Brussels, Nov 24: Britain can no longer host the European Capital of Culture in 2023 as planned because of Brexit, even though some non-EU countries are eligible, the European Commission said today.
Britain and Hungary had been due to get the honour in six years’ time, and five British cities had even reportedly submitted nominations at the invitation of the government.
But the European Commission, the executive arm of the soon-to-be 27-nation EU, said it had sent a letter to the British culture ministry yesterday saying that it was no longer possible.
“As one of the many concrete consequences of its decision to leave the European Union by 29 March 2019, the UK cannot host the European Capital of Culture in 2023,” a European Commission spokeswoman said in a statement, confirming a story in Politico Europe.
“Given that the UK will have left the EU by 29 March 2019, and therefore be unable to host the European Capital of Culture in 2023, we believe it makes common sense to discontinue the selection process now.”
Belfast and Derry in Northern Ireland, Dundee in Scotland, and Milton Keynes, Leeds and Nottingham had put themselves forward, the Guardian newspaper said.
Explaining why non-EU cities including Istanbul in Turkey, Stavanger in Norway and Novi Sad in Serbia have been named European Capital of Culture, the spokeswoman said the scheme is “not open to third countries except candidate countries and European Free Trade Association/European Economic Area countries.”
Turkey and Serbia have begun the EU accession process and Norway is part of the EEA.
Britain however has said it will not be part of the EEA after it leaves the EU.
The blow comes days after Paris and Amsterdam were named as the host cities of two major London-based EU agencies, in what the commission said was the “first visible result” of the June 2016 Brexit vote.
The EU started the European Capital of Culture scheme in 1985, and currently names two cities a year. The current holders are Aarhus in Denmark and Paphos in Cyprus.
New Delhi, Nov 23: After overhauling indirect taxes, the government formed a task force to draft a new direct tax law to replace the existing Income Tax Act, which has been in force since 1961.
Eight years after he first helped draft a new direct tax code for India, top taxman Arbind Modi has been asked to do the task again to meet the contemporary economic needs of the country.
Modi, Member, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), will steer a six-member panel on the issue, an official press statement said. Arvind Subramanian, chief economic advisor will be a permanent special invitee on the panel.
The move, which is aimed to make direct taxes – income and corporate – simple, comes ahead of BJP-led government’s last full Budget.
It comes within months of the launch of Goods and Services Tax (GST) that overhauled the indirect tax regime by unifying more than a dozen central and state levies, including excise duty, service tax and VAT.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during the annual conference of tax officers in September, had observed that the Income-tax Act, 1961 was drafted more than 50 years ago and it needs to be redrafted.
“Accordingly, in order to review the Act and to draft a new direct tax law in consonance with economic needs of the country, the Government has constituted a task force,” a finance ministry statement said.
Other members of the task force include Girish Ahuja (chartered accountant), Rajiv Memani (Chairman and Regional Managing Partner of EY), Mukesh Patel (Practicing Tax Advocate), Mansi Kedia (Consultant, ICRIER) and G C Srivastava (retired IRS and Advocate).
The task force, which will submit its report to the government within six months, would draft direct tax laws in line with tax laws prevalent in other countries, incorporating international best practices, and keeping in mind the economic needs of the country.
Former finance minister P Chidambaram had in 2009 proposed the original direct taxes code to replace the cumbersome IT law with a clean new law and to embody the principle of keeping taxes low and removing exemptions.
Modi had assisted the former finance minister in preparing the code. However, the bill, that underwent many changes subsequently was not passed by Parliament.
The Direct Taxes Code (DTC) Bill, 2010, which was introduced in Parliament in 2010, lapsed with the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha.
The Bill had proposed annual I-T exemption limit at Rs 2 lakh, and levying 10 per cent tax on income between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 5 lakh, 20 per cent on Rs 5-10 lakh and 30 per cent above Rs 10 lakh. For domestic companies, it suggested tax rate of 30 per cent of business income.
The NDA government, since coming to power in 2014, has already implemented general anti-avoidance rules GAAR. In 2016, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also promised to lower corporate tax rate to 25 per cent in 5 years.
Currently, income up to Rs 2.5 lakh per annum is exempt from tax for individuals.
New Delhi, Nov 22: Pitching for proper nutrition and basic health care for malnourished children, the Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) on Tuesday opposed Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTF) for children suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) and alleged “conflict of interest” with manufacturers who were behind the move to push the programme.
Referring to a move that came out of the Prime Minister’s Office which left the decision to state governments for implementing RUTF, the SJM, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said it would not be prudent to leave the decision to states.
“In India, the global collaborative Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement has tied up with Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand to promote therapeutic food as a solution to malnourishment. Pilot projects have been taken in the three states and in Bihar,’’ SJM national co-convener Ashwini Mahajan said in the letter.
“ SUN has clear conflict of interest having RUTF manufacturers like Amul, Valid Nutrition, Nutriset and Edesia as members of the SUN Business Network. Other food industry in SUN Business Network include Pepsi, Cargill, Britannia, Unilever, General Mills, Glaxo SKB, Mars, Indofood, Nutrifood and DSM. (However), against the backdrop of the decision taken by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Women and Child Development that RUFT is not to be used for children with severe malnutrition, it would not be prudent to leave the decision to states,’’ the letter said.
“We do feel that this will allow as an entry point of all `nutrition products’ , be it for moderate or mild mal-nourishment. This situation will only lead to erosion of our national sustainability and self-sufficiency with no value for money for our human resource and capital. If we cannot give basic foods and health care to the deprived, commercially vested products will not solve the problem,’’ the letter said.
The SJM believes that states do not have the requisite technical capacity and are potentially susceptible to the vested influence of international agencies and the commercial sector.
“This is a game changing mission of (ready-to-use) food industry to introduce RUTF as a life saving magic bullet, which it is not,’’ it said.
New Delhi, Nov 22: The Government is proposing to bring in a legislation in the coming winter session of Parliament for implementing the Supreme Court order banning the Triple Talaq.
According to sources, a Ministerial Committee has been constituted to frame the Law.
The government will amend the existing penal provisions which shall make instantaneous Triple Talaq an offence.
The apex court in the matter of Shayara Bano Vs Union of India and Other Connected Matters had on August 22, in a majority judgment, set aside the practice of Talaq-e-biddat among Muslim husbands.
The judgment upholds equal rights and equal protection of every person enshrined under Article 14 of the Constitution, irrespective of majority or minority status.
However, there have been reports of number of divorces by way of Talaq-e-biddat happening even after the Supreme Court judgement . That’s why, the sources said, the Government thought of bringing in law to address the problem.
The sources also pointed out that the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) had contended that on matters of religious practice, such as Talaq-e-biddat, it was for the Legislature to make law.
The continuation of triple talaq could be because of the lack of knowledge of Muslim husbands about the court decision .
In spite of advisories to the members of the community against this practice, there seems to be no decline in the practice of divorce by Talaq-e-biddat.
As the law stands today, the victims of Talaq-e-biddat would have no option but to approach the police for the redressal of her grievance . Even police are helpless as no action can be taken against the husband in the absence of punitive provisions in the law.
Tehran, Nov 22: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani today declared “victory” over the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria as the jihadists cling to just a few remaining scraps of territory.
Iran is one of the main international backers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has sent military advisers and thousands of “volunteers” to fight IS on the ground in Syria and Iraq.
In a televised speech Rouhani thanked “all the fighters of Islam”, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the armed forces of Iraq and Syria for “the end of this group that brought nothing but evil, destruction, murder and savagery”.
He congratulated Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and its foreign arm the Quds Force for a “great victory” but insisted that the “main work was accomplished by the people and armies of Syria, Iraq and Lebanon”.
“We helped them in accordance with our religious and Islamic duties,” he said.
Iranian media on Sunday and Monday showed footage of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in the Syrian border town of Albu Kamal, reporting he personally directed operations that recaptured the jihadists’ final urban bastion over the weekend.
In a message released by the Revolutionary Guards, Soleimani congratulated supreme leader Khamenei on this “decisive victory” over IS.
“I announce the end of this group,” the statement said.
He also hailed the role of Iraq’s Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary coalition — dominated by groups backed by Tehran — and the “decisive” role of Lebanon’s Iranian-allied Hezbollah movement in the fighting in Syria.
IS jihadists are currently fighting for survival in just a few pockets of remaining territory in Iraq and Syria, after losing the vast bulk of territory they seized in a lightning offensive in 2014.
Neither the Syrian nor Iraqi governments have so far declared definitive victory over the group.
Mumbai November 21 : Former chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) Pahlaj Nihalani on Monday brushed aside Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s ban on the upcoming film ‘Padmavati’, saying that a movie cannot be banned in a state before receiving a certification from the censor board.
“Movies cannot be banned. A state can impose a ban only if it is deemed that the movie may disrupt law and order situation in the state, and only after film certification. A certificate is yet to be issued to ‘Padmavati’,” Nihalani told ANI, adding, “Unless certificate is not issued, no state can make ‘jumlas’ like ‘we’ll cut it’ or ‘we’ll not let it release’.”
Nihalani further informed that the producer of the movie can approach the court, if the scenes do get cut.
On Monday, the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister said that Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s magnum-opus would not be allowed to release in the state unless the objectionable scenes were removed.
Responding to ‘Padmavati’ actor Shahid Kapoor’s statement that the movie should not be considered guilty even before it is provided for people to judge it, Nihalani said, “What does ‘guilty’ imply? Is making movie a crime?”
The CBFC chairperson, Prasoon Joshi, had earlier said that the board will arrive at a decision after a discussion, but the former chairperson downplayed it, saying that a chairman cannot decide the fate of a movie.
“The examination Committee decides after watching the movie; the chairman cannot decide,” he said.
“Unless the censor board pronounces its decision, opinion of everyone else is of no value,” Nihalani added.
Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh, and Shahid Kapoor-starrer has been mired in a slew of controversies for allegedly tampering with historical facts.
Yesterday, the CBFC turned down the application of the makers of ‘Padmavati’ to expedite the certification process of the film. In the face of absence of requisite clearances, the board has refused issue to issue certification, thus pushing the December 1 release date of ‘Padmavati’.
Washington, Nov 20 : US President Donald Trump called elephant hunting a “horror show” and indicated that he will block imports of elephant trophies from two African nations despite his administration’s earlier approval of the practice.
On Friday, Trump had temporary halted the decision of the US Fish and Wildlife Services to lift ban on import of trophies of elephants from Zambia and Zimbabwe into the US.
“Big-game trophy decision will be announced next week but will be very hard pressed to change my mind that this horror show in any way helps conservation of Elephants or any other animal,” Trump said in a tweet late last night.
Trump’s decision to review the Obama-era policy received a wave of criticism from some conservationists, Republican lawmakers and many celebrities.
The Obama administration banned such imports because authorities believed trophy hunting harmed the survival of elephants.
Last week, the US Fish and Wildlife Services said after more than two years of extensive assessments, it has determined that importing limited numbers of hunted elephants from Zimbabwe and Zambia into the US will help protect wild elephants for future generations.
The decision was part of a robust US conservation strategy that seeks to eliminate poaching and associated wildlife trafficking while using legal, managed hunting programmes to support wildlife and habitat conservation in range countries.
New Delhi, Nov 19: Greater use of hydrogen for energy can considerably reduce CO2 emissions compared to today’s levels, says a study.
Deployed at scale, hydrogen could account for almost one-fifth of total final energy consumed by 2050.
This would reduce annual CO2 emissions by roughly six gigatons compared to today’s levels, and contribute roughly 20 per cent of the abatement required to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius.
The assessment has been done in a study released by the Hydrogen Council this week at Bonn which is the first ever globally quantified vision of the role of hydrogen.
Launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos in early 2017, the Hydrogen Council is a first-of-its-kind global CEO initiative to foster the role of hydrogen technologies in the global energy transition.
Current members include 18 leading multinationals .
According to the Hydrogen Council study, there is a potential for hydrogen to power about 10 to 15 million cars and 500,000 trucks by 2030, with many uses in other sectors as well, such as industry processes and feedstocks, building heating and power, power generation and storage.
Overall, the study predicts that the annual demand for hydrogen could increase tenfold by 2050 to almost 80 EJ in 2050 meeting 18 per cent of total final energy demand in the 2050 two-degree scenario.
At a time when global populations are expected to grow by two billion people by 2050, hydrogen technologies have the potential to create opportunities for sustainable economic growth.
Achieving such scale would require substantial investments; approximately US$20 to 25 billion annually for a total of about US$280 billion until 2030.
Within the right regulatory framework – including long-term, stable coordination and incentive policies – the report considers that attracting these investments to scale the technology is feasible.
The world already invests more than US$1.
7 trillion in energy each year, including US$650 billion in oil and gas, US$300 billion in renewable electricity, and more than US$300 billion in the automotive industry.
New Delhi, Nov 19 : President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday paid tributes to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on her 100th birth anniversary .
New Delhi, Nov 19 : It’s the duty of a car manufacturer to remove the defects in a vehicle and make it roadworthy, the apex consumer commission has said while asking Maruti Suzuki India Limited to refund the price of one of its models to a customer for failing to rectify the complaint.
The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) asked the automobile major to refund Rs 3,30,710 to Andhra Pradesh resident Dr K S Kishore while dismissing the revision plea of the car company challenging a state commission order.
“It was the duty of the opposite party (Maruti) to take steps to remove the defects and provide the vehicle to the complainants in a roadworthy condition. From the facts and circumstances on record, it is made out that the OP-2 (Maruti) failed in the task to provide the vehicle in a roadworthy condition to the complainants,” a bench, headed by presiding member B C Gupta, said.
It said there was no reason to differ with the state commission’s order that the dealer did carry out repairs in the vehicle as per the job cards, but was not able to remove the defects and the entire liability to pay the amount fell on the company only.
According to the complaint, Kishore purchased an Alto LX 800 car on January 10, 2003 for Rs 3,30,710 from the dealer Mithra Agencies.
It was alleged that the car had intermittent jerky running in second, third and fourth gear positions and giving out a harsh noise from gear box assembly system.
However, the defects in the vehicle could not be removed despite several visits to the workshop of the dealer.
The district forum allowed the complaint and asked the company and the dealer to refund the amount along with Rs 25,000 compensation and Rs 2,000 as litigation cost.
The dealer denied any deficiency on its part saying there was no defect in the car or its engine and that the noise as alleged by the complainant could be due to defective driving.
The state commission allowed the appeal of the dealer and asked the car manufacturer to refund the amount. It also gave partial respite to Maruti by setting aside the compensation amount of Rs 25,000 but upheld Rs 2,000 litigation cost.
The NCDRC rejected the man’s revision petition for enhancement of compensation and upheld the state commission’s order.
New Delhi, Nov 19 : The government has not asked the Reserve Bank to pay any special dividend and is only seeking Rs 13,000 crore of surplus lying with the central bank, Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg has said.
In August, the RBI had paid a dividend of Rs 30,659 crore for the fiscal ended June 2017. It was less than half the Rs 65,876 crore it had paid in 2015-16.
The government had budgeted for a Rs 58,000 crore dividend from the RBI in its Budget for this fiscal year.
“There is no proposal at this stage to ask for any special dividend. What is being discussed is to only ask for what the RBI earned this year but did not distribute. That is about Rs 13,000 crore. That’s what the government has suggested the Reserve Bank to transfer,” Garg told PTI.
RBI’s profit was about Rs 44,000 crore, of which Rs 30,000 crore has been distributed and Rs 13,000 crore it retained towards risks and reserves. So the government has made a suggestion that the Rs 13,000 crore may also be transferred, he said.
The government had last month announced an unprecedented Rs 2.11 lakh crore capital infusion in PSU banks, which are grappling with high non-performing assets (NPAs).
Asked about the contours of the recap bonds, Garg said “the recapitalisation package is in the final stages. The Department of Financial Services is working on it and soon we would see all these aspects being addressed”.
Of the Rs 2.11 lakh crore, Rs 1.35 lakh crore would be infused through recapitalisation bonds and the remaining Rs 76,000 crore through budgetary support and banks diluting equity in capital market.
Credit rating agency Moody’s had last week upgraded India’s sovereign rating after a gap of over 13 years citing reform push and steps being taken by the government to solve the high NPA problems in the banking sector.
Bad loans in the sector have neared Rs 10 lakh crore.
Garg said Moody’s has acknowledged the reform process and believes that India is in a position to control its debt and put its banking sector in order.
“The kind and quality of reforms, the boldness of reforms, the structural, fundamental needs of reform is what has persuaded them to believe that India is now on a longer term high growth path …That (reform) process will continue and I don’t see any slackening in reform effort,” he said.
The US-based rating agency cited government efforts to reduce corruption, formalise economic activity and improve tax collection and administration, including through demonetisation and GST, as well as improvements to the monetary policy framework and measures to clean up non- performing loans as reform steps which would foster sustained economic growth.
On privatisation of Air India, Garg said it is progressing “reasonably steadily” and the plan about how to privatise has also been broadly worked out.
Asked if it would happen in the current fiscal, Garg said, “I won’t put a timeline on when this is likely. Air India is not just one company, there are other assets.”
The government has ‘in-principle’ decided to disinvest the Air India group as a whole or its constituents fully or part thereof through the strategic sale with transfer of management control.
Air India has a debt burden of more than Rs 50,000 crore.
The Cabinet, in June, had decided on strategic disinvestment of the loss-making Air India, which is staying afloat on taxpayers’ funds, and a ministerial panel is working on the modalities.