New Delhi : As part of the drive to unearth black money, the government has asked banks to obtain the permanent account number (PAN) or Form 60 if PAN is not available, from all bank account holders by 28 February, 2017, an official statement said on Sunday.
“Income Tax Rules have been amended to provide that bank shall obtain and link PAN or Form No 60 (where PAN is not available) in all existing bank accounts, other than Basic Savings Bank Deposit Accounts (BSBDA), by 28 February, 2017, if not already done,” a Finance Ministry statement said.
The ministry advised persons with bank accounts who have not submitted PAN or Form No 60 to submit the same to the bank by 28 February, 2017.
This rule, however, will not apply to the BSBDA, which are zero balance savings accounts, including the Jandhan accounts designed to promote financial inclusion, the statement said.
The Reserve Bank of India had, last month, mandated that no withdrawal shall be allowed from the accounts having substantial credit balance or deposits if PAN or Form 60 is not provided in respect of such accounts.
“It has also been provided under the new rules that person who is required to obtain PAN or Form No. 60 shall record the PAN/Form No. 60 in all the documents and quote the same in all the reports submitted to the Income Tax Department,” the statement added.
The ministry also said that banks and post offices had been mandated to submit information in respect of cash deposits from 1 April, 2016 to 8 November, 2016 in accounts where the cash deposits during the period 9 November, 2016 to 30 December, 2016 exceeds the specified limits.
The move aims to analyse the banking transactions carried out in months before the demonetisation decision was announced on 8 November. On that day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes were no longer legal tender. Citizens were given up to 30 December to deposit the demonetised currency in banks.
Lucknow, Jan 8 : Taking its fight against BJP to newer pastures, Aam Aadmi Party led by Arvind Kejriwal will “actively campaign” against the saffron party in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, though it will not enter the electoral arena.
After completion of the election process in Punjab and Goa, where AAP will be contesting, all leaders including star campaigners, will concentrate on Uttar Pradesh to expose BJP, “which has betrayed the country and which is the biggest devil in national politics”, AAP spokesman Vaibhav Maheshwari said.
Details of senior AAP leaders’ tour programme will be worked out soon but almost all of them will campaign against the ruling party at the Centre so as to apprise the people of the real face of the BJP and tell them what all can happen if they are elected in the state, he said.
A detailed itinerary will be released later in which AAP will apprise people of the “wrongs” committed by BJP although they will not seek votes for any party in the Uttar Pradesh polls, he said.
BJP is contesting the elections with demonetisation as the central issue and AAP has dubbed it as the biggest scam, Maheshwari said, adding this campaign (against BJP) can also be termed as a new kind of politics in which his party will be putting its energy and money into the elections in which its stands to gain nothing in terms of seats.
“This move is to ensure that Uttar Pradesh is not made to pay heavily in case of a wrong decision by the people as the state politics make a big impact on national politics, with the next Lok Sabha polls scheduled two years hence.
“We have to caution people as to how can a party which has proved to be a failure at the national level be a good option in the politically crucial state,” he said.
Although AAP is not in poll fray in Uttar Pradesh, it is contesting in Punjab and Goa where polling is slated for February 4. The seven-phase UP polls start on February 11 and ends on March 8 and AAP leaders will get enough opportunity to criss-cross the state, Maheshwari added.
Beijing : China is setting up the world’s highest altitude gravitational wave telescopes in a Tibet prefecture close to Line of Actual Control with India with a budget of USD 18.8 million to detect faintest echoes resonating from universe which may reveal more about the Big Bang theory.
Construction has started for the first telescope, code-named Ngari No 1, 30 km south of Shiquanhe Town in Ngari Prefecture, said Yao Yongqiang chief researcher with the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Parts of Nagri is last Tibetan prefecture at China’s border with India.
The telescope, located 5,250 meters above sea level, will detect and gather precise data on primordial gravitational waves in the Northern Hemisphere.
It is expected to be operational by 2021, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Yao said the second phase involves a series of telescopes, code-named Ngari No 2, to be located about 6,000 meters above sea level.
He did not give a time frame for construction of Ngari No 2. The budget for the two-phase Ngari gravitational wave observatory is an estimated 130 million yuan (USD 18.8 million).
The project was initiated by the Institute of High Energy Physics, National Astronomical Observatories, and Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, among others, the report said.
Ngari, with its high altitude, clear sky and minimal human activity is said to be one of the world’s best spots to detect tiny twists in cosmic light.
Yao said the Ngari observatory will be among the world’s top primordial gravitational wave observation bases, alongside the South Pole Telescope and the facility in Chile’s Atacama Desert.
Gravitational waves were first proposed by Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity 100 years ago, but it wasn’t until 2016 that scientists with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory announced proof of the waves’ existence, spurring fresh research interest among the world’s scientists.
Last September, China commissioned the world’s largest radio telescope in a mountainous region of southwest China’s Guizhou Province to search for more strange objects space, gain better understand the origin of the universe and to boost the global hunt for extraterrestrial life.
The installation of the telescope’s main structure — a 4,450-panel reflector as large as 30 football pitches was built at unique valley in Guizhou Province.
The Election Commission has sought the Cabinet Secretary’s reply on the opposition’s plea to postpone budget presentation date, as per normal procedure, ECI sources told ANI.
On Thursday, a united opposition had lodged a complaint with the Election Commission on the date for the annual budget being too close to the assembly polls.
The budget session of the Parliament, which will begin from February 1, is being advanced as the government wants early allocation of funds for various schemes from April 1, the beginning of the next financial year.
On Friday, the Supreme Court refused an urgent hearing on a plea seeking postponement of presentation of Union Budget due to assembly elections in five states. “There is no urgency in it. We will lay down the law when this petition comes up,” a bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar said.
Advocate ML Sharma, who filed the PIL on the issue, mentioned it and sought an urgent hearing. The PIL has also sought a direction to strip BJP of its lotus election symbol for alleged violation of the model code of conduct which came into effect after declaration of assembly polls in five states.
The Election Commission on Wednesday announced seven-phase polling for 403 assembly constituencies in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, two-phase polling in Manipur and one-phase polling each in the states of Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa respectively. Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi said that the counting of votes in all the five states will take place on March 11.
Singapore, Jan 7 : Indian economy will grow faster than China despite the temporary slowdown created by demonetisation, an Indian-origin academic and former Singapore diplomat said at a conference of leading world universities here today.
“Even if the demonetisation created a slowdown, it is not going to change the long-term momentum of where India is going with its economic growth,” said Dean Kishore Mahbubani of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.
Concluding a three-day conference attended by educators from leading universities from across the world that make up the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs, Mahbubani said demonetisation is good for Indian economy in the long-term.
“I think demonetisation is a good thing for a lot of (black) money has come back into the economy. That, I think, is good for the economy,” he said.
The Reserve Bank of India will need to borrow less after the cash returns to banks following demonetisation, he said.
“India will grow faster than China even after this (demonetisation) slow down. There is a lot of momentum in the Indian economy,” said Mahbubani.
The conference also discussed changing global trends.
“We are moving from a unipolar world to a multi-polar world which is good for small states because they will have more options,” he said.
“The fact that we are moving towards multi-polar world will create new opportunities for Singapore. We can have good relations with China, United States, India and Europe,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the conference.
Panelists at the conference addressed geopolitical tensions wrought by the rise of the Islamic State, cyber- attacks and North Korea missile launches as well as mounting economic challenges such as the fate of global markets in the wake of Brexit and expectations for the continued development of free trade.
“The world has changed and has become multi-polar, less dominated by the US, to a point where reaching decisions at the global level is increasingly complex and difficult to achieve,” said Merit E. Janow, Dean of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.
“It becomes more challenging given that a number of countries around the world and specifically in the Asia Pacific region are seeking greater influence within international bodies, such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organisation, United Nations and G20,” said Janow.
“These countries, particularly in Asia, are taking steps to create their own regional institutions because they feel they are unable to have the degree of voice and influence in the established bodies that they perceive is appropriate.
“International organisations and bodies need to adjust to this new reality and ensure that important developing nations have a greater voice,” he added.
The conference heard that China, Japan and India formed three of the four leading global economies, along with the US as the fourth.
Country’s GDP growth is estimated to slow down to 7.1% in current fiscal, from 7.6% in 2015-16, mainly due to slump in manufacturing, mining and construction sectors, the government data showed today without factoring in ‘volatile’ post-demonetization figures. Releasing the data compiled by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), Chief Statistician T C A Anant said the figures for November were available and examined but “it was felt in view of the policy of denotification of notes there is a high degree of volatility in theses figures and conscious decision was taken not make projection using the November figure”.
Accordingly, the ‘First Advance Estimates of National Income, 2016-17’ did not reflect the impact of demonetization, effected on November 9 for ban of old Rs 500/1,000 notes, and are based on sectoral data for only seven months or till October. Real GDP or Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at constant (2011-12) prices in the year 2016-17 is likely to attain a level of Rs 121.55 lakh crore, as against the Provisional Estimate of GDP for the year 2015-16 of Rs 113.50 lakh crore, released May 31, 2016. “The growth in GDP during 2016-17 is estimated at 7.1% as compared to the growth rate of 7.6% in 2015- 16,” the CSO said.
The CSO projections on national income are now in line with the Reserve Bank’s estimates, which too has lowered the GDP growth prospects to 7.1%. “Anticipated growth of real GVA at basic prices in 2016-17 is 7% against 7.2% in 2015-16,” the CSO said. In value terms, the Gross Value Added (GVA) at constant prices is anticipated to increase from Rs 104.27 lakh crore in 2015-16 to Rs 111.53 lakh crore in 2016-17.
As per the data, performance of the all sectors, excluding ‘agriculture’ and ‘public administration, defence and other services’. ‘Agriculture, forestry and fishing’ is expected to expand by 4.1% in 2016-17 from 1.2%. On the other hand, mining and quarrying is likely to shrink by 1.8% after recording a growth a 7.4% in 2015-16. Growth in manufacturing is expected to slow to 7.4% (from 9.3%) and construction activities to 2.9% (from 3.9%). As per the data, the per capita net national income (current prices) during 2016-17 is estimated to be Rs 1,03,007 showing a rise of 10.4% as compared to Rs 93,293 during 2015-16 with the growth rate of 7.4 percent.
Kathmandu, Jan 6 : Nepal’s main opposition alliance led by CPN-UML today held a massive protest in the capital to force the government to withdraw the Constitution amendment bill aimed at addressing the demands of agitating Madhesi parties.
Over one lakh activists and supporters of the nine-party alliance participated in the protest in the capital as a major strength show against Prime Minister Prachanda-led coalition government’s move.
The protesting parties have been claiming that the bill was anti-constitutional and against national interests as it was brought out to serve interests of external forces.
The ruling alliance, mainly comprising CPN Maoist Centre and Nepali Congress, has been making efforts to amend the Constitution aiming to address the demands of agitating Madhesi parties.
The bill, which was registered at the Parliament Secretariat in November, aims to accommodate the demands of the agitating Madhesi and ethnic groups that include citizenship and boundary demarcation issues among others.
Re-demarcation of the provincial boundary and citizenship issue are the two major demands put forth by the Madhesis.
The Supreme Court in a recent verdict gave green signal to the government to amend the Constitution, rejecting a plea by the Opposition groups to stay the amendment Bill.
Besides CPN-UML, eight smaller left parties including CPN- ML and Nepal Workers and Peasants Party (NWPP) also joined the rally against the government.
CPN UML chairman and main opposition leader K P Oli and other senior leaders addressed the mass rally held on a street at the Brikutimandap in the heart of the capital city.
Addressing the public meeting, Oli said the government should not push the Constitution amendment bill even after the Supreme Court’s verdict and hoped that it would withdraw the bill before Sunday’s House meeting.
“Anything which is against the Constitution will be invalid as per the Supreme Court ruling and the amendment bill registered by the government in the Parliament violated the constitutional provision,” he said.
He said his party will not compromise on issues such as nationality, democracy, social justice, national unity and prosperity and cannot tolerate “humiliation of dignity”.
Oli strongly criticised the ruling CPN Maoist Centre and Madhes-based parties for bringing out the Constitution amendment proposal.
Arguing that the proposal would not serve interests of Nepali people, he said people of the proposed Province No 5 has strongly protested the proposed move to split the province.
He alleged that the Madhes-based parties are “working to destroy the native identity and languages of the region though they claim to promote the same.”
Oli said the parties were trying to establish Hindi as an official language so as to belittle Maithili, Bhojpuri and Abadhi languages being spoken in the plains for centuries.
He said the Madhes-centric parties were not legitimate forces to represent issues of the Madhes as they did not have sufficient votes from the region.
New Delhi: India’s per capita income, a gauge for measuring living standard, is estimated to cross INR 1 lakh in 2016-17, up from INR 93,293 in the previous fiscal.
As per the ‘First Advance Estimates of National Income, 2016-17’ released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the per capita net national income during 2016-17 is “estimated to be INR 103,007” at current prices.
This is higher by 10.4 per cent compared to INR 93,293 during 2015-16.
“The per capita income in real terms (at 2011-12 prices) during 2016-17 is likely to attain a level of INR 81,805 as compared to INR 77,435 for the year 2015-16,” the estimates said.
At constant prices, the growth rate in per capita income is estimated at 5.6 per cent during 2016-17, as against 6.2 per cent in the previous year.
The Central Statistics Office said India’s GDP is expected to slowdown to 7.1 per cent during 2016-17 from 7.6 per cent in the previous fiscal mainly due to slump in manufacturing, mining and construction activities.
The CSO did not figure in the impact of demonetisation, effected on November 9 and the estimates are based on sectoral data available till October.
The CSO projections on national income are in line with the Reserve Bank’s estimates, which too had lowered the GDP growth prospects to 7.1 per cent.
Hyperface involves applying unique patterns to clothes which appear as thousands of faces.
An artist has unveiled a clothing line designed to confuse facial recognition technology and hand privacy back to internet users.
Adam Harvey, who has created various projects relating to mass surveillance at his headquarters in Berlin, said he intends to fight back against the now widespread commercial use of facial recognition with a new textiles strategy called Hyperface.
Amazon recently started using facial recognition technology at checkouts in their physical store, while Facebook and Apple also use it to tag photos for users.
Mr Harvey told the Chaos Communications Congress last year, that he was using the Hyperface project, created in partnership with Hyphen-Labs, to “overload an algorithm with what it wants, oversaturating an area with faces to divert the gaze of the computer”.
He said: “My projects are motivated by concerns about how computer vision will be used to extract knowledge with the cooperation or consent of an individual,” adding that he felt facial recognition technology “poses a significant threat to privacy”.
With the Election Commission announcing the dates for polls in five states, the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) has decided to reschedule its class X and XII examinations. CISCE Chief Executive Gerry Arathoon said that owing to elections, the examinations will be rescheduled but emphasised that no dates have been finalised yet.
According to the previous schedule, the CISCE was planning to hold Indian School Certificate Examination for the year 2017 from February 6 and the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education Examination from February 27.
New Delhi : Former Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra, legendary Prakash Padukone are a part of the nine-member government panel formed to make recommendations for bringing out a comprehensive National Sports Development Code across all disciplines.
The committee will be headed by Sports Secretary Injeti Srinivas will study issues related to sports governance including court judgements and best international practices.
The other notable sportsperson in the committee is India’s lone world championship medallist athlete Anju Bobby George.
International hockey federation (FIH) president Narinder Batra, gymnast Dipa Karmakar’s coach Bishweshwar Nandi, lawyer Nandan Kamath and sports journalist Vijay Lokapally are also a part of the committee. The joint secretary sports (MYAS) is the ninth member.
A PIB release states: “The Government has decided to constitute the Committee to study the existing sports governance frame work, issues relating to sports governance in the country, recent developments related to sports governance, including court judgments & international best practices and make recommendations onbringing out a comprehensive National Sports Development Code across sports disciplines.
New Delhi : Amid the government’s intense push for cashless economy, a Parliamentary Standing Committee voiced concern over security of digital transactions and pressed for overhauling the legal framework for the same besides creating awareness about safe online practices.
The Standing Committee on Information Technology (IT), chaired by BJP MP Anurag Thakur, discussed the issue of digital transactions at length at its meeting here.
Officials from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (IT) and the TRAI briefed the Committee on the issue of Digital Payments and Online Security of Data and said the government is working on strengthening the cyber security infrastructure for digital transactions, sources told PTI.
At the meeting, discussions focussed on protection of a large number of first-time consumers and merchants who will enter into the digital economy, they said.
The Committee raised concern over the security of digital transactions, the sources said.
This assumes significance in view of the government s intense push for a less-cash economy ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced scrapping of Rs 1000 and Rs 500 denomination notes with effect from November 8 last year.
During the meeting, there was emphasis on the need to overhaul the legal framework for digital transactions, improving network connectivity, ensuring security of data and creating awareness about safe online practices, the sources said.