 Welcome to the Hindu news analysis for the date 10th of February 2020. The list of news articles taken up for today's analysis is displayed here along with the page numbers of five different editions. The handwritten notes in 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 common section for the benefit of the smartphone users. Let us now move on to our analysis. Now let us see a news article which is based on the recent judgment of Supreme Court regarding the reservation and promotion to the members of Scheduled Cases and Schedule Tribes. See yesterday there was a news article in the news column titled Reservation and Promotion in Public Posts, not a fundamental right, Supreme Court. So first let us discuss about this news article in brief which is nothing but the judgment delivered by the Supreme Court and based on this discussion we will try to look at today's news article. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. See recently the Supreme Court has given certain clarification regarding the reservation to the members of Scheduled Cases and Schedule Tribes in Public Posts and in promotion to the Public Posts. First let us see the judgment and then we will see the news article. See the judgment was given in the case law Mukesh Kumar and another verses the State of Uttarakhand and others. The details of the case are not important so we will just keep to the judgment. On a whole you need to just know that the Supreme Court has given its verdict on two matters. The first matter is whether the State Government is bound to make reservations in public posts or not and the second matter is whether the decision by the State Government not to provide reservations can be only on the basis of quantifiable data relating to adequacy of representation of persons belonging to Scheduled Cases and Schedule Tribes or not. Now if you look at the Indian Constitution, Article 16 deals with public employment. It is about the equality of opportunity in matters of public employment. In this article the clause 4 mentions that nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any provision for the reservation of appointments or reservation of posts in favor of any backward class of citizens. This can be done when in the opinion of the State such backward class of citizens is not adequately represented in the services under the State. After this the clause 4A mentions that nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any provision for reservation in matters of promotion with consequential seniority to any class or classes of posts in the services under the State. And such reservation is for the Scheduled Cases and Schedule Tribes which in the opinion of the State are not adequately represented in the services under the State. So these are the two provisions which provide constitutional legality to provide reservations in posts and also in promotion in favor of Schedule Cases and Schedule Tribes. Based on these provisions the Supreme Court has noted that Article 16 Clause 4 and Article 16 Clause 4A do not confer fundamental right to claim reservations in promotion. The Supreme Court also noted that Article 16 Clause 4 and Article 16 Clause 4A are in the nature of enabling provisions. So it gives a discretion to the State Government to consider for providing reservations if the circumstances warrant so. So the Supreme Court said that the State Government cannot be directed to provide reservations for appointment in public posts. Similarly, the State is not bound to make reservation for members of Schedule Cases and Schedule Tribes in matters of promotions. However if they wish to exercise their discretion and make such provision then the State has to collect quantifiable data showing that there is inadequacy of representation of that class in public services. If the decision of the State Government to provide reservations in promotion is challenged then the State concerned shall have to present the requisite quantifiable data before the court and satisfy the court that such reservations became necessary on account of inadequacy of representation of Schedule Cases and Schedule Tribes in a particular class or classes of posts. So according to Supreme Court the Article 16 Clause 4 and Article 16 Clause 4A empower the State to make reservation in matters of appointment and promotion in favor of the Schedule Cases and the Schedule Tribes if in the opinion of the State they are not adequately represented in the services of the State. So it is the discretion of the State just remember this fact. This is why the Supreme Court has noted that it is for the State Government to decide whether reservations are required in matter of appointment and promotions to public posts. According to Supreme Court the language in Clause 4 and 4A of Article 16 is clear. The inadequacy of representation is a matter within the subjective satisfaction of the State that is the State can form its own opinion on the basis of the material it has in its position which it might have it already or it may gather such material through a commission or a committee or through a person or through any authority. All that is required is that there must be some material on the basis of which the opinion is formed. So the collection of quantifiable data showing inadequacy of representation of Schedule Cases and Schedule Tribes in public services a sine qua non for providing reservations in promotions that is it is an essential condition which is absolutely necessary. Further the data to be collected by the State Government is only to justify the reservation that is to be made in the matter of appointment to public posts or in the matter of promotion to public posts according to Article 16 Clause 4 and Article 16 Clause 4A of the Constitution. Here you should note that the collection of data regarding the inadequate representation of the members of the Schedule Cases and the Schedule Tribes as we just saw is a prerequisite for providing reservations but it is not a prerequisite or it is not required when the State Government decides not to provide reservations. This is because the State is not bound to provide reservations in promotions and hence the State is not required to justify its decision on the basis of quantifiable data showing that there is adequate representation of members of the Schedule Cases and Schedule Tribes in State Services. So remember that based on the recent judgment of Supreme Court if the State Government wants to provide reservation then it needs to show that there is inadequate representation of Schedule Cases and Schedule Tribes. But if the State Government decides not to provide reservations then it need not prove that there is adequate representation of Schedule Cases and Schedule Tribes. So with regard to this matter the Court also noted that even if someone brings to the notice of the Court that there is under representation of Schedule Cases and Schedule Tribes in public services then also no mandamus can be issued by the Court to the State Government to provide reservation. So what is the meaning of this word mandamus? It literally means we command. It is a command that is issued by the Supreme Court to a public official asking him or her to perform his or her official duties that he or she has failed to perform or which he or she has refused to perform. It can also be issued against any public body or a corporation or even an inferior Court or even a Tribunal or Government for the same purpose. Now in today's matter a mandamus cannot be issued by the Court to the State Government directing it to provide reservation. So these are the important decisions of the Supreme Court on reservation to Schedule Cases and Schedule Tribes. So this is the background information that you need to know with regards to the judgment that was delivered by the Supreme Court recently and this judgment was present in yesterday's news article. Now with this background let us look at today's news article. Based on this judgment the former leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Mr. M. Malikarjun Kharge has urged the Union Government to immediately intervene and protect the interests of the socially and economically backward sections of India. According to this leader this judgment dilutes the reservation that was provided to the Schedule Cases, Schedule Tribes and other backward classes. Since this judgment has stated that reservation is not a fundamental right. But here you should be clear that the Court only said that reservation and promotion is not a fundamental right. The Court did not say that normal reservation for backward classes is not a fundamental right. So know this difference from exam point of view. This is all about the discussion of this news article. In this news article we have discussed about the recent judgment of Supreme Court regarding the reservation and promotion to the members of the Schedule Cases and the Schedule Tribes. Where the Supreme Court has said that reservation and promotion in public posts is not a fundamental right. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is related to the imports of lithium ion batteries by India. It discusses about the statistics that was presented by the government in Lok Sabha. So in this context let us discuss about lithium ion batteries, its applications, advantages and limitations. Then we'll try to compare lithium ion batteries to the lead acid and nickel metal hydrate batteries in brief and finally we'll see why India imports a huge quantity of lithium ion batteries instead of manufacturing them. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. See for many years nickel cadmium had been the only suitable battery for portable equipment from wireless communications to mobile computing and this lithium ion emerged only in the early 1990s and today lithium ion is the fastest growing and most promising battery technology. See lithium is the lightest of all the metals. It has the greatest electrochemical potential and it provides the largest energy density for weight. Here energy density refers to the amount of energy that can be stored. However the lithium metal is highly unstable especially during charging. So lithium metal battery cannot be used for recharging. In order to overcome this issue the research got shifted to a non-metallic lithium battery where instead of lithium metal lithium ions were used. When compared to lithium metal the lithium ions are slightly lower in energy density but still lithium ion is safe to charge and discharge. So we can say that lithium metal batteries are not rechargeable whereas lithium ion batteries are rechargeable. So where do we use lithium ion batteries? See lithium ion batteries come in all shapes and sizes and they are used in many applications but mostly if you see they are used in the electronics industry to be specific especially in the consumer electronics like your mobile phones cameras and other electronic gadgets. These lithium ion batteries are rechargeable and they have much light weight when compared to other types of rechargeable batteries of the same size. Since they are rechargeable and light weight they provide portable electricity to the electronic gadgets like mobile phones, laptops, tablets, digital cameras, watches etc. And even these batteries are also used to supply energy to medical equipment than electric vehicles and power tools. Now let us look at some of the advantages of these lithium ion batteries. First is that as we saw there light weight when compared to other types of rechargeable batteries of the same size. Next is their energy density. See the lithium ion batteries have a very high energy density meaning a lot of energy can be stored. Now in order to have an idea know that a typical lithium ion battery can store 150 watt-hards of electricity in 1 kg of battery whereas at the same time a nickel metal hydrate battery can store only 100 watt-hards of electricity in 1 kg of battery and lead acid battery can store only 25 watt-hards per kg. So we can say that it takes at least six lead acid batteries to store the same amount of energy that a single lithium ion battery can store. So this is a huge difference. The next advantage is that the lithium ion batteries can retain their charge for a longer period when compared to the other two batteries and also they can handle hundreds of charge and discharge cycles. The next advantage is the memory effect of these lithium ion batteries. See the lithium ion batteries have no memory effect. It means that you do not have to completely discharge them before recharging that is say for example your mobile charge points to only 20 percentage but still you can recharge the mobile because it contains lithium battery. So you can charge them daily. So to summarize the advantages we can say that lithium ion batteries are smaller lightweight but they still have a high energy density and holds charge much longer when compared to other types of batteries. It is not that these batteries are completely advantages in terms of usage. They too have certain disadvantages. First is that these batteries are more expensive when compared to other batteries since they are complex to manufacture. The next issue is that they start degrading as soon as they leave the factory that is they will last only approximately around two to three years from the date of manufacture even if you're using them or not using them. Next if you see these lithium ion batteries are extremely sensitive to high temperatures because the heat causes the lithium ion battery packs to degrade much faster than they normally would. So it is temperature sensitive. We just saw that a lithium ion battery is expensive. Now if you look at the lithium ion battery pack it must have an on-board computer to manage the battery. So this makes them even more expensive. The next disadvantage is that if a lithium ion battery pack fails that is when they are overcharged or when there is an internal malfunction which causes a short circuit then immediately the lithium ion battery pack will burst into flame. So this is yet another disadvantage of lithium ion battery. So these are some of the disadvantages of lithium ion battery. So this is all you need to know about lithium ion batteries. With this background information in mind let us now look at the news article. This news article discusses about the statistics on the imports of lithium ion batteries by India since 2016. From this picture you can see that the imports of lithium ion batteries have increased till 2019. The news article tells that from 2016 to 2018 there was an increase in the overall imports of lithium ion batteries but it dipped in the year 2019. But at the same time the price of the lithium ion batteries have increased continuously from 2016 till 2019. So from this graph we can infer that though the imports have decreased the price has remained high. So why is the price of lithium ion batteries very high? Because India lacks the resources in terms of lithium metal. Also India is not having adequate infrastructure for manufacturing the lithium ion batteries. At present India imports lithium ion from resource-rich countries like China and because of this India's imports of lithium ion batteries are quite high. So to tackle this the government of India has taken some initiatives to promote indigenous development of batteries. First, Niti Ayo came up with an initiative which targets for indigenization of development of rechargeable batteries. In 2019 the union cabinet approved a program called as National Mission on Transformative Mobility and Battery Storage. This mission aims for faced manufacturing of electric vehicles and their components including lithium ion batteries. So this mission aims to develop a competitive domestic manufacturing system for electric mobility. So as a part of this the battery infrastructure will also be developed in India. And apart from this if you see ISRO also manufactures lithium ion batteries but their volumes are quite limited and they are also restricted for use only in the space applications. But after government's interventions at present ISRO is offering to transfer the lithium ion technology to competent Indian industries and startups to establish lithium ion cell production facilities. Then if you see in 2018 the Central Electrochemical Research Institute in Tamil Nadu which functions under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and Solar Power Generation Company signed a memorandum of agreement for transfer of technology for India's first lithium ion battery project. Next if you look at this news article which appears in the Hyderabad edition a Niti Ayog member has said that in 2020-2021 five to six two gigawatt hard battery manufacturing plants would come up and Niti Ayog was ready to encourage those who come up with proposals. Also the Niti Ayog member has said that India is also considering getting lease of lithium mines abroad so that the manufacturing costs would be reduced to a greater extent. So this idea of leasing lithium mines from resource rich countries could be the best option if India aims to become the largest manufacturing hub for both lithium ion batteries as well as the electric vehicles. So these are some of the initiatives taken by the government of India to promote battery manufacturing infrastructure in India. This is all about from this news article. To summarize we have seen about the applications advantages and limitations of lithium ion batteries and then we saw the news article why India imports huge quantity of lithium ion batteries instead of manufacturing them in India. And finally we saw some of the initiatives taken by the government of India to boost the manufacturing of lithium ion batteries in India. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about the ongoing elections in the country of Ireland. In this news article it is mentioned that the election to the 160 seat Irish parliament is happening according to the method of single transferable vote. So let us take this opportunity to know about two major election methods. One is the first past the post system and the next is the proportional representation especially by means of single transferable vote. So let us see both these election methods. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Now let us see the first past the post system. It is the simplest way of electing representatives. Now assume that electorate consists of thousand people and there are four candidates in the competition will keep them as A, B, C and D. And election happens in the election each voter can vote for one candidate whom he or she favors. The elections are over on counting the votes the candidate who gets the maximum number of votes wins the election. For example say if candidate A got 300 votes then B got 280 votes then C got 270 votes and he got 150 votes. So here A has got the maximum number of votes and A will be declared the winner. So we can see that this is the simplest way of electing representatives. What are the positives of this election system? First and foremost is the simplicity of the system. Even an illiterate voter can vote for a candidate of his or her choice. Secondly in this system chances are high that a single political party or a pre poll alliance will get majority and the government that will be formed is expected to be a stable government. And in this system the voters will be voting for the candidate based on his or her merits and not for the party. So we can tell that this election system makes the political system a real representative one. In India if you see this first past the post system is used for electing members of Lok Sabha the members of state legislative assembly. Now let us look at the disadvantage of this first past the post system. We just saw that different candidates got different votes. We will just take A and B, A got 300 votes and B got 280 votes. So the difference is just 20 votes. But here A is the winner. This means that there is no clear majority required to win an election in this first past the post system. So the disadvantage is that smaller political parties will not get represented in the legislature even if they have gathered a significant percentage of votes. For example if you see in the recently concluded 2019 general elections to the Lok Sabha the present ruling alliance that is the NDA gathered just over 45 percentage of the total votes. But if you see they won more than 350 seats in the Lok Sabha. So this is the main disadvantage of this first past the post system. So this is all you need to know about first past the post system. Now let us look at the proportional representation system. As the name indicates the system of election ensures that the number of seats won by a party is proportionate to the number of votes it got. If you look this system of proportional representation as many variants one of the important variant is proportional representation by means of single transferable vote. So let us discuss how it works. See in this system the entire voters make an electoral college. Under the single transferable vote each voter gets a single vote in an election for multiple winners. Note that the ballot will have a preferential list of candidates while voting each elector marks their ballot for the most preferred candidate. Apart from this they also mark the backup preferences. So we can tell that the vote goes according to voters preference. And at the end of the counting there are two chances there is a clear winner with a majority or no one has got the required majority. If you look at this required majority it is a predetermined number and this number depends country to country. Now if you look at the first case where there is a clear winner with a majority we can tell that the election is over and the winner is declared. But in the second case where there is a condition where no one has got the required majority transfer of votes takes place. Now let us see this with an example. Before that you need to see the quota system. We just saw that the required majority under this system of elections is predetermined by each country. In India we have the quota system. So the formula for quota system is number of valid votes divided by n plus 1 plus 1. Here n is the number of persons to be elected. So we will go by this formula and let us now see an example. See election has to be conducted for filling one post as per this election system assume that there are three candidates in this election system. So the number of persons to be elected here is just one. Now if you go by quota system you need to know the majority that is required. So here consider that 100 people are voting to elect one candidate. So number of valid votes is 100 divided by 1 that is number of persons to be elected is 1 plus 1. So 100 by 2 plus 1 50 plus 1 it is 51. So the required majority here is 51 percentage. And we just saw there are three candidates who are contesting in the elections and 100 people are voting to elect one among these three candidates. So there will be 100 ballots with the name of these three candidates each and during voting each voter will give their preference to either of the three candidates. So the first preference will be to one candidate, second preference to the other candidate and third preference to the other candidate. Now the voting is over and the ballots will be countered. We saw two possible options. The first option is there is a clear winner with a majority that is say for example candidate A has got 52 votes out of the 100 votes. It means candidate A has a clear majority and he or she is the winner. Now come to the second condition out of these three candidates no one has the required majority of 51. So in this case the transfer of votes will take place. Say for example A got 33 votes, B got 32 votes and C got 35 votes as their first preference. So here B has got the least number of votes 32 out of these three. So B will be eliminated and then the ballots of those who preferred this eliminated candidate will be considered. So the first preference is out now. So the second preference of the voters who counted for this B candidate will be counted now and say out of these 32 votes 18 persons have voted for candidate A. So 33 plus 18 makes 51 and remaining 14 has voted for candidate C 14 plus 35 makes 49. Now A has the majority and A becomes the winner. So this is how the votes are transferred and at the end a majority is achieved. This is what we mean by proportional representation by means of single transferable vote. Now in the Indian scenario if you see this election method is used for many elections like the election of president then the election of vice president then the election of Rajesh Abba members and then the election of members of state legislative councils in whichever states the legislative councils exist. The most important aspect of this kind of election method is that even the minor political parties will get represented in the legislature based on the number of votes they receive. So this really makes the parliament representative. So this is the advantage of this particular election method. But if you look even this method has certain disadvantages in this system most probably one party will not get the sufficient majority. Hence coalition systems will become unavoidable and there are high chances that such coalition governments may not be stable since there are so many stakeholders. Another issue is that the voter candidate distance might increase because in this election people will be voting for a particular party rather than a particular candidate. This actually makes the candidate less representative as he was voted based on his allegiance to a party and not based on his merits. So this is all that you need to know from this second system of election which is proportional representation through means of single transferable vote. Now this election system is being practiced in the country of Ireland. We just saw that it is difficult for one party to get the sufficient majority under this particular election system. This article substantiates this fact. According to the news article the exit polls suggest fractured mandate with no clear path to the formation of a governing coalition in Ireland. The article says that three major political parties of Ireland are almost equally leading but all these three parties have different political ideologies. So this makes the process of forming a coalition very difficult in Ireland as of now. So this is all about the discussion of this news article. With the help of this news article we try to know the difference between two major election methods. One is the first past the post system and the second is proportional representation by means of single transferable vote. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. In this editorial the author discusses about the reasons and need for a refugee law in India. Here he has taken the example of Rohingya refugees to convey the point that India needs a refugee law. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this editorial is given here for your reference. Now why the author tells a refugee law is important for India is because of the recently enacted Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019. We know that this act provides citizenship to certain people on the grounds of both religion and nation that is from six different religions from three different countries. The point is that these people illegally entered into India. So in order to not declare them as illegal migrants and to help them to acquire citizenship by naturalization in a faster manner this Citizenship Amendment Act was enacted in 2019 and we know that this act does not include Muslim religion. So this is from the religion perspective because we know that there are certain sections of Muslims who are still persecuted because of their religion in the neighboring countries and because of the persecution they came to India's refugees but if you see they were not given equal chance under this Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019. The author tells that this law not only places restrictions on the religion but also based on the nations from where the individuals have faced religious persecution. For example this law does not include the religiously persecuted individuals from countries like Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan etc. So the author tells India needs a refugee law. Here the author has spoken about the argument of Indian government. See the argument of Indian government is that in practice India is one of the leading refugee receiving countries. If you look at refugees from countries like Sri Lanka, Nepal have already been given a place to reside in India. The author tells that even the same argument was provided by the then Indian government under the prime ministership of Jawaharlal Nehru for not signing the 1951 refugee convention of the United Nations. At that time India argued that in practice India is one of the leading refugee receiving countries because there were refugees from Sri Lanka who included Sri Lankan Tamils, then there were Tibetans from China, then there were Chin minorities from Burma that is the present country of Myanmar and then there were also Hindus from countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan. So India received people from these countries as refugees and according to scholars the then Indian government was committed to the principles that were enshrined in this 1951 refugee convention but it was unwilling to legally bind itself to the obligations under 1951 convention. So what is this 1951 convention which the author is speaking and what are the legally binding obligations let us see them now. See this 1951 refugee convention protects the refugees it is also known as the convention relating to the status of refugees and this convention was later amended by the 1967 protocol. See this convention defines refugee so who is a refugee as per this convention refugee is a person who is outside his or a country of nationality or habitual residence and if that person has a well-founded fear of being persecuted because of various factors it may be a sort of race or religion or nationality or even maybe because of membership of a particular social group or even if they have different political opinions and so on. So they have a fear of being persecuted based on these grounds and further if they are unable or unwilling to avail themselves the protection of that country and if they feel that they will be persecuted once they return to their country all these persons can be defined as refugees and those people who fulfill this definition are entitled to the rights and they are bound by the duties contained in the 1951 convention and this convention also outlines the legal obligations of states to protect them. Now if you see when a country exits to this 1951 convention first it should demonstrate its commitment to treating refugees in accordance with internationally recognized legal and humanitarian standards then the country gives the refugees a possibility to find safety within its territorial boundaries. Thirdly if you see this convention helps the countries to avoid friction with other countries over refugee questions. It is because granting asylum is a peaceful humanitarian and legal act rather than a hostile gesture and it should be understood by the refugees country of origin. Next if you see the country should demonstrate its willingness to share the responsibility for protecting refugees and finally it should help UNHCR that is the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to mobilize international support for the protection of refugees. It is because UNHCR serves as the guardian of this 1951 convention and its 1967 protocol. So these are some of the provisions under this 1951 convention in addition to this this convention also contains a number of rights and it also highlights the obligations of refugees towards their host country. Now if you look at the cornerstone of this 1951 convention it is the principle of non-refoulement which is contained in article 33 of this convention. So what is this principle of non-refoulement? To understand this principle first we need to know what is meant by refoulement. Refoulement means the forcible return of refugees or asylum seekers to a country where they are liable to be subjected to persecution. So according to this non-refoulement principle a refugee should not be returned to a country where he or she faces serious threats to his or her life or freedom. So this is the principle of non-refoulement but it again has certain terms and conditions. This protection may not be claimed by refugees who are reasonably regarded as a danger to the security of the country or those who are considered as danger to the community as the persons have been convicted of a particularly serious crime. So there are certain terms and conditions and apart from this there are also certain other rights of refugees as you can see here. So the core principle of this convention is non-refoulement. Further if you see this principle of non-refoulement is now considered a rule of customary international law that is it is binding on all the states that is all the countries regardless of whether they have exceeded to the 1951 convention or the 1967 protocol or not. So based on this the author is telling that a refugee who is seeking protection must not be prevented from entering a country as this would amount to refoulement. In this context the author has discussed about Rohingya refugees. He tells that in October 2018 the Indian executive sent back seven Rohingya men who had been detained in Assam since 2012 to Myanmar and even the Supreme Court of India refused to stop their deportation. Now why the Supreme Court refused because it laid its basis on the claim of union government that the country of Myanmar had accepted the refugees as citizens and the refugee men also had orally agreed to be repatriated. According to the author these claims are unreliable and he tells that the Supreme Court immorally refused to stop the deportation process. It is because the refugee men did not have access to legal counsel nor did they have access to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to determine whether their consent was freely expressed or not. But what happened to them after they were deported that is whether they were given the status of citizenship in Myanmar or not is not known till now. So according to the author the Indian government and the Supreme Court is morally culpable that is he means to tell that their actions are not moral or immoral because they have sent the Rohingyas back to their country where there is a genocidal condition which is persisting. The fact that a genocidal condition exists in Myanmar was also made clear by the judgment of the International Court of Justice in the month of January. If you remember we have discussed about this ruling in detail on our 25th January 2020 the Hindu News Analysis. So we request our viewers to have a look at it for a better understanding. So we can see that Rohingyas have been sent back to Myanmar where a genocidal condition exists and the author tells that even after the judgment of International Court of Justice there will not be any introspection and atonement or amendment in the decision of the central government regarding repatriation of Rohingya refugees. It is because the government has never referred to the Rohingya as refugees but it has referred to them as illegal immigrants or security threats or potential terror threats. This is the reason they have not been included as eligible for citizenship under the 2019 amendment on the Citizenship Act of 1955. So the author tells that such conditions happen because of the discrimination in the recognition of refugees and the award of citizenship. So the author tries to tell that there are many problems with Indian law relating to refugees. So in this context the author has discussed certain problems. Let us look at them one by one. The first problem according to the author is that our law does not distinguish between foreigners and refugees but if you look the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees provides the differentiation between foreigners and refugees. Refugees are forced to flee because of a threat of persecution and because they lack the protection of their own country but a foreigner who is a migrant may leave his or her country for many reasons that are not related to persecution such as for the purposes of employment or family reunification or study whereas a migrant continues to enjoy the protection of his or her own government even when they are abroad. So a migrant is different from a refugee but if you look at from the Indian perspective our laws do not distinguish this. This is clear when you see the definition of who is meant by a foreigner according to the foreigners act of 1946. If you look at this act it defines foreigner as a person who is not a citizen of India. Even refugee is not a citizen of India so we can see that there is no proper differentiation between foreigner and refugee. The second problem according to the author is that the laws assume that the executive will act on the principles of humanism and non-discrimination and the author tells that this is not true because the present government is driven by right wing ideology. He tells that it is hostile to Muslims and the author also tells that the present government believes that India should be the natural home for persecuted Hindus but not to Muslims. So we can see on the one side that there is an absence of explicit recognition of the category of refugees in the Indian laws and on the other side we can see that there is an absence of explicit recognition of their legally binding rights even the guarantees of basic fundamental rights to equality and non-discrimination and humanitarian obligations. Despite the absence of these recognitions explicitly the author tells that India should not have violated the core principle of non-refoulement but it had violated. So we can see that India's violated the core principle of non-refoulement in case of Rohingyas. So this is what the author is trying to emphasize and this is the main reason why the author suggests that India should bring in the refugee law which conforms to international conventions which should first recognize eligible undocumented immigrants as refugees that should be based on the evidence that is determined by due process of the persecution in their home countries. So such a kind of law would also assure the refugees a set of binding rights. The most important of these rights is the guarantee that they would not be forced to return to the conditions of persecution by threatening their lives in liberty. And secondly the law would assure them the life of dignity within India along with education, health care and livelihoods. So these are some of the suggestions given by author in order to address the issues of refugees. So this is all about the discussion of this editorial. In this editorial the author tries to emphasize the need for a refugee law for India to explain this he has taken the example of Rohingya refugees. So in this context we saw about the recently enacted Citizenship Amendment Act how it discriminates certain religions and in this context we also saw about the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees under which we also saw the principle of non-refoulement. Now have a look at the practice question let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about the recent arrest which was done by the Narcotics Control Bureau. See the Narcotics Control Bureau has said that they have unearthed the country's first dark net narcotics operative which allegedly shipped hundreds of psychotropic drug parcels abroad. This includes psychotropic drugs like Tramadol, Zolpiden, Alprazolam and this was unearthed as a part of the global operation which is named as Operation Trans. So in this context you need to know what is meant by dark net then you need to know about this global operation Trans and finally let us see some facts about Narcotics Control Bureau. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. See some psychotropic drug names are mentioned here so just try to have an idea because based on the current affairs a question has appeared in previous year UPSC prelims. They mentioned certain chemical names like Carbofuran, methylparatheon forate and triosophores and they asked a question these chemicals are used as. So all these three were pesticides in agriculture so similarly you can expect a question on these lines so always try to know the names of chemicals that appear in the news articles. You need not go in detail to know all types of drugs but just try to know the names that appear in the news articles. If you remember during our 30th January analysis we discussed in detail about dark net we request our viewers to have a look at it for the subject clarity. Now the issue with this dark net is that it is very tough to crack the data that flows in the dark net and through this dark net many illegal activities happen one such is the trade of psychotropic drugs from India and the Narcotics Control Bureau has unearthed country's first dark net narcotics operative. So this is the news article in this news article you can find the word operation trans just have an idea that this operation trans is an intelligence operation at a global level and this was launched very recently in the month of December last year that is 2019 not much details are available about this operation trans we shall discuss more on this in our future analysis sessions. Finally let us see in brief about narcotics control bureau see it is a central anti-narcotics agency which was created in 1986 as per the provisions of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances act of 1985. These are some of the functions of narcotics control bureau it mainly coordinates between various central and state agencies who are engaged in drug law enforcement and it also assists the states in order to enhance their drug law enforcement effort then it helps in collecting and disseminating the intelligence data related to illegal drug smuggling activities and it also coordinates with various international agencies like Interpol, Customs, Cooperation Council etc. So it acts as a national contact point for intelligence and investigations related to narcotic drugs and also psychotropic substances. This is all that you need to know from this news article with this we come to the end of the analysis session. Now let us move on to the practice questions discussion session. Look at the first question which is related to certain provisions in Indian constitution two statements are given and you need to choose the correct statements. Look at the first statement it tells that the state can make provisions for the reservation of appointments or posts in favor of any backward class of citizens. See this statement is correct as per article 16 clause 4 of Indian constitution. So as per article 16 clause 4 the state can make provision for the reservation of appointments or posts in favor of any backward class of citizens. If the state feels such backward class of citizens are not adequately represented in the services under the state. Here you need to note that the statement tells the state can it did not tell the state shall there is a difference between the word can and shall. Shall means compulsory can means it is not compulsory it is up to the state to make reservations. So this statement is correct. Now look at the second statement it tells that the state can make provisions for the reservation and matters of promotion in favor of any backward class of citizens. This statement is wrong. See as per article 16 clause 4a the state can make provisions for reservation and matters of promotion in favor of the scheduled cast and the scheduled tribes only it is not any backward class of citizens. So when it comes to promotion the state can make provisions for reservation and matters of promotion in favor of scheduled cast and scheduled tribes only. So know this difference. So the first statement is correct second statement is wrong and you need to choose the correct statements for this question. So the correct answer is option a 1 only. Look at the next question which is about lithium ion batteries 4 statements are given and you need to choose the correct statements. Look at the first statement it tells that they are rechargeable and lightweight. Yes this statement is correct. They are lightweight and they can be recharged and one more thing to note here is that lithium ion batteries have no memory effect that is there is no need to discharge completely and then recharge. It can be recharged even in between. Now look at the second statement it tells that lithium ion batteries are cheaper when compared to other rechargeable batteries. This statement is wrong because lithium ion batteries are more expensive when compared to other batteries because they are much complex to manufacture. Look at the third statement India's largest manufacturer of lithium ion batteries after China. This statement is wrong because India's demand for lithium ion batteries is more. At the same time the resources to manufacture lithium ion batteries are not available in India. So India is largely dependent on the inputs from other countries especially countries like China, Japan and South Korea. So India is not the largest manufacturer in fact India is one of the largest importers of lithium ion batteries in the world. So the third statement goes wrong. Now look at the fourth statement it tells that national mission on transformative mobility and battery storage program aims to export around 450 million lithium ion batteries every year. See this mission is an initiative of Niti IO. This mission aims for faced manufacturing of electric vehicles and their components including batteries. So the aim is to develop a competitive domestic manufacturing ecosystem for electric mobility in India. The reason is because we just saw that India is one of the largest importers of lithium ion batteries in the world. So in order to boost the battery infrastructure storage which is one of the component of electric vehicle and also in order to boost the overall manufacturing of electric vehicles in a faced manner this mission was announced by the central government in 2019. So this mission does not elaborate on the exports rather than it elaborate on the manufacture of electric vehicles and its components. So the fourth statement also goes wrong. Now we need to choose the correct statements the correct answer to this question is option A 1 Mung Lee. Let us move on to the main question look at the first question the question is India is one of the leading refugee receiving countries still India is not a part of the 1951 refugee convention. Discuss the provisions of the refugee convention 1951. Do you think India should have a refugee law conforming to the international conventions? Give reasons in support of your arguments. You need to answer this question in 250 words. Look at the next practice main question. In India political representatives are elected mainly through two systems first past the post system and single transferable vote system. In this context discuss in detail about these two methods of election. Try to give answers for this question in 250 words. Please post your answers in the common section. We shall review and give suitable feedbacks and suggestions within a reasonable time frame. 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.