TELANGANA
- No GST registration for 2,000 food outlets
- The Telangana government has served notice on a popular food delivery platform and received its response on the business model that it followed on issues related to the Goods and Services Tax.
- It was found that about 2,000 out of 4,000 outlets in Hyderabad from where the aggregator sourced food for home delivery did not have GST registration. Pending further inquiry, the app has been put on notice to get the 2,000 outlets registered immediately for GST compliance. It sold 40,000 packets a day, which went up during festivals and other celebrations.
- The government has constituted an economic intelligence unit within the Commercial Taxes department to study the businesses of all e-commerce platforms in view of the suspected concealment of tax. They cover not only food delivery apps but also airline ticketing, ticket-booking for cinemas, transport, insurance, financial companies, coaching and training institutes, function halls and event management institutions. The objective was to integrate e-commerce with GST portal and expose fraudulent practices based on electronic footprint left behind in transactions.
- The State government was also deprived of about ₹ 400 crore which it had collected as value added tax earlier from foodgrains. The rural development cess from rice mills was abolished and merged with GST, which also dented revenue. Further, tax on non-air-conditioned hotels was brought down from 14.5% to 5%.
INTERNATIONAL
· World Food Prize 2018 awarded to Economist Lawrence Haddad, Dr. David Nabarro
- Lawrence Haddad, who is a British economist and food policy researcher, and Dr. David Nabarro, who has worked with the World Health Organization and United Nations on health and hunger issues, were named the 2018 World Food Prize recipients.
- They dedicated their careers to improving the availability of nutritious food for pregnant women and childrenin an effort to reduce the effects of malnutrition in developing countries.
- Worlds Largest Multilateral Naval Exercise RIMPAC begun off Hawaii
- 26thedition of two month long exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) begun off Hawaii in the Western Pacific Ocean.
- Navies of 26 countries including India is participating in this exercise, which is scheduled off Hawaii from June 27 to August 27.
- INS Sahyadri, Commanded by Captain Shantanu Jha, has reached the Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, to participate in RIMPAC 2018.
- Subsequently, the 25th edition of the exercise was attended by INS Satpura in 2016.
- India Ranked Fourth as Cyber Attacks on The Rise Globally: Report
- India ranked fourth in the list of top 10 target countries for Web Application Attacks as bot-driven abuse and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks continued to rise from November 2017 till April this year, Cloud delivery network provider Akamai Technologies said.
- Registering over 2.8 crore attacks, India also ranked eighth globally in the list of Web Application Attack source countries.
- Russia, China and Indonesia occupied top three spots.
NATIONAL
· Oxytocin ban to come into effect in India from 1st July
- The Ministry of Health and Family Welfareof India has banned the manufacture of Oxytocin for domestic use from 1st July 2018 as it has been misused widespread in the dairy industry.
- Oxytocin is a hormone that occurs naturally to cause uterine contractions during labor and lactation.
- In dairy industries, livestock is injected with oxytocin to make them release milk at a time convenient for the farmers. It is also used in vegetablesto increase their size.
- President of India Inaugurates the Udyam Sangam-2018
- The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, inaugurated the Udyam Sangam-2018, being organised by the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) on June 27, 2018 to celebrate the 2ndUnited Nations Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day.
- On this occasion, he also launched the Solar Charkha and MSME Sampark Portal.
- The President said that the Udyam Sangam-2018 is an important effort in developing effective eco-systems for MSME sector.
- WCD Ministry to organise TECH-THON
- Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India will organize a day-long Seminar on Technology Partnerships for Steering POSHAN Abhiyaan called ‘TECH-THON’ for POSHAN Abhiyaan – PM’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment on 28th June, 2018 at PravasiBharatiya Kendra in New Delhi.
- Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog will inaugurate the Seminar and launch the Jan Andolan Guidelines of POSHAN Abhiyaan.
- The Seminar is being organised to showcase and orient the environment towards the initiative, exchange ideas and to explore avenues of cooperation and partnerships for technology support, as well as, reaching-out to the beneficiaries for effective behavioural change to initiate a ‘Peoples Movement’ or Jan Andolan towards Nutrition.
- NITI Aayog’s WEP Signs SoI with Financial Institutions & Social Organisations
- NITI Aayog’s Women Entrepreneurs Platform (WEP) has signed five separate Statement of Intent (SoIs) with Shri Mahila Sewa Sahakari Bank Limited, Indiabulls Housing Finance Limited, SREI Infrastructure Finance Limited, Sreemanta Sankar Mission and the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA).
- The WEP was established on the occasion of International Womens’ Day in March 2018 to substantially increase the number of women entrepreneurs who will create and empower a dynamic New India.
- Sagarmala’ receives Gold Award at the 52nd Skoch Summit 2018
- The Ministry of Shipping’s flagship programme for port-led-prosperity ‘Sagarmala’ received the ‘Gold Award’ in infrastructure sector in the recently concluded 52nd Skoch Summit 2018 in New Delhi, recognizing the programmes’s contribution to India’s socio-economic transformation and it’s role in propelling fast-track growth and infrastructure development.
- The Sagarmala Programme also received the ‘Order of Merit’ at the Summit.
- The Secretary (Shipping) Sh. Gopal Krishna shared the award with Minister for Shipping, Road Transport & Highways, Water Resources, River Develooment and Ganga Rejuvenation Shri. Nitin Gadkari.