 A very good evening aspirants welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankarai's academy for the date 12th of January 2022. So these are the list of news articles chosen for today's discussion. If you can see we have chosen five different articles. Firstly we will be seeing about a science and tech article and that we will be seeing what is AGR, what is spectrum and we will be seeing evolution of AGR. And followed by that we will be seeing about and defense article secondly in that we will be seeing about BrahMos in specific. So thirdly we will be discussing about an governance article which is regarding EPOS. EPOS is nothing but electronic point of sale, we will be seeing differentiation between traditional POS and electronic POS and followed by that we will be seeing an important article regarding Ganga Sahar Mela and that we will be seeing in brief about Kumbh Mela as well. Finally we will end our discussion by discussing about an economic article which is regarding GSD compensation SIS. So without wasting much time now let us move on to the first news article discussion. See this article here it says that the board of directors of Vodafone have approved the conversion of interest dues to the center into equity. Here the interest we are talking about is related to the spectrum auction installments and the adjusted gross revenue. See after this conversion the government will own 35.8% of the telecom carrier and the net present value of the interest is expected to be about Rs 16,000 crore. So this is the crux of the news article given here. In this context let us understand what is adjusted gross revenue that is AGR and about the reform package. Before that the syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference just go through it. First of all let us understand what does it mean by the word spectrum. See the word spectrum has a lot of meanings in India and makes most people first think of the 2G spectrum scam right? But the word spectrum in this context refers to a range of radio waves that are used for communication purposes. This includes the FM or AM radio broadcast that we listen to and even other wireless forms of communication like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. One of the very important characteristics that you have to understand about spectrum is frequency. Frequency is nothing but the number of repetitions of the wave in a second. You can easily understand this from the image given here. Here in the image you can see the topmost wave right? This topmost wave is low frequency. As it is low frequency it repeats slowly in the time that it makes 3 repetitions at the bottom most that is the high frequency wave repeats 10 times. So the high frequency wave has obviously travelled a lot further in the same amount of time. So the high frequency wave needs much more energy to travel the same distance. On the other hand in the space it takes 3 pieces of data in the first wave but you can fit 10 pieces of data in the last one. So you can pack more information into high frequencies in the same amount of time. So spectrum refers to the waves that are all around us at all time passing through everything. This means that it needs to be regulated. See if anyone could broadcast signals at any frequency there would be total chaos right? And it would lead to a lot of interference effectively rendering the spectrum useless for any kind of meaningful communication. So that's why the spectrum gets divided into bands by the government. Think of the spectrum as a whole as the wide open ground and think of bands as routes that are put up on it to guide traffic in a regulated fashion. I hope now you can understand what a spectrum is. Just remember the spectrum is divided between different types of technology. Your AM and FM channels are all spread around 100 heads to 200 heads. Telecom spectrum starts from 800 heads and goes up to 2300 heads. And remember commonly used bands for cellular communication are 800 heads, 900 heads, 1800 heads, 1800 heads and 2300 heads. See according to the GSMA the most suitable spectrum for telecommunication is in the 400 heads to 4 GHz range. To know about GSMA just go through this short note given here. Now that we have a basic understanding let's come back to the article which talks about AGR. Now what is this AGR? See we had a national telecom policy in the year 1994 and license were given to the telecom majors through license under the Indian Telegraph Act of 1885. See initially in the beginning we had a fixed annual fee which was too high and the initial telecom company started to default in the payment of their annual fees to the department of telecommunication. So what happened is in the year 1999 a new telecom policy was unveiled and there was a migration from fixed annual fee based license to revenue sharing model. So according to this telecom operators are required to pay license fee and spectrum charges in the form of revenue share to the center. So here the telecom operator have to pay the charges in the form of revenue share. Here revenue share means the total amount of profit generated by that telecom operators. So the revenue amount used to calculate this revenue share is termed as the AGR. As simple as that and according to the department of telecommunication the calculations should incorporate all revenues earned by a telecom company. See this includes non telecom sources such as deposit interest and sale of assets. So here is the problem in the other hand the company in their view they think that AGR should comprise the revenue generated from telecom services only and non telecom revenues should be kept out of it. So in the year 2021 the department of telecommunications has removed a host of non telecom income items such as income from property rent, dividend and interest from calculation of AGR. Apart from this the department of telecommunication they introduced the concept of applied gross revenue that is APGR which is arrived at by removing all the non telecom revenue earned by telecoms from their gross revenue. See from the discussion so far itself you can identify that the definition of AGR has been the subject of a long-standard battle between the government and telecoms. In fact since 2005 this is the problem. The court then backed the government and widened the definition of AGR to include non telecom items according to this Barrett Airtel and Odofone idea faced a combined rupees 1.2 lakh crore in AGR related license fees and SUC dues. Now the fresh definition of AGR excluding all non telecom revenue could help clear all the doubts and grey areas which have been a bone of contention between the telecoms and the government. Now as part of the relief measures announced the government also permitted telecoms to defer their AGR and spectrum payments by 4 years and gave options of converting statutory dues into government equity. See this package also sharply reduced the requirement of ban guarantees among other measures. So these are all the important points that you have to make note of. Very important topic with respect to prelims and mains make note of these points and with these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now have a look at this news article. See this news article talks about the advanced C2C variant of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile launched from INS Vishahapatnam. See INS Vishahapatnam is an intelligently built, stealth guided missile destroyer and from this INS Vishahapatnam the advanced C2C variant of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile was launched. Note here that the BrahMos variant tested is an extended range C2C variant. If you can't understand what is this extended range C2C variant let me explain. See we know that BrahMos is a joint venture between India and Russia. See earlier the range of the BrahMos was capped at 290 km. That is the range of the BrahMos can be used only up to 290 km. This is because of the limitations set by the Missile Technology Control Regime which is nothing but MTCR. So now first let us understand what is this MTCR in order to know what is this extended range C2C variant. See the Missile Technology Control Regime was started in 1987 by the G7 industrialized countries namely the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Italy. See this group was started to check the spread of the unmanned missile delivery system. To be specific MTCR particularly focuses on systems that could carry a payload of 500 km to a range of 300 km. So here very important fact to be noted is MTCR guidelines prohibit its members from transfer sale or joint production of missiles beyond 300 km with countries outside the club. That is if India sign MTCR, India can transfer missiles of any range within the countries inside the club. So this is what the MTCR guidelines mandated. So earlier India was not a member of MTCR and since Russia become a member of MTCR in 1995 it could only transfer missile technology with a range lesser than 300 km to India. But this scenario changed. In 2016 India became a signatory of the MTCR. So now the range of the Brahmos could be extended. Just know that presently the plan is to extend the range to 450 km and it could be also extended to 600 km in a later stage. I hope now you can understand what is this extended range C2C variant. Earlier the range was capped at 290 km and now presently the plan is to extend the range to 450 km and it could be also extended to 600 km in a later stage. So this is why it is called extended range C2C variant. So this is the crux of the news article here. So in this context let us revise some important points about Brahmos in the prelims perspective. See Brahmos is a supersonic cruise missile. It is a two stage missile. The first stage is a solid propellant booster engine. This stage brings the missile to supersonic speed. The second stage is a liquid ramjet stage. This stage takes the missile closer to the speed of Mach 3. Just remember the stage 2 guides the missile in the cruise stage. Another interesting fact is that the missile operates by the fire and forgot principle. See fire and forgot means that once the missile is launched it can hit the designated target even without the launcher not being in line of sight of the target. See this kind of principle will be very helpful particularly when the missile is air to air or C2C. So after launching even if the launcher is not in line of sight of the target the missile just hits the target. So this is what fire and forgot principle mean. So this fire and forgot principle is incorporated in Brahmos using the advanced software system that are embedded in the missile. See the destructive power of the missile is due to the large kinetic energy generated by the missile or impact. So the other features of the Brahmos includes its ability to integrate into multiple platforms. That is we can launch Brahmos from different platforms. Secondly it gives very low radar signal which enhances its stealth capabilities. Thirdly Pinpoint Accuracy which ensures assured destruction of the target. Note that presently the Brahmos system is integrated into land based weapon system, ship based weapon system and air based weapon system. In the case of submarine launched Brahmos India has conducted various successful test experiments but the integration with the submarine is not yet done. So make note of these important points in problems and mains perspective. Also remember actually India is developing Brahmos NG which is the next generation variant of Brahmos to be integrated with the submarine which are to be developed as a part of Project 75I. We will see in detail about Brahmos NG and Project 75I some other time. So these are some of the important points that you have to know about Brahmos. With these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. This news article talks about the server glitch in the online system that facilitates the operation of E-Pose. Here E-Pose is nothing but electronic point of sale machines in PDS outlets in Kerala. See this technical issue led to ration dealers shutdown shops which resulted in beneficiaries running empty handed. So in this context let's see the difference between POS that is the point of sale and E-Pose is the electronic point of sale and the benefits of using E-Pose. Firstly POS or point of sale simply means the place where an exchange for goods or services is made. See the POS is a cash register that we see whenever we are out shopping. Now E-Pose or electronic point of sale or the electronic format of the traditional POS system. Here the system mostly operates online where they store information securely in a cloud. Now let us see some of the advantages of E-Pose over the traditional POS. Firstly for customers the E-Pose ensures faster processing of orders and transactions. It also ensures flexibility in payment options. The consumers have the option of online payments, traditional credit card payments, contact list payments and many different preferences in which they can pay for goods and services. Secondly for store owners see the E-Pose helps centralize business operations and manage multiple sales channels from one place. Since all the data is stored in the cloud using analytic tools better inventory management can be done. The E-Pose also helps in keeping track of business performance to provide insightful reports as well. These reports can be used to predict future demands and remember the only disadvantage of E-Pose over the traditional POS is the initial cost. See in India under the PDS that is the public distribution system reforms more than 4.12 lakh fair price shops that is 77% out of total 5.34 lakh PDS shops have been optimized by installing electronic point of sale devices and presently about 10 crore E-Pose transactions out of 23 crore ration cards are being done after biometric or automation of beneficiaries on E-Pose devices in online mode. So because of these benefits E-Pose in PDS helps to reduce leakage at every stage in the public distribution system and helps ensure that the benefits accrue to the actual beneficiaries and not to bogus ones. So E-Pose in PDS also helps monitoring movement of ration articles and functioning of ration shops to the web portal of the civil supplies department. See for example in Thiruvananthapuram in a bit to bring in more transparency in the states public distribution system the civil supplies department they integrated the E-Pose machine with electronic weighing balances at ration shops. Here the E-Pose machine will generate a bill only if the corresponding weight is placed on the weighing balance. This narrows down the scope for the dealer to conduct fraud in quantity. This will bring in transparency and accountability but the issue here in implementing the E-Pose is that not every place in India has a proper stable internet connectivity required for the functioning of E-Pose. So where there is a disruption in internet connectivity or where there is a technical snack like that we see in today's article the PDS delivery will be affected. To prevent such issues that department of food and public distribution has issued clear instructions to states or union territories that no genuine beneficiary or household should be denied the entitled quantity of food crimes due to unavailability of internet connectivity or any other technical failure and other reasons. This will help prevent disruption in services as well. So that is all you have to know about E-Pose. In this discussion we saw about basics of both E-Pose and E-Pose and we saw some of the benefits of E-Pose over P-Pose reasons for integrating E-Pose in India's PDS and an example highlighting the advantage of integration. So with this let us conclude and move on to the next news article discussion. Now look at this news article. This news article talks about Ganga Sahar Mela. The news article says that the Calcutta High Court modified its order regarding the Ganga Sahar Mela and said only those having COVID in the past 72 hours would be allowed on the Sahar Island. So in this context let us see some of the important points about the Ganga Sahar Mela. See Ganga Sahar Mela happens every year during Makar Sankranti. This year the Ganga Sahar Mela is said to take place on 14th January 2022 to 15th January 2022. This Mela takes place on the Ganga Sahar Island at the mouth of the river Hoogli in West Bengal. See Ganga Sahar is part of the South 24 Pargana district of West Bengal and remember Ganga Sahar Far is the second biggest congregation of Hindu pilgrims after the Kumbh Mela. Every year during Makar Sankranti pilgrims from all over the country come to take a holy dip at the confluence of the river Ganges and Bay of Bengal. See this holy dip is followed by offering prayers at the Kapil Muni temple. This temple is immense in legendary tales and is highly reversed among devotees. So these are some of the important points about Ganga Sahar Mela. With these points let us also revise some important points about Kumbh Mela. See the Kumbh Mela comes under UNESCO's representative list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity. Very important point. This might be asked as a problem's question. So just pay attention. See during Kumbh Mela the pilgrims take holy dip in the river. Note that the Kumbh Mela is the largest peaceful assembly of pilgrims on earth. It is celebrated four times every 12 years. The site of observation of the Kumbh Mela is rotated between four pilgrimages on the four sacred rivers. The four rivers includes Allahabad. In Allahabad to be specific the confluence point where the Ganges Yamuna and Saraswati. All the three rivers confluence. Secondly Haridwar in the Ganges. Thirdly in Ujain, Shipri river and fourthly in Nasik, Godavari river. All the four places are very important and the rivers are also very important. Note that the Artha. Artha means half. So the Artha Kumbh Mela is held at only two places. In Haridwar and Allahabad every six years and the Maha Kumbh is held after every one 44 years. So Kumbh Mela is organized every four years and the location switches between four different locations. Artha Kumbh Mela is held at only two places that is in Haridwar and Allahabad in every six years and the Maha Kumbh is held after every one 44 years. See the devotees they believe that simply by bathing in the Ganga one is freed from their past karma. By taking up dip the devotees believe that one become eligible for liberation from the cycle of birth and death. See in many part of India similar but smaller community pilgrimage and bathing festivals are held. They are called the Maha Mela or Makar Mela. For example in Tamil Nadu the Maha Mela with water dip ritual is held at the Maha Maham tank which is located near Kaveri river every 12 years at Kumbh Gaunam. See this festival attracts millions of South Indian Hindus and has been described as the Tamil Kumbh Mela. Other places where the Maha Mela or Makar Mela bathing pilgrimage and fairs have been called Kumbh Mela including Kurukshetra, Sonipat and Panouti in Nepal. So in this discussion we saw about Ganga Sahar Mela what is Kumbh Mela we saw about Maha Mela's. With this we conclude our discussion and now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Have a look at this editorial article. In this the author has discussed some of the core issues in GST compensation says and he has also suggested some of the way forward for this core issues. So in this context let us discuss what is GST first, we will see what is the compensation shares and then we will see some of the major issues discussed by the author with respect to compensation says and then we will discuss some of the way forward. The syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference just go through it. Now what is GST? See GST is a destination based tax which is levied on conception of goods and services. In a nutshell only value addition will be taxed and burden of tax is to be borne by the final consumer. If you wish to know more about GST calculation or its basics just have a look at our Hindi newspaper analysis on 28th December 2021. Now let us see what is compensation says. Before that we will see why there is a need for compensation. See the implementation of goods and services tax that is GST in India was a grand experiment in cooperative federalism. So in this both the union and the states joined hands to rationalize cascading domestic trade taxes and evolve a value added tax on goods and services. But still the states feared of possible revenue loss by implementing GST in the short term. So to diminish this fear the union government promised to pay compensation for any loss of revenue in the evolution phase of GST. So what is the duration of this evolution phase see the first 5 years from the date of implementation of GST that is from 1st July 2017 to June 2022 is the evolutionary phase. So from this what we can understand is union government has promised to compensate the loss of states revenue in the form of compensation SIS. Now let us see how this compensation SIS is calculated. Here the difference between states actual revenue collection in GST from the revenue the states would have got from the taxes merged in the GST is called the shortfall. See this was estimated by taking 2015 to 2016 as the base year for the revenue from the merged tax and also for applying the growth rate of 14% each every year. So to finance the compensation requirements a GST compensation SIS was created. So what is this compensation SIS see we know that SIS is a form of tax levied by government on tax with specific purposes till the time the government gets enough money for that purpose right. So now this compensation SIS is also tax on tax. The purpose here is to compensate the loss of states revenue. Now on which goods these compensation SIS are levied see this compensation SIS is levied on certain goods which are called as SIN goods. Now what are they? They are tobacco products, automobiles coals and solid fuels manufactured from lignite, pan masala and aerated waters. I hope by now you would have got a clear picture about what is the GST and what is the GST compensation SIS. Now let us see the issue in this compensation SIS see the major issue here is the delay and improper payment of the compensation by the union to the state during the COVID-19 induced log-in. Now that initially that is in the first 2 years of GST implementation there was modest payment of this compensation to the states because the compensation SIS was sufficient to meet the requirements. In fact the SIS collections exceeded the compensation requirements by 21,466 crore rupees in 2017-18 and 25,806 crore rupees in 2018-19. But the issue here is there was 24,947 crore rupees of shortfall in the payment requirement from the SIS collections in 2018-19. See here you might think this could be met from the surpluses of the previous 2 years kept as a balance in the compensation fund right. But this has not done adding to this the most severe lockdown induced by the COVID virus in 2020-21 led to a 3 lakh crore rupees shortfall in states revenue. Here the rates missed just on the union government strengthened because in this 3 lakh crore rupees shortfall only 65,000 crore rupees was expected to acquire from the compensation SIS. Then what about the remaining amount? See the union government decided to repay a part of this that is the remaining 1.1 lakh crore rupees by borrowing from the reserve bank of India under a special window. What does that mean? They mean that the interest and repayment of this borrowing were to be paid from the collection from compensation SIS in the future. Now I believe you can understand what is the issue with respect to compensation SIS. Apart from this the author has mentioned 2 core issues. See although it was hoped that the tax structure would stabilize in the first 5 years the reform is still in transition. In that line the first core issue which the author mentions here is the technology platform. See the technology platform could not be firmed up for a long time due to which the initially planned returns could not be filed. See this led to large scale misuse of input tax credit using fake invoices. Additionally the adverse impact on revenue collections due to this was exaggerated by pandemic induced lockdowns. So this is the first core issue. Secondly GST compensation says is the state's only main source of money. And presently if you can see the spending commitments to protect the lives and livelihoods of people have increased. So in order to tackle that the state would wish to elevate revenue volatility to the greater extent possible but the state could not do this. See this anxiety was posed by the finance commission. See finance commission is intended to take into consideration the capacity and requirements of states in its recommendations right. But the same finance commission has already submitted its proposals. And the issue here is the next commission's recommendations will be accessible only in 2026 to 27. In the other hand the structure of GST requires significant changes and state cooperation is required to implement the necessary reforms. So to address these two core issues what can be done here the author has suggested some of the reforms. The first recommendation is to broaden the tax base. See almost 50% of the consumption items included in the consumer price index or in the exception list of GST. So broadening the base of the tax can help us to some extent. So in order to broaden the base of the tax we have to reduce these things significantly. So this is the first suggestion. Secondly the author suggests to bring petroleum products, real estate alcohol for human conception and electricity into the GST fold. Currently they are not under the GST and the author suggests to bring all these factors into the GST fold. Thirdly see at present the structure is far too complicated with four main rates which are 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%. In addition to this special rates on precious and semi precious stones and metals and sets on demerit and luxurious items at rates varying from 15% to 96% of the tax rate are applicable. See these have complicated the tax enormously. Here multiple rates complicate the tax system cause administrative and compliance problems, create inverted duty structure and lead to classification disputes. So reforming the structure to unify the rates is very important and in order to unify the rates cooperation of state is very important. See the states they would not be willing to agree to rationalize rates unless the compensation payment for the revenue losses is continued right. So finally the author suggests for the extension of compensation payment for the next five years. This is for two main reasons. First thing is to support the transition of GSD and second thing is to provide comfort for states to cooperate for the structural reform of GSD. So we can say that reforming the structure will help to complete the process of transition and it will incentivize the states to accomplish the reform in the true spirit of cooperative federalism. So these are some of the points that you have to make note of from this news article. With these learnt points now we came to the end of the news article discussion. So now let us see some of the problems practice questions. Now look at this first question. This question is about project 75 i. Consider the following statements about project 75 i. Statement 1. It envisages indigenous construction of 6 modern nuclear submarines. Statement 2. The project 75 i class submarines are preceded by Calvary class of submarines. Select the correct answer from the codes given below. Option A 1 only. Option B 2 only. Option C both 1 and 2. Option D neither 1 nor 2. See statement 1 is wrong because project 75 i envisages indigenous construction of 6 modern conventional submarines not nuclear submarines. It actually envisages conventional submarines with complementary equipments weapons and sensors including fuel cells based AIP here AIP means air independent propulsion plant advanced torpedoes modern missiles and state of the art countermeasure systems. See this would provide a major boost to the indigenous design and construction capability of submarines in India in addition to bringing in the latest submarine designs and technologies as part of the project. So statement 1 is wrong. It is not nuclear submarine. It is actually conventional submarine. Statement 2 is actually correct. The project 75 i class submarine are preceded by Calvary class of submarine. The Calvary class of submarine are developed as part of project 75. So the correct answer here is option B 2 only. Now moving on to the second question. This question is about PDS in India. Consider the following statements about the public distribution system in India. Statement 1 PDS in India is established under the ministry of consumer affairs food and public distribution. Statement 2 PDS is the joint responsibility of the center and state government. Select the correct answers from the code given below. Option A 1 only option B 2 only option C both 1 and 2 and option D neither 1 nor 2. See both the statements given here are correct. So the correct answer here is option C both 1 and 2. Now look at this first statement. The public distribution system PDS is established under the ministry of consumer affairs food and public distribution. PDS is operated under the joint responsibility of the center and state governments. The center government with the help of food corporation of India that is FCI takes care of procurement, storage, transportation and allocation of food grants to the state governments. And now coming to the state governments they take care of operational capabilities like the identification of eligible families, issue of ration cards and supervision of the function of fair price shops. So both the statements are correct. Here option C is the correct answer. Now moving on to the third question which of the following are included in the UNESCO's representative list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity. First one is Durga Pooja in Kolkata. Second one is Buddhist chanting. Third one is Mudiyat. Fourth one is Ram Leela. And fifth one is Nowruz. Select the correct answers from the quotes given below. Option A 1, 2, 3 and 5 only. Option B 2, 3, 4 and 5 only. Option C 1, 2, 3 and 4 only. And option D all of the above. See the correct option is option D all the above. Recently the Intergovernmental Committee for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage has inscribed Durga Pooja in Kolkata on the representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity. In addition 14 intangible cultural heritage elements from India have now been inscribed on UNESCO's representative list. They include Buddhist chanting, Kalbelia, Choudans, Kodiatham, Kummela, Mudiyat, Nowruz, Ram Leela, Raman, Sankirtana, Traditional Brace and Coppercraft of utensil making, Vedic chanting, Yoha and Durga Pooja in Kolkata. So here the correct answer is option D all the above. Here the main questions are displayed. Please go through it, write an answer and post it in the comment section. So with this we came to the end of the news article discussion. If you like the video, like, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankarai's Academy YouTube channel. Thank you.