Daily GK Updates - 7th February, 2017

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1.CBDT signs four unilateral Advance Pricing Agreements: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) under the Department of Revenue, Union Ministry of Finance has entered into four more unilateral Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs). These four APAs are related to Manufacturing, Financial and Information Technology sectors. They cover international transactions such as Contract Manufacturing, Software Development Services and IT Enabled Services. With this, the total number of APAs entered into by the CBDT has reached 130. It includes 122 Unilateral APAs and 8 bilateral APAs. In the current financial year (2016-17), total 66 APAs (5 bilateral APAs and 61 unilateral APAs) were signed.

About Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs)

The APA Scheme was introduced in the Income-tax (IT) Act in to provide certainty to taxpayers in domain of transfer pricing by specifying methods of pricing and determining prices of international transactions in advance. The Rollback provisions under this scheme were introduced in 2014. The scheme seeks to foster government’s aim of non-adversarial tax regime.

Benefits:

(i) Boost to economy and ease of doing business.  (ii) Strengthen Government’s mission of fostering a non-adversarial tax regime. (iii) Introduces certainty in tax law by reducing compliance costs and make tax regime investment friendly. (iv) Provides certainty to taxpayers regarding transfer pricing to avoid disputes between taxpayer and tax regulator.

2. Andhra Pradesh: First Smart Police Station inaugurated

The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Chandrababu Naidu has inaugurated the first smart police station at Nagarampalem in Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh). The fully air-conditioned Smart Police Station has a staff room, dormitory, mini control room, a reception chamber, and individual enclosures for the Station House Officer and three Sub-Inspectors. The Andhra Pradesh Police administration has planned to build another 100 such Stations across the state and to phase out congested police stations.

The model Police Station doesn’t look like a typical Police Station with plush exterior and interiors that leave one with a feeling of having walked into a corporate style office. Staff manning the station will not wear the usual khaki uniform and instead sport a navy blue trouser and a light blue shirt. The women Constables have a light blue sari for uniform while the lady receptionist will additionally sport a navy blue blazer.

3. Railway Tunnel Qazigund-Banihal to be used during heavy snowfall:

 Railway tunnel of J&K between Qazigund-Banihal will be used for plying vehicular traffic during extreme weather conditions and heavy snowfall on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway. The chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has reviewed the operating procedures to adopted while opening the tunnel at a meeting. Earlier, the Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had agreed to the suggestion and it was decided that working out of modalities will be followed soon.

4. Manipur assembly election process begins today:

Today, two-phase polling of Assembly elections in Manipur begins with the issuance of notification for the first phase of 38 seats. The last date of filing of nominations is the 14th of this month, while withdrawal of candidature can be done till the 18^th. The 60-member Manipur Assembly will go to polls in the first phase 4th March and second phase on 8^th March.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1.Nepal to host 4th BIMSTEC Summit 2017: The fourth edition of BIMSTEC Summit-2017 will be held in Nepal. It was announced in the 17th session of BIMSTEC Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) held in Kathmandu, capital Nepal. In this meeting, delegates of seven member countries reviewed the progress made by BIMSTEC and recommended future course of action to strengthen regional cooperation among the group. The importance of BIMSTEC was highlighted during the BRICS-BIMSTEC Outreach Summit held at Goa in October 2016. In this summit, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed his desire to promote BIMSTEC and assured full cooperation it needs to move on.

About BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative on Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation)

The BIMSTEC is the sub-regional group of seven countries in South Asia and South East Asia lying in the littoral and adjacent areas of the Bay of Bengal constituting a contiguous regional unity. They are India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka from South Asia and Myanmar, Thailand from South East Asia.

Established: 6 June 1997 through the Bangkok Declaration.

Headquarters: Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Objectives: Technological and economical cooperation among south Asian and south East Asian countries along the coast of the Bay of Bengal. It also covers cooperation in commerce, technology, investment, agriculture, tourism, human resource development, fisheries, transport and communication, textiles, leather etc.

2.  India & Austria agree to amend bilateral taxation treaty:

India and Austria have agreed to amend their existing bilateral taxation treaty to prevent tax evasion as well as enable mutual assistance. The protocol will broaden the scope of the existing framework of the exchange of tax-related information, which will help curb tax evasion and tax avoidance between the two countries. This will also enable mutual assistance in collection of taxes. The Protocol was signed by CBDT Chairman Sushil Chandra and Charge d’ Affaires of the embassy of Austria Georg Zehetner in New Delhi.

3. India Education Fair for Sri Lankan students begins in Colombo:

Today, two-day India Education Fair for Sri Lankan students has begun in capital Colombo (Sri Lanka). A delegation of around 20 Universities from India participating in the fair to educate Sri Lankan students on education opportunities in India. The focus of the event is to invite students to study in India under various scholarships. The lndian government has provided more than 700 scholarship slots to Sri Lankan students at various levels under the lndian Technical and Economic Cooperation Scheme

4. 17th session of BIMSTEC senior officials’ meeting begins in Kathmandu:

Today, the 17th session of BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) senior officials’ meeting has begun at Kathmandu (Nepal). The Indian delegation is led by Secretary (East) Preeti Saran. During the meeting, delegates of member countries will review the progress made by BIMSTEC and recommend future course of action to strengthen regional cooperation among the group. (Note: The main objective of an international organization BIMSTEC is technological and economic cooperation among south Asian and south east Asian countries along the coast of the bay of Bengal.)

OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS:

1. Rituparna Das wins women's singles title at National championship:

Rituparna Das (2^nd seed) fromTelengana has won the Women's Singles title of the 81st Senior National Badminton Championships tournament played at Patliputra Sports Complex Patna. She defeated Reshma Karthik(9^th seed) from Air India in straight sets 21-12, 21-14. In Women's doubles event, the pair of Aparna Balan and Prajakta Sawant clinched the title defeating Shikha Gautam and Sanyogita Ghorpade 21-9, 21-11. In mixed doubles title, the Pair of Satwik Sai Raj and Maneesha K clinched the title defeating Venkat Gaurav and Juhi Dewangan 21-14, 21-18.

2. Alastair Cook resigns as England Test captain:

England Test captain Alastair Cook (32-year) has resigned as test captain after a record 59 matches in the role, but he will continue playing Test cricket. He became captain in August 2012 and led his country to Ashes glory on home soil in 2013 and Cook is England's leading scorer in Tests with 11,057 runs. He also led England in a record 69 one-day internationals (ODI) between 2010 and 2014. Cook was named Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2012 and ICC World Test Captain in 2013.

3. Russia to miss summer’s World Athletics Championships:Russia will miss this summer's World Athletics Championships after governing body IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) voted to extend their suspension from international competition in Monaco. However, some Russians may be able to compete under a neutral banner, if they can satisfy testing criteria. Earlier, Russia was suspended by the IAAF in November 2015. London will host the World Championships between 4-13 August. More than 1,000 Russian athletes were part of a state-sponsored doping program between 2011 and 2015.

4.  India to host FIBA Women's Asia Cup basketball tournament:India will host FIBA (International Basketball Federation) Women's Asia Cup basketball tournament at Bengaluru. The tournament will be held from 23rd to 29^th July 2017. India has also given another tournament FIBA U-16 Women's Asian Championship, held from 22nd to 28^th October in Hyderabad. Fourteen teams will compete in both the FIBA Women's Asia Cup and the U-16 Women's Asian Championship, with eight teams in Division A and six in lower Division B. (Note: The FIBA Asia Women's Cup is an international basketball tournament for women's national team organised by FIBA Asia. It was known as the FIBA Asia Women's Championship before 2017.)

BANKING/FINANCE:

5.  No queries on deposits of up to Rs 2.5 lakh: CBDT Chairman:According to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman Sushil Chandra, no questions will be asked about deposits of up to 2.5 lakh during the demonetization period. Only those accounts will be probed who do not match tax returns. Earlier, The Income Tax Department has segregated different kinds of deposits and accounts who do not match their income tax returns filed in previous years will be taken for later enforcement. 3 lakh rupees are justified if a person has an annual taxable income of 10 lakh rupees and the tax department will not touch them. if companies show a cash in hand in the balance sheet of 10 lakh rupees and have deposited 5 lakh rupees, the tax department will not scrutinize such entities.

6. Bank of Maharashtra ties up with Cigna TTK:The Bank of Maharashtra((BoM) has collaborated with insurance company “Cigna TTK Health” to market the insurer’s products in the bank’s branches across the country. BoM will offer the entire gamut of Cigna TTK’s superior health insurance products to its customers through its network of over 1,896 branches and 14,000 bank employees. (Note: Cigna TTK is a health insurance firm established as a joint venture between the Cigna (global insurance player) and TTK Group (Indian conglomerate).)

AWARDS:

7.  Arunachal Pradesh govt introduces ‘Arunachal Civil Service Awards’:

The Arunachal Pradesh government has introduced ‘Arunachal Civil Service Awards’ for excellence in public administration in the state. It is an effort to encourage good governance and to recognize the extraordinary services rendered by the government employees in the state.

The award will consist of a medal, a scroll, and a cash award of 1 lakh rupees for an individual and 5 lakh rupees for organization /group/team.