 Good evening to all our friends and welcome to the Hindu News Analysis of Shankar IAS Academy for the Deed 7th December 2020. First of all, Shankar IAS Academy is really thankful for the overwhelming response which you have received towards our programs from you guys. In this regard, we are happy to inform you about our pre-storming 2021 program i.e. the prelims test series for the upcoming UPC preliminary examination 2021. Shankar IAS Academy also started the admissions for the second test batch and this will be starting from 11th December 2020. Our pre-storming program is India's first full-fledged artificial intelligence supported preliminary test series. All the required details are provided in the description box and also in the comment section. Please go through it. So with this, let us start our news analysis for today. The relevant news articles taken for today's discussion from five different editions of the Hindu newspaper along with their page numbers are displayed here. Also, the handwritten notes in the PDF format and timestampings for all the news articles taken up for today's discussion is given in the description box and also in the comment section for the best interest of the viewers. Let us start with our first news article. Now this news article says that one of the coal mining ravaged areas in Meghalaya has been turning green. The villagers pursue low-cost rainwater harvesting for recharging the area that has become dry due to coal mining activities. And as an alternative to mining, the villagers are focusing on promoting tourism in an area rich with caves, canyons and waterfalls. So in this context, let us discuss in detail about rat hole mining in Meghalaya. The syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. See, a rat hole mine comprises a deep vertical shaft with narrow horizontal tunnels 2 to 4 feet in dimension dug on its sides. Miners go into these horizontal tunnels for hundreds of feet to take out the coal. And know that primitive tools such as pickaxe are used to build and operate these mines. These rat hole mines are spread throughout Meghalaya but are mostly concentrated in the Jayantia Hills, the South Gara Hills, around the towns of Bagamara and Nangalbibra and the area around Nongjiri and Shalang in the West Khasi Hills. Know that accidents are common in these mining sites. For example, there were accidents when the tunnel caved in burying the miners and sometimes the tunnel gets flooded which leads to drowning of the miners. And sometimes they asphyxiate also. Most often these accidents are not even reported as majority of the miners are migrants from Assam, Nepal or Bangladesh. And recently in 2018, mining accident resulted in death of several poor miners. At its peak in 2011-12, rat hole mines produced about 10 million tons of coal worth 2000 to 2500 crore rupees. This large coal production in a small state like Meghalaya had a devastating impact on its land and water resources. Meghalaya coal has high sulfur content leading to acid mine drainage. See it means that these mines discharge acids like sulfuric acid. The acid discharge in some areas is so severe that they have made the rivers acidic affecting the aquatic life and corroding machinery at hydroelectric projects and dams. For example, rivers in Jayantia Hills are gravely affected by acid mine drainage which are originating from sulfur rich coal mines through spoils, leaching of heavy metals, organic enrichment and silting by coal and sand particles. The most important development in this issue came in 2014. In 2014, India's national green tribunal temporarily banned rat hole mining in Meghalaya. Before this, the state government was not much concerned with the prevention of rat hole mining which has endangered the life of miners since 1980s. In 2019, the supreme court ordered the Meghalaya government to deposit 100 crore rupees imposed as fine by the national green tribunal for failing to curb illegal mining activities. And there are allegations that most of these rat hole mines are controlled by big bureaucrats, ministers, coal barons and contractors who are in positions of power. And consequently, the state government prefers to remain silent about this issue. The money from coal brought a new level of prosperity to the lives of the coal mine owners. But what about the condition of miners? The miners themselves have been crawling into the rat holes without any safety equipments for decades. And several reports link the menace of rat hole mining with increased child trafficking. See rat hole mines have encouraged child trafficking since it is easier for children to navigate through these narrow tunnels. And today, six years after the national green tribunal order, the coal business remains active despite continuing litigation against the rat hole mining in the supreme court. We must also know that Meghalaya is a sixth scheduled state. The sixth schedule allows the constitution of autonomous district councils in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Misora. And this is in order to safeguard the rights of the tribal population. And some sources say that on the lands owned by the autonomous district councils, land owners can mine without any permission from the state or the union governments. So let us hope that the government at all the levels will come together to resolve this life threatening issue. So in this discussion, we saw about rat hole mining and the dangers posed by them. But this will move on to the next news. Now in this oped article, the author talks about what the government should have done and should do amidst the economic contraction. So in this context, we will discuss the important points which are given in this oped article. The relevant syllabus is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. First, the author gives a glimpse of macroeconomic performance of the Indian economy in the first two quarters of the financial year 2021. According to the National Statistical Office or NSO, the GDP at constant prices in quarter one of 2021 is showing a contraction of 23.9% as compared to quarter one of 2019-20. Also the GDP at constant prices in quarter two of 2021 is showing a contraction of 7.5% as compared to quarter two of 2019-20. So with two successive quarters experiencing contraction, India has now entered into a technical recession. We have discussed in detail about the technical recession in our 30th November Hindu News Analysis. Please watch that video for further understanding. Now why quarter one faced 23.9% contraction? See this is because most of the first quarter coincided with the lockdown which was imposed by the central government in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore it is expected that the economic output would be depressed as production could not have taken place. However with green shoots in the economy, there is a reduction in the contraction from 23.9% to 7.5%. But still it is the second successive contraction for the economy. So given this successive contraction in Indian economy, the author assesses the capacity of private investors or players in checking the contraction or stabilizing the economy. While the decrease in production and economic contraction in quarter one was mainly attributed to lockdown restrictions, the contraction in quarter two occurred despite the removal of restrictions. This is because in both quarter one and quarter two, one another thing happened in parallel. And this is weak private consumption demand. And this is because of the economic challenges which was imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. People lost jobs and many received pay cuts. And for others, the spending went to treatment and other basic necessities. And it should be noted that many faced bankruptcies also. So people did not have enough money in hand for consumption. It is to be noted that around 50 to 60% of Indian economy is consumption based. In such case, with the coincidence of weak demand in quarter one and to some extent in quarter two is the main reason for the contraction in quarter two also. And due to the economic challenges and weak demand, private investors are still waiting to make appropriate investments. Because if investments are made now, and if no one buys the produced products, the investors will become bankrupt. And that is why throughout the period of quarter one and quarter two, we have been seeing a lot of economists suggesting the government to ensure that people have money in their hands to spend for consumption. In other words, government should bring policies to strengthen the demand. Some suggested even bringing urban livelihood programs similar to MGNREGA and also increase in financial assistance. While the government brought out the Atman Irbar packages, it is still understood that they were insufficient to bring economy to perform normally in terms of consumption demand. So it is in this scenario that the author brings in the government final consumption expenditure. This expenditure has declined in quarter two over the expenditures in quarter one level. If you take private final consumption expenditure, there is substantial increase in quarter two over quarter one. And since we have weak demand and investment-related challenges, we cannot expect private players to redeem the economy in the short run. But the government can surely check the economy's slide by increasing its final consumption expenditure and also by following an expansionary fiscal policy. See, expansionary fiscal policy includes tax cuts, providing financial assistance to the needy, then free provision of essential goods and services, and also increased government spending on projects such as infrastructure improvements. In fact, if the government had maintained its final consumption expenditure in quarter two, the contraction would have been just 4.1 percentage instead of 7.5 percentage in the second quarter. This means slashing public expenditure amid a recession would lead to serious economic disaster. So the final call of the author is that the government should increase its expenditure, at least in the short run, that is at least till June 2021. Such a measure of the government would mean that it is acting truly fiscally responsible. Now let us conclude the discussion by discussing in brief about National Statistical Office. See, NSO is one of the five wings of the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. In relation to our discussion, know that it releases the quarter-wise GDP estimates in a financial year. The important roles of NSO are given here for your reference. Please go through it. So with this, we have come to the end of analysis of this editorial. Now let us move on to the next news article. Now let us take up this editorial, which is a criticism of the four labour courts which were enacted by the government and many positive claims have been made by the government on these courts stating that it would generate employment and secure the basic rights of the workers. But still the courts have been opposed by the workers and the organizations. Thus the authors who are experts in the field of labour laws tries to explain the issues with these courts that led to this opposition. The syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. First let us see what are these four labour courts. See the first one is Court on Wages 2019. The second is Court on Social Security 2020. The third is Occupational Safety, Health and Working Condition Court 2020. And the fourth, Industrial Relation Court 2020. See Court on Wages was enacted last year itself but the other three which are Court on Social Security, Occupational Safety, Health and Working Condition Court and the Industrial Relation Court were passed by the parliament and received presidential assent in September 2020. Now let us see the major claims of the government and also the authors criticism on them. The first claim is Universal Social Security which is based on the Court on Social Security 2020. Here the term universal means applicable to all or all classes. Then what social security means? See it is both a concept as well as a system. By the state it represents basically a system of protection of individuals who are in need of such protection by the state which is an agent of the society. It is the protection provided by the society that is the state to its members through a series of public measures against the economic and social distress caused by the stoppage of earnings or by the substantial reduction of the earnings. These stoppage and reduction in earnings are those that resulted from issues like sickness, maternity, employment injury, occupational diseases, unemployment, old age and even death. In the same line the Court also defines social security as a measure of protection afforded to employees, unorganized workers, gig workers and also platform workers to ensure access to healthcare and to provide income security. But is the social security offered by the Court really universal? For this according to the author the answer is no. It is because the courts mandate benefits of the Employee's State Insurance or ESI only for workers belonging to establishments that employ at least 10 workers or more. Now these are the benefits for the insured persons under ESI. Please go through it. Similarly provident fund is applicable only to the workers who are belonging to establishments that employ at least 20 workers or more. This means that under ESI and PF most of the informal sector workers are not covered. Why? Because informal sector typically operates at a lower level of organization with little or no division between labor and capital as factors of production and they also operate on small scale. So most of the times the number of laborers involved are very low even below 10 and in India around 80 percentage of workers working informal sector. So based on this the authors note that nearly 80 percentage of all Indian workers do not come in the ambit of the benefits which are provided by ESI and thus as usual workers who work as domestic helps or the street vendors are left out of its ambit. So if a necessity arrives to cover such workers for this the court provides scope to frame a number of schemes for the purpose of providing social security benefits to any class of the persons. But then it is just a legal space based on which the central government can institute schemes. Whether it will be done or not is another question. This means universal social security is just a promise under the court and not a reality yet. But what about the workers who are covered under the social security benefits? See remaining 20 percentage of the workers will be covered because we have seen that around 80 percentage constitute the workers in informal sector and according to the authors such coverage will not be easy due to inadequacy of resources. For example under the employee state insurance already the proportion of doctors to beneficiaries is very low and according to the authors in 2016 ESI employed around 6 doctors per 1 lakh beneficiaries and it is also to be noted that the number of workers covered under the ESI increased to 3.6 crores by March 2019 from 2.1 crore workers in 2016. So this led to a huge gap between the proportion of doctors to beneficiaries. Now the court seeks to cover 20 percentage of all workers. Thus the authors expect that the membership in ESI will increase 3 times than that of 2019 that is to 10 crores. And this will further increase the gap between the proportion of doctors to beneficiaries. This also means that the available capacity of hospitals and dispensaries would be inadequate. Now the second claim is universal coverage of minimum wage under the court on wages 2019. At present only around 30 percentage of all the workers get covered under the various minimum wage schedules. Thus to make it as a universal aspect the government has included the floor wage concept in the court on social wages. See the floor wages to be determined by the central government after taking into account the minimum living standards of the workers and it may be different for different geographical areas. And this is as per the section 9 clause 1 of the court on wages. Now under clause 2 the appropriate government cannot fix a minimum wage rate which is lower than the floor wage which is determined by the central government. Even if the existing minimum wages fixed by the appropriate government is higher than the floor wage they cannot reduce the minimum wages. Here the issue is with the floor wage. Previously various ministers announced the floor wages. See the labor minister announced a floor wage of 178 rupees per day in 2019 and recently the finance minister announced 202 rupees as floor wage. The problem is that it is only a little more than half the price that was suggested or recommended by the labor ministry's expert committee on wages in 2019 which was set up for this purpose. It recommended an evidence based methodology that needs to be considered for the fixation of such a floor wage. In this regard it recommended a nationally representative and culturally palatable balanced diet approach. Based on this the committee recommended setting the floor wages at 375 rupees per day. And note that it is irrespective of skill level occupation and location. And in addition to all these there is also issue with the industrial relations score. See it restricts the union's right to strike. Under section 62 the court prescribes seven conditions for workers or employees under which a strike is not allowed. Then under the industrial relations score there are also relaxed norms for factory closure. Under the same section of 62 the court also prescribes seven conditions under which the employer is prohibited from locking out. See lockout refers to temporary closing of a place of employment or the suspension of work or the refusal by an employer to continue to employ any number of persons already employed by him or her. So from the above discussions the authors conclude that the four labor courts only serve to improve the ease of doing business ranking instead of improving the conditions of employment. As you know the ease of doing business ranking is given by the World Bank Group's flagship publication of doing business report. The ranking and report measure both the regulations that enhance business activity and also the regulations that constrain business activity. The report presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 190 economies and compared over time. In short the report and ranking analyzes regulations that encourage efficiency and supports the freedom to do business. So in this regard the authors criticism is that our government is trying to prove that India is a country with freedom to do business by enacting the labor courts. So this is all about the discussion of this news article with this we'll move on to the next news. Now have a look at this question it is based on this news article which talks about India's criticism on the functioning of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations or simply UNAOC. In this context let us discuss about UNAOC its roles and India's concerns. We all know about the 9-11 attacks on the US by Islamic terrorists. In its aftermath there was a global war on terrorism led by the US. Back then famous political scientist Samuel Huntington proposed the theory of the clash of civilizations. He hypothesized a new post-Cold War world order where source of conflict would be people's culture and religious identities. In this context a high-level committee was formed under Mr. Kofi Annan who was the former UN Secretary General. Its purpose was to explore the roots of polarization between societies and culture today and to recommend a practical program of action to address this issue. Thus the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations or UNAOC was established in 2005. It was a political initiative of Mr. Kofi Annan and co-sponsored by the governments of Spain and Turkey. The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations High Representative and Secretariat are based and operating from New York. It maintains a global network of partners including states, international and regional organizations, civil society groups, foundations and the private sector to improve cross-cultural relations between diverse nations and communities. The Alliance of Civilizations was created to serve as a soft power political tool of the United Nations Secretary General for conflict prevention and conflict resolution. It is a coalition against extremist forces, a movement to advance mutual respect for cultures, traditions and religious beliefs and a platform to bridge divides and overcome prejudice, misconceptions, misperceptions and polarization. The Alliance also promotes collective action in society to address the threats emerging from the hostile perceptions that form in violence. Such an alliance is essential for overcoming cultural and social barriers, reducing tensions and improving relations between communities and societies with diverse cultural and religious backgrounds and for combating violent extremism. With this let us discuss India's concerns. See during the UN General Assembly session, India stated that the UN AOC was very selective in its activities as it seeks to protect only the Abrahamic religions of Islam, Christianity and Judaism. India also said that the body failed to condemn attacks on Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists who have suffered terror strikes and seen their shrines destroyed in Afghanistan and Pakistan. India also criticized Pakistan for its culture of hatred against religions in India and for fostering cross-border terrorism. The author says that India's criticism at the UNGA serves to further the theory of an inevitable clash of civilizations. So UN AOC shall address these concerns and ensure a non-selective and unbiased approach to ensure a culture of peace. With this information, have a look at this question. Consider the following statements regarding United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. It is a two statements based question. The first statement reads it works to explore the roots of polarization between societies and cultures and to recommend a practical program of action to address this issue. Yes, this statement is correct. Now the second statement reads it is a specialized body of the United Nations reporting directly to the Security Council. See, this statement is wrong. Know that it is not a specialized body of the United Nations and the 17 specialized agencies of United Nations are given here for your reference. Please go through it. So we have to identify the correct statement of statements from these given statements. We know that statement one is correct and statement two is incorrect. So the correct answer for this question is option A one only. With this, we'll move on to the next news. Now have a look at this question. It is based on this news article which talks about an iconic stone chariot in front of the Vijaya Vithala Temple at Hampi. The stone chariot is a part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Hampi which is called as group of monuments at Hampi. In this discussion, we will see some of the important aspects of this group of monuments. See, the site of Hampi is located in Karnataka. It mainly compresses of the remnants of the capital city of the Vijayanagara Empire. See, Hampi served as the imperial capital of the Vijayanagara Empire. The site provides the remains of the 14th to 16th century AD. The place is located in the Tungabhadra basin in central Karnataka in the Bellari district. The site provides varied urban, royal and sacred systems of the particular time period. Some of the important remains are the Krishna temple complex, Narasimha and Ganesha structures, Hemakuta group of temples, Achyutaraya temple complex, the Vithala temple complex, Pattabirama temple complex and Lottas Mahal complex. Suburban townships called as Puras have surrounded the large Dravidian temple complexes. It is found that tanks at those times in Hampi have the application of unique hydraulic technologies. The remains which were unearthed in the site also indicate a highly developed society in this region. In terms of architecture, the Vithala temple represents the culmination of the Vijayanagara temple architecture. And remember that Dravidian architecture flourished under the Vijayanagara Empire. This architecture is characterized by massive dimensions then cloistered enclosures or shielded enclosures. We can also find lofty towers over the entrances encased along with decorated pillars. Know that the Vithala temple is a fully developed temple with associated buildings like the Kalyana Mandapa and Utsava Mandapa with three entrance Gopurams. The Gopuras over the entrances and the sanctum in the sites have been constructed with stones and bricks. The roofs have been laid with heavy thick granite slabs. These slabs were covered with a waterproof course of brick jelly and lime motor. And the stone chariot which is mentioned in the news is inside the Vithala temple complex. And know that the chariot is a shrine which is dedicated to Garuda. This Hampi chariot is one among the three famous stone chariots in India. The other stone chariots are Konark in Odisha and Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu. The delicately carved chariot at Hampi reflects the skill of temple architecture under the patronage of the Vijayanagara rulers. And in order to protect this chariot from damages from visitors, this monument is now protected by a chain barricade. And see Vijayanagara architecture is also known for its adoption of elements of Indo-Islamic architecture in secular buildings like the queen's bath and the elephant stables. So this represents a highly evolved multi-religious and multi-ethnic society. The building activity in Hampi continued over a period of 200 years. It reflects the evolution in religious and political scenario as well as the advancements in art and architecture. However, the battle of Talikota in 1565 AD led to a massive destruction of the physical fabric of Hampi. Now for your reference, the criteria under which the monuments have been designated as World Heritage Site is displayed here. Now with this information, please see this question. The austere and grandiose site of Hampi comprise mainly the remnants of the capital city of Vijayanagara Empire, that is 14th to 16th century CE, the last great Hindu kingdom. Hampi is located in the state of, see the correct answer for this question is option D, Karnataka. So with this, we have discussed all the relevant news articles from today's The Hindu newspaper. Now let us move on to the practice questions discussion section based on today's news analysis. See here, we have three main questions. One is related to rat hole mining and the second one is related to national statistical office and the third one about the new labour courts. Please write your answers and post it in the comment section. Our feedback will be given in a reasonable time frame. Now we have come to the end of analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the discussion of practice questions. If you like this video, please press the like button, comment, share and do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for more videos and updates related to civil service preparation. Thank you.