Top 5 Current Affairs: 28 July 2017

BRICS nations sign memorandum to facilitate taxation cooperation

The 2017 BRICS Labour and Employment ministers meeting that concluded in Chongqing, China on 27 July 2017 saw the signing of the BRICS Taxation Cooperation Memorandum.

The document, signed by the Heads of Tax Authorities of the five BRICS Nations, aims to establish a mechanism for taxation cooperation and is the bloc's first document that elevates taxation cooperation to the institutional level.

Amazon's Jeff Bezos briefly overtakes Gates to become world’s richest person

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon became the world’s richest man on 27 July 2017, dethroning Microsoft founder Bill Gates from the position briefly.

With a jump in the share price of the US tech giant, Bezos's net worth topped $90.5 billion on the morning of 27 July, ahead of Bill Gates’ estimated worth of $90 billion, according to Forbes and Bloomberg.

However, a dip in Amazon's stock price in the afternoon made him slip back to $88.8 billion, behind Gates whose net worth is estimated to be $89.8 billion.

Gates has been the world’s richest person since 2013 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

National Centre for Seismology launches app India Quake for Earthquake Parameter Dissemination

Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Environment, Forests & Climate Change, on 27 July 2017 launched an app India Quake for Earthquake Parameter Dissemination.

The minister launched the application on the occasion of Foundation Day of Ministry of Earth Sciences in New Delhi.

The App will make information dissemination faster with no restrictions on the number of recipients.

Any citizen can download this App and get the real time earthquake location information on his/her mobile.

Bolivian President declares ‘Total Independence’ from World Bank and IMF

Bolivia’s President Eva Morales in July 2017 declared that his nation has achieved “total independence” from the IMF and the World Bank.

President Morales declared the news on his official twitter account.

The socialist leader published his comments following a meeting with his peers at a gathering in Argentina of the Mercosur, a sub-regional economic bloc.

Morales’ tweet read,

"A day like today in 1944 ended Bretton Woods Economic Conference (USA), in which the IMF and WB were established. These organizations dictated the economic fate of Bolivia and the world. Today we can say that we have total independence of them."

No immediate arrest under dowry harassment law: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on 27 July 2017 ruled that the police cannot arrest the accused without conducting a preliminary inquiry under dowry harassment cases.

With this, the court puts an end to immediate arrests in dowry harassment cases, under Section 498A of Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The ruling was made by a bench of Justices A K Goel and UU Lalit.