Australia to collaborate with Indian researchers

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The Australian government, through the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF), would collaborate with Indian researches in the field of agriculture, mining, energy, health etc. The Australian government has earmarked $84 million to be spent over three years in creating infrastructure, awarding fellowship and scholarship to promote research between the two countries.

“The Australian government greatly values strong relationship with India, particularly in education and research. We have a roadmap to promote bilateral research between the two countries. During his visit to Australia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi identified sectors like agriculture, mining, energy, health etc for research, so we have decided to enhance cooperation between the two countries in these areas, ” said Australian Minister for Education and Training Christopher Pyne, who is in India to promote research collaboration between the two countries and also to highlight the opportunities for enhanced collaboration between Australia’s world-class education system and Indian institutions.

The AISRF is Australia’s largest fund dedicated to bilateral research with any country and one of India’s largest sources of support for international science.

The AISRF helps Australian researchers from public and private sectors to participate with Indian scientists in leading-edge scientific research projects and workshops.

Taking a step forward in this direction, the minister on Saturday officially opened new facilities at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB)-Monash Research Academy.

The collaboration between the IITB and Monash University will see students receive a joint PhD from both institutions, with the added benefit of exposing a large cohort of young researchers to cutting-edge international research.

“The Australian government, through the AISRF, was one of the early contributors to this joint venture, providing $1.5 million in seed funding to establish the IITB-Monash Research Academy,” he said.

Meanwhile, he also visited Delhi Public School and launched a pilot project linking schools in India and Australia.

The Australia-Asia Building Regional Intercultural Dialogue and Growing Engagement, or BRIDGE, connects Australian teachers, students, and school communities with their peers in Asia so they can exchange knowledge.

“The BRIDGE programme connects Australian schools to schools around the world so that students and teachers alike can learn from one another and build lasting cultural ties and skills,” Pyne said.

“Strengthening partnerships between school leaders, teachers, and school communities in India and Australia helps us build strong education relationships and share our ideas and knowledge,” he said.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/australia-to-collaborate-with-indian-researchers-115082500054_1.html

Govt may open educational, legal services to foreigners

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The government is planning to open its education and legal services to foreigners, a move aimed at boosting the country’s services sector.

In a country like India, “this (the liberalisation of the services sector) is to be slow and should have a calibrated approach …It is at a very early stage. A road map has been prepared,” Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia told PTI.

Explaining the country’s approach to open education sector, the secretary said, in the beginning, opening online courses could be an option.

“Indira Gandhi National Open University is doing something. Some professional bodies are also offering online courses. So, when we have such reputed technical institutions, more online courses can make the training they offer accessible to other countries. So, this could be one step,” she said.

About opening legal services for foreign players, she said the Commerce Ministry’s intention is to work with Bar Council of India (BCI) to move in a direction which is “calibrated and always reciprocal”. The government is also in consultation with the Society for Indian Law Firms for this.

“…so the first step should be to look at our domestic sector and making an environment which allows for the growth of our legal services sector,” she said.

She said the road map developed by the Department of Commerce with stakeholders is to first permit “multi-professional firms to come in, and to allow them to increase size of the firms”.

“So, these could be early stage reforms. Once we do that, in the next stage we can have consultation with the BCI,” she added.

Opening up of these two sectors is under discussion of the Committee of Secretaries.

The UK and the US have been pushing India to open up the sector to foreign firms.

The Advocates Act, which is administered by the BCI, provides for foreign lawyers or law firms to visit India on a reciprocal basis for temporary periods to advise their clients on foreign law and diverse international legal issues.

What your PAN discloses of your details

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The digital and smart platform is called the Income Tax Business Application-Permanent Account Number (PAN)

Your permanent account number (PAN) is a 10-digit alphanumeric number, which is used as your identity proof. It is used mainly for tax related purposes. The first five characters are letters from the English alphabet, the next four characters are numbers and the last character is also a letter. Have you ever wondered whether these numbers and letters have any meaning or not, what do they stand for and how the combination is made unique for you? Well, they have a meaning and they represent something about you. Here is what they mean.

First three characters: The first three characters are alphabetic series between AAA to ZZZ. For instance, the beginning of your PAN could be BEP or APZ; the selection is random.

Fourth character: The fourth character of your PAN always represents your status. The fourth character for a majority of PAN holders is the letter “P”, which stands for “person”. The other nine letters that can represent the fourth character are C, H, F, A, T, B, L, J, and G.

C stands for company. So if the PAN is in the name of your company, its fourth character would be C. H represents Hindu Undivided Family, F stands for partnership firm, A is for association of persons, T stands for trust, B for body of individuals, L represents local authority, J means artificial juridical person and G stands for government.

Fifth character: The fifth character represents the first alphabet of your last name or surname. For instance, somebody with the name Anil Kishore Gupta will have G as the fifth character on his PAN as his last name’s first alphabet is G. However, if you happen to change your surname after marriage or due to any other reason, your PAN card number will remain unchanged.

Sixth to ninth characters: The next four characters are sequential numbers between 0001 to 9999. Like the first three characters, here too the selection is random.

Tenth character: The last and tenth character in the PAN is an alphabetic check digit. Alphabetic check digit is generated by applying a formula to the preceding nine letters and numbers.

Why is the classification important?

A unique number enables the income-tax department to link all transactions of the person with the department. These transactions include tax payments, tax deducted at source/tax collected at source credits, returns of income/wealth/gift, specified transactions, correspondence and so on. PAN, thus, acts as a unique identifier of persons for the tax department.