 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankarayesh Academy for the date 8th December 2020. We at Shankarayesh Academy are happy to share with you about the pre-storming 2021 program which is the prelims test series for the upcoming 2021 UPSC civil services preliminary examination. Shankarayesh Academy has started admissions for the second test batch and this will be starting from 11th December 2020 three days from today. Our pre-storming program is India's first full-fledged artificial intelligence supported preliminary test series. All the required details are provided in the description of the video about this program and also in the comments section. With this let's move on to the analysis part. These are the list of news articles taken up for today's discussion and their page numbers in different editions of the newspaper. The link for the handwritten notes in the PDF format and the time stamping of the discussed articles are provided in the description box and also in the comment section for the benefit of mobile phone viewers. Now let's move on to the analysis of first news article. This news article talks about the challenges faced by police forces at the level of states. A repetition has been filed by an ex-police officer regarding this matter. He has asked the Madras High Court to provide directions for strengthening of police force for filling up of vacancies and for better salaries. In this context let us see about the rarely discussed topic of challenges faced by the police. See police in India suffer from a variety of organizational, procedural, personal and behavioral ailments and also conflicts. Some of them include, see colonial stigma. Police are functioning in the colonial mindset and they want to suppress people like how it was done during the colonial era. This is a long-standing negative image on the side of police. However we do find some genuine police officers oriented to victim assistance. Secondly there is presence of old and archaic laws related to criminal justice system. One is the substantial criminal law, one that defines and prescribes punishment which is what we call as IPC 1860. Then there is Indian Evidence Act 1872. Then there is Indian Police Act 1861. As you can see they are one and a half centuries old and they do not reflect the needs of contemporary society. And we do know that as recently observed by the Indian Prime Minister India cannot build the coming century with the loss of the last century. The next issue is poor and inadequate police community relations. In India police community relations are normally brief, contextual and even negative in nature. And there is poor image regarding the function of police in India which is not satisfactory among the public, the poor, marginalized and the vulnerable sections. Then policing is also an overburdened organization. There is extraordinary workload on average police personnel. This adversely affects their efficiency and performance. Our focus today is on the overburdened organization as claimed by the petitioner. Now let us see whether it is true or not. See for this let us take the statistics under the data on police organization's report of 2019 published by Bureau of Police Research and Development which comes under Ministry of Home Affairs. Now this report provides data as on Jan 2019. See BP R&D has been publishing this report every year since 1986. This report contains data and statistics regarding women police, police expenditure, constabulary ratio, transport facilities, communication facilities, representation of the schedule cast and the schedule tribes and gender-wise data on police forces etc. Now as per this report, police per lakh population ratio against sanctioned total police during the year 2018 is 198.65. That is there are approximately 198 police per 1 lakh population. Now this number is low and is in fact 10.5% less than what UN has recommended. See according to the recommendations of United Nations, it should be 222 police personnel for 1 lakh citizens. Then with respect to vacancy position in police force, there is an overall vacancy of 5,28,000 police personnel against the total strength of 25,95,000 at the national level. I have mentioned the approximate numbers here. See the breakup vacancy is given here for your reference. From this data, it is clear that there is vacancy of around 20% which is significant. Therefore the vacancies along with less sanctioned strength leads to a huge manpower shortage in the police department. This directly results in overburdening of work which is next grave challenge for the police force. Overburdening of work not only reduces the effectiveness and efficiency of the police personnel but also leads to severe psychological distress. Some researchers attribute this psychological and emotional difficulty as what contributes to various crimes or excesses committed by police and also it is attributed to the suicides committed by police personnel. So that is the police experience occupational stress. Occupational stress is divided into two different types of stresses among the police personnel. One is operational then organizational. When we say operational stress, it refers to stress associated with doing the job. It is caused by several factors like overtime demands, not enough time available to spend with friends and family, fatigue, occupation related health issues and other related issues. Then we come to organizational stress associated with organizational culture within which the job is performed by police officers. It is caused by stop shortages, bureaucratic red tape, lack of resources etc. Now if you take a study which was published in 2017, it states that both operational and organizational stress were significant among police officers in India, more than 65% of respondents reported occupational stress. The panacea or the universal remedy to these problems is the police reform process. Police reform has been debated for decades however with less or no results. Various committees and commissions at the level of center and states have been set up from time to time to identify the ailments, paradoxes and many other issues in the police system. However, despite the recommendations from these committees and commissions, no substantial changes have been there so far. This is because all the recommendations of these committees have not been implemented in total, that is the recommendations are not implemented fully. So in the year 2006, Supreme Court came up with a landmark judgment in the case law called as Prakash Singh versus Union of India, where the court made 7 point directives to the central and the state governments. But these directives have not been implemented by many states in our country. We have given the 7 point directive for your reference. Such lethargy reflects lack of political will and adamancy on the part of bureaucracy to implement the Supreme Court's order because neither the politicians nor the bureaucrats want to lose their control over the police and this affects the entire police force, their image, their services that they deliver to the general public and also their personal life because there is huge stress and burden on police personnel. Now let's move on to the analysis of next news article. In this open article, the author focuses on the youth of India and how to skill them properly so as to reap the demographic dividends fully amid the challenges posed by COVID-19 crisis. The syllabus relevant for the analysis is highlighted here for your reference. See the author states that India has the largest youth population. If you take 2011 census, India's youth population constitutes around 19% of the total Indian population. Here the term youth corresponds to the age group of 15 to 24 years and in this year, that is by 2020, India is expected to have 34.33% share of youth in its total population. So given the fact about the increasing number of youths in our country, it is very important to reap the full benefit of this young population. See every nation wants its member citizens to be proactive and to contribute significantly for their own development and also for the development of the nation. However, with the challenges imposed by the pandemic, it is reported that the learning processes of around 32 crore learners in India have been affected and 50 lakh young people have lost their jobs. So it is in this scenario, the author talks about the importance of vocational education and training as a way forward. The author talks about the Right to Education Act 2009 which made education compulsory for children between the age 6 to 14. However, the 21st century education needs much more than what have been envisioned by the RTE Act. This is where skills based education comes into play. See it has been found that many people acquire skills on the job or from courses that focus on practical application of skills. Now this shows that there is scope for vocational education in terms of employment, job opportunities etc and the education that teaches specific skill sets and knowledge which students can directly apply in their jobs is what is called as the technical and vocational education and training. Now UNESCO's definition is given here for your reference. Now let's see some of the government initiatives in this regard skilling Indian youth. See there is national policy for skill development and entrepreneurship of 2015 then there is skill India mission then there is national education policy 2020. Now the vital and important points of national policy for skill development and entrepreneurship 2015 is given here for your reference. Now let's come to the national education policy 2020 which tries to incorporate vocational education into the mainstream education. See there is a need to mainstream vocational education in India because in India it is found that there is lack of aspiration and lot of stigma attached with vocational education in India. This is reported also in UNESCO state of the education report for India 2020. We can observe that many students do not up for vocational courses and this is also buttressed by the fact estimated by 12th 5 year plan corresponding to the period 2012 to 2017 that only a very small percentage that is less than 5 percent of the Indian workforce in the age group of 19 to 24 received formal vocational education. However if you take the number in United States it is 52 in Germany it is 75 in South Korea it is as high as 96 percentage. So our performance in this area has to improve a lot compared to these countries. So these numbers are taken from the national education policy 2020. Now we have given here an image for your reference this provides what NEP states about the vocational education scenario in our country. So in order to give a boost to vocational education this new education policy strives to provide vocational education to 50 percent of all learners by the year 2025 and schools are encouraged to provide access to vocational education from grade six onwards and the schools are also encouraged to offer courses aligned to local economies and to benefit local communities. But one of the important prerequisite for these things to happen particularly from the school level is inter ministerial cooperation between the skill development ministry and also the union ministry of education. Now let's come to the way forward to mainstream vocational education one we have to debunk or destabilize or invalidate the myths surrounding vocational education then there is a need for high quality research on proving the benefits of vocational education. For example research is now proving that technical vocational education and training graduates for entry level jobs can be paid as much as university graduates and for some jobs vocational education graduates surpass them in the salary. It is also reported that students from vocational streams take less time to find jobs compared to university graduates. Then it is important to make employers to know and understand the economic prudence of hiring youth who have studied vocational courses. This will make economic sense and will solve the problem of employers in finding employees with required skill set. Finally the author concludes the article by saying that to reap demographic dividends and to get out of the disaster caused by COVID-19 to the economy a skill based vocational education is the way forward. This discussion assumes significance in the light of becoming a skill capital in the world and also to achieve SDG goal number four which is ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and to promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. In this particular goal there is target 4.4 which states by 2030 member states have to substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills which include technical and vocational skills for employment for decent jobs and for entrepreneurship. With this we come to the end of analysis of this news article. Now let's move on to next article. Now let's take up this news article which talks about an approval given by Supreme Court to the central government to lay the foundation stone of central Vista project. However without starting any other construction work previously many petitions were filed in supreme court that alleged the government of illegally changing the land use rules for this central Vista project. In this regard supreme court had issued notice to the government and it has sought answers to the questions and allegations that are raised in the petitions. The court also showed its displeasure with the government for aggressively continuing with the construction demolition and shifting of trees despite petitions concerning the legality of the project that were in the supreme court. So now that there is go ahead nod from the supreme court and this comes after the government has showed that it will temporarily suspend the construction or demolition of buildings and the shifting of trees in this central Vista area until the pronouncement of judgment in all these cases. However the government can go ahead with the procedural formalities and processes without altering the status of the question decides in any manner. It can also continue with the foundation stone laying ceremony or program which is scheduled on December 10 2020. In this context let us see some important information regarding the central Vista and the project. See the central Vista of New Delhi it houses Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House, North Block and South Block, India Gate, National Archives etc. All these iconic buildings were constructed before 1931 and that is the year in which the new capital was inaugurated. So to see the history in December 1911 George V made an announcement in Delhi Darbar to shift the capital of India from Calcutta to Delhi and the task of constructing a new city was given to Edwin Lutians. In this regard the Parliament House building was designed by Edwin and Herbert Baker. The Rashtrapati Bhavan was designed by Edwin. The secretariat that includes North Block and South Block was designed by Herbert. Now the central Vista development or redevelopment project it is a government's plan for the construction of new parliament building which will be close to the existing parliament house. The project was proposed by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs last year that is in 2019. The proposal envisages construction of triangular parliament building, common central secretariat and revamping the 3 kilometer long Rajpath. Now let's see the objectives of the project. One is to upgrade parliament space and facilities, then to consolidate, rationalize and synergize government functioning, then to refurbish and better equip the central Vista Avenue which includes majority of Rajpath stretch and row of government offices that are parallel to the stretch of Rajpath and one another objective is to strengthen cultural institutions in this central Vista area. What were the reasons cited by the government for carrying out this project? One is that most of the office buildings of government of India were built in an unplanned manner taking exception to some of the important structures like Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament etc. Secondly the Parliament House building came up in 1927 and it is declared as heritage building and now its facilities and infrastructure are not enough or inadequate to meet the present demand. Thirdly the offices of central government are spread over different locations, this affects inter-departmental coordination and also leads to unnecessary travel, related costs, congestion and pollution. Therefore also according to the government most of the existing buildings have outlived their structural lives. Fourthly the Rajpath and the Avenue in central Vista that includes greens and water bodies adjoining it, it symbolizes the magnificence of the capital city and it is also a tourist place of national importance. So the government finds it necessary to upgrade its facilities and to rejuvenate the green spaces and finally the development of common central secretariat is expected to create modern workspaces that has latest technology so as to promote better productivity and efficient utilization of human resources. So these are some of the reasons cited by the government for carrying out this central Vista project. With this we come to the end of analysis of this news article. Now let's move on to next article. This editorial article deals with why there is democratic action by farmers in New Delhi and in other parts of India requesting to repeal the recent form laws and the Essential Commodities Amendment Act. In this context the author discusses on the farmer unfriendly aspects of these legislations and how they constitute violation of important constitutional safeguards. The syllabus relevant for the analysis is highlighted here for your reference. See when we say three form laws one refers to the farmers produce trade and commerce promotion and facilitation act of 2020 then the other is the farmers empowerment and protection agreement on price assurance and farm services act 2020 and the other is the Essential Commodities Amendment Act 2020. First the author talks about what these form legislations could do to the process of buying and selling of farm produce. See if these laws are enforced in a course of time most of these processes could become digital. However farmers majority of them lacking skill computer and internet knowledge and expertise in negotiation and also with reference to arriving at the farming agreement or contract may eventually provoke farmers in hiring middlemen which will increase the operational cost of the farmer making out of pocket expenditure for these issues which will ruin her or his income. Now expertise from the side of farmer is expected to bring a favorable farming agreement or a win-win farming agreement or contract in the context of the farmer's agreement on price assurance and farm services act 2020. See if there is not a win-win farm agreement then farmers will surely be at disadvantage. This may put the livelihood of farmers at risk affecting their right to life under article 21. Now how this affects article 21 see right to livelihood is an implied fundamental right under article 21 and also know that this also interferes with the freedom of a farmer to carry out her own trade under article 19 1 G which states that all citizens shall have the right to practice any profession or to carry on any occupation, trade or business. Now these aspects also violate article 43 in Directive Principles of State Policy as well as the contracts of farming agreements could affect the conditions of work ensuring a decent standard of living. So in this way the author observes that these laws are the claimed reforms violate constitutional safeguards. Next we will see how the laws lack legal framework. See agriculture comes under state list it is argued that the center in no way has jurisdiction to enact these laws. However we should note that under entry 33 of concurrent list the center could defend its stand of making laws as saying foodstuffs include farm produce. The author alleges that by bringing these laws center has infringed upon the powers given to the state under entries 14, 18, 28 and 46 of the state list or list 2. Now since it infringes upon the powers of state the laws challenge the aspects of separation of powers aspects of federal system guaranteed by the constitution. There is also one another concern that the state's revenue are also getting affected given the fact if farmers chose to sell outside the APMC Mondays. Then the authors perceive that the definition of farmers in the laws have gaps or leads to confusions or there is lack of clarity. If you take these legislations farmer the term farmer is defined as an individual who's engaged in the production of farmers produce by self or by hired labor or otherwise and includes the farmer producer organization. Now the author criticizes that the definition excludes the cropper, laborer and tillers or it fails to explicitly mention them in the definition. Now however note that in section 3 of farmers agreement on price assurance and farm services act the term sharecropper is defined as a tiller or occupier of a farmland who formally or informally agrees to give a fixed share of crop or to pay fixed amount to the landowner for growing or rearing of farming produce. Others then turn to the aspects of quality grade and standards of farming produce as mentioned in the farming agreement. Now it is mentioned that the parties entering into a farming agreement may require as the condition that such mutually acceptable quality grade and standards shall be monitored and shall be certified during the process of cultivation or rearing or at the time of delivery by third party qualified assayers to ensure impartiality and fairness. Now this again is reportedly further weakens the position of farmer that it may lead to exploitation. The standards have to be met as per the conditions in the farming agreement of the contract so farmers are burdened to develop their produce to match the given standards to be certified by a third party whose opinions are not having adequate checks and balances in these laws and over a period of time this may also lead to barren lands due to over usage of chemicals or excess plantation source to abide by these agreed conditions or made to agreed conditions. Then the authors also mentioned that some terms particularly terms like extraordinary circumstances, extraordinary price rise these terms are found to be more subjective and also pay away for different interpretations. So based on all these points that we have just discussed the authors conclude that the farm acts are found to be in collision with the constitutional safeguards and also they do not have a legal standing particularly in the context of seven schedule and separation of powers and also present several challenges to farmers. With this we come to the end of analysis of this news article now let's move on to next article. This news article is with reference to the recent legislative elections of Venezuela. The elections resulted in President Nicolas winning control of the new national assembly of the country. The elections were boycotted by the main opposition parties that were supported and backed by the United States. See many countries including US, Canada and Brazil they have said that they would not recognize the results as they are of the opinion that the election results did not reflect the will of the people of Venezuela meaning they are alleging that elections were won by means of fraud and it was an attempt by Nicolas to legitimize his dictatorship. Even the organization of American states said that they won't accept the results. It is in this context let us have a brief understanding about this organization of American states. See it brings together all 35 independent states of the Americas and constitutes the main political, juridical and social governmental forum there. It is the world's oldest regional organization. It is dated back to the first international conference of American states that was held in Washington DC from October 1889 to April 1890. Now this meeting approved the establishment of International Union of American Republics that subsequently led to the creation of inter-American system that has a set of provisions and institutions. Inter-American system is called as the oldest international institutional system. This system evolved into organization of American states which was established in the year 1948 with the signing of Charter of Organization of American States. This charter was signed in Bogota in Colombia. The charter entered into force in December 1951. Article one of the charter states that it's same as to bring an order of peace and justice to promote solidarity, strength and collaboration, defense sovereignty, territorial integrity and the independence of the member nations. The organization uses four pronged approach to effectively implement its essential purposes based on its main pillars which are democracy, human rights, security and development. It is important to take note of the terms democracy and human rights in this organization. See at present it has 72 permanent observers. India is also one of the permanent observers along with European Union. Now coming to the supreme organ in this organization it is the General Assembly. It comprises of delegations of all the member states who are represented at the General Assembly and everyone has the right of one vote. There is also permanent council. It attends to the matters entrusted to it by the General Assembly. The council also monitors maintenance of friendly relations and also observance of standards governing the general secretariat operations. So these are some of the information with reference to the organization of American states. Now let's move on to the next part of the discussion which is the practice questions discussion session. Now see this question which is with reference to committees or commissions that are related to police reforms. Four committees or commissions are given. We are asked to select the correct answer. Correct answer for this question is option B 2 and 4 only. See Santanam committee's official name is committee on prevention of corruption. As we know central vigilance commission was set up based on its recommendations. Coming to the official name of Mandel commission it is second backward classes commission 1979. It was asked to determine the criteria to identify socially and educationally backward classes in our country and to recommend steps for their advancement. One of the important recommendations of this commission is that 27% of government jobs should be to serve for the socially and educationally backward classes. Correct answer option B 2 and 4 only. Now see this question we have to match correctly with the heritage buildings given in list 1 and the associated personality given in list 2. The correct answer for this question is option A. Now see this question with reference to organization of American states. Two statements are given. They are asking which of those statements are correct. It was established during the first world war. Now the statement here itself becomes incorrect. The organization dates back to the first international conference of American states held in Washington from October 1889 to April 1890. From then it evolved into inter-American system which further evolved into organization of American states which was established in the year 1948 with the signing of its charter in Columbia. First statement is incorrect. Second statement is correct as India is a permanent observer to this organization. Correct answer option B 2 only. Now see this mains practice question in GS2 with reference to vocational education. You can write answers to this question and post your answers in the comment section. With this we come to the end of today's the Hindunus analysis. 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