2nd April 2017 - Current Affairs Today

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Finance Bill gets presidential assent, takes effect from April 1

All financial and taxation related provisions as announced in Budget 2017 have now attained a legal status.
Limiting cash transactions to 2 lakh. This cap is at par with requirement to quote PAN number on cash spending. Violation of this rule will result in a penalty of equal amount, to be borne by the recipient.
Biometric identifier Aadhaar has been made mandatory for filing income tax returns, effective from1^st July 2017.

Centre sanctions Rs. 98 crore for tourism sector development in Assam

The amount sanctioned will be used under the scheme of Swadesh Darshan. The cities to be developed are Tezpur, Majuli and Sivasagar.
The first installment of 19.67 crores against the sanctioned amount was released by the Central government on March 31, 2017.
In addition, The Tourism Ministry has decided to work collectively to enlist Majuli in the coveted list of World Heritage Site.

First bio-gas bus with flat Re 1 fare inaugurated in Kolkata

Phoenix India Research and Development Group in Kolkata has designed a bus that will run on biogas produced from cow dung.
The ticket will be charged Re 1 for the 17.5 km stretch, which will be the cheapest mode of transport for a passenger in the country.
Until today, the lowest fare in a Kolkata bus is Rs 6, which goes up to Rs 12 for 17 km ride.

Uttarakhand hosts 19^th commonwealth forestry conference

The 19^thCommonwealth Forestry Conference (CFC), 2017 begins at Forest Research Institute (FRI) in Dehradun, Uttarakhand
The conference is organized by Union Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change in coordination with the Commonwealth Forestry Association of United Kingdom.
The main topics to be discussed in the conference are about issues affecting climate change and green cover.

Mega-conference of World Parliamentarians hosted by Bangladesh

The 136^thMega-Conference of World Parliamentarians has begun in Dhaka.
The main focus of this conference was to provide ways and means to end political and economic inequality for upholding democracy and human rights.
About 1,348 delegates from 131 national parliaments were expected to participate in the conference. The participants include 45 Speakers, 37 Deputy Speakers and more than 200 women MPs, are expected to make their proposals.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) set up separate Enforcement Department

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is planning to set up a separate in-house Enforcement Department which will be operational from 3^rd April 2017.
This Department will be responsible for framing broad policy related to enforcement and take action against registered entities that violate it.
It will function as centralised department to deal with banks exclusively for enforcement action such as issuing warning or imposing penalty.

Tax Evasion over Rs 5 crore is a non-bailable offence under GST Regime.

Earlier, the tax evasion of over Rs 2.5 crorewas proposed by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime.
Goods and Services Tax (GST) is a system of indirect taxation in India.It merges most of the existing taxes into single system of taxation.

Vipul takes charge as New Consul General of Dubai.

Diplomat Vipul, a 1998 batch Indian Foreign Service(IFS) officer succeeded Anurag Bhushan and took charge as the new Consul General of Dubai on April 2, 2017.
Before joining the Consulate at Dubai, he was working at the office of External Affairs Minister of India, Sushma Swaraj.
He had also served at the India’s diplomatic missions in Sri Lanka and Egypt to bring peace among two nations.

Lenin Moreno to sworn in as the Ecuador President

Ruling Party of Ecuador, Alianza PAIS candidate Lenin Moreno won the Ecuador’s presidential election held on April 3, 2017.
He defeated conservative former banker Guillermo Lasso who demands a recount after three exit polls.
Out of 94 percent of voting acts counted, the National Electoral Council declared Moreno has defeated Lasso by 51 percent to 49 percent.

New Chief Justice of Madras High Court – Indira Banerjee

Indira Banerjee, former judge of the Delhi High Court has been appointed as the Chief Justice of Madras High Court.
Indira Banerjee will succeed Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, who was elected to the Supreme Court on February 18, 2017.
Banerjee would be the second woman next to Justice Kanta Kumari Bhatnagar who was the Chief Justice from June to November in 1992 to head the charted court.

Noted Scriptwriter Ajey Jhankar passed away

He served as a Director of MM Active Sci-Tech Communications Pvt. Ltd from January 2000.
He was the writer of Marathi novel “Sarkarnama“.
In 1998, Jhankar produced the Marathi movie in the name Sarkarnama relating it to his novel. Jhankar was the co-screenwriter for the film.
He also contributed much for marketing and film industry. Hollywood movie Singularity was based on his novel Drohparv.

Pop art pioneer James Rosenquist dies at 83

Artist James Rosenquist who well known for his pop art movement works, has died
In 1960s, Rosenquist has worked with Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein developed a powerful graphic style.
His best-known work is “F-111,” which was made in 1964 and 1965 in part as a protest against American militarism.
His life and career history was entitled as an autobiography ‘Painting Below Zero: Notes on a Life in Art’

Massive Extra-solar planet discovered using X-ray observations

A group of scientist from India has discovered indications of a massive planet orbiting a low mass X-ray binary star system.
The X-ray binary star system is named as MXB 1658-298.
These scientists used a technique called X-ray observations which is a new way of detecting extra-solar planet (Exo-planet).
X-ray binary star system consists of a pair of stars orbiting each other.Out of this, one star is compact called a neutron star.
The neutron star draws matter from its less-massive companion star.X-rays are generated when the masses are drawn, which is detected by detectors placed in satellites in space.
Totally, 3607 exo-planets discovered in 2701 planetary systems and 610 multiple planetary systems are confirmed.

Miami Open 2017 – An Overview

S.NO	CATEGORY	WINNER’s	RUNNER’s
1	Men’s single	Roger Federer(Switzerland)	Rafael Nadal (Spain)
2	Women’s single	Johanna Konta (Great Britain)	Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark)
3	Men’s doubles	Łukasz Kubot (Poland)/ Marcelo Melo (Brazil)	Nicholas Monroe (USA)/Jack Sock (USA)
4	Women’s doubles	Gabriela Dabrowski (Canada) /Xu Yifan (china)	Sania Mirza (India)/Barbora Strýcová (Czech Republic)

Women’s singles champion of India Super Series tournament won by P V Sindhu

Rio Olympics silver medalist P V Sindhu won championship in India Super Series tournament
She defeated the Olympic champion Carolina Marin from Spain in straight sets 21-19, 21-16.
This was her 2^ndSuper-series title win.