India and World Current Affairs January 2017

India and World Current Affairs January 2017

India and Switzerland Signed MoU to Extend Indo-Swiss Building Energy Efficiency Project

• India and Switzerland signed MoU to extend Indo-Swiss i Building Energy Efficiency Project (BEEP) by five years on November 29, 2016. A MoU was signed between India and Switzerland for a joint project on energy efficiency of | buildings in November, 20 i 1, for duration of five years. Based on the excellent results achieved by the project in the first phase, the Ambassador of Switzerland to India.
• The objective of the collaboration has been to reduce the overall energy consumed in buildings through sharing of best practices between the two countries in energy efficient design, construction and technologies.
• The extended MoU was exchanged between the two governments at the international conference—Energy. Efficient Building Design : Experiences and Way Forward.

Arunachal Pradesh and Thailand Signed MoU

• For promoting cooperation and collaboration between Arunachal Pradesh and Thailand, a Memorandum of Understandings (MoU) was signed between Surindra Rajabhat University Regional Development Strategies (SRRURDS) Foundation of Surin Province, North-East of Thailand and Mahabodhi Lord Buddha College (MLBC) in Arunachal Pradesh, on November 29, 2016.
• The MoU was signed in line with the development of friendly international cooperation with mutual interests in developing programmes of academic exchange and for establishing a long-term mutually beneficial association between the two institutes for fostering cordial relations between the people of Arunachal Pradesh and Thailand.
• As per the MoU, both the institutes agreed to carry out the activities in academic and research cooperation, cultural activities for international development in educational institutions using international journals, magazines as a stage for academic exchange.

WHO Settled India-EU Medicine Dispute Issue

• The World Health Organisation (WHO) on November 24, 2016 settled a long standing dispute and battle between India and the European Union (EU) about labeling of drugs by clarifying that ‘counterfeit’— will now be used by member States with respect to protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).
• This decision to drop the term ‘counterfeit’ and retain ‘falsified’ to describe medicines of inferior quality was taken by a WHO’s technical working group on draft to find a perfect definitions of Substandard/Spurious/ Falsely-labelled/Falsified/Counterfeit (SSFFC) medical products.

India to become Associate Member State of CERN

• CERN Director General, Fabiola Gianotti, and Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) of the government of India, Sekhar Basu signed an agreement admitting India to CERN as an Associate Member on November 23, 2016. The government of India still needs to notify CERN of its final approval for the agreement to enter into force.
• India and CERN signed a cooperation agreement in 1991, setting priorities for scientific and technical cooperation, followed by the signature of several Protocols.
• India’s relationship with the organisation dates back much further, initially through cooperation with the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, whose high-energy physicists have been actively participating in experiments at CERN since the 1960s.
• They were later joined by scientists from the Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore, in the 1990s. These and other institutes built components for the LEP accelerator and the L3, WA93 and WA89 detectors.

India and Switzerland Signed Joint Declaration

• India and Switzerland Signed Joint Declaration for the implementation of Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) between the two countries on November 22, 2016.
• As a result, it will now be possible for India to receive from September, 2019 onwards, the financial information of accounts held by Indian residents in Switzerland for 2018 and subsequent years, on an automatic basis.

Read More – CGL (Combined Graduate Level)

India Elected as New Vice-Chair of Kimberly Process for 2018

• India has been elected as the Vice-Chair for 2018 and chair for 2019 of the Kimberly Process Certificate Scheme (KPCS) on November 21, 2016.
• The decision in the regard was taken at the recently I held KP Plenary meeting in Dubai, It was announced by the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC).
• GJEPC is an organisation for the promotion of gem and jewellery industry in India.
• The KPCS is a joint initiative of the governments, industry and civil societies to prevent the entry of conflict diamonds from the mainstream rough diamond market.
• It was established in 2003 through a United Nations General Assembly Resolution.
• India is founder member of the scheme. In India, the scheme is administered through the Department of Commerce under the aegis of the Union Commerce and Industry Ministry.

India and UK Signed Three Bilateral Advance Pricing Agreements

• The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) signed three Bilateral Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs) taking the total number of APAs signed both- bilateral and unilateral so far to 111, on November 18, 2016.
• These three agreements cover international transactions in the nature of payment of intra-group service charges and pertain to the telecom industry.
• The Advance Pricing Agreement (APA) programme was introduced by the Finance Act, 2012 with a view to provide a predictable and non-adversarial tax regime and to reduce the litigation in the Indian transfer pricing arena. An APA can be entered into for a maximum of 5 years at a time.

India and Cyprus Signed Revised Tax Treaty

• India and Cyprus signed the revised tax treaty along with the protocol that paves the way to tax capital gains locally on November 18, 2016.
• The protocol is expected to come into effect in India, in respect of income derived in fiscal years beginning on or after April 1, 2017.
• Amended tax treaty also expands the scope of ‘permanent establishment’ and reduces tax rate on royalty from 15% to 10% to align with India’s domestic tax rate.
• Amended tax treaty also provides for assistance in collection of taxes and provides for effective exchange of information on tax matters including bank information.