 Good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar A. Sakadani. Today, as a part of this video, we will be covering news articles from 24th and 26th December newspaper. These are the list of news articles that we will be covering today. Now, without wasting time, let's start the discussion. Look at this article. Recently, the Maldives government decided not to extend an agreement with India about hydrographic cooperation. This agreement was signed in 2019 and it will expire in 2024. Also, the President of Maldives decided to send back the Indian troops stationed in Maldives Island. These decisions show that the new government of Maldives is moving away from India's interest. In this context, let us know some basic facts about the international hydrographic organization and the Colombo Security Conclave that are mentioned in this article. This is because since the India-Maldives relations is frequently in use, we can expect a question about these two organizations in the upcoming problems examination. Now, let's start. See, the International Hydrographic Organization is an intergovernmental organization representing hydrography. Here, hydrography involves measuring and describing the physical features of the water body such as depth, shape, tides, currents, and the shape of the land beneath the water. This information is crucial for various purposes like safe navigation, understanding ecosystems, managing water resources, and supporting various economic activities such as shipping, fishing, and coastal development. So, basically, hydrography helps us understand and map wards under the water. No coming back. See, the International Hydrographic Organization was established in 1921. It has 99 member states. The International Hydrographic Organization has an observer status at the United Nations. Its headquarters is located in Monaco. Note that India is a member of IHO. Now, what is the purpose of IHO? It provides standards and specifications in hydrography at the international level. The aim of IHO is to survey and chart all the world's seas, oceans, and navigable waters. Now, note down some additional prelims related points about IHO. The World Hydrography Day is celebrated on June 21. This was officially recognized by the International Hydrographic Organization. The theme for 2023 World Hydrography Day is hydrography, underpinning the digital twin of the ocean. This is all we need to know about the International Hydrographic Organization. Now, let us move on and see about the Colombo Security Conclave. The Colombo Security Conclave was formed in 2011. It is a trilateral maritime security grouping between India, Sri Lanka, and Maldives. Later, Mauritius was added as a fourth member. In addition to these member states, there are some observers also for the Colombo Security Enclave. The observers are Bangladesh and Sicily. Now, why is this conclave created? The Colombo Security Conclave was created to enhance and strengthen the regional security in five areas of cooperation. The areas being maritime safety and security, countering terrorism amid radicalization, combating trafficking and transnational organized crime. The fourth one is cyber security, protection of critical infrastructure and technology. And the last one is humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. So, to address these five key areas, the Colombo Security Enclave was created. Now, what is the significance? First of all, it is considered as India's outreach to the countries situated in the Indian Ocean. It will be used to highlight regional cooperation and shared security objectives of the members in the Indian Ocean region. India is trying to use the Colombo Security Conclave as an effective tool to counter China. The CSE hopes to restrict Chinese influence in the area that is Indian Ocean, which is of strategic importance. This is the first significance of Colombo Security Enclave. In addition to this, as we all know, India has a large coastline of nearly 7500 km. So, the Colombo Security Conclave plays a vital role for ensuring the maritime security of India. The Colombo Security Conclave shares India's vision of Sagar, which is security and growth for all in the region. These are the significance of the Colombo Security Conclave. And that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw some preliminary points about the International Hydrographic Organization and the Colombo Security Conclave. So, with this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this news article. It talks about the trade relation between India and the ASEAN countries. See, there was a free trade agreement between India and ASEAN, which was signed in 2003. When the agreement started, India's trade deficit with the ASEAN region was only $7.5 billion every year. But this trade deficit has grown significantly to $43.57 billion in 2023. So, in order to bridge this huge trade gap, negotiations are going to take place between India and ASEAN. This is the crux of the article given here. So, in this discussion, we will understand the important points about India-ASEAN relations in detail. We will approach this discussion through our usual mains answer rating approach. First, look at the question. The question is, what are the areas of cooperation between India and ASEAN? What obstacles and complexities affect their relationship? And what strategies can be employed to enhance and strengthen India-ASEAN relations in the future? See, this question can be asked in GS paper 2. See here, the question demands us to write three things. First, we have to write about the areas of cooperation. Second, we have to write about the challenges in the relationship between India and ASEAN. Lastly, we have to provide some solutions to address the challenges between India-ASEAN relations. This is the bone or the structure of the question. Now, having understood the question and having understood how to approach the question, let us start. Let us start with the introduction. See, in the introduction, we can write about the basic information about ASEAN. ASEAN or Association of Southeast Asian Nations is an regional intergovernmental organization. It has 10 member countries, the member countries being Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. ASEAN aims to promote cooperation on political, economical, social and cultural aspects to enhance the peace, stability and prosperity in the region. This is the basic info about ASEAN. You can also link India with ASEAN in order to be more relevant to the needs of the question. See, India began formal engagement with ASEAN in 1992 as a sectoral dialogue partner. Then, it became a dialogue partner in 1995. Then, it was further upgraded to summit-level partnership in 2002. India is the sixth largest trading partner of ASEAN and India and ASEAN signed a free trade agreement in 2003. You can mention some of the points that we discussed in the introduction to make your introduction look as a studied introduction. Now, coming to the main body of the answer. In the body part, we are going to discuss three aspects which is demanded in the question. That is, areas of cooperation, challenges and way forward in India-ASEAN relations. Under each sub-wedding, it is enough to mention four or five points because it is a 15 marker. First, let us take up the areas of cooperation. Starting with regional connectivity, India and ASEAN are working on various connectivity projects like India, Myanmar, Thailand, Trilateral Highway, and the Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project. If you see, India-ASEAN economic relations, India's trade with ASEAN stands at 10.6% of India's overall trade. India's export to ASEAN stands at 11.28% of the total exports of India. As we have seen earlier, India and ASEAN have a free trade agreement which will be renewed next year. Now, moving on to the third point, that is the defense cooperation. India and ASEAN have strengthened defense cooperation by conducting joint military exercise such as ASEAN-India Meritainment Exercise and the ASEAN Defense Minister's Meeting. For example, India places ASEAN as an important part of India's SAGAR policy, that is, security and growth for all in the region policy. Now, moving on to the fourth area that is cultural cooperation. India and ASEAN have promoted cultural exchanges to enhance people-to-people ties. For example, inviting ASEAN students to India each year for student exchange program and ASEAN-India network of think tanks. Another important part of cooperation is the Delhi Dialogue. It is an annual forum for discussing political security, economic and socio-cultural issues between ASEAN and India. These are some of the points about areas of cooperation between India and ASEAN which you can mention in the answer. Now, moving on to the second part which is the challenges in the India-ASEAN relations. Here the first challenge is the trade balance. India's trade deficit with ASEAN has increased over the years. This has led to concerns in India about the benefit of the ASEAN-India free trade agreement. This is what we have seen in the news article also today. This is the first challenge. The second challenge is the nature of engagement. India still engages with ASEAN countries more on a bilateral basis rather than a multilateral approach. This is the second challenge. The third challenge is the competing regional agreements. Agreements such as RCEP and the Comprehensive Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership diverts the attention away from the India-ASEAN relationship. This is the third challenge. Fourth is the increasing influence of China. The existence of powers like China limit the ability of the ASEAN-Indian potential for regional stability. The last challenge is the limited connectivity between ASEAN and India. Despite efforts to enhance connectivity, the physical and the digital connectivity between India and ASEAN countries is limited. This has affected the potential trade investment and people-to-people ties. See, these are some challenges in the India-ASEAN relationship. Moving forward, finally, we can see the steps that can be taken to enhance the cooperation between India and the ASEAN countries. Here, first you can mention about the military ties. See, ASEAN countries have limited military ties with China due to maritime dispute. India can fill this gap and India can become a significant military partner in the region. Secondly, India must enhance the cultural connection with the ASEAN. Here, tourism can play a huge role. Both these regions have common culture and historical ties. So, this tie can be used to build tourism and people-to-people ties between India and the ASEAN region. Thirdly, India can consider about enlarging the quad. The concept of quad can be expanded to include ASEAN countries and become quad plus arrangement. This will enhance a constant dialogue between India and the ASEAN countries and thereby addressing the conflict in the relationship between India and ASEAN. Lastly, India should actively engage in multilateral forums like East Asia Summit and ASEAN Regional Forum to take part in regional stability, peace and development of the region. These are some of the strategies that can be employed to enhance the cooperation between India and ASEAN. Having completed the body of the answer, let us come to the conclusion part. Your conclusion can be like this. See, ASEAN occupies an important position in the rule-based security in the Indo-Pacific and this is vital for India since most of our trade is dependent on maritime security. In addition to this, ASEAN is an important point of focus in India's act-east policy. Through India's act-east policy, India plans to engage more with ASEAN countries and also develop the strategic northeastern states. So, ASEAN-India relations is very significant for India's strategic interest. This can be your conclusion. So, that is all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, through discussing a question we saw about the areas of cooperation between India and ASEAN. Then we saw the challenges in the relationship between India and ASEAN and finally we saw the steps that can be taken to enhance the cooperation between India and ASEAN countries. Now with this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Take a look at this news article. According to this news article, the Reserve Bank of India has announced that the risk of stagflation have lowered further to 1% compared to 3% in August. This is about the news article. So, in our news article discussion, let us understand about what is stagflation and we will also see the causes of stagflation. See, the word stagflation is a blend of two words. The words are stagnation and inflation. Stagnation is an economic condition where the country experience both high inflation and high unemployment at the same time. Here inflation means the general increase in prices of goods and services and unemployment is a condition where people who want jobs cannot find them. Normally, inflation and unemployment move in the opposite direction. This is what is conveyed through the Philips curve. Now look at this curve. The Philips curve represents that there is a inverse relationship between inflation and unemployment. If inflation increases, unemployment will decrease and if inflation decreases, unemployment will increase. Now what is conveyed through this curve? If there is an inflationary condition in the economy and if there is a general increase in price level, then the businesses will increase their production to take advantage of the increasing price level and make more profits. So to increase their production, the businesses will start hiring new employees. This generates more employment. So when there is more inflation, there will be more employment. Conversely, if there is less inflation, then the businesses will not be motivated to increase their production, as the reward that is the profits will be lower when the inflation rate is lower. Due to this, they will stop their recruitment. This in turn will lead to unemployment. So low inflation, high unemployment. This is the phenomenon that AW Philips conveyed through the Philips curve. See, the Philips curve found application till the 1960s because till the 1960s, the inflation was mainly caused due to increase in money supply. This changed after the 1960s. The 1960s was a very volatile period in the Middle East, mainly due to the Israel-Arab conflict. To hurt the western nations that supported Israel, the Arab countries reduced their oil production. This led to raise in global oil prices in the 1960s. What happens when the price of an essential commodity like oil increases? It will lead to inflation. So the western nations started facing high inflation. But the inflation that they are facing now is not due to increase in money supply, but due to supply side shocks due to reduction in oil production. So, when the central banks of the western countries followed dear money policy to control inflation, it started backfiring. On one hand, the dear money policy followed by the central banks made credit costlier and this led to unemployment. At the same time, the dear money policy did not reduce inflation also, as inflation at that period was caused due to supply side constraint. So, for the first time, stagnation that is unemployment and inflation coexisted in the western economies. This led to the coining of the term stagflation. See, stagflation is a big headache for the policy makers. This is because as we already saw, fixing one problem will make the other problem worse. For instance, the typical ways to control inflation such as increasing the interest rate would make unemployment higher by discouraging business investments. On the other hand, measures to lower unemployment like increasing government spending might make inflation worse. This makes tackling stagflation a challenging affair for the policy makers. So, this is all about stagflation. Now, moving forward, let us see the causes of stagflation. The first cause is supply side shocks. See, supply side shocks can cause stagflation like in the 1960s. The second cause is cause to push inflation could be the reason. When the production cost increases, the businesses will raise the prices to maintain their profit. This in turn can spark inflation. If the cost increases a lot, the businesses might cut back on production and jobs and this leads to unemployment. So, cause to push inflation can also cause stagflation. The third cause is demand shortfall. See, if the people are not spending as much due to economic uncertainty, it can slow down the businesses and the businesses will respond by reducing the production and laying off workers. This leads to unemployment. But if the prices keep pricing and you have both inflation and unemployment, it leads to stagflation. So, these are the three conditions that may result in stagflationary condition. Now, how to overcome stagflation? See, the only valid solution available is that the government must develop a long-term economic strategy. Through these long-term strategies, government must try to balance growth, inflation and employment. Only this can prevent stagflation in the future. So, that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw about stagflation. Then we saw about Phillips curve and we saw how after the 1960s Phillips curve became invalid. Then we saw the causes of stagflation. Finally, we saw the steps that can be taken to address stagflation. Now, with this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this article here. This article talks about how these involvement in the Israel-Hamas war. Currently, how these have changed their tactics from targeting Israel to attacking commercial ships passing through the Red Sea. To be specific, they are attacking vessels passing through the Strait of Babel Mandem. This has led to disruption of roughly 12% of the global sea bond trade. This is about the article given here. In this context, let us quickly go through who are how these and we will see some points about Babel Mandem. First, let us take up how these. See, the how these are a rebel group in Yemen. They are fighting against the Yemen government. They are in power in the Northern Yemen, including Sanaa, which is the capital of Yemen. The group is named after the Houthi tribe living in the Northern Yemen. The how these are Zayishias who are backed by Iran. See, the how these are backed by Iran and the Yemen government is backed by Iran's rivals such as the Western powers and the Saudi Arabia. The how these origin lies in the Zayadi religious revival movement of the early 1990s. Currently, the how these have declared war against Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in solidarity with the Palestinians. The main danger from the how the activity is that their involvement can widen the conflict potentially drawing in Iran in the war. Also, if Israel wants to attack how the territory in retaliation, its rocket will have to go over Saudi Arabia. This will possibly force Saudi's involvement in the conflict also. So, how these involvement in the Israel-Hamas war could make the war a wider aspect in the Middle Eastern region. But we have to still wait and watch how the war scene proceeds in the future. This is all about how these. Now moving forward, let us see about the Babel Mandem straight. First, what is a straight? A straight is a narrow passage of water connecting two seas or two other large areas of water. Babel Mandem straight is a straight between Arabia in northeast and Africa in the southwest. Babel Mandem straight connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Iran and the Indian Ocean. While Yemen borders it on the Arabian Peninsula, Djabouti and Eritrea borders it on the African continent. It is one of the world's most important sea-borne commodity shipping route. This straight connects the shipping route coming from Europe to Asia. So, that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw some basic points about how these and Babel Mandem straight. Over this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Take a look at this FAQ article from Sunday's newspaper. This news article talks about the provisions of the Telecommunications Bill 2023. We have already covered the important provisions of the bill on our 21st December daily news analysis. So, in today's discussion, let us focus on the concerns around the bill. Let us start with the concerns. See, in Chapter 4 of the bill, there are some controversial rules. These provisions give special power to the central government during emergencies in regards to public safety and national security. Here, the contentious provision is Section 19F. Section 19F specifically allows the central government to set rules about how encryption and data processing should be done in telecommunication. This raises privacy concerns. Now, let me explain this with an example. See, WhatsApp can trace the origin of the message using its source and destination codes. However, WhatsApp doesn't allow any group or government, including the Indian government, to view the messages sent between the users. If the Indian government makes a rule under Section 19F, that is, standards and conformity assessment measures, saying that WhatsApp must let the government see encrypted data, then WhatsApp has to follow it. So, this raises worries about privacy. This is the first concern. Secondly, many people consider the telecommunications bill 2023 as a draconial law, because they believe that this 2023 bill might allow for mass surveillance and internet shadowing. See, the bill grants significant interception authority to the central government. It allows the government to supervise any telecom services during public emergency or national security issues. The bill lets the government officer seek interception, disclosure and suspension of services for public safety reasons. These parts of the bill resemble mass surveillance according to the critics. The government also gains the power to halt or stop the telecom services and temporarily control any telecom services or network during emergency. It is because of these provisions, the critics view the 2023 telecommunication bill as a harsh and severe draconian law. See, these are the concerns surrounding the bill. Having seen the criticism, now let us also see the positives of the bill. The first positive is ensuring uniformity in right of way rules. See, the bill brings in uniform rules across states for setting up telecom infrastructure in public and private places. This uniformity in rules resolves the issues like standardizing rates, limiting charges and thereby making it easier to install telecom infrastructure on private property. So, this move is welcomed by all the stakeholders in the telecom industry. This is the first positive. Moving on, see this bill also will lessen the tax burden on telecom networks. See, this bill excludes the telecom network infrastructure from the definition of property. So, the telecom network infrastructure will not attract property taxes. This eases the tax burden on the telecom sector making their operations smoother. So, this is also an important positive of the bill which is stated by the telecom sector stakeholders. This is the second positive. Moving on, the third and the final positive is that the bill will give boost to satellite communication. The bill includes satellite based networks in spectrum allocation. This move is welcomed by the ISRO because according to ISRO, this move of the government will aid the growth of the space sector and make India stronger in the global satellite market. So, these are the three main positives associated with the telecommunications bill 2023. So, that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw the concerns and the positives surrounding the telecommunication bill 2023. With this, we have come to the end of the news article discussion session. Now, let us take up the practice problems questions. We have three practice problems questions today. Let us see them one by one. Look at the first question. Which of the following pairs of countries are part of the Colombo Security Enclave recently seen in use? From our discussion, we know that the correct answer here is option B. India, Mauritius, Sri Lanka and Maldives are the members of Colombo Security Council. Okay. Moving on to the second question. Due to Corona pandemic, the economy of a particular country has contracted. To counter this and bring the country to the growth path, the central bank of the country follows cheap money policy. What is expected to occur due to cheap money policy followed by the central bank? C. During cheap money policy, credit becomes cheaper. When credit becomes cheaper, money supply increases. When money supply increases, what happens? There will be inflation in the economy. So, the correct answer here is option C inflation. Okay. Moving on to the last question. It is a pair based question. Three pairs are given on one side, rebel groups are given. And on the other side, the area of operation is given. We have to find how many pairs given here are correctly matched. See how these they operate from Yemen. So, pair number two is correct. And Boko Haram, they operate from Nigeria. So, the pair three is also correct. But the first pair is wrong because Al-Shabaab is a al-Qaeda affiliated rebel group which operates from Somalia and North Palestine. So, the first pair is incorrectly matched. So, the correct answer here is option B only two. With this, we have come to the end of the video. If you like today's video, like, comment and share it with your friends. For more updates regarding UPSC preparation, subscribe to Shankara A's Academy's YouTube channel. Thank you for listening.