 Good evening aspirants welcome to the hindu news analysis by Shankar I.S academy displayed here are the list of news articles We will be going through today before getting into the discussion I have an important announcement the much-avaited pre-storming test series of Shankar I.S academies about to start The test series will start from 11th September. The first test is on 18th September The other details regarding the test series are displayed here. You can go through it now without wasting time Let's start the discussion Have a look at this news article yesterday the Supreme Court had passed an important judgment Rehearing the inheritance of properties by children born out of void marriages In this news article discussion, we will see what is a void marriage and what is a voidable marriage We will also see the important outcome of this recent judgment First we shall see the observation made by the Supreme Court as mentioned in the news article The Supreme Court ruled that children born out of void or voidable marriage are legitimate And they have the right to inherit their parents property This means that they are considered to be legal children of their parents even though the marriage is not valid This is important because it gives them the right to inherit their parents property But at the same time Supreme Court said that these children cannot inherit property from other family members This is because they are not considered to be part of the joint Hindu family So this is the observation made by the Supreme Court with regard to inheritance of property by children of void or voidable marriage Here we need to know what is void marriage and voidable marriage Know that there are three type of marriage valid marriage void marriage and voidable marriage These are covered under section 11 section 12 of the Hindu marriage Act 1955 Now what is the difference between void marriage and voidable marriage? In a void marriage the couples no longer have the status of husband and wife But in a voidable marriage they have the status of husband and wife See in a void marriage no decree of nullity is required Whereas in case of voidable marriage the decree of nullity is required from a competent court Another important difference is that a wife does not have the right to claim maintenance in a void marriage But in case of voidable marriage a wife has the right to claim maintenance The legitimacy of the children under void and voidable marriage are specified under section 16 of the Hindu marriage Act 1955 The children born out of both void marriage and voidable marriage shall be treated as Legitimate and they have the right to inherit their parents property. This is what the Supreme Court mentioned in the recent judgment See there is another concept called divorce right now What is the difference between divorce and a void marriage when a marriage is declared void? It implies that there was no marriage happened between the parties in the first place Whereas in case of divorce the petitioners seek to break the bond of marriage Okay, that is the petitioner does not challenge the marriage itself. They just want to break the bond of marriage In simple terms declaring a marriage's void means the marriage was not even valid in the first place However, the divorce means ending of a valid marriage So after a void or voidable marriage the status of the party that is the husband and wife Becomes single or unmarried Whereas after the divorce the parties that is the husband and the wife become divorcee Okay, this is the difference between void marriage and a divorce So in conclusion in our discussion we saw what are the important Observation made by the Supreme Court in the case regarding void marriage We also saw what is void marriage and voidable marriage and we saw the difference between a void marriage and a divorce That is all regarding this discussion with this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article Look at this news article Recently the Haryana deputy chief minister said that if the tax buoyancy continues Then the GST council will be able to reduce GST tax rates This is about the news article in this context Let us try to understand some basic concepts in economy like tax buoyancy and the factors controlling tax buoyancy Firstly, what is tax buoyancy? Tax buoyancy is a measure of the responsiveness of the tax revenue to changes in GDP So in simple words, it is nothing but the ratio of change in tax revenue to the change in GDP Let me help you understand this concept with a simple example Say in a particular year the GDP increases by 10 percent and the tax revenue also increases by 10 percent As we know the tax buoyancy is the ratio of change in GDP to change in tax revenue By this formula the tax buoyancy is one However, in the same year if the tax revenue increases by 15 percent instead of 10 percent Then the tax buoyancy becomes 1.5 This means that the tax system is able to generate more revenue as the economy grows Governments all over the world prefer to have a tax system with higher tax buoyancy On one hand higher tax buoyancy will help them generate more revenue And at the same time having a higher tax buoyancy Will not put additional pressure in the form of tax rate increase in the consumers or in the common people This is about tax buoyancy See there are a number of factors that can affect tax buoyancy Let us see them one by one. The first is the progressiveness of the tax system A progressive tax system means the tax rate increases as the income increases This means that the higher income earners will pay a larger share of the taxes And so the tax system will be more buoyant For example, the income tax system in India is progressive Which means that it has the higher tax for higher income earners The second factor is the efficiency of tax administration A tax administration that is efficient and effective will be able to collect more taxes So the entire tax system will be more buoyant For example, the tax administration in India is relatively efficient Which is why the tax buoyancy in India is higher than in many other countries The third factor is government policies Government policies can also affect tax buoyancy For example, if the government introduces tax cuts, this will reduce the tax buoyancy However, if the government increases tax, it will increase tax buoyancy The fourth important factor that affects tax buoyancy is economic cycle Here the economic cycle refers to the regular fluctuations in the economic activities such as booms and recession The tax buoyancy will be higher during boom than during the recession years This is because during the boom years, people tend to earn more money and they will pay more tax These are the four important factors that influences tax buoyancy in a tax system Now like tax buoyancy, we have another concept in economic that is tax elasticity Tax elasticity simply means change in tax revenue with respect to change in tax rate Let me help you understand this with a simple example Say if the government increases tax of cars from 10 percent to 20 percent That is 100 percent increase in tax rate At the same time, due to increase in tax rate, the tax revenue increases from 100 crore rupees to 150 crore rupees That is 50 percent increase in tax revenue While the tax rate increased by 100 percent, the tax revenue increased by only 50 percent This is because due to increase in tax rate, some people who are planning to buy cars would not have decided to buy cars due to increase in taxes And dividing 50 percent by 100 percent, we get 0.5 and this 0.5 is called as tax elasticity Now what is the difference between tax buoyancy and tax elasticity? Tax buoyancy is the responsiveness of the tax revenue in relation to changes in the GDP On the other hand, tax elasticity is the responsiveness of the tax revenue in relation to changes in tax rate by the government Unlike buoyancy, which is related to GDP, the elasticity is related to the tax rates Okay, now coming to the conclusion See tax buoyancy and tax elasticity are important for governments because it will help them determine their tax revenue A buoyant tax system will help governments to meet their revenue targets without increasing the tax rate And it will also help the policy makers to make better decisions about the tax policy So that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we covered two basic concepts in economy That is tax buoyancy and tax elasticity Now with this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article Now take a look at this editorial article This article analyzes the economic growth of India in the first quarter of 2023 It says that India's GDP grew by 7.8 percent in the first quarter of 2023 This is the highest growth in the last four quarters The article also highlights potential challenges ahead of India's GDP growth So in our discussion, we shall cover the important points mentioned in the editorial article In order to understand the article, we must familiarize ourselves with basic terms like GDP and GVA Here GDP stands for gross domestic product GDP refers to the total value of goods and services that are produced within the domestic territory of a country In other words, GDP is the market value of all final goods and services produced within the boundary of a nation during one particular year Note that during GDP calculation, we only take into account the final goods And we don't consider the intermediate goods for the calculation This is because if we include intermediaries, it will lead to double counting of the value of the goods For example, let us take a car. See to manufacture a car We need intermediary goods like engines and other electrical components Once the car is manufactured, the final value of a car is arrived by including all the components of the car Now what happens when we include the value of these intermediaries in the GDP calculation? See when we include the value of the intermediary goods in GDP calculation The value is double counted while including the final value of the car So to avoid this double counting only the GDP takes into account only the Final value of the goods and services produced Also, remember in GDP calculation income generated by foreigners in a country is included But income generated by nationals of our country outside the territory of our country is not included Okay, this is all about GDP. Now, let us see what is GVA? GVA stands for gross value added GVA is used to calculate the total value added to a particular goods and services To put it in simple words GVA measures the value of goods and services produced in an economy After detecting the cost of inputs and raw materials used in the production process For example, let us assume that a bakery produces bread using wheat procured from the farmer Assume that for making one bread one kg of wheat is used and the bakery procures One kg of wheat at rupees 10 from the farmer Now after procuring the wheat the bakery adds some value like grinding of wheat and baking it into bread After making the bread the bakery sells the bread at the rate of rupees 20 Now during the GVA calculation we only take into account the value added That is we have to detect the cost of the raw material So when we detect the cost of the raw materials the value addition would stand at rupees 10 This is how gross value added is calculated Now let us discuss the important points mentioned in the news article regarding India's economic growth As we just saw India's GDP grew at 7.8% in the first quarter of 2023 This is slightly lower than the 8% growth estimated by the Reserve Bank of India The RBA has projected a growth of 6.5 percentage for the full year of 2023-24 But the months ahead could be challenging due to global factors and domestic pressures First we will see about the global factors The global economy is currently undergoing various obstacles like the war in Ukraine, raising inflation and the slowdown in China These headwinds could impact India's exports and the manufacturing sector Now let us see the domestic pressure India is also facing number of domestic pressures like rising inflation and the possibility of weak monsoon These pressures could impact consumer spending and agricultural production Ultimately the article says that the economic growth of India's different sectors in the first quarter of 2023 was quite mixed The farm sector and the services sector grew well But the manufacturing and the private investment are struggling Overall the article says that the outlook of India's economic growth in the coming months is uncertain However the government and the RBA are taking steps to mitigate the impacts of global pressures and domestic pressures on India's GDP growth This is all about the contents mentioned in the editorial article Now with this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article Take a look at this editorial article as the title itself hints the editorial article talks about China's economic slowdown and its impact The article tries to explain various causes that have led to the present day economic challenges in China We will see the points mentioned in the article in detail in our discussion today Before getting into the discussion I have highlighted the syllabus regarding this discussion You can go through it See the problems in the Chinese economy started way back in 2007 itself In 2007 the then Chinese Premier highlighted the various issues in the Chinese economy Now let us see the issues highlighted by the Chinese Premier The first one is unstable economic growth The Chinese Premier identified that the country's economic growth was unstable This instability was attributed to the factors such as Excessively high investment growth Excessive extension of credit And excessive liquidity of the currency These factors contributed to a unsustainable economic environment The second cause is unbalanced development See China faced challenges related to unbalanced development between urban and rural areas There was a significant disparity in the economic progress and the living standards with urban areas benefiting more from the economic growth compared to the rural region This is the second challenge The third one is the uncoordinated growth The Premier noted that the primary, secondary and tertiary industries were not well coordinated This lack of coordination in the economic sectors hindered the effective growth and development of the Chinese economy The fourth one is unsustainability China's economic growth heavily relied on investment and export-driven strategies This overlays on these factors made the growth model unsustainable in the long run Additionally, China had to adequately address environmental issues such as energy saving, emission reduction and environmental protection These are the major issues in the Chinese economy in 2007 highlighted by the Chinese Premier and China tried to address these issues To address these economic challenges, China implemented various strategies and initiatives Now let us see the strategies First one is to boost the domestic consumption The Chinese government aimed to increase domestic consumption to reduce the reliance on exports This involved encouraging Chinese citizens to spend more of their income on goods and services so as to stimulate domestic demand The second step taken was reforming the institutional obstacles These reforms were aimed to make business environment more conducive for both domestic and foreign investment This was aimed at making investment more inward into the Chinese economy The third one is innovation To achieve sustainable growth, China sought to encourage intellectual and technological innovation Investment in research and development as well as education played a crucial role in fostering investment In fostering innovation The next strategy is energy conservation and emission reduction See, China recognized the importance of addressing environmental concerns Efforts were made to promote energy saving practices reduce emissions and enhance environmental protection measures These were the steps taken by China and did it work? It definitely did China started witnessing double-digit economic growth for some time But in 2008, it all came crashing down due to the 2008 global financial crisis The Chinese government to keep the economy afloat decided to act It started investing heavily in infrastructure China invested heavily in railways, highways and energy sectors This strategy aimed to spread prosperity more evenly across the country and it also aimed to stimulate the economic activity The Chinese economy continued to grow despite the global economic downturn due to the heavy capital investment made by the Chinese government But this strategy also started having some issues from 2012 That is when Xi Jinping came to power Now we will see the challenges faced by China since 2012 The first one is lack of regulatory oversight During the Xi Jinping leadership, the Chinese financial market suffered due to lack of regulatory oversight Loans to businesses were often distributed based on personal relationship rather than strong financial sense This hindered the effective regulation of the financial sector And this is one of the major challenges faced by the Chinese economy The second one is raising labor cost and lower export growth See labor cost in China started increasing since 2012 This has reduced the competitiveness of the Chinese exports This coupled with the global economic downturn led to lower export growth rates This is the second challenge The third one is overproduction and inventory glut Some sectors like housing, energy and construction engaged in overproduction beyond their immediate demand This led to excess inventory and economic inefficiencies The fourth one is ill-informed supply-side reforms See the Xi Jinping administration implemented supply-side reforms That is shutting down of underperforming companies While this was intended to improve efficiency These reforms had mixed results Because shutting down of underperforming companies resulted in many job losses thereby reducing the demand in the economy The next challenge is shift in the growth strategy China shifted its growth strategy away from exports driven and infrastructure focused to growth towards a focus on improving the quality of life of its citizens This impacted job creation and the disposable income of the people was also affected The next challenge is the trade war and the China plus one policy See the trade tensions with the United States impacted the export growth of China As China started weaponizing its trade World nations started adopting the China plus one policy According to this policy the world nations started developing alternate supply chains away from China This also impacted the export growth and job growth and further slowed down the Chinese economy The next one is the Evergrand crisis The Evergrand crisis in 2020 exposed the vulnerabilities of Chinese housing market It also highlighted the inefficiency in Chinese regulatory mechanism which contributed to the economic concerns in the country The last but the major impact was the zero COVID policy See China adopted the zero COVID policy and introduced stringent measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic This impacted the economic activities and the international trade See these are the challenges faced by China since 2012 It is because of these challenges only China is currently experiencing economic slowdown See even though China is our adversary we cannot celebrate at their economic slowdown because both Indian and Chinese economy are highly integrated So any slowdown in the Chinese economy will in turn affect our economy also So the slowdown in the Chinese economy is not only the concern of the country but also the concern of the world So steps must be taken to insulate the countries from Chinese economy So that's all regarding this discussion In this discussion we saw the challenges faced by the Chinese economy and the reason for the Chinese economic slowdown Now with this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article Look at this news article This article is speaking about the performance of national mission for clean Ganga In 2014 the central government launched the Namami Ganga program The main aim of this program is to reduce pollution in Ganga river by improving sanitation levels along the river Apart from this the program also aims to conserve and rejuvenate the polluted Ganga river In 2016 the central government has set up an agency called the National Mission for Clean Ganga This agency is responsible for implementation of the Namami Ganga program See it has been 7 years since this body has been set up Because of this only this article is in use This article provides us some insights about the performance of the national mission for clean Ganga So in our discussion today we will first understand the important points provided in the article Then we will see about the causes of pollution in river Ganga And the various steps taken by the government to rejuvenate the river Now first let us see the important points from the article The main objective of the Namami Ganga program is to ensure that there is no untreated sewage flow into the Ganga river This is because the untreated sewage flow contributes to the largest amount of pollution in the Ganga river So the National Mission for Clean Ganga has installed several sewage treatment plants in the 5 states where the Ganga flows The states include Uttar Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal See the installed sewage treatment plants are capable of only treating 20% of the total sewage generated in these 5 states The Namami Ganga program was launched in 2014 and 9 years has been passed since And now only 20% of the generated sewage is treated And the rest 80% are left into the Ganga untreated This is a sorry state of affair However, some officials from the National Mission for Clean Ganga said that the sewage treatment is expected to increase to about 33% by 2024 and 60% by 2026 This is one of the important data provided in the article The news article also mentions that there is an improvement in water quality along the Ganga river The article says that there was a rise in the population of dolphins and Indian carp in Ganga The population of dolphins has risen from 2000 to 4000 And these dolphins are now spotted on new stretches where they have been not found before Apart from this, the fishermen are also reporting an increased presence of Indian carp See Indian carp is a fish species that only thrives in clean waters So if these facts are correct, we can conclude that the water quality in Ganga has improved to some extent due to the Namami Ganga program This is all about the points given in the news article Now we will first see about the causes of pollution in river Ganga The first and foremost cause of pollution is the untreated sewage water In a day, nearly 11,765 million liters of sewage are being generated in the Ganga basin states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Vispingal Mostly the sewage are let out in Ganga untreated This affects the water quality and the living organism in the river And as we saw already, only 20% of the sewage is now treated in plants So sewage is still a major contributor to pollution in the Ganga The second main cause is discharge of untreated waste from business units A large number of business units present along the Ganga like textiles, industries, slaughterhouses, hospitals and chemical plants They dispose of their untreated waste directly into the Ganga river Despite some vigilant mechanism, the businesses are still illegally dumping their waste into the river This is the second major cause of pollution The third cause is cutting off the natural flow of river There are some dams and barrages present along the Ganga These structures are obstructing the natural flow of the Ganga river See if the natural flow of the river is not cut off the pollutants will keep on moving and they will end up in the river See there might be less pollution in Ganga when the river is left to flow unobstructed But obstructing the natural flow of river does not allow the pollutants to move which aggravates the already existing pollution The fourth cause is agricultural runoff In the Ganga basin, most of the farmers are using tremendous amount of fertilizers to get better yield During rainy seasons, these fertilizers are washed off and they ultimately end up in the river This causes eutrophication in the Ganga river affecting the overall health of the river And the last major cause is disposal of dead bodies and ashes into the Ganga for religious reasons These all contribute to the pollution in Ganga Now we will see what are the steps taken by the government to rejuvenate the Ganga river The first important step is the Ganga Action Plan In 1986, the central government launched this plan and it was implemented by the Ministry of Environment and Forest The main aim of the plan was to improve the water quality of Ganga by diverting or treating the domestic sewage The plan also aimed to prevent toxic and industrial chemical waste from entering into the river It was carried out in various phases across the Ganga basin state The Ganga Action Plan has brought out some outcomes but it was not that significant and the plan was finally discontinued in 2000 The second important step is the setting up of National Ganga River Basin Authority It was established by the central government in 2009 under the Environment Protection Act 1986 It was chaired by the Prime Minister This body was responsible for planning, financing and implementing the projects to rejuvenate the Ganga river This body also has done some significant work in cleaning of the river Ganga Until 2014, this body functioned under the Environment Ministry and in 2014, it was transferred to the Ministry of Water Resources that is the Ministry of Jalsakthi Subsequently, in 2016, this body was replaced by the National Mission for Clean Ganga It is now acting as a implementing agency for the Namami Ganga Program And the final important step is the launching of the Namami Ganga Program In 2014, the central government launched this program It is an integrated mission that aims to reduce pollution in the Ganga river It aims to conserve and rejuvenate the polluted river at the same time The program was set with the total budgetary outlay of Rs. 20,000 It is being implemented in five Ganga basin states As we saw earlier, the National Mission for Clean Ganga is the implementing agency of the Namami Ganga Program This agency works with the state government to formulate the plans to clean the Ganga Now, what are all the works carried out under the Namami Ganga Program? First, sewage treatment plants are constructed under the program to treat the domestic sewage before letting it into the river Secondly, a monitoring mechanism has been established to monitor the industrial affluence that are flowing into the river Thirdly, afforestation practices have been carried out along the banks of the river to overcome river erosion And finally, public awareness has been created to reduce the pollution in the river These are some of the works carried out by the Namami Ganga Program And this article that we are discussing highlighted the performance of the program as well Okay, so that's all regarding this discussion In this discussion, we saw about the performance of the Namami Ganga Program Then we saw about the costs of pollution in Ganga and the steps taken by the government Now, with this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article Look at this news article This news article is about Project 17A The Project 17A, which is also called Project 17 Alpha Frigates was launched by the Indian Navy in 2019 The project was launched to construct a series of stealth guided missile frigates The P17A has been constructed by two companies One is the Mazakavan Dark Shipbuilders and the other one is the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers The ships have been named INS Nilgiri, Himgiri, Udaigiri, Dunaigiri, Taragiri, Vijaygiri and Mahendragiri These are all names of hill rangers in India Five P17A project ships have been launched so far between 2019 and 2022 The first stealth ship launched under P17A was Nilgiri which was launched in 2019 Vijaygiri was launched a few days back and the last ship that is the Mahendragiri was launched today Please make note that Project 17A ships have been designed indigenously by Indian Navy's Warhouse Design Bureau which is the pioneer organization for all warship design activities These guided missile frigates have been constructed with a specific stealth design which has radar-absorbent coatings Due to this, these ships are very stealthy that is, they can approach the enemy ships undetectable This new technology also reduces the infrared signals from the ships A substantial 75% of the orders for equipments and systems of Project 17A are from Indian firms, mainly from MSMEs So, it is also aligning with India's commitment to Adman Irba So, that's all regarding this discussion In this discussion, we saw a few points about Project 17A Now, with this, let us point up the news article discussion session And now, let us take up the practice prelims questions We have four practice prelims questions today Let us see them one by one Let us take up the first question This question is based on our GDP discussion Three statements are given We have to find how many of the statements given here are correct Let us take up the first statement GDP of any nation represents the sum total of GVA of all sectors of that economy during the said year after adjusting to taxes and subsidies This statement is correct GDP is the sum total of the GVA of all sectors of the economy Okay? Moving on to the second statement The income generated by both foreigners in a country and the nationals of the country outside the country is included in GDP This statement is incorrect because income generated by foreigners in a country is included in GDP but income generated by nationals of a country outside the country is not included This income is called emittance and it forms the part of income from abroad So, if this income from abroad is added to GDP it becomes gross national product not gross domestic product So, second statement is incorrect Moving on to the third statement Value of intermediary goods are excluded from GDP calculation This statement is correct This is done to avoid double calculation So, statement 1 and statement 3 are correct here So, the correct answer here is option B only 2 Moving on to the second question Which of the following statement is incorrect regarding the mid-textural law of inheritance rights? Let us take up the first option Under the mid-textural law only male members of the Hindu family are co-personers This statement is correct Under the mid-textural law only male members of the Hindu family are co-personers Here co-personers means a person who has a share in the inheritance Daughters are not co-personers under the mid-textural law The 1956 Hindu succession act was amended in 2005 and women were recognized as co-personers Moving on to the second option In a Hindu undivided family several legal hires through generation can exist jointly This statement is correct Moving on to the third option Mid-textural school of Hindu law is codified as a Hindu succession act of 1956 This statement is also correct Moving on to the last statement It is observed in all parts of India This statement is incorrect Mid-textural school of Hindu law is followed in every state in India except West Bengal and Assam So, fourth statement is incorrect Since the question is asking us to find the incorrect statement The correct answer here is option D Moving on to the next question The measure of change in tax revenue with respect to change in tax rate is option C Tax elasticity This we saw in the discussion itself Moving on to the last question This question is based on our project 17A discussion Three statements are given We have to find how many of the statements given here are correct Let us take up the first statement The project is launched to construct a series of stealth guided missile warships This statement is correct Moving on to the second statement It has a specific technology that has radar observant coatings and low observable mechanism This statement is also correct Moving on to the third statement The technology decreases the infrared signals of the ship The third statement is also correct Since all the statements are correct The correct answer here is option C All three The main questions based on today's discussion are displayed here Interested aspirants can write the answers and post it in the comment section If you like today's video Like, comment and share it with your friends For more updates regarding UPSD preparation Subscribe to Shankar IS Academy's YouTube channel Thank you for listening