 Welcome to Shankarayesh Academy's Hindu News Analysis, an announcement to aspirants and viewers regarding Prillams 2020 current affairs tests for the months of April 2020 till August 2020. One of the most common concerns among aspirants appearing for Prillams this year is how to cover current affairs for the months of April 2020 to August 2020, that is during the lockdown period, how to revise the topics relevant for these months, and how to check the ability to solve questions that may come from issues relevant to this particular timeline that is during the lockdown period. This is the biggest worry among many aspirants and having command over current affairs will play a very important role and will help the aspirants to sail through the Prillams exam easily because on an average 35 plus questions do come from current affairs. So this has prompted us to create a limited test plan that covers current affairs for the duration of April 2020 to August 2020 and this program will include five exclusive current affairs tests one for each month and this will help you to assess your preparedness on current affairs for each month. Each of these tests will be followed by a very detailed discussion that will help you to understand each question and concept thoroughly. For the benefit of the aspirants, Shankarayesh Academy is offering this module at Rs.999 and not just that along with five current affairs tests aspirants will also get free access to two more exclusive current affairs tests covering issues from June 2019 till March 2020. Additionally aspirants will get access to six GS full mock tests and two CSAT tests. Now these tests can be used to do a final revision of all subject areas before appearing for the Prillams examination. These tests will be provided as a set upon subscription which will allow you to create a flexible schedule as per your need and convenience. The five current affairs tests will be conducted from 22nd of this month. Aspirants who secure top three ranks in each test will get course fees completely reimbursed. So a total of 15 candidates will be reimbursed based on the performance in the current affairs test. The registration link for the test series is given in the description box and also in the comment section. Now let's proceed to our Hindu news analysis. These are the list of news articles taken from different editions of the newspaper and it has been given along with the page numbers in different editions. Now let's move on to the analysis of first news article. This editorial article discusses about the maritime tensions that has recently brewed up in Mediterranean Sea that has made Mediterranean waters as troubled waters. Last week Turkey has sent an exploration ship along with its navy to the disputed waters in Greece. To counter this France sent its warships to assist Greece. Now the main reason for this ongoing dispute is that natural gas deposits have been discovered in the Mediterranean Sea in the last decade. Let us see the background of this issue and then we will discuss this editorial. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this editorial is highlighted here for your reference. See around the year 2010 a pair of United States Israeli consortiums they explored the sea bed near Haifa of Israel. During the exploration they discovered Tamar and Leviathan fields which were found to be rich in natural gas. Since then many countries are trying to access this gas through packs with Israel and they are trying to construct gas pipeline projects through sea. One such important gas pipeline project is East Med pipeline project. East Med stands for East Mediterranean. Now here the plan is to transport gas through pipeline from Israel waters through Cyprus waters till Greece and from Greece it would be transported to the rest of Europe that is especially to the European Union countries through land. Now a deal to build this project was signed in January 2020 between Israel, Greece and Cyprus. Now apart from this there was one more development which is the formation of East Mediterranean gas forum which also happened in January 2020. Now we have to take a careful look at the members of this forum which are Egypt, Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan and Palestine. Now it will be a regional cooperation platform for developing the natural gas fields in the Mediterranean area. Now you can observe the problem here is Turkey which shares a major maritime boundary and a long coastline with Mediterranean Sea has been left out in both these ventures. So this is the background behind this issue. So when the East Med pipeline project was announced without Turkey, obviously Turkey was angered by this move. So to counter this Turkey challenged this pipeline project and it reached an agreement with Libya and we know that Libya is currently in crisis. There is conflicts going on between the present government and the rebels but the government in Libya is backed by Turkey. Now here Turkey's plan is to form an exclusive economic zone from the southern coast of Turkey till the northern coast of Libya. For this Greece claimed that the Turkish exclusive economic zone violated the maritime sovereignty of Greece. Now this is because Turkey and Greece they have overlapping maritime claims because of the presence of numerous small islands in this region. We can find some of the islands of Greece were very close to Turkey and Greece came up with an exclusive economic zone deal with Egypt and yesterday that is on 18th August 2020 Egypt has ratified this exclusive economic zone deal with Greece. Now as you can observe from both the pictures both the claims of exclusive economic zones from the side of Turkey and from the side of Greece they are overlapping. Following this Turkey sent its exploration ship to the Mediterranean waters which we saw during the beginning of this discussion. Now the problem here is that Turkey has planned its exploration activities around Crete island of Greece. Now this region lies just outside the Turkish Libya exclusive economic zone. So Greece and Cyprus have called this action as a violation of sovereignty. Now this is the reason why France sent its warships to assist Greece. So now an alliance is emerging among Greece Cyprus Italy and France that is backed by Egypt Israel and United Arab Emirates. Turkey is almost isolated but we should note that it remains as a key power in Mediterranean area and it is trying to flex its muscles and to assert its power. So we can see that this issue has now become more complicated as it has the potential to involve more countries from Europe, West Asia and North Africa especially the European Union. And with respect to European Union it has invested around 40 million dollars for the planning works in this East Med Pipeline project. This is because European Union is going to be a major beneficiary because of this project as it will reduce its oil dependence on Russia. So the author states that the tensions have to be reduced so as to avoid an open conflict in this region and a diplomatic and mutually acceptable solution should be found out. See Turkey has a long Mediterranean coast so excluding Turkey is not a wise move. However at the same time Turkey should not be allowed to bully and take advantage of smaller countries in the region. The author states that this task has to be ensured by the European Union. Now other than this you know that Turkey while it is a member of NATO it is not a member of European Union and recently issues are building between Turkey and France as well with respect to clandestine support of weapons through commercial merchant ships from Turkey to Libya. So this is the matter with reference to gas contest in the Mediterranean Sea. Now there is another news article today which state that the UN recognized Libya's government called as Government of National Accord has signed a military accord with Qatar and Turkey. As per this trilateral military cooperation Turkey and Qatar will send military advisors to Libyan armed forces and they will provide training to Libyan cadets. So this is a three-way military cooperation know about this development. Also know that Turkey is aspiring to become a protectorate of Islam to shift the focus from Arab Islamic world to Turkic Islamic world. Last year along with Malaysia and Pakistan Turkey even attempted to establish a counter to organization of Islamic cooperation and with respect to India we should note that Turkey is not on same pages with India on the Kashmir issue. So that means it favors the Pakistan's narrative of Kashmir. So these are few other information with respect to Turkey and with this we come to the end of analysis of this editorial. In this analysis we had a major discussion about gas contest in Mediterranean Sea. We saw about east med pipeline project and the overlapping claims in the Mediterranean waters making it troubled waters. Now let us move on to the analysis of next news article. This news article talks about the recent initiative of forest department of Tamil Nadu wherein they started aerial surveillance of elephants using drones. This comes at the backdrop of reports on continuing deaths of wild elephants in forests and through this initiative weak or immobile elephants could be identified and aerial surveillance is special as it is free from risks involved in patrolling through the forest. And in the last fortnight we have been hearing a lot of news with respect to Asian elephants. On 12th August we also remembered World Elephant Day and on the eve of World Elephant Day government of India also launched compendium on best practices of human elephant conflict management in India. In this regard let us have a brief discussion on Asian elephants or Indian elephant. See Asian elephants inhabit dry to wet forest habitats and grassland habitats in 13 range countries spanning Asia. The world population is around 50,000 to 60,000. They are divided into some major subspecies that includes Bornean elephant, Sri Lankan elephant, Sumatran elephant and Indian elephant. Conservationists do say that these subspecies may not be treated as distinct species and can be generally called as Asian elephants. Know that these elephants are sociable, they form groups of six to seven related females that are led by oldest female who is the matriarch. They are herbivorous animals, they love bamboo shoots and they also live close to a source of freshwater because they need to drink at least once a day. Now coming to the threats faced by them mainly they are poached for ivory and other body parts which are traded for heavy profit, illegal profit and threat also include continuous decline in their habitat and also decline in quality of habitat mainly because of interaction with human beings who carry out unplanned and sustainable development activities. Know that in India around 500 people and 100 elephants die in every year because of conflict with each other. Elephants come to human habitations also for fodder. In this regard a recent conservation practice was held particularly we saw this information with reference to the state of Odisha where they have started throwing seed balls of bamboo into the forest and this practice avoids humans to enter into forest for promoting fodder for elephants and at the same time it will prevent elephants straying out of forests and it will prevent elephants raiding human habitations. Now let's see their conservation status say it is listed as endangered under the IUCN red list and in sites they are protected under appendix one and with reference to UN convention on migratory species we know that with the approval of India's proposal to include great Indian buster Asian elephant and Bengal Florican to appendix one of CMS at the 13th conference of parties to convention on migratory species in Gandhinagar Asian elephant or Indian elephant is added or is at present in appendix one of convention on migratory species. Now with respect to wildlife protection act it is listed in schedule one. Now coming to India they can be seen in central and southern western guards, northeast India, eastern India, northern India and also in some parts of southern peninsular India. Their population in India is around 30,000 as per census conducted in 2017 and out of around 50,000 to 60,000 Asian elephants 60% are in India. Now there is an important program that India has launched way back in 1992 for the protection of elephants called as project elephant. It was launched in 1992 as a centrally sponsored scheme. It also aims to address issues of conflict and also to address the welfare of captive elephants as well. The project is mainly implemented in 16 states or union territories which are elephant range states in India and till now there are around 28 elephant reserves which have been formally notified by various state governments. In project elephant ministry of environment forest and climate change provides financial and technical support to the major elephant range states in the country. So these are some of the important information with reference to the analysis of this news article. In this analysis we saw about Asian elephants or Indian elephant, then we saw about the threats faced by them, we saw their protection status, we saw few best practices when we saw few information about project elephant. Now let us move on to next news article. This news article is about a framework that was released by the banking regulator reserve bank of India. It aims to set up a pan India umbrella entity or entities that focus on retail payment systems. In this context let us discuss about this framework for retail payments entity. The syllabus relevant for the analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Now as we said it is a framework for authorization of pan India umbrella entity for retail payments. Such an entity shall be a company that is incorporated in India under the Companies Act of 2013. It may also be a for-profit company or it may be a Section 8 company as may be decided by the Reserve Bank of India. Now what do we mean by Section 8 company? This is as per Section 8 of the Companies Act of 2013 which deals with formation of companies with charitable objects. For example a company which has objects to promote commerce or art, science, sports, education, research, social welfare, religion, charity, no protection of environment or any such other object. Now such a company intends to apply its profits or other income in promoting the objects and these are companies that intends to prohibit the payment of any dividend to its members. Such companies are called by Section 8 of the Act as companies with charitable objects. Now coming to the umbrella entity see it shall be authorized by the Reserve Bank of India under the legislation called as Payment and Settlement Systems Act of 2007. The entity will also be governed by the provisions of this Act and other relevant statutes and directors. Now let us see the eligibility to apply as a promoter or a promoter group for this umbrella entity. Here any entity holding more than 25% of the paid up capital of this umbrella entity shall be deemed to be a promoter. The promoter entity shall be owned and controlled by resident Indian citizens as defined in the rules framed under Foreign Exchange Management Act of 1999 and its subsequent amendments. Now such an aspirant shall be having three years experience in payments ecosystem as payment system operator or payment service provider or technology service provider. Now when we say payment service provider it includes banks or non-banks that provide payment services or that participate in a payment transaction. Now when we say technology service provider it refers to those entities that provide only technology platform or only technology support for example software or hardware related to bank payment gateway. Now since they are purely technology service providers at any point of time they do not hold the monies that are transacted between the customer and the merchant. Now if the promoter entity has a foreign direct investment or foreign portfolio investment then it shall fulfill the requirements under the rules framed under the format. In addition to this the promoter group shall conform to RBI's fit and proper criteria for example the person shall have a record of financial integrity good reputation the person shall be financially sound and should not be declared insolvent. Now when it comes to capital the umbrella entity shall have a minimum paid up capital of rupees 500 crore and know that no single promoter or promoter group shall have more than 40% investment in the capital of this entity. Now when it comes to governance RBI retains the right to approve the appointment of directors RBI could also nominate a member on the board of this umbrella entity. Now finally let us discuss the scope of activities to be performed by this umbrella entity very importantly and first and foremost it shall set up new payment systems in the retail space and it shall manage such new payment systems and operate them and here in the retail space we can say it comprises of automatic teller machines, ATMs, white label point of sale, Aadhaar based payments, remittance services, it includes newer payment methods, standards and technologies then the entity shall operate clearing and settlement systems for participating banks and non-banks. It has to identify and manage relevant risks like risks in settlement, credit risk, liquidity risk, operational risk and it shall preserve the integrity of the system. The entity shall monitor retail payment system developments and related issues in the country and also at the international level so as to avoid shocks and frauds that may adversely affect the economy then it shall ensure that principles of fairness, equity and competitive neutrality are applied in determining participation in the system and this entity can also carry on any other business as suitable to further strengthen the retail payments ecosystem in the country. Now know that this umbrella entity may participate in RBI's payment and settlement systems now this includes having a current account with RBI if required finally it is also expected to interact and to be interoperable with the systems that are operated by National Payments Corporation of India. So these are some of the important information with reference to the framework for authorization of PAN India umbrella entity for retail payments which was announced by RBI yesterday. Now let us move on to the analysis of next news article. This news article talks about findings of a global study on the quality of digital well-being in around 85 countries. The article also mentions digital quality of life index 2020. In this context it is important for us to know who releases this index then what are the core pillars that determine the digital quality of life and also India's position in this index. See this index is released by surf shark. Now it is a virtual private network service provider or VPN service provider when we say virtual private network it is a service that allows us to connect to the internet through an encrypted tunnel that ensures online privacy and also protects sensitive data. A virtual private network is commonly used to secure connection to public wi-fi hotspots to hide IP address and also to make browsing activity private. Now these are the five core pillars that determine the digital quality of life and overall if you see India is ranked at 57th position out of 85 countries. Now here we have given the country profile for India. You can observe that while India has performed well with respect to internet affordability and electronic government it is certainly lagging in three core pillars internet quality, electronic infrastructure and in electronic security. So these are the three areas with reference to digital well-being India has to improve upon. Some of the other key takeaways from the findings of the study and the leaders in each of the pillars is provided here for your reference. The purpose of providing the leaders is to take best practices from these leaders on relevant core pillars where we are lagging behind. With this we come to the end of analysis of this article. Now let us move on to next part of the discussion. This article states that Asok Lavasa one of the election commissioners is said to join Asian Development Bank. So in this context let us see few important points with reference to Asian Development Bank. See this bank was conceived in early 1960s as a financial institution that would be Asian in character and this institution is to promote or encourage economic growth and cooperation in Asia-Pacific region one of the poorest regions in the world. Despite several successes if you see the current scenario in Asia-Pacific region it's still home to a large share of world's poor population around 26 crore people are living on less than 1.9 dollar per day and around 110 crore population are living on less than 3.2 dollars per day. Now the vision of this Asian Development Bank is to make Asia-Pacific region as a prosperous region inclusive resilient and also a sustainable region where its efforts will be focused on to eradicating extreme poverty in the region. Now to achieve this objective the bank assists its members and partners by providing loans, technical assistance, grants and equity investments. These are aimed to promote social and economic development in the region and ADB also maximizes the development impact of its assistance by facilitating policy dialogues and also by providing advisory services. It also helps in mobilizing financial resources through co-financing operations that will help to tap official credit sources, commercial and export credit sources. Now let's see few important points with reference to ADB from Prillin's perspective. See it was established in the year 1966. It has its headquarters in Manila which is the capital of the Philippines. Now if you come to membership pattern, at present ADB has 68 members, there are regional members and there are non-regional members, 49 are regional members that is from Asia and the Pacific, 19 are non-regional members. If you take non-regional members it includes United States of America, United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada etc. India is a member since the year 1966. Also know that China is also a member of ADB but Russia is not a member and none of the African countries are members of this bank. Now if you take the governing structure the highest policy-making body is the Board of Governors. Now this comprises of one representative from each member nation that is 48 from Asia-Pacific region and 19 from Opsid region. These governors they elect 12 members to form Board of Directors. The Board of Directors perform the bank's duties full-time at its headquarters in Manila. The Board of Directors supervise the bank's financial statements, approve the bank's administrative budget, they review and approve all policy documents and all loan, equity and technical assistance operations as well. Now for us from the Pellim's perspective you should also know that Asian Development Outlook is released by Asian Development Bank. So these are some of the important points with reference to Asian Development Bank. Now let's move on to next part of the discussion. This news article states that IIT Madras is ranked as top innovative educational institution in the country under the utter ranking of institutions on innovation achievements. And this is for the second consecutive year that IIT Madras is ranked first. Now we know that government is bringing out major reforms in the education sector. It is also coming out with different schemes to promote innovation, research and development in the country, particularly in the higher education sector. And in the last five years, India has made a considerable progress in the areas of innovation and entrepreneurship. It is visible if we see the Global Innovation Index ranking. From 81st position in the year 2015, India has reached 52nd position last year. And this Global Innovation Index is co-published by Cornell University, INSEAD and World Intellectual Property Organization. And coming to Global Entrepreneurship Index of Global Entrepreneurship Development Institute, India is at the 78th position. So now let us discuss about the utter ranking of institutions on innovation achievements. See, it is an initiative of innovation cell of Union Ministry of Education. It aims to systematically rank all major higher educational institutions and universities in India. Ranking is done by considering many major parameters or indicators that are used globally to rank education institutions for innovation output. In addition, this ranking also measures some parameters that are India specific. They will be considering the current scenario within our country and the present status of higher education system in India. But the parameters of this ranking, they are primarily organized in major broad parameters with seven indicators. These indicators are related to innovation and entrepreneurship development among the students and faculties. The first indicator is budget and funding support. Now this parameter captures the budget that is spent or expenses that are incurred exclusively towards promoting and supporting innovation and entrepreneurship development among students, faculties and staff. Now then there is infrastructure and facilities. Now this parameter enlists all dedicated infrastructure related to pre incubation, incubation and advanced lab facilities that are existing in the campus. So this means this infrastructure could be used for promoting and supporting innovation and the infrastructure could also be used for innovation through startups as well. Recently we have been hearing news about IIT Madras joining with startups in promoting innovations. One very recent information is that the health care technology innovation center of IIT Madras and Helixon, a health care startup in IIT Madras Research Park. They have announced successful deployment of remote patient monitoring solutions for COVID-19. They have jointly developed this remote here in patient management system. It means doctors have less risk of contracting the disease and there is also less expenditure for PPE equipment. Now the third parameter is awareness, promotions and support for idea generation and innovation. Now here outputs of various programs and activities in the institute that are related to awareness generation, trainings, idea generation, innovation creation, these are considered. This parameter also includes any achievements and recognitions earned by a particular higher education institute in the area of innovation and entrepreneurship. The fourth indicator is promotion and support for entrepreneurship development. Now this parameter captures outputs of various programs and activities related to promoting and supporting startups and entrepreneurship development at the institute. It includes partnership made among higher education institutes to extend incubation support and also to receive incubation support. Now then comes innovative learning methods and courses. Here it considers innovative learning methods and courses that are related to intellectual property rights, innovation, cognitive skill development, startups and entrepreneurship development that are offered by the particular higher education institute. It also captures information about faculty strength of the institute who have experience in innovation, IPR rights, entrepreneurship development and startup. Now then we have intellectual property generation, technology transfer and commercialization. This parameter enlists all intellectual properties that are generated, filed and innovative technologies which are commercialized by the particular institute. And then we have innovation in governance of the institution. Now this allows higher education institute to list maximum of two best innovative solutions that are developed in-house and they will also portray the level of impact created after being adopted. Your innovation can fall in any category for example like water conservation, energy conservation, waste management, knowledge management, security and surveillance. Also know that until ranking of innovations on innovation achievements, this will focus on quality of innovations more than quantity. We'll try to measure the real impact created by the innovations at the national and international level. The ranking will also guide institutions for future development so as to make them globally competitive, particularly in the forefront of innovation. Now let's see few information related to the innovation cell of ministry of education which was earlier called as ministry of human resource and development. The name was changed to give implementation to the recently published national education policy so as to drive focus towards education. Now this innovation cell was established at all India council for technical education. This cell aims to foster or encourage the culture of innovation in all higher education institutions across the country. Some of the major programs of this innovation cell we can see that this ranking then smart India hackathon, then institution innovation councils, then there is national innovation and startup policy for students and faculties. With this we come to the end of analysis of this news article. We discussed about at all ranking of institutions on innovation achievements. It's seven indicators and also the innovation cell of ministry of education. We have come to the last session, the practice questions discussion session. See this question is with reference to Asian Development Bank. They have given five countries and are asking which of the above are members of Asian Development Bank from the given countries. We can say that Russia and South Africa are not members of Asian Development Bank. So the correct answer for this question is option C two, three and four only. This question is with reference to exclusive economic zone. Two statements are given. They are asking which of the following statements are correct. First statement, the exclusive economic zone shall not extend beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea of a coastal state is measured. The statement is correct as per article 57 of unclos. The second statement, the coastal state has sovereign rights in the exclusive economic zone only for the purpose of conserving and managing the natural resources. This statement is incorrect. If you go with article 56 class one a coastal state has sovereign rights for the purpose of even exploring and exploiting the natural resources. So here the second statement is incorrect. So the correct answer for this question is option A one only. Now this question is with reference to Asian Elephants. Two statements are given. We have to select incorrect statements. They are categorized as vulnerable under the UCN Red List. It is incorrect. They are categorized as endangered. Second statement project Elephant was launched by government of India in 2002 with an objective to protect elephants they're habitat and corridors. The objective is correct, but it was launched in 1992. Both the statements are incorrect. Therefore the correct answer is option C both one and two are incorrect. This question is with reference to the framework for authorization of Pan India umbrella entity for retail payments. Two statements are given. They are asking which of the statements are incorrect. First statement the umbrella entity shall be authorized by RISO Bank of India under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act of 2007. This statement is correct. Second statement a company with foreign portfolio investment is not eligible to apply as promoter of the umbrella entity. This is incorrect because there is no such restriction. However, if a promoter entity has a foreign direct investment or foreign portfolio investment, it shall fulfill the requirements under the rules framed under the foreign exchange management act of 1999. So here only the second statement is incorrect. Therefore the correct answer is option B two only. This question is with reference to digital quality of life index 2020. It is released by the correct answer is option C serve shark, which is a virtual private network service provider. Now Nailson and Internet and Mobile Association of India. They are part of publishing India Internet report 2019. Now this question is with reference to RTL ranking of institutions on innovation achievements. Two statements are given. They are asking which of the statements are correct. First statement it is a ranking system to rank all major higher educational institutions and universities in India on innovation achievements. The statement is correct. It is an initiative of Nithya Yog. It is incorrect. It is an initiative of innovation cell of ministry of education. Here the correct answer is option A one only because only the first statement is correct. Which of the following statements is correct with reference to AR II a recently seen in news. It stands for RTL ranking of institutions on innovation achievements. The correct answer is option A. It is an initiative of ministry of education to rank all major higher education institutions and universities in India on innovation achievements. In this question option B corresponds to RTL innovation mission of Nithya Yog and that's the wrap up practice question discussion. With this we come to the end of today's the Hindu news analysis. If you like the video, click the like button, comment, share it among your friends and those who are in need of such resources and subscribe to Shankaray's Academy YouTube channel for more updates and content on civil service exam preparation.