We are going to hear about Verifiable Functional Encryption, this paper is by Sikrishna Vipul Aayush and Amit from UCLA and from MSR and Sikrishna will give the talk. Thanks for the introduction. Hi everyone, I am Sikrishna. I am going to be talking about Verifiable Functional Encryption. This is joint work with Aayush who just gave a talk before, Vipul and Amit. So, before we move on to what the problem is, let us look at classical encryption and let us say there is some user Bob who has some data X and he encrypts it and sends it over to some cloud and the red blob denotes the ciphertext. Now, suppose this cloud has the secret key for the encryption scheme, then it can recover the message, the plain text message X in the clear, but suppose the cloud does not have the secret key, then it learns nothing at all about the message that is encrypted. This is the classical notion of encryption that we all know. So, in some sense this has an all or nothing paradigm in the sense that you either learn everything about the message or nothing at all. So, what is functional encryption? Let us say again we have the same user X and he wants to talk to a cloud service provider, but now we want to give more fine-grained access to the private data. So, as before Bob encrypts his data and sends it over to the cloud, but now the cloud wishes to compute some function F on this encrypted data, on the plain text that is underlying this encrypted data. So, he talks to a trusted party who has the master secret key behind the entire system and he tells the party that I want to compute this function F and suppose the party, the trusted party thinks that the cloud is indeed authorized to compute this function F, it returns back a secret key for this function F. Now, using this secret key and the encrypted ciphertext, it can compute the underlying, it can compute the function on the underlying plain text that is it learns the value F of X. But what is security guarantee that we want? We want to say that suppose the cloud service provider the decryptor is malicious, we do not want him to learn anything about the message that was encrypted apart from F of X. So, intuitively we will formulate this a little later, but intuitively we want to say that the secret key for the function should not allow the adversary, the decryptor to compute anything other than the value F of X, given the ciphertext. And function encryption is a very general paradigm, it is a generalization of attribute based encryption, predicate encryption and so on. So, before we move on, let us just formally describe the syntax of function and encryption scheme. There is a setup algorithm that outputs a master secret key and a master public key. The master public key is given out to everyone in the system and they can use this along with their own message X to produce this, to run the encryption algorithm and produce the ciphertext. And now whenever a decryptor wants to evaluate some function F, it can talk to the trusted party who runs the function key generation algorithm using the function F and the master secret key to compute the function secret key. And now the decryption algorithm takes any ciphertext and the function secret key to compute the evaluation of the function on the underlying plaintext. What is the security requirement? Let us look at it in a more formal setting. We will call this indistinguishability security or the insecurity. Consider the adversarial cloud who has the function secret key for some function F and now we will consider two worlds. In the left world, the user Bob encrypts some message X that he has and in the right world, he has some message Y which he encrypts and sends it to the cloud. And as we saw earlier, we want to say that the adversary cannot distinguish between the left and the right worlds, right? Because this is what indistinguishability security would mean. But clearly this is impossible to achieve because in the left world, he learns the value F of X and in the right world, he learns the value F of Y, which was the correctness requirement we wanted from this notion and so he trivially can distinguish these two worlds if the F of X is not equal to F of Y. So, we will relax the security notion to say that if the output of the function in the left world and the right world is the same, that is F of X is equal to F of Y, then the adversary should not be able to distinguish between the two worlds. So, this is a simplified version where there is just one secret key and one ciphertext that is given to the adversary. But you can imagine a setting where we generalize this to multiple secret keys and multiple ciphertext with a similar constraint that we impose. So, what is an example of functional encryption in a more practical scenario? There are several banks and the world bank is the trusted master authority and now there is an auditor who wants to audit all these banks and check whether they are performing correctly or they are doing whatever they are supposed to do. In particular, suppose he wants to compute a function F on the data that all these banks have, let us say one bank with some data X, he encryptions send it to the auditor, the auditor gets the function secret key for F and he computes the value F of X and everyone is happy in the system and we want to say that if the auditor is malicious, he should not learn anything about the bank's sensitive data other than the value F of X that he was indeed supposed to learn. So, this is the motivating example and this is one of the example provost one of the earliest works on functional encryption in GPS W06. So, now let us see if there are any drawbacks with this motivating example. Again, let us look at the audit, the case of the auditor and let us say there are two banks now, one with input X and the other with input Y and they both send their encrypted data to the cloud, sorry to the auditor and the auditor computes F of X and F of Y and everyone is happy. But suppose this second bank is malicious and it has done some fraud and does not want to give the actual data to the auditor. So, instead it does not encrypt Y, but it sends some other garbled version of some random string and then the auditor does not learn F of Y but instead learn some random value Z. So, this there is no guarantee that functional encryption provides in such a setting because it only talks about a malicious decryptor. But here we have a malicious encryptor who is not performing as you are supposed to do. Let us consider a more interesting scenario where it is not the bank that does something wrong, the bank still sends correct value X that is encrypted and the auditor wants to learn F of X and G of X but the word bank is corrupt for some reason. Maybe it talks to the bank with value X and decides that it would get some money from the bank for the fraudulent activity and then it does not give the correct function key for G. It gives some other wrong function key that behaves like a function key for G in the sense that for maybe all inputs other than X it acts like the correct function key for G. But just this input X it does not work correctly. The auditor has no way of knowing that this value the function key for G that he receives is not the correct function key for G and then now he is just confused because he believes that this value Z that he learns is the value G of X which was not. So, in this scenario we also want to protect against a malicious authority the authority which generates the public keys and the function secret keys and the traditional notion of function and encryption offers no security guarantee in this setting. So, in this work he proposed the notion of verifiability which says that suppose there is some user with the master public key and he has some ciphertext he can run a publicly verifiable algorithm on the ciphertext and he gets back whether the ciphertext was correctly generated by correctly generated generated I mean that there was some message which was used to run the actual encryption algorithm to produce the ciphertext. This public verification algorithm does not tell the user what the message was inside the ciphertext. So, he is still happy and there is no security loss with respect to the traditional functional encryption. So, now he knows that he has a well formed ciphertext and he gets another function secret key for his function F from the authority again he runs another public verifiable algorithm and the very the algorithm tells him whether this function secret key was generated correctly by running the actual function key or secret key generation algorithm. So, now he has a well formed ciphertext and a well formed function secret key and he can run the decryption algorithm to recover the value F of x and he is guaranteed that this is indeed the value F of x that he wishes to learn and he is happy. So, to put it more formally what is verifiability is there it says that for all master public keys generated in the system and for every valid ciphertext by validity I mean that you run the public verifiable algorithm and it tells you that the ciphertext is valid. There exists some fixed message x that is underlying inside the ciphertext this is the plain text such that for every function F and every valid function secret key SKF when you run the decryption algorithm using this ciphertext and the function secret key you are guaranteed to receive the value F of x is output. So, what are the results in this setting? We first show that simulation secure verifiable Fe is impossible. So, the previous security definition of Fe that we spoke about was indistinguishable security and we show in this setting that simulation security is impossible. And our main result is a generic compiler that takes any public key insecure Fe and transforms it into a public key insecure and verifiable Fe scheme. And we do not require too many additional assumptions for this transformation I will get back to the assumption needed a little later. We also have generic compilers in the setting of secret key functional encryption and multi input functional encryption. And also we look at the closely related notion of obfuscation and give a generic compiler from an indistinguishable obfuscation scheme to verifiable one. And we also show that verifiable Fe can be used to construct functional commitments which was recently introduced primitive. So, if you instantiate our transformation with several functional encryption schemes and even their weaker notions like predicate encryption and attribute based encryption you can you get several schemes for verifiable functional encryption under various assumptions. Starting with just verifiable identity based encryption which can just be based on the BDH assumption and all the way up to verifiable functional encryption for all circuits which can be based on IO. So, first let us see whether the problem is trivial can it be solved very easily. Let us say we have a underlying functional encryption scheme that we want to transform into verifiable one. Let us just run the setup of this functional encryption scheme and generate the master secret key and the master public key. Now, whenever we want to encrypt some message X we just compute the underlying encryption as before by running the encryption algorithm of the functional encryption scheme and just compute a non interactive zero knowledge proof that the encryption was done correctly. Now, if the proof verifies then you guaranteed that the encryption was done correctly and you can easily verify the proof publicly so everything is easy. So, there is a small catch here in the sense that in order to generate the NSIC proof you need a common reference string and this has to be generated at the set of time. But remember that our goal was to protect against malicious authorities and so the authority is the one who is generating the common reference string itself. So, if he is malicious he could generate a malicious CRS and compute fake proofs and the whole guarantee of NSIC is gone. So, therefore we cannot generate our NSIC and we need some other techniques to solve the problem. Let us look at a closely related proof system called as a NIVI which is a non interactive witness and distinguishable proof which has the following. Suppose there is some statement X and a prover wants to prove that the statement X is in some language and let us say that two witnesses W0 and W1 that are given by the verifier to a prover and now the prover picks one of those two witnesses at random and gives a proof using that witness to the verifier cannot guess which of the two witnesses is used to generate the proof. So, this is much weaker than NSIC because NSIC the verifier learns nothing at all about the witness but here he just does not learn which of the two witnesses is used to prove. So, let us construct let us construct let us try to construct a verifiable NIVI using NSIC instead of NIVI sorry using NIVI instead of NSIC. So, again we consider the underlying function encryption scheme but this time instead of just use it twice in parallel. So, in the setup algorithm we run it twice to generate two public master public keys and two master secret keys. So, the red and green blocks to know the red and green things to know the each individual function encryption scheme. So, now whenever you want to encrypt a message X construct a red blob which is a red ciphertext using the red encryption scheme and a green blob using the green encryption scheme and now you construct a NIVI proof that says that either the red blob encrypts X or the green blob sucks. So, note that you have two witnesses here either the witness for the first encryption the red one or the witness for the green encryption and now your ciphertext would just be these two encryptions and the NIVI proof. Similarly, whenever you want to generate a function secret key you generate two function secret keys using the red and green systems and you prove using a NIVI again that one of them was indeed correct. So, does this work let us see what is the decryption algorithm be the decryption algorithm just decrypts the red ciphertext with the red blob and the green ciphertext with the green blob and checks if both of them are valid or we could even restricted to say that the decryption algorithm just checks if one of them is correct or or maybe just simplicity we can say the decryption algorithm checks if both the ciphertext if both the system give the same value if so it outputs that value if not it just outputs both.  So, let us let us look at the challenge ciphertext we initially start with an encryption of x and we want to move to an encryption of y. So, let us start with encryption of x and in the first hybrid we prove that the red blob was correctly generated in the second hybrid we again prove that the red blob is correctly generated, but transform the green blob to be an encryption of y instead of being encryption of x why is this hybrid distinguishable from the previous one because from the security notion of functional encryption the underlying functional encryption we know that f of x is equal to f of y. So, there is these two hybrids are indistinguishable. In the next hybrid we change the proof we prove that the second blob correct was correctly encrypted. And so now it is the first system is free it is only the second system that is being used to prove. Therefore, in the following hybrid we can change the red blob to be encryption of y and now notice that this is a correct encryption of y and we have moved easily from an encryption of x to encryption of y. So, this is achieved in security, but do we also achieve verifiability with this construction let us look at the construction again. Now, consider a ciphertext that was proved correctly using the red blob and a function secret key that is proved correctly using the green system. In this setting notice that there is no verifiability that you are there is no verifiability that you achieve and why is that because when you decrypt the red ciphertext which was correctly generated with a maliciously generated red function secret key you do not recover f of x in that scenario and when you decrypt a green ciphertext that was maliciously generated with a green function secret key that was correctly generated again you do not recover f of x. So, intuitively what does this tell us this tells us that you need a majority of correct systems on the both left and the right side. So, that at least one of them would be would have correct function secret keys and correct ciphertext. So, that when you decrypt you get the correct value. So, the take away from this strawman construction is that verifiability is the majority of correct systems to be proven. So, let us look at another attempt with now three systems a red, green and a blue one and in the and now we prove using the maybe that two of them was correctly encrypted to generate the ciphertext and two of them were correct function keys in the function key generation algorithm. So, let us solve the problem. Unfortunately, we cannot argue message hiding or indistinguishability security why is that? So, initially we start with an encryption of x and we show using the first and the red and the green system that they were correctly encrypted. So, the blue system is free to change as per our will. So, in the next type we will change the blue system to be an encryption of y. So, now what do we do? We are stuck because we will have to move we will have to make either the red or the green system free. So, that we can change it to be an encryption of y now, but if we move the arrow from either the red or the green system to the blue one. We cannot argue that one let us say we move the middle arrow from the green one to the blue one. We cannot argue that the red blob and the blue blob are encryptions of the same message because clearly we can see that the first one is an encryption of x and the third one is an encryption of y. So, we are stuck here. And what is this teller? This tells us that in order to prove indistinguishable security to switch from encryption of x to encryption of y you need a majority free systems. So, that when you have a majority free systems you can change each of them one by one to an encryption of y and then switch the proof over to the right side. But what about verifiability? Does this even give us verifiability? This was the construction that we had right. It turns out that this we cannot even argue verifiability in this setting. And this is because let us say this was the ciphertext that proves that the red and the green systems were correct and the function secret key that proves that the green and the blue function keys were correct. So, when you decrypt individually each of them it is only the middle pair that gives you f of x and the red and the right pair might give you some garbage values because of at least one value in each pair being maliciously generated. So, if you have just one of the three giving the value f of x how do you even know which one is correct? Unless you have a majority correct values you cannot be certain that that is the value which is f of x. So, the take away from this construction is that for verifiability you just don't need a majority systems to be correct. But in fact, you need a common majority of correct systems in every function key and in every ciphertext. Notice that if you have a common majority of correct systems then you can definitely decrypt and be happy that all of them the majority decrypted ones are the value f of x. So, just to stress again this is the main bottleneck that we face that in order to prove verifiability you need a common majority of correctly proved systems and in order to prove message privacy or indistinguishability security you need and a majority of free systems that are not proven to be correct that are not hidden that are not bound by the so these two goals seem contradictory because in one case you want some systems to be free they shouldn't be proven at all and you need a majority of such systems and in the other case you want a majority of systems to in fact be proven to be correct. So, we need some new techniques. So, the first idea that we would use we will use to solve this is we will introduce the idea of a lock a lock just like a commitment. And we say that now let's look at 5 systems and I am not going to list all the colors you can see what the 5 colors are and then we compute 5 ciphertext using all these underlying systems and instead of just proving that a majority of them encrypt x correctly we prove that either a majority of them that is 4 of them more than a majority a 4 of them encrypt the value x correctly or we introduce a new trapdoor system that says that it's ok only 2 of these 5 are going to encrypt correctly. But this public parameter z is going to be a commitment of all these ciphertexts. Notice that this is the first instance where we are getting something that would solve both our problems why is that because the first statement gives you a majority of systems that are being bound which is what verifiability needed. But the second system says that you have a majority systems free only 2 of them are going to be used in the navy proof and the other rest 3 are all free to change as you wish but somehow they are going to be used as a link with those public parameters similarly in order to prove in order to generate a function secret key we generate 5 function secret keys and we first show that the navy either shows that all 5 are correct function secret keys for the function f or 4 of them are correct with the additional constraint that let's look at the ciphertext that were inside this public parameter z that have been committed inside and when you decrypt each of this underlying ciphertext with each of these function keys that you generate now all these decryptions should give out the same value. So, why is this going to be useful let's try proving indistinguishability security first we initially start with an encryption of x we initially start with an encryption of x where all 5 systems have x and we just prove that the first 4 encrypt x are correctly. Now we switch the function secret key to not prove that all 5 are function keys for f but rather just 4 are keys for f and that when you decrypt these ciphertext in the public parameter they all decrypt to the same value notice that initially the public parameter has just garbage it's not a commitment to any ciphertext. We now switch the encryption to prove the trapdoor statement where we set the public parameter to be commitment of all the ciphertext that we generate and we prove that the first 2 indices are generated correctly as an encryption of x. Now notice that we have the last 3 systems free in the sense that they are not bound to be proven correct and we can change each of them from being an encryption of x to an encryption of y and if you look at the function keys the decryption would still satisfy because f of x is still equal to f of y so we switch all the last 3 indices to be an encryption of y now and not just an encryption of x and this is the crucial point in the proof where we now say that because of this trapdoor statement we have a majority systems that are free to be switched and we have switched all these systems from an encryption of x to an encryption of y. The rest of the proof is fairly straightforward we switch now the last 2 indices to be an encryption of y and not the first 2 and we have the first 2 systems free we can switch both of these to be an encryption of y now and this turns out to be a valid encryption of y. What about verifiability? Does this system already give us verifiability? If these 2 if the function key was generated using the trapdoor statement and the encryption was generated using the trapdoor statement then by the guarantee of the decryption we know that all of them would be decrypt to f of x itself so we are happy there. But how about this scenario where the function keys are generated using the correct statement that alpha are indeed keys for f but we use the trapdoor statement for generating the ciphertext. Now notice that only 2 of these indices are generated correctly only 2 of these ciphertext indices are generated correctly and this commitment is essentially useless because it says nothing at all on the right side and we can look at this commitment as applying no role at all in this setting therefore only 2 only the first 2 indices that were used to prove correctness of encryption would decrypt correctly to give f of x while the last 3 indices would give you some garbage value so now you have majority of garbage values and you cannot do anything with this. It turns out that this is easy to fix we just introduce another lock and we say that these 2 scenarios can never co-occur and therefore this is the only glitch in proving verifiability and if they can never co-occur then the whole construction is trivially verifiable. I would like to point you to the paper if you have more questions if you want to know more about the techniques thank you. We've probably got time for one quick question then let's thank Sikrishna and all the speakers in the session again.


The next question is from Alabama Craftmaster. As far as overtraining goes, how sore is too sore? Usually, I'll give you kind of a general answer. Usually, if you're sore for longer than a couple of days, like two days, I would say more than that, you're probably overdid it. If your soreness is impeding your performance in your next workout, you probably overdid it. If it's sore to the touch, rather than like, it's okay to get sore to where you have to stretch the muscle, like if I worked out my chest yesterday, right? I don't notice it's sore unless I sit there and stretch, and then I go, oh yeah, I feel a little bit of soreness. That's okay, but when it gets like sore to the touch, where every movement hurts, where it lasts for more than two days, you probably overdid it. Yeah, it's almost like when you're really tight and restricted versus like you're aching, like all day, like it's just this constant sort of throbbing signal that you're sitting with, which I've been to that level, and that's not something that I'm like, oh wow, that was way too far, way overreached, but like a little bit of tightness, I think it should be expected. I mean, this is such a hard one to answer because of the individual variance, because so many people are, if I'm talking to a client, say for example, I'm talking to a client who is completely weightlifting is foreign to them. You know, like they're the type of person who remember the first time you train these clients where they say, instead of saying sore, they're like, I hurt, you know, my bicep hurt, they think they hurt themselves. I think I'm injured. Right, because they're not familiar with feeling sore, explaining them what soreness is and that it's okay and it's part of the process, that conversation sounds like that. Then you have someone on the other end of the spectrum who is like hardcore training all the time and they're chasing the soreness because they don't feel like they have accomplished a good workout unless they're really sore. Then I'm talking different to that person because that person more likely is in what like, Sal always explains what I like, the recovery trap where your body is constantly sore. It's always trying to recover and it's never allowing it to adapt and grit stronger and build more muscle. So it is a fine line and fine dance. Myself personally, if I come out of a workout and the next day I'm really sore to where I can feel it the way I move, whether it be in my chest or my legs, I'm walking differently or I'm moving differently because I am so sore, I overreached. I always look at that as like I did more than I needed to do. I could have done X amount less sets. I could have worked out 10 minutes less and I could have been just as effective as far as my pursuit of building more muscle. So, and that is a constant conversation with myself. So it really depends on who I'm talking to. Are you the person who gravitates towards training to be sore? You probably need to back off and learn how to scale back in your workouts.  I heard Mind Pump says that I shouldn't be too sore and I actually feel really sore this next day, like getting that person kind of comfortable with being sore. So it's really a hard one to answer on a podcast when I'm not looking at the person or talking to or know their history to where I can tell them like how sore they should or should not be.


Alright. Now this is the challenge. The problem is that the civil rights movement, the people who claim to be the descendants of Martin Luther King, the people who claim to be fighting racism today in the black community and among whites, generally the people who are passionate about the issue of racism and advocating against it and leading the charge against racism do not understand what racism is. Have never clearly defined it, certainly not in the terms that Martin Luther King did or that I did earlier. Those fighting against racism today are not striving towards colorblindness and indeed have not rejected the idea of race or if they have, have accepted the idea of race for now with some utopian vision of one day well understand that race doesn't exist.  The whole idea of critical race theory is that you are determined by your race.  Can you achieve virtue? The people fighting racism today, the people who claim to be fighting racism today are the biggest racists in America today. If what you mean by racist is evaluating and judging somebody by the color of their skin, by their genes, by their membership in some ethnic group, then critical race theory is the essence of racism. It is a racist theory. White fragility is a racist idea that judges white people because they are white, not me, not you, but judges us as individuals, but judges us as a collective, as members of being white. What they hate, what they're fighting against is not racism. What the anti-racists really despise is America and not just the racist history of America which deserves to be hated and condemned, but they despise the nature of America, the freedom of America, the individualism of America, the capitalism of America, all those things that are actually truly anti-racist, truly embody a negation of racism. Those are the actual things that they hate. Those are the actual things that they despise. We all know, I think, all those listening to the show know, that the cure for racism is individualism, capitalism, freedom, the respect for individual rights, the limiting of the role of government to the protection of individual rights, equality before the law, the ideas in which this country was founded. These are all the ideas that these advocates supposedly who claim to be fighting against racism, these are all the ideas that they reject, that they don't want, that they think are and have labeled as systemic racism. Matt asked if he remember he was a socialist. Probably, or at least he was, you know, I don't know exactly how socialist he was, but he's definitely on the left when it comes to economic policy. Significantly on the left. Does that wipe out his virtues? I don't think so. I don't think so. It doesn't make him a saint. He was also quite religious, right? He was a preacher. He was a socialist, religionist, and yet he understood what racism was, understood what the ideal, the anti-racist idea was far better than the intellectuals of today. And I think to call the intellectuals of today these so-called anti-racists, socialists would be a compliment. They don't have an ideal for a different system. They don't have a vision for something better.  What they hate is capitalism. What they hate is the system of individual rights. They want to do away with that. In that sense, they're much more nihilistic. I don't think Martin Luther King was a nihilist. He was an idealist. He was a mistaken idealist, certainly in his socialism, but he was an idealist. And he had principles. He had ideas. He had things worth fighting for, and he risked his life to fight for them. What today's far left, what today's anti-racist, what today's, what the intellectuals behind BLM, not everybody marched in BLM. The intellectuals behind BLM, the critical race theory, they're not building anything. They're not creating anything. They're not moving the world to a better place. They're not fighting for rights. They're not fighting for anything. What they want is to dismantle the existing system, not to replace it with something better. They can't imagine something better. All they want and all they argue for and all they talk about is doing away, destroying the existing system. I mean, according to this one author, what's her name? Barbara Smith, who was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize at some point. So she's a well-known civil rights activist, I guess she says. And here you see the collectivism inherent in what they do. White supremacy is not merely the individual delusion of being superior. Notice the individual. White supremacy is not merely the individual delusion of being superior to black people. I thought that's exactly what white supremacy is. White supremacy is white people, individuals, thinking they're better than blacks because they're whites and those guys are blacks. That's literally what white supremacy means. But it isn't. It's not merely that. She says institutionalized white supremacy does not need individual bigotry in order to function. So even if all of us, all of us were literally colorblind, had not a racist bone in our body, treated everybody based on the content of their character, on their ability, on who and what they were as an individual. Even then she says systemic racism would exist. It's, she says, a universal operating system that relies on entrenched patterns and practices to consistently disadvantage people of color and privilege white people. Now how does this work? She never says they never say. They never lay it out. They never give you concourse. How does this work without individuals being racist? How can the system be racist? How can, if individual policemen are not racist, how can the police be racist?  Well, okay, well, then fix the laws. If the laws, if those, then let's make a list of the 10 laws that need fixing and fix the laws.  Individuals wanted to punish blacks. Definitely they didn't want to punish whites, which is racism. But if individuals are not racist, then they would have passed laws like that. And if there are laws entrenched in our country that still have those racist roots, then let's get rid of them. That's easy. But you see to them capitalism by its very nature, freedom by its very nature, individuals choosing based on people's moral character, individuals choosing based on people's ability, people getting compensated based on ability, people making wealth based on how much they produced. All of that is bigoted. All of that is wrong. All of that is immoral. And they have now adopted the language of racism in order to characterize all of that as immoral, because they know the extent to which our culture has rejected racism. So what they're trying to do is package deal America with racism, package deal capitalism with racism, package deal in a sense freedom with racism, suddenly package deal individualism with racism. And if they can do that, then people will turn away from capitalism.   I don't want to be a capitalist. Now whether they are doing this consciously or not is hard to tell. But this is what the nihilism is driving them to do. It's to associate anything they don't like with racism because they understand, and this is where it is conscious, they understand the power of racism. They understand the extent to which racism is viewed in our cultures evil and bad. And therefore they want to associate all the things they hate with the racism. She says, if she writes, I mean, this is just stunning. Our current version of policing is rooted in the slave patrols whose job was to capture people who had escaped to criminalize black bodies and to curtail black freedom. Now as far as I know, our policing in the United States is very similar to policing in Europe, which is very similar to policing in, I don't know, almost every other country in the world. Countries that don't have the history of racism that the United States has. Don't have the history of slavery that the United States has. And yet they still use the same policing tactics. Maybe policing is actually there to protect individual property. Maybe policing is there to protect individuals' lives. Japan policing is very similar to American policing. It's not dramatically different.   The fact that we've criminalized nonviolent, victimless actions is a tragedy and a travesty and a massive injustice. And maybe some of that is motivated by race. So let's fight for decriminalizing drugs or legalizing drugs. Not because drug laws are racist, but because drug laws aren't just. By the intellect, not by feelings, wishes, whims or mystic revelations. Any man or woman who values his life and who does not want to give in to today's cult of despair, cynicism and impotence and does not intend to give up the world to the dark ages and to the role of the collectivist. Alright, before we go on, reminder, please like the show. We've got 163 live listeners right now. 30 likes. That should be at least 100. I figure at least 100 of you actually like the show.  But at least the people who are liking it, you know, I want to see a thumbs up. There you go. Start liking it. I want to see that go to 100. All it takes is a click of a thing, whether you're looking at this. And you know the likes matter. It's not an issue of my ego. It's an issue of the algorithm. The more you like something, the more the algorithm likes it. So, you know, if you don't like the show, give it a thumbs down. 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Good evening aspirants, I welcome you all to the Hindu Daily News Analysis brought to you by Shankaray's Academy for the newspaper dated 2nd of February 2023. We all know that the budget was presented in the parliament yesterday. So today's newspaper is flooded with articles covering the various aspects of the budget. Displayed here are the list of articles that we will take up for discussion today. So without much delay, we will start with the discussion. First, we will start by seeing some highlights of the budget that was presented yesterday. Now, many of you must be new to the UPSC preparation and you may wonder what firstly is a budget. See, these basic questions will also be answered in the course of the discussion today. But first, we will see the highlights and some key data points from the budget. Before that, the syllabus relevant to this discussion is highlighted here. You can go through it. So what are the major highlights of the budget that was presented yesterday? Firstly, the budget says that India's vision for Amritkal includes three elements. They are opportunities for citizens with focus on youth growth and job creation, strong and stable macroeconomic environment. Secondly, budget concentrates on seven priorities which is called as the Saptarishi. They include inclusive development, reaching their last mile, infrastructure and investment, unleashing the potential, green growth, youth power and financial sector. Thirdly, many schemes are introduced in the budget. It includes Atman Herber Clean Plant Program. This is to be launched to boost availability of disease-free quality planting material for high-value horticultural crops. Then, agricultural accelerator fund is to be set up to encourage agree startups by young entrepreneurs in the rural areas. These are schemes related to agricultural sector. Then, there is something called as the Entity Digilocker which is to be set up for the use by MSME's large businesses and charitable trusts to store and share documents online securely. Then, Pradhan Mandri Kaushal Vikas Yojna 4.0 to be launched to skill lakhs of youths within next three years. It covers new age courses for industry 4.0 like coding, AI, robotics, mechatronics, IOT, Internet of Things, 3D printing, drones and many other soft skills. All these schemes aim to push forward the vision of digital India. For the push of ecological conservation, several schemes are introduced. They include MISTI, Mangru initiative for shoreline habitats and tangible incomes. So, this is a new program that will facilitate mangrove plantation along India's coastline and on salt-pan lands. Then, there is PM Prenum which stands for Prime Minister Program for Restoration, Awareness, Narration and Amelioration of Mother Earth. This particular program will seek to incentivize states and union territories promoting alternative fertilizers and balanced use of chemical fertilizers. Then, there is Bharadhyaprakriti Kethi Bio-Input Resource Centers. To further facilitate the adoption of natural farming, 10,000 bio-input resource centers will be set up. This would create a national-level distributed micro-fertilizer and pesticide manufacturing network. Then, there is something called as the Amrit Darohar. This is a scheme that will be implemented over the next three years to encourage optimal use of wetlands and enhance biodiversity, carbon stock, ecotourism opportunities and income generation for local communities. Like this, many more schemes are introduced sector-wise. We will see all the other schemes in the coming days. Now, we will understand the contents of this particular figure given here. Look at this image shows the expenditure figures of the budget. If the square is bigger, then it means the expenditure is large in that particular sector. Look at this chart to know where the funds come from. This means the resits for the budget. As you can see in this chart, the resits come from income tax, excise duties, corporate tax, GST, custom duties, non-dead capital resits, non-tax resits and finally borrowing and other liabilities. Now, we will see where these resits go to. That is, what are all the expenditures that we will have to incur. The expenditures will be made on interest payments which comprises the highest percentage. See here, interest means the interest that we have to pay for the loans that we have got from World Bank and other financial institutions. The second largest share goes to states' share of tax and duties. According to article 270 of the constitution, all central taxes and duties except surcharges and cesses levied for specified purposes shall be distributed between the union and the states. Thirdly, a major portion goes to central sector schemes. Central sector schemes are 100% funded by union government and they are implemented by the central government missionaries itself. Then this share goes to centrally sponsored schemes. In centrally sponsored schemes, a certain percentage of the funding is born by the states and the implementation is done by the state governments. After that, finance commission transfers. Know that other than tax devolution, finance commission recommends certain grants and other such proceeds to states and union territories. Finally, some other expenditures includes expenditure made on defense subsidies, pensions, etc. So far, we have seen the category-wise distribution of the resits. Now, look at this budget breakup here. Let us see the sector or ministry-wise distribution of resits plus some other general categories also. This particular breakup shows allocations to interest transport sector, defense, food subsidy, tax, administration, fertilizer subsidy, transfer to states, agriculture, home affairs, education, others, rural development, energy, health, social sector, pension, IT and telecom, urban development, UTs, science, external affairs, commerce and finance. Now, if you may wonder why the breakup is given in different shades of colour. Know that if a particular sector is in any shade of green colour, then it means that that particular sector has got increased allocation compared to previous year. Likewise, if it is in any shade of red colour, then the sector has got decreased allocation compared to the previous year. For example, defense sector allocation decreased by 0.17%. At the same time, transport sector allocation increased by 2.16%. Likewise, you can observe for all categories. So, in this particular discussion, we saw some highlights of the budget and we also tried to understand what are all the sources of resits and what are the expense that we will make this year. Now, we will move on to the next article discussion. More than just understanding the raw data, what UPSA expects of us is how we infer the data. So, it's important to understand what are the positive and negative aspects of the budget and we must also have an overall understanding about the government's economic performance. In this particular editorial, the author highlights the various positives of the 2023-24 budget. So, through this discussion, we will cover the basics about budget. We will also learn few other basic concepts associated with the points mentioned by the author. Here, I have highlighted the syllabus regarding this discussion. You can go through it. Now, let us start by understanding what a budget is. See, budget in simple terms is a summary of estimated or anticipated revenue and expenditure of any organization. In our case, it is country for the upcoming financial year. Now, why does our country need a budget? The first and foremost reason is limited resources. In India, the resources are limited and the needs are ever increasing. In such a situation, a budget is very necessary. By framing a budget, our government can rationalize its spending and ensure that the resources are allocated efficiently. The second reason is approval by legislature. In our parliamentary democracy, the government cannot spend money without the approval of people. This is because the government's expenditure is made possible only by the taxes that are collected from the people. So, the government or the executive must seek the approval for its expenditure from the legislators who are none other than the representatives of the people. But, if the government had to seek approval from the legislature every time it tried to spend, then the process would be very cumbersome. So, what the government does is it will prepare the annual financial statement containing the estimated expenditure and revenue for the forthcoming financial year and then it will seek the approval from the legislature for that particular document. This will ensure the legislature's control on the government spending and the process will become less cumbersome for the government. The last reason is that our constitution says so. So, now let us see some important constitutional provisions that are related to budget. The word budget is not mentioned in our constitution. Instead, the word annual financial statement is given. Article 112 says that the president of India shall lay before the parliament the annual financial statement every financial year. Article 112 to 117 deals with the procedure concerning the union budget. In the case of states, we have article 202. Article 202 says that the governor shall lay before the state legislature the annual financial statement every financial year. Article 202 to 207 deals with the procedures concerning the state budget. With these basics about budget, now let us get into the important points mentioned in the editorial. The economic survey stated that India has achieved full recovery and has achieved pre-pandemic level of GDP. This is despite various hurdles that economy has faced in the past couple of years. The first major hurdle is the Russia-Ukraine war and its impacts. The West imposed sanctions on Russia post the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This resulted in the increase in global oil prices. The increase in global oil prices resulted in a steep increase in our countries importable. The war also resulted in global food inflation and an increase in the price of vegetable oil. This is the first major hurdle that India witnessed. The second hurdle is the early signs of global recession. India exports services mainly to the US and European market. Due to the slowdown in these countries, India's export also started declining. Then the next one is capital outflow. Due to inflation in the US, the US Federal Reserve decided to increase its policy interest rate. This resulted in foreign investors pulling out of the Indian stock market. This particular phenomenon coupled with increasing import bills and declining exports resulted in volatility in India exchange rate. The Indian rupee started to depreciate rapidly. The decline stopped only after the intervention of the RBA. This is the third major hurdle. The last one is inflation. India has also been witnessing inflation for some time now. To curb inflation, the RBA increased the report rate. This has resulted in credit becoming costlier in India. This therefore affected the economic growth. Despite all these hurdles, the Indian economy has somehow fully recovered. This, according to the author, is a significant achievement. Now, how did the Indian economy manage to recover fully despite the hurdles? See, Indian economic recovery was fuelled by public investment. That is, an increase in investment expenditure by the government. Although public investment helped the Indian economy to recover, it came with some cost. The cost is a fiscal deficit. Here, fiscal deficit is the difference between the total expenditure of the government and the total receipts of the government excluding borrowings. Despite the increase in public investment, the government somehow managed to keep the fiscal deficit at 6.4% of GDP. Now, how did the government manage to achieve that? First one is higher tax. Government revenue from taxes increased. So, even though the government expenditure increased, the increase in government tax collection compensated for it. The second is an increase in GDP. So, how does an increase in GDP help contain the fiscal deficit? Note that the fiscal deficit is mentioned as a percentage of GDP. For example, country A has a fiscal deficit of 5 lakh crore and a GDP of 100 lakh crore. So, the fiscal deficit of country A is 5 divided by 100 into 100 which comes around to 5% of GDP. Now, consider country B with a fiscal deficit of 8 lakh crore but it has a GDP of 200 lakh crore. Now, the fiscal deficit of country B is 8 lakh crore divided by 200 lakh crore into 100 which comes out to be 4% of its GDP. From this, we can understand that even though the fiscal deficit increases with increasing GDP, the fiscal deficit as a percentage of GDP can be brought down. India managed to maintain the fiscal deficit at 6.4% by increasing its GDP. So, now in the 2023 to 2024 budget, India plans to bring down the fiscal deficit further down to 5.9% of GDP. India is planning to achieve this through fiscal consolidation. In this, the government is planning to bring down food subsidies by 90,000 crore from the present rupees 2.97 lakh crore to rupees 1.87 lakh crore. Then, the government has also decided to scrap the Pradhan Mandiri Garip Kalyan Yojna. This will help reduce government expenditure by some amount. The government has also decided to cut down the fertilizer expenditure. Then, in case of centrally sponsored scheme, the government has decided to cut down its expenditure in by 20,000 crore. All these would bring down the revenue expenditure of the government. The government has instead decided to focus on capital expenditure which has long-term benefits for the economy. In the 2023 to 24 budget, the government allocated rupees 10 lakh crore for infrastructure spending. This is almost a 37% increase compared to last year. Infrastructure spending by the government is actually a very good thing. This has a multiplier effect associated with it. Here, fiscal multiplier is the ratio of increase in national income that occurs due to increase in government spending. So, government expenditure in infrastructure will help fuel economic growth which will in turn help to bring down the fiscal deficit as a percentage of GDP. In addition to this, to nudge the states into making productive capital expenditure, the government has decided to offer a 50-year interest-free loans. Here, the government has decided to offer 50-year interest-free loans. Here, the fund allocation will be performance-based. This will help improve capital expenditure by the state governments. So, the government by reducing wasteful revenue expenditure and pushing for useful capital expenditure is now on the path of fiscal consolidation. So, as I already mentioned, the government aims to bring down the fiscal deficit to 5.9% of GDP. The government is also aiming to bring down the fiscal deficit to 4.5% of GDP by the financial year 2025-26. This will help India in the long run and will help to spur the growth in economy. These are some of the positive aspects of the budget mentioned in the editorial. The author levelled one criticism against this budget. The author of the editorial feels that with the general election that is to happen next year and state elections in card, the government's aim of limiting fiscal deficit to 4.5% of GDP by 2025-26 is quite lofty. This could only be achieved if the government plans to implement the budget in letter and spirit. So, in this article discussion, we saw what is budget and we also discussed some positive aspects about the 2023-24 budget. This is all regarding this news article discussion. Now, we will move on to the next article discussion. See, this year budget has evoked mixed responses. This is because things are often compared to the past. Is there any increase in fund or is there any decrease in fund? If there is an increase in fund, then it is perceived as a positive notion and taken to be the main area of focus that year. Similarly, when funds are decreased, we believe that the area is receiving less government attention, right? So, these charts here portray the trend in government spending or government expenditure in certain areas, particularly in the social sector. So, in our discussion today, let us analyze these charts. This discussion is very important from a brilliant perspective because UPSE might ask about the trends in government spending. For example, there might be a statement like, government allocation for MGNREGA has been declining for the past 5 years. Now, is this statement right or wrong? We will see. First, take a look at this graph. This graph shows that the trend in government allocation for MGNREGA from 2017 till today. From this graph, we can see that the allocation for MGNREGA has remained almost stable from 2017 to 2020. In 2021, there was an increase in allocation. This was due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns. After that, since 2022, the allocation for MGNREGA has been on decline. So, the statement, government allocation for MGNREGA has been declining for the past 5 years is wrong as there was an increase in allocation in 2021 due to COVID-induced lockdown. Now, look at this second graph. This graph is about the budgetary allocation for rural development. Now, what are the things that we can infer from this graph? First one is that there was an increase in budgetary allocation for rural development between 2017 and 2018. After that, the allocation for rural development has been on decline until 2020. Similar to the allocation for MGNREGA, the allocation for rural development also saw a steep rise in the year 2021. And since 2021, again the fund allocation for the rural development has been on decline. Now, we will move on to see the next graph. So, this particular graph is about the government allocation to higher education. As the title here says, the government allocation for higher education has remained around 1% of the total budgetary allocation. There was a slight increase in the allocation between the years 2017 and 2018. Then the allocation for higher education was declining from 2018 onwards. After 2020, there was a small increase in spending. Finally, the allocation for higher education remained constant at 1% of total allocation in the current and upcoming budgets. These are some information we can derive from this particular graph. Now, moving on to the next graph. This graph is about the government budgetary allocation to the school education. From this graph, we can say that the government allocation for school education was on a steep decline from financial year 2017 to 2022. From 2022 onwards, the allocation for school education has been increasing. Also, we can infer that though the government allocation for school education has been increasing since financial year 2020, it has not reached the pre-pandemic level of allocation. Now, the information said we can infer from this particular graph. Now, this graph talks about the budget allocation for social welfare. Firstly, we can see that there was an increase in budgetary allocation for social welfare from financial year 2017 to 2019. Then there was a steep fall in allocation for social welfare from the years 2019 to 2021. Finally, from 2021, the budgetary allocation for social welfare has been witnessing a very slow increase. These are some points that we can observe from this particular graph. So, this is all regarding this news article. Similar to this, make note of the other trends that you can observe in the budget. This will be very helpful from your prelims perspective. Now, we will move on to the next article discussion. Now, this has been the talk of the town since the budget was announced yesterday. New versus old tax regime, which one should you go for and all that. So, these tables here also talk about the same. That is, the personal income tax levels in India. So, in this discussion, let's clarify ourselves on these aspects. See, India follows two different personal taxation systems. One is the old system and the other one is the new regime. This year budget has made many changes in the new taxation regime. Before seeing about the changes introduced in the new taxation regime, we will first understand about income tax in general. See, income tax is a type of direct tax which is levied on all individuals whose income exceeds the minimum threshold level set by the government. Here, note that they are subject to slap system of taxation. That is, different tax rates are set for different categories of income. So, if a taxpayer's income goes up, so does his or her tax. If your income is 4 lakh per annum, you pay 5% of it as tax. And if your income is 9 lakhs, you pay 15% of it as tax. See, this type of taxation is an example of progressive taxation system.  See, in India, taxpayers have the discretion to opt for any of the two personal taxation systems, that is the old system or the new taxation system. Now let's briefly understand about these two tax systems. As you see from the table provided here, both the personal tax systems have different slaps and different tax rates associated with them. If you closely look at the numbers provided here, you can see that the new tax regime has the lowest rate of taxation levels when compared with its old counterpart. So which taxation system do you think many will take? New taxation regime, right? But the real scenario is the exact opposite. The new taxation system had very few takers when compared with the old regime. The reason for this is that the old taxation regime had several exceptions associated with it. For example, take the case of section ATC of the Income Tax Act. This particular section allowed taxpayers to reduce their taxable income. Taxpayers under the old regime can make use of this particular section by making tax-saving investments. Example, they can opt for life insurance or they can incur eligible expenses which are exempt from the taxable income levels. Certain allowance is like house rent allowance which are partially or fully exempted. Further, section ATCCC and section ATD were the other sections which were used by taxpayers under the old tax regime to reduce the income tax paid by them. Here note that no such exemption can be climbed by those who are opting for the new taxation regime. This is the reason why income taxpayers didn't opt for the new taxation regime even when it offered comparatively less taxation rates when compared with the old regime. So to make the new taxation regime appealing to the tax-paying population of India, this year budget brought in many changes to the new taxation regime. There is a considerable increase in the income threshold for taxation. From now on, persons who earn income up to 7 lakhs can climb a rebate from the government under the new regime. See, the earlier limit was only 5 lakhs. Now, what is this tax rebate? Basically, a tax rebate is a refund that you get in case you have paid certain amount of tax which exceeds your tax liability. See, I have provided here the comparison of new tax regime before and after the changes were made to it by our finance minister yesterday. The black-alert bar graph indicates the amount which can be saved by the newly introduced changes to the new regime. See, this is a very good news for middle class as the tax burden on them has been considerably reduced in this new regime. Note one important fact here. No changes were made to the old system of taxation. This has been done to make income tax payers to move from the old system to the new system of income taxation. So these are the contents from this table. Now, your job is to look at what are the new changes introduced to the tax rates in the new taxation regime. With this, we have come to the end of this discussion. Through this discussion, we came to know about the term income tax and the two types of tax regimes associated with it. And finally, we also saw about the changes introduced to the new tax regime. Now, we will move on to the next article discussion. Take a look at this article. It reports about the new scrappage policy introduced by the union government. The article says that the union budget for the year 2023-24 has allocated the necessary funds to replace vehicles that have been in use for over 15 years. This is the crux of the article given here. In this context, let's learn about the vehicle scrappage policy in India. See, according to the present vehicle scrappage policy of India, every vehicle registered in India has to obtain a fitness certificate. If the registered owner has not been able to obtain the certificate, then according to the rules, the vehicle must be scrapped. The vehicle owners whose vehicle is going to get scrapped will get a scrappage certificate. This particular scrappage certificate can be used by the vehicle owner to get a certain amount of discount when he or she buys a new vehicle. Further, as a part of the vehicle scrappage policy of 2022, the centre and the state governments will provide a 25% rebate on road tax for vehicles purchased to replace the old ones. Registration fees are also waived off for the new vehicles if the scrappage certificate is produced. So, this is about the scrappage policy of India. Now, let's see some important points given in the article. Yesterday, while presenting the budget, our finance minister said all vehicles owned by the union and state governments that have been on road for over 15 years will be scrapped. Vehicles of the various public sector undertakings are also included in this. The set policy will provide the necessary impetus for the population to buy new vehicles which will ultimately reduce the carbon emitted by the old vehicles. Other than this, electric vehicles can also be pushed into the market by using this opportunity. Through this discussion, we came to know about the new initiatives brought out by the union government to replace the old vehicles in India. With these points in mind, we'll move on to the next article discussion. Take a look at this article. It talks about the increase in allocation of funds to the PM Aava Seyoshina. This particular housing scheme has been allocated over 79,000 crores this fiscal as compared to the last year's 48,000 crores. Other than this, the finance minister also announced the creation of a new fund called as the Urban Infrastructure Development Fund. From the name itself, we can say that it is directed towards the urban infrastructure development. Here you should note that the managing authority for the fund will be the National Housing Bank. So what is this fund used for? It is used by the public agencies to create urban infrastructure in the tier 2 and tier 3 cities. Now, the union government has allocated rupees 10,000 crore per year for the fund. You should also note that there is a similar fund for development of infrastructure in the rural areas which is called as the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund. Now, let me tell you how the fund receives money. As I already said, the Urban Infrastructure Development Fund has been allocated rupees 10,000 crore from the budget. Other than this, banks can lend money to the fund whenever they fall short of the priority sector target. See, the scheduled banks in India are mandated to encourage the growth of some sectors with adequate and timely credit. These sectors are identified by the government which need to be provided with the loans. This is called as the priority sector lending. As per the priority sector lending guidelines, banks are mandated to provide a certain amount of their loans to identified sectors. But in practice, if you see, banks generally fall behind the target set by the RBA in this regard. Now, whenever the banks fall behind their target, they can choose to credit the shortfall towards the Urban Infrastructure Development Fund. Now, we will understand about the PM Avas Yojna. See, the PM Avas Yojna is a housing scheme launched by the union government in the year 2015. The scheme was launched with an objective of providing housing for all. The scheme is basically divided into two. One is the PM Avas Yojna Urban, while the other is PM Avas Yojna Gramin. In the first case, the nodal ministry is the ministry of housing and urban affairs. In the second case, it is the ministry of rural development. So, it is basically a credit link subsidy scheme that gives the beneficiaries an interest subsidy to take loans to purchase or build a house. It thereby addresses the urban and rural housing shortage among the low and middle income groups. It also helps economically weaker sections to have a house of their own. With this, we have come to the end of this discussion. So, through this discussion, we came to know about the newly launched Urban Infrastructure Development Fund and also about the PM Avas Yojna. Now, we will move on to the next article discussion. As we saw the various aspects of the budget, we also have to understand how experts in various fields feel about the budget. Have a look at this viewpoint here. It was provided by Sanjeev Bajaj who is the president of the Confederation of Indian Industry. He has given his view on the 2024 budget. So, in this discussion, we will understand the points provided in this viewpoint. First of all, the author describes the union budget proposal as a brilliant balancing act. He said the 2023-24 budget aims to move forward on the path of fiscal consolidation while also delivering high growth and inclusion. As I discussed previously, fiscal consolidation is a set of policies undertaken by the government so as to reduce the government deficit and debt accumulation. So, according to the author, the budget is trying to augment fiscal consolidation along with the aim of high growth and inclusion. The author has appreciated the government's continued emphasis on capital expenditure-led growth strategy. See, the boost in capital expenditure during the last year has impacted the gross fixed capital formation positively. Know that gross fixed capital formation refers to the net increase in physical assets in the country. As I said earlier, last year there was a positive gross fixed capital formation. Now, the budget estimates for this year is expecting a 11.5 percentage increase in the gross fixed capital formation. So, this will boost economic productivity which in turn unlocks India's growth potential. The author further says that the multiplayer impact of CAPEX will also boost demand and it will encourage private investments. Apart from this, the public CAPEX and associated infrastructure push and the fund for agriculture startups will also encourage private investments. Here, he also talks about the allocations for skill development. The author points out that the budget is giving more emphasis on skilling the youth. The author has quoted some programs that are aiming to enhance the employability of the youth like the Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0. So, according to the author, these programs will enhance the employability of the youth and it will help them to prepare for industry 4.0. Now, coming to the fiscal deficit target, he says that the fiscal deficit target for financial year 2023-24 is 5.9 percentage which is pretty much in line with the 6 percentage as suggested by the confederation of Indian industry. Now, talking about the support for the states, the author highlighted that the budget also continues the focus on cooperative federalism and reform push. The budget aims to support states in the form of 50 year interest-free loans as we saw earlier in the discussion. Then, there is incentives for undertaking power reforms, then encouragement for urban reforms and also there is extension of the state support mission of Nitya Ayok for another 3 years. The author is of the opinion that these supports will further strengthen the idea of cooperative federalism. Overall, the author said that the growth oriented and balanced budget is aiming to strengthen the foundation of the Indian economy. There are many expert opinions in the newspaper today. For more clarity, you can go through those articles also. Now, with these points in mind, we will move on to the next article discussion. Now, have a look at this article from the text and context page. This particular article is talking about judicial majoritarianism. So, why is this in news now? Recently, the Supreme Court has passed a verdict on the demonetization of currency notes of Rs. Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000. The verdict has upheld the 2016 demonetization scheme of the central government in a 4-to-1 majority. This was done by a 5-judge constitution bench. This majority judgment of the Supreme Court on demonetization has come under criticism. The majority judgment by 4 senior judges upheld both the actions of the RBA and the government. It basically upheld the move of implementing the decision to withdraw all the then existing notes of Rs. Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 and ending their status as legal tenders. This majority judgment is being criticized by many people. They are of the opinion that demonetization has caused the government's hardship to people and it has disrupted small businesses and hit the country's economic growth very hardly. But the stand taken by Justice Nagaratna on demonetization is being held even though it was a minority judgment and expressed her descending view. She held that although the government's demonetization exercise was well-intentioned and thought through, it was unlawful on legal grounds. This view was appreciated by majority of the people. See, this difference in opinion of the people is the exact reason why judicial majoritarianism made it to news today. So in this discussion, we will understand about judicial majoritarianism then we will see what are the concerns surrounding judicial majoritarianism. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is highlighted here. You can go through it. See, in the Supreme Court the standard matters are usually heard by division benches which usually consists of two judges. But for the cases which involve a substantial interpretation of constitutional provisions, numerical majorities play an important role. In such cases constitutional benches consisting of five or more judges are set up in consonance with article 145-3 of the constitution. Know that such constitutional benches usually consist of five, seven, nine, eleven or even thirteen judges. This is done to facilitate decision making by ensuring numerical majorities in judicial outcomes. This is what is termed as judicial majoritarianism. Know that the requirement for majority consensus flows from article 145-5 of the constitution. This particular article states that no judgment in such cases can be delivered except with a concurrence of a majority of the judges. But here the judges are free to deliver dissenting judgments or opinions. In simpler terms, the judgments by the constitutional benches should be delivered with a concurrence of majority of judges. Therefore, we can say that the concept of judicial majoritarianism is provided in the constitution itself. With this understanding, now we will move on to see what are all the concerns that are associated with judicial majoritarianism. As we all know, the judges are experts of law. So, they are basically aware of the arguments that is, they are aware of far and against opinions about the matter challenged in the court. All judges on a particular bench give their rulings on the same set of arguments and written submissions. In the light same, any differences in judicial decisions can be attributed as a difference. This difference mainly lies in the methodology that is being adopted by the judge and the logic that is applied by the judge. In such circumstances it is entirely possible that the majority may fall into methodological fallacies and errors. So, in such situations a meritorious minority decision receives light weightage in terms of its outcomes. For an example we can quote the recent verdict on demonetization. The majority judgment by four judges came under criticism while the minority judgment by Justice Nagaratna is being hailed for her descending view. Moreover, the rate of dissent itself is subject to influences. A study which was conducted in 2016 found that the rate of judicial dissent at the rate of emergency in 1976 was only 1.27% This is supposed to 10.52% in 1980. The study also found that the rate of dissent where the Chief Justice was a part of the bench was lower than in those cases where the Chief Justice was not on the bench. So, such situations put a question on the efficiency and desirability of the concept of majority opinion while delivering a verdict. This is all about the concerns that are associated with judicial majoritarianism. See, the absence of a critical discourse or a descending view represents fundamental gaps in our knowledge regarding the functioning of our Supreme Court. So, whenever pending constitutional cases are listed for hearing, we must reflect upon the arguments of judicial majoritarianism and the questions of which these cases are to be decided. So, with this we have come to the end of this discussion. Now, we will move on to the next part of our discussion which is practice questions. First, we will take up the prelims practice questions. See, here there are five questions. Four questions will be discussed by me and the remaining one question will be the quiz question for the day. Question number one with respect to the vehicle scrappage policy of India consider the following statements. Statement number one, fitness certificates for personal vehicles need to be obtained after a period of 20 years from the registration date of the vehicle. Statement number two, scrappage certificates are mandatory for climbing benefits associated with the scrappage policy of vehicles in India. Which of the statements given above is RR correct? See here, statement number one is incorrect. In case of private or personal vehicles the fitness certificates need to be obtained after a period of 15 years. In the case of commercial vehicles, the fitness certificate is issued for new vehicle for two years and subsequently renewed for one year thereafter. For some commercial vehicles, two years renewable can be done for a period of eight years from the date of registration. After that, fitness certificate renewal interval changes to one year. Here statement number two is correct. In the discussion itself, we saw that scrappage certificates are mandatory for climbing benefits associated with the scrappage policy of vehicles. So here, the correct answer for this question is option B2 only. Question number two, with respect to the income tax regimes present in India, consider the following statements. Statement number one, default income tax system in India is based on the new income tax regime. Statement number two, tax rebate has been extended for individuals who earn until 7 lakhs per annum under both the old and new income tax regimes in India. Which of the statements given about SRR correct? Here statement number one is correct. The finance minister in the budget speech announced that default income tax system in India will be based on the new tax regime. Here statement number two is incorrect. Tax rebate until 7 lakhs will only be given to individuals under the new tax regime. As I discussed previously, this has been done to make income taxpayers to adopt the new tax regime. So the correct answer for this question is option A1 only. Question number three, with respect to Pradhan Mandiri Avas Yojana, consider the following statements. Statement number one, all citizens of India are eligible to obtain house loans under this scheme. Statement number two, it is intended to provide housing for all by the year 2022. Which of the statements given about SRR correct? Here statement one is incorrect. Only the economically weaker session, low and middle income groups are eligible to get loans under the Pradhan Mandiri Avas Yojana. Here statement number two is correct. It is the aim of the Pradhan Mandiri Avas Yojana, which was introduced in the year 2015. So here, the correct answer is option B2 only. Question number four, with reference to Pradhan Mandiri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0, consider the following statements. Statement number one, it is the flagship scheme of the Ministry of Labour and Employment. Statement number two, the scheme will emphasise on on-job training, industry partnership and alignment of courses within needs of industry. Statement number three, the scheme will cover new age courses for industry 4.0 like artificial intelligence, robotics, internet of things, 3D printing and drones. Which of the statements given about SRR correct? Here statement one is incorrect. It is the flagship scheme of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and it is implemented by the National Skill Development Corporation. Here statements two and three are correct. Here the question is asking for the correct statement. So, the correct statement for the question is option C2 and 3 only. Question number five, this is the quiz question for the day. Read the question carefully and post the answers in the comment box below. Displayed here are the main questions. Interested aspirants can write the answer and post it in the comment box below. If you have found a video to be useful, like the video, subscribe to the channel, happy learning.


What is that everybody? Jason here for jazby's case brace calm We just sold out an R&B here that unlocks pick your team number nine guys of tops chrome black baseball this round a number block is For the angels mariners Padres a's Marlins blue jays And again, you guys get a piece of those teams of the serial number You guys know how the examples work remember any non-numbered cars are randomized back to you guys Just note though guys if you do buy into this R&B We'll have a chance to get some big hits for a fraction of the price But you won't have a chance to get that case promo giveaway spot And those are the teams included there in the title and we're giving away two free spots So let's roll the dice we'll give away the two free spots and then we use the same dice roll With the list of names and the numbers three times one two and three Boom look at that Wow One and a two three times Andrew gets both spots. Hey there you go Boom Now three times here one two and three Eric down to Eric three times here One two three Zero down a seven All right Eric you have any null redemptions with zero plus anything 10 20 30 40 Etc. Joe with eight Andrew with four and six and five Michael with one Eric with three Joe and nine Andrew with two And then Eric with seven So there you guys go now in a separate video guys We'll start the break and again guys two straight-o spots left in number ten guys that unlocks the last case We have and unlocks the case giveaway promo guys. So appreciate it and good luck here guys


We're going to open it up in a few minutes to have some of your questions for Nina. But first I wanted to go into her background a bit. And the first thing I would really love to know about is what comes with being Miss America? What are your day-to-day, like, all-time jobs? I will always say that everyone wants to win Miss America, not everyone wants the job of Miss America. And those are two very separate things. The Miss America organization has four pillars, and the first pillar is service. So we call my year a year of service for a reason, because that's precisely what it is. I work with very many different service organizations, Children's Miracle Network hospitals for fun. This is our platform, which is celebrating diversity through cultural competency, and I'll touch a lot more on that later, but also promoting STEM education, specifically women in science, technology, engineering, and math. The second pillar is scholarships, and I actually got involved in this organization for scholarship money. And the Miss America organization is the largest scholarship provider for young women across the country. We make available over $45 million each year for contestants at the local, state, and national level. So every contestant who enters this organization receives some scholarship money, win, lose, or draw wherever they need place. The third pillar is style, and the fourth pillar is services, all of the other things. Do you work really long hours every day, and have you had a favorite day so far during your reign? I have worked very long hours. The last time I was officially home was Christmas. So I was crowned last September. I will pass on the title this September, and I'm on the road basically every other day. I travel on average 20,000 miles a month. I should have done the conversion to kilometers. But I travel on average 20,000 miles a month, and I'm usually in no place longer than 48 hours at a time. So I go from one city right to the next, one event right to the next. So my life this year has been living out of suitcases, hotel rooms, and airplanes. So you just never know. Some days I'll be up from 5 a.m. and then go all day and have a dinner, and you know, through 11 p.m. I'll be back, and other days it just might be a morning or an afternoon. So every day is so different. It keeps things exciting. And you must be a really good packer at this point. I am very efficient at packing. Yeah, I can imagine.