 Good evening aspirants, welcome back to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Iyer's Academy. These are the list of news articles that we will be discussing today. They are provided along with the page numbers of the different editions. Now, let us take up this news article. See, the current COVID-19 pandemic has destroyed the lives of millions and has also caused great suffering across communities. And among all communities, there is one community that is specially harded during this pandemic. But people, media and governments are hesitant or you can also say that they are reluctant to talk about it. Yes, it is about the sufferings of sex workers during this pandemic. And this oped article is a discussion on that. The syllabus covered by this oped article is highlighted below for your reference. See, most of the people and governments, they do not recognize sex work as a legitimate work. And this non-recognition keeps the sex workers outside the ambit of government's relief programs. And many of the COVID-19 relief measures, they failed to reach the workers in this profession. So, because of this exclusion and the stigma that is associated with this, there is long pending demand among the sex workers in India to decriminalize sex work and to guarantee them a set of labor rights that is similar to any other profession in India. And this demand has strengthened during the COVID-19 pandemic. See, sex work in India is governed by a legislation called the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act. Note that India enacted the Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Children Act in 1956. Later, subsequent amendments were made to this law and the name of the act was changed to Immoral Traffic Prevention Act. And this legislation penalizes acts such as keeping a brothel, solely sitting in a public place or living off the earnings of sex work and also living with or habitually being in the company of a sex worker. See, the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, according to the author, it represents the archaic and the rigorous view that sex work is morally wrong and that the people involved in it, especially women, never consent to it voluntarily. This is because many believe that the entry into sex work is involuntary, forced and also through deception. So, we always kind of believe that these women, they need to be rescued and rehabilitated, sometimes even without their consent. So, according to the author, this argument is valid for minor girls because in case of minor girls, they have to be rescued and rehabilitated and there is no question regarding that. But when it comes to adults, it is not the same because there are many consenting adult sex workers. So, forcible rescuing and rehabilitation are not the right way in these cases. And also, the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act is not only criminalized sex work, but it has also further stigmatized and pushed it underground, thus leaving these sex workers more prone to violence, discrimination and also harassment. The act denies an individual, they are right over their bodies and moreover, it imposes the will of the state over adults articulating their life choices and it also gives no agency to the sex workers to fight against the trafficker. See this lack of agency has made them more susceptible to be harassed by the state officials and the act also fails to recognize that many women willingly enter into agreements with traffickers, sometimes just to seek a better life as chosen by them. Note that evidences show that many women choose to remain in sex work despite opportunities to leave after rehabilitation by the government or non-governmental organizations. Even the Justice Verma Commission had acknowledged that there is a distinction between women who are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation and consenting women who are in sex work out of their own interest and choice. But the act fails to see this distinction. See, our societies of the belief that sex work is something which is very easy or it is a kind of easy work and women who do practice sex work are morally devious or you can also say that they are earning through a way that is less direct than the most straightforward way and this prejudice has created an unofficial classification of women into two categories. One group is respectable women and the other group is the non-respectable women. So we believe that we have to rescue these so-called non-respectable women and rehabilitate them and the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act is a product of such prejudicial thinking. So according to the author it is high time for us to legalize sex work in order to overcome these hurdles and the author also stresses the need for us to recognize sex work as work and to stop ourselves from assigning morality to their work and adult men, women and transgender person who are involved in sex work have got all the right to earn by providing sexual services and to live with dignity and also to remain free from violence, exploitation, stigma and discriminations. So we have to rethink sex work from a labor perspective where we recognize their work and guarantee them basic labor rights and the judiciary is also moving in the direction of recognizing sex workers right to livelihood and even in the Buddha Dev Karmaskar versus the state of West Bengal case the Supreme Court of India opined that sex workers have a right to dignity. So there is a need for the parliament to also take a relook at the existing legislation and to do away with the victim rescue rehabilitation narrative. During these times of crisis especially the legislation of sex work is all the more important. So these are some of the takeaway points from this oped article. Now let's move on to the next news discussion. Now let us take up this news article. See this article is regarding the Performance Grading Index for the year 2019 to 2020 that is released by the Union Ministry of Education for States and Union Territories of India. So in this context let us discuss in detail about the index its indicators and also its important findings. The syllabus covered by this article is highlighted below for your reference. Know that the Centre had introduced the Performance Grading Index with a set of 70 parameters to catalyze transformational change in the field of school education and the Performance Grading Index for States and Union Territories was first published in 2019 with a reference year 2017 to 2018 and the recently released Performance Grading Index is the third publication in this series. Know that Performance Grading Index evaluates and it provides grade to the States and Union Territories as opposed to ranking. See the Performance Grading Index it helps the States and Union Territories to pinpoint the gaps and accordingly prioritize the areas for intervention. So this index would propel the States and also the Union Territories towards undertaking multi pronged interventions that will bring about the much desired optimal education outcomes and this is done to ensure that the school education system is robust at every level and at the same time it is expected to act as a good source of information for best practices that are followed by States and Union Territories which can be shared. Know that the total weightage under the Performance Grading Index is 1000 points with each of the 70 indicators having an assigned weightage of either 10 or 20 points and then the States and Union Territories they have been assessed based on their performance against the benchmark that is set by the Department of School Education and Literacy. Note the Performance Grading Index is structured in two categories and they are outcomes and governance and management. With an outcomes some of the domains are learning outcomes and quality, access, then infrastructure and facilities etc and domains like governance processes are included in governance and management category. The percentage of elementary schools which have displayed class-wise learning outcomes then the average language score in class 3 in the government and aided schools are some of the indicators and some of the other indicators are also given below for your reference. Now let us discuss the important findings of the index. First of all have a look at the overall analysis. See most of the States or Union Territories they have improved their grade in performance grading index for the year 2019-20 compared to the earlier years and if you note Punjab, Chandigarh, Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Ekobar islands are also Kerala. They occupy the highest grade that is grade A++ for the year 2019-20 and this is for the first time five States and Union Territories have crossed the threshold of 90% performance grading index score. Also know that a total of 33 States and Union Territories have improved the total performance grading index score in 2019-20 as compared to 2018-19. Now only one Union Territory namely Ladakh is in grade 7 with a score range of 0 to 550 and the new Union Territory of Ladakh was included separately for the first time in this edition. Also no State or Union Territory is in grade 6 with a score range of 551 to 600 and also note that only Meghalaya is in grade 5 with a score range of 601 to 650. Coming to the gainers, Andaman and Ekobar islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Puducherry, Punjab and Tamil Nadu have improved overall performance grading index score by 10% that is 100 or more points. So with this we have come to the end of this news discussion. Now let's move on to the next news article. Coming to the next news article, see this article says that the Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal demanded a multinational State and as a Deputy Prime Minister is one of the pioneers of the Madheshi movement, his statement has put the Madheshi issues in the limelight again. So who are the Madheshi people and what do they want? See the flat southern region of Nepal, the Terre is known as Madhesh in Nepalese language and its indigenous inhabitants are called Madheshi. You can have a look at the map for better understanding. It is clear that the Terre stretches from the east to the west along the Nepalese Indian border, adjoining the Indian states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal and the Madheshi's have castes and ethnicities similar to Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh with frequent intermarriages between families on either side of the border. According to sources, this region it comprises nearly 17% of Nepal's area and it is home to over 50% of its population and this region is hugely populated, highly fertile and also has a concentration of industries. But despite the economic significance of the Madheshi people, they have felt neglected by successive Nepalese governments over education, health access, economic activities as well as developmental programs. Even there are allegations that Nepalese government treats Madheshi as outsiders and not as part of Nepal due to their Indian roots. So as a result, political demonstrations seeking greater autonomy and more representation in the government are common in this region. See the political struggle of Madheshi people is very halt and the question of Terry Wright's was raised in the early 60s itself and since 2007 more regional parties, aggressive and vocal have come into the picture but most of these movements they failed due to lack of unity among different political groups in the region. As a significant development in this direction is the 2015 Nepal blockade, then India was unhappy with the constitutional changes proposed by the Nepalese government and then the Nepal government accused that the economic blockade and protests were supported by India. But the Indian authorities denied the charge and they said that the protests reflected the Nepal government's failure to accommodate the demands of various ethnic groups such as Madheshi's. This has strained the Indian-Nepal relations. So with this let's move on to the next segment of the discussion. Now let us take up this news article. According to the article the Telangana government is planning to restore the historical connection between the Golgonda fort and the Kuttup Shahi tomes. So in this context let us learn about the Golgonda fort. See the Golgonda fort is located in the western part of Hyderabad city and it is about 9 kilometer from the Usain Sagar lake and this Usain Sagar lake is a hard shaped lake that is located in Hyderabad Telangana and it was built by Hebraim Kuli Kuttup Shah in the year 1563. See the Golgonda fort was originally known as Mankal and it was built on a hilltop by the Kakatiya dynasty in 1143 AD and it was originally a mud fort under the reign of Kakatiya rulers and later it was fortified between the 14th and the 17th centuries by the Bahmani sultans and then the ruling Kuttup Shahi dynasty. Note the Kuttup Shahi dynasty they ruled the Golgonda sultanate in South India from 1518 AD to 1687 AD and Golgonda was the principal capital of the Kuttup Shahi kings. Remember the inner Golgonda fort it contains ruins of palaces, mosques and also a hilltop pavilion which rises about 130 meters high and it gives a bird's eye view of other buildings. See this Golgonda fort is undoubtedly one of the most magnificent fortress complexes in history and the history of Golgonda fort goes back to the early 13th century when it was ruled by the Kakatiyas followed by Bahmani sultans and then the Kuttup Shahi kings and this Kuttup Shahi kings they ruled the region in the 16th and 17th century and this particular fortress it rests on a granite hill of 120 meters high. See remember Golgonda in Telugu means shepherd's hill and according to the legend on this rocky hill a shepherd boy had come across an idol and because of this event the Kakatiya king ruling at that time he constructed a mud fort around this holy spot and this is the legend between this fort and after the Kakatiya kings the Bahmani rulers they took possession of the place and later the Kuttup Shahi kings they converted this into a massive granite fort that extended to around five kilometer in circumference and the Kuttup Shahi's reign at Golgonda ended in the year 1687 when it was run over by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb who intentionally left it in ruins. Know that Golgonda still boasts of mounted cannons, four draw bridges, eight gateways and majestic halls etc and the outermost enclosure is called as Fateh Darvasa meaning the victory gate and it was named so after Aurangzeb's army marched successfully through this gate. See at Fateh Darvasa one can witness fantastic acoustical effects which is one among the many famous engineering marvels at Golgonda and an interesting fact is that clapping your hand at a certain point near the dome entrance reverberates which is heard clearly at the hilltop pavilion which is almost one kilometer away and this served as a warning note to the inhabitants of the fort of any impending danger. Also note the fort gains an impressive place among the architectural marvels and also the heritage structures of India and it is a testimony to Hyderabad's glorious past. So these are some of the points that we need to remember about the Golgonda fort. Now let's move on to the next news discussion. Now let us take up this article. Know that the US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to meet face to face in Switzerland. Mr Biden is visiting Europe to attend both the G7 and NATO summits. Now the US President has committed that the US will stand with its European allies against Russia. In a positive development few months back the US had extended the New Start Treaty with the Russian Federation till the year 2026. Note that in a positive development few months back the United States had extended the New Start Treaty with the Russian Federation till 2026. So in this context let us discuss in detail about START and also the New Start Treaties. See the US Soviet Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty which is also known as START 1 was signed in the year 1991 by the US President George Bush and the Soviet President Mikhail and this START 1 was the first treaty to provide for deep reductions of US and Soviet or Russian strategic nuclear weapons and it played an indispensable role in ensuring the predictability as well as the stability of the strategic balance. Note this START 1 had entered into force in 1994 and it got expired in the year 2009. Know that the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty or which is also called as the New Start was signed in the year 2010 and this new START had entered into force in 2011 and it replaced the 1991 START 1 Treaty. It also superseded the 2002 Strategic Offensive Reduction Treaty which is also called as START which dominated when the new START entered into force. So New START continues the bipartisan process of verifiably reducing the US and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals. Know that in February the year 2021 the United States and Russia they agreed to extend the new START by five years until February 2026 and under the treaty the United States and the Russian Federation they had seven years to meet the treaty's central limits on strategic offensive arms and then both were obligated to maintain those limits for as long as the treaty remains in force. Here it is to be noted that both countries they met the central limits of the new START treaty by February 2018 and they've stayed at or below them ever since. Having these informations in mind now let us see some of the limits under this new START. The first one is a limit on 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles, the deployed submarine launched ballistic missiles and the deployed heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments. And the next limit is on the 1550 nuclear warheads on deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles, deployed submarine launched ballistic missiles and also on the deployed heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments. Note that the treaty contains detailed procedures for the implementation as well as the verification of the limits on strategic offensive arms and all treaty obligations. Say for example the treaty provides for 18 on-site inspections per year for the United States and Russian inspection teams and on inspections each side must disclose how many warheads are on each delivery vehicle based at the inspected base and some of the informations exchanged under the new START treaty is given below for your reference. So these are some of the takeaway points from this article now let's move on to the next part of the discussion. Now having done with the main article discussion already let's move on to see a few other important articles from the newspaper about which we have already discussed in recent times. Now let's take this article from the front page which is in relation with the government's new rules for social media platforms. It talks about the statement made by the IT and law minister that the rules will benefit over 100 crore users of such platforms by giving them a means to address their grievances. Say we have already discussed in detail about the IT rules, grievance officer, chief compliance officer and also about the controversial traceability issue in our 26th May and 30th May Hindu news analysis by Shankara Ayes academy. So the aspirants are recommended to go back and brush your memory about it. Now moving on to the next article see this article from the regional page of Hyderabad edition it reports about the increase in the number of mucor mycosis patients at the government ANT hospital Koti since its conversion into the nodal centre for treatment of the fungal infection and as per the article so far around 360 surgeries on mucor mycosis patients have been performed here and the surgery process involved doctors from three to four specializations and for your information mucor mycosis was already discussed in a 26th May Hindu news analysis session and in the session we discussed about the disease, its symptoms, causes and treatment and also about the epidemic diseases act. So the aspirants are encouraged to go back and refresh your knowledge about mucor mycosis. Now look at this news article it has displayed in the northeast page of the Delhi edition and it reports about the 37th anniversary of Operation Bluestar and as we know Operation Bluestar was an army operation which was carried out in 1984 to flush out the militants from the golden temple and as per the news article pro-Khalistan slogans were raised by some people of the golden temple and also a large number of young people they carried banners and placards saying Kalistan Zindabad and due to this elaborate security arrangements were put in place at Ambristar in order to ensure that the event passed off smoothly. See we have already discussed in detail about the background of this Kalistan movement in 13th February 2020 Hindu news analysis so we advise the aspirants to go back and have a quick revision on it. With this let us move on to the prelims practice question discussion. Now look at this question statement one says that the Golgunda fort was first built by the rulers of the Kakkathya dynasty and statement two says that the Golgunda fort was originally built as a mud fort and it was later fortified between 14th and 17th century. So based on our discussion we can infer that both the statements are correct and since the question wants us to identify the correct statement the right option is option C that is both 1 and 2. Now let us take up this practice question about the performance grading index. Statement one says that it is released by Nithya Ayuk based on a set of 70 parameters to catalyze transformational change in the field of school education and statement two says that as per the index the states of Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Kerala occupied the highest grade for 2019 to 2020 and we need to find the correct statement. See statement one is incorrect because it was a union education minister who approved the release of performance grading index for the year 2019 to 20 for states and the union territories of India and not the Nithya Ayuk as mentioned in the statement. I am coming to the second statement this statement is correct because as we saw in the discussion Punjab, Chandigarh, Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Ekoba islands and Kerala they occupy the highest grade that is a grade of A++ for the year 2019 to 20. So therefore the right answer is option B that is 2 only. Now look at this prelims practice question, we need to identify the correctly matched pairs. From our discussion it is clear that the Madeshi people are related to Nepal so second pair is correctly matched. When you take the first one know that curd is a member of a ethnic and linguistic group that is living in the western Iran, portions of northern Iraq, north eastern Syria and western Armenia and also other adjacent areas. Most of the Kurds they live in contiguous areas of Iran, Iraq and Turkey and they are generally referred to as Kurdistan meaning the land of the Kurds. So the first pair is incorrect. Coming to Rohingya, as we know Rohingya refers to a community of Muslims who are generally concentrated in the Raqqa and state in Myanmar and they are frequently in news related to their rights violation by Myanmar authorities. So the third pair is also correct and since the question wants us to identify the correct pairs the right option is option C that is 2 and 3 only. Now let us take up this prelims practice question. The strategic offensive reduction treaty recently seen in news is related to which of the following. So as we know the right answer is option A that is the United States and Russia. See the strategic offensive reduction treaty which is also called as the Moscow Treaty commits the United States and Russia to reduce the deployed strategic nuclear forces to 1700 to 2200 warheads and this warhead limit takes effect and expires on the same day that is on December 31st 2012 and as we have discussed news starts superseded the 2002 strategic offensive reductions treaty. The list of main questions is given below for your reference. You can write your answer and post them in the comment section. With this we have come to the end of today's Hindu news analysis. If you like the video then don't forget to like, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar Iyer's Academy YouTube channel for more updates regarding UPSC civil services preparation.