 Good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu news analysis session by Shankar A. Sakrami for the date 23rd of March 2022 Displayed here are the list of news articles. We will be discussing today. Now. Let us get into the discussion Look at this editorial. This editorial talks about the need for an Indian legislative service This is needed because a common service can help strengthen many legislative bodies in India That is from parliament level to panchayat level. See the author here discusses about the need for an all-india legislative service in the background of the recent appointment of Dr. P.P.K. Ramacharyalu as the secretary-general of Rajeshava who within three months was then replaced by Mr. P.C. Modi. This is the crux of the editorial given here. See in this context Let us discuss in brief about the constitutional provision functions and role of Rajeshava secretariat in parliamentary democracy Then briefly let us discuss about the office of secretary-general Then let us briefly look at the background on the issue that was spoken in the article regarding the appointment of Rajeshava secretary-general Then we will get into the negatives in the appointment of civil servants as secretary-general of Rajeshava Lastly, let us see why we need an all-india legislative service. This is the plan for this discussion Before getting into the discussion. I have highlighted here the syllabus regarding this discussion. You can go through it Now let us start First let us discuss about Rajeshava secretariat. That is its constitutional provisions roles and functions The Rajeshava secretariat was set up in accordance with the provisions contained in article 98 of the Indian Constitution This article that is article 98 provides for an separate secretary-general staff for each parliamentary house That is one for Rajeshava and other for Lokshabha Also, it is mentioned in the article that the Parliament may by law regulate the recruitment and Conditions of service of persons appointed to the secretary-general staff of each parliamentary house Now let us see the functions of Rajeshava secretariat. The Rajeshava secretariat functions under the overall guidance and control of the chairman of Rajeshava who is nothing but the vice president of India The main activities of the secretariat include firstly to provide Secretarial assistance and support to the effective functioning of the Rajeshava Secondly for the payment of salary and other allowances to the Rajeshava members Thirdly to provide amenities as admissible to Rajeshava members Fourthly to provide service for the various parliamentary committee Fifthly to prepare research and reference material and bring out various publication Then it also does the recruitment of manpower in the Rajeshava secretariat and then attends to personal matters also Lastly the Rajeshava secretariat prepares and publishes a record of day-to-day proceedings of the Rajeshava Also, it brings out other publications as may be required concerning the functioning of Rajeshava and its committees Now let us see some important points about the secretary general of Rajeshava The secretary general is appointed by the chairman of Rajeshava The secretary general is appointed from among those who have made their mark by long years of service in the parliament or state Legislature or civil service The secretary general works with the anonymity and is readily available to the chairman of Rajeshava For rendering advice on parliamentary matters The secretary general is also the administrative head of the Rajeshava secretariat and the custodian of the records of the house He works under the directions and control of the chairman of Rajeshava Let me tell you few privileges of the Rajeshava secretary general The first privilege is freedom from arrest and he is saved from any criminal charges The second privilege is that he cannot be obstructed in the execution of his duty because it would amount to contempt of house The third privilege is that he is answerable only to the chairman of Rajeshava and his action cannot be discussed inside the Rajeshava Okay, see till now we saw about the constitutional provisions regarding Rajeshava secretariat Then we saw the functions of the Rajeshava secretariat Then we saw some major powers and functions and privileges of the secretary general of Rajeshava Having seen these points now, let us see the issue that is highlighted by the author in the editorial See recently our vice president appointed Dr. PPK Ramacharyalu as the secretary general of Rajeshava See Ramacharyalu was the first-ever Rajeshava secretariat staff who rose to become the Rajeshava secretary general His appointment was like a course correction to restore the legitimacy of the long-time demand of the Rajeshava secretariat staff This is because before Dr. PPK Ramacharyalu, most of the secretary general of Rajeshava were civil servants and they were not secretariat staff See this course correction made by our vice president was very short-lived Because in less than three months Ramacharyalu was replaced by a former bureaucrat Mr. P. C. Modi The author says this was due to some political pressures This is the background based on which the author of the editorial highlights the need for and separate all India legislative service So first let us see what are all the cons in the appointment of civil servants as the secretary general of a parliamentary house First is that the independence of the secretariat is lost See according to article 98 of the Indian Constitution, the secretariat should be independent of the executive government If a retired bureaucrat who was part of the permanent executive is appointed the autonomy of the Rajeshava secretariat will be lost The second con is that civil servants lack the knowledge and vast experience of parliamentary procedures Practices and precedents only the Rajeshava secretariat staff who are accustomed to the functioning of Rajeshava Will know about the nook and corner of the role of Rajeshava secretary general the civil servant However qualified cannot match this expertise The third reason why civil servants should not be appointed as Rajeshava secretary general is that it might lead to a Conflict of interest as I already mentioned in the previous point the civil servants lack and expertise in the parliamentary procedures This might result in a clash between Legislative and executive arm of the government this leads to the breach of principle of separation of powers See separation of power is an important feature of the parliamentary democracy, right? So appointment of a civil servant as a Rajeshava secretary general must be avoided Finally, there are many instances where bureaucrats persistently do not allow the parliament to be a competent and robust legislative institutions This might make the parliament a weak institution See only if there is a strong parliament it can ask necessary questions to the executive So a strong parliament will make the executive accountable So appointment of a civil servant might weaken the portion of parliament and it might then make the executive also Unaccountable see these four points are the cons in the appointment of the civil servant as the secretary general of a parliamentary house Having seen these four points. Now. Let us see why we need a all-india legislative service See the main reason is to build a competent and robust legislative institution Building a robust legislative institution requires qualified and well-trained staff in place For this we require proper recruitment and efficient training process See the legislative bodies in India ranges from panchayat block panchayat Silla Parishad municipal corporations to state legislature and union parliament at the national level These legislative bodies lack their own common public recruitment and training agency at the national level So the author suggests that a common service called the all-india legislative service could help build a Combined and experienced legislative staff cadre This will enable them to serve them from across local bodies to union parliament Finally the author says that it is high time that India needs to adapt and adopt such democratic Institutional practices no question arises on how can this all-india service be created? See this can be done by the Rajesh Saba under article 312 Through this article the Rajesh Saba can pass a resolution to create an all-india legislative service This is in national interest which is common to both union and states That's all regarding this editorial see in this discussion We saw about the constitutional provision functions and role of the Rajesh Saba secretariat Then briefly we discussed about the office of secretary general Then we looked at the issue highlighted by the author in this editorial Then we saw about the negatives in the appointment of civil servants as secretary general Lastly we saw the need for an all-india legislative service With this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article Look at this article. This article talks about hypersonic weapons. What are hypersonic weapons? They are maneuverable weapons that can fly at the speed at least five Mac That is five times the speed of sound objects traveling at speeds greater than one Mac and Lesser than five Mac are called supersonic Okay hypersonic weapons travel within the atmosphere Weapons can also be maneuvered. That is manually directed midway Since they are traveling at such high speeds. They are not easy to detect Since they are difficult to detect. They can only be detected when they are very close That is since they are very close the other side will not have any time to react The hypersonic weapons due to their high speeds can also escape the missile defense systems Okay. See these are some points in regards to hypersonic weapons This new technology is still in its nascent stage. We will wait for more updates Now what are all the countries that possess this technology? See right now United States Russia and China possess the most advanced hypersonic weapons program in addition to these countries Australia India France Germany and Japan are also developing hypersonic weapons technology See currently India operates Approximately 12 hypersonic wind tunnels that is capable of testing speeds up to 13 Mac What is a wind tunnel? Look at this image. See wind tunnels are large tubes with air moving inside The tunnels are used to copy the actions of an object in flight Okay See India is also developing an indigenous Dual capable hypersonic cruise missile as a part of its hypersonic technology demonstrator vehicle program India also has plans to develop a hypersonic version of bromo's supersonic cruise missile See recently there were news articles about India developing and testing Scramjet technology right this is all part of future development of hypersonic weapons Here what is a scramjet engine? Look at this image. See scramjet engine is an air breathing engine Here air goes inside the engine at supersonic speed and comes out at hypersonic speeds This is all regarding this discussion with this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article Look at this editorial article the article talks about the temporary waiver of intellectual property rights to vaccines medicines and other medical products related to COVID-19 that was proposed in the WTO First let us see the background In October 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak India and South Africa Tabled a proposal in the World Trade Organization The proposal was to seek temporary waiver on vaccines medicines and other Medical products related to COVID-19 from certain obligations under the agreement on trade related aspects of Intellectual property rights that is trips. It has been 18 months since the proposal. What is the status of this proposal now? 63 developing countries have become co-sponsors of the proposal and another 44 countries have lent their support Even then a common ground was not able to be reached in this regard The opposition for this proposal came from the developed countries. This is so obvious, right? They are doing this to protect their pharmacutical industries When this proposal was first introduced the United States was under the Trump administration and they opposed to this waiver entirely But after the Biden administration took office the United States backed the waiver, but only for the vaccines India was pushing for this proposal on a moral ground. See as of now only 14% of people in low-income countries have received at least one vaccine dose and There are news articles saying that another wave is starting in some East Asian countries See if this proposal is passed it will result in increased vaccine production capacity and thereby making COVID-related vaccines and medications affordable This would have been greatly helpful to low-income countries But what happened? See the Western countries opposed to this waiver Instead the European Union proposed a compromise outcome The compromise outcome was arrived at after negotiations with India, South Africa and the United States The compromise is that instead of a complete waiver They allowed for compulsory licensing to enhance vaccine production What is compulsory licensing? Compulsory licensing is when government allows someone else to produce a patented product or process Without the consent of the patent owner See trips in itself has a provision for compulsory licensing But normally compulsory licensing is provided only if efforts to get voluntary licensing has failed But the compromise outcome that is proposed by the European Union said that in this case Compulsory licensing can be issued in the first instance itself Okay The compromise outcome also had some conditions put in The compulsory licensing for COVID vaccines must be used only by the developing countries Okay, and these developing countries must have exported less than 10% of the world export of COVID-19 vaccine Just to add data here, India accounted for just 2.4% of global COVID-19 vaccine exports So India can use the provision of compulsory licensing under the compromise outcome See India and South Africa initially asked for complete waiver of intellectual property rights to Vaccines medicines and other medical products related to COVID-19 But the compromise outcome that was finally arrived at gave only compulsory licensing That too compulsory licensing only for vaccines and not for medicines and medical products So according to the author of this editorial by accepting the compromise outcome proposed by the European Union Both India and South Africa have compromised their moral ground So this is regarding this editorial now where can this information be used see WHO failed to stop the COVID-19 pandemic the United Nations is powerless in the case of Ukraine Russia war and here in this case WTO is blocking access to affordable vaccines So you can expect a question in mains in the lines of is the multilateral organizations Equipped to address the crisis that world is facing justify See for this question if your answer is s That is multilateral Organizations have failed to avoid the crisis that the world is facing to justify your opinion You can cite the example that we saw in this article see as I always say the data is abundant How you use the data in your main sensor is what will make the difference? Okay? So that is all regarding this discussion. No, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article Look at this article this text-in-context article provides a detailed explanation of the national land Monetization corporation see the creation of the NLMC has been announced by the government recently The article goes on to explain about the features of the NLMC the need for it The advantages in it and the possible issues it will face. Let us see all these aspects in detail The syllabus regarding this discussion is highlighted here. You can go through it. Now, let us get into the discussion See as the name suggests national land monetization Corporation is a corporation for the monetization of the land and land monetization is a type of asset monetization Then what is asset monetization asset monetization is also known as asset recycling or Capital recycling this is a widely used to business practice to unlock the value of investment in public sector assets By asset monetization. We tap the private sector capital as well as efficiencies The capital or efficiencies are then used for enhancing of infrastructure or for greenfield infrastructure creation here greenfield means doing it from the scratch Example constructing a new building on undisturbed terrain. There are certain defining features of asset monetization asset monetization consist of a limited period transfer of Performing assets here the limited period transfer will mean two things First is licensing or leasing an asset to a private sector entity for payment in advance Second is licensing or leasing an asset to a private sector entity for a periodic consideration in the form of premium or revenue share Transfer of such rights is defined as a well-defined concession or a contractual framework The framework is the partnership between the public sector and the private sector company The framework defines the operations and how to maintain the assets based on which the private sector entity will operate and generate returns So the public authority will also receive its share of funds which are reinvested in new infrastructure or Developed for other public purposes More importantly at the end of such contracts the asset is transferred back to the public authority See here the asset is not sold That is the title writes to the monetized asset remains with the government or the public entity So from this you can understand that in asset monetization the idle assets are unlocked The revenue generated from these unlocked assets can be reinvested in other assets or projects that deliver improved benefits or additional benefits Okay, therefore the first benefit of asset monetization is that it is the funding mechanism The second benefit is that it acts as a overall strategy for bringing a major shift in infrastructure operations argumentation and maintenance The last major benefit is that asset monetization eases the financial constraints of the government and frees up the balance sheet for taking up more greenfield infrastructure creation See all these benefits enable the government to deploy the resources towards the social sector and other public priorities See these are all the advantages of asset monetization Now let us see what are all the assets that are being monetized See there are two types of assets that is core and non-core assets These are the core assets on the other hand the non-core assets include land parcels and buildings So land monetization is a non-core asset monetization and the organization that will take up this process is the national land Monetization corporation it will be set up by the department of public enterprises under ministry of finance The ministry of finance will also act as its administrative ministry Note that from here on asset will mean land and building assets Okay now what will be the features of the national land monetization corporation See it will be a wholly owned government of India company It has a initial authorized share capital of rupees 5000 crores It will have board of directors which comprise of a chairman senior central government officers and eminent experts The eminent experts will include professionals from the private sector Here the chairman and the non-government directors will be appointed through a merit-based selection process National land monetization corporation will monetize the surplus unused and underused land and building assets of the central public sector enterprises and other government agencies Here the national land monetization corporation will own hold manage and monetize the surplus assets Which are under closure or strategic disinvestment? But in case of strategic disinvestment only surplus non-core land assets of central public sector enterprises will be considered NLMC will also advise and support other government entities in identifying their surplus non-core assets and monetizing them Overall NLMC is expected to act as a repository of best practices in land monetization Finally NLMC will also assist and provide technical advice to government in implementation of asset monetization program See having seen the important features of national land monetization corporation Now let us see the need for land monetization See the first is that central public sector enterprises hold a considerable surplus unused and under used non-core assets See as per the economic survey 2021-22 central public sector enterprises have approximately 3400 acres of land and other non-core assets for monetization Monetization will speed up the closure process of central public sector enterprises This is the first important need for land monetization The second is that monetization will unlock the value of such unused and underused land Here national land monetization corporation will support and undertake monetization process The third and the final need for land monetization is that the land monetization will bring Productive utilization of underutilized assets So once the underutilized assets are completely utilized it will trigger private sector investments Which means new economic activities will be created This in turn will boost local economy and generate financial resources for economic and social infrastructure So these are the three important reasons to undertake land monetization But how will the monetization process happen? There are multiple ways For example, the real estate investment trust could be used in land monetization For certain spaces like offices the real estate investment trust owns and operates a land asset And also funds income producing real estate Then the next method is through the public-private partnership model In PPP model the tasks, obligations and risks are allocated among the public and private partners in an optimal manner The public partner is the government and it contributes in the form of capital for investment and transfer of asset Plus social responsibility, environmental awareness and local knowledge On the other hand in its part the private partner will make use of its expertise in operations Managing tasks and innovation to run the business efficiently See the thing with public-private partnership model is that in some cases there could be very few bidders Few bidders will raise the issue of monopoly or duopoly What is duopoly? Duopoly means two private entities dominating the market So the national land monetization corporation will have to function keeping these issues in its mind So that's all regarding this article in this discussion or segment We saw what is asset monetization then we saw the features of asset monetization Then we saw the benefits of asset monetization Then we saw the difference between core and non-core assets After that we saw the important features of the national land monetization corporation Then we saw the need for land monetization And finally we saw the two modes of land monetization Now with this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article Look at this news article. This news article talks about the water quality of the river Ganga See the Minister of State for Water Resources claimed that Ganga River is clean enough for bathing Uncapable of supporting the river ecosystem for almost the entire stretch of the river He says this because the dissolved oxygen which is an indicator of river health was within acceptable limits of Bathing water quality criteria Also the Central Pollution Control Board in a 2021 report noted that none of the stretches of Ganga are known in the Priority category 1 to 4 that is none of the areas are under polluted area category Note that river cleaning is a continuous process So the central government assists the state governments and the urban local bodies through schemes like Namamiganga and National River Conservation Plan So in this context let us revise and recall some of the important points in Namamiganga program and National River Conservation Plan First let us start with Namamiganga program. See it is an integrated conservation mission It is approved as a flagship program by the Union government in June 2014 The budget outlay was rupees 20,000 crores the twin objectives are Effective abatement of pollution and conservation and rejuvenation of National River Ganga The main pillars of Namamiganga program include Sea wage treatment infrastructure, riverfront development, river surface cleaning, Biodiversity of forestation, public awareness, industrial effluent monitoring and Ganga Gram It is being operated under the Department of Water Resources River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation This department is under the Ministry of Jal Shakti The program is being implemented by the National Mission for Clean Ganga and its state counterpart organization is State Program Management Groups. Now, let us briefly look at the National Mission for Clean Ganga The National Mission for Clean Ganga was registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act 1860 in the year 2011. It acted as the implementation arm of National Ganga River Basin Authority This National Ganga River Basin Authority was constituted under the provisions of Environment Protection Act 1986 Note that this National Ganga River Basin Authority has been dissolved It was dissolved after the Constitution of National Council for Rejuvenation, Protection and Management of River Ganga in the year 2016 This is also referred as National Ganga Council Having seen some important points about Namavik Ganga Program and the National Mission for Clean Ganga Now, let us briefly look at National River Conservation Plan See, National River Conservation Plan was launched in the year 1995 Under this plan, the pollution control works are implemented on a cost sharing basis Yes, the cost is shared between the central and the state governments The works under this plan include collection, transportation and treatment of municipal waste Riverfront development, low-cost sanitation, electric crematoria, improved wood-based crematoria, etc Note that the prevention and control of industrial pollution is being addressed by the Central and State Pollution Control Boots The objective of National River Conservation Plan is to improve the water quality of the rivers Which are the major source of water in our country This is to be done through implementation of pollution control works That's all regarding this discussion Now, let us move on to the next article Look at this article The article says that Microsoft has partnered with Fortum, a Finnish energy company Why did Microsoft partner with the Finnish energy company? See, Microsoft has planned to build a new data center in Finland What is a data center? Data center is a building or a dedicated space within a building that is used to house computer systems In simple words, it is a large server room We are generating so much data every day, right? Where is it stored? It will be stored in such data centers Even this YouTube video that you are viewing is stored in such data center See, the data center consumes a lot of electricity Some even consume as much electricity as a small town See, on a global level, data centers consume 200 terawatt hours of electricity Which is more than 1% of world's total electricity consumption They also generate lots of heat Global security firm Kaspersky estimates over 75% of data center's electricity becomes waste heat See, this is why Microsoft has partnered with the Finnish energy firm They are planning to use this waste heat They are planning to heat homes, services and businesses in Finland With sustainable waste heat from the new data center that Microsoft is planning to build in Finland According to Microsoft, the recycled waste heat can provide clean heat to homes, businesses and public buildings in Helsinki and reduce up to 4 lakh tons of CO2 emissions annually What we can take from this article is that data centers thrive in cold climates Their location in cold climates helps to cut down on the need to cool server rooms Also, the technology companies can sell this waste heat that is generated from the data centers for heating residential buildings in cold areas This is an interesting piece of information Say there is a question in mains That asks you to list out the steps that the government can take to bring businesses to northeast India In this case, in addition to all the normal static points, you can mention about this also See, northeast India has cold climate most of the time So, data centers can be built there Except for the waste heat that the data center produces, the data centers are non-polluting So, it won't affect the pre-strain ecosystem of the northeast India So, data centers perfectly suits for the northeast region On the one hand, it will generate employment opportunities On the other hand, it will help provide heat to homes during cold climate And it will also be non-polluting in nature See, the more current and more innovative your answer, the more marks you will fetch in your mains answer So, try to use this interesting piece of information in your answers Okay, with this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article Look at this news article This article talks about a report published by Alfa Beta Alfa Beta is a strategic economics consultancy That works with governments, businesses, investors and other institutions Alfa Beta works on however society as a whole has to face societal challenges The report was commissioned by AWS, that is Amazon Web Services The report says that about 27.3 million workers representing 7% of the country's workforce will require digital skills training for their jobs over the next few years The report says that despite this huge demand for digital skilling, only 45% of employers in India have sufficient training provisions in place If this mismatch is not addressed, then India's competitiveness in such areas like productivity and innovation will be lost See, this information or this data can be used in the introduction of your mains answer to enrich your answer Say there is a question which asks you to list out the steps that the government has to take to address the looming unemployment in the post-pandemic period Instead of just writing, the government must take measures to re-skill the workforce You can say that there is a great mismatch between demand and supply in the area of digital skilling According to the report, building digital skills published by Alfa Beta See, quoting a report to support a claim will make your answer more legitimate This will differentiate your answer from the rest of the competitors So, this is how you can use the data available in the newspaper in your mains answer That is all regarding this discussion With this, let us conclude the news article discussion and take up the practice prelims questions We have two practice prelims questions today Let us see them one by one Let us take up the first question This question is in regards to asset monetization Two statements are given We have to find the incorrect statement Let us take up the first statement Asset monetization involves transfer of legal ownership See, this statement is incorrect Asset monetization only includes limited period transfer of performing assets So, at the end of the contract, the asset is transferred back to the public authority So, here the asset is not sold So, the statement one is incorrect Let us take up the second statement National land monetization corporation is approved to be set up under the national monetization pipeline See, this statement is also incorrect The national monetization pipeline is the asset monetization pipeline of central ministries and public sector entities It is aimed at tapping private sector investment for new infrastructure creation National monetization pipeline forms a baseline for the asset owning ministries for monitoring and tracking the investment performance and data on potential assets for the four-year period from financial year 2022 to 2025 But monetization through disinvestment and monetization of non-core assets have not been included in the national monetization pipeline And we know that land is a non-core asset, right? And the national land monetization corporation is interested with monetization of land So, national land monetization corporation is not under national monetization pipeline As of now So, this statement is also incorrect So, since both the statements are incorrect And the question asks us to find the incorrect statements The correct answer here is option C both 1 and 2 Now, let us take up the second question This is a very easy question and it is asked in regards to Namami Ganga program It is a two-statement question We have to find the correct statements Let us take up the first statement It is implemented under the Ministry of Jalsakthi See, this statement is correct From the discussion, we know that Namami Ganga is implemented under the Ministry of Jalsakthi Now, let us take up the second statement National Ganga Council is dissolved to form the National Ganga River Basin Authority to implement the program See, this statement is incorrect Actually, National Ganga Council was formed after the dissolution of National Ganga River Basin Authority So, statement 1 is correct and statement 2 is incorrect So, the correct answer here is option A only The main question based on today's discussion is displayed here Write the answers and post it in the comment section If you like today's video, like, comment and share it with your friends For more updates regarding UPSC preparation, subscribe to Shankar A.S. Academy YouTube channel Thank you