 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankarae's Academy. We have displayed here the list of articles taken for today's analysis and the page numbers in different editions of the newspaper. The link for the handwritten notes in the PDF format and the time stamping of the displayed articles have been provided in the description box and the time stamping and the link is also provided in the comment section for the benefit of mobile phone viewers. Now let us move on to the analysis of first news article. This news article talks about the recently released School Education Quality Index by National Institution for Transforming India. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article has been highlighted here for your reference. We know that one of the mandates of Niti Ayog is to bring outcome focus among the central ministries and also among the states. In this regard earlier on 26 June 2019, we have discussed health index. On that day, we also discussed about the first and second editions of the reports titled as Healthy States Progressive India. Today's news is with respect to the report recently released by Niti Ayog. This is titled as the success of our school's School Education Quality Index. See this is the first edition of such an index being released by Niti Ayog with respect to School Education Quality. This index ranks the states and union territories with respect to two things, one the overall performance in 2016-17 and change in performance in 2016-17 with respect to 2015-16. That means the reference year is 2016-17 and the year for comparison or the base year is 2015-16. The report mentions that of the states and union territories, one state that is the state of West Bengal did not participate in this round of assessment. So this index was developed primarily to evaluate the performance of states and union territories in the school education sector so that these states and union territories can identify their strengths and their weaknesses in various domains in the education sector and take required corrective actions or required course corrections or required policy interventions to rectify the issues that are there. So at the end of the day, the index will help to bring an outcome-oriented education policy. We saw about ranking of states based on this index. See one of the mandates of Nithya Yoke is to foster the spirit of competitive and cooperative federalism. Here by this index, the Nithya Yoke promotes healthy competition among states for mutual development in education sector. So therefore there will be sharing of knowledge and sharing of best practices among the states and union territories. So at the end of the day, this index is a measure of overall effectiveness, quality and efficiency of Indian school education system. This index provides scores to the states from 0 to 100 percent, 100 percent being the high score or the best score. So for the purpose of this index, they have classified the school education quality into two categories. One, outcomes, then governance processes aiding outcomes. In the outcomes category, there are four domains, learning outcomes, access outcomes, infrastructure and facilities for outcomes, then equity outcomes. With respect to governance processes aiding outcomes, we have student and teacher attendance, teacher availability, administrative adequacy, training for teachers and training for students and accountability and transparency. See these are some of the processes with respect to governance that will help in bringing required outcomes. So this index was developed through a collaborative process by including Ministry of Human Resource and Development, the World Bank and subject experts with respect to the field of education with respect to the education sector. So here we can observe that the highest weightage to the tune of around 71 percent has been given to the first category, the outcomes category. If you see here of the total weight of 965 points, you can find 685 points being dedicated to the first category. We should note here, originally when they have decided to bring this index, they thought of having 33 indicators with 1000 points as total weightage. However, because of lack of availability of certain data, they have finalized it to 30 indicators with 965 points for total weightage. If you take the domains, here we can find the lowest weightage has been given to infrastructure and facilities for outcomes. This index ranks states with respect to like to like comparison. That means there will be three categories, one large states, two small states, then union territories. A larger state will be compared with another large state. A small state will be compared with another small state. We saw the reference here was 2016-17, therefore Jammu and Kashmir was considered as a state in this report and in this index. So there are 21 large states, 8 small states, 7 union territories. So what are these 8 small states? One of the smaller states in India is Goa and other than Goa, 7 states in this small states are from northeast India. So the northeastern region except the state of Assam, if you see they are in this small states category. So among the large states, Kerala is the top performer with the overall performance score of 76.6 percentage and Uttar Pradesh is the least performer within the large states with the score of 36.4 percent. Here rather than seeing the percentage what we have to find is that the quality of education in lowest performing large state is less than half of the quality of education in the top performing large state. So by this we can conclude that there is a huge difference in the quality of education across the country that is there is a huge disparity. And some of the other good performing states are Rajasthan, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, some of the low performing large states are Jammu, Kashmir, Punjab and Bihar. There are various reasons for their low performance. We saw there are two categories. Some states may be performing very well in the first category. Now they have to take care of the second category and vice versa. That is those states that are performing well in the second category has to work more to improve their scores in the first category. Anyway we should note one thing since the weightage for the first category is higher than the second category. So those states and unit territories who are performing well in the first category will be able to have the high score in this assessment. So we saw four domains with respect to the first category of outcomes. Now let's come to the one category called as equity outcomes. Here if you see most of the large states have a score of around 60% that is not satisfactory because we require higher level of equity outcome source to ensure that children from all background, children from all sections of society to get same quality of education. And with respect to equity outcome and with respect to access outcomes, the top performer was the state of Tamil Nadu. Here in equity outcome if you see the indicators, these indicators include comparing the performance or comparing the learning outcomes of students from belonging to schedule class schedule tribes and OBC category with the learning outcomes of students belonging to general category. Here for performance they will take language and mathematics. And there will be another indicator will be comparing the performance of girls versus boys. Another indicator is for facilities for differently able children, provision for girls toilet in schools. These are some of the indicators to measure equity outcomes. Then with respect to access outcomes the indicators were with respect to enrollment, with respect to rate of transition to higher classes, with respect to percentage of out of school children who are mainstreamed into school. Now this is important because say for example there is a village with population with school going children numbering around 100, but there is no school nearby therefore the enrollment ratio will be less. So it deals with access. Similarly, there is rate of transition to higher classes. This is also connected to access. This is because a village may be having a primary school but not a high school or higher secondary school. So as a result among other factors these children may not join class 6 to 8 or may not join class 9 to 10 because of non availability of school infrastructure. So this is also connected with access outcomes. And with respect to learning outcomes, Karnataka was the top performer. Here for learning outcome they will have the indicator for performance of students in language and mathematics among class 3, class 5 and class 8. And then the other categories, category of infrastructure and facilities for outcomes. Here they will be the indicators will be with respect to having computer labs, having libraries and the provision of vocational education. So with respect to this indicator, the top performer is Haryana. So among the small states, Manipur is the better performer with the score of 68.8% as the overall performance score. And the Arunachal Pradesh was the least performer. The score was just 24.6. And among unit territories, Chandigarh was the best performer with the score of 82.9. And the Lakshadweep was the least performer with the score of around 32. Here we have to note one thing. If you put all the states and unit territories together, best performer with respect to overall performance score is Chandigarh with the overall score of 82.9%. And all states and unit territories put together, the lowest performer is Arunachal Pradesh. The news article mentions that the central government has planned to collaborate with the World Bank so as to offer performance-linked grants as incentives for the states that have scored very good performance score. This will definitely lead to healthy competition because other states will also improve their scores to get access for such incentives and recognition. This report was largely based on data from National Achievement Survey of 2017-18 and unified district information on school education data of 2016-17 and few other data as provided by the state governments. Here when we say National Achievement Survey, this survey is conducted by National Council for Educational Research and Training, that is NCRT, to assess the learning levels of students in classes three, five, and eight. This National Achievement Survey was done in government and government-aided schools. The survey was carried out in the year 2017 in the month of November. Then this unified district information system for education is a database about schools that is maintained by Ministry of Human Resource and Development. So these are some of the information with respect to the analysis of this news article. Now let us move on to next article. In this editorial article, the author discusses about the unemployment situation in India and also the reasons for the unemployment condition. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article has been highlighted here for your reference. We know presently unemployment is a big or undying problem in our country. According to the periodic labor force survey, the unemployment rate in the country is 6.1 percentage. This periodic labor force survey was carried out in the year 2017-18. This was released by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in May 2019. So what do we mean when we say unemployment rate? See unemployment rate is defined as the percentage of unemployed persons in the labor force. It is not the percentage of unemployed persons among the entire population of the country. So what do we mean when we say labor force? Labor force means it consists of persons who are either working or who are persons seeking work or those persons who are available for work. So of this labor force, the percentage of unemployed persons denotes the unemployment rate. So in this labor force, the persons who are working, they are called as employed individuals and those persons who are not working but seeking work or those persons who are available for work, they are called as unemployed persons. Some experts are telling that this unemployment rate of 6.1% is the highest in the last 45 years. So that means it was not the case earlier. So there was a time when the unemployment rate was very low. See this table. If you notice the period from 1993 to 2003, overall you can say that the unemployment rate was either below 2% or around 2%. But now it is 6.1%. So in this editorial, the author discusses about the reasons or factors that are responsible for this sudden increase in unemployment rate in our country. See according to the author, in 2018 there were around 47.15 crore persons who are employed and around 3 crore persons were unemployed. The center or the root of this unemployment problem in our country is young people. See of the 30.9 million persons who are unemployed or the 3.09 crore persons who are unemployed, around 21.1 million persons or unemployed young men aged between 15 to 29 years. That means 68.3% of all the unemployed persons in the country are persons in the age group of 15 to 29. That is why the author mentions the center or root of this unemployment problem in India is young people. See this is a very high percentage. 68.3% is a very high percentage. So to understand the increase in unemployment rate or the increase in unemployment, the author examines the behavior of labor demand and labor supply with respect to time. Firstly, according to the author, the size of labor supply in India is rapidly increasing. And why there is rapid increase in labor supply? This is because rapid expansion in the working age population in the country. Between 2000 to 2010, that is in 2000s, the population of 15 year to 59 year old persons, this population has increased at the rate of around 1.4 crore every year. So this rapid expansion in working age population contributed to the increased labor supply. Secondly, if you see, there is a change in the nature of labor supply. The nature of labor supply changes with respect to the nature of education. We can see an increase in enrollment of young adults who are aged between 15 to 29 years in education. So their job aspiration is also increasing based on the level of education. In 2018, among 15 to 29 year old female population in our country, 31% they had been attending schools or colleges. Way back in 2005, this number was only 16.3%. So we can see a visible increase in the enrollment of young people, especially young females in education. That means these women will aspire for better jobs based on their education. So this has changed the nature of labor supply in the country. Thirdly, the author talks about the size of workforces engaged in agriculture and allied activities. The author states that the size engaged in agriculture and allied activities has been declining in 2005. The workforce engaged in agriculture and allied activities is around 25.8 crore or 258.8 million. In 2018, if you see, there were only 19.7 crore or 197.3 million engaged in agriculture and allied activities. So what are the reasons for this decline in the number of persons engaged in agriculture and allied activities, say from 2005 to 2018? First, the author talks about push factor. That is, according to the author, to some extent, this decline is due to push factor or because of pressure from the agriculture and allied activities, say, for example, low productivity. So many are opting for non-agricultural sector jobs. So for example, jobs in construction, jobs in trade and jobs in services. Next reason with respect to decline in number of persons engaging in agriculture and allied activities is the pull factor. New opportunities in non-agricultural sectors are pulling these persons. And the push factor is aggravating the intensity of pull factor. New opportunities are coming in towns and cities. So many persons are opting jobs in non-agricultural sectors. They are moving from agricultural sector or rural area to urban areas where they could find industries or where they could find jobs with respect to services. Then the author talks about one another reason for the decline that we see with respect to the involvement of people in the agricultural sector and allied activities. The author is saying that a significant number of people who are in employed category in official statistics may be in disguised unemployment in agriculture. Now let's see what is disguised unemployment. This disguised unemployment is also called as hidden unemployment. It refers to segment of population who are not employed at their fullest capacity. Or we can say people are employed but not in a very efficient way. For example, you consider a person who has no job but the person occasionally engages and assists in cultivation along with this family. So this may appear or it may look like the person is employed but his employment is not totally productive. This is because the production will not suffer even if he is not there for supporting the family in cultivation. Economic experts say that these are persons who are employed physically but are not employed economically. So these persons may be there for certain period of time say for example one year assisting in cultivation as we saw in our example. And they may be considered as employed in the official statistics but these persons will not stay there. They will definitely move from disguised unemployment in agriculture to other sectors. So the young persons in rural areas they will be keen to exit the disguised unemployment in agriculture and they will move to non-agricector jobs. So once they move from this disguised unemployment to other sectors then the number of employed persons in the statistics will come down. So therefore there will be a decline in number of persons in agriculture and allied activities. So because of all these reasons we could see one thing there is a significant increase in the supply of potential workers for non-agricultural sectors. So this means many of the persons belonging to 15 to 59 year age category they are not students and they are also not involved in agriculture. They want to be employed in non-agricultural sector that means there is a huge labor supply and within this population there is a problem that they do not have required skill to be engaged in non-agricultural sector. At the end they become unemployed. So if they are provided and trained with required and relevant skills they can possibly work in industry you know construction or in services sector. These are some of the points with respect to labor supply. In the next two part of the editorial the author discusses about the labor demand and how the labor demand is proportional to the job challenge in our country. See according to the author between 2005 to 2012 the major source of employment in our country is the construction sector. Those who left agriculture in rural areas they ended up taking construction and related jobs. Between 2005 to 2012 if you see the new employment opportunities in construction sector the number is 18.9 million jobs but if you see the period between 2012 to 2018 this number of opportunities has declined to just 1.6 million jobs. See earlier it was 1.89 crore now it is just 16 lakhs. That is the number of new employment opportunities was around 1.89 crore in the period 2005 to 2012 but for the period 2012 to 2018 it was just 16 lakh jobs. Then the author talks about the mismatch between labor supply and labor demand and how it escalated after 2012. If you see the period from 2005 to 2012 the job creation in industry construction and services was inadequate. In one year the job creation was 6.3 million whereas the job seekers were 14.2 million in one particular year. This was for the period 2005 to 2012. So anyway we can say the job created was inadequate to absorb the increase in job seekers in these sectors. But if you see the period between 2012 to 2018 the supply of potential workers in non-agricultural sectors increased to 17.5 million per year but the job creation was just 4.5 million per year or the actual labor absorption in these sectors was decreased to just 4.5 million per year. Huge mismatch between the number of jobs created and the number of job seekers. So here we can say that the mismatch between supply of labor and labor demand has escalated after 2012. And because of the demand supply and because of the labor supply and labor demand mismatch for the period 2005 to 2012 only women suffered. But after 2012 young men were also affected. The author is saying that after 2012 men in the age category of 30 to 59 year they have managed to secure around 90% of all new non-agricultural employment opportunities between 2012 to 2018. As a result of these persons grabbing the opportunities very few new jobs were left for women and younger men. And because of the inadequate number of new jobs women stopped participating in the labor force. We can see it in 2018 data out of 15 to 59 year old women in our country only 23% were employed in the year 2018. Way back in 2005 this number was 43% around 43%. That is in 2005, 42.8% of women were employed. Now it is just 23%. But if you see the case with respect to young men there were very few new jobs but that resulted into greater number of job seekers. Among the men aged between 15 to 29 years there is an unprecedented increase in the number of unemployed persons. In 2012 the unemployed men were around 6.7 million but this has increased to 21.1 million in 2018 as we saw in the beginning. We saw the number 68.3% of all the unemployed persons in the country are aged between 15 to 29. And according to the author the number of job seekers among the young men was the main contributor to the sudden increase in the overall unemployment rate in the country. So there is lack of job opportunity. There is a challenge in creating decent jobs for growing young population and there is increase in number of unemployed persons and there is also increase in unemployment rate. So to tackle these issues the author gives some suggestions as conclusion. He proposes to create investments in human capital. It could be with respect to education, with respect to health, with respect to training and skill development, etc. And then there has to be revival of the productive sectors in the economy so that these sectors can create new jobs. And the author also suggests introducing new programs that will stimulate small entrepreneurship so that these people who are presently unemployed will start new businesses and they will not remain as unemployed. So overall the author discusses the unemployment rate of 6.1% in the perspective of labor supply and labor demand. With this we come to the end of the analysis of this editorial article. Now let us move on to next article. This news article is with respect to the fact that current account deficit is shrinking during the first quarter of the present financial year. Here when we say first quarter it means April to June months of the financial year, 2019, 2020. The syllabus that is relevant for the analysis of this news article has been highlighted here for your reference. So in the analysis of this news article we will see about current account, its various components and factors that influence current account and we will see the methods of representation of current account that is used by RBI and in the end we will also see the challenges that may lead to worsening of current account situation. We'll see these things with respect to our demand for the prelims and mains exam. In simple terms we can say that current account measures the difference between the value of net imports and the value of net exports of goods and services of a country in one financial year. If the current account balance is a negative that means there is current account deficit. This means that the imports of goods and services are more than the exports of goods and services in a financial year. So in prelims point of view the various components of current account are very important. So to understand better let's look at the methods of representing the components of current account as used by RISO Bank of India. In one way of representation current account has two major components. One is net merchandise and the other is net invisibles. Net merchandise refers to the net balance of exports and imports with respect to goods. Here goods may refer to passenger vehicles, hardware and POL that is petroleum, oil, lubricants and other goods. If we have to talk about net invisibles it mainly includes three subcomponents that are services, transfers and income. Services include software services, travel services, insurance services and for transfers it include remittances. Remittances means the transactions between residents and non-residents with respect to our country. Inflow of remittances means Indian citizens who are not residing in India but sending money to India that is to their relatives in India from abroad. Outflow of remittances may be those persons who are not Indian citizens but staying in India sending money from India their relatives abroad. Now in case of income subgroup or subcomponent it includes investment income that is income that is received as profits or interest or dividends from various kinds of investments. So why these are called as invisibles because they are not as visible as goods or merchandise goods. Goods are tangible whereas these are invisibles. Now let's see one another method of representation of current account by RISO Bank of India. If you see here current account has four major components they are goods, services, primary income and secondary income. Here net goods is a similar to net merchandise as we saw in the previous method. That is net balance of exports and imports of goods and we should note one thing within the component of goods there is petroleum, oil, lubricants. This is significant because POL component itself is having a significant proportion in the goods component. For example, if you see the first quarter of the present financial year out of 46 billion dollars of deficit in goods account around 23 billion dollars deficit is because of POL. That means 50% of the deficit in goods account in current account in quarter one of financial year 2019, 2020 is because of POL. The service component includes travel services, transport services, software services, financial services and other services. Now let's see the difference between primary income and secondary income with respect to India. Primary income here refers to income received from investors, profits, interests, dividends from various kinds of investments. In secondary income here it includes remittances that is the transfer between residents and non-residents as we have seen earlier. In previous method remittances came under net invisibles. Here it comes under secondary income. Here we have to note that with respect to India net primary income is outward whereas secondary income is inward or inflow. This means the value of primary income coming into India is lesser than the value of primary income leaving India. The value of remittances coming to India from abroad is greater than the value of remittances leaving India to other countries. Now let us see the current account trend of quarter one of financial year 2020. If you see the data pertaining to quarter one it shows better indication of current account deficit. This is because in the first quarter of last financial year that is 2018, 2019 the current account deficit was about 2.3% of GDP. The value was at that time around $15.86 billion. Now in case of quarter one of present financial year it has reduced to 2% of GDP and this reduction in quarter one is mainly because of higher net invisibles. And at that time they expected there will be more primary income outflow but the primary income outflow was lower than expected outflows and there was better secondary income inflows. That is there was more remittances that came to India and at that time the crude oil prices were moderate during the first quarter. So these are some of the factors that contributed to the reduction in the current account deficit. So is it all well with respect to current account deficit? Yes or no? See we cannot simply say either yes or no. This is mainly because of presently we are having certain challenges with respect to increase in gold prices. The more the gold imports the consequent impact we can feel in the current account with respect to deficit. And there is also higher component of petroleum POL component. There is also higher POL that is petroleum oil and lubricant. We have to see this in the context of vegetation tensions particularly among Iran, Saudi Arabia and also among Iran and United States and also with respect to the recent drone attack in the oil fields and oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia. And there will be impacts because of global trade wars. Say for example there is a trade war between US and China and as a result US increases import duty for goods that are coming from all developing countries. And consequent impact will also be faced by India as well. So as we saw increase in fuel prices all these things are now seen as challenges that are making us difficult to sustain the favorable current account deficit. So monitoring this current account deficit is not just a dynamic requirement for the government but also for the civil service aspirants. Have a look at these practice questions we'll be discussing in the last session. Now let's move on to the analysis of next news article. This news article is with respect to the excavation of a old dried up river in Prayagraj. The news article mentions that the Union Water Ministry that is the ministry of Chalsakthi has excavated this river in Prayagraj. They are saying that this old river linked the Ganga and Yamuna rivers. This is the finding which was part of a geophysical survey carried out by National Geophysical Research Institute and Central Ground Water Board when they carried out the research in December 2018. See this National Geophysical Research Institute and Central Ground Water Board they have conducted this survey with the support of ministry of Chalsakthi or under the ages or backing of ministry of Chalsakthi. In the newspaper you can find being written as CSIR-NGRI. This is because National Geophysical Research Institute is a constituent research laboratory of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. That is why they have mentioned in this manner. This geophysical survey was actually a helicopter-borne geophysical survey that covered Prayagraj and Kaushambhi region of Uttar Pradesh. One of the findings of this survey is that is the discovery of a buried paleo channel that joins Yamuna River at Durgapur village. This paleo channel is roughly 26 kilometer south of the present Ganga-Yamuna Sangam at Prayagraj. When we say Sangam, it's nothing but the confluence of Ganga and Yamuna at Prayagraj. Confluence means the junction of two rivers, meeting point of two rivers. Scientists are calling this paleo channel as an ancient buried river. They are saying this river is around four kilometer wide, 45 kilometer long or length, and approximately 15 meter thick. Or at that time it might have carried water to the depth of 15 meters. At present, this river is buried under 10 to 15 meter deep from the surface. Scientists are saying that 40 to 50% of the volume of the river can be used as groundwater reserve storage by having a managed aquifer recharge. This means that the buried paleo channel can be converted as groundwater reserves. This can be done by diverting the surface runoff that comes as a result of rainfall through a managed aquifer recharge structure. That is this paleo channel will be recharged using the surface runoff that comes as a result of rainfall. An aquifer is nothing but an underground layer of rock that holds groundwater. So what is a paleo channel? See, these are the remnants of rivers or streams that were once active. In simple words, we can say this channel is no longer part of an active river system and has stopped to be a channel of water for the active river. Some of the channels lie buried under the cover of younger sediments. Scientists are saying that paleo channels commonly occur in alluvial landscapes. They're saying that even though the available paleo channel has been cut off from the active river flow, they still remain as a part of flow regime of the active river. So when we say flow regime, it means the pattern of seasonal flow of water in a river. And every paleo channel will have its own age. So depending on the age of this channel in the large alluvial landscape, some channels could be the products of different flow regimes in the past. That is one period of time, it could have carried water belonging to a particular river. Maybe in totally different time period, it could have carried water from totally different river. These channels could be products of different flow regimes in the past. Therefore, they are saying that these paleo channels, they provide evidence for river transformation. They also provide evidence for future changes in the flow regimes of previously active river or even the paleo channel itself. From this, we can know about river adjustments and also the development of river outside the catchment area. If at all, there is a possibility. These paleo channels, they have economic significance. This is because of their use with respect to exploring the freshwater resources and that they can be used as artificial recharge and that they can be used for the purpose of storage of groundwater. In addition to this, they are also helpful and playing a very important role in locating and assessment of mineral deposits. Say for example, gold, silver and other deposits. And they are saying that with our growing need for water for variety of purposes, paleo channels can give a good direction because they are rich repositories of groundwater. And it is also proved that they also act as a dependable source of water supply in many parts of the world. And in India, particularly in the dry western part of our country in the regions of Haryana, southern Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat, they have identified numerous paleo channels and they have dug a lot of exploratory wells in these states to establish extensive networks of surface water and buried paleo channels. And this is because the buried paleo channels, they have potential water bearing aquifers in multiple groups. And they are also saying that the quality of groundwater in these paleo channels is generally good. And it is being said that aggregate length of paleo channels in parts of Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat is more than 2200 kilometer. And water is available in many of these paleo channels that can be a promising source in times of water deficiency. Almost all of these paleo channels can be artificially recharged with water. Maybe one source could be from surface runoff coming as a result of rainwater. Therefore, these paleo channels, they can hold substantial amount of water and therefore they will act as storage reservoirs for groundwater resources. That is why the ancient buried river discovered by scientists will also be used as a groundwater reserve storage. How to understand about the groundwater component of these rivers? They are saying that these groundwater component tend to change their course, however, more slowly. Their location can be traced through lidar mapping. When we say lidar, it means light detection and ranging. It's one of the remote sensing method that is the remote sensors that are located so remote or so far away from the object. They collect data by detecting the energy that is reflected from the object. Here the object will be the earth, earth surface. So these sensors could be on satellites or they could be mounted on aircrafts. The lidar determines the distance to the object. Generally they do it by transmitting a laser beam at the object and by measuring the time taken by the beam to return to the transmitter. They're saying usually the beam is transmitted from an aeroplane. These reflected beams with the other data that is recorded, they give precise 3D information about the shape of the earth and also its surface and subsurface characteristics. This lidar systems also allow scientists and mapping professionals so as to examine both natural and man-made environments with accuracy, precision and flexibility. It is using this system of lidar, the scientists have also found out this paleo channel and they are also going to find the further course of this channel using lidar. So according to the news article, the next phase of this project, paleo channel project will involve tracking of the channel in the northwestward direction. They will also prepare a 3D sediment map so as to figure out how the channel is connected to existing aquifers and also to develop the channel as a groundwater storage system. The sediment map is expected to give some vital information with respect to the processes undergone by the channel and also the link of the channel with respect to presently available aquifers. So these are some of the information with respect to the analysis of this news article. You can take two points, paleo channels or the remnants or remains of rivers or streams that were once active and paleo channels commonly occur in alluvial landscapes. We saw some of the economic benefits and other useful purposes of the paleo channels. We saw about light detection and ranging and the role of lidar in finding this paleo channel as a part of this project. Now let us move on to next news article. This news article talks about the appointment of new chairman of armed forces tribunal. Recently, the Chief Justice of India has recommended to the president to appoint former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court as the next chairman of armed forces tribunal. The incumbent or the present chairperson is set to retire on 6th October, 2019. The news article mentions that the central government has informed the Supreme Court that it will be appointing the recommended person as the chair of armed forces tribunal. This the government has informed through the Attorney General of India. You should note that Attorney General of India is the chief legal advisor to government of India and article 76 of Indian constitution deals with Attorney General of India. So what is a tribunal? See, generally a tribunal is established for the purpose of discharging quasi-judicial duties. There are several tribunals in India, say for example, central administrative tribunal, national green tribunal. Similarly, armed forces tribunal is one such tribunal. And this is a statutory body established based on the Armed Forces Tribunal Act of 2007. Now this tribunal has the power to adjudicate with respect to disputes, with respect to complaints in relation to commission of defense personnel, appointments of defense personnel, enrollments and conditions of service of defense personnel. So the jurisdiction includes those persons who are covered under the Army Act of 1950, the Navy Act of 1957 and the Air Force Act of 1950. The members covered under these legislations are coming under the jurisdiction of armed forces tribunal. This armed forces tribunal do not cover the Coast Guard or paramilitary forces or central armed forces. And this tribunal also has the power to look into appeals. These appeals may be arising because of, you know, certain orders or certain findings or sentences of court marshals that are held under the three legislations. See, court marshals is a military court for the members of armed forces, according to the Army Act or the Navy Act or the Air Force Act. This tribunal will transact its proceedings based on armed forces tribunal rules of 2008. And they are saying that all proceedings of this tribunal will be English and the practice or the procedure that is followed in the tribunal will be as it is followed in the high courts of India. The principal bench of armed forces tribunal is in New Delhi. However, it also has eight regional benches across our country. So now let us see the qualifications of members with respect to the tribunal. See, it has a chairperson. The chairperson shall either be a retired judge of Supreme Court or a retired chief justice of a high court. This is about chairperson. And there will be judicial members and admin members. The judicial members are retired high court judges. Administrative members are retired members of armed forces who have held the rank of major general or equivalent rank in the armed forces or above for a period of three years or more. Say for example, for Army person to be appointed as admin member, he or she has to be retired members should have held the rank of major general or above at least for a period of three years. And one another criteria is there to become an admin member in this tribunal. That is a judge advocate general with at least one year of service. He or she can also become an administrative member. See, this judge advocate general department is the legal arm of military forces. There is a judge advocate general for Army, a separate judge advocate general for Navy and also for Air Force. Their primary function is to provide legal help and also legal advice to the armed forces, particularly with respect to court marshals. So now let us discuss the appointment procedure in this armed forces tribunal. See, according to this armed forces tribunal act of 2007, the chairperson and other members shall be appointed by the president of India after consultation with the chief justice of India. The general term of the chairperson and members is four years. They can be removed by the president on the grounds of crude misbehavior or incapacity, provided there is an inquiry by a sitting judge of Supreme Court. The salary alone and terms of conditions of the chairperson and members of armed forces tribunal, these are prescribed by the central government. So these are some of the information with respect to the analysis of this news article. Note that he's appointed by the president after the consultation with the chief justice of India. With this, we come to the end of the analysis of this news article. We have come to the last session, the practice questions discussion session. The first question is with reference to the school education quality index. They have given two statements and are asking which of the above statements are correct. Now the first statement, its important domains are learning outcomes, access outcomes, infrastructure and facility for outcomes and equity outcomes. Today we saw that for the assessment purposes, there are two categories. One is outcomes, then the second one is governance processes, aiding outcomes. So here in the first category of outcomes, there are four domains. So all the four domains are mentioned in the first statement. Therefore, the first statement is correct. In the second statement, it is released by Nithya Yog. Now this statement is also correct. However, for the preparation and assessment purposes, the work was done in a collaborative mode with the support from ministry of human resource and development and also World Bank and other experts from education sector. We also saw that why these indices, why these reports are released by Nithya Yog? See, one of the mandate of Nithya Yog is to bring outcome focus among the central ministries and also among the states. So in this question, both the statements are correct. Therefore, the correct answer for this question is, option C, both one and two. Now this question is with reference to the components of current account. They have given net goods, net services, net primary and secondary income, net FDI, net foreign direct investment. During our discussion, we saw clearly the various components of current account in two methods of representation by Rousseau Bank of India. Net goods is there, net services there, net primary and secondary income is there, but there is no net FDI. This is because foreign direct investment is a component of capital account, not current account. Therefore, the answers below should not have number four. So the correct answer for this question is, option C, one, two and three. The term paleo-channel, recently seen in news, is related to which among the following. Firstly, they are saying period between Cretaceous period and Jurassic period. So this is not the answer for this question. See, the Triassic period was the first period of Misozoic era and this Triassic period occurred between 251 million years and 199 million years ago. So when Triassic period is the first period, so what is the second period in the Misozoic era? That is Jurassic period. So this occurred from 199 million years ago to 145 million years ago, approximately. Jurassic period followed Triassic period of the Misozoic era. After the Jurassic period, we could see Cretaceous period. This Cretaceous period was the last and the longest segment of Misozoic era. They are saying it lasted for approximately 79 million years. So in Misozoic era, there is Triassic period, Jurassic period and Cretaceous period. Now coming to the second option, they are saying this is a recently discovered largest flying animal. Now this option is also not correct because the recently discovered largest flying animal is Cyrodragon Boreus. The correct answer for this question is option C, remnants of once active reverse. Now this question is with reference to Armed Forces Tribunal. They have given two statements and are asking which of the statements above are correct. First statement, it's chairperson and members are appointed by the president after consulting the Chief Justice of India. This statement is correct and it is based on the Armed Forces Tribunal Act of 2007. Now the second statement, it has jurisdiction over Indian Coast Guard. Now this statement is wrong because it has jurisdiction over the persons covered under the Army Act, the Navy Act and the Air Force Act. Indian Coast Guard does not come under the ambit of these legislations. Therefore the correct answer for this question is option A, one only. Now this is a main question. Racing unemployment rate is one of the major problems in our country. Discuss the changing trends in labor supply and demand in the context of the above statement. Now in the beginning, you can define unemployment rate and then you can discuss the latest unemployment rate which is 6.1% for the year 2017-2018. See unemployment rate is the percentage of unemployed persons in the labor force. You need not focus on the line. Raising unemployment rate is one of the major problems in our country. This line is a distraction. The main question is, discuss the changing trends in labor supply and demand in the context of above statement. So with respect to labor supply, you can mention the increase in size of labor supply. You can mention the changing nature of labor supply. You can mention the decline in workforce who engage in agriculture and allied activities. For these points, you can take the data from the today's editorial article. And we also saw that these factors contribute to the increase in labor supply to the non-agricultural sector. However, we found that many of the people in this labor supply lack the required skill to be employed in non-agriculture sector that results into unemployment. And with respect to labor demand, you can mention the declining opportunities in non-agricultural sectors, particularly in construction, industry, and services sector. So we saw during the analysis that there is a mismatch between the number of jobs created and the number of job seekers. We saw what is the difference with respect to different time periods. And we can also say how this affected women and young men and how it has contributed to unemployment. And at the end, you can save two, three suggestions with respect to tackling this problem. You can take points from this editorial article or from the editorial article or you can give your own suggestions. We saw with respect to investing in human capital, reviving the productive sectors in the economy and present for the purpose of creating new jobs and also introducing new programs so as to stimulate small entrepreneurship so that people will start their new businesses rather than being unemployed. So these are some of the points that you could use for the answer rating of this main question. And you would be answering relevant for this question provided you give appropriate data to project the changing trends that we exactly discussed during the analysis. Now again, this is also a main question. Discuss the difference between primary income and secondary income components of current account. Analyze the factors influencing the current account deficit and also the challenges in order to maintain or sustain favorable current account deficit for India. For this question, you first define what is meant by current account. Then you provide the difference between primary income and secondary income. In the second part of the question, you analyze various factors that we have discussed during the analysis. Say for example, higher net invisibles, lower primary income outflow and better secondary income inflows. These are some of the factors that influence current account deficit. And we also saw the challenges with respect to petroleum, oil and lubricant and the present waste station tensions and their contribution to increase in fuel prices and the impacts or the effects because of global trade wars. And also we also saw the increase in gold prices. These are some of the factors or challenges that we face in order to sustain a favorable current account deficit for India. You can conclude this question with a positive note that if you take the look at the quarter one of present financial year, there are favorable conditions for current account deficit for India because we saw that with respect to quarter one of financial year 2018, there is shrink in the current account deficit. However, we require vigilant in the context of rising new challenges in the global scenario. With this, we have come to the end of today's The Hindu News Analysis. If you like the video, click the like button, comment, share and subscribe to Shankaray's Academy YouTube channel for more updates and content on civil service exam preparation. Thank you.