grandstanding whining misrepresentation of secular humanism and cancel culture that I've ever heard. Here is a thought experiment. Imagine there's a company called Pleasure Inc and they invent the Pleasure Machine. You strap a person in, pull down the virtual reality helmet, plug in a few diodes into the skull that tap into the Pleasure Centers of the brain, you pull the switch and then pure unadulterated bliss. The brain implants and the VR are so powerful that any pleasurable experience you want to have, you can have it. You can satisfy basic bodily pleasures, but the tech is so advanced that you can simulate any desire. You want to vacation on the beach with supermodels? No problem. You want to travel the world and sample cuisine from every region? No problem. Every form of pleasure and entertainment is now at your fingertips. The Pleasure Machine comes on market and is heavily advertised. People start using it for recreation on the weekends, but the machine works too well. People can't get themselves off of it. Eventually Pleasure Machine users are strapped in for 10, 15, even 20 hours a day. They can't stop using it. The constant supply of dopamine is too much to resist. Before the Pleasure Machine, people had time for their extended families. People would get together with aunts, uncles, cousins. If you had elderly parents, you would take care of them. If you had grandparents, you could spend time with them. But as more people get hooked on the Pleasure Machine, there's no time for extended family. And let's be honest, what's more fun, fulfilling any fantasy or sitting and talking with grandma? As the Pleasure Machine continues to spread, the whole concept of extended family dies off. People only have time for their spouse and their kids, but even this nuclear family gradually becomes too much of a burden. The only thing that people want to do is to plug themselves in. Over time Pleasure Machines get a bad reputation for disrupting families and sales start to drop. Pleasure Inc. realizes it needs a new strategy. First of all, let's improve the machine so that people don't have to worry about unplugging themselves to eat. Anything the body needs biologically can now be supplied by the machine so that hypothetically you can stay plugged in nonstop. Second, let's get the government to subsidize the machines. We want to make sure that anyone who wants a Pleasure Machine can afford to get one, even if it takes government assistance. Third, more aggressive marketing techniques are needed. People who oppose the Pleasure Machine say that it destroys marriage, destroys families. Now they're even saying it destroys cultures and religions because maintaining culture or religious traditions requires people to make an effort, to work hard, to make personal sacrifices, not to mention maintain bonds with others. How can you do any of that if you're strapped into a Pleasure Machine for most of the hours of the day? In the beginning, religious people used the machines and then sometimes they'd miss prayers, sometimes they'd miss going to church. Then they start missing major holidays like fasting and Ramadan and other important cultural communal rituals. So the opponents of the Pleasure Machines now claim that the product not only destroys marriage, family and culture, but also community and religion. How do we counter that in our marketing? Well, it's hard to deny the accusation, so let's embrace it. Let's tell people that the Pleasure Machine is actually liberating people from the shackles. Marriage, family, community and religion are all sources of so much toil and headache. Why bother with that when you can enjoy limitless pleasure? The Pleasure Machine is the great liberator. Furthermore, marriage, family and religion are the source of so much pain and suffering. Who doesn't have conflict with parents? Who doesn't have an insensitive spouse? Who doesn't feel judged when going to church or the mosque? To make matters worse, these institutions are also rife with abuse. There's domestic abuse, child abuse, abuse in the church and the mosque. Also, these institutions are rife with unjust hierarchies and inequality and lack of consent. The Pleasure Machine on the other hand is the great equalizer. When you're strapped in, you can enjoy yourself as much as the elites. Everyone is equal in the Pleasure Machine. This is the marketing we need to push through TV, movies, music, books, social media. And if anyone opposes our product, we simply accuse them of being backwards, irrational and filled with hate. How can you reject liberation and equality? Are you a fan of domestic abuse?  What are you, some kind of terrorist? Pleasure Inc realizes that the older generations are going to be wiser and won't be the biggest advocates of their product because they have more life experience and know the value of life unplugged. So Pleasure Inc focuses on the younger generations with targeted ads on TikTok and elsewhere. Pleasure Inc also wants its message of equality and liberation to reach youth in schools. Let's make sure that all schools raise awareness about the benefits of using the Pleasure Machine and how not using it can cause pain and suffering in life. Adoption of the Pleasure Machine continues to spread at rapid pace and Pleasure Inc decides to break into new markets internationally. The only problem is many countries are banning the Pleasure Machine. They don't want their societies being disrupted, their cultures and religions being wiped out with the introduction of this technology. But due to heavy lobbying, Pleasure Inc has infiltrated every level of western government and they leverage their connections to pass new international law. The new law is that every nation must allow their citizens to buy a Pleasure Machine. Not only that, but every nation must subsidize the Pleasure Machine to make it available to every citizen. This is a moral imperative. Why? Because the Pleasure Machine, as we know, is the great liberator and the great equalizer. If nations don't facilitate access to the Pleasure Machine, that's a violation of human rights. Every human must have access to the Pleasure Machine and only the most evil, totalitarian regimes would keep their people under the boot by not letting them entertain every single desire. Despite the new international law, some rogue nations continue to resist. These nations are portrayed as terrorists and human rights violators in the media.  Look at these poor suffering children. What kind of evil monsters would prevent these precious darlings from using the Pleasure Machine? We need to impose sanctions on these countries. Even if half the population dies off due to starvation, that's a price we're willing to pay to make sure the other half of the population gets access to the Pleasure Machine. And if these terrorists still refuse, we'll just have to use military intervention. We don't want to use bombs and tanks, but that's the price for spreading freedom. Once we've liberated the nations with the gift of the Pleasure Machine, we have to make sure terror groups don't revolt so we can install puppet dictators who brutally stifle any descent and make sure access to Pleasure Machines remain uninterrupted. It's also critical that we enforce anti-extremism laws. The opponents of the Pleasure Machine advocate traditional institutions of marriage, family, gender, community, religion. We have to silence these agitators by labeling them as extremist hate-mongers that inspire violence. We can put them on watch lists, ban them from travel, maybe even indefinitely detain them on spurious charges. Now, we don't want to stifle all debate about the Pleasure Machine, of course. That might make us look too obviously totalitarian. So let's allow people to debate the Pleasure Machine but in a controlled fashion. We'll set up two sides of the debate. The progressives will argue that people need to use the Pleasure Machine 24 hours a day. The closed-minded old-fashioned conservatives will argue, no, no, no, 24 hours a day is degeneracy. People should only plug themselves into the Pleasure Machine for 18 hours a day, like the good old days. The Pleasure Machine continues to proliferate until every person is plugged in non-stop. The technology also advances so that a bulky machine is not needed. The tech can actually be implanted into the body. The last remaining resisters say that this is the end of the human race. Human life as it was known for millennia is over and even the human body has been transformed into a transhumanist abomination. All humans are now subjugated by this all-controlling totalitarian system. But Pleasure Inc. scoffs at all this and says, how could we be totalitarian when we give people everything they desire? Sure people can't change the overall system and we impose it on them by brute force, but that's okay because it's all for the greater good. So that's the metaphor. The Pleasure Machine is the secular humanist ideal. Human life should be structured around the individual pursuit of happiness and pleasure. This requires liberating people from all social norms and obligations because our obligations to others hinder our individual happiness. Technology can be used to free us from these obligations and facilitate our individual happiness. The Pleasure Machine represents this taken to its logical conclusion. Every time humanists tell people to throw off their obligations to others in favor of pursuing individual happiness, they're essentially pushing the Pleasure Machine. What is also a part of the metaphor is that the Pleasure Machine is not pushed onto people by telling them they must obey. Rather, it's pushed by saying, enjoy yourself, be free. The people who want to control you, they are the ones who say obey, but we say enjoy yourself. Aren't we so much better? This is exactly what secular humanists say to Islam. But the reality is secular humanism is a totalitarian system of liberation and equality that has been imposed on the entire world. It's a system that gradually, and I emphasize this, gradually destroys basic human institutions like marriage, family, community, religion, and ultimately the human race itself, and whoever resists it is considered a fundamental extremist who must be brought to heal. Islam also cares about individual human happiness. But Islam sets limits because there are other institutions and norms worth preserving, institutions of marriage, family, community, religion, and the human race itself. This is why it is far better than secular humanism. With that, we're going to jump into open dialogue. Gentlemen, the floor is all yours. Oh, I thought somebody said some totalitarian regime. I need to call my, well, I don't actually have stocks, but if I had somebody who's managing my stocks, I want to call and put in an order on straw and oil because we are currently out of straw after that straw man and oil after it got pushed down that slippery slope. And what has to be the biggest grandstanding whining misrepresentation of secular humanism and cancel culture that I've ever heard. Cancel culture, by the way, is the real wine here, but it's not about canceling. It's about accountability. And it seems strange to call secular humanism as, oh, it's just about pleasure and everything else.  They're going to say, are you a child predator? It's okay. It's okay. We don't need to cancel anything. We don't need to ban the pleasure machine.  If you enjoyed that especially juicy clip, don't forget to hit subscribe so the algorithm knows what to serve you more of.


welcome friends to another problem solving session on triangles now we have a problem here which says we have to prove that the angle between internal bisector of one base angle and the external bisector of the other base angle of a triangle is equal to one half of the vertical angle so let's try and understand this first so internal bisector of one base angle so here is a triangle abd abc triangle abc and be be is the bisector is the bisector of angle abc correct and ce so abc happens to be the internal angle right so this is the one base angle so one base angle is angle abc whose internal bisector is be or whose bisector is be now acd is the external base angle and ce is the bisector bisector of angle external angle that is acd acd and within brackets I'm writing external angle isn't it so acd is external angle no doubt about it abc is the internal angle now be bisects angle abc so I have shown here as x this is x and this is x because be is the bisector of angle abc see similarly I have shown this as y is also why and why is why because ce bisects acd I hope that's clear now we have to prove what is to prove let's write that statement first so to prove what we need to prove we need to prove that angle between internal bisector of one base angle so we are angle between internal bisector so these are the angle between the internal bisectors internalized angle bisector and external angle bisector the angle between the two is this given let's say this is z okay so they are saying we have to prove that what do we need to prove that z is equal to one half half of angle a this is what we need to establish okay small z is equal to so let me write it as small z small z okay z is half angle a this is what we need to prove so let's see how we can approach this again there's a triangle and angles are involved and clearly we can see there is a case of exterior angle as well external angle that is so can we not say that two angle y two times angle y that is y plus y which is acd right is equal to interior opposite angle sum of interior opposite angle so angle b ac plus two times x right because abc is this angle abc plus b ac will it be equal to acd exterior angle theorem let me write this as exterior angle theorem very good right so this is one another one is we can also say if you take in triangle so let me write it here in triangle which triangle be ac again angle ecd angle ecd will be equal to so ecd happens to be the so this is ecd this is the exterior angle guys so in terms interior angle will be for this this one and this one so can I not write that as x plus z or ecd was what why so I can write y is equal to x plus z y is equal to x plus z and 2 y is equal to angle a plus 2x so let's say this is equation 1 and this is equation 2 okay now let's look at them together okay so can I not substitute y from 2 in 1 so can I say 2 times angle x plus z so this was why check 2 times x plus z is equal to angle b ac so I'm just writing that as a plus 2x is it so this implies 2x plus twice z is equal to angle a plus 2x correct and clearly you can see 2x will disappear can be cancelled so hence 2z will be angle a and hence this will mean z is equal to half angle a right and this is what was the demand of this particular question so we could prove that the angle formed by the internal bisector of one base angle and the external angle of the other base angle is equal to half the vertical angle in this case vertical angle was a so in one snapshot is this right so in the entire proof is this I hope you got the solution


Good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankarayis Academy for the date 13th May 2020. These are the list of articles chosen for today's analysis. It has been given along with the page numbers of different editions of Hindu newspaper. The link for the handwritten notes in the PDF format and the time stamping for the displayed articles is provided in the description box and for the benefit of smartphone users, it is also provided in the comment section. Let's move on to our first news article analysis. The first discussion for today is based on this editorial which talks about the approach of central government towards the state governments in tackling this COVID-19 pandemic. The syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. See, as you know, during the lockdowns of 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 of this COVID-19 pandemic, the central government has issued guidelines to the state governments from time to time and these guidelines have been issued under the Disaster Management Act of 2005. Now, this editorial is concerned about the top-down approach which is being followed by the central government in tackling the pandemic rather than treating the state governments as equal, which is what is truly we refer to as cooperative federalism. As you know, the term federalism means the independence of the union government and the state governments of a country in their own spears. But India is not merely a federal country. Rather, our constituent assembly adopted the concept of cooperative federalism over federalism and the term cooperative federalism means administrative cooperation between the center and the states and a partial dependence of the states upon payments from the center. Here, what you should understand is that though Indian constitution envisions a strong center, the cooperative federalism doesn't necessarily result in weaker states. Rather, the progress of the whole nation depends upon the cooperation between the union and the state governments. But if you see the recent set of guidelines issued by the central government to the states to tackle this COVID-19 pandemic where the states are only being allowed to either increase or dilute the restrictions, this indicates the centralized approach of the union rather than cooperative federalism. And according to the authors of this editorial, this approach of the union is counterproductive and it is unconstitutional. First, let us see how this is counterproductive. To explain it, the authors have listed three scenarios in the editorial. The first scenario is that the central government in its latest guidelines has classified all districts in the country as red zones, orange or green zones and this segregation of zones is to lift lockdown restrictions in an area-specific manner. But the states and the union territories have raised concerns that there was no need to keep economic activity on hold in an entire district when cases have been only reported from a small portion of the district. Then the second scenario is with respect to the state of Kerala. As you know, probably Kerala is the best performing state in terms of its response to this pandemic. But the state government of Kerala was directed by the center to refrain from relaxing the restrictions in the state. See, even though Kerala has near perfect recovery rate and Kerala has seen a steep fall in the number of cases of COVID-19 infections, the central government did not trust the wisdom and judgment of the state government in the matter according to the author. Then the third scenario is centers move to increase the state's dependence upon the center. See, as you know, it is the states which act as first responders to the pandemic. So supplying the states with adequate funds is a prerequisite in effectively tackling the crisis. But what the center has done is it has declared that corporations which are donating to PM CARES fund can avail CSR exemptions. But the corporates or corporations which are donating towards any chief ministers relief fund cannot avail any exemptions. Now, this directly this incentivizes or discourages the donations relief fund. It also diverts the potential state revenues to the PM CARES fund and further it makes the states largely dependent upon the center. Not only this, the revenue streams of several states have also dried up because of the ban on liquor sale and due to the negligible sale of petrol or diesel and due to lack of land dealings and registration of agreements, etc. And even the states' GST collections have also been severely affected because their dues have not been dispersed by the center. Now, all this together has made it difficult for the states to cover the expenses of salaries, pensions and welfare schemes. So that is why author is saying that this approach of center is counterproductive. Now, let us see how the centers move is unconstitutional. As you know, under the seventh schedule of Indian constitution, there are three lists, the union list, the state list and the concurrent list. The union list is the list on which parliament can legislate laws and the state list is the list on which state legislatures can legislate laws and the concurrent list is the list on which both the parliament and the state legislatures can legislate. Now, the subjects which are not covered under any of these are in the residuary list. And as you know, again parliament can only legislate laws on the subjects on the residuary list. Now, this residuary power of parliament is provided under article 248 of the Indian constitution which is read with entry 97 on union list. This entry 97 mentions that any other matter not enumerated in list 2 or list 3 including any tax not mentioned in either of those lists. So, this was about the legislative powers of the central and the states. Now, not only this, even the executive powers of the central and the states as per article 73 and article 162 of Indian constitution are co-extensive with their respective legislative powers. This means that the center can only take executive actions in matters where the parliament has powers to legislate. And the state governments can only take executive actions in matters where the state legislatures have powers to legislate. But as we saw in the beginning, the central government has issued guidelines to the state governments under the Disaster Management Act of 2005. And if you see the subject Disaster Management is neither subject in state list nor in concurrent list. It is not even specifically mentioned in union list. And as we already saw, any subject which is not listed or mentioned in state list, concurrent list and union list, it comes under the residuary list. And on those subjects, parliament has the power to legislate. Now using this power only, the central government has issued guidelines to the states under the Disaster Management Act. But particularly if you see the term Disaster is a broader term which includes all disasters including pandemic. So, the central government has the powers to issue directions and guidelines to state governments for dealing with the pandemic in their states according to this provision. But the question here is, doesn't the states have the powers on matters related to public health? Because as you know, the subject public health and sanitation is a specific field of legislation under entry 6 of state list. So, this would imply that states have the exclusive right to legislate and act on the matters concerning public health. So, here what is happening is the pandemic disaster of residual list versus the public health of state list. So, clearly the center's guidelines to the states for dealing with the pandemic infringe upon a field of legislation and executive action that is exclusively assigned to the states which is the public health. Then how to deal with this kind of overlap or infringement of subjects? For this, there are many number of judgments including the Godfrey Phillips versus the state of Uttar Pradesh 2005 case law. The judgment in this case law uphold that the entries in the legislative list must be interpreted harmoniously. And if in case there is any overlap between two or more entries, then the specific subject matter which is contained in a particular entry must be deemed to have been excluded from another entry which may deal with the more general subject matter. The specific subject has more weightage and hence it must be excluded from the general subject. So, in our scenario, according to the authors, public health is a specific subject of the state and disaster is more general subject of the residual list. Hence, the public health must be excluded from the disaster, hence only the state governments can have power over the subject. So, this is one scenario. Now, one more thing which you should note is another entry of concurrent list or another subject of concurrent list. And this subject is entry 29 which mentions that prevention of the extension from one state to another of infectious or contagious diseases or pests affecting men, animals or plants. Now, this means both the parliament and state legislatures are competent to legislate on matters involving this particular subject which mentions about the interstate spread of contagious or infectious diseases. Now, since this is a specific legislative subject provided in the concurrent list, the same must be deemed to have been excluded from the parliament's residual legislative powers also as we already saw. So therefore, the Disaster Management Act which has been enacted under parliament's residual legislative powers cannot be applied to the prevention of interstate spread of contagious and infectious diseases according to the authors. Now, not only this Disaster Management Act but there is also a separate law known as Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897 which has the objective of preventing the spread of dangerous epidemic diseases. But however, under this act, it is the state governments which have the prerogative to take appropriate measures for containing the outbreak or spread of a contagious or infectious disease in their respective states. According to this Epidemic Diseases Act, the central government's powers are limited to taking measures for inspecting and detaining persons who are travelling out of the country or who are travelling into the country. So even if this act will be amended in the future according to the authors, it would not empower the central government to issue directions to the states to contain the pandemic within the state. But it can only deal with interstate spread of the disease, not the intrastate. Therefore, instead of resorting to this Epidemic Diseases Act which gives powers to the states, the center has applied the Disaster Management Act which has enabled the central government to override the state governments. But even this Disaster Management Act mandates the center that while issuing binding guidelines to the states, the central government must consult state governments before issuing such guidelines. This is as per Section 11 Clause 2 of Disaster Management Act. But to avoid this legislative mandate, the central government has resorted to ad hoc or temporary binding guidelines. Now because of this temporary guidelines only, the center has all decision making powers which has been obtained by the Selective Application of Disaster Management Act. So that is why the author has mentioned that this move of the center towards the state governments is plainly unconstitutional. And even the states are not legally bound to observe the directions or guidelines being issued by the central government. And the state governments would be well within their rights to challenge these guidelines provided by the center before the Apex Court also. Hence the authors conclude by saying that the center must view the states as equals and it must take steps to strengthen their capabilities instead of increasing their dependence upon the center. So that is all about this editorial. In this editorial, we elaborately saw the approach of central government towards the state governments in providing guidelines for tackling this COVID-19 pandemic. And we also saw how this measure is being counterproductive and how this move is unconstitutional. So this open editorial is a good example of the top-down approach of central government rather than the bottom-up approach. With this, we come to the end of this discussion. Moving on to the next discussion. This news article talks about the recent conflict between USA and China. As we know, US and China have been continuing their war of words for quite some period. And even recently, US has made severe criticism against the present Director General of WHO saying that he is biased towards China in handling the COVID-19 pandemic. In this scenario, the latest issue between US and China is regarding the status of Taiwan at the World Health Assembly. So in this context, in this discussion, we'll discuss in brief about the political history and the status of Taiwan and then we'll also see about the World Health Assembly. The syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. See first, know that Taiwan is also known as Republic of China. It is located in the western Pacific Ocean, as you can see in this map, between Japan and the Philippines. And it is off the coast of southeastern China. I know that it was a colony of Netherlands for about 40 years in the early 17th century to mid-17th century. And then in the late 17th century, China's Qing dynasty gained control over Taiwan. And after this in the year 1895, Japan acquired Taiwan after the First Sino-Japanese War. And then as you know, Japan was defeated in World War II in the year 1945. So Taiwan was returned to nationalist Chinese control. Then after that in the year 1949, Chinese communists defeated nationalist forces who were on the mainland China. And there they established the People's Republic of China. So at that time, the nationalist leader, Chiang Kai-shek, moved his government, party and military to Taiwan. This is what resulted in the separation of Taiwan from China. Not only that, till the year 1971, Taiwan as the Republic of China only represented China in United Nations. But after that, the People's Republic of China, that is the mainland China, took over the China seat. So after this, Chiang's government also quickly lost its international standing. And at present, the scenario is that China has maintained its stand that Taiwan is its integral part. But this is disputed by Taiwan and even by other few countries. So this is the political situation of Taiwan and its relationship with China. Now the reason development is that Taiwan has urged WHO to allow it to rejoin as an observer state. But this was condemned by China. And in this scenario, few days back, the US Senate, which is the upper house of US Congress, has passed a bill. And this bill seeks the restoration of Taiwan in WHO. So you can see here that US's actions are opposite to the actions of China. So this has further escalated the US-China issues. So how this problem will affect India? See, this problem is a concern to India because India is said to take over as the next chairperson of World Health Assembly. So once India becomes the chairperson, India has to face a dilemma on whether to support USA or to support China. So that means India will be struck between two rivals. Now here the World Health Assembly is important because it is the decision-making body of World Health Organization. This World Health Assembly is attended by delegations from all WHO member states. And this assembly focuses on specific health agenda which is prepared by the executive board. And the main functions of this assembly are to determine the policies of the organization, then to appoint the director general, and then also to supervise the financial policies. And then finally to review and approve the proposed program budget. And also remember that the health assembly is held annually in Geneva. So in this background, few days back what happened was the Secretary of State of USA had convened a seven nation virtual meeting of foreign ministers. And even India's external affairs minister also participated in this virtual meeting. See though this meeting was mainly focused on moving the global economy forward, still it was part of USA's effort to gain support to its demand regarding the World Health Assembly or WHO. And the news article also mentions that India's external affairs minister will take part in the virtual meeting of Shanghai Corporation organization today. And this meeting will be led by China and Russia. So it is obvious that China will put pressure on India to take decisions in China's favor. And not only that, according to this news article, India will chair the World Health Assembly for the next three years. So this period is crucial because currently WHO is facing criticism while handling the COVID-19 pandemic. So let us hope that India will use its diplomatic skills to balance both USA and China and India could come up with a better outcome. So that is all about this discussion. In this discussion, we saw about the recent conflict between USA and China regarding the status of Taiwan at the World Health Assembly. And then we also saw why this issue is important to India. With this, we come to the end of this discussion. The split practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next discussion. This news article discusses about the functioning of Rajya Sabha over the years. It looks at the disturbing trends in the recent times and it also analyzes whether Rajya Sabha has been an obstructionist with respect to passing legislations. The syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. Now this news article highlights that the Indian constitution provides for parity or equality of powers between the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, but with an exception in some cases. If you look at the special powers of Rajya Sabha, Rajya Sabha has power to pass a resolution allowing parliament to legislate on subjects in the state list, which is provided under article 249 of the constitution. Then Rajya Sabha has the power for creating all India services and this is under article 312 of Indian constitution. And then under articles 352, 356 and 360, Rajya Sabha also has power for approving proclamations of emergency and the proclamations of president's rule when the Lok Sabha is dissolved. And besides these powers Rajya Sabha can also pass resolution for removing the vice president through article 67 of Indian constitution. So these are some of the special powers of Rajya Sabha. But however the money bill or finance bills can only be introduced in Lok Sabha which only can approve the demands for grants. So like this the article also discusses the possible variations in the composition of both the houses also. If you look at the composition of Rajya Sabha it is a continuing chamber. One third of its members retire every second year and they are eligible for re-election and renomination. And parliament through the representation of people's act of 1951 has prescribed the term of office of the members of Rajya Sabha as six years. And note that this is not fixed by constitution rather it is prescribed by the parliament. But however if you consider Lok Sabha elections to Lok Sabha are held every five years and even before that when there is resolution of Lok Sabha. So these are some of possible variations in the composition of both the houses. Then after this the news article highlights the effects on legislations caused by the numbers in the Rajya Sabha. The news article highlights that during the past 68 years since the first general elections of 1952 the government of the day had a majority in Rajya Sabha only for 29 years. And the government was in a minority for 39 years. And this includes the unbroken stretch of the past 31 years also. And this noticeable divergence in numbers in the two houses of parliament does not indicate any adverse impact on the broader course of legislation except in some few cases. So what are these exceptions? Let us see these exceptions in detail. So far parliament had held only three joint sittings to resolve the differences between the both the houses. And the first instance was in the 1961 when the then Nehru government enjoyed a majority in Rajya Sabha but the dowry prohibition bill suffered a defeat. And then in the year 1978 the banking services commission repeal Bill of 1977 was rejected by the Rajya Sabha. And then after that in the year 2002 the prevention of terrorism bill of 2002 could not pass the Rajya Sabha scrutiny. Apart from this in certain cases Rajya Sabha was also considered as regressive. Firstly it was considered as regressive when it rejected the constitution 24th amendment bill of 1970. And this bill was for abolishing the privy purses to erstwhile rulers. Rajya Sabha rejected this bill after it was passed by the Lok Sabha. And then in the year 1989 the constitution 64th and 65th amendment bills which sought to empower the local governments did not get the required special majority in the Rajya Sabha even though the government had the numbers. So in these instances Rajya Sabha was considered as regressive. Apart from this the spirit of cordiality or we can say the friendliness between the two houses was reduced in certain occasions. First it was reduced when Rajya Sabha members were not included in the public accounts committee in the year 1952. And then again it was reduced when the income tax amendment bill of 1953 was introduced in the Rajya Sabha but some members questioned its certification as a money bill by the Lok Sabha speaker. It is because as you know money bill shall not be introduced in Rajya Sabha according to the constitution. Then after this the cordiality between both the houses was disturbed when Lok Sabha speaker referred the major poor trust bill of 1963 to its select committee without involving Rajya Sabha members. After this the news article also highlights several instances when Rajya Sabha has been effective. And this includes the occasions when the amendments proposed by the Rajya Sabha were accepted by the other house like as it was accepted in the case of Travancore Cochin appropriation vote on account bill of 1956. Then it was accepted in the union duty of excise distribution bill and then in the income tax bill of 1961 etc. And here you should note that during these years the government of the day enjoyed a majority in Rajya Sabha. And after this there were also occasions when Rajya Sabha checked the hasty registrations passed by the Lok Sabha which in turn made Rajya Sabha as effective. And these occasions include the prevention of corruption bill of 1987 and then the dock workers safety health and welfare bill of 1986. And finally there were also instances when the members of different parties rose to the occasion in passing landmark legislations even when the present government does not have the required numbers in the Rajya Sabha. And these instances include the laws relating to GST, then insolvency and bankruptcy code, then the triple talag legislation, then unlawful activities legislation, and then reorganization of government cashmere and then citizenship amendment legislation and so on. So from the above discussion you can say that there are few disagreeing notes during this long journey of legislation between Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. But there is no case for terming Rajya Sabha as obstructionist. That is what this article tries to convey. After this towards the end of the article some rising disturbing trends has been listed using the four parameters. And these trends happened over the years from 1997 to 2019. And the first parameter is productivity. It has been decreasing since 1997 till 2019. And the second one is time spent on legislation. And this has been steady at 29 percentage over these years. That is for more than 20 years. And then the third parameter is oversight function performed by Rajya Sabha. As you can see it has been decreasing over these years. And then the last parameter is the deliberations of Rajya Sabha which has been improving in these years. So finally the news article concludes that both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha must remain constructive partners despite the divergence in their composition. And they must be guided by the spirit of cooperation for the peaceful functioning of parliament. So that is all about this news article discussion. This news article has provided an overview of the functioning of Rajya Sabha over these years. It has listed the special powers. Then what is the difference of composition between Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. And then it has also listed the instances where the numbers in Rajya Sabha had effect on the legislation. And we also saw the instances where Rajya Sabha has been effective. So that is all about this discussion. These types of articles will be helpful for you in writing a mains answer. So take note of these points. With this we come to the end of this discussion. There are split practice questions will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next discussion. This discussion is about these two news articles. In this, this first news article mentions that the Union Health Ministry has made it compulsory to install the Arogya Setu app for all the returnies. And the returnies which is mentioned here are the people like migrant labourers who are returning to hometown and also those who are coming from abroad. The Union Health Ministry has taken this decision to enable better contact surveillance and suitable medical intervention. And in this similar context, this next news article mentions that Railways has also made it mandatory to install this app for those who are travelling via these special trains. As you know, Railways has started 15 pairs of special trains from May 12 onwards. That is from yesterday onwards. So now Railways has also mandatory asked people to install this app. So in this context only we have framed this question which is based on Arogya Setu. And the question asks, Arogya Setu often seen in news is. So to answer this question, first let us know about this mobile app. As you know, central government launched this Arogya Setu mobile app. It is aimed to connect health services and people to fight this COVID-19 pandemic. Along with this, it is also a digital contact tracing tool and it is a platform to disseminate information regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. And as you know, contact tracing is nothing but the identification and follow-up of persons who may have come into contact with a person who is already infected with the deadly virus. And in our context, the deadly virus is COVID-19. So on a whole, we can say that this app will enable people to assess themselves the risk of them catching the coronavirus infection. The app will calculate this based on the person's interaction with others and also by using cutting edge Bluetooth technology, algorithms and artificial intelligence. The app will also use smartphones GPS to track the contact and location trails. See how it works is once this app is installed in a smartphone, then the app detects other devices which are in its proximity that have already installed the Arogya Setu app. Then the app will calculate the risk of infection based on the sophisticated parameters if any of these contacts or persons is tested positive. So in this way, the app will enable and help the government to take necessary timely steps for assessing the risk of spread of COVID-19 infection. And it will also help the government in ensuring isolation wherever it is required. Since this is a mobile app, one among the many doubts which people have is about the privacy. So for that, the government has ensured that this app's design ensures privacy because the personal data collected by this app is encrypted using the state of our technology and it stays secure on the phone. And this is until it is needed for facilitating any medical intervention. So currently know that this app is available in 11 languages and this app has been developed in public-private partnership by the National Informatics Centre which functions under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. Now if you look at this question, the first option mentions a mobile app which enables people to assess themselves for the risk of catching COVID-19 infection. This is the correct statement. This statement correctly defines Arogya Setu. So hence the correct answer to this question is option A. Now let us take another question. Now this question is based on the Global Nutrition Report of 2020. We have taken this question because it has been released recently. Know that this report is a multi-stakeholder initiative. It consists of a stakeholder group, independent export group and report secretariat. Now in this the stakeholder group comprises of high level members of government of donor organizations of civil society, multilateral organizations and the business sector. And this group functions with an objective of making a world free from malnutrition in all its forms. Now this 2020 report focus mainly on country level progress towards some of the 2025 global nutrition targets. Now know that the global nutrition targets were endorsed by World Health Organization member states in the year 2012. Now these targets are aimed at improving maternal nutrition, infant nutrition and young child nutrition. And the member states are committed to monitoring the progress with respect to these. So these are the targets. It includes 40% reduction in the number of children who are under the age of 5 and are standard. It includes 50% reduction of anemia in women who are of reproductive age. And then it also aims to reduce and maintain childhood wasting to less than 5%. So these are the other targets in this global nutrition targets. Now with respect to this report, let us discuss the important findings of the report. This report has identified India as one of the country with highest rates of domestic inequalities in malnutrition. For example, largest disparities or differences in stunting were observed in countries like India, Nigeria and Indonesia. In these countries, the level of stunting has varied fourfold across communities. And as per this report, in India, one in two women of reproductive age is anemic. The report also found that one in three children who are under five years of age are stunted. And also one in five children under five years of age are wasted. Apart from this, the report also highlights the inequalities in stunting. The report mentions that stunting prevalence is 10.1% higher in rural areas. And in this, one of the worst affected regions is Uttar Pradesh with over 40% of stunting level. The report also noted that the rates of overweight or obesity has reached 20.7% in adult women and 18.9% in adult men. So you can see that there is coexistence of undernutrition and overweight or obesity. So that means India faces the double burden of malnutrition. So we can say that India is likely to miss the 2025 nutrition targets. Now, if you look at this question, the first statement mentions it focuses on country level progress towards the 2025 global nutrition targets endorsed by WHO member states to improve maternal infant and young child nutrition. The second statement is correct. This is the objective of this report. Now, the second statement mentions it is released by United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition. Now, this statement is incorrect because initially we saw that this report is a multi-stakeholder initiative consisting of a stakeholder group, independent export group and report secretary. And it is not released by this UNSCN. And here the question asks for the correct answer. And the correct answer to this question is option A-1 only. Well, let us take the next question. This question is based on geographical indications. We often see news on new GA tags. Even yesterday we saw some products which has been given the GA tag. So that means this topic is very important from the film's perspective. And as you know, geographical indication is an indication which is used on products that have a specific geographical origin. And GA tag aims to preserve the qualities and reputation of a product from that particular defined geographical locality. So in this scenario, yesterday two products have been given geographical indication tag. One is Jharkhand's Saurai Khovar painting. And the second one is Telangana's Telia Rumal. Let us see about these products first. Now, the first one is Jharkhand's Saurai Khovar painting. Now know that the tribal communities of Jharkhand and West Bengal celebrate a festival called as Saurai in the month of October to November. They celebrate this festival to welcome their winter harvest. They celebrate to worship their cattle as the goddess of wealth and also to offer a thanksgiving to the forces of nature. And this festival is celebrated by the tribal communities such as Santal, Munda, Orang, Prajapati, Kurmi, etc. Now, what happens is the tribal women decorate their mud houses with designs of flowers, fruits, sparrows, peacocks, squirrels, cows and various other nature inspired designs. And these wall paintings of Jharkhand are traditionally known as the Saurai, which is obviously named after the festival. And traditionally, these paintings were painted on the walls of the mud houses, but now they are seen on other surfaces too. Now, this art has two major stylistic divisions. One is based on marriage and the other is based on harvest seasons. And traditionally, the Saurai paintings are linked to the winter harvest of crops in Jharkhand and the Khovar art is done during weddings. It is said that the bridal chambers is usually decorated with Khovar paintings. And also know that this Saurai Khovar painting is primarily practiced in the district of Hazari Bagh of Jharkhand. But in the recent years, for promotional purposes, it is also seen in other parts of Jharkhand. Now, the next product is Telangana's Teliyarumal. See, Teliyarumal literally means oily handkerchief. Now, as the name suggests, the yarn used for making this handkerchief is treated with oil. Now, the products used for the treatment of the yarn are sheaped down castor pod ashes and oil. Now, the treated yarn, which is used for the length and width is tied and dyed in accordance with the predetermined geometrical design. And this Teliyarumal cloth involves intricate handmade work with cotton loom. And it displays a variety of designs and motifs in three particular colors. They are red, black and white. I know that Teliyarumal can only be created using the traditional hand loom process and not by any other mechanical means. Otherwise, the quality of the rumal would be lost. Now, this Teliyarumal is important from historical perspective also because during the Nizam's dynasty, a small backward village of Telangana region at that time, which was in the then Andhra Pradesh, had about 20 families who were engaged in hand loom weaving. And they were patronized by the rich Muslim families and the Nizam rulers. It is said that the officers who are working in the court of Nizam would wear the Teliyarumal as a symbolic representation of status. And this Teliyarumals were also worn by princesses as whale at the erstwhile court of Nizam of Hyderabad. And it is also worn as turban cloth by Arabs in the Middle East. So, based on this specialty only, these products have been given GI tags. Now, if you look at this question, three pairs are given on one side GI tag and on the other side, the state which they belong to is given. Now, the first pair is Soraikovar paintings. It has been paired with Jharkhand and it is a correct pair. Now, the second pair is Teliyarumal. It has been paired with Assam. It is an incorrect pair because just now we saw that this Teliyarumal belongs to Telangana. So, if second statement is incorrect and here the question asks for the correctly matched pairs. Now, it can arrive at the correct answer which is option B1 and 3 only. The third pair mentions Srivili Puthur Palkova and it belongs to the state of Tamil Nadu only. It is a correctly matched pair. Now, let us move on to the practice questions sessions for the previously discussed news articles. Now, this question asks, Constitution of India has given special powers to Rajasabha. In this context, to do which among the following Rajasabha is empowered. The second one is it can authorize parliament to make law on a subject enumerated in the state list. This is correct. This is a special power of Rajasabha according to article 249 of Indian Constitution. Now, the second one is creation of all India services. This is also correct because according to article 312 of Indian Constitution, Rajasabha has powers for creating all India services. The third one is proclamation of national emergency. Now, this option is vaguely saying proclamation of national emergency. It is incorrect because Rajasabha can issue proclamation of national emergency only when Lok Sabha is dissolved, but not under normal circumstances. So, that is why it is incorrect. Hence, the correct answer to this question is option A1 and 2 only. So, this next question asks, the World Health Assembly often seen in news is, and you know the correct answer is option D, which is it is the decision making body of World Health Organization. Don't confuse it with option B. So, this is a direct question. Now, let us take one main question based on GS paper 2. The question asks, elaborate the constitutional position of Rajasabha as compared with Lok Sabha. In the above context, discuss the effectiveness of Rajasabha in the recent times. So, as you can see, this question has two parts. First, you can mention the constitutional position of Rajasabha and Lok Sabha, where you can mention the points about where Rajasabha is equal to Lok Sabha, then you can mention the points where Rajasabha is unequal to Lok Sabha, and you can also mention the special powers of Rajasabha according to constitution. Then for the second part of the question, you can focus on the effectiveness of Rajasabha, which we already discussed in the article discussion. And you can also add your own viewpoints for enriching the answer. With this, we have come to the end of today's Hindi News Analysis. If you like the video, don't forget to like, comment and share. And do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy's YouTube channel for more updates related to civil service examination preparation.


We're with Chris Berlay on the floor of PDAC 2024. You're the founder and the CEO for Mineral Prices and Mineral Funds.com. Yes? Yes, that's right Chris. So Chris, what are your objectives this week at PDAC? Myself personally. Well, for Mineral Prices and Mineral Funds? Mineral Prices and Mineral Funds. Looking at the critical minerals for mineral prices, there's a lot of change, a lot of interest in that sector and you know, attending how to finance, how they intend to finance a lot of the pending requirements for these metals and the other metals. So I'm spending some time doing that. I'm talking to some specific project managers about stuff that I'm interested in. And then with respect to the funds, just I was meeting some of the suppliers downstairs and determining how we might be able to help them. So the reason I got so interested in mineralprices.com, it's very hard to find reliable places to get prices for the minerals. And of course, you also happen to be basically an industry expert. Would you call yourself that for say gold for instance? On managed funds, sure. I do know, have studied them very carefully, understand that market quite well. Well, I can assure you that's quite an understatement based on what I know about you. So let's talk about gold. I'm going to ask you a couple of questions, starting with the price of gold right now and the market for gold. Where do you see it right now and where do you see it going in 2024? You know, it's very difficult. I listened to a very good presentation there. It's difficult to predict the price of gold. Supply and demand characteristics are not like other metals. But I see central bank buying and I've seen ETF selling and I see, you know, significant issues with the balance sheet, central bank balance sheets. And I see much higher gold prices and ultimately, and silver also over the using gold as a medium of exchange. So these arguments have been around for some time. Some of them people are a lot smarter, a lot wealthier than me. We're bullish on this talking about the end of dollar hegemony quite some time ago. I think it's easy to predict direction. It's more difficult to prediction. It's almost impossible to predict direction and timing in the same way accurately. And so they were absolutely correct. Ultimately, there's going to be a significant revision of dollar valuation. Dollar hegemony will end probably in my life depending on how long you live and what time frame. But I think we're getting closer to that. So I see ultimately significantly higher prices for precious metals. OK, so you see ultimately higher prices in precious metals, both gold and silver or just gold? Both. OK, I know you follow a lot of the different mineral prices because that's why you're mineralprices.com. And of course, mineralprices.com is a partner with investornews.com. Can we talk about some of the other minerals that you are particularly fond of? Can you pick a mineral that you're enjoying the most, copper, uranium? These are metals that are in good shape. There's lots written about them. What we're looking at carefully and what's changing quite rapidly is the critical minerals in the critical mineral list in conjunction with the critical mineral Institute. You know, the European Critical Raw Material Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, the critical mineral policies of both Canada and Australia, they define what critical minerals are. So today we have a list. We have lists of critical minerals for the EU, for the UK, for the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, and Australia. Seven separate critical minerals lists. There's two for the United States and two for Australia. And the governments have established these lists because of the priorities that the metals on them and minerals on them have for their economic development. So that's interesting because it's new. They're defining them. They're defining what they are. We're looking at pricing. How do we provide most accurate and timely and comprehensive pricing for those minerals? And we're looking at a pretty dynamic market. It's changing regularly. So, you know, the most comprehensive list is South Korea. They're importing all of them, 35 critical minerals on their list. So that's the area of the metals and minerals market that we're looking at most closely now, beginning of 2024. OK, so you're looking at the critical mineral hit list, of course, that we follow at the Critical Mineral Institute. Can you tell me, is there a particular critical mineral in particular that is most exciting to you, personally or professionally? Scandium, niobium, scandium, its applications in aluminum, light metal, and the significant impact small amounts of scandium can have. But, you know, in aggregate, no. There's nothing I would say that is of particular interest. You know, a lot of the concern has been around supply chains. And we look at, first of all, the definition of what those critical minerals are. So the governments have been good at doing that. And then the markets will lend themselves to the solution for the supply of those minerals. First, identify what they are, who they're critical for, and for which applications. And so they each have their own. In the United States, you have the Department of Energy has a list, and you have the USGS has a list. In Australia, you have the strategic metals list, and then you have a critical minerals list. And the others just identify the list of what they determine to be critical minerals. And then the market can start to fill in the gaps and provide those minerals from safe jurisdictions in the most economic way feasible. So talk to me about pricing and trends. What trends do you see? Increasing transparency. So markets have changed and continue to change with electronic platforms. So we're seeing increasing transparency, availability of price information, transparency about critical minerals, critical mineral lists, and then we're participating by providing pricing for that. You have also supply chain the characteristics of supply chains where you have responsible sourcing. So we're able to start to identify, that's important and it can be quantified. And so with the distribution of information and the distribution of electronic platforms, we can do a better job today of ensuring and identifying which particular metals from which sources are being sourced responsibly. It's an issue for certain metals more than others. So electronic platforms facilitate that process and accelerate that process. That's a good thing. And then the last is that we just, we provide more comprehensive real-time information the fullest extent that we can. In a 24-hour world, you can get most metals 24 hours a day, not as it used to be a decade ago only when the London Metal Exchange traded in or Chicago Merc, the Cattle Exchange, or Osaka Merc, the Cattle Exchange, we can now 24-hour pricing for most exchange traded metals. And then they're adding to, you're also seeing advances in direct producer to consumer. So these proliferation of electronic platforms and what we're doing providing price information enhances that process. So you're getting increased transparency, you're getting benefits of supply chain responsible sourcing identification and you're also having benefits of transparency with accelerated trading between producers and consumers of metals. Well, Chris, we wish you luck at PDAC this year. And for everybody out there interested in finding out more about mineralprices.com, go to their website. Thank you, Tracy.


Hello, you are watching the International Daily Roundup by People's Dispatch, where we bring you some of the top stories from around the world. Let's take a look at today's headlines. Charges dropped against wetsuit and activists in Canada. Israeli forces killed three Palestinians in violent raids. Chile's constitutional convention upholds reproductive rights. And Australian court reverses landmark climate ruling. In our first story today, charges against four wetsuit and land defenders have been dropped in Canada. Indigenous peoples in British Columbia have been resisting the construction of the coastal gas link pipeline for years. The 670 kilometre long project will carve through 22,000 square kilometres of unsurrended wetsuit and territory. The CGL has defied a 2020 eviction notice issued by the Heritatory Chiefs and has also obtained an injunction by the provincial court. Meanwhile, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or the RCMP has repeatedly carried out militarised invasions into the land since 2019. In November 2021, Indigenous activists shut down a forest service road to enforce the eviction order against CGL. However, RCMP forces soon stormed the blockade site and Camp Coyote. The protest camp was set up in September to block access to a drill site near the sacred Wetzinkwa River. Thirty people were arrested including four land defenders who were not in breach of the injunction. Coastal gas link has now dropped the charges against the four activists. However, it has now asked the Attorney General to intervene and pursue criminal contempt charges against the others. Wetzwet and peoples have reiterated that the Canadian state has no authority on unceded lands. Despite this, RCMP officers have continued to enter villages several times a day to harass and surveil people. Police have also been entering the Gidimton checkpoint camp claiming to be on crown patrols. Activists have said that there have been threats of arrest and vehicle information has been recorded. Hereditary chiefs have refused to meet with the government until the RCMP leaves the area. We now take a look at Israel, where security forces have killed three Palestinian men in the occupied West Bank and Nagiv Desert this week. The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed on March 15 that nine other people had been wounded. 17-year-old Nadir Haitham Ryan was shot during a raid on the Balata refugee camp. He was struck in the head, abdomen and hand. A witness told Middle East Eye that Ryan was on his way to his family's tea stall when Israeli forces opened fire. Palestinian officials have confirmed three other injuries from live bullets and a stun grenade. The forces raided the Balata camp around 5.30 a.m. to arrest Ammar Arafat. He was wanted for allegedly forming an armed group in Nablus. Arafat was arrested and Israeli forces were met with armed resistance while retreating. All shops and schools remained closed in Nablus on Tuesday for a day of mourning. On Monday night, the occupation forces also raided the Kalandia refugee camp near Ramallah.  Another six Palestinians were injured after confrontations erupted against the Israeli raid. The Wafa News Agency also confirmed the killing of 27-year-old Sanad Al-Harbad on the night of March 14. He was shot by an Israeli special forces officer in the town of Rahat. According to the Wafa News Agency, 20 Palestinians have been killed by Israel so far this year. Up next, Chile's constitutional convention has approved a historic article on sexual and reproductive rights. The assembly has voted to add the legalization of abortion to the country's new draft constitution. It has also included a guarantee for comprehensive sex education in the text. The article was approved by 108 votes in favour, 39 against and 6 abstentions on March 15. This is the result of a campaign which had gathered 15,000 signatures in support for broader abortion rights. The procedure is currently only legal in cases of rape, fatal abnormalities in the fetus or a threat to life. The text establishes that the state will guarantee the exercise of sexual and reproductive rights without discrimination. It will focus on gender inclusion and cultural relevance. All people with the capacity to gestate will be guaranteed conditions for pregnancy and a voluntary termination of pregnancy, protected childbirth and motherhood. The text also states that all people are holders of sexual and reproductive rights. These include the right to decide freely, autonomously and to be informed about one's body and the exercise of sexuality, reproduction, pleasure and contraception. The article further adds that the exercise of these rights should be free of violence and interference by third parties. Activists that had gathered outside the convention's building broke out in celebration after the vote passed on Tuesday. The assembly is drafting a new Magda Carta to replace the exclusionary text of the Pinochet era dictatorship. And finally, an Australian court has overturned a landmark ruling related to fossil fuels. In 2021, a judge ruled that the government had a duty of care towards children when it comes to approving extractive projects. As such, it must avoid causing personal injury or death to people under 18 due to carbon dioxide emissions. The verdict was in response to a lawsuit brought by eight school students and a none. Environment Minister Susan Lay had appealed the decision. On March 15, the three-judge bench of the federal court ruled in her favour. They stated that the decision partly reflected the tiny increase in risk from Whitehaven's wickery coal mine in the state of New South Wales. Emissions from the project's coal burning were estimated to be equivalent to 100 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. It was approved by Minister Lay in September. Chief Justice James Alsop argued that the duty of care should not be imposed because of the indeterminacy of liability. He said that there was a lack of proportionality between the tiny increase in risk and lack of control and liability for all damage to all Australian children ongoing into the future. In light of the ruling, student activists have said that they will continue their fight for climate justice. Experts have also pointed out that while the court has denied the legal duty of care, it has not disputed the fact that climate change impacts young people. This will be important for other climate litigation.


We don't know what's happening, but still bees disappeared. If the bees stopped pollinating, we wouldn't be able to produce the amount of food to keep the current population fed. Two thirds of the world's food production depends on honeybees, and therefore humans depend on bees. Basically, my favorite saying is if the bees go, we go, literally. The more we can spread the awareness, the better. It's all about saving the bees right now. This one was a swarm that I just poured in there, and so they're building comb naturally. Hi, my name is Paul Hekimian, and I'm a director at HoneyLove. So this is what we do at HoneyLove. We're urban beekeepers that rescue honeybees, and we find them new homes, so we're basically foster parents. The current agriculture system is a big problem for honeybees. Bees as humans need 10 essential amino acids, so they need diversity of pollen, which they cannot find often in areas that are heavily managed by agricultural practices. The agricultural bees are the pollinators. They move them in big trucks from orchards to different farms around the country, and those are the ones that are increasingly dying on a rapid scale. We're protecting the bees that land in someone's home, they land in a tree, and those bees are actually thriving in the urban environment because there's less pesticides. They're not being trucked around in trucks. In the urban environment, what the feral bees that we deal with, meaning wild bees, are thriving. My philosophy with ecology is definitely a sustainable approach. The great thing is using local ingredients. Everything tastes better. Everything tastes fresher. What Paul and Honey Love is doing is incredible. Not only his backyard, but he's setting it up in other people's yards. See how they can build a comb right on the frame like that? When you taste this honey that this guy I know has some boxes full of bees and frames, and he hands me a frame and says, here, as opposed to buying honey in a bottle that looks like a bear, it tastes completely different. These pesticides pollute the environment and they have an effect on honey bees. For example, the bees is disoriented. The bees lose the ability to move and eventually to fly and to orientate in the field. It's very important to support the research towards agricultural practices that use less pesticides and still allow the farmers to have a good production. It's been shown that's possible, but still the research in these fields is lacking. Most of the research focuses on finding better pesticides, but this is not the way. Seeing how honey is actually made is incredible to me. It's just nature, you know, and it's opened up my eyes to a lot of the other processes. How are you? Whether it's being, you know, the way things grow in biodynamic farming, I have a completely different outlook on things now. A big mission I have right now is to try to educate the next generation, because if kids growing up now can learn and understand these things, you know, I feel like they're the answer to the problem, because we're all already kind of screwed.  They're not. They're actually looking for a new home. You could stand still and a swarm could go right past you and nothing would happen.  You actually want to call beekeeper and there's a lot of beekeepers. You'd be surprised in your area. When you have more and more organizations and more and more people donating their own time to help make these issues better or to go away, we're definitely on the right road, kind of like the road to recovery.


Okay, so I'm talking about WTO and free movement of persons in the WTO and I'm going to do this essentially by maybe a little bit boringly just setting out the framework for what one gets out of the WTO and I'm going to illustrate this with reference to the EU's commitments on free movement of persons to the outside world which might be us soon. So this is as everybody knows the default in case there's no agreement between the UK and the EU which is not impossible at all and in fact may even be desirable. The way that the WTO deals with free movement of persons is in the general agreement on trade in services, GATS, which dates from 1995 and which for those I don't know how that much people know so I'll just give the basics. Oh I don't have a presentation I don't like them. I'm going to have just the basically just some provisions that's all. So the GATS operates in parallel to the GAT and it does similar or tries to do similar sorts of things a bit mutatis mutandis as one has to do for services and it establishes four modes they're called in jargon, modes of supply, cross border that's the one which was an EU competence in opinion 194, consumption abroad that's tourists, students so on consuming in other countries of no relevance to us really at the moment. Commercial presence which is what EU law would call establishment and I as an international I would call investment in services and then the one we're interested in which is movement of persons and that is defined in article one paragraph 2d which is there, those are the modes supply of a service by a service supplier of one member through presence of natural persons of a member in the territory of any other member so there's a lot of members going on there. The key concept is that the natural persons that we're interested in here relevant through their presence in another WTO member so this means two things and I think Catherine mentioned these two options in the beginning one is that the natural persons can be service suppliers in their own rights so all of us when we do teaching in other universities around the world but also natural persons can be involved in the supply of services through their work for another service supplier doesn't have to be of their nationality either and that could be a company a juridical person in WTO jargon or of course could in theory be another natural person and this is all specified a little bit in more detail in an annex on the movement of natural persons which is no one. paragraph one is what we're looking at now which as you can see just details but I said those are two different aspects one detail on this annex is that it doesn't actually specify that the service supplier has to be a national of a WTO member other than the one in which the services are being supplied so some people have seized on this and said well Gats is a sort of all-round immigration agreement you know it applies to you yourself it's obviously ridiculous because this is only about a definition applies to the annex doesn't apply to the Gats but you know academics they will get excited sometimes so let's just ignore that WTO lawyers are surprisingly easily excitable we take what we can get so before getting more stuck into the legal aspects there's a brief word on the political and economic dimensions of mode 4 and we're coming at this from the completely opposite side of the spectrum than one does if one is moving from EU law to you know some sort of FTA concept and WTO is way on the other side of this which is you know that there is nothing essentially unless you want there to be something so the idea of mode 4 as being something even as a framework was something that was quite hotly contested in the 1990s leading up to 1995 when this agreement dates the developed countries wanted to limit this to skilled workers golden color workers maybe some high-end white color workers and developing countries obviously wanted this potentially to include everything seasonal agricultural labor and working in construction hotel whatever so essentially they want this to be a framework for an immigration agreement and on this particular point of developing countries one which is why you have mode 4 without any limitation on the sorts of services that are covered and if I from personal experience people in the European Commission have missed this point some of them because they assume that it's just white collar workers golden collar workers now as I'll explain in a moment that is true in terms of EU commitment but it's not true in terms of gaps not true in terms of what you can do in the gaps not a bit surprised to hear that but I guess people don't always update themselves you know now the idea that you can negotiate may commitments on any sorts of service in other words any sort of immigration if we can call it that is further elaborated in however three year members may negotiate specific commitment to find the movement of all categories all categories is the important thing there right so you can as a W2 member make a commitment on seasonal labor if you want perfectly possible all looking very good for the developing countries but it was a partial victory for several reasons because developed countries always win in the end and one is that in this annex if you look at paragraph 2 you can see a fairly big limitation on what was in the main body of the agreement in fact this redefines the agreement to exclude permanent movement of persons in any way so it's now very clear that we're dealing with what is we're dealing with temporary movement of person so you can see there in paragraph 2 how that is done all of you know citizenship residence permanent employment is excluded from the gaps so that's typically the way you teach the developing countries a lesson you give them a lot in the header and then you take it all the way again in a footnote so that's the politics of where we are at the moment and I'll explain how the GATS then operates this is just the definition right but doesn't actually mean anything yet it's just what's possible a small point on the economics before I get into the whole commitment side of things is that mode for amounts to about one percent of trade-in services okay so it's insignificant which gives you another sense of who won that particular tussle and what is that one percent well I'll get to that now what does it all mean in terms of obligation well the GATS divides obligations into general obligations which apply across the board to all sectors and then specific obligations which apply to sectors in which a WTO member has made a specific commitment this is unlike the GATS which has much much more well it's not unlike the GATS it is a bit like the GAT but the sorts of obligations which are for specifically negotiated sectors in GATS are taken for granted and apply across the board in GATS and that is for instance non-discrimination non-discrimination is a big one you need to negotiate on non-discrimination or there is nothing there you can do whatever you like in terms of national treatment anyway what are the general obligations was only one really of any importance and that is the MFN obligation so that's non-discrimination in a horizontal sense and everybody all you lawyers are going to have to get used to distinguishing between horizontal MFN type discrimination and national treatment discrimination because of course in EU law this is all blurred but in in fact quite horrifically so no in in Dassenville but but in WTO law this there's a very sharp distinction between horizontal and vertical non-discrimination and MFN discrimination is applies across the board even without having made any commitments in any sectors and that's in article 2 paragraph 1 of GATS there are carve-outs from the MFN obligation and some this was all done in 1995 following negotiations and I'll give you now start referring to the EU schedule of concessions which is where all the WTO members say what they're going to promise within the framework of the GATS and it's the same for GATS with concessions and goods it's basically tariffs for goods doesn't have to be but it is and for GATS it's obviously everything else it's all regulatory so here are some EU exemptions Italy has an exemption for measures based upon bilateral agreements between Italy and third countries guaranteeing work permits for seasonal workers in other words Italy can give these work permits to countries with which it has these agreements without also having to give work permits to other nationals of other countries yep it's an MFN exemption that's right yep that's right the qualification on a permanent basis that applies to residents as well well no I mean you can interpret this as you like because no one's ever there's no authority on this nothing there was a committee that looked at it once and then decided not to I think the official reason was that it's all dealt with sufficiently in the commitments so I don't know your guess is good as mine yeah well I think lawyers play with commas just to get into all things to do yeah okay all right so I don't know depends who's paying you so another one another exemption is the UK for citizens of Commonwealth countries with a grandparent born in the UK so that's a famous right of the boat there's an exception there I mean one of those conditions and then we have this was for all sectors but it says mainly construction and hospitality measures based upon bilateral agreements between community member states and European and Mediterranean countries guaranteeing work permits for the purposes of temporary contract work on the basis of contracts between an employer of the third country concerned and a company in the member state concerned and which permit limited numbers of workers from the country's concern to be employed in certain service sectors the numbers are subject to variation according to criteria established in the agreement sort of open end and fluctuate you call this a variable levy if you were dealing with with goods it's sort of like a variable levy on on contract so there's I mean this would be music to the ears of the Conservative Party this is almost like good immigration policy for them so that's sort of where we're coming from in terms of MFM but when there is no exemption the MFM obligation applies across the board so if the UK post-Brexit decides that it wants to let in fruit pickers from Morocco in the summertime it also has to let in fruit pickers from everywhere else because the UK doesn't have the Italian exemption and won't inherit it if anyone's interested I can go on about the position of the UK and WTO I've been working on this for a while now but anyway there are two overarching exceptions to the MFM obligation one is for regional trade agreements so that's the EU at the moment gets shall not prevent regional trade agreements they've got to cover substantially all service sectors to qualify and the other is for labour markets integration agreements which abolish work permits and residency requirements so if you have a properly integrated agreement you have exception but this doesn't cover everything anyway and it covers measures that are necessary for these types of agreement which arguably does not cover mutual recognition of qualifications for instance not necessarily necessary then we come to the specific obligations and here the EU has commitments for horizontal commitments for three categories of national persons inter-corporate transfer is senior management or important people for a company business visitors who want to set up shop turn up and set up shop and then contractual service suppliers which are employees of a juridical person they can come from maximum of three months a year there's a list of sectors in which they can come which has professional services research and development higher education will be pleased to hear travel agencies and tour operators entertainment probably overlaps with higher education to some degree and then sales unless there are more conditions in the specific schedule of services so here I had a look at higher education and it's actually unbound apart from what I just said except for some conditions that we have and it may not surprise anybody to know that it is France which has some specific conditions you need a contract nine months tops economic needs test unless professors designated directly by minister in charge of higher education and just does a cherry on top recruiting institution must pay a tax to the international migration office so that's what happens if we want to go and teach in France and then there are overall exceptions and this is the end of it very quick one is something that will be in article 14 of gaps that applies to everything be familiar to EU lawyers although not from the services area measures to protect public health public morals consumer protection safety it's not very interesting for the time being more interesting is paragraph four of the annex there which has an exception for measures necessary to so border measures right this is enforcement of border measures then you have an exception to that provided that such measures are not applied in such a manner as to nullify or impaired benefits accrue into any member under the terms of a specific commitment and then it says somethings about visas from one country versus visas for sorry visas for nationals one country versus visas for national another country that itself is okay how does one interpret all of this it's an exception shall not prevent his exceptions language and the WTO has a very strict much stricter I should say than in the EU these days strict version of the necessity test so necessity really does mean necessity I mean in German terms but they take it seriously as seems to happen anymore in that regional agreement and so this well looking at it from that perspective probably boils down to us you know reasonable sort of exception you you can look you can have your immigration controls but you can't use them to abuse the commitments that you've made so to sum up the WTO doesn't give you a free trade agreement on services it gives you a framework apart from the MFN aspect for negotiating free trade on services and so far in practice not just the EU but most countries but I thought I'd talk about the EU seeing as that's gonna be of most interest the commitments apply pretty much to high-end white collar and golden collar workers not the lower end and that is I think going to be the default position for the UK as well which the EU will then benefit from all of which is probably not a bad framework as a starting point at least for an immigration policy that dehumanizes and etc etc but it's not to say that you can't do more you can do more and this is just the basics of what's been done so far