BHIM 3.0
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has recently launched the BHIM (BHarat Interface for Money) 3.0.
- Now available in 15+ Indian languages.
- Allows to track, manage, and split expenses with ease.
- Ensures uninterrupted transactions even in regions with weak or unstable network connectivity.
- Built-in task assistant to remind users of pending bills, UPI Lite activation, and low balance alerts.
Safe Harbour Rule
Recently, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) notified amendments to Income-tax Rules to increase the threshold for availing safe harbour from Rs 200 crore to Rs 300 crore.
- Critical component of India’s transfer pricing framework
- Defined under Income-tax Act, 1961 for the determination of arm’s length price.
- Safe harbour refers to circumstances in which the income-tax authorities accept the transfer price as declared by the assessee.
- Transfer Price – Actual price charged in a transaction between related entities which are part of same multi national enterprise group.
- Arm’s length price – Price that would be agreed upon in a transaction between two independent, unrelated parties, under open market conditions.
Control of Pollution Scheme
Department-related standing committee on science and technology, environment, forests and climate change raised concerns over inadequate expenditure under the Control of Pollution Scheme
- Scheme to monitor air quality across the country and take appropriate air pollution mitigation measures, besides monitoring water quality and noise levels in the country.
- Administered by – Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change
- Central Sector Scheme.
- Operational since 2018.
Signal App
Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor of The Atlantic, was mistakenly added to a Signal group chat where top US officials discussed sensitive military plans to attack the Houthis in Yemen.
- A secure messaging app that offers end-to-end encryption
- Ensures private conversations and calls cannot be accessed by the service provider.
- Its open-source code allows experts to verify its security in real-time.
- Features like automated message deletion ensure privacy within a specified time.
Forest Land Diversion
Union environment ministry in a reply to a question in Lok Sabha said that close to 1,73,396.87 hectares of Forest land has been diverted for various non-forestry purposes between 2014-15 to 2023-24.
- Land diversions including infrastructure projects were carried out under the provisions of Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980/ Forest (Conservation and Augmentation) Act, 1980
- Largest forest area was diverted from Madhya Pradesh
- MP was followed by Odisha and Uttar Pradesh
- Among the Himalayan states, the highest diversion was in Arunachal Pradesh