 a very good evening aspirants welcome to the hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by shankarais academy today's date is 25th of september 2023 displayed here or the list of news articles that we are going to discuss today we have chosen news articles from yesterday's newspaper as well so without much delay let us get into the first news article discussion take a look at this news article yesterday the buddhanam team from telangana visited the third century bc buddhist rock at cave at mateli in sri langa see this site is so special because in the site the teachings of lord buddha were scribbled for the first time on palm leaves know that buddhanam is a massive buddhist heritage theme park developed by the telangana government at naharjuna sahar so to obtain some valuable information for the theme park a team visited the buddhist rock at cave in sri langa this is about the news article given here so in this context let us quickly revise the some of the important buddhist text which is very important for preliminary examination see the buddhist text are mostly based on the life and teachings of the buddha know that buddha mostly followed discussion and debate method of teaching basically buddha thought to his disciples orally none of the speeches of buddha were written down during his lifetime after buddha's death around 5th to 4th century bce his teachings were compiled by his disciples these compilations were known as traipitaka's which literally means three baskets that holds different types of text the traipitaka were first transmitted orally and later they were written and classified according to the subject matter the traipitaka's refer to vinaya pitaka sutta pitaka and abhidhamma pitaka they were written in pali language know that each pitaka is comprised of number of individual text now let us quickly see in detail about the pitaka's one by one first let us take sutta pitaka in sanskrit sutta means sutra it was compiled at the first buddhist council that was held during 483 bc the sutta pitaka was first orally presented by ananda who is buddha's cousin the sutta pitaka contains the core teachings of buddhism so basically the sutta pitaka contains the sutras of buddha's teachings the sutta pitaka consists of five sutras which are displayed here you can go through it now coming to vinaya pitaka see the vinaya pitaka was also compiled at the first buddhist council it was orally presented by upali who is one of the 10 chief disciples of the buddha the vinaya pitaka consists mainly of rules and regulations that govern the daily life of buddhist monks and nuns the vinaya pitaka consists of three different texts which are displayed here you can go through it now finally let us see about abhidhamma pitaka see the abhidhamma pitaka is a later work it mostly contains physiological matters of buddhism the abhidhamma pitaka lists out various summaries and questions and answers on buddhist philosophy the abhidhamma pitaka consists of seven books which are displayed here you can pause the video and go through it so these are all some of the three important texts in buddhism as buddhism traveled to new regions like Sri Lanka some other texts were also written between third and fifth century ad the important texts of that time were Deepavamsa and Mahaavamsa these texts were written in pali language in Sri Lanka it contains the regional histories of buddhism and biographies of the buddha so these are all some of the important buddhist texts that you have to remember in the problem's perspective there are still many of them left out but if they appear in the current affairs we'll let you know so these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion take a look at this news article from yesterday's newspaper see last saturday in new york the external affairs minister mr. s joy Shankar met with his brazilian and south african counterparts the meeting was held as part of the ibsa forum the meeting was aimed to further strengthen south south cooperation know that the external affairs minister is in new york to address the 78th session of the united nations general assembly u1 ga this is about the news article given here so in this context let us understand some points about the ibsa forum first of all know that ibsa stands for india brazil and south africa the ibsa forum is a trilateral forum that brings together three large democracies and major economies from three different continents like asia south america and africa see basically ibsa forum is a dialogue form that facilitates ease of communication between india brazil and south africa by doing this the ibsa promotes south south cooperation the forum also aims to increase the trade opportunities among the three countries apart from this the forum also seeks to facilitate the trilateral exchange of information technologies and skills to complement each other's strength know that the ibsa grouping was formalized on 6 june 2003 when the foreign ministers of the three countries met in brazilia which is the capital city of brazil after the formulation the group was named the ibsa dialogue forum know that the ibsa forum does not have a permanent secretariat now talking about the cooperation area of the ibsa forum see the cooperation in ibsa is focused on three areas firstly the ibsa acts as a forum for consultation and coordination on global and regional political issues secondly the forum encourages trilateral collaboration on concrete areas through working groups and people to people forum and finally the forum assists other developing countries by taking up projects in the developing countries through ibsa fund so these are all the cooperation areas of the ibsa forum now talking about the important components of ibsa forum see the first one is ibsa trust fund see this fund was established jointly by india brazil and south africa in 2004 however the fund came into operation in 2006 through the trust fund the ibsa aims to elevate poverty and hunger in developing countries by supporting south cooperation development projects since its inception the ibsa has allocated over 44 million usd of funds the funds are supporting over 39 development projects in 34 partner countries note that the majority of the beneficial countries or least developed countries ldc's the second important component is ibsa mar ibsa mar stands for india brazil south africa maritime the ibsa mar is basically a joint multinational maritime exercise it aims to strengthen maritime security cooperation between the three countries note that the recent seventh edition of ibsa mar was held at port elisabeth in south africa from 10 to 12 october 2022 now coming to the final component the final component is ibsa visiting fellowship program this program aims to promote academic exchange of young scholars in the field of economic and social sciences so this program strengthens research collaboration among india brazil and south africa in the spirit of south south cooperation so these are all some of the important points i have to remember about ibsa so these learned points now let us move on to the next news article discussion take a look at this news article it talks about the surveillance operations conducted by the forest department in mukurti national park the surveillance was aimed to ensure that there is no illegal movement of people and poachers in national park this is the crux of the news article given here in this context let us quickly go through mukurti national park from the prelims perspective firstly let us see where this particular national park is located see mukurti national park is a 78.46 square kilometer protected area located in the western corner of the neel giri's plateau region of the western guards it is located in the northwestern part of tamalado actually this park is a part of neel giri biosphere reserve which is a first biosphere reserve of india the location of m&p is situated between the silent valley national park and mudu malay national park i hope you can see that in the image given here now let's quickly see about the significance of this particular national park see it was established with the aim to conserve its keystone species which is the neel giri tar here keystone species is nothing but a species which is essential for the survival of other species in the ecosystem apart from this m&p is a unesco world heritage site the national park was formerly known as neel giri tar national park and it is also home to mukurti peak which is 2554 meters height it is the fourth highest peak in the neel giri hills apart from this as we saw earlier it is a part of neel giri biosphere reserve which consists of mukurti national park mudu malay wildlife sanctuary bandipu national park naha holey national park vayanad wildlife sanctuary and silent valley national park now let's quickly see about the rivers flowing through the national park see river paikara and river kunda and other perennial streams flows through the park and drains into the river bhavani pula talking about the flora it mainly consists of mountain vegetation of grasslands and shrublands interspaced by shoala grasslands the national park houses the trees of rudder dendrons raspberries cinnamon and blackberries and etc the national park also has various endemic plant species that is present only in this national park like alchemylla indica and hediotus verticillaris moving on to the faunal diversity of the national park see the national park is home to some of the endangered wild species like neel giri tar pengal tyher indian elephant neel giri langur and bonnet makakue it also has many species of birds like malabar whistling thrust neel giri wood pigeon black and orange flycatcher neel giri flycatcher parrot vultures and neel giri pipit remember one of the most important tribal population of mukurti national park is thodas thodas are a pastoral tribe of the neel giri hills they actually reside inside the national park okay these are all some of the important points i have to remember about mukurti national park so these learned points now let us move on to the next news article discussion take a look at this news article from yesterday's newspaper according to the news article union minister for communications electronics and information technology announced that two significant semiconductor projects are currently in progress and it will be released in the coming months the u s chip maker micron technology which is the leading manufacturer of memory chips have invested in india to build a chip packaging plant in gujarat the total investment for this project is 2.75 billion dollars micron will contribute up to 825 million dollars in two phases while the remaining investment will come from the central and state governments so this is about the news article given here so in this context let us see about the steps taken by government to develop chip manufacturing sector and we will also see what are all the challenges faced by this sector firstly let us see why the chip industry is important for india see the global demand for semiconductors is expected to grow significantly in the coming years due to the rise of new technologies like artificial intelligence 5g and the internet of things india is well positioned to become a major player in the global semiconductor industry as it has a strong talent pool and growing demand for semiconductors india is a major hub for semiconductor design because 20 percentage of the world's semiconductor design engineers are indians now let us see what are all the steps taken by the government in this regard say in 2021 the indian government launched the design linked incentive dli scheme this scheme provides financial support to domestic chip design companies and aims to indigenize innovations in the semiconductor design industry the goal is to create at least 20 companies in india with a turnover of more than 1500 crore rupees in the next five years the dli scheme is open to indian companies startups and msms to be eligible for the scheme companies must have at least 50 percentage of their employees as indian nationals and must have a registered office in india another important thing to notice recently the indian government said it would have an equity stake in domestic chip making companies when a government has a equity stake in a company it means that the government owns a portion of the company's shares the reason here is to support strategic industries the government aims to ensure a stable ecosystem by building fabulous companies here the fabulous companies simply mean the companies that design chips but outsource the manufacturing note that the semiconductor industry is capital intensive and requires a long-term strategy according to experts the government's attempt to invest in the shares of chip companies is likely to be ineffective and inefficient but still this equity infusion by the government would be encouraging for local small and medium-sized companies even though the government is taking many steps to strengthen the chip industry there are some challenges faced by these companies first important challenge is the lack of venture capitalist there are very few venture capitalists from the private sectors who focus on the semiconductor industry secondly the cost of designing a chip is very high and this can be a barrier for new companies entering into the market despite this high cost of designing the annual revenue of domestic chip design companies is estimated at only 150 crore rupees only this is very less revenue compared to the potential of India's talent and demand finally the higher gestation period in the chip industry is a major challenge for it here the gestation period refers to the time taken to develop and bring a new chip to market this period can be quite long often taking several years because of complexity in chip designing due to this reason chip companies are not able to attract potential investors and venture capitalists like the software companies these are all some of the important challenges faced by domestic chip companies that's all regarding this news article in this news article we saw about the importance of chip industry for India then we saw some of the steps taken by the government to encourage chip manufacturing then we saw what are all the challenges faced by these companies so with these learned points now let us move on to the next news article discussion now take a look at this FAQ article from yesterday's newspaper as the title itself hints this news article talks about umen reservation bill the article itself is a critic of the bill so in this news article discussion we shall see some of the important points mentioned in the news article before that the syllabus relevant to the news article is highlighted here for your reference you can go through it see firstly let us quickly go through the provisions of the bill for our better understanding as you all know recently parliament passed the historic 128th constitution amendment bill called umen's reservation bill which provides 33 percentage reservation for umen in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies see this bill was passed with unanimity in both the houses of the parliament this signifies the willingness of all parties of india in passing the bill see the umen's reservation bill which is also known as nary shakti vandan adinium bill aims to reserve one third of all seats for umen in the Lok Sabha state legislative assembly and the national capital territory of delhi here to ensure equality among all communities it aims to reserve seats for scheduled cast and scheduled tribes in the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies the reserved seats will be rotated after each delimitation exercise these are all the provisions of the bill now let us see what are the concerns raised by the public and the opposition regarding the bill firstly the opposition have questioned the linking of the implementation of umen's reservation with the delimitation exercise in the country this is a concern for them because linking its implementation with delimitation exercise may result in a prolonged delay in the implementation itself here you should know about the delimitation process delimitation process generally means readjusting the territorial limits of the Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies secondly updating the number of seats in the assembly and Lok Sabha in each state see usually the process will rotate the reserved seats to ensure equity but the problem here is it is a periodical exercise which should be based on the data from the latest census but the decadal census of 2021 which was delayed due to covid-19 pandemic is yet to be conducted recently only union home minister Amit Shah informed the parliament that the census and delimitation exercise would be done immediately after the general election of 2024 this means that umen's reservation will not be possible for a few years or at least till 2026 and we have to wait and see when it will be implemented secondly this bill is giving reservation for SC or ST umen but the opposition raised concerns about not having a sub quota for umen from OBC that is other backward classes for those who don't understand let me explain see there is already reservation for SC and ST but there is no separate reservation for OBC who constitute more than 40% of the population who are represented poorly some members raised a demand of extending this to the muslim umen who are also represented least several other questioned the current bill does not provide umen's reservation in the Rajesh Abba and state legislative councils currently Rajesh Abba has lower representation of umen than the Lok Sabha umen representation is an idol that must be reflected in both the lower and upper house for empowerment of umen and achieving the idols of democracy so these are all some of the criticism placed upon the bill by the opposition and the public now let's quickly go through what prompted the idea of umen reservation in the policymaking see the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendment which gave 33% age umen reservation formed a base for the umen's reservation bill the reservations were further enhanced by 50% age by the various states like Bihar, Andhra, Kerala and etc thus empowering umen though there are lacunae in umen's active participation several studies showed the positive effects of including umen in the level let us see some of the examples of them first example is from 2001 in 2001 studies were conducted by Raha Bendra, Chhattow Bhatiai and noble laureate Esther Duflo the studies were conducted on the impact of umen's leadership in West Bengal they found that umen invest more in infrastructure which are directly relevant to the needs of rural umen like water fuel and roads and etc and participation of umen is high in policymaking process if the panchayat leader is a umen secondly in the book and who will make chapatis Bishaka Datta Meenakshi Shidey they published their findings on all umen panchayats in Maharashtra they too found that umen leaders gave priority to umen related problems so many attempts were made in the past as well to bring the preservation for umen in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies the genesis of it was the 81st constitution amendment bill 1996 by the then united front government but the bill did not pass in the house and lapsed with the dissolution of the Lok Sabha in 1998 Tathal Bihari Vajpayee led national democratic alliance government introduced the bill but lapsed then the bill was reintroduced in 1999 2000 2002 and 2003 but failed to get passed all the time in 2010 the Manmohan Singh led up a government introduced the 108th constitution amendment bill in the parliament but it was lapsed without getting introduced in the Lok Sabha itself thus it is clear it took 27 years for us to give justice to more than half of our country's population so to conclude at present there are 82 umen in the Lok Sabha which is the highest in history now after the implementation of the bill there should be at least 181 umen who will bring leaps and bounds for the umen justice in India so these are also some of the important points that you have to remember about umen reservation bill remember the critics and the history of the legislation it is very important so with these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion take a look at this news article this news article highlights the importance of human capital in an economy so in our article let us first understand what is human capital and then about the importance of human capital so what is human capital see the term human capital refers to the economic value of knowledge experience and skills that the working population possess to put it in simple words human capital is defined as the basket of knowledge skills and other personal characteristics incorporated in the working population that helps them to be protective the human capital includes some intangible assets like education training intelligence skills health and other human values like loyalty and punctuality here the term intangible assets refers to the resource that has no physical presence despite the human capital has no physical presence it has long term value for a business now how to be measure human capital see there is no consistent method in the world to measure human capital however the economist calculate the human capital with the help of substitute measures like the number of years spent in the schooling system rates of enrollment in education literacy and so on now we shall see about the importance of human capital in an economy see there is a strong relationship between human capital and economic growth the economist assume that countries with more educated population should have high productivity this is because the people with more education generally possess high skills which results in rich human capital the rich human capital with creative knowledge will help to increase productivity on one hand and on the other hand highly skilled humans tend to earn higher salaries which further attracts more people to enhance their skills apart from this the high earning people will tend to spend more which aids the growth of economy this is one importance secondly human capital brings in innovation and some crucial fields when human capital increases in the field of science education and management it leads to increase in innovation this innovation in turn leads to increased productivity and improved rate of labor participation all these factors contribute to economic growth these are all some of the importance of human capital so these learned points now let us move on to the next part of the news article discussion which is the preliminary practice question discussion now look at this first question it talks about ibsa dialogue forum statement one it was formalized in 2011 during the briggs summit held in india see this statement is actually incorrect ibsa grouping was formalized on 6th june 2003 when the foreign ministers of the three country met in brasilia brazil look at the second statement the group has set up a trust fund to support the developmental project in least developed countries see this statement is actually correct we saw that in the discussion right so this statement is actually correct look at this third statement it is equated at brazilia brazil see this statement is incorrect ibsa does not have permanent secretariat so the correct answer for this question is option a only one because two statements are incorrect here now moving on look at this question the text namely maha vamsa and the pavamsa are related to which of the following religion four religions are given the correct answer here is buddhism now moving on how many of the following factors constitute human capital five factors are given first one is experience creativity training education and health see here all the factors constitute human capital so the correct answer for this question is option d all five now moving on look at this question while you travel through this national park you can see montain shrubs and shola grasslands the trees of rhododendrons cinnamon also can be witnessed the sheep species of nilgirtar can be seen you can drink water from the river kunt and paikara you can also see toda tribal dance so the above mentioned description best describes which of the following national park the correct answer for this question is option c mukurthi national park so the questions displayed here are the main practice questions for you today just go through the questions try to answer it in the comment section with this we came to the end of the news article discussion if you like the video hit like do comment and don't forget to subscribe to shankar ais academy youtube channel now thank you for listening