Margaret Alva:

Margaret Alva sworn in as the 19^th Governor of Rajasthan. She is the 3^rd woman Governor of the state after Ms. Pratibha Devisingh Patil and Ms. Prabha Rao, who had served earlier.

Rahul Khullar:

• Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar appointed the new chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Eduardo Saverin:

Co-founder of Facebook Inc.

Before an IPO that values the social networking site Facebook at as much as $96 billion, the billionaire co-founder of Facebook Inc. Eduardo Saverin renounced his US citizenship.

The move may decrease his tax bill. Saverin’s stake is 4%, as per the website Who Owns Facebook. At the high-end of the IPO valuation, that would be worth about $3.84 billion. His holdings aren’t listed in Facebook’s regulatory filings.

Saverin, joins a growing number of people giving up US citizenship, a move that can cut their tax liabilities in US. Saverin lately found it more useful to become a resident of Singapore.

Francois Hollande:

• Mr. Francois Hollande sworn in as President of France. 
• Became the First Socialist in 17 years to occupy the Elysee Palace.

Rekha:

Cine superstar Rekha took oath as a member of the Rajya Sabha. 

• During 2010-11, the government's revenue from direct tax collection rose by 94% to Rs 4,46,935 crore in from Rs 2,30,181 crore in 2006-07.
• During the same period, the Indirect tax collection rose to Rs 3,45,127 crore from Rs 2,41,538.

But, the number of tax assesses fell in 2008-09 and 2010-11 from the previous years for the 5 years under review. During these years, the number of income tax assesses were:

• 3.19 million (2006-07)
• 3.37 million (2007-08)
• 3.27 million (2008-09) (Decrease)
• 3.41 million (2009-10)
• 3.37 million (2010-11) (Decrease)

Under the Centre’s Integrated Action Plan (IAP), the Union Rural Development Ministry has deputed a team of fresh IIM and IIT graduates in Jharkhand to support the senior Bureaucrats in implementation of development plans across 11 naxal-hit districts. The IAP operates in 17 districts of Jharkhand.

As per the fellowship programme worked out by PM Manmohan Singh and Union minister Jairam Ramesh, each IAP runs districts will get two fellows to assist respective Deputy Commissioners.

The posts of fellows were advertised by the Union Rural Development Ministry a few months ago. Over 8,000 Engineering, Management and other degree holders responded and from amongst them 800 were shortlisted. To begin with 156 were selected for 78 left wing extremism-hit districts across 9 states including Jharkhand. In Jharkhand, 34 fellows were appointed and of them from the first batch 22 have joined recently. The fellows were appointed with a beginning honorarium of Rs 50,000 a month that will be raised to Rs 75,000 after 2 months.

As per TRAI’s Standards of Quality of Service Regulation 2012:

• Duration of advertisements limited on Television channels to 12 minutes per hour and any shortfall of advertisement duration in any clock hour can’t be carried over.
• Min. time gap b/w any two consecutive advertisement breaks should not be less than 15 minutes, while in case of movies, this time gap should be a minimum of 30 minutes.
• These conditions shall not apply live broadcast of a sporting event.
• During live broadcast of a sporting event, ads can be telecast only during the breaks in the sporting action.
• The audio level of the ads carried in TV channels cannot be higher than the audio level of the programmes being broadcast in the channel.
• Ads can only be full screen with part screen and drop down ads not permitted.

A pilot project launched by the department of trade and commerce in the Arunachal Pradesh.

Objective:

• To encourage tea cultivation in the Arunachal Pradesh
• For small and marginal tea growers in the state.
• Scheme being implemented for the first time in the state.
• Project in particular engineered to help provide financial assistance in the form of supplying of tea saplings to small and marginal tea farmers.