1.RIMPAC 2016:
·
World’s largest international Biennial
maritime exercise named RIMPAC (Rim of
the Pacific) 2016 kicked off in Pacific Ocean at Hawaii, United States.
·
Over one month long RIMPAC 2016
exercise will see participation of navies from 26 countries.
·
This year it is the 25th edition of biennial
exercise in the series that began in 1971.
·
India is being represented by Indian
Naval ship (INS) Satpura, an indigenously built guided.
2.JOINT INDO-THAILAND MILITARY EXERCISE ‘MAITREE’ CULMINATES :
·
The Two Week long Indo-Thailand
Military Exercise Maitree–2016 is came to end at Krabi, Thailand. The exercise
had commenced on 15 July 2016.
3.BORNEAN ORANGUTAN NOW ‘CRITICALLY ENDANGERED’: IUCN
·
The Bornean Orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus)
has been declared as the critically endangered according to the International
Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
·
This change means that both species of
orangutan now face an exceptionally high risk of extinction in the wild.
·
The species has declared Endangered as
a reason of deforestation, palm oil plantations and hunting posing a serious
threat to its continued existence.
Bornean
orangutan:
·
These Species share approximately 97%
of their DNA with humans.
·
Bornean females only reproduce once
every six to eight years, as it is the longest birth interval of any land
mammal and orangutan numbers are slow to rebound in the wake of meaningful
improvements.
4.WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT 2016:
·
The World Happiness Report 2016 by the
UN ranks India at 118th among 156 countries, behind Somalia (76), China (83),
Pakistan (92), Iran (105), Palestinian Territories (108) and Bangladesh (110).
·
Madhya Pradesh, which has made
remarkable progress in agriculture in recent times, does not figure among the
country’s developed states, and fares badly when it comes to social indices like
maternal and infant mortality.
·
It also has a very high rate of crimes
against women.
5.INDIA RANKS 110TH ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INDEX:
·
India has ranked a low 110 out of 149 nations assessed on
where they stand with regard to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals,
according to a new sustainable development index.
·
The Sustainable Development Solutions
Network (SDSN) and the Bertelsmann Stiftung launched a new Sustainable
Development Goal Index and Dashboard to
provide a report card for tracking Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) progress
and ensuring accountability.
·
The index collected available data for
149 countries to assess where each country stands in 2016 with regard to
achieving the SDGs.
6.INTERNATIONAL SOLAR ALLIANCE CELL AND WORLD BANK SIGNS DECLARATION
FOR PROMOTING SOLAR ENERGY:
·
In a significant push for solar power,
the World Bank has signed an agreement with the International Solar Alliance
(ISA)—launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Paris climate summit last
year—to mobilize $1 trillion in investments by 2030.
·
·
This agreement establishes the World
Bank group as a financial partner for the alliance.
·
As part of the agreement, the World
Bank Group will develop a roadmap to mobilize financing for development and
deployment of affordable solar energy,
and work with other multilateral development banks and financial institutions
to develop financing instruments to
support solar energy development.
·
ISA was launched at the UN Climate
Change Conference in Paris in 2015 by Modi and French President Francois
Hollande.
·
The alliance, headquartered in India,
aims to bring together countries situated between the Tropics of Cancer and
Capricorn which receive abundant
sunshine for around 300 days a year.
·
This alliance brings together
developing and developed countries to expand energy access, accelerate solar
power deployment, and stimulate economic development.
·
India will provide land and $30
million to form a secretariat for the Alliance, and also support it for five
years.
·
Among the tasks that the Alliance
would pursue are, cooperation in training, building institutions, regulatory
issues, common standards, and investment including joint ventures.
7.JOINT DEDICATION OF THE PETRAPOLE INTEGRATED CHECK POST (ICP):
·
The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi
and the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina recently jointly
inaugurated the Petrapole Integrated Check Post through video-conferencing.
·
The Petrapole ICP will provide better
facilities for effective and efficient discharge of functions such as security,
immigration, customs, quarantine, etc.
·
while also providing support
facilities for smooth cross-border movement of persons, goods and transport.
·
Petrapole ICP will be the second ICP
on the India-Bangladesh border after the Agartala ICP at the Agartala
(India)-Akhaura (Bangladesh) land border.
·
It will also be the biggest land port
in South Asia.
·
It is expected that the capacity will double
with the commissioning of the Petrapole ICP and the local business community
will benefit immensely from reduced transaction time and costs.
·
The commissioning of the Petrapole ICP
will also serve to foster greater economic integration and connectivity between
India and Bangladesh.
·
Petrapole-Benapole is an important
land border crossing for India-Bangladesh trade. More than 50% of the
India-Bangladesh trade passes through Petrapole.
·
Trade worth more than Rs. 15000 Crore
takes place through the Petrapole ICP, which is more
·than
all the other Indian Land Ports and Land Customs Stations put together.
·
Approximately 15 lakh people and
150,000 trucks cross Petrapole-Benapole every year.
8.ULAANBAATAR DECLARATION ADOPTED:
·
The 11th edition of the Asia-Europe
Meeting Summit (ASEM11) was recently concluded in Ulaanbaatar.
·
The theme of the Summit is ‘20 Years
of ASEM: Partnership for the Future through Connectivity‘.
·
Ulaanbaatar Declaration was adopted as
an outcome document of the Summit, in which the participating leaders from Asia
and Europe renewed their political will and strong resolve to work together to
promote mutually beneficial partnership and co-operation between the two
continents, with a view to building a better future for the peoples of Asia and
Europe.
Highlights:
·
The declaration has reaffirmed ASEM’s
commitment for greater partnership through informal political dialogue and
initiatives in economic and socio-cultural fields.
·
It also has expressed its commitment
for united fight against terrorism and violent extremism.
·
The declaration will also focus on
maritime security cyber security.
9.NEW DEVELOPMENT BANK:
·
It is a multilateral development bank
operated by the BRICS states (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).
·
It is seens as an alternative to the existing US-dominated
World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
·
The New Development Bank was agreed to
by BRICS leaders at the 5th BRICS summit held in Durban, South Africa in 2013.
·
The bank is set up to foster greater
financial and development cooperation among the five emerging markets.
·
The bank will be headquartered in
Shanghai, China.
·
Unlike the World Bank, which assigns
votes based on capital share, in the New Development Bank each participant
country will be assigned one vote, and none of the countries will have veto
power.
·
The New Development Bank will mobilise
resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS and
other emerging economies and developing countries, to supplement existing
efforts of multilateral and regional financial institutions for global growth and development.
10.CENTRAL BOARD OF DIRECT TAXES (CBDT) SIGNS SEVEN UNILATERAL
ADVANCE PRICING AGREEMENTS (APAS):
·
The Central Board of Direct Taxes
(CBDT) has entered into seven Unilateral Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs) with
Indian taxpayers.
·
Some of these agreements also have a “Rollback” provision in them.
·
The APAs signed pertain to various
sectors of the economy like banking, Information Technology and Automotives.
·
The international transactions covered
in these agreements include software development Services, IT enabled Services
(BPOs), Engineering Design Services and Administrative & Business Support
Services.
·
With these signings, the total number
of APAs entered into by the CBDT has reached 77. This includes 3 bilateral APAs
and 74 Unilateral APAs.
·
In the current financial year, a total
of 13 Unilateral APAs have been entered into so far.
11.ADVANCE PRICING AGREEMENT:
·
The APA Scheme was introduced in the
Income-tax Act in 2012 and the “Rollback”
provisions were introduced in 2014.
·
The scheme endeavours to provide
certainty to taxpayers in the domain of transfer pricing by specifying the
methods of pricing and setting the prices of international transactions in
advance.
·
Since its inception, the APA scheme
has attracted tremendous interest and that has resulted in more than 700
applications having been filed in just four years.
What
is an advance pricing agreement?
·
An APA, usually for multiple years, is
signed between a taxpayer and the tax authority (CBDT) on an appropriate
transfer pricing methodology for determining the price and ensuing taxes on
intra-group overseas transactions.
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