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Financial Express Dec 08, 2017 The government has empanelled Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its cloud services provider (CSP) and is in the process of empanelling two other technology majors — Microsoft and IBM — to the list by as early as next week. While Amazon Internet Services (AISPL), an Indian subsidiary of Amazon Group, has been empanelled after the required standardisation, testing and quality certification (STQC) audit by the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), the same for IBM and Microsoft in under process and will be completed by this week or the next, sources said. At present, there are six STQC-compliant provisional empanelled CSPs that can be used by end-user government departments for cloud services. This is in addition to the national cloud services being offered by NIC to various ministries and departments. MeitY is the nodal ministry to suggest to government departments in terms of cloud and other IT-related services. Only those companies are allowed to pro

Live Mint Dec 08, 2017  German software giant SAP SE, which earlier this year launched a global $35 million fund to invest in tech startups, plans to increase its investments in 2018 and aims to close nearly twice the number of deals it signed in 2017, a top company executive said.  SAP will tap the world’s most innovative startup ecosystems, including the Silicon Valley and Israel, for the next big ideas in the technology products space, Ram Jambunathan, senior vice president and managing director of the $35 million SAP.iO fund, said in a phone interview. “SAP has the bold vision to be the business software leader in the next generation of the cloud and digitization era. To achieve this, SAP has realized that it needs to embrace innovation deeply, because successful software companies that have achieved sustained success...have invested in ground-breaking innovation beyond incremental customer requirements ,” said Jambunathan.  SAP.iO also runs a separate, joint-ac

The Economic Times  Dec 08, 2017 The Income-Tax Department is scrutinising all unexplained credits and investments in personal as well as corporate income-tax filings and is looking to invoke the Benami Act in many cases, according to people in the know. Unexplained credits, in the books of a company or bank accounts of individuals, have so far been treated as black money, attracting a higher tax of up to 80%.  Now, tax officers are examining whether such unexplained credits are benami, which means assets ortransactions carried out at the behest of another person and seeking information on the source of such credits and transactions. Assessment officers are being particularly strict this year in the wake of the government’s demonetisation drive, according to the people cited earlier, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The number of transactions with unexplained credit has gone up this year, they said.  “Until now many taxpayers at the time of assessment would offer

The Telegraph Dec 08, 2017  The Central Pollution Control Board has asked Tenughat Thermal Power Station in Bokaro, run by a state government undertaking, to shut down both its units for violating environmental rules and causing heavy air and water pollution. It could not be ascertained when central pollution watchdog signed and sent the notice, but Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board (JSPCB) member secretary S.K. Suman told The Telegraph that they received a letter with the directive only on Wednesday. "Closure notice has been given under section 5 of the Environmental Protection Act primarily for air and water pollution. However, I haven't read it in detail and can speak on it only tomorrow (Thursday) when the office opens," he said. Another source in the board said the closure notice spoke about violations such as lack of an online monitoring system, ash disposal ponds, smoke management and electrostatic precipitation to control smoke in chimney

The Hindu Dec 08, 2017 In a significant development, elite export control regime Wassenaar Arrangement (WA) on Thursday decided to admit India as its new member, which is expected to raise New Delhi’s stature in the field of non-proliferation besides helping it acquire critical technologies. The decision was taken at the two-day plenary meeting of the grouping in Vienna. “Wassenaar Arrangement participating states reviewed the progress of a number of current membership applications and agreed at the plenary meeting to admit India which will become the Arrangement’s 42nd participating state as soon as the necessary procedural arrangements for joining the WA are completed,” the grouping said in a statement. India’s entry into the export control regime would enhance its credentials in the field of non-proliferation despite not being a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The WA membership is also expected to build up a strong case for India’s entry in