Mumbai: The Reserve Bank today said it will shortly issue Rs 500 notes in Mahatma Gandhi (New) series with the inset letter E in both the number panels.
The notes will have Swachh Bharat logo printed on the reverse of the banknote.
“Some of the captioned banknotes will have an additional character * (star) in the number panel in the space between the prefix and the number,” RBI said.
Packets containing these notes will have 100 pieces as usual but not in serial order. To facilitate easy identification of note packets containing ‘star’ notes, the bands on such packets will clearly indicate the presence of these notes in the packet.
‘Star’ banknotes in Rs 500 denomination are being issued for the first time. ‘Star’ banknotes in the denomination of Rs 10, 20, 50 and 100 are already in circulation.
In a serially numbered packet, banknotes with any defect, detected at the printing stage, are replaced at the note printing presses by banknotes having the same number so that the sequence of the packet is maintained.
As part of its efforts to benchmark procedures against international best practices as also for cost effectiveness at printing presses, RBI had adopted ‘star’ series numbering system for replacement of the defectively printed banknotes.
Meanwhile, the RBI said foreign citizens will be allowed to exchange foreign exchange for Indian currency notes up to a limit of Rs 5,000 per week till December 31.
Earlier, the facility was available till December 15, 2016.
New Delhi : Offering one last chance to black money holders, the Indian government on Friday said they have time until March-end to come clean by paying 50 per cent tax on bank deposits of junk currencies made post demonetisation.
Offering tax dodgers confidentially and immunity from prosecution under the new tax evasion amnesty scheme Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY), which kicks-in from tomorrow, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said non disclosure of deposits made in banks after the Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes were junked will attract stiffer penalties as well as prosecution.
Not declaring the black money under the scheme now but showing it as income in the tax return form would lead to a total levy of 77.25 per cent in taxes and penalty. In case the disclosure is not made either using the scheme or in return, a further 10 per cent penalty on tax will be levied followed by prosecution, he said.
The disclosure scheme is part of The Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Act, 2016, which was approved by the Lok Sabha earlier this month and has been assented by the President.
The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) will commence on December 17 and shall remain open for declarations up to March 31, Adhia told reporters here.
“Beginning tomorrow most of the banks will have challans to be filled for depositing tax for availing the PMGKY scheme.
Only after payment of 50 per cent tax and setting aside the 25 per cent of the remaining undisclosed amount for 4 year, a person can avail the PMGKY scheme,” he said.
Adhia emphasised that mere depositing of cash in banks will not convert black money into white. Taxes have to be paid.
As per the scheme, taxes will have to be paid first and then the scheme can be availed on production of tax receipt, unlike the recent Income Disclosure Scheme and other such plans wherein disclosures were made first and taxes were recovered later.
Also, as the disclosures will be kept confidential, the holder of unaccounted cash need not disclose it in Income Tax Returns forms.
After the shock November 8 demonetisation announcement, the government allowed the junked Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes to be deposited in bank accounts.
For those holding unaccounted cash, it offered new tax evasion amnesty scheme wherein 50 per cent tax will be charged on declarations and quarter of the total sum be parked in a non-interest bearing deposit for four years. .
New Delhi, Dec 16 : The Delhi government today launched a process for getting city traders registered under Goods and Services Tax regime, which is expected to be rolled out in 2017.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who formally initiated the procedure that continues till December 31, sought “queries and concerns” from the traders to properly shape up the new tax law.
Sisodia said the GST is a new tax reform and also good for the country and it will benefit every citizen and trader as well.
There are currently around 3.48 lakh traders registered with the Trade and Taxes Department of Delhi Government and they are eligible to get themselves registered under GST regime.
“There is good atmosphere about GST in the country. We have started the practice of registering 3.50 lakh traders under GST regime so that they won’t have to face problems when the new tax law comes into force. We hope that GST will be implemented from April 1 in the country,” Sisodia said while addressing a gathering here.
He also said that GST is currently in initial state and it is our responsibility to properly shape it.
“Traders should come forward and tell us about their queries and concerns relating to GST so that I could raise them in the GST council,” Sisodia, who also holds finance portfolio, said.
The Deputy CM also demanded that the word- ‘dealers’ which exists in the current tax law should be replaced with ‘partners’ in the GST regime.
“I don’t know why ‘dealers’ word is there (in existing tax law). It should be replaced with ‘partners’ as traders collect tax from people and give it to the state government and hence, they are ‘partners’ in collecting tax.
“Instead of calling them dealers, they should be called partners,” he said.
A senior government official said that a self-training module is available on the website- gst.gov.in and that could be used for understanding the process.
All verification of documents will be done online. If all documents are provided, the process will be completed in just few minutes, he said.
Beijing, Dec 16: China today took strong exception to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama’s meeting with President Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapathi Bhavan during a children’s summit, saying India must respect China’s “core interests” to avoid “any disturbance” to the bilateral ties.
“Recently in disregard of China’s solemn representation and strong opposition, the Indian side insisted on arranging for the 14th Dalai Lama’s visit to the Indian Presidential palace where he took part in an event and met President Mukherjee,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang told a media briefing here.
“The Chinese side is strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to that,” he said, replying to a question on the Dalai Lama’s presence in the opening session of the ‘Laureates and Leaders for Children Summit’, organised by Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi’s Children’s Foundation on December 10.
“The Dalai Lama is in political exile and is long been engaged anti-China separatist activities with the attempt of separating Tibet away from China under the cloak of religion,” Geng said.
The Chinese side firmly opposes any form of contact between officials of the other countries with him.
“We urge the Indian side to see through the anti-China separatist nature of the Dalai Lama clique, fully respect China’s core interests and major concerns, take effective means to remove the negative impact caused by the incident to avoid any disturbance to China-India relationship,” Geng said.
China routinely protests world leaders meetings with the Dalai Lama.
This is the second time that China objected to the Dalai Lama’s activities in India in recent months.
Beijing objected in October this year to India’s permission to the Tibetan spiritual leader to visit Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims as part of southern Tibet.
Early this month, China also objected to the visit of prominent Tibetan religious leader, the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje to Arunachal Pradesh, hoping that India would abide by consensus and refrain from taking any action that might complicate the boundary dispute.
India also came under the criticism from Chinese official media over the Dalai Lama’s visit to Mongolia following which Beijing was accused of imposing a blockade of the land-locked country.
While China besides criticising Mongolia for permitting the Dalai Lama reportedly blocked movement along the Mongolia-China border, Beijing was also livid over the Mongolian Ambassador to India Gonchig Ganhold s appeal to New Delhi to help Mongolia to deal with China s countermeasure against Ulaanbaatar.
India has said Mongolia can avail the USD one billion aid, which one of the Chinese newspaper Global Times termed it as a bribe.
An article in the daily also warned Mongolia that it is “politically harebrained” to ask for New Delhi s support as it will further complicate bilateral ties.
Scientists say they have successfully increased the lifespan of mice by reprogramming their body’s cells using a technique that suggests the ageing process could be “reversed”.
Previous attempts to do this resulted in apparently younger cells but the mice quickly developed tumours and died.
However, the team behind the latest research, led by Professor Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte of the Salk Institute in the US, said the mice lived about 30 per cent longer than untreated animals and did not get cancer.
They also reported positive results in tests on human cells in the laboratory.
Professor Izpisua Belmonte said: “Our study shows that ageing may not have to proceed in one single direction.
“It has plasticity and, with careful modulation, ageing might be reversed.”
The technique involves turning cells back into stem cells, which can develop into any kind of specialist cell.
Another of the researchers, Alejandro Ocampo, said: “What we and other stem-cell labs have observed is that when you induce cellular reprogramming, cells look younger.
“The next question was whether we could induce this rejuvenation process in a live animal.”
But creating stem cells, which can divide rapidly and are important in the growth of embryos, in adults appears to increase the risk of causing tumours. Cancer causes death because the cells divide uncontrollably until they cause organs to fail.
Another problem with reprogramming cells is that they are needed for the proper functioning of the body, so turning too many into stem cells would result in death.
Professor Izpisua Belmonte said: “Our study shows that ageing may not have to proceed in one single direction.
“It has plasticity and, with careful modulation, ageing might be reversed.”
The technique involves turning cells back into stem cells, which can develop into any kind of specialist cell.
Another of the researchers, Alejandro Ocampo, said: “What we and other stem-cell labs have observed is that when you induce cellular reprogramming, cells look younger.
“The next question was whether we could induce this rejuvenation process in a live animal.”
But creating stem cells, which can divide rapidly and are important in the growth of embryos, in adults appears to increase the risk of causing tumours. Cancer causes death because the cells divide uncontrollably until they cause organs to fail.
Another problem with reprogramming cells is that they are needed for the proper functioning of the body, so turning too many into stem cells would result in death.
The research was reported in the journal Cell.
The Supreme Court banned on Thursday all liquor shops within 500 metres of national and state highways across the country, a move aimed at reducing drink driving and road accidents that claim thousands of lives every year.
Licences of existing shops will not be renewed after March 31 next year, it said.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur ordered removal of all signboards of alcohol vends along highways.
Last week, the bench made it clear that such an order was necessary for the safety and security of highway commuters who get tempted to down a few drinks after seeing liquor shops. It also expressed serious concern over 150,000 fatalities every year in road accidents, a majority of them attributed to drink driving.
The order came on petitions challenging high court verdicts that disallowed sale of liquor on highways.
The Supreme Court banned on Thursday all liquor shops within 500 metres of national and state highways across the country, a move aimed at reducing drink driving and road accidents that claim thousands of lives every year.
Licences of existing shops will not be renewed after March 31 next year, it said.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur ordered removal of all signboards of alcohol vends along highways.
Last week, the bench made it clear that such an order was necessary for the safety and security of highway commuters who get tempted to down a few drinks after seeing liquor shops. It also expressed serious concern over 150,000 fatalities every year in road accidents, a majority of them attributed to drink driving.
The order came on petitions challenging high court verdicts that disallowed sale of liquor on highways.
The courts had said liquor shops should be located away from highways so that they were neither visible nor accessible to travelers.
The top court came down heavily on states for not paying heed to the Centre’s constant advice not to give licence to shops selling alcohol along highways. Instead, the states have increased the number of licences. The first communiqué was sent in 2007 and since then the Centre has been sending reminders.
“You can start a door delivery of liquor,” the bench told the counsel for Jammu and Kashmir, who argued that people will face difficulties because of the state’s terrain in accessing the shops if they are put away from the highway.
“We would not like any vend on national highways, state highways, advertisements, or signage about availability of liquor shops. We will direct all highway authorities to remove all signboards. It should be absolutely free from any distraction or attractions. It should not be visible. Visibility is the first temptation,” Justice Thakur said.
The Punjab government’s counsel had faced the court ire.
“You are acting like a mouthpiece for the liquor lobby by defending the policy,” the bench told the advocate who pleaded the ban should be made effective from April 1 to avoid revenue loss of Rs 1,000 crore.
“You (state) are the vendor? You are speaking in the language of the liquor lobby. You have a responsibility to ensure people are safe. Constitution provides for prohibition,” it said.
“Every year you keep on adding, because you want to keep the liquor lobby happy. You want the excise minister to be happy, make the government happy … let 1.5 lakh people die but you must serve liquor?” the bench retorted.
The court was shocked to learn that there were 62 liquor shops within a span of a kilometer on the national highway in Mahe district, Puducherry. The place is a haven for tipplers from Kerala where drinking and sale of alcohol is prohibited.
The Chief Justice pointed out that the Centre had asked for the removal of these vends in 2007. But the Union Territory, which is under the Centre’s control, didn’t take any action.
New Delhi, Dec 14 : A bill stipulating up to two- year jail term and a maximum fine of Rs 5 lakh for discriminating against differently-abled persons was passed by the Rajya Sabha today.
The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2014, which aims at securing and enhancing the rights and entitlements of disabled persons, was passed by a voice vote after rare unanimity was witnessed among the Opposition and Treasury benches in the House, which has seen acrimony and disruptions since the Winter Session began on November 16.
The bill, which was moved in Upper House earlier this month by Social Justice Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot, also gives effect to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and related matters.
It provides for imprisonment of at least six months up to two years, along with a fine ranging between Rs 10,000 and Rs 5 lakh for discriminating against differently-abled persons.
When the House met in the morning and took up the Zero Hour, members from the Opposition benches including Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, BSP chief Mayawati, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury and SP leader Naresh Agarwal, pitching for immediate passage of the “crucial” legislation.
Responding to them, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the measure could be taken up immediately.
With rare unanimity on display, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien agreed to take up a short debate on the legislation before its passage, though he first said the matter was listed in the agenda in the afternoon and could be taken up then.
London, Dec 14 : The UK wants to make London as India’s “destination of choice” for raising offshore finance, an Indian-origin British minister has said.
“Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi wants to ‘Make in India’.
We say: ‘Make in India, finance in the UK’,” Alok Sharma, minster in charge of Asia, said in an address to the UK India Business Council on the ‘Future of the UK-India Relationship’ in London.
“As well as seeking to expand its role as a manufacturer and innovator, India is also rightly addressing its future infrastructure and energy needs. Many of you know the staggering amounts of capital this will require 2.8 trillion dollars needed by 2040 to invest in energy, according to the International Energy Agency and over 1 trillion dollars in other infrastructure,” he said.
The parliamentary under-secretary in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) on Monday said the Theresa May led government wants the City of London to become India’s “destination of choice” for raising international funds.
“We want Indian companies and public sector entities to see the City of London as the natural home for raising offshore finance for quasi-sovereigns as well as corporates.”
The minister also sought to clear up what he described as “mis-perceptions and misconceptions” around the issue of visas.
“First of all, there is no cap on the number of international students studying at recognised institutions in the UK. Secondly, we continue to welcome students from India in the year to March 2016, we approved 89 per cent of Indian student visa applications,” he said.
“Moreover, Indian citizens enjoy greater access to application centres than anyone else and India is the only country where applicants can obtain a same-day visa.
“We naturally want our visa regime to be as simple and efficient as possible. But we must also ensure that people return to their country of origin once their visa has expired.”
To ensure that the visa regime does not hinder the commercial relationship, he said the British government wants India to be the first country to be offered the “Registered Traveller Scheme, giving business travellers expedited clearance at the UK border.”
He highlighted that May’s visit to India last month was “no coincidence” that it was her first overseas bilateral visit outside the European Union as PM.
“It signalled the immense value we place on our existing partnership with India and the potential we see to enhance this unique relationship in the future,” he said.
The Conservative Party MP pointed to the UK as India’s largest major investor, responsible for employing one in every 20 Indians and India as the UK’s third-largest investor and second largest international employment generator responsible for over 110,000 jobs in the UK.
India is among the 194 countries that are aiming to attain Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030 under the commitment to attain Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Going by the indicators released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on their centralised portal to track progress towards UHC, India will have to strengthen its act.
WHO has designed a Universal Health Coverage Profile for member countries entailing four parameters of assessment.
The first parameter is reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health. India records aboout three crore pregnancies every year. Only 45.5 per cent of all pregnant women get full ante-natal care with around four visits by the nurse. Even less, 19.7 per cent have access to doctors’ services, according to data from the Health Ministry. India loses over 44,000 women to pregnancy-related complications every year, which means one woman dies every 12 minutes for want of care.
One child under the age of five years dies every two minutes in India due to Pneumonia and Diarrhea, the biggest killers of children in the country. Only 67.3 per cent population seeks care for child pneumonia.
The second parameter is the country performance on tackling infectious diseases. Only 39.5 per cent of the population has access to improved sanitation. There is no data on insecticide-treated nets to prevent vector-borne diseases in India. Only 41.4 per cent population seeks tuberculosis detection and treatment facilities while 44 per cent population is covered under HIV detection and treatment facilities.
The third factor is the burden of non-communicable diseases. About 30 per cent Indians have high blood pressure.
The fourth component of the assessment includes basic hospital access, density of health workers, access to essential medicines, and compliance with international health regulations. India has only six hospital beds per lakh and close to two surgeons per lakh population. Surgeons are posted at the district level where population crosses over a lakh, while physicians are required to be posted at Primary Health Centres (PHC) in villages.
WHO data shows that India has 0.70 physicians per 1,000 population and 0.30 psychiatrists per 1,000 population.
“Any country seeking to achieve UHC must be able to measure it,” said Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General, WHO.
“Data on its own won’t prevent disease or save lives, but it shows where governments need to act to strengthen their health systems and protect people from the potentially devastating effects of health care costs,” Chan added.
Mumbai, Dec 13 : RBI today said banks have garnered Rs 12.44 trillion (Rs 12.44 lakh crore) in banned notes till December 10, while they have issued Rs 4.61 trillion to them since the demonetisation drive began 35 days ago.
“The old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, which have been returned to the Reserve Bank and the currency chest, amounted Rs to 12.44 trillion as of December 10,” RBI Deputy Governor R Gandhi told reporters here.
The money that various banks have issued through their counters and ATMs since November 10 and up to December 10 stood at Rs 4.61 trillion, he added.
In volume terms the number stood at 21.8 billion pieces of notes of various denominations, of which 20.1 billion pieces were of Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 50 and Rs 100. The number of higher denomination of new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes stood at 1.7 billion, he said.
Hence, while the notes surrendered have risen by almost Rs 1 trillion, cash disbursal has risen only a little since December 7, when RBI had said that banks had issued Rs 4.27 trillion of new notes post demonetisation through ATMs and bank counters, the banned notes collected stood at Rs 11.55 trillion.
“The entire system is continuously gearing up for supporting the circulation of notes in the hands of the public. Daily, we are issuing more and more notes, getting it printed and issuing it and this will be a continuous affair.
The public are requested to freely use the notes that they have in their hands rather than hoard it,” Gandhi said.
Parts of the Arctic were an average of 11 degrees Celsius warmer than they were in the late 20th century as the region experienced “extreme record temperature anomalies”, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has said.
Scientists who produced the annual Arctic Report Card warned the situation was changing so quickly it was “outpacing our ability to understand and explain” what they were witnessing.
They even suggested the word glacial could no longer be used to mean a slow pace and should be redefined to refer to something that was “rapidly diminishing”.
The report found the average annual air temperature over land areas was the “highest in the observational record” at 3.5C above 1900. Sea ice levels also fell to the lowest since satellite records began in 1979.
These are both likely to indicate the warmest Arctic weather for tens of thousands of years.
The Arctic has a considerable effect on the northern hemisphere’s weather with some experts saying the rapid warming of the region – more than twice the global average – could produce “catastrophic” extreme weather events for much of the planet.
As climate science denier Donald Trump prepares to move into the White House next month, the NOAA report said the situation was “increasing the pressure” to communicate the importance of the “scientific observations”.
Jeremy Mathis, director of NOAA’s Arctic research programme, said: “Rarely have we seen the Arctic show a clearer, stronger or more pronounced signal of persistent warming and its cascading effects on the environment than this year.
“While the science is becoming clearer, we need to improve and extend sustained observations of the Arctic that can inform sound decisions on environmental health and food security as well as emerging opportunities for commerce.”
“Arctic temperatures continue to increase at double the rate of the global temperature increase,” it added.
Amid the 3.5C increase on land, there were some particularly “extreme record warm temperature anomalies”.
“The warmest temperature anomalies were centred on Alaska, Svalbard in the Atlantic sector and the central Arctic,” the report said.
“In the Spitsbergen area, the three-month winter mean temperatures were 8 to 11C above the 1961-90 average.”
The levels of ice on both land and sea have been shrinking dramatically.
“For Arctic researchers, communicating the impacts of our discoveries has taken on an unprecedented urgency in the face of environmental change that – in many instances – is outpacing our ability to understand and explain the changes we are witnessing,” the report said.
“Accustomed to advancing our scientific disciplines at what is often called a ‘glacial’ pace, we recognise that glaciers are not so slow anymore.
“Before long, we may need to redefine ‘glacial’ to mean something that is rapidly diminishing or employ a different adjective.”
Sea ice grows and shrinks with the seasons hitting a low point in October or November. This year the sea ice minimum was the lowest since satellite records began in 1979.
Scientists expect the Arctic to be effectively free of sea ice for the first time in about 100,000 years within the next few decades, but some have argued this could happen much sooner.
“Sea ice extent has decreasing trends in all months and virtually all regions, the exception being the Bering Sea during winter,” the NOAA report said.
It said the changes in the Arctic could lead to a number of “trillion dollar impacts – both positive and negative”.
On one hand, new shipping lanes are already opening up and, ironically, less ice also means oil exploration is not as risky.
But, on the other, the warming Arctic could have “major implications” for our economic welfare and life as we know it, the report said.
“As is amply demonstrated in each annual instalment of the Arctic Report Card, the domain is collectively experiencing rapid and amplified signatures of global climate change,” it said.
“The Arctic system’s response to this broader forcing has become a central research topic, given its potential as a critical throttle on future planetary dynamics.
“Changes are already impacting life systems, cultures and economic prosperity and continued change is expected to bear major implications far outside the region.”
Professor Peter Wadhams, the head of the Polar Ocean Physics Group at Cambridge University and author of the book, A Farewell to Ice, warned the loss of snow cover, which has hit a record low, and sea ice was speeding up global warming.
“I calculate that between them they are causing the effective heating of the planet to be 50 per cent higher than would be caused by the added greenhouse gases alone – entirely due to snow and ice retreat,” he told the Independent in an email.
Professor Wadhams suggested that Arctic sea ice was “well and truly set on a collapse”.
And this, he warned, could have a dramatic and sudden effect on global temperatures.
“The warm sea water melts the offshore permafrost, which releases methane trapped in the sediments below,” Professor Wadhams said.
“There is potential for a catastrophic methane pulse which cause immediate warming of up to 0.6C, according some calculations which we did in [the journal] Nature a couple of years back.”
*Based on Idependent report.