Summer Special

Pranav Mistry Shows Off ‘SixthSense’ Technology
A late 2009 video of India IT wunderkind Pranav Mistry demonstrating his “SixthSense” technology continued to draw in our India Briefing readers in 2010. The presentation, made at the TED India conference, showed off Mistry’s tools that allow the physical world to interact with the digital one, including a paper “laptop” and a virtual camera.

New Indian Goods and Services Tax Regime in Place by 2010
The other big story of 2010 began in 2009, when the Indian government began studying tax reforms that will eventually sweep away part of the current VAT system, a variety of state level direct and indirect taxes, excise duties, service tax and luxury tax and replace them with a single Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Proposed Tax Changes in the 2010-2011 Union Budget
Taxes were on the minds of many of our readers in 2010, as is evidenced by the popularity of the top articles, many of which are related to tax issues. This article looked at some of the changes made to the current Indian tax code in the 2010-2011 Union Budget. Changes included raising the threshold taxable income for individuals, clarifying fees for technical services received by a non-resident from an Indian resident is deemed to be sourced in India, enlarging the scope of anti-avoidance provisions, and changing the basic customs duty rates.

India Releases Income Tax Deduction Rates for 2009-2010
An Income Tax Department circular detailing the tax deduction rates on salaries for the financial year 2009-2010 also proved quite popular in the first half of 2010. As the article pointed out, income tax is required to be deducted under Section 192 of the Income Tax Act of 1961 from income chargeable for the financial year 2009-2010. India Briefing published the tax rates for our readers and reviewed methods of tax calculation.

Karnataka State Budget Tax Proposals for 2010-11
Proving that India Briefing readers aren’t only interested in the Union budget, our article highlighting tax proposals submitted for the Karnataka State Budget 2010-2011 was also well read. The article covered proposed changes to VAT, resource mobilization measures, luxury tax, entry tax, state excise tax and stamp duty rates, among others.

India’s New Consolidated FDI Policy Available for Download
India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry released a new consolidated FDI policy effective starting April 1. The policy circular proved to be a big draw for our readers when we featured it and provided a complimentary PDF download of the circular in April.

New Remittance Rule for Foreign Companies Introduced
Our coverage of new rules in January requiring foreign remittances to be reported before payment garnered a lot of attention. Following this rule change, we advised foreign companies doing business in the country to begin applying for a PAN. Moreover, business transactions wherein the tax is to be paid by the Indian company with unrelated foreign companies will need contracts that indicate that foreign companies would soon apply for a PAN.

India Forecasts 7.2 Percent Growth, Per Capita Income Increases
Interest in India’s economy remained strong in 2010, especially as the affects of the Global Financial Crisis began to abate. In February, India’s domestic economic growth was forecast to reach 7.2 percent for 2009-10, against the 6.7 percent recorded a year ago, according to advance gross domestic product estimates released by the Central Statistical Organization.

GST Implementation Delayed
The government’s announcement that the April 1 deadline for the introduction of India’s new Goods and Services Tax was like to be rescheduled was big news in January of 2010. As the mechanism for revenue sharing between the central government and the states had not been finalized yet, introduction of the new GST was delayed

India’s Education Industry Opens to Foreign Universities
India may soon be the next major market for the global education industry as a proposal to allow foreign universities to open branches in the country was approved by cabinet in early March. This news was undoubtedly very popular with foreign universities, who will be able to enter the once restricted education market when the Foreign Education Providers (Regulatory) Bill is finally signed into law by parliament.