Department Financial News

Temperatures continue to hit new highs every subsequent year. In its March 2024 update, the World Meteorological Organisation’s (WMO) annual State of the Global Climate report confirmed that 2023 was the warmest year on record, with the global average near-surface temperature at 1.45° Celsius above the pre-industrial baseline. Add to this, it was the warmest 10-year period on record.

Recently, central government employees received a 4% raise in their Dearness Allowance (DA) to 50%. Dearness relief (DR) for retirees of the central government has been increased by 4% to 50% to counteract price hikes. This will result in a large increase in salaries of central government employees and pensions of retirees. Certain allowances, such as the Children's Education Allowance (CEA) and the Hostel Subsidy, automatically received revisions of up to 25% following the dearness allowance (DA) hike to 50% for its employees and retirees early this year.

South Korea has held talks about joining part of the AUKUS defence deal between the U.S., Britain and Australia, Defence Minister Shin Won-sik said on Wednesday, only weeks after the pact said it would consider including Japan. Formed in 2021, AUKUS is a two-stage security pact to counteract China's growing power in the Asia Pacific region. While a first stage to give Australia nuclear submarine technology is limited to the core trio, they have raised the possibility of other countries joining a second stage, or «Pillar 2», that aims to share other military technology.

The U.S. Justice Department has launched a double-barreled antitrust attack on Google’s dominant search and Apple’s trendsetting iPhone

southern China's Guangdong province on Wednesday, state media reported. State broadcaster CCTV said a stretch of road between Meizhou city and Dabu county in Guangdong province caved in at around 2:10 am (1810 GMT).

schools in the capital Delhi and Noida have received bomb threats. The threat has come through email. As a precaution, dozens of schools in Delhi-Noida have been evacuated. Police, bomb squad, dog squad and fire brigade team have reached the spot. Police is sending all the children to their homes with the help of school staff. The schools which have received bomb threats are the famous schools of the city, where thousands of children study. After receiving such news of bombs in schools in the capital, there is panic in the entire police department, reported Navbharat Times. Children sent back from schools According to the information, the children have been sent back from the three schools in Delhi where bomb threats were received. These schools are in Mayur Vihar, Dwarka and Chanakyapuri. Search operations are going on in all the three places. Nothing has been found from anywhere so far. In Mother Mary in Mayur Vihar also, the students were sent back home after the information of bomb. It is being told that tests of children are also going on in Mother Mary School. But today when parents brought their children to school, they were sent back saying that it was an emergency holiday. Apart from this, school has been closed in DPS Dwarka and Sanskriti Chanakyapuri also after the bomb call.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the fallen ‘Crypto-King’, as he was once known, was sentenced to 25-years in prison for defrauding customers and investors of his now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao was sentenced Tuesday to four months in prison for allowing rampant money laundering on the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. Zhao pleaded guilty in November to one count of failing to take required anti-money-laundering measures and stepped down as Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion to settle related allegations. U.S. officials said Zhao deliberately looked the other way as people conducted transactions that supported child sex abuse, the illegal drug trade and terrorism.

Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, as per a PTI report. The remarks by US State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel came in response to claims made by The Washington Post, attributing unnamed sources, regarding a Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) officer's involvement in the alleged plot on American soil last year, it added.

Toronto-Dominion Bank is booking an initial US$450-million provision in connection with an ongoing probe into violations of U.S. banking regulations, including anti-money laundering rules, the bank said Tuesday.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is moving toward reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug

The Biden administration is out with new guidelines for tax credits for producers of sustainable aviation fuel

Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng 'CZ' Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison in a Seattle courthouse on Tuesday, the AP reported.

A Seattle courtroom became the stage for a major moment in the cryptocurrency industry as former Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao received a four-month prison sentence. The sentencing followed Zhao’s guilty plea to money-laundering violations late last year, marking a turning point for the industry giant and its influential founder.

Federal prosecutors had been seeking three years, double the sentencing guidelines, while Zhao's lawyers had argued for probation.Zhao pleaded guilty in November as part of deal between Binance and the Department of Justice, Treasury Department and CFTC to settle allegations that the exchange failed to maintain a proper anti-money laundering programme, operated an unlicensed money-transmitting business and violated sanctions law.The world's largest crypto exchange agreed to forfeit $2.5 billion to the government and pay a fine of $1.8 billion.Meanwhile, Zhao pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act and causing a financial institution to violate the same act.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it will test ground beef for bird flu

Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and West Bengal ranging between 41 and 46 degrees Celsius. Bengaluru, which is well-known for its pleasant weather, is witnessing a record-high rise in temperatures. As per the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Odisha is facing the major burnt of heatwave conditions prevailing in the country.

Election Commission of India (ECI) to push telecom operators to send SMSes to voters to encourage them to exercise their franchise in larger numbers in the subsequent phases, said people familiar with the matter. However, they said, while the ECI wants telecom operators to send about 100 million SMSes daily to voters, the telcos have said they can handle only about 20 million SMSes a day, citing a lack of capacity. «The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Election Commission officials and executives from telecom operators have been meeting for the past few days to evolve a consensus on how many promotional messages need to be sent,» said an official, who did not wish to be identified.

7th Pay Commission Updates: After the central government hiked dearness allowance (DA) for its employees and pensioners to 50% early this year, certain allowances like children education allowance (CEA) and hostel subsidy automatically got revised by up to 25%.

In a relief for companies, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has said that the tax deductors/collectors will not be treated as defaulter for failure to deduct tax at a higher rate on transactions of those deductees whose PAN became inoperative due to non-linkage with Aadhaar. The tax department’s directions are pertaining to transactions carried out between July 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024.

The Income Tax Department has enabled all necessary utilities and forms on its e-filing portal for online and offline tax return filing for taxpayers for the financial year 2023-24 (Assessment Year 2024-25).