 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar IAS Academy for the day 31st of August 2019. Displayed are the list of news articles taken up for today's analysis along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Trivandrum editions. The handwritten notes in PDF format and the time stamping of all the news articles taken up for today's analysis will be available in the description section and also in the common section for the benefit of the smartphone users. Let us now start our analysis. This news article is about the prevalence or the presence of higher cases of tuberculosis among the Sahariya tribal groups in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Let us now see the news article. First, let us see about Sahariya tribal group. Next, we shall be seeing about tuberculosis and then let us cover the news articles simultaneously. Sahariya tribes are listed as schedule tribes in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattaskar. So, they are listed as schedule tribes in these three states. They are called by different names like Sahariya, Sahariya, Sahariya, Sosya and Saur. Know that the Sahariya tribes who reside in all these three states are also listed as particularly vulnerable tribal groups. One more information is that Sahariya is the only tribe which is listed under this PVTG list in the state of Rajasthan. Now, there are four criteria based on which the tribal groups are listed as particularly vulnerable tribal groups. The first criteria is that they should be following pre-agricultural level of technology. The second criteria is that their population must either be stagnant that is it should remain the same or it should be declining. The third criteria is that extremely low levels of literacy should be present. And the fourth criteria is that that particular tribal group must follow subsistence level of economy that is they can manage with whatever resources they have. If you see there was a question about these particularly vulnerable tribal groups in 2019 prelims question where they even ask for the facts like the particularly vulnerable tribal groups are present in 18 states and one union territory and there was also one more fact-based statement where they told that around 92 particularly vulnerable tribal groups are officially notified in the country so far. So sometimes even fact-based questions do appear so just try to know the particularly vulnerable tribal groups reside in 18 states and in one union territory which is the union territory of Andaman and Nicobar islands and so far 75 tribal groups have been officially notified by the Ministry of Home Affairs as particularly vulnerable tribal group and based on the four criteria the tribal groups are listed as particularly vulnerable tribal groups. Now let us come back to the Sahariya tribes. These tribes are also known for their Mandana paintings and these types live in poverty in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The news article tells that majority of men belonging to Sahariya tribes who live in Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh have lost their lives due to tuberculosis and it is challenging for the women of the family to run the entire family. So sometimes they are even involved in prostitution. Now let us see in brief about tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is an infectious disease. When we tell a disease as infectious it means it can be transmitted to people or other organisms through the environment. So this tuberculosis is an infectious disease which is caused by a bacterium and this bacterium name is called as mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis spreads through the air from an infected person to a healthy person so even if a person coughs or sneezes and if that person is infected or affected with tuberculosis then the bacterium can easily spread through air and affect the healthy individual as well. So this is how tuberculosis spreads through air. A single patient can infect around 10 or more people in a year. Now let us see the common symptoms of tuberculosis. The first symptom is that the affected person will be coughing for a long time that is say for a period of three weeks or more and sometimes when he is coughing even there might be sputum with blood. Sputum means it is a mixture of saliva and mucus which comes from the respiratory tract. So whenever there is an infection a person is likely to spit the sputum and for persons who are suffering from tuberculosis they're likely to have blood in their sputum. The next symptom is that the person might be suffering from fever and especially at night then the person can suffer from weight loss and there can also be a loss of appetite that is they won't have any feeling to consume food or take water. So this is what we call as loss of appetite. This tuberculosis is one of the leading causes of mortality that is death in India. It kills more than 3 lakh people every year approximately. Now let us see the government programs in order to control this tuberculosis. In 1962 the government of India launched a national tuberculosis program to control tuberculosis. Then in 1997 the government of India revised this national tuberculosis program and renamed it as revised national tuberculosis control program in short RNTCP. And the strategy was also officially launched as a part of this RNTCP. It is the DOTS strategy. DOTS stands for Directly Observed Treatment Short Course. The government of India was able to cover this program across the entire country by 2005. Know that World Health Organization has set 2035 as the deadline to eliminate tuberculosis in India and in some other countries where tuberculosis is present. But if you see India plans to eliminate tuberculosis by 2025. So RNTCP has formulated a national strategic plan to eliminate tuberculosis. So this was formulated in the year 2017. It is called as National Strategic Plan for Tuberculosis 2017 to 2025, Elimination by 2025. This strategic plan follows a DTPB approach. Now what is this DTPB? It is Detect, Treat, Prevent, Build. Detect means to detect or diagnose the infection and next approach is to treat the infection. And the third approach is to prevent the infection and the fourth approach is build. When we mean build, it means building and strengthening the enabling policies with respect to tuberculosis and also empowering the institutions, then the human resources where their capacities will be enhanced to address tuberculosis and also providing financial resources to whatever plans and policies that the government has come up with. So this is the build approach. Also know that Central Tuberculosis Division which comes under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare will take care of the implementation of this plan. In this news article if you see the results of a recent research study which was conducted has been given. This research study was conducted by the researchers from the Indian Council of Medical Research and in this research it has been found that the prevalence or the presence of tuberculosis among the Saharia tribes in Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh as reduced. Initially 3 out of 1 lakh persons were suffering from tuberculosis among the Saharia tribes. Now it has reduced to 1995 persons per 1 lakh persons among these Saharia tribes. And if you see the national average of persons affected with tuberculosis is 204 per 1 lakh population. In this research study some of the main risk factors of tuberculosis has also been mentioned. First one is the malnutrition that is they do not get enough food so that they are suffering from malnutrition. The second issue is the poor housing will be seen this later. The third issue is the alcoholism that is they earn and they spend their entire money in consuming alcohol. The fourth one is the seasonal migration for work. So at least for 2 or 3 months in a year they move from places to places for employment. Now let us see the comments that have been made by the district tuberculosis officer of Shivpuri district of the state of Madhya Pradesh. The district TB officer has said that treating tuberculosis is not just a public health issue but it requires improving the socio-economic conditions which means the place where they live and the economic activity that they are doing. So it involves improving their socio-economic conditions and also their educational levels needs to be improved so that tuberculosis can be eliminated among this tribal population. This officer has also said a comment that indigenous people across the world have higher tuberculosis rates when compared to other section of people due to multiple factors and we saw some of the major risk factors why this tribal group is affected like malnutrition, poor housing, alcoholism and seasonal migration for work. The district TB officer has also mentioned this fact that Saharyas are mostly agricultural labourers and they have a low literacy level so only 23% of the entire Saharya tribes are educated. Next every fifth person in this tribal community suffers from an infection and every second child under 5 years of age in Shivpuri district is underweight. Next the district TB officer has also mentioned the fact that Saharyas have the highest total fertility rate. Now in simpler terms total fertility rate means the number of children who can be born per woman and for these Saharya tribes it is around 4, the national average is more than 2 which is around 2.2 because of this high total fertility rate it leads to overcrowding in the houses because these tribal people do not live in a proper house setup they live in kacha houses that is not so well built houses and there will be a lack of ventilation that is there will not be any air flow and the environment inside the home will also be very damp that is wet or moist so all these conditions make the bacteria which is responsible for causing tuberculosis to grow. So this is also one of the reason why this tribal population is continuously suffering from tuberculosis. So this is also a main risk factor why the Saharya tribes are affected because of tuberculosis. So from this news article we have seen about Saharya tribes and about tuberculosis and why Saharya tribes are suffering from tuberculosis the major risk factors. Now have a look at the practice question let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about the merger of the public sector banks the syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. In the past few weeks we can see a lot of announcements made by the finance minister in order to improve the economic growth of India. As a part of this yesterday the finance minister has announced a lot of measures for the banking sector in order to bring reforms in banking sector. The major announcement is the merger of 10 public sector banks so the 10 public sector banks will be merged into four entities. Before two years India had around 27 public sector banks after this merger now the total number of public sector banks in India will reduce to 12. The first merger happened in the year 2017 where the state bank of India was merged with the five subsidiaries of state bank and also with the Bharat Mahila bank. The five subsidiaries of state bank of India are the state bank of Bikaner and Jaipur. Next the state bank of Hyderabad, next the state bank of Mysuru, then state bank of Patiala and finally the state bank of Tramankur. So all these five subsidiaries along with Bharat Mahila bank were merged with state bank of India and after this merger the state bank of India became the largest public sector bank in India. Then in the year 2018 that is in the previous year Vijaya Bank, Denabank and Bank of Baroda were merged into one single entity which became Bank of Baroda and after merger this has become the third largest public sector bank. Now just know that public sector bank is a bank where the government holds a majority of the shares so majority means which is more than 50 percentage. Now the third merger announcement has been announced by the finance minister yesterday. Here four mergers have been announced. First is the merger of Punjab National Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and the United Bank of India. So this merged entity or the amalgamated entity will now become the second largest public sector bank in India. So the anchor bank will be the Punjab National Bank. So it will have around 11,437 branches and the total business will be somewhere approximately 18 lakh crore. The second merger that is announced is the merger of Kanra Bank and Syndicate Bank and after merging the merged entity will be the fourth largest public sector bank in India and the total business will be near to 15.2 lakh crore approximately. Next the third merger, the third merger is the Union Bank of India with Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank. So this merged entity will be the fifth largest public sector bank in India and the total business now it will be around 14.6 lakh crore approximately. And the final fourth merger is the merger of Indian Bank and Ilhabad Bank and the merged entity will be the seventh largest public sector bank in India and the total business will be around 8.08 lakh crore approximately. So all these three mergers, the merger of SBI Bank of Baroda and the four mergers that were announced today will constitute around 82 percentage of the entire business of the public sector banks in India and it will also constitute around 56 percentage of the commercial bank business. Apart from this the finance minister also said yesterday that Bank of India and Central Bank of India will both be able to expand their national presence. So these six banks will have a strong national presence and global reach and these two banks will strengthen the national presence then apart from this we have four more public sector banks which are Indian Overseas Bank, Ukobank, Bank of Maharashtra and Punjab and Sindh Bank. So all these four banks will have regional focus so their main aim will be to strengthen the regional focus. So these are the list of 12 public sector banks that will exist after the merger. Now what is the basis for this merger? The finance minister has said that the banks for mergers were chosen on the basis of ensuring that there is no disruption in the banking services post the merger. She also said that the chosen banks should benefit from increased CASA. Now what is this CASA? CASA is nothing but current account savings account. CASA deposit is the amount of money that gets deposited in the current accounts and the savings account of the bank customers. And it is the cheapest and the major source of funds for the banks because of the lower interest rates which the bank has to pay. Now when you compare with the term deposits like fixed deposits their interest rate is quite high but the interest rate for these current account and savings account is quite low and majority of the people in India deposit in these current accounts and savings account so the bank will be benefited especially after the merger the merged entities will benefit because of this increased CASA. The next reason which the finance minister has given is that the banks have been chosen based on the same business cultures like having similar working platforms based on the similar services that are provided by these banks and also the common target groups that is the customers. So the finance minister has said that it will facilitate a smooth transition without disruption because a lot of common features has been considered for merging the banks. Along with this announcement the finance minister has also announced a number of other measures let us see few of them now. In the union budget 2019 the finance minister promised capital infusion of 70,000 crores into the public sector banks out of this 70,000 crores the finance minister has outlined a plan to allocate 55,000 crores. Now recapitalization means infusion of capital that is infusion of money by the government in this case the government of India. So we have a news article in the business column which tells that PNB that is Punjab National Bank gets alliance share of recapitalization. So yesterday while announcing the minister has also announced the split up of these 55,000 crores where Punjab National Bank will be getting the majority of this 55,000 crores it will get around 16,000 crores in this recapitalization plan of the government. Next the finance minister has also announced some measures in order to make the bank management more accountable to the boards of the banks. The finance minister has announced that a board committee would be formed and its function will be to appraise the performance of the offices who are in the ranks of general manager and above. It will also include the managing director of the public sector banks. So this board committee will appraise the performance of these offices. This is mainly to ensure that these offices remain accountable to the system and also to ensure that their efficiency will be improved. So these are some of the measures which were announced by the finance minister in order to bring reforms in the banking sector yesterday. Let us move on to the next news article. Let us now see the editorial title Big Bank Theory which is in continuation with the previous news article that we saw which was the finance minister's announcement on merger of the public sector banks. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this editorial is given here for your reference. Let us now see the editorial. The author of this editorial is telling that the recent mergers which has been announced by the finance minister are large in magnitude that is large in size, scale and this announcement has the ability to disrupt the status quo. So the status quo is the present status of the public sector banks in India. The merger is likely to cause benefits to the public sector banks. So this is what is meant by the term disrupt the status quo. So the author is telling that this decision by the government should be considered as most significant, that is most important for the banking sector, especially since five decades of nationalization. So just know the fact that in 1969, the government of India nationalized few of the private banks. Since the nationalization of banks, the author of this editorial is telling that this decision by the finance minister is the most significant decision. The author is telling that the objective of the merger of the public sector banks is to create banks of global level so that it can leverage the economies of scale, that is it can take advantages of the economies of scale. Now the term economies of scale is nothing but the cost advantages which can benefit the public sector banks and also its operations. The operations are likely to become more efficient. So cost-wise and operation-wise, the merged entities will have economies of scale. The author is also telling that this merger is likely to serve the needs to make India a $5 trillion economy by 2025. And we have seen many times in the news article that the prime minister and all the other ministers of the present government keep insisting on this point that India will become a $5 trillion economy by 2025. The author is telling that the bank mergers are driven by synergies. Now synergy means interaction of two or more organizations to produce a combined effect and this effect will always be greater than the sum of their individual effect. Say for example, a person can produce two kg of good and another person say person B can produce three kg of good individually. So together combined it'll be five kg of good but if they combine together and work maybe they can even produce more than six kg of good. So this is what is the advantage which is driven by synergy, nothing but interaction of two or more organizations. The author is telling that there should be synergy in the products that are offered by the bank, nothing but the banking services that are offered by the bank. And also there should be synergy in the cost model then the business model and also the geography that is the place where the banks are located and also synergy in the technologies that are being used by the banks. Next the author is telling that there will be geographical synergy because the vast separate bank networks all over India will come under the merged entity. For example, if you see Punjab National Banks as most branches or most of the functions are based in the northern part of India whereas the Oriental Bank of Commerce largely focuses on western part of India. Now if both these combine together then it is a geographical synergy because now the entire network will cover both the northern and the western part of India. Now according to the author of this editorial the most important synergy is the cost synergy. Now when we tell cost synergy it refers to the opportunity of a combined corporate entity. So once two or more public sector banks combined together then their expenses that is associated with running the banks can be reduced or some expenses can also be eliminated. To be very specific with respect to the banking sector some of the cost synergies are by realizing through branch rationalization and staff rationalization. Say there are two banks we'll take Punjab National Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce. Say for example, both of them have branches at the city of Jaipur but now they have merged into one entity. So there is no need for two branches. If they find it is unnecessary then they can reduce one branch. So this is called as branch rationalization. Similarly the staffs if they feel there are too much number of staffs which are focused in one city or in one particular area then they can also be rationalized. So ultimately both these activities by the banks will give in cost synergy. That is they will have an advantage cost-wise. Now the author is telling that considering the fact that the public sector banks are over staff and now after the merger the branch networks of the merged banks will also increase. So that needs some rationalization which has to be done. Here for example there are strong networks of both the Canara branch and Syndicate branch in the southern states. Now when they combine together there will be a lot of branches in the same city. So rationalization is very much required. The author is telling that this is the point where the government's strategy will be tested because several bank employees associations have already raised concerns fearing job loss or we can tell job insecurity. Next the author of this editorial has mentioned about the Committee on Banking Sector Reforms nothing but the Narasimhan Committee of 1998. This committee recommended consolidation through a process of merging the strong banks. The author says that what the committee recommended was shutting down of the weaker banks and not merging them with the stronger ones. But if you see this is what has been done now by the present government because when two strong banks are merged then the entire working capital then the entire functioning is likely to become strong. But say if one or two weaker banks are merged with a strong bank then whatever losses that is faced by the weaker bank will be absorbed by the strong bank. So its efficiencies also likely to come down. So this is what the author is telling that the biggest plus of the mergers is that it will create banks of scale with more capital and more efficiency. But if you see India has a lot of banks but they are all miniscule banks when we compare at the global level and their growth is also restricted by their inability to expand because they have very low capital that is very low money for them to operate. So merging of the banks is one advantage but this advantage can be entirely achieved only if adequate reforms are made in the governance and the management of these banks. So this is what the author is trying to tell in this editorial and yesterday's announcement by the finance minister is also a step to this because we saw in our previous news article about some of the measures introduced by the finance minister like formation of a board committee. So the author is also stressing the same fact. He tells that the key reforms should be done at the board level. Like they should cover the appointments of the board especially the government nominees because right now too many political appointees are appointed to the board and they have little exposure to banking. So the performance of the banks is not at a very good level and also the banks do not behave very professionally. So if the government nominees are appointed to the bank boards then we can expect some professionalism in the governance of the banks. So this is what the author is telling. Now let us see what are the proposed advantages of the merger of the public sector banks. The finance minister said that the merger will lead to the creation of big banks with enhanced capacity to credit. This is because after merger their combined capital will become very huge. Yesterday the finance minister has also said that six out of the 12 public sector banks will be able to compete globally post this merger. So we also saw what were those six banks in the table in our previous news article. And the mergers are also expected to increase their operational efficiency by reducing their cost of lending. This is because the merger will avoid the existing network overlaps like overlapping areas of operation and also overlapping of the services that both the banks were offering before the merger. And these mergers will also have the potential to increase the business of banks by two to four times like increased capital, increased customer base and also wide geographical reach. We saw like however when two different banks from two different regions are merged then there is likely to be a wide geographical reach. So we are likely to have a geographical synergy and this will minimize the vulnerability to any geographic concentration risk that presently the associate banks are facing. Because for example say we saw that the Oriental Bank of Commerce operates in the western region of India. And if the business is quite dull in the western region of India then the Oriental Bank of Commerce's operations are likely to get affected. But once if it is merged and the entire network will cover both the north and the western regions. So the geographical risk can actually be addressed to a certain extent because of mergers. So they will be also able to absorb the market shocks quite easily. And we also saw that the rationalization of the branches and rationalization of the staffs will save cost for the merged entity. So this will also lead to operational efficiency. And bigger banks can attract more CASA nothing but the current account savings account and we saw that this current account savings account is a cheap and major source of income. And once they have more money it will enhance the credit capability of the banks as well. Now what are the concerns of merging the public sector banks? Because whenever there is a plus there is also likely to be some minuses. Here the minus is nothing but the concerns. One thing is that the bad loans or the non-performing assets because the profitability of the merged entities is likely to be impacted in the near term. Because we saw a scenario that one or two weaker banks have merged with stronger banks and those weaker banks would have high ratio of non-performing assets. Now because of this merger the overall profitability of the merged entities likely to be affected. The next concern is regarding the distribution of the professionals and also handling of human resources after the merger. Because all of a sudden they cannot be removed from their employment. So distribution in the medium term will be a big task for the merged entities. Similarly, rationalization of the physical infrastructure that is the branches from where the banks operate and also rationalization of the staffs are likely to create issues. Then integration of the IT platforms and also ensuring the harmony among the employees of the merging banks is also a challenge. But all these can also be an opportunity for the merged entity to perform better. Because there will be different sorts of idea from different banks that have merged. So pooling of ideas will be an opportunity for the merged banks to grow. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is related to the recommendations made by the Supreme Court Collegium. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. This news article states that the Supreme Court Collegium has made a large number of recommendations. These recommendations are to fill four vacancies in the Supreme Court. And there are also recommendations for appointment of Chief Justice in eight high courts across the country. Know that the Collegium is headed by the Chief Justice of India. Currently, the Supreme Court is functioning with 30 judges. This also includes the Chief Justice of India. You may think that the maximum number of Supreme Court judges excluding the Chief Justice of India is only 30, which is according to the Supreme Court Number of Judges Act of 1956. But remember that this act was recently amended and the amended act is called the Supreme Court Number of Judges Amendment Act of 2019. Based on this amendment, now the maximum number of judges of the Supreme Court, excluding the Chief Justice of India is 33. This means including the Chief Justice of India, the sanctioned maximum number of judges of the Supreme Court is 34. But as we discussed earlier, currently the Supreme Court is just functioning only with 29 judges plus the Chief Justice of India. This is the reason why the Supreme Court Collegium has recommended four judges to fill up the vacancies. Now, let us know on what basis the judges of Supreme Court and High Court are appointed. First, let us see with regarding to the judges of the Supreme Court. The judges of the Supreme Court are appointed by the President under Article 124, clause 2 of Indian Constitution. Also remember that the Chief Justice of India is also appointed by the President under the same article and same clause. Whenever vacancy is expected to arise in the office of a judge of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice of India will initiate a proposal and this proposal will contain the recommendations to fill up the vacancy of the judges. So the Chief Justice will initiate the proposal and forward this recommendation to fill up the vacancy. This recommendation is forwarded to the Union Minister of Law and Justice. This opinion of the Chief Justice of India for appointment of a judge of the Supreme Court should be formed in consultation with the Collegium. This Collegium should consist of four senior most queen judges of the Supreme Court. Here, point means judge of a Supreme Court but inferior in rank to the Chief Justice. Now, after the receipt of the final recommendations of the Chief Justice of India, the Union Minister of Law and Justice will put up the recommendations to the Prime Minister. Then the Prime Minister will advise the President in the matters of appointment. Next, let us see regarding the appointment of the judges to the High Court. The judges of the High Court are appointed by the President under article 217, clause one of the Indian Constitution. The proposal for appointment of a judge of a High Court shall be initiated by the Chief Justice of the High Court. Also know that if the Chief Minister of that particular state where the High Court is located, if he desires to recommend the name of any person for the post, then he or she should forward the same to the Chief Justice of High Court for his consideration. We know that the Governor is bound by the advice of the Chief Minister who is adding the Council of Ministers. So, a copy of the High Court Chief Justice's proposal should be sent to the Governor as well. Similarly, a copy of the same may also be sent to the Chief Justice of India and also to the Union Minister of Law and Justice. So, this will accelerate or speed up the consideration process. Based on the advice from the Chief Minister of that state, the Governor of that state should forward his recommendation to the Union Minister of Law and Justice as early as possible. But this recommendation should be sent within six weeks from the date of receipt of the proposal from the Chief Justice of the High Court. And if the comments are not received within the set time frame, then it is presumed by the Union Minister of Law and Justice that the Governor or the Chief Minister has nothing to add to the proposal and the Minister can proceed accordingly. After this, the proposal is sent to the Chief Justice of India for his advice. The Chief Justice of India after consulting with the two senior most judges of the Supreme Court will form his opinion about the person who is to be recommended for the appointment to the High Court. So, the Chief Justice of India and the Collegium of two judges of the Supreme Court would take into account all the views regarding the appointment. And after their consultations, the Chief Justice of India will send his recommendation to the Union Minister of Law and Justice. Here note that once the names have been considered and they have been recommended by the Chief Justice of India, then they should not be referred back to the state constitutional authorities. Nothing but the Governor and the Chief Minister. So, once the Chief Justice of India sends his recommendation to the Union Minister of Law and Justice, the Union Minister will put up the recommendation of the Chief Justice of India to the Prime Minister. And then the Prime Minister will advise the President in matters of appointment of the judges to the High Court. So, this is regarding the appointment of judges to the High Court. So, in this news article, we saw about the recent increase in the strength of the judges of the Supreme Court. Then regarding the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and the High Court. Now, have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about medical abortion. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Before getting into the news article discussion, first let us see some background related to abortion. Firstly, let us see what is abortion. In simple words, an abortion is a procedure to end a pregnancy. So, it is done by using medicine or surgery to remove the embryo or fetus and the placenta from the uterus. And this procedure is done by a licensed healthcare professional. Now, does India have a legislation for this? The answer is yes. The legislation is the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act or MTP Act of 1971. It was enacted in India to reduce the mortality, that is the death and morbidity. That is the condition of acquiring a disease. So, the purpose is to reduce the mortality and morbidity that is associated with unsafe abortions in India. Now, the term unsafe abortion means procedure that is performed by persons who lack necessary skills or a procedure that is performed in an environment that lacks minimal medical standards or both. So, the MTP Act of 1971 entitles women to have access to safe abortion services but under certain specific conditions. So, this act lays down the criteria for which condition and when a pregnancy can be terminated. And it also lays down the criteria by whom the procedure can be done. Then it also has criteria for where it can be done such as the abortion has to be carried out in a hospital that is established or maintained by the government. Then the act also lays down criteria for up to which gestational age or period the abortion can be done. Here the term gestation means the duration of pregnancy. According to this act, the gestation period is based on two circumstances. One is where the length of the pregnancy does not exceed 12 weeks. And second condition is where the length of the pregnancy exceeds 12 weeks but does not exceed 20 weeks. So, it is between 12 and 20 weeks. The medical termination of pregnancy or MTP is performed by qualified health providers using surgical methods or medical abortion drugs. So, either through surgery or through drugs. So, both these methods of abortion are known as induced abortion. Induced means you're pushing something. So, induced abortion is defined as a process by which a pregnancy is terminated before fetal viability that is before the ability of a fetus to survive outside the uterus. Using surgical method is called as surgical abortion and use of pharmacological drugs to terminate the pregnancy is called as medical abortion. In short, let us call MA. Sometimes this medical abortion is also known as non-surgical abortion because it is not being done through surgery and only through drugs. So, it can also be called as medication abortion as well. Now, this medical abortion is done by using two drugs. One is Mifeprestone and the second is Mesoprostone. Also know that drug controller general of India has approved the combination of these two drugs. So, these two drugs can be combined and used and this approval was given by the drug controller general of India in 2002. The main thing that you need to know is only induced abortions come under the purview of this MTP Act of 1971. The other forms of abortion are not covered here. So, based on this background, you need to know that abortion is legal in our country and it is not a taboo. Now, let us come back to the news article. In the news article, it is mentioned that a campaign called as Prathikya campaign for gender equality and safe abortion has carried out a study. This study was commissioned to understand the availability of the medical abortion drugs or the MA drugs in the urban markets of four Indian states. So, this study was titled as availability of medical abortion drugs in the markets of four Indian states 2018. The four states are the states of Maharashtra, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Now, this study is important because a large number of women are accessing medical abortion drugs from retail chemists, that is from the local pharma shops or the local medical shops. So, even when legally a woman can have abortion, but if the drug is not accessible to them, that is if they cannot access the drug, then they cannot exercise their legal rights. Some experts also tell that the lack of access to medical abortion drugs also leads to mental agony, that is mental pain and also the delay in abortions for those women who wish to have an abortion. And whatever information that is at present available to the academics and also the literature that is available, it shows that the chemist's knowledge on medical abortion drugs and its various aspects is quite poor. So, a study like this is quite important at this point of time. Now, let us see the key findings of this study. The first finding is based on the availability of the medical abortion drugs. The study found that none of the retail chemists in Rajasthan stock these medical abortion drugs. And in state of Maharashtrat was just only 1.2 percentage of chemists who stock the medical abortion drugs. So, it is quite a negligible percentage. But the numbers were quite good in the state of Uttar Pradesh where 66 percentage of retail chemists stock this medical abortion drug and in Bihar it was 37.8 percentage. Now, we need to know the reasons why these medical abortion drugs were not stocked by the retail chemists. The first reason is the legal barrier which is the main reason. This is because the authorities feel that the abortions are carried based on the sex selection of the fetus. So, they conduct regular rates to the chemist shops to look for the abortion drugs. But actually if you see in 2008 the Central Drug Standard Control Organization gave the approval for the combination pack of 200 milligram of myphrestone and 800 microgram of mesoprostol for medical termination of pregnancy up to nine weeks of gestation. So, after this approval the pharmaceutical companies launched the medical abortion combi packs that is the combination of both these two drugs and it also gave approval to the chemists to sell it. Now, because of the lack of awareness among the authorities even the health authorities are ceasing these drugs. So, this is the reason why the retail chemists are not stocking the medical abortion drugs in their stores. The next reason is the requirement of collecting the prescriptions. The chemists are required to collect the prescriptions provided by the doctors to sell any drugs especially the medical abortion drugs. This is because normally women does not have a prescription for these drugs and they come to the shops to get these medical abortion drugs. So, this is one reason why the medical abortion drugs are not stocked by the retail chemists. The next reason is the side effects that is associated with the drug. So, these are some of the reasons why the medical abortion drugs are not normally available in the retail pharmaceutical shops. The next finding of the study is about the awareness on abortion among the chemists. In this survey they have found that 43 percentage of the respondents thought abortion is illegal in India and out of the four states that were studied Rajasthan reported the highest percentage that is 60.7 percentage of respondents thought abortion is illegal in India and this was followed by Bihar at 51.8 percentage. And only 30 percentage of the entire respondents were aware that abortion is legal only for certain conditions. So, you can see that the persons who sell the drugs are themselves not aware if abortion is legal or illegal in India. The next finding in the study was on the awareness on medical abortion drugs. Only 59 percentage of all the respondent chemists could name the combination of drugs that were used for abortion. So, we saw that some chemists actually stocked the drug and some did not stock the medical abortion drugs. So, those chemists who actually stocked the drugs were better aware about the combination of the drugs that are used for abortion and those chemists who did not stock did not have any idea about these medical abortion drugs. And in this study they were also able to find that 97 percentage of all the retail chemists were able to differentiate that is to know the difference between what is meant by an emergency contraceptive pill and what is meant by a medical abortion drug. Now, emergency contraceptive pills basically they are tablets in order to prevent pregnancy after having unprotected sex. The next finding in the study was on the beliefs on abortion. Out of the four states where the study was conducted all these respondents that is the retail chemists had conflicting views on abortion. Half of all the interviewed retail chemists believed that availability of medical abortion drugs has increased the number of abortions in India whereas 15 percentage of the respondents thought the medical abortion drugs can be used for sex-selective abortions. So, this clearly shows the lacking in awareness and misconception about abortions. Because we saw earlier that the medical abortion drugs are only approved for use up to nine weeks of gestation but the sex determination of the fetus which is usually done through ultrasonography which is the most common and affordable method is not possible at that time. So, this conception of the chemist is quite wrong. So, we can see that legally a woman can have abortion but if the drug is not accessible to them then their legal rate cannot be exercised. And the beliefs about this medical abortion still remains a taboo in the society even among those persons who sell the drugs. This study has also highlighted the need to address misconceptions about medical abortions and gender-biased sex selection among the drug regulatory authorities because even some drug regulatory authorities are not aware about what is legal and what is not legal. Then the study also calls to improve the knowledge of chemists on abortion and medical abortion drugs. We saw that many of them add different views or conflicting views on abortion and medical abortion drugs. Then the study has also urged to increase the investments in safe abortion communication where this can be carried out through passing of information then through education and also through communication and finally through media outreach. So, if the information is passed then more people are likely to be aware regarding abortion and medical abortion drugs. Now, have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is related to South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, in short, SARC. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. The news article tells that India and Pakistan are expected to participate in the foreign minister level meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation in the month of September 2019 at New York in USA. See, this foreign minister level meeting of the SARC is an annual affair which takes place on the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly's session. The 74th session of United Nations General Assembly will take place in New York in September 2019. So, on the sidelines of this session, the foreign minister level meeting of SARC will be held. Know that this is different from the SARC summit, which usually takes place in one of its member countries. The 19th SARC summit in the year 2016 was supposed to happen in Pakistan because Pakistan was the host country of the 19th SARC summit. But this summit failed because India decided to pull out of the summit after the terrorist attack which happened at Uri in India. Following this, few other SARC members also boycotted the summit. And know that the 20th SARC summit is likely to be held in Sri Lanka in 2020. Now, this meeting that is likely to happen in the next month at New York is of significance or is of importance because this will be the first India-Pakistan meeting since India's decision to repeal the special status given to Kashmir under Article 370. Since then, the bilateral relations between both these countries have seen a new loop. That is, they are not having very good relations. And this meeting between India and Pakistan will be an informal meeting with a new fixed agenda. So, it is expected that the meeting will reduce the continuing bilateral tensions between India and Pakistan. This is all about this news article. Now, let us see some facts about SARC. SARC was established in the year 1985 on signing of the SARC Charter in Dhaka which is a capital of Bangladesh. There are eight member states of SARC. They are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Now, let us see some of the objectives of SARC. One objective is to promote the welfare of the people of South Asia and to improve their quality of life. The next objective is to accelerate the economic growth, the social progress and the cultural development in the South Asian region. The next objective is to promote and strengthen collective self-reliance among the countries of South Asia. And the next objective is to contribute to mutual trust and then mutual understanding and appreciation of one another's problems. The next objective is to promote active collaboration and mutual assistance in different fields like economic field, social field, cultural field, technical field and also in scientific field. And SARC's objective is also to strengthen the cooperation with other developing countries of the world and also to strengthen cooperation among themselves in the international forums on matters of common interests. And know that the decisions which are taken at all the levels will be taken on the basis of unanimity. That is, all the countries will agree to one common decision. And whatever bilateral issues and some other contentious issues will be excluded from the deliberations of the association. For example, we have a Barineal bilateral issue, India-Pakistan issue. Now this will not be discussed at the SARC. And know that the secretariat of the association, that is the secretariat of SARC was set up in Kathmandu, which is the capital of Nepal on 1987. So know that the secretariat of SARC is located at Kathmandu, Nepal. Let us move on to the practice questions discussion session. The first question is regarding Saharia tribes. Consider the following statements about Saharia tribes. And they have given three statements. The first statement is they are listed as a scheduled tribe in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. This statement is wrong during our analysis. We saw that Saharia tribes are listed as scheduled tribe in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Rajasthan. So the first statement is wrong. The second statement, it tells that they are categorized as particularly vulnerable tribal group in the state of Madhya Pradesh by the Ministry of Home Affairs. This statement is correct. The Ministry of Home Affairs only categorizes tribes under particularly vulnerable tribal group. And know that Saharia tribes are categorized as particularly vulnerable tribal group in all the three states, that is in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Rajasthan. So the second statement is correct here. The third statement, it tells that this tribal population has a high prevalence of tuberculosis in India. This is the news article which we saw that the prevalence of tuberculosis has reduced among these tribes but it is still high when compared to the national average. So this statement is correct. Now the question asks you to choose not correct statements. Here only the first statement is not correct. So the correct answer is option A1 only. Moving on to the next question, consider the following statements about national strategic plan for tuberculosis 2017 to 2025, elimination by 2025. And they have given you two statements and I've asked you to choose the correct answer. The first statement, it tells that it follows detect treat prevent build approach to eliminate tuberculosis in India by 2025. This statement is correct. It follows detect treat prevent build approach. The second statement tells that the central tuberculosis division of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare oversees the implementation. This statement is also correct. So the question is asked for the correct statements. The correct answer is option C, both 1 and 2. Moving on to the next question, the question is consider the following statements. They have given you two statements which is regarding the appointment of the judges to the Supreme Court and they have asked you to choose the correct answer. The first statement tells that Chief Justice of India is appointed by the President under Article 124 Clause 2 of the Indian Constitution. Statement 1 is correct. The Chief Justice of India is appointed by the President under Article 124 Clause 2 of the Indian Constitution. The appointment to the Office of the Chief Justice of India should be of the senior most judge of the Supreme Court who is considered fit to hold the office. And the Union Minister of Law and Justice seeks the recommendation of the outgoing Chief Justice of India for the appointment of the next Chief Justice of India. And after the receipt of the recommendation of the outgoing Chief Justice of India, the Union Minister of Law and Justice will put up the recommendation to the Prime Minister and Prime Minister will advise the President in matters of appointment. So, this statement is correct. The second statement tells that the judges of Supreme Court are appointed by the Chief Justice of India under Article 217 Clause 1 of the Indian Constitution. So, this statement tells that the judges of the Supreme Court are appointed by the Chief Justice of India. Now, even if you don't know under which article the appointment of the judges of the Supreme Court comes, you can simply say by this first half of the statement that the whole statement is wrong because like the Chief Justice of India, the judges of the Supreme Court are also appointed by the President only. It is the Chief Justice of India who recommends the persons who are apt for the office. It is not that Chief Justice of India appoints them to the office. And also remember that the judges of the Supreme Court are also appointed under the same provision similar to that of the Chief Justice of India that is under Article 124 Clause 2 of Indian Constitution. So, the second statement is wrong. The question is asked for the correct statements. The correct answer is option A-1 only. Moving on to the next question. Consider the following statements with respect to the Collegium system. The first statement tells that the Collegium for the recommendation of the appointment of judges of the Supreme Court should consist of four senior most judges of the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice of India. During discussion, we saw that the opinion of the Chief Justice of India for the appointment of a judge of the Supreme Court should be formed in consultation with the Collegium. And this Collegium should consist of four senior most twin judges of the Supreme Court. This means four judges plus the Chief Justice of India. So, the first statement is correct. The second statement, it tells that the Collegium for the recommendation of the appointment of judges of the High Court should consist of three senior most judges of the Supreme Court. Now, during discussion, we saw that the Chief Justice of India after consulting with the two senior most judges of the Supreme Court, will form his opinion about the person who is to be recommended for the appointment to the High Court. The Chief Justice of India and the Collegium of two judges of the Supreme Court would take into account all the views. Now, we may think in the discussion, we only saw two senior most judges for the appointment of judges to High Court. So, the statement is wrong. But no, the statement is actually correct because the Chief Justice of India is also the senior most judge of the Supreme Court. This means two senior most judges plus the Chief Justice of India as the senior most judge. This makes three senior most judges. So, this statement is also correct. Now, while marking the final answer to this question, you have to notice one thing that the question asks for the incorrect statements. Here, both the statement are correct. Hence, the final answer to this question is option D, neither one nor two. Moving on to the next question, consider the following statements and both these statements are regarding to SARC. The first statement tells that India is the only SARC member which is part of the G20 grouping. This statement is correct. Now, let us see the members of G20 grouping. They are the countries of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union. So, only India which is a SARC member is a part of this G20 grouping. No other SARC members are part of G20 grouping. So, this statement is correct. The second statement tells that the SARC secretariat is located at Kathmandu. This is a fact. This statement is also correct. The SARC secretariat is located at Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. The question is asked for the correct statements. The correct answer is option C, both one and two. The question is, in the past few years, India has witnessed a number of bank mergers, discussed the advantages and concerns that are associated with bank mergers. So, the first statement tells that India has witnessed a number of bank mergers in the past few years. During our discussion, we saw that in 2017, the associate banks of the State Bank of India, along with Bharati Mahila Bank, was merged with the State Bank of India. And after this, the State Bank of India became the largest public sector bank in India in terms of its net value. And then in 2018, that is in the previous year, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank were merged with the Bank of Baroda. And yesterday, the Finance Minister has announced mergers of 10 public sector banks into four public sector banks. So, we can see that India has witnessed a number of bank mergers. Now, the main question is the second part of the question, discuss the advantages and concerns that are associated with bank mergers. First, let us see some of the advantages. During our discussion, we saw some advantages, like enhanced capacity to the credit, then the combined capital of the merged banks will be quite huge. So, the large merged entities will be able to compete globally. So, this is one advantage. Then the operational efficiency on mergers will also increase, so that there will be more expertise and more technological solutions can be arrived at. Then it is also expected to reduce the cost of lending and the business of the merged banks are also likely to increase multifold. Then the merged bank will have a vast geographical reach, especially in country like India. So, there will be geographical synergy, so that even if there is any market shock, the bank will be able to manage it. And then the cost synergy, nothing but the cost savings because of staff rationalization and branch rationalization. So, this will also lead to operational efficiency. So, these are some of the advantages of the bank mergers. Next, let us see the concerns in the bank mergers. First one is the issue of the non-performing asset. When two strong banks are merged, then there is no issue. But if two or more weaker banks are merged with one strong bank, then the strong bank has to manage the financial burden of the weaker banks because they'll be having a huge number of non-performing assets. So, this will also affect the performance of the strong bank on merging. Then we also saw that distribution of professionals and handling of human resources after the merger will be a big task. And also the rationalization of the physical infrastructure that is the branches and the staffs are also bound to create more issues. And there will also be concerns regarding loss of employment. So, these are some of the concerns of the bank mergers. If you have any other points to add on to advantages or concern, you can add the relevant point to the answer. And while trying to conclude the answer, tell that some of the concerns that we have mentioned can be seen as opportunities and the banks can try to implement them. So, this way you can just conclude this answer. Moving on to the next question. The question is, what is meant by medical abortion? Discuss the reasons for increasing unsafe abortions in India and suggest suitable measures to overcome. For answering this question, first you have to define what is meant by medical abortion because that is the first part of the question. We saw that the usage of pharmacological drugs to terminate pregnancy is known as medical abortion or sometimes MA. And medical abortion is also known as non-surgical abortion or medication abortion sometimes. Then you can also say that medical abortion comes under induced abortion. Then you can also add that the medical termination of pregnancy act or the MTP act of 1971 covers only induced abortion. Now, let us see the second part of the question which tells discuss the reasons for increasing unsafe abortions in India and suggest suitable measures to overcome. For this, you can first define what is meant by unsafe abortion. It is defined as a procedure that is performed by persons who lack necessary skills or a procedure that is performed in an environment which lacks minimal medical standards or both. Then you can mention the study which we discussed today, availability of medical abortion drugs in the markets of four Indian states, 2018. For mentioning some of the reasons, you can highlight the key finding of the study such as you can talk about the non-availability of the medical abortion drugs. Then the study also found that in some states, the retail chemist did not have the medical abortion drugs, particularly the state of Rajasthan. So if this is the condition, then women cannot get the drugs when they need and they have to depend on unsafe abortions. Then you can also highlight the lack of awareness among the retail chemists as another reason because if they do not know that medical abortion is illegal, then they will not stalk the drug and they will not be able to provide the drug if the women do not have the prescription. So like this, you can list some of the reasons that we discussed during our analysis. Then you have to suggest some suitable measures. You can say that first misconceptions about medical abortions and gender bias sex selection among drug regulatory authorities should be addressed. So this should be the first measure. Then you can mention that the knowledge of chemists on abortion and medical abortion drugs should be improved so that they are aware of the legal provisions. Then for awareness among the public, there should be increase in investments for safe abortion communication, which can be carried out through passing of information, education and communication and also through media outreach. So these are some of the suitable measures to overcome the increasing unsafe abortions in India. If you have any other points you can add on and make sure those are relevant points. With this we come to the end of the analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the practice questions discussion session. Do like, comment and share the video and do subscribe to Shankar IA's Academy YouTube channel for latest videos and updates. Stay focused and motivated friends. Thank you.