 Good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankar IAS Academy for the date 5th of January 2022. Displayed here are the list of news articles chosen for today's discussion. See as I said in my previous video, I have discussed an economic topic relating to the second news article and also I have discussed two main news article and interested aspirants can utilize those points for your main answer writing. Now without wasting much time, let's get into our discussion. Look at this first news article. See this is an editorial article. This is with reference to a public notice issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs. See the notice extended the validity of Foreigners Contribution Regulation Act registration certificates that is FCRA registration certificate of NGOs that were expiring. See the age that it expired was September 29, 2020. Now it is extended to March 31, 2022. Also they put in condition that this extension is provided only for those NGOs whose request for renewal had not been rejected. See in our Hindu news analysis on the day 29th of December 2021, a detailed discussion is made regarding this FCRA registration. So now today in this context we will learn about what is an NGO and what are all the roles of NGOs and the issues faced by NGOs, especially the financial issues. The syllabus relevant for this article is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. Now let's start our discussion. See first of all let us see what is an NGO. See it is a non-governmental organization and it is also a non-profit group that functions independently of any government. See this NGO sometimes called as civil societies are organized on community, national and international levels. Okay. See this aims to serve a social or political goal such as you can say humanitarian causes or any environmental issues. See NGOs are registered under the Societies Registration Act which is a central act for registering organizations that are not for profit registration. Now let's discuss about the functions of these NGOs. See basically NGO act as a mediator between the government and the citizen. See when few issues does not reach the government or not solved by the government then functions of NGO play a significant role in solving those issues. So what they will do they ask for greater efficiency, delivery and accountability from the state. Like they ask for rehabilitation and compensation in the case of land acquisition and see mainly they work that is their main work is aiming to make the government set up a great accountability framework. For example a movement was led by Masur Kisan Shakti Sangatan at Rajasthan which demanded for the right to information. Not only this these NGOs also help in correcting the extractive nature of markets. See for example when rights of tribals are violated like through illegal land acquisition by any corporate companies these NGOs will come into play. Now apart from this these NGOs also ask for environmental accountability and justice for the underprivileged people. See now let's see what is the main focus of these NGOs. They will mainly focus on the issues concerning human rights, social issues, environmental issues and those that is violating the democracy. See the work to promote and improve the social and political conditions of the society on a broader scale. Now let's see some more functions of these NGOs. See they help in the protection of human rights and child rights, they help in eradicating poverty, they help in protecting the animal rights, they prevent social injustice, they help in environmental conservation, they provide routine care for aged people, they also help in women empowerment and disease control and others, they help in implementation of health and nutritional plans of the government. Not only this they also help in implementation of educational plans thereby they help in improving the literacy rate. And few more functions are listed here for your reference. See for your understanding take NGOs that were functioning during COVID-19 pandemic. They played an active role in migrant crisis, they distributed relief materials and established sheltered homes, say they even worked parallely with the government in providing medical aid. So their participation became very crucial in tackling the crisis, right? Now let us focus on the issues that are faced by these NGOs, especially the financial issues. First let us see the current financial issue which is about the requirement of foreign funds. Why do NGOs require foreign funds? See you know that causes have no boundaries at all. So funding for such socially desirable causes could come from beyond borders, right? For example, the humanitarian work by the missionaries of charity is beyond the capability of many state governments, therefore foreign funding is required to carry out humanitarian work which will benefit the society at large scale. And so foreign funds need to be encouraged. Now let us see few more issues faced by these NGOs, see some of the major issues faced by NGOs include politicization of NGOs, poor governance and networking and misuse of these funds. Some NGOs are also involved in violations that seem to threaten the sovereignty of the country. See this is evident from crimes such as money laundering, subversive activities and violation of the other laws. See in the beginning of the discussion we mentioned about this FCRA registration, right? So what is this FCRA registration? FCRA registration is mandatory for any NGO or association in order to receive foreign funds or donations. Already I mentioned that in our news article discussion on 29th December a detailed discussion is made on this FCRA. But today we will see the three important amendments that were brought in FCRA Act which in particular have bothered these NGOs. What are the three amendments? See first one is opening a pass through bank account in a specified branch in New Delhi then stopping NGOs from transferring foreign grants to other registered NGOs and the third one is lower the cap on administrative expenses. Let us see why these three amendments bother NGOs. See each of these has significant financial and compliance implication for NGOs. For example, many NGOs that were working in the remote areas which had no direct access to international funding were functioning through the donations from larger NGOs. This has been stopped now which threatens the very existence of those NGOs in the remote areas. See look at the pie chart given below about 90% of NGOs don't have access to big foreign grants. Also we saw that the cap on administrative expenses were lowered from 50% of the foreign funds to 20%. See the NGOs argue that this is a needless micromanagement as the cost structure vary from project to project. See in 2018-19 there were nearly 1328 NGOs whose administrative expenses exceeded 20% of their total foreign funds. So the NGOs argue that the depth and the variety of the work of a civil society organization cannot be captured in the annual returns filed on the FCRA portal and there needs to be a study on how many civil society organizations lost their permissions. Some lost permission only because the predetermined drop downs given by the FCRA portal were unable to capture the work of the organizations. How cruel is this right? See the idea of distributing clothing was done by a NGO Goonch. These initiators cannot be put into specific business plans, spreadsheets or governmental schemes. They therefore need a grant-based, cost-based revenue stream model. That's all regarding this editorial. So we saw what is an NGO, roles of the NGO, functions of an NGO and we saw the major issues faced by NGO, especially the financial issues and we also saw about few other issues faced by NGOs. Now let's move on to the next news article discussion. This news article mentions that the Atel Payment Bank has become a scheduled bank. So today let us briefly understand what is a payments bank and a scheduled bank. See basically the banking system of India is broadly categorized into two. They are commercial banks and cooperative banks. And our central bank that is RBI, exercise regulatory and supervisory control over them. Under these two heads we have varieties of banks. But our focus is on commercial banks today, okay? See these commercial banks are further classified into three based on ownership pattern. They are public sector banks, private sector banks and foreign banks. Here note that foreign banks are also private banks. Apart from this, you also have domestic private banks. See this is further sub-categorized as universal banks, differentiated banks and local area banks. When we say universal banks, it means they undertake all kinds of banking activities, financing activities and other related activities. But differentiated banks are distinct from universal banks because they function in a niche segment. That is, they provide particular products or services that appeal to a small specialized section of the population. Mainly, they are differentiated from the universal banks on the basis of capital requirement, scope of activities or area of operations. So differentiated banks offer a limited range of services or products or they function under a different regulatory dispensation. Here remember that only since 2015, RBI issues licenses for these differentiated banks alongside the licenses for universal banks. And the payment bank that we wanted to discuss today is actually a differentiated bank. And the guidelines for this was issued in 2014 and the licenses were granted in the year 2015. See its main objective is to further the financial inclusion. How it will be done? This will be done by providing small savings accounts and payments or remittance services. See these services are provided to the migrant labour workforce, low income households, small businesses and organized sector entities and other users. See if you notice, these are underserved and unbanked population in the country, right? So by involving them in the banking system, RBI is trying to further the financial inclusion. See look at the features of the payment bank, you can just go through it now. See in the news article it was mentioned that this ATL payment bank has become a scheduled bank, right? So we saw in the beginning that commercial banks were classified based on the ownership pattern but they are also classified based on regulation as scheduled banks and non-scheduled banks. See both are regulated under the Banking Regulation Act 1949 but what is the major difference between the two? See the scheduled banks are the banks included in the second scheduled to the RB Act of 1934. So according to the payment bank's guidelines, a payment bank will be given scheduled bank status once it commences operations and is found suitable as per section 42 clause 6A of the RB Act 1934. See this section provides the conditions based on which a bank can be included in the schedule. So what are all the conditions? There are three major conditions. First one is the bank should have a paid up capital and reserves of an aggregate value of at least 5 lakh rupees. Second condition is it should satisfy the RBI that its FIS are not being conducted in a manner detrimental to the interest of its depositors. Third condition it should be one of these institutions like it should be a state cooperative bank or a company as defined in the section 3 of the company's Act 1956 or it should be an institution notified by the central government in this behalf or it can be a corporation or a company incorporated by or under any law enforcing any place outside India. See it seems that this atel payment bank has satisfied these conditions so it has been included in the second schedule to the RB Act and has become a scheduled bank. See this upgrade has many benefits such as now the atel payment bank can take part in request for proposals issued by the government and can take part in primary auctions etc. That's all about this news article now let us move on to the next news article discussion. This news article mentions that in the past 3 months the highest number of COVID-19 cases on a single day was registered yesterday because of this many states have increased the curbs. So today let us brush up some basics about the disease levels such as pandemic epidemic and endemic. Basically these levels tell the spread of the disease and rate of new cases. Next let us take endemic. See it refers to the constant presence or usual prevalence of a disease or infectious agent in a population within a geographical area. Here the disease remains at a steady state but do not disappear from a population. For this you can take chicken boxes as an example. See it occurs at a high but predictable rate among the youngsters. Now the level of cases here will be the baseline level or endemic level that is endemic level refers to the amount of a particular disease that is usually present in a community. So the disease may continue to occur at this level indefinitely therefore this is often regarded as the expected level of the disease. When this level increases or the amount of disease in a community rises above this expected level then this leads to epidemics and pandemics. So epidemics refers to an increase in the number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected in that population in that area. Here the increase is often sudden and is confined in a certain region and one or several communities are affected by this disease. Now when this happens in a more limited geographical area it will be called outbreak. Best example for epidemic is the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. See it killed nearly 11,300 people between the year 2013 and 2016. Then what is this pandemic? See it is also an epidemic but this epidemic has spread over several countries or continents that is it spread is global and is affecting a large number of people ok. See we can also say that when simultaneous epidemics occur in multiple locations across the globe then it is called a pandemic. Here we have a quick moving pathogen that is spreading across the globe ok and it has the potential to kill tens of millions of people. See it can also disrupt economies and destabilize national security. That is why pandemic pose major health, social and economic risk. See this epidemic becoming a pandemic in this era is easy. Why? Because of increased global transport, urbanization and overcrowded conditions. See the best example could be COVID-19 which has spread quickly across the globe affecting health and economy. See you should also know that epidemics including pandemics end in two ways. First all chains of disease transmission are broken and the cases have come to zero. Second the disease becomes endemic that is it becomes an ongoing part of the infectious disease landscape. See for this you can take tuberculosis as an example which was an epidemic once and now is an endemic. See scientists are worrying that COVID-19 pandemic will also continue as an epidemic. That's all about this news article. Now let's move on to the next news article discussion. Now look at this news article. See this news article reports that Indian soldiers at Galwan Valley have celebrated their new year by holding Indian flag. As you all know this is disputed Himalayan border region between India and China. So today let us see its geographical location and strategic importance in this discussion. Okay. See the valley refers to the land which is present in between the steep mountains through which Galwan river or Galwan river flows. This Galwan river has its source in Akshay Chin on China side of the line of actual control. See the main stream of the Galwan river rises near the Debsang Plains at the elevation of over 5000 meters. This plane is the western extremity of the Akshay Chin. A rough depiction is given here for your reference. Just have a look at it. See this Galwan river is an important tributary of Chipshab river which in turn rains into the Shyok river in the northeastern part of Ladakh. Here you have to note that it meets the Shyok river on India side of the line of actual control and Shyok is an important tributary of Indus river. See because of this some souls also say that Galwan river is a tributary of the Indus river. You should note that the line of actual control lies to the east of the confluence of the Galwan and Shyok rivers in the valley. So the Galwan valley is strategically located between Ladakh in the west and Akshay Chin in the east. This part of Akshay Chin is currently controlled by China as a part of its Xinjipang Uyghur autonomous region. So previously both India and China have been patrolling the valley but after June 2020 the scenario changed when China started climbing the entire valley as its own. This resulted in the frequent stand-offs between Indian and Chinese army in the valley. See this valley is strategically important for India as it helps Indian army to maintain its position against China in the region. Similarly this Galwan river enables China to control the Shyok route passes which are close to the river. By controlling this China is maintaining its hold on Akshay Chin. So if India gets full control of the valley this will threaten China's position in the Akshay Chin. Right? See additionally the valley is also important as India is trying to build feeder roads to the Darbukh Shyok Ledge Daulatbeg Oldy road. See this road now runs along the Shyok river and it is crucial for communication close to the line of actual control. And it is a crucial connect between Leh and Daulatbeg Oldy. See this Daulatbeg Oldy is the northernmost corner of the Indian territory in Ladakh. It is also at the base of the Karakoram Pass that separates China's Injipang Autonomous region from Ladakh. Plus you have to remember that this Daulatbeg Oldy has the world's highest airstrip. So Chinese occupation of Galwan valley will threaten this road and will threaten route to Daulatbeg Oldy. See that is why holding Galwan valley is important to India. Now that's all about this article. See remember the location of Galwan valley for attempting map based prelims cushions and the points regarding the strategic importance of this Galwan valley can be used in your mains answer. Ok? Now let's move on to our last article discussion. Now look at this last news article. This is with reference to the meetings of the Home Minister with the DGPs of the states. See in this meeting the union government asked the states to share more intelligence inputs through the multi-agency center. So in this context we will learn about the multi-agency center and its functions. What is this multi-agency center means? See MAC or multi-agency center is a common counter-terrorism grid under the Intelligence Bureau. MAC was established in the year 2001 following the Kargal war. In the MAC network intelligence inputs are shared regularly by various intelligence agencies on real-time basis. See as many as 20 organizations including the Research and Analysis Wing, Armed Forces and State Policies are part of this platform. See there were focus group meetings on cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and Northeast, then on the left wing extremism, Northeast insurgency. So during these meetings the intelligence inputs are shared and discussed with the concerned agencies or state polis. So this is the way they are using the shared intelligence inputs. See all the MAC member agencies including state intelligence, state polis are connected to a national memory bank which is a central data bank for counter-terrorism related information. In the year 2009 the functioning of the multi-agency center or MAC in the Intelligence Bureau has been strengthened and revamped. How do they do? See the multi-agency center should function 24 into 7. This has been advised in order to share intelligence with all other agencies including those from the states. Also all other agencies have been asked to share intelligence with the MAC. See there are around 400 secured sites connected with the MAC headquarters. The MAC yielded good results in the year 2012. See they managed to catch some of the big fish like Saibudhan Ansari and Alia Sabu Jindal who are the important members of the Lakshari Taiba which was a part of Mumbai terror attacks. See the MAC receives most of its intelligence inputs from the central agencies and state agencies. According to the Parliamentary Committee report, the major contributions of inputs to the MAC in the year 2016 were the Defence Intelligence Agency which was around 24.05% and the Research and Analysis Wing which contributed for about 20.75% of the input. So what is the problem here? The contribution from the state special branches was low that was around 11% only. See remember the state police forces have their own intelligence and counter-terrorism units. But these are often weak and work in an isolated manner. The states are also often reluctant to share information on this platform. See there are several gaps in sharing critical information at the right time. So this is the problem here. See remember all the states know will have a subsidiary multi-agency centre which is called a SMAC located in the states capital. Though MAC existed to share information among various agencies, it was not being implemented effectively. So plans were put forward to link the system up to the district level. So for this purpose know, Intelligence Bureau is contemplating to extend the connectivity of the subsidiary multi-agency centre that we mentioned above to the districts in a phased manner. So what they have planned? They have planned to connect the SMAC to the district level but in a phased manner. So as mentioned in this news article, the meeting by the Home Minister with the DGPs of the states will give a necessary push to the states contribution to MAC. That's all about this news article. See the points that we discussed in this particular news article can be used for your mains answer writing especially when questions are from the internal security. So you can mention it as an example in your answer for questions related to strengthening of internal security etc. Now let's discuss the answers for our prelims practice questions. See take this first question. It is about the payment banks. It is talking about the features of a payment bank. See do you remember that I just asked you to go through the features of the payment bank in our discussion but now we will see it in an elaborate manner and then we'll come back to the question. See the first feature is payment banks are registered as a public limited company under the Companies Act 2013. Next they are licensed under section 22 of the Banking Regulation Act 1949. Third feature they also have specific licensing condition that restricts its activities. So they can only accept demand deposits that is current deposits and saving bank deposits and can provide payments and remittance services. Next condition NRI deposits are not permitted. Okay further initially payment banks were allowed only to hold a maximum balance of rupees 1 lakh per individual customer. This limit is enhanced to 2 lakhs in April 2021. Then they can issue ATM or debit cards but cannot issue credit cards because lending by payment banks is not permitted. Next the entities such as the non banking financial companies, mobile telephone companies etc may apply to set up this payment banks. See that is why ATL could set up their own payment banks called as ATL payment banks. See the payment banks can set up their own branches and ATMs. Okay now the last condition they are also permitted to undertake utility bill payments on behalf of its customers and general public. Now shall we go through the question? See the first statement it provides payments and remittance services yes it is correct. Look at the second statement NRI deposits are permitted. We saw in our discussion it is not permitted so statement two is incorrect. Okay now look at the third statement it is allowed to hold a maximum balance of rupees 5 lakh no we saw in our discussion that it is only rupees 2 lakh per individual customer. So it is incorrect. Now look at the fourth statement it cannot issue credit or debit cards. No it cannot issue only credit cards but it can issue debit cards. Okay so statement four is also incorrect. Now look at the fifth statement they can set up their own branches and ATMs. Yes they can set up their own branches and ATMs. So statement five is correct. See this type of question you can handle through elimination technique right. So when we first found that the statement two is incorrect can just try with the answer as option B one and five only is correct. Okay but as I always say go through the other statements before shading your final answer in the OMR sheet. Okay now let's move on to our next question. See this question is about our discussion regarding the spread level of the disease right. We saw pandemic epidemic endemic right. Regarding that only this question is framed. See look at the first statement the constant presence of a disease in a population within a geographical area is called epidemic. Is it epidemic? We saw in our discussion that this definition is for endemic right. So statement one is incorrect. Now as I said just go through the options try if you can eliminate the options. Yes you can eliminate right because the question is regarding the correct statements. You found that the first statement is incorrect. So eliminate option A, B and D and you can easily arrive at the answer as option C two and three only. But do remember to read out the remaining statements before shading your final answer. Okay see now read the second statement pandemic is when simultaneous epidemics occur in multiple locations across the globe. Yes it is correct. Third statement a pandemic can become an endemic. Yes it can become an endemic when it is reduced. Okay so option C two and three only is the correct answer. Now let's move on to our last article discussion. It is a map-based question and it is framed based on our Galvan valley discussion. Okay see just recollect what we saw in our discussion. Galvan valley is located south of Dbdo, west of Akshay chen, east of Kargil and north of Darbukh. So now come back to the question. Galvan valley is located to north of Daulatbeg oldy. No it is incorrect south. Now second option it is west of Akshay chen yes it is correct. Check with C and D options as well. Okay west of Kargil no it is east of Kargil. Option D south of Darbukh no it is north of Darbukh. So our answer here is Galvan valley is situated to the west of Akshay chen. Option B is correct. Displayed here are the main practice questions. Please go through it and write your answers and post it in the comment box. If you like this video do like share and comment and don't forget to subscribe to our Shankar Aayes Academy YouTube channel. Thank you for listening.