 a very good evening aspirants welcome to hindi news analysis brought to you by shankar ias academy for the date 7th of july 2022 the list of articles we are going to discuss today is displayed on the screen you can go through it now let's start our discussion see this article here this open article is written by an expert in the field of economics through statistical analysis author has tried to find answer to one important question relating to goods and service tax which is did gst lead to inflation so let us see what is the answer to this question before that the syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference you can go through it well gst is an indirect tax that came into force on first of july 2017 a different taxation regime existed before this it involved multiplicity of indirect taxes that were levied on the same supply chain with gst this system changed because 17 indirect taxes were consolidated into one gst in a major way it reduced the ill effects of cascading taxation or double taxation that is tax on tax it also paid the way for a common national market there was also a reduction in the overall tax burden on goods for customers but gst did not come into existence just like that it was in the making for a long time and the government kept pushing it by stating the possible benefits of gst mainly they promised lower inflation now with the start of july 2022 gst has completed five years therefore it is practical to analyze whether the said benefits accrued or not therefore in this way only Arthur analyzes whether gst lowered inflation as promised or not so let us first understand why it was assumed or expected that there will be lower inflation that is why it was expected that gst will have low impact on price levels see this expectation was majorly based on the report of araben subramaniam committee on gst the committee was headed by the then chief economic advisor dr araben subramaniam the objective of the report was to suggest possible tax rates under gst by the committee the design of gst itself was assumed to be like avoid adding to inflationary pressures that is it was designed in principle or in theory that gst should have no aggregate impact on inflation and the price level this is because the new rate was designed to be a revenue neutral one why gst is designed to be revenue neutral it is because any tax rates under gst regime should not and would not decrease the existing revenue generation by central and state government but how they could lose revenue it is because many indirect taxes have been removed so the revenue under them is also no more similarly input tax credit is also a part of gst design this would also reduce revenue as it removes cascading taxation if revenue is reduced then how the states can be convinced to implement gst that means there was necessity to ensure that revenue does not reduce for this a rate called revenue neutral rate in gst tax rate was required so simply revenue neutral rate is the rate at which tax revenue remains the same despite giving credit of duty paid on inputs and other factors this revenue neutral rate is the rate of tax that allows the government to receive the same amount of money despite changes in the tax laws so regarding this revenue neutral rate the committee assumes that it will refer to that single rate which preserves revenue at desired levels or current levels but note that even though in theory it is a single rate in practice there will be structure of rates it is kept as a single rate in theory for the sake of analytical clarity and precision but revenue neutral rate is a given single rate that gets converted into a whole rate structure and will provide what commodities to charge at a lower rate and what to charge at a very high rate the committee also distinguished revenue neutral rate from the standard rate under gst see standard rate it's nothing but the rate in a gst regime which is applied to all goods and services whose taxation is not explicitly specified okay that's it now why there is an emphasis on revenue neutral rate and standard rate because the committee after calculations concluded that under a dual rate gst the aggregate impact on inflation will depend on both the revenue neutral rate and the standard rate therefore it suggested a normal revenue neutral rate in the 15 to 15.5 percentage range along with the lower rate of 12 percentage revenue neutral rate that is normally revenue neutral rate should be in 15 to 15.5 percentage range but for the commodities to be charged at a lower rate revenue neutral rate should be 12 percentage okay additionally a standard rate of 18 percentage was suggested if the rates are kept at this range then it would have negligible inflation impact the suggestion was taken by the government and implemented so it was assumed that revenue neutral rate will reduce inflation another reason for assuming lower inflation was the group of items that gst covers see when there is a rise in general price level of goods and services we call it inflation rate and it is measured using the price indices mainly retail price index which is generally known as consumer price index and we know that the cpa measures the changes over time in general level of retail prices of selected goods and services and these goods and services are those which the households purchase for the purpose of consumption so consumer price index includes six components namely food and beverages, pond, tobacco and intoxicants, clothing and food wear, housing, fuel and light and miscellaneous miscellaneous include health education transport recreation etc in this food and beverages component have the highest weightage that means any rise in the price of items in these components will impact consumer price index there could be a negligible rise in cpa or to a higher level but it depends on the level of rise in prices of those items this is where we have to remember that about half of the group of items that gst covers are not included in the consumer price index basket particularly essential food items have been exempted from gst or taxed at low rates but as i just said food and beverages components have the highest weightage in cpa so if their tax rates are low or zero that means inflation was reflected by cpi will also be low due to these factors it is said that gst lowers inflation this is where author's statistical analysis comes into play it captures inflation in all cpa items with gst and calculates the inflation if there is not gst methodology of analysis is not important let us just know the findings first it was found that gst implementation has resulted in a decrease in inflation of food items secondly it was also found that gst has raised inflation of non-food items such as panned tobacco and intoxicants clothing and footwear housing miscellaneous etc it has also raised inflation for the food and beverages items that are not exempted from gst or the non-exempted food and beverages so it is concluded by the author that gst had inflationary pressures on the Indian economy but you may have a question here how even after careful calculation by the government gst resulted in inflation see it could be attributed to few factors what are these factors first due to the rise in the tax rate of some goods and services second the inclusion of business activities in the gst regime that were not taxed earlier here when businesses that were not taxed before were included in gst what they could have done is that they pass on the cost to the customer this resulted in higher prices third market structure is also cited as a reason here when market power increases it is the problem see market power refers to a company's relative ability to manipulate the price of an item in the marketplace by manipulating the level of supply demand or both when market power increases price increase but the businesses get profit this increase in price led to inflation it cost cost push inflation cost push inflation is the inflation cost by a increase in prices of inputs like labor raw material etc these increased price of the factors of production leads to a decreased supply of these goods decreased supply means increased price okay so what is the conclusion now it should not be forgotten that India is not alone where gst had cost inflationary pressures because many other countries that implemented gst taxation before india also witnessed a similar pattern in rise in inflation for example in australia gst initially increased inflation so the need of the heart is to take appropriate measure to curtail inflation rather than arguing gst did not lead to inflation so that's all regarding this news article discussion in this news article we saw about gst and we mainly discussed about whether gst led to inflation or not the answer is yes gst implementation has resulted in a decrease in inflation of food items and raised inflation of non-food items okay with these key learned points let's move on to next news article discussion see this text and context article here it talks about the new rules that regulate the advertisements the central consumer protection authority recently issued guidelines to prevent false or misleading advertisements the significance of the guidelines is that it filled the consumer protection gap and it also outlines the advertiser's duties and this is about the news article given here in this context let us see about the important points in the guidelines and also we will see the important points discussed in this news article before that the syllabus relevant to this article discussion is highlighted here for your reference you can go through it see the central consumer protection authority has notified guidelines for prevention of misleading advertisements and endorsements for misleading advertisement 2022 and this notification is released with an objective to curb misleading advertisements and to protect the consumers who may be exploited by such advertisements see here go and read about this consumer protection authority that is a central consumer protection authority just note under which act it is established read the functions of the authority also it will be very much useful for your preliminary examination now let us see the important provisions in this guidelines that are mentioned in this news article firstly the guidelines has laid down the conditions for non misleading and valid advertisements see I have given these seven conditions here you can just go through it and have a basic idea about the conditions here you can see that the guidelines has defined the valid or non misleading advertisement instead of misleading or invalid advertisement this is because by defining this way it aims to reduce the scope for exploitation of any loopholes okay now moving on to the next important provision see the guidelines talks about the surrogate advertisement first of all what is the surrogate advertisement see it refers to the advertisement of goods in the shadow of other goods for example the advertisement of tobacco in the shadow of pan masala the ad may be of pan masala but it will indirectly advertise tobacco okay see we all know that advertisements related to tobacco is prohibited by law so the manufacturers and advertisers are circumventing the regulation through the grey area created by a surrogate advertisement but as per the section six of the newly released guidelines it prohibits the surrogate or indirect advertisement made for the goods or services whose advertising is otherwise prohibited by law okay now the next important issue taken up by the new guidelines is the discouragement of children targeted advertisements see the advertisements that encourage inspire or unreasonably stimulate behavior that could be dangerous for children or which takes advantage of children's inexperience have been prohibited in these guidelines the guidelines further require that the goods which require a health warning should not be advertised through children as well as personalities from music sports and cinema and the guidelines says that advertisement that state any health or nutritional claims or benefit without being adequately or scientifically substantiated are prohibited okay also any surgery which may have adverse effects on the physical and mental health of the children is also prohibited for example advertisements relating to milk additive products often imply that the product have higher nutritional value for the growth of children and they also imply that it increases retention power of the brain during exams strengthen bones in sports etc but these claims are yet to be scientifically proven the guidelines further says that an advertisement for junk foods including chips carbonated beverages and such other snacks and drinks shall not be advertised during a program that is meant exclusively for children also it should not be advertised on a channel which is meant for children see you should be knowing the reasons for such strict regulations right and also know that the youth form the most impressionable demographic for all advertisers children can be influenced easily through advertisements see they are individually capable of making buying decisions they can influence the decision of their parents and they make up the future adult demographic and this marketing strategy violates the right to choose provision it also violates the right to be informed and protected against unsafe goods and services and unfair trade practices so keeping this in mind the guidelines has been formulated and know that there are many other provisions which are related to child targeted advertisements that are prohibited go and read about it in the notification see it is a very small document hardly five pages will be there you don't have to memorize each and every word just read it it will be helpful for you when you are trying to eliminate statements in preliminary examination now coming back let us see the other reforms mentioned in the article see the guidelines have also introduced the need to have disclaimers in advertisement to clarify a claim made in the advertisement or to resolve ambiguities the guidelines require that the disclaimer must be clearly visible to normally sighted persons and it should be prominently placed so that the consumer may read it carefully the guidelines also impose duties and the manufacturers service providers and advertising agency to not claim and make comparisons in an advertisement which relate to matter of objectively ascertainable facts moreover the advertisement must be framed to gain the trust of the consumers that is it should not abuse the trust of the consumers or exploit their lack of experience or knowledge while these guidelines must be hailed as a step in the right direction there is a definite need to ensure their implementation in the spirit that they have been drafted with okay so that's all regarding this news article in this news article discussion we saw about the guidelines for prevention of misleading advertisement and its important provisions with these key learned points let's move on to next news article discussion just have a look at this article this news article talks about the flash floods and land slips in Himachal Pradesh see four people are believed to be washed away in the Parvati river and two women are believed to be dead in Kulu and Shimla this is the cracks of the news article given here in this context let us discuss about the landslides in brief and then mainly we will focus on the difference in the causes of landslides in Himalayan region and in western gods this is very important friends kindly pay attention first of all what are landslides we have discussed so many times that the landslides are the movement of a mass of rock debris or earth down your slope landslides are a natural phenomena and they are relatively rapid and perceptible moments the materials involved are relatively dry landslides often takes place in conjunction with earthquakes floods and volcanoes particularly in the highly terrain landslides have been a major and widely spread natural disaster often taking toll on life and property and therefore becomes a major concern okay see the size and shape of the detached mass depends on three main conditions one is the nature of discontinuities in the rock the second one is the degree of weathering and the third one is the steepness of the slope landslide may be caused by natural factors such as heavy rain snowfall earthquake see it may be induced by human factors like over interference with the slope stability this is by deforestation and planned construction or mining the intensity and magnitude of the landslide largely depends on the geological structure slope angle nature of rocks and human interaction but you have to note that the causes of landslide in the Himalayan region and the western gods are very different see landslides in the Himalayan region are usually due to natural causes such as high seismicity due to plate tectonic movement easily erodible sedimentary rocks eng and energetic rivers with high erodible heavy downpour and snowfall but when you take the landslides in the western gods it is mainly due to concentrated rainfall overburdening of hills mining and quarrying so let me elaborate it for you firstly take plate tectonic movement Indian plate is moving towards the uration plate and collides with it the Himalayan region lies in the north of the Indian plate and due to collision with uration plate it is tectonically active which causes frequent tremors this isostatic imbalance causes frequent landslides whereas the western gods region is tectonically more stable and has less frequency of tremors and landslides due to plate movements secondly take the rock structure see the Himalayan region is comprised of sedimentary rocks these rocks are more susceptible to denutation and erosion as compared to the rocks of western gods with little rainfall and construction activities sedimentary rocks result in denutation whereas the major part of western gods comprised of basalt rocks these rocks have great resistance to erosion and denutation and result in fewer landslides due to differences in rock composition okay thirdly take earthquakes earthquakes are the most important factor for the landslides in folded mountain regions due to this landslides appear more frequently in the folded mountains of the Himalayas but the western gods are less susceptible to earthquakes and have fewer earthquake induced landslides okay fourthly take topography and exogenetic forces many eng and rapid flowing rivers such as the Ganges the Indus and the Brahmaputra originated in the Himalayan region these rapid flowing rivers cause large-scale denutation and erosion of mountainous regions also note that the Himalayas are mighty having steep slopes and easily eroded by rivers due to their topography this leads to landslides whereas the western gods have mature rivers and denuded topography which rarely yields further denutation and erosion so as a result of this it has fewer landslides finally take rainfall and snowfall heavy and continuous downpours may result in severe landslides particularly in the regions of steep slopes this is due to denutation and soil erosion here both the Himalayan region and the western gods face severe landslides due to concentrated rainfall okay so that's all regarding this news article in this news article we saw about landslides and mainly we focused on the difference between the landslides in Himalayas and western gods with these learned points let's move on to next news article discussion see this article talks about the philosophy of Adi Shankara this is an important topic from cultural history perspective so let us know about Adi Shankara see Adi Shankara or Adi Shankara Charya is one of the most influential philosophers of India he was born in Kalladi in Kerala in a brahmin family he was born in the eighth century he was a child prodigy who mastered vedha vedanta upanishas and puranas at a very early age he thought that brahman is the supreme god brahman or brahman is the only or ultimate reality according to Shankara brahman was nirvisesha which means without any attributes then brahman means nirguna which denotes without the gunas then brahman was nirakara which means formless and then he is akarta which means non-agent so these were the definitions of brahman given by Shankara Charya okay so Shankara's brahman was formless and without any attributes mainly he was an advocate of Advaita also known as Advaita Vedanta school of thought see Advaita is the doctrine of the oneness of the individual soul and the supreme god or brahman here we know that brahman is the ultimate reality so he preached renunciation of the world and adoption of the path of knowledge according to him it was necessary to understand the true nature of brahman and attain salvation so according to him moksha or salvation could be attained solely through the concentration of the mind one of the reasons for this is he considered the world around us to be an illusion or maya he also introduced the panchayatana form of worship it is nothing but the simultaneous worship of five Hindu deities namely Ganesha Surya Vishnu Shiva and Devi or Shakti Shankara explained that all deities were different forms of the one brahman who is the invisible supreme being through this he became the unifier of Hari Hera and Shakti cult that is he unified the different groups of Hindus fighting over the five Hindu gods Shankara made a legendary slogan for each group and brought all these groups into a common fold this helped to unify the sex and their rituals of hinduism he wrote many bahsia and the upanishads bahsia means commentaries his masterpiece is the brahmasutra bahsia it is a commentary on the brahmasutra which is a fundamental text of the vedanta school he also established four shrines in four corners of india and he died at the end age of 32 years at kethernath so this is about the news article in this news article we saw about adi Shankara and his philosophy this is very important with these learned points let's move on to next news article discussion have a look at this news article this news article talks about the four members who are picked for rajasabha see old mixed printer pt usha music composer elai raja philanthropist virendra hegade and screenwriter v vijayendra prasad have been nominated to the rajasabha wrote that they are nominated in the category of eminent persons and they are nominated by the president okay this is the crux of the news article given here in this context let us discuss about the rajasabha elections see we know that the indian parliament is bicameral in nature that is it has two houses rajasabha is one of those two houses and it is also the upper house of the parliament the other house is the lok sabha which is the lower house of the parliament rajasabha is the second chamber of the parliament and represents the states and union territories of the country it is empowered to protect the interests of the states and union territories if there is an interference by the center in their work okay first let us see about the rajasabha member selection see article 80 of the constitution talks about the composition of council of states currently it has 245 members out of this 233 members are elected members and 12 members are nominated and as per the constitutional limit the upper house strength cannot exceed 250 okay see you may ask a question like how many members from the state are represented in rajasabha see the number of rajasabha members a state can send depends on its population hence the number of elected seats changes as states are merged bifurcated or new ones are created okay now regarding the process of election the rajasabha members are elected indirectly by the people that is they are elected by the members of the state legislative assembly see the mlas vote in the rajasabha elections in proportional representation with a single transferable vote system each mlas vote is counted only once to win a rajasabha seat a candidate should get a required number of votes this number is found out using this formula that is the required vote is equal to total number of votes by number of rajasabha seats plus one the candidate has to secure this much vote to win the election okay then take the nominated members of rajasabha they are nominated by the president of india note that they are nominated from the field of art literature science and social service okay also we know that the vice president is the ex official chair person of the rajasabha then the deputy chairman who is elected from amongst the house members he or she takes care of the day-to-day matters of the house in the absence of the chairman now coming to the tenure of members every rajasabha member has a tenure of six years then the elections to one-third seats are held every two years we know that rajasabha is a permanent house and it is not subject to dissolution and according to section 154 of rpa act 1951 the member who has chosen to fill a casual vacancy will serve for the remainder of his predecessor's term of office that is he will not serve the full term but only the remaining term okay so that's all regarding this news article in this news article discussion we saw about the rajasabha members election and nomination with these key learned points let's move on to next news article discussion have a look at this news article this news article talks about the self-help groups the news is that these self-help groups in the state of karnataka spend around 60 to 70 percentage of money borrowed as loans for personnel or family purposes this is according to the latest report of the karnataka evaluation authority which is a state government entity okay in this context let us discuss about the self-help groups the self-help groups is a development group for the poor and marginalized know that it is recognized by the government and does not require any formal registration know that self-help groups is an informal group and registration under any society's act state cooperation's act is not mandatory okay now let us see the purpose and functions of these self-help groups firstly it aims to build the functional capacity of the poor and the marginalized in the field of employment and income generating activities secondly self-help groups are encouraged to discuss and are motivated to find solutions to the problems faced by the members of the group and since the members of the group face similar problems they help each other to solve their problems thirdly this group promote small savings among their members the savings are kept with the bank and this is the common fund in the name of the particular self-help group fourthly the self-help groups give small loads to its members from its common fund so savings first credit later is the motto of every self-help group member see the proper accounts are being kept by the group now let us see who helps to form these groups see a reasonably educated and helpful local person has to initially help the poor people to form groups he or she will tell them about the benefits and advantages of forming these groups this person is called an animator or facilitator usually the animator is a person who is already known to the community see there are also many other functions of self-help groups and we will discuss it on some other day okay so in this news article discussion we saw in brief about self-help groups and its functions with these learned points let's move on to next part of our news article discussion which is preliminary practice questions discussion look at the first question consider the following statements with reference to adi shankaracharya he was an advocate of dvaita vedanta school of thought second statement he considered the world around us to be maya statement three according to him the best means of attaining salvation was through intense devotion to vishnu we have to find the correct statements here see here statement one is incorrect dvaita is an important school in vedanta it means dualism that is the belief in a basic difference in kind between god and individual souls its founder was madhava also called ananda teetha but shankara was the propounder of advaita which is about non dualism that is oneness of the individual soul and the supreme god okay so statement one is incorrect statement two it is correct and regarding statement three it is also incorrect shankara believed in supreme god brahman and not vishnu alone he considered vishnu and ganesha surya shiva and devya or shakti as different forms of the one brahman the third statement is apt for ramanuja ramanuja was born in tamil nadu in the 11th century and was deeply influenced by the alwars according to him the best means of attaining salvation was through intense devotion to vishnu vishnu in his grace helps the devotee to attain the bliss of union with him he propounded the doctrine of vishista advaita or qualified oneness in that the soul even when united with the supreme god remained distinct ramanuja stock train greatly inspired the new strand of bhakti which developed in north india subsequently okay so here statement one and statement three is incorrect so our correct answer is option b2 only look at the second question consider the following statements president can nominate 20 to 25 members as rajasabha members all rajasabha members are indirectly elected by the members of legislative assembly we have to find the correct statement here see statement one it is incorrect because president can nominate only 12 members as rajasabha members statement two it is also incorrect because not all rajasabha members are indirectly elected by the members of legislative assembly see out of 245 members of rajasabha only 233 members are elected members and 12 members are nominated okay since both the statements are incorrect our answer here is option d neither one nor two see this question is a quiz question for you you can easily answer this question based on our discussion so find the answer and post it in the comment section the main questions based on today's discussion is displayed on the screen you can write your answer and post it in the comment section if you like the video hit the like button post your comments and share the video with your friends and don't forget to subscribe shankar ias academy youtube channel thanks for watching