 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar IAS Academy, displayed at the list of news articles taken up for today's analysis, along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Thiruvananthapuram editions. The handwritten notes in PDF format and the timestamping of all the news articles taken up for today's analysis will be available in the description section. It will also be available in the comment section for the benefit of the smartphone users. Let us now start our analysis. Today is International Yoga Day, 21st June of every year is being celebrated as International Yoga Day. It was internationally declared as the International Yoga Day by the United Nations General Assembly since 2015. Now whatever we are going to see now will be relevant in your prelims preparation under current events of national and international importance, then under history of India, then under Indian world geography, social geography in particular. The analysis will also be relevant in your main preparation in your general studies paper one under Indian culture and then silent features of Indian society. Now let us see what is yoga for your understanding. Yoga is an ancient physical, mental and spiritual practice that originated in India. So this word yoga is derived from Sanskrit, which means to join or to unite. It basically means the union of body and consciousness or the soul. If you see yoga consists of a series of poses, meditation, controlled breathing, then word chanting or some other techniques. Now these have been designed to make the humans self realize and ease any suffering they may be experiencing and also allow for a state of liberation. So yoga is based on this concept of unifying the mind with the body and the soul. This unification helps the individual in having a greater well-being overall. Now it can be mentally, spiritually and also physically. If you see yoga is practiced by the young and old people without any discriminating or discrimination against gender, class or religion. Yoga has become very popular in other parts of the world as well because the Indian government is really propagating yoga in the past few years. Traditionally if you see yoga was transmitted using the Guru Sisha model. Here Guru means the master and Sisha means the pupil. The yoga gurus were the main custodians of associated knowledge and skills. But nowadays yoga ashrams or hermitages provide those willing to learn yoga with additional opportunities to learn about this particular traditional practice. Also if you see yoga is practiced in schools, universities, community centers and also in social media. The ancient manuscripts and scriptures are also used in the teaching and practice of yoga along with that some vast range of modern literature on this subject is also available. Now let us approach this topic from our exam point of view. If you see yoga has been included in the representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity which is maintained by UNESCO. Now what is this intangible cultural heritage? To understand this first let us see what is meant by cultural heritage. Initially cultural heritage meant only the historical monuments and collection of objects. Now if you see both these are tangible in other sense they are measurable or you can touch and feel their heritage value. But there are also other traditions or living expressions which we have inherited from our ancestors and which will be passing on to a descendants. Like if you see the oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, some festive events then some knowledge and practices that are concerning nature and the universe or the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts. This type of cultural heritage is called as intangible cultural heritage. So we can tell that intangible cultural heritage is traditional, contemporary and living at the same time. They are also inclusive in the sense that we may share expressions of intangible cultural heritage that are similar to those practiced by others. If you see some particular traditions are followed by people across different countries so we can call it inclusive. Next these intangible cultural heritage are representative. It represents a community that follows the tradition which they have inherited from their ancestors and are likely to pass the traditions to their descendants as well. And intangible heritage are community based. This intangible cultural heritage can be heritage only when it is recognized as such by the communities that create, maintain and transmit it. So without their recognition nobody else can decide for them that a given expression of practice is their heritage. Now know that UNESCO maintains this representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity. Now as the name indicates the list represents different intangible cultural heritage that exists across different countries of the world. Now apart from this there are two more lists that is maintained by UNESCO. One is the list of intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent safeguarding and the other list is the Register of Good Safeguarding Practices. Now just know about these two lists nothing but their names only. The convention that governs the entire intangible cultural heritage is called the States Parties to the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage 2003. Know that India is also a party to this convention. Now let us see about UNESCO that maintains this particular list. UNESCO is nothing but the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. Now this UNESCO seeks to build peace through international cooperation in the areas of education, sciences and culture. UNESCO was founded in the year 1945 and its programs help in contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015 FLC. Also know that the headquarters of UNESCO is located at Paris. India is a member state of UNESCO so please keep this in mind and also keep in mind that USA and Israel have withdrawn from UNESCO since January 2019. Now let us see about the representative list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This particular list is made up of those intangible heritage elements that help to show the diversity of that particular heritage value and raise awareness about their importance. Now let us see the Intangible Cultural Heritage of India that have found a place in this list. As of now there are 13 intangible cultural heritage elements in this list. Let us see them year wise that is by which year these intangible cultural heritage elements were included by UNESCO. Now we will not be seeing each of this in detail we shall just see the names and some short explanations of these elements. If you see in the year 2008 Kudi Atom which is a Sanskrit theater was included in this list. Also the tradition of Vedic chanting and Ram Leela which is the traditional performance of Ramayana was also included in the list this year. In the year 2009 Raman was included. Raman is the religious festival and ritual of the Gharwal Imalayas. Then in the year 2010 Chow dance, Kalbelia folk song and dances of Rajasthan were also included. Also Mudiyetu which is a ritual theater and dance drum of Kerala was included in this particular year. Then in 2012 the Buddhist chanting of Ladakh in Jaman Kashmir was included. Then in 2013 if you see Sankirtana was included. This Sankirtana is the ritual singing drumming and dancing of Manipur state. In 2014 the traditional brass and copper craft of utensil making among the Tatheras of Jandhyaala Guru in Punjab was included. Next in the year 2016 Navras which is the new year for Muslims was included. Now the Muslim New Year is celebrated in many of the countries where there is Muslim population. So we can see that a similar intangible heritage is found across different countries. In the same year if you see yoga has been included. Then finally in the year 2017 Kumbh Mela was also included in this list. So know that in the year 2016 yoga has been included in this representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity. Now there is one more news article in the last page of few of the editions where you can see that Vashi paper from Japan is also included in this representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity. This Vashi paper is an ultra thin paper that is manufactured from plants called kozo or mulberry. The fibers from these plant are much longer than what you can see wool or cotton. So they have longer fibers. Vashi paper is more flexible and durable. Durable in the sense you can see some old Japanese books from the 7th or 8th century which are almost 1300 to 1400 years old. Still they remain a very good condition. This particular paper was used for everything from writing and painting to lampshades umbrellas and sliding doors in the older days. So just remember that Vashi paper is from Japan and it has been included in this representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. The next news article is about the National Human Rights Commission. The discussion is relevant in your prelim syllabus under current events of national importance then also in Indian polity and governance especially in constitution and rights issues. The discussion is also important in your main preparation in your general series paper 2 under the area Indian constitution significant provisions and basic structure. Then in functions and responsibilities of the union and the states. Next in functioning of the ministries of the government. Next in statutory bodies. Next in institutions and bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of the vulnerable sections. And then finally in issues relating to development and management of social sector services relating to health. Now the news is that the National Human Rights Commission that is NHRC as issued notices to the ministry of health and family welfare and to all the states and union territories. The commission has stated that there is a deplorable public health infrastructure in the country. Here deplorable means completely unacceptable. So the commission has condemned and seriously criticized the public health infrastructure of the country. Now this was based on a Suomoto cognizance of this commission. Here Suomoto literally means on its own motion which means when an authority has taken an action on its own will without any stimulation from any other authority. The action of issuing notice happened due to the several media reports on recent deaths across the country. And these deaths were caused due to the deficiencies and inadequacies in the healthcare system. The commission has stated that it has observed that a large number of deaths of innocent people which also includes women, children and elderly persons are taking place due to lack of proper medical care, then infrastructure, manpower and also due to the administrative failure across the country. Another reason for this notice is the series of disturbing and worrisome incidents such as the death of almost 143 children in the Muzafarpur district of Bihar due to the acute encephalitis syndrome, then the loss of lives in Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh due to Japanese encephalitis in the year 2017, then the death of newly born infants and other patients due to the failure of oxygen supply in the year 2017, then the disturbing incidents of carrying of dead bodies by family members on their shoulders because of non-availability of ambulances, then the devastating incidents of baby deliveries in front of the hospitals which all happened due to the negligence and non-availability of doctors. So, the commission has reminded the central and the state governments of their constitutional duty under article 21 of the constitution. We know that article 21 is about the protection of life and personal liberty which states that no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law. So, under the article 21 the right to life is guaranteed. The commission by quoting the observation of the Supreme Court of India underlined that right to live with human dignity is a part of right to life. The Supreme Court has highlighted that the right to life guaranteed by article 21 of the constitution includes the right to live with dignity which includes nutrition, clothing and shelter among other things. Then the commission has also pointed out to the article 47 of the Indian constitution. This was noted by referring to the widespread malnutrition which is prevalent in almost majority of the states. Remember that article 47 comes under the directive principles of state policy under part 4 of the Indian constitution. Here article 47 mentions the duty of the state to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living and to improve public health. This article requires the governments both the central government and also the state governments as a primary duty to raise the level of nutrition and standard of living of its people. The commission has noted that the state has failed to do its duty in this regard. Further, the commission underlined that the success of a public health care system lies in easy accessibility, easy availability and affordability of treatment. So, it is the responsibility of the state to ensure comprehensive healthcare facilities for all. The commission noted that the central government's Aishman Bharat scheme and several such other schemes running in the states in different names to provide health and medical care facilities especially to the people of poor strata of society. However, the commission states that there is an urgent need for the convergence and integration of child and maternal health schemes of central and state governments and they should be properly implemented. Hence, the commissioners mentioned the following in its notice. One, the chief secretaries of all the states and union territories have to submit their reports within six weeks. The reports should include the details of the incidents relating to deaths due to lack of health and medical care facilities that have taken place during the last three years. Then the report should also include the steps taken by the states and union territories to prevent the recurrence of such incidents along with the efforts made to provide relief and rehabilitation to the aggrieved or the suffering people. Secondly, the notice is asked the secretary of ministry of health and family welfare government of India to submit a comprehensive report within four weeks on the observations made by the commission. Then finally, the commissioners also directed that teams comprising of doctors on the panel of the commission along with the officers of the commission will visit the hospitals, primary health care centers and other health facilities in the vulnerable states one by one. So, they will be visiting Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab first to conduct an on-the-spot fact-finding investigation. Since the commissioners taken so much initiatives, let us know about the commission and its functions from examination point of view. The National Human Rights Commission of India was established on 12th of October 1993. The statute under which it was established is the Protection of Human Rights Act 1993. But know that this 1993 act was amended in the year 2006. It is now known as the Protection of Human Rights Amendment Act of 2006. The commission is a symbol of India's concern for the promotion and protection of human rights if you see. Now, you may think what is this human rights or what constitutes human rights. For this, the Protection of Human Rights Act offers a definition. According to this act, human rights is the rights relating to life, liberty, equality and dignity of the individual which is guaranteed by the constitution or these rights that are embodied in the international covenants and are enforceable by the courts in India. Here, international covenant is nothing but an international agreement. So, international covenants are the international covenant on civil and political rights and the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights which has been adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 16th of December 1966. Now, let us see some of the functions of the commission. The first and foremost function is that the commission can inquire into complaint of violation of human rights or abetment to the violation of human rights. That is inciting or instigating or stimulating a violation to the human rights. Then the commission can also inquire into any negligence by a public servant in the prevention of such violation. The inquiry can be initiated on three occasions. One is the Suomoto that is on its own initiative. Now, based on this function only the commission has issued notice to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and all the state and union territories which is our news today. Then the second occasion is that on a petition presented to the commission by a victim. The third occasion is that on a petition presented to the commission by any person on behalf of the victim. The another function of this particular commission is that the commission can intervene in any proceeding that involves any allegation of violation of human rights which is pending before a court. This can be done with the approval of such court. Then the commission can visit any jail or any other institution under the control of the state governments. The institutions are those where the persons are detained or lodged for purposes of treatment, reformation or protection. This visit is to study the living condition of the inmates and to make recommendations in order to improve their conditions. Then this commission also reviews the safeguards given by or under the Constitution or any other law or statute that is enforced for the protection of human rights. Then it also recommends measures for the effective implementation of such provisions and law. Now based on this function only the commission has pointed out the article 21 and article 47 of the Constitution of India and it has asked the central and the state governments to take action for a better healthcare infrastructure. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. In this next discussion we are going to focus on two news articles which are on the same lines on the current burning issue one nation one poll. We have already covered this topic in the past two days as this is a current issue of national importance. We will discuss these two news articles today and try to add some valuable points from these news articles. Now one news article is with respect to the viewpoint of a political party and the other article is in editorial. So you can take the views of the authors from this editorial. These points will help you to build an answer when a question based on this topic comes because in exam not all the times you need to support one statement. Sometimes you have to write about negatives and disadvantages as well. So on the whole these discussions will help you to give some mains answers. The discussion will be relevant in current events of national importance then in Indian polity and governance particularly under political system. Then the discussion is more important in your general series paper two under the area parliament and state legislature. Then also an important aspects of governance transparency and accountability. The first article is about the key ally of the national democratic alliance that is the AI ADMK party of Tamil Nadu. The article states that the party has politely rejected the proposal on one nation one poll. For this proposal the party has submitted a memorandum in which it has opposed the idea. The party has argued that the formula is completely impractical. This is because if a state assembly dissolves before the completion of the tenure to maintain the synchronized elections will the central government hold the Lok Sabha election along with the state election too. Because at that time the tenure of the Lok Sabha will not be completed nor it can be dissolved for the sole purpose of holding these simultaneous elections. If this happens it will create chaos in the country. So the party says it is simply not doable or it cannot be done in such a simple manner. The party has also clarified that they are not opposing this idea because it is unconstitutional or it is against the federal values of the country. But it is simply opposing because implementation of such an agenda is impractical and also disruptive or troublesome. But in contrary to this a senior AI ADMK leader and former deputy speaker of the Lok Sabha Mr. M Thambidurai had written to the prime minister supporting the idea. Additionally he had even suggested that the one nation one poll system should be implemented by the year 2024. The argument which he gave for supporting this idea was the simultaneous elections will save lots of money to the government and that money can be utilized for more developmental purposes like welfare programs for the people. Now let us see the second news article which is the editorial. In this editorial the author has welcomed the decision of the government to form a committee to examine the issue of holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and also to the state assemblies. The author calls the formation of the committee as a significant step towards achieving the objective of synchronizing elections across the country. Because we saw that the agenda of one nation one election or one nation one poll or simultaneous elections however it is called is to hold the elections for the three tiers of the constitutional institutions in a synchronized and a combined manner. The three tiers are one house of the people which is also known as Lok Sabha. Second the state assemblies which are also called as Vidhan Sabha and third is the local government bodies. Then he points to the potential benefits of such an agenda. First as we have already discussed which is the obvious advantage of curbing the huge expenditure or spending that is involved in conducting the elections separately for the Lok Sabha and separately for the state assemblies of each and every state because anyway the steps and expenditure will be same for these two elections. So if these two elections can be synchronized then it will reduce the expenditure on a whole. The next benefit is that it will reduce the burden on the manpower deploy. By this the author means that when there are separate elections then the same employees will be engaged in the election process throughout the year. Then the next benefit is that ruling parties can focus more on governance and less on campaigning because the politicians will be distracted due to continuous elections as they will be concentrating on winning the election. So they may not address the issues which the citizens face and in turn they will not take any developmental action that is required. The author says such a situation can be avoided if simultaneous elections are conducted. Now keeping this in mind even our president has stated that the simultaneous elections will be development oriented. He mentioned that with such a system in place all the political parties will be able to better utilize their energy towards development and public welfare according to their respective ideologies. Next if simultaneous elections are not conducted then some part of the country is in election mode every year. Now this results as an impediment or hindrance to the development work that is being carried out. This is because when the elections are announced immediately the model code of conduct period comes into operation. This means that the government cannot announce any new schemes during this period so this in turn results to policy paralysis. Next the author talks about the challenges around the feasibility of the agenda one nation one poll. First one is that the agenda may require the curtailment that is the reduction or extension of the tenure of state legislatures. This is to bring the elections of state legislatures in line with the Lok Sabha poll dates. The reduction in tenure of state legislature will happen when the Lok Sabha is dissolved before the completion of five years and the extension of state legislature will happen when the state government has to be dissolved because of some issues such as lack of majority in the legislature then it will be extended. Now since the tenure of Lok Sabha is not yet completed and in order to hold the simultaneous elections the state legislature has to be continued so it gives rise to two questions which is not yet been answered. One is should the state governments bear this burden just to fulfill the ideal or the agenda of the simultaneous elections and then what happens if the government at the center falls. So without answering these most crucial questions surrounding the simultaneous elections it will be difficult to implement them. Next the author suggests some alternatives to tackle the above mentioned problems. The first idea which the author points to is from the report submitted by Lok commission which is named as the draft report on simultaneous elections. The idea is the use of constructive vote of confidence. If you see this system of constructive vote of confidence was first introduced by Germany. The system prevalent in Germany is that the lower house of their country cannot simply remove the chancellor with a vote of no confidence. Now know that the chancellor is the head of the government of Germany. So the constructive vote of no confidence puts an embargo that is an official ban on ousting or removing the chancellor because for the chancellor's removal the opponents must not only disagree with this or our governance but they also have to agree on an replacement that is while expressing loss of trust in one's government the members should place confidence in an alternative regime. So if constructive vote of confidence is introduced the government will have better stability. Hence the government will be removed only when the member or the group of members come forward with a proposal to form an alternative government. The unique element of the system is that there will have to be an agreement on a candidate to lead an alternative government and name of such a candidate has to be proposed while introducing the no confidence motion. Another suggestion is that whenever the midterm polls are held due to loss of majority the subsequent legislature should serve only for the remaining period of the term that is if the state government is dissolved after two years of being elected then there shall be re-election. Then when after the re-election a new state government is formed the new government shall hold power only for the remaining three year period. But these measures will involve far reaching or significant changes to the existing laws. These changes also include amendments to the constitution as these suggestions will lead to the alteration of the tenure of legislatures and a provision is also required for the disqualification of members for supporting an alternative regime. However the main issue or question with this agenda is that whether getting election to all the tiers to coincide will undermine the representative democracy and federalism because both these are the main features in our constitution the representative democracy and the federalism because in parliamentary democracy the executive is responsible to the legislature. So there are three arms of the government executive judiciary and legislature in parliamentary democracy the executive is responsible to the legislature. So the author says the legitimacy of the parliamentary democracy will be undermined if a fixed tenure is mandated just to have simultaneous elections. As this will remove the legislatures power to bring down the minority government. Also the interests of regional parties may suffer damage as the regional issues may be subsumed or overtaken by the national themes in a common election. So finally the author concludes that until these challenges exist there is no need to hurry or haste for the interaction of simultaneous elections. So instead of rapidly choosing this agenda the government must give priority to other electoral reforms. For example the government should find ways to curb the spending by candidates and parties because these spending have reached one alarmingly high levels and also it poses a threat to free and fair elections. With this we come to the end of the analysis of both these news articles. Let us move on to the next news article. The next news article is related to melting of the Himalayan glaciers. The analysis of this news article will be relevant in your problems preparation under current events of national and international importance next in Indian and world geography. You can use the statistics that will be seen now in any of your mains answers related to global warming. So the analysis will be relevant in your mains preparation as well in your general studies paper 3 under environmental pollution and degradation. First let us see what is meant by a glacier. Glacier is a large perennial accumulation of crystalline ice. Perennial means year-long accumulation glaciers are made up of fallen snow that shivers in those areas. If you see over many years the snow that has fallen compresses into large thickened ice masses. So layer on layer, layer on layer it forms a large thickened ice masses over years. So the glaciers form when the snow remains in one location and it is long enough to transform into ice. Now what makes glaciers unique or significant? It is their ability to move because due to the sheer mass that is their size these glaciers flow like a very slow reverse. So we can tell that snowfall is very essential for the presence of glaciers. The amount of snowfall glacier receives is very important to its survival which is why if you see some cold regions like Siberia have almost no glaciers since there is not enough snowfall. Now glaciers are found mostly in Antarctica Arctic region which also includes Greenland but if you see the glaciers are found in all the continents they are either found in the mountainous areas or the polar regions. Now the news article tells that the Himalayan glaciers have lost more than a quarter of their ice mass since 1975. This news is based on a research article that has been published in a research journal. The authors of this article have analyzed four decades or 40 years of ice loss for 650 largest glaciers which is located across a 2000 kilometer transect across the Himalayas. So here transect means a straight line or a narrow section through a natural nature in this case the Himalayan mountains because we know Himalayan mountains form like a single straight line for almost 2000 kilometers. Now this study is based on the data comparison between the data that has been taken off with the help of modern satellites and the data that have been obtained from the Cold War era spy satellites that is around 1970s. The scientists have compared the images taken then with those taken now and they have created digital elevation models of the Himalayas to know the amount of ice lost by the Himalayan glaciers. Here elevation means the altitude or the height so if there is a difference in the height of the ice mass we can tell that the loss of ice mass has occurred. So this way they are able to tell that there is some ice loss. The scientists have shown that the Himalayan glaciers have lost more than a quarter of their ice mass since the year 1975 and the melting has occurred twice as fast since 2000 as we know that the global warming has started to increase since the year 2000 where the average temperatures have started to rise as well. The scientists have observed that out of the total ice mass present in the year 1975 only 87 percentage remained in the year 2000 and 72 percentage has remained in the year 2016 which is 13 percent loss in 25 years between 1975 and 2000 and 28 percentage of loss can be seen approximately over 40 years that is between 1975 and 2016. If you see the average rate of ice loss that has happened between 1975 and 2016 is almost double that of the average ice loss that has happened between 1975 and 2000. Next the study asserts or confirms that rising temperatures are responsible for the accelerating loss of ice. The study results are also consistent with the available weather station records taken for almost many decades. The weather stations are scattered throughout high mountain Asia which includes all the high mountain ranges surrounding the Tibetan plateau. The authors have also noted an average increase of one degree Celsius in the global temperatures since the year 2000. If you see the scientists who conducted this research study also ruled out other causes for glacier changes like the deposition of carbon suit with on snow and ice and also the changing raining or the precipitation patterns. Now let us move on to the next news article. The final news article talks about the GST council meeting. The analysis of this news article will be helpful in your problems preparation under current events of national and international importance and next under economic and social development. The analysis will also be relevant in your mains preparation in your general studies paper 3 under Indian economy and issues relating to mobilization of resources. Now this is the first meeting with the new finance minister. Many issues will be discussed in this GST council meeting which also includes the reductions in the goods and services tax that is GST for electric vehicles. Currently if you see the GST for electric vehicles is 12 percent. It is expected that this will be reduced to 5 percentage. This is because a reduction in the GST rate on electric vehicles would incentivize the global players to set up their manufacturing facilities in India. Then another issue which will be discussed is the extension of the term of the national anti-profit hearing authority. The term is expected to be extended till November 2020. This is because there are many number of pending cases in national anti-profit hearing authority which are at various stages of disposal. Apart from this there could be a discussion on an electric invoices system and the revenue position of the center on the states. Tax experts have noted that the council's real focus should be on addressing concerns regarding the new annual return filing systems that is GST R9 which was recently introduced. The GST R9 is due to be filed on 30th of June and this is the first annual return that the tax filers will be filing for GST. It is a very complex return if you see because it requires lot of detailed information especially things that were not included either in GST R1 or GST R3B. The officials have also added that since the new annual return filing system is very complex the government shall conduct awareness building programs like it did for GST R3B. Then the startup community is also asking for the council to further streamline the input tax credit refund system. This is because a large portion of the working capital of startups is locked away as the input tax credit refund system is not yet streamlined. As for startups the input tax is greater than the output so if input tax credits are pending then the startups are stuck and are unable to use a large part of their working capital. In the discussion so far we have discussed many new terms the GST council meeting is just held today so we will get the updates tomorrow hence we will see all these terms in detail tomorrow. Now let us understand about the GST council today. This GST council or the Goodson service tax council is a constitutional body. Now this council makes recommendations to the union that is the central government and also to the state government on issues related to goods and service tax. The GST council is chaired by the union finance minister and the other members of this council include the union state minister of revenue or finance and ministers in charge of finance or taxation of all the states. The GST was introduced by the constitution 101st amendment act of 2016. The GST council shall make recommendations to the union and the states on the following issues first on the taxes, cesses and surcharges that is levied by the center the states and the local bodies which may be subsumed under GST then on the goods and services that may be subjected to or exempted from the GST. Next it will also recommend model GST laws principles of levy apportionment or allocation of integrated GST that is the IGST and the principles that govern the place of supply. Look GST is a destination based tax that is the goods or the services will be taxed at the place where they are consumed and not at the place of origin. So the state where they are consumed will have the right to collect GST. This in turn makes the concept of place of supply crucial under GST as all the provisions of GST revolves around it. The place of supply of goods under GST defines whether the transaction will be counted as intrastate or interstate. So here intrastate means within the state and interstate means between the states and then accordingly the levy or imposition of the state GST or the central GST and the integrated GST will be determined. Next on the recommendation of threshold limit of aggregate turnover this limit determines which goods and services may be exempted from the goods and services tax. Then on any special rate or rates for a specified period which is to raise additional resources during any national calamity or during times of disaster. And finally on the recommendations on the special provisions with respect to the state now have a look at the practice prelims question. Let us move on to the practice questions discussion session. The first question is which of the following is part of the representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity from India that is maintained by UNESCO and they have given four items. First one is the Kalbelia second one Raman third yoga and four Vashi and they've asked to choose the correct answer from the options. Here the question is asked which of the following is part of this representative list and especially from India. So today during our discussion we saw that Kalbelia Raman and yoga are a part of this list that is corresponding or belonging to India. Vashi is also on this list but it corresponds to Japan as we saw in the second news article which we discussed along with this list. So the question is asked to choose the correct items. The correct answer is option B12 and 3 only since Vashi will not come under this list. Moving on to the next question. Consider the following statements with reference to National Human Rights Commission and the question has given some three statements and that has asked to choose the correct statements. Now if you look at the first statement it states that NHRC is a constitutional body but if you look at statement 3 it states that it was established by the Protection of Human Rights Act of 1993. If it was established by an act then it becomes a statutory body because an act is a statute. This means if statement 1 is correct statement 3 is wrong or vice versa. So they both cannot be correct together. This means we can eliminate options which has both 1 and 3. Now if you remember our discussion we discussed that the commission was established by the Protection of Human Rights Act of 1993. This makes statement 3 as the correct statement and statement 1 as incorrect like we just discussed. So we can eliminate option A as well. Here the second statement states that the Chief Justice of India is the chairperson of the commission. Now in this statement you may make a mistake because the former Chief Justice of India is the chairperson of the commission. Here the statement just mentions Chief Justice of India which indicates to the present Chief Justice of India. So in the Hari just by seeing Chief Justice of India don't mark statement 2 as correct. Here statement 2 is incorrect. So the correct answer to this question is option C 3 1 b. Moving on to the next question. The next question is about GST. It has given two statements and has asked you to choose the correct statement. Here the first statement may confuse you because you may know that GST was introduced by an amendment to the constitution but you may not be sure by which amendment. It is the 101st amendment to the constitution of India in the year 2016. So the statement 1 year is correct. The second statement is also confusing because you may think that GST is a tax which is related to the commerce of the country. You can remember this by just a small trick. Remember that GST is a tax and it is a revenue to the government which means it is a finance to the government. So the actual ministry is the ministry of finance not the ministry of commerce and industry. So the correct answer to this question is option A 1 1 b since the question is asked to choose the correct statements. With this we come to the end of the analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the practice question discussion session. Do like comment and share the video and do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for latest videos and updates. Stay focused and motivated friends. Thank you.