 A very good evening aspirants, welcome to Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankarae's Academy for the date 15th of June 2022. And displayed here are the list of articles that we are going to discuss today. Without any delay, let's get into the article discussion. We are going to start our discussion with this article today. This news article states that Defense Minister announced the Agnipat scheme for recruitment of youth in the armed forces for four years. He stated that the process of recruitment will come in 90 days with a planned intake of 46,000 young men and women this year. And this will be the only form of recruitment of soldiers into the three defense services from now onwards. In this context, let's discuss about the Agnipat scheme from the prelims point of view. As I said earlier, under the new Agnipat scheme, around 45,000 to 50,000 soldiers will be recruited annually. The youth selected under the scheme will be known as Agni Veers and most will leave the service in just four years. Of the total annual recruits, only 25% will be allowed to continue for another 15 years under the permanent commission. So out of the 45 to 50,000 soldiers that are recruited, only 25% will be retained after four years. See the move will make the permanent force levels much leaner for the over 13 lakh strong armed forces in the country. This will in turn reduce the defense pension bill which has been a major concern for the governments for many years. And additionally know that the new system is only for personnel below the officer ranks that is for those who do not join the forces as commissioned officers. Under the Agnipat scheme aspirants between the ages of 17.5 years and 21 years will be eligible to apply. The recruitment standards will remind the same as it is over the years and the recruitment will be done twice a year through rallies. So the recruitment procedure is same and the eligibility is aspirants should have the ages between 17.5 and 21. Now what happens after one gets selected? See once selected the aspirants will go through training for six months and then they will be deployed for three and a half years. So totally four years. And during this period they will get a starting salary of rupees 30,000 along with additional benefits which will go up to rupees 40,000 by the end of four year service. And more importantly during this period 30% of their salary will be set aside under a Seva Nidhi program and the government will contribute an equal amount every month and it will also accrue interest. At the end of the four year period each soldier will get rupees 11.71 lakh as a lump sum amount which will be tax free. They will also get rupees 48 lakh life insurance cover for the four years and in case of death the payout will be over rupees 1 crore including the pay for the unserved tenure. However after four years only 25% of the batch will be recruited back into their respective services for a period of 15 years. Here you have to note that for those who are reselected the initial four year period will not be considered for the retirement benefits. See the scheme is expected to bring down the average age in the forces from 32 years to 26 in just 6 to 7 years. Because of the skills and experience acquired during the four year service soldiers will get employment in various fields and this will lead to availability of higher skilled workforce to the economy which will be helpful in the productivity gain and overall GDP growth. And these are the significance of the scheme. And with this we have also come to the end. Now let's have a quick recap. See Agni Path is a scheme under which around 45,000 to 50,000 soldiers will be recruited annually and the youth selected under the scheme are called Agni Vees and the service is just for four years and after the end of four years 25% will be retained to continue for another 15 years under the Permanent Commission. We saw the eligibility which is the age between 17.5 years to 21 years and the recruitment procedure is the same as it is over the years. And we saw about the salary package which is starting from 30,000 and it will go up to 40,000 by the end of the service. And there is also the SEVA NIDI program towards which 30% of the salary will be set aside and the government will also contribute an equal amount and at the end of the four year period each soldier will get Rs 11.71 lakh as a lump sum amount and the recruited soldiers will get life insurance cover for four years in case of death the payout will be over Rs 1 crore. And finally we ended our discussion by seeing some of the significances of the scheme Agni Path which is bringing down the average age in the forces from 32 years to 26 and leading to the availability of highest skilled workforce to the economy which in turn will be helpful in productivity gain and overall GDP growth. Now with these points in mind let us move on to the next article discussion. Look at this news article. This news article is with reference to a national survey done by the non-governmental organization Help Age India. The survey has shown that 49% of the elderly from the middle income families in Chennai are fully dependent on their families for their finances. The survey report was titled bridge the gap understanding elder needs. It was released yesterday ahead of world elder abuse awareness day which is today. See the report highlighted the need for improving financial independence of the elderly. In this context let's discuss the important initiatives taken by the government for the welfare of geriatric community in India. See policies related to the geriatric community are very important. Why is that? That is because of this question that was asked in the year 2020. See this question was asked in GS paper too and the question says in order to enhance the prospects of social development sound and adequate health care policies are needed particularly in the fields of geriatric and maternal health care discuss. We have heard and studied so much about the maternal health care that is related to pregnant women but at the same time we should give equal importance to geriatric community also and that is why I have taken this article today and we are going to see some of the important initiatives taken by the government for the welfare of the community. Now let's start with this rastri of Ayyoshri Yojana. See the ministry of social justice and empowerment introduced the scheme to provide assisted living devices and physical aids for the senior citizens belonging to the BPL category. BPL here is nothing but the below poverty line category. So from this we know that the beneficiaries include senior citizens belonging to below poverty line. Now the scheme was with the objective to provide the physical aids or the devices to senior citizens suffering from age related infirmities or disabilities to restore near normalcy in the bodily functions and the purpose is to benefit the elderly poor section of the society facing difficulties in walking with increasing age and the scheme is a central sector scheme entirely funded by the central government. The expenditure for implementing the scheme will be met from the senior citizens welfare fund and the scheme is implemented through the implementing agency that is the artificial limbs manufacturing corporation. See it is a public sector undertaking under the ministry of social justice and empowerment. See the physical aids, equipment or the assisted living devices are distributed free of cost to all the beneficiaries and 30% age of the beneficiaries in every district is women. See to avail benefits under the scheme the senior citizen should have a monthly income or pension of less than 15,000 rupees and under the scheme walking sticks, walkers or crutches, elbow crutches, tripods or quad parts, artificial dentures, wheelchairs, hearing aids and spectacles are provided. So this is about this Rashtriya Vayyoshri Yojana scheme. Now coming to another initiative which is Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme. See it is a part of National Social Assistance Program which is being administered by Ministry of Rural Development. So under the scheme the BPL persons aged 60 years or above are entitled to a monthly pension of rupees 200 up to the age of 79 years and rupees 500 thereafter that is after the age of 79 years and this is about the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme. Now coming to Pradhan Mantri Vayyavandana Yojana it was launched in the year 2017 to provide social security during old age. Know that the scheme is exclusively available to those who are 60 years of age and above. See this is a pension scheme for senior citizens that comes with guaranteed returns on monthly, quarterly, half early or on an annual basis for a period of 10 years and the implementing agency is Life Insurance Corporation of India that is the LIC and it is a one-time lump sum investment scheme for 10 years with an option to receive a regular income in the form of pension. See depending on the pension option of early, half early, quarterly or monthly the interest rate will vary between 7.4% to 7.6% per annum. So under the scheme the maximum investment allowed is rupees 15 lakh and the maximum pension that the person will receive is rupees 9,250 per month and this is about the Pradhan Mantri Vayyavandana Yojana Scheme. Now coming to another initiative integrated program for older persons IPOP. The main objective of the scheme is to improve the quality of life of the older persons by providing basic amenities like shelter, food, medical care and entertainment opportunities. The scheme is known for encouraging productive and active aging through providing support for capacity building. So that's all about the initiatives that are taken by the government for the geriatric community. Now let's have a quick recap. Firstly we saw about Rashtriya Vayyoshri Yojana It is a scheme to provide assisted living devices physical aids for senior citizens belonging to BPL category. BPL here refers to below poverty line. See the objective is to help elderly poor who are facing difficulties in walking with increasing age or who are facing difficulties because of age related infirmities or disabilities. It is a central sector scheme. The implementing agency is artificial limbs manufacturing corporation. It is a public sector undertaking. The expenditure for implementation will be met from senior citizens welfare fund and the physical aids that are provided under the scheme include walking sticks, walkers, elbow crutches, tripods, artificial dentures, wheelchairs, herring aids and spectacles. One of the conditions for availing the scheme is that the senior citizen should have a monthly income or pension less than Rs 15,000. After that we saw about Indra Gandhi National Old-age Pension scheme. It is a part of national social assistance programme administered by Ministry of Rural Development. Under the scheme persons aged 60 years or above will receive a monthly pension of Rs 200 up to 79 years and Rs 500 after 79 years. Then after that we saw about Pradhan Mandri Vayyavandana Yojana. It was launched in 2017 exclusively for persons who are 60 years and above. It is also a pension scheme. It involves one time lump sum investment scheme for 10 years with an option to receive regular income in the form of pension. You can receive the pension early, quarterly, half early or monthly and depending on this the interest rate will vary between 7.4 to 7.6 percentage per annum. And finally we ended our discussion by seeing integrated programme for older persons IPOP. The main objective is to provide quality of life for older persons by providing basic amenities like shelter, food, medical care and entertainment opportunities. And with these points in mind now let us move on to the next article discussion. Now take a look at this editorial article. See this news article talks about child marriage and this article tries to answer some of the questions. The questions like will increasing the age of marriage for women solve the issue of child marriage. It also discusses about the claim that the increase in age of marriage is claimed to bring substantive benefits of the individual and the societal levels. And also the article tries to examine the facts using data from the recently released National Family Health Survey 5. 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. But before that the syllabus relevant to the news is given here for your reference. Please go through it. Firstly what is this child marriage? See child marriage usually refers to a social phenomenon practiced in some societies in India where a young child is married to an adult person. Here child is a gender neutral term. It can mean both male and female. As per the prohibition of child marriage act 2006 a child means a person who has not completed 21 years of age if he is a male and also a child means a person who has not completed 18 years of age if she is a female. And also remember that an amendment was proposed to this act that is the prohibition of child marriage act 2006 which is named as the prohibition of child marriage amendment bill 2021. The bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha in the year 2021 and on the very same day the bill was referred to a standing committee for detailed scrutiny. See what is the amendment that is proposed in this bill? The bill proposed to increase the age of marriage for females from 18 years to 21 years. So this amendment is still in the bill format and it is yet to become an act. And if this bill is passed then the definition will be altered. As of now child means a person who has not completed 21 years of age if it is in the case of male and a person who has not completed 18 years of age if it is in the case of female. Now coming back as we already saw the definition of child marriage is gender neutral. Child marriage means a marriage to which either of the contracting parties is a child. It can be either male or female. Now there is the second form of practice of child marriage that you have to make note of. See it is a case in which the parents of two children that is the boy and the girl they arrange a future marriage. In this practice the individuals they do not need one another until they reach the marriageable age that is when the wedding ceremony is performed. So this is another form of child marriage. Now with this basic information let us see the reasons for child marriage. The main reason for early marriage is associated with a lot of things. It is mainly because of the social norms in many regions and cultures that the parents begin preparations for a girl's marriage once she has experienced her first menstrual cycle. And equally a large portion of child marriages take place primarily because of poverty and the burden of huge cost of dowry associated with the delayed marriages. See these factors curtail a girl's opportunity to continue her education and in turn the lack of educational opportunities play an important role in facilitating child marriage. Now that we have seen the reasons for child marriage we will move on to see the data as per the National Family Health Survey PHY. See NFH's PHY data show that about 25 percentage of women aged 18 to 29 years married before the legal marriageable age of 18. See the proportion has declined only marginally from 28 percentage as per NFH's IV. See the prevalence is higher in the rural area than the urban areas. See in rural area it is 28 percentage and in the urban areas it is 17 percentage. Note that West Bengal has the highest prevalence which is 42 percentage followed by Bihar, Tripura which is 40 percentage each. At the other end of the spectrum are Goa, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala which account to 6 percentage and 7 percentage. If we look at the data community wise 39 percentage of child marriages in India take place among the schedule caste and schedule tribes. The share of the advantage to social groups is 17 percentage and the remaining share is of other backward classes. In terms of household wealth 58 percentage of marriages take place among the poorest group 40 percentage of them take place among the middle class group and only 2 percentage of them takes place among the top wealth groups. And another crucial data is that only 4 percentage of child marriages in India take place among women who have completed more than 12 years of education. Thus the data confirm that a significant portion of child marriages takes place among women with less than 12 years of schooling and households that are socially and economically disadvantaged. Here you should also know that while an increase in education is most likely to delay marriage the increase in the age of marriage may or may not increase the women's education. See this is very crucial education will delay the marriage but delaying the marriage will not increase the women's education. Since the prohibition of child marriage amendment bill 2021 fixes 21 years as the marriageable age for women we cannot surely say that the increase in the age of marriage without an increase in education will result in women with better nutritional outcomes. So to sum up the health dividend rising from the women's increased age of marriage is not a sure thing. So increasing the age of marriage without improvement in women's education is less likely to yield better health and nutritional outcomes. Instead it might adversely impact the poor and illiterate. See the fact that about one-fourth of women in India have married before 18 years despite the law suggests that rising the marriage age may not be enough to prevent child marriages. Educating women is important for their personal freedom, social well-being and to their development as whole. See a legalistic approach to increasing the age at marriage will produce positive effects only if it leads to an improvement in women's education and skill acquisition for employability. And in the absence of enhancement in women's cooling or skills a legalistic approach to ending child marriage might become counterproductive. So that's all about the editorial article given here. Now let's have a quick recap. We saw what is child marriage which is a social phenomenon practiced in some societies where a child is married to an adult person. Here child is gender neutral. According to Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006, child means a person who has not completed 21 years of age if he is a male and a child means a person who has not completed 18 years of age if she is a female. And we also saw about the amendment Bill 2021 which proposes to amend the age of marriage for females as 21 years instead of 18 years. And after that we saw another form of child marriage where the parents of the two children arrange a future marriage and the individuals do not meet until their wedding ceremony is performed. And after this we saw reasons for child marriage which is social norms, poverty, burden of huge cost of dowry, lack of educational opportunities etc. And following that we saw some of the data mentioned in the National Family Health Survey file. We saw that 25% of women aged between 18 to 29 years married before the legal age of 18 and we saw that West Bengal has the highest prevalence of child marriages followed by Bihar and Tripura and community-wise we saw that 39% of child marriages take place among the SCs and STs. And in the terms of household wealth we saw 58% of child marriages take place among the poor groups 40% takes place among the middle income group and 2% takes place among the top 10% wealthy groups. And after that we concluded our discussion by saying that increase in education is most likely to delay marriage but increase in the age of marriage may or may not increase women's education. So a legalistic approach to increase the age of marriage without improvement in women's education and skill acquisition might become counterproductive. Now with these points in mind let us move on to the next article discussion. Look at this news article. This news article states that inflation in India's wholesale prices weakened to a new record high of 15.9% in May month but it was 15.1% in April. See the article also states that this is the 14th month in a row that WPI inflation has stayed above the 10% mark. So in this context let's revise about wholesale price index that is WPI from the exam perspective. First of all as we see many times inflation is nothing but the rise in general level of prices of goods and services. This means the price of goods have gone up. So how the inflation is monitored? It is monitored by measuring the price indices such as wholesale price index WPI or consumer price index CPI. Today we are going to focus on WPI alone. See this index measures the average change in the prices of commodities for bulk sale at the level of early stage of transactions that is before it enters to the retail market. It simply captures all the bulk transactions of goods carried out in the domestic market. See WPI comprises of all the possible transactions at the first point of the bulk sale in the domestic market like I said before the retail level. Hence WPI accounts for changes in the price at an early distribution stage. And note that service sector is not covered in WPI. See this is an important fact from the prelims point of view. If a statement is asked like service sectors are included in the WPI then that statement is incorrect. Now this WPI is calculated using the base here 2011-12 and it is compiled and released by the Office of Economic Advisor OEA which is under the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and know that it is released on a monthly basis. Now moving on to the index basket. See the index basket of the WPI covers commodities falling under the three major groups. What are those groups? They are primary articles, fuel and power and manufactured products. Now from exam perspective we have to know the weightage of these groups. You don't have to remember the exact number you just have to know which has the highest weightage. See the manufactured products have the highest weightage of all of about 64.2 percentage and primary articles have a weightage of 22.6 percentage and the final group which is the fuel and power has a weightage of 13.2 percentage. So it is in the descending order of manufactured products, primary articles and fuel and power. So you have to remember this order for your problems. You can also use this in your mains answer. Now moving on to the significance. Firstly, it provides estimates of inflation at the wholesale transactions level for the economy as a whole and this helps in timely intervention by the government to check inflation in particular inflation in essential commodities before the price increase reaches to the retail prices. So this gives government time to check the inflation before it reaches to the retail prices. Secondly, WPI is used as a deflator for many sectors of the economy for estimating GDP by CSO which is the central statistics office and it is also used to deflate nominal values of production in high frequency IIP that is the index of industrial production. Now finally, WPI is also used for indexation by users in the business contracts. Global investors also track the WPI as one of the key macro indicators for their investment decisions and these are all the significances of WPI with this we have come to the end. Now let's have a quick recap. We saw WPI index measures the average change in the prices of commodities for bulk sale at the level of early stage of transactions before it reaches the retail market. So it accounts for changes in prices at the early distribution stage and we saw that service sector is not covered under WPI and we saw the base year which is 2011 and 12 and we saw that it is compiled and released by the office of economic advisor under the department of promotion of industry and internal trade in the ministry of commerce and industry and it is released on a monthly basis and after that we saw the index basket which includes primary articles, fuel and power, manufactured products, the highest weightage is given to manufactured products and after that primary articles and after that fuel and power and lastly we saw the significances of wholesale price index which gives time for the government to check inflation before it reaches the retail market and it is used as a deflator for many sectors and it is used to deflate nominal values of production and it is used for indexation by users in business contracts and global investors use this index for their investment decisions. Now with these points in mind let us move on to the next article discussion. Now take a look at this news article. See this news article talks about some of the mitigation measures taken by the Greater Chennai Corporation. See the Greater Chennai Corporation has penalized three contractors who delayed the work on development of storm water drains as a part of flood mitigation project. The issue is not important but let us quickly go through some of the measures to prevent the damage caused by floods. Firstly know that flooding is a temporary overflow of water onto the land that is normally dry. Fletch may result from rain, snow, coastal storms, storm surges and overflows of dams and other water systems. They may develop slowly or quickly. See flash floods they can come with no warning at all and they might cause damages and they may disrupt transportation and they may damage buildings and create landslides also. So this is about the basics of flood, their causes and consequences. Now talking about the flood mitigation firstly there should be a sponge city but what exactly is a sponge city? They are cities designed so that rainwater is kept and observed where it falls through sustainable urban drainage systems. In other words it is prepared to reduce the damage from flooding and inundation. Here in this image you can see how a sponge city works. Secondly the government can promote green roof or roof gardens. See the benefits with respect to this measure are straightforward because for the building owner it is a storm water management tool. For the community this measure reduces storm water runoff and for the environment this measure prevents combined sewer overflow and it neutralizes the acid rain effect and it removes nitrogen pollution from the rainwater. Moving on, thirdly the government can promote creation of floodplains and overflow areas for rivers. See this is nothing but the area around water bodies. Now what does this floodplain do? They retain and absorb water thereby shielding the nearby towns from the effects of heavy rainfall. See there was a time when floodplains covered large stretches along rivers but today because of the urban sprawl less than half of the floodplains remain in their place. So the government can promote this measure and they can extend the floodplains. Here I have a little task for you. We have discussed so many times about urban sprawl. You also go and find out what is urban sprawl and post your answer in the comment section. Now coming back to the discussion, fourthly the government can encourage separation of rainwater from the sewer system. See to improve water management and to protect the sewer system from damage cities are beginning to revamp their underground pipe and drainage systems and how are they doing this? They are doing this by separating rainwater from the sewer system. The separation enables the wastewater treatment plan to function properly without being overburdened by large quantities of storm water and last but not least government can encourage installment of water infiltration and attenuation systems. See an infiltration system captures stormwater runoff and it allows to infiltrate into the soil and in an attenuation system water is stored within the system with flow controls and later water is slowly released back into a water hose or sewer system. Here the attenuation system is given in this image. Now that's all about the mitigation measures for flood. Let's have a quick recap. We saw flood is nothing but a temporary overflow of water onto the land and it is caused by heavy rains, snow, coastal storms, storm surges, overflows of dams and other water systems and the consequences are disturbed transportation, damages to infrastructure and landslide creation and after that we saw about the flood mitigation measures. Firstly we saw about spawn city it is nothing but observing rainwater to sustainable urban drainage system. Secondly we saw about green roofs and roof gardens it is an effective stormwater management tool it reduces the stormwater runoff it prevents sewer overflow neutralizes the acid rain and thirdly we saw about creation of floodplains along the water bodies and the significance of floodplains is that they retain and absorb water thereby shielding the nearby towns and cities. Fourthly we saw about separation of rainwater from the sewer system and this measure ensures the proper functioning of wastewater treatment plant by not overburdening it with large quantities of stormwater and finally we saw about installment of water infiltration and attenuation systems. Infiltration system captures the stormwater runoff and it infiltrates into the soil and attenuation system stores the water with flow controls and later it releases the water into a water course or sewer system. Now with these points in mind let us move on to the next part of a discussion that is the practice prelims question discussion. Today we have four prelims question I'll solve three of them and as usual one of them is a quiz question for you. Now let us take this first question with reference to Agni Pat scheme which one of the following statements is not correct. Option A youths selected under the scheme will be known as Agni Veers this statement is correct this we saw in our discussion itself and option B of the total annual recruits up to 50% will be allowed to continue for another 15 years under permanent commission. See this statement is incorrect in our discussion itself we saw that only 25 percentage will be allowed to continue for another 15 years under permanent commission it is not 50 percentage. So after reading the second option itself we found out that the incorrect statement is option B even then also we'll read option C and D. Option C at the end of the four year period each soldier will get rupees 11.71 lakh as a lump sum amount which will be tax free the statement is correct and the scheme is expected to bring down the average age in the forces from 32 to 26 years and this statement is also correct. So the incorrect option here is option B. Now moving on to the second question consider the following pass see schemes on one side and the respective ministry is given on the other side we have to find which pair is matched correctly. So pair one Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana ministry of finance integrated program for older persons ministry of social justice and empowerment Indra Gandhi national old age pension scheme ministry of rural development and Rashtriya Vayyoshri Yojana ministry of social justice and empowerment. See here taking the first scheme Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana it was launched in the year 2017 as we saw in our discussion by the ministry of finance to offer a guaranteed payout of pension to senior citizens every month. So the first pair is correct. Second pair integrated program for older persons so for this scheme ministry of social justice and empowerment is the implementing agency we saw that it is a central sector scheme it is in operation since 1992 with the objective of improving the quality of life of senior citizens by providing basic amenities like shelter food medical care and entertainment opportunities. So the second pair is also correct. Third scheme Indra Gandhi national old age pension scheme it is implemented as a part of national social assistance NSAP it is a program under ministry of rural development. So the third pair is also correct and finally the Rashtriya Vayyoshri Yojana is introduced by the ministry of social justice and empowerment and this scheme provides assisted living devices and physical aids for senior citizens belonging to the below poverty line category. So from this we can safely say that all the four pairs given here are correct. So the correct option here is option D all four pairs. Now moving on to the next question with reference to WPI that is the whole sale price index which one of the following is not correct. Again here the incorrect statement is asked. WPI is calculated using the base year 2011 and 12 the statement is correct. It is compiled and released by national statistical office this statement is incorrect. See we saw that WPI is compiled and released by the office of economic advisor which is under the department of promotion of industry and internal trade in the ministry of commerce and industry. So we know that option B is incorrect. Even then also we'll read the remaining statements. Option C CPI does not capture changes in the price of services which WPI does. See this statement is also incorrect. We saw in our discussion that WPI does not include the price of services. So here the correct answer is option D both B and C. Now coming to the final question which is also a quiz question for you which one of the following measures are considered as effective flood mitigation measures flood plain zoning flood proofing channel improvement and choose the correct answer using the codes given below 1 and 2 only 2 and 3 only 1 2 3 1 and 3 only try to attempt this question and post your answer in the comment section. I have given a main question here for your practice. So interested aspirants write it and post it in the comment section. If you have any queries related to the articles that we discussed today post that also in the comment section and with this we have come to the end. 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