 Good evening aspirants welcome to the Hindu news analysis by Shankar Ayes academy. These are the list of articles chosen for today's analysis It has been given along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi, Tiruvananthapuram and Hyderabad editions The link for the handwritten notes and the timestamping for the displayed articles is provided in the description box below and For the benefit of smartphone users the timestamping is also provided in the comments section Let's move on to the first article analysis The first article is about sloth bears. The discussion can be linked to the syllabus that is given here for your reference The news article states that two sloth bears have been rescued in the last 10 days from the state of Karnataka It was rescued by the Karnataka Forest Department and the wildlife SOS team. Wildlife SOS is a non-governmental organization. It has a formal cooperative agreement with state governments and forest departments in more than nine states in India Wildlife SOS is mainly known for its work with the dancing bears of India We will see about the dancing bears later in this discussion First let us know some facts related to sloth bears. Its scientific name is Meluses arsonous. It is an omnivorous species Its diet includes a variety of food like insects, fruits, plants, honey But they like termites, ants and honey the most. Also know that sloth bears are the only species of bear that are adapted specifically for mermaicophagy. Mermaicophagy means ant eating and termite eating behavior So this means no other bears eat ants and termites. These sloth bears are restricted to the Indian subcontinent They are found in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. According to IUCN Now sloth bears are extinct in Bangladesh. If you consider India the large population of sloth bears occurs in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal Sloth bears occupy a wide range of habitats on the Indian mainland including wet and dry tropical forests, savannas, scrublands and grasslands. They are primarily a low land species. According to IUCN Most sloth bears range in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka are limited to the habitats which are below 1500 meters But there are some exceptions also like in western guards These species are also found in lands which are as high as 2000 meters. And if you see naturally these sloth bears are nocturnal or crepuscular Nocturnal means active during night and crepuscular means active during twilight. That is they are active at dawn and at dusk These sloth bears shelters or hides in rock outcrops, thickets and tree cavities during the heat of the day Here rock outcrops is a part of a rock formation that appears above the surface of the surrounding land Thickets means dense group of bushes or trees. Now major threats to these species are habitat loss or degradation Which is often related to human population growth. They are particularly vulnerable to loss of habitat because of their reliance on low land areas Because these low land areas are the places which are readily used and developed by people that is by humans. In addition to this these species are aggressive in nature So their aggressiveness makes them incompatible with high human populations. So they tend to attack humans also. And the habitats has been lost, degraded and fragmented by overharvest of forest products such as overharvest of timber, fuel, wood, fodder, fruits, honey etc. And habitat is also lost due to the establishment of monoculture plantations such as teak, eucalyptus etc. Monoculture means cultivation of a single crop in a given area. Now due to this and due to over harvesting the bears are unable to get fruits and honey which are major part of their diet Then other reasons for habitat loss are over grazing, extraction of minerals, quarrying, settlement of refugees and even expansion of agricultural areas, human settlements and expansion of roads All these damage the natural environment which in turn leads to habitat loss. Then another major threat to this species is poaching. Poaching means illegal hunting And these poaching occurs for local use because it is believed that the male reproductive organs of sloth bears are used as aphrodisiac. Aphrodisiac means it is a food, drink or a thing which stimulates sexual behavior and even because of some mythical beliefs sloth bears, bones, teeth and claws are also used by people. They are used to ward off evil spirits and the poaching is also done for the bear fat. This bear fat is used for native medicine and hair regeneration. And if you see in South Asia and Southeast Asia the bear paws soup is also a delicacy and for this purpose also poaching is done. Then the next threat is the capture of cubs that is the sloth bear cubs are captured and this often includes the killing of the mother bear. The cubs are captured to use them as dancing bears. It has been illegal since the enactment of Wildlife Protection Act in the year 1972. But still it continued till the year 2009. So now let us see how this practice started. For over 400 years these sloth bears had been a target for human exploitation. A nomadic tribe known as Kalandars began the tradition of dancing sloth bears for the emperors during the Mughal era. And for many centuries they have relied on dancing bears for their living. And as the centuries passed and the kingdoms in India disappeared, the dancing bear trade changed to become an entertainment for villagers and tourists. These villagers and tourists paid the tribal people to watch the dancing bears and the dancing bears would jump in agony and pain. And this is seen as entertainment by the villagers and the tourists. Now for this dancing bear purpose the mother bears were killed so that poachers can take and sell the cubs to continue brutal practice. Now as we saw this practice is illegal under Wildlife Protection Act. But it is said that through underground trading every year the Kalandars will get around 200 bear cubs. After they receive the cubs without even using anesthesia that is without even using the medicine which makes the living being insensitive to pain. A red hot poker rod would be driven through the nose of the baby bear. This is done to make a piercing in the nose of the baby bear. After this a rope would be strung through the painful piercing. And by pulling this rope only the bear is made to dance on demand. According to the Wildlife SOS in the year 1996 there were more than 1200 dancing bears which were scattered throughout India. With the cooperation from the government officials and with the help of international organizations Wildlife SOS has been able to rescue and rehabilitate these dancing bears. Today there is very minimal demand for dancing bears and even IUCN is saying that this practice has been stopped in there 2009 itself. Then another threat to this species is the man-animal conflict. It is reported that these sloth bears exist in India in 174 protected areas which includes 46 national parks and 128 wildlife sanctuaries. And according to estimation half of its population or even two-thirds of the populations of sloth bears in India live outside the protected areas. But these places which are outside protected areas have reduced cover and they are low in food resources which the sloth bear needs. So, in search of food they come into human settlements and this leads to increased human-bear conflicts that is it leads to human-animal conflicts. And sometimes in this conflicts humans are killed and also many of the times the bear is also killed and this is also a threat to the sloth bears. If we consider the conservation measures this animal that is the sloth bears are listed as vulnerable in the IUCN Red List. They have been listed as vulnerable from the year 1990 and they are also listed under Appendix 1 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna. That is they are listed under Appendix 1 of Sites Convention. And in India these sloth bears are completely protected under Schedule 1 of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. This means they cannot be hunted but they can be killed in self-defense or they can be killed in special circumstances where there have been damage to the property of people. But still trade and export of these species is illegal. With this we have come to the end of this news article analysis. Moving on to the next news article discussion which is based on the recent ordinance called as the Taxation Laws Amendment Ordinance of 2019. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. The headlines state that government cuts corporate tax and the article talks about minimum alternate tax. So first let us see the corporate tax then we will see the minimum alternate tax and we will see other major announcements. The corporate tax or the corporation tax is a tax which is levied on the incomes of registered companies and corporations. Therefore the corporate tax is also called as the income tax to be paid or levied on the company. The corporate tax is 25% of the total income for a domestic company. If the total turnover or the gross receipt of the domestic company for the financial year 2016 to 17 is less than or equal to 250 crores. But if the total turnover is more than 250 crores for the financial year 2016 to 17 then the income tax rate for that particular domestic company was 30% of the total income. Now such income tax or such corporate tax is also there for foreign companies which are operating in India. When we say domestic company these are the companies which are registered under the Companies Act of India. And it also includes the company which is registered in the foreign countries but having control and management wholly situated in India. By this we can say that the company has made the prescribed arrangement for declaration and payments of the dividends within India. Now if you see foreign company, foreign company is a company which has not registered under the Companies Act of India. And the control and management of the company is located outside India. A foreign company is a company which has not made the prescribed arrangements for declaration and payment of dividends within India. So for our analysis in the context of today's news article we will be more focusing about the domestic companies. The rates of income tax such as corporate taxes for companies will be available in the Finance Act which is passed by the parliament every year. This finance act passed by the parliament may alter or amend the tax slabs or rates in the income tax act of 1961. If you see the first schedule of the finance number 2 act of 2019 you can see the corporate tax rates which we have discussed for the domestic companies. So here we have to understand that if a change in income tax rate is to be introduced it requires an amendment in the finance act that was passed in the parliament in the particular year. That is why the news article talks about an ordinance to amend finance number 2 act of 2019. And this ordinance will also amend the required provisions in the income tax act of 1961 also. So what is the news today? The corporate tax structure in India is criticized for being one of the high corporate tax rates in some countries of the world. India's effective corporate tax structure for companies was at 34.94 percentage till this ordinance. This includes 30% of corporate tax and the remaining are surcharge and cesses. Such high levels of corporate tax affect the earnings and savings of a company. Now in the presence of the slowdown in the economy several companies are having the problem to make profit. This is because they are unable to sell the produced goods because of weak demand in the economy. So a high corporate tax structure in such a time will act as adding insult to injury that is it will further weaken the corporate ecosystems. On one side there is no surety of profit. On other side there is high corporate tax. So this also leads to lesser savings and lesser willingness for corporates to invest. This is because they are thinking that even if they invest in manufacturing and after that there is no demand. Then the manufactured goods will not be sold. So this will make the investment a mere liability or burden rather than the investment becoming a source of revenue to the company. If such investments do not yield profit or revenue to the companies then such companies will not be able to repay their debt which may lead to bankruptcy and the shutdown of such companies. So from this we can say that the more the corporate tax structure the lesser will be the flow of portfolio investments and other investments to the country. This is because the investors think that even if they invest money in a company more money will be given as tax if they compare with other countries. For example in UK the effective corporate tax rate is 19% in India it is 34.94%. So obviously investments will flow to UK than India and this is happening because of the corporate tax structure of India. Now it is in this scenario the central government has decided to reduce the income tax rates which are applicable to certain domestic companies. Now we call certain companies because the corporate tax cut is applicable to those companies who will not avail any exemption or incentive. Now see there are certain exemptions provided for companies under the income tax act. If any company does not avail such exemptions or incentive in that case the corporate tax is reduced to 22% for that company. This change has been announced by the section 115bAA that has been introduced by the ordinance. This means any domestic company will pay a corporate tax of 22% if it does not avail any incentive or exemption under the income tax act. Therefore the effective corporate tax rate has come down to 25.17%. The news article also mentions that with this announcement the effective tax rate for these companies shall be 25.17%. When we say effective tax rate this means the tax rate that includes the corporate tax inclusive of surcharge and SES. So what is surcharge? Surcharge is an additional tax levied on the amount of income tax. Surcharge will be more for those companies which earn more income and less for those companies which have less income. So now what is SES? SES is a temporary tax levied for a particular purpose. The money accrued by SES will be used for that particular purpose. Say for example education says health says etc. Now in our context SES is a temporary tax at a nominal rate and it is a tax on the income tax and surcharge. For companies SES is the tax on the corporate tax surcharge and for some companies SES will be tax on the minimum alternate tax and surcharge. Now the government has also stated that these companies which does not avail any incentive shall not be required to pay the minimum alternate tax. This means if the companies show no taxable income under the income tax act they need not even pay minimum alternate tax on book profits. We must be clear here see the company may not show taxable income or profit to pay corporate tax according to the income tax act. But they may have some book profit. This book profit computation is technical in nature. So simply we can say that the book profit is a net profit as shown in the statement of profit and loss prepared by the company. This statement is prepared in accordance with schedule 3 to the company's act of 2013. So this was about the current situation. So now what about the situation which was earlier? If you see by 1980s the government of India found that several companies have got tax incentives and tax exemptions under the income tax act of 1961. And the companies were taking advantage of such incentives. By taking advantage these companies have reduced their tax liability and in many cases they have not paid the corporate tax at all. These companies were called zero tax paying companies. But the government found that these companies had made substantial book profit and the companies have paid dividends to their shareholders. And they do not pay any tax due to various tax concessions and incentives provided under the income tax law. So to bring such companies into the tax net the government introduced a tax called as minimum alternate tax. This tax was introduced by the finance act of 1987 with effect from the assessment year 1988 to 89. It was later withdrawn by the finance act of 1990. And later it was again reintroduced by finance number 2 act of 1996 with effect from 1st April 1997. Now this tax is levied as per the provisions of section 115 JB of the income tax act. As per the concept of minimum alternate tax the tax liability of a company will be highest amount of two things. The first thing is the normal tax liability. This means the tax liability of the company computed as per the normal provisions of the income tax act. That is the tax computed on the taxable income of the company by applying the income tax rate or the corporate tax rate applicable to the company. This tax computed is called as normal tax liability. The second one is the tax which is computed at 18.5 percentage on book profit. The tax computed by applying 18.5 percentage on book profit is called as minimum alternate tax. By this concept of minimum alternate tax a domestic company should pay higher amount of either of the normal tax liability or the tax computed on book profits at 18.5 percentage. So for better understanding let us see two examples. Let us consider that these companies are those companies whose annual turnover is more than 250 crores for the financial year 2016 to 17. In one case we will see taxable income is lesser than book profits and in another case we will see taxable income is more than book profits. Say the taxable income for the company is 10 lakh and the book profits are 30 lakhs. Here taxable income is lesser than the book profits and the normal tax liability is 30 percentage of the taxable income. So this comes to 3 lakhs. Here if you calculate minimum alternate tax at 18.5 percentage of book profits that means we have to calculate 18.5 percentage of 30 lakhs which is 5,55,000. In this case the company will not pay 3 lakhs as income tax rather the company has to pay 5,55,000 as minimum alternate tax. Now let us take the second example. Now in this scenario the taxable income for the company B is 50 lakhs and the book profits are 30 lakhs and as per the normal tax liability 30 percentage of the taxable income is 15 lakhs. Here if you calculate minimum alternate tax it will be 5,55,000 because we have to calculate the 18.5 percentage of 30 lakhs. Now in this case the company will not pay minimum alternate tax rather it has to pay the normal tax liability that is the corporate tax which is 15 lakhs. This is because the corporate tax is higher than the minimum alternate tax. Now in addition to the corporate tax or the minimum alternate tax note that a company will also pay surcharges and cesses. So we can say that as per the minimum alternate tax concept the companies are required to pay the higher amount on the corporate tax and the minimum alternate tax. So we can infer one thing here if the book profits are much more than the taxable income then a company will be paying minimum alternate tax. That is the purpose of this tax but the companies may reduce the tax liability by availing incentives. Even though it will be made to pay a minimum alternate tax as per the income tax act. So according to the announcement of government of India those companies who do not avail any exemption or incentive under the income tax act for them there will not be an arrangement of minimum alternate tax. That is even if their taxable income reduces the government will receive only the corporate tax of 22 percentage. And the government will not look into the book profits of such companies. This measure announces a huge relief for the companies that do not receive any incentive or exemptions under the income tax act. So now what about the companies which receive incentives or which come under the exemptions under the income tax act. Especially these companies lower the taxable income for the purpose of income tax. So what about these companies? For these companies the government has not reduced the corporate tax but for them the government has reduced the minimum alternate tax. The minimum alternate tax is reduced from 18.5 percentage to 15 percentage. In addition to this these companies can opt for concessional 22 percentage corporate tax after the expiry of their incentive period. So this is about the corporate tax and the minimum alternate tax. So now let us see other major announcement for new domestic manufacturing companies. For them the income tax or the corporate tax is just 15 percentage. Their effective corporate tax rate will be 17.01 percentage. By new domestic manufacturing companies we mean three things to be eligible under the concessional 15 percentage income tax rate. One of this is companies should be set up and registered on or after 1st October 2019. Second they should commence production on or before 31st March 2023. And third they should not avail exemptions or incentives under the income tax act of 1961. Now let us see the next announcement. This is about the enhanced surcharge introduced by the finance number 2 act of 2019 on capital gains. The government has clarified that the enhanced surcharge shall not apply on capital gains of foreign portfolio investors. And enhanced surcharge shall not apply on capital gains arising on a sale of equity share in a company and few other transactions. The idea with respect to foreign portfolio investors is that with this announcement there will not be outflow of money from India. Then another major announcement is about the expansion of scope of funding responsibility of companies under corporate social responsibility. We know that as per the section 135 of the companies act a company should spend at least 2% of the average net profits of the company that was made during the three immediately preceding financial years. This spending should be done every financial year for social welfare activities. This CSR or the corporate social responsibility is applicable for those companies who have a net worth of rupees 500 crore or more or the turnover of rupees is 1000 crore or more or the net profit of rupees is 5 crore or more during any financial year. Now the scope for the CSR funding has been expanded to the new projects which are funded by the government and making contributions to public funded universities, IITs, national laboratories and autonomous bodies of the certain research and development institutions of government which are engaged in conducting research in science, technology, engineering and medicine. Some examples for such research and development in institutions of the government would be CSIR, Indian council for medical research, Indian council for agricultural research etc. Here the expansion of scope is done to promote India's status in achieving sustainable development goals. There are few other announcements which we will see in our subsequent classes. With this we have come to the end of this news article discussion. Now this news article gives different opinions regarding the recent changes made to the tax structure for corporates by the taxation laws amendment ordinance. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. The reduction in corporate tax for certain companies which will not avail any incentives or exemptions is a great relief for the corporate sector. This is a much needed announcement because there is an economic slowdown and there is a demand lowdown which is happening in our country. The government states that the reduction in tax rate will promote investment that is the major objective of such reduction of tax rates. Yes this is true in normal scenario but will it work out for boosting investments in present scenario when there is a less demand or no demand? Experts are saying that this move is a welcome move but it may not boost investments as expected. It may help if the government promotes demand so that once investment is made there will be consumption and growth for the companies. If investments are made but there is no demand it means all the goods produced by the investment is of no use and it may lead to bankruptcy of that company. Therefore corporates are now demanding for a similar reduction in tax rates for personal taxes also. Only then people will spend the money that is available in their hand because of the reduction in the rates. This money will be used to purchase things for consumption so this is very important for creating demand. Another opinion is that the reduction of tax rates will make Indian companies to become more attractive and competitive at the global levels. As a result of this foreign companies will invest in India and this will boost up private sector investments. Then also for the profit making entities tax reduction will help in their savings. This savings will in turn become investments. During the analysis of the last article we saw that for new domestic manufacturing companies the effective corporate tax rate is 17.01%. This is one of the lowest in the world and it will be a great measure to provide an enabling environment for the manufacturing companies in the economy. Some experts are saying that the reduction in the corporate tax will certainly increase the fiscal deficit of India. The fiscal deficit may go from 3.3% of the GDP to 3.8% of the GDP. So why there will be a widening of fiscal deficit? This is because one of the sources of revenue is tax revenue for the government. Now because of the changes in rates there will be a loss of 1,45,000 crore rupees for government. This number is agreed by the government of India that is why the fiscal deficit will widen. This widening of fiscal deficit is called as fiscal slippage. The fiscal deficit will have to be financed through borrowings. Now we have to see this loss of revenue along with the unexpected loss of revenue from GST tax collections. The tax which is collected so far through GST is lesser than the collection predicted by the government. See India is targeting 3.3% of GDP as fiscal deficit target. Now this may slip to 3.8%. If India did not keep the fiscal deficit target there will be difficulty in raising loans and finances under external commercial borrowings. And moreover increase of fiscal deficit is a negative indicator in the present economic scenario also. Then there is also a request for concessional tax rate and tax benefits for the real estate and housing sector. This is because these sectors are also undergoing the impacts of economic slowdown. One such impact is that due to low demand several constructed houses are neither sold nor given for rent. So whoever made investments in housing and real estate are therefore unable to make profits as a result of lack of demand. So these are the different opinions regarding the recent changes made to the tax structure in the country. With this we have come to the end of this news article discussion. Moving on to the next discussion. This discussion is based on this editorial which is about the recent decision of the central government to link the MG NREGA wages to a revised inflation index. The discussion can be linked to the syllabus that is given here for your reference. To understand the article let us first discuss about MG NREGA, CPI AL and CPI RL in brief. We know that MG NREGA stands for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The MG NREGA Act was passed as National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in the year 2005. But later it was changed to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in the year 2009. The section 3 of this act guarantees 100 days of waged employment in a financial year. This waged employment is for the adult members of rural households who volunteer to do unskilled manual work. It is expected to create more employment in the rural areas and increase the income of the rural population. The objectives of this act are listed in the schedule 1 clause 3 of this act. The schedule 1 clause 3 states that 100 days employment which is provided by the act should result in the creation of sustainable and productive assets. And these should assure a sustained source of income for the rural poor. This act also aims to strengthen the livelihood resource base of the poor. Now next let us see about CPI that is Consumer Price Index. CPI is used to measure the changes over a time period in the general level of retail prices of selected goods and services. These goods and services are those which the households purchase for the purpose of consumption. The selected goods and services are called as basket of goods and services. By measuring the change in price we actually measure the inflationary tendencies. That is it measures the rise in prices of goods and services in the economy. This price change is measured with respect to a reference period. Now under this CPI CPI AL and CPI RL comes. CPI AL means Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Laborers. CPI RL means Consumer Price Index for Rural Laborers. CPI AL and CPI RL both are computed and compiled by the Labor Bureau which works under the Ministry of Labor and Employment. And also remember that the base year for these two indices is 1986 to 87. In this the CPI AL covers the households of agricultural laborers and the CPI RL covers the households of all rural laborers including agricultural laborers. And the basket of CPI AL and CPI RL contains items such as food items, fuel and light, clothing, health, education etc. Now here you have to note one important point. CPI AL and CPI RL are both computed and compiled by Labor Bureau under the Ministry of Labor and Employment. We just saw that but the CPI that is the Consumer Price Index it is released by Central Statistics Office which works under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. So now let us come to the editorial discussion. Now we know that Indian economy is witnessing a slowdown now. To address this issue the government has announced a number of measures as a stimulus package. As a part of this stimulus package Central Government has said that it is planning to link the MG Narega wages to a revised inflation index. The MG Narega wages will be linked to CPI AL or CPI RL whichever is higher in a state. Which means if in a state CPI AL is higher then MG Narega wages will be linked to CPI AL. But if in a state CPI RL is higher then MG Narega wages will be linked to CPI RL. The government hopes that this measure will take the present MG Narega wages upward. That is it will help to increase the wages of workers and it will help to increase the rural demand. The author notes that till now the reasons which were attributed to the economic slowdown and the centres measure to address it only revolved around the decline in urban consumption. And it never concentrated on the rural demand. But the author is of the view that the income in rural areas are more vulnerable. So the move of the government to link MG Narega wages to revised inflation index will infuse more money into the hands of rural households. And in turn it is expected to revive the slowing economy. So this means just now only the government is realizing that its concentration should not only be in urban consumption but it should also concentrate on increasing the rural demands. So as we saw the MG Narega wages will be linked to a revised inflation index. So the author is saying that the government has started the work to revise the consumer price indices for rural India. As we mentioned earlier this is expected to rise the wages of MG Narega workers. But if you see according to the Ministry of Rural Development currently the national average wage rate is Rs 178 per day. So we can see that it is very low. Here the author notes that the decision to review the wages are welcome but still author is having little doubt in this because whether this move will have an immediate increase in rural demand or not is a questionable matter. It is because the wages of the workers itself is very low. So even after revision it might not be able to make an immediate impact in the economy. The author is saying this because according to the author once the statistics ministry and the labour bureau revises the existing basket of goods and services for CPI AL and CPI RL they will be revised annually. So once the index revision is concluded the centre will notify the updated MG Narega wages in this financial year itself according to the author. And the government will not wait till the financial year of 2020 to 21. So we can see that the government is showing some urgency in revising rural wages and this urgency clearly shows that the government is aiming to give a fillip or boost to the rural income and boost to the rural economy. In this the government is trying to uplift the slowing economy by boosting rural demands because when there is a rise in rural income it will automatically increase their purchasing power. When the purchasing power of rural households are more it will automatically increase rural demand and when there is a demand there will be production. So this would boost production and in turn it will boost the economy. So this is the plan of government for urgently revising rural wages. But according to the author there are more problems which have to be taken care of before revising the CPI AL. As we discussed earlier the base year for CPI AL is still 1986 to 1987. So the problem is that the base year has not been updated for the last three decades. That is for the last 30 years the CPI AL base year has not been revised. Then another problem is that CPI AL assigns more weightage for food items. Under CPI AL the weightage assigned for food items is more than two-third of the items in the basket. Now this idea of giving more weightage to food items might have helped before 10 to 20 years. But the author says that the rural consumption patterns have changed significantly in the last three decades. It is because food is available at a subsidized rate through public distribution systems. So the rural households spend less on food items. According to the author the rural households are now spending more on health, education, transport and telecom rather than on food items. So the current weightage of CPI AL does not actually help to understand the price pressures which is faced by the rural households because the index still gives more weightage to food items and not to other items like health and education which costs more. So the author notes that due to low food inflation at present and the low income of farmers a miscalculation while revising rural wages would adversely affect the rural population. It is because when there is low food inflation that is when the price hikes in food items are minimal then there will be less increase in CPI AL linked wages because CPI AL gives more weightage to food items. So according to the author the revision might not give much benefit to the rural population as expected by the government. So in turn the rural demand will also not increase immediately. So if the revision of CPI AL has to be beneficial then these problems have to be solved first. Now in this context it is important to discuss the information given in the annual report of RBI in the year 2018 to 2019. RBI had said that the rural demand has been failing since the third quarter in 2018 to 2019. So this means when there is a reduction in rural demand it leads to less rural consumption and the reason for this reduction in rural consumption which were listed by the RBI includes weaker harvest in 2018 to 2019 as compared to the preceding years. Then less growth in agriculture and allied activities and very low prices for crops etc. All these factors have significantly reduced the income of rural households and the rural households are mainly comprised of farmers. So their purchasing power has come down. This in turn reduced the demand for goods and services and it contributed to the economic slowdown. And this rural distress especially in the agricultural sector was reflected in the increasing demand for work under the MG Nareka. So the author concludes this article by saying that focusing more on raising the rural demand would have better results if the government wants to revive the economy. With this we have come to the end of this news article discussion. Moving on to the next article discussion which is about the effects of algal bloom caused by Noctiluca scintillans. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. The news article says that an algal bloom in the Gulf of Manar has caused the death of hundreds of colonies of coral reefs. The algal bloom was caused by a greenish marine microalgae. This greenish marine microalgae which killed the coral reefs is called Noctiluca scintillans. So first let us understand in brief about the coral reefs. Coral is a living animal. Coral reefs are built by and made up of thousands of tiny animals called as coral polyps as you can see in this picture. These corals have a symbiotic relationship with the zoo xanthile. See most of reef building corals contain a photosynthetic algae which is called as zoo xanthile. These zoo xanthile live in the tissues of corals. Now in this symbiotic relationship means one organism gives something to the other organism and gets something back in return. So this coral reefs have a symbiotic relationship with the zoo xanthile. So let us now see how this symbiotic relationship works. The corals provide the algae with a protective environment and they also provide compounds to the algae which they need for photosynthesis and in return the algae produce oxygen and it helps the coral to remove wastes. Most importantly zoo xanthile supplies the coral with glucose, glycerol and amino acids which are the products of photosynthesis. And the coral uses these products to make proteins, fats and carbohydrates and they produce calcium carbonate. Now this relationship between the algae and the coral polyps facilitates a tight recycling of nutrients in the nutrient poor tropical waters. In fact as much as 90% of the organic material which are photosynthetically produced by the zoo xanthile is transferred to the host that is it is transferred to the coral tissue and this process is a driving force behind the growth and productivity of the coral reefs. Now in addition to providing corals with essential nutrients the zoo xanthile are also responsible for a unique characteristic of the corals. It is nothing but the unique and beautiful colors which the corals have is given by these zoo xanthile and sometimes when corals become physically stressed the polyps which are present in the corals expel or discharge the algal cells which is present in the corals and the colony of corals take a stark white appearance as you can see in this picture. Now this phenomenon is commonly described as coral bleaching now here the problem is if the polyps are left for too long without zoo xanthile then the coral bleaching can result in the death of the coral also. Now let us see how this coral bleaching is caused. See the coral reefs are facing several threats and these threats are both natural and also anthropogenic. Anthropogenic means caused due to human activity and these threats include elevated sea water temperature which could have been caused due to global warming and it also includes chemical pollution then nutrient loading in the oceans then industrial waste flowing into the sea etc. Now when the coral reefs are under threat it undergoes bleaching that is it loses its color. That means it loses the zoo xanthile and this happens when the coral does not get adequate sunlight for the photosynthesis of its zoo xanthile and it also happens when the oxygen in the sea water is exhausted that is when it is used by other marine animals. Now if this stress factor continues then the depleted zoo xanthile will not recover because it is not getting adequate sunlight for photosynthesis and this eventually leads to the death of corals. Now because of the intimate relationship of zoo xanthile with corals the reef building corals respond to the environment like plants because their algal cells need light for photosynthesis and the reef corals require clear water. For this reason only they are generally found in the waters with small amounts of suspended material that is when the water is of low turbidity and when the environment has low productivity. Now according to the researchers this leads to an interesting paradox. The paradox is that coral reefs require clear nutrient poor water but actually they are among the most productive and diverse marine environments. So now with this background let us also discuss about the Noctiluca Sintilens. As we saw in the beginning Noctiluca is a kind of micro algae that is it is a tiny plant like organism. This Noctiluca algae is known as Noctiluca Sintilens which is a species belonging to one silt phytoplankton. Phytoplankton means one silt algae. These phytoplanktons form the base of the ocean's food chain and there are some larger phytoplanktons like diatoms and dinoflagellates which photosynthesize which means they feed on nutrients that float nearby. Now these phytoplanktons are eaten by small sea animals or zooplanktons. Now these in turn are then eaten by the larger fish and other sea creatures. So this is how the food chain forms. But the Noctiluca which is also in phytoplankton are not capable of photosynthesis and they survive by trapping smaller phytoplankton which are smaller in size than Noctiluca and these Noctiluca algae emit light when they are disturbed and this process is called as bio luminescence and this bio luminescence is called as sea sparkle. So this is the background about Noctiluca Sintilens. Now this article talks about the bloom of Noctiluca algae. See algal bloom means the rapid out of control growth of an algae and when the algal blooms kill marine animals or disturb the ecology they are called harmful algal blooms. So now let us discuss few adverse effects of algal bloom. The Noctiluca which is causing the algal bloom excretes ammonia into the water. So during their bloom they excrete large amounts of ammonia and it leads to fish mortalities. So when there is large amounts of ammonia it leads to massive fish mortalities. Not only this the algal blooms also restrict the penetration of sunlight into the water and this results in the death of aquatic plants because plants require sunlight for photosynthesis. So the algal blooms restrict the replenishment of oxygen and when there is a oxygen deprivation the primary consumers like small fish are killed due to this oxygen deprivation. Oxygen is deprived when there is a algal bloom because the algae consume oxygen when they decompose. So when there are large amounts of algal blooms it leads to large amounts of decomposition of these algal blooms also. So it means it will lead to a large amount of oxygen deprivation and we saw that the algal blooms result in the killing of small fish and this death of small fishes adversely affects the food chain because larger fish depends on smaller fish. So when there is no small fish it leads to the destruction of higher life forms. In addition to this the increased turbidity or the decreased transparency which is caused by the algal bloom causes the death of coral reefs because it limits the sunlight and we saw how this happens in the beginning itself. This is what the news article also talks about. So now let us see what causes this algal bloom. The algal bloom is mainly caused by eutrophication. Eutrophication means the nutrient enrichment of waterways and this nutrient enrichment is caused by sewage influence and it is caused by runoff from fertilized agricultural areas and it is also caused by chemical pollution of the waterways. Now if you see in the news article the news article says that there were signs of mucus sheathing. This mucus sheathing is a protective covering on the corals. Generally corals release mucus under stressed conditions. This mucus sheathing is used as a defense against the accumulation of algae on corals or the accumulation of pathogens or a defense against the UV radiation and the defense against accumulation of sedimentation and other pollutants. And this slimy mucus helps the coral to clean up their surface. So this means when there is mucus sheathing the corals are able to protect themselves. But the news article says that in spite of the mucus defense the algal bloom has killed many coral reefs. Next the news article also gives reason why this mucus sheathing was released by the corals. The scientists have found that a very large amount of noctilucous intranet cells and other benthic organisms were settled on the corals and coral reef areas. So as a protection the coral released mucus which resulted in mucus sheathing. Here benthic animals are sometimes also called as benthos refers to the organism which live at the lowest level of a body of water. That is they live in the lowest level of oceans and lowest level in the lakes. Example of benthic animals are macro algae, coraline algae and sponges. So in spite of releasing mucus the coral could not protect itself because the algal bloom was so huge. Now these algal blooms and the depth of coral reefs witnessed in the single island in the Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park. Now this Gulf of Mannar is a part of Lakkadev Sea which is located in the southeast of Tamil Nadu as you can see in this map. The Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park is located in this region. It has many small islands and the single islands is one of them. So now let us see how the algal bloom actually killed the coral reefs. The algal bloom blocked the sunlight from reaching the corals and the zoo's antelay was not able to photosynthesize and produce food for the coral. It is because as we saw in the beginning when the algae is decomposing it consumes oxygen which is available. So this in turn affects the availability of oxygen for corals. So the less availability of oxygen or the oxygen stress has affected the corals which resulted in the death of corals. So with this we have come to the end of this news article discussion. With this we have come to the end of today's Hindi news analysis. If you like the video don't forget to like, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for more updates related to civil service examination preparation.