 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Reyes Academy, displayed on the list of news articles selected for today's analysis and the page numbers in Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore and Thiruvananthapuram editions of the newspaper. The link for the handwritten notes and the time stamping of the news articles are provided in the description box and the time stamping for the benefit of mobile phone viewers has also been provided in the comment section. Now, let us move on to the first news article. This news article is about the operation, maintenance and development of six airports that are owned by the Airports Authority of India within the framework of public-private partnership. The syllabus related to the analysis of this news article has been highlighted here by underlining for your reference. The six airports that are part of the arrangement, as discussed in the news article, are located in Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Govahati, Thiruvananthapuram and Mangaluru. The matter is in the news because recently on July 3, 2019, the union cabinet has given approval for leasing three airports to one particular entity or one particular player. The news article states that this particular entity, reported as Adani Enterprises Limited, has won the contract for three airports because two main guidelines were relaxed or removed or set aside by the approving authority. And some of these guidelines are suggested or proposed by Ministry of Finance and the National Institution for Transforming India, that is the Nithya Yog. One recommendation of the Finance Ministry was that one player should not be given the leasing rights for more than two airports. Today we see approval has been given for one particular player for three airports and we do not have the news about the other three airports we have to wait and watch. But the recommendation of the Finance Ministry is that more than two airports should not be given for one entity and this was suggested to facilitate yardstick competition. This yardstick competition is a term that is used in regulation of various business entities. Now, one idea is that the more the entities in the competition, the better will be the ability to compare and accordingly provide necessary financial incentives and these support from the government will also be based on the performance of these entities and we can better assess the performance based on comparison. The more the entities, the better will be the ability to compare. So all these process also has a bearing on the performance on the firms that operate the particular business here operation maintenance and development of the particular airport. This is one of the norms that was relaxed for the approval process. This is on one side. We can see Nithya Yog stressing that for a player to be approved, there has to be prescribed experience in operation and maintenance. If they do not have any such experience, then either they should tie up with a particular firm who have such relevant requisite experience or they should tie up with qualified personnel who have such experience. We find this particular recommendation was also set aside while giving the approval and we can see there will be requirement of huge investment, huge capital requirement. Here we refer financial capital that is money and there will be also huge financial risks involved in the process of operating, maintaining and developing a particular airport. So therefore, one of the suggestion was to determine the financial capability of the interested players who bid for winning the contract to get lease of a particular airport. And this is also one of the reason why a particular firm has also should not be given not more than two airports because the more the number of airports to be given for an entity, the more will be the financial burden for the particular entity. There is also relaxation with respect to this particular norm as well. When we say operation maintenance and development, here a particular entity will look after all services at the airports except air traffic control and communication, navigation and surveillance. Except these services, all services in these airports will be carried out by the particular firm that has been awarded the contract. The Finance Ministry has also requested to have the criteria of per passenger fee to determine the winning bidder, but it is said that reported that this particular norm is also not given enough weightage in the approval process. The news article also mentions about the public private partnership appraisal committee, which has played a very important role in the approval process with respect to the six airports. And this public private partnership appraisal committee comes under PPP cell that is set up under Department of Economic Affairs in the year 2006. And for all the matters that falls beyond the scope of this appraisal committee, an empowered group of secretaries was constituted in November 2018. And they are to decide on certain issues that are beyond the jurisdiction of the public private partnership appraisal committee. And this empowered group of secretaries was headed by the CEO of Nithya Yog and it had members from Ministry of Civil Aviation, Department of Economic Affairs and also Department of expenditure. And the government has opted for the public private partnership in these airports to attract the private investments and also to enhance or increase the passenger capacity offered by Indian airports. And in addition to attracting the private investments, it is also said that public private partnership, particularly in infrastructure projects, they bring efficiency in the service delivery and they also bring expertise and professionalism into the picture. The government has felt that a participatory development framework along with the private sector will help to make Indian airports to the level of world-class infrastructure standards and it will also help to deliver efficient and timely services to the airport passengers and also it will help in increasing the revenues required rather than the government making any investment. With this we come to the end of the analysis of this news article. Now let's take up the analysis of next news article. This news article is about the Model Tenancy Act of 2019. This model act has been prepared by the Union Ministry for Housing and Urban Development. Now the syllabus relevant for this news article has been highlighted here for your reference. So when we see here, it is said that it is a model tenancy act of 2019. This means having this as a model, the state governments has to enact a law for their respective jurisdictions for the tenancy. Tenancy here refers to the relationship between the owner of a residential property and the tenant. Tenant is a person who occupies the space from the owner by giving certain rental charges to the owner. According to Census 2011, it is said that around 1.1 crore houses were lying vacant in the country. There have been certain challenges with both the owners and those who are willing to occupy as tenants and it is said that if these vacant houses can be made available for rent, this will complement and help achieving the vision of housing for all by the year 2022. Now there are some basic issues in the present scenario which some of the rent control laws fails to address or does not address effectively. Now these are the some concerns with respect to the owners. From the side of owners, we can see they say the tenant may claim the property after some time or they may repossess the property. Tenant may damage the property and it may be difficult for the owner to make the tenant accountable for the damages he or she has made. And how to solve the issues when a tenant fails to give the rent on time and if he reacts impulsively. And these are some of the issues from the side of owners. Similarly, for tenants also there are some issues. Some of these are excessive rental charge and owner charging separate excessive electric bills other than the government bill and restrictions with respect to usage of the rental property and usage of resources such as water and others. And there are also problems with respect to huge advances that is what we call locally, technically huge security deposit and irrational deduction of charges from the security deposit while vacating the residential premises. So these are some of the issues that are faced by the tenants. But we know that both the owners and the tenants have their own set of rights and the benefits enjoyed by them should be balanced. So keeping these things in mind, the center has framed a model legislation. So it is said that this model law aims to strike a balance between the owners and the tenants. News article states that it also recognizes the role of property managers. When we say property manager, it could be a person or a company. The property manager will be authorized by the landowner to manage the premises and the property manager will represent the landowner in all his dealings with the tenant. It is said that the model law aims to regulate the rental housing market by a more market oriented approach. Here, when we say market approach, it means that the provisions given in the model act will help the rental housing sector to be operated based on the demand and the supply. This can be done by effectively addressing the problems and mindsets of both owners and the tenants. There are certain challenges even based on this model act. One thing is that some property owners feel that the cap on the security deposit is very less. That is, here we mean that if you take section 11 of the model tenancy act 2019, it says that the security deposit is subject to a maximum of two months rent in case of a residential property. For example, if you are paying monthly rent as 10,000, then the security deposit cannot be more than 20,000. So this security deposit we locally call as advance. So the property owners are on worrying end according to this section because they say that this cap, they cannot charge more than this cap. That is, they cannot charge more than maximum of two months rent. Now, there is one another concern that is now the center has published the model law. But how far the objectives and the provisions of the model law can be found in the legislations that the state governments are going to enact will be a question. Because some states may dilute the provisions and objectives because this dilution may result either in favor of tenants or in favor of owners which will definitely harm the rental housing sector. And why central government is not enacting a law on this housing rather than only a model law because the land comes under state subject in schedule 7 of Indian constitution. If you see entry 18 under the state list, it states that land and land rights, land tenures, including the relation of landlord and tenant, collection of rents, all these things come under state list. So only a state is constitutionally empowered in normal circumstances to enact a legislation that comes under state jurisdiction. That's why center has given a model act for this purpose. And this model tenancy act aims to establish a rental authority, a rent court and a rent tribunal. And there are several aspects with respect to today we will see only with respect of appeal procedure. An order of the rent authority can be appealed at the rent court and a final order of a rent court can be appealed in the rent tribunal. This is as per section 37 of model tenancy act of 2019. This is with respect to the analysis of this news article. Now let's take the next article. This news article talks about certain species that have vanished from the Indian wildlife. Here they have given four species of fauna and 18 species of flora that is plants that have gone extinct in our country, particularly in past few centuries. And it is said that India is home to 11.5% of all flora in the world. And regarding fauna, it is said that India is home to 6.49% of all the fauna species in the world. Regarding plants, it is said that since 1950, more plants have disappeared from the wild than the combined population of birds, mammals and amphibians. Of the 18 species of flora, four are non-floring plants and 14 are flowering plants. And most important of these are Lasteriopsis vatti and three species from the same genus, Fioriza. Lasteriopsis vatti is a fern in Manipur and this was discovered in the year 1882. And the species of the genus Fioriza was discovered in Peninsula, India. The news article also lists that cheetah, Sumatran rhinoceros, pink-headed duck and Himalayan quail, also some of the species that have become extinct in India in the recent centuries. We can see five reasons listed in the news article that has led to the extinctions of these animals and generally these are some of the contributing factors that will lead to extinction. Now, first is competition. When we say competition here, it refers to competition among the animals for resources, for food. And there is one theory where they say that dinosaurs would have become extinct because all the eggs of dinosaurs would have been eaten by other animals at that time for food. And next is predation and then natural selection. Here we refer to the ability of a particular animal to survive through centuries, through producing offsprings that can adapt to the changing circumstances, changing environment and changing climatic factors. And then we have hunting and habitat degradation. These are human induced factors. So, this is with respect to this news article. Now, let's move on to the next article. This news article is about the recommendation of World Health Organization about an innovative HIV drug so that it can be a preferred HIV treatment option for all populations. And this drug is called as Dolute Gravir, shortly called as DTG. This recommendation was made on July 22 and why it was not recommended before. Because some of the studies have highlighted a link between this DTG drug and neural tube defects that occurred in infants. This is because there was a link between this DTG drug and some defects that occurred in certain infants. And these infants are born to women who took this drug at the time of conception. And therefore, WHO has not recommended this particular drug. And it is from this neural tube, the brain and spinal cord is formed. And as a result, it leads to a birth defect called as Spina Bifida. So, this neural tube is an embryonic structure that finally develops into the brain and spinal cord of the baby. So, earlier it was found that when women took this particular drug during conception, some of the children had neural tube defects. But recent studies have confirmed that the risks are significantly lower than what initial studies were suggested. And compared to the present treatment options, it is said that this drug is more effective, easier to take and has fewer side effects. And it also has high genetic barrier to develop drug resistance. When we say drug resistance, say for example, a person is given this particular drug, then the virus will change its genetic structure. It will mutate itself to offer resistance to the drug to cause more infection to the patient. When we say high genetic barrier, it means whatever the number of mutations made by the virus, it will not be able to offer resistance to the particular drug. In recent times, we are witnessing drug resistance, many of the drugs that are being administered to the patients. So, that is one very important positive with respect to DTG. So, it has high genetic barrier to develop drug resistance. More updates we will see in the coming days. With this, we come to the end of this article. This news article talks about deep ocean mission. So, when we say deep ocean, it normally means the part of ocean that is almost below the depth of 1000 meter. And this mission is to be led by Ministry of Earth Sciences along with the participation of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Biotechnology Department, Department of Space, DRDO, ONGC Limited and few other institutions. It is expected that this program, this mission may commence from October 2019. Among others, this mission is expected to have an offshore desalination plant and also a submersible vehicle. So, that it can take three people on board to a depth of around 6000 meter to explore resources. The mission will be exploring for metals and minerals, particularly polymetallic nodules. When we say polymetallic nodules, consist of minerals of manganese, nickel, cobalt, iron. In some nodules, we can also find copper. So, these are actually deposits or accretion of nodules that are found on the surface of deep seabed or just below the surface of deep seabed. These explorations will be carried out in Central Indian Ocean Basin in the allotted 75,000 square kilometer by the International Seabed Authority. Now, its International Seabed Authority is an autonomous body established in 1994. It implements part 11 of UN Convention on the Law of Seas. And it is said that within the allotted space in the Central Indian Ocean Basin, the resource potential of polymetallic nodules is that there could be more than 4 million tons of nickel and more than 4 million tons of copper and more than 90 million tons of manganese. So, extracting these polymetallic nodules is very important for the mineral wealth of the country. This polymetallic nodule is also called as deep sea mineral because of its presence in the deep seabed. Once launched, this mission will definitely improve India's position in the research in ocean. Now, let's see the next article. This news article is about the tax war or the trade war or tariff war between the United States and France. And very recently, France has decided to crack down on big technology companies that pay little tax or in some cases no tax to the France government. And this measure is said to affect the revenues of US-based technology firms that carry out business activities in France. And for this, USA has responded that it may impose tax on the French imports, particularly on French wines. So, this is one another development with respect to the trade war aspect from the United States. We have been seeing it happening with US and China on certain lines with India too. And now we are seeing it with respect to France. We'll have more updates in the coming days. Now, let's take the next snippet. The news article is about the decisions that were taken in the 36th GST Council meeting that happened yesterday under the chairmanship of the Union Finance Minister and three important decisions were taken. One is with respect to reducing the tax rate on all electric vehicles. That is, goods and services tax rate on all electric vehicles are to be reduced from 12% to 5%. This is one of the measures that has been announced recently on the budget as well. And next with respect to charger or the charging stations, these are for electric vehicles. And it was decided that the GST rate on charges or the charging stations for electric vehicles are also to be reduced from 18% to 5%. And one other decision is that any local authority that is going to hire electric buses are going to be exempted from GST. And all these changes shall be applicable from 1st August of 2019. We can see predominant measures that have been taken in this 36th GST Council meeting or with respect to electric vehicles. It is said that the reduction of GST rates from 12% to 5% will reduce the upfront cost of buying an electric vehicle by almost around some 8,000 to 10,000. So this will definitely generate demand for electric vehicles. And this is also one of the measures to popularize electric vehicles. So this is with respect to this article. With this we come to the end of today's the Hindu News Analysis. Kindly forgive us for the absence of question, paper and discussion session today. We will continue it from tomorrow. 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