 A very good evening aspirants. Welcome to Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankar IAS Academy for the date 25th of March 2023. Displayed here are the list of articles that we are going to discuss today. Without any delay let's get into the article discussion. Now let us start with this article here. This article says that Saudi Arabia is planning to reopen its embassy in Syria. We are not going to discuss about the news in detail. Instead we are going to use this opportunity to look at the Middle East map. Now look at this image here. This is the political map highlighting the countries of West Asia. Notice a fact here. Egypt's Sinai Peninsula is included as a part of West Asia even though the country of Egypt is located in the African continent. See this region is highly volatile and it is always in news. So you can always expect a map based question from this region. So in our discussion today we will mainly focus on water bodies around West Asia. Let us start with the Caspian Sea. See Caspian Sea is bordered by countries like Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Azerbaijan. Europe's longest river Olga drains into the Caspian Sea in the northern end. Now let us move on to the Black Sea. See Black Sea is bordered by Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania. Note down one fact here. Georgia borders Black Sea and Azerbaijan borders Caspian Sea and Armenia is landlocked. Now moving on to Agin Sea. See this Agin Sea borders the countries of Greece and Turkey. Just know this fact okay. Now let us take up the Mediterranean Sea. See in this we will look at the countries of West Asia that have Mediterranean coast. The countries are Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Gaza Strip, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. See since we have the map of West Asia here, we will now note down the landlocked countries of the region. Actually the only landlocked country in this region is Armenia. By looking at the map you might assume that Jordan might be landlocked. But Jordan is connected to Red Sea by Gulf of Aqaba. See the Red Sea is bordered by Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea and Djibouti. And the Gulf of Aqaba it is bordered by Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. So Israel has a Mediterranean coast and it is connected to the Red Sea via Gulf of Aqaba. In this map you can also notice the Gulf of Suez. The Gulf of Suez is bordered only by Egypt. And then we will also see Gulf of Aden. See it is bordered by Yemen, Somalia and Djibouti. So the country of Djibouti has both the Red Sea coast and the Gulf of Aden coast. Now moving on to the Gulf of Oman. The countries bordering the Gulf of Oman include Oman it is obvious right. And then we have United Arab Emirates and Iran. Now finally before concluding our discussion let us see the Persian Gulf. The countries that surround the Persian Gulf are Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. See we have covered almost all the important bodies surrounding West Asia as a part of this discussion. Take note of all of these points and remember to revise these maps before going to the prelims examination ok. Now let us conclude this discussion and take up the next article. Now look at this article here. See to understand this article we first need to know some basics. So before getting into the details of this news article we will cover the basics then we will cover the news. Now let us go back some 35 years to the pre-liberalized India. That is India before the LPG reforms of 1991. At that time India was a closed economy. We didn't export much so we had very little forex reserves. See due to the limited forex reserves and to conserve the limited forex our country placed several restrictions on imports. Only important items were allowed to be imported and that too with the government approval. The government also limited the amount of dollars that we could carry with us when we visited foreign countries and even the outward remittance from the country was also restricted. See suppose if you want to send some money to your friend or a relative who is staying in a foreign country you have to do so only after getting the government's approval. That too you are allowed to send only a limited amount. See this is done to conserve the limited forex reserve that India had at that time. But in 1991 India's economy underwent BOP crisis that is nothing but the balance of payment crisis. So we were forced to adopt the LPG reform. Once our economy got liberalized investment started flooding into our country and even exports started increasing. This resulted in a steep rise in our country's forex reserves. So slowly our country also started removing the restrictions placed on imports and foreign travels. As a part of the liberalization process India removed some restrictions that were placed on the outward foreign remittance also. See this was done under the famous liberalized remittance scheme. It is shortly referred as LRS. Now what is this LRS? See LRS is a facility provided by the RBI. The LRS allows Indian resident individuals to remit a certain amount of money outside India every financial year for various purposes. The scheme was introduced in 2004 and it has been revised several times since 2004. Know that under the LRS scheme an Indian resident individual can remit up to $250,000 per financial year for permissible current or capital account transactions. Permissible transactions include education related expenses, medical treatment, travel expenses, gifts and donations, investments in securities and real estate and opening a foreign currency account outside India. See LRS is applicable to all resident individuals including miners and it applies on a per person basis which means the family members cannot pool their limits. Now let me explain this with an example. Assume a family has four members, a father, a mother, a daughter and a son. Now in this family the daughter is studying abroad and the father likes to send her some money. The maximum he can send is $250,000. Here the father cannot send $250,000 from his account and another $250,000 from his wife's account. That is illegal. Under the LRS the family cannot pool their limits. Also note that the LRS does not apply to companies, partnerships, trusts and other entities. Now comes the important question. Is the money sent via LRS taxed or not? Yes, it is taxed by the government. Any remittance made under the LRS is subjected to applicable taxes and regulations. When sending money via LRS the government applies TCS. Here TCS means tax collected at source. In this context, tax is collected from an individual when the particular individual sends money abroad. Sending money in this context is not just limited to sending it to a person. It could be even for travelling purposes, for buying assets abroad, for shopping in abroad, for investing in abroad also. So all this comes under sending money abroad that is outward remittance and it will be taxed by the government. Now if you can recall, the union government in the 2023-24 budget made a change in the TCS for money sent via LRS. Earlier TCS for foreign remittance was fixed at 5% but in the 2023-24 budget it was raised to 20%. Here an exception is provided to the remittance which are meant for educational and medical purposes. These two categories are still placed in the 5% bracket. Now with this understanding let us take up the news article. See our finance minister mentioned that earlier credit card payments made by an Indian in a foreign country were not under LRS. So these credit card payments were not taxed. But right now our finance minister has asked the RBI to monitor the use of credit cards for foreign travel purposes. So from here on credit card payments made by an Indian in a foreign country while in foreign tours will also be brought under LRS and they will also attract a TCS of 20%. The minister has also asked the RBI to tighten the implementation of tax hike which was raised from 5% to 20%. Now this is all about the news article given here. In this discussion we understood about the liberalized remittance scheme. I hope you understood the scheme and the significance of it. Now these points let us move on to the next article discussion. Now let us see this editorial here. Recently our union law minister made a statement about retired judges in a conclave. The law minister said that a few retired judges and some activists who are a part of anti-India gang are trying to make Indian judiciary to play the role of the opposition party. So the union law minister reportedly warned that those working against the country will have to pay a price. And this statement of the union law minister has created a controversy. Here this editorial was also written in the backdrop of such controversy. See the author of the editorial says that the law minister's statement are defamatory and it will rise larger issues between executive and judiciary. The author noted that the judges who resigned from judicial office do not cease to be citizens of this country. So they have a right to free speech and expression. The author also pointed out that it is the duty of the retired judges to speak up when they find the legislature, the executive or even the judiciary are crossing their limits. In turn it is the responsibility of the state to either justify the measures it has adopted or to take the advice offered by the retired judges. Therefore the author is asking the Indian government to ensure the mitigation of any further damage to India's constitutional principles. And this is about the editorial given here. In this discussion we will understand the reasons for tussle between executive and judiciary and then about the need of cooperation between executive and judiciary. But before that the syllabus relevant to the article is highlighted here for your reference, please go through it. In the first of all let us understand the reasons for tussle between executive and judiciary. Firstly there is no clear cut clarity in the concept of separation of power which is inscribed in article 50 of our Indian constitution. Know that separation of powers is a doctrine of constitutional law. And at this doctrine the three branches of the government that is the executive, legislature and judiciary are kept separate from one another. Each branch of the government has separate powers and generally each branch is not allowed to exercise the powers of the other branches. Meaning executive cannot perform the functions of judiciary and judiciary cannot perform the functions of legislature. So what does this mean? Legislative branch exercises legislative power, executive branch exercises executive power and the judicial branch exercises judicial review. So each branch cannot exercise the powers of other branches. For example the US constitution has the concept of separation of power where three branches of the United States government would not interfere in the powers of other branches. But if we take India the concept of separation of power is not clearly inscribed in our Indian constitution. This is because we can see that in India the executives are drawn from the legislature only right? The council of ministers headed by the prime minister they are responsible to Lok Sabha. And this is exactly why the author is saying that there is no clarity regarding separation of power. And apart from this we also have the concept of judicial activism. So judicial activism in India provides the power to the supreme court and the high courts to declare the regulations or laws as unconstitutional and void if they breach the fundamental principles of Indian constitution. This means that in the name of judicial activism Indian judiciary can interfere with the powers of the executive. So this judicial activism is the main reason that has led to the major tussle between executive and judiciary. Secondly there is a problem regarding the appointment of judges. As we all know currently the judges of supreme court and high court are appointed by the president of India based on the recommendations of collegium. In the collegium system the judiciary has the entire role. See the members of the collegium are usually from supreme court or high court. Here the role of the executive is neglected. In 2015 the Indian government brought an amendment to article 124 of the constitution. That particular amendment created a short lived body called National Judicial Appointments Commission which is shortly referred as NJAC. See NJAC was created to replace the collegium system for judicial appointments. NJAC included members from both judiciary and the executive. It consisted of CJI that is the Chief Justice of India, two senior judges of the supreme court, union law minister and two eminent persons. But subsequently supreme court struck down the NJAC. This is because supreme court said that NJAC would interfere with the independence of the judiciary. Supreme court struck down NJAC by invoking one of the basic structure doctrines of Indian constitution. There is one basic structure which ensures the independence of judiciary. And based on this basic structure doctrine only supreme court struck down the NJAC amendment. So from this we can say that the role of the executive is neglected in the appointment of the judges. And this is also another reason for the tussle between executive and judiciary. And apart from this recently many of our union executives including the vice president and the law minister have made controversial remarks against the Indian judiciary. Many of the people think that those remarks by the executives they are defaming the judicial system of India. And this is also one of the reasons for the friction between judiciary and executive. Now with this background details we will see some points about the importance of judiciary. See judiciary is one of the most important organs of political organization. The presence of an independent judiciary is necessary for every country to protect the rights of an individual. Independent judiciary ensures a fair and impartial judicial system of a country. This means that the decisions can be taken by judiciary without any interference from the executive or legislative branch of the government. See judicial independence is brought as a basic structure in the Keswananda Bharati case of 1973. As we all know this judgment only led to the birth of the basic structure doctrine. And this basic structure doctrine holds that parliament of India cannot amend the basic features of the Indian constitution. And independence of judiciary is one of the basic features of Indian constitution. See I am talking about the independence of judiciary again and again because here only the importance of judiciary lies. See if judiciary is independent then only they can hold a check against the executive and legislative actions. This is also in accordance with the judicial review which is enshrined in article 13 of the constitution. As per article 13 judiciary has the power to review the regulations and laws made by executive and legislature. So to ensure checks and balances against the power of executive and legislature independent judiciary is very important. Therefore for the survival of liberal democracy and impartial and independent judiciary is essential. Without an independent judiciary liberal democracy cannot flourish and this is the importance of judiciary. Now with this information let us move on to see about the need for cooperation between executive and judiciary. Firstly the cooperation between executive and judiciary is needed for the smooth functioning of the government. This is because if the tazel exaggerates between the executive and judiciary then the judiciary may frequently start to involve in the day to day functioning of the government. And this would be a hindrance to the smooth functioning of the government right. So the cooperation between executive and judiciary is an essential one. Secondly cooperation is needed for effective functioning of the judiciary also. If there is a frequent tazel between executive and judiciary then what will happen? It will divert the focus of the judiciary right. See this situation may also increase the pendency of cases. Therefore cooperation between executive and judiciary is needed for the effective functioning of the judiciary. Now to conclude the long prevailing clashes between judiciary and the executive can be reduced by cooperation and maintenance of strict convention while exercising their powers. So both judiciary and the executive they need to work on a compromise basis to uphold the constitutional scheme of separation of powers. Now that's all regarding this editorial article here. In this discussion we saw about the reason for tazel between executive and judiciary. And after that we saw the importance of judiciary. And finally we ended our discussion by seeing the need for cooperation between executive and judiciary. With these points let us move on to the next article discussion. Now look at this snippet here. It says that Philippines have confronted Chinese diplomats over the South China Sea dispute. But the parties have not arrived at a major solution. And this is the crux of the news article given here. In this discussion we'll see about the ongoing dispute in the South China Sea. See before going into the discussion about dispute in South China Sea you have to understand about the important locations near South China Sea. South China Sea it is a marginal sea of the West Pacific Ocean. And as you can see it is bordered by China, Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Burma and Vietnam. The South China Sea is connected to the East China Sea through the Taiwan Strait or the Formosa Strait. And then it is connected to the Philippine Sea in the East by Luzon Strait. After that it is connected with Sulu Sea in the South East by Mindoro and Balabak Straits. And then it is connected to Jawa Sea in the South by Karimata Strait and Banka Strait. And this is about the South China Sea. Now we'll see the location of different islands of South China Sea in this map here. See this one is called Parasal Island. This archipelago is a collection of 130 islands and coral reefs. You also notice that it is almost equidistant from China and Vietnam. And then this is the Spartley Island. It is a large group of reefs, shoals, atolls and small islets in the South China Sea. They are located north of Malaysia and as you can see it is roughly in midway between Vietnam and Philippines. And then this is the Scarborough Shoal another important island in this region here. And this is the Natuna Archipelago. And also know that all these islands are largely uninhabited meaning no one is living there. Now the problem is these islands are wholly or partly climbed by several countries in this region. As you can see in this map this red line marks the China's climbs. China also calls this line as Nine Dash Line and this yellow line marks Vietnam's climb. Blue line marks the Philippines climb. And other players have their own interest in the region. For instance, Spartley Island is disputed between China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippines and Malaysia. The Parasal Island it is disputed between China, Taiwan and Vietnam. And this Scarborough Shoal it is disputed between China, Taiwan and Philippines. Now you may think what is the reason behind this? Why all these countries are climbing these islands? See there are two major reasons for this. Resource and Trade. Firstly these countries believe that there could be oil resources in these islands. This is because in the 1970s oil was discovered in neighboring islands specifically off the coast of Palawan. And this is the first reason why countries are interested in the islands of South China Sea. Secondly, South China Sea is an important trade route. It connects Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean as you can see in this map. And it is considered to be one of the busiest waterways in the world. And it is a significant gateway for trade and merchant shipping. So this is another reason why countries want to climb a large space here. And apart from these reasons it is also an important fishing ground. See seafood is an essential source of food for many people in the South China Sea region. So this is all about the South China Sea, its location, the islands situated in it and the climbs made by different countries. Now as a part of this discussion you should also know about the Nine Dash Line. See the Nine Dash Line is a vaguely defined demarcation line used by China for climbing a major part of South China Sea. Through its conception of this Nine Dash Line, China tries to climb exclusive rights on marine resources of the region. So note these important islands from this map and it will be very useful for your map based questions and prelims. Now with this we have come to the end of this particular article discussion. As I told you already in this discussion we saw about South China Sea, its location, islands situated in it, the countries which are claiming these islands and the reasons for it and finally we ended our discussion by seeing the Nine Dash Line. Now with these points let us move on to the next article discussion. See earlier this month US and South Korea launched their largest military exercise in nearly 6 years. And this has triggered North Korea. So as the news article says North Korea has tested an underwater nuclear attack drone by the name HALE. North Korea also stated that this underwater nuclear attack drone can infiltrate into operational waters and make a super scale radioactive tsunami. And this is about the news article given here. In our discussion today we will see some facts about the underwater nuclear drone HALE. Now what is an underwater drone? Look at this image here. See this is not an accurate representation of an underwater drone. But you can get an idea about how North Korea's HALE would probably look by seeing this image. See underwater drones are basically unmanned miniature submarines. These underwater drones are controlled by the onboard computers and sensors. See the underwater drones are not new. The US Navy first deployed underwater drones from submarines in the year 2015. But what is new is an underwater drone with nuclear strike capability. See so far only two countries are alleged to possess this capability. One is Russia and the other one is North Korea. Russia's underwater nuclear attack drone is named as Poseidon. Russia's Poseidon drone would be launched from its Belgorod which is a special purpose nuclear submarine. One of the main features of the Poseidon drone is that it has its own nuclear power source. Due to this the range of this drone is practically unlimited. In addition to this the drone makes very less noise and it can operate at extreme depths at high speeds. And this makes the weapon very difficult to detect. Russia's Poseidon drone also has immense capacity to cause damage. When the drone is detonated near coastal cities it can create huge tsunamis contaminated with radioactive particles. So essentially once used this weapon has the capability to make entire coastal areas uninhabitable. And this is about Russia's Poseidon drone. Now let us see some points about North Korea's Hale underwater nuclear drone. See Hale means tidal waves or tsunamis in Korean language. According to North Korea's government's news agency during a test that was conducted this drone travelled underwater for nearly 60 hours before detonating on a practice target. The state media also reported that this missile can be deployed in any coast, port or can be launched even from ships. But all the information we have about Hale are from North Korea's state media. So the reliability of the information is very less. But this confirms one thing that is North Korea is looking to diversify its nuclear arsenal. North Korea allegedly has nuclear weapons that can be launched from silos, railcars, submarines and road mobile missile launchers. And now with Hale North Korea is trying to have a nuclear capable underwater drone in its arsenal. So the tensions around the Korean Peninsula are high now. And this is all about this particular news article discussion. In this discussion we saw some points about Russia's Poseidon drone and North Korea's Hale underwater nuclear drone. Now with these points let us move on to the next article discussion. Now this is the final article for today's discussion. Yesterday the central government said that it extended the subsidy of Rs 200 per 14.2 kg LPG cylinder under the Pradhan Mantri Ujwala Yojana for another one year. This is done in view of high prices of petroleum products in the international market. The government also said that the decision will benefit 9.6 crore women. Know that the subsidy of Rs 200 is given up to 12 LPG cylinder refills per year. And this is the crux of the news article given here. Now in this context we are going to revise about Pradhan Mantri Ujwala Yojana. Pradhan Mantri Ujwala Yojana was launched in the year 2016. It is a flagship scheme of Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. Know that PMUI is a centrally sponsored scheme where the funds are shared between centre and the states. The main objective of the scheme is to provide clean cooking fuel such as LPG to the rural and deprived households. See many of the rural and deprived households are still using traditional cooking fuel such as firewood, coal, cow dung cakes etc. The usage of such traditional cooking fuels creates an impact on health of rural women as well as on the environment. So PMUI aims to provide clean cooking fuel to address these impacts. Now this is about the scheme. Now with this information about the scheme let us see the salient features of PMUI. See under the PMUI scheme LPG connection is released in the name of an adult woman of the below poverty line family that is BPL family. But there is one condition here. The particular BPL family should not have an existing LPG connection in the name of any family member of the household. If this connection is satisfied then only LPG connection will be given. Know that the applicant woman must have attained 18 years of age. The eligible families are identified through data from socio-economic caste census 2011. See the other eligible beneficiaries of PMUI scheme are listed here. Pause the video and just go through it ok. Now talking about the target of PMUI. See the initial target was to provide 5 crore LPG connections within 3 years from financial year 2016-17. Later the target was revised to 8 crore connections by the year 2020. To cover remaining households under PMUI, Ujwala 2.0 scheme was started on 10th August 2021. See this is a pan India scheme to provide additional 1 crore LPG connections along with stow and free first refill. Now this is all about the Pradhan Mantri Ujwala Yojana scheme. Take note of all of the points that we saw in this discussion. It will be very useful for you in your prelims. Now with these points let us move on to the next part of the discussion that is the practice prelims question discussion. Today we have 5 prelims questions. I'll solve 4 of them and as usual one of them is a quiz question for you. Now let us take this first question which among the following countries are double landlocked countries. Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan. See a country is doubly landlocked or double landlocked when it is surrounded only by landlocked countries. So there is 2 layer of landlocked countries. And know that like in Central Europe it is surrounded by landlocked countries of Austria and Switzerland. And in Central Asia Uzbekistan is surrounded by landlocked countries like Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. So here only Uzbekistan is there. So the correct answer to this question is option B, one only. Now moving on to the second question. Consider the following statements about TDS and TCS. TCS is tax collected at source and TDS is tax deducted at source. Statement 1. TDS is the tax which is deducted on a payment made by a company to an individual. TCS is the tax which is collected by sellers while selling something to the buyers. Statement 2. TDS deduction is applicable on payments such as salaries, rent, etc. And TCS deduction is applicable on sales of specific goods. Third statement. TDS depends on the amount of payment and TCS depends on the specific product. See all the 3 statements are correct here. So the correct answer to this question is option D, one, two and three. Now moving on to the third question. See this is a previous question asked in the year 2014. What is the correct sequence of occurrence of following cities in Southeast Asia as one proceeds from South to North. Bangkok, Hanoi, Jakarta, Singapore. Now look at this map here. Where is Bangkok? It is here. And where is Hanoi? It is here. And where is Jakarta? It is here in the bottom. And where is Singapore? It is here. So what is the South to North sequence? It is Jakarta, Singapore, Bangkok and Hanoi. So the correct answer to this question is option C, three, four, one, two. Now moving on to the fourth question. Arrange the following cities from North to South. Beijing, Pyongyang, Seoul, Tokyo. Now see this map here. Beijing is here. Pyongyang is here. Seoul is here. And Tokyo is there. So the North to South arrangement is Beijing, Pyongyang, Seoul, Tokyo. So the correct answer to this question is option A, one, two, three and four. Now let's move on to the final question. See aspirants. This is the quiz question for you. Read the question carefully. Think about it for a minute and post your answer in the comment section. Aspirants, I have given here the main question from today's discussion for your practice. So if you are interested, write it and post your answer in the comment section. If you have any queries related to the articles that we discussed today, post that also in the comment section. With this we have come to the end. If you find the video useful, like, share and comment and do subscribe to Shankar Air's Academy's YouTube channel for further updates. Thank you.