One year of GST: Sowing the seeds for fruits of GDP growth in the future

GST may have had issues at the time of roll out and some creases need to be ironed out but it will help India's GDP grow.

One Year Of GST : A year back when GST was being rolled out, this was a point of time when many state legislatures were in the mode of circumspection. GST was long needed for establishing a robust indirect tax system in the country. It came in at a right time when the 'Digital India' campaign had started to succeed in reaching across the length and breadth of the country.


Let’s check out some of the hits that GST has marked for itself :
GST law functioning under a shelter of a robust technology
Despite GSTN having a tight deadline to prepare a robust system to handle various GST compliances like Migration, Registrations, Return filing and Refund processing, a sound and reliable system was set-up for citizens to operate. At times, system software and hardware failed to take the load and hence crashed. Not only this, despite online filing, a manual submission of form RFD-01A - for GST refunds - continues till today. But a look into the legal structure of GST formulated by the GST council and the lawmakers, a proper technology backing is a must. Nevertheless, GSTN is dedicated towards building a strong GST portal in an ongoing effort to resolve tech issues.


Salute to GST council’s statecraft
Uphill task of decision-making that had a nation-wide impact was managed with strong and principled diplomacy. The statesmanship shown by all the members of the state is appreciable. Timely meetings ( offline and through video conferencing ) to discuss various relevant concerns of trade and industry worked well. Handling of the entire process of simplification in GST return filing to make it taxpayer-friendly in short time is welcome.


The revenue figures for May 2018 of GST collected stands approximately at 940 billion, which is above the monthly average GST collected for any previous month.


Despite GST stabilising with anti-tax evasion measures such as e-way bill mechanism, there are few misses that need further deliberation:

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Indian army surgical strike video released, shows ops against terror camps: TV channels

On September 29, 2016, the Indian Army announced that it attacked terrorists' camps along the Line of Control using ground forces.

Purported visuals of the Indian Army's cross-border operations against terrorists about two years ago were broadcast by television channels on Wednesday night.

News channels said the grainy footage on air showed gunfire and explosions targeting enemy camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, an operation that came in retaliation to a terrorist strike on an Indian Army camp and is widely known as surgical strikes.
The reports also said these videos, provided to TV channels by sources, were shot by drones using thermal imaging cameras.

Business Standard could not independently verify the authenticity of the videos but an official who was directly in charge of the operation confirmed that they were real.

“When the surgical strikes happened, my view was that the videos should have been released as proof. It is good that they have come out now,” Lt General D S Hooda (retd) told The Indian Express.

On September 29, 2016, the Indian Army announced that it attacked terrorists' camps along the Line of Control using ground forces. The act, which officials said inflicted “significant casualties” on terrorists, came after a deadly attack on a military base in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir on September 18 that year.

Pakistan rejected India's claims of having launched a surgical strike on terrorist camps in Pakistani territory.

In a book launched on the first anniversary of surgical strikes, an Army Major, who reportedly led the mission, said the return was the most difficult part and bullets fired by the enemy were so close that these were whistling past the ears.

Is the user real? Twitter to confirm new accounts in fight against bots

The requirement will be rolled out later this year, and Twitter promised to make sure the change does not harm aspiring users.

Twitter has said it will begin asking for email addresses or phone numbers to confirm new accounts as part of a battle against manipulation, particularly by automated bots.
Adding a way to check that a real person is behind new accounts was described by Twitter as being among measures to fight abuse, trolls, and hateful content.
"This is an important change to defend against people who try to take advantage of our openness," Twitter executives Del Harvey and Yoel Roth said in a blog post.
The requirement will be rolled out later this year, and Twitter promised to make sure the change does not harm aspiring users in "high-risk" places.
Twitter recently began taking more steps to clean up spam and automated activity, and "close the loopholes they'd exploited," according to Harvey and Roth.
"We're also now automating some processes where we see suspicious account activity, like exceptionally high-volume tweeting with the same hashtag, or using the same @handle without a reply from the account you're mentioning," they said.
Twitter systems identified and challenged more than 9.9 million "potentially spammy or automated accounts" weekly in May, according to Harvey and Roth.
Twitter last month said that it was stepping up its long-running battle against online trolls, trying to find offenders by looking at "behavioral signals." The new approach looks at behavioral patterns of users in addition to the content of the tweets, allowing Twitter to find and mute online bullies and trolls.
Even if the offending tweets are not a violation of Twitter policy, they may be hidden from users if they are deemed to "distort" a conversation, Twitter said.
Twitter already uses artificial intelligence and machine learning in this effort but the latest initiative aims to do more by focusing on the actions of certain users in addition to the content.

Twitter is among online platforms under pressure to do more to safeguard against being used to spread misinformation or promote division, as proved the case during the US presidential election in 2016, in which US intelligence says Russia meddled to help Donald Trump win.

Incredibles 2' set to be most successful animated Hollywood film in India

Currently, the leader is Kung Fu Panda 3, which raked in Rs 221.2 million, followed by the second movie in the same franchise.

Incredibles 2, the sequel to the 2004 movie The Incredibles, is inching its way to the top of the charts as the most successful animated movie at the Indian box office. Distributed by Disney India in the country, the film released on June 22 and made Rs 178.5 million in the first weekend of its release.
The film's opening ensures it top berth among the most successful animation films from Hollywood. Currently, the leader is Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016), which raked in Rs 221.2 million, followed by the second movie in the same franchise, Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011), at Rs 205.5 million. Currently, Incredibles 2 is on the fourth spot on the list, behind Angry Birds (2016), which made Rs 198 million at the Indian box office.
While live action films from Hollywood have adopted localisation as a strategic tool while releasing movies in the country, the earliest adopter of the trend was the 2004 release of The Incredibles. It was the first time a studio got a leading Bollywood actor for the voice-over of Mr Incredible, the male lead in the movie.


Since then, studios have explored new languages to dub and release movies in, associated with different personalities for promotions, released trailers in multiple Indian languages, and collaborated with different brands to reach as many people in the audience as possible.


In the case of Incredibles 2, Disney India got Bollywood actor Kajol to voice Elastigirl/Helen, the leading lady in the franchise, who has a more significant role in the sequel.


Top four animated films in India


1. Kung Fu Panda 3 - Rs 221.2 million


2. Kung Fu Panda 2 - Rs 205.5 million


3. Angry Birds - Rs 198 million


4. Incredibles 2 - Rs 178.5 million (still running in theatres)

Asus to launch Zenfone 5z on Flipkart-exclusive smartphone soon

Unveiled at the MWC 2018, Zenfone 5z was the first Android smartphone to sport an iPhone X-inspired notch and system-wide AI capabilities, along with a dual camera set-up on the rear.

Asus, a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, is gearing up to launch the Flipkart-exclusive Zenfone 5z in India on July 4. The e-commerce platform recently listed the teaser page, confirming the launch of premium smartphone in India.


Asus Zenfone 5z was first unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in February, alongside Zenfone 5. Both sport similar glass-metal-glass sandwich design and feature a dual camera set-up on the back. However, the processor, RAM and storage configurations set them apart.


In terms of features, the Zenfone 5z boasts 90 per cent screen-to-body ratio, thanks to its 6.2-inch fullHD+ screen covering almost the entire front. The 19:9 aspect ratio leaves just a small notch on top to accommodate an 8-megapixel camera, earpiece and sensors – just like in Apple iPhone X but smaller.


On the back, the smartphone sports a dual-camera set-up, which features 12MP and 8MP shooters.


The primary 12MP sensor boasts f/1.8 aperture. and the 8MP sensor features 120-degree wide-angle lens. Both front and rear cameras are backed by AI for automatic scene selection and portrait photography, and machine learning to improve the output by learning usage patterns.


Zenfone 5z sports a 2.5D curved glass on the front and back, supported by a metal chassis. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 system-on-chip (SoC), paired with 6GB RAM and a host of storage options starting from 64GB.

When unveiled, Zenfone 5z and Zenfone 5 were the first smartphones in the Android realm to feature iPhone X-inspired notch-based screen. They were also among the first generation devices to offer system-wide artificial intelligence-based utilities such as automatic scene selection and setting optimisations in camera, auto ringtone adjustments and optimal battery utilisation etc. However, both the notch-based screen and the native support for artificial intelligence have become a common proposition in smartphones.

India vs Ireland: Virat Kohli will look to start English summer with a bang

The Indian cricket team have a full-strength squad to pick from with captain Virat Kohli back in the team after nursing a neck injury.

India Vs Ireland : India will begin their preparation for England tour by playing two T20Is against Ireland. The first of the two T20Is matches will be played at Malahide Cricket Club Ground or The Village in Dublin on Wednesday, June 27, 2018. The Indian cricket team have a full-strength squad to pick from, with captain Virat Kohli back in the team after nursing a neck injury. The men in blue will use the two T20Is against Ireland to get acclimatised to the English conditions as they have struggled to counter the swing and overcast conditions in England in the past and there is no better way to prepare than get a few games under the belt, and there is no place more suitable than Ireland.



However, the Ireland Cricket team are no pushovers and have T20 specialists like Paul Stirling and Kevin O’Brien in the team. Still, India will be expected to come through unscathed before they begin their England tour starting July 3. The two teams have played just one T20I in the past, during 2009 T20 World Cup which India won by 15 runs.



How Virat Kohli and Co will look at two T20Is against Ireland
For India, the two T20Is against Ireland will mark the onset of a long English summer for Virat Kohli & co, and perhaps it was a marker of this crucial impending assignment that India decided to stay on and practice in London on Monday, reports PTI. Since the tour of South Africa, this is the first time a full-strength Indian team will be seen in action. Kohli, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and MS Dhoni were rested for the T20 tri-series in Sri Lanka in March. The quadruple also missed the one-off Test against Afghanistan in Bengaluru recently. After a brilliant performance in IPL 2018, KL Rahul got another chance in limited over cricket and Ajinkya Rahane's omission from the ODI squad means that he is once again a contender for the number four spot when the three-match series against England begins on July 12.



Virat Kohli's concern: The middle order
With Rahul in contention for a starting spot in the middle order, Manish Pandey, Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik will be left jostling for two spots. As part of the full-strength Indian side, the three had featured in the T20 series against South Africa. Raina had been used as a pinch-hitting, aggressive number three option, but the current situation might warrant a re-think.

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Apple's 'Made in India' iPhone 6S may soon be available in stores near you

Apple was undertaking trial production for the 6S models since April.

The second iPhone to get the tag of 'Made in India' after iPhone SE is iPhone 6S. According to the Economic Times report, local production of 6S model started last week at the Bengaluru facility of its Taiwan-based contract manufacturer Wistron.
Wistron, which will assemble iPhones in Bengaluru, is one among the few original design manufacturers Apple employs to build its iPhones. The company has previously won contracts abroad to manufacture lower-cost iPhone 5c, 5s, and SE devices, while larger partners such as Foxconn have handled production of flagship iPhone models.
The Cupertino-based maker of iPhones and Mac computers started manufacturing iPhone SE in India last May and it is now ready to add a second model to the manufacturing line.
Apple was undertaking trial production for the second iPhone model in the 6 series since April and chose iPhone 6s due to its sales potential, executives told ET.
This also indicates that with no import duties imposed on the manufacturing of iPhone 6S models, there would be no frise in the locally manufactured iPhones. However, it remains unclear whether the price of the models will get any cheaper or not. On the other hand, iPhone SE for Rs 27,200 but on Flipkart and Amazon, it is available for as low as Rs 20,999.
Business Standard earlier reported that the iPhone SE, which was launched in March 2016, was seen as Apple’s weapon to win in emerging markets. However, the device saw slow sales in India after being priced close to Rs 40,000, a market where seven out of 10 smartphones sold cost less than Rs 10,000.
The made-in-India iPhone 6s will be only sold in India like iPhone SE since it will take time to scale up capacity. In fact, Apple will continue with the import of iPhone 6s until capacity improves. Hence, there will be no price correction for the locally manufactured units. The made-in-India iPhone 6s model will hit the stores soon,” an executive told ET.




With a dip in iPhone sales in developed markets like the US and China, India is now a major focus for Apple. Apple continues to produce these older models in India to compete with Xiaomi, Motorola, Samsung and others in the mid-level market.