1) The Finance Ministry on 31 May 2015 released new simplified income tax return forms for different classes of tax payers. The new forms – ITR 2 and ITR2A, have only three pages as compared to the earlier controversial forms that comprised of 14 pages. What is the extended last date of filing income tax returns with these new forms? – 31 August 2015
Explanation: The main features of these new ITR forms is that the prying questions on foreign travel details and balances in bank accounts that were asked in the forms proposed in April 2015, have been dropped. The forms for both ITR2 and ITR2A would now contain only three pages and other information would be sought only in schedules which are to be filled only if applicable. The fact that the returns form proposed earlier was a 14-page one had been intimidating for most taxpayers. The Finance Ministry statement said that only passport number, if available, would be required in ITR-2 and ITR-2A. Tax payers have time till 31 August 2015 to file returns as per the revised forms. The e-filing software would be ready in the tax department’s website by 3 June.
2) A new plant to produce the paper for high-denomination currency notes domestically was inaugurated by the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on 30 May 2015. This plant is at which place? – Hoshangabad (Madhya Pradesh)
Explanation: The unit of the Security Paper Mill (SPM) at Hoshangabad (Madhya Pradesh) will produce high-denomination currency notes up to 6,000 tonnes per year. Hoshangabad was chosen as the centre for producing paper for printing currency notes several decades ago by Morarji Desai, who was the then Finance Minister and later became the Prime Minister. However, it produced paper for printing of currency notes of smaller denominations only. With the development of new facilities at Hoshangabad and also Mysore, it would be possible to produce currency printing paper of high denomination to fulfill the requirement. This will also reduce possibility of diversion of the paper supplied by foreign countries to other destinations for the purpose of generating fake currency. Currently, currency notes of larger denominations (such as Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000) are printed on imported paper though ink used is mostly produced within the country.
3) The United States on 29 May 2015 officially removed Cuba from its list of countries that sponsor terrorism, setting the two nations up for a full renewal of diplomatic ties. Since when, Cuba was on this list? – 1982
Explanation: Cuba was originally placed on the terror list in 1982 when the U.S. government accused the Fidel Castro regime of sponsoring communist groups in Latin America and Africa. Three other countries are currently named as state sponsors of terror – Iran, Sudan and Syria. The terror listing was one of the final barriers to restoring diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba. Obama announced in December 2014 that he was ending a nearly half-century of frozen relations, stating that the freeze wasn’t benefiting either nation. President Barack Obama originally announced in April 2015 that he was recommending that Cuba be removed from the terror blacklist after a State Department review. 29 May marked the expiration of a 45-day period when Congress could have blocked the move.
4) Who was named as the new Chancellor of the Nalanda University on 30 May 2015 to replace Nobel laureate Amartya Sen? – George Yeo (Singapore)
Explanation: George Yeo is a former Foreign Minister of Singapore. He was till now on the governing board of the prestigious Nalanda University in Bihar. He will replace Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, who withdrew his candidature for a second term as Chancellor of the University February 2015. Yeo was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2012 in recognition of his contribution in the field of “public affairs.” The University hit the headlines in February 2015, when Prof. Sen, whose term was to end in July 2015, wrote a letter to his colleagues on the board, withdrawing from seeking a second term, since the Narendra Modi government had not given its approval to his nomination. Nalanda University, situated in Rajgir (Bihar), has been established as a revival of the iconic ancient center of learning at Nalanda, which was one of the most famous academic institutions of the ancient era. It started functioning from 1 September 2014.
5) Which private-sector bank on 31 May 2015 announced that it will discontinue issuing slips after cash withdrawals at ATMs and will alert the customer through SMSes? – HDFC Bank
Explanation: This is a part of the digital initiative by the HDFC Bank, under which it had last year launched the ‘green PIN’ scheme wherein card-users were given the PIN numbers electronically rather than in a printed kit. The bank is piloting the initiative at a few ATMs at present and will roll out the same across its network of over 11,700 ATMs by the end of June 2015. Cash withdrawals account for the bulk of transactions at ATMs and the bank witnesses an average of 2 crore cash withdrawals every month at its ATMs. At present, customers are given a choice on whether they want a printed receipt or not. However, much of the receipts get discarded as soon as they come out and if not disposed off in the right way, also pose a security risk as they contain private information. The bank expects that the switch to paperless mode will help it save under Rs. 10 crore a year spent on paper.
6) Ed Gilligan, who died suddenly after falling ill on a flight to New York on 29 May 2015, was the President of which famous US banking entity? – American Express
Explanation: 55-year old Gilligan was working as the President of American Express since 2013. He was reporting to company’s CEO Ken Chenault. He was onboard a corporate plane and was coming back to New York from a business trip. Gilligan worked on just about every area of American Express’ business, including commercial card, small business, merchant services, travel and, most recently, digital partnerships and payments. His passing comes at a challenging time for American Express. Earlier this year, the company lost its exclusive relationship with Costco and lost a US antitrust suit. A stronger US dollar also dampened its revenue in the first quarter.
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