National Current Affairs November 2015 for Competitive Exams
Taxation of Income from Off-shore Rupee Denominated Bonds
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has permitted Indian corporates to issue rupee denominated bonds outside India. The matter of taxation of income from such bonds under Income-tax Act, 1901 has been considered by the government on October 29, 2015.
- In so far as taxation of interest income from these 1NR off-shore bonds in the case of non-resident investors is concerned, it is clarified that withholding tax at the rate of 5%, which is in the nature of final tax, would be applicable in the same way as it is applicable for off-shore dollar denominated bonds.
- Further, it has been decided that the Capital gains, arising in case of appreciation of rupee between the date of Issue and the date of redemption against the foreign currency in which the investment is made, would be exempted from capital gains tax. Legislative amendment in this regard will be proposed through the Finance Bill, 2016.
WCD Ministry Launched a New Initiative about BBBP Scheme
- The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development has launched a new initiative to spread awareness about the Bcti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP-Save the Girl Child, Educate the Girl Child) Scheme on October 29, 2015.
- The initiative has been launched in partnership with Celltick Mobile Media India Private Limited to generate awareness about BBBP Scheme to an estimated 100 million mobile users in India. This campaign is aimed at promoting gender equality and the significance of educating girls.
- Through the Celltick managed mobile services based on its patented Live Screen platform, available to over 100 million users in India, the user is able to get messages that they can interact with on the homescreen of their device, enabling ease of use in accessing information about BBBP.
- The platform provides a means to reach users based on their location as well as their language ui preference. Working with all the major mobile operators across India. There has been a steady decline in the Child Sex Ratio (CSR) across India, with 9ig females bom per 1000 males as per the Census of 2011.
Read Also – National Current Affairs November 2015.
Ministry of Defence Cleared Military Projects over Rs 12000 Crore
- The Ministry of Defence cleared new military modernisation proposals worth over Rs 12000 crore, on October 28, 2015 ranging front the acquisition of two additional regiments of.the indigenous Pinaka multiple-launch rocket systems to the upgrade of 26 Ilyushin transport aircraft.by Russia.
- The largest proposal to be cleared by the Manohar Parrtkar-chaircd Defence Acquisitions Council (DAC) was the Rs 4250 crore one to upgrade the Ilyushin fleet with new engines and avionics to extend their service life by another 20 years.
- The DAC also amended’ the Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) granted for the production of 563 BMP-II infantry combat vehicles by the Ordnance Factory Board under licence from Russia at a cost of ? 1800 crore.
Government Appointed Review Panel for Non-NET Fellowship
- The Union government appointed a five-member panel on October 28, 2015 to review the research grants offered by University Grants Commission (UGC) which has been asked to continue all existing grants. The panel will submit its report to the HRD Ministry by December, 2015 Now, the Central government has directed the UGC not to implement the Commission’s decision to discontinue the non-NET fellowships and continue all existing fellowships
- The committee has been asked to determine the feasibility of enhancing the coverage of NET fellowships which are merit based, establish a transparent system of transfer of fellowship amounts every month to non-NET fellows, considering economic and non-economic criteria for eligibility for the fellowship, among others.
Union Government Launched ‘e-Sahyog’ Pilot Project
- The Finance Minister. Aron Jail ley launched a pilot project ‘e-Sahyog’ on October 27,201) which furthers the Department’s commitment to work in an e-environmem and reduces the need for the taxpayer to physically appear before (ax authorities. The ‘e-Sahyog’ project launched on a pilot basis, aiming at reducing compliance cos), especially for small taxpayers,
- The objective of ‘e-Sahyog’ is to provide an online mechanism to resolve mismatches in Income-tax returns of those assesses whose returns have been selected for scrutiny, without visiting the Income Tax Office. Under this initiative, the Department will provide an end to end e-service using SMS, e-mails to inform the lax assesses of the mismatch.
India Moved Up in ‘Ease of Doing Business’ Ranking
- India improved its position from last year’s 134 to 130 in the World Bank (WB) Doing Businas 201b ranking, which was released on October 27, 2015 Last year’s report ranked India at 140. but this year’s report features the recalculated 2015 rankings, where India comes at 134.
- It is computed according to a new methodology. India has made large improvements in two indicators, starting a business at 155th rauk and getting electricity at 70th rank. The WB Doing Business reports, started in 2002. review business regulations and their enforcement across 189 countries.
- India has made the biggest improvement among the South-Asian countries in business regulations Ease of Doing Business ranking is annually released by the World Bank in Its Doing Businas Report, Ranking of country in this list is depend upon Index averages the country’s percentile rankings on 10 indicators each having equal weightage.
Visit Current-Affairs.org for latest current affairs, previous year question papers, free online quiz for SSC and others, Study material and lot more.
We hope you like National Current Affairs November 2015 (Part 1), give your feedback in comments.
