 A very good evening aspirants, I have a very good announcement for you. See as problems is nearing, I know mock test is being integral part of your preparation. But still, just to help you to achieve your goal, Shankarai's academy is providing you free problems mock test. See the test will be conducted across 13 centres, both online and offline mode. And to take the test, you just have to register with a link given in the description below. Test will be conducted on three different dates. First test will be on 15th of May 2022. Second test will be on 22nd and third test will be on 29th of May 2022. Use this opportunity wisely. So with this positive note, now let us move on to the news article discussion. Today's date is 12th May 2022. So these are the list of news articles chosen for today's discussion. Now let us move on to the previous question discussion. Today we will be seeing two different questions, both are from polity. Now look at this first question. With reference to the legislative assembly of a state in India, consider the following statements. Statement one, the governor makes a customary address to members of the house at the commencement of the first session of the year. Statement two, when a state legislature does not have a rule on a particular matter, it follows the Lokshabha rule on that matter. So you have to find the correct statement, option A one only, option B two only, option C both one and two and option D neither one nor two. See I hope you will be very sure about statement one and you will be very confused about statement two. So we will discuss both the statements in detail. See first statement here it is actually correct because article 176 one of the constitution enjoins that the governor shall address both the houses assembled together at the commencement of the first session after every general election to the assembly and at the commencement of the first session of each year and he has to inform the legislature of the cause of its summons. So here governor can address the house in two circumstances first during the first session of each year and he can address the house when the house has assembled together at the commencement of the first session after each general election to the assembly. So in that way the first statement is actually correct. Now moving on to the second statement I think you will be a bit confused about this statement. This statement is quite tricky also. See always remember rules with respect to state legislature is a matter of concern with respect to that legislature. So it is more likely a state subject in which in case of absence of rules in particular matter the speaker of state legislative assembly or the council they decides rules and they do not actually follow loxable rules on that matter. So this second statement is incorrect. So the correct answer for the question is option A 1 1 Lee. Now moving on to the second question now look at this question this question is about ninth schedule. Ninth schedule was introduced in the constitution of India during the prime ministership of option A Javaharlal Nehru, option B Lal Bahadur Sastri, option C Indra Gandhi and option D Vararji Desai. See the correct answer for the question is option A Javaharlal Nehru. See as you know the ninth schedule contains a list of centre and state laws which cannot be challenged in court currently 284 such laws are shielded from judicial review under this ninth schedule. I hope you know what is a judicial review mean judicial review is the power of the court of a country to examine the actions of the legislative, executive and administrative arms of the government under to determine whether such actions are consistent with the constitution actions judged inconsistent or declared unconstitutional and therefore null and void. So here laws which come under ninth schedule cannot be challenged in court and it cannot be subjected to judicial review and there are 284 such laws which are shielded from judicial review and the interesting fact here is that this schedule became a part of the constitution only in 1951. Yes currently Indian constitution has 12 schedule but originally it had only 8 schedules. Now if you are wondering why this schedule was added, see schedule 9 consist of acts and regulations of the state legislatures dealing with land reforms and abolition of the Jamindari system and of the parliament dealing with other matters and remember the inclusion of this schedule did not happen just like that. See in the aftermath of Kameshwar Singh v. state of Bihar judgement the government got apprehensive that the whole agrarian reform programs would be endangered. So to ensure that agrarian reform legislation did not run into heavy weather the legislature amended the constitution in the year 1951 under the prime ministership of Jawaharlal Nehru which inserted ninth schedule. So remember inclusion of the ninth schedule was the first amendment it was the first time the document was amended. So this amendment created new article 31b which along with article 31a was brought in by the government to protect laws related to agrarian reform and for abolishing the Jamindari system. Remember article 31a extends protection to classes of laws and article 31b shields specific laws or enactments. Remember make note of this crucial point in 2007 the supreme court ruled that the laws included in the schedule after April 24 1973 are now open to judicial review. So not all the laws which are included in the schedule are free from judicial review. The deadline is April 24 1973. Laws added next to this date are open to judicial review. So the correct answer for the question here is option A Jawaharlal Nehru remember learning schedules and articles are very very important. I hope you know in Lakshmi Kanth book there is a separate tablo column for reference. If you could randomly remember first amendment was inclusion of ninth schedule and it was made in 1951 then you can easily arrive at the answer. Don't make mistake in these kinds of questions. So having done with the previous your question discussion now let us move on to the news article discussion. Now look at this first news article. See recently the US supreme court made a ruling that abortion can be banned by the states. So once again abortion and women's right is again in the news. It is in this context this editorial has been penned. The editorial covers the evolution of abortion related regulations in India and it also focuses on some issues with the 2021 amendment to the medical termination of pregnancy or MTP act. The things we are about to discuss will be useful for your mains examination. So pay attention and listen carefully before getting into the discussion the syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference. Just go through it. Firstly you should know what is abortion or termination of pregnancy. In simple words an abortion is a procedure to end a pregnancy. It is done by using medicine or surgery to remove the embryo or fetus and placenta from the uterus. The procedure is mostly done by a licensed healthcare professional. Now let us see the evolution of abortion legislation in India. See at the starting of the discussion I mentioned that the US supreme court made a ruling that abortion can be banned by the states right. What happened after that is the US senate they tried to pass a legislation to make abortion a federal issue and legalize abortion for the entire country. What happened is Bill to move abortion to the federal subject failed in the US senate. See even now one of the most progressive country like the US is struggling to legalize medical termination of pregnancy. India legalized it in 1971 by passing the medical termination of pregnancy MTP act. Before the 1971 legislation abortion in India was guided by the IPC or the Indian penal code. See according to IPC voluntarily causing a woman with child to miscarry is an offense attracting a jail term of up to 3 years or fine or both. This has an exception clause which is if voluntarily causing a woman with child to miscarry is in good faith where the purpose was to save the life of the pregnant woman. But here that the pregnant woman causing herself to miscarry is also an offense under this provision. So here the exception clause is voluntarily causing a woman with child to miscarry in good faith where the purpose was to save the life of the pregnant woman. So this is the exception clause but rather if the pregnant woman causing herself to miscarry is also an offense under this provision. So this was how abortion was dealt with before the 1971 legislation. In 1971 after a lot of deliberations the MTP act was paused. The MTP act was enacted in India to reduce the mortality and morbidity that is associated with unsafe abortion in the country. Here unsafe abortion is defined as a procedure that is performed by persons who lack necessary skills or a procedure that is performed in an environment that lacks minimal medical standards of both. So the MTP act 1971 entitles women to have access to safe abortion services under certain specific conditions. The MTP act lays down the criteria for which condition and when a pregnancy can be terminated. The MTP act 1971 was amended twice. Most recently in 2021 the MTP act provides for a set of conditions based on which medical termination of pregnancy can be accessed in India. Now let us see these reasons. First condition is that if the continuation of the pregnancy would involve a risk to the life of the pregnant woman. The second condition is that if the continuation of the pregnancy would involve grave injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman here note that the law states that grave injury to the mental health of the pregnant woman might be due to pregnancy as a result of rape or pregnancy as a result of failure of contraception used by the pregnant woman or her partner to limit the number of children or to prevent a pregnancy. So failure of contraceptives might also be stated as a reason to access medical termination of pregnancy in India. See note this point they might give a statement like this and ask whether the statement is correct or not in preliminary examination. So now moving on the final condition is that if the child was born it would suffer from any serious physical or mental abnormality. See these are the three conditions set by the MTP act a pregnant person cannot ask for a termination of pregnancy without fitting in one of the reasons set out in the law. Now just that for accessing medical termination of pregnancy at least one of the conditions set out by the law must be satisfied. Along with this the medical option of the medical practitioner registered under the MTP act is required. Along with this the act also sets out gestational limits of accessing medical termination of pregnancy. Here the gestational limit is nothing but a point within pregnancy when a medical termination of pregnancy is permissible. Here up to 20 weeks of gestational age on opinion of a single registered medical practitioner is enough when gestational age crosses 20 weeks but below 24 weeks then opinion of two registered medical practitioners is required. This extended gestational limit is applicable to certain categories of women. So the women who can access the extended limit includes women who are survivors of sexual assault or rape or incent, secondly when the pregnant person is a minor woman, thirdly when a woman experiences a change of maternal status during pregnancy that is widowhood or divorce, fourthly women with major physical disabilities and fifthly women with mental disability finally the extended gestational limit can be accessed if the child is born it would be seriously handicapped. So what happens even after 24 weeks limit? See even after 24 week limit pregnancy termination is allowed in some extraordinary cases when medical termination of pregnancy is sought for after 24 week limit in case of fetus abnormalities decisions should be taken by a medical board as set up in each state as per the MTP Act. Finally the act also provides for an exception. The exception is that termination of pregnancy can be done at any time to save the life of the mother by a single registered medical practitioner. This exception is resorted to only when the likelihood of the pregnant woman dying is immediate. Up until now we have seen the evolution of the legislation governing the medical termination of pregnancy. We also saw all the major provisions of MTP Act as amendment in 2021. Now let us see the issues with the 2021 amendment as highlighted by the author of the editorial. See the author of the editorial feels that the MTP Act does not recognize and or acknowledge the right of a pregnant woman to decide on the discontinuation of a pregnancy. See although abortion is legalized in India permission of a medical practitioner is required to get one. It is not just the author who feels that woman have the right to decide on the discontinuation of a pregnancy Indian courts also feels the same. In a number of cases the court have articulated the right of a pregnant woman to decide on the continuation of her pregnancy as a part of her right to health and right to life and therefore non-negotiable. Even the Supreme Court when it pronounced its landmark right to privacy judgment quoted that decision making by a pregnant woman on whether to continue a pregnancy or not is part of such a person's right to privacy as well and therefore the right to life. Now the feels that such standards set by the court were not incorporated into the 2021 judgment. So this is the first issue highlighted by the author. The next issue is that the 2021 amendment did not make any attempt to iron out the conflations between the MTP Act and the protection of children from sexual offenses or POCSO Act or the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. So these are the two issues highlighted by the author of the editorial. So in this article discussion we saw about what is an abortion then we saw about the evolution of abortion legislation in India and we saw some of the issues mentioned by the author in the editorial article. So with these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. See this article here it is an editorial article according to the article Supreme Court has effectively suspended the operation of the sedition provision in the country's penal law. See all pending trials appeals and proceedings with respect to the charge framed under section 124A will be kept in temporary suspension. So this is the crux of the article given here in this context let us understand about sedition and some of the points mentioned in the editorial article. See as you know section 124A deals with the sedition. It says that whoever by words either spoken or written or by signs or by visible representation or otherwise brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the government established by law shall be punished with imprisonment for life. Along with this imprisonment fine may also be added. So from the definition itself I hope you can understand that this section can be easily misused and it has been persistently misused and the court have pointed out that the police authorities are not following the limitations imposed by a 1962 constitution bench of the Supreme Court on what constitutes sedition. See the validity of this section has been challenged in many of the cases. In the case of Ramnadan v. state of Uttar Pradesh the High Court held that section 124A imposed restrictions on the freedom of speech which are not in the interest of the general public and hence declared 124A as ultra-wires which means unconstitutional. But this decision was overruled in the landmark case of Kedarnath Singh v. state of Bihar 1962. So this is only mentioned in the editorial article. The case is related to wrong words used by Kedarnath Singh. On the basis of the words used and the statement made case was filed against him on the grounds of section 124A. The matter went for appeal before the division bench of Supreme Court as the issue was of constitutional validity of section 124A. The matter was referred to the constitutional bench. So two issues were taken into consideration. One is whether section 124A is ultra-wires that is unconstitutional in view of article 191A read with article 192 of the constitution. So here article 191A is freedom of speech and expression and article 2 is about the reasonable restrictions imposed. So now go and read the entire article 19 this way you will be revising the static portions. Coming back the other consideration is whether the intention or tendency to create disorder or disturbance of law and order or incitement to violence is required to constitute the offense of sedition. See these issues were in front of Supreme Court. On the question of first issue the Supreme Court held that for the security of the state maintenance of law and order is the very basic consideration and the maintenance of law and order involves punishing the offenders committing crime against the state. In democratic nation right to freedom of speech and expression should be fully protected but some restrictions are necessary for the safety and integrity of the state. Accordingly the Supreme Court held that section 124A of the Indian Penal Code was intra-wires of the constitution of India meaning it is constitutional. Now on dealing with issue 2 see Supreme Court in its view clearly stated that the section 124A cannot be interpreted literally. Supreme Court said that it needs to be interpreted by the judges hence the two essential necessary things to be considered to establish the crime of sedition is. Firstly the act compliant of must be intended to have the effect of subverting the government by violent means and secondly the act compliant of must be intended or have a tendency to create disorder or disturbance of public peace or law and order by resort to violence and must inside violence. So now coming back to the editorial court has said that police authorities are not considering the limitations imposed by 1962 constitution bench of the Supreme Court on what constitutes sedition. Why is this? See the Supreme Court has upheld the section 124A by limiting what constitutes to sedition. It is applicable only to acts involving intention or tendency to create disorder or disturbance of law and order or incitement to violence. But in reality the police have been using the broad definition of sedition to book anyone who criticizes the government in strong and stringent language and that is why the Supreme Court has effectively suspended the operation of sedition provision in the country. So that's all you have to know about this news article very very important news article in this news article discussion we saw in brief about section 124A which is nothing but the sedition provision. So with these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Have a look at this news article this news article talks about inflation. The article highlights that inflation is the biggest challenge facing the Indian economy currently for the past three months CPI has stayed above the RBI's upper threshold limit of six percentage. This prompted the RBI to increase report by forty basis points. The article mentions that earlier inflation was mainly in manufacturing sector but now inflation is mainly due to increased price of food and crude oil. This is why the Reserve Bank is doing everything in its power to control inflation but the issue is that post pandemic consumer demand has pickened up only recently. The inflation control measures taken by the RBI might hurt consumer demand once again. This might affect the economic recovery process. So this is the crux of the article given here. As the problem is nearing let us revise about inflation deflation what is this inflation and what is stagflation. UPSC might trick you with the terms. Firstly what is inflation. See inflation as you know is nothing but general increase in price levels. Inflation is classified into two types. They are demand-pull inflation and cost-push inflation. Demand-pull inflation occurs when money supply in the economy increases. Simply put demand-pull inflation occurs when more money chases less products. Increase in house rent due to increase in disposable income of the population is an example of demand-pull inflation. On the other hand cost-push inflation is due to supply side constraints. If you can remember recently the prices of graphic cards and processors increased due to silicon shortage. This is an example of cost-push inflation. So in addition to this inflation can also be classified into creeping inflation, walking inflation, running inflation and hyperinflation based on the rate of inflation. These are some of the basic points about inflation. Now let us move on to disinflation. See disinflation is nothing but a slowing rate of inflation. For example, if the rate of inflation falls from 6% to 3% then disinflation is said to be have occurred. During disinflation prices don't fall but the rate of increase of prices slows down. This actually occurs due to the steps taken by the RBI. We saw that RBI increased the reparate rate. This will lead to reduction in the rate of inflation. That is an increase in the reparate by RBI will lead to disinflation. Make note of this point. Now we'll see about deflation. See deflation is the condition of the falling prices. In case of deflation the rate of inflation falls negative. To have a better understanding you can look at the graph given here. During deflation as prices start falling, industries will cut down on employment as there is no demand in the market. So deflation will lead to unemployment. During deflation RBI will follow a cheap money policy and the government will increase public expenditure to increase money supply in the economy. Once money supply increases the rate of inflation will turn positive and hence demand in the economy will increase again. This policy of the RBI and the government to increase money supply mainly to address deflation and unemployment is called reflation. So till now we saw about inflation, disinflation, deflation and deflation. Finally we'll see about what is stackflation. See as the name indicates stackflation is the condition of stagnation and inflation. We saw that in the case of deflation there is a fall in the general price level and this leads to unemployment rate. Government and RBI addresses this issue by increasing money supply. In case of stackflation there is both inflation and unemployment. This is a tricky situation. The policy makers cannot just simply increase money supply to address unemployment because this will lead to inflation, right? One step that the government can do to address stackflation in the short term is fiscal consolidation. In simple words fiscal consolidation is nothing but spending money only in the necessary and right area. The next thing is making policy changes. See in present situation our country is facing inflationary pressure mainly due to increase in crude oil price and edible oil price. In this case in the long term if the government makes necessary policy changes to reduce dependency on imported crude oil and increase domestic production of edible oil then stackflation can be addressed. Note that stackflation is measured by the misery index. Here the misery index is the sum of the inflation rate and unemployment rate in the economy. For India CPI is currently at 6.95 percentage and unemployment rate is around 7.83 percentage. So the misery index for India is 14.78. So that's all about this news article discussion. I hope you guys found this discussion useful. In this discussion we saw about different economic terms like inflation, disinflation, deflation, reflation and finally we ended our discussion by seeing about stackflation. So with these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now take a look at this news article. This news article states that the rupee has fallen to all time lows and there is a decline in India's forex reserves. The reason stated for this decline is the spillover effect of a stronger US dollar. So in this context let us learn about what is this spillover effect in prelims perspective. See the spillover effect refers to the effect on the economy of a country from unrelated events happening in another country. It may be any event even such as earthquakes or political crisis in another country can have both positive or negative effect on the economy of another country. So this we call it as spillover effect. Note that the spillover effect has more negative effect than positive effects. Or in other words spillover effect is related to the effects of globalization, international trade and interconnected financial markets between different economies of the world. See in a global economy where financial markets are quite interconnected spillover effect can lead to a global crash in financial markets as well. This can erode investor wealth and create a dip in business confidence. So investors they typically return back to their home market or safe havens. So these are some of the negative impacts of spillover effect. Now let's understand the spillover effect with an example of the US-China trade war. See China had been the second largest trade partner of the US after Canada. The interdependency of US-China trade increased over a period of time. However the US imposed heavy tariffs on Chinese goods since early 2018. China retaliated by imposing tariffs on US made products thus resulting in a trade war between the two largest economies of the world. Note that the US-China war had affected various economies of the world especially Asian economies. Here you can see that the fight is between two countries but it is impacting the other economies as well. The effect was both positive and negative. For example Japan's economy had significantly gained in terms of better trade relations with China but the global industry demand has been low especially for the commodity and metals sector. This is because Chinese manufacturers have driven much of the global commodity demand growth. The trade war in its third year has harmed the economies of both the US and China while creating uncertainty for global trade and slowing global economic growth. A slowing Chinese economy has had a negative impact on global trade in energy, crude oil, metals and other industrial commodities. So this is a very simple example of this spillover effect. Another example we can say here is the rising price of crude oil in many countries due to Russia-Ukraine war. You are saying that right? It is also an example of spillover effect. So that's all about this news article. In this news article discussion we saw about what is this spillover effect and how it is leading to decline in India's forex results. So with these learnt points now let us move on to the next part of the news article discussion which is nothing but the preliminary practice questions. Now look at this question with reference to consumer price index consider the following statements. Statement one, it is published by Office of Economic Advisor Department for the Promotion of Industrial Trade that is DPIIT and statement two, it measures only the price change in goods consumed by industrial workers which of the above statements is 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 D neither 1 nor 2 both the statements are incorrect. CPI, IW or the Consumer Price Index Industrial Workers is published by Labor Bureau and the Ministry of Labor Office of Economic Advisor Department for the Promotion of Industrial Trade that is DPIIT they release the WPI that is Wholesale Price Index it measures both the price change in goods and services consumed by industrial workers. So the second statement is also incorrect here. Recently the base year for calculating CPI, IW was revised to 2016 just make note of this fact very important. So here the correct answer for the question is option D neither 1 nor 2. Now moving on look at this question this question is about spillover effect now this question is the quiz question for you just go through the question and mention the answer for the question in the comment section. So here the main questions for today's discussion is displayed just go through the question write an answer and post it in the comment section. 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 Shankarae's Academy YouTube channel. Thank you.