Daily News Notes: 24th Feb, 2012

· The Union Home Ministry has cleared construction of 85 Anti-Naxalite police stations in Bihar. This is the largest number of such police stations cleared by the Centre for any state. A total of 30 out of 40 districts in Bihar are Naxalite-hit. The construction of the anti-Naxalite police stations will be completed within two years from now.
· The Competition Commission of India, after gaining experience of implementation of the “Combination Regulations” (have been in force with effect from 1^st June, 2011) for almost nine months, has amended the Regulations with a view to provide relief to the corporate entities from making filings for combinations which are unlikely to raise adverse competition concerns, reduce their compliance requirements, make filings simpler and to move towards certainty in the application of the Act and the Regulations. One of the major changes: To reduce the compliance burden to the companies that are looking for intra-group restructuring, the Regulations have now dispensed with the requirement of filing a notice in respect of intra-group mergers or amalgamations involving enterprises wholly owned by the group companies. [Questions related to M&A are imp.]
· Finance Minister said that expenditure on social services has been increased to 7.3 per cent of GDP in 2010-11 from 5.6 per cent in 2006-07. He emphasized the need for appropriate skill development, education and robust health of workers. He expressed confidence that by taking care of these three things India's workers will be the most sought after by 2030.
· Earlier in January 2012, India had signed the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. Now, the Convention has been ratified by India by depositing the Instrument of Ratification. By this, India has become the first non-OECD, non-Council of Europe country to become a party to the Convention as amended by the 2010 Protocol. This instrument hitherto available for the members of OECD and Council of Europe was amended in 2010 and made open for all countries in June 2011. The Convention was amended to respond to the G20 Summit call in 2009 for developing a broader multilateral approach to improve the effectiveness of exchange of information, co-operation between the countries in the assessment and collection of taxes, with a view to combating tax avoidance and evasion. Salient features of this multilateral convention are: (1.) By signing the Convention, India and the other 33 signatories encourage more countries to join, as this instrument is multilateral and a single legal basis for multi-country co-operation as against the DTAAs/TIEAs which are bilateral. It provides for an extensive network and there will be consistent application of provisions leaving limited scope for deviation. (2.) A Party to the Convention is compulsorily required to Exchange the past information in criminal matters for at least three years prior to becoming party to the Convention. (3.) It not only facilitates the Automatic Exchange of information and Spontaneous Exchange of information, but also provides for assistance in the recovery of taxes. [Imp. for Prelim]
· The National Tiger Conservation Authority in coordination with World wildlife Fund has started camera-trapping of tigers in the world-famous Kaziranga National Park in Assam. Around 100 Royal Bengal Tigers were found in the National Park during the monitoring done last year. Kaziranga contains significant breeding populations of 35 mammalian species, of which, 15 are threatened as per the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.
· The Bringing Green Revolution in Eastern India programme launched in 2010-11 as a Prime Minster's initiative based on the Inter Ministerial Task Force has resulted in impressive increase in production of food grains with the eastern region (hitherto known as food deficit region) now turning a food surplus region. The BGREI is a subscheme of the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVYJ ) in the eastern region including Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Eastern Uttar Pradesh & West Bengal. The programme gained momentum in 2011-12 with the focus on rice and wheat only and strategic interventions relating to crop production, water harvesting and recycling, asset building and site specific activities needed for improving the agronomy-adopting cluster approach aimed at enhancing the productivity per unit area and the income of the farmers. The growth in food grains i.e. rice and wheat provides an opportunity to procure and create food grain reserves locally reducing the pressure on Punjab and Haryana, and cutting costs on transport and other logistics. The focus will now be to consolidate the gains with continued emphasis during the 12th Plan. Further steps will be taken to improve the infrastructure for procurement and storage of the produce and to ensure a reasonable price for the farmers.
· Central Excise Day is being observed across the country today. The day marks the day of enactment of the Central Excise and Salt Act, 1944. Central Excise Department, CED, has an important role to play in promoting industrial growth and has also taken a number of measures for rationalization of tax structure to facilitate trade and adoption of Information Technology for improved service delivery to tax payers.
· The Government has said that there is an urgent need for a dynamic and self-sustaining culture of innovation and cluster based approach to boost the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises, MSMEs in the country. The government has also adopted a MSE Cluster Development Programme as a key strategy for enhancing the productivity and competitiveness in the MSEs sector. It added that the sector will play a pivotal role in the overall industrial economy of the country and constitutes more than 80 percent of the total number of industrial enterprises and industrial development.
· The centre has launched two new rural development schemes: (1.) The first project called Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Yojana is aimed at helping the women working in farm sector through the intervention and integration of other such schemes. This scheme will be launched in the entire country based on the feedbacks as is being done in the case of Kutumbshri scheme, which is highly successful in Kerala and other states are demanding for replicating the same self-help group model; (2.) The second scheme is a new PURA( Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas), which is aimed at creating physical infrastructure in rural areas of the country in the Public-Private Partnership mode between the Central Government, State Government and the private players. This is different from the PURA conceived by the former President Dr A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, as the new project deals with water supply, sanitation and improvement of roads as key focus areas and is not related to the Knowledge connectivity idea of Dr Kalam. Initially there will be eight PURA projects in the country which can be extended to 500 centres known as census towns (semi-urban & semi-rural) as the latest census talks about over 3500 such areas in the country.
· UAE telecoms operator Etisalat has filed a civil case alleging fraud and misrepresentation by its Indian joint venture partner; DB Reality in the Etisalat DB Telecom Limited. It said the company was induced into an investment without any disclosure of the matters in connection with the obtaining of 2G Licenses by EDB. The license of EDB was cancelled along with 121 other firms by the Supreme Court last month. The company had announced on Tuesday that it is winding up its India operations in the wake of the Supreme Court judgment.
· In Punjab, a four day Indo-Pak Trade Fair IPEX-12 was commenced in Ludhiana. Participants are of the view that this Expo will definitely help in promoting two-way trade and people to people contact which shall be beneficial in times to come.
· The representatives from Armenia, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Republic of Belarus, Brazil, Cameroon, China, Cuba, Chili, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Malaysia, Nigeria, Paraguay, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda and United States of America of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) met in Moscow and reaffirmed the importance of the role of the ICAO in addressing international civil aviation emissions, including pursuant to the request from the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The countries gathered in Moscow reiterated the importance of Kyoto Protocol to its Parties as well as importance of Chicago Convention and the need to ensure full compliance with its provisions. India reiterated that the European Union Emission Trading System (EU-ETS) violates the principles of the Chicago Convention and is also against the bilateral Air Services Agreement between India and EU Member States. The Indian Civil Aviation Minister mentioned that the EU-ETS scheme infringes upon the sovereignty of states outside the European Union and violets the principles of the common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) under the UNFCCC wherein developing countries are not subjected to an emissions cap. Other Member countries stressed the need to exchange information on the measures adopted and to be adopted, particularly to ensure better coordination, by each non-EU Member State after this meeting in future. Highlights of the Moscow Joint Declaration: (1.) Reviewing Bilateral Air Service Agreement, including Open Skies with individual EU Member States, and reconsidering the implementation or negotiation of the ‘Horizontal Agreement’ with the EU; (2.) Assessing whether the EU-ETS is consistent with the WTO. Agreements and taking appropriate action; (3.) Imposing additional levies/charges on EU carriers/aircraft operators as a form of countermeasure