 A very good evening aspirants, welcome to the hindi news analysis by Shankaray's academy for the date 5th of April 2021. The list of news articles taken for today's discussion is given here for your reference along with their page numbers in different editions of hindi newspaper. So now let us start our first discussion with this data point which is based on the findings of the gender gap report of 2021. So in this discussion let us see about this report and also about the findings of this report. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. First what is gender gap? See gender gap is the difference between women and men as reflected in social, political, intellectual, cultural or economic attainments or attitudes. So for example if you take the gap in economics for instance it refers to the difference between men and women when it comes to salaries and when it comes to the number of leaders and participation in the workplace etc. So this gender gap is measured by this global gender gap index which is released by world economic forum. This report is released yearly that is annually. Now just note that world economic forum is based in Switzerland and it is an international NGO founded in the year 1971. And apart from this global gender gap report, world economic forum also releases all these reports you can take note of it because it is important from prelims perspective. So in this regard only, now recently world economic forum has released its gender gap report of 2021. And this gender gap report is based on the global gender gap index which was first introduced by the world economic forum in the year 2006. Now this report tries to measure the gap between the two major gender groups through a social frame that is the gender gap between women and men. Now in doing so the report considers four dimensions which is economic opportunities, education, health and political leadership. Now based on these dimensions the global gender gap index has four main components which are also called as sub indices of the index and they are economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival and finally political empowerment. Now these four sub indices have 14 indicators as you can see here. So based on these indices scores are given. So if the score is either 100% or 1 then it means there is perfect gender equality. But if the score is 0 then it is perfect gender inequality. Now apart from this the report also examines the drivers of gender gap and it also outlines the policies and practices that is needed for a gender inclusive recovery. Now based on this background let us see the findings of this 2021 report. First know that the top spots have been retained by the Nordic countries. See Nordic countries include Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland etc. And these Nordic countries have gender gap closure of over 85 percentage points. So what about India? India has a ranking of 140 with 0.625 points and as you can see India has slipped 28 places and India has been placed below Bhutan, Nepal and China. Even Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are also placed ahead of India. And from the data point you can see that India's gender progress is seeing reversal of trend since the year 2016. So this means that India has been performing badly painting a sad picture. So now let us go over India's performance in the dimensions or one by one. First note that India is the third worst performer in the region and India has only closed 62.5 percentage of its gender gap. Now because of its large population India's performance has a substantial impact on the region's overall performance also. See the South Asian region is home to 0.65 billion women but due to India the region's gender gap has widened this year. So in this representation you can see India's performance with respect to its neighbors. Now India's regress has been notable in the political empowerment and economic opportunities dimensions. Particularly if you see the political empowerment dimension the decline in the share of women among the ministers in some of the most populous countries is also a reason for the regional decline. But particularly in India the share of women ministers have decreased from 23.1 percentage in 2019 to 9.1 percentage. So this has widened the gender gap in India. And then when we take economic empowerment dimension here also we have a sad story to tell because if we take the South Asian region India and Pakistan have only closed 31.6 percentage and 32.6 percentage respectively in its economic participation and opportunity gap. And only 22.3 percentage of women had access to labour market and in India only 29.2 percentage of technical roles are held by women. Now all this results in the scenario that for every 5 rupees that men earn in India women earn only one. So that means Indian women's earnings are only 20.7% of men's earnings. So this in turn has resulted in India's downgrading by 3 percentage points in terms of offering men and women equality in economic participation. So these constraints translates into poor financial empowerment of women. Now next is the most notable and essential aspect which is health. Most of the world had closed gender gap over 95 percentage in this dimension. But India has closed it only by 93 percentages. This is largely because of the preference for sun as an offspring. So it had led to sex selective practices. In addition to this more than 1 in 4 women has faced intimate violence in her lifetime as per the report. But one bright news is that India has closed about 96% of gender disparity in education. That is the number of women and men in higher education is comparable in India. But still the literacy rate remains meager among the Indian women. So we can say that there is little progress in education and health dimension. But there is not much economic and political gains for women in India according to this report. Now based on the findings of this report it is proved that there is need for women's empowerment. This is because of the status which women have in the society since the beginning. There is a need to redefine the status of women in the society. And a change can be brought through the constitution and also through supportive legislations. Because as we know constitution of India gives equal status to women as compared to men. And even there have been also attempts to reserve seats for women in political bodies at 33% in the legislature. So there is no doubt that this step is the step in the right direction. But however merely allowing reservation for women in panchayat and legislative bodies without empowering women individually is not actual liberation. So there is a need to bring a fundamental social change in the minds of the people. So besides education and health access women should also be exposed to opportunities to develop themselves. And also they should be empowered to break out of the shackles of patriarchy. And remember that gender equality is a fundamental human right. So we must bridge the gender gap for a prosperous and sustainable world. Let us also not forget that gender parity is not just good for women but also for the entire society. Here we should remember this saying that if you educate a man you educate an individual. But if you educate a woman you educate a nation. So in addition to focusing on the education dimension women should be empowered in all other fronts also. So these are some of the points that you can take note from this global gender gap report and index. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Our next discussion is based on this opiate article. It has been written based on the recently passed international day for the elimination of racial discrimination. And also because of the global forum against racism and discrimination that was hosted by UNESCO on that day. So in this slide let us see some of the basics about racism its present form. Then also about the international day and the contribution by UNESCO. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. See whenever we hear about discrimination or prejudices the first thing that comes to our mind is racism. So what is race? Race refers to the division of human species into distinct groups based on their inherited physical and behavioral differences. So some of the races in the world include white or Caucasian, Mongoloid or Asian, Negroid or Black and Australoid etc. So now what is racism? It means to treat someone poorly because of their skin color because of their ethnicity or because where they come from. And this racism takes many forms like harassment, abuse, humiliation, exclusion, calling someone by names or even using hurtful jokes. So in short racism includes all the barriers that prevent people from enjoying dignity and equality because of their race. And the person who believes certain people are superior or inferior to others based on their racial differences is called as racist. So what are the forms of racism? The major forms of racism include structural racism which means the social inequalities that excludes selected groups of people. Then comes the institutional racism. It involves a set of environmental conditions that favors one group over another. And then comes the individual racism or internalized racism that is unknowingly having a negative idea about one's own culture. Now apart from all these, there is also interpersonal racism which means the racism that occurs between individuals. Then we have everyday racism. It means the negative stereotypes or prejudices about people based on their race, color and ethnicity. And then comes the cultural racism. It is the shared beliefs about the superiority of one group over the other. So these are some of the forms of racism that you can witness in a society. I know that racism can occur at any situation. It can occur in a public space or on an online platform. And when you look at the present form of racism, they are found to be more complex and implicit. And this is mainly due to the growth of technology and internet which has made being racist an easy process. See one of the best example for this could be the techno racism. It means the event where a piece of hardware or software limits the functionality based on a race. Now internet also contributes to racism because as you know it offers anonymity. So it paves the way for racial stereotyping and inaccurate information is spread through the internet online. For example in the beginning of the pandemic you remember that more hate sites and specific posts were circulated against Asians. Especially against the people belonging to Chinese origin. And similarly there were many social media groups and messaging platforms that were accusing a certain group of religious minorities for spreading the virus. So these acts were nothing but the acts of racism only. So that means racial discriminations are a breach of human rights. Additionally they also cause harmful effects on the health and well-being of the humans. And most importantly they increase the already existing inequalities in the societies. So what are the impacts of racism? See as per a recent study the people from racial and ethnic minorities and those who have low socioeconomic status are more prone to co-morbidities. It is because they have limited access to care. They have increased the perceived discrimination and they even have limited access to resources. So all these increase their vulnerability to severe diseases and also results in poor health outcomes. This could be clearly seen with the COVID-19 infections. And based on this only WHO also called for preventing and addressing the social stigma associated with COVID-19. Under this WHO cautioned about the dangers that is associated with profiling and stigmatizing communities. WHO stated that such a practice undermines the social bond and it also prompts the social isolation of groups. Therefore it also increases the virus spread and it also results in more severe health problems and difficulties in controlling a disease outbreak. Now this is because the stigma drives people to hide the illness. It also prevents them from seeking health care and it also discourages them from adopting healthy behaviors. And particularly the most vulnerable are the women and girls because they are likely to get affected by a double burden of being exposed to racial and gender-based prejudices. So in this regard UNESCO has played an important role where it partnered with the Republic of Korea and hosted a global forum against racism and discrimination. It was hosted on March 22, 2021. It was done to initiate a new multi-stakeholder partnership on anti-racism. And this forum invites for a multi-sectoral effort to tackle the root causes of racism through anti-racist laws, policies and programs. And these are the objectives of this forum. Note that this forum was organized in the wake of International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination. See this International Day was proclaimed by UN General Assembly Resolution and it is commemorated on 21st March of every year. UNESCO celebrates this day by organizing events in its headquarters and also in cooperation with the member cities of the International Coalition of Inclusive and Sustainable Cities. And the theme for this year's International Day is youth standing up against racism. So these are some of the initiatives by United Nations especially UNESCO to tackle racism. We should remember that. So while tackling racism we should keep in mind the views of former UN Secretary General Mr. Kofi Annan. He noted that racism can, will and must be defeated. So these are some of the points that you can take note from this open article. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Now this discussion is based on this news article which is regarding the latest development in the South China Sea. The news is that the Philippines defense secretary had said that China is looking to occupy more areas in the South China Sea. So this indicates that the dispute over islands in the South China Sea is getting worse. So in this context let us discuss in brief about the South China Sea and also about the ongoing dispute between Philippines and China. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. First you should note that South China Sea is a part of Indo-Pacific region. It is a critical commercial gateway for a significant portion of the world's merchant shipping. So it is an important economic and strategic sub-region of the Indo-Pacific region. And it is also the site of several complex territorial disputes because of this. And these conflicts have been the cause of conflict and tension within the region and also throughout the Indo-Pacific. So if you see the geography of the South China Sea know that it is bordered by countries like Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. And the recent economic growth of these countries has contributed to a large portion of world's commercial merchant shipping passing through these waters only. In addition to this Japan and South Korea also heavily rely on the South China Sea for their supply of fuels and raw materials. And they also heavily rely on the sea for their export because it is their export route. In addition to this the region is also rich in resources such as it is a rich fishing ground and these fishing grounds are unregulated and thus they are over exploited. It is also reported that South China Sea holds significant reserves of undiscovered oil and gas. And this is one of the reasons or it is one of the aggravating factor for these maritime and territorial disputes in the South China Sea. So what are the major islands and reefs formations in the sea? They are the Spratly Islands, Paracel Islands, Prattas, the Natuna Islands and the Scarborough Shoal. And if you look at this map you can understand the claims made by different stakeholders regarding these islands and reefs in the South China Sea. And among these claims exists the Nine Dash Line of China. So this Nine Dash Line is a demarcation line used by China to delineate its territorial claims in the South China Sea. So because of this line there are many contested areas between China and the other nations in the region. And these include the dispute of Paracel Islands, the Spratly Islands and various other areas such as the Prattas Islands and the McCliss Field Bank and also the Scarborough Shoal. So based on this Nine Dash Line China claims all the features and adjacent waters within the Nine Dash Line. But it does not specify what it really represents. And it also doesn't specify whether the underlying principle for this Nine Dash Line is historical or legal. Because only based on such facts only it could be accepted that is the Nine Dash Line could be accepted as an important distinction under the international law. And note that because of this even though China doesn't prevent the passage of commercial vehicles in the South China Sea but it prohibits foreign military ships from conducting operations in the waters which it claims. So that means South China Sea is frequently news because it is the subject of more than a dozen of overlapping and interconnected disputes and these disputes are based on the fact that who is in charge of the various islands, rocks, shawls and reefs. And particularly for example if you take the Spratly Islands it is claimed entirely by China, by Taiwan and even by Vietnam. And some of its parts are also claimed by Brunei, Philippines and Malaysia. So in such a complex environment it is important to have a well established recognisable rules of international law. And here comes the 1982 important Convention of United Nations. It is the Convention on the Law of the Seas or in short Unclose. It is an international treaty that sets out important maritime rules but unfortunately some countries fail to comply with the existing international law. If you take China for example it has asserted a maritime claim to a large majority of the South China Sea but this is not consistent with the international law. So based on this in 2016 itself an international tribunal had invalidated or nullified or disproved the China's claim to 90% of South China Sea saying that it is inconsistent with the Unclose Convention. But China did not recognise this verdict and it also continued to build artificial islands in the disputed waters and even it equipped these islands with radars, missile batteries etc. So now let us talk about the Philippines China dispute. See the dispute began when China's aggressive expansion in the South China Sea went to the Witson Reef. This Witson Reef comes under the Philippines Exclusive Economic Zone and China claims that the reef is part of its 9-line territory. So it has deployed more than 200 Chinese vessels in the region. And here the dispute got worse when the Philippines coast guard, the Philippines military aircrafts and even Navy started to conduct sovereign patrols to protect the national sovereignty and marine resources in the Witson Reef. And this is not the first time China is doing this because throughout 2020 at the height of global pandemic China has been accused of exploiting the crisis to advance its actions in the region and it started expanding its territorial claims in the South China Sea. If you remember even last year China sank a Vietnamese fishing vessel and it also disrupted Malaysian oil exploration. So we can see that the present situation in the South China Sea is already grave therefore there is a need of peaceful international arbitration to solve this long pending issue. So these are the points that should take note from this article and about South China Sea disputed areas. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Our next discussion is based on this editorial article which is with reference to Kerala Model of Development. We know that tomorrow that is on 6th April assembly elections will be held in the state of Kerala and in this regard the author of this editorial talks about how Kerala has achieved human development compared to most western nations. So in this context let us discuss in brief about this Kerala Model and we'll also compare it with the Gujarat Model. So this discussion is important from mains perspective. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. Now first let us have a brief understanding about the state of Kerala. See the modern Kerala it formally emerged as a constituent state of Indian Union in November 1956. Now before becoming a state Kerala comprised of three regions, the Travancore region, Cochin region and the Malabar region. And then after the reorganization Kerala now occupies a narrow strip of land that comprises 1.5% of the total land area in our country. And Kerala also supports 4.5% of the nation's population. Also know that Kerala is called as the God's own country because it is one of the world's most popular tourist destination due to its natural beauty. So now when we talk about the Kerala Model of Development, Kerala Model is about systematic state investment in education and health. Such investments and mass campaigns have created the transformation of the state. So this Kerala Model is a model based on improving health, education and quality of life for people. And this model has been more precisely defined by Richard Franke and Barbara Chesnas. They have defined it as a set of high material quality of life indicators coinciding with low per capita incomes. And both these factors that is quality of life and low per capita income are distributed across nearly the entire population. And here you should also know that a set of wealth and resource redistribution programs have largely brought about this high material quality of life indicators. And this was complemented with high levels of political participation and activism among the ordinary people. Now it should be also noted that the foundations of this holistic model of development in Kerala was laid in part also by the enlightened Maharajas of the Kerala region where the Maharajas invested heavily in health and education. They also ensured access to public services to maximum people rather than ensuring its concentration among just few. In this regard it is to be noted that between the years 1871 to 72 till 1946 to 47 that is still our independence the state expenditure on education increased by 71 times whereas the state expenditure on health care increased by 26 times. And by the 1900s Travancore had over 1000 schools and in this more than half were run by private management and Travancore also had 35 hospital beds per 1 lakh persons at that time itself. So this was the scenario during independence. Even after independence these trends continued. We all know about the land reform legislation in India post independence period. Now among the states Kerala and West Bengal were the only ones which implemented land reforms successfully and efficiently. Now these land reform struggles reinforced the low caste groups in these states to move upwards economically and also socially along with political participation and activism. Now in the recent past you can see that Kerala has seen major investments in social and economic infrastructure and these investments came through the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board insured KIIFB. This KIIFB funding is being used to build schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, industrial parks, massive public sector internet projects like KFON that is the Kerala Fibre Optic Network and also it is used for building the Transgrid 2.2. This Transgrid is a project to improve the power transmission network in Kerala. So this was in brief about Kerala model. Now we often hear Kerala model in comparison with the Gujarat model of development. See Gujarat experienced a quantum jump in its growth rate in the period from 2002 to 2003 to 2011 to 2012. So that is why both the models are compared. So from exam perspective let us have a brief comparison between Kerala model and the Gujarat model. First of all it is to be noted that Kerala model of development is based on bottom-up approach and state-driven development. But this is against the Gujarat model because Gujarat model encapsulates primary growth and private entrepreneurship driven development. So we can say that both the models are entirely dissimilar in terms of approach to development where Kerala model focused on marching to economic development through desirable social changes but Gujarat model tries to bag desirable social changes through sound economic anchor. So in brief let us compare the developments in these two states in different sectors. First if you come to the economic sector you should note that Gujarat is a top-five economy in India. It has a gross state domestic product of 16.7 lakh crores in the financial year 2020. But this is against Kerala's GSGP which is only of 8.7 lakh crore rupees. And also note that Kerala's economy heavily depends on remittances from abroad especially from the Gulf region. Now talking about the industrial sector Gujarat is one of the highly industrialised states in India. It also has a reputation of being a highly investor friendly state. But on the other hand Kerala's economy struggles from chronic industrial backwardness. If you see the industrial growth rates data from 2014-15 to 2017-18 shows that Kerala's industrial sector grew only by 5.6% on a year-on-year basis. But Gujarat grew at more than double the rate of this which was at 13.3% year-on-year basis. So this shows that Gujarat is industrially far more developed than Kerala. Now when we talk about employment you should note that according to the periodic labour force survey of 2017-18 Gujarat's unemployment rate was 4.8% and it was far below the national average of 6.1%. But note that both the national average and the Gujarat's unemployment rate is far below Kerala's unemployment rate because Kerala has an unemployment rate of 11.4%. But here you should note one of the biggest paradox in the Kerala-Gujarat models that exists in unemployment and poverty. See Kerala is a state with lowest poverty ratio in the country but it is amongst the state with highest unemployment rate of 98 per thousand persons. So even though the unemployment rate is high in Kerala the poverty ratio is very low. So now let us talk about the social sectors. In that if we take education as you know in literacy Kerala's push towards universal literacy has resulted in the highest literacy rates in the country. So Kerala has 97.9% literacy rate for women and for men it is at 98.7%. On the other hand Gujarat has not focused adequately on human capital development. This is clearly shown in the literacy rate where men's literacy is just 89.6% and women's literacy is 72.9% only. In addition to this Kerala even has a higher education infrastructure and it maintains an excellent pupil-teacher ratio of 18. But Gujarat has a higher pupil-teacher ratio at 26. Then if we talk about the health sector here also we know that Kerala ranks first in India in all major health indicators such as in the life expectancy at birth it ranks better infant mortality rate maternal mortality rate, fertility rate and birth rate. But if we compare Gujarat with Kerala we can see that Gujarat lies extremely below Kerala in terms of health indicators but it lies little about the national average only. So we can conclude by saying that the Gujarat model can be termed as a model of economic development and the Kerala model can be termed as a model of social development. See even though Kerala model and Gujarat model are contradictory to each other both are inevitable models of our country because Kerala has advantage in some sectors and Gujarat has advantage in some other sectors. So that is why as development models both the examples of Kerala and Gujarat assumes importance in our country. So these are some of the points that we should know regarding the development models of Kerala and Gujarat. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Our next discussion is based on this news article which talks about the landslips and flash floods which happened yesterday in eastern Indonesia. This disaster has killed at least 41 people and it has displaced thousands of people and many are still missing and these landslips and flash floods were caused by torrential rains which occurred in the country. So in this context let us have a brief understanding about flood and also about flash floods. Flood refers to a great flow of body of water which results in swelling and overflowing in adjacent areas and generally flood occurs due to heavy rainfall in the catchment area but sometime it also occurs due to upstream discharge in a storage reservoir or it also occurs due to dam failure. Now see when a flood occurs in a short time of heavy rainfall or in a short time of dam failure such a flood is called as flash flood. Now the short time in this context is usually less than 6 hours that is if flood occurs then less than 6 hours of heavy rainfall it is called as flash flood. They occur when heavy rainfall exceeds the ability of the ground to absorb it. They also occur when water also fills the normally dry creeks or dry streams and they also occur when enough water accumulates for streams to over top their banks. This causes rapid rises of water in a short amount of time. Here it is to be noted that flash floods are the most dangerous kind of floods because they combine the destructive power of a flood with incredible speed. They can happen within minutes of the causative rainfall so it limits the time available to warn and protect the people. So these pictures are depictions of the devastations caused by flash floods. Now in India note that Himalayan and northeastern states and also the region of western guards in Maharashtra and Kerala are more vulnerable to flash floods caused by cloudbursts. Now talking about the consequences of flash floods see the economic, social and environmental effects of flash floods are similar to the impacts of river floods of other types but the major difference here is that flash floods generally occur with little warning over a very short time period and they are generally limited to relatively small areas but the effects are catastrophic and they may result in large loss of life because of the sudden onset of the flood events. So these are some of the points that I should know about flash floods. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Our next discussion is based on this news article which is regarding a notice issued by the Delhi High Court to the Central Adoption Resource Authority. So let us first discuss the background of this issue. See few years back a Hindu couple who are living in USA they adopted a child and this child was born to Christian parents. Now this adoption was carried out prior to the enforcement of juvenile justice carrying protection of children model rules of 2016 and the adoption was also carried out under the provisions of Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act of 1956 but even though all the procedural formalities were completed the adopted parents could not get a passport for the child till date. So in this context the case was filed and now the Delhi High Court has directed the Central Authority to look into giving no objection to the parents for availing the passport. You know that the juvenile justice carrying protection of children act of 2015 it provides for a comprehensive process for domestic and inter-country adoption of orphaned children abandoned and surrendered children and the 2016 rules which you just saw these are framed under this act only and these rules were framed repealing the 2007 model rules. Now we also saw about the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act of 1956 this act deals with the legal process of adopting children by a Hindu adult and it also talks about the obligations of a Hindu to provide maintenance to various family members. So in this context let us have a brief understanding about the authorities and conventions related to adoption. In this regard we should know about the Central Adoption Resource Authority or in short CARA see it is a statutory body of Ministry of Women and Child Development and CARA was established under the section 68 of the Juvenile Justice CARA and Protection Act of 2015. Now CARA regulates and monitors all in-country and inter-country adoptions through child adoption resource information and guidance system which translates to the acronym CARINGS Now CARA is designated as the Central Authority to deal with inter-country adoptions in accordance with the provisions of the Hague Convention on the Inter-country Adoption of 1993. Now this Hague Convention has been ratified by 2003. Now also know that CARA primarily deals with the adoption of orphaned children, abandoned and surrendered children through its associated or recognized adoption agencies. So now let us see some of the important functions of CARA. First is to promote in-country adoptions and to facilitate inter-state adoptions in coordination with state agency. Then it also regulates the inter-country adoptions. Then it also frames regulations on adoptions and related matters from time to time. Finally it also carries out the functions of the Central Authority under the Hague Convention on protection of children and cooperation in respect of inter-country adoption. So this is the 1993 convention it protects the children and their families against the risks of illegal irregular premature or ill prepared adoptions abroad. This convention operates through a system of national central authorities and it reinforces the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child that is UNCRC. It also seeks to ensure that inter-country adoptions are made in the best interests of the child and they are made with respect for the fundamental rights of the children. So these are some of the points that you should know about CARA and also about the 1993 convention. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Our next discussion is based on this editorial article which is about H1B visa of USA. See on 2nd April we saw about the US government's move to allow expiration of the ban on H1B visas. Now through this discussion let us look into the bilateral implications of this move in the light of India-US relations. So first what is this H1B visa? It is a visa in the United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act of USA. It allows US employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations. See a specialty occupation requires the application of specialized knowledge and a bachelor's degree or the equivalent of work experience. Now the duration of stay under this visa is 3 years and it is extendable up to 6 years. Now here it is to be noted that majority of the applicants of H1B visas are Indians. According to the editorial article Indians collected approximately 70% of the 65,000 H1B visas that were annually made available to private sector applicants other than the visas available to the students. Now earlier the visas were suspended based on the policy decision of the previous US government under Mr. Trump saying that they want to propagate the America First agenda. But however contrary to this belief as envisaged by Mr. Trump a journal study has shown that this move of banning the H1B visas and the move to ban the immigration has resulted in widespread vacancies in USA. But at the same time the joblessness in USA still persists. So we can say that even though there are vacancies the joblessness is also witnessed in USA. So this is nothing but the lack of skills required for the respective jobs among the Americans. So earlier because of this ban genuine questions were raised because it was impacting the US-India relationship. This ban affected Indian IT services that were exported to USA. See in 2019 itself the Indian IT services exported were approximately 29.7 billion dollars and this was 143 percentage growth compared to what was existing in 2009. So because of this ban even the Silicon Valley tech giants protested because they were witnessing shortage of skilled labors in their industries. And even some universities also filed lawsuits challenging a subsequent student visa ban last year. In addition to this there is a realization that there is a need to increase the jobs and the need to match it with requisite talent has been included in America. And that is why the current US administration under Mr. Joe Biden has allowed the expiration of the ban. And by this the current US administration has achieved two objectives. One is that it has addressed the skill shortage in the Silicon Valley. And second by this Mr. Biden has not aggressively relaxed the Trump's policy decisions. So he has also not totally discarded the America first narrative. So for USA it becomes a win-win situation where this policy decision has set America back on the track with its relations with India and other countries. And at the same time it has maintained its importance to its American interests. So these are some of the points that you can note from this editorial article. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Now this discussion is based on this news article which talks about a recent judgment by Supreme Court that is relating to public employment in the context of the state of Rajasthan versus Laakushmina. In this case Supreme Court has held that a public employer can reject a candidate as unsuitable if she or he in the past had been acquitted of a serious crime merely on the benefit of doubt. Let us understand this in simple terms. Equital means freeing someone from a criminal charge by a verdict of not guilty. So what this judgment is that if someone has been declared free of a criminal charge or if someone is declared not guilty just based on the benefit of doubt then such a person can be rejected as unsuitable for the employment by a public employer. So here the background of this case is that the person in question was acquitted of murder in Rajasthan in the year 2009 after the witness turned hostile and this man was accused of being a part of a group of people who ran a tractor over a woman and they also stabbed people who tried to resist them. But this particular man was acquitted based on the benefit of doubt. In this regard you should note that in this case two types of acquittal come into play. They are the honourable acquittal and then acquittal based on benefit of the doubt. See honourable acquittal is when the accused is acquitted after full consideration of prosecution evidence but the prosecution has miserably failed to prove the charges levelled against the accused. If this happens then it can be possibly said that the accused was honourably acquitted. On the other hand the acquittal by benefit of doubt is when the state accepts someone as honest or accept someone as deserving of trust even though there are doubts that she or he might be lying but we have to give them the benefit of doubt and accept what they say for now. Now if based on such a situation the person is acquitted then it is called as acquittal by benefit of doubt. See here you should know one fact which is that in criminal cases the guilt should be proved beyond any reasonable doubt that a reasonable man with ordinary judgement is guilty of that crime. There should be no doubt whether the accused person is guilty or not. If there is even a slightest doubt and no matter how small that doubt is the benefit will go to the accused person only. And in Indian legal system the provision regarding the burden of proof and how it is discharged is laid in the Indian Evidence Act of 1872 and here the rule is that whoever alleges a fact must prove it. That means in a criminal trial it is the prosecution who alleges that the accused has committed the offence. So the burden of proof lies upon the prosecution to prove the same and that is why we said that prosecution had miserably failed to prove the charges. So now coming back to the case in this case which was led by justice Sanjay Kishan Kall he has confirmed that the acquittal on the benefit of doubt is quite different from an honourable acquittal. The court also observed that the mere fact of an acquittal would not suffice for public employment but rather it would depend on whether it is a clean acquittal based on total absence of evidence. Since simple terms according to the court a person should be honourably acquitted of a serious crime so as to be considered eligible for a public employment. Now in addition to this supreme court also observed that the acquittal in a criminal case does not automatically entitle a candidate for appointment to the post. So this is the judgement of supreme court. Now you can relate this judgement with the criminalization of politics because we know that many of her politicians and legislators have been accused of criminal charges and many of them are serious crimes. So let us wait and see whether in the future this criteria is made applicable to the legislators or not. So these are some of the points that you should take note from this news article. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Now we have come to the last session the practice questions discussion session. Now this question asks the Witson Reef often seen in news is located in option A Indian Ocean, option B South China Sea, option C East China Sea, option D Bering Sea. Now the correct answer is option B South China Sea. See in this image you can see the presence of Chinese ships in the disputed areas in the South China Sea. For example it is present in the Witson Reef then in the Hughes Reef then in South China Sea. Also nearing the Collins Reef then Johnson South Reef then Lansdowne Reef then Sarko East etc. So remember these names. These are related to the areas disputed in the South China Sea. Now this next question is based on flash floods. First statement is they are more dangerous than normal floods. This statement is correct. Second statement is in India North Eastern states and the western region of western guards are comparatively dangerous due to the natural adaptability of the topography of these areas. Now this statement is incorrect because it is the other way around. As these are the regions that are more prone to or more vulnerable to flash floods which are caused by cloudbursts. In the western guards region Amarash and Kerala are also more vulnerable to flash floods. So the correct answer to this question is option A one only since the question asks for the correct statements. Now this next question based question. The first statement is the public employer cannot reject a candidate as unsuitable if he or she had in the past been acquitted of a serious crime merely on the benefit of doubt. Now this statement is incorrect because today is news first regarding the authority of the public employer to reject such candidate who has been acquitted of a serious crime just based on benefit of doubt. So this statement becomes incorrect. Now the second statement is honourable is when the state accepts someone as honest or deserving of trust even though there are doubts that he or she might be lying. Now this statement is incorrect because this statement talks about acquittal by benefit of doubt and not about honourable acquittal. Here both the statements are incorrect and the question also asks about the incorrect statements. So the correct answer is option C both one and two. Now this next question is based on central adoption resource authority. First statement is Cara regulates and all in-country and inter-country adoptions in India. This statement is correct this is one of the functions of Cara. Second statement is it is a statutory body of ministry of social justice and empowerment. Now this statement is incorrect because it comes under the ministry of woman and child development. Third statement is Cara is the designated central authority in India to deal with the inter-country adoptions under the Hague convention on inter-country adoption of 1993. This statement is also correct we saw and here the question asks for the correct statements. Since one and three are correct the correct answer is option C one and three only. Now this question is based on global gender gap index which was asked in prelims 2017 and it is a direct question. The question asks which of the following gives global gender gap index ranking to the countries of the world option A world economic forum, UN human rights council, UN women world health organization. Now the correct answer is option A world economic forum. Now let us take two main questions. One question is related to racism and the other question is related to the models of development. You can write the answer and post it in the comment section. With this we come to the end of today's in the news analysis and the practice questions discussion session. If you like this video don't forget to like comment and share and to subscribe to Shankar IE's academy youtube channel for more updates related to civil service examination preparation.