 Hello and welcome to the Hindu news analysis by Shankar IS Academy. The news articles along with the page numbers are displayed here for your convenience. The PDF link of the handwritten notes and timestamping of the discussed news articles are given in the description box and also in the comment section. Let's begin with the first news article analysis. This news article is with reference to RBI Bulletin for the month of July 2020. So in this context, we are going to discuss key important terms such as repo rate, long-term repo operations, then targeted long-term repo operations and also open market operations. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference. Now, what do you mean by repo rate? When you say repo, know that it is a money market instrument which enables collateralized short-term borrowing and lending. So this instrument enables short-term borrowing through the sale of securities from the side of borrower and it also enables short-term lending by buying of securities from the side of lender. So here the securities serve as the collateral and repo rate is nothing but the annualized interest rate for the funds transferred to the borrower by the lender and the borrower will pay interest at this rate to the lender for the amount borrowed. Now, with reference to Reserve Bank of India, repo rate is the rate at which commercial banks borrow short-term money from Reserve Bank of India. And this rate is called as a policy repo rate and know that when you say short-term, it refers to the fact that the original maturity is less than one year. Therefore, the amount or money should be repaid in less than one year. Now, let us see about long-term repo operations. This is a tool under which banks can get low-cost credit or funds from the Central Bank for a period of one to three years and the rate of interest will be the prevailing repo rate but not higher than the repo rate. So, to receive such funds, the banks will provide government securities with matching tenures, higher tenures as collateral to the Reserve Bank of India. So, the benefit of this tool is that banks will be able to receive liquidity for money needs of the tenure of one to three years at policy repo rate. So, this will be translated into lower interest rates for the customers receiving credit from the banks. Now, when it comes to targeted long-term repo operations, either operations are similar to long-term repo operations but there is one significant major difference. That is, under targeted long-term repo operations, banks will have to invest the amount borrowed from RBI in fresh acquisition of specified securities from primary or secondary markets. Here, RBI will specify that a portion of funds borrowed from RBI shall be deployed in securities issued by specific targeted players. For example, it may say that banks have to deploy about 50% of funds borrowed from RBI in securities issued by microfinance institutions or by the non-banking financial companies. Here, RBI may also give a timeline for the deployment in these specified securities. With this information, let's see about what do you mean by open market operations. Know that open market operations are market operations connected by the Reserve Bank of India where two important things may happen. One is the selling of government securities to the market. Then the other is purchasing of government securities or GSECs from the market. Here, the object is to adjust the rupee liquidity conditions in the market on a durable basis. So, when RBI feels that there is excess liquidity in the market, it resorts to sale of securities thereby sucking out the rupee liquidity. Similarly, when the liquidity conditions are tight, Reserve Bank of India may buy securities from the market. Thereby, it releases liquidity into the market. So, in the context of this news article, we have discussed about repo rate, LTRO, targeted LTRO and also open market operations. Now, let's move on to the next news article analysis. This editorial is about fundamental flaws in the governance and also importance of local governance. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference. Now, in the current scenario of COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need to manage various subsystems like healthcare, logistics, finance, administration and so forth and so on. This has revealed the flaws in the governance systems at all levels, that is from global to national levels, then national to state levels, then state to local levels. Further, it also revealed that solutions for one of these subsystems also affect other subsystems. For example, lockdowns were implemented to facilitate the managing of health crisis, but at the same time, managing economic activities has become difficult leading to economic distress. Now, we will try to understand these interconnected flaws. The first and foremost flaw is not realizing that subsystems are interconnected with each other. Therefore, their problems that is environmental, economical and social issues are also interconnected. So, if you take the global challenges listed in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of United Nations, you can see the interconnectedness. For example, as under goal number one, to eradicate poverty, we need to achieve other goals of zero hunger, good health, empowering women, reduced inequality and so forth and so on. Then the next flaw is result of first flaw, which is if subsystems are treated as separate, then the solution offered is also separate for that particular subsystem. So, this makes the global experts and agencies dealing with that subsystem to be focused only on their own problems. Therefore, they fail to realize that a good solution to one problem can create more problems for other problems. Now, the third flaw arises when they want to solve the second flaw. For example, experts in different disciplines combine their perspectives and solutions at the global level. But they forget that problems in subsystems are specific to each country and the specificity further increases depending on each state and locality. So, this leads to a solution which often does not suit people's specific problems. Therefore, the solution offered should be fit for every level depending on realities on the ground situations. So, this demands the solutions to be local. So, for this, people at local levels must be active contributors of knowledge for creation of solutions. And also, they should be active participants in these solutions. So, in other words, governance of the people must not only for the people but also by the people. In this context, Arthur notes that Gandhiji and his economic advisors and also several other experts in Nobel laureates have advocated the local solutions. They provided scientific explanations suggesting that local system solutions as a result of local governance are best possible options. So, this indicates the importance of local bodies responsible for local governance such as panchaites and municipalities. But in this editorial, the author additionally focuses on other institutions who are key functionaries in local governance such as district collectors. Now, we'll see one more flaw in these subsystems. That is, the district collectors administer their role as a deliverer of good government and they just became the deliverer of government's generosity, deliverer of government's donations in the name of schemes without much active role in these schemes. Then the next problem is that there are many schemes initiated by central government and also state governments appropriately. And this leads to overlapping or lack of expected benefits by these government schemes for the targeted people. So, this happens because of lack of people at local levels as active contributors. But those who knew this were able to realize that the role of government is to enable governance by people's active participation and not just delivering governance. So, based on this importance of local governance, author points to the recent evidences of the Kerala state and also global examples like Vietnam and Taiwan. Therefore, the evidences have created a hypothesis or assumption that those states and countries in which local governance was stronger have done much better than others in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. So, as a conclusion based on further research, author aims to bring a change in the dominant theory in practice of good government which is government of the people by the government for the people. He wants to change it to government of the people for the people by the people. So, this indicates the principle of democracy has defined by Abraham Lincoln. And for this to happen, government has to support and enable people to govern themselves and empower local governments and institutions engaged in local governance. So, in the context of this editorial, we have discussed in detail about fundamental flaws in the governance and also importance of local governance in dealing with COVID-19 pandemic. With this, we have come to the end of analysis of this editorial. Let's move on to the next news article. This article is about the Supreme Court judgment on Sri Padmanabha Swami Temple in the state of Kerala. The judgment said that the erstwhile Trivancore royal family is the she-bate or custodian of the properties belonging to Sri Padmanabha. The judgment also directed to set up an administrative committee with the Thiruvananthapuram district judge as its chairperson. So, in this context, let us discuss in detail about the temple of Sri Padmanabha Swami which is located at Trivancore, locally known as Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference. Now, to start with, that is the present day Thiruvananthapuram was previously known as Anantasayanam. It was named after Lord Vishnu and the meaning of Thiruvananthapuram in Malayalam translates to the city of Lord Ananta, the deity of Padmanabha Swami Temple. And we know that there are many lessons associated with the origin of this temple and one of the stories is that of a woman who found a baby boy in the Ananta Kauru which is a jungle area. She fed the crying baby and left him under the shade of a tree and when she returned, she found a five-headed cobra protecting the baby from the sun and the baby believed to be an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. So, when the then Maharaja learnt about this incident, he ordered a temple to be erected at that spot. Further, there is another lesson found in the world palm leaf records of the temple and also in the famous Gran, titled as Anantasayanam Mahatmaya, the Gran mentions that the temple was consecrated by a Thuli Brahmin, Divakara Mani. And it was believed that on the 950th year of Kali Yuga, a reinstallation of the ideal was done. Now, what makes the Padmanabha Swami Temple unique is its temple architecture. Know that it is the only major temple structure in the state of Kerala that represents an amalgamation of the Dravidian style of architecture and the indigenous features of the architecture of Kerala state. It is one of the most famous Vaishnava stains of South India. If the Gopram or gateway of this temple is very similar to the temples of Dravidian style, which is mostly found in the state of Tamil Nadu. So, we can say that no other major temples in the state of Kerala has a Gopram of such an elaborate nature. Furthermore, it is only one of the few temples where Lord Vishnu is represented in the Anantasayanam poshya. It is the eternal yogic sleep on the serpent adi session and Brahma, the creator, is seated on a lotus that stems from the navel of Lord Vishnu. Here, Sri Padmanabha Swami is concerned the principal deity of royal family of Travancore. The temple has references in epics and puranas. For example, Srimad Bhagavata says that Balarama visited this temple and bathed in Padma Teetham and also made several offerings to the deity of this temple. Also, Nammalvar has composed 10 hymns in prize of Lord Padmanabha. Know that he was a 9th century poet and one among the total Vaishnava signs of the all-var tradition. So, in this context, some well-known scholars, writers and also some historians have expressed the view that this temple was established on the first day of Kali Yuga. Now, when it comes to Travancore royal family, King Martha and Verma, who succeeded to the royal throne in the year 1729, also added few structures to this temple. Further, in the year 1749, he dedicated his kingdom to Sri Padmanabha and assumed the title of Padmanabha Dasa, which means servant of the Lord Padmanabha Swami. With this, we have come to the end of analysis of this news article. Now, let us move on to the next news article analysis. Now, let us take up this question, which is based on retail inflation in India. We have framed this question because we have a relevant news article in today's newspaper. The news article says that the index for retail inflation increased it to 6.09% in the month of June 2020, mainly because of higher prices of food items. The article also says that food inflation in the month of June 2020 accelerated to 7.87%. So, in this context, we are going to discuss about consumer price index, which is a measure of change in retail prices of goods and services, consumed by defined population group in a given area with reference to a base year. Know that the National Statistical Office, that is NSO, under Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, is releasing CPI on a monthly basis with a base year of 2012. So, in this context, know that there are few important CPIs for different sections of population. These are CPI for industrial workers, CPI for agriculture labor, and CPI for rural labor. These indices are compiled and released by the Labor Bureau in the Ministry of Labor and Employment. So, apart from these indices, NSO also releases CPI for entire urban population, known as CPI urban, then CPI for the entire rural population, known as CPI rural, and NSO also releases CPI combined. Know that Reserve Bank of India is using CPI combined as the inflation measure for setting inflation targets and also ensuring price stability in the country. Now, when it comes to calculating or estimating consumer price index, the goods and services are classified into six broad categories. These are food and beverages, pan, tobacco, and intoxicants, clothing and footwear, housing, fuel and light, and miscellaneous. Know that miscellaneous include health, education, transport, recreation, etc. So, all these food and beverages have the highest weightage in the estimation of consumer price index. So, in this context, try to know that National Statistical Office also releases consumer food price index, that is CFPI for all India rural, urban, and combined. Its base year is also 2012, and this index measures the change in retail price of only food products with reference to the base year 2012. Now, with this information, let's take up the given question. Here, two statements are given with reference to retail inflation in India. Consumer price index is a measure of change in retail prices of goods and services consumed by defined population group in a given area with reference to 2012 as base year. Then, second statement says CPI for industrial workers, CPI for agricultural labour, and CPI for rural labour are compiled and released by the National Statistical Office. So, from our discussion, we have seen that first statement is correct whereas second statement is incorrect. Because CPI for industrial workers, CPI for agricultural labour, then CPI for rural labour are compiled and released by the Labour Bureau in the Ministry of Labour and Employment. And we know that CPI, urban, CPI rural, and CPI combined are released by the National Statistical Organization under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. So, in this context, try to know that the index of industrial production is also released by NSO whereas index of eight core industries is released by the Office of the Economic Advisor in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. With this information, let's move on to the next news article analysis. Let's take up this question, INS Vikramaditya often in news is. We have framed this question because we have a relevant news article in today's newspaper. The news is that the Navy is expected to get HAL-built twin engine carrier aircraft by 2032 and it will be a replacement for the Russian MiG-29K carrier jets. So, in this context, try to know that Navy is currently operating Russian origin aircraft carrier known as INS Vikramaditya. A Navy is also expecting to have the first indigenously built aircraft carrier known as INS Vikrant by 2022. With this information, let's take up the given question. INS Vikramaditya often in news is. The correct answer for this question is Option A Russian origin aircraft carrier. So, in the context of this question, try to know that India's first indigenously built aircraft carrier is INS Vikrant. Then India's indigenously built strategic nuclear submarine is INS Arihant. Then India's indigenously built light combat aircraft is Thesis. With this information, let's move on to the next news article analysis. This news article is with reference to India losing Iran to China. We know that India and Iran were having a very good relations until May 2019 and in the month of May 2019, US pressurized India that it will attract the sanctions if India purchases oil from Iran. Earlier in the month of November 2018, India received a six-month waiver from US government to purchase oil from Iran. But the waiver was not renewed in the month of May 2019. So, as a result of this to avoid sanctions from US, India could not purchase oil from Iran. So, in this context, try to know that Iran is important for India to access Afghanistan and Central Asia without depending on Pakistan. This is because at present, the access to Afghanistan along the Indian border is blocked by illegal occupation of Pakistan. So, in this context, Irkhan International Limited, which is an Indian public sector undertaking, signed a memorandum of understanding with Iranian railways. This is to construct the Chabaha-Jahedan Railway. This project was conceived as a part of transit transportation under the trilateral agreement between India, Iran and Afghanistan. So, you can see in this picture that if India constructs this route, India can easily access Afghanistan and then Central Asia. But what happened now? We know that because of strained US-Iran relations, US pressurized almost all countries and private agencies from involving in developmental activities in Iran. Though India was asked not to purchase oil from Iran, India was not stopped from other activities in Iran that will lead to the reconstruction of Afghanistan. So, in this manner, India was symbolically allowed to develop Chabaha port and the railways. But actually, working in Iran is very difficult for Indian agencies because of US sanctions. Therefore, there was delay in funding and starting the railway project. Also, know that over a period of time, Iran needed a stronger ally that will counter American sanctions. So, in this context, two important developments have to be noted. One is that Iran has announced that it does not need Indian assistance in the railway project and the other one is a 25-year strategic partnership involving about $400 billion US dollars is being finalized between Iran and China. So, this puts India strategically in a much disadvantaged position. So, maybe in the future, we may even have to depend on Pakistan to get goods from Afghanistan. And this has assumed significance because one of the news articles in today's newspaper states that Pakistan will allow goods from Afghanistan to India because of its agreement with Afghanistan. And this agreement is to take effect from tomorrow. With this information, let's take up this question which was asked in UPSC-Pilliams examination. What is the importance of developing Chabaha port by India? The correct answer for this question is option C. India will not depend on Pakistan for access to Afghanistan and Central Asia. So, in this context, let's take up one more relevant practice question. Consider the following pairs, Chabaha port, Wadar port, Bandariya Jask port. They are asking that which are the following pairs or pairs or incorrectly matched. So, from this map, you can say that Chabaha port, Bandariya Jask are located in Iran, whereas Gwadar port is located in Pakistan. So, the correct answer for this question is option B. Three only. Now, let's take up practice question session. The temple architecture is an amalgamation of the Dravidian style of architecture and the indigenous features of the architecture of Kerala. It is one of the most famous Vaishnava stains of South India. Its Gopuram is very similar to the temples of Dravidian style. It is one of the few temples where Lord Vishnu is represented in the Anantasayanam poshya. So, we are talking about. The correct answer for this question is option C. Sri Padmanabha Swami Temple. So, this temple is located at Trivancore in the state of Kerala. In this context, try to know that Vithila temple is located at Hampi in the state of Karnataka. Know that Vithila is another name for Lord Vishnu and this temple was originally built in the 15th century AD. Now, when it comes to Guruvaya temple, this temple is located at Thrisur in the state of Kerala. Know that this temple is dedicated to Lord Guruvayurapan where Lord Vishnu is worshipped as Krishna. In the similar context, know that Sabarimala Sri Dharmasastha temple is dedicated to Lord Ayyappa and this temple is located inside the Periyar Tiger reserve in the state of Kerala. Now, let us take up this question which was asked in 2013 UPS Cipulums exam. In the context of Indian economy, open market operations refers to. From our analysis, we have seen that open market operations refers to purchase and sale of government securities by the Reserve Bank of India. Therefore, the correct answer is option C. Now, let us take up this question. Which are the following is correct with reference to targeted long-term repo operations. Injecting liquidity by RBA through purchase of securities with maturity less than one year, simultaneous selling of short-term securities and buying of long-term securities by RBA, banks under the scheme must deploy the borrowed funds in specified securities generally within a stipulated time frame. From our analysis, we have seen the difference between LTRO and targeted long-term repo operations. Know that LTRO is a tool under which banks can get low-cost creditor funds from the RBA for a tenure of one year to three years and the rate of interest will be prevailing repo rate but not higher than the prevailing repo rate. So, in case of targeted long-term repo operations, the operations are similar to LTRO but there is one major difference that is under targeted LTRO, the banks have to invest the amount borrowed in a fresh acquisition of specified securities from primary or secondary market. So, the correct answer for this question is option C. Banks under the scheme must deploy the borrowed funds in specified securities generally within a stipulated time frame. So, in this context know that option B refills operation twist of RBA which includes simultaneous selling of short-term securities and buying of long-term securities by Reserve Bank of India. Now, let us take up one practice mains question. This question was asked in UPSC mains 2016 examination under GS2 paper. Effectiveness of a government system at various levels and people's participation in the governance system are interdependent. Discuss the relationship in the context of India. This is a 10 marks question and you have to write within the word limit of 150 words. We request aspirants to post your written answers in the comment section. Your posted answers will be evaluated and suitable feedback will be given within the reasonable time frame. With this, we have come to the end of today's news analysis. If you like the video, please do like, share, comment and subscribe Shankar Ayes Academy YouTube channel for more updates on UPSC exam. Thank you.