 A very good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankar IAS Academy. Today's date is 9th of August 2023, displayed here are the list of news articles that we are going to discuss today. So, with that much delay, let us get into the first news article discussion. Take a look at this opinion page article. As we all know, India recently has been taking many steps with the aim of becoming the semiconductor manufacturing hub of the world. To become successful in this endeavor, India need to learn from the best practices that are employed in other countries. In 2022, the US enacted the CHIPS Act to give a boost to its own semiconductor industry. India needs to adopt best practices from the CHIPS Act to achieve its goal at a rapid pace. It is in this context the article here is written. The author of this article highlights various positive aspects of the CHIPS Act and what India can learn from it. This is the cracks of the news article given here. In this context, let us see some of the points highlighted in the article in detail. Before that, the syllabus relevant to this news article is highlighted here for your reference, you can go through it. Now, let us start our discussion by seeing a few points about the CHIPS Act 2022. See all major technologies from smart phones and computers to advanced medical equipments and national different systems use semiconductors. Currently, the semiconductor industry is dominated by a handful of countries. So any disruption in the supply chain would impact the US technology industry greatly. This is why the US enacted the CHIPS Act or the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductor and Science Act. This act gives a boost to its domestic semiconductor sector. It also aims to address the United States dependency on foreign sources for semiconductor production. It also aims to make the US the technological leader in the semiconductor industry. The act is planning to achieve this aim by providing substantial financial support and creating a comprehensive framework for its domestic semiconductor industry. So with this brief introduction about the CHIPS Act, now let us see what India can learn from CHIPS Act. See the first one is Coordinated Governance or the Whole of Government Approach. See, India's semiconductor strategy mainly rests with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The Ministry set up an independent division by the name India Semiconductor Mission ISM. This ISM will be led by global experts in the semiconductor and display industry. It will act as the nodal agency for effective and smooth implementation of the schemes for setting up of semiconductor and display fabs. So the ISM takes care of the fabrication or the manufacturing side. The CHIP design policy, however, will be taken care of by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, CDAC. CDAC is an autonomous scientific society operating under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. So in a sense, all aspects of India's semiconductor policy will be under the Umbar law of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in short called as MEDI. This is not the whole of the government approach or the coordinated approach that is followed in the US. The CHIPS Act of the US gives more importance to coordination among various arms of the government. The CHIPS Act envisages coordination among the Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of State and the National Science Foundation. Each of these departments play a significant role and also coordinate with each other. For example, the Department of Commerce focuses on accelerating semiconductor manufacturing and research. The Department of Defense focuses on defense unique application of semiconductors. The Department of State focuses on ensuring semiconductor supply chain security. Finally, the National Science Foundation will focus on creating a workforce with expertise in semiconductor technology. This coordinated governance will aid in the multi-faceted development of the semiconductor industry. So India could also adopt a whole of government model similar to CHIPS Act and promote coordinated effort across different ministry and departments. Now moving on, the next thing India can learn from the CHIPS Act is workforce development. See, a trained and effective semiconductor engineering workforce is a vital asset for any nation aspiring to excel in the industry. India's CHIPS 2 startup in short called the C2S program is in step in the right direction. C2S program aims to scale up workforce expansion by providing support to the already existing quality training programs. But the issue here is that CHIPS design training in India is mainly done by private players who operate outside the formal education setup. This is the issue. The CHIPS Act addresses this issue. The Act creates the National Semiconductor Technology Center in short called as NSTC. This NSTC promotes collaboration between the industry and the educational institutions. This will help the educational institutions frame syllabus to address the need of the industry. So the engineers who graduate from the universities will themselves be trained according to the industry needs. So likewise, India can also certify quality training programs from universities. This will help India create a skilled and adaptable workforce for the semiconductor sector. The next one is regarding accountability and transparency. See, India right does not have any provisions to ensure transparency. On the other hand, the CHIPS Act has a CHIPS program office CPO. The CPO laid down the guidelines for assessing the financial viability of new project proposals. The CPO also takes steps to catalyzing private sector investments in the sector. India's semiconductor strategy could benefit from a similar mechanism. For promoting transparency and accountability, a regular monthly progress report on the semiconductor program could be provided. This would instill investor confidence and public support for India's semiconductor program. The next thing is related to investing in future focused research. See, India currently focuses mainly on high value chip manufacturing. There is not enough support given to innovation. In contrast, the CHIPS Act allocates a significant investment in future research. For example, the CHIPS Act proposes the National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing program in short called as NAPMP. The program aims to gain leadership positions in advanced packaging technology. So India must also identify future trends and invest in research. This will help India position itself as a major contender in the global semiconductor sector. These are the important lessons that India can learn from the CHIPS Act of the US. In essence, India must try to achieve a balance between achieving its immediate needs all the while keeping an eye on its long-term vision. By taking lessons from the CHIPS Act, India can transform itself into a global semiconductor powerhouse. That's all regarding this news article discussion. In this news article discussion, we saw about some of the shortcomings in India's approach with respect to semiconductor and how India can learn from CHIPS Act of the US. So with these learned points, now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Take a look at this article. According to the article, crop insurance climbs under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yojana. PMFBY is spending in many states. The maximum pendency of climbs is in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat. So in this context, let us learn few points about Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yojana. Before that, know that Fasal in Hindi means crop or harvest and Bhima means insurance. So it is clear that this is a crop insurance scheme. It was launched in 2016. It replaced the then existing two schemes, namely National Agricultural Insurance Scheme NAIS and Modified NAIS. Talking about the objectives of the scheme, see firstly, it provides financial support to farmers who are suffering crop loss or crop damage arising out of unforeseen events. Secondly, it stabilizes the income of farmers to ensure their continuance in farming. Because sometimes after crop loss or damages, farmers tend to look for other daily wage jobs. In some instances, they also sell their agricultural land. So the crop insurance makes sure they continue farming. Then the major objective is to encourage the farmers to adopt innovation and modern agricultural practices. Then ensuring credit worthiness of the farmer, ensuring crop diversification and ensuring health and competitiveness of the agriculture sector are also some of the important objectives of the scheme. Note that the scheme is being implemented by Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. Now if you are asking who are eligible under the scheme, see all the farmers including sharecroppers and tenant farmers who are growing the notified crops in the notified area are eligible under the scheme. Previously, the scheme was compulsory for certain categories of farmers and voluntary for some but since 2020, it has been made voluntary for all the farmers. Talking about the crops covered under the scheme, seafood crops like cereals, millets and pulses are covered under the scheme. Then oil seals and annual horticultural crops are also covered. Here in this chart you can see the premium rate payable by the farmers. So insurance premium is the money that is paid by a person for availing of an insurance policy. The premium paid by farmers varies according to season that is 2% for all carrot food and oil seeds crops, then 1.5% for rabbi food and oil seeds crops and 5% for annual commercial or horticulture crops and the balance premium is shared by the central and state government on 50s to 50 basis. But in cases of northeastern states, the share is 90s to 10. These are all some of the basic information about the scheme. Now even though the scheme helps farmers in many ways, there are some issues in reality. See the scheme has been criticised for its low coverage with only about 25% of farmers in India being covered. The premiums are said to be high and many farmers are unable to afford them. Apart from this, many farmers are not aware of the scheme or do not understand how it works. There have been reports of the delays in the processing of claims under PMFBY which has caused financial hardship for farmers. The government has taken some steps to address these issues like increasing the coverage of the scheme and reducing the premium and for the better implementation of the scheme. Government of India has designed and developed a natural crop insurance portal also. These are all some of the important points that you have to remember about PM Fussell Bhima Yojana with these learnt points. Now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Take a look at this news article. According to the article, Swadantra Microfin, which is a microfinance institution, has agreed to acquire Chaitanya India Fin Credit Company. Even though the news is not very important for us, but knowing about microfinance institution is very important, especially in the prelims perspective. So we will see what is a microfinance institution and its types. So what are microfinance institutions? See, microfinance institutions are non-banking financial instruments that provide financial services to low-income individuals and microentrepreneurs. These services include microcredit, savings and insurance. MFIs or microfinance institutions play an important role in financial inclusion by providing credit to people who would be unable to obtain it from traditional banks. These institutions provide reasonable small loans safely and in a manner of ethical lending practices. If the loan value is below 1 lakh, then it can be termed as microfinance in India. There are a variety of institutions providing microfinance in India like credit unions, non-governmental organizations and commercial banks. Note that microfinance institutions are regulated by RBA guidelines. Basically, there are four types of groups that provide microfinance in India. Let us see them one by one. The first one is joint liability group in short called as JLG. See, a joint liability group is a small informal group of 4 to 10 people who borrow money together and are jointly responsible for repaying the loan. This is typically used for agricultural purposes or other small businesses. Next is self-help group SHG. See, it is a group of people with similar economic backgrounds who come together to save money and borrow money from each other. SHGs are technically non-profit organizations and they are often supported by the government. Next is Grammin Model Bank. This was originally developed by Nobel laureate Mohammed Yunas in Bangladesh. The Grammin Model Bank provides small loans to poor people, especially women, for self-employment projects. The bank has been very successful in Bangladesh and it has been replicated in other countries including India. Lastly, the rural cooperatives. See, rural cooperatives is established at the time of independence to provide loans for poor people in rural areas. But they are not as successful as other types of microfinance institutions like SHGs and Grammin Model Banks. This is because rural cooperatives have complex monitoring structures and they are often only beneficial to wealthy borrowers. In addition to these, some commercial banks in India offer microfinance services. However, microfinance is not the core business of commercial banks. Some of the top microfinance institutions in India are Bunden Financial Services, Equitas Small Finance Bank, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, Barrett Financial Inclusion Bank, etc. Talking about the benefits of microfinancing, see, microfinance provides easy credit and offers small loans without any collateral. Hence, it benefits the underfinanced section of the population like women, unemployed people and those with disabilities. Microfinance has helped to reduce poverty and increase financial inclusion in the country. However, microfinance has also faced some challenges like high interest rate and low defaults. The Government of India is committed to promote microfinance and has taken a number of steps to support the sector. These steps include providing financial assistance to self-help groups, reducing regulations and promoting awareness of microfinance and etc. As a result of these initiatives, microfinance is expected to continue to grow in India and reach even more people in need. That's all regarding microfinance. So, in this news article discussion, we saw about what is microfinancing, then we saw about the types of microfinancing and some of its advantages. So, these learnt points and now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Take a look at this text and context article. The article is speaking about the Jan Viswas Amendment of Provisions Bill 2022. It is suddenly in use because recently parliament passed this bill. The bill was introduced in parliament in December 2022. Now, after seven long months, the bill was passed recently in the parliament. So, in this news article discussion, we shall see some of the basics of Jan Viswas Bill, some of its pros and cons. First, we'll start with Jan Viswas Bill. See, the Jan Viswas Amendment of Provisions Bill 2022 seeks to amend 183 provisions in 42 existing laws. These laws are spanning across 19 ministries or departments like Department of Agriculture, Endowment, Media and Publication, Health and so on. Basically, the Jan Viswas Bill aims to convert several fines under various laws to mere penalties. See, actually, that is a very big difference between fines and penalties. The term fine refers to a sum of money that the convict needs to pay for a committed offence. Generally, the court orders the convict to pay a fine amount after the complete prosecution. Now, if we take penalties, penalties do not involve court proceedings. They are imposed when a person does not comply with the provision of a specified act. The penalties are usually imposed by the executives themselves and the court do not play a major role here. So, this is the major difference between the fine and penalties. Now, this Jan Viswas Bill, which aims to convert several fines under various laws to mere penalties. This means that once the bill becomes law, the prosecution of the court is not necessary to administer punishments. On one hand, it will reduce the burden of huge cases to the court and on the other hand, it will boost the ease of living among the people. Apart from converting fines to penalties, the bill also removes imprisonment as a punishment for many offenses. Overall, the Jan Viswas Bill gives further boost to ease of living and ease of doing business. So, these are all some of the basic information about Jan Viswas Bill. Now, moving on to the pros and cons of the bill. See, the news article focuses particularly on amendments related to health sector. So, we shall see the pros and cons related to amendments with respect to health sector alone. See, the Jan Viswas Bill seeks to amend various health related laws like the Drug and Cosmetics Act 1940, the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 and the Pharmacy Act 1948. As per the Jan Viswas Bill, various offenses under these acts will amount to lesser punishments than before. So, this has evoked heated debate about its pros and cons among various healthcare activists. Among the changes to these three health related laws, the changes proposed to the Drug and Cosmetics Act 1940 have been the most contentious. See, the Drug and Cosmetics Act 1940 regulates the import, manufacture, distribution and sale of drugs and cosmetics in the country. Currently, the Act defines four categories of offenses related to the manufacturing of drugs. The offenses include the manufacturing of adulterated drugs, then manufacturing of spurious drugs, then manufacturing of mislabeled drugs and manufacturing of not-of-standard quality drugs in SKUs. These four activities are classified as offenses under the Drug and Cosmetics Act 1940. See, the Act also provides for degrees of punishments like a combination of prison and fine based on the degree of the offense. But now, the Jan Viswas Bill tries to amend the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 to reduce the punishment or to convert fines to penalties. So, this actually concerns many healthcare activists. Some experts say this amendment is detrimental to public health. The amendments allow the drug manufacturing companies to manufacture not-of-standard quality NSQ drugs. The amendment also helps the manufacturers to escape significant penalties despite low standard drugs can have an adverse effect on the patients. This is the first concern. Secondly, the bill also reduces penalties for owners of pharmacies who violate the terms of their license. This also affects the production of standard quality of drugs. So, these are the two main concerns associated with amendments to the drugs and cosmetics Act 1940. Talking about the pros associated with the amendment, see, responding to the concerns raised by various groups, the Indian government said that the amendment is brought in the aspect of more industry friendly. See, India is regarded as the pharmacy of the world. So, to retain this position, India needs to ensure the production of best medicines while offering reasonable benefits to business. Therefore, the government points out that the rationalization of laws, the elimination of barriers and boost to the growth of the business are important to maintain the supremacy of the Indian pharma sector. This is the argument of the government in favor of amendments related to the health sector. That's all regarding this news article. In this news article, we saw about Jan Viswas amendment of provisions bill 2022. With these learned points, now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now, take a look at this news article. It says that the current Chief Information Commissioner, Vaike Singh, is going to complete his tenure in October. So, the union government has sought applications for the post of Chief Information Commissioner in the Central Information Commission CIC. So, in this news article discussion, we shall brush up the basics of Central Information Commission in detail. See, the Central Information Commission CIC is a statutory body set up under the Right to Information Act 2005. It is responsible for ensuring that the provisions of the RTA Act are implemented effectively and for addressing compliance from individuals who have been denied information by public authorities. The CIC is located in New Delhi. Talking about its composition and appointment procedure, see the CIC is headed by a Chief Information Commissioner CIC and has a maximum of 10 information commissioners. All of them are appointed by the President on the recommendation of a Committee consisting of Prime Minister as Chairman, Leader of Opposition in Lokshaba and a Union Cabinet Minister nominated by the Prime Minister. All the members shall hold office for a term as prescribed by the central government or until they attain the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier. Note that they are not eligible for reappointment. Now, let us quickly see about the functions of the CIC. See, its jurisdiction extends over all central public authorities. It can receive and inquire into compliance from individuals who have been denied information by public authorities. Also, the commission has authority to inquire in a so-moto manner. While inquiring, the commission has the power of a civil court. It also has the power to order public authorities to provide information to individuals. It can review the decision of public authorities on appeals filed by individuals as well. One important function of the commission is to conduct studies and research on issues related to transparency and accountability in India. It also promotes awareness of the RTI Act among the public. See, like the Central Information Commission, there is also the State Information Commission. It is constituted by the state government. It has one State Chief Information Commissioner and maximum 10 state information commissioners. They are appointed by the governor on the recommendation of the Appointment Committee, headed by the chief minister. So, in conclusion, CIC is an important institution for ensuring transparency and accountability in India. It has played a significant role in helping individuals access information from public authorities and in holding the government to account. So, with these learned points, now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Take a look at this friend page article. The news here is that due to the increasing cyber and malware attacks on defense and critical infrastructure across the country, the defense ministry has decided to replace the Microsoft operating system, that is OAS, in computers connected to the internet. They are going to replace it with a new locally developed OAS called Maya. The Maya OS is based on open source Ubuntu. So, in our discussion today, we'll see a few points about Ubuntu and Maya OS. First, let us take up Ubuntu. Ubuntu is one of the most well-known Linux-based operating systems. It is user-friendly and comes with a variety of software for different needs. Ubuntu uses the Linux kernel as its foundation. Ubuntu can be customized and configured according to user preferences, allowing users to personalize their computing environment. Talking about the advantages of Ubuntu, see the first advantage is security. Ubuntu is built using the Linux kernel. It is less susceptible to viruses and malware compared to some other operating systems. In addition to this, regular updates and security patches are provided to keep the security secure. The second advantage is that Ubuntu is built upon the principles of open source software. Due to this, Ubuntu's source code is freely available for anyone to view, modify and distribute. The last major advantage is its user-friendliness. See the GUI, that is Graphical User Interface of Ubuntu is similar to Windows OS. This enables users to easily have a transition from a window-based environment to Ubuntu. So these are all some of the major advantages of Ubuntu OS. See, we know that Ubuntu's source code is freely available to anyone to view, modify and distribute, right? And the Maya OS is a modified version of Ubuntu. Our government agency is developed the operating system Maya within 6 months. The prime focus of this OS is to combat cyber attacks and malware attacks. The OS Maya is being installed on the computers of the Defence Ministry only and not on the rest of the services. But the report says that the three other services, that is the Navy, Army and Air Force, will soon adopt the operating system. As an additional security measure, the Defence Ministry will also install an endpoint detection and protection systems. But the name of Chakra View in all the systems. Here, endpoint detection and protection systems or cyber security solutions, they are designed to secure individual devices or endpoints within a network. These endpoints can include computers, laptops, smartphones, tablets, servers and other internet connected devices. The primary goal of these systems is to detect, prevent and respond to various cyber threats that could target these endpoints. So, these are all some of the steps taken by the Defence Ministry to combat cyber and malware attacks in the Defence infrastructure. So, these learned points. Now, let us move on to the next part of the news article discussion, which is the preliminary practice question discussion. Now, take a look at this first question. Here, four options are given regarding Central Information Commission CIC. You have to find which one of the following is not correct with respect to CIC. See, the correct answer for this question is option D, the salaries and allowance and other terms and conditions of service are fixed by the President. Actually, the statement is incorrect because the central government controls the term of office salary and allowance of Central Information Commission and other members. Okay. So, the correct answer for the question is option D. Now, moving on, look at the second question. The term Chakravuk which recently appeared in news is related to which one of the following. Option A, government effort to give boost to traditional spinning wheel. Option B, government effort to encourage cycling to work to address lifestyle disease. Option C, end point detection and protection systems to prevent cyber and malware attack. And option D, government effort to encourage practicing yoga at workplace. See, the correct answer for the question is option C. We saw in the discussion, right? Chakravuk is actually an end point detection and protection systems to prevent cyber and malware attacks. Now, moving on, look at this third question. The micro units, development and redefining agency was set up by the government of India in 2010, which of the following is not a target group of Mudra loans. You have to find which one is not a target group. Okay. Option A, micro entrepreneur. Option B, small and medium enterprises. Option C, small farmers. Option D, women, self-help groups. So, the correct answer for this question is option B, small and medium enterprises. Now, moving on, displayed here are the main practice questions for you today. Just go through the questions, try to answer it in the comment section. So, this we came to the end of the news article discussion. If you like the video, hit like, do comment and don't forget to subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel. Now, thank you for listening.