 A very good evening aspirants, welcome to Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankarae's Academy for the date 13th of August 2022. Displayed here are the list of articles that we are going to discuss today. Without any delay, let's get into the article discussion. See this article here, it says that NPTEL and the IIT Madras have launched a free portal to help students prepare for the gate examination. We all know what gate exam is right, it is graduate aptitude test in engineering. See the portal is given in the news article and the article says that it will be accessible to all of the students. See the whole thing was funded as a corporate social responsibility by Bengaluru based Amaduist Labs. Now this article is important in two ways. One is we can use this point in your mains answer. See these are steps taken to improve the accessibility to quality materials for all of the students and this can be written in your mains answer under steps taken to improve the education sector or it can be used as points under CSR activities of private companies. In some cases it can be used as an example to encourage such activities by other companies also. In some other cases it can be used as a point under promoting digital India. See how a single point can be used in multiple scenarios in your mains answers right. Now the second important thing about the article is that we can use this opportunity to find out what is NPTEL. See it has expanded us national program on technology enhanced learning. In this discussion I will give you a brief about NPTEL and you also go and find out what it is. Now NPTEL national program on technology enhanced learning it is a joint venture of the IITs and the Indian Institute of Science funded by Ministry of Education. See it was launched in the year 2003. Initially it was started as a project to take quality education to all corners of the country. But now it offers courses for certification and this initiative was called as the Masu Open Online Courses MOOC. See it is now possible for anyone outside the IIT system to be able to do an online certification course from NPTEL and they can get a certificate from the IITs. See IITs are reaching out and taking education to the homes of people through this initiative. Now coming to objective the objective of this initiator is to enable students obtain certificates for courses which in turn will make the students employable in the industry or they can pursue a suitable higher education program. So this is the major objective of the initiative. Now apart from this there are also many other initiatives started under NPTEL. Just read about it in the NPTEL website but don't memorize it. Now that's all for this article discussion with these points in mind let us move on to the next article discussion. Take a look at this editorial article the article says that India must move away from population control policies and focus more on investment in human capital. So in this discussion we shall discuss in detail about what is demographic transition, what is human capital and we shall also see some of the important points mentioned in the news article but before that the syllabus relevant to the article is given here for your reference please go through it. Today we are going to start the discussion with the data. As of now India has 17.5% of world's population and according to UN World Population Prospects 2022 India will reach 150 crore population by the year 2030 and 166 crore population by the year 2050 and if that happens India will become the most populous country by the year 2023 surpassing China which has 140 crore population. See you can use this point anywhere in your mains to substantiate your answer. Now we saw about the current status and the future forecast. Now what about the transition or the intermediate part? Know that we are at the third stage of demographic transition. Now what is this demographic transition? See demographic transition theory can be used to describe and predict the future population of any area. The theory tells us that the population of any region changes from high births and high death to low births and low death and this happens as the society progresses from rural agrarian and illiterate to a urban industrial and literate society. See these changes occur in stages which are collectively known as demographic cycle. So the cycle comprises of three stages. The first stage has high fertility and high mortality. This is because people reproduce more to compensate for the death due to epidemics and variable food supply and the population growth is slow and most of the people are engaged in agriculture where large families are an asset. Large families are considered an asset here because they don't have to employ others so that they don't have to pay wages and in this stage life expectancy is low. See people are mostly illiterate and they have low levels of knowledge about technology. See 200 years ago all the countries of the world they were in this stage. Now moving on to the second stage fertility remains high in the beginning of the second stage but it declines with time and this is accompanied by a reduced mortality rate. Here the mortality rate is reduced due to the improved sanitation and health conditions. See because of the reduced death rate the net addition to the population is high in this stage. See we saw that in the first stage population growth is slow but here it is not the case the population is high in this stage. Now in the last stage both fertility and mortality decline considerably. The population is either stable or it grows slowly. The population becomes urbanized, literate and it has high technical knowledge and they deliberately control the family size. See this shows that human beings are extremely flexible and they are able to adjust their fertility. Now we Indians are in this third stage and this is evident from the National Family Health Survey. As per the survey India's total fertility rate which is abbreviated as TFR it has slipped to 2. See the TFR rate of 2 is below the replacement level fertility. However even after reaching the replacement level of fertility the population will continue to grow for three to four decades due to the population momentum. So the issue here is not the large population. The issue lies in the category of population which makes up the largest portion. Here let's take a quick detour. It is very common in demography to categories the population into three broad age groups. Children and young adolescents who are under 15 years old come under first category. The working age population between 15 and 64 years come under the second category and the elderly population which is 65 years and older come under the third category. So the issue is which of these category forms the largest portion in the population. Now let's see the case in India. In the past seven decades the share of working age population has grown from 50 percentage to 65 percentage and this has resulted in a remarkable decline in the dependency ratio. So what is dependency ratio? It comprises of the number of children and elderly persons per working age population. See why do children and elderly people are considered as dependents because they require support from others and hence they are categorized as dependents. So for the past seven decades the dependency ratio is low because the working age population for India is between 50 to 65 percentage and as per the world population prospects 2022 India will have one of the largest workforces globally that is in the next 25 years in India one in five will be working age group persons. See this bulge in the working age will keep the growth in population till the mid 2050s and all that India has to do is just make use of it. See using the demographic dividend wise will result in greater human capital, greater economic growth and improved standards of living. But at the same time there are several obstacles in that. The first obstacle is the absence of women from the workforce. See only one fourth of women are employed which constrains the India's labour force and the second obstacle is the quality of education. See educational attainment is not up to the mark and the country's workforce badly lacks the basic skills required for the modernized job market. See here for the second obstacle you can use the NPTEL example in that we saw quality materials are accessible to students all over the country right. So you can quote that example here and say that steps has been taken to improve the quality of education. So like this only you have to include the points that you read in the article in your main's answer. Now these are the two obstacles that are mentioned in the article and if we address these obstacles we could easily employ the available large working age population and reap the benefits of demographic dividend. See so far we saw that India is in the third stage of demographic transition and it has reduced its total fertility rate to 2 and then we saw that the working age population is high in India and it is expected to grow in the future and also we saw that to reap the benefits offered by the demographic dividend women participation in the workforce should be higher and the quality of education should be improved. Now another demographic concern of independent India is the male dominant sex ratio. See this is due to sex selection both pre and postnatal that is prevalent in India. See due to low sex ratio some communities even face severe challenges such as marriage squeeze. See marriage squeeze means an imbalance between the number of men and women available to marry in a specific society. So improvement in sex ratio should be a priority as it might reduce the associated evils like child marriage, violence against women, women trafficking etc and finally the elder population must be taken care of. See India is called a young nation with 50 percentage of its population below 25 years of age but the share of India's elderly population is now increasing and it is expected to be at 12 percentage by the year 2050 and after 2050 the elderly population will increase sharply. So advance investments in the development of social, financial and healthcare support system for old people should be encouraged. So to conclude the focus of action should be on extensive investment in human capital and the focus should be on employing the working population and the focus should be on healthy population aging and to enable these we should be prepared with sustainable, suitable infrastructure, conducive social welfare schemes and massive investment in quality education and health. Now that's all for the important points mentioned in the article here. In this discussion we saw about demographic transition theory, the categories of population and the obstacles that prevents us from reaping the benefits of demographic dividend and some measures to overcome these obstacles. Now with these points in mind let us move on to the next article discussion. See this editorial article here it is about the issues between India and China and some of the ideas as to how to handle the issues. See the major issue mentioned in the article is that China placed the proposal to designate Jayishi Muhammad deputy chief Raaf Asghar on the UNSC 1267 committee listing on technical hold. Here what is UNSC 1267 committee listing? See we all know UNSC stands for United Nations Security Council and the committee which is the 1267 committee was first set up in the year 1999. And after many resolutions in the years 2011, 2015 and 2021 it is now called as Daesh and Al Qaeda sanctions list committee. See it imposes assets freeze travel ban and arms embargo which is the arms restriction concerning all the individuals and entities on Islamic state in Iraq and the Levant which is also known as Daesh and Al Qaeda sanctions list. So in simple words the committee imposes limitations or restrictions on all individuals and entities related to terrorist and terrorist groupings. See all the permanent and non-permanent member countries are encouraged to submit the names of individuals groups undertakings and entities to be included in the list. And as per this one Lee India and US jointly proposed Raaf Asghar a global terrorist to be included in the list. See Asghar is wanted for his role in freeing his brother Mazud Azhar by organizing the hijack of Indian Airlines flight IC 814. As of now he is in Pakistani prison and he is on both US and India's domestic most wanted terrorist list. But China has placed the proposal by US and India on technical hold and also know that two months before this China stopped the designation of Lashkar E. Taiba deputy chief Abdul Rahman Maki to be added in the list. See this is a contentious issue because China knows that India is very serious about the listing. Why is that? This is because many attacks were perpetrated on Indians by the Lashkar E. Taiba and Jayashi Muhammad terrorist organizations since 1990s. So this is the major issue that was discussed in the article and apart from this there are also other issues between India and China. One of them is the line of actual control standoff. See despite several rounds of military commander talks India and China have failed to resolve the standoff. And the next concern is the China's proposal to dock a Chinese satellite tracking ship at Sri Lanka's Hampan Tota port. And India has expressed its concern over this to the Sri Lankan government. And the next tuzzle which was mentioned in the article is regarding the bilateral trade. As per the article Chinese technology majors in India are being raided by the enforcement directorate and income tax authorities. See this is because there was a suspicion of existence of financial crimes. Now these are all the issues between India and China. Now coming back to the main issue of the article which is placing individuals on 1267 cometer listing. See regarding this India should not lose its faith and it should continue to make efforts to place both Makhi and Asghar in the terrorist list. And for this to happen the article has given some suggestions. We'll see them one by one. The first option is to keep the international pressure sustained so that China won't have any other option than to place both Makhi and Asghar in the terrorist list. See this will be an easy task because even now 14 out of the 15 members of the UNSE approved the proposal. And this is one option. The next option is to take steps to change the 1267 committee procedures. See this should be done because one country should not hold back such important terror listings without due cause. So countries should work on changing the committee procedures. And this is one another option. Now the third and final option is to have open dialogues with China and Pakistan. See with Pakistan we can use the leverage of removal of Pakistan from the financial action task force grey list. And the same can be used with China also because China is very keen on Pakistan's economic recovery. And this can be used to get what we want. What we want? We want to place the terrorists Makhi and Asghar in the 1267 listing. So these are the suggestions given in the article. See you can take note of the issues that we discussed in the article and the suggestions also. You can use wherever it is necessary or relevant in your main's answer. See in articles like this you should take note of the points that are mentioned in the article and additionally you have to do some background checking. In this article we discussed about the 1267 committee listing. Likewise you have to do some background checking also. Now that's all for this article discussion. With this let us move on to the next article discussion. Look at these two articles here. Both are about the notification of a new elephant reserve in our country. See the news article says that Agastya Malay Elephant Reserve has been notified by the state government of Tamil Nadu and this declaration has been made on the event of World Elephant Day. So today we are going to see few facts about elephant reserves in this discussion. As we all know India is home to more than 60 percentage of global Asian elephant population. They are restricted to northeast, central, northwest, southern India. But their conservation in their natural habitats is becoming difficult over the years. So to help in the process of conserving and protecting wild elephants in their natural habitats, elephant reserves are declared. See basically elephant reserve is a basic management unit for elephant conservation in the country. And know that it is notified by state governments as per the recommendation of Government of India. Mainly they are declared under Project Elephant. See Government of India launched Project Elephant in the year 1991 to 92 as a centrally sponsored scheme of Ministry of Environment. Here the critical elephant habitats of the country are declared as elephant reserves. And these critical habitats have notable environmental or historical importance and they are protected by law against undesirable changes. And these critical elephant habitats may include protected areas, forest areas, corridors and even private lands. Now coming to the notified elephant reserves. See till now 31 elephant reserves have been formally notified by various state governments. India's first elephant reserve was the Singbum Elephant Reserve notified in the year 2001. And the 31st elephant reserve was the Lemru Elephant Reserve which was notified in the year 2021 by Chhattisgarh government. Now the news is that India's 32nd elephant reserve has been notified. It is the Agastiyamalai or Agathiyamalai Elephant Reserve in Tamil Nadu. And also know that apart from this Agastiyamalai Elephant Reserve there are four other elephant reserves in Tamil Nadu. I have given the other four in this table here. Please go through it. So to conclude there is no criteria to be fulfilled for a landscape to be notified as elephant reserve. As of now if a particular area is a critical elephant habitat then it is notified as elephant reserve. So this is the only criteria. On the other hand to be declared as a tiger reserve certain criteria have to be fulfilled and these criteria are as per Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. So tiger reserves are a legal entity but elephant reserves are not a legal entity. And we do not have an authority called National Elephant Conservation Authority. But in the case of tigers we have National Tiger Conservation Authority. Actually in the year 2018 the Ministry of Environment made a proposal to provide legal status to the elephant reserves and the project elephant by amending the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. But this proposal is still under consideration. So don't get confused here. Elephant reserve itself is not legally protected. But if elephant reserve has other protected areas say for example it has a tiger reserve within its boundaries then that particular area have legal protection. So these are the points that you have to know regarding notification of a particular area as elephant reserve. Now with these points in mind let us move on to the next article discussion. See this news article here. It is about the Intensified Objection to Electricity Amendment Bill of 2022 by the Opposition parties. It is said that they will challenge the constitutional validity of the amendments in the Supreme Court. So in this discussion let us see the main amendments of the Electricity Amendment Bill and why it is opposed. See the bill basically amends the Electricity Act of 2003 and this act regulates the electricity sector in India. It sets up the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission and State Electricity Regulatory Commissions and these commissions regulate the interstate and intrastate matters in the electricity sector. See the bill was introduced in Lok Sabha and it was referred to the Energy Standing Committee of the Parliament. So after the committee's scrutiny the bill will be considered. Now coming to the amendments. See the main amendment is the proposal for centres intervention in the area of power distribution. For example, there is an amendment to section 14 of the Parent Act. The section deals with granting of license. It enables granting of license to transmit, distribute and to do trade in electricity. The license is granted by the Appropriate Commission. Here it refers to both the Central Regulatory Commission and the State Regulatory Commission. See there is no change proposed in this particular section. What the bill amends is the clause related to the distribution of electricity as a distribution licensee. See distribution licensee means a licensee who is authorized to operate and maintain a distribution system for supplying electricity to the consumers in his area of supply. Now through the amendment it empowers the state government to prescribe the criteria for electricity distributors. So this is only the amendment. Now why is this opposed? See power is a concurrent subject under Indian Constitution. This means both centre and the states have powers to legislate regarding this subject. But so far the responsibility for distribution and supply of power to rural and urban consumers rest with the states. Since the responsibility to distribute power rest with the states the power to choose the distributor is also with the states. But the amendment gives this authority to the central government. So it is seen as diluting the power of state governments under deceitful strategy of the centre to take control of distribution of power. Therefore the bill is called as anti-federal and anti-constitutional. Additionally the amendment also omits the words through their own distribution system. It is omitted from Parasix of section 14. See under Parasix license was granted to persons for distribution of electricity through their own distribution system within the same area. Now after the amendment it is not necessary to distribute from their own distribution system. What does this mean? It means that it facilitates the use of distribution networks by all the licensees under the provisions of non-discriminatory open access. See this open access enables the use of transmission lines, distribution system or associated facilities by any licensee. See it need not be their own transmission line or distribution system. This means that now using the open access provision the private companies can supply electricity if they get a license. And to enable the same clause even section 42 is also amended. According to the amendment now it will be the duty of all the distribution licensees to give non-discriminatory open access to other distribution licensees on payment of charges. See the reason for this change is that it will enable competition, it will enhance the efficiency of distribution licensees for improving the services to consumers and it will ensure the sustainability of power sector. If it enables all these things then why the change is opposed? See it is because of the involvement of private players in the distribution of powers. They fear that in the future power distribution will fully be under the control of private companies. And this in a way leads to privatization of power distribution sector. Now this is about the article given here. In this discussion we saw about the electricity amendment bill 2022. We saw the important amendments proposed in the bill and why they are opposed. Now with these points in mind now let us move on to the next article discussion. See this news article is about a comment by union cooperation minister on primary agricultural credit societies just abbreviated as PACS. He has said that more farmers should be connected with PACS. He also urged to establish 2 lakh new PACS across the country and also know that in the future model by loss will be notified by the center for PACS. So taking this opportunity let us revise about the primary agricultural credit societies. See it is a rural cooperative credit institution. As you know a rural cooperative credit institution is primarily mandated to ensure the flow of credit to agriculture sector. And similarly PACS also offers short term credits. Credits is nothing but loans. See it is actually a type of cooperative bank or cooperative credit institutions working in India. It forms the lower tier in the three tier structure of short term cooperative credit structure. In the first two tiers we have state cooperative bank at the apex level and district central cooperative banks at the district level. See PACS functions at the village level and it is a registered cooperative society. So PACS is the one that directly deals with the rural people and that is why the union cooperation minister said that more farmers should be connected with PACS. And also know that PACS is spread in 90 percentage of India's villages and it forms the largest number of cooperative institutions in India. Now with this basic information let us move on to the roles of PACS. See it has three primary roles. First one is encouraging savings among the agriculturalists and then accepting deposits from agriculturalists. Now the third role is it gives loans to the needy borrowers and it collects the repayments. And through this role PACS serves as the last link between the rural people and the RBI. But remember that PACS are outside the purview of Banking Regulation Act 1949. Therefore they are not regulated by RBI. Now other than these PACS also provide certain facilities like agriculture, implements on hiring basis and storage facility. See it also provides input facilities in the form of kind. So what does this mean? Instead of just giving money alone it sometimes distributes inputs like fertilizers. Some PACS are also assisting farmers in marketing their products. So by doing this PACS can provide both backward and forward linkages to its members. See PACS is very crucial. In your GS3 mains paper agriculture is an important topic right? So you can use this PACS that is primary agricultural credit society anywhere in the Agri credit related questions. So keep all of the points that we saw in this discussion in your mind and revise it. You can use this anywhere in your mains answer. When I say anywhere you cannot go on and write anywhere in your mains answer. It should be relevant to the question that is asked. Now with these points in mind let us move on to the next part of the discussion that is the practice problems question discussion. Now let us take this first question to solve. Consider the following elephant reserves. Lemru Elephant Reserve, Singbump, Dandalee, Singfan. With reference to the elephant reserves mentioned above in terms of its notification which one of the following is the correct ascending order. So here we have to arrange the elephant reserves in chronological order on the basis of date of notification. See in our discussion we saw that Singbump Elephant Reserve was the first elephant reserve to be notified in the year 2001. So it has to be in the first place. And we also saw that Lemru Elephant Reserve was notified in the year 2021 and it was the 31st elephant reserve to be notified. So it has to be in the last place. So two should be in the first place and one should be in the last place. Now see the options here. What are all the options that have two in the first place and one in the last place? We have two options. Option C and Option D. Now you have to know about the notification date of the other two elephant reserves to arrive at the correct answer. Know that Dandalee was notified in the year 2015 and it is situated in Karnataka and Singfan was notified in the year 2018 and it is situated in Nagaland. So the correct order is 2, 3, 4 and 1. So what is the correct option? Correct option is option C, 2, 3, 4, 1. Now moving on to the next question. Consider the following statements. The Central Electricity Authority specifies the technical standards for construction of electrical plants and electric lines. Statement 2. The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission determines the tariff for interstate transmission of electricity. Now statement 3. The chairman of the Central Electricity Authority is an ex-officio member of Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. See in this question all three statements are correct. See Central Electricity Authority, it only specifies the technical standards for construction of electrical plants and electric lines. Now coming to the second statement. Here it says that the commission determines the tariff for interstate transmission of electricity. Here going by common sense you can say that the statement is correct. If instead of Central it has mentioned a state commission then you can have a doubt whether it will determine the tariff for interstate transmission or not. But it has given a Central. So there is no doubt for you here the statement is also correct. Now coming to the third statement. Here you have to know this fact. See according to the Electricity Act of 2003 the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission has a chairman and three other members and one of the member is the chairman of Central Electricity Authority and he is ex-officio member. So the correct answer here is option C all of the above. See for your information I have given here the functions and duties of Central Electricity Authority. Go through it and here I have given the functions and roles of Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. Pause the video and go through all of the functions. Just read it. Don't memorize it. Now coming to the next question. Operation wild net sometimes seen in news is related to which of the following. Illegal fishing and territorial waters of the countries. Illegal wildlife trade over internet using social media platforms. Illegal poaching of wild animals that are protected under Wildlife Protection Act 1972 and illegal poaching of olive riddlies. See here the correct answer is option B. Operation wild net is concerned with illegal wildlife trade over internet using social media platforms. Another options here they are not relevant to operation wild net. See I have given this question here because of this news article here. It is about poaching of elephants for the ivory tusks. See some of the data regarding the poaching were shared in the Lok Sabha by the Ministry of Forest Environment and Climate Change. The ministry has informed that Wildlife Crime Control Bureau has conducted a special pan India enforcement operation to coordinate action amongst state and central enforcement agencies through the operation wild net. So this is about the article. See we can discuss about operation wild net a lot. But then once you try to attempt the question regarding operation wild net it will be a different scenario for you. So that is why I have given this question here. See this is also a kind of preparation. You can read about operation wild net or otherwise you can try solving questions about operation wild net. So from this question we have learnt that Wildlife Crime Control Bureau organized and coordinated an enforcement operation to encounter the menace of illegal trade through e-commerce platform and it organized the operation to drag the attention of enforcement agencies within the country to focus their attention on the ever increasing illegal wildlife trade over internet using social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, WeChat etc. I hope this was helpful for you. Now moving on to the next question. Consider the following statements regarding Smile 75 initiative and choose the correct option from given below. Option A the initiative aspires to address the problem of malnutrition among children in the country. Option B the initiative aspires to improve the maternal health of women holistically. Option C the initiative aspires to distribute free food grains through public distribution system for persons in 75 municipalities who are below the poverty line on the account of 75th Independence Day celebrations. Option D the initiative aspires to implement comprehensive rehabilitation of persons engaged in the act of begging in 75 municipal corporations. See the correct answer to this question is Option D the initiative aspires to implement comprehensive rehabilitation of persons engaged in the act of begging in 75 municipal corporations. See I have framed this question based on this news article here. This news article states that Smile 75 initiative was launched by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. So here we are going to see some facts about Smile initiative. See Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has identified 75 municipal corporations to implement the comprehensive rehabilitation of persons engaged in the act of begging under the Smile 75 initiative. See Smile expands us support for marginalized individuals for livelihood and enterprise. See under the Smile 75 initiative 75 municipal corporations in collaboration with NGOs and other stakeholders will cover several comprehensive welfare measures for persons who are engaged in the act of begging and this is done with the focus on rehabilitation, provision of medical facilities, counseling, awareness, education, skill development, economic linkages and convergence with other government welfare programs etc. See the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has allocated a total budget of Rs 100 crore for the Smile project for the coming years till 2025-26. And through this project the Ministry envisions to develop a support mechanism for holistic rehabilitation of those engaged in the begging act. And the Ministry also envisions to build an India where no person is forced to beg in order to survive and fulfill their basic needs. See the objective of Smile 75 initiative is to make our cities or towns and municipal areas begging free and make a strategy for comprehensive rehabilitation of beggars and it is done through the coordinated action of various stakeholders and this is about the Smile 75 initiative. Now with this information let us move on to the next question and this is the quiz question for you. Consider the following statements about primary agricultural credit society. See read the statements carefully there is a twist here try to attempt this question and post your answer in the comment section. I have given here two main question for your practice so interested aspirants write it and post it in the comment section and if you have any queries related to the articles that we discussed today post that also in the comment section. Don't forget about the quiz question post your answer for the quiz question in the comment section and with this we have come to the end. 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