CURRENT AFFAIRS-MAY-2

KEYWORDS: ECONOMY, INTERNATINAL RELATION

India steps up pressure on Switzerland to share bank info

 black money - money for which tax not payed.

 Why hsbc swiss not sharing bank info....?

                     India initiated investigations on the “HSBC” accounts on the basis of information extracted from data a disgruntled HSBC employee had stolen in 2011. India had received this “stolen” data from France. 

why culprits depositing BLACK MONEY in SWISS BANK...?

--------not only in swiss!, European banks having strong banking secrecy laws which makes foreigners to deposit their black money there.

Suppose if they deposited money in indian banks, income tax of india, rbi will caught those money launderes.

Recently,...

•      Under global pressure, Switzerland has agreed to ease its banking secrecy laws in recent years.
•      India and Switzerland had signed a tax treaty in 2011 to facilitate greater flow of information about alleged black money. 
•     Mr. Chidambaram also reiterated in the letter that India would continue to take a position at the Global Forum about Switzerland lacking legal and regulatory framework for an effective exchange of tax-related information.
•     In the letter dated April 29, the Finance Minister urged Switzerland to honour its “rights and duties” agreed in the bilateral Direct Tax Avoidance Convention (DTAC) with India.  

CURRENT AFFAIRS-MAY1

KEYWORDS: international importance, Important International institutions, agencies, GEOPOLITICAL

IMF approves $17 billion bailout for Ukraine amid risks

The International Monetary Fund's board signed off on a $17 billion two-year aid program for Ukraine on Wednesday to help the former Soviet republic's economy recover after months of upheaval as it continues to face geopolitical uncertainty.

The IMF aid will allow the immediate disbursement of $3.2 billion to Kiev(CAPITAL OF UKRAINE) and unlock further credits from other donors of about $15 billion, intended to help Ukraine stabilize its economy in the middle of its worst civil turmoil since independence in 1991.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde admitted the program faced risks, including from the government's ability to carry out the politically unpopular measures necessary to get its finances in order.

"In particular, further escalation of tensions with Russia and unrest in the east of the country pose a substantial risk to the economic outlook,"

Pro-Moscow separatists seized government offices in more Ukrainian towns. The unrest in the east follows months of anti-government protests and Russia's annexation of the Crimea region, which had already pushed Ukraine's economy to the brink of bankruptcy and a likely economic contraction this year.

CURRENT AFFAIRS-MAY1

KEYWORDS: PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY.

Spin Cycle: Astronomers Detect Distant Planet that Whirls Madly-- Beta Pictoris b

Scientists said on Wednesday that for the first time, they have measured the spin of a planet outside our solar system - a large gas planet located a relatively close 63 light years from Earth.

They determined that the planet spins faster than any in our solar system, with a rotational velocity at its equator of about 56,000 miles per hour (almost 100,000 kph).

Jupiter, a large gas planet that has the quickest spin in our solar system, whirls at about 29,000 miles per hour (47,000 kph) while Earth spins at about 1,000 miles per hour (1,700 kph). A day on Beta Pictoris b lasts only eight hours, compared to 10 hours for Jupiter and 24 hours for Earth.

Beta Pictoris b is one of the better understood of these planets. It is one of only about a dozen that have been directly observed rather than found using indirect detection methods

Beta Pictoris b is big, hot and young. It is about 3,000 times more massive than Earth and seven times more massive than Jupiter, our solar system's largest planet. It is only about 20 million years old, compared to about 4.5 billion years for Earth, and is still hot from its formation, the scientists said.

Its host star, Beta Pictoris, is approximately twice as massive and 10 times as luminous as our Sun.

THE BIGGER(MASSIVE)  PLANET ROTATES FASTER--- Need to observe more planets to confirm this is really a universal law.

The technique the scientists used to measure the planet's spin was based on the Doppler effect, the well-known phenomenon people notice when they hear a change in the pitch of an ambulance siren when the vehicle whizzes by.

                          

"When we observe a rotating planet, the light from one half, which is approaching us, has a slightly different frequency, or color, than the other half, which is receding from us. The relative difference in color, or frequency, between the two halves is a measure of the spin-rotation velocity,"