02 September 2015

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8 die as Bills trigger fury in Manipur  –   (Security)

  • Five persons were killed during a general strike called by the tribal student organisations on Monday to protest the passage of three Bills — Protection of Manipur People’s Bill, 2015, Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms (Seventh Amendment) Bill, 2015, and Manipur Shops and Establishments (Second Amendment) Bill, 2015 — in the Assembly.
  • The tribal student groups claimed the Protection of Manipur People’s Bill, 2015 and the other two amendment Bills would facilitate buying of land by migrant workers in the State. The issue of losing one’s ancestral land is a big issue in Manipur as the indigenous population is getting outnumbered due to inward migration from neighbouring countries and other parts of the country.

 

MAT to be waived for FIIs  –   (Economics)

  • Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced on Tuesday that the Narendra Modi government had decided to waive the controversial minimum alternate tax (MAT) on capital gains made by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) prior to April 1, 2015. The decision, to be carried out through an amendment to the Income Tax Act, is likely to come as a big relief to FIIs that pulled out more than Rs. 17,555 crore ($2.65 billion) from India in August.
  • “The Justice A.P. Shah Committee has said that there is no legal basis for levying 20 per cent MAT on past capital gains … it is not leviable,” Mr. Jaitley told reporters.

 

15,000 govt. jobs for disabled by February 2016: Centre  –   (Governance)

  • The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to launch contempt proceedings against the Union government and instead appreciated its commitment to fill up over 15,000 vacancies specially identified for disabled persons by February 2016.
  • Lauding the government’s “unequivocal and unambiguous” commitment to give representation to disabled persons in government jobs, a Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and N.V. Ramana said there was no occasion of “wilful disobedience” seen on the part of the government to comply with a Supreme Court decision to provide 3 per cent reservation to the disabled.

 

Call drop: panel to submit report before Winter Session  –   (Science and technology)

  • Call drops, a matter over which even Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed concern, will be taken up by the standing committee on information technology and telecom.

 

Decisive win in 1965 war: Parrikar  –   (Defence)

  • Presenting a new narrative of the India Pakistan war of 1965, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Tuesday said Pakistan made some “misplaced assumptions and wrong calculations” and it was a “decisive victory” for India though sceptics call it a draw.

 

Use smart card to travel anywhere in India  –   (Governance)

  • To make inter-State travelling easy, the Urban Development Ministry on Tuesday came out with a smart card that will help passengers swipe and buy tickets anywhere in the country.
  • Known as Smart National Common Mobility Card, it can be used for buying tickets in different metros and public transportation across the country.

 

Media trial most foul  –   (Governance)

  • As the media goes wild with speculation, the only code of conduct appears to be that all is fair in love, war and breaking news.
  • A no-holds-barred parallel trial by the media is not only unfair journalism but borders on vigilantism.

 

A new edifice for reservations  –   (Indian Polity)

  • While caste will continue to be the mainstay of reservation policies, the benefits should flow to the vast majority of underprivileged children from deprived castes; not toa few privileged children with a caste tag.
  • It is time we address the challenge of reservations honestly, fairly and innovatively by creating opportunities for all disadvantaged children. Along with improving school education outcomes, a more rational model of reservation based on equity and common sense must be envisaged.

 

Europe’s refugee crisis  –   (International Relation)

  • Thousands leave every day from the war-ravaged and economically broken countries of northern Africa, Syria and West Asia.
  •  The statistics on recent migration are staggering. According to the UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, 59.5 million people were forcibly displaced in 2014, a figure that rose sharply in 2015. A record number of 1,07,500 migrants reached the borders of the European Union last month.