 A very good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankar Iyer's Academy for the date 1st of April 2021. Displayed here are the list of news articles that I have chosen for today's discussion. See as I assure you today also there is an economic topic which is about the external debt. In that I have briefly discussed about public finance. Then I discussed about the external debt then what happens if the external debt increases. See in the rest of the articles I have given more importance for your prelims because prelims is fast approaching so just pay attention to each and every topic and go through each and every practice questions today. This will definitely help in improvising your scores in the prelims. So without wasting much time now let's get into our discussion. See this article here it is about the draft notification to designate the region around the new year and prepare our wildlife sanctuaries as a co-sensitive zones. See according to the article the local bodies are not happy with this. This is because local bodies are saying that some of the restrictions are unreasonable. Apart from this the affected villages fear that the move will impact infrastructure development especially within the 1 kilometer of the proposed zone. So this is the crux of the news article given here. In this context let us learn about this eco-sensitive zone in detail which is especially useful for your prelims. First of all let us see the purpose of this eco-sensitive zone declaration. See the purpose of declaring the eco-sensitive zones is to create some kind of shock observers to the protected areas. This is done by regulating and managing the activities around such areas. And the idea is that this eco-sensitive zone will act as a transition zone from areas of high protection to areas involving lesser protection. So this basic understanding of the purpose let us see about the eco-sensitive zone in detail. See eco-sensitive zone is a buffer or transition zone around highly protected areas such as national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. The government regulates and manages the activities in such areas so that there is no external harm to the high protected areas. Therefore the basic aims to regulate certain activities around national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. This is to minimize their impact on fragile ecosystem of the protected areas. So now we have learned what is the eco-sensitive zone. So we will see who notifies or declass a region as eco-sensitive zone. See a zone is notified as an eco-sensitive zone by the central government through the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. This is done under the provisions of the Environment Protection Act of 1986. See an important thing to be noted here is that the delineation of the extent of the eco-sensitive zone area is site specific. That is its width varies from one protected area to the other. So as per the wildlife conservation strategy 2002-2005 and the Supreme Court judgments it may be the area that generally extends up to 10 km around the protected area. But if sensitive corridors, connectivity and ecologically important patches or crucial for landscape linkages are involved, then areas beyond 10 km width can also be notified as the eco-sensitive zones. See on March 2005 the National Board for Wildlife that is NBWL decided the delineation of eco-sensitive zones would be site specific. So they decided that it would relate to regulation rather than prohibition of specific activities. See Supreme Court in 2006 directed that all cases where environmental clearances were granted where activities are within the 10 km zones then those cases shall be referred to a Standing Committee of this National Board for Wildlife. Under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 it is stated that it shall be the duty of this National Board for Wildlife to promote conservation and development of wildlife and forest by measures as it thinks fit. And again in Environment Protection Act 1986 it gives the power to the central government to take all the measures that it feels necessary for protecting and improving the quality of environment. So they can prevent and control environmental pollution. But one very important thing that you have to note here is under this Environment Protection Act 1986 no such word like eco-sensitive zone is mentioned. So these are all the background and statutory backing for the declaration of areas around the National Park and Wildlife Sanctuaries as eco-sensitive zones. So now look at this image here in order to know what are all the activities that are prohibited, regulated and promoted in the eco-sensitive zone. See these points in this image are very much important go through each and every point in this we will definitely recall this during our question and answer discussion ok. That's all about this news article so we saw about the eco-sensitive zone in detail this is very much important for your problem so you can expect a question from this also in means you can utilize it to enhance your answer because you can illustrate this kind of measures taken by the government under the conservation questions ok. So these key points in mind now let's move on to the next news article discussion. Now look at this news article according to the news article India's external debt rose by 11.5 billion dollar to 614.9 billion dollar in three months but the external debt to GDP ratio fell marginally to 20% at the end of December so this is the crux of the news article given here in this context let us quickly go through what are external debts and how will they impact India's growth see in order to understand external debt first we must know about public finance. Public finance is the management of a country's revenue, expenditures and debt through various government quasi-government institutions, policies and tools see the component of public finance or public revenue, public expenditure and public budget among these public budgeting plays an important role in deciding the growth of the country as you know budget is nothing but an annual financial statement it can be classified into two types namely revenue account and capital account. The revenue account is about running the day to day business of the government. This account can be further classified into revenue receipts and revenue expenditure. Examples of revenue receipts include daily income in the form of income tax, excise duties, interest, dividends, profits, grant in aid etc etc see the revenue expenditure account includes expenditure incurred to meet day to day and regular needs of government and that will not yield any revenue in future ok. So the example of daily expenses like pensions and salary payments, interest payments, grant in aid to the states etc etc comes under this. Now coming on to the capital account it is usually a long term investment see expenditures like those building the future of the country will naturally come under the capital account. This account is also classified into two that is capital receipts and capital expenditure. Capital receipts are the huge non-recurring receipts which either create a liability or cause a reduction in the assets of the government. See apart from tax collection and non-tax revenue government might also own some asset or it may borrow money from foreign nations am I right. So if it sells an asset or if it borrows money both are long term and provide revenue to the government right. So all of them contribute to the capital receipts. To put it in simple words these receipts unlike the revenue receipts are not obtained in the normal cause of the government's financial activities. So the capital receipts can be either debt or non-debt creating. Here comes the external debt part understand this basic difference see grant in aid from foreign countries comes under revenue receipts as the grant in aid are given to a country in case of an emergency or to fund a specific project. When India gets a grant in aid it need not paid back to the country or organization which gave it so it is like profit for India. So we can understand that grant in aid from foreign countries comes under revenue receipts account okay but if India borrows money from foreign country or from any organization it comes under capital account that too it comes under capital receipts account okay. So India usually borrows money only for building the future of the country and not for the day to day expenses that is why it comes under the capital receipts account okay. Now having seen about public finance let us quickly go through what will happen if the external debt increases see excessive amount of foreign debt will hinder countries capacity to invest in their financial prospects whether through education infrastructure or healthcare this is because their small income is spent on repayment of loans see it is a challenge to economic development in the long term secondly the biggest issue is the rate of exchange or the exchange rate this is made worse by the fact that international debt is often denominated in the currency of the issuers country and not the borrowers country this means that if the borrowing countries economy declines it will be significantly more difficult to repay such obligations okay so that is all about this news article so we saw about what is public finance then what all comes under public finance then we also saw in specific about the external debt and finally we saw what happens if the external debt is going to increase okay so these key points in mind now let's move on to the next news article discussion look at this news article here it says that the dolphin population has declined in the Chilica lake however when you take the overall population in the state it has increased okay so this is the crux of the news article given here we are not going to go deep into this news article instead I will discuss this topic with the two previous year questions and one more preliminary questions okay see as I always tell you any species that comes in use will be very much useful for your prelims okay so let's discuss this topic in prelims perspective with prelims questions itself now look at this first question see it is a previous year question that is from the year 2014 it says that other than poaching what are all the possible reasons for the decline in the population of Ganges River Dolphin there are four statements available here so here you can go for elimination technique see when you read the second statement which says the increase in the population of crocodiles in the river is one of the reason for the population decline of the Ganges River Dolphin you can absolutely find out that it is a wrong statement see because this crocodile population has nothing to do with the dolphin population here so when you eliminate statement to itself you can very easily arrive at the answer which is option C 1 3 and 4 only so when you see the other statements which says construction of dams and barrages on reverse getting trapped in fishing nets accidentally then use of synthetic fertilizers and other agricultural chemicals in crop fields because these will be in the vicinity of the reverse right so all these will definitely lead to the decline of population of the Ganges River Dolphin so this is such a easy question right yes you can easily answer this question by just knowing what are all causing harm to the dolphins okay now looking into the next question see which one of the following is the national aquatic animal of India see this is such a easy question the answer here is option C Ganges Dolphin this was declared as aquatic animal of India by the Indian government okay now coming on to the next question see this question is framed so that you can recall what are all the other things regarding dolphin you can know for problems okay see here also you can find four statements so whenever you have multiple statements look in whether you can opt for any elimination technique now looking at the second statement which is present in three options let me read out the statement and find whether it is correct or incorrect okay see they are at the base of the food chain this is absolutely wrong because because dolphin is at the apex of the food chain so when this statement is incorrect you can easily eliminate option A B and D and find out that the answer is option C 1 3 and 4 only now having known the answer in order to confirm the answer just go through the other statements also see the first statement which says it is a mammal is correct because dolphins are mammals that are belonging to the mammal family delphinidae or oceanic dolphins or the mammal family platens day and the inidae which is the river dolphin okay now looking at the third statement it is also correct see generally this gadgetic dolphins are blind and they catch their prey in a unique manner this is by emitting an ultrasound which reaches the prey so they are called a susu because of the sound they are producing okay now looking at the fourth statement just now we saw they are using ultrasound to find their prey so this statement is also correct am I right while using this technique only they produce a sound and that sound only gives them the name susu okay so your answer here will be option C 1 3 and 4 only are the correct statements okay now displayed here is regarding the project dolphin go through each and every statement I'll give you a quiz question regarding this and you are going to tell me the answer in the comment section okay now look at this editorial article see this editorial article talks about the India-Napal relations the editorial mainly focuses on two things the first is the recent issues in the India-Napal relations then the author gives some priority areas where India and Nepal could focus on to improve their relations so this is the crux of the editorial here so in this discussion we will see the points highlighted by the author in detail also will address each and every issue in detail okay so before getting into the discussion the syllabus relevant to this news article is highlighted here for your reference just go through it now let's start our discussion first let us start with the recent issue in the India-Napal relations see historically India and Nepal have had a pretty good relationship but lately this has been affected due to several reasons Nepal's relation with India reached a historic low point after the Indian blockade in September 2015 let me give a brief background of that episode here see in 2015 no Nepal passed a new constitution India had some concerns with the new constitution the stated reason for India's unhappiness is that Nepal's constitution denied the rights of the Nepal Madeshi's living on India's border see basically no the Madeshi's were not happy with the new constitution so India was also unhappy since Madeshi's had family ties with India okay the main issue comes here since they were unhappy the Madeshi's blocked the border points between India and Nepal see the Nepalese government accused India of deliberately not allowing vehicles to pass from check points where there were no protests held by the Madeshi's but the Indian government however denied all allegations of any involvement in the blockade so what is the impact of this blockade see there was huge impact to understand the severity of the blockade look at this map instead of saying Nepal is a landlocked if we say Nepal is India locked we won't be wrong at all because on three sides Nepal is bordered by India you can argue that China borders Nepal in the north but in the north the mighty Himalayas stand between Nepal and China so basically no Nepal is bound by Himalayas in the north and India in all the remaining three sides due to this Nepal is extremely dependent on India mainly you can say they are dependent for their petroleum needs see Nepal imports almost all of its petroleum supplies from India roughly you can say 300 fuel trucks enter from India on a normal day but this went down to five to ten fuel trucks during the blockade in addition to this Nepal depends on Kolkata harbour to root its imports and exports see this was also affected during the blockade India using its economic might to push Nepal into accepting its demand was not perceived well by both the Nepalese political elite and the common people to add fuel to the fire there was also a disinformation campaign against India in Nepalese social media so during this episode India's relationship with Nepal became very sore the next issue arose during demonetization see we all know that Indian government on number 8 2016 announced ban on old 500 and 1000 rupee notes this decision of the Indian government affected both Bhutan and Nepal see Indian currencies widely used in Bhutan and Nepal so the sudden announcement of demonetization caught both Bhutan and Nepal of God so now Nepal wants India to take back demonetized notes worth rupees 7 crore from Nepal rastra bank which is Nepal central bank Nepal claimed that this amount was not from its informal channels but it was through the banking channel so it asked India to make some adjustment regarding this amount but this was rejected by India now comes the next issue the next issue is in regards to the eminent person group report see immediately after the 2015 blockade India-Nepal desired to reevaluate its relationship so the EPG or the eminent person group was constituted during the India visit of Nepali Prime Minister in the year 2016 an agreement was arrived regarding this as per the agreement the EPG is to consist of eight members with four members representing each side okay see the EPG has sought extensive review of the 1950 India-Nepal friendship treaty it will also evaluate the open India-Nepal border here let me add some points about the 1950 India-Nepal friendship treaty see 1950 India-Nepal signed the Treaty of Peace and Friendship in an effort to strengthen and develop the relations between both the countries see article one of the treaty states that both the country should mutually acknowledge and respect the complete sovereignty territorial integrity and independence of both the nations then comes article two of this treaty which states that both governments should inform each other of any serious fiction or misunderstanding with any neighboring state likely to cause any breach in the friendly relations subsisting between the two governments that is if India- Nepal were to engage with another country which could potentially harm the friendly relations between India-Nepal they must inform each other okay now comes and highlighted article six and seven which says that India and Nepal will give the same privileges of economic activity employment residence and ownership of property to each other's nationals in their territory see these are some important parts of the 1950 India-Nepal friendship treaty so you can understand that Nepal has claimed that India has used cited article two of the treaty to interfere with its foreign policy in addition to this article five is also a bone of contention now what are this article five says article five of the treaty obliged Nepal to inform India and seek its concern for the purchase of military hardware from third countries so the Nepal government is of the view that this complete treaty needs to be revisited for this exact reason the EPG was formed in the year 2016 the group submitted its report in the year 2018 this report has been gathering dust since then so this is the issue here now the next issue is the border issue in Kalapani after the abrogation of article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir India released its updated political map in this political map Kalapani close to the Lipulek pass was shown in Indian territory although this was being the status quo Nepal protested officially Nepal stated that the said area is a disputed territory and New Delhi has no right to include the area in India a little bit of background here the issue here is the discrepancy in locating the source of the river Kali the Kali river in the Kalapani region demarcates the border between India and Nepal the treaty of Sugali signed by the kingdom of Nepal and British India after the Anglo-Nepalese war in the year 1816 located the Kali river as Nepal's western boundary with India okay so the discrepancy in locating the source of the river led to boundary disputes between India and Nepal because each country was producing maps supporting their own claims see this is also another issue between India and Nepal the last important reason to issue between India and Nepal is in relations to the Millennium Challenge Corporation or the MCC Pact what is this MCC Pact saying see the Millennium Challenge Corporation is a bilateral United States foreign aid agency established by the United States or US Congress in the year 2004 recently Nepalese Parliament ratified a US dollar of 500 million grant from the US to build power and road infrastructure projects this is the biggest American financial pledge to Nepal in the history this is the biggest American financial pledge to Nepal so far although the Millennium Challenge Corporation Pact was signed more than four years ago it recently received ratification see this pact was not perceived well by the Nepalese public they feared that the US could influence Nepal through this pact the Chinese are not liking the pact because the US is getting involved in the social media campaigns against MCC Pact are hugely supported by China now India on its part has neither supported nor opposed to the MCC Pact see basically India does not want to see other powers active in Nepal that is India does not want both the US and China having an influence in Nepal okay so the recent ratification of the MCC Pact has not been perceived well by India also see these are some issues that hamper the India-Napal relations in this list you can add in the recent OAT in the UN while India abstained from OAT-ing Nepal OAT-ed in favor of it this is I'm saying regarding the Russian issue okay so having seen the issues highlighted by the author of the editorial in detail now let us see the priority areas of cooperation between India and Nepal that is highlighted by the author first one is the energy transmission between India and Nepal see India recently announced that it is planning to become carbon neutral by the year 2070 to achieve this India is investing heavily on solar power the thing with solar power is that it cannot be used effectively to address peak demand the only renewable and non-polluting way of power production that has the potential to address the peak is hydro power see Nepal with its many rivers and river valleys has huge hydro power potential so instead of building new power plants to address the peak demand which will cause billions of dollars India can buy power from Nepal to manage its peak demands am I right this is a win-win policy for India and Nepal according to the author of the editorial so a power trade agreement must be signed between the two countries this part rate agreement should be in such a way that India can build trust in Nepal this is the first priority area now moving on the next priority area is in regards to the trade and transit agreements there is a need for a complete rethinking of the trade and transit agreements as the sales of goods and payments moves through electronic platforms now this will also help in providing new opportunities for businesses on both sides of the border okay finally the author of the editorial talks about the bilateral investment promotion and protection agreement see the author says that the bilateral investment promotion and protection agreement signed between the two countries needs more attention from the Nepali site see a commitment from the prime minister of Nepal and implementing this would attract more foreign investments from Indian investors so this will promote economic integration between the two countries and this will also help propel the India-Nepal relations in the positive directions so that's all regarding this news article so we saw what are all the recent issues and we saw the issues in detail and we also saw what are all the areas that has to be concentrated now in order to address few issues or few misunderstanding between the India and Nepal see whenever a news comes regarding the neighborhood countries of India you must analyze the issues regarding the two countries and you should address the area of interest of the two countries so whenever you get a main question regarding the relationship between the two countries it might be a question regarding the issues or it might be a question regarding the area of interest between the two countries or it might be a question which is asking to address the way forwards in developing the relationship between the two countries so keep these key points regarding the India-Nepal relationship in mind and utilize it to enhance your main answers with these key points in mind now let's move on to the next news article discussion see this article here it says that the Supreme Court has found a provision in the dam safety act of 2021 to end the perennial legal battle between Tamil Nadu and Kerala and this is over the Mullaipiriya Dam okay see the Supreme Court said that the act comprehensively provides for surveillance operation and maintenance of dams to prevent disasters and this is the essence of the article given here so in this context let us learn about the dam safety act 2021 in detail firstly we'll see the purpose of such act see the act is enacted to provide for surveillance inspection operation and maintenance of the specified dam this is for prevention of dam failure related disasters and to provide for institutional mechanism to ensure their safe functioning see the bill got ascent in December 2021 from the president now having seen the purpose for the enactment of such act we'll move on to see the important provisions of the act first let us see the applicability see it applies to the owners of dams like a public sector undertaking or institution or a body owned by or controlled by central or a state government or jointly by one or more government this also includes undertaking or company or institution or a body other than those owned or controlled by the government okay secondly the act to provides for the constitution of a national committee on dam safety by the center it also says that the committee shall be constituted within a period of 60 days that is from the date of commencement of act and it also says that it shall be reconstituted for every three years thereafter okay see it members include chairperson then not more than 10 representatives from central government then not more than seven representatives from the state government okay see the committee will discharge such functions that are necessary to prevent dam failure related disasters and to maintain standards of dam safety see the act also provides for the establishment of national dam safety authority this has to be established within a period of 60 days from the date of commencement of the act this authority will be headed by an officer not below the rank of additional secretary to the government of India or someone who is equivalent to be appointed by the central government see this head officer should have knowledge or adequate qualification or experience in dealing with the problems relating to dam engineering and dam safety management okay so that provides that the headquarters of the authority shall be at the national capital territory of Delhi and the authority may establish officers at other places in India also now let us see the functions the authority shall discharge such functions that are necessary to implement the policy guidelines and standards evolved by the national committee for proper surveillance inspection and maintenance of the specified dams see one major function of this authority is they can make all endeavours to resolve any issue between the state dam safety organization of states or between a state dam safety organization and any owner of a specified dam in the state okay and the important thing here is that every decision of the authority taken in respect of matters under the act shall be final and binding upon all the parties to the issue okay so that's all about this news article we shall see other provisions related to state committee on dam safety and state dam safety organization in the coming days so these key points in mind now let's move on to the next news article discussion take a look at this news article see it talks about the infamous employment guarantee scheme which is the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme in Parliament the Congress President Sunia Gandhi expressed concern over the reduction in budgetary allocation for this scheme she said that there has been a 35% reduction in allocation in the current budget compared with the 2020 budget and several states were left with negative balance in their MG NREGS accounts or the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme account okay so this is the essence of the news article given here in this contest let us learn about the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme for our prelims okay firstly you should know this the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act or the MG NREGA also known as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme is enacted on August 25 2005 see the MG NREGA provides a legal guarantee for 100 days of employment in every financial year this is provided to the adult members of any rural household willing to do public work and unskilled manual work at the statutory minimum wage see the entire monitoring and implementation of the scheme is done by the Ministry of Rural Development this is done in association with the state governments okay see this act was introduced with an aim of improving the purchasing power of the rural people primarily semi or unskilled work this act was introduced with an aim of improving the purchasing power of the rural people primarily we can say that it is for the people who are doing the semi or unskilled work okay and it is also for the people living below poverty line in rural India see it attempts to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor in the country am I right roughly one third of the stipulated workforce must be women it strengthens the livelihood resource base of the poor it also deepens democracy by strengthening panchayatraj institutions so with this basic understanding now let us look at some data see look at this graph here it shows you the number of households that received wage employment for the financial years 2020 2021 and 2022 on this graph no shows you the total wage expenditure done by the government with regards to the MG Narega see only in the year 2020 to 2021 it was low that too because of the pandemic and the year after pandemic lockdown no again the expenditure has increased drastically and this graph shows the data of the households who completed the hundred days of employment it's quite a number right again here in the year 2020 to 2021 it was reduced because of the pandemic related lockdown see that's all about this news article here so we should know that the budget allocation for the scheme is very much important because it bridges the gap between the rich and the poor in the country that too especially it is helping to improve the rural economy okay so with these key points in mind now let's move on to the next part of the news article discussion which is the preliminary practice question discussion now look at this first question it is regarding the eco sensitive zone see the answer here is option B which says the establishment of major hydroelectric projects is promoted in economic sensitive zone see read the question carefully option B is the answer because they are asking for incorrect statement okay whereas when you look into option A C and D they are correct statements see we very clearly saw in our discussion itself what all is allowed what all is prohibited and what are all should be regulated in the eco sensitive zone please go through each and every activities which are prohibited regulated and allowed in the eco sensitive zone there might be definitely a preliminary question from this area okay I am displaying it again for you to go through and recall kindly make use of this opportunity okay so your answer here is option B now looking at the second question see it is regarding our dam safety act discussion okay it is a two statement questions so we are going to go through both these statements his statement one is correct because act provides for the establishment of a separate organization to be known as the state dam safety organization and this has to be within a period of 180 days from the rate of commencement of this act okay and note that this organization is established by the state government by a notification now coming to the second statement see the second statement is absolutely incorrect because the act says that in states having more than 30 specified dams the state dam safety organization shall be headed by an officer not below the rank of chief engineer or equivalent and in all other cases known the state dam safety organization shall be headed by an officer not below the rank of superintendent engineer or someone who is equivalent to this category okay so now coming back to the question they are asking for incorrect statement okay so your answer here will be option B to only is the incorrect statement now looking at the third question see it is regarding the Mahatma Gandhi national rural employment guarantee scheme here also it is a two statement questions so we are going to go through both the statements statement one is incorrect because the ministry of rural development only is going to monitor the entire implementation of the scheme and not the labor and employment now looking at the second statement it is correct see this we saw in a discussion itself right MG Nadega provides a legal guarantee for 100 and days that is hundred days of employment in every financial year and this is to the adult members of any rural household for willing to do public work which is related to unskilled manual work at the statutory minimum wage okay so now looking at the question carefully they are asking for correct statements so your answer here will be option B to only is the correct statement okay now looking at the last question see with reference to the union budget which of the following is our covered under the revenue expenditure okay see before answering the question what is revenue expenditure revenue expenditure is something that is incurred to me day to day and regular needs of the government and that will not yield any revenue in future okay see it is a one-way transaction and it means if government spends money it cannot recover it okay so now coming back to the question look at the four kind of expenditure that is given and match with the meaning that we discussed now okay see defense expenditure interest payments salaries and pensions and subsidies all these are given by the government they are not going to recover it so your answer here will be option C one two three and four that is all these comes under the revenue expenditure okay now just have a look at this image here now I have displayed here what are all the other expenditure that comes under revenue expenditure just go through it okay now having discussed the practice prelims question displayed here is a main question for you just go through the question it is regarding the India- Nepal relationship that we discussed and try to write an answer for this question and post it in the comment section so if you like this video do like share and comment and don't forget to subscribe to the Shankar IA's Academy's YouTube channel thank you for listening