 Hello, a very good evening to all of our friends and welcome to The Hindu News Analysis of Shankar IAS Academy for the date 3rd March 2021. The list of the relevant news articles taken up for today's discussion from 5 different editions of The Hindu Newspaper along with their page numbers are given here for your reference. Also, the handwritten notes in the PDF format and timestampings for all the news articles taken up for today's discussion is given in the description box and also in the comment section for the best interest of the viewers. Let us now start with our first news article. See, as we know, India through its Atmanidh Bhar Bharat program aims to achieve self-reliance. Now, being self-reliant doesn't mean that India shall economically insulate ourselves from the world. Instead, India shall become self-reliant by strengthening the domestic manufacturing and also by bolstering the supply chains through investments, etc. So, in this context, let us discuss this opiate article which discusses about the importance of European Union for India. The syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. See, the India-European Union bilateral relations date back to early 1960s. India was amongst the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with the European Economic Community in 1962. A cooperation agreement signed in 1994 took the bilateral relationship beyond trade and economic cooperation. Later in 2004, the relationship was upgraded to a strategic partnership. Now, coming to trade, the European Union is India's largest regional trading partner while India was the ninth largest trading partner of European Union in 2017. India's bilateral trade both in goods and services with the European Union was US$132.44 billion in 2017. The European Union continued to be one of the largest sources of foreign direct investment for India with inflows valued at US$5.71 billion in 2017. So, with this information, let us discuss this article. See, the authors say that India has an untapped export potential of US$39.9 billion in the European Union and Western Europe. The top products with export potential are apparel or clothes, gems and jewelry, chemicals, machinery, automobile, pharmaceuticals and plastic. Many products from India benefits from tariff preferences under the EU's generalized system of preferences or GSP. See, it should be noted that the EU's GSP removes the import duties from the products which are coming into the European market from vulnerable developing countries. So, the authors say that India's exports under the GSP valued at nearly US$19.4 billion in 2019. And this accounted for nearly 37% of India's merchandise exports to the European Union. But many products where India has export potential in EU have graduated or are at a brink of graduation under the EU's GSP. See, product graduation applies when the average imports of a product to the EU from a country exceeds 17.5% of total EU GSP imports of the same product from all beneficiary countries over 3 years. And due to graduation, the experts from India such as textiles, inorganic and organic chemicals, gems and jewelry, iron, steel, etc. are out of the ambit of the EU GSP benefits. So, the authors are skeptical that India might lose the GSP benefits in other categories such as apparel, rubber, electronic items, etc. due to this graduation. And this will have a huge impact on India's export to EU. For example, India's apparel exports to EU were valued at US$7 billion in 2019. And in this, 94% was under the EU GSP. So, this indicates the impact that the graduation may have on apparel exports. And at the same time, India's competitors like Bangladesh and Vietnam would continue to benefit from or receive tariff benefits in the EU. So, this clearly indicates the need for India to deepen trade and investment ties with EU. See, in order to diversify and boost our bilateral trade, India and EU started negotiating a bilateral broad-based trade and investment agreement, or BTIA, since 2007. But it is yet to materialize due to lack of concurrence in areas like automotive and dairy and marine products. So, India shall assess the benefits and also the impacts of FTA and concluded the earliest. Apart from this, India and EU shall focus on areas such as investment and non-tariff measures, etc. India shall focus more on fostering stronger value chains, especially in technology-intensive sectors, in which the EU has a comparative advantage. Now, coming to non-tariff measures, the authors say that India faces more than 400 NTMs in the EU. So, while negotiating FTA, these issues shall be incorporated. As we know, there are issues going on in the European Union as well. And this includes Brexit, then rising Euroscepticism in other EU countries, etc. So, EU also has a growing need for recalibrating its ties with its partner countries such as India. So, this is all about this opiate article. Now, with this information, let us move on to the next news article. And now, see this article from the editorial page, which is with reference to the recent Economic Survey. We had an elaborate discussion covering the most important article from the Economic Survey on 30th January. Please watch that video to get a brief on Economic Survey. The link is in the description box. So, first, see this article from 30th January, which is titled Focus on Growth Than on Elevating Inequality. According to the Economic Survey, India must keep its focus on economic growth rather than trying to alleviate or mitigate inequality. See, this is because in India's current stage of development, redistribution of wealth is not feasible without growing the overall pie. So, first, the overall wealth of the country should be increased so that it can be redistributed later. See, the Economic Survey also notes the Chinese experience to suggest that in countries with high growth rates and high levels of absolute poverty, there is no trade-off between growth and inequality. Basically, the new Economic Survey is trying to say that at the moment, more focus should be on improving the growth and not on alleviating or mitigating inequalities. So, this became quite controversial as this concept latently supports the interests of capitalists and elite sections of the society. And an Oxfam report had showed that the Indian billionaires increased their wealth by 35% during the lockdown. And this was at a time when 25% of the country was earning less than 3000 rupees per month. So, if we see the Economic Survey, it asks if inequality and growth conflict or converge in the Indian context. So, by examining the correlation of inequality and the per capita income with the socio-economic indicators like health, education, life expectancy, infant mortality, etc. The survey highlights that both economic growth and inequality have similar relationships with socio-economic indicators. So, unlike in advanced economies, in India, the economic growth and inequality converge in terms of their effects on socio-economic indicators. Further, the Economic Survey says that the economic growth has a far greater impact on poverty elevation than inequality. So, we can say that high growth helps in elevating poverty levels by trickling down the benefits than increasing the inequalities. Therefore, given India's stage of development, India must continue to focus on economic growth to lift the poor out of poverty. And this should be done by expanding the overall pie. See, this does not imply that the redistributive objectives are unimportant, but the redistribution is only feasible in a developing economy if the size of the economic pie grows. So, this is what the Economic Survey says. So, in this context, the author of this editorial terms the survey as a document based on strong ideological overtones. Here, the author says that estimates on increase in the extreme poverty under the pandemic in India have ranged from 400 million to 620 million. Here, Oxfam's report shows that while it took 9 months for the top 1000 billionaires to return to pre-COVID-19 times, it will take over a decade for the poorest class of the society to return to normalcy. So, here the author criticizes that anyone familiar with the literature on economic growth and inequality will find the claims of the Economic Survey that unlike in advanced countries, in India, economic growth and inequality converge in terms of their effects on the socio-economic outcomes as simply outrageous and shocking. Here, the Economic Survey uses many numbers and statistical methods and form the scientific base to substantiate the arguments. The author criticizes the move, misuse of statistical tools is a dangerous game in a democracy. Then, the author talks about social justice, which means everyone deserves equal economic, political and social rights and opportunities. As said before, the Economic Survey takes the example of China to support the inegalitarian policy options. Briefly, it says that the economic growth which China experienced in the recent decades has trickled down to the poorest sections and so the poverty levels in China decreased. But the economic experts tell us that inequality increased much more sharply after the 1980s in India than in China. And the author says that this fact was conveniently avoided in the Economic Survey. As the Economic Survey says, in India rather than poverty elevation through growth must be central to economic strategy rather than inequality because in India economic growth and inequality converge in terms of their effects on socio-economic indicators. Simply put, we should not be worried about the increasing inequalities in the society rather we should focus only on poverty elevation through economic growth. So this looks more of a capitalistic justification. The author says that this theory is not correct. Just improving the basic indicators of the society and not worrying about the inequalities is not a good sign for any society. Though the Economic Survey talks about the Wilkinson and Pickett, it fails to support their argument. Based on 50 years of research, Wilkinson and Pickett explained why equality is better for everyone. The answer is inequality breeds mistrust, mental illness and many such outcomes which needs to be reduced for overall human well-being. The author opinions that the ideological overtones which the Economic Survey tries to put are untenable for Indian democracy. He concludes by saying that the Economic Survey has all the right to suggest what it considers relevant. But democracy demands informed debate especially when it comes to economic inequality which has been growing exponentially in India. So legitimizing the inequality by policy think tanks is quite questionable and a worrying sign for people of India. So this is what the author has said in this editorial and with this information let us move into the next news. Now have a look at this question. It is based on this news article which talks about a Himalayan Serro which was spotted in Assam. Recently if you remember the colourful Mandarin duck was spotted in the Moguri Matapang wetland in Assam after 118 years. So in this context let us have a brief discussion about the Himalayan Serro. See Himalayan Serro locally called Thar belongs to the family Bovide and sub-family Caprine. It is a medium-sized mammal with a large head, thick neck, short limbs and a coat of dark hair. Now know that Himalayan Serro is described as resembling a cross between a goat, a donkey, a cow and a pig. And both sexes are similar in appearance and are of about equal size. Have a look at this image for better understanding. And know that Himalayan Serros are herbivores. Serro prefers damp and thickly-wooded gorges and are typically found at altitudes between 2000 meters and 4000 meters. Know that there are several species of Serros and all of them are found in Asia. The Himalayan Serro is restricted to the Himalayan region and they are known to be found in eastern, central and western Himalayas. Now according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources that is IUCN, the Himalayan Serros have experienced significant declines in population size, range size and also habitat in the last decade. And this is expected to continue due to intensive human impact. According to some sources, it was previously assessed as near-threatened, but now the Himalayan Serro is categorized as vulnerable under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. And know that it is listed under the Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. So with this information, have a look at this question. Locally called Thar, this herbivore belongs to the family Bovide. They prefer damp and thickly-wooded gorges and are typically found at altitudes between 2000 meters and 4000 meters. It is listed under the Schedule 1 of Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. Here the correct answer is option D, Himalayan Serro. So with this information, let us move on to the next news. Now see this editorial which throws light on the ceasefire agreements between India and Pakistan. It is written in the wake of the recent ceasefire agreements of India and Pakistan in February 2021. So in this regard, let us see about these ceasefire agreements and their comparison. The syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. First what is a ceasefire agreement? See it is an agreement which is usually between two armies and it is in order to stop fighting and allow discussions about peace. So in our context, recently the Indian military and Pakistan military has agreed to hold a ceasefire along the line of control or LOC. Now let us know such previous ceasefire agreements between India and Pakistan. First comes the Karachi Agreement of 1949. It was an agreement between the military representatives of India and Pakistan regarding the establishment of ceasefire line in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. So this agreement was agreed under the auspices of the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan. It was aimed at establishing a mutually agreed ceasefire line or CFL in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. See the ceasefire line was about 830 kilometers in length with proper geographic demarcations. A rough depiction of the ceasefire line is given here for your reference. And the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan was mandated to monitor this ceasefire along the ceasefire line. The next is the Tarshkan Declaration of 1966. This was a result of the 1965 India-Pakistan war. And in this, the two sides agreed to settle their differences through peaceful means and to discourage hostile propaganda, then to repatriate the prisoners of war and also to restore the normal diplomatic relations. Most importantly, the status quo antebellum was restored. That is, the situation that existed before the war was restored by withdrawing the armed forces to the original positions that was held before the fight broke out. And the ceasefire line remained unaltered. And the next is the important Shimla Agreement of 1972. See, this agreement was signed in the wake of the 1971 India-Pakistan war. And this agreement was much more than a peace treaty seeking to reverse the consequences of the 1971 war, that is to bring about the withdrawal of troops and the exchange of the prisoners of war like the previous agreement. Rather, this agreement was a comprehensive blueprint of good neighborly relations between India and Pakistan. So, under the Shimla Agreement, both the countries agreed for a set of guiding principles such as respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty, then non-interference in each other's internal affairs, then respect for each other's unity, political independence, sovereign equality, etc. Importantly, note that the ceasefire agreement sought to curb or restrict the international involvement such as the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan in Kashmir. So, it put the future discussion on dispute between India and Pakistan on a strictly bilateral footing. Also, by the time the war ended, both sides' militaries had made advances across the CFL in Kashmir. So, under this ceasefire agreement only, it was agreed to establish the Line of Control, which was to be based on the positions held by the armed forces of India and Pakistan at the time the fighting ended, that is, at the ceasefire in December 1971. Note that the Line of Control became the official nomenclature of Kashmir dispute by replacing the ceasefire line. So, there was no ceasefire line after 1972. Now, next comes what the author calls as the Suchitgarh Agreement of 1972. See, it refers to the series of meetings which were held in Suchitgarh and Wagah after the Shimla Agreement in order to delineate the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. The next is the 2003 Agreement, and it was agreed between the Director-General of Military Operations of India and Pakistan. And interestingly, it was communicated through a telephone call, and it reiterated the December 1971 ceasefire. So, these were some of the important past ceasefire agreements. And now comes the recent February ceasefire agreement. See, this agreement has been agreed after more than 5,000 ceasefire violations, which happened in last year along the Line of Control. And it is to be noted that the number of ceasefire violations in the last year was the highest in the past 19 years. So finally, a surprise joint statement has been issued by both the sides after discussions between the Director-General of Military Operations. And they agreed to address the core issues and concerns which have the propensity to disturb peace and lead to violence. So, for achieving mutually beneficial and sustainable peace along the borders, this ceasefire agreement was agreed upon. And under this agreement, both the sides agreed to a strict observance of all the previous agreements. And they also agreed upon understandings and ceasefiring along the Line of Control and all other sectors. And as per the CFA, this is effective from the midnight of February 24th, 25th, 2021. So, what could be understood from this February ceasefire agreement? First is that this agreement shows the realisation by both the sides that they cannot afford to let violence spiral out of control as it could easily escalate into serious conflicts and even war. Secondly, according to the author, this also indicates a possible increase in friendliness in the bilateral relations between India and Pakistan. This particularly could be seen in many recent happenings such as the Army Chiefs of both countries talked about achieving peace in February 2021. Additionally, before the ceasefire agreement, India even allowed Pakistan to use the Indian airspace for Pakistan Prime Minister's travel to Sri Lanka. And Pakistan PM also insisted on resolving the Kashmir issue through dialogue. And finally, as a result of all these happenings came the ceasefire agreement announcement. First, the author compares the February ceasefire agreement with the other agreements and notes that this agreement is more significant, mainly because the February ceasefire agreement is different from the routine ceasefire assurances which were made by both the sides before January 2021. Now, how it is different? First, because this ceasefire agreement was a joint statement which was not the case of other ceasefire agreements. Second, because there is a mention of a specific date to begin the ceasefire which could not be found in other ceasefire agreements. Next, the February ceasefire agreement paves way to reduce or alleviate the two-friend situation that India was facing. See, if you remember throughout the last year till recently India faced threats along its western and also eastern borders. So this is the two-friend threat or situation from Pakistan and China. On one side, Pakistan was becoming a threat along the western border of India and on the other side, China was becoming a threat along the northern and eastern frontiers of India. Additionally, it also included the threat of China colluding or conspiring with Pakistan. So India was kind of stuck between Pakistan and China as dealing with the situation was neither easy nor practical. But now since India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire agreement India has dealt with one-front of this two-front situation. So these points make the February ceasefire agreement more significant. Secondly, the author compares the recent agreement with the 2003 ceasefire agreement. See, both are similar in fact that they were announced after a high level of violence including the ceasefire violations along the border. Thirdly, the author compares them along the mutually agreed set of rules and norms. See, these rules and norms are important for the effective observance of ceasefire under the ceasefire agreements like the one in the Karachi Agreement. But the recent February 2021 agreement, then the Shimla Agreement or Suchitgar Agreement do not have these rules. So that is why most often the deployed armed forces resort to the rules under the Karachi Agreement to observe the ceasefire. So as a conclusion, the author suggests that the two directive generals of military operations should arrive at a set of rules to govern the ceasefire which is agreed by the February ceasefire agreement and also to continue the ceasefire with parallel bilateral talks. So this is all about this editorial article. With this information, let us move on to the next news. And now have a look at this second question. It is based on this news article which says that Jihadists have attacked a UN base and overrun a humanitarian hub in Nigeria. So in this context, let us have a brief discussion of Nigeria, its geography, etc. See, Nigeria is a country in the African continent. The west part of the African continent. And if you see the world map, you could see that the country is not so far from the equator and also not so far from the prime meridian. But note that both the equator and the prime meridian do not pass through Nigeria. See here, the prime meridian is the zero degree longitude and equator is the zero degree latitude. And know that the national capital is Abuja while Lagos, the former capital is the country's leading commercial and industrial city. And know that Nigeria is bordered to the north by Niger, to the east by Chad and Cameroon, to the south by the Gulf of Guinea of the Atlantic Ocean, and to the west by Benin. Know that Nigeria is not only large in area, but also Africa's most populous country. Recently, Nigeria talked South Africa to become the largest economy of Africa. So with this information, have a look at this map based question. Which of the following West African countries share the border with Atlantic Ocean? We have five countries given here. See in this, we should know that Nigeria is a landlocked country and it does not share border with Atlantic Ocean. So the correct answer for this question is option B, 1, 2, 4 and 5 only. That is Nigeria, Guinea, Ghana and Benin. Now with this information, let us move on to the next news. And now see this third question. It is based on this news article which mentions that in the gross tax revenue of the center, the share of CIS and surcharge has almost doubled. Here the share is 19.9% in 2020-21 compared to 10.4% in 2011-12. So what is CIS? See, CIS is a form of tax or fee that is charged or levied over and above the base tax liability of a taxpayer. It can be levied on both indirect and direct taxes. A CIS is usually imposed additionally when the state or the central government looks to raise funds for specific purposes. So CIS is imposed for a specific purpose as identified in the legislation under which it is being charged. For example, the government levies an education CIS to generate additional revenue for funding primary, secondary and higher education. It is usually imposed as a percentage of the taxpayer's basic tax liability and also remember that article 270 of the Indian Constitution mentions about CIS. Next note that CIS is not a permanent source of revenue for the government. Since it is discontinued when the purpose for which it is levied is fulfilled. And it is different from taxes in the context that all the taxes go to the Consolidated Fund of India, that is CFI. But on the other hand, CIS may initially go to the Consolidated Fund of India but later it has to be used for the purpose for which it was collected. Further in a particular year, if the CIS collected remains unspent, it cannot be allocated for other purposes. Rather, the amount gets carried over to the next year and can only be used for the cause for which it was meant for. Also, the central government does not need to share the CIS with the state government either partially or in full. Now next is surcharge. See, surcharge is a tax on tax which is imposed for the purposes of the union. And know that surcharge is dealt with under article 270 and 271 of the Indian Constitution. And know that the proceeds collected from a surcharge levied by the union forms a part of the Consolidated Fund of India. Further importantly, know that these proceeds can be spent for any purpose like the normal tax. So it is the discretion of the union to utilize the proceeds of the surcharge for whichever purpose it deems fit. For example, the finance act 2018 introduced a social welfare surcharge over and above the customs duties on certain goods for the purposes of providing and also financing, education, health and social security. So this is in brief about CIS and surcharge. Now with this information, have a look at this question. Consider the following statements. CIS is imposed for a specific purpose and a surcharge is a tax on tax imposed for the purposes of the union. Yes, this statement is correct. Now the second statement reads, surcharge is mentioned in the Constitution of India while CIS is not. See, this statement is incorrect. Both are mentioned in the Constitution. CIS is under article 270 and surcharge is under article 270 and 271. So in this question, we have to identify the incorrect statement or statements. We know that statement one is correct and statement two is incorrect. So the correct answer for this question is option B2 only. So with this, we have analyzed almost all the relevant news articles taken up for today's discussion. Now let us move on to the practice questions discussion section based on today's news analysis. See, in this section, we have three main questions. Please write your answers and post it in the comment section. Now we have come to the end of analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the discussion of practice questions. If you like this video, please press the like button. Comment, share and do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for more videos and updates related to civil service preparation. Thank you.