 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankarae's Academy. The list of topics chosen for today's discussion along with the page numbers is given here for your reference. Before starting today's news analysis, there is a good news. The India's Tiger Census sets a new Guinness World Record as world's largest camera trap wildlife survey. Yes, the 2018 Tiger Census got the Guinness World Record. A quick recap of 2018 Tiger Census. There are around 2,967 estimated tigers in India, which is around 75% of global tiger population. And this survey is the most comprehensive survey to date in both resource and data collected. Very importantly, know that the resolve of doubling tiger numbers under T-Cross 2 fulfilled much before the target year of 2022. And here is a question for you. According to 2018 census, which state is having the highest number of tigers? Post your answer in the comment section. This news article talks about a tweet by West Bengal Governor, urging the bureaucracy to act according to the All India Services Rules of 1968. So in this discussion, we shall see what is this All India Services Rules and other important terms like political neutrality, accountability, transparency, as well as code of conduct. The relevant syllabus is highlighted here for your reference. This topic assumes significance both in GS2 as well as GS4 papers. According to sources, the West Bengal Governor was worried about rampant disregard and violations by the current government of West Bengal. It seems that the IAS and IPS officials are not complying with the orders of governor and are failing to generate the desired response. So the governor has urged the bureaucrats to maintain the political neutrality, accountability and transparency and also to commit themselves for upholding the supremacy of the constitution. In short, they have been asked to follow the All India Services Rules of 1968. Know that these rules have been framed by the central government in accordance with All India Services Act of 1951 and very recently in 2014 these rules were amended for providing service conduct rules for bureaucrats. So this change by including the service conduct or code of conduct rules is regarded as one of the most important civil services reforms in the recent times. If you see the transfer of bureaucrats is happening based on their political affiliations. Even many of bureaucrats were sent to prison or accused of corruption in a large number of alleged scams depending on their affiliation to different political parties. So this mandated service conduct rules for bureaucrats. So these service conduct rules were inserted in 2014 and from then the civil services are expected to maintain high ethical standards, integrity and honesty. In addition, they are supposed to maintain political neutrality or impartiality as well as accountability and transparency. Further, they have to commit themselves to the supremacy of the constitution and uphold the same and democratic values and there is one rule which outrightly prohibits every bureaucrat being associated with any political party or organization which takes part in politics. Basically no bureaucrat should affiliate with any political organization. So based on this the governor has made statements asking all the bureaucrats to commit themselves to the all India services rules. So in this context we shall see what is political neutrality, transparency as well as accountability. So firstly what is meant by political neutrality. If you see there is no perfect definition but it can be simply defined as all the public servants must be neutral without supporting any political party. They must keep their jobs out of their politics and their politics out of their jobs. It also means that they should act impartially that means not partial to any one section of people. If you see these rules prevent a public servant from indulging in activities of political nature and know that like other citizens public servant also has the right to vote but he or she is expected to exercise it violently because his or her political beliefs should be the private concern and no one else needs to know about them. If you see on the other hand contradictingly the public servant is under obligation to serve whichever political party is in power. So a public servant is expected to serve under the political party in power but he should not affiliate with the political party or he should not discriminate other parties. Simply it can be put as governments come and go depending upon the wishes of the public but the civil service that is the steel frame is permanent. This permanence of tenure encourages every public servant to serve impartially to whichever government is in power. So this is what is called political neutrality. Next let us see what is accountability and transparency. In public administration accountability refers to the obligation on the part of public servants to report on the usage of public resources and the obligation to be answerable for failing to meet the stated performance objectives. So accountability ensures that for every action and inaction of the government there is a civil servant responsible and accountable to the government civil society and the public. For example we know that a district collector has a wide ranging purpose so he will be doing lot of works he will be signing lot of projects so for every project he approved or he rejected he should be accountable for the decision he has made. Next in public administration transparency refers to unrestricted access to the public to the timely and reliable information on decisions made by the government. For example whatever is happening in the government the public has the right to know. Here the government should maintain transparency by giving information to the public domain. For example the right to information wherein the government is expected to give all the details which are not sensitive to the national security to the public. So these values of transparency accountability along with integrity have been the dominant paradigm in public administration. These three are considered as the keystones of good governance so in this manner the transparency accountability are important components of ethics infrastructure. So if all the public servants follow code of conduct transparency accountability this lead to fair and reliable public services predictable decision making and creation of a level playing field for businesses. When all this happens it improves the lives of poor and vulnerable. So this is all about this news article discussion. So this discussion will help you in both your GS2 as well as GS4 answer writing. So let us move on to next news article. Let us take up this news article which talks about the opinion of former Finance Minister of Tamil Nadu about the Legislative Council. So in this context let us discuss Legislative Council, its composition, its functions and its position compared to Legislative Assembly. The relevant syllabus is highlighted here for your reference. Firstly know that as of now only 6 states have bicameral legislature. Bicameral means two chambers assembly and council. They are Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and Karnataka. So in a bicameral system the state legislature consists of governor, council and assembly. As we just said only 6 states have two houses. So who has the power to create a Legislative Council for each state? This topic is discussed in article 169 of Indian constitution. So this article provides for creation as well as abolition of Legislative Council. And this article empowers the parliament either to create or abolish a Legislative Council. But parliament can do this only if Legislative Assembly of a state passes a resolution either asking to create a council or to abolish a council. It means if state of Tamil Nadu wants a Legislative Council or to abolish a council it has to pass a resolution. Only then the parliament can abolish or create a Legislative Council. Here two important things to note are first one the resolution in the state assembly either to create or abolish council must be passed by a special majority. Their special majority means majority of total membership of the house and a majority of not less than two-thirds of members who are present and voting. For example assume that total membership of house is 100. So when we say a majority of total membership it means at least 51 members should support the resolution. And out of 100 assume that 90 members are present and voting on that day. So out of 90 minimum two-thirds that is 60 members should support the resolution. So simply it means if there are 100 members in a house and out of which 90 are present and voting at least 60 members should support the resolution either to create or abolish the Legislative Council. When such resolution is passed then parliament can consider making a change in constitution either to create or abolish the council. And very importantly here note that the act of parliament either to create or abolish is not considered to be an amendment under article 368. So when we say the act of parliament will not be considered under article 368 it means the parliament can make change with just an ordinary majority. So the state assembly has to pass the resolution with special majority while on the other hand parliament can make the change in the constitution with just ordinary majority. So these are the two things you must be aware of for your film's examination. Next talking about the composition of Legislative Council article 171 says that the maximum strength of council is fixed at one-third of total strength of assembly and the minimum strength is fixed at 40. Suppose if the strength of assembly is 180 then the maximum strength of council can be one-third of 180 that is 60. However the exact number is fixed by the parliament and note that the members of Legislative Council that is MLCs are indirectly elected through proportional representation system by single transferable vote which is similar to the election to Rajya Sabha and talking about the manner of election to Legislative Council know that out of total members one-third of membership is elected by members of local bodies like municipalities, district boards etc. And one-twelfth are elected by graduates and another one-twelfth are elected by teachers and next one-third are elected by MLAs yes one-third of members of Legislative Council are elected by MLAs and remaining one-sixth is nominated by governor from amongst persons who have special knowledge or practical experience in literature, science, art, cooperative movement and social service. Here you can relate this nomination of MLCs with nomination of Rajya Sabha members by the president. In Rajya Sabha 12 members are nominated by the president who has the special knowledge or practical experience in matters like literature, science, art and social service. And in Legislative Council the one-sixth of members are nominated by the governor who has special knowledge in literature, science, art, cooperative movement and social service. Here the only change you have to keep in mind is there is one extra category called cooperative movement from where the members can be nominated to Legislative Council and this category of cooperative movement is not available with reference to nomination of members in Rajya Sabha. When talking about the duration of Legislative Council Article 172 says that the Council is a permanent body and not subject to dissolution. But one-third of its members retire on the expiration of every second year. So a member continues as search for six years and here importantly know that the retiring members are eligible for re-election and re-nomination any number of times. And here again you can relate this provisions with Rajya Sabha. And finally let us discuss the powers of Council compared to Assembly. Here Article 197 restricts the powers of Council with respect to Legislative Assembly. First we shall talk about ordinary bills. See when an ordinary bill is passed by the Assembly and sent to Council the Council has four options. First one it can simply pass the bill without any amendments. Second it can pass the bill with amendments and return the bill to Assembly for reconsideration of amendments. And third one reject the bill altogether. And fourth one keeping the bill pending without taking any action. See if the Assembly accepts the changes proposed by the Council the bill is deemed to have passed by both the houses. But if the Assembly rejects the amendments or if the Council does not make any action for more than three months then Assembly can pass the bill once again. But if Assembly passes the same bill once again and sends the same bill to Council now even if Council rejects the bill or makes some amendments which are not acceptable to Assembly even then the bill is considered to be passed by both the houses. And one more possibility that is if Council does not take any action when bill is sent to the Council for the second time within one month even then the bill is deemed to have been passed by both the houses. So it means the Assembly has an upper hand with respect to Council even in case of ordinary bills. At most the Council can hold the bill for four months that is three months in the first instance and one month in the second instance. After the four months the bill is considered to be passed by both the houses. And coming to money bill similar to the Parliament a money bill can be introduced only in the Assembly and not in the Council. And when this money bill is sent to the Council it cannot be amended or rejected and Council should return the bill to the Assembly within 14 days either with recommendations or without recommendations and here note that Assembly can either accept or reject all the recommendations made by the Council. In both the cases the money bill is said to be passed by the both houses. So from here you can understand that the legislative Assembly has more power with respect to Council both in case of ordinary bills as well as money bills. So this is all about the legislative Council, its composition and its position compared to legislative Assembly. The displayed practice question will be discussed at the end of session. This news article discusses the keynote address delivered by the RBI governor. Though what he spoke in that meeting is not important in exam perspective there are few important points which are considered to be very important in prelims perspective. In his speech the governor has stressed the need for resolution corporation and he also talked about the concept of bail in and bail out. So in this context we shall discuss about resolution corporation, bail in, bail out and some of the important features of FRDI bill. The relevant syllabus is highlighted here for your reference. See the RBI governor has said that the economic impact of the pandemic due to lockdown may result in higher non-performing assets and may also lead to capital erosion of banks. So simply he is saying that the lockdown is increasing the NPS of banks. Further he said that the shocks to the financial system which were once called as once in a lifetime events seem to be more frequent. This is because they are happening at least once in a decade. If you see in 2009 we had a great recession where our banks took a severe beating in terms of NPS and now at the start of this year the S bank had a crisis and now there are many more crisis which are going to come due to the pandemic imposed lockdown. So the RBI governor has said that the shocks to the system have become more frequent. So in this context the governor also spoke about the lack of a mechanism to address these bank failures. See every time we have seen in the news that if a bank becomes financially weak it ends up being merged with a larger bank. So by merging a weak bank with a strong bank the interests of depositors are protected. But it is going to affect the balance sheet of a large bank. So when we merge a small bank with a big bank the small bank depositors are going to be benefited. But the large bank has to absorb the losses and issues of the small bank. So the large bank is going to be affected. But during the S bank crisis the Reserve Bank of India came up with a new resolution idea. See after exhausting all possible options RBI intervened and came up with S bank reconstruction scheme. So instead of merging it with a larger bank it proposed a public-private partnership between leading financial entities of India under the leadership of Ted Bank of India. So through this intervention RBI was able to safeguard the interest of depositors simultaneously ensuring the stability of financial system. To know more on S bank reconstruction scheme please refer 7th March the Hindu news analysis. But as we all know RBI has many other important functions as well. So it cannot make itself busy with these reconstruction and resolution schemes. So this is why the RBI governor has stressed that a resolution corporation with a statutory backing is need of the hover. This is mainly to deal with the resolution and revival of stressed financial firms like S bank. If you see a resolution corporation was proposed in financial resolution and deposit insurance bill of 2017. This resolution corporation is mandated to protect the consumers of banks for ensuring the stability and resilience of financial system. But this bill was not enacted due to concerns over a controversial bail-in clause. So from example perspective try to know the concept of bail-in. See this bill specifies various tools to resolve a failing financial firm. For example this include transferring its assets and liabilities, merging it with another firm or altogether liquidating it. So one of these methods allow for cancellation or writing down of liabilities of the failing financial firm or also restructuring its liabilities on a case to case basis. This method is known as bail-in. Here when we tell liabilities it involves everything the bank owes to others like depositors, creditors etc. So what happens under bail-in is a portion of the liabilities of the bank are cancelled. So when these liabilities are cancelled who are going to lose obviously the depositors as well as creditors. So who deposited money in the bank are going to lose a portion of the amount or complete amount. So this is called bail-in clause. So this became a controversial and many people criticized this move by the government under FRDI bill. So what is bail-out? See bail-out refers to infusion of funds which means infusion of capital by external sources to resolve the financial firm. This includes a failing firm being rescued by the government as well. For example if bank is having lot of liabilities and it is unable to pay its liabilities then government can infuse some amount of capital to the bank which can be used for paying off debts as well as liabilities. So you can see that in bail-in the depositors and creditors will face losses which is because the liabilities of the financial firm are cancelled. Whereas in bail-out the depositors and creditors will not be at loss since money is infused from external sources to revive the failing financial firm. So this bail-in clause was the reason that FRDI bill was not enacted. But now as the RBI governor has insisted it is time to have a resolution corporation. So government can legislate a resolution corporation by revisiting the controversial clauses of 2017 FRDI bill. With this we come to end of the discussion of this news article wherein we talked about the resolution corporation, the FRDI bill, the controversial clauses like bail-in as well as bail-out. Now let us move on to the next news article. Next discussion is going to be based on these two news articles. Both news articles are related to the national security advisers. The first article is an interview with former NSA Shiv Shankar Meenam and the second article talks about the rise of the current NSA, who is Ajit Kumar Doval. So in this first news article the former NSA talks about the Chinese strategy of intrusion. He starts by saying that Indo-China relations are getting more and more adversarial. He further says that the disengagement terms between India and China are dangerous. This is because these terms suggest that we are withdrawing from territory which we have controlled for a very long time. So by pulling out and suspending patrols along the LAC, it sends out the wrong message that both sides are equally responsible for the aggression. But in fact we know that only China is responsible for the aggression. But by agreeing to pull out and suspending the patrolling across LAC, India is agreeing that it is also responsible for the aggression. The author also says that almost all China's military expeditions in Asia used the same strategy. For example that the Oklahoma standoff or recent China's claim to Bhutan's Sachtang Wildlife Sanctuary or even its claim on South China Sea. In all these cases, first China will claim a territory. Then there will be a standoff or tussle between China and the other country. This will be followed by some temporary peace agreement. But what happens is the claim of China becomes permanent. This can also be said as taking two steps forward and negotiating one step backward. And in all these cases China resorted in changing the facts on the ground. This is done by presenting the victim countries, for example India, with a fate accompanying. It means presenting them with a history of agreement that no one heard of. Here China uses these agreements which no one heard of to claim territories by saying that these territories were historically part of China. And China projects these agreements during peace negotiations and makes it claim permanent. And further author tells that China now sees India to be more strategically close to US. So it started showing more aggression towards India. This is mainly to show US that US cannot count India as an ally to counter China. This will also show our neighbors that if they want security from China they cannot rely on India. So what are the solutions given by the author? Author says that India should solve the problems by self strengthening. We should also strengthen our patrolling, our military capabilities etc. We should also insist and force China to implement and respect the agreements which we already have. It includes respect for line of actual control and maintenance of status quo. India should also work closer with others who share our interests. For example Indian neighbors as well as Indian ocean, literal countries and the quad grouping etc. At the same time we should not forget the fact that China is one of our biggest trading partners. So to go aggressive or offensive against China firstly we should cut dependencies on China. It includes reducing Chinese presence in critical infrastructure and Indian market as well. But for this to happen we should first boost our economy by strengthening the manufacturing sector and increasing employment and productivity. So these are the things discussed by the former NSA and certions given in the current context of Indo-China border disputes. So this is all about the discussion of these news articles. The practice question will be discussed at the end of session. Let us move on to the next news article. Let us take up this news article which talks about a case in Supreme court regarding the management of Padmanabh Swami temple in Kerala. You might have heard about this temple which is home to a lot of property I mean gold, silver and other valuable items. So the Supreme court is going to pronounce its judgment tomorrow and this judgment is going to decide whether the state government or the erstwhile royal family will run the temple. And also the article mentions the terms like parents, patriae, amicus, curae etc. In this context let us discuss these terms in brief. First let us see amicus curae. It literally means the friend of the court. So an amicus curae is the one who assists the court by furnishing information or advice regarding questions of law or fact. The decision whether to admit the information given by amicus curae lies with the discretion of the court. So this amicus curae the person is not a party to the lawsuit and thus differs from an intervener. So when we say intervener, he or she has a direct interest in the outcome of the lawsuit and is therefore permitted to participate as a party to the suit. On the other hand amicus curae won't have any interest in the lawsuit but tries to help the court by giving information or advice regarding the questions of law. For example, former comptroller and auditor general Vinod Rai has served as amicus curae in this Padmanabh Swami temple court case. Let us discuss one more term discussed in the news article that is parents patriae which means parent of his or her country. See we all know that the state is regarded as a sovereign. Hence state in its capacity is the provider of protection to those who are unable to take care of themselves. Here parents patriae indicates the power of the state to act as guardian for those who are unable to care for themselves such as children or disabled individuals. So in this context know that all the deities including idols are considered perpetual minors and court has the parents patriae jurisdiction with reference to all the gods and deities in the country. Yes this may look a little funny but it is true all the deities and idols are considered as minors and are unable to take care of themselves. So court serves the guardian and so has the parents patriae jurisdiction over all the temples and deities. Next let us see the doctrine of rest subjudice. See subjudice means under judgment. It can be said as a matter under consideration of a court or a judge. If you see this doctrine of rest subjudice aims to prevent courts of concurrent jurisdiction from simultaneously adjudicating upon two parallel litigations. This is different from rest judicata. See rest judicata means once a matter is adjudicator or finalized it cannot be re-adjudicated. It means if a matter has already been tried by a competent court then trial between same parties in respect of same matter shall not be allowed. The difference between rest subjudice and rest judicata is under rest subjudice two courts cannot adjudicate on the same topic which consists of same litigations and same litigants. On the other side rest judicata says that if a case is settled or adjudicated it cannot be re-adjudicated. However when there are merits or there are considerable changes in the facts and the realities a case can be re-opened and re-adjudicated. So this doctrine of rest judicata is based on three principles. First no man should be punished twice for the same cause which is also present in fundamental rights that is article 20 it says that no double geoparty that is no man should be punished twice for the same cause. Second it is the interest of state that there should be an end to a litigation and the final one a judicial decision must be accepted as correct. So this is all about the important terms mentioned in the news article. We talked about amicus curae, parents patriae, rest subjudice as well as rest judicata. The practice question will be discussed at the end of session. We have arrived at the last segment of today's discussion that is practice questions discussion. First question with reference to national security advisor consider the following statements statement one. The post of NSA was created in the backdrop of 26 by 11 Mumbai terror attacks. No the statement is incorrect. No that the post of NSA was created in 1998 during the prime ministership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Statement two. The defense planning committee of India is chaired by national security advisor. Yes this statement is correct. Statement three. The NSA of India enjoys the cabinet rank. Yes this statement is also correct. Previously the NSA used to enjoy minister of state rank. But in the recent past it was upgraded to the cabinet rank. Therefore the correct answer is option C 2 and 3 only since we are supposed to identify correct statements. Next question. Consider the following statements. Statement one. Bailout is an arrangement in which craters of a failing financial institution are required to cancel some of its debts as a part of plan to save it from collapse. Statement two. Bail in refers to external financial assistance to a failing financial institution to save it from collapse. If you see both statements are incorrect. This is because the definitions of bail in and bail out are interchanged. See bailout refers to external financial assistance while bail in refers to cancelling of a few liabilities. Here we are supposed to identify incorrect statements. So the correct answer is option C both 1 and 2 since the both statements are incorrect. Next. Consider the following statements. Statement one. An amicus curie is the friend of court who assists the court by furnishing information regarding questions of law or fact. Yes the statement one is correct. Statement two. The parent's patrion jurisdiction indicates the power of the state to act as guardian for those who are unable to take care of themselves. Yes statement two is also correct. Coming to statement three. Doctrine of rest judicata aims to prevent from simultaneously adjudicating upon two parallel litigations on same cause of action and subjects. Now this statement is incorrect because the statement three talks about rest subjudice while the rest subjudicata means once matter is adjudicated it cannot be re-adjudicated. So the statement three is incorrect. Therefore the correct answer is option B one and two only. Which among the following are stakeholders in electing or nominating members of the Laysley to council. First members of local bodies in the state. Two graduates residing in the state. Third members of Laysley to assembly. Fourth governor of the state. Here if you see all the four are correct. Therefore the correct answer is option D one two three and four. Next let us take up this practice main question. What do you understand by the term political neutrality? How does one endorse political neutrality? This is a 10 marks question and the word limit is 150. So you can define political neutrality and you can give one or two examples. Dear aspirants know that whenever you are writing an answer for GS4 examples play a vital role in getting good marks. So explain political neutrality and how can we endorse political neutrality with relevant examples. And here is one more question which is a previous year main question appeared on GS paper two in 2017. Initially civil services in India were designed to achieve the goals of neutrality and effectiveness which seems to be lacking in present context. Do you agree with the view that drastic reforms are required in civil services? Comment. With this we conclude today's news analysis. If you find this session resourceful click on the like button, show your appreciation in the comment section and don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Stay home, stay safe.