 Good evening, aspirants. Welcome to the Hindi news analysis by Shankar Ayes academy. These are the list of articles chosen for today's analysis. It has been given along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Trivandrum and Hyderabad editions. The link for the handwritten notes in the PDF format and the time snapping for the displayed articles is given in the description box below. And for the benefit of smartphone users, the time snapping is also provided in the comment section. Before moving on to the discussion for today, there is one small announcement for the viewers. Due to the Janta curfew that was announced by the Prime Minister of India, tomorrow there will be no Hindi news analysis video. We request all the viewers to stay safe, to stay at home and also wash your hands regularly. Now let us move on to the first article discussion. The first discussion is based on these news articles. This news article and this editorial suggests some measures to reduce or weaken the economic impact of new coronavirus disease. The syllabus that is relevant for this discussion is given here for your reference. Now the news is that our Prime Minister has recently informed that a COVID-19 economic response task force will be set up under the leadership of Union Finance Minister. This task force is expected to devise a suitable approach to effectively tackle the economic challenge after assessing the economic impact of the pandemic. This task force will also ensure effective implementation of all the steps to reduce the economic difficulties. So, this is the response from Indian government's side on the economic calamity of new coronavirus disease. In the scenario, the author of the editorial has asked the government to do few more initiatives or actions in addition to this task force. The author has also highlighted some best practices that is followed in other countries. Now let us see what are the suggestions given by the author. The first suggestion is to consider giving cash transfers of a fixed amount to the vulnerable sections of the population. Now the vulnerable sections which the author is referring to here is the persons such as cab drivers, small workers and persons who are working as domestic helps then disabled or differently abled individuals, transgenders and other vulnerable communities. So, author notes that the beneficiaries of such cash transfers can be identified using the Janthan bank accounts and also by using ration cards under the public distribution system. But as we know, some of the vulnerable sections of the populations may not have access to the Janthan accounts or may not even have ration cards. So, serious efforts have to be taken to identify these extremely vulnerable sections of our population. Author has suggested this measure based on the announcement made by the Hong Kong administration. Hong Kong has announced 10,000 Hong Kong dollars as a supportive measure to every adult permanent president of Hong Kong and if you see this particular amount in Indian money amounts close to rupees 1 lakh per resident. So, that is why author is also suggesting that government of India should also announce cash transfers for vulnerable population in a similar way. So, this is the first suggestion. Then the second suggestion is that the government should announce loan guarantee to service industries and some manufacturing industries that were affected because of this pandemic. We can find service industries such as airlines, hotels and restaurants and even tourism sector all these are severely affected by this pandemic. So, by loan guarantee what the author is referring to is the process where if an industry could not pay interest or principal back to the financial companies then in such case for a specified period the debt obligation of that industry should be taken by the government. So, it will act as a timely relief for the industries which are suffering. At the same time it will also save the balance sheets of banks from risks because if loan is not paid or the loan interest is not paid then banks will also suffer. Then the third suggestion given by the author is that he has asked the government to pass an order by which there will be an equated monthly installment holiday or mortgage holiday for a prescribed period. We know that mortgage refers to the payment of interest and principal for the loan of a borrower. Now, here the equated monthly installment holiday or the EMI holiday is the period for which an individual whose economy or earning capacity is affected he or she need not pay the EMI. Now, if this measure is implemented then it will become a huge blessing for the individuals and even businesses which are facing job losses, salary cuts or loss of revenue due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Author has suggested this measure based on the announcement of United Kingdom because the government of United Kingdom has already announced a three-month mortgage payment holiday for its members. Then, fourthly the author has asked the Reserve Bank of India which is the banking regulator to adopt a temporary measure. The measure is to exercise regulatory forbearance or restraint when it comes to asset recognition for banks because as we saw already these are the banks that might be affected by default of payments from businesses that are impacted by COVID-19. So, this measure will give interim relief for banks that might be impacted due to the default of debt obligations and moreover if the impact of coronavirus extends further the government of India should give temporary tax relief to affected businesses also. So, this is also one of the suggestions given by the author. So, based on the suggestions you can say that all the above measures will have a financial commitment from the government or while executing such suggestions the government will have to forego or lose some revenue which it has been collecting as of now. So, there will be some revenue loss for the government also. So, in this scenario for the funding possibilities for the government the author suggests that the resources of the center and the states have to be pooled. This is to develop a national response to this unfolding economic tragedy of novel coronavirus disease. Secondly, the government should engage with the private sector while devising assistant measures. This has to be done to tap innovative ideas to combat the economic impact by utilizing the lot of expertise and sharp financial minds that are available in the private sector. And thirdly, the government can issue a well structured tax efficient bonds to raise funds and also to tap the large pool of domestic savings. Now, the tax efficient bonds which are mentioned here refer to the fact that some kind of tax benefits or exemptions will be given to the subscribers of these bonds. Author has given this suggestion based on a previous successful example that was taken by government of India in 1998 because in 1998 the resurgent India bond scheme was introduced. See, after the second nuclear tests of India in Pokhran which happened in 1998 India faced a slew of sanctions and other restrictive measures from a section of international community. So, for handling the economic impact of such sanctions the resurgent India bonds were issued by SBI to the non-resident Indians and based on this the bank was able to raise four billion US dollars according to the author. So, based on this only author suggests that a similar method can be adopted to handle the present unfolding crisis due to the COVID-19 outbreak. So, that is all about the news article and the editorial. So, you can see that in this editorial the author has given many valuable suggestions which can be considered by the government and if they are implemented it will benefit everyone economically and it will help to reduce the economic impact of new coronavirus disease. With this we come to the end of this discussion. Moving on to the next discussion, this news article talks about the recent World Happiness Report of 2020. So, in this discussion we will see about this report and also its findings. The syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. First, know that the World Happiness Report is released annually and it has been released for the last eight years by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. This report is an outcome of a 2011 resolution that was adopted by the United Nations. That resolution urged the members to give more importance to happiness and well-being in determining how to achieve and measure the social and economic development. The resolution is called as the Bhutanese resolution because Bhutan for many years has used gross national happiness as a marker of success rather than the GDP. So, this is the brief introduction about this World Happiness Report. Now, let us see the findings of this report. This report ranks more than 150 countries by how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be. And this 2020 report for the first time ranks cities also around the world by their subjective well-being. The report also focuses more on how the social, urban and natural environments combine to affect our happiness. And this World Happiness Report is based on six variables. They are income in terms of GDP per capita, then healthy life expectancy at birth, then social support, then freedom to make life choices, then generosity, and then finally perceptions of corruption. So, remember all these six variables. It is important from the examination point of view. Now, as per the report based on all these indicators, it is found that Finland, Denmark and Switzerland are the happiest countries in the world. And as expected, one of our neighbors is in the least happy countries in the world and that country is Afghanistan. It was found that along with Afghanistan, South Sudan and Zimbabwe are the least happy countries in the world. So, what is the position of India? India has been ranked at 144th. We saw that this report ranks more than 150 countries and India is ranked at 144th. So, you can see that we are in the bottom only, not even in the middle. Now, if we compare India's rank with our neighborhood, you can see that India is the least happy country because all other countries other than Afghanistan have scored better. Then if we compare India's position with its peer group Bricks, then also India is the least happy country among the Bricks peer group. Even the report has noted that India is the new entrant to the bottom 10 groups. This is because over a period of time, India's performance has been decreasing and India's rank has come down over the years. If you see in 2018, India was ranked at 133rd position and in 2019, India was ranked at 140th position and we have further moved down to 144th position in 2020 report. And when this report compares the changes in happiness from the period 2008 to 2012 to the period 2017 to 2019, it was noted that India is among the 20 largest losers because India has lost points in the six variables. In the beginning, we saw that for the first time, this report also ranks cities across the world and it has ranked 186 cities and the Helsinki city of Finland is ranked at the first and Kabul which is the capital of Afghanistan is ranked at the bottom. And coming to India, our capital Delhi has been ranked at 180th position and here also we have been ranked at the bottom only. Based on the current life evaluation, the cities have been ranked, that is how positively the inhabitants of the cities currently evaluate their lives on an average has been taken into consideration for the ranking and New Delhi is among the bottom 10. According to this report, the cities in the bottom 10 and their countries are experiencing low economic development levels and these cities are located in countries with high political instability, a strained security situation and also recurring periodic outbreaks of armed conflict. Now, based on this, you can see that why New Delhi has been ranked at the bottom. So, these are some of the important findings of this report. So, as a whole, the citizens of our country does not perceive themselves to be happy. This point should be taken into consideration by the government because not only GDP, but also national happiness is a marker of success. So, that is all about this discussion. In this discussion, we saw about the World Happiness Report of 2020 and its findings. With this, we come to the end of this discussion. The displayed practice question we discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next discussion, this news article is regarding a bill that has been introduced by Lok Sabha. It is related to the higher education sector in India. So, in this discussion, we will be seeing about the bill and what are the changes it aims to bring. The syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. See, the higher education in India is spearheaded by universities, which are the highest seats of learning and the coordination and determination of standards of such universities and the colleges which are functioning under them is interested to the university's grants commission and also some of the statutory regulatory bodies such as, for example, AICTE, that is, All India Council for Technical Education. And at present, India has university institutions or university level institutions and one such university level institution is the institution of national importance. They are the institutions that are established by an act of parliament. In which certain institutions are declared as institution of national importance. And if you see at present, there are 95 institutions of national importance in our country and among them are the IITs, IIMs, NITs, etc. And also remember that the institution of national importance, this subject comes under union list in the seventh schedule of Indian constitution. It particularly comes under subject 64, which mentions that institutions for scientific or technical education financed by the Government of India wholly or in part and declared by parliament by law to be institutions of national importance. So, remember that institutions of national importance is a union subject. So, what is the news today? Why we are discussing about institution of national importance? It is because Lok Sabha has passed a bill which aims to add five more institutions to the list of institutions of national importance. So, for this purpose, the bill was introduced and the bill is Indian Institutes of Information Technology Laws Amendment Bill of 2020. This bill aims to amend two laws. One is the Indian Institutes of Information Technology Act of 2014 and then the Indian Institute of Information Technology Public-Private Partnership Act of 2017. And this news article particularly discusses about 2017 act only. This 2017 act, which is the Indian IIT Public-Private Partnership Act, was enacted to declare certain institutes of information technology that are established under the public-private partnership mode as the institutions of national importance. And the purpose to declare certain institution as institutions of national importance is to develop new knowledge in information technology and also to provide manpower, which is of global standards for the information technology industry. This 2017 act was enacted because the central government decided to set up 20 Indian Institutes of Information Technology or the IITs in public-private partnership mode. As we know, IITs are indecisive to promote higher education and research in the field of information technology. And so far, 15 IITs were incorporated as institutions of national importance under this act. And in February 2020, the union cabinet decided to include five more IITs to this list of institutions of national importance. These are the five IITs. Now, currently if you see all these five institutes have been registered as societies under the Society's Registration Act of 1860. But now this bill seeks to amend the schedule of this 2017 act so that it can include all these five institutions. Because the schedule of Indian IITs Public-Private Partnership Act of 2017 mentions about the list of existing institutes, along with in which state they are situated and also the exact location is mentioned in this schedule. So, if this bill is passed by both the houses of the parliament and if it receives the presidential assent, then this bill will become an act. So, it will enable to include all these five institutions into the schedule of 2017 act. And after that, these five institutions will become the institutions of national importance. Now, we are saying that once they are included in the schedule, they will become institutions of national importance because according to section two of this act, the institutions which are included in the schedule are declared as institution of national importance. That is why we are saying this. Now, apart from this, the news article mentions one another information which is that once this bill becomes an act, all these five institutions will be able to use the degrees in the name of bachelor of technology that is B-Tech or master of technology that is M-Tech or PhD degrees. Now, this move is taken by the government because the institutions of national importance will help to attract more students and thus it will help to develop a strong research base in information technology. So, that is all about this discussion. In this discussion, we saw about the Indian Institute of Information Technology Laws Amendment Bill of 2020. And this bill seeks to declare five Indian IITs as institutions of national importance. With this, we come to the end of this discussion. That is where practice question will be discussed in the last session. Now, let us take one question. This question is about defense procurement procedure of 2016. We have taken this question based on this news article which mentions that recently, the Ministry of Defense has released a draft defense procurement procedure of 2020. The news article mentions that this draft will come into effect in April 2020 and it will remain in force till the end of March 2025. And when this draft comes to effect, it will replace the defense procurement procedure of 2016. See, the defense procurement procedure or in short DPP gives a roadmap for procurement of defense equipment in the future. And the core objective of DPP 2020 is to increase the indigenous defense manufacturing and to make India as a self-reliant by strengthening the Make in India program. The draft also emphasizes on reducing timelines for procurement of defense equipment. And this draft was finalized by a committee headed by the Director General Acquisition who functions under the Ministry of Defense. So, what are the major changes proposed in this new defense procurement procedure? For that first, you should know that the present DPP 2016 has two wide categories. They are Make and Buy. And these two categories are further classified into several subcategories like Buy Indian, Buy Global, then Make 1 category and Make 2 category, etc. So, that means this question's first statement is correct because it has two main categories namely Buy and Make. We discussed about all these categories on our 12th October Hindi News Analysis. You can view that video for better understanding. Now, this draft of 2020 proposes a hike in indigenous content in various categories of procurement and the proposed hike is about 10 percentage. So, this will give a boost to the Make in India program and the draft also proposes a simple and realistic methodology for verification of indigenous content for the first time. Now, in addition to the categories which we just saw, the draft introduces a new category which is the Buy Global Manufacture in India. And this category should have a minimum 50 percentage indigenous content on cost basis of the total contract value. Only the minimum necessary content will be bought from abroad while the balanced quantities will be manufactured in India itself. And this category is preferred over the Buy Global category. So, that means this second statement is incorrect because it mentions that DPP 2016 has introduced this category whereas the DPP 2020 has introduced this category and this will come into effect from April only. In addition to this, the draft 2020 also proposes a new main category which is the leasing category and the leasing is permitted under two categories. They are lease Indian and then lease global. In the lease Indian category, the leaser that is the one who leases is an Indian entity and the Indian entity is the owner of the assets. And then in the lease global, the leaser is the global entity. Now, this category will help to substitute the huge initial capital outlays which are required to pay when we buy something and it will replace it with periodical rental payments. So, this will be useful for military equipments which are not used in actual warfare like transport fleets etc. So, if you answer this question after April and the question asks about DPP 2020, then the first statement would be incorrect because at that time there will be three main categories which will be buy, make and lease. Now, here the question asks for the incorrect statement and currently statement one is correct but statement two is incorrect. So, the correct answer to this question is option B2 only. In addition to these new measures, the draft of 2020 also provides for post contract management to facilitate and provide clear guidelines for issues that are arising during the contract period. We know that the defense contracts last for a longer period and many issues arise during this contract period. To mitigate this, the post contract management is provided by this draft. In addition to this, the draft has also widened the scope and options for product support by including concepts like performance-based logistics, lifecycle support contract and comprehensive maintenance contract. These concepts will help to optimize the lifecycle support for the equipment that will be bought or that will be made. So, that is all about the defense procurement procedure of 2016 and the draft DPP of 2020. Now, let us take another question. This question is based on G7 and G20 group of countries. We have chosen this question based on this news article which mentions that United States will host the G7 summit through video conferencing facility due to the COVID-19 crisis. Actually, the meeting of G7 meeting was about to be held in US President's country residence which is called as Camp David. In the news article, you could find the term President's retreat. Here the term retreat takes the meaning of a quiet and secluded place in which a person can rest and relax. This Camp David is the place in USA which is at around 70 miles from Washington, D.C. Also know that Camp David in USA is a venue which is an ideal place to host foreign leaders. Now, with respect to the G7 countries, the leaders of group of seven or G7 have released a statement on COVID-19. The statement explicitly acknowledges that COVID-19 pandemic is a human tragedy and it is a global health crisis which also poses major risks for the world economy. In this context, it is important for us to know about group of seven and that is why we have taken this question. Know that the G7 traces its origin to the year 1975. This is because in this year, the heads of six leading industrial countries met for the first time to discuss the global economy. This meeting was in the context of the first oil shock and the subsequent financial crisis that was faced by the modern world at that time. This meeting of six leading industrial countries was held in France in a place called as Rambo E.A. This place is located 50 kilometers southwest of Paris. So, which are the six countries which met for the first time to discuss the global economy. Among these six countries, three are the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. They are USA, UK and France. The other three members are Italy, Germany and Japan. But in 1976, this group of six became group of seven when Canada joined the group. So, here you have to notice that when we say G7, it does not include Russia and China. You may have a confusion that Russia joined this group in 1998 and then this group became G8. But what happened was after the annexation of Crimea by Russia in the early 2014, the G7 nations decided in March 2014 to meet without Russia until further notice. So, as per the G7 countries, their allegation of Russia is that Russia has annexed territory which is a part of Ukraine. Therefore, US says that Russia has violated the international order and it has undermined basic human freedoms and it has also weakened common security. So, that is why now this G7 group does not include Russia also. If you look at this question, the first half of the first statement is correct because it mentions both China and Russia are not members of G7. But the second half says they are also not members of group of 20. It is incorrect because China and Russia are members of group of 20, even India is a member of group of 20. So, as a whole, this statement is incorrect. Now, the second statement is all the seven members in group of seven are members of G20. This statement is correct. All the members of G7 are members of G20. Now, to remember the members of G20, you can remember like G7 plus 12 countries plus European Union is the group of 20. Here the question asks for the correct statement. So, the correct answer to this question is option B to only. Now, let us discuss the questions that were displayed during the news article discussion sessions. This question is with respect to UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. The question asks which of the statements are correct. First statement, it mobilizes global scientific and technological expertise to promote practical solutions for sustainable development. This statement is correct. It also does this for the implementation of sustainable development goals and the Paris Climate Agreement. This SDSN was set up in 2012 under the auspices of UN Secretary General. And this agency works closely with United Nations agencies, various multilateral financing institutions, the private sector and civil society. Now, we are discussing about this agency because it only releases the World Happiness Report, which we discussed today. So, that means the first half of the second statement is correct. The second half says it also releases SDG India Index. Now, this is incorrect because this UN SDSN releases SDG index through the Sustainable Development Report. But particularly for India, which is the SDG India Index, it is released by Niti Ayog, not by this UN body. Here the question asks for the correct statement. So, the correct answer is option A, one only. Now, this question is based on institutions of national importance. First statement is the institutions of national importance are established by Ministry of Human Resource Development through a notification. Now, this statement is wrong because these institutions are established through an act of parliament. Whereas if you see the institutions of eminence, which is a stated grant under the institutions of eminence scheme, such institutions are granted the institution of eminence status by the Ministry of Human Resource Development based on the recommendations of University Grants Commission. So, there only MHRD is involved. So, this statement is incorrect. The second statement is the institutions of national importance is kept as a subject in the Union List of Indian Constitution. This statement is correct. Under subject 64, it has been kept under the Union List, which mentions that institutions for scientific or technical education financed by the Government of India, either wholly or in part and which are declared by parliament by law to be the institutions of national importance. Here the question asks for the correct statement. Here statement two is the correct statement. So, the correct answer to this question is option B, two only. Now, let us take one main question. The COVID-19 pandemic is a human tragedy and a global health risk, which also poses major risks for the world economy. Which businesses have become vulnerable as a result of the pandemic and suggest measures to reduce the economic impact of COVID-19 in Indian economy? Now, the initial lines which are given here are the lines reflected from the G7 leader statement on COVID-19. Now, the question asks which businesses have become vulnerable? You can mention about the airline operators, then tourism sector, then non-essential items based retail shops, then malls, then businesses that require large scale physical human participation, then even the banking sector which are exposed to loans, then real estate sector and construction sector, etc. etc. They all have become vulnerable to this COVID-19 pandemic. Now, for the measures to reduce the impact on Indian economy, you can suggest that the government can do cash transfers to vulnerable individuals in the society and also to the individuals whose businesses or livelihoods were impacted by this pandemic. Then you can suggest that the government can give loan guarantee for industries, then government can announce an equated monthly installment holiday or the mortgage holiday. That is the EMI holiday or mortgage holiday can be given for a prescribed period. Then the government can also give temporary tax relief to the affected businesses and individuals. So, like this, you can also mention your own viewpoints which you think will help the Indian economy to survive this pandemic.