Current Affair March 2015

Arun Singh named as new Indian Ambassador to US 
Senior IFS officer, Arun Singh has been named as new Indian Ambassador to US. Prior to this announcement he was serving as India’s Ambassador of France. 
Arun Singh will replace S Jaishankar, who was appointed as Foreign Secretary. 
About Arun Singh 

• Singh is a 1979-batch IFS officer. 
• His first assignment abroad was at the Indian Embassy Moscow from 1981-1982. 
• He has served at the Indian Missions in Addis Ababa and in Tokyo. 
• He also has served as joint secretary in-charge to Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan division in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). 
• Singh also has served at the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations Office, New York (1993-1997) as Counsellor and had handled multilateral social and economic negotiations. 
• Earlier, Singh had served as ambassador to Israel (2005-2008) and later was served as deputy chief of mission in Washington (2008-2013.). Singh was appointed as ambassador to France in 2013.

Mufti Mohammad Sayeed sworn in as Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir 

• Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on 1 March 2015 was sworn-in as Chief Minister of Peoples Democratic Party-Bhartiya Janta Party (PDP-BJP) coalition government of Jammu & Kashmir. 
• As a person he became 9th Chief Minister of J&K and 12th Chief Minister as tenure wise. Along with Mufti Sayeed, following ministers took oaths 
• Deputy Chief Minister- Nirmal Singh (BJP). 
• Cabinet Minister- Abdul Rehman Bhat (Veery), Chander Parkash Ganga, Javed Mustafa Mir, Lal Singh, Abdul Haq Khan, Bali Bhagat, Syed Basharat Ahmed Bukhari, Sukhnandan Choudhary, Choudhary Zulfikar Ali, Sajjad Gani Lone, Haseeb Drabu, Ghulam Nabi Lone, She’d Mohammad Altaf Bukhari, Imran Hussain Ansari, Nayeem Akhtar. 
• Minister of State- Tsering Dorjey, Abdul Majeed Paddar, Sunil Kumar Sharma, Mohammad Ashraf Mir, Abdul Ghani Kohli, Priya Sethi, Pawan Gupta, Ashiya Naqqash.

Highlights of Union Budget 2015-16 
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented Union Budget 2015-16 in the Parliament. 
It was the first full year Budget of the NDA government under leadership of Prime Minister of Narendra Modi and the second budget of Arun Jaitley as Finance Minister.

Taxation 

• No change in the Tax slab on personal income. 
• Wealth tax abolished. 
• Additional 2% surcharge for the super-rich with income more than Rs. 1 crore.
• For next 4 years, corporate tax has been reduced to 25 percent from present 30 percent. 
• Service tax increased to14 per cent. 
• Apart from CSR, 100% tax exemption for contribution to Swachch Bharat Abhiyan.

New projects  

• 5 more AIIMSs in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar and Assam. 
• IIT in Karnataka. While, the Indian School of Mines in Dhanbad, Jharkhand will be converted into IIT. 
• 2 more IIMs in Jammu and Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh. 
• Post-Graduation institutes of Horticulture in Amritsar, Punjab. University of Disability Studies will be established in Kerala. 
• In Arunachal Pradesh, Centre of film production, animation and gaming will come up. 
• For Infrastructure sector Rs. 70,000 crores allocated. 
• Projects in rail road and irrigation bonds will be tax free. 
• Infrastructure development through PPP model will be revitalised and government will bear majority of the risk. Atal Innovation Mission will be established to draw on expertise of researchers and entrepreneurs to foster scientific innovations. 
• For this mission Rs. 150 crore allocated. 5 ultra-mega power projects each of 4000MW proposed by Government

Defence 

• 2,46,726 crore allocated for Defence. 
• It is 9.87 per cent greater than last year. Make in India campaign will take into consideration for speedy manufacturing of Defence equipment.

Welfare Schemes and new programmes 

• Under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, six crore toilets across the country will be built. 
• By 2020, housing for all. MGNREGA will get MGNREGA of Rs. 5,000 crore. 
• It is highest allocation to this scheme. 
• To improve quality of life of common man, GST and JAM trinity (Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and Mobile) will be launched. 
• To encourage first generation SC/ST entrepreneurs, MUDRA bank will provide finance. 
• Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) will be further be expanded to 10.3 crore from 1 crore. 
• Government will contribute 50% of the premium limited to Rs. 1,000 a year for the Atal Pension Yojana. 9,000 crore unclaimed funds in PPF/EPF will be used for Senior Citizens Fund. 
• For all Indian, government will create universal social security system. 
• For electric cars production Rs. 75 crore allocated. Renewable energy target for 2022: 60K MW in wind; 10K MW in biomass, 100K MW in solar and 5K MW in small hydro plants. 
• Under the new tourism scheme, development of churches and convents in old Goa; Hampi, Elephanta caves, , Jallianwala Bagh, Forests of Rajasthan, Leh palace, Varanasi Qutb Shahi tombs at Hyderabad. 
• Visa on Arrival (VoA) facility to be increased for 150 countries from present 43 countries. 
• As an alternative to purchasing gold, Sovereign Gold Bond will be launched. In order to facilitate depositors of gold to earn interest and jewellers to obtain loans on their metal accounts new scheme will be launched. 
• Forward Markets Commission (FMC) will be merged with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). Under SARFAESI Act 2002, NBFCs registered with the RBI having asset size of Rs 500 crore and above to be considered as financial institution for mid-corporate businesses and fund SME. 
• For Rural Infrastructure Development Bank, Rs. 25,000 crore allocated. 
• To support Micro Irrigation Programme, Rs. 5,300 crore allocated.