Jaitley hints not all scrapped currency will be remonetised

New Delhi, Dec 17 (PTI) Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday hinted that not all of the Rs 15.44 lakh crore worth of currency junked will be remonetised through issuance of new notes as he said digital currency will fill the gap.

Calling the scrapping of old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes as "a courageous step", he said the government could do it as India today has the capacity to take such decisions and experiment boldly.

The move will create a new Indian normal as the one that existed for the past seven decades is "unacceptable", he said, adding that demonetisation will help rid the economy of high cash circulation that had led to tax evasion, blackmoney and currency being used for crime.

"One of the efforts of this exercise has to be that even though a reduced cash currency could remain, our conscious effort... (is) to supplement the rest with a digital currency," he said while addressing annual general meeting of industry chamber FICCI here.

As many as 17,165 million pieces of Rs 500 denomination and 6,858 million pieces of Rs 1,000 banknotes were in circulation on November 8 when the government made the surprise announcement.

Jaitley further said: "The whole process of remonetisation is not going to take very long time and I'm sure very soon the Reserve Bank by injecting currency daily into the banking and postal system will be able to complete that."

Also, the push to use the digital mode to make payments has been gaining ground. "The manner it has taken place in the last five weeks is indeed commendable. Only a section of Parliament seems unaware of what is happening," he said.

Once the remonetisation process is complete, it will mark "the creation of a new Indian normal because the normal that existed for 70 years is an unacceptable normal," he added.

"The 70-year normal had become a way of life for almost every Indian. It was not merely a fact that you had a lot more cash currency, far larger cash currency as part of your GDP...

the economic and social consequences of that are extremely adverse."

He made a point that dealing in that cash currency had led to a lot of aberrations in terms of tax non-compliance, currency being used for collateral purposes like crime, escaping the tax net and not getting into the banking system.

Russia behind cyberattacks during polls: Obama

Washington, Dec 17 (PTI) President Barack Obama has alleged that Russia possibly under President Vladimir Putin's directions carried out cyberattacks during the US polls, as he urged his successor Donald Trump to ensure that the American election process is not under potential "foreign influence".

"What I can tell you is that the intelligence that I've seen gives me great confidence in their assessment that the Russians carried out this hack. Not much happens in Russia without Vladimir Putin," Obama told reporters during a White House news conference, indicating Putin's involvement.

"They hacked into some Democratic Party e-mails that contained pretty routine stuff, some of it embarrassing or uncomfortable because I suspect that if any of us got our emails hacked into there might be some things that we would not want suddenly appearing on the front page of a newspaper or a telecast, even if there was not anything particularly illegal or controversial about it," he said yesterday.

A worried Obama also lashed out at Russia for its alleged effort to influence the US election, saying the country does not produce anything and lacks innovation.

"We've got to think what is happening to our political culture here. The Russians can't change us or significantly weaken us. They are a smaller country, they are a weaker country, their economy doesn't produce anything that anybody wants to buy except oil and gas and arms. They don't innovate," Obama said.

Obama assured Americans that the ballot itself was not rigged and promised to "send a clear message to Russia or others not to do this to us, because we can do stuff to you." 

"But they can impact us if we lose track of who we are.

They can impact us if we abandon our values. Putin can weaken us just like he's trying to weaken Europe if we start buying into notions that it's OK to intimidate the press, or lock up dissidents, or discriminate against people because of their faith or what they look like," he said.

Terming it a "pretty hierarchical operation", Obama said there was not a lot of debate and democratic deliberation, particularly when it comes to policies directed at the US.

"We have said and I will confirm that this happened at the highest levels of the Russian government and I will let you make that determination as to whether there are high-level Russian officials who go off rogue and decide to tamper with the US election process without Vladimir Putin knowing about it," he said.

Obama said he had raised the issue when he met Putin recently in China.

Obama also hopedhis successor Donald Trump will show equal concern to ensure that the American election process is not under a potential "foreign influence".

"My hope is that the president-elect is going to similarly be concerned with making sure that we don't have a potential foreign influence in our election process. I don't think any American wants that. And that shouldn't be a source of an argument," Obama said.

The US President also called for bipartisan unity on the issue.

Black money holders get last chance to disclose till Mar'17

New Delhi, Dec 16 (PTI) Offering one last chance to black money holders, the Indian government on Friday said they have time until March-end to come clean by paying 50 per cent tax on bank deposits of junk currencies made post demonetisation.

Offering tax dodgers confidentially and immunity from prosecution under the new tax evasion amnesty scheme Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY), which kicks-in from tomorrow, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said non disclosure of deposits made in banks after the Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes were junked will attract stiffer penalties as well as prosecution.

Not declaring the black money under the scheme now but showing it as income in the tax return form would lead to a total levy of 77.25 per cent in taxes and penalty. In case the disclosure is not made either using the scheme or in return, a further 10 per cent penalty on tax will be levied followed by prosecution, he said.

The disclosure scheme is part of The Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Act, 2016, which was approved by the Lok Sabha earlier this month and has been assented by the President.

The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) will commence on December 17 and shall remain open for declarations up to March 31, Adhia told reporters here.

"Beginning tomorrow most of the banks will have challans to be filled for depositing tax for availing the PMGKY scheme.

Only after payment of 50 per cent tax and setting aside the 25 per cent of the remaining undisclosed amount for 4 year, a person can avail the PMGKY scheme," he said.

Adhia emphasised that mere depositing of cash in banks will not convert black money into white. Taxes have to be paid.

As per the scheme, taxes will have to be paid first and then the scheme can be availed on production of tax receipt, unlike the recent Income Disclosure Scheme and other such plans wherein disclosures were made first and taxes were recovered later.

Also, as the disclosures will be kept confidential, the holder of unaccounted cash need not disclose it in Income Tax Returns forms.

After the shock November 8 demonetisation announcement, the government allowed the junked Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes to be deposited in bank accounts.

For those holding unaccounted cash, it offered new tax evasion amnesty scheme wherein 50 per cent tax will be charged on declarations and quarter of the total sum be parked in a non-interest bearing deposit for four years. .

Sindhu avenges Olympic loss, in semis at Super Series Final

Dubai, Dec 16 (PTI) Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu avenged her heart-breaking loss at the Rio Games to two-time World Champion Carolina Marin with a thrilling straight-game victory in a do-or-die women's singles Group B contest and sealed her place at the semifinals of the BWF World Super Series Finals here today.

In a much-anticipated contest, Sindhu came up trumps against the Olympic champion Marin, who had spoiled her gold medal dream at Rio in August. The Indian dished out an energetic performance to see off a fighting Marin 21-17 21-13 in a hard-fought battle that lasted 46 minutes.

A former World No. 1 Marin, who held a 5-2 head to head record, tried to play an aggressive fast-paced game and pumped herself with each point, letting out a war cry but Sindhu was equally up for the battle of nerves and she showed tremendous grit and nerves to emerge victories in a crucial contest.

With this win, Sindhu finished in the second place behind China's Sun Yu, who won all the three matches, in Group B.

Both the players started with an aggressive rally and even though Sindhu had a 2-0 lead early on, Marin soon turned the tables at 4-3 when the Indian hit long. The Spaniard made it 7-3 with Sindhu playing a few nervous strokes.

However, Sindhu changed her approach and got hold of her nerves and reeled off five points to lead 8-7. But again two long shots from Sindhu and Marin was 9-8 up.

The left-handed Marin soon came up with a sharp smash which an outstretched Sindhu could not connect. But the Indian immediately produced three straight points and entered the break with a slender 11-10 lead after producing a superb cross court smash which found Marin napping.

A lucky net chord helped Sindhu to lead 13-12 after the break which she swelled to 16-12 with Marin finding the net and hitting long.

The duo continued to battle hard and engaged in some fast paced rallies with each trying to outdo the other with sharp acute angled strokes. Eventually Sindhu grabbed six game point advantage when Marin missed the baseline. The Spaniard saved three points before the Indian sealed the game with a superb smash.

Marin needed medical treatment for what seemed like a bruise in her feet before the start of the second game.

The Spaniard used her deceptive returns to put Sindhu in trouble and opened up a 3-1 lead which the Indian soon erased and grabbed a 5-3 advantage after another excruciating rally.

Sindhu tried to keep her opponent away from the net and kept tossing the shuttle at the back of the court. The ploy seemed to work as Marin committed errors while trying to use deception to break the rhythm.

Sindhu was equally athletic on court as she stretched, jumped and dived all across to cover the court and entered the interval with an 11-6 lead after Marin sent the shuttle wide twice.

At 13-7, Sindhu missed the sidelines and coach Pullela Gopichand tried to calm her down. With Marin continuing to struggle with her strokes, Sindhu soon lead 17-10 and eventually grabbed a 21-13 match point advantage when Marin hit long after another exciting rally. The Indian then sealed the match as the Spaniard found the net again.

China protests Prez's meeting with Dalai, warns of disturbance to ties

                                                    

Beijing, Dec 16 (PTI) China today took  strong exception to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama's meeting with President Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapathi Bhavan during a children's summit, saying India must respect China's "core interests" to avoid "any disturbance" to the bilateral ties.

"Recently in disregard of China's solemn representation and strong opposition, the Indian side insisted on arranging for the 14th Dalai Lama's visit to the Indian Presidential palace where he took part in an event and met President Mukherjee," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang told a media briefing here.

"The Chinese side is strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to that," he said, replying to a question on the Dalai Lama's presence in the opening session of the 'Laureates and Leaders for Children Summit', organised by Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi's Children's Foundation on December 10.

"The Dalai Lama is in political exile and is long been engaged anti-China separatist activities with the attempt of separating Tibet away from China under the cloak of religion," Geng said.

The Chinese side firmly opposes any form of contact between officials of the other countries with him.

"We urge the Indian side to see through the anti-China separatist nature of the Dalai Lama clique, fully respect China's core interests and major concerns, take effective means to remove the negative impact caused by the incident to avoid any disturbance to China-India relationship," Geng said.

China routinely protests world leaders meetings with the Dalai Lama.

This is the second time that China objected to the Dalai Lama's activities in India in recent months.

Beijing objected in October this year to India's permission to the Tibetan spiritual leader to visit Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims as part of southern Tibet.

Early this month, China also objected to the visit of prominent Tibetan religious leader, the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje to Arunachal Pradesh, hoping that India would abide by consensus and refrain from taking any action that might complicate the boundary dispute.

India also came under the criticism from Chinese official media over the Dalai Lama's visit to Mongolia following which Beijing was accused of imposing a blockade of the land-locked country.

While China besides criticising Mongolia for permitting the Dalai Lama reportedly blocked movement along the Mongolia-China border, Beijing was also livid over the Mongolian Ambassador to India Gonchig Ganhold s appeal to New Delhi to help Mongolia to deal with China s countermeasure against Ulaanbaatar.

India has said Mongolia can avail the USD one billion aid, which one of the Chinese newspaper Global Times termed it as a bribe.

An article in the daily also warned Mongolia that it is "politically harebrained" to ask for New Delhi s support as it will further complicate bilateral ties.

India remains one of fastest-growing countries: WH

Washington, Dec 16 (PTI) India remains one of the fastest-growing countries in the world, the White House has said even as it underlined that inefficiencies persist in the country's public sector with the poor still lacking healthcare coverage and access to financial services.

"India remains one of the fastest-growing countries in the world, with real GDP expanding at 7.3 per cent in the four quarters through 2016:Q3," said the Economic Report of the President for the year 2017, which was sent to the Congress.

The voluminous report running into nearly 600 pages says that economic growth in India continues at a solid pace of a projected 7.4 per cent over the four quarters of 2016.

"Private consumption has been a major driver in economic growth, contributing 4.3 percentage points to its 7.

3 per cent real GDP growth rate in the four quarters through 2016:Q3," the report said, adding that lower inflation and fiscal consolidation over the past year has created additional policy space for India to stimulate growth should a crisis occur.

"Macroeconomic risks revolve around inflationary pressure stemming from increasing commodity prices, which could weigh on the current account and fiscal deficit," it said.

"Inefficiencies remain in the public sector, with India's poor still lacking healthcare coverage, educational attainment, and access to financial services. Further, inequality in India remains high," the White House report said.

The report also noted the countries that export to China and the advanced economies have suffered due to the slowdown in those important markets, the report added.

"Economic growth in China has been on a downward trend since a brief rebound after the global financial crisis. China has been attempting to re-balance from an investment- and export-driven economy to an economy driven more by private consumption," it said.

The White House said as China's economy grew to 15 per cent of global GDP in 2015, targeted industrial policies have made it the world's largest manufacturer and the dominant producer of some key goods in the global marketplace, as well as a major source of demand for an array of goods, magnifying the effects of changes in its domestic economy on global prices and growth.

Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 being amended to prohibit misleading advertisements of Ayurveda, Siddha & Unani Drugs: AYUSH Minster

NEW DELHI : Government is aware of the sale and advertisement of Ayurvedic medicines through TV channels which are required to adhere to the Advertising Code prescribed under the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 and Rules framed thereunder. Presently, there are no regulatory provisions for pre-censorship on advertisements. Action is taken whenever violation of Advertisement Code is brought to the notice of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting or the advertisement is found to be in contravention of the provisions of Drugs & Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954 and Rules thereunder. The relevant advertisement codes are available on the website- www.mib.nic.in. Rule 7(5) under Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act specifically provide “No advertisement shall contain references which are likely to lead the public to infer that the product advertised or any of its ingredients has some special or miraculous or super-natural property or quality, which is difficult of being proved”. Similarly, the quality aspects of Ayurvedic medicines are specified in the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and Rules thereunder and the State Licensing Authorities or Drugs Controllers are responsible to oversee the quality control of these medicines and take regulatory action against the medicines found to be misbranded, adulterated, spurious or substandard. Mechanisms in place and steps taken for quality control of products sold or promoted through advertisements are as follows-

i) Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has constituted an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) to look into the violations of advertisement code suo-moto or whenever violations of the advertisement code are brought to the notice of the Ministry in respect of private TV channels. The Inter-Ministerial Committee meets periodically and recommends actions in respect of alleged violations reported. An advisory was also issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on 21.8.2014 advising all TV channels not to telecast advertisements which were found to be violating the provisions of Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994, Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) Code and also Drugs & Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement) Act, 1954. 

ii) As part of the self-regulatory initiative of the industry, Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), a voluntary body of advertisement industry, promotes self-regulation of advertisement content by monitoring and deciding on complaints against advertisements making misleading, false and unsubstantiated claims of the products including Ayurvedic medicines. 

iii) Complaints about the misleading content of the advertisements of Ayurvedic medicines received in the Ministry of AYUSH from any source are forwarded to the concerned State Licensing Authorities with the direction to take necessary action in accordance with the provisions of Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954 and Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940 and Rules thereunder. State authorities have reported to have taken action in these cases. iv) Ministry of AYUSH in consultation with Ayurvedic, Siddha and Unani Drugs Technical Advisory Board (ASUDTAB) have framed and notified draft rules for prohibition of misleading advertisements of Ayurvedic, Siddha and Unani drugs in the Official Gazette vide GSR No. 396(E) dated 4th April, 2016 to amend the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945. This information was given by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for AYUSH, Shri ShripadYesso Naik in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today. 

Parliament passes Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill

New Delhi, Dec 16 (PTI) Keeping aside the acrimony over demonetisation issue which paralysed the Winter session, Parliament today passed the Disabilities Bill which stipulates up to two year jail term and a maximum fine of Rs 5 lakh for discriminating against differently-abled persons.

The Lok Sabha passed the bill within two hours after a short debate on the last day of the session with the treasury and opposition benches, who have been at loggerheads over demonetisation and other issues, joining hands to clear the legislation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present in the House during the passage of the bill.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Rajya Sabha too had witnessed similar bonhomie for passage of The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2016.

Replying to the debate, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawar Chand Gehlot announced that a scheme of 'universal identity card for the disabled' is on the anvil and an agency has already been finalised for the purpose.

The proposed card would also be linked to the Aadhar card to help the disabled all over the country in a seamless fashion, he said.

Gehlot said the universal identity card is being acted upon to overcome the problem of disability certificate being faced by those affected.

He said the government has joined hands with German and British firms for making available state-of-the-art limbs to the disabled wherever possible.

The Lok Sabha witnessed a division on an amendment by Congress and TRS members seeking to raise the reservation in the bill from 4 to 5 per cent. It was defeated by 121 to 43 votes. K C Venugopal of the Congress who had given the amendment pressed for the division.

Members from both sides supported the bill but suggested certain changes to improve the measure. .

Growmoney Voice

16/12/2016

NIFTY:

Spot Range :  8101 - 8216

Likely to open between  :  - 8130 - 8187

Buy above 8168 ; Tgts -  8186/8208/8231/8254  ; sl  - 8146

Sell below  8145 ; Tgts -  8126/8104/8081/8059  ; sl  - 8167

Break down -  8100 ;       Break up - 8217

Prez greets King, people of Bahrain on eve of National Day

New Delhi, Dec 15 (PTI) India and Bahrain have enjoyed close and cordial relations and extensive people-to-people contacts, and this partnership will continue to strengthen in the years to come, President Pranab Mukherjee said today.

Greeting King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa and the people on the eve of their National Day, he said in a message, "I have great pleasure in extending to Your Majesty and the friendly people of the Kingdom of Bahrain warm greetings and felicitations on the occasion of your National Day." 

The two countries have historically enjoyed close and cordial relations anchored in their shared interests and extensive people-to-people contacts.

"I am confident that our mutually beneficial partnership encompassing various spheres of engagement will continue to diversity and strengthen in the years to come," he said.

Bahrain celebrates its National Day on December 16.