 a very good evening aspirants welcome to hindi newspaper analysis brought to you by shankar ias academy for the day 25th of may 2023 see aspirants we have only two days for ups e problems 2023 some might be revising now some might not be see if you are someone who likes to revise in the last minute then take your notes and give it a glance but if you are someone who doesn't like to revise in the last minute then keep your books and notes and all aside just remind calm don't be anxious okay ultimately what we need is to remind calm in the examination hall read the questions carefully do not make any careless mistakes be confident you will definitely ace the examination my very best wishes for you aspirants now with that note let's take a look at the articles that we are going to discuss today without any delay let's straight away get into the article discussion today we are going to start our discussion with this news article here it says that India plans to enhance its supercomputing capabilities by installing an 18 petaflop system this year currently India's most powerful supercomputers have a combined capacity of 6.8 petaflops know that petaflop is a unit of measurement for computing speed or processing power the new supercomputers are imported from France and these systems will enable more accurate weather forecasting and climate modeling as they can function with high speed and this is the crux of the news article given here now we'll learn about the supercomputers from exam perspective in this discussion see imagine you have a regular computer at home it has a single brain called central processing unit that is CPU see this CPU only helps the computer to perform tasks however when it comes to solving complex problems or handling massive amounts of data regular computers might not be enough that's where supercomputers come into play see supercomputers have multiple CPUs which are like having several brains working together this allows them to process information and perform calculations at very high speeds so it's like having a team of experts working on a problem simultaneously so why supercomputers need multiple CPUs this is because of the physical limitations of circuit technology see electrical signals which carry information in computer cannot travel faster than light this sets a limit on how quickly a regular computer can process data so by having multiple CPUs supercomputers can overcome this limit and achieve higher computational rates see another important feature of supercomputers is that their storage capacity and input output capability see to support the high computational speed of the CPUs supercomputers need to quickly retrieve data and instructions this means they have large storage systems that can hold massive amounts of information so these are some of the features of supercomputers now we'll see about supercomputers in India see supercomputing in India started in the year 1980 this is because prior to that we were procuring supercomputers from abroad so the national aerospace laboratories initiated the project flow solver mk1 in 1986 following this multiple projects were commissioned from different organizations including cdac, cdot, bark and anurag see they developed supercomputers such as chips, anuppam, pays and the param series so among this the param series released by cdac that is the center for development of advanced computing played a significant role the param 8000 was introduced in 1991 and it had multiple nodes and used in most transputers and then the param 8600 which is an improved version had integrated the intel i80 processors after that param 9000 was demonstrated in 1994 it combined cluster and parallel processing and then in 1998 param 10000 was unveiled it had independent nodes based on sun enterprise servers and then in the subsequent years India made remarkable progress with supercomputers for instance param padma introduced in 2002 entered the top 500 list of most powerful supercomputer systems in the world and then param uva was launched in 2008 and it had impressive performance and storage capacity following that param uva 2 was unveiled in 2013 and it offered significant speed improvement and energy efficiency param ishan was introduced in 2016 it was a hybrid high performance computing system and then param brahma which was built under national supercomputing mission had advanced cooling technology this cooling system maintains the system's temperature by effectively using the thermal conductivity of liquids so as of now the fastest indian supercomputer param siddhi ai developed in 2020 has the high performance computing and artificial intelligence capabilities it has achieved global ranking of 62 in top 500 most powerful supercomputer systems in the world also know that there are other systems under national supercomputing mission we have param shivai param sanghanak param pravega and shahash dati note that param shivai was the first supercomputer assembled indigenously at iit bubaneshwar now with this we have come to the end of this particular article discussion in this discussion we saw what is supercomputer and after that we saw important features of supercomputers and finally we ended our discussion by seeing supercomputers in india now with these points let us move on to the next article discussion now we are going to take this news article for our next discussion see if you can recall last year us-based hindenburg research raised several governance concerns in regard to adhani group following this supreme court of india asked sebi to probe some of the allegations made summit its findings while investigating sebi found that several offshore funds made investments in the adhani group of companies when sebi tried to trace the ownership of these funds it met with roadblocks due to the opaque nature of these offshore funds to avoid future events like this sebi has asked all foreign funds investing in india to identify their parent financial institution to make it more transparent this is about the news article given here so in this context we are going to learn about the offshore funds see an offshore fund is a collective investment scheme it is like a mutual fund that is domiciled in an offshore jurisdiction this means that the fund is regulated by the laws of offshore jurisdiction that is the foreign country rather than the laws of the investors home country offshore funds are typically used by investors who want to access the international markets offshore funds can invest in variety of assets including stocks bonds and real estate so basically offshore funds are mutual funds that invest across the overseas markets to convey the point more clearly let me explain with an example mr jack who is an american citizen has won a lottery and he has a large sum of money at his disposal he invests half of his money in the us share market now he wants to diversify his investment portfolio he looks at the booming economy of india and he wants to invest in india to earn higher return so he is contacting rose investment firm rose investment firm is an offshore fund registered in india this is an assumption okay this firm collect money from the american investors and invest them in the indian share market they collect the money in dollars and they invest in the indian share market in the form of rupees okay see although rose investment firm receives money from the us investors it has to adhere to the rules and regulations of rbi and sebi this is because rose investment firm is domiciled and registered in india only now i hope you got clear about the term offshore funds see offshore funds offer a number of advantages to the investors the first advantage is access to the international markets offshore funds allow investors like mr jack to access the international market the second advantage diversification offshore funds can help investors diversify their portfolio by investing in variety of assets and markets the third advantage is tax benefits in some cases offshore funds can offer tax benefits to investors for example take maritius maritius is a small island country with no resources since the country has no resources no one will invest in the country right so to attract the investors maritius will offer very low rates to the investors this will attract the investors on one hand maritius will get fresh investments and on the other hand the investors have a place to invest so these are some of the advantages associated with the offshore funds however there are also some risks associated with investing in offshore funds the first major risk is currency risk here let us take again mr jack's example let us say that our awesome mr jack invested rupees 50 million dollars in india through the rose investment firm the rupee dollar exchange rate is one dollar is equal to 85 rupees so mr jack has invested rupees 425 crore rupees in india now due to financial mismanagement in india the rupee starts depreciating now the rupee dollar exchange rate reaches one dollar is equal to 100 rupees due to this instability in the indian market now mr jack tries to pull back his funds see due to depreciation mr jack will get 42.5 million dollars only back this is the currency risk that i said before this currency risk happens due to the exchange rate fluctuations and it is one of the major issue associated with the offshore investments and the second risk is political risk see the value of an offshore fund can also be affected by political instability in the funds domicile right so that's also one another risk and the last one is regulatory risk the regulatory environment for offshore funds can change which can affect the investment process right so this will have an impact in the level of investor protection these are some of the risks associated with the offshore funds overall offshore funds can be a good option for investors who want to access the international markets diversify their portfolios or reduce their tax liability however it has also some risks associated with it so we have to keep in mind the risks while opting for the option of offshore funds this is all regarding this discussion in this discussion we saw about offshore funds we understood it with an example and after that we saw the advantages of offshore funds and finally we ended our discussion by seeing the risks associated with the offshore funds now with these points in mind let us move on to the next article discussion now look at this editorial article here the overall essence is about the emergence of saudi arabia as a significant regional player in the arab world see the editorial starts by talking about the recently held arab league summit and its significance it goes on to talk about the shift in the saudi arabia's foreign policy under the new crown prince muhammad bin salman then it mentions about the advantages that saudi arabia possess and finally how india should chart its course to deal with the new saudi arabia under muhammad bin salman and this is about the editorial given here so in this discussion let us see the points mentioned in the article in a simplified and detailed manner but before that the syllabus relevant to the article is highlighted here please go through it now let us start with the basics firstly what are the countries that fall under the classification of arab world if you're thinking arab must include all the countries in the middle east then you're wrong actually arab world does not include iran which is located in the middle east but it includes countries like mauritania and moraco which is located in the western part of africa and it also includes koma rose which is an island in the indian ocean see this map here highlights the countries that fall under the category of arab world there are 22 countries that are considered to be a part of the arab world now what do you think is the commonality among the countries in the arab world see actually there is only one unifying factor among the countries of arab world if you're thinking language religion or ethnicity then you're wrong i'll explain why now take language for example see arabic is used as a lingua franca throughout the arab world only 19 out of the 22 countries have native arabic speakers so language is ruled out next take religion see majority of arab countries are to sunni islam and others they belong to shia majority so here religion is also ruled out thirdly take ethnicity see majority of people in the arab world are ethnically arab but there are also significant populations of other ethnic groups such as berbers curts somalis nubians other groups so ethnicity is also ruled out if it is not language religion or ethnicity then what is the unifying factor among the arab countries it is the arab league globally it is widely accepted that the countries that are a part of the arab league are generally considered as a part of the arab world now what is this arab league arab league is formerly known as league of arab states it was established in k ro on 22 march 1945 following the adoption of the alexandria protocol in 1944 the objective of the arab league is to strengthen and coordinate the political cultural economic and social programs of its members and to mediate disputes among them or between them and the third parties so this is the objective of the arab league see arab league has 22 members that is all the countries in the arab world the league has five observer countries namely armenia brazil erritria india and venezuela recently 32nd arab league summit was held in jeda south arabia this summit is prominent for various reasons the first reason is the re-admission of siriya into arab league see siriya was expelled from arab league in 2011 because of the syrian president bashar al asad's brutal suppression of pro democracy protests now in 2023 siriya is admitted back into the league this is a significant event because after 12 long years the arab league is in full strength and this is the first reason why the summit is prominent secondly the ukrainian president mr zelensky attended the summit as a special invite see this is significant as it highlights the allegiance of the arab league in the ongoing russia ukraine crisis and the third reason is the jeda declaration the jeda declaration was presented after the summit from a geopolitical standpoint the declaration was realistic and moderate in nature for example although the declaration has pro-palestinian stand israel was mentioned nowhere in the declaration in addition to this iran was also not mentioned in the declaration this shows that the league is trying to moderate its shaky relationship with other regional players like israel and iran these are some of the significance of the 32nd summit of arab league now you may wonder what is the reason for the sudden shift in the league's agenda the main reason is saudi arabia taking over as the de facto leader of the arab league and mohammed ben salman rising to power in saudi arabia see earlier egypt was considered to be the de facto leader of arab league but right now egypt's economy is in shambles and it cannot lead the league but saudi arabia on the other hand is an economic powerhouse in 2022 its gdp grew by 8.7 percentage to reach 1008 billion dollars saudi arabia is the largest oil exporter in the world in 2022 oil exports from saudi grew by 55 percentage and it reached a value of 228 billion dollars and in addition to being an economic powerhouse saudi arabia is also politically stable all these factors make saudi arabia the natural successor to egypt and the de facto leader of the arab league see saudi arabia is using this opportunity to make course corrections to the league and make league stick to the middle path that is it is trying to balance between us and israel on one side and iran and china on the other side see saudi arabia is also trying to project itself as a singular voice of the arab world and know that the man behind all this is mohammed ben salman before the summit mohammed ben salman took various measures to first make saudi arabia stick to the middle path and deescalate various regional tensions firstly to normalize relations with iran through chinese medicine this is an astounding move by mohammed ben salman by choosing china over the usa for mediation process he pulled saudi arabia out of the clutches of the usa and asserted diplomatic autonomy now that the relation between iran and saudi arabia has slightly normalized both the countries can have direct diplomatic relationship with each other so this will reduce the importance of countries like qatar, iraq, oman and pakistan which acted as intermediaries between saudi arabia and iran in addition to this due to normalizing relations between iran and saudi arabia the proxy wars that iran and saudi arabia are fighting in yemen, lebanon, syria and iraq will slowly come to an end so basically mohammed ben salman killed three birds with one stone secondly mohammed ben salman has taken steps to balance between israel and palestine also by not mentioning israel in the recent jeda declaration saudi arabia avoided demonizing israel and took an ambiguous position at the same time by engaging directly with hamas the ruling faction in the gaza strip saudi arabia is trying to de-radicalize the palestinians and this proves that in essence mohammed ben salman has taken the middle path and lastly mohammed ben salman organized peace talks among warring factions in sudan in jeda by this mohammed ben salman is projecting jeda as a venue for peace see these are some of the steps taken by mohammed ben salman to make saudi arabia stick to the middle path with saudi arabia becoming the de facto leader of the arab league mohammed ben salman is pushing for the league also to take the middle path this is all about the recent realignment that is happening in saudi arabia and in the arab world see with these changing dynamics how should india continue its engagement with the arab world india has high stakes in the arab world india is aware of the geopolitical significance of the region that is why india has observer status in the arab league according to the editorial india must always put its national interest first while engaging with the region i think it was william clay who said that this is quite a game politics there are no permanent enemies and there are no permanent friends only permanent interests india should stick to these words and focus on its national interest and then india must increase its bilateral engagement with saudi arabia see economic engagement between both the countries should be increased also steps must be taken to build socio-economic infrastructure in both the countries and also in other countries in the region through india-saudi partnership by taking these steps india can have meaningful engagement with saudi arabia now this is all regarding this discussion in this discussion we saw about the arab world and after that we understood what is arab league we saw the significance of 32nd arab league summit after that we moved on to see about the realignment of saudi arabia and arab league under mohammed bin salman and finally how india should engage with the region now with these points in mind let us move on to the next article discussion now let us take this article for our next discussion this article is from the science page this article gives us some insights about the challenges prevailing in ensuring the sustainability of agricultural commodity value chains see india has a long history of producing agricultural commodities we all know that india has been a hub for the global trade of spices tea and coffee for several centuries if we look at the data over the last three decades the share of agricultural commodities in the total GDP has significantly expanded in india see this growth is a positive one but this type of rapid growth has also raised concerns about ensuring the sustainability in the agri commodity value chains see we know that agricultural sector also contributes to environmental degradation see it causes carbon emissions soil erosion etc apart from the environmental degradation the overuse of water and chemicals in the fields also threaten the long-term viability of agricultural production so these concerns advocate for the sustainable method of agri production and consumption see this is the background of the article given here so in this context we'll learn about the commodity crops and then we'll understand what are all the challenges prevailing in ensuring sustainability of agricultural commodity value chains first of all let us start with the commodity crops see commodity crops are the crops that are usually grown in large volume and at high intensity commodity crops are specifically grown for the purpose of sale at the international markets some of the examples of commodity crops include soybean, cocoa, coffee, tea, rubber, palm oil and cotton now what are all the problems associated with cultivation of these commodity crops see growing commodity crops are critically related to global sustainability challenges this is because they drive significant environmental and climate risks including deforestation, biodiversity laws, fresh water depletion, soil degradation as we saw earlier India is one of the global hubs for agricultural commodity trade so the protection trade and consumption of these commodities in India is likely to drive the impacts on environmental sustainability so keeping this in mind we should think what do we need at this point of time the need is nothing but an environmentally sustainable method of agri production and consumption now comes the golden question can sustainability be achieved easily actually no see ensuring sustainability in agricultural commodity value chain is a multi-dimensional challenge there are some four main challenges given in the article now let us understand them one by one the first challenge is regarding the characteristics of the market and the producer as we all know the market and the producer play a significant role in the agricultural commodity value chain the character of various producers and market intermediaries differs from each other this is where the problem arises see some producers may engage in sustainable production methods by using organic manure and energy from renewable resources but some producers may use chemical fertilizers and energy derived from the fossil fuel sources to do agri production so it differs from one another and there lacks coordination therefore the characteristics of the market and producer is one of the main challenges in ensuring sustainability and then the second challenge is regarding the nature of production see agri commodity production may be in intensive or extensive form here intensive production means there is high level use of labour and capital in comparison to land area whereas in the case of extensive production large forms will be cultivated with low level use of capital and labour see in both these intensive and extensive production methods the better land use strategies are determined by the nature of production process here the nature of production process includes the type of field preparation quality of seeds and number of inputs for example if the quality of seeds is very low then we have to add more fertilizers and this affects the soil right but if the quality of seed is high a viable quantity of fertilizer is enough for a great yield so again here also there is no uniformity so this is also one of the challenges in ensuring sustainability which is the nature of production now moving on to the third challenge the third challenge is regarding governance mechanisms and policy support see the government is providing more subsidies market access and infrastructural support to processing and storage facilities but the government is not providing viable support to improve the production and consumption by giving healthy and natural solutions this is one of the challenges and the final challenges regarding the initiatives to mitigate the environmental effects see there is no proper initiative in India to mitigate the environmental effects of agricultural value chains even when it comes to policies and regulations the burden of responsibility to change the agricultural practices typically falls on the most marginalized section so lack of proper initiative to mitigate the environmental effect is also a challenge and these are the four challenges mentioned in the article see these four challenges only make us difficult in mitigating environmental impacts in agricultural commodity value chains so to conclude there are many ways to achieve sustainability in agricultural commodity value chain one such way is collective and coordinated action by different stakeholders like governments markets and producers this can have a positive impact on commodity value chains if such actions are combined with the right kind of support systems the agricultural commodity value chains can deliver its fruit for India's people and its environment for a longer time now that's all for this article discussion in this discussion we saw about the agricultural commodity value chains the need for sustainability in agricultural commodity value chains and after that we saw what is commodity crops and finally we ended our discussion by seeing the challenges in achieving sustainability in agricultural commodity value chain now with these points let us move on to the next article discussion now look at this news article here the national commission for protection of child rights conducted an investigation at the nadarajur temple in chidambaram tamil nadu the investigation was prompted because of the allegations made by tamil nadu governor rn ravi the allegation was regarding the forced virginity tests conducted on minor girls at the temple in this context we'll learn about ncpcr in this discussion see national commission for protection of child rights was established under the commission for protection of child rights act 2005 so it is a statutory body under this act a child is defined as a person in the age group of 0 to 18 years the commission was formed to carry out the important duties and responsibilities under this act so basically ncpcr is responsible for making sure that all laws policies programs and administrative systems protect and support the rights of children it means that the commission makes sure that all mechanisms are in harmony with the child rights as enshrined in the constitution of india and also the un convention on rights of the child know that ncpcr falls under the administrative control of ministry of women and child development now these are all the basic details of ncpcr now talking about the composition the commission has a chairman who is a person of great distinction and has made remarkable contributions to promoting the well-being of children additionally there are six members out of which at least two are women these members are appointed by the central government and they come from various fields with expertise and experience in different areas related to children see the fields from which the members are chosen include education child health child care welfare and child development moreover members are selected from those who have knowledge and experience in juvenile justice caring for neglected or marginalized children supporting children with disabilities combating child labour assisting children in distress understanding child psychology or sociology and expertise in laws concerning children see one more condition is that the chairperson must be below 65 years of age and the members must be below 60 years this is about the composition of ncpcr now finally before concluding our discussion let us see some of the main functions of ncpcr see i've given here the entire functions of ncpcr the main ones include to review and examine the existing measures in place for safeguarding child rights and they also suggest ways to make them more effective secondly to investigate cases of child rights violations and to recommend legal action when necessary to look into various issues that affect children such as terrorism violence natural disasters and so on the commission recommends appropriate measures to address these problems and then to focus on children who need special care and protection including those in distress marginalized or disadvantaged children children without families and children of prisoners the commission suggests ways to protect and support these children and then the commission also studies international treaties and agreements related to child rights see the commission then makes recommendations to ensure the best interest of children and then to promote research on child rights and rise awareness about them among different sections of society this is done through publications media seminars and other means available besides this they also inspect or arrange inspections of facilities like juvenile custodial homes where children live or receive care and then to address compliance and take action on issues related to child rights violations non-implementation of child protection laws also know that the commission is not allowed to investigate matters already being looked into by other commissions or authorities and then the commission presents an annual report to the central government and provides updates as needed finally the commission also collects and analyzes data on children to understand their situation better now these are some of the functions and powers of NCPCR that's all for this discussion in this discussion we saw about some basic details about NCPCR its establishment composition and main functions now with these points let us move on to the next article discussion now look at this final article here it says that the greater Chennai corporation has successfully generated 665 tannas of biocompressed natural gas shortly known as biocng at the chet pit plant in this context now we are going to learn about biocng in exam perspective see biocng is a naturally produced gas that is formed through the anaerobic decomposition of biomass like agricultural waste, animal droppings etc basically biocng is an advanced version of biogas know that it contains methane and carbon dioxide and it also has other trace gases like water vapor oxygen hydrocarbons and ammonia know that biocng has a methane content of over 90 percentage and it is a clean and renewable fuel it also has similar properties to cng that is compressed natural gas now how is this biocng produced we know that normally biogas is produced when organic matter such as food or animal waste is broken down by microorganisms in the absence of oxygen see this biogas is purified by removing hydrogen sulfide carbon dioxide and water vapor and then it is compressed into compressed biogas and this only we call it as biocng so we can say that production of biocng involves decomposing biogenic waste in the absence of oxygen note that biocng has a higher calorific value compared to biogas also biocng has a calorific value equal to compressed natural gas so this makes it more energy rich fuel besides this it has low moisture low hydrogen sulfide content and low impurities see it can be used as a replacement for cng in industries automobiles and for domestic and commercial purposes in order to accelerate the biocng plant installation various initiatives and policies have been announced in the last five years once such initiative is the waste to energy program implemented by ministry of new and renewable energy see this program provides central financial assistance to support the setting up of biocng generation plants from urban industrial and agricultural waste see this is the first step taken by the government to accelerate the biocng plant installation secondly under satat initiative the government envisions setting up of 5000 biocng plants here satat is nothing but sustainable alternative towards affordable transportation initiative as per the initiative the production target is 15 million metric tons of biocng by 2023 to 24 the initiative encourages entrepreneurs to establish biocng plants and supply biocng to oil marketing companies for uses automotive fuel and then the department of drinking water and sanitation launched the go bar dance scheme that is galvanizing organic bio agro resources dance scheme this scheme provides financial assistance for setting up cluster or community level biogas plants and it is focused primarily on solid waste management and then to support research and development eight biogas development and training centers have been established at premier institutions in India these centers provide technical assistance research testing and validation of new biogas models as well as training and skill development additionally the ministry of road transport and highways has amended the central motor vehicle rules this amendment allows the usage of biocng in the motor vehicles see these are some of these steps taken to accelerate the usage of biocng now with this we have come to the end of this article discussion in this discussion we saw about biocng how it is produced its constituents its characteristics and finally we ended our discussion by seeing some of the initiatives taken by the government to accelerate the usage of biocng now with these points let us move on to the next part of the discussion that is the practice prelims question discussion see today we have four prelims questions i will solve three of them and one of the music was question for you now let us take this first question Aira with Pratyush Mihir recently seen in news are related to which of the following option a super computers option b Indian naval ships option c anti-tank missiles and option d drone technologies see Pratyush and Mihir are two high performance computing units unveiled in 2018 see Pratyush is a 4.0 petaflop unit at IITM Pune and Mihir is a 2.8 petaflop unit at national center for medium range weather forecasting noida so together they provide a combined output of 6.8 metaflops and very recently the AI supercomputer Aira with installed at the center for development of advanced computing has been ranked the 75th in the world so the correct answer to this question is option a now moving on to the next question see this question is a previous question which was asked in the year 2017 the question says which of the following are envisaged by the right against exploitation in the constitution of India statement one prohibition of traffic and human beings and forced labor statement two abolition of untouchability statement three protection of the interests of minorities statement four prohibition of employment of children and factories and mines see right against exploitation includes article 23 and article 24 article 23 prohibits traffic in human beings and forced labor and article 24 prohibits employment of children in factories and mines so the correct answer is option C know that abolition of untouchability comes under right to equality and the article number is article 17 and this protection of the interest of minorities it comes under cultural and educational rights now moving on to the third question SATAT scheme was launched by which of the following ministries ministry of rural development new and renewable energy petroleum and natural gas and agriculture see now a discussion itself we saw about the SATAT scheme right what is it it is the sustainable alternative towards affordable transportation know that it was launched by ministry of petroleum and natural gas now let's move on to the last questions aspirants this is only the quiz question for you read the question carefully think about it and post your answer in the comment section aspirants I have given here the main questions for your practice if you are interested write it and post your answer in the comment section if you have any queries or doubts related to the articles that we discussed today post that also in the comment section with us we have come to the end if you find the video useful like share and comment and do subscribe to Shankar IA's Academy's YouTube channel for further updates thank you