 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Iyer's Academy for the day 20th March 2021. These are the list of news articles chosen for today's discussion. They are given along with the page numbers of different editions. The link for the handwritten notes in PDF format and the time stamping for the discussed articles are provided in the description box as well as in the comments section for the benefit of mobile phone viewers. Let us now move on to the analysis of the first news article. The Lok Sabha recently passed a bill to amend the Mines and Mineral Development and Regulation Act which is shortly called the MMDR Act. See India produces around 95 minerals and has got the same potential as that of South Africa and Australia when it comes to mining. But the problem is our mining sector is under-explode such that India still has to import minerals like gold and coal. So this bill has been introduced to amend the mines and minerals, Development and Regulation Act of 1957 to overcome those hurdles in the mining sectors that prevent our Indian mining sector from growing further. In this slide let us discuss some important changes proposed in the bill. The syllabus covered by this article is highlighted below for your reference. See for the first time this bill allows the sale of minerals by the captive mines. Know that captive mines are those mines that produce minerals for exclusive use by the company that owns the mines. While non-captive mines are those that produce as well as sell the minerals in the market. Now as per this bill captive mines that is those mines that produce minerals for exclusive use by the company that owns the mines may sell up to 50% of their annual mineral production in the open market after meeting their own needs. Now this bill applies to all captive mines except that of the atomic minerals and the central government can increase this threshold through a notification. The next important change is the removal of restrictions on the end use of minerals. See the original act empowers the central government to reserve any mine other than that of coal, lignite and atomic minerals to be leased through an auction for a particular end use. But with this bill no mine will be reserved for a particular end use and when it comes to the auction process the bill empowers the central government to specify a particular time period for the completion of auction process in consultation with the state government. If the state government is unable to compete the auction process within this period then the auctions may be conducted by the central government. This bill also had that the mines other than that of coal, lignite and atomic minerals whose lease has expired may be allocated to a government company in certain cases and the state government may grant a lease for such a mine to a government company for a period of up to 10 years or until the selection of a new lease whichever is earlier. In addition to this the bill also provides for the transferred statutory clearances to be valid throughout the lease period of the new lease and further it also introduces an index-based mechanism by developing a national mineral index also called as NMI for statutory payments. And finally this bill makes the national mineral exploration trust as an autonomous body and this body will be responsible for the functioning of the mining sector. So these proposed changes are expected to have a significant impact on the mining and coal sector as it will not only create jobs but also allow private players with enhanced technology into the mining sector and these amendments are expected to generate around 55 lakh direct and indirect jobs. So now let us see some positive aspects associated with these reforms. See the mining sector at present contributes to around 1.75% through the country's GDP but with these reforms this contribution is expected to increase to about 2.5% as it seeks to make a large number of mines available for auctions by resolving the legacy issues and also it would lead to a greater transparency in the auction process and the increased flexibility proposed in the bill would allow the miners to maximize their output from captive mines as they would be able to sell the output in excess of their own requirements. In addition to all these the bill will provide ease of doing business simplification of procedure and will also help in benefiting all the parties in areas where the minerals are located. Also it will create an efficient energy market and bring in more competition and it will also help in the reduction of coal imports. Finally these reforms has got the potential to help India in gaining access to high-end technology for underground mining that are used by miners across the globe. With this information let us move on to the next news article. Let us take up this editorial article. See often we have been hearing about the tussle that is going on between the Delhi government the central government and this tussle is related to the power distribution regarding the administration of the national capital. Now this editorial criticizes the government of national capital territory of Delhi amendment bill 2021 also called as the GNCT of Delhi Act amendment bill. Now remember this bill was recently introduced in the Lok Sabha and it seeks to amend the government of national capital territory of Delhi Act of 1991. Here the existing act provides a framework for the functioning of the legislative assembly and the government of the national capital territory of Delhi and this proposed bill seeks to amend certain powers and responsibilities of this legislative assembly and the left-wing governor. So in this context it is briefly understand about the issue in Delhi and then about the proposed amendments of the GNCTD Act along with the views of the author. The syllabus relevant for this news article is highlighted below for your reference. Now before going into the article let us have a short briefing on the governmental setup in the NCT of Delhi. So we know that the national capital territory of Delhi is a union territory that comes under the president with a legislative assembly. Now here the president will exercise his or her control through the left-wing governor and this present status of Delhi is an outcome of the 69th constitutional amendment act of 1991. See this 69th constitutional amendment act inserted two new articles to the constitution and these two articles are article 239AA and 239AB. This provided a legislative assembly for Delhi and it said that the union territory of Delhi shall be called as a national capital territory of Delhi and the administrator who is appointed under article 239 shall be designated as the left-wing governor. See this article 239 is related to the administration of union territories. For your kind information we have extensively covered about it in our June 13 2020 Hindu news analysis so we recommend you to please watch the video for better understanding. Now in order to supplement the constitutional provisions relating to the assembly and the council of ministers in the national capital the government of national capital territory of Delhi act was passed simultaneously. Here know that the GNCTD act outlines features like the powers of the assembly, the discretionary powers enjoyed by the left-wing governor and the duties of the chief minister regarding the need to furnish information to the left-wing governor. Now here note that according to this act the legislative assembly of Delhi has got the power to make laws in all matters except those that comes under public order police and land. Now let us know what is the issue here. See due to the coexistence of article 239 and article 239AA there is a jurisdictional conflict between the government of NCT and the union government and its representative that is left-wing and governor. Now the issue is according to the union government in new Delhi being a union territory article 239 empowers the left-wing and governor to act independently of his council of ministers. However, the state government of Delhi held that article 239AA of the constitution grants special status to Delhi of having its own legislatively elected government. So this lack of clarity created a tussle around the administrative powers of the left-wing and governor and the state government of NCT of Delhi. So in this regard in 2018 the supreme court unanimously held that the left-wing and governor was bound by the aid and advice of the Delhi government and that they both had to work harmoniously with each other. So with this background let us now move on to see the provisions of the bill and also the author's criticism on it. See firstly the bill provides that the term government referred to in any law made by the legislative assembly will imply left-wing and governor or to say in simple words the bill seeks to replace the word government in the act with the words left-wing and governor who is a central government appointee and who is always seen as the one who works by keeping the center's interest in mind. Now here the author criticizes this replacement of government with left-wing and governor because according to the author Delhi is a union territory with an elected house. So he opines that it would be an undemocratic move to declare a territory with an elected house as a sole domain of the left-wing and governor. Secondly know that the current act allows the legislative assembly to make rules to regulate the procedure and the conduct of business in the assembly and this bill provides that such rules must be consistent with the rules of procedure and conduct of business in the Lok Sabha. Now moving on to the third amendment this amendment is with respect to the inquiry into administrative decisions by the assembly. See the bill prohibits the legislative assembly from making any rule to enable itself or its committees to consider the matters of day-to-day administration of the end city of Delhi and also it prohibits the legislative assembly from making any rule to enable itself or its committees to conduct any inquiry in relation to administrative decisions and also further the bill provides that all such rules that were made before its enactment will be void. Now here according to the author this goes against the system of representative government. Then the fourth amendment is related to the ascent of bills know that the original act requires the left-wing and governor to reserve certain bills passed by the legislative assembly for the consideration of their president and these bills may include those which may debnish the powers of the High Court of Delhi then the bills which the president may direct to be reserved and the bills dealing with the salaries and allowances of the speaker, deputy speaker and members of the assembly and ministers and also the bills relating to official languages of the assembly or the end city of Delhi etc. Now this amendment bill seeks to amend this provision and it requires the left-wing governor to also reserve those bills for the president which incidentally cover any of the matters which comes outside the purview of the powers of the legislative assembly. Now here you should note that the bill is giving discretionary powers to the left-wing and governor in matters where the legislative assembly of Delhi is empowered to make laws and also in matters outside the purview of legislative assembly is law making powers. But remember the constitution bench verdict of 2018 said that the left-wing governor has not been entrusted with any independent decision making power. So he has to either act on the aid and advice of the council of ministers or he is bound to implement the decision taken by the president on a reference being made by him. Here the court clarified that the power to refer any matter to the president did not mean that every matter should be referred. See here the guiding principle was that elected government should not be undermined by the unelected administrator. Now here unelected administrator refers to their left-wing and governor. So the author criticizes this clause of the bill by opining that it is against this interpretation of the court. Now the next amendment is related to the left-wing governor's opinion for executive action. Here the act specifies that all executive action by the government whether taken on the advice of the ministers or otherwise must be taken in the name of the left-wing governor and the bill adds that on certain matters that is as specified by the left-wing governor his opinion must be obtained before taking any executive action on the decisions of the minister or council of ministers. Now here remember that article 239 AA empowers the left-wing government to refer a difference of opinion with the council of ministers to the president but the author opines that the proposed amendment to section 44 gives enormous powers to the left-wing governor which means that it gives left-wing governor the powers to come up with a different opinion on every decision made by the ministry and in this regard the author says that this is contradictory to democratic values. So finally to conclude according to the author the proposed amendments are the very anti-thesis or you can say that it is opposite of what the court has said in its 2018 judgment and he further has that the central government should not use the bill as it has got the potential to ruin the basis of electoral democracy. With this we have come to the end of this news discussion let us move on to the next news article. Few days ago Quad virtual summit happened at the highest political levels and almost a week later US and China held the highest in-person engagement under the new Biden administration as they met in Alaska where secretary of state and national security advisor of the US engaged with their Chinese counterparts. We also discussed on Quad a week ago and our discussion then focused on the outcome to the virtual summit primarily. Today's discussion inspired from this particular article focuses more on the lacunas in the Quad that can prove disadvantages for India and also the reason as to why India should tread carefully. The syllabus covered by this news article is highlighted below for your reference. As a quick recap it is recollect that Quad is a coalition of four maritime democracies of Indo-Pacific which includes India, US, Japan and Australia. The author in the initial part of the discussion looks at the Quad from the Chinese lens in the context of US-China in person engagement at Alaska. Through the US-China engagement three takeaway points have been identified by the author with special relevance to Quad. Firstly US is asserted that Quad can be a viable challenge to the Chinese factor although in soft power terms without any aggressive positioning with respect to China. See soft power is the ability to co-opt other states by the nation's appeal based on culture and values. An example for this is that Quad instead of deploying naval ships at the South China Sea is trying to gain dominance through vaccine distribution, climate change which is mutually beneficial for both itself as well as the entire world. Secondly the question of India's border issue with China was raised along with Senkaku Islands issue of Japan and the coercion of Australia by China in the US-China engagement and India's concerns were kept at par with the rest of the Quad members. Now before going on to the third takeaway let us quickly know about the Senkaku Island in order to understand the context better. See the Senkaku Islands also called as the Dia View Islands were formally claimed by Japan in the year 1895 and have been privately owned by a series of Japanese citizens for most of the past 120 years. Aside from a brief period after World War II when the United States controlled the territory, Japan has exercised effective control over the island since 1895 and China began to reassert claims over the Senkaku Islands in the 1970s citing historical rights to the area and tensions resurfaced in September 2012 when Japan purchased three of the disputed islands from a private owner. The economically significant islands which are northeast of Taiwan have potential oil and natural gas reserves and are near prominent shipping routes and are also surrounded by rich fishing areas so that is one of the reasons why Senkaku is heavily contested and here is a map to that reference showing the differences in boundary claims. Now coming to the third takeaway of the US-China engagement it can be noted that the Quad summit was scheduled ahead of the Alaska engagement in order to emphasize the significance of Quad in countering China. Besides this the three working groups founded as an outcome of Quad virtual summit that is being referred to as three C working group which includes the COVID-19 vaccine the climate change and critical technology has been used to send a message to China which is a fourth C and this has been viewed as a favorable development that is associated with Quad. Also in India's favor the vaccine diplomacy would provide a chance to flaunt India's achievement to the world in this area and inferring from these it can be said that Quad is a definitive role to play in the region however author puts down the following arguments as reason why India should tread carefully in the matters of Quad firstly India along with South Africa is trying to seek waiver on certain provision of trips in the WTO see trips or the trade related aspects of intellectual property rights is the most comprehensive multilateral agreement on intellectual property which plays a central role in facilitating trade in knowledge and creativity and in resolving disputes over intellectual property and the agreement is a legal recognition of the significance of links between IP that is between the intellectual property and trade and the need for a balanced intellectual property system this trip's issue was not attempted to be bridged with the Quad countries who are the principal opposers of this waiver secondly although US has promised to rejoin the Paris Agreement India still awaits a large part of 1.4 billion dollars commitment by the US in 2016 to fund solar technology see previously US has also resisted joining the International Solar Alliance and notably India is a principal founding member of International Solar Alliance under Paris Agreement thirdly India might come into direct opposition to the moves by other Quad member regarding the data localization and digital economy has discussed in the Osaka Declaration which is a dialogue on the digital economy by the G20 countries see it is a Japan and US led track that was boycotted by India because India believed in data localization next comes the most important concern that is the China factor which is the fourth C has the author calls it see India is the only Quad member which is not a part of the military alliance that binds the others and India is the only Quad country with a land boundary with China country which lives in a neighborhood where China has made deep inroads so therefore India has got the potential risk of two front confrontations one from China another from Pakistan and India should make sure that quad members don't see the China factor standalone in India's security concerns also India has to be cautious before entering into any maritime commitment in quad before achieving some commitments on the landfront from the quad members which doesn't serve India's interest as much given these concerns India should resist from temptations to narrow down its foreign policy under the shadow of quad and it should recognize the need to diversify its diplomatic engagement this article is about 1188 crore defence contract between the Union Defence Ministry and Bharat Dynamics Limited and the deal is for the supply of 4960 Milan 2T anti-tank guided missiles to the Indian Army know that Bharat Dynamics Limited was incorporated in the year 1970 as a public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Defence and acquired in Hyderabad it is the manufacturing base for guided missile systems and allied equipment for the Indian armed forces this Bharat Dynamics Limited with the support of DRDO has been manufacturing various types of indigenously designed and developed missiles and underwater weapons and one such product being produced by this Bharat Dynamic Limited is the Akash weapon system which is a surface to air indigenious missile the Bharat Dynamics Limited is also developed a Moga 3 which is the third generation anti-tank guided missile and the missile is expected to be offered after successful completion of user trials to the Indian armed forces as well as export market now coming to the article Milan 2T is a tandem Bharat anti-tank guided missile with a range of 1850 meters and these missiles can be fired from ground as well as vehicle based launchers and they can be deployed in anti-tank role for both offensive as well as defensive tasks the induction of these missiles will further enhance the operational preparedness of the armed forces and its induction is planned to be completed in about three years so now we'll see what exactly are these anti-tank guided missiles see anti-tank guided missiles shortly called as ATGMs are the missile systems that can strike and neutralize armored vehicles such as tanks see the development of ammunition that can pierce the armours of tanks has been an ongoing race since world war one while Indian army mainly uses various imported anti-tank guided missiles the DRDO has been working on ATGMs that is anti-tank guided missiles that can be launched from different platforms as a part of the integrated guided missile development program in the year 2019 DRDOs successfully test fired the indigenously developed low-weight fire and forget man portable anti-tank guided missile and this missile is for infantry and parachute of the Indian army launched using a tripod it is designed for a maximum range of 2.5 kilometer with a launch weight of less than 15 kg have a look at this image here we must also discuss the NAG missile in 2020 DRDO conducted the final user trial of third generation anti-tank guided missile NAG and it was launched from the NAG missile carrier Namika we should know that NAG was developed by the DRDO to engage highly fortified enemy tanks both in day and night conditions this missile has got fire and forget and the top attack capabilities and the missile will be produced by the Bharat dynamics limited whereas the ordnance factory medak will produce the Namika now let's move on to the next news article this article says that six tigers have been missing since March 2020 in the randham bore tiger sanctuary located in Rajasthan and some wildlife groups say that poaching could be a reason though the state have denied it as per the article the national tiger conservation authority has constituted a committee over the disappearance of these tigers so in this context let us discuss in brief about tigers their conservation status about project tiger and finally about the randham bore tiger sanctuary the syllabus covered by this news article is given below first let us discuss in brief about tigers see since 2017 IUCN has recognized two tiger subspecies commonly referred to as the continental tiger and the sanda island tiger and all other remaining island tigers are found only in Sumatra with tigers in Java and Bali now extent so these are popularly known as Sumatran tigers this continental tigers currently include the Bengal Malayan Indochinese and Amur or Siberian tiger populations while the Caspian tiger is extant in the wild similarly the south china tiger is believed to be functionally extant see tigers are found in 13 range states across Asia have a look at the distribution map know that fewer than 4000 mature individuals of tiger are now remaining in the wild and this low number seems to be the result of illegal hunting for skin then for bone meat and tonics and also due to habitat destruction see the IUCN red list of threatened species it classifies tiger as endangered and tiger comes under schedule one of the Indian wildlife protection act of 1972 being the largest of all the Asian big cats tigers they primarily rely on sight and sound rather than smelling for hunting and they usually hunt alone and they have a habit of stalking the prey on an average tigers give birth to two to four cubs every two years and they are mostly solitary or they're mostly alone apart from associations between the mother and offspring and these individual tigers will have a large territory and mostly the size of this territory is determined by the availability of the prey individual tigers they mark the territory with urine faces rakes scrapes and also by localizing now on coming to the project tiger this project tiger was launched in the year 1973 by the Indian government in order to promote the conservation of tiger and this project tiger has been the largest species conservation initiative of its kind in the world and later project tiger has been converted into a statutory authority as a national tiger conservation authority by providing the enabling provisions in the wildlife protection act of 1972 this national tiger conservation authority it addresses the ecological as well as the administrative concerns for the conservation of tigers and this is done by providing a statutory basis for protection of tiger reserves apart from providing strengthened institutional mechanisms for the protection of ecologically sensitive areas and for endangered species now finally let us discuss in brief about the randambore national park and tiger reserve see this randambore national park is one of the biggest and the most renowned national parks in the northern India and this park is located in the savai madhopur district of southeastern rajasthan so located at such a junction of some of the geologically oldest mountain ranges namely the aravelis and the vindias randambore offers some of the finest opportunities for citing the magnificent tiger in the wild know that randambore national park was established initially as savai madhopur game sanctuary in 1955 by the government of India in 1973 this savai madhopur game sanctuary was declared as one of the project tiger reserves in India following that in 1918 randambore was declared as a national park while the forest located beside it were named savai man Singh sanctuary and kela devi sanctuary see randambore is one of the world's best known wilderness areas and with a mix of rolling hills meadows lakes and rivulets this dry diseases forest system is home to an incredible variety of flora as well as fauna and apart from the tiger you can also spot sloth bear then leopard kerakal jackal fox hyena and also mongoose at the randambore national park with this we will move on to the next news article now let us take up this news article according to which the world health organization has given a strong backing to the AstraZeneca covid-19 vaccine remember that the swedish british pharma major AstraZeneca's vaccine is developed by the university of oxford and it is also manufactured in india with the name kovishield so in this regard who urged countries to maintain the rollout or to continue the usage of AstraZeneca vaccines and this comes after the organization reviewed the reports of blood clots associated with this vaccine and it found out that there is no increase in blood clotting conditions linked to an AstraZeneca shot so in this context it is have a brief understanding about who or the world health organization see the world health organization is a specialized agency of the united nations that deals with matters related to international health this specialized agency was founded on 7th of april in the year 1948 with 194 member countries and remember this day is celebrated as world health day also know that it is the first global health organization the objective of world health organization is to promote health and socioeconomic activities to improve health security to strengthen health services and to generate health information and also to collaborate and encourage partnership and to reform and improve the performance and its associated branches and centers the headquarters of who is located in janiva swizzaland and you should also remember that janiva swizzaland also serves as the headquarters for world meteorological organization as well as a world trade organization now remember the governance of who takes place through the world health assembly which is a supreme decision-making body and its executive board gives effect to the decisions and policies of the health assembly and the organization is headed by the director general who is appointed by the health assembly on the nomination of the executive board now let us see about the membership in who see all countries which are members of the united nations may become members of who by accepting its constitution and other countries may be admitted as members when their application has been approved by a simple majority vote of the world health assembly and those territories which aren't responsible for the conduct of their international relations may also be admitted as associate members and those territories which are not responsible for the conduct of their international relations may also be admitted as associate members note that the members of who are grouped according to regional distribution and india comes under the southeast asia region additionally know that the who releases the world health statistics which is an annual compilation of the health statistics 494 members with this let us now move on to the practice question discussion look at this prelims question with reference to the union territory of delhi statement one says a legislative assembly for the national capital territory of delhi is exclusively provided by the national capital territory of delhi act of 1991 and the second statement says that the assembly has the power to make laws with respect to all the matters in the state list and in the concurrent list but nor the union list enumerated in the seventh shadow of the indian constitution so the question wants us to identify the correct statement look at the first statement you can find that this statement is incorrect because the status of delhi is an outcome of the 69th constitutional amendment act of 1991 this amendment inserted two new articles that is articles 239 a a and 239 a b in the constitution which provided for a legislative assembly for delhi so the statement is wrong because it is not the national capital territory of delhi act of 1991 which exclusively provides for an assembly to delhi now the g n ct the act was passed simultaneously to supplement the constitutional provisions relating to the assembly and the council of ministers in the national capital coming to the second statement this statement is also incorrect because the assembly has the power to make laws with respect to all the matters in the state list or in the concurrent list of the constitution of india except entries one that is public order two which is polis and 18 which is land and also entries 64 65 and 66 which are relatable to the said entries of the state list so the right option is option d that is neither one nor two since both the statements are incorrect look at this question what does the osaka declaration recently seen in news pertain to see as we know osaka declaration is a dialogue on the digital economy by the g20 countries which was pursued under the world trade organizations framework so japan and us led the track and india boycotted it so from the given options we can find option c to be the right answer because option c which is e commerce and digital economy seems to be the right answer so therefore the right option is option c now let's take this question regarding the barred dynamics limited the question says the barred dynamics limited a public sector undertaking recently seen in news comes under which of the following ministry so as we saw in the discussion this barred dynamics limited was incorporated in 1970 as a public sector undertaking under the ministry of defense so therefore the right answer is option a which is ministry of defense now look at this question related to the world health organization the first statement says that all countries which are members of the united nations are by default members of who and the second statement says that director general of who is appointed by the united nation's general assembly when you look at the first statement you can find that it is incorrect because all countries which are members of the united nations are not by default the members of the who but they may become members of who by accepting its constitution similarly when you come to the second statement the director general of who is appointed by the health assembly on the nomination of the executive board and not by the united nation's general assembly and since the question wants us to identify the incorrect statement the right answer is option c that is both one and two with reference to tigers consider the following statement statement one tigers rely primarily on sight and sound rather than smell for hunting statement two tigers are mostly solitary apart from associations between mother and offspring statement three tigers are listed as endangered in the ioc and red list of threatened species so based on our discussion we can find that all the three statements related to tiger are correct and since the question wants us to identify the correct statement the right option is option d which is one two and three the list of mains practice question is displayed here you can write your answers and post them in the comment section below with this we have come to the end of today's hinder news analysis if you like the video don't forget to like comment 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