GS-III

Applicable even if STT not paid earlier Initial public offerings, bonus, rights issues and ESoPs will be eligible for concessional rate of 10% long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax even if the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) has not been paid earlier. In the recent Budget, the government had, after a gap …

A kg of Gloriosa superba costs Rs. 3,420 For farmers frustrated by the vagaries of monsoon, Tamil Nadu’s State flower, Gloriosa superba is a gold mine waiting to be exploited. The plant, which contains 24 types of alkaloids (nitrogenous organic compounds) and 10 non-alkaloidal medicinal compounds, is widely used in …

At State’s business summit, Ambani commits to improving healthcare delivery Having invested over Rs. 4,000 crore in Uttarakhand, Mukesh Ambani on Sunday said his telecom venture Reliance Jio will in the next two years connect most of the 2,385-plus government schools and colleges with high-speed Internet to make the State …

E-commerce major to offer solutions for mobile protection Walmart-backed online retailer Flipkart said on Sunday that it is foraying into insurance after securing a corporate agent licence. To start with, the company said it would offer customised insurance solutions to power its ‘complete mobile protection program.’ It will do this …

Centre will earn Rs. 1.81 lakh crore from the 50 blocks auctioned since 2015 Having secured Rs. 1.81 lakh crore in its kitty from e-auction of 50 mineral blocks, the government is looking to put on block another 100 mines in the next six months, according to the Ministry of …

What’s different now is the compute power and the data available, says the general manager of AI at Microsoft At Microsoft’s annual developer event Ignite, last week, every session touched up on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in software products. David Carmona , general manager of AI at the …

High CAD, rising oil prices and depreciating rupee need a strong response from policymakers The government is currently in an unenviable position. Whereas there are demands for taking strong steps to tackle the problems facing the economy, the Centre is seen handling the situation with kid gloves. Most of the …

There was lot of focus, effort to tweak the PPP framework Reviving private sector investment in infrastructure will need an innovative sector-by-sector overhaul of the existing PPP models, CRISIL MD & CEO Ashu Suyash explains in an interview. Excerpts: The main takeaway from the CRISIL report is that the share …

Intensive veterinary care is being provided The Gujarat Forest Department on Sunday started the vaccination of lions in the Gir Forest National Park to protect them from a deadly virus. As many as 23 lions have died in the Gir sanctuary in less than a month. Most of them have …

SC order has no impact, says UIDAI Banks and post offices will continue to enrol people for Aadhaar and update their data, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has said. The Supreme Court has only ruled that Aadhaar is not mandatory for opening bank accounts, but the norms set …

Modi hopes the country will become engine of world economic growth Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Uttarakhand’s first investors summit on Sunday, saying India is the ideal investment destination in the world today with major social and economic changes sweeping the country.Addressing top business leaders and industrial houses at “Destination …

The fighter plane now has the capability to take off vertically, giving a shot in the arm for the IAF The Indian Air Force’s beast — MiG-29 — has gained in strength and ferocity after an upgrade, giving the force, battling a shortage of fighter aircraft, a much-needed boost, according …

Task force of ex-servicemen will help in crowd management, keep river clean In January 2019, when the Uttar Pradesh government organises the Kumbh Mela, it will have a special unit to help: a volunteer force of ex-servicemen.The Ganga Task Force (GTF), specially trained by the Ministry of Defence will help …

You’d imagine that a mammal more than a metre long would be hard to miss. But it has taken more than 70 years to confirm the presence of the elusive Eurasian otter — one of the least-known of India’s three otter species — in the Western Ghats. Ironically, researchers found …

31 children died of diphtheria in September; nearly half of the diphtheria cases reported globally are from India The leafy, unhurried campus of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation-run Maharishi Valmiki Infectious Diseases Hospital (MVIDH) masks an ugly truth. Witness to 31 child deaths due to diphtheria last month, with the …

The Valley’s famous apple orchards are in fruit with a bumper crop Apple trees droop heavily with fruit in the famous orchards of Kashmir this season. In the apple-rich districts of south and north Kashmir, the harvest continues to be a family affair. The orchard owners have a reason to …

Diver-activists are removing abandoned or lost fishing nets that trap sea life It’s a lazy Sunday morning, but not for Suneha Jagannathan. With over 3 kg of diving gear, she is out on a mission — to collect ‘ghost nets’. Diving to depths of 30-50 m, Ms. Jagannathan, CEO of …

Scientists say they have developed a new DNA tool that uses machine learning to accurately predict people’s height and assess their risk for serious illnesses such as heart disease and cancer. The tool, or algorithm, builds predictors for human traits such as height, bone density and even the level of …

The Eastern Ghats spread across Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, has lost almost 16% of its forest area over a span of 100 years, a recently published study shows. Researchers from the University of Hyderabad studied historical maps and satellite images from 1920 to 2015 to understand the …

This is interesting as ants are usually depicted as poor pollinators Bees might be the most well-known pollinators, but researchers have found that common white-footed ants are the best pollinators of a rare evergreen tree in the southern Western Ghats. Syzygium occidentale is a small, wild jamun tree that grows …