Committees & Panels can  be part of Preliminary Question Paper as a Match of the following or Who head What committee and on What topics. This post highlights important committees, commissions and panels formed during 2017, which can important for IAS preliminary examination 2018.
Important Committees, Panels & Commissions 2017
S.No | Name of Committee | Chairman | Work Area |
1 | Empowered Expert Committee (EEC) | N Gopalaswami | To select top 20 educational institutes of eminence |
2 | YH Malegam Committee | YH Malegam | To monitor bad loans, rising cases of frauds, audits – BY RBI |
3 | Umesh Sinha Commiittee – by ECI | Umesh Sinha | To suggest changes to Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (RP Act) in view of social media expansion |
4 | Amitabh Kant Committe | Amitabh Kant | To address problem of Non-performing assets (NPAs) or stressed assets in India’s power sector |
5 | 15th Finance Commission | N K Singh | President of India has constituted 15th Finance Commission which will make recommendations for the five years commencing 1 April 2020 till 31 March 2025 |
6 | Water Resouces Managent in NER | Rajiv Kumar | For proper management of water resources in North Eastern Region (NER) |
7 | Economic Advisory Council EAC to PM | Dr Bibek Debroy | Five member of council – will analyse any issue economic or otherwise referred to it by the Prime minister |
8 | Empowered Steering Committee (ESC | Abhinav Bindra | To shape and influence India’s preparation for multi-disciplinary events, including 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. |
9 | National Commission for Minorities (NCM) ,New Delhi | NCM vice-chairman George Kurien | To look into a petition filed by BJP activist Aswini Upadhyay for granting minority status to Hindus in eight states |
10 | Technical and safety standards of India’s pod taxi scheme | S K Dhramadhikari | To invite fresh bids incorporating strictest safety standards on the lines of those prescribed by an American body |
11 | Inter-ministerial committee – Electronic Media Monitoring Centre (EMMC) | Rajyavardhan Rathore | To look into complaints of violation of programme and advertising codes by TV channels. |
12 | Task force to simplify income tax laws | Arbind Modi | Six- member panel, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian will be a permanent special invitee. |
13 | committee to Curb custodial deaths | Sudhir Shrivastava | The committee will recommend measures so that people get proper treatment at police stations |
14 | Price Stabilization Fund | Avinash K Srivastava | It has decided to import the onions through a government agency to increase the availability of the same, in the market on moderate prices. |
15 | High-level Task Force on Public Credit Registry (PCR) for India. | Yeshwant M. Deosthalee. | Propose a state-of-the-art information system and suggest a roadmap for developing a transparent, comprehensive and near-real-time PCR for India. |
16 | Market Infrastructure Institutions (MII) | R Gandhi | Reviewing norms related to stock exchanges, clearing corporations and depository participants. |
17 | Artificial Intelligence Policy: | By Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology | |
18 | Artificial Intelligence Task Force | Dr. V. Kamakoti | Artificial Intelligence (AI) for India’s Economic Transformation. |
19 | AI application in Military | N Chandrasekaran | To study use and application of artificial intelligence (AI) in military |
20 | Commemorate Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary | PM | |
21 | Sports Code committee | Injeti Srinivas | To suggest improvements in the National Sports Development Code functioning of sports federations. |
22 | Timothy Gonsalves Committee | Prof. Timothy Gonsalves | Suggested to create 20 percent reservation seats for the girl students in IITs |
23 | Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) administrative committee | Vinod Rai | Supreme Court Appointed Vinod Rai as BCCI Committee’s Head |
24 | Kang committtee | N.S. Kang | To frame uniform rules for the states to avoid delay in proper implementation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPD) Act across the country |
25 | Defence Procurement Organisation | Dr. Pritam Singh | To integrate and streamline the long and complex process of defence acquisitions |
26 | Committee on Cyber Security | RBI Executive Director Meena Hemchan | To review the threats emerging from the use of technology, study adoption of new technology standards and suggest appropriate policy interventions to strengthen cyber security and resilience. |
27 | Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) | A K Bajaj | To look into te Water sharing between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana |
28 | DB Shekatkar Committee | DB Shekhar | To reform the military financial management |
29 | Girdhar Malviya committee | Justice Shri Girdhar Malviya | To prepare draft Ganga Act submitted its report to the Union Minister of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation |
30 | Chitale Committee | Madhav Chitale | To recommends measures for desiltation of river Ganga |
31 | Virtual Currency Committee | Dinesh Sharma | To propose new regulations related to digital currencies or virtual currencies |
32 | Kewal Kumar Sharma committee | Kewal Kumar Sharma | To review UGC recommendations on 7th Pay commission in educational institutes |
33 | Agricultural Produce Market Committee | Mr. Ashok Dalwai | To establish a regulated wholesale agri- market at a distance of every 80 km |
34 | Panel on National Education Policy | Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan | To draft the National Education Policy |
35 | Committee on Corporate Governance | UdayKotak | To improving the standards of corporate governance of listed companies |
36 | Data Protection | Justice B.N Srikrishna | Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) appointed an expert panel committee that would study various issues relating to data protection |
37 | Mineral Policy Committee | K RajeswaraRao | To review the National Mineral Policy, 2008, and for submission of a report for a new National Mineral Policy. |
38 | Second National Judicial Pay Commission | P V Reddi | New salary structure for judges of lower courts in India |
39 | New Haj policy 2018-22 | AfzalAmanullah | to improve Indian Government’s current Haj policy and also to look into issue of Haj subsidy in light of 2012 Supreme Court order on gradually reducing and abolishing it by 2022 |
40 | Committee to roll out 5G technology in India by 2020. | Includes Secretaries of the ministries of Communications, Information Technology and Science and Technology, representatives from industry and academics. | |
41 | Hate speech on internet | T.K.Viswanathan | The committee has suggested that section 78 of the IT Act needs to be substituted and Section 153 & 505A of the Indian PenalCode needs to be amended |
42 | Institutionalization of Arbitration Mechanism | Justice BN Srikrishna | |
43 | Madhukar Gupta Committee | Madhukar Gupta | Border Protection |
44 | Working Group on Migration | Partha Mukhopadha | Recommended Legal framework to protect interests of migrants |
45 | RBI Overseeing Committee | Pradeep Kumar | To look at the stressed assets of the banking sector. |
46 | RBI Panel on Hedging commodities in global markets | Chandan Sinha | It has recommended a list of commodities (which includes gold, silver, zinc, tin, crude oil and its derivatives, coal, natural gas, tea, coffee, sugar and cocoa) which can be hedged in the overseas markets by all residents i.e. by both domestic users and exporters/importers. |
47 | Sub-Committee of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) | Urjit Patel | |
48 | Review of GST laws | M Vinod Kuma | Committee has been set up to provide suggestions for smoothening the GST regime, especially for small businesses who have been complaining of a an increase in compliance burden |
49 | Standing Committee of Inter-State Council (ISC) | Prime Minister NarendraModi | Inter-State Council investigates and advises on disputes between states |
50 | N.K. Singh Committee | N.K. Singh | To review the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act. |
51 | Amitabh Chaudhry committee | Amitabh Chaudhry | To analysis the existing framework of IRDA-linked and non-linked insurance product regulations |
52 | IRDAI panel | Dilip C Chakraborty | To help in implementing the new risk-based capital (RBC) regime and it will also enhance protection to policyholders. |