 Greetings aspirants, welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankar Ayes Academy. Today's date is 14th of September 2022. So, displayed here are the list of news articles that we are going to discuss today. So, without much delay, let's get into the first news article discussion. Now, have a look at this text and context article. See, this text and context article talks about windfall tax and the issues with it. Now, suddenly, windfall tax is in news because in July, our government announced windfall tax on domestic crude oil producers. So, it becomes very important for us to know about what is this windfall tax. So, in today's discussion, let us see what is windfall tax, why it is imposed, who imposes it and finally the issues with it. Now, let's start our discussion by looking at what the windfall tax is. See, windfall tax is nothing but the tax imposed on companies making windfall profits. So, here you might have a doubt, what is this windfall profit? See, windfall gain or windfall profit is an unprecedented and unanticipated increase in revenue of a company without any additional effort due to an external event. So, here due to an external event, the revenue of a company is increasing without any additional effort. So, that we call it as windfall gain or windfall profit. Even now, if you cannot connect what is this term, let me explain it with an example. Now, let's consider a big rice mandi owner named Billu. As rice has a longer self-life, Billu has large quantity of rice in his inventory. Now, let's assume Billu has 1000 kilogram of rice in his inventory. He bought the rice for 30 rupees per kilogram. So, in normal circumstances, Billu will sell the rice for 40 rupees per kilogram and he will make a profit of 10 rupees. But suddenly there is a war between us and our good neighbour Pakistan. It might not happen but let's assume. So, in this situation, there will definitely be a foot shortage. So, the price of rice in the market will increase. Let us say it increases to 80 rupees. So, what the greedy Billu does is, he sells his rice at 80 rupees per kilogram even though he bought the rice for 30 rupees per kilogram and he will make a profit of 50 rupees per kilogram. So, here he is earning excess profit due to an unprecedented and unanticipated event without doing any extra work. Okay? So, this we call it as windfall gain or windfall profit. Hope you understood the concept. Now, the tax which is levied on this windfall gain or windfall profit is called windfall tax. Okay? So, now before seeing who levies windfall taxes, let us see a little bit of background. See, currently the crude oil industry is making killer profit. This is mainly due to the soaring price of crude oil in the international market fueled by the Russia-Ukraine war and the resulting crude oil supply crunch. Now, understand this scenario. Here, one private oil refinery in India which shall remain unnamed is making record profit. What this private company is doing is importing cheap crude oil from Russia. It is refining the crude oil in its Indian refineries. Then it is exporting the refined oil at a very high price as the price of oil in the international market is still high. So, here through this process, this private company is making phenomenal profit. Now, we can't allow this, right? So, our central government on July 1st introduced a windfall profit tax of 23,250 rupees per ton on domestic crude oil production. So, here we got the answer for who levied windfall tax, right? It is the central government. Now, let us see some of the reasons for imposing the windfall tax. First in the list is to support the vulnerable section. See, you don't believe the big oil companies in the first quarter of 2020 to alone have collectively made profits close to 100 billion dollars. The United Nations Secretary General said this is due to the collective greed of oil companies. He also said this prefeit motive of the oil companies is immoral because it is affecting the vulnerable people excessively. See, when there is an increase in petrol price in India, who suffers more is the poor and the vulnerable, right? This is because poor people spend more on fuel expenses as a percentage of their income. So, the United Nations Secretary General said windfall tax must be levied and the revenue realized by the government through this levy must be spent for the poor and the vulnerable. So, this is the reason for issuing windfall tax in the current scenario. The second reason is to reduce the government deficit. See, our central government has issued windfall tax to increase tax revenue. This is mainly due to reduce the increasing fiscal deficit and help the government adhere to the FRBM Act. So, these are the two main reasons for issuing windfall tax. Finally, let us see the issues with this tax. See, first issue is windfall tax brings in uncertainty. See, while reading our basic NCERT, we must have come across the canons of taxation by Adam Smith, right? According to that, one of the basic necessities of a good tax regime is certainty in taxes. As windfall tax is suddenly imposed at an arbitrary rate, it causes uncertainty. And this goes against the canons of taxation by Adam Smith. Second issue is that the windfall tax will affect the confidence of business. See, the big business and corporate plan their profit margin, assuming the tax rate remains constant. If there is sudden additional tax, this will affect their expected profit, which in turn affects their confidence in the government and the economy. Okay. Now, third issue is, see, not all companies will make windfall gains. In the current scenario also, we say that only one particular private company is making the majority of the profit. Some small oil companies won't be making much of the profit and windfall tax punished them. And many economists argue that this is unfair. Now, finally, the people argue that windfall gain is the reward for the company for its risk taking appetite. See, two years back, during the peak of the pandemic, the global oil prices crashed. That is, oil prices fell suddenly. At that time, all the oil companies made huge losses. At that time, the government did not provide any support system for the companies. So it is unfair to take them when they are making profit. So economists argue that the profit that the oil companies are making now is the reward for the oil companies for risking everything. So these are the four major issues with windfall tax. I think we have covered every aspect of windfall tax in this session. Very important topic. So in this news article discussion, we saw about windfall tax. Windfall tax is nothing but an unprecedented and an anticipated increase in revenue of a company without any additional effort due to an external event. Then we saw who levies it. It is none other than the central government. Then we saw the reasons for imposition. First is to support the vulnerable section. Second is to reduce the government deficit. And we saw some of the issues with the tax. First issue is when for tax brings an uncertainty. Second issue is that the windfall tax will affect the confidence of business. Thirdly, it is unfair because not all companies will make windfall gains. And finally, economists argue that the profit that the oil companies are making now is the reward for the oil companies for risking everything during the peak of pandemic. Okay, so these are all the things we saw in the news article discussion. So with these learned points, now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now for our second news article discussion, let us take up this lead editorial article. Aspirants first read the title of the article given here. What does it say? It says for India, the buzzword now is all alignment. Now you may get confused here. What was our traditional diplomatic policy in the past? It was non alignment, right? But the title says all alignment. Here it is visible that it is different from what India has been following all these days. Now don't worry the author has explained why India's buzzword now is all alignment. And that is what we are going to see in this news article discussion. Before that, the syllabus relevant to this news article is highlighted here for your reference. Just go through it. First of all, you should understand why the author has set all alignment. See this is because the external affairs minister in his book, the name of the book is the India Way. In that book, he has criticized India's traditional policy of non alignment. He says that India's policy of optimistic non alignment did not bring any benefits to India. So he suggests that hereafter, India should be ready for multiple engagements in the future. And know that India is also streaming towards this path only. That is India has started its multiple engagements journey. This is evident from the fact that Indian Prime Minister has announced his visit to Uzbekistan for the SEO summit. The summit is going to happen on September 15 and 16. And it is also clear that the global leaders also share the same vision of multiple engagements. Now how is the author telling that? See if you see in the past, SEO summits have been conducted virtually. This is because of the pandemic. But now also the global leaders have enough reason to conduct the summit virtually. What are those reasons? See still many variants of COVID are coming up and there is this Russia Ukraine war happening on one end. On the other end, China's party Congress is going to happen in the month of October. As we all know, Pakistan is handling the flood situation. So from all these, the author says that all leaders have enough reason to conduct the meeting virtually. But instead, the Uzbekistan SEO summit is going to host a full house. This shows that the global geopolitics are changing for the better. See aspirants we saw that Uzbekistan SEO summit is going to host a full house, right? So I'm going to give you a task here. Post the members of SEO in the comment section. Now coming back, you cannot say that India is focusing on all alignment just by attending SEO summit, right? Then why has the author mentioned in the title? For this question, the author has provided apt answer in the article. See the author says that Indian foreign policy is focusing on balancing various blocks now. How is this possible? I'll tell you how. See on one side, it is a member of SEO and BRICS and on the other side, it is a member of Quad and it is also a member of certain groups like I2U2, Indo-Pacific Economic Forum, IPEF, etc. See these are diverse groups with diverse ideologies and the authors say that by becoming member of such groups, India is trying to balance these blocks. Now apart from this, India recently joined the Russian led war stock army exercises along with China and it plans to host SEO rats. Here rats means regional anti-terrorist structure of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. See these are counter-terror exercises. Adding to this, the Indian Air Force took part in the Australian Pitch Black exercises and the Indian Army is planning exercises with the US close to line of actual control LAC. So now you know why the author has used the word all alignment. Now imagine a Venn diagram with all these blocks. How will it be? India will be the only country that will form the intersection. This is because India is a part of all the groupings. So this is regarding balancing various blocks. Apart from this, India is engaging independently with global leaders. The first example the author has taken is Russia. When I say Russia, what comes to your mind? It is Russia, Ukraine war right? We all know that the global leaders are criticizing Russia for this. But India refused to endorse resolutions which are critical of Russia at the United States and it often up stand on voting the resolutions. Apart from this trade wise, the engagement is getting better. India has increased the oil imports from Russia from 0.66 million tons to 8.42 million tons. In the address of Eastern Economic Forum, Mr Modi said that India wanted to strengthen the energy tie with Russia. This is because Indian public sector has made 16 billion dollar investment in Russian oil and gas fields. So here the author says that all these sends a sharp message to the Western leaders particularly. The next example that the author has taken is China. See the author says that when it comes to China, the engagement seems a little dull only. You all know why it is because of the standoff between the Indian army and the people celebration army which began in 2020. Since then the two leaders have not spoken directly. See after the standoff, the bilateral ties came to a standstill with the exception of trade. But here the author says that there is a hope for improvement. How is that? See in the SCO summit, both the leaders will meet in person and they can use this opportunity to hold talks to improve the situation. Apart from this, the author is saying that India can use the G20 summit also which is going to happen in Bali. So this is regarding China. Now the next example is Iran. See the author says that it is expected that India is going to bring the topic of Chabahar port terminal again at the SCO summit. India considers Chabahar route as an important route for trade to Central Asia and Russia. Apart from this, Iran has asked the help of India for providing support with above ground equipment and parts. This support is for its plan to extend the rail line from the Afghan border outpost to Turkmenistan. Know that this is the shortest possible route for India. You also know India will definitely aid Iran with the support. Why is this? This is because this connectivity rail line will help India in countering the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor from Guadal. Apart from this, Iran is focusing on increasing the oil export to India. See in the year 2019 US and Trump administration threatened India with sanction for the import of crude oil from Iran. So India cancelled 12% of its import from Iran at that time. But as we saw already, the geopolitical map has changed since then. Now the Biden government is focusing on re-entry to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, that is JCPOA nuclear agreement. And the Biden government is more focused on curtailing the oil revenues of Russia. So Iran wants to restore the Indian imports of Iran crude. But here India is yet to revive its old contracts. We have to wait and see what India is going to decide in this front. Now our final example is Pakistan. We all know what the scenario between India and Pakistan is. In the year 2016, India under Modi government said that India would ensure that Pakistan is isolated on the terror issue. And in the year 2019, Pakistan said that no trade with India is possible without a reversal of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. And ever since, formal communications have been stopped. But at the same time ceasefire is largely maintained at the line of control and regular border commander talks are also happening. So here also we have to wait and watch what will happen. We don't know whether Pakistan under the leader Sharif will hold a conversation with Mr Modi at the SCO and we also don't know whether India is willing to reciprocate. So these are all the individual level engagements of India with different global leaders. See the author concludes the article by saying that India's participation in SCO summit and its engagement with China, Russia, Iran, Turkey, Belarus. After its engagement with Quad, affirms the external minister belief. This shows that India is fighting for its unique brand of multi-alignment or all-alignment with the partners worldwide. This all-alignment is beneficial because India can engage with all without having to choose between them. Okay. So that's all about this news article discussion. In this news article discussion we saw in detail about why India should have all alignment and how India is moving far away from non-alignment. So with these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now take a look at this news article. See this news article says that monsoon session of Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly is going to commence from tomorrow. So in this context let us revise about sessions of the parliament. It is very important from preliminary perspective. Okay. Before that who summons the parliament? See it is the president who summons each House of Parliament to meet from time to time. Remember parliament should meet at least twice a year because the maximum gap between two sessions cannot be more than six months and this is as per article 85 of Indian Constitution. Now coming back there are usually three sessions of parliament in a year. One is budget session which is held in the period from February to May. Then there is monsoon session which is usually held in the period July to September. Then there is winter session which is held in the month of November and December. Okay. So when we say a session of parliament it refers to the period spanning between the first sitting of the House in a session and its prorogation. And when we say recess it refers to the period spanning between the prorogation of a House and it's reassembly in a new session. Okay. Have this understanding. Now let us see some of the terms that are associated with sessions of parliament. They include adjournment, adjournment sende, prorogation, dissolution and quorum. Okay. We'll see about these terms in brief one by one. See as you know a session of parliament has many meetings. Each meeting in a day consists of two sittings. A sitting of a parliament can be terminated by adjournment. So here adjournment means termination of the sitting of the House. Okay. And remember after the termination of the sitting the House meets again at the time appointed for the next sitting. So what does this word adjournments in day means? It refers to termination of a sitting of the House without any definite date being fixed for the next sitting. Okay. So this is the major difference between adjournment and adjournment sende. And remember the power of both adjournment and adjournment sende lies with the presiding officer of the House. Yesterday we saw about presiding officer of the House. Right. If you did not see that go and watch and get to know some of the powers of the presiding officer of the House. Okay. Now coming to prorogation. See it refers to termination of a session of the House by any order made by the President. So it is not done by the presiding officer but by the President of India. Now coming to disillusion. See as we know only Lok Sabha is subjected to dissolution as Rajesh Sabha is a permanent House it is not subjected to dissolution. While the prorogation terminates a session of the Lok Sabha, dissolution terminates the life of the existing Lok Sabha. Okay. So here after prorogation the same parliament including the same MPs they reconvene and participate in the session of a parliament but in case of dissolution an election takes place and a new parliament is formed and this newly formed parliament only will attend the session of the parliament. Okay. Now let us see about the quorum of the House. See it refers to the minimum number of members required to be present in the House so that the House can transact any business. Okay. Remember Article 100 deals with the quorum of the House and as per the article the quorum to constitute a meeting of either House of the Parliament shall be one tenth of the total number of members of the House. So if there is no quorum at any time during a meeting it shall be the duty of the chairman or speaker either to adjourn the House or to suspend the meeting until there is a quorum. Okay. So these are all some of the very important terms that you have to retain with respect to sessions of parliament as this is a static topic. Now take this as an exercise post in the comment section the difference between question hour and zero hour. So this exercise will help you in revising the static portion. So with these learnt points now let us move on to the next part of the new statistical discussion which is the preliminary practice question discussion. Now we have two questions to discuss. Now look at this first question consider the following statements with respect to adjournment motion. Statement one the adjournment motion is introduced in the parliament to draw the attention of the House to a definite matter of urgent public importance. Statement two adjournment motion requires the support of 50 members to be admitted and statement three unlike no confidence motion which must be introduced only in Lok Sabha adjournment motion can be introduced in both houses of the parliament. So you have to choose the correct answer using the quotes given below. Option a one and two only option v two and three only option c one and three only and option d one two and three. See the correct answer for the question is option a one and two only say adjournment and adjournment sin day that we saw in the discussion or different from adjournment motion. Here adjournment motion is introduced to draw the attention of the House to a definite matter of urgent public importance. So statement one is correct. Statement two is also correct because adjournment motion requires the support of 50 members to be submitted in the House. So this statement is correct. Now statement three is incorrect because adjournment motion is regarded as an extraordinary device because it interrupts the normal business of the House. So it can be only introduced in Lok Sabha. Now moving on this question is about the subsidiary power of legislation in India. Statement one article 248 of the Indian constitution deals with the subsidiary power of legislation. Statement two according to article 248 parliament has the power to impose tags on subjects that is not mentioned in concurrent list and state list. So you have to choose the correct answer here. Option a one only option b two only option c both one and two and option d neither one nor two. See the correct answer for the question is option c both one and two. Article 248 of the Indian constitution actually deals with the subsidiary power of legislation and according to this article only parliament has the power to impose tags on subjects that is not mentioned in concurrent list and state list. Okay. So the correct answer for the question is option c both one and two. So the questions displayed here or the main questions for you today just go through the questions write an answer and post it in the comment section. So with this we came to the end of the news article discussion. If you like the video hit like do comment and don't forget to subscribe to Shankar IS Academy YouTube channel. Thank you.