 a very good evening aspirants welcome to the hindu newspaper analysis brought you by shankar ias academy for the date 28th of june 2022 displayed here are the list of news articles that i have chosen for today's discussion see each and every topic here is covered based on mains as well as problems and note that all these topics are covering various aspects of your mains examination like discovering gs paper 2 gs paper 3 and also the topics are covered based on prilam's perspective okay so without wasting much time now let's begin our discussion look at this text and context article it talks about the history of the sterilized copper plant in tutukudi in the state of tamaladu the article explains why the local communities oppose the functioning of the copper plant in tutukurin in this context let's discuss some of the important points about the sterilized copper plant and the impact of its closure see the sterilized copper is a copper smelting unit and it is a subsidiary of the vedanta group sterilized produces non-ferrous metals like copper aluminium and zinc along with this it also produces some chemicals such as sulfuric acid and phosphoric acid on june 20 the vedanta group put an advertisement which said that sterilized copper at tutukudi is up for sale the vedanta in conjunction with access capital desired to sell its copper plant along with its sulfuric acid plant and copper refinery among others see this note raised the eyebrows of the local people industries then politicians and environmentalists who have been constantly tracking them so now comes the question why the company desired to sell its sterilized copper plant this is because the sterilized copper has been incurring a loss of five crore per day since the plant was sealed in 2018 by the tamaladu government the company officials indicated that even if the supreme court allowed them to reopen the company it would need around eight hundred two thousand crore to revamp the plant so why was the plant closed now let's discuss its history see starlight operated the largest copper smelter plant in india in tutukudi from the year 1998 to 2018 the first blow for the company came from the fishermen in the region the fishermen backed by the marumalachi dravidam unnetra karagam a political party in tamaladu were worried that the effluence discharged from the plant would pollute the sea which will in turn ruin their livelihoods the second blow came in the year 2010 where the madras high court ordered immediate closure of the plant for not complying with environmental knobs see the supreme court later stayed the high court's order the company got into troubled waters again in the year 2013 after a sulphur dioxide leak but the supreme court allowed them to function after the payment of a fine of rupees hundred crore for polluting land and water by running the company without approval for a considerable period of time then in the year 2018 after the company announced that it would be enhancing its capacity large-scale protests from local and neighboring localities broke out on May 22 the protest turned violent and the police open fired which led to the death of 13 civilians a week later the tamaladu government sealed the plant so this is the history of this plant okay now what is the argument by the company regarding the allegations the company have always emphasized the fact that the plant is equipped with full-fledged air pollution control measures and adequate solid waste management facilities in the last four years the senior management has stressed that the plant follows zero liquid discharge since inception so that all the effluent is treated and recycled back into operation resulting in no effluent discharge see they also said that the regulator who is the tamaladu pollution control board carries out regular monthly sampling across all village bore wells and has found no abnormalities so this is what the company is arguing against all the allegations filed against it okay now let's discuss about the impact that the closure of the plant has created since the shutdown of the tuthukrin plant india has shifted from being a large net exporter of refined copper to now being a net importer of copper india is now importing copper at a historically higher price which is close to around 9600 us dollars per ton which is around 50 percentage higher as compared to the average prices of copper when india was net exporter of the same then it was around 6500 us dollars per ton only okay but now what is the rate it is 9600 us dollars per ton also know that sterlite was a major domestic supplier of phosphoric acid its capacity was about 220,000 metric tons which is a key raw material for fertilizer manufacturing companies okay see these fertilizer units were impacted due to stoppage of supplies and had to start importing so the main impact that the closure of the plant has created is it has increased the import of copper for the country okay so having seen all the issues and the allegations and the arguments that the company has made now let's see what is to be done see in a socioeconomic context a tradeoff is an inevitable necessity in the debate between development and environment here the word tradeoff means a balance achieved between two desirable but incompatible features that is more or less it is like a compromise okay see with the population of over 130 crore the issue of development cannot be wished away so this calls for a responsible political leadership it also needs professionalism from assorted government agencies like the pollution control board so the two major needs will be one will be responsible political leadership and the other one will be professionalism in government agencies like pollution control board so that's all about this news article in this news article we discussed about the Sterlite copper plant which is a hot topic for a while see don't just narrow down your thoughts with the Sterlite copper plant in Tuthukudi alone see take any plant or any industrial unit which is causing some harm to the environment when a question and means comes like this when a debate arises between development and environment no to match or no to balance your answer because both development and environmental concern are to be addressed at the same time okay so when we discussed about the Sterlite copper plant itself we discussed what are all the allegations filed against the company and we also saw the arguments that the company is making against all these allegations so make sure you always give a balanced answer in minds okay so this is how your discussion should be when a question is based on development and environmental basis okay so with these key points in mind now let's move on to the next news article discussion have a look at this OPET article see this article talks about India UAE relations now why we are suddenly talking about India UAE relations this is because our Prime Minister Narendra Modi is attending two summits this week firstly he is a special invitee at the 48th G7 summit at Germany see regarding this G7 summit we had a clear discussion yesterday so just have a look at it okay after that he has a bilateral summit in Abu Dhabi with the UAE President on June 28 see the author of this article considers the second event as most significant that is the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the UAE President is considered as the most significant we'll see why so this is the crux of the news article given here in this context let us quickly go through some of the important points mentioned in this news article and thereby we will come to know about the India UAE relations in detail okay before that the syllabus relevant to this news article is given here for your reference just go through it now let's start our discussion see India and United Arab Emirates or UAE enjoy strong bonds of friendship based on age-old cultural religious and economic ties between the two nations the relationship flourished after the accession of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan as the ruler of Abu Dhabi in 1966 and subsequently with the creation of the UAE federation in the year 1971 since then both sides have made sincere efforts to improve relations in all the fields now talking about political relations see India UAE bilateral relations have received impetus from time to time with exchange of high-level visits from both sides the historic visit of Prime Minister of India to the UAE on 16th and 17th of August 2015 marked the beginning of a new and comprehensive and strategic partnership okay in the joint statement issued after the visit both leaders agreed to work together not only to consolidate achievements in the existing domains but also to explore newer areas of cooperation see Sheikh Mohammed bin who is a crown prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy supreme commander of UAE armed forces visited India from February 10 to 12 in the year 2016 this is a state visit okay see he had wide-ranging discussion on bilateral regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest and reached a broad consensus not only this they also signed MOUs and agreements pertaining to facilitation of institutional investors in infrastructure then cooperation in renewable energy then cooperation in combating cyber crimes then cultural exchange then in space skill development insurance and currency swaps in all these forums they had signed MOUs or agreements okay so our prime minister's visit is considered significant because this would be his fourth visit to Abu Dhabi and sixth summit with Sheikh Mohammed this I'm saying over the past seven years okay this visit will re-energize not only historic but a long dormant relationship okay the visits have plenty to show from Emirati investments in Jammu and Kashmir to a CAPA so in that way after the COVID-19 induced three-year hatters Modi Sheikh Mohammed's summit is desirable to infuse a fresh momentum okay now talking about economic ties see significant changes in the bilateral regional and global context have taken place since the two leaders last met in august 2019 both countries know have successfully contained the COVID-19 pandemic and can pull their experiences in the summit then their bilateral trade grew by 68 percentage in the year 2021 to 2022 to 72.9 billion which is a new record while both exports and imports grew the trade deficit reached 16.8 billion US dollar this is also a new record trade is likely to increase considerably more in the year 2022 to 2023 this is as a result of the India UAE CEPA which is comprehensive economic partnership agreement also the corrective mechanism included in CEPA would stop the deficit from getting out of control so here what does this term CEPA means see CEPA is nothing but a free trade agreement between the two countries it is a type of trade agreement that covers services and investments and other areas of economic partnership okay so it is more comprehensive than free trade agreements why because it may even cover areas such as trade facilitation and customs cooperation competition and intellectual property rights remember this comprehensive economic partnership agreement or CEPA also looks into the regulatory side of trade and it includes an agreement that covers these problems so far India has signed CEPAs with South Korea and Japan India signed a CEPA with UAE on the date 18th of February 2022 this is during the India UAE virtual summit okay see the agreement came into force on 1st May 2022 the agreement is a comprehensive agreement which will cover the sectors mentioned in the table given here what are those trade in goods rules of origin then trade in services technical barriers to trade sanitary and phytosanitary measures then dispute settlement movement of natural persons then telecom then custom procedures then we have pharmaceutical products government procurement and lastly intellectual property rights investment digital trade and cooperation in other areas so what are the benefits associated with this comprehensive economic partnership agreement for India see considering trade in goods India will benefit from preferential market access provided by the UAE especially for all labour intensive sectors okay such as gems and jewellery textiles leather food waste sports goods plastic furniture agricultural and wood products then engineering products medical devices and automobiles okay so in all these labour intensive sectors there will be preferential market access talking about trade and services between the two both India and UAE have offered each other market access to the broad service sectors who are they for example you can say business services communication services construction and related engineering services then distribution services educational services environmental services financial services and not only this we also have health related and social services tourism and travel related services then recreational cultural and sporting services and then we have transport services and finally considering trade in pharmaceuticals both sides have agreed to a separate annex on pharmaceuticals this is to facilitate access to Indian pharmaceutical products especially automatic registration and marketing authorization in 90 days for products meeting specified criteria okay and the point you must note here is that according to the author through the CEPA India which is the world's fastest growing major economy could be a lucrative market for investments in areas such as petrochemicals pharmaceuticals renewables infrastructure manufacturing logistics startups etc etc this is true because the United Arab Emirates or UAE is one among the countries which collects petrodollars petrodollars are US dollars paid to an oil exporting country okay petrodollars are the primary source of revenue for many OPEC members and other oil exporters okay apart from this the two sides can collaborate for the eventual reconstruction of the war waged regional countries such as Yemen Syria Somalia Iraq Libya and Afghanistan in the bilateral political domino the two sides have cooperated efficiently on security and anti-terrorism but they need to do more to fight money laundering and the flow of illicit narcotics okay so to conclude considering all these the India UAE submit is timely and most appropriate and has potential to have an influence that goes beyond the bilateral relationship okay so that's all about this news article see in this news article we have covered a wide range of the India UAE relationship okay so any question that is regarding the India UAE relationship can be handled just with this discussion itself and note that this is a very hot topic regarding the bilateral relationship or it is also a hot topic in the GS paper okay in mains perspective all these points can be straight away utilized to enrich your answer so these key points in mind let's move on to the next news article discussion now have a look at this snippet article it is from the archives column it mentions an important event that happened 50 years ago on this same day the event mentioned is the opposition registered by the member of parliaments against the Vancho committee's recommendation for unearthing black money one of the recommendations was demonetization of currency so now let us see what is demonetization see demonetization means depriving the currency or banknotes of their legal tender status legal tender means those currencies cannot be refused by any citizen of the country for settlement of any kind of transaction but with demonetization the currencies that were demonetized lose their legal tender status that is they cannot be used in India in any kind of transaction anymore now in place of these currencies new notes with same or with different denominations are introduced in India demonetization has been carried out three times first in the year 1946 second in the year 1978 and the third one was the recent how can we forget it it happened in yes it happened in the year 2016 the objectives behind 1978 and 2016 demonetizations revolved around the same aim of tackling the issue of black money if we take the 1978 demonetization it was based on the recommendations of 1970 Vancho committee's interim report see this committee was headed by former chief justice k and Vancho it recommended demonetization of the rupees 10 rupees 100 and higher denominations notes to combat the scourge of black money these denominations were chosen as they accounted for 86.6 percentage of then money stock understood so let us come to 2016 demonetization when did it happen yes it happened in November 2016 its aim was fourfold first it was to tackle the problem of corruption second tackling the black money third was countering terrorism and lastly tackling the circulation of fake or counterfeit currency in the economy so in this demonetization old currency notes of rupees 500 and rupees 1000 were no longer legal tender this made 86 percentage of money in circulation invalid instead of these new currency notes in the denomination of rupees 500 and rupees 2000 were launched as a part of this public were advised to deposit old currency notes in their bank account so coming to the climax now what was impact of this demonetization first it led to cash crunch that is shortage of currency in circulation and it resulted in long queues outside banks and ATM booths now this cash crunch adversely impacted economic activities so these were the negative impacts but according to the government the move also had positive impacts it is said that with the time tax compliance improved as large number of people were brought in the tax ambit it also held in channelizing the savings of an individual into the formal financial system this resulted in more resources available with the banks and this was used to provide more loans at the lower interest rates another major positive impact that we all could agree was less cash or cash light economy see demonetization shifted transactions out of the cash economy into the formal payment system this also resulted into a shift from cash transactions to electronic payment technologies am i right so that's all about this news article see in this news article we saw about what is demonetization and number 2016 is not the first time india is undergoing demonetization it is the third time and we saw that the reason for demonetizing in the year 1978 and 2016 was more or less a similar thing and then we saw about the fourfold necessity for demonetizing in the year 2016 and we saw about the negative as well as the positive impact that this demonetization that was made in the year number 2016 so friends this demonetization is always a hot running topic see always remember you have to stay balanced while you're writing your main census so when it is asked like discuss about demonetization you have to quote both positive impacts as well as negative impacts so you can utilize these points that we discussed now to enrich your main census with these key points in mind now let's move on to the next news article discussion now have a look at this news article the news mentions that a zoo in tamiladu is housing dole puppies which are nothing but the asiatic wild dogs it is known by the names indian wild dog and red dog also the name the name dole dole is a habitat generalist so it can occur in a wide variety of vegetation types like tropical dry and moist deciduous forest evergreen and semi evergreen forest temporary deciduous forest alpine stoppies etc etc an important feature to note is dole is one of three canid species with specialized dental adaptations this is for an exclusively carnivorous diet okay so it is hyper carnivory and consumes prey species ranging from small rodents and heads to gore historically doles occurred throughout southern east asia to as far north the southern parts of the russian federation and as far west as the mountains ranging from eastern kasakistan to northern pakistan but now doles have disappeared from more than 75 percent of their historical ranges it is no more found in central and east asia that is in russian federation mongolia kasakistan kirkistan afghanistan tajikistan and us pakistan they disappeared from large areas of central and southern china then from pakistan then republic of korea singapore peninsular and eastern parts of thailet in all these areas they had disappeared now only fewer than 2500 mature individuals are remaining even the remaining populations are fragmented and they still appear to be declining they still occur in india then northeastern and chittagong hill tracks of bangladesh napal china and sumatra and java in indonesia then lavo pdr central and northern forested areas of the malaysian peninsular then in myanma thailand and vietnam in butan and cambodia if you take the populations are recovering if we take india they occur in several regions and india hosts the largest numbers of doles but even here doles have disappeared from 60 percentage of their historic range during the past 100 years now they are found in the western guards central indian forest eastern guards northeastern states their i-region in northern india etc etc they are also suspected to exist in sikkim and ladak as well see as for now we saw in prelims perspective about doles now taking this species in main's perspective why is its population declining firstly it is due to a decreasing prey base one of the reasons for this is over hunting by humans even within protected areas the second reason is retaliatory killings from livestock predation see as we saw doles are hyper carnivory so they also feed on livestock due to the livestock losses the local started poisoning livestock carcasses in retaliation this was one of the major reasons for population decline in china butan etc the third reason is habitat loss and degradation are also serious threats particularly because this threat is closely associated with prey depletion and high levels of human disturbances here habitat loss is driven by anthropogenic factors like logging palm and rubber plantation agriculture expansion rural biomass extraction the livestock grazing and major infrastructure expansion such as hydropower dams irrigation projects new highways etc etc other than these diseases like outbreak of canine distimper rabbis etc are also resulting in near extirpation of doles then the competition with other species is also cited as a reason for their population decline its main competitors are tigers and leopards so due to these threats and population decline doles are categorized as endangered under the iocn red list they are also listed in the appendix two of these sites and in india doles are protected under schedule two part one of wildlife protection act okay so that's all about this news article see firstly we saw doles influence perspective then we took the discussion further in mains perspective so whenever you have such kind of environmental topic especially when it is relating to some species firstly read about the species know about its habitat then know about its population whether it is declining or increasing whether it is an issue whether it is an issue relating to human existence or what okay and then take the discussion further by knowing the reasons for its decline and if possible add on points so as to address those decline in population okay which is nothing but some conservation measures so these key points in mind now let's move on to the next news article discussion now have a look at this news article this news article states that the world bank has approved a 250 million US dollar loan to support the Indian government this is to support the Indian government's road safety program for seven states see the Indian state support program for road safety will be financed by the world bank and it will be implemented in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttapradish and West Bengal under this program a single accident reporting number will be set up to better manage post crash events so this is the crux of the news article given here in this context let us quickly go through world bank in prelims perspective okay the world bank is an international development organization owned by 180 countries so it is like a cooperative made up of 189 member countries its role is to reduce poverty by lending money to the governments of its poorer members this is to improve their economies and to improve the standard of living of their people okay the bank is also one of the world's largest research center in the development it has specialized departments that use this knowledge to advise countries in areas like health education nutrition finance justice law and the environment currently the world bank has two stated goals that it aims to achieve by 2030 the first is to end extreme poverty by decreasing the number of people living on less than 1.90 US dollar a day to below 3% of the world population okay and the second one is to increase overall prosperity by increasing income growth in the bottom 40 percentage of every country in the world so these two world bank goals has to be achieved by 2030 now talking about its origin the world bank was established in the year 1944 to help rebuild Europe and Japan after world war two its official name was the international bank for reconstruction and development as time passed IBRD that is international bank for reconstruction and development and international development association that is IDA together formed the world bank we will see about IBRD and IDA a minute later remember when it first began operations in the year 1946 it had 38 members today most of the countries in the world are members of the world bank how this world bank is organized see the world bank has created new organizations within itself that specialize in different activities all these organizations together or called the world bank group so it consists of IBRD that is international bank for reconstruction and development this lends to low and middle income countries then comes the international development association that is IDA this lends to low income countries the next one is the international finance corporation it lends to the private sector the fourth one will be multilateral investment guarantee agency this encourages private companies to invest in foreign countries and the last one is the international center for settlement of investment disputes this helps private investors and foreign countries work out differences when they don't agree see here don't confuse yourselves with any names in the beginning the bank was officially called international bank for reconstruction and development that is IBRD later this IBRD and IDA were together called the world bank on the term world bank groups includes five institutions namely IBRD, IDA, IFC, MIGA and ICSID all these we saw just now okay hope you're clear with the concept now next comes the question how decisions in the world bank are taken see as I said already the bank runs like a giant cooperative where its members are shareholders and is operated for the benefit of those using its services the number of shares a country has is based roughly on the size of its economy the United States is the largest single shareholder followed by Japan Germany the United Kingdom and France the rest of the shares are divided among the other member countries okay remember a board of governors represents the banks government shareholders generally these governors are country ministers such as minister of finance or minister of development the governors are the ultimate policymakers in the world bank what about their meeting they meet once a year at the bank's annual meetings at the annual meetings all of the banks and international monetary funds governors decide how best to address global development issues and decide what the world should focus on in the upcoming year this is all to help reduce the poverty in the world so that's all about this news article in this news article we covered about the world bank its history then we saw about the organization under the world bank group see note that in this year itself we got a static question a very static question indeed about the united nations right likewise you can expect a very static question from the various international organizations okay so with these key points in mind now let's move on to the next part of the news article discussion which is the preliminary practice question discussion today we have three prelims questions in that two we will be discussing today and one will be a quiz question for you okay now look at this first question it is a two statement question and it is regarding the demonetization discussion okay see whenever you have two statement type of question you have to go through both the statements before arriving at the answer okay now read the first statement demonetization is this tripping of fiat money status of a currency but retaining its legal tender status see this statement is incorrect what do you mean by demonetization demonetization means removing the legal tender status and note that fiat money has no relevance here what do you mean by fiat money fiat money means it is a government issued money but not backed by a physical commodities such as gold or silver okay for example you take rupee it is a fiat currency of india or you can see it is the official currency of india okay so statement one which says it retains its legal tender status is making the statement incorrect okay now let's move on to the second statement in india demonetization has happened more than once see this statement is absolutely correct if you remember this we saw in our discussion itself right as of now demonetization in india has occurred twice okay so now read the full question the question is demanding for correct statements so your answer here will be option b two only is the correct statement okay now look at the second question the global economic prospect that is GEP report sometime seen in news is released by option a world bank option b international monetary fund or IMF then option c world economic forum then option d none of the above see the correct answer for this question is option a world bank the global economic prospects is a world bank group flagship report and it examines global economic developments and prospects with a special focus on emerging market and developing economies okay note that it is issued twice a year in january and june now let me tell you few other reports that are released by world bank the world development report then global financial development report are some of the other reports that are released by the world bank okay so what is the answer for the second question yes the second question answer is option a world bank okay now look at this question it is a quiz question for you see this is such a easy question if you had keenly observed the discussion you can easily answer this question okay which of the following are the reasons for the decline in population of the species dull four reasons are given and choose the correct code based on that reason okay the answer for this question will be put up in the common section within 24 hours okay having seen the prelims question now let's move on to the mains practice question today we have two mains practice question see go through the question and try to write an answer for each of these question and post your answers in the common section see every day these kind of means questions are given so as to improve your writing skills okay which is very much important for your mains examination and as these questions are relevant to our discussion and it will be very useful for analyzing how far you had observed from all these discussions okay so that's all for today's discussion if you like this video do like share and comment and don't forget to subscribe to the Shankar AIS Academy's YouTube channel thank you for listening