Daily Current Affairs 18th July 2020 |
International Events
· Indo-US Strategic Energy Partnership
§
India and the US have announced new areas of research on
transformational power generation based on supercritical CO2 (sCO2) power cycles
and advanced coal technologies, including carbon capture, utilization, and
storage (CCUS).
§
This emerged at a virtual ministerial meeting of the U.S.-India
Strategic Energy Partnership (SEP) to review progress, highlight major
accomplishments, and prioritize new areas for cooperation.
§
The meeting was co-chaired by U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan
Brouillette and Indian Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and of Steel Shri
Dharmendra Pradhan.
§
Besides, the US Secretary of Energy and India's Minister for
Petroleum & Natural Gas & Steel, the virtual meeting was attended by
U.S. Ambassador to India Kenneth I Juster, Indian Ambassador to the United
States Taranjit Singh Sandhu and Secretary, Department of Science and
Technology (DST) Prof Ashutosh Sharma along with other concerned officials
§
The United States and India share an
all-of-the-above approach to energy security and energy access.
§
The SEP organizes inter-agency engagement on
both sides across 4 primary pillars of cooperation: (1) Power and Energy
Efficiency
(2) Oil and Gas
(3) Renewable
Energy
(4)
Sustainable Growth.
Key points discussed
§
Smart grids and energy
storage is being implemented by a consortium comprising of 30 Indian and US
entities
§
Policy directions for the
societal acceptance of smart grid concepts, Distributed Energy Resources,
impact and value of the integrative solutions and the emerging role of utilities as
Distributed System Operators
§ Common priorities for the collaboration evolved in Clean Coal Technologies, Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (sCO2) Power Cycles and Carbon
Capture Utilisation & Storage (CCUS) technologies
Source: PIB
· G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting:
World Bank
Group President David Malpass urged G20 countries to extend the time frame of
the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) through end 2021.
Source: World
Bank
National Events
- Sri Jaya Chamaraja Wadiyar
Sri Jaya Chamaraja Wadiyar
§
The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu made an
appeal to preserve and promote the grand cultural tradition of India
§
Virtually addressing the concluding ceremony of the centenary
celebrations of the Sri Jaya Chamaraja Wadiyar, the 25th Maharaja
of the Kingdom of Mysore, the Vice President called for celebrating the
knowledge, wisdom, patriotism and vision of all great rulers and statesmen like
Maharaja Jaya Chamaraja Wadiyar who have shaped our history.
§
Sri Wadiyar had established a responsible government in the
Mysore State by setting up the Constituent Assembly and an interim popular
Government with Sri. K.C. Reddy as Chief Minister..
§
The 25th Maharaja
of Mysore is widely respected for the support and encouragement provided
towards the establishment of many important institutes of modern India such as
Hindustan Aircrafts Ltd. (which subsequently became HAL) at Banguluru, Central
Food Technological Research Institute at Mysore, National Tuberculosis
Institute in Bangalore and the All India Institute of Speech and Hearing at
Mysore, among others.
§
The Maharaja also carried on his family’s tradition of providing
Indian Institutes of Science, Bangalore with funds and Scholarships for running
the Institute and occasionally for its expansion, when needed.
§
He was called the ‘Dakshina Bhoja’ because of his unparalleled
patronage to arts, literature and culture
§
His ‘Jaya Chamaraja Grantha Ratna Mala’ series has greatly
enriched Kannada language and literature.
Source: PIB
ECONOMY
·
e-campaign on Voluntary
Compliance of IT for FY 2018-19
§
The Income Tax Department is all set to start an e-campaign on
voluntary compliance of Income Tax for the convenience of taxpayers from 20th
of July 2020.
§
The 11 days campaign ending on 31st July 2020 focuses on the
assessees/taxpayers who are either non-filers or have discrepancies/deficiency
in their returns for the FY 2018-19.
§
Objective: To facilitate taxpayers
to validate online their tax/financial transaction information available with
the I-T Department, especially for the assessees for FY 2018-19 and promote
voluntary compliance, so that they do not get into notice and scrutiny process
etc.
§
Under this e-campaign the
Income Tax Department will send email/SMS to identified taxpayers to verify
their financial transactions related information received by the I-T Department
from various sources such as Statement of Financial Transactions (SFT), Tax
Deduction at Source (TDS), Tax Collection at Source (TCS), Foreign Remittances
(Form 15CC) etc. The Department has also collected information related to GST,
exports, imports and transactions in securities, derivatives, commodities,
mutual funds, etc., under information triangulation set up and data analytics.
§
Under the e-campaign, the taxpayers will be able to access
details of their high-value transaction-related information on the designated
portal.
Source: PIB
·
Form 26AS
§
The new Form 26AS is the faceless hand-holding of the taxpayers to
e-file their income tax returns quickly and correctly.
§ From this Assessment Year, taxpayers will see
an improved Form 26AS which would carry some additional details on taxpayers’
financial transactions as specified in the Statement of Financial Transactions
(SFTs) in various categories.
§ The earlier Form 26AS used
to give information regarding tax deducted at source and tax collected at
source relating to a PAN, besides certain additional information including
details of other taxes paid, refunds and TDS defaults
§
It is further explained that the Department used to receive
information like cash deposit/withdrawal from saving bank accounts,
sale/purchase of immovable property, time deposits, credit card payments,
purchase of shares, debentures, foreign currency, mutual funds, buyback of
shares, cash payment for goods and services, etc. under Section 285BA of
Income-tax Act, 1961 from “specified persons" like banks, mutual funds,
institutions issuing bonds and registrars or sub-registrars etc., with regard
to individuals having high-value financial transactions since the Financial
Year 2016 onwards. Now, all such information under different SFTs will be shown
in the new Form 26AS.
§
It is stated that the Form 26AS for any taxpayer, from now
onwards, will display in part E of the Form, different fields such as type of the transaction, name of SFT filer, date of transaction, single/joint party the transaction, number of parties, amount, mode of payment and remarks etc.
§ Furthermore, this would help
the honest taxpayers with updated financial transactions while filing their
returns, whereas it will desist those taxpayers who inadvertently conceal
financial transactions in their returns. The new Form 26AS would also have
information of transactions which used to be received up to Financial Year
2015-16 in the Annual Information Returns (AIR).
Source: PIB
Environment
·
European Bison
European Bison
4 European bison, or
wisent, will be introduced into the 2,500-acre area called Blean Woods
near Canterbury in southeast England’s Kent region, by the spring of 2022,
according to a report by the BBC. The bison — one male and three females — will be
brought into the area as part of a $1.4 million project. Each female bison is
expected to produce one calf a year. The bison will be brought to England either from the Netherlands
or Poland.
Source: Down
To Earth
Miscellaneous
·
Nelson
Mandela Day
Nelson Mandela
§ The world observes Nelson
Mandela Day on July 18 in honour of South Africa’s 1st democratically-elected
black president.
§ Nelson Mandela wad served as
the president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999,
§ Elected in the country's
first fully representative democratic election.
§ Credited with dismantling
apartheid, he served 27 years in prison for raising his voice against the
discriminatory policies of the then South African government, which was led by
mostly white people .Mandela
went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for his efforts to bring equality
in his country.
§ The Indian government also
conferred Bharat Ratna on him in 1990.
§ The United Nation adopted
the resolution to commemorate Mandela Day on November 10, 2009. However, it was
first marked in New York on July 18, 2009
Source: news18
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