Committee: On mobilisation of resources for major railway projects and restructuring of Rail Min. Rail Development Authority.

Anil Kakodkar Committee: Railway reforms including safety, organisation, Signalling, comms., HRD, education and training, ecosystem concern, etc. Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh. Non lapsable fund.

3.10 Investment Models

Kelkar Committee: on PPP restructuring.

3.11 Technology

Kris Gopalkrishnan Committee: On non-personal data. Three major categories defined:

1. Public: census, SRS, NFHS.
2. Private: collected by proprietary software, generated by individuals.
3. Community: from people living in a particular area.Also suggested norms for data harvesting.
   

A.K Bhargava Committee: Net Neutrality.

Justice Shri Krishna Committee: on data protection bill.

1. Consent.
2. Correction.
3. Portability.
4. Right to be forgotten.
   

Amitabh Kant Committee:

1. Identifying various bottlenecks affecting access to digital payments.
2. Review e-commerce rules.

Ratan Watal Committee: Review existing payment system in the country and recommend for measures for more use of digital payments.

1. BPSS (Board of payment and settlement system): Amend PSS act 2007.
2. promote digital payment: providing incentives.
3. DIPAYAN: DIgital PAYment Action Network.
   

3.14 Environment

Shailesh Nayak Committee: Review the Issues relating to the Coastal Regulation Zone.

Anupam Varma Committee: Banning the use of 18 hazardous Pesticides.

Chitale committee: On desiltation of Ganga.

3.17 Internal Security

Biplab Kumar Sarma Committee: Look into implementation of the Assam Accords.

Prakash Singh Committee: on structural reforms in policing to prevent damage like caused during the Jat agitation.

3.19 Border Management

Madhukar Gupta committee: on Indo Pak border. CIBMS on borders.

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