Current Affairs Update – 1st May, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 1st May, 2015.

• Union finance Ministry on 30 April 2015 exempted Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) for foreign investors.
• During the Finance Bill debate in Parliament, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that MAT would not be applicable on foreign companies’ earning from capital gains on securities, royalty, fee on technical services and interest.
• However, MAT would not be applicable on sale of units of real estate investment trusts (REITs). Further, the exemption would apply only in those cases where the normal tax rate is below 18.5 percent.
• The issue between foreign investors and the government cropped up in 2014-15 when the tax department started sending notices to FIIs to cough up MAT.
• Total 68 notices were sent to FIIs for their past capital gains up to 31 March 2015 creating a huge uproar.
• The government has been trying to soothe the foreign institutional investors, who turned net sellers for the first time since April 2014.
• Minimum Alternate Tax or MAT is a way of making companies pay minimum amount of tax. It is applicable to all companies except those engaged in infrastructure and power sectors. Income arising from free trade zones, charitable activities, investments by venture capital companies are also excluded from the purview of MAT.

• US Ambassador to India Richard Verma today called on Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh and both agreed to take steps to renew the 2010 agriculture pact between two countries to include new areas.
• The Minister expressed interest in the US technology, especially weather forecasting systems for improving preparedness as well as redressal of problems caused by natural calamities.
• The two countries agreed to give renewed focus on cooperation in agriculture and take immediate steps for renewing the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in 2010 at the earliest possible with inclusion of new areas in the light of changing requirements and circumstances, it said.
• According to the Ministry's statement, the US and India also decided to amicably resolve sanitary and phytosanitary issues between the two countries for enhanced bilateral trade.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday extended his greetings to the people of Gujarat and Maharashtra on Gujarat Day and Maharashtra Day respectively.
• The States Reorganisation Act, 1956 defined boundaries for the states within India on the basis of languages.
• The Bombay State that was formed as a consequence of this act, however, was composed of different areas where different languages were spoken; Marathi, Gujarati, Kutchi and Konkani. The Sanyukta Maharashtra Samiti was at the forefront of the movement to divide the Bombay State into two states; one composed of areas where people primarily spoke Gujarati and Kutchhi and the other where people primarily spoke Marathi and Konkani.
• The state of Maharashtra and Gujarat were formed as a result of this movement according to the Bombay Reorganisation Act, 1960 enacted by the Parliament of India on 25 April 1960. The act came into effect on 1 May 1960.

• Noted Islamic scholar and activist Maulana Wahiduddin Khan was on 30 April 2015 conferred with the Sayyidina Imam Al Hassan Ibn Ali Peace Award in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
• Maulana Wahiduddin Khan is known for his knowledge and efforts in keeping peace, that make him one of the most respected scholars. The 90-year-old Maulana has also authored several books and articles on Islam.
• Maulana Wahiduddin is an Islamic spiritual scholar who has adopted peace as the mission of his life and is known for his Gandhian views as he considers non-violence as the only method to achieve success.

• Prannoy Roy, the Executive Co-chairman of NDTV, was on 30 April 2015 conferred with the Redink Lifetime Achievement Award 2015 at a function in Mumbai. The awards were presented by the Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu.
• Other Awardees
• Journalist of the Year Award: Sreenivasan Jain of NDTV for his consistent investigative work epitomized in his series Truth versus Hype.
• Impact Editor of the Year Award: Arnab Goswami, Editor-in-Chief of Times Now for his ability to capture eyeballs and expand audience reach with his News Hour show.
• News Start-Up of the Year Award: News website Scroll.in for scaling up its influence rapidly as an alternative source of news and features.

• Senior IAS officer Kapil Dev Tripathi today took over as the new Oil Secretary, coming in at a time when the sector is witnessing a lot of churning.
• An officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre of 1980 batch, Tripathi after assuming office this afternoon met senior ministry officials.
• Besides officials of the ministry, executives of oil PSUs also came to greet the new secretary, official sources said.
• Over the next few days, Tripathi, who turns 57 in June, will take presentations on functioning of the ministry and facets of the oil and gas sector.
• Tripathi, also an MBA, replaced Saurabh Chandra, who superannuated after 14-months tenure yesterday.
• Tripathi, who also holds a masters degree in Physics, was Secretary, Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises since October 1, 2014, prior to his new appointment.

• Google is honouring Labour Day with a new Google Doodle on its global homepage.
• The Doodle, which features a clamp, industrial gloves, insulation tape, screws and a measuring tape celebrates the roots of the holiday, which has its origins in the labour movements of the 19th century.
• Labour Day, also known as International Workers' Day, is widely celebrated as a public holiday in countries across the world.
• It was chosen to commemorate the 1886 Haymarket affair in Chicago, when workers went on strike to demand an eight-hour working day. What began as a peaceful rally soon became violent when an unknown individual threw a bomb at police, thought to be in retaliation for the killing of protesting workers the previous day by police.
• India’s very first Labour Day was celebrated on May 1, 1923 in Chennai, on Marina Beach.
• The red flag – now a symbol of the left movement - was used for the first time in India during this event too. A resolution was also passed that the government should declare May Day as a holiday.

• China’s top economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), on 28 March 2015 released a new action plan One Belt, One Road initiative. The initiative will establish new routes linking Asia, Europe and Africa.
• It has two parts, a new Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) linking China to Europe that cuts through mountainous regions in Central Asia; and the Maritime Silk Road (MSR) that links China's port facilities with the African coast and then pushes up through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Sea.

• NASA’s Messenger spacecraft has crashed into the surface of Mercury, ending its historic 11-year mission that provided valuable data and thousands of images of the planet.
• Mission controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Maryland, confirmed that MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft impacted the surface of Mercury, as predicted, on Thursday.
• MESSENGER was launched on August 3, 2004, and it began orbiting Mercury on March 18, 2011. The spacecraft completed its primary science objectives by March 2012.
• Because MESSENGER’S initial discoveries raised important new questions and the payload remained healthy, the mission was extended twice, allowing the spacecraft to make observations from extraordinarily low altitudes and capture images and information about the planet in unprecedented detail.
• Last month, during a final short extension of the mission referred to as XM2, the team embarked on a hover campaign that allowed the spacecraft at its closest approach to operate within a narrow band of altitudes, 5-35 kilometres above the planet’s surface.

Regards



Team ExamPundit

Sponsored
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
Books For 2015 Banking/Insurance Exams