 Hello, a very good evening to all of our friends and welcome to the Hindu News Analysis of Shankar IAS Academy for the date 22nd March 2021. The list of the relevant news articles taken up for today's discussion from five different editions of the Hindu newspaper along with their page numbers are given here for your reference. Also, the handwritten notes in the PDF format and timestampings for all the news articles taken up for today's discussion is given in the description box and also in the comment section for the best interest of the viewers. Now, before starting our analysis, dear friends, we urge you to read this opiate article from today's Hindu newspaper, which was written by TP Srinivasan sir. The article is with reference to the Iran nuclear deal or the joint comprehensive plan of action. See, TP Srinivasan sir is a former ambassador of India and has served as the governor for India in the International Atomic Energy Agency. And he served as the governor for a period of four years from 2001 to 2004 and his experience at the International Atomic Energy Agency makes this article a very interesting resourceful and with needed expertise. And as you are aware, Srinivasan sir is handling a special program on our YouTube channel that is on Shankar IAS Academy's YouTube channel. In January 2021, we have launched the special international relations weekly series for the benefit of the UPSC aspirants. The sessions in this initiative are being exclusively handled by TP Srinivasan sir. So in relation to today's article, capsule 10 specifically deals with the Iran nuclear deal and that is the reason why we have not taken this article in our today's Hindu news analysis. However, reading this article in the Hindu newspaper is a must for our civil service preparation. In this regard, we have given the list of other topics which were covered so far in the international relations program. And very soon, the next capsules in this series will be available. So with this information, let us move on to the analysis of the first news article. First, let us take up this editorial article. See, as per the most recent estimate, India recorded a 13% growth in foreign direct investment in 2020. And this growth was achieved at a time when fund flows declined most strongly in major economies such as the UK, the US and Russia. And during the pandemic induced global collapse, China was the only other country that has drawn a remarkably high FDI growth. So in this context, let us discuss this editorial which elaborately speaks about the pattern of FDI flows into India. The syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. Now, let us start with the basics. See, foreign direct investment or FDI is when a company takes controlling ownership in a business entity in another country. With FDI, the foreign companies are directly involved with the day-to-day operations in the other country. And this means they are not just bringing money with them, but also knowledge, skills and technology. Now, we should know that there are two ways of FDI inflows to India, which are through the automatic route and the government route. Now, under the automatic route, the non-resident investor or the Indian company does not require any approval from the government of India for the investment. Now, under the government route, prior to the investment, approval from the government of India is required. Now, here it is to be noted that the proposals for foreign direct investment under the government route are considered by the respective administrative ministry or department. And note that the foreign direct investment is prohibited in some sectors in India. And this includes the lottery business including government and private lottery, then online lotteries, etc. Then FDI is also prohibited in gambling and betting including casinos. Then it is prohibited in cheat funds, nidhi companies, etc. Now, know that the investment climate in India has improved considerably since the opening up of the economy in 1991. And this is largely attributed to the ease of FDI norms across the sectors of the economy. India today is a part of the top 100 club on ease of doing business. Now, coming to the statistics, the total FDI inflows into the country in the last 20 years, that is from April 2000 to September 2020 are $729.8 billion. The total FDI inflows received in the last five years, that is from April 2014 to September 2019, was $319 billion, which amounts to nearly 50 percentage of the total FDI inflow in the last 20 years. Now, in 2020, India witnessed some big ticket investments from the companies such as Google, Facebook, Walmart, Samsung, etc. And as a result, even as India experienced one of the world's sharpest economic contractions, it also saw the fastest growth in FDI inflows, that is among the major economies. Now, as per the estimates, India attracted total FDI inflow of $58.37 billion during April to November 2020. And this is the highest ever FDI inflow for the first eight months of a financial year. It is almost 22 percentage higher as compared to the first eight months of the financial year 2019-20. But the author notes that this still lags behind the highest tallies in other markets such as China and Brazil. Here, the author says that even after three decades of the liberalization, India remains a complex and challenging place to do business. Now, some of the issues here are the frequent shifts in policies and persistent market access barriers. Also, the government's push to build a self-reliant India or Atman-Irbhar Bharat is not taken positively by the investors. Despite these, leading corporate investors have understood that these are risks worth taking given the scale of opportunity in India. Now, let us see some of the reasons given by the author as why multinational companies prefer India for their investment. The first and foremost is our demographics. See, India's nearly 1.4 billion people and their growing purchasing power is uniquely valuable for multinational companies with global ambitions. And this is matched with no other country than China. Also, India's rising middle class of 600 million is of huge potential for multinational companies. The next reason is shifting geopolitics. We have long been hearing about the rising competition and trade war between countries like US and China. And the author says that this competition is redefining the global landscape for investment and manufacturing. It is to be noted that countries like Vietnam have benefited from this shifting geopolitics as multinational companies are shifting their production hubs to these countries. So, the author notes that India shall focus on attracting these multinational companies. Now, for example, recently, Samsung has invested billions of dollars in Indian market. Now, the third reason is the rising digital connectivity in India. The focus on digital India and the availability of cheap mobile data have powered a revolution across India's digital economy. At present, almost 700 million Indians are connected to the internet. And the rising number is a key reason why leading global tech companies are investing in India. And as per the author, many domestic Indian companies have also demonstrated their ability to innovate and deliver high quality services at large scale. So, partnerships and FDI flows linking these MNCs and Indian tech firms will help both to unlock shared market opportunities for years. Now, the fourth reason for rising FDI given by the author is national resilience. Remember, when the pandemic hit the world, India with her huge population was expected to suffer the most. But India has managed the pandemic better than many western countries and the massive vaccination program and resuming economic activities indicates our resilience. Here, the author believes that this resilience will help India to navigate the challenges of the 21st century, thus making India an attractive destination for the MNCs. But unlocking the opportunities in the Indian market cannot take the form of a one-way wealth transfer. The author believes that MNCs should not expect a warm welcome without demonstrating their commitment to India. Here, when the investors become successful, there has to be value creation in the form of India's growth and development. And this shared growth will forge enduring partnerships and lasting relationships. So, we can conclude by saying that for global companies with ambitions and also the willingness to make big bets, the rewards for investing in the Indian market are substantial. And also, well worth pursuing. So, this is all about this editorial article. Now, with this information, let us move on to the next news. And now this opiate article focuses on the domestic unpaid work done by women. So, in this regard, we will see what constitutes unpaid work and also the measures to address it. The relevant syllabus is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. See, if we pay attention to the women in our household, especially in an Indian household, we can see the enormous and laborious work which is done by her. And these works include taking care of members of the family, especially children, elderly and also the disabled. And in some cases, washing the clothes, cleaning the utensils and house and cooking, which are all necessary for the everyday life. So, on a majority, our mothers, sisters, aunts, etc do these works tirelessly for 24 by 7. Now, you may think that men also do these works, yes, to some extent, but not equal to the amount of work done by women. And this is clearly shown by the time use survey or TUS conducted by the National Statistical Office, where it categorizes these works as unpaid work, which simply means there is no remuneration for these works. You know that TUS measures the participation of men and women in paid and unpaid activities, including the time duration spent for such activities. Now, according to TUS, these are the paid or unpaid activities. Here, unpaid work includes caring, then voluntary work for production of goods and services, etc. So, for survey purposes, these works have been classified as unpaid domestic services for household members and unpaid caregiving services for household members. And one of the important findings of the survey is that women do more unpaid works or services than men. And it is clear from these representations, women's participation and the time spent in a day is disproportionately higher than men. And men's participation and time spent is not even half of what women do. So, what are the disadvantages or concerns or issues with unpaid domestic work? First, there is no remuneration or promotions or retirement benefits like other works or jobs. Second, there is unequal division of unpaid work between men and women. As we have just seen now, women spend more time on unpaid activities, which restricts their equal opportunities as men in both economy and in life. Unfortunately, the reality is that women do these works because it is imposed on them by the patriarchal norms and mostly not because they want to do it. And most importantly, these works of the women does not find any mention in the national policies, even though it contributes to the overall well-being of the household and also contributes collectively to the progress of the nation. How? Because these unpaid works support the members of the household by taking care of them and this enables the members to contribute to the economy. Further, these aspects especially benefits the private sector according to the author because otherwise the private sector would need to pay much higher wages leading to the lower profits. It is also to be noted that unpaid work supports the government by taking care of the elderly, sick and also the disabled sections of the society. Otherwise, this burden will fall on the government and the government will be forced to spend huge amounts for these. So this shows that these unpaid works are public good, which is critical for the sustenance of the mainstream economy. Now this fact has caught the eyes of the political parties and some of them have promised wages or salaries for housewives in their manifesto. But there are certain issues with this idea. First issue is the implementation of such a policy. Here, calculating the exact amount of wage and cost to the extracur will be a problem. Now second, if such salaries are promised for women, then it would formalize the custom that only women will do unpaid work. And this will lead to less contribution by men and it would also deny other economic opportunities to women. So what is the need of the R? First is accepting the household as a sector of the economy. And this is because the unpaid work in the household produces good sense services for the members of the household. And for this, the unpaid work needs to be recognized and it has to be integrated with the mainstream economy and policies. Here the data from a sound time use survey should be used in national policies. Second, other than the idea of wages, a pension system to old women in the age group of 60 plus can be provided. And this will compensate them for their unpaid work. And third, these steps need to be taken to relieve women's burden of unpaid work so that they will have some free time and can have new opportunities and also avail existing opportunities. So this is all about this opiate article. With this information, let us move into the next news. And now let us take up this editorial article which was written on the basis of a study conducted by Pew Research Center. The study is about the economic disparities caused by the coronavirus pandemic. So in this context, let us see the important findings of the report and also the relevant points mentioned by the author. The syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. See, we all know that the economic crisis driven by the novel coronavirus is having a major impact on the global living standards, pushing millions of people out of the middle class or into poverty. And recently, we are once again witnessing the rise in the number of COVID-19 cases and already our economy was hit by the nationwide lockdown. And now only it has begun to recover. But now with this sudden increase in number of cases, this beginning of economic recovery is once again under threat. Now coming to the news article, the Pew Research Center in its study based on an analysis of the World Bank's PokalNet database estimated about the damaging impact caused by the coronavirus pandemic on the living standards of people of both India and China in the year 2020. See, this Pew Research Center is a non-partisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and also the trends which are shaping the world. Now that India and China account for more than a third of the global population with about 1.4 billion people each. And due to this, the course of the pandemic in these two countries is likely to have a substantial effect in the distribution of income at the global level. Now let us see some of the findings of the report. See the population in each country is divided into five groups and they are poor, low income, middle income, upper middle income and high income. So based on a household's daily per capita income or consumption, people are grouped into five groups which we have discussed now. And as per the analysis, the pandemic has led to the contraction in the Indian middle class by 32 million in 2020. And this is compared to the number it may have reached in the absence of a pandemic. Similarly, the number of poor people in India that is people who earn less than $2 per day have increased to 75 million. And this is evident in the demand faced under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. As many lost their jobs due to the lockdown, more people including graduates were seeking jobs under this scheme. Here know that before the pandemic that is in 2020, around 99 million people in India were expected to belong in the global middle class. And a year into the pandemic, this number is estimated to have been 66 million. And meanwhile, the number of poor in India is projected to have reached an alarming 134 million which is almost double the 59 million which was expected prior to the recession. Here note that this drop reversed the gains which were made in the preceding nine years when the country cut the number of poor by more than three-fourths to an estimated 7.8 crore in 2019. And likewise, the poverty rate in India likely rose to 9.7 percentage in 2020. And this is a sharp increase from January 2020 forecast of 4.3 percentage. See, we have seen that there are five groups into which people are divided and they are high income, upper middle income, middle income, low income and poor. So in this majority of the Indians were under the global low income tier in 2020. And before the pandemic, some 1.2 billion people in India were expected to be in this tier. And this comes around 30 percentage of the world's low income population. Now this number seems to have dropped to 1.16 billion as the COVID-19 downturn pushed more people into poverty. So more people came down from low income level to poor level. Now let us compare the Indian estimates with that of China. See the fall in the economic growth pushed around 7.5 crore Indians into the ranks of poor. Whereas in the case of China, it was just 10 lakhs. This is because the Chinese economy slowed down but continued to post growth. Similarly, compared to the shrink in Indian middle class, China experienced just one-third the level of contraction. Now this study not only shows the damages which were caused to India but it also highlights the economic disparities both within India and between India and China. It once again brings to the limelight the already existing inequality in India which is now further aggravated due to the pandemic and also the multiple lockdowns. Now as per the article, the fiscal policy of the government to address this problem was also not very positive. Especially the pre-pandemic tax cuts which the government offered to the corporates for reviving private investment and also to rekindle the growth. Now to conclude, the re-rise in the COVID-19 cases poses the presence of a clear danger to our recovering economy which can once again slide down before gaining its grip. Or in simple words, there are more chances now for a dramatic increase of people into poverty. So this is all about the report of the Pew Research Center on economic disparities caused by coronavirus pandemic. So with this information, let us move into the next news. And now have a look at this question. It is based on this news article which talks about a proposal by the University of Madras to introduce e-learning program. It comes as a part of the university's efforts to integrate digital learning with conventional education. The university plans to do it along with the consortium of educational communication of the university grants commission. So in this regard, the university will provide this e-learning program as a credit based course. That is, the online course is given credit points that a student can utilize for his or her career advancement and higher education. Here know that MOOCS will be the platform which will be utilized for this purpose. So first let us have a brief look at what MOOCS is. See MOOCS is the short form for massive open online courses offered on Swayam platform. And see Swayam that is study webs of active learning for young aspiring minds was launched in 2017 by the Ministry of Education. It provides one integrated platform and a portal for online courses. Now MOOCS through Swayam has free for all education content which is provided under national mission on education. It covers wide range of audience from school to post-graduation level. And at the graduation level, the consortium of educational communication that is CEC is the coordinator. And for post-graduation level, the university grants commission is the national coordinator. Now talking about the consortium of educational communication or CEC, know that it is a product of country-wide classroom program which utilizes TV as an educational tool. In 1993, CEC emerged as a national coordinating agency of the media centers that implemented country-wide classroom education program. Now CEC coordinates about 21 media centers and media and e-learning programs of UGC. Now let us have a brief understanding of what university grants commission is. See in 1944, the report of the central advisory board of education on post-war educational development in India, which is also known as the Surgeon Report, recommended the formation of a university grants committee. It was formed in 1945 in order to oversee the work of the central universities. And in 1947, the committee was interested with the responsibility of dealing with all the then existing universities. And soon after the independence, the university education commission was set up in 1948 under the chairmanship of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan. And it recommended the setting up of the university grants commission. And accordingly, the university grants commission was established in 1956 through an act of the parliament. So from this, we can understand that university grants commission is a statutory body. Now something very unique about UGC is that it is the only grant-giving agency in the country, which means it can disperse and sanction money to universities and researchers. Now this signifies the independence and also the amount of power that the university grants commission wields. Now it is to be noted that UGC has also been vested with the responsibility of ensuring the standards of higher educational institutions. But recently, the central government has come up with the proposal of merging the UGC with the All India Council for Technical Education, that is AICTE, in order to set up a new body that is HECI or Higher Education Commission of India. But know that this body will be set up without grant-giving power. And in this regard, this proposal has drawn heavy criticism from different sections of the society. So in this discussion, we saw about MOOCS, then Swayam Platform, and also about the Consortium of Educational Communication or CEC and University Grants Commission. Now have a look at this question. Consider the following statements regarding University Grants Commission. It is a two statements-based question. The first statement reads, it is a statutory body. Yes, this statement is correct. We have seen that the University Grants Commission was set up as a statutory body in 1956 through an act of the parliament. Now the second statement reads, it is responsible for the coordination, determination, and the maintenance of standards in the institutions of higher education in India. Yes, this statement is also correct. So in this question, we have to identify the correct statement or statements. Since both the statements are correct, the correct answer for this question is option C, both 1 and 2. And now have a look at this second question. It is based on this news article which talks about a virtual meeting which was held between the Misoram Chief Minister and the Foreign Minister of Myanmar in the middle of the ongoing military crackdown. Remember, India has closed all its entry points along the border with Myanmar and is closely monitoring the borders so that no Myanmar national enters India. So in this context, let us see about Myanmar, its geography, and also in brief about the free movement regime that is mentioned in this article. See, Myanmar initially called as Burma is a country which is located in the western portion of mainland Southeast Asia. And its capital is Naipa Tao and know that it is the northmost country of Southeast Asia which is shaped like a kite with a long tail that runs south along the Malai Peninsula. Myanmar shares border with China to the north and to the northeast, then Laos to the east, Thailand to the southeast, the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal to the south and the southwest, Bangladesh to the west, and India to the northwest. Now, Myanmar as a whole can be divided into five physiographic regions and they are the northern mountains, the western ranges, the eastern plateau, the central basin and lowlands and the coastal plains. See, the northern mountains of the Myanmar consists of a series of ranges that form a complex note at Mount Kakabo. If you remember, in yesterday's news article, that is about the Indian monsoon, we saw about the plate tehtonics. And in terms of this plate tehtonics, this note marks the northeastern limit of the encroaching Indo-Australian plate which has been colliding with the southern edge of the Eurasian plate for roughly the past 50 million years. And remember, this region contains the sources of several Asia's great rivers including the river Irrawaddy. And just like its mountains, Myanmar's main rivers run from north to south and about three-fifths of the Myanmar's surface is drained by the Irrawaddy River and its tribute rays. Now, talking about the seasons of Myanmar, it can be divided into three types. They are the cool, relatively dry northeast monsoon, which occurs from late October to mid-February. Then the hot, dry inter-monsoonal season which occurs from mid-February to mid-May and the rainy southwest monsoon which occurs from mid-May to late October. Now, according to the official estimates, about half of the Myanmar remains covered with forests and these forests are of various types which are home to immense variety of birds including pheasants, parrots, p-fowl and other wildfowl and grows. And they also have animals like elephants, tigers, leopards and wildcats in addition to snakes, turtles and edible fishes. Now, coming to free movement regime, know that it is an arrangement made by Indian and Myanmar's governments that allowed the Nagas to travel 16 kilometers across the border on either sides without any visa requirements. And this is because the people living in the eastern districts of Nagaland and in the areas of Nagas self-administered zone of Myanmar share close family ties and also engage in cultural and economic exchanges. So, this is in brief about Myanmar and the free movement regime. Now, have a look at this question. India has set up a free movement regime with which of the following country? The correct answer for this question is option C, Myanmar. Now, with this, we have analyzed almost all the relevant news articles from today's The Hindu Newspaper. Now, let us move on to the practice questions discussion section based on today's news analysis. So, in this section, we have three main questions. Please write your answers and post it in the comment section. Now, we have come to the end of analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the discussion of practice questions. 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