India inched a step closer to a nationwide Goods and Services Tax (GST) as the Cabinet on Wednesday approved key constitutional amendments in the GST bill, including dropping the one percent additional tax on inter-state sales.
The Cabinet also agreed on compensating states for any loss of revenue in the first five years of GST subsuming all indirect tax levies, including VAT.
The decision came a day after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley met state finance ministers to come to a consensus on the bill that has been languishing in the Parliament due to political differences.
Read The Quint’s full story here.
Also Read: GST Bill: A Stalemate in Parliament
An empty field, a closed godown, and a room with a few benches have been passed off as schools in Bihar, a new investigation by The Indian Express has revealed.
In an inspection across eight states, institutions that fall far short of basic affiliation criteria have also been granted affiliation, the report states.
This comes in the wake of the “toppers scam” in Bihar, where 24 people have been arrested under charges of corruption, including Bihar School Examination Board Chairman (BSEB) Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh.
Source: The Indian Express
Two days after the Rajasthan High Court acquitted actor Salman Khan in the poaching cases, the sole eyewitness of the incident, Harish Dulani, claimed that he was repeatedly threatened.
Dulani, who was the driver of the Gypsy that was used by Khan and his friends for the alleged poaching, in an interview with NDTV said:
Dulani, who went missing in 2002, maintained his claim that Khan shot the Chinkara, which could mean fresh trouble for the actor.
Source: The Indian Express
In a scathing attack against him, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday released a video statement to volunteers and supporters of Aam Aadmi Party suggesting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi could get him “killed”.
Clearly referring to the piling cases and police action against his party members and MLAs in the past few months, Kejriwal dubbed Modi as the “mastermind” behind the “cycle of oppression” against them and alleged that he wished to “vanquish” the party.
Source: Hindustan Times
As part of his first formal interaction with the RSS since taking charge of the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry, Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday held a meeting with senior functionaries of the Sangh and its affiliates to discuss the new national education policy.
Members of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), Sanskrit Bharati and Shiksha Bachao Andolan, were among others at the meeting.
The agenda of the meeting was to deliberate upon the policy and ways to “instil nationalism, pride and ancient Indian values in modern education”.
Source: The Indian Express
After earlier confirming Chinese incursion in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district, Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Wednesday evening made a U-turn on his statement, asserting that there is no need to be alarmed.
Source: The Indian Express
Two Muslim women in Madhya Pradesh were beaten up by Bajrang Dal workers at a railway station on Tuesday on the suspicion that they were carrying beef to sell in a marketplace.
The incident happened despite the police’s presence at the station.
Local doctors who examined the meat concluded that it was buffalo, not cow. The incident created an uproar in the Parliament on Wednesday as the Opposition protested growing cases of cow vigilantes seeking justice by attacking people.
Source: Deccan Chronicle
The Lok Sabha cleared an amendment to the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act, 2013 on Wednesday, which defers the deadline for employees, public servants, and board members of NGOs who receive over Rs 1 crore in government funding or over Rs 10 lakh in foreign funding, to declare theirs and their spouses’ assets.
While the amendment was approved, opposition parties cautioned against moves to dilute the Bill. The Standing Committee is expected to give its report in Parliament’s next session.
Source: The Hindu
Magsaysay award winner Bezwada Wilson on Wednesday said that eradicating manual scavenging has to be India’s top priority as caste-discrimination in the country will destroy BR Ambedkar’s dream of an egalitarian society.
Wilson strongly criticised the idea of “fundamentalism” and asserted that the brutal attack on Dalit youngsters in Una, Gujarat was indicative of how “anti-democratic” powers take the law into their own hands.
Source: Hindustan Times
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