While you were away: Top 10 stories of the day to bring you up to date
From GST bills passed in Lok Sabha to Britain PM Theresa May triggering Article 50 to enable Brexit, here are the top ten stories to bring you up to date.
From GST bills passed in Lok Sabha to Britain PM Theresa May triggering Article 50 to enable Brexit, here are the top ten stories to bring you up to date:
1) India inches closer to July rollout of tax reform as Lok Sabha passes four GST bills
The proposed goods and services tax (GST) moved a step closer to reality on Wednesday with the Lok Sabha approving four bills that will subsume a profusion of central, state indirect taxes and help create a single, unified market. “These are revolutionary bills which will benefit all. States have pooled in their sovereignty into the GST council, and Centre has done the same,” said finance minister Arun Jaitley, who aims to introduce the GST from July 1.
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2) Lok Sabha passes key GST bills: Understanding the tax reform and what it means
India on Wednesday created history when the Lok Sabha cleared all the four bills for the launch of the much-awaited Goods and Services Tax (GST), the country’s biggest tax reform since Independence. The GST will unify India into a common market eliminating a string of central and state levies. Central taxes such as the central excise duty, additional excise duty, additional customs duty and service tax will all be merged into one CGST. State levies such as VAT, sales tax, entertainment tax, purchase tax, mandi tax, luxury tax, octroi and entry tax will be subsumed into SGST.
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3) AAP must pay Rs 97 crore in 30 days for splurging govt money on ads: L-G Baijal
Delhi’s lieutenant governor Anil Baijal has asked the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to pay up within a month Rs 97 crore of the public money the Kejriwal government spent on advertisements that violated Supreme Court’s guidelines. They had not heard about the decision, an official with chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s office said on Wednesday, a day after Baijal asked chief secretary MM Kutty to initiate the process of recovery.
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4) Government admits Aadhaar was ‘great initiative’ of Congress regime
Admitting that Aadhaar was a “great initiative” of the previous UPA government, finance minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said it was being expanded by making the card mandatory for direct benefit transfer of subsidy and checking of tax evasion. Replying to a debate on the Finance Bill in the Rajya Sabha, he made it clear that while hacking could not be prevented, this threat could not be used as an excuse to discredit the technology or curb its use.
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5) Indian migrant workers blocked from leaving Qatar despite labour reforms
Qatar has refused to allow scores of migrants from countries including India, Nepal and Bangladesh to return home, violating new labour reforms to improve workers’ rights, activists and trade unions said on Wednesday. A law making it easier for migrants to change jobs and leave the oil-rich Gulf state came into effect in December. But trade unionists and activists say migrant workers still require an exit permit from the government - and more than a quarter of the 760 or so permit requests made by migrants have been denied so far.
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6) India’s data collection hampered as national survey office faces staff crunch
The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) is facing a shortage of investigators for conducting surveys, a response to an RTI filed by Hindustan Times revealed, raising questions about the quality of data being generated from these surveys. The field operations division of the NSSO, which is responsible for collecting primary data, has around 24% of positions vacant for the posts of junior and senior statistical officers. Data from NSSO is central to policy making in India as it happens to be an official source of key socio-economic indicators (consumption, employment etc) collected via large-scale sample surveys.
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7) Brexit: Theresa May triggers Article 50, calls it ‘great turning point’ in UK’s history
Britain on Wednesday began the historic process of leaving the European Union, to which it was tethered for over four decades that enriched the country’s economy and other areas. There was a mix of uncertainty and elation – The Guardian called it a “step into the unknown” – as the United Kingdom’s permanent representative in Brussels, Tim Barrow, handed over a letter signed by Prime Minister Theresa May to European Council president Donald Tusk. The letter invoked Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty that sets out the two-year process for an EU member-state to leave the group.
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8) Trump set to kill online privacy regulations passed during Obama’s administration
The US House of Representatives passed a resolution on Tuesday reversing online privacy protections that imposed severe restrictions on what Internet service providers could do with their data about their customers’ browsing habits. The resolution passed in the Senate last week and now goes to President Donald Trump, who is expected to sign it into law, which many experts feared could lead to massive invasion of privacy. The new rules would enable Internet service providers to sell that users data to online advertising markets, financial companies and anyone else who can pay to use the information without the consent of consumers, which was earlier a mandatory requirement.
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9) Environmental groups vowing to fight Trump climate actions
Environmental groups that have hired extra lawyers in recent months are prepared to go to court to fight a sweeping executive order from President Donald Trump that eliminates many restrictions on fossil fuel production and would roll back his predecessor’s plans to curb global warming. Advocates said they also plan to work together to mobilize a public backlash against an executive order signed by Trump that includes initiating a review of former President Barack Obama’s signature plan to restrict greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants and lifting a 14-month-old moratorium on new coal leases on federal lands.
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10) Samsung launches Galaxy S8, S8+, DeX, new Gear 360 and Connect Home
Korean electronics giant Samsung on Wednesday launched its flagship smartphones -- Galaxy S8 and S8+ -- that will be available globally from April 21. The company also launched a new Windows Continuum-like productivity service called DeX and a new edition of the Gear 360 camera that allows users to create their own 360-degree videos. Read the full story here.
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