Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry constituted Ajay Shankar committee to simplify clearances

The Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry on 8 April 2015 formed an expert committee under the chairmanship of Ajay Shankar to suggest simplified compliance for establishing new industries. He is a former Secretary to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).

The Expert Committee has been constituted for examining the possibility of replacing multiple prior permissions with pre-existing regulatory mechanism and to prepare draft legislation for this purpose.
The committee is directed to submit its report within 30 days.

Terms of Reference of the committee
• Study the requirement of various prior permissions with an exhaustive inventory of such permissions
• Examine the possibility of replacing these prior permissions with a pre-existing (proposed) regulatory mechanism
• Identify safeguards to be put in place while replacing the system of prior permission and integrating these safeguards in the proposed regulatory mechanism
• Recommend a framework of the proposed regulatory mechanism
• Draft the proposed legislation

Composition of the Committee
Apart from the chairman the committee includes ten members from other ministries, industry, British High Commission and the World Bank.

Background
Earlier, the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his 2015-16 Budget Speech had proposed appointment of the committee to improve ease of doing business by providing expeditious regulatory clearances.

World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index released in October 2014 placed India at the 142nd position among the 189 countries surveyed.