- Current Affairs August 2020
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Current Affairs August 2020 - Committees
1 - Sijo George appointed to Centre’s committee on STIP 2020
Sijo Kuruvilla George was appointed to the Central Government's committee on Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2020 (STIP 2020). He is a founding CEO of Startup Village and founder of Re-think Foundation.
STIP 2020 Town Hall Meet, the Track-I public & expert consultation process for the formulation of Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP) 2020 was launched by the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India Professor K VijayRaghavan and Secretary, DST Professor Ashutosh Sharma.
2 - Government announced selection committee for National Sports Awards 2020
The Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports has constituted a Selection Committee for selecting awardees for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Dronacharya Awards, Arjuna Awards, Dhyan Chand Awards, Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar Award and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy for the year 2020.
Retired Justice of Supreme Court Justice Mukundakam Sharma is the Chairperson of the Committee. Other eminent members are - Virender Sehwag (cricket), Sardar Singh (hockey) and Deepa Malik (Para-athletics).
3 - RBI sets up committee headed by K V Kamath
The Reserve Bank of India announced to set up an expert committee headed by veteran banker K V Kamath. It will make recommendations on various parameters to be factored into each resolution plan for corporate loans after RBI announced a one-time restructuring of loans that are facing stress due to the COVID-19 crisis.
The committee will make recommendations to it on the required financial parameters, along with the sector specific benchmark ranges for such parameters, to be factored into each resolution plan. IT shall also undertake a process validation of resolution plans for accounts above a specified threshold.
4 - Expert committee on COVID-19 vaccine administration
An expert committee under the chairmanship of NITI Aayog member Dr VK Paul met to consider the logistics and ethical aspects of procuring and administering the COVID-19 vaccine. The Committee on vaccine administration will engage with all the stakeholders including state governments and vaccine manufacturers.
The committee would chalk out strategies on the aspects of prioritisation of the vaccine administration once it is developed, rollout and cold chain logistics and training of the people who would be administering it.
5 - Niti Aayog panel recommended linking sugarcane prices to sugar rates
A Niti Aayog task force headed by Niti Aayog Member (Agriculture) Ramesh Chand, has submitted its report ''Sugarcane and Sugar Industry''. In its report, the panel has recommended linking sugarcane prices to sugar rates to keep the industry in sound financial health.
Other key recommendations:
one-time increase in minimum sugar price to Rs 33 per kilo to help sugar mills cover the cost of production.
Introduce Revenue Sharing Formula (RSF) with a Price Stabilisation Fund to protect farmers from receiving prices below the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP)
6 - Centre constituted National Council for Transgender Persons
The Centre has constituted a National Council for Transgender Persons through a notification. The Social Justice and Empowerment Minister will be the ex-officio Chairperson and Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment will be ex-officio Vice-Chairperson.
The National Council will advise the Centre on the formulation of policies, programmes, legislation and projects with respect to transgender persons. It will monitor and evaluate the impact of policies and programmes designed for achieving equality and full participation of transgender persons.