 A very good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankar Reyes Academy for the date 21st of March 2022. So these are the list of news articles chosen for today's discussion. If you can see we have chosen 5 different news articles, firstly we will be discussing about an important article regarding the hijab issue, then we will be seeing about the Russia-Ukraine issue in both the article discussion we will be seeing the different perspectives of the authors, then we will be seeing an important article regarding a technique called BOMA technique, then we will be seeing about GI tax in problems perspective and we will end our discussion by discussing about another important scheme from Tamil Nadu, you can use this scheme as an example in your main sansa writing. So without much delay now let us move on to the first news article discussion. Now take a look at this editorial article again this article is regarding hijab, we have already discussed in our Hindu newspaper analysis about what is hijab and the rights associated with hijab ban, today we'll cover this article in different perspective, this article states that the doctrine of essential religious practice has to be rethought. Now what is this essential religious practices? See it means all those practices that are fundamental to a religion and not following them would result in the change of religion itself. So in this editorial article the author compares some of the religious practices in various religion and questions why only the hijab is banned. The author also explains the concept of freedom in two different contexts, so this is the crux of the news article given here, in this context let us briefly discuss about the issue two concepts of freedom and the issues with the concept of essential religious practices. Before that the syllabus relevant to the article is highlighted here for your reference just go through it. So to begin with as we know the Kanataka High Court recently ruled that wearing the hijab is not an essential practice in Islam. The judges also said that neither the perception of a uniform in schools nor the ban of hijab in schools where violation of article 25 of the Constitution. Remember article 25 guarantees the freedom of consigns, the freedom to profess practice and propagate religion to all citizens. So this is the story so far. Now I will first discuss about two concepts of freedom as mentioned in the editorial article. See in the debate around the hijab issue two concepts of freedom emerges. One is whether Muslim women freely choose to wear the hijab or do so because they are socially conditioned to believe that al-hayah that is modesty is a womanly virtue. This question is like whether women freely choose to wear high heels or they are brainwashed by societal discourses about female beauty. If she is freely choosing the heels that can be considered as the freedom. The other question is how much freedom do the individual give up to the state and the community. Now consider the following set of questions which I am going to mention. First think of the ban on beef in parts of India. Now the question arises whether we are free to eat whatever we choose or have we given up this freedom to the state. Now think of a child policy of countries. Here also the question arises whether we are free to have as many as children as we want or can the state impose a one child policy as China did. See here you have to note one point each of these freedoms is also a right that is our right to eat whatever we want and our reproductive rights. Now here comes a question how much of freedom do the individual give up to the state when she enters the social contract and how much freedom do individual keep for herself. The answer comes in the form of societal contract theory. See this theory talks about the distinction between the public and the private spheres. Individuals can experience the freedom in private sphere but when here she comes to public sphere she is a citizen and not a private person. So certain rights will be restricted in public sphere and also we have the distinction between a liberal state and an illiberal state. In a liberal state the space of individual freedom is at a maximum. The state is minimalist and in contrast in an illiberal state the private sphere is kept to a minimum. Citizens have given up most of their rights to the state and have only few rights. Now here a criticism on the hijab ban is that public sphere in India is implicitly Hindu. For example Sikhs are allowed to wear turbans likewise Hindu girls are allowed to wear the bindi or bangles and these are not banned but hijab was banned. So here the author counters this argument in two ways. First the hijab is not banned in the public sphere in India as it is in some western liberal democracies such as France. The issue at hand pertains to the uniform of schools. As discussed above when a citizen enters the social contract he or she gives up some freedom in the process. Something similar happens when one voluntarily enters into a contract with an institution such as a school. For example a school can have an attendance policy for students and require them to attend at least 80 percentage of the classes. If a student voluntarily take admission in the school he or she gives up her freedom to attend classes as per her will. She must attend 80 percentage of the classes right? The uniform issue is also similar to this. So here the author says that hijab is banned but it is banned only in schools. It is not banned in the public sphere. So if a student voluntarily take admission in the school and the school insists not to wear hijab it means that the person is voluntarily entering a contract with the school to not to wear hijab. So this concept is one side. Second it may still be argued that if school allows turban bindi and bangles why not the hijab? The debate here meanders into the question of which of these is essential religious practice. So in the second argument the author is saying that if turban and bindi and bangles are allowed in school why hijab alone is banned. Now let us understand this with an example. Do you think wearing the turban is an essential practice of the Sikh? See Harjad Oberoi's historiographical work on Punjab in the 18th and 19th centuries reveals something curious. The Palla Queen bearers in Dalau see smoked tobacco during their months of hard labor away from home. They belongs to Sikh religion. During these summer months they also cut their hair and keep it short. When they return home for the winter they paid a few anas and were reinitiated into Sikhism. Then how did we reach a point where the keeping of body hair that is Kesh has become one of the essential practice of Sikhism. So clearly something happened between 19th century and now. We know that the Kalsa movement identified a pure authentic Sikhism which was based on the sculpture that is the Adi Granth. All those practices that were not in keeping with the Adi Granth were seen as corrupt practices. Hence Sikhism needed to be reformed to remove these corruptions and bring it back in line with the scriptures. See Hindu reform movements like the Arya Samaj did something similar to this. They identified a pure Hinduism as specified in the Vedas. So the author concludes that the essential religious practice changes from time to time. What was considered essential at one point of time may not be considered essential today. The author asserts that the practice of Islam and Christianity in Indian context is characterized by dynamism that is they change with time. For example Mother Mary wears a sari in church in Bangalore. Diwali is celebrated in the Nizamuddin Darga. Hence the debate of the essential religious practice needs to be rethought in a country like India where almost all religions are practiced. That's all regarding this editorial article. In this news article discussion we saw some of the important points which are mentioned in the editorial article. We saw a different perspective of the hijab issue. So taking these key points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now let us take up this editorial article for our next discussion. See this editorial article talks about the position that India is adapting in the Ukraine Russia war. According to the author of the editorial India's foreign policy in the present crisis is an attempt to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. What does run with the hare and hounds mean? See it means trying to remain on good terms with both sides in a conflict or dispute. The author through this editorial criticizes India's attempt to stay in the good books with both sides that is with the Russians on one side and the Western powers on the other side. The author is of the opinion that India must stand for democracy and take side with democratic nations of the West. This is the cracks of the editorial given here. We'll see elaborately the points mentioned in the editorial now. Before getting into the discussion I have highlighted here the syllabus regarding this news article. You can go through it. First let us see the official reason given by Mr. Putin for his special military operation against Ukraine. See Mr. Putin says that Ukrainians are pro-nasi. He thought he through this special military operation has to ensure that there is denacification of Ukraine. To understand this notion of Mr. Putin we must know a little bit of history first. See we know that Russian Revolution happened during 1917 to 1923. After the signing of the declaration and treaty on the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922, Belarus, Ukraine and the Transcaucas nations that is Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan along with Russia formed the USSR. After Lenin died Joseph Stalin he came to the helm of the USSR. When Stalin came to power the USSR was less industrialized compared to Western Europe. Along with this there was also a shortage of food cranes. So to resolve this Stalin turned to Ukraine. Ukraine had fertile lands which were well suited for wheat cultivation. Stalin's plan was to make Ukraine the bread basket of the USSR and solve the food crisis and export the excess grains to fund the industrialization of the USSR. For this Stalin started the collectivization of farm lands of Ukraine in 1929. Through collectivization the peasants were forced to transfer lands and livestock to state-owned farms. The peasants will work on this state-owned farm for payment in kind. This collectivization was forced among the Ukrainian peasants. Along with this to supply raw material to the Russian factories many cash crops like sugar beads and cotton were also introduced. There were also poor administration by the Soviet officials. All these poor policies coupled with poor weather resulted in famine. The famine which in Ukraine was called Holodomor lasted from 1932 to 1933. According to the Ukrainian language Holodomor means death by starvation. The famine was so severe that some people to keep themselves alive resorted to cannibalism. Cannibalism means the practice of eating the flesh of one's own species. So here humans started to eat the flesh of another human. See as I already said Russian policies were unpopular among the Ukrainians. So there was a growing Ukrainian nationalism. Some people believed that the Soviet official policy intentionally did not provide relief during the Ukrainian famine to stop nationalism. The Ukrainian intellectual class believed that this was a manmade disaster to ensure the Sovietization of Ukraine, the destruction of the Ukrainian national idea and the neutering of any Ukrainian challenge to Soviet unity. So due to this when Nazi Germany captured Ukraine from the USSR during the course of Second World War the people of Ukraine saw the Nazi forces as liberators from the oppressive Stalin regime. So just to escape the genocide in Ukraine carried out by Joseph Stalin's Russia Ukraine embraced Nazi Germany in the 1940s. So Mr. Putin's justification of the invasion as the denazification of Ukraine is farce according to the author of this editorial. So here farce means a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated. So according to author Mr. Putin's justification of the invasion as the denazification of Ukraine is farce to him. See Russia has been carpet bombing Ukraine for the past few weeks. We know that right? This has caused huge destruction as well. Ukraine is a recognized nation and United Nations member state. Russia's invasion of Ukraine is against the UN Charter. According to the author at this juncture India must not be silent by standard just to earn the goodwill of Russia. India must at the very least condemn the actions of Russia. This is what the editorial article tries to convey here. The author of the editorial gives various reasons why India should take a position in regards to this issue and abandon its position of non-alignment. Let us see them one by one. See first is the recent international court of justice direction. The ICJ directed Russia to stop the war immediately on our 18th March. We saw the ICJ has 15 judges right? Of the 15 judges 13 were in favor of this direction of ICJ. Also note here that one among the 15 judges is Justice Dalveer Bandari. Justice Dalveer Bandari is a former chief justice of India. He also voted against Russia. This is the first reason given by the author. Now let us see the second reason. See India has abstained from voting in the United Nations. This is despite the fact that Russia is carrying out 19th century type of warfare in Ukraine. So according to the author India must take a stand for democracy. If India stands with Russia its relation with the western democracies will be affected. In addition to this India's relation with the quad members will also be affected. So it is possible that India will be isolated by its traditional democratic alliances. India's present position will bring it only closer to Russia. Look at other non-democratic nations like China, North Korea and Venezuela. Of these nations India and China are holistic towards one another. The other nations like North Korea and Venezuela are unlikely to stand with India on other international issues. So according to the author India's current position will not result in any gains for India in the long run. So this is the second reason given by the author. The next reason is regarding to the 13th BRICS summit. See the 13th BRICS summit that was held in New Delhi in 2021 recently. In this summit the Delhi declaration was passed anonymously. The core demand in this resolution was that the five BRICS nation were opposed to the unilateral use of force against any state. They wanted all disputes resolved by peaceful means. Finally the resolution ruled out the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. So whatever Russia is doing in Ukraine is in violation of the Delhi declaration. And finally the author talks about the Budapest memorandum of 1994. See 1991 when USSR collapsed and Ukraine became independent it had the third largest stockpile of nuclear weapons. Statistics made public show that Ukraine had about 1900 strategic nuclear warheads 176 ICBMs and 44 long-distance strategic bombers. To denuclearize Ukraine the Budapest memorandum of 1994 was signed between Russia the USA the UK and Ukraine. According to the memorandum Russia USA and UK agreed to respect the independent sovereignty territorial integrity and existing border of Ukraine. So Russia's action in the present crisis is in violation to this agreement as well. See Putin's Russia according to the author is acting in violation of international agreements. So to uphold the rule-based world order India must denounce russians actions and stand with the western democracies. So these are the four reasons given by the author in this editorial as to why India should take a position in regards to this issue and abandon its position of non-alignment. So in conclusion India must abandon its policy of staying on the good books of both sides during a crisis. By choosing a side India's credibility among the world nation will increase. India must take a stand for democracy. This will help India's foreign policy in the long run as well. So these are all some of the important points that you have to make note of from this editorial article. Very very important editorial article you can use these points in your main sanser writing. So with these learned points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. See this article here it says that a technique called Boma technique was undertaken at Kelaadiyo National Park and for your information Kelaadiyo National Park is in Baratpur district of the state Rajasthan. See this Boma technique is nothing but a capturing technique which is popular in Africa. So this is the brief of the article given here and why are we discussing this article? See UPSC might ask questions like Boma technique sometimes seen in news refers to if at all such a question arises the answer for the question will be Boma technique is nothing but a capturing technique. So today in this discussion we'll know how this technique actually works. We'll also learn about why this technique is undertaken in Rajasthan's Kelaadiyo National Park. Before that the syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference just go through it. First of all what is this Boma technique? See this technique is popular in Africa. To be specific in the 18th and 19th centuries the Boma was referred to a type of fortification of an African village. See people use branches which they knit together to form a fence into which they keep livestock and they also use this technique to keep the village safe from outside harm. Now in terms of wildlife conservation this Boma refers to an enclosure used to limit the movement of various animals. See if a wildlife reserve were accepting new animals onto its property it would keep the new animals inside a Boma until they become used to their new surroundings and were ready to be released onto the reserve. So this is one of the significance of Boma technique. Now let us see the significance that is mentioned in the article. See here Boma involves luring or tricking of animals into an enclosure by chasing them through a funnel like fencing. Now look at this image here this funnel shaped fencing acts like a boundary. The funnel ends into a animal selective comb loading chute. A chute is nothing but a passage down which you can drop or slide things and this facility will be supported with grass mats and green nets to make it look like natural for animals and after this animals are loaded into a large vehicle for transport to another location. This image here also shows you that the funnel like structure ends with the truck with the truck using which animals are transported. I hope you can understand the technique here. Now coming back to the article. See according to the article here this old technique was earlier utilized to capture wild elephants for training and service. In India it was adopted in Madhya Pradesh in recent years and now Boma has been used for the first time in Rajasthan. See it is used for sending the deer to the pre-deficient Mukuntara reserve as the kills for tigers and leopards that is deer are translocated to the tiger reserve so that tigers and leopards can kill them. Now why this is done? See this is done because there is lack of praise in the Mukuntara tiger reserve and the translocation will help maintain balance in the ecosystem. Apart from this the national tiger conservation authorities that is NTCA's technical committee has approved a proposal to shift two tigers from Rantambo national park to Mukuntara see both are in the state of Rajasthan. Now why this is done? See the shift is happening because Mukuntara lost two tigers and two cubs in the year 2020 and is now left with an eight-year-old tigeress and the shift will help increase the population of tigers in the area and for that to happen availability of food also should be there right and this is exactly why Boma technique is used in Kailado national park to capture spotted deer and these captured herbivorous animals will be released in Mukuntara before the shift of the tigers and according to the article six spotted deer were shifted by using the Boma technique in the second week of March and herbivores were confined without any physical contact in the enclosure for a few days and they are confined in the enclosure with the management of grass feed and water and their movement was monitored from watchtowers and according to the tourism and wildlife society of India that is TWSI's secretary the inadequate prey base in the project tiger areas had led to less breeding success he also said that the attempt to centre them around a new habitat here they are talking about the Mukuntara this would depend on the availability of prey he also added that the translocation of herbivores that is the deer would reduce preying upon rural cattle sheeps and goats around the tiger reserves see according to the article managing a healthy male female ratio in the prey base is also important this is because elimination of female animals would result in loss of productivity see if the prey number reduces that is the number of deer decreases it again will reduce the prey availability in the tiger reserve area which will again lead to reduction in the number of tigers this defeats the purpose right so it is equally important to maintain a healthy male female ratio among the deer that are being translocated and that's all about the article in this article we saw about an important technique called Boma technique we saw how the technique works and we also saw some of the important facts which are mentioned in the news article with these insights now let us move on to the next news article discussion take a look at this news article see this news article is with reference to geographical indication that is GI tag see the news article states that Nagaswaram made in Narasimha, Petai in Tanjavur district has been granted the GI tag the tag was granted based on the application filed by the Tanjavur musical instruments workers cooperative college industrial society Lupitard so in this context let us revise about GI tag in prelims perspective see as you know a GI tag is a sign used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possesses qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin the qualities characteristics or reputation of the product should be essentially due to the place of the origin see since the qualities depend on the geographical place of the production there is a clear link between the product and its original place of production so here GI tag enables those who have the right to use the geographical indication to prevent its use by a third party whose product does not conform to the applicable standards for example in the jurisdictions in which the Darjeeling geographical indication is protected producers of Darjeeling T can exclude use of the term Darjeeling by the third party because the T is not grown in their tea garden or not produced according to the standards set out in the code of practice for the geographical indication I hope now you can clearly understand what does GI tag actually mean however a protected geographical indication does not enable the holder to prevent someone from making a product using the same techniques as those set out in the standards of that indication make note of this point also protection for a geographical indication is usually obtained by acquiring a right over the sign that constitutes the indication geographical indications are typically used for agricultural natural and manufactured goods apart from this geographical indication is defined in the agreement on trade related aspects of intellectual property rights that is trips internationally geographical indication or covered as the component of the intellectual property rights or IPRs under the Paris Convention for the protection of industrial property in India geographical indications registration is administered by the geographical indication of goods registration and protection act 1999 see the registration of a geographical indication is valid for a period of 10 years then what happens after 10 years it can be renewed from time to time for a further period of 10 years each so to conclude having a GI tag for a product prevents unauthorized use of a registered geographical indication by others it boosts exports of Indian geographical indication by providing legal protection and also enables seeking legal protection in other WTO member countries see I have given a link in the description box regarding some of the GI tagged products in India interested aspirants can go through it see we cannot remember every GI tagged product so just try to remember recently GI tagged products and the products in your state it will help you to eliminate options in the preliminary exam if a question comes from this area so with these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion look at this news article this news article talks about the illam tehdi kalvi scheme of the Tamil Nadu government see illam tehdi kalvi literally translated to education at your doorsteps see the lockdowns affected the contact of regular physical classes for school for several months right according to the minister of school education of Tamil Nadu though the physical classes for school have been resumed the lockdown induced learning gap among student is still there so the minister said the illam tehdi kalvi scheme will continue until the learning gap is addressed now what is this illam tehdi kalvi scheme see this scheme was framed to address the learning gap that has increased among students due to the closure of schools during the pandemic induced lockdown see online classes can never replace in-person classes to bring the benefits of in-person classes to the students through the scheme education would be brought to the students at their home itself this scheme actually focuses on students in the class 1st to 8th grade under the scheme classes will be held every evening after the regular classes are over the students from the government as well as private schools will be able to join these classes and remember education will be provided by volunteers who are selected by the government the following are the qualification criteria given by the government for the volunteers it includes some of the criterias like spending six hours a week with kids knowing Tamil to communicate with children teaching English max and Tamil and the person should participate voluntarily without compulsion and the person must be at least 17 years old these are some of the important points about the scheme now let us see the uniqueness and benefits associated with the scheme see ilam tehdi kalvi scheme is giving the school students an interactive learning experience making it interesting for the kids the classes are different from regular classes as it channels kids with their area of interest due to lockdown some students might have lost their command over fundamental literacy numeracy and basic grammar right so this scheme actually helps in addressing this gap finally several individuals who had lost their job due to pandemic have turned to the ilam tehdi kalvi scheme and registered themselves as volunteers to provide temporary relief to their financial worries the scheme also has a provision for the establishment of a safety advisory committee the role of the safety advisory committee is to monitor the volunteers who will take classes help find place to set up classes and provide basic amenities for the children apart from this activities like singing and dancing are also incorporated in the scheme to make the students more receptive to the lessons this will make learning a fun activity for the students see there is very little possibility of a question from this topic in the exam but you can use the scheme in your answer writing say there is a question regarding primary education or learning gap between urban and rural area or pandemic induced learning gap or whether online classes can replace regular classes or not in all these questions you can mention the scheme in the conclusion or way forward portion of your answer this will make your answer more current and updated okay for this reason only we chose this news article so in this news article discussion we saw about an important scheme called ilam tehdi kalvi which can be literally translated to education at your doorsteps in english so these learned points we came to the end of the news article discussion now let us move on to the next part of the news article discussion which is nothing but the preliminary practice questions now look at this first question this question is about keiladu national park consider the following pairs of national parks and the states keiladu national park rajasthan manas national park asam kable lamjo national park asam which of the pairs given above is or correct option a one and two only option b one and three only option c one two and three and option d two and three only see the correct answer for the question is option a one and two only see first statement is correct because in the news article discussion itself we saw that keiladu national park it is located in the state of rajasthan it is a wetland of international importance for migratory waterfall where birds migrating down the central asian flyway congregate before dispersing to other regions another significance is that it is in the uniscoe world heritage list so the statement one is correct statement two is also correct see manas wildlife sanctuary is located in the state of asam in northeast india it is a biodiversity hotspot it is home to a great variety of wildlife including many endangered species such as tiger pygmy hog indian rhinoceros indian elephant it is also in the uniscoe world heritage list now statement three is incorrect because kable lamjo is located in manipur it is only floating park in the world located in the northeast in india and an integrated part of loktak lake so it is not in asam it is located in manipur so the correct answer for the question is option a one and two only now moving on to the second question now look at this question this question is about gi tax consider the following pairs one side gi tag the products are given and other side states are given now first pair is mindoli banana goa second pair is kutiyatur mango tamaladu and third kallakurchi wood carving kerala which of the pairs given above is or or incorrectly matched so you have to find the incorrectly matched pair see the correct answer for the question is option b213 only pair one is correctly matched because maidoli banana is the largest size native banana available in goa pair two is wrong because kutiyatur mango is a popular and tasty traditional mango cultivated in kerala pair three is wrong because kallakurchi wood carving or unique form of wooden carving practiced in tamaladu so the correct answer for the question is option b213 only because both pair 213 or incorrectly matched here I have mentioned the mains questions just go through it write an answer and post it in the comment section in the below so with this we came to the end of the news article discussion if you like the video hit like comment and do subscribe to shankarae's academy youtube channel thank you