TOP NEWS

The Aam Aadmi Party's Shelly Oberoi got another term as mayor of Delhi following her reelection on Wednesday without contest as her BJP rival Shikha Rai withdrew her nomination.

Rai told the House that she took the step because the election to the standing committee -- the apex decision-making body of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) -- has not been conducted.

Incumbent Deputy Mayor Aaley Mohammad Iqbal also got another term at the post, as BJP candidate Soni Pal withdrew her nomination. Iqbal and Pal were the two rival candidates for the post of deputy mayor.

Indonesia has become the latest addition to a growing list of countries that have given up settling overseas trade in US dollar and instead have started using its local currency.

Indonesia is following the lead of BRICS in de-dollarization, the country’s central bank governor said.

The BRICS nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa – have been ramping up de-dollarization efforts to use local currencies in settling international trade and reduce dependence on the US dollar. They are also working on creating a new currency to facilitate overseas trade.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a second charge sheet in the Delhi Liquor Policy Case, and it mentions the name of former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.

Sisodia is accused number one in the CBI FIR. He has been charged under sections 7, 7a, 8 of Prevention of Corruption Act and 120(b) and 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Along with him, Butchi Babu, Arjun Pandey and Amandeep Dhal were also named in the FIR.

A belligerent China and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict have pushed total global defence expenditure to record levels in 2022, jumping by 3.7 per cent to reach an unprecedented high of $ 2,240 billion, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said in a new report.

With an arms budget of $81.4 billion, India retains its place as one of the world's top five military spenders. The United States leads the pack with an expenditure of $877 billion, and China a distant second place with $292 billion.

Russia is in third place with a defence budget of $86.4 billion – less than a tenth of arch rival the United States. Riyadh rounds out the top five with $75 billion in spending.

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court, while clarifying the scope of assessment under Section 153A of the Income Tax Act, 1961, has held that in cases where no incriminating material is found during a search, the assessing officer (AO) cannot assess or reassess the total income for completed/ unabated assessments. In such cases, the remedy would lie under sections 147/148 of the IT Act, subject to fulfilment of conditions, a division bench of Justices MR Shah and Sudhanshu Dhulia clarified on April 24.

The IT authorities contended that in case of search even where no incriminating material is found during the course of search, even in case of unabated/ completed assessment, the AO can assess or reassess the income/total income taking into consideration the other material.