1. Amid financial stress in telecom industry, Telecom Minsitry constituted a committee chaired by Telecom Secretary _____________ to spell out revival plans for Telecom sector.
2. Beekeeping Development Committee (BDC) under Economic Advisory Council to Prime Minister (EAC-PM) headed by _______________ submitted its report about ways to advance beekeeping in India.
- Recommendations include Recognizing honeybees as inputs to agriculture and considering landless beekeepers as farmers. Institutionalizing National Bee Board and rename it as Honey and Pollinators Board of India.
3. Central Public Works Department (CPWD) constituted a seven-member core group Headed by ______________ to prepare a roadmap for implementation of a five-year “vision document” (STVD).
4. Committee led by ______________ Co-Founder Nandan Nilekani gave suggestions about promoting digital payments in India. The committe was set up in January 2019.
- Major recommendation includes making RTGS and NEFT facilities available 24x7 and make them free. Also, it recommends duty free import of point of sales machines.
- It also Includes several suggestions related to KYC and customer on boarding process, To ease difficulties faced by industry. It Includes multi-pronged strategy to meet legal and regulatory requirements.
5. Defence minister Rajnath Singh constituted a committee to work out methodology for next revision of pensions to over 25 lakh ex-servicemen and widows under OROP (one rank, one pension) scheme. Committee is headed by Controller General of Defence Accounts (________________Currently), and will submit its report in a month.
6. Government constituted a Working Group for revision of current series of Wholesale Price Index (Base 2011-12). It is headed by Niti Aayog Member __________________. It has 17 other members. Its Terms of Reference Include -
- To select most appropriate Base Year for preparation of a new official series of Index Numbers of Wholesale Price (WPI) and Producer Price Index (PPI) in India.
- To decide on the computational methodology to be adopted for monthly WPI/PPI.
- It may recommend roadmap for switch over from WPI to PPI.
7. Government constituted a committee headed by economist _______________, To review existing marketing structure of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in India, as an effort to bring in more private players.
8. High Level Advisory Group (HLAG) under _____________________ made several recommendations for boosting India’s share and importance in global merchandise and services trade. Recommendations Include Elephant Bonds as a specialised security product providing funds towards Long Term Infrastructure.
9. Power Ministry formated a three-member dispute resolution committee with members M F Farooqui, Anil Swarup and A K Dubey, to resolve disputes between private solar & wind power developers and public sector Solar Energy Corporation of India and National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC) beyond contractual agreement.
- India aims to achieve _______________ gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity by 2022 as part of its climate commitments. Out of 175 GW, 100 GW will be received from solar projects and rest from wind power projects.
10. RBI committee led by ______________ (former RBI governor) constituted for considering guidelines for transfer of central bank’s surplus funds to government delayed submitting its report after lack of consensus among its members.
- Panel was formed in December 2018 and was supposed to submit its report in April 2019.
- Finance Minsirtry advised RBI to transfer surplus funds to central government, stating that buffer of 28% of gross assets maintained by RBI is well above global norm of about 14%. This led to loggerheads between government and RBI, over Rs.9.6 lakh crore surplus capital that RBI keeps with itself.
11. RBI has set up a six-member committee, headed by ______________________ (Chief Executive of Indian Banks’ Association), to review ATM interchange fee structure, to boost ATM deployment in unbanked areas. Committee will make recommendations on optimal charge fee structure and pattern.
- To deal with increased cost of operating ATMs, banks and white-label ATM operators (WLAOs) want RBI to raise ATM interchange fee from 15 to 18 for cash withdrawals and card-to-card fund transfers, and from 5 to 8 for other non-financial transactions.
- Number of ATM deployments declined by 544 during FY2020 to stand at 2,21,703 as of March-end 2019.
12. ________________________ Led panel on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) submitted its report to RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, with long-term measures for the economic and financial sustainability of MSME sector.
- Suggestions Include doubling collateral-free loans for MSMEs to Rs 20 lakh from Rs 10 lakh, also applicable to Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA) and Self-Help Groups (SHGs).
- Currently, MSMEs can get collateral-free loans under two mechanisms - based on the RBI’s 2010 circular and on Credit Guarantee Fund (CGF). RBI’s 2010 circular prescribes a limit of Rs 10 lakh and CGF provides collateral-free loans up to Rs 2 crore.
- Committee suggested creating a stressed asset fund of Rs 5,000 crore to protect MSME sector from distress caused by external circumstances. It also recommended a government-sponsored ‘fund of funds’ of Rs 10,000 crore to support venture capital and private equity firms investing in the MSME sector on modified term sheets developed by SIDBI.
