 Very good evening aspirants, how are you all? Hope you are safe and fine. Welcome to Hindu News Analysis brought to you by Shankara A's Academy. Today is 13th of January 2022. The list of articles we are going to discuss today is displayed on the screen. Kindly go through it. Let's start our discussion. Now let us take this editorial. It has been written in the backdrop of recent controversy on the independence and impartiality of election commission of India that is ECI. The controversy was triggered due to the informal meeting of chief election commissioner and election commissioners with the principal secretary to the prime minister. This meeting is unusual because the ECI is expected to maintain its distance from the executive such as prime minister. So as a remedy and for ensuring the independence and impartiality of election commission of India, the author of this editorial has suggested to change the existing selection process of election commissioners. This is the essence of this editorial. So taking this opportunity, let us discuss about ECI. See the election commission of India is a permanent constitutional body. We say it is a constitutional body because it is established as per article 324 of Indian Constitution. See it was established in 1950 as an independent autonomous authority. Why because ECI is responsible for administering union and state election process in India. See as per article 324, section 1, ECI administers elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, state legislative assemblies and election to the officers of president and vice president. See it not only administers the election but also is responsible for the superintendent's direction and control of the entire process for conduct of elections. So as part of this power, it carries out these functions and roles. These help ECI to ensure that elections can take place in an orderly and fair manner. Additionally, constitution also elaborates on the composition of ECI. According to article 324, ECI consists of chief election commissioner and election commissioners. They are appointed by the president but note that as per this clause, the president can fix and appoint such number of election commissioners as she may determines time to time. So for long period of time, ECI was a single member body that had only the chief election commissioner. But in 1989, president fixed the number of election commissioners at 2 through a notification. And this notification made the ECI as a multi member body having 1 CEC and 2 ECs. But this notification was withdrawn in 1990. Then again in 1993, another order was promulgated by the president which again set the number of election commissioners at 2. So the concept of multi member commission has been in operation since 1993. Therefore, remember that constitution does not provide the number of election commissioners. Now coming to the independent functioning of ECI, ECI is free from external political interference which is ensured through the tenure and removal prescribed for chief election commissioner and election commissioners. The tenure is prescribed under the act called chief election commissioner and other election commissioners condition of service act of 1991. See both have tenure of 6 years or up to the age of 65 years whichever is earlier. They enjoy the same status and receive salary and perks as available to the judges of the supreme court of India. But the removal is prescribed in constitution under article 324-5. According to it, the election commissioner shall be removed from office only on the recommendation of chief election commissioner. On the other hand, the chief election commissioner can be removed from the office like manner and on the like grounds as a judge of the supreme court. That means CEC shall be removed only through impeachment by parliament like the judge of the supreme court who is removed as per article 124 section 4 of constitution. See so far we have seen article 324 which establishes ECI and ECI consists of chief election commissioner and election commissioners and president can fix and appoint such number of election commissioners as she may from time to time determine. Both CEC and ECI have tenure of 6 years or up to the age of 65 years. They enjoy the same status and receive salary and perks as available to the judges of the supreme court of India. With these key take away points let's move on to the next article. Friends look at this article. This news article reports that the eminent rocket scientist Mr. Somnath has been appointed as the chairman of ISRO that is Indian space research organization. See this appointment is significant because he played a major role in the development of GSLV Mach 3. So in this backdrop today let us see in brief about India's launch vehicles that is GSLV, PSLV and SSLV. Every UPSC have already asked the question in preliminary examination regarding launch vehicles and UPSC is known to repeat the question so kindly pay attention. First of all what is a launch vehicle? See launches or launch vehicles are used to carry spacecraft to the space and India has two operational launches that is polar satellite launch vehicle PSLV and geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle GSLV. We also have SSLV. See the SSLV that is small satellite launch vehicle is a small lift launch vehicle being developed by the ISRO. It has a payload capacity to deliver 600 kilograms to lower earth orbit and 300 kilograms to sun synchronous orbit for launching small satellites. Here the lower earth orbit that is Leo is up to 500 kilometers. See the SSLV has the capability to support multiple orbital drop-off. Here I have given some of the unique advantages of SSLV kindly go through it. See the important advantage here is the cost optimization that is it is cheaper. Now let us see about PSLV. See PSLV is the third generation launch vehicle of India and it is the first Indian launch vehicle to be equipped with liquid stages. After its first successful launch in October 1994 PSLV emerged as the reliable and versatile workhorse launch vehicle of India. During 1994 to 2017 period the vehicle has launched 48 Indian satellites and 209 satellites for customers from abroad. Note that this vehicle successfully launched two important spacecraft that is Chandrayaan 1 in 2008 and Mars Arbiter spacecraft in 2013. See the Chandrayaan 1 is the moon mission and Mars Arbiter spacecraft is related to Mars. So now we will see some of the specifications of PSLV. See it can carry a payload of about 1750 kilograms to sun synchronous polar orbit and 1425 kilograms to geosynchronous transfer orbit. See sun synchronous orbit would usually be at an altitude of between 600 to 800 kilometers and geosynchronous transfer orbit would usually be at an altitude of 35,786 kilometers above Earth's equator. Note that there are four stages in PSLV journey from lift off to placing satellites into the orbit and it uses solid and liquid propulsion systems alternatively. Now let's see about GSLV. See the GSLV rockets using the Russian cryogenic stage are designated as the GSLV Mark 1 while the versions using the indigenous cryogenic upper stage are designated as GSLV Mark 2 and Mark 3. See the GSLV Mark 2 is the largest launch vehicles developed by India which is currently in operation. This fourth generation launch vehicle is a three stage vehicle with four liquid strap-ons. The indigenously developed cryogenic upper stage forms the third stage of GSLV Mark 2. GSLV Mark 2 has enabled the launching up to two ton class of communication satellites. The next variant of GSLV is GSLV Mark 3 with indigenous high thrust cryogenic engine having the capability of launching four tons class of communication satellites. From January 2014, this vehicle has achieved four consecutive successes. So in this article, we have seen about types of launch vehicles that is PSLV and GSLV. PSLV has four stages and GSLV has three stages with cryogenic upper stage. We have also seen about the payloads of PSLV and GSLV and that's all regarding this article. Now we will move on to the next article. Look at this article here. It talks about the recent shift to traditional rice varieties by farmers. It is said in this article that the shift is due to the increased awareness about the benefits of traditional rice and the general importance given by the people to healthy living and also the article covers the examples given by farmers in different places about this traditional or heritage rice. So this is the crux of this article. In this context, let us see a brief about PGS India and about national program for organic production. First of all, what is this PGS India? See the PGS India also called as participatory guarantee system of India is a quality assurance initiative that is locally relevant. It emphasizes the participation of stock stakeholders including producers and consumers and it operates outside the framework of third party certification. See the certified farmers are listed in the website where consumers can look up and get in touch and purchase produced directly from the farmers. So PGS India system is based on this participatory approach. See in simple words, PGS is nothing but a process of certifying organic products which ensures that their production takes place in accordance with late down quality standards. Please note that it is implemented by ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare. Having seen that, let us see about NPOP that is National Program for Organic Production. See the ministry of commerce and industry government of India has implemented the national program for organic production to provide a focused and well-directed development of organic agriculture and quality products. This national program proposes for the promotion of organic farming and provides an institutional mechanism for the implementation of national standards for organic production and it provides information on systems criteria and procedure for accreditation of inspection and certification bodies and the national organic logo. The standards and procedures have been formulated in harmony with other international standards regulating important export of organic products. Now we shall see the key objectives of NPOP. See the first objectives to provide the evaluation of certification program for organic agriculture and products including the wild harvest, aquaculture, livestock products etc and the second objective is to facilitate certification of organic products in conformity with the importing countries organic standards and checking whether the standards are as per equivalence agreement between the two countries or as per importing country requirements. The third objective is to develop organic farming and organic processing and fourth objective is to accredit certification program of certification bodies seeking accreditation and finally the objective is to facilitate certification of organic products in conformity to the national standards for organic products. See kindly note that the national program for organic production that is NPOP is managed by APEDA that is Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority. See it comes under the ministry of commerce and industry and it is certified by the inspection and certification bodies but we have seen that PGS comes under the ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare and it operates outside the frame of third party certification. So with these points in mind let us move on to the next article. Friends look at this article here it talks about the demographic dividend in India. See the author says that nation's growth requires the productive contribution of all segments of the society particularly the children and the youth and for that it is crucial to provide opportunities for self-expression. The author also says that household and national investment in children and youth will yield long-term returns in terms of high productivity of the economically active population. So in this context the article talks about some of the forward-looking policies to reap the India's demographic dividend. We will discuss them one by one. Before that the syllabus relevant for this article is given here kindly go through it. So first of all what is this demographic dividend? See demographic dividend is nothing but the growth in the economy that is the result of change in the age structure of country's population. See the change in age structure is typically brought on by a decline in fertility and mortality rates and India is said to have demographic dividend because it is having young population. See in 2020 about 26.16 percentage of Indian population fell into the 0 to 14 year category and 67.27 percentage into the 15 to 64 age group and 6.57 percent were over 65 years of age. Note that nearly two-third of the population comes under working age that is 15 to 59 years. See there are four main areas where a country can find demographic dividend. The first one is savings. During the demographic period personal savings grow and can be used to stimulate the economy and the second area is labor supply. See more workers are added to the labor force including women and third one is human capital. See with fewer births parents are able to allocate more resources per child leading to better educational and health outcomes. Finally the economic growth. See the GDP per capita is increased due to a decrease in dependency ratio. See the dependency ratio is the measure of the number of dependents aged 0 to 14 and over the age of 65 compared with the total population aged 15 to 64. With this basic understanding let us see what will happen if India does not utilize the demographic dividend. See it is very simple. If fertility declines the share of the young population will fall and that of old population will rise. We have seen that they are the dependent population. There is no immediate concern here because when the share of children is smaller in the population it will enable higher investment per child. They will get better opportunities such as education skills etc. This will enable future entrants into the labor force to have better productivity and it will boost income. But now comes the real concern. See with passage of time the share of the older population will rise and that of the working age population will fall because of this dividend is available only for a period of time that we call the window of demographic opportunity. So this makes it important to realize the demographic dividend. Now see the scenario in India. India's fertility rate is falling. Now it is 2.0 and the median age is rising. The median age here was 24 years in 2011. It is 29 years now and it is expected to be 36 years by 2036 and third the dependency ratio is falling. It is expected to decrease further from 65 percentage to 54 percentage in the coming decade. So now India is in the middle of a demographic transition. So this provides opportunity towards faster economic growth. But the worrying factor here is that in India the benefit to the GDP from demographic transition is lower than its peers in Asia. So this calls for a forward looking policies incorporating population dynamics, education and skills, healthcare, gender sensitivity and providing rights and choices to the younger generation. Having said that, let us see some of the examples of policies from countries like Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea regarding how demographic dividend can be reaped to achieve economic growth. See you can use this data to enrich your mains answer. See the first suggestion is to have an updated NTA assessment that is national transfer accounts assessment. Using NTA methodologies we find that India's per capita consumption pattern is lower than the other Asian countries. See a child in India consumes around 60 percentage of the consumption by an adult aged between 20 and 64. But a child in China consumes about 85 percentage of a prime age adult's consumption. See the NTA data for India should be updated and state specific NTA should be calculated every year and the state should be ranked for investing in the youths and moving on investment should be made more in children and adolescents. See India ranks poorly in Asia in terms of private and public human capital spending. So it needs to invest more in children and adolescents particularly in nutrition and learning during their early childhood and focus should be on transitioning from secondary education to universal skilling and entrepreneurship as it is done in South Korea. And moving on to the third one which is very important is the health investment. Unfortunately the public spending on health has remained flat at around one percentage of GDP in India. Evidence suggests that better health facilities improved economic production. Hence it is important to draft policies to promote health during the demographic dividend. And the fourth one is making reproductive health care services accessible on a right based approach. It is crucial to provide universal access to high quality primary education and basic health care. See the unmet need for family planning in India is at 9.4 percentage as per the latest national family health survey five. It is very high when compared to 3.3 percentage in China and 6.6 percentage in South Korea. The fifth one is here education. See education is an enabler to bridge gender differentials. The gender inequality of education is a concern. In India boys are more likely to be enrolled in secondary and tertiary schools than girls. But in the Philippines, China, Thailand, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia the gender differences are rather minimal. So this gap should be reduced. The next one is female workforce. See as of 2019 20.3 percentage of women were working or looking for work which is lower when compared to 34.1 percentage in 2003 to 2004. So new skills and opportunities for women and girls is urgently needed. States should provide safe transport to travel to work because finding work will likely delay the age of marriage and make them participate in economy more productively and it will also enable them to exercise their rights and choices. We shall see the example here. South Korea's female workforce participation rate of 50 percentage has been built on legally compulsory gender budgeting to analyze gender disaggregated data and its impact on policies and increasing childcare benefits and boosting tax incentives for part-time work. So India should take insights from South Korea on this. See interestingly it is predicted that if all women engaged in domestic duties in India who are willing to work had a job female labor force participation would increase by about 20 percent. Moving on to the seventh one. India needs to address the diversity between the states. It is important to know that the status and pace of population aging vary across states. For example in southern states which are advanced in demographic transition already have a higher percentage of older people. These differences in age structure reflect differences in economic development also. But on the other hand this offers boundless opportunities for states to work together especially on demographic transition with the north central region as the reservoir of India's workforce. Finally a new federal approach to governance reforms for demographic dividends should be put in place for policy coordination between states on various emerging population issues such as migration, aging, skilling, female workforce participation and urbanization. So that's all about the examples of policies in various countries. See proper policies are very important because without proper policies the increase in the working age population may lead to rising unemployment, fueling economic and social risks and also inter ministerial coordination for strategic planning, investment, monitoring and course correction should be an important feature of the governance arrangement. With this we have come to the end of our discussion. With these key takeaway points let us move on to the next article. Friends look at this article. This news article is with reference to CPI and WPI. According to the data from National Statistical Office that is NSO the retail inflation has accelerated to 5.59 percentage in December and the consumer food price inflation has also accelerated to 4.05 percentage in December as against 1.87 percentage seen in November 2021. So in this context let us briefly understand what is CPI and WPI. See the WPI which is the wholesale price index measures the average changes in the prices of commodities for wholesale at the level of early stage of transactions. This means it accounts for changes in prices at an early distribution stage which is before the retail level sale. Also know that it does not cover services and it is calculated using the base year 2011 to 2012. Please note that base year see base year is nothing but a reference year with which the values are compared. Now we will discuss about CPI. See the consumer price index is a measure of retail inflation rate. It means it is a measure of increasing the prices experienced at retail shops. This gives the actual reflection of the price raise in the country. So we can define CPI as a measure of change in retail prices of goods and services consumed by a definite population group in a given area with reference to a base year. The base year for CPI in our country is 2012. See the choices of consumption and purchasing power are not the same for the entire Indian population. So we do not have a single CPI which can encompass all the Indian consumers. So we have many different ones. Let us understand some of the important CPI. The first one is CPI for industrial workers. It measures the extent of change in the retail prices of goods and services consumed by the industrial workers. The second one is CPI for agricultural labour. It measures the extent of change in the retail prices of goods and services consumed by agricultural labourers. And third is the CPI for rural labourers. It also measures the extent of change in retail prices of goods and services consumed by the rural laborers. But in this regard we should also know that the above CPI indices represent only a specific segment of the population and they do not reflect the true picture of price change in our country as a whole. So the central statistical organization that is CSO of Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has started releasing a new series of CPI with 2012 as the base year. They are CPI for the entire urban population, CPI urban, then CPI for the entire rural population, CPI rural and finally CPI combined that is combining urban and rural. Note that RBI is using CPI combined as the sole inflation measure for setting inflation target and ensuring price stability. See you know MG Narega act right that is Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The wages related to this act is linked to which of the above discussed CPI if you know please post it in the comment section. It will be highly useful for you as well as for others. That's all regarding this article. Now we will move on to the next article. Look at this article. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs has written to the union home secretary requesting details on the tech fog app. See this app is believed to be used to alter social media trends. Apart from this the head of the parliamentary panel on home affairs had also requested the home ministry to collaborate with other ministries involved and provide a response to the panel by January 20. So in this context, first we will see what is parliamentary committee in Prillim's perspective and then we will see in brief about its types. See the parliamentary committees are established to study and deal with various matters that cannot be directly handled by the legislature due to their volume. See we know that the parliament is a too massive body to effectively debate on the problems that comes before it. Just think of the size of India and the issues before the country. All cannot be handled by the parliament alone right because the functions of the parliament are diverse complex and extensive. Further it lacks the necessary time and experience to conduct a thorough examination of all legislative initiatives and other issues. So the parliamentary committee comes into the picture. See a parliamentary committee that is appointed or elected by the house or nominated by the speaker or chairman. Speaker in case of Lok Sabha and chairman in case of Rajya Sabha and it works under the directions of the speaker or chairman and it presents its report to the house or to the speaker or chairman. The parliamentary committee has a secretariat provided by the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha. See talking about its classifications, parliamentary committee are classified into two types that is standing committee and ad hoc committee. The standing committee are constituted every year or periodically. Please remember they are permanent and work on a continuous basis. But the ad hoc committee are temporary and cease to exist on completion of the task assigned to them. Look at the classification of standing committees and ad hoc committees here. The standing committee is classified into financial committee, departmental standing committee, committee to enquire, committee to scrutinize and control, committee relating to day to day business of the house and finally housekeeping committee or service committee. And the ad hoc committee can be classified into two categories that is inquiry committee and advisory committee. The inquiry committee are constituted from time to time either by the two house on a motion adopted in that belief or by the speaker or chairman to enquire into and report on specific subjects. For example, committee on the conduct of certain members during president address, joint committee on fertilizer pricing etc. And advisory committee include selected joint committees on bills which are appointed to consider and report on particular bills. See these committees are distinguishable from the other ad hoc committees. This is because they deal with the bills and the procedure they must follow is laid down in the rules of procedure and the directions by the speaker or chairman. Now we will do a quick recap. See the parliamentary committee is appointed or elected by the house or nominated by the speaker or chairman and it works under the direction of speaker or chairman and it presents its report to the house or to the speaker or chairman. And we also saw the parliamentary committees are classified into two types that is standing committee and ad hoc committee. The standing committee of permanent and work on a continuous basis while the ad hoc committees are temporary and cease to exist on the completion of the task assigned to them. So with these learnt points, let us solve some of the prelims practice questions. Look at this question. This question was asked in prelims 2017. Consider the following statements. The election commission of India is a five member body. On the second statement is Union Ministry of Home Affairs decides the election schedule for the conduct of both general election and by elections. Third statement is election commission resolves the disputes relating to splits or mergers of recognized political parties. Which of the following statements are correct? 1 and 2 only, 2 only, 2 and 3 only, 3 only. See the statement 1 is incorrect because during our discussion we saw that initially ECI was a single member body having only the chief election commissioner as its member. But first in 1989 and in 1993 through President's order the number of election commissioners was fixed at 2. Therefore now the election commission of India has 1 CEC and 2 ECs. Thus making it a three member body and not a five member body. So statement 1 is incorrect. See statement 2 and 3 are regarding the functions and roles of ECI and statement 2 is incorrect because ECI is mandated to fix the election schedule and not the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. And statement 3 is actually correct because among all roles ECI also has quasi judicial jurisdiction under this it settles disputes between the splits or mergers of recognized political parties. So our correct answer is option D 3 only. Look at the second question it is regarding Parliamentary Committee. Consider the following statements recommendations made by Parliamentary Committees are binding in nature. And the statement 2 states that the chairman of Rajya Sabha is the chairman of Business Advisory Committee, Gentle Purpose Committee and Committee on Rules. Which of the following statements are correct? 1 only, 2 only, both 1 and 2, neither 1 nor 2. See statement 1 is wrong because the recommendation of Parliamentary Committees are not binding in nature. They are generally advisory in nature. And regarding statement 2 it is correct because the chairman of Rajya Sabha is the chairman of Business Advisory Committee, Gentle Purpose Committee and the Rules Committee. And the deputy chairman of Rajya Sabha is the chairman of Committee of Privileges. So our correct answer is option B 2 only. Look at this question again it is regarding Election Commission of India. With reference to Election Commission of India consider the following statements. Statement 1, ECI has been a multi-member body since its inception. And statement 2, Constitution prescribes the number of Election Commissioners to be appointed by the President. And the third statement the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners are placed on par on matters of retirement age, salaries, removal and other benefits. Which of the statement given above are correct? 1 only, 3 only, none of the above, 1 and 2 only. See statement 1 is incorrect because we saw during our discussion that initially till 1989 ECI was a single member body. And after 1989 the multi-member concept was instituted with the appointment of two Election Commissioners. But this was removed in 1990. Then again in 1993 ECI became a multi-member body. So in between 1992-1993 it was a single member body. Overall it was not a multi-member body since its inception. So statement 1 is incorrect. Statement 2 is also incorrect because in the Constitution number of Election Commissioners are not mentioned. Rather it mentions as President can fix and appoint such number of Election Commissioners as she may from time to time determine. And statement 3 is also incorrect because the retirement age that is tenure, salaries and other benefits are same for CEC and ECs. But the removal is different. CEC is impeached like the judge of the Supreme Court. But Election Commissioners are not removed in similar manner. So our correct answer is option C none of the above. Look at the fourth question. It is regarding launch vehicles. Consider the following statements. Statement 1, Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle that is GSLV launched Chandrayaan 1 in 2008. And the second statement states that the SSLV was developed with the aim of launching small satellites commercially at drastically reduced price. Which of the following statements are incorrect? Option A 1 only. Option B 2 only. Option C both 1 and 2. And option D neither 1 nor 2. See friends statement 1 is wrong because the PSLV launched the Chandrayaan 1 and not GSLV. And statement 2 is correct because we have discussed that the SSLV was developed with the aim of launching small satellites commercially at drastically reduced price as compared to PSLV. So our correct answer is option A 1 only because the question is asking for incorrect statement. Look at the fifth question. Consider the following statements. Wholesale price index WPI is compiled and released on a monthly basis by the Office of Economic Advisor under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. And the second statement CPI, Industrial Workers, CPI Agricultural Laborers and CPI Rural Laborers are compiled and released by the Labor Bureau and the Ministry of Labor. And the third statement CPI Rural or Urban or Combined is released by the National Statistical Office Studies NSO. Which of the following statements are correct? 1 and 2 only, 2 and 3 only, 1, 2, 3 only and option D 2 and 3 only. See friends here all three statements are correct and these are facts which you have to remember for the exam. So our answer is option C 1, 2 and 3 only. This is our last prince question. Consider the following statement with reference to National Program for Organic Production NPOP. Statement 1, it is implemented under Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. And statement 2, it's objective is to facilitate certification of organic products in conformity with the importing countries' organic standards. Which of the following statements are correct? Option A 1 only, option B 2 only, option C both 1 and 2 and option D neither one nor two. See is the first statement correct? No it is incorrect because we saw in our discussion that NPOP is implemented by Ministry of Commerce and Industry. This is a confusing statement because Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare appears to be the correct answer if you have not read about NPOP. And regarding statement 2, it is correct. This also we saw in our discussion it is one of the objectives of NPOP. It facilitates certification of organic products in conformity with the importing countries' organic standards. And also it checks whether the standards are as per equivalence agreement between the two countries or as per importing countries' requirement. So, here our answer is option B 2 only. The main question is displayed on the screen. Write your answer, post it in the comment section. If you like the video, hit the like button, post your comments and share it with your friends. And don't forget to subscribe Shankara AS Academy YouTube channel. Thank you.