Goods Services Tax India

GST – It is a type of value added tax, which will replace the indirect taxes levied on goods and services.

Value added tax is a multi-stage tax, here tax is levied at each stage of value addition. Eg: - When wood is converted to paper, there is value addition. Similarly when this paper is converted to a greeting card, there is value addition. In VAT, the tax will be levied only to the value added at each stage.

source:www.kinibiz.com

Why GST?

India presently has multitude of indirect taxes. This creates confusion, tax evasion and inefficiency. To reform the present system to create a unified tax collection, GST is being introduced.

GST will :

• ·         Simplify the tax structure (the multitude of the indirect taxes will be abolished after GST)
• ·         Broaden tax base and rationalise tax collection.
• ·         To create a common tax base across states. (States and centre will implement GST)
• ·         Increase growth by increasing export and import

What is objection regarding GST?

States fear loss of revenue and fiscal autonomy.

Solution: Compensation formula after consultation with states.

General Studies : Climate change and Global warming

The terms climate change and global warming are used in narrow meaning and broad meaning. In narrow meaning it refers to the recent change in climate change brought out by mainly by man’s activities (this is what we usually see and read in newspapers). In broader term it refers to the change in climate that has occurred on earth from historic times.

About the climate change (from early times):

The climate change has been a phenomenon that has been occurring since the creation of earth. The causes are many; some of major ones are given below:

Plate tectonics: We know that earth surface (oceans and continents) are made of plates. These plates move over time. The movement changes the amount as well as duration of sunlight at a given place. Eg: a place which is located at poles at an early point in time moves to equator. Here the sunlight received at that given point will be more when situated near equator. The land/water ratio at any given latitude also changes with plate tectonics. The “movement of plates” is an accepted phenomenon, and so is its role in climate change.

Volcanoes: Volcanoes bring loads of dust, carbon dioxide and heat when they explode. The dust reduces the amount of sunlight reaching earth surface. As a result cooling occurs. In earth’s history we know of many instances where earth was cooled as a result of the volcanoes. The co2 on the other hand will increase temperature, the manifestation of this will occur after certain time.

Earth’s orbital variation: Does earth always revolve in same path. Earth too has its freedom. As a result there is change in the path (large orbit or smaller orbit---eccentricity), tilt (earth normally has a tilt; this would increase of decrease sometimes). These changes in the earth’s motion path will lead to change in amount of sunlight it receives(Malkovich cycles). Change in sun’s energy = change in insolation=change in climate

Sun: We read about earth changing it path. Sun too has its freedom; it will glow at low intensity at certain times and glow with more brightness at some other time(sun spot activity). The change in sun’s energy (cause internal to sun) = change in insolation=climate change.

These forces mentioned above where happily changing climate in past. Now that we humans have increased exponentially, we too have decided to be a cause for changing climate. All the ways we change climate are listed as anthropogenic causes. In recent decade, we have become the major factor which influences climate change. The activities like deforestation, burning fossil fuels, release of cfc’s etc are changing the climate at a rapid pace.There is a set of scientists (minority) who believes that man is not a major factor but other factors mentioned above are the reason for present climate change.

About the recent climate change (in the last decades):

The concept of change in climate due to man’s activities has been there in scientific literature for over a century. It was the IPCC assessment that created a wide awareness and consensus about the issue. Now majority of the scientists accept that the “climate change and global warming” has occurred in recent times at an alarming pace and that man has played a major role in creating it. 

Attitude: content, structure, function and its influence and relation with thought and behaviour

General Studies- IV: Ethics, Integrity, and Aptitude

Attitude: content, structure, function; its influence and relation with thought and behaviour; moral and political attitudes; social influence and persuasion  

Attitude

Attitude is the evaluation of various aspects of the world. It can be evaluation of an idea, object, action (eg: playing cricket or watching football match etc) or about a person (eg: towards mahendra singh dhoni or sachin tendulkar). The attitude may be strong (eg: attitude towards drinking behaviour – people usually have strong opinion for or against drinking) or weak. The formation of an attitude may be associated with a belief system (eg; attitude towards eating a particular food may be related to religious beliefs – here the belief system rather than rational thought creates attitude).

The attitude may be formed by direct experience or observation. Eg: You see the new ad of ford ecosport you develop a particular attitude towards it. Then you go for a test drive. (attitude towards the vehicle created by ad leads you to do a particular behaviour). Your attitude towards it may change after the test drive!. That means by direct experience you have gained a new attitude.

Functions of attitude

The attitude helps to form a self-concept about us. You like a particular type of movies or music or hobby. All these add up to create an image about yourself in your mind. Eg: When you tell to your girlfriend, “I like playing guitar, i love rugby and love to chill!”, then it’s all ways in which your attitude is shown. These attitudes help create an image of you in her mind and yours.[value-expressive function]

It helps in guiding our actions towards people, ideas, objects etc. Eg: Negative feeling about certain cities as dirty or crowded is an attitude that guides us in taking a particular action. It acts as a protective mechanism in some cases – by avoiding the negative impact.[instrumental]

Attitude can serve knowledge function. It can also serve ego-defensive function.

Relation between attitude and behaviour

Does attitude always lead to behavior  The answer is “NO”. Attitude always doesn't lead to behavior  Eg: Three friends Arun, Varun and Tarun always talk about the evil practice of corruption in their hostel room in Delhi. It was during that time Anna hazare gave a call for Action against corruption. Arun bunked his class and went to Jantar Mantar to protest. Varun’s action against corruption was limited to pressing “like” button in facebook seeing the picture shared by Arun. Tarun enjoyed a pizza with gf, taking care to avoid the road through Jantar Mantar. The three guys hold attitude against corruption but chose to act in different ways [Attitude always doesn’t get converted to behaviour]

An interesting study on the relation between attitude and behaviour was done by Lapierre. He visited around 184 restaurants with Chinese couple. They weren’t turned away (in a area where negative attitude exists against the Chinese) by any of the restaurants. After around 6months, Lapierre did a survey in the same restaurants. The survey enquired whether they would serve Chinese customers. The reply from restaurants was negative. [Attitude against something may not get converted to action always]. When someone is turned away, think how strong the attitude must be. In places like Mumbai, certain community members of society are turned away from accommodation or sale of property by another and vice versa. This shows that prejudice exists to a real dangerous level and that a silly simple event may trigger problems. The whole exercise of healing work is done only when trouble erupts. In fact work should have been done eons back to avoid the trouble. Only when it boils out, a solution is searched. [Prevent/reduce prejudiced attitude for community harmony]

Eg: A voter is highly against corruption and he hates corrupt people. But during election he votes for a very corrupt person who belongs to his community!. Here his attitude towards the corruption has been washed away by another attitude. Here two attitudes competed and one won.[One attitude may be overcome by another]

Thus we see that relation between the attitude and behaviour is rather not so simple. The theory of planned behaviour is an attempt to explain this. The factors other than attitude that affects behaviour are shown in the diagram.

click on pic to enlarge