 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar I.S. Academy for the day 12th of June 2019. Displayed are the list of news articles taken up for today's analysis along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Thiruvananthapuram editions. The handwritten notes in PDF format and the time stamping of all the news articles taken up for today's analysis will be available in the description section. It will also be available in the comment section for the benefit of the smartphone users. Let us now start our analysis. First, let us see the editorial which is titled, Squandering the Gender Dividend. The analysis of this news article will be relevant in your prelims preparation under current events of national importance and also under economic and social development especially under inclusion and demographics. The analysis will also be relevant in your main preparation in your general studies paper 1 under role of women and women's organization and then under social empowerment. You can use the statistics mentioned in this editorial in any of your main question related to women or women in employment or women in India's growth and such related issues. So, the analysis of this editorial will also be helpful in your general studies paper 3 under Indian economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment and also under inclusive growth and issues arising from it. Now, let us see the editorial. Here from the title, Gender Dividend means the increased economic growth that could be realized with investments in women in the labor force and labor force means the population or a group which is able to work and here squandering means wasting the opportunity. So, the theme of this editorial is that at present the women's participation in the labor force is not being properly utilized in India. The author tells that it is a national tragedy that women who are unable to find work are dropping out of this labor force. If you see the author speaks with respect to the recently released periodic labor force survey in the end of May 2019. Know that this survey was launched by the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation. The author here as a compared the employment percentage of the rural women who are aged above 15 from this recently released periodic labor force survey with the 61st round of the National Sample Survey Office which was released for the year 2004-2005. If you see 48.5% rural women above the age of 15 as being employed either as their major activity or as their subsidiary activity but this number reduced to 23.7% in the recently released periodic labor force survey report. So, the percentage decline in the employment levels which is just the difference between these two percentage values is 24.8% now remember this value we shall be seeing in the later part of our discussion. We shall also see what is meant by a major activity and a subsidiary activity in the later part of our discussion. Note that almost all the comparisons made in this editorial are between this 2017-18 survey and this 2004-2005 survey. The author notes that the drop in work participation by rural women is not sudden so it is not a sudden phenomenon. He tells that there is a steady decline of employment in women. Let us see the definition of worker to population ratio which is also called as worker population ratio. So, both these terms are interchangeably used. So, the worker population ratio is defined as the number of persons employed per 1000 persons. So, the formula for this worker population ratio is number of employed persons divided by the total population into 1000. This worker population ratio is used as an indicator for analyzing the employment situation in the country. If you see this worker to population ratio is steadily declining. The author of this editorial has used the word incremental decline which is nothing but a steady decline. The author has given the data for worker to population ratio for the women age 15 and above from rural as well as urban areas. So, let us see them now. If you see the data of worker to population ratio for rural women were age 15 and above it has dropped from 48.5 percentage in 2004-2005 to 35.2 percentage in the year 2011-12 and then to 23.7 percentage in 2017-18. In contrast if you see the worker to population ratio for urban women were age 15 and above it has declined only mildly changing from 22.7 percentage in the year 2004-5 to 19.5 percentage in the year 2011-12 and this has reduced to 18.2 percentage in 2017-18. So, this is a mild decline when compared to this rural women worker to population ratio. The author tells that one can view this drop in the rural female worker to population ratio both positively and negatively. First let us see the positive view of the author is telling that the positive is that if the rising incomes lead households to decide that women's time is better spent carrying for their home and for their children that is nothing but the household work then it is up to that women's choice. But the negative is that if the women are unable to find work in a crowded labour market which reflects disguised unemployment then that is a national tragedy. Here crowded labour market means more number of eligible workforces there but the job opportunities are not available and the term disguised unemployment means the work area where the surplus manpower is employed out of which some individuals have a zero or almost zero marginal productivity such that even if they are removed the total level of output remains unchanged. Next the author has compared the employment levels of the rural women to the poverty and also with respect to education in the time period between 2004-5 and 2017-18. First let us see the comparison between the employment levels of the rural women to their poverty levels. Between the years 2004-5 and 2017-18 women's worker to population ratio declined from 30.6 percentage to 16.5 percentage for the poorest expenditure decide. And the women's worker to population ratio declined from 31.8 percentage to 19.7 percentage for the richest expenditure decide. So from this data we can tell that the decline is located primarily among the poorest sections of the rural population. If you see almost half of the poorest population do not have jobs. Here the author has mentioned the terms poorest expenditure decide and richest expenditure decide. So know that decide means when you split anything into 10 equal groups then one portion is called as that decide. So 1 by 10th is called as the decide. And the term expenditure decide means 10 parts split based on the money spending capability. So the poorest expenditure decide denotes the poorest of the population and richest denotes the richest of the population. And next the author tells that more importantly most of the decline in the worker to population ratio has taken place among women with low levels of education. So we are going to compare the worker to population ratio with the education levels. If you see for illiterate women the worker to population ratio fell from 55 percentage to 29.1 percentage which is almost a 25 percentage decrease. While that for women with secondary education fell from 30.5 percentage to 15.6 percentage which is almost roughly 15 percentage decline. So sharp decline can be seen in case of illiterate women. So we can see in overall broad based decline in the employment levels of rural women who are age 15 and above with somewhat higher concentration among the least educated and the poorest. So overall there is a decline but a more decline is seen where people have the lowest education and who are mostly poor. The author tells that this employment decline is consistent with the industries and occupations in which the unemployment has occurred. I asked you to remember the 24.8 percentage point decline in the work to population ratio of women age 15 and above which was the first data that we saw. The author has split this data based on the occupation now. He tells that the decline in work on family farms and allied activities contributed the most which is 14.8 percentage points. This is followed by casual wage labor which was contributed 8.9 percentage points. Next work on family enterprises in other industries has contributed around 2.4 percentage points in the decline and all these were counter balanced by a 0.7 percentage point employment increase in the regular salaried work. So those people working in this regular salaried jobs have contributed to a 0.7 percentage increase and 0.5 percentage point employment increase in engagement in public work programs such as Mandrega as contributed to another increase. So 0.5 percentage increase from the public work programs. So we can see that most of the decline has come from the reduced participation in agriculture and allied activities. If you see the men's participation in agriculture as also declined among men who are age 15 and above 56.1 percentage participated in agriculture in the year 2004-2005 while only 39.6 percentage did so in the year 2017-18. However, men were able to pick up work in other industries whereas women reduce their participation in other industries as well as agriculture. So this has resulted in a lower work to population ratio of women especially that of the rural women. Now the author put some reasons why the employment ratios of women in the agriculture and allied sectors have declined. So let us see the reasons one by one now. The first reason is the mechanization of agriculture and land fragmentation nothing but large farms get split into several small farms. This can be due to property share or any family fights or any other related issues. Now both these have reduced the agriculture work opportunities not only for women but also for men. So it is uniform among the labour force. The next reason is that the other work opportunities except for work in the public work program are not easily open to women. Author tells that this challenges particularly severe for rural women with moderate levels of education. Man with class in education say he can be employed in a postal career or he can be employed as a truck driver or even as a mechanic but these opportunities are not open to women very commonly. Another reason which the author tells is that women take care of household work like raising children, cooking, cleaning, etc. And at the same time they also do small economic activities like raising chickens, selling vegetables in a market, etc. But the women who are involved in such small economic activities are not included in this labour force calculation. So here comes the issue of calculation methodology which the author discusses next. The author tells that the NSSO and the periodic labour force survey which is nothing but PLFS survey design relies on two questions. First interviewers of the survey assess the primary activity in which the respondents of the survey who are nothing but the rural individuals have spent a majority of their prior year. Then they note down the subsidiary activity in which the individuals have spent at least 30 days. So remember this term at least 30 days. If individuals are defined as working by either primary or subsidiary criteria they are counted among the workers. So here we can tell that agriculture is a primary activity and various agriculture related tasks and other economic activities can be called as subsidiary activities. If you see as the demand for the agriculture work declines the women start to engage in diverse economic activities. So their work tends to become fragmented. Like for example if you see a woman spends 15 days on her own field during the sowing period. So during sowing the crops she will work for 15 days in her field. But after that sowing process is over then she will engage for 10 days as a construction labourer under some area. And then she will engage in 15 days in some other Mandrega work. So she is involved in the subsidiary activities. But ideally she should have been counted as a worker using the subsidiary status criteria. But since none of the activities which we have seen as exceeded this 30 day threshold it is quite possible that the interviewers of the survey do not mark her as being employed. This 30 day threshold is the minimum number of days that should be taken into count in the survey to tell that a woman is employed. The author tells that this problem of undercounting in surveys is not a solution fixed for the declining worker to population ratios. He tells that undercount is a symptom of the unfulfilled demand for work. Although women try to find whatever work they can they are unable to gain employment at an intensive level that rises above our labour force survey thresholds like the 30 day threshold. Finally they work less than this 30 day threshold. The author tells that this huge untapped pool of female workers should not be ignored just because of the fact that they are unable to gain employment for longer periods. Finally the author has mentioned some possible solutions and suggestions to address this lower employment level of women in rural areas. The author welcomes the decision of the new government to establish the cabinet committee on employment and skill development. The author hopes that this committee will take the issue of declining female employment as seriously as it does the issue of rising unemployment among the youth. Next the author stresses for the need to develop transportation infrastructure. With proper transport infrastructure in place the author tells that it would be easy for the rural women to seek work as sales clerks or as nurses or even as factory workers in the nearby towns. So the women can also get employed in non-agricultural activities if the transport infrastructure is developed properly. The author finally suggests that the new cabinet committee must focus on multi sectoral reforms. This multi sectoral reforms is nothing but reforms in all the sectors such as your agriculture sector, manufacturing sector and services sector and under this there are many sub sectors which the government can focus on. So if the government focuses this it would result in a positive impact on women's work opportunities in both the urban and also in the rural areas and both in the agricultural related activities and also in the non-agricultural related activities. But this we come to the end of the analysis of this editorial. Now have a look at the practice main question. Let us move on to the next news article. Next let us see the data point title women's work moves. This data point also speaks about the problems of women in employment such as higher unemployment rates of women and the wage gap between women and men. The syllabus for the analysis of this data point is same as that of our first topic that we just discussed. So try to use the statistics that we will be discussing now in any of your main questions related to women, gender gap issues in the society, women in employment, women in India's growth and any other such related issues. The source taken by the authors of this data point is from the recently released periodic labour force survey 2017-18 report. If you see this report was released in the last week of May 2019. This survey was launched by the Ministry of statistics and program implementation. The authors mentioned that there are fewer women in workforce when compared to men. This trend is seen in the majority of the states if you see. The report reveals that only 22 percentage of the country's female population is part of the workforce whereas the male population that is part of the workforce is 71.2 percentage. Our country's population as per 2011 census is 121 crores. Now know that as per this 2011 census 51.5 percentage of the total population of India is male which roughly amounts to 62.4 crores. 48.5 percentage of the total population of India is female which is roughly about 58.6 crores. So 22 percentage of the country's female population which is part of the female workforce means roughly 12 crore of the total India's population is only involved in the workforce. The report also tells that women earn less salary than what the men earn. In this data point three data have been discussed under two major heads. The first major head is the representation of women in the workforce along with the unemployment levels and there is one graph for this data point and the second major head is the wage gap. There is one graph and one table which we will be discussing. The graph discusses the wage gap of salaried individuals and the table discusses the sector-wise wage graph. Let us see the graph that discusses the representation of women in the workforce along with the unemployment levels. In this graph if you see the x-axis denotes the unemployment rate in percentage from low to high and the y-axis denotes the gender gap which is the difference between male and female working population and it is expressed in percentage points and this is also from low to high. The average unemployment rate is 6.1 percentage in the financial year 2017 or 18 or the fiscal year 2018 as you can see in this dotted line and the average gender gap is close to about 50 percentage as you can see in this dotted line mentioned in this graph. So the number one quadrant denotes that these states have higher unemployment rates and also a higher gender gap is noticed. If you see the states like Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi all come under this category especially if you see Assam has the highest gender gap which is close to 65 percentage. This quadrant can be termed as the worst performing category both in terms of unemployment and also in terms of gender gap. Higher gender gap denotes that women are not represented properly or they are under represented in the workforce. The second quadrant denotes the states that have higher unemployment rates but lower gender gap. If you see states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Nagaland come under this category especially if you see Nagaland has the highest unemployment rate in India which is about 20 percentage but the gender gap is somewhat lesser when compared to the other states. Next we shall see the fourth quadrant. The fourth quadrant here denotes that the states have higher gender gap but lower unemployment rates. If you see Gujarat as a gender gap which is around 55 percentage. Finally the third quadrant, this third quadrant denotes the states that have lower gender gap and also lower unemployment rates. If you see states like Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh have lower unemployment rates and also comparably lower gender gap. So we can tell that these are the best performing states. If you see the gender gap in all these states is higher than 25 percentage. So we cannot tell that even the best performing states like Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra do not have equal representation of men and women in the workforce since this gender gap is more than 25 percentage even in these states. Now let us see about the wage gap. So we will be seeing the second graph now with regarding to wage gap. This graph denotes the overall difference in the average monthly wages or salaries between men and women in Indian currency. From the graph we can see that in most of the states the salaried women earn less than men. If you see this graph this wage gap is the highest in the state of Telangana and lowest in the state of Kerala. So we are just speaking only with regards to this graph. One exception is the state of Uttar Pradesh where women's wages are higher than that of men's. Next let us see the table that compares the wage gaps across jobs. Here the salaried jobs and the casual jobs have been compared. From the table we can tell that the men's average earning in Indian currency is more than 1.5 times higher than that of the women's average earnings in Indian currency especially in the casual jobs in all the four quarters that is mentioned here. Nothing but the first quarter here is the July to September 2017 which is mentioned in this table. It is the first quarter in this table. And next we have October to December, next Jan to March and next April to June. So even in the salaried jobs if you see men earn at least 1.25 times more than women. This wage gap is less when compared to the wage gap in the casual jobs but anyway men earn more than women. So from this data point all these data we can tell that women are underrepresented in the overall workforce and also they are less paid when compared to men. Now as I already told you can use these statistics in any of your main questions related to women's representation which is related to Indian economy or employment or India's growth. Now have a look at the practice prelims question. Let us move on to the next news article. Now this article is based on eradicating child labour. The discussion will be relevant in your prelims preparation under current events of international importance then also under Indian polity and governance particularly in the area constitution because we will be discussing some constitutional provisions relating to children and child labour. Today's discussion is more important in the main syllabus in your general studies paper too under the area government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and next in mechanisms and laws for the protection and betterment of vulnerable sections of the population and next in issues relating to development and management of social sector services relating to health and education and then in global agreements involving India. As I said this article is based on eradicating child labour and also today is the world day against child labour. So let us see some facts related to the world day against child labour from examination perspective and then we will move on to the article discussion. Before all this discussion what is child labour? According to United Nations child labour is the work carried out by a child which is detrimental and endangerment that is causing danger to the child. Then those works which are in violation of international law and national legislation against child labour. Child labour either deprives children of schooling or requires them to assume the dual burden of schooling and work. Now coming to the world day against child labour the world day against child labour was launched by the international labour organization in the year 2002. It is observed every year on 12th of June so today is the world day against child labour. This program was launched for two reasons first is to focus the attention on the global extent of child labour and then to focus on the action and efforts needed to eliminate it. So each year on this 12th of June this world day brings together all the stakeholders to highlight the plight or the unfortunate situation of child labourers and also to know what can be done to help them. The stakeholders include the governments, employers, workers organization, civil society as well as millions of people from around the world. The theme for this year is that is 2019 is children should not work in fields but on dreams. This is true children should not work in fields or factories but they should work on achieving their dreams. But according to UN even today in this 21st century also 152 million children are still in this unfortunate situation of being a child labour. UN notes that although child labour occurs in almost every sector 7 out of every 10th child works in agriculture. This means child labour is more in the agricultural sector. The most important mandates of this international labour organization which focuses on child labour are its two core conventions. The first one is commonly known as convention number 138 which is the minimum age convention of the year 1973. This convention stipulates or clearly mentions that the minimum age at which children can start work should not be below the age of compulsory schooling. Moreover, in any case it should not be less than 15 years but this convention gives a possible exception for developing countries. Then another convention is the worst forms of child labour convention of 1999. This is commonly known as convention number 182. This convention aims at immediate elimination of the worst forms of child labour for children below the age of 18 years. This convention includes work that interferes with the schooling of the children then work that is excessively difficult or performed over long hours and work that takes place in a hazardous environment. Here hazardous child labour is a work that is performed by a children in dangerous and unhealthy conditions that can lead to a children either being killed or getting injured or they are made ill. This may occur as a result of poor safety and health standards or poor employment conditions. In short, the work which is likely to jeopardize children's physical, mental or moral health. Now, coming to the article, the author discusses about India's condition in eradicating child labour and what steps India can or should take to eliminate child labour. Firstly, no comprehensive data on child labour is available for India. Look, when we say comprehensive data, we mean the data that includes all or at least nearly all elements or aspects of something. So, in this context, the data which covers as the elements and aspects of child labour. The author says this particular data is not available for our country. Then if we consider the 2011 census of India, there are 259.6 million children in the age group of 5 to 14 years in India and among these 10.1 million children constitute working children which amounts to 39 percentage of children population. However, the good news is that the incidence of child labour has decreased in India by 2.6 million, nothing but 26 lakhs between 2001 and 2011. That is, there was a decline in the number of working children by 1.1 percentage. If you see, it was 5 percentage in the year 2001 which declined to 3.9 percentage in the year 2011. The author says the declined rate is grossly insufficient to meet the target of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. So, we have the Sustainable Development Goal number 8 which deals with the decent work on economic growth. And under this, the target number 8.7 focuses on ending the child labour in all forms by the year 2025. So, this target 8.7 reads as take immediate and effective measures to eradicate and secure the prohibition and elimination of diverse forms of child labour which also includes your recruitment and the use of child soldiers and with the year 2025 end child labour in all its forms. The author mentions only one sustainable development goal target but if you see the work related to child labour can also be fit in your STG target 16.2 which states end abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and the torture of children. Then the author notes that on World Day Against Child Labour in 2017, India ratified two core conventions of the International Labour Organization on Child Labour. We discussed these conventions in the beginning itself if you see. The author urges the Indian government to double its efforts to ensure that the benefit of those two conventions reach the most vulnerable children. The author further notes that the ratification of the core conventions on child labour gives rise to a range of priorities. Now, the priorities such as strengthening policy and legislative enforcement and building the capacities of government, workers and employers, organizations as well as building the capacities of other partners at national, state and community levels who work to eradicate child labour. The author states that India had taken important steps to eliminate child labour even before ratifying these conventions. So, what are the steps that have been taken by the Indian government to eliminate child labour? Let us see them now. First, we will see the legal provisions way back in 1979. The government of India formed the first committee called as Guru Padashwamy Committee. This committee was formed to study the issue of child labour and also to suggest measures to tackle this problem. The committee examined the problem in detail and made some far-reaching recommendations. The committee observed that as long as poverty continues, it would be difficult to totally eliminate child labour. So, the committee mentioned that any attempt to abolish child labour through legal recourse or legal resort without eradicating poverty would not be a practical suggestion. The committee felt that the only alternative to this was to ban child labour in hazardous areas and then to regulate and improve the working conditions in other areas. So, based on the recommendations of the Guru Padashwamy Committee, the Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act was enacted in the year 1986. And according to this act, employment of children was prohibited in certain specified hazardous occupations and it also regulated the working conditions in others. But remember that the act was amended in the year 2016. Now, this amendment act prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14 years in all forms of employment. The act also has provisions for prohibition on employment of adolescents in the scheduled hazardous occupations and processes. Now, based on this act, a child is a person who is below the age of 14 and adolescence means the person who is in the age group of 14 to 18 years. Next, let us see the constitutional provisions for the protection of the children. They include first we have the article 21a which speaks about the right to education. The article mentions that the state shall provide free and compulsory education to all the children belonging to the age group of 6 to 14. And we have article 24. This article provides for the prohibition of employment of children in factories, etc. The article mentions that no child below the age 14 years shall be employed in work in any factory or mine or engaged in any hazardous employment. Third, we have article number 39 which mentions that the state shall direct its policy towards securing the health and strength of workers and the tender age of children are not abused and that citizens are not forced by economic necessity to enter a minor occupation that is unsuited to their age or strength. Now, coming to the article, the author states that in addition to this provision, few more important steps can be taken by the government. First, India needs to start new and innovative approaches in its fight against child labour. Then, India should invest in emphasizing quantitative information. This is to enhance its knowledge on child labour. Quantitative data is information about quantities that is the information that can be measured and written down with numbers. This will be helpful in understanding the seriousness of the problem as the quantitative data will give the statistics and statistics can be used to generalize the findings. Then the author says that there are many common factors across spectrum or skill because each sector and each demographical segment will have its own set of factors and drivers that push children into the labour market. Demographic segmentation is segmentation according to age, race, religion, gender family size, ethnicity, income and or education. So, all these have to be addressed. Further, such factors and drivers can only be identified and analyzed through proper research, surveys and assessments. Then only we can get the area which can be targeted to eliminate child labour. Then, the next step can be a stronger nexus between the discourse on sustainable development goals and also the discourse on eliminating child labour. As we discussed earlier, eliminating child labour is firmly placed within goal number 8 and especially the target 8.7 of the sustainable development goal. The author says that the nexus can take the advantage of the complementarities and synergies of a wide range of actors or stakeholders who are engaged in both the areas of work. Another complementarity means relationship or situation in which two or more different stakeholders improve or each other's qualities in order to eliminate the child labour. And synergy means it is the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations in order to produce a combined effect which will be greater than the sum of their separate effects. So, the complementarities and synergies of a wide range of stakeholders will help the government in order to achieve its sustainable development goals target on time. Then finally, the author says that the growing interest of the private sector is a great opportunity to take necessary steps to eradicate child labour in all the sectors. This opportunity has to be utilized particularly to take advantage of the key influences in domestic and multilational supply chains because many of the private companies if you see at their ground level have some amount of child labour. Then the government should involve in sector-wide encouragement to bring the culture of child labour free businesses. The author concludes that the world of work culture is transforming and new actors are emerging. So, we cannot underestimate the importance of creating a sound and energetic platform to bring all the above mentioned actors or stakeholders together because the fight against child labour is not just the responsibility of one, but it is the responsibility of all of us. And a united fight can only eradicate the social evil of child labour. Now, have a look at the practice mains question. Let us move on to the next news article. Now, this article is about the remarks made by the Australian High Commissioner to India at a talk organized by Indian Association of Foreign Affairs. This article will be relevant in your prelim syllabus under current events of national and international importance and it will also be relevant in your mains preparation in your general studies paper too under bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and are affecting India's interests and in effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India's interests and also under important international fora, their structure and mandate. Now, this article talks about Malabar exercise. It is being said that Australia is requesting to join in this Malabar exercise. So, let us see what is meant by Malabar exercise. This Malabar exercise was started as a bilateral exercise between the navies of India and United States in the year 1992. Japan has joined as a permanent partner in this Malabar exercise only in the year 2007. Therefore, we can say that the nature of Malabar exercise was multilateral from the year 2007 or it became multilateral from the year 2007. Before 2007, it was bilateral by means to in this context it was between the India and United States. When you have to answer any point with respect to military cooperation with Japan or US, you can highlight this Malabar exercise and if they ask whether this Malabar exercise is always conducted in India only, then you can tell that the statement is wrong because the annual Malabar exercise in the year 2017 was held in Bay of Bengal and in 2018 it was held near Guam. If you see Guam is in the island territory of the United States in the Micronesian Islands. Now, it is in this Malabar exercise that Australia is willing to join. India has been on the no-side to Australia's inclusion because of Chinese concerns with respect to this exercise. Now, you imagine Australia is also joining this exercise. How would China think about it? It will think as an encirclement of China or some kind of reverse thing of Pearl concept with respect to China. That is why China does not want Australia to be the part of this Malabar exercise. The Australian High Commissioner to India has also stated that the Australia's defense engagement has been increasing with India and it has increased 4 times since the year 2014. You may note this point for your India-Australia relations so that if any question on India-Australia relations come, you can use this point. Now, India conducts naval exercise with Australia bilaterally. Very recently in April 2019, the Aus Index which is a two-week naval exercise between India and Australia was conducted. The news article talks about early conclusion of the regional comprehensive economic partnership which is nothing but in short called as RCEP between the Asian countries and six Asia-Pacific countries. Note that neither India nor China is a member country of Asian that is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The six Asia-Pacific countries are India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. The press release of Asian secretariat which was released after the last year's Asian summit states that the RCEP is not yet concluded and it is in the final stage and they are hoping that this will be conducted this year. Now, there are two issues that hampered the conclusion of this partnership. One side China wants India to open up manufacturing sector. If this RCEP is drafted according to the whims and fancies of China, then it will be harmful to our Indian domestic manufacturing industries. Other side India demands China to open up their services sector and there are few other disagreements among other partners as well. So all these differences of opinions have to be settled first, then only we can expect a regional comprehensive economic partnership between Asian and the six Asia-Pacific countries. Now the main information in this news article is about Quad. Quad is nothing but four. In our context it means an informal dialogue mechanism among the four countries. Here the four countries are India, USA, Japan and Australia. The article states that the Quad grouping was revived in the year 2017. This is because the first Quad meeting happened between these four countries in the year 2007. But the next meeting was conducted only in the year 2017. That is why they are saying that the Quad grouping is revived in the year 2017. The Australian High Commissioner has stated that Quad is a small grouping that has potential to solve the regional problems. The Quad which met in 2017 has also met in the year 2018. Note that the four countries do not issue any joint statement after this Quad dialogue. This means that there is no broader consensus among the four nations. And this dialogue between the four countries has been held only at the level of senior offices. Not even in the level of ministers or in the level of heads of state. Joint statement and a minister level engagement means a lot generally if you see. This means the four countries have become more politically closer and this will become a dialogue of huge international significance. But right now it is still in the level of offices or you can say the senior offices. So it is not that much remarkable or it is not having that much potential significance. This is the main reason why the Australian High Commissioner says that the Quad dialogue is important but not remarkable. It can only become remarkable when the Quad dialogue evolves into the level of heads of state or by issuing joint statements. The opening sentence of the news article states that there is need for flexibility, agility and speed in solving the regional problems. Here the term flexibility is included in the statement of Australian High Commissioner to convey a political message to India. The message is that India should be flexible in including Australia and the Malabar exercise. Hope you now understand the essence of this news article. Now have a look at the practice problems question. Let us move on to the next news article. Now the next discussion will be based on right to personal liberty. There are two news articles on the same lines. One is the news article which is titled as Supreme Court orders released on bail of journalist arrested in Uttar Pradesh. And next is the editorial which is titled Thin Skin Masters. The discussion will be relevant in your film's preparation under current events of national importance then under Indian polity and governance particularly in constitution and rights issues. The discussion will also be relevant in your main preparation in your general studies paper too under Indian constitution. The Supreme Court has stated in a case that it cannot watch a citizen deprived of liberty for social media posts. The case is based on the arrest of a journalist named Prashant Kanojia. The arrest was made by the Uttar Pradesh police citing that the journalist has shared a video on Twitter relating to the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. The news is that the Supreme Court has ordered the immediate release of the journalist on bail. The court noted that a citizen's right to liberty has been infringed because of the arrest. Additionally, the court has also called the action taken by the Uttar Pradesh government as a glaring case of deprivation of liberty. This is because the journalist had been sent to custody for 13 to 14 days. Further the Supreme Court has pointed that the liberty guaranteed under fundamental rights is sacrosanct that is it is regarded as too important or valuable to be interfered with. Now moving on to the editorial article, if you note the article is titled as Thinskin Masters. Thinskin here means being sensitive to criticism or insults. So the author means to say that the state government of Uttar Pradesh acted very sensitive to the tweet by the journalist and arrested him. The author points that the arrest was arbitrary, unwarranted and without any basis in law. The arrest is arbitrary because the arrest was unreasonable then the arrest was not justified so it is unwarranted. Further the author blames that the state government's attempt to justify its action is resembling malaise that is it resemble the desire to harm someone. The author calls the arrest as arbitrary unwarranted and without any basis in law because according to the author the social media networks are full of rampant abuse and distasteful material and the police chose only one or two persons to arrest. The author adds that the arrested citizens are those who appears to target and criticize the political functionaries. Then the police will also incarcerate or imprison those who share such criticizing content. The author calls this action as a disregard to the well-established norms for arrest and remand. Here remand means in the police custody. Initially the cases under which the journalist was booked are defamation and under section 66 of the Information Technology Act. Here defamation is a non-cognizable offence now you should know what is meant by a non-cognizable offence. It is an offence where no arrest can be made without a warrant or order from a magistrate. So this means there was no need for remand without a warrant from the magistrate. Also know that section 66A of the IT Act or the Information Technology Act criminalizes the sending of offensive messages through a computer or other communication devices. The author calls the careless attitude of civil servants towards the personal liberty of citizens as disquieting meaning it is worrying. We saw in the beginning that the Supreme Court bench has granted bail to the journalist. This is because it did not consider the controversial tweets as sufficient grounds for abridging or curtailing a citizen's personal liberty. Also while giving the order of release the court noted that the release will not amount to an endorsement or acceptance of such tweets. So now let us know some facts about personal liberty. The right to personal liberty is granted as a fundamental right under article 21 of the Indian constitution as we know article 21 deals with right to life and right to personal liberty. It states that no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law. This right is available to the citizens as well as to the non-citizens. In the famous case of AK Gopalan versus state of Madras it was held that personal liberty means relating to or concerning the person or body of the individual. If you look at the literal meaning of liberty it means the state of being free. According to constitution liberty means the absence of restraints on the activities of individuals. Then at the same time providing opportunities for the development of individual personalities. The article 21 also provides protection against arbitrary executive action meaning unreasonable executive action like the arrest of the journalist. With this we come to the end of the analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion. Let us now move on to the practice question discussion session. The first question is the periodic labour force survey 2017-18 was launched by which of the following ministry and here this is a direct question. We know that it was launched by the ministry of statistics and program implementation. We discussed this during our analysis. So the correct answer here is option C. Moving on to the next question which of the following nations as being part of a bilateral naval exercise with India and also part of quad dialogue but not a part of Malabar multilateral exercise and they have given four countries Japan, United States, United Kingdom and Australia. Now during our discussion we saw that quad consists of four nations namely India, Japan, United States of America and Australia. So we can directly eliminate option C from this question which is the United Kingdom. Now I know that India and USA started the Malabar exercise as a bilateral exercise in the year 1992 and Japan joined this exercise in the year 2007. So it became a multilateral exercise but know that Australia is not yet joined. So Australia here is the correct answer because it is part of quad dialogue but not a part of Malabar multilateral exercise and also it has conducted some joint naval exercise with India. Let us move on to the first main question. Here the first statement tells that the employment levels of women in the rural areas has decreased as per the recently released periodic labour force survey 2017-18 report. So mention the values and compare with the 61st NSS4 data that is mentioned in the editorial analysis. Then the question is asked for the reasons for the decrease in the employment levels. You can mention some reasons like mechanization of agriculture, land fragmentation, no work opportunities and non-agricultural activities etc. Next the question asks for some suggestions. So you can mention some suggestions which has been given by the author in the editorial analysis and also I can mention some other relevant suggestions if any. Moving on to the next main question. Discuss the efforts taken by India to eradicate the social evil of child labour and such as some steps to be taken by the government to achieve a world free of child labour. For answering the first part of the question, first try to give a brief definition of what is meant by child labour. Then the question asks for efforts taken by India to eradicate child labour. So you can mention some points from our today's discussion for this. Like you can mention that India stratified the two core conventions of international labour organization. Then you can mention those conventions. They are minimum age convention of 1973, then the worst forms of child labour convention of 1999. Then you can mention the legal and constitutional provisions of India against child labour which includes your child labour prohibition and regulation amendment act of 2016. Then the constitutional provisions that we have such as the article 21a, article 24 and also article 39. All this we have discussed during our analysis. Then for the second part of the question, it asks you to give some suggestions. So you can suggest some points that we have discussed during our analysis like investing in emphasizing quantitative information. Then a stronger nexus between the discourse on sustainable development goals and the discourse on eliminating the child labour. Then utilizing the growing interest of the private sector, etc. And also you can add your own suggestions as well. But when you are trying to add your own suggestions, try to substantiate by giving proper basis for whatever point that you are mentioning. With this, we come to the end of the analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the discussion of practice question session. Like, comment and share the video and subscribe to Shankar IA's Academy channel for latest videos and updates. Stay focused and motivated friends. Thank you.