 A very good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Ayes Academy for the day 26th April 2021. These are the list of news articles that will be discussed in today's news analysis. They are provided along with the page numbers of the different editions of the newspaper. Now let us take up this news article. We all are aware about the shortage of oxygen in several Indian states amidst the rising cases of COVID-19. So as a measure, the Prime Minister KS Fund has approved to allocate funds for the setting up of medical oxygen generation plans across the country. And this medical oxygen generation plans will be set up in all districts with government hospitals. So in this context, let us discuss in brief about the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund which is also called as PM KS Fund and also about the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund or the PMNRF. The syllabus covered by this article is highlighted below for your reference. See the PM KS Fund was set up by keeping in mind the need for having a dedicated fund to deal with an emergency situation like the one posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This fund has been registered as a public charitable trust and the trust deed of the fund has been registered under the Registrations Act of 1908. And when you look at its objective, the fund aims to undertake and support relief of any kind relating to public health emergency or any other kind of emergency. It can be in the form of either man-made or natural, including the creation or upgradation of healthcare or pharmaceutical facilities, other necessary infrastructures, funding relevant research, etc. And another objective of the fund is to render financial assistance and provide money grants or such other steps as may be deemed necessary by the Board of Trustees to the affected population. Coming to its members, know that the Prime Minister is the ex-official chairman of the PM KS Fund and the Minister of Defense, Minister of Home Affairs and the Minister of Finance are ex-official trustees of the fund. Note the chairperson of the Board of Trustees, that is the Prime Minister, has got the power to nominate three trustees to the Board of Trustees and these trustees shall be eminent persons in the field of research, health, science, social work, law, public administration and philanthropy. Remember, this fund consists entirely of voluntary contributions from individuals or organizations and it does not get any budgetary support. Also, the donations that are made to PM KS Fund would qualify 100% exemption under the Income Tax Act of 1961. So, such donations will also qualify to be counted as Corporate Social Responsibility or the CSR expenditure under the Companies Act of 2013. Adding to this, the PM KS Fund has also got exemption under the FCRA or the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act and a separate account for receiving foreign donations has been opened. So, this enables the PM KS Fund to accept donations and contributions even from those individuals and organizations based in foreign countries and for your information, during the year 2019-20, more than 3000 crore rupees have been collected under this PM KS Fund. Now, let us see about the PM Naref. See, in 1948, the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund was established with public contributions in order to assist the displaced persons from Pakistan and it is now primarily utilized to render immediate relief to families of those killed in natural calamities and also to the victims of the major accidents and riots. Assistance from this PM Naref is also rendered to partially provide the expenses for medical treatment like that of heart surgeries, kidney transplantation, cancer treatment, acid attacks, etc. Know that PM Naref consists entirely of public contributions and it does not get any budgetary support and the corpus of the fund is invested in various forms with scheduled commercial banks and other agencies. Also remember, similar to the PM KS Fund, all contributions that are made towards PM Naref are exempted from income tax and PM Naref has also received foreign contributions as a public trust since 2011. See, the disbursement out of the fund is made at the discretion of the Prime Minister and in accordance with the Prime Minister's discretion. So, with this, we have come to the end of this topic. So, in this topic, we learnt about the PM KS Fund and also about the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund. So, with this, let's move on to the next part of the discussion. Now, look at this article. Recently, Supreme Court took sewer motor cognizance of issues related to distribution of essential supplies and services during the pandemic and the Supreme Court has issued notice to the centres, state governments, union territories and the parties who have approached these high courts to show cause why uniform order shall not be passed by the Supreme Court. And for your reference, distribution of essential supplies and services during the pandemic is the case we are talking about. See, this has triggered controversy in the legal circles on the question of diminishing judicial federalism. See, we all know Indian judiciary is a single integrated judicial system with Supreme Court at the top and the high courts are at the next level. Although our judiciary is integrated, the high courts handle federal functions keeping up with the spirit of Indian federal polity, that is, the high courts handle cases pertaining to state law and the subjects as mentioned in the seventh schedule of the constitution. And this favours well in the context of diversity of the nation, that is, in the context of statutory, cultural and geographical diversity that India beholds. In those lines in the unprecedented situation presented by the pandemic, the high courts have gotten into action to fill the gaps that were left by the political executive. Now say for example, the Gujarat High Court issued a series of directions including for laboratory testing and procurement of oxygen. Similarly, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court was held night sittings to consider the issue of oxygen supply and a directed immediate restoration of oxygen supply that had been reduced from the Belay Steel Pantel Shatiskar. But the recent show cause notes is another distribution of essential supplies and services during pandemic case has raised questions about the diminishing powers and functions of the high courts that the Supreme Court is usurping. See, we are not saying that this action by the Supreme Court is unconstitutional because the constitution under Article 139A indeed provides for a provision wherein the Supreme Court can take up the cases of the high court to itself to do complete justice. But the criticism here of this move by the authors is based on two observations. One is earlier when the issues of Pan-India nature came up like journalist arrest popped up with freedom of speech being stifled, the Supreme Court did not step up. Secondly, the author senses some kind of influence of the executive on the apex judicial institution and in that context the judiciary they believe cannot fill the vacuum of the executor which the judiciary intends to do by rising up to the social and health questions. And this was time and again told in many cases like that of Paramanand Katara, which is the Union of India case of 1989. So, the author here sees a need for a uniform judicial order across India which is warranted only in unavoidable circumstances that is only rarely when it involves a question of law. And otherwise judicial autonomy should be given to high court and uniformity should not be encouraged. Also the decentralization should be encouraged for custom made policy decisions and centricism should be discouraged. And in the COVID-19 related cases high courts across the country have acted with an immense sense of judicial responsibility and this is a legal landscape that deserves to be encouraged according to the author. Know that L. Chandra Kumar versus the Union of India case of 1997 has thrown light on the prestige and capability of the high courts and this should be respected and encouraged. So, to conclude, centralization should be avoided by the apex court and the high court should be given the judicial space. With this we have come to the end of this news discussion. Now, our next discussion will be based on this editorial article. This editorial is based on India-US climate and clean energy agenda 2030 partnership that was launched last Thursday. Know that the virtual climate summit that was chiefly hosted by US was attended by 40 other world leaders and it resulted in a joint statement from the US and India reiterating the importance of climate action and clean energy. The syllabus covered by this article is given below for your reference. First, let us know more about the India-US agenda before we analyze the article. India and the United States, they launched the India-US climate and clean energy agenda 2030 partnership and it was led by the Indian Prime Minister and the US President. As we saw, it was launched at the leaders summit on climate that took place on 22nd of April 2021. In the summit, US and India, they agreed to launch a high-level partnership which envisages bilateral cooperation in order to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and the actions will be chiefly focused on the decade ending 2030. See, both India and the United States have set ambitious 2030 targets for climate action and clean energy and this is evident in US's new nationally determined contribution wherein it has set an economy-wide target of reducing its net greenhouse gas emissions by 50 to 52 percent below 2005 levels by the year 2030. And coming to India as a part of its climate mitigation efforts, it has set a target of installing 450 gigawatts of renewable energy by the year 2030. So, therefore, this platform will be a way to fulfill the goals that we promised to Paris Agreement through intended nationally determined contributions which is otherwise called the INDC. So, for the benefit of the exam, let us take a moment to know what these INDCs are. See, 2015 was a historic year in which 196 parties came together under the Paris Agreement and under this, the countries agreed to transform the development trajectories towards sustainable development and the Paris Agreement thus aims at limiting the global warming to 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial levels and through the Paris Agreement, parties also agreed to a long-term goal for adaptation. And before the Paris Agreement, say the Kyoto Protocol and all had a top-down mechanism by which the countries were assigned targets but Paris Agreement is an outlier. The agreement asked the countries to come up with targets by taking into consideration their national challenges. Now, say for example, India has got a challenge in pulling about 300 million people out of poverty while it has to deal with climate change. So, accordingly, each country, they came up with their own targets called the INDC and this is provided in Article 4 of the Paris Agreement. Remember, it is not legally binding on the countries but countries are however required to submit the progress report mandatory after the year 2020. And when you take India, it has submitted its INDC. See, the intended nationally determined contributions of India have got three goals. The first is to reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35% by the year 2030 from its 2005 level. Secondly, to achieve 40% of electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel by the year 2030. And the third goal is to create additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent through additional forest and tree cover. And this equivalent to increase of about 680 to 817 million ton of carbon stock. Now, coming back to the US-India agenda, the partnership as the objectives to mobilize finance and speed clean energy deployment to demonstrate and scale innovative clean technologies that are needed to decarbonize sectors including industry, transportation, power and buildings. And another objective is to build capacity to measure, manage and adapt to the risks of climate related impacts. Now, to achieve the objectives, the partnership has laid down two tracks. One is the strategic clean energy partnership and the next one is climate action and finance mobilization dialogue. And both these tracks will build on and subsume a range of existing processes and mechanisms between the two countries. Now, with this information, we shall discuss the essence of the article. We know that the current climate crisis in hand is primarily a problem caused by the developed world. That is, during the process of development, they emitted tremendous amount of carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels that has been retained in the atmosphere causing this present problem. Now, this is commonly referred to as historic responsibility. When you take India, India is now only in the development process, so it is bound to emit. I know that India is the third largest emitter followed by US and China, but the per capita emission of India is much lower. And although India is not the cause, it is proactive to be a solution to the problem and the agenda is one such effort. But you should also remember, India is not committed to a net zero emission like many developed countries because India has other challenges in hand like poverty, tech inadequacy, fund crunches, etc to deal with the crisis. So, the developed countries need to stick on to their commitment of 100 billion dollars that was promised in the Paris deal to help out to developing countries like India owing to the historic responsibility. And this can lead to a win-win situation. And in that line, the renewed commitment from US after the Trump era, the ramped up commitment from Britain are all welcome steps. As a challenge to that commitment, the rebound economic growth from the pandemic can see a spike in the emission, which can jeopardize the path to sustainable future. And this was the trend after the 2008 economic crisis as well. So, it becomes important for the countries to focus on the coming decade to check the emissions and the US President calls it as decisive decade in that context. See, a sustainable future is beneficial at multiple levels because it would aid sustainable development, boost employment, clean up the environment and will crucially help all countries to emerge healthier from the pandemic. And the collaboration could be one of the kind in achieving the goal for a greener future that learns from the historic mistakes. So, with this information, let's move on to the next part of the discussion. Now, let us take up this news article which talks about the European Union's plan for a rapid assistance program for India in the wake of the growing COVID-19 crisis in India. So, in this context, let us have a brief understanding about the European Union. See, the European Union is a group of 27 countries in Europe that operate as a common economic, social and security policies. Know that the predecessor of the European Union was created in the aftermath of the Second World War and the first steps were to foster economic cooperation. Now, here it should be noted that when European countries started to cooperate economically back in 1951, only six countries that is only Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands participated in it. And these six countries, they signed the Treaty of Paris in 1951 to form the European Coal and Steel Community. And following this in the year 1958, the European Economic Community was created by these six countries. Over time, more and more countries joined and in 1992, the Maastricht Treaty was signed which had created the European Union. And at present, 27 countries are a part of this European Union. See, before it was 28 countries, but remember that in June 2016, the United Kingdom, they decided to stop being a part of the European Union. So the UK withdrew from the European Union on 31st of January 2020. You should also know that the European Union had launched a single European currency that is the Euro. And this was done with an aim to create a huge single market. So today at present, 19 out of 27 European Union countries, they use the Euro as their currency. But when you look at the objectives of the European Union, it includes promoting peace in Europe and to ensure that the people of the region lead good lives with their languages and cultures being respected. And finally, to ensure a strong European economy and also to ensure that the countries use the same coin to do business together. Note that the European Union was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2012 in recognition of the organization's effort to promote peace and democracy in Europe. And for your added information, the European Parliament, European Council, Council of the European Union, European Commission, the European Central Bank, the European Investment Bank and the European Economic and Social Communities are some of the important institutions functioning under the European Union. So this is in brief about European Union. Now let us move on to the next news article. Look at this article. This article is regarding the Cyber Crime Volunteers Program. See, there was an allegation that this program enables a culture of surveillance and could encourage civilians to report the online activities of other citizens. Now to an RTI requesting the total number of volunteers under the program, the Union Home Ministry replied that it does not maintain a centralized list of the volunteers. And the reason given for this was that under the seventh schedule of the Constitution, police and public order are state subjects. So in this context, let us discuss in brief about this program. First of all, know that cyber crime is an umbrella term that is used to describe two distant but closely related criminal activities, namely the cyber dependent and the cyber enabled crimes. See, cyber dependent crimes are offenses that can only be committed by using a computer, computer networks or other form of ICT. And these acts includes the spread of viruses and other malicious software, hacking etc. And these cyber dependent crimes are primarily acts that are directed against computers or network resources, although there may be secondary outcomes from the attacks such as fraud. Now coming to cyber enabled crimes, they are traditional crimes that are increased in their scale or reach by the use of computers, computer networks or other ICT. And unlike cyber dependent crimes, these cyber enabled crimes can still be committed without the use of ICT. And some examples of cyber enabled crimes are phishing emails, online banking and e-commerce frauds, theft of personal information, sexual offenses against children etc. As we know, police and public order are state subjects under the 7th Schedule of the Constitution of India, hence states or union territories are primarily responsible for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of crimes through their law enforcement agencies. But the challenges of cyberspace are many which flows from its vastness and borderless character and therefore the Ministry of Home Affairs has enabled Indian cyber crime coordination centre which is also called as HIFOC to provide a framework and ecosystem for the law enforcement agencies to deal with cyber crimes in a coordinated and comprehensive manner. And therefore, HIFOC is the nodal point at the national level in the fight against cyber crime and one of the important objectives of this HIFOC is to create an ecosystem that brings together academia, industry, public and government in prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of cyber crimes and accordingly the cyber crime volunteers program was launched by the HIFOC. The cyber crime volunteers program has been rolled out as a part of the cyber hygiene promotion and this brings together citizens to contribute in the fight against cyber crime in the country and also to assist the state and union territories law enforcement agencies in their endeavor to curb cyber crimes and the volunteers will be registered and their services is utilized by the respective state or union territories police agencies as per the requirements and the content reported shall be verified and it will be validated by the state or union territories law enforcement agencies for taking appropriate necessary actions and also know that there is no discretion in the hands of cyber volunteer. With this information, let us now move on to the prelims practice question discussion. Now, let us take up this prelims practice question with reference to European Union. Statement one, it was created by the Maastricht Treaty and statement two, it had launched a single European currency the euro which is used by all the 27 European Union members. So, which of the above statement or statements is correct? When you look at the first statement based on our discussion, we can infer that the statement is correct because the European Union was created in 1992 after the signing of the Maastricht Treaty and when you look at the second statement, the statement is partially correct because as stated the European Union launched a single European currency that is the euro with an aim to create a huge single market. So, the first part of the statement is correct but when you look at the second part, it says that the euro is used by all the 27 European Union members. This is incorrect because at present only 19 out of the 27 European Union countries are using the euro. So, this statement is incorrect and since a question wants us to find the correct statement, the right answer is option A that is one only. Now, look at this prelims practice question with reference to India, US climate and clean energy agenda 2030. Statement one, it is a dialogue mechanism taking into account the Paris Agreement pledges and statement two, it has no provision for financial mechanism. So, we need to identify the right statement. As we saw through the discussion, the first statement is correct because the agenda tries to support the INDCs of the countries under the Paris Agreement. So, hence statement one is correct and when you look at statement two, it is incorrect because the financial considerations are taken into account according to the joint statement furnished and since a question wants us to find the correct answer, the right option is option A that is one only. Now, look at this question about the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund which is also called as the PMKS Fund. Statement one says that it is a statutory fund created under the Disaster Management Act of 2005. Statement two says the donations to PMKS Fund are exempted from the Income Tax Act of 1961 and statement three says that the fund can accept donations from foreign nationals. So, when you look at the first statement, you can find that the statement is incorrect because the PMKS Fund has been registered as a public charitable trust and the trust deed of PMKS Fund has been registered under the Registration Act of 1908 at New Delhi on the 27th of March 2020. And when you look at the other two statements based on a discussion, you can find that both the statements are correct because the fund is exempted from the Income Tax Act and similarly, it can accept foreign donations as well. So, since the question wants us to find the correct answer, the right option is option C that is two when three only. The list of main questions is displayed below. You can write your answer and post them in the comment section. With this, we have come to the end of today's Indoor News Analysis. If you like the video, don't forget to like, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankarai's Academy YouTube channel for updates regarding UPSC civil services preparation.