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As we all know, even today, the farmers of Punjab are protesting near the national capital and even blocked highways connecting Delhi. This article written by Nithya Ayog member tries to explain how the new farm laws benefit Indian agriculture. The syllabus that is relevant for this news article is given below for your reference. First, let us have a brief recap of the three farm laws. The Essential Commodities Amendment Act would remove commodities like cereals, pulses, oil seeds, edible oils, onions and potatoes from the list of essential commodities. Therefore, stockpiling or hoarding of these can be done. When you take the FPTC Act, it attempts to create one India, one agriculture market by promoting barrier-free interstate and intra-state trade and commerce outside the state APMCs. Hence, the bill is commonly referred to as APMC Bypass Act. When you take the final one, it is aimed at facilitating contract farming and thus it attracts private sector investment into agriculture. Let us now talk about FPTC and the Farmers Empowerment and Protection Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act. The major objections and fears relating to these act are that the agricultural produce market committees or the APMC will be eventually closed. Next comes a fear that the minimum support prices will be stopped followed by corporates to take over the agricultural trade and also the fears regarding the farmer's land to be taken over by powerful corporates. Now, because of all these fears, farmers are protesting near Delhi and they are asking for complete repeal of farm laws. In this regard, as we see across the media, some sections of farmers are supporting these reforms whereas others are opposing them. Before we understand why these concerns are not correct, we will try to know why do we need reforms in agriculture. There are a few major reasons for this. See, the gap between the income of a farmer engaged in agriculture compared to that of a non-agricultural worker increased from Rs 25,398 in the year 1993 to 1994 to Rs 1,42,000 in the year 2011 to 2012. This gives a widespread feeling of agrarian distress. Then, aggregate food demand is fallen short of domestic production which means we are producing more than what we require in the country. So, we have no other choice than to export a large quantity of food grains in order to prevent the domestic prices from falling very low. Another reason would be regarding the MSP. The government is already procured and stockpiled excess stock of around 60 lakh tons of sugar and nearly 72 million tons of extra buffer stocks of wheat and rice. So, this causes huge drain on the fiscal resources of the government. On the other side, our agricultural exports are getting difficult to push. Also, imports are turning attractive as domestic prices are turning much higher than international prices. So, we are pushed into a situation where we are unable to export excess. In contrast, we are importing because of cheap grains from other countries leading to complete failure of agriculture. On going further, rural youth including farmers' children are looking for jobs outside agriculture and there is a very serious problem of unemployment in the countryside or rural areas. Now, because of all these reasons, farmers are looking at the government for remunerative prices through MSP for most of the agricultural products. So, now they are worried that the MSP system will be withdrawn because of the new farm laws. So, in this context, let us see what can be done to improve the state of agriculture. Ensuring remunerative prices to farmers, increasing competition for sale of the produce, development of modern value chains, value addition, export and processing as a part of rural economic revitalization can be some of the measures that can be adopted in order to improve the state of agriculture. Apart from this, there is also a need to understand that APMC is nothing to do with the payment of MSP. See, crops other than paddy, wheat and cotton are selling at prices below the MSP in the APMC Mondays of Punjab on an almost regular basis. The necessary and the sufficient conditions for the MSP are procurement by the government with or without the APMC. So, farmers should understand that APMCs and MSP are not related. The next issue is that the protesting farmers are mixing contract farming with corporate farming. The new act intends to insulate interested farmers, especially small farmers against market and price risks. If they are protected from market crushes, then they can go in for the cultivation of high value crops without worrying about the market and low prices in the harvest season. Further, the act is voluntary, that is, either party is free to leave it after the expiry of the agreement. Very importantly, the act prohibits the farming agreement to include the transfer, sale, lease, mortgage of the land or premises of the farmer. So, farmers worries that the corporates will take over their land is not real. The act will also promote diversification, quality production for premium price, export and direct sale of the produce with desired attributes to interested farmers. It also attempts to bring new capital and knowledge into agriculture and pave the way for farmers participation in the value chain. So, the author says that the policy reforms that are undertaken by the central government are in keeping with the changing times and requirements of the farmers and farming and if they are implemented in the rights, then they will take Indian agriculture to new heights and assure in the transformation of the rural economy. Let us wait and see how these racks are going to be implemented or whether they will be repealed as demanded by the farmers. With this information, let us move on to the next part of the analysis. The authors of this article are associated with an intervention program called the Criminal Justice and Polis Accountability Project. This project is an intervention that is focused on the criminalization of certain communities by the police and the criminal justice system. The project also works on decarceration, which is the opposite of incarceration. Decarceration, it refers to freeing persons and jails by limiting the number of persons to be confined in jails. In this article, the author focuses on bail reforms in India. According to them, such reforms must begin by addressing two key facets of the criminal justice system. One is judicial discretion and the other is monetary surity bonds involved in bail. You need to look at this discussion within the framework of the rights of the accused and the under trials. We know that both of them, that is, both the accused and the under trials are alleged to have committed an offense and they are not yet convicted. Now, coming to the news article, the power to grant bail is a discretionary power that is vested in judges and it is meant to be exercised liberally. There is also a famous phrase of the Supreme Court which states, bail is the rule, jail is an exception. In this context, let us see what is the current status of exercising the power to grant bail. See, at present, the power to grant bail is exercised sparingly in a highly infrequent manner and the subordinate courts are found to have routinely rejected bail for specific offenses like minor exercise offenses. Majority of those arrested under the exercise laws are from marginalized communities or low income groups. So, when lower courts reject bail applications, these accused persons are required to approach the higher court or the Supreme Court for bail. Now, because of the cost involved in filling bail applications in High Court or Supreme Court, most of the accused persons do not approach the higher judiciary. As a result, they remain incarcerated as under trials for extended periods of time. It is to be noted that two-thirds of India's prison population comprises of under trials from Dalit, Adivas and OBC communities and most often they are accused of minor offenses. So, what reforms are we suggesting? See, the concerned courts should introspect about standards of liberty, reasonableness and proportionality when it comes to residing bail matters. There should also be a creation of checklists to address individual discretion of judges when it comes to residing bail application and these checklists should also address caste and class biases in judicial decision. The next facet in jail reform is with respect to monetary surety bonds and other conditions. In the year 1978, there was a famous Supreme Court case law called Moti Ram versus State of Madhya Pradesh. In the judgment of this case, just as we are Krishna identified, the issue of unreasonably high sureties has a human rights problem. Because of high sureties, the accused were unable to pay the required surety and the court then suggested that surety amount should be determined by considering relevant variables such as the socio-economic situation and the location of the accused person. This problem of unreasonable high surety exists even today. See, the minimum bail amount is 10,000 even for petty offenses which are punishable by less than three years and this is observed in subordinate courts. In cases of bail before the high courts in Supreme Court, this amount usually exceeds up to Rs. 30,000. However, it is reported that even this amount is a rare mercy. The authors in this article observed that this high amount is a form of injustice since a majority of Indians are landless with very low incomes. As per a report by the Azim Premji University which highlights that among regular wage workers, 57% of Indians earn less than 10,000 per month as per the official data from the socio-economic caste census, rural landlessness is found to be around 57%. If we disaggregate this number in terms of schedule cast and schedule tribes, then the number will go even higher. See, in this discussion, we are not dealing with heinous or serious offenses that is, we are not dealing with offenses for which maximum punishment is more than three years. So, coming back to this article, there should be some directions or uniform standards for the Supreme Court so that appropriate monetary surety shall be decided in relation to the bail applications. This is the reform that we are suggesting so that the bail grants may be exercised liberally. Meanwhile, such accused and under trials can also escape from the close contact of hardened and experienced criminals in the jail. So, coming back to this article, there should be some directions or uniform standards from the Supreme Court so that the appropriate monetary surety shall be decided in relation to the bail application. This is the reform that we are suggesting so that the bail grants may be exercised liberally. Meanwhile, such accused and under trials can also escape from the close contact of hardened and experienced criminals in the jails. With this, we have come to the end of analysis of this news article. Now, let us move on to the analysis of the next article. This editorial talks about the possible two-front threat that India may have to confront. It is authored by experts in strategic and defence research and one of the authors is a former Northern Army commander. So, they have given suggestions on what should be India's move. In this context, let us move further into these aspects. The syllabus relevant for this news article is given below for your reference. Now, let us move on to the analysis. Firstly, the two-front threat we are discussing is from Pakistan and China. On one side, the Pakistan is becoming a threat along the western border of India and on the other side, the China is becoming a threat along the northern and eastern frontiers. This also includes the threat of China in colluding or conspiring with Pakistan and there are arguments against this conjecture of possible two-front threat from political class and strategy community. According to the arguments, historically, China has never militarily intervened in any of India-Pakistan conflict and then China is more powerful when compared to Pakistan and also that since India and China have strong economic, diplomatic and political ties, there will not be any armed conflict between the two countries. Based on these reasons, Indian strategic thinking was highly focused on Pakistan and on security considerations emanating from Pakistan. But the authors believe the situation to be the other way around, that is, including the threat from China in addition to the threat from Pakistan. So, they tried to support this claim using the recent events. First among them are the intrusions that India faced this year. We saw Chinese intrusions in Ladakh in May and they were also clashes between Indian army and the Chinese army which is also called as the People Liberation Army and China has also deployed around 20,000 troops in eastern Ladakh. To mitigate these tensions, India and China followed a diplomatic rule and carried out negotiations at high military levels. But now there is a deadlock in these negotiations and this makes the authors to believe that Chinese military threat is more apparent and real. And if we consider Pakistan, there is a worrisome situation along the line of control or LOC because according to the authors, there has been a fourfold increase in the ceasefire violations by Pakistan between the years 2017 and 2019. And there are also speculations that Pakistan has also moved around 20,000 troops into the Gilgit-Baltistan region. Second, it is the China-Pakistan military links. China and Pakistan are found to be having good relationship for decades and they have aligned strategic thinking as well. So, one of the reasons for China's indulgence in Pakistan is to use it as a counter to India's influence in South Asia. This China-Pakistan relationship has grown into a strong military cooperation and according to authors, China accounts for 73% of the total arms imports of Pakistan between the year 2015 and 2019. In addition to this, recently a joint exercise between the Pakistan Air Force and the PLA Air Force has been concluded, helps in improving the combat capacity of both air forces. It will also enhance the interoperability or the ability of military equipment or groups to operate between them with greater strength and harmony. So, based on these issues and happenings, it is clear that there is a possible two-front threat for India. Hence, authors urge India to be careful and to be ready to face it. Also, they have given suggestions on what should be India's move against these two-front threat. Let us see the suggestions one by one. First of all, India should strengthen itself with necessary resources, which is currently lacking. For example, according to an estimation, about 60 combat squadrons are needed for India to deal with a severe two-front threat, but currently we have only half of it. And also it will be difficult for us to improve this amidst the country's current economic situation. Any significant increase in the defense budget in the near future will not be possible. Also, while procuring such military resources, future technologies like robotics warfare, artificial intelligence, cyber warfare, electronic warfare, etc., should be given importance instead of just procuring aircrafts, ships and tanks. Secondly, there comes a role of strategy. Once these resources are available, the next thinking should be on how to allocate them. Say for example, if a majority of the assets of military are sent towards the protection of northern border, then we should also have a separate strategy for the western border. Another suggestion for India is to mitigate the possible larger challenge for India's military. See, if again conflicts break out along the northern border with China, then Indian military troops will be busy there. And this may result in limited military actions in Jammu and Kashmir by India. And this situation can be used for its advantage by Pakistan, which might attempt to raise the level of militancy in Kashmir. So in order to ease this pressure, political will is required. For this, the author suggests political outreach to Kashmir as a long-term measure and such outreach should be aimed at calming the agreed citizens in Kashmir, which in turn would reduce the militancy. So, focusing on all these aspects and converting it to the benefit of India is a challenger. But here, know that even if there are enough resources, building a level of capability that enables India to fight independent wars on both fronts is neither practical nor feasible. And this is where the fourth suggestion of the authors come into play. He suggests to develop the doctrine that is the stated principle of government policy, especially when it comes to foreign affairs and military affairs. And this policy will require a close interaction with the political leadership to enable political will. And such doctrine will also aid India's strategic moves along the border. And this also facilitates the next suggestion, which talks about the important role played by diplomacy. When it comes to diplomacy, India should prove its relations with the neighbours such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, etc. If not, India will be in an unfavourable situation where attempts will be made to contain and constrain India in the region. Then comes India's engagement of the key powers in West Asia, which should be strengthened to ensure energy security and to increase maritime cooperation and to enhance goodwill in the extended neighbourhood. Also, India should continue to maintain the cordial relations with Russia in addition to USA because Russia could play a key role in diffusing the severity of a regional threat against India. Thus, Indian government can do the above to reduce the effect of a collusive China-Pakistan containment strategy aimed at India. This news article mentions that the National Highways Authority of India, which is also called as NHAI, has updated its mobile application named My Fastag with a new feature. And this new feature enables to check the balance status by simply entering the vehicle number. And since Fastag will be mandatory on all toll plazas from January 1, this feature will help both highway user as well as the toll operator. In this context, let us know what is Fastag? Fastag is used for making toll payments directly from the customer's linked prepaid account or savings or current account. RFID means Radio Frequency Identification Technology. It is called passive because the Fastag's work with no internal power source and they are usually powered by electromagnetic energy that is transmitted from an RFID reader. And this Fastag will be affixed on the windscreen of the vehicle and it enables the customer to drive through toll plazas and they need not stop for any toll payments. This is because the toll fare will be directly deducted from the linked account of the customer. Thus, Fastag enables making toll payments directly while the vehicle is in motion. Please note, this Fastag is vehicle specific and once it is affixed to a vehicle, it cannot be transferred to another vehicle. And this Fastag sticker can be purchased from any of the National Electronic Toll Collection or member banks. See, this National Electronic Toll Collection or NETC is a program that was launched to ease out traffic woes and also to create an efficient and interoperable system on a national scale which covers all toll plazas. If a Fastag is linked to the prepaid account, then it needs to be recharged or top up as per the usage of the customer. If adequate balance is not maintained by the customer, then the Fastag will get blacklisted at the toll plaza. In such a scenario, if the customer travels through a toll plaza without recharging, then she won't be able to avail the NETC services and the customer will be asked to pay the toll fare through cash. So now, since the mobile application My Fastag has a feature that enables to check balance status by simply entering the vehicle number, it will be more easy for the customers whenever the balance in their account is less. The Fastag, it helps the customers to enjoy the benefit of cashless payment. It also helps in saving the fuel and time as the customer does not have to stop at any toll plaza. It also reduces congestion at the toll plazas. Another benefit of Fastag is the interoperability. See, the NETC ecosystem supports multiple issuers and multiple acquirers. That is, the tar used by any member bank will be accepted at all toll plaza under the NETC program. This news article, General Bipin Rawat, chief of defense staff, commanded the Odisha Police by applauding their efforts in successfully tackling the challenges of the left wing extremists with the help of central paramilitary forces. In this context, let us look in detail about the left wing extremism in our country. Left wing extremism, which is also called naxalism or Maoism, is one of the major internal security threats of India. It is a form of armed insurgency against a state that is motivated by leftist ideologies. See, the left wing extremists are also known as Maoist globally and as naxalized in India. When you trace the origins of the left wing extremists, it can be tracked back to 1967 in the areas of naxalbari and it is from this word naxalbari that the term naxal has evolved. The issue of Jal, Jungle, Jammim, which can also be called as water, forest and land, formed the center of these revolts initially. However, in the course of time, various other reasons got added to this and the main reason behind the rise of this movement was the severe lack of development in these regions despite being mineral rich. These regions were largely tribal bells that were neglected by the government and also by the mainstream media. There were grows and effectiveness and mismanagement when it comes to the administrative missionaries in this area and adding to this corruption was also rampant, which further added to people's misery. The tribal people in these areas were routinely exploited for mineral rich land and issues like illegal encroachment and the deprivation of rights of forest dwellers over their own land further aggravated the situation. The alienation and the social exclusion of large groups of people, it led to sections of them feeling a kind of disconnect with the government of the day and also with the society at large. So, all these conditions contributed to the evolution of left wing extremism in its present form. Similar to the saying, violence leads only to more violence. It is the very same people who were supposed to be the beneficiaries of the Nuxillite movement ended up to be the worst affected by it because no development work by the government is allowed to succeed in these areas since it has become a tough war between the rebels and the state. Moreover, the tribals and other populace can no more enjoy the beneficiaries from the well-intentioned government schemes on account of the terrible violence that is perpetrated by the Nuxills. According to the Home Ministry, the districts that are affected by the left wing extremism are found to be in the states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattishgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh and these areas are called as red corridor areas. However, when you look back in the past decade owing to the severe government crackdown on Nuxillite organization and because of the intense work of the country's security forces, particularly the CRPF, the number of incidents of Nuxill violence were found to be reduced and also the number of people who are giving up on arms and surrendering to these security forces is also found to be rising. Now, let us see some of the measures taken by the government in regard to the left wing extremism. The government has taken up a holistic approach when it comes to tackling the Nuxill problem and this approach includes the adoption of security-related interventions along with developmental measures. In May 2017, the government of India allocated around 11,000 crore rupees to build road connectivity in the 44 districts that were affected by the Maoist activities and the major measures of the government are with regard to building better infrastructure facilities. Another significant initiator of the government was the Samadhan operation. With this, we have come to the end of this news analysis. Let us move on to the next news analysis. This news article, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently inaugurated the country's first driverless train at Delhi Metro's Majenta line. He also extended the fully operational National Common Mobility card or MCMC to the airport express line of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation which can also be called as DMRC. In this regard, let us see some of the features of this driverless train. The driverless train of Delhi Metro are expected to be more reliable due to reduced human intervention. They are equipped with high-tech cameras and obstruction-sensing devices in order to ensure the passenger's safety. These trains have got the capability to run at an average speed of about 35 km per hour which is a few notches higher than that of a regular driver-driven train. Usually, in old man-driven trains, in case of any emergency, the passenger can press the pad or the passenger alert device which will be in the form of a red button and on pressing it, the driver will be alerted. However, in the case of a driverless train, after pressing the button, the footage of the carriage will be sent to the operations control room to take the needed action. These driverless trains consist of an obstruction detection device which is also called as an ODD which is fixed below the main coach of the track-facing site. The speciality or the uniqueness of this equipment is that it has got the capability to sense big hurdles through a sensor and the train will then be halted in cases when the detection or the obstruction is found to be very small. Then this device has got the ability to remove and clear the way for the train. Having known about the features of these driverless trains, let us see what NCMC is. C, the NCMC or National Common Mobility Card is a one nation, one card for transport mobility. This is an initiative of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to enable seamless travel by different metros and other transport system across the country besides retail shopping and purchases. The idea of the NCMC was floated by the Nandan Committee which was set up by the Reserve Bank of India. This NCMC will allow passengers with rupee debit card to travel in metro. They just need to swipe their cards. This NCMC is an automatic fare collection system. It will turn the smartphones into an interoperable transport card that commuters can use eventually to pay for metro, for buses and suburban railway services. It will allow the entry and exit from metro stations with the help of a smartphone known as an automatic fare collection system. The Nandan Committee suggested NCMC to contain two instruments. One is a regular debit card, another one is a local wallet. This regular debit card can be used at an ATM whereas the local wallet can be used for contactless payments without the need to go back to the server or additional authentication. Now look at this prelims question. Consider the following statements with reference to FASTAC. It is issued by National Payments Corporation of India or NPCI. Statement 2. A customer is allotted one FASTAC and can use it on any number of vehicles. Option 3. FASTAC can be blacklisted only by the law enforcement agencies. Due to any rule violation complaint is registered against the vehicle or the customer. Which of the statements given above is or are incorrect? So, you have to find the incorrect statements among these. When you look at the statement 1, it is issued by the National Payments Corporation of India. The statement is incorrect because the NPCI does not issue FASTAC, rather it is issued by or can be purchased from any of the National Electronic Toll Collection or NETC member banks. This NPCI has developed NETC system which facilitates to make the toll payment electronically. So, the option 1 is incorrect. Coming to option 2. The option 2 is also incorrect because FASTAC is vehicle specific and not customer specific. So, customer can use only one tag with one vehicle. Once the tags are fixed on the windshield of the vehicles, it cannot be removed as it will get destroyed and it will not work at the toll plaza. So, it cannot be transferred to another vehicle. So, statement 2 is also incorrect. Coming to statement 3. It is incorrect because of the word only. See, a blacklist of tag means vehicle is not allowed to pay through FASTAC at the toll plaza. There are various reasons of blacklisting of tag. That is, the tag is not having sufficient balance in this FASTAC account. In such a case, the customer should call his bank's toll-free number and get the reason of blacklist. To avoid blacklisting of tag, the customer should recharge his tag when he gets a lot of low balance from his bank. Also, the FASTAC can be blacklisted by the law enforcement agencies due to any rule violation complaint that was registered against the vehicle. In such a case, the enforcement agencies request issuer or acquirer to add the tag ID in their blacklist. So, option 3 is also incorrect because this is not the only reason based on which a FASTAC can be blacklisted. So, therefore, the right option is option A, that is, all the above. The list of main's practice question is displayed below. Write the answer and post it in the comment section. With this, we have come to the end of today's news analysis. If you like the video, don't forget to like, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar Aya's Academy YouTube channel for updates regarding UPSC civil service preparation.