Visuals show an overflowing river Manjhi river in Dharamshala, wiping away nearly 10 shops in the area. Meanwhile, three people were killed at a village in Uttarakhand after their house collapsed in a landslide.

As the southwest monsoon continues to elude Delhi, Punjab and Haryana, it is wreaking havoc in parts of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

In Himachal Pradesh’s Dharamshala, flood waters swept through the streets of Bhagsu Nag village, damaging parked vehicles. The district administration has instructed tourists to postpone their visit to Dharamsala in view of the heavy rains.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah spoke to Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Monday to take stock of the situation arising due to the floods in several districts of the state and assured him all possible help from the Centre.

States such as Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir, too, witnessed torrential rain. Visuals from ANI show debris from a landslide blocking the Rishikesh-Badrinath national highway number 7 near Chamoli. In a separate incident, three people, including an eight-year-old boy, were killed at a village in Uttarakhand after their house collapsed in a landslide caused due to heavy rains.

OVERVIEW :-

“WATER” , the lifeline of all the living species on the Earth. Without water it is not possible to survive a single day whether you are a human being or if we take in account any other organisms. Even the plants and trees which provide us oxygen to breathe can not survive without water.

The molecular formula of water is H₂O. It means it has two molecules of hydrogen and one molecule of oxygen to form one molecule of water. More than 70% of the Earth surface is covered with water. Out of the total water present on Earth around 97% is saline water present in oceans and seas. This water is not fit for drinking. The other 2% water is in form of glaciers at the two poles – North and South. The only remaining 1% is fresh water which is available in rivers and lakes. Only this 1% water is used for drinking and other day to day activities.

But due to rapid increasing population, urbanisation, industrialisation over the years, water pollution has become a great matter of concern for the world community.

CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF WATER POLLUTION :-

• Domestic savage is one of the reason for water pollution. People living near water bodies discharge the human wastes in the water. Also in many urban areas there are no sewage treatment plants which can detoxify human wastes before discharging it in the water bodies like rivers. This increases the concentration of harmful organisms in the water and the water becomes unfit for drinking.

• Discharge of industrial wastes by factories situated near water bodies is also a major cause of water pollution. Industrial wastes contains a lot of toxic elements like mercury and silicon. These elements contaminate the water and it is no longer fit for human use.
• Excess use of fertilizers and pesticides also possesses a threat. These fertilizers and pesticides penetrates into the groundwater and makes it toxic. They also flow down into the water bodies and the flora and fauna which lives in these water bodies die in large numbers every year due to increase in water toxicity level.

• Global warming is another cause of water pollution. Due to global warming, the temperature of water in the water bodies increases rapidly. The flora and fauna living in these water bodies are not able to adapt themselves with this rapid increase in temperature and it results in a loss of large number of aquatic species.

REMEDIES TO COMBAT WATER POLLUTION :-

• As far as possible, the effective implementation of 3R’s should be done. These 3R’s are Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

• Majority of the industrial waste must be treated before discharging it in the water bodies.
• Excess use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides should be banned and the use of biological and eco-friendly products must be used in agriculture.
• Sewage treatment plants should be installed so that biological wastes does not be discharged in water bodies without proper treatment. Effective monitoring of these sewage treatment plants must be undertaken for proper functioning of them.

• Global warming threat should be taken under consideration and effective measures should be taken to reduce the factors that are responsible for global warming.

Links :-

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.norcalcompactors.net/safeguard-environment-three-rs-reduce-reuse-recycle/amp/

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/water-pollution-everything-you-need-know

https://nwa.mah.nic.in/sdmc/availability/where.htm

by George Orwell

Animal Farm by George Orwell tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy. Their first leader, a pig, Old Major, was kind and fair who knew animals should be equal. But when Napoleon, also a pig, became the leader, it was very unpleasant. Napoleon wanted more power. The rebellion is betrayed, and the farm ends up in a state worse than it was before, under the dictatorship of Napoleon. He made a rule that allowed the pigs to have better food and that forced all of the other animals to work very hard in dangerous working conditions every day and night while the pigs laid on the bed all day, drinking and living in luxury. Pigs could speak fluently in English unlike the other animals, and that gave them the power to be leaders. Little by little, the rules begin to mysteriously change, and the pigs seem to gain power little by little, making the rest of the animals question what society they were striving for in the first place and whether their new-found freedom is as liberating as they have hoped. The cleaver pigs had already taken advantage of the naïve animals, and by the time the animals realised what the pigs had done, it was too late.

As soon the animals got freedom over the farm, they came up with a set of seven rules that will be the base of the Animal Farm. One of which was “All animals are equal”. This fair and just rule was later modified by the corrupt rulers into “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. With this the original purpose of the Seven Commandments, which were supposed to keep order within Animal Farm by uniting the animals together against the humans and preventing animals from following the humans’ evil doings, is ruined and it demonstrates how even the best of us can be corrupt when power lies in our hands.

Author Orwell said that the book was based on the events of Russia’s Bolshevik revolution and the betrayal of the cause by Joseph Stalin. Published in 1945, this book still stays relevant in today’s world, even after 76 years. It highlights the demons within every human; jealousy, greed, laziness and cruelty. Animal Farm is bitter reminder from history warning us that no good will come to us or anybody unless we set aside our egos and greed to help and support each other selflessly when the whole world is against us.

Its been 4 years since Goods and Services Tax (GST) was introduced! How much do we know about it?

What is GST

• The GST is a value-added tax levied on most goods and services sold for domestic consumption.
• The GST is paid by consumers, but it is remitted to the government by the businesses selling the goods and services.
• GST, which subsumed almost all domestic indirect taxes (petroleum, alcoholic beverages and stamp duty are the major exceptions) under one head, is perhaps the biggest tax reform in the history of independent India. It was launched into operation on the midnight of 1^st July 2017.

What is special about GST?

• Applicable on Supply Side: GST is applicable on ‘supply’ of goods or services as against the old concept on the manufacture of goods or on sale of goods or on provision of services.
• Destination based Taxation: GST is based on the principle of destination-based consumption taxation as against the principle of origin-based taxation.
• Dual GST: It is a dual GST with the Centre and the States simultaneously levying tax on a common base. The GST to be levied by the Centre is called Central GST (CGST) and that to be levied by the States is called State GST (SGST).
• Import of goods or services would be treated as inter-state supplies and would be subject to Integrated Goods & Services Tax (IGST) in addition to the applicable customs duties.
• GST rates to be mutually decided: CGST, SGST & IGST are levied at rates to be mutually agreed upon by the Centre and the States. The rates are notified on the recommendation of the GST Council.
• Multiple Rates: GST is levied at four rates viz. 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%. The schedule or list of items that would fall under these multiple slabs are worked out by the GST council.This is apart from the tax on gold that is kept at 3% and rough precious and semi-precious stones that are placed at a special rate of 0.25% under GST.

The GST Council

• It is a constitutional body (Article 279A) for making recommendations to the Union and State Government on issues related to GST.
• The GST Council is chaired by the Union Finance Minister and other members are the Union State Minister of Revenue or Finance and Ministers in-charge of Finance or Taxation of all the States.
• It is considered as a federal body where both the centre and the states get due representation.

GST – Reform?

• Creation of a common national market: By amalgamating a large number of Central and State taxes into a single tax.
• Mitigation of cascading effect:
  • The GST that a merchant pays to procure goods or services (i.e. on inputs) can be set off later against the tax applicable on supply of final goods and services. The set off tax is called input tax credit.
  • The GST thus avoids cascading effect or tax on tax which increases the tax burden on the end consumer.
• Reduction in Tax burden: From the consumers’ point of view, the biggest advantage is in terms of reduction in the overall tax burden on goods.
• Making Indian products more competitive: Introduction of GST is making Indian products more competitive in the domestic and international markets owing to the full neutralization of input taxes across the value chain of production.

What are the achievements of GST

• Automated Indirect Tax Ecosystem:
  • The introduction of e-way bills coupled with the crackdown on fake invoicing has helped in bringing in a substantial portion of GST revenues, which were either being evaded or under-reported.
  • E-invoicing system would also usher the taxpayers into a fully automated compliance regime wherein the computation of tax liabilities and matching of input tax credit would become very simple.
• Simplification of Compliance:
  • Various initiatives like linking the customs portal with GST portal for credit availability on imports, making available proper means for matching input tax credit, increased automation of the refund procedure to seamless operation of the Invoice Registry Portal, helped simplify tax compliance.
• Functioning of GST Council:
  • The GST Council made corrections to law, issued clarifications on complex issues, rationalized GST rates and introduced relaxations for dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, which establishes that the GST Council structure has been very functional and agile.
• Example to the World:
  • India has served as an example to the world by successfully implementing one of the most complex tax transformation projects for the country.

Criticisms of GST

• Fiscal Federalism:
  • This issue became controversial when GST collections fell because of the pandemic.
  • Because GST entailed a bigger surrender of taxation powers for the states – states do not levy direct taxes or customs duties – a guaranteed revenue growth of 14% for a period of five years was offered to them by the centre to get them to agree.
• Issues Highlighted by the 15^th Finance Commission:
  • The 15^th Finance Commission has highlighted several areas of concern in the GST regime relating to multiplicity of tax rates, shortfall in GST collections vis-à-vis the forecast, high volatility in GST collections, inconsistency in filing of returns, dependence of States on the compensation from Centre and so on.
• Large Businesses vs Small Businesses:
  • The fundamental principles on which the GST law was built were seamless flow of input credits and ease of compliance has been impaired by IT glitches.
  • Indirect taxes, unlike direct taxes such as income tax, do not differentiate between the rich and the poor and therefore put a bigger burden on the later.
  • Further, small and medium businesses are still grappling to adapt to the tech-enabled regime.

What are some suggestions by experts?

• With oil prices sky-rocketing across the country, the policymakers need to contemplate the inclusion of petroleum and related products within the GST net.
• It is vital to finally constitute the GST Appellate Tribunal as it is obvious that all taxpayers do not have the finances or means to approach the High Court for every practical difficulty faced.
• Streamlining of anti-profiteering measures and simplification of compliance procedures also needs to be revisited to ensure that the cost efficiency and reduction in prices envisaged under GST law finally reaches the common man.

Conclusion

In the four years of GST, It has undoubtedly been successful in many areas but the pandemic has exposed several problems in its structure and implementation. The law is still a ‘work-in-progress’, and the process of evolution, in such a complex journey, cannot be eliminated. The Government is taking several measures to make it resilient. We can definitely hope for a Good and Simple tax in the times to come.

An environment is everything that is around us, which includes both living and nonliving things such as soil,water,animals and plants, which adapt themselves to their surroundings. It is nature’s gift that helps in nourishing life on the earth.

Environment includes physical,chemical and other natural forces. Living elements that an organism interacts with are known as biotic elements: animals,plants,etc., abiotic elements are non living things which include air,water,sunlight etc.

Since everything is part of the environment of something else, the world environment is used to talk about many things. People in different fields of knowledge use the word environment differently. Electromagnetic environment is radio waves and other electromagnetic radiation and magnetic fields. The environment of galaxy refers to conditions of interstellar medium.

In psychology and medicine, a person’s environment is the people, physical things and places that the person lives with. The environment affects the growth and development of the person. It affects the person’s behavior,body,mind and heart.

The living conditions of living organisms in an environment are affected by the weather or climate changes in the environment.

A potential third wave would unlikely be as severe as the second wave, according to a modelling study by a team of scientists from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Imperial College London, U.K. For it to be as devastating, at least 30% of the population who had been infected earlier must entirely lose their immunity, or an emerging variant of the virus must have a reproductive rate (R) over 4.5, that is, each infected person should be spreading to at least 4-5 others and these must occur almost immediately after the second wave ends.

Thereafter, a second wave was simulated assuming a more infectious variant, and therefore a higher R value, and accounting for the fact that second wave saw a peak about four times higher than the first wave. Once this was done, and estimating the number of people who had been likely exposed to the infection, they then modelled a future third wave under several scenarios: a complete loss of immunity from previous waves; emergence of a variant that was more infectious and capable of thwarting immunity than the ones observed; the impact of moving out of lockdowns; and the role of a highly infectious variant in a scenario of a certain percentage of people getting vaccinated.

Their results showed that under all of these situations, the peak number of infections remained much lower than during the second wave, unless the R rate exceeded 4.5, or those previously susceptible exceeded 30%.

The emergence of a third wave could be significantly buffered by expanding vaccination, they contend. Illustratively, the authors calculate that were vaccines rolled out in a way to cover 40% of the population with two doses over a period of three months following the end of the second wave, it could reduce symptomatic incidence by around 55%.

Less than 20% of Indians have received at least one dose of the vaccine and only 4% are fully vaccinated. The Centre proposes to vaccinate all adults — about 94.4 crore — by the end of 2021.

while several factors needed to converge for a third wave as devastating as the second, complacency in observing physical distancing or mask usage could be dangerous. “Wearing masks consistently and correctly as well vaccination are critical to ensure that a third wave isn’t severe, even though the evidence, as we’ve calculated, shows that it is quite unlikely,”

This is the first time that the ICMR’s scientists have attempted a formal forecast of a future wave. In spite of several modelling experts, no group estimated or warned of the severity of the second wave that saw new infections rise to nearly 400,000 a day. Currently, India’s second wave is on a decline, with about 50,000 cases being added daily. India, with over 30 million confirmed coronavirus cases and nearly 400,000 deaths, is the second most affected country after the United States.