 Good evening aspirants, welcome to the hindi news analysis by Shankarai's academy for the date 24th October 2020. These are the list of news articles chosen for today's analysis. It has been provided along with the page numbers of different editions of hindu newspaper. Let's move on to the first news article analysis. Now this news article talks about the demand made by a political party in Tamil Nadu to ban the Manusmriti. As you know Manusmriti has been a source of contention for many years. Even Babasaheb Ambedkar intensely criticized Manusmriti and even burnt a copy of it in 1927. So in this context let us understand what Manusmriti is and why it is so controversial. First know that Manusmriti means the laws of Manu. It is traditionally the most authoritative of the books of Hindu code in India. This work is attributed to the legendary first man and law giver who is Manu that is why it is known as laws of Manu or Manusmriti. Now to understand Manusmriti we have to talk about the Indian society that prevailed around 600 BCE to 600 CE that is 600 before common era to 600 common era. This period witnessed the emergence of new towns and social life became more complex. So people from nearby and even far towns met to buy or sell their products and they even shared their ideas in the urban sphere. Now because of sharing of ideas by people from different areas it led to questioning of the earlier beliefs and practices that prevailed in the society. So this posed as a challenge to the earlier beliefs and practices. So as a response to this challenge the community of Brahmanas responded by laying down codes of social behavior in great detail. These codes were meant to be followed by the Brahmanas in particular and also by the rest of the society in general. So from around 500 BCE these norms were compiled in Sanskrit and they came to be known as the Dharmasutras or Dharmashastras and the most important of these works is the Manusmriti which was compiled between the 200 BCE and 200 CE. Now here you should note that the Brahmana authors of these texts claimed that their point of view had universal validity and what they prescribed had to be obeyed by everybody. But it is likely that the real social relations were more complicated at that time and also the subcontinent was regionally diverse and there was difficulties of communication also. So some of the sources say that the influence of Brahmanas through these texts was not that much pervasive. That is the influence of Brahmanas through these texts was not followed by all sections of the society. So this was the scenario of Indian society around the 600 BCE to 600 CE. So what is the actual issue associated with Manusmriti? Probably the Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras they recognized different forms of marriage and according to NCRT they recognized 8 forms of marriage and out of these the first 4 forms of marriage were considered as good while the remaining were condemned. So it is possible that these remaining forms of marriage were practiced by those who did not accept the Brahmanical norms and then when we talk about the Varna system that existed at that time the community of Brahmanas considered some people as being outside the system. They also developed a sharper social divide by classifying certain social categories as untouchables. Even some activities were regarded as particularly polluting and these activities include the handing of corpses or dead animals and these activities were performed by the Chandalas and under the Varna system they were placed at the very bottom of the hierarchy. Here the social order was so discriminating that attached by the people who belonged to the group called as Chandalas or even seeing them was regarded as polluting by those who claimed to be at the top of the social order. That means Brahmanas considered the touch by Chandalas or even seeing them as polluting and this is where Manusmriti makes it worse because Manusmriti laid down the duties of the Chandalas. For example they had to live outside the village, they had to use discarded utensils and they had to wear the clothes of the dead people and they had to wear ornaments of iron and not gold or silver. They could not even walk in the villages and cities at night. So these were the duties laid down by the Manusmriti that had to be followed by Chandalas or we can say the Chandalas were forcefully made to follow these duties. But some of the non-Brahmanical texts say that these depictions correspond with the depictions in the Brahmanical texts but the social reality was different. They are saying this because the major category of Chandalas were forced to follow these codes but among them also some categories or some groups they refused to follow these codes. Now because of these duties only the Dalit groups who still faces the worst form of discrimination that is untouchability they oppose Manusmriti and its authority even today. Next if we talk about the gender aspects of Manusmriti it says that the paternal estate was to be divided equally amongst the sons after the death of the parents and here a special share is given to the eldest son and based on the Manusmriti codes women could not claim a share of these paternal estates or resources but rather women were allowed to retain the gifts which they received on the occasion of their marriage as stridhana or what should be called as dowry. Now this stridhana could be inherited by their children but here the husband of that woman does not have any claim on it according to Manusmriti. So this may seem a little progressive because the husband does not have any claim on this stridhana received by the woman but if you see at the same time the Manusmriti also warned women against accumulating family property or even their own valuables without husband's permission. So we can see that there were contradictory codes for women regarding family property or valuables. So from this discussion you can easily understand that Manusmriti has several provisions that were not acceptable to a civilized society then and these are not even acceptable now in the 21st century also. Now since a political party in Tamil Nadu has now called for the ban of Manusmriti we have to wait and see what happens because whether to ban Manusmriti or not is a larger question on which the society has to debate. So these are some of the information that you should know with respect to Manusmriti and its controversial codes. Now this news article talks about a permanent ceasefire agreement that has been signed by the conflicting factions of the country Libya. So in this context let us know about the geography of Libya and also about the social, political and economic conditions of Libya. See Libya is a country located in North Africa. This country is bounded by Mediterranean Sea on the north, Egypt on the east, Sudan on the south east, Niger and Chad on the south and then Tunisia on the north west and finally Algeria on the west. So from this you can easily say that this country is not a landlocked country and the most important point to be noted is that most of this country lies in the Sahara desert which is the world's largest hot desert. Actually the country is almost entirely covered by the Libyan desert and this Libyan desert is a flat plateau that's a part of the Sahara desert. Now if you talk about the climate of this country Libya's climate is dominated by the hot arid Sahara but the climate is moderate along the coastal littoral regions along the Mediterranean Sea. There is one interesting fact about Libya which is that Libya is so dry that no permanent rivers actually flows through the country. Water may flow beneath the ground or even sometimes occasionally water seeps above ground into dry sea beds called as wadis. See these wadis or wadis are nothing but the ephemeral rivers or the transient or temporary rivers. So now Libya had to access this only source of water which was below the desert and for this Libya built the Great Manmade River which is a network of underground pipelines that deliver fresh water to the cities. This Great Manmade River was completed in the year 1991 and it became the largest permanently flowing water source in Libya after that. And you know that it's capitalist Tripoli and most of the Libya's population lives in Tripoli and other cities that are along the Mediterranean Sea. And the remainder population is found in the Oasis towns of the Fezzan and in this know that the population that lives in the Oasis they are engaged in the irrigation farming whereas the population which are in the arid and semi arid regions they are indulged in pastoral nomadism. See pastoral nomadism is a type of nomadism. It is a way of life where people do not live continually in the same place but they move cyclically or periodically. And these pastoral nomads they depend on domesticated livestock and they migrate in an established territory to find the pasture age for their animals. That is to find the fresh pastures for their animals to graze. Now let us talk about the economic condition of Libya. See before the discovery of oil in the late 1950s Libya was considered poor in natural resources and it was considered severely limited in natural resources due to its desert environment. But at that time the country was almost entirely dependent upon foreign aid and imports for the maintenance of its economy. But the discovery of petroleum dramatically changed the situation. And now Libya's per capita income is among the highest in Africa and it is to be noted that the oil revenues remain Libya's main source of income. At the beginning of the 21st century the oil and natural gas together accounted for almost three fourths of the national income of Libya and nearly all of the countries export earnings also. So we can see that how much oil and natural gas is important for Libya's economy. Now here just note that Libya was ruled by Muammar al-Gaddafi and at that time the government exerted strong control over the economy. So the petroleum industries were nationalized in the 1970s and the state trade unions and state industrial organizations they ran most other industries and utilities. Now to reduce the country's heavy dependence on oil the country also came up with an economic policy that had more emphasis on agricultural developments and industrial developments. So this is the economic condition of Libya. But the political condition is not the same because Libya in practice actually remained an authoritarian state under its long ruling leader Muammar al-Gaddafi. He practiced an authoritarian government for almost 40 years. He seized the control of Libyan government in the year 1969 and ruled as an authoritarian dictator for more than 40 years till 2011. During his rule the power was concentrated among the members of Gaddafi's inner circle of relatives and security chiefs only. So because of this slowly opposition was building and the opposition reached an unprecedented level in 2011 which also led to the interventions by international military which later developed into an armed revolt. So because of this Gaddafi was overthrown or was forced to step down from power in 2011. Then later in that year itself he was killed by the rebel forces. But since then the country has been destroyed by division and conflict. Actually there are two governments which are competing for control of Libya. One is the Tripoli based government of national accord or in short GNA. This government is led by the prime minister of Libya Fais al-Sarraj and this government of national accord is recognized by United Nations and it is even backed by a host of militias. Now the other one is the rival administration in the country's east which is allied with the warlord general Khalifa Haftar. Khalifa Haftar commands the so called Libyan national army. Now the issue is the supporters of GNA have been under siege for months. See when we say siege it means an operation that is a military operation in which forces surround a town or building and they cut off the essential supplies of the enemy. So the GNA supporters have been under siege for months and this happened due to the attacks by the forces of the rival administration Libyan national army. And today's news is that these two warring or conflicting factions that is GNA and LNA they have signed a permanent ceasefire agreement that is a temporary truce. So now this has raised hope for an end to the years of bloody turmoil that have drawn in military forces from various nations like Russia, Turkey and other regional powers. So let us hope that the ceasefire continues and the political situation of Libya also improves like the economic condition of Libya. So these are some of the information with respect to Libya. Now our next discussion is based on this news article which talks about the poor air quality in the national capital region and this air quality has been measured by suffer. So to understand this first we need to understand about suffer and AQI that is air quality index. Now here suffer stands for system of air quality and weather forecasting and research and this is a first of its kind system in the country. It was introduced by Ministry of Earth Sciences as a major national initiative under the plan scheme called metropolitan advisories for cities for sports, tourism, metropolitan air quality and weather services. It was introduced by Ministry of Earth Sciences but it was developed indigenously by Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology Pune and now it is being operationalized by the Indian Meteorological Department. So what does this suffer do? It provides location specific information on air quality in near real time. That is it forecast one to three days in advance which is the first time in India and the system suffer is an integral part of India's first air quality early warning system and this is operational in Delhi currently. The ultimate objective of this project is to increase the awareness among general public regarding the air quality in their city and that too well in advance that is at least in one to three days advance. This is because appropriate mitigation measures and systemic actions can be taken up for betterment of air quality and related health issues if we can get to know that the air quality will worsen in the next few days. So in this regard suffer will accelerate the public awareness and preparedness of air pollution and weather extremes. It will also lead to better understanding of linkages among emissions, weather, pollution and climate. It will monitor all weather parameters like UV radiation, temperature, rainfall, humidity, wind speed, wind direction and solar radiation. Then it monitors the regular air quality parameters like PM1 that is particulate matter 1, particulate matter 2.5, PM10, sulphur dioxide, ozone, nitrogen oxides like NO and NO2, carbon monoxide, methane, volatile organic compounds. Then along with this it will also monitor the existence of benzene, toluene and xylene in the air. So based on the monitoring of these parameters suffer gives out real time air quality index on a 24 into 7 basis on a LED display as you can see here in this picture. This picture provides the air quality index for the Lothi Road in Delhi. So now what is this air quality index? It is a tool for effective communication of air quality status to people in the terms which are easy to understand that is by not using the scientific terms this air quality index provides the air quality status. So for this AQI transforms complex air quality data of various pollutants into a single number nomenclature and color as you can see here. So you can see that there are six AQI categories. Each of these categories is decided based on the ambient concentration values of air pollutants and their likely health impacts which is given in this next table. Now today's news is that the air quality of Delhi has deteriorated to the very poor category which is just one category below being severe and this very poor category can cause respiratory illness on prolonged exposure as you can see here. So in this circumstance when there is extremely poor air quality the Supreme Court appointed environmental pollution prevention and control authority enforces the GRAP that is graded response action plan to bring the air pollution under control. Now we will discuss about the GRAP in the coming days so these are some of the information that you should know with respect to suffer and AQI to understand the air quality data provided by the government. Next discussion is based on this news article which mentions that India will chair the International Labour Organization's governing body from October 2020 till June 2021. Now India is taking up this role after a gap of 35 years. So in this context let us discuss in detail about the International Labour Organization. Know that ILO was created in the year 1919 and it was created as a part of Treaty of Versailles which ended the World War I and at present International Labour Organization or ILO is one of these specialized agencies of the United Nations and it is also the only tripartite UN agency. Tripartite means which involves three parties and here the three parties involved are the governments, employers and workers representatives. So ILO brings together the government's employees and workers representatives of 187 states and here you should note that India is a founding member of ILO and India has been a permanent member of the governing body since the year 1922 and this governing body is the executive body of ILO and now India has assumed the chair of this governing body till June 2021. Now the key driving forces behind ILO's creation were security, humanitarian, political and economic considerations. So in this regard ILO works to ensure cooperation to obtain similarity of working conditions in countries that are competing for markets and at present ILO is devoted to promoting social justice and promoting internationally recognized human rights and labour rights. So ILO sets labour standards, it develops policies and it devices programs that promotes decent work for all women and men. So ILO ensures international labour standards on basic principles and rights at work and this is done through conventions or recommendations. Now here note that the conventions are legally binding international treaties that may be ratified by the member states but the recommendations they serve as a non-binding guideline only. Now here note that when a country ratifies a convention it undertakes steps to apply the convention in its national laws and practice and in this regard the country has also to report on its application of that convention at regular intervals and if any country which has ratified the convention violates the convention then representation and company procedures can be initiated against those countries. So in this regard we have to know about the conventions of ILO which are considered as fundamental for the functioning of ILO. Here ILO's governing body has identified eight fundamental conventions and these conventions cover the subjects that are considered to be fundamental principles and rights at work and these fundamental principles and rights include freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining then the elimination of all forms of forced labour or compulsory labour then the effective abolition of child labour and then the elimination of discrimination and respect of employment and occupation. So these are the eight conventions and here note that India has ratified only six of these eight ILO conventions. India has not ratified the 87th and the 98th convention. 87th convention is the freedom of association protection of the right to organized convention and the 98th convention is right to organize and collective bargaining convention. Now here the numbers of convention is also important because already we have had a prelims question based on these numbers. In 2008 in prelims paper a question was framed based on the convention number 138 and convention number 182 of ILO and the question asks these conventions are related to. Now as you can see here convention number 138 is related to minimum age convention and the convention number 182 is related to worst forms of child labour convention. So that means convention number 138 is regarding admission of age to employment. So both these conventions talk about child labour. So the correct answer is option A in this question. So here just you have to note that 138 and 182 are related to child labour then 87 and 98 are related to right to organized convention and then convention number 29 and 105 are related to forced labour and then convention number 100 is related to equal remuneration and then convention number 111 is related to discrimination in employment and occupation. So these are some of the information that is shown with respect to international labour organization. Our next discussion is based on this editorial in which the author talks about different indices and India's position in those indices. In the recent days we are seeing many indices in which India has fared poorly as compared to our neighboring countries. So in this editorial author particularly focuses on those indices which could depict the happiness that is prevailing in the country among our citizens. In this context particularly author also explains why Muslims in India are not the happiest ones. Unlike the common belief that Muslims in India are happiest ones compared to other countries. So let us discuss the indices mentioned in this editorial and author's view on the aspect of happiness based on these indices. Now since we are talking about the aspect of happiness the first index which comes to mind to assess happiness is the World Happiness Report. See this report is published by UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network in association with many governmental and non-governmental bodies. And this index takes into account many variables through which the happiness could be assessed. Like it includes general well-being, positive emotions, supplemental life, circumstances and social environment, inequalities, unemployment, low incomes, discrimination, GDP per capita, life expectancy, freedom, generosity and absence of corruption. Now according to the World Happiness Report of 2020, India has been ranked at 144th position out of 153 countries. So you can see that India is at the bottom 10. The first five ranking countries are Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland and Norway. And if we take our neighbors, they are also ahead of India. Like Bangladesh is at 107th position, Sri Lanka is at 130th position, Nepal is at 92nd position and even Pakistan has been ranked at the 66th position. So already under the World Happiness Report, India has been ranked 144th position. And this happened even before the pandemic because India was facing a 45 year high unemployment rate. And now if we compare the situation during and after lockdown, already around 12.2 crore people have lost their jobs during the lockdown phase. So that means more Indians are today worried and they are unhappy than before. And if you particularly talk about Indian Muslims, here author notes that Indian Muslims are certainly better off than the Muslims in several Muslim countries. And this is because of India's liberal, egalitarian and secular constitution. And also because of Hinduism's tolerance as some mentioned. Now why India is better for Muslims compared to several Muslim countries because most Muslim countries are not really democratic. And they have very stringent religious and general laws. And because of this reason only, author mentions that Indian Muslims should not be compared with the Muslims from the Muslim countries or from the Gulf. Now we'll come back to this aspect later in this discussion. Now the second index which the author talks about is the World's Hunger Index which is nothing but the Global Hunger Index. It is a tool designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional and national levels. And the Global Hunger Index scores are calculated each year to assess the progress and setbacks in combating hunger. It is jointly published by two organizations. One is Concern Worldwide and then the other one is Wealth Hunger Health. And as you know, reduced hunger is an important aspect of being happy. And if you take the World's Hunger Index of 2020 report, India has been ranked at 94th position out of 107 countries that were assessed. Pakistan is at the 88th position and Bangladesh is at 75th position and they are ahead of India. So we can see that India is not doing well with respect to hunger also. Then if you talk about the civil liberties, it is an important component to ensure the contentment. And contentment is necessary to be happy. And while talking about the civil liberties, the index which we should focus is the World Freedom of Press Index. This index is published by an organization called as Reporters Sons Frontiers in French for simply the Reporters Without Borders. Now according to the 2020 World Freedom of Press Index, India has been ranked at 142nd position out of the 180 countries that were assessed. And here also, India is not even in the middle. Then another aspect which is important for happiness is the state of rule of law. And for this we can take the rule of law index. And according to this index, India is in a grim situation as India has been ranked at 69th position out of the 128 countries that were assessed. This index is published by the World Justice Project and it is the world's leading source for original independent data on the rule of law. Now this index considers the factors such as constraints on governmental power, open government, then fundamental rights, then order and security, absence of corruption, regulatory enforcement, civil justice system and criminal justice system. Being one of the famous democratic countries, still India has been ranked at the 69th position only. And here author notes that the faith in rule of law is increasingly diminishing because some courts are becoming more executive minded than being the executive itself. Which simply means that the courts are supporting the executive rather than the common people. Now another important aspect that should be discussed with respect to today's discussion is the religious freedom because we are also discussing about the happiness of Indian Muslims. So religious freedom is an important point here. For this we can take the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom report. This report has downgraded India's ranking in its 2020 report. It has even particularly noted that India has taken a sharp downward turn in 2019. The national government has used its strengthened parliamentary majority to institute national level policies violating religious freedoms across India, especially for Muslims. And based on this, India has been kept as countries of particular concern among the countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, North Korea, Syria, Myanmar and China where we have stringent religious and common laws. But rather strangely, some of the countries have better rankings than India. Like for example, Afghanistan, Sudan, Indonesia and Egypt have better rankings as compared to India. So what this countries of particular concern means see according to the International Religious Freedom Act of United States of America. Countries of particular concerns refers to those countries where the government engages in particularly severe violations of religious freedom or even where the government tolerates these kinds of violations of religious freedom. Now these include the violations such as torture, degrading treatment, prolonged detention without charges and other fragmented denial of right to life, liberty or the security of persons. Now if you see this definition, you can say that this is true in the case of Jammu and Kashmir and because of this only, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has downgraded India's ranking in its 2020 report. But this report has been criticized by the Indian government stating that US has exaggerated the situation. Now based on these reports and findings only, author has concluded that Muslims in India are not the happiest ones unlike the common belief. Author further notes that India should not be compared with the monarchies when we talk about Muslims but instead we should compare with this Scandinavian countries that is Denmark, Norway, Sweden. Because as you saw in the beginning in the World Happiness Report Denmark and Norway are in the first five ranks. So here the point is India should compare itself with the countries which are equal or better than itself rather than comparing to the countries which are not really democratic. And if we do this then only we can openly see that Muslims in India are not the happiest ones like we claim. So here the takeaway is India should strive to become a better democratic country. And here judiciary should play a vital role in protecting the rights of every individual from every social background and religion. So these are some of the points that it should take from this analysis. Now we have come to the last session the practice questions discussion session. This first question asks consider the following textual traditions of India. First, Ashtadhyayi, Ramayana, Manusmriti, Natheshastra. What is the correct chronological order of the above textual traditions starting from the earliest time? That means we have to arrange it in the ascending order. Now in this note that Ashtadhyayi it is one of the greatest works on grammar which was authored by the legendary Indian grammarian Paneeni. So sometimes it is also known as the Ashtadhyayi of Paneeni. And then Natheshastra it is the earliest chetritize on dance. It was composed by Bharat Muni and it is the source book of the art of drama, dance and music. And sometimes it is also known as the Fifth Veda. Now in this table you can see the timeline of these major textual traditions. As you can see Ashtadhyayi it was composed in 500 BCE. Then comes Ramayana it was composed between 500 BCE to 400 CE. Then comes Manusmriti which was composed between 200 BCE to 200 CE. And then comes Natheshastra of Bharat Muni which was composed in 300 CE. So the correct chronological order is one, two, three and four which is option D. Now this next question is a map based question. Consider the following places Egypt, Mediterranean Sea, Chad, South Sudan, Red Sea which of these are bordered by Libya. Now this question might appear as a difficult question but actually it is an easy question if you apply the elimination method. See many of the times in a map based question the elimination method works the best. That is if you can eliminate any of the given places then you can easily arrive at the correct answer. Now with respect to Libya remember that it is not a landlocked country and it is bordered by Mediterranean Sea only. Not any other sea. So that means Red Sea should not be in the answer. So if you remove five from the options then you can easily arrive at the correct answer which is option C, one, two and three only because Libya also does not borders South Sudan. It only borders the Sudan. The other countries which borders Libya are Tunisia, Algeria, Niger, Chad and Egypt. Now this next question is a map based question. The first pair is World Happiness Report 2020 UN Habitat. Now in this we have to choose the correctly matched pair. Now this is an incorrect pair because World Happiness Report is released by UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network in association with many governmental and non-governmental bodies. So one should not be in answer. Now the second option is World's Hunger Index 2020 or simply the Global Hunger Index. Now it is paired with International Food Policy Research Institute, IFPRI. So remember that this is an incorrect pair now because since 2006 in an annual basis the hunger index was released jointly by IFPRI along with two international non-governmental humanitarian organizations called as Concern Worldwide and then Welch Hunger Health. But since 2018, IFPRI is not a part of this release. So remember this part. If you know this actually you can easily avoid the correct answer which is option C, three only. World Freedom of Press Index is released by Reporters Science Frontiers or Reporters Without Borders. Now this next question asks which of the following pollutants are monitored under the system of air quality and weather forecasting and research? That is suffer. Carbon dioxide particulate matter, mercury, nitrogen oxides benzene. Now during discussion we saw that it monitors particulate matter, one particulate matter 2.5, then particulate matter 10. It also monitors mercury, benzene, then nitrogen oxides. But it does not monitor carbon dioxide rather it monitors the carbon monoxide in the air. So if you know that one should not be in the answer you can easily avoid the correct answer which is option B, two, three, four and five only. Now this next question asks which of the following conventions of international labour organization are not ratified by India? Select the correct answer using the course given below. Minimum age convention, equal remuneration convention, worst forms of child labour convention, freedom of association and protection of rights to organize convention, right to organize and collective bargaining convention. Now already based on one and three there was a previous problems question which we discussed during news analysis. So you should know that one and three have been ratified by India. So they should not be in the final answer. So you can eliminate option A and D. From the remaining options you can say four and five are not ratified by India. And this gives you a 50 percentage probability of correctly answering this question. Now we have to just see whether two that is equal remuneration convention has been ratified by India or not. Yes, it has been ratified by India. So the correct answer is option C, four and five only. With this we come to the end of today's Hindi News Analysis and Practice Questions discussion session. Don't forget to like, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar I.C. Academy YouTube channel for more updates related to civil service examination preparation.