 Good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Shankar IS Academy's newspaper analysis for the date 17th August 2021. These are the list of topics chosen for today's discussion. As you can see these topics are selected from different sections of the syllabus. Let us start our first discussion by discussing about the editorial article which is the plastic pollution. Followed by that we'll be seeing about Wildlife Protection Act and then we'll be looking a brief account about what is WPI. After that we'll be discussing about the standing committees in the parliament. Followed by that we'll be seeing a news article about the USA's troops withdrawal from the Afghanistan. Followed by that we'll be seeing some prelims practice questions. Now let's move on to the first discussion. Now let us take up this editorial article for our discussion. If you remember in the 2018 World Environmental Day our Indian Prime Minister asserted on eliminating all single-use plastic by the year 2022. Though at present we are quite far from our goal we are still on that line. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of the Government of India has notified the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules 2021 and this editorial is written in this backdrop. So based on this context we'll have a comprehensive discussion about plastic pollution, its impact and the important points mentioned in the article. The syllabus covered by this editorial article is given below for your reference. As we know pollution refers to the presence or introduction of a substance with harmful or poisonous effect into the environment and there are different kinds of pollution like that of air, water, etc. And one among them is the plastic pollution. See plastic pollution refers to the accumulation of synthetic plastic products in the environment to the point where they create problems for humans and wildlife. At present plastics are found to pollute many environmental niche across the country right from the Mount Everest to the bottom of the sea and it is found to prevail more in areas where garbage collection system or often inefficient or non-existent. On talking about the adverse impacts of plastics, see plastic is a material that is made to lost forever and a major part of it is used just once and thrown away. Know that plastics are polymeric materials that is these materials are made up of molecules which are usually large and they often resembles long chain made up of an endless series of interconnected links. Due to this plastic cannot biodegrade since it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces and the main problem with decomposing plastic is that it is not organic. This is because most plastic which are in use at present are made up of materials which are nearly indestructible. So it becomes nearly impossible to decompose them because most bacteria cannot break them down and though UV light from the sun can break plastics down it takes a long time and the negative effect on the human health, food chain problems, land, air and groundwater pollution or some consequence of this plastic pollution. So with this understanding about plastic pollution let us now move on to see the important editorial takeaway points. See according to a recent study around 6 of the top 100 global producers of polymers that culminate in plastic waste were found to be based in India and in spite of asserting to eliminate the single use plastic by 2022 we could not do much due to the lack in policy coherence and for your information as per the records of the Central Pollution Control Board 22 states so far have announced a ban on single use plastic but despite that we are hearing about waste choking wetlands and waterways and being transported to the oceans to turn into microplastic. At present we are facing an increasing plastic pollution especially by the disposable plastic or single use plastics. See they are used only once before they are thrown away or recycled say like that of earbuds plates and cups. So in order to tackle this growing situation the center has come up with the plastic waste management amendment rules. Now under the new rules the manufacture sale and use of some single use goods are prohibited from July 1 next year. Adding to that a definite amount of thickness is prohibited or expected to be fulfilling in the manufacture of carry bags from the coming years. See now microplastics have entered the chain also and this highlights the need for the government to do something important to stop its rates. So to conclude unlike the lofty policies on environmental regulation framed so far India should devise a plan that is achievable and sustainable on a long term basis. For instance measures for proper segregation for waste can be framed since considerable amount of plastic waste cannot be recycled because of lack of segregation. Likewise uniform regulation with regard to the prohibited plastic moving across state borders should also be encouraged. So with this we have come to the end of this discussion. Now let us move on to the next news article. Now look at this article. See according to this article mass culling of crop riding wild boars will begin soon in Kerala. This means this mass culling operation will be intense. So what does this word cull means? It means killing specific number of animals in a group to prevent the group from becoming too large. So what is the aim of this mission? So the aim of the mission is to reduce the population of crop riding wild boars considerably in two months. See the population here means the wild boars which are located away from the forest boundaries. They are not killing the wild boars which inhibit the forest. So this mass culling operation is first of this kind in the state of Kerala. The government has identified 300 hard spots to carry out this operation. So why is this operation necessary? See the wild boars are causing huge crop loss to the farmers. Also according to the experts wild boars that live in place far away from the forest boundaries are of no economical and conservation value. Another problem is they are also prolific breeders and they do not face natural predators outside the forest. So their numbers are alarmingly increasing. They pose a serious threat to food security and farming. This is why the Kerala government is planning to conduct a mass culling operation. See the wild boar is protected under Schedule 3 of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. But still orders has been issued to kill specific population of this wild boar because of the threats posed by it. So before going into discussion about wildlife protection act 1972, let us see a past prelims question. This question was asked in the last year preliminary examination. Just pass the video and try to answer the question. I will tell you the answer for this question in the end of the discussion. See the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 is an act of parliament of India, an act for protecting of animals and plant species. This act is very important from an environmental perspective. This is because this act prohibits the hunting of endangered species. It provides for the establishment of wildlife sanctuaries, national parks, etc. Its provisions paved the way for the formation of central zoo authority. This act also created six schedules which gave varying degrees of protection to classes of flora and fauna. Let us see about these schedules. The first schedule includes endangered species which need the highest protection. So if a species is included in schedule 1, it is granted protection from poaching, killing, training, etc. If a person violates the provision under this schedule, he or she will receive harsh penalties. Now schedule 2 Now coming to schedule 2, see similar to schedule 1 animals under this schedule are also accorded high protection with the prohibition on their trade. Now when we move to the schedule 3 and 4, these schedules include species that are not endangered. And inclusion of an species in these schedules will get it protected. But the penalty for any violation is less compared to first two schedules. Now coming to schedule 5, this schedule contains animals that are considered as vermin. These animals can be hunted and finally moving on to the schedule 6, this list contains plants that are prohibited from cultivation. So from this discussion itself, you can arrive at the correct answer for the question which is option A. A license is required to cultivate that plant. Now coming back to the wildlife protection act 1972, the National Board for Wildlife was constituted as a statutory organization under the provision of this act. The act will provide for the establishment of national tiger conservation authority. So these are the important points regarding the wildlife protection act 1972. With these informations, let us move on to the next discussion. Now look at this news article. It mentions that WPI inflation has slowed down slightly. So what does this mean? To understand this, let us have a brief about WPI first. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. First of all as we see many times inflation is nothing but the rise in general level of prices of goods and services. This means price of most goods have gone up. So how inflation is monitored? It is monitored by measuring the price indices such as wholesale price index WPI or consumer price index CPI. Today let us focus on WPI. So what is it? This index measures the average change in the price of commodities for bulk sale at the level of every stage of transactions. That is it simply captures all bulk transaction of goods carried out in the domestic market. So the universe of WPI comprises of all possible transaction at first point of bulk sale in the domestic market but before the retail level. Remember it captures transaction before retail level. Hence WPI accounts for changes in prices at every early distribution stage. Now this WPI is calculated using the base year 2011 to 2012. So what is this base year? The base year of base period refers to the year in which an index number series begin to be calculated. So make a note of it and who compiles the WPI. It is compiled and released by the office of Economic Advisor OEA which is under the department for promotion of industry and internal trade in the ministry of commerce and industry. It is released on a monthly basis. Please make a note of these things. These points are very important in the preliminary perspective point of view. So who is compiling and releasing it? Office of Economic Advisor which is under department for promotion of industry and internal trade under the ministry of commerce and industry. Importantly you should also understand that whenever we say basket in economics it refers to a fixed set of consumer products and services that is values on a annual basis. So the index basket of the WPI covers commodities falling under the three major groups. They are the primary article, fuel and power and manufactured products. In the primary article is subdivided into food article, non food articles, minerals, crude petroleum and natural gases and fuel and power is subdivided into coal, mineral oil and electricity. So as per the requirement of WPI the prices which are tracked for these groups are X factory prices for manufactured products, agree market prices or Monday price for agricultural products and X mines price for minerals. Please make a note of it. From exam perspective we have to know the weightage of these groups. Manufactured products have the highest weightage of 64.2%. Primary article have a weight of 22.6%. The final major group of fuel and power has a weightage of 13.2%. Another important fact to be noted is that these major group comprises of sectors and this index covers prices of products or commodities only pertaining to four sectors. What are these four sectors? They include agriculture, mining, manufacturing and electricity. The other sectors of GDP in particular the services sector is not covered under WPI. This is also an important fact from prelims perspective. So which means WPI does not cover the service sector. Additionally the news article also mentions about food index. It is the WPI food index. It is comprised to capture the rate of inflation in food items. Therefore it is compiled by combining the food articles and the primary articles group and food products and the manufactured products group. So for these purposes WPI is used. Just have a look at this uses of the WPI or mentioned here. So have a look at this. So now what is the news? As per the recent data released by the Office of Economic Advisor the annual rate of inflation for the month of July 2021 is 11.16%. This is higher compared to July 2020. This high rate of inflation is primarily due to the low base effect. So what is this base effect? It refers to the impact of an increase in price level over the corresponding rise in price levels in the current year. That is it is the impact of an increase in previous years inflation as compared to the current inflation. If the inflation rate was low in the corresponding period of the last year then even a small increase in the price index will give a high rate of inflation in the current year. So in the current scenario what happened was there is a rise in price of commodities or items now as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year. These commodities are items include crude petroleum and natural gases, mineral oils, certain manufactured products like food products. But if you see the news mentions that wholesale price have slowed marginally. This is because compared to June 2021 WPI has decreased in July 2021. The news article also reports that food index has increased from June 2022 to July 2021. So with this basic informations now we came to the end of the discussion. So in this article we came to know about certain core concept of economics like what is wholesale price index its base year and what is the base effect. With these basic informations let us move on to the next discussion. Now for our next discussion let us take this data point article. See the data point mentions about the latest monsoon session of the parliament. As per the article during the last monsoon session 15 bills were introduced and passed by the parliament in the same session and only a minimal amount of time is said to be spent on debating them. The article also mentions that none of the 15 bills that were introduced and passed during the last monsoon session were referred to a select committee and the data point also reports that the share of bills reported to committee have faced a drastic fall since 2014. So this is the crux of the data point now based on this we are going to brush up our learning on parliamentary committees. So what are these parliamentary committees and why are they formed. So what is the necessity to form a parliamentary committee. As we know our parliament has got a range of varied and complex functions and it neither has the adequate time nor the required expertise to carry out a detailed scrutiny on any legislative or other such matters. It thus becomes impossible for every matter to be fully scrutinized and considered on the floor of the house. So it is at this place the parliamentary committees come for the aid. That is the parliament will transact a significant amount of its business to the committee of the house. So according to the Lok Sabha website a parliamentary committee is described as a committee which is appointed or elected by the house or nominated by the speaker. It works under the direction of the speaker and it presents its reports to the house or to the speaker and the secretariat. So broadly parliamentary committees can be classified as standing committees and ad hoc committees and the difference between them lies in their tenure. That is the standing committees or permanent committees which is constituted every year or periodically and they work on a continuous basis. Whereas the ad hoc committee or temporary in nature in the sense they cease to exist on completing the task assigned to them. So these are the types of the parliamentary committees see interesting certain function of the house to the committee has become a normal practice and when it is done the matter is deliberated at length. Views are expressed freely and the matter is considered in depth at the committee in a business like manner at a calmer atmosphere. Apart from this in most of the committees public is directly or indirectly associated when containing suggestions or receive. Further on the spot studies are conducted and also oral evidence is taken to arrive at conclusion. So with this revision we'll move on to the next part of the discussion. So look at these articles see we have plenty of articles today regarding the withdrawal of the USA's troop from Afghanistan. See these articles highlight the geopolitics between the USA and Afghanistan which is not much relevant for our preparation. What is very important for our preparation is India's concern over the region. See USA can abandon Afghanistan and exit the region but India cannot. Afghanistan is our neighbouring country and it is very important to have positive ties with the country. See Afghanistan is a southern Central Asian country and it is surrounded by Iran in the west and it is bordered by Pakistan to the southeast also Turkmenistan Uzbekistan and Tajkistan to the north and it is also bordered by India and China in the northeast because of its strategic location it is called as the heart of the Asia and is considered as the crossroads of Asia. After a brief pass in 1990s India has historically enjoyed good ties with Afghanistan which goes back to the 1950 Treaty of Friendship. India's interest and influence suffered when the Taliban backed by Pakistan captured Kabul in 1996 but India was back in action as soon as the Taliban was expelled from the power after the US invasion in 2001. India has made huge investment and commitments ever since which ran into over 3 billion US dollars and cultivated strong economic and defense ties with the Afghan government. For instance Indian engineers are helping to construct the Shatoot Dam near Kabul and Afghanistan was among the first country to receive anti-COVID-19 vaccines from India. Now it is again staring at uncertainty with the US pullback. The withdrawal of US troops having effectively changed the balance of power in Afghanistan and the Taliban has now captured the Kabul. So what are the concerns of India after the complete withdrawal of US troops? See the withdrawal can lead to a surge in international and regional terrorism. The Pakistan's influence on Afghanistan will increase. There are many chances for creation of political instability in the region as well. Apart from this, India's largest concerns are about the resurgence of Taliban which can undoubtedly reassure and stir up the extremist element in Kashmir and other parts of India. They may use India focused militant groups such as Lakshere Tayyiba and Jaishai Muhammad to stir up these extremist elements in Kashmir and other parts of India. These groups are believed to have relocated to Afghanistan in large number which poses a large threat to the India's national security. The US withdrawal is likely to pave way for China to occupy the vacant strategic space in Afghanistan. This has also raised a deep concern. Afghanistan is a resource rich country having deposits of gold, iron ore and lithium. Also, the geographical location of Afghanistan gives China an opening in South Asia and West Asia. China has proposed extension of its Belt and Road Initiative project to Afghanistan. A number of China's project across the world are maritime in nature which are focused on connectivity through seaports. But the continental Afghanistan would be an important addition to China's Belt and Road Initiative. Therefore, to safeguard its own interest, India need to reorient its policy towards Afghanistan and deal with the changing dynamics of power shift in the region. With this, we came to the end of the discussion. Now, let us move on to the prelims practice question discussion. Now, let us see some of the prelims practice questions. The first question has two statements and the first statement is the National Tiger Conservation Authority. That is, NTCA has been constituted under the provision of wildlife protection act 1972. The second statement states that the National Board for Wildlife NBWL is a statutory body constituted under the Environment Protection Act 1986. Which of the following statement given above is RR correct? The first statement is correct. That is, the National Tiger Conservation Authority NBCA has been constituted under the provision of Wildlife Protection Act 1972. And the second statement is wrong because the National Board for Wildlife NBWL is a statutory body constituted under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. And it is not constituted under Environment Protection Act 1986. So, the correct option for the question is option A113. The second question is about the Parliamentary Committees. So, this is also a two statement question and the first statement states that the Standing Committee are constituted every year or periodically and they work on a continuous basis. And the second statement states that the Financial Committee, Departmental Standing Committee and the Committee to scrutinize and control or examples of Standing Committees. Which of the statement given above is RR correct? As we already saw in the discussion, Standing Committee or Permanent Committee which is constituted every year or periodically and they work on a continuous basis. So, the first statement is correct. The second statement is also correct because Standing Committee are classified into six categories. And they include Financial Committee, Departmental Standing Committee, Committees to Inquire, Committees to scrutinize and control, Committees related to the day to day business of the house, Housekeeping Committee or Service Committees. So, the correct answer for this question is option C both 1 and 2. This question is about the CPI and WPI. So, the first statement states that WPI reflects the change in average prices for bulk sale of commodities at the first stage of transaction while WPI reflects the average change in prices at retail level paid by the consumers. The second statement states that services sector is covered under both WPI and CPI. Which of the above statement is correct? So, from the discussion we know that the first statement is incorrect because the statement should be the other way around. That is WPI reflects the change in average price for bulk sale of commodities at the first stage of transaction while WPI reflects the average change in prices at retail level paid by the consumer. So, the first statement is incorrect and the second statement is also incorrect because the WPI covers prices of products or commodities only pertaining to four sectors. What are these four sectors? They are the agriculture, mining, manufacturing and electricity. The other sectors of GDP in particular the service sector is not covered under the WPI. So, the correct answer for this question is option D neither 1 nor 2. The main questions are displayed here please practice at home. With this we came to the end of the news discussion. So, if you like the video please like, comment and share with your friends and please do subscribe to the Shankar IS Academy YouTube channel. Thank you.