 Good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu news analysis by Shankara IS Academy, the list of articles which has been chosen for today's analysis are provided here. The link for the handwritten notes in the PDF format and the timestamping for the displayed articles is given in the description box below. And for the benefit of smartphone users, the timestamping is also given in the comment section. Let's move on to our first article analysis. This news article is about the Harappan site of Rakigadi in Haryana. To understand this news article, you should first understand about the Harappan civilization or the Indus Valley civilization. So in this context, we will discuss in brief about the Harappan civilization or the Indus Valley civilization, its origin and its important features. And we'll also see how this civilization came to an end. The syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. First, let us understand some of the important facts about Indus Valley civilization. Now this civilization got its name from the river Indus as the civilization flourished near the valleys of river Indus. And in the present world, this civilization is spread across India and Pakistan. And the time period of this Indus Valley civilization is disputed. So in general, according to historians, Indus Valley civilization period can be classified into three phases. The first phase is the early phase, which is from 3300 to 2600 BCE. And second phase is the mature phase, which is from 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE. And the third phase is the late phase, which is from 1900 BCE to 1300 BCE. And the first Indus Valley civilization site that was discovered is Harappa. And this Harappa, which is in present day Punjab of Pakistan. And this site was discovered by Dayaram Sahini in 1921. And this discovery led to the understanding of existence of a unique culture. Now here, culture means existence of a group of objects which are distinctive in style. And they are found within a specific geographical area and a specific period of time. Now because of this discovery only, the Indus Valley civilization is also known as Harappan culture. So usually when we say Harappan culture, we refer to the mature phase of Indus Valley civilization that is from 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE. So now let us see what led to the beginning of Indus Valley civilization. It is believed that the origin of Indus Valley civilization or IVC were the ancient village communities that were present in western India. The settled agriculturalists started to produce more crops. This surplus production resulted in trade with other areas such as with Mesopotamian civilization which is in the present day Iraq. So because of this surplus production and trade, profits started to come in. And due to these profits, cities were started to develop. And during the mature Harappan phase, the civilization was at its peak in terms of trade and urbanization. Thus gradually the Indus Valley civilization evolved into one of the largest urban civilization. So that is why it becomes important to know some of the important features of this civilization. Firstly, this civilization is known for its town planning. It had well-planned cities with a grid system. The cities had an efficient drainage system and big buildings such as granaries and stadiums. Here granaries is nothing but a storehouse for grains. Even the houses had a strict plan and they used burnt bricks for construction. And then another feature is that there is a general perception that this civilization was limited to western India. But it is not correct because this civilization in its peak extended from Balochistan in the west to Uttar Pradesh in the east. And it extended from Jammu and Kashmir in the north to Maharashtra in the south. In this map, you can clearly see some of the important Indus Valley civilization sites. And you can see how far it is stretched. So from examination point of view, you should know the important Indus Valley civilization sites. The first one is Harappa in Pakistani Punjab. Then Mohanjadaro in Pakistani Sindh. And then Dholavira in Gujarat. And then Kali Bhangan in Rajasthan. And then Banawali and Raki Gadi in Haryana. The next feature of this civilization is that most of the Harappan cities were divided into two areas. One was citadel and the other was lower towns. The citadels were generally fortified and they were constructed at higher areas. But this was also not uniform across all sites. For example, at the Chandhudaro site in Pakistan, there was no citadel lower town concept. And more information about the Indus Valley civilization was known through several excavations which led to the discovery of seals that were used for trade. Then which led to the discovery of artifacts and other archaeological evidences. And the next important feature is the IVC script. And the IVC script was a pictographic script which contained many pictures and signs. But these pictures and signs are not yet deciphered or understood till date. But one thing is clear with the script that is the script was written from right to left like Urdu. Because some seals show a wider spacing on the right side and cramping on the left side. So it looks like as if the engraver began to work from the right and then ran out of space in the left. Then another feature is that there is a remarkable uniformity over most parts of Indus Valley civilization. This remarkable uniformity proves that there could have been a ruling class to manage the affairs. But no temples like structures were found in Indus Valley civilization. Also information about rituals are also not available. So chances of priests being rulers is very less in the civilization. As you saw in the beginning trade was in its peak in the civilization. So it is believed that traders were the ruling class. But some archaeologists are of the opinion that Harappan society had no rulers and that everybody enjoyed equal status. And some others feel that there was no single ruler but there were several rulers. Like Mohanjadaro had a separate ruler Harappa had another ruler and like that. And some other archaeologists argue that there was a single state because there was similarity in artifacts. And there was evidence for planned settlements and there were standardized ratio of brick size etc. So as of now the last theory seems the most plausible or reasonable. As it is unlikely that entire communities would have collectively made and implemented such complex decisions. So these were some of the important features in this Indus Valley civilization. Now let us see how did such a huge civilization come to an end. Some evidence suggests that by 1800 BC most of the mature Harappan sites had been abandoned. So simultaneously there was an expansion of population into new settlements in Gujarat, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. And there was also a transformation in the material Harappan culture. Such as there was disappearance of distinctive artifacts of the civilization like wades, seals, special beads etc. And the writings long distance trade and craft specialization also disappeared. So there are several theories which provide various reasons for the end of Indus Valley civilization. And these theories and the reasons range from climatic change, deforestation, excessive floods, the shifting or drying up of rivers, Aryan invasion and overuse of landscape. So the reasons range between these factors only. But as of now the most believable theory is the conservation of Harappans. It is said that Harappans failed to update themselves with the change in time. Because weapons that were found in 2500 BC and 2000 BC were almost similar. So there was no upgradation and the production pattern remained the same. Hence the level of production also remained the same. But this was not enough as the population has increased over time. Hence the trade in the region came down. Since the trade came down the profits also reduced. And as the profits reduced the urban settlements might have lost its importance. So this might be the actual reason for migration to other areas by the people who were living in the Harappan civilization in the late Harappan period. So this is the background that you should know with respect to Indus Valley civilization. Now with this background in mind let us discuss the news article. The news article mentions that the center has announced the development of Harappan site at Rakhigadi. And this site will be developed into an iconic site and the national museum will be set up in this site. And according to this news article Rakhigadi spreads across 500 acres. And it is the largest Harappan site in the Indian subcontinent. Now this initiative of the government is a welcome initiative because it is expected to stop the destruction of the site. And it will also help to showcase the rich cultural heritage of Rakhigadi to the world. And the development would also improve the connectivity in the region. It will increase the tourism and it will create more jobs for the locals. In addition to Rakhigadi, four other places will also be developed as iconic sites with national museums. These sites are Hastinapur in Uttar Pradesh, Shivsagar in Assam, Dhola Vira in Gujarat and Adityanallur in Tamil Nadu. Now in this you should note that Hastinapur was the famous capital city of Gauravas and Pandavas in Mahabharata. And Shivsagar is famous for the monuments of Ahom kingdom of Assam. And Dhola Vira is an important Indus Valley civilization site in Gujarat as we saw earlier. And then Adityanallur which is present in Tamil Nadu is an important archaeological site in Tamil Nadu where excavations are still going on. Because of the importance of these sites the center has decided to develop these sites as iconic sites with national museums. So that is all about this news article. In this discussion we had a brief session about the Indus Valley civilization, the features of the civilization and how that civilization ended. With this we come to the end of this discussion. The displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next discussion which is about dividend distribution tax. As you would have heard that in the union budget of 2020 to 21 the finance minister has recommended to abolish the dividend distribution tax. And according to this article this move will boost the investment in India. So in this context we will be discussing the dividend distribution tax in brief. And we will also see how this decision will boost investments in India. And even yesterday one of our viewers asked us to explain about this tax. So let us now get into the discussion. Before that the syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. Now to understand dividend distribution tax first you should understand what dividend means. A dividend is a payment made by the company to its shareholders. As we know shareholder is someone who owns share in a company or in a corporation. It simply means that that particular person owns a stake in the company. So when the company is making profits a part of this will be distributed to its shareholder. Now this regular payments made by the company to its shareholders is known as dividend. So the dividend distribution tax or the DDT is the tax that is levied on the dividends paid by the company to its shareholders. And this tax is mentioned under section 115 O of income tax act of 1961. So what is the present status of DDT? See at present DDT is taxed at source. That means the company which distributes the dividend was taxed. So the companies had to pay DDT at a rate of 15 percentage plus surcharge and ses on the gross amount of dividend. So altogether the overall tax was around 20.3 percentage. And you should note that the companies had to pay DDT in addition to the tax payable on its profits. The company was supposed to pay DDT within 14 days of declaration, distribution or payment of dividend. Whichever is earliest among these. That means the shareholders who receive the dividends were free from paying DDT. But you should note that if a shareholder receives rupees 10 lakh in dividend income or more in a financial year then she or he has to pay additional tax at the rate of 10 percentage. But if they receive less than rupees 10 lakh as dividend then they need not pay. What is this announcement made in the budget? The Finance Minister has proposed to abolish this dividend distribution tax. Now after the abolition of DDT the dividend will be taxable in the hands of the recipients of the dividends at the applicable income tax labor rates. So what is the significance of this move by the government? Now since the governments are now freed from paying DDT they will have more surplus. So this will increase their further investment in the business. And since they are having more surplus the shareholders may also get more dividends. Now this move by the government is also seen as beneficial for the foreign companies that are investing in Indian companies. But how? See assume that a foreign company holds a significant share of an Indian company. When the Indian company has to pay a huge amount as DDT the dividend received by the foreign company automatically comes down. That means they suffer indirectly from the DDT. Then the foreign company would normally be required to pay tax on the dividend that is received by it in its home jurisdiction also. It is because the DDT was taxed upon the Indian company so the foreign company will not be able to claim foreign tax credit in its jurisdiction. Which means that the foreign company cannot ask to relieve it from paying the tax in its jurisdiction because it directly has not paid tax in India. Here a situation of double taxation arises. Now after this announcement the foreign company which is the recipient of the dividend will be taxed by the Indian company. Hence it can claim foreign tax credit in its jurisdiction. This means it will have more money in its hands hence more and more foreign investors would come and they will invest in India. This is why the article mentions that the present move of government will boost the investments in India. In addition to this there is another important factor of this move. It is that from now on dividends will be taxed based on the available income tax rates. Earlier there was a single rate of taxation which was 15% plus surcharge and says. So this system was iniquitous or unfair as it taxed people from higher and lower tax brackets equally. Thus it actually discriminated against the people from the lower tax bracket. But now the taxation is as per the total income. So this move removes the discrimination. And according to this news article the center even believes that this move will also encourage individuals in the low income bracket to invest in the capital market. Because the tax that they will have to pay now will be significantly less than the tax that they paid indirectly in the previous system. That is that they indirectly paid through DDT. For example if their total income including dividends that is earned is less than Rs 5 lakh then they will not have to pay tax. Because in the union budget the IT slabs or the income tax slabs have been changed which we have discussed in detail yesterday. But if this DDT would not have been abolished then in the existing system the individuals have to pay tax indirectly through the DDT. We are saying they are indirectly paying DDT in the DDT regime because if the company is paying DDT then that means the remaining amount after paying the DDT will be distributed among the shareholders. Now if this DDT is abolished then the whole profit will be distributed among the shareholders. So they will receive more dividend as compared to the DDT regime. So we can conclude by saying that the abolition of DDT is a significant step for the corporate sector and it is expected to boost investment both foreign investment and domestic investment in the Indian capital market. And the boost in the investment is the need of the hour to revive the growth in our economy. It is all about this news article. In this discussion we discussed about dividend distribution tax and then we also discussed how this decision by the government will boost investments in India. With this we come to the end of this discussion. The split practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next discussion, this news article is about a study on fellow viruses. This study was conducted in Nagaland by researchers from the US, China and India. This study was conducted by scientists of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, the National Center for Biological Sciences, the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China and then the University of Health Sciences in US and the Duke National University in Singapore were also part of this study. This study was investigated by Indian Council of Medical Research and the investigative report has been submitted to the Health Ministry. This is the news today. Now the study was investigated to find out how the scientists were allowed to access live samples of bats and bat hunters without due permission. Now this has become an issue because in this study two out of 12 researchers belonged to the Wuhan Institute of Virology of China and the research study was funded by US's Defense Threat Reduction Agency. So the study involved foreign entities and to undertake such a study they need special permission from government of India. Because of this reason this study was investigated but what is important from this news article for us is the findings of this study. So let us discuss the findings of this study in this discussion. Before that the discussion can be linked to the syllabus that is given here for your reference. This study is titled as fellow virus reactive antibodies in humans and bats in northeast India imply zoonotic spillover. This study was conducted among humans and bats because focused virus surveillance at human wildlife interfaces enables the proactive detention of potentially epidemic pathogens. If the epidemic pathogens can be detected proactively then appropriate precautions can be taken. Now one of such pathogen which has epidemic potential is fellow viruses. The fellow viruses belong to a virus family called Filoviridae. These fellow viruses can cause severe hemorrhagic fever in humans and also in non-human primates. See primates is nothing but a group that contains all species that are commonly related to lemurs, monkeys and apes. And this group also includes humans. That is why we said this fellow viruses can cause severe hemorrhagic fever in humans and also in non-human primates. Now so far three genera of this virus family have been identified. They are Cua virus, Marbar virus and Ebola virus. And among this six species of Ebola virus have been identified. The first species Ebola virus. Second is Sudan virus. Third is Thai forest virus. Next is Bantibugyo virus. Then Restown virus. And then final one is Bambali virus. Out of these six species of Ebola virus only four species are known to cause disease in people. And as we know one among them is Ebola virus. So just remember that the species Ebola virus belongs to the genera Ebola virus. Now we saw that this study involves bats. It is because the fellow viruses are detected in bats. Bats are involved in enzoonotic virus maintenance. That means it is specific to bats and thus bats are involved in zoonotic virus transmission to the susceptible hosts such as humans. When we say zoonotic it means the disease is transferred from animals to humans. And more importantly these bats have caused disease outbreaks in humans and it has a high fatality rate. Now this happens because bats are hunted by humans across Africa and Asia. And at least 167 bats species are consumed according to this study. So the high risk activities such as bat hunting and mining in bat dwelling caves pose a threat of cross species fellow virus transmission. Cross species is nothing but here in our case it will be transmitted from bats to humans. Now this study was conducted in our northeast state of Nagaland. It is because in Nagaland the local ethnic groups have conducted bat harvests for at least 7 generations according to this study. And for them bat harvest is a source of food and they also use it for traditional medicine. So these bat hunters are exposed to saliva, blood and excreta from some bat species. So this study conducted a serological survey of the hunted bat species and the same survey was conducted in human hunters as well. This serological survey was conducted to study if humans have been exposed to fellow viruses that are potentially originating from bats. So as a result of this survey this study led to many findings. Firstly the study found reasons for why despite the growing evidence that fellow viruses are present in south and southeast Asia. There has been a historical absence of outbreaks of fellow virus hemorrhagic fever in this region. Now the reasons why clusters of human fellow virus infections have not yet been detected in Asia are first as ecological barriers that prevent zoonotic transmission. And then viruses are unable to sustain transmission between humans and then thirdly an uncharacterized diversity of non-pathogenic fellow viruses exist. And they cause asymptomatic infection in humans. Here asymptomatic means they show no symptoms. So these are the reasons why there is no human fellow virus infections in the south and southeast Asia despite fellow viruses are present in this region. Then the study also concluded that there is a presence of fellow virus reactive antibodies in both humans and also in bat populations in the northeast India. And this region is a region with no historical record of Ebola virus disease. Then the findings also suggest that bats in south Asia act as a reservoir host of a diverse range of fellow viruses. And the fellow virus spillover occurs through human exposure to these bats. So due to the human exposure to the bats there is fellow virus spillover. So these are some of the important findings of this study. In this discussion we saw what do we mean by fellow viruses. We saw about the species of Ebola virus which cause disease in people. And finally we also saw about the findings of this study. With this we come to the end of this discussion. Moving on to the next discussion. We know that on 1st February the union budget of 2020 to 21 was released. And yesterday we had discussions on the union budget and we also said that we will be receiving more news articles on the budget. So today also there are many news articles relating to budget and especially there are two editorials on budget which we will be discussing one after another. And in all these news articles the authors present their opinion about the union budget. And there is also one news article which is based on the interview by the Hindu with the union finance minister regarding the union budget. So first let us start with the discussion of this editorial. In this editorial author criticizes that the government has not allocated enough funds for the social sector. So let us see the examples given by the author to substantiate this fact. The syllabus that is relevant for this discussion is given here for your reference. As we saw yesterday this year's union budget is woven around three themes. First one is aspirational India. Second one is economic development for all. And third one is building a caring society. Now in order to achieve these themes extraordinary efforts on the social sector front is required. So according to the author there is need for allocation of additional resources for health education nutrition employment guarantee and social security schemes. But author feels that the budgetary allocation for many social sector schemes is not satisfactory in this budget. So in this manner first author discusses the two important lifeline schemes for the rural poor that are providing employment and food to them. The two schemes are important because the current state of economy is not good. The growth is decelerating. The rural demand is low and the real wages are stagnant in rural areas. So providing employment and food is the need of the hour. And the scheme that is providing the employment is the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act which is the Mandrega scheme or the MG Narrega scheme. This scheme is important because at present the levels of unemployment in our country are at peak. So there will be an increased demand for employment in the coming year. And as we know MG Narrega is one such scheme which generates employment. So spending on this scheme is an important task to minimize the level of unemployment in our country. And further the MG Narrega expenditure is also known to have high multiplier effect because it boosts consumption demand in rural areas. Here consumption demand represents the demand for goods and services by individuals and households in our economy. Even though MG Narrega scheme has these positives the budgetary allocation for this scheme this year is less than what was allocated last year in real terms. That is when the budget is adjusted for inflation it is less. In this table you can see that the budget allocation for this year is less than the revised estimates of last year. By stating this what author is trying to convey is that MG Narrega is failing to fully play the role of filling the gap of unemployment not only because of poor implementation of the act but also due to inadequate funds. Because due to lack of adequate funds the wages are not paid in time to the workers who work under this MG Narrega. So that is why it is important to have a considerably higher budget allocation for this scheme. After this the author discusses about the scheme that would provide food and according to the author some of the recent news related to issues surrounding food was that there are excess food stocks to the tune of almost 60 million tons then there is high food inflation in recent months and there are also reports of hunger from across the country. So the author thought there would be some announcements that will be made regarding the expanding of public distribution system and more funds will be allocated to public distribution system but this did not happen in this budget. See the budgetary allocation for PDS comes under the National Food Security Act and it is nothing but the budgetary allocation for food subsidies given to the Food Corporation of India under this NFSA. So that means if FCA is allotted less budget that means PDS is allotted less budget. So as you can see in this table PDS is allotted much lower budget than what was allotted to it in the previous year. In the editorial the author has given a reason for why government is alloting less fund for FCA or for PDS. The reason is to show that fiscal deficit is less because if FCA is allotted fund then it will account to expenditure by the government. So if there is more expenditure then the fiscal deficit will increase. So now you may think that if less fund is allocated then the actual fund needed for the scheme will not be available but it is not so it is available through another route and that route is National Small Savings Fund. The government provides National Small Savings Fund loans to the FCA to bridge this budgetary gap. So the funds dispersed through loans will not be added in the budgetary allocations. So the government will artificially show a lower expenditure by just showing the budgetary allocation. And when the expenditures are shown low then there is a chance to show that fiscal deficit is also less. So this is the reason according to the author why the money generated through loans were not included in this year's union budget. But this NSSF loan is also not a positive thing because it is a loan so eventually interest has to be paid so it will increase the interest burden in the long run. After this author has also discussed the low budgetary allocation in social sectors like education and health. The budgetary allocation made to certain schemes in health is given in this table for your reference. From this table we can see that when compared to the previous union budget the budgetary allocation for this union budget is either same in some cases or there is a just meager increase in certain schemes like in the Poshan Abhyan. And according to the author there is just an overall increase of 5000 to 6000 crore rupees each in the overall education and health budgets. And when we adjust these funds with inflation then the funds become insufficient. So on a whole author of the opinion that there is a pattern of under spending and subsequent or same budgetary allocation in this budget. The under spending is visible when you see the revised estimates of any budget allocation. Yesterday one of our viewers raised a query that what is meant by revised estimates. See like how the budget estimates are made for financial year 2020-21 in this year's union budget. The budget estimates for the current financial year that is for 2019-20 would be made in the previous budget. And these are only budget estimates. So these estimates are subject to revision. So when these estimates are revised in the next union budget then it is known as the revised estimates. And one advantage for the government with the revised estimates is that it can report under spending. That is it can show that the budgeted amount of the previous union budget was not completely spent. So citing this reason the government will try to allocate less fund in the next year's budget. For example consider 100 crore was allocated for a scheme in last year's union budget. And in the revised estimates it will show that the government spent only 50 crore against the allocation of 100 crore. So by citing this reason the government will reduce the budgetary allocation for the next year to a value less than 100 crore only. So the budget estimate for the next year could be 80 crores or 90 crores. But it will be definitely less than or equal to 100 crore. So this is what we mean by under spending and subsequent lower of budgetary allocation or same budgetary allocation in the present union budget. And here author has noted that this pattern of under spending and subsequent lower or same budgetary allocation is seen across schemes like social security pensions, Anganwadi services, midday meals and also in some of the schemes which we have seen so far. So author provides the reasons for the under spending. The reason could be either people are being left out or the coverage of the schemes by the government is slow and the benefits are irregular. So these could be the reasons for the under spending of allocated budget which eventually leads to lower budget allocation in the next union budget. So under spending becomes a reason for low budgetary allocation. So we can see that all social sectors are grossly underfunded in the first place and there is less hope of how the budgeted funds will ultimately reach the beneficiaries. That is how it will reach the people. So author concludes by saying that the agenda of the present government for the social sector is for greater privatization and withdrawal of state. And this can be seen not only by lower budgetary allocations but also by certain policy announcements made by the union finance minister in the budget speech. Like she made announcement for introduction of public-private partnership model for the medical colleges and district hospitals. And even the government's decision to push for narrowing the coverage under PDS which is mentioned in the economic survey is another example. So there is a worrying trend with respect to the budget allocation for the social sector according to the author. So in this discussion we saw the points made by the author to substantiate that there were lower budgetary allocations in the social sector. With this we come to the end of this discussion. Moving on to the next discussion which is also based on another editorial. In this editorial again the author of this editorial is critical of the union budget. According to the author of this editorial budget can be judged in terms of its effects on rural demand, investment and public sentiments. Because these are all critical elements for recovery of India's economy at present. And out of these three all there is of the opinion that budget offers some hope related to the private sentiments only. And there is less hope with respect to boosting the rural demand and boosting investment. So in this regard let us see the author's views on various policy decisions made by the government in the union budget. To show that there is less hope on rural demand and investment and there is some hopes related to private sentiments. The syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. First the author has spoken about allocation of fund for skill development. If you would have heard the budget speech made by finance minister she herself said that there is a huge admit demand for teachers, paramedical staff and caregivers and skilled workers. If workers have necessary quality education and skills then they are employed in well paying jobs. But this is not the case in India. India's youth are not skilled due to the poor quality of education and due to lack of opportunities to acquire practical skills. So we can see that there is a need to focus on skill development. But the budgetary allocation for skill development was just 3000 crore rupees in this budget. But according to the author, skilling will require massive investment and greater and coordinated efforts. He also provides one suggestion in this regard that the budget could have given tax incentives to companies to provide internships and on-site vocational training to the unemployed youth. So the author emphasizes on the need for skill development in India in order to utilize the potential of world's largest workforce which is present in India. Then another criticism with respect to the budget made by the author is about the government's determination to show that it is fiscally prudent. Fiscal prudence means to have more or less neutral fiscal policy. As per the union budget, the total expenditure is expected to be 13.5 percentage of GDP. But if you see the revised estimates of the current financial year 2019-20, the total expenditure is expected to be 13.2 percentage of GDP. So the expenditures are going to be high for the next year. Even at present the government's expenditure is high. At the same time, there is a drop in tax revenues. Because of this drop, government has borrowed money from the market. And according to the author, this borrowing has gone up to 15 percentage. And this is the reason why the government has fixed the fiscal deficit target of 3.5 percentage. But one good thing for the government is that the inflation is under control. So on a whole, we can see that the fiscal deficit is expected to increase because of more spending by the government. Then the next criticism is with respect to boosting demand in India. Here the author mentions that the government has not met the expectations with respect to boosting demand. Here the author is referring to the schemes like MG Narega and PM Kisan. As these schemes received less or same budgetary allocation in this union budget when compared to the previous union budget. From this table, you can see that the budgetary allocations for MG Narega is less when compared to the previous allocation. This we also discussed in the previous discussion. Now with respect to PM Kisan, we can see that there is under spending. Here the author mentions that the budget amount will not be spent properly unless the beneficiary base for the scheme is expanded. Now why author has discussed both these schemes is because they are good instruments for income transfers to the small and marginal farmers and to landless laborers because they spend most of their income and they generate demand for a wide range of goods and services. So higher budget for these schemes would have benefited most sectors of the economy because it would have created demand in various sectors of the economy. Similarly, author is also mentioning that the budgetary allocation for health and education are also well below the expectation. Even we saw this point in our previous discussion. Now even though author is critical of the government, he has still appreciated certain announcements made by the government in this year's budget. And the first appreciation is related to the rural development like the focus of government in the schemes such as micro irrigation schemes for 100 water stress districts and then increase in allocation for certain agricultural and rural development schemes. The rural developments like rural roads, coal storage and logistical chains are crucial for the growth of income and employment in rural India according to the author because this would create demand on one side and also it will have multiplier effect on rural infrastructure like more investment will be on growth of the rural infrastructure and the associated employment activities. Then the next appreciation of author is with respect to the budgetary allocation to the transportation infrastructure. In the student budget, a total of 1.7 lakh crore rupees has been allotted for transportation infrastructure. Regarding this, the author even cautions the government that the government needs to spend the budgeted amount and it should not commit under spending like it is doing in the current financial year. So we can see that huge public investments have been committed by the government in the form of budgetary support but at the same time private investment is necessary. So to pull in private investments, the author tells that public funding should be utilized in the ongoing projects instead of committing for new projects. The author even suggests that if the government has to spend on new projects then it can spend on small irrigation projects or rural road projects since they are relatively easy to complete and they deliver immense benefits to several sectors and eventually they will all contribute to increasing the demand in one way or the other. So this was the view of the author on boosting demand in India especially the rural demand. After this, the author discusses about the private investment. In this unit budget, the finance minister has announced that many projects will be in the PPP mode that is in the public-private partnership mode. And after this, the finance minister has also announced tax concessions in certain foreign investments like sovereign wealth funds of foreign governments where 100% exemptions have been given on their interest, dividend and capital gains. This move is welcomed by the author but he adds that the private investment depends on the cost of capital along with the certainty of returns which the investor will get. The present issue is that many projects have been stalled due to contractual disputes with the government departments and also because of various regulatory hurdles. So the author is of the opinion that all these factors make infrastructure investment very risky. So infrastructure projects become unattractive for investors due to such issues which leads to less investment in this sector. So these are the views of author on private investment. After this, author discusses about startups. This unit budget has provided some relief on the tax that the startups have to pay. Author has welcomed this move but if you see the government has not abolished the angel tax. So what is this angel tax? This angel tax is paid by an angel investor who is a person that invests in highly risky companies. Usually they invest in startups before these companies have any revenue or profits. So according to the government norms, a tax has to be paid on this investment made by the angel investor and this is the angel tax. Now this tax on the angel investment is actually a way of harassing startups because they cannot proceed with their business ideas with confidence. And this angel tax also affects the sentiments of angel investors. So the author is of the opinion that the government should have actually abolished angel tax which are being a hurdle to the startups because startups are a source of employment generation. So these were the views of the author on the various announcements made by the government in the unit budget. The author is of the final opinion that the unit budget offers some hope related to private sentiments only and there is less hope with respect to boosting the rural demand and investment. Because throughout the discussion we saw that public investment that is the budgetary allocation for the schemes that boost rural demand is quite less. So these are the points that you should know with respect to this editorial. In this discussion we have seen various dimensions presented by the author to tell that unit budget is falling short of aspirations and the need for government to boost the demand and private investments in India. Now let us see some important points from both these editorials that we just discussed. One point is that the public expenditure towards social sector schemes that is what the government is going to spend on social sector schemes is going to be low. Instead the government has told that public expenditure will be focused on creating capital assets. If you remember our yesterday's discussion you can see that public expenditure towards social sector schemes in the form of subsidies and grants etc. They come under revenue expenditure and creating capital assets like infrastructure they come under capital expenditure. And yesterday we also saw that revenue expenditure is a one-way payment but capital expenditure is a two-way transaction. You also get income in the long run by creating capital assets. So always remember creation of capital expenditure is good for the economy. Even though it will not push the economy to a faster growth in the short term, in the long term growth prospects are possible. And additionally if you see these editorials we can say that the government is slowly aiming for privatization. It has announced projects in PPP mode that is public-private partnership mode and then it has made many announcements to boost business. And this is the reason why the Union Finance Minister has said in this news that she has presented a realistic budget. Now with regards to budget there are two more news articles where two business personalities have shared their views on budget. The views of the business person mentioned in this news article are more or less similar to the views that we discussed in the second editorial. If you remember yesterday we discussed about the fiscal challenges of the government and how the government had used the escape clause in the fiscal responsibility and budget management act of 2003 to increase the fiscal deficit target to 3.5% in the upcoming Union budget. So with regard to the fiscal deficit this business personality mentions that the government is working on a tightrope with respect to the fiscal deficit. Because the expenditure of the government is going to increase but it is capital expenditure and not the revenue expenditure. So he concludes by saying that considering the challenges in the economy the government has presented its focus areas and policy direction. However he wants that execution is the true measure of success and this same idea was shared by the author of the second editorial as well. Now this article is with respect to the comments of the second business person in which she has commented that the budget is directionally sound. That is the announcements made in the budget will create impact in the long term and according to this business person the Union budget has boosted business confidence for the corporate in India through various measures. And these measures are the proposal for tax payers charter to prevent harassment by officials then increasing the investment limit of foreign portfolio investors in corporate bonds then allowing sovereign wealth funds to invest in infrastructure and then making the dividend distribution tax applicable to individuals instead of companies as we saw earlier. With respect to the DDT this business person has noted that the reduction in the tax rates will not increase disposable income in the hands of the salaried middle class since the exemptions are being withdrawn if they are going to opt for a lower tax slab. So that means even if a middle class person opts for lower tax slab the income in his hands will remain the same because he has to give up all other tax exemptions. In addition to this the transferring of DDT to recipients will also take money out of the hands of the retail investor or the public. It is because we saw in one of our discussion that after the abolition of DDT the shareholders who receive the dividend will have to pay tax on the dividend and not the company. So this will add more burden to the investors or the public. So to summarize all these three news articles we can say that the budget has improved the business sentiments and the government is going to spend in the creation of capital assets. So it may take few years for the private investments by the domestic corporates. So all these measures will make an impact in the long term but if you see in the short term it will take some time for the economy to revive from the slow down. With this we come to the end of this discussion. The displayed practice question will be discussed in the next session which is the practice questions discussion session. This question is a previous year question that was asked by UPSC in problems 2015. The first statement is the Department of Revenue is responsible for the preparation of union budget that is presented to the parliament. Now this statement is wrong because the budget is prepared by the Department of Economic Affairs and not the Department of Revenue. And from the given options you can say that statement 2 is a correct statement and since first statement is wrong and the question asks for the correct statement you can eliminate option A and D. Now let us see statement 3 is correct or not. All the disbursements made from public account also need the authorization from the parliament of India. See public accounts includes provident fund deposits, judicial deposits, savings bank deposits, departmental deposits, remittances and so on. And this account is operated by executive action that is the payments from this account can be made without parliamentary appropriation. And such payments are mostly in the nature of banking transactions. So that is why this statement is an incorrect statement because disbursements from public accounts does not need authorization from the parliament of India. So the correct answer to this question is option C to only. Now this next question is based on Indus Valley Civilization with reference to Indus Valley Civilization which of the following statements is correct. The first statement is the first IVC site was discovered by James Princip in 1905. Now this statement is incorrect because James Princip was the first person to decipher the edicts of Emperor Ashoka. And even a question based on this was asked in prelims 2016. So it is always good to revise the previous year questions. And also know that the first one to discover IVC site is Dayaram Sahini and he discovered the first site Harappa in 1921. And that is why it is also called as Harappan culture. Now let us see the second statement. The citadel lower town division was not visible in Kali Bangan and Mohanjadaro. This statement is incorrect because the citadel lower town division was clearly visible in Kali Bangan and Mohanjadaro. But the Chanhudaro in Pakistan but there the citadel lower town concept was not present. So this statement is also wrong. Then the third statement the pictographic IVC script was written from right to left. Now this statement is correct. Now this was found by archaeologists based on some seals where some seals show a wider spacing on the right and some cramping on the left. As if the engraver began working from the right and then ran out of space in the left. So this statement is the correct statement and it is the answer to this question. Now let us see the fourth statement. Some of the IVC sites are present in Karnataka. Now remember that the southernmost IVC site is found in Maharashtra. So there is no IVC site in Karnataka. That is why this statement is wrong. Now let us see another previous year question which was asked in prelims 2015. There has been a persistent deficit budget year after year which of the following actions can be taken by the government to reduce the deficit. So the question asked what the government should do to reduce the deficit. The first one is reducing revenue expenditure. See a deficit in a budget is used to define a status of financial health in which expenditure exceeds revenue. If we say reducing the revenue expenditure that means expenditures will come down and it will certainly help in bridging the gap. So first option is correct. Then the second option introducing new welfare schemes. New welfare schemes are increased. Then it will most likely result in increasing the expenditure for the government. So that means it cannot be used to reduce the deficit. So it should not be in the final answer. So you can eliminate option B and D. Now let us see whether third option is correct or not rationalizing subsidies. See subsidies are a part of expenditure. So by seeing subsidies don't think that the correct answer is option C because here the statement states rationalizing subsidies. When the government rationalizes subsidies the government will spend less. So it will help the government to reduce the deficit. So rationalizing subsidies will also help in reducing deficit. So the correct answer to this question is option A 1 and 3 only. Now option 4 is wrong because like introducing new welfare schemes expanding industries will also require capital infusion. So it is an expenditure for the government. So the deficit will increase. It will not reduce. Now let us see one previous question based on Harappan site which was asked in last year's problems. Which one of the following is not a Harappan site. The first one is Chanhudaro. Chanhudaro is a Harappan site. It is a mature Harappan site which is in the present day Pakistan. So this is not our answer. Now the second option is Cote Digi. This site is also a Harappan site and it is also in the present day Pakistan. Now the next option is Soghaura. Now this Soghaura is not a Harappan site. Normally you would have heard this name with copper plate inscription and the Soghaura is in Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh. But it is said that and the script in the language used in this inscription were similar to those of Ashokan inscriptions. So this is not a Harappan site. So the correct answer to this question is option C Soghaura. So obviously option D Desalpur is a Harappan site and it is a early mature Harappan site which is present in Gujarat. Now let us see one main question based on GS paper 3. The abolition of dividend distribution tax will bring more investment to India and will play significant role in making India a $5 trillion economy by 2024-25 discuss. So for answering this question first you have to mention about what do you mean by dividend distribution tax or DDT. And also mention that the budget of 2020-21 has announced for the abolishment of this tax. And because of it there will be a shift in taxation from the companies to recipients of dividends. Then you have to discuss the positives of this move like it will provide more surplus to the companies. It will benefit foreign investors and it will also benefit the domestic investors. Like that you can mention the positives of this abolition of DDT. Then as a conclusion you can say that India is witnessing a sluggish economic growth and even the economic survey of 2020-21 said that growth depends upon boosting investment and ensuring ease of doing business. So because of the abolition of DDT it will help in bringing in more investments. So India can become a $5 trillion economy by 2024-25 only if it attracts more investment. And this is one of the positive moves. Then you can also add your own viewpoints. See another main question based on GS Paper 3. Union Budget 2021 is dedicated to provide ease of living to all citizens based on the three broad themes. Aspirational India, Economic Development and Caring India. Do you think that the budgetary allocation substantiates the government's vision? Comment. Now this question asks do you think? That means you can answer this question in two ways. If you think that the budgetary allocations will substantiate the government's vision then you can list the positives of this Union Budget. And if you don't think the budgetary allocations are enough to realize the government's vision then you have to mention the negatives of this Union Budget. You can write the answers for both the main questions and post it in the comment section. We will review it and appropriate suggestion will be given for improving the answer writing. And it will be given within 10 to 14 working days. With this we have come to the end of our all of our sessions. 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