 A very good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankar IA's Academy for the date 20th of July 2022. Displayed here at the list of news articles that we have chosen for today's discussion. In this discussion, the first news article that we are going to discuss is very much relevant for your upcoming means examination. Also I had made a point to discuss the other articles in both preliminary as well as main's perspective. Now, without wasting much time, let's get into the first news article discussion. Look at this op-ed article, see recently the Union Ministry of Health published a new draft bill to replace the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940. As the drugs and cosmetic act 1940 is a pre-independent era act, our government has decided to replace it and this is to accommodate the changing times. This article highlights the issues with the recently published draft bill. So in this discussion, we'll first see the provisions of the drugs and cosmetics act 1940, then we'll see some provisions of the new draft bill and finally we'll see the issues with the draft bill that the author of this article has highlighted. Before getting into the discussion, I have highlighted the syllabus regarding this discussion and you can go through it. Now let us start our discussion. First, let us take a look at major provisions of the drugs and cosmetics act 1940. See the drugs and cosmetics act 1940 was mainly enacted to regulate the import, manufacture and distribution of drugs in India. The act tries to or aims to ensure that the drugs and cosmetics sold in India are safe, effective and conform to the state quality standards. Here we must also know about the drugs and cosmetic rules 1945 also. The drugs and cosmetic rules 1945 are the set of rules under the drugs and cosmetics act 1940. See we might have heard a doctor say that a particular medicine is a scheduled medicine, right? This drugs and cosmetic rules 1945 is the one that gives you provision for the classification of the various drugs into different schedules. In addition to this, it also contains various guidelines for storage, sale, display and prescription of drugs of various schedules. For example, Paracetamol is sold over the counter whereas Benzor Discipline is not sold over the counter. This classification is made by the drugs and cosmetic rules 1945. Okay while we are here we must also know about two bodies. First one is the drugs technical advisory body. The drugs technical advisory body is a statutory body. It is constituted under the drugs and cosmetics act 1940. The main function of this body is to provide expert advice to the central and state government on the technical matters related to drugs and cosmetics. Okay the second one is the central drug standard control organization. See it is the National Drugs Regulatory Authority of India. The drugs and cosmetic act 1940 and the drugs and cosmetic rules 1945 has various provisions, right? These provisions are implemented by the central drug standard control organization. Okay see it is under the control of the union health ministry and its function mainly includes regulation of import of drugs, setting standards for drugs and to decide whether new drugs have adequate clinical evidence before they can be sold. Okay this is headed by the drug controller general of India. And when you take on the state level there are state drug controllers. One in each state and union territory. The functions of the state drug controllers include providing license to the drug manufacturers, picking up sample drugs from the market and checking their quality and finally to prosecute the drug manufacturers when the sample drugs are found to be substandard. Okay see this is about the drugs and cosmetics act 1940. Now let us see the major provisions under the recently published new draft drug medical devices in cosmetics bill 2022. The first major provision is that this bill separately defines medical device which was not done in the drugs and cosmetics act 1940. The 1940 act no regulated medical devices is one of the four categories of drugs. In addition to this the new bill creates a separate medical devices technical advisory board in the similar lines of the drugs technical advisory board. Okay see earlier the drugs technical advisory board advises governments in relation to both drugs and medical devices. Okay the new bill proposed that the medical devices technical advisory board will provide advice to the government in regards to medical devices. This medical devices technical advisory board will include medical professionals and also people with technical knowledge of the devices. Okay see currently you know there is a network of central and state testing labs for testing drugs all over India. Likewise the new bill proposes setting up of a network of central and state testing labs for testing medical devices also. The pharma industry in India is growing in a fast phase am I right? Medical devices are a major part of it in order to capture the export market proper standards have to be maintained. Right so this network of testing labs will help ensure global standards in the medical devices. And now the last major provision in the new bill is regards to rules for online pharmacy. There has been an explosion of online pharmacies like netmeds, 1MG, upload into 7 etc etc am I right? So to regulate these the bill proposes that the central government must frame separate rules. This will help provide a common regulatory framework for all online pharmacies all over India. These are some of the major provisions of the recently published new draft drugs medical devices and cosmetics bill 2022. Now having seen this now let us see the issues in the draft bill highlighted by the author in this editorial article. See the author feels that although the bill introduces some provisions regarding medical devices and online pharmacy the bill fails to address the issues in regards to drug regulation that is there is nothing new in this bill regarding drug regulation. This is why the oped article is aptly titled a new legislation that mirrors the old. Now let us see the first issue see presently under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 for the regulation of the drugs what the drug inspectors do is they pick up random drugs from the market and test its efficiency. If the drug is found not up to the standards the manufacturer of the drug is prosecuted. This method is faulty at its core. See there is a huge room for error am I right? And in this method a lot relies on fate for example if a drug manufacturer makes 80 good tablets and 20 faulty tablets during the random testing the drug inspector happens to pick up one of the 80 good tablets. So in the eyes of the drug inspector there is nothing with the tablet that he has picked so he will not take action against the drug manufacturers right? In this case 20 faulty tablets will still be in the market and will affect the life of the people who consume the faulty ones. This is why world over countries have moved from this method of testing to the GMP method that is good manufacturing practices method. In the GMP method all the drug manufacturers are made to follow good manufacturing practices. So inspections by drug inspectors are done not after the drug is manufactured but while the drug is being manufactured. This kind of inspection will ensure all the drugs leaving the manufacturing standards to be up to these standards right? The drug to build still has not endorsed the GMP method and relies on the old method of inspection for regulation of drugs. This is the first issue highlighted by the author of the editorial. Now moving on to the second issue as we saw while we were discussing the provisions of the drugs in cosmetics act 1940 the central drug standard control organization has a limited role compared to the state drug regulators. The central drug standard control organization only deals with regulation of import of drugs setting standards and ensuring the drugs have gone through proper clinical trials. It is only the state drug regulator that enforces the drug standards and prosecutes the drug manufacturers when they violate these standards. As there are a total of 37 state drug regulators in India one in each state and union territory there is a lot of non-uniformity. For example take Himachal Pradesh it has very lax regulatory standards. In addition to this the Himachal Pradesh government provides tax holidays for drug manufacturers. So a lot of medicine manufacturing in India happens in Himachal but in case of Tamil Nadu which has strict safety standards finds fault with the drug which the manufacturing base is in Himachal Pradesh. It cannot cancel the license of the drug manufacturer because only the Himachal Pradesh government can take action against them. Due to this even those states like Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Karnataka have higher standards they have to deal with substandard drugs from Himachal Pradesh. To address this in the case of countries like the US the drug standards are common for all the states and it is enforced by a central authority. This kind of mechanism has to be introduced in India by empowering the central drug standard control organization and expanding its role. The draftable is silent on this issue also. This is the second fold in the draftable highlighted by the author. And moving on to the last issue almost all the decisions regarding drugs are decided by unelected bureaucrats and technical experts. Although the decisions of these experts are based on scientific data to ensure accountability transparency must be ensured. See under the present scenario after a decision regarding a drug is made the data based on which the decision was arrived at can be assessed only through the Ride to Information Act 2005. The data is not published to the public by default. The author feels that all clinical test data and the inspection results must be made available to the public by default. See this will ensure accountability right? But the bill is silent on this aspect also. So the draftable fails to make accommodation for public participation in decision making process. So this is the third issue highlighted by the author in this article. All the issues in the draftable highlighted here are in relation to drug regulation. This is why the author feels that the draftable is a copy of the old law and there is nothing new in regards to drug regulation. Okay so that's all about this news article. See this news article is very much important for your upcoming mains examination and also I had made a point to relate something to the preliminary examination also. All the bodies or act can be straight to be put as a preliminary type of question. Okay so if a question comes in mains like critically analyze the new draft drug medical devices and cosmetics bill 2022 you can absolutely use the points that we discussed today. Okay so these key points in mind now let's move on to the next news article discussion. Take a look at this article it says that the former Rajasthan governor filed her nomination papers for the vice presidential elections. This happened yesterday and this is the crux of the news article given here. In this context let us learn about the election of vice president from preliminary perspective. See the manner of election of vice president is given in the article 66 of the Indian constitution. As per article 66 the vice president shall be elected by the members of an electoral college. Now let us see who are all present in this electoral college. See this electoral college consists of the members of both houses of the parliament. So the electoral college consists of both the elected and nominated members of both the houses that is both Lok Sabha and Rajasabha. And the election is held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. One more thing to note here is that the voting at the election is done by secret ballot. While reading the election of vice president revise the election manner of president also. There is only a minor difference in these two. See for president election the concerned article in the constitution is article 54. As per the article the president shall be elected by the members of an electoral college consisting of the elected members of both the houses of parliament and the elected members of the legislative assemblies of the states. So the electoral college consists of only the elected members from both Lok Sabha and Rajasabha. And only the elected members from the state legislative assemblies. Am I right? And here the elected members from the union territories which have legislative assembly will also be included. See when compared to vice president's election two differences are there. One is the electoral college for president's election consists of members from the state legislatures. But it is not in the case in vice president's election. It consists of members from only the parliament. Am I right? And the second difference is that the electoral college for president election consists only the elected members from parliament and state legislatures. But in the case of vice president both elected and nominated members of the parliament take part in the election. Am I right? So note the difference and learn the difference. Now coming back to vice president election. See other thing that you have to remember regarding the election of vice president is that the vice president shall not be a member of either house of the parliament or of the house of the legislature of any state and if he is a member then he should vacate his seat in that house on the date on which he enters his office. Now let's learn about the eligibility criteria. See the eligibility criteria includes that he or she should be a citizen of India or he or she should have completed the age of 35 years and they should be qualified for election as a member of the council of the states and they should not hold any office of profit under the government of India or the government of any state or under any local or other authority subject to the control of any of the said governments. Finally note that the vice president is elected for a period of five years. Now with these information go and read about the removal and resignation process of vice president also so that you can complete this vice president topic holistically. So that's all about this news article. In this news article discussion we saw about the election of vice president along with that we saw the election of president also that is we saw the difference between the two elections. So with these key points in mind now let's move on to the next news article discussion. See this article here it says that the Comptroller and Auditor General that is CAG asked the telecom department to review the spectrum pricing mechanism for captive users. See the department of telecom had noted finalized the policy for allotment and assignment of spectrum for captive users or rather commercial services with the approval of the Digital Communications Commission. Now that DCC or the Digital Communications Commission is the apex body for telecom policy formulation and this is about the article given here in this context that is understand more about CAG that is Comptroller and Auditor General. See as per the article 148 of the Indian Constitution it is said that there shall be a Comptroller and Auditor General of India that is CAG of India. He shall be appointed by the president by warrant under his hand and seat. See he will be removed from the office on the same grounds as a judge of the Supreme Court. See read about the removal procedure for the judge of the Supreme Court it will be very much useful for your preliminary examination. So from this what we can know we know that Indian Constitution does not provide for any qualifications or eligibility criteria for CAG but note that he holds office for a period of six years or up to the age of 65 years. In this whichever is early that will be the period of service. It is given in the article that the CAG shall not be eligible for further office either under the government of India or under the government of any state after he has seized to hold his office. It was also given in the article that the salary and other conditions of service of the CAG shall be such as may be determined by the parliament by law and until they are determined it shall be as specified in the second schedule. Also note that the administrative expenses of the office of the CAG including all salaries, allowances and pensions payable to CAG or in respect of persons serving in that office is charged upon the consolidated fund of India that is CFI. See all these provisions that we saw so far ensures the independence of CAG. Apart from this note that the conditions of service of persons serving in the Indian audit and accounts department and the administrative powers of the CAG shall be prescribed by rules made by the president this is after the consultation of the CAG. Now let us see about the functions and powers of CAG. See according to article 149 of the constitution which deals with the duties and powers of CAG it is said that the duties and powers of CAG in relation to the accounts of the union and of the states is prescribed by law made by the parliament. Accordingly the parliament enacted the CAGs that is CAG's duties, powers, conditions of service act 1971. This act was amended in the year 1976 to separate accounts from audit in the central government. See I have displayed some of the important duties and powers of CAG here just go through it. For example he or she audits the accounts related to all expenditure from the consolidated fund of India, consolidated fund of each state and consolidated fund of each union territory having a legislative assembly. Then he also audits the accounts related to all the expenditure from the contingency fund of India and the public accounts of India as well. Not only this he also audits the accounts related to all the expenditure from the contingency fund of each state and the public account of each state also. Then he audits all trading, manufacturing, profit and loss accounts, balance sheets and other subsidiary accounts kept by any department of the central government and state government. See he even advises the president with regard to the prescription of the form in which the accounts of the center in the state shall be kept. Then he acts as a guide, friend and philosopher of the public accounts committee of the parliament. One important thing that you have to remember is he ascertains and certifies the net proceeds of any tax or duty which is mentioned in article 279. The certificate is final in this matter. And one important power or function that you have to remember is the CAG submits three audit reports to the president. One is the audit report on the appropriation accounts, other one is the audit report on finance account and the last one is the audit report on public undertakings. So that is all about this news article. See regarding the functions and power go through all the points that I have given here and I have discussed some few important points alone. But you have to go through all the important points. See these kind of static topics are very much important for your preliminary examination because straight away questions are asked from these topics. So these key points in mind now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Look at this article. In this article our finance minister says the rationale behind the imposition of GST on unbranded, pre-packed and pre-labeled food products. We all know that recently some articles were brought under the GST rigid. So in this discussion we will see the list of articles for which the GST rates are altered. We will also see our finance minister's argument on it, okay. See after the 47th GST council meet the GST rates were revised for many items. The council headed by the finance minister decided on bringing packed foods like milk curd and paneer, unpacked ones like rice and wheat when packed in to 5% GST rate. The other items that are brought under the 5% GST rate are jaggery, puffed rice, organic food. The rest are given in the table and you can just go through it. See the solar water heaters earlier attracted 5% GST but they are now brought under the 12% bracket whereas take the renting of trucks and goods carriage that attracted 18% GST earlier is now reduced to 12% GST. The other items brought under the 12% GST bracket are displayed here. You can just go through it. Then take LED lamps, tetrapacks and drawing instruments will now become costlier as they will start attracting 18% GST from now on. The rest of the articles brought under the 18% bracket are displayed here. You can go through it. See I am providing with these articles so that you can pick whichever article brought under GST is debatable and utilize it into your main's answer writing, okay. This I am saying whenever the question is like critically analyze the bringing in of new items into GST project, okay. Then having seen this now let us see the rationale behind the imposition of GST on unbranded pre-packed and pre-labeled food products as highlighted by our finance minister. See our finance minister said earlier when 5% GST was issued for pre-packed branded cereals, pulses, flow there was rampant misuse by various manufacturers and brand owners. So there was a lot of tax evasion. It is only due to this and to avoid the tax leakage the GST of 5% will be imposed on unbranded pre-packed and pre-labeled food products. In addition to this our finance minister clarified that all food items including wheat, pulses, rice, maize, curd and a sea would be exempt from GST when so loose and when they are not pre-packed, okay. So this is about this news article. See I had taken this article so as to make you aware of the current scenario that is going on with this GST topic, okay. If you want to brush up about the GST you can just watch our Hindu news analysis dated on June 30, okay and that is June 30, 2022. So these key points in mind now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now have a look at this news article. See this news article talks about GST compensation. We all know that GST came into effect on 1st July 2017. Initially the states feared that implementation of GST will result in revenue losses to the states. To address this concern of the states the union government proposed the GST compensation. The union government said it will compensate the state's laws and revenue due to implementation of GST for the next five years. As the states feared they lost revenue due to the implementation of GST. So the union government has been providing compensatory funds to the states who face laws of revenue. This five-year period that we are talking about has now come to an end. So hereafter the union government will not compensate the state government for the laws of revenue. The news article says that although the GST election has not met the expectation of both the union and the state governments, the union by imposing more tax on non-shareable revenues like union excise duty on petrol, diesel and aviation turbine fuel has compensated its loss. So it is the states know that are now left without any help as the GST compensation period ended. Mainly if you take states like Punjab and Goa they will face the most stress. So that is all about this news article. So in this news article and in the previous news article we saw about the current situation that is running on the topic GST. So this can be put as your main question directly. And for preparing for your preliminary examination I had mentioned that in our June 30, 2022 article we had brushed about this GST clearly. You can just go through it for your prelims perspective. So regarding this GST compensation end and bringing in new items into GST regime there might be a mains related question for you. So utilize these points to enrich your mains answers. So with these key points in mind now let us move on to the next part of the news article discussion which is the preliminary practice question discussion. Today we have three questions in which two questions I will be discussing and one question will be a quiz question for you. Okay. Now look at this first question. See it is regarding the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. Two statements are given. So whenever two statements are given we have to go through both the statements before answering the question. Am I right? Now let us look into the first statement. See statement one is incorrect. According to article 151 it has said that the reports of the CAG relating to the accounts of the Union shall be submitted to the President who shall lay it before each House of the Parliament. And in that clause 2 says that the reports of the CAG relating to the accounts of the State it shall be submitted to the Governor who shall lay it before the Legislature of the State. So the statement one which says that the reports of the CAG relating to the accounts of the Union and the States are submitted to the President is incorrect. Only there of the Union is submitted to the President. Okay. Now look at statement 2. See statement 2 is correct. According to article 150 the accounts of the Union and of the State shall be kept in such form as the President may prescribe on the advice of the CAG or the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. It is clearly mentioned in article 150. Okay. So this statement is correct. Now read the full question. The question is demanding for correct statement. So your answer here will be option B, 2 only. Now let us move on to the second question. See this question is regarding the Vice President. Okay. This is also a two statement question. So I am going to go through both statements before arriving at the answer. Okay. Now look at statement 1. See statement 1 is incorrect. See as per article 60 in clause 2 an election to fill vacancy in the office of the Vice President occurring by the reason of his death, resignation or removal then the person elected to fill the vacancy shall be entitled to hold office for the full term of five years from the date on which he enters upon his office. Okay. So the statement 1 which says that he or she who is elected to fill the vacancy can hold the office only for the remaining period of the term is incorrect. Now look at statement 2. See the statement 2 is also incorrect. As per article 67, a Vice President may be removed from his office by a resolution of the council of states. So formal impeachment is not required for his removal. The resolution should be passed by a majority of all the then members of the council and agreed to by the House of the People by a simple majority that is majority of the members present and voting. So the statement 2 which says a Vice President is removed from his or her office in the same manner as there of the President is incorrect because for President we go for impeachment. Okay. Now look at the question. The question is demanding for correct statements. Yes, the answer here will be option D neither one nor two. Now displayed here is the quiz question for you. See this is regarding the GST. As I said if you go through the basic concepts about GST you can answer this question very well. It is a very easy question. So try answering this question, post your answers in the comment section and the right answer will be posted in the comment section itself. Okay. So that's all for today's prelims practice question and quiz question. Now let's move on to the mains practice question. Go through the question once and try to write answer for this question. See keep writing. It will be very much useful for improving your writing skills for attempting the mains examination. Okay. So that's all for today's discussion. If you like this video do like, share and comment and don't forget to subscribe to the Shankara's Academies YouTube channel. Thank you for listening.