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KV Kamath named as first President of New Development Bank of BRICS nations

Eminent banker Kundapur Vaman Kamath was appointed as first President New Development Bank (NDB) of BRICS nations. He will have of five year term after the bank becomes operational within one year.  Kamath is the Chairman of the India’s largest private sector bank, Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI). He was ICICI Bank’s managing director and CEO from 1996 to 2009. Kamath also had served as Chairman of India’s second-largest Indian IT services company, Infosys Limited. He had taken charge from N R Narayana Murthy.   

Dedicated E-Commerce Centre of India Posts launched in New Delhi

Dedicated E-Commerce Centre of India Posts, a government-operated postal system was launched in New Delhi to cater the e-commerce business enterprises. It was launched by Union Communication and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad at Safdarjang, New Delhi. This project is implemented by Department of Posts, through Delhi Postal Circle. This processing centre will exclusively handle all the e-commerce business and play a crucial role in India’s e-business which has grown up to 70 thousand crore rupees in past few years. It is capable of handling 30000 parcels (articles) per day. It will also facilitate to collection of parcels from the e-commerce customers by processing and dispatching them within 24 hours to respective destination. For this purpose the centre will use quickest available transportation facility like flight or trains. The leading e-commerce customers, Yepme, Amazon, Snapdeal, Paytm etc are using this newly established e-commerce Centre for processing of their e-commerce parcels.

MIDC inks MoU with SIDBI to raise Rs 200-crore fund for MSMEs

Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) has inked memorandum of understanding (MoU) with state-run Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to provide easy finance to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) for their growth. The MoU was signed Ananta P Sarma, MD and CEO of SIDBI and MIDC CEO Bhushan Gagrani in the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis in Nashik, Maharashtra. As per the MoU, both signatory parties have jointly created funds to the tune of 200 crore rupees to provide immediate finance to the MSMEs. Of the total amount, the MIDC has contributed 75 crore rupees, while SIDBI has provided the remaining 125 crore rupees. This jointly created fund will provide easy loan to MSMEs for their expansion, product development and other business purposes.  The rate of interest at which this easy finance will be provided to the MSMEs has not been decided yet.

Justice Cyriac Joseph appointed as acting Chairman of NHRC

President Pranab Mukherjee has appointed Justice Cyriac Joseph as acting Chairman of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). His appointment comes after then Chairman of NHRC Justice K.G. Balakrishnan completed his tenure. He will remain in office till new Chairman is appointed. Presently, Justice Cyriac Joseph is member of NHRC. He hails from Kaiphuza village of Kottayam district in Kerala and was a Judge of the Supreme Court from 2008 to 2012. Justice K.G. Balakrishnan has completed his tenure as the sixth and the lon

gest serving Chairman NHRC. He was appointed as Chairman of Commission in June 2010 after his retirement as the Chief Justice of India (CJI). During his tenure, he was instrumental in charting out several new initiatives towards promotion and protection of human rights in the country.

Lok Sabha passes Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets (Imposition of Tax) Bill, 2015

Lok Sabha passed Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets (Imposition of Tax) Bill, 2015 by a voice vote. The bill seeks to deal with the menace of black money and to replace the Income Tax (IT) Act, 1961 for the taxation of foreign income.

Salient features of the Bill

Scope- Provisions will applicable to both undisclosed foreign income and assets including financial interest in any entity and the Act will be applicable to all persons resident in India.

Rate of tax– A flat rate of 30 percent tax will be applied to undisclosed foreign income or assets. In case of any carried forward losses, no exemption or deduction or set off will be allowed which may be admissible under the existing IT Act, 1961.

Penalties- Violation will entail stringent penalties. Following are penalties mentioned

For nondisclosure of foreign income or assets outside India, penalty will be equal to three times the amount of tax payable i.e. 90 percent of the undisclosed income in addition to tax payable at 30%.

In case of failure to furnish return in respect to foreign income or assets, there will be of 10 lakh rupees.