Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Iyer's Academy for the date 5th June 2019. Displayed are the list of news articles selected for today's analysis and the page numbers in Chennai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram editions of the newspaper. The link for the handwritten notes and the time stamping of the news articles are provided in the description box and the time stamping is also provided in the comment section for the benefit of the mobile phone viewers. On account of Ramzan yesterday, the yesterday's video is being published today, but it will certainly receive today's video by today itself. So whatever in this video you hear with respect to today, it means June 5th. Today is United Nations World Environment Day. This world environment day becomes part of a relevant in your syllabus in general issues on environmental ecology, biodiversity and climate change and prelim syllabus. It remains in GS Paper 3 in conservation and environmental pollution and degradation. In this area, this topic can be linked or you can utilize one or two points from here for your mains answer writing. See the celebration of World Environment Day has begun in the year 1974. Now it is an annual event conducted every year, you know, organized by United Nations Environment Program. And every year it is on June 5. The date is very specific and that is when the World Environment Day is being celebrated. Now whenever we talk about development of international environmental politics, we start from the year 1972. Now this is because the first major conference on environmental issues was held in that year with the support of the United Nations. This conference is called as Conference on the Human Environment. This conference began in June 5 of 1972 and concluded on June 16, 1972. It was held in Stockholm in Sweden that year and therefore it is also called as Stockholm Conference. The same year, 1972, on 15th December, a resolution was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. This resolution designated June 5 as World Environment Day. Now you note that this June 5 marks the first day of the Stockholm Conference, landmark Stockholm Conference on Human Environment. The resolution adopted by General Assembly urged the governments and the organizations in the United Nations system to undertake worldwide activities for the preservation and enhancement of environment with a view to deepening the environmental awareness on this June 5 every year. The very purpose of the World Environment Day is to encourage worldwide awareness and action to protect our environment. The very remembrance or the very celebration of the day in itself acts as a platform for action and a global platform for public outreach. Now it is called as the People's Day for the people to do something to take care of Mother Earth. That something can be you know at the local level or at the national level or global level and it could be either by a person on his or her own by individually or collectively by a team or a group. Now every year this day is organized around a particular theme. Now this theme gives importance to a particularly pressing environmental concern at that time. Now if you see last year it was to beat plastic pollution. Now this year's theme is air pollution. And every World Environmental Day has a different host country for the official celebrations of this United Nations event. Now this you know this also provides an opportunity for the host country to highlight the environmental challenges it faces and also it could highlight the worldwide supports and efforts the particular host country receives to address these challenges it faces. The host of this year's World Environment Day event is China. Now very importantly last year 2018 the host was India. Now let us move on to the analysis of news articles. Now this article is an open editorial with respect to better implementation of Right to Education Act. Now this article will be relevant in prelims levels under public policy in Indian policy and in social and sustainable development inclusion and also in social sector initiatives. And the discussion can also be linked to main syllabus in GS paper 2 in functions and responsibilities of the union and the states issues and challenges pertaining to the federal structure and finances up to local levels and challenges therewith. Also in government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of the policy design and the implementation and welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the center and the states and the performance of these schemes and issues relating to development and management of social sector relating to education or social sector services relating to education. Now the author in this article discusses about some of the features of Right to Education Act with respect to inclusion or having the inclusive agenda in private schools or unneeded schools that does not receive any aid from the government. Now the Right to Education was made a fundamental right in India and this was done through an amendment to the Indian constitution. Right to Education was made a fundamental right by way of the 86th constitutional amendment Act of 2002. Now this constitutional amendment inserted article 21 capital A into the Indian constitution. Now this article reads like the state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of 6 to 14 years in such manner as the state may by law determine. So this article 21 capital A provides way for compulsory education to children of this age group of 6 to 14 years and we have the Right to Education Act 2009 to provide guidelines and to enable the fundamental right to education article 21 capital A. The author states that the implementation of this act has been the author states that the implementation of this right to education has been a challenge for most of the states. Now we should know that the state governments have discretion to decide on various matters you know how the act is to be implemented in their state jurisdiction under this act rules and some of the regulations with respect to RTE. Authors state that the right to education act of our country has many similarities to the education act of United States of America. The act of the legislation in the United States is called as no child left behind act. The similarities are in school accountability, assessment standards and teacher training. If you see Indian Act and their act you can see in these areas we could find similar provisions or similar understanding. So as we saw earlier that states have some discretions or freedom in deciding the course of implementation even United States also has the similar provisions with respect to the federal units. Now then the authors come to the main section that deals with private schools. Here when we in this in the context of this article private schools mean only you know unaided schools that means schools that do not receive any aid or grants from the appropriate government and for also the specified category schools. These are the two schools that come into the amput of this article discussion when we talk about private schools because the article relies on section 12 sub section 1 class C of the right to education act. The section 12 sub section 1 class C of RT Act deals with two types of schools that is specified category schools and unaided schools are the schools that does not receive any aid or grant from appropriate governments. Now this particular provision section 12 1 C of RT Act mandates that these private schools and specified category schools has to allocate 25% of the seats to the children from weaker sections and disadvantaged group in the neighborhood. Now according to the author this provision does not include minority schools. Now the specified category schools means Kendra Vidyalaya, Navodya Vidyalaya, Sainik schools and other similar schools. When we talk about weaker section children belonging to weaker section this means children of parent or guardian whose annual income is lower than the minimum limit specified by an appropriate government. In some state governments it could be the annual income limit could be 2 lakh. Now in another state there could be a similar provision. So this is how the definition is going for the children belonging to weaker section. Now coming to children from disadvantaged group. Now this means children belonging to scheduled caste, the scheduled tribes, the socially and educationally backward classes. So the definition of disadvantaged group also includes social disadvantages, cultural disadvantages, economical, geographical, linguistic disadvantages and disadvantages because of gender and other factors also. Now we know very well crafted definitions but how far it is implemented it is totally different picture. Now when the private schools allocate and give admission in this 25% of their seats under this section 12-1-C the state governments will reimburse the schools for the costs that were borne by this private schools in allocating this 25% of the seats. Now it will be reimbursed on timely basis and the amount will be determined based on the appropriate state governments in their rules. Now one of the significant improvement in the governance mechanism with respect to Right to Education Act is that the admission system has been now made online. Now this has led to transparency in many states of our country. RT rules in several state governments also state that unfilled seats during academic year admissions can be filled again in the month of September. But so far the state governments have no clear and no visible public announcements regarding this matter. So in this discussion the authors give example of Tamil Nadu regarding the implementation process. They state that Tamil Nadu has always been at the forefront or at the leading position regarding the educational progress in our country. Now they say it is clear that Tamil Nadu has made certain strides meaning some decisive steps of progress have been made in the implementation with respect to section 12-1-C of this act. The state government has widened the ambit of disadvantaged sections that is mentioned in section 12-1-C because the state government has included the HIV positive children and transgenders along with the scheduled castes, the scheduled tribes and the physically challenged persons in the disadvantaged group definition. Now this is a commendable decision or a laudable decision as many vulnerable children will be benefited from this. Now this also shows the commitment from the state that it will not discriminate and it respects the third gender. Next the state has created a centralized database where people can access all the matriculation schools that lie within one kilometer of their residence. Now the act mentions these schools as neighborhood schools. See when we say neighborhood school it means the nearest primary or the nearest upper primary school within prescribed walking distance from the child's residence. We see under RT rules of different state governments for most of the states we can see for children in class 1 to 5 a school to approach has to be within a walking distance of 1 kilometer of the neighborhood and for classes 6 to 8 it is 3 kilometers. Now this neighborhood school concept relates to availability of a school within safe and accessible distance from the habitation or living place of a child. You know a child cannot be made to walk more than a certain kilometer just for the access of school. So this neighborhood school concept is based on this safe and accessible distance principle. Now if you look at the act the very legislation does not define the distance limits of neighborhood schools rather because it requires the appropriate state governments to notify such limits or area in their RT rules. If one carefully look at the distance norms given by the central government in the model RT rules circulated to the state governments it states 1 kilometer for classes 1 to 5 and 3 kilometers for children in classes 6 to 8 and the model RT rules that is circulated provides provision for relaxation of norms with respect to places with difficult terrain you know where there might be risk of landslides floods you know lack of road infrastructure. See some in general we could see when there is danger for the young children go to go to the school from their houses such relaxation has to be made mandates the you know gives such relaxation has to be made by the appropriate state governments that is what highlighted in the model rules circulated to the states. Now one another notification that has been issued by Tamil Nadu government with respect to RT implementation is that it has made efforts to bring all schools affiliated to boards other than state board under the control of the director of school education for the implementation of RT. Authors also mentioned some issues with respect to RT implementation. One of the main concerns is the absence of several CBSE schools on the school database that is set up by the Tamil Nadu government. Several parents complained that the system is faulty in identifying nearby private schools or nearby CBSE schools despite the use of geographic information system tagging to these schools. There are also financial problems because we find many schools collect money from the disadvantaged children or children belonging to weaker sections for textbooks and uniform. Now actually the state government provides fund for these schools for the textbook and uniform for these children. But we find problems such as schools directly collecting money for directly from the children for textbook and uniform. Now there is one problem this is happening because the central government does not release funds in the right time. A major problem is the process of admission under section 12 1c. The authors mention it as far from perfect. Now because several schools do not adhere to this 25% quota. As mandated by the legislation the author states that the private schools have become islands of privileged class because these these schools are reluctant even to give this 25% percent opportunity for the children in weaker sections and disadvantaged group. This problem almost occur every year and the mandated access to education for the underprivileged children of the society is curtailed because of this. This can be seen because large numbers of vacancies in several cities in the country can be seen with respect to this 25% opportunity. Now for instance if you take Maharashtra on the last day of admissions under the RTE Act there were more than 20,000 vacancies. For solutions the authors say that to conduct an RTE compliance audit for all schools every year by the state education department because this will compel the schools to fill up the vacancies. And whenever a state government is extending an aid to a private school or an aided school the aid has to be based on the levels of compliance achieved by a particular school because if the compliance is less then the aid should be less or the aid should be proportionate to the level of compliance by such schools. Now the authors suggest one more option as a solution that is if there are continuous violations by these schools then they have to be penalized and deregognized. And another solution is that every school by themselves should declare that it is complying the RTE Act, RTE rules and regulations such as with respect to admission procedure including deadlines and other things and these have to be clearly and visibly displayed at the school premises and also online. Now let's come to the financial problem. See the center government is supposed to release up to 70% of the funds for this program to the states, the author state but the fund is often delayed. An RTA petition has found that in the past 7 years Tamil Nadu government has allocated some of 368.49 crores, roughly around some 370 crores, while the central government has allocated only 27.8 crores, just around some 28 crores under the right to education in the same period. Now we see one side the central government is very enthusiastic with respect to draft national education policy and other programs, Samagra, Siksha etc. But we find on other side the central government has allocated only 28 crores to the state government of Tamil Nadu for the implementation of right to education whereas the state government itself has allocated some of 370 crores almost. Now this leads to financial crunch for the state but if you look at section 7 of RTE Act it states that the central government and the state governments have concurrent responsibility. If you take schedule 7 of Indian constitution you can find education under the concurrent list. Now this financial problems, this delay in allocation from the central government leads to financial crunch for the state or the shortage of money and resources. We find state governments take money from other programs such as Sarva Siksha Abhyan to reimburse the money to the private schools. We recently in one of our daily news analysis we have seen how it was being done with respect to one article right and this financial shortage is also extended to the schools as they will also get the funds in a delayed manner and they show it to the children who come from the weaker section and disadvantage sections by collecting money for text book and uniforms. Now the only solution to this problem on the government side the author suggests is that the funds needs to be released in a timely manner because this will inspire confidence in schools to fill all the vacancies. There have been several grievances with respect to one kilometer radius criteria also particularly for children from class 1 to class 5 because it is 3 kilometer for class 6 to 8. Because with respect to rural areas see the rural residents may not have any private schools or you know CBSE schools private CBSE schools in their neighborhood in their vicinity and these rural residents will be excluded because of this criteria of one kilometer walking distance radius. Therefore this criteria will eventually widen the rural urban divide with respect to the access to education. So author suggests as a solution to take the example of Kerala. The Kerala rules Kerala RTE rules are more progressive. They acknowledge terrain limitations such as you know risk of landslides floods etc and also the problems faced by small hamlets where no school exists. So the Kerala state rules in these places relaxes the limit criteria and the state will also make additional arrangements such as free transportation and see for example there is a hamlet there is no school in the walking distance of one kilometer therefore the state provides residential facilities, hostel facilities for such children in a nearby school in places where it is difficult to access because of the terrain or the location itself. Now the author say this example has to be followed by other states as other states also. Then coming to the window period for the admission process for the RTE act vacancies in private schools. Now this is very very short or very limited or very narrow that is the time provided to fill up the form and the entire application process and ensuring the admission is very less. Now this causes many parents to miss the deadline and we could see thousands of vacancies there are many vacancies. One reason could be you know many parents miss the deadline and therefore there are thousands of vacancies and one reason is there is only minimum window period and therefore many thousands of vacancies. Now author suggest a solution you know that is the author suggest a single point window for the admission procedure for all school boards. Now this should be with computer kiosks to assist parents who may not be able to fill the form online. See you the parent may be taking you know six year or seven year child with them but the child may not be known to writing even the parents could be illiterate. At that point of time such computer kiosks play a very safe role kiosk here means a small structure in a public area that can be used for providing information or guidance or assisting works you know or even displaying advertisements with respect to the implementation mostly it consists of interactive display screens we can see with the e-government center also that could that is one another example of such kiosk. The authors also say that a mobile application should also be built for feasible implementation of the process so as to reach to many people the application should provide live information the mobile application should provide live information on the number of seats available in each school under the this 25% opportunity criteria. Now the authors conclude that if these solutions are implemented it will benefit all the classes of society and we can rise above our social biases and finally it will make our children not just better learners but also better human beings. Displayed main question will be discussed in the last session now let us move on to next news article. Now this editorial talks about the relevance of SARC. The author suggests that if India revives its engagement with SARC it would help address the various interests of the entire South Asian region. This analysis will be helpful in prilims under current events of national and international importance and it means GS paper too under India and its neighborhood relations and under bilateral regional groupings and agreements involving India are affecting India's interests. The author states that the Indian government has shown its commitment to its foreign policy strategy of neighborhood first. Now this has been shown by inviting the leaders of neighboring countries for the second time for the swearing in ceremony which was held recently on May 30 and this commitment to the neighborhood first policy will also continue this week when the prime minister makes his first visit in this tenure to Maldives and Sri Lanka. Now it has almost become a tradition for all Indian prime ministers in the recent past to visit the neighborhood countries as and when they take charge in the government. Then the author talks about the difference in the prime minister's invitation to the swearing in ceremony in 2014 and in 2019. The first time in 2014 it is to SARC that is South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation 8 member SARC. But in 2019 the leaders of 7 member BIMSTEC was invited. BIMSTEC stands for Bay of Bengal initiative for multi sectoral technical and economic cooperation. Now if you talk about SARC there are 8 members Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. SARC was formed in the year 1985 and the Afghanistan joined in the year 2007. Now when we come to BIMSTEC or the Bay of Bengal initiative for multi sectoral technical and economic cooperation now that it consists of 7 members that surround the Bay of Bengal these nations are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The BIMSTEC was formed in 1997 in 2004 Bhutan and Nepal joined. So when you study about 2 or more similar or regional groupings that operates in a almost similar or overlapping area try to know how many countries are common in these regional groupings. If you see between BIMSTEC and SARC there is a overlap of 5 countries Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The author states that the government has changed its stance with respect to inviting extending invitation for swearing in ceremony by inviting SARC in 2014, BIMSTEC in 2019. The author states that the government is building the foundations of BIMSTEC over the grave of SARC and it is very illogical and it is also contrary to the founding principles of these organizations the author says. If you see SARC as an organization it reflects the South Asian identity of the countries both from historical point of view and also from contemporary or in the present times. So it reflects South Asian identity and the author says SARC is a naturally made geographical identity. Now this is because the nations in SARC they share more or less almost a common cultural linguistic religious and even entertainment affinity. Now if you see some of the positive developments of SARC particularly it is relevant in the fields of agriculture, education, health, climate change, science and tech even transport and environment. Author says each of these areas has seen a moderate growth but a sustainable growth in cooperation. One of the as one of the example if you see from 2010 since the South Asian university began in New Delhi we can see the number of applicants has been more than doubled within this between 2010 and the present time. But the SARC's biggest failure is in the political sphere. Now this is mainly because of India-Pakistan tensions because if you take SARC the heads of state have met only 18 times in last 34 years I mean since 1985 and very recently if you see the last summit was held only in 2014 and it has been already 5 years since the last summit. The last summit was held in Kathmandu the capital of Nepal. Now BIMSTEC the founding principles we are talking about founding principles if you see BIMSTEC the author says it is essentially group of countries situated around Bay of Bengal and it was formed almost a decade after SARC. We saw in 1997 it was established. SARC was formed in 1985 BIMSTEC even did not have a secretariat till 2014 we could say that some progress have made by BIMSTEC in terms of technology or in technical areas but the leaders of the BIMSTEC nations have held summits only four times in last 22 years since 1997. India is highly frustrated over cross-border terrorism that comes from Pakistan. So the author is telling that Indian government is now focusing more building more on BIMSTEC's potential. The opinion is that BIMSTEC is unlikely to overcome and replace SARC for a specific reason. Now this is because if you see the founding principles of BIMSTEC it states cooperation within BIMSTEC will constitute only an addition to and not be a substitute for bilateral, regional and multilateral cooperation involving the member states. It simply means BIMSTEC is just a value addition to the other means of cooperation existing between the member countries of BIMSTEC. If you see the official literature of BIMSTEC it describes BIMSTEC as a bridge between south and southeast Asia and a platform for intra-regional cooperation between SARC and ASEAN. ASEAN is Association of Southeast Asian Nations. And recently if you go through you know newspapers we could find Nepal and Sri Lanka have also emphasized that BIMSTEC will not will not be able to replace SARC. So that means SARC is relevant and BIMSTEC cannot overtake or you know replace SARC. So based on the specific reasons you know based on the founding principles of BIMSTEC and the emphasis given by Nepal and Sri Lanka the author tells that the SARC is still relevant and BIMSTEC cannot replace SARC. Now with respect to why SARC is now not functioning or now defect or now not active and why is India not ready to engage with SARC. The first is terrorism that comes from Pakistan and India often or frequently tells this as a reason for not engaging with SARC. Now the non-engagement of India with SARC has become more relevant particularly after the 2016 URI terror attacks. The terror attacks happened in the month of September in Indian soil and in the year 2016 the SARC summit was planned to be conducted in Pakistan in the month of November 2016. Because of this URI terror attack India announced that it will not attend the SARC summit that is planned in Pakistan. That is India will not attend the SARC summit that is planned in Pakistan when the nation when the Indian soil is facing the problem of terrorism and the challenges related to it that are planned in Pakistan. And India's stand was also supported at that time by Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan because they too stated that they will not attend the summit. So the author concludes that so SARC is more or less now defunct. The second reason is because Pakistan's opposition with respect to some connectivity projects such as motor vehicles agreement, energy sharing proposals and other issues such as South Asia satellite that is offered by India in the SARC grouping. Pakistan has also concerns or raised issues with South Asia free trade agreement also. Even if you see this Bangladesh Bhutan India Nepal grouping such agreements you could see see this BBIN grouping has failed to implement the motor vehicles agreement due to opposition from Bhutan and with respect to cross border power exchanges India also have some concerns within this BBIN framework. See if this power exchange is signed then it will allow Bhutan and Nepal to feasibly sell the electricity to countries such as Bangladesh. So even in BBIN there are some issues with respect to these agreements but if one has to say that the reason main reason is Pakistan's opposition to connectivity projects and agreements it may not be strongly concluded because we see such and similar issues happening in other forums also Asian led regional comprehensive economic partnership SARC you know BIMSTEC we could see that in BBIN framework as well. So the main reason the strain in India and Pakistan relations is the main problem why India is not ready to engage with SARC. But India will face very difficult situation when it is likely that either India or Pakistan may host the next Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit because if it happens here both India and Pakistan cannot avoid or skip from attending the SCO summit or India and Pakistan became members of Shanghai Cooperation Organization in the same year that is in 2017 and if you see China and Russia we know they are major players in Asia they are also the founding members of Shanghai Cooperation Organization and this is also one another reason why you know China and Russia are openly pushing to facilitate talks between India and Pakistan in the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit that is to be held in this month in Bishkek Kyrgyz Republic. Some suggestions to make sure SARC is still relevant are one you know the SARC could adopt the ASEAN minus X formula. Now the formula is that the members who are unwilling to join the consensus can be allowed to join at a future date whereas the members who wish to go ahead with connectivity trade technology cooperation agreements within the ASEAN grouping are not stopped from beginning in the earlier date. So such a formula can also be introduced in SARC also so that SARC stays relevant. The role of SARC is very important because we could see that our neighboring countries such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal are increasingly targeted by Chinese government for investment and loans now this is where you know SARC role is necessary also whenever some trade tariffs are imposed by other countries may be developed countries if SARC is relevant and is active as an organization it can oppose trade tariffs together and they can even demand better terms for the labor laborers from South Asian region in all over the world and the potential of SARC has to be explored together and it must be allowed to progress naturally and the political differences between India and Pakistan must be improved so that SARC stays relevant. These are the opinions of the author and SARC still has the potential to become a platform for South Asian interest and shared growth in the South Asian region. Now in terms of prelims preparation you focus on the member nations of these regional groupings such as SARC, BIMSTEC, BBIN, Shanghai Cooperation Organization etc. and for mains we found that India is engaging more with BIMSTEC rather than SARC and you note the reasons why SARC is defined now and the suggestions given by the author you can inculcate to suggest when some mains question comes with respect to that. Now displayed practice mains question will be discussed in the last session. Now let us move on to next news article. Now there are three news articles with respect to NIPAA infections. The analysis of these articles will be relevant in prelims levels under current events of national importance and in general sense this can be linked to mains levels under GS paper 2 in issues relating to development of social sector or social services related that is with respect to health. The first news article states that the Kerala confirms NIPAA infection. Now on June 3rd we saw that a district administration in Kerala has dismissed the NIPAA virus infection as rumors and yesterday we saw that surveillance measures have been put in place in various health facilities in Kerala to contain and prevent NIPAA fever outbreak.  Now when we say quarantined it means you know keeping in isolation and we saw yesterday that the test results with respect to a person a 23 year old college student who was suspected to have infected with NIPAA virus has not come that is what we saw yesterday but now it has been confirmed that the person is infected and the test results from the national institute of virology Pune have shown positive for NIPAA infection. Severe arrangements were put in place and also there were some preparatory medicines were also kept in place so as to handle the outbreak and the persons with whom the infected persons come into contact you know the interacted persons those who treated them all are under monitoring and observation and also in cases that requires isolation they were also quarantined and we saw that recently on even on June 3rd analysis where we clearly detail about the NIPAA infection there is human to human transmission and that is highly possible. Severe quarantine measures are being taken by the Kerala state government and the appropriate district authorities the health authorities urge the people not to panic rather to take precautionary measures to you know to prevent the spread of the disease outbreak happened last year is almost successfully contained with few reported fatalities. Now again Kerala is affected by the NIPAA outbreak. Now let's take it to second news article see this news tells that Kerala has started taking steps to stop the spread of this NIPAA virus and there were some six member team you know from various institutes under union health ministry to provide expert opinion and the treatment on tackling this NIPAA infection. Even for the last two days training has been carried out for doctors and other health care providers and health care workers so as to how to proceed with treating the infected persons of NIPAA virus and steps were also made to look into the deaths that are registered in Kerala during last three weeks we are seeing that several surveillance measures are put in place now the one of the main purpose is to identify whether there is any unnoticed or unreported infected you know persons infected by this NIPAA virus and those persons who have not able to conclude as a person infected by NIPAA virus but has some symptoms similar to NIPAA virus you know for to identify these persons they are having severe surveillance measure so as to effectively contain the spread of the infection and also to trace the origin of the fever incubation period for this disease is said to be some 14 days now this means from the moment of exposure to the NIPAA virus till the you know exposure of science and symptoms of the NIPAA infection now that duration is 14 days even though the incubation period is 14 days we could see the worldwide practice is to keep the patients or infected persons in isolation or in quarantined conditions for a longer period so in this news article you can basically know that Kerala has stepped up surveillance efforts and also efforts were made to trace the origin so as to identify and to properly contain the outbreak and also the same thing will also be proving helpful to tackle the infections in the future now these are all some of the steps generally taken you know to counter any disease outbreak and you could be asked in an interview or any question how will be as a district collector you know you may react to such outbreaks or such news articles or such information that somewhere some infection has happened because you can choose not to act like you know some district collector who dismissed entire news as rumors rather to take some proactive action on the matter with various steps like surveillance efforts you know bringing on various preparatory medicines efforts whatever we see will to enrich your overall personality towards the civil services now let us move on to third news article with respect to the same issue see now this news states that an experimental Ebola cure may also protect against NIPAA virus right we'll see in detail now we know that there is no vaccine or no curative treatment for NIPAA infection whatever we we have is to you know manage with viral infection just it but not effective curative treatment now this NIPAA virus causes encephalities and pneumonia and the fatality rate is around you know 45 percent to 70 percent if you take WHO they say 45 percent to 75 percent and this varies with respect to the preparatory arrangements put in place now this means out of 100 percent infected 70 percent will 70 percent will die now that is the seriousness that is why it has been given much importance all across Kerala and also nearby states now there is one current treatment in the experimental stage for NIPAA virus infection that is with the monoclonal antibody and it has been stated that it was tested during NIPAA outbreak in Koliko district of Kerala last year the news states that Ebola virus outbreak is currently underway in democratic republic of Congo there they are testing an antiviral drug you know named as remdesivir to the persons infected of Ebola virus and they and this antiviral drug remdesivir was also used for experimental purposes for test testing on monkeys and this drug has been developed by an american biotechnology company called us Gilead Sciences in the trial with monkeys first they gave lethal doses of NIPAA virus to eight african green monkeys then they gave this antiviral drug to four of them and they found four of the monkeys which received this drug survived and the other four that did not get the drug died within some eight days so if you see Ebola and NIPAA they both they belong to different viral families Ebola belongs to filoviridae family and NIPAA virus belongs to paramixoviridae family but we see this remdesivir drug is found to be effective against both these viral infections now it has been said that this antiviral drug is also effective against few other infections as well like Lassa fever and MERS corona virus respiratory syncytial virus this Lassa fever is defined as acute viral hemorrhagic illness of two to 21 days duration seen in west Africa and when we say about MERS corona virus it is Middle East respiratory syndrome corona virus it's defined as you know viral respiratory disease caused by a new type of corona virus first identified in south arabia in 2012 and respiratory syncytial virus it causes acute lower respiratory infection particularly in infants and young children it's seen all over the world see if you take these these viruses right the outer shells of all these viruses are very different but their polymerases are similar now when we say polymerases we mean genome copying enzyme since that is similar see we also should note that this antiviral drug that we are discussing with this article remdesivir targets these polymerases therefore the drug is effective to able to cure the it is said that the drug is effective against all these infections ebola nipa nipa and the other viral infections as well so that is the reason why the same antiviral drug is found to be effective though the outer shells are different but the polymerases are similar and with this we come to the end of these three articles that specifically talk about nipa virus or nipa infection now let us move on to next news article now the next article is about the ranking of india in stg gender index now this article is relevant in current events of national importance in prelims syllabus and also in economic and social development in mains it can be related under role of women in gs1 under role of women and the problems and remedies and issues with them and gs in main syllabus it could be related with in gs paper one under role of women the problems challenges and the remedies and in gs paper three inclusive growth now we find that this stg gender index sustainable development goal gender index is being developed or is developed by a partnership named as equal measures 2030 now you know the name equal measure means in equal measure for both men and women right and this equal measures 2030 means it is a independent civil society and private sector led partnership that that works for a world where gender equality is achieved and that every girl and woman counts and discounted now this means that participation of women and girls in every process associated with them and also in general that is why it says where world where every woman counts and is counted now this partnership works to generate data and evidence to guide efforts to reach stg goals by 2030 the importance of data and evidence is that only when there is data or evidence then only we can push for policy reforms or national policy when there is no data or no evidence with respect to various parameters it is not possible to proceed with the efforts and also to track progress no data available no way we can decide on whether there is enough progress made previously based on the previous incidents because most of the time in the matters connected with minorities any minority for for that matter if you take there won't be enough data to make policy you take women you take children you take transgenders you ask any question with respect to transgenders desegregation of data nowhere we could find any authenticated source because most of the surveys or research particularly by government is still has not been conducted let's come to stg gender index see this article takes this this index based on a report published by this equal measures 2030 partnership titled as harnessing the power of data for gender equality now the stg goal number five it states that it's titled as gender equality if you read through the targets or goals whatever in that particular stg goal number five you could not find the term transgender so it's kind of you know ignored or neglected in the drafting of the goal now let's come to women at least see here stg goal gives various targets with respect to women and female children now we may think that stg goal number five is the only goal that talks about gender equality but there are almost some 14 sustainable development goals including the stg goal number five that have great relevance with respect to women and also female children if you take stg goal number one it talks about eliminating poverty we should also link stg goal number five with stg one we should know how much women are below poverty line now that gender lens we need to apply with every stg goal if it is stg goal number two under hunger and nutrition we could we should see how much female children are affected by under the problem of undernourishment how much how many female children women are obese how many women are anemic you know this is how you should relate stg goal five with stg two and if you take stg three that deals with health we should we can link maternal mortality rate there and this is how it goes so almost 14 sustainable development goals have high relevance to women and female children now this stg gender index published by this equal meshes 2030 partnership India is ranked at 95 out of 129 countries now they have placed India in very poor category because of the less or relatively poor score it has obtained the score of India is 56.2 out of 100 and it has noted that India has scored better or well in the areas of health hunger and energy now you know energy coming under stg goal number seven it relates how far women have access to the energy clean energy all you know conventional energy etc and India has performed poorly or had poor scores in areas of partnerships now when we talk about partnerships partnerships come under stg goal number 17 now here they they take how much the government spends for women and how far budget is allocated by by the country for the women and also the transparency of gender statistics the necessity to cite transparency of gender statistics is see whenever there is a report published you know in the government you know by a government committee or report and if it's if it says some ground reality say for example some situation is very poor but the government may not publish it you know there will be anti-incompany or there will be lowering of image of the government so fearing this the government may not publish it that's why they include transparency of gender statistics under partnerships of stg goal 17 and India has also had poor scores with respect to industry infrastructure and innovation these are not just industry infrastructure and innovation now they are linking every every goal with respect to women now women in climate stg goal number 13 talks about climate change now when when they talk about women in climate they analyze the difference in vulnerability factor between men and women and the representation of women in climate change political process these are the things they have assessed and they have found India performed poorly in partnerships industry infrastructure and innovation and climate and if you take best five countries they are from Denmark Finland Sweden Norway and other lands if you see their scores they have scored from between the range of 85 to 90 no country has crossed or touched even the score of 90 and if 100 means the world has the particular region has achieved gender equality no country country has done that if you take worst five countries they are Niger, Yemen, Congo, democratic republic of Congo and Chad if you see their scores their scores you know range from after from 33 to 45 and India's score is 56.2 so this is about this news article now let us move on to the analysis of next news article now this article is about few comments made by Mr. M. Swaminathan the father of Indian green revolution with respect to stubble burning during a screening of a documentary at his at MS Swaminathan research foundation in Chennai now this article will be relevant in general issues on environmental ecology in prelim syllabus and it remains under environmental pollution see first let us know stubble burning stubble means simply stubble means crop residues stubble burning means burning of crop residues now these crop residues are nothing but stark and straw when it comes to wheat and paddy so after harvesting whenever farmers do harvesting that is done by nowadays harvesting is being carried out by machines so after the machines harvest there will be lot of crop residue left in the land now if the farmers go for manual labor to remove this crop these crop residues it there are significant costs and also the time consumed is also more right particularly after the paddy harvesting the farmers in northern India immediately particularly Haryana and Punjab immediately go for next plantation next planting of crops so they should have time also so either to remove the crop residue they should go for mechanized methods or they should go for manual labor if they go for manual labor heavier cost more time but if they go for mechanized methods again it is also for removing crop residue it again mechanized methods also adding up to huge costs to to avoid such difficulties farmers just to go with a matchstick and burn the entire residue in the field in a single go but the problem is that the smoke that comes as a result of the burning in the particularly in the states of Punjab and Haryana because of this stubble burning are carried by winds to entire almost entire north India particularly Delhi there these smoke add up with suspended particulate matter and add up to the air pollution and this will have serious implications and damages to human health and environmental health also now one other thing is that when they burn the stubble right it also reduces soil nutrients and therefore it adds up the costs for the farmers for fertilizer or manure in the future now generally when they talk about stubble burning it raises alarms more importantly during winter now the reason is that during winter in the months of october the months of october november when they carry out paddy harvesting the farmers go for burning both stock and straw of paddy crop rather when it was wheat harvesting during the months of march april the farmers go for burning only the stock of the crop residue right that is also one of the reason why during winter stubble burning is a greater issue one another thing is that the climate scenario the weather scenario because during winter time the smoke adds up to the existing smog already in the delhi or northern indian regions and that is also one of the reason why during winter the problem of stubble burning is more and that adds up to air pollution and related health defects with respect to human health and environmental health now this article suggests a farmer friendly solution to the problem this solution you can add up to your knowledge with respect to solutions to contain stubble burning we have been seeing seeing several articles with respect to solutions one of them is having penalties and then creating awareness among farmers or providing mechanized tools to remove crop residue and at the at subsidized cost these are some of the solutions suggested normally if you know that mr. ms. swaminathan is the father of indian green revolution and if generally they talk it is if father of green revolution it is norman borlock right and he told that the burning of rice straw or the stubble burning leads to severe air pollution in north india and one solution he suggested is that this rice straw can be enriched with urea and molasses and this supplemented raw straw with urea or molasses can be used as animal feed so rather than go for burning farmer could use this as a seed from the view of economy they can sell this for animal feed so it's a viable alternative to farmers and will also contain or will also prevent air pollution now with this we come to the end of this article next we'll see few practice questions now the first question here they have given three statements and are asking which of the statements are correct now the first statement is all member nations of bbin are also member nations of sarc now bbin stands for bangladesh bouton india and napal we know that these four countries are member nations of sarc also south south asian association for regional cooperation so the first statement is correct now the second statement india is not a member of sco shanghai cooperation organization but it is a member of bbin that is bangladesh bouton india napal now we studied during our analysis that india is a member of shanghai cooperation organization in fact both india and pakistan became members of this shanghai cooperation organization in the year 2017 so the second statement first part is wrong therefore the entire statement is wrong now the third statement states that all member countries of sarc are also member nations of bimstick now if you take bimstick you cannot find afghanistan pakistan and maldivs but if you take sarc you can have you can see maldivs afghanistan and pakistan along with india shrilanka and our neighbor countries that are members of sarc we cannot say that all member nations of sarc are also member nations of bimstick therefore the third statement is also wrong so we have to eliminate two and three therefore we will finally available with option a one only so the answer for this question is option a one only is correct the main question in gs2 now it states the recent developments in india's foreign policy show that india is engaging bimstick instead of sarc do you agree that sarc still has the potential to become a platform for south asian interests and shared values now if you if you see there are two parts or two sections now the first is the statement that the recent developments in india's foreign policy showing india's engagement with bimstick instead of sarc and second is the opinion based statement and the answer writing for that now for the first state you have to give favorable opinion or favorable answer for the statement here you can say that yes recently recent policy developments show that india is engaging with bimstick because if you see the 2019 swearing in ceremony of india's political leadership member nations of leaders from member nations of bimstick were invited not sarc now in 2014 if you see it was sarc that was invited now it is not sarc and from 2016 india distanced itself from you know engaging much with sarc because of the uri terrorist attack in 2016 in september and even because of that india showed india stated that it will not attend the 19th sarc summit that is about to happen in pakistan in november 2016 and you can say that recently see if you see earlier we saw that bimstick secretariat was not even established for several years and after 2014 we could see several initiatives with respect to bimstick and all these signal that india is engaging bimstick instead of sarc now coming to the second part of the question which is a opinion based question so it asks whether you agree with that sarc still has the potential to become a platform for south asian interest and shared values you can say a yes or a no or you know answer diplomatically you know having a neutral opinion and also justify and substantiate whatever decision you take now if you agree to the statement now you can state that the founding principles of sarc and the relevance it has because of that and the benefits that it will give because of that you know because of you know natural aspect and the various developments it has brought in various fields and the various initiatives it has taken with respect to one example you can cite is south asian university in delhi and also several other developments that has yielded success for south asia in global scenario and if you do not agree this statement you know sarc is not having the potential to become a platform for south asian interest you could you should highlight those points that are necessary for this answering this part you know points such as with pakistan you know supporting acting as a state sponsor for terrorism or allows some of the entities to operate in its soil against the interest of india till that is not stopped sarc will not have the potential to become a platform for south asian interest and shared values so based on this editorial you can take this point and add it for your main sensor writing and for neutral opinion you could take all these statements and you could say the various ways to improvement and and the importance of both sarc and bimstek rather than having by bimstek whenever there is need for bimstek and whenever there is no need for sarc not you know going out going or leaving sarc one can say neutrally that both these agencies are important in their own peers of interest and it has to be diplomatically minded in foreign policy relations the rt at recognizes the need for inclusion of weaker sections and explicitly establishes responsibility on all stakeholders to contribute towards the school what are the problems in achieving it and suggest some measures to overcome such problems now we have discussed that today with respect to inclusion particularly of children from weaker sections and disadvantaged group in unneeded schools and and others some specific schools we studied with respect to sionic school kindre with the ally etc and you can cite section 12 subsection 1 class c with respect to the need for inclusion of weaker sections children from weaker sections now here it is overall they generally given the need for inclusion of weaker sections so you could talk with respect to all schools you could take inspiration from the points discussed with respect to private schools and yes it explicitly establishes responsibility one can see from section 6 7 8 9 10 11 you could see the responsibility being placed on central government state government local authority and on parents also so it's the responsibility of parent to admit his or her child or ward in the neighborhood school when they fall under this definition of weaker sections and disadvantaged group and we we saw the various problems in achieving it and you can suggest the measures that are suggested by the author to overcome these problems with this we come to the end of today's the indu news analysis if you like the video press the like button comment share and subscribe to shankarae's academy youtube channel for daily updates on news analysis


Very good evening aspirants, how are you all? Hope you are safe and fine. Welcome to Hindu News Analysis brought to you by Shankara A's Academy. Today is 13th of January 2022. The list of articles we are going to discuss today is displayed on the screen. Kindly go through it. Let's start our discussion. Now let us take this editorial. It has been written in the backdrop of recent controversy on the independence and impartiality of election commission of India that is ECI. The controversy was triggered due to the informal meeting of chief election commissioner and election commissioners with the principal secretary to the prime minister. This meeting is unusual because the ECI is expected to maintain its distance from the executive such as prime minister. So as a remedy and for ensuring the independence and impartiality of election commission of India, the author of this editorial has suggested to change the existing selection process of election commissioners. This is the essence of this editorial. So taking this opportunity, let us discuss about ECI. See the election commission of India is a permanent constitutional body. We say it is a constitutional body because it is established as per article 324 of Indian Constitution. See it was established in 1950 as an independent autonomous authority. Why because ECI is responsible for administering union and state election process in India. See as per article 324, section 1, ECI administers elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, state legislative assemblies and election to the officers of president and vice president. See it not only administers the election but also is responsible for the superintendent's direction and control of the entire process for conduct of elections. So as part of this power, it carries out these functions and roles. These help ECI to ensure that elections can take place in an orderly and fair manner. Additionally, constitution also elaborates on the composition of ECI. According to article 324, ECI consists of chief election commissioner and election commissioners. They are appointed by the president but note that as per this clause, the president can fix and appoint such number of election commissioners as she may determines time to time. So for long period of time, ECI was a single member body that had only the chief election commissioner. But in 1989, president fixed the number of election commissioners at 2 through a notification. And this notification made the ECI as a multi member body having 1 CEC and 2 ECs. But this notification was withdrawn in 1990. Then again in 1993, another order was promulgated by the president which again set the number of election commissioners at 2. So the concept of multi member commission has been in operation since 1993. Therefore, remember that constitution does not provide the number of election commissioners. Now coming to the independent functioning of ECI, ECI is free from external political interference which is ensured through the tenure and removal prescribed for chief election commissioner and election commissioners. The tenure is prescribed under the act called chief election commissioner and other election commissioners condition of service act of 1991. See both have tenure of 6 years or up to the age of 65 years whichever is earlier. They enjoy the same status and receive salary and perks as available to the judges of the supreme court of India. But the removal is prescribed in constitution under article 324-5. According to it, the election commissioner shall be removed from office only on the recommendation of chief election commissioner. On the other hand, the chief election commissioner can be removed from the office like manner and on the like grounds as a judge of the supreme court. That means CEC shall be removed only through impeachment by parliament like the judge of the supreme court who is removed as per article 124 section 4 of constitution. See so far we have seen article 324 which establishes ECI and ECI consists of chief election commissioner and election commissioners and president can fix and appoint such number of election commissioners as she may from time to time determine. Both CEC and ECI have tenure of 6 years or up to the age of 65 years. They enjoy the same status and receive salary and perks as available to the judges of the supreme court of India. With these key take away points let's move on to the next article. Friends look at this article. This news article reports that the eminent rocket scientist Mr. Somnath has been appointed as the chairman of ISRO that is Indian space research organization. See this appointment is significant because he played a major role in the development of GSLV Mach 3. So in this backdrop today let us see in brief about India's launch vehicles that is GSLV, PSLV and SSLV. Every UPSC have already asked the question in preliminary examination regarding launch vehicles and UPSC is known to repeat the question so kindly pay attention. First of all what is a launch vehicle? See launches or launch vehicles are used to carry spacecraft to the space and India has two operational launches that is polar satellite launch vehicle PSLV and geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle GSLV. We also have SSLV. See the SSLV that is small satellite launch vehicle is a small lift launch vehicle being developed by the ISRO. It has a payload capacity to deliver 600 kilograms to lower earth orbit and 300 kilograms to sun synchronous orbit for launching small satellites. Here the lower earth orbit that is Leo is up to 500 kilometers. See the SSLV has the capability to support multiple orbital drop-off. Here I have given some of the unique advantages of SSLV kindly go through it. See the important advantage here is the cost optimization that is it is cheaper. Now let us see about PSLV. See PSLV is the third generation launch vehicle of India and it is the first Indian launch vehicle to be equipped with liquid stages. After its first successful launch in October 1994 PSLV emerged as the reliable and versatile workhorse launch vehicle of India. During 1994 to 2017 period the vehicle has launched 48 Indian satellites and 209 satellites for customers from abroad. Note that this vehicle successfully launched two important spacecraft that is Chandrayaan 1 in 2008 and Mars Arbiter spacecraft in 2013. See the Chandrayaan 1 is the moon mission and Mars Arbiter spacecraft is related to Mars. So now we will see some of the specifications of PSLV. See it can carry a payload of about 1750 kilograms to sun synchronous polar orbit and 1425 kilograms to geosynchronous transfer orbit. See sun synchronous orbit would usually be at an altitude of between 600 to 800 kilometers and geosynchronous transfer orbit would usually be at an altitude of 35,786 kilometers above Earth's equator. Note that there are four stages in PSLV journey from lift off to placing satellites into the orbit and it uses solid and liquid propulsion systems alternatively. Now let's see about GSLV. See the GSLV rockets using the Russian cryogenic stage are designated as the GSLV Mark 1 while the versions using the indigenous cryogenic upper stage are designated as GSLV Mark 2 and Mark 3. See the GSLV Mark 2 is the largest launch vehicles developed by India which is currently in operation. This fourth generation launch vehicle is a three stage vehicle with four liquid strap-ons. The indigenously developed cryogenic upper stage forms the third stage of GSLV Mark 2. GSLV Mark 2 has enabled the launching up to two ton class of communication satellites. The next variant of GSLV is GSLV Mark 3 with indigenous high thrust cryogenic engine having the capability of launching four tons class of communication satellites. From January 2014, this vehicle has achieved four consecutive successes. So in this article, we have seen about types of launch vehicles that is PSLV and GSLV. PSLV has four stages and GSLV has three stages with cryogenic upper stage. We have also seen about the payloads of PSLV and GSLV and that's all regarding this article. Now we will move on to the next article. Look at this article here. It talks about the recent shift to traditional rice varieties by farmers. It is said in this article that the shift is due to the increased awareness about the benefits of traditional rice and the general importance given by the people to healthy living and also the article covers the examples given by farmers in different places about this traditional or heritage rice. So this is the crux of this article. In this context, let us see a brief about PGS India and about national program for organic production. First of all, what is this PGS India? See the PGS India also called as participatory guarantee system of India is a quality assurance initiative that is locally relevant. It emphasizes the participation of stock stakeholders including producers and consumers and it operates outside the framework of third party certification. See the certified farmers are listed in the website where consumers can look up and get in touch and purchase produced directly from the farmers. So PGS India system is based on this participatory approach. See in simple words, PGS is nothing but a process of certifying organic products which ensures that their production takes place in accordance with late down quality standards. Please note that it is implemented by ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare. Having seen that, let us see about NPOP that is National Program for Organic Production. See the ministry of commerce and industry government of India has implemented the national program for organic production to provide a focused and well-directed development of organic agriculture and quality products. This national program proposes for the promotion of organic farming and provides an institutional mechanism for the implementation of national standards for organic production and it provides information on systems criteria and procedure for accreditation of inspection and certification bodies and the national organic logo. The standards and procedures have been formulated in harmony with other international standards regulating important export of organic products. Now we shall see the key objectives of NPOP. See the first objectives to provide the evaluation of certification program for organic agriculture and products including the wild harvest, aquaculture, livestock products etc and the second objective is to facilitate certification of organic products in conformity with the importing countries organic standards and checking whether the standards are as per equivalence agreement between the two countries or as per importing country requirements. The third objective is to develop organic farming and organic processing and fourth objective is to accredit certification program of certification bodies seeking accreditation and finally the objective is to facilitate certification of organic products in conformity to the national standards for organic products. See kindly note that the national program for organic production that is NPOP is managed by APEDA that is Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority. See it comes under the ministry of commerce and industry and it is certified by the inspection and certification bodies but we have seen that PGS comes under the ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare and it operates outside the frame of third party certification. So with these points in mind let us move on to the next article. Friends look at this article here it talks about the demographic dividend in India. See the author says that nation's growth requires the productive contribution of all segments of the society particularly the children and the youth and for that it is crucial to provide opportunities for self-expression. The author also says that household and national investment in children and youth will yield long-term returns in terms of high productivity of the economically active population. So in this context the article talks about some of the forward-looking policies to reap the India's demographic dividend. We will discuss them one by one. Before that the syllabus relevant for this article is given here kindly go through it. So first of all what is this demographic dividend? See demographic dividend is nothing but the growth in the economy that is the result of change in the age structure of country's population. See the change in age structure is typically brought on by a decline in fertility and mortality rates and India is said to have demographic dividend because it is having young population. See in 2020 about 26.16 percentage of Indian population fell into the 0 to 14 year category and 67.27 percentage into the 15 to 64 age group and 6.57 percent were over 65 years of age. Note that nearly two-third of the population comes under working age that is 15 to 59 years. See there are four main areas where a country can find demographic dividend. The first one is savings. During the demographic period personal savings grow and can be used to stimulate the economy and the second area is labor supply. See more workers are added to the labor force including women and third one is human capital. See with fewer births parents are able to allocate more resources per child leading to better educational and health outcomes. Finally the economic growth. See the GDP per capita is increased due to a decrease in dependency ratio. See the dependency ratio is the measure of the number of dependents aged 0 to 14 and over the age of 65 compared with the total population aged 15 to 64. With this basic understanding let us see what will happen if India does not utilize the demographic dividend. See it is very simple. If fertility declines the share of the young population will fall and that of old population will rise. We have seen that they are the dependent population. There is no immediate concern here because when the share of children is smaller in the population it will enable higher investment per child. They will get better opportunities such as education skills etc. This will enable future entrants into the labor force to have better productivity and it will boost income. But now comes the real concern. See with passage of time the share of the older population will rise and that of the working age population will fall because of this dividend is available only for a period of time that we call the window of demographic opportunity. So this makes it important to realize the demographic dividend. Now see the scenario in India. India's fertility rate is falling. Now it is 2.0 and the median age is rising. The median age here was 24 years in 2011. It is 29 years now and it is expected to be 36 years by 2036 and third the dependency ratio is falling. It is expected to decrease further from 65 percentage to 54 percentage in the coming decade. So now India is in the middle of a demographic transition. So this provides opportunity towards faster economic growth. But the worrying factor here is that in India the benefit to the GDP from demographic transition is lower than its peers in Asia. So this calls for a forward looking policies incorporating population dynamics, education and skills, healthcare, gender sensitivity and providing rights and choices to the younger generation. Having said that, let us see some of the examples of policies from countries like Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea regarding how demographic dividend can be reaped to achieve economic growth. See you can use this data to enrich your mains answer. See the first suggestion is to have an updated NTA assessment that is national transfer accounts assessment. Using NTA methodologies we find that India's per capita consumption pattern is lower than the other Asian countries. See a child in India consumes around 60 percentage of the consumption by an adult aged between 20 and 64. But a child in China consumes about 85 percentage of a prime age adult's consumption. See the NTA data for India should be updated and state specific NTA should be calculated every year and the state should be ranked for investing in the youths and moving on investment should be made more in children and adolescents. See India ranks poorly in Asia in terms of private and public human capital spending. So it needs to invest more in children and adolescents particularly in nutrition and learning during their early childhood and focus should be on transitioning from secondary education to universal skilling and entrepreneurship as it is done in South Korea. And moving on to the third one which is very important is the health investment. Unfortunately the public spending on health has remained flat at around one percentage of GDP in India. Evidence suggests that better health facilities improved economic production. Hence it is important to draft policies to promote health during the demographic dividend. And the fourth one is making reproductive health care services accessible on a right based approach. It is crucial to provide universal access to high quality primary education and basic health care. See the unmet need for family planning in India is at 9.4 percentage as per the latest national family health survey five. It is very high when compared to 3.3 percentage in China and 6.6 percentage in South Korea. The fifth one is here education. See education is an enabler to bridge gender differentials. The gender inequality of education is a concern. In India boys are more likely to be enrolled in secondary and tertiary schools than girls. But in the Philippines, China, Thailand, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia the gender differences are rather minimal. So this gap should be reduced. The next one is female workforce. See as of 2019 20.3 percentage of women were working or looking for work which is lower when compared to 34.1 percentage in 2003 to 2004. So new skills and opportunities for women and girls is urgently needed. States should provide safe transport to travel to work because finding work will likely delay the age of marriage and make them participate in economy more productively and it will also enable them to exercise their rights and choices. We shall see the example here. South Korea's female workforce participation rate of 50 percentage has been built on legally compulsory gender budgeting to analyze gender disaggregated data and its impact on policies and increasing childcare benefits and boosting tax incentives for part-time work. So India should take insights from South Korea on this. See interestingly it is predicted that if all women engaged in domestic duties in India who are willing to work had a job female labor force participation would increase by about 20 percent. Moving on to the seventh one. India needs to address the diversity between the states. It is important to know that the status and pace of population aging vary across states. For example in southern states which are advanced in demographic transition already have a higher percentage of older people. These differences in age structure reflect differences in economic development also. But on the other hand this offers boundless opportunities for states to work together especially on demographic transition with the north central region as the reservoir of India's workforce. Finally a new federal approach to governance reforms for demographic dividends should be put in place for policy coordination between states on various emerging population issues such as migration, aging, skilling, female workforce participation and urbanization. So that's all about the examples of policies in various countries. See proper policies are very important because without proper policies the increase in the working age population may lead to rising unemployment, fueling economic and social risks and also inter ministerial coordination for strategic planning, investment, monitoring and course correction should be an important feature of the governance arrangement. With this we have come to the end of our discussion. With these key takeaway points let us move on to the next article. Friends look at this article. This news article is with reference to CPI and WPI. According to the data from National Statistical Office that is NSO the retail inflation has accelerated to 5.59 percentage in December and the consumer food price inflation has also accelerated to 4.05 percentage in December as against 1.87 percentage seen in November 2021. So in this context let us briefly understand what is CPI and WPI. See the WPI which is the wholesale price index measures the average changes in the prices of commodities for wholesale at the level of early stage of transactions. This means it accounts for changes in prices at an early distribution stage which is before the retail level sale. Also know that it does not cover services and it is calculated using the base year 2011 to 2012. Please note that base year see base year is nothing but a reference year with which the values are compared. Now we will discuss about CPI. See the consumer price index is a measure of retail inflation rate. It means it is a measure of increasing the prices experienced at retail shops. This gives the actual reflection of the price raise in the country. So we can define CPI as a measure of change in retail prices of goods and services consumed by a definite population group in a given area with reference to a base year. The base year for CPI in our country is 2012. See the choices of consumption and purchasing power are not the same for the entire Indian population. So we do not have a single CPI which can encompass all the Indian consumers. So we have many different ones. Let us understand some of the important CPI. The first one is CPI for industrial workers. It measures the extent of change in the retail prices of goods and services consumed by the industrial workers. The second one is CPI for agricultural labour. It measures the extent of change in the retail prices of goods and services consumed by agricultural labourers. And third is the CPI for rural labourers. It also measures the extent of change in retail prices of goods and services consumed by the rural laborers. But in this regard we should also know that the above CPI indices represent only a specific segment of the population and they do not reflect the true picture of price change in our country as a whole. So the central statistical organization that is CSO of Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has started releasing a new series of CPI with 2012 as the base year. They are CPI for the entire urban population, CPI urban, then CPI for the entire rural population, CPI rural and finally CPI combined that is combining urban and rural. Note that RBI is using CPI combined as the sole inflation measure for setting inflation target and ensuring price stability. See you know MG Narega act right that is Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The wages related to this act is linked to which of the above discussed CPI if you know please post it in the comment section. It will be highly useful for you as well as for others. That's all regarding this article. Now we will move on to the next article. Look at this article. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs has written to the union home secretary requesting details on the tech fog app. See this app is believed to be used to alter social media trends. Apart from this the head of the parliamentary panel on home affairs had also requested the home ministry to collaborate with other ministries involved and provide a response to the panel by January 20. So in this context, first we will see what is parliamentary committee in Prillim's perspective and then we will see in brief about its types. See the parliamentary committees are established to study and deal with various matters that cannot be directly handled by the legislature due to their volume. See we know that the parliament is a too massive body to effectively debate on the problems that comes before it. Just think of the size of India and the issues before the country. All cannot be handled by the parliament alone right because the functions of the parliament are diverse complex and extensive. Further it lacks the necessary time and experience to conduct a thorough examination of all legislative initiatives and other issues. So the parliamentary committee comes into the picture. See a parliamentary committee that is appointed or elected by the house or nominated by the speaker or chairman. Speaker in case of Lok Sabha and chairman in case of Rajya Sabha and it works under the directions of the speaker or chairman and it presents its report to the house or to the speaker or chairman. The parliamentary committee has a secretariat provided by the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha. See talking about its classifications, parliamentary committee are classified into two types that is standing committee and ad hoc committee. The standing committee are constituted every year or periodically. Please remember they are permanent and work on a continuous basis. But the ad hoc committee are temporary and cease to exist on completion of the task assigned to them. Look at the classification of standing committees and ad hoc committees here. The standing committee is classified into financial committee, departmental standing committee, committee to enquire, committee to scrutinize and control, committee relating to day to day business of the house and finally housekeeping committee or service committee. And the ad hoc committee can be classified into two categories that is inquiry committee and advisory committee. The inquiry committee are constituted from time to time either by the two house on a motion adopted in that belief or by the speaker or chairman to enquire into and report on specific subjects. For example, committee on the conduct of certain members during president address, joint committee on fertilizer pricing etc. And advisory committee include selected joint committees on bills which are appointed to consider and report on particular bills. See these committees are distinguishable from the other ad hoc committees. This is because they deal with the bills and the procedure they must follow is laid down in the rules of procedure and the directions by the speaker or chairman. Now we will do a quick recap. See the parliamentary committee is appointed or elected by the house or nominated by the speaker or chairman and it works under the direction of speaker or chairman and it presents its report to the house or to the speaker or chairman. And we also saw the parliamentary committees are classified into two types that is standing committee and ad hoc committee. The standing committee of permanent and work on a continuous basis while the ad hoc committees are temporary and cease to exist on the completion of the task assigned to them. So with these learnt points, let us solve some of the prelims practice questions. Look at this question. This question was asked in prelims 2017. Consider the following statements. The election commission of India is a five member body. On the second statement is Union Ministry of Home Affairs decides the election schedule for the conduct of both general election and by elections. Third statement is election commission resolves the disputes relating to splits or mergers of recognized political parties. Which of the following statements are correct? 1 and 2 only, 2 only, 2 and 3 only, 3 only. See the statement 1 is incorrect because during our discussion we saw that initially ECI was a single member body having only the chief election commissioner as its member. But first in 1989 and in 1993 through President's order the number of election commissioners was fixed at 2. Therefore now the election commission of India has 1 CEC and 2 ECs. Thus making it a three member body and not a five member body. So statement 1 is incorrect. See statement 2 and 3 are regarding the functions and roles of ECI and statement 2 is incorrect because ECI is mandated to fix the election schedule and not the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. And statement 3 is actually correct because among all roles ECI also has quasi judicial jurisdiction under this it settles disputes between the splits or mergers of recognized political parties. So our correct answer is option D 3 only. Look at the second question it is regarding Parliamentary Committee. Consider the following statements recommendations made by Parliamentary Committees are binding in nature. And the statement 2 states that the chairman of Rajya Sabha is the chairman of Business Advisory Committee, Gentle Purpose Committee and Committee on Rules. Which of the following statements are correct? 1 only, 2 only, both 1 and 2, neither 1 nor 2. See statement 1 is wrong because the recommendation of Parliamentary Committees are not binding in nature. They are generally advisory in nature. And regarding statement 2 it is correct because the chairman of Rajya Sabha is the chairman of Business Advisory Committee, Gentle Purpose Committee and the Rules Committee. And the deputy chairman of Rajya Sabha is the chairman of Committee of Privileges. So our correct answer is option B 2 only. Look at this question again it is regarding Election Commission of India. With reference to Election Commission of India consider the following statements. Statement 1, ECI has been a multi-member body since its inception. And statement 2, Constitution prescribes the number of Election Commissioners to be appointed by the President. And the third statement the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners are placed on par on matters of retirement age, salaries, removal and other benefits. Which of the statement given above are correct? 1 only, 3 only, none of the above, 1 and 2 only. See statement 1 is incorrect because we saw during our discussion that initially till 1989 ECI was a single member body. And after 1989 the multi-member concept was instituted with the appointment of two Election Commissioners. But this was removed in 1990. Then again in 1993 ECI became a multi-member body. So in between 1992-1993 it was a single member body. Overall it was not a multi-member body since its inception. So statement 1 is incorrect. Statement 2 is also incorrect because in the Constitution number of Election Commissioners are not mentioned. Rather it mentions as President can fix and appoint such number of Election Commissioners as she may from time to time determine. And statement 3 is also incorrect because the retirement age that is tenure, salaries and other benefits are same for CEC and ECs. But the removal is different. CEC is impeached like the judge of the Supreme Court. But Election Commissioners are not removed in similar manner. So our correct answer is option C none of the above. Look at the fourth question. It is regarding launch vehicles. Consider the following statements. Statement 1, Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle that is GSLV launched Chandrayaan 1 in 2008. And the second statement states that the SSLV was developed with the aim of launching small satellites commercially at drastically reduced price. Which of the following statements are incorrect? Option A 1 only. Option B 2 only. Option C both 1 and 2. And option D neither 1 nor 2. See friends statement 1 is wrong because the PSLV launched the Chandrayaan 1 and not GSLV. And statement 2 is correct because we have discussed that the SSLV was developed with the aim of launching small satellites commercially at drastically reduced price as compared to PSLV. So our correct answer is option A 1 only because the question is asking for incorrect statement. Look at the fifth question. Consider the following statements. Wholesale price index WPI is compiled and released on a monthly basis by the Office of Economic Advisor under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. And the second statement CPI, Industrial Workers, CPI Agricultural Laborers and CPI Rural Laborers are compiled and released by the Labor Bureau and the Ministry of Labor. And the third statement CPI Rural or Urban or Combined is released by the National Statistical Office Studies NSO. Which of the following statements are correct? 1 and 2 only, 2 and 3 only, 1, 2, 3 only and option D 2 and 3 only. See friends here all three statements are correct and these are facts which you have to remember for the exam. So our answer is option C 1, 2 and 3 only. This is our last prince question. Consider the following statement with reference to National Program for Organic Production NPOP. Statement 1, it is implemented under Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. And statement 2, it's objective is to facilitate certification of organic products in conformity with the importing countries' organic standards. Which of the following statements are correct? Option A 1 only, option B 2 only, option C both 1 and 2 and option D neither one nor two. See is the first statement correct? No it is incorrect because we saw in our discussion that NPOP is implemented by Ministry of Commerce and Industry. This is a confusing statement because Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare appears to be the correct answer if you have not read about NPOP. And regarding statement 2, it is correct. This also we saw in our discussion it is one of the objectives of NPOP. It facilitates certification of organic products in conformity with the importing countries' organic standards. And also it checks whether the standards are as per equivalence agreement between the two countries or as per importing countries' requirement. So, here our answer is option B 2 only. The main question is displayed on the screen. Write your answer, post it in the comment section. If you like the video, hit the like button, post your comments and share it with your friends. And don't forget to subscribe Shankara AS Academy YouTube channel. Thank you.