Paris pact on Water and Climate Change Adaptation
A
broad coalition of nations, river basin organisations, business and
civil societies from across the globe on 3 December, 2015 announced the
Paris Pact on Water and Climater Change Adaptation. It aims to make
water systems which are very foundation of sustainable human development
more resilient to climate change impacts. It also seeks at promoting
financial sustainability and new investment in water system management.
The announcement was made as part of the ‘Water Resilience Focus’ event
under the Lima to Paris Action Agenda (LPAA) on climate change.
Brazil entered longest recession since 1930s
Brazil’s
economy decreased by 1.7 % during July-September 2015. Since the 1930s
it is the country’s longest recession as Brazil’s third consecutive
quarter of contraction started from January 2015. In Brazil unemployment
rate was freezed at 8.9 %.
Lok Sabha passed bill to establish BIS as National Standards Body
The
Lok Sabha on 3 December 2015 passed the Bureau of Indian Standards
Bill, 2015 to establish the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) as a
National Standards Body. The bill seeks to establish harmonious
development of standardization and assessment and quality assurance of
goods, processes and services.
Double taxation avoidance pact with Japan
In
order to facilitate tax related exchange of information, the Union
Cabinet approved protocol between India and Japan for amending the
Double Taxation Avoidance Convention (DTAC). DTAC was signed between the
two nations in 1989 for avoidance of double taxation. Double taxation
is a levying of tax by two or more countries on the same declared
income, asset or financial transaction. The protocol facilitates both
the countries to assist each other in revenue collection and exempting
interest income from taxes in the source country.
RBI pact with UK Financial body
The
Reserve Bank of India signed an agreement with UK’s Prudential
Regulation Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for
supervisory cooperation and exchange of information. Two seperate
memoranda of understanding were signed by RBI with PRA and FCA. The
transfer of functions from Financial Services Authority (FSA) of the UK
to PRA and FCA necessitated signing of seperate MoUs for supervising
co-operation between the Reserve Bank and the PRA and FCA.