 Good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Aya's Academy. These are a list of news articles that will be discussed in today's analysis. They are provided along with the page numbers of different editions of the newspaper. Hope you people are aware that we have introduced a new segment in unused discussion and in this segment we will be discussing a few previous year's films questions each day for the benefit of aspirants. So now let's move on to the session. See this question wants us to identify one common agreement between Gandhism and Marxism. See Marxism is a social, political and economic philosophy that was named after Karl Marx, whereas Gandhi is a body of ideas that describes the inspiration, vision and the life work of Gandhiji. Now let us approach this question by taking one option at a time. First let us take option B that is class struggle. Marxism talked about class struggle. See Karl Marx believed that humanity's core conflict rages between the ruling class of the bourgeoisie that controls the means of production such as factories, farms and mines and the working class or the proletariat which is forced to sell their labour. But Gandhiji didn't advocate for a class struggle, he rather promoted class harmony. So this is not the right option. Now let us take option C that is abolition of private property. According to Marxism the final goal of communism will be the conquest of political power by workers and the abolition of private property. Whereas Gandhiji was against the deprivation of private property without a just cause or to put it in simple words Gandhiji did not support abolition of private property. So this statement is also wrong. Now coming to option D that is economic determinism. See economic determinism is a Marxist term which claims that the society is based upon an economic system in which the various agents of social control are determined by the economic mode of production. Within a capitalist society those agents of social control are designed to serve the interests of the bourgeoisie and the ruling class. Remember no such idea is present in Gandhism. So this option is also wrong. Now let us take up the first option that is the final goal of a stateless society. Now what is a stateless society? See a stateless society is a society which lacks formal institutions of government. According to Marxism the proletrates or the working class will take control of the state in production and they will destroy all class differences which will finally result in the withering away of the state. Thus the end result will be a stateless society. Similarly Gandhism spoke about Ramaraja. See Ramaraja is a social order that is free from political winding and that which consists of self-governing individuals. So this is also a form of stateless society. So therefore the right option is option A that is the final goal of a stateless society. Now let us take up this previous problem's question about blockchain technology. The question wants us to find the correct statement. Statement one says that it is a public ledger that everyone can inspect but which no single user controls. According to the second statement the structure and design of blockchain is such that all the data in it are about cryptocurrency only. And the third statement is that applications that depend on basic features of blockchain can be developed without anybody's permission. Now let's move on to discuss this question. See blockchain is a cryptographically linked data block and it is a distributed system of multiple working nodes and all the submitted transactions are either committed or rejected uniformly across all the nodes in the network. Here a block is actually a file where data pertaining to blockchain network is permanently stored. So a block records some or all the recent blockchain transaction details that have not yet entered any of the prior blocks. Thus a block is like a page of a ledger or an account book. Each time a block is completed it gives way to the other block. So a blockchain is a digital ledger that keeps a record of all transactions taking place in a peer to peer network. That means the data blocks contains a set of transactions which are in turn cryptographically linked. As data blocks are cryptographically linked the data within blocks cannot be modified. Only create read and append operations are possible on the blockchain so the data stored in blocks cannot be altered. Therefore blockchain technology is a novel data structure that is secure, cryptography based and stores transactional records and databases are distributed across a network through peer to peer nodes allowing the transfer of digital goods and this peer to peer network ensures that everyone on the network can see or inspect but no single user can control or corrupt it and this is why the first statement is correct. Further this shared immutable ledger of blockchain not only facilitates the process of recording transactions but also tracking a sets in a business network an asset can be tangible like a house car cash land or intangible like intellectual property patents copyrights branding etc. So virtually anything of value can be tracked and traded on a blockchain network and this makes the second statement as incorrect because it says only cryptocurrency data is stored. Remember there are different types of blockchain network namely public private and consortium. In public blockchain anyone can read and submit transaction and can take part in consensus process. So it is also called as permissionless blockchain. Here consensus is a process to select a leader node which decides whether the block of transactions is to be committed or rejected. Next comes the private blockchain which is controlled by only a single body or an organization that controls who can read and submit transaction and take part in consensus process and then comes a consortium blockchain operations which are controlled by a selected set of participating organizations. See private and consortium blockchains are also called as permissioned blockchain. Examples for public blockchain is bitcoin and ethereum which are permissionless blockchain that means applications that depend on basic features of blockchain like bitcoin have been developed without anybody's permission and this makes statement 3S correct. So therefore the right option is option D that is 1 and 3 only. Our next question is with reference to India's Desert National Park. See its actual name is Desert National Park Wildlife Century because it is a wildlife sanctuary that was notified in 1980 and not a national park but this protected area is popularly known as Desert National Park because the government intended to declare it as a national park and a preliminary notification to this effect was also issued in 1981. But final notification could not be issued because of a large number of habitations inside the notified area and the associated issues of development. But still its name remains to be as a national park. See it is situated in Rajasthan in the Tahr Desert near the border area of Pakistan and India. The Desert National Park is an excellent example of the ecosystem of the Tahr Desert and its rich fauna. Note that the present area of the Desert National Park Wildlife Sanctuary is 3,162 square kilometer and out of this 1,762 square kilometer is falling within Jaisalma district of Rajasthan and 1,400 square kilometer is in Barma district of Rajasthan. So therefore statement one is correct. See this area falls in the extreme hot arid region of very low rainfall zone of the country. Also there is no seasonal and perennial rivers in the Desert National Park area. So the Desert National Park is barren with several sand dunes and a few hills in the northwestern region. One of the main purposes of establishment of the Desert National Park was to protect the Great Indian Bustard and two species of Jips vulture namely Oriental Whitebacked vulture and the Longbilled vulture. And these are still noticed in the park and it is under threat. Note that the Desert National Park is one of the largest abodes for highly endangered Great Indian Bustard. And it also has certain rare faunas such as the Long-eared Hedgehog, Pale Hedgehog, Black Buck, Desert Fox, Desert Cat, the Indian Gazil or Chinkara and also the Indian Desert Gerbil etc. See it is the only place where the Great Indian Bustard and the Chinkara are found naturally. So therefore statement three is also correct. See in addition to its biodiversity, Tha Desert is the most thickly populated desert in the world with an average density of 83% per square kilometer. But the human population within the Desert National Park is low and this makes the second statement as incorrect. So therefore the right option is option C that is one and three only. Now let us take up this article. This oped article throws light on the status of human resources in the health sector of India. It also talks about the recommendations to improve the same and the issues with these recommendations are also on the way forward. The syllabus covered by this article is given below for your reference. So one thing realized by all of us in this pandemic is the importance of a robust health system. One of the most important and integral part of this robust health system is its human resources or in other words the health care workers. Pandemic has proven that efficient and adequate health care workers are essential for the functioning and the preparedness of health system especially when it comes to preventing, detecting and responding to diseases. But the concern is that our country is facing serious shortage of health care workers especially doctors and this is more pronounced in some northern states. See this shortage could be found by the doctor population ratio. The WHO prescribed doctor population ratio is one doctor per thousand patients. But as of March 2019, India has only one doctor per 1456 patients in case of an allopathic doctor. Further, this doctor population is found to be around one doctor per 867 patients when it comes to Ayurvedic, Yunani and Omnipathy doctors. When Ayurvedic, Yunani and Omnipathy doctors are considered together with allopathic doctors. On the whole states like Kerala and Jammu and Kashmir have a high density of doctors but states like Punjab, Imachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, they have a very low density of doctors. In addition to this, there is also a huge skew in the distribution of doctors working in urban and rural areas. The urban to rural doctor density is found to be around 3.8 is to 1. But one happy thing is that the existing scenario is quite better than what was there before. As you know, the primary health centers are the first contact point between village community and the medical officer. And according to rural health statistics for the year 2018 to 2019, the number of allopathic doctors at these primary health centers has increased in the year 2019 and this major increase is observed in the states of UP, Gujarat, Assam, Bihar, Kerala and also in Jammu and Kashmir. But there is also a short fall of around 6.0% of the total requirement of allopathic doctors at oil India level and this is mainly due to significant shortfall in Haudhisha, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Imachal Pradesh. Now one of the ways to address the shortage of doctors is scaling up of medical education. Even the government started the application of district hospitals into medical colleges in order to aid this process. In addition to this, there is a proposal of Niti Ayok to allow private entities to do the above, that is to take over the district hospitals for converting them into teaching hospitals with at least 150 MBBS seats. But the author of this article is opposing this idea due to the concerns surrounding it. The first concern is that this will lead to endorsing of private sector in medical education and slowly it will lead to corporatization of medical education because for private players it will be just another business. So the aspirants from such colleges will not be incentivized to work in rural areas. The second concern is that it will also lead to corporatization of health sector. This means the health services will be very costly so the poor sections of society who are largely dependent on such district hospitals cannot afford getting care there. And also as we saw above graduates from such private medical colleges will prefer employment in corporate hospitals only rather than rural hospitals in order to regain their investment. The third concern is that past experiences of public-private partnerships in health sector did not yield desired results. It was thought that the public-private partnerships will increase access to primary and tertiary care for the poor and will treat everyone including even those who cannot pay but it did not happen. The fourth concern is such publicly funded but privately operated colleges will be using market-oriented approach hand-restrictedly. See market-oriented approach is an approach to business that prioritizes identifying the needs and desires of consumers and creating products and services that satisfy them rather than designing products that have the qualities which the consumers say they want and the same will happen with medical education where more aspirants will be attracted to private colleges due to its marketing. Therefore it poses an unfair competition to traditional government medical colleges. The next concern is that the public health system which is under-resourced will remain the same with no advancements. So the author does not support Nitya Ayog's proposal rather the author has suggested a measure in its place which is substantially increasing public investment in medical education and this will lead to two positive outcomes. First is that it will lead to the establishment of new medical colleges. So this will enable increasing the student intake and in enhancing equitable access to medical education. Secondly adequate financial resources could be allocated to strengthen the overall capacity of existing medical colleges. So these are some of the points that you need to know from this OPED article. So with these information let's now move on to the next part of the discussion. Now look at this article. This article is regarding the Maratha reservation controversy. It says that the center has moved to the Supreme Court seeking review of its ruling regarding the 102nd amendment of the constitution. So in this context let us understand in brief about the Maratha reservation issues and also about the Supreme Court's observations. The syllabus covered by this article is given below. Know that the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Act or the SEVC Act of 2018 passed by Maharashtra government provided for the reservation of seats for admission in educational institutions in the state and also for reservations of posts for appointments in public services and posts under the state. This law took the total quota in the state above the 50% ceiling. Remember this 50% ceiling was set up by the apex court in its 1992 Indrasani or the Mandel judgment. Hence this act was challenged before the Pompeii High Court in 2019 which upheld its validity but it was again challenged in the Supreme Court and recently the Supreme Court struck down the provisions of the Maharashtra law which provides reservations to the Maratha community. The Supreme Court observed that the 50% role is to fulfill the objective of equality as engrafted in article 14 of which articles 15 and 16 are facets. To change the 50% limit is to have a society which is not founded on equality but rather based on caste rule. The bench also highlighted the findings of the Indrasani judgment which stated that the reservations should not exceed 50% unless in cases of extraordinary circumstance for which extreme caution is to be exercised and it also rejected the demands to revisit the verdict or to refer it to a larger bench for reconsideration. On coming to this 1992 landmark ruling in Indrasani versus the Union of India case, so it was made by a nine judge bench in which the Mandel commission report was upheld and it said that the criteria for a group to qualify for reservation is social and educational backwardness and a tree iterated the 50% limit to vertical quotas reasoning that it was needed to ensure efficiency in administration. However the court said that this 50% limit will apply unless in exceptional circumstances. See the stand taken by the apex court in this case is important from mains perspective. It said that providing reservation for advancement of any socially and educationally backward class in public services is not the only means and method for improving the welfare of a backward class. Instead, the state ought to bring in other measures like providing educational facilities to the members of backward class free of cost then by giving concession in fees and also by providing opportunities for skill development etc. The state can make them self-reliant. See this is very important considering the fact that getting reservation is considered more important than getting basic education or skill development. Considering the privatization and liberalization of Indian economy it is clear that public employment is not sufficient to cater the needs of all. So instead of providing reservations for more sections the government shall find more avenues for providing opportunities to these weaker sections and backward classes and the most important observation that was made by the Supreme Court is that when more people aspire for backwardness instead of forwardness then the country itself will stagnate which will not be in accordance with the constitutional objectives. Apart from this the Supreme Court is also looked into the question of whether the 102nd Amendment Act of 2018 interfered with the authority of state legislatures to provide benefit to the SEBC in their own jurisdictions and know that the 102nd Amendment gives constitutional status to the National Backward Classes Commission and the amendment also gives the president the powers to notify backward classes. Now the central government has filed a review petition in the Supreme Court saying that only the center has the power to identify and list socially and educationally backward classes in all the states. So with this we have come to the end of this news discussion. Let us now move on to the next news article. Our next news discussion is going to be based on this editorial article. This article deals with the crime of enforced disappearances and the author has taken up this discussion based on the reports that were published recently which mentioned about the increase of such crimes even during the pandemic times. Now let us see in detail about the set crime and also the important points from the article. The syllabus covered by this article is given below for your reference. First let us see in brief about the enforced disappearances before going into the article. See an enforced disappearance is defined by several constituent elements. Firstly it is characterized by the deprivation of liberty where persons are arrested, detained or abducted against their will. Secondly there are grounds for seeking governmental responsibility for the act and third such an act typically occurs in the context of a state's continuous refusal to take relevant action and it includes refusal to disclose the whereabouts of the persons concerned or refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of their liberty. Now coming back to the article. The article cites various countries where the crime of enforced disappearances is occurring. Accordingly the country Myanmar is at a critical juncture after the effect of military coup in destabilizing the elected government. As a result the military is committed to suppressing the people's movement and the police are carrying out unimaginable acts of violence against those who are demanding freedom of expression. Note that Myanmar is not the only country in Asia where enforced disappearances are becoming a major concern. Even in China numerous reports from family members and concerned civil society organizations says that a massive number of enforced disappearances have occurred in the Xinjiang region. See under the pretext of re-education to prevent terrorism members of the Uyghur minority ethnic group are forcibly sent to vocational education and training centers and also no information on their whereabouts are given to their families. In addition to it China is accused of fusing the provision residential surveillance at a designated location. Note that it is used against individuals who are alleged of endangering state security and one of the serious concern with this residential surveillance at a designated location is that it places individuals under incommunicado detention without disclosing their whereabouts. Now moving to South Asia Sri Lanka has experienced more than three decades of domestic conflict. See this was accompanied by various forms of enforced disappearances and the major concern is that the government is weakening its initiatives when it comes to the searching and investigating of enforced disappearances in comparison to the before practices. Also it is now returned to promote a culture of impunity for these crimes. Adding to it increased number of enforced disappearances are also being reported in countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh. See the author points out that these enforced disappearances are being committed in the name of counter-terrorism measures. Apart from these occurrences know that historically enforced disappearances became widely known to the world in the 1970s and the early 1980s during the dirty war in Argentina. Know that the Argentine military dictatorship committed the forceful disappearances of some 30,000 of its own citizens while denying that they kidnapped, tortured and murdered them. As a response to his incident the UN Commission on Human Rights established the working group in 1980 as a first special procedure mechanism of the UN Commission on Human Rights and it is to fight against these gross and systematic human rights violations. Now let us see in brief about the UN Commission on Human Rights and its working group on enforced or involuntary disappearances. Firstly the UN Commission on Human Rights was created as a subsidiary body of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. It served as a UN central policy organ in the human rights field. Know that it concentrated on setting human rights standards and in drafting a number of historically vital international human rights instruments and among the most important of these were the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its two optional protocols. See these three instruments and the optional protocols constitute the International Bill of Human Rights which interprets the human rights provisions of the UN Charter. It also monitors compliance by states with international human rights law. However the Commission on Human Rights came to be viewed as ineffective because its membership included countries with poor human rights records. Therefore it was replaced by the UN Human Rights Council in 2006. Now let us discuss about the said working group. See on 29th of February in the year 1980 the Commission on Human Rights decided to establish a working group consisting of five of its members for a period of one year by passing a resolution and it is to examine questions relevant to enforced or involuntary disappearances of persons. Note that the last resolution renewing the mandate of the working group was adopted by the Human Rights Council in October 2020. See their primary task is to assist families in determining the fate or whereabouts of their family members who are reportedly disappeared and this is enforced through the declaration on the protection of all persons from enforced disappearance of 1992. In that humanitarian capacity the working group serves as a channel of communication between family members of victims of enforced disappearance and other sources reporting cases of disappearances and the government's concern. For this purpose the government receives, examines and transmits to governments reports of enforced disappearances submitted by relatives of disappeared persons or human rights organizations. Also the working group requests governments to carry out investigations and to inform the working group of the results. See the working group on enforced or involuntary disappearances also presses the states to offer remedies including compensation and a guarantee of non-recurrence of such violations. Now coming back to the article the working group has serious concerns about the impact of COVID-19 on enforced disappearances. Apart from an increase in cases the article says that the pandemic situation has reduced the capacity of all actors to take the necessary action needed and the article finally highlights the international convention for the protection of all persons from enforced disappearance which was adopted in 2006 and this convention protects the right to be free from enforced disappearances. Note that the number of participating states is still very low compared to other treaties also among 63 member states of the treaty only eight states from the Asia Pacific region have ratified the treaty and only four East Asian states such as Cambodia, Japan, Mongolia and Sri Lanka have ratified it. Note that India is not a party to the convention. Remember India has signed the convention on 6th of February 2007 but it is yet to ratify it. The article concludes by saying that Asian countries should consider the obligations and responsibilities more seriously and should reject a culture of impunity and it also adds that domestic criminal law systems are not sufficient to deal with the crime of enforced disappearance and hence an enforced disappearance is a continuous crime that needs a comprehensive approach to fight against it. So with this let's move on to the next news article. Now look at this article. This article is about a recent order by the union home ministry regarding the overseas citizens of India. It says that the professional overseas citizens of India such as journalists, engineers and researchers are required to notify the ministry about their activities in India. So in this context it is discussed in brief about the overseas citizens of India and the persons of Indian origin. See the people who go and live abroad from India can be categorized in three broad categories. They are the non-resident Indians, the persons of Indian origins and the overseas citizens of India. While non-resident Indians is essentially a term for Indians who live in another country, the persons of Indian origins and the overseas citizens of India are people who want to stay connected and involved with India more closely. For that same reason the government of India issues the PIO cards or the person of Indian origin cards and the overseas citizens of India cards to them according to their needs. See the overseas citizenship of India or the OCI scheme was introduced by amending the Citizenship Act of 1955 in the year 2005 and it provides for registration of persons of Indian origin as overseas citizens of India subjected to certain conditions. See a person of Indian origin is a person who was an Indian national or whose any of ancestors was an Indian national and who is presently holding another country's citizenship or nationality. Know that the overseas citizenship of India does not confer political rights for its holders and they have not been given any voting rights election to Lok Sabha or legislative assembly etc. Similarly an overseas citizen of India card holder cannot hold constitutional posts such as president vice president etc. See there are eligibility criteria for a person to register as an overseas citizen of India card holder. For example a person who was a citizen of India at the time of or at any time after the commencement of the constitution that is after 26 January 1950 is eligible. Similarly a person who belonged to a territory that became a part of India after 15 August 1947 or after India's independence is eligible then a person who is a minor child or child or a grandchild or or a great grandchild of such a citizen mentioned above is also eligible. Note that a person who is or who had been a citizen of Pakistan or Bangladesh is not eligible to register as an overseas citizen of India card holder. Now let us discuss some of the benefits enjoyed by these overseas citizen of India card holders. First of all they can visit India without visa for life law and they will have multiple entry lifelong visa for visiting India for any purpose. However the OCI card holders will require a special permission to undertake research work in India. Apart from these other benefits are they enjoy exemption from registration with foreigners regional registration officer or the FRRO or the foreigners registration officer or FRO for any length of stay in India. Note that so far 37.72 lakh OCI cards are said to have been issued. So with this let us move on to the next news discussion. Now look at this news article it reports about a cyclonic storm to be named Takti which is advancing over the southeast Arabian Sea and is expected to bring light to moderate rain over many places in the state. Also the low pressure area formed over the southeast Arabian Sea and the adjoining Lakshadweep area is likely to strengthen as a depression over the same region by May 15 and finally it is expected to become a cyclone by the 16th of May. See officials said that while heavy to very heavy rain may lash the western guards and the southern districts places such as Chennai may have a chance of light rain. So in this context let us discuss about the western guards from the UPSC perspective. See the western guards are mountain ranges that are older than the Himalayan mountains in India. Also it represents geomorphic features of immense importance with unique biophysical and ecological processes. The most important characteristics of western guards is that the size high mountain forest ecosystems influence the Indian monsoon weather pattern. Note that it also has an exceptionally high level of biological diversity and animism and it is recognized as one of the world's eight hottest hotspots of biological diversity. Coming to its geography, see it is a chain of mountains that is running parallel to India's western coast approximately to about 30 to 50 kilometers in length. Note that the guards traverse the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat and also these mountains cover an area of about 140,000 kilometers squared in a 1,600 kilometer long stretch. Note that the western guards is interrupted only by the 30 kilometer palgaat gap at around 11 degree north. Now on relating these features with a news article the western guards act as a key barrier intercepting the rain laden monsoon winds that sweep in from the southwest during late summer and this brings rainfall in and around the region and you should also note that this type of rainfall is also called as orographic rainfall. So with this we have come to the end of this news discussion let us now move on to the prelims practice question discussion. Now look at this question it warns us to identify the junction point of the eastern guards and the western guards. See the western guards are locally known by different names such as Sayadri in Maharashtra, Nilguri Hills in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and Anayamale Hills and Cardamom Hills in Kerala. Also western guards are comparatively higher in elevation and they are more continuous than the eastern guards and remember the eastern and the western guards they meet each other at the Nilguri Hills and therefore the right option is option B that is Nilguri Hills. Now let us take up this prelims practice question about the eligibility for registration as an overseas citizen of India based on a news discussion we can find that all the three statements are correct. So therefore the right option is option D that is 1, 2 and 3. The list of main's questions is provided here you can write your answer and post them in the comment section below. With this we have come to the end of today's end of news analysis. If you like the video don't forget to like, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankara's Academy YouTube channel for more updates regarding UPSC civil services preparation.