Category: RECORDS, INDIA (National)

** GST Council cuts tax rate on COVID-19 essentials

Council largely agrees to go ahead with GoM’s recommendations

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) has been waived for two critical drugs against COVID-19 and black fungus, Tocilizumab and Amphotericin B, while tax rates have been reduced to 5% on 14 major pandemic relief goods, including testing kits and hand sanitisers, from prevailing rates in the range of 12% and 18%.   

Ambulances, which are currently taxed at 28%, will now attract a GST levy of 12%, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday, announcing these concessional rates following a meeting of the GST Council to discuss the indirect taxes levied on COVID-19 supplies.   

** Indian-origin journalist wins Pulitzer Prize for exposing China’s vast infrastructure for detaining Muslims

Megha Rajagopalan from BuzzFeed News is among two Indian-origin journalists who won the U.S.’ top journalism award on Friday

Megha Rajagopalan, an Indian-origin journalist, along with two contributors has won the Pulitzer Prize for innovative investigative reports that exposed a vast infrastructure of prisons and mass internment camps secretly built by China for detaining hundreds of thousands of Muslims in its restive Xinjiang region.

Tampa Bay Times’ Neil Bedi won for local reporting. Ms. Bedi along with Kathleen McGrory has been awarded the prize for the series exposing a Sheriff’s Office initiative that used computer modelling to identify people believed to be future crime suspects. About 1,000 people were monitored under the programme, including children.

Mr. Bedi is an investigative reporter for the Tampa Bay Times

** BAFTA Breakthrough India: First among equals

International collaborations to new learnings, here’s what BAFTA Breakthrough India honourees Tanya Maniktala, Arun Karthick, Karthikeya Murthy, Sumit Purohit and Jay Pinak Oza are looking forward to

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced its first Breakthrough Initiative for India, by selecting 10 promising talents in film, television and gaming. Over the next year, these honourees will receive mentoring and global networking opportunities

** Indian brand gets silver at International Chocolate awards

Paul and Mike, an artisanal chocolate brand based in Kerala, is the first Indian brand to have come this far

Paul And Mike, an artisanal Kerala-based ‘bean to bar’ chocolate maker is savouring the taste of success. It has become the first Indian company to win a silver in the International Chocolate Awards (2020-2021 world final) for its ‘64 Percent Dark Sichuan Pepper and Orange Peel Vegan Chocolate’.

** Udupi: Former Indian football team captain Shekhar Bangera succumbs to coronavirus

Shekhar Paddu Bangera (74), former captain of the Indian football team, fell victim to coronavirus infection on Thursday June 10.

Shekhar, who hails from Badanidiyoor here, was the Indian football team’s goalkeeper cum captain.

** CCMB scientists discover new enzyme for cell stability

CCMB scientists led by Manjula Reddy studied the cell wall biology of a well-studied strain of E. coli using genetic and biochemical approaches to identify ‘LdtF’ which could cleave the lipoprotein from the peptidoglycan. Absence of this LdtF enhanced growth defects and increased the peptidoglycan-lipoprotein linkages in the bacteria.

** IISc-Bangalore top research institute in world, reveals ranking

The ranking body found that Indian universities have improved their research impact as 17 of India’s 35 top universities have seen a rise in CPF scores, while 12 have witnessed a drop.