Monday, 29 February 2016

And the Oscars 2016 award goes to....

The 88th Academy Awards ceremony, of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) took
place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles.
In the ceremony, AMPAS will present Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 24
categories. Actor Chris Rock hosted the show for the second time.
In the Oscars 2016, Leonardo Dicaprio wins Best Actor for The Revenant, Brie Larson is Best Actress
while the bollywood star Priyanka Chopra presents the Oscars and makes her Oscar debut.
The complete list of awards are as follows:
Best PICTURE
Spotlight
Best ACTOR
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Best ACTRESS
Brie Larson, Room
Best SUPPORTING ACTOR
Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Best SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Best DIRECTOR
Alejandro Irritu, The Revenant
Best ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Big Short, Charles Randolph and Adam McKay
Best ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Spotlight, Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy
Best DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Amy

Best FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Son of Saul, Hungary
Best ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Inside Out
Best CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Revenant, Emmanuel Lubezki
Best COSTUME DESIGN
Mad Max: Fury Road, Jenny Beavan
Best FILM EDITING
Mad Max: Fury Road, Margaret Sixel
Best MAKE UP AND HAIRSTYLING
Mad Max: Fury Road, Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damian Martin
Best ORIGINAL SCORE
The Hateful Eight, Ennio Morricone
Best ORIGINAL SONG
Writings on the Wallfrom Spectre, music and lyrics by Jimmy Napes and Sam Smith
Best PRODUCTION DESIGN
Mad Max: Fury Road, Colin Gibson (production design); Lisa Thompson (set decoration)
Best SOUND EDITING
Mad Max: Fury Road, Mark Mangini and David White
Best SOUND MIXING
Mad Max: Fury Road, Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff and Ben Osmo
Best VISUAL EFFECTS
Ex Machina, Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington and Sara Bennett
Best ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Bear Story
Best DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness
Best LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
Stutterer
Note: The maximum number of awards is won by Mad Max: Fury Road (6 awards)

The general budget speech is going on in Loksabha and our Finance Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley is
presenting the budget for the financial year 2016-2017. We are providing you the Budget Live Feeds and
it will help you learn the schemes and the changes launched by the union government.

Below are the key points:

'Forex reserves are at highest level at $350 billion'

'2016: Current account deficit seen at 1.4% of GDP'

'3 schemes to address weaker sections'

GDP growth has accelerated to 7.6%. CPI inflation has come down to 5.4%.

FY 16-17 will have the additional burden of implementing the VII pay commission and the
defence OROP.

New scheme for BPL families for gas connections. Staturtory backing for Aadhaar platform to
ensure delivery of benefits.

Jaitley announces the nine pillars of his Budget Agriculture and farmers' welfare, rural
sector, social sector including healthcare, education, skills and job creation, infrastructure,
financial sector reforms, ease of doing business, fiscal discipline, tax reforms to reduce
compliance burden.

28.5 lakh hectares to be brought under irrigation.

Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana to bring 5 lakh acres under organic farming.

Unified e-platform for farmers to be inaugurated on Ambedkar's birthday.

Agricultural credit target of Rs. 9 lakh crore. Govt to allocate Rs 5,500 crore for crop insurance
scheme.

Rs. 2.87 lakh crore for gram panchayats as per recommendation of 14th finance commission.

Rs. 38,500 crore for MNREGA. Highest ever for the rural employment scheme.

5,542 villages have been electrified, more than the last three years combined.

Rs. 9,000 crore for Swachch Bharat Abhiyan.

Two schemes for digital literacy for rural India to cover 6 crore households in the next three
years.

Total rural sector allocation Rs. 87,769 crore.

Government to provide health insurance of upto Rs. 1 lakh per family; top up of Rs. 35,000 for
people above60 years. 3,000 stores to be opened for generic drugs.

National dialysis service programme under PPP model. LPG connection for women members
of rural homes.

Hub to support SC/ST Entrpreneurs.

10 public and 10 private educational institutions to be made world-class. Digital repository for
all school leaving certificates and diplomas. Rs. 1,000 crore for higher education financing.

Rs. 1,700 crore for 1500 multi-skill development centres.

Small shops should be given the choice to remain open on all 7 days a week.

More than 70,000 road projects were languishing at the beginning of the year. Nearly 85% of
these projects have been put back on track.

Rs. 97,000 crore for all roads. Total outlay on roads and rails will be Rs. 2.80 lakh crore.

10,000 km of national highways in 2016-17 and 50,000 km state highways to be converted to NH

roads.

Total outlay for infrastructure is at Rs. 2.31 lakh crore.

Motor Vehicles Act to be amended to enable entrepreneurship in the road transport sector.

There are 160 airports and airstrips which can be revived.

In the power sector, the govt is drawing up a plan for 15-20 years to augment investment in
nuclear power.Rs. 3,000 crore per annum for this.

100% FDI through FAPB route in marketing of food products produced and manufactured
in India.

RBI Act to be amended to provide for monetary policy panel

Amendmends to boost Asset Reconstruction Companies to manage NPAs of public sector

banks.

Rs. 25,000 crore for recapitalisation of public sector banks. General insurance companies
owned by the govt to be listed in stock exchanges.

EPF at 8.3 per cent for new employees joining the scheme.

Direct Benefit Transfer for fertiliser subsidy.

Dept of Disinvestment renamed as Dept of Investment and Public Asset Management.

Rs. 900 crore for buffer stock of pulses.

Amendment to the Companies Act to ensure speedy registration and boost start-ups.

A bill on targeted delivery of financial services using Aadhar to be introduced.

Debt recovery tribunals to be strengthened

FDI policy: Changes in insurance, pension, asset reconstruction

Fiscal deficit at 3.5% of GDP in 2016-17.

Rs. 100 crore for Deendayal Upadhyay's birthday celebrations and Guru Gobind Singh
300th birth anniversary.

Ceiling under 87A to be increased to Rs. 3,000. HRA deduction up from Rs. 24,000 to Rs.
60,000 p.a.

Lowering of Corporate IT rate for companies not exceeding Rs. 5 crore turnover to 25% plus
surcharge.

Tax holiday for startups for three of five years of setting up the company

40% of withdrawal at the time of retirement under National Pension Scheme to be tax exempt.

Additional exemption of Rs. 50,000 for housing loans up to Rs. 35 lakh, provided cost of house
is not above Rs. 50 lakh.

1 per cent service charge on purchase of luxury cars over Rs. 10 lakh and in-cash purchase of
goods and services over Rs. 2 lakh.

Infrastructure cess to be levied.

No changes have been made to existing income tax slabs.

Limited period compliance window for domestic taxpayers to declare undisclosed income.
Declarations to have immunity from prosecutions.

4% high capacity tax for SUVs.

Committed to stable taxation regime. No more retrospective amendments.

Excise duty on tobacco increased by 10-15 per cent.

No Service Tax for houses built under 60 square metres.

13 different cesses levied by various ministries with collections less than Rs.50 crore a year to be
done away with.

Rs. 1,060 crore revenue loss through direct tax proposals.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley tables the Union Budget 2016 and the Finance Bill.

FDI up 40 pc to $29.44b in April-December FY16

The Economic Survey for this year begins by asserting that amidst the gloomy landscape, India stands
out as a haven of stability and an outpost of opportunity and it seems that foreign investors also
believe so.The Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country increased by 40 per cent to
$29.44 billion during April-December in the current fiscal. The foreign investment inflows were at
$21.04
billion
in
the
same
period
of
previous
fiscal.
For the full calendar year 2015, FDI into India was up 37 per cent on year to $39.3
billion, according to data posted on the website of department of industrial policy and promotion
(DIPP). Government has taken several steps to promote investments through a liberal FDI policy.

Extra info:
- As per the Survey FDI in the first 9 months of this financial year stood at $27.7
against $21.9 billion in the same period last year.

billion

- In the last financial year, maximum FDI came through Mauritius while in 2013-14
companies based out of Singapore were the largest investors