 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar A.S. Academy. The list of topics chosen for today's discussion along with the page numbers is given here for your reference. Today we are going to discuss a wide range of topics including geography, economy, environment, as well as quality. Before starting today's news analysis, let us take up this multiple choice question. This question is based on different types of majorities discussed in constitution. See, on 2nd June we discussed about Speaker, Chairman of Raj Sabha, the removal, etc. And few people Dinesh Kumar, Anjali Swaini, Rohan Yem have asked us to clarify majority required to remove the speaker. So in this session, we are going to discuss all the majorities present in the constitution. See the question, consider the following pairs. So on the left side, four conditions are given. On the right side, we should see whether they are perfectly matched or not. See the first one, passage of an ordinary bill. We all know that simple majority is required for passing an ordinary bill. That is majority of the members present and voting. See, we know that there are 545 members in House of Lok Sabha. Assume that on a particular day, only 350 people came to Lok Sabha and 50 people abstained to vote. So only 300 people are present and voting. So in this case, we need half plus one that is 151 members or 151 votes for the passage of an ordinary bill. So the first one is correctly matched. Coming to second one, that is the removal of Lok Sabha speaker. See we have discussed in depth about the removal of speaker on our second Joan video. See we know that to remove Lok Sabha speaker, the majority required is effective majority. That is majority of all the then members of the House. See for example, in Lok Sabha out of total strength of 545 members, assume that there are 45 vacancies. So the effective strength is 545 minus 45 that is 500. So effective majority is 50% that is 250 plus 1. So it will be 251 votes to remove Lok Sabha speaker. We need 251 votes in this case. So second one is also correctly matched. Coming to third one, the impeachment of president. Guys be careful here. The majority required for the impeachment or removal of president is the highest majority required according to constitution. It is a majority of two-thirds of total membership of the House. So in case of Lok Sabha, it is two-thirds of 545 which comes around 364. So third one is also correctly matched. Coming to fourth one, it is constitutional amendment under article 368. See if you want to amend constitution under article 368, the majority of total membership of that House, a majority of not less than two-thirds of members of that House present and voting. See it means out of 545 members in Lok Sabha, to make a constitutional amendment, we need a minimum of 273 votes plus two-thirds of members present on that day. So fourth one is also correctly matched. And know that there is one more condition under article 368 where ratification of half of the states is required. This additional majority that is half of the ratification is required. If amendment seeks to make any change in say article 54, 55, 73 which talks about president, etc. Or to make any changes in seventh schedule or to make changes in representation of states in parliament that is Rajasabha, etc. We need ratification of half of the states also. See all the important majorities present in the constitution we have discussed now. Hope this will clarify your doubts. And remember that the words simple majority, absolute majority, effective majority are nowhere mentioned in the constitution. They are only for our understanding. And more importantly know that absolute majority means more than 50% of total membership of the House. For example in case of Lok Sabha it is 50% of 545 plus one that means 273. So absolute majority and majority required to remove president are completely different please know that. Now let us start today's news analysis with this news article. This discussion is going to be based on this news article which says that the national capital region that around Delhi has witnessed several minor earthquakes. So in this context let us discuss in brief about earthquakes, how they occur and how they are measured. The syllabus relevant for this discussion is given here for your reference. Simply put an earthquake is intense shaking of earth surface. See an earthquake happens when two blocks of earth suddenly slip past one another. The surface where the slip is called fault or fault plane as you can see here. The location below the earth surface where earthquake starts is called hypo center. And the location directly above it on the surface where earthquake is felt is called a peace center. So what causes an earthquake and where do they happen? See from NCRTs we all know that the earth has four major layers. They are inner core, outer core, mantle and crust. See the solid crust and stiff top of the mantle make up a region called lithosphere. And this lithosphere is not a continuous piece. The lithosphere is made of many pieces. You can visualize it as in puzzle like many pieces sitting together. These pieces are called tectonic plates. See these tectonic plates keep slowly moving around sliding past one another and bumping into each other. This non-stop movement of these tectonic plates causes a lot of stress on earth crust. When these stresses get too large it leads to cracks called fault. So these plate boundaries across the earth are made up of many faults and most of the earthquakes around the world occur along these faults. So why do these earthquakes happen? See when the tectonic plates move past each other the rough edges get stuck. So the energy that would normally cause the blocks to slide past one another is being stored up. See when the force of moving blocks finally overcomes the friction of stuck edges of the fault it unsticks and all the energy is released. This energy radiates outward from the fault in all directions in form of seismic waves like ripples on a pond. These seismic waves shake the earth as they move through it and shake the ground when they reach the earth surface. So this is all about earthquakes. How do they happen and why do they happen? So how are these earthquakes measured? See often we see it is like a 5.5 earthquake, 6.0 earthquake. We often see this in use. See the severity of an earthquake can be expressed in terms of both intensity and magnitude. So what is intensity? See intensity is based on observed effects of ground shaking on people, buildings and natural futures. It means how much destruction it has caused on the earth surface. See it varies from place to place depending on the location of the observer with respect to epicenter. So this intensity is measured by the modified Mercale intensity scale or simply called Mercale scale and then coming to magnitude. So magnitude is about the amount of seismic energy released at the hypocenter. As we know hypocenter is somewhere located inside the earth where the earthquake starts. It is based on the amplitude of earthquake waves recorded on the instruments called seismographs. So this magnitude is measured using Richter scale or Richter magnitude scale. This is what we often see in the news like Richter 7.0 earthquake, Richter 6.0 earthquake. With this information let us discuss today's news article. See according to today's news article many minor earthquakes are happening around national capital region that is in and around Delhi. So few people and scientists are terming these minor earthquakes as foreshocks. See the foreshocks are smaller earthquakes which are later followed by larger earthquake. See scientists cannot tell that an earthquake is a foreshock until the larger earthquake happens. The largest main earthquake is called the main shock and this main shock is further followed by smaller earthquake called aftershocks. So four shocks that is smaller earthquakes followed by the main shock and again followed by smaller earthquakes called aftershocks. So now there are concerns that these minor earthquakes ranging from 1.8 to 4.5 on Richter scale may lead to a bigger earthquake that is main shock called the Great Himalayan earthquake. So we know that the NCR is situated close to the most active fall in on earth that is the Himalayan belt where the Indian plate or Indo-Australian plate collides with Eurasian plate as you can see here. So because of this collision the stresses are continuously adding up and many scientists and geologists believe that a big earthquake called Great Himalayan earthquake will happen anytime because of these continuous adding up of stresses near the tectonic plates. However there are arguments and counter arguments regarding this Great Himalayan earthquake. Few believe that the minor quakes currently happening would release the energy accumulated and therefore reduce the risk of a very big earthquake. Others believe that the possibility of Great earthquake with magnitude of greater than 8 is going to strike near Himalayan belt. In such case the national capital region that is our national capital Delhi which is very close to this active Himalayan seismic belt is under a very big threat. So this is all about this news article. The displayed practice question will be discussed at the end of the session. Let us take up the next news article. This FAQ article is with reference to estimates of annual national income and quarterly estimates of GDP. These were recently released by National Statistics Office which functions under Ministry of Statistics and Programming Limitation. So this article talks about gross value added that is GVA, GVA at basic prices, GVA at factor cost and as well as gross domestic product. So these terms are very important for prelims and are considered fundamentals in the economics. We shall discuss them in this news analysis. The syllabus relevant for this discussion is given here for your reference. So first let us see gross domestic product that is GDP. So at this stage we shall see the definition of GDP and in the later parts of discussion we shall arrive at GDP using gross value added that is GVA. So GDP is defined as the final value of goods and services produced within the geographical boundaries of a country during a specified period of time normally one year. In other words GDP measures the aggregate production of final goods and services taking place within the domestic economy during a year. Now let us see what do we mean by gross value added that is GVA. See generally value added refers to the value addition to a raw material by a firm. Imagine that a firm has purchased a raw material for rupees 10. By adding value to this raw material the firm has made a product whose final value is rupees 100. But this 100 includes the cost of raw material also. So we need to subtract the price of this raw material to arrive at the value added by the firm. So therefore the value added is 100 minus 10 which comes around rupees 90. So this raw material used by firm is called intermediate consumption. So the gross value added can be mathematically expressed as output minus intermediate consumption. This is what we call as gross value added that is GVA at factor cost. That is the GVA by the firm using its factors of production. In addition to these factors of production the services of government are also used for which the firm needs to pay land revenue license fee etc. These expenditures are called production taxes. At the same time enterprises receive production subsidy from government as well. So for example production taxes can be land revenues, stamp duty, registration fees, tax and profession etc. Production subsidies can be subsidies to railways, input subsidies to farmers, subsidies to village and small industries etc. So if we add the production tax incurred by the firm and if we subtract the production subsidy received by the firm we get gross value added at basic prices. So the formula becomes GVA at basic prices is equal to output minus intermediate consumption plus production taxes minus production subsidies. So this is all about GVA at factor cost and GVA at basic prices. See after production the product or the good has to be sold in a market at a particular price. So up above this price and indirect tax will be added. This is called product tax. At the same time government may also offer product subsidies for purchasing the goods. For example product subsidies can be subsidies on food, subsidies on petroleum, subsidies on fertilizer, subsidies on gas cylinders etc. And product taxes can be excise duty, sales tax, service tax etc. So when we add these product taxes and subtract the product subsidies to the gross value added at basic prices we arrive at the final value of that product at the market. When this final value of all the goods and services produced in a country are added together we arrive at gross domestic product at market prices or GDP at market prices. See as you can see here GDP at market prices is equal to GVA at basic prices plus product taxes minus product subsidies. See this method of calculating the GDP is called product method or value added method. See in this discussion we talked about output of a producer, taxes on production, subsidies should be a producer etc. So from this it is clear that the gross value added generally gives the perspective of supply side and not demand side. So this is why the news article states that GVA is measure of the contribution to GDP made by an individual producer or producer industry. So this is all about GDP, GVA etc. Now let us come to today's news article. It states that from January 2015 India adopted a new methodology. Before January 2015 India was measuring GVA at factor cost. But in 2015 it was decided that sector wise estimates of gross value added will be given at basic prices instead of factor cost. India switched to this methodology to adhere to international norms which is the United Nations system of national accounts shortly as NEA. Next this article talks about the relevance of GVA. We have just seen that GVA captures only supply side and not the demand side. So this GDP calculation based on GVA is called value added method or product method. But GDP can also be calculated by other methods like expenditure method. In expenditure method as the news article states that GDP is computed as the sum total of various expenditures incurred in the economy. These expenditures can be private consumption, government consumption spending and investment spending. This way of computing GDP by adding up all the spending reflects essentially on the demand side of the economy. So the value added method reflects the supply side while the expenditure method reflects the demand side. However this GVA method becomes relevant mainly to conform with international standards. See when we conform to international standards it attracts foreign capital and foreign investment. However there are some drawbacks in using GVA to measure economic growth. Such as see the accuracy of GVA is heavily dependent on sourcing of data and the reliability of these data sources. In that context GVA is prone to vulnerabilities from the use of inappropriate methodologies. There is a general criticism that the change in methodology and data sources had led to a significant overestimation of economic growth. So when we say the change in methodology it means the revision of base year, change in use of GVA at factor cost to GVA at basic prices etc. With this we have come to end of this news article. The displayed practice question will be discussed at the end of the session. Let us move on to the next news article. This question is based on this news article which talks about Padma awards. So according to news article this year government is expecting many nominations related to public service during the COVID-19 pandemic. So in this context let us see in brief about the Padma awards. See the Padma awards are one of the highest civilian honours in India. They are announced annually on the eve of Republic Day and presented by President of India every year. These awards are given in three categories. They are Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Sri. So these awards seek to recognize achievements in all fields of activities or disciplines where an element of public service is involved. So basically these awards to recognize the public service done by civilians. Uncommon to qualifications required to get this prize. Know that all persons without any distinction of race, occupation, sex are eligible for these awards. However government servants including those who are working in PSUs are not eligible for these awards. And doctors and scientists working in government sector are exception to this. They are entitled to get these awards. Very importantly this award does not amount to a title. It means the person who got this award cannot use this as a prefix or suffix. Suppose if I get this prize I cannot use Padma Sri before my name or after my name. So coming to selections for this award a committee is set up by the Prime Minister every year called as Padma Awards Committee. All nominations received are scrutinized by this committee which is headed by Cabinet Secretary. The recommendations of this committee are submitted to Prime Minister and President of India for approval. After they are approved the awards are announced on the eve of Republic Day every year. Now coming back to the question. It says that with reference to Padma awards consider the following statements. The statement 1. The award recognizes achievements in all fields of activities where an element of public service is involved. Yes this statement 1 is correct. So therefore you can eliminate option C. Coming to second statement. They are awarded only to Indian citizens. Now this statement is incorrect since even foreigners are eligible to get these awards. So by eliminating statement 2 you can arrive at the answer that is option A 1 only. And coming to statement 3. The awards amount to a title and can be used as suffix or prefix to the awardee's name. As we just discussed the award name cannot be used as prefix or suffix to the awardee's name. So statement 3 is also incorrect. The correct answer is option A 1 only. Let us take up next news article. Now have a look at the given question. It is based on these news articles which talk about Rajya Sabha elections. So as we all know Rajya Sabha or council of states is the upper house of parliament and represents the states and few UTs of Indian Union. So in this context let us discuss in brief about Rajya Sabha. Coming to composition of Rajya Sabha the maximum strength according to constitution can be 250. In addition article 8 it provides that 12 members in Rajya Sabha can be nominated by president of India. And remaining 238 comes from states and UTs. At present there are 245 members in Rajya Sabha. So out of this 245 12 are nominated and rest 233 are elected from states and UTs. And coming to nominated members president nominates 12 members amongst the persons who have special knowledge or practical experience in respect to matters such as literature, science, art and social service. So this is all about composition of council of states or Rajya Sabha. And coming to life or term of Rajya Sabha article 83 clearly mentions that Rajya Sabha is a permanent house and is not subject to dissolution. However one third of members shall retire every second year and an equal number of members are chosen to replace them. And now we shall see how Rajya Sabha members are elected. Know that they are elected by proportional representation by means of single transferable vote or simply put indirect election. Normally when a member is elected to Rajya Sabha he or she serves a period of 6 years. However there can be vacancy in Rajya Sabha due to reasons like resignation, death of member or disqualified under 10th schedule. So the election held to fill such a vacancy is called by election. And very importantly know that a member elected in by election can be in the office of Rajya Sabha only for the remainder period. Suppose a member who got elected to Rajya Sabha in 2017 so died in 2020. So he was in Rajya Sabha for 3 years. So now the member who gets elected in this by election can serve only the next 3 years that is the remainder period of 6 years. So coming back to the question it says that the first statement the electoral college of Rajya Sabha includes both elected and normative members of the legislative assembly of a state. So this statement is incorrect since the normative members of assembly are not included in the electoral college of Rajya Sabha. Only elected members that is elected MLAs can vote for Rajya Sabha members. Coming to statement 2 the term of office of member elected to Rajya Sabha through by election is 6 years. So this statement is also incorrect. See just now we discussed that a member elected through by election serves only for remainder period not for a full term of 6 years. So the correct answer is option D neither one nor 2. Let us move ahead with this news article. This question is based on this news article which talks about poaching and illegal wildlife trade. According to a recent report by traffic a significant increase in poaching happened in India during the 2 month lockdown period. In addition the report found that poaching for consumption and local trade have more than doubled during the lockdown period. So in this context let us see some facts about traffic and also sites in exam point of view. See traffic is a leading non-governmental organization working globally on trade in wild animals and plants in the context of both biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. See it was established in 1976 as a joint conversation program of WWF and IUCN that is worldwide fund and international union for conservation of nature. See this traffic is aimed to ensure that trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to the conservation of nature. In India traffic operates as a program division of WWF that is worldwide fund for nature. Since its founding traffic has grown to become the world's largest wildlife trade monitoring program and a global expert on wildlife trade issues. This non-governmental organization undertakes its activities in close collaboration with governments on the convention on international trade in endangered species of wildlife fauna and flora that is sites. See sites is an international agreement between governments to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. See sites is an international agreement to which states and regional economic integration organizations are there voluntarily and know that sites is legally binding on the parties that is states that have joined sites. As of now around 183 parties are members are there in sites agreement. See when it comes to conservation according to the degree of protection they need the species covered by sites are listed under three appendices their appendix 1, 2 and 3. See appendix 1 includes species threatened with extinction. Trade in specimen of these species is permitted only in exceptional circumstances. Coming to appendix 2 it includes species not necessarily threatened with extinction but in which trade must be controlled in order to avoid utilization incompatible with their survival. And appendix 3 includes species for which a range country has asked other parties to help in controlling international trade. So this is all about sites and traffic in brief. So let's get back to the question. Consider the following statements with reference to traffic. It is an international agreement between governments for wildlife trade monitoring. See this statement is incorrect since traffic is not an intergovernmental agreement or international agreement between governments. It is a NGO that is non-governmental organization. Coming to statement 2 it aims to ensure that trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to conservation of nature. Yes this statement is correct since it is the objective of traffic. So the correct answer for this question is option B 2 only since we are supposed to find the correct statements. Let us take up other practice questions. This question is based on economy article we have discussed today. So the question says consider the following statements two statements are given and we should identify the correct answer. Statement 1 GVA is obtained by the addition of intermediate consumption with value of production. This statement is incorrect since GVA is obtained by subtracting intermediate consumption from value of production. That is output minus intermediate consumption. Here it is given as output plus intermediate consumption. So statement 1 is incorrect. Coming to statement 2 GVA reflects essentially on the demand conditions in the economy. This statement is also incorrect since GVA reflects the supply side of the economy and not the demand side. We have discussed this one in detail when we are discussing about the economy news article. So the correct answer is option D neither one nor two. Let us take up this main question. The Indian states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and NCT of Delhi are situated close to the most active fault line on earth and soon may experience a very big earthquake. Explain this question is based on that geography news article where we discussed about earthquake, how they occur and about Himalayan region as well as great Himalayan earthquake. So you can use those points to write this answer. Try to stick to the word limit that is 250 words. Please write the answers and post them in the comment section. We will get back to you with necessary feedback within short time. With this we conclude today's news analysis. If you find the session resourceful click on the like button and share appreciation in the comment section below. And don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Stay home. Stay safe.