 Dear viewers, an announcement. Shankar Ayes Academy starts a new exclusive batch under the pre-fit program. This batch will start from 22nd March 2021. We are starting another fresh batch under pre-fit mainly because of numerous requests that we have received after the launch of the first batch under pre-fit which started on February 15, 2021, which will conclude by 16 May 2021. Coming to this fresh batch, the academy is conducting a free entrance exam on coming Sunday that is on 14th March. The syllabus for the entrance exam will be UPSC Civil Services Prelims syllabus for GS and CSAT. Though it's a free entrance exam, registration is mandatory. Students who secure top 100 ranks in the entrance exam will be eligible for subsidized fee structure of rupees 800 plus GST per month. For other students, that is for students who found it challenging to come in top 100 ranks and for direct admissions, the fee structure will be rupees 1600 plus GST per month. One of the important modifications we have made for this new batch is that longer daily test windows available. That is in this batch, students can take daily tests in the 4 hour time frame from 7am to 11am. Numerous working professionals who are aspirants have requested for such extended time window and therefore to accommodate varied circumstances of aspirants in taking daily tests, this extended time window is available under this new batch. The link for the detailed brochure, plan summary and more information related to this new fresh batch are available in the description. Through the links in the description, you can also register for this free entrance exam. With this, let's move on to the analysis for today. These are the list of news articles selected for today's analysis 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 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. See this oped article which was written by a retired IG of Police of Central Reserve Police Force. He talks about the issues that are present with respect to appointments of heads to some of the central forces. So in this context let us understand in brief about the central forces that are mentioned in the article and also their important mandates. Then we will be seeing the views of the author that are given in the oped article. The syllabus relevant for the analysis is highlighted here for your reference. You see as we know under the constitution, police and public order are state subject under the 7th Schedule to the Indian Constitution. However, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs assists the state governments by providing the support of Central Armed Police Forces. Here when we say Central Armed Police Forces, it refers to or it means the common name of 7 forces which are Assam Rifles, BLSF, Central Industrial Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, National Security Guard and Sasastra Seema Ball. And all of them have their own primary roles and apart from that all CAPFs are involved in assisting police or the state police in law and order situations and they also assist army in counter terrorist operations or in coin operations, counter insurgency operations. Now talking about Central Police Organizations, they include Intelligence Bureau, CBI, BPRD that is Bureau of Police Research and Development, NCRB that is National Crime Records Bureau, the National Investigation Agencies, Sardar Vallabhai, National Police Academy in Hyderabad, the North Eastern Police Academy in Shillong, the National Institute of Chronology and Foreign Science which offers postgraduate courses or master's degree in Criminology etc. Now in today's discussion the author discusses or talks about CRPF, CBI, BSF, NSG and BPRD. So we will have a brief understanding about these forces. Coming to CRPF, see it is a Premier Central Police Force of Government of India for the purposes of internal security. Came into existence before independence in 1939 as Crown Representative's Force. It became CRPF by the enactment of CRPF Act in 1949. The force has around 246 battalions, it also includes women battalions, cobra battalions etc. CCRPF is the largest Central Police Force. It is under the Admin Control of Ministry of Home Affairs. The mission is to enable the Government to maintain rule of law, public order and internal security in an effective and efficient manner. Then to preserve national integrity, promote social harmony and development by upholding the supremacy of constitution. Then this is the main striking force of the country dealing with internal security duties. Now coming to Central Bureau of Investigation, see it was set up in the year 1963 by a resolution of Union Ministry of Home Affairs. But right now CBI is under Ministry of Personnel. Know that it is not a statutory body but an attached office under Ministry of Personnel. However, having said that, it derives its powers from a statute called as Delhi Special Police Establishment Act of 1946. See it is the main investigating agency of the Central Government. It also provides assistance to the Central Vigilance Commission and also to Lokpal. See Inspector General of Police of Delhi Special Police Establishment will serve as the Director of CBI and is responsible for the admin of the organization. Now she will be appointed by a three-member committee. This committee consists of the Prime Minister as the Chairperson and Leader of Opposition in Lokshaba. Then it will have another member as Chief Justice of India or a Judge of the Supreme Court nominated by the Chief Justice of India. Now the Director of CBI has been provided security of two year tenure in the office. This has been done by the Central Vigilance Commission Act of 2003. Now when coming to Border Security Force, see the need to set up a specialized force to maintain security on Indo Park international border was felt after the 1965 war. So this led to the establishment of BSF on December 1 of 1965. This force is governed by BSF Act that was passed by parliament 1968 and in fact it came into effect in the next year in June. At that time there were more than 20 state armed police battalions posted on Indo Park border. They were all merged into this force. See in this regard we should note that BSF has peace time role and also war time role. The roles are given here for your reference. Now talking about national security guards. See it was established in the aftermath of Blue Star operation in 1984. The objective was to deal with the problem of terrorism in its various forms. See the act provides for constitutional regulation of NSD that is an armed force of union. The purpose is to combat terrorist activities with a view to protect states against internal disturbance and for matters related with this. It has two main components special action group and special rangers group and as we said already the functioning is governed by or regulated by NSD Act of 1986 and rules framed there under. And finally we have in our discussion today BPRNT that was set up under Ministry of Home Affairs in August 1970. The purpose was to promote a systematic study of police problems in a rapidly changing society. They will study about various problems of police problems of policing and various related aspects. It also aims to facilitate application of new developments in science and technology to the police work. Right now it has four divisions research division development division training division and also forensic science division. So these are some brief about these organizations. Now let's see what Arthur has to tell. See Arthur is of the opinion that many of the central forces are struggling without heads. First he talks about CRPF. See it's a force that has a strength of 3.5 lakh and though it is such a huge force it has become headless after the superannuation of previous incumbent head which happened in February 2021. And the new director is not yet appointed. In this regard a special director general of the organization is holding charge and this will be the case till a regular officer is appointed. Now coming to CBA the author notes that the organization has been headless since February 3 when the previous head retired on completion of his two-year term. In this regard it is to be noted that an NGO called Common Cause has filed a repetition in Supreme Court and this petition seeks appointment of a regular CBA director full-time as per the mandated usual procedure. Then he talks about BSF the second largest CAPF in the country after CRPF. It is headed by a director general. However this head of BSF is also given additional charges to head the narcotics control bureau. Now the author remains that BSF is a very important force for the nation and it itself is already under stress because of constant battles with Pakistan army and militants along the borders. It is also combating militants in Jammu Kashmir and also in northeast. In this scenario if the head of such a force was given additional responsibility to head another organization it might affect the overall functioning of the organizations which he leads. Similarly NSG and BP R&D are also functioning without regular director generals or without regular heads. So here the author opines that these central forces are without regular heads because of lack of importance given by the government to these organizations or reluctance from the part of the government to follow a correct procedure so that an organization will not remain headless even for a single day. See government is well aware of superannuation dates etc of all these forces but still there is some kind of lackadisical attitude from the side of government. And this will also have an adverse impact on the efficiency of these forces as well. This is because those officers who are holding provisional charge or temporary charge won't be willing to take or in ordinary cases they won't take major policy decisions as they prefer to leave such matters to the next person who is to be appointed full-time and regular. So what are the suggestions prescribed by the author? The author states that the government should announce the next chief of these organizations at least three months prior or in advance with a minimum tenure of two years or till superannuation whichever is later. Second those considered for these posts should be from among the officers who have served in these organizations earlier as this will go a long way in speeding up decisions and also enhancing the efficiency of these forces. See these are some of the suggestions given by the author while this article brings into our notice about how some central forces are headless for a certain period of time. The same is also found in the appointment of chiefs of various other important national institutions as well. So the central government has to make course correction with respect to the appointment of chiefs and they have to be appointed in a regular manner. With this let's move on to the analysis of next news article. Now let's take up this editorial article which is titled as Fire-wise. It talks about the need for a wise action plan to tackle fire accidents and also to prevent such accidents. The article is written in the wake of recent fire accident in the modern multi-storied special building at the eastern railway headquarters at Kolkata. It is reported that around nine men including four firefighters, police officer and some railway staff died in this accident. In this relation we will discuss some important points mentioned by the author in this article. The syllabus relevant for the analysis is highlighted here for your reference. See every year almost in all major Indian cities we are facing some kind of destructive fire accidents and it is found that at most cases many of these accidents are preventable in nature provided there was proper attention and proper maintenance. In fact it is said that even the recent fire accident at Kolkata is an example for this as the prima facie report or preliminary account about the fire said that poor attention to fire safety basics and absence of robust fire mitigation technologies are some of its causes. See earlier also Kolkata faced a massive fire in a slum neighborhood that is located at Bagh Bazaar area in the beginning of this year and with the recent accident in the particular place it is reported that it would consume a lot of time and effort so as to bring back the situation there to normal in the middle of the election campaigns for the state legislative assembly and with every new fire accident what gets highlighted is whether the particular location or the particular building has adopted modern technology and modern preparedness to prevent fire accidents. Even the recent fire at the Kolkata can be considered as a case that sets a precedent for other cases that involve the same question and based on this it is asked that the center should be made to report on its compliance to the fire safety norms that are prescribed in the national building code. Very basic things like smoke alarms sprinkler systems even these which are cheap are not being universally adopted even at public buildings or government buildings. See when we say about the national building code see it is a national instrument that was first published in 1970. The recent code is NBC 2016. Now this code it provides guidelines for the regulation of building construction activities for all agencies across India. Following the provisions of this code and adhering to the guidelines mentioned there is expected to have good construction design that will prevent various damages including fire accidents. See this code contains administrative regulations, development control rules, fire safety requirements, material stipulation, design construction and also the approach to sustainability asset and facility management. See this is a model code in other words it is recommendationary in nature it is not binding. However you note that this national building code is not binding though released by Bureau of Indian Standards or it is a just a model code. Now the recent preventable accident at Kolkata also highlights the need to review the progress of a model bill of 2019 which sought to provide for maintenance of fire and emergency service for the states. See this bill deals with effective provisions for fire prevention and safety measures in various types of buildings and premises in the state and also deals with various other related matters. Some of its provisions include organization superintendents control and maintenance of fire and emergency service then fire and emergency response then water supply general measures for fire prevention and life safety measures establishment of fire and emergency training institute then constitution of fire prevention and life safety fund and some offenses and penalties related to non-adherence to some of the provisions in the bill. We said it is a model bill this is because fire service is a state subject and it has been included as a municipal function under 12th schedule of constitution of India in terms of article 243 capital W. What is the need for bringing such model bill see because over a period of time or over the decades the role of fire service has changed. At present fire service is being utilized not only in responding to fire incidents but also for responding to local emergencies. What can we say is local emergency say for example building collapse search and rescue operations nuclear or biological disasters even train or road accidents. See apart from giving response to these incidents or accidents fire prevention and mitigation also assume more importance because of the increasing number of fire accidents day by day particularly this is visible in urban areas but it is reported that the scope of fire service legislation or rules in many states or union territories is still restricted for managing local fires only. So that is one of the reasons why there is need to strengthen fire service at the level of states or in rural and urban areas. Have a look at this imaged source from NCRB report on death toll from accidental fires as per the report the total number of people who died due to fire accidents in India range to about 10,915 which is a very high number and this proves the urgent need to make fire safety upgradation for public buildings in a mission mode and this can be effectively done by bringing such structures under the influence of public liability insurance that will be paid by respective government departments or other appropriate authorities. Now the idea is that if there is accident there will be compensation that will be given to victims but that is after the accident but when there is some liability insurance concept the appropriate authority responsible for insurance will ensure that there is proper safety mechanisms so that there is no accidents know that a public liability insurance it offers protection to individuals businesses and specified organizations against claims of injury or damage that is caused by hazards in their firm for which they are found legally liable. While we talk much about public buildings public liability insurance etc in this article similar processes should also be applied even to officers and multi-storied residential buildings etc so as to eliminate any uncertainty or to eliminate the possibility of such disasters or to have a effective response when such disaster or such accidents strike. See at the end of the day like we usually say prevention is better than cure safety will favor only those who are prepared for it so these are some of the important information with reference to the analysis of this article now let's move on to next part of the discussion. This news article highlights how some of the judgments given by higher judiciary that is by high courts and the supreme court are having a strong lineation to the patriarchal tendencies that are and that were existing in the society. The author quotes the result of a survey by Thomson Reuters foundation in 2018 that has rated India as the most dangerous country for women and the author also cites that in the year 2019 as per national crime records bureau report as many as more than 30,000 rape offenses were officially reported much of such offenses were not reported formally at the police station or to the police authorities while this is the scenario broadly the expectation from the judiciary is to make sure that the offenders get punished for such heinous acts however in many verdicts we have found that even judges at higher judiciary lack gender sensitization in this aspect the author has cited various observations made by judges of higher judiciary that reflect the patriarchal tendency of the judicial institutions for example in the case related to gang rape of a woman there 1995 the matter is still subsidized and it is in appeal under the supreme court prior to this Rajasthan High Court it gave an acquittal order by giving absurd reasons some of the reasons go perfectly contrary from a gender perspective for example it stated that a higher caste man cannot rape a lower caste woman for reasons of purity in other words to maintain his purity a higher caste man will not rape a lower caste woman then it stated her husband could not have watched his wife being raped this means as if the husband will fight against the particular person or group of persons it was a gang rape and will save his wife and then it went on saying men who are 60 to 70 years old cannot commit rape and one relative cannot commit rape in front of another relative it has been 20 few years but the case has not been disposed of so the author highlights that fair trials in cases of rape and sexual assaults are most often derailed and these are done by subjective moral judgments rooted in patriarchal notions that we can find among these judges or among the judges in the higher judiciary see these aspects are being discussed currently in relation to two things one day before yesterday we celebrated International Women's Day and the theme of this year goes like this women in leadership achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world then recently many news media highlighted that in relation to a case that pertains to rape or sexual assault of a minor girl the Chief Justice of India allegedly suggested the accused that we can help you if you are willing to marry the victim who was sexually assaulted by the offender though the Chief Justice of India clarified that his observations were publicized out of context or in a wrong sense during one of his speeches during the International Women's Day many could not understand why such a statement was actually made in another instance with respect to a judgment from Gohati High Court that was pronounced in 2020 the court treated refusal of applying and wearing conch shell bangles as sufficient basis to grant divorce to the husband and there were several other cases as well in Madras High Court also a judge apparently asked for mediation in relation to a sexual assault case or rape case wherein also the accused was suggested an option of marrying the sexually assaulted victim and recently with respect to a judgment related to a Poxo case also in fact a woman judicial officer has stated that if there is no skin to skin contact that may not be treated as sexual assault so these were all mostly from male judges rarely very rarely from women judges who are not gender sensitized as a result judiciary has become at least with respect to some judgments a product of patriarchal social processes so what can be done to reverse this trend is what we are going to discuss today see one thing is that the judicial officers those stakeholders who are involved in trial in a court of law they have to be gender sensitized and women who are part of this training or this gender sensitized program have to be trained not by patriarchal men in fact they have to be trained by experts who are specialized in gender related issues and by experts who are working for women empowerment working against gender inequality and for law students gender equality or subject on gender should be inculcated as part of their curriculum such curriculum should also be involved in training of judicial officers as well secondly we have to reimagine existing laws and judgments from gender perspective that had to be done at the level of law schools for example there could be a project in a university where students and teachers sit together and they will take a relook at various judgments of higher judiciary and they will rewrite them from a feminist or gender perspective until date India has never had a woman chief justice of India and chiefs being women are very very rare phenomena in India and as of September 2020 there were only two supreme court judges and 78 high court judges who were women so there should be a increase in women's representation in the judiciary and also in the police we say police because the charge is prepared by them that becomes a very basic source of evidence document at the court of law where trial happens and based on which the judge will conduct trial and finally pass judgment and women representation can contribute significantly to the quality of decision making and also to the quality of justice and its delivery and one more suggestion we can save for cases where victims are women particularly in relation to gender related offenses majority of the members in the bench should be women so these are some of the suggestions through which in future we can find more sensible judgments in relation to all such cases from the higher judiciary and also from the lower courts now let's move on to next discussion now this news article talks about the report submitted by parliamentary standing committee on rural development the report was submitted to the Lokshaba in this report the committee has asked the center to increase small amount of pensions or meager pensions that are being provided for poor senior citizens widows and differently abled persons under schemes like national social assistance program scheme in this regard the committee criticized the small amount of assistance being ranging from 200 to 500 per month that were provided under the different components of this national social assistance program so in this context let us have a brief understanding about this national social assistance program see this a welfare program being administered by ministry of rural development was launched on the independence day of 1995 it represents a significant step towards fulfillment of directive principles of state policy mentioned in article 41 of Indian constitution in fact this was also asked in UPSC prelims question as this particular program was brought in with reference to fulfilling the options would be I think it is around fundamental rights fundamental duties directive principles of state policy etc the answer was DPSP within which under article 41 of the constitution coming to article 41 it directs the state to provide public assistance to its citizens in case of unemployment old age sickness and disablement and in other cases of undeserved want within the limit of the state's economic capacity and development so in this regard this program aims to provide financial assistance to the elderly to the widows and persons with disabilities in the form of social pensions presently this program comprises of five schemes Indra Gandhi national old age pension scheme then Indra Gandhi national widow pension scheme then Indra Gandhi national disability pension scheme the national family benefit scheme then Annapurna scheme if you take national old age pension scheme persons below poverty line who are aged 60 years or above they are entitled to a monthly pension of rupees 200 up to 79 years of age and are entitled to rupees 500 after 79 years of age the second one is national widow pension scheme in the scheme widows below poverty line who are aged 40 to 59 years they are entitled to a monthly pension of rupees 200 thirdly coming to national disability pension scheme persons below poverty line aged 18 to 59 years with severe and multiple disabilities they are entitled to a monthly pension of rupees 200 then coming to national family benefit scheme a household below poverty line is entitled to lump sum amount of money on the death of primary breadwinner of the family who's aged between 18 to 64 years the amount of assistance rupees 10000 then finally Annapurna see under the scheme 10 kilogram of food grains per month are provided free of cost to the eligible senior citizens who have remained uncovered under the national old age pension scheme so from this discussion we can find that the amount which the citizens or the beneficiaries get from these schemes are so meager or so small amount that they are not even sufficient to sustain their basic necessities through these amounts so therefore this program has been highlighted in the news article now let us move on to the next part of the discussion we have come to the last session the practice questions discussion session see this question is with reference to national social assistance program question reads consider the following schemes national family benefit scheme indragandhi national old age pension scheme atal pension yojana annapurna pradhan mandri vaya vandana yojana which of the above schemes come under national social assistance program see we should note that atal pension yojana pradhan mandri vaya vandana yojana do not come under this national social assistance program so the correct answer is option b one two and four only in addition to these schemes it also includes national widow pension scheme and national disability pension scheme so this question is with reference to central armed police forces which of the above are part of central armed police forces asam rifles crpf indo tibetan border police national disaster response force national security guard intelligence bureau four and six will not come in answer therefore the correct answer is option b see this question vishaka guidelines sometimes seen in news is associated with the correct answer is option c prevention of sexual harassment of women at workplace see it refers to a set of guidelines that were formulated by the supreme court in the year 1997 in relation to the case law called as vishaka and others versus state of rajasthan and others the special feature of this vishaka guidelines was that it drew upon international human rights law instrument called as the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women called as sida this served as the law of the land with reference to prevention of sexual harassment of women at workplace till the recent law which came in 2013 called as sexual harassment of women at workplace prevention prohibition and judicial act of 2013 see this main question you can write your answers and post it in comment section 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 shankarai's academy youtube channel for more updates and content on civil service exam preparation