Indian Current Affairs: 12.09.2007

The government is considering an overhaul of the Indian Trusts Act, 1882, to allow more flexibility to trusts in investment decisions. The move is aimed at making the pre-independence law more contemporary.
Trusts can be classified as Public and Private. They can be charitable trusts (usually public) or they can be intended to benefit only some people or causes.
At present Trusts are supposed to invest 85% of money received in specified securities in the year the funds are received. If this is not possible, they can accumulate funds for five years and invest subsequently, as per the Income Tax Act. For specific investments they are provided IT exemption. Investments in shares of a private limited company are not eligible for tax exemption now.
The country has a few thousand trusts now. Of them about 400 are very huge and have phenomenal resources.

Fractional ownership of an aircraft entails three kinds of costs – ownership costs, fixed costs and flying costs. Suppose an aircraft costs Rs. 20 crores, if you choose to own 25% of it, it means you should pay Rs. 5 crores towards its purchase, bear 25% of the maintenance costs and lastly bear the fuel costs for your 25% time of use entitlement.
In chartering an aircraft, you are basically hiring a plane from some company. The way we hire taxis.
Club One Air is a company that offers fractional ownership of aircraft to individuals.

These are soaring right now and are hovering at about $78 a barrel.
But OPEC has not yet announced any plans to enhance production. They are discussing whether to increase the production by another 5 lakh barrels per day. At present OPEC countries produce about 28.5 mln barrels per day. This is about 40% of the world’s daily crude production.

ASEAN appears to be a very tough bargainer. When the talks commenced, the import duties on palm oil, tea, coffee and pepper were at 100%. On its persistent demand India has agreed to reduce the duties to 50%.
But ASEAN now wants the duties to be reduced to 30% on palm oil and 20% on the other three items.
These negotiations began in October 2003. The other difference is about rules of origin – ROO. Rules of origin define which products qualify as products originating from the partner country and which should be treated as imported products belonging to third countries.

Rajinder Sachar, remember him? He is a retired Chief Justice of High Court of Delhi. Known for his report on the Muslim reservation issue.
He says that judiciary should welcome the judges inquiry bill. His arguments:

Countries like New Zealand, Canada and Australia already have similar bills.
The fear that an inquiry will interfere with the independence of the judiciary is misplaced. Judicial independence is not an industrial benefit generously extended to judges and magistrates; it is a fundamental principle of society’s constitutional arrangements.

India is believed to be home to half the world’s surviving tigers. Their numbers have dwindled to a mere 3,642 from about 40,000 a century ago.

It is an interesting article about village courts that were prevalent till the 14^th century in India.
Many cases were disposed of at the village level itself. Every village had a court. The judges were appointed from among its permanent residents. They followed the Manu Dharma Sastra.
Perhaps time has come to revive such institutions, as our courts are not able to clear the backlog of cases pending before them.

She championed green and ethical causes long before they became fashionable and founded the Body Shop, one of the world’s most famous stores for animal-free beauty products.
She died on Monday at the age of 64, due to brain haemorrhage.

Indian Current Affairs