 A very good evening aspirants, I welcome you all to the daily Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankarayesh academy for the date of 20th June 2023. Displayed here are the list of articles that we are going to discuss today. Now, without wasting any time, let us get into our discussion. Look at this article. The crux of this article is that India's defense minister Rajnath Singh questioned the controversy surrounding the implementation of uniform civil code. He pointed out that uniform civil code is a part of directive principles of state policy laid down in the Indian constitution. In this context, let us learn about the uniform civil code in India. See, uniform civil code aims to have one law that applies to everyone in the country regardless of their religion or community in matters like property, marriage, inheritance and adoption. So, basically, uniform civil code calls for the formulation of one law for India regarding civil cases. Now, what does the constitution say about uniform civil code? Article 44 of the Indian constitution directs the government to work towards uniform civil code for all citizens in India. However, it is important to note that this is a guideline and not a mandatory law. Now, you may wonder why the Muslim bodies are opposing it. So, let us see the arguments against uniform civil code. See, they argue that uniform civil code infringes upon the freedom of religion which allows the communities to follow their own personal laws. We know that Article 25 gives all persons the right to freely practice, profess and propagate religion. They also argue that religious groups should have the right to manage their own affairs and preserve their distinct culture. Also, concerns have been raised that uniform civil code might impose Hindu customs on other communities. This would create a bias in favor of one religion. Besides this, some also question the practicality of implementing a uniform law for diverse personal matters. They argue that if other civil and criminal laws can vary across states, why personal laws should be uniform? In simple words, civil laws and criminal laws like CRPC and IPC do not follow one nation, one law rule. Additionally, it is argued that the framers of constitution did not make a uniform civil code of fundamental right. They left the power to legislate personal laws with both the parliament and state assemblies. That is, personal laws were placed in the concurrent list entry number five. If the framers of the constitution wanted uniformity in personal laws, they would have put them on a union list so that parliament can legislate on them. Then, which states have uniform civil code in India? Know that Goa is the only state in the country that currently has a uniform civil code. However, it was implemented by the Portuguese in 1867 itself. Finally, you should also note that Supreme Court has expressed support for a uniform civil code in various judgments, including the famous Shah Bhanu case. In this judgment of 1985, a divorced Muslim woman demanded maintenance from her former husband. The apex court, while deciding whether to give prevalence to the CRPC or the Muslim personal law, called for the implementation of the uniform civil code. That's all regarding this topic. Now, let us move on to our next article. Take a look at this news article. See, yesterday, the Congress party has announced three candidates for Karnataka Legislative Council by elections, which is going to be held on June 30. Earlier, three members had resumed Karnataka Legislative Council seat to contest in the Karnataka Assembly election because of these three Legislative Council seats of Karnataka fell vacant. So, now the by-election is going to be held for those three seats on June 30. This is all about the news article given here. Now, in this context, let us learn some exam related points about state legislative councils. See, our founding fathers of the Constitution have adopted a bicameral legislature at central level. Here, bicameral legislature refers to the legislature that comprises of two houses. In India, we have two houses at central legislature. That is at the parliament. The two houses include Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. See, the concept of bicameral legislature does not stop at the central level. Whereas, the concept of bicameral legislature is also practiced in some six states of India. Those six states include Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Telangana. Except these six states, all other states have a unique camera legislature. That is, there is only one house at the state legislature of other states. As we saw earlier, the bicameral legislature at the central level consists of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Similar to that, bicameral legislature at the state level consists of the Vidhan Sabha and the Vidhan Parishad. Here, Vidhan Sabha refers to the state legislative assembly, which is similar to that of Lok Sabha. Then Vidhan Parishad refers to state legislative council, which is similar to that of Rajya Sabha. Having understood the basics, now let us see how the legislative councils are created or abolished. See, the Constitution of India under Article 169 provides for the abolition or creation of legislative councils in states. The Article 169 says that the parliament has the power to abolish or create a legislative council by law. Does the parliament itself can create or abolish the legislative council? Actually, no. See, the creation or abolition of legislative council in the state can happen only if the legislative assembly of the concerned state passes a resolution for the creation or abolition of council. And the resolution must be passed by the state assembly by a special majority. Here, special majority refers to a majority of total membership of the assembly and the majority of not less than two-thirds of members of the assembly present and voting. After the state assembly passes a resolution for the creation or abolition of the legislative council by a special majority, the parliament will pass an act to amend the constitution. So, once the act is passed by the parliament and if it receives the president's assent, then the state legislative council is established or abolished in a state. Note that as per Article 169, Class III, the act of parliament to create or abolish legislative council in a state is not to be deemed as an amendment of the constitution under Article 368. Rather, the act passed is like an ordinary legislation with simple majority. Remember, the parliament can initiate the act to create or abolish legislative council only if the state legislature passes a resolution by a special majority. Also note that it is not mandatory to the parliament to act upon the resolution of the state legislature to create or abolish legislative council. And it is up to the parliament to either approve or disapprove such a resolution or not to take any action on it. This is how the state legislative council are created or abolished. Now we will look at the composition of the legislative council. The composition is provided under Article 171, Class I of the Indian constitution. As per the article, the maximum strength of the state legislative council is fixed at one third of the total strength of the assembly and the minimum strength is fixed at 40. For example, if the particular state has 300 assembly seats, then the strength of legislative council of the state is fixed at 100. Now let us take another example. Let us assume that one state has 90 assembly seats. If we apply the one third criteria here, the legislative council would have 30 seats. It is very minimal, right? So here is where the minimal rule applies. That is for such states, the minimum strength of legislative council is fixed at 40. So from this we can say that the size of the legislative council depends on the size of the assembly of the concerned state. See these criteria have been set up to ensure predominance of directly elected state legislative assembly in the legislative affairs of the state. Note an important point here, although the constitution has fixed the maximum and the minimum limits, the actual strength of a legislative council is fixed by the parliament. This is all about the composition. Now we will look at the election process. As we all know, the members of the state legislative assemblies are elected directly by the people. But if we take the legislative council, the members are indirectly elected in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote. The tenure of the legislative council members is fixed at six years. Note that the state legislative council is a permanent body. This means that the council won't be dissolved on the completion of five years as like legislative assemblies. But note that one third of the members of the council retired on the expiration of every second year. And these vacant seats are filled by fresh elections and nominations by governor at the beginning of every third year. With this, let us see how the members of legislative council are elected. See one third of the MLCs are elected by the members of the legislative assemblies of the state. The next one third of the MLCs are elected by the electorates consisting of members of municipalities, district boards, and other local authorities in the state. Then one-twelfth of the MLCs are elected by an electorate consisting of teachers. Then the other one-twelfth of the MLCs are elected by the registered graduates. And the balance one-sixth of the MLCs are nominated by the governor from among those who have distinguished themselves in literature, science, art, the cooperative movement, and social service. So from this, we can say that five by six of the total members of legislative council are indirectly elected. And one-sixth are nominated by the governor. See, this is the scheme of composition of a legislative council which is laid down in the constitution. Note that the scheme is tentative and not final. This is because the parliament is authorized to modify or replace the scheme of composition and election manner. That's all. So in this discussion, we have seen what is bicameral legislature and how it is applied to both center and states. Next we have seen how we can create or abolish a state legislative council. Then we saw about the minimum and maximum strength of the state legislative council. And finally, we have also seen about the election process of the legislative council. That's all regarding this topic. Now let us move on to our next article. Look at this news article. It says that India has gifted INS Kripant to Vietnam to enhance its naval capabilities. In this context, let us learn about INS Kripant. See, it's a missile code that was commissioned into the Indian Navy on 12th January 1991. The ship weighs 1400 tons and it is 91 meters long and 11 meters wide. It can travel at a speed of over 25 knots. It is the third kukri class missile covert. Before continuing the discussion, let me tell you what is a covert? See, covets are small warships with light arms. They are highly maneuverable and well suited for operations in smaller areas and coastal areas. Covets often serve roles such as coastal patrol, escort duties and maritime security. They are cost effective and they have relatively lower firepower when compared to frigates and destroyers. Know that frigates are medium sized warship weighing over 3000 tons. They are larger than covets and offer increased capabilities. And we also have destroyers which are even larger and more heavily armed than frigates. Just know this basic difference. Now coming back, know that Kirpan has a crew of 10 officers and 110 sailors who operate and manage the ship. It is equipped with a medium range gun, 30 mm close range guns, chaff launchers and surface to surface missiles. These weapons allow the ship to perform various important roles like coastal and offshore patrol, coastal security, surface warfare, anti piracy operations and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations. Also know that the name Kirpan comes from the traditional weapon used by Sikh warriors. The ship's crest which is like a logo shows a Kirpan which is a sword on the top of a shield typically associated with Sikhs. That's all regarding this topic. Now let us move on to our next article. Take a look at this editorial article. It talks about the progress made by India in infrastructure so far. And it tries to highlight why India should strengthen its ties with US even though the article expresses personal opinion of the author. The article itself is written by an IAS officer. So we can make a brief note of the important points mentioned in this news article. Now we shall get into the article. But before that, the syllabus. As we all know, India is a rapidly developing country. For example, India took 63 years to reach $1 trillion GDP and seven years to hit $2 trillion and three years to hit $3 trillion and it is estimated to reach $25 trillion by 2047 which is 100 years after the independence. India will also have 1 billion working population by 2030. Today, India have around 45% of the world GDP and it will raise in future. Despite such progress, India still lacks the capital and technology that US has. So here, the author says that when US need India's market and India need US capital and technology, it's no wrong to strengthen the ties between the two and work together for the mutual growth. Now we shall quickly go through the progress made by India so far. See firstly, the author mentions about the Prakati platform. Prakati is expanded as proactive governance and timely implementation. It is an interactive and integrated platform chiefly for addressing the grievances of the common man while at the same time monitoring government projects and programs. The platform was designed by the PMO in coordination with the National Informatics Center. Remember, it was launched in 2015 and it is a three-tier system which consists of PMO, union government secretaries and chief secretaries of the state. The platform combines three technologies, namely digital data management, video conferencing and geospatial technology. In simple words, by bringing together the secretaries of the government of India and the chief secretaries of the state in one stage, the platform tries to address the grievances of a common man and have a proactive governance. Since the platform makes official issue long pending government orders or clearances, it generally positively smoothens the system to debottleneck infrastructure. Secondly, the author talks about Gati Shakti. See, Gati Shakti is also a digital platform which brings together 16 ministries including railways and roadways together for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of intra-structure connectivity projects. See, we all would have seen a freshly laid road is then dug to lay underground pipeline to lay optical fiber cables for cellular mobile. Such things happen due to lack of coordination among departments. Such issues are addressed by Gati Shakti platform. Being a geospatial information systems, it can also prevent unnecessary and random cutting of roads and forest which saves time and resources. Third one is public finance management system. See, public finance management system is a web-based online software application developed and implemented by the office of controller general of accounts. Its main objective is to track funds released under all planned schemes of government of India and real-time reporting of expenditure at all levels of program implementation. In simple words, public finance management system only enables direct benefit transfer under any scheme by integrating different platforms with banks. Being a centralized core database, public finance management system has reduced the time and enhanced efficiency of the government. Likewise, impressive progress has also been made on road construction across India. For example, the Parivahan Seva platform. This platform offers citizen-centric services related to vehicle registration, driving license, manufacturer-related services, et cetera. It has enabled leakage proof revenue collection for the transportation sector. Apart from this, for the first time, we have allowed private sector into commercial coal mining. With respect to oil exploration also, we expect 5 lakh square kilometers of land under exploration contracts by the end of 2023. So by quoting all these progresses, the author tries to say what's not there here in India. We have a proactive government and integrated departments facilitated ease of doing business and so on. There is plenty of opportunity to invest in India. All we need is capital and technology innovation. In order to invite them to India, India should give up its non-alignment hangups of the past and measure each situation on its merit and national interest. Apart from this, India has tacked to scale up digitalization of internal processes and better service delivery. India's tack is nothing but the collection of application peripheral interfaces launched by the government of India. We should also revive stalled agricultural reforms and build up supply chain capabilities to invite manufacturing to India. That's all. With this, let us move on to our next article. Look at this news article. It says that the UK has decided to withdraw duty-benefit scheme from its generalized scheme of preferences. So this may have an impact on exporters from labor-intensive sectors like leather and textiles. The UK is replacing the generalized scheme of preferences with a new developing countries trading scheme. That is DCTS. In this context, we'll see how the duty-benefit scheme under GSP works. A generalized system of preferences, that is, GSP is a preferential trade agreement extended by developed countries to developing countries. So under the GSP, developed countries provide special treatment to products that are exported from the developing countries. They do this by reducing or completely eliminating the import duties or taxes on those products. This means that when goods from eligible developing countries enter the market of these developed nations, they face lower or no taxes. This makes them more affordable and competitive. Let us take an example. Suppose India, a developing country, export textiles to the United States. Under the GSP, the United States may lower the import duties on these textile products. This will make them cheaper for American consumers. This gives Indian textile manufacturers a competitive advantage and boost their exports. This in turn supports the economy and create more job opportunities. Also, it's important to know that each country has its own rules for determining which products and countries are eligible for the duty-benefits. These preferences are designed to aid the specific industries and economies of the developing countries. So in essence, the duty-benefit under the GSP is a way for developed countries to help the developing nations. This is done by reducing the import duties on their products. It aims to promote economic growth, increase trade opportunities and support the industries in developing countries. Now the UK is replacing the GSP with a new developing countries trade agreement scheme. It means that previous duty-benefits enjoyed by Indian exporters, especially in labor-intensive sectors like leather and textiles may no longer apply. This change could have significant implications for the Indian exporters in these sectors. Also, the withdrawal of GSP concessions by the UK means that Indian products such as textile items, leather goods, carpets, iron and steel goods and chemicals may face higher import duties when entering the UK market. This can make the Indian goods more expensive and less competitive than before. That's all regarding this topic. Now let us move on to our next article. We know about the ethnic violence in Manipur, right? This news article says that President's rule is the only way to bring the situation under the control. So in this news article discussion, let us quickly go through President's rule. See, Article 355 imposes a duty on the centre to ensure that the government of every state is carried in accordance with the provisions of the constitution. So in case of failure of constitutional missionary in a state, the centre takes over the government of a state under Article 356. This is popularly known as the President's rule. It is also known as state emergency or constitutional emergency. The President's rule can be proclaimed under Article 356 on two grounds. One mentioned in Article 356 itself and another in Article 365. Article 356 empowers the President to issue a proclamation if he or she is satisfied that a situation has arisen in which the government of a state cannot be carried on in accordance with the provisions of the constitution. The President can act either on a report of the governor of the state or other ways too. That is even without the governor's report. Article 365 says that whenever a state fails to comply with or to give effect to any direction from centre, it will be lawful for the President to hold that a situation has arisen in which the government of the state cannot be carried on in accordance with the provisions of the constitution. Also, a proclamation imposing President's rule must be approved by both the houses of parliament within two months from the date of its issue. If approved by both houses of parliament, the President's rule continues for six months. It can be extended for a maximum period of three years with the approval of parliament every six months. Every resolution approving the proclamation of President's rule or its continuation can be passed by either house of the parliament only by a simple majority. That is a majority of the members of the House present and voting. And the President acquires following extraordinary powers when the President's rule is imposed in a state. Firstly, he or she can take up the functions of the state government and powers vested in the governor or any other executive authority in the state. Then he or she can declare that powers of the state legislature are to be exercised by the parliament. Then the President can take all other necessary steps including the suspension of the constitutional provisions relating to anybody or authority in the state. Therefore, when President's rule is imposed in a state, the President dismisses the State Council of Minister headed by the Chief Minister. The state governor on behalf of the President carries on the state administration with the help of Chief Secretary of the state or the advisors appointed by the President. This is the reason why a proclamation under Article 356 is popularly known as the imposition of President's rule in a state. That's all. So in this part of discussion, we have seen what is a President's rule and what are the grounds on which the President's rule can be proclaimed and finally about the extraordinary powers that are vested with President when the state emergency is proclaimed. With this, let us move on to our next part of discussion that is Prillim's practice question discussion. Today, we'll be having four questions. I will solve three of them and one question will be a quiz question. Now let us take up our first question. This is a statement based question on GSP, that is Generalized System of Preferences. Statement one says that GSP withdrawal by developed countries can negatively impact the Indian exports. Yes, this statement is correct. Statement two says that with GSP withdrawal, goods from developing countries will no longer receive reduced import duties when entering the markets of developed countries. This statement is also correct. Also, statement two explains statement one. When you put because at the end of statement one or you can try adding so at the end of statement two and read statement one, let us try it here. With GSP withdrawal, goods from developing countries will no longer receive reduced import duties when entering the markets of developed countries. So GSP withdrawal by developed countries can negatively impact Indian export. It makes perfect sense, right? So this means that statement two explains statement one. So the correct answer here is option A. Now let us move on to our next question. Here, three conditions are given and we have to find which among them are not necessarily the consequence of the proclamation of president's rule in the state. The correct answer here is only two. Statement one, that is dissolution of state legislative assembly and the dissolution of local bodies are not necessarily the consequences of the proclamation of the president's rule in the state. So the correct answer here is option B, only two. With this, let us move on to our next question. This is a statement based question about uniform civil code. First statement says that article 44 of the Indian constitution provides for uniform civil code. This particular statement is correct. Statement two says that existing personal laws in India have been criticized for perpetuating gender-based discrimination. This statement is also correct. But the problem here is that the statement two does not explain statement one in any manner. So the correct answer here is option B. Both the statement one and two are correct and statement two is not the correct explanation for statement one. And this is the quiz question of the day. Think well and post the correct answer in the comment section. If you want to know the correct answer, go to a community tab and check out our first comment that is pinned. These are your main practice questions for the day. Interested aspirants can write the answer and post them on comment section as well. With this, we have come to the end of our discussion. You can share your thoughts in comment section. If you found this video useful, hit the like button, share it with fellow aspirants and don't forget to subscribe Shankaray's Academy's YouTube channel for more UPS related content. Thanks for listening patiently. Have a nice day.