 Good evening aspirants welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankar Iyer's academy for the day 21st December 2021. Displayed here are the list of news article chosen for today's discussion. In the first article we will talk about Wimstek and in the second article we will discuss about federalism. In the third article we will discuss about the delimitation commission and in the last article we will discuss about the relationship between India and the Central Asian trillions. Now without wasting much time let's get into our discussion. Let us take up this first news article. This article is about the statement by the chief of the army staff at the inaugural event of PNX 21. See he talked about the effects and impacts of unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic in this event but in this discussion we will see a brief about this PNX 21 but mainly we will see about what is Wimstek. First let's start our discussion with Wimstek. See the Bay of Bengal initiative for multi-sectoral technical and economic cooperation is abbreviated as Wimstek. It is a regional organization comprising seven member states. These member states are lying in the littoral and adjacent areas of the Bay of Bengal. Now who are these seven member states? They are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and two more will be from Southeast Asia. They are Myanmar and Thailand. Note that Wimstek's potential is immense with the combined GDP of US$3.697 trillion per year and the region is home to 1.68 billion people covering 22% of world's population. See this organization came into being on 6th June 1997 through the Bangkok declaration. We saw what is Wimstek and what are all the member states? Now we'll see the objective of Wimstek. The objective of building such an alliance was to harness shared and accelerated growth. This can be achieved through mutual cooperation in different areas of common interest. Unlike many other regional groupings, Wimstek is a sector-driven cooperative organization. See it started with six sectors that will be trade, technology, energy, transport, tourism and fisheries. See for sectoral cooperation in the late 1997 it expanded to embrace nine more sectors which included agriculture, public health, poverty, elevation, counter-terrorism, environment, culture, people-to-people contact and climate change. This was in the year 2008. See the Wimstek is crucial for India in many ways. We'll see what they are. Wimstek revitalizes India's regional cooperation in the Bay of Bengal region along with deepening its relations with ASEAN. India's need to negate the Chinese influence further added to the shift in focus to Wimstek. The significance of Wimstek is also due to its regional integration and maritime security factors so that India can realize its blue economy ambitions. See the Bay of Bengal is the largest bay in the world which is strategically located linking the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and acts as a connection to the Strait of Malacca. Carrying one-fourth of the global trade, it becomes the access point to India for resources which includes energy source like natural gas reserves and securing this economically significant region is important for India because the export market of India can be enlarged. These are some of the key importance of Wimstek and Bay of Bengal region for India. Now we shall see about PANIX 21. See it is nothing but a humanitarian assistance and disaster relief exercise for the member nations of the Wimstek countries. I hope you all remember the member countries of Wimstek. They are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand. See remember the member states of Wimstek it will be very useful for your prelims preparation. See PANIX 21 is mainly for a multi-sectoral technical and economic cooperation. It was held in New Delhi on December 2021. Also note that as per the 2020 report by the Ministry of External Affairs out of the 14 priority areas of cooperation in Wimstek, India is the lead country in areas of counter-terrorism and transnational crime, transport and communication, tourist and environment and disaster management. The event highlighted the swift and coordinated rescue and relief operation which were launched in India despite rising number of COVID cases and the national lockdown. So with this we have come to the end of our first article discussion. With these point in mind let's move on to the next article. See this news article talks about federalism which is being attacked by centralization of powers. It also mentions the ways to address this centralization of powers. See in this context we learn about fiscal federalism and legislative federalism that is mentioned in our Indian constitution. Also we will discuss in detail about the news article. See the syllabus relevant for the analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. Let's start our discussion. Federalism is a system of government in which the power is divided. So it is divided between a central authority and various constituent units of the country. Usually a federation has two levels of government. One is the government for the entire country. See it will be usually responsible for a few subjects of common national interest. The other one will be the governments at the level of provinces or states. They will look after much of the day to day administering of their states. Both these levels of governments enjoy their power independent of the other. In this sense federations is contrary to unitary governments. Regarding the features of federalism we have discussed in detail on the 18th December 2021 Hindu news analysis by our academy. So watch it it will be very useful in understanding about federalism in a detailed manner. Okay now let's get into the first part of our discussion. Note that constitution of India divides all powers that is legislative, executive and financial powers between the center and the states. However there is no division of judicial power. Remember there is no division of judicial power. We learned that the center and the states are supreme in their respective fields but the maximum harmony and coordination between them is essential for the effective operation of the federal system. Hence the constitution contains elaborate provisions to regulate the various dimensions of the center and the state relations. So in this first we will discuss about the legislative relations. See article 245 to 255 in part 11 of the constitution divides the legislative powers between the center and the states. This division is with respect to both the territory and the subjects of the legislation. See parliament can make laws for the whole or any part of the territory of India. The territory of India includes the states and the union territory whereas state legislature can make laws for the whole or any part of the state. The laws made by a state legislature are not applicable outside the state. The constitution also provides for a threefold distribution of legislative subjects between the center and the states. What are they union list, state list and concurrent list. See the parliament has exclusive power to make laws with respect to any of the matters enumerated in the union list. Next the state legislature has exclusive powers to make laws with respect to any of the matters enumerated in the state list. The last we will see about concurrent lists. See both the parliament and the state legislature can make laws with respect to the matters enumerated in the concurrent list. Now comes the question, what about the subjects which are not covered under any of these three lists, they are called as residuary subjects. So in this residuary subjects the power is completely vested with the parliament. But remember the parliament acquires the power to legislate in matters of the state list while national emergency is in operation. The parliament can make laws on any matter in the state list for implementing the international treaties, agreements or convention. Also the parliament gets power to legislate directly on the state subjects under the exceptional situations. For example the governor can reserve certain types of bills passed by the state legislature for the consideration of the president and the president enjoys absolute veto over them. See the president can also direct the states to reserve money bills and other financial bills passed by the state legislature for his or her consideration during a financial emergency. Secondly we will see the provisions regarding the financial relations between the centre and the state. Article 268 to 293 in part 12 of the constitutions deals with the centre state financial relations. See the parliament has exclusive power to livy taxes on subjects enumerated in the union list whereas the state legislature has also exclusive power to livy taxes on subjects enumerated in the state list. And you know that both the parliament and the state legislature can livy taxes on subjects enumerated in the concurrent list. Finally the respiratory power of taxation that is the power to impose taxes that is not enumerated in any of these three lists that is union list, state list and concurrent list is automatically vested in the parliament. Besides sharing of taxes between the centre and the state the constitution provides for grants in aid to the states from the central resources. It also provides for the distribution of the net proceeds of taxes that is to be shared between the centre and the state. Also to protect the interest of the states in the financial matters the constitution lays down that the certain bills can be introduced in the parliament only on the recommendations of the president. For example the bills which imposes or varies any tax or duty in which states are interested can be introduced only with the president recommendation but the financial relations become rigid during emergencies. See for example while the proclamation of national emergency which is mentioned in article 352 is an operation the president can modify the constitutional distribution of revenues between the centre and the states. This means the president can either reduce or cancel the transfer of finances from the centre to the states. During financial emergencies which is mentioned in article 360 the centre can give directions to the state to reserve all money bills and other financial bills for the consideration of the president. Thus we have seen the fiscal federalism and legislative federalism mentioned in our constitution. Now let's discuss about the news article. See this article mainly discusses about the various issues that has affected the relation between the centre and the states in the last few years. We will see one by one. Firstly the demonetization which was imposed without adequate consultation with the states. See demonetization is the act of stripping a currency unit of its status as a legal tender. See we know that the government of India announced the demonetization of all 500 and 1000 rupees banknotes. The problem here is the demonetization was done without adequate consultation with the states. The second issue is we know that during the pandemic states were curtailed in aspects relating to COVID-19 management and mitigations. See states were curtailed in procurement of testing kits, vaccination, the use of disaster management act and the unplanned national lockdown. These were all done in spite of the fact that health is a state subject. Not only this, the policies by the union government in the recent past have led to the weakening of the state autonomy. For example you can consider farm laws. See entries 82, 86, 87 and 88 in the union list mention about taxes and duties on income and assets but it excludes those in respect of agriculture. Coming to the state list we have eight entries which are related to agriculture. It includes land revenue, land records, taxes on agricultural income, estate duty in respect of agricultural land, markets and fares, transfer of agricultural land, agricultural loans etc. From the above fact it is clear that the union list and the concurrent list put matters relating to agriculture outside parliament's jurisdiction and it gave to the state exclusive power over agriculture. Thus union government enacting a law is a clear violation of federalism. Finally after many protests the union government decided to scrap the farm laws last month. See the next issue is during the pandemic the union government repeatedly violated the compensation guarantees to the states especially in GST. See know that the greater share of the state revenue was subsumed under GST. See the union promised to compensate on time after the GST regime but there was a long delay in payment to the states. Delay in payment to the states wasn't due to the impact of economic slowdown. See the crisis got aggravated in July 2020 and the union government proposed to borrowing as an option to address a shortfall in GST compensation. Most states forced by economic pressure had to accept the proposal. See the states are already not getting the compensation. Now forced into debt which they would have to pay in future. Now we'll recollect a point from 2021 to 2022 budget estimates. In budget estimates the state's share of union tax has reduced to 30% against the mandated 41% devolution which was prescribed by the 15th finance commission. In addition to this kindly note that the funding of the PM CARES is eligible for corporate social responsibility expenditure but it is not the case with Chief Minister's disaster relief. It shows the increasing centralization of powers. That is the states are not given their due powers mandated by the constitution. See the author also suggests some of the ways to address the issues. Let us discuss them one by one. Firstly there should be research and introspection on federalism. See the country is constantly evolving and new states or union territories are being created or modified. So it is high time for another state centric committee like the Rajaminar committee to study union state relations. See the second suggestion is the state should demand for the creation of a formal institutional framework in order to mandate and facilitate consultation between the union and the states. The framework should facilitate consultation in the areas of legislation under the concurrent list especially with the focus on the federalism angle. See the third suggestion is the chief ministers of the state should reach out to one another not only during the crisis. Instead they should try to create forums for regular engagement facilitating effective consultation as a part of the lawmaking process. Finally it is important for the union to understand that federalism plays a crucial role in shaping the future of our country. Also the union should understand that the constitution establishes a system where citizens and the states are treated as partners and not subjects. That's all about this article. So we saw about fiscal federalism, legislative federalism and the issues faced by federalism due to the centralization of powers. Also we saw some of the suggestions given by the author in order to maintain a peaceful relationship between center and the state. Now let's move on to the next article. This news article talks about the proposal of Jamun Kashmir delimitation commission. See Jamun Kashmir delimitation commission was constituted in March 2020 and there are three members in this commission. In the view of ongoing pandemic its term was extended by another year in March 2021. So this news article talks about the recent proposal of this delimitation commission. The proposal is for increasing the seats of Jamun division and the Kashmir division. At present the Kashmir division has 46 seats and the Jamun division has 37 seats. So in this context we'll discuss about the delimitation commission its composition and function. Now let's move into our discussion. Delimitation literally means the act or process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country or a province that is having a legislative body. This job of delimitation is assigned to a high-power body. Such a body is known as delimitation commission or a boundary commission. In India such delimitation commission have been constituted four times. See in 1952 it was constituted under the delimitation commission act 1952. In 1963 under the delimitation commission act 1962 and in the year 1973 under delimitation act 1972. Lastly it was in 2002 under the delimitation act 2002. The delimitation commission of India is a statutory body and not a constitutional body. It is established by the central government under the provisions of a law enacted by the parliament. Now let's discuss in detail about the composition of this commission. It consists of the chairman who is either serving or a retired judge of the Supreme Court. He or she can serve for a period of two years. The other members includes the election commissioner of India and the election commissioners of the state and the union territories concerned. So having discussed about its composition now we will see its function. Its function is to demarcate the boundaries of the parliamentary and assembly constituency in the country. The delimitation commission in India is a high power body. Those orders have the force of law. So it cannot be called in question before any court. The copies of the commission's order are laid before the house of the people and the state legislative assembly respectively. But note that no modification are permissible. See under article 82 of the constitution the parliament by law enacts a delimitation act after every census. So after the commencement of this act the central government constitutes a delimitation commission. This delimitation commission demarcates the boundaries of the parliamentary constituencies as per the provisions of the delimitation act. The present delimitation of constituency has been done on the basis of 2001 census under the provisions of delimitation act 2002. See particularly this delimitation commission of 2002 was mainly formed to address the uneven growth of population in different constituency in different parts of the country as well as within the same state. Also to address the problems due to continuous migration of people or electorate from one place to another especially from rural areas to urban areas because these problems resulted in different sizes of electoral constituencies even within the same state. Note that the constitution of India was specifically amended in 2002. This amendment specified not to have delimitation of constituency till the first census after 2026. Thus the present constituencies carved out on the basis of 2001 census shall continue to be in operation till the first census after 2026. So we saw about what is delimitation commission its composition and function. Now let's move on to the analysis of the next news article. See this editorial article is about the third India Central Asia dialogue and also the article talks about some key points such as need of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan trade with Central Asia and connectivity. So this is the cracks of the article we will see the key points discussed in the article. Additionally we will also see some background details. Celebres relevant to the topics is given here please go through it. See the CAR and India share a broad regional consensus on Afghanistan. This is because they worry about the threat of terrorism, radicalization, narcotics and drugs. First of all let's see what the CAR means. CAR is nothing but the Central Asian Republic. It consists of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The region is strategically vital for many countries like China, Russia, India, US and Europe. Indeed a geographer Halford MacKinder observed he who controls the heartland controls the world. In recent years foreign affairs analysts have begun observing what they call the new great game in Central Asia which characterized by fierce competition between various states all aiming to increase their influence and hegemony and even power over the region. With this introduction about the region let's go back to the worrying factor. See from this image here you can easily understand why CARs and India are worrying. That is CAR and India are very close to the Golden Crescent which includes Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. See from these regions narcotics and drugs are infiltrated into the neighboring countries. Drugs grown in Afghanistan are trafficked through Iran and Pakistan to the rest of the world and also the current political regime in Afghanistan creates the fear of terrorism in the neighboring countries. But in this aspect India has more reasons to worry because most of the CARs maintain bilateral talks with the Taliban regime. Moving on let us discuss the role played by India in the CAR region. See we all know that Central Asia is located at the heart of Eurasia. Its geographical proximity and historic linkages make the region highly relevant to India's strategic interest. India has endeavored to devise policies focusing on Central Asia after the Central Asian Republics became independent in the 1990s but these have produced limited results. In order to expand India's political, security and cultural connections with the region, India introduced Connect Central Asia Policy in 2012. India has previously conducted two bilateral talks. It also maintains regular channels of communication with the CARs through forums such as Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in India. See now this news article also talks about the third bilateral talk that we are doing. But despite this, India's role as a key player remains underwhelming in the region compared to Russia, China, Turkey, Iran etc. We shall see why later in the discussion. Now let us understand the strategic importance of Central Asia for India. We shall see them one by one. See Central Asia serves as a land bridge between Asia and Europe and is very much rich in natural resources. It is thus geopolitically axial and economically offers a whole range of opportunities. But due to lack of direct geographical connectivity, India along with other partner countries in the region is working on the International North-South Transport Corridor. We shall discuss separately the importance of all the CARs for India. Tajikistan's importance for India lies in its geostrategic location. It shares borders with China, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Thus it is located in proximity to the Pakistan occupied Kashmir. Next we will see what is the importance of this Kazakhstan. It is viewed as an important place in the context of India's growing energy needs and Kazakhstan's immense hydrocarbon reserves. Next we will see the importance of Turkmenistan for India. It is mainly important for the gas reserves, transit potential and geostrategic location. India imports nearly 70% of its oil requirements which is likely to go up to 90% by 2025 from Turkmenistan and this fact has made Turkmenistan an attractive destination for India and it is a part of TAPI which is nothing but a gas pipeline involving Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Turkmenistan can also serve as a gateway to Central Asia through Iran. From India's point of view, the north-south corridor would not only help India in reaching out to Central Asia but also enable it to transport goods at a cheaper cost to the European markets. Next we will see about Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan has been appreciative of India's reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan and supports India's candidature for full membership in the UNSC. Lastly we will see about Kyrgyzstan. India has offered assistance to Kyrgyzstan by sending a team to train Kyrgyz armed forces in UN peacekeeping operations and imparting English language skills. Thus both India and CARs have common grounds to enhance cooperation due to the threat of terrorism and drug trafficking spilling over into their countries from Afghanistan. So far we saw the importance of CARs for India and the role played by India in the CAR region. Now we shall move on to see the constraints for India in establishing itself as a key player in the region. See India must redouble its efforts in the area of connectivity to further its regional presence. This becomes all the more important since China's Belt and Road Initiative and also the two of its six corridors running through Central Asia. See China has been expanding its regional presence as seen in the 5 plus 1 format launched in 2020 to further its influence. However its advances are already causing concerns of depth trap diplomacy. The next constraint will be Russia. Russia is still a widely influential political and security player in the region and Russia has been promoting its own Eurasian Economic Union to pursue regional and economic integration. The image here shows trade relations of CAR with major countries. See it is evident from this graph that presence of Russia and China is more in the region than the other countries. India's trade with the region amounts to US dollar of 2 billion going to limited connectivity and low economic engagement. As India asserts its position as one of the fastest growing major economies in the overall world its increased engagement with the region can lead to mutually beneficial gains both in economic and strategic terms. The presence of multiple strong powers in the region offers options to regional actors like India to balance external pressures. Efforts are now being made to address the weak trade ties by encouraging cooperation among business on both sides. This is evident from the launch of India Central Asia Business Council in 2020. Beyond strategic and economic cooperation India must increase its developmental and humanitarian aid to the region. It should also promote closer people to people ties through education, knowledge transfer, medicine and health, culture, cuisine and tourism. Multilateral organizations like SEO, EAEU and CICA can serve as platforms for sustained engagement and regular exchanges of ideas. The SEO that is the Shanghai Corporation organization is a crucial grouping that provides India a strategic convergence with Russia and China on addressing new security challenges thereby enhancing infrastructural development projects and creating a network of regional oil and gas pipelines for the larger benefit of the Central and South Asian region. Apart from these ongoing projects in Central Asian countries some of which are double landlocked there remains much scope for digital connectivity as well. In a region where Russia and China remains the key players India has a long way to go before it can be recognized as a consequential actor in Central Asia. The points and proposals that we saw so far in this discussion process the potential to form the bedrock of a sustained balanced long-term strategy which India will have to capitalize on in order to achieve its policy goals in the region. That's all about this article. Now let's discuss the answers for our prelims practice questions. The first question is a statement type question. It is about BIMSTEC. See look at the first statement. It says it consists of only five countries. We already know BIMSTEC has seven member states. They are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand. The statement one is incorrect. Now look at the second statement. See the organization came into being on 6th June 1997 through the Bangkok declaration. This is absolutely correct. Thus the answer for this question is option C2 only. Next question. It is also a statement type question but here you can go for elimination technique. See look at the first statement. They are talking about the delimitation commission. Say they are saying it is a constitutional body. Delimitation commission is a statutory body hence statement one is incorrect. So you can easily eliminate option A, B and D and you can arrive at the answer option C which is 2 only. Look at the statement 2. It is headed by the retired judge of the Supreme Court. Yes it is correct. Now finally confirm your answer by looking at the third statement. See they had given 8 delimitation commission has been constituted so far. But you know very well we saw in a discussion that there are only 4 delimitation commission that had been constituted so far and those are in the years 1952, 1963, 1972 and finally in 2002. Thus the answer for this question is option C2 only. Now the final question. See it is a map based question which of the following countries border Caspian Sea. See there are only 5 countries that are bordering Caspian Sea. They are Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia. Now look at our question. You can easily eliminate option A since it is having Turkey. Now see option B yes Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are bordering Caspian Sea. So option B is correct. Now just verify with other options also before confirming your answer. See Iran is bordering Caspian Sea but not Iraq so option C is incorrect. Now look at option B Tajikistan is not bordering Caspian Sea and only Turkmenistan is bordering. So now let me recall you the 5 countries which are bordering Caspian Sea. They are Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia. So the answer for our question is option B Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. See displayed here are the main practice questions. Please go through it and write your answers and do post it in our comment box. If you like this video do like, share and comment and don't forget to subscribe to our Shankar IS Academy YouTube channel. Thank you for listening.