Current Affairs - 19 October 2015

General Affairs

BJP Leader Shatrughan Sinha Endorses RSS Chief's View on Reservation

• PATNA:  Taking a different line from that of his party amidst the ongoing Bihar polls, BJP lawmaker Shatrughan Sinha today endorsed RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's call for a review of reservation policy, saying the latter's opinion should be taken "seriously."
  
  "Sri Mohan Bhagwat's views on review of reservations should be taken seriously. We hold the views of the RSS supremo in high esteem. Sad and disheartened at attempts by some people to ridicule and make fun of this highly learned, father figure of RSS/BJP," Mr Sinha tweeted.
  
  

  The Patna Sahib lawmaker made the statement even after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the party had "categorically" distanced itself from its ideological mentor saying BJP did not support reconsidering reservation policy.
  
  Mr Sinha, who is yet to hit the campaign trail, also said that all his actions and statements so far were for the larger interest of Bihar.
  
  "I am cool, calm, composed & least worried. Whatever I have said, done or will do is in the larger interest of Bihar, its people and our party. Bihari Babu is only interested in peace, prosperity, progress, growth and glory of Bihar, no matter where it comes from. Jai Bihar, Jai Hind," Mr Sinha posted on the micro-blogging site.
  
  He warned people who termed him sulking, disgruntled and negative.
  
  "Warning to the vested interests, chamchas and some of my own people who call me sulking, disgruntled, negative or any other name," he tweeted.
  

Women Candidates Outnumber Men in Kerala Local Bodies Polls

• THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:  There are more women candidates than men in the fray for the two-phase local bodies' polls in Kerala, according to the figures released by the state Election Commission.
  
  The data shows that 38,268 women and 37,281 men candidates are contesting. Saturday was the last day for withdrawal of nominations.
  
  The key contest is expected to be between the traditional rival fronts - the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front (LDF).
  
  

  The Bharatiya Janata Party is hoping to make inroads into areas which have been strongholds of the rival fronts.
  
  The elections will be held over two days - November 2 and 5.
  
  On November 2, polling will take place in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Idukki, Kozhikode, Kannur, Wayanad and Kasargode districts, while November 5 will see voting in Kottayam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad and Malappuram districts.
  
  The election is being held for 21,871 seats in 941 village, 152 blocks and 14 district panchayats besides 86 municipalities and six corporations.
  
  Over 2.50 crore voters are eligible to cast their ballot at 35,000 polling booths.
  
  In 2010, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) had won over 60 per cent of the total seats.

DMK Chief Greets N Chandrababu Naidu on 'Amravati Foundation Ceremony'

• CHENNAI:  DMK President M Karunanidhi today greeted Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on the 'Foundation Ceremony' of that state's capital Amravati, wishing the function a 'grand success.'
  
  The DMK chief said he was happy at being invited by Naidu for the ceremony on October 22.
  
  Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to lay the foundation stone.
  
  "It is going to be your Dream-City. You have got the expertise to fully realise your dreams," Mr Karunanidhi said in a letter to Mr Naidu.
  
  "I wish the function a grand success and the people of Andhra Pradesh a great advancement in all walks of life," he said.

Wi-Fi, CCTV Cameras in Some Delhi Transport Corporation Buses by December

• NEW DELHI:  The Delhi government has decided to install CCTV cameras and provide Wi-Fi facility to commuters travelling in Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses by December this year.
  
  Transport Minister Gopal Rai said that in the first phase, government will execute the project in some DTC buses, including AC and non-AC low floor buses.
  
  Delhi Dialogue Commission (DDC), chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, has been given the task of implementing the government's flagship project in the national capital.
  
  

  "Government has decided to install CCTV cameras and provide Wi-Fi service in DTC buses by December this year. For a trial run, the project will be executed in some of the corporation's buses," Rai said.
  
  During Assembly elections, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had promised to install Closed Circuit Televisions (CCTV) cameras in all the buses to ensure security of women in the national capital.
  
  "Wi-Fi service may be free for some time and thereafter, people will have to pay as per their usage," said a senior government official.
  
  "We want to start CCTV and Wi-Fi facilities in buses together so that government doesn't have to change the system later," Rai said. The minister also said that 200 CCTV cameras have already been installed in DTC's buses and home guards have also been deployed in buses in order to ensure women safety.
  
  According to DTC, three CCTV cameras have been installed in 200 such buses each, which belonged to Rajghat and Sarojini Nagar depots. The cameras have a capacity of recording for seven hours.

Scientists Inch Closer to Blood Test for Alzheimer's Disease

• WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES:  Researchers are inching closer to a blood test that can accurately detect the presence of Alzheimer's disease, which would give physicians an opportunity to intervene at the earliest, most treatable stage of the disease.
  
  Robert Nagele from the Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine in the US is focusing on utilising autoantibodies as blood-based biomarkers to accurately detect the presence of myriad diseases and pinpoint the stage to which a disease has progressed.
  
  The blood test may also be able to detect other diseases, including Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis and breast cancer.
  
  

  By detecting Alzheimer's disease long before symptoms emerge, Mr Nagele hopes those with disease-related autoantibody biomarkers will be encouraged to make beneficial lifestyle changes that may help to slow development of the disease.
  
  "There are significant benefits to early disease detection because we now know that many of the same conditions that lead to vascular disease are also significant risk factors for Alzheimer's," Mr Nagele said.
  
  "People found to have preclinical disease can take steps to improve their vascular health, including watching their diet, exercising and managing any weight and blood pressure issues to help stave off or slow disease progression," Mr Nagele said.
  
  While the cause of Alzheimer's remains elusive, it is clear that maintaining a healthy blood-brain barrier is a critical preventative measure.
  
  Diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, stroke and being overweight jeopardise vascular health. As blood vessels in the brain weaken or become brittle with age, they begin to leak, which allows plasma components including brain-reactive autoantibodies into the brain.
  
  There, the autoantibodies can bind to neurons and accelerate the accumulation of beta amyloid deposits, a hallmark of Alzheimer's pathology.
  
  Mr Nagele's research has found that all humans possess thousands of autoantibodies in their blood. These autoantibodies specifically bind to blood-borne cellular debris generated by organs and tissues all over the body.
  
  An individual's autoantibody profile is strongly influenced by age, gender and the presence of specific diseases or injuries; and diseases cause characteristic changes in autoantibody profiles that, when detected, can serve as biomarkers to indicate the presence of the disease, researchers said.
  
  In Alzheimer's, the brain begins to change years before symptoms emerge. Detecting Alzheimer's antibodies at the preclinical stage would give patients an opportunity to work with their physician to make lifestyle changes or receive available treatments before they become symptomatic.
  
  Potentially, this early intervention could help those with preclinical Alzheimer's avoid or delay the most devastating symptoms, researchers said.

Business Affairs 

PM Narendra Modi to make key announcements on start-ups in Dec: Jayant Sinha

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will make a series of key announcement on start-ups in India in December, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said on Saturday.

  "In early to mid-December, the prime minister is going to make a series of very important announcements on Start-up India where we will bring together the work that we are doing and make some important announcements about how we are going to take forward India's entrepreneurial ecosystem," he said in his keynote address at the CK Prahalad Memorial Lecture at TiECon Delhi 2015.

  Sinha said that the announcements are going to be very exciting and government is committed to encourage and promote entrepreneurship and start-ups.

  He also stressed on fostering innovation in research centres and universities through a network of innovation laboratories.

FSSAI proposes keeping junk food out of schools, surroundings

• Food safety regulator FSSAI has proposed restrictions on the sale of junk food items including noodles, chips, carbonated drinks and confectionery items in and around schools.

  The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India(FSSAI) has come up with its draft guidelines on availability of wholesome and nutritious food in schools to check junk food consumption pattern among children.

  Stating that "children are not the best judge of their food choice", the FSSAI said schools are not the right place to promote foods high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS foods).

  "Canteens in the schools should not be treated as commercial outlets," the regulator said, adding that schools should develop a canteen policy to provide nutritious, wholesome and healthy foods.

  "Restrict/limit the availability of most common HFSS foods in schools and areas within 50 meters," the FSSAI said.

  The food safety watchdog said the objective is to restrict/limit the consumption and availability of most common HFSS food (junk food) like chips, sugar sweetened carbonated & non-carbonated beverages, ready-to-eat noodles, pizzas, burgers and confectionery items.

  The sale of widely promoted and advertised junk food should be restricted in schools and nearby areas of 50 meters, as child is there without parental supervision.

  Given the rationale for its proposal, the regulator said as per National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) guidelines, said these foods are considered unhealthy due to unbalance in nutritions, as they are high in fat, sugar, salt and low in proteins, fibers, nuts.

  In March, 2015, the Delhi High Court had directed the food regulator to give these guidelines a form of regulations or directions within a period of three months to enforce their implementation across the country.

The central government wants to portray itself as investor-friendly, but inconsistencies on tax policies continue to haunt.

• Finance Minister Arun Jaitley did not mince his words while defending the minimum alternate tax (MAT) controversy in March 2015, when foreign institutional investors criticised the government for levying retrospective tax . In a strongly-worded message Jaitley had declared that India was no tax haven . "Let it be clearly understood that India is not so vulnerable that every legitimate tax demand can be considered as tax terrorism. We are not a tax haven and we don't intend to be one," he had said.

  Foreign portfolio investors (FPI), however, did not take kindly to the FM's words. Between March and April, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty fell around 9 per cent from 9,000 to the 8,100 level. And, this has not gone unnoticed.

  In September, the government clarified that MAT will not be applicable to foreign companies that do not have a permanent establishment or place of business in India. The law has been amended with effect from April 1, 2001. It effectively means that retrospective taxation in case of FPIs is passe.

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  HITS

  • Deferment of general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR)
  • Not pursuing the Vodafone transfer pricing case in Supreme Court
  • Allowing rollback facility under the advance pricing agreement

  MISSES

  • Sending wrong signal in the MAT issue on FPIs
  • Coming out with a hurriedly drafted Black Money Act  
  • Introducing the concept of place of effective management, which is contentious  
  • Lacking conviction in dealing with ongoing tax litigations

  ---

  The move brings forth the Centre's blow-hot-blow-cold attitude when it comes to tax issues. The NDA government had come to power with the promise of eliminating tax terrorism. It subsequently deferred the general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR) and desisted from pursuing the Vodafone transfer-pricing case. But, since then, some of North Block's actions have sent the wrong signals - be it the handling of the MAT issue or the 'hurriedly' drafted Black Money Act.

  Tax experts and industry players are of the opinion that the Centre has not come good when it comes to implementation, in spite of all the right noises it had made initially. Says Milind Kothari, Managing Partner and Head, direct Tax, BDO India LLP: "The reversal of stand within six months reminds us of the Vodafone and Shell Premium controversies, where the government pursued the wrong cases and was ultimately defeated in court. This has harmed the credibility of the country."

  Others say that the MAT issue could have been dealt in a different way. "Instead of going for an amendment in the finance bill and making an amendment that was prospective in nature and, by default, meant that earlier cases would come under the MAT ambit, the government could have just issued a circular. It is easier to recall a circular than undoing an amendment," says Sunil Jain, Partner, J. Sagar Associates.

  The stringent Black Money law is also turning out to be a futile exercise to justify the NDA's pre-election rhetoric of bringing back black money stashed abroad. The government has barely managed to get disclosures worth Rs 3,770 crore during the limited window period ending on 30 September under the Act. The government, however, looks to be in no mood to extend the deadline of the disclosure window.

  "We have no credible estimation of black money lying abroad, though different agencies have come up with their estimates and have even retracted them. In such a scenario, the whole exercise seems like shooting in the dark," says a former Indian revenue service officer. Agrees Jain: "I fundamentally have no issue with the Act. But the only area of importance will be implementation. Once the limited window is over, will the government be able to chase and catch the big fishes and garner the kind of tax revenue as they had promised?"

  Multi-national and foreign companies are also wary of a new clause in the tax law, which says that if a company has a place of effective management (POEM) in India, at any time of a financial year, it would make it a tax resident and will be liable to relevant pay taxes here for the fiscal.

  "It could effectively mean that if a foreign company holds a board meeting in India just once and takes some policy decisions, it would make the company a tax resident. We have made representations before the CBDT (Central Board of Direct Tax) and have pointed out that the word 'any time' should be replaced by 'during a year'. The chairman and other officials even admitted to the anomaly and promised to correct the law, but six months have passed since then and no clarification has come from the (tax) department yet," says Amit Maheshwari, Managing Partner, Ashok Maheshwary & Associates, a chartered accountancy firm.

  The NDA government's decision to bring amendments in tax laws related to transfer pricing cases, but letting the court decide the fate of the ongoing cases, also came under criticism. "Such a stand was unfair. For the same issue one company is being exempted while others are fighting cases," says Ved Jain, Chairman, Direct Tax Committee, ASSOCHAM.

  Says Kothari: "In fact, globally, transfer pricing is not a tax revenue-generation mechanism, it's a tax avoidance law. Only in India tax officers get revenue target on transfer pricing." Jain agrees and feels the government is being pennywise and pound foolish.

  But then, what happens to the Centre's promise of a non-adversarial tax regime? Says Deepak Jain, Associate Vice President, Legal, Srei Infrastructure Finance: "The tax officers get revenue targets and targets for the number of tax demands. Their promotion depends on meeting these targets. In such a situation, how can you expect them to go soft?" The disconnect between the government's vision and actions of tax officers is consistent with the Centre's inconsistencies.

Ratan Tata to inaugurate T-Hub, the biggest start-up incubator on Nov 5

• T-Hub, the country's biggest start-up incubator, will be inaugurated by Tata Sons chairman emiritus Ratan Tata on November 5.

  Telangana Governor ESL Narasimhan and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will also attend the event.

  The inauguration was originally scheduled on September 7 but had to be postponed due to non-availability of Tata.

  The first phase has come up at the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT).

  The facility is being set up in collaboration with IIIT Hyderabad, the Indian School of Business (ISB) and the NALSAR University of Law.

  While NALSAR would help in intellectual property and related areas, ISB and IIIT would provide business mentoring and technology mentoring respectively.

  Phase I coming up at IIIT at a cost of Rs 35 crore will be spread over 60,000 square feet and can accommodate 400 start-ups by 2017.

  The second phase will come up on three acres of land in Raidurgam near Hitec City, the IT hub.

  The government promises that it will be an incubator of incubators, offering start-up environment available in the west.

  The facility will also have venture capitalists and angel investors.

  The government is also planning a venture capital fund. Officials said they were in discussion with various venture fund groups.

India's macro story still seems much stronger than other emerging nations

• Most of the global brokerages and rating agencies have snipped India's gross domestic product (GDP) forecast for 2015 because of weak monsoons and structural bottlenecks. The latest to join the bandwagon is the Asian Development Bank (ADB). But India's macro story still seems much stronger than other emerging nations.

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

General Awareness

Micro & Small Enterprises Cluster Development Programme (MSE-CDP)

• • The Micro and Small Enterprises – Cluster Development Programme (MSECDP) is being implemented for holistic and integrated development of micro and small enterprises in clusters through Soft Interventions (such as capacity building, marketing development, export promotion, skill development, technology upgradation, organizing workshops, seminars, training, study visits, exposure visits, etc.), Hard Interventions (setting up of Common Facility Centers) and Infrastructure Development (create/upgrade infrastructural facilities in the new/existing industrial areas/clusters of MSEs). Assistance is provided for the following activities under the scheme- (i) Preparation of Diagnostic Study Report with Government of India (GoI) grant of maximum Rs 2.50 lakh (ii) Soft Interventions with GoI grant of 75 per cent of the sanctioned amount of the maximum project cost of Rs 25.00 lakh per cluster. For NE & Hill States, Clusters with more than 50 per cent (a) micro/ village (b) women owned (c) SC/ST units, the GoI grant will be 90 per cent. (iii) Detailed Project Report (DPR) with GoI grant of maximum Rs 5.00 lakh for preparation of a technical feasible and financially viable project report. (iv) Hard Interventions in the form of tangible assets like Common Facility Centre having machinery and equipment for critical processes, research and development, testing, etc. with GoI grant upto 70 per cent of the cost of project of maximum Rs 15.00 crore. For NE & Hill States, Clusters with more than 50 per cent (a) micro/ village (b) women owned (c) SC/ST units, the GoI grant will be 90 per cent. 7 (v) Infrastructure Development with GoI grant of upto 60 per cent of the cost of project of Rs 10.00 crore, excluding cost of land. GoI grant will be 80 per cent for projects in NE & Hill States, industrial areas/ estates with more than 50 per cent (a) micro (b) women owned (c) SC/ST units. (vi) The GoI assistance shall also be available to Associations of Women Entrepreneurs for establishing exhibition centres at central places for display and sale of products of women owned micro and small enterprises @ 40 per cent of the project cost. A total of 921 interventions in various clusters spread over 28 States and 1 UTs in the country have so far been taken under the programme for Diagnostic Study, Soft Interventions and Hard Interventions (CFCs). Further, 170 projects have been taken up for infrastructure development under the scheme.