 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankaray's Academy. These are the list of news articles taken for today's analysis and their page numbers in different editions of the newspaper. The link for the handwritten notes in the PDF format and the timestamping of the discussed articles are provided in the description and also in the comment section for the benefit of mobile phone viewers. Now let's move on to the analysis of first news article. This news article is with respect to a law passed by Haryana State Legislative Assembly. The law is titled as Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act 2020. This law is being in use because of its capacity to alter the present pattern of employment in the state and as the name suggests the act has brought in changes to job quota rules in Haryana that has led to controversies particularly in the private sector. In this slide let us analyze the significant features of this act and also some of the reported criticisms related to that. The syllabus relevant for the analysis is highly needed here for your reference. See this bill on the subject of employment of local candidates was passed by Haryana State Legislative Assembly and has received the assent of the governor of Haryana on 26th February 2021. Very importantly it aims to provide 75% employment reservation for candidates who are domiciled in Haryana and this law is valid for next 10 years after which it will cease to exist and this act is applicable to all companies, societies, trusts, limited liability partnership firms, partnership firm and to any employer who employs 10 or more persons. Simply we can say this law is applicable to private sector however to any employer who employs 10 or more persons and this 75% employment reservation is applicable for the employees whose gross monthly salary or wages is up to 50,000 rupees. Therefore as per the act all employers should start registering details on the designated portal about their employees whose gross monthly salary or wages is up to 50,000 rupees or not more than 50,000 rupees and this registration process has to be completed within three months and no person shall be employed or engaged by any employer till the registration of all such employees is completed on the designated portal. Then the act mandates that every employer should employ 75% of local candidates belonging to any districts of Haryana to pose where gross monthly salary or wages does not go above 50,000 rupees. The employer can recruit up to 10% of total number of local candidates from a single district. Now this measure is ensured so as to maintain some kind of horizontal distribution among the districts. However this provision on 10% of total number of local candidates from a particular district is at the option of the employer. However note that candidates who had not registered themselves on the designated portal or whose registration is incomplete they will not be eligible to avail any kinds of benefits. Then employers are given a chance to claim an exemption from providing reservation to local candidates if they feel that there are no adequate number of local candidates to match desired skill or qualification or proficiency. However they should provide proofs to prove their claim and this claim will be evaluated by an authorized officer designated by the government and this officer after inquiry will check the attempts made by the employer with reference to recruiting from the local candidates. Then the authorized officer will either accept the claim of the employer or reject the claim of the employer or will direct the employer to train local candidates to achieve the desired skill or proficiency. But as we know this may lead to serious or additional costs for the private companies which they may not be always be able to do or willing to do. Then every employer should submit a quarterly report on the total number of local candidates who are employed and appointed during the particular quarter or the stipulated time. Again this report will be examined by a person authorized by the government. The authorized person has got all powers to call for the essential proofs in order to verify the report. Then the authorized officer has also got all rights to address the shortcomings and to perform the functions interested on her and in the course of these happenings if the employer fails to cooperate then the employer would be found to be guilty of an offense. The employer will be finalized for failing to following the obligations and there is also additional penalty which will be imposed each day of contravention. And note that the act states that if a company commits an offense under this act then every director manager secretary agent or other person concerned with the management is deemed to be guilty of such offense. They can escape only if they prove that the offense was committed without their knowledge or consent. This is as per section 16 of this particular law and if the employer is agreed by an order passed by a designated authorized officer then she or he is free to prefer an appeal to the appellate authority within 60 days. Now let's come to the news article which talks about the idea of reserving private sector jobs for local candidates. It is said that it may have a significant impact in the industrial development and private investment in the state of Haryana. These are early criticisms. There will be points for and against the move of the state of Haryana. Today we will be discussing some constructive criticism in this regard. See one side of the argument is that this is a measure taken by the state government to enhance growth and development within its state or within the districts of Haryana. However, there are some challenges which need to be smartly addressed. One is that the lack of adequate availability of skilled manpower within the state. Although the law asks the employees to train the persons with adequate skills, it is difficult to ensure that the local candidates would be ready to do a particular job or it will incur additional expenditure for the companies whose objective is to make profit in a competitive business environment. And this can lead to a decline or a loss of private investment in the state. And there another set of criticism is that while the law is in the course of generating employment for the people of Haryana, it is in fact causing unemployment for persons from other states who prefer to work in Haryana. See usually investors, entrepreneurs or any firm for that matter, it will look for the best human resources and they will prefer individuals on the basis of merit and talent rather than the domicile or nativity of the candidates so as to compete with other firms and to enhance their success. And one reason why industry may employ candidates from outside the state is because of shortage of adequately skilled and locally available manpower. In such a case, if they are forced through legislations that they need to employ people only from the particular state or particular domicile, then they will be having no other option other than to look beyond Haryana where ease of doing business is convenient. And reports say that this may hurt the interest of Haryana. Then some reports also say that the law challenges the interests mentioned in the constitution particularly the right to freedom order article 19 of Indian constitution that provides citizens of India to move freely throughout the territory of India and to practice any profession or to carry on any occupation trade or business. However, note that article 19 G which states that all citizens shall have the right to practice any profession or to carry on any occupation trade or business shall have reasonable restrictions. What could be the reasonable restrictions? See, one is that this right is subject to the operation of any existing law or the right will not prevent state from making any law relating to professional or technical qualifications that are necessary for practicing any profession or carrying on any occupation trade or business. Then it is also subject to the laws made by the state with reference to carrying on operations by a state owned corporation or by the state itself or a corporation controlled by the state or of any trade business industry or service with respect to complete exclusion or partial exclusions of citizens or otherwise. So it can also be justified that the law is also constitutional as well. The state will claim that this particular act comes under the reasonable restriction mentioned in article 19 of the constitution. However, what is suggested is that the percentage limit as 75% might be modified and the state is recommended to come out with a more comprehending and practical percentage and also to provide some incentives for those industries which employ local candidates. And this law is kind of sudden imposition so that industries have to adjust to this new reality imposed by the policy of the government. Then the state has also remained to have in mind the difficulties in implementing mandatory job quota particular in private sector and how to manage a previously trained employees from other states in regard to giving jobs to local candidates which may also affect the state's reputation in relation to industry and private sector. Therefore the government is requested to arrive at a proper strategy and a practical percentage in relation to employment of local candidates below the threshold of or up to the threshold of 50,000 rupees as gross salary or wages in a particular month. So these are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this news article. Now let's move on to the analysis of next news article. Here we have a few articles about the National Sal Satyagraha Memorial at Dundee. In this context let us discuss in detail about the SALT march or the Dundee march and its role in India's freedom struggle. The syllabus relevant for the analysis is highlighted here for your reference. See SALT production and distribution in India for a long period of time it had been a monopoly of the British. The Indians were prohibited from producing salt or from selling salt independently and instead Indians were required to buy expensive heavily taxed salt that was often imported. This was done by the British through a series of legal measures or laws. This affected a great majority of Indians who were poor and could not afford to buy the expensive heavily taxed salt. See the SALT law was imposed by the British in the year 1857 and it was one of the most exploitative and backbreaking rules in the context of Indian masses and this was realized by Gandhi as early as in 1891 itself when he was a law student in London and we know after more than 20 years Mahatma Gandhi arrived in India in January 1915. See for Dundee march let us start from the Lahore session in 1929. As we know in 1929 Javaharlal Nehru was selected as the president of the Indian National Congress at the instance of Mahatma Gandhi. This session was held in Lahore on December 31 1929. The significance of this session was that a resolution was passed which announced that full independence or Poorna Swaraj was India's goal. The freedom fighters demanded for Dominion status but it was not granted or it was not obtained and therefore disappointed at the failure to get Dominion status India demanded full independence. Now with this resolution the whole country was excited and everybody was waiting for the lead from Gandhi and after two months of suspense assault Satyagraha was announced by Mohandas Gandhi. First Gandhi sent a letter in March 1930 to inform the vice-roy Irwin that he and others would begin breaking the salt laws. Irwin directly did not answer Gandhi but he sent a message to Gandhi through his secretary where he expressed regret that Gandhi had chosen a course which involved breaking the law of the land. This was a tactic adopted by Irwin so as to convince Gandhi from not doing so. However Gandhi made series of other appeals and requests but all of them failed. Therefore Gandhi chose 80 Satyagrahis and they started historic march from Shabarmati ashram to Dandi in Gujarat. In fact the salt Satyagraha was in the first phase of civil disobedience movement and this was a marathon march on a 240 mile route from Shabarmati to Dandi. It started on 12th March 1930 and finally Mahatma Gandhi reached the place Dandi on 5th March 1930. The next morning he picked up a handful of salt and mud in violation of the salt laws. This was the signal for a nationwide campaign of civil disobedience. Very disciplined batches of Satyagrahis then filled the pots and pans of seawater and boiled it to extract salt. At Dandi thousands of other followers also joined this salt Satyagraha particularly in the coastal cities of Bombay and Karachi. Indian nationalists led crowds of Indians in making salt. So civil disobedience broke out all across India and it started involving millions of Indians and British authorities have arrested more than 60,000 people in connection with this. In fact Gandhi himself was arrested on May 5 but the Satyagraha continued despite his arrest. See Gandhi's arrest created a great sensation not only in India but also abroad. Representations were sent to the British prime minister from various parts of the world and they have asked the British government to release Gandhi and to make peace with India and report says that Gandhi proved to be more dangerous inside the jail than outside because while he sat quietly in air water jail at that point of time there were country-wide outbreaks of civil disobedience which the British government felt very difficult to handle. We also read about Darsana Satyagraha during the launch of Salt Satyagraha Gandhi planned a raid on Darsana salt works which was situated 40 kilometer south of Dandi but before it could happen Gandhi was arrested. However leaders like Abbas Tyabji and Sarojini Naidu ensured that it happened. However the peaceful demonstrators met with violent response from the Britishers as several hundred British-led Indian policemen met them and viciously beat them. Sarojini Naidu had a special role in this as on May 21 she led 2500 marches in the raid of Darsana salt work. The violence unleashed by the British-led Indian policemen on the demonstrators as recorded by the words of American journalist Webb Miller prompted an international outcry against the British policy in India. Finally in the year 1931 British government had to release Gandhi Naidu and other leaders and as soon as Gandhi met Irwin the talk culminated in Gandhi Irwin packed of 1931 and Congress decided to participate in the second round table conference. So these are some of the important aspects with reference to Dandi march or Salt Sadhya graha. Now let's move on to the next part of the discussion. This article states that India's external affairs minister has proposed to include Iran's Chavaharpur in international north-south transport corridor. In this context let us discuss in brief about this international north-south transport corridor. See this corridor is described as India's response to China's Belt and Road initiative. It aims to link India with Central Asia, Russia and potentially to the Baltic region, Nordic region and Arctic region. See it is a joint initiative of India, Iran and Russia to affect this joint initiative. An agreement was signed way back in 2000 and was ratified in 2002. Later in 2005 Azerbaijan joined the agreement and the four countries lie along the route of the corridor geographically and they are building it to secure common economic interests with an objective of free flow of goods and passengers. See this corridor is a land and sea based multi-modal transport network that will connect Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf with the Caspian Sea. Then it goes onward to Russia and even northern Europe. The corridor is meant for both passenger and cargo transportation. It is about 7200 kilometers in length between the port of Mumbai and St. Petersburg. Already two dry ends have been successfully conducted along the route of the corridor. The results have shown that transportation costs for goods traveling along this corridor could be cut by $2,500 per 15 tons of cargo. Also the transit time could be reduced to 25 to 30 days compared to 40 to 60 days which are being taken at present because we go through Suezkanal route. So the INSTC reduces the carriage cost by 30,000 and the transit time by 40%. Now because of these advantages the corridor is attracting interest among a growing number of countries across Europe and Asia. Therefore apart from India, Iran, Russia and Azerbaijan many Central Asian countries and Eastern European countries are also becoming potential stakeholders in this corridor. Moreover many countries from around the world like say example Finland, Estonia and Latvia they have also expressed their interest to join the corridor. Not just that countries like Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Lavo and Vietnam they may also get linked with India through the India-Myanmar-Thailand Highway Project and also through the East-West Economic Corridor. When we say East-West Economic Corridor this refers to the corridor across the mainland Southeast Asia which covers Myanmar, Thailand, Lavo, Vietnam with Cambodia and this corridor, East-West Corridor was envisaged as a land bridge that connects Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean as it saves the sea route through the Malacca Strait as we can avoid that is we can avoid the sea route via Malacca Strait and this opens the possibility of future expansion of this corridor to the Southeast Asia as well. However there are some concerns one is the recent hardening of US stance against Iran and the traditional western posture against Russia. See the US withdrawal from Iran nuclear deal and the US sanctions on Iran and the western sanctions on Russia these are expected to have some serious implications on this corridor and as a result this may particularly affect India as we have long-standing political, commercial and defense ties with all these countries when we say all these countries it refers to not only United States and Russia but also with the US, Russia and Iran. So these are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this news article. Now let's move on to the next part of the discussion. This oped article talks about the ongoing crisis in Yemen. In this regard let us understand in brief about the crisis in Yemen and what are the talks about it. See the history related to Yemen from the 19th century till the Arab Spring of 2011 was elaborately discussed on 24th January 2021 Hindu news analysis for that part you may view that discussion. Today we will be focusing from 2011 till present. The syllabus relevant for the analysis is highly today for your reference. See Yemen is one of Arab world's poorest countries which is presently devastated by a civil war and this conflict has its roots in the failure of a political transition. See here we say transition which followed the Arab Spring uprising it was supposed to bring stability however the required stability is not in sight and as we know the Arab Spring has forced Yemen's long-time authoritarian president Ali Abdullah Saleh to hand over the power to his deputy Mansur Hadi this took place in the year 2011 and note that Ali Abdullah Saleh had been in power for 30 years up to 2011 and he was a Saidi Shia Muslim but he had the support of important Sunni leaders and his vice president or his deputy was a Sunni Muslim who is Mansur Hadi. Now once Hadi was handed over the power as president he struggled to deal with variety of problems this included attacks by jihadists then there is also a separatist movement in the south then the loyalty of security personnel to Ali Abdullah Saleh then there was corruption unemployment and as we know there was also Houthi movement which was backed by Iran and this movement was formerly known as Ansar Allah this movement it took advantage of the weaknesses of the new president it took control of northern heartland of sada province and neighboring areas see Houthis Saidi Shia Muslim minority they are right now acting as a insurgent group now in late 2014 and in early 2015 the rebels took over the capital Sana here when we say rebels it included at that point of time many ordinary Yemenis which included Sunnis and also Houthis and in fact at that point of time some Sunni Muslims did support Houthi movement and at this point of time the Houthis and the security forces who are loyal to former president that is Saleh they attempted to take control of the entire country and this in fact forced Hadi to flee abroad in March 2015 and this is the time when Saudi Arabia and eight other Sunni Arab states they understood that Houthi movement or the Houthi group was backed militarily by Iran which is a regional Shia power so Saudi Arabia along with the other Sunni Arab states they began an air campaign and their purpose was to defeat Houthis and to end Iranian influence in Yemen and to restore Hadi's government and for this purpose the Saudi coalition it received logistical and intelligent support from United States United Kingdom and France and at the start of the war it was forecasted that it would last only a few weeks but it was not so four years of military stalemate have followed and Hadi's government was restored but not in full and his government was established at a temporary home in Aden in Yemen therefore Aden is called as a temporary capital but Hadi's government struggles to provide basic services and security to its citizens and for much of the time Mr. Hadi continues to be based in Saudi Arabia and sometime in Yemen meanwhile the Al Qaeda and also Islamic state group they have also taken advantage of the chaos and they seized the territory in the south and they have also carried out deadly attacks particularly in Aden now these groups they also operate primarily against Houthi movement however they are also anti-government in character and as we know Yemen is surrounded on its western south by sea and on its north lies Saudi Arabia therefore for access of basic essentials Saudi Arabia's role in allowing passage of services becomes important however there was blockade by Saudi Arabia particularly after the launch of ballistic missile by Houthi rebels towards Riyadh in November 2017 and in the same month the alliance between Houthis and Ali Abdullah Saleh was also collapsed this happened after deadly clashes over the control of the biggest mosque in the capital of Yemen which is Sana and the Houthi fighters they launched an operation to take full control of the capital and meanwhile Ali Abdullah Saleh was also killed and in the next year in 2018 the warring parties which is the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi rebels they agreed for ceasefire at the talks which held in Sweden there were also arrangements to establish prisoner exchange mechanism and other measures in July 2019 United Arab Emirates announced withdrawal of its forces from Yemen because of international criticism note that UAE at that time was a key ally of Saudi Arabia in the Yemen war and the next month in August 2019 there was fighting in the southern part of Yemen this fight was between Saudi backed government forces and UAE supported southern transitional council see this council was also a southern separatist movement in January 2020 there was a sudden escalation in hostilities between the Houthis and the Saudi coalition-led forces there was fighting on several front lines missile strikes and air raids and in April 2020 the southern transitional council declared self-rule in Aden in Yemen now because of coronavirus pandemic Saudi Arabia announced a unilateral ceasefire in April 2020 however this was rejected by Houthi rebels and Houthis demanded for lifting of air and sea blockade in Sana and Houthi so these are the developments that happened from 2011 till last year now let us see what the author talks about the Yemen crisis in this news article see the author states that the crisis in Yemen is worsening day by day the war has killed thousands of people and has pushed the country closer to famine and according to UN estimate tens of thousands of Yemenis are starving to death and around one and a half crore Yemeni citizens are about to go hungry this year because of the civil war they are depending on the food assistance to survive but the war is making it extremely difficult for the eight groups to operate in the country also many are dying due to preventable diseases as Yemen in the current situation lacks proper health infrastructure and the essential medicines so in this regard let us see some of the suggestions of the author in this regard first he tells that the international community should take steps to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe from taking place aid operations should be improved further with international support but however to make this happen Saudis need to rethink on their strategy and also if Houthis want international legitimacy they should stop fighting and start talking with other stakeholders by coming to the negotiation table keeping down the arms then the author appreciates the foreign policy decision that President Joe Biden of United States took after assuming office which was to end the US's support for Saudi Arabia in the Yemen war and the author calls the Biden administration to pressurize Saudi Arabia to lift the blockade and to push for talks for a lasting ceasefire and once the ceasefire is achieved US and its regional allies should call for a multilateral conference at the international level which involves all relevant stakeholders so as to discuss the future of Yemen and the Yemen citizens so these are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this open article now let's move on to next part of the discussion this news article deals with the recent estimations made with reference to the municipal performance index and the ease of living index that was released recently by the union ministry of housing and urban affairs both these indices provide a holistic assessment of various participating cities let us see these indices in brief see the ease of living index it assesses the life quality and the impact of various initiatives that were undertaken for urban development this will be done by having a detailed understanding of the cities which participate in this assessment adding to this it also incorporates the views of residents in the cities on the services in the form of a citizen perception survey so this helps in validating the experiences of citizens about their city in terms of delivery of services it measures well-being of Indian citizens in 111 cities with 49 indicators under 13 categories the findings of this index is to help in evidence-based policymaking and to promote healthy competition among cities so as to encourage them to adopt best practices by learning from their peers and also to advance their development now coming to municipal performance index it was launched as an accompaniment to the ease of living index the purpose was to assess and analyze the performance of Indian municipalities based on their defined set of functions it examines the practices followed in municipalities and tries to simplify and evaluate the complexities involved in urban local governance then it also studies about those elements that prevent an efficient local governance ultimate objective is to help the citizens in having a better understanding of their local government administration by building transparency and by generating trust among the key stakeholders note that ease of living index measures outcome of an indicator whereas municipal performance index focuses on factors that produce those outcomes in other words we can say that ease of living index encapsulates the outcome indicators while the municipal performance index captures the enabling input parameters in other words only if there is proper municipal performance there will be ease of living and proper municipal performance is the prerequisite to have ease of living we can also say that municipal performance index provides a granular understanding of the functionalities of a municipality and also the extent of their development and capabilities end of the day both the indices are attempts to measure the performance of cities across India on various parameters of urban living so as of now the ease of living index 2020 and municipal performance index 2020 are released and as per this bangalore topped the million plus category and shimla topped in less than million category in ease of living index in terms of municipal performance index indoor is the top ranger in million plus category and new delhi municipal council topped in the less than million category in this municipal performance index with this information let us move on to next part of the discussion we have come to the last session the practice questions discussed in session see this question which is a map based question consider the following united arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Red Sea, Hormuz Strait which of the above borders Yemen we can find that UAE Hormuz Strait does not border with Yemen while the Red Sea, Oman and Saudi Arabia borders Yemen so the correct answer for this question is option C two three and four now see this question consider the following statements two statements are given they're asking which of the statements given above are correct first statement the salt sadya graha marked the beginning of civil disobedience movement in India as we know makatma Gandhi led the civil disobedience movement which was launched in the congress session of december 1929 the aim of the movement was complete disobedience of the orders of the british government and it was during this movement it was decided that India would celebrate 26 january as independence day all over the country and on 26 january 1930 meetings were held all over the country and the congress tricolor was hoisted the british government tried to repress the movement and in fact it resorted to brutal firing and it also killed hundreds of indian people thousands were arrested along with Gandhiji and Jawaharlal Nehru and the salt sadya graha was in this first phase of the civil disobedience movement therefore the first statement is correct second statement failure of the british authorities to implement the terms of gandhi urwin pact was the main reason for launching salt sadya graha the statement is incorrect because gandhi urwin pact followed the end of salt sadya graha in other words it was framed towards the end of salt sadya graha the correct answer for this question is option a one only see this question they have given three indices and are asking which of the pairs given above are correctly matched see india innovation index and export preparedness index both of them are released by nithya yog but export preparedness index here it is given as ministry of housing and urban affairs it is incorrect municipal performance index is released by ministry of housing and urban affairs so correct answer here is option b one and two only see the export preparedness index being prepared and released by nithya yog aims to examine the export preparedness and performance of indian states correct answer option b one and two only now we have given you two practice mains questions you may write the answer and post it in the comment section with this 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