Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams - 24June, 2015

Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams

24 June 2015

New ITR forms notified

The Income Tax Department on Monday notified a new set of income tax return forms for the assessment year 2015-16, and has extended the deadline for the filing of returns to August 31.
With the publication of the Gazette order by the Finance Ministry, taxpayers can now file their returns till August 31. The changes to the forms were made public on May 31, but they were notified only on Monday.
The previous deadline for the filing of returns was July 31, but this was extended because of various changes the government made to the return forms.
In the new and simplified forms, filers no longer have to provide the details of their foreign travels. In addition, they need furnish only details about “total number of savings and current bank accounts” held by them “at any time during the previous year [excluding dormant accounts]”.

Mars Orbiter Mission completes 100th orbit around Mars

The Indian Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) completed its 100th orbit around Mars on Monday. It is also gradually coming out of the blackout it had entered earlier this month, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has said.
The payloads on the spacecraft are to be re-started in a few weeks. They were last operated on May 27 to put the spacecraft in an autonomous mode.
MOM remains healthy and all its payloads are performing satisfactorily, ISRO said. The Mars Colour Camera has taken 405 frames so far.

Sebi's new trading platform, for startup valuation bubble?

The Securities and Exchange Board of India on Tuesday simplified the norms governing the initial public offering of companies in a bid to encourage internet start-ups to raise funds domestically rather than going abroad.
In order to facilitate fund raising by these start-ups, the market watchdog has approved a new platform called Institutional Trading Platform (ITP) where they can get listed and also relaxed listing norms.ge
According to the press release, "companies which are intensive in their use of technology, information technology, intellectual property, data analytics, bio-technology, nano-technology to provide products, services or business platforms with substantial value addition and with at least 25% of the pre-issue capital being held by QIBs" will have access to this platform.
Any other company in which at least 50% of the pre-issue capital is held by QIBs can also raise funds from ITP.
Apart from this, the Sebi has also cut listing time for companies from 12 days from date of IPO to 6 days and expanded the ASBA facility for IPO investments that would do away with cheque payments.
ASBA or Application Supported by Blocked Amount is a facility introduced by Sebi, where the amount of an investor held in an account and not debited until she is alloted the shares.
The business community is hailing the Sebi move, coming at a time when the country has a huge startup base looking for funding support. According to Nasscom estimates in 2014, India has more than 3000 startups and is the thrid largest base in the world.