 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Iyer's Academy for the day 2nd March 2021. These are the list of news articles chosen for today's discussion. They are given along with the page numbers of different editions. The link for the annotated notes in PDF format and the time stamping for the discussed articles are provided in the description box as well as in the comment section for the benefit of mobile phone users. Now let us move on to the analysis of the first news article. Now let us take up this editorial article. In this article the author criticizes the powers of the chief justice of India as the master of the roster. So in this context, we will see the important points mentioned by the author to justify his criticism. The syllabus for the news article is highlighted below for your reference. Before we move further, first we should know what is meant by this master of the roster system. See, this master of the roster system is also called as MOR system and it refers to the privilege of the chief justice to constitute benches to hear cases. Be it the chief justice of India or the chief justice of any high court, it is he or she who heads their administrative side. And this includes allocation of matters before a judge as well, so no judge can take up the matter on his own unless it is allocated by the chief justice. So this means that the chief justice decides when a case may be listed for hearing and he or she also decides which judges will hear it. Here it is to be noted that the MOR system was regarded as an efficient tool of administration and the allocation of cases to benches in the Supreme Court. But many scholars have expressed their distaste for the prerogative of the MOR mechanism. The primary disagreement is based on the argument that it excessively empowers the individual who happens to be the chief justice of India at any point to constitute benches and to allocate cases according to his whims and fancies. Remember in 2018, four of the senior most judges of the Supreme Court had held a press conference and in the press conference, they expressed concern about the manner in which the chief justice of India was administering the court and they released a letter that they had written to him. At the heart of the controversy was the chief justice's power as a master of the roster. Note that the MOR system is followed by many constitutional courts across the world and it facilitates smooth and efficient judicial functioning. It is to be noted that many cases had come up before Supreme Court to dilute this power of the chief justice of India but the Supreme Court was reluctant to dilute this power. In Ashok Pandey vices the Supreme Court of India case in 2018, her three judge bench of the court held that MOR is the chief justice of India's exclusive power and also a two judge bench in Shanti Bhushan vices the Supreme Court of India case in 2018 rejected the plea that the master of the roster should be interpreted as the Collegium. See the Collegium system was introduced by the Supreme Court itself and it is basically a selection panel which consists of a group of senior most judges of the Supreme Court and this panel will select the names of the judges to be appointed. The chief justice of India then forwards the recommendation to the government and the prime minister will advise the president in the matter of appointment and finally the president appoints the judges to the Supreme Court. Now let us see what the author has got to say about this. See the author notes that this MOR system is a threat to the judiciary and to substantiate his view he takes the example of a 2019 case which involved sexual harassment allegations against former chief justice of India Ranjan Gogoy by a former female junior court officer but this MOR system enabled the sitting justice Gogoy to institute sewer motor proceedings despite being an accused and he labelled the case as a matter of judicial independence and he presided over it and denied the allegations. So in this regard no judicial orders were passed and the chief justice stepped aside and after two years the case was heard by the Supreme Court on February 18, 2021 but it was closed and the proceedings were disposed of. So this is the brief about the case. Now the author notes that if the Chief Justice of India is made as a sole MOR and if he or she is a compliant or a corrupt person then the executor will be able to influence the Supreme Court. Say for example attractive lawyer of post retirement job can influence a corrupt judge to bend towards the whims of the executor and this can have serious repercussions on the sanctity of the judiciary. And in this regard the author points to the saying of B. R. Ambedkar where Ambedkar wants the Constituent Assembly saying that after all the Chief Justice is a man with all the feelings, all the sentiments and all the prejudices which we as common people have got. And so we can never be sure that such a person will be completely rational or impartial and this MOR system adds danger to this. Author demands reforms in judiciary in this regard and maybe if MOR system is diluted to a level of collegium system then it can assure impartiality to a greater extent. With this information let us move on to the next news article. See this article, it is with reference to the affairs of the West Asia or the Middle East and in this article we will discuss the JCPOA and how the fate of JCPOA is dependent on the US, Iran and other JCPOA partners. As we all know the joint comprehensive plan of action was the result of prolonged negotiations from 2013 and 2015 between Iran and P5 plus 1 countries which included China, France, Germany, Russia UK, US and the European Union or the EU. This agreement has placed a limit on Iran's nuclear program and in turn US and other European nations have lifted the sanctions on Iran. This JCPOA was finalized during President Barack Obama's period and he described the JCPOA as his greatest diplomatic success. Now before this Iran was then estimated to be months away from accumulating enough highly enriched uranium to produce a nuclear device. The JCPOA obliged Iran to accept constraints on its enrichment program verified by the IAEA in return for a partial lifting of economic sanctions. But due to lack of majority in the senate President Obama was unable to get the nuclear deal ratified but implemented it based on periodic executive orders in order to keep sanction waivers going. But the latter president Donald Trump was not in support of JCPOA and consequently in 2018 US unilaterally pulled itself out of JCPOA and has reinforced economic sanctions on Iran under the policy of maximum pressure to cause Iran back to the negotiation as President Trump felt that the JCPOA in the current format is not in the US favor. This US decision was criticized by all other partners of JCPOA because Iran was following its obligation as certified by the International Atomic Energy Agency. For the first year after the agreement with Royal that is in 2019 Iran's response was minimal as the E3 countries that is the France, Germany and UK and the European Union promised to find ways to mitigate the US decision. And they came up with an economic system that is Instex Barter mechanism Instex stands for instrument in support of trade exchanges and this Instex Barter mechanism was designed to circumvent US sanctions against trade with Iran by avoiding the use of nuclear. As the anticipated economic relief from the E3 or EU under Instex failed to materialize by May 2019 Iran shifted to a strategy of maximum resistance against coercion of the United States. As the sanctions began to hurt its economy Iran started enriching uranium and it also stepped up the research and development on advanced centrifuge etc. To make it even worse in January 2020 US sent Islamic Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps commander in a drone strike and after this Iran announced that it would no longer observe the JCPOA's obligations though it continued its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Tensions rose as the US pushed ahead with its unilateral sanctions and a maximum pressure strategy covering nearly all Iranian banks connected to the global financial system industries related to metallurgy and shipping the individuals were related to the defense intelligence and nuclear establishments and even senior political leaders including the Iran's supreme leader and foreign minister. A recent IAEA report is confirmed that Iran is proceeding for 20% uranium enrichment and as we explained last week IAEA managed to get 3 more months of Iran's compliance to the additional protocol which Iran had voluntarily accepted in the year 2015. Now with the new President Joe Biden assuming the power it is expected that things will change as Mr Biden has consistently advocated a return to the JCPOA if Iran returns to full compliance and in return Iran has always said that if US lifts its sanctions it will comply. So the problem is who bends first. If the US waits for Iran to return to full compliance before lifting sanctions or Iran waits for US to restore sanctions relief before returning to full compliance the author predicts that it will only lead to a disastrous result that is the complete collapse of the JCPOA and Iran becoming a nuclear power like that of North Korea. See this is dangerous not just for the West Asian region but to the entire world as well. So what is the safe way out? The author says that positive steps along multiple tracks are necessary for creating a conducive power and the release of European and American nationals currently in custody in Iran would increase the trust and also clearing Iran's applications to the International Monetary Fund for COVID-19 relief and for the supply of vaccines under the International Covax facility can be done easily by the Western powers. The in-stecks pipeline of E3 can be streamlined which will help Iran with several hundred million euros and Biden's administration can reverse Mr Trump's executive order of 2018 which will relax certain sanctions on Iran. See this would send a positive signal to Iran and meanwhile Iran needs to refrain from any further nuclear advancements. In addition the IAEA and the E3 or EU should work on a parallel reversal of steps taken by Iran in order to ensure full compliance with the JCPOA. See broadly there are three major powers in the West Asian region and they are Iran, Israel and Saudi Arabia. If Iran goes nuclear then the other two powers will also turn towards nuclear research which is not good for global peace and to survive mankind. So Iran should be persuaded to abandon its nuclear program as the coercive tactics of the US has failed. With this we have come to the end of this particular news discussion. Let's move on to the next news article. This news article mentions that the goods and services tax or GST collection has rose 7% for the month of February in 2021. In this context let us discuss about GST and then the news article. The syllabus for the news article is highlighted below for your reference. First know that in 2005 Kelkar task force on fiscal responsibility and budget management had suggested a comprehensive GST. So after taking relevant measures such as proper legislation the GST was brought into force on 1st of July in the year 2017. Here note that constitution for 101st amendment act of 2016 inserted a new article that is article 246A and others into the constitution which makes an enabling provision for the union and states with respect to the GST legislation. So now we will see what is GST. See GST is an indirect tax which has replaced many indirect taxes in India and before GST regime we had a different indirect tax structure in our country. Before the central government they levied tax on manufacture and this tax is called as the central excise duty. Then the central government levied tax on provision of services or which is called as the service tax and then they were also tax on interstate sale of goods and this interstate sale of goods tax was called as the central sales tax. Here you should note that though the central sales tax was levied by the central it was collected and appropriated by the states. In addition to these taxes the state government also levied taxes on retail sales which is called as the value added tax on the entry of goods in the state or the entry tax and they were also taxes like luxury tax purchase tax etc. So it is clearly visible that there are multiplicities of taxes which are being levied on the same supply chain before GST came into existence. But the introduction of GST was a very significant step in the field of indirect tax reforms in India because this concept of GST has replaced around 17 indirect taxes that is these indirect taxes were consolidated or they were merged together into one single tax called as the goods and services tax. This amalgamation of a large number of central and states tax into a single tax they reduced the ill effects of cascading taxation or double taxation in a very significant or major way. And also this paved way for a common national market from a consumer point of view the biggest advantage with GST is the reduction in overall tax burden on goods. Previously the tax burden on goods were estimated to be around 25 to 30 percent. Now let's understand this with an example. See assume that a manufacturer is making pens and he is obtaining the raw materials for 100 rupees. This 100 rupees includes 10 percent tax which means that the manufacturer has to pay rupees 10 as a tax for raw materials which is worth of rupees 90. Next in the process of manufacturing the pen he or she is adding value of rupees 50 to the original materials. So therefore the total value of the product is now rupees 100 plus rupees 50 that is the 100 rupees which he or she spent for the raw materials plus the 50 percent of value which he or she is adding to the materials. So now the total value of the product is rupees 150. Now again a 10 percent of taxes is added on the finished goods so that then again a 10 percent taxes due on the finished goods so that the taxes 10 percent of 150 which comes to rupees 15. Now the final product which is a pen its rate is total value of the product plus the tax on finished goods that is 150 rupees plus 15 rupees therefore the total value of the final value of the pen is rupees 165. So this was the scenario in the pre-GST regime where on different levels of supply chain taxes were imposed. But now under the GST system this additional tax of rupees 15 can be applied against the previous tax which he or she paid which was rupees 10. So this brings the effective tax rate on the final product of the pen to rupees 15 minus the previously paid tax of rupees 10 so that is which is equal to rupees 5. So now after in the GST regime the effective tax rate on the final product will be rupees 5 only and the price of the final product is rupees 150 plus this rupees 5 taxation so therefore the final product is rupees 155 and it will not be rupees 165 has that was existed before the introduction of GST. So this is how the GST removes the cascading effect that is the tax on tax or double taxation effect. So remember that all the taxes which we mentioned earlier are subsumed into a single tax called as GST and it is levied on supply of goods or services or both at each stage of the supply chain starting from manufacturer or import till the last retail level. See it is a consumption tax that is based on the credit invoice method where only the value addition at each stages tax with seamless flow of credit along the supply chain. This GST is a dual livy that is the central government will levy and collect central GST and the state will levy and collect state GST on intra state supply of goods and services and this concept of dual GST model has been adopted in the view of the federal structure of our country and additionally the center will also levy and collect integrated GST on inter state supply of goods or services. Now today's news says that the gross GST collections for the month of February has grown to 7% it is about 1.13 lakh crore and this is the third consecutive month that the collections have crossed 1.1 lakh crore and the reason for this is the reason revenues from goods imports etc and according to the government this indicates economic recovery. Now with this let's move on to the next news article. This news article talks about a reason trade report by the United States of America and in its report USA has indicated certain trade issues with India and it has noted that India's largest market economic growth and progress towards development has made India an essential market for US exporters but the report calls India's policies as trade restrictive and it claims that this has impeded bilateral trade relationship between India and USA and among other policies it has also pointed out India's make in India program as an issues. So in this regard let us know about the make in India program. So it was launched by the government of India in September 2014 and it has been devised to transform India into global innovation and manufacturing hub. The make in India program aims to facilitate investment and foster innovation and also to enhance skill development, protect intellectual property and to build best in class manufacturing infrastructure. See this make in India program is not only a powerful and motivating call to action to Indian citizens and business leaders but also it is an invitation to potential partners and investors all around the world but note that this make in India is not just an inspiring slogan rather it represents a comprehensive and unprecedented overall of how dated processes and policies. Most importantly the program represents a complete change of the government shift from issuing authority to a business partner and now the program or the campaign has got three main tasks. The first task is to inspire confidence among potential partners throughout Indian business community and citizens in India's capabilities. Secondly it needs to provide a framework for a vast amount of technical information on 25 industry sectors and thirdly its task is to reach out to a vast local and global audience via social media and to constantly keep them updated about opportunities reforms etc. Next note that this initiative a program is based on four pillars. The first pillar is new processes and under this pillar the make in India program recognizes ease of doing business as the single most important factor to promote entrepreneurship. So various initiatives have been undertaken to ease business environment and here the aim is to de-license and deregulate the industry during the entire life cycle of a business. The second pillar is new infrastructure and this specifies that availability of modern and facilitating infrastructure is a very important requirement for an industry to grow. So in this regard the government is developing industrial corridors and smart cities in order to facilitate and provide infrastructure based on the state of the art technology along with modern high speed communication and integrated logistic arrangements. Plus the existing infrastructure will also be strengthened through infrastructure upgradation in industrial clusters etc. The next is new sectors. See the make in India initiative is identified 25 sectors across manufacturing infrastructure and service activities and detailed information about them is being shared through interactive web portal and professionally developed brochures. And the final initiative is related to the new mindset that is in changing industries mindset from seeing government as a regulator to seeing government as a partner and a facilitator. With this we have come to the end of the news discussion. Next let's take up his editorial which is about the financial action task force and Pakistan with respect to countering the cross border terror financing. The news is that FATF for the financial action task force has decided once again to keep Pakistan on its real list of countries under increased monitoring by giving it another three months to complete its commitments. To curtail laundering and terror financing FATF gave a 27 point action plan to Pakistan. Though Pakistan made significant progress it has got three remaining points out of 27 that were only partially addressed and the three incomplete points are found to be in the area of curbing terror financing. At present Pakistan is in the grey list of FATF. See grey list is a common group for countries that are termed high risk and non-cooperative jurisdiction and it includes countries that have got deficiencies in their money laundering and terror financing laws but they commit to an action plan to address these loopholes. So those countries which failed to address these issues after a specific time period will be listed under blacklist. See officially the FATF does not call any country using the names grey list and blacklist but however while reporting to newspaper institutions and some governments they colloquially use these terms. Both the list together are called as high risk and other monitored jurisdiction and at present there are only two countries in the blacklist and these two countries are Iran and North Korea. See interestingly FATF decision on Pakistan it coincides with the first signs of reconciliation between India and Pakistan since 2016 and recently both sides agreed to strictly observe the ceasefire agreement at the line of control. The joint statement also commits to resolve core issues that lead to violence between the two sides indicating that more dialogue between India and Pakistan will be happening soon though there are no political trade or cultural ties at present and any progress in this direction with India will help Pakistan to come out of the FATF grey list. So in this context let's have a quick recap on FATF in prelims perspective. See the financial action task force or FATF was established in the year 1989 by a group of 7 or G7 summit in Paris and it was set up initially to examine and develop measures to combat money laundering. In 2001 the FATF expanded its mandate to incorporate efforts to combat terror financing in addition to money laundering and in 2012 it added efforts to counter the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. So basically FATF is a global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog which is an inter-governmental body and it sets financial standards to prevent the illegal activities and the harm they cause to society. And the FATF currently has got 39 members. Among the 39 members it comprises of 37 countries and 2 regional organisations representing most major financial centres in all parts of the globe and European Commission and Gulf Cooperation Commission other 2 regional organisations. That is we have come to the end of this news article. Let us now move on to the practice question discussion. Consider the following statements with reference to master of roster system in Indian judiciary. Statement 1 it refers to the privilege of the Chief Justice of India and Chief Justice of High Court to constitute benches to your cases. Option 2 it is not prescribed in the constitution of India. See as discussed earlier both these statements are correct. When you look at the second statement remember that it is in the handbook on practice and procedure and office procedure. Chapter 6 roster of the Supreme Court and also the judgment of the state of Rajasthan versus Prakash Jant. It clearly defines that regarding the matters of the High Court the Chief Justice is the master of the roster and this privilege is again emphasised 3 times from 2017 to 2018 in the judgments of constitutional branches. The question wants us to identify the correct statements since both the statements are correct. The right option is option. See that is both 1 and 2. This question wants us to identify the statement which is not correct with reference to the Make in India program. So the 4 options are it is devised to transform India into a global innovation and manufacturing hub. It aims to facilitate investment foster innovation and enhance skill development. Option C is government shall act as a regulator not a facilitator. Option D is it aims to protect intellectual property. When you look at this statement you can find that option C is not in accordance with the Make in India program because under pillar 4 of the new mindset a government shall act as a facilitator and partner and not as a regulator. But the statement mentions that a government shall act as a regulator not a facilitator which is not in relevance to the Make in India program. So therefore the right option is option C that is a government shall act as a regulator and not a facilitator is the wrong statement. Now look at this question. Consider the following taxes. Service tax, taxes on advertisements, central sales tax, entry tax. So which of the above taxes are subsumed under goods and services tax. So when you look here all the under the 17 taxes that are subsumed under the goods and services tax these 4 taxes also form a part. So therefore the right answer is option D that is all the above. Now let's look at this previous problems question on GST. The question wants us to identify the correct answer. It has given 3 statements about GST. The first statement says that it will replace multiple taxes collected by multiple authorities and will thus create a single market in India. Statement 2 says that it will drastically reduce the current account deficit of India and will enable it to increase its foreign exchange reserves. Option 3 it will enormously increase the growth and size of the economy of India and it will enable it to overtake China in the near future. So when you look at the 3 statements we find that only statement 1 is correct because as discussed in the article GST is a very significant measure in the indirect tax system of India where it replaces 17 different kinds of taxes and it prevents dual taxation. Apart from this option 2 and option 3 are incorrect because they have no such advantages mentioned. So since the question wants us to identify the right answer the correct option is option A that is 1 only. Which of the following statements regarding the FATF is incorrect? Statement 1 it is a global money laundering and terrorist financing option 2 currently it has got more than 50 members. Option 3 it was established in 1989 where group of 7 or G7 summit in Paris option D it designates or places high risk and non cooperative jurisdictions in black and grey list. So as you know in the discussion we saw that the FATF has currently got 39 members comprises of 37 countries and 2 regional organizations representing most major financial centers in all parts of the globe and the European Commission and the Gulf Cooperation Council other 2 regional organization. So therefore the wrong statement is option B that is it has more than 50 members. Since the question wants us to identify the incorrect statement the right option is option B which says that it has got more than 50 members. The list of main practice questions is displayed here. You can write your answers and post them in the comment section below. With this we have come to the end of today's Hindu news analysis. If you like the video don't forget to like, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankaraay's Academy YouTube channel for more updates regarding UPSC civil services preparation.