 A very good evening aspirants. I have an exciting announcement for you to know. We are happy to bring to your attention that Shankaraya's Academy is launching the mains booster 2023 under which you will be provided 40 mains oriented tests in 90 days. The booster is a quick plan drafted for you to boost your main score. It starts on October 31st and will include sectional tests, half papers and civil services examination emulators. It is available in both online and offline modes for just 4500 rupees. So grab this chance to kick start your mains exam preparation. So this announcement now let us get into the Hindu newspaper analysis. Today's date is 19th of October 2022. So displayed here are the list of news articles that we are going to discuss today. Now without much delay let us get into the first news article discussion. Now take a look at this news article. It reports about the recent tussle between Kerala governor and the higher education minister of the state. See the larger issue is that the governor of Kerala didn't give his consent to the Kerala University Laws amendment bill 2022. During this issue governor climbed that the statements of individual ministers that loyals the dignity of the governor's office can invite action including withdrawal of pleasure. So by issuing such a statement governor indirectly referred to article 164. So this is the crux of the issue based on which this news article is written. So through this discussion we'll learn about the article 163, 164 and the constitutional position of governor with special reference to giving ascent to the bills of legislature. Okay, firstly to get a comparative understanding let us compare the constitutional power of both the governor and the president. So here we are going to look at two different articles with respect to the governor and president. Let's take the article 74 and 163. See article 74 says that president should act in accordance with the advice of prime minister and his or her council of ministers. Now let us look at the article 163. It says that governor should act in accordance with the advice of chief minister and his or her council of ministers except in certain cases where he or she can use his discretion. So you have to pay attention here. See in article 163 1 there is a constitutionally allowed provision for exercising discretion by the governor which is not therefore president under article 74. Okay, so through this comparison we can see that governor has some extra discretionary power accorded to him by the constitution itself. So now let us see some of the constitutional discretionary powers of governor. Firstly, governor has the discretiony power to reserve a bill passed by the legislature of a state for the consideration of president. For example, recently need exception bill passed by the Tamil Nadu legislature was reserved for the president by the governor of the state using this discretionary power mentioned in article 200. Okay, now secondly, governor acts in his or her discretion in the case for the recommendation of president's rule in the state under article 356. Thirdly, governor can exercise discretion by asking for specific information regarding administrative and legislative matters of the state. So these are some of the cases of discretionary powers of the governor accorded by the Indian constitution. Very, very important, make note of these points. But here also you have to note another one thing. See, there is another form of discretionary power which can be used by both governor and president. It is called situational discretionary power. This situational discretionary powers of the governor are same as that of president. Now let us see few of them. Firstly, appointment of chief minister in case of a hung assembly. Here hung assembly means an assembly where there is no clear majority. Secondly, dismissal of council of ministers when they cannot prove majority in the assembly. So these are some of the cases of situational discretionary powers of the office of governor and president. Now coming to the article 164 which is mentioned in the newspaper. See, the author of this editorial contains that governor cannot exercise discretion while discharging functions relating to article 164. Here the author relates article 164 with article 163.1 and says that the term pleasure of the governor indirectly refers to the pleasure of the chief minister. Since governor is mandated by article 163.1 to follow the advice of chief minister. The author concludes by saying the pleasure doctrine mentioned in article 164 exists only in a constitutional sense and is exercised by the governor only on the advice of the chief minister. Now finally, let us see few recommendations of some center state commissions with respect to the relationship between governor and the state government. Firstly, let us see the recommendation of sarcaria commission. See, it says that chief minister of the state should be consulted before the appointment of the governor and the tenure of the governor should not be disturbed except for some compelling reasons. Now coming to the recommendations of the panchee commission. See, it gave recommendations regarding article 163 which we discussed in detail. It said that article 163 does not give the governor the general discretionary power to act against the advice of council of ministers. It noted that the area of exercise of discretion is limited and even in this limited area the governor's actions should be arbitrary or fanciful. The other important recommendation by the punshi commission is that governor should be relieved of their role as chancellors of all the universities present inside the state under the governorship of them. Here note that governors are the de facto chancellors of all the universities present inside a state. So these are all some of the recommendations of the panchee commission with regards to the office of governor. So through this discussion we came to know about several constitutional provisions regarding the discretionary power of governor and also about a few recommendations regarding the office of governor by sarcaria and punshi commission. So these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Take a look at this news article. See, this news article talks about the minimum support price that is MSP. Now suddenly MSP is in use because the cabinet committee on economic affairs announced an increase of 2% to 9% in MSP for six mandated rape crops for this season. So that is why MSP has made news today and the center have made this announcement after an allegation from farmers organization. Farmers organization they alleged that by keeping the MSP of wheat low and announcing a paltry hike the center is helping big corporate houses in the sector to make quick money. So after this announcement the serving of the six crops has started and this is the background of the news article given here. So in this context let us quickly understand what is this MSP. See we know that the prices of agricultural commodities often vary due to various factors in our country right. If a crop has seen a good harvest during a particular year it may see a sharp fall in its prices. Here fall in prices means lesser profit for farmers. So farmers may not sow the crop in the next year which will affect the supply of the crop. So to counter this MSP is fixed by the government which is supposed to encourage higher investments and production of crops. So what is this MSP? See MSP is nothing but the minimum price set by the government for certain agricultural products at which the products would directly be brought from the farmers if the open market prices are less than the cost incurred. So from this itself we can infer that MSP is a form of government intervention and this government intervention is to incur the farmers against a steep decline in the prices of their goods and to help them prevent losses as simple as that. So now you might ask me who and how this price is determined. See know that the MSP is fixed on the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices which is shortly known as CACP. See knowing about this is very important just make note of this fact. Now the CACP they consider various factors to determine the prices before making its recommendations. Some of the determinants of MSP which are analyzed by CACP are given here in this image. You can go through that. Now based on all these input the Commission then finalizes its recommendations or reports which are then submitted to the government. The government in turn circulates the CACP reports to state governments and concerned central ministers for their comments. After receiving the feedbacks from them the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs that is the CCEA of the Union Government they take a final decision on the level of MSP and this Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs only announces the MSP. And finally the Food Corporation of India that is FCI which is the nodal central agency of the government of India along with other state agencies undertakes procurement of crops. So this is how MSP is determined and announced. Now remember the government of India sets the MSP twice a year prior to solving season that is one for Rabi and other for Karif. When the market price falls below the declared MSP the government would purchase the entire quantity from the farmers at MSP. So here the key point is that MSP is all declared during the sowing season. Now this fact is important because it actually helps the investors to make a planned investment into a crop. Hope you got a clear idea about MSP how it is announced. Now let us see the crops covered under this MSP. See government announces minimum support prices for 22 mandated crops and fair and remunerative price that is FRP for sugar can. See among the 22 14 crops belong to Karif season, six belongs to Rabi season and two other belongs to commercial crops. So here I have given the list of crops you can just go through it. So I hope now you can understand the news article much better. The MSP for the six Rabi crops mentioned here has been increased that is why MSP is in news. I hope you had a clearistic idea about MSP how it is announced and the crops under MSP. So with these learned points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. See this article in business page. See as per the article Sebi said that a merchant bank cannot carry on any business other than those pertaining to the securities market. So this is the essence of the news article given here. In this context let us first understand what is a merchant bank and we will also see how it is different from the investment bank. Before that I hope you all know about the commercial banks. See commercial banks offer services to the general public but there are some banks which offer services to the companies and investors but not to the public. The merchant banks and the investment banks comes in this category only. First let us see about the merchant banks. See a merchant bank is a financial institution that serves individuals who have a high net worth and multinational corporations. As we saw already they do not offer services to the general public like the commercial or retail banks. Then what do they do? See it is a financial institution that exists primarily to facilitate trade. That is they work with companies and specialize in international finance for multinational corporations. Now coming to the services provided by them see these banks often provide underwriting loan services, financial advising and fundraising services. Now here I have a task for you go and find what does this word underwriting mean. Now moving on see some of the other services that merchant banks offer include international financing, foreign corporate investing, foreign real estate investing, trade finance and international financial transactions. Apart from this they also issue letters of credit, perform trade consultations and deal with trading technologies. See these banks typically earn money from the fees for the services they provide and this is all about merchant banks. Now going to the investment banks see a investment bank is an institution that works with large or complicated financial transactions. An investment bank is a financial institution that mainly facilitates the growth of businesses and investments that is it helps in arranging capital. They typically serve clients like governments, other financial institutions, hedge funds, pension funds and large companies or corporations. Okay now you may think how investment banks is related to pension funds and all. See here investment banks advise corporations and governments on financial decisions. They provide some of the services like arranging financing, equity financing, underwriting, arranging private placements, negotiating mergers and acquisitions, researching market trends and advising clients. So in simple words the three main functions of investment bank operations are categorized as financial advising, mergers and acquisitions and early years research. However one of the primary roles of an investment bank is to operate as an intermediary between their client and public investors by helping their clients raise funds. Okay for example a startup company may hire an investment bank to help them prepare to launch an initial public offering that is IPO or additional stock offering. This means that the company sells shares of ownership to investors in the general public to raise capital. Okay now remember the investment banks also earn money from charging fees but they make additional revenue from interest and lease rentals and investment bank might also make a commission based on market performance. So ultimately the difference between these two banks lie in their clients, services offered and the way they make money. Okay so that's all about this news article discussion. In this news article discussion we saw in detail about merchant banks and investment banks and we saw how they differ from each other. So these learned points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. See this article here it says that a petition was filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadayai. The petition is about seeking directions from the top court to the government to frame uniform divorce law and uniform guidelines for adoption and guardianship of children. So this is the essence of the news article given here in this context let us understand about uniform civil court. See knowing about UCC is very very important it will help you in mains answer writing. So first of all what is this uniform civil court? See it is nothing but a court which encompasses a single personal law for all citizens irrespective of religion, sex, gender and sexual orientation. The UCC calls for the formulation of one law for India regarding civil cases and it envisions a single law that is applicable to all religious communities in matters like marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption etc. So now you may ask what is the scenario in India? See in India personal laws are based on religion. These laws apply to a certain group of people based on their religion, caste, faith and belief and they are made after due consideration of customs and religious texts. Now let us take the case of Hinduism and Islam. See in Hinduism personal laws are applicable to legal issues related to inheritance, succession, marriage, adoption, co-parenting, obligations of son to pay their parents' debts, the partition of family property, maintenance, guardianship and charitable donations. The sources of these laws include Vedas, Dharma Sutras, age-old customs etc. Next in Islam personal laws apply to matters relating to inheritance, wills, succession, legacies, marriage, walk-ups, dowry, guardianship, divorce, gift etc. The sources of these texts is Quran. So some of the examples of personal laws include the Hindu marriage act 1955, the Hindu succession act 1956, the Hindu minority and guardianship act 1956, the Muslim personal law, chariot application act 1937, dissolution of Muslim marriages act 1939, walk-off act 1955. So from these examples what you can infer? We can infer that these are laws existing for personal matters based on religion. But why everyone is talking about UCC? What is the need for UCC in India? Just you try and list the points. It is very easy. Think about it now. The disadvantages of personal laws are the reason why we need UCC. So if you list points for the need of UCC, then you can use them as disadvantages also. So we will try and do that now. First of all the disadvantage of personal law is that it is exact opposite of secularism. So to promote secularism we need UCC. Secondly it is obviously discriminatory. See Muslims are governed by Muslim laws and Hindus are governed by Hindu laws. These laws will not be the same. So the benefits that are enjoyed by a person in one religion is different from the benefits that are enjoyed by persons in another religion and this is discrimination right? And that is why we need UCC. Now think about the triple tala case. It is not applicable for Hindus right? If you think in that sense then the Muslim women they are discriminated because they belong to a particular religion. So to avoid this one only UCC is important. Thirdly we need UCC to promote human empowerment. See some laws are extremely patriarchal and misogynistic. This leads to subjugation and mistreatment of women. So to avoid this we need UCC. Fourthly overlapping provisions in different laws can be avoided. And finally UCC will help accelerate the process of national integration and it would create a sense of oneness. So that is why UCC is very very important. See knowing about UCC is really very important for your mains examination. Just make note of all these points. So in this news article discussion we saw in detail about what is UCC and why India needs UCC. So these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now take a look at this text and context article. This is the article talks about various astrophysical phenomena which is very interesting. In this we are going to see about the global astrometric interferometer for astrophysics that is GIA spacecraft, neutron stars and some basic science stuff. Before that the syllabus relevant to this news article is highlighted here for your reference just go through it. See recently scientists observed the merger of two neutron stars to form a black hole. This phenomenon was observed using laser interferometer gravitational wave in short called as LIGO observators and other telescopes that measured visual and electromagnetic signals. The observations made by all the equipment coincided. Here what is a neutron star? See to understand what a neutron star is we have to know what is a massive star and we have to understand its life cycle. See a star can be called a massive star when it is at least 8 times more massive than our sun. See a star maintain its stability through a fine balance between its own gravity which holds it together and the outward pressure from ongoing thermonuclear fusion processes taking place at its core. You can look at this image to understand better. Here the thermonuclear fusion process is one in which two hydrogen atoms merge to create a helium and release massive amounts of energy. But what happens when the hydrogen in the star's core starts decreasing? See once a star's core run out of hydrogen the state of equilibrium which is said to will exist in the star is lost. The inward force of gravity overpowers the outward force of thermonuclear fusion. This mismatch results in the collusion of the star's core. Once the core of the star begins to collapse the plasma around the core begins to expand. As the shell of plasma increases in size it loses more heat due to this its temperature starts decreasing. As the temperature decreases the color of the star changes from bright yellow to red. In this phase the star is called a red giant. See a normal size star turns into a red giant and the massive star turns into supermassive red giant or supergant. As I already said there is a mismatch between gravity and thermonuclear fusion right? As gravity takes over the density of the supergant's core keeps on increasing. This increase in pressure and density due to gravity finally result in a huge explosion. This explosion is a supernova. You can see that in this GIF. See after a core collapse supernova all that remains is a dense core. When massive stars undergo supernova explosions they either turn into a black hole or an ultra dense neutron star. Now coming back to the question what is a neutron star? See basically a neutron star is the collapsed core of a massive star. Neutron stars are the smallest and the densest star known to exist. These neutron stars are so small that they radius is only around 10 to 20 kilometers. Compare this to our sun whose radius is 6,96,340 kilometers. But even though neutron stars are very small they weigh two to three times more than our sun. This is why they are called the densest stars of our universe. The next thing is a black hole. I hope most of you are aware of what a black hole is. Especially Nolan Hetz who witnessed the marvel that is interstellar. See for people who are not familiar with it let me explain. A black hole is an astronomical object whose gravity is so strong that even light cannot escape from it. Now having understand the basics now let us get back to the news article. Look at this image. See in this image you can see two neutron stars colliding with each other resulting in the form of a black hole. If you notice here at the time of merger light gravitational ripple in space time and an unusual jet of matter is ejected. The light was observed using telescopes that measured visual and electromagnetic signals and the gravitational ripple were measured using LIGO. As I already said only after both the observations matched this astrophysical event was confirmed. Another interesting thing that was noticed was the speed of the jet of matter that was ejected was observed to be traveling at speeds faster than the speed of light. Now this is not supposed to happen right because we know that no object in the universe can travel at speeds faster than the speed of light. Now this is an issue. But right now after further research the physicists have found that it is just the apparent speed of the jet of matter that was traveling at speeds higher than the speed of light but its actual speed was lesser than the speed of light. This is due to the phenomenon of astrophysics called superliminal motion. Now before explaining to you what is the superliminal motion I have a question. Have you wondered how astrophysicist measure the distance of stellar objects? See when I was a kid I used to think they must use a light beam and find the time taken for the light beam to go and come back and then using this they might find the distance but this is not correct because astrophysicists have the distance of stellar objects that are millions of light years away from us. So what do they actually use? Now the answer to this is parallax. See they find the distance using parallax. Now it works like this hold out your hand close your right eye and place your extended thumb over a distant object. Now switch eyes so that your left is closed and your right is open. Your thumb will appear to shift slightly against the background right? By measuring this small change and knowing the distance between your eye you can calculate the distance to your thumb that's trigonometry. Now when it comes to measuring distances to other stars there are no two eyes that could do the trick. Instead the orbit of earth around the sun provides the baseline for these calculations. Look at this image this is the actual position of the star and these two are the apparent position of the star based on the position of the earth. By observing the angle subtended by the apparent positions of the star and as we already know the distance between the sun and earth we can find the distance using the simple formula. We know tan p is opposite by adjacent right? Here opposite is the distance between the sun and the earth which we already know. We also know the angle p. Using this information we can find the adjacent which is the distance between the sun and the star. So using this simple calculation only we are measuring the distance of stellar objects but there is one small issue here. The light rays from stellar objects are distorted by our earth's atmosphere before they can reach our land based telescopes. To address this in 2013 the European Space Agency launched the GAIA spacecraft that is Global Astrometric Interferometer for Astrophysics GAIA spacecraft. Since this is placed outside India's atmosphere the light that it absorbs is not distorted hence its accuracy and precision is higher. GAIA not only measures the distance of stars and other stellar objects it also has a radial velocity spectrometer on board. This instrument measures how fast stars move towards or away from GAIA. So now how is the speed of stellar objects are measured? See it is measured using a phenomenon called the Doppler effect. To understand this phenomena consider an ambulance speeding towards you it's a sirens scream at a high pitch when it approaches you. The pitch suddenly drops when the vehicle rushes by and races away. This is due to the phenomenon of Doppler effect. Similarly if a star is moving towards us its light waves gets scrunched up to shorter or bluer wavelengths producing a blue shift. If a star is moving away its light waves get stretched out to longer redder wavelengths producing a red shift. The faster the sun the greater this shift okay. Having understood how we find the space and distance of stellar objects let us see about the superliminal motion. Say an object which is light years away from earth is moving towards earth. If we want to find the speed of the object what we will do we'll find the time taken for the object to move from point A to point B. If we find the distance between point A and point B and divided by time taken we can find its speed right. See using this method we can find only the apparent speed of stellar objects. This is because if the stellar object is moving at very high speed towards us the time taken for light to reach earth from point A is longer than time taken for light to reach earth from point B. Due to this the time taken that is observed on earth appears to be lower than the actual time taken. It is due to this only some objects like the jet of particles ejected from neutron star collisions appear to move at speeds more than the speed of light even though in reality they move at speeds lesser than this speed of light okay. This is mainly happening when the object travels at speeds closer to the speed of light and they are moving in earth's direction. So this is the phenomenon of superliminal motion and due to this sometimes objects in the universe may appear to move at the speeds greater than the speed of light but in reality they move at speed closer to the speed of light. Now finally coming back to the article the article says that due to measurement made by the GIA spacecraft it was found that the speed of the jet of particles emitted from the neutron star collusion was found to be 99.97% of the speed of the light but its apparent speed was close to 7 times the speed of light. So this is about the news article see although this discussion was a bit technical I hope you found this discussion exciting and interesting. So in this news article discussion we saw in detail about star's life cycle and then we saw in detail about the phenomenon called superliminal motion. So with these learned points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. See this article here the article says that the embassy of Japan has filed an application seeking GI tag for Nihonsu or Japanese sake it is an alcoholic beverage okay. It also says that this is the first time a product from Japan has filed for a tag at the geographical indication registry in Chennai. So this is the cracks of the news article given here in this context we are going to see about GI tags in prelims perspective okay. So first of all what is GI tag? See a geographical indication that is GI is a sign used for products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or reputation that are due to that origin. In simple words it means that a product should originate in a given place okay and additionally it should possess qualities characteristics or reputation due to that place of origin. So the product with GI tag conveys an assurance of quality and distinctiveness which is essentially attributable to its origin. Hope you can get what this geographical indication means. Now remember geographical indication are typically used for agricultural products, foodstuffs, wine and spirit drinks, handicrafts and industrial products. Now if you are asking me what is the basis for this GI tag see geographical indication is defined in the agreement on trade related aspects of intellectual property rights that is trips. Internationally GI are covered as a component of intellectual property rights that is IPAs under the palace convention for the protection of industrial property. In India geographical indications registration is administered by geographical indications of goods, registration and protection act 1999. The registration of a geographical indication is valid for a period of 10 years and it can be renewed from time to time for a further period of 10 years each. So now coming to the news article see the news article says that the Japan Embassy is seeking GI tag for Nihanshu at the geographical indication registry in Chennai. Now you may ask can foreign products be given GI tag in India? Yes foreign products can also be given GI tag in India. In October 2021 Chennai registry for GI tags issued 51 GI tags to several commodities and this includes a dozen times from the western countries. Now let us see about four western countries had filed in application for GI tags for several products. They include a German beer, Italian veined blue cheese, plant resin from Greece and a variety of seed cone from the Czech Republic. They all got the GI tag. So if a statement comes in problems saying that foreign products cannot be given GI tag in India then the statement is incorrect. So that is why we chose this news article for our discussion today. So in this news article discussion we saw in detail about GI tag and we saw whether a foreign product can get GI tag in India or not. So these informations now let us move on to the next part of the news article discussion which is the preliminary practice question discussion. Now look at this first question. Consider the following statements. Statement one article 44 states that state shall endeavor to provide for its citizens a uniform civil code UCC throughout the territory of India. Statement two article 44 is added by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act 1976 which of the statements given above is or or correct. Option A1 only option B2 only option C both 1 and 2 and option D neither 1 nor 2. See the correct answer for the question is option A1 only statement one is correct because article comes under DPSB. See uniform civil code for the citizens which is article 44 states that the state shall endeavor to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India. So this statement is actually correct. Now the statement two is incorrect because article 44 was in the original text of the Constitution itself. It was not added by any amendment act so this statement is incorrect. Now the correct answer for the question is option A1 only. Now moving on look at this second question. See this question is about GI tag. Statement one ministry of commerce and industry gives GI tags to products in India. Statement two foreign products cannot be given GI tags in India. So you have to choose the correct statement given here. Option A1 only option B2 only option C both 1 and 2 and option D neither 1 nor 2. See the correct answer for the question is option A1 only. See statement one is correct because the office of the councillor general of patents designs and trademarks that is CG PDTM functions under the department of promotion of industry and internal trade DP IIT ministry of commerce and industry. This controller general supervises the working of the Patents Act 1970 the Designs Act 2000 and the Trademarks Act 1999 and also renders advice to the government on matters relating to these subjects. Remember the head office of the patent office is in Kolkata. Trademark registry is in Mumbai and the GI registry is in Chennai. So statement one is actually correct. Now statement two is actually incorrect because this we saw in our discussion itself foreign products can be given GI tags in India. So the correct answer for the question is option A1 only. Now the question displayed here about MSP is the quiz question for you today. This question was asked in the year 2020 problems. So I hope you understood the concept of MSP in our discussion. So with that understanding try to attend this question. If you can't attend the question correctly you can once again go and listen to our video. So the question displayed here is the main practice question for you today. Just go through the question write an answer and post the answer in the comment section. So with this we came to the end of the news article discussion. If you like the video hit like, do comment and don't forget to subscribe to Shankara IS Academy YouTube channel. Thank you for watching.