The Daily Brief – 8th July 2016

• The Central government is planning to raise the foreign direct investment cap for newspapers and periodicals. Currently, it is capped at 26%. There will be an increase to 49%. The government recently relaxed FDI norms in about eight sectors, including civil aviation, defence, private security agencies, pharmaceuticals and food processing industry.
• The Supreme Court Collegium is considering the elevation of Justices Manjula Chellur, K.M. Joseph and Sanjay Kishan Kaul to the Supreme Court even as a sitting judge, Justice F.M.I. Kalifulla, is due to retire on July 22. The retirement of Justice Kalifulla will increase the judicial vacancies in the Supreme Court to three. The sanctioned strength is 31.
• The Supreme Court has changed the composition of the Bench hearing a petition against the restriction on women aged between 10 and 50 from entering the Sabarimala temple. Justices Gopala V. Gowda and Kurian Joseph are no more part of the three-judge Bench led by Justice Dipak Misra. Instead, the new Bench will have Justices Nagappan and R. Banumathi sitting along with Justice Misra on July 11, 2016.
• The second anti-drug working group meeting of heads of anti-narcotics agencies of BRICS countries began in New Delhi to discuss issues related to narco-terrorism and money laundering. The one day meeting was inaugurated Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. It has been organised by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) of India.
• India and Mozambique have signed three Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) in areas of drug trafficking, pulse trading and sports. These MoUs were signed between two countries at Maputo, Mozambique in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Filipe Nyusi, President of Mozambique.
• National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) unveiled India’s first centre of excellence focused on Internet of Things (CoE- IoT). The centre of excellence is set up at the Nasscom Start-ups Warehouse in Bangalore. The CoE is a joint initiative between the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEITY), education and research network (ERNET) and the IT industry body.
• The Union Finance Ministry has constituted four members committee to examine the feasibility and desirability of having a new financial year. The committee has been tasked to examine the merits and demerits of various dates for the commencement of the financial year including the existing date (April to March) by taking into account the various relevant factors. The committee will be headed by Dr. Shankar Acharya (former Chief Economic Adviser). Besides it will consist of PV Rajaraman (former Finance Secretary, Tamil Nadu), KM Chandrasekhar (former Cabinet Secretary) and Dr. Rajiv Kumar (Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research) as its members.
• Rajasthan has become the first state in the country to introduce minimum wages for part time workers. In this regard, the Labour Department has issued a notification. With this, part time workers in the state now come under the Minimum Wages Act 1948.
• Serena Williams won the Wimbledon semi final against Elena Vesnina, while Venus Williams lost to Germany’s Angelique Kerber. The finals will be held on Saturday, between Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber.
• Britain’s Conservative Party has shortlisted two women to be the next Prime Minister of the U.K. The Party will choose between Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom, and the winner is set to be the second British woman Prime Minister after Margaret Thatcher. This election comes in the wake of Britain’s referendum where the majority voted to leave the European Union, after which Prime Minister David Cameron had resigned. There will be no general election, and the Prime Minister brought in through postal ballot by the Conservative Party will be announced on September 9th, 2016.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a bill increasing governmental surveillance in Russia. These laws have been called ‘Big Brother’ laws, and will require communication providers to store users’ calls, messages, photographs and videos for six months, as well as metadata for up to three years.
• South African writer, filmmaker and photographer Lidudumalingani has won the 17th edition of prestigious Caine Prize 2016. He was bestowed with this prestigious award for his short story “Memories We Lost”.  The winning short story explores how traditional beliefs are used to tackle schizophrenia. The Caine Prize is an annual literature prize awarded to an African writer of a short story published in the English language. It is famously referred as the African Booker.

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