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