 A very good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankarai's academy. Today's date is 18th of May 2022. So these are the list of news articles chosen for today's discussion. We'll be having a previous a question discussion followed by that we'll be discussing four different news articles. All the articles are very important for your examination. So please pay attention. So now without any delay, let's get into the previous a question discussion. See today, let's solve this previous question. This question was taken from the 2019 preliminary examination question paper. Let me read out the question for you. What is common to the places known as Aliyar, Isapur and Kangaspati? Option A recently discovered uranium deposits. Option B tropical rainforest. Option C underground cave systems and option D water reserves. So you have to find what is the common thing between these three places. See here, if you know any one of the place and what it is famous for, you can easily arrive at the answer. Here Aliyar is in Tamil Nadu. Isapur is in Maharashtra and Kangaspati is in West Bengal. All these places have water reservoirs. So the correct answer for the question is option D water reservoir. Now if you are wondering why this question was asked, see all the three places appeared in the news. To be very specific, there was an article in Down to Earth magazine about these reservoirs. The article mentioned that around 18 reservoirs have water level below 50% of normal storage capacity. And among them were the Aliyar, Isapur and Kangaspati reservoirs where water level reached much below the normal capacity. And the article also mentioned some of the reasons for this situation. See here, overall water storage in reservoir in Armada, Tappi and Kaveri river basin is deficient. And this is mainly due to the fact that the water from most of these reservoirs has been utilized for hydropower generation and irrigation purposes. So here over exploitation is happening. And secondly, flow of a river is the main variable that affects water loading in all major reservoirs. So to be very specific, natural flow of nearly all rivers has been distorted. I hope you know the flow in these rivers is a dynamic parameter and depends on many subparameters like rainfall, its distribution and intensity in the catchment, health of catchment area, vegetation and withdrawals and utilization of water. Likewise, even though flow might be determined by a various factors, the article states that the natural flow of nearly all rivers which I have mentioned has been distorted. This directly influenced the level of water in the reservoirs. So this is what the article is about. And by chance if you had came across this news article, you would have correctly answered this question. Or if you know any one place of these three places, you could correctly arrive at the answer. So the correct answer for this question is option D, water reservoirs. So by solving this question, now let us move on to the news article discussion. Now let us take up this news article for our next discussion. See if you remember recently there was a news about India banning wheat export to curb domestic inflation. So what the news article here says is that members of the G7 countries are expected to appeal to India to reserve the ban on wheat exports during the upcoming G7 summit. Remember the next G7 summit is going to be held between June 26 to 28 2022. The summit is going to be held in Germany and the summit is likely to be attended by our prime minister. Now why are the world countries appealing to India to reserve its ban on wheat export? We have this question right? See India is a major wheat producer in the world. In addition to India, Ukraine and Russia are also major wheat producers. And due to the Russia-Ukrain war, the global wheat supply chain is affected. This is affecting food security worldwide. Note here that moments after India announced a ban on wheat exports, the global wheat prices went up by 6%. So as India has important responsibilities to ensure food safety, the G7 wants India to reconsider its decision of wheat exports. Not just the G7 countries, even the countries in the United Nations Security Council want India to reconsider its position on wheat exports. So this is the crux of the news article given here. In this context, let us revise some of the basics about G7 grouping. I hope you remember in 2020 preliminary examination, there was a question related to G20 grouping. The question asked to find the correct option which mentions the members of the grouping. So likewise, this year we might have a question in preliminary examination. That's why revising members of international organization, especially organization which have a minimal number is very important. So talking about G7, the group of G7 is an informal group of seven countries. It consists of the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom. So here you can see India is not a member of G7, but still our Prime Minister is invited by Germany to attend its summit which is going to be held on June. So now coming back, G7 represents 40% of the global GDP and 10% of the world's population. Unlike other bodies such as NATO, the G7 has no legal existence. In addition to this, it even lacks a permanent secretariat. It also has no binding impact on policy and all decisions and commitments made at G7 meeting. The policies, decisions and commitments need to be ratified independently by governing bodies of member states. So now let's see a little bit about the history and evolution of G7. See the origin of G7 dates back to a meeting between the US, UK, Italy, France, Germany and Japan. This took place in 1975. At that time, the global economy was in a state of recession due to the OPEC or OPEC oil embargo. So OPEC placed an oil embargo on the West due to the Israel-Egypt war. This resulted in an energy crisis in the West. As the energy crisis was escalating, the USA decided that it would be beneficial for the large place on the world stage. To coordinate with each other on macroeconomic initiatives. This is why the six countries had a meeting after this first summit. The country agreed to meet annually and a year later, Canada was invited into the group which marked the official formation of the G7 as we know it. See the president of European Commission was asked to join the meeting in 1977. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia was also invited to join the group in 1998. Thereafter the group was named the G8 but after 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea, it was expelled out from the grouping. So after 2014 the G8 again became G7. Now let's look at the presidency of G7 grouping. See the presidency of G7 meeting is held by each of the seven countries in turn each year. The country holding the presidency is responsible for organizing and hosting the meeting. Germany took over the presidency of G7 from January 2022. This year India, Indonesia, Senegal and South Africa has been invited to attend the G7 summit as participating guests. So the G7 summit provides a forum for member countries to discuss shared values and concerns. In the 1980s the G7 mainly focused on international economic policy. But right now the G7 extended its mandate to include issues related to foreign policy and security as well. In recent years G7 leaders have met to formulate common responses to challenges encompassing counter-terrorism, development, education, health, human rights and climate change. So that's all regarding this news article discussion. In this news article discussion we learned about G7. We saw a little bit about the history and the evolution of G7. Then we saw about the presidency of G7 grouping. So with these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now for our next discussion let us take up this news article. This news article talks about the water turnout in the local body by poll election. In this context as problems is nearing let us revise about urban local bodies and the way they are elected. First let us take the municipal corporation. See they are created for the administration of big cities. For example greater Chennai corporation for the administration of Chennai. Note that they are established in the states by the act of the concerned state legislatures. And in the union territories by the act of the parliament of India. Make note of this point. Remember municipal corporation has three authorities namely the council, the standing committees and the commissioners. The council is the legislative link. The council consists of councillors who are directly elected by the people. The standing committees are created to facilitate the working of the council and the council is headed by the mayor. Here the mayor is elected in a majority of the states for a one year renewable term. The mayor's main function is to preside over the meetings of the council. So then comes the corporation commissioner. The commissioner is responsible for the implementation of the decisions taken by the council and its standing committees. The commissioner is in essence the chief executive authority of the corporation. He is mostly an IS officer. So that's all about municipal corporation. Municipal corporation is created for the administration of big cities. It is established in states by the act of the concerned state legislature and in union territories by the act of parliament of India. So it has three authorities namely the council, the standing committee and the commissioner. The council consists of councillors who are directly elected by the people. Then comes the standing committee. It is created for the facilitation of working of the council. This council is headed by the mayor. Mayor is elected in a majority of the states for a one year renewable term. The main function of this mayor is to preside over the meetings of the council. So then comes the commissioner. Commissioner is in essence the chief executive authority of the corporation. He is mostly an IS officer and his responsibility is to implement the decisions taken by the council and its standing committees. So now moving on let's see about municipalities. See municipalities are established to administer towns and small cities. Like the corporations they are also set up in the states by the act of concerned state legislatures. And in the union territories by the act of parliament of India. See municipality also has three authorities namely the council, the standing committee and the chief executive officer. Council consists of directly elected councillors and it is the deliberative wing. Like the mayor in case of the corporation the council is headed by a chairman. The chairman presides over the meeting of the council. The standing committee asses the working of the council. Finally like the commissioner in case of corporation the municipality has a chief executive officer. The chief executive officer is appointed by the state government. The chief executive officer takes care of the day to day operations. Now moving on to the notified area committee. See a notified area committee is created for the administration of two types of area. First NAC or the notified area committee is created for the administration of a fast developing town due to industrialization. Next NAC is also created for the administration of a town which does not yet fulfill all the conditions necessary for the constitution of a municipality. But which otherwise is considered important by the state government. Note here that unlike the corporation and municipalities which are created by the act of the state government. The NAC is established by the notification of the state. Here it is called the notified area committee. Its power or almost equal to those of a municipality. But unlike the municipality it is an entirely nominated body. That is all the members of a notified area committee including the chairman or nominated by the government. So in essence it is neither an elected body nor a statutory body. Make note of this point. So now moving on to the town area committee. See a town area committee is set up for the administration of a small town. The tax power is mostly limited to certain functions like drainage, roads, street lights and conservancy. Note here that it was created by a separate act of a state legislature. Its composition functions and other matters are governed by the act. So in the act if it says it is an elected body then TAC will be an elected body. And in the act if it says it is a nominated body then TAC will be a nominated body. So its composition and its power depends on the act passed by the state government. So now moving on to the containment board. See the containment board is set up under the provision of the containment act of 2006. See the act is a legislation enacted by the central government. The containment board is established to govern the civilian population within the containment area. It works under the administrative control of the defense ministry of the central government. Note here that the containment board is created as well as administered by the central government. A containment board consists of partly elected and partly nominated members. The nominated members hold office for a term of 5 years while the nominated members or the ex-officio members continue so long as they hold the office in that station. The military officers commanding the station is the ex-officio president of the board and presides over its meeting. The vice president of the board is elected by the elected members from among themselves for a term of 5 years. Then there is also an executive officer who executes the decision taken by the containment board. The executive officer of the containment board is appointed by the president of India. Now moving on to townships. See townships are established by the large public enterprises. They are established to provide civic communities to its staffs and workers who lives in the housing colonies built near the plant. Note here that the township form of urban government has no elected members. In fact the township is an extension of the bureaucratic structure of the enterprises. Usually the PSE or the public sector enterprises appoints a town administrator to look after the administration of the townships. So this is about townships and finally that is the port trust. The port trust or established in the port areas like Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai a port trust is created by an act of parliament. It consists of both elected and nominated members. Its chairman is a port official. So these are the types of urban local bodies in India. So in this news article discussion we saw different types of urban local bodies. We saw about municipal corporation. We saw about municipalities, notified area committee. Then we saw about town area committee. Then we saw about contentment board. Then we saw about townships. And finally we ended by seeing about port trust. So with these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Take a look at this news article. See the news article states that there was a technical glitch in the GST portal. Due to this technical glitch the central government is considering pushing back the April GST deadline. So this is the crux of the news article. Although this piece of information is not useful for the examination. It is always useful to brush up the basics. As prelims is approaching fast let us quickly revise the basics of GST. See GST which is nothing but Goods and Services Act was first proposed in 2003 by Kelkar Task Force. The GST Act was passed on 29th March 2017 and the GST Regime came into force on 1st of July 2017. Now what constitutional amendment was made to implement GST? See it is the 101st Constitutional Amendment Act 2016 which made an amendment to the constitution for the implementation of GST. So here you might have a doubt what are all the changes made by the 101st amendment. See the article introduced by the 101st amendment include article 246a, article 269a and article 279a. Here article 279a empowers the president of India to create a GST council with members from the state and center. Article 246a was inserted in the constitution to validate both the parliament and the state legislature to make laws on GST. And finally article 269a covers how the revenue from interstate supplies is shared between the center and the state. We all know that GST is an indirect tax. Here tax is levied on value added on every stage. And we all know that GST is a destination based tax. For example a product which is manufactured in Tamil Nadu is sold in Bihar. Then the GST collected in this transaction will be given to Bihar and not to Tamil Nadu. This is why we call GST a destination based tax. Now we will see the tax that are subsumed by the GST. See the central taxes that are subsumed under GST include central excise duty, additional excise duty, service tax, countervailing duty and special additional duty on customers. Now the state level tax that is subsumed under GST includes state wad or state sales tax, entertainment tax except the entertainment tax levied by local bodies. Next the octroy or entry tax, next the luxury tax and finally tax on lottery betting and gambling. Now we will see what are all exempted from GST. See only alcohol for human conception is exempted from GST. In addition to this GST will not be applied to crude oil, high speed diesel, petrol, natural gas and aviation fuel. Here note that while alcohol for human conception is completely exempted from GST, the GST council formed under Article 279A will decide on the inclusion of petroleum crude, high speed diesel, petrol, natural gas and aviation fuel under the GST regime at a later date. So these are some of the important points that you have to make note of with respect to GST for your preliminary examination. So in this discussion we saw about GST, what amendment was made to implement GST. We saw what articles were introduced by the 101st amendment. In that Article 279A imposed the President of India to create a GST council with members from the state and the centre. Then Article 246A was inserted in the constitution to validate both the parliament and the state legislatures to make law on GST. And finally Article 269A was included to cover how the revenue from interstate supplies is shared between centre and the state. We saw that GST is an indirect tax, then we saw that taxes levied on value added on every stage and it is a destination based tax. So with these all learnt points, now let us move on to the next news article discussion. So for the final news article discussion, let us take up this news article from text and context page. It talks about the places of worship special provisions Act 1991. See this act is in use because the Nyanvapi mosque complex. It is in this place, a sibling is said to have been found during the survey there. In line with this, a case has been filed by some Hindu devotees. This petition is supposed by the Nyanvapi mosque administration. They argued that the ongoing civil cases filed by Hindu devotees is an attempt to change the status of the place of worship. Also they argue that the petition violates the places of worship Act 1991. However, the Hindu devotees contents that the place of worship act is not applicable to the Nyanvapi issue. This is because there was no change to the religious structures since 1947. So this is the cracks of the news article given here. In this context, let us quickly go through what is this places of worship special provisions Act 1991. Then let's see where and when all the provisions of the act cannot be applied. Finally, let us see the current status of the case that is related to the Nyanvapi mosque complex. Before that the syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference. Just go through it. Now let us start our discussion with what is this places of worship special provisions Act 1991. See this is an act to prohibit conversion of any place of worship. Also the act was enacted to freeze the status of all places of worship in the country as on August 15, 1947. Here places of worship means a temple, mosque, gurudwara, church, monastery or any other place of public religious worship of any religious denomination. In simple words, no person shall convert any place of worship of any religious denomination. Then take any place of worship who had been given the status of a temple, mosque, gurudwara, church, monastery or any name as called by. This status with which it exists on August 15, 1947 cannot be questioned for a conversion. That is any suit, appeal or other proceeding with respect to the conversion of the religious character of any place of worship that is pending before any court, tribunal or other authority shall abate. And no suit, appeal or other proceeding with respect to any such matter shall lie on or after such commencement in any court, tribunal or other authority. But here you have to note one thing that is an exception to the act. See do you all remember the Babri Masjid Ram Janma Bhoomi dispute? It is an exception to the act. The structure was then the subject of litigation. The dispute ended after the court ruling, right? What was the court ruling? See the court ruled that the land on which the masjid stand should be hand over to the Hindu community. It is for the purpose of construction of a Ram temple. I hope you remember that. So here nothing contained in this act shall apply to the place of worship commonly known as Ram Janma Bhoomi Babar Masjid. So here any suit, appeal or other proceeding relating to the said place of worship shall be abated. So now let's see in which all cases will the law shall not apply. See the 1991 act will not apply in some cases. Firstly it will not apply to ancient and historic monuments and archaeological sites and remains. Note that these places must be covered by the ancient monuments and archaeological sites and remains act 1958. Secondly it will not apply to any suit that has been finally settled or disposed of. Then it will not apply to any dispute that has been settled by the parties before the 1991 act came into force. Also it will not apply to the conversion of any place that took place by acquiescence. Here acquiescence means consent or agreement. Now let us see about this Nyanvapi mosque complex issue. See as we saw earlier it is in this place a Shiva Ling is said to have been found during the survey. In line with this a case has been filed by some Hindu devotees. This petition is opposed by the mosque administration. They argue that the ongoing civil case filed by Hindu devotees is an attempt to change the status of the place of worship. Also they argue that the petition violates the act. However the Hindu devotees contents that the place of worship act is not applicable to Nyanvapi issue. Now what is the current status of this issue? See the judges bench ordered that Muslim could continue offering Namas there without any impediment. Also the Supreme Court directed the district magistrate of Varanasi to ensure protection of the area at the Nyanvapi mosque complex. So let us conclude this discussion with some take away points. See the Supreme Court in its final verdict on the Ayodhya issue had observed that the act enforces our commitment to secularism. See non-retrogression is a foundational feature of the fundamental constitutional principles of which secularism is a core component. What is mean by this non-retrogression principle? See it holds that government may extend protection beyond what the constitution requires. But it cannot retreat from that extension once made. Hence the court described the law as one that preserved secularism by not permitting the status of a place of worship to be altered after independence. See historical wrongs cannot be remedied by the people taking the law in their own hands. Also note that history and its wrongs shall not be used as instruments to oppress the present and the future. Thus the outcome of Nyanvapi mosque complex case will depend on whether the court deemed the proceeding contrary to that or ruled that it is not applicable to the dispute in Varanasi. So with these take away points now let us move on to the next part of the news article discussion. In this part we shall discuss two preliminary practice questions and the final question is the quiz question for you to solve today. Now look at this first question. This question is about G7. Consider the following statements about G20, statement 1, unlike G7, G20 is a formal grouping. Statement 2, G20 membership comprises a mix of the world's largest advanced and emerging economies. Which of the above statements is so or correct? Option A1 only, option B2 only, option C both 1 and 2 and option D neither 1 nor 2. See the correct answer for the question is option B2 only. Statement 1 is wrong because like G7, G20 is also a informal grouping. Here statement 2 is correct because its membership includes Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union. So here you can see it is a mix of world's largest advanced and emerging economies. So the correct answer for the question is option B2 only. Now moving on to the second question. Second question is about GSD. You have to find what are all the proposed benefits of GSD. Statement 1, reduction in price for consumers. Statement 2, removes cascading effects and statement 3 increases tax compliance. Here you have to find the correct statements using the codes given below. Option A1 and 2 only, option B2 and 3 only, option C1 and 3 only and option D all of the above. See the correct answer for the question is option D all of the above. All the three, all the benefits of GSD, it helps in reduction in price for consumers. It helps in removing the cascading effects and finally it increases tax compliance. Apart from this other benefits includes, since it is a destination based tax the poor states benefits a lot. And the GSD regime exports or zero rated hence exports from India will be competitive in international market. Apart from this GSD creates a common national market hence ease of doing increases and finally due to increased tax compliance black transaction decreases. So this final question is about urban local bodies. Try to solve this question and post the correct answer in the comment section. So here the main question for today's discussion is displayed. Just go through the question, write an answer and post it in the comment section. 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 Ayes Academy YouTube channel. Thank you.