 Good evening as friends, welcome to the hindu news analysis by Shankarai's academy for the date 2nd of June 2023. Displayed here are the list of news articles we will be going through today. Now let's start the discussion. Look at this news article. The crux of this article is that the ethnic Serbs in Zewakan town in Northern Kosovo gathered for protest. The town hall was sealed off with barbed wires and surrounded by NATO led peacekeepers in Riyadh gear. The United States security of state, Anthony Blinken called on both Pristina and Belgrade to ease tension. In this context, let us understand the story of conflict between Serbia and Kosovo. See, this is a map of Serbia and you can see Kosovo here. Serbia and Kosovo have a long-standing disagreement. This is because Kosovo used to be a province of Serbia, but later Kosovo declared its independence in 2008. However, Serbia does not recognize Kosovo as a separate country and considers Kosovo as a part of its own territory. But it has no formal control over there. However, as you can see from this map, there are Serb majority population in some areas of Kosovo. The rest of the areas have majority Albanian population. Also know that Kosovo's independence has been recognized by about 100 countries including the United States. And some countries like Russia, China and 5 European Union nations have sided with Serbia. So, how did the latest flare up or the latest conflict started? There was a recent election in Kosovo. The Serbs boycotted this local election. But the elections happened and the ethnic Albanian mayors who were newly elected moved into their office in the northern part of Kosovo. As you can see, this part has a Serbian majority. This led to clashes between the Serbs and the Kosovo riot police. But you should know that the ethnic conflict in Kosovo runs deep. Serbia sees Kosovo as an important part of its history and religion. This is because many Serbian Orthodox Christian monasteries are located in Kosovo. On the other hand, majority of Kosovo's population which is ethnic Albanian considers Kosovo their country. And they also accuse Serbia of occupation and repression. And if we see in the local context, there are ongoing tensions between central government of Kosovo and the Serbs living in the northern part of the country. The Serbs in the north have strong ties with Serbia and so they often resist attempt by the central government to exert control. For example, the town of Mitrovica is divided into ethnic Albanian and Serb-held parts. And there is little interaction between these two groups. As the conflicts were escalating, efforts have been made to find a resolution to the dispute. And here the European Union mediated negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo. However, reaching a final comprehensive agreement has been challenging. There has been some agreements, but their implementation has been very limited. So now, the main players in the conflict are the nationalist leaders of both sides. In Kosovo, Albin Kurti, a former student protest leader, leads the government and he is known for his strong stance of Kosovo's independence. Serbia is led by President Alexander Vjukic. He believes any solution must be based on compromise and long-lasting peace. So now, international officials are working towards the solution because normalizing the ties between Serbia and Kosovo is crucial. And this is more relevant now because both the countries are aspiring to become EU members. So, without a resolution, the region could face instability and economic decline. That is all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw the short history of conflict between Kosovo and Serbia. With this, let us conclude this and take up the next news article. Look at this article here. Recently, the United States has announced sanctions on Sudanese leaders. Now, what is the reason behind this action? Last week, the United States and Saudi brokered a ceasefire agreement on the ongoing internal crisis in Sudan. However, the agreement was not successful. After the talks, the perpetrators conducted air strikes and killed 18 civilians at the Kartom market in Sudan. So, due to the failure of these ceasefire efforts, now the United States has announced sanctions on Sudanese leaders. This is about the news. In this context, let us understand why there is a crisis in Sudan. Let us start with the geography of Sudan. Sudan is a country in northeastern Africa which is bordered by the Red Sea on the east side. Sudan is one of the most populous nations in the African continent with a population of about 46 million. And geographically, Sudan is one of the largest countries in Africa and it is also one of the poorest countries in the world. Sudan shares its border with seven countries that includes Libya, Egypt, Chad, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea. This is all about Sudan. Now, moving on, let us see some facts about the ongoing Sudan crisis. The current Sudan crisis revolves around the infighting between two rival groups such as the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary group called Rapid Support Force or RSF. The Sudan Army is headed by the Coupe leader General Abdul Fattak Buran, whereas the RSF is headed by General Mohammed Hamadan Dagalov. The root cause of the present crisis dates back to 2021. In October 2021, the Sudanese military led by General Buran took control over the civilian government of Sudan in a military coup. The term military coup refers to a sudden, violent and unlawful seizure of power from a government. Since the 2021 military coup, RSF leader General Dagalov has worked alongside the Sudanese Army, which significantly helped the Sudanese military to begin power. And since the military coup, Sudan has been run by a council of military generals. Subsequently, in July 2022, General Buran announced that he would withdraw from the political talks and he would support the formation of a civilian government by conducting elections in 2023. But the current crisis was sparked by a disagreement over the integration of Rapid Support Force into the Sudanese military as a part of the transition towards civilian rule. The RSF leader General Dagalov demands Buran to include RSF into the Sudanese Army. But Buran is not agreeing to the demands of Dagalov. So, both the leaders are now logged in a power struggle. Because of this only, now the crisis is happening in Sudan. The crisis started from April mid onwards and it is still ongoing. So, to put off the crisis, the US and Saudi brokered a ceasefire agreement between the two leaders. Despite these peace efforts, air strikes were conducted by the perpetrators and it killed around 18 civilians in Sudan. As a result, US has announced sanction on these two Sudanese leaders. That's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw the reason for the present crisis in Sudan and we also saw the geographical location of Sudan. Now, let us conclude this and take up the next news article. Look at this article from the editorial page. It talks about an important topic that often sparks debate and discussions in India. The topic is, should India prioritize manufacturing or services for its economic development? This question challenges the traditional model of economic development. Because in the traditional model, usually industrial expansion comes first and later comes the service expansion. The author of this article has gone into the details and explained why this is such a significant issue for India. So, in our discussion today, we will try to understand the key points from the editorial article. Before that, I have highlighted the syllabus regarding this discussion. You can go through it. Now, let's start. See, back in early 2000s, India's software exports were booming and there was one question, whether the service sector could jump over the manufacturing sector and drive the economy forward. This idea challenged the conventional approach to economic development. See, in the conventional approach, in any economy, primary sector booms first. Then the industrial sector takes precedence and in the final phase only, service sector boom takes place. But in the case of India, we skipped manufacturing altogether and entered the service sector phase directly. Which means, industrial expansion phase was missing in case of India. So, it is understandable that Indian policymaker felt frustrated by this dilemma. So, do you think it is because the government didn't take enough steps to support the manufacturing? Let's get to that story. We know that in 1991, India implemented economic reforms. And these reforms primarily focused on manufacturing only. Tariffs were significantly reduced and the world system of licenses and permits were dismantled. However, these reforms did not lead to substantial increase in the share of manufacturing. But there are two aspects we can consider here. The quantity and the quality of the growth in the manufacturing sector. With respect to the quantity, the size of the manufacturing sector in India post 1991 reforms did not see any improvement. But since 1991, there has been a qualitative change in the sector. The range and the quality of the products manufactured in India have improved impressively. However, this growth in product quality and variety has not been accompanied by proportional expansion in manufacturing. This is mainly due to the increased income inequality. See, post 1991, the income inequality in India started increasing. So, there were few number of rich people and large number of poor people. So, Indian manufacturing sector focused only on the quality and providing variety to satisfy the needs of the rich people. Since most of the people in India were poor, the quantity of the manufacturing sector did not increase. So, what I am trying to say is, post 1991 reforms, even though government took steps to increase the manufacturing production in India, the growth happened only in the quality of the manufactured products and the quantity of the manufactured products was lagging behind. This is how income inequality led to India skipping the manufacturing phase and entering the service sector phase. After the 1991 reforms, we don't know if government gave up on manufacturing. But manufacturing gained prominence again in 2014 only. This was the launch of the Make in India campaign. The Making India campaign emphasized on the foreign direct investment and more recently, government introduced the production linked incentive scheme. It is basically a subsidy for the production of specific products. Unfortunately, the performance of these initiatives has not been very impressive. So, this means the government has taken initiatives in 1991 as well as in 2014. But why didn't this work? Let us try to understand the truth here. The first estimates of the national income in 2022-23 showed that manufacturing growth was only 1.3 percentage for the year. This is slower than agriculture and all major segments of services combined. The data indicates the impact of the 2016 demonetization on the slowdown of the manufacturing sector. But this is not the sole reason for the slow growth of manufacturing. The author feels that there are some structural obstacles holding back the manufacturing sector in India. The government has implemented various policy initiatives favoring the corporate sector. This includes substantial tax rate reduction in 2019 and initiatives to improve the ease of doing business. Additionally, public investment has increased significantly and 18.5% raise in the capital expenditure in the last year in budget. This increase in public investment should boost aggregate demand and support private sector. However, the government cannot expect industry leaders to achieve manufacturing push on their own. We always have two sides for a coin. Here, we have supply side and the demand side. Supply side includes the industries and the demand side involves the people who buy the goods. So, we need actions on the demand side of the equation as well. We can see that the government actions are largely focused on the supply side actions. Now, you may wonder how we can improve the demand side. For that, you should first understand how demand side works. See, the household demand for manufacturing goods naturally follows the fulfillment of the basic needs like food, housing, health and education. Because these things cannot be postponed. This simply means only when my basic needs like food are fulfilled, I will think about buying other manufactured products. In India, many households allocate large share of their expenditure on food. This is because they earn less. Let me explain this as an example. If you earn only 3000 rupees a month, then obviously a major chunk of this will go into buying food, which is a basic need. You can't buy a smartphone. This limits the growth of demand for manufactured goods. Globally also, there is a strong negative relationship between per capita income and share of food in the household expenditure. The richest countries such as the United States and Singapore have a lower share of food expenditure because there people earn more. On the other hand, among the large economies of the world, India has the largest share of food expenditure and the lowest GDP per capita. So, we have to understand that industry leaders have no control over the demand side. So, what other options do we have? Yes, if demand in the Indian economy is very low, the option at hand is exports. Manufacturing sector can overcome the limited domestic demand by focusing on exports. Smaller countries in the eastern Asia like Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan successfully used this export-oriented approach to grow their manufacturing base. But again, exporting goods require a competitive edge in terms of two things. One is infrastructure and the other is skilled workforce. Infrastructure affects production cost and the skill of the workers determine the type of a product that a country can produce. Unfortunately, India faces challenges in both these areas. For example, a company located in northern India struggles to reach the sea ports for exporting goods. Moreover, India's ports have relatively poor infrastructure and practices compared to more efficient ports like that of Singapore. There are other factors such as inexpensive power, adequate space and efficient industrial waste disposal as well. These all can contribute to competitiveness. Another critical factor where India lacks is education. International assessment such as the program for international student assessment ranks India among the lowest in terms of educational outcomes. The reading ability and the numerous skills of Indian children are considerably lower than those of their peers in East Asian countries. This disparity continues into higher education as well and the employers express concern about the employability of the Indian graduates. Also, the neglect of the vocational training institutions in India has also resulted in significant shortages of skilled labour. So, in conclusion, the economic reforms of 1991 focused on manufacturing, but the subsequent development shifted the spotlight on the services sector. However, a balanced approach is necessary for sustainable economic growth. The government has implemented policies to support manufacturing, but the demand side constraints, infrastructure challenges and educational start comings pose significant obstacles. So, by understanding these complexities and taking appropriate actions, India can strive for a balanced and inclusive economic development model. And this is how India can fully use its upcoming demographic dividend. So, that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw why the 1999 manufacturing sector reforms failed to give boost to the manufacturing sector. Then we saw the challenges associated with the manufacturing sectors and finally the steps that the government can take to address the challenges. With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this text and context article. This article is about lithium. Lithium has been frequently in use because the Geological Survey of India has found lithium reserves in Rassai district of Jammu and Kashmir and Degana in Rajasthan recently. In this context, let us learn some basic information regarding lithium, the status of Indian lithium industry, who owns these minerals, the distribution of lithium in the world and the issues regarding lithium mining. Let us start with the basics. Lithium is an alkali metal. The atomic number of lithium is 3. It is rarely found in earth's crust in its elemental form. Lithium is generally found as minerals and salts because of its high reactivity. Lithium has gained significance in recent times because it can be used in manufacturing of batteries. Lithium batteries have high power to weight ratio. High power to weight ratio here means it can provide large amount of power at the same time being not very heavy in weight. It can also perform in wide range of temperatures. Since the whole world is moving towards clean energy, lithium can be a great source of energy storage in the near future. Next, we will look at the status of Indian lithium industry. The electric vehicle market in India has been increasing steadily. India have also imported about 450 million units of lithium battery worth rupees 6600 crores in 2019-20 period. The new lithium resource which have been discovered can result in reduced lithium imports. Scholars have opinion that the countries which have access and control over rare metals like lithium and gobalt will have a upper hand in gobalt geopolitics because of the potential these minerals have in future technologies. India should use this leverage to its advantage. The next question which has been raised after the exploration of lithium resources who will own these minerals? A three-judge bench of supreme court has ruled that the owner of a land have rights over everything which is up to the center of the earth. But about 22% of India's land mass is under the control of the government. This land mass includes hills, mountains and even revenue wastelands. The apex court has also iterated that the union government can prevent the private players from engaging in mining of sensitive minerals. One best example for this is that the government till now has not allowed any private players for the mining of uranium. This is according to atomic energy at 1962. Lithium is also gaining prominence, so the government might do the similar arrangement to lithium also. But we can't be so sure about this, so let's wait and see what happens in the future. Moving on we will see about the lithium distribution in the world. Chile in South America has the world's largest lithium reserve. The total lithium reserve of Chile is estimated to be 9.3 million metric tons and this is followed by Australia whose lithium resource is about 6.2 million metric tons. This is as per 2022 data. But when it comes to lithium production, Australia stands first in the annual production of about 61,000 metric tons. Even though Chile has the largest lithium reserves, it ranks only second in the lithium production and Australia and Chile is followed by China. That is all regarding lithium distribution and lithium production. Now moving on let us see the issues associated with lithium mining. First and foremost issue when it comes to lithium mining is that this process requires huge amount of water. Lithium mining process is very water intensive because to extract one ton of lithium around 5 lakh litres of water is required. Lithium extraction can also result in water scarcity in areas where extraction has been carried out. For example, let us take the case of Chile's Salardi Atacama location. Lithium mining here has resulted in a loss of about 65% of the water in this region. The next issue is that lithium mining requires large amount of electricity. As of now, electricity has been majorly produced from non-radiable resources. So in this way, lithium mining can create adverse effect on environment indirectly. Lithium mining can result in pollution of air and water also. Lithium mining can result in potential increase in CO2 emission which affects the air quality. Similarly, water is contaminated with chemicals and heavy metals during lithium extraction. Then one of the important social issues of lithium mining will be the displacement of local communities. When a lithium reserve is discovered, the people dwelling in the particular place will be asked to migrate in order to carry out extraction process. During lithium extraction, large quantities of mineral waste are produced. The disposal of these mineral waste is also a big headache in regards to lithium extraction. So that is all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw the basics about lithium, the lithium industry in India, the distribution of lithium in the world and finally the challenges with lithium extraction. Now let us conclude this and take up the next news article. Take a look at this article here. On May 28, Justice Sanjay Vijaykumar Gangapurwala was sworn in as the Chief Justice of Madras High Court. Previously, he served as the Acting Chief Justice of Bombay High Court. Yesterday, during a formal welcome meeting, the Chief Justice Sanjay Vijaykumar assured the bar council and the people of Tamil Nadu that he would adopt the traditions, conventions and the culture of Tamil Nadu state and he will live as one among the people. This is about the news. So in our discussion today, we will understand the appointment procedure of Chief Justice of High Court. Now let us start. The Chief Justice of High Court is the highest judicial authority in a state. Now talking about the qualification. The qualification for the appointment of High Court judge is provided under Article 217 Class II of the Constitution. As per this article, a person should be a citizen of India for appointment as a judge of High Court. Apart from this, there are two criteria provided in Article 217 Class II. Firstly, he or she should have held a judicial office in the territory of India for at least 10 years. Secondly, he or she should have been an advocate of a High Court or two or more such High Court in succession for at least 10 years. If any of the two criteria is met by a person, then he or she is qualified for the appointment of High Court judge. This is about the qualification. Now let us see the appointment procedure. The Article 217 Class I of the Constitution provides for the appointment of Chief Justice of High Court. It states that the judge of the High Court shall be appointed by the president in consultation with the Chief Justice of India and the governor of the state. Whereas in case of appointment of a judge other than the Chief Justice of the High Court, the Chief Justice of the concerned High Court is also consulted. Note one important point here. In the second judges case 1993, the Supreme Court ruled that the appointment of the judge of the High Court shall be made based on the opinion of the Chief Justice of India. And again, in the third judges case 1998, the Supreme Court opinion that in case of appointment of High Court judges, the Chief Justice of India should consult a collegium of two senior more judges of the Supreme Court. So, as per this Supreme Court direction, the sole opinion of CJA alone does not constitute consultation process. Now coming back to the appointment procedure. The proposal for the appointment of Chief Justice of a High Court would be initiated by the Chief Justice of India. After that, the CJA consults with two senior most judges of the Supreme Court. Then the CJA sends a proposal along with the views of the senior most Supreme Court judges to the Union Ministry of Law and Justice. After the receipt of the recommendation of the CJA, the Ministry of Law and Justice would obtain the views of the concerned state government. After the receipt of the views of the state government, the Ministry will submit the proposal to the Prime Minister, who will then advise the President on the selection. As soon as the appointment is approved by the President, the Department of Justice will announce the appointment and issue necessary notification in the Gazet of India. This is how the Chief Justice of High Court is appointed. That is all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw about the basics regarding the appointment of Chief Justice of High Court. Now let us conclude this and take up the next news article. Look at this article. This article is about electricity sector in India. See, internationally, India has made a commitment to ensure that 50% of its electricity production comes from renewable energy as of 2030. But yesterday, the Central Electricity Authority has said that this target will be achieved as early as 2026-27. The Central Electricity Authority announced it as the part of National Electricity Plan. This is about the news article. In this discussion, we will learn about Central Electricity Authority and about the National Electricity Plan. Let us start with the CJA. The Central Electricity Authority is a statutory body constituted under Section 70 of the Electricity Act 2003. The main objective of the Central Electricity Authority is to ensure reliable 24-7 adequate quality of power supply to all the consumers in our country. Now let us see the composition of this body. The Central Electricity Authority consists of 14 members including the chairperson. Out of the total members, 8 members will be full-time members and they are appointed by the central government. The chairperson is the chief executive of the CJA who oversees the development of power sector in our country. Now we will see the important functions of the authority. Firstly, the authority advises the government on matters related to national electricity policy. Then, it formulates short-term and prospective plans for development of electricity systems in our country. Thirdly, the Central Electricity Authority specifies the technical standards and safety requirements for construction of electricity plants, electric lines and connectivity to the grid. And finally, the Central Electricity Authority assists in the timely completion of schemes and projects for improving and augmenting the electricity system in our country. See, I have mentioned the important points alone here. You can read the other functions by visiting the official website of the Central Electricity Authority. This is all about the Central Electricity Authority. Now we will see about the National Electricity Plan. Recently, the CEA has notified the National Electricity Plan for the period 2022-2032. The plan document includes the review of last 5 years, then the detailed plan for next 5 years and a prospective plan for the next 5 years that is from 2027-2032. The plan outlines the target and actions that are needed to be taken for the development of electricity systems in our country. The plan also provides for various targets. One among the targets is to increase India's installed electricity capacity that is being sourced from renewable resources. Now we will see the projections made in the National Electricity Plan. The plan projected all India peak electricity demand is going to be 277 gigawatts for the year 2026-2027 and 366 gigawatts for the year 2031-32. The energy requirement and peak demand are inclusive of the impact that arises due to increased adoption of electric vehicle, installation of solar rooftop, production of green hydrogen etc. Apart from this, the plan also says that the likely installed capacity for the year 2026-2027 is going to be 609,000 megawatts. And for the year 2031-32, the installed capacity is estimated to be around 900,000 megawatts. In addition to this, the plan also notes that the share of non-fossil based capacity is likely to increase to 57% by the end of the year 2026-2027 and may likely further increase to 68% by the end of 2031-32. Note one difference here, the installed capacity does not perfectly translate into generator power. This is because different sources of renewable energy have varying efficiency and they are not available at all times. For example, solar power is available only during the day and wind energy is dependent on climate condition. So accounting for these variations, the national electricity plan estimated that the available power from renewable energy will be around 35% of the total energy generated by 2026-27 and 43% by 2031-32. This is all about the projections made in the national electricity plan and that's all regarding this discussion. With this, let us conclude the news article discussion and take up the practice problems questions. We have four practice problems questions today. Let us see the Mumbai one. Let us take up the first question. It is a map based question. Six countries are given. We have to find how many of the given countries have bought us with Serbia. Now look at this map. From the map we know that Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzogomina and the Republic of Croatia share land border with Serbia. So of the given six countries, all countries have a land border with Serbia. So the correct answer here is option D all six. Now moving on to the next question. Here three statements are given. We have to find how many of the given statements are correct. The three statements given here are about the Central Electricity Authority. Let us take up the first statement. It is a statutory body constituted under the Electricity Act 2003. This statement is correct. This we saw in the discussion. Look at the second statement. It regulates the tariff of power generating companies that are owned or controlled by the central government. See this statement is actually incorrect. It is one of the functions of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission and it is not a function of Central Electricity Authority. Statement 2 is incorrect. Moving on to the third statement. It specifies the technical standards for the construction of electrical plants, electrical lines and connectivity to the grid. So this statement is also correct. Since two of the three statements given here are correct, the correct answer here is option B only two. Moving on to the third question. Here two statements about the Chief Justice of High Court is given. We have to find which of the following statements are correct. Look at the first statement. The Chief Justice of High Court is appointed by the President of India based on the recommendation of five member Collegium of the Supreme Court. This statement is actually incorrect. The Chief Justice of High Court is appointed by the President of India based on the recommendation of a three member Collegium of the Supreme Court. The three member Collegium consist of CJI and two senior most judges of the Supreme Court. This is according to the third judges case. So statement one is incorrect. Moving on to the second statement. A distinguished jurist in the opinion of the President can also be appointed as the judge of High Court. This statement is incorrect. It is one among the qualification to become a Supreme Court judge and not a High Court judge. This provision is not applicable to the judges of High Court. Since both the statements given here are incorrect, the correct answer here is option D neither one nor two. Moving on to the last question. This is also a map based question. This is a quiz question for you today. Interested aspirants can post the answer for this question in the comment section. The beans questions based on today's discussion are displayed here. Interested aspirants can write the answers and post it in the comment section. If you like today's video, like, comment and share it with your friends. For more updates regarding UPSC preparation, subscribe to Shankara IS Academy's YouTube channel. Thank you.