By Chirag Chauhan, Jhankhana Thakkar, Chartered Accountants
1. Economy
10. U.S., Japan Express Concern Over China’s Interest in Saudi Oil Giant Amarco
A plan to list Saudi Aramco in 2018 is on
track. Prince Mohammad has said the IPO, which could be the world’s biggest,
will value Aramco at a minimum of $2 trillion and could raise as much as $100
billion.
U.S. and Japan have urged Saudi Arabia to
pursue an international listing for oil giant Aramco, fearing the possible sale
of a stake to China would give Beijing too much sway in the Middle East.
Recently Donald Trump has publicly pleaded
with Saudi Arabia to sell shares in its national oil company, Aramco, on the
New York Stock Exchange via tweet. “Would very much appreciate Saudi
Arabia doing their IPO of Aramco with the New York Stock Exchange. Important to
the United States!” It would be interesting to see if the Aramco will give pre
listing stake to China or not. Only year 2018 will give you answer.
(Source : Returns and Wall Street
Journal)
11.
Fortune 500 Companies presence in Tax Heaven
Tax havens help MNCs in evading the taxes by
different ways and by different means .One of the major companies uses the tax
havens is for corporate tax avoidance; which has enormous impact both on
developing and developed countries. It is difficult for the tax authorities to
track the global companies who are evading taxes in their countries due to lack
of transparency.
Multinational firms can artificially shift
profits from high tax to low tax jurisdictions using a variety of techniques ,
such as shifting debt to high tax jurisdictions ,because tax on the income of
foreign subsidiaries (except for certain passive income) is deferred until
income is repatriated (paid to the US parent as a dividend).
Interesting facts
More than two thirds of the companies
registered in the US (Surface area: nearly 4 million square miles) appear to be
located in the tiny state of Delaware (Surface area: less than 2000 square
miles).
Most of America’s largest corporations
maintain subsidiaries in offshore Tax havens. At least 358 companies, nearly 72
percent of the fortune 500 operate subsidiaries in tax haven jurisdictions. All
told these 358 companies maintain at least 7,622 tax havens’ subsidiaries. The
thirty companies with the most money officially booked offshore for tax
purposes collectively operate 1,225 tax haven subsidiaries.
Fortune 500 companies currently hold more
than 2.1 trillion in accumulated profits offshore for tax purposes. Just thirty
fortune 500 companies account for 65 percent of these offshore profits. These
thirty companies with the most money offshore have booked 1.4 trillion overseas
for tax purposes. Only fifty seven fortune 500 companies disclose what they
would except to pay US taxes if these profits were not officially booked
offshore. In total these seven corporations public disclosures, the average
rate they have collectively paid to foreign countries on these profits is a
mere six percent indicating that a large portion of this offshore money has
been booked in tax havens.
If we apply that average tax rate of six
percent to the entirety of fortune 500 companies they would collectively owe
620 billion in additional federal taxes.
(Source: Black Money and Tax Heavens
Book)
2. Social
12.
India’s blind people struggle to recognise new banknotes
The government move to change the currency
bills last year has affected the visually impaired. Unlike the previous rupee
bills, the new banknotes are indistinguishable from one another based on their
texture and dimensions. The old 50, 100, 500 and 1,000 rupee banknotes, there
was a discernible size difference of 10mm or more either by length or width, a
distinction that helped most of India’s blind population transact with cash.
Imagine a Rs. 500 Note of a pale grey 150 by 66mm piece of paper and 20-rupee
note a 147mm by 63mm, how the blind person is going to differentiate? There are
more than 4 Million Blind population in India.
The Blind Graduates Forum of India, has been
in touch with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI),
finance minister and prime ministers’ offices, for the past few months
to make representation.
India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his
2014 budget speech had promised more schemes and measures to assist those with
disabilities. The Right of Persons with Disabilities Act passed in 2016
stipulates that various facilities, infrastructure and services be provided in
an accessible fashion. But implementation has so far been uneven. There is
online petition in chage.org, which has got more than 5000 signatures.
(Source: TRT World)
3. Technology
13.
Investors are Selling Gold to Invest in Bitcoin
According to ACG Analytics US macro strategy
head Larry McDonald, investors have begun to sell gold to invest in bitcoin
through the newly launched bitcoin futures exchange of the Chicago Board
Options Exchange (CBOE)
Since September, the value of gold miners
ETF (GDX), the largest gold exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the market, has
fallen by nearly 15 percent. In the past, McDonald noted that the value of gold
ETFs were correlated to the price trend of bond yields. But, this week,
McDonald explained that the decline in the price of gold ETFs was triggered by
the rapid increase in demand for bitcoin.
Given bitcoin’s decentralized nature,
transportability, fixed supply, and divisibility, in the long-term, bitcoin
will be able to compete with traditional stores of value such as gold.
(Source : newsbtc)
14.
2017 rewind: achievements,
major milestone, political and other events in India
January
– 2
January – Nuclear-Capable Agni-IV Missile Tested Successfully.
– 7
January -Heavy snowfall in Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttrakhand disrupt
normal life. Heaviest snowfall recorded of two decades at most of the places.
– 25
January – UAE delegation led by Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown
Prince Abu Dhabi visited India to sign 14 agreements including strategic
partnership, defense industries, transport, cyber security and shipping.
February
– 1
February – Union budget for 2017 – 18 is presented by Arun Jaitley in Lok
Sabha.[7] 92 year old Railway Budget is merged in this budget.
– 15
February – ISRO launched PSLV-C37 rocket which put into orbit a record 104
satellites from seven countries.
March
– 6
March – Indian Navy’s oldest serving aircraft carrier INS Viraat decommissioned
after 30 years of its service.
– 11
March – Election result of Legislative election in five states declared by
Election Commission.
– 14
March – Manohar Parrikar took oath as the new Chief Minister of Goa.
– 15
March – Biren Singh took oath as the new Chief Minister of Manipur.
– 16
March – Amarinder Singh took oath as the new Chief Minister of Punjab.
– 18
March – Adityanath Yogi took oath as the new Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
April
– 27
April – Vinod Khanna death, 70, Veteran Actor, Former Minister of State (born
1946), Bladder Cancer.
May
– 26
May – K. P. S. Gill dead, 82, IPS officer.
June
– 9
June – India along with archrival Pakistan became full members of Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation.
– 17
June – Kochi Metro inaugurated.
– 19
June – BJP announced Ram Nath Kovind as its Presidential Candidate for
Presidential Election.
– 23
June – ISRO puts 31 satellites including 29 satellites from other countries
through PSLV C-38 successfully.
July
– 1
July – Goods and Services Tax (India) launched in India. The India’s biggest
tax reform in 70 years of independence, was launched at midnight of 30 June
2017.
– 11
July – Major landslide occurred in Arunachal Pradesh. 14 people died while many
injured.
– 17
July – Indian presidential elections were held.
– 17
July – BJP led NDA declared Venkaiah Naidu as their candidate for Vice –
President election.
– 18
July – Congress protests against Madhur Bhandarkar’s film Indu Sarkar based on
1975 Emergency in India.
– 20
July – Ram Nath Kovind won the 2017 Indian presidential election with 65.65%
votes against Meira Kumar, the presidential candidate of the opposition.
– 25
July – Ram Nath Kovind took oath as 14th President of India.
– 26
July – Nitish Kumar (JDU) resigns as Chief Minister of Bihar, breaking the
coalition with RJD & Indian National Congress.
– 27
July – NDA (JDU + BJP) led government comes in Bihar. Nitish Kumar and Sushil
Modi took oath as Chief Minister and Dy. Chief Minister of Bihar respectively.
August
– 5
August – Venkaiah Naidu won the Indian vice-presidential election with 67.89%
votes against Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the opposition candidate.
– 9
August – Maratha Kranti Morcha starts in Mumbai for the demand for reservation
for the Maratha Community in the state of Maharashtra.
– 11
August – Venkaiah Naidu took oath as 13th Vice President of India.
– 22
August – Supreme Court bans instant triple talaq calling it unconstitutional.
Instructed Central Government to pass law in parliament for triple talaq.
– 28
August – Dipak Misra sworn in as 45th Chief Justice of India.
– 30
August – Switzerland president Doris Leuthard visited India for bilateral talk.
September
– 3
September- Nirmala Sitharaman became Defence Minister of India.
– 5
September – Narendra Modi on visit of China for 9th BRICS Summit and
Myanmar for bilateral talk and Lucknow Metro inaugurated.
– 11–12
September – Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko visited India for bilateral
talk, signed 10 agreements including defense.
– 13–14
September – Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Ahmedabad for bilateral
talk, signed many agreements including Bullet Train project in India.
October
– 6
October – FIFA U-17 World Cup kickoff in India
– 16
October – 6 Corporaters in Mumbai joined Shivsena leaving Raj’s MNS.
November
– 1
November – Ashish Nehra retired from International Cricket.
– 18
November – Manushi Chhillar won the 6th Miss World crown for India
in Sanya, China.
– 29
November – Inauguration of Hyderabad Metro.
December
– 2
December – Cyclone Ockhi hits Tamil Nadu and Kerala causing 13 deaths.
– 4
December – Shashi Kapoor’s death, 79, Indian Veteran Actor.
– 7
December – Mani Shankar Aiyar removed from Congress.
– 13
December – Rohit Sharma scored third double century in ODIs against Sri
Lanka.[58].
– 18
December – Election commission declared result of Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat
legislative assembly election.
(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org) _
