16&17-JULY-2023

The Hindu News Analysis – 16th & 17th July 2023 – Shankar IAS Academy
S. Page Number*
News Articles
No. C B D H T
1 Will 28% GST on online gaming affect its growth? (16/07/2023) 19 12 12 12 12

How gaps in cloud system configuration could expose sensitive T&C T&C T&C T&C
2 11
user data (Text & Context) Pg III Pg V Pg III Pg III

3 Why is there a controversy on the forest Bill? (16/07/2023) 19 12 12 12 12

Unethical to continue using polio-causing oral vaccines

4 18 11 11 11 11
(16/07/2023)
Sci Sci Sci Sci Sci
5 Coral bleaching (Science) Pg II Pg II Pg II Pg II Pg II
6 Lightning not a natural disaster, says Centre 12 12 14 16 10

7 Prelims Practice Questions

@ end of the video
8 Mains Practice Questions
*C – Chennai; B – Bengaluru; D – Delhi; H – Hyderabad; T – Thiruvananthapuram
16/07/2023
Pg: 19 – C;
Pg: 12 - B, D, H, T
How the new taxation works?
Government response

• Reduce complexity.

• Simplify tax compliance.

• Increase transparency.

Industry concern

• Tax >>> Revenue

✓ Unviable in a long run.

• Penetration of black market

✓ Black market might increase due to higher

tax rate

✓ Might industry image.

• Curbing industry growth
• Clubbing skill based gaming with chance
✓ Deloitte and the Federation of Indian
based gaming
Fantasy Sports - ₹6,800 crore in FY2022,
✓ Older regime - skill based gaming taxed
₹25,240 crore in FY2027.
lower than chance based gaming
✓ ₹15,000 crore in FDI till FY2022
✓ Skill based gaming - online rummy,
✓ ₹25,000 crore in FDI by FY2027
fantasy sport.
✓ Tax increase might spook the Indian and
✓ Chance based gaming - betting, gambling,
foreign investors.
horse racing
• Decrease in player engagement
✓ New regime - skill based gaming and
✓ High tax burden → Lower prize pool → chance based gaming taxed at 28%
reduction in winnings → Lower engagement
→ Industry in jeopardy.
 Practice Question - Prelims
Q. Which of the following taxes have been
subsumed under GST (Goods and
Service Tax?
a) Corporate tax, Customs duty, Service
Tax
b) Excise Duty, Entertainment tax, Sales
Tax
c) MAT, Sales Tax, State VAT
d) Luxury tax, Capital gains tax, Cess
and Surcharges
Text & Context
Pg: 11 – D;
Pg: V – B;
Pg: III – C, H, T
 Preliminary Examination
Paper I - (200 marks)
• Current events of national and international importance.
• General Science.
Main Examination
General Studies Paper ‐ III
• Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.
• Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual
property rights.
 Data protection in cloud:

• Responsibility lies with the companies who

Cloud storage: store data in it

• Digital data, including files, business data, • vendors of data should adhere to the
videos or images regulations

• stored on servers in off-site locations Mitigating the risks:

Advantages of Cloud storage: • Data encryption

• accessible either by the public or through • Making relevant backups

private internet connections

• No need to invest in operating and

maintaining data centers
Challenges in ensuring cybersecurity:

• Infrastructure Way forward:

• Regulation deficiency • Global cooperation

• Lack of national cybersecurity law • Budapest Convention on cyber security

• Absence of dedicated ministry • Creating a layered security system

• Inadequate data protection law • Cyber security research

• Lack of resources • Allocation of more resources

• Reliance on foreign infrastructure

 Practice Question – Mains
GS - III
Q. Recently, there were growing incidents of
malware attacks in the country. In this
context suggest some measures to make
India’s cyber space safe and secure.
(10 Marks, 150 Words)
16/07/2023
Pg: 19 – C;
Pg: 12 - B, D, H, T
 Part A—Preliminary Examination
Paper I - (200 marks) • Indian Forest Act, 1927 - managing timber &
other forest resources.
• Current events of national and international
importance. ✓ State governments can notify any forest
• General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio- land they own as reserved or protected
diversity and Climate Change - that do not require forests.
subject specialization.
• Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 - prevent
Part B—Main Examination
large-scale deforestation.
PAPER-IV
General Studies-III: Technology, Economic ✓ Central government’s approval is required
Development, Bio-diversity, Environment, Security for any diversion of forest land for non-
and Disaster Management. forest purposes.
• Conservation, environmental pollution and
degradation, environmental impact assessment.
 Key changes proposed:

• Inserting a ‘preamble’ - India’s commitment

to preserving forests, their biodiversity and
• 1966 - Godavarman Thirumulpad case. tackling challenges from climate change.

✓ Areas met the "dictionary" definition of • Amend name of the Act to Van (Sanrakshan
forests should be protected. Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam.

✓ States can define & demarcate forests ✓ Forest Conservation and Augmentation.
using their own criteria.
• Apply only to
• Standing Committee on Science and Technology,
1. Land declared/notified as a forest under
Environment and Forests (2019) - pressure on
the Indian Forest Act, 1927 or under any
forest land has increased.
other law and

2. Land recorded as a forest in a government

record on or after October 25, 1980.
• Do not apply to land changed from forest use
to non-forest use – on/before December 12,
Objections:
1996 by any authority authorised by a state/UT.
• Detrimental to significant forests in the
• Exceptions –
Himalayan, trans-Himalayan and northeastern
✓ Forest land situated 100 km away from regions.
international borders - to be used for
• Restricting only to forests on or after
“strategic projects of national importance”.
October 25, 1980 - leaving out significant
✓ Land ranging from 5-10 hectares for sections of forest land.
security and defence projects.
• Renaming of the act.
• Prior approval of the central government to
• Supreme Court’s 1996 verdict would be
assign forest land to any entity - extended to
diluted.
all entities, including those owned and controlled
by government.
 Practice Question – Mains
GS - III
Q. Discuss the provisions of the Forest
(Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023 and
examine how it assists India in achieving
its climate change commitments.
(150 words, 10 marks)
16/07/2023
Pg: 18 – C;
Pg: 11 - B, D, H, T
Polio: Two types of Polio cases:

• deadly virus infection affecting nervous • Vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV)

system
• Vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis
• Spread (VAPP)

✓ By Fecal, oral route or contamination of

food or water

• affects children under 5yrs of age

• Cure

✓ No cure and only be prevented by

immunization

• India eradicated polio in 2014

• Pulse Polio Campaign

Concern:
Practice Question – Prelims
• No focus on vaccine associated cases
Q. Consider the following statements
• Number these cases is showing an regarding polio virus.
increasing trend
1. Wild polio virus is eradicated all over
• No record of vaccine associated polio cases the world.
WHO guidelines: 2. Polio virus belongs to same family of
virus that causes chicken pox.
• Switch from trivalent to bivalent oral polio
vaccine
Choose the correct options.
a) Only 1
• Introduce inactivated polio vaccine
b) Only 2
Way forward:
c) Both 1 and 2
• Eliminate oral polio vaccine
d) None of the above
• Adopt inactivated polio vaccines
Science
Pg: 2 – C, B, D, H, T;
Corals

• Made up of millions of individual polyps.

• Polyps – Tiny and soft bodies.

• Polyp → exoskeleton → Coral reefs

• Corals + Zooxanthellae – Symbiotic

relationship.
Coral bleaching

• Process in which the corals turn pale or white • Ocean acidification

when zooxanthellae that live inside the corals ✓ Acidification → weakening of skeletons →
leave them. Bleaching

Causes of coral bleaching • Excessive sunlight exposure

• Anthropogenic Climate Change • Physical damage due to careless diving,

boating or coastal development
✓ Global warming → Stress to corals →
Bleaching • Low tides

• Pollution Is Coral bleaching permanent

✓ Agricultural runoff, sewage, chemicals → • It is permanent only if the stress exists for
Bleaching a longer period of time.
 Practice Question - Prelims
Q. How many of the following areas have coral
reefs.
1. Andaman and Nicobar Islands
2. Gulf of Kachchh
3. Gulf of Mannar
4. Sundarbans.
Select the correct code:
a) Only One
b) Only Two
c) Only Three
d) All Four
Pg: 12 – C, B; Pg: 14 – D; Pg: 16 – H; Pg: 10 - T
Lightning

• Discharge of electricity from the clouds.

Impacts
• Power - 10,000 and 200,000 A of current,
with estimated voltage ranging from 20 • Burns.

million to 1 billion V. • Muscular spasm

• Blood vessel tears

• Unconsciousness

• Motor and sensory function abnormalities

• Hypoxia-induced cardiac arrest

• Respiratory arrest
Factors that influence the Distribution of lightning

impacts • National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data.

• Intensity of the current ✓ 2015 – 2500 people

• Time it spends passing ✓ 2020 – 2000 people

through the body
✓ 2021 – 2880 people
• The pathway involved
• India Meteorological Department (IMD).
• The activity and position
✓ Number of lightning - Northeastern States, West Bengal,
of the person at the
Sikkim, Jharkhand, Odisha and Bihar
time of the event
✓ Number of lightning deaths - Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,
• The kind of strike
Chhattisgarh and Odisha
(direct strike, ground
strike, or wire-mediated • Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and Down to Earth
lightning) - 18.5 million lightning strikes between April 2020 and March
2021 – a 34% rise.
Why increase in lightning

• Climate change → Unstable atmosphere → • Why the Union is reluctant?

more thunderstorms → more lightning. ✓ Lightning death can be prevented by

• Aerosols. making people aware of safety steps

• More CO2. ✓ India has an early warning system -

forecast is available from five days to up
News article
to three hours.
• Union government is not in favor of
declaring lightning a natural disaster.

• Victims of natural disaster will be entitled

to compensation from the State Disaster
Response Fund (SDRF)
 Practice Question - Prelims
Q. How many of the following calamities are
recognized as natural disasters under the
SDRF.
1. Avalanche
2. Cloudburst
3. Pest attack
4. Frost
5. Cold wave.
Select the correct code:
a) Only two
b) Only three
c) Only four
d) All five
 Practice Question - Prelims
Q. How many of the following areas have coral
reefs.
1. Andaman and Nicobar Islands
2. Gulf of Kachchh
3. Gulf of Mannar
4. Sundarbans.
Select the correct code:
a) Only One
b) Only Two
c) Only Three
d) All Four
 Practice Question - Prelims
Q. Which of the following taxes have been
subsumed under GST (Goods and
Service Tax?
a) Corporate tax, Customs duty, Service
Tax
b) Excise Duty, Entertainment tax, Sales
Tax
c) MAT, Sales Tax, State VAT
d) Luxury tax, Capital gains tax, Cess
and Surcharges
 Practice Question – Prelims
Q. Consider the following statements
regarding polio virus.
1. Wild polio virus is eradicated all over
the world.
2. Polio virus belongs to same family of
virus that causes chicken pox.
Choose the correct options.
a) Only 1
b) Only 2
c) Both 1 and 2
d) None of the above
 Quiz Question – 17/07/2023
Q. How many of the following calamities are
recognized as natural disasters under the
SDRF.
1. Avalanche
2. Cloudburst
3. Pest attack
4. Frost
5. Cold wave.
Select the correct code:
a) Only two
b) Only three
c) Only four
d) All five
 Practice Question – Mains
GS - III
Q. Discuss the provisions of the Forest
(Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023 and
examine how it assists India in achieving
its climate change commitments.
(150 words, 10 marks)
Practice Question – Mains
GS - III
Q. Recently, there were growing incidents of
malware attacks in the country. In this
context suggest some measures to make
India’s cyber space safe and secure.
(10 Marks, 150 Words)