CURRENT AFFAIRS
26 September 2020
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) S.P. Balasubrahmanyam no more.
Legendary playback singer S.P. Balasubrahmanyam passed away at a private hospital in Chennai on 25 September. He was 74. Balasubrahmanyam was admitted in the hospital in August at MGM Healthcare because he was tested positive for coronavirus. On September 4, he was tested negative for novel coronavirus but he continued to be on the ventilator. In a further setback on the morning of 25 September, despite maximal life support measures and the best efforts of the clinical team, his condition deteriorated further and he suffered a cardio-respiratory arrest. With profound grief, he has passed away on September 25th at 13.04 hours. Popularly known as SPB, Balasubrahmanyam made his singing debut in 1966 with the Telugu film Sri Sri Sri Maryada Ramanna. He has sung more than 40,000 songs in 16 languages including Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi. He was also a voice-over artist and has also acted in a few movies.
B) Centre has used GST compensation cess elsewhere, violated the law: CAG.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has found that the Union government, in the very first two years of GST implementation, wrongly retained ₹47,272 crores of GST compensation cess, which was meant to be used specifically to compensate states for loss of revenue. The issue of compensation cess has been driving a wedge between the Centre and states at the GST Council, the highest decision-making body of the GST regime. States have still not been paid their promised compensation for letting go of their powers to levy taxes on goods and services, since last fiscal. The Centre has maintained that a slowdown in the economy due to the pandemic and lockdown has meant that not enough money was collected. It has instead asked states to borrow for meeting the revenue shortfall. However, the states ruled by the Congress, the Left, TMC and AAP have opposed the move completely, arguing that the Centre should borrow and provide to the states, since the states have transferred the majority of their taxation powers to the Centre under the GST regime introduced in July 2017. Significantly, the CAG’s findings run contrary to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s submissions in Parliament last week, that states could not be compensated for revenue shortfall from the Consolidated Fund of India (CFI). She had relied on an opinion from the Attorney General of India that there was no such provision in the law.
C) In a tax dispute case of ₹14,200 crores, Vodafone wins international arbitration against India.
Vodafone Group Plc has won an international arbitration case against the Indian government in a ₹14,200-crore retrospective tax dispute, Reuters reported. The British telecom giant had moved the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2016. The tribunal said that the government must cease seeking the dues from Vodafone and should also pay over ₹40 crores to the company as partial compensation for its legal costs. The government said that Vodafone was liable to pay taxes on the acquisition. In 2012, the Supreme Court of India had ruled in favour of the telecom provider but the government later said that the rules were changed from that year in order to enable them to tax deals that had already been concluded.
D) Bharat Bandh: Protests against farm Bills in Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, UP.
Thousands of farmers across north India hit the streets today to protest against the 3 farm Bills passed in the monsoon session of Parliament. The protests enjoyed the support of ten central trade unions and several Opposition parties, including the Congress, the DMK, AAP, RJD, Janata Dal and TMC. Farmers blocked traffic on highways leading to Delhi, causing massive jams. The Congress, which is part of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra, on Friday said it would work towards ensuring that the farm sector bills are not implemented in the state. They will work together and make a decision on non- implementation of the new farm laws in Maharashtra, state Congress president, and minister Balasaheb Thorat said during a press conference.
E) Bihar assembly poll in 3 phases.
Bihar Assembly polls would be held in 3 phases October 28, November 3 and November 7 and votes will be counted on November 10, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced on 25 September. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora said the number of phases, as well as the duration of the conduct of polls, has been reduced due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the polling hours have been increased (except in the Left-wing extremism-affected districts) by an hour, from 7 am to 6 p.m. instead of 5 pm.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) France opened an anti-terror investigation.
France has opened an anti-terror investigation after their two journalists were stabbed in Paris on 25 September. They were stabbed near the former offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine which was also attacked by the Islamist militants in 2015. Prime Minister Jean Castex immediately reached the scene. He also said that the main attacker had been arrested and the second person was also in custody. He was in his office at that time. He had also heard screams in the road. When one of the people who witnessed the incident looked out of his window, he saw a woman who was lying on the floor and had taken a whack in a machete.
B) The U.S. proposes changes to the student, media visas.
In line with the progressive restrictions on visas by the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of the United States has proposed a rule limiting the duration of the initial admission for foreign media, students, and exchange visitors. The rule proposes fixed time periods and extension periods for the 3 visa categories, which currently operate under the duration of status framework. Under the present system, visa holders in these categories are allowed to remain in the U.S. as long as the admission conditions are met. This rule, if finalized, will change that. Under the new proposed rule, F and J students would be admitted for an initial period of 4 years only which is the normal duration of an American undergraduate degree. This rule is likely to mean that Ph. D. students who typically need more than four years to complete their program in America will need to apply for extensions. There are some exceptions to the 4-year rule. The duration of stay will be 2 years for those from countries with visa-overstay rates greater than 10% and those non-U.S. citizens who were either born in the country or holding citizenship of a country.
