 Good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindi news analysis by Shankar Ayes academy. These are the list of articles which has been chosen for today's analysis. The link for the handwritten notes is provided in the description box below and it is also provided in the comment section. Let's move on to our first article discussion. This news article mentions that Pakistan has been retained on the gray list of the financial action task force for another four months. Pakistan has been given stern warning from the global watchdog FATF to complete the 27 point action plan and this has to be completed by June 2020 and if Pakistan did not complete the action plan then Pakistan will be put on the blacklist of FATF. So in this discussion we'll see about the background of this issue and we'll also see what do we mean by gray list and blacklist. The syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. Previously if you remember Pakistan was given October 2019 deadline to complete the tasks that were given in the 27 point action plan. The tasks included shutting down all access to funding of UNSC designated terrorist groups which included Taliban, Al Qaeda, Ashkar-e-Taiba and Jaisi Mohd. And the tasks also included prosecuting these terrorist organizations leadership for any access to finance. Then another task was tightening laws and banking security norms. But in November 2019 it was found that Pakistan has complied with only four points of the plan. So FATF extended the deadline to February 2020 and FATF urged Pakistan to swiftly complete the remainder of the list. But now again Pakistan has been given four more months to complete the action plan. In this regard FATF has noted that since June 2018 Pakistan's political commitment has led to progress in a number of areas in its action plan such as it has increased the risk based supervision and it is pursuing domestic and international cooperation to identify cash careers. So FATF asked Pakistan to continue to work on implementing its action plan to address its strategic deficiencies. But as we saw already all deadlines in the action plan have been expired but still there are notable improvements in Pakistan's work. And to date if you see Pakistan has largely addressed 14 of 27 action items and even some progress have been made in the rest of the action plan also. So FATF has strongly urged Pakistan to swiftly complete its full action plan by June 2020. Otherwise Pakistan will be placed in blacklist and that is why currently Pakistan has been retained in the graylist itself. So what are these graylist and blacklist of FATF? FATF identifies countries with weak measures to combat money laundering and terror financing and these countries are identified in two FATF documents that are issued three times a year and these documents are referred to as graylist and blacklist. In this the graylist is a list that consists the name of those countries that are publicly listed as having weak measures to combat money laundering and terror financing. Once these countries are identified as having weak mechanisms they will be given certain time frame to carry out certain actions in the national and subnational levels in their countries. These are the countries that have strategic deficiencies in addressing money laundering and terror financing. When some country is listed in this list for review by FATF it is like an alert to the international financial institutions and national financial institutions and this alert is to reduce or limit the financial relations with that particular country because having a relationship with such a country poses risk in terms of money laundering and terror financing and other issues and this will affect the economic growth and development of the particular country and its people and this graylist was officially called as improving global anti-money laundering and countering of terrorist financing complaints ongoing process but now this name has been changed to jurisdictions under increased monitoring. When the FATF places a jurisdiction under increased monitoring it means that the country has committed to resolve swiftly the identified strategic deficiencies within agreed time frames and that country is also subject to increased monitoring and it is also a sign that these countries are actively working with FATF to address strategic deficiencies in their regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing. Now those countries which were listed in the document for review if they do not make any progress even though enough time is given then that country will be listed in another document and this document was officially called as FATF's public statement it lists the countries with serious long-standing strategic deficiencies and the countries that have failed to make progress and this list is what is called as blacklist and this listing is called as blacklisting but now this list is known as high-risk jurisdictions subject to a call for action. The jurisdictions which are placed under this list have significant strategic deficiencies in their regime to counter money laundering, terrorist financing and financing of proliferation and for all the countries that are identified as high risk the FATF calls on all members and it urges all jurisdictions to apply enhanced due diligence that is to take careful actions in that particular country but in most serious cases FATF calls the countries to apply counter measures to protect the international financial system from the ongoing money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing risks that is emanating from that particular country and as we saw this list is what is called as blacklist and also know that both these list that is the gray list and the blacklist or the jurisdictions under increased monitoring and the high-risk jurisdictions subject to a call for action these both lists are together called as high risk and other monitoring jurisdictions and if you see right now there are only two countries that are blacklisted by FATF they are Iran and Democratic People's Republic of Korea that is North Korea and if you see currently there are 18 countries that are in the gray list and in this 18 countries two of our neighbors are present in this gray list and in the recent plenary meeting one neighbor was added as we know the first neighbor is Pakistan who is in the gray list and the other one is Myanmar so blacklisting is more severe than gray listing because if a country is blacklisted that means the country has failed to take steps against money laundering and terrorist financing so FATF will ask other countries to have effective countermeasures and targeted financial sanctions against that particular country also other countries will make moves to close branches subsidiaries and banks of the blacklisted country in their territory indirectly this means that the blacklisted country will be isolated from the international financial system and this will have a huge negative impact on that blacklisted country and its people and that is why Pakistan is trying very hard to stay away from blacklist Pakistan has been given several action plans it has been given adequate time but it has not implemented all the action plans so again FATF has given four more months to Pakistan to set up necessary mechanisms to counter terrorist financing but if no improvements happen till June 2020 also then we can expect that Pakistan will be blacklisted by FATF in June 2020 so that is all about this news article in this discussion we saw about the background related to Pakistan's gray listing and then we also saw what do we mean by blacklist and graylist with this we come to the end of this discussion moving on to the next discussion this news article is about the recent decision by the central government to treat the medical devices as drugs in this discussion we will discuss about the existing definition of drugs then we will see two notifications that were issued by the central government in this regard and then we will also see the implications of this decision the syllabus that is relevant to this analysis is given here for your reference first know that the term drug is defined in the drugs and cosmetics act of 1940 according to section 3 clause b of this 1940 act all medicines for internal or external use of human beings or animals then all substances that is intended to be used for or which are used in the diagnosis treatment mitigation of prevention of any disease or disorder in the human beings or animals is a drug and this definition also includes preparations that are applied on human body for the purpose of repelling insects like mosquitoes then the definition drug also include such substances other than food that are intended to affect the structure or any function of the human body or that is intended to be used for the destruction of women or insects which cause disease in human beings or animals then drug also includes all substances that are intended for use as components of a drug including empty gelatin capsules and finally this definition of drug also includes any such devices that are intended for internal or external use in the diagnosis treatment mitigation or prevention of disease or disorder in the human beings or animals and these devices are nothing but the medical devices and the list of medical devices is specified from time to time by the central government by a notification in the official guess it and it is notified after consultation with the drug's technical advisory board so based on this power the department of health and family welfare under the union ministry of health and family welfare has issued a notification on 11th February 2020 in this notification the central government has notified that all devices including an instrument apparatus appliance implant a material or other article which is used alone or in combination including a software or an accessory all these are defined as drugs and this is from 1st of April 2020 and the medical devices which are used for these purposes will be defined as drugs from 1st April 2020 so almost all medical devices have been classified as drugs as per this notification and these medical devices will be regulated by CDSCO that is central drugs standard control organization as you know one of the major functions of CDSCO is regulatory control over the import of drugs then regulatory control over approval of new drugs and clinical trials then control over laying down the standards for drugs and then also it has control over the quality of imported drugs in the country so now as per the new notification the CDSCO will be regulating the medical devices from 1st April 2020 as the medical devices are now classified as drugs and you should know that the medical devices are regulated under the medical devices rules of 2017 so some amendments were also made to these rules through notification by the department of health and family welfare on the same day that is on 11th February 2020 as per this amendment a new chapter was introduced for registration of medical devices by their respective manufacturers and importers in an online portal this online portal is called online system for medical devices and these new amended rules will come into effect from 1st April 2020 but for the medical devices which have been already notified exemptions from registration have been given and according to the amended rules a certificate of compliance with ISO 13485 standards is mandatory for registration of newly notified medical device and this ISO standard deals with quality management system of medical devices so these were some of the changes made by the central government regarding the definition of drugs and also regarding the quality of medical devices now what are the possible advantages of these notifications before seeing the advantages you need to know that the prices of controlled bulk drugs and formulations are fixed and they are revised in India by national pharmaceutical pricing authority that is NPPA NPPA fixes and revises the prices as per the powers under the drug price control order of 2013 we have discussed about controlled bulk drugs and formulations on our 19th feb hindi news analysis you can have a look at it and just know that this NPPA functions under the department of pharmaceuticals which is under union ministry of chemicals and fertilizers when additional information you can know is that the prices of controlled bulk drugs and formulations are listed in a list which is known as national list of essential medicines now let us see the advantages of the modifications made by central government now the government has classified medical devices as drugs so in the future it is possible that the central government will regulate the prices of certain essential medical devices so this will benefit the patients who have prolonged ailments and who are in need of long term healthcare services and then we can see that the government has increased the regulatory requirements of medical devices so these tightened regulations is likely to bring confidence to the consumers since nearly all the medical devices have been notified and they have to be compulsorily registered in the future and also they have to make the ISO standards so this move will ensure the quality and safety of medical devices that are sold in India so the notification by the central government has some advantages but these notifications have posed some challenges to the medical industry and to the healthcare sector as a whole it is because now the ISO 13485 standards have to be made so this will lead to increasing cost of compliance and this again will lead to longer lead time that is the time between the start and end of production process of medical devices so the production of medical devices will take longer time and all this will lead to higher expenses in launching new products so as a result of this the cost of medical devices will definitely increase in the long run so if the cost of medical devices increase then the cost of medical diagnosis or treatment is definitely going to increase because the health service providers will pass this cost burden to the consumers in order to maintain their profit margins so these notifications are going to increase the cost for the medical industry and also for the consumers in addition to this if you see an announcement was made in the union budget on introducing five percentage health says on import of medical devices so this says is further going to make the imported medical devices costlier so this burden will also be passed on to the consumers so as a whole the cost of medical services might increase in the future because of these notifications and announcements but we can expect that these challenges will prevail only in the short term and in the long term we can expect to have a well regulated and affordable healthcare service in india so that is all about this news article in this discussion we saw about the definition of drugs then two notifications issued by the central government on medical devices and we also saw about the implications of the decision of central government with this we come to the end of this discussion that is the practice question will be discussed in the last session moving on to the next discussion which is based on this news article this news article mentions that kolkata is offering rich tributes to the poet mirza ghalib on the occasion of international mother language day so in this context we'll see about international mother language day and also about the doyen of urdu poet mirza ghalib in this doyen means the most respected or prominent person in a particular field the syllabus that can be linked to this discussion is given here for your reference first let us see the significance of international mother language day this day is observed by united nations every year it has been observed since 2000 and it is observed on 21st february this day is observed to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism as we know the languages are the most powerful instruments of preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage and at least 43 percentage of the estimated 6000 languages that are spoken in the world are endangered and only a few hundred languages have genuinely been given a place in education systems and in the public domain and less than a hundred are used in the digital world therefore promoting linguistic and cultural diversity is the need of the day and for this purpose only united nations international mother language day is observed so on this international mother language day kolkata is offering rich tributes to one of the famous poets mirza ghalib and this tribute is offered in the name of bayadeh ghalib which means remembering ghalib according to the news article kolkata siti is offering rich tribute to the noted urdu poet ghalib who stayed in kolkata between february 21 1828 and october 1 1829 during his day he participated in several musheras in the city that is he participated in several gatherings or conversations in the city so let us see some details about this poet his full name is mirza asadulla khan he was born on december 27 1797 he was born in agra and in a well-to-do family of army officers his surname was ghalib that is why he is popularly known as mirza ghalib he was born at a time when the british were strengthening their hold in north india and particularly in delhi and agra and therefore the life was chaotic and uncertainties prevailed everywhere at that time and during the initial days of ghalib he used to write in persia as persia was the court language of mughals ghalib's first collection of persian poetry was published in 1845 as mekana arzu according to some sources he maintained that he chose persian as it provided better opportunities for self-expression and by 1850 if you see urdu gained prominent position in mughal rule and also in the society so over a period of time ghalib mastered unique style of urdu poetry he was even best known for his urdu guzzles that is urdu couplets and the letters that were collected and published during his lifetime provide evidence that he was a conscious innovator he enriched urdu poetry with images and symbols with wider philosophical appeal and also know that khutute ghalib is a complete collection of mirza ghalib letters which were written to different persian by ghalib during his times and this doughin of urdu poetry died on 15 february 1869 in delhi where he lived and died and also know that last year that is 2019 was the 150th death anniversary of ghalib so these were the information that you should know with with respect to international mother language day and also about urdu poet mirza ghalib with this we come to the end of this discussion that is great practice question will be discussed in the last session moving on to the next discussion this news article talks about the concerns expressed by the tobacco farmers on the increase in the cigarette tax that was proposed in the union budget of 2020 to 21 and it is said that this move by the government will affect the flu cured virginia tobacco farmers so in this context we'll see about the tax which is mentioned in the news article then we'll also see about the budget announcement on tobacco products and then we'll see some facts about flu cured virginia tobacco the syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference the union budget of 2020 to 21 has increased the national calamity contingent duty this increase in national calamity contingent duty is expected to cause a price rise of 7 percentage in the sale of cigarettes if the price of cigarettes that is produced in market increases then it will provide a further boost to the smuggled cigarette trade this will result in reduction in the legal cigarette production and it will reduce the tobacco purchases from domestic manufacturers and this in turn will affect the market prices for tobacco and tobacco products and thus it will also affect the tobacco farmers earnings and it will especially affect the flu cured virginia tobacco farmers as they constitute a majority of tobacco farmers so what is this nccd before seeing about this national calamity contingent duty first let us try to understand excise duty excise duty is a duty that is levied on the manufacture of goods within the country but remember that it is different from customs duty which is levied on the goods coming from outside the country this excise duty is levied by the central government now here you should know that the gst that is the goods and services tax has subsumed a number of indirect taxes including excise duty because excise duty is a form of indirect tax that is collected by the retailers or intermediaries from the consumer and then it is paid to the government now we saw about excise duty because this national calamity contingency fund is a surcharge on excise duty and as we know surcharge is an additional charge or tax on the cost of goods and services so this nccd is in the nature of excise duty hence nccd can be imposed upon goods on which union government is empowered to impose excise duty that is the goods which are mentioned in seventh schedule now the increase in nccd is expected to increase the price of cigarettes also and that is why the tobacco farmers especially the flu cured virginia tobacco farmers will be affected and their earnings will be affected so in this context let us now see about flu cured virginia tobacco flu cured virginia is a type of tobacco that is mainly used in cigarette products there are different types of tobacco that is grown like fcv that is flu cured virginia then bd hookah and chewing cigar cheroot lanka etc so one type of tobacco is the flu cured virginia tobacco so what is the meaning of flu cured tobacco actually there are four types of tobacco curing methods that are traditionally used they are air cured fire cured flu cured and sun cured and each of the different curing methods results in a tobacco product that is distinguishable by its nicotine content and also by its aroma the curing process is done because the wet green tobacco leaves of a tobacco plant initially contain too much moisture for it to catch fire so to create smoking tobacco the tobacco leaves need to be cured or it need to be dried out the curing process makes the leaf dry enough to smoke and at the same time it increases the sugar and natural tannins that is found in each leaf of tobacco and this creates the sweaty aromatic and mild taste for which tobacco is known for and you should note that in India tobacco is an important commercial crop and India occupies the third position in the world with an annual production and also third position in exports after brazil and usa and as we saw earlier flu cured tobacco is a type of tobacco used mainly in cigarette production and india is the world's fourth largest producer of this fcv tobacco and in india flu cured virginia tobacco is mainly grown in the states of andhra pradesh and karnataka about 88 000 fcv tobacco farmers and their families in the states of andhra pradesh and karnataka are dependent on this crop for their livelihood next the suitable period during which the tobacco is grown in the states of andhra and karnataka in andhra this crop is grown predominantly in rabi season and in karnataka it is grown mainly during kareep season it is because in andhra pradesh after the rainfall from southwest monsoon around june to october the rabi season starts so the conserved soil moisture during the monsoon is used for growing of crops during rabi season which is from october to march but in case of karnataka if you see the tobacco cultivation is done during the kareep season that is from may to september and this coincides with the southwest monsoon now karnataka grows in kareep season because the maizu tract of karnataka experiences cold winter during january in the range of around 15 degrees celsius which is followed by dry summer months of february to april which has a temperature of around 34 degrees celsius and this is followed by the southwest monsoon from may to september so this creates an ideal climatic condition of lower diurnal temperatures higher relative humidity and monsoonic rains during the monsoon season in the karnataka region and this condition is highly conducive for production of high quality flu-cured virginia tobacco crops but the current situation is that the fcv farmers in andhra pradesh and karnataka are already fighting torrential and unseasonal rains from last year so in this situation the budget announcement of increase in nccd on tobacco products is a major setback to the tobacco farmers so due to this the federation of all india farmers association which is a tobacco farmers body and a non-profit federation has urged the central government to withdraw the increase in nccd so that the illegal tobacco smuggling can be controlled and the livelihoods of millions of farmers and farm workers could be safeguarded so that is all about this news article discussion with this we come to the end of this discussion moving on to the next discussion this discussion is based on this editorial which is about the recent judgment of supreme court to reduce criminals in politics we have discussed about this judgment in detail on our 14 february hindi news analysis we request the viewers to have a look at it for better understanding of this editorial in this editorial the author has discussed about other judgments of supreme court that aim to reduce criminals in politics and the author has also given reason for the increase of criminals in politics in the recent years now this editorial is important as it is written by a former chief election commissioner the syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference in the recent judgment in the case law rambabu singh thakur versus sunil arora and others the supreme court gave directions to obtain information regarding the criminal antecedents of the candidates and also to obtain information on why such individuals who are having pending criminal cases are chosen as candidates by the concerned political party or to get information on these issues the supreme court issued directions prior to this judgment there were many judgments of supreme court which mandated the candidates to provide details on their pending or convicted criminal cases one such judgment was the 2002 judgment which was given in the case law union of india versus association for democratic reforms and another in this judgment the supreme court directed the election commission of india to call for information on affidavit from each candidate who is seeking election to parliament or to state legislature this affidavit was made as a necessary part of the nomination paper and the affidavit should contain information on whether the candidate is convicted or acquitted or discharged of any criminal offence in the past and if there is any criminal offense in which the candidate has been convicted or acquitted or discharged then the information should contain whether the candidate is punished with imprisonment or fine then the information should also contain whether the candidate is accused in any pending case of any offence that is punishable with imprisonment of two years or more. Then the candidates' asset information such as immovable property, immovable property, bank balances, etc. and also the assets of his or her spouse and of the dependence of the candidate has to be provided as information in the affidavit. Or if there is any liability in any public financial institutions or if there is any government use that has to be also mentioned. Then the educational qualification of the candidate also needs to be mentioned. So Supreme Court directed the ECI to call for information on affidavit and that affidavit should contain full and complete information in all these five matters. So based on this judgment the election commission of India issued the order. The order stated that every candidate at the time of filing her or his nomination paper for any election to the council of states or house of the people or legislative assembly of a state or legislative council of a state then the candidate has to furnish full and complete information regarding all the five matters that was specified by the Supreme Court and this has to be specified in an affidavit. But in contrary to the judgment of Supreme Court and the order of election commission of India an ordinance was promulgated in 2002. That ordinance was the representation of people amendment ordinance of 2002. This ordinance inserted a section under which it was mentioned that no candidate shall be liable to disclose or furnish any such information in respect of her or his election that is not required to be disclosed or furnished under the act that is the RPA Act and later to insert the same section as a permanent section the RPA Act of 1951 was amended by the representation of people third amendment act of 2002 and this act substituted the ordinance. So this amendment to RPA Act removed the compulsory information that needs to be provided by the candidate as specified by Supreme Court and Election Commission of India but this section was declared as illegal, null and void by the Supreme Court in 2003. The Supreme Court upheld the directions given by the Election Commission of India in the order but with some changes. So like before the candidates have to furnish full and complete information regarding all the five matters that was specified by the Supreme Court and that has to be specified in an affidavit and this affidavit has to be duly sworn before a magistrate of the first class or before a notary public or before a commissioner of oaths who is appointed by High Court of the state and more importantly if the information is not furnished that is when there is non furnishing of the affidavit by any candidate then it will be considered to be a violation of the order of Supreme Court and hence the nomination of the candidate shall be liable to rejection. So these 2002 and 2003 judgments paved way for the 2019 and 2020 judgment and according to the author the 2020 judgment goes well beyond the court's earlier orders of 2002 and 2003 it is because now the owners of the publication of criminal antecedents of candidates is on the political parties also. In addition to this the recent direction of Supreme Court mandated that the reason for selecting the candidate with criminal antecedent should not be on where winnability at the polls that is the candidate can win the election and that is why she or he was selected as a candidate should not be mentioned as a reason but rather their qualifications achievements and merits based on which the candidate was selected should be mentioned. Now these new directions were issued by Supreme Court since the prior judgments did not have the decide impact on either the political establishment or even on the voter choices. This is even clear as the present Lok Sabha as an all-time high of 43 percentage representatives who have criminal antecedents and according to the author this is the result of muscle and money power. The author even worries that money power has moved our country in the direction of plutocracy that is we are at a stage where the government is run by the wealthy people. Now this is not the only reason the high number of choosing candidates with criminal antecedent as representatives is not only the choice of political party but it is also the choice of voters. It is because the voters behavior is most often conditioned by their personal immediate needs. One such behavior is the greediness for money and freebies. If the candidate promises the distribution of freebies and money then voters are tempted by it even nowadays if you see the voters themselves tend to demand money and freebies. Then another behavior of the voter is the belief that local dawn who is contesting elections who promises delivery of rough and ready justice is often seen as the savior of justice. See since our criminal justice system is burdened with cases and even the Lloyd's fees is often far beyond what many can afford the local dawn in the area is people's last choice for acquiring justice and often these cases involve bread and butter issues like from land and irrigation dispute resolution to matters involving family honor etc. In such cases this local dawn contestant is actually a preferred choice. So here muzzle is combined with money. This situation which happens in a rural landscape makes the local dawn contestant to win by large margins also. So as a conclusion author demands a change in the behavior of voters and as we know the next part of muzzle and money power candidate is addressed by the recent Supreme Court judgment. So now we have to just wait and watch the assembly elections of Bihar and West Bengal that will happen in 2020 and 2021. Author is of the view that there is no doubt that the political parties will once again choose the candidate who has the winnability factor but still the author wants to see whether the recent judgment has any effect on the choices of political establishments or whether it will have the decide effect in eliminating or significantly removing the criminality from future legislatures. That is why the author has named this editorial as litmus test for a judicial cleaner order. Here the author means the upcoming assembly elections as litmus test. These elections will show whether there is any effect of the Supreme Court judgment on political parties and on voters. So these are the information that you should know with respect to criminalization of politics from the author's viewpoints. With this we come to the end of this discussion. Moving on to the next discussion. This news article talks about India's domestic natural gas prices will be around $2 per million metric British thermal unit by the month of October 2020 and this will be the lowest price in the last 10 years. So in this context today we shall be seeing how the natural gas prices are fixed. What is the Rangarajan committee's recommendation on gas pricing and we'll also see about the current gas pricing trend. The syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. First just know that natural gas is the cleanest fuel compared to crude oil and other gases because it produces less carbon dioxide and this natural gas is used as a feedstock in the manufacture of fertilizers plastics and other commercially important organic chemicals. It is also used as a fuel for electricity generation, heating purpose in industrial and commercial units and then natural gas is also used for cooking in domestic households and it is also used as transportation fuel for vehicles. So natural gas is used in many sectors and hence the cost of production of natural gas will affect these sectors and the cost of production of natural gas depends on several factors such as location of gas field, quality and composition of produced gas, then age and size of the gas field, then logistics, exchange rate and so on and these factors are unique to each gas field. So the cost of production of natural gas varies from field to field. So now let us try to understand how the pricing mechanism evolved over time. Natural gas is a scarce resource in India so the government of India plays an important role in its allocation and historically natural gas has been allocated in priority to the end users such as fertilizer producers and power plants and if you say before 2014 there were two mechanisms that were used to price natural gas. One was administered pricing mechanism that is APM and the other is non APM mechanism. In this the APM mechanism was applied to natural gas that was produced from the nominated block which the government awarded to public sector oil exploration and production companies such as ONGC and Oil Inder Ltd etc. The APM blocks were allotted to national oil companies on a nomination basis and the gas that was produced from these blocks were priced by the government and this is known as controlled pricing. This gas is supplied predominantly to fertilizer plants, power plants at a rate that is determined by the government. So this was the APM mechanism. Now next is the non APM mechanism. This mechanism was applied to natural gas that is produced domestically from joint venture fields and it is also applied for imported liquefied natural gas and the pricing under this non APM mechanism was of two types, one for joint venture price and the next for imported LNG price. In this the joint venture price was governed in terms of production sharing contract provisions that is signed between the government and the contractor. Here the contractor is the resource extraction company or companies and this imported LNG price was governed by special purpose vehicle that was between the LNG buyer and the seller and it was based on mutually agreeable commercial terms. So this was the scenario before 2014. But if you see in 2012, the Rangarajan committee submitted a report on production sharing contract mechanism in petroleum industry. In this report, the committee has mentioned that since a competitive domestic price for gas does not currently exist and it may not be expected to come about for several more years. The policy will have to be based on searching out from global trade transactions of gas and the competitive price of gas at the global level. So based on the Rangarajan committee's recommendations on domestic gas pricing, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas notified domestic natural gas pricing guidelines in 2014. And according to these guidelines, the new pricing mechanism is applicable to all natural gas produced domestically and this is irrespective of the source whether it is produced conventional gas, shale gas or cold bed methane produced in the public sector or by the private firms. But what happened was in March 2014, India's election commission directed the government to postpone the implementation of gas price reform until after the April general election of 2014. So in June 2014, the new government of India notified new domestic natural gas pricing guidelines of 2014. Under this policy, the government altered the Rangarajan committee's recommendation and the government came up with its own pricing mechanism based on several benchmarks. And it is a APM mechanism that has administered pricing mechanism and this mechanism was formula based. And this pricing mechanism has been worked out considering the volumes and prices that were prevailing at major international markets such as Henry Huboff USA, National Balancing Point of UK, Alberta of Canada and Russia. This policy made it clear that price of gas will be revised every six months duration. This pricing regime is applicable to all natural gas that is produced domestically irrespective of the source whether conventional shale or cold bed methane that is produced in the public sector or even by the private firms. And according to the latest gas prices, which was notified in 1st October 2019, currently the prices 3.6 US dollars per million metric British thermal unit. And this price is up to 31st March 2020. Now the difference between the Rangarajan formula and the new domestic natural gas pricing guidelines is that Rangarajan formula is based on volumes and prices that were prevailing at major international markets such as Henry Huboff USA, National Balancing Point of UK and Japan customs cleared crude. But the new policy removed the net back price of gas in Japan. Instead, government included two new components in the formula and they were the Alberta reference price that is weighted by the volume of Canadian gas consumption and then the Russian domestic gas price that is weighted by the total annual volume of natural gas that is consumed in Russia. So this was the difference between the formula suggested by Rangarajan committee and the new domestic natural gas pricing guidelines of 2014. Now current pricing is based on this 2014 guidelines only. And as we saw based on this 2014 policy, prices will be reviewed every six months. And according to the news article, after this 2014 APM policy, the gas price rose to 5.6 dollars per million metric British thermal unit. Before that it was 4.2 dollars only, but after that the prices started to decline and it has reached 3.6 dollars in October 2019. And according to today's news article, this price will be reduced further due to fall in global gas prices. It is said that India's domestic natural gas prices are said to nearly half to $2 by this October 2020. And this price is a 10 year low. Even the Shell's LNG Outlook of 2020 report mentions that the global gas prices has softened in 2019. And this fall in global prices is mainly due to fall in prices of natural gas in European Union, USA, Canada and Russia. So what will be the implications of lower gas prices? First, it would definitely benefit the city gas distributors. It will benefit fertilizer units and power firms who are the end users, as they are the major consumers of natural gas. So they can purchase the fuel at lower prices. But if you see this will not benefit the exploration and production firms domestically. It is because the cost of production of natural gas by these firms will be higher, but the selling price of the natural gas will be lower as the prices are fixed based on the 2014 guidelines. So the producers will incur losses because of the lower natural gas prices. So in this discussion, we saw about the uses of natural gas. What are the criterias or factors on which the cost of production of natural gas is dependent on? Then we also saw about the pricing mechanism that is involved. Then we also saw about the Rangarajan committee report on pricing mechanism. Then we saw the new domestic natural gas pricing guidelines of 2014. And finally, we also saw about the implications of lower gas prices. With this, we come to the end of this discussion that is practice question will be discussed in the last session. With this, we have come to the end of news article discussion sessions. Now we are moving to the next session that is the practice questions discussion session. This question is based on central drugs standard control organization. The first statement states the prices of essential bulk drugs and formulations are fixed and revised by central drugs standard control organization that is CDSCO. Now this statement is wrong because the prices of these essential bulk drugs and formulations are fixed and revised by NPPA that is National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority and this NPPA functions under the Department of Pharmaceuticals under Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers. So, this statement is wrong. The next statement is the central drugs standard control organization is the central drug regulatory authority that functions under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers. Now the CDSCO is the central drug authority for discharging functions that is assigned to it by the central government under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. The major functions of CDSCO is regulatory control over the import of drugs then over approval of new drugs and clinical trials then control over laying down these standards for drugs and then control over the quality of imported drugs in the country and the other functions also include coordination of activities of state drug control organizations by providing expert advice with a view of being about the uniformity in the enforcement of the drugs and cosmetics act. So, the first half of the statement that is the CDSCO is the central drug authority is correct but whether it functions under this ministry no it is not it functions under the Directorate General of Health Services which functions under Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. So, this statement is also incorrect. Here the question asks for incorrect statement the correct answer to this question is both 1 and 2 because both these statements are incorrect. Now this question is based on Mirza Ghalib. The first statement is Kutute Ghalib is a collection of Mirza Ghalib letters which were written by Ghalib during his times. Now Mirza Asadulla Khan Ghalib was born in 1797 at Agra and he was born at a time when the British were strengthening their hold in North India particularly in Delhi and Agra and over a period of time Ghalib mastered unique style of Urdu poetry and he was best known for his Urdu guzzles. He enriched Urdu poetry with images and symbols with wider philosophical appeal and this first statement mentions that Kutute Ghalib is the collection of Mirza Ghalib letters. The statement is correct. The second statement is he was a contemporary of Mughal ruler Akbar. Now when we say contemporary we mean that both existed in the same period but this statement is wrong because the Mughal ruler Akbar existed during 1556 to 1605. So, both the periods are different. So, hence Ghalib is not a contemporary of Akbar. Here the question asks for the correct statement. So, the correct answer to this question is option A, one only. Now this next question is based on Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940. The question asks which of the following is not classified as drugs under this act? The first one is medicines intended for external use of human beings. Logically, you can say that this will be classified as drug. So, this is correct. Then the second is preparation applied on human body for the purpose of repelling insects. Know that this is also classified as a drug under this act. The third one is devices used for the assistance of any injury or disability. Now this is also classified as drug because the section 3 clause B mentions that all the devices intended for internal or external use in the diagnosis treatment then for mitigation or prevention of disease or disorder in human beings or animals is a drug. So, this is also a drug. If you know third statement is correct that is it is classified as drug then you can eliminate option A, B and C. So, the correct answer to this question is option D none of the above because the empty gelatin capsules they are also classified as drugs. Now this next question is based on natural gas. The first statement is natural gas is the cleanest fossil fuel when compared to other fossil fuels. This statement is correct. Natural gas is called as the cleanest fossil fuel because it produces less carbon dioxide during combustion. The second statement is natural gas production has the least weightage in the index of eight core industries. First know that natural gas producing industries is one of the eight core industries and the highest weightage is given to petroleum industries and the least weightage is given to fertilizer industries and not to natural gas producing industries. So, this statement is wrong. Also know that in the list of index of eight core industries natural gas producing industries have a weightage of around 6.8 percentage and it is at the sixth position and as a whole as we know the eight core industries constitute around 40 percentage of index of industrial production. Now since this statement is incorrect you can arrive at the answer which is option A one only. Now the third statement is incorrect because it mentions in India majority of natural gas exploration and production are carried out by private players. The statement is wrong because and the majority of the exploration and production of natural gas activities are carried out by two PSUs. One is ONGC and the other is Oil India Limited. ONGC accounts for 71 percentage and Oil accounts 9 percentage of total natural gas production in our country. With this we have come to the end of today's sessions. If you like the video don't forget to like, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for more updates related to civil service examination preparation.