 Good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar A.S. Academy for the date 14th of April 2022. Displayed here are the list of news articles we will be discussing today. Now let us get into the discussion. Look at this article from the text and context page. See this article talks about India's energy sector. To be specific, this article talks about India's solar power capabilities. Now why are we learning about it? See in a recently released report which was jointly prepared by two energy research firms the report has made a prediction that India will likely miss its 2022 target of installing 100 gigawatts of solar power capacity. And according to the author of this article this is because of the fact that roofed of solar energy is lagging again. So this is the crux of the news article given here. In this context let us quickly go through some of the important points mentioned in this text and context article. First, the syllabus regarding this discussion is highlighted here for your reference. You can go through it. Now let us start our discussion. Firstly, let us go through India's solar policy. As you know, due to its location itself, India has a huge solar potential with about 100 sunny days in a calendar year. With the right policy, India's capability to tap solar energy is huge. Knowing this, many steps have been taken by the government. And since 2011, India's solar sector has grown at a compounded annual growth rate of around 59% from 0.5 gigawatts in 2011 to 55 gigawatts in 2021. See, this did not happen just like that. To attain this, the first step to be taken by the government was the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission. See this mission commenced in January 2010. It is through this mission for the first time the Indian government focused on promoting and developing solar power in India. Under this scheme, India planned to achieve total installed capacity of 20 gigawatts by 2022. Later in 2015, this target of 20 gigawatts was revised to 100 gigawatts by 2022. In this 100 gigawatts, 60 gigawatts of power should be of utility scale and 40 gigawatts should be of roofed of solar capacity. In addition to this, in August 2021, the Indian government set a solar target of 300 gigawatts by 2030. See, India currently ranks fifth after China, the United States, Japan, and Germany in terms of installed solar power capacity. As of December 2021, the cumulative solar installed capacity in India is 55 gigawatts, which is roughly half the renewable energy capacity and 14 percent of the overall power production capacity in India. Within this 55 gigawatts, the grid-connected utility-scale projects contribute 77 percent and the rest comes from grid-connected rooftop and off-grid projects. Here grid-connected or on-grid system is the one in which the solar power system is connected to the utility's power grid, while being off-grid means the system works independently and solar power source is not connected to the utility's power system. This is about the India's solar power policy and the steps taken by the government so far. Having seen these points, now let us move on to the report that I mentioned in the start of the discussion. See, this report is prepared by JMK Research and Analytics and Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. Now, what does this report say? The report says that as of April, only 50 percent of the 100 gigawatt target has been met. Nearly 19 gigawatts of solar capacity is expected to be added by 2022, in which 15.8 gigawatts will be added through utility-scale solar power and 3.5 gigawatts from rooftop solar power. Even accounting for this additional capacity that is expected to be added, India cannot achieve 100 gigawatts target. As I already said, the target for total installed capacity is 100 gigawatts by 2022, in which 60 gigawatts of power should be utility-scale and 40 gigawatts should be rooftop solar scale. And according to this report, there is a shortfall of 20 gigawatts in the 40 gigawatt rooftop solar target, and there is a shortfall of 1.8 gigawatt in the utility-scale solar target by December 2022. So, here the challenges of India's solar adoption policy are most visible in the rooftop solar energy. See, having seen some major points from the report, now let us see the challenges faced by both the rooftop solar energy sector and the grid connected utility-scale solar energy sector. See, according to the author, this inertia in rooftop solar adoption in the past two years is due to the disruption in supply chain caused by the pandemic. This is the reason for lower rooftop solar adoption in the last two years. In addition to this, there has been many regulatory roadblocks created by the government that also prevents the adoption of rooftop solar power. The first roadblock is limits to the net metering. See, net metering is the mechanism which allows domestic or commercial users who generate their own electricity using solar power or photovoltaic system to export their surplus power back to the grid. In turn, the domestic or commercial users get reduced electricity bills. See, the government placed restriction on this. See, one of the perks of setting a rooftop solar power is to sell excess power back and make money. As the government placed limitation on the amount of power that you can sell to the discombs, this is discouraging people from setting up rooftop solar power. This is acting as a roadblock to the faster rooftop solar adoption. The next roadblock is taxes on imported cells and modules. To boost domestic solar cell production, government increased taxes on imported solar cells and modules. This is making rooftop solar adoption costly. This in turn is affecting the faster adoption of rooftop solar energy. The next roadblock is unsigned power supply agreements. See, a power supply agreement is nothing but a bilateral agreement between a power production company and a distribution utility for purchase and supply of power. As the power supply of agreements are not finalized, the solar power producers are staring at a bleak future. See, electricity produced by solar power is costlier than the thermal power. So, discombs are reluctant to sign power supply agreements with the solar power producers. This reluctance of discombs is discouraging future investment in grid-connected utility-scale solar farms. This is the third roadblock. Now, let us move on to the next roadblock. See, the next issue is the delay in or rejection of open access approval grants. What is open access? Consider our household. We consume small amount of electricity. So, we are allowed to buy only from one discomb. We are not given any option or choice. Because in most cases, there is only one government discomb. For example, in Tamil Nadu, we have Tangetco. Now, consider a large steel mill. They consume huge amount of electric power. This is where open access comes into play. Open access enables heavy users with more than one megawatt connected load to buy cheap power from open market. The concept is to allow the consumers or the customers to choose from a number of competitive power companies, rather than being forced to buy power from the local utility monopoly. So, if you are a steel mill with connected load more than one megawatt, when open access approval is given to you, you can buy power from local solar farm in a cheap rate instead of buying from the state power utility. As I said earlier, there are delays or even rejection of open access approval grants. See, this delay and rejection is preventing big power consumers to source their power from local solar farms. This in turn is acting as a roadblock for setting up solar farms in the first place. Now, moving on. See, the final issue is the issue of finances. Since solar power is a nascent technology, to compete with non-audible resources, you have to provide them with subsidy. This subsidy provided by Indian government is very limited. Also, consumers must also be provided with low interest loans to help them set up rooftop solar power panels. This is also not properly provided by the government. So, both these, that is low subsidy and unavailability of low interest loans are acting as a roadblock for rooftop and utility scale solar power production in India. See, these are the major reasons mentioned in the article that might prevent India from achieving its 100 gigawatts solar power target. See, the article also mentions that in spite of these roadblocks, recently there has been a sharp rise in rooftop solar installations. This is due to other factors like falling technology cost, increasing grid tariff, raising consumer awareness and growing need for cutting energy cost. According to the report, these factors are expected to persist, giving a much needed boost to this segment. See, now having seen the challenges faced by the solar power production sector, now let us see how critical is solar power to India's commitment to mitigate climate change? Firstly, solar power will play a major role and will help India achieve the intended nationally determined contribution as a part of Paris Agreement. Solar power will also play a major role and help India achieve net zero or no net carbon emissions by 2017. Secondly, our Prime Minister at the United Nations Conference of Paris meeting in Glasgow in November 2021 said India would be reaching a non-fossil fuel energy capacity of 500 gigawatts by 2030 and meet half of its energy requirements via renewable energy by 2030. See, only by investing heavily on solar power can India achieve these huge targets. So, for this to happen, according to the article, India must remove the roadblocks for solar power. So, that's all regarding this article. Now, let us take up the next news article. Take a look at this article. It says that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved a proposal to continue the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhyan till 2026. It is a scheme for improving the governance capabilities of Panjaitiraj institutions. And this is the essence of the article given here. In this context, let us learn about the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhyan. See, Mahatma Gandhi envisioned villages as mini-republics. And Mahatma Gandhi advocated that true democracy should begin with the participation of people from the grassroot from every villages. And this is the rationale for the implementation of the scheme. See, an able leadership and adequate capacity building of the constitutionally mandated panjayats is critical to address good governance at the local level and to attain the 2020 agenda of sustainable development goals. It is therefore important to build the capacity of panjayats under related grassroot level institutions. The key local developmental challenges faced by the country that is poverty, public health, nutrition, education, gender inequality, sanitation, drinking water and livelihood generation all fall within the realm of panjayats. So, panjayats will play a major role in the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. These goals need to be achieved by 2030. And for this, the government in the Union Budget 2016-17 announced the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhyan for building capabilities of panjayati raj institutions to deliver on sustainable development goals. It was launched on 24th April 2018 as an umbrella scheme of the Ministry of Panjayati Raj. See, it is a unique scheme proposed to develop and strengthen the panjayati raj system across India in the rural areas. Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhyan is proposed to be implemented as a core centrally sponsored scheme for four years. That is from 2018-19 to 2021-22 with state and central shares. And now it is proposed to continue till 2025-26. The Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhyan has also envisaged a major role for panjayats in transforming aspirational districts. Now look at this image here. It shows the list of objectives of the scheme. Just pause the video and diligently go through the objectives of the abhyan. Okay? Note that Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhyan will be extended to all states and Union territories of the country. Now, that's all for the article discussion. Where can we use the points from this discussion? See, whenever we write way forward for the development of panjayats in the main censor, our go-to points are capacity building, increase in finance for the local governments, good governance, transparency and accountability, right? But like you, everyone will write the same points because they are generic points. So, instead of just writing the generic points, if you mention schemes like Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhyan and mention that capacity enhancement is done through this scheme, then it will fetch you more marks. This is how you have to link current affairs in your main censor. Okay? With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this article here. It says that the World Bank has projected India to grow at 8% over the current fiscal year and 7.1% over the next fiscal year. The forecast is based on the report titled South Asia Economic Focus Re-Shaping Norms a New Way Forward. The article also says that in the South Asia region, growth is expected to be slower than projected and this is due to the Russia's war on Ukraine. The impacts of the war are raising inflation, deteriorating current account balances and growing fiscal deficit. This is the essence of the article given here. In this context, let us learn about the World Bank from Prillim's point of view. What comes to your mind when I say World Bank? A bank that finances the countries, right? In this discussion, let us see what the World Bank actually does. The World Bank Group is one of the world's largest source of funding and knowledge for developing countries. Its five institutions share a commitment to reduce poverty, increase shared prosperity and promoting sustainable development. We will see what are those five institutions later in the discussion. Now coming back to the World Bank. World Bank is like a cooperative made up of 189 member countries. These member countries or shareholders are represented by a board of governors and these governors are the ultimate policy makers at the World Bank. The board of governors meet once a year at an annual meeting of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund. Now, where is the headquarters of the World Bank located? Its headquarters is located in Washington DC. With this basic understanding, now let us see how these institutions came into existence. In July 1944, one year before the World War II ended, delegates from 44 countries met for the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference held at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. The conference aimed to create the framework for post-war international economic cooperation and reconstruction. The conference resulted in the formation of two institutions. One is the International Monetary Fund and the other one is the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which is the World Bank. The creation of the World Bank was not the primary focus of Bretton Woods Conference. Here, majority of the time and effort was spent on the commission of International Monetary Fund. The work of the World Bank Commission, on the other hand, occurred only in the last few days of the conference. And its articles of agreement primarily included rebuilding the economies of countries devastated by the war and increasing the economic development of developing countries. And this is how the World Bank is formed. From 1944 till now, World Bank has taken multifaceted roles to help build economies in the member countries. During 1947, after the post-war reconstruction efforts, the bank shifted to funding infrastructure projects around the world in sectors such as power, irrigation and transportation. During the early years, the bank evolved to meet the needs of its members. In 1956, the International Finance Corporation was formed to focus exclusively on the private sector. And in 1960, the International Development Association was created to provide resources for less credit-worthy members, that is, to provide resources for the poor member countries. By 1970s, over 40% of the people in developing countries lived in absolute poverty. And in response, the World Bank's projects aimed to help the poor directly. Lending to member countries increased 12-fold between 1968 and 1981, and expanding into new sectors like environment, rural development, water, sanitation and education. The 1980s and the 1990s brought additional challenges related to oil shocks, debt crisis and environmentalism. And the bank reacted by bringing new skills and safeguards into work. As well as, the bank also made some structural adjustments. And in the 1990s, the banks associated former Soviet nations to redirect their economies after the dissolution of the USSR. Many of these newly formed sovereign nations became World Bank members. And after that, during the late 1990s, the World Bank moved back into areas of conflict prevention, post-conflict reconstruction and assistance for countries to redirect their economies after major political change. The mid-2000s created the idea of World Bank as a knowledge institution. By 2010, the open agenda guided the bank to a more transparent approach to development. See, after the collaboration with the United Nations Millennium Development Goal 2000, and subsequently the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, the World Bank moved into areas like community-driven development, aid coordination, working to safeguard vulnerable groups, and mitigating the impacts of climate change. And this is the chronology of the different roles played by the World Bank in different points of time. Now let us see the five institutions of the World Bank Group. See, here are the five institutions. Now we will discuss about them. The World Bank consists of five organizations. The first one is the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. It lends to the governments of middle income and credit-worthy low-income countries. This institution was a direct result of the Bretton Woods Conference, and it was established in 1944. The next one is the International Development Association. It provides interest-free loans called credits and grants to the governments of the poorest countries. Know that, together, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association make up the World Bank. And an additional information is International Development Association was established in 1960. The third institution is the International Finance Corporation. It was established in 1956. See, it is the largest global development institution focused mainly to private sector. It helps developing countries achieve sustainable growth by financing investment, mobilizing capital in international financial markets, and providing advisory services to businesses and governments. And the fourth institution is the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency. It was created in 1988 to promote foreign direct investment into developing countries. And why it promotes foreign direct investment? It promotes foreign direct investment to support economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve people's lives. The final one is the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes. It was established in 1966. It provides international facilities for conciliation and arbitration of investment disputes. See, these are the five organizations of the World Bank Group. For the prelims perspective, what is important here? The important thing is to know the membership of India. See, India is a member of four of the five organizations of the World Bank Group. India is a member of International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Development Association, International Finance Corporation, and Mutual Investment Guarantee Agency. Note that India is not a member of International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes. So, note this point. Now, that's all regarding this discussion. See, in this discussion, we saw the evolution of the World Bank. We saw the various organizations under the World Bank Group. We also saw the role played by these organizations. We saw the difference between the World Bank and the World Bank Group. And finally, we saw what are all the organizations of the World Bank Group in which India is a member. With this, let us conclude this discussion. And now, let us take up the next news article. See this article here. It says that in Tamil Nadu, the birth anniversary of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, the chief architect of our Constitution, will be observed as the Day of Equality. It will be observed on April 14th every year. See, this was announced by the chief minister of Tamil Nadu in the Tamil Nadu State Legislative Assembly. This is the crux of the article given here. We are not going to analyze the news any further. Instead, we will see some facts that will be relevant for the prelims exam. See, it takes courage to break free from the shackles of social inequality. It takes enormous amount of courage to believe that things can change. It takes a leader to fight these inequalities and establish a new social order. Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was a scholar, a social reformer and a leader who dedicated his life to eradicating social inequality in India. He established an India of equals, a country which provided great opportunities for people who were historically disadvantaged. With this knowledge about Ambedkar, we will know little bit in detail about him. See, as we all know, he was born on April 14th, 1891 in Madhya Pradesh. He went to a government school where children from the so-called lower caste were regarded as untouchables, were segregated and given little attention or assistance by the teachers. He passed the matriculation exam in 1907 and entered the Elphi Stone College for the following year, becoming the first person from the untouchable community to do so. In 1918, he became Professor of Political Economy in the Sidenham College of Commerce and Economics in Bombay. Though he was very popular with his students, he faced discrimination from his colleagues. It was during this period, Ambedkar started taking greater interest in politics and he was invited to testify before the South Borough Committee which was preparing the Government of India Act 1919. During this hearing, he argued for creating a separate electorate and reservation for untouchables and other religious communities. In 1920, he began publication of the weekly Muk Noyek in Mumbai with the help of Chhatrapati Sahu Maharaj, who was the Maharaja of Kolhapur. Ambedkar was appointed to the Bombay Presidency Committee to work with the Simon Commission in 1925. By 1927, he decided to launch active movements against untouchability and he also lent his support for access to public drinking water and right to enter Hindu temples for everyone. He led the Satyagraha in Mahat to fight for the right of untouchable community to draw water from the main water tank of the town. This is his efforts to uplift the community that were historically disadvantaged. Okay, see, apart from these contributions, Ambedkar was invited to attend the Second Roundtable Conference in London in 1932. Gandhi also attended the Second Roundtable Conference. But in that, Mahatma Gandhi opposed a separate electorate for untouchables as he believed this would split the nation. In spite of that, in 1932, the British government announced a communal award for a separate electorate for untouchables. Okay, to protest against this, Gandhi fasted while imprisoned in the Yaravada Central Jain of Pune. See, this fast resulted in an agreement widely known as Pune Pact in which Gandhi entered his fast and Ambedkar dropped his demand for a separate electorate. Instead, a certain number of seats were reserved specifically for the depressed class. Okay, another important contribution of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar is in the field of education. In 1935, Ambedkar was appointed Principal of the Government Law College in Mumbai and continued in that position for the next two years. The next important incident in Ambedkar's life came in the year 1935. In 1935, he announced his intention to convert to a different religion and urged his followers to leave Hinduism while speaking at the Yawla Conversion Conference in Nasik. Later, he repeated this message all through the country. In 1936, Dr. Ambedkar founded the Independent Labour Party which contested in the 1937 Bombay election to the Central Legislative Assembly. Ambedkar served on the Defence Advisory Committee and the Viceroy's Executive Council as Minister of Labour during this period. This is also the period when Ambedkar wrote extensively on conditions of Dalits and the caste system in the Hindu society. During this period, Ambedkar renamed his party as the Schedule Caste Federation which later evolved into Republican Party of India. See, we know India became an independent nation on 15th August 1947. And Ambedkar was appointed as the Union Law Minister and the Chairman of the Constitutional Drafting Committee. The Constitutional Drafting Committee was given the responsibility to write the India's new constitution. Dr. Ambedkar's text provided constitutional guarantee and protection of a whole range of civil liberties for individual citizens including freedom of religion, the abolition of untouchability and outlawing of all forms of discrimination. He argued for equality for everyone. The Constitutional Assembly formally approved the draft constitution on 26th November 1949 and Ambedkar's great work, the Indian Constitution, became our way of life on 26th January 1950. See, struggle was part of Dr. Ambedkar's life as he had to work hard for everything he achieved. While he is remembered for his relentless crusade for a new social order, the Indian nation shall always remain in-depth to him for giving us the constitution that defines our core values as a nation. He was the man who made us a nation of equals. Okay, that's all regarding this discussion. I hope through this discussion you got to know about Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. See, these points, they can be directly used in your main censor. Also, all the contribution of Dr. Ambedkar that we discussed as a part of this discussion can be asked as a statement type question in films also. So, revise what we discussed diligently. Okay, now that's all for this discussion. With these points, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Now for a next news article discussion, let us take up this news article. See, according to an April 12 report on the current macroeconomic and financial situation by Nepal Rashtra Bank, the country's forex reserves have declined by 18.5% to $9.58 billion in March from $11.71 billion in July 2021. Experts say that the current forex reserves are enough to pay the government's import bill only for the next seven months or so. So, this is the crux of the news article given here. In this context, let us quickly go through some of the important points mentioned in the news article. Firstly, why has Nepal's forex reserve fallen? See, we all know that Nepal is blessed with one of the finest tourism sectors in South Asia. This is because of the presence of Himalayan mountain range. See, so naturally, Nepal is heavily dependent on tourism for its forex earning. And we all know that this sector, that is a tourism sector, has suffered heavily during the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated national lockdowns. So, since Nepal is heavily dependent on tourism sector for its forex earnings and this sector is affected due to the pandemic, this caused the forex reserves of Nepal to dwindle. Okay, this is the first cause. Now, let us move on to the second cause. See, like our country, Nepal imports almost all of its petroleum needs. And with the Russia-Ukraine war going on, the global crude oil prices have been rising. This has resulted in increasing import cost for Nepal. This is also draining its forex reserves. In addition to this, the increased oil bill has also put extraordinary inflationary pressure on the economy. Okay, this is the second reason for Nepal's falling forex reserves. Okay, now moving on to the third reason. See, there is a decline in foreign remittance during the pandemic in Nepal. Because during the pandemic, Nepal's workforce working abroad suffered job losses. This has resulted in decrease in remittance to Nepal. This has also affected the forex earnings. So, these are the three reasons for the present economic crisis in Nepal. See, in previous discussions, we saw about Sri Lankan economic crisis. Okay, how is this situation in Nepal different from the situation in Sri Lanka? The only reason why Nepal is better placed than Sri Lanka is because Nepal is not burdened by external debt. So, Nepal's forex reserve situation appears healthy as of now. Okay, so this is the major difference between the conditions in Nepal and Sri Lanka. That's all regarding this discussion. With this, let us conclude the news article discussion session and take up the practice prelims questions. Today as a part of practice prelims question session, we have only one question. Let us take up this question. See, this question is in reference to Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Jabyan. Two statements are given. We have to find the correct statement. Let us take up the first statement. The scheme comes under the Ministry of Rural Development. See, this statement is incorrect because we saw in our discussion that Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Jabyan comes under the Ministry of Panjayati Raj. Okay. Now, let us take up the second statement. The objective of the scheme is to build capabilities of Panjayati Raj institutions and to deliver on sustainable development goals. See, this statement is correct because from our discussion we know that the objective of this scheme that is the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Jabyan is to build capabilities of Panjayati Raj institutions and to deliver on sustainable development goals. So, the correct answer here is option B, two only. The main question based on today's discussion is displayed here. Write your answers and post it in the comment section. If you like today's video, like, comment and share it with your friends. For more updates regarding UPSC preparation, subscribe to Shankara IS Academy YouTube channel. Thank you.