 a very good evening to all my friends today we have two important announcements the first one is on the phoenix initiative course which begins on 24th august 2020 so this course consists of four modules module one will be on art and culture and modern india with free test series and module two will be on indian polity with free test series module three will be on environment and geography with free test series and finally module four which includes economics science and technology international organizations and free test so this free test series consists of 18 tests in total which consists of eight full mock tests three cesare full tests two current phase tests covering the current affairs from the months of june 2019 to march 2020 and it also consists of five monthly current affairs tests covering the months of april 2020 to august 2020 here each module will cost rupees 3600 and if the student selects all the four modules the cost fee will be rupees 10000 and it will be free of cost for aspirants who had attended the interviews of 2019 and it is also free for over current batch pcm students and pre storming test series 2020 batch students now the second important announcement is about the test series which consists of 18 tests in total so these 18 tests include eight full mock tests three cesare full tests two current affairs tests which covers the current affairs from the months of june 2019 to march 2020 then five monthly current affairs tests covering the current affairs from the months of april 2020 to august 2020 and the cost fee for this exclusive test series is rupees 999 so aspirants please note that the registration link for these courses is given in the description box and also in the comment section with this information we will start our news analysis for today the list of the news articles along with the page numbers of five different editions is given here for your reference let us move on to our first news now this editorial speaks about the pros and cons of integrating technology with education as proposed in our national education policy 2020 the syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference please go through it see in the recently released national education policy 2020 two chapters are focusing on tapping the benefits of technology in education sector one chapter discusses about the technology use and integration the other chapter discusses about the need to ensure equitable use of technology in online and digital education see the present government has come up with the digital india campaign its main purpose is to transform india into a digitally empowered society and a knowledge economy while education will play a critical role in this transformation technology itself will play an important role in the improvement of educational processes and outcomes so you can understand the relationship between technology and education see the national education policy of 2020 has proposed for setting up an autonomous body called national educational technology forum so this is to provide a platform for free exchange of ideas on the use of technology and this will enhance learning assessment planning administration and related aspects in education sector so its proposed functions are given here for your reference you can see it here to provide independent evidence based advice to central and state government agencies on technology based interventions and to build intellectual and institutional capacities in educational technology then envision strategic thrust areas in this domain and also to articulate new directions for research and innovation also if you see the national education policy of 2020 has proposed for developing a rich variety of educational software and this will be made available for students and teachers at all levels in all major languages then if you see technology based educational platforms such as diksha swayam etc will be better integrated across the school and higher education so you can see that there are many proposals in the national education policy 2020 to integrate technology with education but you all might be aware of the debate that is going on now that is about the issues of digital divide and how far access to such digital education will be equitable so this editorial is discussing about these issues only so here the author of this editorial discusses about the pros and cons of policy proposals which we so know mainly the author focuses on the challenges on equity and how far the digital education will be inclusive see at present a large share of students is from lower social strata of the society that is from poor households and families and most of these families lack any post-secondary education a significant proportion of those students are from government schools underdeveloped regions remote villages and urban margins so here the author quotes a national level study carried out by the national institute of education planning and administration on student diversity and social inclusion so using this study the author concludes that there is a digital divide in India so digital divide is a major problem now talking about the advantages the author tells that opportunities provided by new technology can act as a potential source for promoting equity in higher education this is because in technology mediated learning students have a freedom to learn according to their convenience such self-paced student-centered learning can provide greater support to marginalized learners and it helps teachers to assume a new role of facilitator here the author also mentions about a proposal to set up a national educational technology forum which we saw earlier thus the author welcomes the emphasis of technology in the national education policy of 2020 he tells that technology needs to be seen as a means to provide additional learning inputs and universities and colleges should invest in ICT infrastructure they should also implement the values of inclusion in structure and process of higher education this is why the author tells that digital education will be inclusive if access to technology is democratized and values of inclusion is institutionalized so this is all about the discussion for this editorial to conclude for your main examination make use of these points proposed in national educational policy 2020 to address the digital divide with this we'll move on to the next news now we have this editorial which is about the recent debate on fixing the legal age of marriage for women in india we will see the author's view regarding this the syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference please go through it see this debate is triggered by recent steps taken by the government for rising the minimum age of marriage for women to 21 years from 18 years of age as of now and for this purpose the government of india has set up a task force in june 2020 and it was headed by miss jaya jetley so this task force will examine the matters pertaining to age of motherhood imperatives of lowering maternal mortality rate and also improvement of nutritional levels and related issues in short the terms of reference of this task force is to examine the correlation of age of marriage and motherhood with these aspects and it is given here for your reference you can see it here and it will also suggest some measures in these areas so with regard to this area we can find three sets of arguments the first set of arguments support the idea of increasing legal age of marriages for girls to 21 years the second set opposes this argument and contents that it should be of 18 years only the third set supports the idea of increasing the legal age of marriage but they content that this initiative should not be based on this reason that is it should not be based on nutrition reason so the author of today's editorial is a proponent of the third set of arguments and before seeing the author's view let us first know the legal provisions behind the age of marriage see before 1978 women's age of marriage was 15 years according to the child marriage restraint act of 1929 and it was popularly known as sharda act but in 1978 this act was amended to increase the age to 18 years then when the prohibition of child marriage act of 2006 came into force it repealed the sharda act now the 2006 act provides for the legal age for marriage for both men and women by defining the term child and according to this act child means a person who has not completed 21 years of age in case of a male and who has not completed 18 years of age in case of a female so as per the act it is illegal for girls below the age of 18 years and boys below the age of 21 years to marry this is because it amounts to child marriage and child marriage is punishable with rigorous imprisonment up to two years or a fine up to one leg or both so this is the present legal scenario now the government is aiming to increase it to 21 years thus bringing women's marriage age on par with men here the author notes that there is no group or section of people who have been demanding such a change but still the government wants to do it believing that it is the best way to improve the health and nutritional status of mothers and their infants so according to the author this belief goes against the available evidence so the author tries to explain on what basis this belief is based on first it could be based on research studies for example there was an article published in a journal in 2019 this article analyzed the data in the latest round of national family health survey four of 2015-16 here it analyzed the data regarding stunting in children and thinness in mothers and both these indicators were chosen as measures for undernourishment here the author feels that this paper uses rigorous methods to prove a flawed hypothesis it is because the researchers examine the strength of association between many different related factors with the health status of mother and child the related factors include mother's age at childbearing her educational level living conditions health conditions and decision making powers etc and according to the results of this research becoming pregnant early might lead to reduced education or wealth but however we need to know that a woman from a poor background and lower education might be more likely to become pregnant early in other words the inference is that instead of early pregnancy causing malnourishment they both that is early pregnancy and malnourishment may be the consequences of poverty that means poverty of mother plays a greater role in relation to her undernourishment and her child's undernourishment but the author says that this fact is not acknowledged in the research and rather the researchers choose to concentrate on delaying the age of pregnancy even though this is the weakest link of all here the author feels that the research should have suggested new measures or enhance the existing measures that address the poverty of mother and their nutritional status and this includes enhancing nutritional programs for girls and women through institutional mechanisms from Angan bodies to schools second there are many international reports which make alarming predictions that the future society will suffer with population explosion if child marriage were not swiftly eliminated in the countries like India so here they link early marriage with fertility rates so here the author is against these views because India's fertility rate have been declining to below replacement levels in many states and this includes even those states with higher levels of child marriage so this contradicts the fact that child marriage at early age leads to early pregnancy so on a whole the author tells that the government should address the true causes of poor health and nutrition of mothers and children instead of resorting to other measures such as increasing the age of marriage so this is all about the discussion of this news article with this we'll move on to the next news now let us take up this editorial which is titled the leaders we need in today's world and it is written by Mr. Ashuni Kumar a senior advocate and former union law minister so in this column the author talks about the issues undermining the basic human rights and the leadership crisis across the world so this editorial will be useful for your main's gs4 answers that is ethics integrity and aptitude and the syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference you can go through it firstly let us see what are the issues discussed in this article see the author talks about the global retreat of democracies then fall in ethical values and also about obsessive pursuit of raw power see we can take African nations and west Asian countries as good examples where democracy has taken a back seat and fall in ethical values can be seen in the violation of human rights in Afghanistan Syria and also Iraq where big powers are meddling the local politics to establish their supremacy and the recent Belarus election is a classic example of obsessive pursuit of raw power here the current leader of the government refused to step down after losing the elections and not just that the world is embroiled with crisis of institutional legitimacy see the united nations then world trade organizations etc are losing the statue because of alleged bias towards the west and the current generation is also witnessing the rise of ginkoistic nationalism which means extreme form of nationalism with aggressive standing and this goes against the international cooperation to face common challenges and we see this across the world where extreme patriotism is affecting the attainment of common goals and this is further aggravated by issues such as fake news misinformation then unprecedented global financial crisis loss of millions of jobs and the resultant social distress and also heightened geopolitical rivalries racism xenophobia etc and also the lack of united global response to challenges of climate change presents us with the social instability and political disruption then the author talks about the increasing encroachment of private sphere by a surveillance state and this is through the abuse of digital technologies and artificial intelligence systems we know that even the private entities are harvesting users private data and commercializing it and with complex technologies even the government are failing to curtail the private companies from exploiting the users so this diminished authority of the state to regulate the impact of technology on our social and political lives questions the original promises of social compact so what is a social compact it is an implicit agreement among the members of the society to cooperate for social benefits for example by sacrificing some individual freedom for state protection as the state is failing to protect citizens from abuse of digital technologies the author is of the opinion that the social compact is losing significance so these are the different issues discussed by the author and as a solution the author says that the world is in need for great leaders and the author says that the new world needs extraordinary leadership and this leadership should be able to apply knowledge of the new age to the challenges of the future within a moral framework that celebrates freedom and fairness as cherished values then he discusses the qualities of a good leader a leader is expected to mold the collective reflections of the people and bring out a vision for the societal benefit so according to the author the leadership is about giving hope in the future to the marginalized sections of the society and respecting their aspirations a leader should mediate amongst the competing views to force a sustainable political consensus through powerful communication finally the author talks about the qualities of a good leader which is very important for gs4 paper so he says that a leader should maintain integrity consistency empathy relentless determination self-effacing humility then a binding moral compass and the ability to motivate masses and he should be within the ethical and ideological framework of politics and if you apply these values most of our political leaders are not leaders in true sense the author further says that arrogance ignorance obduracy boastfulness and scapegoating have no place in leadership qualities at the start we discussed the crisis across the world and also about the solution to bring best to the world that is good leadership the climate change pandemic protectionism abuse of human rights economic slowdown etc are together becoming a threat to human existence and this existential threat magnifies the importance of inspiring leadership which is committed to a liberal inclusive and truly egalitarian order so this is all about the discussion for this news article with this we'll move on to the next news now have a look at this question which is framed based on this news article the article says that delhi is on its way to attain herd immunity and the surgical survey showed that 29.1 person people have developed antibodies against the covid-19 virus and this is a good sign so what is a herd immunity see herd immunity is the indirect protection from a contagious infectious disease that happens when a population is immune so here the immunity could either be through vaccination or immunity developed through previous infection that is natural herd immunity this means that even people who are not vaccinated or in whom vaccine doesn't trigger immunity are protected and this is because people around them who are immune can act as buffers between them and an infected person so this provides indirect protection or herd immunity to those who are not immune to a disease for example if 50 percent of a population is immune to a virus two out of every four people who encounter someone with a disease one get sick and they also won't spread the disease any further so in this way the spread of infectious disease is kept under control and depending on how contagious an infection is usually 70 to 90 percent of the population needs immunity to achieve herd immunity so once the herd immunity is established for a while along with curbing the ability of the disease to spread then the disease can eventually be eliminated for example this is how the world eradicated smallpox disease and there is one more news article which talks about the sputnik v russian made covid-19 vaccine here a russian representative said that the vaccine will be made available for india we all know that many countries are skeptical of russian vaccine and responding to this the representative said that the vaccine clinical trials demonstrated that 100 percent of the volunteers developed immunity within 21 days so if the vaccine comes to india it will be further easy to develop herd immunity by vaccinating certain amount of the population so now see this question consider the following statements with reference to herd immunity we have two statements given here herd immunity is the indirect protection from a contagious infectious disease that happens when a population is immune yes this statement is correct and the second statement goes the herd immunity can be attained only through vaccination see this statement is incorrect as herd immunity could be attained either through vaccination or immunity developed through previous infection that is natural herd immunity so we have to identify the correct statement or statements among the given statements here the statement one is correct and statement two is incorrect so the correct answer is option a one only with this we'll move on to the next news article now this question is framed based on this news article which discusses about the results of recently released switch service report 2020 so this news article discusses about the state specific findings of switch service in 2020 for the state of Tamil Nadu now we shall discuss about this survey from prelims perspective know that switch service is an annual ranking exercise taken up by the ministry of housing and urban affairs and it aims to assess urban areas of india on the levels of cleanliness and active implementation of switch the mission initiatives in a timely and innovative manner and the objective of the survey is to encourage large scale citizen participation and also to create awareness amongst all sections of the society about the importance of working together towards making our towns and cities a better place to live in in addition this survey also seeks to promote these attributes that is a spirit of healthy competition between towns and cities and to promote the quality of those services to people and create cleaner cities and towns and know that ministry of housing and urban affairs started an annual ranking of cities in the year 2016 and this year's survey is the fifth edition and the survey was carried out from 4th january to 31st january 2020 but the results were released recently by the ministry of housing and urban affairs see every year's switch service comes with a particular objective and the 2020 survey was designed to assess the institutionalization of swachhita that is how far cleanliness initiatives has been instituted across urban local bodies and they were guided to develop end-to-end solution for sanitation and waste management and know that switch survey 2020 was completely digitized and paperless survey so here surveyion aimed at gen andolan that is public movement and this was achieved by mobilizing citizen participation in this survey through various platforms and around 1.9 crore citizen feedback was collected across india so these are the focus areas of switch surveyion 2020 collect segregated waste and maintain till processing site utilize capacity of wet waste processing facilities treat and reuse wastewater curtain solid waste based air pollution then follow three r principles that is reduce reuse and recycle then uplift social condition of informal waste pickers promote procurement through government e-market then assess ganga towns separately to accelerate action and finally engage technology driven monitoring and see the award categories is also given here for your reference please go through it now these are the results of this 2020 survey indoor was ranked as the cleanest city in india followed by surat and navi mumbai and the awards received in the remaining categories is given here for your reference please go through it so this is all about switch surveyion 2020 now have a look at this question consider the following statements with reference to switch surveyion 2020 we have three statements here and we have to identify the incorrect statement or statements from these given statements the first statement is it was released by the department of drinking water and sanitation ministry of jealousy so this statement is incorrect it is released by the ministry of housing and urban affairs and the second statement goes it assessed the urban and rural areas of india on the levels of cleanliness so this statement is also incorrect it assessed only the urban areas and not the rural areas and the third statement it specially assessed and ranked the towns along river banga and yamuna so this statement is also incorrect it specially assessed and ranked only ganga towns and not towns along yamuna river so we have to identify the incorrect statements here all the three statements are incorrect so the correct answer is option d with this we'll come to the end of discussion of this news article now we will discuss the practice questions based on today's news analysis here we have our first question ministry of education initiated a number of online learning resources to assist students scholars teachers and lifelong learners in their studies these initiatives covered educational requirements of learners ranging from school to postgraduate which of the projects mentioned below was or were initiated by the ministry of education we have four projects given here swayam e yantra foresee and virtual labs here all the four projects are initiated by ministry of education so we have to choose the correct answer from these options here all the four are correct so option d is the correct answer see swayam provides massive open online courses with 140 universities approved credit transfer future and e yantra provides hands-on experience on embedded systems it has about 380 labs and more than 2300 colleges benefited from it and forces stands for free and open source software for education and it develops and promotes open source software for education as well as professional use and talking about virtual labs it provides remote access to labs in various disciplines of science and engineering and for this a web-enabled curriculum based experiments designed for remote operations have been developed so this is about swayam e yantra foresee and virtual labs now here is the second question consider the following statements with reference to prohibition of child marriage act of 2006 we have two statements given here and we have to identify the correct statement of statements the first statement is as per the act child means a person who has not completed 18 years of age see this statement is incorrect the statement is common statement applying for both male and female child but the act differentiates the meaning of child based on different ages of male and female child for male it is 21 years that is until 21 years and male is considered child according to this act and the second statement promoting and permitting solemnization of child marriages is punishable under the act yes this statement is correct here solemnization means performing or formalizing child marriage here promotion and solemnization of child marriage is punishable with rigorous imprisonment which may extend to two years and shall also be liable for a fine which may extend up to 1 lakh rupees so here the statement 2 is correct and statement 1 is incorrect so the correct answer is option b 2 only and with this we'll come to the end of analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the practice questions discussion if you like this video press the like button comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IIS academy youtube channel for latest videos and updates relating to civil service preparation thank you