7-8 November eng
7 november
Union Government decided to impose 0.5% Swachh Bharat Cess on all services
Union Ministry of Finance on 6 November 2015 decided to impose 0.5 percent Swachh Bharat Cess (SBC) on all taxable services. It will be levied in addition to the 14 percent service tax that is in force now.
The SBC will come into force on 15 November 2015. Its proceeds will be exclusively used to support Swachh Bharat initiative
The decision to impose SBC is in tune with the announcement made by the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his budget 2015-16 budget speech advocating for 2 percent additional cess to fund Swachh Bharat.
As per an estimate, the SBC is expected to fetch additional 4000 crore rupees per annum in tax revenues to the government.
The Union Government under the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) is planning to spend around 134000 crore rupees by 2019 to construct 11 crore 11 lakh toilets in the country.
Supreme Court upheld Kerala Government’s ban on online lotteries
The Supreme Court of India (SC) on 5 November 2015 upheld Kerala Government’s ban on online lotteries.
The judgment was delivered by a bench headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) H L Dattu while hearing the All Kerala Online Lottery Dealers Association Vs State of Kerala & Ors. case in which Sikkim Government is also one of the petitioners opposing the ban.
While upholding the ban, the bench stated that lottery is a form of gambling and it was condemned as a vice by the Rigveda, Smritis and Arthashastra.
Background
The case was an appeal from a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court that upheld Kerala Government’s decision to declare the state an online lottery free zone.
In April 2005, the Kerala Government banned all computerized and online lotteries run by whether private or other state governments in the state, while allowing paper lotteries to continue in the state.
Since then, the decision had been opposed by online lottery dealers, who are mainly-operating from Sikkim.
They contended that the distinction drawn by the Kerala Government between paper lottery and online lottery is discriminatory and it is a violation of the Article 14 of the Constitution of India.
Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin became fastest Indian to reach 150 test wickets
Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on 6 November 2015 became the fastest Indian to reach 150 wickets mark in the Indian test cricket history.
He achieved this feat when he took Imran Tahir’s wicket in the first innings of the first test against South Africa in Mohali, Punjab.
In this match, Ashwin also became the first bowler in over 100 years to take 50 wickets after opening the bowling. He achieved this feat in 12 matches off 1888 balls.
The previous record was held by Colin Blythe of England who took 74 wickets between 1902 and 1910 in 13 tests.
The test is a part of four-match test series played to win Freedom Trophy, which is in turn is a part of the larger Mahatma Gandhi-Nelson Mandela Seriesthat includes ODIs and T20s as well.
Heena Sindhu won gold in 13th Asian Shooting Championship
India’s Heena Sindhu on 6 November 2015 won the gold medal in the 10m air pistol women’s event at the 13th Asian Shooting Championship.
The championship was started on 1 November 2015 and will be held for 12 days in Kuwait City.
Incidentally, Heena was also the winner of the gold medal in the 10m air pistol event in 8th Asian Air Gun Championship. It was held in New Delhi in September 2015.
Other Indian medal winners in 13th Asian Shooting Championship
•Nivethawon gold in the 10m air pistol junior women’s event
• In the 25m pistol men’s junior event, Shivam Shukla won gold.
• Angad Bajwa secured the individual gold in the junior skeet men’s competition
Team events
• Shreya Gawande, Nivetha and Oshin Tawani won gold in the women’s team event.
• Nayani Bharadwaj, Harshada Nithave and Malaika Goel won the gold in the team event of the 10m air pistol.
• Shivam, Arjun Das and Achal Pratap Grewalalso won the silver medal in the team event.
• Angad Bajwa, Anant Naruka and Arjun Manntogether won the gold in the junior skeet men’s team event.
Indian Army successfully test-fired BrahMos supersonic cruise missile in Rajasthan
Indian Army on 7 November 2015 successfully test-fired the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile at the Pokhran Test Range in Rajasthan. It was launched from an Autonomous Mobile Launcher (AML).
For BrahMos, it was the 50th test-flight. The previous test-firing was from INS Kochi off the west coast on 1 November 2015.
Features of BrahMos Missile
• It is the first supersonic cruise missile known to be in service and is capable of carrying a conventional and nuclear warhead of 300 kilogram.
• It is a two-stage missile having Solid propellant in the first stage and Ramjet liquid propellant in the second stage.
• It can be launched from land, Sea, Sub-seas and air.
• It operates on Fire and Forget Principle by adopting varieties of flights on its way to the target.
• It approaches the enemy target with a top speed of Mach 2.8; which is about three times faster than the US subsonic Tomahawk cruise missile.
• The missile has been developed by the BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited. It is a joint venture between Russian Federation's NPO Mashinostroeyenia and India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the missile derives its name from the names of two rivers, namely the Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia.
• While the navy and army versions of the missile were inducted in 2005 and 2007 respectively, the air version is still in the testing stage.