 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankarayesh Academy. Displayed our list of news articles selected for today's analysis and their page numbers in different editions of the newspaper. The link for the handwritten notes in the PDF format and the time stamping of the discussed articles are provided in the description and also in the comment section for the benefit of the viewers. Now, let us move on to the analysis of first news article. Now, let us take up this editorial article from today's newspaper. In the recent days, we have discussed many news articles outlining the plight of migrant laborers. In today's news article, we will discuss about the plight of migrant workers in the light of political democracy. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this editorial is highlighted here for your reference. Now, as per the Economic Survey of 2017, internal migrant workers, they constitute around 13.9 crore. We can say roughly around 14 crores. Now, this number is nearly one-third of India's total labor force. Migrant laborers, they travel across India in search for an economic livelihood. Say, for example, in the construction sector, domestic work, in bricklands, mines, transportation, in security-related work, agriculture, etc. Many of them, they never intend to settle down in the place where they are working and rather, they wish to return to their native villages once their work is completed. They often work in exploitative, low-wage jobs. They lack identity in the place of work. They don't have proper living conditions and they are working without access to welfare and unable to exercise their voting rights as well. As a result, migrant workers, they become quasi disenfranchised forgotten voters. See, when we say enfranchise, it means giving the right to vote or exercising the right to vote. Disenfranchise means taking away the right to vote and quasi disenfranchise means partially taking away the right to vote. Here in this context, quasi disenfranchise refers to the fact that migrant workers, though they are registered voters in their native state, they are unable to vote in their place of work. So, even though they have the right to vote, they are unable to exercise it. And note that migrant workers generally do not enroll as workers in their place of employment. This is because they find it very difficult to provide proof of residence. Many migrant laborers or seasonal laborers, they would rather come and vote in their villages if they could afford to come. Here, for example, you can consider migrant laborers from Bihar working in Punjab and Haryana only during sowing months. Since they do not have a vote where they work, their concerns are reportedly easily ignored in their place of work or in the state of work. Sometimes, they are also targeted for allegedly taking jobs away from the local population of the host state. Now, in this regard, authors note that the central mission of Election Commission of India should be to ensure that every Indian who is eligible to vote must be able to vote. Or in other words, every eligible registered voter whose willing to vote must be able to vote. In 2019 general election, out of 91.05 crore registered voters, only around 61.36 crore voters have casted their vote. This means a substantial 29.68 crore voters or we can say around 30 crore registered voters did not or could not cast their vote. National election study surveys show that about 10% of registered voters refrain from voting due to a lack of interest in politics. Now, this means approximately 20 crore voters in the number of nearly 30 crore want to vote but unable to do so. A significant number of this 20 crore missing voters are expected to be migrant laborers. Now, if you come to international migrants who go to various countries from India, in other words, if you come to non-resident Indians, there are around 1.35 crore non-resident Indians who are willing to participate in voting in India. Now, this number of 1.35 crore is as per the Ministry of External Affairs. In the editorial, the author has given the total of non-resident Indians and persons of Indian origin which come around 3 crore and persons of Indian origin do not have voting rights in India. The author notes that among the total non-resident Indians, only about 1 lakh have registered to vote, presumably because voting requires their physical presence in India and of them about 20,000 only voted in the 2019 general elections. Now, this means more than 95% of non-resident Indians could not vote in the 2019 Lokshabai elections. Now, with respect to non-resident Indians, government sought to make a mechanism by bringing the representation of people amendment bill 2017 in the last Lokshabai. This amendment sought to enable voting through authorized proxies for non-resident Indians. Here, proxy refers to a person who is authorized to vote on behalf of a non-resident Indian. This bill did not materialize into an enforceable legislation. However, the government's move for the special concern for non-resident Indians was criticized as government did not had such attitude towards poor internal migrant workers. Now, coming to the question, do we have solutions for the exercise of voting rights to migrants in the place of their work? The answer is yes. Now, on 2nd July 2020, in our daily news analysis, we saw that service voters and absentee voters can vote through electronically transmitted postal ballot system. Classified service voters can vote through their proxies. The election commission can also bring another linked voter ID based solution so that electors are able to cast their votes digitally from anywhere in the country. And while developing this solution, this should not result into exclusion of eligible individuals. Now, then election commission could bring measures like enabling migrants to vote in their city of work based on the address on their existing voter IDs. This means a voter from Bihar working in Punjab can vote in Punjab. The vote will get polled in her or his constituency in Bihar. We are living in an age where banking transactions have gone seamlessly online and it means it is technologically feasible to record and transfer votes to their respective constituencies casting vote from anywhere in India. Lack of capacity in this regard represents the lack of political will to enhance such capacity and to respect the voting rights of migrant workers. Then the authors relate portability of ballot with ration card portability or one nation, one ration card system which seeks to enable migrant workers to access benefits from any fair price shop in the country under the public distribution system. A similar political will must be demonstrated to bring one nation, one voter ID system that ensures native ballot portability to empower the forgotten migrant voter. So once migrant workers get chance to exercise their vote, authors expect that there will be a change in how they are treated. In the conclusion, authors end with the quote of Thomas Jefferson who was a spokesperson for democracy and the third president of United States. He mentioned, we in America do not have government by the majority. This has to be read as we do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate. Ensuring that every Indian voter can participate in elections is important to ensure a democratically inclusive India. With this we come to the end of analysis of this editorial. We discussed about the plight of migrant workers in the light of political democracy. We saw the numbers with respect to 2019 general elections in connection with non-resident Indians. We saw about some possible solutions to include migrants in voting process just from the place of work. Now let's move on to the analysis of next news article. This news article talks about a special beneficial relationship between caterpillars of a particular butterfly species and their hostile cocktail ant predators. We know that in nature, animals, plants, microbes, they cannot live in isolation. They interact in various ways to form biological community. In this analysis, let us discuss in brief about some types of interactions between different species. The syllabus relevant for the analysis is highlighted here for your reference. First, let us see about symbiosis. See in a symbiotic relationship, plants or animals of different species, they are dependent on one another for their survival. They may share habitats or lifestyles or interact in a specific way to benefit from the presence of another organism. Such a relationship is also called as mutualism. For example, certain fungi live in the roots of trees. The trees provide nutrients to the fungus. In return, fungi helps the trees to take up water and nutrients from the soil. We can observe types of population interactions from this table. One is beneficial to each other, one is detrimental to each other. In some cases, one is benefited and the other is harmed. In this table, a positive sign indicates that interaction benefits a particular species. A negative sign indicates that the interaction harms a particular species and zero stands for neither harmed nor benefited. As we saw already, in symbiosis or in mutualism, both the species benefit. While in the case of competition, both species lose, an example we can take, predators of different species compete for the same prey or limited resources. In parasitism and in predation, one species benefit and the other is harmed. Here the species getting the benefits are parasites and predators. The host and their prey are harmed. Examples for parasitism, you can take lice on human beings and ticks on dogs. You can also relate parasitism with how a tick bite transmits chiasnure forest disease to human beings. The best example for predation would be the carnivorous interactions in which one animal consumes another animal. In case of commensalism, one species is benefited and the other is neither benefited nor harmed. For example, you can consider birds living in the hollows of trees. Here you can understand that mutualism and commensalism are positive interactions. In amensalism, one species is harmed whereas the other is unaffected. For example, you can consider a taller plant hiding sunlight or shading a smaller plant. Now let's come to the news article. The article states that a group of scientists have formed a special relationship between caterpillars and their ant predator hosts. The ants are actually predators to the caterpillars. Here the caterpillar refers to the early stage of a butterfly. The article states that butterflies of the family, like canidae, have evolved a range of adaptations. The caterpillars of this butterfly species have tamed their ferocious ant predators into their protectors and providers. Here the ant species refers to cocktail ant called as cremato-gaster hotzoni. The butterflies of this family are called as blues and hair streaks. And this is an example of mutualism by taming the predator. Here the ants drink the carbohydrate-rich secretions produced by caterpillar. In return, the ants protect the caterpillars. This association was found using advanced x-ray micro-computer tomography technology or advanced x-ray micro-CT technology. And here you can relate the discussed special relationship in the subject of psychology with the concept of positive reinforcement. However, here for the caterpillars the reinforcement is for survival. With this we come to the end of analysis of this news article. We discussed about different population interactions and we saw about the special symbiotic relationship mentioned in the news article. Now let's move on to the analysis of next news article. This news article talks about the high alert issued by Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations to India with reference to Locust attack. In this context we'll discuss briefly about the Food and Agriculture Organization and its mandates. See, it is a specialized agency of United Nations. It leads the international efforts to defeat hunger. Now its headquarters is located in Rome, Italy. Even 194 member states are participating in this organization and it works in more than 130 countries. Now its main objective is to achieve food security for all and to make sure that people have regular access to enough high quality food so as to lead active and healthy lives. Now coming to the structure it consists of six departments, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, Economic and Social Development, Fisheries and Aquaculture, Forestry, Corporate Services, Human Resources and Finance and also Technical Cooperation. Now with reference to governing bodies it includes FAO Conference, Council, then FAO Committee on World Food Security and also Regional Conferences. For specific purposes it also has specific committees as well. Now coming to FAO Conference, here every member nation and associate member will be represented. This conference determines the policy and approves budget for FAO and it also makes recommendations to members with reference to Food and Agriculture. The executive organ of the conference is what we call as FAO Council. Now coming to important programs of FAO, in 1961 along with World Health Organization FAO created Codex Alimentarius Commission. This was created to develop food standards, guidelines and text like codes of practice under the FAO WHO Food Standards Program. Now know that this Codex Alimentarius Commission is the body that is responsible for all matters regarding the implementation of this joint food standards program. Then FAO publishes a number of major reports called as State of the World reports. Some of the reports are the State of Agriculture Commodity Markets report, the State of Food and Agriculture report, the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, the State of World's Forest report, State of World's Fisheries and Aquaculture and status of World's Soil Resources report. Now in the news we saw that it has given an alert to India with reference to Locust attack. Now why FAO is associated with Locust control? This is because if locusts, particularly if desert locusts are not controlled food security will be affected. Therefore one of the mandates of this organization is to provide information on the general locust situation to all interested countries. It has to give timely warnings and forecasts to those countries which are in danger of locust invasion. In this regard FAO operates a centralized desert locust information service within the locust group at its headquarters in Rome, Italy. It also prepares monthly bulletins and periodic updates of the locust situation, forecasting, mitigation and also breeding on country by country basis as well. So these are some of the important information with reference to the analysis of this news article. Now let's move on to the next part of the discussion. This news article is with reference to Indo-Tibetan border police. The chief of the force has said that the recent visit of Prime Minister of India to Ladakh has raised the morale of all the forces serving India at the border. In this context let us discuss in brief about this Indo-Tibetan border police force. See it is one of the seven central on police forces in India that come under Ministry of Home Affairs. It was raised after the Sino-Indian war of 1962 to boost India's security along the border with Chinese Tibet. It was raised in October 1962. It was formed with the objective to reorganize the border intelligence or the frontier intelligence and border security along the Indo-Tibetan border. See ITBP was initially raised under the Central Reserve Police force act of 1949. In 1992 parliament enacted the ITBP force act the Indo-Tibetan border police act of 1992. So at present it comes under the framework of this ITBP force act 1992. See this Indo-Tibetan border police at present is involved in border guarding coin operations that is counter insurgency operations and also in internal security roles. Initially it started with four battalions. At present it has 56 service battalions, four specialist battalions, training centers and logistics establishments with a total strength of approximately 90,000 personnel. We know that India and China share a boundary of 3488 kilometers. In 2004 a recommendation was given by group of ministers that there should be one border, one force. As a result of the recommendation for the entire stretch of India-China border, the border guarding duty was assigned to the Indo-Tibetan border police. Therefore in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, Indo-Tibetan border police replaced Assam rifles in the year 2004. The motto of this force is valor determination devotion to duty. As we said this force is guarding the India-China border from Union territory of Ladakh till Arunachal Pradesh. So it extends from Karakoram Pass in UT of Ladakh to Jakkapla in Arunachal Pradesh. Apart from this ITBP battalions they also provide security to various installations of national importance located in various places in the country. For example, some of the important installations guarded by ITBP include Rastrapati Bhavan, Vice President House, Tihar Jail in Delhi, Labhasna in Uttarakhand etc. Now elite commanders of this force, they are also deployed in Afghanistan, provide security to Indian Embassy in Kabul. And ITBB personnel are also participating in UN peacekeeping operations. Particularly the force personnel were deployed for peacekeeping operations in Angola, Namibia, Cambodia etc. And also know that this force is the first responder for natural disaster in the Himalayas. It is also playing a very important role with reference to preservation of Himalayan environment and ecology. In addition to this it also carries out medical civic action programs in remote border areas and in remote terrorist or Maxwell affected areas as well. In these areas they provide free and expert medical and health care and also hygiene care to the civilian population there. So these are some of the important information with reference to Indo-Tibetan Border Police, which is one of the seven centred armed police forces in India. Now let's move on to the next part of the discussion. This news article talks about China-Butan boundary disputes. The news article states that China has now included the eastern sector of Bhutan into the disputed territory list. That means that China is claiming that part of Bhutan. It is already well known that China is having boundary disputes along the western sector of Bhutan, particularly in Chumbhi Valley. Here as time progresses, Chinese claim goes like the valley widens and widens to be part of China. In giving substanciation to China's expansionist policy, now China claims that even Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary, that is located in eastern part of Bhutan, is also its territory which it diplomatically calls a disputed territory. As you can see, this segment borders with Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which is also claimed by China as an extension of Tibet. So therefore this new move announced by China has implications to India. The news article also states that China, to get legitimacy for its claim, is attempting to stop funding for Sakteng Sanctuary from the global environment facility. We have to note that earlier Sakteng had received grants for a project on preventing soil erosion. In this context, let us discuss in detail about the global environmental facility. See it is a multilateral financial mechanism. It was established to help tackle the most pressing environment problems faced by our planet. For this, this facility provides grants and it also co-finances many environmental projects. It provides concessional loans for projects related to energy efficiency and projects relating to low greenhouse gas emissions. It also has a small grams program that provides support to almost 24,000 civil society and community initiatives in around 133 countries. Now coming to the history of this facility, see it was established on the eve of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. That is, it was established prior to the Rio Earth Summit, to be specific it was established in the year 1991. It was established with the support of three agencies, the World Bank, United Nations Development Program and United Nations Environment Program. And it started functioning with the support of these three agencies. The news article mentions about UNDP, so we just saw that it is a founding agency of this facility and know that it is also an implementing agency. Particularly, the small grants program which we saw earlier is being implemented by UNDP. Since the establishment, the partnership has evolved to include around 183 countries, 18 agencies, civil society organizations, indigenous people and also the private sector. The first assembly of this facility is important as it was held in India in April 1998. Now let's come to the structure of this facility. It is organized around an assembly, a council, a secretariat, 18 agencies and a scientific and technical advisory panel. It also has an evaluation office. Now with reference to the assembly, it is composed of 183 member countries or participants. They can be both developed and developing countries. This assembly meets once in every three to four years at the ministerial level. Now coming to the main governing body of this facility, it is the council. It has 32 members. These members are appointed by constituencies of GEF member countries. For example, India is a member of a constituency that consists of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. This council meets twice in a year to develop, adopt and to evaluate the operational policies and programs of this GEF finance activities. The overall implementation of GEF activities is coordinated by the secretariat. In fact, the secretariat implements the decision of the assembly and the council. The scientific and technical advisory panel provides scientific and technical advice to the facility on policies, operational strategies, programs and projects. Now coming to the funding and areas of operation of GEF, know that World Bank serves as the trustee to this facility. It administers the GEF trust fund. The fund is contributed by donors which include both developed and developing countries. And coming to who receives the support from GEF, the support is received by developing countries and countries with economies in transition. Here when we say countries with economies in transition, it refers to those countries that are changing from central planning to free markets. Now GEF provides funding to assist developing countries in meeting objectives of international environmental conventions. See it serves as financial mechanism to five international conventions. Convention on biological diversity, UNFCCC, Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, UNCCD and Minimata Convention on Mercury. Now with reference to India, India is both a donor to GEF and also a recipient. GEF has funded more than 100 projects in India. Now let's come to the focal points of GEF. There are two types of GEF focal points, political focal points and operational focal points. All the member countries of this facility have political focal points. But only those countries which are recipient countries have operational focal points. The political focal points focus on governance and relations between member countries within their constituencies. Whereas the operational focal points are responsible for the operations of GEF activities within their countries. In the case of India, Ministry of Finance is the political focal point. Whereas Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is the operational focal point for the GEF projects. With this we come to the end of analysis of this news article. We saw about the new expansionist claims of China with reference to Bhutan. We saw in detail about global environment and facility. Now let's move on to next part of the discussion. We have come to the last session, the practice questions discussion session. This question is with reference to different types of population interactions. The question reads, with respect to different types of interactions between different species, consider the following statements. Two statements are given, which of the statements given above are correct. In commensalism, one species is benefited while the other is neither benefited nor harmed. Now this statement is correct. You may take the example of birds living in the hollows of trees. The birds are benefited whereas the trees are unaffected, neither benefited nor harmed. So the first statement is correct. The second statement, in commensalism, one species is harmed whereas the other is unaffected. This statement is also correct. You can assume the example of a larger tree hiding sunlight to the smaller plant. The larger plant or tree is unaffected whereas the smaller plant is affected. So the correct answer for this question is option C, both one and two as both these statements are correct. This question is with reference to central armed police forces. They have given six forces and are asking which among the following forces comes under the CAPF. Assam Rifles, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, National Security Guard, CISF, Sasastra-Simabal Border Security Force. Now know that all these six forces along with central reserve police force constitute seven central armed police forces under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Correct answer is option D, one, two, three, four, five and six. This question is with reference to global environment facility. Three statements are given. They are asking which of the statements are correct. If you observe the options we can understand that first statement is correct because it is given as correct statement in all the options. So let us see whether second and third statements are correct. Second statement, the first assembly of global environment facility was held during Rio Earth Summit of 1992. This is incorrect because it was held in Delhi in India in April 1998. So eliminate options B and option D. Now we have to check whether the third statement is correct. World Bank serves as the trustee to GEF, which is correct. Therefore the correct answer is option C, one and three only. This question is with reference to food and agriculture organization. Two statements are given. They are asking which of the above statements are correct. First statement, it is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads in international efforts to defeat hunger. This statement is correct. You can eliminate options B and D. Second statement, it publishes the state of world's population report. This statement is incorrect because this report is released by United Nations population fund. Not food and agriculture organization. We saw this in our July 1 Hindu news analysis. Now coming to the reports that are released by food and agriculture organization. These are state of the world reports related to food, agriculture, forestry, fisheries and natural resources. Now with reference to natural resources, it releases status of the world's soil resources report. Now with reference to agriculture, it releases state of agriculture commodity markets report and the state of food and agriculture report. And it also releases state of food security and nutrition in the world report etc. So the correct answer for this question is option A, one only. Now see this mains question in GS paper 2. In the light of recent controversy regarding the plight of migrant workers, discuss the measures that can be taken by election commission of India to ensure political democracy of migrant workers. Now for this question, you can mention all the measures that can be taken by election commission. Now in addition to just mentioning, you have to discuss each measure, how far it is possible, what are the challenges in bringing such measures, whether bringing such measure is early or too late. And you can conclude the question with a positive note to achieve inclusive participation in democracy, particularly in elections. With this, we come to the end of today's the Hindu news analysis. If you like the video, if you would have enjoyed the content, don't fail to click the like button and share this resource among your friends and those who are in need of such resources. And subscribe to the Shankaray's Academy YouTube channel to get notified about new updates.