Decoding UPSC: Dr Jayesh Khaddar

The rationale for sharing this reel and post here is to help you think about this from the perspective of ethics , essay and public policy: is it ethical for the state to run a lottery or should the state ban it? Will banning the lottery be a cure worse than the remedy? Should the state run lottery as a necessary evil while imposing a minimum age for purchasing a lottery ticket? Is it important to find a middle path: Madhya Marg while dealing with such policy issues

“Lottery makes taxes fun!!” Can a state make tax collection enjoyable and a fun exercise for the masses? Perhaps the answer is yes: by organising a state run lottery. While Kerala became the first state in India to organise a state run lottery in 1967, there are eight more states which organise a lottery: Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Sikkim & West Bengal. It is subjected to 28% GST tax which is divided between the centre and state. The debate about whether the lottery is good or evil has been the subject of intense debate in Kerala for a while. The lottery system in Kerala has certain unique aspects: The state sold lottery tickets worth 7145 crore in 2021-2022 and made a profit of 560 Cr rupees and this is a major revenue earner for the state. Further, the state government actively promotes lottery by giving advertisements and by sharing a part of the winning ticket across the value chain: almost 5% of the prize money is actually shared between the distributors and vendors that sold the “winning” ticket apart from the commission they receive for each ticket they sell. The sector employs more than 1.5 lakh people including old age people and women as well. Further, the state runs specific lotteries like the Karunya lottery, the profits generated by which is used to provide medical treatment to patients from economically weaker section etc. However, not everyone is in love with lottery, in fact critics argue that is a legalised, state promoted gambling addiction system. They argue that the state “sells dreams to poor people” as most of the buyers of these tickets come from the relatively poorer sections of the society even while their chances of winning the lottery are infinitely small. On a global level, USA and many other countries also have state run lotteries which they use to collect substantial amount of profit and taxes from those who buy the lottery. Finally, before you jump to a conclusion about whether the state run lottery is good or bad: consider one more fact: Kerala and many other states have actually banned organising private lotteries and consider that organising state run lotteries is important or else the private players will be rampant and ruthless in this sector.

“Lottery makes taxes fun!!” Can a state make tax collection enjoyable and a fun exercise for the masses? Perhaps the answer is yes: by organising a state run lottery. While Kerala became the first state in India to organise a state run lottery in 1967, there are eight more states which organise a lottery: Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Sikkim & West Bengal. It is subjected to 28% GST tax which is divided between the centre and state. The debate about whether the lottery is good or evil has been the subject of intense debate in Kerala for a while. The lottery system in Kerala has certain unique aspects: The state sold lottery tickets worth 7145 crore in 2021-2022 and made a profit of 560 Cr rupees and this is a major revenue earner for the state. Further, the state government actively promotes lottery by giving advertisements and by sharing a part of the winning ticket across the value chain: almost 5% of the prize money is actually shared between the distributors and vendors that sold the “winning” ticket apart from the commission they receive for each ticket they sell. The sector employs more than 1.5 lakh people including old age people and women as well. Further, the state runs specific lotteries like the Karunya lottery, the profits generated by which is used to provide medical treatment to patients from economically weaker section etc. However, not everyone is in love with lottery, in fact critics argue that is a legalised, state promoted gambling addiction system. They argue that the state “sells dreams to poor people” as most of the buyers of these tickets come from the relatively poorer sections of the society even while their chances of winning the lottery are infinitely small. On a global level, USA and many other countries also have state run lotteries which they use to collect substantial amount of profit and taxes from those who buy the lottery. Finally, before you jump to a conclusion about whether the state run lottery is good or bad: consider one more fact: Kerala and many other states have actually banned organising private lotteries and consider that organising state run lotteries is important or else the private players will be rampant and ruthless in this sector. 🤔 https://lnkd.in/gqgtgXJu

Good morning everyone: if you go through the above story on sir Ganga ram, you may wonder, how can this be put to use in exam? Well the answer lies in the essay section: this can be used as a example while writing an essay on growth-inequality and the way forward or a philosophical essay on topics like “no one ever became poor by giving-Anne Frank” or can be seen as a perfect example of Gandhian-concept of Trusteeship

Watch the interesting story of Sir Ganga Ram : https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0zGIu3vVCW/

He won like a hero and gave like a saint: When Sir Ganga Ram died in 1927, Sir Malcom Hailey the governor of Punjab, had to say this about this architect/ father of modern Lahore. Its difficult to define the life of such a towering individual in few minutes or sentences but to simply, it could be seen as going through three innings: in the first innings between 1851 to 1903 was when he started his education journey from Amritsar, then Lahore & eventually completed his civil engineering from the Thompson college of engineering in Roorkee. He was the architect whose work in designing the buildings like the atchinson college, national museum , mayo college, model town, general post office gave the modern the city of Lahore it soul. In the second innings, from 1903, once Ganga ram retirered from the PWD department in Lahore, he took on lease around 50,000 hectare of barren land in Sahiwal and Renala Kurd, both in the present day Punjab province of Pakistan. Between 1903-1920, he expanded the irrigation network in this area vastly increasing the productivity of the land and eventually amassed huge wealth. In his third innings from 1920-1927 he decided to give back his wealth to his beloved city of lahore. Apart from building the Ganga ram hospital in Lahore in 1921, and when there was a shortage of funds to establish a college of commerce in Lahore, he donated his house, “Nabha house” to meet the shortfall and thus the Hailey college of commerce became a reality in 1927. The foundation of Ganga Ram Hospital was laid in April 1951 by the then Prime Minister of India, Jawahar Lal Nehru under the auspices of Dharma Vira, a civil servant and the son in law of Sir Ganga Ram, who at the time was also Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister. The hospital was later inaugurated by Nehru on 13 April 1954.

The duo of Robert Clive and Stringer Lawerence had in the two decades between 1740’s to 1760’s brought about a military revolution in Hindustan raising “an army of natives to rule upon the natives”. In fact, during his career spanning two decades in India, Clive amassed a considerable fortune for himself. Lawrence and Clive continued to share a close bond with each other & when a proposal was made for Clive to be honoured with a ceremonial sword for his exploits in Plassey in 1757, he refused to accept the same unless Lawrence was also honoured. After returning to London after 1767, Clive re-entered the domestic politics of Britain. The British Parliament set up an inquiry into Clive's affairs following accusations of corruption against him and the great riches he had amassed in India. Clive defended himself in the House of Commons in May 1773 and was acquitted of the charges. However, the very next year in 1774, Clive died, aged 49, at his home. His death was caused by a cut to his throat from a penknife he held. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0t_pysP2zR/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Seek IAS welcomes all who have cleared the UPSC Mains 2023 to an online session on DAF filling. Get ready to present the most authentic version of yourself. Vishnu V IAS, Managing Director & CEO, Guidance Tamil Nadu Industries, Investment Promotion & Commerce Department will be chairing the session. An alumnus of the National Institute of Technology (NIT), He was selected for the prestigious and challenging Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellowship (PMRDF) in 2011, and subsequently cleared the Civil Services Exam with All-India Rank of 34. He was the only person from India to have been selected for the distinguished Eisenhower Fellowship - 2019, USA. Before joining the Indian Administrative Service, he worked as a Risk Analyst with AON Corporation, Chicago, US. Let's seek it from the best! For more details : 9074123651 Registration Mandatory : https://forms.gle/ZM3EJPfCRkntz2nH9

Hello everyone: Hope you are doing well, there had been some delay in uploading further content in the series on Modern India as I was engaged in certain other academic engagements. We are resuming the same. Further, soon I will be sharing PDF’s and relevant content on International Relations as well. Regards Dr. Jayesh Khaddar

The point of sharing this with you on telegram is from the perspective of essay writing: I am often asked how to turn real life observations or anecdotes into introductions for essays: this should be seen as an example: try to evaluate can you use the same example for writing an essay on environmental pollution, economic inequality etc

Sachet economy, Rural India, Environment: FMCG companies and the Indian economy- What’s the connecting element between Maggi, Parle-G biscuit, Shampoo to Detergent: They are all the part of sachet economy and are vital to the marketing strategy of FMCG companies. From the iconic 5 Rs Parle G biscuit packets to the 5Rs Maagi packets to the 2Rs shampoo and detergent packets, the Indian economy has seen it all. The sachet economy was devised as a strategy to penetrate the vast rural market with limited purchasing power in the 1970’s and continues to be a vital component of the marketing strategy even today. It promises to keep the interests of both the producer and consumer in mind: the consumer with little earnings, daily wages, low savings and low purchasing power gets access to day to day essentials products while the FMCG companies make profits customising products across low price “magic price” points like 1Rs, 2Rs, 5 Rs etc. How significant is the sachet economy to FMCG companies: for HUL, India’s largest FMCG company, almost 30% of the goods sold in India are around these magic price points. Clearly the sachet economy is integral to FMCG business in India. One wonders why the sachet economy is so widespread in India: answer is perhaps a bit discomforting: low rural household incomes resulting in low purchasing power, despite India being the 5th largest economy in the world (the wide income inequality?) . While the sachets along these magic price points keep getting smaller with inflation (shrinkflation), the sachet economy continues: perhaps it’s a necessary evil given the huge income disparities that persist. But amongst other things, this has disastrous impact in the form of environmental pollution: single use plastic menace, and while companies have talked about using alternative packing methods to keep the sachet economy going, no mass scale alternative packing methods have been deployed by India’s top FMCG players. One hopes either the Indian at the bottom of the pyramid gets richer soon or alternative, scalable packaging options are invented: because air pollution is not the only problem killing us, plastics are doing their bit too. 🤐