 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Ayesakarmi. The news articles along with the page numbers are displayed here for your reference. The PDF link of the handwritten notes and the timestamping of the news articles is given in the description box as well as in the comment section. Now let us start our today's news analysis. This editorial article is a response article to the recent announcement made during the visit of US President to India. If you see the joint statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs dated 25 February 2020, it states that Prime Minister Modi and President Trump increased the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited and Westinghouse Electric Company to finalize the techno-commercial offer for the construction of six nuclear reactors in India at the earliest date. The US President has reaffirmed that US support for India's entry to the nuclear supplies group without any delay. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this editorial is highlighted here for your reference. See the authors of this editorial are physicists who are representing the coalition for nuclear disarmament and peace. In this editorial, they argue that given the serious concerns of cost and safety of US-India nuclear deal, such a deal should not be finalized, rather it should be abandoned. So in this context, we will see in brief about the author's points and why they suggest abandoning of US-India nuclear deal. One of the main reasons is about the cost of having such nuclear reactors which are imported from a US company or constructed in our country by a US company. The six reactors to be offered by Westinghouse company is said to cost around 6 lakh crores. So if India purchases these reactors, the burden will fall heavily on the electricity consumers and the taxpayers. So the electricity from reactors built by American companies would be more expensive than competing sources of energy. Here the competing sources could be wind energy or solar energy. See the cost of wind and solar energy have declined by around 70-90% in the last ten years and may even decline further in the future. So in such a scenario, the cost of construction or import of nuclear reactors will be an economic burden. Then there is one another cost, which is cost of accident or nuclear reactor disaster. This may occur due to natural disasters like earthquakes or tsunamis or it could be manmade or it could be because of vulnerabilities in the design of the nuclear reactors that are built by a foreign company. This is because while many of us can easily say that that is in 2011, tsunami is one of the major factors for the nuclear disaster in Japan's Fukushima nuclear reactor, but the authors state that the disaster is also because of vulnerabilities in the design of the nuclear reactor. Here the damaged nuclear reactor in Fukushima was built by a US-based multinational company called as General Electric Company. For this case, the authors estimate that the cost of cleanup of mess of Fukushima nuclear disaster is around 13-40 lakh crores and after the disaster, this company has paid nothing towards cleanup costs and paid nothing for the compensation to the victims mainly because of indemnity class in the Japanese law. Even the Westinghouse Electric Company wants a similar indemnity class from India so that in case of any accident in the nuclear reactors built by the company, it cannot be held responsible for damages and cannot be held accountable for cleanup costs or for compensation costs. So what this actually means is the company will just hand over the built nuclear reactor and it is never responsible for whatever accidents that happen after. So these are indications that the companies are not at all able to assure safety in the operation and maintenance of the nuclear reactors and also at the times of trouble. So safety is also compromised here and because of serious concerns of cost and safety, it is not right to have such a nuclear deal with the US. Also know that there is a domestic policy in the US which was announced by US President so that the US nuclear developers can play a significant role in providing power to other countries and also to revive the US manufacturing of nuclear reactors. Therefore, US President will try hard to achieve this policy that is before the upcoming presidential elections. And India should be well aware of this effect of America's policy on Indian interests. He the authors call the idea of importing foreign-built nuclear reactors as a zombie idea refers to an idea which is opposed by evidence and research but still such an idea is given weighties and importance. Here in this case, even though research studies highlight that many problems lingering in the import of nuclear reactors from the US company, Indian government is still in talks with this company. He the authors mentions that the talks appear as India conceding to the demands of US company particularly in the context of indemnity class. So in the context of this discussion, the authors requesting the Indian Prime Minister to assure to Indians that there will not be any import of nuclear reactors from abroad. In this context, know that recently in 2018, the Chief Minister of Gujarat has said that the nuclear reactors will never come up in Gujarat. And the authors want such a statement for the whole of the country. With this, we have come to the end of analysis of this editorial article. Now, let us move on to the analysis of next news article. Now, let us see some news articles related to COVID-19 outbreak. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of all these news articles is highlighted here for your reference. Now, let us see about COVID-19 disease which is considered as pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan city of China. And it was first reported to WHO on 31st December 2019. It was found to be a novel coronavirus within the family of coronaviruses. See, on 30th January 2020, World Health Organization declared this novel corona disease as public health emergency of international concern. You should know that WHO gives this tag to those diseases that constitute a public health risk to other countries by spreading to those countries and such diseases require immediate international action. Thereafter, on 11th February 2020, this disease was officially named by WHO as COVID-19. And know that as of now, there are no medicines or vaccines available for treatment and prevention of COVID-19. Now, if you look at the news article that WHO has reported that in the last 24 hours, there were almost nine times more COVID-19 cases reported outside China than inside China, especially in countries like Italy, Iran and South Korea. Similarly, there is a news articles in the front page of all the editions of the Hindu, which reports that two more persons have been reported positive for COVID-19 from Delhi and Telangana. See, in the month of January 2020, three students from Kerala were tested positive with COVID-19 virus, but fortunately they recovered from the symptoms of coronavirus disease. So we can see that COVID-19 has affected majority of the world's population and also the business across the world, including India. In this context, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, that is OECD, has lowered its global growth forecast from 2.9% to 2.4% for the current financial year. See, OECD was established in 1961 as per the OECD Convention, and as the name indicates, the members of OECD work in addressing the challenges facing the world economy. Know that India is not a member of OECD and also the rest of the members of BRICS Grouping are also not members of OECD. Though India, Brazil, China are not members of OECD, still they are key partners of the organization and they significantly contribute to OECD's work. See, OECD releases its own economic outlook and you should not confuse OECD's economic outlook report with IMF's World Economic Outlook. And these reports are completely different. Therefore, in its interim March 2020 projections of OECD, it has lowered its global growth forecast from 2.9% to 2.4% for the current financial year. OECD has said that there is an adverse impact on business conference, financial markets and travel sector because of COVID-19 virus. It is also reported that there are global descriptions to supply chains mainly because of fears of Chinese-bound COVID virus. And we know that China is a strong manufacturing economy and because of COVID-19 outbreak, the industrial output has drastically reduced in China. And because of this, those countries which are strongly interconnected with the industrial outputs from China are heavily affected. If you remember during our 19th February analysis, we saw that imports of active pharmaceutical ingredients from China had been affected. So we can see that majority of the economies across the world are affected due to COVID-19 outbreak, including the Indian economy. Therefore, OECD has lowered India's GDP growth forecast for the financial year 2020-2021 from its earlier projection of 6.2% to 5.1%. So we can see that COVID-19 outbreak has brought considerable human suffering and major economic descriptions across the world. Also know that due to less industrial activity, demand for oil supplies also got reduced worldwide. Therefore, due to less demand, the oil prices coming down globally. And as a consequence of this, the public oil marketing companies in India have already reduced the prices of fuel. So we can see that each economic activity across the world is affected due to COVID-19 outbreak. And this is one of the negative aspects of globalization. So in order to keep the crude oil prices stable, the organization of petroleum exporting countries, that is OPEC organization, has reduced its output. Because of this decision, the oil prices are likely to remain stable. See, OPEC is a permanent intergovernmental organization of 14 oil exporting developing nations. Other oil exporting nations can join OPEC meetings as observers. In this context, you should know that India is not a member of OPEC, and the World Oil Outlook Report is released by OPEC. This is all about the discussion of all these news articles that are related to COVID-19 outbreak. To conclude these news articles, we have seen how the disease has a potential to affect the world's economy. And also we saw organizations like OECD and OPEC. With this, we have come to the end of analysis of these news articles. Now let us move on to the next news article analysis. This news article talks about departmental standing committees. We know that in our parliamentary system, there are two kinds of parliamentary committees. These are standing committees and ad hoc or temporary committees. See, standing committees work on a continuous basis, whereas ad hoc committees cease to exist when the task assigned to them is just completed. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference. Based on the nature of functions performed by the standing committees, these committees are classified into six categories, and the classification is given here for your reference. See, today's news article is with reference to departmentally related standing committees. And these standing committees are based on specifically mentioned in the rule books of Lok Sabha and Rajasabha. You should know that there are 24 departmentally related standing committees in the parliament. Each of the committee will have set of related ministries and departments. For example, if you take the standing committee on science and technology, environment and forests, it deals with Ministry of Science and Technology, then Department of Space, then Ministry of Earth Sciences, then Department of Atomic Energy, and then Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. If you look at the strength of each standing committee, it will have a maximum of 31 members. And out of 31 members, 10 members are nominated by the chairman of Rajasabha from the members of the Rajasabha, and remaining 21 members are nominated by the speaker of Lok Sabha from the members of Lok Sabha. And know that a member of a committee can have a term of office of maximum of one year only. See, there is one more criteria that is to become a member of a departmentally related standing committee of the parliament. A member of parliament who is serving as a minister shall not be nominated as or shall not continue as a member of any department related standing committee. This is all about composition of standing committees and its term. Now, let us see the functions of each of these standing committees. And these committees have to consider and report on the demands for grants of the concerned ministries or departments. Then, they have to examine and report on the bills pertaining to the related ministries or departments. These are the bills that are referred to the committee by the chairman or the speaker. They will also consider and report on the annual reports of the ministries or the departments. Then, the other functions include, they have to consider and report on national basic long-term policy documents that are presented to the houses of the parliament. They will perform this function if it is referred by the chairman or the speaker of the Lok Sabha. One important thing is that these standing committees shall not consider matters of day-to-day administration of the related ministries or departments. So, these are some of the important functions with reference to department related parliamentary standing committees. See, the news article presents the statements made by the chairman of Rajasabha. That is, there is a general impression that the number of sittings in parliament is steadily decreasing. That is from about 100 to 150 sittings every year in 1950s to around 60 to 70 sittings in the present times. The vice president or chairman of Rajasabha has said that, in such a scenario, the sittings of departmental standing committees compensates the fewer sittings of the parliament. See, one sitting of parliament is usually around 6 hours. The news article reports that the departmental standing committees chaired by Rajasabha members have held about 20 meetings at the beginning of the budget session. They have discussed the budgeted demands of 18 ministries for about 63 hours. This roughly adds to almost 10 sittings of parliament. So, in this way, the chairman substantiated the compensated nature of standing committees to the fewer sittings of the parliament. In the context of this news article, we have discussed about parliament and standing committees in detail. The display practice question will be discussed at the end of the session. Now, let us proceed to the next news article analysis. This is a map-based question related to Turkey. And this question is based on a news article which mentions about the migrant issue from Turkey to Greece. Now, let us understand the background of the present situation. That is, Turkey is the neighbor of war-affected Syria and Turkey is home to millions of Syrian refugees. For the last few years, Syrian refugees staying in Turkey has been entering Greece, which is a European Union member. So, in 2016, EU and Turkey signed a deal to control the irregular migration from Middle East to European Union through the borders of Turkey. As a part of the deal, Turkey had actually closed its borders to prevent migration to European Union. In turn, Turkey was supposed to receive huge financial aid, and it was also agreed to re-energize Turkey's bid to become a European Union member. So, in this context, know that at present Turkey is NATO member, but not European Union member. So, a few days back, Turkey has announced that it had reached its capacity to carry migrants, and it would no longer stop refugees attempting to cross its borders. As a result, there was a large-scale migration of refugees from Turkey to the islands of Greece in the Aegean Sea. So, the article says that one of such boards carrying migrants campsized off the coast of Lesbos Islands of Greece. And as a result of campsites, it was reported death of a young boy. So, let us hope that these issues will get resolved at the earliest. Now, have a look at the question, which is based on the geographical borders of Turkey, and know that Turkey has a unique geographical position as it lies partly in Asia and partly in Europe. From this map, you can say that Turkey shares its land borders with Georgia and Armenia to the northeast, then Azerbaijan and Iran to the east, then Iraq and Syria to the southeast, and also with Bulgaria to the northwest. See, Greece and Bulgaria are the members of European Union. But if you look at the third statement, it mentions that Greece is the only European Union country with which Turkey shares land border. And this statement is incorrect because both Greece and Bulgaria share border with Turkey and they also the members of European Union. Now, if you look at the first statement, it says that Turkey shares border with Aegean Sea, Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Red Sea. From this map, it is clear that Turkey has long coastline with the Black Sea, Aegean Sea, and then Mediterranean Sea. And Turkey is far away from the Red Sea, which lies between Africa and the Middle East. Therefore, the first statement is also incorrect statement. Look at the second statement, it says that the state of Ketch separates the Asian Turkey from European Turkey. From this map, it is clear that the Sea of Marmara and the Bosporus State separates Asian Turkey from European Turkey. And know that the state of Ketch connects Sea of Azov with the Black Sea. Therefore, the given second statement is also incorrect statement. For this question, you have to choose incorrect statement. So, option D, 1, 2 and 3 is the correct answer for this question. Now, let us proceed to the next news article analysis. This question is based on Swathi weapon locating radar. And this question is framed based on the news article, which mentions about defense deal to supply Swathi weapon locating radar system. In this context, you should know about weapon locating radar, mainly for your prelims examination. See, Swathi weapon locating radar is an indigenous weapon locating radar system. And it has been designed and developed by Defense Research and Development Organization. Know that it is produced for Indian Army by Bharat Electronics Limited. And it has been handed over to Army in 2017. See, the radar automatically locates hostile artillery, then motors and also rocket launches. It can also track friendly fire to locate the impact point of friendly artillery fire to issue necessary corrections. It means that it can identify the impact of our own artillery on enemy vessels and guides us with precise location to target enemy vessels. See, the radar is designed for high mobility and then for quick deployment. The radar consists of radar shelter, then antenna and also necessary cooling mechanisms. See, the system is designed to survive odd situations and terrains of battlefield and also soft hostile electronic warfare. See, in 2017, in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, the then defense minister stated that after the requirements of Indian Army is fulfilled, the government may consider to export the same facility to friendly countries. So, in this direction, Bharat Electronics Limited got a defense deal from Armenia of worth 40 million dollars to supply Swathi Weapon Locating Radar System. Now, with this information, let's take up the question based on Swathi Weapon Locating Radar. For this question, two statements are given and you have to choose correct statements. First statement says it is an electronically scanned phased array radar. Then the second statement says it has been designed and developed by DRDO for Indian Army. So, the given two statements are correct statements. Therefore, for this question, option C, that is both 1 and 2, is the correct answer. This question is based on national pension system. See, this question was asked in 2017 UPSI prelims examination and they have given four options and you have to choose correct option for this question. So, in this contest, you should know about national pension scheme which was launched in 2004 with the objective of providing retirement income to all the citizens. And this scheme is applicable to all citizens of India between the age group of 18 to 65 years. But the option B says persons of age from 21 to 55 only. Therefore, option B is incorrect. See, NPS is available to all new employees of central government except armed forces but joining government service on or after 1st January 2004. But if you look at option D, it mentions that all central government employees including those of armed forces. So, we can say that option D is incorrect option. Know that national pension scheme also covers private employees and unorganized sector workers and non-resident Indians with bank accounts in India. Now, it is also extended to overseas citizens of India. So, we can say that NPS covers private employees, unorganized sector workers, non-resident Indians and also overseas citizens of India. But if you look at the option A, it mentions only resident Indian citizens. So, this option is also incorrect option. Now, if you look at the applicability of NPS, NPS is also applicable for all state government employees joining the service after the date of notification by the respective state governments. So, for this question, option C is the correct option. In this context, know that NPS is administered by Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority, which comes under the Ministry of Finance. The National Securities Depository Limited, that is NSDL handles the record keeping, then administration and also customer service functions. These are the important aspects of national pension scheme administered by the PFRDA under the Ministry of Finance. Now, if you look at the news article, it mentions the important scheme that is the national pension scheme for traders, shopkeepers and self-employed persons. So, in this context, we have given one practice question based on national pension scheme for traders, shopkeepers and self-employed persons. Here, two statements are given and you have to choose correct statements. Statement one says it is regulated by the same authorities regulating the national pension scheme. Then, second statement says a self-employed person with an annual turnover of not exceeding 1.5 crores is eligible under the scheme. See, this scheme was launched in 2019 by the Ministry of Labor and Employment. And for this scheme, retail traders or shopkeepers or self-employed persons who are in the age group of 18 to 40 years and having an annual turnover not exceeding 1.5 crores can join this scheme. Therefore, we can say that national pension scheme is implemented by Ministry of Finance whereas national pension scheme for traders, shopkeepers and self-employed persons is regulated by the Ministry of Labor So, for this question, first statement is incorrect and the second statement is correct statement. So, option B, two only is correct answer for this question. Now, if you look at the other eligibility for this scheme, they should not be engaged in organized sector having membership of NPS or EPF or ESIC and they should not be beneficiaries under Pradhanamantri Shamyogi Mandan. Then, another condition is that they should not be an income tax payer. So, these are certain eligibility criteria for the national pension scheme for traders, shopkeepers and self-employed persons. For this scheme, they should possess Aadhar card and a saving bank account or Jendan account with valid IFSC code and as per the scheme 50% of monthly contribution is payable by the beneficiary and equal matching contribution is paid by the central government. Therefore, as per the scheme after attending the age of 60 years the subscribers are eligible for a monthly minimum assured pension of 3,000 rupees. Here, the news article says that the Labour Ministry had set a target of 25 lakh enrolments for the current financial year. However, at present only 34,000 people have registered for the scheme. Therefore, in the context of this news article we have discussed about national pension scheme which is implemented by Ministry of Finance and also national pension scheme for traders, shopkeepers and self-employed persons which was launched in 2019 by the Ministry of Labour and Employment. With this, let us proceed to the next news article analysis. This question is based on long-term repo operations which is mentioned in this news article. Here, the news article says that RBI receives about 1.71 lakh crore in long-term repo operations. In this context, let us discuss about LTRO which is a tool used by the RBI to ensure that commercial banks are getting cash at the repo rate for long-term. See, repo rate is the rate at which RBI gives loans to the commercial banks by accepting the securities. So, it aims to ensure sufficient liquidity in the economy. Here, the operation is that RBI will purchase or buy government securities from the commercial banks and in turn provide them money for long-term needs that is for one year or for three years. And we know that there is already mechanism called liquidity adjustment facility that is LAF which allows banks to avail liquidity in case of requirement or parking excess funds with RBI in case of excess liquidity. In this case also, liquidity is provided against government securities. But this facility is usually available for a very limited period that is for seven days or for 14 days. Now, we'll see about Marginal Standing Facility which is a new liquidity adjustment facility launched by RBI in 2011. See, Marginal Standing Facility offers money to banks at a higher rate than the repo rate. Whereas long-term repo operations provide long-term loans at the prevailing repo rate. Know that recently, RBI has decided to conduct long-term repo operations for one year and three year terms for a total amount of 1 lakh crores at the policy repo rate level. Therefore, as per the news article, RBI has conducted two LTROs in the month of February. And this article is about the third LTRO conducted by Reserve Bank of India which is also for 25,000 crore rupees. But it has received bids for more than 1,71,000 crore from the commercial banks. So it has been over-subscribed. In addition, RBI will also conduct another LTRO worth of about 25,000 crores in the coming days. With this information, now let's take up the question. For this question, they have given two statements and you have to choose correct statement. Statement one says, RBI uses LTRO to provide loans to the needy banks at the prevailing repo rate for long-term up to 10 years. And second statement says, LTRO will be an addition to the existing marginal-standing facility. In the given statements, the first statement is incorrect because it is a tool used by RBI to ensure that commercial banks are getting cash at the repo rate for long-term basis. That is for one year or for three years. But the statement mentions up to 10 years. So the given first statement is incorrect statement. And the second statement is correct because RBI conducts long-term operations in addition to the existing marginal-standing facility operations. Know that LTROs will be conducted on the E-Kuber platform of the RBI. It is the core banking solutions of the RBI, which gives high degree of access to commercial banks and other institutions to their current account with the RBI. So for this question option B, that is two only is the correct option. Let's start our practice question session. Now let's take up this question, which is based on OECD. They have given three statements and you have to choose incorrect statements. First statement says, it is a permanent intergovernmental organization of oil-exporting developing nations that works towards the economic and social development of the world. Then second statement says, India is a member of OECD. Then the third statement says, it releases world economic outlook. So to answer this question, you should know about OECD, that is the organization for economic cooperation and development. It was established in 1961 as a forum for governments to share experiences and seek solutions to common economic and social problems. It was established as per the OECD convention, which was signed in 1960. The OECD acts in collaboration with its member governments to promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. Therefore, in practice, the OECD promotes free market policies and trade. Now, if you look at the first statement, it is mentioned as a permanent intergovernmental organization of oil-exporting developing nations. In fact, this statement is valid for OPEC nations, but not for OECD. Therefore, the first statement is incorrect statement. And if you look at the membership of OECD, at present it consists of 36 members and India is not a member of OECD. But India is the key partner of organization for economic cooperation and development. See, OECD also releases an economic outlook, but it is not the world economic outlook which is released by IMF. Therefore, all the given statements are incorrect statement. So for this question, the correct answer is option D, 1, 2 and 3 only. Now let's take up this question which is based on department-related parliamentary standing committees. They have given two statements and you have to choose correct statements. Statement 1 says, at the maximum strength of a committee, most of the members are from the house of the people. Then the second statement says, chairpersons of most of the committees are appointed by the chairman of Rajasabha. See, the maximum strength of a department-related standing committee is 31 and out of these 31 members, 10 members are to be nominated by the chairman of Rajasabha from the members of Rajasabha and the remaining 21 members are nominated by the speaker of Lok Sabha from the members of Lok Sabha. So in such case of maximum strength, most of the members are from house of the people which is also known as Lok Sabha. Therefore, the first statement is correct statement. Know that a member of a committee can have a term of office of maximum of one year only. And a member of parliament who is serving as a minister shall not be nominated as the member or shall not continue as a member of any department-related standing committees. Now look at the second statement. It says that chairpersons of most of the committees are appointed by the chairman of Rajasabha. See at present there are 24 department-related standing committees and these are grouped into two parts. The first part has eight committees and the second part has 16 committees. For the eight committees in the first part, the chairperson of the committees is appointed by the chairman of Rajasabha from the members of the committee. And for the remaining 16 committees in the second part, the chairperson of the committee is appointed by the speaker of Lok Sabha from the members of the committee. So this means that chairpersons of most of the department-related standing committees are appointed by the speaker of Lok Sabha but not by the chairperson of the Rajasabha. So the given second statement is incorrect statement. Therefore, for this question, option A, one only is the correct answer. Now let's take up one practice main's question which was asked in 2018 UPS main's examination in GS2 paper. Here the question is why do you think the committees are considered to be useful for parliamentary work? Discuss in this context the role of the Estimates Committee. This is a 10 marks question and you can write in 150 words. For this question, you can post your written answers in the comment section and your posted answers will be evaluated and suitable feedback will be given in the reasonable timeframe. With this, we have come to the end of analysis of today's Indian News Analysis. If you like the video, please do like, share, comment and subscribe Shankar Ayesh Akalmi YouTube channel for more updates. Thank you.