The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has extended the period of enhanced Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPI) limit of Rs 20,000 as part of efforts to promote digital payments.
The limit has been extended till the completion of review of the PPI guidelines. However, the balance in such PPIs cannot exceed Rs 20,000 at any point of time and the merchants can transfer funds from such PPIs to their own linked bank accounts up to Rs 50,000 per month, without any limit per transaction.
India and Singapore have signed a Third Protocol to amend DTAA (Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement) for the avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income.
It was signed in line with India’s treaty policy to prevent double non-taxation, curb revenue loss and check the menace of black money through automatic exchange of information.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) signed two unilateral Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs) with Indian taxpayers pertain to the Information Technology and automobile sectors.
The international transactions covered in these two agreements include software development services, IT enabled services (ITES), manufacturing and business support services. With this, the total number of APAs signed by the CBDT has reached 117. This includes 110 Unilateral APAs and 7 bilateral APAs. In the current 2016-17 financial year, total of 53 APAs (4 bilateral and 49 unilateral) were signed.
Colombia’s Congress passed a law granting amnesty to Marxist FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) rebels as part of historic peace deal reached between rebels and Government. The Senate passed the bill 69-0 votes after the House of Representatives approved it by 121-0 votes. This is another step to formally end to 52 years of Columbian civil war (Latin America’s longest conflict). The law grants special legal treatment, amnesty and pardons to members of the FARC accused of political and related crimes. It does not apply to FARC rebels accused of offenses such as war crimes, rape, torture and extrajudicial killings.
President Pranab Mukherjee has given assent to Payment of Wages (Amendment) Ordinance, 2016, to enable industries to pay wages by cheque or credit into the bank accounts of workers. The ordinance amends the Payment of Wages Act, 1936 to encourage cashless transactions. With this assent the ordinance becomes law as per article 123 of the Constitution.
China opens world's longest high-speed railway line.
It used to take the best part of 24 hours to travel by train from Beijing to the southern boomtown of Guangzhou. But as of Wednesday, when the world's longest high-speed rail line opened for business, the 1,428-mile journey has been cut to a mere eight hours.
The Union Ministry for Petroleum & Natural Gas has met the 1.5-crore target for LPG connections that were to be added under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) in the 2016-17 financial year.
This Target was achieved within a span of less than eight months since the launch of the scheme which is implemented across 35 States/UTs.
50 per cent reservation in Judicial services in Bihar.
The Bihar government approved 50 per cent reservation in the state’s judicial services with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Cabinet clearing the Bihar Uchcha Nyayik Seva (Sansodhan) Niymawali, 2016, and Bihar Asainik Seva (Sansodhan) Niymawali, 2016.
PPA suspends Arunachal CM, Dy CM from primary membership.
In a fast-paced development, the Peoples’ Party of Arunachal (PPA) late on Thursday night suspended Chief Minister Pema Khandu, Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein and five other party MLAs from the primary membership of the party temporarily with immediate effect for alleged anti-party activities.
British cyclist Bradley Retired.
Sir Bradley Wiggins: Tour de France winner & five-time Olympic champion retires. Five-time Olympic champion Sir Bradley Wiggins has announced his retirement from cycling aged 36. Britain's first Tour de France winner, in 2012, said he had fulfilled a "childhood aspiration" of making a career out of the sport.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched UPI based mobile payment application called BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) at the Digi Dhan Mela held in Talkatora stadium, New Delhi.
The app is rebranded version of UPI (Unified Payment Interface) and USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) for simpler digital payments without cash.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has extended the last date for availing the Direct Tax Dispute Resolution Scheme to January 31, 2017 from the earlier deadline of December 31, 2016.
This extension aims to give companies one more month to accept its offer to settle retro tax disputes with Government. It comes against the backdrop of tepid response from companies to the scheme.
President Pranab Mukherjee has appointed former bureaucrat Anil Baijal (70) as the 21st Lieutenant Governor of Delhi.
He will succeed Najeeb Jung who had resigned before completion of his term and is returning to teaching profession.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved Road Connectivity Project for Left Wing Extremism (LWE) Affected Areas to improve rural road connectivity in worst LWE affected districts critical from security and communication point of view. The project will be implemented under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) to provide all weather road connectivity in 44 worst affected LWE districts and adjoining districts.
China has successfully launched pair two high-resolution remote sensing satellites SuperView-1 01 and 02 to get commercial images.
These satellites were launched on-board of Long March 2D rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in Shanxi Province. They will provide commercial images at 0.5-meter resolution.
Patnaik calls Parbati Giri Mother Teresa of Odisha.
Bhubaneswar, Dec 24 (PTI) Describing her as the "Mother Teresa of Odisha", the state government today decided to name its Rs 7,600 crore Mega Lift Irrigation Scheme after noted freedom fighter and social reformer Parbati Giri.A proposal in this regard was moved by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who presided over a cabinet meeting here this evening.
Eminent Rajasthani litterateur Dr Satya Narayan was chosen for the 26th Bihari Puraskar 2016 by the K K Birla Foundation.
He was been chosen for his Hindi book titled Yeh Ek Dunia published in 2010. His Yeh Ek Dunia is a meticulous depiction of various circumstances of life in contemporary world. In it he has built a model of new creativity and attempts to enter unseen aspects or dimensions, where human experiences and conscience are more important than life situations of contemporary time zone.
S.P. Vaid to be J&K’s new Director General of Police
The State Cabinet on Wednesday evening confirmed the name of senior Indian Police Services (IPS) officer S.P. Vaid as new Director General of Police (DGP) of Jammu and Kashmir, as incumbent DGP K. Rajendra’s term comes to an end.
FORMER NO. 1, FRENCH OPEN CHAMPION ANA IVANOVIC ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT
Former world No. 1 and French Open champion Ana Ivanovic has announced her retirement from professional tennis.Along with compatriots Jelena Jankovic and Novak Djokovic, Ivanovic helped lead a Serbian revolution in pro tennis in the late 2000s—all three reached the No. 1 ranking at various points in their careers. Ivanovic was the first to achieve it, in June 2008, and was the first to reach a Grand Slam singles final, one year earlier at the French Open. After coming up short in her second Slam final, at the 2008 Australian Open, she won her first and only major by defeating Dinara Safina at the 2008 French Open.
Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan's prime minister, inaugurated the country's fourth reactor - unit 3 of the Chashma nuclear power plant in Punjab province.
Construction began on the Chinese-designed CNP-300 pressurised water reactor in March 2011. The unit achieved first criticality on 3 October and was connected to the grid on 15 October. The unit's output has since been gradually increased to 100%. On 7 December, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) said Chashma 3 had completed a "100-hour reliability demonstration test", marking the end of acceptance tests for the unit.
The Union Government has launched Integrated Voice Response System (IVRS) system in a bid to tackle the call drop menace.
The system was launched at multiple locations including Delhi and Mumbai to obtain direct feedback from subscribers on call quality on the issue of frequent call drops. It is now available in Delhi, Mumbai, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra and Goa and soon will be extended to the entire country.
Gujarat Government announced its ‘Biotechnology Policy-2016’ to establish state as a preferred destination for manufacturing of biotechnology products.
The policy has provisions for various incentives for investors who are keen to set up their units in the state. It aims to take annual turnover of biotechnology products to Rs 15,000 crore from current f Rs 4,500 crore turn over within next 3-4 years and make Gujarat top state in this sector in the country.
Eminent Rajasthani litterateur Dr Satya Narayan was chosen for the 26th Bihari Puraskar 2016 by the K K Birla Foundation.
He was been chosen for his Hindi book titled Yeh Ek Dunia published in 2010. His Yeh Ek Dunia is a meticulous depiction of various circumstances of life in contemporary world. In it he has built a model of new creativity and attempts to enter unseen aspects or dimensions, where human experiences and conscience are more important than life situations of contemporary time zone.
A team of international astronomers has discovered Vela super cluster, one of the biggest super galaxy clusters near the Milky Way.
It was spotted by a research team of astronomers from South Africa, Australia and Europe with help slew of telescopes including the Anglo-Australian Telescope (Sydney) and South African Large Telescope (Cape Town).