The sections Deals with the History part of the syllabus. The recent trend in UPSC questions has undergone a serious shift.Most of the questions are centered around the analysis. For eg- Last year the question was why major battles were fought at Panipat ? Questions like Why Buddhism has failed in India was asked before , but the question going forward be more like – Why different Buddhism fluorished in different parts of Asia , for eg- Theravada Buddhsim in Srilanka but Vajrayan Buddhism in Tibet ? To answer this question one needs an in-depth understanding of previous cultures of Srilanka and tibet before Buddhism, but given the vast range of the subject it is humanly impossible to read , comprehend and answer the questions properly, however if one knows basic tenets of cultures of mountain dwellers , one can safely answer the Tibet’s adoption of Vajrayan Buddhism (Tantric) , or if one knows about culture of coastal inhabitants , one can answer Srilanka’s Theravada Buddhsim. Of course , there will some inference that are well comprehended and some may be far fetched , given the local factor. However , One will not be blindsided completely. And that is the major goal of this initiative.
Many say History has too much data to consume and too little theories to analyses .Keeping opinions aside, history as a subject is based upon one particular historians interpretation, thus history is comprehended differently by different authors. Best is the author who publishes views of all other authors and allows the reader to comprehend, instead of promoting just one’s view point.Indian Historians by far remained influenced by British authors, i.e. the reason why one see’s the British influenced divisions like Ancient. Medieval and Modern .
The recent trend has been to get rid of this water tight compartments as evident from the recent books by the IGNOU or NCERT .The trend has been shifted to Thematic analysis, and questions are asked from these themes .Moreover the thematic study is well integrated with geography. Thus Geography of History and History of Geography is the recent trend.
The initiative will have articles with mixture of Q & A Pattern and Thematic analysis. Al-Biruni’s Kitab-Ul-HInd is written in Q& A fromat i.e beginning with a question, following this up with a description based on Sanskritic traditions, and concluding with a comparison with other cultures. Some present-day scholars have argued that this almost geometric structure, remarkable for its precision and predictability, owed much to his mathematical orientation. On the same vein, scoring high in history needs precision and to the point answers rather than biting around the bush. History usually has a profound impact on our minds and when we analyze of any other subject matter , we usually dive in to history , even though it may have no significance in the present context.
Thus it is very vital to maintain the mathematical and surgical precision without being lost in history. The days of “What happened where and how it happened” has gone, the questions are now “why that happened where it happened and why nowhere else “.
So with precision in mind let begin our journey of thematic history with surgical approach.
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Petrol in India is cheaper than in countries like Hong Kong, Germany and the UK but costlier than in China, Brazil, Japan, the US, Russia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a Bank of Baroda Economics Research report showed.
Rising fuel prices in India have led to considerable debate on which government, state or central, should be lowering their taxes to keep prices under control.
The rise in fuel prices is mainly due to the global price of crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel) going up. Further, a stronger dollar has added to the cost of crude oil.
Amongst comparable countries (per capita wise), prices in India are higher than those in Vietnam, Kenya, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela. Countries that are major oil producers have much lower prices.
In the report, the Philippines has a comparable petrol price but has a per capita income higher than India by over 50 per cent.
Countries which have a lower per capita income like Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Venezuela have much lower prices of petrol and hence are impacted less than India.
“Therefore there is still a strong case for the government to consider lowering the taxes on fuel to protect the interest of the people,” the report argued.
India is the world’s third-biggest oil consuming and importing nation. It imports 85 per cent of its oil needs and so prices retail fuel at import parity rates.
With the global surge in energy prices, the cost of producing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products also went up for oil companies in India.
They raised petrol and diesel prices by Rs 10 a litre in just over a fortnight beginning March 22 but hit a pause button soon after as the move faced criticism and the opposition parties asked the government to cut taxes instead.
India imports most of its oil from a group of countries called the ‘OPEC +’ (i.e, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Russia, etc), which produces 40% of the world’s crude oil.
As they have the power to dictate fuel supply and prices, their decision of limiting the global supply reduces supply in India, thus raising prices
The government charges about 167% tax (excise) on petrol and 129% on diesel as compared to US (20%), UK (62%), Italy and Germany (65%).
The abominable excise duty is 2/3rd of the cost, and the base price, dealer commission and freight form the rest.
Here is an approximate break-up (in Rs):
a)Base Price | 39 |
b)Freight | 0.34 |
c) Price Charged to Dealers = (a+b) | 39.34 |
d) Excise Duty | 40.17 |
e) Dealer Commission | 4.68 |
f) VAT | 25.35 |
g) Retail Selling Price | 109.54 |
Looked closely, much of the cost of petrol and diesel is due to higher tax rate by govt, specifically excise duty.
So the question is why government is not reducing the prices ?
India, being a developing country, it does require gigantic amount of funding for its infrastructure projects as well as welfare schemes.
However, we as a society is yet to be tax-compliant. Many people evade the direct tax and that’s the reason why govt’s hands are tied. Govt. needs the money to fund various programs and at the same time it is not generating enough revenue from direct taxes.
That’s the reason why, govt is bumping up its revenue through higher indirect taxes such as GST or excise duty as in the case of petrol and diesel.
Direct taxes are progressive as it taxes according to an individuals’ income however indirect tax such as excise duty or GST are regressive in the sense that the poorest of the poor and richest of the rich have to pay the same amount.
Does not matter, if you are an auto-driver or owner of a Mercedes, end of the day both pay the same price for petrol/diesel-that’s why it is regressive in nature.
But unlike direct tax where tax evasion is rampant, indirect tax can not be evaded due to their very nature and as long as huge no of Indians keep evading direct taxes, indirect tax such as excise duty will be difficult for the govt to reduce, because it may reduce the revenue and hamper may programs of the govt.