In a bid to financially empower women, the Assam government would provide Rs 830 per month each to 17 lakh poor families under the ambitious “Orunodoi” scheme, Finance and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced on Wednesday.

Under the new scheme, district-wise selection of beneficiaries would begin from August 17 and the beneficiaries would start receiving the amount in the bank account of a female family member on the first day of every month, starting from October, he said.

“The “Orunodoi” would be the biggest scheme in Assam which would initially benefit at least 17 lakh families and the number would subsequently increase to 25 lakh, he added.

“The main focus of the scheme on empowering women while contributing to economic development,” he told the media in Guwahati.

However, Sarma clarified, that while selecting the beneficiaries, there would be economic criteria and “those who have certain movable and immovable assets including land, big houses, vehicles, electronic gadgets, and most government and semi-government employees, would be excluded”.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched Transparent Taxation - Honoring the Honest' platform. He said it will strengthen the efforts of reforming and simplifying India's tax system. The Prime Minister also unveiled the next phase of direct tax reforms aimed at easing compliance and rewarding honest taxpayers in a bid to rebuild Indian economy.  

Mr Modi said, effort is to make the tax system seamless, painless and faceless. The Prime Minister said, amidst all the reforms introduced by the Centre, the number of people who have filed income tax returns has increased by about two-and-a-half crores in the last 6-7 years. He, however, said , it is also true that in a country of 130 crores and it is still very less.

Mr Modi emphasised with faceless assessment, the taxpayer is assured of fair, courteous and rational behavior. He said,  the income tax department now has to take care of the taxpayer's dignity sensitively and  the department cannot doubt anyone without any basis.Mr Modi said, taxpayers charter is also a big step in the country's development journey.

AIR correspondent reports, Faceless assessment, taxpayer charter starts from today and  faceless appeal to begin from September 25th.

Prime Minister will launch the platform for “Transparent Taxation: Honoring the Honest” via video conferencing on the 13th August 2020. The focus of the tax reforms has been on reduction in tax rates and on simplification of direct tax laws.

The CBDT has carried out several major tax reforms in direct taxes in the recent years. Last year the corporate tax rates were reduced from 30 percent to 22 percent and for new manufacturing units the rates were reduced to 15 percent. Dividend distribution tax was also abolished.

The focus of the tax reforms has been on reduction in tax rates and on simplification of direct tax laws. Several initiatives have been taken by the CBDT for bringing in efficiency and transparency in the functioning of the IT Department. This includes bringing more transparency in official communication through the newly introduced Document Identification Number (DIN) wherein every communication of the Department would carry a computer generated unique document identification number. Similarly, to increase the ease of compliance for taxpayers, IT Department has moved forward with prefilling of income tax returns to make compliance more convenient for individual taxpayers. Compliance norms for startups have also been simplified.

Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has launched ICAR's data recovery centre - Krishi Megh. The move is aimed at protecting  the precious data of the government's premier research body Indian Council of Agricultural Research. It has been set up at National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM) in Hyderabad.

Currently, the main data centre of the ICAR is at the Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI) in the national capital. Krishi Megh has been set up under the National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP), funded by both the government and World Bank.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Tomar said NAARM, Hyderabad has been chosen as it lies in a different seismic zone with regard to the Data Centre at ICAR-IASRI in New Delhi. He said Hyderabad is also suitable as skilled IT manpower is available along with other suitable climatic conditions such as low humidity level which is controllable in the data center environment.

Mr Tomar said, the data recovery centre at NAARM is synchronised with the data centre at IASRI. He said it has been built to mitigate the risk, enhance the quality, availability and accessibility of e-governance, research, extension and education in the field of agriculture in India. Mr Tomar emphasised the need to save and preserve the important research-based data in a prompt digitised form to enable its access anywhere in any corner of the country and the world.

Noted yesteryear Tamil film lyricist P K Muthusami passed away at his residence in R Pudupatti village in Namakkal, near Trichy early today morning. He was to complete his 100 th birthday this year.
 
Muthusami, had penned memorable Tamil film lyrics like ‘Mannukku Maram Baaramaa ?’ - which means ‘are the trees a burden on the earth?’ which is still relevant. Other famous songs composed by Muthusami include ‘Mapilai vandar’ and ‘Chinna chinna nadai nadandu’ etc. 

Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman inaugurated the National Infrastructure Pipeline, NIP, Online Dashboard in New Delhi today through video conferencing.

The online dashboard is envisaged as a one stop solution for all stakeholders looking for information on infrastructure projects in New India.

The dashboard is being hosted on the India Investment Grid, IIG www.indiainvestmentgrid.gov.in. IIG is an interactive and dynamic online platform that showcases d and real-time investment opportunities in the country.

Speaking at the event, Ms Sitharaman said, NIP will provide a boost to the vision of an Aatma Nirbhar Bharat.

She said, the availability of NIP projects on IIG will ensure easy accessibility to d project information and attract investors for PPP projects.

She added that it is a great step in the direction of implementing NIP- giving a fillip to infrastructure development in the country.

In the budget speech of 2019-2020, Ms Sitharaman announced an outlay of 100 lakh Crore rupees for infrastructure projects over the next 5 years.

The Minister has asked all concerned Department and Ministries to immediately the status of projects on NIP portal and keep it d in real time.

She has also asked all concerned Departments and Ministries to show concrete progress in terms of project and reforms implementation.

The inaugural was attended by members of the High-Level Task Force on Infrastructure and Secretaries of various ministries and government departments.

President Ram Nath Kovind today congratulated Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu on completing three years as Vice President of India. In a letter, Mr Kovind said, as Vice President, Mr Naidu has already emerged as an inspiration for posterity to learn from his ability to transform a mix of wisdom, energy and spirited enthusiasm into creative solutions for sustained nation building.
 
The President said, as Chairman of Rajya Sabha, he has set the record of conducting legislative business on an unprecedented scale. He said, it is a tribute to his genius and bipartisanship. Mr Kovind said, Mr Naidu's profound understanding of law and the constitution has enabled him to take a righteous approach in public service. He said, Mr Naidu's public conduct is always guided by an innate impulse to reach out to the last person in the queue, to build an inclusive and stronger India. The President prayed for his good health. 

In a bid to push Make-in-India, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh launched 'Atmanirbhar Bharat Week' via video conferencing on Monday.

The event comes shortly after the Defence Ministry introduced an import embargo on 101 items, in order to boost indigenisation of defence production.

The Defence Minister said, "The Government has made serval timely and thoughtful interventions during Covid-19 times like issuing negative list for import, increase in FDI limits and separate budget for domestic capital procurement. The ban on imports of 101 items is a big step towards atmanirbharta. The list of negative items contains not only small items but weapon systems of high and critical technology. More such items will be added to this list shortly which will save crores of rupees in imports."

He added, "The ‘Atmanirbharta Saptah’ will be a witness to initiatives pertaining to modernisation & up-gradation of facilities by DPSUs & OFB. As part of Atmanirbharta Saptah, the DPSUs & OFB are also organising a series of webinars covering all relevant topics including all stakeholders."

Raksha Mantri assured of encouraging 7000 MSMEs that are associated with the Defence Industry.

Lebanon's Prime Minister Hassan Diab has resigned from his post in the wake of major blast in Beirut that has triggered public outrage. In a brief televised speech after three of his ministers resigned, Mr Diab said he is taking a step back so he can stand with the people and fight the battle for change alongside them.
 
The Prime Minister's resignation follows a weekend of anti-government protests after the August 4 explosion in Beirut's port that decimated the facility and caused widespread destruction, killing more than 160 people and injured about six thousands. Diab's government was formed in January this year after his predecessor, Saad Hariri, stepped down in October last year in response to the demonstrations. It took months of bickering among the leadership factions before they settled on Diab.
 
President Michel Aoun has accepted the resignation of the  Diab government and asked it to stay on in a caretaker capacity until a new cabinet is formed.French President Emmanuel Macron hosted an international donors' conference on Sunday. US President Donald Trump and 15 other heads of state were present, pledging nearly 300 million dollars in aid to Lebanon.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will today inaugurate and dedicate to the nation submarine Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) connecting Chennai and Port Blair through video conferencing. The foundation stone for the project was laid by Mr Modi on 30th December 2018 at Port Blair. The submarine cable will also connect Port Blair to Swaraj Dweep, Little Andaman, Car Nicobar, Kamorta, Great Nicobar, Long Island, and Rangat. This connectivity will enable delivery of faster and more reliable mobile and landline telecom services to Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
 
Enhanced telecom and Broadband connectivity will boost tourism and employment generation in the Islands and also give an impetus to the economy and raise standards of living. Better connectivity will facilitate delivery of e-Governance services like telemedicine and tele-education. Small enterprises will benefit from opportunities in e-commerce, educational institutions will utilize enhanced availability of bandwidth for learning and knowledge sharing.
 
Once inaugurated, the submarine Optical Fibre Cable link will deliver bandwidth of 2x200 Gigabits per second, Gbps between Chennai and Port Blair, and 2x100 Gbps between Port Blair and the other islands. Provision of reliable, robust, and high-speed telecom and Broadband facilities in these Islands will be a landmark achievement from the viewpoint of consumers, as well as for strategic and governance reasons. 4G mobile services, which were constrained due to limited backhaul bandwidth provided via satellite will also see a major improvement. Business Process Outsourcing services and other medium and large enterprises will also reap the benefits of better connectivity.