Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 21 May 2015

::National:

FM constitutes committee to look into the issue of MAT

The Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley, had announced the constitution of a Committee headed by Justice A.P. Shah to look into the issue of Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) on Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) as well as other issues which are referred to it .
Committee will examine the matter relating to levy of MAT on FIIs for the period prior to 01.04.2015.The Committee will also examine all the related legal provisions, judicial / quasi judicial pronouncements and such other relevant aspects as it may consider appropriate. The Committee has been requested to give its recommendations on the above issue expeditiously.
As initially the Committee would focus on the issue of MAT on FIIs for giving its report expeditiously, other issues to be referred to the Committee will be notified in due course. The Committee may interact with various stakeholders as it may deem fit. The Committee may also invite officers from Department of Revenue including CBDT for consultations/discussions as may be necessary.
The Committee shall set its own procedure for regulating its work. The term of the Committee will be for one year or such period as may be notified by the Government from time to time.

MHA invite public comment for the amendment in PDPP Act, 1984

The Ministry of Home Affairs has invited suggestions for proposed amendments in the Prevention of Damage to Public Property (PDPP) Act, 1984. The proposed amendments seek to deter the prospective violators from vandalizing and destroying public/private property during agitations and other forms of protests. The proposed amendments will also deter the office-bearers of these organizations.
The Supreme Court had set up a Committee under the Chairmanship of Mr. Justice K.T. Thomas, former Judge of the Supreme Court, to examine modalities to be adopted to make the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984 (PDPP Act, 1984) more effective and also suggest suitable changes, which could make the Statute more meaningful.
The Committee concluded that the present law was inadequate and ineffective to deal with the increasing number of instances of public property damage and made some recommendations for amendment in the Prevention of Damage to Public Properties Act, 1984. MHA had decided to accept the recommendations of the Justice K.T. Thomas Committee.

MoU for Skill Development of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs)

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between Department for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities and Skills Development Network Trust, Bangalore, for Collaboration and Support in the area of Training and Employment of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs).
Department for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPWD) has launched the National Action Plan for Skill Training of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) with the goal of skilling 5 lakh PwDs during the next three years and total 25 lakh PwDs by the year 2022. Skills Development Network Trust, Bangalore which is an initiative of the Wadhwani Operating Foundation has extended its support for implementation of the said National Action Plan. The SDN Trust will support DEPWD in the following areas:-

• To set up a Program Management unit,
• Employability Training Capacity for PwDs: Create institutional capacity at schools/colleges/universities, Corporate Training Departments to train PwD students of different disabilities for various job roles.
• ICT based Content development for PwD training,
• Create Wadhwani Chair at a National Institute: DEPWD has 7 National Institutes specialising in training and support of PwDs with different disabilities. The National Institutes also work for supporting Assistive Devices/ Equipment for PwDs. SDN would fund 1 or 2 National Institutes for setting up Wadhwani Chair, which would provide technological and engineering focus for scaling up of provision for Assistive Devices at affordable cost.
• The Trust will also work directly with DEPWD to mobilize, train, place and support retention of 50,000 PwDs with at least a 12th grade education in organized sector jobs as a test bed to leverage the above capacity building initiatives.
• The SDN Trust has committed to co-invest an amount of between Rs. 12 Crores to Rs. 60 Crores during the next four years, by leveraging the Government funding in the ratio of 1:10 towards initiatives and schemes described above.

DRDO successfully launches Astra missile

Defence Research and Development Organisation on 20th May has successfully launched indigenously developed beyond visual range air-to-air missile, Astra from Su-30 MKI fighter jet in two developmental trials conducted at the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur, Odisha.
In the first trial, the supersonic missile was released when the fighter jet was performing a “very high-g manoeuvre.” In the second trial, the g manoeuvre was higher than in the first exercise.
With this test, seven developmental trials were conducted and the missile is expected to be inducted by 2016 after a few more tests. The 3.8-metre tall Astra is a radar homing missile and one of the smallest weapon systems developed by the DRDO.

::Economy:

SEBI notifies norms for mutual funds managing offshore money

Simplifying norms for domestic funds to manage offshore pooled assets, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has dropped ‘20-25 rule’, which required a minimum of 20 investors and a cap of 25 per cent on investment by an individual, for funds from low-risk foreign investors.
As per the existing norms, a fund manager who is managing a domestic scheme, is allowed to manage an offshore fund, subject to three specific conditions.
The first requires the investment objective and asset allocation of the domestic scheme and of the offshore fund to be the same.
The second condition requires at least 70 per cent of the portfolio to be replicated across both the domestic scheme and the offshore fund.
The third condition, which was being considered as the most stringent by the industry, requires that the offshore fund should be broad-based with at least 20 investors with no single investor holding more than 25 per cent of the fund corpus.
In a notification uploaded on SEBI’s website, the regulator said these restrictions would not apply “if the funds managed are of Category I foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) and/or Category II foreign portfolio investors which are appropriately regulated broad based funds.”