 A very good evening aspirants, I have an announcement for you, see checking your progress and assessing it is as important as studying regularly for the UPSA civil services examination. And well, again Shankaray's academy is going to lend you a hand in this. Yes, Shankaray's academy is going to help you in assessing your problems preparation for 2022 preliminary examination. And for this Shankaray's academy is conducting all India's problems mock test. It is a free mock test. It will be conducted in offline as well as online mode across 13 centres. And note down the dates here, it will be conducted on 15, 22nd and 29th of May. So I request the viewers to register for the free all India problems mock test for assessing your preparation. With this crucial information, let us get on to the Hindi news analysis dated 11th of May 2022. I have taken these news articles for discussion today and we also have a previous year question discussion session. At the end, I also have a quiz question for you. So now let's move on to the first session of the day, which is the previous year question discussion. So in the previous year question session, we are taking up questions from problems 2019. And today I have taken this question which is based on pollution from agriculture and allied activities. As you can see here, the question talks about nitrogen oxides, ammonia and reactive nitrogen released into the environment. Therefore, to answer this question, we have to have a basic understanding about nitrogen first. Let us see that now. See nitrogen is an essential fundamental building block for life. It is the most plentiful element in the earth's atmosphere. And yet in its molecular form, that is as N2, nitrogen is unusable by the vast majority of living organisms. Therefore, for nitrogen to be used by organisms, it must be transformed or fixed into other forms. These other forms are together called as reactive nitrogen. Therefore, the term reactive nitrogen includes oxides of nitrogen, anions and the amine derivatives. Here oxides of nitrogen includes the nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide and nitrous oxide. And the anions include nitrate and nitrite. And then amine derivatives include ammonia and then ammonium salts and urea. So remember, all these are called as reactive nitrogen. Another important feature that is to be noted is that nitrogen is an essential nutrient element required by plants in greatest amount. It is absorbed by plants mainly as nitrate, that is as NO3. Some are also absorbed as nitrogen dioxide or ammonium, that is NH4 plus. So now let us come to the reactive nitrogen mentioned in the question. Let us take up the ammonia one first. It is denoted as NH3. See, ammonia is an air pollutant. It is known to have damaging impact on biodiversity, including sensitive habitats and ecosystem resilience. It also impacts human health. But our focus is on the sources. So let us see the sources of ammonia. So naturally, ammonia is generated by microorganisms when they decompose organic matter. So we can say that agriculture is the major source of ammonia. Now this ammonia is produced by many common farming activities. And this includes housing of livestock, the storing and spreading of manure and slurries, and even the application of fertilizer contributes to the production of ammonia. So actually how livestock or cattle is involved here. Here ammonia is generated because of nitrogen in the feces and the urine of pigs and cattle. It is also generated because of the uric acid of whole tree manure. So this was about ammonia. Next, let us take up the nitrogen oxides. As I already said, it includes NO, NO2 and N2O. Now in nature, lightning and ultraviolet radiation provide enough energy to convert nitrogen to these nitrogen oxides. For example, you would have noticed the irritant red haze in the traffic and congested places, right? This is due to the presence of oxides of nitrogen. And these oxides have several negative impacts. For example, higher concentrations of NO2 damages the leaves of plants and it also retards the rate of photosynthesis in plants. The nitrogen dioxide that is NO2 is also a lung irritant. Therefore it affects human beings and it leads to acute respiratory disease in children. And this NO2 is toxic to living tissues also. And it is also harmful to various textile fibers and metals. But what about the sources of these nitrogen oxides? Generally, they are released from industrial combustions, forest fires, automobile exhausts and they are released from power generating stations. And particularly if you take nitrous oxide, that is N2O, it is emitted during storage and treatment of the animal waste. So we can say that nitrogen oxides are released by animals. So with this basic understanding, let us take up the question now. First statement, agricultural soils release nitrogen oxides into environment. Yes, it is correct because agricultural soils are sometimes treated with manure, which is created by animal waste. And just now we saw that nitrous oxide is emitted during storage and treatment of animal waste. Second statement, cattle release ammonia into environment. This statement is also correct. We saw it. Now the third statement, poultry industry releases reactive nitrogen compounds into environment. This statement is also correct. So basically here the nitrogen oxides and ammonia mentioned in statement 1 and 2, both are reactive nitrogen only, right? Therefore we can say that reactive nitrogen is also released by poultry. As we saw, particularly ammonia is generated by the uric acid of poultry manure. So that means the moment you know that nitrogen oxides and ammonia, both are reactive nitrogen, you can easily answer this question. And all these three statements are correct. And that is why the correct answer to this question is option D, 1, 2 and 3. So I hope you had an understanding about the pollution from agriculture and allied activities. So this question, now let us move on to the next session of article discussion session. Let us take up the first news article. So now let us take up this article here. It says that the center has shifted its stand on who can grant minority status to communities. See earlier, the Ministry of Minority Affairs told the Supreme Court that both the center and the states have concurrent powers to notify minorities. But after that, the center changed its stance by saying that central government alone is vested with the power to notify a minority community. And now again, the Ministry has said that center has to have a wide consultation with the state governments and other stakeholders before notifying a community as a minority community. So due to this, now the Supreme Court has demanded a clarification on this issue. That is who can notify a community as minority. Therefore taking this opportunity, let us just understand what is meant by the term minority and who can notify a community as minority as per the existing laws. Let us start with the term minority. See, this term is mentioned in the Constitution. It has been mentioned in the Constitution only on two occasions, once in the article 29 and again in article 30. But remember, in Constitution, the term minority is nowhere defined. Therefore, Constitution mentions the term minority but does not define it. And also we know that the Constitution grants protection to religious and linguistic minorities. Other than this, that is other than the Constitution, you have to remember that an act is responsible for notifying minorities in our country. It is the National Commission for Minority Act of 1992. So this 1992 act also does not define the term minorities. So we can safely say that Constitution does not define minority and the 1992 National Commission for Minority Act also does not define the term minority. Then what this term actually means? See, if you take the general definition, it refers to a small group of people within a community or a country. Such a group differs from the main population in terms of race, religion, language or political persuasion. This is the general meaning of the term minority. Apart from this, United Nations has the definition. According to it, any group or community which is socially, politically and economically non-dominant and which is inferior in population are called as minorities. So we have a UN definition but there is no a well-defined one in India. Therefore, it was left at the discretion of the central government to determine what constitutes minorities. And based on this, six religious communities were already notified as minorities. And this was done under section 2 clause C of the 1992 act which says that the central government will notify who are minorities. According to it, initially five religious communities were notified as minority communities. This includes Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians, that is Parsis. And then later in the year 2014, genes were also added to this list of minorities. And this was based on the population percentage of these religious communities in our country. See, as per census 2011, minorities in our country, they are about 19.3% of the total population. And among them, Muslims are 14.2% then Christians are about 2.3% of the total population and Sikhs constitute about 1.7%, Buddhists 0.7% and then Jains 0.4%. And among all these, the lesser population is of the Parsis which is just about 0.006% of the total population of our country. Now, let us come to the main question of who can determine a community as minority. As we already saw, the 1992 National Commission for Minorities Act provides a way in this. According to this act, central government decides who gets the minority community status in India. So, as I just said, 6 communities, that is religious communities, have been notified already. So, only those belonging to the communities notified under Section 2 Clause C of this 1992 law are regarded as minority citizens in our country. Now, if there is a clear-cut law, then why there is a confusion? See, earlier, the central government told the Supreme Court that the state governments could decide the minority status of the eligible communities within their territorial jurisdiction. And this came as a response to a public interest litigation, according to which majority communities in certain states are regarded as minorities. For example, as per the litigation, this is happening in Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland, Anarchal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Lakshodip and Punjab. The petition argues that Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists are majority people in these states, but they have been given the minority status depending on their national minority status. So, the petitioner argued that the followers of Hinduism, Judaism and Bahaism are a demographic minority in these states and yet they are denied the benefits given by the central government for minorities because at the national level, they are not considered as minorities. And on this petition only, now the Supreme Court is deciding. But now you may have a question of whether states have any hand in deciding minorities. Actually, states generally do not have their separate lists of minority communities, but there are exceptions. For example, Maharashtra has notified Jews as a minority community in this state. That means only on special instances, minority community were notified by the concerned state itself, but generally states do not notify minorities. Then why now the center is saying that individual states might consider granting Hindus the minority status within their territorial jurisdiction if the community is not in a majority. It is because minority is a subject under the concurrent list. We know that when a subject is under concurrent list, then both the center as well as the state governments can make laws on that subject. Therefore, there is an opinion that states can have a separate list of minority communities and Maharashtra has already used this opportunity. So, let us wait and see what stand is taken by the central government and what is the final decision made by the Supreme Court. We will also get to know whether Hindus get a minority status in the states of Germany, Kashmir, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, etc. So, these are the few points that you have to know about minorities. Now, let us get to the next discussion. Now, let us take up this news article. It says that states borrowing limits for the year 2023 is said to be cut in tune with their off-budget borrowings since 2020-21. See, the states are expected to borrow 8.4 lakh crore rupees during financial year 2023 and they have a borrowing limit of 3.5 percentage of GSTP that is gross state domestic product. Also, including the off-budget borrowings raised by state entities in states own budget would raise transparency. These are the points mentioned in the news article. So, today we are going to understand what do you mean by off-budget borrowing. See, one of the most important part in any union budget is the level of fiscal deficit. What is fiscal deficit? It is the gap between what the central government spends and what it earns. So, it also includes the level of borrowings by the union government. Now, this number of fiscal deficit is the most important metric to understand the financial health of any government's finances. So, why is it important? Because fiscal deficit is keenly watched by rating agencies, both the agencies inside as well as outside the country and that is why most governments want to restrict the fiscal deficit to a respectable number. Now, one of the ways to do this is by resorting to off-budget borrowings. Such borrowings are a way for the central government to finance its expenditure while keeping the debt of the annual statement so that it is not counted in the calculation of fiscal deficit. That means off-budget financing or off-budget borrowing is an extra budget borrowing and these are the loans that are taken not by the center directly but by any other public institution and such an institution borrows on the directions of the central government and these borrowings are used to fulfill government's expenditure needs. So, the point to be noted here is this liability of borrowing or the loan is not formally on the center rather it is on that public institution. So, this loan is not included in the national fiscal deficit. So, this helps to keep the country's fiscal deficit within acceptable limits. So, as a result this route of financing puts major sources of funds outside the control of parliament and that is why many governments across the world use this to escape budget controls including our Indian government. Now, let us see how these off-budget borrowings are raised or finances are raised. See, the government expenditure here is financed through market borrowings on behalf of the government by the government owned or government controlled public sector enterprises. That is the government can ask any implementing agency to raise the required funds from the market through loans or by issuing bonds. For example, food subsidy is one of the major expenditures of the center and if you see in the budget presentation for 2021 government paid only half the amount of budgeted food subsidy bill to the food corporation of India. So, what about the other half? That other half will be the shortfall right? This shortfall was met through a loan from the National Small Savings Fund. So, this loan is the off-budget borrowing. So, similarly other public sector undertakings have also borrowed for the government. For example, public sector oil companies like Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, Hindustan Petroleum, Bharat Petroleum, they were asked to pay for the subsidized gas cylinders for the Pradhan Mantri Ujwala Yojana beneficiaries in the past. Similarly, public sector banks have also been used to fund off-budget expenses. For example, loans from public sector undertaking banks were used to make up for the shortfall in the release of fertilizer subsidy. And if you take main entities like NABAR that is National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, it has borrowed for both rural development and irrigation projects. So, like this many entities have borrowed on behalf of the government and these are called as the extra-budget borrowings or off-budget borrowings or finances. And its main aim is to meet the fiscal deficit target. So, these are the few points that you have to know about off-budget finances. Let us move on to the next discussion. So, now let us take up this editorial article for discussion. It majorly talks about inflation. See, this editorial has been written in the backdrop of recent action of Reserve Bank of India. As you know, RBI recently raised the repo rate and cash reserve ratio. Repo rate was raised by 40 basis points and cash reserve ratio was raised by 50 basis points. We discussed all these on our 5th May Hindi News Analysis. So, those who want to know about the meaning of repo rate, cash reserve ratio, etc., they can view that analysis. Now, this measure was taken to tackle inflation. Now, the fact to be noted is inflation is not exclusive to India. Particularly after the pandemic, almost all countries have been affected by inflation. This situation is worst in the United States because their consumer price inflation has stood at 8.56% in March 2022. This is way higher than what India has. So, in the editorial, author analyzes some of the reasons for inflation in India and around the world. In the process, he explains the role of Keynesian theory of economics and also examines what type of inflation India is actually facing. So, today we will see certain inflation-related data, particularly for India, then the Keynesian theory of economics and the reasons for inflation. Before that, the syllabus relevant to this discussion is highlighted here. See, as you know, inflation is the rise and general level of prices of goods and services. So, that means when there is inflation, prices of most of the goods have gone up. Now, if you look at the data, as of October 2020, that is one and a half years before, inflation hit a peak of 7.61% and it remained at a high level of over 6% since April 2020 at that time. It only came down after December 2020. But the problem is, again in 2022, particularly after January, inflation has started rising significantly. Here, you can see the data for March 2022. According to it, the consumer price index inflation, that is, CPI inflation in India is at 6.95% and it is expected to rise further for April because India's CPI inflation has been fluctuating around the high level in the recent times and the same trend happened in 2020 also. In addition to the CPI inflation data, CFPI is also given here. CFPI is the Consumer Food Price Index. It has spiked to 7.68% in March. So, we can witness that this inflation is way above the target set by the government. Say, central government along with RBI has a monetary policy which mandates to maintain an annual CPI and this is called as inflation targeting. Here, the CPI is to be maintained at 4% and this has a tolerance limit of plus or minus 2%. That is, CPI could be between 2% to 6%. And as we can see for March 2022, it is way above 6%. So, it is above the targeted range and this is the reason why RBI raised the repo rate to tackle inflation. But according to the author, policymakers cannot ignore the behavior of other price indices also. Why? Because during the 2008-2009 crisis, central banks of developed countries, particularly the Fed of USA, that is the central bank of USA, was blamed for overlooking the sharp price and asset prices even though their CPI inflation was modest. So, author is suggesting that along with CPI inflation, other price indices and their behaviors should be taken into account. And particularly after the advent of COVID-19, the major concern of policymakers of the world was to revive demand. So, they try to achieve reviving demand by raising government expenditure. So, what they try to do was, they try to increase demand by raising government expenditure. This is something familiar that we have already learned in our school days. Yes, it is the standard Keynesian prescription or Keynesian economics. See, Keynesian economics is a macroeconomic theory. It is about the total spending in the economy and its effect on output, employment and inflation. This Keynesian economics was developed by the British economist John Maynard Keynes during the 1930s. He developed this in an attempt to understand the great depression. Particularly, this Keynesian economics is considered a demand-side theory that focuses on changes in the economy over the short run. So, based on this theory, Keynes advocated for increased government expenditures and lower taxes to stimulate demand and also to pull the global economy out of depression. So, what was this Keynesian economics? Actually, it refers to the concept that optimal economic performance could be achieved and economic slums can be prevented by influencing aggregate demand. So, here they are focusing on aggregate demand. And this could be done through activist stabilization and economic intervention policies by the government. That is Keynesian economics focuses on using active government policy to manage aggregate demand in order to address or to prevent economic recessions. So, the same was applied by many countries. So, what about India here? India, we know that the severe lockdowns prevented the spread of COVID-19, but it also restricted the mobility of people, goods and services. So, because of this, even though there was an expansion in government expenditure, it did not result in increased production. So, because of this, some say that Keynesian concept failed in India, but author differs in this opinion. According to author, it did not fail because Keynesian concept of enhanced government expenditure is still valid under the present circumstances. Author is stating this based on the fact that the increase in output could be happening, but with a lag. And with the relaxation of restrictions, it could gain momentum. So, according to author, right now, it is not advisable to say entirely that Keynesian economics failed in India. Therefore, we have to just wait for some time to fully analyze the effect of government policy that was aimed at managing demand. But now there is a question of what was the reason behind this inflation? Majorly, we could witness increases in prices of individual commodities such as crude oil, and this has been cited as a major reason for higher CPI inflation. Along with this, Russia-Ukraine war is also cited as another cause. We can say it is true to some extent. Now based on these two reasons, some even say that the current situation will be eased in the future when the Russia-Ukraine war comes to an end and when the government absorbs the increase in crude prices. Along with this, government can also attempt to reduce the duties on petroleum products for the simple reason that one segment of the population should not be an excessive burden. And the same consideration could be applied to food prices also. But even though if government takes these measures, it should not be considered as a magic wand that inflation will go away immediately. So, according to the author, the decision taken by the RBI to increase repo rate and CRR is a concomitant decision and not a setback. See, concomitant means a phenomenon that naturally accompanies or follows something. That means increasing the repo rate is normally done by the government to control inflation. So, on those slides, now also government is following the same route. It has helped India before, so it may help India now also. Now finally, author answers a question of whether India is facing cost push inflation. See, we say an inflation is cost push when the cost of supply rises or the level of supply falls. Either of these makes the prices rise in the final good and services even when demand remains the same. So, author is of the opinion that inflation in India cannot be described just as cost push because the abundance of liquidity is an important factor in the case of inflation in India. See, high liquidity in the market coupled with low supply will obviously raise inflation, right? See, assume you have so much money in your hand. At that same time, the product which you want to buy is limited in a particular store. If that product costs 500 rupees and you have some 20,000 rupees in your hand, you will be willing to pay more for that product just to obtain it. So, in this way, the price of that particular product increases and that is why we say high liquidity in the market along with low supply leads to inflation. So, the final suggestion of author is efforts should be taken to curtail liquidity along with tackling inflation because until and unless liquidity is curtailed, inflation will not come down and as a measure of this only, RB has raised its CRR because CRR will help in absorbing the liquidity in the market. So, the conclusion is generally low or moderate level of inflation is considered good for any economy because it helps in combating the effects of deflation and it also boasts economic growth. But beyond the point, inflation itself can hinder growth. Therefore, as author suggested, if India really wants to control inflation, action must be taken on curtailing liquidity as an immediate measure. So, these are few points that you have to note about inflation. Here, author discussed the level of inflation in India. He discussed whether the government's approach of Keynesian economics has failed or not and finally, we also saw the reasons for inflation in India and what can be done to overcome it. With these points in mind, let us get to the next discussion. Now, let us take up this last article for discussion. It says that information in broadcasting ministry has notified several sporting events as sporting events of national importance and this has been notified under these sports broadcasting signals mandatory sharing with Prasar Bharati Act and this notification supersedes the earlier issue notification in March 2021. So, today we are going to see what are these sporting events of national importance. First, know that the act that are these sports broadcasting signals mandatory sharing with Prasar Bharati, this act came into existence in 2007 and it is drafted to provide access to the largest number of listeners and viewers on a free-to-air basis and their access is given to the sporting events of national importance. See here, free-to-air basis means the television and radio services broadcast the free-to-air services in unencrypted form. So, it allows any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and the viewer listen to the content. It does not require any subscription. So, now, what about the sporting events of national importance? According to the act, this means national or international sporting events which are held in India or abroad and those ones which are notified by the central government in the official guest set as national important ones. So, so far central government has notified several sporting events as of national importance. Let us see the list now. Majorly know that it includes four sets of sporting events. First one is all Olympic games, second is Commonwealth games, third is Asian games and fourth is events relating to certain particular sports. Now, under this, there are many sport events included. First, cricket is included. Here you can see that under cricket, you can see semi-finals of many of the matches, you can see all official one-day matches etc. And then tennis is also included. Here you can see the Grand Slam tournaments also and then under hockey, you can see the World Cups, Champions Trophy etc. And in football, you can watch the World Cup, Asian Cup etc. And in badminton, we can see the open badminton championship. Then cup buddy is also a part of this, particularly World Cups where the matches features India is also declared as a sporting event of national importance. This includes both semi-finals and finals. And then the Kalo India games are also a part of this. And finally, apart from all these, certain other events are also declared as sporting events of national importance. It includes International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup event, then Commonwealth Shooting Championship, Commonwealth Archery Championship. These are declared as sporting events of national importance. But note that only when India is the host country, this will act as the sporting events of national importance. So, this article is just an informative article. Just go through this list. Have an idea that these are the sporting events declared as being nationally important. So, these points in mind. Now, let us get to the last session of the day, which is the practice questions discussion session. Now, let us take up this first question. Consider the following statements about minorities in India. First statement, the parameters to identify minorities in India are given by the Constitution of India. This statement is incorrect because the Constitution only mentions the term minority, but it does not define any parameter for that. And even the National Commission for Minority Act of 1992 does not define or mention any parameters for the same. So, first statement is incorrect. Now, the second statement, identification of minorities is a state subject. This is incorrect because clearly, during discussion, we saw that it is a subject under the concurrent list, which is the third list in the seventh schedule to the Constitution. So, this statement is also incorrect. And here, the question asks for the incorrect statements. The correct answer is option C, both one and two. Now, let us take up this next question. Which of the following statements is correct with reference to the off-budget borrowings? Statement A, borrowings of central government that are not included in the budget document. Next statement, borrowings of the state government that are not included in the state budget document. Option C, borrowings of public sector entities to fulfill the government's expenditure needs. Option D, both A and B. And from our discussion, we can easily say that the correct answer is option C, borrowings of public sector entities to fulfill the government's expenditure needs. Now, let us take up the quiz question for the day. It is a two statement question. Read the question carefully, and you can write the answer in the comment section. I will tell you whether your answer is right or not. And now, this is the main question for the day. It is based on the inflation editorial discussion. You can practice the answer writing using this question. So, with this, we have come to the end of in the news analysis for the date 11th of May 2022. I hope we could learn few important facts relevant to the examination in today's analysis. 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