2-Dec-2018: Government forms six-member panel to look at selling 149 fields of ONGC, OIL to private Companies
The government has constituted a six-member committee to look at selling as many as 149 small and marginal oil and gas fields of state-owned ONGC and OIL to private and foreign companies to boost domestic output.
The panel is headed by NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar and includes Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha, Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg, Oil Secretary M M Kutty, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant and ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Shashi Shanker.
Sources said the committee is a follow up of the October 12 meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to review domestic production profile of oil and gas and the roadmap for cutting import dependence by 10 per cent by 2022.
At the meeting, the Oil Ministry made a presentation showing that 149 smaller fields of Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), Oil India Ltd (OIL) and other explorers accounted for just 5 per cent of the domestic crude oil production.
It was suggested at the meeting that these smaller fields could be given out to private and foreign firms and ONGC could concentrate on the big ones where it could rope in technology partners through production enhancement contracts (PEC) or technical service arrangements.
The ministry was of the view that ONGC should concentrate on the large fields as they contribute to 95 per cent of its production and leave out the rest for private firms.
On the anvil is some kind of extended version of the Discovered Small Field (DSF) bid round where discovered and producing fields of ONGC are auctioned to firms offering the maximum share of output to the government. The six-member panel has begun consultations with the stakeholders on the possible options.
This is the second attempt of by the Oil Ministry to take away some of the fields of state-owned ONGC for giving to private and foreign companies.
The government gave out 34 fields to private firms by offering them pricing and marketing freedom for oil and gas they produced from the fields in the first round of DSF. The second round of DSF with 25 fields on offer is currently under bidding.
The fields offered in DSF were taken away from ONGC and Oil India Ltd on the pretext that they were lying idle and unexploited. But under the present proposal, the government plans to take away discovered and producing fields.
The Oil Ministry is unhappy with the near stagnant oil and gas production and believes giving out the discovered fields to private firms would help raise output as they can bring in technology and capital.
It has been tasked by the Prime Minister to cut dependence on oil imports by 10 per cent by 2022 from the over 77 per cent dependence in 2014-15. But the dependence has only increased and is now over 83 per cent.
The privatisation is repeat of the infamous round in 1992-93 when medium-sized discovered fields like Panna/Mukta and Tapti oil and gas field in western offshore were given to the now defunct Enron Corp of the US and Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL). As many as 28 fields were then awarded.
Under this regime, ONGC was made licensee and given an option to farm in 40 per cent of stake.
20-Feb-2018: Expert Committee under the chairmanship of Shri Y H Malegam
Reserve Bank of India (RBI), as part of its ongoing efforts for strengthening of the supervisory framework in the country, has been issuing necessary instructions to banks from time to time on a variety of issues of prudential supervisory concern, including the management of operational risks inherent in the functioning of banks. The risks arising from the potential malicious use of the SWIFT infrastructure, created by banks for their genuine business needs, has always been a component of their operational risk profile. RBI had, therefore, confidentially cautioned and alerted banks of such possible misuse, at least on three occasions since August 2016, advising them to implement the safeguards detailed in the RBI’s communications, for pre-empting such occurrences. Banks have, however, been at varying levels in implementation of such measures.
In the wake of SWIFT-related fraud involving significant amount, reported recently by Punjab National Bank, RBI has today reiterated its confidential instructions and mandated the banks to implement, within the stipulated deadlines, the prescribed measures for strengthening the SWIFT operating environment in banks.
Further, in view of large divergences observed in asset classification and provisioning in the credit portfolio of banks as well as the rising incidence of frauds in the Indian banking system, it has been decided to constitute an Expert Committee under the chairmanship of Shri Y H Malegam, a former member of the Central Board of Directors of RBI, to look into the reasons for high divergence observed in asset classification and provisioning by banks vis-à-vis the RBI’s supervisory assessment, and the steps needed to prevent it; factors leading to an increasing incidence of frauds in banks and the measures (including IT interventions) needed to curb and prevent it; and the role and effectiveness of various types of audits conducted in banks in mitigating the incidence of such divergence and frauds.
The members of the committee will be: Shri Bharat Doshi, Member, Central Board of Directors, RBI; Shri S Raman, former Chairman and Managing Director, Canara Bank and former Whole-Time Member, SEBI; and Shri Nandkumar Saravade, Chief Executive Officer, Reserve Bank Information Technology Pvt Ltd (ReBIT). Shri A K Misra, Executive Director, RBI will be the Member-Secretary of the committee.
22-Feb-2018: Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAPs) for NER
An Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAPs) has been set up for the North Eastern Region (NER). This was decided after a meeting between Secretaries of DoNER and AYUSH. The IMC is to create synergy in various programmes of the Union Government to enable medicinal and aromatic plants sector become vibrant and develop the resources to its potential.
The first meeting of IMC on MAPs is scheduled to be held on 12th of March. The meeting will be co-chaired by Secretaries of DoNER and AYUSH. The IMC will facilitate coordination among Ministries and Departments in various programmes being implemented on conservation, sustainable management and development of MAPs in NER for enhancing the livelihood and economic transformation.
The Ministry of Development of North-East Region(MDoNER) will be the coordinator for the IMC of MAPs. The Committee will review the existing mechanism or institutional arrangements for management and development of MAPs resources of NER. The IMC will identify gaps in the existing mechanism or institutional arrangements, suggest a policy intervention for optimally harnessing the MAPs resources of NER and accelerating the development of MAPs sector, suggest a Plan of Action for dovetailing of the schemes and programmes of concerned Ministries and Departments. The IMC will also suggest actionable measures for enhancing the livelihood and economic transformation based on cultivation and sustainable management of MAPs resource in North East Region.
The IMC will comprise members from various Ministries, Departments and several organisations in the relevant fields.