 A very good evening aspirants. Welcome to Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankara's Academy for the date 23rd of August 2022. Displayed here are the list of articles that we are going to discuss today. Without any delay, let's get into the article discussion. See this article here. It is about the meeting of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Prime Minister of India regarding the implementation of Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act 2014. And the Polavaram project and the special category status. See Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Mr. Jagan Mogan Reddy requested the Prime Minister of India to confer special category status which was promised to Andhra Pradesh at the time of bifurcation. And this is about the news article given here. In this context, let's discuss about the special category status from Prilim's point of view. See special category status is a classification given by centre to assist those states that face geographical and socio-economic disadvantages. See the constitution does not include any provision for categorization of any status, special category status state. But recognizing that some regions in the country were historically disadvantaged compared to others, special category status has been granted in the past by National Development Council. Now you may ask why am I using the word past here? This is because this special category status is no longer granted to any states. See the concept of special category status was first introduced in the year 1969. And it is based on the recommendation of Fifth Finance Commission. See it sought to provide certain disadvantaged states with preferential treatment. Here preferential treatment in the sense it will be in the form of central assistance, tax breaks, establishing special development boards, reservation in local garment jobs, educational institutions etc. And this classification was based on Gatgill formula. The parameters for classifying the states for the conferment of special category status includes hilly terrains, low population density or the presence of sizable tribal population, strategic international borders, economic and infrastructural backwardness and non-viable state finances. So these are the criteria based on which special category status was granted. You note that these states used to receive grants based on the Gatgill formula. And this formula allows for nearly 30% of the total central assistance to be transferred to the special category status states. And also the center pays 90% of the funds required in a centrally sponsored scheme to the special category states. We all know that center pays only 60% in case of normal category, right? But it pays 90% when it comes to special category states. So what happened all of a sudden? See it is according to the 14th Finance Commission. And as per the recommendation of the 14th Finance Commission, special category status is no longer granted to any states. Here there is an exception. The exception is the northeastern states and three hill states. And instead of the conferment of special category status, the Finance Commission suggested that the resource gap of each state should be filled through the tax devolution. Here tax devolution is nothing but sharing of the tax revenues with states. So the Finance Commission urged the center to increase the share of tax revenues to the states from 32% to 42% and that is why the Finance Commission suggested to cancel the special category status. And as per this, the special category status is not granted to any states. And this is about the news article given here. With these key learnt points, let us move on to the next article discussion. Next for our discussion, we are going to take this oped article. See the article conveys thought-provoking message on why parents should be a part of early childhood care and education. Shortly referred as ECC. See we are taking this news article because education, childhood care, they are very important when it comes to GS paper too. So in this discussion, we are going to see regarding the early childhood care and education for them. But before that, the syllabus relevant to the article is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. First of all, let us see about the integrated child development services. See ICD is it is one of the flagship programs of the government of India and it represents one of the world's largest and unique programs for early childhood care and development. See here, the term flagship is used because it indicates one of the most important or prioritized concern of the government. See government has several major national concerns. They include health, education, environment, irrigation, urban and rural development, employment and other sectors. And early childhood care and development is one of the major concerns of the government and that is why the term flagship is used here. As we all know, ICD is majorly deals with providing supplementary nutrition, immunization and preschool education to the children. It is an integrated package of services for the holistic development of the child and it was launched long back in the year 1975. And also remember, it is a centrally sponsored scheme and it is implemented by the state governments and union territories. See overall, the scheme is universal. It covers all the districts of the country and the scheme was renamed us Anganwadi services and today we call all the ICD centres as Anganwadi centres. Now with this basic information, let us see the objectives of the scheme. The first objective is to improve the nutritional and health status of children in the age group of zero to six years. Why? See, ICD is concerned with the early childhood care. So obviously, the age group will be between zero to six years. And to improve the nutritional and health status of children, Anganwadi centres focus on two aspects. What are those aspects? Firstly, they focus on laying the foundation for proper psychological, physical and social development of the child. And the second aspect is that they focus on reducing the incidents of mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and school dropout. This is the first objective. And the second and most important objective is to achieve an effective coordination of policy and implementation amongst the various departments to promote child development. And this is the second objective. And finally, the third objective is to enhance the capability of the mother to look after the normal health and nutritional needs of the child. They make this possible through proper nutrition and health education to the mother. So these are all the objectives of ICDs. Now coming to beneficiaries, the beneficiaries of the scheme include children in the age group of zero to six years, pregnant women and lactating mothers. See, pregnant women and lactating mothers are included as beneficiaries because they must be educated about the nutrition and health of a child, right? And that's why they are included as beneficiaries. And remember that ICD scheme offers a package of six services. They include supplementary nutrition, preschool, non-formal education, nutrition and health education, immunization, health checkup and referral services. See, among these six services, three of them namely immunization, health checkup and referral services, they are related to health and are provided through national health mission and public health infrastructure. Overall, the other services they are offered at Anganwadi centres through Anganwadi workers and Anganwadi helpers. They are functioning at grass root level. Some of the other information like the target groups and implementing agency are given here in this table. Just go through it. See here in this discussion, we are going to see about the service which is preschool non-formal education provided by Anganwadi centres. And that's what the article is about. And the article mentioned some of the issues with the ICDs that is Anganwadi centres. See, the article says that ICDs in itself do not create any issue, but the issue is with the beneficiaries of the scheme, especially the parents. See, the attitude of the parents towards the Anganwadi centres is creating concern. For example, even though data says that over 70% of children are enrolled in Anganwadi across India, they are plagued by low attendance. You understand what I'm saying, right? They enroll at the centres but they do not attend the classes. And what is the reason behind this? This is simply due to the fact that parents do not consider Anganwadi centres as centres of learning. So does this mean that parents do not want their child to get educated? See, the answer is no. Parents think that education leads to opportunities for a better life. And that is exactly why they enroll their children in primary school. And data also shows that enrollment rates for primary school as a whole in India have reached over 90%. Then what is the problem here? See, the parents think that their child's best pathway for social mobility through education is through learning English and mathematical skills. So they have disagreement with the curricula of early childhood care and education that is followed in Anganwadi centres. See, the curricula of early childhood care and education for various states focus mainly on local language and they promote play-based learning. And this is recommended by leading educators in India for this age group. See, these experts, they advocate play-based and activity-based learning that is free and guided by a skilled educator. They prescribe this because an ideal preschool should have skilled facilitators and they should ensure that children spend most of their time in free and guided play. Think about it, it's just preschool, right? They're not writing for civil services examination. See, the early childhood care and education focuses on exploration and manipulation of physical environment to develop early language. See, all these has to happen at early stages because the neuronal activity that is the activity that is happening in brain is more powerful at this age. And apart from this, attending the Anganwadi for the prescribed two hours a day also helps children to build critical skills. And how is this possible? Because they play with inexpensive, locally made, indestructible toys in a group setting and this will help them develop critical skills which will be useful for them later in their life. But due to the attitude of the parents, they consider all these as unnecessary and they send their children to a learning center. And what is happening in those learning centers? See, these learning centers, they are lower level extensions of primary school. It is not a preschool at all. Here, three-year-old, four-year-old and five-year-old children, they sit in neat rows, engaged in joyless, road-based learning and memorizing of letters and numbers at the expense of everything else. What are they missing here? They are missing their play time. They are missing exploration of new stuffs at this age. See, data says that over seven million children in India attend age inappropriate private preschools that focus on road learning from the earliest ages itself. Let me tell you what is road learning here. Road learning is nothing but the process of memorizing information based on repetition. Now, you tell me whether it is needed for a three-year-old child or not. So, to conclude, Arthur mentions some of the suggestions in this article to overcome the issue. Firstly, Anganwadi centers can follow regular daily schedules. See, the schedule should have a balanced time that should be spent on both self-directed free play and teacher-led activities focused on developing cognitive literacy and numerical skills. And the second suggestion is that they can conduct regular siksha-chowpals that is parent-teacher meetings and this should be done to showcase the learning happening in the Anganwadi to the parent community and this will help increase the trust about the institution among the parents. Additionally, regular messages can be sent to the parents and this should be done to prepare the parents on the nature of engagement between the child and parent. See, this is important because parents should know what is happening in school and they should also know what the kid is learning at school. See, the adaptation of early childhood care and education curriculum to the parents' perspective is a temporary fix. But over the time, we can make a significant difference if all the stakeholders take efforts to improve the conditions of Anganwadi centers. So, in the early childhood care and education ecosystem, we need to embrace the power of participation of parents to activate Anganwadi 2.0 and that's all about this article discussion. In this discussion, we saw about ICDS, its objectives, beneficiaries and some of the issues mentioned in the article regarding ICDS and the suggestions given by the author. With these points in mind, let us move on to the next article discussion. The next article here, it talks about a new infection named tomato flu or tomato fever. See, it has been detected in India. It is detected mostly among children younger than five years of age. So, in this context, let us quickly go through some of the important facts like what is tomato flu, what are the causes of it, treatment and prevention. Firstly, know that tomato flu, the new outbreak in India is an uncommon viral disease. It is somewhat similar to hand food and mouth disease. See, the disease got its name because of the eruption of red-colored, painful blisters that expands to the size of tomatoes. Can you imagine this? See, this rare disease is caused by intestinal viruses and children aged between one to nine years are prone to tomato flu or tomato fever. This is because adults usually have stronger immunity power and metabolism to protect themselves. Now, with this basic information, let us move on to the symptoms of tomato flu. See, medical experts believe that the flu could be a development of chicken gunia or dengue fever in children. And as per the reports, the early symptoms of tomato flu is similar to any other viral infection. The symptoms may include sudden increase in body temperature, severe body ache or body pain, skin redness or rashes with constant itching, painful blisters, fatigue and dizziness. See, some other signs of tomato flu are painful sores in mouth, rashes in itching on hand, feet and buttocks. Another symptoms include joint swelling, nausea and dehydration. See, tomato flu is often mistaken with coronavirus because of similar signs. But, however, experts have cleared that the virus is not related to COVID virus. Now, coming to the golden question, is there any treatment for tomato flu? See, it is reported that tomato flu or tomato fever is a self-limiting disease. This means that it goes down on its own without any medications. Hence, there are no specific drugs available in the market to treat or cure the condition. Now, can we prevent tomato flu? See, the idea of taking preventive measures against tomato flu is to control its spread. Patients infected with the rare disease or advised to be kept in isolation. This is because it is easily communicable and spreads fast from one person to another. Proper sanitation and hygienic surroundings should be given importance. So, what can be done to prevent the spreading? Proper sanitation and hygienic surroundings should be given importance. Even though tomato flu is rarely fatal, medical attention is still needed. See, scratching the blisters and rashes should also be avoided because this will also aid the transmission of the virus. And most importantly, a balanced diet should be taken along with proper rest. And this should be done for speedy recovery. That's all for this article discussion. With these points in mind, let us move on to the next article discussion. See this article here. The article states that the Standing Committee on Finance has summoned top executives of Amazon, Twitter, Netflix, Google, Apple and Microsoft. They were summoned to enquire about the anti-competitive practices in the digital market. See, the committee also held deliberations with the Competition Commission of India and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs also. See, there are many complains about unfair business practices and the Competition Commission of India is probing them regarding the compliance. And this is all about the news article given here. Using this as an opportunity, we are going to discuss about Competition Commission of India in Prelims perspective. See, the Competition Commission of India was established in the year 2009 by Government of India under the Competition Act 2002. And therefore, it is a statutory body because it is established under an Act. See, it was established for the administration, implementation and enforcement of Competition Act. Now, what are the objectives of the Commission? The main objectives includes eliminating practices, having adverse effect on competition, promoting and sustaining competition, protecting the interest of consumers, ensuring freedom of trade in the markets of India and establishing a robust competitive environment. And this is about the objectives of Competition Commission of India. See, the Act which is the Competition Act 2002, it prohibits anti-competitive agreements and abuse of dominant position by enterprises which causes or likely to cause adverse effect on competition. So, based on this provision of Act only, the objectives of Competition Commission of India are listed. And apart from this, the Competition Commission of India also regulates mergers and acquisition of companies. The Commission is also required to give opinion on competition issues on a reference received from any statutory authority. And in this way, it functions as a quasi-judicial authority. And further, it undertakes competition advocacy, create public awareness and impart training on competition issues. So, these are about the functions and objectives of Competition Commission of India. Now, coming to the membership, see the Commission consists of a chairperson and six members and all of them are appointed by the central government. See, the chairperson and every other member should have special knowledge in the field of international trade, economics, business, commerce, law, finance, accountancy, management, industry, public affairs or competition law and policy. And the experience in these fields should not be less than 15 years or else the chairman and the members should be qualified to be appointed as a judge of high court. So, these are about the membership and the eligibility criteria for a person to be appointed as chairperson and member of Competition Commission of India. Here, note that the appeal against the order of Competition Commission of India lies before the national company law appellate tribunal. If a statement is asked in prelims like regarding competition issues, the final deciding authority is Competition Commission of India, then that statement is incorrect because the appeal lies before the national company law appellate tribunal. So, make note of it. With this, we have come to the end of this discussion. With these points in mind, let us move on to the next part of the discussion that is the practice prelims question discussion. Today we have three prelims questions. I'll solve two of them and one of them is a quiz question for you. Now, let us take this first question. Which of the following states have special category status? Arnachal Pradesh, Bigaar, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Odisha. Select the correct answer from the code given below. See here, try to recollect our discussion. We saw in our discussion that special category status is no longer granted to any states, but there is some exception. What are those exceptions? Northeastern states and three hill states. So, now we'll see what are those northeastern states and three hill states. See, special category status was first accorded to Jammu Kashmir, Assam and Nagaland in the year 1969. And after that, eight more states have been included. They are Arnachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizzorum, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand. So, based on this information, we can easily say that the correct answer here is option A, 1, 3 and 4. 2 and 5, which is Bigaar and Odisha, do not have special category status. Now, moving on to the second question. Consider the following statements. Food and mouth disease is a serious and highly contagious animal disease that affects all cloven-hoofed animals including cattle, sheep, goats, camels, deer on pig. This statement is correct. See, in humans, the disease caused by coxaki virus A16 live in the human digestive tract and it causes the hand, food and mouth disease. So, the mouth and food disease, it is related to animals, particularly cattle, sheep, goats, camels, deer and pigs. See here, the word hand is not given because animals do not have hand. Also know that food, mouth disease is a disease caused by pecorna virus in cattle. As mentioned in the statement, it is highly contagious. It affects all the cloven-hoofed animals. Here, cloven-hoofed animals are those with divided hooves. It does not affect horses or zebras. Now, coming to the second statement. Tomato flu is caused by the same virus which causes the hand, food and mouth disease. This is also correct because both the disease are caused by the same virus but the only difference is that in tomato flu, the eruption of red-colored painful blisters later gets expanse to the size of tomatoes. But this do not happen in the case of hand, food and mouth disease. See here, both the statements 1 and 2 are correct. So, the correct answer here is option C, both 1 and 2. Now, coming to the final question. Consider the following statements with reference to Competition Commission of India. It is a constitutional body established under Article 279. The appeal against the Order of Competition Commission of India lies before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal. Think about it for a minute and post your answer in the comment section. I have given a mains question here for your practice. So, interested aspirants, write it and post it in the comment section. And if you have any queries related to the articles that we discussed today, post that also in the comment section. And with this, we have come to the end. If you find the video useful, like, share and comment and do subscribe to Shankaray's Academy's YouTube channel for further updates. Thank you.