 A very good evening aspirants welcome to Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankarae's Academy for the date 19th of August 2022. Displayed here are the list of articles that we are going to discuss today. Without any delay let's get into the article discussion. See this article here it says that the website of video land client has been banned in India. See in this discussion we are not going to discuss the issue instead we are going to see two aspects. One is in which situations can online content be blocked to the public and the second aspect is what is the procedure for blocking access to content which is available online. Now let us see the first aspect. See there are two routes through which content can be blocked online. The first route is through executive action and the second route is through judicial order. First of all let us see about the executive action. See governments across the world they have the power to monitor and issue directions for regulation of the content that are available online in their jurisdictions. See this is because there is vast outreach of the internet and it has large potential to cause significant harm to online users. See this is because there is vast outreach of internet and it has large potential to cause significant harm to the online users. Now coming to Indian specific information. See the government of India gets its power to monitor and issue directions from the section 69A of the Information Technology Act 2000. See the section allows the government to direct an intermediary to block the access to the content available online. See according to the definition under section 2 of the IT Act an intermediary includes telecom service providers, network service providers, internet service providers, web hosting service providers, search engines, online payment sites, online auction sites, online marketplaces, cyber cafes etc. So the government can ask them to block the data available for access by the public. And also know that according to section 69A government can block access to any information generated, transmitted, received, stored or hosted in any computer resource. See it can be done if it is necessary in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognisable offence. So if the government feels that it is necessary to protect these conditions then it can block access to content available online. Now what is the basis behind this? See section 69A draws its power from Article 19 Clause 2 of the Constitution. See Article 19 Clause 2 allows the government to place reasonable restrictions on the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression. See because of this provision only government has this power to monitor and issue directions regarding the content that are available online. So this is about the executive route. Now let us see the second route which is the judicial order. See courts in India also have the power to direct intermediaries to make content unavailable. See this is done to provide effective remedy to the victim. For example courts may order internet service providers to block websites which provide access to pirated content which violate the copyrights of plaintiff. So this is the second route and with this let us see the second aspect of the discussion. What is the second aspect? The procedure for blocking access to content online. See a detailed procedure for blocking content is provided by Information Technology Rules 2009 and this is formulated under section 69A of the IT Act 2000. See an important point to note is that only the central government can exercise this power of directing intermediaries to block access to online content directly and this cannot be done by the state governments. So if a statement comes in problems saying that state government can direct intermediaries to block access to online content then it is incorrect. Only central government has this power. See the procedure under the IT rules 2009 provides that central agencies should appoint a nodal officer who will forward the blocking order to the designated officer of the central government. And this designated officer examined the request of the nodal officer and he is a part of a committee and this committee comprises of representatives from ministries of law and justice, information and broadcasting, home affairs and certain and the committee while examining the request of the nodal officer gives a notice to the creator of the content in question and he is asked to submit clarifications and replies. And the committee then makes a recommendation on whether the request of the nodal officer should be accepted or not and if this recommendation of the committee is approved by the ministry of electronics and information technology then the designated officer of the central government can direct the intermediary to remove the content. So this is the procedure. Let me tell you again, state or the central agencies will appoint a nodal officer who will forward the blocking order to the designated officer of central government and the designated officer who is a part of the committee examines the request of the nodal officer and the committee comprises of representatives from ministries of law and justice, information broadcasting, home affairs and certain apart from the designated officer. Now committee while examining the request they will give a notice to the creator of the content and the creator will be asked to submit the clarifications and then the committee makes recommendation whether to accept the request of the nodal officer or not. If the recommendation is approved by the ministry of electronics and information technology then the designated officer can direct the intermediary to remove the content and that's all about this article discussion. With these key takeaway points let us move on to the next article discussion. Look at this editorial article here, this article is written by a former member of planning commission and this article gives insights about labour laws and its reforms. So in this article discussion we are going to see them in detail but before that the syllabus relevant to the article is highlighted here for your reference just go through it. Firstly know that labour laws are a set of laws that govern the rights and liabilities of persons employed in an organization and it also governs the rights and liabilities of organization as well. So in simple words they act as a medium between workers, organizations and trade unions. Now let's see how labour law in India evolved. See the history of labour laws in India goes back to pre-independence British era. At that time the labour and industrial laws were enacted by British administration to protect the interests of British employers and industrialists. See in the year 1983 the British Parliament introduced Factories Act 1883. See as a result of this act Indian labour got a stipulated 8 hours work a day and introduction to overtime wages, abolition of child labour and restriction of women working at night. And later in the year 1929 the Trade Disputes Act 1929 was enacted and this act was passed to regulate the relations between employer, employee and union of employees. Under this act only the rights of unions to conduct strikes and the rights of employers to declare a lockout was curbed. See this measure it was done to make sure industrial progress is not halted. And then as you know after a long struggle India got its independence on August 15 1947. Our leaders envisioned a country in which all Indians whether rich or poor would hold their heads high in dignity. See India's goal at that time was to provide Purnas Varaj to all of its citizens. This includes political freedom, social freedom and economic freedom. So to be specific independent India was formed on the idea of social justice. But during this period a majority of citizens had difficulty in earning good livelihoods. And this became India's gravest socio-economic problem. Here the problem is not just the employment but also the poor quality of employment. Wherever they are employed they had insufficient and uncertain incomes and poor working conditions. See this made India to pass many labour laws like Factories Act 1948, Minimum Wages Act 1948, Industrial Disputes Act 1947 and Child Labour Prohibition Act 1986. But the issue here is the labour laws come under the concurrent list of the constitution. This means both state and centre can draft and implement laws regarding labour. So there were as many as 200 state laws and 40 central laws, all the laws focused mainly on increasing the employment by improving the ease of doing business. See it was expected that investments in business will improve the citizens ease of earning good livelihoods. So what is the assumption in this theory? The assumption is if investment is increased then citizens will get good jobs and then this will improve their livelihoods. But for this to happen labour laws must be flexible, right? Then only it will attract investments. But in reality the investors felt that the laws protect the labour too much. Besides the n number of laws created lots of difficulty. And finally the government repealed all the non-useful labour laws and they codified most important 29 labour laws into 4 labour codes. And these codes include code on wages, industrial relations code, social security code, occupational safety, health and working conditions code. See all these codes came into force in the year 2020. Since labour is a concurrent subject it also encouraged states to implement the changes. Now with this information let us see about the report by the V. V. Giri National Labour Institute. See the report is named as impact assessment study of labour reforms undertaken by the states. See this report provides insights into the impacts of reforms so far. See the report spans the period 2004, 5 to 2018, 19 and it focuses on six states which have implemented the reforms. What are those six states? It includes Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. Now let us see about the findings of the report. Firstly the report stated that there is no greater increase in employment as a result of labour law reforms. In fact employment informal enterprises started to become more informal. See large investors they are starting to employ increased number of people on short term contracts and they strangely demand for more flexibility in loss. Here what you must notice that if a firm formally employs a person then the firm must grant paid leave, a written contract and some social security. Under industrial disputes act not all firms need to be complied with these standards. Only an enterprise which employs more than 300 people should comply this. So here also the report said that increasing the threshold of loss will dilute the rights of association and representation of workers in small enterprises and this is one finding. Secondly the report stated that the effects of labour reforms would not be revealed immediately and it would take some time. Now these are the important findings of the report. To conclude the article says that we should reduce the gap between where our economy is standing and where it needs to be increased and for that to happen fundamental reform is required in the ways that policies are made. See the workers who are the ultimate beneficiaries should also be heard before the policy making and this is about the editorial article discussion. With these points in mind let us move on to the next article discussion. See yesterday the Reserve Bank of India released the August 2022 issue of its monthly bulletin. The bulletin consists of analytical points based on data collected by Reserve Bank. See these two Hindu articles here are written with respect to this bulletin points only. See the bulletin has six points in total and we are going to see all of the six points in this discussion. See the first point is regarding privatization. See privatization of public sector banks is a widely discussed topic in India. See the point highlights that privatization of public sector banks can do more harm than good. See the private sector banks are more efficient in profit maximization. It means that they work towards increasing the profit of the bank. But public sector banks have done better in promoting financial inclusion. So the public sector banks helps to fulfill the social objective which is financial inclusion. And this is the first analytical point. The second point says that Reserve Bank of India likes to deploy robust statistical data and machine learning techniques. Now you may ask why RBI is doing this? See these techniques they will strengthen the real-time tracking of economic activity to effectively deal with the impact caused by COVID pandemic. And in this regard RBI has developed two different indices to forecast IIP which is the index of industrial production and GDP growth. Now let us see these two indices. One is 7 indicator weekly activity index and the other one is 15 indicator weekly diffusion index. See the first indice which is the 7 indicator weekly activity index reflects the changes in economic activity on a year on year basis. And the second indice which is the 15 indicator weekly diffusion index it reflects directional movements on a sequential basis. See directional movements highlights the direction in which the price of a commodity is moving. So it shows whether the price of commodity is increasing or decreasing. And this is the second point. Now thoroughly the bulletin highlights that global growth prospects was dull over the month which is August month. It also says that easing of supply chain pressures and the recent decrease in commodity prices are providing some breather from record high inflation. See the bulletin says that the supply conditions are improving in India also and there is hope that the onset of festival season will boost the consumer demand. Now this is the third point. And after this the bulletin evaluates the performance of non banking financial company sector in the year 2021-22. See the consolidated balance sheet of the NBFC sector exhibited double digit growth in the last quarter of 2021. And NBFCs continued to provide maximum credit to the industrial sector followed by retail, services and agriculture. See the profitability of NBFC sector improved and its capital position also reminds strong. And this is about the performance of NBFC sector. And after this the bulletin article highlights that capital expenditure of private corporate sector plays a significant role in driving the overall investment climate in the economy. The announcement of new projects increased significantly during the year 2021 and 22. And after the impact of COVID pandemic the business activities and the demand for goods and services improved. And it also says that infrastructure sector continued to attract maximum capital expenditure. And this is about the capital expenditure. And finally the bulletin article analyzes exchange rate volatility in select emerging market economies and it is with respect to US dollar since 2007. See it covered major episodes of high volatility such as global financial crisis, Eurozone, sovereign debt crisis, taper tantrum, COVID-19 outbreak, the recent Russia-Ukraine conflict and the Federal Reserve's tightening of monetary policy. It is found that even in this high volatility episodes the emerging market economic currencies have performed better and also the number of days of high volatility during each of the subsequent episodes have declined. See Indian rupee volatility have also come down during the period 2007 to 2021. See this is about the analytical points discussed in the RBI bulletin August 2022. See all these points can be used in your main's answer. The first point discussed about the disadvantage of privatization of public sector banks because it will be a hindrance to fulfill the social objective of financial inclusion, right? We saw that private sector banks are more efficient in increasing the profit of the banks. Their goal is not to achieve financial inclusion rather it is to achieve maximum profit. And the second point it is about deploying robust statistical data and machine learning techniques. You can use this point in your main's answer by saying that RBI has taken steps to track economic activity and keep the inflation within the target levels. And there is a point that evaluates the performance of non-banking financial company. So you can use this point by saying that according to RBI the profitability of NBFC has improved and its capital position is strong. See all these points are data that can be used in your main's answer. And with these points in mind let us move on to the next article discussion. Now have a look at this news article. This news article talks about the BRI projects. We all know what is BRI, right? It is the Belt and Road Initiative of China. See the article here says that China's investment in infrastructure projects under BRI have declined. But at the same time Beijing's short term and medium term assistance to partner countries is increasing. The article says that in some of the short and medium term assistance the countries are dealing with the rising debt levels. See three clear trends in the BRI were noted according to a report from the Green Finance and Development Centre at Shanghai's Fudan University. The trends are a growing role for the Chinese state-owned enterprises and then the average size of the project deals are falling. It is falling from $558 million in 2021 to $325 million this year. And the third trend is an increasingly uneven spread of engagement. So this is the crux of the news article given here. In this context let us learn a few facts about the Belt and Road Initiative. First of all what is BRI? See it is an investment program that aims at infrastructure development and economic integration of countries along the route of historic Silk Road. See here the keywords are infrastructure development and economic integration. You should remember these keywords. See this BRI it is transcontinental in its approach and it aims at accelerating infrastructure development. See the initiative was announced in the year 2013 by China's President Xi Jinping and it is also known as One Belt One Road Initiative. Now take a look at this map. See the Belt Road Initiative aims to connect Asia, Europe and Africa. The belt refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt which comprises three overland routes. The first one here connects China, Central Asia, Russia and Europe. And then this will link China with the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean Sea through Central Asia and West Asia. And then it connects China with Southeast Asia, South Asia and Indian Ocean. Meanwhile the road refers to the 21st century Maritime Silk Road. What does this do? See it provides an impetus to trade. Here China is concentrated on trade happening between China and Europe through the South China Sea and Indian Ocean in one route. And then the other route is concentrated on connecting China to South Pacific Ocean through South China Sea. So what did we see so far? We saw that belt refers to the Road Economic Belt. It consists of overland route that connects China, Central Asia, Russia and Europe and we saw two sublinks which connects China with Persian Gulf and Mediterranean Sea through Central Asia and West Asia. And then the second sublink is it connects China with the Southeast Asia, South Asia and Indian Ocean. And then the Road in the Belt and Road Initiative refers to the Maritime Silk Road. Here it provides for connection between China and Europe via South China Sea and Indian Ocean in one route and it provides connection between China and South Pacific through South China Sea. Know that under this project the Chinese government helped in providing loans for the infrastructure projects to various countries and in many cases Chinese companies were awarded contracts for carrying out the work. And this helped China mark its footprints at a global level. So this is the significance of Belt and Road Initiative of China. And with this we have come to the end of the discussion. With these key takeaway points let us move on to the next article discussion. See recently due to increased defeat in the monsoon season the great Indian Busted in Desert National Park in Jaisalmer is formed to give two eggs in a clutch. See this is a new record because for more than a century all experts had been reporting a clutch of single egg only. And this is why this news article has made news today. So in this context let us see in brief about the great Indian Busted and why such an event is happening. Firstly know that the great Indian Busted are birds. See they can be easily distinguished by its black crown on the forehead contrasting with the pale neck and head. The body is brownish and the wings are marked with black, brown and gray. See males and females generally grow to the same height and weight but males have larger black crowns and a black band across the breast. And they breed mostly during the monsoon season where the females usually lay a single egg on open ground. But recently the great Indian Busted in the Jaisalmer district desert national park are found to give two eggs in a clutch. Here clutch is the total eggs a bird lays per each nesting attempt. Scientists believe that because this is not something which happens all of a sudden today. So scientists began to celebrate this because such an event is happening after a century. See they are also working on XI2 breeding of these birds. We all know what is XI2 breeding right? It is the breeding of flora or fauna in captivity not an outside environment. They are working on the XI2 breeding to conserve the species. Now moving on to the reason for the event. See the event happened because of the recent excessive rains in western Rajasthan. The rains exceeded 20 mm by mid-August in Jaisalmer district and the production of natural feed for birds increased in places with abundant rainfall. And this added additional protein to the diet of the birds. And as a result they began to give two eggs in a clutch. And as I already said scientists say that this is a sign of evolution. So here what is evolution? Evolution is a change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. See bustards generally favor flat open landscapes with minimal visual obstruction and disturbance. And because of this they adapt well in grasslands. See they avoid grasses taller than themselves and then scrub like tickets. See since monsoon is the breeding season for the birds and plenty of food stock is available due to excessive rain the species might have evolved in this way. I'll give you one more example for evolution. See have you heard about Mexican cave fish? They once had eyes but in the caves eyes were no longer necessary because caves will be very dark right? They have also lost their pigmentation because they no longer need to camouflage from predators. And this kind of change in the heritable characteristics happened due to the conditions in which they live. And this is what happened in the great Indian bustards also. And that's all about this article discussion. With these points in mind let us move on to the next part of the discussion that is practice prelims question discussion. Today we have three prelims questions. I'll solve two of them and one of them is a quiz question for you. Now let us take this previous question which was asked in the year 2021. See in India the central banks function as the lender of last resort usually refers to which of the following? Statement 1. Lending to trade and industrial bodies when they fail to borrow from other sources. Statement 2. Providing liquidity to the banks having a temporary crisis. And statement 3. Lending to governments to finance budgetary deficits. Select the correct answer using the code given below. See you have to carefully read the statements given here. See the major functions of RBI include issuance of bank notes, banker to the government, custodian of cash reserves of the commercial banks, custodian of countries foreign exchange reserves, banker to banks and controller of credit. So these are the functions or roles of RBI. Now let us take this particular role which is banker to banks. See as banker to banks the reserve bank focuses on enabling smooth, swift and seamless clearing and settlement of inter-bank obligations. Providing an efficient means of fund transfer for banks. Enabling the banks to maintain their accounts with the reserve bank for statutory reserve requirements and maintenance of transaction balances and acting as lender of last resort. So from this it is very clear that the function as lender of last resort is regarding providing liquidity to the banks having a temporary crisis. It has nothing to do about lending to trade and industrial bodies and lending to government. So the correct answer here is option B 2 only. Now let us take the second question, consider the following statements. Belt and road initiative connects China with Persian Gulf and Mediterranean Sea. This statement is correct. This we saw in the discussion itself. The belt component of the BRI initiative refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and through this overland route China is connected with Persian Gulf and Mediterranean Sea through Central Asia and West Asia. Now coming to second statement, partnership for global infrastructure and investment GII is a similar initiative like the BRI which is planned by China. See this statement it is incorrect. It is a new infrastructure funding program initiative by US and other members of G7 countries including Canada, Germany and Japan. See this statement is incorrect. This is because it is not a similar initiative like the BRI which is planned by China. See US and other members of the G7 including Canada, Germany and Japan formally launched the partnership for global infrastructure and investment. They launched this so that it could act as rival for China's Belt and Road initiative. So statement one is correct and statement two is incorrect. So the correct answer here is option A 1 only. Now coming to the final question this is the quiz question for you. Consider the following statements about busters. The IUCN status of great Indian buster is least concerned and four members of the busted family are found in India. Think and attempt this question and post your answer in the comment section. I have given a main question here for your practice so interested aspirants write it and post it in the comment section and if you have any queries related to the articles that we discussed today post that also in the comment section. And with this we have come to the end. If you find the video useful like share and comment and do subscribe to Shankar Iyer's Academy's YouTube channel for further updates. Thank you.