Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Iyer's Academy, displayed are the list of news articles selected for today's analysis and the page numbers in Chennai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram editions of the newspaper. The link for the handwritten notes and the time stamping of the news articles are provided in the description box. For the benefit of mobile phone viewers, the time stamping is also provided in the comment section. Now let us go to the first article of the day. Now this news article is about the bilateral meeting between India and China, that is between Indian Prime Minister and Chinese President in the sidelines of the SCO summit. Now this news article will be relevant in prelim syllabus under current events of international importance and national importance and in main syllabus in GS paper 2 under India and its neighborhood relations, bilateral groupings and agreements involving India and affecting India's interest and effect of policies and politics of developing countries on India's interest. Now the news tells that Indian Prime Minister and Chinese President has met yesterday, that is 13th June 2019 at the capital of Kyrgyzstan, that is in Bishkek. Now this bilateral meeting has happened in the sidelines of the summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Now recently we learned that India has planned to have bilateral meetings with three countries, one is Russia, one is China and other is Uzbekistan. That day during the news analysis we saw that we have been receiving several requests from various other countries as well so as to have a bilateral meeting with Indian Prime Minister. So as of now the bilateral meeting with China and India and Russia have completed. So in this meeting, the meeting between India and China, both the leaders have agreed to have a dialogue on India-China boundary issue. This is to arrive at a fair solution. Both the leaders have asked the special representatives of India and China on the boundary question. So there are special representatives of India and China on the boundary question. So they have to meet and carry forward the discussion and they were also asked to expedite or quicken the border discussion so that a fair reasonable and a mutually acceptable solution is arrived soon. Now to assess you know to have some opinion about how the bilateral interaction was between India and China according to Indian foreign secretary this meeting or this interaction was substantive or meaningful in content. The leaders discussed about the status of bilateral relationship after the informal Wuhan summit. Now this Wuhan summit happened between India and China in 2018 in the month of April. Now this was the first informal summit between India and China and very importantly this informal summit was happened at a time when India-China bilateral relations were very tense because of more than 70 days standoff in Doklam. Now Doklam standoff was between the armies of India and China at the Doklam Plateau. This plateau lies at a tri-junction between India, China and Bhutan. To be very clear this this place Doklam is in the territory of Bhutan. The foreign secretary of India has also stated that the Chinese president has confirmed that he will be visiting India this year will discuss all issues from a strategic and long-term perspective. Also both the leaders agreed that the approach with respect to border issue should be constructive. Here the Chinese president has highlighted the need for regional cooperation and connectivity. He has told that the Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar economic corridor is an example for expanding the India-China ties and that India and China have entered a new phase after the new phase of relationship after the Wuhan informal summit. So the overall point is that after the informal Wuhan summit the India-China ties have somehow improved. That's what the Chinese president here tries to convey. Now if you look at this Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar corridor the length is around 2800 kilometer. Now this idea was conceived in 1990s but formally announced or endorsed in the year 2013 only. So you see how long it takes for an initiative to take action. Now BCIM stands for Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar corridor. Now in this project the city of Kunming which is located in Yunnan province of China will be connected with the Kolkata city in India. This corridor would pass through Myanmar and Bangladesh that is in Mandalay in Myanmar and Dhaka in Bangladesh. So all the four countries of this BCIM corridor will be benefited with a network of modern connectivity and this also includes developing rail connectivity, road connectivity, port connectivity, communication and also trade connectivity. These are all the advantages of this corridor. Now the Chinese president has also stressed that the two sides India and China should follow or abide by the basic judgment that India and China are the opportunities for development and they are not threat to each other. So both India and China should push to deepen the mutual trust and to focus on cooperation at the same time also accepting the differences of the respective sides. So all these actions will make the China-India-India-China relations a more positive asset and a positive energy to promote the development of two countries. And the news article also talks about the bilateral meeting with Russia as well. So Indian Prime Minister held talks with Russian President yesterday. So in the meeting Russian President invited Indian Prime Minister to take part in Vladivostok forum that is to happen in September this year. So this Vladivostok forum is also called as Eastern Economic Forum. Now this was established by a decree of the President of Russian Federation Mr. Vladimir Putin in the year 2015. So these are very recent initiatives. Now if you look at the objectives of this forum, two objectives correspond to a particular region in Russia and that region is nothing but a Russian Far East. The Far Eastern region of entire Russian territory. So the objectives of this Eastern Economic Forum includes strengthening the ties between international investment community, Russian business and federal regional and local government bodies of Russia and also to conduct a comprehensive expert assessment of the economic potential of Russian Far Eastern region and to improve the region's competitiveness, attractiveness to investors at the national and international level. Here when we say national level it means the level of Russian country. So India's participation in this forum would be a good opportunity to explore Russia's Far Eastern region that is to explore the economic potential of Russia's Far Eastern region whether India can get you know sizable benefit because of the involvement. So all these initiatives you could cite in your mains answers when you are needed to answer with respect to India-China relations or India-Russia relations. So with this let's move on to next news article. This article is about using face veil because certain liberals who call themselves as liberals and they say that women wear face veil by exercising free will. Now this article will be relevant in prelims levels under current events of national and international importance and under rights issues in Indian polity and governance. In mains it could come under GS paper one, role of women, their problems and remedies. Now the author talks about exercising free will in order to justify socially forced traditions or socially forced customs. The author uses the word coercion which means forced. Now here we are discussing about the social tradition of using a face veil.  Recently after the terrorist attack in Sri Lanka the Sri Lankan government has imposed a ban on covering the face of both men and women. A similar ban is also there in France as well. So for the reason given in Sri Lanka is security but the author here supports the ban of using face veil because it liberates women from social coercion. Now here the author is literally meaning the use of face veil in Islam or wherever such a practice is there. Now the practice of use covering face by clothing and we could see this exists only for women. That makes this practice discriminatory. We do not find men being forced to use face veil but women are made to wear or women are made to cover their face. This tradition of covering face is being forced by the society saying it as you know it is tradition it is custom it is god ordained or it is based on religion etc. Now such women were psychologically trained or tuned by patriarchal world to believe that covering face is very important or vital for a woman or a woman or a choice with respect to covering face by a woman cannot be her own choice or in other words a woman cannot have a choice other than covering her face. The author says that such imposition is given mostly to the population of lower status. The author says in a patriarchal setup women are in lower status for highlighting the word lawyer the author has used subaltern so in a patriarchal setup women are potential victims the women are made to believe that way this made to believe women or men they say that they are using the face veil to cover the face only by the fullest application of mind and it is their own decision in other words we can say this is free will they say by free will they use face veil the author talks about certain traditions customs that are illogically defended as being exercised by free will one such example the author talks about with respect to Hindu religion is sati or the practice of sati among certain Hindu communities after the death of a married man now the dead body of the man will be burnt in other words called as cremated the wife of the man has to fall into the fire of the dead husband and has to die along now this is the simple meaning of what is sati if you see historically traditionally culturally this practice of women falling into the fire of dead husband and to die is only for women this practice was socially forced only for female spouse and this discriminatory sati was also defended by many as you know women die with the dead body of their husband by free will and very recently in independent India in the year 1987 a girl around 17 or 18 year old has committed this practice of sati her name is Rup Kunwar and immediately in the same year the central government has enacted the commission of sati prevention act 1987 the author says that most of the cases we could see people using the option of free will to defend such customs or traditions and they call themselves as liberals author says that all those people who use free will to defend sati or such socially forced customs are not liberals because they are not applying liberalism in the true sense other than the right sense and therefore they need to rethink and therefore this title of the article is liberals need to think again the author is actually generous in giving examples in various religions next logical and socially forced custom he gives from Christianity the author says that they say that marriage is made in heaven the socially forced interpretation of this is that the woman who is part of this marriage that is made in heaven should not leave the marriage however bad or abusive her husband could be but now tradition in Christianity is having no single supporter in Europe says the author and then the author talks about slavery he says it is the hugely exploited branch of humanity he says that you know yes male slave owners have justified it even the slaves themselves have at times justified slavery as the best of all choices even when the slave says such no one cannot adhere to such statement which he may justify by saying that he exercised free will now the problem is that when such norms are forced socially or religiously or in community those who follow such customs or traditions are given prestige or respect or acceptable in their community and these women have no other option or they were given no other option so in the absence of options there is only one way a woman is forced to go so the author says that there should be other options and the other option should have equivalent prestige and acceptability this equivalent prestige and acceptability should be there not only within the community but also such respect and acceptability which is for other options should be there outside the community also so the author states that for a choice that is made to be called you know made based on free will there should be various other options and these options need to have equivalent prestige and acceptability both within the community and around it only then we can say that the application of a certain practice or a custom is based on a free will therefore the author calls to those people who say that you know the use of face well is based on free will should not call themselves as liberals and to call themselves as liberals they have to rethink with this we come to the end of this news article now this news article is about drop or decrease in infant mortality rate in the state of Tamil Nadu now this news article will be relevant in prelim syllabus under current events of national importance and demographics in social development so the information that we are going to see here can be utilized in mains answer writing with respect to health care so this will be also be relevant in gs paper two under issues relating to development and management of social sector or social services relating to health now the news article states that infant mortality rate drops in the state of Tamil Nadu and they have also given some key reasons or some important reasons for achieving reduction in infant mortality rate the news also talks about IMR at the all India level and if you see in last paragraph we could find a word called as neonatal death we will see that in detail later so when you are studying about mortality rates or whatever you study you try to relate it with any goal or target under sustainable development goals and yes of course you need to keep all the terms all the targets all the goals that are given under sustainable development goals because these goals and targets by and large will not change until 2030 so you can better remember all those things so now we shall also seeing about some SDG goals with respect to this IMR first we should know what is infant mortality rate see in medical definitions infant means those children who are under the age of one so infant mortality rate means mortality means death so it means number of infant deaths recorded under the age of one for every thousand live births so according to WHO world health organization at the world level the IMR has decreased from 65 deaths per thousand live births in 1990 to 29 deaths per thousand live births in 2017 so in terms of numbers the annual infant deaths have declined from about 88 lakh all over the world in 1990 to around 41 lakh in 2017 as per Nithya Yoke information information from Nithya India recorded IMR of 68 per thousand live births in 2000 see in 2000 it was 68 but within 16 years that is in 2016 we reached IMR to 34 deaths per thousand live births so we can clearly see that there is a 50% reduction in IMR rate with these 16 years so in 2017 it even dropped by one more point to reach 33 deaths per thousand live births and to compare along the states among the states for the year 2016 Goa is the best performer which has you know the lowest infant mortality rate in India it has recorded just eight deaths per thousand live births in 2016 now the next best or the second best is the state of Kerala it recorded IMR of 10 Tamil Nadu is around sixth best among the states now we have said the state of Tamil Nadu because the news article is with respect to Tamil Nadu and the state of Tamil Nadu has recorded IMR rate of 17 in 2016 now this news states that it has further reduced this IMR by one more point so as to reach 16 in the year 2017 since 2013 if you see the IMR rates of Tamil Nadu have seen a steady decline if you see this table the rates are declining by at least one point every year since 2013 we will see what are the reasons for achieving you know this drop in infant mortality rate in Tamil Nadu before that we will see some of the sustainable development goals and targets related to the present discussion now this article is concerned with health and well-being of the children so it will come under STG goal number three so it's about health so ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being of all at all ages so if you here if you see target number 3.2 it states that by the year 2030 the world needs to end preventable deaths of new bonds and children under the five years of age so we know that millennium development goals targeted reduction sustainable development goals target elimination of problems so millennium development goals or MDGs targeted reduction virus the goals of STGs are absolute in nature it talks about eliminating poverty not reduction eliminating so here also it states that the goal number 3.2 states by 2030 the world needs to end preventable deaths of new bonds and children under five years of age and one specific target is that all the countries should have the aim to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per thousand live births and the countries should also reduce the under five mortality to at least as low as 25 per thousand live births now in general parlance if you see the under five mortality is called as child mortality rate now there are two terms one is neonatal mortality or neonatal deaths neonatal death rate and the other is under five mortality rate according to WHO neonatal period means the first 28 days of life of a child after birth now this is the most vulnerable time of a child's survival so providing proper healthcare is very necessary and it will prevent from the death of the child in that period now this neonatal mortality rate means number of neonatal deaths per thousand live births and under five mortality rate is very easy to explain see the number of deaths of children who are under five years of age per thousand live births now for India the child mortality rate or under five mortality rate is 39 in 2016 whereas neonatal mortality rate is 24 in 2016 now you need to know the basic definitions of you know infant mortality rate neonatal mortality rate maternal mortality rate child mortality rate so as to learn this from the examination point of view now we'll see the reasons for the achievement in the state of Tamil Nadu particular relevance to this infant mortality rate now in the state there have been special newborn care units many number of them have been set up and this is cited as one of the reason as it was very helpful in reducing the neonatal deaths of children now the next reason they cite is the screening of congenital heart diseases now this screening has made early diagnosis and early treatment of neonatal children as possible one and these screenings have been made possible through a national level government scheme called as rastriya bal swastya karyakram here rastriya means national so whenever you see some program with the word rastriya it means it's not a state level program it's a national level program bal means children swastya means healthy or you know well-being and karyakram means program so rastriya bal swastya karyakram means national health program for children or we can also say that as national well-being program for children so knowing these words and the meaning will help to get a rough idea about the program or you can at least narrow down your options now this program or this karyakram was launched in 2013 under national rural health mission now the initiative is having an aim to screen and manage children from birth till 18 years of age if you see the legal definition of child for example if you take juvenile justice act it will say that the child means those who has not completed 18 years of age but here in medical parlance when you say child mortality rate it means under five mortality rate now these differences you keep in mind now the initiative aims to screen and manage children from birth till 18 years of age children will be screened for you know defects at birth deficiencies diseases developmental delays and also disabilities it's being implemented by ministry of health and family welfare now another reason is that that help for reducing this IMR in Tamil Nadu is because of improvement in health care services in the state the state has improved the comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care services obstetrics is the branch of medicine and surgery that is concerned with childbirth so having you know improved emergency response with respect to these care services has helped the state in reducing the IMR now the achievement was also made possible because of regular home visits that are made by the health that is village health nurses and Anganwadi workers and they have played a very important role in achieving this reduction in IMR now let us move on to next news article now the displayed practice prelims question will be discussed in the last session now this news article is about rainwater harvesting now this article will be relevant in prelims levels under current events of national importance and in general issues in environmental ecology and from mains perspective in GS paper 3 in the area conservation if you you know particularly under water conservation now you may think this is a regional news article but it is important because the crux of the article is about rainwater harvesting we know that many states in our country are facing water crisis in the way of water scarcity or shortage of water nithya yog in the month of june 2018 in one of the trip out while publishing composite water management index it has stated that india is facing worst water crisis in the history and you might have seen various news articles related to water crisis in the states of tamilnadu panjab maharashtra rajasthan especially during the starting of or the beginning of summer season we know that the groundwater levels in many states are depleting and are in a worrying state so even at a national level this issue of water conservation particularly from rainwater is very important to address the water crisis so in mains examination if any question is relating to management of water crisis is asked you know you shall mention about rainwater harvesting as it is one of the conservation method so it is a nationwide problem now the article mentions that a particular residential complex in chennai was very well in managing the water crisis in the city they were able to manage this crisis because there was availability of groundwater when the entire city is tumbling on water crisis because of the shortage in groundwater level how the residential complex has the availability of groundwater now the article states that this is because the apartment had better rainwater harvesting techniques now majority of buildings in chennai city have rainwater harvesting structures this is because in 2003 through an ordinance you know Tamil Nadu made rainwater harvesting mandatory for all buildings both private and public in the state now this movement within the state was started in the year 2001 as part of rainwater harvesting scheme now the ordinance is called as Tamil Nadu municipal laws ordinance of 2003 so under this ordinance you know it was mandatory for the metropolitan development authority of chennai city and municipal corporations others to sanction the building plants only if the plants contain rainwater harvesting structures we will discuss about rainwater harvesting structures and if a plan does not have you know if a building does not have rainwater harvesting structures then there were provisions so that water and sewer connections would not be given to such buildings and rainwater harvesting has been made mandatory also in three storied buildings irrespective of the size of rooftop area now the provision mentions irrespective of the size of rooftop area now this is important because there will be some buildings they may say our rooftop area is very small and therefore we cannot harness or tap the rainwater and therefore we cannot have rainwater harvesting structure so building should not escape saying such stories therefore they have made mandatory that in all three storied buildings also irrespective of size of rooftop area it is necessary so if you take most of the states maybe other than one or two states most of the states will be having amendments in municipal laws district municipal laws in their local municipal laws there will be amendment so as to have this rainwater harvesting structure in buildings now let's come to some data regarding the now for example if you take Chennai city and according to Chennai metro water organization there is nearly 8.9 lakh rainwater harvesting structures in various buildings across the city now this will be the case with various cities in the country now where will be the problem is coming you know now the problem will come when there is no enough data regarding the maintenance of these structures because in Chennai there is no data available about the maintenance of these 8.9 lakh rainwater harvesting structures it is stated that only random checks are carried out and one non-governmental organization called as rain center carries out rainwater harvesting audit in suburban areas and it is important to tap the rainwater in the month of june because we know in the month of june national level we have this southwest monsoon and also because the rainwater structures would be absolutely efficient during this period of summer season as dry land would absorb more water and several people are now shifting to recharge wells because of growing awareness on rainwater harvesting see this rainwater harvesting is a process of collecting then conveying or transferring and find also storing the rainfall in a particular area for beneficial purposes now the collected rainwater can either be stored or it can be used for recharging the groundwater now the rainwater collection can be done using you know from rooftops directly from land surface catchments or watersheds etc the rainwater harvesting methods basically classified into two types one surface runoff harvesting that is nothing but during a heavy downpour water flows in the surface that is called a surface runoff this runoff water can be collected and used for recharging aquifers next method is rooftop harvesting see in this system the roof of a building becomes the catchment area now catchment or catchment area is the area or surface that receives the rainfall so the rainfall rainwater can be collected from the roof of the house now this we can see in the picture the collected water can either be stored for you using you know for various purposes or it can be diverted to artificial recharge system we may see about you know some of the main components of a rooftop rainwater harvesting system now it requires a catchment from where water is captured and stored or recharged it also requires gutters or drains and some downtake pipes now these are conveyance system part of conveyance system because they carry the water that is harvested from the catchment to the storage or recharge zone then we require filters and first flush devices now first flush is used to flush out the first spell of rain now these devices remove sand leaves and dirt which are you know often found in the first rains it's necessary to remove these from the rainwater collected from the first rain because it may contaminate the whole water that is available in the storage tank see these devices are helpful whenever rain occur after a long time because we used to hear from our parents that they won't ask us to you know take bath during the first rain in a year or whenever it rains after a long period parents advise their children not to take bath in the rain because the rainwater in the rain will have lot of pollutants that is dissolved in rainwater and so if you take these filters and flush first flush devices they divert the water from the first rain to avoid mixing of it with this water of storage tank then storage tanks see these tanks could be either above ground or underground or partly underground the tanks may be covered so that water will be clean now before using the tank as usual it has to be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected now disinfection can be carried out using chlorine bleaching powder potassium permanganate now then delivery systems now these should be you know efficient piping system that can deliver the stored water for the final use or end use then recharge structures the harvested rainwater can also be used for recharging the groundwater aquifers now this can be done through construction of various kinds of you know structures such as dug wells bore wells recharge trenches recharge pits similarly as you see in this picture now it could be in different depths because there should be enough depth so that the harvested water reaches the lower soil strata and one important thing is that these recharge structures should be desilted from time to time now silt is a fine deposit which keep on sedimenting in these structures and obstructs the charging of groundwater we are giving this information to get a wholesome knowledge right now why this rainwater harvesting is necessary see our country already faces several problems such as severe water scarcity pollution in existing surface water bodies and floods come during rainy seasons in some way for all these problems rainwater harvesting is a solution and the methods involved in rainwater harvesting are also simple they could be easily maintained at a minimal cost and india is a right place you know to have these rainwater harvesting structures as it is very much possible because india has a good potential for harvesting the rain and more importantly because of tropical monsoon or tropical southwest monsoon now this is important because these rains from the monsoon are sufficient to cater or to serve the need of the people and on the side of people what we require is the judicious use of rainwater now coming to the advantages of rainwater harvesting first it improves the water usage practices now the rainwater harvesting is an it's a perfect solution or an ideal solution in areas where there is inadequate water groundwater supply or you know insufficient surface water resources now india is facing depletion of groundwater resources because of various reasons such as excessive pumping of water and we also see inconsistent rainfall or non-uniform rainfall across the country now also because of pollution of groundwater the water becomes unusable now how the groundwater is polluted now this is because of the leaks from waste dumping sites so replenishment of groundwater resources is necessary in this way in this area rainwater harvesting is important now according to central pollution control board rainwater is bacteriologically pure that is it has no bacteria and it is free from organic matter and it is soft in nature now soft water means the water that has minimal total dissolved solids in other words the water that is free from dissolved salts of metals such as calcium iron or magnesium this is the general definition there is also technical definition now the rainwater harvesting will also help in reducing flood hazard now see because now excess water is collected rather than it is rather than going a surface runoff the excess water is now recharged and collected so there will be reducing of flood hazard now it also improves the quality of existing groundwater and it helps to replenish it it will also reduce the cost of pumping of groundwater see by recharge of groundwater the groundwater table increases the level of availability of groundwater increases so now what will happen it will reduce the effort for pumping deep if the water table level is lower then it requires pumping of groundwater from deep depth that means cost of pumping is more so rainwater harvesting reduces the cost of pumping no land gets wasted for rainwater harvesting and there is no issue of population displacement now this means when when a city or an area is properly conserving rainwater by rainwater harvesting structures so the groundwater level will be at a higher level so there may not be requirement for water storage capacities such as dams so there will be no need for storage dams that means there is no requirement of construction of dams there is no requirement of you know displacing people from one area to another for construction of dams no need for land acquisition no need for relief and rehabilitation see the rainwater can be one of the positive with respect to rainwater is it can be tapped at any place where it rains and it can be utilized at the time of need one of the most important advantage with respect to the rainwater harvesting structures are that they are simple less costly or economical and also eco-friendly thus it helps in utilizing the primary source of water that is the rainwater and it prevents the surface runoff from going into sewer or storm drains and thus it also reduces the unnecessary burden on treatment plants to provide usable water because already we will have usable water because of rainwater harvesting if we look for statutory backing for rainwater harvesting or legislations for rainwater harvesting different states have different legislations these legal provisions you could find in most of the legislations or with respect to local area or within the state jurisdiction in the municipality's act of the particular state so with this we come to the end of this article discussion the displayed practice mains question will be discussed in the last session next we will be seeing three news articles related to india united states trade relations if you see the three news articles have a common thread or a link the three news articles are based on speeches delivered by three individuals at the india ideas summit of united states india business council this summit was held in washington united states washington dc united states the first news article is about the with respect to the speech of united states secretary of state the second one is with respect to the speech of comma secretary of united states third is with respect to the ceo of google these articles will be relevant in mains preparation in gs paper two under bilateral groupings and agreements involving india and or affecting india's interest effect of policies and politics of developed countries on india's interest and in gs three under indian economy and issues relating to growth and development and even in prelims levels it could come under current events of national and international importance the first news article deals with secretary of state of us it largely deals with the current present trade tensions between india and united states particularly with reference to the gsp status of beneficiary to india see generalized system of preferences is a scheme of developed nations like united states to provide preferential access to certain goods of developing countries like india we have been seeing that till may that whether united states will revoke the gsp status the gsp beneficiary status given to india and on june 5 2019 the u.s president has revoked the beneficiary status of india or the beneficiary status to india under the gsp program he told that india had not provided adequate or enough assurances to the united states on equitable and reasonable market access to its companies the u.s secretary of state hints that it was it is possible to reinstate the gsp beneficiary status to india and it is expected that by the end of this weekend or in the coming days as soon as possible within this month the u.s secretary of state has scheduled a visit to india and he will be most probably discussing about gsp issue and also with respect to 5g network technology and data localization with indian counterparts and through him the united states has expressed willingness to hold dialogues to hold dialogues and it expects that india will drop the trade barriers to u.s companies now some of the problems between the two countries other than or in addition to gsp is the data localization regulations and proposed to policies with respect to e-commerce and with respect to e-commerce some implemented policies or some changes in the e-commerce policy with respect to foreign direct investments are already been made in our country those are also some of the tensions between india and united states u.s secretary of state has stated that u.s will push for free flow of data of indians across borders and in addition to helping american companies it will also provide protection of data and securing consumers privacy so that is the united states wants the data of all indians with respect to you know it could be financial data or any other data that it wants these data to be stored in u.s also but the stand of indian government is that indian data should not should be stored only within the territory of india that is what we call data localization and u.s is not happy with respect to the stand of india as it wants indian data should freely flow across borders and he also expressed that u.s is ready to help india establish secure communication networks including 5g networks here the united states doesn't want the chinese company to take part in the trials of 5g network in india so u.s want its companies or its counterparts to take care of for establishing communications in 5g networks in our country u.s administration along with its allies or partner companies trying to block the chinese telecom giant hawaii from participating in building their 5g telecommunication network in our country and in addition u.s has also put hawaii on a trade blacklist as well now let us see the second news article now this article is with respect to the speech delivered by commerce secretary of united states he is telling that the gsp beneficiary status was removed for india because india has failed to address the trade related concerns of united states which was raised by him during his visit to our country in may 2019 now he has mentioned some points to project or to portray or compare united states level of trade protection with respect to india and u.s says that it is the least protectionist among major countries and u.s had has trade deficit to prove this fact and it is told that u.s has zero tariffs on 61 percent of the total value of united states total import india's average tariff rates are at 13.8 percentage at the stage of import and the commerce secretary of us tells that these tariff rates of india are the highest of any major world economy and the question is that india has higher tariff rates for importing automobiles alcoholic beverages motorcycles from united states and there were issues between between india and the harley davidson company in united states because of these higher tariff rates and to support his point he also added that united states is india's largest export destination but india remained only at the 13th position that is india is the 13th largest export market of united states so though india has a large population u.s has a trade deficit with india and that is mainly because of overly restrictive market access barriers by the government of india so these are the stand taken by the commerce secretary of united states now these are their representations now let us come to the third news article now this article is with respect to the speech given by ceo of google company he notes that india and united states share values in common to lead to lead on standardizing privacy frameworks and according to him if standardization of privacy frameworks is done across the world it could significantly enhance digital trade all over the world and the standardized frameworks has to be created for both users and companies and he adds that users will have the choice and total transparency and companies must have to be accountable but we know it is very difficult to make the private companies accountable for such frameworks and to convince india that india should partner with united states in having shared values with respect to privacy frameworks google ceo used two important points one india and us have reasonably aligned notions with respect to free and open internet and both the countries have safeguarded principles of free expression right these two points used by the ceo to propose that both the countries with this background should also have enough shared values to lead in privacy frameworks as well now let's see about this us india business council see this council aims to create an inclusive bilateral trade environment between india and the united states the council will also serve as voice of the industry to link governments to businesses and also by supporting long term commercial business related partnerships it's also stated that the activities of this council will develop a spirit of entrepreneurship create jobs in both the economies and also successfully contribute to the global economy also this is what the written objectives but the main objective is that to develop trade between united states and india so as to you know mutually help each other in developing their business industry with this we come to the end of this news article now let us move on to our final session practice come revision session now this question they have given two statements they are asking which of the above statements is or are correct the first statement neonatal mortality rate means number of deaths of children for the first 28 days of life per thousand live births so we saw that today according to WHO this is the exact definition of neonatal mortality rate therefore the first statement is correct and this period is the most important time for a child's survival as it is the most vulnerable period for a child's survival because it requires highly efficient and proper health care for the child during that time now the second statement sustainable development goal target 3.2 aims to reduce neonatal mortality rate to at least as low as 12 per thousand live births we know that sustainable development goal three deals with health and well-being so and today we saw that target 3.2 asks all countries to aim to reduce this neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per thousand live births so this statement is also correct so the correct answer for this question is option c both 1 and 2 the next question is in gs3 what is rainwater harvesting examine its role in conservation of water previous years gs3 question paper you can find two questions in a similar fashion one with respect to wetlands and the other with respect to minimum support price so here in this question you can say that the rainwater harvesting is the process of collection transfer and storage of rainwater through rainwater harvesting structures and the usage of the collected water for various purposes and its role is that it can be adopted anywhere there is rainfall particularly it is highly helpful in tropical countries that are blessed with tropical monsoon such as india where we have south west monsoon and the collected water can be used for various purposes and two the collected water prevents surface runoff to drains thereby there is no need for the collected water can be used in the location where it is required for various purposes in the same location it can be helpful in recharging of groundwater thereby it elevates or you know increases the groundwater table level and thus it prevents the need of recycling or purifying at the municipality level so as to provide usable water to houses and rainwater harvesting actually conserves water from the primary source of water that is rainfall and this rain rainwater visa according to central pollution control board the rainwater is free from bacteria free from organic matter and this method of rainwater harvesting is simple can be maintained at minimal cost economical easy to adopt so all these methods will help large masses of people to adopt to this style of water conservation so these are some of the points that you that you could use from today's discussion to highlight your answer in for this question with this we come to the end of today's discussion if you like the video press the like button share it with your friends comment and subscribe to Shankara's Academy YouTube channel for daily updates on news analysis


The Honourable Minister for Work, Senator David Umahi has revealed that the Federal Ministry of Works will inset provision of a 15-year shelf-life insurance guarantee for the works and a maximum of 5% of variation of price clause in the contract. We don't have overloaded, you know, on our routes. The truth is public structure. And so when we have these 2% the contractors will be bound to maintain the rules for them and they will do a drawdown on these 2%. And that's what we are proposing. So we say using asphalt is good but you have to be bound by that, that 15 years the road will not fail and you will not come to access for more than 5% of the UP. And using concrete is 50 years and you are bound by the UP. And the other chairman of the Senate Committee and Works, Senator Barinada Npigi, represents in Riva's East. In his opening remarks urged the Minister to ensure the budget of the Ministry meets the yearning and demands of Nigerians. With the principle of equity, justice and fairness, it's suspected that the budget they are giving to us should reflect on Nigerians and their aspirations.