 Good evening aspirants welcome to the hindu news analysis for the date 14th of February 2023 displayed here are the list of news articles we will be going through today now let's start our discussion look at this article this article talks about the gel jivan mission gel jivan mission was launched in 2019 to provide piped water to every rural household by 2024 as general election to Lokshaba or nearing the central government is pushing to achieve the goal of gel jivan mission as soon as possible the editorial here gives us the points about the issues associated with the implementation of gel jivan mission so in this discussion we will understand the points provided in this editorial for better understanding let us first see the features of gel jivan mission gel jivan mission was launched on 15th august 2019 this mission is implemented by the ministry of jalsakhti the ultimate objective of gel jivan mission is to provide piped water supply of 55 liters of water per person per day to every rural household by 2024 the water supply is provided through fully functional household tap connections gel jivan mission is a centrally sponsored scheme where the funds are shared between the center and the states now let us look at the features of gel jivan mission firstly gel jivan mission aims to create local infrastructure for rainwater harvesting groundwater recharge and management of household wastewater for reuse in agriculture secondly this mission focuses on integrated demand and supply seed management of water at the local level thirdly gel jivan mission will converge with the other central and state government schemes to achieve its objectives of sustainable water supply management across the country and finally this mission also promotes intensive afforestation and a restoration of traditional water bodies these are the main features of gel jivan mission with this understanding now we will learn the points provided in the editorial as i already said gel jivan mission was launched in 2019 to provide piped water to every rural household by 2024 we hardly have one year to achieve this mission right so to achieve the goals of the mission faster in this budget the government has allocated 69 684 crores for the gel jivan mission this is a 27 percent increase from the revised estimates of the financial year 2022 what does this increase in allocation portray to us the budget outlay reflects the extent of work that remains to be achieved see of the targeted 19.3 rural households only 3.2 rural households know how piped water connectivity gel jivan dashboard on the gel shed the ministry website says that of february 2023 about 57 percent of the targeted households know how tap after this is an impressive jump in percentage points for the last three years the author says that it will be difficult for the government to ensure that the remaining 43 percent are connected this is because we have only 12 months to go so far only gujarat goa hariana and telgana have reported 100 percent coverage of eligible households with piped water apart from these states panjapan himachal pradesh have reported over 97 percent coverage excluding these high achievers only 10 other states or union territories have reported over 60 percent coverage and the poor coverage is seen in large popular states such as uter pradesh and rajasthan where they have reported only 30 percent coverage this is the reason that the author says it will be difficult to achieve the targets of gel jivan mission by 2024 as i said earlier under gel jivan mission the water supply is provided through fully functional household tap connections right here a fully functional tap connection is defined as a household is getting at least 55 liters of potable water per capita per day all throughout the year this is what the gel jivan mission also aims to provide however some of the local reports say that in several villages households revert to local groundwater resources despite having a tap connection this is because both the quality and the quantity of water supplied in the tap water is inadequate apart from this report a sample survey of around 3 lakh eligible households was commissioned by the ministry of gel shakti this sample survey was commissioned to assess the functioning of the gel jivan the survey found that only three fourth of the households reported water seven days a week and on average households were getting water for only three hours a day the survey also found out that over 90 percent of the institution such as anganwadi's and school reported access to tap water but several of them have reported high levels of chlorine as well as problems with bacterial contamination apart from this some states such as bhar have stated that most of the connections were provided under state friends and not under funds provided under gel jivan mission see these are some of the problems associated with the implementation of gel jivan mission moving forward let us see how these issues can be addressed firstly permanent and functional tap water is a basic necessity to all the rural households so rather than aiming to reach just a numerical target the government should try to evaluate the extent of quality of the tap water supplied to rural areas as we all know gel jivan mission is planned as a bottom two up approach so the central government must ensure that states with lowest adoption and large population should be assisted with improving numbers rather than only facilitating states that are close to finishing the line of target so these are some solutions that can be adopted by the government to achieve the targets of gel jivan mission so that's all regarding this discussion in this discussion we saw the major features of gel jivan mission we saw the issues in the implementation of gel jivan mission also two solutions that can be adopted by the government to address the issues based in the implementation of gel jivan mission with this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article look at this article from the editorial page recently former judge of the supreme court justice s abdul nazir who retired on january 4th has been appointed as the governor of andhra pradesh this has raised concerns about the judicial accountability and reputation in this context let us use this opportunity to quickly revise about the office of governor and we will also see why this appointment is being opposed by many firstly we will understand about the legacy of the office of governor the institution of the governor was a provision of the british imperial governance structure the governors were nominated in those times so the legitimacy of a nominated governor in a democracy was debated extensively in the constituent assembly despite many opposition it was made part of our constitution the governor was to act as a dynamic link between the center and the state however the makers of the constitution were clear that the post must remain ornamental that is they not only defined the situations in which governors were allowed to act in their discretion so now we will see what are the constitutional provisions of the office of governor article 153 says that there shall be a governor for each state then as per article 163 there is a council of ministers with the chief minister at the head to aid and advise the governor in the exercise of his functions however in recent times governors have sought to play a political role in states like jargon kerala tamil nadu and west Bengal so this has created a train of controversies but now this editorial article highlights a different issue which is appointing the retired judges to the office of governor although this doesn't create much controversy regarding the office of governor many feels that this puts the accountability of the judiciary under question now let us see the issues associated with appointing retired judges as governors firstly the article says that this kind of appointments are another way to influence the appointment of judges see we know about the collegium system right in the collegium system judges are appointed by the judges when the government came up with the national judiciary appointment committee it was opposed by the judiciary now since the government offers post retirement benefits judges may act in favor of the government this would have an impact on the collegium appointment as well this is the first issue secondly for the same reason of post retirement benefits judges may choose to appease the government by giving out favorable verdicts this is the second issue thirdly according to the author of this article opening it as a post retirement possibility for judges would lower the dignity of the office of the governor altogether see these three are the main issues associated with appointing retired judges as governors so that's all regarding this discussion in this discussion we saw about the importance of office of governor and also the issues associated with appointing retired judges as governors with this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article have a look at this news article this news article talks about a bioproduct which was developed by the center for environmental studies in jenai this bioproduct was named as bio amendment from bio mining soil that is bbs this bbs will be used to increase green cover and for agricultural purposes this is about the news article given here in this context let us discuss some important environmental terms that is mentioned in the article the terms being legacy waste bio earth bio mining and bio amendment let us start our discussion with legacy waste legacy waste is a mixture of partially or completely decomposed bio degradable waste plastic waste textiles metals glass and other components it includes aged municipal solid waste in landfills or dumpsites during the segregation of legacy waste we get a coarse grained soil particles and this particle is only called as bio earth for every 10 of legacy waste that is processed we get 30 to 35 percent of bio earth and this bio earth that is obtained from the legacy waste is usually considered unfit and used only for filling low level areas so this is about legacy waste and bio earth moving on to bio mining bio mining is actually a scientific process of excavation treatment segregation and gainful utilization of legacy waste bio mining techniques are used to clean up sites that have been polluted with metals it uses microorganisms to extract metals of economic interest from rock cores or mine waste this is about bio mining moving on to bio amendment bio amendment is adding some biological agent to a soil to improve its physical properties it improves water retention capacity permeability water infiltration drainage aeration and structure of the soil the ultimate goal of bio amendment is to provide a better environment to the plant route now coming back to the news article we already saw in the discussion that bio earth is considered unfit for cultivation purposes so the center for environmental studies in anna university has converted this bio earth into useful soil by bio amending the soil they have created a garden on their campus using their byproduct and have cultivated 15 varieties of plants this is about the news article with this understanding now let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article have a look at this editorial article this article highlights few incidents where urban planning has failed it also gives some suggestions to overcome the issue associated with poor urban planning this is about the editorial in our discussion today we will see the important points mentioned in this editorial before getting into the discussion i have highlighted the syllabus regarding this discussion you can go through it now let's start let's start with urban planning what is urban planning urban planning is a dynamic process it is a process that involves designing or planning urban spaces or urban communities so it basically involves consideration ranging from land use and zoning to environmental concerns preservation gentrification and issues of urban growth and urban sprawl here gentrification means change in land use for example when a land use of an area changes from an industrial land to restaurants and shops it is termed as gentrification here you can see how the character of a neighborhood has shifted from community land businesses to businesses catering to the needs of the new residents this is an example of gentrification again urban sprawl here means spreading of urban development to underdeveloped or undeveloped land near a city so after considering all these consideration urban planners design and plan urban spaces for the urban community this development of a city is controlled and regulated through local legislations and regulation now i hope you have a very broad idea about urban planning with this understanding itself you can imbibe the importance of urban planning see the prosperity of every city lies in its urban planning but urban planning also faces some challenges urban planning faces challenges like changing climate increasing populations density strain on urban resources and desperate inhabitants and if urban planning is not proper the region might face issues like lack of availability of land traffic congestion pressure on basic infrastructure air pollution urban flooding water scarcity droughts and land subsidence moving forward we will see the ill effects of poor urban planning see poor urban planning results in various issues in our discussion today let us take up two issues only we will see about land subsidence and urban flooding for both these issues let us see an example of these issues first let us take up land subsidence and the example we are going to see today is regarding joshimath uttarkan on december 24 2009 a tunnel boring mission in joshimath hit a aquifier about three kilometers from silang village we all know that an aquifer is a body of rock or sediment that holds underwater since the boring mission hit the aquifer there was loss of water there was loss of water of nearly 80 liters of water per second this amount of water is enough to sustain the needs of nearly 30 lakh people per day so this resulted in drying up of groundwater resources and even now there has been water loss due to the hit by the boring mission while this happened in one hand on the other hand joshimath has no system of wastewater management large-scale population even today use soak pit mechanism for the treatment of wastewater in soak pit mechanism wastewater is gradually allowed to percolate into the surrounding soil see we recently heard about the issue of land subsidence in joshimath right use of soak water pit is one of the main culprit that resulted in land subsidence here land subsidence is nothing but gradual settling or sudden sinking of earth surface due to removal or displacement of subsurface earth material here the actual problem is not due to the practice of boring or tunneling or using of soak pits the issue here is poor practice of urban planning see joshimath is already in a seismic zone 5 and it is bound by two regional thrust the thrust beaming vikritha in the north and munciari in the south the 1991 and the 1999 earthquakes proved that this area is susceptible to earthquakes but due to poor urban planning joshimath today is excessively burdened with structures which are built without giving due regard to the load bearing capacity of this area in addition to this there is ongoing infrastructure projects like tipo and vishnu god dam and hillan marwari bypass road so joshimath is the very good example of poor urban planning leading to land subsidence the next impact of poor urban planning is urban flooding here also we will see some examples how poor urban planning led to urban flooding in august 2019 palava city in dom bivli maharashtra experienced heavy flooding due to seasonal rains the reason for heavy flooding was poor urban planning in the township see the township was spread over 4500 acres and it was built on a floodplain of mothali river and it is due to this poor planning only this township was flooded the second example is from goa in 2021 urban settlements in panjam goa was affected by urban flooding the reason poor urban planning the city was built on marshland which was once home to mangroves and fertile fields if the city was planned accordingly the mangroves and the fertile fields would have acted as a natural sponge against flooding and urban flooding of 2021 would have been avoided not only goa even deli faces the threat of urban flooding due to poor urban planning in deli and estimated 9350 households live in yamuna floodplains here all these are examples which show that poor urban planning leads to urban flooding okay now we have seen various examples how poor urban planning has led to land subsidence and urban flooding now are the solutions to these issues actually there are some solutions to address this issue that is highlighted in the editorial and we will see them one by one one of the important steps that can be taken to address land subsidence is to have credible data in order to have credible data overall landslide risk management must be mapped at the granular level that is at the lowest possible level so the author of the editorial suggests taking up national mapping exercise further this mapping can be enhanced by urban policy makers with additional details and localization based on this detailed mapping a new urban policy or urban planning could be formulated and based on this plan the urban areas can be developed so that land subsidence can be avoided in the future this is regarding steps that can be taken to avoid land subsidence now we will see the steps that can be taken to avoid urban flooding here firstly sewage and storm water drain networks can be enhanced to avoid flooding during seasonal rains existing sewage networks can be reworked and expanded to enable wastewater drains in low-lying urban geographies secondly rivers that overflow need to be desilted regularly along with the push for coastal walls in areas that are at risk of sea level rise thirdly investment must be made to build flood resilient structures like river embankments flood shelters in coastal areas and flood warning systems fourthly steps must be taken to protect the blue infra here blue infra zones are areas that act as natural sponges like a sponge they absorb surface runoffs and allow groundwater to recharge so those blue infros should be identified and must be properly protected to prevent urban flooding finally since rainfall patterns and intensity are changing cities should invest in capacity building in areas that are identified as flooding hotspot so in every cities flood risk map must be developed and areas that are in high risk must be taken additional care to prevent urban flooding so these are some steps suggested in the editorial that can be incorporated in the urban planning itself to address urban flooding so that's all regarding this discussion in this discussion we saw what is urban planning we also saw how poor urban planning can lead to land subsidence and urban flooding with some examples after that we saw some steps that can be taken to address land subsidence and urban flooding with this we have come to the end of the discussion now let us conclude this and take up the next news article have a look at this editorial it talks about the recent spat or tussle between the ruling party and the opposition in the parliament the issue is that presiding officers of both the houses of the parliament had expunged major parts of the opposition MPs speeches citing the reason that they were defamatory here expunged means to remove completely now look at this article it is taken from yesterday's newspaper here the congress spokesperson has raised this particular issue in the news briefing on sunday he said that speeches made by Raul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Karge were in no way undemocratic as the words used by them in the parliament were not unparliamentary he alleged that the government by removing major parts of their speeches had crippled the freedom of speech of parliamentarians this is the context based on which the lead editorial of today's written through this discussion we will see some important points discussed in the editorial before that i have highlighted the syllabus regarding this discussion you can go through it see the expunged speeches of opposition members were made during the discussion of the president's address to the parliament president of india addresses the parliament at the start of first decision of each year this is according to article 87 of the indian constitution after the president's address the motion of thanks to the addresses discussed elaborately in both the houses of the parliament in the discussion of the motion of thanks members of parliament are allowed to literally speak on any matter it is a special occasion available to the members of the parliament to point out the issues that concerns the governance of the country the author of this editorial is of the opinion that since council of ministers is accountable to the parliament the members of parliament have the right to critically scrutinize their performance he also says that the accountability to the parliament requires the government to respond adequately to the questions raised by the MPs in this particular occasion here note that the questions raised during the motion of thanks should be answered by the prime minister himself this is according to the rules of the house the MPs of the apportion party using this special occasion has raised major questions regarding the functioning of the government and the majority of the speeches have been expunged by the presiding officers saying that they were defamatory this is all about the discussion regarding the motion of thanks to the president's address now moving on article 105 of the indian constitution talks about the powers and privileges of the members of the parliament to freely express their views in the parliament they are literally made unanswerable to the courts in respect of anything said or any vote given by them in the parliament or any committee thereof now look closely at the class one of this article it talks about the exceptions to the freedom of speech of MPs it says that freedom of speech of member of parliament are subject to other provisions of the constitution and to the rules governing the proceedings of the parliament these are the only two exceptions to the freedom of speech of members of parliament this is all regarding class one and class two of article 105 now i'm coming to class three this class gives the necessary power to the parliament to make a law relating to the powers and privileges of the members of parliament but note that till today there have been no law made by the parliament in this regard this is all relating to article 105 which deals with powers and privileges of the members of parliament now moving on to the rules of the loxaba rule number 353 of loxaba provides the necessary condition for a member of parliament to raise defamatory or incriminatory allegation opposite a minister or anyone see this particular rule can be used by the MP by giving a prior notice to the presiding officer of the house here in this article the author quotes this rule and says that this rule doesn't apply to allegations made against a minister he further says that since the council of ministers are accountable to the parliament the members of the parliament have the right to question the ministers and also make allegations against their conductors ministers the author is also of the opinion that it is part of the MP's duty to ensure government's accountability in the parliament by critically questioning them this is all regarding rule number 353 of loxaba see a member of parliament in exercise of his power needs to follow certain procedure to make an allegation against a minister such a procedure has been laid down by the speakers in the past the allegations made by the members need to be backed by research and not by mere newspaper reports this particular rule has been brought to make the MPs to be more responsible in their questioning this is all regarding the rules and convention relating to the allegations which can be made against a minister the author further states that any statement regarding the conduct of the public servant in discharge of his public duty or his character cannot be construed as defamation this is according to the second exception present in section 499 of the indian penal code section 499 of the indian penal code specifically deals with defamation of an individual here the author equates the word public servant with the minister so the author is of the opinion that expansion as a tool should not be used to curtail the statements made by members of parliament against the minister who is a public servant by bringing in rule 353 of loxaba he finally ends the editorial by stating that distinction must be made between critical statements and defamatory or incriminatory statement while the defamatory statements can be expunged critical statements regarding the functioning of the government and the minister should not be expunged from the records he further says that freedom of expression guaranteed to the parliamentarians under article 105 should not be curtailed by using expansion as a tool so that's all regarding this discussion in this discussion we saw in detail about article 105 we also saw about rule 353 of loxaba and we also saw about the opinion of the author where he cites rule number 353 should be rarely used to curtail the freedom of expression of members of parliament that's all regarding this discussion with this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article look at this news article it says that the supreme court wants center over delay in appointment and transfers of high court judges the issue of appointment of judges has become a point of conflict between the center and the judiciary the government is attacking the colegium system of appointment of judges in higher judiciary on the other hand the supreme court has been passing directions and orders to push the central government to make time-bound decisions on recommendations made by the colegium now for the first time the supreme court has placed the government on a 10-day ultimatum to clear the pending transfers in high courts this is about the news article in this context we will understand the procedure for the transfer of high court judges article 222 of the indian constitution makes provision for the transfer of judges from one high court to any other high court so the initiation of proposal of the transfer of a judge should be made by the chief justice of india here the chief justice of india is expected to take into account the views of the chief justice of the high court from which the judge is to be transferred and the chief justice of high court to which the transfer is to be affected besides this the views of one or more supreme court judges who are in a position to offer their views are also taken into account the views of the proposed transfer should be expressed in writing only this should be considered by the chief justice of india and four senior most judges of the supreme court this is what we commonly call as the koolijian system now this proposal is then referred to the government followed by this the union minister of law should submit the recommendation to the prime minister the prime minister then will advise the president on the transfer of the judges consent after this the president approves the transfer and the notification will be gazetted and the judge will be transferred this is the procedure of transfer of high court judges see the conflict between the judiciary and the executive has been in use for a number of times also the issue of transfer of high court judges has also been in the news so we can expect a question regarding the procedure of transfer of high court judges in the upcoming prelims examination so concentrate on the points we discussed in this discussion and revise it before going to the prelims examination so that's all regarding this discussion now let us conclude this and take up the next news article take a look at this article it talks about a new draft bill regarding the protection of india's geological heritage the bill is called as draft geo heritage sites and geo relics preservation and maintenance bill 2022 the article discusses about the various aspects of the bill through this discussion we will try to learn about the bill very briefly the draft geo heritage bill tries to protect india's geological heritage sites which include fossils sedimentary rocks and other natural resources here note that india has relevant legislation for the protection and conservation of archaeological and historical monuments but at the same time geologically important heritage sites in india does not have a specialized policy or law to conserve and preserve them this is why the union government has introduced this particular bill the draft bill gives extraordinary and exclusive power to the geological survey of india according to the provisions of the draft bill the power to declare a site as geologically important entirely rest with the geological survey of india this particular provision now is basically a point of issue and this provision is contented by the india's geosciences and paleontology community the community feels that there needs to be a broader committee of experts from a wider range of institutions to avoid centralization of powers with a single institution that is the geological survey of india and this is the major issue associated with this draft bill see india's signatory to the UNESCO convention concerning the protection of world cultural and natural heritage this particular convention makes it obligatory for the signatory states to identify protect and conserve the cultural and natural heritage sites situated in its territory through this particular bill india tries to protect its geologically important heritage sites as i already said geological survey of india will announce the geologically important sites in india subsequently this sites will be provided with necessary protection under the bill once it becomes an actor here note the fact india currently has 34 geologically important sites this is all regarding this discussion we will elaborately discuss about this bill once it appears in the editorial section so today's discussion we will stop with this okay so that's all regarding this discussion now let us conclude this and take up the next news article look at this article it talks about the statement made by the union minister of education he made this statement regarding the working of ic hr that is indian council for historical research he said that the ic hr has not launched any project to rewrite indian history the government has no intention to rewrite indian history the ic hr is just filling gaps by incorporating all major personalities and events which are not part of the history books this is about the news article in this context we will try to learn about ic hr in this discussion the indian council of historical research is an autonomous organization under the ministry of education their primary aim is to promote and give direction to historical research they also encourage and foster objective and scientific writing of history besides this the ic hr website mentions a set of objectives i got given here some of them which would be relevant for our exam perspective firstly as i earlier mentioned they work to foster objectives and scientific writing of history by this trying to inculcate a informed appreciation of countries national and cultural heritage it maintains a national register of research work in history and their field of specialization then ic hr encourages the production of popular literature which would foster objective understanding of india's cultural heritage then it advices the government of india on all such matters pertaining to historical research and training in history methodology now this is important ic hr can acquire by gift purchase lease or otherwise any property movable or immovable which may be necessary or convenient for the purpose of the council and they can also construct alter and maintain any building or buildings these are some objectives of ic hr before concluding this discussion we will see about the organizational structure of ic hr ic hr is headed by a chairman the chairman of the council of ic hr is nominated by the department of education in a honorary capacity then the members of the council are nominated for a period of three years here you should know that the term of the chairman is not coterminous with that of the members of the constituted council another important fact is that ic hr publishes a biannual journal the indian historical review in english and another journal called the idihas in hindi this is a potential problems question so make note of it so that's all regarding this discussion in this discussion we saw some important points about ic hr which is nothing but indian council of historical research with this we have come to the end of the news article discussion now let us conclude this and take up the practice problems questions we have five practice problems questions today let us see them one by one let us take up the first question it is a two statement question two statements about geological survey of india is given we have to find the correct statements let us take up the first statement geological survey of india comes under the ministry of environment forest and climate change this statement is wrong actually the geological survey of india comes under the ministry of mines so statement one is wrong moving on to the second statement headquarters of geological survey of india is located in kulcata with five regional centers found in the other parts of the country this statement is correct the headquarters of gsi is located in kulcata and the five other regional offices include laknow jaypur nagpur hyderabad and shillong so statement one is incorrect and statement two is correct so the correct answer here is option b two only moving on to the second question this question is about the indian council of historical research this question is ic hr is an autonomous organization under which of the following see in this question you can easily eliminate option c and d that is ministry of home affairs and ministry of earth sciences the confusion will be among option a and b which is ministry of culture and ministry of education and from our discussion we know that ic hr is an autonomous organization under the ministry of education not ministry of culture so the correct answer here is option b ministry of education moving on to the third question it is also a two statement question two statements are given we have to follow in the correct statement let us take up the first statement the parliament by law may appoint the governor of a state as a administrator of an adjoining union territory this statement is wrong because as per article 239 the president may appoint the governor of a state as a administrator of a adjoining union territory it is the president not the parliament so statement one is wrong moving on to the second statement if a governor of a state is appointed to act as an administrator of an adjoining union territory he shall exercise his function as a administrator independent of his council of ministers this statement is actually correct the governor if appointed he shall exercise his function as an administrator independently of his council of ministers okay so statement one is incorrect and statement two is correct so the correct answer here is option b two only moving on to the fourth question let me read out the question the judgments proceedings and acts of the high courts are captured and preserved for perpetual memory and testimony the options are court of record the final court of appeal in each state and executive court import to issue rites based on previous proceedings here the correct answer is option a court of records because as per article 215 of the constitution every high court shall be a court of record and shall have all the powers of such a court including the power to punish for contempt of itself so the correct answer once again here is option a court of record moving on to the last question this is a quiz question for you and this question is based on our legacy waste discussion interested aspirants can post the answer for this question in the comment section the main questions based on today's discussion are displayed here interested aspirants can write the answers and post them in the comment section if you like today's video like comment and share it with your friends for more updates regarding UPSC preparation subscribe to Shankara IS Academy's YouTube channel thank you for listening