 A very good evening aspirants, welcome to the hindi news analysis by Shankar Ayes academy for the date 9th September 2020. 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. Let's move on to the first discussion for today. Our first discussion is based on this news article which is with reference to the matter where president has decided not to disqualify a rajya sabha member who was alleged as holding the office of profit. In this context, this news article talks about the office of profit, then the parliament prevention of disqualification act of 1959 and it also states that the president has accepted the opinion of election commission on this issue. So in this analysis, we will discuss these aspects and the relevant constitutional provisions as well. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. The first, let us see the brief background of this matter, see the issue is with respect to Sri Vijay Sairidhi, he was elected to rajya sabha in June 2016 and he will be retiring in June 2022 and at present he is a rajya sabha member. What happened was in June 2019, he was appointed by the government of Andhra Pradesh as the special representative of the Andhra Pradesh government at the Andhra Pradesh Bhavan in New Delhi and here the state government assigned him the rank of cabinet minister. Meanwhile, on 4th of July of 2019, that is the next month after his appointment, the appointment of Sri Vijay Sairidhi as the special representative was cancelled by the government of Andhra Pradesh. But again, within 3 days he was reappointed on 7th of July 2019. Now at this time, the government order regarding the reappointment stated that he will not be entitled to any perks or remuneration other than enjoying the status of state guest during his official travels in Andhra Pradesh in connection with his duties as special representative. And the order also stated that he will not be entitled for any other perks. But however, there were allegations that the particular rajya sabha member has held or he is holding an office of profit and therefore he should be disqualified from rajya sabha. So in this regard, a petition was addressed to President of India seeking for the disqualification of the member of rajya sabha for holding the office of profit. And then the president referred the petition to the election commission of India seeking ECA's opinion. So now, why a petition was addressed to President of India and why President sought the opinion of ECA? See, these are based on the provisions in the constitution related to the disqualifying members of parliament. And these provisions are articles 102 and 103 of Indian constitution. As per article 102 clause 1 sub clause A, a person shall be disqualified for being chosen as a member of either house of the parliament or a person shall be disqualified for being a member of either house of the parliament if the person holds any office of profit under the government of India or the government of any state. But there is an exception to this. That is if an office or the office of profit is declared by the parliament by law as not a ground for disqualification, then the concerned member cannot be disqualified for holding the exempted office under that law. See, in this regard only we should know about the parliament prevention of disqualification act of 1959, which was brought in by the parliament for this purpose. The preamble of this law states that it was brought to declare that certain offices of profit under the government shall not disqualify the holders for being chosen as or for being members of parliament. So who decides on the question as to disqualification of members on the grounds of holding office of profit? This is given in article 103. As per this article, the question shall be referred for the decision of the president and the president's decision shall be final. But why president gets the opinion of election commission in this matter? It is because the clause 2 of article 103 states that before giving any decision, the president shall obtain the opinion of the election commission and shall act according to such opinion. Now, let us see the opinion of the election commission and why such an opinion was given in the matter which we are discussing today. See, the commission's opinion with respect to Sri Vijay Sairidhi is that the Rajya Sabha member has not incurred disqualification under article 102 clause 1A of Indian constitution and the commission has taken two grounds to say that the member has not incurred disqualification on the grounds of holding office of profit. The first ground is section 3 I of the parliament prevention of disqualification act of 1959. See this section lists certain offices of profit which do not disqualify the holders for being a member of parliament. And in this section, the sub clause I states that the members of any statutory body or non-statutory body, if the holder of such office is not entitled to any remuneration other than the compensatory allowance, then such office shall not disqualify the holder. This is the first ground. The second ground is the commission took the judicial precedence where higher judiciary has held that an office will not fall in the office of profit if no pecuniary gain can be made from it. See, here pecuniary gain means financial gain or profit. So based on this, as per the present order of government of Andhra Pradesh, it is said that the member is not entitled to any perks or remuneration other than enjoying the status of the state guest in relation to official travels as special representative, as we saw already. And the status of state guest is only in connection with his duties as special representative. Therefore, it does not carry any benefit. Now, based on these points, the election commission of India has held that the member did not incur disqualification under Article 102 Clause 1 Clause A of Indian Constitution. And this opinion was submitted to the President of India. And recently, on 31st of August 2020, the President, while exercising his powers under Article 103, has decided on the matter after getting the opinion of election commission of India. So the President has held that the member had not incurred disqualification for being a member of parliament under the Article 102 Clause 1 Clause A of Indian Constitution. That is, the member is not disqualified. So this is the final decision of the President. With this, we come to the end of this discussion. This discussion is based on this news article which talks about the Sangam age literature. So in this discussion, we will see what is the news and then we will discuss about the Sangam age literature mentioned in this news article. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. Now the news article mentions that the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister has released the translation of more than 1800 select poetic works. These poetic works are from Padinankirkanakunulgal of Tamil literature, which is also known as the 18 lesser texts. Now these poetic literatures have been translated into French and German through the International Institute of Tamil Studies. And even last year, these literatures were also translated into Hindi, Malayalam and Telugu. So now what is this Padinankirkanakunulgal of Tamil literature or the 18 lesser texts? See the foremost source of ancient Tamil history is the Sangam literature. And the beginning of composition of this Sangam literature was about 2300 years ago. And it belonged to the Sangam age. Now here the Sangam age refers to the period of history of ancient Tamil Nadu and Kerala from the 5th century BCE to 3rd century BCE. And the Sangam age also denotes the age during which the Sangam academies gained importance and they developed into a historic pride and fame. And these Sangam academies were nurtured and brought up by the Pandya kings. So remember Sangam literature and academies is related to the Pandya kings. Now these texts were called Sangam mainly because they were composed and compiled in the assemblies of poets that were held in the city of Madurai. And these assemblies of poets is what is known as Sangam. And that is why this is known as Sangam age and Sangam literature. Now what is so special about Sangam age literature? It is believed that Sangam literature provided the roadmap for the entire Tamil literature, life and values for the future generations of Tamils who are also known as the Dravidians. And the most interesting factor in this is that the Sangam literature was the composition by Tamil poets belonging to both the genders, that is male poets and female poets who were from various professional backgrounds. And these compositions were later on collected into various anthologies during the 1000 AD. Now here anthology is nothing but the published collection of poems. But these compositions were forgotten soon afterwards and they were later rediscovered in the 19th century by the Tamil scholars. Now the important fact that you should know with respect to Sangam literature is that it was compiled in the 10th century into two categories and it was based on the chronological order. The first category is known as the Padinan mail kanakku and the second category is known as the Padinan keel kanakku. Now in this the Padinan mail kanakku in English is known as the 18 greater text series. And it comprised of two major literary works which are the Etta Thogai and Patthupattu and the rest were under the Padinan keel kanakku that is the 18 lesser text series or simply the 18 lesser texts. And this Padinan keel kanakku is our focus today. It comprises of 18 works about ethics and morals and these are the 18 works and these literatures explain the social religious status and values and also the superior culture of Tamil. So these 18 lesser texts include the Naaladhyar, Naanmani Kadigai, Inna Naarpadu, Iniya Naarpadu etc etc and it also includes Thirukural which is considered the most important work among the literatures. And this Thirukural is authored by the Tamil poet and philosopher Thiru Valdhvar. And as you know this Thirukural focuses on various important aspects of life such as ethics, virtue, wealth, love and many other things. So that is all about this discussion. Now in this just go through these 18 literary works and mainly remember Thirukural belongs to this Padinan keel kanakku that is the 18 lesser texts. With this we come to the end of this discussion. Now this discussion is based on these two news articles which are with reference to the upcoming election of deputy chairman to Rajesh Saba. See this post is vacant since April as the then deputy chairman demoted or resigned the office upon the completion of his term. So in this context today we will have a brief discussion on the deputy chairman to the Rajesh Saba. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. See as you know there are two important officers in Rajesh Saba of parliament as enshrined in the article 18 of the constitution. They are chairman and deputy chairman and the vice president of India serves as the ex official chairman of the Rajesh Saba that is the council of states. But the deputy chairman is elected. The deputy chairman is elected from amongst the members of Rajesh Saba. So there are no special qualifications to become deputy chairman except that she or he should be a member of Rajesh Saba. Now whenever the office of deputy chairman falls vacant Rajesh Saba elects another member to fill the vacancy which is now going to happen. Now what are the functions and powers of deputy chairman? Firstly know that when the chairman or the vice president presides over the house that is the Rajesh Saba the deputy chairman is like any other member of parliament of the house. That is the deputy chairman can speak in the house participate in its proceedings and vote on any question before the house. Which means simply she is normal member of parliament when the chairman is presiding over the Rajesh Saba. But when the chairman's office is vacant or when the vice president acts or discharges the functions of president then at this time the deputy chairman performs the duties of the chairman's office. And this is according to article 91 of Indian constitution. So remember whenever the vice president acts as the president at that time the deputy chairman acts as the chairman of Rajesh Saba. The deputy chairman also acts as the chairman when the vice president is absent from the sitting of the Rajesh Saba. Now in both of these cases she has all the powers of the chairman. Also it should be noted that the deputy chairman is not subordinate to the chairman. She is directly responsible to the Rajesh Saba as the deputy chairman's election or removal can only be done by the house that is Rajesh Saba. And here you should note that like the chairman of Rajesh Saba the deputy chairman when she presides over the house cannot vote in the first instance. She can only exercise a casting vote when there is a tie. That is whenever the deputy chairman acts as the presiding officer of the Rajesh Saba she is the tie breaker when there is equality of votes. Additionally when the resolution for the removal of deputy chairman is under consideration of the house at that time the deputy chairman cannot preside over the sitting of the house. Then another important power which the deputy chairman has is that she can preside joint sitting of the parliament. But remember it can only happen in a special instance. See normally you know that the speaker of the Lok Saba presides over the joint sitting and in the absence of the speaker of Lok Saba the deputy speaker presides over the joint sitting of the two houses. But when the deputy speaker is also absent from a joint sitting then at that time the deputy chairman of the Rajesh Saba presides. But here remember even when the deputy chairman of Rajesh Saba is absent any other person determined by the members present at the joint sitting presides over the meeting but the chairman of Rajesh Saba does not preside over a joint sitting because the chairman is not a member of either house of the parliament. Then note that the deputy chairman of Rajesh Saba acts as the ex-officio vice president of parliamentary forum and also the Indian parliamentary group along with other vice presidents. Now these are the important functions and powers of deputy chairman. Now coming to the salaries and allowances of deputy chairman she is entitled to a regular salary and allowance and they are fixed by the parliament and are charged on the consolidated fund of India. This is according to article 112 of Indian constitution. Now the next aspect important from the exam perspective is the removal of deputy chairman. So according to article 90 of Indian constitution the deputy chairman vacates her office in three circumstances. The first circumstances if she seizes to be a member of the Rajesh Saba. So when can the deputy chairman seizes to be a member of Rajesh Saba when she is disqualified or when her election to Rajesh Saba is invalid or when she completes the term. The second circumstances when she resigns by writing to the chairman and the third circumstances if she is removed by a resolution passed by a majority of all the members of the Rajesh Saba and such a resolution to remove deputy chairman can be moved only after giving 14 days advance notice and as we have already said deputy chairman cannot preside over the house when the resolution for her own removal is under consideration of the house. With this we come to the end of this discussion. Our next discussion based on this news article assumes importance in the current scenario because as we know that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a big crisis in the socioeconomic sphere as well as the health spheres of the nation. And some days ago we also discussed about the UN's policy brief on education. It had showed that how the pandemic have negatively impacted the education system worldwide. And today this news article talks about a report recently released by the national statistical organizations 75th survey and this report is on the household social consumption on education in India and as you know NSO is a statistical wing of ministry of statistics and program implementation. So in this context today we'll discuss the major findings of this report. It is very important from the prelims perspective and mainly from main's perspective because we'll discuss some important data in the education sector. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. The first and foremost finding is with respect to the literacy rate. See literacy rate is the percentage of literates among the persons of eight seven years and above and according to the survey the literacy rate in India is about 77.7 percentage and this is an increase from the 71.7 percentage in the 2007 to 2008 period and as you can see the urban India has fared well compared to the rural India. Now coming to the states Andhra Pradesh has the country's lowest literacy rate at just 66.4 percentage and as usual Kerala remains at the top with 96.2 percentage literacy and Kerala is followed by Delhi, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. So we can say that the states having the lowest literacy rate and the highest literacy rate are in the southern India. The next finding is regarding the enrollment ratio which are the gross enrollment ratio and the net enrollment ratio. See in this first let us see about the gross enrollment ratio. See for each level of education gross enrollment ratio or GER is the ratio of the number of persons who are currently enrolled in the level of education to the number of persons in the corresponding official group. So in GER for a particular level of education the denominator consists of all persons in the official age group for that level but the numerator consists of the persons who are currently enrolled in that particular level and it also includes persons outside the official age group for that level of education and therefore the GER may exceed 100 for some levels of education and according to this survey GER was 101.6 for primary level but as you can see it has reduced as we go to the highest rate of education. The next one is net enrollment ratio. For each level of education the net enrollment ratio is the ratio of the number of persons in the official age group who are currently enrolled in a particular level of education to the total number of persons in that age group and as you can see it has also reduced from primary level to the post-secondary levels. So this was regarding the enrollment ratio but enrollment is not only the important one here attendance is also important. So the next finding is regarding the gross attendance ratio. See it is given for each level of education and it is the ratio of the number of persons attending in the level of education to the number of persons in the corresponding official age group. So as you can see at the primary level the gross attendance ratio was 100 percentage for both males and females in rural and urban areas and here also the ratio decreases while one goes upward in the level of education that is to upper primary level and secondary level. The next finding is regarding the access to computer and internet and this is important since most of the schools are shut down due to the pandemic and the government is trying to promote online education. So now this data will show us whether really online education is going to help the children of our country or not. According to this recent survey and report across India only one in 10 households have a computer and it could be a desktop laptop or a tablet and the report says that only around four percentage of rural households possessed computer and only 23 percentage of urban households also possessed computer. So possessing computer is important and so does the access to connectivity and according to this survey almost a quarter of all homes whether rural or urban have internet facilities and most of these internet enabled homes are located in the cities and with respect to the state-wise and unilaterally revised data the national capital has the highest internet access and among the states Himachal Pradesh and Kerala are the only other states where more than half of the all households have internet and on the other hand if you see there are 11 states with less than 20 percentage of internet penetration and these states include Karnataka, Tamil Nadu etc. So this was with respect to the access to computer and connectivity. Now the report also talks about digital literacy and the report notes that only 20 percentage of Indians above the age of five years had basic digital literacy. So we can see from these data that even though promoting online education is a welcome move first the government should ensure that all the households should have at least some kind of access to a computer that is either a desktop or a tablet or even a smartphone and then the government should ensure that all regions of the country including the rural areas to have proper internet connectivity so that the children can access the online education. So until we reach a level like at least 50 percentage of the households have internet facilities and a computer we cannot say that online education will help the children of our country. So that is all about this discussion. Now this next discussion is also based on a recent report published by National Statistical Organization. The last discussion was based on education and now this is based on health and the report is health in India report which is a part of 75th round of national sample survey. So in this discussion we'll see the important findings of this report. The most important finding is regarding anemia and tuberculosis in India. The survey has reported a decline in estimated number of cases of anemia and it also notes that the proportion of persons suffering from tuberculosis has become half in this 75th round of national sample survey that is now only 38 persons per one lakh persons have tuberculosis compared to the level of 71st round of national sample survey. So we can say that India is doing better with respect to tuberculosis and anemia. The report also provides data about availing the treatment and according to the report about 42 percentage of the population in India availed treatment in public hospitals and more than 50 percentage that is around 55 percentage of population availed treatment in private hospitals and with respect to the treatment seeking behavior also the survey has found that people showed higher preference towards allopathy treatment it was around 95 percentage so that means people still prefer allopathy treatments over the aish treatments. Now while we are talking about the treatment one important aspect to know is the health expenditure and the report notes that around 14 percentage of rural population and 19 percentage of urban population had health expenditure coverage but here the point to be noted is that the Aishman Bharat scheme which was launched in September 2018 was not covered under this survey so the coverage for these populations have been availed under different schemes. Now the health expenditure coverage is important because not everyone is equipped to provide out-of-pocket expenditure because this report has found that the average medical expenditure per hospitalization case was about rupees 16,600 in rural India and it was 26,400 in urban India so that means if you want to be hospitalized we should at least have 20,000 in hand in case of rural India and at least 30,000 in hand in case of urban India and in this also the average out-of-pocket medical expenditure per hospitalization case was around 16,000 for rural India and around 22,000 in case of urban India so we can say that more than 80 percentage of expenditure is out-of-pocket only. Next the report also provides data on the immunization among children who are aged between 0 to 5 years and the report has found that about 58 percentage of children in rural India and 62 percentage of children in urban India had been fully immunized. See full immunization means that a child receives eight vaccine doses in the first year of life and as you know various vaccines are provided free of cost under the universal immunization program of government of India and these vaccines include a bacillus calmetguerrine that is BCG vaccine then DPT vaccine that is diphtheria purchases and tetanus toxoid then oral polio vaccine then vaccine for measles, hepatitis B etc etc but here there are some concerns that is the report has found that two out of five children do not complete their immunization program so that means two out of five children are susceptible to various diseases so this will increase the disease burden of our country and with respect to this the report has noted that among the states Manipura, Andhra Pradesh and Mizoram has recorded the highest rates of full immunization but on the other hand the states of Nagaland, Tripura and even the Union Territory of Puducherry have recorded the lowest rates of immunization so these are some of the data with respect to health that you should know from this report where this we come to the end of this discussion now this next news article mentions that five persons have been arrested for shooting and killing a Malabar giant squirrel and a barking deer and all the five have been charged under the sections of wildlife protection act of 1972 so they have been arrested and remanded to judicial custody so in this context let us know from exam perspective about these two species the first one is Malabar giant squirrel it is also known as Indian giant squirrel and this species is endemic to southwestern India and also central and eastern peninsular India specifically it is found in the western guards Satpuraj and eastern guards that is it is found in the Andhra Pradesh Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu and it is a diurnal species that is it is active in the daytime and it is also an arboreal species that is it lives in the trees obviously it's a squirrel and the species occurs in tropical evergreen semi evergreen and moist deciduous forests I know that the species is not tolerant of habitat degradation and it does not occur in plantations so that means habitat degradation is one of the important threats to this species and this habitat degradation occurs due to the expansion of agro industry-based large-scale and small-scale plantation monoculture plantation then clear filling of trees then selective logging then construction of dam and sometimes this species is also hunted for local consumption this species is being hunted extensively in the eastern guards where new human settlements have been built so the population of the species is declining and habitat loss is at an alarming rate and because of this this species is protected by wildlife protection act under schedule 2 part 1 but IUCN red list has listed it as least concern only and under sites it has been listed under appendix 2 now coming to the barking deer see there are two species of deer which are known as barking deer one is muntyacus munchac and the other one is muntyacus vaginalis and this muntyacus vaginalis is also known as northern red munchac barking deer Indian munchac and Indian red munchac now this species occurs in Sri Lanka most of India then northern Pakistan Nepal Bhutan Bangladesh and even in southern China including southern Tibet and it is also found in southeast Asia like in Myanmar Thailand Laos Vietnam Cambodia etc and the diet of this species is based on the fallen fruits buds small seeds twigs seed pods tender leaves etc and because of this the species has been cited as a major dispersal agent of fruit producing plants and this species also faces many threats and one of the major threats is hunting this species is widely hunted both legally and illegally also and it is probably among the most used and most desired wild meats in south Asia and southeast Asia there is an intense commercial activity of this species from bordering southeast Asian countries into China and this species is not only used for its meats but also for manufacturing medicinal products but this species has been listed as least concerned by IUCN red list and it is not protected under wildlife protection act rather the other species which is the muntyacus munchac it is protected under wildlife protection act this species is also known as southern red munchac barking deer born in red munchac it is also known as Indian munchac like this northern red munchac now this species according to IUCN it occurs in the thai malai peninsula and also occurs on the main islands of the greater sundas which are the Borneo Java Bali and Sumatra and they are also found on various small islands and the threat to this species is habitat encroachment and also hunting and as we already saw this species is protected by wildlife protection act of India it is protected under schedule 3 and under IUCN it is listed as least concerned so these are some of the information that you should know with respect to these species now we have come to the last session for the day the practice questions discussion session now this question is with reference to Rajasabha the first statement is the vice president of India serves as ex-officio chairman of Rajasabha this statement is correct vice president is the ex-officio chairman now here if you see the question asks for the incorrect statements that means statement one should not be an answer so if we eliminate options a, b and d we can arrive at the correct answer which is option c, 2 and 3 only now statement two is incorrect because it mentions that the deputy chairman is nominated by the chairman of the house no the deputy chairman is elected amongst the members of the Rajasabha now the third statement is the deputy chairman can only be removed by the house in the manner of removal of a high court judge now this statement is incorrect because as we saw during discussion deputy chairman is removed from office by resolution of Rajasabha when such resolution is passed by majority of all the members of the house and this is also called as the effective majority but a high court judge is removed in the same manner as that of a supreme court judge and it needs special majority that is a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of that house present and voting so that is why this statement is incorrect now this next question asks consider the following statements with reference to 2017-18 report on household social consumption on education in India the first statement is according to the report literacy rate in India is less than 60 percent now this statement is incorrect because according to this report the literacy rate in India is about 77.7 percentage which is more than 60 percent and here also the question asks for the incorrect statements so one should be in the answer so you can eliminate option C now the second statement is Kerala has the highest literacy rate and Himachal Pradesh has the lowest literacy rate in India now this statement is also incorrect because it is only partially correct that is the first half of the statement is correct Kerala has the highest literacy rate but the state with the lowest literacy rate in India is Andhra Pradesh not Himachal Pradesh that is why statement two is incorrect so that means two should also be in answer so you can eliminate option B also now the third statement is Karnataka in Tamil Nadu where some of the states with highest internet penetration now this statement is also incorrect because we saw that these two were among the states which had the lowest internet penetration so statement three is also incorrect and here the question asks for the incorrect statements and all the three statements are incorrect so the correct answer is option D 1 2 and 3 now this next question asks consider the following statements with reference to disqualification for holding any office of profit now the first statement is 10th schedule of the constitution declares that certain officers of profit under the government shall not disqualify the holders for being chosen as or for being members of parliament now the first statement is incorrect because it is not declared by the 10th schedule it is declared by an act of parliament which is the parliament prevention of disqualification act of 1959 whereas the 10th schedule deals with the defection now the second statement is questions on such disqualification shall be referred for the decision of the president and her or his decision shall be final this statement is correct and this is as per article 103 now the third statement is before giving any decision on any such question the president shall obtain opinion of the presiding officer of the concerned house of the parliament and shall act according to such opinion now this statement is incorrect because here the president has to obtain the opinion of the election commission not of the concerned house and here the question asks for the correct statements only statement 2 is correct so the correct answer is option B 2 only now this next question is also based on office of profit but it is a previous year question which was asked last year that is in prelims 2019 now if you read this question this question might appear to be difficult but there is one trick in this question see it might appear difficult because of the second statement which mentions that the above mentioned act that is the parliament prevention of disqualification act 1959 was amended five times now we may think how will we remember how many times an act was amended but here the trick is not in this statement rather in the third statement which mentions the term office of profit is well defined in the constitution of india and this statement is incorrect because this expression of office of profit has not been defined in the constitution or even in the representation of people act of 1951 but the term office of profit is mentioned in different articles like article 102 and article 191 etc and today we discuss the article 102 so if third statement is incorrect you can easily arrive at the correct answer because the question asks for the correct statements so if you remove option B C and D the correct answer is option A 1 and 2 only so that means statement 2 is correct that is this act has been amended five times now the first statement is this 1959 act exempts several posts from disqualification on the grounds of office of profit this was the purpose of this act so this statement is correct so sometimes you can easily arrive at the correct answer using the method of elimination now let us take one main question based on gs paper 2 the question asks in order to be atma nirbha india should bridge the digital divide examine the above statement using the national statistical organizations 2017-18 survey report on household social consumption on education in india it's a 10 mark question so answer this question in 150 words you can write the answer and post it in the comment section and we will review it within a reasonable time frame