Good evening aspirants, welcome to the hindu news analysis by Shankary's academy for the date 8th of December 2022. Displayed here are the list of articles we will be going through today. Now without wasting time let's get into the discussion. Look at this news article. This news article mentions that the Tamil Nadu government is going to increase its capital expenditure or CAPEX in 3 years. Currently the capital expenditure of Tamil Nadu is 25,000 crore per year. It will be increased 3 fold to 90,000 or 95,000 crore per year in 3 years time. Well, this seems to be a right move, right? But why? For this we need to understand what is capital expenditure? Capital expenditure forms an important part of the budget. Basically, the budget has two components, which is receipts and expenditure. Here receipts show the amount of money government has received or generated. On the other hand, the expenditure part shows how the generated money will be spent for the growth of the economy. Our focus today is on the expenditure only, that is public expenditure. It can be classified into two types. One is the revenue expenditure and the other is the capital expenditure. The revenue expenditure is the expenditure incurred by the government to meet its day-to-day needs. It also includes the expenditure made by the government to meet its regular needs. Such expenditure will not earn any revenue for the government in the future. So, revenue expenditure are basically termed as one way payments. Also expenditure incurred for the purpose of creation of physical or financial assets does not fall under the category of revenue expenditure. Now, we will see some of the expenditure that falls under the ambit of revenue expenditure. First is payment of interest by the government. Second is expenditure toward law and order maintenance. Third is subsidies. Fourth is grant given by the central government to the state government. Keep this pension and salary payments and the last one is grant extended by the central government to the foreign government. So, these are all the expenditure that falls under the revenue expenditure because these expenditure are one way payment that does not earn revenue for the government in the future. Now, moving on to capital expenditure. Capital expenditure includes those spending by the government which creates permanent assets. It includes both physical assets and financial assets. Capital expenditure also includes spending for the reduction in financial liabilities. So, basically all expenditure made by the government that results in increasing asset of the government or reducing the liability of the government will come under capital expenditure. Now, let us see what are all the expenditure that falls under this category. First is the investment like the investment in machinery, shares or infrastructure like roads, railways, ports, building etc. falls under capital expenditure. Second is loans. That is, loans extended by the central government to the state government or the loans extended by the state government to the local government falls under the capital expenditure category. But why? Because unlike grants, the loans extended by the government earns revenue for them through interest. So, they are classified under capital expenditure. The last one is repayment of public debt. For example, if the government seeks to repay its loan, it results in reduction in liability of the government. So, it also falls under the category of capital expenditure. Here you should note that high capital expenditure aids in economic growth because high capital expenditure means more investment by the government towards the creation of infrastructure and other assets that are crucial for the rapid economic growth. This is why the Tamil Nadu government's decision to increase its capital expenditure is seen as a positive move that will bring economic growth for the Tamil Nadu economy. So that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw the difference between revenue expenditure and capital expenditure. With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this text and context article. The text and context article is talking about a new matter which is making rounds in the news. This is about the conjugal visits for prisoners. It is making headlines as recently, Punjab became the first state in India to allow prisoners conjugal visits. Don't you want to know what it is? So let us have a comprehensive discussion on this topic where we will be seeing its need. Does India allow such visits or not etc. So before getting into the discussion, I have highlighted here the syllabus regarding this discussion. You can go through it. Now, let us start by knowing the meaning of the term conjugal conjugal means relating to marriage or relationship between a married couple. You have also often heard the terminology conjugal rights. It refers to the rights and privileges in a marriage or the rights and privileges among a married couple. So, it includes intimate rights of marriage including mutual relationship of comfort, companionship, affection and even sexual relations. Then what is conjugal visits for prisoners? You know who is a prisoner right? Any person who is confined in prison under the order of a competent authority is called a prisoner. But does this confinement mean they have no rights? Actually no. As per model prison manual 2016, it is the duty of the prison administration to ensure that prisoners' human rights are respected. Not only that, prison administration also endeavour to prepare prisoners to lead a reformed and socially rehabilitated life. In this, you have got the clarity that prison is not only meant to fulfil the punishment of incarceration but also to reform and rehabilitate the individual. On these same lines, they also have some rights. The All India Committee on Jail Reforms of 1980-83 has identified these rights. The committee is also called the Mullah Committee. Let us see the rights relevant to this discussion. Under the right to human dignity, prisoners have the right to non-deprivation of fundamental rights as guaranteed by the Constitution. This will not apply to any law relating to confinement. Also, they have the right to communication. Under this, they have the right to communicate with the outside world and have the right to periodic interviews. Under this only, every person is given the right to see or communicate with their family members, relatives, friends and legal advisers. They are also allowed to have interviews with them once in a fortnight. But we have to remember one fact here.  Then how this is satisfied within the confinement of a prison? This comes under the conjugal right, am I right? This also brings us to the question of does prisoners have conjugal rights? We have to say yes, because many of them will be married. But to enjoy such right, there should be conjugal visits, that is, the visits which will allow the prisoner to spend some time with their spouse in privacy. But the condition is such a visit has to happen in the present of prison, that is, within the confinement of the prison. Now let us see why there is a need for such a visit. Firstly, the conjugal visits in jail are said to fall under the fundamental right of the prisoners and their spouses, even though many differ in this view. Secondly, being convicted and imprisoned as a punishment for a crime does not remove the ties of marriage bond. The convicted person and their spouse still remain married unless they get a divorce. So they enjoy conjugal rights like normal couple, but maybe with some conditions. The third important reason is, prisons enable aggressive sexual behavior.  So this scenario needed a solution for which conjugal visits are suggested as one of the measures. This suggestion is based on sexual gratification theory. The theory postulates that conjugal visitation provides inmates with the means of sexual release and therefore it should reduce sexual offence in prisons. See even some research compliment the theory as their results show that permitting conjugal visits have significantly lowered the sexual offenses within prisons. Also, such visits help the prisoners to keep their stress level in control, thereby ensuring their smooth re-entry into the society. So all these factors demand the need for conjugal visits. Now you will wonder whether Indian law permits it. Actually, no. As of now there is no provision in the law that allows for conjugal visits. This is a result of lack of political will in this regard, where the government and the authorities are opposing the conjugal visits. They provide some valid reasons for the apportion of conjugal visits. First one is the availability of parole and forelaw provision for prisoners. Both parole and forelaw are temporary release of the prisoner. Parole is guaranteed on the request of the prisoner and can be denied. But forelaw is guaranteed to a prisoner who is in a long-term imprisonment. It is required to be granted immediately to the prisoner and it is considered as her right. So during parole and forelaw, the prisoner spends time with their family. So the argument here is that parole and forelaw help in maintaining family and social ties and the conjugal relations and they will also help in the maintenance of the conjugal relations. So since there is parole and forelaw in Indian provision, there is no separate need for the conjugal visits. The second is there is no facility available in prison as per rules and there is also limited infrastructure to permit conjugal visits. The third one is the government point out that conjugal visit might create security problems like smuggling of contraband goods from outside. So if it happens, whatever positive effects is envisaged under conjugal visits will be neutralized. These are some of the reasons offered by the government for not moving forward with the idea of conjugal visits. But does the judiciary share the same view? Actually no. Judicial verdicts have already provided this right. Let us see some of the important Supreme Court judgments in this regard. First one is the 1980 case law which is nothing but the Sunil Bhattra v. Delhi administration case and it is popularly known as the Sunil Bhattra 2 case. This case liberated the jail inmates from the atrocities inflicted through the mental torture, psychic and physical pressure. It upheld President's right to invoke Article 21 of the Indian Constitution and allowed liberal visits by family and friends. Then in the next year, that is in 1981, another important verdict came in the case law, Francis Corolli Mulin, was the administrator of Union Territory of Delhi. In this, the Supreme Court expanded the expression personal liberty embedded in Article 21. It held that the prisoners have the fundamental rights and other legal rights that is available to a free person. Also, see these two verdicts have kept the prisoners on par with the normal individuals on many matters. This definitely includes the conjugal rights too. Another case which directly dealt with the conjugal rights is the Jasvir Singh v. State of Punjab 2014 case. In this case, the Punjab and the Haryana High Court allowed conjugal visits and artificial insemination for inmates. The court held that right to procreation survives incarceration. This means, even while in incarceration, the prisoners have the right to procreate. It held that such a right falls within the ambit of Article 21. Then in 2018, the Metra High Court allowed conjugal visits, saying that conjugal visits were a right and not a privilege. Here, they allowed a 40-year-old convict to visit home for two weeks for the purpose of procreation. So, this shows the will of the judiciary in providing conjugal visits to prisoners. On these lines only, the Punjab government has become the forerunner in providing conjugal visits in prisons. It allows two-hour visits for inmates to spend time alone with their legal spouse. The Punjab government is working on par with the international law and prisons. See, the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners recognizes conjugal visits. According to Rule 58, conjugal visits as a right shall be applied without discrimination and women prisoners also enjoy the same right. Also, countries such as Russia, Germany, France, Belgium, Spain, Philippines, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Denmark allow conjugal visits. From this, it is clear that one of the countries that is known for its high capital punishment rate, that is, Saudi, is also providing this conjugal visit. So, a democratic country like India, which values human rights, should also consider incorporating conjugal visits in our prison system. But considering the security issues, such right could be made limited like how Punjab has done. Yes, conjugal rights are denied for certain category of convicts in Punjab like high-risk prisoners, gangsters and terrorists. Additionally, those having good conduct and discipline are given preference. So, like this, conditions can be included in the law to provide right of conjugal visit for prisoners. Again, I would like to reiterate that prison is not just for punishment, but for the prisoners to reform and rehabilitate. And a constant touch of a family member will ease the process of the rehabilitation. So, that's all regarding this discussion. With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Have a look at this article. This article talks about Cyclone Mandus. It is over Bayaf Bengal and this cyclone is likely to hit the northern part of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry coast. This is about the news article given here. In this context, in our discussion today, let us see why Bayaf Bengal is more prone to tropical cyclones compared to Arabian Sea. First of all, what are tropical cyclones? Tropical cyclones are a low-pressure system. Here, air from high-pressure area rushes to the low-pressure area. But the thing is that the air won't be able to reach the low-pressure area due to Corialis force and Corialis force is an apparent force that a moving body experience due to the rotation of the earth. No coming back. As the air cannot reach the low-pressure region, it starts spiraling. This is why in the northern hemisphere, the tropical cyclones rotate in the anti-clockwise direction and in the southern hemisphere, the tropical cyclones rotate in the clockwise direction. From what I have just said, what can we infer? We can infer that two things are necessary for the tropical cyclones. One is the presence of low-pressure system and the other is the presence of Corialis force. Here, take the second part, that is Corialis force. As we know that along the equator, the Corialis force is zero, the tropical cyclones do not form near the equator. With this basic idea, let us try to find the answer for this question. The question being, why is Bayaf Bengal more prone to tropical cyclones compared to Arabian Sea? The first reason is that the Bayaf Bengal gets intensely heated up in comparison to Arabian Sea. This gives rise to low-pressure zone and as we have already seen, the low-pressure zone helps in the formation of cyclones. The second reason is the shape of Bayaf Bengal. Look at this map. You can see that Bayaf Bengal is more concave in nature. Due to this, strong winds can help the water pile up. This piling up process aids in the formation of cyclones. The third reason is the geography. The tropical cyclones that form in the Pacific Ocean are called typhoons. Here, if you notice, there is no perfect land boundary between Bayaf Bengal and Pacific Ocean. So, sometimes these typhoons that originate in the Pacific Ocean can travel up to the Bayaf Bengal. This is one of the reasons why Bayaf Bengal is more prone to tropical cyclones. Then the next reason is cyclones that originate in the Bayaf Bengal loses its energy on reaching the Arabian Sea. This is due to the large land mass that is present between Bayaf Bengal and Arabian Sea. So, there is less cyclone in the Arabian Sea side. The next reason is Arabian Sea lacks constant freshwater flow. Whereas, if you take Bayaf Bengal, it gets constant freshwater flow from the rivers like Ganga, Brahmaputra, Mahanadi, Krishna, Godavari, Kaveri, everything. This increases the surface temperature of the sea. Here, you have to know that freshwater is less denser than the sea water. So, the freshwater brought by these rivers stay above the saline sea water. Due to the difference in salinity level, these waters, they don't mix very well. Since the waters are not mixing, the sea surface temperature is not easily dissipated. So, compared to the Arabian Sea, the sea surface temperature in Bayaf Bengal is comparatively high. And we know that the higher temperature aids in the formation of low pressure region and low pressure region in turn aids in the formation of cyclone. This is one of the reasons why Bayaf Bengal is more prone to tropical cyclones. The last reason is the post monsoon winds. In the post monsoon period, the wind blows in the north-eastern direction. So, the low pressure system that exists in the Bayaf Bengal are pushed towards the Indian land mass. So, the eastern coast of India receives more cyclonic rainfall during the post monsoon period. That is in the November to December period. This is the reason why Cyclone Mandus is likely to hit the northern coast of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. So, this is the reason why there is more number of tropical cyclones in Bayaf Bengal compared to Arabian Sea. I hope this discussion was very useful. With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Now, take a look at this editorial article. It talks about the regional organizations like Sarkand BIMSTECK. The author, through this editorial, advocates that BIMSTECK as an inter-governmental organization must take steps to fill the void left out by Sark in the South Asian region. This is the idea based on which the article is written. In this context, let us learn about both Sark and BIMSTECK. And we will also see the issues affecting Sark and the advantages offered by BIMSTECK. This is the plan for this discussion. Before getting into the discussion, I have highlighted here the syllabus regarding this discussion. You can go through it. First, let us see about the term South Asia. South Asia refers to a region comprising of countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Maldives. Here, keep in mind whenever I use the term South Asia, I refer to the countries that is mentioned here. Now, with this information, let us start our discussion. First, let us take up Sark. Sark stands for South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. Sark as a regional organization came into existence in the year 1985. It was established after the signing of the Sark Charter by the member countries in Dhaka in 1985. Now, coming to the member states. Sark comprises of eight member states. They are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. So, all the South Asian region countries are members of Sark. And the secretariat of the association is located in Kathmandu, Nepal. Now, let us see the objectives of Sark. The objectives of the association are highlighted in the Sark Charter itself. The first one is to promote welfare of the people of South Asia and to improve their quality of life. Second is to accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region and also to provide opportunity to all individuals in the region to live a life with dignity and to realize their full potential. Now, moving on to the next objective. The next objective is to promote and strengthen collective self-reliance among the countries of the South Asia. Finally, Sark also tries to contribute to mutual trust, understanding and appreciation of one another's problem. It also tries to promote active collaboration and mutual assistance in the economic, social, cultural, technical and scientific fields. These are all the objectives of Sark. In Sark, decisions at all level are to be taken on the basis of unanimity. This is what the article also talks about. Pakistan in the past has followed a obstructionist philosophy with regard to Sark. And this has led to the Sark moving into disuse. Further bilateral and contentious issues are excluded from the deliberations of the association. Okay, now coming to the decision-making authority of Sark. Here note that the meetings of the head of the state or government of the member states is the highest decision-making authority in Sark. So these are all about Sark. Here we saw about the member countries, the objectives of Sark, how the decisions are taken in Sark and what is the highest decision-making authority in Sark. Moving on, we will see about the BIMSTEC. First, what is this BIMSTEC? BIMSTEC is nothing but an acronym for the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multisectoral, Technical and Economic Cooperation. BIMSTEC as a regional organization came into existence on 6th June 1997 through the Bangkok Declaration. It comprises of seven member states that are lying in the littoral and adjacent areas of Bay of Bengal and it constitutes a contiguous regional unity. Here littoral means a region lying along a shore. You can see in this map the seven member countries of the BIMSTEC. Of these member countries, five are from the South Asian region. They are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka and two are from the Southeast Asian region. They are Myanmar and Thailand. The objectives of BIMSTEC is given here in the table with a list of countries looking over the objectives. See here, India looks after the security of the region and additionally it also looks after the domains of disaster management and energy. This table has potential problems questions. So kindly make note of the pairs given in the table. So this is about the basic about BIMSTEC. Now let us see the issues present in Sark. The first issue is the trust deficit between India and Pakistan due to strained bilateral relations. Due to this trust deficit, decisions requiring unanimity are not made possible under Sark. The second major issue affecting Sark is the fear of dominance of smaller countries by larger countries in the grouping. This is particularly true in the case of Maldives and Nepal and they are misbelieving that India would use its military and economic power in their internal matters which makes the integration of the countries under Sark very difficult. And finally, Sark meetings have stopped happening from 2014 onwards. Without any meeting, no conclusive decisions involving the member countries could be taken. So these are the major problems associated with Sark. Moving on, let us see the advantages of BIMSTEC. The first thing is that BIMSTEC's charter is better than Sark charter. This is due to the fact that BIMSTEC charter in its article 6 talks about the admission of new members to the group. This provision allows for the expansion of the grouping in the future if the need arises. Secondly, BIMSTEC can act as a link between South and Southeast Asia. This is made possible because of the nature of the BIMSTEC itself. As we saw, BIMSTEC has members from both South and Southeast Asia region. So BIMSTEC can act as a link between South and Southeast Asia. This is the second advantage. The third and the major advantage is that through BIMSTEC, India can ensure trade integration with the countries present in the Southeast Asian region. See, right now, India has no free trade agreement with the countries of the Asian grouping. But through BIMSTEC, India can promote trade with Thailand and Myanmar, which are part of the Asian grouping. So indirectly, India can integrate its trade link with the Asian countries. So these are all the advantages of BIMSTEC. Now finally, let us move on to the important question. Can BIMSTEC replace Sark? Actually, the author of this editorial is of the opinion that BIMSTEC must take steps to replace Sark. He says that by enhancing trade and economic integration among the members of the BIMSTEC, BIMSTEC can actually replace Sark in the future. But according to my opinion, we have to wait and watch. Only in the future, if the need arises, India can completely neglect Sark and integrate with the BIMSTEC countries. So that's all about this discussion. In this discussion, first we started by seeing about Sark. Then we saw some basic points about BIMSTEC. After that, we saw the issues that are associated with Sark. And after that, we saw the advantages associated with BIMSTEC. Finally, we saw can BIMSTEC replace Sark. So that's all regarding this discussion. With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Have a look at this article. The article says that Vice President has raised the issue of judicial incursion into the legislative domain. Here, the Vice President was referring to the National Judicial Appointments Commission and the Supreme Court judgment in the Supreme Court Advocates on Records Association was Union of India case, which is famously known as the Fourth Judges case. The Vice President said that by invalidating the 99th Constitutional Amendment Act and the National Judicial Appointments Commission through the Fourth Judges case, the judiciary was violating the principle of separation of powers and entered into the domain of the legislature. He also said why the parliament was silent when the Supreme Court nullified the National Judicial Appointments Commission. This is about the news article given here. In this context, let us discuss about the role of the Vice President as the chairman of Rajasabha. First, let us take Article 63 of the Indian Constitution. It provides that there shall be a Vice President of India. Then in Article 63 and in Article 89-1, it is said that the Vice President of India shall be the ex-officio chairman of the Council of States, that is the Rajasabha. You know what is unique about the office of Vice President? In our Constitutional setup, the Vice President is part of the executive. But as a chairman of the Rajasabha, the Vice President is part of the legislature also. So, the Vice President has a dual capacity and holds two distinct and separate offices. With this basic understanding, now let us see about the role of Vice President as the Chairman of Rajasabha. Firstly, the chairman presides over the meetings of Rajasabha. Secondly, the chairman is the guardian of the prestige and dignity of the house. Thirdly, the chairman is also the principal spokesman of the house and he represents the collective voice of the house to the outside world. Fourthly, the chairman ensures that the proceedings of the house are conducted in accordance with the relevant constitutional provisions, rules, practices and convention. Also, the Vice President or the chairman ensures that the decorum is maintained in the house. Then the chairman is the custodian and guardian of the rights and privileges of the house and the members of the house. The next role is that even though the chairman might be busy as he is also the Vice President, the chairman makes sure that he presides during the first hour of the sitting of the house which is nothing but the question hour because it is during this time period the accountability of the government is ensued. So, the chairman takes the responsibility to ensure the members' rights of asking questions and receiving complete replies from the present day government. Then the chairman gives rulings on privilege matters and other procedural points. While talking about the powers and functions of the chairman, you have to know this point. The chairman, like the speaker, cannot vote in the first instance. Only when there is a tie, the chairman gets the power of voting. This is according to Article 100. This is what is called as casting vote. Then the chairman's rulings are considered as presidents which are of binding nature. Due to this, the chairman is not bound to give any reasons for his decision. Also, the chairman's rulings cannot be questioned or criticized. And you have to note here that to protest against the ruling of the chairman is a contempt of the house. Finally, you have to know that the chairman is assisted by the deputy chairman who is the member of the Rajasabha and he is elected by it. Also note that the deputy chairman presides over the Rajasabha in absence of the chairman. And he also performs the duties of the office of the chairman if the vice president is acting as a president or if there is a vacancy in the office of vice president. Finally, there is the secretariat of Rajasabha which is headed by a secretary general. The secretariat of Rajasabha helps in assisting the chairman in discharge of his duties. So these are all the powers and functions of the vice president while he is acting as the chairman of Rajasabha. So with this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this article here. As per the article, Russian President Vladimir Putin described Russia's nuclear asiners as an deterrent force in the Ukrainian conflict. But at the same time, he objected when asked to make a pledge that Russia will not be the first to use them. For this, Mr. Putin replied that such an obligation might prevent Russia from tapping its nuclear arsenal. This is about the news article given here. In this context, we will understand about the no first use policy and about India's nuclear doctrine. Before getting into the discussion, I have highlighted the syllabus regarding this discussion. You can go through it. Now let us start our discussion by understanding what is a no first use policy. No first use policy is a commitment. It is a commitment to never use the nuclear weapon first under any circumstances. So if you make this commitment, you should not use nuclear weapons as a preemptive attack or first strike. And you should not use nuclear weapons first in response to non-nuclear attack of any kind. And this is only no first use policy. Now you may think if they are not going to use it, then why bother building a nuclear weapon? No first use policy simply means that countries that have committed to this policy will not use nuclear weapons in the first instance. But if the other country uses nuclear weapon on them, at that time they can retaliate using nuclear weapons. So this is the reason why countries, even though after committing to no first use policy, have developed nuclear arsenal. This no first use policy is generally declaratory in nature. There is no diplomatic arrangement to verify and enforce it. Those countries that have pledged can still use nuclear weapons first in a conflict. And this is also the reason why countries develop nuclear weapons. Now with this information, let us see who all have adhered to the no first use policy. As of now, nine countries worldwide possess nuclear weapons. They are United States, Russia, France, China, United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea. Out of this, China and India are the nuclear armed country that have no first use policy. And you have to know that India maintains the policy of no first use with exception. Those exceptions are for response to chemical or biological attacks. Apart from this, the other countries such as France, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, they maintain the policies that permit the first use of nuclear weapons in a conflict. So this is about the commitment to no first use policy by the nuclear powered countries. With this information, let us see about the India's nuclear doctrine. Firstly, India's nuclear doctrine tries to build and maintain a credible minimum deterrent of nuclear weapons. Secondly, nuclear weapons will be used only in retaliation against nuclear attack on Indian territory or on an Indian force anywhere. Thirdly, India's nuclear doctrine says that nuclear retaliation to a first strike will be massive and it will be designed to cause unacceptable damage. Fourthly, nuclear retaliatory attacks can be authorized by the civil political leadership through the Nuclear Command Authority. Fifthly, there will be no use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapon states. However, in the event of major attack against India by biological or chemical weapons, India will retain the option of retaliating using nuclear weapons. Then, India will continue to follow strict controls on export of nuclear and missile-related material and technology. It will participate in the fissile material cut-off treaty negotiations and it will continue to follow the prohibition on nuclear tests. Finally, India's nuclear doctrine says that India will continue to commit to the goal of nuclear weapon free world. This commitment should be fulfilled through the global, verifiable and non-discriminatory nuclear disarmament. So, this is about the India's nuclear doctrine. With these points, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Have a look at this editorial. It talks about the issue of crimes against foreign tourists visiting India. The author mentions about some of the examples of the untoward incidents involving foreign tourists which happened in India. He also presents numerous data to conclude that crimes against foreign tourists have been declining in India. Even though declining, the crimes against foreigners visiting India could dent our image globally, which will have an effect on the inflow of foreign tourists. To take a hold of this situation, Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with the Bureau of Police Research and Development, that is BPRD, organized a conference in Delhi on October 19, 2022. This is about the editorial given here. In this context, let us learn about the National Conference on Tourist Police. Firstly, note that public order and police are subjects which are under the state list under Schedule 7 of the Indian Constitution. With this important point in mind, let us see about the conference. The National Conference on Tourist Police scheme has been coordinated by the Ministry of Tourism. The meeting was convened to discuss the best practices of tourist policing in India and coordinate further efforts in this regard. It was suggested that the tourist police should be in the control of the state government like general police. However, it was held that Ministry of Tourism can provide financial assistance to the state government for effective implementation of the tourist police scheme. The idea of the conference was to develop a dedicated team of police personnel by the state and the union territory to work towards safeguarding tourists and providing them with security. Having seen this, now let us see the objective of this conference. The objective of the National Conference on Tourist Police scheme is to bring Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Home Affairs, BPRD and the state and the union territory administration on the same platform. When they are brought into the same platform, it will enable them to work together in close coordination to suit the specific requirements of the foreign tourist for the effective implementation of the uniform tourist police scheme at the Pan India level. This would change the safety and security related perception of India at the global level and it will also help in making India a must visit destination around the globe. The template for functioning of the tourist police in states and union territories are deliberated in the meeting. The discussed template specifically deals with firstly, preparation of a standard operating procedure to be followed by the tourist police in states and union territories. Secondly, development of a training program for tourist police and finally suggestion for the uniform of tourist police. So that's all about the National Conference on Tourist Police which recently happened in the month of October in New Delhi. So with this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Have a look at this article. The news here is that big industries do not follow the labor standards in India. This was said by the representatives of the workers union and it was said that the ongoing Asia and the Pacific regional meeting of the International Labor Organization. This is about the news article given here. In this context, let us discuss about the International Labor Organization or ILO in detail. The ILO is the only tripartite UN agency and it is operating since 1990. It brings together governments, employers and workers of 187 member states. This is to set labor standards, develop policies and devise programs promoting decent work for all women and men. Now let us see the history behind the establishment of ILO. ILO was established in the year 1919 by the Treaty of Versailles. It was established as an affiliated agency of the League of Nations and it became the first affiliated specialized agency of the United Nations in 1946. And the headquarters of ILO is located in Geneva, Switzerland. The basis of the ILO is the tripartite principle. That is the negotiation within the organization are held between the representatives of government, trade union and the employers from the member states. Now moving on to the organizational structure of the ILO. The ILO accomplishes its work through three main bodies. They are International Labor Conference, Governing Body and the International Labor Office. All the three bodies here comprises of governments, employers and worker representatives. In this the International Labor Conference sets the international labor standards and the broad principles of the ILO. It meets annually in Geneva. It is often referred to as the International Parliament of Labor. Moving on to the next body which is the Governing Body. It is the Executive Council of the ILO. It meets three times in a year in Geneva and it takes policy decisions of the ILO and establishes the program and budget of the ILO. Then after establishing the programs and the budget, it submits the program and budget to the International Labor Conference for approval. The last major body is the International Labor Office. It is the permanent secretariat of the ILO and it is the focal point of the ILO's overall activities. The International Labor Office has a Director General and the Labor Office is scrutinized by the Governing Body of the ILO. Then there are the Regional Meetings. Here the ILO member states come together periodically to examine matters of special interest to the region concern. So this is about the organizational structure of ILO. Now moving on, let us see about the objectives of ILO. The first objective is to promote and realize standards and fundamental principles and rights to workers. The second objective is to create greater opportunities for women and men to secure decent employment. The third one is to enhance the coverage and effectiveness of social protection for all. Then the next objective is to strengthen tripartism and social dialogue. Here tripartism means the government, the unions and the employers must come together and ensure that there is a dialogue among the three stakeholders. Okay, now moving on. Finally, let us see the functions of ILO. Firstly, it creates coordinated principles and programs. These programs are directed at solving the social and the labor issues. Secondly, ILO ensures the adoption of international labor standards. This is done in the form of conventions and recommendations and control over their implementation. Then when the ILO convention is ratified, a member state accepts it as a legally binding instrument. Thirdly, ILO assists the member states in solving social and labor related problems. Fourthly, ILO ensures the protection of human rights like the right to work, freedom of association, collective negotiation, protection against forced labor and protection against discrimination. Finally, ILO does research and publishes work on the social and labor issues. So, these are the major functions performed by ILO. So, that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we covered the International Labor Organization holistically and I think we have not left any points behind. So, note the points that we discussed here. It will be very helpful for your examination. So, with this, let us conclude the news article discussion session and take up the practice problems questions. We have four practice problems questions. Let us see them one by one. Let us take up the first question. This question is in regards to tourist policy scheme. Two statements are given. We have to find the correct statement. Let us take up the first statement. Under the scheme, a pool of trained policemen would be made available to render policing service to the tourist and would control the crime set the place of the tourist interest. See, this statement is correct because it is one of the major objective of the tourist policy scheme. Moving on to the second statement. This scheme will be implemented by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to maintain uniformity. See, this statement is wrong because we saw that policing comes under the state list of the schedule seven of the Constitution. So, statement two is wrong. Since statement one is only correct, the correct answer here is option A one only. Moving on to the second question. See, it is a map based question. Five countries are given. We have to find the countries that are bordering Arabian Sea. Now, look at this map. From this map, you can say that Pakistan, India, Yemen, Oman and Iran have borders with Arabian Sea and Iraq does not have a border with Arabian Sea. So, the correct answer here is option A one, two, three and four only. Moving on to the third question. See, here four conventions of international labour organization are given and we have to find which among the convention India has ratified. See, there are eight conventions of ILO. In that, India has ratified six. The convention that India has ratified are forced labour convention, abolition of forced labour convention, equal remuneration convention, discrimination, employment, occupation convention, minimum age convention and worst forms of child labour convention. And India has not ratified two conventions. The convention are freedom of association and protection of right to organize convention and right to organize and collective bargain convention. Here, you can note that the third statement that is freedom of association and protection of right to organize convention for this India has not ratified. So, the correct answer for this question is option D one, two and four. Now, look at this question. This is a quiz question for you today. This question can be easily answered if you have closely listened to our first discussion that is discussion on revenue expenditure and capital expenditure. Interested aspirants can post the answer for this question in the comment section. The main questions based on today's discussion are displayed here. Interested aspirants can write the answers and post it in the comment section. If you like today's video, like, comment and share it with your friends. For more updates regarding UPSC preparation, subscribe to Shankara A.S. Academy's YouTube channel. Thank you for listening.


Hello everybody! This video is about how to create a bootflash drive to install Windows 10.8.7. This procedure is necessary when your PC, laptop or netbook collects a DVD drive or it doesn't work properly. If you have no system installation disk, or you just don't like working with DVDs. There are many ways and methods to create a bootflash drive, but I will use only official methods. I'd like to note they are also the simplest. Here is the first method. All you need to create a bootflash drive is a computer with UEFI instead of BIOS and the system image itself. It should be noted that all modern computers support UEFI. To begin, go to the Explorer, right-click on the flash drive and click on Format. Select the necessary file system, for example FAT32. Choose Quick Format and click Start. You will see a warning that all data will be deleted. Click OK and wait for the process to finish. After that, use the Explorer to open the disk or ISO image containing the installation package. Copy image files to the flash drive and wait until it is over. When the copying process is over, your bootflash drive is ready. When restart your computer, go to UEFI, set the computer to boot from the flash drive and install the operating system you need. The second method will be relevant if your computer has BIOS interface instead of UEFI. To create a bootflash drive, you will need official software by Microsoft. Windows 7, USB, DVD download tool. You will find the link in the description of this video. Don't let the words Windows 7 worry you. This software is also good for Windows 8 and 10. To begin with, start the program. The first step is to select the system image file you need and click Next. The second step is to select the media type, in our case USB device. The third step is to select this flash drive from the list of all devices in your computer. In my case, it is disk W and click Begin copying. You will see a warning that all data will be deleted. If you don't have any important files on this drive, click Erase USB device, confirm your decision to delete all files and wait until the files are copied to your USB drive. When it is over, you will see a message back up completed, which means the bootflash drive is ready to use. The third method is to create a boot drive with a command prompt started by the administrator. The advantage of this method is that you don't have to download and use any additional software. For example, if you can't access the Internet. And your device will work with both BIOS and UEFI. To begin with, right-click on the Start menu and click on Command Prompt Administrator. Then enter the Command Disk port and then List Disk. In the list of all disks installed in the computer, find the flash drive. In my case, that is Disk 5. Enter the command SelectDisk5, so all actions will affect this particular disk. At this stage, you have to be very careful, because all data will be deleted from the selected disk. Then enter the command Clean, which cleans the flash drive's partition table. We can see a report saying that disk cleanup was successful. Now create a partition on this flash drive with the command CreatePartitionPrimary. And enter SelectPartition1, that is, select this partition. Make it active with the command Active. Format the flash drive in NTFS format with the command Format FS equals NTFSQuick. And wait until the formatting process is 100% completed. Assign a drive letter, for example X, using the command Assign Letter equals X. And finish the work of Disk Part with the command Exit. Close the command prompt and copy files from the image onto the flash drive, as in the first method. When the copying process is over, your bootflash drive is ready. The first method is to use the utility Windows Media Creation tool to create a bootflash drive for Windows 8 or Windows 10. You will find download links in the description below this video. All you need is a working Windows 8 or 10, a 4GB flash drive or bigger and this utility. I will work with the example of Windows 10. To begin with, connect the USB drive to the computer and start the program. After you start the program, agree to the license agreement, select Create a Boot Media for another computer, use the necessary settings or recommended settings for this computer. Select USB flash memory device, click on the necessary USB drive, in my case it is DiskX, and click Next. After that the process of creating a boot drive begins. When it is over, the boot drive is ready and you can use it. When testing all these methods on HP DC7800 computer, I had the following problem. BIOS recognized the flash drive and Windows booted from it, but frozen the first window. I could solve this problem only by updating its BIOS to the latest version. So if you liked this video, click the like button below and subscribe to our channel to see more. Thank you for watching and good luck!


Welcome everyone to the session using mobile SMS OTPs for authentication on mobile apps using APM and Filiu SDK by Puneet. We are very glad that Puneet could join us today. So without any further delay, over to you Puneet. Thank you. So hi everyone. This is a bit different format for me but I think I'm going to like it. So thanks a lot for joining. I believe my topic is a pretty trivial and very obvious use case. What we're going to look at in the session is how we can use or how we can leverage Filiu SDK to automate and authenticate users using online numbers. The session is not really complicated and it's very straightforward for anyone to start using it. I will be using Quotset.js as an example to demo but I believe it's pretty much easy for anyone to start using it with whatever framework they are using in their current setups. About myself, I have been in the QA and the automation world for about nine, nine and a half years now. I'm based out of India and I have been associated with several open source projects earlier initially with Joomla. I have also been associated with Percona and I have also been a core contributor and maintainer for Quotset.js. So if you want to reach out to me, that's my Twitter handle. So if you look at the problem statement, I think what we want to achieve at the end of this demo is we want to see how we can use Twilio or any other service or similar service and use an online phone number and be able to use the Twilio SDK to read or send an SMS to these numbers and authenticate our users and automate the entire authentication flow. So why do we need it? A lot of people might have this question that it's not really a very, like it's not very difficult thing to do. We can mock users but in our case, the problem is we have integrations in our platform. So we have several third party integrations on our app starting with even the authentication integration tool that we use is Auth0. So for us, it was very important to make sure that the integration that we have with Auth0 works as expected and we started using mocks but then we realized that there were a lot of issues in terms of the roles and the integration with Auth0 was probably not really being checked well in the mock setups that we had. The second use case for us was we have our app being used in multiple countries and we integrate local SMS vendors API and for example, in Africa, we use Africa stocking in Thailand, we use API tell in India. We use Twilio so depending on different countries where we launch the application, we have different types of integration with different SMS providers. And for us, it's important to make sure that the integration of these SMS providers or these SMS services is working for us and we are able to deliver promotions or the authentication emails to our users at the end of the day. So that was another motivation for us. Being able to run test, obviously it was important for us. We wanted to start running our test on cloud services and having an integration like this was really helpful for us because then we could also use ACD and start authenticating and using API test with the same flow. So it's not just about being able to use it with APM and Intu and Mobile test. You can also use the same flow with your API test also if you use OTB based authentication for users. So what are the known limitations? Probably one thing that I would like to highlight is there are legal foundations and not every country lets you buy an online number without all the legalities. So whenever you sign up on such platforms you will have to go through the legal process. In case, for example, if I talk about India, there is a legal process. You can still get an online number for India but you have to go through some legal documentation. So it's not really straightforward as other countries but you still have a possibility to do that. You also have a possibility to start forwarding SMSs to these numbers. So once you buy an online number you can start forwarding your SMSs to these online numbers and start reading them through the inbound API that we have provided us. Talking about alternatives. So basically, of course, since we have been using Twilio I can only talk about the Twilio SDK and I can only demo the Twilio SDK to you right now. But there are still alternatives out there in the market. There are a lot of them. I could just point out a couple of examples which I've looked them and I've just gone through their APIs briefly. For example, Clivo is actually a cheaper alternative than Twilio. So they don't really charge you for inbound SMSs. Melosaur is just starting up. They are in the SMS beta phase of SMS-based testing. So probably you can also look for an alternative so there's no need for Twilio if you don't really like the options of Twilio. So before I go through the reference let me just quickly try to go through the flow of how you can set up an account with Twilio and how you can start using this. I'm going to get on the browser. Basically, the flow is pretty simple. All you have to do is log in into your Twilio account. You can sign up with your personal email or your company email, whatever you feel like. Once you set up and go with the default options you get on the Twilio project console homepage where you get the account SID and not token. Right now you see on my account I have a phone number because I already prepared a phone number and I already bought an online phone number with my personal account for this session. But probably it's very easy for you to do that. You can go into the phone number section and there you find an option to buy a number. So this is basically the one that we want to use and you can see that they also have an option to provide like you can get an India phone number also or you can get a phone number for any country depending on the legalities that you fulfill. In our case, I'm just going to show you how it works for let's take United States as an example. So when I search for United States it gives me a list of numbers and in here I don't really want the voice, MMS or sex capabilities. I only need SMS capabilities and I only want this so that I can read the inbound SMSs through the Twilio SDK. So I'm just going to search for it. It returns me a list of numbers along with the cost. So every number that you buy it costs you around $1 per month. And any inbound SMSs that you basically any SMS that you trigger on this number would also be like a very minimal charge of probably 0.05 cents. I don't really recall that exactly but it's not really free but it's not expensive as well. And moreover, if you want to try it out initially Twilio gives you initial credit of $15 in your account. So it's like a base credit of $15 that you get to try out their APIs and try out the services. So it's a good starting point for anyone who is looking for a first stop. Now going back to the references I would just like to go through the Twilio documentation that we have. In my example that you're seeing right now I will be showing it in Quotesub.js but depending on the use case that you have you can find it like it supports multiple languages. You can even use it with Pearl. So it's completely flexible for you. In our case, what we have done is we were using Quotesub.js as our automation framework for end to end testing on mobile. So we thought of writing in Helper on top of it and started using it and it's not just being used in one of the single applications being used across in multiple teams. Basically what we need is account SID and a token which I already showed you that you get from the console. Once you provide these two information you can start looking for invoices that are being hit on your number. So let me go back to the reference once. This is the Helper that we wrote for Quotesub.js. You can start using it as an example if you want to. Pretty straightforward, you just have to install it using NPM. There are configuration parameters which is basically account ID and a token that you have to provide as environment variables. Once you have done that, all you have to do is call this read SMS function which is basically being used with the actor object and you can pass a timestamp and the number that you basically are using as your test number. So right now I am just going to show you how it works for us. Basically what we have done is we have a login method and inside the login method what we do is we take the timestamp. So before triggering an OTP on the mobile application we capture the timestamp and then we use the OTP read SMS actor function that you have created, passing the timestamp, passing the number and then basically get the OTP from top of it. So that was just a very quick overview of how the Helper is supposed to work. What I will want to do now is quickly show you people the demo of how it works on ground. So my example, as you can see, we support multiple countries right now and I'm just going to use the online number that I have purchased as an example but you can go ahead and buy any number form for you and start using it in your application. So once it gets the OTP from the API, the SDK it will key in that and be able to log in into the application. So that was basically what I had in terms of demo. I would like to know if there's any questions around it from the audience. Right now there are no questions from the audience, Puneet and I would encourage audience to please ask questions in Q&A. There's a comment which says, is Twilio paid? Yes, it's a paid service. It's not really a free service but you can definitely use the $15 credit that they provide you probably as a starting point and then see if it suits your purpose then it's worth paying that amount I believe. It's not too expensive. Okay. There's next question. We should pass this timestamp in which format? As you can see in my code I am actually providing it in UPC format. So I think that's what we should be doing it. It's in UPC timestamp. Okay. Can we forward the next question? Can we forward the SMS received to any email ID via Twilio? Can we forward the SMS received? Can we forward the SMS received to any email ID via Twilio? I don't really think that's the use case or possibility here right now because it probably you can forward that SMS using the Twilio forward. There is a possibility to do that but I'm not really sure about this part. So probably you have to look through the Twilio SDK. So there is a possibility to forward SMSes definitely but I don't know if they can forward it to an email. Probably what you can do is you can do it yourself. You can just get the SMS and forward or write a small helper around it to try and forward it to your own email or whatever you want to use in the use case. Thank you. Next is can we do same with owning number instead of purchase a new number? So very interesting. That is what I was trying to explain in terms of limitation. What you can do is if you have one single number that you have and it's your own personal number or you already made like you are using some phone numbers for your project or company, you can set up SMS forwarding and you can use only one Twilio number and forward all these numbers to this Twilio online number that you have and start reading it but it will be a cost because you will have to set up a SMS forwarding with your network provider but that's a possibility to do. You can forward whatever SMS you're getting on your phone numbers and forward it to your Twilio online number. Thanks, Puneet. Next question. Is there a possibility to integrate either of these tools with emulator or simulator and automate via APM? Yes, basically we extensively use it on our local emulators also. And this entire setup, I am doing it on my real device right now but I generally run it on emulator also. That's a possibility for sure. You can use it on emulator. You can use it on real device. You can use it with any cloud service that provides emulator or real device. Okay, next questions. You mentioned you are using code set for mobile. Mobile means mobile underscore site or we can use it got native apps automation as well. So we can use it for native apps automation as well. The app that I showed you people is a native app in React and basically it works with anything. So you can use code set JS for mobile application testing using APM integration that they have using the APM helper or code set JS or you can use it on mobile web sites also using playwright or whatever other integrations you want to use or you can use it with even web application which relies on OTP based authentication. Thank you. Next questions. Any open source software available? From my research Pratap, I was not really able to, I was not really able to find any open source tool that provides you an API based setup to read SMSes. Although you have softwares that you can use to get that done but probably not any service that is open source and free to use for such setup. Maybe I could have missed something. So I'm not really sure about it. You have to research about it more. Thank you. Any issues while running the tests parallel? Yes, very good question, Avinash. There is a possibility that you can run up into an issue when you run tests in parallel where you have to pass in the right timestamp and probably it can receive more than two SMSes during that time. So there are different ways in which you can handle it. I am not using limit parameter which is also one of the parameters that the Twilio API has, the Twilio SDK has. Probably the best use case for you would be to start using with different numbers because that will avoid a lot of conflict and help you filter out SMSes like be 100% sure that it's not going to conflict. So that's the best way to handle that one. Okay, next question. For your case, that is you collaborate with local SMS vendors. How do you test? Do you purchase numbers for all those countries? Yeah, that is the plan. So we try to purchase numbers for all those countries and try to make sure that the local vendors that we have integrated and the local services that we have integrated with our app, they're able to deliver SMSes to these numbers. But sometimes it's possible that even with all the legal documentation, you might not be able to get an SMS-based capabilities for an online number. So in that case, we have to make a compromise and try to forward it to another online number that we have and make sure that the service that we are using with that country and that integration actually works. So that's a compromise and a limitation here. Okay, next question. We actually, our testing is done in lower environment. Instead of our, sorry, instead of all these steps, we can ask developers to use standard of like 0, 0, 0, 0, right? So that is what I was trying to mention earlier. That's who earlier I mentioned the same thing when I started my session that a lot of people might think, why do we need it? Why can't we just use mock OTPs or just use hard-coded OTPs? But given the experience that we have had with these integrations that we have in place, we have a different tool for authenticating users. We have a completely different tool for sending SDK implemented for sending SMSes. For us, it was important to be able to make sure that our integration with these services also works. So we can probably go with this approach in a lower environment like maybe QA or stage, but we don't really want to go with this approach in pre-prod environment because we want our pre-prod to be almost similar to production environment. And that's where it becomes very important for us to make sure that the SMSes integration and the delivery of promotion messages and all those are working well for the users. Thank you, Puneet. And last question, is there any other open source SDK to read OTP from the mobile apps? I think that's already answered unless you've read it on something or... No, I think I already tried to answer it. There's no like the helper that I've prepared is actually open source, but if you want to use it with 2U SDK, but there's no other alternative in terms of services that are available to like let you do this free of cost, like be able to read or generate online numbers free of cost. Nice. That's all the questions. And thank you, Puneet. And thanks everyone here. Thank you very much.