 Dear viewers and aspirants, Shankar Aayez Academy starts a new exclusive batch under the pre-fit program. This batch will start from 22nd March 2021. We are starting another fresh batch under the pre-fit program because of the numerous requests we have been receiving after the launch of pre-fit batch 1 which started from February 15, 2021. And this batch 1 will conclude by 16th of May and with respect to the new batch the academy is conducting free entrance exam on March 14, 2021 that is tomorrow. The syllabus for the entrance exam will be the UPSC civil services prelim syllabus for general studies as well as CSAT. It is a free entrance exam but registration is mandatory. Those students who secured top 100 ranks in the entrance exam will be eligible for subsidized fee structure of rupees 800 plus GST per month and for other students that is for those students who found it challenging to come in the top 100 ranks and for direct admissions the fee structure will be rupees 1600 plus GST per month. And one of the important modifications that we have made for this new batch is that the longer daily test window is available. That is in this test batch students can take daily test in the four hard time frame from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. Numerous working professionals who are aspirants have requested for such extended time window and therefore to accommodate varied circumstances of the aspirants in taking daily tests this extended time window is available under the new batch. The links for the detailed brochure, plan summary and schedule are available in the description and also in the comment section. Welcome to the Hindu news analysis by Shankar Ayaz Academy for the day 13th March 2021. These are the list of news articles chosen for today's discussion. They are given along with the page numbers of different editions, the link for the handwritten notes in PDF format and the time stamping for the discussed articles are provided in the description as well as in the comment section for the benefit of mobile phone viewers. Now let us move on to the analysis of the first news article. This article says that the Supreme Court had asked the government to respond to a plea challenging the places of worship special provisions act of 1991. The petitioner claimed that this law which freezes the status of places of worship as it was on August 15, 1947 is against the principles of secularism. So in this context let us discuss in detail about this act, its salient features etc. The syllabus covered by this article is given here for your reference. Know that the places of worship special provisions act of 1991 is an act that prohibits the conversion of any place of worship and it provides for the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on 15 August 1947. The act was enacted by the Narasimha Rahu government and here a place of worship means a temple, mosque, gurudwara, church, monastery or any other place of public religious worship of any religious denomination or any section thereof. Know that section three of the act bars the conversion of the places of worship and it says that no person shall convert any place of worship or any religious denomination or any section into a place of worship of a different section of the same religious denomination or of a different religious denomination. And this act also provides for punishment for contravention. Say for example whoever contravenes the provisions of section three will be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to up to three years and the person shall also be liable to fine. And also if someone indulges as a part of criminal consparency in committing an offence against this act then the person shall be tried under the relevant section of the Indian penal code irrespective of whether such offence was committed or not committed. Also this act provides for certain exceptions. The first and foremost is that the act is not applicable to the place of worship commonly known as the Ram Janma Bhoomi, the Babri Masjid that is situated in Ayodhya Uttar Pradesh. And here it is to be noted that the act was enacted one year prior to the demolition of the Babri Masjid that is in December 1992. The act is also not applicable to an ancient and historical monument or an archaeological site or remains covered by the ancient monuments and archaeological sites and remains act of 1958. See following the Babri Masjid issue there were similar agitations in places like Mathura and Kasi. So some sources say that this 1991 law was made with the intention to prevent the copycat political religious movements to change the nature of existing religious places elsewhere. So if the government repeals the 1991 act it will become legally easy to return such religious places across the country to their original claimants and worshippers. But there are certain criticisms also. See some claim that the 1991 act is unconstitutional because it discriminates on the very basics of the idea of a constitution which does not allow any discrimination or special preference to any particular place, monument, suit etc. And as we said the act was very specific that it won't apply to Ram Janma Bhoomi, Babri Masjid dispute. Now the ongoing petition says that the act is arbitrary, irrational and retrospective and the reason for this is that the cutoff date is fixed to be 15th of August 1947 for the communities like Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and Sikh from approaching the codes to reclaim their places of worship. So as we know our constitution has mandated that the state must treat all religious greeds equally without any discrimination in all matters. So there comes a need for the center to take a conscious call and to address the worries of all the communities while deciding on the act and also the government judiciary including our own selves shall not hesitate to resist and challenge any forces which are detrimental to our constitution, democracy, secularism and our pluralistic culture. With this we'll move on to the next news article. This news article mentions that retail inflation is at a three month high. So in this discussion let us see what is inflation, retail inflation, news etc. The syllabus for this news article is highlighted below for your reference. First let's see about inflation. See inflation is the rise in the general level of prices of goods and services. It is also defined as a sustained rise or a persistent increase in the general level of prices. See you should remember if the price of only one good or item has gone up then it is not considered as an inflation but rather an inflation happens only if the prices of most of the goods go up and the consequences of inflation is widespread and firstly it erodes the purchasing power of money that is it indicates a decrease in the purchasing power of a unit of a nation's currency as the products and services gets more expensive than before. So basically inflation is nothing but the difference between aggregate demand and the aggregate supply of goods and services. When this aggregate demand exceeds the supply of goods at current prices then there is a rise in the price level and this results in an increase in the cost of living and it ultimately affects everyone especially the poor sections of the population and this is the reason why inflation is one of the most closely monitored macroeconomic indicators. So now let's see how inflation can be measured. See it is measured using the price indices as they measure the changes that has took place over a time in the general price level of goods and services at large and they incorporate its importance in the basket. So generally the rate of inflation can be measured using the price indices such as the old sale price index or the retail price index and this retail price index is generally known as a consumer price index and note that either of them can be used to calculate the inflation rates. But now here in this news discussion our focus will be on retail inflation. See in simple words retail inflation is inflation that is experienced at retail shops and this retail inflation it gives the actual reflection of the price rise in the country. Note that in India the inflation rate at retail level is given by the consumer price index only. This is because the consumer price index will record the changes in prices for a sample of family budget items that are representative of what consumers typically spend their household income on. Or in simple words the consumer price index is used to measure the changes over time in general level of retail prices of selected goods and services and these goods and services are those which the households purchase for the purpose of consumption. This consumer price index has got six components and this six components includes food and beverages, farm, tobacco and intoxicants, clothing and footwear, housing then fuel and light and finally comes a miscellaneous and this miscellaneous includes health, education, transport, recreation etc. Note that in this food and beverages component have got the highest weightage. What consumer price index does is it measures the price changes in a period of time by comparing the cost of a fixed basket of commodities. See here basket refers to a fixed set of consumer products and services that are valued on an annual basis. So it monitors the retail prices at a certain level for a particular commodity such as the price, movement of goods and services at rural, urban and at all India levels. And then it identifies the periods of deflation or inflation for consumers in their day-to-day living expenses and if there is inflation or when goods and services cost more then the consumer price index will rise over a period of time. Now coming back to our discussion that is retail inflection. Now let's see how it is measured. See to measure the retail inflation the increase in the consumer price index is estimated in terms of percentage change over the same period the previous year. Here you should note that when there are frequent or faster changes in the retail inflation or in the consumer price index then it indicates that the prices of household items are rising quickly and if this high inflation is persistent then it pushes several household items to be out of reach for certain categories of consumers and these categories include the poor section of population, the low income stratum of society and even the elderly people who are relying on a fixed pension. So this ultimately affects their family diet because they cannot afford the nutrient rich food and it simply means that the consumption capacity of society will get reduced and if consumption is reduced then the economic growth will be low. So therefore measuring retail inflation of the consumer price index is important since it affects the economic growth itself. Now let's see the news. See as per estimations for February 2021 the retail inflation has accelerated to a three month high of 5.03%. Note it was 4.06% in January and this is due to the higher food and fuel prices and the food price inflation which is measured by the consumer food price inflation has increased to 3.87% from 1.96% back in January. So this simply indicates that the prices of household items are rising quickly and the consumption capacity of society is getting reduced. So with this information let us move on to the next news article. Now let us take up this editorial article written by the chairman of Asian College of Journalism. In this editorial he criticizes the recently announced information technology guidelines for intermediaries and digital media ethics code rules of 2021. So in this context let us discuss in detail about the rules and the views of the author associated with it. The syllabus for this news article is highlighted below. First let us know about the rules. Know that the information technology guidelines for intermediaries and digital media ethics code rules of 2021 was framed under the Information Technology Act of 2000 and it superseded the earlier information technology intermediary guidelines rules of 2011. Now this rules seeks to provide a grievance redressal mechanism for users of digital platforms of all kinds which includes social media sites, messaging apps, over the top or OTT streaming services and digital news publishers. Know that part two of these rules shall be administered by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology while part three shall be administered by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. And similarly part two is related to due diligence by intermediaries and grievance redressal mechanism while part three is related to code of ethics procedure and safeguards in relation to digital media. So in this regard the rules prescribe the due diligence that must be followed by intermediaries including social media intermediaries and also it mandates the intermediaries to establish a grievance redressal mechanism for receiving and resolving complaints from the users and the intermediaries shall appoint a grievance officer to deal with such complaints and can share the name and contact details of such officer and the grievance officer shall acknowledge the complaint within 24 hours and shall resolve it within 15 days from its receipt. So you know that the rules make a distinction between social media intermediaries and significant social media intermediaries and this distinction is based on the number of users on the social media platform and here additional due diligence is to be followed by significant social media intermediary wherein they shall appoint a chief compliance officer who shall be responsible for ensuring compliance with the act and rules. You should note that such a person should be a resident in India and then there shall be a nodal contact person who is available at all times for 24 into 7 in coordination with the law enforcement agencies and such a person shall also be a resident in India and the intermediaries are also required to publish a monthly compliance report mentioning the details of complaints received and the action taken on it. Another important provision of the act is that the significant social media intermediaries who are providing messaging services shall enable identification of the first originator of the information. However, this will be required only for the purpose of prevention, detection etc of an offense that is related to the sovereignty and integrity of India and the friendly relations with foreign states or public order etc. And next the rule mandates ensuring online safety and dignity of users especially women users. So intermediaries shall remove or disable access within 24 hours of receipt of complaints of contents that expose the private areas of individuals or show such individuals in full or partial nudity. And next for digital publishers of news and current efforts as well as video streaming services and identical three-tire structure of grievance redressal has been mandated and these three levels includes the self-regulation by the publishers then comes the self-regulating bodies of the publishers and finally an oversight mechanism formulated by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. In the oversight mechanism the ministry shall publish a charter for self-regulating bodies including the codes of practices and it shall establish an inter-departmental committee for hearing grievances. Now next the publishers of news on digital media shall observe the norms of journalistic conduct of the press council of India and the program code under the Cable Television Networks Regulation Act. So in this regard the rules aim to provide a level playing field between the offline that is print and television and the digital media. See for example platforms would be required to implement parental logs for contents that are classified as restricted to adult audience 13 plus or higher and reliable age verification mechanisms for those content that are classified as A or adult. And another significant provision of the 2021 rules is related to blocking of information in case of emergency. See the rule says that in case of an emergency nature the authorized officer without any delay shall examine the relevant content and can consider whether it is really necessary or expedient and justifiable to block such information and also in case of emergency nature then the secretary of ministry of information broadcasting may if he satisfied that it is necessary and justifiable blocking the public access of any information may block it. So this is in brief about the rules now let us see what the author has got to tell about it. See the authors of the opinion that the new rules are nothing but a systematic incremental erosion or the freedom of speech and expression. He sees this as a move by the executor to keep the media under control. Now why is it so? See to substantiate his view first the author criticizes the grievance redressal mechanism that is available in the new rules and in this regard he notes that in a country like India which is experiencing both political as well as religious majoritarianism there is a chance that the number of grievances could be significantly high and this is because any criticism of the ruling party or government could trigger an orchestrated flow of grievances and here particularly the smaller or medium-sized independent digital news and current affairs portals will be the ones who were hit the hardest by this redress requirement and particularly the criticism is about the three level grievance redressal mechanism remember this mechanism will entail oversight by a government committee at the highest level and any grievance that does not get satisfactorily solved at the self-regulatory levels will get escalated to the government panel and this has been criticized as excessive governmental control over digital news and OTT content and the author notes that this would be like a self-regulation by the media organization and the industry according to the whims and fancies of the government and also this mechanism makes the grievance redressal a complicated process and can affect the functioning of relatively smaller news and current affairs portal. Second the author talks about the power to block contents see the rules give the secretary of the ministry of information and broadcasting had oak emergency powers to block any content which the government considers to be problematic. Now this move has got the potential to suppress the voice of media in this regard the rules can also affect the funding of small media organizations because the investors and brands will be reluctant to fund the small media agencies due to the fear of repression from the government and also due to the rigidness of the rules. Now to conclude the author reminds us of the fourth pillar or the fourth state of democracy see technically a democracy stands on the three pillars that is judiciary executive and legislature but with the rise of the press and its power to reach every nook and corner of the state it is considered as the fourth pillar of a democracy. Here the author opines that this fourth state which is nothing but press is as much a player as the other three pillars for the functioning of a healthy democracy and when this pillar is eroded it will result in a destruction of the other three pillars. So it is a healthy tension among the four pillars that keeps the democratic edifice strong and vibrant. Now with this we have come to the end of this news discussion that is moved on to the next news article. This news article is based on a recent judgment by the Supreme Court wherein it stated that bureaucrats cannot be appointed as state election commissioners and the case law is the state of Goa v.s. Fauzi Amitya shake. See the case is related to the municipality elections in Goa that does not go much in two case details but one of the issues in the case was post of the state election commissioner in Goa. See November 2020 the law secretary of the government of Goa who is a member of the Indian administrative service was appointed as the state election commissioner. So the law secretary was to carry out the duties of the state election commissioner in addition to his duties as law secretary and the issue is mainly due to this fact based on which the Supreme Court has observed that the whole process of these elections is faulted because in this case the state election commission is not an independent body as mandated by article 243 K of the Indian constitution. So it is a subversion of the constitutional mandate that is contained in article 243 K. See as you know article 243 K deals with the elections to the panchayats but don't get confused here has the case pertains to the election to municipalities. See article 243 K provides the mandate of state election commission according to it the superintendent's direction and the control of the preparation of electoral roles for elections to panchayats and the conduct of elections to the panchayats shall be vested in the state election commission and this state election commission should consist of a state election commissioner who is to be appointed by the governor and further the conditions of service and tenure of office of this state election commissioner is subject to the provisions of any law that was made by the state legislatures but our interest is on the elections to municipalities which is dealt by article 243 z a and according to this article the superintendent's direction and control of the preparation of electoral roles and the conduct of elections to municipalities is vested in the state election commission that is referred in article 243 K and that is why the superintendent court talked about article 243 K see the superintendent court is noted that the state election commissioner has to be a person who is independent of the state government because the state election commissioner is an important constitutional functionary who will oversee the entire process of panchayat or municipalities and this independent nature is mandated by constitution under article 243 K clause 2 because this clause mentions the conditions for the removal of state election commissioner and for this purpose the state election commissioner has been equated with a judge of a high court which means that the state election commissioner can only be removed on like grounds as a judge of a high court. Thus the post of the state election commissioner is an important as well as an independent constitutional office but in the case of Goa it has been given to an officer who is directly under the control of the state government so the supreme court has criticized it as a mockery of the constitutional mandate and thus supreme court declared that Goa state election commissioner post being given to law secretary is against the constitutional mandate of article 243 K and further in this regard the supreme court has clearly mentioned that all state election commissioners appointed under article 243 K across India have to be independent persons and those persons should not be occupying a post or office under the central government or any state government and further if any such persons are holding the post of state election commissioners in other states then such persons must be able to step down from the office immediately. Now let's move on to the next news article this editorial talks about the increasing Asian footprint in West Asia and in this context it is discussed in brief about the India-United Arab Emirates bilateral relations and some military exercises that are mentioned in the editorial. Know that India and the United Arab Emirates established diplomatic relations back in the year 1972 and you were he opened its embassy in India in 1972 and India opened its embassy in Abu Dhabi in 1973. Know that Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan who is the crown prince of Abu Dhabi was the chief guest of India's republic day celebrations in the year 2017 and it was during this visit that the bilateral relations were upgraded to a comprehensive strategic partnership. Our Prime Minister Shinarendra Modi visited UAE in 2018 for the sixth world government summit in Dubai where India was a guest of honour and the Prime Minister visited UAE again in August 2019 in order to receive the UAE's highest civilian award known as the order of Zayed. Now coming to economic and commercial relations India and UAE have shared trade links through the centuries. However the real impetus started after Dubai positioned itself as a regional trading hub by the early 1990s and about the same time the economic liberalization process started in India. See the India UAE trade valued at 180 million US dollars per annum in 1970s is today around 60 billion US dollars and this makes UAE as India's third largest trading partner for the year 2018 to 2019 and moreover UAE is the second largest export destination of India and this amounts to over 30 billion US dollars for the year 2018 to 2019. Now here it is to be noted that Indian expatriate community of approximately 3.3 million is the largest ethnic community in UAE and this constitutes roughly about 30 percent of UAE's population and among the Indian states Kerala is the most represented followed by Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. However Indians from the northern states all put together also form a significant portion of the UAE Indian population. Now let's discuss about the desert flag exercise. See desert flag is an annual multinational large force employment warfare exercise hosted by the United Arab Emirates Air Force. In the ongoing exercise desert flag six the Indian Air Force is participating for the first time and apart from this other participating countries are the United States of America, France, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Bahrain and here we must also know about the exercise desert eagle which is a series of bilateral exercises between the Indian Air Force and the UAE Air Force and also desert eagle two which was the second in the series was concluded in the year 2016. With this we have come to the end of discussion of this topic. Let us now move on to the practice question discussion. Now look at this prelims practice question about the places of worship special provisions act of 1991. The first statement says it prohibits conversion of any place of worship and its religious character from what it was on 15th of August 1947. Statement two says that the act is not applicable to archaeological sites that are coming under the ancient monuments and archaeological sites and remains act of 1958 and the question wants us to identify the correct statement. See if you remember in the discussion we saw that the places of worship special provisions act of 1991 is an act that prohibits the conversion of any place of worship and it also provides for the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on 15th of August 1947. We also saw about certain exemptions for the act. One is that the act is not applicable to the place of worship commonly known as Ramjanmabhoomi Babremastya that is situated in Ayodhya of Uttar Pradesh. Another exemption is that the act is not applicable to an ancient and historical monument or an archaeological site or remains that was covered by the ancient monuments and archaeological sites and remains act of 1958. So based on the discussion we can find that both the options that is both option one and two are correct. The question wants us to identify the correct option. The right answer is option C that is both one and two. Now let us take up this prelims practice question regarding the consequences of high inflation. First statement says that it leads to the erosion of purchasing power of money. Statement two decrease in the cost of living and statement three increase in interest rates by banks. See as seen in the discussion statement one which says that the one of the consequence of high inflation is the erosion in the purchasing power of money. So based on the discussion we can say that this statement is right because with inflation the purchasing power of the money will get reduced. Secondly coming to the decrease in the cost of living in the discussion we saw that when the aggregate demand exceeds the supply of goods at current prices then there will be a rise in the price level and this will ultimately result in an increase in the cost of living which affects everyone especially the poor sections of the population. So therefore this statement is also correct and the third statement says that it one of the consequence of high inflation is the increase in the interest rate by banks. See this statement is also correct because banks will increase interest rates as the inflation increases and this makes borrowing costly for both the consumers as well as the corporates and when the interest rate rises the cost of borrowing also rises and this makes borrowing to be very expensive and hence borrowing will decline and as such the money supply that is the amount of money in circulation will also fall. A fall in the money supply will lead to people having lesser money to spend on goods and services and hence they will buy a lesser amount of goods and services. So this in turn will lead to a fall in the demand for goods and services and with the supply remaining constant and the demand for goods and services declining the price of goods and services will also fall. So this option is also correct the increase in the interest rate of banks is also one of the consequences of high inflation. See when you take statement 2 we can find that it is incorrect because as we've seen in the discussion when the aggregate demand exceeds the supply of goods at current prices then there is a rise in the price level. So this result in an increase in the cost of living and it ultimately affects everyone especially the poor sections of the population. So we understood that one of the consequences of high inflation is the increase in the cost of living but here it is given as decrease. So therefore this option is incorrect. So since the question wants us to find only the correct statements the right option is option C that is 1 and 3 only. Look at this question it says recently the Indian Air Force had participated for the first time in exercise desert flag an annual multinational large force employment warfare exercise and it was hosted by A Saudi Arabia B Iran C United Arab Emirates and D Turkey. As we know the exercise desert flag was conducted by the United Arab Emirates therefore the right answer is option C that is United Arab Emirates. Now let us look at this film's question about the state election commission. So as we know statement one is correct because the state election commission is a constitutional body. Coming to statement two it says that the state election commissioner is appointed by the president. As we saw in the discussion article 243 K provides the mandate for the state election commission and according to it the state election commission should consist of a state election commissioner who is to be appointed by the governor of that particular state but here it is given as a president. So therefore this statement is incorrect. Coming to the third statement it says that state election commissioner shall not be removed from his or her office except on the like grounds as the judge of a supreme court. See when you look at the statement this statement is also incorrect because the state election commissioner shall not be removed from his or her office except in the like manner and on the like grounds as a judge of the high court and not supreme court. Okay now here the problem is the statement mentions on the grounds as a judge of a supreme court but in reality it is on the grounds as a judge of the high court. The question asked for the incorrect statement therefore the right option is option D i.e. 2 and 3 only because statement 1 which says that it is a constitutional body is correct. The list of main practice questions is displayed here. You can write your answer and post them in the comment section below. With this, we have come to the end of today's Hindu news analysis. If you like the video, don't forget to like, comment and share. And do subscribe to Shankar Iyer's Academy YouTube channel for more updates regarding UPSC civil services preparation.