It's 9 a.m. Where we are and it's the fourth day of our conference and some of us on this stage are going to be a little tired And we'll have Bill McKibbin with us from the East Coast Where it's noon and he's going to be all fresh and able to make us look really bad But I want to first invite the rest of the panel on to the stage with me first we have Robert Gomez who is an artist and activist and working in Areas that you will hear about in a moment and then Donna Morton From Prince the prince of home Prince of Principium Principium, I knew I was going to get that wrong and primal Shaw who's the president of Kiva and my copy editor copy editor daughter is sitting in the stage and I am embarrassed that We had something happen that I wasn't really thrilled about and that was the name of this title is what is literally worth dying for And I don't think we're Talking about literally dying, but maybe in some ways we are And I think what we're going to explore that because what does it mean? And what does it look like when we make choices that we are not? That are not in line with the culture around us And what do we have to give up and what parts of ourselves might be dying?  And so we're gonna start with Bill and ask him to take about 10 minutes to talk to us about About some of those things for those of you don't know Bill McKibben's work And I can't imagine that there's anyone in the room that doesn't he is the founder of 350.org and he is the the Chief climate activist I think in the world and he's been arrested multiple times and has been getting all of his friends to be arrested with him fighting For the things he believes in so Bill welcome, and we're so glad we see him right down there So that's why you'll watch it see us all looking that way We're glad to have you with us. Welcome to Socap Very good with y'all. I wish I was there in person But it's very nice to be joining you via low-carbon Skype anyway Look, I I'm glad to hear that we're not talking about literally dying Because I you know I Think the work that most of us do certainly the work we do at 350 is just the opposite our hope is to Stop people from dying The estimate at the moment is that about 200,000 people a year die from the effects of climate change The most recent study Indicated that by 2030 there'd be about a hundred million deaths due to the effects of fossil fuel on this planet That's why we fight hard against the fossil fuel industry It's why we're so happy to see this quickly spreading divestment movement around the country and around the world It's why we do what we do Let me talk a little bit. Maybe a way to talk about it a little bit was is just to reflect a little bit on The experience of writing a letter asking people to come to Washington to get arrested Which I you know I wrote that letter about two years ago a little more and I'd never written a letter like it And it was a little hard to do as you can imagine I Wrote it and then a bunch of my friends and colleagues Sort of edited it and signed on people like Naomi Klein or Wendell Berry or Danny Glover Leaders all across the continent and we were asking people to come because it was the first the beginning of this fight against this Keystone XL pipeline down out of the tar sands of Canada Though it's since become one of the biggest the iconic environmental fight of our time two years ago No one had ever heard of it. So we figured that civil disobedience would be important for the role that it often plays to draw attention to something and to underline the kind of moral seriousness of it and and That's why we ask people to come and be arrested but asking people to be arrested is hard And I not only wrote the letter, but I was there every morning for those two weeks except for the three days I was in jail myself Talking to people before they went off to get arrested giving a little talk and just saying what you're gonna about to do is brave because You know, we're all raised to When the police tell us to do something to do it That's what feels Right for you know, just sort of from middle-class Americans Whose experiences with the police have mostly been good so on and so forth. It's Psychologically hard to to not do what you're told to do And it was very moving to see people Acting Bravely in that way. I mean it wasn't as if they were going off to the none of us were going off to you know The front in World War two or something. We weren't gonna die on the other hand You know, I mean spending three days in jail in central Selblac in DC as about as much fun as it sounds like it would be, you know I had a hand it's not the end of the world the end of the world is the end of the world Which is why we do what we do Reflect on when I think back on that initial letter that we wrote that seemed important to me where one We didn't think that young people should have to be the cannon fodder for this The college kids have led the climate fight young people all over the world But you know, it's a little harder right now in our economy if you're 22 Maybe in a rest record not the best thing for your resume, you know One of the few unmixed blessings of growing older is past a certain point.  We didn't ask people how old are you when they got arrested that'd be rude But we did ask I think cleverly who was president when you were born and The two biggest cohorts came from the FDR and the Truman administrations on the last day There was a fellow arrested with the sign around his neck that said a World War two veteran handle with care That he'd been born in the Warren Harding Administration when I studied American history and I've forgotten there was a Warren Harding administration It was very good to see elders acting like elders Doing the doing the work that they should be doing and it was very moving for the young people who were doing all the organizing of all of this To watch Older people being willing to play their part The other thing we asked that was interesting was that everybody If they'd come would they please to get arrested put on a necktie or wear a dress and you can tell from looking at me That this not my normal attire. I live in Vermont. We know really You know neck ties are for funerals and that's about it But there was a point we wanted to make And the point was and I think this is an important point and one I get it I want to get across in the context of this panel. I don't think there's a darn thing radical about what we're doing I think all we're doing in our movement is asking for a world that works the way it was when we were born You know a world that works the way it's worked for the last 10,000 years I don't think anybody and you know sort of across sort of social movements is asking for very much in the way That's radical. I think people that occupy or supposedly are you know most radical movement or whatever are just you know For the most part saying we want the country to work sort of the way it was said it did in the high school civics textbooks You know not a world where a few people because they're rich get to control everything I don't think in any way that we're radicals. I think radicals work at oil companies I think that if you're willing to make a fortune and the fossil fuel industry makes more money than any Industry there's ever been if you're willing to make that fortune by altering the chemical composition of the atmosphere And if you're willing to do it after scientists have explained what the consequences will be And if you're willing to do it after as with last summer we watch the Arctic melt We've lost 80% of the sea ice in the Arctic if you're willing to do all those things and you are an incredible radical you're you may not be willing to die You're clearly willing to kill for your beliefs and your Fortune and things and and so standing up to that kind of radicalism seems to me like our Task so it doesn't none of it seems to me. It doesn't feel the work that we're about Extraordinary in in any way really what seems extraordinary is that there are people on Who aren't you know sort of involved in it there? There are still people willing to invest money in Exxon You know willing to profit from the wreckage of the climate that seems to me Extraordinary and strange and and and a little hard to understand and we're doing our best to kind of spread the information to make sure that they Understand it so that they'll hopefully stop doing it. You may think I'm just a hopelessly Normal human being and that's what it what it feels like to me And and and one of the good things and I'll just finish here It is to say that the the movement that we're building this climate movement Which has really sprung up in the last five or six years around the world is a beautifully Diverse spread out and sprawling movement without a bunch of leaders. It's not exactly leader-less It's more like it's leader-full and there are Tens of thousands of people all over the country and all over the world who sort of shown up to Provide the motivation and the impetus and the leadership It's very open source would be one way to describe it and another would be to say that you know The the movement that we're building mirrors the well mirrors the system We'd like to see our hope for the future is not a few big power plants, but 10 million solar panels on 10 million roofs all interconnected and that's how we like our politics to Our movement to be and for that reason it's very innovative interesting time and hopefully all of us can do Parts of this and none of us will have to You know go die for it. It's absurd. I mean it's absurd that we even have to go to jail for you know That you know I mean in a rational system It would be enough for scientists to say look the worst thing that ever happened in the world is in the process of happening Here's what you need to do, you know Put a price on carbon let markets work spur the development of renewables. Let's get down to it whatever I mean, you know if our system was working successfully that would be more than enough to get us going in the right direction And it's in it once in a while annoys me that I mean I don't mind having to go off to jail myself But it does piss me off sometimes to watch like Remember watching Jim Hansen our greatest climatologist climb into the paddy wagon for the third or fourth time No in the last few years. It's like, you know really this guy is a great Scientist he should be in his lab hard at work figuring out what's going on. It's pathetic that you know Our system is so dominated by wealth and power that this guy has to go to jail in order to get people to pay attention To what he's saying, so that's all I've got to say Thank you, Bill, and I really love the way he's refocused this question rather than We're up here to talk to these wonderful people who are somehow living outside of what People think should be happening. We've got some folks on this stage who are doing great stuff and they're unfortunately We don't have thousand we have 1900 people here at Socap bill. I thought you'd love to know that but but we don't have 20,000 people It's still we still got some work to do but I'd love to start with you primal about When was it in your life that you? Kind of realized you were gonna see things differently than maybe the other some other folks around you and I've heard this story before and I'm anxious for our friends to hear about well You know, I just want to pick up on what bill said around what we define as absurd And I think a really interesting question that I recently heard is what do you want to make absurd in your lifetime? So if you think about it, you know 20 years ago if you're on a flight The flight people be smoking on a flight you be in a restaurant right here in San Francisco people be smoking in the restaurant Now if that were to happen, that's absurd to us the culture is completely shifted laws have shifted so on and so forth and So in one generation something like that can go from common to uncommon or absurd and the idea of going to jail In order to make sure that our children and our grandchildren inherit a planet. That's viable That's absurd And another thing that's absurd is poverty today I just read that 16% of Americans are below the poverty line and we know that 3 billion people on the planet live on less than $2 a day My family Was lucky enough my parents were lucky enough to have an education in India that when I was a year old I was born in India. I was able to immigrate to the United States and I lived in the suburbs of Minneapolis and When I was five years old my parents took me back to India for the first time to visit my grandparents and You know, I'll never forget the love that I felt I was got sit in between Moped between my uncle and my dad honked the horn a lot It was I got to eat ice cream every day, which was uncharacteristic my mom on that trip, you know It was a wonderful trip But at five I think the thing I could not grok and I still can't wrap my head around today It's just how different it was from the neighborhood that I was raised in in New Brighton, Minnesota the village that my dad lives in or that he was born and raised in and The the town that I was raised in Was completely different and the thing that I think it was most different is access to opportunity access to that social mobility the ability to become a part of the middle class and one one Particular story on one of the first days when I was there my mom let me hold on to a one rupee coin and We were walking through the marketplace. She wanted to go shop for a few things and there's sewage stream running right through my dad's village And I dropped the coin and my mom You know immediately yanked me in the other direction because she didn't want me to pick it up because it was dirty To her and I remember looking back in a woman who was older than my mom in a ragged Sorry, she must have been a beggar in the marketplace. She had walked over picked up that one rupee coin looked up at the sky and then thank God that she had found it and tucked it away in her blouse and her sorry blouse and What my mom was willing and my mom's amazing, but she was willing to literally throw something away That same thing could answer someone else's prayers This is the disparity that we have on the planet today and that is absolutely absurd to me So I think at that that first trip back and travel can open our eyes travel back home can open our eyes that that I Think probably changed the set of decisions that I made Because I knew I wanted to do something about that feeling that I had but I didn't know what that was and you know It's been a complete privilege to have Been a part of Kiva Thank you, Primal. I May have to ask Bjorn to bring tissues up here before this is over I'm gonna the I feel like the tears are gonna be flowing Donna Morton my friend who I met a few years ago at the Unreasonable Institute when she was Working with launching first nation power first power And now is often to a new venture. Can you tell us a little bit about? How you got started on this somewhat counter-cultural road that you're on that we want to make cultural Yeah So I was thinking about the question and and I realized that you know I was made in many ways and I'll talk about that too, but there's also a way People are gonna make fun of me But in the immortal words of Lady Gaga that I was born this way I I was a little girl Who became aware that a lake that I loved was dead? and was Kind of sort of thrust into the environmental movement with some help from John Denver pop songs because I grew up in a Working-class family so a lot of my education came from television and movies And and other forms of popular culture, and I realized I was sort of collecting Information about poverty collecting information about you know, I I feel like I heard future generations as a child I mean, I didn't hear voices, but I I Felt as a child an awareness of myself as an old woman and that I've known all my life that I wanted to die at peace and that the way to do that was to Stay awake and stay aware So I kind of came out of the world like this And then I've been really fortunate to find mentors along my path You know one of the first mentors that really shaped me in some really profound ways was a guy named Joel Solomon Lots of you probably know Joel Solomon from renewal Well, you know Joel Solomon kind of picked me up as an angry street activist in my early 20s. I Like my colleague Bill McKibbin went to jail a lot in my 20s I went to jail every five weeks for two years of my life actually Wow And it was my it was my journey. It was my journey through no Using my body using everything I had to say no to the absolute atrocities I started out as an anti-nuclear activist fought against toxins fought against oil companies Fought against the capture of whales. You name it. I was arrested for it and Then you know, I started telling Joel that I was I was I was in pain because there was something else happening inside me I wanted to say yes I had this spiritual longing to be able to lean in and really say yes And you know Joel said you should come into the social venture network world You should learn about these really awesome business people financial people that are reinventing the world And maybe you'll find kind of your next path and that really happened and then you know along that path I discovered Paul Hawkin Hunter leavens who's become a really dear friend and a colleague Who you know really took me deep inside if you want to change the system I mean the economy is eating the planet whole we've allowed that to happen and we've allowed it to happen with our pensions And our credit cards and our bank accounts and our own investments We're all touching that economy that is eating the planet whole and so if we want to reshape the world We need to put our hands and our hearts and our values on the economy And so you know in this next kind of iteration of my life where I'm shifting from activist to entrepreneur to investor I'm really excited. I'm really excited about the opportunity To align people with their money and move money move it Monday Move the money a hundred percent of it I was so I was so excited by the panel yesterday on a hundred percent You know that the idea that people are taking all of their assets every single Piece of who they are financially in the world and aligning it with what they love I think that's what we need to do. I think we fundamentally need to restructure the economy and that it's not going to be governments that does that restructuring if we're all waiting for our Governments to wake up and restructure the economy to align it with social justice With ending global poverty with abating climate change with restoring the right then the absolute intrinsic right of indigenous people To exist and thrive in the world if we think governments are going to do that. We're missing it. It's us Thank you, Donna We have our new friend Robert Gomez who's new to SoCAP this year He's an artist and an activist and I'd love for you to tell the folks gathered here and who are watching us live streaming about the Some of your history and how you got to this point. Yeah, so I'm a social documentary filmmaker and photographer I think we have a similar story of having our immigrant past really Affecting the way that we are so my family is from Mexico but I was born in the United States and I grew up knowing that the world was unfair, you know I could have intense privilege in the United States Attend a nice private school and then go to Mexico and live in the very rural extreme poverty that my family was in and so Seeing that injustice I also felt a sense of privilege being able to go across borders and there I started to realize that I had an obligation to make the world better and Growing up I always felt that I was going to make the world better by either doing something very difficult to be Overcoming challenges or I was going to do it creatively I was going to create beauty in the world and so leaving high school I entered the United States Military Academy at West Point a Training to be a military officer choosing to make my stand with weapons And it was a really powerful experience because the first month that I was there two planes flew into the World Trade Center and Every soldier there had a very directly come to terms with what the value of their life was You know you realize at that moment that you only have one life to give You know that that's all you can do and so you know a lot of us went through a lot of different Difficult conversations about what it is that we're going to do and we all felt very righteous in being part of the military and being Part of something that was just and right around that time one quote that really stuck with me You know in this kind of soul-searching and questioning of what my life was worth was a quote by General Patton You know who told us to his soldiers in World War two? And he said very famously that I don't want you to die for your country.  And there's something really powerful there, and I think this kind of flips the question of what we're talking about You know, what would you die for? Is that the kind of answer to that was that you the ultimate sacrifice doesn't have to mean Taking a bullet it doesn't have to mean dying the ultimate sacrifice can be something active You know where you are really dedicating your life is almost more of a challenge You know getting your dedicating your life to something good working hard for something positive that activism Can be more powerful than actually dying for something and so you know in that moment I started to realize that I wanted to be able to create more I didn't want to just traffic in life and death, you know, which would have been the path if I stayed there And so I left West Point and I started to enter into social documentary photography in areas of conflict And so working in places where people are very much struggling for the rights to survive in the favelas in Rio de Janeiro in Mexico with drug cartels Being able to go there and work with people that are trying to make their lives better through art And so I'd go and work with these people that are very Very powerful very engaging and be able to make work that tells that story to a broader audience to hopefully stop those bullets from flying in the future So that's that's how I got to this point Thank you As I sit here and listen to each one of you tell these stories filmmaker financier Tech genius, you know these labels kind of come to my mind and and I want to go back to primal and start with you again I cannot imagine that anyone who would have ever said this directly to you But do you ever feel this sense of you know people think you You'd be able to make so much money if you just move a little bit farther south down You know the Silicon Valley and apply what you were doing at Kiva to something that could really make a fortune for you and I'm just wondering what it is about Kiva what it is about what you're doing right now that is so compelling that That you find yourself there rather than doing what this culture is just Wants to launch us into doing Talk to me about Kiva Well, it's I mean it's it's such a privilege to have You know work aligned with your purpose That you know If you can live sustainably and work In a way that Benefits others I you know It's thinking about death as part of this panel and I I'd read actually this quote that if everything you do you do for yourself then when you die it all disappears and If everything you do you do for others then when you die it lives on and So it's almost the most selfish thing to do Wow is to actually work for the benefit of others to actually You know you can't eat money. You can't take it with you and It's just a I think being able to you know like all of us are doing create beauty and like this whole group is doing I mean just meet brothers and sisters here who are doing in their own way something that is completely led by passion We've come alive in our lives in a way that I think inspire other people and I know we feel lucky So regardless of the the small sacrifices or the minor inconveniences it is just an incredible privilege And I think that's that's something that you know, I'm reminded of When I when I go to work every day Thank you Donna it's kind of hard to ask you that question after you tell us you were arrested every five weeks from the time You were joining because you've never been tempted I've been tempted. I mean I've had some I've had some some sort of stratospheric job offers throughout my life and It sort of went like this someone would call me and say there's this job this supposedly really great job and We want to interview you and this voice inside just said. Oh, no Just it was just it's easy, which is what I was saying I maybe there's a missing hemisphere in my brain Maybe there's sort of missing compartmentalization facets of some people's brains that I don't possess But I I don't have it.  Oh my god I don't have any purpose. I just I'm not wired that way And so I've had this utter privilege of doing what I love and sometimes there really wasn't any money And that was really hard and and hard still like, you know, I started a Clean tech company a clean energy company that works with indigenous communities in Canada You know, I I used all my own assets to start the company and When it's been hard, it's really hard because I'm risking my kids education But that's not as hard as people who have died For what they believe in and and so when you know when the question comes about I Lost sleep over the question of what would you literally die for it woke me up in the middle of the night? Probably five times including last night Because it's a really big fat question, you know, if you take the question seriously It's a really big question that I think should rattle around inside every part of our bodies But, you know, I've had this incredible privilege now to be in three different fellowship programs Ashoka and reasonable and the Ogunte fellowship program for women in the UK and in all of those programs The you know, my brothers and sisters in those programs Lots of them have risked their lives and continue to risk their lives every day doing the change work They do in Pakistan in Liberia And you know in the Ashoka program I worked with a woman who was a former victim of torture who now Helps people heal from the trauma of torture. I mean, I've never done anything like that So what that I sat in a jail cell for 24 hours for Greenpeace, you know I've I've had an incredibly privileged life And and so there's something about that question of what would we die for that I think does Unlock some degree of privilege. I mean there's people who risk dying and die Every day all over the world because of the messes that we're talking about climate change and poverty and grotesque gaps between rich and poor Incredible rampant sexism It costs people their lives every day and so I feel like as you know I have some indigenous heritage, but I have white-skinned privilege and so I feel this enormous sense of obligation To speak because no one's gonna shoot me for shooting my mouth off, you know There's there's a whole bunch of activists in Canada native activists Environmental activists who have been audited by the government of Canada every Ashoka fellow that does environmental work in Canada right now Has been audited by the government and sat in rooms with lights in your face Where they ask you questions about everything you said and everything you tweeted and everything you've thought your whole life But so what? It was inconvenient. It was irritating it upsets me that my government thinks that environmentalists are Enemies of the state we're actually now classed with the Ku Klux Klan as extreme terrorists It's hideous. It's wrong. It's messed up.  That's right. Isn't it? That's why you're doing it I thought you might want to talk to us about that a little bit So I kind of want to talk a little bit about the social documentary as being a few but also talking about using that privilege with people They're literally risking their lives to be who they are. So that the second one of my last projects that I did was a Photography workshop in Mexico, you know and in quite as Mexico and quite as Mexico is actually the most violent city in the world for the past several years tens of thousands of people being murdered And I went down to work with orphans of murdered and disappeared women and this is an organization where Kids mothers are found in several pieces if they disappear for two weeks and then they're found cut up on You know in front of the police station one of the kids that I work with her sister disappeared seven years ago and They found her in in a concrete barrel and through forensics They do they realized that she had been professionally tortured for several days and here was this group of kids that was Trying to have fun trying to Learn how to color with crayons and I went down with cameras and What my purpose was was to be able to try and give some type of self-expression Be able to give them a way to be able to hold the reality that they did have the precious little family They could still hold on to and so what we did is we got to take family portraits And they took found they had to redefine their family quite literally With their cousin instead of their mother or their aunt instead of their sister one group of Kids they lost their mother ten years ago and they took a portrait with her with her grandmother and To you two weeks after I left the grandmother was taking them to school and Somebody jumped out of a truck and shot her five times Two times in the shoulders and three times in the chest and her 12 year old and 13 year old grandchildren were present and It's very hard for me to imagine you putting myself in their shoes Thinking of what I would do if I were a 12 year old, you know, would I run to save my grandmother? Or would I run to save myself? It's an extremely difficult situation to be in and so I think that in terms of the privilege that I have I can go and I can leave but these people that I work with they're very much entrenched in trying to do what they can to survive And it's very very powerful, you know, the the photographs aren't gonna sell tens and thousands of dollars You know, I have their little kind of family portrait before this shooting in my home But what is gonna do it's gonna help give them a sense of purpose Helps to allow them to be able to show to the world that they do exist, right? And so they were in small publications there They have their own prints and so that's something that I think is really beautiful about Photography it's not necessarily gonna make you know millions of dollars. It doesn't make large salaries But what it does it allows people that participate in it to validate their own lives. They saw themselves as photographers They got to see themselves as a family And it also allows other people to hear those stories And so that's something that I think is is is really quite powerful in the work that I do I think I get more out of it not necessarily financially But I get more out of it personally and it's much more inspiring than I could ever imagine. Thank you Want to jump back to something that Donna was saying a few minutes ago about going all in and how hard it is in this world to go all in and Bill I think you'll appreciate This anecdote I'm gonna tell sometimes kept people will ask Kevin and me what it is We do and we tell them about good capital and the hub and and so cap and they saw you're doing such great work And I always I come back usually with yes But we fly all over the world so we have carbon offsets to offset the good work We're doing and that kind of happens to all of us where they're these compromises or Choices that maybe aren't even compromises that we just have to make those Places working we can't go all in and I wondered if we could start with you Bill to talk about how do you deal with those pieces of your life where you you have to or you just simply must compromise and and Thank you for saying that you wanted to Skype instead of fly here We really appreciate that although we would have loved to have had you here all week Hang on just a second bill the week can we get that's the best we can do Bjorn? Okay, we're having a little bit of difficulty hearing you So let's try it again. I was hearing enough of it to keep To have you continue to answer By one light bulb at a time We're gonna solve it politically if we're gonna solve it and that means that we need to go out and do the work of organizing and all that So I just you know I'm cognizant of the fact that I'm hypocritical in those ways and then I get on the floor Yeah Primal what about you? What are those places that you feel like you just Have to make a different choice sometimes. Yeah, I'm you know related to what Bill said Peter Singer is a hero of mine. He's a ethicist And he He advised he basically looks at the planet and he says all right if you live in the United States Well, let me start back and he does a thought experiment first of all.  And if you ask I'd like to believe 99% of Americans would say I've get out of the car Because and you could you only have time to do one of two things push your car off the track save your car or save the child What would you do? Well, 99% of Americans I believe would get out of their car untie that eight-year-old child and save the child and He goes from that thought experiment saying well if you're willing to Let go of a car and you know that 25,000 children a day die from preventable diseases Why isn't every American basically taking any amount of discretionary income that they don't need to absolutely survive and Basically investing in things like deworming children things that are just preventable that could really prevent deaths and You know social scientists have looked at this thought experiment They've later said well oftentimes what's happening is that the child is not right next to you But it's thousands of miles away, which is why at Kiva what we're trying to do is make the problem much more human scale So you can actually see people not from a frame of pity But from a frame of being will be a business partner with them in framed in hope and entrepreneurship But going back to kind of the hypocrite kind of sentiment that I have of I don't actually Give away everything that I have Beyond that and I've been wrestling with Peter singers thought experiment a lot and you know If any of you guys have ways that you've kind of transcended that Bill I like what you had to say that you know turning living in the dark is not going to solve in your home is not going to Solve the climate crisis you're gonna have to find bigger lever points and be imperfect and go on with your work That was helpful, but I do struggle with that thought experiment Well, you know one of the one of the ironies Of the last sort of five years of my life is that in order to work with indigenous communities in Canada on renewable energy I had to get a driver's license Because you can't get there By mass transit. I grew up in big cities. I was a non-driver almost a religious non-driver my whole life No driver's license And then all of a sudden I was going out to these remote communities with no way to get there, but driving But you know I felt like we're helping communities own their energy We're helping communities discover the relationships between art and energy, which is one of the things we did We we helped communities put art onto solar panels as a way of saying this is who we are that we have Ancestors that have lived on this planet sustainably for 10,000 years And now we're going to make a statement about the integration of who we are as beings and our culture and this new Technology that allows us to provide for the future And so it felt like okay. I could live with that set of compromises And now, you know, I'm moving from the entrepreneurial space into the investor space Which feels you know complex, you know, I'm moving full-telt into the world of money You know, I've done policy. I fought for carbon taxes for 10 years, which is another story Talked to me about that some other time. Maybe bill we should talk about that But you know now I'm in the sort of the center of the financial world But the the prospect of helping people You know do really deep value dives into who are you? What do you love?   That feels really right It feels really complicated. It feels really complex. It feels like it's gonna be really hard But it feels really right to hold people through that journey to really move the money because we need to move the money Monday, right? We need to move all the money Monday Thank you Robert, where would you like to go? Bigger deeper broader than your you've been able to imagine going yet That's a really really important question I think there's there's a very tense challenge with the work that I do Because I work with people that are vulnerable in a lot of ways and so to bring more exposure to their stories In some ways can make them even more vulnerable can put even more danger in their lives and I'll give an example I was in Jamaica recently working as the filmmaker for the first International social media campaign for gay rights in Jamaica in Jamaica is actually the most homophobic country in the Western Hemisphere and what that means There's a law on the books that Caramelizes homosexual acts and it's punishable by up to 10 years in prison and so That really filters down to a very strict cultural intolerance and when I was there, you know, I was interviewing individuals in the LGBTQ community And two miles away from where I was staying there was a teenager a transgender teenager that was beaten to death by a mob and I got to interview her surviving roommates who are also transgender who were also at the party and They told an incredibly Moving story of how beautiful The gully queen was you know this transgender person that was marvered But they also told about how horrific the event was there wasn't just a mob beating the The gully queen here this transgender girl was also disemboweled Was also run over and was also shot three times And so it's a very tough place to be able to try and celebrate this person Through her roommate stories who are also transgender who want to take risks to be able to be who they are Who want to take risks to be able to love? and told their stories openly and sang songs for us and You know put on their makeup and they became there who they wanted to be and so me thinking about Creating that into a feature-length film be able to see all seen all across the world actually puts them in a very Real danger of losing their lives And so that's something that I'm really constantly struggling with this how big do these projects actually have to be are they just for the LGBTQ community who can see that and and they'll be able to tell those stories and they'll be able to kind of have this type of Solidarity or is it important for me to be able to tell everyone even the people that you know The members in the mob Because nobody has been found nobody has has any charges against them But a mob means that dozens of people committed this murder You know being able to tell them of the humanity of these transgender people So that's kind of the tough point of Do you want the whole world to see it or do you select your audiences? And I think that's that's something that I'm really starting to kind of struggle with But I think first and foremost it's for the community that I work with to be able to celebrate their resilience to be able to tell Those stories and then it's also to select audiences on the outside to be able to have some type of personal investment Into what's happening on the ground there? Thank you so much You all have talked about being anxious about What would you die for in this panel and I have to tell y'all I was not anxious about this panel at all because these Stories these four people are doing such amazing work and Are all of you are heroes of mine? And I'm so privileged to be here and be able to chat with you I see Cheyenne sitting there with a microphone And I want to turn now and see what questions you might have for these this group of people Laura darling has been a privilege hearing your stories I was a Kiva fellow in Uganda a few years ago and one of the things that that really did for me was to Recognize I am never even if I gave away all my money I'm never going to be as poor as some of these people Yeah, and so one of the things that I heard you talking about touching on was on privilege Could you talk about how you manage that and how you hold that privilege? recognizing it Acknowledging it and working with it to do the work you do Without being overcome by it. Thank you Maybe I can start off. I think part of it is just growing up between Mexico and the United States Recognizing my privileges into being an American is not necessarily being better But recognizing that there's a lot of equal worth with that the stories and what you can learn from those people So I feel like it's even though there I have an economic privilege I have a political privilege in being able to move I don't think that makes me better right that there's a very as much as I can give They can give to me and I can learn and so I think that's a way of not really trying to be patronizing Not being a benefactor and being the supreme power that can change the world but acknowledging that it's an exchange between two forces that are really Invested with each other. So I think that's kind of for me how it works There I mean there's a there's a lot of people in Canada that have some Aboriginal heritage Some people are raised deep in the culture. Some people Are estranged from the culture. I was really raised by my European family So getting to work with First Nations communities over the last sort of seven to ten years has been Really important for me as a being I didn't have you know, I didn't have elders that mentored me in my childhood, but I've been sort of taken under wing by 40 50 elders over the last few years Who sort of said you got to learn stuff like yeah, it's great that you it's great that you went to university, honey cool Awesome, you've got some smart stuff that you can teach us. We want it But you got to learn some stuff and so they took me into ceremony. They you know took me into the woods There's a there's a guy who really wants to take me hunting because he knows about my green piece history Which I'm gearing up for my first moose hunt Not quite ready yet But you know, I've learned I've learned really profound things, you know, I have learned from people who are Not just attached to the land. They are The land the land is who they are And I started to understand that much more profoundly Then you know the idea of art and culture and who people are being interwoven I understand it really differently. There's a there's a quote from a Métis Radical rebel philosopher who was hung by the Canadian government a man named Louis Riel Who said a lot of really amazing things you want to Google him He's a really wise guy, but one of the big quotes that really changed my life is Louis Riel said My people will sleep for a hundred years and when they wake up. It's the artists that will give them their spirit back And I really believe that I think that is part of where we are in this moment in time that we need art We need artists. We need people to show us a new way of being we need story tellers We need dancers we we need to remember that we're creatures of spirit and soul and that we're Cellularly tied to this living world that all of us have indigenous heritage all of us not just people that have North American indigenous blood or South American indigenous blood or Indian blood every human being has the cells in their body that we inherited from our ancestors that is Ancient knowledge about how to live and we have to remember we have to wake up those parts of our brain That that know that you can't pee in the drinking water The parts of our brain that know that we are connected to the animals and that what we do in the world and the messes We create comes back to us, you know, we need to find that part I've met some amazing indigenous scots over the last few years that are really trying to reindigenize Scotland Elders who take that on really seriously. They're learning Gaelic They're learning traditional ways of being in the world and they're you know, there's snowy white people with a beautiful sense of Indigeneity of of not modernizing indigenous people, but Indigenizing the modern economy and I believe that that's The gift of this time we can we can really learn from each other We can we can learn from people all over the world through social media indigenous people are strongly speaking through Twitter and Facebook and We can gather their voices and the things they know about how to live in the world and and we can make Dramatic changes through that wisdom. Wow Yeah, thank you Another question. Oh, yes Yes I just a couple of thoughts and I think to your last comment Donna The artists are there you have woken up And and you are inspiring Each one of the audience that is hearing your stories. So thank you for that first The the question that I wanted to ask is in one of the panels and I think Penelope Douglas asked the panelists about What would you? Have so kept to be accountable for and Sort of taking a stab into that question Asking you what would you like to see? In order for at least this audience to be more engaged in the work that you do How can we be part of each one of your stories and help you guys? maybe with this or maybe with this but Really engaging in the work that you do That's that's a great question as I'm watching the clock tick down I'm realizing that that's probably the last question We're gonna get to take and so I would like to say why don't we make that the closing question You know, what would you like? What would each of you bill primal Robert Donna? What would you like to challenge this group of people to? What step to take next where to head? Let's start Bill Let me just say You know, you know, we don't need to go to jail right away Um If you belong to anything that invest money in anything Thank you Bill, and I know you have to go on and leave leave us, but we'll we'll stay and have these three folks on stage Thank you Bill Rimmel well, you know, I'd flip it back and say that At Kiva one thing we're really fascinated by is how we can help all of you and I would say the subset of you who are social entrepreneurs here looking for capital We have historically Only worked with micro finance institutions and now have opened up the platform to social enterprises of all types And I know that It can be really really hard to fight the two-front war of doing incredible work with your intervention And then also trying to raise money for it and it can we were we're we're very open to How this platform how the Kiva community that's raising about a million dollars every three days can help put more good things into the world make the markets work better for for everyone on the planet and That's the one thing that I wanted to invite anyone Who who's looking for that funding to to get in touch with us at Kiva because we're we're starting to open it up to all social enterprises, right? Robert what's the step you want us to take so I can I think of the stuff that I want to mention is all of us know a Lot of local artists and I think part of it is to be able to empower those people at the grassroots level You know to be able to invest in them in whatever way it is either giving support or going to shows or whatever else But I think the kind of the underlying question that for me and thinking about what I would literally die for is To kind of flip it to you is is to really think about you know, what is that your life mean and what would you live for? That's the underlying question, you know and to be able to really live fully and passionately I think is the most important thing to be able to take it to that question because everybody knows they're gonna die But it's what you do with your life. That's really important So I think just to think about that question. What are we prepared to live for? Thank you. It's a great question I have a friend who's a Darwin scholar who likes to talk about how people got it really wrong when they think that Darwinism was about competition that he actually wrote a lot about collaboration and so You know one of the things moving into the investment space that really Excites me is the opportunity to flip it and do it really differently And to out collaborate Conventional investment. I mean, I think we can do that. I think this community can do that I think we have to do that though going back to Luisa's sort of question by being really concrete that it is really about Metrics and impact. I think I think there is probably a way that we could collaborate Across platforms in this space to really get clear about how many lives did we save? How many girls did we educate? How much CO2 did we take out of the world as a community and that we could build? Dashboards and tools. I mean we're talking Principia is talking with some folks about how to do that, but I think we should share that I think it shouldn't be ours. I think it should be ours I think this this this community this highly wanting to collaborate Community we need to get really clear about what we mean by impact and impact is not intention and impact is not policies and impact is not grandiose statements about how clean and green and CSR we are Impact is about did you change lives? Did you make the world better? Did you take pollution out and make it more possible for future generations to build a life? And so I I would love to see so cat move into not just convening about impact and talking about impact but making it possible for us to get really really clean and clear and precise and measured Thank you Thank you to each one of you for being here. It's I can't Believe I get to do things like sit on the stage with folks like you and hear the passionate stories that you have and to kind of bask in some reflected glory of Bringing your stories to light. It's so amazing to me each. Thank you to each one of you for what you're doing and We will we have just a little bit more time here together and I'm looking forward to to seeing how the rest of the day turns out so Break time. Let's let's go to the impact


Innovation often starts with real people solving their own problems. Innovating for their own use. User innovation. Believe it or not, it's all around here. Much of the commercial stuff in the world is developed by users like you in any category of activity across every phase of life. It all starts by solving a problem you have. So, what problem do you want to solve?


Welcome aspirants. As you all know UPSC announced the results for its preliminary examinations. More than 927 candidates cleared from our academy and in that 70 of them cleared in their first attempt. We congratulate everyone who have cleared the preliminary examination. Greetings aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar I.S. Academy for the date 5th of July 2022. These are the list of news articles we will be discussing today. Here today's lead editorial article is written by Mr. T. B. Srinivasan. He is a 1967 batch IFS officer. Sir has also served as an ambassador for India. All his articles are very relevant for our examination due to his vast experience in the field. Follow his articles regularly and note down the points he discussed. In this editorial, sir has mentioned about the issues associated with the multilateral forums. While he points out the issues with these forums, sir has mentioned that bilateral relations and engagements are more protective comparatively. To substantiate his points, sir mentions limited gains that India made in multilateral forums like Quad, Bricks and G7. Comparing to these limited gains, the progress that India made during our Prime Minister's visit to UAE is immense. So through this editorial, sir argues that bilateral engagements may be much more protective at this point in history. So this is about the editorial. For people who are not aware, sir is handling weekly international relations sessions for our academy. This is a free initiative of Shankar I.S. Academy. We have already uploaded 75 videos as a part of this program. For people who are preparing for main examination, you can follow the videos. It will help you prepare fodder material for your international relations related topics. So do use the initiative. Now moving on. Look at this article. See, this oped article talks about the recently released draft e-waste management rules 2022. As you know, since the last decade, lot of amendments have been made to the e-waste management and handling rules. Among them, the draft e-waste management rules 2022 is the most recent one. It was released for public comments in May 2022 by the Environment Ministry. And as the title of the article insist, the authors say that the draft policy has right intent but confusing content. So this is the crux of the oped article given here. In this context, let us quickly go through some of the important points mentioned in the news article. See here I have displayed the syllabus relevant to this discussion. Just go through it. Now let us start our discussion. First, let us understand what is e-waste. See, e-waste is short for electronic waste. And the term is used to describe old end of life or discarded electronic appliances. Here end of life of a product means the time when the product is intended to be discarded by the user. Or in other words, e-waste means electrical and electronic components or parts of electronic components that are discarded as waste. E-waste also includes the electronic and electrical parts that are rejected during manufacturing, refurbishment and repair process. Here note that solar photovoltaic cells, panels and modules are also classified as e-waste. Here e-waste management and handling rules is nothing but rules made for effective management of production and disposal of e-waste. Remember, these rules shall apply to every manufacturer, refurbisher and recycler who are involved in the production, sale, transfer, purchase and processing of e-waste are electrical and electronic equipment. Also note that these rules are not applicable to used batteries, packaging pastics, micro-enterprises and radioactive waste. Why? Because these materials are ruled under specific separate rules for each of them. Now coming back to the draft e-waste management rules 2022. This draft policy retains the Extended Producer Responsibility Framework. So what is this Extended Producer Responsibility Framework or EPR? See, in general, Extended Producer Responsibility is a policy approach under which producers are given a significant responsibility for the treatment or disposal of post-consumer products. The purpose behind this EPR approach is to provide incentives to prevent waste at the source itself. It also aims to promote product designs that is environmentally friendly and support the achievement of public recycling and materials management goals. Now according to the rules, the Extended Producer Responsibility refers to the responsibility of every producer of the electrical and electronic equipment for channelization of e-waste to the authorized dismantler or recycler to ensure environmentally sound management of such waste. Here according to the rules, recycler means any person who is engaged in recycling and reprocessing of waste, electrical and electronic equipments. So the rules retain this EPR framework. Now let us see some of the significant changes in the rules and the opinions of the authors about the new draft e-waste management and handling rules 2022. Firstly, the draft rules states that producers of e-waste have to ensure that at least 60% of their produced e-waste is recycled by 2023. See, this is a major change because in the previous years, targets were set for collection rate. That is, target was set for the collection of e-waste as a percentage of quantity of products sold by weight in the market. This shift from the collection rate targets in the previous year to the recycling target set in the proposed rule is a very prominent change. The authors of this article feel that the 60% recycling rate target that has been set is too optimistic. That is, too unrealistic. The attainment of the 60% recycling target according to the authors is both technically and economically not feasible in India. The second major change is the introduction of market for e-waste recycling certificates. According to the authors, the proposed market for e-waste recycling also appears unrealistic. They have stated two reasons for it. The first reason is that India is still in its infant stage when it comes to large-scale recycling of e-waste. This is due to the fact that most of the recycling of valuable materials is carried out within the informal sector using inefficient and unsafe technologies. The second reason stated by the authors is that if the new rules and the mandated changes were to create a market for recycling, then the existing formal and informal players in the recycling sector should have to play an important role. But the new draft rules did not mention anything about who will regulate the registered collectors, dismantlers, and producers responsibility organizations. Because of these two reasons, the proposed market for e-waste recycling certificates appears to be unrealistic according to the authors. Here the authors also mentioned about Europe where similar provision was already implemented. What the Europe experience shows us is that recycling targets are difficult to enforce by the regulators compared to the collection targets. This is because enforcing recycling targets can become pretty technical at times. Here take for example if the government is mandating a recycling target of e-waste that is 60% of the total weight must be recycled. Here in this scenario what the producers will do is that they will recycle the easy to recycle components like plastic, copper and glass. Since these components are little heavy, the producers can easily attain the 60% weight target that is set by the regulation. Here what you have to note is that in this particular scenario the producers will not recycle the difficult to recycle materials like cadmium, mercury and arsenic. See these materials are the most damaging to the environment. Instead of recycling this, the producers will only recycle easy to recycle components like plastic, copper and glass. So this whole mechanism will be counterproductive. So what the author suggests is that the central pollution control board that is the CPCB must come up with a clear set of guidelines about the 60% recycling targets and they have to also give guidelines about how the recycling should have to be done. See this has to be ensured to achieve the real intention of the rules. Thirdly as I already said the informal sector accounts for a vast majority of e-waste processed in India. Various experts are of the opinion that informal sector must be integrated into the formal systems. But the proposed regulations have placed the responsibility of such integration on the state governments. The regulation while pushing the responsibility to the state governments did not specify the incentive for them to do so. So according to the authors the formulation of e-waste recycling will be difficult to achieve. Finally the new draft regulation introduced the steering committee. The main role of steering committee is to oversee the overall implementation, monitoring and supervision of the regulations. We saw that the new regulations introduced the concept of e-waste recycling certificates right? It is this committee that is the steering committee that issue the certification. In this committee chairman of the central pollution control board acts as the chairperson of the committee. The steering committee also has representatives from the environment ministry, ministry of electronics and information technology and it also has representatives from the associations of producers and recyclers. The issue with the steering committee according to the authors of this article is that they lack representation in it. The committee lacks representation from scientists, academics and social sector and civil society organizations. This is the final issue with the new draft e-waste management and handling rules 2022 cited by the authors of this oped article. See the new regulation not just has negatives to it. It also has some positive aspects as well. The authors have also highlighted some of the positive aspects in relation to the rules in this article itself. Now let us see them. First is the new regulation expands the definition of e-waste. Secondly, the new rules has specified the penalties for violation of the rules more clearly. The next is the new rules has introduced the concept of polluter pace. Through this an environmental compensation fund has been created. Finally the new rules has also recognized the informal waste workers. See these are some of the positives with the draft regulation. So to conclude even with all the above mentioned positives the authors mentioned that the new EPR framework needs a clear guidelines to be implemented successfully. That's all regarding this news article discussion. See it is for articles like this we have to refer newspapers. Even though we can refer government sources and chart down major points in the government policies we need well written articles like this to find the issues with the government policies. See the UPSC post 2014 has mostly focused on opinion based questions rather than fact based questions in the mains examination. We are all just learners here. Just by reading the government policies we cannot generate good informed opinions. This is where editorials and op-ed articles play a crucial role. By going through enough editorials like this during our preparation journey we can give well written answers for opinion based questions in our mains examination. See there will be a mains question based on this discussion at the end of the video. I have noted that only two aspirants have been writing answers regularly. Others if you have not yet started the practice of answer writing start today itself. Read the question come back to the video here it once again close the video and write the answers using the points from your memory. This will help you build long term memory. One advice from me for people who are planning to write their first answer today is that do not aim for perfection in the first attempt. Perfection will eventually come through enough practice. The thing that you have to focus today is putting pen to paper and writing just an answer. That's all. I hope you guys didn't find the thing that I shared at the end of the video to be too preachy. I am just sharing my experience and helping you guys learn from my mistakes. With this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this editorial. In this editorial the author of the editorial is focusing on the nutritional status of our country. Many government schemes or programs in this regard has paid off. But still our country lacks in the malnutrition intervention process. So author is suggesting to scale up direct nutritional intervention. In this manner author has also pointed out the focus areas. So in this discussion let us see the nutritional schemes that are effective according to the author the flaws in the schemes where improvement is needed and what needs to change to eradicate malnutrition in our country. Before getting into the discussion I have displayed the syllabus regarding the discussion you can go through it. When we say nutrition it refers to the process of providing or obtaining the food that is necessary for health and growth. If nutrition and health are two sides of the same coin then food is a single factor responsible for both. Nutritional needs differ with age. It raises throughout childhood, peaks in adolescence and then levels of or even diminishes as the teenager becomes an adult. So proper nutrition during childhood and adolescence is what decides our health. If this is not present then it leads to wide range of health issues mainly malnutrition. When the prefix mal is added to any word it means it is inadequate or improper. So malnutrition simply means inadequate nutrition or improper nutrition. That is why we say malnutrition is a general term that refers to all forms of poor nutrition. It most often refers to under nutrition which is inadequate nutrition resulting from inadequate consumption of nutrients, poor absorption of nutrients or excessive loss of nutrients. This results in through forms of under nutrition like wasting which is having low weight to height then stunting which is low height for age finally under weight which refers to low weight for age. But here don't forget that malnutrition not only includes under nutrition but also over nutrition also. Over nutrition is the opposite of under nutrition which means getting more nutrients than needed. This is what earlier we saw as improper nutrition. Over nutrition also causes problems as it leads to excessive intake of specific nutrients and results in lacking of some nutrients. There is an imbalance here so overall it leads to overweight, obesity and diet related non-communicable diseases like heart disease, stroke, diabetes and even some cancers. So a simple malnutrition causes all these issues and if the same happens in childhood and adolescence which are crucial stages of growth and development then the damages will be serious and lasting. It not only affects the health and the surveil of the individual and families but also the countries and their economy. This is because of the simple social impacts like diminished learning capacity and poor school performance. See these simple social impacts can translate into reduced earnings and increased risk to the above mentioned chronic diseases in adulthood. So here what is India's position? In India the under nutrition status is captured by the national family health survey. Based on the data we cannot say the situation is better but improvement can be seen in malnutrition indicators. Here you can see the survey results of national family health survey 4 and national family health survey 5. According to the author this child malnutrition in India is attributing to 68.2 percentage of the under 5 child mortality. See this slight improvement in malnutrition indicators may be insufficient but it cannot be disregarded also because it is a sign that the schemes and the programs of the central and the state governments are slowly bearing fruits. Mainly central governments Portia Navian is responsible for this. Here Portia stands for Prime Minister's overarching scheme for holistic nutrition that was launched in 2018. It is also called the national nutrition mission. It is the government of India's flagship program to improve nutritional outcomes for children pregnant women and lactating mothers. So the program directs the attention of the country towards the problem of malnutrition and addresses it in a mission mode. For this the mission ensures convergence of various programs that is Anganwadi services Pradhan Mandiri Matruvandana Yojana scheme for adolescent girls etc. The program has set targets for reducing the levels of malnutrition indicators. It includes reducing stunting by 2 percentage per annum. Further it was also agreed that the mission would strive to achieve reduction in stunting from 38 percent to 25 percent by 2022. Then reducing under nutrition as a whole by 2 percent per annum. It also aimed to reduce anemia among young children, women and adolescent girls by 3 percentage per annum. And final target was to reduce low birth weight by 2 percentage per annum. From the national family health survey data we can say that these targets were not achieved fully but they have been achieved to some level. Particularly the target relating to stunting was not at all achieved. 38.4 percentage existed in the national family health survey 4 but it could only be reduced to 35.5 percentage and not 25 percentage by 2022 as it was aimed. Why did this happen? It happened because portion of beyond focused on nutrition sensitive interventions. It did not focus on direct nutrition intervention. Here you have to understand about direct nutrition intervention and nutrition sensitive interventions. Direct nutrition intervention is also called nutrition specific intervention. It addresses the immediate cause of under nutrition such as inadequate dietary intake and diseases such as inadequate dietary intake, diseases or poor health status. Direct nutrition intervention is targeted on first 100 days of life which is from pregnancy to first 2 years of a child's life that is 270 days of pregnancy and then after birth up to 24 months which is about around 730 days. Direct nutritional intervention is also targeted on women in reproductive age and adolescent girls. So here what are the interventions? First good nutrition practices including adequate food and nutrition intake. For example iron and folic acid and vitamin A supplements and deworming for women. Second is feeding, caregiving and parenting practices. This includes diarrhea control, promotion of good feeding and hygiene practices for infants and young children and finally national breast feeding promotion campaigns. Third is lowering the burden of infectious diseases for example providing preventive treatments for malaria during pregnancy. Fourth is provision of micronutrients for example fortification of staple foods and finally the treatment of severe acute malnutrition. Also note that for the Indian context UNICEF has mapped 17 direct nutritional interventions as you can see here. Now come to nutrition sensitive interventions. It is also called indirect nutrition intervention. These addresses the underlying cause or determinants of under nutrition. So it includes programs to improve food security, to improve access to health security and health services, provision of adequate caregiving resources at the individual household and community levels and providing a safe and hygienic environment. It involves actions from a range of sectors such as health, agriculture, poverty alleviation, water, sanitation, hygiene, education, food security and overall social protection. Note that indirect nutritional interventions help to enhance the scale of direct nutritional interventions. So both direct nutritional interventions and indirect nutritional interventions should be undertaken simultaneously to holistically address the problem of under nutrition. Let's get back to portion of the unknown. See as I said it focused on nutrition sensitive intervention or indirect nutrition interventions because the interventions indirectly impacted mother, infant and young children's nutrition such as it improved the coverage of maternal child health services. It also enhanced human empowerment. There was enhanced availability and access to water, sanitation and hygiene services. It also encourages homestead food production for a diversified diet. So in case of portion, there is no focus on nutrition specific interventions or direct nutritional intervention. This was also clearly manifested in the National Family Health Survey results. For example, if you take child feeding practices, the data is worrisome. Only 63.7% children under the age of 6 were exclusively breastfed. Exclusive breastfeeding means the babies are given only breast milk and nothing else like they are not given any other milk food or drinks or even water. It seems like the government realized this lacking in the So it launched the Mission Portion Abbey on 2.0. This 2.0 also addresses the challenges of malnutrition but through a strategic shift in nutrition content and delivery. This is by creating a convergent ecosystem to develop and promote practices that nurture health, wellness and immunity. Portion 2.0 is envisaged as an integrated nutrition support program that seeks to optimize the quality and delivery of food under the supplementary nutrition program. For this Portion 2.0 brought three programs under its ambit namely Anganwadi services scheme for adolescent girls and Portion Abbey. Through this know the focus is on maternal nutrition, infant and young children feeding norms, treatment of moderate acute malnutrition and severe acute malnutrition and finally wellness through Ayush. So we can say government is on the right track to tackle under nutrition. But another problem is that even other interventions other than Portion Abbey on that focused on direct nutritional interventions did not give desired results. Here let us take the example of breastfeeding again. Our country has the policy on infants and young child feeding since 1983. Along with this there is a ban on sale of commercial milk for infant feeding under the infant milk substitutes feeding bottles and infant foods regulation of protection, supply and distribution act 1992. But still there is only a marginal improvement in the practice of exclusive breastfeeding. So based on these the author has given certain suggestions for improvement. First is creating awareness on exclusive breastfeeding and breastfeeding counseling to pregnant mothers. This should include promoting the technique of appropriate holding of baby for exclusive breastfeeding. This is required for optimal transfer of breast milk to the baby. The second is ensuring anti-natal checkup or anti-natal care visits and follow-up through frequent home visits. Anti-natal care allows the pregnant woman to learn healthy behaviors, warning signs during pregnancy and childbirth etc. They also get the access to micronutrient supplementation and required treatments. Third is promoting good complementary feeding practices and avoiding poor complementary feeding. Complimentary feeding means providing complementary foods in addition to breast milk. See, exclusive breastfeeding is for 6 months and around the age of 6 months the an infant's need for energy and nutrition starts to exceed. So breast milk plus complementary foods are necessary to meet those excess needs. According to the World Health Organization, if complementary foods are not introduced around the age of 6 months and if they are given inappropriately, then an infant's growth may falter. But remember, just like that, you cannot provide anything. First, at 6 months, they should be given pureed, mashed and semi-solid foods. Then by 8 months, finger foods shall be given. Like this, appropriate complementary feeding practices should be followed. Now, many of these are already undertaken under Potion 2.0. But it needs to, but it needs a solid push. So, author suggests to invest finances and energies for greater trust to Potion 2.0. Finally, the author suggests revisiting the Integrated Child Development Scheme. It is an old scheme launched in 1975 and it could not control child under nutrition. So it can be revamped or modified into a different scheme. The conclusion is, the overall emphasis should be on adequate nutrition in the first 100 days of life of a child to tackle the menace of malnutrition. Okay, that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw some of the positive results from the government's malnutrition intervention program. We also saw some issues with the current scheme of things. We saw the difference between direct nutritional interventions and the indirect nutritional interventions. We saw the advantages associated with indirect nutritional interventions and the issues that needs to be addressed in case of indirect nutritional interventions. And finally, we saw about the Potion 2.0. We also saw some of the suggestions given by the author to improve the overall health profile of our country. With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. See this article here. This article states that the DMK had assumed power in Tamil Nadu a year ago. But it is still unclear how it is proceeding against corrupt officials. While he was in the opposition, DMK leader Mukka Stalin would often say that once elected to power, his government would jail corrupt ministers of the AIADMK regime. In December 2020, Mr. Stalin met the then-Governor Banwarlal Prohit seeking prosecution of the then-Chief Minister Yadapadi K. Pallanisamy and others. He submitted a 98-page memorandum listing specific charges of corruption between 2016 and 2020 against the then CM and his ministers. Mr. Stalin said that, under section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption, Amendment Act 2018, the Governor could himself take action against them. But till now, no significant action is taken. This is the essence of the article given here. In this context, let us learn about Prevention of Corruption, Amendment Act 2018 and its major provisions. See the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted to combat corruption in government agencies and public sector businesses in India. Any citizen who is a government servant, if caught in malpractice, can be arrested on the charges of violation of this law. Central and state government is empowered to appoint special judges to try the offenses. The offenses that are covered under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 includes taking gratification other than legal remuneration in respect of an official act. The next thing is taking gratification in order to influence public servant by corrupt or illegal means. The next thing is taking gratification for exercise of personal influence with public servant and finally any public servant who commits criminal misconduct. So, these are the offenses that are covered under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988. The section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 is particularly important. Section 13 of the Act holds public servants culpable for securing a monetary advantage for another without any public interest. That is, if a civil servant does an act that resulted in a monetary advantage to another person without any underlying public interest, then the civil servant himself is culpable under section 13. See, this provision, that is, the section 13 of Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 resulted in many honest officials being prosecuted even when they gained nothing and merely exercised their discretion in favor of someone. So, the act was amended in the year 2018. In addition to this, some other changes were also made in the 2018 amendment. Now, we will see some of the key features of the Prevention of Corruption Act 2008 amendment. See, the act redefines the provisions related to criminal misconduct to only cover two types of offenses. The first one is fraudulent misappropriation of property and the second one is illicit enrichment such as amassing of assets disproportionate to one's known source of income. The amendment act also introduces the offence of giving bribe as a direct offence. See, after the amendment, people who are giving bribe is also culpable. However, a person who is compelled to give a bribe will not be charged with offence if he reports a matter to law enforcement authorities within seven days. So, take note of it. Thirdly, before a police officer conducts an investigation into an offence, alleged to have been committed by a public servant, prior approval of the relevant government or competent authority should be taken. Such approval would not be necessary in cases which involves the arrest of a person on the spot on the charge of taking a bribe. So, for investigation, they have to seek government approval and for spot arrest, government approval is not necessary. No moving on. Fourthly, the act mandates that effort should be made to complete the corruption trail by the special judge within two years. This period may be extended for up to six months at a time. In case of extension, the reason for such extension must be recorded in writing. However, the total period for completion of the trail should not exceed four years. Then, the amendment made that those convicted of taking bribe can be imprisoned for three to seven years besides being fined. Finally, it makes a provision for providing protection to the coerced bribe groupers. That is, people who are forced to give bribe if the matter is reported to the concerned law enforcement authority within a week. All these provisions are meant to prevent corruption in India. The author of this article questions Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Mr. Mukha Stalin that why he had not used any of these provisions to charge corrupt officials in the previous AADMK government. That's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw about section 13 of Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 and then we saw the major provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Amendment Act 2018. With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. See this article here. This is the final article we will be discussing today. This news article mentions about the guidelines for hotels and restaurants issued by the Central Consumer Protection Authority. As per the guidelines, consumers cannot be forced to pay service charges in hotels or restaurants. So, service charge cannot be added to the bill. This is based on the principle that service is inherent in the price of food and beverages. So, this makes any payment of service charge by the customer as voluntary, optional and at the customer's discretion. Any violation of this rule can be reported to the National Consumer Helpline or filed as a complaint with the Consumer Commission or the District Collector. See, remember this when you order food next time. Now, from the exam perspective, let us see about the Central Consumer Protection Authority, that is CCPA. See, it is a statutory body established under the Consumer Protection Act 2019. It was established in 2020 under the Section 10 of the Consumer Protection Act 2019. It is the central authority to regulate matters relating to violation of rights of consumers and unfair trade practices. It also regulates matters relating to faults or misleading advertisements which are prejudicial to the interest of public and the consumers. Overall, this authority is responsible for promoting, protecting and enforcing the rights of consumers as a class. So, basically, the central authority has the regulatory mandate as opposed to advisory domain of the Consumer Protection Councils, which are also established under the Act. See, any violation can be written as a complaint and submitted to the Central Authority or even to the District Collector. The authority also has the sumoto power to conduct inquiry or investigation on the violation of consumer rights or unfair trade practices. The same can be based on directions from the Central Government also. See, I have displayed here some other functions of the Central Consumer Protection Authority. Just go through it. Now, moving on, see if sufficient evidence is found to show violation by a person, then the authority that is the Central Consumer Protection Authority has the power to order or recall of goods or vidra services which are dangerous, hazardous or unsafe. The authority can also order reimbursement of the prices of goods or services, so recalled to purchases of such goods or services. The authority can also order for discontinuation of a practice which are unfair and prejudicial to consumers' disinterest. Additionally, the Central Consumer Protection Authority has the power to impose penalty of rupees 10 lakhs and on subsequent violation, a penalty of up to 50 lakhs can be imposed. Note that the Central Consumer Protection Authority is headquartered in the National Capital Region of Delhi. Now, let us come to the composition of the authority. It consists of Chief Commissioner and other commissioners. Currently, there is one additional commissioner. They are appointed by the Central Government. It also includes a team of subject matter experts and professionals. The Central Consumer Protection Authority also has an investigation wing headed by a Director General. That's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw some of the basic points about Central Consumer Protection Authority. With this, let us conclude the news article discussion session and take up the practice problems questions. We have three questions today. Let us go through them one by one. Let us take up the first question. This question is about prevention of corruption at 2018. Two statements are given. We have to find the correct statement. Let us take up the first statement. There is a provision to punish the brave taker, but there is no provision to punish the brave giver. See, this statement is incorrect. Both the brave giver and the brave taker are liable to be punished under the Prevention of Corruption Amendment Act 2018. Here, the person who is forced to give a brave will be protected only if he reports the incident to the law enforcement authority within seven days. See, this we saw in the discussion itself. So, statement one is incorrect. Moving on, let us take up statement two. If the trial is not concluded within two years, the special judge should state the reason for extending the trial beyond two years. See, this statement is correct. The act mandates that the trial should be conducted by the special judge within two years. This period may be extended for up to six months at a time, but the reason for the extension must be recorded in writing. However, the total period for the completion of the trial should not exceed four years. So, statement two is correct. So, the correct answer here is option B, two only. Now, let us take up the second question. See, this is a three statement question. Three statements about Central Consumer Protection Authority is given. We have to find the correct statement. Take the first statement, it is a statutory body. See, this is true. The Central Consumer Protection Authority is a statutory body established under the Consumer Protection Act 2019. Moving on to the second statement, it has the power to impose penalty up to 50 lakhs. See, this statement is also correct. When someone repeats a violation on the provisions of the act, then the authority that is the Central Consumer Protection Authority can impose 50 lakhs penalty. The third statement, the orders of the Central Consumer Protection Authority are final and binding. See, this statement is incorrect. The orders of the Central Consumer Protection Authority is not final. Final would mean no appeal can be filed, but it is not so. A person aggrieved by the orders passed by the Central Authority may file appeal to the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission. It has to be filed within a period of 30 days from the date of receipt of such orders. So, statement one is correct, statement two is correct and statement three is incorrect. So, the correct answer here is option C, one and two only. Now look at this question. See, this question is about national nutrition mission. It is a four statement question. We have to find the correct statement. See, it is a previous year question. Take this as a quiz question and post your answers in the comment section. With this, let us conclude the practice prelims question session. So, I have displayed here two main questions based on today's discussion. Just go through the question and like I said, go back to the video, just listen to the video once again and chart down your answer. You no need to focus on perfection. Just putting your pen to paper and writing an okay answer in your first attempt is more than enough. Okay? Now, if you like today's discussion, like, comment and share it with your friends. For more updates regarding UPSU preparation, subscribe to Shankara AS Academy YouTube channel. Thank you.