 a very good evening aspirants welcome to the hindu newspaper analysis brought by shankarai's academy today's date is 25th of may 2022 so these are the list of news articles chosen for today's discussion we have four different news articles along with that we'll be discussing one previous a question and i'll give you another previous a question as a quiz question try to solve the question it will be very helpful for your preliminary examination i'll explain the question in my next discussion so now let us take up this first previous a question let me read out the question for you for the measurement or estimation of which of the following or satellite images or remote sensing data used statement one chlorophyll content in the vegetation of a specific location statement two greenhouse gas emission from rice paddies of a specific location and statement three land surface temperatures of a specific location you have to select the correct answer using the correct code given below option a 1 only option b 2 and 3 only option c 3 only and option d 1 2 and 3 see the correct answer for the question is option d 1 2 and 3 all the three statements correct i know this question is a bit tricky and if you are only aware about these facts only you can correctly answer this question now look at this first statement it is said that chlorophyll content in the vegetation of a specific location can be measured or estimated using satellite images or remote sensing data see this statement is true because the sentinel satellite of the european space agency has certain specific spectral characteristics that can be used to measure even the chlorophyll content in the vegetation of a specific location i hope you know what is a chlorophyll a chlorophyll is a pigment that gives plant their green color and this chlorophyll only helps plants to create their own food through photosynthesis so we have a real-time example so statement one is actually correct this data is mentioned in down to earth magazine now moving on to the second statement second statement states that greenhouse gas emission from rice paddies of a specific location can be estimated through satellite images or remote sensing data see this statement is also true because the estimation of methane emissions from rice paddies has been done in the meekong delta based on land surface dynamic characterization with remote sensing so this second statement is also correct now moving on to the third statement land surface temperature of a specific location can be found it is said that way see this statement is also correct because the land surface temperature is nothing but the temperature at or near a surface specifically it may refer to surface air temperature that is the temperature of the air near the surface of the earth now why do scientists monitor this see the scientists monitor land surface temperature because the warmth rising of earth's landscapes influences our world's weather and climate patterns so the statement three is also correct so the correct answer for this question is option d one two one three now look at the second question recently there was a growing awareness in our country about the importance of Himalayan Nettle because it is found to be a sustainable source of option a anti-malarial drug option b biodiesel option c pulp for paper industry and option d textile fiber so this question is the quiz question for you today try to find the answer for this question i'll give the explanation in my next discussion so concluding with the previous year question discussion part now let us move on to the news article discussion now look at this first news article this editorial talks about a judgment of the supreme court in the mohit minerals the editorial talks about the impacts of the mohit minerals judgment on the gst regime so this is the crux of the article given here in this discussion let us discuss the points mentioned in the editorial in a detailed manner before that the syllabus regarding this news article is highlighted here you can go through it first let us see a little bit about the mohit minerals case see this issue is related to igst imposed on ocean fright services here ocean fright is nothing but the method of transporting often large loads of goods by c the ocean fright in most cases is paid by the seller of goods for example if india is importing a car from germany the ocean fright charges are paid by the german seller for availing the ocean fright service the german company pays tax to the german government so in this case the indian tax department is losing tax revenue right to compensate for this what the indian tax department does is it imposes igst on the indian importers of the car they issue this tax through the reverse charge mechanism now what is this reverse charge mechanism in gst see to understand this look at this example if you are going to a local shop to buy some products you pay gst to the shop owner and the shop owner pays gst to the government this is how the gst functions in normal condition right in case of reverse charge mechanism it is you who pays the gst directly to the government instead of the shop owner so in the case of reverse charge mechanism the liability of tax payment is transferred to the recipient or receiver of the service instead of the supplier of the service you can look at this image to understand this better see through this reverse charge mechanism the indian importers were asked to pay igst to the government the indian importers brought this issue first to the gujarat high court the gujarat high court declared this tax illegal an appeal was again made in the supreme court the supreme court upheld the gujarat high court judgment justice dy chandra chowd as a part supreme court judgment mentioned that the tax levied on the imports is basically double taxation he went on to say that an importer who was already paying tax on the composite supply of goods could not be asked to pay an additional tax on a perceived service that it may have received this is about the mohit minerals judgment what is important to note in this judgment is that the supreme court made some observations regarding the gst the court held that both parliament and the state legislatures enjoy equal power to legislate on goods and services tax or gst and that the gst council's recommendations were just that recommendations that could never be binding on a legislative body see we know that until now state governments across india have treated the gst council's recommendation as sacrosanct because they believed that this was indeed the law but the mohit minerals judgment essentially states that state legislatures possess the authority to deviate from any advice rendered by the gst council this is because the states are equal partners in india's federal setup this is all about the mohit minerals judgment and its impact now let's see some points about gst mentioned in the editorial first which constitutional amendment was introduced to implement gst it is the one at first constitutional amendment act 2016 what are the articles introduced into the constitution by the amendment the articles introduced are article 246 a article 269 a and article 279 a here article 246 a was inserted in the constitution to validate the parliament and the state legislatures to make laws on gst however for interstate supplies the parliament of india was awarded exclusive power to make laws so after the introduction of article 246 a the state governments no longer could make laws in regards to sale or purchase of goods through the ordinary legislative route so to achieve the bicker aim of one nation one tax the states have voluntarily given up some of their autonomy now moving on to article 279 a see article 279 a empowered the president of india to create a gst council with members from the state and the center this body comprises union finance minister the union minister of state for finance and ministers of finance from every state government the gst council was given the power to make recommendations to the union and states on several different matters the gst council can make recommendations on a model gst law the goods and services that may be subjected to or exempted from gst and the rates at which tax is to be levied in the gst council also the union government has a virtual veto why is that see according to one at first constitutional amendment act 2016 every decision of the gst council has to be taken by a majority of not less than three fourth of the way third votes of the member present the catch here is that the vote of the union government has a weightage of one third of the total votes cast and the votes of all the state governments taken together have a weightage of two third of the total votes cast in the meeting so essentially no decision in the gst council can be taken without the union government approval this is why the union government has a virtual veto in the gst council so here also the union government has an upper hand over the states in addition to this article 279a mentions that a mechanism should be established to settle disputes between governments for conflicts arising out of decisions of the gst council the article 279a also mentions that the decision taken by the gst council to resolve the disputes is binding on the government so in a sense the union government has the upper hand on the gst council decision and the decision taken by the gst council is binding on the states see this goes against the intention of the constitutional makers who wanted to give autonomy to the states in certain spheres so essentially through article 246a and article 279a the states have lost their autonomy this is why the mohith mineral's judgment of supreme court is very important for the states the court by saying that the decision of the gst council is not binding on the states has actually upheld the spirit of cooperative federalism and according to the author of the editorial with this judgment state governments will be free to exercise independent power to legislate on gst so that's all regarding this news article discussion in this news article discussion we saw about mohith mineral case which is related to igst imposed on ocean fright services this issue was first brought to the gujarat high court the gujarat high court declared this tax illegal and then an appeal was again made in supreme court the supreme court upheld the gujarat high court judgment supreme court judgment mentioned that the tax levied on the importers is basically double taxation along with that the judgment said that an importer who was already paying tax on the composite supply of goods could not be asked to pay an additional tax on a perceived service that it may have received and we saw that mohith minerals judgment essentially states that state legislatures possess the authority to deviate from any advice rendered by the gst council and thereby the states or equal partners in indias federal setup so we saw about this judgment and its impact then we saw about one at first constitutional amendment act 2016 which introduced gst then we saw about some of the issues with respect to article 246 a article 269 a and article 279 a so with these learned points now let us move on to the next news article discussion see this article here this article is with reference to loke adalat see this news article states that tamil nadu public works minister mr evi velu has said that steps were being taken to set up a loke adalat for cases pertaining to land acquisition in the state he also urged the officials to avoid delays if land acquisition for projects he asked the officials to ensure the advantages of projects should be explained clearly so that objections are minimal so this is the cracks of the news article given here in this context let us discuss about loke adalat in prelims perspective see we know that currently around 4.70 crore cases are pending in various courts in the country right to reduce the burden of the court and to provide cheap and speed justice to the common people alternative dispute resolution or adr mechanism were introduced here adr or the alternative dispute resolution is nothing but the procedure for settling disputes without litigation it resorts to methods such as arbitration mediation or negotiation so in simple terms adr is instrumental in reducing the burden of litigation on courts while delivering a well rounded and satisfying experience for the parties involved now why are we talking about adr here it is because loke adalat is one of the alternative dispute resolution mechanism it is a forum where disputes or cases pending in the court of law or at pre litigation stages are settled not that loke adalats have been given statutory status under the legal services authorities act 1987 under this act the award or the decision made by the loke adalats is deemed to be a decree of a civil court and is final and binding on all parties no appeal against such an award lies before any court of law if the parties are not satisfied with the award of the loke adalat there is no provision for an appeal against such an award but they are free to initiate litigation by approaching the court see there is no court fee payable when a matter is filed in a loke adalat if a matter pending in the court of law is referred to the loke adalat and if it is settled by loke adalat the court fee originally paid in the court on the complaint or petition is also refunded back to the parties here the persons deciding the cases in the loke adalats or called the members of the loke adalats they have the role of statutory consulators only and they do not have any judicial role therefore they can only persuade the parties to come to a conclusion for settling the dispute outside the court in loke adalat and shall not pressurize any of the parties to compromise the members shall assess the parties in an independent and impartial manner in their attempt to reach amicable settlement of their dispute know that every loke adalat organized for an area shall consist of serving or retired judicial officers and other persons of the area as specified by the authority here the authority may be state authority or the district authority or the supreme court legal services committee or the high court legal services committee or it can even be taluk legal service committee organizing such loke adalats generally a loke adalat consists of a judicial officer as the chairman and a member from a legal profession like an advocate and a social worker as member so that's all about this news article discussion in this news article discussion we saw in brief about loke adalat influence perspective we saw that loke adalat is one of the alternative dispute resolution mechanism it is a forum where disputes or cases pending in the court of law or at pre-relication stages or settled it is given statutory status under the legal services authorities act 1987 and under this act the award or the decision made by the loke adalat is deemed to be a decree of a civil court and the final and binding on all parties no appeals against such an award lies before any court of law so with these all learned points now let us move on to the next news article discussion take a look at this news article see this news article states that money spider and and mimicking spider have been spotted in vyanad in this context let us discuss some of the important points about the species mentioned in the article see money spider commonly found in european middles have been reported for the first time in the country from the mudanga range of the vyanad wildlife sanctuary in kerala the species is called money spider because it is believed to bring luck to the person who comes in contact with it the spider belongs to the family of dwarf spiders under the genus prosoponoid it has been given the name prosoponoids by flectogenus know that only six species of spiders belonging to this genus have been identified from across the world so far it is the first report of this genus from india and hence no extensive studies have been concluded on the species of spider in the country so far we know that the male money spiders are three mm long and the female money spiders are typically four mm long both sexes or dark brown and have irregular silver patches and black spots on elliptical abdomen there are numerous fine black spines on their olive green legs you can see that eight dark eyes are arranged in two rows talking about females they build triangular webs in between dry tree twigs and feed on small insects while male prefer to hide beneath dry leaves two or more male spiders can be found in the web of a single female apart from this the researchers also discovered another species that is ant mimicking spiders from the manantavadi range the species belong to the family of jumping spiders they belong to the family of saltisidae this ant mimicking spider have been named toxis alboclaus they get the name ant mimicking spider because they perfectly mimic ants by lifting their front pair of legs while walking us a mechanism to escape from potential predators only three species of this genus have been reported from india and this is the first species reported from the western guards the male spiders of the species grow up to four mm long and the female spiders grow up to six mm long so that's all about this news article discussion in this news article discussion we saw about two new species found on kerala in the first we discussed about many spiders then we discussed about ant mimicking spiders so with these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion look at this news article it talks about the kudip minar complex see the archaeological survey of india that is asi has replied to a plea put in the delhi high court the petitioner argued that the dismissal of the original suit based on the 1991 act was wrong also he said that the kudip minar complex comes under the purview of the ancient monuments and archaeological sites and remains that is am asr act of 1958 but the asi said kudip minar is not a place of worship and its character cannot be changed now so this is the crux of the news article given here let's not get deep into the issue today instead let us utilize this opportunity to learn about kudip minar in prelims perspective now talking about kudip minar see kudip minar is a soaring 73 meter high tower of fikchi the construction of minar was began in around 1202 by kudip din aibak who was the first muslim ruler of delhi but he could only finish the basement then his successor el-tutmish added three more stories and then in 1368 ferozha tuklek he constructed the fifth and the lost story it was repaid by the rulers of the day like mohammed ben tuklek in 1325 to 51 and ferozha tuklek 1351 to 88 in 1503 sikandar lodi carried out some restoration and enlargement of the upper stories when we talk about its structure see the development of architectural styles from aibak to tuklek is quite evident in the minar the relief work and even the materials used for construction differ the 238 feet kudip minar is 47 feet at the base and tappers to nine feet at the apex the tower is ornamented by band of inscriptions and by four projecting balconies supported by elongatory decorated brackets therefore the tower has five distinct stories each marked by a projecting balcony and tappers from a 15 meter diameter at the base to just 2.5 meter at the top the first three stories are made of red sandstone the fourth and the fifth story are of marble and sandstones at the foot of the tower is the kuat ul islam mask see even though it rains the kuat ul islam or the light of islam mask in the kudip complex is one of the most magnificent structure in the world kudip din aibak started its construction in 1193 and the mask was completed in 1197 as i said earlier iltut mush in the year 2030 and allowed in kilji in the year 1315 made additions to the building the main mask comprises of inner and outer courtyard decorated with shafts and surrounded by pillar close to the mask is one of deli's most curious antique the iron pillar remember this kuat ul islam is the first mask to be built in india it is high iron pillar stands in the courtyard of the mask it was brought from elsewhere in india it bears a Sanskrit inscription from the fourth century edd describing the exploits of a ruler called chandra see it is believed to be the gupta king chandra gupta II who ruled between 375 to 413 now talking about the origin of kudip minar it is shrouded in controversy some believe it was erected as a tower of victory to signify the beginning of the muslim ruler in india while others say it serves as a minaret to the muslims to call the faithful to prayer so far we saw about features of kudip minar we saw about its structure then we saw about the origin of kudip minar now before ending the discussion do you remember in the news article it is mentioned as kudip minar complex what is this kudip minar complex mean see the kudip minar is surrounded by seven great historical monuments and all of them together are referred to as kudip minar complex the complex includes iron pillar of deli kuat ul islam mask alai darwaza the tomb of el-tutmish alai minar alauddin's madharshah and tomb of imam zamin major smith's cupola and sanderson's sundial so that's all you have to know about this news article see each and every point in this discussion is very important and relevant to your preliminary examination hence keep all these facts regarding kudip minar in your mind so these learned points now let us move on to the next part of the news article discussion which is the preliminary practice questions now look at this first question this question is with reference to low cut alerts with reference to low cut alerts which one of the following statements is not correct option a low cut alerts have been given statutory status under the legal services authorities at 1987 option b the decision of low cut alerts is final and binding on all parties and option c there is no quote fee payable when a matter is filed in a low cut alert and option d none of the above see the correct answer for the question is option d none of the above as we have seen in our discussion all the statements are correct here here remember that if the parties are not satisfied with the award of the low cut alert there is no provision for an appeal against such an award but they are free to initiate litigation by approaching the court from the beginning so here all the statements are correct so the correct answer for the question is option d none of the above now moving on to second question this question is about money spiders money spider and anti-mimicking spider sometimes seen in news have been discovered from option a western guards option b Arunachal Pradesh option c Andaman and Nicobar islands and option d eastern Himalayas see the correct answer for the question is option a western guards we have seen in our newest discussion that these species that is money spider and anti-mimicking spider have been found in vyanard wildlife sanctuary which is an integral part of the Neelagri bife square reserve located in western guards so the correct answer here is option a western guards now moving on to the last question this question is about kudup minar consider the following statements with reference to the kudup minar statement one it was completely constructed using red sandstones statement two the last story was built by feroza tuklek which of the statements given above is or or correct option a one only option b two only option c both one and two and option d neither one nor two see the correct answer for the question is option b two only statement one is incorrect because the first three story or made of red sandstone we saw that in the discussion whereas the fourth and the fifth story are of marble and sandstone so first statement is incorrect here now moving on to the second statement it was begun in around 1202 by kudup din aibak who was the first delhi muslim ruler but he could only finish the basement his successor iltutmish added three more story and in 1368 feroza tuklek constructed the fifth and the last story so this statement is correct here so the correct answer for the question is option b two only so here the main question for today's discussion is displayed read the question carefully write a relevant answer and post it 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 shankar eyes academy youtube channel thank you