 Greetings, I welcome you all to the Hindu Daily News Analysis brought to you by Shankar Ayes Academy. Today I am going to cover important news articles from the Hindu newspaper dated 30th of January 2023. Displayed here are the list of news articles that we will be discussing today. You can go through it. And those who haven't yet subscribed our YouTube channel, do subscribe and hit the bell icon button to get regular notifications regarding our content videos. Now let's get into our first news article discussion. Now for our first discussion, we are going to take this news article. It says that the scientific community has named a new genus of wasp after soligas. Know that soligas are the indigenous tribal community who are residing in the Biligiri Rangana Hills in Chamraja Nagar district of Karnataka. As I said earlier, the new genus of wasp was named after this soligas. See, this was done to give recognition to the forest and biodiversity conservation efforts of the soligas. This is the crux of the news article given here. Now in this context, let us learn about the soligal tribe and we will also discuss about the Biligiri Rangana temple Tiger reserve. Now first, let's start with soligas. See, soligas are an indigenous tribe of Karnataka who are found in the forest areas near Biligiri Rangana Hills. Traditionally, they have been dependent on the forest for their livelihood. The soligas are also called the children of bamboo. This is because the word is bilidu to mean that they originated from bamboo. Know that the soligas living in the core area of Biligiri Rangaswamy temple Tiger reserve. They were the first tribal community to get their forest rights recognized in India. The tribes worshipped the tiger as Hulliverappa and they have mastered the art of co-existing with tigers. The soligas speak the sholaka language or the soliganudi which is regarded as their mother tongue. The language is most closely related to Kannada with several Tamil influences. This is all about the soligal tribe. Now we will learn about the Biligiri Rangaswamy temple Tiger reserve. See initially, the Biligiri Rangana Hills were existed as a wildlife sanctuary. It was in 2011, the Biligiri Rangaswamy temple wildlife sanctuary was declared as a tiger reserve. Know that the total area of the tiger reserve is 574.82 kilometers square. This tiger reserve is considered to be the wildlife corridor that connects the eastern gods to the western gods. So this in turn facilitates the gene flow between the population inhabiting both the mountain ranges. Now coming to the forest types, the major forest types of the reserve are firstly southern tropical evergreen forest, secondly, southern tropical semi-evergreen forest and finally, southern tropical moist deciduous forest. This is about forest types. Now coming to the fauna, see as many as 26 mammals have been recorded in the tiger reserve. This includes gar, sambar, spotted deer, barking deer and four-hunt antelope. Then the carnivores of the habitat include tiger, leopard, wild dog, lesser cat and civet cat etc. See the arboreal mammals comprise of two primates and three species of squirrels including the Jain flying squirrel are also found in Biligiri Rangaswamy temple tiger reserve. And that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw about the Solica tribes. Then we saw about Biligiri Rangaswamy temple tiger reserve. Then we saw the forest types and fauna of the Biligiri Rangaswamy temple tiger reserve. See this topic is very much important for your film's exam. There may be a chance that UPSC may ask a question regarding. This tiger reserve in film's exam. So make note of each and every points that we discussed. Now with these key points in mind, let's move on to the next news article discussion. Now for our next discussion, we are going to take these two articles from yesterday's newspaper. Both these articles are talking about child marriage. Now look at this article. This article says that according to National Family Health Survey 5, the national average of underage marriage is 23.3% and the national average for underage motherhood is 6.8%. But in the case of exam, an average of 31.8% of girls getting married before the age of 18 and 11.7% of girls become mothers before the age of 18. Due to this dismal performance, the Assam government has revamped its efforts to counter underage marriage and underage motherhood. So the Assam government has decided to bring in stringent laws to combat the issue. This is all about the news article given here. And as far as this FAQ article is concerned, it focuses on various aspects like laws that govern marriages in India, then about the states that have poor track record in combating child marriage, then the effects of child marriage, and also some points about prohibition of child marriage act. Now we will see about the content of the article in detail in this discussion. Before we start, I have highlighted the syllabus regarding this discussion. You can go through it. Now first, let us look at the laws that govern marriages in India. In India, there is no single law. We have various personal laws that deal with marriage according to the particular religion. For example, the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 and the Indian Christian Marriage Act of 1872 both prescribe the age of 18 years for the bride and 21 years for the groom. And in the case of Islam, the Muslim Personal Law Application Act 1937 allows marriage if the boy and the girl have attained puberty. So the Muslim law has no age limit and just attaining puberty is enough to get married. Apart from these personal laws, which deal with various religions, we have the Special Marriage Act 1954, which governs interfaith marriages. This special marriage act 1954 also lays down 18 years for women and 21 years for men as the age of marriage. Finally, there is the prohibition of child marriage act 2006. According to prohibition of child marriage act 2006, marriage below 18 years for women and 21 years for men is illegal. See these are some laws that deal with marriages in India. There is also another act that prevents child marriage but not directly. It is none other than the POCSO Act, that is the production of children from sexual offenses act. This act aims to protect children from sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography. According to the POCSO Act, anyone under the age of 18 is considered a child. So when someone marries a minor and is involved in sexual intercourse, then the person can be booked or punished under POCSO Act. If you look at these laws closely, you might find a conflict. Yes, there is a conflict between personal laws and statutory law. To be more specific, there is a conflict between the Muslim personal law and statutory laws like POCSO Act and the prohibition of child marriage act 2006. To resolve this conflict and to decide which law has precedence, the courts had to step in. In November 2022, while dealing with a specific case, the Kerala High Court held that a marriage between a Muslim man and a Muslim minor girl under their personal law is not excluded from the POCSO Act. While giving this direction, the Kerala High Court mentioned about the section 42A of the POCSO Act. Section 42A of the POCSO Act gives this law the overriding power. For example, in the event of any inconsistency or mismatch with provisions of any other law, the POCSO Act would prevail. So when there is a conflict between the Muslim personal law and the POCSO Act, then the provisions under POCSO Act will prevail. This is about the Kerala High Court judgment. But very recently, the Punjab and Haryana High Court made a different interpretation. The Punjab and Haryana High Court mentioned that a girl on attaining puberty or the age of 15 years and above could be married on the basis of Muslim personal law irrespective of the provisions of POCSO Act 2012. After the Punjab and Haryana High Court judgment, the National Commission for Production of Child Rights brought it to the attention of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court issued a notice mentioning that Punjab and Haryana High Court judgment cannot be used as judicial precedent by other courts. The Supreme Court issued a notice to ensure that the POCSO Act continue to have overriding powers over other laws. This is the story so far. Now moving forward, let us look at the issues associated with child marriage. Now first, let's see some data. At the start of this discussion, we saw the poor performance by Assam in combating child marriage right. But what is the condition in other states? Is Assam the only state that is performing poorly? Actually no. Some other states are also performing poorly. Within the states also, there will be some variation between the urban and rural areas in case of child marriage. So in 2017, a consultancy firm Young Leaves India and NCPCR analyzed the data from the 2011 census. They showed that 70 districts spread across 13 states had high prevalence of child marriage. See, the majority of these 70 districts were located in the states of Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Mathya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. This is about the prevalence of child marriage. The governments of these states are taking various steps to address this issue. But why is it necessary to combat child marriage? This is because child marriage has so much issues associated with it. So now let's see some of the issues associated with child marriage. The first issue is the poor nutritional outcome. Early marriage and as a result, early pregnancies have an impact on nutrition levels of mothers and their children. Diminished nutrition levels will have an impact on the overall health and mental well-being of both the mother and the children. This consequently will have an effect on both the infant mortality rate and maternal mortality rate. So prevalence of child marriage is linked to high infant mortality rate and maternal mortality rate. Then the second issue is that child marriage is against women empowerment. See women who got married as minors will lack education. This affects their ability to earn a livelihood. As they are not about to earn a livelihood, their autonomy is severely curtailed. But when a woman gets married at an appropriate time according to her free will, then that woman will spend more time in school and college. This will help women enter the labour market with better skills. So child marriage counters empowerment of women. Then the last issue is high total fertility rate. Here total fertility rate is the number of child born to the woman during her child bearing birth. There is a direct correlation between child marriage and total fertility rate. When a woman is married off when she is a minor, she would lack education. And she would be less aware about their rights. Due to this she will lack bodily autonomy. That is she won't have any say in her marriage life or the number of children she wishes to have. Due to this the total fertility rate of women who got married as minors is very high. See these are all some of the issues associated with child marriage. What are the steps that the government can take to address child marriage? The first one is strong legislation. We already have the production of child marriage act 2006. According to this act marriage below 18 years for women and 20 years for men is illegal. Recently the government introduced an amendment to the bill that seeks to raise the legal age of marriage for women on par with men that is 21 years. The amendment has not been passed yet but it is a good move by the government. But a strong law alone cannot address the manners of child marriage. For example we have prohibition of child marriage act since 2006. And according to national family law survey 5 23.3% of women married before the age of 18. So strong legislation must be complemented by welfare measures. The government while realising this it has also taken up some welfare schemes to address child marriage. Some schemes include the beti bachoba beti patao, Sukkanya samradhi ojana and the sabla scheme. In addition to this government is also working with the civil society to educate the public about the ill effects of child marriage. See these are all some of the steps taken by the government. In addition to this the government can also take up targeted education. We already saw that based on 2011 census 70 districts in India has high prevalence of child marriage right. So the government can take up targeted awareness campaigns in these 70 districts for fruitful results. This is a cost effective way to combat child marriage. And that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion we saw about the laws in India that deals with marriage. Then we saw about the conflict between personal law and statutory law regarding child marriage. Then we saw the status of child marriage in India. Then we saw the issues associated with child marriage. And finally we saw the steps taken by the government. See this topic is very much important for your main exam. So make note of each and every point that we discussed. Now with these key points in mind let's move on to the next news article discussion. Now have a look at this front page news article here. It says that the union education ministry released the report of all day survey on higher education 2020-21. See to analyze the condition of higher education in the country education ministry has been conducting this all day survey on higher education since 2010-11. The data collected in this survey includes several parameters such as teachers, student enrollment, programs, examination results, education finance, infrastructure, etc. And using this data several indicators of education development such as institution density, gross enrollment ratio, people-teacher ratio, gender parity index and peer student expenditure will be calculated. This article contains important points from the survey regarding the indicators of educational development. So in this discussion we will see what they are. But before that the syllabus relevant to this topic is given here you can go through it. First of all the survey is saying that there was a 7.5% increase in student enrollments across the country from the 2019-20 figures. Know that the total enrollments reached 4.13 crore in 2020-21. According to the survey during the pandemic times there was a 7% rise in enrollments in distance education programs. Secondly, let us see the cost based information for enrollment. See the data showed that 2 lakh more scheduled cost students and 3 lakh more scheduled ripe students and 6 lakh more other backward class students enrolled for higher education in 2020-21. Thirdly, the survey is saying that the increase is only in absolute numbers. But if you see the proportion of each cast separately when compared to 2019-2020 the percentage of SC students dropped from 14.7% to 14.2% in 2020-21. And the proportion of OBC students dropped from 37% to 35.8%. Fourthly, as per the survey the proportion of Muslim students dropped from 5.5% in 2019-2020 to 4.6% in 2020-21. And the proportion of other minority students also dropped from 2.3% to 2%. Fifthly, the survey says that the number of students in the persons with disabilities category also dropped from 90-831 in 2019-2020 to 79-35 in 2020-21. And sixthly, as per the survey the female enrollment had increased from 45% in 2019-20 to 49% of the total enrollments in 2020-21. Seventhly, the survey says that the gross enrollment ratio for all enrollments increased by over 2 points that is to 27.3. The highest enrollment was seen at the undergraduate level which accounted for 78.9% of all enrollments. And this is followed by post-graduate level which accounted for 11.4% of the 2020-21 total enrollments. Then eighthly, as per the survey among all undergraduate enrollments the most popular one is the Bachelor of Arts program that is BA. BA course saw 104 lakh enrollments that 52.7% accounted for women and 47.3% accounted for men. This was followed by Bachelor of Science courses here also women outnumbered men and again this was followed by the Bachelor of Commerce program. Here women accounted for 48.5% enrollments but in the courses of BTEC and Bachelor of Engineering women accounted for less than 30% of all enrollments. And for the next point let us see the information about post-graduate level. See at the post-graduate level the most popular courses include the social sciences, sciences and management etc. In this social science category women accounted for 56% enrollments in 2020-21. In the science category women accounted for 61.3% of all enrollments. See except for the management courses women outnumbered men in all other PG courses. In the management courses at the PG level enrollment of women stood at 43.1%. This is low when compared to men. Now coming to the PhD level see at the PhD level the most popular course was in the field of engineering and technology and this is followed by science. Know that in both disciplines women accounted for less than 50% enrollments. That is 33.3% for engineering and technology and 48.8% for science. Finally as per the survey the overall figures for STEM enrollments at all levels of higher education showed that women lagged behind men. See men accounted for over 56% of enrollments in these fields. Here STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. And that's all regarding this discussion. See these points will be very much useful for your main exam. Take note of it and use this data in your main's answer. This will help to enrich your main's answer. And if possible read the summary of the report also. Because in this discussion we have covered only important points given in the article. Read the report and if you find anything important than this then make note of that also. Now with these key points in mind let's move on to the next news article discussion. Now take a look at this news article from the text and context page. This column talks about an important health care issue, dementia. According to a 2020 report approximately 5 million people in India have dementia. And when we expand the scale to worldwide 47.5 million people have dementia with a potential increase to 135.5 million by 2050. This is exactly why we should be aware of dementia and the things that can be done to stop dementia from occurring. So in this discussion let us understand what is this dementia then its causes, symptoms, treatment and prevention. Now before getting into discussion the syllabus relevant to this topic is given here you can go through it. First of all what is dementia? Dementia is a syndrome that leads to deterioration in cognitive function. That is it deteriorates the ability to process thought. Such deterioration in cognitive function is beyond the usual consequences of biological aging. We know that when people getting old they tend to lose memory and forgot things to some extent right. But in case of dementia all these cases are exaggerated. In simple terms dementia affects memory, thinking, orientation, comprehension, calculation, learning capacity, language and also judgment. So dementia is not a specific disease but it is a general term for the impaired ability to remember, think or make decisions. But note that consciousness of a person is not affected. Here consciousness means being aware and responsive to the surroundings. So remember dementia does not exclusively affect older people. There is also a young onset of dementia where people below 65 years of age get affected with this illness. So what causes dementia? Actually dementia results from a variety of diseases and injuries that primarily or secondarily affect the brain. So if there is a disease that affects the brain then it can cause dementia. So a stroke can also cause dementia. Know that the most common cause of dementia is Alzheimer's disease which accounts for up to 70% of all dementia diagnosis. Remember dementia affects each person in a different way. It basically depends on the underlying causes. But the signs and symptoms linked to dementia can be understood in three stages. That is yearly stage, middle stage and later stage. Early symptoms include absent mindedness, difficulty in recalling names and words, difficulty in retaining new information, then disorientation in unfamiliar surroundings and reduced social engagement. Now coming to the middle stage, as the disease progresses, there is a marked memory loss and loss of other cognitive skills including reduced vocabulary and less complex speech patterns. This may be accompanied by mood swings, apathy, a decline in social skills and the emergence of psychotic phenomena. So this is the middle stage. Now coming to the later stage, see the later stage is characterized by monosyllabic speech, psychotic symptoms, behavioral disturbance, loss of bladder and bowel control. So this is all about the symptoms that we can understood in three stages. Some of the other symptoms are mentioned here, you can go through it. Now moving on to the question, how dementia is evaluated? The first step is to obtain a comprehensive medical history of the individual from a reliable informant. Here, informant is someone who knows the individual well. Informants themselves can be influenced by their own mental states. So it is useful to speak with more than one informant. Secondly, know that a dementia that progresses slowly over years may end up or result in Alzheimer's dementia and a dementia that progresses rapidly over months may end up in dementia due to prion disease. So it is more useful to determine when the individual was lost well rather than when the symptoms first appeared. Apart from this, clinically doctors diagnose dementia using neuroimaging and neuropsychological tests. Since dementia affects cognition, a cognitive assessment using certain neuropsychological tests is crucial to evaluate dementia. Apart from this, workup using laboratory studies and brain imaging can help in diagnosing the dementia disease. However, as of today, there is no genetic or biomarker test that can be used to diagnose dementia. So this is all about the diagnosis of dementia disease. Now moving on to the other question, how can we prevent dementia? The World Health Organization has identified preventing Alzheimer's disease to be a key to fighting the world's dementia epidemic. While evaluating the cause and benefits of the disease, it has been discovered that delaying the onset of the disease by even one year could lower its prevalence by low percentage. Then the study shows that people can reduce their risk of cognitive decline and dementia by being physically active, then avoiding smoking and alcohol consumption, then controlling their weight, then eating a healthy diet and maintaining healthy blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels. There is also a robust link between depression in late life and the incidence of sporadic dementia. Having depression almost doubles the risk of developing dementia. So treating depression in persons with established cognitive impairment is vital. So basically prevention programs focuses on lifestyle risk factors together with mental well-being and risk of cardiovascular diseases. Now moving on to the next question, how to treat dementia? See currently there is no treatment available to cure dementia but much can be done to support and improve the lives of people with dementia and their families. Such dementia care has four pillars. The first pillar is managing the important aspects of the disease with a goal to reverse their effects or to delay its progression in the brain. Then the second pillar is managing the cognitive, neuropsychiatric and functional symptoms. And the other two pillars involve providing systematic and evidence-based supportive cares to the patients and their carers. Apart from this, providing information and long-term support to carers can be included in the dementia care. And that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion we saw about what is dementia, then we saw how dementia affects the people, then we moved on to see about the causes, then we saw about symptoms and evaluation of the dementia and finally we saw treatment and prevention of the dementia disease. Now with these key points in mind, let's move on to the next news article discussion. Now have a look at this news article here, it says that the World Health Organization has urged countries to ramp up their leprosy services, which is disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic. So in this context, let us use this opportunity to learn about leprosy from our exam perspective. First, we will understand about the leprosy disease in general. Note that leprosy is also known as the Hansen's disease. Leprosy is an infection caused by bacteria called mycobacterium lepre. These bacteria grow very slowly and it may take up to 20 years to develop visible symptoms. Basically it can affect the nerves, skin, eyes and lining of the nose. What happens is that the bacteria attacks the nerves and it becomes swollen under the skin. Because of this, the affected areas loses the ability to sense touch and pain. This can lead to injuries like cuts and burns. Usually the affected skin changes color and either becomes lighter or darker, often dry or flaky with loss of feeling or it becomes reddish due to inflammation of the skin. If leprosy left untreated, the no damage can result in paralysis of hands and feet. But the good news is that early diagnosis and treatment will prevent any disability. People with Hansen's disease can continue to work and lead an active life. Once treatment is started, the person is no longer contagious. Now, how do people get Hansen's disease? It is not known exactly how Hansen's disease spreads between people. Scientists currently think it may happen when a person with Hansen's disease coughs or sneezes and a healthy person breathes in the droplets containing the bacteria. But here we should know that prolonged or close contact with someone with untreated leprosy over many months is needed to catch the disease. Therefore, you cannot get leprosy from a casual contact with a person who has this disease like simply shaking hands or hugging and sitting next to each other. Hansen's disease is also not passed on from a mother to her unborn baby during pregnancy. And it is also not spread through sexual contact. This is about the transmission of Hansen's disease. Now, we will see what are all the common symptoms of this Hansen's disease. The symptoms include numbness in the affected areas of the skin, then painless swelling or lumps on the faces or earlobes, then enlarged nerves especially those around the elbow and knee and in the sides of the neck, the discolored patches of skin that may be numb or look faded and finally eye problems that may lead to blindness when facial nerves are affected. So, this is about symptoms. Now, what is the treatment? Hansen's disease is treated with a combination of antibiotics. Two or three antibiotics are used at the same time. These are Dapsone with Ruffhampansin and Clofacemine is added for some types of the disease. This is called multidrug therapy. This strategy helps prevent the development of antibiotic resistance by the bacteria which may otherwise occur due to length of the treatment. See, treatment usually lasts between one to two years. So, this illness can be cured if treatment is completed as prescribed. And that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw about Hansen's disease, which is nothing but the leprosy. Then, we saw about how leprosy is affecting the humans. Then, we saw about the transmission of the disease. And finally, we saw some symptoms and treatment of the Hansen's disease. See, this topic is very much important for your prelims exam. So, make note of each and every point that we discussed. Now, with these key points in mind, let's move on to the next news article discussion. Now, have a look at this news article. The article here says that foreign portfolio investors have pulled out 17,000 crore worth investments from the Indian market. This is about this news article given here. Now, in this context, let us see about foreign portfolio investment. Then the difference between foreign portfolio investment and foreign direct investment. And finally, we will saw some reasons why the foreign portfolio investors are pulling out their investments from the Indian market. Now, first, let's take foreign portfolio investment. Foreign portfolio investment or FPI refers to passive investments in the financial assets of a foreign economy. Here, financial assets include stocks, bonds, securities, etc. The FPI has some characteristics associated with it. The first one is, they invest only in financial assets and not physical assets like buildings and production units. In the second one is, FPI are not involved in the day-to-day operations of the companies they invest in. And thirdly, the main motive behind the FPI is to generate short-term financial gains. The FPI are not focused on gaining managerial operations of the business. So, the investments made via FPI are very volatile. This is all about foreign portfolio investment. Now, let's take up FDI are foreign direct investment. In the case of FDI, a company invests in foreign companies with the intention of taking control of the ownership and by participating in the company's day-to-day business. In case of FDI, the focus is not just on the financial assets, but also the physical assets. For example, we can say Walmart. See, Walmart acquired 77% stake in Flipkart for 6 billion US dollars. So, this is an example of FDI. Now, let us see some features of FDI. The first one is, like I already mentioned, FDI is aiming at taking over the day-to-day management of the company. Secondly, in the case of FDI, there is transfer of technology and knowledge which does not happen in the case of FPI. And the last one is that FDI is more stable when compared to FPI. This is because the focus of FDI is not on short-term gains. See, these are all some of the characteristics of foreign direct investment. Now, I hope you know about the difference between FPI and FDI. Now, finally, let us see why currently the FPS are pulling out their investments from India. The first reason is that, see, while discussing about FPI itself, I mentioned the FPI's main focus is short-term gains. And currently, the Chinese market is very attractive in terms of return on investment. Due to this reason, the FPS are pulling out of India and investing in the Chinese market. Then the second reason is that, the FPS are staying cautious about the US Fed. See, to address the inflation in the USA, the US central bank, that is the US federal bank, has been increasing its policy rates. So, what is happening is, the FPS are taking their capital invested in the Indian market to invest back in the US to enjoy high returns. See, these are the two reasons, due to which the FPS are pulling out their investments from India. And that's all regarding this discussion. This discussion we saw about FPI and its characteristics. Then we saw about FDI and its characteristics. And finally, we saw about the reasons why FPS are pulling out their investments from India. Now, with these key points in mind, let's move on to the next news article discussion. Now, look at this news article here. It talks about how the compensation regime worked differently for different states. It is based on a report published recently by the Reserve Bank of India. The report has listed out the states that have received higher compensation during the transition period of the GST. That is from 2017 to 2022. These are the top five states in the list. They are Maharashtra in the first, Karnataka in the second, Gujarat in the third, Tamil Nadu in the fourth, followed by Punjab in the fifth. This is the crux of the news article given here. Now, in this discussion, we'll try to learn more about the GST compensation. See, we all know that tax is an important source of revenue for the government. And it is collected in the form of direct taxes and indirect taxes. Previously, India had many indirect taxes, such as the excess duty, VAT, services tax, etc. So, to merge all these indirect taxes, the Goods and Services Tax Act was passed in the parliament as the 101st Constitutional Amendment Act 2016. It was introduced to remove any cash-cadding taxation or double taxation that earlier burdened the customers. This could only materialize because of the support from the state governments. So, the state governments had to give up their power to fix the rates of tax on various items. The states were not happy with this, obviously. So, the union government guaranteed to compensate states for any shortfall in surrounding growth below 14% for a period of five years. To put simply, if the growth rate of a particular state is only 10%, then the center would provide the remaining 4% to the state during the period of 2017 to 2022. But how will the central government get the fund to pay this compensation? See, for this purpose, a compensation system was proposed on luxuries and sin goods. Know that sin goods are those goods which consider harmful to society like the alcohol and tobacco products. Even coffee and soft drinks come under this. Now, we will see how the GST compensation mechanism Basically, the compensation is paid by the consumers which is collected by the center and released to the states. The proceeds of the compensation says will be credited to a non-lapsable fund which is known as the goods and services tax compensation fund in the public account. All amounts payable to the states as compensation will be released bimonthly from this fund. And this is based on the figures given by the central accounting authorities. See, everything went well until the pandemic. The pandemic caused a significant loss in the revenue for the states. Sadly, the compensation fund was not sufficient enough to pay for this revenue loss. So in the financial year 2021, the center had borrowed rupees 1.1 lakh crore under a special window and paused it onto the states as back to back loan. This was meant to help the states to meet the resource gap due to shortfall in the release of compensation. The center has now extended the levy of compensation says beyond five years. One, to meet the GST revenue shortfall. And two, center has to service the loan borrowed through the special window scheme. Okay, now the states are seeking an extension for compensation for five more years. So any decision in this regard has to be taken by GST council. We'll wait and see what is going to happen. And that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw about what is GST compensation. Then we saw about how the GST compensation mechanism works and finally we saw some issues related to GST compensation. See, this type of economic topic is very much important for your problems exam. So make note of each and every points that we discussed. Now with these key points in mind, let's move on to the next news article discussion. Now have a look at this news article here. This article says that GoFest is expected to receive 210 crores under the government's credit line guarantee scheme. Know that GoFest is an Indian budget airline owned by the Varia Group. It is headquartered in Mumbai. As per the article, the airlines have availed rupees 600 crores so far under the emergency credit line guarantee scheme. We shortly call this as ECLGS. This is about the news article given here. Now using this as an opportunity, we'll understand what is this ECLGS. Know that ECLGS is expanded as emergency credit line guarantee scheme. This scheme was announced as part of the Atma Nirbar Bharat package in 2020. The main objective of the scheme is to help businesses including MSMEs to meet their operational liabilities and to resume businesses. We all know that during 2020, we are facing the crisis of COVID-19 pandemic right. So during that time, this scheme was announced to help the affected businesses to resume their business activities. As per the scheme, the business members or the MSMEs can borrow money from the member lending institutions. Here member lending institution means schedule commercial banks, regional rural banks, small finance banks, cooperative banks, non-banking finance companies, micro-finance institutions, and SHG banks, et cetera. So the business enterprise can get loan from these member lending institutions and the government will provide 100% guarantee on behalf of the borrowers. This means that if any losses are suffered by member lending institutions due to non-repayment of the loans by borrowers under the ECLGS, then the government will compensate that loss. So this is all about the ECLGS and its objective. Now coming to the eligibility criteria, who are all eligible to get funding under the ECLGS? See there are four categories under ECLGS and businesses coming under these four categories are eligible under ECLGS. Now let's see them one by one. First one is ECLGS 1.0. This category consists of MSME units, business enterprises, mudra borrowers, and individual loans for business purpose having loan outstanding up to Rs.50 crore. Additionally, if these units have due not paid up to 60 days as on 29-2020, then they are also eligible. Then the second one is ECLGS 2.0. This category includes borrowers belonging to 26 stressors sectors identified by common committee and the healthcare sector having loan outstanding above Rs.50 crore or up to Rs.500 crore. Here also if these sectors have due not paid up to 60 days as on 29-2020, they are eligible. Then the third one is ECLGS 3.0. This category includes borrowers belonging to hospitality, travel and tourism, leisure and sporting and civil aviation sector. See if they are having due not paid up to 60 days as on 29-2020, then they are eligible to get funds under ECLGS. And the final one is ECLGS 4.0. This category includes existing hospitals or nursing homes or clinics or medical colleges or units engaged in manufacturing of liquid oxygen, oxygen cylinders, etc. And they should have credit facility with a lending institution with due not paid up to 90 days as on March 31, 2021. See these are the business enterprises and units which are eligible to get loans under the emergency credit line guarantee scheme. And that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion we saw about emergency credit line guarantee scheme. Then we saw about the objectives of the scheme. And finally we saw some points regarding eligibility criteria to get funding under emergency credit line guarantee scheme. Now with these key points in mind, let's move on to the next part of the news article discussion that is to discuss preliminary practice questions. Now look at this first question. This question is regarding leprosy. Let's take the first statement. The National Leprosy Eradication Program is a centrally sponsored scheme. See this statement is correct. The National Leprosy Eradication Program is a centrally sponsored scheme under the National Health Mission of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. It was launched in 1983 as a continuation of the National Leprosy Control Program of 1955. This program aims at eliminating leprosy in each districts by 2030. So statement one is correct. Now coming to the second statement, India has achieved the elimination of leprosy as a public health problem as per WHO criteria. This statement is also correct. India has achieved the elimination of leprosy as a public health problem in December 2005. So statement two is correct. Now coming to the third statement, Nikushth is a real-time leprosy reporting software implemented across India. See actually this statement is correct. Nikushth is a leprosy reporting software implemented across India. So third statement is correct. Now the question is asking for correct statement. All of the three statements are correct. So the correct answer for the question is option C1213. Moving on, let's take up the second question. This question is regarding foreign portfolio investment. Now look at this fourth statement. FPI helps in bringing better management skills and technology. See this statement is incorrect. As we saw in the discussion, it is FTI that is foreign direct investment which helps in bringing better management skills and technology. And not FPI. So statement one is incorrect. Now coming to the second statement, FPI is considered to be more stable. See this statement is also incorrect because FTI is more stable than FPI. So statement two is incorrect. Now coming to the third statement, FPI flows mainly in the primary markets. See this statement is also incorrect because FPI mainly flows in the secondary market. Now that in the primary market, companies sell new stocks and bonds to the public for the first time such as with initial public offering. In the secondary market, the old stocks and old bonds are exchanged and FPI mainly focuses on secondary market and not the primary markets. So statement three is also incorrect. Now the question is asking for incorrect statements. So the correct answer for the question is option D all of the above. Moving on, let's take up the third question. This question is regarding GST. Now because this first statement, there is an 18% GST on funeral, burial, crematorium or mortuary services. See first of all know that there are certain activities that are not covered as supply under GST. These are classified under the schedule three of the GST Act as neither goods nor services. And know that funeral services comes under this schedule. So there is no GST on funeral and related services. So statement one is incorrect. Now coming to the second statement, services by an employee to the employer in the course of his employment does not attract GST. See this statement is actually correct because service by employee to employer also comes under schedule three of the GST Act and it does not attract GST. So statement two is correct. Now coming to the third statement, there is no GST on liquor in India. Yes, this statement is also correct. There is no GST on alcohol. However, the state governments shall continue to levy, value added tax and excess duty on liquor and beer. So statement three is also correct. Here the question is asking for correct statement. Option two and three alone is correct. So the correct answer for the question is option B two and three only. Moving on, let's take up the final question. This question is regarding emergency credit line, the Guarantee Scheme ECLGS. Now look at this first statement, emergency credit line Guarantee Scheme is under the operational domain of the Department of Revenue. See this statement is incorrect because this scheme is under the operational domain of Ministry of Finance, Department of Financial Services and not Department of Revenue. So statement one is incorrect. Now coming to the second statement, the eligibility criteria under the emergency credit line Guarantee Scheme is based on the outstanding credit and the days past due. This statement is actually correct as we saw in the discussion itself. The limit of outstanding credit and the days past due varies depending upon the four categories under ECLGS. So statement two is correct. Now the question is asking for correct statement. Statement two is alone correct. So the correct answer for the question is option B two only. And this is the quiz question for you today. I will post this quiz question in a community section, try to answer it and don't worry the answer for the quiz question is posted in the comment section of the quiz question itself. You can verify it and displayed here are the main questions for your practice. Go through the questions, write your answers and post in the comment section. With this, we came to the end of the video. 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