 Good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindi news analysis by Shankar Ayes academy. These are the list of articles which has been chosen for today's analysis and it has been provided along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Tiruvannanda Pram editions. The link for the handwritten notes is provided in the description box below and it is also provided in the comment section. Let us move on to our first article discussion. This article is about legalizing cannabis. The discussion can be linked to the syllabus given here for your reference. In this article, the authors speak about the growing movement in the western countries for legalizing cannabis and the risk associated with India legalizing cannabis. According to authors, the growing movement in the west for legalizing cannabis is also reflected in India. So, India should carefully weigh the risks and benefits of cannabis before blindly following what is happening in the west. Now here it is to be noted that Canada has fully legalized cannabis even for recreational use. Recreational use means using for enjoyment. Then if you see in Australia, Puerto Rico, Croatia etc. it is legal to use cannabis for medicinal purpose. Then in some states of USA like California, Colorado, New York etc. laws on cannabis are relaxed. Then if you come to Indian context, in India, cannabis is also known as Bhang, Ganja, Charas or Hashish. It is because the cannabis is used in India in these three forms only which are derived from different parts of the cannabis plant. It is typically eaten or smoked. According to the authors, cannabis contains more than 500 chemicals in it but its potency or power depends upon its principle active component. The principle active component is called tetrahydrocannabinol. The authors say that in India there is a tradition of using cannabis in several religious practices. You would have heard about the use of Bhang on the occasion of Holy Festival. This is what the authors are referring to. Even the Ayurvedic texts also mention cannabis as a treatment for several maladies. But according to the author, cannabis is categorized as upavishavarga or subpoisonous. So, its recreational use is also described as toxic. Actually, there are several misconceptions about the use of cannabis. The authors who are researchers on cannabis for several decades tries to clear these misconceptions. The first misconception is the assumption that cannabis is harmless. But in reality, if you see its immediate effect includes impairments in memory that is causing damage to the memory and mental process. Then the long-term use of cannabis may lead to development of addiction and it may also lead to persistent cognitive deficits. That is it will cause damage to mental activities such as thinking, remembering and understanding. Then the long-term use will also cause mental health problems like schizophrenia, depression and anxiety. In addition to this, exposure to cannabis in adolescence can also alter brain development. Then the second misconception is that if cannabis is legalized and regulated then its harms can be minimized. But the authors believe that with legalization comes commercialization that is using it for gaining profits. But commercialization comes with a cost. We have seen this same scenario with tobacco and alcohol in our country over the past century. Because tobacco was initially introduced as a natural and harmless plant that had been used safely in South America for centuries. But later the tobacco industry invented cigarettes for their ease of use. They altered its acidity to make its use as less harsh. Then they added chemical to improve its taste. Then they mass produced cigarettes and then they sold them using sophisticated advertising also. In reality the adverse impacts of tobacco were manipulated and they successfully prevented the legal battles also. Here the author adds that the morbidity that is the disease associated with tobacco and alcohol and the mortality that is the death associated with tobacco and alcohol rank among the top 10 in terms of global disease burden. So no amount of taxation of the tobacco industry can compensate for the health deterioration on billions of tobacco users over the last century. But even after knowing the risks associated with tobacco and alcohol use, the alcohol and tobacco industries still remain legal. That is why the author says that once out the genie cannot be put back into the bottle. That is once if it is legalized then it will be hard to control. Then the author also stresses upon the difference between legalization, decriminalization and commercialization. The legalization and decriminalization are used in the legal context while commercialization relates to the business side of things. Legalization means the action of making something permissible by law that was previously illegal and decriminalization is the action or process of stopping to treat something as illegal or as criminal offence. But if you see the goal of commercialization, it is to maximize the sale of their products. Now this can be clearly seen in the steady growth of the cannabis industry in the US. Also along with this, the sale of tobacco products has shown a decline in the western industries. So, some of the leading tobacco companies have entered the cannabis market now. They have also invested in cannabis growing companies. The author says that these commercial entities who were initially tobacco companies will use their experience in solving the legal hurdles and they will overcome those legal hurdles. Then they will be successful in the marketing strategy also and they will also be successful in lobbying or promoting their products and they will also have a deep influence in the government to maximize their profits. The author is saying this based on an example. For instance, in the USA, cannabis is being incorrectly advertised as being natural and healthier than tobacco and alcohol. So, based on this false advertisement, a new range of cannabis products in the form of ice creams, sweets and soft drinks are becoming available. Now these products will be directly available to the children and the young individuals who may become an addict in their later life. The targeting of young population is one another marketing strategy of these cannabis companies because it assures lifelong customers. The promoters also argue that legalizing and regulating cannabis will undermine the criminal markets which thrive on illegal sale of cannabis. But the author says that in the US state of Colorado where cannabis is legalized, the black market has only increased. So, this means the legalization of cannabis did not undermine the criminal markets. The author notes one interesting point here. Actually in 1961, the United Nations sponsored an international treaty to prohibit the production and supply of drugs including cannabis. The treaty was the single convention on narcotic drugs of 1961. Now this convention was driven by the western countries. According to the author, India resisted and negotiated for exceptions in this convention. But now if you see, it is ironic that the western countries are now legalizing cannabis and other drugs who once initiated the prohibition of the production and supply of drugs including cannabis. So finally, the author says that before legalizing cannabis in India, we should assess the risks involved and we should consider other alternatives and the alternatives can be to decriminalize cannabis. But to forbid or prohibit commercialization, then to ensure adequate protections for children, the young individuals, those who suffer with severe mental illness. This is because they are the most vulnerable if cannabis is legalized in India. Then along with all these measures, there should also be provisions to offer treatments to those who become addicted to cannabis. Then only we can save the next generation. With this, we have come to the end of this article discussion. This news article is about the teacher training program that is launched by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. The discussion can be linked to the syllabus given here for your reference. The Department of Cool Education and Literacy under the Ministry of Human Resource Development has launched a national mission to improve learning outcomes at the elementary level. The mission is the national initiative for school heads and teachers holistic advancement or in short NISTA. It will be a massive training program. NISTA is a capacity building program. It is for improving quality of school education through integrated teacher training. It aims to build competencies among all the teachers and school principals at the elementary stage. In India, the elementary stage is up to class eighth. This program is launched under the centrally sponsored scheme of Samagra Siksha. The basic objective of this massive training program is to motivate and equip teachers to encourage and foster or promote critical thinking in students. Now, here critical thinking means the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue so that they can form a judgment. It is the ability to think clearly and rationally about what to do or what to believe. If the students are taught this at the school level, it will enable them to lead a productive life. While launching this program, the Union Human Resource Development Minister noted that this mission is the world's largest teacher training program. This training program will be conducted for teachers, school principals, school management committee or SMCs and state, district, block or cluster level functionaries also. Here the functionaries are those who are working for school education at the state, district, block and cluster levels. They may be from directorate of education, district education office or they may be from block education office, block resource center and even from cluster resource center. Now the teachers, school principals, SMCs and the functionaries will be trained on learning outcomes. Here learning outcomes are statements that describe the knowledge or skill that a student should acquire by the end of a particular course or program. It helps students to understand why that knowledge and those skills will be useful to them. In other words, learning outcomes identify what the learners will know and what they will be able to do by the end of a course or program. Then the teachers and principals will be trained on school-based assessment also. The school-based assessment will provide information about learning that can be used to determine learners' strengths and weakness. And it will also provide feedback on teaching and learning. Then the functionaries will be trained on learner-centered pedagogy. Here pedagogy is the method and practice of teaching. So this means it will enable a learner-centered method and practice of teaching. And they will also be trained on new initiatives in education, then how to address the diverse needs of children through multiple pedagogies etc. Actually the expectation from teachers in the present day is different and it includes many new features because teachers of today are also expected to be aware of the provisions regarding gender, the rights of persons with disabilities act and the protection of children from sexual offenses act that is the POXO Act. Hence the integrated program seeks to train all heads and teachers as first-level counselors who have to be alert and responsive to the needs of these students. Now this training will be organized by constituting of national resource groups or NRGs and state resource groups that is SRGs at the national and state level. The NRGs and SRGs will be training 42 lakh teachers. With this we have come to the end of this article discussion. Moving on to the next article discussion. This news article is about the aftercare services for the children leaving the child care institutions. The discussion can be linked to the syllabus given here for your reference. This article is based on a study that is carried out by a non-governmental organization called as Udian Care. The study was supported by UNICEF and Tata Trusts. This study was conducted across five states for better representation. The participants of this study are among two groups. First those young adults who have left the child care institutions are one group and the other group included the persons who are functionaries working at the field level for children. Now when we say functionaries it can involve a probation officer, a superintendent who is working in a government child care institution or any caregiver working with child care institutions or those from child welfare committee or juvenile justice board also. Now as this article is totally based on aftercare services now first let us know what is aftercare. According to section 2 subsection 5 of the juvenile justice care and protection act of 2015 or in short the JJ Act of 2015 aftercare is defined as financial or other support that are provided to persons who have completed the age of 18 years but have not completed the age of 21 years and they should have left any institutional care to join the mainstream of the society. So now what is this institutional care that we mentioned here? These are the institutions that are set up under JJ Act based on the categories of children under the act. So first we will see the categories of children. The JJ Act of 2015 classifies children into two main categories. One is children in need of care and protection and the other is children in conflict with law. Now here you have to note one main point we do not call the children who are alleged to have committed an offense as juveniles or delinquents though these words also mean the children in conflict with law because children in conflict with law simply means those children who violate the law. So definitely one should not use the word criminal to denote a child in conflict with law. This is because the tag of criminal has negative consequences among the children. It can have long-term consequences and if such a tag is given then they are isolated by rest of the society also. So if they are isolated then who will embrace them? Then they will be admitted by similarly placed persons or criminal gangs only because no one in the society gives emotional care and guidance to them. Now this type of isolation by society will reinforce criminal behavior and more and more young adults will be vulnerable to join the organized crime groups. So to prevent such things which are caused because of tagging and shaming we use carefully worded terms. So now let us see first about the child in need of care and protection. They are those children who require care and not correction or reformation. For example a child who lives in a family where there is a threat of life or bodily injury and a child is found without a home. So now if you want to know the circumstances based on which we can decide about the children in need of care and protection then you have to see section 2 subsection 14 of JJ Act of 2015. Now also know that the Child Welfare Committee deals with the child in need of care and protection. Now for these children there is a separate type of institutional care. We will come to that in some time. Now in overall in JJ Act overall there are institutions such as children home, open shelter, specialized adoption agency, observation home, place of safety and fit facility. Now here the children home refers to a child care institution that is established for the care, treatment, education, training, development and rehabilitation for the children who are in need of care and protection. So we can say this institution is therefore for the children in need of care and protection. Now this open shelters function as a community-based facility for children who are in need of residential support on a short term basis. The objective of open shelters is to protect the children from abuse or to keep them safe or to keep them away from a life on the streets. This institution is also therefore for the children who are in need of care and protection. Then we also have a specialized adoption agency. This is an institution that is established for the purpose of rehabilitation of orphaned children, abandoned or surrendered children. The rehabilitation is done through adoption and non-institutional care. Now here the surrendered children or those children whose parents or legal guardians have given up the responsibility of raising them or giving care to them and giving protection to them. Now even though the specialized adoption agency is defined as a child care institution, it does not keep the children. Rather it facilitates in the process of adoption for the children who are surrendered children or orphaned children or abandoned children. Anyway this institution caters to the needs of children in need of care and protection. Now next comes the fit facility. This fit facility is also a child care institution that is fit to temporarily take the responsibility of a child. This facility caters for both children in need of care and protection and also the children in conflict with law. Now the remaining institutions are for the institutional care of children in conflict with law. These institutional arrangements are designed in such a way that there will be enough facilities to correct or reform their deviant delinquent behavior. Now here we are saying deviant delinquent behavior because as we saw already the term criminal behavior is not used for children. So now let us see about the observation home and special home which are for the children in conflict with law. The observation home is for temporary reception and temporary care and rehabilitation of any child who is alleged to be in conflict with law. That is we can say that a child is kept in observation home when there is a pendency of any inquiry under the JJ Act of 2015. So now what about those children who are confirmed with the juvenile justice board for committing an offense? These children are placed in special homes by an order of the juvenile justice board. In special homes there will be provision for rehabilitation and reformation of these children in conflict with law. They will be given reformative services which includes education, skill development, counseling, behavior modification therapy and psychiatric support also. Now next comes the place of safety. The place of safety is for the children in conflict with law who is between the age of 16 to 18 years and accused or convicted for committing a heinous offense. heinous offenses are those offenses for which the minimum punishment is imprisonment for seven years or more. This place of safety can also place a person above the age of 18 years but how? This is according to section 4 clause 6 sub clause 1 of JJ Act. If a person is apprehended for committing an offense that he has committed when he was below 18 years of age we cannot place this adult along with children in the special homes or observation homes and that is why the place of safety also places the persons above the age of 18 years. So now let us see the importance of aftercare service. Imagine a child is placed to these institutions and stays there for a specific period of time. This means the child is not living with his or her family or the child is living away from his or her siblings and relatives. So in a way they are away from the basic unit of society which is family. So now because of living in an institution they will also be away from the mainstream society. This is because they will be either in care and protection in these institutions or they will be under reformation program in special homes. Now some children who come to such childcare institutions are rehabilitated before attaining the age of 18 but some children are placed even up to the completion of 18 years. Now this is more evident among children in need of care and protection. For those children in conflict with law special home is the last resort for correction and the maximum period for correction is three years. Now take a situation a child has no parents or no one to take care of him and now he has committed an offense and he has been placed in a special home by juvenile justice board. Now imagine this happens at the age of 15 of the child. So now let us assume that the JJB orders to place him in special home for three years. So after three years he will be an adult with nothing in his hand to live in the mainstream society. So who will help him? Now this kind of situation exists for all children who are institutionalized in any childcare institution. This is where the aftercare services come in picture. It means the ways and means to assist a child in his or life after the institutional care. Now the section 46 of JJ Act deals with aftercare. It states that any child leaving a childcare institution on completion of 18 years of age may be provided with financial support in order to facilitate the child's reintegration into the mainstream of society. Now as we saw in the beginning aftercare services can be financial or otherwise. It could be any services like helping a child to continue school or college education by providing residential support or giving financial support to start a business or helping him to get us job for survival and development or handing the person to a legal guardian who gives assurance to take care of the child after the institutional life and it can also include other measures also. Now along with all these the services also include medical facilities providing legal awareness and emotional support services. Now coming back to the news article, the news article says that children who are leaving from childcare institutions are not able to get any promising means for their survival and they are unable to merge with the society and they are unable to lead a normal life. This is because around 40% of the children are unable to complete schooling after leaving the institution. Around 50% of them are unable to find even paid work also but if there would have been effective aftercare services these children could have been made to continue their education or they would have found some job for their survival and development. The news article says that around 70% of the children who are leaving childcare institutions do not know about their aftercare entitlements under the JJ Act of 2015 but we should note one thing here. The section 46 of the Act uses the word may that is it says a child leaving childcare institution may be provided aftercare services. So this leaves a loophole in administering and providing protection and rehabilitation for such caregivers. Hence an amendment is required in this section to make the may as to shall. Now if this amendment is made it will put pressure on the state or the concerned agencies to necessarily provide aftercare services. The news article also talks about foster care. The deputy representative of UNICEF has stated that placing children in an institution should be the last resort even if in cases where children cannot be re-invited with their own families they have to be placed in alternate family-like environments. For example a family-like environment could be sponsorship and foster care. Here foster care refers to keeping the child in another family environment. This family shall provide all sort of care attention and protection and this care attention and protection should be as similar as it will be given by any prudent parents who possess apt skills of parenting such child. Now according to JJ Act the foster care is based on the orders of the child welfare committee and the procedure mentioned in the Act. Now we saw that the deputy representative of UNICEF has stated that placing children in an institution should be the last resort. So why institutionalization has to be avoided? This is because the children may not be able to get the emotional support as the child may receive from a family environment and there is greater possibility of abuse lack of care in an institution than in a family. But note that there are always exceptions. Here exceptions could be you know when rarely a family environment can be detrimental to the child but even at this time the child has to be placed in foster care rather than institutionalization. This is because children who have lived in institutional care are found to have negative effects on behavioral development. In institutions there will be strict routines, group treatment and isolation from mainstream society. But in a family environment there will be personal positions and care relationships and the child will grow in touch with the society. So that is why family environment is good for the overall well-being of children. So with this we have come to the end of this article analysis. This practice question will be discussed in the last session. This news article is with respect to reducing the plastic use by the milk industries. The syllabus that can be linked to this discussion has been given here for your reference. Recently during the Independence Day speech the Prime Minister has encouraged the citizens to make India free from single-use plastic and this has to be achieved by October 2 this year. This is because October 2 has been decided by the Prime Minister to remember Mahatma Gandhi and his ideals to prevent environmental pollution so as to have a clean environment. So in this analysis we will be seeing in brief about the extended producer responsibility with respect to plastic waste management. Then we will see some of the measures announced in a high-level committee that was held under the chairmanship of Secretary of Department of Animal Husbandry and Dating. This meeting was held on 21st August 2019 that is yesterday. So now let us first see the responsibility of the producers under the Plastic Waste Management Rules of 2016. These rules were revised in 2018. Now here note that with respect to Plastic Waste Rules the Plastic Waste Management Rules of 2016 have superseded the Plastic Waste Management and Handling Rules of 2011. According to the Plastic Waste Management Rules of 2016 the extended producer's responsibility means the responsibility of a producer for the environmentally sound management of the product produced till the end of the product's life. Under the rules the producers are required to recover and recycle part of the plastic packaging that is generated by them. That is say for example if they pack milk using plastic pouches then they have to collect and recycle the plastics from the people who have used the plastic packaged milk. Next let us see some of the measures announced in the high-level meeting that was held yesterday. This meeting was chaired by the Secretary of the Department of Animal Husbandry and Daring. The Department of Animal Husbandry and Daring comes under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Daring. So remember not to confuse that the Department of Animal Husbandry and Daring comes under Ministry of Agriculture. Don't confuse it. In this meeting the Secretary has requested the cooperatives that own the Amul and the Mother Dairy Brands which are the milk brands to formulate an action plan or a protocol to recycle milk pouches. Once they share the action plan or the protocol to the Department the protocol will be circulated to other milk federations for implementation. The Secretary has also requested major dairy federations to encourage reuse of plastic milk pouches in a campaign mode. This reuse of plastic pouches is to be implemented by the the 3R strategy is the reduce rebate and reuse that is to reduce the consumption of plastics by subsidizing the price of 1 liter pack over the half liter pack then to rebate to customers for bringing back plastic and finally to reuse the recovered pouches by selling or forwarding them to users such as road construction entities and other recyclers. Now here know that rebate means giving some kind of refund to the person who gives back the plastic pouches or it can also mean giving some kind of discount depending upon the situation. Then there was also a request to all cooperative milk federations and private dairies to at least have the usage of plastics by Gandhi Jayanti that is on 2nd October. There was also a request for the media to play a socially committed role with respect to reducing plastic waste. The media platforms were requested by the government to start a campaign like Swachh Bharat. This campaign is to discourage plastic to improve the environment. The meeting also reviewed the issues with respect to the availability of milk supply milk prices and export or import issues. These are the developments that happened in the high level meeting. Then with respect to the announcements the news article has given few facts and a response from one of the milk cooperative. One of the country's major milk cooperative has said that the buyback schemes are not viable or not practicable. This could be because of lack of presence of enough collecting mechanisms or because of lack of feasibility of selling the collected plastic to companies involving in road construction or this could also be because of anticipated lack of support among the people to consistently give back the plastic pouches after taking the milk. So what is the connection with plastics and the milk industries? The connection is that the milk industry is one of the largest users of single use plastics. Single use plastics are disposable plastics that are commonly used for plastic packaging. These plastics include items that are intended to be used only once. After the single use they are thrown away or recycled. These single use plastics include grocery bags, food packaging pouches, bottles, straws, containers, cups and cutlery. The news article also mentions that there is a development happening that the plastic packaged milk distribution is replacing the traditional milk vendors and vending machines. This is because of the growing use of packaged milk. The traditional milk vendors and vending machines are known for not using the plastics for packaging in milk distribution. With this we have come to the end of this article discussion. The displayed practice question will be discussed in the last. Now we have come to the last session for the day that is the practice questions discussion session. This first question is about Samagar Siksha. In this three statements have been given we have to choose the correct statement. The first statement states, Samagar Siksha is a centrally sponsored scheme. Yes, this statement is correct. Samagar Siksha is a centrally sponsored scheme. Actually we have two types of schemes. One is central sector scheme and another is centrally sponsored scheme. When a scheme is 100% funded by the union government and it is implemented by the central government machinery it is a central sector scheme. But when certain percentage of funding is borne by states in the ratio like 50-50, 70-30, 70-25 or 90-10 then it is a centrally sponsored scheme. And these schemes are implemented by the state governments. So remember that Samagar Siksha is a centrally sponsored scheme. The second statement states, it subsumes the three schemes namely Serva Siksha Abhiyan, Rajasthriya Madhyamak Siksha Abhiyan and Teacher Education. Now this statement is also correct. This Samagar Siksha program is for the school education sector which is extending from preschool to class 12th and it was prepared with broader goals for improving school effectiveness which were measured in terms of equal opportunities schooling and equitable learning outcomes. Now this third statement states a massive training program Nishta was launched under this in 2019 to 2020. Now this statement is based on our today's discussion. So this statement is also correct. We saw that Nishta has been launched under Samagar Siksha. Nishta stands for National Initiative for School Hits and Teachers Holistic Advancement. So this statement is also correct. Here all the three statements are correct. So the correct answer to this question is option D 1, 2 and 3. In this next question two statements have been given and we have to choose the correct statement. The first statement states, article 16 of Indian Constitution confers powers on the state to make any special provision for women transgender persons and the children. Now this statement is wrong on two aspects. First is that it is not article 16 but article 15 clause 3 of Indian Constitution that confers power on the state to make any special provision for women and children. And as of now, transgenders were not given the same constitutional protection under this article. So this is the second wrong aspect. So it is not article 16, then transgender persons are not included in the article 15 clause 3 which actually talks about this provision. So this statement is wrong. The second statement states according to Juvenile Justice Karen Protection of Children Act of 2015, Juvenile means a child below the age of 18 years. Now this statement is correct because under section 2 clause 35, Juvenile means a child below the age of 18 years. The question asks for the correct statements. Here statement 2 is the correct statement. So the final correct answer to this question is option B 2 only. Now this next question is based on Department of Animal Husbandry, Daring and Fisheries. The first statement states it comes under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. Now when we see animal husbandry, daring and all, we think it is a part of agriculture but it is not. This department comes under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Daring. So this statement is wrong. Now the second statement states the department is responsible for matters relating to dairy development and also the National Dairy Development Board. Now this statement is correct. The Department of Animal Husbandry and Daring are responsible for matters related to livestock production, preservation, protection and improvement of livestock. And it is also responsible for the National Dairy Development Board. Now also know that the programs and activities of the National Dairy Development Board aim to strengthen farmer cooperatives and it supports national policies that are favorable to the growth of cooperatives of farmers. So this statement is correct. The question asks for the correct statement. Here statement 2 is the correct statement. So the final answer to this question is option B 2 only. With this we have come to the end of today's sessions. If you like the video, don't forget to like, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for more updates related to civil service examination preparation.