1. 5G steering committee chaired by Stanford University’s Professor _________________ submitted its recommendations to Department of Telecommunications (DoT). It was set up by Government in September 2017 to suggest a road map for adoption of 5G. Recommendations Include -
- It expects commercial rollout of 5G in India by 2020 and advance to full range of services by 2024.
- Deployment of 5G in India should be classified into three phases based on technologies and use cases.
- Early adoption will likely make equipment needed for 5G roll out more expensive and it will also be glitchy as needed for cost maturing. However, early adoption will fast track India’s embrace of 5G’s benefits and increase opportunities.
- After entry of 5G into Indian telecom sector, earlier generation mobile technologies – 2G, 3G and 4G, will take over 10 years to phase out.
2. Central government constituted a coordination committee to work on discharge of floodwaters between Kerala-Tamilnadu, amid heavy rainfall and floods in Kerala. Committee is headed by Central Water Commission Chairman _________________.
3. Committee on review of penal provisions of Company Act 2013 submitted its reort to Finance Ministry. It was constituted in July 2018 to review framework for dealing with offences under Companies Act 2013 and make recommendations to promote better corporate compliance. It was headed by _____________________ (Secretary in Ministry of Corporate Affairs). Main recommendations Include -
- Restructuring of Corporate Offences to relieve Special Courts from adjudicating routine offences - Re-categorization of 16 out of the 81 compoundable offences by shifting them from the jurisdiction of special courts to an in-house E-adjudication framework
- De-clogging NCLT by -
- Enlarging jurisdiction of Regional Director with enhanced pecuniary limits for compounding of offences.
- Vesting in Central Government the power to approve alteration in financial year of a company.
- Recommendations related to corporate compliance and corporate governance
- Re-introduction of declaration of commencement of business provision to better tackle the menace of ‘shell companies’.
- Greater disclosures with respect to public deposits, particularly in respect of transactions exempted from the definition of public deposits.
4. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) constituted 3 member committee to look into draft food labelling and display regulations-Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations 2018, headed by _________________.
5. Government constituted Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Union Minister of Commerce and Industry ____________________, to advise Prime Minister on whether to continue or withdraw from 16-member Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations.
6. Government constituted new 21-member advisory panel on science, technology and innovation called Prime Minister’s Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC). It will be headed by Principal Scientific Advisor to government ___________________.
7. Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) constituted a working group to update norms for insurance surveyors, to be headed by ___________________________. It will address areas pertaining to licensing, renewal and IIISLA membership in context of existing regulatory framework for surveyors and loss assessors.
8. Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has set up a committee to suggest changes to JEE (Advanced),after inadequate number of candidates qualifying entrance test this year. It committee will be headed by IIT-_____________ director Bhaskar Ramamurthy.
9. National Green Tribunal (NGT) appointed S J Vazifdar as head of a committee to decide mining company Vedanta plea challenging closure of its Sterlite copper plant at Tuticorin (_________________).
10. National Green Tribunal (NGT) formed a committee to oversee the rejuvenation work of river _________________, to be headed by a former Allahabad high court judge, who will be nominated by current chief justice of Allahabad high court (Dilip Babasaheb Bhosale currently). NGT also formed a committee to look into whether sub regional plans for protection of Natural Conservation Zones (NCZs).
