SSC CGL Tier–III

Published by:
KD Publication
701, 2nd Floor, Dr. Mukherjee Nagar, Delhi-110009
First Edition - Feb, 2017

Price: 50/-

Laser Type Setting

Jitender Saxena
 PREFACE

This is the classroom material for SSC (CGL) 2016 Tier III. I hope it
will prove to be a guiding light for the SSC (CGL) 2016 aspirants who have
burnt their midnight oil and have reached upto this stage. I have included
some important articles too in this book that have been picked up from our
monthly magazine KD Current Affairs.

Our students' constructive feedback and suggestions are most

welcome which have always remained and will remain our guiding light. I will
be highly obliged if you message/maill me your feedback or suggestion on
8860330003/ [email protected]

Neetu Singh
Feb, 2017
 Contents

1. Essay of Demonetisation Page No- 01 – 02

2. Essay on Make In India Page No- 03 – 04

3. Essay on Uniform Civil Code Page No- 05 – 06

4. Essay on Digital India Page No- 07 – 08

5 Essay on Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Page No- 09 – 10

6. Essay on Terrorism Page No- 11 – 14

7. Essay on Child Labour Page No- 15 – 16

8. Essay on Woman Empowerment Page No- 17 – 18

9. Article on Politics of Reservation Page No- 19 – 21

10. Article on Article-370 (J&K) Page No- 22 – 23

11. Article on Disaster Management Page No- 24 – 27

12. Article on Pornography Page No- 28 – 30

13. Article on Net Neutrality Page No- 31 – 33

14. Article on Subsidy Page No- 34 – 36

15. Article on Freedom of Speech Page No- 37 – 39

16. Article on Black Money Page No- 40 – 41

17. Article on GST Bill Page No- 42 – 44

18. Letter Writing Page No- 45 – 55

 Essays
SSC (Tier-III)

DEMONETISATION

Executing ideas that haven’t crossed your mind is an apt phrase for our PM
Narendra Modi, whose out of the box ideas for the last two years leave people swooning
and opposition fuming but his “who cares” attitude, when it comes to nation, has
garnered enormous support as well as acrimonious criticism at the same time. From
Swatch Bharat Abhiyan to Make in India and then to Digital India, his ideas won both
laurels and criticism but suddenly like a bolt from the blue for many Demonetisation
appeared out of the blue.
On 8th November 2016, Mr. Modi announced on all national television channels
that ` 500 and ` 1000 currency notes would not be legal tenders from midnight. Like
a thunderbolt, it struck many, from tax evading businessmen and corrupt officers
stashing money in their lockers to terror funding organizations causing bloodshed
and massacre with help of fake Indian currency and black money. Demonetisation
jolted the nation out of its slumber after decades.
Demonetisation is the act of stripping a currency unit of its status as legal tender.
The Union (Parliament) has the sole power to make laws regarding currency, coinage,
legal tender and foreign exchange under entry 36 of first list of schedule 7 of the
constitution. Demonetisation took place in India in 1976 as well as in 1978 when `
10,000 notes were demonetised along with ` 1000 in 1954 and along with ` 1000 and
` 5000 by the Morarji Desai Government in 1978. This is the third time, similar
decision has been taken.
The decision of Demonetisation was taken mainly because of three reasons. The
first one was to tackle black money, the second was to check corruption and cash
circulation and the third was to stop terror funding. Is these problems are considered
in as grave manner as they really are, this move had in fact been due for a long time.
In India, all sections have been accustomed to using cash for all petty transactions
and even high value transactions for a long time. This has resulted in a parallel
economy and has caused inflation and grave problems like insurgency, black
marketing, terrorism etc. Inflation has sent the price of land and building sky-
rocketing and owning a house has become a distant dream for a common man.

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 This weapon of Demonetization shall be used to fight against undisclosed income
which is converted into assets like gold and real estate. Government officers have
their palm greased and the money find its way to properties usually benami. Within
days on his decision on Demonetisation, our PM attacked benami properties. These
properties are those that are bought by people with black money on fictitious names
or names of other people but enjoyed by the black money holders. Under the Benami
Transaction Prohibition Act 2016, a transaction is termed benami, if a property is
owned by one and paid by another. The act prohibits recovery of the property held
benami from benamidaar by the real owner. Also benami properties are liable to be
confiscated by the government.

Demonetisation has severely attacked terrorism too. Where earlier the anti-
national elements had a free run through India’s security apparatuses, now the
absence of cash will hit all terror activities that thrive on black money and fake notes
for their survival. Lack of hawala transaction will hit activities of Maoist and other
insurgent groups too as the stocked currency has become useless and the availability
of new high-value notes is not in abundance.

Demonetisation though has multifaceted positive effects on the health of our

country yet it brought hardships in the life of the common man. While black money
hoarders and tax evaders are finding ways to make their black money white; a common
man is still standing in long queues wasting thousands of productive hours. Besides
this, the black money stashed in terms of gold, properties, foreign assets, foreign
currencies and in foreign banks are still out of purview. The large fishes are at large
while the small fry has been trapped. Several labourers and hawkers have lost their
livelihood as there is no cash to pay them. A daily wager committed suicide as he
wasn’t getting work and a few old and feeble died while waiting for their turn in queue.

No pain, No gain may be the right phrase to sum up this discussion on

demonetisation. With a windfall of approximately ` 12 Lakh crore back to the banks
and people’s support to this move of cleaning the system, Mr. Modi is raring to go
ahead. Only time will tell us how this step has been taken by the history of India. Of
course the government, its spokesperson and pro-demonetisation economists
constantly speak of intangible long term benefits such as a move to a cashless economy
and widening the tax base while the analysts are asking, “Did the achievement of
this whole process merits the pain and disruption caused by the demonetisation
exercise?”

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 MAKE IN INDIA

Childhood memories are engraved in our mind, heart and soul. Some lines stay
there forever and one was ‘Made in India’. Usually on most of our things, we had this
line printed and then came a time when we grew up. We then got coloured in the
culture of malls and international brands and then ‘Made in UK’, ‘Made in USA’ and
certain international brands superseded ‘Made in India’. The youths today are
flamboyant and like to show off the tags of international brands on their shirt, jeans,
and jackets and on every small thing they buy or use. Suddenly, on 25th September
2014 the manufacturing sector of India was taken by storm when our PM Narendra
Modi launched the Make in India programme.

The ‘Make in India’ has not only its Tense changed, but also the attitude. This
initiative ‘Make in India’ emphasizes to transform India into a global manufacturing
hub. It is a powerful galvanizing call to business leader of the world to come and
invest in India. This slogan is an inspiring call to all global business leaders by the
government of India with a promise to facilitate the growth of the companies they
bring into India.
The logo of ‘Make in India’ a lion made of gear wheels, reflecting the government’s
vision of manufacturing India. This initiative is based on 4-pillars: - New processes
that would replace outdated policies, decade old long procedures and red tapism, new
infrastructure that will comprise smart cities with state-of-the-art-technology,
identification of new sector to attract FDI in them and a new mindset where the
government won’t be a regulator but rather a facilitator to woo global manufacturing
giants to invest in India.
Make in India is the single largest manufacturing initiative undertaken by a
nation in recent history. It has been built by collaborative effort. The department of
industrial policy and promotion initiated this process by inviting participants from
union ministries, secretaries and various knowledge partners. Various sectors have
been opened up for investment and sectors like defence, railways and space have
also been open for FDI.
Make in India has to be a movement rather than an initiative to be successful in
a policy-ridden country. It has to be beyond full-page coloured advertisements. It must
be informative and must inspire and infuse confidence in the business world, inspiring
them to become potential partners of the Indian business communities and reforms.
Make in India till now has been lauded by the manufacturing world. The government
within a short span of time has replaced obsolete obstructive framework of the past
and has replaced it with user-friendly system to drive investment and increase in
FDI. Till March 2016, 44% (percent) increase in FDI equity inflows was seen. The rise

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in FDI points towards stronger investors’ interest in India on the back of robust
economic growth. Higher inflows also suggest that the government’s liberal policies
are bearing fruits.
Today India’s credibility is stronger than ever. There is a visible enthusiasm,
momentum, energy and raring to go attitude in the business world. India has opened
its investment doors and world’s largest democracy is well on its way to become world’s
most powerful economy.

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 UNIFORM CIVIL CODE

“One country two laws”, two ways to treat the citizens of the same nation, weird,
shocking but true. Welcome to India, a country ruled by the constitution of India,
different Acts enacted by Parliament as well as very old Personal Laws. A need for
single law for the whole of nation was felt while making the constitution itself and
article 44 of the constitution itself says that the state stall endeavor to secure for the
citizens a Uniform Civil Code throughout the territory of India.

Uniform Civil Code means that all citizens of India will be governed by the same
set of secular civil laws in matters of marriage, divorce, maintenance, adoption,
inheritance etc. It is an irony that on one hand a Hindu woman enjoys the complete
right of being the single soul-mate of her husband as per Hindu Marriage Act, Muslim
women on the other hand don’t have this privilege. While a hindu male is punished
with an imprisonment of seven years if he errs in bringing in a second wife, a muslim
male can have 4 wives at one time. Getting divorced too is not that easy if you are a
Hindu but Muslims it is as easy as uttering the word “Talaq” thrice to your wife, no
matter from where. Similarly whereas Hindus have a comprehensive Act enacted on
adoption this concept is not recognized by the personal laws of Christians and Parsees.

In 1985, the Supreme Court reminded the Parliament in very strong terms to
frame a Uniform Civil Code in Shah Bano case. In this case a very poor muslim
woman claimed maintenance from her husband u/s 125 of CRPC, after she was
divorced by her husband. The Supreme Court held that she did have such a right and
observe that even the Quran imposed an obligation on a muslim husband to make a
provision for his divorced wife. The response to this judgment was strong and
reactionary. Strong protests and disturbance erupted and the anger flared up. To mollify
the anger of the minority, the govt. led by Prime Minister Late Rajeev Gandhi
immediately sprung into the action and the Parliament passed the Muslim Women’s
(Protection of Rights in Divorce) Act 1986, which nullified the decision of SC passed
in Shah Bano’s case. The second case when the SC again strongly reminded the
parliament the need of Uniform Civil code was in Sarla Mudgal vs. Union of India,
when in question on the legality of the second marriage of a hindu husband after
getting converted into Islam was in question. The court decided against the legality
of such marriage and strongly recommended the necessity of the Uniform Civil Code.

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 Uniform Civil Code is guided by the basic ideology of equality and equal protection
of laws enshrined in our constitution but this issue has become controversial because
of two reasons. Firstly it touches the personal laws of different religions and secondly
because different political parties use it for their political mileage and make it more
controversial and then an unending acrimonious debate on this issue starts.

One must understand that Uniform Civil Code is not a weapon directed against
any particular community. It is simply a code that puts all the citizens of India
irrespective of their caste, religion or gender under one umbrella when the
constitution of the nation guarantees equality, allowing discrimination on the ground
of religion and gender is totally unconstitutional, unethical, unwanted, unwarranted
and unlawful.

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 Digital India

“A country that needs to be taught where to go for toilet, wants to go Digital.”

A Sarcastic remark by many and some call it Mohammad Bin Tuglak’s idea. Really it
need guts to talk about digital India in a country where more than three hundred
million Indians do not have electricity facility too. Mr. Narendra Modi an astute
administrator and seasoned leader, on 1st July 2015, announced to go digital. A past
master in statesmanship, PM Modi, didn’t even bat en eyelid before announcing this
initiative to connect people of the rural and urban India. This initiative aims to make
India a better governing place facilitating Indians with electronic government services,
reducing paper work, improving work efficiency and saving time. This ambitious project
will transform India into a complete digital country with efficient and transparent e-
governance.

Digital India is India Digitally Empowered Knowledge Economy with digital

infrastructure and e-government providing services and information easily available
online and integrating many departments for hassle free e-governance.
Digital India programme aims at ensuring the broadband highways and universal
access to mobile phones. It not only aims at e-governance but also ensures more IT
jobs for the general public but this gigantic programme needs digital infrastructure
first. This programme will be implemented in phases till 2019 and will be monitored
by the Digital India Advisory Group chaired by the Ministry of Communication and IT.
This initiative includes plans to connect rural India with high speed internet network.
Under this visionary programme a two way platform will be created where the service
providers and consumers shall be benefitted. It will be and inter-ministerial
e-governance connecting services like public health care, education, housing, banks
etc. This programme will act like an umbrella programme covering several
departments.

This highly ambitious programme needs strong pillars as the plinth of such a
huge programme must be strong. The first requirement is that all the people of India,
even of the remotest village, must have universal access to mobiles and high speed
internet. Broadband services will have to be made available to 2.5 lakh villages and
400 thousand public internet access points will have to be created. Around 2.5 lakh
school, all universities and public places must have wi-fi hotspots. For this e-
governance (Reforming govt. through technology) and e-Kranti (electronic delivery of
services) are must for this programme to see the daylight.

A wonderful thing about this project digital India that may bring smile on the face
of unemployed youths is that it creates huge job opportunities in India. 1.7 crores
direct opportunities and 8.5 crores indirect opportunities will be created in the IT

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sector. Besides this every Indian citizen can avail himself of a digital locker facility
which will help him to store important document like PAN card, Passport, Marksheet
and degrees. The digital locker provides a dedicated personal storage space in the
cloud to citizen linked to their Adhaar Number too.
Will this programme turn into reality or remain an illusion, time will tell but the
government has taken a giant leap forward to transform the country into a digitally
empowered economy. Hurdles have started obstructing the path of this programme.
To start with not a single telecom operator or industry house has signed up to partner
the NOFN programme. NOFN stands for ‘National Optical Fibre Network’ that is
responsible to lay 7 lakh kilometres of optical fibre to connect the gram panchayats of
all the villages within three years. Infact this programme must be called ‘Digital
Bharat’ programme because we need to connect with the rural parts of India. Infact
laying fibre optic cables is the least of the challenges, the gigantic ones will be ensuring
functional broadband points at each panchayat, distribution of internet services and
finally their usage by the rural folk.

Digital India reflects out of the box thinking of the present government. The beauty
of a natural digital platform is transparency which doesn’t hide anything nor has the
potential to hide. This digital world is going to be a part of our life. In near future and
whether we like it or not we will be forced to place ourselves in the flow of this digital
river slowly arriving at the digitally empowered India, though some of us take this
idea of digital India with a pinch of salt.

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 Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao

‘God cannot be everywhere so he created Mother’. I feel this saying is very old and
we all love our mothers. Let me put it differently. ‘Angels cannot be everywhere so
God created daughters.’ Strange but true, we desire for a loving mother and a beloved
wife but we don’t want daughters. We worship goddesses as and kill daughters. This
problem of gender discrimination has been in India and almost all the developing
countries for centuries. In our country this problem is aggravating day by day and
this is reflecting in the Child Sex Ratio (CSR) which is defined as number of girl per
thousand boys between 0 and 6 years of age. The CSR has decreased drastically from
945 in 1991 to 927 in 2001 and now to 918 in 2011. This decline in CSR is a glaring
indicator of gender discrimination and social mindset of Indian masses. This grey
situation drew the attention of almost all the governments of India and the present
NDA government under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi launched a divine
programme with great fanfare named ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ (BBBP) to save and
empower the girl child. This programme was launched on 22nd January 2015 from
Panipat, Haryana. BBBP is a tri-ministerial endevour of Ministries of Women and Child
Development, Health and Family Welfare and Human Resource Development. Through
various awareness programmes, the government is trying to sensitize the masses
about the importance of daughters. The emphasis is to mobilise communities at ground
level and bring about a change in the way the society looks at a girl child. Social
media too is being utilized to its fullest to share this awareness and we know how
selfie with daughters became a world-wide hit overnight.
Under BBBP Scheme, the District Tasks Force and Block Task Force have been
formed to reach upto each stratum of the society and disseminate the actual motive
of the scheme at a wider level. Villages too are encouraged to come up with ideas and
they too are participating enthusiastically. Street plays potraying the problems of
sex-selective abortions and issues related to girl child are being organized in
Pithoragarh. Mansa district in Punjab launched an initiative ‘Udaan-Sapney Di Duniya
De Rubaru (Udaan-Live Your Dream for One Day)’ to inspire people to educate their
girl child and the Sarpanch of Bibipur was the one who came up with the idea of
‘Selfie With Daughter’. People are beaming with ideas and this initiative has been
received with open arms by one and all.
Under this scheme, a strong effort is being made to save and educate a girl child.
A money saving scheme called ‘The Sukanya Samriddhi Account’ has been introduced,
the saving amount of which will be free from tax deduction and only the girl can
withdraw the amount after she reaches the age of 18. A total of 100 districts have

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been identified with low CSR and ` 1 crore has been given to the villages for
maintaining sex ratio. It is high time, we as a nation paid attention to this grave
problem. The government is doing the best it can but we, the common masses, need
to introspect. Are we ready to change?
No country in this world has reached the Developed Nation’s Status if the women
folk of that nation are not equal partners of their male counterparts in every walk of
life. Educated and financially independent women add to the strength of nation but we
as a nation is struggling to fix the CSR and it is a distant dream for us to bring the
women folk at par to the men of the country. The initiative of Modi government at
such a large scale and with so much of enthusiasm can do wonders if we go strong
towards implementing this initiative at the grass root level of the country and let the
girl child live and prosper and spread wisdom and knowledge for if you educate a man,
you educate a man but if you educate a girl you educate generations to come. Let her
live at least. Life finds its own way to flourish.

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 Essay on..........

Amputated 1 limbs 2 , headless 3 torso 4 , friendly relation. Sadly these cruel hard
charred 5 body, heart rending sight 6 . Our hearted35 criminals are called freedom fighters
present world! We surely didn’t struggle to by the terrorism promoting countries.
scale the ladder7 of civilization8 for this result. When we talk about terrorism, we need to
Terror h ad alway s b een in th is world . understand the difference between terrorists,
Organized 9 and disorganized 10 wars have separatists36 and the naxalites37 as India is
always caused several human lives to perish11. facing not only external but also internal
But the global and extremely organized form terrorism. Although all the three mentioned
to terrorism aided 12 with the lethal 13 and above can be defined in three separate
sop histicated 1 4 weap ons 1 5 of m ass definitions yet, to keep it simple, separatists
destruction16 had never been there in the past are those who wish to get separated from a
history of human civilization. From being particulars country, religion or race while
savage17 to civilized, man adopted certain new Naxalites are those whose main problem is
values 1 8 . These va lues resulted in th e related to their economy especially the land.
development of certain human tendencies19 The most serious threat is from terrorists
which on on e ha n d unite th e p eople aided by international terrorist organization
irrespective20 of their race21, culture, caste, who commit hineous crime in the name of holy
creed22 and religion, while on the other hand war. Though different in their forms and origin,
create danger for humanity. The former human all the three sooner or later 38 resort to
tendency helps life blossom23, on this earth grotesque 39 murder, hijacking and serious
but the latter24 assisted by the fanatics25, and threats40 to mankind.
extremists 26 equipped 27 with the latest 28 India has been facing the problem of
inventions of science and technology is posing terrorism since 1980s and has tried to raise
a serious threat before the world in the form the issue before all international bodies time
of global terrorism. and again but the complaints fell on deaf
Terrorism is an act of terror which creates ears41. This gigantic42 problem attracted the
fear in the mind of the common people. The attention of the whole world only on 11 th
path resorted 29 by the terrorists is full of September 2001 when America was attacked.
bloodshed 30 , massacre31 and callousness32 . Today a huge amount of money is spent in
Today terrorism has become global and its fighting against terrorism and the citizens of
main targets are the democratic countries of every country are living is constant43 fear of
the world. Since democracy is the best form of terrorists attacks.
governance 33 , so these, attacks are surely Whether it is India or the world, there are
deplorable34. The situation worsens when some certa in reasons beh ind th e p roblem of
countries join hands to promote terrorism in terrorism. To deal with this problem, it is
those countries with which they don’t have extremely essential to know the reasons,
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behind it. It is believed that the main reasons and brotherhood59. This problem requires a
are poverty and backwardness. Besides these, permanent solution which demands an honest
ignorance44 and illiteracy45 are also the other effort and not just lip service60.
causes b ut ca n poor people a fford Terrorism recently has taken more ugly
sophisticated weapons? Can illiterate people turn by the advent61 of extremely extremist
use biological46 weapons and latest technology? groups such as Boko Haram and Islamic
Of course not. These terrorists are neither poor States (IS). In September 2001, al-Qaida
not backward. Infact, the so called global gained prominence62 for the first time. Before
terrorists are fan a tics. They use th e 2001, the developed world considered that the
unemployed youth to spread terrorism in the problem of terrorism had nothing to do with
world and it is a matter of sorrow that they do them but the attack on four important places
so in the name of religion though all of us know including World Trade Centre that killed
that no religion preaches47 terrorism. around 3000 Americans made the European
Now the question arises ‘what is the countries realize that terrorism is a global
solution of this problem?’ Firstly the developed problem. Al-Qaida and its leader Osama bin
countries must understand that terrorism of Laden came on the radar of Bush government
one country is no less severe 48 than the and later in May 2, 2011, Laden was hunted
terrorism of another country. So, all the down in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Al-Qaida is still
terrorist organizations should be dealt with49 a very much active terrorist organization. Boko
strictly 50. Anyone found guilty of terrorism Haram is a militant Islamist movement based
should be severely punished and adequate51 in Northeast Nigeria. It was founded in 2002
security should be provided to the common and in its violent uprising in July 2009, its
people. But, terrorism has another aspect also. leader and founder Mohammed Yusuf was
The policies of developed countries and the executed. Its unexpected resurgence took
inability52 of the United Nations in restricting place in a mass prison break in September
them in many matters of interna tional 2010. Since then it has been attacking both
importance have aggravated 53 the already military and common citizens of Nigeria. The
volatile 5 4 situa tion an d ha ve promoted Nig erian m ilita ry proved ineffective in
terrorism. If ‘Might is Right’ becomes the countering the insurgency.63 Shamelessly, in
norm55 of life, as seen in the matter of Iraq at the garb of their propaganda ‘Western
the hands of the Unites States, it will surely education is a sin’ the Boko Haram fighters
be adopted by one and all including the have repeatedly targeted places of learning and
terrorist organizations. have kidnapped school girls mostly under 12
Secondly, employment opportunities to perform household chores64 and sexual
should be given to the youths56 of terrorism services including bearing65 and rearing66 their
a ffected sta tes a n d reh ab ilita tion 5 7 children.
opportunities should be provided to those In Iraq the situation had never been stable
youths who were forced to join terrorist but after the catastrophe67 at the hands of
org an iza tions due to poverty an d America, the political situation of the country
unemployment. Children and youths should has turned from bad to worse. The recent
be taught that no religion teaches terrorism uprising of Islamic States of Iraq & Syria (ISIS)
and education based on modern technique has startled everyone. The group under the
should be promoted all over the world. Children leadership of Abu-Bakral-Baghdadi gained
should be taught the importance of tolerance58 notoriety 68 by the internet videos of the

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beheading of Europeans and the genocide69 of S.No. Words in Meaning in
the Yajidis. ISIS used to be called ‘al Qaida in English Hindi
Iraq’ but in February ISIS and al-Qaida got
separated. With its severe barbaric acts, ISIS 1. Amputated dVs
gained the reputation of a more barberous70
group. It took over Mosul, Tikrit, and three
2. Limbs gkFk&iSj
other Iraqi towns by the end of June 2014. It 3. Headless fcuk flj dk
then changed its name to Islamic State (IS). In
4. Torso èkM+
Syria, ISIS took control of a major Syrian oil
field, al-Omar by July 2014. The beheading of 5. Charred tyk gqvk
US journalist James Foley and Steven Sotloff
6. Heart-rending fny ngyk nsus
and the execution of British aid worker David
Haines and American hostage Peter Kassing sight okyk n`';
sent shivers down the spine71 of the civilized 7. Scale the ladder fl<+h p<+uk
world. The massacre of the Yazidis too at the
hands of IS attracted the attention of the world. 8. Civilization lH;rk
The Yazidis are inaccurately described as 9. Organized laxfBr
devil worshipper. They kept themselves
seg reg ated 7 2 an d exoga my 7 3 is strictly 10. Disorganized vlaxfBr
prohibited in their sect. Today they are facing 11. Perish xk;c gksuk
a possible genocide in Iraq and their already
small population of a couple of lakhs is now at 12. Aided lgk;rk izkIr
the verge of extincion.74 13. Lethal ?kkrd
The night is dark, it’s of no moon,
14. Sophisticated fodflr
But the sun will shine, hope shall bloom.
The world will smile, making way through gloom, 15. Weapons gfFk;kj
Humanity, love and brotherhood shall find some room. 16. Mass destruction tu&lagkjd
17. Savage fueZe
Happy New Year ! REALLY ?
18. New values u;s ewY;
Every year humanity is raped, 19. Tendencies izo"VfÙk
And we celebrate a New Year Day.
20. Irrespective dh ijokg fd;s fcuk
Every year scoundrels prowl,
And innocent children are mauled.
21. Race uLy
Everywhere molestation, riots & genocide, 22. Creed ewy&oa'k
Daughters evading penetrating eyes.
23. Blossom f[kyuk
Happy New Year, what a platitude,
The grief and anger has made me mute. 24. Latter ckn okyk
Something died in me, I feel the pain, 25. Fanatic dV~VjiaFkh
Is this man's world? I feel ashamed!
26. Extremist pjeiaFkh
by
Neetu Singh 27. Equipped lfTtr

SSC Tier–III 13
S.No. Words in Meaning in S.No. Words in Meaning in
English Hindi English Hindi

28. Latest uohure 53. Aggravated cnrj cukuk

29. Path resorted jkLrk viukuk 54. Volatile vfLFkj

30. Bloodshed [kwu[kjkck 55. Norm fu;e

56. Youths ukStoku
31. Massacre ekj&dkV
57. Rehabilitation iw.kZLFkkiu
32. Callousness Øwjrk@laosnughurk
58. Tolerance lgu'khyrk
33. Governance 'kklu
59. Brotherhood HkkbZpkjk
34. Deplorable fuanuh;
60. Lip Service tqckuh tek[kpZ@
35. Hard-hearted iRFkj&fny
fliZQ ckrksa ls
36. Separatists vyxkooknh
leFkZu dk;Z ls ugha
37. Naxalites uDlyoknh 61. Advent vkxeu
38. Sooner or later tYnh ;k nsj ls 62. Prominence izèkkurk
39. Grotesque foHkRl 63. Insurgency fonzksg
40. Serious threat xaHkhj [krjk 64. Household ?kj ds dke
41. Deaf ears csgjs dku@vulquk djus Chores
okys 65. Bear iSnk djuk
42. Gigantic Hkhedk; 66. Rear ikyuk&ikSluk
43. Constant yxkrkj cuk gqvk 67. Catastrophe fouk'k
44. Ignorance vufHkKrk 68. Notoriety dq[;kfr
45. Illiteracy vKkurk 69. Genocide uLygR;k

46. Biological tSfod 70. Barbarous Øwj

47. Preach Kku nsuk 71. Send shivers 'kjhj esa daiu nksM+
down the spine tkuk
48. Severe rhoz
72. Segregate vyx&Fkyx djuk
49. Dealt with l[rh ls fuiVuk
73. Exogamy vius lekt ;k
50. Strictly
fojknjh ls ckgj 'kknh
51. Adequate i;kZIr
74. Verge of foyqIr gksus ds
52. Inability v{kerk
extinction dxkj ij

SSC Tier–III 14
 .......

If you want to see Godliness1, watch a child in India. Ineffective16 laws and more often, lack
smiling. The innocence2 of a child reveals3 the of political will to implement17 them and social
purity of his heart but sadly, this world of cruel unawareness contribute to the continuation
human beings and the universal disease called of this problem. Child labourers are preferred
poverty have not left this beautiful and by many employers as they are available at
inn ocent form of life un touch ed 4 . Th e cheap rates, and come without much liability18.
existence5 of child labour is a ground reality6, They are easy to be moulded 19 to different
a social crime and a crime against humanity7, circumstances but lack of education, games
which steals8 away the innocence of a child and fun make them mechanical and hamper20
and leaves him as a machine in this cruel world their all round development.
9
of human beings, the most savage animal of The Constitution has prohibited 21 the
this world. employment of children below the age of 14 in
A good proportion 10
of children throughout any hazardous22 industry under Article 24. The
the world, especially in India, form a part of Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act
the toiling11 masses-destitute12, deprived13 and of 1986 was also a welcome step. Their

disadvantaged14. It is a matter of shame that employment at homes as domestic help and at

dhabas has also been banned by an
maximum number of child labourers is in
amendment made effective from 10th October,
India. As per the Government data, the number
2006. The amendment included houses, hotels,
of child labourers in India is approximately two
Dhabas restaurants etc in Part A of the Child
crores. They work in fields and factories, at
Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986,
street corners and in garbage dumps15. With
by recognizing the above mentioned places as
low level of education and no sense of social
places of hazardous occupation. But the reality
responsibility, these children can do much
is far away from what was expected. Inspite of
harm to the society, if they are not given
various safeguards23 provided in the different
protection and equal opportunities to develop.
Acts, the existence of child labour is a shocking
reality24. Hunger25 and starvation26 push the
The existence of child labour in India is a
complex problem. Poverty is the main and poor children to do odd jobs27. More often the
parent cause of the existence of child labour parents in greed28 of some extra income push

SSC Tier–III 15
their children to do various odd jobs but there S.No. Words Meaning in Hindi
is also another stark29 reality. Abrupt end to
1. Godliness nsoRo
child labour without any solution to the,
2. Innocence eklwfe;r
problem of hunger, starvation and poverty may 3. Reveals n'kkZuk
lead to more grim exploitation30. The plight31 of 4. Untouched vuNqvk
the poor children would be more severe if they 5. Existence ekStwnxh
are suddenly deprived32 of their livelihood33. 6. Ground reality tehuh gdhdr
Crime, prostitution 34 and destitution 35 can
7. Humanity ekuork
8. Steals pqjkuk
hardly be a better fate36 than child labour but
9. Savage ccZj
at the same time, with this huge population of 10. Proportion vuqikr
child labourers, the dream of a developed India 11. Toiling esgur djrk gqvk
seems distant37. 12. Destitute fuLlkg;
13. Deprived foghu] oafpr
14. Disadvantaged lqfo/k ls jfgr
15. Garbage dumps dwMs+ Mkyus dk LFkku
16. Ineffective v{ke
17. Implement ykxw djuk
18. Liability nkf;Ro
Kaizen in our deeds and 19. Moulded <+kyuk
excellence in our goal, 20. Hamper :dkoV iSnk djuk
Determination is our trait and 21. Prohibited ikcanh yxkuk
sincere is our role. 22. Hazardous [krjukd
Charity first is our policy 23. Sefeguards lqj{kk
in goodness do we trust, 24. Shocking reality ngykus okyh gdhdr
Academics is our priority 25. Hunger Hkw[k
result for us a must. 26. Starvation Hkw[kejh
Motivating Teachers and 27. Odd jobs NksVs&eksVs dke
a family atmosphere, 28. Greed ykyp
Passion for success shall, 29. Stark dBksj
30. Exploitation 'kks"k.k
expand our sphere
31. Plight cqjh fLFkfr
Ubiquitous this name will be
32. Deprived oafpr
shining like the sun, 33. Livelihood vkthfodk
Sooner than one could think 34. Prostitution oS';ko`fr
we became number one! 35. Destitution vlgk; gkyr
36. Fate fdLer
by 37. Distant nwj
Rajkumar Sir

SSC Tier–III 16
 .......

A famous saying 1 goes ‘God cannot be If we educate a man, we educate an individual,

everywhere, so he created mother’ and another but if we educate a woman, we educate a
rea ds ‘God d wells 2 wh ere wom en are family. Besides this only an educated mind
worshipped’. It is quite interesting to see that can th in k an d eva lua te 21 . Just as th e
we want either to worship a woman as a knowledge of English language helped some
Goddess3 or hate her as a whore4. Why doesn’t revolutionists22 in gaining information about
the society let her live as a woman, just a the French revolution and then raising similar
simple living being made of blood and flesh? demands in India, the knowledge about right
Why can’t she be a normal human being and to equality and equal opportunity will help the
not a symbol of tolerance and sacrifice5? Our women to come out of their cocoon 23 and
patriarchal6 form of society made the woman occupy equal status in the society.
believe that she will carve a niche7 for herself Women also need to have adequate
in the heaven, if she remains chaste8, tolerant, representation in the seats of power. Sadly the
sacrificial, faithful and most important of all if 50 percent population of women has only 11%
she worships her husband and treats him like percent representatives in the Parliament. The
a God. She was given a subordinate position9, Women Reservation Bill is shamelessly 24
in the society and was confined10 within four resisted25 by many parliamentarians on one
walls, to help her remain chaste and pure, or other frivolous 26 excuse 27 '. Adequate
which was supposed to help her develop godly representation in-the Parliament will be helpful
powers11. Time and again she was narrated the for women as, then they would be able to frame
stories of Sati Savitri and Sita. It is rightly said and implement28 laws for the welfare of the
“Women are not born, they are made”. women. Some people oppose this citing29' the
In India, female exploitation is reflected in’ exa mp le of Pa ncha y ats where women
sati, wife beating, dowry deaths, eve teasing12, sarpanch are puppets30 in the hands of their
child prostitution, female foeticide13 and flesh male counterparts31. We need to understand
trade. Besides defective 14 and ineffective 15 that, this is the transition32 stage. Today they
legislation 16, it is the traditions attitudes have the power, tomorrow they will understand
towards women and their role status in the its value and day after tomorrow they will
family and the society, which is mainly exercise it. We ca n not exp ect ch an ges
responsible for the continual17 suffering of overnight. Secondly they need to be financially
women. independent33. In the absence of financial
Most of the crimes against women in India independence she became a suppressed 34,
are directly traceable 18 to their inferior exploited 35 and impoverished 36 class of the
subservient” position supported by religions society. As society progressed, division of
and social norms20. For women empowerment, labour took place. Women took the charge of
the first requirement is educating the women. rearing37 the children which was not an easy

SSC Tier–III 17
task at that time, but this led to their financial for any mercy40 or miracle41. They must not
dependence on men. The earning members of tolerate exploitation in any form. In the name
the society became stronger, socially active of family and honour many women have
and all powerful. Women lost their social sacrificed their lives. This has done nothing
sta tus. Now the n eed of fin an cia lly but has worsened42 the condition of women
independence is felt because if the women are .They must take care of themselves. They
financially independent, the chances of shouldn’t let others take them for granted43.
tolerating domestic violence decrease. They are Women should respect themselves. They do not
then more confident and are aware of their need to be like men to be respected. They are
rights and know how and where to go to seek the creator 44 of life on this earth. They
redressal38 of their grievances39. Women must command respect not as Goddesses but as
demand their rights and must not just wait women, the most beautiful creation of God.

S.No. Words Meaning in S.No. Words Meaning in

Hindi Hindi

1. Saying dgkor 23. Cocoon lhfer nk;jk (tSls js'ke

2. Dwell fuokl djuk ds dhM+s dk gksrk gS)
3. Goddes nsoh 24. Shamelessly cs'kehZ ls
4. Whore oS';k 25. Resisted fojks/ djuk
5. Sacrifice lgu'khyrk ,oa cfynku 26. Frivolous gYdk] xaHkhjrk ls fopkj
u djus okyk
6. Patriarchal fir`LrkRed
27. Excuse cgkus
7. Niche LFkku
28. Implement ykxw djuk
8. Chaste ifo=k
29. Citing mYys[k djuk
9. Subordinate vf/uLFk ntkZ@
30. Puppets iqryk
position nks;e LFkku
31. Counterparts lkFkh
10. Confine dSn djuk
32. Transition nks voLFkkvksa ds chp
11. Godly powers nSfod 'kfDr
33. Financially vkfFkZd :i ls Lora=k
12. Eve teasing NsM+NkM+
independent
13. Foeticide Hkzw.kgR;k
34. Suppressed ncs&dqpys
14. Defective =kqfViw.kZ
35. Exploited 'kksf"kr
15. Ineffective v{ke@izHkkoghu
36. Impoverished xjhc
16. Legislation fo/ku
37. Rearing ikyuk
17. Continual yxkrkj
38. Redressal {kfriwfrZ
18. Traceable irk yxkuk (fdlh
39. Grievances f'kdk;r
pht dks mRifÙk)
40. Mercy n;k
19. Subservient nks;e
41. Worsen cnrj djuk
20. Norms fu;e
42. Miracle peRdkj
21. Evaluate voyksdu djuk
43. Take for granted gYds rkSj ij ysuk
22. Revolutionists Økafrdkjh
44. Creator jpukdkj

SSC Tier–III 18
 Article......

Recently Reservation stirred the hornet’s Government has to bridge the gap between the
nest when the Jaat community was given haves and the have nots. For this some
reservation privileges are given to the weaker section of
under OBC the society to ensure their progress. In our
category by country this privilege was given in the form of
the UP A reservation. Article 15 of our Constitution
Government guarantees us Right to Equality which states
in nine states that the State shall not discriminate against
before the any person on grounds of religion, race, caste
Lok Sabha etc but Article 16(4) empowers the State to
election in make special provision for reservation in favour
2014 and of backward classes, which in the opinion of
then the Supreme Court scrapped it citing the the State are not adequately represented in
reason that caste though a prominent factor the services under the State. Besides this
cannot be the sole factor for determining the Article 15(4) empowers the State to make
backwardness of a class. Similar controversy special provision for socially and educationally
caused 10-day stand off between the Gujjars backward classes. Now since both types of
and Rajasthan government that ended when con tra st p rovision s a re th ere in our
the government bowed before the demand Constitution, a need to strike balance between
providing 5 percent reservation to Gujjars in them arises. Recently in the matter of Jaat
the special Backward Classes category and Reservation the Supreme Court raised a
another 14 percent reservation for the q uestion wh y com mun ities a re bein g
Economically Backward Classes category increasingly included in the OBC list and not
among the upper castes. being removed from the category with the
Do we need reservation? This is a passage of time.
controversial question. One section of the Reservation had been such an issue on
society says that reservation divides the society which even the Courts have given quite
and sows the seed of enmity, conflict, friction contradictory judgements. In Balaji versus
and disharmony, while the other section says State of Mysore the, Hon’ble Supreme Court
that reservation is essential to bring the observed that national interest would suffer if
suppressed and the downtrodden to the main qualified and competent students were
stream of the society and for the all round excluded from admissions while in Indra
progress of the society. Broadly speaking Sawhney versus Union of India popularly
progress is of two types. The first one ensures known as Mandal case the court by 6-3
the progress of haves only. The rich becomes majority upheld the decision of the Union
richer and the poor becomes poorer. This type government to reserve 27% government jobs
of progress can be seen in a Capitalist Society. for OBCs, provided, creamy layer among them
I nd ia is a Socia list Coun try . Here th e are excluded.

SSC Tier–III 19
 Important Events related to Reservation

1882 - Hunter Commission appointed

Mahatma Jyotirao Phule who made
a demand of free and compulsory
education for all along with
proportionate reservation/
representation in government jobs.
1902 - In the year 1902 ,Chatrapati Sahuji
Maharaj, Maharaja of Kolhapur in
Maharashtra introduced reservation
in favour of backward classes to
eradicate poverty and give them
chance to participate in the state
administration. The notification of 1951 - In the case of State of Madras Vs.
1902 created 50% reservation in Smt. Champakam Dorairajan AIR
services for backward classes/ 1951 SC 226, Court pronounced that
communities in the State of Kolhapur. caste based reservations as per
This notification is the first Govt. Communal Award violates Article
Order providing for reservation for the 15(1). 1st constitutional amendment
welfare of depressed classes in India. (Art. 15 (4)) introduced to make
1908 - Reservations were introduced in judgment invalid.
favour of a number of castes and 1953 - Kalelk ar Com m ission wa s
communities that had little share in established to assess the situation
the administration by the British. of the socially and educationally
1909 - P rovision s were ma d e in th e backward class.
Govern men t of In dia Act 19 09 1963 - Court put 50% cap on reservations
commonly known as the Morley- in the case of Balaji vs Mysore AIR
Minto Reforms. 1963 SC 649 Tamil Nadu (69%,
1919 - P rovision s were ma d e in th e under 9th schedule) and Rajasthan
Government of India Act 1919. 68% exceeded this limit.
1921 - Mad ra s P resid en cy in troduces 1979 - Man da l Com m ission wa s
Communal G O in which reservation established to assess the situation
of 44 percent for non-Brahmins, 16
of the socially and educationally
percent for Brahmins, 16 percent for
backward classes.
Muslims, 16 percent for Anglo-
1980 - The commission submitted a report,
I nd ia n s/ Ch ristian s a nd eigh t
percent for Scheduled Castes. and recommended changes to the
1935 - Indian National Congress passes existing quotas, increasing them
resolution called Poona Pact to from 22% to 49.5%. As of 2006,
allocate separate electoral number of castes in Backward class
constituencies for depressed classes. list went up to 2297 which is an
Provisions in Government of India Act increase of 60% from community list
1935. prepared by Mandal Commission.
1947 - India obtained Independence. Dr. 1990 - Ma nd al commission recomm e-
Ambedkar was appointed chairman ndations were implemented in
of the drafting committee for Indian Government Jobs by Vishwanath
Constitution. Pratap Singh.
1950 - The Constitution of India came in
force on 26th January.

SSC Tier–III 20
1991 - Narasimh a Rao Governm en t despised. They surely needed help and the
introd uced 10% sep arate provision of reservation proved to be a blessing
reservation for Poor among Forward for them. Now, they can also dream of a bright
Castes. future. Their caste now is not the criterion
1994 - Supreme Court advised Tamil Nadu d eterm in in g th eir p rofession but only
to follow 50% limit. reservation cannot improve their status and
1995 - Parliament by 77th Constitutional their educational standard. It would te better
amendment inserted Art 16(4) (A) if th e Govern men t sta rts a h ea d start
p ermitting reserva tion to th e programme of providing them with facilities
Schedule Castes and Schedule
such as education based on modern technique
Tribes in promotions.
and demand, besides food and health care,
2005 - In 12th August 2005, The Supreme
right from childhood, and thus making them
Court delivered a unanimous
competent to compete with the other sections
judgment by 7 judges on August 12,
2005 in the case of P.A. Inamdar & of the society rather than relying on the
Ors. Vs. State of Maharashtra & Ors. clutches of reservation. Reviewing reservation
declaring that the State can’t impose policy from time to time and adopting economic
its reservation policy on minority and criteria for determining backwardness are also
non-minority unaided private ideas worth giving a second thought.
colleges, including professional N.R Narayanmurty had once said “India
colleges. is the only country where people fight to be
Note - I n 20 0 5, 9 3 rd Con stitutiona l backward”. This was seen time and again but
amendment brought for ensuring recently in Rajasthan and Haryana we saw the
reservations. To other backward most wierd form of demand; the demand to be
classes and Scheduled castes and called backward! It is said “As you sow, so shall
Tribes in P riva te Educa tiona l you reap”. The weeds of division have been
institutions. This effectively reversed sown now and then for temporary political
the 2005 August Supreme Court gains. We cannot expect any harmonious
judgment. result out of it.
2010 - I n 9th March 2 01 0, Women According to our Constitution, India is a
Reservation Bill passed in the Upper Socialist Country. Reservation was a tool
house, Rajya Sabha. provided by our Constitution framers to achieve
the goal of socialism enshrined in the Preamble
of our Constitution. This tool must be used
Reservation had been surely a blessing for
judiciously and not for personal or any political
the landless, exploited and weaker sections of
gain. Besides this, ignoring, the advancement
the society who were punished for even of the rest of the society altogether, in zeal to
touching the shadow of a higher class person. promote the welfare of the state, would be
They could not go to temple or draw water from suicidal for a country. Hence, there is a need
the public wells. They were humiliated and to strike a balance between progress and
welfare.

SSC Tier–III 21
 Article......

The Bhartiya Janta Party’s stand during

the Lok Sabha election on the necessity of a
debate on Article 370 has made this issue hot
potato for the same at the eve of election in
that state. Article 370 has always been a
controversial issue. The traditional position of
BJP on Article 370 was defined by Shyama
Prasad Mukherjee, the founding president of
Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Mukherjee termed the
Article as a problematic one and a symbol of
incomplete integration of the state with India.
He was convinced that Article 370 was the base
for advocating a spirit of separation. It was in
line with this argument of Mukherjee that Jana of Jammu & Kashmir. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar the
Sangh placed the demand for abolition of principal drafter of the Indian constitution, had
Article 370. Mr. Narendra Modi however did refused to draft Article 370.
not raise the demand of abolition of Article 370 In 1949, the then Prime Minister Nehru
during his Jammu Rally. He rather asked for had directed Kashmiri leader Sheikh Abdullah
a rational debate. Being a seasoned national to consult Ambedkar (then law minister) to
leader, he first wants to take the people of the prepare the draft of a suitable article to be
state into confidence and not to thrust included in the constitution. Article 370 was
something down their throat and that’s what eventually drafted by Gopalaswami Ayyangar,
is the beauty of a democracy. who was a former diwan to Maharaja Hari
Article 370 of the Indian constitution is a Singh of Jamm u a nd Ka shm ir. S heikh
temporary provision which grants special Abdullah who was appointed as Prime Minister
autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir of Jammu and Kashmir by Maharaja Hari
under part XXI of the constitution of India, Singh & Jawahar Lal Nehru argued that Article
which deal with temporary, transitional and 370 should not be placed under temporary
special provisions giving special status to the provisions of the constitution.
state of Jammu and Kashmir under article The 1952 Delhi agreement also specified
370. All the provisions of the state which is that the state should have its own flag in
applicable to other states are not applicable addition to the union flag and they should have
to J&K. The article says that the provision of the same status. This agreement was further
Article 238, which was omitted from the ratified by the 1974 agreement between the
constitution in 1956 when Indian states were then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and the
reorganized, shall not be applicable to the state then J&K Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah. It
SSC Tier–III 22
was agreed that the head of the state called permanent resident status on marrying a
Sadar-e-Riyasat (or Prime Minister) was to be person who is not a permanent resident,
elected by the state legislature. The agreement will enjoy all rights, including property
opposed imposition of article 352, empowering rights.
the President to proclaim general emergency 5. A P ak istan i residents g ain s J&K
in the state. The state legislature has a six year citizenship if they marry J&K citizen.
term, unlike other elected bodies, which have 6. RTI, RTE, CAG and majority of Indian
a five years period including our Parliament. Laws are not applicable in J&K.
According to Article 370– 7. Because of Article 370, no outsider can
1. Except for defence, foreign affairs, finance purchase land in Jammu & Kashmir.
and communications, Parliament needs 8. Under Article 370, the centre has no power
th e S tate Govern m en t con sen t for to declare financial emergency under
applying all other laws. Thus the state article 360 in the state. It can declare
residence live under separate set of laws. emergency only in case of war or external
2. The I n dian Supreme Court h as n o aggression.
jurisdiction in J&K. 9. Under Article 370 the Indian Parliament
3. Disrespecting the Tricolour and other cannot increase or reduce the borders of
national symbol is not a crime in the state. the State.
4. J&K residents enjoy dual citizenship. Though a lot of hue and cry is raised on
Women lose their J&K citizenship if they this issue, prime importance must be given to
marry residents of any other state. This the welfare of the people of Jammu and
was infact made clear by an administrative Kashmir and their betterment. But yes, one
rule. People’s Democratic Party thing for sure you utter Article 370 and eye
Government tried to overturn the court’s brows are raised.
order by introducing a bill but for some or Hence most of the national parties of India
other reason the bill could not see the light keep this issue at arm’s length. Not to mention,
of the day. However in a landmark the two major parties of Jammu and Kashmir,
judgement in October 2002, the full bench Nation al Conference (NC) a nd People’ s
of J&K High Court, with one judge Dem ocratic Pa rty (P DP ) a s well a s th e
dissenting, held that the daughter of a separatists are in the favour of Article 370.

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SSC Tier–III 23
 Article........

‘Natural Disaster’ is an overwhelming zone map of the country, over 59 percent of

ecological disruption causing loss to life, India’s land area is under threat of moderate
property and livelihood. Disaster involves to severe seismic hazard.
widespread human, material economic or Disasters are also caused by human
environmental impacts, which exceed the activities carried by human beings directly.
ability of the affected community or society to Bhopal Gas tragedy (2-3 December 1984),
cope with the sudden changes that took place Chernobyl nuclear disaster, wars, release of
in their life. It has been experienced by human CFC (Chlorofluoro carbons), release of
beings since time immemorial. Recently, greenhouse gases, environmental pollution like
disasters have increased in frequency and noise, air, water and soil are some of them.
intensity due to our interference with the There are some other activities of human beings
nature. Last month on April 25, 2015, Nepal that accelerate or intensify disasters indirectly
was hit by a devastating earthquake (also like landsides and flood due to deforestation,
known as Gorkha earthquake) of magnitude unscientific land use and construction activities
7 .8 , in wh ich 7 ,27 1 p eople h ave b een in fragile areas.
confirmed dead and more than 17,000 were Types of Disaster
injured. The termors of earthquake were also There are two types of disaster: Natural
felt in India, people rushed out of their homes. disaster that includes floods, hurricanes,
Around 45 people were killed, and hundreds earthquake, volcano eruptions, droughts,
were injured. Numerous aftershocks were also landslides, emergency diseases Tsunami,
felt by people in Nepal and India too. This wildfire etc. Man-Made and Technical disaster
include release of hazardous material in the
earthquake, has ruptured a piece of the main
environment, power service disruption, nuclear
Himalayan Thrust (MHT). The rupture started
power plant and nuclear blast, radiological
at the epicenter, about 80km to the North West emergencies, chemical threat biological
of Kathmandu and propagated eastward for weapons, cyber attacks, explosion, civil unrest
about 130km, rupturing the area directly etc. There is a direct correlation. Higher human
located under the capital city of Nepal. A new development are more vulnerable to risk of
earthquake of 7.3 magnitude hit devastated disaster and hence higher preparedness is
Nepal again on 12th May, 2015. India was needed. India due to its geological formations
the first to send aid to Nepal. PM Narendra and geographical locations, is a highly disaster
Modi monitored the relief efforts personally. prone country. Its high mountain ranges, long
Operation “Maitri” deployed two dozen military coastline, showclad high peaks, the perennial
aircraft and choppers for this purpose. During rivers in the north combine together to add
this problem. India has only two percent total
the last 15 years, the country has experienced
geographical area, which has to support
10 major earthquakes that have resulted in
sixteen percent of the total population of the
over 20,000 deaths. As per the current seismic world.

SSC Tier–III 24
 wind erosion of land and soil, flood, cyclone and
Classification of Natural Disasters earthquake. The Southern region (coastal
region) faces cyclones, sea erosion, tsunami,
Atmosphere Blizzards, Thunderstorms, landsides. Islands of Andaman and Nicobar and
Lighten ing Torn a does, Lakshadweep are confronted with the problems
Tropical Cyclone, Drought, of sea erosion and Tsunami. In 2005, Volcano
Hailstorm, Frost, Heat Wave in the barren island of Andaman group of
or Loo, Cold Waves etc. islands became active.
The worst affected group is the poor
Terrestrial Earthquakes, Volcanic sections of society, who are daily wage-earner.
Eruptions, Landslides, They are the most vulnerable and suffer the
Avalanches, Subsidence Soil loss of their livelihood. Even the psychological
Erosion. traumas caused by the disasters is so severe
Aquatic Floods, Tidal Waves, Ocean that they span whole of the life of victim. In
Curren ts, S torm S urge, some natural disaster like earthquake,
Tsunami. Tsunami, cyclones, it is the building structure
which becomes the cause of destruction and
Biological P la nts & An im a ls a s death. In India, disaster is a state subject. It is
colonisers. (Locusts etc) also the responsibility of the state to provide
Insects infestation. fungal, every kind of support and assistance to the
bactereal & viral diseases victim. The Central Government has a
such as bird flu, dengue etc. facilitating role. With proper coordination with
various ministries, it extends all required
Source-N.C.E.R.T
support and helps to the states, namely defence
There is a tremendous pressure on Natural services, air dropping,
resources directly or indirectly which further
lea ds to d isa ster. Alon g with huma n NATIONAL DISASTER RESPONSE FORCE
population, India has to support large cattle (NDRF)
population which depends on biomass and
graze in forest area. Forest cover is 23 percent Formed - 2006
of total land area and due to over grazing Headquarter - New Delhi
quality of soil is also degrading resulting in Director General - Om Prakash Singh
Work - The National Disaster Response Force
soil erosion, silting of rivers, removal of fertile
(NDRF) is a disaster
soil and heavy silting of cultivable land. Also,
response agency under
sometimes we see heavy rainfall during the
National Disaster
monsoon which further creates problems for
Management Authority
people residing in those areas. Northern part (NDMA) created by the
of India faces problems of landslides, floods, Ministry of Home Affairs,
droughts, avalanches and earthquakes because Government of India. It
this region falls under the seismic zones III to was established for
V. The Eastern region faces problems of floods disaster management and specialised
due to perennial rivers, Brahmaputra, Ganga response to natural and man-made disasters.
etc., heat wave, cyclone, hailstorm, heavy wind Under the National Disaster Management
and earthquake. The Northeastern region faces Authority (NDMA) it functions at state and
the natural disaster in the form of flood, wind central-level and consists of ten battalions of
outrage, landsides earthquake as this part of Central Armed Police Forces, including three
the country comes under seismic zone IV and each of the BSF, CRPF, and two each of the
V. The western region faces severe drought, CISF and ITBP.

SSC Tier–III 25
rescuing, searching, transport relief goods, National Police Academy to impart training to
availability of rail and ferry services, health administration and police officers in planning
personnel and medical support. In 1999 a high and incident response.It monitors and develops
powered committee on Disaster Management guidelines for the local Firefighting Services
system was set up by the Government of India across the country. It also collaborates with the
to look into the existing disaster management Ministry of Health and Family welfare in
system in the country and to suggest measures developing emergency health and ambulance
to improve it. Besides, a Calamity Relief Fund services. Specifically, it focuses on capacity
has been constituted with contribution in ratio building in dealing with mass casualty at local
3:1 between the centre and the respective State hospitals. NDMA runs various programmes for
Government. The Eleventh Finance mitigation and responsiveness for specific
Commission has recommended nearly situations like National cyclone Risk
Rs.11,000 crore for the period spread over five Management project, School Safety project,
years, while the Twelfth Finance Commission Decision support system etc.
has also recommended Rs. 23,000 crore The National Disaster Response Force
assistance for the states. (NDRF) is a disaster response agency under
National Disaster Management Authority National Disaster Management Authority
(NDMA) is an agency of the Ministry of Home (NDMA) created by the Ministry of Home Affairs
Affairs, which was established through the Government of India. It was established in 2009
Disaster Management Act enacted by the in Delhi, for disaster management and
Government of India in 2005. Primary purpose specialized response to natural and man-made
of NDMA is to coordinate response to natural disasters. Functioning at State and Central level
or man-made disaster and for capacity building under NDMA, it consists of ten battalions of
in disaster resiliency and crisis response. The Central Armed Police Forces including three
PM is the defacto Chairperson of NDMA. The each of the BSF, CRPF and two each of the CISF
agency is responsible for framing polices, laying and ITBP. Even in response to the 2015 Nepal
down guidelines and best practices and earthquake, NDRF teams have been rushed to
coordinating with the State Disaster affected areas in both India and Nepal. In future
Management Authorities (SDMAS) to ensure a the key to efficient disaster response will depend
holistic and distributed approach of disaster primarily on effectiveness of training and re-
management. NDMA also collaborates with the training of specialized Disaster Response
Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Forces.
Administration and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

Disaster Management in Developed Countries

Like India, most of the countries are also affected by disasters. India is taking various
measures for Disaster Management, but still more efforts are required to solve the problem of
disaster. In United States, many local municipalities have a separate Office of Emergency
Management (OEM) along with personnel and equipment. Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) part of the Department of Homeland security is a federal agency for emergency
management. The US and its territories are broken down to ten regions for FEMA's emergency
management purposes but it does not override state authorities. The Citizen Corps is an
organization of volunteer service programmes, administered locally and coordinated nationally
by DHS, which seek to mitigate disasters and prepare the population for emergency response
through public, education training and outreach. Red cross is also chartered by congress to
coordinate disaster response services. The US congress also established the Centre for excellence
in Disaster Management and Humanitarian assistance as Principal agency to promote disaster
management in Asia-Pacific region. National Responsive Force (NRF) allows the integration of

SSC Tier–III 26
federal resources with local, county or tribal entities with management of those resource to be
handled at the lowest possible level, utilising the National Incident Management System (NIMS).
In Australia ‘Emergency Management Australia’ a principal government agency is formed to
tackle the problems of disaster. In Russia, Ministry of Emergency Situations (EMERCOM) is
engaged in fire fighting, civil defence and search and rescue after both natural and man made
disasters. In UK, Civil contingencies Act 2004 (CCA) was also passed. In Japan, every year there
is great loss of life and property due to natural disaster like earthquake and tsunami. The
Central Management Council has developed a policy framework for large-scale earthquake
Disaster Prevention and Reduction. When tsunami is expected to cause coastal damage, the
Japan Meteorological Agency issues a big tsunami warning or advisory warning within 2-3
minutes after the earthquake and this information is immediately transmitted to Disaster
Management organisation and media outlets and further forwarded to residents and maritime
vessels. Coastal/tide embankments and prevention gates have been also developed.

With this vision, a detailed ‘Training Regime disasters. It requires proper coordination
for Disaster Response’ has been prepared by among various agencies. As we know that
NDMA/NDRF identifying the specific disaster disasters are non-routine events that require
response training courses and devising a non routine response. It is the duty of NDMA
unified, structured and uniform course module to generate date and information about
as well as syllabus for these training courses. disasters, preparing vulnerability zoning maps
And the State Disaster Response Forces (SDRF) and spreading awareness among the people
and other stakeholders will be trained on the about these. Apart from these disaster
same line. NDRF personnel are invariably planning, preparedn ess and preventive
trained in courses like flood Rescue, collapsed measures are need to be taken care in
structure search and Rescue, Medical first vulnerable areas. In recent times Disaster
Responders, Rope Rescue, Nuclear Biological Management has assumed great importance.
and Chemical Emergencies, Dignified Disposal To handle the situations efficiently, we need
of Dead Bodies etc. NDRF are trained in to be well equipped with latest technologies.
prestigious institutes like NISA, DRDO, BARC, Introduction of Disaster Management Bill 2005
CME, Army , Navy and Air Force as well in and establishment of NDMA and NDRF are
foreign countries like USA, Singapore, China, positive steps taken by the Government of
Finland, Korea, Switzerland etc. India.
Rehabilitation is an integral part of
“Even with all our technology and the
Disaster Management. When disaster occur
inventions that make modern life so much
a dm in istra tion s mea sures a re terribly
easier than it once was, it takes just one
inadequate and perhaps this is the most
big natural disaster to wipe all that away
difficult period for the victim. Thus, role of
and remind us that, here on earth, we are
administration does not end with the end of
still at the mercy of nature.”

SSC Tier–III 27
 Article........

What is Pornography? moves the issue from a personal concern with

Pornography is the depiction of erotic moral conduct to a legal concern with civil
behaviour (as in pictures or writing) intended protection. Robin Morgan’s (an American poet,
to cause sexual excitement and depiction of author, political theorist and radical activist)
acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse phrase, “pornography is the theory, rape is the
a quick intense sexual reaction. practice, even without practice, theory can
A debate exist.” captures the explicit link between
I n th e 6 0 s an d 7 0s, d eb a tes over production of pornography and violence against
pornography mirrored the counter-culture’s woman. Porn-industry has most devastating
clash with conservative values. In this classic impact on the women. What porn does is to
Liberal vs. Conservative encounter, the Liberal present woman as commodity for consumption
argues that there already exist laws to protect thus purging the humanity attached to women?
people from violence and children from Women trafficking, sex slavery, violence against
exploitation and that the government has no women, rapes and brutal murders thus become
business getting in the way of people’s freedom a natural outcome. The impact is not limited
of expression in democracy. Moral beliefs about to women only. Youth who are its consumer
sex should not be used to censor individual base waste their energy in unproductive work.
tastes whereas Conservative demands it The impact on their moral and ethical fibres is
should be banned. beyond reconstruction. Love gets replaced by
Why pornography should be banned? lust, care with cruelty and humanity with
There are billions of people (children, bestiality. What proponent of individual right
teenagers, youth, and Old) who are connected forget is the women in porn are mother, sister
from virtual and elusive world of internet. Porn or daughter of somebody. If they disregard and
contains that contents which is more artificial disrespect other women, how can they demand
than real. It gives a very false image of a very the respect for their own women? Hence
natural process. Porn has long lasting fanciful security of entire society would be in peril.
effects which directly and indirectly are Moreover, any individual right can’t be above
responsible for instigating men to dishonour the societal rights. Even our own fundamental
women. Also, the brutality involved in many right are restricted by decency and morality
rape cases takes its birth from these porn clause. Simultaneously our fundamental
movies. In Indian history, there are many duties demands from us to respect women and
in cidents an d arch aeologica l sites like renounce practice derogatory to the dignity of
Khajuraho temples which present these women. Flesh trade is one of the oldest yet
contents in a very open manner. But these most disparaging businesses which are bereft
archaeological sites stand testimony to the of even the minutest streak of humanity. Porn
kind of culture, we propagate and perpetuate. industry has not only glamorised this business
When it comes to morality, it can be felt that but also increased its reach to every nook and
Indian morality gets qualified by uncertainty. corner of society. Four south Indian states–
The link between pornography and crime Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil
Nadu account for almost 60% of the

SSC Tier–III 28
pornography cases booked in the country in people also see these pornographic websites
2010, 2011 and 2012. Kerala tops the table and they do not become lustful or rapist
with 386 cases, while Maharashtra comes in generally but the effect of their cultural
second with 199 cases in the three-year period, structures plays a pivotal role on influence of
according to information accessed from the pornography. It is notable that Supreme Court
ministry of home affairs. Kerala, the most has expressed a serious concern in this
literate state in the country, has a huge lead regarding and told that this problem is related
over others in the country when it comes to to each class of our society while hearing a
uploading obscene stories and photos on the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a lawyer
internet, as per data from the police. In the year seeking a curb on pornographic sites on the
2012, nearly 25 percent of cases registered for internet, particularly those showing child
uploading pornographic materials were from pornography.
Kerala. As many 589 cases were registered in Why pornography should not be
India for uploading lewd videos and images, last banned?
year. The highest numbers of cases are Last month, while hearing a petition to ban
registered against children are for misusing all pornographic sites, chief justice of Supreme
social networking sites. Several people use it Court HL Dattu had said, “Such interim orders
for taking revenge or breaking up marriages. cannot be passed by this court. Somebody can
The much promoted computer literacy is now come to the court and say ‘Look, I am an adult
backfiring with a large number of people and how can you stop me from watching it
including school children getting involved in within the four walls of my room? It is a
cyber crimes. If we look at the school students violation of Article 21 (right to personal liberty)
mainly in metropolitan areas, majority of them of the Constitution. Yes the issue is serious
would be carrying most advanced mobile and some steps need to be taken. The Centre
phones having internet facilities. The parents has to take a stand, let us see what stand the
and teachers should take more responsibility. Centre will take.” However, the Centre looks
Parents should not buy mobile phones for minor determined to ban porn based on its factually
children. Besides, teachers should take action wrong views. But given the information of age,
against the school students who bring mobile can porn be banned? While whether porn can
phones to school. The catastrophic materials entirely be banned or not is a debate for
on internet distort the fragile mind brain of another day, India definitely needs porn to
children and teenagers. It must be controlled. stay.
Though banning porn is an infringement of an Source of curiosity :-
individual’s privacy, but if we look at the greater Discussing sex in India is taboo. Even the
good of society, it surely is a better choice than mere mention of the word raises many
letting porn continues. Hence, in the interest eyebrows. Parents, who ideally, should have
of women, society and for the evolution of a sensitive conversations with their children over
common culture for the nation, porn must be sex, hardly engage. Therefore, in such a
banned. conservative cultural scenario, porn serves as
In this regarding the government of India a source of information for teenagers about
has given the list of 857 websites it considers sex and its various intricacies. Satisfying
pornographic to internet service providers teenagers’ curiosity about sex is important and
(ISPs) and has banned access to them at least. therefore providing sex education is critical.
This came after the Supreme Court refused to But the Indian government is opposed even to
order a ban on pornographic websites saying sex education, as was made clear last year by
such an order would impinge freedom. Before Union minister Harshvardhan.
this, Supreme Court has told that little had Banning porn doesn’t reduce crime
been done to prevent child pornography, which
In 2013, a petition was filed in the
is illegal, from being accessed on the web. It is
Supreme Court seeking a ban on porn, citing
remarkable that even educated and gentle

SSC Tier–III 29
it as a major cause for crimes against women, sexual media is easily smeared for an audience
which is believed to be the reasoning behind that is seldom given an opportunity to see what
banning porn by the government. However, really is sold under the name of ‘pornography’.
there is ample evidence that banning porn The UK is still the only Member State of the
doesn’t lower crime rates. Arundhati Ghosh, European Union that prohibits private imports
a woman activist said, “The more repressed a of adult pornography by consumers coming
society is, the more the acts of sexual violence. from other Member States of the European
If you see examples of Congo, Somalia, Union. Christians may find pornographic
Afghanistan, Pakistan and India- these are materials morally and socially offensive, but
places (where) sexuality is not out in the open not all pornography is legally prohibited in
a nd a cts of sexual violen ce are h ig h”. America. Pornography in the United States of
Furthermore, research studies in the Czech America has existed since the country’s origins.
Republic, Denmark and Japan established Individuals, groups, and companies advocating
that with increasing availability of pornography for the public availability of pornographic
there was a significant decrease in the number materials primarily cite the First Amendment’s
of sex offences. freedom of expression clauses. However,
India lifted ban on internet pornography obscene material is not protected by the First
after criticism Amendment, though there has been
The Indian government directed internet considerable debate and evolution over what
services providers to restore access to those is considered obscene. Despite this debate, the
among 857 banned porn and humour websites legal restrictions prohibiting obscene materials
that did not feature child pornographic have remained, because protecting society from
contents. obscenity is considered a public good. Attempts
The effort to completely ban pornography made to suppress it include: outright bans,
is impossible because in the world of internet prohibitions of its sale, censorship or rating
everything is connected to everywhere. We can schemes that restrict audience numbers and
immediately reach from India to Europe as well claims that it is prostitution and thereby
as Europe to India within seconds. Internet subject to regulations governing prostitution.
has broken the myth of geographical distance. Furthermore, in 2014 China had started
Pornography has made its special position a campaign ‘Cleaning the Web 2014’ in which
across cosmopolitan life to remote areas of ‘ all onlin e texts, p ictures, videos an d
villages. In an early age where the innocence advertisements with pornographic content had
of children is missing, erotic concocted clips been deleted without exception,’ Chinese
are taking the psychology of young people to media stated the intention was “to purify the
the verge of insanity. This point is really very Internet environment.’ In 2014, Japan’s
remarkable that our children, teenagers, parliament passed a bill to ban the possession
youth, even uneducated peoples are also of child pornography. Under the new law,
involved in the lattice of pornography. Harvard people found with explicit photos or video of
Research says that rape proneness among men children can be imprisoned for up to one year
is proximately caused not by genetic variation, and fined up to 1 million yen ($10,000). In
b ut b y d evelop menta l events involvin g 2008 Indonesia’s parliament too passed an
learning. Their analyses indicate that rape- anti-pornography law.
prone men come from harsh developmental
backgrounds involving impersonal and short-
term social relationships, and backgrounds in
which manipulation, coercion, and violence are
valid ways of conducting social relationships.
In Britain, where pornography is already
more restricted than it is anywhere else in the
English-speaking world or in Western Europe,
SSC Tier–III 30
 Article........

The debate on Net Neutrality in India Role of Net Neutrality in shaping the
started after Airtel, a mobile telephone service Internet
provider in India announced in December 2014 Net neutrality played a great role in
to charge additional rates for making voice calls shaping the Internet. The web users are free
from its network using apps like whatsApp, to connect whatever website or service they
Skype etc. In March 2015, TRAI released a want. ISPs do not bother with what kind of
formal consultation paper on Regulatory content is passing from from servers. This has
Framework for over-the-top services, seeking allowed the internet to grow into a truly global
comments from the Public. The consultation network and had allowed people to freely
paper was criticised for being one sided and express themselves and to have access to
h avin g con fusin g sta tem en ts. I t wa s almost everything they want. Net neutrality has
condemned from various politicians and Indian also enabled a level playing field on the
Internet users. By 24th April 2015, over a internet.A lot of money or connections are not
million e-mails had been received by TRAI necessary to start a website. If a service is good,
demanding net neutrality. it will find favour from web users. The service
What is Net Neutrality provider dosen’thave to talk to ISPs to put his
When the internet started in 1980s and website online. This has led to creation of
1990s, there Google, Facebook, Twitter and other countless
were no services. All these websites were started as
specific rules basic websites but they succeeded because net
that guided neutrality allowed web users to access these
the Internet websites in an easy and unhindered way.
S e r v i c e Result of no Net Neutrality
Providers If there is no Net Neutrality, the ISPs will
(IS Ps) All have the power to shape the Internet traffic
s e r v i c e and they will derive extra benefit from it.
providers were not supposed to follow the same Several ISPs want a share in the money that
principle (i.e. to provide unfiltered and Youtube or Netflix make. If there is no net
unrestricted services). But, mostly because neutrality the ISPs will start charging these
telecom operation were ISPs too, they stuck to companies. Without Net Neutrality, the internet
the same principle. This principle is known as will be ‘Package Plans’ for consumers. There
Net Neutrality. Hence users were able to access may be different connection speed for different
any legal website like You tube videos and types of contents, depending on how much you
facebook without any interference from an ISP. pay for the service. Lack of net neutrality, will
also spell ruin for innovation on the web. It is

SSC Tier–III 31
 Famous social sites in the world

S.No. Sites Founded Founder Monthly Visitors

1. 4 February 2004 Mark Zuckerberg and 90 crore

others

2. 21 March 2006 Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass 31 crore

and others

3. 5 May 2003 Reid Hoffman, Allen 25.5 crore

Blue and others

4. March 2010 Paul Sciarra 25 crore

5. 22 June 2011 Google 12 crore

6. February 2007 David Karp 11 crore

7. 6 October 2010 Facebook 10 crore

8. 10 February 2006 Pavel Durov 8 crore

9. 10 February 2004 Ludicorp (Yahoo) 6.5 crore

10. 24 January 2013 Twitter4.2 crore

11. 2009 Jan Koum and 70 crore

Brian Acton

SSC Tier–III 32
possible that to enable faster access to their movement for net neutrality gained further
website, ISPs will charge web companies. Those strength when Congress vice-president Rahul
who will not pay will find their websites Gandhi pitched for a debate on this issue in
functioning slowly. This means that big the LokSabha.Telecom minister Ravi Shankar
companies like Google will be able to pay more Prasad said “Telecom Commission will look
to make access to Youtube or Google+ faster into the recommendation of TRAI and will then
for web users. But a new starter that wants to take final decision.”
create a different and better video hosting site Will the Concept Net Neutrality Survive
may not be able to do so. Without net neutrality Now when internet is an integral part of
we are likely to get a web that have silos (a the society and incredibly important,with
collection of information not available to other monstrous multinational companies playing
programs etc.) in it and to enter each silo, we like sharks, it is difficult that the concept of
will have to pay some ‘tax’ to ISPs. Net Neutra lity will survive.With out
View of Politician on Net Neutrality NetNeutrality, radical ideas and start-ups will
The parliamentarian Tathagata Satpathy have lesser chances of unseating old boring
and Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that any move companies. Absence of net neutrality will result
to allow telecom operators to cha ng e in the emergence of monopolies or oligopolies
subscribers separately for using some apps which will be unfair for small and budding
would restrict people’s access to internet and entrepreneurs. Internet is still a growing
will go against the Prime Minister’s vision of phenomenon in India.All steps must be taken
Digital India. An MP of Odisha representing to ensure that commercial interests of a few
BJD backed Net Neutrality and said that do not come in the way of this digital revolution.
service providers should treat all data on the It is important that we do not let different
intern al eq ua lly a nd must not imp ose pricing and performance creep into the
differential pricing or discretional among internet. So Net Neutrality should be fully
users, content sites, platforms and apps also supported. It is a social networking site and
known as over- the-top (OTT) services.The essential part of the open internet.

Every facility
at your
fingertips

KD Publication

SSC Tier–III 33
 Article........

Subsidy is an economic benefit or financial financial budget. In 2001 where it was

aid provided by a government to remove some 1,43,570 crore, it rose to 2,60,657 crore in
types of burden and is often considered to be 2014. It constituted 12% of the projected
in the interest of the public. The aim behind expenditure of the government. Generally it
providing subsidy is to promote economic would be equal to 2.2% of GDP. Its relevance
welfare. Subsidies come in various forms cannot be ignored in view of its major share
including direct (Cash grants, interest free being food subsidy at 41% contribution.
loans) and indirect (tax breaks, low interest Various countries across the world under the
loa ns etc.) The most common forms of banner of commercial organisation/committee
subsidies are those to the producer or the have been trying to advocate and convince for
consumer. The former ensures that the removal of subsidies. They see it as an
producers are better off if minimum support opportunity to healthier competition in various
price is ensured to them and the latter reduces sectors like insurance, banking, agro products
the price of goods and services thus making and information technology. It has been
the price of essential commodities within the reviewed and suggested that subsidy should
reach of common people. be given at the final stage in form of credit to
Politics play a n imp orta n t pa rt in the account of the beneficiary. The same had
subsidization. Subsidy is the subject of been suggested by C. Rangarajan committee
discussion once again nowadays as now it and has been a point of discussion and has
seems to hit the debate of it being ethical or b een instrum ental in supp ortin g th e
unethical. It is been assessed with respect to government view to cut subsidy in a phased
its challenges in view of India’s commitment manner over number of years.
to world trade body. Subsidy, its current state and types
Relevance and Importance There is a sense
Subsidy is a tool not only for financial aid of con fusion a nd
but is as important in the form of financial lack of clarity with
support to the people of a developing country reg ard s to th e
like India. A country where 70% of the con tinua tion of
population is in mid income group, the subsidy. There is a
importance of subsidy is further strengthened. lack of transp-arency in how centre in distri-
Subsidy has many variables like fertilizers, buting the subsidy or whether the states are
cooking gas or Agricultural loan. There was a utilising it judiciously or not. Though the
constant increase in the allocated funds for highest subsidy is in the food sector yet the
subsidy with every passing year of each process being followed or its actual results or
SSC Tier–III 34
the quality of food grains being received by the
Cash Subsidy on LPG
ultimate beneficiary had always been under
question. The public distribution system has The scheme to transfer cash subsidy
its limitation and there is a visible financial directly to the bank account of the LPG user
nexus across different levels. It thus defeats h as b een
the basic purpose of providing the correct implemented
supply at a correct price to the ultimate pan-India
targeted population. Time and again, it has from 1st
come to our notice that inefficiency in public January,
2 01 5. This
distribution system and the callousness shown
sch em e ha s
by the Food Corporation of India have caused
b een na med
the rotting of lakhs of tonnes of foodgrains that
'Direct Benefit
have been left out in the open. In the last 68 Transfer'. This
years, no government has taken the pain to sch em e wa s
improve the situation. implemented in 54 districts of our country
The second highest subsidy is the fertilizer on 15th November, 2014. For the remaining
sector. In the 2014 budget the sum allocated 622 districts, the scheme came into effect
was 72,970 crore and a revised target has been from 1st January 2015. According to an
set to reduce it to 60,000 crore by the end of officia l sta tem en t, aroun d 15 .3 crore
next financial year. The basic thought behind consumers will be benefitted by this scheme
the plan to cut down fertilizer subsidy is in the 676 districts of our country. Around
because of the major contribution and benefits 6.5 crore i.e. 43% consumers have enrolled
themselves for this scheme. They will
going to rich farmers instead of the smaller
henceforth get the subsidy amount directly
one who were the target beneficiary. Though
transferred to their bank accounts. Any
it is true yet we should not forget that it is consumer who wants to get the benefit of this
because of this subsidy that the price of scheme will have to link his/her Aadhaar
foodgrains and vegetable has been under number to LPG consumer number and his/
control to a large extent. Its withdrawal is likely her bank account number. If he /she doesn’t
to affect 70% of the population directly or have an Aadhaar card, he/she will have to
indirectly. Inflation and rise in food prices have link his/her bank account with the 17 digit
been cutting deep into the pockets of middle LPG ID number. Once the Consumer gets
income group. registered under this scheme, he/she will
The third highest subsidy is on fuel sector. have to buy LPG cylinders on market price
In this sector, petrol was available at market and the subsidy will be transferred to his
bank account.
price but till 2014 diesel and cooking gas,
The Consumer will be intimated his/her
kerosene and CNG were under price control
status through SMS at every step. Every
reg im e of the g overn m en t. Slowly th e
Consumer will have to register his mobile
governm ent has taken th e in itia tive to number with his/her respective gas agency.
deregulate the prices of diesel and other The consumers have also been suggested
petroleum products. The number of subsidised that they must accept LPG cylinders only
cylinders has been restricted to 12 for each when 'subsidy transfer' has been mentioned
family and beyond that the consumer shall be in the receipt. Those consumers who do not
liable to pay the extra wish to avail subsidy can keep themselves
out of the whole process.

SSC Tier–III 35
cost. The next important area where subsidy exactly comes out in next two years. There is
has played a significant role is agriculture. In a high level of discontentment across various
the Union budget of year 2013, the amount group of population. The government has tried
was 7 lakh crore whereas it was revised to 8 to pacify the people by introducing the concept
lakh crore in the budget plan of 2014. of cash subsidy to be directly transferred
Current policy on subsidy throug h ba n k account to th e ultim ate
Lot of games are being played and the role beneficiary of such schemes and projects.
of subsidy has been under scrutiny both within Time has come to meet and face the
the country and outside. It has been proposed challenges of continuing subsidy across
that the subsidy be reduced to lower down the different sectors. It needs to have a balanced
financial deficit of the budget. The idea is still approach whereas the principle objectives
not convincing since this very subsidy is an should not suffer. The ultimate population
important tool and support in developed should not feel a highpinch being added to
countries like USA too. In US, the agriculture their daily needs. It has to be constantly
subsidy stands at 120 billion dollar whereas reviewed and seen with the changing times.
in our country it is hardly 12 billion dollar. The approach has to be more dynamic and
There are many countries across the world that more practical so that it does not affect the
extend subsidy support to their population and larger population which is close to 60%. One
especially farmers either directly on indirectly should not extent unnecessary subsidy to
to improve their life style. If we continue to profit making industries like airlines or bad
take this idea forward, it would be hard to debtors of the industry. We have to keep the
imagine how such large population of India flame of kitchen burning for 60% of the
would cope with sky-rocketing prices not only population who are affected and benefited by
for daily needs but also for basic food products this very role of subsidy in a developing country
like vegetables or pulses. The RBI governor has like India. India would continue to support and
assured that inflation would be under control extent this facility in the benefit of the nation
in next two years. We have to see and feel what in a balance and progressive manner.

kdpublication.com
amazon.in, flipkart.com

SSC Tier–III 36
 Article........

India Vis-a-Vis Freedom of Speech

India, the largest and one of the most
mature nations of the world has incorporated
the freedom of speech in its Constitution, soon
after its independence, when our learned
leaders sat down to write the rules, principles
and the directives on which the country shall
be served by its elected representatives. The
Constitution of India provides the Right to
Freedom, under Articles 19,20,21 and 22. The
right to Freedom in Articles 19 guarantees the
Freedom of Speech and Expression.
Articles 19 states that ‘Every citizen has
the righ t to freed om of opinion an d
expression.This right includes freedom to hold
opinions without interference and to seek, Six of the Charlie Hebdo Staff (circled) killed
in the attack
receive and impart information and ideas
through any media regardless of frontiers. that termed it anti-hindu and certain cases
Why is freedom of Speech a burning issue
were filed and demonstrations were staged but
today ?
the High Court of Delhi dismissed the case
Today the world is a global village. The
incidents of violation of human rights have sending a strong message of ‘nipping the
their repercussions thoughout the world. growing instances of religious intolerance in
Recently the freedom of speech saw an the bud’. Down the line few years back, M.F.
unprecedented reaction in France. On 7th Hussain controversial paintings of Hindu
January 2015, two assailants stormed the Goddesses created such and unfavourable
office of the satirical weekly magazine Charlie situation for him that he had to leave India.
Hebdo and gunned down 12 people including
Tasleema Naseen’s fate too met the same result
the Editor-in-chief Stephane Charbonnier and
four Cartoonists in retaliation to the Cartoons and she had to leave Bangladesh and then
of Prophet Mohammed published in the buckling under the minority’s pressure, the
weekly. Charlie Hebdo known infamously in West Bengal Government and later the Indian
the Muslim world for its audacity to publish Government asked her to leave India bag and
cartoons of the most reverred Prophet of the baggage. She moved to Sweden. Her fault was
Muslims had been the target of a terrorist
that she wrote essays and novels with feminist
attack on 2nd November 2011 too. Since 2006
this weekly magazine has published a series views and criticism of her religion Islam.
of Cartoons that have offended the Muslim Freedom of Press
world. Recently the movie PK was opposed by Freedom of Press is a cherished right in
certain sections of Hindu Society

SSC Tier–III 37
most of the democratic countries of the world. The CBFC issues the following
The attack on Charlie Hebdo brought this issue certificates presently:-
again to the forefront. The magazine was sued Theatrical Release Certificates
in 2007 by two French Muslim associations
which was rejected by the French Court. Certificate Name Definition/
Freedom of Press has time and again caused Notes
great agitation among the masses of many
U Universal Unrestricted Public
countries growing into a full-blown revolution. Exhib- ition
In 2014, the countries at the top in the matter throughout India,
of free press were Finland, Netherland and suitable for all age
Norway while with the least free press were groups. Films under
Eritrea, North Korea, Turkmenistan and Syria. this category should
This ‘Press Freedom Index’ is published by not upset children
‘Reporters Without Borders’ every year. over 4. Such films
may contain
Central Board of Film Certification educational, social
comical or family-
Central Board of film Certification- CBFC, oriented themes.
commonly known as Censor Board, has been Films under this
in news recently. On category may also
16th January 2015, contain fantasy
violence, very mild
the Chairperson of
sex scenes and/or
the Censor Board,
mild bad language.
Leela Sa m son UA Parental All ages admitted but
resigned from her it is
p ost a lleging th e Guidance advised that children
interference of the below 12 be accom-
Government in the functioning of the Censon panied by a parent
Board. After her resignation nine members as the theme or
content may be
of the board tendered their resignation jointly.
considered intense
After a few more resignations, only 17 or inappropriate for
members remained in the board. On 19th young children.
January 2015, the government appointed Films under this
Mr.Penlaj Nihalani as the Chairperson of the category may
board and also nine more members. Thus an contain mature
almost entirely new Censor Board was put in themes, sexual
place by the government. references, mild sex
scenes, violence
Functioning of the Censor Board with brief gory
The functions of the Board are- images and/or
 To regulate the public exhibitions of films. infrequent use of
 To assign certifications to films, television crude language.
shows, television advertisement and A Adults only Only for adult
audie-nces (18
publications for exhibitions, sale or hire
years or over).
in India. Nobody below the

SSC Tier–III 38
 age of 18 may buy/ Recen tly the media ’s imp a rtia l
rent an A rated deliverance of news came under scanner. They
DVD, VHS, UMD or allegedly failed to remain impartial during the
2014 Lok Sabha election. One news channel
watch a film in the
was termed pro-UPA and the other Pro-BJP.
cinema with this Every now and then we find some ridiculing
rating. Films under one religion while the other intruding into the
this category may p riva te life of someon e in the g a rb of
contain adult/ sensational sting operation. Every day certain
disturbing themes, advertisements amid news, serial etc. cause
frequent crude great discomfort due to their indecent contents
language, brutal and certain gossips are exaggerated to garner
TRP (Television Ratio Point) leaving certain very
violence with blood important news of national and international
and gore, strong sex importance uncovered. People related to
scenes and/or electronic and print media must understand
scenes of drug the gravity of their responsibilities towards the
abuse which is society. Social Media too is now playing a very
c o n s i d e r e d crucial role in shaping the society and it is
unsuitable for very interesting to note that this media is run
by overzealous, gung-ho and impatient youths
minors. of the country.
S Restricted This rating signifies Limitations on Right to Speech
to any that the film is Right to Freedom of Speech granted by
Special meant for a the constitutions to we Indians is subject to
Class specialised audi- certain restrictions. Under Indian Law, the
ence, person such freedom of speech and of the Press does not
as doctors. confer any absolute right upon us to express
our thoughts absolutely freely. Clause (2) of
Article 19 of the Indian Constitution enables
Freedom of Press in India the legislature to impose certain restrictions
The freedom of P ress is n owh ere on free speech in the interest of public order,
mentioned in the Indian Constitution. The security of state, decency and morality. The
Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression following are the grounds on which this
has been p rovided in Article 19 of the freedom is curtailed.
Constitution of India. It is understood that (i) Security of the Sate.
Freedom of Speech and Expression in Article (ii) Friendly relations with foreign States.
19 of the Indian Constitution includes the (iii) Public order
freedom of Press. Freedom of the Press (iv) Decency and morality
includes Freedom of Communication and (v) Contempt of court
Exp ression th rough d ifferent m edium s (vi) Defamations
including various electronic media and (vii) Incitement to an offence and
published materials. (viii) Sovereignty and integrity of India.
Media Vis-a-vis Freedom of Speech and It is crystal clear that the Freedom of
their responsibility towards the Society Speech enshrined in our constitution does not
Med ia is th e fourth pilla r of th e grant us any absolute right. No person can
constitution. Amongst the remaining three, the exercise this right if the exercise of his right
Legislature enacts laws and statutes, the infringes the rights of any other person. The
Executive implements them and the Judiciary reasonableness of restrictions on freedom of
ensures th a t all ena ctm en ts an d speech is decided on case to case basis. Our
implementations are done under due process Constitution guarantees the intervention of the
of law. The fourth pillar ensures that the state in case the right is over exercised or
citizens of the country stays enlightened and exercised in violation to the rights of our fellow
they perform their social and moral duty in countrymen.‘Our right end when the nose of
the larger interest of the nation staying within other citizen starts’. It is said. This sentence
the limitations of Indian constitutional and itself explains everything.
legal provisions.
SSC Tier–III 39
 Article........

Black money refers to funds earned on In 2010, US-based Global Financial

which income and other taxes have not been Integrity estimated that 462 billion dollars went
paid. The total amount of black money out of India between 1948 and 2008. This large
deposited in foreign banks by Indians is amount of money which would have gone in
unknown. Supreme Court, while hearing the eliminating poverty and strengthening Indian
petition on black money said that black money economy had gone out of India. According to
is not just simply tax evasion. Instead it is a recent data released by the Swiss Central bank
plunder of the nation in real sense. Before in june 2014, the magnitude of black money
independence Britishers plundered India by held by Indians in Switzerland increased by
draining the wealth of India into their home 43 percent in 2013 to reach 14000 crore rupees
country. Now it is the politics-business-babu from 9593 crore rupees in 2012.
nexus which is plundering the nation of its
Negotiations is going on between India and
precious wealth since independence.
other tax haven countries to release the names
Black money has been a hot topic of
of Indians having black money stashed in
discussion and it has led to the downfall of Switzerland and Government of India. what is
the UPA government up to some extent. worrying is the magnitude of increase when
Certain UPA government’s minister and many all the nations have witnessed a decline.
politicians have been blamed by the opposition
for stashing black money abroad and the BJP’s
commitment to bring it back to India within
100 days raised high hopes among the
common people of our country but people with
good knowledge on this subject have always
been amused by such claims. According to the
best of their knowledge, whatever India can
do in relation to the banks of foreign countries
is subject to the domestic laws of those
countries and of international law. In addition,
we are bound to secrecy clauses; releasing
names (except for prosecution) would violate
our undertakings and jeopardize future co- Recently, the Swiss government has shown
operation. Since 1934, breaking bank secrecy its intention to share the names of Indians
has been a criminal offence in Switzerland having unaccounted money with Government
whereas tax evasion is not. This must be kept of India. This will go a long way in aiding the
in mind while asking for favour from this SIT on black money headed by Justice (retd.)
country. M. B. Shah to unearth the black money.
SSC Tier–III 40
 On 27th October, 2014, the Indian Government of India submitted, the names of
Government submitted names of three people 627 people in the Supreme court of India in a
in an affidavit to the Supreme Court who have sealed envelope on 29th October 2014.
black money in foreign countries. They are However, whether the black money be
Pradip Burman of the Dabur group, Rajkot brought back to India or not, will depend upon
based bullion trader Pankaj Chimanlal Lodhya the efforts of Narendra Modi led government.
and directors of Goa based mining company In conclusion, black money stashed abroad is
Timblo Pvt. Ltd. Radha Satish Timblo, Chetan the wealth of India and must be brought back
S Timblo, Rohan S Timblo, Rohan S Timblo, and the individuals responsible for this should
Anna C Timblo and Mallika R Timblo. The very be nabbed and brought to book. This will help
next day Supreme Court ordered to reveal all in saving the wealth of the nation from getting
the n a mes. Followin g th e ord er th e plundered.

SSC Tier–III 41
 Article......

The greatest tax reform since independence major milestone has successfully been crossed with
finally got the approval of Parliament as the Lok the passing of a unified Goods and Services Tax Bill
Sabha on August 8, 2016, passed all the amendments almost unanimously in the Upper House. This is
to the landmark Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill. just the beginning of a big task that lies ahead in
Two-third majority passed the bill with all the 443 order to accomplish a significant goal of rolling
members present in the Lok Sabha voting in favour out GST by April 1, 2017.
of the Constitution (122nd Amendment) (GST) Bill,
2014. Separate amendments to some of its clauses
were proposed in the Upper House, which have now Key amendments passed by Rajya Sabha
been ratified in the Lower House. The Constitution Additional tax up to 1% on inter-state trade
(122nd Amendment) Bill, 2014 was introduced in Lok 1. 2014 Bill (Clause 18): An additional tax of up
Sabha on December 19, 2014. The Bill was passed to 1% on the supply of goods will be levied by
by Lok Sabha on May 6, 2015, and referred to a the centre in the course of inter-state trade or
Select Committee of Rajya Sabha which submitted commerce. The tax will be directly assigned to
its Report on the Bill on July 22, 2015. The Bill was the States from where the supply originates.
passed with amendments in Rajya Sabha on August This will b e for two y ears or more, a s
3, 2016. The Bill required a special majority for its recommended by the GST Council.
passage as it is a Constitution Amendment Bill (that 2. 2016 amendments: Deletes the provision.
is at least 50% majority of the total membership in 3. Select Committee, 2015: The Committee had
the House, and 2/3rds majority of all members noted that the provision for the 1% additional
present and voting). Thus, the Bill was approved by tax is likely to lead to cascading of taxes.
the Rajya Sabha with 203 votes in favour and none Compensation to States
against. The Bill then went to States (15 out of total 1. 2014 Bill (Clause 19) : Parliament may, by law,
29 states) for approval as per Article 368 of the provide for compensation to states for any loss
Constitution as it is a Constitutional Amendment of revenues, for a period which may extend to
Bill dealing with changes in the features of Fiscal five years. This would be b ased on th e
Federalism. The passage of the Bill will pave the way recommendations of the GST Council. This
for the rollout of Goods and Services Tax (GST) i.e. implies that Parliament may decide.
uniform taxation regime across the country. The first (i) whether it wants to provide compensation;
(ii) the time period for which it can provide such
compensation, up to five years.
2. 2016 Amendments: Parliament shall, by law,
provides for compensation to States for any loss
of revenues, for a period of five years. This would
be based on the recommendations of the GST
Council. This implies that compensation must
be provided for a full five-year period.
3. Select Committee, 2015: Amendments are in
line with the recommendations of the Select
Committee.
Dispute resolution
1. 2014 Bill (Clause 12): The GST Council may
decide upon the modalities to resolve disputes
arising out of its recommendations.
2. 2016 Amendments: The GST Council shall
establish a mechanism to adjudicate any

SSC Tier–III 42
 dispute arising out of its recommendations. levied on them. Tobacco and tobacco products will
Disputes can be between: be subject to GST. The centre may also impose excise
(a) the Centre vs. one or more States; duty on tobacco. Parliament may provide for
(b) the Centre and States vs. one or more States; compensation to States for revenue losses arising
(c) State vs. State. This implies there will be a out of the implementation of GST for up to 5 years,
standing mechanism to resolve disputes. based on the recommendations of the GST Council.
3. Select Committee, 2015: No recommendation. The GST Council will recommend rates of tax, period
Other changes made by the 2016 Amendments: of levy of an additional tax, the principles of supply,
special provisions for certain States, etc. The GST
Integrated GST
Council will consist of the Union Finance Minister,
1. Replacement of the term IGST (Clause 12):
Union Minister of State for Revenue, and State
Under the 2014 Bill, the GST Council would
Finance Ministers. Parliament may, by law, provide
make recommendations on the apportionment
compensation to states for any loss of revenue from
of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST).
the introduction of GST, up to a five-year period.
However, the term IGST was not defined. The
Following Central taxes are replaced by GST Bill
2016 amendments replace this term with ‘goods
(a) Central Excise Duty (b) Additional Duties of
and services tax levied on supplies in the course
of inter-state trade or commerce’. Excise and Customs (c) Special Additional Duty of
2. Apportionment of Integrated GST (Clause 9): Customs (SAD) (d) Service Tax (e) Cesses and
This is a technical change in relation to the Surcharges on Supply of goods and services
apportionment of the IGST. It clarifies that the Following State taxes are replaced by GST Bill (a) VAT
state’s share of the IGST shall not form a part (b) Central Sales Tax (c) Purchase Tax (d) Luxury
of the Consolidated Fund of India. Tax (e) Entry Tax (f) Entertainment Tax (g) Taxes on
Inclusion of CGST and IGST in tax devolution advertisements, lotteries, betting, gambling (h) State
to states Cesses and Surcharges.
1. 2014 Bill (Clause 10): The GST collected and The GST Council will consist of (a) the Union
levied by the centre, other than the state’s share Finance Minister (as Chairman), (b) the Union
of IGST, (CGST and centre’s share of IGST) shall Minister of State in charge of Revenue or Finance
also be distributed between the centre and the and (c) the Minister in charge of Finance or Taxation
states. or any other Minister nominated by each state
2. 2016 amendments: The amendments State that government. All decisions of the GST Council will be
the CGST and the Centre’s share of IGST will made by the three-fourth majority of the votes cast;
be distributed between the Centre and the the centre shall have one-third of the votes cast,
States. This is just a restatement of the and the states together shall have two-third of the
provisions in the 2014 Bill in clearer terms. votes cast. It will make recommendations on taxes;
3. Select Committee, 2015: Not discussed. goods and services; threshold limit of turnover for
application of GST; the principles of levy; rates of
The Goods and Services Tax:
GST; special provisions with respect to the eight
Highlights of the Bill North-eastern states, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu
The GST will have two components keeping in and Kashmir and Uttarakhand.
mind the federal structure of India: the Central GST
(CGST) and the State GST (SGST). Parliament and What will be expensive?
State legislatures will have concurrent powers to (1) Eating Out (2) Phone Bills
make laws on GST. Only the Centre may levy an (3) Jewellery (4) On-line Shopping
integrated GST (IGST) on the interstate supply of (5) Banking & Insurance
(6) Travelling
goods and services, and imports. For goods and
What will be cheaper?
services that pass through several States, or imports,
(1) Buying a car (2) Televisions
the Centre will levy another tax, the Integrated GST
(3) Movie Tickets (5) Processed Foods
(IGST). It empowers the centre to impose an
(6) Cement
additional tax of up to 1% on the inter-state supply
of goods for two years or more. This tax will accrue GST will curb black money and corruption:
to states from where the supply originates. Alcohol Although it is said to be unified tax, but still, it
for human consumption has been exempted from will be applied twice as CGST (Central) and SGST
the purview of GST. Initially, GST will not apply to (State) & also IGST (in a case of interstate). But its
(a) petroleum crude, (b) high-speed diesel, (c) motor on-line system will surely track each and every step
spirit (petrol), (d) natural gas and (e) aviation turbine of the transaction that will minimise the chance of
fuel. The GST Council will decide when GST will be tax evasion. GST as a stand-alone legislation might

SSC Tier–III 43
n ot curb black money, but would certainly ultimately enjoy a veto power. Thus, chances of Union
compliment other anti-black money measures like centralisation. Thus, the need of the hour is careful
Undisclosed Income Bill and Benami Transaction consideration and progress to encourage cooperative
Bill. There is no doubt that it will help in closing federalism.
loopholes which allow the generation of black money. Conclusion:
Example: sometimes bills are not issued and hence GST is without any doubt a significant reform.
doesn’t get accounted for and hence it becomes black
It will create more jobs, create a wider choice of
money. GST would ensure that such things do not
products, and ensure less corruption and red tape.
happen as any departure would mean that the
The benefits of creating a common market are well
traders would not get incentives and the tax credit.
known. This year we mark the 25 years of economic
Though it is not foolproof but it would certainly
increase compliance. Furthermore, GST might be of liberalisation. It is our choice, where does our future
some help in tackling any likely future generation lie? There is much work that needs to be done in
of black money in India, but it won’t be of much reforming tax administration. We stand ready to take
help when it comes to money stacked abroad. As far the first step in these reforms by bringing in GST.
as the angle of corruption is concerned, I believe GST will significantly bring benefits to consumers
GST would eliminate discretion on the part of the and producers. With reduced taxes and costs, there
officials involved as the citizen would no longer have will also be a wider tax base. This will increase
to deal with different officials from different revenue flow to the government ensuring that more
ministries. It will ensure a single interface. To curb money is available for spending on social welfare.
b la ck money a nd corruption , it req uires Goods will become cheaper because their current
implementing the following points. tax rate is higher than what the GST is likely to be.
1. A strong IT infrastructure which can support In the short term, there will be a blip in inflation,
this system. but this will likely stabilise after a year. It is to
2. A strong determination for its implementation. harmonise the tax structure at Centre and state
A critical review of the GST bill : levels. It subsumes not just goods but also services.
One of the biggest concern has been about the This is an attempt to create a standard indirect tax
autonomy of states which is likely to be affected by rate, although with exemptions. The ultimate aim is
GST. Financial autonomy of states would be affected, to standardise and harmonise the indirect tax
as states would no longer have the independence to market. This may explain one nation, one tax. One
introduce/modify taxes as per their wishes. of the ways the middle class will benefit is from the
Concurrency of GST council would be required. The removal of the multitude of taxes they have to pay.
advantageous position enjoyed by certain producing GST will hamper the financial autonomy of states,
states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu would hence federalism due to following the reasons-
be eroded and thus the elbow room enjoyed by them Nationwide uniform rate of GST will erode the state’s
earlier in framing state specific policies/schemes discretion to decide their taxes. And it is also called
would be compromised. The revenue loss would be centralisation of the tax system. Even the central
compensated for 5 years only. If states fail to adapt law will prescribe the method of sharing revenue
even after 5 years, then once again it would have to
from IGST. The uniform taxation system will
depend on Centre for Financial aid/Grants/Special
adversely affect those states which are more inclined
category status, etc. Only those states that are well
to welfare expenditure like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra
prepared will be able to absorb the advantages
etc., and it will also affect the revenue of prosperous
arising out of GST. Thus, regional disparity might
states. However, GST has provision for centre and
increase as there is no mechanism that would help
in trickling down from stronger to a weaker state. It state GST. Moreover, the central law cannot over-
is an indirect tax reform. Hence, poor and people in ride the state’s law with regard to state GST as well.
the unorganised sector likely to be affected the most. States would be compensated for five years for the
States would no longer be able to keep them out of loss of revenue and GST council will decide the
the ambit based on BPL/SECC criteria. GST council matter concerning GST either rates, an exception of
may enjoy the supreme power. Smaller states will taxes etc. indicating toward cooperative federalism.
have a lesser say. Also, no precedence available for Although GST will unify the tax structure of India to
any such platform would make things difficult. Many the maximum extent, the states will have sufficient
political parties would no longer be able to frame financial autonomy in light of increased share for
policies after coming to power based on their political states in the central divisional pool recommended
ideology (e.g. The left has tilted towards socialism by the 14th Finance commission, and on contrary to
and against privatisation). Since in GST council the an erosion of federalism, it may lead to cooperative
GoI would have a 33% weightage hence it would federalism.

SSC Tier–III 44
24
Letter
Format
Rules:
1. Keep left. Now we do not write the Sender’s address (the topmost part) or the
signature (the last part) on the right.

2. Write the subject before starting a formal letter.

3. Do not write ‘from’ and ‘to’. Simply write the sender’s address followed by date and
then the receiver’s address. Leave one line in between the two.

4. After writing the sender’s address, write the date.

5. The subject must be as short as possible. The outline of a formal letter is given
below.

1. XYZ
Examination Hall
New Delhi- 110001
1st December, 2015
} Sender's address with date

}
2. The Marketing Manager
M/s ABC Publication
Mukherjee Nagar Receiver's address
New Delhi - 110009

3. Sub : Order for books }Subject

4. Dear Sir }Salutation/Greeting

This is to
state ...... } Body of the letter 7. Yours Sincerely
XYZ } Subscription

6. Thanking you } Ending

SSC Tier–III 45
 REMEMBER

The format fetches you solid marks if it is correct and in adherence to the
modern style so always go through the latest CBSC format.

OPENING OF A LETTER
CASE-1

Letter to the Editor:

• Through this esteemed column of your prestigious newspaper, I would like to
draw the attention of the concerned authority towards................
• I would like to bring to the notice of the civic authorities and public, the sorry
state of .........(mention the problem that you want to state) through your
prestigious newspaper.

CASE-2

General Complaint:
• I regret to bring to your notice ……….
• I would like to draw your attention towards …………..
• It’s high time you paid attention towards ………………
• I would like to lodge a complaint against ……………
• It pains me greatly to write that ………

CASE-3

Letter Containing General Information:

• This is to state that …………
• It is stated that ………..
• This is to bring to your notice that........

CASE 4

If the letter is a reply :

• This is in reference to your letter no. 123/2016 dated 21/12/2016 …………..
• I came across the advertisement dated 21/12/2016 published in 'The Times of
India' and learnt that the post of Manager has fallen vacant in your company.

SSC Tier–III 46
 Closing of A letter

CASE - 1
Letter to the editor of newspaper regarding a problem that has remained
unresolved despite several complaints.

I hope this letter will prove to be an eye opener for the concerned authority and
staff that have been sleeping over this matter for months.

CASE- 2

Letters to the concerned authority regarding a problem and its apathetic staff

I hope you will take prompt steps for the redressal of my grievances and will take
stern actions against the erring staff.

CASE- 3
Letters including some kind of business proposal.

1. Looking forward to getting a positive response from you.

2. Looking forward to meeting you soon in response to my proposal.

CASE - 4
General complaint

Please look into the matter and do the needful.

SSC Tier–III 47
 LETTER- 1
Write a letter to the manager of your locality citing him the problems that you
saw the people facing in that Branch post-demonetization and also mentioned
the probable solutions.
XYZ
ABC Colony
New Delhi
28th December, 2016
The Manager
PQR Bank
ABC Colony
New Delhi
Subject: Chaos mounts and serpentine queue hounds at your branch
Sir,

This is to state that today I came for the new currency to your branch located in
my colony and witnessed chaos and queues there accompanied by bitter altercation
between your cashless staff and cash-starved people. People jostled to exchange
and withdraw money and anger was soaring high at every nook and corner of the
branch. The non-functional ATM of the branch added fuel to fire. Scuffle and heated
exchanges were seen outside too as the crowd was growing impatient and there
was no guard to man the crowd there. I was saddened by this mismanagement as
the branches of other banks in the adjoining buildings had much better
arrangements. Now as several days have passed you need to ensure smooth
functioning at your branch.

Sir, I do understand how helpless the bankers are today. You have to bear the
ire of your seniors, the tax departments and the infuriated public. The problem
cannot be resolved overnight but can be mitigated by making some small facilities
available. To start with, a cashful of functional ATM with a guard to manage the
queue will solve half of the problems. People are facing psychological and physical
problems due to the sudden decision on demonetization so they tend to lose their
cool at the drop of a hat. Sufficient number of polite staff, a water dispenser and a
couple of benches for old and feeble will surely mollify their anger. Why not be safe
than sorry? It’s high time you took immediate steps to control the situation.
I hope you take this letter and the suggestions positively and implement them.
Thanking you
Yours sincerely
XYZ
SSC Tier–III 48
 LETTER- 2
Write a letter to the speaker of the Lok Sabha citing how chaos and uproar in
the functioning of the Lok Sabha are affecting the people’s belief in our democratic
setup.

XYZ
ABC Colony
New Delhi
1st Jan, 2017
Hon’ble Speaker
Lok Sabha 17, Parliament House,
New Delhi-110001

Subject : Impact of hullabaloo and frequent disruption in the Lok Sabha proceedings
Dear Mam,

I would like to state that being a humble citizen of India, I am extremely saddened
to see how the proceedings in the Lok Sabha are disrupted everyday on one pretext
or the other. Since the day demonetization took place in the country, the opposition
continues raising slogans and rushing into the well demanding discussion on
this as the present government too did the same with the UPA government but
this tit-for-tat policy is eating into the hard-earned money of the common people.

Madam, I do understand that amidst continued din, you try to initiate the
functioning but the ruckus refuse to die. Such unproductive session is sheer
wastage of people’s money as we know that every minute of Parliament in session
costs approximately ` 2.5 lakhs. We, the people of India send our representatives
to Parliament with high expectations but our expectations as well as our money
are flushed down into drain amid the aggressive attacks and counter attacks
between the Government and the opposition. The complete session of Parliament
is washed out over a single controversial issue and this causes incalculable damage
to the institutional pillars of democracy disabling Parliament and inflicting long-
lasting wounds on the expectations of the people and the future of the nation.

Thanking you

Yours sincerely

XYZ

SSC Tier–III 49
 LETTER- 3

XYZ
Examination Hall
New Delhi- 110001
1st December, 2016

The Editor
Times of India
12 A, Kasturba Gandhi Marg
New Delhi- I

Subject: Chaotic State of Traffic on Delhi Roads

Sir,

Through this prestigious column of your esteemed daily, I would like to draw the kind
attention of the concerned authorities towards the chaotic conditions of traffic on the
city roads that has worsened in the recent past and hence it is an obvious cause of
concern. This has resulted in total confusion and anarchy on roads. Massive traffic jams
and incidents of road rage have become routine affairs. Commuters get hassled due to
heavy traffic jams since it takes a lot of time for them to reach their respective
destinations. Most of them get late for their work and others miss their trains or flights
and some sick and ailing ones fail to reach hospital in time. Children going to school
have their woeful tales to narrate.
Of course, these chaotic conditions are due to the increase in number of vehicles.
Some stringent measures have to be adopted by the traffic police and civic authorities to
improve the situation on the roads. Constructing more flyovers is only one of the possible
steps that can be taken to lessen the pressure of traffic on roads. Efficient policing at
the cross-road especially at peak hours has to be observed as well. More of us should
use public transport than individual vehicles. Car pools should be encouraged and
unnecessary travelling should be avoided during the peak hours.
Commuters as a civic community and the police need to come together to deal with
this problem of traffic jams and overcrowding on the roads. Before the situation goes out
of control, let’s wake up to the need of minimizing jams on the roads and get down to
doing something constructive to solve the problem.

Yours truly

XYZ

SSC Tier–III 50
 LETTER- 4

Vikas Kunj
Pragati Colony
New Delhi-11
25th November, 2016

The Editor
Times of India
Kasturba Gandhi Marg
New Delhi- 14

Subject : Suggestions for making school curriculum more flexible and interesting

Sir,

It is through the medium of your newspaper that I wish to bring to your notice, the
stagnation and dullness of our educative system that seems to have an adverse effect on
the students.
The education system has become totally mechanical and routine based on rote-
learning and it has robbed the students of the joy of learning. It has only become a
memory-game and students are supposed to be just robots memorizing facts and figures
to empty out during the three-hour examination. The curriculum should integrate practical
learning that is understood and learnt. A flexible and activity-based curriculum is the
need of the present day environment and only this will lead to homogeneous growth of
body and mind. There should be equal emphasis on personality development programme
and academics. Talk shows, debates, games, quiz programme etc are the need of the
hour. The future citizens of our country need to be independent, confident and take the
world in their stride. The school is an ideal platform for the training of faculties of mind
and body and the child’s formative years can be moulded ideally in school.
I am sure my views will be shared by many other students, across the globe. The
Education Department should take note of the sentiments of students while framing the
curriculum.

Yours faithfully

Savita

SSC Tier–III 51
 LETTER- 5

A-8 Kalkaji Extension

New Delhi
5th August, 2016

The Editor,
The Indian Express
Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg
New Delhi- 110002

Subject : Computers — Wonders and Hazards

Sir,

Through this column of your esteemed daily, I would like to draw the attention of the
concerned authorities to the role of ‘Computers- wonders and hazards’. Computers are
sophisticated electronic devices which can perform many of the functions of the human
brain. A computer is a wonderful and unique machine that excites and fascinates children
and adult alike. Undoubtedly, the use of computers covers a range of areas. Indeed,
advantages of the use of computers are many. They make calculations much faster and
more accurately than any human brain would do. If data is correctly fed into a computer,
it can even check and evaluate many books at much faster rate. No wonder, the use of
computers in the banks and offices assures efficiency, accuracy and rapidity. These
awesome electronic devices can predict the weather worldwide. We can see it being used
at railway stations, libraries, shops, restaurants, hotels, etc. apart from various banks
and offices. Media for all types of communications are also greatly influenced by the use
of computers. Even young boys and girls are found to be computer savvy and computers
are a part of curriculum in many schools. There is, however, a negative side to the
computers as well. Workers and their organizations feel that computerization is likely to
lead to unemployment as computers, being faster, leave slower humans behind. At a
functional day-to-day level, too, computers have proved to be an obsession with our
youth who tend to get distracted from their more essential task and studies. What is
required of us is to avail ourselves of all the benefits of computers with a sense of
discrimination. The excess of it is of course hazardous and so we have to limit its use
intelligently.
It is high time that the concerned authorities and the government did something to
channelise the impact of computerization in the modern world. Excess of everything is
not good. Availability of pornography and addictive games derail the otherwise target-
oriented youths and students. Self-imposed censorship is the only solution to this
necessary evil.

Thanking you

Yours truly

Amitabh

SSC Tier–III 52
 LETTER- 6

18, Mall Road,

Delhi- 9
30th October, 2016

The Editor
The Hindustan Times
12, Kasturba Gandhi Marg
New Delhi-1

Subject : Protect Nature, Protect Life

Sir,

Through this prestigious column of your esteemed daily, I would like to create awareness
among the general public on the topic ‘Protect nature, Protect life’. Nature are human
life are connected in more than one way. ‘Nature is also the most vivid expression of
God.’ It was in the lap of nature that life developed; so it’s not wrong to address nature as
‘Mother Nature.’ But as soon as human beings evolved they declared their supremacy on
the earth. In their urge for power, progress and materialism, they tried to exploit nature
in many ways. Deforestation led to multiple problems like floods, lack of rainfall, soil
erosion etc. It has resulted into over all environmental degradation. Cutting down trees
– is it any less than murder? yes, it is a type of murder but which harms the killer too.
Afforestation is the only solution to mend the damage already caused. We should treat
plants as our children and each of us must plant more and more trees. Trees which have
lessened considerably in number are the givers of oxygen and also absorb harmful gases
like carbon dioxide.
The consequences are going to be drastic as usual with pollution also on the increase.
With the increase in the number of vehicles, gases like Carbon Dioxide, Sulphur Dioxide
and Carbon Monoxide have increased. But there are not many trees to absorb such gases.
‘Chipko’ movement which was started by nature lovers to protect trees should become
today’s trend setter. By saving our forests and planting more trees, we can solve the
problem of pollution. This will also help us in finding a solution for global warming. I
hope the general public will take appropriate steps to prevent further erosion of our
natural wealth.

Thanking you

Yours truly

Naina

SSC Tier–III 53
 LETTER- 7

Lodhi Road
Delhi-3
10th October, 2016

The Editor
The Hindustan Times
New Delhi

Subject : Tiger in Trouble

Sir,

Through this column of your esteemed daily, I would like to highlight the plight of one of
the most beautiful creations of God, the tiger. India, once upon a time, was a land of
tigers. But where are they now? Today there are only about a few hundred tigers alive in
our country and the number is dwindling.
‘Massive poaching in the past two years has wiped out the entire tiger population at
one of the tiger reserves in India,’ says one of the investigation reports. Poaching has
been in force inspite of laws made to protect tigers. Currently, the demand for tiger parts
is centred in several parts of Asia, where there is a strong market for traditional medicines
made from items like tiger bones and body parts. There has been little enforcement
action against poachers and traders. Even though it is illegal to kill a tiger, wild tigers
are still being poached today because their bones, whiskers and other body parts can
be sold in the black market for a lot of money. Forestry and wild life departments are too
under-staffed and under-budgeted to be effective against the onslaught of poachers.
To add to the tiger’s troubles, deforestations has also resulted in the acute loss of
habitat. Due to conversion of forests into agricultural lands, only small islands of forest
are left. As forest space is reduced, the number of animals left in the forest is also
reduced and tigers cannot find their space to survive. The situation seems almost helpless.
A U.N. team of wildlife experts said that India is failing to protect its tigers through
inefficiency and indifference, allowing well-organised poaching gangs to hunt down the
majestic animals. This is definitely a matter of grave concern. If this is allowed to go on,
man will have to suffer the effects of ecological imbalance born of non-stop poaching of
the tigers.

Yours Sincerely

Kavi

SSC Tier–III 54
 LETTER- 8

18A, East Patel Nagar

New Delhi-8
15th October, 2016

To,
The Editor
The Times of India
New Delhi – I

Subject : Prevent Road Accidents

Sir,
Serious accidents occurring on road is a matter of great concern for all of us. Not a
day passes when we do not read reports about any serious road accidents. Almost
everyone has been affected by such accidents at one time or the other,because a relative
or friend is somehow connected to such accidents. The number of deaths per year per
10000 motor vehicles in India is 10 to 15 times more than that in developed countries.
The number of motor vehicles is increasing day by day. Though it in a sign of improving
economy of the country, it is a bitter truth that it also adds to accidents on roads. Our
inability to provide enough funds to widen the roads or to construct new roads in
proportion to rise in vehicle population also results in perpetuating this state of affairs.
Statistics for the last few years show that there is a large increase in the number of
accidents year by year. Several persons are maimed for life. The productivity of several
others is reduces due to temporary incapacity. Broadly 30 percent of people dying in
road accidents are below the age of 30 years. This means that the proportion of those
dying in the prime of their life is quite large. It is clear that unless urgent remedial
measures are taken, the occurrence of these accidents and resultant casualties will
go on rising.

Yours Sincerely

Neena

SSC Tier–III 55