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India, Switzerland deny sharing 'black money' details

June 23, 2014

New Delhi/Zurich, June 23: Switzerland has not shared any information or given assurance on sharing details about Indian account holders in Swiss banks, where a major portion of India's "black money" is suspected to be stashed, governments of both countries said Monday.Swiss bank

"We have not received any official communication from Swiss authorities so far about sharing bank account details of Indians (who have) deposited unaccounted money there," India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters outside his North Block office here.

The finance minister was reacting on a media report that said Swiss authorities have prepared a list of names of Indian account holders and will share it with the Indian government.

Jaitley said there is no official communication so far, and the Indian authorities will send a request to Swiss authorities for sharing the information.

"Our communication will be sent today itself," Jaitley said.

The Switzerland government also rubbished the report.

"Since a high-level Swiss delegation met with its India counterparts in New Delhi in February 2014, no further official meeting has taken place.

There is no new development to be reported," the Swiss finance ministry said in a statement.

However, it said Switzerland looks forward to working together with the new Indian government in its fight against tax evasion.

"Switzerland is committed to resolving any open question with India and trusts that India shares its understanding that any solution can only be found within the established national and international legal frameworks," the Swiss finance ministry said.

The new Indian government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the black money. The 11-member SIT is headed by former Supreme Court judge M.B. Shah.

Jaitley said the Indian government looks forwardto work closely with Swiss authorities on the issue of black money.

"We are today writing ourselves to the Swiss authorities with whom the ministry has been in touch, so that details with regard to whatever information the authorities have can be expedited and the cooperation between the Swiss authorities and the government of India can bring fruitful results," Jaitley said.

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News Network
June 23,2020

New Delhi, Jun 23: With an increase of 14,933 new cases and 312 deaths in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 count reached 4,40,215 on Tuesday.

According to the latest update by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), 14,011 deaths have been recorded due to the infection so far in the country.

The rise in confirmed cases today is lower than the highest spike of 15 thousand plus cases registered on Sunday.

The count includes 1,78,014 active cases, and 2,48,190 cured/discharged/migrated patients.

Maharashtra with 1,35,796 confirmed cases remains the worst-affected by the infection so far in the country. The state's count includes 61,807 active, 67,706 cured, discharged patients while 6,283 deaths have been reported due to the infection so far.

Meanwhile, the national capital's confirmed coronavirus cases reached 62,655.

2,233 deaths have been reported in Delhi due to the infection so far.

Tamil Nadu has reported 62,087 cases so far with toll increased to 794.

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News Network
July 22,2020

New Delhi, Jul 22: India is responding with utmost urgency to coronavirus from the very beginning and has been continuously strengthening preparedness and response measures, WHO Regional Director (South-East Asia) Poonam Khetrapal Singh said on Wednesday.

"India is responding with utmost urgency to COVID-19 from the start. It's been continuously strengthening preparedness and response measures, including ramping up testing capacities, readying more hospitals, arranging and stocking up medicines and essentials," Singh said at a virtual briefing.

"India took bold, decisive and early measures earlier in the outbreak. The country did not witness an exponential increase in cases like some other countries which reported their first few cases along with India. Like in any other country the transmission of COVID-19 is not homogenous in India. There are areas yet to see a confirmed case, some have sporadic cases, in some areas some small clusters while we are witnessing large clusters in some megacities from the densely populated areas," Singh said.
She said WHO was aware of varying capacities at sub-national levels.

"Not unusual in a country as big as India and its population size that measures taken may often not be uniformly sufficient across all areas. Scaling up capacities and response remains a constant need in India."

Replying on the question of what more needs to be done in controlling the spread of COVID-19, she said all countries including India must continue to implement core public health and social distancing measures.

"Local epidemiology to guide our response for finding hotspots and testing, detecting, isolating and providing care to the affected, promoting safe hygiene practices and respiratory etiquette, protecting health workers and increasing health system capacity is also key," she said.

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News Network
March 5,2020

New Delhi, Mar 5: Retirement fund body EPFO on Thursday lowered interest rate on provident fund deposits to 8.5 per cent for the current financial year, said Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar on Thursday.

The EPFO had provided 8.65 per cent rate of interest on EPF for 2018-19 to its around six crore subscribers. The decision was taken at a meeting of the the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation's (EPFO) apex decision making body -- the Central Board of Trustee.

"The EPFO has decided to provide 8.5 per cent interest rate on EPF deposits for 2019-20 in the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) meeting today," Gangwar told reporters after the meeting here.

Now, the labour ministry requires the finance ministry's concurrence on the matter. Since the Government of India is the guarantor, the finance ministry has to vet the proposal for EPF interest rate to avoid any liability on account of shortfall in the EPFO income for a fiscal.

The finance ministry has been nudging the labour ministry for aligning the EPF interest rate with other small saving schemes run by the government like the public provident fund and post office saving schemes.

The EPFO had provided 8.65 per cent rate of interest to its subscribers for 2016-17 and 8.55 per cent in 2017-18. The rate of interest was slightly higher at 8.8 per cent in 2015-16.

It had given 8.75 per cent rate of interest in 2013-14 as well as 2014-15, higher than 8.5 per cent for 2012-13.

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