 A very good evening aspirants, welcome to Hindi newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankar IA's Academy for the date 16th of March 2023. Displayed here are the list of articles that we are going to discuss today. Without any delay, let's get into the article straight away. Now, look at this news article. It talks about the vulnerability of the banking system and the lessons we have to learn from the recent bank failures. So, this article is written now because of the failure of two popular US banks, the Silicon Valley Bank and the Signature Bank. See, the author has quoted the reasons for the failure of these banks and this could be taken as a warning for RBA to act cautious and proactive. So, in this discussion, we will try to understand what failures of banks have done in the past and we will also see what are the global measures that are there to prevent such bank failures. Yes, there are global measures because bank failures are not harmless. It affects the owners of the banks, employees and the customers also. But what else should be concerned about? See, to understand this, we will see a case. The case of Lehman Brothers that triggered the 2008 financial crisis. See, this is a popular case and you can quote this in your main's answer as well. I'll try to explain this in a simple way. See, around the late 1990s, the US population was looking for best investment options. At that time, banks offered only two percentage interest on fixed deposits and share market was also not going well. So, the next option for the investors was real estate. See, people wanted to constrict houses and leave it on rent and earn through that. They took housing loans from banks. Here, what Lehman Brothers did was they purchased the loans from the banks. So, now people have to pay the loan amount and interest back to the Lehman Brothers. See, Lehman Brothers converted these loans into securities and sold it in the market, just like how government bonds are sold. They offered 3 percentage interest rate for this instrument. See, this instrument is called as collateralized debt obligation or CDO. Now, the mechanism works like this. People who bought the house loans paid interest to Lehman Brothers and the Lehman Brothers paid interest to the CDO holders. The demand for CDOs rose in the market but the Lehman Brothers, they did not have many CDOs. So, now they pushed the banks to lend more housing loans. So, the banks started giving out loans to subprime category also. Here, subprime borrower is a person who can easily default on their loan. So, it is very risky to lend a loan to such a person. But the Lehman Brothers, they pushed the banks to lend more housing loans. So, the banks also started giving out loans to subprime category. But over the years, these subprime borrowers defaulted. This is expected, right? So, the Lehman Brothers, they could not pay the investors the 3 percentage interest. So, on September 15, 2008, they filed bankruptcy and many investors, they lost their money and this triggered the 2008 financial crisis that affected many countries globally. So, now you can understand how a small failure in the financial market can have global repercussion, that is global effect. Now, with this understanding, we'll see what happened in the US now. First of all, let us see the Silicon Valley Bank case. See, the Silicon Valley Bank focused mainly on US technology startups. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a surge in deposits. This is because the tech companies profited from providing entertainment and delivery services to people confined to their homes. So, the bank invested much of this deposited cash in US government bonds, which is one of the safest type of investment. But later, the US Federal Reserve started rising interest rates in response to soaring inflation, that is increasing inflation. And this particular move by the US Federal Reserve caused the value of bonds to fall and also the economic conditions for the tech sector became more strained following the pandemic boom. So, many customers began to draw out their funds. But now, the Silicon Valley, it is short on cash. So, the bank is forced to sell its bonds at big losses. And this prompted concerns about its financial health and the depositors started to pull out their funds further more, finally leading to its failure. Here, what happened was, during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a huge number of deposits in Silicon Valley Bank. So, this bank used these deposits to invest on US government bonds. So, what will happen here? The government will pay the interest to the bank. And since it is the safest type of investment, Silicon Valley Bank went for this option. But unfortunately, what happened was, inflation started increasing. So, as a measure to control the increasing inflation, US Federal Reserve started rising the interest rates. Here, this interest rate does not refer to the interest rate which the government will pay to the bank for buying the US government bonds. It is the interest rate that the commercial banks pay to the central bank. It is somewhat similar to reparate. See, the US Federal Reserve did this to decrease the money supply in the economy. A similar measure will be followed by RBI also, right, to decrease the inflation. So, likewise, US Federal Reserve also started decreasing the money supply in the economy by increasing the interest rates. But again, unfortunately, what happened was, technology sector during the pandemic boomed exponentially. So, the customers of the Silicon Valley Bank started coming out to withdraw their deposits. But does the bank have the money with it? No, right? It has invested the deposits in the government bonds. So, now when the customers come asking for their money, Silicon Valley was forced to sell the bonds in order to give the customers their money. But because of the increase in interest rate and decrease in money supply in the economy, the appeal of the government bonds decreased among the investors. So, when the Silicon Valley Bank went to sell the bonds, the investors bought the bonds at lower rates. So, the Silicon Valley was forced to sell bond at loss. And this only led to its failure. Now, if we see the signature bank, it had exposed itself to a highly volatile cryptocurrencies by providing services to those investing in digital assets. See, going to Silicon Valley Bank failure, many investors started to pull out their funds and they moved to a much safer investment options. And because of this, signature bank also ran out of deposits. And finally, it had also filed bankruptcy. Now, will this again trigger a financial crisis like the one in 2008? See, there is a sharp decline in banking stocks worldwide following the failure of these two banks. But very fortunately, regulators in the world's largest economy are trying to reinforce public confidence in the banking system. Also, another positive note is that Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation took over the Silicon Valley Bank and the signature bank. It also announced that depositors in both the banks would be repaid in full. See, here we cannot blame the Federal Bank's monetary policy because everyone is aware that interest rate moves in cycles. If it rises today, it may fall tomorrow and vice versa. Therefore, banks should be prepared to manage their risks associated with interest rate movements. And this is about the financial crisis in 2008 and the failure of two banks. Now, with this information, let us see some of the consequences of bank failures. Firstly, when a bank fails, depositors lose trust in banks and they start withdrawing their deposits because after losing trust in banks, they prefer to keep their cash with them. And this is what happened in 2008 also. And when rumors about US bank collapse spread to India, depositors panicked and pulled money from private sector banks in India also. So, the first consequence is loss of trust. Secondly, when people pull out the funds, it simply means there is less deposit with the private banks. And this will ultimately lead to lower credit growth. And this is the second consequence. And finally, to encourage people to deposit, private sector banks will be forced to offer higher deposit rates, which in turn may increase the interest rate of loans. And this will harm the economy as a whole. And this is the third consequence. See, the article also says that RBI should be very careful so that these global bank mismanagement crisis do not affect the Indian banks. Now, finally, before concluding our discussion, we'll see some of the global measures in this regard. See, there is an international banking regulations called Basel Norms or Basel Accords. And this is issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. These committee has so far issued three norms, which is Basel 1, Basel 2 and Basel 3. Now, we'll see about the most recent one that is Basel 3, which was released in 2010. See, this was actually introduced in response to the financial crisis of 2008. And the guidelines aim to promote a more resilient banking system by focusing on four vital banking parameters, that is capital, leverage, funding and liquidity. So, accordingly, the capital adequacy ratio of banks is to be maintained at 12.9%. And the leverage rate, it has to be at least 3%. And then regarding the funding and liquidity, Basel 3 created two liquidity ratios. One is the liquidity coverage ratio. And the other one is net stable funds rate NFSR. See, the liquidity coverage ratio LCR will require the banks to hold a buffer of high quality liquid assets. This is to deal with the cash outflows during the short term stress scenario. And then the net stable funds rate, that is the NSFR, it requires the banks to maintain a stable funding profile, that is, it requires banks to fund their activities with stable sources of income, which are reliable over a period of one year. Now, that's all for this article discussion. In this discussion, we saw about the case of Lehman's brothers, which led to the 2008 financial crisis. And we saw the case of Silicon Valley Bank and the signature bank. And after that, we saw the consequences of failure of banks. And finally, we ended our discussion by seeing some of the global measures in this regard. Now, with these points, let us move on to the next article discussion. Now, take a look at this snippet. It reports about a recent resolution introduced in the US Senate. The said resolution seeks to recognize MacMohan line as the boundary between Arunachal Pradesh and China. See the rationale behind the introduction of the resolution is to support India and to recognize Arunachal Pradesh as a part of India. And this is what is given in this article. See in this context, let's learn about MacMohan line in prelims perspective. Know that India and China have a land border of nearly 3488 km. It extends from Jammu and Kashmir in the west to Arunachal Pradesh in the east. The border covers the western sector, which includes Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, and the middle sector, which includes Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. It also covers the eastern sector, which includes Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. See the border line, which separates Arunachal Pradesh from China, is only called as MacMohan line. This MacMohan line was first drawn as a result of Shimla convention between China, Tibet, and Great Britain in the year 1914. Note that China later withdrew from the dogs, leaving Tibet and British government to negotiate. And this is where the problem arises. See China, it is not recognizing this agreement, that is the agreement which was signed as a result of Shimla convention. So China is not recognizing this agreement, stating that Tibet was not a sovereign state to sign the agreement in the first place. And that is why China, till now, climbs Arunachal Pradesh as a part of Tibet. See in the 1962 Sino-Indian war, apart from climbing territories on Akshaichin region, China also occupied a major part of the present day Arunachal Pradesh. But due to some unforeseen reasons, China voluntarily withdrew from Arunachal Pradesh. But it retained the territories occupied in Akshaichin. After the end of the Sino-Indian war, India retained the control over the state of Arunachal Pradesh. Know that even now, there has been periodic clashes near the MacMohan line. See due to extreme measures and military actions committed by Chinese forces in different parts of its land border with India, Indian government in its last year budget announced a new program called Vibrant Villages Program. And this program was aimed at providing a check to the actions of Chinese forces. See we have covered about this program on our Daily Hindi News analysis of 16th February 2023. Watch that video to know about the Vibrant Villages Program. Now with this we have come to the end of this particular article discussion. In this discussion we saw what is MacMohan line and we saw the history of China's climb over Arunachal Pradesh. Now with these points, let us move on to the next article discussion. Now look at this article here. It says that the Kochi landfill site around the Brahmapuram has caught fire earlier this month. Generally landfills in India catch fire in summer season. See this is dangerous because landfill fires emit large amounts of greenhouse gases. So the people living nearby are advised to stay indoors and they are also advised to wear N95 masks. And this is the crux of the news article given here. So in this discussion we'll see the reason for landfill fires and measures that are to be taken to avoid landfill fires. First of all, why do landfills catch fire? See Indian municipalities are collecting more than 95% of waste generated in cities. But the efficiency of waste processing, it is only 30 to 40%. I'll explain it in detail. See Indian municipal solid waste consists of about 60% of biodegradable material, 25% of non biodegradable material and 15% of inert material like silt and stone. Here municipalities should process the wet and dry waste separately and certain waste they should be recycled also. But unfortunately, the rate of processing is lower than the rate of waste generation. And this is exactly why many unprocessed waste are lying in open landfills for longer periods. And this is the reason why I told you the efficiency of waste processing is only 30 to 40% know that the openly disposed unprocessed waste includes flammable material like low quality plastics, rags and clothes. And this low quality plastics, they have a relatively higher calorific value of about 2500 to 3000 kilo calories per kg. It means they will catch fire easily. So what happens here is that in summer, the biodegradable fraction, that is the kitchen waste, organic waste, they start composting faster. Here composting is a process of aerobic digestion, which converts organic material into nutrient rich product. See it is nothing but natural decomposition. Okay. The end product is called as compost. And it looks like a dark crumbly and earthy smelling material. It looks like this. And this composting process leads to increase in temperature of the heap of waste that is lying in the landfill. The temperature will go beyond 70 to 80 degrees Celsius. Now think about it know higher temperature plus flammable material like low quality plastics which have high calorific value is equal to a lot of chance of catching landfill fire. See in some cases and all fire will go on for months. And that's how dangerous these landfill fires are. So this should be prevented, right? So what are all the measures that can be taken regarding this? See measures to prevent landfills, they are of two types. One includes immediate measures and the other one is permanent measure. First, let's see the immediate measure. The first immediate action is to divide a site into blocks depending on the nature of the waste. Here blocks with fresh waste should be separated from blocks with flammable material. This is the first immediate measure. Secondly, different blocks should be separated using a drain or soil bund and a layer of soil should cover each block. See this reduces the chance of fire spreading across the blocks within the same landfill. Here the most vulnerable part of the landfill that is the portion with lot of plastics and clothes it should be covered with soil. But the fresh waste it should not be covered with soil. It should be maintained with enough moisture by sprinkling water on them. And this is the second measure. Thirdly, the waste material should be turned regularly for aeration. See this will help in cooling the waste. And fourthly, the municipality or the landfill operator, they should classify the income waste on arrival itself. And they should dispose the classified waste in the designated blocks rather than dumping all of them in one place. And fifthly, segregated, non-recyclable and non-biodegradable waste they should be sent to cement kilns for incineration. And they should not be allowed to accumulate at the site. And finally, dry grass material and dry trees they should be cleared from the landfill site and they should be disposed separately. See this will reduce the chances of landfill fires. And these are some of the immediate measures. Now let us see the permanent solution to this problem. See there are two permanent solutions to manage landfill fires. The first one is completely covering the material using soil and closing the landfill in a scientific manner. But here there is a problem. This solution is unsuitable in the Indian context. This is because closed landfill sites cannot be used again for other purposes. And also closed landfills they have certain standard operating procedures. This includes managing the methane emissions, regular site visit, etc. And the second permanent solution is clearing the piles of waste through bio remediation. That is excavating or digging the old waste and using an automated sieving mission to segregate the flammable refuse derived fuel such as plastics, rags, clothes, etc. from the biodegradable material. So we are digging up the old waste and we are filtering and segregating the flammable waste and the biodegradable waste. See the recovered RDF that is the flammable material they can be sent to the cement kilns as fuel. And here the biodegradable material which is converted to compost can be distributed to farmers to end rich soil. See before itself I told you right the end product is nutrient rich. It is also called as bio soil and it can be distributed to farmers. Now the inert fraction that is the silt and stones they can lie in the landfill itself. But here also there is a problem. See implementing a bio remediation project usually takes up to two to three years. But summer it comes every year right. So this causes the preference of short term solution to avoid the landfill fires in summer. So because of the problems associated with the two permanent solutions Indian municipalities are opting for short term solutions. But in order to prevent landfills occurring annually that is in every summer season, bio remediation and clearing the site of RDF is the permanent solution. So municipalities what they should do? They should implement short term measures to prevent the fire outbreaks. But they should also focus on long term solutions to improve the solid waste management. Now with this we have come to the end of this particular article discussion. In this discussion we saw why landfills catch fire? What is the immediate measures that can be taken regarding this? And finally we ended our discussion by seeing two permanent solutions to avoid landfill fires. Now with these points let us move on to the next article discussion. Now this news article talks about a 30 kilometer perennial stream named Neroostream. And this stream originates in the Kailash lake at 3900 meters above mean sea level and it drains into Chenabat, Pultoda. See the news is that for the first time a photographic record of three Eurasian otters has been found in this Neroostream. For your information European otters are indicators of high quality aquatic habitats. So what does this mean? This means that this Neroostream is a high quality aquatic habitat. So the presence of Eurasian otters reflect the health of Neroostream. See the stream is away from human habitations and this naturally provides some hope for the survival of otters. And this is the crux of the news article given here. Now in this background let us understand a few more facts about otters. See otters are members of the mammalian family called Mastelidae. They are invariably associated with water and they adapt to variety of habitations ranging from marine to fresh water environments. See generally they are shy so they have evasive habitats that is their habitats are very difficult to find. Since otters are mainly active around dawn and dusk they are also known as Krippeskuller. It means species which are active around dawn and dusk. Now this is about some basic information about otters. Now talking about their distribution. Otters are found all over the world except in Australia, New Zealand, Madagascar and other oceanic islands. Now coming to India specific information India is home to three of the 13 species of otters that are found worldwide. So the three species that are found in India are Eurasian otter, smooth coated otter and small clawed otter. See the smooth coated otter is distributed throughout the country from Himalayas to southern states. But the small clawed otter they are restricted to the food hills of Himalayas and some parts of eastern and southern western gods. Now Eurasian otter it is found in western gods and Himalayas. So the occurrence of all three species has been reported from northeast India and the western gods. In most of their distribution range otters occur along with garyal, crocodiles, Ganges river dolphin and several species of turtles and this is about their distribution. See know that the basic family group of otters consist of mother and her pups. So father he joins the group only occasionally and otters live a nomadic life between March and August and settle between September and February to mate, breed and rear their pups. Now talking about their diet otters mainly feed on fishes. Although their diet is supplemented with rodents, snakes, amphibians, small mammals and even young birds and the typical lifespan of otters in the wild is between 4 to 10 years. See a giant otter measures approximately 2 meter in length and weighs 32 kg. Here the small clawed otter is the smallest one. It rarely measures over a meter in overall length and weighs 225 kg. Now finally let's see about the conservation status of otters. See all three species of otters in India are protected under wildlife protection act and they are listed in sites appendices also. Specifically Eurasian otter is listed as near threatened as per IUCN red list and it is listed under Appendix 1 of sites and it is listed under Schedule 2 of Indian Wildlife Protection Act. Now that's all for this article discussion. In this discussion we saw about otters, its characteristics, its distribution in India, its physical features, diet and finally the conservation status. Now with these points in mind let us move on to the next article discussion. Now let's take this editorial article for our next discussion. It deals with how the countries of India and China are now in a position to lead the developing world. The geopolitical and geoeconomical importance of these two Asian countries is rising day by day and these two countries together contain 35 percentage of world's population. So the author of this article calls for cooperation between India and China to facilitate an Asian century in which the continent of Asia is put at the center of the new emerging global order and this is what is given in this news article also. In this context let's learn about the points discussed in this editorial but before that the syllabus relevant to the article is highlighted here for your reference please go through it. See before getting into the content of the article we need to know a little bit of history. Before the era of colonization India and China were the two most important regions of the world contributing more than half of the world's GDP. See nearly 50 percentage of world's GDP was contributed only by these two regions as latest 17th century but everything changed with the starting of colonization. While India became a fully colonized country of Britain, China became a semi-colonized country. Here the term semi-colonization refers to a type of colonization where the country's economic system is made subordinate to the colonizer's economy. Here the political control lies with the country's native people. Only the economy of the country is made subordinate to the colonizer's economy and this is what is semi-colonization. So India was a fully colonized country where the political control and the economic control was with Britain but China was a semi-colonized country. So as a result of this colonization both India and China were made into a hub of poverty. Both the countries became sovereign in 20th century with huge scale of illiteracy and poverty. See during the initial years of independence India and China both adopted a type of economy with huge state oversight meaning government takes control of everything and because of this both the countries experienced very little growth rate during the 1950s and the 1960s but China was quick to analyze its mistake. So in the second half of 1970s under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping China started to loosen up its economy but India was a little late in this regard. As you all know India implemented the LPG reforms only in the year 1991 but China started in the second half of 1970s itself. See because of this 15 years head start China is now more developed when compared relatively with India's position. Currently China's GDP is nearly five times higher than that of India. China's GDP stands at 18 trillion dollars while India's GDP is only about 3.5 trillion dollars and this is all about some historic details and current GDP status of both China and India. Now let us come to the points that are discussed in the editorial. See both the countries of India and China are now in the global spotlight. India is in the spotlight due to its precedency takeover of intergovernmental forums like G20 Shanghai Cooperation Organization etc. Now China is also in spotlight because of its recently concluded National People's Congress of People's Republic of China and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. So these are the two reasons why China and India is in spotlight now. See the author of this editorial is a Chinese diplomat and she is working in India and she feels that India and China have more common interests than differences. So now we are going to see what are those common interests. See here the author lists four focus areas where the Chinese government has concentrated with respect to its policy making. The first focus area is GDP growth and the second one is to ensure the well being of its population. See this was to be done by ensuring inclusive and sustainable growth and third focus area for Chinese government is to open up its economy more and integrate it with the global economy and the final focus area for China is to ensure international cooperation between countries. So these are the four focus areas where Chinese government is concentrating with respect to its policy making. Now let us come to India's focus areas. See our finance minister in this year's budget speech has listed out areas of priority for Indian government. We all know what are all the priorities and these priorities are clubbed together and called us sub the Rishi. They are inclusive development, infrastructure and investment, financial sector, youth power, reaching the last mile, unleashing the potential and green growth. From this we can see that both China and India have more or less the same priorities only. So the author feels that India and China can come together and realize their goals by cooperating more in the trade sphere and the author wants India to be fair, just and non-discriminatory towards Chinese companies with respect to their investment and operations in India. Here note that in the recently concluded foreign ministers meet of India and China Chinese foreign minister said that development and revitalization of China and India will help lead the cause of developing countries in the global arena. So both the countries are working towards development and revitalization and the Chinese foreign minister also said that cooperation between India and China will have a profound impact on the future of Asia and eventually the world. Now before concluding our discussion let us see a couple of benefits for India arising out of deepening its ties with China. See the author of this editorial says that by allowing the imports of Chinese raw materials which are available at low cost India can produce final goods which are really competitive at the global level and this will make India's export more competitive in the global market and this is the first benefit that India gets by deepening its ties with China. Secondly we all know that India and China have common priorities. This is because they both belong to the developing world. See we have seen many a times the priorities of developed world vary extensively from the priorities of developing world. Since India and China are a part of developing world they have common priorities. So the author is saying that if India and China deepen their cooperation they can help each other in achieving these common priorities and these are the benefits associated with deepening cooperation between India and China. Now with this we have come to the end of this particular article discussion. In this discussion we saw about a brief history of India and China relationship and after that we saw the focus areas of India and China and after that we saw the recent statements of Chinese foreign minister with respect to cooperation between India and China and finally we ended our discussion by seeing the benefits that India gets from deepening its ties with China. With these points let us move on to the next article discussion. Now let us take this text and context article for our discussion. This article is talking about reservation for women in politics. Recently a leader of Bharat Rashtrasamati political party K. Kavita launched a six hour hunger strike. She demanded for early passage of the long pending women's reservation bill in the parliament. See more than 10 opposition parties had participated in this protest. However the ruling party that is the BJP said that the protest was pointless. BJP pointed out that the protest was conducted with a political motive and this is why the article relating to political reservation for women appeared in the newspaper today. So in this discussion we'll learn the points provided in this news article. Now first of all let us look at the history of political reservation for women. See the issue of reservation for women in politics can be traced back to Indian national movement. In the year 1931 the leaders such as Begum Shah Nawaz and Sarojini Naidu wrote a letter to the then British Prime Minister. The letter was given to British Prime Minister while submitting the official memorandum jointly issued on the status of women in the new constitution. In that letter the leaders pointed out that to seek any form of preferential treatment for women would violate the integrity of the universal demand of Indian women for absolute equality of political status. So from this statement we can say that the leaders were not in favor of granting reservation for women in politics. They said that preferential treatment for women will violate the equality in the political status. And this was a concern in pre-independence era. But after independence the issue of women's reservation came up in the Constituent Assembly debates. But it was rejected and our founding fathers assumed that a democracy would accord representation to all groups. However in the following decades women's reservation became a regular theme in the policy debates. In the year 1971 a committee of status of women in India was set up by the government. And this committee commented on the declining political representation of women in India. A majority of members of the committee were against the reservation for women in legislative bodies. But all of them supported reservation for women in local bodies. That is panjayat municipalities. As a consequence of this many state governments began announcing reservations for women in local bodies. And this is the first step. Then in the year 1988 national perspective plan for women was presented to the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. The plan recommended to provide reservation to the women right from the panjayat level to the parliament level. And these recommendations only paved the way for historic enactment of 73rd and 74th amendments to constitution. We all know these are all panjayat Raj and municipal amendments. And these amendments only mandated the state governments to reserve one third of seats for women in panjayat Raj institutions. Apart from this the amendments have also mandated to reserve one third of offices of chairmen for women at all levels of panjayat raj institutions and in urban local bodies. Here know that within these reserved seats of women one third are reserved for schedule cast or schedule tribe women. So this is about the mandatory reservation for women in local bodies. See apart from this many states have taken historic step in this regard. States such Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and even Kerala they have made legal provisions to ensure 50% reservation for women in local bodies. See the mandatory provision is to reserve one third seats only. But they have given 50% reservation for women in local bodies. And these are all the information regarding reservation for women in local body elections. But if we look at the current representation of women in parliament only about 14% of the members in Indian parliament are women. And this is the highest percentage so far. But according to inter-parliamentary union India has a fewer percentage of women in the lower house when compared with our neighbour countries such as Nepal Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. This is a worrying factor right? And this is exactly why women's reservation bill becomes relevant. This women's reservation bill proposes to reserve 33% of seats in Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies for women. And the bill was first introduced in Lok Sabha in September 1996 by the then Dev Gauda government. But the bill failed to get approval of the house and it was referred to a joint parliamentary committee. The committee submitted its report to the Lok Sabha in December 1996. But the bill lapsed with the dissolution of Lok Sabha. Then in 1998 the Vajpayee government reintroduced the bill in the 12th Lok Sabha. Here also the bill failed to get support from the members and it lapsed again. Again the bill was reintroduced in 1999, 2002 and 2003. Many political parties like Congress, BJP and the left parties had supported the bill. But the bill failed to receive majority votes. And then in the year 2008 the Manmohan Singh government tabled the bill in Rajya Sabha and it was passed on March 9, 2010. However the bill was never taken up for consideration in Lok Sabha. So the bill was lapsed with the dissolution of 15th Lok Sabha. Then in the year 2014 the BJP government promised 33% reservation for women in its election manifesto. And the BJP party repeated the same promise in its 2019 agenda also. But there has been no movement from the government till now. So we have to wait and see what is going to happen. Now this is about the woman's reservation bill's history. Now with this information let us move on to see about the positives and negatives in granting reservation for women. First let us see the positive side. The reservation will help improve the condition of women. This is because inherently political parties are always patriarchal. Secondly the reservations will provide opportunity to women to form strong opinions in parliament. See presence of women in legislature will lead to fighting for issues which are often ignored. As we all know today India has a high percentage of crimes against women. And the second issue is India has a lower participation rate in the workspace. Thirdly women is only having low nutrition levels and there is a skewed sex ratio. So to address all these challenges we need more women in decision making. And these are all the positives of granting reservation to women. Now coming to the negative side firstly the opponents of reservation for women argue that the idea of reservation is countering the principle of equality enshrined in the constitution. The opponents that is the people who are not supporting the reservation for women they are saying that women will not be competing on merit basis if there is reservation. So this could lower the status of women in the society. So this is the first negative of providing reservation for women. Secondly some people argue that reservation of seats in parliament would restrict the choice of voters to women candidates. So the second negative is there is less choice for the voters. And considering all these positives and negatives the article suggests some of the alternate methods. It includes reservation for women in political parties. This means instead of providing reservation for women in the seats of parliament and state legislative assemblies the political parties can provide reservation for women in higher positions inside the political parties itself. But some parties are pointing out that these suggestions might not also work. This is because political parties may field women candidates in unvinnable seats. And one more suggestion given in the article is the creation of dual member constituencies. See this is nothing but a constituency which will have two MPs in which one of them will be a woman. But here also there is a problem. Let us say we are establishing dual member constituencies where from one particular constituency two members will be elected out of these two MPs or MLAs one will be women. But there may be a chance that the woman MLA or MP she will be degraded to a secondary role. And this is the problem with this suggestion. And with this we have also come to the end of this particular article discussion. In this discussion we saw about the history of reservation for women in parliament, state legislative assemblies and local bodies. And after that we saw the history of women's reservation bill. And after that we saw about negatives and positives of providing reservation for women. And finally we ended our discussion by seeing some of the alternate suggestions given by the author. Now with these points let us move on to the next article discussion. Now look at this news article here. It says that the National Commission for Backward Class is functioning with just two appointees. The article 338b of the constitution allows NCBC to have a chair, vice chair and three other members. But the center has only appointed a chair person and one member. In this context now let us learn about the National Commission for Backward Classes. See National Commission for Backward Classes shortly known as NCBC was initially constituted by the central government by the National Commission for Backward Classes Act of 1993. So initially it was a statutory body. However NCBC now has the constitutional status as per the 102nd Constitutional Amendment Act of 2018. So this amendment only inserted article 338b. See this constitutional amendment emerged from the text of article 340. Article 340 says that president may by order appoint a commission to investigate the conditions of socially and educationally backward classes within the territory of India. So this is the basis for the existence of NCBC. Also know that the NCBC functions under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. This is about the basics of National Commission for Backward Classes. Now talking about their composition the commission is made up of five members. A chair person, vice chair person and three other members appointed by the president. See here the president determines the service conditions and the terms of office of members of NCBC. Now finally before concluding let us see some of the powers and functions of NCBC. See the commission investigates and monitors all matters relevant to the safeguards given for the socially and educationally disadvantaged people. Secondly it advises the union and state government on socioeconomic development of socially and educationally disadvantaged groups. Thirdly the commission presents an annual report to the president. Fourthly NCBC performs any other tasks related to the protection, welfare development and progress of the socially and educationally disadvantaged people that the president may designate by regulation. And finally remember that while hearing a case NCBC has the powers of a civil court. Now with this we have come to the end of this particular article discussion. In this discussion we saw about the basic facts about National Commission for Backward Classes. We saw about its composition and finally we ended our discussion by seeing the powers and functions of NCBC. Now with these points let us move on to the next article discussion. Now look at this news article here. In Maharashtra's political crisis the government has decided to call for a floor test and this decision of governor has gained the spotlight once again. See the governor called for the floor test citing dissension within a ruling political party. Here dissension is nothing but disagreement. See this act of governor was severely criticized by the Supreme Court. Supreme Court said that even though governor has powers to call for a trust vote he cannot cite dissension within a ruling political party as a reason for the call. And this is the opinion of the Supreme Court. And it also said that governor cannot enter into any area in which his actions could result in the fall of the government. And this is the crux of the news article given here. So in this backdrop let us quickly go through some details about floor test and governor's power to call for a floor test. So what is a floor test? See floor test is a term used for the test of majority. See if there are any doubts against the chief minister of the state or the ruling party which has formed the government then he or she can be asked to prove the majority in the house. See in case of coalition government where two political parties have joined to form the government the CM may be asked to move a vote of confidence and win a majority. So basically floor test is conducted to see whether the government has majority or not. See here floor test came into the context of Maharashtra because we all know in Maharashtra Shivasena crisis is going on. There are two factions now one is led by Thakre and the other one is led by Eknot Shinde. So in this context only the governor has called for the trust to vote. See remember when the house is in session the speaker has the authority to call for a floor test but when the assembly is not in session the governor may call for a floor test under article 163. Now let us see how governor's power is interrupted by supreme court in the Shivarad Singh Chauhan case 2020. In that case supreme court said that a governor may call for a floor test if based on factual evidence governor believes that the current state administration has lost its majority in the assembly and it also said that while conducting a trust vote governor should not favor one political party over the other. Additionally the supreme court also said that governor's right to ask for a floor test does not end when a new state government takes office after elections rather it continues throughout its term. So throughout the term of five years governor can ask for a floor test to prove the majority of the state government and that's all regarding this news article. In this discussion we saw about what is floor test and who has the authority to call for a floor test and we saw governor's power related to floor test with regards to Shivarad Singh Chauhan case 2020. Now with these points in mind let us move on to the next article discussion. Now this is the final article for today's discussion according to this article recently a question was raised in Rajya Sabha about the need for changes to the criteria and procedure for including communities on the schedule tribes list. See yesterday while responding to this question the tribal affairs ministry said that the current procedure for inclusion of communities on schedule tribes list was adequate. So in this news article discussion let us understand about the current procedure and criteria for the inclusion of communities in schedule tribes list. First of all who are schedule tribes? See tribes or tribal communities who are deemed under article 342 of Indian constitution to be schedule tribes are known as schedule tribes. So if a tribe or tribal community is included as ST under article 342 then they are deemed as schedule tribes. Currently the procedure for inclusion of tribal communities as STs goes on like this. Firstly the proposal for inclusion must originate from the respective state or union territory government. Following this the proposal is sent to the union tribal affairs ministry and then it is sent to the office of registrar general of India. If the office of registrar general of India approves the inclusion the proposal is forwarded to the national commission for schedule tribes and only after the concurrence of these institutions that is the state union territory government and the union tribal affairs ministry and then the office of registrar general of India the proposal will go forward to the cabinet and they will bring in the appropriate amendment to the constitution schedule tribes order 1950. See here the office of registrar general of India continues to follow the criteria set out by the local committee in 1965. This local committee has set out some criteria to decide whether a community can be included in the ST list or not and these criteria include primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shiners of contact with community at large and backwardness. So this is how a community is included in the ST list but both the procedure and criteria for inclusion of communities had been strongly criticized by the internal government task force which was formed in the year 2014. See the task force said that both the procedure and criteria they are being obsolete, condescending, rigid. For example in the current era infrastructural development across the country makes it impossible to say that a particular community lives in isolation. And then how can a geographical isolation be a criteria to include community in the ST list? This is outdated right? So due to issues like this the task force came up with new criteria. The new criteria include socio-economic including educational backwardness when compared to the rest of population of the state, historical, geographical isolation which may or may not exist today, distinct language or dialect, presence of a core culture relating to life cycle, marriage, songs, dance, paintings and folklore, endogamy or in the case of exogamy marital relationship primarily with other STs. These are proposed to be the criteria for including a community in the ST list but irrespective of these suggestions the Office of Register General of India even today continues to follow the criteria set out by the Lokur committee in 1965. And yesterday the tribal affairs ministry also said that the current procedure and the criteria for the inclusion of communities on scheduled tribes list was adequate. Now that's all regarding this news article discussion. In this discussion we saw about the constitutional article which deems a particular tribe or community as the scheduled tribe and after that we saw the current procedure for inclusion. We saw the criteria set out by Lokur committee and finally we ended our discussion by seeing the criteria proposed by internal task force. Now with these points let us move on to the next part of the discussion that is the practice prelims question discussion. See today we have four prelims questions. I will solve three of them and one of them is a quiz question for you. Now let us take this first question for a discussion consider the following statements with reference to Chenabriwa. Statement one it originates from near the Bara Lacha Pass in Lahore Spiti part of Zaskar Range. Statement two according to the Indus Water Treaty Pakistan is entitled to the Chenab water. See here in this question both these statements are correct. For your information Chenab originates near the Bara Lacha Pass in the Zaskar Range Lahore Spiti region and the river is formed by the confluence of two rivers Chandra Baga rivers. They are converging at Tandy of the upper Himachal Pradesh. So it is also known as Chandra Baga in the upper reaches. From there it runs through Jammu area of Jammu and Kashmir and into Pakistan's Punjab Plains where it joins the satellite after receiving waters of Zilam and Ravi rivers. According to Indus Water Treaty the control over waters of three eastern rivers are given to India. Eastern rivers include Biaz, Ravi and Satellites. And the control over three western rivers are given to Pakistan. It includes Indus, Chenab and Zilam. So the correct answer to this question is option C both 1 and 2. Now moving on to the next question consider the following statements regarding National Commission for Backward Classes. Statement one Kaleilkar Commission was the first Backward Class Commission. Statement two the Mandel Commission recommended that members of OBC should be given 27 percentage reservations for jobs under central government and public sector undertaking. See here also both the statements are correct. Kaleilkar Commission was the first Backward Class Commission which was set up in the year 1953. Some of the most noteworthy recommendations of the Commission include undertaking caste-wise enumeration of population in census of 1961 treating all women as a class of Backward Class. Reservation of 70 percentage of seats in all technical and professional institutions for qualified students of Backward Classes. But know that all these recommendations were not implemented. Now coming to the Mandel Commission. See Mandel Commission is officially known as Socially Educationally Backward Class Commission. It was set up on 1st January 1979 by the Indian government under the then Prime Minister Moraji Desai. The Commission was chaired by an MP named Mandel. The Chief Mandate of the Mandel Commission was to identify the Socially and Educationally Backward Class of India and to consider reservations as a means to address the caste inequality and discrimination. So this commission recommended reservation of 27 percentage public sector and government jobs for OBC for those who do not qualify on merit and reservation of 27 percentage for promotions at all levels for OBC's in public service. So the correct answer to this question is also option C both 1 and 2. Now let us take this question for a discussion consider the following pass. Limbu, Sikkim, Karbi, Himachal Pradesh, Dongaria, Kond, Odisha, Bonda, Tamil Nadu. See regarding Limbu it is the second most numerous tribe of the indigenous people called Karanti. They live in Nepal on the eastern most section of the Himalayas east of the Arun river and in northern India mostly in the states of Sikkim, West Bengal and Assam. So the first pair is correctly matched. The second one is Karbi. It was earlier known as Mikir and it is an important ethnic group of Assam. So this pair is incorrect. Now regarding Dongaria Gond it is a tribe that lives in the dense forest of Niamgiri Hills and it is spread across Raya Gada and Kalahandi districts of southwestern Odisha. See the Dongarias have earned the status of particularly vulnerable tribal group from the government of India. So this pair is also correct. And finally the Bonda tribes. They are the most primitive tribe of India. They live in the isolated hill regions of Malkangiri district of southwestern Odisha near the junction of three states of Odisha, Chattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. So this pair is incorrect. So the correct answer to this question is option A1 and 3 only. Now look at this final question. See aspirants it is a map based question. Think about it and carefully post your answer in the comment section. Aspirants I have given here the main questions for your practice. So if you are interested write it and post your answer in the comment section. If you have any queries related to the articles that we discussed today, post that also in the comment section. With this we have come to the end. If you find the video useful, like, share and comment and do subscribe to Shankaray's Academy's YouTube channel for further updates. Thank you.