 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Iyer's Academy, the list of topics chosen for today's discussion along with the page numbers is given here for your reference. See this article titled, Rights Panel Recommendations Binding Upon Government. This statement was made by High Court of Madras, so in this news article we will try to understand what recommendations of Human Rights Commission are binding upon the government. Also, we will have a brief recap on Human Rights Commission so that you will be having a better understanding of this topic. So as I said before, this article is based on important ruling of Madras High Court. So a three-judge bench of Madras High Court said that, recommendations made by the State Human Rights Commission after a full-fledged inquiry into allegations of human rights violations are binding on the government. So previously state government can reject some recommendations and can implement some recommendations. And also such recommendations made by Human Rights Commission are legally enforceable immediately. So previously Human Rights Commission can make some recommendations. State government can procrastinate without taking any decision. Now High Court has held that these recommendations are not only binding on the government but also legally enforceable. It means either Human Rights Commission or the affected person can approach court to enforce the recommendations of Human Rights Commission immediately. Before going further, the relevant syllabus is given here for your reference. See the Protection of Human Rights Act of 1993 provides for creation of National Human Rights Commission at national level and State Human Rights Commission at state level. See this Human Rights Commission at state level can inquire into violation of human rights only in respect of subjects mentioned in state list and concurrent list of seventh schedule of Indian Constitution. Coming to its composition, State Human Rights Commission consists of a chairperson and two members. Previously the chairperson can be only a retired Chief Justice of High Court but in 2019 this act was amended. Now not just retired CJ even a retired judge of a high court can also become chairperson of this commission. And members of this commission should be a serving or retired judge of high court or a district judge with a minimum seven years experience or a person having knowledge or practical experience with respect to human rights. See ever since its inception in 1993 both Human Rights Commission at national level and State Human Rights Commission have relentlessly pursued the cost of human rights as per their mandate. But the commission's decisions are only the recommendation. The governments are not bound to implement them which means either government can implement or refuse to implement. In the past some states have simply refused to accept the NHRC recommendations for relief in a few cases. For this they are not even required to seek the sanctity of an order by court unless challenged by National Human Rights Commission. So simply put the recommendations given by NHRC or SHRC are only advisory or recommendation and not binding on the government. This is why the former CJI and former chairperson of NHRC HL Dattu asked the union government to increase the commission's powers so that it can have more teeth rather than remaining as a toothless tiger. So in this context today's news article assumes a lot of significance because the Madras High Court has said that the recommendations made by State Human Rights Commission after a full fledged inquiry will be binding on the government. So from now on state governments cannot simply reject the recommendations. The only option available to state government is to approach high court seeking judicial review of these recommendations. Similarly the judges said that state human rights commission can also approach high court for enforcement of its recommendation if government fails to enforce them within a month or a time frame fixed by the commission. The high court also said that the human rights commission can direct the state to pay compensation to victims of human rights violations. And state government in turn could recover this money from the concerned ring official which means if I have committed a human rights violation as a government employee and human rights commission has provided a compensation to the person affected by me. So in this context the state government can recover this compensation money from my salary or from me. Further a show cost notice must be issued to the official seeking his or her explanation before recovery of such amount. So I should be given a show cost notice to explain why I indulged in human rights violation. The officials found guilty by human rights commission can also approach the high court challenging the findings and the recommendations of human rights commission. Which means I can approach high court saying that the recommendations and the findings of state human rights commission are not completely correct. So in order to implement these suggestions the high court suggested amendments to the original act that is protection of human rights act of 1993 which was amended many times in the last two decades. Finally let us see in brief about a section of this act which is about steps during and after inquiry. It says that commission may take any of the following steps during or upon the completion of an inquiry. For example if the inquiry discloses the commission of violation of human rights the commission may recommend the concerned government or authority to make payment of compensation to the complainant or victim. Which means the commission is having powers to direct the state government to pay compensation to the victim. But until now it is only recommendation or advisory. Now that high court has said that these recommendations are binding may be the toothless tiger may become a powerful tiger. This section is given here for your reference just have a brief look over it. So this is all about the discussion of this news article. We had a brief recap of state human rights commission and also the important verdict given by madras high court. Let us move on to next news article. See this FAQ column which talks about the concept of bad bank. Will it be helpful in resolving the NPA crisis of our country. If you remember in the recent budget speech the finance minister has revived the idea of bad banks by stating the center's plan to set up an asset reconstruction company to acquire bad loans from the banks. See in Indian economy the concept of bad bank has been discussing for many years. But why did it regain significance. Now the answer is the COVID-19 pandemic. See because of COVID-19 pandemic RBI has given loan moratorium for many companies and individuals. And many of us know many companies collapsed due to lack of demand and cutting off supply chains due to lockdowns imposed. So bad loans are expected to increase this year because of all these reasons. So idea of bad bank has begun to gain importance again. In this context let us have a brief understanding of what is a bad bank, what are the pros, cons and is it any efficient in tackling the NPA crisis. The relevant syllabus is given here for your reference. So basically what are bad loans first. Nothing but NPAs that are non-performing assets. See NPA is a loan or an advance for which the principal or interest payment remain overdue for a period of 90 days. Based on the length of the overdue and the probability of repayment, banks divide them into three classes, substandard assets, doubtful assets and loss assets. So the NPAs are recorded on the bank's balance sheet after prolonged period of non-payment by the borrower. Simply I have borrowed 100 rupees from State Bank of India. But due to some issues I am not able to repay the amount. So now that 100 said 10 rupees interest, so 110 rupees I owe to State Bank of India and I have not paid either principal or interest in the last 90 days to State Bank. Now this loan of mine is asset of State Bank. It is a loan for me but it is an asset for State Bank because it is getting some kind of profits by giving loan to me. So it is an asset. As I have not paid any interest or principal, this asset of State Bank will be termed as non-performing asset because it is not performing. So coming back to today's article, what is a bad bank? A bad bank is a financial entity which is set up to buy non-performing or bad loans from banks. After purchasing the bad loans from the banks, the bad bank may later try to restructure or sell the NPAs to investors who might be interested in buying it. As I am not paying money to State Bank of India, now State Bank will give this bad loan to bad bank or asset reconstruction company. Now this bad bank will try to negotiate with me or try to use legal measures to get money back from me. But we should note here that bad bank will earn profit only if it manages to sell the loan at a price higher than what it gave to commercial bank to purchase it. So what it means? How much I owe to State Bank? 110 rupees. But now State Bank gave this bad loan to bad bank at just 90 rupees. SBA is happy with at least 90 rupees. Now only if bad bank gets at least 95 or 100 rupees from me, then bad bank will get profit. Otherwise it will lead to loss for bad bank. But note that generating profit is not the aim of bad banks. Because their main purpose is to lessen the burden for banks in order to enable them to lend more actively. We will try to understand this further. See if you look at the crisis faced by NPAs, as per the latest estimates of Reserve Bank of India, the total size of NPAs in the balance sheets of Indian banks was around 9 lakh crores as of March 2020. But it is lesser than what it was in 2018, almost 1 lakh crore less. But it is to be noted that the improvement in reduction of NPAs is not because of recovery of these loans. Many banks have went on to write off these loans. Which means the bank does not count the money as an asset of the bank anymore. So if State Bank writes off 110 rupees which I owe, then what happens is, State Bank will not consider this 110 rupees as asset of State Bank. So therefore it is not counted under NPA. But State Bank will try to get money from me, but it is no longer counted as asset of bank. See for example, the size of loan write off saw an increase from 70,000 crore rupees in 2015 to 2.4 lakh crores in 2019 to 2020. So the reduction in NPAs is not just due to recovery, but also due to writing off of loans. So to avoid all these problems, government has proposed a bad bank where all loans of public sector banks will be given to bad bank. Now bad bank will try to get the money from the customer. However, the criticism on the impact of bad banks is, see if bad bank is backed by the government, it will just shift the bad assets from public sector banks to the bad bank. So both are owned by government only, either bad bank or public sector banks. So by creating a bad bank owned by government, it does not make much difference. So critics are saying that just transfer of assets from one pocket of government to other will not make any much difference in successful resolution of these bad loans. Another view is that a bad bank owned by government is likely to pay too much for stressed assets, in comparison to a commercial bank. See this concept of bad bank may be a good news to banks because the pending loans will be relieved from them. But it is not so good news for taxpayers because once again they have to pay to help out the troubled banks. What does it mean? See bad banks while recovering money may not be as efficient as private bad banks. So they may lose more money. So in case of my loan, bad bank may settle for 92 or 94 rupees. So the amount which is being lost by the government will be borne by taxpayer. So for taxpayers, this is not a very good news. See bailing out of public sector banks through a bad bank does not really address the root problem of bad loan crisis. Why? See firstly the crisis came because the PSBs are managed by bureaucrats who may not have the same commitment or adequate financial incentives like that of a private bank. Also there is no assurance for the commercial banks which are bailed out by the government to mend their ways because the bad bank is acting as a safety net for all these banks. So like before the PSBs may recklessly give loans again to risky enterprises and even political interference will also be increased. So this bad bank may not really solve the NPA problem. And coming to its advantages, a bad bank will help in consolidating all bad loans of multiple banks under one entity. So the commercial banks will be freed off negotiating all these things and they can work on their main objective that is giving loans and increasing the financial inclusion. And also it is said that by removing all these bad loans from troubled banks this can free capital of over 5 lakh crore rupees which is locked in banks. See whenever bank gives a loan it has to put some amount as a reserve or a safety for this loan. If SBA gives a loan of 100 rupees it has to keep 10 rupees or 15 rupees aside as a reserve or buffer for this loan. So if all these loans are transferred from PSBs to bad bank the amount 10 or 15 rupees which was kept as a reserve will be freed up and now banks can use this money to give more loans. So it is important for us to understand that it is uncertain capital position and not the sufficient reserves which is preventing banks from lending more aggressively. Which means banks are having money to lend but why they are not lending is this uncertain capital position that is the NPAs and other things. So it is believed that a bad bank could help improve the bank lending by improving banks' capital buffers by freeing up the capital. As we said before this capital buffers will be freed up if all the bad loans are transferred into bad bank. So this will improve the confidence of banks in lending again and this is very very important to recover the Indian economy which is strongly negatively impacted by COVID-19 lockdown. So this is all about the discussion of this news article. Have a brief idea on what is a bad bank and what are the pros and cons for writing a means answer. Let us move on to next news article discussion. See this FAQ column which talks about one person companies and the announcements made in the new budget for one person companies. See basically the companies act of 2013 classifies the companies and it classifies based on size, number of members, basis of control, liability and manner of access to capital. And this OPC that is one person company come under the classification on the basis of number of members. So according to this act OPC means a company which has only one person as a member. So this concept of OPC was introduced into India according to the sessions of JJ Iranian committee report on company law. So remember that JJ Iranian committee is about company law. This type of company gives a single promoter full control over the company. So the person will be the only director and the shareholder. At the same time OPC limits the liability to contributions to the business because the sole owner's liability is limited to that person's investment. Also there is no scope of rising equity funding or offering employee stock options. That is we cannot raise funding through equity shares or you cannot give stock options to employees. So who is eligible to act as a member of OPC? As of now only a natural person who is an Indian citizen and resident in India is eligible to act as a member and nominee of an OPC. Also note that a person can be member in only one OPC. Now in the budget it is proposed to decrease the residency limit from 182 days to 120 days. So previously we said that only a resident of India can act as a member of OPC. In this context resident means a person who is staying in India for not less than 182 days. The new budget is reducing this limit to 120 days. Additionally the budget also proposed to allow NRIs to incorporate OPCs in India. So previously Indian citizens who are residing in India are eligible for OPCs. Now even NRIs are also being allowed to incorporate OPC according to new budget. Some of the features of OPC are given here for your reference. Just go through them like what is the difference between solo entrepreneur and sole proprietorship also regarding revenues. That is if revenue crosses certain threshold they should be converted into private or public company and other features like IT returns, tax advantages are given here for your reference. Just go through them. Just have a brief understanding on what is a one person company which committee, JJ Irani committee under which law companies act of 2013, what are the new budget proposals regarding one person company. Let us move on to next news article discussion. See this news article from main page. This article is about an important decision made by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India which amended its rules to cap trans fatty acids in food products. So the new announcement is that food products in which edible oils and fats are used as an ingredient shall not contain industrial trans fatty acids more than 2% by mass of total oils or fats. So this will be implemented from 1st January 2022. This is an important milestone since the health organization has called for global elimination of trans fat by 2023. So if you remember on Jan 17th we talked about a similar news article. Then we said that FSSI has capped the presence of trans fatty acids in edible oils and fats. So the permissible limit of TFAs in oils and fats should be 3% for 2021 and 2% by 2022. So this is for edible oils and fats. So this news article talks about the presence of TFAs in all the food products wherein edible oils and fats are used. So the limit is 2% and this will be implemented from 1st January 2022. So let us have a brief discussion on what is trans fatty acid etc. See basically fat is an essential part of our diet and is important for good health. So there are different types of fats with some fats being healthier than others. So to ensure good health we need a balanced diet which means it is important to eat unsaturated fats in small amounts. So unsaturated fats are good for body. Eating larger amounts of saturated fat is linked with increased risk of cardiovascular diseases like heart diseases, high blood cholesterol levels etc. The saturated fats are usually solid at room temperature and are found in animal based products such as dairy foods, meat and even in some plant derived products like palm oil, coconut milk. It is also found in manufactured and packaged foods. So the FSSAI is putting limit on industrially produced trans fatty acids. Coming to unsaturated fats they are part of healthy diet. These help in reducing the risk of heart diseases, lowering cholesterol levels etc. So there are mainly two types of unsaturated fats. First is polyunsaturated which are omega 3, omega 6. We generally hear these names right. Omega 3 is found in fish. Omega 6 is in safflower or soya bean oil. Coming to mono unsaturated fats they are found in olive oil, canola oil, avocados, cashews, almonds etc. For this reason generally we see many YouTube channels telling that olive oil is more healthy. Coming to trans fats they are unsaturated fats which have been processed and as a result they behave like saturated fats. As said before, eating more trans fat will result in cardiovascular diseases. So these trans fats are found in many packaged foods, butter, some margarines and other fancy foods like KFCs, McDonald's etc. So it is very important for us to replace saturated and trans fats with mono and polyunsaturated fats. Generally TFAs are desired by the vanaspati industry because they impart firmness to margarines and plasticity that is that wax kind of look as well as emulsion stability to shortening. So research has proved that the direct connection of TFAs with cardiovascular diseases, breast cancer, shortening of pregnancy period, obesity etc. So in this news article try to have a very brief understanding of fats. There are two types saturated and unsaturated. And in unsaturated, polyunsaturated, monounsaturated. Generally these are good. Trans fats do also come under unsaturated but they are not good for health. Similarly saturated are also not good for health. There is a very brief idea on this topic to answer some science based prelims questions in the exam. Let us move on to next news article discussion. See this FAQ article which focuses on government's regulations applicable to tech companies in India especially cyber related regulations. Let us try to understand what this article is trying to say. The relevant syllabus is given here for your reference. See we are talking about cyber related regulations because of the recent scuffle between government of India and Twitter. See what happened? See we all know that farmers of Haryana Punjab mainly are protesting in New Delhi against the formulas. So in the last week of January a hashtag was trending in Twitter which is blaming the government of Farmer Genocide. So due to this the electronics ministry has sent a legal request to Twitter to block or withhold around 250 accounts and corresponding tweets. So to prevent fake, intimidatory and provocative tweets government has sent this legal request to Twitter. So this is government's argument. As a result of this Twitter withheld these accounts in India. So the accounts included farm leaders, farm unions, several activists and even media outlets. So this move was widely criticized by civil rights activists and opposition leaders saying that it is throttling or limiting the free speech of citizens. But here government justified that the accounts are just withheld and not suspended. Now the recent development in this issue is that Twitter has restored or reinstated all these accounts and tweets and also refusing to go back on the decision stating that these accounts are not in violation of its policy. So without government's permission Twitter has restored all these accounts and tweets. But as a reaction to this Indian government has issued a notice to Twitter asking it to comply with earlier government's order and also to justify its non-compliance. This notice also warned penal action against Twitter to comply with Indian government's order. See if you recall there are many instances where government did similar things of blocking accounts in social media mainly to curb fake news and other provocative social media posts. So on what basis government is asking these tech firms to block these accounts. See like many other countries India has also framed laws which mandate the internet or web hosting providers and other intermediaries to cooperate with law and order authorities. In India it is mandated under IT Act of 2000. So this act covers all intermediaries who play a role in the use of computer resources and electronic records. The clear definition of intermediary is given here and not so required in the exam. Know that all the social media platforms would fall under web hosting service providers which includes Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, etc. So under section 69 of IT Act central government has the power to issue directions for interception or monitoring or decryption of any information through any computer resource. And under this section if any subscriber or intermediary is called upon they have to extend all the facilities and technical assistance. But government can only issue such directions only if it is satisfied that it is necessary in the interest of sovereignty or integrity of the country, defense of India, security of the state, in the interest of friendly relations with foreign states in the interest of public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offense. Second under section 69A the same section was used for blocking Chinese apps government has power to issue directions for blocking of any information through any computer resource for the public access. So under this section only government has asked Twitter to block those accounts. So now the question is whether government has these enormous powers without any checks and balances? The answer is no. There are some checks and balances in limiting this enormous power of government. First the central government has to record the reasons for above directions that too in writing. So whenever government gives such an extreme order of blocking under section 69A central government has to record the reasons for giving such directions. So the government has given the direction. Does the intermediary like Twitter have to comply with these orders? The answer is yes. Because if they are not complying they will be subjected to penal action including imprisonment. For example if Twitter fails to assist according to section 69 or 69A they can be punished with imprisonment for up to 7 years plus fine. In addition to complying with these directions the intermediary that is Twitter has to preserve and retain all the information. So all these sections make the intermediaries liable. But also know that such liability is not absolute or unlimited. Because according to this act intermediary shall not be liable for any third party information data or communication link made available or hosted by that intermediary. See if I am posting some provocative message in Twitter that Twitter is not responsible for the consequences caused by that post. But if it does not comply with the government's order to remove that post or block my account then Twitter is liable for punishment. So these are the powers of government under which Twitter has been asked to comply and it has been warned about liabilities. Other than using these powers in the past government has also resorted to gain access to certain information including the identity of such posts or the identity of persons who has posted such posts. For this purpose a draft amendment rules were introduced which were called draft IT amendment rules of 2018. So under this amendment the central government proposed stringent changes. For example if an order is passed then intermediary has to provide the information asked by the government within 72 hours of communication. The assistance also includes tracing out the originator of information on the intermediaries platform. The reason for such a rule as stated by the government is to curb the fake news. See in the last 3-4 years we have seen a lot of lynchings happening due to fake news. So to curb this fake news government has proposed an amendment to the existing platforms wherein the intermediary say whatsapp has to report back to government within 72 hours and also stop the message from being spread across the people. But these changes were widely criticized because as you can see here for tracing out the originator of information the online platforms will need to break the end to end encryption. Whenever you text a person on whatsapp you will see that this message has been end to end encrypted. But to find out the person who sent the message the company has to break this encryption. So it was criticized saying that the government is intruding into privacy of individuals and wants to conduct online surveillance. And thankfully so far the draft has not been approved or not brought into force. So this is all about the discussion of this news article. So let us wait and see whether twitter faces any legal action or it again blocks those accounts or challenges this order in court of law. Have a brief idea on all these happenings. Generally the sections of the acts are not important but if you see the section 69 and the 69A of IT Act has been in use for a very long period. So try to have a brief idea of them. Let us move on to practice questions discussion session. See this question. Consider the following statements about bad banks. Two statements are given here and we are supposed to identify incorrect statements. Statement one it is a financial entity that is set up to buy or perform or bad loans from banks. So statement one is correct. Statement two it improves the bank lending capacity by enhancing the banks capital buffers. Yes statement two is also correct. So the correct answer is option D neither one nor two. See this question. Consider the following statements with reference to one person companies. Three statements are given here and we are supposed to identify incorrect statements. Statement one a single promoter has full control over the company. Yes statement one is correct. Statement two a person can be member of many OPCs at a time. This statement is incorrect because a person cannot be member of more than one OPC. See statement one should not be in the answers so A and D can be striked off and as we have seen statement two is incorrect. So the correct answer is option C two only. It means statement three is already correct. If an OPC has revenues of over rupees crore and paid up capital of over rupees 50 lakh it needs to mandatorily convert itself into private or public company. Yes this statement is correct and budget has proposed to relax this threshold. So the correct answer is option C two only. See this question with reference to IT Act 2000 which of the following statements is are correct. Statement one central government or state governments has the power to issue directions for interception or monitoring or decryption of any information through any computer resource. Yes statement one is correct according to section 69 of IT Act 2000. Statement two central government or state governments have the power to issue directions for blocking of public access of any information through any computer resource. Statement two is incorrect because according to section 69A only central government has the power to issue directions for blocking of public access. State governments do not have such power under this act. So correct answer is option A one only. See this question. Consider the following statements. Statement one saturated fats help reduce the risk of heart disease and lower cholesterol levels when they replace unsaturated fats in the diet. This statement is incorrect because it is not saturated fats it is unsaturated fats which reduce the risk of heart disease and also lower the cholesterol levels. Statement two polyunsaturated fats and mono unsaturated fats are the two major types of trans fats. This statement is also incorrect because poly and mono are types of unsaturated fats and not trans fats. So the correct answer is option D neither one nor two. See this main question for more than a decade the National Human Rights Commission of India has been working relentlessly to mitigate human right violations in the country. Despite its huge responsibility the body suffers from lack of power. Discuss. So you can start with how NHRC is working relentlessly by giving one or two examples. Then what are the shortcomings of the current Prevention of Human Rights Act of 1993. So according to Act the recommendations given by NHRC and SHRC are only advisory and national or state governments can reject the recommendations given by the human right commissions. In this context we can also talk about the Madras High Court verdict which said that the state human right commissions recommendations are binding on the government. So you can talk about all this and the other shortcomings you can discuss and end with what High Court said yesterday that is amending section 18 of Human Rights Act to make the recommendations binding on the governments. See this main question cooperation between technology services companies and law enforcement agencies is a vital part of fighting cybercrime. Discuss the legal provisions and the challenges to ensure such cooperation. Write the answers and post them in the comment section. Thank you for watching our video. If you find this video resourceful like, comment, share and subscribe to our YouTube channel.