 A very good evening aspirants welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankar Iyer's academy today's date is 25th of August 2022 so displayed here are the list of news articles that we are going to discuss today we have four different news articles so without much delay let's get into the first news article discussion look at this news article it is about the competition amendment bill 2022 the article explains the amendments proposed in the bill so in this discussion we are going to see the important amendments proposed in the bill and how it is different from the parent act 2002 before that the syllabus relevant to this news article is highlighted here for your reference just go through it first of all let us see some of the basics see the Indian competition act was passed in the year 2002 and it came into force seven years later and as per the act a competition commission of India was established see this commission looks after the anti-competitive practices in the market here CCI primarily looks after the issues of anti-competitive agreements abuse of dominance and combinations if you want to know more about CCI watch 23rd August analysis we have covered CCI exclusively in that discussion now coming to the amendments proposed in the bill see the first one that we are going to see is about the combinations now you may wonder what is this combination see it is nothing but acquisition merging or amalgamation of enterprises see according to section 5 of the parent act if any party involved in any acquisition merger or amalgamation then they have to notify about the combination to CCI on the basis of asset value or turnover value but in the proposed amendment bill deal value threshold is added so as per this new provision parties have to notify the commission if the deal value is more than 2000 crore and if either of the parties has substantial business operations in India okay so to understand this better let me explain this with an example let us say party a is merging with party b this merger is happening with the deal value of 300 crores this means that party a is paying party b 300 crore but the assets that party a gains from this merger is worth 1500 crores only so earlier in the parent act the parties have to notify the commission about this asset value only which is 1500 crores but according to the amendment bill the parties have to notify the CCI if the deal value is more than 2000 crores and also if either of the parties has substantial business operations in India and regarding the second part the CCI will frame regulations to prescribe the conditions required for assessing whether an enterprise has substantial business operations in India or not okay so here you must know why or they proposing the amendments see the major reason for this is earlier a majority of the combinations happened without reporting to the CCI this is because the asset or turnover values did not meet the jurisdictional thresholds but now the amendment will help the CCI to know about the combinations and this change will strengthen the commission's review mechanism so now coming to the second amendment see it is a continuation of the first one it is about the time period of approval of the combination see we saw that parties should inform about the combination to the commission right and after this the commission may approve or disapprove the combination there is a time frame available for CCI to take this decision see according to parent act the commission has 210 days to approve the combination and after this period it is automatically approved but according to the amendment bill the time frame has been reduced from 210 working days to 150 working days with the conservatory period of 30 days for extensions okay the main reason for proposing this amendment is that this will speed up the clearance of combinations and it will also increase the importance of refiling consultations with the commission okay hope you can understand this now coming to the third amendment see it is regarding the penalty for gun jumping here let us take a quick detour and understand what gun jumping is see we saw that parties have to notify the commission regarding the combinations right and they have to materialize the combination only after the commission approved it but certain parties will close a transaction before the approval of the commission or it will consummate a reportable transaction without bringing it to the commission's knowledge so this act is called gun jumping so now coming back according to the parent act the penalty for gun jumping is a total of one percentage of the asset or turnover but based on the amendment that is proposed now the penalty for gun jumping is one percentage of the deal value so now moving on to the next amendment it is regarding the open market purchases and stock market transactions see in the past the commission has witnessed many gun jumping cases when inquiring about them the parties said that they did the transaction to consummate the open market purchases and stock market transactions we all know that the value of these purchases changes every day right if the parties wait for the commission's clearance the transaction may become unaffordable and that's exactly why there have been cases regarding gun jumping to address this the amendment bill has proposed to exempt open market purchases and stock market transactions from the requirement to notify them to the commission in advance so they don't have to notify CCI in advance about open market purchase and stock market transactions here also you have to note one thing there is a condition for this the condition is that the parties can make transactions regarding open market purchases and stocks but they cannot exercise voting or ownership rights until the transaction is approved now coming to the next amendment it is about the hub and spoke arrangement see it is a kind of cartilization according to CCI a cartel includes an association of producers sellers distributors traders or service providers they as a group limit control or attempt to control the production distribution sale or price of goods and services can you guess what this leads to this is interfering in the market operation this action will restrict the competition in the market this amount to unfair market practices and it will benefit one party okay now as per parent act the prohibition on anti-competitive agreements only covers entities with similar trades that is entities doing same identical or similar businesses but now as per the amendment the scope of anti-competitive agreements is broadened to catch entities that facilitate cartilization even if they not engaged in identical trade practices okay so the main reason for this amendment is that the provision in the parent act ignores the hub and spoke cartels operating at different levels of the vertical chain by distributors and suppliers okay so these are the main and important amendments that you have to make note of others includes framework for settlement and commitments for cases relating to vertical amendments and abuse of dominance see according to the amendment the commission's decision regarding commitment or settlement will not be appealable after hearing all stakeholders in the case okay and the next one is a provision called leniency plus it allows the commission to give a waiver of penalties to an applicant if he discloses the existence of another cartel in an unrelated market here the main condition is that the information given by the applicant about another cartel should enable the commission to form a private phase opinion about the existence of the cartel okay and the next one is the appointment of the director general by the commission rather than the central government and this gave the commission greater control this is because the director general has the power to conduct investigations including rates and the next one is that the commission will only consider information filed within three years of the occurrence of the cause of action okay and the next notable amendment is related to penalty guidelines for any false information field a penalty of 5 crore will be imposed and for failure to comply with the commission directions a penalty of rupees 10 crore will be imposed for an appeal to be heard by the national company law tribunal that is NCLT against the commission's order the party will have to deposit 25 percentage of the penalty amount okay and these are about the amendments mentioned in the news article see I spent the article it is said that the proposed amendment are needed in every way this is because the commission should be better equipped to handle certain aspects of the new age market and it should transform its functioning to be more robust finally according to the author the government needs to recognize that the market dynamics are changing constantly and it is necessary to update laws regularly okay but still you can note a lot of takeaway points from this text and context article that is why we have chosen this news article okay so with these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion take a look at this news article the news article states that the spell of rainfall that the state of Tamil Nadu is experiencing may continue till the weekend it also states that the city of Chennai will experience isolated spells of thunderstorms so this is about the news article in this context let us revise about thunderstorms its characteristics and its formation okay firstly what is a thunderstorm see it is nothing but a violent and intense weather phenomenon it occurs in a small area for a short duration as the name itself suggests this weather phenomenon is accompanied by heavy thunder and lightning see since this weather activity is always accompanied by thunder and lightning it is also called an electric storm okay it causes heavy rain for a short period of time and in some cases it can also result in hail here hail is nothing but small balls or irregularly lumps of ice so thunderstorms are also called hail storms when lumps of ice fall from the sky along with rain we call it as hail storms okay so that's all about thunderstorms and its characteristics now let us see the formation process of thunderstorms see actually it involves three stages first is the towering cumulus stage see in this stage there is intense heating of land due to solar insulation as the land heats up the air above land also heats up as hot air is lighter it starts rising when it starts rising cumulus clouds are formed okay now this is the first stage now coming to the second stage which is the mature stage when hot air starts rising there will be an empty space crater right so the air surrounding the area starts rushing in to fill the gap once they reach this air parcel also gets heated up and starts rising up once this happens then a new parcel of air from the surrounding area comes in and fills up the gap this movement of hot air up is called updraft okay this cylindrical process repeats itself for a number of times due to this the cumulus cloud transforms into a larger and well shaped cumulonimbus cloud once this happens the area will start receiving rain due to downpour that happens in the cloud so in the mature stage on one side due to updraft hot air rises and builds up the size of the cloud on the other hand due to downdraft rainfall occurs and reduces the size of the cloud when there is an equilibrium between updraft and downdraft the size of the cumulonimbus cloud does not increase further so this is when the storm reaches the final stage the final stage is the dissipation stage see in this stage intense precipitation takes place due to heavy rain the land cools down as the land cools down the air above it also cools down once this happens there won't be any updraft this is because cold air is heavier and it does not rise up on the other hand due to downdraft rainfall will occur the rainfall will continue to occur till there is presence of cumulonimbus cloud once the cloud ceases to exist rainfall will stop so this is how the thunderstorms form and dissipate so in this news article discussion we saw in brief about thunderstorms its characteristics and we also saw the three stages of formation of the thunderstorms see very important news article with respect to preliminary examination every year with respect to geography we have preliminary questions on very basic topics like these for example in 2022 prelims itself we had a question about clouds right likewise whenever you see an important article like these try to revise the basics about the concept so these learned points now let us move on to the next news article discussion see this article here it talks about the visit of olive redly turtles to the state of Tamil Nadu it also mentions about the efforts of the Tamil Nadu forest department and a volunteer led citizen groups for the conservation of the species so this is the cracks of the news article given here using this as an opportunity let us see some of the facts about olive redly in prelims perspective see olive redlies are considered to be the most abundant sea turtle in the world they look very familiar to kim's redly sea turtle the two species or the smallest of the all sea turtles now talking about its physical characteristics they get their name from the coloring of their heart-shaped shell know that the shell starts out gray in color but becomes olive green once the turtle grow into adults okay they have one to two visible claws on each of their pedal like flippers okay you can see that on the image given here see the size and the form of olive redly varies from region to region know that the largest animal or observed in West Africa now coming to the habitat see the olive redly is found in the tropical regions of the Pacific Atlantic and Indian oceans so it is found in the region of warm waters okay now moving on to some of the important characteristics see the olive redlies they are omnivorous meaning they feed on both plants and animals this includes algae, lobster, crabs, mollusks, shrimp and fish okay know that olive redly turtles or marine reptiles like any other sea turtles they must come to the surface to breathe and the most important attribute is the arabada nest see olive redlies migrate hundreds and thousands of miles every year for the arabada nesting here arabada means arrival in Spanish it happens when large groups of females return to the same beaches where they were hatched once to lay eggs okay so in simple terms arabadas or massive nesting aggregations where thousands of females arrive in simultaneous waves to lay their eggs the factor causing this phenomenon is still unknown okay also remember olive redlies female usually nest one to three times per season and it lays an average of 100 to 110 eggs per clutch know that the eggs incubate for 50 to 60 days now coming to the threats faced by olive redlies see one of the main threat include harvesting of the turtles for skin and meat apart from this accidental capture in fishing nets also contribute to the reduction of olive redlies another factor is the loss and degradation of nesting habitat the destruction and conception of eggs and hatchlings by non-native and native predators also result in the reduction of numbers the final and the most important of all is marine pollution caused by anthropogenic factors so all these are some of the threats faced by olive redlies so that's all about this news article discussion in this news article discussion we saw in detail about olive redlies we saw about its habitat we saw about some of its important characteristics as well so these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion now for our final discussion let us take up this news article see the news article says that karnataka state contractors association has raised a complaint the complaint is against the karnataka government the members of the karnataka state contractors association are claiming that certain MLAs of the ruling karnataka government are seeking 40 percentage commission the chief minister of karnataka has termed this allocation as baseless he challenged that if the karnataka state contractors association has proof of this allocation they could take the matter to the karnataka loka itta so this is about the news article given here in this context let us focus on lokal and loka itta in prelims perspective first of all let us see about lokal see lokal is established under the lokal and loka itta act 2013 the main function of lokal is to inquire and investigate into allegations of corruption against public functionaries who are falling within the ambit of this act now let us see about the membership see the lokal consists of a chairperson and members who shall be not more than eight in number so it includes a chairperson and the number of members in lokal should not be more than eight okay note that the person to be appointed as a chairperson of the lokal must be either the former chief justice of India or the former judge of the supreme court or an imminent person with integrity and outstanding ability who must possess special knowledge and a minimum experience of 25 years in matters relating to anti-corruption policy public administration vigilance finance including insurance and banking law and management okay see out of the total members 50 percentage of the members shall be judicial members the remaining 50 percentage is the non-judicial members and the judicial members of the lokal must be either a former judge of the supreme court or a former chief justice of the high court and at least half of the lokal members must be from scheduled cast scheduled tribes other backward classes minorities and women okay know that chairperson and judicial members are appointed by the president on the recommendation of a selection committee the selection committee consists of the prime minister as a chairman and the speaker of loksaba leader of opposition in the loksaba chief justice of India or judge of supreme court nominated by him and one imminent jurist as member okay so now having seen the membership will focus on its jurisdiction see the lokal has jurisdiction to enquire into allegations of corruption against public functionaries who are or who have been in the office including the prime minister minister in the union government mps officials of union government under group a b c and d also functionaries of any board corporation society trust or autonomous body either established by an act of parliament or wholly or partly funded by the union or state government or also covered under the ambit of lokal see make note of these very very important with respect to preliminary examination now coming back it also covers and society or trust or body that receives foreign contributions about rupees 10 lakh okay now moving on see for the center we have lokal and for the states we have lokal that's it but remember its structure is not the same in all states some states have created only lokal and some states created both lokal and lokal whereas some have designated officials as lokal okay the members are appointed by the governor of the state in consultation with the chief justice of the state high court and the leader of opposition in the state legislative assembly like I mentioned above there is no uniformity regarding the jurisdiction of lokal in all states see annually the lokal presents to the governor of the state a consolidated report on its performance the governor places this report before the state legislature we have to note here that the recommendations made by the lokal or only advisory are not binding on the state government okay so that's all about lokal and lokal so in this news article discussion we saw in detail about lokal members of the lokal its jurisdiction and some of its power then we saw about lokal so with these learned to points in mind now let us move to the next part of the newspaper analysis which is the preliminary practice questions now look at this first question which of the following pairs are correctly matched on one side name of showers were given and on the other side the places where they occur or given so you have to identify the correctly matched pair okay option a only one pair option b only two pair option c all three pairs and option d no pairs see the correct answer for the question is all three pairs here all the three pairs are correctly matched kaal paisagi vurdhoi sila and coffee shower or pre monsoon showers in india okay these intense weather events or examples of thunderstorms the other important pre monsoon showers in india is the mango shower it occurs in kerala and karnataka okay so the correct answer for the question is option c all three pairs now moving on to the second question consider the following statements about olive redly statement one olive redly and kim's redly are listed as vulnerable by iocn red list statement two arabada phenomenon is observed in olive redly's only which of the above statement is or or correct option a one only option b two only option c both one and two and option d neither one see the correct answer for the question is option d neither one nor two statement one is incorrect because olive redly is all listed as vulnerable but kim's redly is critically endangered okay statement two is also incorrect because arabada nesting is the behavior found only in the genus lepidoclase which includes the hymns redly and olive redly c turtles so it is observed not only in olive redly turtles but it is also observed in kim's redly also okay so the correct answer for the question is option d neither one nor two so the question displayed here is the quiz question for you today just go through the question find the correct answer and post the correct answer in the comment section i'll post the quiz question in the poll section as well you can add in the quiz there also okay now moving on the displayed question is the main's question for you today just watching the analysis alone will not help you in the long run please try to write answers and post the main's answers in the comment section we'll evaluate your answer and suggest improvements if required okay 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 shankarae's academy youtube channel thank you