 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankarayas Academy for the dates 21st and 22nd November 2019. These are the list of news articles selected for the corresponding dates. It has been displayed along with the page numbers in different editions of the newspaper. The link for the handwritten notes in the PDF format and the time stamping of the discussed articles are provided in the description box and they are also provided in the common section for the benefit of mobile phone viewers. Now let us move on to the analysis of first news article. This news article is about a litigation or a case in International Court of Justice. In this case Myanmar has been accused of genocide of Rohinnya Muslims. In this news article we will see about the matters involved in this particular case, then about the 1948 UN Genocide Convention and then finally we will conclude this article by discussing few important matters regarding the International Court of Justice. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article has been highlighted here for your reference. In Myanmar Rohinnyas are an ethnic Muslim minority. In the same way how Muslims are minority in our country. Before August 2017 there were around 10 lakh Rohinnyas who resided in Rakhine state of Myanmar and they are saying that Rohinnyas differ from Myanmar's dominant groups that are dominant Buddhist groups ethnically, linguistically and also in terms of religion. Now what is the issue? See the Myanmar government did not recognize Rohinnyas as one of its official ethnic groups. They were not given citizenship. They were considered as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. This is happening even though persons belonging to Rohinnya community have traced their roots in Myanmar that they have been or ethnically present for a long period of time like centuries. Now because of the non-recognition by the Myanmar government the members of this group have no legal consideration, no legal documents they have ultimately become stateless persons. That means persons from this community do not have a nationality of any country. The Myanmar government having called these people as illegal immigrants have placed lot of restrictions which act as discrimination in comparison with other groups in Myanmar. There were restrictions on marriage, family planning, education, employment, religious choice, freedom of movement and lot of similar other matters. There are also some practices for which these persons are asked to comply that conflict with Muslim customs. For example, when they ask permission to marry they are required to give the photograph of the bride without a headscarf and the bride room have to be in a clean shaven face and there are some other practices that conflict with the customs of Islamic religion. So all these actions by the Myanmar government have led to deterioration of human rights of persons belonging to this community and it has also led to widespread poverty in the Rakhine state where they were majority. We don't have real estimates particularly after the flee of Rohinnyas from Myanmar whether they are still a majority in the Rakhine state in Myanmar but in overall Myanmar they are minority. And because of all these parameters poor infrastructure, lack of employment opportunities, lack of opportunities to exercise their rights to reach their full potential face to face other communities, there is a clear divide it could be economic divide that is seen between majority Buddhists and the minority Rohinnyas. The divide here we are mentioning is inequality and there are also communal tensions between the majority and minority that has also at times led to conflict between the communities. But in August 2017 clashes broke out in Rakhine but since August 2017 the Myanmar government and its military has been carrying out brutal attacks on hundreds of Rohinnya villages. The spark of these actions is because a militant group called as Arakhan Rohinnya Salvation Army it attacked on police and army posts in Myanmar. They claimed responsibility for the attacks and therefore the government declared this organization as a terrorist organization and the government and it is alleged that the government has destroyed hundreds of Rohinnya villages. These actions by the government has forced almost 7 lakh Rohinnyas to leave Myanmar. They are saying that around 6000 Rohinnyas they were just killed in the first month of attacks and allegations are that Myanmar security forces has opened fire on the fleeing civilians and even they planted some land mines near the border crossings when Rohinnyas were trying to flee from Myanmar to Bangladesh. And after fleeing many members of this community have become refugees in many countries Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand and in some countries where they were not given refugee status they were there as illegal immigrants for example India. The UN Secretary General has described the violence on Rohinnyas in Myanmar as an act of ethnic cleansing. International human rights activists and human rights defenders and some even leaders they say that acts of genocide have taken place in Myanmar. Here genocide is a term used to describe violence against members of a particular group. It could be a national group or it could be a ethnic group or a racial group or a religious group wherein the acts are carried out with the intent to destroy the entire group. That is why the term genocide is used. So these are some of the background regarding the issues faced by Rohinnya community. Now let us see the news article. The news article states that Gambia which is a west African country is due to open its case before the International Court of Justice next month and it has stood up for the cause of Rohinnyas on behalf of 57 member states of organization of Islamic cooperation. Gambia is also one of the member countries of OIC. The complaint given by Gambia accuses Myanmar. It states that Myanmar has violated or breached the 1948 UN Genocide Convention. It states that Myanmar has targeted Rohinnyas in the Rakhine state through a brutal military campaign since 2017. So what is this 1948 Genocide Convention? What are some of the important articles that we have to see while discussing this news article? Whether India is a party to this convention? Has India ratified this convention? We will see this information in this analysis. This convention is called as the convention on the prevention and the convention to punish the crime of genocide. That is convention on the prevention and punishment of crime of genocide. This convention came into force in January 1951 regarding India's position. See India has signed this convention in 1949 and it ratified the convention in 1959. So India is a full fledged participant with respect to this UN Genocide Convention. Before bringing this convention in 1946, United Nations General Assembly brought a resolution that resolution declared that genocide is a crime under international law. Now let us see the important articles article 1 to 4 of this UN Genocide Convention. Article 1 deals with when genocide can be a crime. Article 2 talks about the definition of the genocide. What are all the acts which show that there is genocide and article 3 talks about the acts that are punishable and article 4 talks about who can be punished. See as per article 1 of this convention, it can be committed in the time of peace or it can be committed in the time of war. Either way it becomes a crime. Article 2 states that genocide means any of the following acts that are committed with the intent to destroy a particular group. Actions including, you know, killing the members of the group are causing serious bodily harm or even mental harm to the members of the group. Even this constitutes genocide. And these are some of the actions that constitute genocide acts. So if these acts are carried out with the intent to destroy a particular group, it means genocide has happened in a particular place. Now let's see the punishable acts. See genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide or direct and public incitement to commit genocide or attempting to commit genocide or complicity in genocide. That is having a secret involvement in the act of genocide. These acts are punishable. Who can be punished? This could be private players. It could be a private individual. It could be public officials serving in the government or it could be constitutionally responsible rulers. It could be a prime minister or it could be a president of a country, right? Even these persons can be punishable according to this convention. So now on behalf of organization of Islamic cooperation and to upheld the human rights of Rohingya community in Myanmar, Gambia has moved to international court of justice against Myanmar. OAC states that the organization of Islamic cooperation states that it is the collective voice of Muslim nations and according to Gambia and many other international human rights activists, majority of Rohingyas who are undergoing persecution are ethnic Muslims of Myanmar and these are some of the reasons why Gambia has moved to protect the rights of Rohingyas. Gambia will be seeking the international court of justice to make an emergency injunction to protect the Rohingyas. Here injection is like a stay or an order by international court of justice which commands Myanmar to stop from carrying out a specific action that may damage the Rohingyas. So the news states that the civilian leader in Myanmar and the state counselor of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi will lead delegation to international court of justice to defend Myanmar's argument with respect to Rohingyas. Know that Aung San Suu Kyi is a noble laureate. She was awarded Noble Peace Prize in the year 1991. She was awarded Noble Peace Prize for her nonviolent struggle for democracy and human rights. Now after receiving this award, the issue of Rohingyas in Myanmar has actually become a blot on the work of Aung San Suu Kyi. Now let us see few facts with respect to international court of justice. These points could be highly helpful in prelims point of view. See it is the principle judicial organ of United Nations. There are main six principle organs of UN. One of them is international court of justice. It was established in June 1945 by UN Charter. Now the headquarters or the seat of this ICJ is at the Peace Palace which is situated in the Hague city of Netherlands. Note that it is the only principle organ of United Nations that is not located in New York in United States of America. Now this court's role is to settle legal disputes which are submitted to it by the states. So only countries recognized by United Nations are eligible to appear before the court. Only they can submit the cases. And this court has no jurisdiction to deal with applications from individuals or non-governmental organizations or corporations or any other private entity. And it will also give advisory opinions on certain legal questions that are referred to it by authorized UN organs or UN specialized agencies. This court consists of 15 judges. These judges are elected their term of office is 9 years. Now one important thing is that the judgments delivered by this court are binding on the concerned parties. This is provided by article 94 of United Nations Charter. The Charter mentions that each member of United Nations undertakes to comply with the decision of International Court of Justice in any case to which a particular member is a party. So if a judgment is pronounced in the case that is moved by Gambia, Myanmar has to comply the verdict of ICJ because Myanmar is a member country of United Nations and these judgments are final and they cannot be appealed in any other international court. So these are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this news article. Now let us move on to next news article. This news article is about the strategic disinvestment of some of the central public sector enterprises. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article has been highlighted here for a reference. In this news article we will be seeing about what do we mean by strategic disinvestment and some of the benefits of strategic disinvestment and we will also see about the International Financial Services Centers Authority Bill of 2019 that is to be introduced in the Lok Sabha. On 19th November the central government has given in principle approval for strategic disinvestment of 28 central public sector enterprises. Some of them are Air India and its five subsidiaries and one joint venture Cement Corporation of India Limited, Scooters India Limited, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, Indian Tourism Development Corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation Limited, Kamarajar Port, Karnataka Antibiotics. So these are some of the 28 CPSCs for which in principle approval has been given for strategic disinvestment on 19th November 2019. Yesterday the news was with respect to five more central public sector enterprises that is Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Shipping Corporation of India Limited, Concord or the Container Corporation of India Limited then THDCIL or Tehri Hydro Development Corporation of India Limited and NEEPCO Northeastern Electric Power Corporation Limited. The news yesterday was the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has accorded or has given in principle approval for strategic disinvestment in these central public sector enterprises. So what do we mean when we say strategic disinvestment? Simply it refers to sale of shares of government that government holds in a central public sector enterprise. To be very accurate it refers to sale of substantial portion of government shareholding of a central public sector enterprise. Here the government shareholding could be up to 50% or you know it could be even higher percent as determined by a competent authority and sale of these shares is what we call as strategic disinvestment and the buyer of these shares are called as strategic buyer. This sale will also include transfer of management control to the strategic buyer. Here a strategic buyer could be a private player or it can be any other public sector enterprise also. Even for example in the yesterday's announcement if you see take NEEPCO the northeastern electric power corporation limited at present the government is having a share of 100% the government shareholding is 100% in NEEPCO but these shares are to be sold not to a private player but to another CPSC called as NTPC that is National Thermal Power Corporation. So here we are trying to say that the strategic buyer can be a private player or it can also be another public sector enterprise. This is the definition of strategic disinvestment according to the department of investment and public asset management. This department comes under Ministry of Finance. Now let us see few information regarding why the central government re-initiated the policy of strategic disinvestment in 2015. See it was decided to open up sectors for private enterprises. The reason was to bring efficiency in management. See when sectors produce or function efficiently this will contribute to the general or overall development of the country. Now this strategic disinvestment is guided by a basic economic principle which is the government should discontinue its engagement in manufacturing processes. The government should discontinue its engagement in producing goods and services in those sectors where there is competitive markets at present. These are sectors that are likely to perform better when they are in the private hands rather than in the hands of the government. Maybe the private may be having better avenues for technology upgradation. The private player might have efficient management practices rather than the government shows to contribute to the overall GDP of the country. Now let's see few benefits of the strategic disinvestment. Today we will be seeing one side of the coin that is from the side of government we will not be discussing critically regarding the strategic disinvestment which we will do as and when editorials come on these matters. So when the government sells its shareholding in CPSCs it will receive financial resources in the process. And these financial resources that are accrued or unlocked by the strategic disinvestment will be used to support or finance the social sector or the development programs of the government. So the financial resources will ultimately benefit the public. Well it is easily said that it is ultimately to benefit public whether the public will have any say on how these you know resources are spent or whether the government will be accountable for this money. Yes it is because these resources would form part of union budget that will be presented in the parliament. So the usage of money from the disinvestment process will definitely come to the scrutiny of public. Even they can file you know applications under right to information act to know the status of these financial resources that come from strategic disinvestment. Now what are some of the provisions based on which the government will decide a strategic buyer while there are several parameters some of the parameters that are given due importance are the strategic buyer or the strategic acquirer should bring efficient management practices technology and appropriate or required investment for the growth of acquired companies. They are also expected or required to use innovative methods for the development of the particular company. As we have seen already the news is that the cabinet committee on economic affairs which is chaired by the prime minister has accorded in principle approval for strategic disinvestment in these central public sector enterprises. As we have discussed already the news is that the cabinet committee on economic affairs which is chaired by the prime minister has given in principle approval for strategic disinvestment in BPCL shipping corporation of India Concur or THDCL or THDCIL or NIPCO and NIPCO. Out of these five entities or CPSCs strategic buyer has not been decided for the first three in case of NIPCO and in case of Thihri Hydro Development Corporation of India Limited the strategic buyer is NTPC which is a central public sector enterprise. See the government has set a disinvestment target for this financial year and this target is around rupees 1.05 lakh crore. Till now the government has managed to collect only around some 17000 crore so the government has a long way to go to reach its targets before March 2020 and this information that appears in the news article is based on an answer given by Lokshaba on 18th November 2019. Next the news article mentions that the cabinet has also approved the introduction of International Financial Services Centres Authority Bill 2019 in Lokshaba in the present session of the parliament. So what are international financial services centres? At present we have the first international financial services centre in our country which has been set up in Gandhinagar in Gujarat. The city is called as gift city where gift stands for Gujarat International Finance Tech City. See there are some financial services and transactions that are carried out in offshore financial centres by Indian corporate firms. Other than corporate firms some branches and subsidiaries of Indian financial institutions also carry out financial transactions or financial services from these financial centres that are located outside India. Now what enables bringing back these financial services and transactions within our country? This is done by international financial services centre. By having such a centre in our country the Indian corporates need not access offshore financial centres or overseas financial centres to utilize the international financial services centre. This will increase their access to global financial markets. See such a centre it provides financial services to both resident Indians and also non-resident Indians main point here is in foreign currencies. So this centre will be deemed as a foreign territory that is dealing in foreign currency. So it is treated as a non-resident unit under RBI regulations and as we saw it even caters to customers outside the jurisdiction of domestic Indian economy. And these centres deal with the flow of financial transaction financial products and financial services across borders. These centres may have insurance service providers of foreign country it may have subsidiaries of foreign banks or it may have stock exchanges also. So there are advantages of trading through IFSC stock exchanges. One thing is that this place will be exempted from some of the tax structures for example GST or stamp duty and there will not be any currency risk because the transactions and settlements are in terms of foreign currencies mostly in terms of US dollar. If it is Indian currency because of depreciation and various other factors the value of Indian currency is subjected to change face to face US dollars on a daily basis whereas the US dollar value will not change and it will remain almost constant comparing to Indian currency. So that is one benefit and in comparison to other normal stock exchanges the stock exchanges in IFSC has a provision of longer working hours or longer trading hours. So this is also one of the benefit. So we saw that there could be banks there could be insurance service providers there could be stock exchanges. So there will be many regulators to manage one international financial services centre. For example if you take IRDAI that is the insurance regulatory and development authority of India this authority will be involved in permitting insurance from foreign country or it may permit some insurance agency to provide reinsurance facility and these could be set up in IFSC after getting permission from IRDAI and in case of banks RBA may permit setting up of banking units in IFSC and SEBI may permit setting up of stock exchanges and it may also allow other activities for fundraising merchant banking etc. So there could be many regulators to manage one financial services centre. So what is required here is a high degree of inter-regulatory coordination and because the nature of business in such a centre will be very dynamic it also requires clarifications and frequent amendments in existing regulations that govern financial activities in international financial services centre. So to address all these concerns the government has decided to bring a unified financial regulator for international financial services centres that are to be set up in India or that are already set up in India for example gift city and this unified financial regulator is required to provide world class regulatory environment to financial market participants. So the union cabinet has approved the proposal for establishing a unified authority to regulate all financial services and this is to be done through the legislation enacted by the parliament. Some of the steps were already taken in the last government. In February 2019 a bill was introduced in Rajasheba and this bill was called as international financial services centres authority bill of 2019 but this was pending in Rajasheba. After the introduction of the bill the Rajasheba has referred this bill to a standing committee. The present news is that the Lok Sabha secretariat has conveyed that this bill is a finance bill and therefore it has to be introduced only in Lok Sabha according to article 117 subclass 1 of Indian constitution. So what is article 117-1? See this article states that a bill or amendment that is to make provision for any of the matters specified in subclasses A to F of class 1 of article 110 this shall not be introduced or moved except on the recommendation of the president. That is for introduction it requires recommendation of the president. Article 110 we know that article 110 deals with money bill. So if it is a money bill it can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha and Rajasheba has limited powers with respect to money bill. To know about money bill in detail and to know about the procedure and the manner in which such a bill is passed in the parliament of India we request you to refer to our analysis on 14th November 2019. So these are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this news article. Now let us move on to the analysis of next news article. This news article is about the recent statements made by the union home minister with respect to national register of citizens. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article has been highlighted here for your reference. The central government may compulsorily register every Indian citizen and it can issue a national identity card based on section 14 capital A of Citizenship Act of 1955 and this section also provides that the central government may maintain a national register of Indian citizens. So this register will be having the names of Indian citizens and few other demographic parameters with respect to them. These parameters could be sex, date of birth or nativity, nationality and other information. Such a register was prepared for the first time after the conduct of 1951 census under the direction from Ministry of Home Affairs. These registers cover each and every person enumerated in the census of 1951. Since 1951 it was recently updated for the first time only in the state of Assam because of the specific history attached with it. Now we have discussed the issue of updation of NRC process in the state of Assam for many times in our analysis and the updation process of NRC in Assam has began in 2015 and has concluded by the publication of the final NRC or updated NRC on 21st August 2019 this year. And we got to know that around 19 lakh residents in Assam were excluded from this national register of citizens. So what was the purpose of updation in Assam that is to identify the illegal migrants from other countries who are staying in Assam and to deport them to their respective destinations. Now in a recent debate in Rajesh Saba the union home minister has stated that the process of creating national register of citizens will be undertaken all across India and whenever that is being undertaken the exercise will be repeated in the state of Assam. It is also mentioned that in this context the home minister also assured that NRC will not discriminate any Indian citizen on the basis of religion and that all citizens of India will feature in such a register. However during the debate another issue came up that is about the Citizenship Amendment Bill. We have been seeing about the Citizenship Amendment Bill since 2016. At that time the amendment bill was introduced and once again it was introduced in this year during the previous Lokshapa. However one common feature of both the bills was that persons belonging to minority communities such as Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from three countries Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan if they are in India they will not be treated as illegal migrants and rather they will be provided citizenship. But the problem here is this excluded those persons belonging to Islamic religion. So there is discrimination as a result this bill was not passed by the parliament because of all the concerns raised. In 2016 when it was talked about that was the peak time when Assam NRC update was going on and that is the time particularly in April 2017 the second tripartite meeting happened between All Assam Student Union, State Government and the Home Minister, Union Home Minister at that time it was Mr Rajnath Singh and All Assam Student Union stressed that there should not be discrimination among the illegal immigrants in terms of religion. Why they stressed this is if citizenship amendment bill was passed at that point of time many illegal immigrants in the state of Assam belonging to the permitted religions in the bill will become Indian citizens and they will not be identified and deported to their destinations from which they came to India. So at that time Home Minister assured that the bill will not be passed and the bill was not passed at all. However in this year it was introduced again there were severe concerns with the dissolution of Lokshaba the bill got lapsed. So there is now concerns that what if the government proceeds for citizenship amendment bill in the present 17th Lokshaba. What if such a provision was also present in this bill. Now one example is that in addition to Muslims belonging to various communities will be treated as illegal immigrants. Now one of the criticism placed with respect to the provisions amendment bill is that if it becomes a law then the persecuted minorities in Myanmar that is even the Rohingyas even those persons who are in India they will also be treated as illegal immigrants because they belong to Islamic religion and with respect to repeating the process again in Assam there are several viewpoints. One viewpoint is that during the repetition if already citizenship bill becomes a law it would mean during the repetition all those persons who are presently excluded from the national register of citizens because they belong to Hinduism Buddhism Christianity Jainism Parseism and Sikhism from these three countries that is Afghanistan Bangladesh and Pakistan they can be given citizenship they can be included in the national register of citizens by using the provision. So end of the day during repetition only those persons belonging to Islamic religion will be tagged as illegal immigrants. Now with respect to the 19 lakh residents in Assam who were excluded from NRC now they will be now having the legal route through foreign tribunals and they can go for appeal against the order of foreign tribunals to high courts and then to supreme court. So these are some of the information with respect to the analysis of this news article. Now let us move on to next article which is also with respect to the same matter it is an editorial which is titled as senseless the author states that home minister's proposal for a nationwide NRC is worrisome and illogical. Now one thing is that even the recent abdication process in Assam there were several issues which are not yet settled for example the future of those persons to be excluded are not yet clear and there were huge cost imposed on Exchequer to the tune of more than 1000 crore but the home minister has stated there will be a repetition that means all the efforts taken so far could become vain. So this means all the efforts that were taken so far for the abdication process could be in vain. Now the main issue is that if we have to depot the 19 lakh illegal immigrants we have to frame an agreement with the country of origin from where they have come from. In this case majority of migrants have come from Bangladesh but we know that Bangladesh has not accepted that the excluded people from NRC Assam are of Bangladesh origin. So without a bilateral agreement these the declared illegal immigrants cannot be deported. So when the present issues are not yet resolved the proposal of repetition of updating NRC in Assam will create further problems and troubles and nationwide NRC is also a troublesome feature because of various issues. Now we said that there is specific history attached with the state of Assam. Mainly that is the influx of migrants from the east Pakistan before 1971 and Bangladesh after 1971. Supreme court in its orders has mentioned that the influx of migrants from east Pakistan has started particularly from 25th March 1971. It has been a huge influx from Bangladesh. As a result the stipulated cutoff date for Assam NRC abdication was 24th March 1971. Here the meaning is anyone who came on or after 25th March 1971 has to be identified, detected and deported because they are illegal immigrant. Now here the problem is cutoff date. For Assam NRC the cutoff date was 24th March 1971. Now what about the cutoff date for all other Indian states? In case of Assam this cutoff date was based on various negotiations between government of Assam all Assam student union and the central government. These negotiations could be framing Assam Accord or the tripartite agreement between the three parties that is union government, state government all Assam student union in 2005 or in 2017. So this cutoff date is based on Assam Accord and the resultant negotiations between the three parties. But we cannot have this cutoff date for the entire nation. We will be seeing about different cutoff dates in the next news article that may definitely create troubles all over India. Next issue mentioned by the author is about the plan to reintroduce citizenship amendment bill in the Parliament. We already saw that how the provisions could be discriminatory to one particular religion the Islamic religion and this discrimination will be considered as a violation of right to equality under the article 14 of Indian constitution. See article 14 ensures right to equality and equal protection before law. It also prohibits any discrimination based on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. So since citizenship amendment bill may have a provision discriminatory to Islamic religion it could stand ultra-wires the constitution according to article 14. So in the end of the article the author states that the government has to learn from the experiences in the state of Assam and it should realize that a nationwide NRC is illogical, impossible and senseless. So the author calls the government to abandon such a proposal and action for a nationwide NRC with the combination of provisions from citizenship amendment bill. Now let's move on to another article that also dealing with the same subject wherein the minister from Assam state government has asked central government to scrap the updated NRC for Assam. The finance minister of the state government of Assam has asked the central government to reject to scrap the recently published final NRC in Assam. So this suggestion of Assam finance minister if accepted it would mean that the entire efforts put by the state government for abdication of NRC and the amount spent for the process and the sufferings of the people may go and when whereas it will give a fresh lease of life for those people who have a genuine cause to defend that they are not illegal immigrants. Whereas this consists of lot of issues from both sides from the government and also from the excluded persons and it has to be looked into case by case basis and it will take a lot of time. Then the article states that a nationwide NRC would damage our social fabric and the future of India as a secular democratic republic. It mentions because of the combination of citizenship amendment bill with NRC and the home minister's statement that NRC update process could be carried out for the whole country. As this combination of citizenship amendment bill and NRC will be targeting at people belonging to a particular religion whereas similarly situated persons of other religion could be given citizenship benefits. While this is discriminatory in nature this is also against founding principles of India that is secularism and also the idea of equal citizenship. This news article also tells why a nationwide cut of date could not be practical or why it could become a cause of concern among the states. Say for example for Assam NRC we saw that the cut of date was 24th March 1971 meaning anyone who came on or after 25th March 1971 has to be identified and declared as illegal immigrant and has to be deported from our country. But if you see article 6 of Indian constitution there the cut of date for migration to India from Pakistan is mentioned as July 1948. And this article 6 talks about the rights of citizenship of certain persons who are migrated to India from Pakistan. Here Pakistan means both west Pakistan and east Pakistan till the liberation of Bangladesh. And the news article also mentions about a petition that is filed in the Supreme Court by a civil society group or civil society organization in October 2018. This group has demanded an NRC update in the state of Pura and there the cut of date sought by the petitioner is also as mentioned in article 6 of Indian constitution that is July 1948. If you take another nearby state Nagaland there the state government is working on compiling a register of indigenous inhabitants of Nagaland. Here the cut of date preferred was 1st December 1963 that is the date when Nagaland acquired statehood. So there is different opinions with respect to cut of date and that is and definitely it will become a cause of concern among the states whenever the union home ministry is set to start the NRC process all across India and repetition in the state of Assam. So these are some of the information with reference to the above discussed three news articles along with including one editorial. Now let us move on to next news article. This news article talks about the gross under representation of members belonging to the schedule casts and the schedule tribes in the government positions particularly in the top echelons or top government posts. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article has been highlighted here for your reference. Now we know that the persons belonging to the schedule cast and the schedule tribes have been historically discriminated against justice because of their birth in a particular cast or because of their birth in a particular tribe. Now in this analysis we will see few constitutional provisions with respect to the persons belonging to schedule cast and schedule tribes. Now if you see article 341 and 342 of Indian constitution 341 deals with schedule casts and 342 deals with the title schedule tribes. Under 341 the president after consulting with the governor of a state may specify cast, races or tribes of groups within cast to be schedule casts in that particular state or union territory. However once a list is published by a public notification the power of altering this list lies only with the parliament. If you read article 341 subclass 2 it says that parliament may by law include or exclude from the published list of schedule cast issued by the president. The same case applies to schedule tribes also under article 342 of Indian constitution. This article is a response article to the current reality that the members belonging to schedule cast and schedule tribes are still facing discrimination in almost all spears of life be it social or be it political or cultural or economic. Therefore majority among them are still in poverty condition and their voices are unheard or deliberately suppressed or silenced. Socially if you see there is untouchability if you see article 17 of Indian constitution it abolishes untouchability. If you see article 16 subclass 4 it states that the state can provide for reservation and appointments for any back with class of citizens if they are not adequately represented in the services under the state and under article 46 of directive principles of state policy the state shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of weaker sections of the people and in particular the schedule cast and the schedule tribes and it shall protect them from social injustice and from all forms of exploitation. And with respect to making appointments to services and posts in connection with the affairs of union or the state the claims of the members of schedule cast and schedule tribes has to be taken into consideration this has to be done with the maintenance of efficiency of administration these things are based on article 335 of Indian constitution So all these provisions in the constitution this shows that our constitution makers has accepted that the members belonging to these communities are historically discriminated or oppressed or have become weaker compared to other section in terms of economic parameters or in terms of social parameters or otherwise and therefore they have to be given enough measures for their emancipation. So these are some institutional measures that are intended or having the objective for the overall development of the persons belonging to schedule cast and the schedule tribes But despite all these provisions in constitution and various other legal frameworks even today the persons suffer from discrimination Today's news article gives one perspective with respect to appointments in central government and also appointments in faculty levels in central education institutions If you take government of India out of 80 to secretaries there should be at least around 12 or 13 secretaries from the scheduled cast itself to properly represent the population of the persons belonging to schedule cast According to census 2011 around 16% of Indian citizens belong to schedule cast Around 8% of Indian citizens belong to schedule tribes but if you see government of India there are only 4 secretaries from these both communities Together they have to be around at least 20 but they are just 4 in number So this is with respect to under representation in top posts of government services Now if you come to appointment of faculty in some of the Indian institutes of management In about 20 IIM's in our country only 11 faculty members are from the schedule cast and the schedule tribes community and there are 2 IIM's that is IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Kolkata they do not have a single faculty from schedule cast or the schedule tribes. So the news article mentions that these are in violation to the provisions under a particular legislation called as the Central Education Institutions Reservation in Teacher Scattered Act of 2019 See this act aims to provide for reservation of posts in appointments by direct recruitment of persons belonging to the schedule cast the schedule tribes the socially and educationally backward classes and the economically weaker sections in the general category. These reservation is to apply for Teacher Scattered in certain Central Education Institutions that are established or maintained or aided by the Central Government Now based on section 3 of this legislation the Ministry of Human Resource Development on 12th July 2019 has published a notification. See according to this notification under the act 15% of reservation has to be for persons belonging to schedule cast and 7.5% reservation is for persons belonging to schedule tribes and 27% reservation is for persons belonging to socially and educationally backward classes and around 10% of reservation is for the economically weaker sections in the general category but the data that we have seen with respect to IAMs are nowhere near the prescribed level under this act so the news is that Ministry of Human Resource and Development is currently dealing with this situation to make it proper according to the prescribed norms Apart from these things we have to also look at one another measure that is in various government examinations how much of the unreserved posts are going to the persons belonging to schedule cast and schedule tribes if you take for example the CGL examination of 2016 of around 5,722 posts under unreserved category from the persons belonging to schedule cast only 8 persons were capable enough to clear the exam in unreserved category fighting in the general category so this is the reality this is the scenario with respect to clearing exams this is one another aspect other than what we have discussed today so with respect to clearing exams we have to say that all the persons belonging to or all the candidates belonging to schedule cast and schedule tribes equally they have to receive the opportunity vis-a-vis or face-to-face other persons belonging to other communities so that even they can at least reach to a considerable amount of posts under unreserved or general category so end of the day we can say that where there are legislations and constitutional provisions these are legal and constitutional safeguards what is required is strict enforcement and political commitment from the governments to enforce these provisions and also periodic review has to be conducted for the effective implementation of these provisions so with this we come to the end of analysis of this news article now let us move on to next article this news article is with reference to the concerns and suggestions from indian side to the newly elected president of Sri Lanka we know that Mr. Gautabhaya Rajabaksha has become president of Sri Lanka after the recently held elections however there has been a criticism that the recent elections in Sri Lanka has been highly polarized now with respect to recent elections and the election result and the facts with respect to voting patterns in Sri Lanka we have discussed in detail on 18th November 2019 another was relevant for the analysis of this news article has been highlighted here for your reference while the new president has got a clear victory in the Sinhala majority southern and western parts he could not get majority votes in the Tamil and Muslim dominating regions of Sri Lanka in those parts his opponent Sajid Premadasa has won and newspapers are saying that Gautabhaya was widely unpopular among the minorities of Sri Lanka here when we say minorities in Sri Lanka we are referring to Sri Lankan Tamils and Indian Tamils and also Muslims in Sri Lanka and while we call the civil war that ended in 2009 by addressing as a civil war in Sri Lankan official government language it is a terrorist conflict and Gautabhaya was the defense secretary of Sri Lanka during the last phase of the conclusion of Sri Lankan civil war so overall we can say that the election result in Sri Lanka is polarized in terms of ethnic, linguistic and religious lines on 18th November we said that India can play a very big role in helping the new president of Sri Lanka in resolving the tensions between the minorities and the majorities this is because India has a strong cultural ties with the minorities in Sri Lankan territory and the Indian minister of external affairs is among the first to reach out to the newly elected Sri Lankan president the minister has stressed the need to boost national reconciliation policy with the Tamil community in Sri Lanka see the reasons why we are talking about national reconciliation of minorities and majorities because one of the main and important reasons of Sri Lankan civil war was the tensions between Sinhalese majority and Tamil minorities here when we say national reconciliation we mean reconciliation of the interest of these communities and thereby ensuring equality justice, peace and dignity for all the Sri Lankan citizens and after the election result the president of Sri Lanka has made a positive statement that is he has mentioned that irrespective of religious identities and race he is the president of all Sri Lankans whether they have voted for him or not and the Indian statement on reconciliation that is the national reconciliation has been accepted by Tamil leaders in Sri Lanka they have also requested or emphasized the need for India to play a very important role in ensuring swift and substantial progress in the reconciliation process this is because if you see many of the persons belonging to Tamil minority in Sri Lanka has fled from Sri Lanka has reached various countries including India they are now expecting a possibility to go back to Sri Lanka and take their own movable and immovable properties particularly land and all these things can happen provided these countries India, Sri Lanka and all those countries where Sri Lankan refugees are there they can cooperate and work for the good will of the people of Sri Lanka and in terms of political relations between India and Sri Lanka we usually study about the visits of heads of government or heads of state with respect to political relations in our exam preparation with respect to this it is expected that the first foreign visit of the newly elected president of Sri Lanka will be to India as expected to happen by the end of this month and as we all know one of the very important recent development was that Kottabaya Rajabaksa's brother the former president of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajabaksa has become the new prime minister of Sri Lanka yesterday now one major cause of concern with respect to Sri Lanka is that the Sri Lankan government particularly under the Rajabaksa brothers have been close to China at the expense of India in the past so we are expecting that the political visit of the Sri Lankan president in the coming days is expected to remove the tensions between India and Sri Lanka and also to resolve some of the bilateral issues between the two countries and to take the bilateral relations to new dimensions in a positive way so these are some of the information with reference to the cause and concern from the Indian side to the newly elected president of Sri Lanka now let's move on to the analysis of next news article this news article reflects the present investment scenario in the Indian economy the syllabus relevant has been highlighted here for your reference the news article discusses the latest analysis carried out by CAR RATINGS agency see it is a credit rating agency in our country it will basically rank the corporate companies based on their performance based on the rating given by such agencies the corporate will be able to raise capital or financial resources for various requirements and these ratings will also help the investors to decide where to invest and how much to invest as these ratings are indexed to the performance of corporate companies now this CAR RATINGS releases its own views and opinions on the performance of Indian economy yesterday that is on 21st November they have shared their views on the investment climate in our country they have shared their analysis report based on the analysis of certain economic parameters sourced from the center for monitoring Indian economy see this CMIE is the leading business information company and it is also an independent think tank so it is not a government body and we know that investments could be private investments or investments from the government side and these investments are the central component of sustained economic growth for any country if there is a slowdown in the investments if there is a drop in the investment rate now this means there are some concerns or some apprehensions or some pessimistic attitude among the investors about the health of the economy our CAR RATINGS have mentioned that Indian economy is going through challenging times in this year mainly because of two things one is weak investment climate and the other is weak consumption and recently we have been seeing that based on an unreleased report on household consumption expenditure survey for the year 2017-18 that the consumption demand has declined in 2017-18 for the first time in at least 40 years and the report also discusses some economic parameters one important parameter is the investment rate now let see few information related to this investment rate see investment rate is measured as gross fixed capital formation as a percentage of GDP that is out of total GDP how much percentage is gross fixed capital formation this rate is called as investment rate so what is this gross fixed capital formation see this is defined as the money that is utilized for the acquisition of produced assets and it includes the money that is spent for production of some assets that are to be used by producers for their own use but it does not include those assets that are disposed that is it does not include the monetary value of those assets that are disposed here the produced assets it includes those assets which are produced as a result of production processes therefore it does not include land and natural resources that are not products production processes however some of the provisions such as land improvements that is the money spent for land improvements are considered here for example constructing drains in land these spending is included and these assets that are considered for the calculation of gross fixed capital formation they are intended for use in the production of goods and services at least more than a period of one year and one more information the acquisition of produced assets here includes also the purchases of second hand assets so these are the components of gross fixed capital formation and according to latest economic survey this estimate of gross fixed capital formation is compiled by type of assets type of institutional sectors and by the industry for which it is used the economic survey mentions four types of assets one is dwellings other buildings and structures then machinery and equipment then cultivated biological resources these resources include livestock and plantation crops and finally it also includes intellectual property products here you know that investment rate is nothing but out of total GDP how much percent is gross fixed capital formation care rating tells us that this value has declined consistently for the last four years it is in the range of 28 to 29 % of GDP but know that a healthy investment rate has to be at least around 40 % so that every year annual GDP growth will be at least to the tune of 9 % but our investment rate is currently low to the level of 28-29 % so because of this low investment rate care ratings tells that the overall economic growth in India is affected next to the care ratings analysis report discusses about new investment projects the report mentions that the value of new investment projects in the first half of 2019-2020 has significantly reduced and the reduction is the highest in the last 15 years and in the first half of the present financial year the new investments by private sector has also significantly reduced and if you see sector wise the new investment projects were mainly seen in manufacturing sector and to some extent in construction and real estate sector but it has declined in services and electricity sector then the analysis also talks about stalled projects here overall the stalled or abandoned projects have declined in the last five years but the proportion of stalled projects which are owned by government has increased and the report cites two primary reasons for stalled projects and why these projects have stalled one reason is because of lack of clearances other than environmental clearances then the other reasons are lack of financial resources lack of funds then lack of environmental clearance lack of promoter interest then problems with respect to acquiring lands and also unfavorable market conditions here when we say lack of clearances it refers to huge delay in obtaining clearances then the analysis has also mentioned the reasons for lack of funds or lack of financial resources one reason is the stressed liquidity that is unavailability of financial resources particularly from the banking system and also from the non-banking financial companies we know that already banking system and in particular NBFCs are undergoing severe stress and this is one of the reasons why recently that is in last week the ministry of corporate affairs has issued a notification by using an enabling provision called as section 227 of IBC code 2016 according to this notification for those NBFCs who have asset size of 500 crore or more as per their last audited balance sheet these NBFCs could undergo insolvency resolution and liquidation proceedings in accordance with IBC code 2016 and this notification was issued on 18th November three days earlier that is on 15th November the ministry of corporate affairs has also issued a notification titled as the insolvency and bankruptcy rules 2019 which deals with insolvency and liquidation proceedings of financial service providers and application to adjudicating authority so one reason for lack of funds is because of stress in banking sector and non-banking financial companies now another reason is the rising non-performing assets because of non-performing assets the banks are reducing their lending activities and because of this availability of funds for the projects are limited however the recent judgment with respect to Arsalar metal and SR steel case by the supreme court has provided new hope for the banking companies that at least through resolution proceedings they may get their money back so the analysis report has concluded the overall investment climate based on the number of new projects and the value of new projects that are being undertaken this indicates a slowdown in Indian economy however something to be cheered about is that the number of stalled projects or the value of stalled projects under the private sector has shown remarkable improvement however a worrying factor is that stalled projects owned by government has increased so report has said that till the problems of banking and NBFC sectors are addressed the funding will remain a challenge for some more time so these are some of the reasons why the report mentions that the Indian economy has been going through challenging times in the present financial year mainly because of weak investment climate and consumption and our article is mostly focused on weak investment climate so we saw about investment rate measured as gross fixed capital formation as percent of GDP then we saw about the analysis report released by credit rating agency called we have come to our last session the practice questions discussion session they have given us three statements and asking which of the above statements are correct now if you observe the options given obviously we can understand first statement is correct so let's focus on second and third statements now come to second statement this states that this does not include transfer of management control of the central public sector enterprise that is subjected to strategic disinvestment now this is incorrect according to the definition given by the department of investment and asset management of ministry of finance of government of India because the definition included the term strategic disinvestment happens along with the transfer of management control so option 2 is wrong here therefore you can eliminate options B and options D come to the third statement it mentions that the department of investment and public asset management takes decisions on the recommendations for strategic disinvestment now this statement is correct it is one of the mandate of this department see originally in 1999 a separate department called us department of disinvestment was instituted or set up this department was renamed as ministry of disinvestment in 2001 and again in 2004 it was made just a department under the ministry of finance this name department of disinvestment was changed to department of investment and public asset management Deepam in 2016 and this is one of the mandate and two other important mandates with reference to central public sector enterprises see it also takes decisions in matters relating to disinvestment of government equity and other related issues in central public sector undertakings and it also advises the governments in the matters of financial restructuring of CPSC and also in the matters of attracting investment in central public sector enterprises through capital market so only statement 2 is wrong so the correct answer for this question is option C 1 and 3 only now this question is with reference to the convention on the prevention and punishment of crime of genocide they have given two statements and asking which of those statements are correct the first statement genocide whether committed in the time of peace or in time of war is a crime under international law we know that this statement is correct based on article 1 of this 1948 convention now when you know first statement is correct you can easily eliminate option B and option D now we have to just find out whether statement 2 is correct or not now the statement 2 mentions that India is a non-signatory to this convention now this statement is wrong this is because India has signed this convention in 1949 and in fact it has also ratified the convention in 1959 so India is a full-fledged party to this convention so second statement is wrong first statement is correct so the correct answer for this question is option A 1 only now this question is with reference to the citizenship act of 1955 they have given two statements and asking which of the above are incorrect statements that is they are asking to select incorrect statements from the following quotes the first statement the act enables the central government to compulsorily remove every citizen of India and to issue a national identity card now this statement is correct according to section 14 capital A of citizenship act of 1955 so you can eliminate option A and option C because they are asking incorrect statement statement 1 is correct now the second statement as per the act persons belonging to minority communities namely Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan treated as illegal migrants now this statement is incorrect according to the present times because such an amendment has not yet taken place in the citizenship act of 1955 so the second statement is incorrect here first statement is correct so only option B 2 only is incorrect so the correct answer for this question is option B 2 only as second statement is incorrect now this question is about investment climate they are asking which of the following best indicator of investment climate in India first they have given per capita income then gross fixed capital formation then capital adequacy ratio revenue receipts see capital adequacy ratio is an indicator for banks it is a measure of banks capital to be very specific it is a measurement of banks available capital which is expressed as a percentage of banks risk weighted credit exposures now this capital adequacy ratio is also called capital to risk weighted assets ratio so this is pertaining to banks and it is not pertaining to investment climate it is not a best indicator for investment climate now revenue receipts it reflects direct and indirect tax collections of governments so it is not a best indicator for investment climate of the given parameters gross fixed capital formation reflects the investment rates of the country the investment rate is defined by OECDS out of total GDP how much percentages gross fixed capital formation so the correct answer for this question is option B see the per capita income reflects the economic welfare of the country and it is not the best indicator for investment climate among the given parameters so the correct answer for this question is option B now this question consider the following statements with reference to the schedule cost based on the constitution of India they have asked to select the correct statement from the following quotes statement 1 if you observe the options you can note that only one statement of the given four statements are correct the first statement governor of a state can notify a caste or race or other subgroups in his state as schedule cost according to constitution of India based on article 341 of Indian constitution it is the president can specify caste, race or tribes or groups within caste or race or races or tribes as schedule cost in case of states after the consultation with the governor of the state and in case of unity treaty he or she can specify the castes or races or tribes as the schedule cost so here of the given four statements second statement is correct so therefore the correct answer for this question is option B 2 only with this we come to the end of today's the Hindu news analysis if you like the video click the like button comment, share and subscribe to our channel for more updates and content on civil service exam preparation