By: D.K Choudhary
Railway Ministry Requests Separate Fund for Rashtriya Rail Safety Fund
i. The Ministry of Railway has proposed the Finance Ministry to create a non-lapsable safety fund named ‘Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh’ over five years with initial corpus of Rs. 20000 crore and contribute a portion to fund it in the upcoming Budget 2017 to be presented on February 1.
ii. The decision to set up the safety fund is based on the recommendation of a high-level safety review committee under the chairmanship of Dr. Anil Kakodkar, former chairman of Atomic Energy Commission.
iii. The decision has also taken into consideration the increasing number of train derailments this year. In the year 2016-17 till January 23, the number of cases recorded was 74 compared to 65 in previous year and is even higher than the number of cases in last 6 years.
Textile Ministry Inaugurates Meghalaya’s First Ever Apparel and Garment Centre at Ampati
i. Meghalaya’s first ever Apparel and Garment Making Centre was inaugurated on January 30, 2017 jointly by Union Textiles Minister Smriti Zubin Irani and Chief Minister of Meghalaya Dr. Mukul Sangma near Ampati in South West Garo Hills.
ii. The centre would enable to create job opportunity for both men and women of the region and make them economically empowered.
iii. The facility has been set up in an area of 45,000 sq feet at an approximate cost of Rs 14.26 crore. It has been set up under North East Region Textiles Promotion Scheme (NERTPS).
iv. Union Ministry of Textiles is working to implement projects worth Rs 70 crore in the Secriculture & Weaving sector for Meghalaya alone to boost investment in the region as well as generate employment prospects.
v. The Ministry has already sanctioned Rs 32 crore out of Rs 53 crore for promotion of handlooms of the region.
Ministry of Defence to Set up Rs 1500 cr Defence Unit in Madhya Pradesh
i. The Union Minister for Panchayati Raj and Rural Development, Narendra Singh Tomar announced on January 31, 2017 that the Ministry of Defence is set to open its Defence
Unit in Morena district of Madhya Pradesh.
ii. The unit would be set up in Kailaras and Sabalgarh tehsil areas and span over 969.735 hectare of land at a cost of Rs. 1500 crore.
iii.The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan has already allotted 334.584 hectare revenue land for the purpose free of cost.
iv. The state cabinet has also acquired 34.745 hectare private land and has send a proposal to acquire 600.406 hectare forest land in exchange of equal revenue land.
E-Paathsala Launches Unique Technology-Backed Services for Educational Institutions in India
i. Bangalore based Start-up firm E-paathsala has launched an integrated accreditation and ERP technology solution for the colleges and universities to enable them better manage their multiple accreditation standards in an easy, efficient and fast manner and bridge the gap identified for specific accreditations.
ii. Every college and University has multiple accreditations for standards such as NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council), NBA (National Board of Accreditation) among others.
iii. E-paathsala would provide a software and consultancy solutions that would help the institutions to improve their management system with emphasis on improving accreditation standards. Besides, it would provide an ERP solution to help the colleges improve their performances as per the benchmark standards.
iv . With the help of the ERP solution the educational institution would get an accreditation report about any gap in the management system of the multiple standards and necessary recommendations for improvement to get better grades for the accreditations.
v. The technology would provide services like Accreditation Management, IQAC work flow, PO-CO attainment for students, SWOT analysis, Admission Management, Accounting and Fees Management, Student Management, Learning Management System, Library Management, Hostel and Class Management, Transport Management, Placement Management and Alumina Management.
vi. Additionally the consultancy services would include External Quality Assurance service through its panel of experts by providing Academic Audit, Administrative Audit, Green audit, Gender audit and academic roadmap with prospective plan.
vii. E-paathsala in collaboration with global education community provides necessary strategic guidance for higher education transformation to help the educational institutions in achieving greater efficiencies.
Income Tax Department (ITD) launches Operation Clean Money
i. Income Tax Department (ITD) lead by Sushil Chandra has launched Operation Clean Money on January 31, 201 to verify the cash deposited in the banks during November 9th to December 30th 2016.
ii. An online Verification process will be carried out by comparing the demonetisation data CBDTwith information in ITD databases.
iii. This information will be available at the portalhttps://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in.The PAN holder can view the information using the link ‘Cash Transactions 2016’ under ‘Compliance’ section of the portal.
iv. Email and SMS will be sent to the taxpayers if any case they found in the database. The taxpayers should submit their online response on the portal within 10 days.
The verification will be closed if the cash deposit is declared under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojna (PMGKY).
Income Tax Department (ITD) :
♦ The Income Tax Department or IT Department is a government agency in charge of monitoring the income tax collection by the Government of India.
♦ Chairman of CBDT: Sushil Chandra
