1-7 Mar 2013
- Syria crisis: Assad sends top aide Bouthaina Shaaban to meet Manmohan.
- Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has denied that the Army killed LTTE chief Prabakaran’s 12-year-old son Balachandran.
- President Barack Obama has signed an order authorising the government to begin cutting $85 billion from federal accounts.Mr. Obama has insisted on replacing the cuts, known as a “sequester” in government budget language, with tax increases and cuts spread out over time. Republicans have rejected any plan that included tax revenue.Affecting everything from military expenditure to school and hospital services.
- Dharamsala-based Tibetan Lhamo Je authored ‘self-immolation guide’: China
- U.S.-Russia compromise formula on defence co-operation ,pledging to cooperate on missile defences and not to use them against each other.
- Russia will re-establish its permanent naval presence in the Mediterranean, more than two decades after it withdrew from the region
- Maldives girl faces flogging (100 lashes i.e. whips)for premarital sex.
- Russia backs France’s Syria plans.
- Pranab visits Bangladesh amid violence
- Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline work to start on March 11 and agreements for opening two more border crossings at Gabd and Pasni and for setting up an oil refinery in Gwadar will also be signed .
- Demolition of Berlin Wall stretch stalled by protests.
- The Philippine President on Saturday urged members of a Muslim royal clan from the southern Philippines who occupied a village Lahad Datu in Sabah State in eastern Malaysia three weeks ago to surrender.The Filipino group is led by a brother of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III.
- Obama nominates Wal-Mart's Sylvia Mathews Burwell(President of the Walmart Foundation) as budget chief.
- FinMin said Tax Residency Certificate (TRC) would not be enough to claim benefits under the DTAAs (Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements).It is proposed to amend Sections 90 and 90A [of the Income-Tax Act] in
order to provide that submission of a tax residency certificate is a
necessary but not a sufficient condition for claiming benefits under the
agreements referred to in Sections 90 and 90A.The amendments will take effect retrospectively from April 1, 2013.
- FinMin propose to levy a final withholding tax at the rate of 20 per cent on
profits distributed by unlisted companies to shareholders through
buyback of shares.Also proposed to increase the rate on payments by way of royalty and
fees for technical services to non-residents from 10 per cent to 25 per
cent.
- Proposed acquisition of majority stake by UK-based Diageo in UB group’s United Spirits Ltd.
- Malaysian carrier Air Asia announced it had sought the government’s nod
to launch a new airline under a joint venture with Tata Group and an
Indian investor.
- Importers must take permission from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade.The government has imposed restrictions on import of second hand goods
and re-conditioned spares of personal computers and laptops, a decision
that could boost domestic manufacturing.
- Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Friday issued
detailed guidelines allowing shareholders to convert their Indian Depository Receipts(IDR) into equity shares of the issuer company and vice-versa.
- The German Parliament passed a law, which will force search engines such
as Google and other news aggregators, to pay royalties to publishers
for posting extracts of their articles.Still to be approved by upper house.
- Microsoft launched its Office 365 for businesses in India,
which will provide seamless sharing of data across PCs and mobiles using
cloud computing technology.
- The Government said that the one-man committee headed by
former Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court Mukul Mudgal would
submit its report on the alleged corruption charges against U.S. retail
giant Walmart by April 2013
