 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar IA's Academy for the date 27 December 2019. Today we shall be seeing some important news articles like Good Governance Index, then a news article on AEMON, then an editorial on data protection bill and such other news articles which are displayed here along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Trivandrum and Hyderabad editions. The handwritten notes in the PDF format and the time stamping of all the news articles taken up for today's analysis is available in the description section and also in the comment section for the benefit of the smartphone users. Let us now start our analysis. This news article is about Good Governance Index. The news article tells that the state of Tamil Nadu leads in this Good Governance Index. So in the context of this news article, let us try to know about the objectives of this index and the categorization of states and few parameters and indicators based on which the index results have been arrived at. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. See, we know that India is a union of states and there is distribution of powers between the center and the states as mentioned in the constitutional framework. Now the states have played a key role in the growth and development of India since independence. And if you see to a larger extent, the states across India have similar institutional structures and practices in terms of administration and in terms of delivering services in general and also in terms of governance in particular to the citizens. But when you compare between states, there are actually variation in the progress between the states. So to address all these variations and to further the spirit of cooperative federalism the government of India came up with an idea of group of secretaries. This group of secretaries is an idea of the present government. If you see for the first time in 2016, 10 such groups were formed for 10 different sectors like rural and agriculture, infrastructure, resources, social, welfare, finance, economy, technology, governance and security and foreign affairs. So we can see that there is one group called as group of secretaries for governance. Now this group of secretaries on governance recommended for developing an index to gauge the performance of the states in India and thus we have this good governance index. So let us now see about this good governance index. This good governance index is a uniform tool across states to assess the status of governance and the impact of various interventions that have been taken up by the respective state governments and the union territories across India. So what are the objectives of this good governance index? The first objective is to provide quantifiable data in order to compare the state of governance in all the states and union territories. And the next objective is to enable the states and union territories to formulate and implement suitable strategies for improving governance based on this index. And the third objective of this index is that based on this index, the state governments and union territories across India should shift towards result oriented approaches and administration. So basically we can see that this index aims to provide good governance further. Now know that this index is prepared by the Department of Administrative Reform and Public Revenges which comes under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Revenges and Pensions. And along with this there is one more technical partner which is Centre for Good Governance located in Hyderabad. Now this centre has helped the Department of Administrative Reform and Public Revenges to design and develop this good governance index. Now let us see how this index is calculated. This index has taken 10 different sectors for calculation. As you can see in this picture these are the 10 sectors which have been taken for calculation. Like agriculture and allied sectors, commerce and industries, human resource development, public health, public infrastructure and utilities etc. Next if you see there are 50 indicators from these 10 sectors together based on which this index has been calculated. Next if you see the states and union territories of India have been categorized into 3 groups for the purpose of ranking. One group is the north eastern hill states and the second group is the union territories and the third group is the remaining states which are called as big states. So here you can have a doubt because recently the state of Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated into the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and union territory of Ladakh. Now for the purpose of this index the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir has been categorized under north east and hill states for this year's index and the union territory of Ladakh has not been taken for ranking. And this department has said that from next year onwards both these union territories will be put under the union territories category. So just have an idea. Now if you see all these states and union territories are ranked on all indicators separately and at the same time there is also composite ranking which is calculated for these states and union territories under their respective groups based upon these indicators. Here composite ranking is nothing but one single ranking based on the performance of a particular state or union territory in all the 10 parameters taken up for ranking. Now let us see the ranking of the states and union territories category wise for this good governance index. From the news article we know that Tamil Nadu is ranking number one it does not mean that Tamil Nadu is ranking number one across all categories since it comes under the big states category Tamil Nadu tops the big states category. Whereas if you see in the north east and hill states category Imachal has been ranked number one and in the union territories Puducherry has been ranked number one. You can refer to the next few ranks under each of these categories from this table. Next if you see this table lists out the sector wise rankings. First if you see public infrastructure and utility sector Tamil Nadu has been ranked number one under this particular parameter. Some of the indicators under this parameters are like access to the portable water then towns and villages that have been declared open defecation free power supply etc. And next if you see under the public health category Kerala has been ranked number one. Some of the indicators under this category include infant mortality rate maternal mortality rate availability of doctors and paramedical staffs at primary health centers etc. Now if you see among all these sectors the state of Tamil Nadu was ranked between top 5 in at least 6 of these parameters. This news article also tells that Tamil Nadu has lagged in commerce and industries category. If you see this category as indicators like ease of doing business growth rate of industries and micro medium small enterprises etc. From this table you can also see that citizen centric governance which is the 10th sector has not been included for scoring or ranking purpose because at present only one indicator is identified as a part of this sector. You can refer to the top rankers across 3 different categories for these 10 different sectors from this table. So this is all about the discussion of this news article. In this news article we have seen in brief about this good governance index about its objectives who prepares it how it is calculated the category and sectors based on which it is being calculated and also the leaders under different category in each of these sectors. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is related to a recent attack that has happened in the Sada Governorate in the country of Yemen. According to this news article some 17 civilians were killed in the recent attacks. We know that Yemen is witnessing a devastating civil war for almost 4-5 years now which is happening between the government troops that are backed by the Saudi-led military coalition and the Houthi rebels who are supported by Iran. So let us take this opportunity to know about the ongoing struggle in the country of Yemen and how this has actually affected India. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Before looking at the civil war that is happening at Yemen let us look in brief about the geography of Yemen. See Yemen is located in the southwestern corner of Arabian Peninsula. It shares its borders with the countries of Saudi Arabia and Oman. And to the west you can see the Red Sea. And to the south of Yemen Arabian Sea is present. And if you see the straight of Bab el-Mandab is present here. It separates Yemen and the Horn of Africa. To be specific it separates Yemen and Djibouti. As you can see in this picture this eastern portion of the African continent looks like a horn. That's why this region is called as the Horn of Africa. Roughly it consists of four countries which are the countries of Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti and Eritrea. Next if you see there is an island called Sokotra which belongs to Yemen. It is located in the Arabian Sea as you can see in this picture. So this is all about the geography of Yemen that you need to know. Next let us see a brief history about Yemen. See when Islam came to Yemen the Zeidis which are a Shia Islamic sect became dominant in the northern region of Yemen and its imams were in full control there by the 9th century. And if you see at the same time the southern Yemen was dominated by the Sunni sect of Islam. So there were sectarian tensions or we can say there was a north-south divide which existed since long back in Yemen. And then Ottoman Empire ruled Yemen. This fell by the end of World War I that is 1918. Now after the fall of Ottoman Empire the northern kingdom of Yemen was ruled by a Shia imam but the southern region of Yemen remained undivided. It was run by different local sultanates under the British control. Eventually they established their own southern state which was called the Federation of South Arabia. North Yemen became a republic in the year 1962. It was called as the Yemen Arab Republic and the capital of this north Yemen was Sana. Now geographically if you look at this map north Yemen is actually the western portion of Yemen and south Yemen is actually the eastern portion of Yemen. Now coming to the south Yemen the British colonial rule ended in the south in the year 1967. Once the rule ended south Yemen witnessed Soviet Union back coup. In the year 1969 it became people's democratic republic of Yemen and the capital of the south Yemen was Aden. So you can see that both the countries have become independent now but still both these countries kept fighting. In the year 1972 they fought with each other on a territorial dispute and in the year 1986 there was a bloody civil war which happened in south Yemen because of ideological and tribal tensions. Then somehow by the year 1990 the northern and the southern governments reached a full agreement on jointly governing both these countries. So the unification of Yemen took place in the year 1990. After the unification Ali Abdullah Saleh from north Yemen became the president of Yemen and Ali Salim al-Bahd from south Yemen became the vice president of Yemen. But if you see this government was not stable because if you see the south always accused the north of dominating politically. So this again resulted in a civil war in the year 1994. We usually know that when the polity of a particular country is not stable and when the people are fighting against each other it either helps the sessionist ideas to grow or some terrorist tendencies to grow within the country. So it was at this period when Al Qaeda which is a terrorist organization slowly emerged in Yemen in the early 2000s. During this period Yemen also witnessed the Houthi insurgency. Now you need to know who are these Houthis. The Houthis are a Shia sect in Yemen. They were protesting against the marginalization of the local Zaidi Shiite Muslim sect in the northern region of Yemen. So the government under Saleh was under tremendous pressure because all these events witnessed another issue. Because you can see that two or three parallel events were happening at the same time within Yemen and Yemen also witnessed another issue which was the Arab Spring. See the Arab Spring also hit Yemen in the year 2011. Here you should know what is meant by Arab Spring. It is actually a series of anti-government protests in the Arab world. So the civilians used to protest against the government in few of the countries in West Asia and Yemen was also hit by this Arab Spring. Now because of this Arab Spring the government which was running under Saleh was forced to step down. Then after Saleh, Abdrabu Mansur Hadi became the president. Now let us call him Hadi. Though he became president, the Houthi rebels were continuing their fight against this government as well. And finally even Hadi was overthrown in the year 2015. Meanwhile Al Qaeda was a terrorist organization further strengthened in Yemen and if you see it even started seizing and controlling huge territories in Yemen. So you can see one side the Houthis are rebelling against the government. On the other side Arab Spring happened and on the other side the Al Qaeda is also very much active in Yemen. Now during all this power struggle the ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh switched his sides with both the parties that is the Hadi led government and the Houthis. But if you see in the year 2017 he was assassinated by the Houthis. So at present who is fighting who in Yemen know that there are several groups fighting against each other. The main groups are the Hadi supporters who are fighting with an outside support from Saudi Arabia and United States. And next there are Houthi rebels who are fighting with the support of Iran and Al Qaeda. Apart from this there are also some other sessionist groups. So you can see that the scenario in Yemen is very complex to understand. The civil war roughly started around 2014-2015 but somehow the attacks have come down and there is relatively less violence in the country of Yemen. But here and there there are some attacks on the civilians in Yemen. One such attack is the one which we are seeing now in this news article. Where it has been reported that around 17 civilians were killed in a market in the northern region of Yemen which is the Sada governorate. Now the highlight here is that the Saudi led coalition has acknowledged that it only carried out this operation where around 17 civilians were killed. So you can see that though there is an overall reduction in the violence here and there few attacks keep happening in Yemen. Now even though all these details may not be relevant for us from exam point of view you need to know this from knowledge point of view. Because this involves the geopolitics where big countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, United States are involved. So let us see how the geopolitics that is happening in Yemen is actually affecting India's interests. Because if you see in your main general studies paper too you have a subject which is policies and politics of developed and developing nations affecting India's interests. So this news article is also relevant to our preparation. Now let us discuss in brief about how all these events affect India's interests in the Middle East. Now India is facing a political dilemma in the Middle East because Yemen is the fighting ground for two of India's friends. One is Saudi Arabia and the other is Iran. And if you see India depends on both these countries for its energy needs. As of now India is not importing oil from Iran because of the CATSA Act of the United States. But still India maintains good bilateral relations with Iran. So balancing the relationship with both these countries when the crisis further deepens would be the most difficult thing for India. So India should try its best to play the role of a mediator in order to reduce the tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran so that it can aim to bring certain amount of peace to the Middle East. This will further enhance India's image globally. So India has to take a balanced stand here. Now we know that there are lakhs and lakhs of Indians who live in the Middle East in countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Yemen, Bahrain, etc. And they are one of the biggest contributors of foreign remittance to India. So it is the responsibility of Indian government to protect its citizens who are working abroad. So it also becomes the duty of Indian government to work for ensuring peace in this region. One such activity which was carried by the government of India was Operation Rahat. Now what is this Operation Rahat? See when the civil war was at peak in Yemen, many foreign nationals were trapped in Yemen because they were not able to come out of Yemen. So the Indian armed forces conducted an operation as per the directions of the government of India. The Indian armed forces which included Indian Navy and Indian Air Force evacuated Indian citizens and also the foreign nationals from Yemen. And because of this operation, India was able to successfully save some thousands of Indian nationals and also foreign nationals from Yemen. So know that Operation Rahat is linked to the civil war in Yemen. So this is all you need to know about from this news article. From this news article, we had an opportunity to know about the history of Yemen, then the geography of Yemen and the ongoing civil war in Yemen. And finally we saw about Operation Rahat. So we can see that the geopolitics that is happening in the Middle East is actually affecting India and India's interests. So always have a tab on such news articles. Try to know the history in brief. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This editorial is about the Personal Data Protection Bill of 2019. In this editorial, the author has criticized the objective of the government behind this Personal Data Protection Bill. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this editorial is given here for your reference. First, let us see the objectives of this bill as stated by the government when introducing this bill. This bill aims to provide for the protection of the privacy of individuals relating to their personal data. Say, suppose you add your name or date of birth in an online space, that particular data has to be protected. Then this bill also aims to specify the flow and usage of the personal data. Then it aims to create relationship of trust between the persons and the entities that process the personal data. Further, this bill also aims to protect the rights of individuals whose personal data are processed. Then this bill also aims to create a framework for organizational and technical measures in processing of data. Then it lays down norms for social media, intermediary, then cross-border transfer, then for the accountability of the entities which are processing the personal data. Then if you see this bill also aims to provide remedies for unauthorized and harmful processing of the personal data. If at all, it happens. And then finally, it also aims to establish data protection authority of India in order to ensure the above purposes and the matters that are connected with protection of personal data. So, this is the crux of this particular personal data protection bill of 2019. Now, if you see this bill is based on the recommendations of 2018 report of Committee of Experts on Data Protection of 2017 or which is famously called as Justice Abhyan Sri Krishna Committee of 2017. This committee examined the issues relating to data protection. So, this data protection was a very hot topic around 2017-18. If you see, there was also a main question in the year 2018 based on protection of personal data in the cyberspace. Now, the reason is because we are in an era of information technology. A lot of data is being uploaded in the cyberspace and we do not know how it's being processed. We do not know about the status of protection. So, this bill assumes significance. This bill is of utmost importance because it aims to protect the privacy of the individuals as we saw. And as we know, right to privacy is a fundamental right. This was held by the Supreme Court in Justice Case Putaswamy and another versus Union of India case law. In this case, a nine-judge constitutional bench of Supreme Court delivered a verdict where it declared privacy is a fundamental right under Article 21 of Indian Constitution. And this bench also stated that right to privacy is protected as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 and it is also protected as a part of freedoms that are guaranteed by Part 3 of the Indian Constitution. So, to ensure this, this 2019 bill on personal data protection was introduced in Lok Sabha this month. So, these are all the objectives of the bill which the government has said when introducing this bill in the Lok Sabha. Now, let us see the editorial. The author of this editorial tells that the bill is more focused on security and revenue interests of the government and it is not focusing much on the protection of privacy or data protection for that matter. In this context, the author criticizes the government telling that its governance objectives are focused on securitization and technology and thus they assume high priorities in the governance aspect. Now, the author is stating this based on a statement by Edward Snowden. You would have known about this person. He was an American intelligence contractor who in 2013 revealed the existence of secret wide-ranging information gathering programs which was conducted by United States. See, Edward Snowden stated that there is a symbiotic relationship between the financial model of large online platforms and the security interests of the government. That is, there is a link. Because both rely on personal data and attention economy where the online platforms gather the personal data and then the government seeks access to it. Now, you need to know this term attention economy. Throughout the history of the world, it was first agricultural economy, then came the industrial economy, then came the information economy. And now we are having this attention economy. Now, according to this attention economy concept, human attention has become the scarcest resource in the middle of a huge amount of information that is constantly bombarding or targeting the consumers. In this scenario, it creates a situation in which the audiences are easily distracted. So, in order to gain and hold consumers' attention in such an environment, the marketing people must offer messages that audiences find meaningful and significant. So, the products and services must be sold and marketed not just based on the merits of utility or cost savings or enjoyment, but with a thick layer of symbolic packaging and narratives that confirm meaning in order to capture consumers' attention and money. Here, for example, we cannot mention a particular brand, but you can see some brands which are telling that India's largest brand, world's best brand. So, these are some of the jargons which captures the consumers' attention immediately. And they try to see what this particular brand is about and they try to purchase and consume the product. So, this attention economy, along with personal data, is gathered by the online platforms, which is later accessed by the government. So, this was a statement which was made by Edward Snowden. But according to the author, in India, this situation is being taken a step further what Edward Snowden had said. The author is telling that the government is seeking to access data and also to collect it and then exploit the data which it has collected. So, this makes the government an active data trader which in turn will generate revenue and this revenue can be used to meet the fiscal goals and requirements of the government. So, this is one accusation or criticism which the author has given. Now, the author is trying to justify this statement based on two things. One is the Digital India Program. The author is focus on this Digital India Program. The author is telling that all elements of citizen-state interaction are being data-fied in the Digital India Program. Here, the term citizen-state interaction means the interaction which the citizen of India has with the government. For example, in order to get any social sector benefits, you have to provide some basic data in order to avail the benefits. Now, this personal data of yours can be accessed by the government and it can also be exploited by the government. So, here the author quotes certain technologists who tell that this Digital India Program fulfills the geo-strategic goals of the government since personal data is viewed as a strategic state resource. But if you see, still it poses grave risks to the right of privacy according to the author. It is because of the evidence that was provided in the Economic Survey of 2019 which is the second thing the author has quoted to justify his statements. Now, if you see this Economic Survey of 2019, it devotes an entire chapter on the fiscal approach towards personal data. This chapter mentions that data can be created as a public good within the legal framework of data privacy. As the private sector may not invest in harnessing data where it is profitable, the government must intervene in such sectors in creating data as a public good, especially creating data of the poor and creating data in social sectors of the country. So, you can see that the government has a fiscal angle towards personal data. Further, the author also gives two tangible examples to substantiate his statement. The first is with respect to the recent sale of vehicular registration data and driving licenses by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. Here, the author is mentioning about the sharing policy and procedure 2019 of this Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. In this, the Ministry collects and holds data as part of issuance of Vehicle Registration Certificates and Driver License. And if you see, the Ministry shares complete data with specified agencies, such as enforcement agencies. And in addition to this, the data is also shared with automobile industries, then banks, financial companies, etc. They are shared at specified rates for each data set. Say, for example, a particular automobile company has access to your data. And now we have got a four-wheeler driver's license. Now that company will try to send some messages like, are you interested in buying a car? Or there are various ranges of their car brands which are available for sale. So, in this way, there will be an interaction. And further, if you see free access to the vehicle's basic data is available to all the registered users through YAM Parivahan app or through the web portal of the Ministry. The information which is available in this app is about the basic details regarding the statutory compliances and the owner's name of the vehicle. Now, the purpose of this information as claimed by the government is to promote statutory compliances and also to facilitate individual hiring or renting of vehicles or purchase or sale of vehicles and hiring of drivers. So, these are the two examples which the author has quoted. In this, according to the author, quite often the principles of a data protection law would conflict with these mentioned uses as it would break the principle of fundamental assumption that the data will be used for definite purposes only. Because we just saw that the Ministry's intentions behind YAM Parivahan app. Now, the principle is that the personal data which is gathered for a specific purpose cannot be put to any other distinct use without consent of the person from whom it was acquired. But now, because of this sharing policy of the Ministry, this has been broken. Now, when the data is available, it is difficult to ensure that the data will not be used for other purposes. Now, to substantiate this, the author has given also one more example which is related to the expert committee which has been formed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. See, this Ministry has constituted the committee to deliberate on a data governance framework for non-personal data. This is because the Sri Krishna Committee on Data Protection distinguished between personal data and community data. Now, if you look at this personal data, it can be attributed to an individual and if you look at community data, it is an aggregated data which is acquired from multiple persons. So, there is no specific individual attribution in a community data. Now, this community data may include e-commerce data or artificial intelligence training data, derived data, etc. Now, according to this Ministry, the expert committee will deliberate on a framework for such non-personal data. In addition to this, the Ministry in its notice about this committee has mentioned that there is a need to recognize the economic dimension of data and suitable taxonomy of data. So, access to this community data and control over it is critical for economic advantage. So, based on this money, the author is criticizing again that it is obvious that this move is to serve the fiscal interests of the state, that is fiscal interests of the country and the fiscal interests of the technology businesses. Now, based on the above facts, the author is stating that the existing draft of the Personal Data Protection Bill is reflective of the political economy which is motivated towards ensuring minimum levels of protection of personal data. It simply means that this government is not focusing towards ensuring protection of personal data. So, according to the author, these two are competing interests. Now, how they are competing interests? Because one side, the government has to protect the data. On the other side, the government has fiscal interests over the data. So, we can see that these two are competing interests. Now, by placing competing interests on the same plane, two natural consequences occur. Firstly, the principle of data protection to actualize the fundamental right to privacy is not fulfilled as a primary goal, but rather the right is controlled from the very beginning. Secondly, by placing competing goals which contradict each other, if any balancing is done, then it will be clumsy. That is ugly. So, we cannot be sure about what will be finally achieved. So, according to the author, this contradiction results in a muddy or confused articulation which would ultimately ensure a weaker data protection law. So, as a conclusion, the author notes that the present draft of the bill comes as a disappointment even after the judgment on the right to privacy because privacy is not given importance in this bill. So, according to the author, the data protection bill is not leaky oil barrel with large exceptions. That is, it is a perfect barrel because it will refine store and then trade the personal information of Indians without their control and it will open for sale or open for appropriation to the interests of securitization or revenue maximization with minimum levels of protection. Now, this simply means that the government is not going to have an aim of protecting the personal data instead making money from the personal data. So, if this condition has to be changed then there is a need for reframing large parts of the intents and objectives of the bill. So, you can see from this editorial that the fundamental right of privacy of an individual will be affected if this bill becomes an act. Now, the reason why we have discussed this editorial is because this personal data protection bill has been referred to a joint parliamentary committee. Now, this joint parliamentary committee will hold consultation with different stakeholders including citizens, small and large companies and law enforcement agencies. So, this is the reason why the author has deliberated on the shortcomings of this personal data protection bill of 2019. So, this is all about the discussion of this editorial. In this editorial, the author has spoken in brief about the data protection bill and throughout the editorial he has criticized the government actions of compromising the privacy of the individual and promoting its fiscal interests on this personal data. Now, have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is related to the recent developments in the dedicated freight corridors. Know that dedicated freight corridors are being built by dedicated freight corridor corporation of India Limited. Now, what are these dedicated freight corridors? They are railway corridors which are dedicated only for the freight movement. So, in this context we will be discussing in brief about this dedicated freight corridor corporation of India Limited then about the dedicated freight corridors which are currently under construction and the significance of this dedicated freight corridor. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. See, we know that Indian economy had rapidly grown in the recent past. So, it has created a demand for huge capacity of rail freight transportation and this is likely to grow further in the future. But if you see the existing routes between India's key industrial areas are highly saturated in their capacity. One corridor is the eastern corridor which connects Delhi and Hora and the second corridor is the western corridor which connects Delhi and Mumbai. So, both these corridors have saturated to their capacity. So, they are not able to meet the demand of freight transportation. Because of this railways lost a share in freight traffic. It was around 83% in 1950-51 but the share reduced to 35% in 2011-12. So, trade started happening in the road route. But if you see still there is a demand for railways. So, in order to meet these demands the Ministry of Railways decided to form dedicated freight corridors along the eastern and the western routes. So, for this purpose dedicated freight corridor Corporation of India Limited was established in the year 2006. We will see more about this cooperation in the later part of our discussion. Now, note that this cooperation proposed many dedicated freight corridors. Among them the eastern and the western dedicated freight corridors are currently under implementation. If you see the eastern dedicated freight corridor it is planned between Luddhiana in Punjab to Dankuni in West Bengal. And if you see the western dedicated freight corridor it is planned from Javaharlal Nehru Port Rest in Mumbai to Dadri in Uttar Pradesh. And if you see during the budget speech of financial year 2016-2017 it was proposed to take up three more dedicated freight corridors. One which is the east to west corridor connecting Kolkata in Mumbai. The second the north-south corridor connecting Delhi and Chennai. And third the east coast corridor connecting Karakpur in West Bengal to Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh. So, this is a brief about the dedicated freight corridors. Now let us understand some of the silent features of this dedicated freight corridor project. See they are designed to achieve a maximum speed of 100 kilometers per hour. It means the train can run at a maximum speed of 100 kilometers per hour. And if you see these dedicated freight corridors are designed to carry much more weight when compared to the existing rates. And they are also designed with the capacity to run long haul or long distance trains of 1.5 kilometers length. So, once this project is implemented then these corridors would ensure fast transportation of heavy freight with longer trains. So, you can see that the cost of transportation will be drastically reduced. And also more transportation of freight is possible. So, all this would ensure that the railways will again become a dominant player in freight transportation. Now, let us see more on these eastern and western dedicated freight corridors which are under implementation. First if you see the World Bank is funding this eastern dedicated freight corridor and Japan International Cooperation Agency is funding the western dedicated freight corridor. And both these corridors are targeted for commissioning by December 2021. So, we have two more years before both these projects will be commissioned. Now, if you look at the western dedicated freight corridor it passes through the states of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. We saw that it is from Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to Jawaharlal Nehru which is located near Mumbai. Next if you see the eastern dedicated freight corridor which runs from Ludhiana and Punjab to Dankuneen, West Bengal this corridor passes through the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. So, just remember the states through which both these corridors pass. So, this is all about the dedicated freight corridor that you need to know. Now, let us see in brief about this cooperation which is the dedicated freight corridor cooperation of Indelementor. See, it was established in the year 2006. The primary objective of this cooperation is to undertake planning and development then mobilization of financial resources then it has to focus on construction maintenance and operation of the dedicated freight corridors. I know that this cooperation was incorporated as a company under the Companies Act of 1956. So, this is all that you need to know about cooperation in brief. Now, let us come to the news article. This news article tells that the dedicated freight corridor cooperation of Indelementor began testing a new wagon that will help boost the cargo carrying capacity by four times. It is because the length of the train will be increased and there will be use of double stack containers and also there will be more payload carrying capability. This new wagon is called as BLCS type A and type B and if you see, it is being tested by the Research, Design and Standards Organization. Know that this organization is working under the Ministry of Railways. So, just know that there is a new type of wagon which is being developed and tested by this Research, Design and Standards Organization. According to this news article, the trial was conducted successfully at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour. This is a significant achievement because if you see currently the maximum speed of freight trains varies from 40 kilometer per hour to 100 kilometer per hour on the Indian Railways tracks. Then if you see this news article also tells that once the entire corridor becomes operational by December 2021, the average speed of freight trains in India is expected to increase from the current 26 kilometer per hour on Indian Railways line to 70 kilometer per hour on the dedicated freight corridor. So, this is all that you need to know about dedicated freight corridors and this news article. Now, we request the aspirants not to confuse this dedicated freight corridor concept with the industrial corridor concept because this is different, industrial corridor is different. If you see the industrial corridor project, it has been planned for effective integration between industry and infrastructure. So, all along the corridors, industries will be located. So, we can tell that the dedicated freight corridors are actually complementary to the industrial corridors. But they are not one and the same because if you see the dedicated freight corridor corporation of India Limited which comes under the Ministry of Railways. Whereas, if you see the industrial corridor, it is being managed by the National Industrial Corridor Development and Implementation Trust. So, this trust will be an apex body to oversee the integrated development of all the industrial corridors across India. And if you see this trust functions under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. So, the dedicated freight corridor is different, the industrial corridor is different. To know more on this industrial corridor project, please refer to our 19th September analysis. This is all about the discussion of this news article. In this news article, we have seen about dedicated freight corridor project. The company which implements this project and about eastern and western dedicated freight corridors which are under construction. And finally we saw the difference between the dedicated freight corridors and the industrial corridors. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. Next, let us see two news articles on national population register. One is the front page news article where the Hindu has told that house to house verification has been planned by the Government of India as a part of updating this national population register. In this news article, the Hindu has told that it has accessed the manual of the Government of India regarding this national population register. But the current status is that the manual has not been released by the Government. So don't focus much on this news article. Just take this as an opportunity to revise what is meant by national population register that we saw yesterday. We saw that it is a register of usual residents of the country and the objective of this NPR is to create a comprehensive identity based for every usual resident in the country. Now the controversy surrounding this national population register is that the present Government is going to link this with the NRC exercise. Nothing but the National Register of Indian Citizens exercise. If you have seen this news article, the Minister of State for Home Affairs has categorically said that there is no link between the NPR exercise and the NRC exercise. And he has also told that the NPR exercise is a part of 2021 census enumeration. Yesterday we also saw in detail about the census enumeration. So we request the viewers to refer to our yesterday's analysis to have more clarity on the census and national population register. Yesterday, if you see, we also saw the definition for usual residents. It refers to those persons who have resided in a local area for the past 6 months or more or those persons who intend to reside in that particular area for the next 6 months or more. Now, if you see in this news article, the present opposition party congress which was once a ruling party when this NPR exercise was conducted in 2010 has said that it followed the definition of usual residents as defined by the United Nations. So, let us focus on this definition that has been given by the United Nations. If you see UN secretariat is one of the organs of United Nations, under this comes the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Under this department, there are many divisions. One such division is the statistics division. Now it is this statistics division which has published the principles and recommendation for population and housing censuses. So, as the name indicates, it has given some recommendations to the member nations on how to conduct population and housing census. In this, UN has defined what is meant by usual residence. It has said that for census purposes, usual residence is the place at which the person lives at the time of the census and he or she has been there for some time or intends to stay there for some time. So, what is this some time, the time factor for that also the UN has given recommendations. It has recommended that the countries can apply a threshold of 12 months when considering the place of usual residence according to one of the following criteria. One criteria is that for most of the last 12 months, the person should have lived in a particular place continuously. That is for at least 6 months in one day and this shall not include temporary absences if he has gone for any holidays or if he has gone for any work assignments or if a person intends to live for at least 6 months. And if you see this picture United Nations has also recommended one more criteria which is the place at which the person has lived continuously for at least the last 12 months not including temporary absences for holidays or work assignments or if he or she intends to live for at least 12 months. Now if you see India has not taken this second recommendation but instead it took the first recommendation. So, based on this only we have the definition for usual resident in India which we saw yesterday which is nothing but a person who has resided in a local area for the past 6 months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next 6 months or more. So, we can clearly see that it is based on the recommendation given by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs based on which India has adapted to this definition of usual residence in the national population register. So, this is all you need to know from this news article also in this news article if you see a political news the opposition party congress that the national population register which was developed in the UPA era was for residency but not for citizenship and it has accused the present government that it is planning to link this NPR exercise with NRC exercise. And the news articles you can see it is always mentioned as NRC exercise but the actual definition is the national register for Indian citizens as per section 14A of the Citizenship Act of 1955. Also in this news article if you see one of the congress leaders have mentioned that this section 14A reads that the government may compulsorily register all citizens. It has never been said that the government shall compulsorily register all citizens. So, this is the option or the description of the central government to decide whether it needs to register all citizens or not. So, the congress leader has said that when their party was in power they did not have to compulsorily register all citizens. And also know that we even saw yesterday the section 14A was inserted into the Citizenship Act of 1955 through an amendment in the year 2003. So, to summarize both these news articles we have seen that the government of India has noted to release the manual for the NPR exercise which is to be conducted along with the 2021 census and then we saw the definition for usual residency and usual residence as recommended by the UN and we compared this with the definition of the government of India to carry out the NPR exercise. And finally we saw in brief about this section 14A of the Citizenship Act of 1955. Let us move on to the practice questions discussion session. Now look at this first question this question is about good governance index. Two statements have been given one is about who has developed this index and the second statement is about the categories which this index deals with. Now look at the first statement it tells that it is designed and developed by the department of administrative reforms and public grievances partnered with center for good governance Hyderabad. Yes, this statement is correct. This department comes under the ministry of personal public grievances and pensions. Now look at the second statement it tells that the states and the union territories are categorized into five groups north south northeast central and west for ranking convenience. This statement is wrong because under this index the states and union territories have been categorized into three groups one is the north east and hill states the second group is the union territories and the third group is the remaining states which are called the big states and in this year's good governance index Tamil Nadu has been ranked number one under the big state category. Know that 10 parameters have been quantified for the purpose of ranking in this index. Some of the parameters include agriculture and allied sectors, commerce and industries then public health, public infrastructure and utilities, economic governance etc. So the second statement goes wrong. Now this question asks you to choose the correct statements. The correct answer is option A one only. Now look at this next question. It is about those countries which border Red Sea. The question is Red Sea does not share border with which of the following countries. Five countries are given Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Iraq Egypt and Qatar. From this map you can see that the countries which border Red Sea are Egypt then Saudi Arabia, Yemen then countries like Eritrea, Sudan. So the countries which do not share border with Red Sea from this list are the countries of Ethiopia, Iraq and Qatar. Because Iraq and Qatar shares borders with Persian Gulf whereas if you see the country of Ethiopia does not share its border with NEC. Also from this map you can see that countries like United Arab Emirates Saudi Arabia then Kuwait Iraq and Iran share their borders with Persian Gulf. Apart from Qatar and Saudi Arabia. And also Bahrain is an island in Persian Gulf. So the correct answer to this question is option C 2, 3 and 5 Ethiopia, Iraq and Qatar. Now look at this next question. The question is which among the following rights are implicit right or rights under article 21 of the Indian Constitution. Five rights have been given right to privacy, right to speedy right to live with dignity, right to sleep and right to electricity. See article 21 declares that no person shall be deprived of his or her life or personal liberty except according to the procedure established by law. And this right is available to both the citizens and non-citizens. If you see in 1978 in Menaka Gandhi case the Supreme Court ruled the right to life as embodied in article 21 is not merely confined to animal existence or survival but it includes within its ambit the right to live with human dignity and all those aspects of life which go to make a man's life meaningful, complete and worth living. And it also ruled that the expression personal liberty in article 21 is of the widest amplitude and it covers a variety of rights that go to constitute the personal liberties of a man or a woman. So the right to life includes all the conditions which are minimally essential for human existence. If you see sleep is also an essential ingredient to live a healthy and balanced life and therefore right to life impliedly included right to sleep as well. Apart from this if you see right to speedy trial, right to electricity are also implied rights under article 21. So the correct answer to this question is option D, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Now look at this question. This question is about the eastern dedicated freight corridor. Two statements have been given. One statement is regarding the authority and the second statement is about the states through which this corridor passes. Now look at the first statement. It tells that this eastern dedicated freight corridor is being developed by national industrial corridor development and implementation trust. This statement is wrong because this corridor is being developed by the dedicated freight corridor corporation of India Limited. This particular national industrial corridor development and implementation trust works in developing the industrial corridors of India. So always know this difference. Now come to the second statement. It tells that a portion of this corridor passes through the states of Jharkhand and Odisha. Know that the eastern dedicated freight corridor is planned between Ludhiana and Punjab to Dankuni in West Bengal. This corridor passes through the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. So this statement also goes wrong because Odisha is not a part of this corridor. And know that this corridor is being funded by World Bank. Along with this, the western dedicated freight corridor is also being developed between Dhadri, Uttar Pradesh and Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust which is located near Mumbai. And this western dedicated freight corridor is being funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency. Together both these projects have been planned to be commissioned by December 2021. So here both the statements are wrong. This question asks you to choose the correct statements. So the correct answer to this question is optionally neither one nor two. Now look at both these main questions. One question is on the scope of fundamental rights and the next question is on protection of personal data. If you see this 2017 mains question, it has asked you to examine the scope of fundamental rights in the light of the latest judgment of Supreme Quoton, right to privacy case which is nothing but the Putaswamy case which we refer during our news article discussion. So try to answer this question in 250 words. This next question is based on Justice B and Sri Krishna committee report which is on data security. So the actual question is that you need to discuss about the strengths and weaknesses of the report relating to the protection of personal data in cyberspace. So try to list out the stands and weaknesses relating to protection of personal data in cyberspace. You can also take some points from today's editorial discussion and try to answer this question in 250 words as well. We shall review your answers and give suitable suggestions and feedback in the next 7 to 10 working days. With this we come to the end of the analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the practice questions discussion session. If you like the video press the like button, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for latest videos and updates. Stay focused and motivated friends. Thank you.