Welcome again to the Hindu News Analysis brought to you by Shankar Eye's Academy. So in today's discussion we are chosen articles from two newspapers that is from yesterday's newspaper as well as today's newspaper. So these are the list of news articles that we are about to discuss today. So in our discussion we will be having three editorials and we have four other current effort articles which are related with the static part and delt in a holistic manner. So I would advise you to watch through the entire session without skipping in between. So without wasting much time let us get into our discussion. Now for our next news discussion let us take up this news article. So the news article here reports about the Tamil Nadu state governments process of notifying the identified water bodies as wetlands for the sake of conservation purposes. So according to this news article it says that the district level wetland management committee which was established by the Tamil Nadu state wetlands authority they have started the process of notifying certain identified water bodies as wetlands and they are doing this for conservation purposes. So on that line in the first drive around four lakes from Chennai have been identified and these lakes are notified according to the wetland conservation and management rules 2017. And for those who don't know see this wetland conservation and management rules it was notified by the union ministry of environment for the purpose of decentralized management of wetlands. That is this particular act it empowers the state government to identify and also to notify wetlands within their territorial jurisdiction and in addition to identifying and notifying it also empowers them to take certain steps that are necessary to regulate the activities in the areas in and around the wetlands for the purpose of its conservation. See this is actually a step in the right direction because as we know decentralization in any part of governance will help in better management. So this is the essence of this article here. Now keeping these points aside let us take this article about wetlands as an opportunity to brush up our knowledge about wetlands. So first of all let us see what all comes under wetlands or what is a wetland. See according to the Ramsar convention of the year 1971 wetlands are defined as an area in which water is the primary controlling factor in the surrounding environment plants and animals. So in simple words in wetlands the environment plant life and animal life they are majorly determined by water. So according to Ramsar convention wetland may include areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water whether natural or artificial permanent or temporary with water that is static or flowing fresh brackish or salt including areas of marine water whose depth at low tide does not exceed 6 meters. So this is how wetland is defined in Ramsar convention. Now let us decode this definition or I will explain this definition to you in very simple layman terms. So according to the Ramsar convention a wetland may include both a natural or an artificial water body that is a natural lake like that of Kholeru lake and even an artificial lake like that of Pongdam lake can be designated as a wetland under the Ramsar convention. And not just that the water body which is identified as a wetland can be both temporary as well as permanent that is the wetland need not be always covered by water throughout the year. Now say for example when you take the Kholeru National Park which is actually a Ramsar wetland it becomes dry during drought season. So this shows that your wetland need not be filled with water throughout the year. Now the next condition is in a wetland the water can either be static or it can also have a flowing water. So that means both rivers and lakes can be designated as wetlands and the final condition is that the water in the wetland can be fresh it can be brackish or salt and sometimes even marine areas can be designated as a wetland. But when you want to consider a marine area as a wetland it should satisfy a condition that is only those marine areas where the water depth does not exceed 6 meter during load tide could be established as wetlands. So by now we have an idea on wetlands we know what are the various criteria that has to be satisfied for an area to be considered as a wetland. So now let us move on to see the major types of wetland always remember there are six major wetland types and they are man-made wetlands, estuarine wetlands, lacustrine wetlands, riverine wetlands, palustrine wetlands and finally the man-made wetlands. So when I say marine wetlands title itself signifies that it has to do something with sea. So this marine wetlands it includes coastal lagoons and coral reefs and when you take the estuarine wetlands it includes the deltas, the tidal marshes and also the mangrove swamps and coming to the lacustrine wetlands it generally includes lakes and the wetlands along rivers and streams will come under the category of riverine wetlands. And then when you take wetlands along marshes, swamps and bogs they are classified as palustrine wetlands and the last but not the least that is the man-made wetlands will include even the fish and shrimp ponds, the farm ponds, irrigated agricultural land, the salt ponds, the reservoirs, the gravel pits, sewage farms and even canals. So these are the six major broad types of wetlands that are identified. Now having discussed the definition, the types and also the classification of wetlands according to Ramsar convention, now let us move on to see the importance of wetlands or in other words let us now see why these wetlands have to be conserved. See the convention of biological diversity lists the following as the importance of wetlands. Now before going into the following points I wanted to share with you an important information. See the reason for me to mention about this convention of biological diversity here is that in your mains answer if at all you get a question regarding the importance of wetlands instead of writing your own points it is always good if you are mentioning any valid source because doing that will give legitimacy to your answer and it will also helps you to get more marks which will be beneficial in the longer run. So coming back to the importance of wetlands, see firstly wetlands perform various water related environment services say like that of regulating water quantity, then ground water recharge and also it contributes to the regulation of floods and the impacts of storm and apart from these it also helps in erosion control. So all these ecosystem services improve water security including security from natural hazards and also climate change adaptation. So this is one importance why we need to conserve the wetlands. Now secondly wetlands are one of the most productive habitats of the world that is with a rich nutrient cycling mechanism these wetlands they offer a very good species diversity in plants and animals. Now the third importance of wetlands is that these wetlands are a major habitat for world's water birds and also for migratory birds. So this is because these wetlands they provide for the birds a very good and nutritious feeding and breeding ground and the next importance is that wetlands are an important source of food. Now say for example let's take a well-managed rice paddy systems. Now generally in such a well-managed rice paddy system not only the rice is produced but then it also co-benefits from rice associated biodiversity say like providing habitat for some fishes and crustaceans like crabs and when you take inland wetlands they are actually an important source of fish production especially in India and the final importance is that wetlands also have a high recreational historical scientific and also cultural values and they also support recreational activities say like that of bird watching then photography and also recreational fishing. So it is for these things also the wetlands needs to be conserved. So these are some of the importance of wetlands according to the convention of biological diversity. So to conclude the discussion say in the segment we discussed about the wetlands conservation and management rules of 2017. We saw the official definition of wetlands and we also saw water all the water bodies that could be recognized as a wetland under the Ramsar convention and we also learned about the types of wetlands and also the need to give importance to such environmental habitat. So with this let us conclude our discussion and we will move on to the next news article. Now our next news discussion is going to be based on this editorial article. See this editorial it aims to address how a planned transition in India's energy generation capabilities will address both India's energy security needs as well as the environmental concern without causing too much burden on the consumers. So this is the ultimate idea based on which this particular editorial is built and the editorial also highlights how this planned transition will actually help India to achieve the sustainable development goal 7.0 which is to ensure the access to affordable, reliable, sustainable as well as modern energy for all. Now before going into the editorial I want to clarify information with you. See this particular editorial is a bit technical but still it gives us insightful ideas about how a blatant focus on renewable mode of power production is not advisable and affordable. So this particular editorial takes a rational view about how India's energy generation mix should be. So therefore I advise the aspirants to read this particular editorial after a discussion here just to have an understanding on how you can structure your mains answer and on how you can take the flow of your answer because this particular editorial has got a great introduction and even the content of the article has got a nice flow and when you look at the conclusion part the editorial says about the benefits that could be attained when this particular plan which we are about to learn is implemented. So please go through this article since it not only helps you in enriching your answer but also gives you an idea of how to frame and standard mains answer. Now without wasting any more time let us get into our discussion. The syllabus covered by this editorial is highlighted below for your reference. So first of all what is energy security? See energy security ensures that there is an uninterrupted supply of energy that to attain affordable price. So this energy supply should also be reliable as well as it should be accessible to all people without any differences. So when you take India see if India wants to become a superpower then it must definitely ensure energy security to its citizens. See at present India actually faces two major hurdles when it comes to ensuring energy security for all. So the first hurdle is the massive population because as we know the population of India is quite high. So supplying energy to its massive population is in itself a huge task for India. Now apart from this there is also another hurdle. So this second hurdle faced by India is to be an environmentally conscious country and to contribute to world efforts to climate security. So on that line India should definitely augment its power production capacity without compromising on the environment. So first let us see the role of thermal power plants in India's march towards an energy secure future. So thanks to the Electricity Act of 2003 because this act paved way for the installation of coal fired thermal power plant generation capacity in India to get doubled from 94 gigawatts to 192 gigawatts between March 2011 and 2017. See this particular sharp increase in the installed capacity has in fact enabled the government to increase the per capita electricity consumption by 37% while at the same time reducing the peak demand deficit from 9.8% which was there in 2010 to 11 to 1.6% in the year 2016 to 17. Now here you should know this concept of peak demand. See this peak demand here means in an electricity power grid the power demand will not always be constant in the sense the power demand is dynamic and it varies constantly.  So for a tropical country like India the peak demand usually occurs in the evening. So this is how India's energy demand graph will look like. So as you can see here it is clearly visible that the peak demand falls around 6 p.m. So here the editorial says that energy deficit during the peak demand fell from 9.8% which was there in the year 2010 to 11 to around 1.6% in the year 2016 to 17 and a lot of contribution towards this was made by the Electricity Act of 2003. So though this is a significant achievement still India's got a long way to achieve or to ensure the energy security. Now I am saying this because India's per capita energy consumption is 1200 kilowatt per capita which is around one third of the world average per capita electricity consumption. See the world average per capita electricity consumption is 3200 kilowatt per hour per capita. See remember this fact India is rich in coal reserves and even the geopolitical situation around India doesn't allow it to have ready access to piped natural gas. So this is one of the major reason why most of the thermal plants in India are coal powered. Make note of this the thermal power plant in India contributes to around 71% of the total electricity that is generated in India. So that means thermal power plants do actually play an important role in making India energy secure. So by now we have a basic understanding about the Electricity Act of 2003 and we also saw on what is meant by peak demand and we also saw the important role played by coal reserves and thermal power plants in India. So now let us see the part which is played by the renewable energy. Now see here the editorial mainly talks about the variable renewable energy. Now see this term variable renewable energy as the name itself says produce energy intermittently instead of on demand. So variable renewable energies will include wind, solar and also tidal. So let's take the example of solar energy. We already saw that in India the peak demand will usually happen in the evening. But when you closely analyze during that time that is during the evening the power production from solar energy will stop to exist. So this implies that the power production capability could not be altered based on the energy demand. So this is one of the major disadvantage of all the variable renewable energy because we cannot have them all the time. Now see as of March 2021 the installed capacity of this variable renewable energy accounted for around 24% of the total installed capacity. But then in the case of power production it contributed only 10% of the total. So to focus on this variable renewable energy the government gave huge subsidies to the sector and thus the installed capacity of this variable renewable energy rapidly increased. But then at the same time there was no corresponding increase in the consumer power demand. So this as of course indirectly led to the low utilization of thermal power plants as well and when you take the current level of this variable renewable energy in the national power grid it is found to be increasing the cost of power procurement for discounts which in turn is leading to the tariff increases for electricity consumers and thus it all pays way for making the power unaffordable which in turn is dampening the power demand increase. So this shows that the India's power transition plan must be pragmatic that is it must reduce the carbon dioxide production but at the same time it must not make power unaffordable. So to achieve this this particular editorial is proposing the following plan about which we are going to discuss now. So first of all according to this editorial the 211 thermal power plants with installed capacity amounting to 36 gigawatts must be retired because these power plants are old and they are also inefficient. So the resulting shortfall caused by it the electricity generation can be made up by increasing the utilization of existing high efficiency low emission thermal power plants that are currently underutilized to accommodate the variable renewable energy. See there are also 47 new government owned thermal power plants that are in the advanced stage of construction so these power plants when commissioned could also help to bridge the 36 gigawatts when the old and inefficient plants are retired. So in addition to this also know that the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited is also constructing around 11 nuclear power plants with a total generation capacity of around 8700 megawatts that has got the capability to supply 24 into 7 power without any carbon dioxide emission. So with the implementation of this transition plan the total installed capacity of the thermal power plants will be increasing from the current level of 209 gigawatts as on September 2021 to around 220 gigawatts by the financial year 2029 to 30 and that too even after retiring 211 inefficient and obsolete thermal power plants that are more than 25 years old and also know that the combined thermal and nuclear capacity of around 235 gigawatts can meet the base load requirement during the evening peak in 2029 to 30. See already we saw what is meant by peak load right. So there is also a related term called as base load. See base load is nothing but 80 percent of the peak load. So when discussing the variable renewable energy we say that most of the variable renewable energy could meet the evening peak load experienced in India. So to address this huge investment should be made in the battery technology but when the transition plan suggested by the editorial is implemented this investment in batteries is not necessary. So this in turn will make energy more affordable to the customer and also optimal utilization of existing as well as under construction high efficiency low emission thermal power plants with lower technical minimums also facilitates this variable renewable energy integration. When this energy transition plan is implemented India's power generation from the thermal power plants is expected to reduce from the financial year 2021 level of 71 percent to just 57 percent of the total energy which is projected to be generated by the power utilities during the financial year 2029 to 30 and more importantly the share of the inefficient thermal power plants with obsolete technology in the total thermal power plants generation capacity will also reduce from the financial year 2018 to 19 level of 46 percent to just 4 percent. So what happens is due to this significant reduction in the old and inefficient power generation from thermal power plants the total carbon dioxide emissions from the power sectors will be going down by around 57 metric tons even as coal fired electricity generation is projected to increase by 21 percent in the year 2029 to 30 and this will actually help us in achieving energy security. So the new high efficiency low emission thermal power plants will have high efficiency electrostatic precipitators which are attached to them and this will help them in bringing down the particulate matter emission and the additional benefits apart from this includes the lower emission of sulphur dioxide and also nitrogen oxides and due to the higher efficiency the coal consumption and the water consumption in the power plants will also be reduced. So this plan will in short ensure energy security and at the same time it will also ensure environmental security and this plan ultimately demonstrates India's commitment to the climate change mitigation by optimizing the use of our land, our coal, our water and even our financial resources with indigenous technology. So these are the important points this editorial has given to us. So with these discussed points in mind let us conclude this editorial discussion and move on to see what the next news articles got to tell us. Now look at this news article. The news article here talks about the amendments which were proposed to the wildlife protection act of 1972 which is shortly known as the WPA 1972. See this wildlife protection act was initially framed in the year 1972 and the reason for framing it was that there was a rapid decline of India's wild animals as well as birds. So on that line some became extinct and some were even subjected to other dangers like poaching but then the existing laws were found to be insufficient or outdated because such laws they controlled hunting but then they did not emphasize on other factors that were also leading to the decline of wildlife say like that of trade in wildlife. So there was a need to enhance the protection to wildlife. So in this backdrop the WPA or the Wildlife Protection Act was enacted with the objective of providing the protection to such wild animals, birds and plants whose numbers were decreasing and it was also done to ensure the ecological and the environmental security of the country. See as we know the WPA or the Wildlife Protection Act protects wildlife by listing them under schedules and remember there are six schedules in the act and these schedules they provide different levels of protection to various species. Now say for example hunting and commercial exploitation of wild animals which are included in various schedules is prohibited along with certain exceptions additionally any offence which is committed in respect of these scheduled species also attracts punishment. So with this background let us look into the proposed amendments. So by now we have a basic understanding about Wildlife Protection Act and its basic framework and we also saw as to how or the reason why this particular act was enacted. So now let us move on to see the amendments which were proposed to this act. See the amendments to this act will be brought by a proposed act called the Wildlife Protection Amendment Act of 2021 and the central government is asked the various state governments and the union territories to submit their views or their comments on the amendments. See there are two major criticisms surrounding this amendment act. So the first criticism is that the proposed amendments document was not kept in the public domain for public scrutiny but rather this has been kept confidential. See generally any changes to any legislation are kept in public domain and government and they are and they will be inviting comments or objections for it from the public environmentalist or other stakeholders but then now this form has been violated or it has not been followed so this is one criticism. Now coming to the second criticism. See secondly the proposed amendments were not published in vernacular languages so let us see whether the judiciary intervenes and invites public opinion in this regard. See now since the proposed amendments document is not available in public domain we are going to see the proposed amendments has mentioned in the article given so firstly the amendment proposes to reduce the number of schedules in the wildlife protection act. See we saw that as of now there are six schedules which are providing various level of protection to the wildlife. So here the critic feels that this is actually an unnecessary move. Now secondly it proposes that is the amendment proposes to establish an authority called the standing committee of state board for wildlife. Now this committee is said to consist of a wise chairperson, a member secretary and not more than 10 members and it is said that this particular committee will be having similar powers to that of the standing committee of national board for wildlife. So according to the critics this move will weaken the state wildlife board because of two major reasons. Now the first reason for saying so is because certain responsibilities of the state board for wildlife might be transferred to its standing committee. See currently the state board for wildlife has got important responsibilities say like that of the selection and the management of areas which are to be declared as protected areas. Now secondly the committee will also delay the decisions of the state board for wildlife and there is also a fear that the meeting of this state board will not be held regularly like that of the national board and this is because even though this national board is shared by the prime minister it also has a standing committee and is not met for the last seven years. So because of that there is also a fear that even the state board will end up in a similar way. Now coming to the third amendment see the third lead this amendment proposes to insert a new section called as 42A into the act and this particular section is regarding the surrender of wild animals and products. So according to this particular proposed section any article or any animal which are surrendered shall become the property of the state government. So these are the important provisions which are proposed in this amendment. So by now we have a broad understanding of the WPA Act and its framework its origin and we also have a fair knowledge on the amendments which is proposed recently. So now let's move on to the next news discussion. Now look at this oped article see this oped article is regarding a discussion about the implications of the sale of air India and this is basically a conversation between few important significant persons and if you remember the government introduced a bold new disinvestment policy in this year's budget and this policy envisions an absolute minimum presence of government owned firms even in strategic sectors and if you had noticed in this financial year alone the government is pursuing the sale of its whole ownership in public sector companies like BPCL, Shipping Corporation of India, IDBI Bank, two other public sector banks and even in one general insurance business. So considering India's recent record of disinvestment earlier this month also the Tata Group emerged as the winning bidder for air India which is a debt laden national carrier. So this is the content or the basic underlying theme of this oped article. So without wasting much time let us get into our discussion the syllabus covered by this oped is highlighted below for your reference. So first of all what is privatization? See privatization can be defined as the process through which a piece of property or a business passes from government ownership to private ownership. So to put it in simple words privatization is the process in which the transfer of ownership or property or even business takes place from the government to the private sector. So that means once a property or a business is sold the government will stop to be the owner of that particular entity or business. So in this process what actually happens is that a publicly traded company will be taken over by a few people or in layman term by a private sector and the stock of that company will no longer be traded in the stock market and the general public will also be barred from holding stake in such a company. And also remember this see government owned businesses can be converted into private businesses in two major ways that is the transfer of ownership from government to the private can be done in two ways. So the first way is through the withdrawal of the government from the ownership and from the management of public sector companies. Now coming to the second way see apart from the withdrawal of the government from the ownership and the management of public sector companies this transfer of ownership can also be done through the outright sale of public sector companies. See apart from this there is also a very important concept called disinvestment about which we are going to discuss now. See privatization of the public sector undertakings by the selling of parts of the equity of these public sector undertakings to the private sector is known as disinvestment. See as we know the public sector undertakings are the basic wealth of the nation so promoting such ownership of the central public sector enterprises will actually ensure that this wealth remains in the hands of the people. So the key difference between the privatization and disinvestment is that in privatization the government will sell more than 50% of its share holdings whereas when you take disinvestment the share holdings less than 50% is sold by the government. So now we know what is privatization we know what is disinvestment and we also know what is the difference between privatization and disinvestment. So now let us move on to see why the government promote privatization and disinvestment. See usually the reasoning for this transfer is that the privately owned businesses are subjected to market discipline because of which they are expected to be more efficient. So a similar argument for privatization is that the privately owned businesses are in fact more valuable and they are also more well maintained when compared to that of the government owned businesses. Coming to this context see the main purpose of the sale is to improve the financial discipline and also to facilitate modernization and as per the title it generally helps the governments to save money and to increase the efficiency of the public sector undertaking where private companies can move goods quicker as well as more efficiently and apart from this as you know the increased inflow of FDI also improves the financial strength of the company and on that line privatization actually helps us by providing a strong base for the inflow of the foreign direct investment. So this is a broad overview of the underlying concept of this editorial. Now let us move on to see the important points that are mentioned here in a very crisp manner. See as I said already earlier this month the Tata group they emerged as the winning bidder for Air India and if you know Air India is a dead laden national carrier and now it is got privatized. So according to this article this successful privatization of Air India is actually viewed to be as a watershed moment in Indian history and on that line many more loss making units that are constantly draining taxpayers can also be found strategic purchasers by deploying the right sweetener. So this is the ultimate essence of this op-ed but to put it in simple layman words see instead of draining the taxpayers money by owing loss making units it is going to be more helpful if the ownership is transferred to a private enterprise which will ultimately result in the restoration of economic stability and having said that through this sale of Air India we can actually expect that the Tata group's acquisition of ownership will also set a precedent for privatization in India and with that let us close this op-ed discussion and with the learned concepts in mind let's move on to the next news discussion. Now let us take up this article for our discussion. So this article reports about an incident of unauthorized export of the genetically modified rice from India to Europe and this incident is currently under investigation by the centre. So this is the reason why the news article has gained headlines. Now before getting further into the discussion let us brush up our basics regarding the genetically modified organism and we'll also have a quick understanding of the conventional transgenic technology. So the first question is what is a genetically modified organism? See according to the WHO or the World Health Organization genetically modified organisms are those organisms in which the genetic material that is the DNA has been altered in a way that has not occurred naturally by mating or by natural recombination and when I say genetically modified organism it is not just limited to only plants or only animals but rather a genetically modified organism can be either a plant or an animal or even microorganisms as well. See one point that you should note here is that this genetic recombination not only occurs artificially but then it also occurs naturally as well. So naturally this genetic recombination occurs during the meiosis type of cell division that takes place between the prophase one and metaphase one by a process called crossover. So you just remember this term that even naturally genetic recombination occurs and it occurs during the process of crossing over. So when you take this crossing over process this is actually a very slow and also a random process and this does not necessarily always lead to advantageous traits. So in the case of genetically modified organisms what we do is we use modern biotechnology in order to select individual genes that are to be transferred from one organism into another and also between non-related species. So this on the other hand is actually a fast and a targeted process and such foods which are produced from or by using these genetically modified organisms are often referred to as genetically modified foods. So some examples of such genetically modified foods can be the B.T. cotton or even the Dada mustard hybrid leaven which was developed by the Delhi University. So by now we know what is a genetically modified organism and we also know what is a genetically modified crop or genetically modified foods. So now let us see some of the positives and negatives that are associated with such genetically modified organisms or genetically modified foods. See one of the major objectives for developing such plants which are based on genetically modified organisms is to improve the crop protection. See when you take the genetically modified crops which are currently on the market they are mainly aimed at an increased level of crop protection through the introduction of resistance against those plant diseases which are caused by insects or virus or through increased tolerance towards herbicides. Now see for example the resistance against insects they are achieved by incorporating into the plant say like that of cotton or brinjal the gene for toxin production from the bacterium called bacillus thuringiensis and this is the reason why they are called B.T. cotton or B.T. brinjal because of the bacillus thuringiensis which is incorporated into this plant. So what happens is this toxin is currently used as a conventional insecticide in agriculture and also this toxin is actually safe for human consumption. So what happens is such genetically modified crops that inherently produce this toxin they have been shown to require lower quantities of insecticides in specific situations. So in India this as we all know B.T. cotton was the very first variety of genetically modified crop that was approved for commercialization or sale and Monsanto which is a US based agrochemical company what they did is they actually released two varieties of bull guard namely bull guard one in the year 2002 and bull guard two in the year 2006 and the main reason behind it was to provide immunity against pink bull worm. So if you have noticed in the 2021 prelims there was actually a question regarding this bull guard one and two. So once you get done with this discussion please try to attempt that question because after this discussion I'm pretty sure you'll be having a fair understanding of the issue. Now keeping that aside let's come back see the other advantages of such genetically modified crops includes the reduction of spoilage that is the shelf life of these crops can be increased and apart from this some of the other advantages of the genetically modified crops include the increase of the nutrient profile of the crop say like that in the case of golden rice and also the introducing of drought resistance in crops and also making the crops salt resistant. Now here one thing you should keep in mind see the application of this genetically modifying technology is not just limited to crops but say for example actually scientists at present they are working with genetically modified mice in order to develop male contraceptive pills. So while learning you please pay attention to such informations because in prelims they might cover those areas where there are possibility of having less awareness or understanding. So in prelims be careful because UPSC might ask some lesser known advantages and also the applications of the GM technology like the one which I have mentioned earlier because such questions can actually increase our probability of guessing the wrong answer. See most of the times we cover an issue comprehensively but then you can also do some research on your part and you try to take note of all the wide ranging applications of a particular concept which we are learning and you try to make a holistic note for yourself in such a way that you need not refer to any sources further. Now coming back by now we have a fair understanding of the pros or the positives that are associated with this GM technology. Now let's move on to see the negatives that are related to the GM technology. So when you look at the cons of GM technology actually the cons of this technology can be grouped under three heads like the environmental concern, the economic concern and also the ethical concern which are surrounding this genetically modified crops or genetically modified organisms. Now first comes the environmental concern. See the environmental concern of the GM technology or the GM crops includes the adverse effect of these GM crops on the species diversity. Now sometimes this GM technology could also result in the transfer of genes from one crop to another and this result in the creation of super weeds which will be immune to common control methods. Apart from this the genetically modified microbes cannot times turn into superbugs by gaining resistance to common antibiotics. So these are some of the common environmental concerns that are associated with the genetically modified organisms. Now coming to the next part which is the economic concern. See developing the genetically modified organisms are a time and resource consuming process. So thus it doesn't make financial sense to actually invest in the GM technology considering the alternatives and then there is also the issue of farmers losing the control to few multinational companies and finally another economic concern is that many GM crops are not providing the promised yield and the yield which they are providing is also declining with each passing year like in the case of BT cotton in India. Now coming to the last part see as I said earlier there is also an ethical concern regarding the genetically modified organisms because some feel that these GM crops are in violation of natural organisms intrinsic values by mixing among species. So by now we have covered the basics of GM technology and we have also covered some of the pros and cons associated with this technology. So with this understanding now let us once again get back to the article which was in use today. See the scientists from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute are currently working on the technology that would actually help us in genetically modifying plants without using the controversial transgenic technology. Now let me explain this to you for a better understanding. See here the scientists are actually altering the genetic makeup of the plant for getting desired traits but the main point to note here is that they are trying to do this without introducing a foreign gene. Now let us once again go back to the BT cotton. See when you take the BT cotton it is a genetically modified crop and it is also a transgenic crop. So I am calling this genetically modified because it's genome is altered. Similarly I call it a transgenic crop because it has a foreign gene incorporated into it and that foreign gene is the bacillus thuringiensis because of which it has got the name BT cotton. Now coming back see here as per the news article the scientists at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute they're actually trying to develop a high yielding and resilient rice variety by using gene eroting technology but they are trying to do it without introducing a foreign gene. So that means this high yielding rice variety is genetically modified but it is not a transgenic crop because it does not have a foreign gene into it. So to conclude just have this point in mind that all transgenic organisms are genetically modified because their gene makeup is altered but then it is not always necessary that all genetically modified organisms are transgenic that is it is not always necessary that for all the genetically modified organisms to have a foreign gene into them. So I think you can understand the concept here. Now moving on further see the gene editing tool which is used here as mentioned in the article is the site directed nucleus shortly called as SDN 1 and 2 and this technology offers more precision and it also offers more efficiency while using the genome editing technology like CRISPR. So the issue here is that the scientific community bear of the view that this type of genetic modification which is done without the introduction of a foreign gene must be placed under the conventional breeding techniques. So when I say conventional breeding techniques it includes those techniques like cross pollination, hybrid breeding, self fertilization etc. See and the reason for the scientists to advise to keep this genetic modification technology to keep this genetic modification technology under the conventional breeding is that when classified under conventional breeding the technology will attract less scrutiny by the genetic engineering appraisal committee. So for those who have not heard about this genetic engineering appraisal committee see they are the apex body who desired on the approval for the research and commercialization of transgenic organisms. Coming back the final take regarding this has been produced before the GAAC and it's been pending for two years until now there's no decision being taken. So this is the ultimate crux of the news article mentioned here. So to conclude in this statement we have covered many aspects of GM technology and we also saw about a new technology that involves gene editing without the use of conventional transgenic technology. So I hope that you guys have got a fair understanding of the issue discussed today. So now with these take away points in mind let us wind up this discussion and move on to the next news article. Now let us take up this news article. So this news article reports about a prime minister's visit to Glasgow on the 31st of this month to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference or COP26 and the news article is also brought to light. In that summit the one world one solar one grid initiative is expected to be launched where at least 120 world leaders have confirmed their attendance. So this is the basic crux of the article here. So in this context let us briefly see about the conference of parties or the COP which is in limelight at today's article. See the conference of parties is the supreme decision making body of the convention of the United Nations Climate Change Conference and all states that are parties to the convention are represented at the COP in which they will review the implementation of the convention and any other legal instruments which this conference of parties adopt. Now apart from this they also make decisions which are necessary to promote the effective implementation of the convention which includes both institutional as well as administrative arrangements. Have in mind one of the most important task or a key task for this conference of parties is to review the national communications and the emission inventories which are submitted by the parties. So based on this information the conference of parties they assess the effects of the measures which are taken by the parties and also the progress that is made in achieving the ultimate objective or the ultimate aim of the convention. Remember this conference of parties they meet every year unless the parties decide otherwise. Now coming to the COP26 remember the United Kingdom will be hosting the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the parties which is shortly known as COP26 and this is going to happen in Glasgow on the 31st of October this year and it will span till the 12th of November 2021. See the conference will also be a crucial opportunity to achieve important transformational change in global climate policy and action. As we know climate change impacts are now affecting each and every region on the earth and on that line this COP26 comes against a theme of extensive rapid and intensifying climate change consequences and furthermore this COP26 also takes place against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic with the urgent need to rebuild a secure future for the current and future generations. I will very briefly give you the goals of this United Nations Climate Change Conference or the COP26. See this COP26 or the United Nations Climate Change Conference has got four major goals and they are to secure global net zero by mid-century and to keep 1.5 degrees within reach and the second goal is to adapt to protect communities and natural habitats and the third is to mobilize finance and then the final goal is to work together to deliver the best possible results and with this let us wind up this news discussion and move on to the next part of our Hindu news analysis. Now let us take up this editorial for our next discussion. So this editorial basically talks about the recent Moscow format dialogue that was held on the 20th of this month and the editorial goes on to talk about on how India and regional powers should engage in a dialogue with the Taliban in order to ensure the stability in the Afghanistan region and also to make sure that the Taliban government uphold the rights of the Afghani citizens. So this is the ultimate essence of this editorial article. So come let us move into our discussion. The syllabus covered by this editorial is displayed below so kindly go through it. Now before going into the article let us briefly get to know about the history of the Taliban's so far. See it all started in the year 1978 when Afghanistan witnessed a USSR backed revolution and three persons are important in this issue. One is Noor Muhammad Taraki and the next one is Afizullah Amin and another person is Babrak Karmal. So what happened is these three persons they initiated a revolution and they established the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan through that revolution and then following that a pro-Soviet government was established and the communist government they tried to implement the land reforms but then it was executed very poorly and this led to massive rural poverty. So what happened is naturally people they started to resort to civil disobedience and they tried to control of the city of Herat. So therefore in order to bring down the people's movement the government they started engaging in aerial bombing of its very own citizens in the city of Herat and this resulted in a death toll of up to 25,000 people according to some estimates and this incident resulted in a nationwide armed rebellion and these rebels were called the Mujahidin whose initial aim was anti-communism and not Islamism. Okay so the Mujahidin people they evolved with an initial aim of anti-communism only and at that time they did not have much intense objectives related to Islamism and these people that is the Mujahidins they were backed by the United States, Pakistan and also Saudi Arabia and then moving on further in the year 1979 the Soviet army they started to invade Afghanistan in the name of protecting the communist government. See the key advantage of Mujahidins was that they lack unity and they also lack a central command because without a central command the Soviets were not able to bring the Mujahidin to the negotiation table. So recognizing their disadvantageous position and also recognizing that they couldn't do much as expected this Soviet troops they withdrew themselves from Afghanistan in the year 1989. So obviously this resulted in a Mujahidin victory so that means in 1989 the Soviet troops they came out of Afghanistan. See after this Soviet withdrawal Afghanistan fell into a civil war and this civil war lasted from 1989 to 1996 and then while this was happening another important development also took place and that is the Taliban's. See the word Taliban refers to students in Pashto language and these Taliban's they emerged in the early 1990s in the parts of northern Pakistan. So being a newly formed Islamic Malaysia these Taliban they rose to power on promises of peace that is they came to power by proclaiming that they give more importance to peace and also by proclaiming that they will bring peace soon to the region. And as I told you at that time the situation there was very deteriorating so most of guns they were exhausted by the years of drought, famine and war. So what happened being in such a deteriorating situation they instantly gave support to the Taliban for upholding traditional Islamic values and the Taliban's also kept their promise and on that line they started cracking down on crime and this resulted in them getting more and more support eventually from the Afghan people. But then they have one shortcoming that is the Taliban's tried to curtail the education and employment of women and and even today this is one of the major controversy surrounding the Taliban's reign. See according to Taliban's they required women to be fully and they are also not allowed outside alone and know that these Taliban's they stayed in power for approximately five years that is from 1996 to 2001 when the United States invaded Afghanistan. And on that line as we all are aware recently the United States under the Joe Biden administration they finally decided to withdraw themselves from Afghanistan and this once again gave the Taliban's the chance to come to power in the year 2021. So this is a very brief history of the modern Afghanistan so with this background let us now get into the editorial discussion. See initially India actually did not recognize the Taliban government but in this state was changed with the signing of the joint statement in Moscow because through that signing India actually signaled the world that it has accepted the new reality that is happening in Afghanistan and in fact this is a very decisive shift in India's approach to Afghanistan. See earlier when the Taliban was closing in on Kabul India established contacts with the Taliban office in Doha Qatar but then this physical meeting is the very first time that Indian officials are directly engaging with the Afghanistan delegation. See recently in the United Nations General Assembly our Indian Prime Minister spoke about the Afghan situation and while talking about it he mentioned that the world countries have got the responsibility to help the women children and minorities of Afghanistan and they also got the responsibility to help in Afghanistan's developmental needs. So this is now put into motion since the Afghan spokesperson later claimed that India promised to send aid to Afghanistan so this is also a welcome move on India's side. So now let us see what interest does India have in establishing a stable Afghanistan government. So come let us go over those points one by one. See the first and foremost is that India has made a lot of investments which are worth billions in Afghanistan. For example we have helped Afghanistan to build the Afghanistan parliament in the year 2015 and then in 2016 we helped them build the Salma Dam and apart from that we have also invested in many infrastructure projects. So it is very straight that in order to safeguard India's investment we have no other option than to have a stable Afghanistan. Now next on line is India's concern regarding the Taliban making Afghanistan a safe haven for terrorist groups. See when Taliban was previously in power which was between the year 1996 to 2001 India had experienced an increase in violation especially in the Jammu and Kashmir due to the activity of the Lashkar E. Taiba and the Jais E. Mohamed. See the both the terms which are used now that is the Lashkar E. Taiba and the Jais E. Mohamed are organization who are known to have some bases in Afghanistan. So though the new Taliban regime has promised that its territory would not be used by terrorist organizations still India has got the responsibility and also the need to ensure that the government keep their promise. And then finally by engaging with Taliban the India must also make sure that the Taliban's doesn't act as Pakistan's satellite. So in order to ensure whether all the above mentioned concerns of India concerns of India are addressed we have an urgent need to ensure that Afghanistan has got a stable government. So by now we have a broad understanding of the history of Afghanistan the history of Taliban's they emergence and we also saw on how Afghanistan is important to India and why there is a need for us to pave way for a stable government in Afghanistan. So now let us move on to discuss the editorial which talks on how India must approach the Taliban government. See the economy of Afghanistan is actually at shambles because after the Taliban took over the IMF they withheld around 450 million dollars that it was supposed to give to Afghanistan and then the United States they froze nine billion dollars of international reserves of the Afghanistan central bank. So therefore for the Taliban in order to keep the economy of Afghanistan afloat it really needs some regional help. So it is the right time for India to get into this because India should make use of this advantage. See India bilaterally does not enjoy much clout with regards to the Taliban. So in order to engage India should actually follow the regional policy rather than the bilateral one. So the Moscow format in which around 10 countries which includes India, China, Pakistan, Iran, Russia and Central Asian powers participated is actually a good way for India to engage with the Taliban and even the neighboring countries of Afghanistan also want a stable government so that the terrorist activity doesn't spill over to their own territory. So on that line we must engage with all the regional powers who stand to benefit from a stable Afghanistan in order to negotiate with the Taliban. So through this collective economic and political clout India has got an opportunity to mount the pressure on the Taliban to ensure that an inclusive government is established, the concerns of the various minorities are addressed and the right and also whether the rights of the women and children are ensured. So finally on that line India should also ensure whether the Taliban keep their promises. So to conclude here in this segment we actually saw the brief history of Afghanistan in order to gain perspective and then we looked into the Moscow format dialogue that took place recently and then we also saw what are all the India's interest in Afghanistan and then we finally concluded by seeing how India must engage with the Taliban's in future. See if you had been constantly following the newspaper and also our interview analysis you will be definitely knowing that Afghanistan is a news often and in fact we have covered Afghanistan in most of our discussions and we have had a multi-dimensional approach towards the issue wherein we addressed or we discussed the various aspects of India-Afghanistan relationship. So what actually you can do today is instead of you know taking notes of the entire session you try to add the points that we discussed today in your notes along with the aspects that we have discussed earlier because it not only helps you to have a broad understanding over the issue but it will also help you in enriching your notes which would be of a great help to you in the last minute revision during the main's preparation and by doing that you can also gain a holistic understanding of the issue with wide-ranging aspects while revising it. So with this let us conclude this editorial discussion and move on to the next part of our Hindu news analysis. Now look at this question related to the WPA Act. See with reference to the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 consider the following statements. Statement 1 its objective is to control poaching, smuggling and illegal trade in wildlife. Statement 2 as per the Act wildlife includes only the animals and birds and statement 3 it has six schedules providing different level of protection to the wildlife. So we need to find the correct answer here. So when you take the first statement as we discussed earlier its objective is to control the poaching, smuggling and also the illegal trade in wildlife. So that makes the first statement correct. Now coming to the second statement which says that as per the Act wildlife includes only the animals and the birds is incorrect. Now this is because as per the Act wildlife includes any animal, aquatic or land vegetation which forms part of any habitat. So that means it includes all animals, birds and even plants and further more a separate schedule called as schedule 6 is also there which protects plants by listing them as specified plants. So that makes the second statement incorrect. Now coming to the third statement it says that this particular Act has got six schedules providing different levels of protection to the wildlife. So this statement again is a right statement as of now but then this statement is subjected to change if the amendment is passed because if the amendment is passed then the number of schedules may change. So as of now this statement is right. So since we need to find only the correct statements here the right option will be option B which is 1 and 3 only. Now look at this question about wetlands. Consider the following statements regarding wetlands conservation and management rules 2017. So the first statement is that it provides for the creation of central wetland regulatory authority. The second statement says the identification of wetlands is done by the center and the third statement is that the central wetland regulatory authority performs the role of advisory body and then the fourth statement says that the 2017 rules included water bodies such as backwaters, lagoons, creeks and estuaries into the definition of wetlands. So here again we need to find the correct statement. So when you take the first statement this particular statement is incorrect because the central wetland regulatory was created by the 2010 rules and the 2017 rules replaced the central water regulatory authority with the national water committee. So that means the first statement is incorrect. Now coming to the second statement so this statement too is incorrect because as we saw in the discussion it is the state government which will be identifying the water bodies for conservation and not the center. So second statement too is incorrect. Now coming to the third statement so this statement again falls out to be wrong and you can even guess this by reading the first statement itself because the central water regulatory body is replaced by the national water committee and this body performs the role of advisory body. So this statement too is incorrect so the first second and third statement they all are incorrect. Now coming to the fourth statement this statement again is incorrect because actually the 2017 rules they removed the water bodies like backwaters, lagoons, creeks and estuaries from the definition and they did not include it as mentioned in the article here. See according to the Ramsar these water bodies they come under wetlands but according to wetlands conservation and management rules 2017 they cannot be notified as wetlands by the states. So since none of the options given here are right the correct answer here will be option D that is none of the above. Now look at this prelims practice question. The question is that which of the following are the application of DNA recombinant technology and we have five statements given here. So the first statement is development of vaccines. The second statement is bioengineered crops with good biomass and biofuel production capability. The third statement is the synthesis of glucose from sucrose. The fourth statement is the monitoring degradation of garbage and industrial waste. And the fifth statement is converting plants performing C3 cycle to plants performing C4 cycle. See all the options that are given here are in fact the applications of DNA recombinant technology and since all the statement given here are correct the correct option here will be option D which is 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Apart from this I advise you to make it a point to search for other lesser known applications of genome editing as well and you try to update them in your study notes because there are higher possibility for other applications to be asked in statement based question especially in the prelims. So it is always better to be fully prepared. Now moving on to the next question which is about the conference of parties of the COP26. So the question is which of the following are the goals of the COP26 of the United Nations framework convention on climate change? So the first statement is to secure global net zero by mid-century and to keep 1.5 degrees within reach. The second statement is to adapt to protect communities and natural habitats and then the third statement is to mobilize finance. See in our discussion itself I have clearly mentioned the four main goals of this COP26 and all the three goals that are given here is three statements are part of the four goals. So that means all the statements given here are correct and since they are correct the correct answer here will be option D that is 1, 2 and 3. See you can't predict UPSC's trend in asking questions because this is evident even with this year's question paper because we had questions from sports as well after a very long time. So whatever you're learning you try to make a note of it and you try to go through them even at the last moment. See UPSC doesn't demand our knowledge on everything but it demands us to know something about everything. So on that line it is always good to be prepared for the adverse and the most difficult situations and that preparation can come only if we are consistent in what we are doing and if we are dedicated towards what we do on a daily basis. The list of main questions are here so aspirants please write your answers and post them in the comment section for us to review it. So with this we have come to the end of today's end of news analysis and if you had liked my video then please don't forget to like, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IA's academy youtube channel for more updates regarding UPSC civil services preparation.


gift economy, the gift economy, gift culture. Your gift exchange is a motive exchange where valuables are not traded or sold, but rather given without an explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards. This exchange contrasts with a barter economy or a market economy, where goods and services are primarily exchanged for value received. Social norms and custom-governed gift exchange gifts are not given in an explicit exchange of goods or services for money or some other commodity. The nature of gift economies forms the subject of a foundational debate in anthropology. Anthropological research into gift economies began with Brunas law Malinowski's description of the Kula Ring in the Trollbrie and islands during World War I. The Kula trade appeared to be gift-like since Trabriandus would travel great distances over dangerous seas to give what were considered valuable objects without any guarantee of aid. Return Malinowski's debate with the French anthropologist Marcel Moss quickly established the complexity of gift exchange and introduced a series of technical terms such as reciprocity, inalienable possessions, and prestation to distinguish between the different forms of exchange. According to anthropologists Maurice Bloch and Jonathan Perry, it is the unsettled relationship between market and non-market exchange that attracts the most attention. Gift economies are said, by some, to build communities, with the market serving as an asset on those relationships. Gift exchange is distinguished from other forms of exchange by a number of principles, such as the form of property rights governing the articles exchanged, whether gifting forms the distinct sphere of exchange that can be characterized as an economic system and the character of the social relationship that the gift exchange establishes. Gift ideology in highly commercialized societies differs from the prestations typical of non-market societies. Gift economies must also be differentiated from several closely related phenomena, such as common property regimes and the exchange of non-commodified labor.


Premier Zhao, ladies and gentlemen, Nancy and I are delighted to welcome you here tonight. We hope to return it in at least a small way the kind hospitality that has been extended to us since we first set foot in this magnificent city. For Americans, Mr. Premier, the very mention of China holds a sense of allure. It conjures up images of the Yangtze River, alive with traditional fanquan and modern steamers, with the wide deserts of the north of the bamboo forests in the southwest that are home to pandas, golden monkeys, and so many other animals native only to China, of the rich productive fields and farmlands of the east, and of the huge cities like Beijing and Shanghai. All these provide a sharp contrast with America and remind us of China's sweep and vitality. Yet what strikes us most, perhaps, is the sense of China's history. Chinese records date back 3,500 years. Kingdoms rose and fell in China long before we in the west saw the rise and fall of Rome. And your people were creating and building architectural wonders more than a thousand years before Christopher Columbus discovered America. By contrast, Mr. Premier, it was barely four centuries ago that the first European settlers landed on our eastern coast. These hardy men and women and those who followed them came from virtually every nation in Europe. They fell trees, planted crops, built towns, and established legislatures. Later, many thousands came from China and joined the pioneers who were establishing farms and towns in the American west. I have to interject here and think, if they had only come earlier and the earliest had come across the Pacific instead of the Atlantic, the capital would now be in California. But together, these diverse peoples build a great and free nation. Today, that nation represents a powerful force for peace in the world and is leading a technological revolution that ranges from tiny microchips to voyages through the vastness of space. Our national experience is instilled in all Americans certain fundamental beliefs. It has taught us that for a nation to prosper, there must be peace and that for men and women to work together, they must respect each other's rights. And just as these beliefs guide our dealings with one another, they've guided us from the first in our dealings with other nations. Just over a century ago, Ulysses S. Grant, then a former president, came to China and described America's foreign policy goals to the Chinese leaders of that time. We believe, he said, that fair play, consideration for the rights of others, and respect for international law will always command the respective nations and lead to peace. I know of no other consideration that enters into our foreign relations. Well, the policy that President Grant described then remains our policy now. For nearly four decades, the United States and her allies have kept the peace in Europe. Throughout the world, the United States is supporting the causes of national self-determination and economic progress. And in the interest of peace for our children and our children's children, we're working to achieve an equitable and balanced reduction of nuclear arms. Our aims and commitments are fully consistent with the sovereignty, independence, and economic development of all nations, including China. We seek no expansion, but the expansion of goodwill and opportunity, no victory, but the victory of peace. China and the United States, Mr. Premier, differ markedly in their values, forms of government, and economic systems. To ignore or understate our differences would be to do an injustice to both. But we both believe that despite our differences, our people are united in their desire to resist foreign threats, raise their families in prosperity and peace, and go as far in this life as their intelligence and imagination might take them. We hold more than enough in common to provide firm ground on which we can work together for the benefit of both. In the 12 years, since the long silence between our nations was broken by the signing of the Shanghai Communique, China and America have begun a productive partnership. Our cooperation has helped to provide a counterbalance to aggressive world forces. In recent years, we have formed new and important bonds in other fields as well, expanding our cultural and academic exchanges. One figure tells a big part of the story. Just five years ago, there were no more than a handful of Chinese and Americans studying in each other's countries. Since then, several hundred American scholars have come to China, and more than 10,000 Chinese students have gone to America. These students are forming the ties of friendship and understanding on which the future of our relationship depends. At the same time, our two nations have begun economic exchanges that are growing in importance every day. Today, China exports tons of foodstuffs, raw materials, and manufactured goods to the United States each year. America, in turn, supplies China with grain, transportation equipment, and scientific instruments, and the United States is helping China to acquire the capital and technology so vital to a growing economy. Already, some of the many joint Chinese American business ventures have begun to bear fruit. This magnificent hotel is the outcome of just such a joint venture. As our relationship has matured, Mr. Premier, both our nations have undergone important changes. In the past 12 years, we in the United States have had four presidential administrations. Each has worked steadfastly to improve the Chinese American friendship. Here in China, you too have had changes in leadership, but you too have remained firmly committed to the friendship between our nations. We in the United States are particularly pleased by the new emphasis on economic development. We congratulate you, Mr. Premier, and the other Chinese leaders will have worked so diligently and boldly to improve the lives of the Chinese people. We recognize that it took courage to set these policies in place, and you have our pledge to give you our full cooperation as you modernize your nation's economy. To view China and the United States as immense lands a world apart is to see one aspect of the truth. But in this century, there's another view that is even more meaningful. It is the view of a small green and blue ball spinning in the darkness of space. A site that is so deeply moved, all who have seen it. That view is a view of the future, for it shows one planet, our planet, where all nations seem as close neighbors. Our two nations, Mr. Premier, are firmly committed to that future. So, ladies and gentlemen, please join me in a toast to your health, Mr. Premier, to the health of President Lee, General Secretary Hu, Chairman Dung, and the other Chinese leaders I've been privileged to meet, and to the everlasting friendship of the Chinese and American people. And if I say the final word that I was going to say with the glass that I will hold in my hand, I'm afraid we can't do it. I was going to say, gambe. Gambe. Gambe. Gambe. Gambe. Gambe. Gambe. Gambe. Gambe. Gambe. Gambe. Gambe. Gambe. Gambe. Gambe. Gambe.


One welcome, please, for Lydia Ortega. So I'm so happy to be here. Thank you, Steve and Patricia Donovan, for having me here. This is our second year, the Department of Economics at San Jose State University, as partners with the open group. And you'll be hearing a little bit more about how we're doing that at three different levels right now. We're going to be talking about how it's affecting research. And later on, you'll hear from Mike Jurvik on how it's impacting projects that we do with students. And finally, on student development and internships that we're working on. So it's a very holistic program. Before I begin this talk about one aspect of a research project that I'm starting, I want to give full disclosure. I'm an economist and an academic. The only thing I can confidently say I know about IT is the 10 digit number to the help desk. So that's my disclosure. I have a disclaimer, too. I am responsible for any possible insight that comes from this research. And my good friend and colleague, Mike Jurvik, is responsible for the errors. We specialize in this way. So last summer, after 15 years serving as the chair of the Department of Economics, I was finally let out of the ivory tower. And I found myself in Austin, Texas at my first open group conference. I was characteristically quiet at that conference, just observing everyone, listening in on the conversations as I passed, and watching the interactions that took place. Very creepy, like the NSA. It was my way of handling all the questions that were going through my mind. Questions like, why am I here? Who are these people? And what are they doing? And how are they doing it? Those questions led to this exploration on what economics has to say about the organization of standards groups. How you do what you do. So I think I can go on. I have a few answers now. It is a work in progress. I invite you all to zoom out from your very detailed perception and listen to something from a different language. Because what I heard in the last talk was a different language on that. And there's a lot of value to just immersing yourself in that. And remember, I said zoom out, not zone out on that. I really welcome all your feedback and corrections. I hope it goes on at lunch. I'll be around here through the entire day. Please let me know where I've made incorrect assumptions. When economists have missing information, and believe me, there was a lot of missing information, doesn't stop us. We just make an assumption and go ahead. I'm not sure how much you can do that with IT. But it's our bread and butter in economics. So let's go forward then. And I'll give you the game plan here. We're going to be talking about the, so did the slide change down here? Oh, I didn't use your clicker. I used mine. See, IT. So the first thing I have to do is define the product. And defining standards, talking to people from what I heard last year at the Austin conference, looking up at Wikipedia. There's not a definitive definition of what a standard is.  We're then going to identify the four key features of the open group that most impressed me out of the Austin meeting. And I've also talked to other people about them. And I think they tend to agree that these would be the core features of the open group. And we're going to apply this to economic theory. Now, this is where I thought this part would be easy. All I need to do is look at economic theory of the firm and find the theory that fits the description of open group. But it doesn't exist. So I had to, and that's actually good news, because now that means I can contribute something to the literature. I'm happy about that. But it means I had to piece through and it took me a lot longer. And then we'll talk about next steps for this research project. So open standards in a definition is essentially, at its core, a collection of knowledge, tacit knowledge that is dispersed among many holders. It's distinguished by what it does. Again, I'm trying to get to a definition that I can work with. Some of the definitions are whether or not it's proprietary or it can be sold or it can be used without payment. I want to just focus on key essential elements. And for me, it is what it does. Because of its network effects, it is a building block for innovation. And a very unique feature that I wanted to keep in the forefront of my mind as I went through this research is that it has, as a characteristic, it's evolving. And perhaps one of the ways to think about open standards is to contrast that, economists do that all the time, with another type of standard. You all know what its shipping container looks like? A shipping container is an amazing standardization of shipping products. It has a length and a height. It has a particular material that it's defined to be. Do you know what an open shipping container is? We're talking about open standards. And open shipping containers, one that needs to be closed and locked. All right? So that has such a delimited and well-defined characterization that would be at one end of the extreme to open standards. This knowledge and very ephemeral type of concept. There's another problem. Knowledge is a public good. And all economists, whenever they say those two words, public good, they have to explain the distinction between private goods and public goods. It's in our handbook whenever possible. We need to explain this to you. You know private goods and here are the characteristics that don't it is rivalrous in consumption. If I eat it, it's not there for you to eat. You wouldn't want to. It's excludable. If I don't pay for it, I don't get to eat it. And there's no problem. Most private goods have these two characteristics. Knowledge has different characteristics. It tends to be non-rivalrous and non-excludable. If there's a great idea and it gets circulated, how are you gonna stop somebody from using it? Well, there's contracts for that. But other than contracts and non-disclosure statements, how are you gonna stop people from using the knowledge that you have? Once it's produced for one person, it's available for anybody at zero marginal cost. So this is a problem about production. And there you have the classic public goods picture of a national defense. Once national defense is produced for Texas, it's available for California at zero marginal cost. Unless California succeeds and then we're gonna have some problems there. I don't know how they're gonna handle that one. But you can think then about what happens, maybe a classic public good that you're very familiar with is software. It doesn't mean it doesn't get produced. It means that you have to be ingenious about how you tie it to a private good. And Apple solved that very well. Their knowledge product, their software, was tied to hardware. So hardware is rivalrous in consumption and excludable. Microsoft did it a little bit differently. And if you remember back in the earlier days, the Microsoft software was tied to the Microsoft users manual, which had to be on your desk if you had Microsoft on your computer. Okay, so you guys have to remember that. Do you remember that some of it was also color ink coated so that you couldn't run off copies of it on that? So I'm sure that you guys have figured out how to fix that problem a little bit better than having it tied to manuals. How is standards a public good produced effectively? This was actually the first question I had at the Texas meeting. This is a public good, why are you guys doing this? How are you doing this? You tie it to certification. So that process of having to get trained in it, to be certified, to be able to demonstrate your usage of it is that little bit of a private good that makes it possible to produce a lot of this public good. I wanna ask you if there's any questions because that's what we do in class, but I'll hold that till the end. So let's begin with the nature of the firm, the very first article that was by Ronald Coase in 1937. And up until 1937, the economist had actually no concept of the firm. It was literally a black box where inputs went in one end and widgets came out the other end. And we had no model for what was going on and the organization of the production mechanism within that black box. And Ronald Coase began this development by looking at how resources are allocated. That's the ultimate question that economists will always come back to. How are you allocating resources? And he looked at this picture of workers, day workers. And that's typically not a firm. If you want to contract and get a day worker, you do it on a day by day basis. And that's costly. There's transaction cost. So the firm, according to Ronald Coase, arose to mitigate these transaction costs by having managerial discretion over the day-to-day activities of employees. And the only limit to the size of the firm was the manager's ability to direct labor. So you had ever increasing hierarchical firms until it got to be too complex, too many different types of decision-making, and then you ended up starting off with another firm. The transaction cost of managing were much higher, internally were much higher than the transaction cost of going back into the market and hiring on a subcontracted basis. That's our first theory of the firm. This is how economists think about the question. Has nothing to do with you guys. I said, okay, well, this doesn't fit at all. The open group is not hierarchical. There's not that manager, as far as I can tell, directing it. Let's see for a second. So at the same time that Ronald Coase was working on the nature of the firm, Frederick von Hayek was winning the Nobel Prize on the economics of knowledge in society. And this actually has more relevance to the structure of what you're doing because I've defined the standards as a knowledge-based product. And not just knowledge-based, but the knowledge is dispersed among many people. So this is a picture of a tribesman in Kenya. Do you know how many different languages they speak? There's about 42 main languages. If you count dialects, it's over 60. Swahili and English are the two main languages called the trade languages on that, but 60-plus languages. This tribesman is carrying a cell phone. I can predict, as an economist wants to do, that over time the languages will coalesce to English and Swahili. It will become the standard for these people. But it's being done, as Hayek would point out, spontaneously, without directed control. So Hayek's contribution about dispersed knowledge is that you have a lot of challenges to get people to reveal it and often their own self-interest will allow it to emerge spontaneously. So let's contrast that for a moment. Let's say the open group wanted to go to Kenya and immediately tell people how effective it would be, how much more efficient, how much more innovation would occur if they would only all learn English. Couldn't do it. It would be a futile task. So this is something that has to evolve. Now that's not to say that you can't do directed coordinated activity. One of my favorite quotes from Hayek is this. Order without design can far outstrip the plans that men consciously contrive. Let me switch one of his words. Standards, like speaking English, without design can far outstrip the plans that men consciously contrive. So think about the difficulties of trying to design English as a standard for the Kenyan tribes. Part of it is, are they ready for it? The timing for it, the want for it. These are the same problems that you have with the standards, the IT standards that you're trying to design. Some of it is way ahead of its time. So Hayek advocates and spoke highly about another standard, the market price. What is the market price? A standard for revealing your information about your values and your financial ability to bid for things. It's a great system for conveying a lot of information quickly in a standardized form. When you tell me you want something, I don't understand that degree of want. But if you tell me you're willing to pay $10 for it, okay, anybody willing to pay 12, I can then make a choice and an allocation decision. So price mechanisms have for a long time operated in a marketplace to be a standard for information about wants. All right, everybody? It's an amazing system. And there are management books out there that try to incorporate as much as possible that information nexus like price within the organization of the firm. Hayek says you have to go from management in the firm to rules. And I'm gonna talk about rules a little bit later. Rules of the game, not how to do something. Let people have the rules and see how they will play the game and that will reveal more information than trying to manage the decision-making. So we're gonna talk then about some other, I gotta talk about the four essential organizational features of the open group. These are the ones, again, just by observing you. It was very clear. We're using, very clear. We're using expert knowledge and that expert knowledge is not in any single person. So right away you see the problem with managers. Your managers are trying to get people to reveal their knowledge and the manager doesn't even know the knowledge that can be revealed because it's not in any single person. And knowledge is a public good. How do you get people to give it up, so to speak? I know that the open group is characterized by teamwork and I've actually have a theory of the firm to discuss your team production. Community is the first thing I saw when I was at the open group. People didn't say hello. They said, John, how's your dad doing? What's going on with your health? I mean, it was community from the moment I walked into the door and then consensus and consensus is critical to the success of any standard. And we're gonna talk about these and find the economic theory that helps support them or explain them a little bit differently. The first one is team production. This is a paper by Alchin and Demsetz. It's a seminal work in the American Economic Review. And what they basically said is that the firm arises. The reason we see that black box is because it allows for a different production process that otherwise wouldn't take place and that production process is very efficient. Team production, but only when you have a manager who can monitor the marginal product, make sure not one of those slaves is shirking in the pool and allocate rewards as much as possible because it's very inseparable production processes. So you have to have somebody to monitor the production process. What's the number one problem with teams? Shirking, free riders on that. The guy with the whip, he's supposed to watch out for that and make sure it doesn't happen. I didn't see any whippings in the sessions. They may take place offline, I don't know, but I don't think you guys have this kind of team production. And as I learned, please let me know if I'm wrong here. As I learned that most of the standards have a champion, it's not really a team. It's somebody who takes the lead. It's somebody who drives the process. So where does the team production come in? It comes in in the vetting of the standards. When everybody comes in and pulls it apart and puts it through the ringer, it's a crucible by fire before a standard is born. And it called to mind an image that I couldn't find a picture of. You all know what Ozzie No Rule's football looks like. So when there's a bunch of football players and they all jump in mass on the ball, that kind of scene, layer and layer of humanity on top of the ball, if one player can come out with that ball, I'll call it the standard, that standard has survived. Okay, so I think that before I gave up on team production as a description of the organization of the open group, I realized it was in one part of your activity. It is essential to the vetting process. And we'll talk a little bit more about this when we get to consensus. This is my shipping container picture. Isn't that amazing? Look at how standard they all are. George Stigler contributed to our understanding of the firm. And he says the firms grow and shrink depending on the extent of the market. And you're already living that. The standards that come about are prompted by the opportunities to collaborate the extent of the market. Large markets, widespread use of some level of IT might benefit most from a standardization of how that IT is communicating with each other again. So I like the extent of the market as a prompt for the initiative to do a particular standard. It might say something about the creation of the open group, but for right now I'm not applying this theory to the open group because it's more of a specific action that you do, a specific standard. It doesn't really get to the heart of it, but I think that the idea of being responsive to the market is part of what you are all doing. Let's see if I have any more. This is the contribution of Harold Demsitz. He says that the firm is best thought of as a nexus of contracts. He didn't say the word community, I put that in there. A nexus of contracts. Contracts between the managers and their subordinates, between the labor inputs, between the supply chain. Think of it not as a organizational flowchart, but a chart of contracts between these agents. And so now you get a much more fuzzy definition of what the firm, the boundaries, are not as specified. But if you put in the word social, a nexus of social contracts, then I think you're getting at the heart of what is community and the role that community plays in as an essential element of the production process called the open group and standards. Community is an essential element of the production process in standards. So what does community mean? You know. Shared experiences in work, shared experiences in education. Communities involve trust. The exchange of knowledge really hinges on having this trusting relationship. Community involves convivial exchanges. It can be fun to work hard. And you get people to enjoy the process, even the very strong vetting that takes place. What we'd like to have is rules that everybody knows in the community. And then as little interference as possible when people begin to play. Think of it that way. Think of it as a sports community where what you're producing is play. To some of you, it's a lot of play. And so we really want to give you that permission to play in a safe environment. So the picture I picked is one that reminded me of a very nice evening we had yesterday. A lot of fun talking, exchanging ideas. And that kind of convivial nature really, I don't know how to emphasize it more. I don't think Gig Hub would work because it doesn't have that connection to one another. There's not a lot of ideas here. A lot of rewards that you're getting for all of this effort. And community is a significant reward. And if the convivial nature doesn't work, then I think a few, I don't know, incriminating pictures might be useful to get people to play nicely. Did we have some of those, Steve? From last night? Consensus, this is me. I hate consensus. If they would only make me dictator of the Department of Economics, I would have stayed another five years, but I couldn't. Consensus takes so much time, it's so hard. It's that dog pile on top of the person who did all of the work to get the standard up and running and all of a sudden people say, no, no, no, this is wrong. This won't work. That vetting process is essential because the voluntary adoption of standards takes time. And there's no way to know what is the right time except to tap into all of the tacit knowledge of the people on the team. So if your gut tells you it's not ready yet, that's the only reliability factor that we have about whether or not this is ready for prime time, whether or not it will be accepted and adapted. So the ones that make it out of the dog pile, the ones that make it through the crucible of vetting, the standards that make it, those are the ones that will have the best chance of succeeding and give the most gain. This is a very important part for economists. You all know through the vetting process by having to get to consensus about the marginal gain of each rule. So some regulator that says, oh, there's gotta be a rule for this or a standard for that, they're gonna put too much in it and probably the wrong things too. You guys working together through a consensus process will whittle that down to those changes that have the highest marginal product or marginal benefit to people. That's essential. So I'm really sorry that you have to do it by consensus. There's no manager, there's no hierarchy. There's a community of people who are willing to play hard and work hard to get something done, to produce knowledge. And there's no economic theory that describes all of this, just pieces of theory. My next steps are to talk with some of you about the early evolution of the open group. This has been going on since the 70s, I believe. And I wanna know which came first, the chicken or the egg? Was it the time right when corporations said we can go farther now if we get more standardization? Or was it the customers telling the corporations that we wanted? And then the corporations deciding, there had to be a corporate decision to say that this needs to be outsourced. We need to take our labor and put it into a different structure. I don't know and I have to find out. There are lots of different standard organizations and I wanna find out if these four features are robust across those different standards organizations. I've seen them online, but I would really like to go personally to their conferences, especially standards Australia would be a nice one to go to. I understand there's a standards in Greece organization. So I'm gonna be doing some grant writing to enhance my research. And I wanna consider the impact of competition from other standards groups on the organizational structure. These are what matter to me and I made it under the 30 minutes that you asked for. So I have time for, there's a little bit of references. This is actually the wrong slide I realized at the last minute, but these are some of the references that I've used. So I'll take your questions now. Thank you very much, Lydia. You can invite you to have a seat if it doesn't interfere with the microphone too much. So we do have a few questions, but I wanna back up your point about it would be futile for the open group to go to Kenya and say, everything would work if you only all spoke English. Because several hundred years on it hasn't worked in this country, has it? No, it hasn't. Well the incentives are not aligned for that either. There's the proof, there's the proof. So the other thing I've got to mention, new words for the open group. We've got some work ongoing about a sort of dictionary of open group terms and whippings crucible by fire and Aussie rules football have to go in there somehow. I love those. So question we have, what strategies do you recommend for driving adoption of existing standards? And as an example, how should we allocate resources between demonstrating the value of a standard and adapting it to meet the needs of influential groups or common situations? I'm gonna have to sell you the answer to that question. A research project. Yes, definitely because it is a question about whether or not there's a recognized need for it. So that's kind of self generated by the end user of it. And what you're telling me is that you assume they don't know that they need it. So how is it that people figure out that they need a different type of car or that they need a different type of lawn mower? They observe what their neighbors have. And if their neighbor is doing well, you're saying, well, what are you driving? And maybe I should be driving that. Is that the key to your success? And your lawn looks so good. What are you using for the lawn mower? What fertilizer are you? We mimic our people. I mean, that's the old, the Joneses follow what the Joneses do. So I don't wanna assume that people don't know that this standard or this language called English would be better for them. I assume that they are looking to their peers and that peer group might be very narrow as in the Kenya example of tribes. And that they're making the best decision they can with the information they have about their own interest. So if they do see another tribes person really prospering, there'll be questions asked and people will try to mimic and adapt to that behavior. Human behavior. And you touched on this a bit. I know, but the other question is if community, you stress the, if community is an essential factor and with a lot of the activities inside the open group and other standards organizations occurring virtually nowadays, partly for geographic spread, partly for cost reasons. Do we lose something from that sense of community by that, the nature of the fact that the face-to-face opportunities for face-to-face interactions are limited to events like these every three months? I really think you do. I have to say you do because as far as I know what Gig Hub does, people put up software and they try to build a reputation for themselves personally by being very well liked on the software then they end up selling it. That's a very specific type of knowledge and it's not the knowledge that you need to come up with standards. So you're gonna get very idiosyncratic software types of knowledge. The discussion format, the interaction format and the just the chatting, I can use the chatting word about problems is what is still the next idea about a standard. Whenever we periodically ask people what they get from the event, what's the value of coming here, so much, yes it's the sessions and listening to people like you but it's the networking. It's the opportunity to share problems, experiences, ask experts, et cetera, it's great. Well, we'll leave it there for now. Thank you very much, Leo. I know you'll be back on a panel shortly. Take a breather. Thank you.