 A very good evening, aspirants. Welcome to the Hindi news analysis by Shankaray's Academy. These are the list of news articles chosen for today's analysis. It has been provided along with the page numbers of different editions of Hindi newspaper. The handwritten notes in the pita format and the time stamping for the displayed articles is provided in the description box and also in the comment section. Let's move on to the first news article analysis for today. The first discussion for today is based on this news article which talks about the promotion of integrated farming systems by the Agriculture Department of Kerala. So in this discussion we will see about the integrated farming system and its advantages. Now this topic is very important from problems as well as mains perspective. Even last year that is in 2019 a mains question appeared in GS paper 3 which asked how far is the integrated farming system helpful in sustaining agricultural production. So you can see the importance of this topic. Now let us move on to the discussion. Before that the syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. Now first let us see what is meant by integrated farming systems or in short IFS. As its name suggests it is a integration of various agricultural enterprises by the farmer. This includes integration of cropping, animal husbandry, fishery, forestry etc by the farmer and all these components are maintained at the same place to generate employment throughout the year. So what is the need for such a system? We know that more than 80% of farmers in India are small and marginal farmers and they have very low land holdings and additionally this scarcity in irrigation and then reducing fertility of soil and also the erratic weather conditions create more problems to the farmers and more importantly our farmers concentrate mainly on crop production only and because of this they are subjected to a high degree of uncertainty in income and also employment to them because sometimes the crop production could be seasonal so for a particular season they may be employed. So in this context only it becomes very important to evolve a suitable strategy for augmenting the income of farmers and based on this the integrated farming system was initiated to bring about a change in the farming techniques for bringing maximum productivity in the farming sector and this is done by optimal utilization of resources that is utilization of the resources which is available at hand. Now how this integrated farming is done? It is done with a judicious mix of agricultural enterprises like dairy, poultry, pigiri, fishery, sericulture etc. In this as you know sericulture is the production of silk and the rearing of silkworms and these practices will be carried out by considering the agro-climatic conditions and the socioeconomic status of the farmers. Now in this mixing of agricultural enterprises you should note that the crops, livestock, birds and trees are the major components and here the crop may have subsystems like monocrop, a mixed crop or intercrop, then multi-tier crops of cereals, pulses, oil seeds, forage etc. and the livestock components may be milch cow, goats, sheeps, poultry, bees etc. and the tree components may include timber and fruit trees also. Now some of the examples of this system include integrated rice fish poultry farming system model of Tamil Nadu, then the integrated rice fish vegetable model of Assam, then integrated pig or poultry fish vegetable farming system model of Assam etc. So what are the advantages of integrated farming system? The main advantage is that it will help to increase food production to equate the demand of the rapidly increasing population of our country. Then it also helps to reduce soil erosion when the IFS techniques are used properly. Then the integrated farming will also help in environmental production through effective recycling of waste from the animal activities like pigry, poultry and pigeon rearing. So this in turn will reduce the usage of chemical fertilizers to a greater extent and because of this organic waste recycling integrated farming system helps in maintaining soil fertility and productivity also. So overall this system helps in achieving the national mission for sustainable agriculture which is nothing but the eight missions outlined in the national action plan on climate change of government of India. And according to experts inclusion of biogas and agroforestry in the integrated farming system will solve the future energy crisis also. Here just know that agroforestry is nothing but the agriculture incorporating the cultivation of trees. As we already saw fruit bearing trees then timber could be grown as part of this system. Now these are the common advantages of IFS. Now what are the advantages with respect to farmers? One major advantage is reduced production cost of components through the input recycling from the byproducts of allied enterprises. This means it helps in increasing farm income through proper residue recycling and allied components. We already saw about the recycling of waste and we saw how this organic waste recycling will help to reduce the usage of chemical fertilizers and it will increase soil fertility and productivity. So this is one of the major advantages for the farmers. Then other than that farmers will also be able to get regular stable income through the production of products like egg, milk, mushroom, vegetables, honey and silkworm, cocoons etc. Because these productions can be carried out even when there is erratic rainfall damaging the crops. So in this scenario farmers not only be depending on the crop production they will also focus on producing these products which will be another source of income for them. So overall this system helps in generation of regular employment for the family members of the small and marginal farmers also. So based on these advantages we can say that the integrated farming system helps in building a self-reliant India in terms of agriculture and because of this only the agriculture department of Kerala is going to promote the integrated farming systems and it is expected that this move will help the small and marginal farmers in the state to use their land and resources in a better manner. And for this the state government has also announced a project known as Jai Vagraham project under the Rebuild Kerala initiative and this project is going to bring the practice of integrated farming system in Kerala and as per this project farms under agriculture department in various districts will be developed as model farms by adopting high-tech and integrated farming methods. So following the footsteps of Kerala even other states can initiate similar projects. With this we come to the end of this discussion. In this discussion we saw about the integrated farming systems and we saw its advantages especially its advantages to the farmers. Let us move on to the next discussion. Moving on to the next discussion which is based on this news article. It mentions that on 13th July that is day before yesterday the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has once again released a draft Transgender Persons Protection of Rights Rules of 2020. Now these new draft rules have been released with some modifications to the earlier released draft which was released in April 2020. See here you should note that in December 2019 the President of India gave assent to the Transgender Persons Protection of Rights Act of 2019 and this act came into force on 10th January 2020 as per section one of this act and this act recognizes the identity of transgender persons. It states that a person who is recognized as transgender shall have a right to self-perceived gender identity. The act also mentions that a transgender person may make an application to the district magistrate for issuing a certificate of identity as a transgender person and this is the definition of transgender person according to this act. We have given here for your reference and here you should note that a trans man or trans woman is recognized irrespective of the fact whether or not such person has undergone sex reassignment surgery or hormone therapy or laser therapy or such other therapy. Now one of the positives of this act is that it provides for the governments to take wide range of welfare measures for transgender persons such as it provides to take steps to secure full and effective participation of transgender persons and their inclusion in society and it also pays for taking measures to promote and protect the right of transgender persons to participate in the cultural and recreational activities. So in this aspect we can understand this in one more dimension that is in sports and other gender-based competitions. In future we can expect a new category as transgender category in the same way how men compete among themselves and how women compete among themselves and even if you remember in the beginning of this month that is in the first week of July 2020 the Ministry of Home Affairs has proposed to the Central Armed Police Force to incorporate transgender as third gender and this move of Ministry of Home Affairs is seen as a step to remove fear of stigmatization towards the transgender persons. Now apart from this know that the act also provides for prohibition of discrimination against transgender persons. It provides that there should be no discrimination in employment and it also provides for establishing grievance redressal mechanism then right to residents and other obligations. It also provides obligations related to education, social security and health of transgender persons. So for all these aspects provisions have been made in this act. Now know that to redress the grievance of transgender persons and for other functions it provides for the establishment of National Council for Transgender Persons and the chairperson of this council will be the union minister of social justice and empowerment. Now let us see the procedure for issue of certificate of identity as per the draft rules of 2020 which is the news today. See this draft rules released on 13 July has made some modifications with reference to the previous draft rules that was released in April 2020. The April 2020 draft rules created some confusions with respect to issuing certificate of identity by district magistrate. It stated that the magistrate shall issue the certificate of identity based on the application, the affidavit of the applicant and the report of psychologist of a hospital of appropriate government. It also mentioned that the magistrate shall verify the correctness of the report of psychologist and the place of residence of the applicant. See even though the draft rules stated that any medical examination is not required, there were some doubts related to this and this doubt has been cleared by the recent draft rules. It mentions that the district magistrate subject to the correctness of application shall process the application based on the affidavit submitted by the applicant but without any medical examination and here note that in case of a person who was already issued a transgender identity certificate if that person undergoes surgery to change gender either as a male or female then in that case for issuing the revised gender certificate is required. This certificate is related to change of gender which is issued by the medical superintendent or chief medical officer of the medical institution in which the transgender person has undergone the surgery to change to another gender. So that is all about this discussion. In this discussion we saw about the Transgender Persons Protection of Rights Act of 2019 and we also saw about the draft rules which has been released based on this act and we saw that these draft rules does not mandate any medical examination for issuance of certificate of identity to transgender persons. With this we come to the end of this discussion that is moving on to the next discussion. This news article mentions that the members of Pughal Code Mund Eco Development Committee in the Nilgiris of Tamil Nadu have removed an invasive species in more than two hectares. That invasive species is Cestrum Nocturnum Plants and they have removed it to save the Shola and native grasslands of Nilgiris. So in this analysis we will see about this Cestrum Nocturnum Plants we will see about the Eco Development Committee and also about the Joint Forest Management and Joint Forest Management Committee. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. If you first and foremost know that National Forest Policy of 1988 envisaged Joint Forest Management. Here you can see few provisions of the policy which mentions about the involvement of local people. Like it mentions that the regulation of grazing in forest areas should be done with the involvement of the community. So like this these provisions paved way for Joint Forest Management. So what is it? It is an approach and program where in state forest departments support the local forest dwelling communities and forest fringe communities for two main purposes. First purpose is to protect and manage forests then for sharing the costs and benefits from the forests with the communities and in turn the communities organize themselves into a JFM committee to protect and manage the nearby forests and know that they are guided by locally prepared by laws and micro plans that is some small plans. Now in line with this National Forest Policy of 1988 in June 1990 the central government gave enabling guidelines to the states with reference to the Joint Forest Management. The guidelines provided for the participation of local communities and NGOs then it also facilitated institution building for forest management and it allowed flexibility in their formation also and as a result of this some kind of institutional setup was established in many forest areas at the local level but in different names for this Joint Forest Management. But if you see the progress of Joint Forest Management was slow in the initial years because of many policy issues technical and institutional issues. So because of this only around 4 million hectares of forests in 17 states were under this Joint Forest Management until 1998. So because of this government wanted to boost this initiative and for this purpose in 1998 the Ministry of Environment and Forests created a joint forest management cell. This cell was established to monitor the progress of JFM and also to act as a clearing house for information on the Joint Forest Management. And further in February 2000 the Ministry also issued another set of guidelines related to the Joint Forest Management and these guidelines necessitated all the state governments to register such committees for the Joint Forest Management under the Societies Registration Act of 1860. This is to provide legal backup for those committees and these guidelines also provided for uniform nomenclature as well that is in all the states such committees should be called as joint forest management committees only and it also provided for participation of women in such committees. And know that even though union government issued main guidelines as we just saw the guidelines of the appropriate state governments actually decided much about the committees other than the broad outline given by the central government. So now you may have a question since both central government and state governments are issuing guidelines on the same topic. So whether it belongs to a union list, state list or concurrent list of seven schedule of Indian constitution. Know that the subject of forests protection of wild animals and birds come in the concurrent list in the seven schedule of Indian constitution and because of this only both central government and state governments can enact laws and guidelines in these areas. So now let us see comprehensively what these joint forest management committees are. It is a local institution of forest dwelling communities and forest fringe dwelling communities which is democratic, decentralized and transparent and the main function of this committee is to ensure people's involvement in the development and protection of forests. Now these committees are set up as per the provisions of applicable JFM rules or guidelines of the state government remember this and know that these committees are either fully part of Gram Sabha or partially part of Gram Sabha and normally there is one JFMC in one revenue village but however in special situations like historical collaboration with neighboring villages or where it does not make sense to divide the forest a JFMC may cover two or more villages also and on the other side you should also remember that especially in tribal areas there may be situations where one village may have several dispersed hamlets. So in such areas JFMC's may be set up at sub revenue village level or hamlet level also. So this is the basic about joint forest management committees. Now what is this eco development committee? An eco development committee is similar to JFMC's but it is meant for villages in protected areas and their buffer zones that is the area of operation of eco development committee is restricted to protected areas and it is restricted to forest and non-forest areas near the protected areas and they are set up working roles responsibilities powers funds etc are as per these state level orders and know that these eco development committees have twin objectives one is to protect wildlife and other biodiversity and then to undertake eco development activities in the villages. Now while exercising this objective only one of the eco development committees in the Neel Giris was involved in the removal of an invasive species called as sestrum noctonum and know that according to the news article many members of this EDC belong to Toda community. Now let us see about this invasive species sestrum noctonum. It is commonly known as night jasmine and know that sestrum noctonum is commonly cultivated in many countries as an ornamental plant it is because of its fragrant flowers that bloom at night and this is the reason it was also given the term noctonum because it literally means at night these flowers bloom at night and that is why this flower and plant is also called as queen of the night and know that this plant is reportedly native to Mexico and West Indies and this plant is known for aggressively colonizing disturbed sites such as forest gaps and therefore it comes in competition with the native plant species of that site and it displaces them and that is why we call the species as invasive species now since it is an invasive species the spread of sestrum noctonum is a threat to all the Shola and grassland habitats of Neel Giris as it does not allow any native flora or plant to thrive in that area and because of this the committee in Neel Giris is involved in completely removing the plant along with the root to save the Shola ecosystem and apart from this sestrum noctonum is also known to be poisonous if ingested therefore it is also a risk for the grazing livestock further this plant is known to produce hay fever like symptoms in some people which are mainly sneezing coughing runny nose etc and because of these reasons the committee is involved in completely removing the plant along with its root to save the Shola ecosystem and the biodiversity of Neel Giris with this we come to the end of this analysis in this discussion we saw what is joint forest management and we saw briefly about the timeline related to joint forest management we saw what do we mean by joint forest management committee also then we saw about eco development committee and then finally we saw about the night jasmine that is the sestrum noctonum the displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session let us move on to the next discussion moving on to the next discussion this discussion is based on these news articles and this editorial which talks about India-Iran relations as you know yesterday we discussed about how India was dropped by Iran in the development of its railway transit route connecting India-Iran Afghanistan so today we will discuss the implications of this move by Iran on India the syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference first know that Iran has given reason for this move it has said that it dropped India from the Chabha Rail project because of absence of active Indian engagement it has also cited that Iran expects India to be more active and it must not heed to third-party unilateral sanctions in the future projects that is Iran has asked India to not to mind the unilateral sanctions of USA on Iran it has said this because due to those sanctions only India stopped purchasing oil from Iran actually if you know this is not the first time India has chosen USA over Iran the original Chabha agreement which was signed in 2003 between India and Iran was abandoned by India within a year that is India did not pursue the agreement further it is because at that time India started engaging with USA and USA had imposed sanctions against Iran at that time so the same scenario happened and we sided with USA at that time now after this 2003 agreement in 2016 the Indian prime minister went to Iran and agreed on trilateral track with Iran and Afghanistan and according to this 2016 agreement India was to develop Chabha and then we would go forward with building a railway network and road networks this strategic plan was to make India a potential role player in the duration scenario that is why this project was hailed as a major trilateral project that would give India access to Afghanistan bypassing Pakistan but what again happened we again sided with USA to satisfy the US administration and India delayed its development works in Iran and because of this India was dropped by Iran citing delay in the proposed funding now by losing a strategic opportunity to build relationship with Iran India has lost a very good opportunity to establish critical linkages with the Middle East and with Eurasia and more importantly this has given an impression that India had succumbed due to US pressure and this has raised many questions on India's commitment to its strategic autonomy and further we are living in a world where connectivity is seen as the new currency and now India has lost this new currency and yesterday we saw that because of this India may have to depend on Pakistan and in this scenario it seems like our loss has become gained to China it is because now Iran has claimed that it will fund the railway project using its own resources and this confidence of Iran is due to an imminent deal of Iran with China this proposed deal with China is for 25 years and it is a $400 billion strategic partnership on infrastructure connectivity and energy projects and know that both China and Iran are in an advanced stage of finalizing this agreement and this agreement will allow China to expand its presence in different sectors in Iran like banking, telecommunications, ports, railways and several other sectors and in return China will get heavily discounted oil for 25 years and at the same time Iran will also be beneficial because already Iran is suffering from economic sanctions followed by decline in oil prices and reduction of exports due to pandemic and now this agreement with China if it is finalized it could be an economic lifeline for Iran other than this China is also having another advantage which is it could enhance its strategic influence in the region because so far US has built a strong presence since the second world war in that region and now this agreement will give China to build its strategic influence in that region and not only this as you know USC was exercising maximum pressure policy on Iran now according to experts this has USA unintentionally forced Iran to opt for China's BRA project that is built and road initiative so as a whole we can see that this deal of Iran and China is advantageous to both Iran and also China because now China has come to the rescue of Iran's economy which was suffering under the USA's maximum pressure policy so the ongoing cold war like scenario between USA China has impacted India and because of this we have lost the Jabha project and our gateway to Afghanistan but you should note that here not only India has made a mistake but Iran also committed certain mistakes in the recent past and because of that India-Iran relations were disturbed because if you remember when anti-CEA protests was ongoing in India Iran condemned and took a very hard stand against India regarding the Citizenship Amendment Act and Delhi rights and this move of Iran did not please Indian government and after that now because of pandemic all the economies are disturbed and India could not focus on the Jabha project now all of this together has caused a major loss to India by which China is going to gain so as a conclusion we can say that India should be very proactive regarding the new happenings as a result of the move of Iran that is all about this discussion in this discussion we saw about the implications on India due to the recent move of Iran with this we come to the end of this discussion that is played practice question will be discussed in the last session moving on to the next discussion based on this news article it mentions that the former president of Maldives has appreciated Maldives relationship with India see as you know India is in a situation where we are losing relations with neighboring countries even in today's one of our discussions we saw about India's deteriorating relationship with Iran so at this time the comment of former president of Maldives is a relief for India he has noted that Maldives cannot grow or develop further if they abandon their ties with India he has noted this because only recently government of India has handed over outdoor fitness equipment for 61 islands across Maldives and India has done this as part of India's cash grant and development projects initiative which are being executed in Maldives and know that this initiative is worth approximately 200 million Maldivian Rufia now based on the continuous support from India in the form of financial assistance he has also urged the current elected Maldivian leaders to develop a strong relationship with India see you should note that India and Maldives are traditionally close and the bilateral relationship between Maldives and India have been strengthened and depend since November 2018 because in November 2018 the current president of Maldives Mr. Ibrahim Muhammad Soli assumed office as president of Maldives and since then it is stated that the policy of the government of Maldives is India first so in this context let us see some facts about Maldives Maldives is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean it consists of atolls coral reefs and low-lying coral islands see in this know that atolls are almost circular groups of coral islets as you can see in this picture and islet is nothing but a very very small island and know that at all is also called as an island formed by a ring-shaped coral reef that encircles a lagoon a lagoon is a shallow body of water as you know which is separated from a large body of water by coral reefs now here additionally know that at all that we use in geography is borrowed from the Maldivian term atoll and know that there are 22 geographical atolls in Maldives they consist of close to 1200 islands and out of these 1200 islands only 200 islands are inhabited by people and the rest of the islands are used mainly for tourism purposes and know that fishing and tourism are the main industries of Maldives and with respect to India geographically Maldives situated southwest of mainland India and another important fact is that the Lakshodip island group of India and the Maldives are separated by the 8 degree channel that is they are separated by the 8 degree north latitude and in particular know that the 8 degree channel separates Minicoi island of Lakshodip group and Maldives and know that Lakshodip group of islands are north of Maldives and if you observe this image you can see that equator passes through the territory of Maldives but know that the equator does not pass through the land part of Maldives but it passes through the territorial waters of Maldives and from exam perspective know that Maldives is a member of shark nations but it is not a member of beam stick because it is not a littoral country of Bay of Bengal now if you look at this question this is based on the topic which we just discussed and the question has been framed based on a 2017 question which asked which of the following geographically closest to Great Nicobar and the correct answer is Sumatra for that question now today's question is which of the following Indian island is geographically closest to Maldives and now only we saw that Lakshodip islands is north of Maldives but in this use you can see two Lakshodip islands one is Minicoi and the other one is Kavarathi and know that Minicoi has close affinity with the islands of Maldives even the language of Minicoi is Devehi but the other islands of Lakshodip they speak Malayalam this is important because the language spoken by Maldivan people is Devehi only so this shows the close relationship between the people of Minicoi island and the people of Maldivian islands and know that Minicoi is the second largest island of Lakshodip and it is the southernmost island of Lakshodip so the correct answer is option B Minicoi island now let us take the practice questions that were displayed during the news article discussion sessions now this question is based on Toda tribal group the first statement is they are included in the list of particularly vulnerable tribal groups this is a correct statement Toda tribal community from the state of Tamil Nadu have been included in the PVTG list now the second statement is they are handicraft work called as Toda embroidery is a registered geographical indication under the geographical indications of goods registration and protection act of 1999 now this statement is correct because the Toda embroidery of the Toda tribal community from the state of Tamil Nadu received geographical indication tag in 2013 and the registration is valid up to 2028 and know that one of its interesting feature is that this embroidery is reversible so one can use it both sides now here the question asks for the correct statements and both the statements are correct so the correct answer is option C both 1 and 2 now this next question is based on transgender persons protection of rights act of 2019 two statements are given the first statement is the act prescribes that the national council for transgender persons shall investigate into complaints filed by transgenders and the orders of the council are binding on the appropriate governments and persons concerned now this statement is incorrect because the act only mentions that one of the functions of the council is to redress the grievances of transgender persons it does not provide for any provision on the investigation of the complaints and even the recently released draft rules also does not have such provisions so this statement is incorrect now the second statement is the chairperson of the council must be a transgender person with knowledge or experience in the rights of transgender persons now this statement is also incorrect because according to the act among the members of the council five representatives will be from transgender community and they will be appointed by rotation from the state governments and and union territories and they will be nominated by the central government as members but the act does not mention that the chairperson or the vice chairperson should be a transgender individual so this statement is also incorrect now here additionally know that the council will have five experts who will be nominated by the central government to represent non-governmental organizations or associations for working for the welfare of transgender persons and the chairperson of this council is the union minister of social justice and empowerment and the vice chairperson is the minister of state who is in charge of the ministry of social justice and empowerment in the government so here both the statements are incorrect and here be careful because the question asks for the correct statements and both the statements are incorrect so the correct answer is option D neither one nor two let us take one main question based on gs paper two the question asks in what ways would the recent action of iran dropping india from the jabah rail project affect the strategic interest of india how should india respond to its situation based on today's and yesterday's discussion you have to write answer for this question after writing you can post it in the comment section we will review it and the appropriate suggestion will be provided for improving your answers within a reasonable time frame with this we have come to the end of today's hindi news analysis if you like the video don't forget to like comment and also share with your friends please subscribe to shankaray's academy youtube channel for receiving more updates related to civil service examination preparation