Junior Digest

Government has detected Rs 71,000 crore tax evasion: FM

New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the NDA government has done more work to fish out black money than any other previous government in a short span of two years and all efforts are afoot to book those who have not taken advantage of the disclosure scheme.

“I challenge any previous government who would not have done even 1 per cent of what we have done in two years,” he said at an India TV event here.

“We have brought legislation with regard to black money stashed abroad… those who have not taken advantage of the disclosure corridor will regret.”

Listing out other efforts of the government, he said Rs 6,500-crore assessment has been done in the case of HSBC and with regard to Liechtenstein, a tax haven, prosecutions have been launched.

Indian authorities had initiated action against citizens who were holding alleged unaccounted money in LGT Bank in Liechtenstein.

On Panama Papers, he said those who have kept money without permission of RBI may attract legal action.

“As soon was we get information with regard to such cases, we order inquiry,” he said.

The government has detected Rs 71,000 crore tax evasion, the finance minister said.

As much as Rs 50,000 crore of indirect tax evasion and another Rs 21,000 crore of undisclosed income has been unearthed by the government in the last two years.

The crackdown on black money has led to seizure of Rs 3,963 crore of smuggled goods in 2 years, a 32 per cent jump over the previous similar period.

Besides, a new income disclosure scheme is formulated for those holding undeclared assets to pay a total tax and penalty of 45 per cent and come clean.

Amendments have been made in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act to enable attachment and confiscation of equivalent asset in India where the asset located abroad cannot be forfeited in the case of proceeds of crime.

@Agency report.

Church of England defends Google investments

London: The Church of England, which has an ethical investment policy, holds shares in Google’s parent group despite criticism of the Internet giant’s tax affairs, the church’s annual report said .

Alphabet Inc is listed as the most valuable equity holding of the church’s USD 10 billion investment fund in 2015, although its exact value was not revealed.

Google is among a number of multinational companies which have been criticised for failing to pay enough tax, a practice that has been condemned in general by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.

“There has always been the principle that you pay the tax where you earn the money,” the leader of the Church of England told the BBC last year.

Earlier this year Google agreed to pay 130 million pounds to Britain following a government inquiry into its tax arrangement.

In a foreword to the annual report, Welby says the church’s “ethical and responsible investment” reflects its responsibilities to the common good of society.

But the Times newspaper questioned whether the Google shareholding was compatible with church guidelines to confront companies that are accused of tax avoidance.

A spokesman told AFP that the church had “conducted engagement with a number of UK companies on corporate tax as part of an investor project to encourage good corporate practice”.

He said: “We recognise the need for much more engagement beyond those interventions we have made to date.”

As part of its ethnical investments, church has also introduced a new climate change policy and a review into investments in the extractives industry.

The church announced last year that it would sell off 12 million pounds in holdings in thermal coal and tar sands, as part of a commitment to climate change.

It still has significant holdings in oil and gas giant BP but led a shareholder push to urge the company to be more open about how climate change could affect its business.

@ Agency report.

North Korea says it has named new foreign minister

Seoul, May 17 ,2016: North Korea has named a career diplomat with broad experience in negotiating with rivals South Korea and the United States as its new foreign minister, according to a diplomatic letter from Pyongyang.

North Korea’s Embassy in London informed the British government yesterday that former Vice Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho has been appointed as the country’s new foreign minister.

Some Seoul analysts say Ri’s appointment could be part of a bid to revive long-stalled diplomacy and improve ties with the outside world after Pyongyang’s fourth nuclear test in January led to international criticism and tough sanctions.

Critics say North Korea has previously tried diplomacy after ratcheting up animosity in an attempt to win concessions and aid.

Ri has served as the North’s top envoy to long-stalled six-nation disarmament talks on his country’s nuclear weapons program and participated in talks with the United States in the 1990s. He also served as the North’s ambassador in London.

In 2011, he met South Korea’s top nuclear envoy in Bali, Indonesia, on the sidelines of a regional security conference and agreed to work toward a resumption of the nuclear talks.

The agreement was considered a breakthrough at the time, but the nuclear negotiations are still stalled and have not been held since late 2008.

The North Korean message didn’t say what happened to departing foreign minister, Ri Su Yong. But South Korea’s spy agency said today that Ri Su Yong was believed to have been promoted to a vice chairman of the ruling Workers’ Party after giving his top diplomat job to Ri Yong Ho. The agency didn’t elaborate.

Both Ri Su Yong and Ri Yong Ho were awarded high-level posts during a recent Workers’ Party conference that was held for first time in 36 years. If Ri Su Yong’s promotion is correct, he replaces Kang Sok Ju, a foreign policy specialist who negotiated a deal with the US in 1994 to freeze and ultimately dismantle North Korea’s nuclear reactor in exchange for economic aid.

@Agency report.

MCD bypolls: AAP, Cong win from four wards each

New Delhi, May 17 : AAP and Congress today won in four wards each while the BJP won from three wards in the MCD bypolls for 13 wards, results of which were declared today.

Independent candidate Rajender Singh Tanwar won from Bhati ward where the maximum votes had been polled in the bypolls held on Sunday last.

AAP candidate Abhishek Bidhuri won from Tekhand ward by a margin of 1555 votes defeating BJP candidate Sunil Verma.

Other winners from the party were Ramesh from Matiala ward, Anil Malik from Nanakpura and Ashok Kumar from Vikas Nagar ward, election officials said.

Congress candidate Pankaj won from the Jhilmil ward by a margin of 2419 votes. Pankaj defeated ex MLA and BJP candidate Jitender Singh Shunty. Congress candidate Yogita Rathi won from the women reserved seat of Munirka. The party candidates also won from Khichdipur and Qumraddin Nagar.

BJP candidate Bhupinder Mohan Bhandari won from Shalimar Bagh by a margin of 1451 votes. Party candidate Dr Mahender Nagpal won Wazirpur ward by 3608 votes while Nawada candidate Krishan Gehlot won by 4843 votes.

The AAP is leading in Balimaran seat where the results are yet to come.

The bypolls to the wards falling under three corporations- SDMC (7), NDMC (4) and EDMC (2)- were necessitated due to their sitting councillors getting elected to Delhi Assembly in 2013 and 2015.

@Agency report.

Judicial activism has to be blended with restraint: Jaitley

New Delhi: Continuing with his criticism of judiciary for its “overreach”, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said it must draw its own “Lakshmanrekha” as there cannot be a “compromise” with other aspects of the basic structure in the name of independence of the judiciary.

Four days after Jaitley remarked in Parliament that “Step by step, brick by brick, the edifice of India s legislature is being destroyed” due to judicial activism, Jaitley asserted that “activism” has to be blended with “restraint”.

“Judicial review is legitimate domain of judiciary but then the Lakshmanrekha has to be drawn by all the institutions themselves. Lakshmanrekha is very vital,” the Finance Minister said, asserting that “the executive decisions are to be taken by the executive and not the judiciary”.

Replying to questions during a media interaction at IWPC here, Jaitley reasoned that there are different kinds of recourse and “layers of accountability” available when the executive takes decisions and people have options of seeking changes in the decision taken by the executive besides voting out the government.

The courts can also strike down a decision taken by the executive if it is found to be unconstitutional but all these options are not available when the court ends up taking executive decisions, Jaitley, who has been Law Minister, argued.

“Courts cannot substitute the executive and say I will exercise the executive power. If you do so the three options will not be available, which are there when the executive takes executive decisions,” he said.

Jaitley was asked questions about his earlier remarks that the judiciary had been encroaching on legislative and executive authority.

At the same time, he noted that the indpendence of judiciary is extremely important and that is rightly asserted by the judiciary.

“Just as independence of the judiciary is part of basic structure, the primacy of the legislature in policy making is also part of basic structure.

“In the name of the independence of judiciary, we cannot compromise the other two basic structures,” he said asserting that to protect one basic structure is not enough”.

Stressing that he was not going into any specific issue but speaking on the issue of constitutionality, Jaitley said, “Element of activism always has to be blended with element of restraint” and the correct course is when the two are balanced.

Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Jaitley had earlier urged the legislators to refrain from handing over budgetary and taxation powers to the judiciary.

Again speaking in Hyderabad, Jaitley had yesterday said hthat while he respects the apex court, “one should not try to interfere in others’ areas”.

@ Agency report.

Samsung’s next smartwatch may have a projector

According to a patent filing, Samsung is believed to be working on a new display technology that will allow you to project your watch’s display on any nearby surface.

The patent, which shows that the display could be projected as far as on a nearby wall, further details how the palm or the back of the hand could be used to create a virtual display and how your fingers can be used for a gesture control system. In addition, the listing also describes how the display technology could be used on other wearable tech form factors such as AR and VR headsets.

The company has recently released the round Gear S2 smartwatch in the country which comes with a rotating bezel. Although the watch runs on Tizen OS, it supports most applications and has some cool watch faces.

The company also recently revealed a trio of new wearable innovations, born out of its Creative Lab (C-Lab), in January and showed them off at CES. The line up included Welt – a lifestyle tracker in a belt, Rink – a controller for the company’s Gear VR headset and TipTalk, a new UX for smartwatch calling.

HC asks state panel to advise govt on child care leave

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has directed the State Coordination Committee to give its advise by July 10 to Maharashtra government on whether there should be provision for grant of special child care leave to its woman employees following a plea by a woman who has a disabled child.

The direction was given by a bench of Justices Abhay Oka and P D Naik two days ago on a plea filed by 34-year-old Deepika Sagar Nersekar, a stenographer in the court of Small Causes, who had sought child care leave citing Rule 43-C of the Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, though she is an employee of the state government.

The petitioner has an eight-year-old girl child who is suffering from Cerebral Palsy Diplegia since birth.

She contended that a central rule provides child care leave but the state did not have such a provision and that it was the duty of the State Coordination Committee to advise the government accordingly but it had failed to do so.

The central rule provides that a woman government servant, having minor children below the age of 18 and who has no earned leave to her credit, may be granted child care leave for maximum two years during the entire service period for taking care of up to two children whether for rearing or to look after any of their needs like examination, sickness etc.

The bench ruled that if State Co ordination Committee is not in existence the same shall be forthwith constituted and this committee shall take appropriate decision expeditiously in any event on or before June 30.

The high court directed that such committee would tender its advise to the Maharashtra government about the child care leave provision on or before July 10.

The bench also asked the state to take a decision on the committee’s advise by August 16.

The high court held that if the state government does not grant such benefit, the ad-interim relief granted to the petitioner on February 23 shall cease to operate with effect from September 1 and the petitioner shall resume duty immediately.

However, if the state government decides to grant benefit of the special child care leave to such category of women government servants, then the case of the petitioner will be governed by the decision of the state.

The petitioner argued that it is the state’s duty to make a provision for medical care and rehabilitation of disabled children. Allowing sufficient time to a mother who is a government servant to take care of her disabled child will be a part of taking care and rehabilitate disabled children.

The state, therefore, has a duty to frame a law on this issue, she contended.

@Agency report.

16TH_MISSILE_ In its effort to have a full fledged multi-layer Ballistic Missile Defence system, India on Sunday, successfully test-fired its indigenously developed supersonic interceptor missile, capable of destroying any incoming hostile ballistic missile, from a test range off Odisha coast.

“The test conducted to validate various parameters of the interceptor in flight mode has been successful,” Defence Research Development Organisation sources said.

The interceptor was engaged against a target which was a naval version of Prithvi missile launched from a ship anchored inside Bay of Bengal, taking up the trajectory of a hostile ballistic missile.

The target missile was launched at about 11.15 hours and the interceptor, Advanced Air Defence (AAD) missile positioned at Abdul Kalam island (Wheeler Island) getting signals from tracking radars, roared through its trajectory to destroy the incoming hostile missile in mid-air, in an endo-atmospheric altitude, the sources said.

Kill effect

“The ‘kill’ effect of the interceptor was ascertained by analysing data from multiple tracking sources,” a DRDO scientist said.

The interceptor is a 7.5-metre-long single stage solid rocket propelled guided missile equipped with a navigation system, a hi-tech computer and an electro-mechanical activator, the DRDO sources said.

The interceptor missile had its own mobile launcher, secure data link for interception, independent tracking and homing capabilities and sophisticated radars, the sources added.

@ Agency report.

Junior Digest

Government has detected Rs 71,000 crore tax evasion: FM

Church of England defends Google investments

North Korea says it has named new foreign minister

MCD bypolls: AAP, Cong win from four wards each

Judicial activism has to be blended with restraint: Jaitley

Samsung’s next smartwatch may have a projector

HC asks state panel to advise govt on child care leave

‘Raman Raghav’ lands a big punch in Cannes

12 bodies fished out after boat capsize incident

Badal announces the India’s largest roof top solar panels in Amritsar

‘Nuclear competition among China, India, Pak could escalate’

NASA funding sleep-inducing, growable habitats

First in history EC deferred polls due to use of money power

Indian, Japanese officials to discuss bullet train

India successfully test-fired advanced interceptor missile

I’ll hit six sixes again: Yuvraj to a kid who fought cancer

India, US hold first Maritime Security Dialogue

BJP unseats Cong in Assam, LDF in Kerala; Mamata retains WB: Exit Polls

India’s supersonic interceptor missile test will disturb balance of power: Pakistan

Disney seeks lawsuit dismissal over workers

Pak violates ceasefire along LoC

Kathmandu: Campaign against new constitution continues

Obama admin opposes Congress move on Pak aid

Lion rescued from 100-feet well in Gujarat