 Welcome to the hindi news analysis by Shankar Ayes academy. The list of topics chosen for today's discussion along with the page numbers is given here for your reference. Let us start today's news analysis. In this discussion, we shall see these two articles which appeared on editorial page in today's hindi newspaper. These two news articles talk about recent India-China tensions and how border issues in the past and present have been dissolved. The syllabus for this discussion is given here for your reference. If you see, we have discussed about recent standoff between India and China many times in the last two weeks. So in this scenario, many number of accusations have been directed towards the government and the prime minister for being silent regarding the standoffs. So although terms this silent diplomacy or quiet diplomacy. So in this context, we shall see what is silent diplomacy and did India always follow this silent diplomacy. Firstly, if we analyze the pattern of resolution of past standoffs, it show that a quiet or silent diplomacy played a key role in unlocking the complicated standoff situations. Here, author gives a 2013 example when Chinese troops have set up tents on India's side of line of actual control near the Debsan Plains. At that time, the UPA government, which was in power, was publicly blamed for being silent regarding standoff. But what happened was India privately conveyed to China that if standoff did not end an upcoming visit by the Premier of China at that time to India would be cancelled. So India took a hard stand by directly conveying to China that if you don't stop incursions near line of actual control, the visit of China's Premier will be cancelled. So if you observe, India was keeping public rhetoric calm and steady. But at the same time, it displaced strength and gives the adversary, that is China here, a way out. It was the preferred solution in 2013. Otherwise, China would not have retreated from the line of actual control. So this approach was shared by former national security advisor, which we discussed in 3rd June, Hindu news analysis. So simply put, what India does during quiet diplomacy is it keeps public rhetoric calm and steady, but at the same time, it displays military strength and gives a chance to adversary to back out. So similar thing happened in 2014 during NDA government. There was a standoff at Chumar. China was constructing a five-kilometer road in Chumar area. The road was from Chebsi in China to Chumar, where India has strong domination. So this led to a standoff between India and China. Interestingly, this standoff coincided with China's President visit to India. The then government was severely criticized because the visit was happened as planned. But India quietly but forcefully stopped the Chinese road building by deploying more soldiers and outnumbering China's presence there. As a result, Chinese army withdrew and both sides disengaged. Further, both sides followed a moratorium into patrolling into contested areas to ease tensions. Here moratorium means a temporary suspension of patrolling into contested areas to ease the tensed atmosphere there. Here, author says that had government announced about moratorium publicly then, there would have been a big public uproar in the country. So in addition, a similar approach was used in the 72 days standoff at Doklam in 2017 also. So based on these three examples, you can infer that India practices a quiet or silent diplomacy with its neighbors. So ultimately what happened in all these three examples is, the objective of India was achieved in all the three cases, where China faced firm resistance from India and it was prevented from changing the status quo in standoff regions. So the both UPA as well as the current India governments have followed an approach of quiet diplomacy along with strong military posture, plus giving a way out to the adversary, that is China. And coming to current standoff, the same approach is being followed here as well, where India has made two points very clear. One, India will agree only to restore status quo. Second, India will not stop its infrastructure development in the area until China withdraws its installed infrastructure on its side of LAC. So know that China already established artillery, bombers, jammers, etc., on its side of LAC. As a result, India is also developing its infrastructure on Indian side. So currently, there is an enormous asymmetry which is benefiting China in the border area. So because of this asymmetry, there is a high level of strategic mistrust between the two countries. This mistrust can be addressed by a proper and a continued communication between both sides. Based on this, recently many important decisions to resolve the standoff has been discussed by both India and China. As a first step, partial disengagement of troops from some points of LAC is agreed by both the sides. Five locations of conflict in western sector in Ladakh have been identified which includes patrolling points, Chuchul and Pangong Lake. Further, a broad plan of holding series of talks has been agreed to take forward the disengagement process. To have a continued communication, there is also a proposal of having formal meetings once or twice a year by COPS commander level. This ensures a better interaction between two armies at higher level. So this is the scenario so far. Let us wait and see how India's silent or quiet diplomacy will work this time. There is one more news article in today's newspaper in which the opposition criticizes the government for not briefing the opposition political parties. In this news article, a comparison was drawn between Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. See in 1962, when China attacked India, the Prime Minister Nehru was demanded by the opposition to convene a parliamentary session to discuss the ongoing India-China war of 1962. Then the Prime Minister Nehru accepted, listened to, blistering criticism of his policies. So in this context, the author of this comment article says that opposition and the media are righteous to hold the government accountable for not providing information regarding the standoffs. However, he further says that issues should not be politicized considering the national interest. Here, author provides a solution saying that government should keep the opposition informed. Further, government should proactively engage with media and should maintain public rhetoric, calm and steady. Another author talks about 24x7 demand for information on social media and many times misinformation or fake information is being circulated widely on social media. This is same with the recent standoff also. Here, author says that government should ensure what is being reported on media and social media is well-informed and not speculative or exaggerated. While concluding, author says that the broader objective should be protecting India's security and India's interests. And by taking lessons from the past, we should follow quiet diplomacy coupled with strong military to resolve border disputes and giving a way out to adversary. This is all about these news articles which appeared on different players of today's Hindu newspaper. In this discussion, we talked about silent diplomacy. We have seen examples where silent diplomacy worked. Later, we talked about opposition, criticism on present government and how media and social media is provided with wrong or fake information and how is it spreading in the country. Have a look at the displayed practice question. Let us move ahead with this news article. The next discussion is going to be based on this news article which talks about National Institutional Ranking Framework. So the latest version of this NIRF named the India Rankings 2020 of Institutions of Higher Education was released by Ministry of Human Resource Development yesterday. In this context, let us discuss in brief about this National Institutional Ranking Framework and its relevance in higher education sector. The syllabus for this discussion is given here for your reference. So the first question is what is NIRF and what does it mean? See as the name suggests that is NIRF National Institutional Ranking Framework. It outlines a methodology for ranking higher education institutions across the country in different domains of knowledge. Simply, it provides a framework which places higher education institutions in a leaderboard. This framework was launched by Ministry of Human Resource Development in 2015. The methodology for this framework is drawn from the recommendations by a core committee set up by Ministry of Human Resource and Development. So what does that methodology include? See it broadly includes parameters like teaching, learning and resources, second, the research and professional practices, third, graduation outcomes, fourth, outreach and inclusivity and the last one, perception. These five broad parameters have been further subclassified into suitable subheads and know that each of these five broad heads has an overall weight assigned to it. For example, TLR has a weightage of 30%, research and professional practice 30%, graduation outcomes 20%, outreach and inclusivity 10% and perception 10%. The subcategories or subclassification of each of these five parameters is given here for your reference. Kindly have a look. In addition, know that this NIRF ranks institutions from nine different domains of knowledge, namely university, engineering, management, etc. In this year, that is 2020 rankings, one new domain called Dental has been introduced, bringing the total tally to 10 categories or 10 subject domains. So this is all about NIRF and its brief background. Now a question may arise, so what is the relevance of this NIRF and how is it useful? See firstly, these rankings are important as they act as a guide to students for selection of universities based on set of criteria. Further, it helps universities to improve their performance on various ranking parameters and identify gaps in research and areas of improvement. Additionally, the ranking of institutions at national level instill a competitive spirit amongst institutions to perform better and secure higher ranking international ranking. As we already said, today's news article discusses about the latest version of these rankings, that is India rankings 2020. According to it, IIT Madras, followed by IISC Bangalore and IIT Delhi are top ranked institutions in India. If you recollect, on 10th June, we discussed about QS World University rankings 2021. When we were discussing that news article, we said that India's best, including the IISC and most IITs have slipped in the global list and Ministry of HRD outlines that this slippage is due to high weightage given to perception parameter in most international rankings. It means that QS World University rankings give high weightage to the perception parameter in ranking and know that this perception is a subjective manner, so it is very difficult to ascertain whether these international rankings reflect the reality or not. And coming back to today's news discussion, that is NIRF, as we have already discussed, 90% of parameters are completely objective and fact based, while only 10% is based on subjective matter of perception. See, when we were discussing about the different parameters in NIRF, we said that teaching and learning gets around 30%, research gets around 30%, graduation outcomes gets 20%, outreach and inclusivity gets 10%, and perception has only a weightage of 10%. So thereby, you can infer that the NIRF rankings are mostly objective based when compared to the international ranking, that is QS World University rankings 2021. So this is all about this news article. Have a look at the displayed practice question. Let us move on to next news article. This news article says that the US President Trump issued an executive order authorizing sanctions against individuals involved in ICC, that is International Criminal Court. See, now that ICC is investigating whether US forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan or not. So in this scenario, US government has put a lot of sanctions, including economic and travel sanctions against the employees of ICC. In this context, let us discuss about international criminal court and other international adjudicatory bodies. First, we shall see what is ICC. See, this ICC or International Criminal Court was established in 2002 by international community or governments of various countries, mainly to prosecute war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression. This body is headquartered in Hague of Netherlands. In addition, know that ICC is established and governed by an international treaty called the Rome Statute. This was initiated in 1998 and came into force in 2002. And the ICC in 2002 became world's first permanent international criminal court. It investigates and tries individuals charged with gravest crimes of concern to the international community, like genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crime of aggression. Through international criminal justice, ICC aims to hold those responsible for their crimes and to help prevent these crimes from happening again. ICC has jurisdiction only if a member state is unable or unwilling to prosecute atrocities itself. So, thereby it means that the ICC only complements and not replaces the national courts. In the current context, know that United States has never been a member of this court. Though Afghanistan is a member of this ICC, it has argued that any war crimes should be prosecuted only locally, that is in Afghanistan only. And coming to India's membership, know that India is not a party to Rome Statute and hence it is not a member to ICC along with US and China. Recently, Malaysia has ratified the Rome Statute and became the 124th state party to ICC. In addition, know that ICC is not a UN organization, but it has a cooperation agreement with UN. As a judicial body, the ICC does not have its own police force or enforcement body. So, it relies on cooperation with countries worldwide for support, particularly for making arrests, transferring arrested persons to ICC detention centre in Hig, freezing suspects, assets and enforcing sentences. So, this is all about ICC. Know that it is founded by Rome Statute and it is headquartered in Netherlands, that is Hig of Netherlands and India is not a member to this body. Next, we shall discuss about one more international adjudicatory body called International Court of Justice or in short, ICJ. You might have heard about this ICJ or International Court of Justice in Kulbushan Jadav case. If you are aware of Kulbushan Jadav, you might have heard about this International Court of Justice. International Court of Justice is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. It was established in June 1945 by Charter of the United Nations and began to work in 1946. Importantly, know that the headquarters of this ICJ is also located in Hig of Netherlands. Further, ICJ is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations. The other five are General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Trustorship Council and Secretariat. All these five bodies are located in U.S. The only principal body of U.N. located out of U.S. is ICJ, that is International Court of Justice. So what is the role of this court? See, this court mainly concerns with settling legal disputes which are submitted to it by the states. Further, it gives advisory opinions on legal questions which are referred to it by U.N. organs and U.N. specialized agencies. Generally speaking, it deals with subject matters like maritime disputes, sovereignty, natural resources, trade, treaty violations and treaty interpretations, human rights, etc. The court is composed of 15 judges. They are elected by U.N. General Assembly and Security Council for a period of nine years and the judgements of this court are binding upon the parties which are concerned. Coming to membership, all the members of U.N. are parties to the statute of ICJ and non-members may also become parties. Even if a country is not a member of U.N., it can be a member of ICJ. Therefore, you can infer that India being a member of U.N. automatically becomes the state party to ICJ. So, this is all about International Court of Justice. Here, know that ICJ is a U.N. body. It is headquartered in Hague of Netherlands and every U.N. member state automatically becomes a member to ICJ. Next, we shall discuss about permanent court of arbitration. See, the permanent court of arbitration, or PCA, is an intergovernmental organization established by the Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes. This was concluded at Hague of Netherlands in 1899 during the first Hague Peace Conference. The aim of this body is to provide a variety of dispute resolution services to international community. Here, note that this was the first permanent intergovernmental organization to provide a forum for the resolution of international disputes through arbitration and other peaceful means. Here, PCA amounts to misnomer. As the name suggests, it is not a court. Rather, it is an organizer of arbitral tribunals to resolve conflicts between member states, international organizations, or even private parties. So, it means there is no permanent court in PCA. There is only secretariat which sets up temporary tribunals whenever required. This PCA is headquartered in Hague of Netherlands. Now that you would have known that all the three bodies which we have discussed today are headquartered in Hague of Netherlands. They are ICC, ICJ, and PCA. Coming to its relation with United Nations, note that PCA is not a U.N. body or U.N. agency. When it comes to India's membership, India is a contracting party to this convention and know that all decisions of this PCA are called awards which are binding on all the parties in the dispute and have to be carried out without any delay. So, this is all about these three adjudicatory international bodies which are ICC, ICJ, and PCA. Here, importantly, know that these three bodies are headquartered in Hague of Netherlands and India is a member to only two of these three bodies which are ICJ and PCA are not a member to international criminal court. That displayed practice question will be discussed at the end of session. Next, let us take up this question. This question is based on this news article which says that National Human Rights Commission has submitted the midterm report on universal periodic review to United Nations Human Rights Council. So, what is this universal periodic review? See, UPR is a unique mechanism of human rights council to examine and assess the human rights situation in every U.N. member state. This is done through peer review mechanism. See, here know that UPR has assumed a central role in the advancement and monitoring of human rights in all member states. Additionally, know that this universal periodic review has the potential to enhance state accountability towards sustainable development goals. This periodic review is undertaken in cycles of four and a half years each. And coming to a report submitted by NHRC, it says that the NHRC has reviewed the implementation of 152 recommendations given by UPR working group and accepted by Indian government in September 2017. This news article mentions one recommendation among 152 recommendations of UPR working group. It is to continue studying the possibility of universal basic income as a way to further reduce poverty. For this, the National Human Rights Commission has noted that UBI is under examination and active consideration of central government. So, in this context, it becomes important to know about NHRC as well as UNHRC. If you recollect, we have covered National Human Rights Commission on our 6th June Hindu News Analysis. On that day, we said that NHRC is a statutory body established by Protection of Human Rights Act of 1993. It was established for the protection and promotion of human rights. Additionally, on that day, we discussed about the recent amendment to the Protection of Human Rights Act of 1993 and the changes made through the amendment. So, to get a detailed understanding of National Human Rights Commission, we recommend you to watch that video. And talking about UNHRC, know that it is an intergovernmental body within the UN system. This Human Rights Council replaced the former United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Coming to its membership, this council is made up of 47 UN member states which are elected by UN General Assembly. It is responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe. Further, it addresses situations of human rights violations and makes recommendations on protecting the human rights. Now, look at the given question. It states that with reference to UNHRC, which among the following statements is or are not correct or incorrect? The statement one, it is a part of UN Secretariat which is a principal organ of UN. Here, statement one is incorrect because UNHRC or Human Rights Council was established in 2006 by General Assembly and it reports directly to UN General Assembly and not UN Secretariat. But remember that there is one more body called Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. In short, known as UN Human Rights is a part of UN Secretariat. When discussing about ICJ earlier, we said that the UN Secretariat as well as General Assembly are principal organs of United Nations. So the Human Rights Council reports to General Assembly while the Office of High Commissioner of Human Rights reports to UN Secretariat. Importantly know that these are completely distinct entities. So the statement one is incorrect because the UNHRC is a part of UN General Assembly and not UN Secretariat. Coming to statement two, it says that currently India is a member to this council. Yes, statement two is correct since India was elected as a member country in 2019 for a period of three years. Therefore, the correct answer is option A, one only since we are supposed to identify not correct statements. Let us move ahead with this news article. This question is based on this news article which talks about Asiatic Lions and Wildlife Institute of India. See in our yesterday's news analysis, we discussed about Asiatic Lions, their population, their geographical spread and conservation status as well. We also said that the population of Asiatic Lion according to 2020 census is around 674 in Gir Protected Area Network. But today's news article says that the data regarding the population of Asiatic Lions might not be correct. This is because of the use of an outdated methodology for counting lions and not including the true mortality due to canine distemper virus. Further, the news article also mentions of Wildlife Institute of India. So in this discussion, we shall see in brief about Wildlife Institute of India. So the Wildlife Institute of India, shortly WII, is an autonomous organization under Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. It was established in 1982 with headquarters in Deharadun of Uttarakhand. Coming to its functions, it mainly offers training program, academic courses and advisory in wildlife research and management. This institute aims to nurture the development of wildlife science and promote its application in conservation in consonants with our cultural and socioeconomic milieu. This is all about Wildlife Institute of India. Here know that this is an autonomous body under Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and headquartered in Uttarakhand of Deharadun. Dear aspirants, do not confuse the Wildlife Institute of India with Wildlife Trust of India. See, the Wildlife Trust of India is a leading non-governmental nature conservation organization. It is committed to the service of nature. It is aimed to conserve wildlife and their habitat and to work for the welfare of individual wild animals in partnership with communities as well as governments. So while Wildlife Institute of India is an autonomous body under Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Wildlife Trust of India is a non-governmental organization. But both the bodies contribute to the protection and conservation of wildlife. Now look at the given question. It states that with reference to conservation and protection of wildlife in India, consider the following statements. The statement one, the Wildlife Trust of India works to conserve wildlife and its habitat and to work for the welfare of individual wild animals in partnership with communities and governments. If the statement one is correct, as it is the main objective of Wildlife Trust of India. Coming to statement two, the Wildlife Trust of India is an autonomous organization of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. This statement is incorrect because the Wildlife Trust of India is not a government body, but it is a non-governmental organization. So the statement two talks about Wildlife Institute of India and not Wildlife Trust of India. So the correct answer is option A, one only, since we are supposed to identify correct statements. In this context, we shall discuss one more animal welfare organization called Animal Welfare Board of India. Know that this is a statutory advisory body on animal welfare laws and promotes animal welfare in the country. This body was established in 1962 under the Prevention of Creality to Animals Act of 1960. Importantly know that this Animal Welfare Board of India was started under the stewardship of late Srimati Rukmini Devi Arun Dalek. She was a well-known humanitarian and animal rights champion. This Animal Welfare Board of India was initially headquartered in Chennai. However, its headquarters were shifted to Ballabh Gurd of Haryana for better coordination between Environment Ministry and the Board. So this is all about this news article and question. Let us move ahead with this news article. Have a look at the given question. This question is based on this news article which mentions Chief Economic Advisor. So here three pairs are given. The first one, Chief Economic Advisor and the corresponding ministries are given on the right side. That is, Ministry of Commerce. Second one, Office of Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance and Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister under Ministry of Finance. Here the correct answer is option D, one, two and three because all the three pairs are incorrect. The first one, Chief Economic Advisor functions under Ministry of Finance. As we all know, the Chief Economic Advisor is mainly concerned about preparing the economic survey and budget. Second one, Office of Economic Advisor. See this Office of Economic Advisor is an attached office of Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Read under Ministry of Commerce and Industry. So the second pair is also incorrect. Coming to third one, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. See it is an independent body set up to give advice on economic and related issues to Government of India specifically to the Prime Minister. At present, it is chaired by Dr. Vivek Debroy, who is a Niti Ayag member. So the third pair is incorrect since it does not functions under Ministry of Finance. Therefore the correct answer is option D, one, two and three since you are supposed to identify incorrect statements. Let us take up this news article. This news article appeared in page number six that is editorial page of today's India's newspaper. The Gandhi's, Mandela's and Kings of today. This article beautifully relates the times of Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King to the current scenario. We recommend you to read this news article and make a list of examples discussed here. This will help in your main's answer writing, especially when it comes to essay. Let us take up practice questions for today's session. So the first question is, to which of the following organizations India is not a member or a state party? First one, International Criminal Court, International Court of Justice, Permanent Court of Arbitration. See, we have discussed in-depth about these three bodies and we all know that India is not a member to ICC. So the answer is option A, one only. Let us take up main's question. Evaluate the efficiency of silent diplomacy in unlocking the complicated standard situations in border areas. Do you think it will be efficacious in current tensions among India and China along line of actual control? Here the question has two parts. First part, we have to evaluate the efficiency of silent diplomacy. And second part, we have to see whether the silent diplomacy is efficient in current tensions along line of actual control. So for the first part, you can write about three standard of situations we have discussed today. And coming to current situation, you can talk about what is the exact scenario happening today and what are the decisions taken by both the countries and how silent diplomacy will be helped. Here you can also add about Nepal also. We all know that Nepal came up with a new map claiming India's territory. They're even passing an amendment to their constitution in this regard. But if you see India is maintaining very steady and calm pace, which amounts to silent or quiet diplomacy. You can add Nepal point of view also here. And you can add your own viewpoints also. Let us take up one more main's question. The ancient Indian educational institutions at Nalanda, Wallaby and Taksila or Taksila were world famous for their quality of education and attracted many foreign students. But today our higher education institutions are not among top global institutions. Discuss the measures taken by government of India to revamp the quality of our higher educational institutions in India. So here you can briefly mention about the universities of Nalanda, Wallaby, Taksila, et cetera. And coming to current scenario, you can talk about the present ranking framework that is NIRF, QES world rankings. And main crux of answer you can talk about institutions of eminence scheme. We have covered about this scheme in our recent analysis how government is helping higher education institutions to become world class institutions. You can write about all these points, more investment in education about 5 to 6% of GDP and amendments to UGC Act as well as Medical Council of India Act. You can end positively using schemes like IOE, NIRF and other related schemes. Dear aspirants, please write answers and send them to us and post them in the comment section. We will get back to you with necessary feedback within short time. With this, we have come to end of today's news analysis. If you find the session resourceful, click on the like button and show your appreciation in the comment section. And don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Thank you.