 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Iyer's Academy for the date 6th October 2020. The list of news articles along with the page numbers of five different editions is given here for your reference. The link of the handwritten notes and the time-stamping of all the news articles taken up for today's analysis is available in the description section and also in the comments section in the best interest of the viewers. Let us now begin our analysis. This editorial revolves around the three controversial farm acts that received precedence ascent the month of September. The major argument against these three acts is that they have poor legal validity, they are unconstitutional and they weaken the concept of federalism in India. So in this discussion, let us see the legality and constitutionality of these three acts as discussed by the author. The relevant syllabus is given here for your reference. First note that these are the three acts farmers produce trade and commerce promotion and facilitation act of 2020, farmers empowerment and protection agreement on price assurance and farm services act of 2020 and the essential commodities amendment act of 2020. We have discussed the pros and cons of these acts and why it is opposed in our previous analysis. We know that there were protests by farmers organization across India. Further, the state governments of Chattisgarh, Maharashtra and Punjab have said that they might not implement the new laws in their respective states. Even states like Kerala and Punjab have declared that they intend to challenge these laws in the Supreme Court. This is because of the question on the legality that is whether the union government has the authority to legislate on these matters or not. See, this aspect can be discussed on the basis of division of powers provided by the constitution under seventh schedule. As you know, the powers between center and states are divided in terms of union list that is list one, then state list which is list two and concurrent list which is list three. And according to article 246 of Indian constitution, the union government alone can make laws relating to the subjects mentioned in the union list. Similarly, the state legislatures have exclusive powers to make laws for the matters in the state list. But if you see with respect to the concurrent list, both the union government as well as the state governments can make laws on the subjects mentioned in the concurrent list. So, now what about the subjects that are related to agriculture and farm trade? First, know that agriculture is an exclusive subject under entry 14 of state list. Next, the activities such as trade and commerce within the state and production, supply and distribution of goods and then markets and fairs, all these come under the state list only. Since all these matters are under state list, according to the author, the intra-state marketing in agriculture that is the agricultural marketing inside the state has always been considered a legislative right of states. But here note that in entry 26 and 27, these matters are subject to the provisions of entry 33 of the list three that is the concurrent list. Additionally, for passing the three farm bills which we saw earlier, the central government has invoked this entry 33 only. So, what is it? See, it deals with trade and commerce and then production, supply and distribution of certain producers or products like foodstuffs, raw cotton, jute, etc. Here, you should focus on the word foodstuff that includes agricultural produce as well. So, that means since this entry 33 is under concurrent list, the central government can also enact laws on these matters including foodstuff or agri-produce. This is how the central government has powers to legislate the three farm acts of 2020. So, from the discussion so far, you can easily conclude that the contentious provision is the entry 33 as it encroaches upon the legislative rights of states. And according to the author, the same was felt or perceived by some of the legislators when this entry 33 was modified in the constitution through an amendment. Here, note that this entry 33 which is in the existing form was inserted through the Third Constitutional Amendment Act of 1954. This amendment attracted constitutional debates before it was passed by the parliament, even in the joint committee to which the amendment bill was referred. There was opposition from the members of the committee that they actually wrote an important note of dissent in the final report. They noted that if the bill is passed, then it will constitute a serious encroachment on the rights and powers of the constituent units of the Indian Republic, nothing but the state governments. Further, they refer to Article 369 of Indian Constitution. See, this provision was included in the original constitution because after 1947, the situation in India was abnormal and the food situation was very bad. And this mandated the interference from the union government. And this was the reason why Article 369 was included that provided temporary power to the parliament to make laws with respect to certain matters in the state list. And these matters include trade and commerce within a state and the production, supply and distribution of items including foodstuffs. But here, carefully note that this power was provided to the parliament only for a period of five years from the commencement of constitution. And that is why it is named as a temporary power. This means that the constituent assembly that is the constitution makers wanted these powers to be given to the parliament for a limited period only. Knowing that the situation would return to normal in few years. But if you see through this Third Constitutional Amendment Act of 1954, the then central government wanted to make this provision as a permanent provision by bringing it under concurrent list. This was one of the reasons why it was opposed by some members of the joint committee at that time itself. And some other reasons are that if this amendment is passed, then the state's autonomy would be made illusory, that is imaginary, and the state powers and rights would be progressively defeated. Then the legislative authority of state legislatures to that extent will also be abrogated, that is nullified. So as a whole, the amendment would permanently deprive the state legislatures from effectively exercising their legislative judgment in certain important matters. So because of all these reasons, the opposition at that point of time even argued that the passage of the bill would transform the Indian constitution into unitary constitution instead of being a federal constitution. See in a unity constitution or a unity form of government, there will be no division of powers and all the powers will be vested in the national government, that is the central government. But if you see in case of a federal constitution, that is in a federal form of government, there will be division of powers between the national government and the regional governments. In our case, it is between the center and the state governments. And we have seen the seven schedule which segregates the union list, state list and the concurrent list. And this is the reason why there are arguments that these three form acts weaken federalism. But finally, as usual, you know what would be the result, the then central government defended and it passed the amendment which inserted the existing entry number 33 in concurrent list of Indian constitution. But as we can clearly see, what was feared by the dissenting members of joint committee is what is happening now through the enactment of these three form acts using this entry number 33 in the concurrent list. But here notice that the entry number 28 in the state list, which is markets and fares, they are not subjected to entry 33 of concurrent list. So, only the states have the exclusive powers in this matter and not the central government. So, the author is of the opinion that the three form acts which were passed recently have poor legal validity. Now, as a conclusion, the author of this editorial discusses about the judiciary stand in these matters. According to the author in many judgments, the Supreme Court has upheld the legislative powers of states in intra-state agricultural marketing. That is the agricultural marketing that is happening within the state. One such case law is the ITC Limited versus Agricultural Produce Market Committee and others 2002 case. In this case, the issue was between the Tobacco Board Act of 1975 and the Bihar State APMC Act. In the end, the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the State APMC Act and according to author, the Supreme Court has noted these three points in its judgment. First one is that the market fees can be charged from ITC under the State APMC Act. And the second thing is the state laws become repugnant that is unacceptable only if the state and the center enact laws on the same subject under an entry in list three, that is concurrent list. And in those cases outside this concurrent list, one has to first examine if the subject matter was an exclusive entry under the list one, that is union list or list two, which is the state list. And only after determining this, one can decide on the dominant legislation that would prevail in that particular case. So, taking this case law as backing, the author concludes that the points A and C, that is the first and the third points are valid for the three farm acts of 2020. So, as a conclusion, the states can continue to charge money taxes from private markets anywhere in the notified area and the state legislation should prevail as agriculture is an exclusive subject matter in the state list. So, this is in detail about the discussion of this editorial related to the recent passing of the three controversial farm acts. And today, we also have one more editorial which expresses the similar sentiments telling that these three farm acts are unconstitutional. And this editorial also conveys the same message that the passing of three acts is an abuse of federalism. One important thing which is discussed in this editorial is that all these three acts do not refer to the minimum support price. So, what this editorial suggests is that the state governments can explore the potential of granting the minimum support price with a legislative backing at least within the APMC Mondays. So, that it would incentivize the farmers to sell their produce at the Mondays at assured rates instead of private players taking advantage of the situation. Ultimately, the authors of this editorial tell that it would be better if the states challenge the very constitutionality of these three laws that were passed by the parliament. This is all about the discussion of both these editorials related to the controversies surrounding the three farm acts passed by the parliament. Now, have a look at this practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. Now, let us look at this editorial which has been authored by the director of the Indian Institute of Management, Cody Coat. He talks about the changes in our education practices that are going to happen by 2047 when India will celebrate 100 years of its independence. So, let us discuss this editorial from Main's perspective. The relevant syllabus is given you for your reference. See, the author of this editorial is really optimistic about the future of education in India, but at the same time, he is also worried about the practices in the current education system of India. We know that the Indian education system striped to transform in terms of policy through its national education policies announced by the government from time to time, the recent one being the national education policy of 2020. But in practice, if you see, it has failed to overcome the challenges presented by the colonial legacy which India inherited. This is what we call it as colonial hangover. Now, let us see the author's perspective on how our education system should be in the future. Here the author prescribes five design principles for future. First, the author talks about autonomy. According to him, currently the autonomy given to our educational institutions are just in the legislation, but it is not working practically. Here, the authors of the opinion that the autonomy should not be just a piece of legislation, rather it should be more practical and it should reflect in the excellence in students outcome. As long as institutions continue to excel, they will earn their autonomy through social community and citizens sanctions. Here, he gives a classic example of the Indian Institute of Management. See the Indian Institute of Management Act of 2017 granted autonomy to the Indian Institute of Management across India, but there was no dramatic variation in the nature of autonomy across the Indian Institute of Management. This was because the institutions performed with robust self-correcting systems. They concentrated more on students outcome. So, according to the author, autonomy should be given in teaching methods, then for the learner in creating their own curriculum and also on the thought and self-governance. So, instead of legislation, autonomy should be focused on these aspects. This is about the first design principle which is autonomy. Now, the second principle which the author has discussed is learning. By 2047, technology will be the driving force of education system. It will be used for each and everything. For example, smart schools and smart classes may soon change to smart chairs and smart desks. And with regards to teaching practices, the intangibles of the teaching learning process like creativity, mentorship and facilitation of learning should all be adopted. So, all this will lead to enthusiasm among the students so that they will gain more knowledge. To be precise, the author tells that learning will be about propagation of crucial questions rather than predetermined answers. And coming to teachers, the author tells that the teachers should raise awareness with an essence of humanitarianism or selfless approach rather than just delivering the content to the students. So, the second principle which the author has discussed is about learning. Now, let us see the third principle which is trans-disciplinarity. Before looking at this term, the author describes the term multi-disciplinarity. See, this term involves experts from different disciplines who are working together where each expert will draw from their unique disciplinary knowledge. Suppose there are five streams, so each expert will try to get the knowledge from their respective stream. See, the author tells that the world is going to be more complex and volatile. So, in order to deal with the problems which the world will face, expertise from multiple disciplines would be required in the future. One classic example is the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In this pandemic, we require experts from different fields like medical scientists, economists, historians, architects, health workers and even political scientists in order to reconstruct the society that is damaged by this COVID-19 pandemic. However, here the author tells that trans-disciplinarity will be the norm by 2047 rather than multi-disciplinarity. So, what is this term trans-disciplinarity? See, it is about creating a coherence of intellectual frameworks beyond the disciplinary perspectives. To make it simple, it is a strategy that crosses many disciplinary boundaries to create a holistic approach for a particular problem. Now, coming to the fourth principle which is technology innovation. Here, the author tells that the technology-led innovation is gradually taking learning from just acquiring knowledge to deep involvement. Why? Because the technology is making the learning process more easy as well as interesting at the same time. Also, it will help the students in understanding things better. For example, in today's time, the students need not visit the factories as a part of practical learning. Instead, the factory experience can be simulated in a classroom. So, according to the author, the education institutions should be connecting hubs that will digitally decode, deliver and disperse the knowledge. So, technology innovation is one important principle. Now, coming to the final principle which is values, mindset and culture. See, by 2047, the author tells that Indian teachers should be engaged in nurturing the global mindsets based on three classical values of India. One is authenticity which is sathyam, next is sustainability which is nithyam and the third is wholeness which is purna. And these mindsets shall be based on how the learners receive the information and not what information they receive and on how to think rather than what to think. Basically, the learners should not just gather knowledge, rather they should be in a position to analyze the knowledge. See, we talked about the post-colonial Indian education system in the beginning and according to the author, this post-colonial Indian education system has created mindsets of clerks and coders and imitators so far and even in the present scenario. And it has taught us to serve and love the material values of exploitation of nature and increasing consumption. So, the author tells that this mindset must be changed. And this is the reason why the author has spoken about these five principles which will design our education system in the future. So, the author concludes by telling that the teachers should work hard in creating a generation that is compassionate towards living beings and nature. And this should be the agenda of our education system rather than just injecting the outdated and formal information into the minds of the students. So, this is in brief about the discussion of this editorial. From this editorial, try to take these five principles which the author has discussed. You can maybe present them as suggestions to improve the education system of India. Now, have a look at this practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This editorial is regarding the upcoming elections in the state of Madhya Pradesh. You all might know that there was a defection of more than 20 MLAs led by Jyothiraditya Sindhya from Congress party to the BJP party in the state of Madhya Pradesh. So, this upcoming by-election will determine who would rule Madhya Pradesh. In this context, let us discuss some of the important provisions regarding by-elections that I mentioned in the Representation of People Act of 1951. The relevant syllabus is given you for your reference. Know that by-elections are discussed in part 9 of the Representation of People Act of 1951. See, this editorial is of political nature. You just need to know about by-elections from prelims as well as main's perspective. So, let us focus first about the by-elections that will be conducted for the state legislature which includes state legislative assemblies as well as state legislative councils. Then, we will see about the by-election procedure for Lok Sabha as well as Rajya Sabha. First, let us start with the state legislature. It is discussed in section 150 of this RPA Act. See, if situation arises when a seat in the legislative assembly of a state becomes vacant or is declared vacant or an election of a member to the particular state legislative assemblies declared void, then in such cases the election commission shall call upon the concerned assembly constituency to elect a person fulfilling the vacancy that has been caused by either of these three reasons that we saw now. Here, note that the date for such an election will be notified by the election commission through notification in the official gadget. Here, one more thing you should note. If vacancy in a particular seat that has been reserved for the scheduled cast or any scheduled tribes, then those seats shall be filled by a person belonging to the scheduled cast or to the scheduled tribes. So, this is regarding the by-elections to the state legislative assembly. Now, let us look at about the by-elections that will be conducted for the state legislative councils. Here also, the reason is same. When the seat becomes vacant or when it is declared vacant or when the election to the legislative council is declared void before the term of office ends, then the election commission shall call upon the concerned council constituency or the members of the legislative assembly of the state to elect a person to fill the particular vacancy. And here also, the date for such elections will be notified by the election commission through a notification in the official gadget. So, this is regarding by-elections to the state legislative councils. Next, let us come to Rajya Sabha, which is discussed in section 147 of this act. Here also, the conditions are same when the elected seats become vacant or they are declared vacant or when the election is declared void before the term of office ends. Then, in such cases, the election commission through a notification in the gadget of India will call upon the elected members of the legislative assembly or the concerned members of the electoral college to elect a person to Rajya Sabha because we know that a particular seat is represented by a particular state. So, the legislative assembly members of that particular state will elect a person to Rajya Sabha from their state. So, the election commission will call upon the elected members through a notification. So, this is regarding the by-elections that will be conducted for Rajya Sabha. Now, what about the by-elections for Lok Sabha? Here also, the condition is same. If the elected seat becomes vacant or when it is declared vacant or when the election is declared void, then the election commission will call upon the concerned parliamentary constituency to elect a person for filling the vacant seat because it is a direct election. And here also, the condition is if a particular seat is reserved for scheduled cast or schedule tribes and if that particular seat becomes vacant, then it shall be filled by a person belonging to the scheduled cast or such scheduled tribes only. So, this is with respect to the by-elections for state legislative assembly, state legislative council, Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. Now, if you see, we have not discussed about the time limit for filling the vacancies in all these four houses. So, what is the time limit? It is mentioned in section 151A of this Act. It tells that the by-election for filling any vacancy referred to all these four houses shall be held within a period of six months from the date of the occurrence of the vacancy. But if you see, the section also mentions that if the remainder of the term of a member in either of these four houses when a vacancy arises is less than one year or when the election commission in consultation with the central government certifies that it is difficult to hold the by-election within the set period, then by-elections need not be conducted. So, the by-elections has to be conducted within a period of six months, but in two of these cases, the by-elections need not be conducted. So, remember this fact. So, the time limit is applicable for all the four houses that we saw. This is all about the discussion of this news article, which is about by-elections. Now, have a look at this practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article mentions that the defense research and development organization has successfully tested an anti-submarine warfare missile system. See, the submarines remain one of the most important platforms in the modern naval warfare scenarios. And the anti-submarine warfare remains the important part of sea control. Therefore, improvement of the anti-submarine warfare capabilities is among the most crucial aims of many countries. Now, India has put one step forward in this regard with the successful flight testing of anti-submarine warfare missile system, which is called as supersonic missile assisted release of torpedo or in short SMART. See, SMART is a missile assisted release of lightweight anti-submarine torpedo system for anti-submarine warfare operations that are far beyond torpedo range. In this flight test, all the mission objectives have been met perfectly. The objectives include missiles, flight up to the range and altitude, then separation of the nose cone, then release of torpedo and deployment of velocity reduction mechanism. So, this SMART is a game changer technology demonstration in India's anti-submarine warfare. Here, also know that the test was conducted from the Abdul Kalam Island, which was formerly known as Wheeler Island. This island is situated off the coast of the state of Odisha. It is an integrated test range or ITR of DRDO. See, the integrated test range is a well equipped test and evaluation center of DRDO. It provides high performance range instrumentation systems such as radar system, central computer system, etc. These are deployed and configured in real time to provide necessary data such as precise location and health parameters of the airborne targets through the entire course of flight. So, the integrated test range is set up to provide safe and reliable launch facilities for performance evaluation of rockets, missiles and airborne weapon system. That is why SMART has been tested here. Here, note that Wheeler Island is the launch complex number 4 of DRDO. Don't confuse it with the launch complex number 3 that is located at Chandipur. It is located about 75 kilometers north of Wheeler Island. Together, all these launch complexes are commonly referred to as the integrated test range of DRDO. So, this is in brief about this news article. From this news article, try to know about the launch complexes that is the integrated test ranges of DRDO. Now, have a look at this practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about the recently awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the year 2020. This year's Nobel Prize is awarded to three scientists, Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice for identifying the novel hepatitis C virus. They have made decisive contribution to the fight against blood-borne hepatitis, a major global health problem that causes cirrhosis and liver cancer in people around the world. Note that it is the second Nobel Prize for Medicine for hepatitis research. In the year 1976, a scientist named Baruch Bloomberg was awarded the Nobel Prize for determining that one form of blood-borne hepatitis was caused by a virus that came to be known as hepatitis B. See, the discovery of the hepatitis A and B viruses was very important. But if you see, majority of blood-borne hepatitis cases, especially high number of cases in those persons receiving blood transfusions, remained unexplained. And the discovery of this hepatitis C virus revealed the cause of the remaining cases of chronic hepatitis. Note that hepatitis, which is also called as liver inflammation, is mainly caused by viral infections. Apart from this, there are also some other important causes like alcohol abuse due to environmental toxins and even maybe because of autoimmune diseases. In the 1940s, it became clear that there are two main types of infectious hepatitis. The first name hepatitis A is transmitted by polluted water or food and generally has little long-term impact on the patient. The second type is transmitted through blood and bodily fluids. It is a more serious threat since it can lead to a chronic condition. But the development of cirrhosis and liver cancer. See, this form of hepatitis is insidious as otherwise the healthy individuals can be silently infected for many years before the serious complications arise. Note that the second form is caused by hepatitis B virus or the hepatitis C virus. This blood-borne hepatitis is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. That is, the disease burden is high and deaths are also high. So, it causes more than a million deaths per year worldwide. So, this makes hepatitis as a global health concern on a scale comparable to HIV infection and tuberculosis. Now, note that the discovery of hepatitis C virus is considered a landmark achievement in the ongoing battle against viral diseases. Why? Because the discovery has led to increased availability of highly sensitive blood tests for this virus. The discovery also allowed the rapid development of antiviral drugs which are directed at hepatitis C. So, this discovery has also raised the hopes of eradicating hepatitis C virus across the world. In order to achieve this goal, international efforts facilitating the testing of blood and facilitating the making of antiviral drugs and making them available across the globe would be required. So, this is in brief about the hepatitis C virus that you need to know from this news article. Now, have a look at this practice question. Now, let us move on to the practice questions discussion session. This first question is about places related to the integrated test range of DRDO. The question is, consider the following places, Kulasekara Patinam, Abdul Kalam Island, Chandipur, Sriharikota which of the places given above are integrated test range of defense research and development organization that is DRDO. Here, note that in Sriharikota, we have the Satish Dhawan Space Center. Sriharikota is located in Andhra Pradesh. It is the space port of India. It is responsible for providing launch-based infrastructure for the Indian space program. See, this center has two launch pads from where the rocket launching operations of PSLV and JSLV are carried out. So, option Sriharikota is related to the launch pads of ISRO. So, if you know that Sriharikota is wrong, you can easily arrive at the answer, which is option C 231D. See, the first place, Kulasekara Patinam is also related to ISRO. It is located in the Tutukarind district of the state of Tamil Nadu. Recently, ISRO has begun preparatory works for setting up a third rocket launch pad. So, just have an idea about this place as well. The correct answer is option C. This question is about the Nobel Prize in Physiology. The question is the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology is awarded for the discovery of. Here, the correct answer is option C. Novel Hepatitis C virus which causes blood-borne hepatitis cases. Now, let us look at the main questions. Today, we have three main questions. Look at this first main question, which is related to the three farm acts. The question is, do you agree with the view that the three farm acts passed by the parliament recently are unconstitutional, have poor legal validity and weaken federalism, give reasons in support of your arguments. It is a 15 marks question. Answer this question in 250 words. Now, let us move on to the next question. This next main question is about the education sector. It is based on the education editorial which we saw. The question is, India's dream of carving its own niche in the future world will be possible only if we take efforts on upgrading our system of education. In the light of this statement, suggest some measures to guide India's future education system. It is a 15 mark question. Try to answer this question in 250 words. This last main question is about by elections. The question is, in a democracy, by elections are essential to fill the vacant elected offices that have fallen vacant before the seizure of its tenure. Discuss the important provisions regarding by elections to the state legislature. It is a 10 marks question and you have to answer this question in 150 words. State legislature includes both the state legislative assembly as well as the state legislative council. So, discuss the provisions related to the by elections of both the houses of state legislature. Please post your answers in the comment section. We shall review and give suitable suggestions and feedback within a reasonable timeframe. With this, we come to the end of the analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the practice questions discussion session. If you like the video, press the like button, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for latest videos and updates. Stay focused and motivated friends. Thank you.