Daily Prelims Notes 31 December 2021
- December 31, 2021
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN
Daily Prelims Notes
31 December 2021
Table Of Contents
- Inverted Duty Structure
- Flex-Fuel Vehicles
- R-value
- Delta vs Omicron
- Clinical Trial Terminology
- Consumer Protection (Jurisdiction of the District Commission, the State Commission and the National Commission) Rules 2021
- Subprime Borrower
- Sahitya Akademi Award
- Pope Francis’s visit to India
- Goa Liberation Day
- Cropland Expansion
- China inventing names for places in Arunachal Pradesh
- Rural Entrepreneurship Awareness Development Yojana (READY)
- Parambikulam Tiger Reserve
- SMILE (Support for Marginalised Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise)
- The Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC)
- Electoral Bonds
- GST Compensation
- ARTICLE 141 – DOCTRINE OF PRECEDENT
- GREAT LEGAL TRADITIONS OF ANCIENT INDIA
Subject – Economy
Context – Relook at inverted duty structure for textiles, the main agenda of GST Council
Concept –
- An inverted duty structure comes up in a situation where import duties on input goods are higher than on finished goods.
- In other words, the GST rate paid on purchases is more than the GST rate payable on sales.
What is Inverted Duty Structure under GST?
- Under GST, inverted duty structure means inputs (inward supplies) used are having a higher GST rate compared to the GST rate of finished goods (outward supplies).
- In simple terms, it means the GST rate for raw materials has a higher tax rate whereas the GST rate on finished goods is lower.
- When taxes on the final product is lower than the taxes charged on inputs, an inverse input tax credit gets accumulated that has to be refunded by the government in the majority of the cases. This has created revenue outflow for the government, forcing it to take a relook at its duty structure.
Why is it a problem?
- Taxpayers who face an inverted duty structure will always have Input Tax Credit (ITC) in their GST electronic credit ledger even after paying off the output tax liability. This creates working capital issues for the taxpayers, as crucial resources remain blocked in the form of ITC. While the GST law provides the option to claim the unutilized ITC as a refund, there are other complications.
- From the government’s standpoint, because of the current anomaly, many administrative-level issues have cropped up. A complicated refund process under GST creates additional compliance requirements and finally leads to more cost of compliance. This way, the inverted duty structure has caused refund-related issues under the GST regime.
To know more about it, please refer November 2021 DPN.
Subject – Economy
Context – Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has called on carmakers to start manufacturing flex-fuel vehicles and flex-fuel hybrids in India, while saying the same will be commute-ready within six months.
Concept –
- Flex fuel vehicles (FFV) are capable of running on 100 per cent petrol or 100 per cent bioethanol or a combination of both.
- Bio-ethanol contains less energy per litre than petrol but the calorific value (energy contained in the fuel) of bio-ethanol will become on par with petrol with use of advanced technology.
- The government has also advised carmakers to start making Flex Fuel Strong Hybrid Electric Vehicles (FFSHEV).
- Such a vehicle, though yet to be made widely available in world markets, essentially houses an electric motor which powers the vehicle alongside the traditional petrol engine.
What way are they different from existing vehicles?
- Since an FFV is capable of running on either petrol or ethanol, it will be the first of its kind 100 per cent dual fuel vehicle to run on Indian roads.
- To be sure, a litre of petrol sold in India has an average of 8 per cent ethanol content even though oil marketing companies have clearance to do even 10 per cent (E10) blending.
- All vehicles manufactured in India are tuned for E10.
- All existing vehicles on Indian roads will not be able to run on higher ethanol content beyond 10 per cent.
To what extent will FFVs help in cutting emission?
- According to a report by the expert committee formed by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, by just hitting E20, carbon monoxide emissions were observed to be 50 per cent lower in two-wheelers and 30 per cent lower in four-wheelers compared to petrol.
- Hydrocarbons were lower by 20 per cent.
- The report also mentioned that E20 blending will result in drop in fuel efficiency by nearly 6-7 per cent in four-wheelers designed for E0 and calibrated to E10.
What has been the auto industry’s reaction to government’s policy?
- Higher blending of ethanol will mean higher manufacturing costs which translates to pricier vehicles. Certain auto parts, especially those that come in contact with higher ethanol content, will have to be replaced with a compatible product to avoid corrosion.
Subject – Science and Tech
Context – R-value over 1 in big cities, likely start of third wave
Concept –
- The reproduction number or R is an indicator of how quickly a disease is spreading in the population.
- An R-value of 1, which signifies that every infected person is passing on the infection to at least one person on an average, is a key threshold after which cases begin to rise rapidly.
- The R-naught, or R0, is a virus’s basic reproductive number — an epidemiologic metric used to describe the contagiousness of infectious agents.
- At its simplest, the basic reproductive number can show us how worried we should be about infection
- If the R0 is above one, each case is expected to infect at least one other person on average, and the virus is likely to keep spreading.
- If it’s less than one, a group of infected people are less likely to spread the infection.
Subject – Science and Tech
Context – Omicron to replace Delta as dominant variant: Experts
Concept –
Parameter | Omicron | Delta |
Origin | The Omicron variant was first detected in Botswana (on November 11) and three days later in South Africa. | Delta variant was first identified in India in December 2020 as it swept rapidly through the country before reaching the United Kingdom and the United States. |
Difference in Mutations | Gene sequencing of the Omicron variant showed that it had more mutations than the Delta variant of Covid-19. 43 aa mutations in the spike proteins of the Omicron variant. Omicron variant made health authorities more concerned as the virus is even “stickier” because of its extra mutations. | Gene sequencing of the Delta variant showed that it had less mutations than the Omicron variant of Covid-19. Researchers found 18 aa mutations in the spike proteins of the Delta. Because of its mutations, the Delta variant attaches more effectively to human cell receptors, causing it to be more infective. |
Vaccine Effectiveness | Scientists speculate that Omicron could render vaccines less effective as it shares several key mutations with two previous variants, Beta and Gamma, that made them less vulnerable to vaccines. | Globally, vaccines have been able to counter Delta. |
Symptoms | The symptoms of this variant are milder as compared to the Delta variant. Experts reveal that fatigue, joint pain, cold and headaches are four common signs of omicron that are different from that of the Delta variant. | The Delta variant led to severe fatalities. Loss of smell and taste, which were common signs of Delta, were hardly seen in the case of the Omicron. |
Note –
- The high number of mutations does not automatically mean that these variations are more dangerous, but simply that the virus has further adapted to the human species by generating another variant.
Subject – Science and Tech
Context – Covaxin trials on children show robust safety, says Bharat Biotech
Concept –
- While preclinical research that is done in a lab can provide foundation information about how a drug may work and its safety, it is not a substitute for studies that show how the drug will interact with the human body.
- The term “clinical trials” or “clinical research” refers to studies that are conducted in people. Researchers design clinical trials to answer specific research questions related to a drug candidate.
- A successful clinical trial process continues until the developer files a marketing application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or a regulatory agency in another country for the medication to be approved for doctors to prescribe to patients.
Though the phases and design of clinical trials may be different for certain diseases and specialized medicines, such as cancer drugs or gene therapies, here is a general overview of each phase of a clinical trial for most medications:
Pre-clinical studies, also called laboratory studies, include:
- Cell studies: These are often the first tests done on a new treatment. To see if it might work, researchers look for effects of the new treatment on cancer cells that are grown in a lab dish or a test tube. These studies may be done on human cancer cells or animal cancer cells.
- Animal studies: Treatments that look promising in cell studies are tested next on cancers in live animals. This gives researchers an idea of how safe the new treatment is in a living creature.
Phase 1:
- During Phase 1 studies, researchers generally test a new drug candidate in healthy volunteers (healthy people). In most cases, 20 to 80 healthy volunteers participate in Phase 1.
Phase 2:
- In Phase 2 studies, researchers administer the drug to a larger group of patients (typically up to a few hundred) with the disease or condition for which the drug is being developed to initially assess its effectiveness and to further study its safety.
- A key focus of Phase 2 studies is determining the optimal dose or doses of a drug candidate, in order to determine how best to administer the drug to maximize possible benefits, while minimizing risks.
Phase 3:
- For diseases affecting many patients, Phase 3 studies typically involve 300 to 3,000 participants from patient populations for which the medicine is eventually intended to be used.
- Researchers design Phase 3 studies – among other things – to demonstrate whether or not a drug candidate offers a treatment benefit to a specific population provide more detailed safety data, and serve as the basis for product labeling.
Approval:
- When one or more Phase 3 trials are completed, the researchers examine the results and decide whether the drug has demonstrated effectiveness and an acceptable safety profile in treating a disease.
- If so, the company can submit a New Drug Application (NDA), which contains all of the data and information gathered at every stage of the process through the results of the Phase 3 clinical trial(s), as well as other information required by the applicable regulatory authority.
- The NDA is submitted to the FDA (or analogous applications may be submitted to other regulatory agencies outside the US) for consideration for marketing approval.
- Because Phase 3 trial results often provide the basis for approval, Phase 3 trials are sometimes also called pivotal trials. If the drug is approved, doctors can prescribe the medication for their patients.
Subject – Governance
Context – Centre notifies new rules for consumer commissions
Concept –
- The Centre has notified the Consumer Protection (Jurisdiction of the District Commission, the State Commission and the National Commission) Rules, 2021, revising the pecuniary jurisdiction of the district, State and national commissions.
- According to the notification, district commissions will have jurisdiction to entertain complaints where the value of the goods or services paid does not exceed ₹50 lakh.
- State commissions can handle complaints in the range of ₹50 lakh-₹2 crore.
- The National Commission shall have jurisdiction to entertain complaints where the value of the goods or services paid as consideration exceeds ₹2 crore.
E-Daakhil portal
- Consumer Affairs Ministry said that consumers can also file complaints digitally through the E-Daakhil portal.
- Currently, the facility of E-Daakhil is available in 544 consumer commissions, which includes the National Commission and consumer commissions in 21 States and 3 UTs.
- The Consumer Protection Act, 2019, which came into force on July 20, 2020, has a provision for e-filing of consumer complaints in the consumer commissions and online payment of the fees for filing a complaint.
- A web application for e-filing of consumer complaints named ‘edaakhil.nic.in’ has been developed by NIC for the purpose.
- E-filing was launched by the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) on September 7, 2020.
- Delhi was the first state to implement it on September 8, 2020.
Consumer Protection Act
- The new Consumer Protection Act 2019 seeks to revamp the process of administration and settlement of consumer disputes, with strict penalties, including jail term for adulteration and misleading ads by firms.
- It defined 6 rights of the consumers which include:
- Right to be protected against the marketing of goods, products or services which can be hazardous to life and property
- Right to be informed about the quality, quantity, potency, purity, standard and price of goods, products and services
- Right to be assured of access to goods, products and services at competitive prices.
- Right to be heard at appropriate forums
- Right to seek redressal against unfair trade practices that are involved in exploitation of customers
- Right to consumer awareness
- It proposes to set up Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) to promote, protect and enforce the rights of consumers. The CCPA would make interventions to prevent consumer detriment arising from unfair trade practices. The agency can also initiate class action, including enforcing recall, refund and return of products.
- It also simplified dispute resolution process, has provision for Mediation and e-filing of cases. The Consumer will be able to file cases in the nearest commission under the jurisdiction of which he resides.
- Under the Consumer Protection Act, there is also an option of resolving consumer disputes through mediation with the consent of both parties.
Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions (CDRCs) would be setup at various levels. The CDRCs would be set up at multiple levels – district, state and national. Consumers can file complaints with the CDRCs regarding any of the following.
- Defective goods or services
- Overcharging or deceptive charging on goods and services
- Any unfair or restrictive trade practices
- Offering services or sale of goods which can be hazardous to life or not safe
- As per the new act, all the laws that apply for direct selling would also be applicable for E-Commerce.
- Consumers can file complaints from anywhere and they do not need to hire lawyer to represent their cases. For mediation, there will be strict timeline fixed in the rules.
- On misleading advertisements there is provision for jail term and fine for manufacturers.
- For the first time there will be an exclusive law dealing with Product Liability. A manufacturer or product service provider or product seller will now be responsible to compensate for injury or damage caused by defective product or deficiency in services.
To know about Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), please refer August 2021 DPN.
Subject – Economy
Context – Credit growth led by households as corporate demand slides: RBI
Concept –
- A subprime borrower is a person considered to be a relatively high credit risk for a lender.
- Subprime borrowers have lower credit scores and are likely to have multiple negative factors in their credit reports, such as delinquencies and account rejections.
- Subprime borrowers may also have a “thin” credit history, meaning they have little or no activity in their credit reports on which lenders can base their decisions.
- They typically have credit scores below 670 and other negative information in their credit reports.
- Subprime borrowers may find it harder to obtain loans and will usually have to pay higher interest rates when they do.
Subject – Governance
Context – NamitaGokhale, Tamil writer Ambai win SahityaAkademi Award
Concept –
- SahityaAkademi award established in 1954, is a literary honour that is conferred annually by SahityaAkademi, India’s National Academy of letters.
- Akademi gives 24 awards annually to literary works in the languages it has recognized and an equal number of awards to literary translations from and into the languages of India.
- Besides the 22 languages enumerated in the Constitution of India, the SahityaAkademi has recognised English and Rajasthani as languages in which its programme may be implemented.
- The SahityaAkademi award is the second-highest literary honour by the Government of India, after the Jnanpith award.
- Tamil feminist writer Ambai, Kannada biographer DS Nagabhushan, Telugu poet GoretiVenkanna, and English author NamitaGokhale, among others, are this year’s winners of the SahityaAkademi Award.
Criteria for Choosing Awardee
- The author must be of Indian Nationality.
- Book/work eligible for the award must be an outstanding contribution to the language and literature to which it belongs.
- When equal merit for books of two or more are found, certain criteria like total literary contribution and standing of authors shall be taken into consideration for declaring award.
9. Pope Francis’s visit to India
Subject – IR
Context – Pope visit likely next year
Concept –
- Pope Francis’s visit to India is being made for 2022-end, or towards the beginning of 2023.
Cardinal – Cardinal is a priest of the Roman Catholic Church who ranks immediately below the Pope.
- He is a senior member of the clergy of the Catholic Church, immediately behind the pope in the order of precedence.
- Collectively, they constitute the College of Cardinals, and are appointed for life.
To know about Pope, please refer October 2021 DPN.
Subject – Polity
Context – Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Goa on Sunday as the state celebrates its 60th liberation day.
Concept –
- An important port for trade and military operations, Goa was ruled by the Portuguese for more than 450 years.
- The Portuguese colonized several parts of India in 1510 but by the end of the 19th-century Portuguese colonies in India were limited to Goa, Daman, Diu, Dadra, Nagar Haveli and Anjediva Island (a part of Goa).
- While historically, revolts against Portuguese rulers and their policies were recorded in the 18th and 19th century too, on June 18, 1946, the movement of Goa’s liberation gathered momentum after socialist leader Dr Ram Manohar Lohia plunged himself into the freedom movement with many young Goans.
- The day is now observed as Goa Revolution Day.
- However, even as India became independent on August 15, 1947, Goa continued to be under Portuguese rule 14 years after that.
- After India’s independence from the British in 1947, the calls for Goa’s Liberation again gathered steam.
- After multiple agitations by freedom fighters, India made peaceful attempts for Goa’s liberation through diplomatic channels.
- However, as a last resort, the Indian government then led by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, sent in its armed forces to the coastal state after which the Portuguese surrendered and Goa was liberated on December 19, 1961.
- This moment also marked the exit of the Portuguese, the last of the European colonisers to leave India.
‘Operation Vijay’
- Perhaps the first tri-service operation of the Indian armed forces, Operation Vijay was about the liberation of the Portuguese territories of Goa, Daman and Diu.
What happened after the liberation of Goa?
- Goa was annexed into the Indian union and was the Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu.
- In 1967, through a plebiscite the majority of the Goan people voted against a merger. It continued to remain a Union Territory until 1987 when it was accorded statehood.
- Goa became India’s 25th state even as Daman and Diu continue to be Union Territories.
Subject – Environment
Context – Half of global cropland expansion replaced natural vegetation and tree cover: Study
Concept –
- Cropland area across the world increased 9 per cent and cropland net primary production (NPP) by 25 per cent from 2003-2019, according to a new study.
- The growth was primarily due to agricultural expansion in Africa and South America.
- But 49 per cent of the new cropland area replaced natural vegetation and tree covers, indicating a conflict with the sustainability goal of protecting terrestrial ecosystems.
- The largest cropland expansion (34 per cent) was observed in Africa.
- The report defined cropland as ‘land used for annual and perennial herbaceous crops for human consumption, forage (including hay) and biofuel’. Perennial woody crops, permanent pastures and shifting cultivation are excluded from the definition.
- Cropland expansion is a major factor in forest loss, which comes in conflict with United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 15 (SDG 15) that aims to stop deforestation and degradation of natural habitats.
12. China inventing names for places in Arunachal Pradesh
Subject – IR
Context – China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs announced on Wednesday (December 29) that it had “standardised” the names of 15 places in Arunachal Pradesh
Concept –
- China claims some 90,000 sq km of Arunachal Pradesh as its territory. It calls the area “Zangnan” in the Chinese language and makes repeated references to “South Tibet”.
- Chinese maps show Arunachal Pradesh as part of China, and sometimes parenthetically refer to it as “so-called Arunachal Pradesh”.
- China makes periodic efforts to underline this unilateral claim to Indian territory. Giving Chinese names to places in Arunachal Pradesh is part of that effort.
- This is a second lot of “standardised” names of places in Arunachal Pradesh that China has announced. On April 14, 2017, its Ministry of Civil Affairs had issued “official” Chinese names for six places in the state.
The names –
- The six names on that list then, written in the Roman alphabet, were “Wo’gyainling”, “Mila Ri”, “QoidengarboRi”, “Mainquka”, “Bumo La” and “NamkapubRi”.
- The latitude and longitude listed with the names showed those places as Tawang, KraDaadi, West Siang, Siang (where Mechuka or Menchuka is an emerging tourist destination), Anjaw, and Subansiri respectively.
- These six places spanned the breadth of Arunachal Pradesh — “Wo’gyainling” in the west, “Bumo La” in the east and the other four located in the central part of the state.
What is China’s argument for claiming these areas?
- The People’s Republic of China disputes the legal status of the McMahon Line, the boundary between Tibet and British India that was agreed at the Simla Convention — officially the ‘Convention Between Great Britain, China, and Tibet’ — of 1914.
- The Chinese representative did not consent to the Simla Convention, saying Tibet had no independent authority to enter into international agreements.
- The McMohan Line, named after Henry McMahon, the chief British negotiator at Shimla, was drawn from the eastern border of Bhutan to the IsuRazi pass on the China-Myanmar border. China claims territory to the south of the McMahon Line, lying in Arunachal Pradesh.
- China also bases its claims on the historical ties that have existed between the monasteries in Tawang and Lhasa.
13. Rural Entrepreneurship Awareness Development Yojana (READY)
Subject – Government Schemes
Context – Dairy Science College in Bengaluru promotes earn-while-you-learn concept
Concept –
- READY programme is a new initiative of Indian Council of Agricultural Research to reorient graduates of Agriculture and allied subjects for ensuring and assuring employability and develop entrepreneurs for emerging knowledge-intensive agriculture.
- Under this programme all students are required to undertake a six-month internship, usually in their fourth year, to gain hands-on training, rural awareness, industry experience, research expertise and entrepreneurship skills
- The programme is being introduced in all the Agricultural Universities as an essential prerequisite for the award of degree to ensure hands on experience and practical training depending on the requirements of respective discipline and local demands.
- The programme will help in building confidence, skill and acquire Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK) of the locality and thereby, preparing the pass-out for self-employment.
Components of the programme
- Experiential Learning
- Rural Awareness Works Experience
- In-Plant Training / Industrial attachment
- Hands-on training (HOT) / Skill development training and
- Students Projects
14. Parambikulam Tiger Reserve
Subject – Environment
Context – Policemen on duty at the Parambikulam Tiger Reserve police station faced an unusual threat on Wednesday night when a female elephant and her calf raided the premises.
Concept –
Name | Location | Features |
Parambikulam Tiger Reserve |
|
|
Tribes | Fauna |
The Kadar, Malasar, Muduvar, and Mala Malasar are among the four indigenous tribes who call the sanctuary home. | Tigers, Grey-headed Fishing Eagle, the Peninsular Bay Owl, the Nilgiri Wood Pigeon, the Black-capped Kingfisher, the Great Black Woodpecker and the Lesser Grey-headed Fish Eagle. |
15. SMILE (Support for Marginalised Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise)
Subject – Government Schemes
Context – New scheme to support the marginalised
Concept –
- The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has formulated a scheme “SMILE – Support for Marginalized Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise”.
- SMILE includes two sub-schemes – ‘Central Sector Scheme for Comprehensive Rehabilitation for Welfare of Transgender Persons’ and ‘Central Sector Scheme for Comprehensive Rehabilitation of persons engaged in the act of Begging’.
- Financial allocation of Rs 100 crores for the period 2021-22 to 2025-26 for the scheme.
- This scheme covers several comprehensive measures including welfare measures for persons who are engaged in the act of begging.
- The focus of the scheme is extensively on rehabilitation, provision of medical facilities, counselling, basic documentation, education, skill development, economic linkages and so on.
- The scheme would be implemented with the support of State/UT Governments/Local Urban Bodies, Voluntary Organizations, Community Based Organizations (CBOs), institutions and others.
- Scheme provides for the use of the existing shelter homes available with the State/UT Governments and Urban local bodies for rehabilitation of the persons engaged in the act of Begging.
- In case of non-availability of existing shelter homes, new dedicated shelter homes are to be set up by the implementing agencies.
16. The Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC)
Subject – Economy
Context – DICGC mops up Rs 9,561 crore premiums in first half of fiscal
Concept –
To know about DICGC, please refer September 2021 DPN.
Subject – Polity
Context – The government announced that it approved the issuance of the 19th tranche of electoral bonds, which will be open for sale from January 1 to January 10.
Concept –
To know about electoral bonds, please refer August 2021 DPN.
Subject – Economy
Context – In meet with FM, states push for GST compensation extension by 5 years
Concept –
To know about GST compensation, please refer October 2021 DPN.
19. ARTICLE 141 – DOCTRINE OF PRECEDENT
Context:
Recently, Supreme Court judges have expressed the need to ‘Indianise’ the legal system.
WHAT IS DOCTRINE OF PRECEDENT?
- The doctrine refers to a decision that has already been taken by a higher court is binding to the lower court and at the same time stands as a precedent to the lower court judgment, which cannot be altered by a lower court. This principle is known as Stare decisis.
- The doctrine of stare decisis helps
- To generate judicial accountability along with it
- It also ensures fairness in adjudication and excludes arbitrariness
- Helps in maintaining stability and certainty.
- It is both a social as well as a legal norm.
THE DOCTRINE OF STARE DECISIS UNDER ARTICLE 141 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA
- Article 141 of the Indian Constitution states that
- law declared by Supreme Court to be binding on all courts within the territory of India.
- Article 141 states that only the ratio decendi of a case is binding not the obiter dicta and the mere facts of the cases.
- Therefore, while applying the decision of S.C. by other courts, what is required is to understand the true principle laid down by the previous decision.
- Some basic concept of Article 141
- All the courts in India are bound by law to follow the decision of the Supreme Court.
- The judgment has to be read as a whole and at the same time, the observation from the judgment has to be determined in the light of the questions presented before the court.
20. GREAT LEGAL TRADITIONS OF ANCIENT INDIA
Context:
Recently, Supreme Court judges have expressed the need to ‘Indianise’ the legal system.
DETAILS ABOUT THE GREAT LEGAL TRADITIONS OF ANCIENT INDIA
- MANU – Manu is considered a law giver in the Hindu tradition. Manu Smriti is one of the 18 Smritis. Manu Smriti is one of the oldest and probably the most important of the smritis which contain the laws (conduct in life) that need to be followed in various orders of life and by persons of various tendencies (varnas). It is also known as Manava-dharma-shastra (“The Dharma Text of Manu”)
The law of Manu is still being cited in support of the oppression of women as in Sabrimala Case recently.
About Manusmriti –
- The Manu-smriti prescribes to Hindus their dharma—i.e., that set of obligations incumbent on each as a member of one of the four social classes (varnas) and engaged in one of the four stages of life (ashramas)
- It contains 12 chapters of stanzas, which total 2,694. It deals with cosmogony; the definition of the dharma; the sacraments (samskaras); initiation (upanayana) and the study of the Vedas (the sacred texts of Hinduism); marriage, hospitality, funeral rites, dietary restrictions, pollution, and means of purification; the conduct of women and wives; and the law of kings.
- KAUTILYA – HE was an adviser and a Prime Ministerto the first Maurya Emperor Chandragupta (c. 340-293 B.C.E.), and architect of his rise to power. He is also called Vishnugupta. Chanakya is the author of the Arthaśhāstra, an encyclopedic work on political economy and government.
Kautilya identified seven factors which affected a government’s ability to accomplish these ends: the qualities of the king, his ministers, his provinces, his city, his treasure, his army, and his allies.
In describing an ideal government, Kautilya articulated contemporary assumptions of political and economic theory, providing historical information about the political circumstances of the time.
Two additional works are attributed to Chanakya: Nitishastra, a treatise on the ideal way of life, and ChanakyaNiti, a compilation of his nitis, or policies.
- KATYAYANA – He was was a Sanskrit grammarian, mathematician and Vedic priest who lived in ancient India. He is known for two works:
- The Vārttikakāra, an elaboration on Pāṇini grammar. Along with the Mahābhāṣya of Patañjali, this text became a core part of the Vyākaraṇa (grammar) canon. This was one of the six Vedangas, and constituted compulsory education for students in the following twelve centuries.
- He also composed one of the later Śulbasūtras, a series of nine texts on the geometry of altar constructions, dealing with rectangles, right-sided triangles, rhombuses, etc.
- NARADMUNI – Naradmuni gave the famous Naradsmriti, a part of the Dharmaśāstras, an Indian literary tradition that serves as a collection of legal maxims relating to the topic of dharma. The Nāradasmṛti is the only Dharmaśāstra text to not cover areas such as righteous conduct and penance.
- YAJNAVALKYA – Heis a Hindu Vedic sage figuring in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.Yajnavalkya proposes and debates metaphysical questions about the nature of existence, consciousness and impermanence, and expounds the epistemic doctrine of netineti (“not this, not this”) to discover the universal Self and Ātman.
Texts attributed to him include the Yajnavalkya Smriti, Yoga Yajnavalkya and some texts of the Vedanta school. He is also mentioned in various Brahmanas and Aranyakas.