Passage 1
Excise duty levied on alcohol is a key component of a state’s revenue, with states often adding an additional excise duty on alcohol consumption to drive its income up. For example, in 2023, a state hiked the Additional Excise Duty (AED) on Indian Made Liquor (IML) by 20%.
However, when it comes to ‘industrial alcohol’, do states have the power to regulate and tax it? This is the question that a Bench of the Supreme Court is hearing.
The Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud began hearing arguments on April 2 on whether state governments have the power to regulate and control the sale, distribution, pricing and other factors relating to ‘industrial’ alcohol. Industrial alcohol is used as a raw material to create other products, and is not meant for human consumption.
Source – https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-l\
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Passage 2
President Paul Kagame on Sunday blamed the inaction of the international community for allowing the genocide to happen as an estimated 8,00,000 people were massacred by government-backed extremists.
The country has shown strong recovery and economic growth in the years since, but scars remain and there are questions about whether genuine reconciliation has been achieved under the long rule of Mr. Kagame, whose rebel movement stopped the genocide and seized power. He has been praised by many for bringing relative stability but vilified by others for his intolerance of dissent.
“It was the international community which failed all of us, whether from contempt or cowardice,” Mr. Kagame said in a speech after lighting a flame of remembrance and laying a wreath at a memorial site holding the remains of 2,50,000 genocide victims
Source- https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/president-
