 A very good evening aspirants, welcome to Hindu News Analysis brought to you by Shankar IIS Academy. Today is 16th of February 2022. The list of articles we are going to discuss today is displayed on the screen. You can go through it. Let's start our discussion. Look at this news article. This news article talks about the schools which are remaining closed in India. Know that India has achieved the distinction of being second largest COVID-19 pandemic linked school closure in the world. Here Uganda stood at first place. See the schools are closed despite the fact that the scientific evidences supports a complete reopening. Note that the closure of school causes learning loss. Hence analyzing the root causes of school closure in India is an urgent need. This is needed to derive lessons and to guide future policy interventions. So in this context let's discuss the reason for continued school closure as mentioned in the article. Also we will discuss about the approach mentioned in the article which is called peri approach. See regarding this approach that is the peri approach you can use it in your mains examination. So kindly pay attention. The syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference. You can go through it. So before starting look at this question. This was asked in mains examination 2020. This is related to the education system in the country. See the education and the education system is one of the hardest topic in UPSC mains exam. One or the other year the questions related to the education system have been asked in the mains exam. So the points which you are going to discuss today in this article will be helpful in your mains preparation. Now coming back to the article according to the World Bank Education Director. Learning poverty in India is expected to increase from 55 percentage to 70 percentage due to learning loss. Also it is due to more out of school children. See this learning loss is increased by closure of school. If you want to know more about learning poverty I request the viewers to watch our Hindu news analysis on 19 January 2021 where we have discussed in detail about the learning poverty under the topic freedom of schools. Now here let's see the reasons for continued school closure. See the first reason is the widespread misinformation. For example see look at the statements such as the third wave would affect the children and let's wait for the vaccination of kids before reopening schools. These are all a kind of misinformation. See these statements don't have any proof or in other words they are not substantiated. But these statements got amplified on social media. Also many television channels made these statements on loop. We know that right. This is to sensationalize the matter which in turn boosted their TRP. But the ones who are affected here are the vulnerable parents who are scared of their children being hospitalized. This is because they believe in all this misinformation and all these are harming the unfortunate children. See the second reason is the opinion of a small section of privileged parents and a self proclaimed representatives of their association. See they do this often without fully understanding the complexity of the issues because the poor and middle class parents wanted the schools to be open. Here it includes poor and middle class parents from any part of the country and these are indicated in many surveys also. Now the major problem here is that these section of parents were largely ignored in decision making. Here also they are influenced through newspaper reports and high-pitched TV debates. In all these debates only the privileged parents are the experts spoke. Thus they deprive the children of their opportunity and right to education. And the unfortunate factor is that these children are from poor and marginalised background. Now the third reason is the delay of government's response because government's response was arguably insufficient. The communication from the government did not match the pace of misinformation that is the widespread misinformation is not counted by the government effectively. Also the government did not engage with all the stakeholders for regaining trust. Now the next reason is that there was no planning and discussion on the need to reopen schools. See this situation remained even after many months after the initial closure of schools. To be precise the author mentions that in early January 2021 when India had almost declared victory over COVID-19 pandemic there was very little discussion and urgency to reopen schools. Now let's see few impacts of this closure of schools as mentioned by the author. Firstly the closure of schools has had the worst impact on children who are already at disadvantage. Secondly the learnings during the pandemic have been wrongly equated with the completion of the syllabus. See even parents started to believe that learning laws can be addressed by having their wards attend extra classes or throw online ed tech solutions. Thus in India 80% of children aged between 14 to 18 years reported lower level of learning than when physically at school. Now to address all these issues we will briefly discuss about a structured approach called PERI approach. Here PERI means prepare, engage, re-imagine and innovate. Firstly prepare here means preparation for the continuity of school education. See here every state needs to develop a roadmap, strategies and a plan to prevent avoidable disruptions. See even when the pandemic winds down COVID-19 cases will continue to be reported. Occasionally there could be a rise in coronavirus cases in various setting. Therefore every state needs to develop a roadmap, strategies and a plan to prevent avoidable disruptions. And the objective criteria for school closure needs to be developed. And such a decision should be implemented in a decentralized manner at the block level or the district level. See the impact of COVID-19 on children should be looked in the perspective of hospitalization. But why? See the risk of hospitalization of children due to dengue malaria or diarrhea is far greater than with COVID-19. So the author asked if we do not close schools for those conditions why we need to do it for COVID-19. And in the approach that is a PERI approach the second term here is engage which means to engage with key stakeholders including parents and raise awareness about the importance of in-person education and the concept of holistic child development. See this is mainly to counter any misinformation and to bring learning on track because learning as well as nutrition laws has been maximum for younger children. Thirdly in the approach the letter R denotes re-imagine which means re-imagine every first set of school functioning such as improved ventilation and blended learning methods because when we follow COVID protocols and ensure the environment is good for the children trust will be created in the minds of parents. See already children from many poor and marginalized community have dropped out of schools. Now the risk is that these children may be pulled into child labor and other paid and unpaid work. So in addition to re-opening of school special initiatives such as socio-political engagement and discourse have to be taken and this is because every single child who is in need of education can return to in-person learning and also it is an opportunity to revive school health services in Indian states and most importantly it is useful in institutionalizing a regular counseling and mental health services for school age children especially for adolescents. And lastly I here denotes innovate. Innovate here means to innovate for making school a place for holistic child development. See we know that schools are far more than a place to complete the syllabus. For example the school contributes to the emotional, social, cognitive, communication and language development. And for the majority of the poor and lower and middle income families quality education is the only hope to come out from the vicious cycle of poverty. See only then they can think about a bright future. Education is the passport to the future for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today. We know that education is the best tool to eradicate poverty. So efficient education will be very useful to achieve sustainable development goals one and four. So there is a need for every government to prepare a mid to long term plan to compensate for the learning loss. Also there should be a sufficient focus on overall child development. There is a need for strategic and innovative thinking and long lasting solutions because only then educational inequalities widen during the pandemic can be lessened and brought to zero. Hence continued school closure and a hesitation in reopening academic institution should not be there because it would deprive the poor and the most vulnerable of their opportunity in the society. Thus we must ensure the safety of the children in gaining their education from the schools. And this is our prime socio-political responsibility. Now we will quickly revise what we have seen so far. Firstly we have seen the reasons for continued school closure. That is the first reason is a widespread misinformation and the second reason is the opinion of small section of privileged parents. And the third reason is the delay of government's response. And the fourth reason here is that there was no planning and discussion on the need to reopen schools. Then to address the issues we have discussed about a perry approach which is prepare, engage, reimagine and innovate. Prepare here means preparation for continuity of school education, engage means to engage with key stakeholders and reimagine means reimagine every facet of school functioning and innovate here means to innovate for making school a place for holistic child development. We concluded the article by saying that we must ensure the safety of the children in gaining their education from schools. This is our socio-political responsibility. And that's all regarding this news article. We will move on to the next news article discussion. Look at this news article. See coming Saturday that is on 19th February there is going to be Tamil Nadu urban local body elections. The article says that in that election the otters are not going to be provided with the option of nota. The Tamil Nadu State Election Commission said that the option nota may be available in the next elections. That is about the article in this context. Let's see some important points about nota. First we will see a little bit of background. See we know that nota stands for Nanna of the above. This option in the electronic voting machine was introduced in India because of a Supreme Court judgment in 2013 case. The case I am referring here is the People Union for Civil Liberties versus Union of India case. The Supreme Court in this judgment has directed the Election Commission of India to provide necessary provision for the otters in the ballot papers or EVMs to exercise their right not to vote while maintaining the right of secrecy. The Supreme Court also ordered that there should be a specific button called Nanna of the above in EVMs. See before nota there was rule 49.0 of the conduct of election rules of 1961 which deals with elector deciding not to vote. See those electors who wish to exercise their right not to vote and to reject all contesting candidates for a constituency have to inform the presiding officer about the decision to not to vote by filling the form 49.0 at the voting booth. So this compromised the secrecy of the ballot and violated the freedom of expression. We will see how. See their numbers are not included in the counting of vote. This method of filing form 49.0 also violates article 14 of Indian Constitution. We know that article 14 talks about the right to equality and rule 49.0 discriminates between the otters who vote for a candidate and the otters who do not want to vote for any contesting candidates. Hence it compromises the right to equality. See because of rule 49.0 one set of electors can express their option secretly while others cannot express it. Therefore it violates right to equality. So the supreme court in the judgment said that 49.0 rule violates the article 14 and article 19.1 a of the constitution that is the article which deals with the right to freedom of speech and expression. Then the option of filing form 49.0 also violates section 128 of the rpa act of 1951. This section 128 deals with maintaining secrecy of voting. So after this direction by the supreme court judgment the nota option was implemented by the election commission of India. Now having gone through the basics now let's see the applicability of nota in various elections. See currently the nota option is available only to the direct election of Lok Sabha and state legislative assembly. Please note this. It is available only to the direct election of Lok Sabha and state legislative assembly. The supreme court in 2018 judgment said that nota option is meant only for universal adult suffrage and direct elections. The court said that nota option is not for the polls held by a system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. So where have we seen this system of proportional representation by means of single transferable votes. We have seen this in Rajya Sabha elections right. That means nota option is not available for indirect elections as done in the Rajya Sabha. See the supreme court in 2018 judgment also said that making nota applicable in Rajya Sabha elections is contrary to article 84 of the constitution and it is also contrary to the supreme court judgment in PUCL versus union of India case. Here article 84 states that the representatives of each state in the council of states shall be elected by the elected members of legislative assembly of the state in accordance with the principle of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote. The court added that nota defeats the fairness in the indirect elections and encourages mild practices like defection and corruption. Now let's see the applicability of nota in local body elections. See article 243 ZA1 states that the superintendent's direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls for the conduct of all elections to the municipalities shall be vested in the state election commission. So what we can understand from this see according to this article the state election commission can decide on the inclusion of nota in the local body elections. Note that nota in local body elections is available in various states like Maharashtra, Odisha, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. So before concluding we will recap what we have seen so far. See nota stands for none of the above this option in the EVM was introduced in India because of a supreme court judgment in people union for civil liberties versus union of India case and this nota option is available only to the direct election of Lok Sabha and state legislative assembly and it is not available for indirect elections like Rajya Sabha elections. We have also discussed about the article 243 ZA1 it states that the state election commission can decide on the inclusion of nota in the local body elections. So that's all regarding this news article we will move on to the next news article discussion. Look at this news article this news article mentions that Telangana state Kampa has approved the proposed annual action plan of 2022 to 23 for 600 crore rupees. So in this discussion let us briefly understand about Kampa and the process of approval of the annual action plan. See Kampa stands for compensatory afforestation fund management and planning authority. So basically Kampa is an authority that deals with compensatory afforestation fund that is CAF. So first of all what is compensatory afforestation. To understand that you must remember for developmental projects diversion of forest land is carried out after obtaining the environmental clearance. The environmental clearance is obtained from ministry of environment forest and climate change. For example for the erection of dams mining purpose etc the diversion of forest land is carried out. So this raises a need to compensate for the forest land that is lost in these developmental projects and this compensation is given in the form of CA that is compensatory afforestation. So CA means the afforestation done due to the diversion of forest land for non forest use under the forest conservation act of 1980. And the fund needed for these afforestation activities is provided under the compensatory afforestation fund that is CAF. CAF was created based on the order of the supreme court. In this compensatory afforestation fund the money received for compensatory afforestation is deposited. So this includes the money received from the user agencies towards compensatory afforestation additional CA penal CA and the net present value of forest land etc. But there were discrepancies in the implementation of compensatory afforestation. So in 2004 central government issued notification for the consultation of an authority for managing the fund. The authority was given the name Kampa. But the authority was not constituted. So again supreme court intervened and issued orders in 2006 to constitute an ad hoc Kampa that is a temporary authority until Kampa is operationalized. So this ad hoc Kampa promoted afforestation and regeneration activities as part of compensatory afforestation. So along with this the money recovered for CA which were lying in the states and union territories was centrally pooled under ad hoc Kampa. In addition to this a Kampa at the state level was also mandated for utilizing Kampa funds in the states. This is what is called the state Kampa. So the union government formulated guidelines for the state Kampa in 2009. State Kampa is intended as an instrument to accelerate activities for preservation of natural forest management of wildlife infrastructure development etc. So these are the objectives of state Kampa. You can go through it. But the fund under compensatory afforestation fund that CAF was not utilized properly due to the absence of a permanent institutional mechanism. Here remember only ad hoc Kampa was created and not the permanent one. Therefore finally in 2016 the union government enacted a legislation called compensatory afforestation fund act 2016 for creating a permanent authority. Here the objective of this act is two-fold. First is to provide for the establishment of CAF under the public accounts of India under the public accounts of each state. At the national level the fund is called the national CAF and the state level it is called state CAF. And the second objective is constituting an authority for administration of the funds at the national level and each of the state and union territory administration levels. So such authorities are mandated to utilize the fund for undertaking artificial regeneration, assisted natural regeneration, protection of forest, forest related infrastructure development, green India program, wildlife protection and other related activities. So based on the act and rules in 2018 the national Kampa also known as the national authority has come into existence in the place of the ad hoc Kampa. It consists of a governing body which is headed by union ministry of environment, forest and climate change and it is assisted by an executive committee monitoring group and administrative support mechanism. Here the executive committee of the national authority is headed by the director general of forest and a special secretary and a ministry of environment, forest and climate change. And similarly at the state levels also in 2018 the state Kampa was constituted in each state. See the state Kampa consists of a governing body and it is assisted by a steering committee and an executive committee. So from example's perspective we have to remember the chairman of these bodies are committees. See in case of the governing body CM of the state or the lieutenant governor or administrator of union territory is the ex-officio chairman and in case of the steering committee the chief secretary of the state is the ex-officio chair person and the executive committee is headed by the principal chief conservator of forest who is the head of the forest force in that state. Now according to CAF act one of the main functions of the executive committee of the state Kampa is to formulate the annual plan of operations that is APO. This APO is the annual action plan we saw in the beginning. See APO means the annual plan for physical activities and financial provisions. It describes milestones, conditions for success and explains how a strategic annual plan will be put into operation during the financial year. So it contains the activities, brief description, estimated cost and the basis for cost estimation agency identified for execution and time schedule of each activity. Now note that the state authority releases money only to those agencies that are identified under annual plan of operations. So the executive committee of the state Kampa formulates annual plan of operations. After formulating it submits the APO to the steering committee of that state Kampa for its concurrence. Now the steering committee scrutinizes and approves this APO and if needed it even makes the amendments to the APO. So after approving the steering committee sends it to the executive committee of the national authority for final approval. So the executive committee of the national authority actually approves the APO of states and as per the act the approval is to be given within three months from the date of receipt of APO. It can also make the amendments to the APO if it deems necessary. So these are the important facts that you need to know about national and state Kampa and how an annual plan of operations is approved. Now we will do a quick recap. See Kampa's an authority that deals with compensatory afforestation fund and compensatory afforestation means the afforestation done due to the diversion of forest land for non forestry use under the forest conservation act of 1980. And we saw that compensatory afforestation rules were framed in 2018. So based on the action rule in 2018 the national Kampa also known as national authority has come into existence in place of the ad hoc Kampa. It consists of a governing body which is headed by union minister of environment forest and climate change and it is assisted by an executive committee monitoring group and administrative support mechanism. Here the executive committee of the national authority is headed by the director general of forest and special secretary under ministry of environment forest and climate change and similarly at the state levels the state Kampa was constituted in each state and in case of governing body CM of the state or the lieutenant governor or the administrator of union territory is the ex-officio chap person and in case of the steering committee the chief secretary of the state is the ex-officio chap person and the executive committee is headed by the principal chief conservator of forest who is the head of forest force in the state and that's all regarding this news article we will move on to the next news article. Look at this news article this news article talks about the swamitva scheme that is survey of villages and mapping with improvised technology in village area scheme it is a central sector scheme launched by the ministry of panchayati raj on 24th April 2021 the news article says that while talking about the updated geospatial policy guidelines or ministry of science and technology said that India plans to prepare digital maps of all its 6 lakhs villages and pan india 3d maps for 100 cities the minister said that the updated guidelines will help private companies prepare a variety of maps without needing approvals from the number of ministries in addition to this the updated guidelines will also make it easier to use drones and develop applications via location mapping the minister added that the geographical information based system mapping that is the gis based mapping would be useful in forest management disaster management electrical utilities land records water distribution and property taxation so this is the crux of this news article in this context let's revise about the swamitva scheme see as we already discussed swamitva scheme is a central sector scheme it was launched by ministry of panchayati raj in 2021 this scheme is implemented with the collaborative efforts of ministry of panchayati raj state revenue department state panchayati raj department and survey of india now what is the purpose of this scheme see the main objective of this scheme is to establish a clear ownership of property in rural inhabited areas by mapping land parcels using drone technology the scheme also aims to provide record of rights to village household owners that is it issues legal ownership cards that is property cards to the property owners now let's see what the scheme aims to achieve see firstly it aims to create accurate land records for rural planning we know that there are many property related disputes in our country so by creating accurate land records it aims to reduce property related disputes secondly it aims to bring financial stability to rural india and how is it planning to do that see the scheme aims to bring financial stability by enabling the rural indians to use their property as a financial asset for taking loans and other financial benefits and thirdly it aims to accurately determine property tax see by streamlining the property tax collection their revenue to the state exchequer can be augmented finally by using the GIS maps better quality gram panchayat development plan can be developed now before concluding let's see one more feature of this scheme that is course network it stands for continuously operating reference stations networks see under the scheme demarcation of area would be done using drone survey and course networks look at this image here it is a continuously operating reference station see it will help in benchmarking the location and provide five centimeter level accuracy see once it is established it could be used by any state agency like revenue department gram panchayat pwd rural development department agriculture department electricity department etc now we will do a quick recap see swamitva scheme is a central sector scheme and it was launched by the ministry of panchayat 2021 it issues property cards to the property owners it aims to create accurate land records for rural planning and it aims to bring financial stability to the rural india next it aims to accurately determine property tax so that's all regarding this news article now we will move on to the next news article look at this news article see recently the organization of islamic cooperation that is the OIC called upon the united nations and the human rights council it called upon UNHRC to take necessary measures after hearing about the reports of muslim students being prevented from wearing hijab in karnataka and the OIC general secretariat further asked india to ensure the safety security and well being of the muslim community and it also urged india to bring to the people who conducts acts of violence and hate crimes against the muslim community so in response to this the indian official spokesperson of ministry of external affairs said that the OIC is hijacked by vested interest and issues in india will be addressed according to india's constitutional framework so this is the essence of this article in this context let's discuss about OIC see the organization of islamic cooperation that is the OIC is the second largest organization after the united nations this organization is the collective voice of the muslim world it endeavors to safeguard and protect the interest of the muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony among various people of the world see the organization was established upon a decision of the historical submit which took place in rabat and the kingdom of moraco this submit took place in 1969 so a resolution was passed on the submit that stated that the muslim governments would consult with the view to promote among themselves close cooperation and mutual assistance in the economic scientific cultural and spiritual fields inspired by immortal teachings of islam after this submit in 1970 the first islamic conference of foreign ministers was held in south arabia in that conference it was decided to establish a permanent secretariat in jeda it was also decided that the OIC would be headed by the organization's secretary general the secretary general of OIC is mister use of agamat al-taimin see in the third session of islamic conference of foreign ministers that was held in 1972 the first OIC charter was adopted the charter laid down the objectives and principles of the organization and fundamental purpose to strengthen the solidarity and cooperation among the member states the OIC has cooperative relations with the united nations and other intergovernmental organizations the OIC aims to protect the interest of the muslims and to work for the settlement of conflicts and disputes involving member states it has also taken various steps to remove misperceptions and has strongly advocated elimination of discrimination against muslims in all forms and manifestations kindly note that presently the OIC has 57 members and despite india as the third largest muslim population in the world it is still not a member of OIC or an observer state of OIC the OIC focuses on 18 priority areas with 107 goals some of the priority areas includes issues of peace and security poverty alleviation food security climate change and sustainability empowerment of women human rights good governance etc the key bodies under OIC include islamic summit council of foreign ministers general secretariat and al-Quds committee see OIC also has three permanent committees concerned with science and technology economy and trade and information and culture finally the OIC also has two specialized organs that is the islamic development bank and the islamic educational scientific and cultural organization please note it now what have we seen so far OIC is the second largest organization after the united nations with the membership of 57 states the organization is a collective voice of the muslim world it endeavors to safeguard and protect the interest of muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony among various people of the world and despite India having the third largest muslim population in the world it is still not a member of OIC or an observer state of OIC so that's all regarding this news article now we have come to the end of the news article discussion so with all these learning let's solve some preliminary practice questions look at the first question it's a previous year question which was asked in prelims 2019 consider the following statements as per law the compensatory afforestation fund management and planning authority exist at both national and state levels statement two people's participation is mandatory in the compensatory afforestation programs carried out under the compensatory afforestation fund act 2016 you have to find the correct statement see statement one here is correct because Kampa exists at both national and state levels we have seen this right and statement two it is incorrect because there is no mention about people's participation in the act it only deals with the fund and how it is to be managed and who manage it etc but the compensatory afforestation fund rules 2018 mentions about people's participation in management of working plants in forest land so here our correct answer is option a one only now look at the second question it is regarding nota consider the following statements regarding nota nota ensures right not to vote it ensures right to secrecy nota ensures right to recall you have to find the correct answer now from our discussion we know that statement one and statement two are correct here statement three is incorrect because nota does not ensure right to recall so our correct answer is option a one and two only now look at the third question it is again regarding nota consider the following statements national nota also called national authority is established under the forest conservation act of 1980 and statement two the executive committee of the national nota is mandated to review the annual plan of operations of nota within three months now you have to find the correct statement see here statement one is incorrect because the nota is established by the CAF act of 2016 and we have seen this in our discussion right so statement one is incorrect regarding statement two it is correct because this time period is stipulated by the act itself so our correct answer here is option b two only now look at the fourth question consider the following statements about swamitva scheme national program management unit will be set up at the national level for overall management monitoring of various activities under the scheme statement two technology implementation agency for the scheme is ministry of panchayat here you have to find the correct answer see here the statement one is correct because npmu will be set up at national level for overall management monitoring of various activities under the scheme here statement two it is incorrect because technology implementation agency for the scheme is survey of india and the ministry of panchayat is the nodal agency for the scheme so here our answer is option a one only now look at the last question which of the following countries are the members of oic see this is a factual question if you know the answer or if you can eliminate some of the options you can attempt this question now you have to find the members of oic one cameron two nigeria three palestine four albania and five bulk area now you have to select the correct answer see here except bulk area all are members of oic so our correct answer here is option c one two three and four the main question is 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