 Good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankar IS Academy. So, these are list of articles chosen for today's discussion. If you can see these articles are chosen from yesterday's and today's newspaper. So, we will be seeing five different articles in that first we will be seeing about NBPS Act and then we will be seeing about GST Compensation Due. Followed by that we will be seeing about births and deaths and followed by that we will be seeing two different articles from yesterday's newspaper. So, without wasting much time now let us move on to the first news article discussion. Now our next news discussion is going to be based on this op-ed article. With each days passing the usage of drugs is found to be increasing among people. If you could remember recently we even had some high profile drug cases gaining headlines in the newspaper. So, on that line a few days back the union ministry of social justice and empowerment has come up with a proposal for changes to some provisions of the Narcotic Striction Psychotropic Substances that is NDPS Act of 1985 and remember this proposal is proposed because in India drug cases are dealt under the provisions of this act and this particular op-ed article is written in this backdrop. So this particular editorial is basically an interview between two eminent personalities and they share their views on the practice of drug usage, the NDPS Act and they also suggest some of the way forward to control the issue. I have decoded this article by drawing only the important points which are relevant for our exam preparation and framed it in a structure with sub-hidings. So kindly pay attention to the points discussed here since it will be very helpful for you in your mains answer writing. So this is the brief gist of the article displayed here. Now with this idea in mind let us approach this discussion. The relevant syllabus for this article is highlighted below for your reference. First let us see about the changes proposed to this article by the union ministry which is in the limelight today. See this article which was brought in 1985 is a stringent law and it even prescribes death penalty for repeat offenders. As of now the article does not make any distinction between an addict recreational user or a first-time user. So this is a problem. So the ministry has suggested changes to this provision and it has recommended for the person using drugs in smaller quantity to be treated as a victim instead of treating him as a criminal. And they should be sent to government-rent rehabilitation centres instead of avoiding them jail terms and imposing fines. That means criminal actions should not be taken against them. So this is what the first recommendation or this is what the first proposal suggested by the union ministry. Apart from that it has also called for decriminalising the possession of narcotic drugs in small quantities for personal purposes. And carefully note that it is not recommending for legalising drug like that in the US. But it only prescribes for the decriminalising of it. That is a person caught for the first time in a drug case is advised to be sent to rehabilitation centre since doing that enables a scope for reformation of such person. And the ministry also recommend to decriminalise the position of narcotic drugs in small quantities for personal purposes. So this is the second point you have to note here. And according to the speaker here the persons using drug in smaller quantities for personal use cannot be bracketed with the person producing narcotic drugs because there is always a difference between a drug supplier and the end user right. So it is important for the drug user to be seen as a patient. But will the proposal to send them to government run rehabilitation centre be an effective move remains to be a matter of question. Because we don't have the adequate infrastructure or adequate deaddiction centre counsellors to properly implement this. And as we know there is already an acute shortage of psychiatrist and counsellors. So at such a juncture we cannot be sure whether this may reap full benefits. So this is a problem or a challenge here. So note this point also it will be very helpful for your mains answer writing. Now talking about the challenges faced by the police while enforcing the NDPS Act. See as we know drug sale in most cases is an organized crime. And it has a long chain of persons involved in the process. So due to this reason it becomes really challenging for the police to cast the persons who are involved in it right from the point of source to the point of destination. Especially when the drugs get transported it becomes even more tedious since it is not possible for them to stop and scrutinize each and every passing vehicles. Nor it is difficult to check each vehicle with special trained sniffer dogs in a sustained manner. This is why most drug arrests are accompanied through specific information leads. The same applies when they are bound to find and destroy narcotic substances beyond the strait jurisdiction. Especially in areas that are mamoist highdotes. So this is the first challenge that the article tries to convey here. As the drug sale is an organized crime it is very difficult for the police to catch the person who involved in it right from the point of source to the point of destination. And it is very difficult to track the supply chain because the narcotic substance are transported even beyond the state jurisdictions. Another big challenge faced by the police is to secure conviction for the accused in drug cases. Since there are frequent delays in court procedures at times there are also cases that do not come up for trial even after two years of having registered them. And by the time the court hears the case most of the accused are out on bail and do not turn up for trial. So this also poses a very big challenge for the police. Even though the police catch the accused there is delay in court proceedings. And at the time when the case come up for a trial even after two years the accused are out on bail and they do not turn up for trial. Because of this they continue to be a part in the supply chain. Now let us see some measures that can be adopted to curb this drug menace. First we need to thoroughly examine and identify the reasons for people getting addicted to narcotic drugs. So whatever the issue may be identifying the core cause of the issue is very important and that is the first point the editorial is trying to convey here. Secondly we should devise a national fund for rehabilitation. And we need to allocate more money for the fund since that can be used to help transform drug addicts. So identifying the root cause is alone not enough we have to devise a national fund for rehabilitation that will help the person to transform or rehabilitate. So the third point is apart from the police and courts even the civil society should take the responsibility to control this. Say for example when vendors should strictly adhere to the person's age while selling substances like whiteness. Since many street children are getting addicted to whiteness. So this is what the third point that the article is trying to convey here. Fourthly our approach to tackle the problem should begin from home. So parents must be able to talk to their children and assure them all support when they face a problem. This moral and emotional support can play a major role in preventing children from getting into this drug trap. That is what the fourth point that the editorial is trying to convey and lastly teachers should keep an eye on school surroundings to ensure that there is no such outlets for children to get into the practice of using drugs. So these are some of the important points that you have to note from this editorial article. It will be very helpful for your mains answer writing. They might ask you a question in ethics or even in social justice there might be a question. So make a note of this and use it in your mains answer wisely. So in this discussion we saw three important parts. First we saw about the changes proposed to the act. That is the Narcotics Drug and Psychotropic Substance that is NDPS Act of 1985. We saw what are the changes proposed to this act by the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. So in that we saw that the person using drug in smaller quantities should be treated as a victim instead of criminalizing them. This is the first point we saw there and we also saw that they should decriminalize the position of narcotic drugs in smaller quantity for personal purposes. So when a person is using drug in a smaller quantity for personal use it should not be bracketed with the person producing narcotic drugs. So that is what the proposal stresses here and followed by that we saw some of the challenges faced by the police by enforcing the NDPS Act. In that we saw that since the drug sale in most cases is an organized crime it has a long chain of persons involved in the process and it is very difficult to catch or keep a track on them because they are linked even beyond the state jurisdiction and followed by that we saw that the delay in court procedures also pose an important challenge and followed by that we saw some of the measures that we have to adapt to curb this direct menace in that we saw that first we should identify the core cause, second we should allocate or devise a national fund for rehabilitation, third we saw that the civil society should take responsibility to control this and fourth we saw that our approach to tackle the problem should begin from home. That is the parent should take responsibility and they have to give a moral and emotional support to their children and finally we saw that the teachers should also keep an eye on school surroundings to ensure that there are no such outlets for children to get into the practice of using drugs. So to conclude as per the speaker more than recommending changes to these provisions for entire country it is important for the states to be consulted in this regard because policing is a state subject and it is not in the concurrent list. So instead of suggesting proposals to change sections of the law for the entire country it would be good to introduce this move on a pilot basis. Say for example at initial level it can be introduced in one state where there is a acute drug related problem and in this regard the government can also take examples from the best practices in the world as well and more than tackling it we must first examine the root cause of the problem like was instead of just relying only on law enforcing agencies even the civil and government should work together to create an enabling environment to address the issue. So these are some of the takeaway points from this article and with this let us wind up and move on to the next news article discussion. Now let us take up this news article which is about GST compensation so the news here is that the union government has given 44,000 crore rupees in back-to-back loans to the state and union territories in replacement of their GST compensation due. So the union government instead of paying the compensation due that is the GST compensation due they have given 44,000 crore rupees back-to-back loan to states and union territories and an important point to note here is that the estimated GST compensation shortfall for this fiscal year has been distributed in three installments that is 75,000 crore rupees in July 15th 40,000 crore rupees in October 7th and the most recent payment of 44,000 crore rupees and note that one third of the loan amount has been provided to just four states namely Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Punjab. Now in this context let us quickly review the back-to-back borrowing process which has recently gotten a lot of attention. We'll see how the back-to-back loan works with an example. See back-to-back loan which is also termed as a parallel loan is an agreement between two parent companies in different countries. So under this agreement the two parent companies which are based in different countries will borrow offsetting amount in their local currencies and then they will lend that money to the other local subsidiary and the main purpose behind doing this is to avoid borrowing money across country lines. See borrowing money across country lines has got a lot of issues like price fluctuations, possible restrictions, unwanted transparency issues and fees associated with forex markets. So to avoid these exchange risk back-to-back loan helps. So this is the general concept of back-to-back loan. If you don't understand the concept let me explain it with an example. Say for example just imagine an American company that decides to open an office in India and an Indian company that wishes to open an office in America can engage in back-to-back loan. See in this type of loan what happens is the American company can lend the Indian company two million dollars to open an office in America while the Indian company would also lend the American company an equivalent of two million dollars also. Here you have to note the term equivalent. If the American company lends the Indian company in dollars the Indian company can lend the American company equivalent of dollars in rupees itself. So this is the basic underlying concept. Here both the corporations will be able to manage the currency risk because the loans are made in their respective currencies. This is a very important advantage of using a back-to-back loan and remember both loans however will have the same maturity date and will be repaired on the same day. Now let's look how this works in the context of center-state relations. See we are aware that state government in India do not have direct access to external sources of funding right. So to solve this issue the 12th finance commission suggested that the union government provide back-to-back external support to Indian state governments. In other words when the federal government makes loan to state governments on a back-to-back basis it means that the state will face the same terms and circumstances as the union government. Terms and circumstances like concessional interest rate, grace period and maturity profiles, commitment charges and amortization schedules. So these kinds of terms which are faced by the union government will be faced by the state government as well and this is because they have access to finance from bilateral and multilateral sources. So here is a shortcoming also. See the states would have to face currency risk since principal repayment and interest repayment on such loans to external agencies are designated in foreign currencies. We cannot pay in Indian currency we have to pay in foreign currency which will put the state government in risk. So this is a shortcoming. So by now I hope you have a clear understanding on the concept of back-to-back loan. Now coming back if you have noticed the dispersal of GST compensation due for this year is found to have taken place earlier. See as we know we still have five more months remaining in this fiscal year and this early dispersal is expected to help the states to manage their finances in a better manner compared to 2020-2021. Since in 2020-2021 the amount was transferred to them in smaller installments till the later half of the year. So this early dispersal is expected to help the state and union territories in planning their public expenditure efficiently especially when it comes to improving health infrastructure and other infrastructure projects and the move also helps the state to avoid the bunching up of spending plans towards the end of the year as well. So these are some of the takeaway points from the article. You have to make a note of it because it is a very important economic term and you can expect a question like this. So in this discussion we saw what is a back-to-back loan. We saw an example also and we saw how the back-to-back plan works in the context of center state relations and we also saw a shortcoming of the back-to-back loans and we saw some of the advantages of the early dispersal of GST compensation due. So these are some of the takeaway points from the article. Now let us move on to the next news article. Now let us take up this news article which is related to the registration of birth and death in India. So this article basically talks about an amendment that has been proposed to a 1969 act which is titled as the registration of birth and death act 1969 which is shortly known as the RVD Act of 1969 and this amendment is aimed at enabling the center to maintain the database of registered birth and death at the national level. So this is the news for today and let us see some of the important points mentioned in the news article. See the registration of births and deaths in India was made mandatory with the enactment of this RVD Act 1969 and as you would be aware generally the registration is done as per the place of occurrence of the event and when you take the present practice the registration of birth and deaths is done by the local register who is appointed by the states. See as per section 4 of the act the chief register is instructed to coordinate, unify and supervise the work of registration in the state and to prepare and submit a report on their work to the state government. So this is the present existing practice. Now under the said amendment a new direction is being proposed and according to this the chief register who is appointed by the state is expected to maintain a unified database of civil registration records at state level and he is then mandated to integrate it with the database at national level which is maintained by the registered general of India RGI. So as per the existing practice the local register who is appointed by the state register the birth and death in the place of occurrence of the event and the chief register is instructed to coordinate, unify and supervise the work of registration in the state and he is responsible to prepare and submit a report on their working to the state government. So this is the existing practice and as per the said amendment a new direction is being proposed and according to that the chief register who is appointed by the state is expected to maintain a unified database of civil registration records at state level. He is also mandated to integrate it with the database at the national level. So to put it in simple words in addition to the data storage that is being done in the states the amendment implies that the center will also be a parallel repository of data. Know that these amendments have been proposed by the registered general of India that is RGI which works under the union home ministry. Apart from this a new section named section 3A has also been proposed to be inserted in the act and when you take this proposal the registered general of India will be maintaining the database of registered birth and death at the national level and the proposal directs that with approval of central government this maintained data can be used to update the following acts. You can see those acts in the image here they include population register prepared under the Citizenship Act 1955 electoral registers of electoral rules prepared under representation of People's Act 1951 other database prepared under other Act 2016. So these acts can be updated with the approval of the central government by using the data collected. So that means if these amendments are implemented then the center could use the data to update the national population register that is NPR. See the NPR already has a database of 119 crore residents and under the citizenship rules 2003 it is the first step towards the creation of NRC that is national register of citizens. So these are some of the takeaway points from this news article. So in this discussion we saw about the existing system in the registration of births and deaths in India and we also saw some of the proposals which is proposed to amend the registration of births and deaths Act 1969 and we also saw about the significance of this amendment. So with this we came to the end of this news article discussion. Now let us move on to the next news article. Now let us take up this article for our discussion. See this article was written by Dr. Srinath Reddy who is president of public foundation of India and he talks about the weakness of Indian healthcare sector which was exposed during the second wave of Covid. He further goes on to discuss about the recently launched Pradhan Mantri Aishman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission ABIM which will help us in addressing the gap in the healthcare sector. So this is the overall outline of the article. Now let us start our discussion. The relevant syllabus is highlighted here for your reference. To begin with let us first start with the weaknesses of the Indian healthcare sector in order to appreciate the changes brought by the ABIM. Let us not limit ourselves to the weakness of the sector that were exposed by the Covid second wave alone. We shall also discuss all the challenges that the Indian healthcare sector faces so that we get a broad understanding. See according to National Institute of Health the challenges that the Indian health sector faces can be categorized under five A's. See the first A is access that is the lack of access to healthcare. See the basic unit of healthcare in India is the primary healthcare centers but they are underfunded. When you come to rural centers they lack proper infrastructure and availability of basic drugs. When you come to urban areas the primary health sector here also is not properly given attention by the government. Based on the access to health there is a huge disparity between rural and urban areas. Now based on the access to health in rural areas the doctor to people ratio is very low. So this is the first A. Now coming to the second A. The second A is absence. That is the absence of a properly trained manpower. See in most district medical hospitals there is a shortage of specialist doctors and there is also a shortage of supporting staffs. See the number of medical colleges in India are also low and this becomes a very huge problem when we compare our country's huge population with the available number of medical colleges. So now next comes the third A that is affordability. This A addresses the issue with health being not affordable to the general public. See in India 75 percentage of healthcare expenditure comes as out of pocket spending of households. Adding to this problem is the private health sector not being regulated by the government. So this makes quality healthcare not affordable to most of the Indians. So this is the third A and now moving on to the fourth A. Fourth A is awareness. See there is a lack of awareness. Many factors play an important role here. Most importantly due to lack of capacity building the people are not aware of their rights. Also due to lower educational status and lower functional literacy their behavioural changes different is difficult to bring out in the people as well. So this is the fourth A and the fifth and the final A is accountability. See there is lack of accountability in the health sector and the culture of accountability among the healthcare professionals is quite low in India. So these other five A's which are categorized as challenges which are faced by Indian health sector by National Institute of Health. In addition to the above mentioned weaknesses the lack of adequate budget allocation for healthcare spending is compounding the problem of the sector. See currently according to 2021 to 2022 budget India allocated 1.8 percentage of GDP for healthcare which is suboptimal. So this also poses a challenge for health sector and these are some of the major challenges that the healthcare sector faces in India. Now moving on let us discuss about the recently launched ABIM that is Pradhan Mantri Aishman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission. First let's see a little bit of introduction about the mission. See on 21st October our Prime Minister launched the Pradhan Mantri ABIM. It was launched with a budget outlay of 64,000 crore rupees. The ABIM scheme is a Pan India Health Infrastructure Initiative and this mission intends to give India's capacity to deal with emerging public health challenges a much needed boost. As a result of this India's health infrastructure will undergo a paradigm shift or it will undergo a fundamental change and become more resilient. This was launched because for any country to achieve prosperity first its citizens must be healthy. So ABIM helps in addressing the challenges in the health sector. Now let us see how ABIM helps in addressing the challenges faced by the healthcare sector. See to address the accessibility issue ABIM is planning to extend the primary healthcare infrastructure in India. See ABIM will support infrastructure development of 17,788 rural health and wellness centers in seven high focused states and three northeastern states. In addition to that the ABIM will also help in developing 11,044 urban health and wellness centers in close collaboration with urban local bodies. Apart from this the various measures of the scheme will extend primary healthcare services across India. To further increase accessibility the ABIM plans to establish critical care health hospital blocks with 5200 bits. This is because during the pandemic many non-covid patients were denied admission at the hospital due to overcrowding. So these critical care hospital blocks will prevent such problems from resurfacing in the future. Further during non-pandemic times these hospital blocks will be utilized for providing critical care for other disease conditions as well. Apart from this the ABIM also plans or aims to address the accessibility issue during disaster time as well. See the mission plans to establish 15 health emergency operation centers and two container based mobile hospitals. This will ensure accessibility even during times of emergency. Plan is also set in mention to include non-communicable diseases like mental health, diabetes and hypertension also. This will help people to access quality healthcare services. See according to national health portal in India nearly 5.8 million people die from NCDs. That is 5.8 million people die due to heart and lungs diseases, strokes, cancers and diabetes. Every year or in other words one in four Indians have a risk of dying from an NCD before they reach their age of 70. Now coming back this move will bring affordable treatment for non-communicable disease to the people and this will also help in bringing down out-of-pocket expenditure. Now moving on to address the absence of properly trained manpower the network of centers which is from the primary to tertiary level will help train the public health workforce. These trained public health workflows will perform routine public health functions. Apart from this to further aid the development of healthcare workforce the ABIM is planning to add institutional capacity by upgrading the district hospitals as well. These new upgraded digital hospital will help us to create new training centers. Now moving on to make healthcare affordable the health and wellness centers will be linked with the Pradhan Mantri Jan Aurogyo Yojana for all the enlisted beneficiaries. The Oishman Bharat Health and Wellness Center was launched in April 2018 followed by Oishman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Aurogyo Yojana in September 2018 and the Oishman Bharat Digital Mission was launched this year in September while the Pan India Health Infrastructure Strengthening Scheme that is PM Oishman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission was launched on 25th October this year. So these initiatives shall provide affordable quality and accessible healthcare to all people. These programs of the government will provide primary secondary tertiary digital and resilient healthcare systems that will equip the country to face challenges of pandemic in the future. Apart from this ABIM has also given due importance to information technology for microbial surveillance a national platform for one health will be established. Four regional national institute of virology will also be established and laboratory capacity under the national center for disease control. The Indian Council of Medical Research and National Research Institute will be strengthened. By integration information technology data driven decision making can be made. This will help in efficient allocation of resources. So overall if implemented properly the Pradhan Mantri ABIM can strengthen India's health system. The mission does this by augmenting capacity in several areas and creating a framework for coordinated functioning at district, state and national levels. So that's all you have to know about Pradhan Mantri ABIM and in this discussion we saw about the various problems faced by the Indian healthcare sector and how the newly launched ABIM will help address these challenges. With this let us conclude this session and take up the next article. Now for our next discussion I have chosen this editorial article. So this editorial is basically about India's energy sector and the author here throws light on the potential role the Russian companies could play in helping India's energy transformation. Here they are talking about switching on to more cleaner forms of energy and the author substantiates his argument by drawing examples of various cooperative initiatives between India and Russia. So this is the underlying essence of this article and the article can be divided into two parts. In the first part the author is trying to substantiate why Russia is a good partner for India and in the second part the author throws light on the potential role the Russian companies could play in helping India's energy transformation. And since this article is quite big I have decoded the article by drawing only the main points and I have mainly included points related to the various past present and upcoming initiatives between both countries across different energy sectors. See these informations is very important both for your problems and mains preparation and especially when it comes to bilateral relations. So without wasting much time let's get into our discussion. The syllabus covered by this editorial is highlighted here for your reference. See as we know India is now emerging to be a leading country in the transformation of global energy and to enhance this initiative it is putting in efforts to diversify its trade relations and when you take Russia it is a country with abundant energy resources and not just that it has also got the interest or the appetite for trade diversification and this simple fact shows that Russia could be an ultimate long-term partner for India in the energy domain. Knowing their worth companies from both the countries are pushing for greater cooperation in the oil and gas sector beyond the investment that were already made in joint projects. So here the author tries to convey that since the Russia have abundant energy resources it could be an ultimate long-term partner for India in the energy domain. So this is the first point you have to note here. Now let us see some of the examples that assures why Russia is a good partner for India. See one very good example for the cooperation between two countries is the joint venture named Reliance Cyborg LS Stromer. See this joint venture has happened between India's Reliance Industry Limited and Russia's Cyborg in 2019. I believe you know what is a joint venture. See a joint venture is a commercial arrangement between two or more participants who agree to cooperate to achieve a particular objective. See the joint venture covers a range of collaborative business agreements which inverse different degrees of integration and the duration of this joint venture may be for a fixed or indefinite duration. So a joint venture is nothing bad it is a commercial arrangement between two or more participants who agree to cooperate to achieve a particular objective. So one such joint venture was between India's Reliance Industry Limited and Russia's Cyborg in 2019. And just know that Cyborg is the largest integrated petrochemicals company in Russia and it is one of the fast-growing company in the global petrochemicals industry. And this joint venture business which is based in Jamnagar, Gujarat presently runs South Asia's first butyl and halogenated butyl rubber production facility. So to put it in simple words, both India and Russia are collaborating in the production of butyl and halogenated butyl rubber and this is the first butyl and halogenated butyl rubber production facility in South Asia. Now let's not get much into the science of that but just remember that butyl and halogenated butyl are forms of synthetic rubber and under this collaboration the Russian company which is the Cyborg has brought to India a unique technology which was not commercially available in the market here. So within a period of one year the firm has become a significant supplier of butyl rubber in the Indian market which was completely dependent on imports till then. So here the author tries to convey that the collaboration with Russian company helped in technology transfer and another good thing about it is that apart from supplying most of the butyl rubber consumed in the country the firm is also exporting its products to Asia, Europe, the United States, Brazil and other countries. To put it in simple words this collaboration helped us in achieving import substitution and export promotion in India. See there is a concept in economics called import substitution and export promotion and it is a very important concept and a strategy used by most of the countries to boost their economy. See basically import substitution is substituting the imported goods with the locally produced goods to meet the internal demand. So to meet the internal demand the locally produced goods will substitute the imported goods. So the country need not import the good from another country anymore. So this is import substitution and export promotion is a strategy where a potential industry is prepared for competitiveness with foreign competitors. See when we trade internationally competition arises right. This may reduce the returns rate that is it may reduce the rate of returns. So export promotion is a strategy in which a potential industry is prepared for competitiveness so that they can compete with their foreign competitors. So this is what the collaboration has given us and this move has got multiple positive implications for India. Apart from helping us to achieve import substitution and export promotion the surplus production results in the uninterrupted critical raw material supply which ultimately supports the growth of India's auto industry. And it also serves as a buffer during events of global supply chain distribution. And most importantly this project is a clear manifestation of the Make in India and Atma Nirbar Bharat initiative. So this is what the author tries to convey in the first part of the editorial. Here the author cites an example of joint venture between India and Russia and the author explained how the collaboration helped in technology transfer, import substitution and export promotion and how this project is a clear manifestation of Make in India and Atma Nirbar Bharat initiatives. So this is why Russia is very important partner to India and now coming to the second part this part deals with the energy sector. See as we all know we are still in the face of coronavirus and it is uncertain when this is going to end. But despite that India has managed to face an economic recovery. See India is reported to have expanded by more than 20% in the June quarter and this expansion is expected to grow by around 9% by the end of 2021 which is found to be higher than China's expected growth of 8.5%. And a good reason for this positive trend or recovery even during the suppression of corona is that India is leaning more towards energy transformation and environmental concerns. And once it started facing recovery we can find India to be increasingly leaning towards the green transition. If you are aware you might know that India has recently achieved a significant milestone in its transition towards green energy that is India has completed the country wide installation of 100 gigawatts of the total installed renewable energy capacity excluding large hydro and on attaining it India aims to hit the 175 gigawatts of renewable energy target by December 2022 and if it attains it that would be close to half of India's current total installed power capacity. See actually India's commitment to net zero emission could positively impact the country's growth trajectory but however the uncertainties of climate change and threats of a new pandemic suggest that the country should accelerate its energy transition in order to be on the safer side and on that line Russia which is one of the key global players across the energy market has got the potential to emerge as an indispensable partner for such a transition and both countries also have an extensive record of bilateral cooperation in the energy domain. Say for example Russian companies have been involved in the construction of six nuclear reactor in the Kudankulam nuclear power project at Tamil Nadu likewise both India and Russia secure the potential of designing a nuclear reactor as well and the list goes on. But then despite these significant progress the coal sector remained to be India's most important source of electricity production and this is the problem here and we know that it is not good for our environment. So in order to meet with the growing energy demand and succeed in its green transformation India needs investment in wind and solar infrastructure, grid expansion and storage to reach its capacity target by 2030. So in such a case India can actually expand cooperation and reach up to partner like Russia to achieve their goal. So to conclude after seeing so many efficient initiatives between the two countries it cannot be denied that Russia is a potential and a suitable partner for India in the energy domain but the need of the hover is that the current bilateral exchange rate needed to be accelerated for India to grasp its potential for energy transformation. Since the bilateral ties require more support mutually from both the governments and with this let us wind up this editorial discussion. In this discussion we saw how Russia can be a good partner for India, we saw an example also and we saw how Russia helped us in technology transfer, import substitution and export promotion, manifestation of making India and Atman-Irbar Bharat initiative and we also saw how Russia can be a good partner for India when it comes to energy sector. So with this we came to the end of the news article discussion now let us see some of the problems practice questions. Now look at this first question, this question is about national population register. In the context of the national population register consider the following statements. First statement it is the register of usual residence of the country. Second statement its objective is to create a comprehensive identity database of every usual resident in the country. Third statement it is mandatory for every usual resident of India to register in the NPR. So which of the statements given above is or or correct? Option A 1 and 2 only, option B 2 only, option C 1 and 3 only and option D 1 2 and 3. See the national population register that is NPR is a register of usual residence of the country and this register is being prepared at the local that is at the village or sub-town, sub-district, district, state and national level and this particular exercise is performed under the provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the citizenship registration of citizens and issue of national identity cards rules 2003. Have in mind it is mandatory for every usual resident of India to register in the NPR. Here what do they mean by usual resident? See a usual resident is one who has resided in a local area for the past six months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next six months or more. So they are classified as usual resident and the main objective behind the NPR is to create a comprehensive identity database of every usual resident in the country and this database will be containing both demographic as well as biometric particulars. So from this we can infer that all the three statements which are given here are correct. So that means the right answer here will be option D that is 1 2 and 3. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about back-to-back loans. Consider the following statements. First statement the 12th finance commission recommended for the transfer of external assistance to state governments in India by the union government on a back-to-back basis. Second statement under the agreement the states would face identical terms and conditions on account of their access to finance from bilateral and multirated sources which of the statements given above is or are correct. Option A one only option B two only option C both one and two and option D neither one nor two. See if you remember in our GSD compensation discussion we saw about the concept of back-to-back loan and we also saw how it is practiced between center and the state. So the first statement given here is actually correct. Yes it was recommended in the 12th finance commission only and the 12th finance commission recommended for the transfer of external assistance to state governments in India by the union government on a back-to-back basis. On coming to the second statement. See this is also a correct statement because we saw in our discussion when the union government passes a loan on a back-to-back basis to the state government it implies that the states will be facing the identical terms and conditions just like how it is faced by the union government and they are facing it because they have accessed finance from bilateral and multilateral sources so that makes the second statement right as well. So since both the statements are correct here the correct answer for this question is option C both one and two. Main questions are displayed here please write answer and post it in the comment section. With this we came to the end of the news article discussion. If you like the video like comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel. Thank you.