INTERNATIONAL
- Saudi Arabia to host G20 Summit in 2020, first in Arab world
- Saudi Arabiawill host the annual G20 leaders’ summit on November 21-22, 2020, in its capital Riyadh.
- This will be the first G20 Summit to be hosted in the Arab
Japan will host this year’s G20 summit in Osaka, which will be held June 28-29, as well as ministerial meetings in eight cities. - In 2018, the conference was held in Buenos Aries, Argentina and focused on the global economy, the future of labour markets and gender equality.
- Group of Twenty (G20) is an international forum for the governments and central bank governors from 19 countriesand the European Union.
- G20 economies account for around 90% of the gross world product (GWP), two-thirds of the world population.
- G20 world leaders met for the first time in 2008 with focus on rescuing the global economy from the worst financial crisis in more than 70 years.
- Google opened its first Africa Artificial Intelligence lab in Ghana
- Google has opened an Artificial Intelligence (AI) research lab in Ghana’s capital Accra.
- It is the first lab of its kind in Africa.
- The lab would develop solutions in areas including agriculture, like helping in diagnosing certain types of crop disease.
- Google opened new research centers across the globe such as in Tokyo, Zurich, New York, and Paris, to exhibit itself as AI first company in front of the world.
- World Book Day 2019: 23 April
- World Book Day is celebrated by UNESCO and other related organisations every year on the 23rd of April.
- Also called the World Book and Copyright Day, it is an occasion to promote the joy of books and the art of reading.
- 23rd April was selected by UNESCO to pay tribute to great literary figures including William Shakespeare, Miguel Cervantes and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega who died on this day.
- This date was finalised in the year 1995 in the UNESCO General Conference, held in Paris, to honour authors and books worldwide.
NATIONAL
- Cabinet approved the funds for implementing 10 percent EWS Quota
- Union cabinet approved the sanction of Rs 4315.15 crorefor the 158 Central Educational Institutions (CEIs) for implementation of reservation in admission to students belonging to Economically Weaker Section (EWS).
- With the approval of the Cabinet, over 2 lakh additionalseats will be created in 158 Central Educational Institutions (CEIs) across the country to implement 10% reservation for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS).
While 1,19,983 additional seats will be created during 2019-20 academic session, 95,783 seats will be added in 2020-21. - The Rajya Sabha on January 9 approved amending the Constitution to provide 10% reservation to general category poorin jobs and education, with the government terming the landmark move as “slog over sixes”.
The quota will be over and above the existing 50 per cent reservation to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
- Income Tax Department Proposes New Rules To Tax MNCs And Digital Firms In India
- The income tax department altered the method for taxing multinational companies (MNCs) and digital firms with a permanent establishment in India by taking into account various factors like domestic sales, employee (manpower and wages) strength, assets and user base.
- In ‘Profit Attribution to Permanent Establishment (PE) in India’ report, theCBDT (Central Board of Direct Taxes) Committee stated that MNCs that are suffering global losses or a global profit margin of less than 2% and have their operations in India will be considered to have made a profit of 2% of Indian revenue and will be taxed accordingly.
- The committee has altered the system to protect India’s revenue interests.
The CBDT invited comments from stakeholders on the report within 30 days.
An MNC that has a fixed place of business in India is considered to have a Permanent Establishment (PE) in India and is taxed as per the domestic laws. - The CBDT report suggested amendments to Rule 10 of income tax rules to provide that in case of an assessee, (is any individual who is liable to pay taxes to the government against any kind of income earned or any losses incurred by him for a particular assessment year) the income from a business that is attributable to the operations carried out in India and is considered to arise in India; when the individual or the business is not a resident of India but has a business connection in India and derives sales revenue from India, the income from such business shall be determined by distributing the profits derived from India by a 3 equally weighted factors of sales, employees and assets.