 Good evening, aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis session by Shankarayas Academy, dated 1st June 2021. The list of news articles covered for today's discussion is given for your reference along with the page numbers in various editions of the newspaper. Now let us move to the article's discussion. The first news article for today's discussion is going to be based on this open editorial article titled, Recognizing Cast-Based Violence Against Women. See, this article is written by a senior advocate in the Supreme Court and in this article, the author talks about the court's need to recognize the role of cast in the offense against women. The author further highlights about the repeated attempts of the courts in setting aside convictions under the Scheduled Cast and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989. So, in this light, let us see some important points mentioned in this article. The syllabus covered under this topic discussion is given for your reference. First, let us know in brief about the Scheduled Cast and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act of the Year 1989 in order to understand the article better. See, as the title hints, it is an act of the parliament that was enacted to address the atrocities against persons from Scheduled Cast and Scheduled Tribes communities. See, this act also introduced special courts and exclusive special courts to run trials for the offenses that are registered against the atrocities against persons from Scheduled Cast and Scheduled Tribes communities. In addition, it also lists various offenses like the denial of economic, democratic and social rights, including the discrimination, exploitation and abuse of the legal process that can affect the self-respect and esteem of people belonging to Scheduled Cast and Scheduled Tribes. Know that the act was amended in the year 2015 to specifically recognize more atrocities against the Dalits and Adivasi women, including the sexual assault, sexual harassment and Devadasi dedication. Note that according to section 3 and subsection 2 of the act, if a person who is not a member of the Scheduled Cast or Scheduled Tribes community commits any offense under the IPC that is punishable with an imprisonment of 10 years or more against a person and knowing that such a person is a member of Scheduled Cast and Scheduled Tribes, then the person who committed the offense will be punishable with imprisonment for life and with fine. Simply to say, if the perpetrator knows that the victim of the offense belongs to the SC or ST community and the perpetrator commits that offense only because of the reason that the victims are SC or ST, then the prevention of atrocities act shall be invoked. Now, coming to the article, see the author here brings in the concept of intersectionality or the intersectional discrimination of caste, gender and disability. See, this intersectionality was addressed by the Supreme Court in the Patan Jamal Wali versus the State of Andhra Pradesh case. This term intersectionality seeks to recognize the multiple grounds of marginalization faced by the women. According to this approach, when the identity of a woman intersects with her caste, class, religion, disability and shell orientation, she may face violence and discrimination due to two or more grounds. Or to put it in simple words, when a woman is from a marginalized caste and is disabled, then she may face discrimination due to her sex, caste or tribe and disability where all of these makes her vulnerable to sexual violence. In the next part of this article, the author highlights the repeated attempts of the court to set aside the convictions under the Prevention of Atrocities Act despite using this intersectional lens in cases of sexual violence against Dalits and Adivasi women. Also, the author cites a few examples to support the claim. For instance, in the 2006 Ram Das and others versus the State of Maharashtra case which dealt with a rape of a Dalit minor girl, the Supreme Court set aside the conviction under the Prevention of Atrocities Act on the ground that mere fact of the victim belonging to scheduled caste community would not attract the Prevention of Atrocities Act. Similarly, in Arsharfi versus the State of Uttar Pradesh, the court held that the evidence and materials on record did not show that the rape was committed because the victim was a member of AC community. Note that the author is against all these views. According to the author, the only evidence to prove that the accused committed sexual assault on the ground that victim was a member of scheduled caste or scheduled tribe community is the fact that victim is from a scheduled caste or scheduled tribe community and the accused is aware of this fact. As per the author, even though punishments are upheld in such cases, the repeated setting aside of the convictions under Prevention of Atrocities Act can only aggravate the allegations on the misuse of law. See, this leads to the erasure of the caste-based violence faced by women and moreover, the lack of recognition can make our caste discrimination laws inefficient in the course of time. With this, we have come to the end of this topic discussion and with this information in mind, let us move on to the next part of the discussion. Now, let us take up this news article. Defense Ministry notifies 108 negative imports. See, this article is about the positive indigenization list. So, in this context, it is prudent that we learn about the concept of indigenization list and the steps taken by India towards indigenization. The syllabus covered under this topic discussion is given for your reference. What is positive indigenization list? See, the positive indigenization list is a list of items for which there would be a ban on the import beyond the timeline indicated against them. See, we all know India is moving towards self-reliance in the defense sector. In order to give impetus to the self-reliance goal and to reduce the dependence on imports, the concept of positive indigenization list was introduced. Note that this list was introduced by the Ministry of Defense. According to the ministry, this concept would offer a great opportunity to Indian defense industry to manufacture these items using their own design and development capabilities to meet the requirements of armed forces in the coming years. So, keeping this lofty goal in mind, the Ministry of Defense notified first positive indigenization list for defense imports comprising nearly 101 items that included towed artillery guns, short-range surface-to-air missiles, cruise missiles and offshore patrol vehicles. Note that this was issued in August of the year 2020. Also, this was seen as a big push towards defense indigenization. And in addition to this first list, the defense ministry on Monday notified the second positive indigenization list. This second positive indigenization list consists of 108 items in addition. So, now the new list takes the total number of the list to 209. See, the second positive indigenization list comprises complex systems such as sensors, simulators, weapons and ammunitions like helicopters, next-generation COVIDs, airborne, early warning and control systems, tank engines, medium-power radar for mountains and many such things like medium-range surface-to-air missiles, weapon systems and many more items. See, the second positive indigenization list lays special focus on weapons and systems which are currently under the development or trials and it is likely to translate into a firm orders in the future. Also, like the first list, import substitution of ammunitions which is a recurring requirement has been given a special focus. Also, the second list has been prepared after several rounds of consultations with government as well as the private manufacturing industry confederations to assess future capabilities of Indian industries which will be able to meet requirements of the armed forces. See, in addition, the concept of positive indigenization list recognizes the potential of local defense industry as it also invigorates impetus to domestic research and development by attracting fresh investments into technology and manufacturing capabilities. See, the list also provides an excellent opportunity for startups as well as the micro-small and medium enterprises. Note that the list is planned to be implemented progressively with effect from December 2021 to December 2025. Now, let us discuss some important steps taken by the government to achieve self-sufficiency in the defense sector. Let us discuss one by one. First point, defense acquisition procedure. See, the defense procurement procedure of the year 2016 has been revised as defense acquisition procedure of the year 2020 where the new procedure gives impetus to the vision of Atman Ibar Bharath Abhyan. Second point, opening of North and South defense industrial corridor to promote the setting up of industries supporting defense equipments. Third point, the government took actions like permitting acceptance of sumoto proposals from industries for undertaking indigenous design and development for items needed for defense sector. Fourth point, the government formulated the innovation in defense excellence framework that provides an ecosystem for startups or individual innovators or the MSMEs to engage with the Ministry of Defense or the academia and other such agencies for the manufacturing of defense related items. Fifth point, institutionized the Technology Development Fund and its process to facilitate the DRDO to engage with Indian industry for technological developmental needs. Sixth point, the Indian Army launched the Army Design Bureau on 31st August 2016 where the role of Army Design Bureau is to act as facilitator for research and development efforts and procurement of indigenous developed weapons and equipments. Seventh point, the Army Technology Board which was constituted enables indigenous research and development efforts in accordance with the operational needs of the Indian Army. Eighth point is regarding the Technology Development Fund. See, the Technology Development Fund has been launched by the government to give impetus to research and development projects beyond the proof of concept stage and it has been provided with a budget of Rs 100 crores. The final point is that the Indian Navy in coordination with the Aeronautical Development Agency is pursuing the indigenous development and acquisition of a twin-engine deck-based fighter. With this, we have come to the end of this topic discussion. In this discussion, we saw above the first and the second positive indigenization list and in addition, we also saw about the steps taken by the government towards self-reliance. Now, let us move on to the next article. Moving to the third topic, GDP shrinks by 7.3%. Quarter four, uptick moderates 2020 to 2021 carnage. This news article mentions about the national income estimates released by the National Statistical Office, especially the estimates for gross domestic product and gross value added. So, first let us understand these terms and then we shall discuss the news article. The syllabus covered under this topic discussion is given for your reference. As you know, there are different ways to calculate the income of a nation or an economy and one such way is the GDP. See, GDP is the aggregate value of goods and services which are produced within the domestic territory of the country. In other words, GDP is the market value or the monetary value of all the final goods and services underlying the word final goods and services that are produced within a boundary of a nation during a year. To understand it better, let us know each term in GDP. Here, the gross signifies that no deduction has been made for the depreciation of machineries or buildings and other capital products used in the production. That is, the gross includes the total value of the product. Here, the domestic means the production is by the resident institutional units of the country or all economic activities that are done inside the boundary of a country and by its own capital. And the product refers to the final goods and services, that is, those are purchased, estimated or otherwise, including the final consumption of households, nonprofit institutions, serving households and government. The product also includes the fixed assets and the exports. In all these, final means the stage of a product after which there is no known chance of value addition in it. Remember, in GDP, the income generated by the foreigners in a country is included, but income generated by nationals of our country outside the country is not included at all. Further, the GDP of a country is derived from the different sectors of economy, namely the agriculture sector, industrial sector and the service sector. Thus, GDP is the single most important indicator to capture economic activities since changes in size of economies are usually measured by changes in the volume of cross domestic product. Next term is GVA, that is, gross value added. See, gross value added is a common indicator of an industry or a sector's economic performance. It is defined as the value of output minus the value of intermediate consumption. In simple terms, it gives the rupee value of goods and services produced in the country after detecting the cost of inputs and raw materials used. And this GVA is used to measure the output or contribution of a particular sector. When such GVAs from all the sectors are added together and the taxes are added along with the reduction in subsidies, then we can get the GDP at market price. So, based on this GVA understanding, it can be said that the GDP of any nation represents the sum total of GVA in all the sectors of that economy during the set year after adjusting the taxes and subsidies. Therefore, the GVA is a measure of contribution to GDP that is made by the individual producer, industry or sector. GVA is also measured by detecting the government's indirect taxes from the total GDP and by adding the government's subsidy payments to the amount. This means that the GVA only takes into account all the money spent on the economy, whereas the GDP estimates how many products and services have been produced in the country. Now, sometimes there are debates among the economists about which indicators to be used to measure nation's economic performance. That is, can we use the GDP or GVA to measure nation's economic performance? See, some support GVA because GVA data is crucial to understand how the various sectors of the real economy are performing. But GDP reflects the essentiality on the demand conditions in the economy. Therefore, from a policymaker's perspective, it is vital to have the GVA data to be able to make policy interventions whenever needed. Also, from the global data standards and uniformity perspective, GVA is an integral and necessary parameter in measuring a nation's economic performance. Another reason is that GDP also takes people's tax payment into account. But such taxes need not contribute to the economy directly. Also, sometimes GDP could grow simply because of the rise in tax payment and this could happen by a simple rise in tax rates. Therefore, economists argue that the GDP does not necessarily mean that people actually produced or bought more goods and services. So, in such times, GVA is a more accurate representation of economic growth. But proponents of GDP argue that such tax payment may still play a role in the overall economic health. So, according to them, GDP best measures a nation's economic performance. This is the basic you need to know about the GDP and GVA. Now, let us move to the news which is about the NSO released quarterly estimates of GDP for the fourth quarter of 2020 to 2021. As per this, the GDP at constant prices in the quarter four of 2020 to 2021 is estimated at Rs. 38.96 lakh crore. See, there is a growth of 1.6 percentage compared to the quarter four of 2019 to 2020. So, this represents the second quarter of positive growth as India entered a technical recession during the first two quarters. So, totally the growth in GDP during the year 2020 to 2021 is estimated at a negative 7.3 percentage as compared to 4 percentage in 2019 to 2020. That is, the GDP contracted by 7.3 percentage in the year 2020 to 2021. See, the image here is given for the aspirants to refer the GDP growth rate for the year 2018 to 2019 and the post-COVID times where you can see the differences in GDP growth rate. Also, the gross value added in the economy shrank 6.2 percentage in the 2020 to 2021. Last year, there was a 4.1 percentage rise, which is mainly because almost all the sectors except two sectors registered a negative GVA growth. The two sectors are first, agriculture, forestry and fishery. And the second sector is electricity, gas, water supply and other utility services that register a positive growth. See, the sharpest decline is for the trade hotels, transport, communication and broadcasting related services sector. So, what could be inferred from the low contraction in GDP and the construction of GVA in 2020 to 2021? It means that the sharp recovery projected for the current financial year 2021 to 2022 so far will not happen. Rather, the growth will be moderated. Before IMF and RBI predicted the GDP growth rate for India at 12.5 percentage and 10.5 percentage respectively. But now, due to the second wave, there may be a lower GDP growth rate of 9 to 9.5 percentage for the year 2021 to 2022. Moving to the next news article, EPFO allows withdrawal of second COVID advance. According to this article, around 6 crore subscribers of EPFO can now withdraw a second non-refundable COVID-19 advance. Note that earlier, the first advance are initial provisions for special withdrawal to meet financial needs during the pandemic was introduced in March 2020. See, according to the employee's provident fund organization, the subscribers are allowed to withdraw money equivalent to 3 months basic wages plus their dearness allowance or up to 75 percentage of the amount standing to their credit in their PF account, whichever is less. Also, the EPFO has allowed members to apply for less amounts as well. Those who have already availed the first COVID-19 advance are also free to opt for the second advance. Note that the provisions and the process for withdrawal is the same for both the advances. See, the first COVID-19 advance has been a great help to EPF members during the pandemic, especially for those having monthly wages of less than Rs 15,000. As on date, the EPFO has settled more than 76.31 lakh COVID-19 advance claims. Note that the EPFO has disbursed a total of nearly Rs 18,698 crores so far. Now, the muco-microsis epidemic during the second wave of the pandemic has caused greater distress to our people. So, by enabling the subscribers to have a second advance during this pandemic, the EPFO has come out again as a savior. So far, we have covered the news in this article. Now, let us see about the EPFO in brief. See, EPFO stands for Employees Provident Fund Organization. And EPFO is a government organization that manages provident fund and pension account for the workforce engaged in the organized sector in India. Note that a provident fund is a government managed retirement savings. See, EPFO is one of the world's largest social security organization in terms of clientele and the volume of financial transaction undertaken. This employee provident fund came into existence with the promulgation of the employee's provident fund ordinance on the 15th November 1951. And later on, it was replaced by the Employees Provident Fund Act of 1952. Note that this act is now referred to the Employees Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act of the year 1952. See, the EPFO is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Labor and Employment Government of India. This organization also have a well equipped training setup where the officers and employees of the organization as well as the representatives of employees and employees attend sessions for training and seminars. Note that there are three major schemes under EPFO. They are the Employees Provident Fund Scheme 1952, the Employees Pension Scheme 1995, the Employees Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme 1976. With this, we have come to the end of this topic discussion. Here we have discussed about the first and the second COVID-19 advance of EPFO and also we saw about the EPFO in brief. Now, let us move on to the next topic. Now, let us take up the final news article for today's discussion. Maratha community brought under EWS quota. See, in order to extend the relief to Maratha community in the state, the Maharashtra government has extended the benefit of reservation for the economically weaker section to the socially and economically backward class. So, in this light, let us see some relevant facts about the economically weaker section and also the constitutional provisions related to it. See, the 103rd Amendment of the Indian Constitution officially known as the Constitution Act of the Year 2019 enables the state that is both the central and the state government to provide reservations to the economic weaker sections of the society. And in addition, this amendment act amended Article 15 and Article 16 and inserted Article 15, Section 6 and Article 16, Section 6 in the Constitution to allow reservation for the economically backward in the unreserved category. But remember, it is left to the decision of the concerned state government to decide whether or not to provide reservations to the EWS as per the provisions under the Article 15, Section 6 and Article 16, Section 6 of the Constitution. See, the state government can decide whenever it comes to the appointments in state government jobs and for admissions to the state government education institutions. Following this, a 10% reservation under economically weaker section category is applicable to those persons who are not covered under the existing scheme of reservations for the SES, STs and the social and educationally backward classes. And note that this was based on the Simho commission report of the year 2010 which highlighted the presence of a substantial section of the unreserved category living below the poverty line. However, this commission never explicitly recommended a reservation for economically weaker section, but was only empathetic about ensuring that the EWS get access to all welfare schemes. Know that the economically weaker section includes Indian citizens who are not covered under any SES, ST and OBC reservation category and whose gross income is below 8 lakhs per annum. This also includes the family earning from all sources such as agriculture, salary, professional, business, etc. Now, let us know the eligibility criteria for the EWS. Firstly, the beneficiary should be an Indian citizen who belongs to general category. And as said earlier, the beneficiaries' income per annum should be below 8 lakhs. Apart from this, other criteria includes the beneficiaries' agricultural land area should be less than 5 acres, whereas the residential flat area of the beneficiary should be less than 1000 square feet. In addition to it, the residential plot area should be less than 100 square yards in the notified municipalities. Know that the beneficiary can avail the benefits under this section by producing the certificate of income and asset issued by a government authority. So, these are few important facts that we have discussed regarding the economic weaker section. With this, let us move to the next part of today's discussion, prelims practice questions. First question, consider the following statement. Statement 1, GDP of any nation represents the sum total of GVA in all sectors of that economy during the set year after adjusting for taxes and subsidies. Statement 2, income generated by both foreigners in a country and nationals of a country outside the country is included in GDP. Which of these statements given above is or are incorrect? The options given are option A, 1 only, option B, 2 only, option C, both 1 and 2, option D, neither 1 nor 2. See, as we have discussed earlier, the GDP at market price is equal to the aggregate gross value added at the basic price plus product tax minus the product subsidy. Now, consider the first statement. It says the GDP of any nation represents the sum total of GVA in all the sectors of that economy during the set year after adjusting for taxes and subsidies. Yes, this is the correct statement. Now, let us move to the second statement. See, this statement which says income generated by both foreigners in a country and nationals of a country outside the country is included in GDP is an incorrect statement because the income generated by foreigners in a country is included in GDP. But the income generated by the nationals of a country outside the country's border is not included. See, we call this income as remittances and it forms a part of income from abroad. So, if this income from abroad is added to the GDP, it gives us the gross national product of our country and not the GDP of our country. So, the answer for this question is option B, 2 only. Moving to the second question, consider the following statements with reference to employees provident fund. Statement 1, it is administered by the Ministry of Labor and Employment. Statement 2, it is a retirement saving scheme applicable to the workforce engaged in the organized sector in India. Which of the statements given above is or are correct? The options given are option A, 1 only. Option B, 2 only. Option C, both 1 and 2. Option D, neither 1 nor 2. See, we have discussed this earlier in the articles discussion. There, we saw about the EPFO and three schemes which are implemented by EPFO such as employees provident fund scheme, employees pension scheme and employees deposit linked insurance scheme. This question is related to employee provident fund scheme. See, this scheme is a retirement saving scheme that is applicable to the workforce engaged in the organized sector in India. See, the second statement is correct and we have also discussed that this EPFO as an organization and various other schemes being implemented by the organization is implemented by the Ministry of Labor and Employment. So, the first statement is also correct. So, the answer for this question is option C, both 1 and 2. Moving to the last question, consider the following statements about the economically weaker section. Statement 1, the 103rd amendment enabled the state to provide the reservation to economically weaker sections of the society. Statement 2, it includes Indian citizens who are not covered under any SC, ST and OBC reservation category and whose gross income is below 8 lakh per annum. Which of these statements given above is so or correct? Option A, 1 only. Option B, 2 only. Option C, both 1 and 2. Option D, neither 1 nor 2. See, the 103rd Constitutional Amendment Act provided reservation to the economically weaker sections of the society. It also amended the Articles 15 and the Article 16 to allow reservation for the EWS category and we also discussed regarding the eligibility criteria where it says where the person who wants to avail the EWS reservation should be an Indian citizen and he or she should not be covered under any SC, ST and OBC reservation category. Along with it, we also saw that the gross income of the beneficiary should be less than 8 lakh per annum. So, from this we can conclude that both these statements given in the questions are correct and the answer for this question is option C, both 1 and 2. These are few main questions that are given for your practice and you may write and post them in the comment section for peer review. That's it for today's discussion. 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