Daily Briefing / December 10, 2018

Rishabh Pants equals world record

Wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant set a new record by taking 11 catches in a Test match, becoming the only Indian to achieve this feat. Pant equalled the record for most dismissals in a Test by a wicketkeeper, sharing it with England’s Jack Russell and South Africa’s AB de Villiers. The 21-year-old went past Wriddhiman Saha’s Indian record for highest dismissals in a Test (10). Pant, who made his debut in Test cricket against England in August this year, has taken 31 catches from six matches. Pant has already equalled Dhoni’s record by taking six catches in an innings. He took five catches in the second innings in the first Test against Australia in Adelaide. India won the match by 31 runs.

Direct tax collections surge 15.7 per cent

Gross direct tax collections surged 15.7 per cent to Rs 6.75 lakh crore in April-November, the finance ministry said on December 10. Refunds worth Rs 1.23 lakh crore have been issued in the eight months of the current fiscal, which is 20.8 per cent higher than refunds issued in the same period last year. Net collections (after adjusting for refunds) have increased by 14.7 per cent to Rs 5.51 lakh crore during April-November. The net direct tax collections represent 48 per cent of the total Budget estimates of direct taxes for this financial year. The statement said that gross collections in corporate income tax and personal income tax grew 17.7 per cent and 18.3 per cent, respectively.

Rooftop solar installation at a new high

India’s renewable energy push continues to gather momentum as a record 1,538 MW of rooftop solar capacity was installed in the year ended September 30, taking the total in the category to 3,399 MW. According to a report by consulting firm Bridge to India, there was record installation of 1,538 MW rooftop solar in the past 12 months (up 75 per cent year-on-year) ended September 2018. Rooftop solar capacity is expected to touch 15.3 GW by March 2022 - which is about 38 per cent of the government’s 40 GW target. Maharashtra (473 MW), Tamil Nadu (312 MW), Karnataka (272 MW), Rajasthan (270 MW) and Uttar Pradesh (223 MW) are the top five states.

Kerala first state to have 4 int’l airports

Kerala has become the first state in the country to have four international airports with the inauguration of Kannur airport on December 9. Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan jointly flagged off the inaugural Air India Express flight, carrying 186 passengers to Abu Dhabi. The other three international airports are located in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode. Kannur airport depicts not only cultural traditions of Malabar and Kannur, but also of Kodagu in neighbouring Karnataka. Virajpet in Kodagu is just 58 km away from the airport, while district headquarters Madikeri is around 90 km away.

Mumbai airport hits another milestone

Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport handled a record 1,007 aircraft movements in a day on December 8, bettering its earlier record of 1,003 flight movements on June 6. The feat was achieved in the wake of the pre-wedding bash of Isha Ambani, daughter of industrialist Mukesh Ambani, in Udaipur. Mumbai airport has two crossing runways - while the primary runway can handle up to 48 arrivals and departures per hour, the secondary runway has a capacity of 35 flight movements per hour. The Mumbai airport handled 48.49 million passengers in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018, registering a 7.4 per cent growth over FY17.

New norms for govt vehicle procurement

The Union government has mandated preference to be given to domestically manufactured vehicles with a minimum 65 per cent local content in public procurement of automobiles, according to an official notification. As per the new norms notified by the Heavy Industries Ministry in a bid to encourage Make in India, “preference shall be provided by all government procuring entities to domestically manufactured automobile and automotive components”. The notification applies to two and three wheelers, passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles and spares. For auto components the percentage of local content required to qualify as domestically manufactured has been set at 60 per cent.

PV sales decline 3.43 per cent in Nov

Passenger vehicle sales declined 3.43 per cent to 266,000 units in November from 275,440 units in November 2017. Car sales were down marginally to 179,783 units as against 181,435 units in November 2017, according to data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). Total two-wheeler sales in November rose 7.15 per cent to 16,45,791 units compared to 15,36,015 units in the year-ago month. Sales of commercial vehicles were up 5.71 per cent to 72,812 units. Vehicle sales across categories registered a rise of 5.03 per cent to 20,38,015 units from 19,40,462 units in November 2017, it added.

Greenland losing ice at a faster pace

After poring over satellite data from the European Space Agency (ESA), researchers have come to the conclusion that the pace at which Greenland is losing ice is getting faster. Published in the Earth and Planetary Science Letters journal, the research used radar altimetry data gathered by the European remote sensing satellite, Envisat and CryoSat missions between 1992 and 2016. Radar altimeters record the height of the surface topography along the satellite’s ground track, the ESA said. Over time, these measurements are used to work out how the elevation of huge ice sheets is changing, which can be used to monitor ice loss.

Newsmakers

Rashtriya Lok Samta Party president Upendra Kushwaha resigned from the Union council of ministers and walked out of the NDA. He was upset with the BJP after it said the RLSP would not be given more than two seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Renowned historian and former Jamia Millia Islamia vice-chancellor Mushirul Hasan passed away on December 10. He was 71. The Padma Shri awardee wrote extensively on the Partition and served as the director-general of the National Archives of India.

Golfer Shubhankar Sharma, 22, became the fifth and youngest Indian to win the Asian Tour Order of Merit. None of the previous Indian winners of the Asian Tour Order of Merit were below 30 when they reached the top.