If you've done this prayer with me before, that's okay. It's an oldie but goodie. So to prepare for our prayer, I'm gonna ask you to call to mind one of three things, okay? You have a choice. So, and we're not gonna confess these. These are things we'll just hold in our hearts, okay? So one option would be, is there an area of your life or work, I should say, that feels like it's a need of renewal, you know? Just need some new life breath into it. So that's one option. The second option would be, is there a decision that's part of your life? Maybe you're in the middle of trying to make a big decision or you know that one's looming on the horizon, all right? And your third option would be, is there something going on in your life or your work or both that puts you in need of comfort? There's just a struggle or a sorrow of some sort and some comfort would really be appreciated, okay? So those are your three choices. Area of life or ministry in need of renewal, decision that's part of life or ministry, something going on that puts you in the need of comfort. And if it was like all of the above, if you were checking them off and saying, yeah, I actually have three of those and you know, four of those, that's okay too. Just hold those in your heart. I'm gonna pray a sort of an oldie but goodie prayer in the church just for us and you can just sort of hold those intentions in your heart while I pray in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen, come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful in kindling them the fire of your love.   Help us by that same spirit always to know what is right and constantly to enjoy his holy comforts through Christ our Lord. Amen, name the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit. Amen, certainly in our lives and in our work as diocesan leaders, there are those occasional areas that feel like they need some new life breathe into them depending on how long you've been doing this. If you didn't have one of those, trust me, one will come up in a year or two and decisions are certainly a big part of what we do. And yeah, we need comfort once in a while but sometimes the wheels come off of a project that we're working on or an event that we're trying to put together. So yeah, I hope this week has been good for you so far and I hope it's yet another experience of the Holy Spirit's presence and power and desire to do all those good things for us in our lives and in the ministry of leadership that God has called us to, okay? Yeah, I think the fact that you're here makes, it says great things about you. You know, you're definitely making an investment in your own, in your own formation. I know some of you traveled a long distance. So again, I just, I pray that it's a fruitful week for you. My name, as it probably says on things, so I'm Ken O'Gorick. I serve on Archbishop Charles Thompson's leadership team in Indianapolis, Indiana and I help coordinate the work of about a dozen different offices and ministries. I'm not gonna read you the laundry list, but it falls under the umbrella of evangelization and catechesis. So here we are at the St. John Bosco Conference for Evangelization and Catechesis. I don't have a whole lot to tell you about myself. Some of you know me, you might be surprised by that because you know, that's one of my favorite topics, but it really isn't. I really wanna dive into our topic. I could tell you some stories about like the early days of the Diocesan gatherings here, because this is the 28th year of the St. John Bosco Conference. So those were a little bit more like secluded. There might have been like 11 people here. What you're experiencing this week is it's a relatively new way of just making sure that Diocesan folks are able to connect with each other and participate in some workshops. And I'm sure Chris was kind of explaining to you, this morning especially, I know working genius, he had to talk a little bit more, but we really, these Diocesan workshops, yes, we're gonna put some thoughts on the table and facilitate some things, but there's a lot of wisdom and experience in this room. So they're a bit more interactive. I think that's all I was gonna say about that. So just by way of a quick preview, our topic generally is hiring, personnel is policy hiring, that whole area. And I wanna say hiring broadly defined, because we all know that some of the people who lead ministries in some of our parishes, I often say they're part-time volunteers with high school diplomas and day jobs. So it's not like there's a huge hiring process per se, one that you're gonna get involved deeply in. But I think it is a fair question. Even in those situations, can you offer some support to father as he discerns which of those parishioners to sort of put in those ministries? So I'm sort of using the word hiring pretty broadly defined. So I'm hoping to share some practical tips that I've maybe picked up over the years, but again, there's lots of wisdom and experience in this room, so we'll be sharing with these other as well. So yeah, I'll talk a bit on the front end, especially, but you'll have an opportunity to connect with each other and do some sharing. And I'm an old high school teacher, many of you know that.  But yeah, we'll be sure to wrap up in a timely fashion. And just one other quick thought as we were kind of going around and just matching some names with faces. You know, Chris Bergwald and I were always working with Bill Keimig, especially trying to tweak this the experience of diocesan leaders who come to Bosco. And one thing that has come up often on a little bit is a desire to maybe just have some less structured time where people could connect on specific topics and just kind of, you know, do some sounding board. You know, hey, I'm dealing with this. You know, are you dealing with it too? Can we talk about it? So towards the end here, you might, some of you might be actually standing up again because I might ask you, you know, if there's a topic that you would really just like to connect with someone about one or two people, you know, in between things, we can just maybe, again, match a name and a face. And oh, Judeen, she wants to talk about onboarding new employees or something like that. So, you know, we don't have a structured, like a set apart session for that, but maybe if we do a little of that towards the end of this session, that can kind of prime that pump a little bit and give you that opportunity. So just a word of the wise, you might be standing up and telling people your name again. So let's dive in. I think it was, well, it was a little over 20 years ago that I first heard the phrase, personnel is policy, right? And it really stuck with me. We all know that policies are important, guidelines, mandates, you know, with those air quotes, you know, but we also know that if people who are well suited for those ministry roles aren't in place that, you know, policies are only gonna go so far and guidelines and so forth. And I think also the flip side is true when we're intentional about who we discern as a person to help get into one of those ministry leadership roles. I mean, the policies and things are still important, but they're sort of less important in that these folks will intuitively tend to approach ministry in ways that kind of fit the vision that we're trying to put in place. I forgot to mention that some of us are involved with hiring and onboarding and things like that, sort of laterally maybe, or in our DOS and roles. So a lot of this stuff will translate to that, but I'm thinking especially about what happens in our parishes. I often say the reason, you know, the reason people like me have jobs is to support ministry and parishes, right? So what can we do from a personnel point of view that can help enhance by God's grace, of course, what's happening in our parishes? So let me see a show of hands real quick, maybe a little bit of a show of hands here. How many of you, in your current role, how many of you are able to get pretty involved at times in who's being hired for ministry in your parishes? Is there a process or something in your diocese, sort of? At least in theory? Okay, so not a large number? Okay, that's not surprising necessarily. We'll certainly talk more about that.  I mean, I know you can't wave a magic wand or have the bish up a company of you everywhere and say, hey, he wants me to help you hire people, but maybe there are some things you can do to kind of get a little bit more involved. And I'll just share a quick story, a quick example. So when I first started doing diocese and work about 26 years ago in Pittsburgh, okay, 50% of my job, of that job, it was focused on the teaching of religion in our Catholic high schools. And we had a pretty firm and well understood policy in place that even though principals made the final hiring decision, that they were to choose from a pool of candidates that had sort of been vetted, if you will. And that held pretty firm. So I did kind of a screening interview and then the principals kind of took it from there, okay? And then of course, once that hiring was done, then we connected with that new high school religion teacher right away. So fast forward, I was with the diocese in Pittsburgh for 10 years, 16 years ago, moved back to my home state of Indiana. We're a friendly little state, really we are. Maybe some of you will be in Indianapolis about a year from now for the Eucharistic Congress, but I arrived at the art sites in Indianapolis. My role was different, not only was my role different there, but I found out there was nothing in place, like no guidance at all in terms of who taught religion at the high school or middle school level, just no guidance at all. And anecdotally, I would hear things like, hey, Joe the janitor, can you cover this extent of religion? I mean, you're Catholic and it's only religion. I mean, come on, how hard could it be? And that's probably exaggerating a little bit, but maybe not too much. Actually Joe the janitor might have been a fine, might have been a fine catechist intuitively, but there wasn't much of a process in terms of background or what have you. But the thing is I knew, based on the way my job was structured, I couldn't get as involved as I was in Pittsburgh, so what could I do? I worked with some folks, including Archbishop Daniel Beekline, may he rest in peace, he was a staunch supporter of good catechesis and evangelization. So we put a policy in place, and it was kind of a happy medium between nothing and sort of the screening process or vetting process is probably a better word that we had in Pittsburgh. And I won't bore you with the details of the policy itself, although it was pretty well written. I include a little haiku in it, it was really popular. I was trying not to drown you in too much paper, so but you can find it on the internet, if you just type in the name Arch-Indy is like a magic search engine word for anything it has to do with our archdiocese. So really if you type in, I think I did this morning, if you type in high school, catechist hiring policy Arch-Indy, a PDF of it will probably pop up right away. So again, maybe you're not involved at all or as involved as you would like to be, and you don't necessarily have the power or authority to get super duper involved in all cases, but maybe there are some things you can do to kind of move the needle a little bit in the direction of helping folks discern who has some of these different roles in our parishes especially, okay? So I wanna encourage you to do that. I wanna encourage you to think about how, whatever your situation is right now in having some influence in that area, is there something you could do? Is there a resource you could offer pastors? And believe it or not, some of them might actually appreciate it honestly. Is there a way that you could support pastors in helping to hire full-time or part-time paid people or to discern if that's not the kind of situation it is, at least to discern maybe who among those two or three possible parishioners might be best suited for that role in the parish, okay? Maybe there are some things you can do to help with that. And we'll talk a little bit more about that in a bit. So onto the handout, I wonder if I just hit it. Maybe I did, okay, all right. Any backup batteries back there? We won't worry about it. So a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, there were these things called perceivers. They still exist, okay? And there used to be a thing called the DRE perceiver, I would love to see, I mean, gosh, it would be like a relic if I took an article of your, were any of you ever trained to sort of give or administer the DRE perceiver? You've heard of perceivers generally speaking though, that it's basically an instrument. It's a list of questions, right? And you ask each question to the person as written and then there's a lot of listen for's, listen for this, listen for that. And then you sort of painstakingly and meticulously go through the transcribed answer, looking for those keywords and phrases and things that the person said in the interview. And it gives you, in theory at least, it gives you a sense of, again, how well-suited might this person be for that role of Paris Cataclytus leader? How effective might she or he be? How happy might she or he be? But it's funny, so I knew these things existed, but again, right around 16 years ago when I hired on with the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, the Gallup people, because I believe Gallup is the outfit that kind of produced things. And there's perceivers for all kinds of things, right? There's actually a priest perceiver, or there might be a psychology professor perceiver, if not, you can make one probably, but they stopped doing training on it. So I, at the time, we had what we called a personnel team, the way we were structured back then. Those of us who worked closely with Paris Cataclytus leaders, principals, youth ministers. So I sort of worked with our personnel team to put together my own perceiver. It wasn't very scientific, but at least it allowed us to talk about, as a staff, what kinds of questions do we think are important? And again, we're not looking for cookie-cutter images at all, but what would some words and phrases be, or what would some ways of responding be that might give us a little insight into this person? Again, effectiveness and happiness, which I think hopefully go together. So again, I didn't give you the whole perceiver if you want to see it, it's like three pages long. So it's just a few questions and maybe a short paragraph about some things to listen to. Feel free to email me, I'll send it to you. I'm easy to find, I'm not in the Catholic Witness Protection Program. You probably got an email from me before you came here. So I can send you that. But what I did give you is that short little one-page document that you got when you walked in. And that was also produced by our personnel team. And honestly, a lot of the questions on that Paris Catechicata Leader, little informal perceiver document that I've used for a long time, and even other interviewing situations that I find myself in, they sort of flow from that document. So a little bit about that document. I sometimes call it the no flip-flops document. And by flip-flop, I don't mean like political flip-flop, but the person who hired me in Indianapolis, she was kind of legendary. And she would sit on these personnel team meetings. And she said she had been to a high school graduation at one of our Catholic high schools recently, sort of representing the Archdiocese. And as the staff was walking in in their caps and gowns, kind of a formal pomp and circumstance, whatever that is, she heard this, and she looks, and one of the faculty members was wearing flip-flops. And so my boss at the time, and it isn't that she thinks we should all be super formal and formal rigid, that kind of stuff. But in her mind, she was like, you know, there should probably be some standards of, I'm just not sure that flip-flops by a faculty member at the graduation ceremony is a good thing. So it led to a discussion on our personnel team. How would we articulate? When you have a role of ministry leadership in the church, what are some expectations, if you will, or standards, if you wanna put them that way?  I think we originally gave it a boring name, like 10 guidelines for effective ministry, your leadership or something like that, but I think we ended up calling it, you are the face of the church. So I just wanna give you a couple examples of if you read that over, you might find that a lot of the interview questions that you're inclined to ask one way or another connect to those. And looking it over might even give you some new ideas for some interview questions that you could ask. So let me just give you a couple of examples. And I'm not doing these in order. If you look at the second one, be enthusiastic. The very first question, and this is just me, I'm not saying this should be the first question you ask in an interview, but I am involved right now. I should have said this. We do have a process in the archdiocese where in theory at least, I'm supposed to be someone involved when a pastor is hiring a parish kind of ketical leader. It doesn't always happen, but actually oftentimes it does. So the first interview I ask, or the first question I ask when I'm doing the screening interview, I just say Shane, what do you like best about being Catholic? What do you like best about being Catholic? And in some ways, I don't even care what Shane says. But I just wanna hear something. I wanna hear some joy. I wanna hear some enthusiasm. And I know we all express that in different ways. Everybody doesn't have to be super effusive. But I just, I think it's hard to lead in ministry if you don't sort of have a little bit of that joy and enthusiasm that shows through. So that's an example of an interview question that I asked that flows from this. Take a look at number 10. We're jumping around here. Gosh, I think isolation in ministry. I suppose it's always been a bit of an issue, but I just feel like in recent years, I see a lot of my, we have 126 parishes. And I just see some of my parish catechetical leaders, you know, just with sort of a lone ranger attitude and in a sense what they end up doing is working in isolation. Isolation from their fellow parish catechetical leaders. And to some extent, isolation from sort of the broader catechetical vision that our bishop, and in Pittsburgh, I was always taught to call the bishop our chief shepherd and catechist, you know? So there's a connection, right? What we do in ministry has a, it's part of a broader vision. And so that number 10 on the sheet leads to some questions like, you know, what do you see as the connection or the relationship between this parish ministry and maybe even the role of the bishop or, you know, the bishop's ministry, especially when we're talking about catechesis, okay? Go on here, okay. Back to number two. I actually took some direction, believe it or not. I wanted to come up with a question that would be about orthodoxy, frankly, you know, really. And so the way the personnel team suggested phrasing it was, and I think this is pretty much verbatim, you know, is there any aspect of church teaching, particularly as it appears in the catechism, that you couldn't teach sincerely and authentically, you know? So I didn't, I wouldn't just say, hey, are you president of heresy of the month club? You know? So, but some kind of question that gets to that, that gets to that, you know, are we thinking with the mind of the church, basically? And I don't wanna go off on too much of a tangent here, but it's just, it's an important question to ask one way or another. Yeah. Yeah. Is there any aspect of church teaching, particularly as it appears in the catechism, that you couldn't teach sincerely and authentically? All right, yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yep, so I don't know if you're able to hear all that, but yeah, yeah, contextualizing the question, almost in more of, you know, sincerely, authentically, comfortably, you know, for one reason or another. So absolutely, good point. And it's interesting, the question, regardless of how you ask it, it's often led to some interesting, I mean, sometimes it's a pretty short answer, but other times not, at least some interesting discussions. So yeah, so quick side notes, these aren't really side notes, but they relate to this question. You know, my experience has been in recent years, most people who are interested in getting into ministry, they tend not to have a lot of, like, doctrinal access to grind with the church. So this hasn't been a huge issue. And yes, you're right, people can certainly be a little less than truthful. That happens occasionally.  So that doesn't happen too often. I will say on those rare occasions, when it's happened, I usually don't turn into like the soup guy on Seinfeld, it's like, no interview for you, the conversation goes on, but a lot of times I'll ask them, I will circle back to it eventually, and I'll usually do two things, depending on the issue, I'll say, hey, have you ever read X or have you ever read Y? If I'm aware of something that really explains that teaching pretty well, and then depending on the rapport that's developed between me and the person at that point, I'll say, hey, the people you hang out with, are there people in your life who challenge you on that, or do you find that you mostly hang out with folks who kind of feel the same way? And maybe it just gets a little thought process going, and then I always leave the door open, because if a person is really saying, no, I just, I flatly deny one or more basic, basic doctrinal or moral teachings of the church, I'll explain to them, we can't really move on with the process, I'm not really comfortable giving your information to a pastor at this point, but again, please take a look at this stuff, follow up with me, I encourage you just to keep learning, keep praying, and if you find that you're changing your point of view on this a little bit, please, please circle back with me, so it's not too harsh. I will say, a priest that I used to work with in Pittsburgh, this is how he asked that question, I wouldn't do this, but he would say, Gary, if you could change one basic doctrinal or moral teaching of the church, well, what would it be? You know, and of course the answer he's looking for is, well, gosh, I wouldn't change any of them, but to me, that's a little tricky, but he's a good guy, you can wanna guess who he is, we can talk later about it, but anyway, a good dude, a good dude, a good dude. Finally, and then we'll move on here, number five, I often ask, yeah, how do you just keep your life balanced? Cause that's another, maybe it's related to isolation somehow, but we know how easy it is just to get off kilter, you know, if we're not tending to our bodies, minds, hearts, and souls to the degree that we should, so we wanna see that this is a person who's, yeah, who really is mindful of that need for balance understood that way. And it's funny, that question often circles back up to number one, because you see item number one on here, when we wrote this, these were in all sorts of different orders, we talked about them and teased them out, and eventually the team said, well, immerse yourself in a sacramental prayer life, but that's gotta be number one, that's kind of where all this flows from, so I find more often than not, when we talk about just balance with folks, a lot of folks, one ingredient, they'll say, well, one way that I try, well, actually I should say this, everybody always laughs a little bit, because I would worry about a person who said, I'm completely balanced, and let me tell you exactly how, usually they chuckle a little bit, and they'll say, hey, it's an ongoing process, I don't know if I'm completely balanced, but here's how I try to keep life in balance, and oftentimes that sacramental prayer life will come up, okay? So again, you'll have some opportunities to share some of your own thoughts about all this in a moment, or in a few moments.  I wanna talk a little bit about what I have seen over the past four years. I see a trend, and I wanna kind of put it out there, and maybe this isn't your experience, but I'm just kind of sharing with you something that I see in this area of recruiting, onboarding, retaining, supervising, lay ecclesial ministers. So I just wanna kind of put this out there and share some thoughts with you of my own, and again, this can be for us to discuss, but so I mentioned to you I started working for the Archdiocese 16 years ago, and that we do have a process where pastors typically will work with the Office of Catechesis to like work with their search committee and maybe do some vetting interviews and so forth. It's really, it's a nice process, okay? So probably up until about four years ago, it wasn't unusual. I would say maybe once a month or every other month, someone would approach me out of the blue, maybe a college senior, or someone who was wrapping up a master's degree. They would just contact the office and say, hey, I think I might be interested in getting into parish ministry, or I think I might wanna be a DRE or something like that. And sometimes it would maybe be a career change situation too, but the point is people would contact me and I would, usually I would bring them in and kind of do the screening interview, not because there was a specific job opening, but just to kind of have this pool of folks. And then usually in April and May, when a lot of openings happen or they're announced, and I would go to meet with the search committee at the parish like early on in their process, do a little orientation, but it was awesome. I would actually take resumes with me, right? And I would say, hey, here's a jump starter pack, and you're gonna post your position and more people are gonna express interest in it, but I was able to give them resumes. And so yeah, they would often do a first round of interviews with a couple or three of those folks, and then they would maybe interview a couple or three more who sort of specifically responded to that job posting. Well, guess what? Again, I don't know what your experience has been, but sometimes it's hard for me to put a finger on this because yes, COVID happened, right? And there was that stretch of time where a lot of stuff kind of ground to a halt. Although I will say it's interesting, at least one of our parishes right in the thick of COVID, their parish catecholator left, and it was not for a bad reason. It might have been a retirement or something. And like they took the leap of faith because my first thought was, oh geez, if people leave now, these parishes are reeling, they're not gonna replace them, but they took a leap of faith and they actually hired during that time. And praise God, that's the praise God they did and that was great in them to do that. So yeah, COVID happened. So you would expect the well to dry up a little bit, but man, it's been over three years now. And it's like crickets chirping for me. I don't get any, I can't even remember. I don't think I can remember the last time someone reached out to me and said, hey, I think I'm interested in ministry. So I see some heads nodding, so either you're getting sleepy or, or you know, that's your experience or both. So just let me share with you briefly. I started asking some of my friends who, especially who work in university settings like here, there's a Catholic university in Indianapolis called Marion University. So some friends who work there, and then I don't know if any of you are familiar with at the University of Notre Dame, they have the McGrath Institute for church life. So I have good friends who are part of the McGrath Institute. So I just kind of started asking around. It's like, nobody's coming to us and saying they want to get in the minute. It's like, what's going on? And here's what they said to me. And again, maybe this resonates with your experience. They said, you know, our students, there are students who are interested in ministry, but oftentimes it's their parents who are pressuring them and all kidding aside, most of you were at the dinner last night, right? I love Scott, Scott Solum. And I'm gonna talk to him about, I'm gonna circle back with him because he's actually one of the people I talked to about this. But do you remember his little remark of when he was talking about the evangelization minor?  So what I was told was the students are often willing, but the parents are very reticent about this. There's this perception, I would call it a misperception, that if you do church-related work, you're doomed to a life of abject poverty, all right? And it's not true. It's not true. It is not true.  But again, every diocese is different. Every situation is different. But, you know, I believe that if God is calling you to ministry in the church, that, and I know it's not a big case, it's not a big case, and that was a 40-in-sleep. It's not a vocation like holy orders or holy matrimony, but there's probably a place for you in the church somewhere. And we all know this, yeah, are you gonna drive a Lamborghini? No, but this perception of, you know, everybody who does church-related work, you know, you either don't get paid at all, or you get paid less than a server at a restaurant. You have to get tips from the parents in your program. So there's that concern. There's student debt. We know that's an issue for some kids.  So there's that double whammy of graduating with debt, and then this perception that you're gonna make zero money.  So me being, you know, whatever my, I guess I do know what my working geniuses are supposed to be. That's a different workshop. Personality type temperament. I'm like, what, I just, I wanna try and do something about this though. So here's what I've started to do. So I feel like there's an education problem. I feel like there are some misperceptions among parents and among young people. You know, do they even know that church-related work is a possibility? It's actually something you can do with your life, you know? And again, yes, you're not gonna make a ton of money, but depending on the situation in a lot of places or at least a decent number of places, you're gonna make reasonable, reasonable money. Again, that's a very personal topic. Your definition of reasonable money might be a lot different than mine. The cost of living on Long Island is a little different than the cost of living in Indianapolis. But that perception of, you know, is this on people's radar screens? What is their perception of it? So there's that. And then I actually, a long time ago, and I still sort of do, in a way, in terms of interacting with benefactors, I used to work in fundraising and public relations, you know, in development. So I'm like, okay, money, money. Can we start an endowment fund that would help, maybe help young people who are interested in ministry not to accumulate as much debt, you know, while they're getting their degree. And could we also, could we help parishes compensate a little bit better, you know, under some set of circumstances? So to me, it's a three-pronged approach. It's education of students and parents, and it's money, it is money. You know, can we help people with debt and can we help with compensation? So, and I don't know that, I don't even know if I'm perceiving the situation accurately, or if any of these things would actually help, but I'm kind of taking some baby steps. I'm working with a coworker to develop some lesson plans for say like seventh grade, eleventh grade. That would sort of present lay ecclesial ministry to students as an actual thing, you know. And I'm not quite sure, I suppose that lesson could have a parental interaction component of some sort, or, you know, maybe schools that teach this lesson would be willing to host a panel presentation of people who actually do church-related work. So enough of that, I'm babbling a little bit, but just this topic of human resources and personnel. We haven't done this workshop here since, we did this workshop in 2019, and when I sat down to think about it, I was like, wow, the landscape's a little different here in 2023, to say the least. So just kind of moving toward wrapping up here, some resources, you probably figured out that a lot of us in the diocesan officials' track, we kind of like Patrick Lencioni.  So his secular consulting firm is called the Table Group. So if you've never been on the tablegroup.com webpage, they've got some helpful tools and resources. They've got this thing, I mean, he's written several books and he always gives them clever titles, but so there's something called an anti-miserie worksheet, and it's basically, what are the sorts of things that make a staff member miserable, and how can a supervisor kind of get out in front of those in providing that meaningful supervision? He also does the whole humble, hungry, and smart thing. So there's some resources on the tablegroup webpage that can help with interview questions and things like that, how to mine out some of those traits. Also, there's a flock note group that some of you are in. It's been around for a while. It's called Bosco Friends, it's diocesan staff. Most of us work in catechesis evangelization, and again, we're not cookie cutter images of each other. We do tend to think with the church, we're not gonna get into big debates in the flock note group on basic doctoral and moral stuff, but we do, we vet speakers, we just communicate with each other about different things. One of the things we do is we post job openings. So if you wanna get in on that group, again, shoot me an email, or just, I guess if you just go on flock note and look for Bosco Friends, you can ask to be in it, and yeah, so we have found that helpful in posting positions. Other than that, yeah, if you're, if you want the folks here to know what workshops you've gone to, again, just continue to fill out this sheet, and there will be a box at the back of the field house that you can put this in. You know, it's funny, the diocesan official certification, it's a little different, right?  There's not like a, you know, writing assignments or things like that. So, and yes, you're probably not gonna get a $10,000 raise for getting a diocesan official's certificate from the Catechetical Institute, but you know, hey, it's all to the good. There's also, if you pick this up and there's more up here, there's a super brief questionnaire if this is your first year year or your second year, just a little feedback that you can give Chris Bergwald an eye also, and just fill it out if you want to, put it in that box, and it just helps us tweak this track if you will from year to year, of course, working with Bill Kyneman. So, all right, well, hopefully this has been kind of timely and pertinent. We're certainly, again, judging by the engagement and the conversation, this is some things that we all deal with. Hopefully you got a few practical tips from each other, if not me. And yeah, I meant what I said earlier. I admire you guys for the investment that you're making in your own formation. So let me close with a brief prayer, and we'll send you on your way right around five o'clock in the name of the Father, and of the Son, the Holy Spirit. Amen, Heavenly Father, I thank you for these sisters and brothers that you've given me your adopted daughters and sons who you call to live in a personal disciple relationship with your only begotten son, Jesus Christ, who you call to live that relationship in full communion with his body, the church, and who you have called to ministerial leadership in your church. Father, I ask you to bless every person here, every area of her or his life, those areas in need of renewal, those decisions that are a constant part of life, those areas of life and ministry where comfort is desired. And Father, every now and then, please show these good folks just a little glimpse or glimmer of the goodness that they're bringing into the lives of those they serve, all by your grace and mercy. And we ask these blessings as we pray for all good gifts in the most holy name of Jesus, the one savior of the world. Who together with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns as God for all eternity. Amen.


Most people can safely eat cooked foods when working on healing womb issues. The key is to only have them once in a while and make sure that they are made with whole food ingredients that are approved. Ingredients without any chemicals or weird ingredients. Go to my website at whatchelsieats.com or click the link in my bio to download the free foods to avoid list.


I remember he teached describing you as the class clown. Yeah, I remember that. Tom, the class clown, that doesn't kind of work for me. It's not who Tom is, it's really. And it was like, I wonder why that's happening, you know, so. Friends. So, actually what Tom was doing was friends were pushing him in a position where he, he would do what I helped him to do and he would get the repercussion and he would make a fool of himself. No, no, no, I remember that, like, especially like at parties and things like that, or at school where he would get the you would get the blame when you went to a party.  We had a lot of incidents like that, but a lot of situations where the social skills just weren't kicking in and then obviously hormones were kicking in.


Yo, what's up guys? This is Rich from HTVLive and I wanted to talk about the KSI Logan Paul super fight YouTuber versus youtuber, okay, so the way it went down is KSI fought another youtuber that I Mean it wasn't even a close fight KSI one made it look easy the other guy got beat down and Because of that the end of the fight KSI thought the guy's name. I think it's Joe Weller. That's right Joe. Weller He fought Joe Weller beat him down Bloodied him up stopped him Joe Weller even barely been through a punch, okay? After the fight KSI felt really really proud of himself and decided that he wanted to challenge Logan Paul Jake Paul and all the Pulse Well now he's getting his fight August 25th in England It's going down the super fight of the century the biggest internet fight ever youtuber versus youtuber Logan Paul versus KSI now The part that is really interesting is that not only is Logan Paul going to fight KSI Jake Paul Logan Paul's younger brother is going to fight Desi Who is KSI's brother? So it's going to be brother versus brother. It's going to be on the internet I think they're charging like ten dollars to watch this fight I can't wait to see who wins this fight, but my prediction is in this video that Logan Paul has a background in wrestling my prediction is that Logan Paul is going to win. Okay, Logan Paul is going to win. He's got a background in wrestling He's much bigger than KSI.  I think he's gonna win this fight. I think he's gonna knock him out My prediction is that Logan Paul beats KSI. What do you guys think? Who do you think is gonna win? My prediction is that Logan Paul beats KSI They're predicting that 100 million people will be watching this fight. That's right. They're predicting that 100 million people Could watch this fight which could be the biggest Fight in the history of the internet. It could break the internet now let's just do the math if they charge ten dollars for this fight and 100 million people watch that means that they're going to make one Billion dollars for this fight and they're two youtubers That's mind-boggling. Okay, so please guys comment on this video if you like this video Smash the like button share this video. Let me know who you think's gonna win this fight I'll do another video where I'll do a prediction between Jake Paul and Desi and the crazy part is KSI just dropped a diss track which is the best diss track video I've ever seen it legitimately looks like a rap video. So KSI man respect on your on your diss track Logan Paul. I'm waiting for his diss track. I think it's coming out to you and Jake Paul Yo, what's going on over there, man? And Jake Paul is just dropped his diss track on Desi and It's it's lit. It's lit. I still think KSI's disc diss track video is Way better, but I think that Jake Paul's diss video is pretty cool, too. So my prediction is that Jake Paul Wins he knocks out KSI. What do you guys think? Let's see what you're just saying Youtubers out for a fight.  I respect for you KSI. I think I think I love your video I think you got a great future But I just think that Logan Paul is too big. He is a last time I looked he was like a state Championship wrestler. So he's got a wrestling background. I think that he's going to be training very seriously for this fight He looks like he's in great shape and my prediction is that Logan Paul wins by KO or TKO.  Logan Paul takes of KSI I'll vote. Peace


I'm a Christian youth in politics. CYP organized an international peace conference titled Into Faith, Peaceful Coexistence in Nigeria. The conference aims to promote peaceful coexistence among Christians, Muslims, traditionalists, and politicians from various political parties. Ambassador Ulufa Mirjadi, Ogunto Ibo, calls for good governance at all levels to foster peaceful coexistence among religions and ethnic tribes. The conference emphasised the importance of maintaining peace despite Nigeria's multi-religious and multi-ethnic status as a secular state. You know, we want to be part of peace ambassadors to make sure that we live in peace, in respect of over a corner of religion in this country. Especially this era of Muslim, you know, where we're having Muslim CKs and all that. We can't continue having kills among ourselves as a citizen. Please don't divide us. We are our family. We are from the same source, from the same Abraham. And I believe that, Islamic believe in Abrahamic, the Christian believe in Abrahamic, and all of us believe in Tazari, because we all started for Tazari in East. So please don't divide us because you're looking for food. Because everybody should know that politics is all about game of numbers. And in church, you can see people. In mosque, you can see people. In Tazari, you can see people. That's why politicians play on the intelligence of the masses and get their food from them. So please don't divide us. We are one. To also enjoy peace through my citizens, in our month, the government will be ready to provide good governance and all the other way. It must provide unity and fairness in the anniversaries of the masses. The government must pursue even the governments of human society.


A very good evening aspirants, welcome to the hindi news analysis brought to you by Shankara Ace Academy for the date 27th of January 2022. These are the articles I have taken today for discussion, today we will be discussing about anti-tumping duty, countervailing duty, we will be seeing about nematode infestation, spot built pelicans, we will be discussing in detail about the food processing sector, etc. So now let us get to the first discussion for today. So for today, our first discussion is going to be based on this business page article. It talks about dumping of a particular product by companies from China, Taiwan and Vietnam. Now the product in question here is vinyl tiles which is being imported from these countries. So in this discussion, let us first understand vinyl tiles and what is the issue about it and we will be focusing more on what do we mean by dumping and anti-tumping duty. So before getting to the discussion, the syllabus relevant is highlighted here as per this can take note of it. Now first let us understand about vinyl tiles. See these are made from polyvinyl chloride or PVC which is a synthetic polymer. Now these vinyl tiles have some advantages over our traditional ceramic tiles. For example, they are low cost, they are durable, they are easy to maintain and they have high resistance to abrasion and impact damage. Particularly if these tiles are properly installed, they can be removed and replaced with ease. So this is the vinyl tile which we are talking about. Now don't confuse it with the mica sheets. Now what is the issue regarding these vinyl tiles? See a private company has filed a petition with the directorate general of trade remedies which is under the ministry of commerce. In this petition, the company has asked the directorate to impose anti-dumping duties on the import of vinyl tiles from China, Taiwan and Vietnam. Here the company is arguing that the dumping of vinyl tiles that is the low cost of vinyl tiles from these countries is affecting the domestic industries. Now to understand the allegation made by this company, we need to first know what do we mean by dumping and what is anti-dumping duty. So first, dumping. See dumping occurs when a foreign country exports a good to another country. But the price of this good is much lower than its market value. Now when this happens it is called as dumping. Dumping is usually done with the intention of obtaining a competitive advantage in the importing market. So in our case which we are discussing today, China and other countries are flooding the Indian market with cheap vinyl tiles to have an advantage over the domestic manufacturers. So you can understand that this dumping is an unfair trade practice which can have a destructive effect on international trade. So simply dumping is identified by comparing prices in two markets. For example, assume that there is a product X. It is imported by India from a company of a country A. Now if the price of the product X sold by the company in India is 100 rupees. But at the same time, the product's price in the country A itself, that is in its own country is 110, then this will be called as dumping. Why? Because it is selling to India at a much lower price than its own market value. And that is why we say it is a unfair trade practice. Now one of the tools used by the importing country to counter dumping is imposing of anti-dumping duty. So you can understand that the purpose of anti-dumping duty is to rectify the trade destructive effect of dumping and also to re-establish a fair trade. But you should remember that the anti-dumping duty is a tool for ensuring fair trade and it is not a measure for the protection of domestic industry. So it is mainly aimed at ensuring fair trade. So what about WTO? Does it allow imposing of anti-dumping duty? Yes, it allows it as an instrument of fair competition. So what you should remember here is, dumping does not involve import of cheap goods, but actually it involves import of goods at a price below its normal price. Therefore, the anti-dumping duty cannot be used against cheap imported goods and obviously it cannot be also imposed against the import of cheap goods that are bought through illegal trade channels like smuggling. Now who levies this duty? It is levied and collected by the customs authorities. Now these customs authorities also deal with the customs duty. So don't confuse anti-dumping duty with the customs duty. As you saw, anti-dumping duty serves the purpose of providing a remedy to the domestic industry because when they impose the duty, it acts as a remedy to the domestic industry. But on the other hand, custom duties are there as a means of raising revenue and for overall development of the economy. So the difference between anti-dumping duty and customs duty is that anti-dumping duties are levied against a specific country or a specific exporter whereas the customs duties are general and they are universally applicable to all importers irrespective of the country of origin and irrespective of the exporter. So here you should also remember that imposing of anti-dumping measures will not restrict imports from any country in any way. So therefore it will not hinder the customer's access to any imported goods. So this is the basic about anti-dumping duty. Now let us see how it is applied in India. So to know that, first we need to know the legal framework based on which it is imposed in our country. Now these legal frameworks cover the anti-dumping duty. That is article 6 of GATT 1994. Then the WTO agreement on anti-dumping. Then we also have the sections 9A and 9B of Indian Customs Tariff Act. And then we have the Indian Customs Tariff Rules of 1995. All these deal with anti-dumping duty. Now let us come to the procedure for application of anti-dumping duty in our country. See the direct trade which has the responsibility of investigating and recommending various WTO compliant trade remedial measures is the Indian Directorate General of Trade Remedies. They already said it comes under the Ministry of Commerce and Industries. Now this direct trade deals with the trade remedial measures such as anti-dumping, countervailing, safeguard and quantitative restrictions. So that means any aggrieved party that is the domestic industry that is affected by dumping can approach the Director General of Trade Remedies for initiating an investigation against dumping. This is the general norm that is the authority initiates the investigations for trade remedies action on the basis of an application received from the domestic industry. So this is one case. But apart from this the authority in some cases can also initiate SUOMOTO action. See the SUOMOTO initiation of trade remedies investigation is done on the basis of information received from the Commissioner of Customs who is appointed under the Customs Act or even based on the information received from any other source. So if they receive any information then the authority can initiate SUOMOTO action. Now in such circumstances the authority initiates the trade remedy investigation on its own without any complaint or application filed in this regard. Now here you should note that the Directorate after investigation it provides the provisional measures that need to be taken. So it only provides the provisional measures. So then who acts upon such provisional measures? It is the Ministry of Finance which acts upon the recommendation by the Directorate. And finally it is the Ministry of Finance which imposes or levies the duty applicable. So if anti-dumping duty is imposed on any company or any country the agreed parties can appeal against it. In the Customs, Excise and Service Tax appellate tribunal they can appeal within 90 days of imposition of the duty. Now if they are not satisfied with the orders of this appellate tribunal then they can also go to High Court or Supreme Court of India. So is this anti-dumping duty imposed for an infinite period of time? It is not. See in general the anti-dumping duty shall remain in force for a period of not more than 5 years. But it can be less than 5 years also. Now another fact that need to be remembered regarding anti-dumping duty is that it would not apply to goods imported by a 100% export oriented units and the units in the free trade zones and special economic zones. So these are the basic details that you need to know about anti-dumping duty why it is used, its legal framework in India and the procedure followed in India for imposition of an anti-dumping duty. Now when we talk about anti-dumping duty immediately we also get confused with the countervailing duty. So let us see what is a countervailing duty. Now we know that some countries provide subsidies to their exports to boost the exports. These are called as export subsidies. Now under the WTO agreement export subsidies are treated as unfair trade practice. So to counter such subsidies the importing country can levy anti-subsidy countervailing duty. This is what is called as the countervailing duty in general. See for example export subsidies is given by a Chinese government to a particular product. Then this will make that Chinese product low priced in the Indian market. So this will be an advantage for that Chinese company which is selling that product but it will be a disadvantage for the competing Indian products. Now to overcome this situation only the government of India can impose a countervailing duty on Chinese imports. So we can understand that countervailing duty is basically based on the subsidy provided by the exporting country. So that is why we need to see what constitutes a subsidy under the anti-subsidy countervailing duty. See if there is a financial contribution by the government or a financial contribution by a public body with the exporting nation then this will attract countervailing duty. And then when there is direct transfer of funds then also countervailing duty can be imposed. And finally if the government of the exporting nation maintains any form of income or price support which operates directly or indirectly to increase export of any article from its territory then this will also attract countervailing duty. But you should remember that subsidies that are provided to create general infrastructure then subsidies for research activities and the subsidies which are for assistance to disadvantaged regions with the territory of the exporting country will not attract countervailing duty. So in our country who administers countervailing duty see it is the designated authority for the anti-tumping which administers anti-subsidy countervailing measures also. So that means it is administered by the director general of trade remedies. So as we saw in the case of anti-tumping duty this direct trade under the department of commerce which comes under the ministry of commerce and industry recommends the duty. But it is finally imposed by the finance ministry only. Now there is actually a limitation on the countervailing duty that is imposed. According to the rules the countervailing duty should not exceed the amount of the subsidy that is provided by the exporting country. Now these are the legal framework under which countervailing duty is imposed in our country you can just go through it. So this was about the countervailing duty. Now to just understand let me tell the main difference between anti-tumping duty and countervailing duty. See anti-tumping duty is applied when the price of the imported good is low compared to the normal price of the good. But on the other hand countervailing duty is applied when the exporting country is providing some subsidies to promote export. Now let us take an example to understand the difference between anti-tumping duty and countervailing duty clearly. Assume that there is a company A this company situated in China. Now it is exporting to India. Let us assume that the product which is being exported is oranges. Now to India this company is exporting oranges at rupees 100 per kg. This is the scenario that is going on. Now the scenario will attract anti-tumping duty when these same oranges are sold at rupees 110 in China. But at the same time it is being exported to India at rupees 100 per kg. So here the price of oranges is lower compared to the normal price of the orange in that country that is the exporting country. So in this scenario India will impose anti-tumping duty on the company A. Now here the company is able to provide oranges at lesser cost to India maybe because of a bountiful harvest or maybe because to attract a market. Now in case of attracting a market if it is providing at this price this price is being balanced by the price at which it is sold in China. So in these scenarios India will impose anti-tumping duty on company A. Now when this lower price of orange results due to a subsidy provided by Chinese government for promoting exports then this is where countervailing duty will come into play. Let us assume that China is providing an overall export subsidy of rupees 10. Now because of this export subsidy company is able to provide the oranges which is at 110 rupees per kg to rupees 100 per kg. Then at this scenario this will attract countervailing duty. Now only to understand have taken the prices in rupees generally it will be in dollars. So this is the main difference between anti-tumping duty and countervailing duty. I hope you would have understand the difference. Now before concluding our discussion we need to see some points about the trade defence wing. See so far we saw that India will be imposing countervailing duties and anti-tumping duties against exporters from foreign countries. So similarly foreign countries will also impose the same duties against Indian exporters. Therefore as per the direction of commerce secretary the trade defence wings have been created in the direct general of trade remedies. Now these trade defence wings act as a nodal point for defending Indian exporters from the investigations regarding countervailing duty and anti-tumping duty which are initiated by other WTO member countries. So that is all. In this discussion we saw about the vinyl tiles issue then we saw what do we mean by dumping then we saw anti-tumping duty and the legal framework under which it is imposed and then we also saw the procedure followed in India then we compared it with the countervailing duty and we saw the main difference between anti-tumping duty and countervailing duty and finally we saw about trade defence wing. Now let us move to the next discussion. So our second article discussion for today is going to be based on this news article. It talks about a nematode infestation which has led to the mass mortality of spot-built pelicans. This mass mortality has happened at the important bird area in Napaada swamp of Andhra Pradesh and according to the article over 150 spot-built pelicans have died due to this infestation since December 2021. Particularly in the past 72 hours 21 birds have died. So that is why today we are going to see about this nematode infestation and also a few facts about spot-built pelicans. First let us start with nematode infestation. Now to understand that we need to understand about parasitism. See parasitism is a form of symbiosis. Here one organism benefits at the expense of another organism and this another organism is usually a different species. Now the one which is getting the benefit is called as the parasite and the another organism is called as the host. So here the parasite benefits from the host organism. Now such parasites may be grouped into endoparasites and ectoparasites. Now they will be called ectoparasites when they live outside the host. On the other hand when these parasites live inside the host they are called as endoparasites. Now there are two forms of endoparasites. One is the intercellular parasite and the other one is intracellular parasite. Now our focus is on intercellular parasite. These are the ones that inhabit the spaces of the body of the host. For example they inhabit in the gastrointestinal tract, eyes, air sacs, etc. Now some of the examples of such intercellular parasites are nematodes, tapeworms and even other helmets. You would have heard about tapeworms in humans. They normally inhabit in the gastrointestinal tract. But our focus today is on the nematode. Now various species of nematodes are there. They can infect various tissues and organs inside the bird's body. For example it can infect the gastrointestinal tract, eyes, the body cavity and the air sacs of the bird's body. And since the spot-built pelicans which I mentioned in the news have infested with this, this must have caused the death of those pelicans. And according to the news article, this parasite is suspect to have transferred through fission snails. These were the fission snails that were found in the aqua ponds where the birds usually prey. So in this manner, let us also see a few facts about spot-built pelicans from Prince Point of View. Its scientific name is Pelicanus filipensis. And note that this species can only be found in Southeast Asia. Now this species lives in lowland freshwater, brackish water and even in marine wetland areas of Southeast Asia. And it is also found mainly near open water. Now these spot-built pelican species live in trees that are near water bodies such as ponds, village tanks, lakes, streams and rivers. And they hunt for food in both freshwater environments and marine environments. Now this species of spot-built pelican was historically sighted in the Southeast Asia region, that is in Java, Pakistan, Nepal, Turkey, Laos, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. But as of now, it is said that its breeding is confined to Sri Lanka and some parts of Southeast India and also Cambodia. And note that the breeding season of these pelican species varies between October to May. Particularly in South India, it coincides with the Northeast one soon. Now the global population of this species is quite low. It is believed to be only 13,000 to 18,000 individual birds. And there had been rapid decline of population in the last three generations. So in this manner, we need to know the threats faced by the species. First one is obviously the habitat loss. And second threat is fishing activity in the feeding grounds. And third, poaching of chicks and eggs of the species is also reason for rapid decline in its population. Then agricultural pollutants are also reason along with silting up of water bodies. So these are the threats faced by the spot-built pelicans. Now because of these threats, it has been provided one of the highest protections under the IUCN Red List and the Wildlife Protection Act of India. For example, note that this is one of the seven species of pelicans in the world and it is one of the most threatened. And that is why it is listed as near threatened in the IUCN Red List. And in India, it is protected under schedule four of Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. So these are the few facts that you need to know about spot-built pelicans from exam point of view. And we also saw about nematode infestation. So with these facts in mind, now let us move to the next discussion. Now our next discussion is going to be based on this news article. It talks about the criteria for the nomination of independent external monitors in government bodies. This criteria has been modified by the Central Vigilance Commission now. See these independent external monitors play an important role in the integrity pact. So today we'll know what is this integrity pact and then we'll understand about independent external monitors and the changes made by the Central Vigilance Commission. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. See basically the integrity pact. It is a vigilance tool, that is it is an agreement between the vendors or bidders and the buyers. These are the vendors and buyers in a public procurement. So you know that when there is a public procurement, tender is floated and then we have bidders on one side and the buyers on the other side. So it includes the government organizations, public sector enterprises, public sector banks, insurance companies, other financial institutions and even autonomous bodies, et cetera. These could be the bidders or even the buyers. Now what this pact does is it commits the persons or the officials of both the sides, that is from the bidders side and the buyers side, to not resort to any corrupt practices in any stage of the contract. That is it makes them to make an commitment to not involve in any corrupt practices. So in this way the pact aims to ensure transparency, equity and competitiveness in public procurement. So these are some of the ingredients of the pact. You can just go through it. Now what about the independent external monitors? See these are the ones who independently and objectively review the documents which are related to this integrity pact. That is the independent external monitors determine if the parties have complied with their obligations under the pact or not. Then after reviewing the documents, the IEMs, that is independent external monitors, submit a report to the chief executive of the organization concert or they will also submit a report to the central vigilance officer directly or to the central vigilance commission. See you should know that each department or organization that is covered under the normal advisory jurisdiction of central vigilance commission has a vigilance department. Now this department is headed by a senior level officer who is designated as the chief vigilance officer. Such an officer is appointed with the concurrence of the central vigilance commission and the officer is a liaison between the organization where he is a central vigilance officer and the central vigilance commission. So this report could also be directly submitted to the central vigilance officer. Now these independent external monitors also report if they find serious irregularities which attract the provisions of prevention of corruption act. So for ensuring that the integrity pact is executed properly, independent external monitors are important. And now the news is that the central vigilance commission has modified the criteria for the nomination of officers as independent external monitors. So let us see what is the revised eligibility criteria now. See basically eminent persons are nominated as IEMs. Now according to the existing rules, which was issued in June 2021, officials at the rank of secretary to the government of India, then chief secretaries to the states or even the officials at equivalent pay scale to the secretary or chief secretaries at the time of retirement are eligible to be considered for the role of IEMs. So we can see that the officers at the higher level of government were made eligible to be appointed as independent external monitors. But now the officers at the level of additional secretary are also made eligible by the central vigilance commission. That is the officer who has held the post of additional secretary to the government of India or an officer who had an equivalent or higher pay scale to that of additional secretary to the government of India at the time of retirement is eligible to be nominated as independent external monitor. Now along with the additional secretary to the government of India, the additional secretaries of any state governments are also made eligible now. So now the post has been extended to the additional secretary level. Now secondly, the chief executive officer of an organization who are equivalent or higher to the additional secretary to the government of India at the time of retirement, they are also made eligible. So earlier the chief executive officer was mandated to be equivalent to the level of secretary only. But now it has been extended to the level of additional secretary. Now the third criteria is with regard to the retired officers of armed forces. Now after the revised rules, the officers equivalent to the additional secretaries or higher ranks in the government of India are eligible to become IEMs. But earlier this was allowed only for the officers in the apex pay scale. Now along with expanding the eligibility criteria, Central Regulance Commission has also removed certain level of officers from the list of eligibility criteria. For example, it has removed the officers who were in the apex pay scale at the time of retirement in the central government, state government or forest service to be IEMs. And then the retired director generals of Polars have also been removed from the list of permanent persons who could be considered for the impairment as IEMs. Now apart from these eligibility criteria modifications, another important criteria has been added in this regard. It is regarding the proposal for nomination of IEMs. As per the new criteria, the proposal should be preferably sent three months prior to the completion of tenure of the existing IEM. If it is not sent prior to three months, then the commission would nominate IEMs on its own. So earlier this provision of three months was not present. So these are the important changes made regarding the eligibility criteria to be nominated as IEMs. Now certain criteria have also remained unchanged in the new rules. For example, persons who have held the post of chairman come managing director of a Schedule A public sector enterprise and who were equivalent or higher to additional secretary to the government of India at the time of retirement, they were already eligible and now their eligibility has not been changed. Similarly, the persons who have held the post of chairman come managing director or the managing director and the CEO of a public sector bank, insurance companies and other financial institutions at the time of retirement were also eligible previously. This provision has been kept unchanged. Now another criteria has been kept unchanged which is the criteria that says that a person may be appointed as an IEM in a maximum of three organizations at a time. So these are some of the provisions that have been kept unchanged in the revised rules. So in this discussion, we saw about the integrity pack then we saw about the independent external monitors and the eligibility criteria to be nominated as IEMs and some of the modifications made by the central vigilance commissions in the rules that talk about the nominations for the role of IEMs. So now with these points in mind, now let us get to the next discussion. Now our next discussion is going to be based on this editorial article. This article talks about the food security and the need for it because the population is growing. Here author sites that the challenge in maintaining food security is multi-dimensional because now the challenge is to feed a 10 billion population by mid-century. So it demands not just food security but it also demands efficient ways of production and such ways should be both economically viable and they should be ecologically sustainable as well. And this is where technology becomes relevant. See nowadays technologies are emerging that revamp the traditional approach with a lower environmental footprint. So in this context, author focuses on the food processing technology and the food processing sector in India. So today let us discuss about the food processing sector in our country, the issues faced by it and the measures taken by the government to overcome it. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. Now as per the note that this particular topic of food processing sector is very important because it is an evergreen topic in Mainz GS paper three. For example, if we take this question which was asked in Mainz 2020, you can see it talks about the challenges and opportunities of food processing sector in our country. So that is why this discussion today is important from Mainz perspective. Now first of all, let us understand how relevant is food processing sector. So it is indispensable for the overall development of an economy because it provides a vital linkage and synergy between the agriculture and industry. Along with it, it also helps to diversify and commercialize the farming. Then it also helps to enhance the income of farmers. It creates markets for export of agro foods. Along with it, it also generates greater employment opportunities. Plus with the presence of such industries, a wider range of food products could be sold and they could be distributed to the distant locations. Why? Because we know that agricultural products are perishable goods and it needs processing to increase its shelf life. So what do we mean when we say food processing? See the term food processing is mainly defined as a process of value addition to the agricultural produce or horticultural produce by various methods. These methods include grading, sorting and packaging. Simply food processing is a technique of manufacturing and preserving food substances in an effective manner and here the main aim is to enhance the shelf life of such products. So in turn, this results in the improvement of the quality of the food as well as it makes it functionally more useful. So this food processing sector covers spectrum of products from sub-sectors in the agriculture, horticulture, plantation, animal husbandry and fisheries. As you can see here, these are the products covered in the sector. So what is the status of the sector in our country? You should note that in India, the food processing industry is called as sunrace industry. Why? Because the food ecosystem offers huge opportunities for investment. This is possible due to the stimulating growth in the food retail sector, due to favorable economic policies and attractive fiscal incentives. And most importantly, through the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, the Government of India is taking all necessary steps to boost investments in this industry in India. As a part of this, if you remember, Government of India has sanctioned 41 food parks which are funded under the mega food parks scheme and out of these, 4138 have received final approval. This is a major boost to the sector because in 2014, there were only 2 mega food parks in the country. But as of 1st August 2021, there were 22 mega food parks functioning in the country. So now through the mega food parks scheme, Government is aiming to take this number 2 more than 40. Plus, you should also note that India records close to 15% rise in the export of agricultural products and processed food products. And therefore by 2025, India's food processing industry is expected to be worth over half a trillion dollars. And by 2030, Indian annual household consumption will increase three times, which will make India the 5th largest consumer. So in this regard, as one of the measures for boosting the sector, 100% FDI is permitted under the automatic route in the food processing industries in India. Along with this, 100% FDI is also allowed through the Government approval route for trading, which includes e-commerce also in respect of food products manufactured or produced in India. Now the FDI and measures of Government of India are important for increasing the public infrastructure. Now this in turn will increase food manufacturing output. Now this relation was found by a study in United States. The study concluded that a 1% increase in public infrastructure has actually increased the food manufacturing output by 0.06% in the longer run. And this is particularly relevant in the Indian scenario because of our population and our need for food production. So in this regard, author notes that already many states in our country are doing good in food production and food processing industry. These states include Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. So remember these are the states that were ranked among the highest in the public infrastructure and utilities parameter in the good governance index of 2020 to 21. And the parameter of connectivity to rural habitations also showed highest improvement. So these conditions make these states attractive for investments. That is why higher investments are being concentrated in these states, particularly in the food sector. So this is the status of food sector and food processing sector in our country. Now this food processing sector is important due to the significant benefits that it offers for its different stakeholders. For example, for farmers it provides higher yield better farm realization and lower risks. Now as a consumer, we'll have the benefit of greater variety products, low priced products and new products. Then for companies, new business opportunities is a benefit. It also provides demand growth for those companies. And then overall for the economy or for the government, it provides employment generation and it also reduces rural migration. So these are the benefits offered by the food processing sector towards various stakeholders. But the problem is this sector is plagued with certain issues. Particularly there are gaps in supply chain infrastructure. This is mainly due to the inadequate primary processing. And there is also lack of adequate storage and distribution facilities. Then we also have insufficient connection between production and processing. Apart from all these, one of the major issues is seasonality of operations and low capacity utilizations. There is also institutional gaps in the supply chain. For example, there is dependence on the APMC markets. That is the markets run by agricultural produce market committees. Then there is also lack of focus on quality and safety standards. Then obviously we also lack in product development and innovation. So these are the issues that are plaguing the food processing industry. So in this regard, we need to know what has been done by the government so far and what has to be done to overcome these challenges. First, let us see what has to be done, particularly in this pandemic scenario. See, the pandemic has accelerated the demand for products from the ready-to-eat market. This ready-to-eat market saw a rise of approximately 170% in sales volume between March to June 2020 itself. Along with this, the pandemic has also increased the consumer's awareness about functional foods. See, functional foods are the foods that have a potentially positive effect on the health beyond basic nutrition. So now consumers are focusing on functional foods also. So according to the author, more health-oriented startups and micro-food processing units should be established for satisfying the consumer demand. Now with respect to the problem of working capital issue, see this problem has been addressed by the Trade Receivables Discounting System. This is a platform for facilitating the financing or discounting of trade receivables of MSMEs through multiple financiers. And then for the exports market, it is now established that sales promotion is positively related to increased sales volume, but it is inversely related to profitability. In simple words, it means that sales is increasing, but it is not converting into profits. So to bridge this gap, now the government has included the food processing as a sector under its production-linked incentive scheme. See, as you know, this PLIS includes 13 key sectors and the scheme is aimed at ensuring that India's share of value-added products in the exports basket is improved. And this will also ensure that our exports reach the untapped markets of Europe, Middle East, West Asia, Africa, Oceania, and Japan. Now the food processing production-linked incentive scheme supports branding and marketing activities in foreign markets. So Indian brands will be promoted in the foreign markets. This will in turn enhance the investments in the Indian brands. So these are some of the measures already taken by the government and the measures that need to be taken. See, the conclusion is that with the growing populations, we have changing food habits and there is unrestricted use of natural resources. So in this scenario, nations must come together and lay out a roadmap for common efficient food value chain. And as we know, in today's world, new alternatives are also being explored for replacing these staples like rice and wheat. There are new alternatives in the form of nutrients, plant-based proteins, fermented foods, health bars, and we also have fresh fortified foods for pets. So the food sector is evolving along with the food habits. And that is why more focus should be given to the food processing sector also. And this PLIS scheme will act as an enabling ecosystem in this regard. So these are some of the points that you need to know about the food processing sector in our country and the issues faced by it. Now let us move on to the next discussion. Now the next article which is taken is this one. It is from the text and context page. It talks about the racial profiling of the Chakmas and Hajongs. It discusses about these communities and how they arrived in natural predation and why racial profiling is a problem, et cetera, et cetera. If you remember, we have discussed all these aspects in our December 12th, 2021 Hindi News Analysis. So if you want to know about Chakmas and Hajongs, you can view this analysis. So now with this, we have come to the end of news articles discussion session. Now we are moving to the next session of Practice Questions discussion. Let us take up this first practice question. Which of the following statements about Integrity Pact is incorrect? Statement A, it is a tool developed by Transparency International as a method for preventing corruption in public contracting. See this statement is correct. Integrity Pact is a tool developed by Transparency International way back in 1990s. It was developed as a method for preventing corruption in public contracting. Now this is essentially a document signed between a contracting authority, bidders and an independent monitor. So statement A is correct. Now let us come to statement B. Independent external monitors review the documents relating to the Integrity Pact. This statement is correct. We saw this during discussion also. Now coming to the statement three. A person may be appointed as an independent external monitor in a maximum of two organizations at a time. This statement is incorrect because they can be appointed as an IEM in a maximum of three organizations at a time. Now here be careful while marking the correct answer because the correct answer is option C and not option D because the question asks for the incorrect statements. So you have to choose the incorrect statement which is option C. Now let us take this next question. It is based on Central Vigilance Commission. The question asks, consider the following statements with reference to the Central Vigilance Commission. Statement one, CVC is a constitutional body. This statement is incorrect. C, CVC is a apex vigilance institution created through a executive resolution. This resolution was passed based on the recommendations of Santaram committee. So this resolution was passed and CVC was created in 1964. But note that CVC was given a statutory status through the CVC Act in 2003. So that means CVC as of now is a statutory body and not a constitutional body. Now statement two, CVC is the apex vigilance institution which is free of control from any executive authority. This statement is actually correct. CVC is conceived to be the apex vigilance institution free of control from any executive authority because it monitors all vigilance activity under the central government and it advises various authorities in central government organizations. This advice is regarding the planning, executing, reviewing and reforming the vigilant work of central government organizations. Now the third statement, the commission consists of chairperson and not more than four members. This statement is incorrect because the commission consists of a chairperson who is called as the central vigilance commissioner and it has not more than two members who are called as vigilance commissioners. So statement three is actually incorrect. Now here the question asks for the correct statements. So the correct answer is option B, two only. Now let us take up this third question. It is based on spot-built Pelicans discussion. The question asks, consider the following statements regarding spot-built Pelicans. First statement, they are endemic to India and are found in Andhra Pradesh between Krishna and Godavari deltas. This statement is incorrect because they are not endemic to India. We saw during discussion that they are now found in Sri Lanka and some parts of Southeast India and Cambodia. Now statement two, they are protected under schedule one of the Violief Protection Act of 1972. This statement is also incorrect because they are protected under schedule four and here the question asks for the correct statements. Since both the statements are incorrect, the correct answer to this question is option D, neither one nor two. So with these three problems practice questions, let us take up two main practice questions. Interested aspirants can write answers to these questions and pose the answer in the comment section. Whenever we get time, we'll review answer. So with this, we have come to the end of today's in the news analysis session. If you like this video, don't forget to like, comment and share and subscribe to Shankar Ice Academy YouTube channel for receiving timely updates regarding civil services preparation. Thank you.