Good evening aspirants, welcome to the hindi news analysis by shankara ace academy for the date 20th april 2021. These are the list of news articles chosen for today's analysis. They have been provided along with the page numbers of different editions of hindi news paper. The link for the handwritten notes in the pdf format and the time-stamping for the displayed articles is given in the description box and also in the comment section. Now let us start our first discussion based on this news article which talks about the ingenuity helicopter of naza. The news mentions that it has made the first flight on another planet. So first let us see about this ingenuity. See it is a small autonomous aircraft that is a helicopter that rode to mars and it arrived in mars through the perseverance rover of naza. See it was attached to the belly of the perseverance rover and as you know perseverance was part of naza's mars 2020 mission. Now the main job of ingenuity was to do a technology demonstration to test the first powered flight on mars but remember that its mission is completely independent of the science mission of the perseverance rover. It is because ingenuity is not designed to support the mars 2020 mission or the perseverance mission. Okay I just know that perseverance is searching for science of ancient life and it is collecting samples of rock and sediment in tubes so that it could be returned to earth by later missions. So the main objective of ingenuity is to test the first powered flight on mars. Now this mission is quite important as the red planet that is mars has lower gravity but its atmosphere is just one percentage as thick. So it makes it much harder to generate a lift. See the gravity of mars is about one third that of the earth. Now one of the key features of this ingenuity is that it is solar powered and it recharges on its own and it is also equipped with computers, navigation sensors and two cameras. Now already the perseverance rover along with ingenuity helicopter arrived in mars and they landed on the Jezero creature in mars. Also the length of the mission of ingenuity is a 30 martian day period and in this period it will do one or more test flights. So now what is the news? The news is that it has completed its main objective and it has become the first aircraft in history to make a powered controlled flight on another planet. So in its first flight the helicopter took off and it climbed to about 10 feet that is about 3 meters above the ground as you can see in this video. This video was captured by the Perseverance rover and it was transmitted back to NASA. Now after it was lifted off the ground ingenuity hovered in the air briefly then it completed a turn and then it landed. Now this is the major milestone as we already saw it is the first powered flight in the extremely thin atmosphere of mars and in fact it is the first such flight in any world beyond earth. Now demonstrating such features is important because during these experimental test flights only it can be decided that whether future missions can be based on this or not. That is scientists will take informed decisions relating to considering small helicopters for future mars missions where the helicopters could perform in a support role as robotic scouts or they could even survey the terrain from above etc. So for all these to materialize in the future first it has to fly and now it has been demonstrated by this ingenuity helicopter. So it is another milestone in exploration missions by humans. And these are some of the points that I should know about ingenuity helicopter. Now let's move on to the next discussion. The next discussion is based on this editorial article which criticizes the ordinance making powers of the president of India and the governors of the state. So in this context let us first understand the ordinance making powers of the president and the governor and then we will also see the important points mentioned by the author. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. See in India the central and state legislatures are responsible for lawmaking and then the central government and state governments are responsible for the implementation of the laws and then the judiciary which includes the supreme court high courts and the lower courts all of them interpret these laws. But however know that there are several overlaps in the functioning and the powers of these three institutions that is the legislature, government and judiciary. For example the president has certain legislative and judicial functions and the legislature can delegate some of its functions to the executive in the form of subordinate legislation. And one such legislative function of the president is the ordinance making power. See under article 123 of Indian constitution the president has the power to promulgate ordinance when either of the two houses of the parliament is not in session. It is because since the parliament is not in session it is not possible to enact laws in the parliament. So what does an ordinance means? It means an order or a rule. So an ordinance may relate to any subject that the parliament has the power to legislate on and we can say that the power to issue an ordinance by the president is co-extensor with the legislative power of the parliament that is it is in line with the legislative power of the parliament. Now on the other hand the president has the same limitations as the parliament to legislate due to the distribution of powers between the union and the state under the schedule 7 of the constitution. As you know the schedule 7 has three lists that is union list, state list and concurrent list where under the union list the central government can legislate and under the state list the state governments can legislate but both the state and the central government can legislate on the subjects in the concurrent list. Now let us talk about the limitations that exist with regard to the ordinance making powers of the executive. Firstly the president can only promulgate an ordinance when either of the two houses of parliament is not in session. Secondly the president cannot promulgate an ordinance unless she is satisfied that there are circumstances that require taking immediate action. Here remember that the satisfaction is not the personal satisfaction of the president but it is originally the satisfaction arrived after the advice of the council of ministers. Now the third limitation is that ordinances must be approved by the parliament within six weeks of reassembling or the ordinances shall cease to operate. This means an ordinance will expire after six weeks once both the houses of the parliament are in session and as you know according to article 85 it is compulsory for a session of the parliament to be held within six months. So based on this we can say that the maximum validity of an ordinance is six months and six weeks and fourthly the ordinance will also cease to operate in a case if resolutions are passed by both the houses of parliaments that disapprove the ordinance and then fifthly if an ordinance makes any provision in which the parliament is not competent to enact then such ordinances shall be void and finally remember that an ordinance can be withdrawn at any time by the president. So these are the limitations regarding the ordinance making power of the executive. Now like how just we saw that the president of India is constitutionally mandated to issue ordinance under article 123 the governor of a state can also issue ordinances under article 213. Now the governor can issue an ordinance when the state legislative assembly or if the state has both the legislatures that is if it is a bicameral legislatures then if either of the houses in the states is not in session then only the governor can issue an ordinance and here note that the powers of the president and the governor are broadly comparable with respect to ordinance making however here it is to be noted that the governor cannot issue an ordinance without instructions from the president in these three cases where the assent of the president would have been required to pass a similar bill. So this is the basic that you need to know about the ordinance making powers of the president and the governor. Now author criticizes these powers. Author not only criticizes the powers of the president and governors to issue ordinances to make laws but author also criticizes their power to reissue those ordinances without getting them ratified by the legislatures. See author opines that ordinances were used fairly regularly by the central as well as the state governments to bypass the parliament. Now to substantiate this viewpoint author talks about the historical use of ordinances by the central and the state governments and for this he first take the example of the data provided by the ministry of parliamentary affairs on the statistics of ordinances promulgated since the year 1950. So according to the data in the 1950s central ordinances were issued at an average of 7.1 per year and this number peaked to 19.6 per year in the year 1990 but this number declined in the 2010s and it was around 7.9 per year and then again in the last couple of years there is a spike in ordinances where we can see that there are 16 ordinances promulgated in 2019 and 15 in 2020 and even in 2021 four ordinances have been promulgated till now. So mainly we are discussing about ordinances it is because of an ordinance that has been repromulgated and this ordinance is regarding the national capital region. See if you remember last year an ordinance was promulgated that established a commission for air quality management in the national capital region. This ordinance is known as the commission for air quality management in national capital region and adjoining areas ordinance 2020. And now this ordinance has been repromulgated by the president or we can say it has been repromulgated based on the advice of the council of ministers that is the central government. So before this ordinance could lapse it has been repromulgated and if you take the example of state governments here also the scenario is worse. For example Bihar had issued 256 ordinances between the year 1967 and 1981 and in these 69 ordinances were repromulgated several times and among them 11 were kept alive for more than 10 years. But we saw that the maximum life of an ordinance could be just six months and six weeks. And if you even take the example of other states in 2020 itself Kerala had issued 81 ordinances Karnataka issued 24 ordinances and Maharashtra issued 21 ordinances. So based on this we can feel that this ordinance making power of the executives is like encroaching on the power of the parliament to legislate. So what does the Supreme Court opine in this matter? See this is where the verdict from a five judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court in the 1986 assumes importance. This verdict was with regard to a petition filed by a petitioner against the repromulgation of ordinances by the governor of Bihar from time to time. Here the court ruled that repromulgation of ordinances was contrary to the constitutional scheme. Supreme Court also said that the power to promulgate an ordinance is essentially a power to be used just to meet an extraordinary situation. And it cannot be allowed to be perverted to serve political ends. That means Supreme Court held that just for political advantage ordinances cannot be used. So based on this Supreme Court also held that an ordinance issued by the governor in excess of this power must therefore be limited in point of time. And in this regard court also noted that it would be colorable or it would be illegal exercise of power by the executive to continue an ordinance with substantially the same provisions beyond the period limited by the constitution by means of repromulgation. So Supreme Court has directly called that repromulgation of an ordinance beyond the time provided by the constitution is just illegal exercise of power by the executive. And then even in the year 2017 a seven judge constitution bench declared this practice of repromulgation to be unconstitutional. Here the court noted that repromulgation of ordinances is a fraud on the constitution and it is subversion of democratic legislative processes. So what is the conclusion to this? See as we saw constitution has mandated that the ordinances shall expire at the end of six weeks of the next meeting of the legislature. This means it should be lapsed after six weeks of reassembly of the legislature. And this time period of six weeks is given so that the legislature can decide whether such a law is warranted or not and if the legislature finds the law unwarranted then it can disapprove such a law with resolutions. So repromulgating ordinances bypassing the parliament would mean exacerbation of legislative powers by the executive. So in this regard the legislatures and the courts should come forward and they should check this practice otherwise the separation of powers and the concepts of checks and balances would mean nothing. So these are some of the points that you can take note from this editorial article. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Our next discussion is based on this news article which talks about the resettlement of brew refugees. So in this discussion we'll see about the brew tribes and also the refugee issue. First let us see about the brew tribes. See the brews are also known as the riyangs and this tribal group is spread across the northeastern states of Tripura, Assam, Manipur and Mizoram and this tribal group belongs to the Indo-Mongolite racial stock and they speak the riyang dialect of Kokborok language which is of Tibetan Burmese origin and this language is locally referred to as cow brew. Now know that the riyangs are primarily an agrarian tribe that is their main occupation is agriculture. So in the past they mostly practiced the hoop cultivation which is also called as the zoom cultivation like most of the Tripuri tribes. See few days before we saw about the zoom cultivation which is also known as the slash and bone cultivation but however today most of them have adopted modern agricultural practices. Also know that dance is an integral part of riyang life and the hojagiri folk dance of riyang tribe is well known all over the world and their important festival is Buisu and according to some sources this festival marks the beginning of new year and most importantly know that they are recognized as one of the 75 primitive tribes in India so they have been recognized as the particularly vulnerable tribal group from Tripura. So now what is the refuge issue? See as we discussed the riyang tribes are spread across the northeastern states of Tripura, Assam, Manipur and Mizoram. Now in Mizoram they have been targeted by groups that do not consider the people from Brute tribe as indigenous to the state. So an ethnic violence erupted in Mizoram and this forced thousands of brus to leave their homes. So now the displaced Brute people from Mizoram have been living in various camps in Tripura since 1997 itself but what happened was Tripura wanted to send these Brute refugees back to Mizoram but the political group in Mizoram do not want these refugees back in their state. Additionally the Brute refugees were also refusing to return to Mizoram fearing their safety. So in this scenario only recently a quad partite accord was signed in New Delhi. This was signed last year in January. See here quad means four so this is an agreement among four parties and these parties are the central government the representatives of the refugees and then these state governments of Tripura and Mizoram and according to this accord around 35,000 Brute refugees in Tripura will be resettled in a phased manner and this will be done according to their choice. So this accord gives the people from the Brute tribe the choice of living in either state so they can choose one state and they can ask to be resettled there. So this accord was a landmark accord and it has redefined the way in which internal displacement is treated in our country. So now as promised in this accord the shifting of Mizoram Brute refugees for permanent settlement at various places in Tripura have started recently and the first batch of around 550 refugees was moved out of camps in North Tripura district and they were sent to two places for their settlement which is the news today. So this shows that the accord is being properly implemented and these are some of the points that as you know about the Brute refugee issue now let's move on to the next discussion. Our next discussion is based on this oped article which talks about Kain-Bethwa project. The oped article mainly focuses on the impact of this project on the ecosystem so let us discuss these aspects now. The syllabus relevant for this discussion is given here for your reference. First of all know that the Kain-Bethwa link project is one of the projects under the National Perspective Plan for Water Resources Development. See this National Perspective Plan for Water Resources Development is also known as NPP. It was formulated in the 1980 by the Central Water Commission and this plan comprises of two components. First is the Himalayan reverse development and the second component is the Peninsular Reverse Development. Now the distinctive feature of this National Perspective Plan is that it aims to transfer the water from surplus basin to deficit basin and this would be essentially by gravity and they would be only done in small reaches. So for this project the National Water Development Agency has identified 14 links under the Himalayan component and 16 links under the Peninsular Component. They have been identified for the preparation of feasibility reports. Now these are the reports that will see whether implementing the NPP is feasible in the proposed river. So in these links one link is the Kain-Bethwa link and it is one of the 16 links under the Peninsular Component of NPP. And for this link feasibility report was prepared in 1995 itself. It was prepared by the National Water Development Agency and it was circulated among all these stakeholders. But very recently only a memorandum of agreement was signed between three main stakeholders that is between the central government and the state governments. So it was signed between the unit minister of Jalshakti and the chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and this agreement has been signed to implement the Kain-Bethwa link project and it is the first project of the National Perspective Plan for interlinking of rivers. Now under this project water from the Kain river will be transferred to the Betwa river and all that both these rivers are tributaries of river Yamuna. And this link project lies in the Bundelkhand region. This Bundelkhand region is a drought-prone region and it is spread across 13 districts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. And according to the Jalshakti ministry there are many benefits to this project like the project will be of immense benefit to the water-starved region of Bundelkhand. And the project is also expected to facilitate ground water recharge and it is expected to reduce the occurrence of floods. So based on this the project is expected to provide annual irrigation of 10.62 lakh hectares. It will provide drinking water supply to about 62 lakh people and it will also generate 103 megawatt of hydropower. So these are stated as the benefits of this project. But as we saw in the beginning this opiate article focuses on the impacts of this project on the environment. So despite all these projected advantages author highlights several environmental concerns and the first and foremost concern listed by the author is the impact of this project on the Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. See as you can see in this map this Panna Tiger reserve is close to both the rivers and according to some sources out of the 6,000 hectares of forest area that is coming under the submergence of the Dawdhan Dam of Kain-Bethwa link project more than 4200 hectares of area lies within the core tiger habitat of Panna Tiger reserve. So it is said that this project will disturb the biodiversity of this tiger reserve and the next issue is that it will also affect the people. See mainly when such kinds of projects are implemented people are the most affected because they are displaced. So before carrying out the project people are given an opportunity to list out their concerns regarding the project and for this purpose public hearing is used. See public hearing is one of the stages of environmental impact assessment in India and this public hearing is a process in which stakeholders can interact directly with the government officials and the project proponents and they can talk about the concerns regarding upcoming project and according to the author people of this region where the project will be implemented are going to be impacted due to the displacement and previously also in the public hearings people were divided on political lines that is some supported the project and somewhere against it. They not only talked about the concerns regarding the displacement but they were also concerned about the loss of ecosystem. See here you should know that according to the author out of 12,500 hectares of land that is to be submerged by the project more than 9,000 hectares are categorized as forest land and as we just saw this submerging area also includes a section of the Panna Tiger Reserve. So apart from permanently damaging a part of the tiger reserve the project may also destroy about 7.2 lakh trees and this may affect the rainfall pattern in the already patched region that is dry region. We just saw that Bundelkhand is a drought prone region so cutting down of trees may further affect the region. Then another issue pointed out by author is that the claims of Cain river having surplus water may be unrealistic because the river is not perennial. So when you say perennial it means lasting or existing for a long time and according to the author Cain river is not perennial so it may also dry out and it may not remain surplus in the future. Additionally the Cain river flows 60 to 70 feet lower than the Betwa river. So first to generate the 103 megawatt power the water has to be pumped and for pumping this power itself 30 percentage of the generated power has to be used. So based on this only author has stated that the benefits of this project do not seem certain and the benefits are far outweighed by the costs on the environment and this is why he calls the Cain Betwa project as a huge costly mistake. So these are some of the points that should know about Cain Betwa project and the issues with it. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Our next discussion is based on this news article which mentions that the Council of European Union has approved a European Union strategy for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. See Indo-Pacific is the region spanning from the east coast of Africa to the Pacific island states. So what is its significance in general and its significance to European Union? See the Indo-Pacific region almost produces 60 percentage of the global GDP. It contributes two-third of global growth and around 60 percentage of maritime trade passes through the oceans in the Indo-Pacific. Then it is also home to three of the four largest economies outside the European Union like India, China and Japan. Additionally the region is at the forefront of the digital economy and the technological developments and the region is also central to the global value chains. It is central to the international trade and investment flows. Now it is important to European Union because European Union is already extensively engaged in the region and it is one of the major partners for the region. See EU is one among the top investors, top development assistant providers and big trading partners for the region. So Indo-Pacific is vital for the European Union's economic growth. So now let us see the strategy adopted by European Union for the Indo-Pacific. See this new strategy recommits the European Union politically to this Indo-Pacific region and it aims to contribute to the stability, security, prosperity and sustainable development of the Indo-Pacific region and this will be done based on the promotion of democracy, rule of law, human rights and international law and the strategy will also allow the European Union to enhance cooperation in many areas including connectivity, health, cooperation in multilateral fora etc. Further under the strategy European Union will continue to develop partnerships in the areas of security and defense. Now this will include responding to challenges to international security including responding to address maritime security issues, malicious cyber activities, disinformation, emerging technologies etc. So it will carry out these listed measures in the areas of security and defense. So now this strategy assumes importance because the region is facing rising tensions. There are geopolitical rivalries and there are contested territories and territorial waters. For example if you take the South China Sea there are maritime and territorial disputes between the China and other countries in the South China Sea. But maintaining peace in the South China Sea region is important because around one third of the maritime trade passing through Indo-Pacific actually passes through the South China Sea. So passages through South China Sea need to remain free and open but due to the territorial claims by China this region is under geopolitical pressure and the rivalry is increasing day by day. Even then proper regional security structures are absent in the region so it is hoped that this new strategy of European Union will enhance the security in the region and it will safeguard the economy as a whole. And most importantly the strategy acknowledges the growing importance of the region. So these are some of the points that you have to take note about this strategy by European Union for Indo-Pacific. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Now this discussion is based on this news article which mentions that 300 kilograms of narcotics has been seized by INS Suvarna and it has been seized from a fishing vehicle in the Arabian Sea. So based on this article let us discuss about illegal narcotics trade and the major trafficking routes. See narcotic is a drug that produces pain relief, sleep and addiction and for some it also produces euphoria that is a state of great happiness. In most countries the production trade and use of narcotics are limited or prohibited because of their additive properties and harmful effects. But such drugs are also consumed for medicinal purposes, recreation or during religious and social ceremonies. See earlier almost all the demands for these drugs were met locally but this was changed in early 1980s with the inflow of heroin and since then drug trafficking became an issue of concern. See according to 2018 annual report by UN bagged international narcotics control board India is one of the major hubs for illicit drug trade. Even the world drug report 2020 notes that the highest seizure of opium was in Iran and it is followed by Afghanistan Pakistan and India and when it comes to particularly heroin seizure India was at the 12th position in the world. So why is India a major hub for illicit drug trade? It is mainly because of India's location that is India's geographical location. See India lies between the Golden Crescent and the Golden Triangle. These two are the world's two largest areas of illicit opium producing regions. Now here Golden Crescent region refers to the area in South Asia which comprises of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. Then the Golden Triangle is the area where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet at the confluence of two rivers that is Ruach river and Mekong river. Now India's proximity with the Golden Crescent and the Golden Triangle has made India both the destination for the opiates and also a transit route or passing route for the opiates that is produced in these regions and remember that this two-way illegal flow of these drugs and chemicals not only violates India's borders but it also poses a significant threat to national security. See the nexus between drug traffickers, organized criminal networks and terrorists has got the potential to cause instability in the country. Also the money generated through this drug trade has been used to fund various insurgent and terrorist movements and these drug trafficking activities also facilitate other organized criminal enterprises such as human trafficking and gun-running and they use similar networks and routes to smuggle people, arms and even goods and now today's news is that the boat which was seized was a Pakistani fishing boat and the narcotics seized from it were meant to fund terror activities in India, Maldives and Sri Lanka. I note that this illegal narcotics smuggling had originated from the Makharan coast where the coastlines of Pakistan and Iran meet so the drugs were being trafficked from the Golden Crescent towards the Indian Maldivian Sri Lankan destinations. So these are some of the points that we should know about illicit trafficking of drugs. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Now the next discussion is based on this news article which talks about Rwandan genocide. See this news article is with reference to a report commissioned by the Rwandan government about the role of France before and during the genocide of 1994. See genocide means the murder of all the people of a particular race religion etc. Now this report says that French government bears significant responsibility for enabling a foreseeable genocide in which an estimated 8 lakh people were slaughtered. So in today's discussion let us have a brief understanding about Rwanda from geographical perspective and we'll also see about this genocide which happened in that country. See Rwanda is a landlocked country situated in the Central Africa. Its capital is Kigali and it is located in the center of the country on the Ruganwar river. This country lies to the south of the equator and north of the Tropic of Capricorn. Now coming to its bordering countries it borders Uganda to the north, Tanzania to the east, Burundi to the south and it is bordered by the Democratic Republic of Congo to the west. It is also bordered by a lake called Lake Kivu. It is situated in its west. Now know that the dominant feature of this country is a chain of mountains of rugged beauty and these mountains run on a north south axis and they form a part of Congo Nile divide. See here this Congo Nile divide is the continental divide that separates the drainage basins of the Nile river and the Congo river. Now in this regard let us know about the drainage system of this country. It includes major rivers such as Ruzizi, Kagera, Vogo, Rukarara, Ruganwa etc. I know that most of the country's rivers are found on the eastern side of the Congo Nile divide and among these rivers Kagera is the major eastern river. Additionally know that only a small percentage of the country is covered in natural forest vegetation. So now what about the genocide? See for that you should first know about the ethnic composition of the country. Rwanda's population consists of two groups of people belonging to different ethnicities. They are Hutus and Tutsi. Hutus are the majority and the Tutsis are the minority. Now in the year 1959 Hutus attacked the Tutsi minority and many Tutsis fled to neighboring countries including Uganda. Then in the year 1962 only Rwanda got independence from Belgium and meanwhile Tutsis formed a rebel group called Rwandan Patriotic Front. So in 1992 these rebels fought against Rwanda and a ceasefire agreement was signed with the Hutu majority government and the Tutsi rebels. But the Hutu extremists were not happy and this led to the killing of people belonging to Tutsi. It is said that more than 8 lakh people were killed in this mass genocide by the Hutu extremists. But even then Tutsi won the war and they have started to rule Rwanda. Now if you are more interested to know about this Rwandan genocide you can watch the movie Hotel Rwanda. So that is all about this discussion about Rwanda. Now let us move on to the next discussion which is based on this editorial article which talks about the rule of artificial intelligence in the life of children. See we have already seen about artificial intelligence and its associated issues on our 17th March Hindi news analysis. You can view that analysis for better understanding. And in today's discussion we look into the role played by AI in the lives of the children and we will also see about the points noted by author regarding the associated vulnerabilities for children in AI and we will also see the way forward. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. See we are part of a very first artificial intelligence generation and the children and adolescents of today are in a world that is powered by virtual reality and artificial intelligence. See virtual reality refers to a computer generated simulation wherein a person can interact within an artificial three-dimensional environment using electronic devices and this virtual reality enables the users to have a realistic feeling experience. And next is artificial intelligence. As you know it refers to the ability of machines to perform cognitive tasks like thinking, perceiving, learning, problem solving and decision making. Now this artificial intelligence has got the potential to shape our behaviors, preferences and perceptions both of the world and also the perceptions of ourselves. So presently this artificial intelligence is also playing a greater role in the lives of the children and adolescents especially in this pandemic where world is using or exploiting only resources to educate children. See in this technologically driven world access to internet has at most importance but as per UNICEF and the International Telecommunications Union two-thirds of the world's children do not have access to the internet at home. So this creates a digital divide of haves and have-nots. This digital divide is harmful because it prevents equal benefiting from the opportunities offered by this transformation. And this digital divide further depends the pre-existing inequalities and it can also create disparities of its own. And that is why author stresses to get all children online. So at such a scenario where we want all the children online it becomes important and crucial for us to ensure two things. First is that the rights, privacy and well-being of our children are protected in the digital world. And second is to ensure that the online spaces are safe for children with restricted profiling and data collection. So in simple words what we need is to create a child safe digital space or a child proof artificial intelligence. This is because in our physical world we have got norms and standards to protect the children. For example in many countries the faces of children are blurred in news outlets for protecting their privacy. But such policies or similar protocols does not exist online. So that is why we need a child safe digital space. So now before discussing how this can be achieved let us see about the vulnerabilities for children in artificial intelligence. The first vulnerability or threat is posed by the anonymity or the unsupervised identities in the internet or online. See anonymity can be a threat to the children since we cannot ensure that the person on the other side is genuine and we cannot also ensure that the person on the other side is of similar age or is actually a child. Because many times we have heard that even adults deceivingly pose anonymously as children to entice the children. So due to this anonymity provided by the internet the gaming and chat forums where the children normally socialize online is used by child predators. See we can understand that such online video games and social networks are a business model but still we cannot deny the damage that it causes to the children and adolescents who are becoming digitally addicted. See most of the children nowadays are 24 into 7 indulged in their phones and laptops tabs etc. So they are impacted by everything that is available online like information and also the abuses online. This is where our most important concern is present because more impact is created by the fake news that is available online than the conspiracy theories, hype, hubris, online bullying, hate speech and similar ones. All these are prevailing online and all of these are of concern because they are structuring the children's views towards the world and also towards themselves especially at a time when they are trying to figure out who they are and when they are trying to figure out the world they are living in. So it is very easy to manipulate a child online. Now the next concern is about the advanced technologies that uses artificial intelligence. According to the author there are artificial intelligence toys which are programmed in a way to listen and observe the children and thereby collecting their data but there is no framework to govern the use of such collected data. And in fact according to the author some toys even perform facial recognition of children and toddlers. So we can say that in the future it may lead to racial discrimination also. See here you should not forget that artificial intelligence is an amazing resource when it comes to learning and when it comes to pedagogical approaches like tutoring systems, curriculum plans, virtual reality instruction, interactive learning experiences etc. Even our program is an online program but at the same time you should remember that artificial intelligence can also increase and introduce new challenges in the education system. For example when the usual tests were cancelled in the United Kingdom due to the pandemic the algorithm that served as an alternative plan to the tests made many students to lose their college admissions and scholarships. So there are challenges like this and there are also issues like whether the children are really getting educated, whether they understand the concept or not is never known to the tutor or the teacher. So we can say that it is not always that AI is an amazing platform sometimes it also has many drawbacks. So now how the concerns in AI can be addressed? First there is a need to mitigate the online harms with a multi-pronged action plan like using legal and technological safeguards like creating greater awareness on artificial intelligence that is working behind the scenes then by providing trustworthy certification rating systems then by banning anonymous accounts and also by enforcing ethical principles. Now all these should be included in the multi-pronged action plan to mitigate the online harms. Now in this way a recent step by United Nations assumes importance it is the general comment 25 on children's rights in relation to the digital environment. This is a landmark decision by the UN committee on the rights of the children and this decision embeds children's rights online into the larger framework of the UN Convention on Rights of the Child that is UNCRC. And this landmark document highlights and raises awareness of the risks that children face online. It also lists the opportunities which the online environment brings to the children and it also asks the public and private sectors to take action to address the concerns present in the online platforms. So based on this author finally concludes by mentioning about the need for a multilateral and multi stakeholders effort in ensuring an ethical artificial intelligence for the upcoming generations. This is very important since we need safe online spaces for children without algorithmic manipulation and also we need online culture which promotes attention building skills understanding and appreciation along with social emotional learning capabilities. So first is we need an ethical artificial intelligence and secondly as a measure that can be taken in our country author suggests that the national policy for children of 2013 of our country can be extended for children in the digital space also. So this will ensure the safety and security of the children online. So these are some of the points that you can take note from this editorial article. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Our next discussion is based on this article which talks about asset reconstruction companies. See the news is that RBI has set up a committee to review the working of asset reconstruction companies in the financial sector. The committee will also recommend suitable measures for enabling these companies to meet the growing requirements. So in this context let us discuss in brief about asset reconstruction and also ARCs that is asset reconstruction companies. So you know that one of the leading problems in India's financial sector is the alarming volume of non-performing assets with the banking system. So several attempts were made to tackle these NPAs that is non-performing assets and one such serious step was the creation of dedicated institutions called asset reconstruction companies or in short ARCs. So first what is asset reconstruction? It means acquisition by an ARC of any right or interest of any bank or financial institution in any financial assistance and this is done for the purpose of realization of such financial assistance. So what we mean is ARCs acquire the bad debts or NPA accounts from the banks and the financial institutions and they try to resolve these bad debts expeditiously by availing remedies under the existing laws of India. So now what about an ARC? It is a company incorporated under the Companies Act and it is registered with the Reserve Bank of India under section three of the Securitization and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act of 2002 or in short the Surfacey Act of 2002 and in India ARCs function under the supervision and control of the Reserve Bank of India. Now these ARCs are in the business of securitization and reconstruction of the financial assets and these are strictly carried out as per the Surfacey Act and the guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India from time to time. Now as per the Surfacey Act the sponsor of ARC is any person who is holding not less than 10 percentage of the paid up equity capital of an ARC and as per 2016 Amendment to Surfacey Act an ARC should have a minimum net owned fund of rupees 2 crore but later in 2017 RBI raised this amount to 100 crore rupees. Now apart from this the ARCs also have to maintain a capital adequacy ratio of 15 percentage of its risk weighted assets. Here just know that risk weighted assets are used to determine the minimum amount of capital that must be held by banks and other financial institutions in order to reduce the risk of insolvency. Now an example for ARC in India is the Asset Reconstruction Company India Limited or in short ARCIL. It is sponsored by prominent banks and financial institutions such as SBI, IDBA Bank Limited, ICIC Bank Limited etc. Now this diagram summarizes the working of an ARC. Here just know that a qualified buyer means a financial institution, insurance company, bank or ARC etc that is making investment on behalf of mutual fund or a foreign institutional investor who is registered under the SBI Act of 1992. A qualified buyer also includes non-institutional investors specified by the RBI or any other body corporate specified by the SBI. These are some of the factual information that you should know about asset reconstruction companies. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Now we have come to the last session the practice questions discussion session. Now this question is based on Council of the European Union. It asks, with reference to the Council of the European Union often seen in news consider the following statements. First statement is it was formally known as Council of Europe. See this statement is incorrect. First let us know about Council of European Union. See it is informally known as the Council and in this Council the government ministers from each European Union country meet to discuss amend and adopt laws and they coordinate policies. Now the ministers have the authority to commit their governments to the actions that is agreed on in these meetings and note that together with the European Parliament the Council is the main decision-making body of the European Union and the Council also adopts the European Union budget together with the European Parliament but this Council is different from the Council of Europe and this Council of Europe it's not an European Union body at all rather it is the continent's leading human rights organization and it includes 47 member states and among them 27 belong to European Union. So that means first statement is incorrect. Now the second statement is it is the main decision-making body of the European Union together with the European Parliament. Now this statement is correct we just saw that and the third statement is it adopts the European Union budget. Now this statement is also correct it adopts the budget together with the Parliament and here the question asks for the incorrect statements so the correct answer is option A one only. Now this next question is a map-based question it asks which of the above borders Rwanda and the options are Uganda Tanzania Burundi Indian Ocean South Africa. Now if you know that Rwanda is a landlocked country then you can easily eliminate four four should not be in the answer then that means B and C are not the correct answers. Now from the remaining options you can definitely say that one two and three borders Rwanda but what about five South Africa. See South Africa does not border Rwanda so the correct answer is option A one two and three only. Now this next question is based on Riyang tribe first statement is the Riyang tribes are spread across the states of Odisha Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. Now this statement is incorrect because they are spread across the northeastern states and it includes Tripura, Assam, Manipur and Mizoram. Now the second statement is the Riyang speak the Kukbarok language known as Cowbrew. Now this statement is correct we saw this during discussion and here the question asks for the correct statements. So the correct answer is option B two only. Now this next question is based on asset reconstruction companies. First statement is ARC shall be registered with Reserve Bank of India under the securitization and reconstruction of financial assets and enforcement of Security Interest Act of 2002 that is the Surfazy Act and this statement is correct. Second statement is the sponsor of ARC is any person holding not less than 20% of the paid up equity capital of an ARC and this statement is incorrect because as per the Surfazy Act the sponsor of ARC is any person who is holding not less than 10% of the paid up equity capital of an ARC and here the question asks for the correct statement so the correct answer is option A one only. Now let us take two main questions one is based on GS paper one and the other is based on GS paper two. You can answer these questions and post it in the comment section with this we come to the end of today's in the news analysis and the practice questions discussion session. If you like the video don't forget to like comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for more updates related to civil service examination preparation.


I'm Salvatore Bobonis and in today's video I'm going to show how to use the US Census Bureau's International Database to produce population pyramids for different countries. To get there, just Google Census Bureau IDB for International Database and you'll easily get to this page, click through to the database itself, and then on the report you'd like choose Population Pyramid Graph. Now the Census Bureau produces animated population pyramids if you choose several years, and I'm going to start with years at 10 year increments starting with 1980, and if I hold down the control key I can highlight multiple years. The Census Bureau actually has data going way back to I think 1960, but it also gives projections out through 2050. And while you might think that projections to 2050 are pretty dicey, in fact population tends to move in very slow arcs. I mean consider that everyone is going to give birth in the next 20 years is pretty much already been born, so you can pretty well predict what the population is that's going to be given birth and fertility rates move in predictable ways. It's really pretty sound to do population projections out for 30 or 40 years. I'm going to start by looking at the projections for China, I click submit. I'm starting with China because China is maybe the most dramatic case of demographic change that we have in recent years. You'll see the data for China only started in 1990 after all, and here you can see the population pyramid for 1990, 2000, and if you were to scroll along all the way up to 2050. It's called a Population Pyramid because it's arranged in such a way that on the horizontal axis are millions of people, on the left side are males and the right side are females. So this first line would indicate that between zero and four years old, there are something like 68 million Chinese boys and 60 something million Chinese girls. And it's called a pyramid because obviously as you get older, older and older and older, there are fewer and fewer people because people tend to die with age. There are no more people being made at older ages, they're always being dying off at older ages. So we end up with a pyramid shape for most populations. If we animate China's population, we can do that by just clicking this play button. You'll see the effects of China's one child policy. China started with a one child policy in the 1970s, made it even more aggressive in the 80s and 90s, and as a result, China's new births have declined generation after generation. Here you can see the large bulge of people who were born before the one child policies. People were born in the 1950s, 60s and early 70s, aging their way through the ranks until by 2050, China will have a very old population indeed. Now we can contrast China's population pyramid with other countries. So for example, I'll take a look at Australia. Australia has a very healthy population pyramid. There are no massive government policies that have worked the structure of the population, but instead when you look at Australia, you can see simply huge population growth. So while Australia's population structure is pretty stable, it's just growing very rapidly. What's more, you can see that consistently over a 60-year period, there are more Australians in the adult middle age ranges than there are young Australians. Now normally that would be impossible because as I said, people are born and then they die, but in Australia, levels of immigration are so enormous and immigrants obviously are not children. Immigrants have to be adults or at least adults with children, but you typically don't have unaccompanied four-year-olds immigrating to countries. So as a result, Australia has this big bulge of middle age populations. And this is actually very healthy for Australia's economy because these are people of high productivity. Whereas in China, the people of high productivity are aging through the system so that by 2050 they'll be in their low productivity elder years. In Australia, because of massive immigration, there's a continuous stream of Australians of high productivity. That said, the population gets larger and larger and larger and larger exponentially, so Australia won't be able to keep this up forever. The question is how long will it choose to? Okay, so in different ways, China and Australia both have quite pathological population structures. If we look at a third country, I'm going to go here to Nigeria, which has one of the highest birth rates in the world. And let's animate Nigeria's period. These are all 1990 through 2050. You'll see that Nigeria's population is just getting bigger and bigger and bigger via more and more and more births. So every year there are more children being born and that large cohort then moves up a year and another large cohort is born after it. So Australia or Nigeria here is in a position of exponential population growth due to a very high fertility rate. And in fact Nigeria is likely to overtake the United States in population very soon and may even overtake China by the end of the century. That's right. By the year 2100, it's likely, not certain, but likely that there will be more people in Nigeria than there are in China. So get your head around that. Alright, let's look now at Japan. Japan has China's problem in spades. Japan has a very severely aging population due to decades of low birth rates and low fertility. And if we look at Japan, you can see that Japan like China only more severely has an aging population of smaller and smaller and smaller birth cohorts as this bulge of people born in the 1960s passes through the population and is going to be quite old indeed by mid century. Alright, well, after seeing all these pathological population periods, it might be interesting to look at a stable one, a country that has a modest amount of in migration that has a birth rate that's or fertility rate that's close to replacement is right around two children per woman. And that country is France. So if we look at France's population pyramid, you'll see instead, you know, a pretty stable population. I mean a population that is roughly the same generation after generation with, you know, age population aging due to improved health care over time, but not a lot of massive change like you see in these other countries we have looked at. Alright, that's about it. I'll just quickly note that you can get all sorts of population data from the Census Bureau and that goes back to 1950 actually and forward to 2050. And you can get it for pretty much every country in the world. There are other sources of data for other countries, but many for many countries is very difficult to get good estimates. And in fact, if you would like to know, you know, population by age group, you know, five year age group for, you know, a small country like Estonia, the Census Bureau will give you a pretty good estimate. The only other place you can get estimates like this are the United Nations population division, which has similar estimates based on slightly different methodology, but you'll get very similar numbers. Or if you go to each country's individual data bureau, you might be able to get data, or you might not. Most of us as professionals use the Census Bureau and the UN population division as our data sources. Hope you enjoyed the lecture and thanks for watching.