Today's GK(2-9-13)

Interest on tax refunds haunts government

Delayed direct tax refunds and the high interest outgo are proving to be a headache for the government.
Even as thousands await refunds for the 2011-12 fiscal, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament has called revenue secretary Sumit Bose and attorney general GE Vahanvati for what it believes are "mutually contradictory opinions" by the chief law officer on the expenditure that the government incurred in paying interest on tax refunds. Although the issue dates back to 2011-12, the amount involved in payment of refunds adds up to over Rs 34,000 crore in the last five financial years.
What the PAC is concerned with is the Comptroller & Auditor General's (CAG) observation that the payments were in breach of Article 114(3) of the Constitution as the government did not provide for them in the Budget and were therefore, not cleared by Parliament as other spending proposals.

Hindustan Motors prices new Ambassador Encore under Rs 5 lakh

C K Birla Group company Hindustan Motors today announced the price of its newly introduced BS IV compliant diesel Ambassador at Rs 4,97,996 (ex-showroom Kolkata) under the 'no-refusal' taxi segment.
Bookings for the vehicle named Ambassador Encore will begin from tomorrow, the company said in a statement.
The buyers in replacement taxi segment will be able to avail of a handsome reduction in the announced price, it added.

C-17 heavy-lift transport plane inducted into IAF

Giving a major thrust to IAF's capability to swiftly move troops and tanks to battle fronts, defence minister A K Antony on Monday formally inducted its biggest 70-tonne C-17 heavy-lift transport aircraft into service at the Hindon Air Base.
The plane's induction is a giant stride for the force and it will perform tactical and non-traditional operations also, he said.
The C-17 Globemaster III aircraft has been procured from the US under a deal expected to be over Rs 20,000 crore. A symbolic key of the plane was presented by the Minister to the unit's commanding officer to mark its induction.
Speaking on the occasion, IAF chief NAK Browne said the plane will be operated from the advanced landing grounds in the northeastern states as well as from high altitude bases in north and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The C-17, with a capability to carry around 70 tonnes of load and around 150 fully geared troops, will replace the Russian IL-76 as the biggest aircraft in the IAF inventory till now.
The IL-76 has the capability to carry loads upto around 40 tonnes.
The IAF has placed orders with the US for ten C-17 aircraft under the deal signed in 2011 and three of them have already been delivered.
The US Air Force is scheduled to complete the delivery of all the 10 planes by the end of next year.

Hyderabad Hotshots clinch inaugural Indian Badminton League crown

Saina Nehwal-led Hyderabad Hotshots crowned themselves as the champions of the inaugural Indian Badminton League when they downed Awadhe Warriors 3-1 in the finals at the NSCI Stadium on Saturday.
Indian shuttle queen Saina brought the Hotshots on level terms by trouncing her young challenger PV Sindhu in straight games (21-15, 21-7) in 35 minutes after K Srikanth gave the Warriors an unexpected 1-0 lead by stunning top-20 rival S Tanongsak in straight games, 21-12, 21-20.
Hotshots surged ahead again after Saina's thumping win when their top Malaysian men's doubles team of Goh V Shem and Wah Lim Khim got the better of the scratch Danish-Indonesian pair of Mathias Boe and Markis Kido in three games 21-14 13-21, 11-4.

PM dedicates Gandhi heritage portal to nation

The Ministry of Culture has created a portal to review the message of non-violence to the world at large as well as to the Indian youth, besides highlighting critical aspects of the freedom struggle and Gandhiji’s message and humanism.  Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday dedicated the Gandhi Heritage Portal to the nation.

Minister of Culture Chandresh Kumari Katoch, Communications & IT Minister Kapil Sibal, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations Sam Pitroda were also present on the occasion.

The Journals provide electronic versions of Indian Opinion, Navajivan, Young India, etc. A sub-section provides some of the journals which make for a fuller archive of the Gandhian imagination and scholarship. Various sections of the portal cover different aspects of Gandhiji’s life including ,‘other works’ is a section that would take into account the vast and deep commentarial and memoire literature, ‘The Life and Times’ will provide slivers of information that could lead one to broader and deeper explorations. The Gallery, likewise, provides audio, visual, film material as also caricatures, paintings and postage stamps. The Portal provides a sample of each of these.

The portal has 5 lakh pages of authentic and verified information and is expected to grow to over 15 lakh pages eventually.

The Gandhi Heritage Portal is conceptualised around The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. It has placed the collected works in three languages: English (100 volumes), Hindi (97 volumes) and Gujarati (82 volumes). These volumes are interlinked to provide easy movement from one text and language to the other. The Ministry of Culture earlier gave the responsibility of the concept design, development and maintenance of the Gandhi Heritage Portal to the Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust, in Ahmedabad and provided them with a grant of Rs 7.5 crore. The Sabarmati Ashram is the largest repository of Gandhiji’s original writings.

The Gandhi Heritage Sites Panel had made two recommendations towards preservation, protection and dissemination of the tangible and the intangible heritage of Mahatma Gandhi. Specifically, one of the 2 recommendations was setting up of the Gandhi Heritage Sites Mission and the other was the development of a Gandhi Heritage Portal to disseminate Gandhiji’s writings in an authentic and unabridged form

Bhuvana Kalva won 2013 ITF Women's Tennis Tournament

India's Bhuvana Kalva won her maiden 10000 US dollars ITF women singles title on 31 August 2013 after she registered an impressive 6-4, 7-5 victory over sixth-seeded Akari Inoue of Japan at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association complex.

Bhuvana Kalva is from Andhra Pradesh. She is 18-year-old. She also defeated top seed Ankita Raina and third seed Keren Shlomo of Israel en route final.

Her title win fetched her 12 ranking points while Akari, won 8 ranking points. Akari, had won the doubles title along with Hua-Chen Lee on 30 August 2013.

Sonia Rai won the Gold Medal in Women's 25-Metre Sports Pistol

Sonia Rai won the gold in women’s 25-metre sports pistol on the opening day of the 10th Sardar Sajjan Singh Sethi Masters shooting championship at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad on 31 August 2013. Sonia Rai is 32 years old.

Sonia was the first Indian piston shooter to win a World Cup medal which she won in Resende, Brazil in 2006. She repeated her performance to clinch the gold medal in the All India Kumar Surendra Singh Championship in July 2013.

Anisa Sayyed won the bronze as she beat national champion Sushma Singh. She had topped the qualifiers with 579.

In men’s air rifle, Ravi Kumar of Air Force won the gold medal after he beat Aribam Dicky Sharma of Army 208.2 to 205.9. He had topped the qualifiers with a score of 620.4. In men’s 50-metre free pistol, Jitu Rai of Navy stayed won the gold medal while Dharmendra Singh and Amit Kumar Pilaniya won the silver and bronze respectively.

Anjana Padmanabhan became the First Winner of Indian Idol Junior