 Dear viewers, thank you for participating in the mainstreaming scholarship test. We got a tremendous response from you and the evaluation of your answers is under progress. The results will be published in the coming days. The date of the publication of the results will be announced in the Hindu News Analysis. Stay tuned. Let us move on to the Hindu News Analysis for the date 16th October 2020. The list of news articles along with the page numbers of five different editions is given here for your reference. We handwritten notes in PDF format and the timestamping of all the news articles taken up for today's analysis is given in the description section and also in the comment section in the best interest of the viewers. Let us now begin our analysis. Let us look at this editorial which discusses about the Sustainable Development Goal Number 2 that is Zero Hunger by the Year 2030. This editorial has been published today in the backdrop of World Food Day which is today that is 16th October. So let us discuss this editorial now that 11 syllabus is given here for your reference. We know that in 2015 the global community adopted the 17 global goals for sustainable development to improve people's lives by the year 2030. The goal number 2 which is Zero Hunger pledges to end hunger, achieve food security then to improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. We know that after decades of steady decline the number of people who suffer from hunger began to slowly increase again in the year 2015. At present nearly 690 million people or approximately 9 percentage of the world population are hungry. And the UN estimates says that the world is not on track to achieve zero hunger by the year 2030. If the recent trends continue then the number of people affected by hunger would surpass 840 million by the year 2030. See the food agencies of UN such as the Food and Agriculture Organization, then World Food Program, then International Fund for Agriculture Development have all been working for long to end hunger eradicate food insecurity and achieve the SDG goal number 2. As a result the agricultural productivity has improved significantly in the recent decades. Still more than 2 billion people globally lack access to sufficient, nutritious and safe food. So much is need to be done in order to achieve zero hunger by the year 2030. Now coming to the context of India, the authors say that India has gone from being a net importer to a net exporter of food grains. And the strength of India's food security system is very much evident through this current COVID-19 pandemic. The editorial says that from the months of April to June both the Centre and the states distributed around 23 million tons of food grains through public distribution system. The governments were able to mobilize food directions for around 820 million people as planned for the months between April and November 2020. Also India was able to find alternate solutions to provide food directions to 90 million school children even though they were in homes. Apart from this efforts were also made to remove bottlenecks in the food supply chain due to lockdowns and minimize disruptions in agricultural activities. As a result agriculture grew at 3.4% during the first quarter in this financial year even though the overall economy saw contraction and the area cultivated during this career season exceeded 110 million hectares. So you can see there is some positivity in India's agricultural sector despite the current COVID-19 pandemic. But the authors tell that all is not well. Why? Because India's food challenges are multi-dimensional. Here the authors focus on two aspects. One is malnutrition and the other is climate change. They cite the data from Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey for the period 2016-2018 in order to understand malnutrition in India. See this survey says that over 40 million children are chronically malnourished and more than half of Indian women who are aged between 15 and 49 years are anemic. So the government has come up with certain important schemes to address these challenges like Integrated Child Development Services, Midday Meal Program, National IN Plus Initiative, Anemia Mukth Bharat, etc. So malnutrition is one dimension. The next dimension is climate change. The authors tell that climate change is a real threat to agro-biodiversity. Why? Because it affects everything from the productivity of crops to the livelihoods. The effects of climate change have manifested in the form of pest attacks, the recent locust attacks, floods, cyclones, etc. So what India is doing at present in order to mitigate the impact of climate changes by introducing drought tolerant and flood tolerant seed varieties, then providing weather-based agricultural advisories, then promoting other crops like millets and also focusing on small-scale irrigation. So the second dimension is climate change. And apart from this, Indian agriculture also faces many other issues. First and foremost is the excessive use of chemicals and unsustainable farming practices in order to intensify food production. Due to such unsustainable practices, it results in soil degradation, fast depletion of groundwater table and rapid loss of agro-biodiversity. Another issue is the fragmentation of land holdings in India. The authors tell that in India more than 86 percentage farmers have less than 2 hectares of land. And these set of farmers contribute to 60 percentage of India's total food grain production and over half of India's fruits and vegetables production. So fragmentation of land holdings is another important issue. So you can see that the food challenges of India are multi-dimensional. To address this, the authors have discussed certain ways to build sustainable food systems. First, they stress that India must shift to sustainable production practices in agriculture and allied sectors. Secondly, India must stop the wastage as one third of the food we produce is wasted. So in order to achieve the sustainable development goal number two, everyone, that is the governments, the private sector, the civil societies and the local communities, must work together to achieve zero hunger. This is all about the discussion of this editorial. In this editorial, we saw the present status of India's food system, the multi-dimensional challenges which India faces and finally the suggestions given by author to build sustainable food systems in India. Now have a look at this practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about the scenario on exports, imports and trade deficit for the month of September 2020. So in the context of this news article, let us see about what do we mean by current account under the balance of payments, then terms like trade balance and trade deficit. The relevant syllabus is given you for your reference. See whatever terminologies that we are going to discuss now comes under India's external sector. When you are discussing about India's external sector, you need to know the terminology balance of payments. Balance of payments of any country refers to the systematic record of all economic transactions between the residents of that particular country and the rest of the world for particular period which is usually one year. The balance of payments account is managed by the central bank of that particular country. So in case of India, it is managed by the Reserve Bank of India. So this is what we mean by the balance of payments. See this balance of payments account has two important accounts. One is called the current account and the next one is called the capital account. Here current account refers to the account that records all the transactions relating to export and import of goods and services. Whereas if you look at capital account, it refers to all the transactions between the residents of a country and rest of the world which cause a change in the assets or liabilities of the residents of the country or its government. So this is the difference between the current account and the capital account. Our focus today is on current account. Under current account, we have two components. One is the goods account or the mechanized transactions and the other is invisible trade that also includes services. In this, what we are going to focus today is the goods account. You know that a major part of transactions in the foreign trade is in the form of export and import of goods or visible items. When we tell export, it means you are sending a particular goods from India to other country and when we tell import, we are receiving a particular good from other country to India. So when we export goods, we get money. So we are receiving money. This receipts from exports is shown on the credit side. It is denoted as X and when we are importing goods, we are paying the money to purchase that particular good. So the payment which is done for import of goods is written on the debit side and it is denoted as M. So remember both these facts. Next you need to know about trade balance. The term trade balance or balance of trade simply means the balance of exports and imports of goods. In other words, we can say that the balance of visible exports and imports is called as trade balance. So this trade balance can be positive or it can be negative. So in what situation will the trade balance be positive? That is when will we have a trade surplus? That is when we get more money through exports, we achieve a condition called as trade surplus. So X should be greater than M but when the payment for import of goods is more than the receipts for export of goods, then that scenario is called as a trade deficit scenario. In this scenario, M will be greater than X. Now this table will give you an idea. Every year in your economic survey in your volume two, India's external sector will be discussed. Under this, you will have this balance of payments table which includes both the current account and the capital account. Under current account, you can clearly see the exports and imports of goods and the trade balance. If it is minus, it means we have a trade deficit situation and if it is plus, we will have a trade surplus situation. And here you can see invisibles. It includes services, income and transfers. And here you can see the overall goods and services balance. As you can see here, it is a negative. It means there is a deficit situation prevailing. So these are some of the terminologies that are relevant to the analysis of this news article. Now with this information, let us look at this news article. This news article tells that India's exports in goods rose close to six percentage for the month of September 2020 when compared to the September month of previous year which is 2019. After having contracted for six straight months, now India's exports in goods have increased. The rise in exports of certain commodities led to an overall increase of India's exports in goods. They are drugs and pharmaceuticals, readymade governments, etc. And this news article also tells that the imports in goods have contracted 19.6 percentage. In dollar terms for the month of September 2020, when compared to the September of previous year which is 2019. So if the imports in goods are contracting, it means we are paying less. So now we have the scenario where the exports have increased and the imports have decreased. So there can be two possible outcomes. One, the trade deficit will narrow. That is, for example, say in the previous year the trade deficit was ten percentage. Now the trade deficit will narrow down to six percentage. Or there is one more condition where India can achieve trade surplus. Now this news article tells that there is a decline of trade deficit to the tune of around 76.66 percentage. It means the trade deficit has narrowed down. In September 2019, the value was 11.67 billion US dollars. Whereas in September 2020, the trade deficit was estimated at 2.72 billion US dollars. So we can see that the trade deficit has narrowed down. This is all about the discussion of this news article. From this news article, try to know the important terminologies under India's external sector. We saw in detail about the current account under the balance of payments. Then about trade balance and conditions such as trade surplus and trade deficit. Now have a look at this practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. Let us look at this editorial that talks about the current issues in global scenario where there is a lack of cooperation between the nations to tackle the emerging problems in this world. And then this editorial also talks about the importance of multilateralism in this backdrop and the role that multilateralism plays in bringing global prosperity. So let us discuss this editorial in detail now. The relevant syllabus is given here for your reference. Before looking into the editorial, what do we mean by multilateralism? See in simple terms, multilateralism is the process of organizing relations between groups of three or more states. So it basically refers to an alliance of multiple countries that are pursuing a common goal. Beyond this basic aspect, multilateralism generally comprises certain qualitative elements or principles that shape the character of the arrangement or institution. Like having common interests, then to respect each other's views and to have a system of dispute settlement that is intended to enforce particular mode of behavior between the members. In the recent times, multilateral processes in the world have resulted in growing openness and interconnectedness of the countries around the world. But if you see realistically, these very same processes have often been unable to respond sufficiently to the challenges that the world faces in an effective manner. And this is the theme which the author of this editorial focuses on. Here the author tells that the nation states are less willing to cooperate in tackling cross-national and global challenges. The example taken here is the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We know that the COVID-19 pandemic recognizes no national or regional boundaries. And now it is spread almost over the entire world. And here what we need from nations across the world is cooperation and coordination with each other. The nations are supposed to pool their technological and economic resources together to work on an effective and affordable anti-virus vaccine in order to tackle this crisis. But instead of any collective efforts, we can see countries often competing with each other to discover vaccine. Here the author also takes the example of this year's Nobel Peace Prize winning World Food Program. The author says that the achievement of World Food Program in combating hunger in the world is less effective. It should not be taken in a wrong manner that the World Food Program is an inefficient institution, but because it is underfunded due to the lack of enthusiasm among the nations. Here the author tells that the countries understand that there is a need to cooperate with each other. But often countries see this as a compulsion rather than desirable. That is they are not willingly ready to participate, but they are seeing it as compulsion. So when participating in multilateral negotiations, countries go with an idea to concede, that is sacrifice as little as possible and try to gain or extract as much as they can. Also lack of capacity to work in teams together within institutions and between institutions is also a major problem that is faced by several multilateral groupings. For example, we have the UNFCCC, that is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Here the nations wish to sacrifice the least and get the maximum benefits from the climate related agreements. So this has led to ineffective decision making and poor implementation of decisions. According to author, this kind of behavior may be appropriate when dealing with trade or security matters, but it is not appropriate in tackling global challenges such as climate change or even the current pandemic. In this backdrop, the author takes the example of United Nations. The author tells that the UN has become increasingly marginal in mobilizing international responses to global challenges. And the fault lies with its most powerful member countries. They have deprived the United Nations of resources and resisted efforts to institute long overdue reforms. For example, we know that many developing economies wish to become permanent members in the United Nations Security Council. But if you see, there is a depolarization within the UN's membership. Because certain permanent members are still not ready for reforms. So due to this important decisions are not able to be taken. In this backdrop, the author discusses about the present status as well as the relevance of the concept called globalization. Before seeing author's views on globalization, let us see what do we mean by globalization? It is nothing but the growing interdependence of the world's economies, cultures, and populations. It is brought about by cross-border trade in goods and services, technology, and flows of investment, people, and information. One of its effects is that it promotes and increases interactions between different regions and populations around the world. See, this term gained popularity after the Cold War ended in the early 1990s. There were major technological advances that has happened since then. And even now we are able to see more of technological advances. So this concept called globalization benefits society as a whole. But this globalization also has its negative side. For example, it can fuel inequality. It makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. Also if you see globalization leaps as vulnerable to infectious diseases. The classic example is the present COVID-19 pandemic. It is thought to be originated in a market in China. And now it is spread across the world due to people to people interactions. Another major disadvantage of globalization is that it destroys the environment. So these are some of the disadvantages of globalization. But as we told before, globalization has its own advantages if it is used in a proper way. Why? Because it allows the countries to come together and work in coordination in order to tackle the problems happening around the world. So how relevant is this concept of globalization in the present world? See the author tells that we live in an era of nationalist urges fueled by political opportunism. For example, we have seen countries like US and Brazil who are propagating their nationalist agenda. And here the term political opportunism refers to the attempt by the political parties of countries in order to maintain their political support or to increase their political influence. So such an act disregards the relevant ethical or political principles. And one disadvantage of this political opportunism is that it reduces the appeal of international cooperation. So due to this nationalist urges, nations are becoming increasingly protectionist in nature. And through this such countries restrict the flow of trade by introducing tariffs and various government regulations. And also they subscribe to the idea of isolationism. That is they are not willing to cooperate with other countries. This includes withdrawal from international treaties, withdrawal from international organizations. As we can see in case of US where at present US is emphasizing on its America first policy. So we can see protectionist tendency among the nations of the world at present. Here the author tells that even though there are such protectionist tendencies, globalization is to stay here. Why because it is driven by technology and as long as technology remains the key driver of economic growth there is no escape from globalization. So what does the author prescribe in this backdrop? First we should understand the fact that in tackling domestic challenges, deeper external engagement is often indispensable. That is it is very much necessary. In this regard we must take into account the interconnectedness among various challenges. Here the author gives example of interconnectedness between food, energy and water security. See enhancing food security may lead to diminished water security or energy security. Because we need more water and more energy to develop more food crops. And it may also have an impact on health security due to the use of chemical fertilizers and toxic pesticides to increase the production. And here comes the relevance of multilateralism in the form of sustainable development goals. We know that the sustainable development goals of cross domain but also cross national and character. And hence the sustainable development goals naturally demand greater multilateral cooperation in order to succeed. So external engagement is very much necessary. And this is the first concept emphasized by the author. Secondly the author focuses on the United Nations. He tells that the United Nations is an essential part of the fabric of international relations. And as we saw reforms are yet to be made in this United Nations. So the author tells that reforms must be done in this institution so that all the members enjoy equality and they also coordinate with each other by avoiding conflicts to tackle the world problems. Here the author also tells that other multilateral institutions should follow the same. That is to bring reforms. And at the same time nations should be willing to contribute as much as possible within the limitation of resources. And demand the minimum in terms of the assets needs. Why because we have an example where initially US withdrew its funding for the World Health Organization when COVID-19 was at its peak. And then US also decided to withdraw from World Health Organization at this crucial time. So the author tells that there should be international solidarity. And institutions like UN must undergo the much needed reforms. So these are the two focus areas prescribed by the author. This is all about the discussion of this editorial. In this editorial we saw the author's perspective about the current issues in global scenario where there is a lack of cooperation between the nations especially during this COVID-19 pandemic. In this backdrop the author has discussed about the importance of multilateralism and globalization and the role these both play in bringing global prosperity. Now have a look at this practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about ships recycling. It tells that the central government has notified the directorate general of shipping as the national authority for ships recycling. See whenever you are studying about ships recycling know about an important international convention which is the Hong Kong international convention for the safe and environmentally sound recycling of ships. It was adopted in the year 2009 by the international maritime organization. This convention has laid down the aspects relating to the design, construction, operation and preparation of ships so as to facilitate safe and environmentally sound recycling without compromising the safety and operational efficiency of ships. Also this Hong Kong convention has envisaged the establishment of an appropriate enforcement mechanism for recycling of ships. If you see India acceded to this convention in the year 2019 and it enacted a legislation which is called the Recycling of Ships Act of 2019. This act aims at the regulation of recycling of ships by setting certain standards and laying down the statutory mechanism for enforcing such standards. Under this act section 3 deals with designation of national authority. It says that the central government shall designate an officer not below the rank of joint secretary to the government of India as the national authority for ships recycling by a notification. And this authority shall administer, supervise and monitor all activities related to ship recycling under this act. So using this power the central government has now notified the directorate general of shipping as the national authority for ships recycling. Here note that the directorate general of shipping is an attached office of the ministry of shipping. It deals with all executive matters relating to merchant shipping then all matters concerning maritime administration, maritime education and training, development of shipping industry, etc. So now as an apex body directorate general of shipping is authorized to administer, supervise and monitor all activities relating to ship recycling. It will also look after the sustainable development of the ship recycling industry then monitor compliance to environment friendly norms and safety and health measures for all the stakeholders who are working in the ship recycling industry. This directorate general of shipping will be the final authority for the various approvals required by the ship recycling yard owners and the state governments. Also note that directorate general of shipping is a representative of India in international maritime organization and all the conventions of international maritime organization are being enforced by the directorate general of shipping. Next note that the national authority of ship recycling will be set up at Gandhi Nagar in Gujarat. Here just try to have an idea about the statistics of ship recycling industry in India. See India is one of the top leaders in global ship recycling industry with a share of over 30 percentage of the entire market and if you see there is a place called Alang in Gujarat which is home to Asia's largest ship breaking and ship recycling industry in the world. So the location of this office close to this Alang in the state of Gujarat will benefit the ship recycling yard owners of Alang. This is in brief about the discussion of this news article. From this news article try to know about the important Hong Kong convention that is related to ships recycling and then about the directorate general of shipping who has been designated as the national authority for ships recycling. Now have a look at this practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article discusses about M-Sand. It talks about a meeting that will be convened by the public works department of the state government of Tamil Nadu with the stakeholders on M-Sand policy. Why because there are too many complaints related to the unregulated sale of substandard M-Sand in this state. So in this context what you need to know from exam point of view is about the difference between different types of sands the natural sand which we have and the artificial sands such as M-Sand, P-Sand and the differences between these sands. First, what is a sand? It is a natural unconsolidated granular material that is composed of sand grains that range in size from 1 16th to 2 millimeter. See sand grains are either mineral particles or rock fragments or biogenic in origin and the finer granular material is called as silt. The coarser material is called as gravel. The quality of sand is dominantly composed of silicate minerals or silicate rock fragments. Know that sand comes from many locations, sources and environments. It forms when rocks break down from weathering and eroding over thousands and even millions of years. Now let us see the applications of sand. It has many applications. One is that it is used to provide bulkness then it provides strength to the construction materials like concrete. See the natural river sand is the cheapest resource of sand that is available. However, you can see news that there is excessive mining of riverbed to meet the increasing demand for sand for the construction industry across India and this has led to ecological imbalances. So to overcome these imbalances came the alternative sand that is the artificial sands M-Sand, P-Sand etc. Now let us look at M-Sand. It is also called as manufactured sand. It is nothing but an artificial sand made from crushing of rock or granite and is used for construction purposes along with cement or concrete. See M-Sand differs from natural river sand in its physical and mineralogical properties. The advantages of M-Sand include higher fineness modules index compared to the natural sand. So this gives a good workability for the concrete. Here know that this fineness modules index is an index number that represents the mean size of particles in sand. M-Sand is also free from silt and clay particles that offer better abrasion resistance, higher unit weight and lower permeability. Next let us look at P-Sand. It is nothing but plastering manufactured sand. See it is a very fine grade of sand. It is used for plastering and creating renders both internally and externally. The advantage of this sand is that it does not require to be filtered again at the construction site. So it is used directly to prepare the mortar and hence it saves labor time as well as money. And this table gives you rough comparison between the river sand and the artificial sands that are M-Sand and P-Sand. Just have a look at it for your reference. This is in brief about the discussion of this news article. Try to know the different types of sands from exam perspective. Now have a look at this practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. Now we have these two news articles related to target rating point that is TRP. See on 13th October we discussed in detail about the recent controversy where three television channels were involved in manipulating TRPs in Mumbai. So we discussed in detail about what do we mean by target rating points and then about the self-regulatory body which is the broadcast audience research council that carries out television ratings in India. So related to these two news articles you need to know about what do you mean by TRP and about this broadcast audience research council. This news article tells that the broadcast audience research council has suspended the ratings of all the news channels in order to review and augment the current standards of measuring and reporting data. This exercise is expected to take around 8 to 12 weeks. So till that time the ratings of all the news channels are suspended. Similar to this we also have an OPEC column today where there is a discussion between two personalities who are associated with the television channels. They have discussed if the government should regulate TRPs. Here both the personalities are of the opinion that the industry itself should regulate TRPs. That is there should be self-regulation and the government should not intervene instead the government can facilitate the process. This is the key takeaway from this OPEC article. Everything is the discussion about the issues surrounding TRP. So as told earlier focus on what do you mean by TRPs and about BARC. Now let us move on to the practice questions discussion session. Look at this question consider the following agencies food and agriculture organization international fund for agricultural development world food program international food policy research institute which of the above are the specialized agencies of the United Nations. You know that world food program and international food policy research institute are not specialized agencies of the United Nations. We have discussed about world food program in our 10th October the Hindu news analysis and international food policy research institute is a not for profit organization. It provides research based policy solutions to reduce poverty and hunger and malnutrition in the developing countries. And these are the list of 17 specialized agencies of the United Nations. So the correct answer is option C 1 and 2 only. This question is about current account surplus. The question is a current account surplus is not set to occur when the correct answer here is option D both balance of trade and balance of invisibles are in deficit or negative. So during such deficit situations there will not be current account surplus as we saw during our discussion surplus means when the exports exceeds imports or when the balance of trade is surplus also when the balance of invisibles is surplus. So option A is a current account surplus because both balance of trade and balance of invisibles are surplus. If you look at option B it tells that a deficit on balance of trade but sufficient surplus on balance of invisibles to offset the deficit. It will also result in current account surplus and option C will also result in current account surplus. So the correct answer is option D. This question is related to Hong Kong convention. It is a two statement question and you need to choose those statement or statements that are correct. Look at the first statement. It tells that Hong Kong convention is related to the recycling of ships. Yes, this statement is correct. Look at the second statement. It tells that in 2019 India has ratified the Hong Kong convention. This statement is also correct as we saw during our discussion. So the correct answer here is option C both 1 and 2. This question is about MSAN and PSAN. It is a three statement question and you need to choose those statement or statements that are correct. Now look at the first statement. It tells that MSAN is artificially manufactured in a way that it has the same physical and mineralogical properties of that of natural sand. This statement is incorrect. We saw during our discussion that the physical and mineralogical properties of MSAN will be different from that of the natural sand. So if you know this difference you can easily arrive at the answer which is option C 2 and 3 only. Statement 2 is correct. MSAN has higher fineness modulus compared to the natural sand and statement 3 is also correct. PSAN is mainly used for plastering requirements. The name itself denotes plastering manufactured sand. So the correct answer here is option C 2 and 3 only. Now look at this practice main question. The question is COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates multilateral cooperation key to overcoming global challenges. Analyze. It is a 10 marks question. After this question in 150 words and post it in the comment section we shall review and give suitable suggestions and feedback within a reasonable time frame. With this we come to the end of the analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the practice questions discussion session. If you like the video press the like button, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IA's Academy YouTube channel for latest videos and updates. Stay focused and motivated friends. Thank you.