 A very good evening to all our friends and welcome to the Hindu News Analysis of Shankar IAS Academy for the date 23rd October 2020. The list of the news articles along with the page numbers of five different editions is given here for your reference. Also the handwritten notes in the PDF format and timestampings for all the news articles taken up for today's discussion is given in the description box and also in the comment section for the best interest of the viewers. Let us now begin our news analysis. Let us take up this lead column from the editorial page which talks about the Indo-US relations in the backdrop of the US presidential elections. Here we will try to quickly grasp some important points in some point of view. The syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference, please go through it. See this article is written in the context of the upcoming visit of US Secretary of State Mike Pompo to India. This time Mr. Pompo is coming exactly a week before the election. And this is to ensure that India makes a strong public strategic commitment to the US on its plans in the Indo-Pacific region so that the current administration in the US will be benefited in the presidential election. If we go back to 2016, a similar incident happened then. In August 2016, just months before the US presidential elections, the then US Secretary of State John Kerry urged India to sign the Paris climate deal at the earliest. The US also committed to mobilise 100 billion US dollars per year by 2020 as part of the Green Climate Fund and know that the Green Climate Fund is to help developing countries such as India with climate adaptation methods and renewable technologies. And the ratification of the Paris Agreement was the then US President Barack Obama's legacy project. And Obama wanted India to join Paris climate deal before the election day in order to help Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton with her campaign against the Republican nominee Donald Trump. And Donald Trump was against the Paris deal. And consequently, India ratified the climate deal before the election. But to the surprise of India, Donald Trump became the President of the United States of America. And not just that, he announced that the US would exit the Paris Agreement and also revoke the US promises towards the Green Climate Fund. So India, which expected the support of US in implementing the Paris deal, got nothing with change in the government in the US. And in 2016, it was the Paris climate deal, and now it is about how to contain China. This year, the Indo-US discussions are mostly about the Chinese aggression at the line of actual control and the Indo-Pacific region. As of now, China poses a major challenge on each of India's three friends. And they are at the line of actual control and in the maritime sphere and also in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, i.e. Sark Region, surrounding India. On the maritime sphere, for the first time, Australia is going to participate in the Malabar exercise. And know that in the Malabar exercise, the entire Quad grouping will be participating next month in Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. See, Malabar exercise was started as a bilateral exercise between the navies of India and the United States in the year 1992. And Japan joined as a permanent partner in the Malabar exercise in 2007. So until last year, it was a trilateral naval exercise between India, US and Japan. Australia is not a part of Malabar exercise till now, and it is important to know that Australia has been wanting to join this group, but India has refused its admission due to Chinese concerns. But this year, Australia has been invited to Malabar exercise. And the United States is also pushing India to complete the last of the foundational agreements with the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geospatial Cooperation i.e. BECA. BECA allows India and the US to share geospatial and satellite data, such as the topographical, nautical and aeronautical data with each other. But India and the US have differences over the issue of reciprocity in exchange of geospatial information. It means there is an issue over mutual exchange of geospatial information. In the SARC region, Mr. Pompao is also visiting Maldives and Sri Lanka. In Maldives, the US has already announced a defence agreement that will pay with for strategic dialogue. Previously, India used to object US making a defence pact with Maldives. But this time, India has not objected to ceding space in its area of influence in the Indian Ocean region, because it will allow the US to counter Chinese influence there. And with Sri Lanka too, the US has a pending defence agreement. But more importantly, discussions will be on the grant of about 480 million US dollars. This is meant to offer alternatives to the Sri Lanka and not to depend on China. This also comes at a very important time as India is delaying Sri Lanka's request for debt relief given our own economic constraints. Finally, how the US and India can collaborate on dealing with India's most immediate continental challenge from China, that is in the line of actual control. Though many times India has maintained that India and China will resolve border tensions bilaterally, India may change its stand considering China's continued border provocations. While the Indian Army will defend its borders with China on its own, there is much that the US could promise apart from enhancing and expediting US defence sales to India. For example, US can pressurise on Pakistan on terrorism. A strong US statement in this regard may also disperse the pressure the Indian military faces in planning for a two-friend conflict with China. And not just that, India should also exert pressure on Pompeo to resolve trade issues and also to restore the generalised system of preferences status to India. The government could also press for more cooperation on 5G technology sharing or an assurance that S-400 missile system purchase from Russia will receive an exemption from the US countering America's adversary through sanctions act sanctions. That is, CATSA sanctions. See, CATSA stands for countering America's adversaries through sanctions act. Primarily, this act deals with countering three countries which are Iran, Russian Federation and North Korea. With respect to Russia, sanctions will be imposed on the foreign entity that engages into significant transactions with the Russian defence or intelligence sector. So India wants exemption from CATSA for its purchase of S-400 from Russia. So it seems that the arrival of Mr. Pompeo in the coming week may benefit India. But we should not forget what happened in 2016 election where the promises were not kept when Trump got elected. So this time the author cautions that India should bargain well and should secure proper promises from the US. And this time if Joe Biden wins the election, India had nothing to have a friendly attitude with this person. Not just that, our PM had made strong statements of solidarity with Trump policy. So a change in the government may affect all the promises made by the current government. So India should be cautious in making strong commitments to support Trump in the upcoming US presidential election. So this is all about this editorial. With this, we'll move on to the next news. Now we have this news article which talks about a compensation which was awarded by the State Information Commission of Tamil Nadu to a woman whose petition under the Right to Information Act was rejected. So in this context, let us discuss some of the basic provisions of the Right to Information Act 2005. The syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. First of all, what is right to information? See, Justice P. N. Bhagavati, the former chief judges of India, once said, where a society has chosen to accept democracy as its cradle faith, it is elementary that the citizens ought to know what their government is doing. So right to information is an act of the parliament of India to provide for setting out the practical regime of the right to information for its citizens. It replaced the erstwhile freedom of information act of 2002. Now under this RTA Act, any citizen of India may request information from a public authority which is required to reply expeditiously or within 30 days. The act also requires every public authority to computerize its records for wide dissemination so that the citizens need minimum request to request for information formally. An estimate tells that every day over 4800 RTA applications are filed. Now this shows the importance of this act. Now let us see some of the important provisions of the act. See section 2f defines what an information is. It includes any material in any form such as records, documents, memos, emails, opinions, advice, then data held in electronic form and information related to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force. Now section 2h defines a public authority. It means any authority or body or institution of self-government established under the constitution or by any other law made by the parliament or the state legislature or under an order made by the appropriate government. Know that the public authority also includes a body including a non-governmental organization substantially financed by the government. Under this act all citizens shall have the right to information. And section 4 close to is very important. It says that every public authority shall constantly endeavour to provide information suomoto or by its own to the public authority at regular intervals through various means of communications including internet. This will ensure that the public have minimum resort to the use of this act to obtain information. Know that section 8 of the act deals with exemption from disclosure of the information. It gives a number of cases in which the authority may refuse to give information. For example, if the disclosure of such information would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, then security, strategic, scientific or economic interest of the state or its relation with the foreign state or if it leads to incitement of an offense. Another case is when the publication of such information is forbidden by the court. If the disclosure can cause a breach of privilege of parliament or the state legislature, then also the authorities may refuse. It is also to be noted that the act empowered the center to constitute a center information commission and each state to form state information commission. We will discuss about their composition powers etc in the coming days. Now finally, let us see section 19 of the RTI Act to understand today's article. See section 19 deals with appeal. It enables any person who has not received the sought information in time or is aggrieved by a decision of the central public information officer or the state public information officer to appeal a senior rant officer. In such case, the central information commission or the state information commission has the power to require the public authority to compensate the complainant for any loss or other detriment suffered or it can also impose penalties. So using this provision only, the Tamil Nadu State Information Commission awarded compensation to the woman. So in this discussion, we saw some of the important provisions relating to the Right to Information Act of 2005. With this, we will move on to the next news. Now this news article talks about the recent cyber attack that has happened in India's leading pharmaceutical company Dr. Reddy's Laboratories which is based in Hyderabad. A few days back, this company received the approval of the Drug Controller General of India to conduct phase two and phase three human clinical trial for sputnik-5 vaccine which has been developed by Russia. If the trials are successful and if the vaccines are registered by the regulatory authorities, then the vaccines would be available by the end of the year. Hence, the cyber attack on this Indian pharmaceutical company is crucial from security perspective. But there is no source to know what kind of a cyber attack has actually happened to this company. So in the context of this news article, let us try to know about some common types of cyber attacks and the law in India that deals with cyber security. The syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. First, coming to the cyber threats, these are some types of cyber threats. It includes backdoors, formjacking, cryptojacking, distributed denial-of-service attacks, DNS poisoning attacks and malware. Here, backdoor is a type of cyber threat that allows remote access to computers or systems without the user's knowledge. Next, formjacking is a process of inserting malicious JavaScript code into online payment forms in order to harvest consumers or customers' card details. Next is cryptojacking which is a malicious installation of cryptocurrency mining or crypto mining software. This software illicitly uses the victim's processing power to mine for cryptocurrency. Next one is DDOS or Distributed Denial-of-Service attacks. See, it is an attempt to disrupt normal web traffic. It takes the targeted websites offline by flooding systems, servers or networks with more requests than they can handle causing them to crash. Next one is DNS poisoning attacks that is domain name system attacks which compromises the DNS to redirect traffic to malicious sites. Here, know that the affected sites are not hacked themselves. Now, next, malware is a broad term used to describe any file or program that is intended to harm or disrupt a computer. This includes botnet software, ransomware attacks, trojans, remote access trojans, spywares, virus and also worms. So, these are some of the cyber threats. Some of the common cyber attacks include malware attacks such as the ransomware attack, trojan, virus, worms, phishing attacks etc. Here, a trojan is a type of malware that discusses itself as legitimate software but performs malicious activity when executed. Next, a computer virus is a piece of malicious code that is installed without the user's knowledge. Viruses can replicate and spread to other computers by attaching themselves to other computer files. And know that worms are like viruses in that they are self-replicating. However, they do not need to attach themselves to another program to do so. Next, phishing is a method of social engineering which is used to trick people into divulging sensitive or confidential information often via email. They are not always easy to distinguish from genuine messages and such phishing scams can inflict enormous damage on organizations. So, these are some of the common cyber attacks. Now, let us see the legislation that deals with cyber security in India. And know that it is the Information Technology Act of 2000. As per the Act, cyber security means protecting information, equipment, devices, computer, computer resource, communication device and information stored therein from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification or destruction. Also, as per the Act, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, or Indian CERT, serves as the national agency for performing the following functions in the area of cyber security. See, it includes collection analysis and dissemination of information on cyber incidents, forecast and alerts of cyber security incidents, emergency measures for handling cyber security incidents, coordination of cyber incident response activities. Then it also issues guidelines, advisories, vulnerability notes and white papers relating to information security practices, procedures, prevention, response and reporting of cyber incidents. And it also deals with such other functions relating to cyber security as may be prescribed. Also, certain cyber security threats such as tampering with the computer source documents, dishonestly receiving the stall and computer resource or communication device, cyber terrorism, have all been designated as offenses under this Act. Now, we will see the punishments under the Act which are related to cyber security offenses. See, tampering with computer source documents are punishable with imprisonment up to 3 years or with a fine which may extend up to 2 lakh rupees or with both imprisonment and fine. Now, dishonestly receiving stall and computer resource or communication device is punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 3 years or with a fine which may extend to 1 lakh rupees or with both. And cyber terrorism is punishable with imprisonment for life. So, these are some of the important information related to cyber security. In this discussion, we saw about some of the common types of cyber threats like backdoors, formjacking, cryptojacking, distributed denial of service attacks, DNS poisoning attacks, malware attacks, etc. And we also saw about the important provisions of India's cyber security legislation which is the Information Technology Act of 2000. With this, we'll move on to the next news. Now, have a look at this question. It is framed based on this news article. The news is that the Labour and Employment Ministry revised the base year of the Consumer Price Index for industrial workers that is CPI-IW from 2001 to 2016. And this is to reflect the changing consumption pattern while giving more weightage to spending on health, education and recreation and also on other miscellaneous expenses while reducing the weightage of food and beverages. So, in this context, let us discuss about Consumer Price Index and particularly about the Consumer Price Index for industrial workers. See, CPI is a measure for retail inflation rate. It means it is the measure of increase of the prices experienced at retail shops. This gives the actual reflection of the price rise in the country. So, we can define CPI as a measure of change in retail prices of goods and services consumed by defined population group in a given area with reference to a base year. See, what is a base year? See, base year is the year in which an index is set to 100. While computing macroeconomic numbers such as inflation or economic growth rates, indices are used to monitor prices. The statistical agencies of the government will choose a basket of goods and set the value of this basket to 100 for a chosen base year. And each time the inflation is measured, the prices of the chosen goods are taken and the current index value is computed and compared with the base value. Assume that the price of a basket of goods was 1 lakh rupees in the base year and it was set to an index value of 100. The next year, if the basket cost is rupees 1 lakh 10000 or 1.1 lakh rupees, the index equivalent would be 110. The inflation rate will be computed by comparing 110 which is today's value to the base value that is 100 resulting in a 10% increase. So, this is how base year is used and as we know the choices of consumption and purchasing power is not the same for the entire Indian population. So, different CPIs are calculated for different population groups. They are the CPI for industrial workers then for agricultural labor and for the rural labor etc. And for this CPI IW that is for industrial workers, the base year has been revised to 2016. Now, let us discuss about the CPI for industrial workers. See, it measures the extent of change in the retail prices of goods and services concerned by the industrial workers. The dearness allowance of the government employees, wage contract between labor and employer and the revision of pay scale by pay commission are based on CPI industrial worker. And we should know that it is also used to revise minimum wages in the scheduled employment. CPI IW is compiled and released by the Labor Bureau which is an attached office in the Ministry of Labor. And as you can see here, more weightage has been given to spending on health, education, recreation and other miscellaneous expenses while reducing the weightage of food and beverages. See here we should know that the reduction in weightage to spending on food and beverages indicates an increase in disposable income. So, in this discussion we show about the consumer price index, in detail about consumer price index for industrial workers and how base year is used. So, this is all about the discussion of this news article. Now, see this question. See, it is a three statements base question. We have to choose the correct statement or statements from these given statements. Which of the following statements are correct with reference to the consumer price index for industrial workers? The first statement reads, food and beverages has the highest weightage among the items used to calculate CPI IW. Yes, this statement is correct. Now, the second statement reads, the base year to calculate CPI IW is 2011-12. Now, this statement is wrong. As we have discussed now, the CPI IW base year has been revised to 2016. Now, the third statement reads, it is compiled and released by the Labor Bureau, Ministry of Labor and Employment. Yes, this statement is also correct. So, here the correct answer is option C one and three only. With this, we will move on to the next news. Now, see this question. It is framed based on these two news articles which talk about some of the important developments in India's defense sector. The first article says that INS Kavarathi has been inducted into the Indian Navy. Know that INS Kavarathi is the last of the four indigenously designed and built anti-submarine warfare stealth corvette. It was built under the Project 28 Kamurtha class which was launched by the Indian Navy. Along with INS Kamurtha, INS Kadimath and INS Kiltan, INS Kavarathi will form a major part of the eastern fleet of the Indian Navy. See, all the four corvettes were indigenously designed by the Indian Navy's in-house organization that is the directorate of naval design and they are constructed by the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited based in Kolkata. See, Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited is a public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Defense. Now, coming to INS Kavarathi, it is named after the capital of Lakshadhi violence. It has been constructed using high grade DMR 249 A steel produced in India. It spans 109 meters in length, 14 meters in breadth and has a displacement of 3,300 tons. So, it can be rightly regarded as one of the most potent anti-submarine warships to have been constructed in India. The ship's advanced stealth features make her less susceptible to any detection by the enemy. The unique feature of this ship is the high level of indigenization incorporated in the production accentuating our national objective of Atmanirbar Bharat. The ship has state-of-the-art equipments and systems to fight nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare conditions. It also boasts advanced automation systems such as total atmospheric control system, then integrated platform management system, integrated bridge system, then battle damage control system, and also personal locator system. Now, let us discuss about the second article which says that the defense research and development organization has carried out the final user trial of NAG missile and now it will enter into production phase. See, NAG is a fire and forget third-generation anti-tank guided missile. It is known for its attack capabilities and can effectively engage and destroy all non-enemy tanks during both day and night operations. See, NAG can be launched from land by using the NAG missile carrier or NAMICA and the helicopter-launched configuration is designated as helicopter-launched NAG or Helina and know that NAG has a minimum range of 500 meters and maximum range of 4 kilometers. And also know that NAG is one of the five strategic missiles planned to be developed under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program or IGMDP. The program was started in 1983 by the Missileman of India, that is Dr. A.P.J. Abdul-Kala and see integrated guided missile development program was sanctioned to develop Prathvi, Trishur, Akash, NAG, and Agni missiles. Now, see this question. The term Project-28 Kamurtha class, often seen in news is related to, here the correct answer is option D. It is the project under which four anti-submarine warships have to be built indigenously in India. So, with this we have come to the end of analysis of all the news articles. Now, let us move on to the Practice Questions Discussion section. Now, see this first question. Consider the following statements. India and the US have recently signed the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geospatial Cooperation. See, this statement is wrong. In our discussion, we saw that India and US are having differences over the issue of reciprocity in the exchange of geospatial information. So, the first statement is wrong and the second statement reads, BECA allows India and US to share geospatial and satellite data, such as topographical, nautical, and aeronautical data with each other. Yes, this statement is correct. So, in this question, we have to identify the correct statement or statements from these given statements. Statement one is incorrect and statement two is correct. So, the correct answer is option B, two only. Now, the second question is with reference to Right to Information Act, 2005. Under the Right to Information Act of 2005, the public authority may refuse to give information. Here we have four options. The first option reads, if the disclosure of such information would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India. The second option reads, if the disclosure of information would cause a breach of privilege of parliament. And the third option reads, if the information includes commercial confidence and trade secrets when disclosed would harm the competitive position of a third party. Yes, all the three options are correct. See, as per the RTI Act, the conditions where a public authority may refuse to give information is given here for your reference, please go through it. So, the correct answer is D, all of their bow. Now, the third question is with reference to cyber attacks. Consider the following statements. A Trojan is a type of malware that disguises itself as legitimate software but performs malicious activity when executed. Yes, this statement is correct. The second statement reads, phishing is a method of social engineering used to trick people into divulging sensitive or confidential information often via email. Yes, this statement is also correct. Here both statements are correct and we have to identify the correct statement or statements. So, the correct answer is option C, both one and two. So, friends, with this, we have come to the end of analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the discussion of practice questions. If you like this video, please press the like button, comment, share and do subscribe to Shankara IAS Academy YouTube channel for more updates related to civil service preparation. Thank you.