Q.112.5 marks · 200w 14 min Medium
Subtopic: Governance · post-1991 governance and regulatory reforms
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Introduction: 1991 redefined the state's role → Adequate responses: delicensing, independent regulators, GST-IBC, e-governance → Where response lags: bureaucratic culture, policy unpredictability, factor markets → What more government can do → Conclusion
Key points- Positive response: delicensing of industry, MRTP replaced by the Competition Act, FERA replaced by FEMA 1999 — the control mindset was formally dismantled.
- A regulatory state was constructed: SEBI, TRAI, IRDAI and CCI insulated market governance from day-to-day ministerial control.
- Second-generation reforms: GST (2017), IBC (2016) and the Jan Vishwas Act, 2023 decriminalising minor business offences.
- Digital delivery — DBT, GeM, faceless assessment, National Single Window System — reduced discretion and transaction costs.
- Lags: slow contract enforcement, retrospective-tax unpredictability (repealed 2021), under-reformed land, labour and agricultural markets, uneven state capacity.
- Way forward: regulatory impact assessment, sunset clauses, Mission Karmayogi, lateral entry, commercial courts and competitive federalism in ease of doing business.
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Q.212.5 marks · 200w 14 min Medium
Subtopic: Governance · bureaucracy and civil services reform
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Introduction: colonial origins of structure and culture → How they hamper development: proceduralism, generalism, secrecy, transfers → Counter-evidence: mission-mode successes → Reform agenda: 2nd ARC, Mission Karmayogi, lateral entry → Conclusion
Key points- Colonial legacy: an apparatus built for order and revenue, not welfare; the control culture outlived its creators.
- Proceduralism: precedent-bound files, multi-layer hierarchy and audit fear produce delay and risk-aversion.
- Generalist dominance and short, unstable tenures thin out domain expertise in technical sectors.
- Secrecy under the Official Secrets Act, 1923 and status-consciousness distance administration from citizens.
- Counter-evidence: Green Revolution, polio eradication, scale elections, Aadhaar-DBT and COVID-19 vaccination show real capacity under mission-mode clarity.
- Reforms: Second ARC's outcome orientation, Mission Karmayogi's competency framework, lateral entry, e-Office, Sevottam and safe harbour for bona fide decisions.
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Q.312.5 marks · 200w 14 min Medium
Subtopic: Social Justice · child rights and welfare policy
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Introduction: the rights-based frame of the National Policy for Children 2013 → Main provisions: four priority areas, guiding principles, institutional machinery → Implementation status across survival, education, protection and participation → Gaps → Conclusion
Key points- NPC 2013 defines every person below 18 as a child and adopts a rights-based approach anchored in the Constitution and the UNCRC.
- Four priority areas: survival, health and nutrition; education and development; protection; participation.
- Machinery: National Coordination and Action Group under the WCD Ministry, state action plans, National Plan of Action for Children 2016, NCPCR/SCPCR monitoring.
- Survival gains are real (IMR around 26-28) but NFHS-5 shows 35.5% stunting and widespread child anaemia.
- Education: near-universal enrolment under RTE and Samagra Shiksha, but ASER exposes weak learning; NIPUN Bharat responds with foundational literacy goals.
- Protection: POCSO, JJ Act 2015 and Mission Vatsalya operate, yet child marriage stands at 23.3% (NFHS-5) and child labour persists.
- Participation is the weakest pillar; convergence, funding and district-level enforcement are the real implementation gaps.
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Q.412.5 marks · 200w 14 min Easy
Subtopic: Social Justice · skill development and employability
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Introduction: the dividend window and its conditionality → Education and foundational capability measures → Skilling and apprenticeship measures → Enterprise, jobs and health measures → Persisting gaps → Conclusion
Key points- The dividend window lasts till about 2055; with a median age near 28, the advantage is conditional on human-capital investment.
- Education measures: NEP 2020, NIPUN Bharat, Samagra Shiksha, PM SHRI schools and the National Credit Framework for flexible learning pathways.
- Skilling: Skill India Mission, PMKVY 4.0 with new-age courses, ITI upgradation, Jan Shikshan Sansthans and the Skill India Digital Hub.
- Work-based learning: NAPS apprenticeships, degree-apprenticeships and the PM Internship Scheme targeting one crore internships.
- Enterprise and jobs: Startup India, MUDRA, Stand-Up India, PM Vishwakarma, PMEGP and PLI-driven manufacturing employment.
- Health and digital base: Ayushman Bharat, POSHAN 2.0 and PMGDISHA underpin productivity.
- Gaps: a small formally-skilled share of the workforce, low though rising female LFPR, weak learning outcomes and predominantly informal jobs.
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Q.512.5 marks · 200w 14 min Medium
Subtopic: International Relations · India and the WTO
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Introduction: the promise of the Doha Development Agenda 2001 → Developed-developing fault lines: agriculture, public stockholding, SSM, new issues → Institutional decay: Nairobi non-reaffirmation, Appellate Body paralysis → Indian stakes and strategy → Conclusion
Key points- The DDA (2001) was explicitly development-centred; the stalemate reflects developed members' refusal to cut farm support while demanding market access from the South.
- Public stockholding: Bali (2013) yielded only an interim peace clause; no permanent solution even after MC13 in Abu Dhabi (2024).
- The 1986-88 external reference price inflates India's computed farm support under the 10% de minimis rule, endangering NFSA-linked MSP procurement.
- At Nairobi (2015) developed members refused to reaffirm the Doha mandate and pivoted to new issues like e-commerce and investment facilitation.
- The Appellate Body has been paralysed since 2019, hollowing out enforceable rights for developing countries.
- India's asks: permanent PSH solution, Special Safeguard Mechanism, S&DT preservation, Mode 4 access, restored dispute settlement; India anchors the G33.
- Strategy: defend rules-based multilateralism while hedging through FTAs with the UAE, Australia, EFTA and the UK.
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Q.612.5 marks · 200w 14 min Medium
Subtopic: International Relations · Look East / Act East Policy
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Introduction: post-Cold War genesis in 1992 → Economic dimension: ASEAN institutional ladder, FTA, sub-regional links → Strategic dimension: ARF/EAS membership, naval engagement, balancing China → Evolution into Act East and remaining gaps → Conclusion
Key points- Genesis: the Soviet collapse, the 1991 BoP crisis and East Asian dynamism drove the 1992 reorientation under Narasimha Rao.
- Economic ladder with ASEAN: sectoral partner 1992, full dialogue partner 1996, summit level 2002; AIFTA in goods (2010) and services/investment (2014).
- Two-way trade with ASEAN exceeds USD 120 billion, with Singapore a top FDI source, but a widening trade deficit and the 2019 RCEP opt-out qualify the gains.
- Sub-regional and connectivity tracks: BIMSTEC (1997), Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (2000), Kaladan Multi-Modal project and the Trilateral Highway — both flagship projects delayed.
- Strategic integration: ARF (1996), East Asia Summit (2005), ADMM-Plus; SIMBEX and MILAN exercises and Malacca-area patrols secure sea lanes and balance China.
- Act East (2014) added speed and an Indo-Pacific horizon — Quad, Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative, BrahMos export to the Philippines.
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Q.712.5 marks · 200w 14 min Medium
Subtopic: International Relations · SAARC & regional cooperation
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Introduction → cross-border terrorism against India and its fallout on SAARC summits → Pakistan's interference in Afghanistan and Bangladesh → blocking of connectivity and common regional goods → consequences: paralysed SAARC, pivot to BIMSTEC/BBIN → Conclusion
Key points- SAARC Charter excludes bilateral and contentious issues, yet Pakistan-sponsored terrorism has made normal functioning impossible — the 19th Islamabad Summit (2016) collapsed after India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan pulled out post-Uri.
- No SAARC summit has been held since Kathmandu 2014, making it the least functional major regional grouping.
- Pakistan's interference: support to the Taliban–Haqqani network in Afghanistan; Bangladesh's expulsion of Pakistani diplomats over militancy-financing links.
- Pakistan blocked the SAARC Motor Vehicles and Railways Agreements (2014), forcing sub-regionalism via BBIN.
- Pakistan opted out of the South Asia Satellite (GSAT-9, 2017), rejecting even non-contentious common goods.
- Intra-SAARC trade remains under 5% of members' total trade against over 25% in ASEAN, showing the cost of the trust deficit.
- India's response: de-hyphenating regionalism from Pakistan through BIMSTEC, BBIN and Neighbourhood First.
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Q.812.5 marks · 200w 14 min Hard
Subtopic: International Relations · UNESCO & global information order
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Introduction: what the MacBride Commission was → aims and objectives: diagnosing North-South information imbalance → key recommendations: NWICO, right to communicate, media pluralism → India's position: NAM leadership, NANAP, staying in UNESCO → contemporary resonance in the digital platform era → Conclusion
Key points- MacBride Commission = International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems, constituted by UNESCO in 1977, chaired by Sean MacBride; report Many Voices, One World adopted at the 1980 Belgrade General Conference.
- Core diagnosis: one-way North-to-South news flow and the dominance of a handful of Western transnational news agencies distorting the image of developing countries.
- Key objectives: a New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO), the right to communicate, protection of journalists, media pluralism, and curbs on concentration and commercialisation.
- It urged strengthening Third World communication infrastructure, national news agencies and training capacity.
- India's position: as a NAM leader it championed NWICO, hosted the 1976 New Delhi conference creating the Non-Aligned News Agencies Pool, and pressed for decolonised information flows.
- India balanced support for NWICO with commitment to press freedom, and stayed in UNESCO when the USA and UK withdrew in protest during the mid-1980s.
- Contemporary relevance: the imbalance the report flagged now reappears as Big Tech platform dominance, algorithmic gatekeeping and the data sovereignty debate India raises in global forums.
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Q.910 marks · 150w 9 min Hard
Subtopic: Constitution & Polity · local self-government
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Introduction: 73rd/74th Amendments as the constitutional promise → grounds supporting the statement: incomplete devolution of funds, functions, functionaries → counter-evidence: democratic deepening and delivery successes → views to improve: fiscal empowerment, activity mapping, capacity building → Conclusion
Key points- Constitutional basis: 73rd/74th Amendments (1992), Parts IX and IX-A, Eleventh Schedule (29 subjects) and Twelfth Schedule (18 subjects).
- Core weakness — incomplete devolution of funds, functions and functionaries; line departments and parallel bodies bypass elected local governments.
- Fiscal infirmity: negligible own-source revenue, delayed and ignored State Finance Commissions, grant dependence undermining autonomy.
- Capacity deficits: staff vacancies, weak planning capability, proxy representation (sarpanch-pati), and postponed local elections in some states.
- Counter-evidence: 32 lakh+ elected representatives, about 46% women, 50% reservation in 20+ states — deepest democratisation anywhere.
- Success stories: Kerala People's Plan Campaign, participatory budgeting, e-GramSwaraj, SVAMITVA property records.
- Reforms: activity mapping, untied 15th FC local grants (Rs 4.36 lakh crore for 2021-26), property tax modernisation, regular SFCs, RGSA capacity building, empowered Gram Sabhas.
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Q.1010 marks · 150w 9 min Hard
Subtopic: Judiciary · judicial appointments
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Introduction → Fourth Judges case: 99th Amendment and NJAC Act struck down 4:1 → Court's basic-structure reasoning on judicial primacy → Critical evaluation: independence protected vs accountability and transparency deficits → Way forward: reformed, transparent appointments → Conclusion
Key points- Fourth Judges case (2015): 99th Amendment and NJAC Act, 2014 struck down 4:1 as violative of the basic structure
- Judicial independence and primacy in appointments held integral to the basic structure
- NJAC composition (CJI + 2 judges + Law Minister + 2 eminent persons) with a two-member veto risked executive dominance
- Justice Chelameswar's dissent highlighted collegium opacity and absence of accountability
- Criticism: judicial primacy not in Article 124's text; collegium lacks criteria, transparency and diversity
- Memorandum of Procedure revision still unresolved; appointment delays continue the Centre-judiciary tussle
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Q.1110 marks · 150w 9 min Medium
Subtopic: Constitution & Polity · simultaneous elections
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Introduction → Efficiency case: cost, Model Code freezes, security deployment → Accountability and federal costs: loss of mid-term checks, national waves over State issues, fixed-term dilemma → Institutional developments: Law Commission, Kovind Committee, 129th Amendment Bill → Balanced conclusion with safeguards
Key points- Efficiency case: massive election expenditure (2019 LS polls ~₹55,000-60,000 crore per CMS), repeated MCC freezes, disruption of security and teaching staff
- Accountability case against: staggered polls act as rolling mid-term referendums keeping governments answerable
- IDFC Institute finding: ~77 per cent likelihood of voters choosing the same party at both levels in simultaneous polls — nationalisation of State issues
- Constitutional friction: Articles 83, 172, no-confidence motions and Article 356 make fixed synchronised terms difficult without truncation
- Institutional trail: Law Commission 170th report and 2018 draft report, NITI Aayog paper, Kovind Committee (2024), 129th Amendment Bill, 2024
- Balanced view: pursue savings with safeguards — constructive no-confidence vote, State consensus, phased synchronisation
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Q.1210 marks · 150w 9 min Medium
Subtopic: Constitution & Polity · pressure groups in the political process
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Introduction (define pressure groups) → methods of influence: lobbying, consultations, agitation, PILs, electioneering → formal groups and their institutional access → recent informal mobilisations and their wins (IAC, Nirbhaya, farm laws) → weigh informal versus formal power → Conclusion: complementary roles
Key points- Definition: organised interest groups that influence policy without seeking office; they supply continuous representation between elections
- Methods: lobbying ministries and committees, pre-Budget consultations, agitations, PILs, media campaigns, election funding and endorsements
- Formal groups (FICCI, CII, trade unions, IMA) enjoy institutionalised access but risk elite capture and routinisation
- Informal mobilisations delivered visible wins: IAC 2011 → Lokpal Act 2013; Nirbhaya protests → Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013; farm agitation → repeal of three farm laws 2021
- Sources of informal strength: mass emotion, leaderless spontaneity, social-media amplification, quick government concessions
- Balanced verdict: informal groups win episodic battles; formal groups sustain long-term influence — the two are complementary
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Q.1310 marks · 150w 9 min Easy
Subtopic: Constitution & Polity · parliamentary committees and financial accountability
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Introduction (PAC as Parliament's audit arm) → composition and the opposition-chair convention → how it enforces accountability through CAG reports and Action Taken Notes → landmark scrutinies → limitations of its ex post facto, advisory role → Conclusion: strengthening measures
Key points- Oldest financial committee (1921); 22 members — 15 Lok Sabha, 7 Rajya Sabha — elected annually by proportional representation through single transferable vote; ministers barred
- Opposition chairperson by convention since 1967 gives bipartisan credibility to scrutiny
- Examines CAG audit reports laid under Article 151 — appropriation and finance accounts — testing legality and propriety of expenditure
- Summons secretaries and enforces Action Taken Notes, closing the accountability loop between audit and corrective action
- Landmark scrutinies (2G spectrum, Commonwealth Games 2010) show its agenda-setting power
- Limits: ex post facto review, advisory recommendations, no policy questions, only a fraction of audit paras examined
- Reforms: time-bound ATNs, technical support staff, subject-wise sub-committees
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Q.1410 marks · 150w 9 min Medium
Subtopic: Governance · beneficiary targeting and outcomes in WASH policy
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Introduction (WASH outcomes depend on reaching the right beneficiaries) → why identification must match each outcome (ODF, safe water, hygiene) → failures when unsynchronised (unused toilets, slippage) → mechanisms that enable synchronisation (baseline surveys, geo-tagging, ODF-plus, tied grants) → Conclusion: converting coverage into outcomes
Key points- WASH outcomes (ODF sustainability, safe water, lower stunting and diarrhoeal disease) each demand outcome-specific targeting, not blanket coverage
- Asset creation without behaviour targeting fails — earlier sanitation programmes produced unused toilets and slippage back to open defecation
- SBM's design tools: baseline surveys, geo-tagging, swachhagrahis, community-led triggering, NARSS verification of usage
- JJM synchronises targeting with outcomes by prioritising arsenic/fluoride-affected and water-stressed habitations through village action plans
- ODF-plus and 15th Finance Commission tied grants institutionalise outcome-linked funding for panchayats
- Health convergence: WASH directly linked to stunting and anaemia burdens recorded in NFHS-5
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Q.1510 marks · 150w 9 min Medium
Subtopic: Social Justice · disability rights and inclusion
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Introduction (from the 1995 welfare law to a UNCRPD-aligned rights framework) → empowerment provisions: 21 disabilities, reservation, accessibility mandates, grievance machinery → implementation gaps: accessibility deadlines, certification, employment → judicial push (Rajive Raturi 2024) → Conclusion: enforcement plus attitudinal change
Key points- RPwD Act 2016 implements India's UNCRPD obligations, replacing the charity-based PwD Act 1995 with a rights-based framework
- Expanded coverage: 21 recognised disabilities (from 7), including autism spectrum disorder, thalassemia and acid-attack survivors
- Entitlements for benchmark disability (40%+): 4% reservation in government jobs, 5% in higher-education seats
- Enforcement architecture: time-bound accessibility mandates, penalties for discrimination, special courts, Chief/State Commissioners, UDID portability
- Gap: Accessible India Campaign deadlines repeatedly missed; SC in Rajive Raturi (2024) ordered mandatory, not advisory, accessibility standards
- Gap: low certification coverage, unfilled commissioner posts, delayed state rules, poor employment outcomes and persistent attitudinal barriers
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Q.1610 marks · 150w 9 min Medium
Subtopic: Governance · poverty and hunger alleviation
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Introduction (hunger and poverty as the first test of governance) → progress: poverty decline, food-security architecture, safety nets → persisting deficits: GHI ranking, NFHS-5 malnutrition, leakages → measures: PDS diversification, nutrition convergence, better targeting → Conclusion: from food security to nutrition security
Key points- Progress on poverty: NITI Aayog MPI fell from 24.85% (2015-16) to 14.96% (2019-21); about 13.5 crore people exited multidimensional poverty
- Food-security architecture: NFSA 2013 covers about 81 crore beneficiaries; PMGKAY added free foodgrains; output above 330 million tonnes
- Safety nets: MGNREGA, PDS with ONORC portability, PM POSHAN, ICDS and POSHAN Abhiyan
- Persisting hunger: GHI 2024 rank 105/127 ('serious'); NFHS-5 — 35.5% stunting, 19.3% wasting, 57% women anaemic
- Structural weaknesses: calorie-centric PDS, leakages and exclusion errors, regional concentration of deprivation
- Way forward: millets and pulses in PDS, nutrition-sensitive agriculture, maternal-child convergence, social audits, urban safety nets
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Q.1710 marks · 150w 9 min Medium
Subtopic: International Relations · China's economic statecraft and India
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Introduction (economic weight as strategic currency) → China's tools: BRI/CPEC, port acquisitions, debt leverage → impact on India: encirclement, trade deficit, border assertiveness, neighbourhood erosion → India's response: Quad, counter-connectivity, economic de-risking → Conclusion
Key points- China's method: convert trade surpluses and reserves into strategic assets via BRI lending, port acquisitions and dual-use infrastructure
- CPEC through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir directly violates Indian sovereignty concerns
- String of pearls: Gwadar, Hambantota (99-year lease 2017), Djibouti base (2017) — maritime encirclement of India
- Debt leverage pulls India's neighbours (Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal, Bangladesh) toward Beijing, eroding India's regional primacy
- India's $80-billion-plus trade deficit and import dependence in electronics, APIs and solar gear fund the asymmetry
- Economic power underwrites border assertiveness — Doklam 2017, Galwan 2020
- India's counter: Quad, SAGAR, Chabahar-INSTC, Press Note 3 screening, PLI-led de-risking
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Q.1810 marks · 150w 9 min Easy
Subtopic: International Relations · UN & multilateral institutions
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Introduction: ECOSOC as a principal organ under the UN Charter → main functions: coordination, policy dialogue, SDG follow-up, NGO consultative status → functional commissions: the eight thematic bodies and their mandates → India's engagement → Conclusion
Key points- ECOSOC is a principal organ under Chapter X (Articles 61-72) of the UN Charter; 54 members, three-year terms, elected by the General Assembly.
- Core function: coordination of the UN system's economic, social and environmental work, including specialized agencies.
- Leads SDG review through the High-Level Political Forum, which replaced the Commission on Sustainable Development in 2013.
- Grants consultative status to NGOs under Article 71 — the UN's formal civil-society gateway.
- Eight functional commissions: Statistical; Population and Development; Social Development; Status of Women; Narcotic Drugs; Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice; Science and Technology for Development; plus the UN Forum on Forests as a related subsidiary body.
- Commissions are norm-setting bodies — e.g., CSW on gender equality, CND on drug scheduling decisions.
- India is among the most frequently elected ECOSOC members and uses it to push Global South development priorities.
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Q.1915 marks · 250w 14 min Medium
Subtopic: Constitution & Polity · GST & fiscal federalism
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Introduction → Salient features: Articles 246A, 269A, 279A and subsumed taxes → GST Council as institutionalised cooperative federalism → Efficacy: input tax credit, common national market gains → Persisting gaps: exclusions, multiple slabs, compliance burden → Conclusion
Key points- Article 246A grants concurrent GST power to Parliament and State legislatures; Parliament exclusive over inter-State supplies
- Article 269A: IGST on inter-State trade levied and collected by the Union, apportioned between Union and States
- Article 279A GST Council — Union one-third and States two-thirds voting weight, three-fourths majority — a model of cooperative federalism
- 17 Central and State taxes subsumed; alcohol excluded, five petroleum products deferred to Council's recommendation
- Five-year revenue compensation guarantee to States (GST Compensation Act, 2017)
- Seamless input tax credit removes cascading; abolition of check posts and e-way bills build a common national market
- Limits: multiple slabs, exclusions of petroleum/electricity/real estate, inverted duty structures, compliance burden on small firms
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Q.2015 marks · 250w 14 min Medium
Subtopic: Constitution & Polity · fundamental rights & right to privacy
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Introduction → Puttaswamy verdict: privacy intrinsic to Article 21, overruling M.P. Sharma and Kharak Singh → Expanded scope: bodily, informational and decisional autonomy → Restraints: legality-legitimate aim-proportionality test → Downstream jurisprudence and legislation → Conclusion
Key points- Nine-judge unanimous bench held privacy intrinsic to Article 21 and to the entire Part III
- Overruled M.P. Sharma (1954) and Kharak Singh (1962); privacy is guaranteed, not conferred by the State
- Three facets recognised: bodily integrity, informational privacy, decisional autonomy
- Privacy is not absolute — threefold test of legality, legitimate state aim and proportionality
- Positive obligation on the State to enact data protection, culminating in the DPDP Act, 2023
- Foundation for later expansion: Navtej Johar, Joseph Shine, Common Cause, Aadhaar (Puttaswamy-II)
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