 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar's Academy for the date 9th of July 2020. The list of news articles along with the page numbers of five different editions is given here for your reference. The handwritten notes in PDF format and the timestamping of all the news articles taken up for today's analysis is available in the description section and also in the common section in the best interest of the viewers. Let us now begin our analysis. Let's take up this news article which mentions Nirav Modi who is an economic offender. Many of you might know this name who defrauded around 13,000 crore rupees from state-owned Punjab National Bank. This news article tells that assets worth approximately 330 crores have been confiscated under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act of 2018. So in this discussion we shall try to understand what is this act and some silent features of this act. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. First, why the government had to bring a new act in 2018 when we have many such economic offenses acts like prevention of money laundering act of 2002, then the prevention of corruption act of 1988, then FCRA act of 2010. The purpose is to speed up the process of confiscating the properties of economic offenders who have fled India in order to avoid cold trials in India. And if you've seen the recent years, many such high-valued economic offenders have fled the country like Malaya, Nirav Modi, etc. So in order to stop these economic offenders from fleeing India and to confiscate their properties, the government brought this Fugitive Economic Offenders Act of 2018. See this act provides for measures to deter fugitive economic offenders from evading the process of law in India by staying outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts in order to preserve the sanctity of the rule of law in India. From this, you can understand the motive behind bringing this act. Now let us see some of the important features. First, this act allows for a person to be declared as a Fugitive Economic Offender on two conditions. Here, Fugitive Economic Offender means any individual against whom warrant for arrest in relation to a scheduled offense has been issued by any court in India and has left India in order to avoid criminal prosecution and they refuse to return. Here, scheduled offence means those offences which are mentioned in a schedule at the end of this act. So what are those two conditions? The first condition is an arrest warrant has been issued against him for any specified offences where the value involved is over 100 crore rupees. And the second condition is that the person should have left the country and they should refuse to return in order to face prosecution. So based on these two conditions, an arrest warrant will be issued against an individual after declaring as Fugitive Economic Offender. See, some of the offences listed in the schedule are counterfeiting government's terms of currency, then dishonoring the checks for insufficiency of funds, then money laundering, then transactions that defraud the creditors, etc. Next, in order to declare a person as a Fugitive Economic Offender, an application will be filed in a special court that is designated under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act of 2002. The special court asks the persons to appear before it with notice period of at least six weeks. And the proceedings will be terminated if the person appears. But if the person fails to appear before the special court, then that person can be designated as a Fugitive Economic Offender. And once if that individual has been declared as a Fugitive Economic Offender, then the properties of that person may be confiscated and vested in the central government. Once confiscated, the property is free of any claims in any court from the owners of the property. So this is one highlight of this act. Now, if you see this provision may violate Article 21 of Indian Constitution, that is the right to life. See, Article 21 also includes the right to access justice. But here, this right will be hindered because under this act, the properties are free of any claims in any court from the owners of the property. Next, the government can confiscate the Fugitive Economic Offenders properties other than which are secured to banks, that is secured creditors on the basis of court order. However, if you see, the act does not specify whether the central government will share the sale proceeds with unsecured creditors. Next, if you see the judgments of the special courts can be appealed in high court within 30 days from the date of judgment. And this can be extendable to 90 days if the high court is satisfied with the reasons for delay. So, these are some of the important features of this Fugitive Economic Offenders Act of 2018 that you need to know from exam perspective. Now, coming to this news article, in case of Nirav Modi, he was declared as a Fugitive Economic Offender in December 2019. And on June 8th of 2020, the court directed the enforcement directorate to confiscate the properties other than those mortgage to a PNB-led consortium. Here, this PNB-led consortium is nothing but secured creditor. As of now, if you see, Nirav Modi is facing extradition proceedings in a court in the United Kingdom where he's lodged in judicial custody since March 2019. This is all about the discussion of this news article. To summarize, we have seen the silent features of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act of 2018 and why this act was enacted by the government despite having many economic offenses acts in existence. Now, have a look at this practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This editorial is with reference to handling the COVID-19 crisis. The authors of this editorial state that the existing social contract has to be rewritten in order to defeat COVID-19. So, in this context, what we shall see from example perspective is about the social contract which is explained in this editorial, then about the scenario in India in this regard in responding to the pandemic and finally, we shall see about Gini coefficient and the curve it uses to measure the inequality. The syllabus is given here for your reference. First, let us understand what is social contract. When we say contract, it is like an agreement. It refers to people who are in a society who come together to create an authority. The contract is that this authority would give some protection for the society, whereas for enforcing the protection, the people of the society have given up some of their rights to that authority. For example, till the social contract, people would have been free, but now they are expected to follow certain set of rules under the social contract in order to ensure protection. So, this is how social contract started and it has led to the establishment of various forms of government. In the olden days, if you see mostly the governments had non-democratic structures like monarchy, but this kind of social contract was modified to a larger extent in many countries in order to adopt a democratic form of government. In the literal sense, this means in those countries now the power rests with the people. And over a period of time, different branches of government came into existence like executive, legislature, judiciary and even the civil society. The powers, their manner of functioning and the rules of important functionaries were all defined under this contract. In Indian scenario, if you see the best example for social contract is the constitution of India, which is the fundamental law of the land and all those acts that have been legislated under the powers derived from this constitution. In addition, the social contracts also refer to other laws, which are also contracts or agreements that are arrived between people's representatives and the government. So, the fundamental belief or the understanding behind the social contract is that the society is best served if a government or other type of institution takes on an executive power or sovereign power with the consent of the people. So, you can see that the social contract comprises of people who have agreed to live under common laws and in enforcing those common laws justly. So, this is the concept of social contract that you need to know from exam perspective. Now, some authors who have discussed about social contract theory like Hobbes and Reserve is mentioned in this editorial. So, from this editorial, just try to have an idea of what is meant by social contract. Now, let us come to the next part of our discussion, which is the Indian scenario in responding to the pandemic. We say that our constitution is resorted to a federal government with a strong central government. Particularly, when there are abnormal situations or threatening situations, the central government has more powers. Here, take two situations. One is war or fighting terrorism and the other is fighting an epidemic or a pandemic like scenario. So, the authors take the position that as of now, the social contract is in such a way that in both these situations, the central government has overreaching powers and the lesser powers are with the state governments and further lesser powers are with the local governments that is the governance structure at the local level. Here, the authors opinion is that to fight an external aggression or war, certainly a centralized sovereign or a strong center is required and this you can relate to the powers of the central government when a national emergency is proclaimed under Article 352. In times of war, uniform, coordinated, national approach is required, which can only be given by a strong center. But if you see the authors tell that this approach, which works well in times of war, will not work well in times of an epidemic or a pandemic kind of situation. The authors tell that centralized sovereign can handle such crisis in some countries, but India is not one such country. Now, why only few countries can handle because they have an almost equal society or in other words, those countries have low inequality in their society. So, only in such countries, a centralized sovereign with an uniform approach can handle COVID-19 like crisis. So, you can see that this approach will not work out in India, which means only a decentralized approach will work. Now, let us see why authors tell so. The main reason is that the society is unequal because few are having more resources and many people are having less resources. There is inequality in income, status and opportunity. So, at this juncture, when the source of power is centralized, the response to such crisis will result into unequal relief to different state of society. And as a result, the authors are saying that there is inequality in the context of access to information about this pandemic. Then there is inequality in the access of resources to avoid the disease and also there is inequality with respect to the access to treatment. The authors tell that in a major sense, people who can afford were able to respond as required by the government. But people, particularly those who are very poor, they were not able to respond to the crisis as required by the government. And at many places, we know that families live in congested structures where they cannot practice social distancing norms as proposed by the government. And people who are in poverty and those migrant people are leaving to the native places for survival. So, the severe impacts on these people has nothing to do with the disease, but it has to do with the inequality and their inability to respond as required. In this juncture, the needs of these people, particularly to respond to the crisis, can be understood and provided by a decentralized approach rather than a centralized approach. In addition, the authors call for a state which is sensitive and responding not only to the needs of those who cry out for help, but also to those who are voiceless. So, from this discussion so far, you can see that why the authors believe that a decentralized approach will only work in a country like India. Now, we have come to the final part of the editorial. We will see about Gini coefficient from example's perspective. See Gini coefficient means see Gini coefficient measures inequality using Lorentz curve. The Lorentz curve shows the relationship between the percentage of wealth or income earned and the percentage of people who are earning particular proportion of wealth or income. Here the percentage of people is given in the x-axis and the percentage of income is given in the y-axis. The straight line OC is called as the line of equality or line of equal distribution. If you take this line at every point, equal proportion of people will have same proportion of wealth or income. For example, 40 percentage of people will hold 40 percentage of wealth. But see this curve OC, this curve is called as the Lorentz curve. It is called as the line of inequality. You can observe that 40 percentage of the income or wealth is shared with almost 70 percentage of the population and this shows that 60 percentage of the income is at the hands of almost 30 percentage of the population. And also know that the further the curve OC from the line of equality, the greater is the inequality that is present in the population that is considered for study. So, this is in brief about the Lorentz curve also called the line of inequality. Now, come to Gini coefficient. Gini coefficient is the ratio between the area above the Lorentz curve up to the line of equality and area below the Lorentz curve up to the axis of the graph. If there is equality, the area above the Lorentz curve will be 0, thus making the value of Gini coefficient as 0. So, know that Gini coefficient of 0 shows perfect equality and a Gini coefficient of 1 indicates perfect inequality. So, this is all that you need to know about Gini coefficient whenever you come across a term Gini coefficient related with inequality. Now, with reference to India, if you see the Gini index for family income was around 0.35 by the year 2011. So, this is all about the discussion of this editorial. To summarize, we have seen what do we mean by social contract and the type of social contract that exist in India and how India is responding to the pandemic and the author's suggestions. And finally, we saw about Gini coefficient and the Lorentz curve which is used to measure inequality. Now, have a look at this practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article says that measles and rubella have been eradicated from Sri Lanka and Maldives. In this context, let us see about measles and about the status of measles if it has been eliminated in India as well. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given you for your reference. Know that measles is a highly contagious and serious disease caused by a virus in the paramixovirus family. This virus infects the respiratory tract, then it spreads throughout the body. See, measles is a human disease and it is not known to occur in the animals. And know that measles is normally passed through direct contact and through the air. It is spread by coughing and sneezing, then close personal contact or direct contact with infected nasal or throat secretions. Now, let us see the signs and symptoms of measles. The first sign is usually a high fever which begins about 10 to 12 days after the exposure to the virus and it lasts 4 to 7 days. Runny nose, cough, red and watery eyes and small white spots inside the cheeks can develop in the initial stage. After several days, a rash erupts usually on the face and upper neck. See, most measles related deaths are caused by complications that are associated with the disease. Serious complications are more common in children under the age of 5 or adults over the age of 30. Some of the most serious complications include blindness, encephalities, severe diarrhea and related dehydration or severe respiratory infections such as pneumonia. So, who are at risk from measles? Unvaccinated young children and unvaccinated pregnant women are at highest risk of measles. Any non-immune person can become infected as well. Know that measles is still common in many developing countries, particularly in many parts of Africa and Asia including India. And now, today's news is that measles has been eradicated from two Asian countries which are Sri Lanka and Maldives. Now, most of the measles deaths occur in these countries where there is low per capita income and weak health infrastructures. Now, coming to the treatment of measles, know that there is no specific antiviral treatment for measles virus. Severe complications from measles can be reduced through supportive care which ensures good nutrition, adequate fluid intake and treatment of dehydration, etc. Routine measles vaccination for children and mass immunization campaigns in countries with high case and death rates are some of the key public health strategies to reduce measles deaths. See, the World Health Organization recommends two doses of vaccine to ensure immunity and prevent outbreaks of measles. If you look in the year 2018, about 86% of the world's children received the first dose of measles vaccine by their first birthday. But if you see only 69% of children received the second dose of the measles vaccine. So, you can see that vaccination is improper. And as of 2018, there are at least 19.2 million infants who were not vaccinated with at least one dose of measles. And out of this 19.2 million population, one third were from just three countries which are India, Nigeria and Pakistan. According to some sources, India stood fourth among 194 countries in the number of measles cases that was registered between July 2018 and June 2019. During this period, India reported almost 39,300 cases. But if you see India has the lowest measles incidence rate per million in the top 10 countries that are affected by measles, which is 29.68 measles incidence rate per million. Know that in India, children under the age of one get infected by the virus the most. And also, they have the highest incidence rate, which is 76.4 per million population. And the second highest rate of incidence occurs in children who are in the age group of one to four years. So, we can see that vaccination to eradicate measles remains the biggest challenge. See, in India, measles rubella vaccine is given as a part of India's vaccination program. Despite the government's efforts to administer MR vaccine, the reach of vaccination still remains the biggest challenge in India. And this is the reason why India is not able to eradicate measles. This is all about the discussion of this news article. Now, have a look at this practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This question has been framed based on this news article, which is related to the communication that has been forwarded to India by the UN Special Rapporteur to India. The communication has expressed concern over alleged excessive use of force, ill treatment during arrests, and detentions in Jammuan Kashmir. I know that this is the third such communication by UN Special Rapporteur on Jammuan Kashmir. So, in this context, let us discuss in brief about the United Nations Special Rapporteur. Know that Special Rapporteur are part of the special procedures of the Human Rights Council. The special procedures are either an individual or a working group, which is composed of five members. The individuals are called as Special Rapporteur or independent expert. The working group, which consists of five members, represent one from each of the five United Nations regional groupings as you can see here. Know that all of them are appointed by the Human Rights Council and they serve in their personal capacities. Here, one thing to note is that they are not UN staff members and they do not receive any financial remuneration. So, this independent status of the mandate holders is crucial for them in order to fulfill their functions with impartiality. Usually, the mandate is based on a theme or it is for a particular country and the tenure of the mandate holder is limited to a maximum of six years. So, the Special Rapporteurs are appointed to examine and report back on country situation or a specific human rights theme. As of 2017, if you see, there are 44 thematic mandates and 12 country mandates. See, the system of special procedures is central element of the UN Human Rights Machinery. It covers all sorts of human rights, civil rights, cultural rights, economic rights, political rights and even social rights. So, these special procedures undertake country visits with the support of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. They act on individual cases and concerns of a broader nature by sending communications to the states and others. So, based on this, only the third communication on Jammu and Kashmir has been sent. Here, communication means urgent appeals or other letters asking for clarification and action. Apart from this, if you see the special procedures contribute to the development of international human rights standards, engage in advocacy, raise public awareness and provide advice for technical cooperation. Know that special procedures report annually to the Human Rights Council and the majority of mandates also report to the United Nations General Assembly. So, this is in brief about the United Nations special departure who are a part of the special procedures of the United Nations Human Rights Council. With this information, look at this question. It is a two statement question and you need to choose those statement or statements which are correct. Look at the first statement. It tells that United Nations special departures are appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council and they are an important element of the United Nations Human Rights Machinery. Yes, this statement is correct. Look at the second statement. Special departures are not even staff members and they do not receive any financial demuneration. Yes, this statement is also correct. They act independently in order to maintain impartiality. So, the correct answer to this question is option C, both 1 and 2. Now, let us move on to the next news article. Look at this question. Recently, government of India constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Ranbir Singh. The committee intends to recommend which of the following? Criminal reforms, data protection in India, new education policy in India, labor reforms. Here, the correct answer is option A, criminal reforms. See, in the month of May 2020, the Ministry of Home Affairs constituted a committee to recommend criminal reforms in India and this is the composition of the committee under the chairpersonship of Dr. Ranbir Singh, who is the Vice Chancellor of National Law University. See, this committee seeks to recommend reforms in the criminal laws of India. So, for this purpose, this committee will undertake countrywide consultations with various stakeholders in this process like the law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, judiciary, advocates, academics, etc. And this committee will also be assisted by a set of researchers and consultants. So, in this regard, if you look at this news article, it tells that this committee has invited expert opinions and it has also begun an online consultation exercise from 4th of July. But if you see, some of the stakeholders have raised concerns that this committee lacks diversity and this committee also needs to ensure transparency and they have also suggested that subcommittees shall be created with outside experts. So, here the correct answer is option A, criminal reforms, option B corresponds to Justice B and Sri Krishna committee and option C corresponds to TSR Subramanian Committee. Now, let us move on to the next news article. Now, this question has been framed based on this news article. The question is, consider the following pairs, three operations are given and the cause for these three operations are given. Basically, all these three operations are related to the repatriation of the stranded individuals due to various reasons. And all these three operations are mentioned in this news article. This news article tells that Indian Navy has concluded Operation Samudra Sethu, which is basically India's effort to repatriate its citizens who have been stranded abroad during this COVID-19 pandemic. So, Samudra Sethu is related to COVID-19. The first pair is correct. Look at the second pair, it tells Operation Sukun, Lebanon War. Yes, this pair is also correct. This was the repatriation operation by Indian Navy during the 2006 Lebanon War. Look at the third pair, Operation Rahat, Yemen Civil War. Yes, this statement is also correct. This was the repatriation operation during the 2015 Yemen Civil War. So, the correct answer here is option D, 1, 2 and 3, since all the three pairs are correctly matched. This question has been framed based on this news article. This news article mentions that the government of Tamil Nadu has revoked or banned the Friends of Police movement in Tamil Nadu. In this context, let us see about this movement. See, Friends of Police is one of the ways in which community policing was done in Tamil Nadu. When we say community policing, it refers to participation in partnership of the public and policing. The core idea of community policing is the police are the public and the public are the police. This is because the limited police personnel cannot have a watch over the entire society. So, it is in this pretext community policing came into existence. Know that initiatives like Friends of Police movement could be in other states as well, but with different names. So, try to know the name from your respective state. Now, if you look at this Friends of Police movement, it was started in the year 1993 in the Ramanadha Puram district of Tamil Nadu. It was an initiative which was started with the guidance of one of the IPS officers who served as the superintendent of police of this Ramanadha Puram district at that time. His name is Mr. Prateep V. Philip. Now, coming to this Friends of Police movement, any member of the public, either male or female, who is not involved in a civil or criminal case, can become a member of this Friends of Police movement. They generally assist police in the police duties such as community service, then in traffic management, in preventing crime, etc. Know that their role is highly restricted. Their role is only to assist and not to perform the actual roles of police like handing an accused or registering a complaint. So, their roles are mainly pertaining to the community service like helping the elderly, etc. And in terms of law and order, they only pass the information to the police. Just have an idea about the do's and do's of this Friends of Police movement which is given here for your reference. You can make use of some of the points in your main senses if at all a question on community policing comes. So, you can see that they only assist the police. But it was found that in the custodial debts in Satan Kulam in the state of Tamil Nadu, individuals from this Friends of Police movement were involved in the alleged torture on both the persons who were taken in. Police custody, therefore the state government of Tamil Nadu has now banned this movement. We know that community policing is inevitable. So, after reforming the roles and responsibilities, this movement or similar arrangement will be put in place sooner or later. So, this is all about the Friends of Police movement. Try to know about the concept of community policing from this news article. Now, with this information, look at this question. It is a two statement question about community policing and you need to choose those statement or statements which are correct. Look at the first statement. It tells that members of the public other than the police are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the intent of the community welfare. No, this statement is incorrect. It is the police who are paid to give full-time attention to the duties. The members of the public can participate in community policing voluntarily. Now, look at the second statement. It tells that other than assisting the public involved in community policing perform any task of the police personnel in their absence. Know that their roles are highly restricted and they can only assist the police in some functions. So, this statement is incorrect. They cannot perform most of the tasks of police in their absence. So, here both the statements are incorrect. The correct answer is option D, neither one nor two, since you need to choose those statement or statements which are correct. But both the statements are incorrect. Now, let us move on to the next news article. Now, look at this news article which discusses about the controversies surrounding Varyam Kunnath Kurnamidhaji was one of the protagonists in this Malabha Rebellion which is also called as Maapilla Rebellion. If you remember during our 29th June 2020 the Hindu news analysis, we have discussed in detail about this Maapilla Rebellion which is also called as the Malabha Rebellion of 1921 and the events surrounding this rebellion. So, we request the viewers to have a look at this session to know more about Malabha Rebellion. This news article mentions about very specific events that were written by one of the freedom fighters K. P. K. From example perspective, focus more on the 29th June Hindu news analysis about this Malabha Rebellion. Now, let us move on to the practice questions discussion session. This first question is about Fugitive Economic Offenders Act of 2018. Two statements are given and you need to choose those statements which are correct. Look at the first statement, any individual can be designated foreign fugitive economic offender if an arrest warrant has been issued against him for any offense where the value is involved over 100 crore this statement is incorrect because it is not against any offense but the scheduled offenses that are mentioned under the schedule of this 2018 act which we saw during our discussion. Look at the second statement, the judgments of special courts can be appealed before district courts provided if such appeal is made within 30 days from the date of judgment. This statement is also incorrect because the appeal can be done before the high courts not the district courts. So, both the statements are incorrect. The correct answer is option D neither 1 nor 2. Now, look at this question about Gini coefficient which among the following is correct. Here the correct answer is option C, the father the Lawrence curve from the line of equal distribution greater is the inequality present in the distribution. Option A is incorrect, 0 indicates equality that is perfect equality and 1 indicates perfect inequality and option B is also incorrect statement because it is basically a curve not a line. The equal distribution is a line whereas the Lawrence curve measures the inequality and if you look at option D it is the Philips curve which indicates the relationship between unemployment and inflation in an economy. So, here the correct answer is option C. Now, look at this question on measles recently World Health Organization Southeast Asia region resolved to eliminate measles in Rubella by 2023 with reference to measles which of the following statement is incorrect. Here the correct answer is option D because India is not yet eliminated measles whereas option D tells that in 2020 India became the first country in the world organizations Southeast Asia region to eliminate measles. Know that the Southeast Asia region of WHO is one of the six WHO regions it has 11 member states including India as you can see here. Eliminating measles and controlling Rubella has been one of the priorities of this institution since 2014. So, as a part of this five countries have eliminated measles and six countries have controlled Rubella. So, here the correct answer is option D the remaining three options are about the factual details related to measles which are correct statements. But this will come to the end of the analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the practice questions discussion session. 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