 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar IA's Academy for the date 24th of April 2019. This plate are the list of news articles taken up for today's analysis along with their respective page numbers from Chennai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Trivanandapuram editions. The handwritten notes is given in the PDF format in the description section and also in the comment section below. Time stamping of each news article is also given below in the comment section for the benefit of smartphone users. Let us now start with our analysis session. The first news article of the day is RBI's WAP auction gets bits more than thrice the notified amount. This news article appears on page number 13 in all the four editions. The content of this news article and our analysis will be helpful in your problems preparation under current events of national importance and in economic development. Also, it would be helpful for your mains preparation in general studies paper 3 under Indian economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development in particular. The article discusses about the second dollar rupee buy-sell auction by the Reserve Bank of India which saw a healthy demand with RBI getting 3 times more bits amounting to 18.65 billion dollars. This was not the first time of auction. In March 2019, RBI already carried out first round of bidding and bought 5 billion dollars. The article also mentions about the announcement by RBI to buy bonds in May 2019 under the open market operations. Until now, we saw what the news article said. Now, let us understand the terminologies mentioned in the article like dollar rupee swap and open market operations to understand the news completely. Dollar rupee swap is also known as the forex swap. It is the swap which is in the nature of a simple buy or sell foreign exchange swap from the Reserve Bank side which means a bank shall sell US dollars to the Reserve Bank and then simultaneously agree to buy the same amount of US dollars at the end of the swap period. And RBI has conducted the dollars rupee buy-sell swap auction for 5 billion US dollars for tenor of 3 years that is the end of swap period is after 3 years in 2022. This is a long term foreign exchange buy-sell swap. Now, before knowing why we need this kind of swap auction, let us know about the open market operation. Open market operations is a tool that is used by RBI to smoothen or control the liquidity conditions through the year and regulate the money supply in the economy. This is done by buying or selling of government securities. A government security also called GSEC is a tradable instrument issued by the central government or the state governments which acknowledges the government's debt obligation. When these securities are short term, they are usually called treasury bills with original maturities of less than one year or the long term securities are usually called government bonds or dated securities with original maturity of one year or more. And further, when there is an inflationary trend in the market, RBI sells government securities and then liquidity is decreased because those who buy the securities are giving their cash to RBI and this money is sucked out of the system by RBI. This amounts to dear money. Dear money is the money that is expensive to obtain due to high interest rates. Now, when there is a deflationary trend in the market, RBI purchases government securities so the liquidity is increased. This is because RBI is paying the seller some money to buy that security so RBI is pouring additional money into the system. This amounts to cheap money. Cheap money is a loan or credit with a low interest rate. Now, let us see why RBI introduced this forex web. This was done to inject liquidity or money supply in the market for a longer duration. In order to meet the durable liquidity needs of the system, the Reserve Bank decided to augment its liquidity management toolkit and use the forex web as a liquidity management for the first time. And also, the US dollar amount mobilized through this auction would also reflect in RBI's foreign exchange reserves for a period of the swap. And it will be a boost to the foreign exchange reserves and it will also reflect on RBI's forward liabilities. This method was chosen by RBI to lower the dependence on open market operations. But contradicting the same, RBI has announced to conduct a purchase of government securities under open market operations. This is because of evolving liquidity conditions and assessment of the durable liquidity needs of the market. With this, we come to the end of this article analysis. Have a look at the prelims question which I will discuss at the end of the session. Let us now move on to the next news article. The second news article of the day is the editorial named the permanence of Arab appraisings. This editorial appears in page number 8 in all the four editions. This editorial largely discusses about the events that led to the Arab appraising in 2010-11 and also the events that have led to the Arab appraising in the countries of Algeria and Sudan. Hence, this news article becomes a part of modern world history. The content of this editorial will be helpful in your prelims preparation under current events of national importance in the context of countries that are affected by Arab appraising. Also, it would be helpful for a mains preparation in general studies paper 1 under history of the world, events from the 18th century, their forms and effect on the society in the context of the event Arab appraising. Let us now start our discussion of the editorial. Appraising literally means an act of resistance displayed in the form of rebellion, revolt or protests against the present order. Here, the order may be a government rule, military rule, a dictatorship or a monarchy. The author of this editorial has predicted that the present appraisings happening in Sudan and Algeria can either go the Tunisia way or the Egypt way. The main reason for both the appraising is because of the continuous oppressive rule in both the countries of Algeria and Sudan. Algeria has been ruled by Abdulaziz Barflika for about two decades and Sudan has been ruled by Omar al-Bashir for almost three decades. The pattern of the present appraisings is similar to the 2010 Arab appraisings. It originated in the country of Tunisia where the people protested against the continuous rule of the president of Tunisia. It was called the Tunisian Revolution or the Jasmine Revolution. This revolution spread to other Arab nations such as Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria and Libya. The people of these nations revolted against the authoritarian rule in favor of a democracy. This trigger for a popular revolt was led by a combination of factors. The first factor is the economic model that was based on patronage. This largely happened in monarchy where the ruler bought the loyalty of the people with money and patronized the economy by injecting the money whenever required. Hence, these rulers were able to be in power for almost many decades. There is a popular longing for a freedom from these authoritarian rules which is a second factor for a trigger to revolt. The third factor is the transnational nature of these revolts. Those people suffering in other Arab countries under authoritarian rules took inspiration from Tunisia to lead the revolts in their own countries. Hence, it became transnational. The main driving force is the pan-Arabist anger against the old system. This Arab uprising was a huge success in Tunisia where a multi-party democracy was established as a result of the revolt. But it was a failure in Egypt where the military took over the country again and began oppressing the people, says the author. The author has mentioned some reasons for the 2010 Arab uprising and the present uprisings. In 2010-11, the uprising happened because of the failed economic model in their respective countries, which we have discussed earlier. If Arab countries were shaken by the 2010-11 protests, they were thrown into another crisis in the year 2014 with the fall of oil prices. Having touched $140 a barrel in the year 2008, the oil prices collapsed to $30 in the year 2016. This impacted both the oil-producing and oil-importing countries. Oil-producing countries reeling under the price fall started cutting their expenditures within their economy. Also, they cut their aids that they give to other Arab countries that do not produce oil. This includes Jordan and Egypt especially. In May 2018, there were massive protests in Jordan against a proposed tax law and rising fuel prices. The protesters withdrew only on the resignation of Jordan's Prime Minister Hani Mulki. These protests now have spilled over to Algeria and Sudan, leading to another uprising, says the author. In the next part of the article, the author tells that in Sudan and Algeria, the protesters have gone a step ahead demanding regime change, similar to what had happened in Tunisia and Egypt in late 2010 and early 2011 respectively. Let us first see the case of Sudan, which the author has discussed. Sudan is battling a serious economic crisis post the split of South Sudan in the year 2011, where three-fourth of oil reserves of the unbifurcated Sudan is now a part of South Sudan. The inflation rate stands at an all-time high of 73%, notes the author. Sudan is also suffering from cash and fuel shortages. The protests first started in the city of Arbara, which is located in the northeast in part of Sudan. In the year December 2018, over the rising food prices and soon the protests spread across Sudan into a nationwide movement. Bashir, the president of Sudan, tried every possible ways to calm the protesters, but the protesters pushed for a regime change. Finally, Sudan army stepped in, removing him from power on April 2011. Secondly, the author describes the case of Algeria. Algeria is rich in hydrocarbons, but the country's economy was hit badly post the 2014 price meltdown. While GDP growth slowed down from 4% in the year 2014 to 1.6% in 2017, the youth unemployment increased to 29%. Between all this, the Algerian president Abdulaziz Botflika did not make a public appearance due to his health issues. When he tried to seek another five-year term, the civilians started protesting against Botflika. Finally, he resigned on April 2. Thus, similar to the 2010-11 uprisings, these are transnational in nature and the protesters wish for a regime change. In the final part, the author has discussed the role of counter-revolutionaries. The role of counter-revolutionaries is so strong that often the protesters' goals are stopped short. The protesters managed to get rid of the dictators, but not their systems that they have built, says the author. Also, the author has described about two types of counter-revolutionary forces. One is the internal forces who are the guardians of the old system, either the monarch or the army. The second one is the external forces, nothing but the geopolitical powers that influence a particular country. Under the guardians of the old system, the author discusses about Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia. In Egypt, the army made a comeback and further tightened its grip on state and society through violence and repression. Here, repression means an act of controlling the protesters by force. In Jordan, the old system is the monarch who always acts against the revolutionary tendencies. The only exception here is Tunisia, where the revolutionaries have outwitted the counter-revolutionaries. They overthrew the dictatorship rule and Tunisia transitioned into a multi-party democracy. Coming to the second type of counter-revolutionaries, they are the external factors called the geopolitical factors. Simply means the influence of the foreign superpowers or the regional superpowers over a particular country which is in crisis. The author has cited the examples of these four countries. The foreign intervention led to the removal of Libya's dictator Muammar Qadhafi, but the war destroyed the states and the institutions, leaving the country in the hands of the competing militias. Libya is yet to recover from the anarchy triggered by the foreign intervention. Here, anarchy means a leaderless rule. Next, in Syria, the foreign intervention has led to an armed civil war and now the Syria has become a theater of war for the global powers. In Yemen, protesters turned into sectarian civil conflict, meaning conflict between different sections of Muslims residing in Yemen. Here, the foreign and the regional powers have taken different sides, further putting Yemen into crisis. Finally, in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia made a direct military intervention on behalf of Bahrain's rulers to violently end the protests in Manama, the capital of Bahrain. Any of the above-discussed roles by the counter-revolutionaries could very well happen in Sudan and Algeria, notes the author. In both the countries, the army led the president's fall, but it retained its grip on power despite the pressure from protesters. So, the army is the counter-revolutionary force here. Armies of both nations do not prefer a regime change. Hence, they are telling that the protesters' aim has been successful by removing the president in their nations. The author tells that Sudan faces the heat of geopolitical intervention as well. As soon as a military council directly took power in Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and United Arab Emirates offered support to the military. This is a perfect example of geopolitical power acting as counter-revolutionary. The author finally concludes the editorial by stating that the people's protests and demands are constantly being pushed back by the counter-revolutionaries. With this, we come to the end of this editorial analysis. Have a look at the practice problems question we shall discuss at the end of the session. Let us move on to the next news article. The third topic of the day is about issues concerned with India's oil imports from Iran, which has appeared in an editorial and also in a news article. Let us first see the editorial name in an oil slick that appears on page number 8 in all the editions. The editorial is about the recent announcement from United States that India can no longer import oil from Iran after second of May. The content of this editorial will be helpful in your problems preparation under current events of national importance and next under economic development in particular. Also, it would be helpful for your mains preparation in general studies, paper 2 under bilateral groupings and agreements affecting India's interests and next under effect of policies of developed countries on India's interests and also in your general studies, paper 3 under Indian economy and finally under energy and infrastructure subtopic. Let us now start our discussion of the editorial. The author states that India had made successful efforts in 2018 on two grounds such as getting a six month waiver to import oil from Iran and an exemption to continue development in Chabahar port in Iran. These positive outcomes are not convincing at present as the United States has cancelled the waiver or the significant reductions exemption shortly stated as SRE. The US ultimatum or the final statement is that India should not do oil imports from Iran or it will face sanctions from the United States. Not just these, if a company continues importing oil from Iran they must face secondary sanctions which are number one removal from swift international banking system and thus to face challenges in accessing international financial services. Number two, assets in United States or US assets of the company will be seized and finally the dollar transactions of the company will be freezed or banned. In this regard, the author mentions what went wrong and what could have made us in better position in becoming immune to the adamant arbitrary demands and moves of the United States. Rather having done the one-to-one negotiation with United States last year we could have taken China, European Union and other affected entities such as Japan, South Korea and Turkey on board in building a counter with an effective alternative financial infrastructure. This could have made India to stay immune to the moves of United States. An alternative financial infrastructure would have saved out new costs and impact as a result of the US decision. Rating agency ICRA has stated the loss at now stands Rs 2500 crore. Finally, the impacts to the Indian economy is also discussed in the article under real costs. First, the author tells that India was importing around 10% of its oil needs from Iran. Last year, the Prime Minister had promised to increase the oil imports from Iran but in last few months the proportion came down considerably. Thus, to adequately supply the energy requirements and demand, India must find alternative sources of energy. Next, he discusses that the price of Brent crude has shot above $70 per barrel and there is further inflationary trend in the price level because Iran threatens to close the state of Hormuz which is a key channel for global oil shipments and it may do so as a reaction for US announcement. The inflation in the oil price rise have serious implications in Indian domestic economy. Finally, as India is not going to import oil from Iran starting 2nd of May, Indian investments in Iran particularly in Chabahar port could receive a setback. India is building the port as part of developing an alternative route for trade to Central Asia and Afghanistan. Let us note one thing here, the exemption given to India to invest in Chabahar port is still alive and is not altered by United States when it cancel the waiver. Thus, the author concludes saying that the new decision of India to not to import oil from Iran meaning not to have the economic ties with Iran with respect to oil imports means that India has yielded itself to the unilateral sanctions uttered by the United States of America. India had proclaimed in May last year that it recognizes only human sanctions not unilateral sanctions. By yielding to United States of America, India is compromising its economic ties with Iran and thus India is testing its traditional ties with Iran and thus India is in a slippery terrain in the matter of oil imports or in an oil slick as stated by the author. Let us now see the second news article title US firm with India on Iran oil import curbs which gives few other information. This news article appears in page number 14 in all the editions. Some details given are overlapping with the facts given in editorial article. The article states that US has also stipulated India's escrow amount used for rupee real trade cannot be operated after 2nd of May 2019. Here, you need to know what is meant by an escrow account in this context. An escrow account is a temporary pass through an account held by a third party during the process of a transaction between two parties. India has been paying for a large proportion of Iran's oil imports through a rupee mechanism which is deposited in an escrow account in an Indian bank. Here, the bank is the third party and the two other parties being India and Iran. The money deposited in this escrow account will be used by Iran to buy essential items like food, stuff, medicines, etc. from India. While Iran can use whatever is available in the account, India cannot deposit money in this account after 2nd of May. This is done by United States to make India to adopt any alternative mechanism to continue oil imports from Iran. The United States is expecting cooperation from India in this matter. If India accepts US demands, US states that it will cooperate to support India's requirements such as US cooperation in investigating Pulwama terror attacks, shutting down terror havens in Pakistan, designating Masood Azhar as a global terrorist, and blacklisting Pakistan at the financial action task force. With this, we come to the end of the analysis of the editorial and the news article. Have a look at the practice main question we shall discuss at the end of the session. Let us move on to the next news article. The fourth news article of the day is again an editorial, The Problem with Cherry Picking Data. This news article appears in page number 8 in all the four editions. The content of this editorial will be helpful in your mains preparation under General Studies Paper 3, under Indian economy and issues relating to employment in particular. This editorial largely discusses about the data crisis in India on matters of employment, economic growth and farmer suicides laid down by the author and the author's criticism over government's decisions. Try to use the analysis of data crisis in any of your mains question concerning employment. Try to understand the author's criticism over government's stand in knowledge point of view which is the last part of our analysis. Let us now start with the discussion. One of the central government ministers has commented that there exist a data crisis in India. He has also blamed the academics for creating a false narrative. But the author differs from his view telling that the central government is the heart of data crisis in India. The entire editorial given by the author is based upon this narrative only. The author tells that the government holds back important data on matters concerning employment, farmer crisis and economic growth. Data such as employment data created by Mudra scheme, National Sample Survey Office or the NSSO data and farm suicide data collected by the National Crime Records Bureau annually have been withheld by the government. The author substantiates its criticism on matters on employment and farmer's crisis. Under employment, the author tells that the NSSO data collected has revealed high rates of unemployment which is the reason why the government has not released the data. He further tells that demonetization and introduction of goods and services at also called the GST has largely impacted the unorganized sector which employs 94% of the workforce. This fact is further substantiated by a data from Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy shortly called CMIE. The NSSO and CMIE data are based on household surveys and they have registered a rise in unemployment. Next, under farmer's crisis, the author has mentioned the government's call of doubling the farmer's income by the year 2022. The main issues are the farmer's face including decreasing farm produce prices and raising input costs. These two factors have further been aggravated by demonetization. To hide these issues, the author notes that the government has not released the farmer's suicide data collected by National Crime Records Bureau since 2016. The GST introduction of PM Kishan scheme implicitly admits the crisis of the government in matters of farmer's crisis and unorganized sector since this farmer's support scheme aims to provide a monetary support of 6000 rupees every year to the farming community and a insurance cover to unorganized workers in the farming sector. The government has also increased allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation scheme shortly called as Mandrega scheme from 55,000 crores to 60,000 crore rupees. The author notes that this allocation is inadequate but it indicates that the government is forced to acknowledge the crisis facing the poor. These are some of the points about data crisis like the data names and their purpose and scheme names and their purpose elaborated by the author. Try to use these excerpts in your mains answer on unemployment or employment crisis. The second part starting from here elaborates the author's criticism on government. Just have an idea to improve your knowledge and thought process. To counter the argument of a crisis facing large segments of population, the government first tried to discredit alternative arguments which means the criticisms against the government but again the government changes its stance to say that data on unorganized sector employment were bad. In the process the government has discredited its own agency's data notes the author. The author tells that the previous governments have manipulated data and budgetary figures where figures such as fiscal deficit, expenditures and revenues were forged. Creative accounting in the budget is done every year by the government. Data on health and education have been manipulated by the government to show better performance. Many economists have noted flaws in data after the change in the base year of GDP calculation. The author also adds that the inflation measured by wholesale price index will not be a credible data since it excludes the service sector thus understating the inflation score. The author tells that the previous governments have all manipulated data like described above but the present government differs from them by means of cherry picking the data. Cherry picking picking only the best suited data that would have an advantage to the government. He also tells that the government suspects the data of its own agencies that it manages. The government also revamps data collection arbitrarily. He notes that it would open doors for the future governments to do the same. This table lists some of the claims made by the government and the author's question for the same. The first claim by the government is that NSSO data is incorrect and is not reliable. The author tells that if NSSO data is incorrect then policy formulation based on NSSO data is also incorrect. Next, the government claims that the data on unorganized sector employment is not reliable or is non-existent. To this, the author tells that if this data is not reliable then the GDP data is also not creditable. It further implies that the government estimated growth based on the unorganized sector only. The next claim by the government is that no agency has a credible employment data. To this, the author asserts that the GDP data must be suspected, so is the 7% GDP growth claims. The present GDP calculation excludes the unorganized sector. The author tells that if the unorganized sector is included in the GDP growth rate calculation then the overall GDP growth rate would turn out to be less than 1%. And this data would be consistent with the crisis that the country is now facing that includes your unemployment and farmer suicides. The final claim by the government is that both the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, shortly called IMF, have acknowledged that India is growing at a rate of 7%. But the author tells that these figures declared by both World Bank and IMF are a mere reiteration of government's data meaning they arrive at the GDP figures for a particular country based on the data shared by the respective country. Data are not independently collected and declared by IMF and World Bank in this case. Thus, the author tells that all these government's claims are false and are misleading. Finally, the author has given some suggestions on how to improve the scenario. He tells that the data collection methods can be improved and arbitrary data collection can be avoided. Expert committees must be appointed to work on the modification of methodology and database of the data being collected instead of acting arbitrarily. With this, we come to the end of the analysis. Let us move on to the next news article. The fifth news article of the day is the editorial title Outer Space Lessons. This editorial appears in page number 9 in all the four editions. The content of this editorial and our analysis will be helpful in your prelims preparation under general science. Also, it would be helpful for your main preparation in general studies, paper 3 under developments in science and technology, next under achievements of Indians in science and technology, indignation of technology and developing new technology, and finally under awareness in the fields of space in particular. Before getting into the editorial discussion, which is based on the complexities in the human spaceflight missions, we will discuss about India's first human spaceflight mission, the Gaganyan mission. Our Prime Minister during this Independence Day address in the year 2018 announced that India's first Indian human spaceflight mission will be launched by Indian Space Research Organization ISRO by the year 2022. This will be the first human mission, indignously developed by Indian Space Research Organization in short ISRO, which works under the Department of Space Government of India. Keep in mind that Department of Space is an independent department and it does not come under the Ministry of Science and Technology. There are Indian astronauts who have been to space earlier like Rakesh Sharma who flew about the Russian rocket but this particular Gaganyan mission is indignously developed. The success of this program will make India the fourth nation in the world to launch a human spaceflight mission. So far, only the USA, Russia and China have launched human spaceflight missions. The Gaganyan mission aims to send a three-member crew to space for a period of five to seven days and the spacecraft will be placed in a low earth orbit of 300 to 400 km. The crew will do microgravity experiment during the mission. Microgravity refers to the condition where gravity seems to be very small. In microgravity, astronauts can float in their spacecraft or outside on a spacewalk and heavy objects move around easily. The crew will be selected by Indian Air Force and ISRO jointly after which they will undergo training for two to three years. A human spaceflight center has been inaugurated in the ISRO headquarters located at Bengaluru and the HSFC shall be responsible for implementation of Gaganyan project which involves end-to-end mission planning, development of engineering systems for crew survival in space, crew selection and training and also pursue activities for sustained human spaceflight missions. ISRO has completed the development of launch vehicle for this mission which is GSLV MK3 because it has the necessary payload capability to launch a three-member crew module into the low earth orbit. The orbital vehicle will comprise of a crew module and a service module and the orbital module weighs approximately seven tons and will be carried by a rocket to space. The crew module size will be 3.7 meters cross seven meters. Two unmanned Gaganyan missions will be undertaken prior to sending humans. The total program is expected to be completed before 2022 and with first unmanned flight within 30 months. The total fund requirement for the Gaganyan program is within 10,000 crores and includes cost of technology development, flight hardware realization and essential infrastructure elements. Further the objectives of the mission are number one, it will lead to enhancement of science and technology levels in the country. Number two, it is a national project involving the efforts of several institutes, academia and industry. Number three, it would lead to improvement of industrial growth. Next it would inspire youth to pursue space related education. Number five, the development of this technology would bring in immense social benefits and finally this mission would improve international collaboration in space related areas. Beyond all this, essentially ISRO has developed some critical technologies like re-entry mission capability, crew escape system which is an essential technology for human spaceflight, crew module configuration, thermal protection system and deceleration and flotation system, subsystems of life support system such as elements of life support system and space youth also have been realized and tested. Some of these technologies have been successfully demonstrated through some experiments by ISRO which are as follows. Firstly, the space capsule recovery experiment in short called SRE 2007 was successfully tested in the year 2007. The orbital and re-entry mission and recovery operations have been flight demonstrated in this experiment. Next is the crew module atmospheric re-entry experiment which was successfully tested in the year 2014. It is called CRE 2014 in short. Finally, the pad abort test which was successfully tested in the year 2018. These technologies will enable ISRO to accomplish the program objectives in a short span of four years. With this background knowledge about the Gaganyan mission, let us now discuss the editorial in detail. It may be recalled that the Prime Minister during his Independence Day address announced Gaganyan as India's maiden human spaceflight program. He had declared that a son or daughter of India will go to space from Indian soil by an Indian vehicle in the year 2022 or sooner. This is the most ambitious space program which has been launched by ISRO till date and is essential as it will give a big boost to the science and technology development within the country as we have already seen. This will also inspire the youth of the country to take up bigger challenges and enhance the prestige of the country. The author compares this mission to the US's lunar mission in the 1960s which was called the Apollo mission. He points out that at that time US President John F. Kennedy made a public statement about his administration's plans to place an American on the moon by the end of that decade. The US's objective was to have a definite public relations edge over the then US SR also called Soviet Union in the space race as the then US SR was the foremost power at that time and a breakthrough in space was thus a matter of prestige. In the context of ISRO's plan, the prestige value of Mission Gaganyan is sky high, possibly in the NASA's Apollo mission to the moon. And hence a program of that scale and magnitude often comes at a high cost, both monetary and non-monetary. But more than the monetary loss, the author feels that it is the non-monetary loss that matters more as such a failure indicates a waste of time and resources. So a failed mission not only hurts the image of the country in the eyes of the outside world but it also raises doubts about the capability of the nation in question. No nation ever wants to face such a dilemma because such a dilemma will be an advantage to the opponents both politically and diplomatically. Politically a failed mission of such magnitude will give boost to the opposition political party in the country to criticize the incumbent government. And diplomatically there will be a loss to the space missions and it will drastically affect the future of cooperation which India has with the space powers. Outer space, which is often referred to as the final frontier by major world powers as its price in the world stage for exploring it. As we know India's credentials were bolstered recently after the successful anti-satellite mission that is the Mission Shakti and adding to it a significant success in the Gaganyan mission might prove India having the authority in outer space. For this to happen India must learn the lessons from the experiences of other space powers and should be careful to avoid any mistakes. With this we come to the end of this editorial analysis. Have a look at the prelims question which I will discuss at the end of the session. Let us move on to the next news article. The final news article of the day is again an editorial title a natural next step which has appeared on page 9 of all the four editions. This editorial is concerned with India, Australia bilateral relations in brief. The content of this editorial and some facts about Australia will be helpful in your prelims preparation under current events of national importance and in world and Indian physical geography. Also it would be helpful for a main preparation in general studies paper 2 under India and its neighborhood relations and next under bilateral regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and or affecting India's interests. Let us now start with our analysis. Recently there was an historic moment in the India Australia bilateral relationship that is both countries together carried out and joined naval exercise known as OS index that is AUS for Australia IND for India and EX for exercise. This bilateral maritime exercise was carried out for the first time in the year 2015. This naval exercise was the largest ever peacetime deployment of Australian defence assets and personal to India. The Indian Navy's eastern naval command hosted an impressive array of eye-hand Australian military hardware including the Royal Australian Navy's flagship HMAS Canberra which is a small aircraft carrier and the Royal Australian Navy's submarine HMAS Collins. It was Australia's largest defence deployment to India and the exercise was the most complex because for the first time our Navy undertook an anti submarine warfare exercise. The author states that the strategic trust on display during exercise represents the deepening of strategic alignment between India and Australia. This is because of the shared values between the countries such as free, open and independent democracies and being supporters of an open and inclusive Indo-Pacific. The author points out that the key element of Australia's Indo-Pacific strategy is partnering with India in the vibrant Indian Ocean region. Since India is a leader in this region and Australia is a natural partner to India for addressing shared challenges and another strategy is to work together to combat transnational crime, terrorism, people smuggling and illegal fishing in order to enjoy a peaceful and prosperous Indian Ocean region. And as a nation with one of the longest Indian Ocean coast lines, Australia is committed to address the humanitarian and environmental challenges in the Indian Ocean neighbourhood. So, Australia is doing its part in the Indo-Pacific region through major new initiatives in Southeast Asia and the Pacific like showing support for Pacific Island countries. This is clear when Australia announced the Australian infrastructure financing facility for the Pacific which is 2 billion Australian dollar initiative. And then the security relationships with Pacific Island countries have also been enhanced by Australia. Under this, a Pacific Fusion Centre will be established to provide real-time surveillance data for countries across the region as well as enhancing the policing and military training both bilaterally and through regional centres. And Australia is also building a diplomatic and economic relationship with Southeast Asia as it recently announced Southeast Asia Economic Governance and Infrastructure Initiative which will help unlock Southeast Asia's economic growth. All this activity is happening with rapidly expanding India-Australia relationship as the people to people will be able to see the economic links or on the rise between the countries. The Indian diaspora in Australia is both strong and growing and there is a significant increase in Indian students studying in Australia and tourists visited to Australia from India are also on the rise. Both countries are working together to see India become a top three trading partner for Australia by 2035. In this context, let us see some facts about Australia that will be useful in the future. Australia is the smallest continent in the world. The country covers an entire continent and it is one of the largest countries in the world. If you see in the map Australia lies in the southern hemisphere below the equator and Tropic of Capricorn passes through the continent and it lies between the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. Australia capital is Canberra and its formal name is the common wealth of Australia. It is to be noted that politically Australia is both a representative democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as Australia's head of the state. With this we come to the end of today's analysis session. Let us now move on to the practice question discussion session Question number one consider the following statements with reference to the open market operations and it asks for which of the statements are correct keep in mind that we have to look for the correct statements. The first statement states that the open market operation is the buying of government securities to control money supply from the definition of open market operations we know that it is the buying or selling of government securities to control liquidity or money supply hence the first statement is correct the second statement states open market operation is the selling of government securities to control inflation. We have discussed that whenever there is an inflationary trend RBA sells the government securities and when there is a deflationary trend, it buys the government security. Hence, this statement is also correct. Now, the third statement states that open market operation is the selling of US currency to the Reserve Bank of India in a buy-sell foreign exchange swap. This is a wrong statement because this is done in the forex swap as the statement itself mentions. So, the correct answer here to this question is option B, 1 and 2 only. Moving on to the second question, in 2019, which of the following countries have faced a series of appraisings of people leading to the fall of incumbent power? And the first statement is Saudi Arabia, second country is Sudan, third Qatar and fourth Algeria. We discussed about this particular news in our second news article of the day. Here the correct answer is option D, Sudan and Algeria. From Sudan, it was Omar al-Bashir who was ousted from power after his three decades of rule and from Algeria it was Abdulaziz Bortflika who was ousted from power after two decades of rule after facing resistance from people in the form of protests. It had led to both the leaders resigning from their roles. For more details on this particular news, refer to the second topic of today's analysis. Moving on to the third question, with reference to the Gaganyan mission, consider the following statements. Statement 1, it is the first human spaceflight mission of India, indignously developed by ISRO or the Indian Space Research Organization. Second statement, it aims to send crew members to high earth orbit. And third statement, it will be launched by in a geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle Mark II, which among the above statements is our correct. Keep in mind that we have to look for the correct statement about this Gaganyan mission question. The first statement here is correct, as we have already discussed that Gaganyan mission is the first human spaceflight mission of India, which was indignously developed by ISRO. The second statement here is incorrect, as the mission aims to send the crew to a low earth orbit at an altitude of 300 to 400 kilometer. The third statement states, it is launched by geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle which is in short known as the GSLV. But the launch vehicle for this mission is GSLV Mark III, not GSLV Mark II. Hence this option is also wrong. So here statement 2 and 3 are wrong, the correct statement is 1 only. So the answer is option A, 1 only. Let's move on to the final practice main question. Discuss the implications to India owing to the non-renewal of 6 month waiver or significant reductions exemption by the United States. Here you may highlight the economic implications to India that are discussed in today's editorial article, such as the necessity to find alternative sources of energy to meet around 10% of India's oil needs. And next, explain about the ties between Iran and India, how it may be affected and thus the investments in Chabahar port may become a setback. And next, discuss about the inflationary trend of oil prices and their implications in domestic economy. So add other implications as well in your answer and discuss according to your viewpoints. With this we come to the end of today's practice question discussion session and also today's discussion. 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