 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar IA's Academy for the day 29th July 2021. These are the list of news articles chosen for today's discussion and they are given along with the page numbers of different editions. The link for the handwritten notes in PDF format and the time stamping for the discussed articles are provided in the description box as well as in the comments section for the benefit of mobile phone viewers. So now let us move on to the analysis of the first news article. See with the improvement in COVID-19 situation, Panchab Chief Minister had urged Prime Minister to reopen the Kartarpur Corridor. So in this context, let us discuss in brief about this Kartarpur Corridor, its religious and political significance etc. The syllabus covered by this article is highlighted below for your reference. See the Kartarpur Corridor is known as the Corridor of International Peace and Harmony. It is a 4.2 kilometer long passage connecting the town of Derababa Nanak in India with the Kartarpur Saheb Gurudwara in Pakistan's Naraval district. Have a look at the holy sites. We all know that Guru Nanak Dev is the founder of Sikhism and he is the first of the 10 Sikh Gurus and his Guru Nanak Dev is believed to have spent his last days in the Kartarpur Saheb Gurudwara from 1521 to 1539. But in 1947 the Ratlif line divided these two important religious sites and the Kartarpur Saheb became a part of Pakistan's territory. And following that for decades, devotees had to travel to Lahore to reach the Gurudwara traveling around 125 kilometer and then in 2008 an elevated platform was erected near Derababa Nanak allowing pilgrims to view the holy place. So what is the religious significance of this Kartarpur Saheb? See Guru Nanak Dev Ji traveled through many countries spreading the message of universal peace, harmony and love. And when he arrived in Kartarpur in 1521, the then governor of the region donated 100 acres of land on the bank of river Ravi to him and the place became a religious site after he settled there. And in Kartarpur Guru Nanak is believed to have composed many hymns of the Guru Granth Saheb which is the holy book of the Sikhs and the community meal called Guru Kalangar was also initiated here and it became an inseparable part of the Sikh tradition thereafter. In 1539 when Guru Nanak passed away a conflict arose between his Hindu and Muslim devotees on how his last rites should be performed. And finally both the communities they desired to divide the cloth that had covered his body and burnt half of it burying the other half. And this led to the construction of two shrines built by his Hindu and Muslim devotees in Kartarpur. It is said that these shrines were later washed away by floods and were rebuilt and the foundation stone of the Gurudwara in Kartarpur was laid in the year 1572 and Maharaja Ranjit Singh covered his dome with gold. The present structure was built by Bupindar Singh the Maharaja of Patiala in 1955 and he was also the grandfather of Punjab's chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh. Now let us discuss the political significance of this particular corridor. See British India's partition and division of Punjab so the loss of a shared religious cultural and spiritual heritage and in 1948 the Shuromani Akali Dal in Punjab demanded the acquisition of Nankana Sahib and Kartarpur Sahib which is the places of the death and birth of the first Sikh Guru and later in 1999 the then Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Wajbahi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif discussed the issue during the former's visit to Pakistan and in 2018 Pakistan's army chief assured that they will open the Kartarpur corridor for Sikh pilgrims ahead of Guru Nanak Dev's 550th birthday anniversary and in 2018 our Indian Prime Minister had compared the Kartarpur project to the fall of the Berlin Wall and he also said that the corridor can become a reason for greater bonding between the people from both nations and following that in 2019 India and Pakistan they signed the official agreement to allow 5000 visitors daily to visit the Holy Shrine Vizafri. So these are some of the information that we need to know from this particular news article. Now let us move on to the next news discussion. Now our next news discussion is going to be based on this oped article. See recently states like Assam and Uttar Pradesh are proposing to bring in draft legislation aimed at controlling their population and this oped article has been written in that context. So come let us move into the article to see what it has got to tell us. The syllabus covered by this oped article is highlighted below for your reference. See according to the Assam and Uttar Pradesh government the aim of the new population policy is to reduce the total fertility rate in their respective states but this raises some doubts because see when you take Uttar Pradesh it will reach the replacement rate of 2.1 by 2025. See this replacement rate is the rate at which women give birth to enough babies to sustain population levels and Assam has already achieved the replacement rate of 2.1 in the year 2020. So if the replacement fertility rate has already been achieved in Assam and will be achieved by 2025 in Uttar Pradesh then what is the need for any drastic population policy? See according to the author of the article these new population policies are drafted in order to attack the religious minorities like Muslims in our country. See there is a misconception going on. Some people in our country believe that the religious minorities are expanding their population in order to increase their numbers and they want to become the majority. And according to the author this is the reason why states like Assam and Uttar Pradesh are bringing in the population policy in order to stop the increase of such religious minorities. See the idea that the religious minorities are expanding their population in order to increase their numbers is false. And scientific research denies such claims and misconceptions as well. See according to the National Family Health Survey II data the total fertility rate in the year 1998 to 1999 in Uttar Pradesh was 3.87 for Hindus and 4.76 for Muslims. And in 2015 to 2016 it decreased to 2.67 for Hindus and 3.14 for Muslims and this means that the TFR or the total fertility rate declined by 1.2 for Hindus and by 1.66 for Muslims. So the reduction in this total fertility rate was higher for the Muslims. So such data falsifies population expansion claims and even Assam shows a similar trend in this total fertility rate reduction. So according to the author the new population policies have no merit. They only aimed at scoring political points based on a false notion of religious demography. See fertility rate does not depend on religion but rather it depends on socio-economic characteristics like that of education, income, maternal and child health condition and also other associated factors. And also the Uttar Pradesh's population control policy of 2 child norm is not supported by data. So due to this it is believed that this 2 child norm policy can have other unintended consequences as well. See this is because many people in India still prefer a male child due to the patriarchal and caste dominated society. So given such a preference for male children the 2 child norm will only increase sex selective abortions of girl children. So this in turn will lead to an increase in female infanticides and also the experience of China shows that if the state imposes its decision on family's fertility choices then there are high chances for it to result in terrible consequences. See we all know that China had one child policy for many years and because of this one child policy the proportion of the aged population is increasing in China and now fewer younger workers are available in China so as a result the government has been forced to relax the one child policy and to adopt a 3 child policy. So when viewed on this context the 2 child norm of Uttar Pradesh has got the potential to further aggravate the problem of aging and female infanticides. So therefore the lesson to be drawn is that the decision on one child is best made by the family. The government should have faith in the non-coversive population policies and the government should respect the choices of people rather than imposing strict population control measures. So these are the take away points from this OPED article. Now let us move on to the next news discussion. Now let us take up this editorial article for our discussion. The editorial focuses on developing social capabilities in children through schooling and the author here has suggested an approach followed in Japan in this regard. So come let us move into the article. The syllabus covered by this article is highlighted below. Education plays a major role in expanding our capabilities in all aspects and in the economic context when we talk about investment in education the focus is always on the rates of return of that investment that is what is the cost and benefit of that particular investment over a period of time. The estimation of rates of return to education is important for setting policy guidelines and also for evaluating specific programs. Now here the rate of return on investment in education considers the human capital theory and this human capital theory assumes that human beings can increase a productive capacity through greater education and skills training. So in this regard a very important distinction in rate of return calculations is whether one evaluates the private cost and return or the social cost and return of an education. Know that social return compares the cost and benefits to the society or the country as a whole and on the other hand private return compares the cost and benefits of education to the individuals such as higher earnings. So private returns are useful in explaining individuals behavior in seeking education at different levels and types and social returns help in setting priorities for future educational investments and that is why often the social returns to education provides a basis for government programs such as scholarships and education loans and moreover social returns are the ones that provide a healthier and a disciplined society. Now if we take India our education system is focused on the private returns that is the values or skills that are needed for emerging market requirements which aim to make children the future workforce and ultimately these train them to be economically capable but the education system is devoid of the other capabilities important for development and other aspects of life and these includes capabilities such as self-restraint or social discipline dealing with adults and people outside family, concentration span, responsible behavior etc and this is because there is not much focus on social returns now having said that let us move on to see on how to bridge this gap or on how to attain social returns. See according to the author the answer lies in our elementary school education now this presumption of the author is based on the example of Japanese school system we know that Japanese society is one of the most disciplined societies and this is mainly because Japan fares well in cognitive as well as non-cognitive abilities or say for example if we take PISA or the program for international student assessment Japan ranks among the top see this assessment measures 15 year olds ability to use your reading, mathematics and science knowledge and also the skills to meet real life challenges and this assessment evaluates students on their prowess in core academic subjects and that means Japan's top rank shows that it is doing well with respect to enhancing cognitive abilities know that the positive factor in Japanese curriculum is that it emphasizes on non-cognitive elements as well and this is a result of their approach to education or their approach to schooling which is based on the philosophy of chi toku tai and collectivism principle now let us see in brief about this philosophy of chi toku tai see in chi toku tai chi refers to the emphasis in building strong academic abilities and toku refers to mindfulness self-discipline and cooperative abilities and then the term tai refers to physical and mental well-being so Hona old chi toku tai approach includes the social returns and extends beyond academic prowess and this is because it aims at developing a knowledgeable mind which can appreciate beauty and nature and also hold a sense of justice and respect life and labour and also most importantly the approach is different from the examination focused rote memorization based approach to schooling which is predominant in our country also know that the collectivism principle means prioritizing the group over the individual in it and this emphasizes on group harmony and it also generates equitable and united societies so all of these features of chi toku tai and collectivism are inculcated in Japanese schooling especially in elementary school curriculum through three supplementary subjects and these three supplementary subjects includes moral education integrated studies and special activities now among these three subjects moral education refers to helping children acquire those virtues or moral habits that will help them individually to live good lives and at the same time will help them to become productive and contributing members of their communities so moral education is concerned with inculcating the moral virtues such as honesty responsibility and respect for others and these should be instilled at the early stages of the development of children now next comes the integrated studies see integrated studies includes experiential learning and independent thinking and in this integrated studies students are trained to identify problems in their local communities and also to think of solutions now the next one or the final one is special activities now this special activities is based on the case in philosophy of Japan which means continuous improvement and these special activities aims at developing the habit of handling a situation and improving so under this students are made to do and participate in certain activities such as organizing events maintaining the library etc so these are the features of Japanese approach to schooling so as a conclusion the author suggests that India should borrow these ideas and incorporate them into our new education policy because this will not only bring private return but it will also ensure social returns in the future so with this we have come to the end of this editorial discussion with these points in mind let us now move on to see the next news article now let us take up this news article this article talks about the upcoming monsoon session of the Delhi legislative assembly if you see Mr. Rakesh Astana was recently appointed as the Delhi Police Commissioner few days before his retirement if you remember in 2019 the Supreme Court had ruled that no officer who has less than six months to retire should be appointed as a police chief now this present measure has found to be in violation to this particular ruling of the Supreme Court so this issue is likely to rock the upcoming session so in this context let us discuss and brief about the sessions of the Parliament of India first of all let us discuss article 85 of the Indian Constitution see this article 85 talks about the session of Parliament prorogation and dissolution the article says that president shall from time to time summon each house of the parliament to meet at such time and plays as ethane's fit but six months shall not intervene between its last sitting in one session and the date appointed for its first sitting in the next session so this makes it clear that the Parliament should meet at least twice a year now apart from this president may from time to time prorogue the houses and dissolve the house of the people that is the Lok Sabha and as you know usually there are three parliamentary sessions in a year and the three sessions are the budget session that will span from January or February to May and then comes the monsoon session that spans from July to September and finally it is a winter session from November to December so having said that now let us see as to what exactly is a session see a session of the Parliament is a period spanning between the first sitting of a house and its prorogation or dissolution in the case of the Lok Sabha and the period between the prorogation of a house and its reassembly in a new session is called recess know that a session consists of many meetings and each meeting of a day consists of two sittings remember that a sitting of the Parliament can be terminated by adjournment or adjournment senedia or prorogation or dissolution of the Lok Sabha now here adjournment suspends the work in a sitting for a specified time and adjournment senedia terminates a sitting of the Parliament for an indefinite period and this power of adjournment and adjournment senedia lies with the presiding officer of the house now after declaring adjournment senedia within few days the president issues a notification for the prorogation of the session and the president can also prorogue the house while in session note that prorogation ends a session of the particular house but dissolution hence the very life of the existing house that is the Lok Sabha so the dissolution of the Lok Sabha can happen in two ways the first case is when its normal tenure of five years comes to an end and the second case is when the president decides to dissolve the house under article 85 so with this we have come to the end of this news discussion so with these take away points now let us move on to the next news article now look at this news article the news article mentions that yesterday was observed as the world hepatitis day so in this context in our discussion we are going to see about hepatitis see hepatitis is a disease that causes inflammation of the liver as we know liver is a vital organ that processes nutrients filters the blood and fights infections so when this liver is inflamed or when it is damaged then it obviously means that its functions are affected so what causes this hepatitis see this hepatitis disease is caused by a variety of infectious viruses and also non infectious agents heavy alcohol use toxins some medications and certain medical conditions can cause this hepatitis disease but often hepatitis is caused by a virus called as viral hepatitis and know that there are five main strains of hepatitis virus and these five strains are referred to as type A type B type C type D and type A see all these types cause liver disease but these types differ in important ways such as the modes of transmission the severity of the illness geographical distribution and also the prevention methods among the five types type B and type C lead to chronic disease in hundreds of millions of people and these two types are the most common cause of liver cirrhosis that is the scarring of the liver and then liver cancer and viral hepatitis related deaths according to WHO around 354 million people worldwide live with either hepatitis B or hepatitis C so what are the symptoms of this hepatitis disease see many people with hepatitis exhibit only mild symptoms or at times no symptoms at all and this applies to all the five types of hepatitis but each form of the virus can cause more severe symptoms now say for example symptoms of hepatitis A B and C may include fever malaise loss of appetite diarrhea nausea abdominal discomfort dark color urine and also jaundice and as we saw already in some cases the virus can also cause a chronic liver infection that can later develop into cirrhosis or liver cancer and these patients are at a risk of death see another important fact to be noted is that hepatitis D is only found in people who have already infected with hepatitis B having done with all these informations now let us move on to see about the preventive measures see some types of hepatitis are preventable through vaccination and safe and effective vaccines are available to prevent the hepatitis B virus and hepatitis A see a vaccine for hepatitis B virus also prevents the development of hepatitis D virus this is because as we saw already hepatitis D virus develops in only those people who are already infected or who are infected with hepatitis B virus and also a vaccine also exists to prevent infections of hepatitis E virus but it is not currently widely available now most importantly there is no vaccine for hepatitis C virus according to a WHO study if vaccination is done diagnostic test medicines and education campaigns are undertaken then an estimated 4.5 million premature deaths could be prevented in cases of low and middle income countries by the year 2030 and remember WHO also has global hepatitis strategy under which it aims to reduce new hepatitis infections by 90% and deaths by 65% between the years 2016 and 2017 so with this we have come to the end of this news discussion of having done with the article discussion that is now move on to the next segment of our end of news analysis that is the prelims practice question discussion now look at this question with reference to article 85 of the constitution which of the following statements is or are correct see from our discussion it is clear that statement 2 is correct because as we saw the president of India may dissolve the house of people now coming to the first statement see this statement is incorrect because under article 85 clause 2 of the constitution it is a president and not the presiding officer who may from time to time prorogue houses or either house of the parliament and since the question wants us to find only the incorrect statement the correct answer here is option a that is one only now look at this practice question which of the above developments happened in Sikhism under Guru Nanak Dev from our discussion it is clear that statement one is correct now coming to the second statement see this statement is incorrect know that it is Guru Angad who compiled the compositions of Guru Nanak is the person who had it is whole new script known as gurmuki now coming to the third statement now this statement is also incorrect because the Sikh movement began to get politicized in the 17th century and this development culminated in the institution of the kalsa by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699 and since the question wants us to find only the right statement the correct answer here is option b that is one only now let us take up this practice question consider the following statement with reference to hepatitis statement one it is only caused by infectious viruses statement two vaccine is not available to prevent hepatitis c and statement three who aims to eradicate new hepatitis infections between 2060 and 2030 so we need to find the correct statement here see when you take the first statement it is incorrect because as we saw it is also caused by non infectious agents such as heavy alcohol use toxins some medications and certain medical conditions so there are different types of hepatitis with different causes and when you take viral hepatitis it is the most common type and it is caused by one of the several viruses which includes hepatitis virus a b c d and e and when you take alcoholic hepatitis it is caused by heavy alcohol use and toxic hepatitis can be caused by certain poisons chemicals medicines or supplements similarly autoimmune hepatitis is a chronic type in which your body's immune system attacks your liver and the cause is not known but genetics and your environment may play a role in it so with this we can conclude that statement one is incorrect now coming to the second statement see as we saw in our discussion hepatitis c has got no preventable vaccine so this statement is right and note that this is an important fact for you to remember now coming to the third statement now this statement is also incorrect because who is not aiming for eradication that is it is not aiming for 100% reduction in new infection but rather 90% reduction since this question wants us to identify only the right statement the correct answer here is option two that is the correct answer here is option c that is two only the list of mains practice questions is displayed here you can write your answer and post them in the comment section below so with this we have come to the end of today's endo news analysis if you like the video then don't forget to like comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IA's academy youtube channel for more updates regarding UPSC civil services preparation