 A very good evening aspirants welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis this video is brought to you by Shankarayesh academy. So before getting into the news article discussion we have a very good announcement for you we are happy to inform you that we are starting the next pre-fit batch this batch is called pre-fit rapid morning and evening batch see the entrance test for this batch will be conducted on 20th March 2022 the entrance exam can be attempted in both online and offline modes the entrance exam timing will be from 2.30 pm to 4.30 pm at all Shankarayesh academy centers and online so only five days is left utilize this time and make use of the entrance test the program starts on 28th March 2022 and in order to facilitate students there are morning and evening batches in both online and offline formats the course duration is from 28th March 2022 to 29th May 2022 you will be having a total number of 45 tests this includes three mock tests as well now talking about the course fee the course fees for pre-fit general is rupees 2499 this amount includes GST and the course fees for pre-fit with scholarship based on performance in entrance exam is rupees 1250 including GST so for more information and registration please use the link given in the description with this positive note now let us move on to the list of news articles see we have four different news articles today the first news article is about man pads we'll be discussing about what is a man pad and some of the characteristics and how it is playing a major role in Ukraine Russia issue we'll be seeing about that in the second news article we'll be discussing about inflation what is inflation what are the causes of inflation and we'll be revising the measurements of inflation thirdly we'll be seeing about microfinance in that we'll be seeing what is microfinance who regulates it what is the need for such a finance service then we discussed about the challenges faced by the sector and finally we'll be ending our discussion by seeing a news article regarding Maldives so now without wasting much time let us move on to the first news article discussion take a look at this news article this news article talks about man pads now what are these man pads see man pads or man portable air defense systems this article mainly talks about three things it talks about man pads the role of man pads in the present Ukraine crisis and the concerns around exporting man pads to Ukraine so this is the essence of the news article given here now let us see these points a little elaborately in this discussion see as the name suggests man pads or air defense systems they are essentially surface to air missiles that help in ensuring air defense man pads are lightweight and short ranges this makes them easy to carry and used by individuals and small groups see they are mainly used against aircrafts and helicopters have this basic idea now there is another variant to this it is called man pads see man pads means man portable anti-tank system while man pads are used to target low-flying aircrafts these man pads they are used against armed armored vehicles like battle tanks look at this small video clip here here a soldier uses a javelin which is a he was made man pads against a battle tank now specifically talking about man pads see the first man pads were introduced by the United States and Soviet Union in 1960s itself so this is not something new it was first introduced in 1960s itself these portable weapon systems have been used in various conflicts also in Vietnam both Soviet and American man pads were used Soviet made man pads were used by the Viet Kong against the US forces and US made man pads were used by the American forces against the Vietnamese people likewise during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980 the Americans equipped the Mujahidin with man pads against the Soviets see the most common make of man pads is the US made Stinger missiles they only weight about 15 kilogram they have a range of 4800 meters or 4.8 kilometer the Stinger missile can be used to engage low-flying aircrafts at an altitude of 3800 meters look at this short clip of Stinger in operation here a Kurdish rebel he uses it against a helicopter look how easy it is to carry and how accurate it is the Stinger missile has a passive guidance mechanism the missiles are fitted with infrared seekers or IR seekers that identify and target the airborne vehicle through heat radiation being emitted by the vehicle so it is essentially a fire and fire guard system so once the missile is launched the role of the operator ends there the missile by itself seeks the object so that is called as a fire and forget system now this allows the person who launched the missile to run away immediately after firing and take cover having seen some of the important points about man pads now let us see the role of man pads in Ukraine crisis see the war in Ukraine is essentially urban war urban war is nothing but combat which takes place in urban areas such as towns and cities urban combat is different from combat in open battle areas it is different at both the operational and tactic levels see the urban warfare is complicated because of the presence of civilians and the urban terrain that is why urban warfare is considered as one of the hardest type of warfare we cannot send infantry directly into urban warfare there will be a lot of buildings in urban area right so in such cases a single snipper can ambush one building and take out entire regiments this is why almost every video emerging from Ukraine shows the Russians employing air force and tanks to provide cover to the ground troops if you notice closely at this video you can notice Russian jets flying very close to ground level why is that this is because Ukraine still has some of the soviet era long range air defense systems these long range air defense system can target only the aircrafts that are flying in higher altitude this is why Russia is flying its aircrafts at such low altitude but here is where the manpads come in we already know that manpads are lightweight and short range right so manpads can be effective against low flying aircrafts this is why western powers are equipping Ukraine with manpads more than 17,000 anti-tank weapons and 20,000 stinger missiles have already been sent by the US and NATO in the first week of March itself now analytics have said that anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles have been effective in countering Russian military advances in the air and on the ground see recently on March 13 United States President Joe Biden approved a 200 million dollar arms package right most of this will go towards US made stinger missiles so this is regarding the role of manpads in the current Ukraine crisis so far we saw some of the characteristics of manpads and then we saw regarding the role of manpads in the current Ukraine crisis now let us see the complications that might arise from the western powers exporting of manpads to Ukraine see according to the global organized crime index Ukraine is believed to have one of the largest arm trafficking market in Europe for a long time Ukraine has been a key link in the global arm trade but after the beginning of the conflict in eastern Ukraine the role of Ukraine in the illegal arms trade has only intensified see Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 right since then western powers have been supplying arms to Ukraine in most instances these weapons have ended up in the wrong hands reports indicate that weapons in the state arsenal were illegally acquired and smuggled by criminals and non-state rebel groups global organized crime index pointed out that cities in Ukraine such as Odesa, Nipro, Karkiv and cave are significant logistical centers for criminal networks this is why various analytics or of the view that sending lightweight ground-based manpads like Stinger to Ukraine may contribute to intensifying the network of illegal weapon trade this raises the concern of rebel groups using manpads against civil airlines see since 1970s in around 60 instances manpads were used against civilian aircrafts climbing the lives of more than 1000 civilians so this is the complication that might arise from the western powers export of manpads to Ukraine so these are all some of the important points that you have to make note of from the news article given here in this news article discussion we saw about manpads we saw another variant which is called manpads then specifically we saw about characteristics of manpads we saw about its significance and finally we ended our discussion by discussing about the role of manpads in the current Ukraine crisis with this learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion take a look at this news article this news article is with reference to inflation see as per the news article India's retail inflation touches an eight month high of 6.07 percentage in February it also states that rural India experiencing a sharp price rise than urban area see rural India experienced a sharp price rise of 6.38 percentage but for urban consumers the inflation rate fell from 5.91 percentage in January to 5.75 percentage in February so this is the cracks of the news article given here and taking this as an opportunity let us revise about inflation and the measures of inflation in prelims perspective first of all what is this inflation see inflation is generally defined as a sustained rise in the general price level here general price level means that it is only when the price of most goods are increasing then inflation is said to be happening so here increase in the price of just a couple of goods does not constitute inflation have this idea here inflation implies that there is an increase in the cost of living itself that is it indicates that your money owned by as much today as you could buy yesterday so yesterday for the same cost you would have bought a lot of things but today for the same cost if you could not buy a lot so in that case we call it a inflation important point to be noted here is that it is not the high prices that constitute inflation but it is the rising price that constitutes inflation here they are talking about the price level if the price level is keep on increasing it ultimately constitute inflation now what are all the causes of inflation see many people mistakenly believe that price rise because businesses are greedy this is not the case in free enterprise system see because of the existence of competition the business that succeed or those that provide the highest quality goods for the lowest price so a business cannot just arbitrarily raise its price anytime it wants to if it does all its customers will start buying from someone else right so the real cause of inflation or mainly three they are demand pull inflation cost push inflation and structural inflation we will see about them in detail now the first causes the demand pull inflation we will see about them demand pull inflation exist when aggregate demand for a good or service outstrips aggregate supply it starts with an increase in consumer demand usually sellers they meet such increasing demand with more supply but when the additional supply is unavailable sellers raise their prices this will result in demand pull inflation so it is the most common cause of inflation now the second cause of inflation is the cost push inflation see cost push inflation is when the cost of supply rise or the level of supply falls both of them lead to cost push inflation that is either will make the prices rise in the final good or service if demand remains the same here by saying supply they actually mean the labor raw material or the capital shortfall we know that these are among the four factors of production right so when they fall cost push inflation might happen the third cause is the structural change see structural changes in their economy like government budget constraints lack of infrastructure and shortage of foreign exchange can also cause inflation other causes like cartilization and hoarding can also cause inflation I hope now you understood what is inflation and what are all the causes of inflation now we'll discuss about how the inflation is measured in India see in India consumer price index that is CPI and wholesale price index that is the WPI or two major indices for measuring inflation the WPI was the main index till April 2014 when RBI adopted a new consumer price index CPI combined as the key measure of inflation so now RBI is using consumer price index combined as the key measure of inflation note this point very important now talking specifically about wholesale price index see WPI is the price of representative basket of wholesome goods the WPI focuses on the price of goods in the wholesale market it measures the changes in wholesale price on weekly basis it is computed by the office of economic advisor in ministry of commerce and industry very important point and now talking about consumer price index it is a measure of change in retail price of goods and services consumed by defined population group in a given area with reference to a base year the central statistical office or CSO of the ministry of statistics and program implementation they compile the CPI and remember the base year for CPI is 2012 now the current CPI has three forms that are CPI for entire urban population which is called a CPI urban CPI for entire rural population which is called CPI rural CPI combined which is urban plus rural based on above two CPIs kindly note that RBI is using CPI combined as the sole inflation measure for the purpose of monetary policy so that's are regarding this news article in this news article discussion we saw about inflation we saw about the causes of inflation in that we saw about demand pull inflation cost push inflation then we saw about structural inflation and then we also saw how inflation is measured with these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion see this front page article here it says that the RBI has allowed microfinance institutions to fix interest rates on loans and also in revised guidelines that will take effect on April 1 the RBI slightly modified the definition of a microfinance loan to indicate a collateral free loan given to a household with annual income of up to three lakh rupees see I spent the revised norms regulated entities that is REs should give a broad approved policy regarding pricing of microfinance loans a ceiling on interest rate and all other charges applicable to microfinance loans so this is the cracks of the news article given here and there is a reason why I chose this news article see microfinance has been in news quite a lot of times so we can expect a question in this topic in either preliminary or main examination so that is the reason why I chose this article and in this backdrop let us quickly learn about microfinance in detail in today's discussion before that the syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference just go through it first of all what is this microfinance see microfinance is a form of financial service which provides small loan and other financial services to poor and low income households the beneficiaries of microfinance are those who do not have access to these traditional financial resources see this is done to help them increase their income thereby improving their standard of living now you may all think for this purpose only banks are there right see banks also lend money but for different purposes so what is so special about this microfinance see the basic feature of the microfinance is that these are the loans that are given without security that is loans are given without any collateral so this is the specialty of microfinance loans we all know that the targeted people here are unemployed and low income households right imagine if they want a loan they won't be able to give any security right so to address this issue only microfinance institutions provide a loan without any security or collateral so unlike typical financing situations in which the lender is primarily concerned with the borrower having enough collateral to cover the loan many microfinance organizations they focus on helping small entrepreneurs succeed now coming back see Indian microfinance sector has witnessed phenomenal growth over past two decades in terms of increase in both the number of institutions providing microfinance and also the quantum of credit made available to the microfinance customers financial services are delivered through a variety of institutional channels like scheduled commercial banks which we call it as scb's including small finance banks sfb's then regional rural banks rrb's who lend both directly as well as through business correspondence and self-help groups shg's then comes the cooperative banks non banking financial companies which we call it as nbfc's then microfinance institutions mfis registered as nbfc's as well as in other forms and also know that mfis or the microfinance institutions are regulated by rbi note this point very very important mfi is regulated by rbi but note that not all mfis are regulated by rbi some of the mfis that qualify certain criteria and our non-deposit taking entities come under rbi wings for nbfc regulation and supervision see they have to get nbfc license with rbi and fulfill the conditions as laid down for them nbfc mfi is a non-deposit taking nbfc that means the conditions which i am going to mention firstly the minimum net owned funds should be of rupees 5 crore for those registered in the north eastern region of india rupees 2 crore is required as minimum net owned fund and at least 85 percentage of its total net assets should be in the nature of qualifying assets so here the only difference between an nbfc mfi and nbfc's is that other nbfc's can operate at a very high level but mfi is targeted to only the smaller level of social strata with the need of small amount of loans so with this basic understanding now let us see why such a service is needed see according to 2011 census in percentage terms the rural population formed 68.84 percentage of the total population with the urban population constituting 31.60 percentage so according to the census 68.84 percentage of population formed rural population and the remaining 31.16 percentage formed the urban population and just for your information know that Himachal Pradesh has the highest proportion of rural population with 89.96 percentage while delhi has the highest proportion of urban population with 97.50 percentage see we know that the rural areas are with lack of facilities and knowledge and have minimum amount of money to meet their basic needs right it acts as an anti-poverty vaccine in rural India and we know that India has more than 60 percentage of its population working in agriculture sector consequently this leads to unemployment and that further leads to low income per capita see because of this low income it is not sufficient for the people to meet with their basic needs apart from this the people of rural areas have very low access to the industrialized credit so microfinancing works as a boon for the people living in the rural areas which help them to have stability with respect to their financial issues so overall the role played by microfinance is crucial in the lives of small business men in urban areas and entrepreneurs in underdeveloped parts of India along with the people living in rural areas now we know why we need such a financial service and with this information let us move on to see the different services offered by microfinance institutions mfi see the first one is micro loans microfinance loans are significant because they are provided to borrowers with no collateral the end result of micro loans should be to have its borrowers outgrow smaller loans and be ready for traditional bank loans the second one is micro savings see micro savings accounts allow entrepreneurs to have savings account with no minimum balance these accounts help users develop financial discipline and an interest in saving for future and the final one is micro insurance see micro insurance is a type of coverage provided to borrowers of micro loans these insurance plans have lower premium than traditional insurance policies the importance of microfinance is that it is the machinery to protect the poor people from all the disasters that might take place in future for example like accidents chronic diseases and etc it addresses all kind of risks that people of low income group or poor people face for your information go through this microfinance company in India it includes arohan financial bank bss microfinance private limiter like that i have mentioned here some of the important microfinance companies in India just go through it now having seen the need and service and the companies now let us see about the challenges faced by this sector see the first challenges over in-depthness see the microfinance sector as i already said they deal with marginalized section of indian society who intend to improve their standard of living and so obviously over in-depthness will be there this poses a severe challenge towards growth the second challenge is the growing trend of multiple borrowing by clients and inefficient risk management these are the most significant factors that stress the microfinance industry in india the third challenge is the risk of bad loans see the microfinance sector gives loan without collateral which increases the risk of bad dips the fourth concern is the highest rates that is the interest rates for the loans microfinancing institutions charge a very high rate of interest that is 12 to 30 percentage when compared to commercial banks which charges 1 the 8 into 12 percentage but the regulatory authority rba issued guidelines to remove the upper limit of 26 percentage interest on mfi loans this is somewhat related to the article we have taken today we saw that rba has allowed microfinance institutions to fix interest rates on loans it has also said that the rates should not be exorbitant right now the next challenge is the lack of enough awareness of financial services in the economy see as a developing country india has a low literacy rate which is still more moderate in its rural areas a large percentage of the indian population fails to understand the basic financial concepts there is a severe lack of awareness of financial services provided by the microfinance industry among the masses so this also poses a challenge the final challenge is the choice of appropriate model see most indian mfi's allow the small help group model or the joint liability group model of lending they hardly select the model based on scientific reasoning so this is a issue here as you know microfinance in india plays a major role in the development of india it is an economic tool designed to promote financial inclusion which enables the poor and the low income households to come out of the poverty it also helps in increasing their income levels and improve overall living standard that most significance of microfinance in india is that it dispenses the access to the capital to small entrepreneurs see the concept of microfinance focuses on women also by granting them loans it acts as a tool for the empowerment of poor women as the women are being independent they are able to contribute directly to the well-being of their families and are able to confront all the gender inequalities the major targets of microfinance or the poor rural and urban households and women's too therefore it can facilitate achievement of national policies that target poverty reduction women empowerment assistance to vulnerable groups and improvement in the standards of living so here the sector must be regulated properly with checks and balances and with this we came to the end of this news article discussion with these learned points now let us move on to the next news article see this article here it talks about Maldives see Maldives on sunday lifted its health emergency declared at the beginning of the pandemic two years ago it also relaxed the mandatory mask policy you may wonder why see this is because of the wide vaccine coverage and the low covid positivity rate this is the essence of the article given here in this context let us learn about the location of Maldives and the important points related to it first of all let us understand the location where is it yeah it is in the Indian Ocean now look at this map here Maldives officially the Republic of Maldives is an archipelago country in the Indian subcontinent of Asia situated in the Indian Ocean see it lies southwest of Sri Lanka and India now here you can see that the equator passes through the Maldives equator actually passes through 13 countries one of them is Maldives the Maldives consist of 1190 coral islands grouped in a double chain of 27 allots situated in the Indian Ocean see Maldives has a warm and humid tropical climate all year round and is influenced by two dominating monsoons the dry season that is northeast monsoon runs from December to April while the rainy season that is southeast monsoon runs from late May to November see the economy of the scenic Indian Ocean archipelago is heavily reliant on tourism sector before the pandemic revenue from the sector accounted for about 70 percentage of countries GDP see India is currently the third largest source market for Maldivian tourism following Russia and the United Kingdom according to data published by the Ministry of Tourism now with this basic understanding let us see about the importance of Maldives for India see Maldives and India share ethnic linguistic cultural religious and commercial links steeping in antiquity and enjoy close cordial and multidimensional relations India was among the first to recognize Maldives after its independence in 1965 and to establish diplomatic relations with the country apart from this Maldives is an important member of Sark this itself make it significant for India more than this the Maldives is geographically positioned in a tall gate between the western Indian Ocean choke points of the Gulf of Aden and the Strait of Hormuz on the one hand and eastern Indian Ocean choke point of the Strait of Malacca and the other the growing Chinese influence in the in the Maldives that is the Beijing led investment projects is a major concern for India see as the pre-emptive South Asian power and internet security provider in the Indian Ocean region India needs to cooperate with Maldives in security and defense sector and there are 25,000 Indian nationals living in Maldives so Maldives as one of the most strategically located island in the Indian Ocean holds immense importance to India the potential for both countries to work together on adaptive and mitigating measures against the adverse maritime impacts of climate change is enormous this potential must be realized through imaginative foreign policy and maritime security initiatives well the recent India first policy of the Maldives and India's neighborhood first policy or intuitively complementary the challenges lies in implementing these policies with cultural geoeconomic and geostatic sensitivity however with India's firm support to the Archipelago having recently been demonstrated by PM Modi's first official visit of his second term to Maldives in June of 2019 and with the new Maldivian government under President Sole in power in Mali the bilateral relationship seems firmly back on track so these are all some of the important points that you have to make note of from this news article with us we came to the end of the news article discussion now let us move on to the next part of the news article discussion which is nothing but the preliminary practice questions now look at this first question this question is a pair based question here one side manpads are given and on the other side countries of origin are given first pair is Igla from Russia second pair is Stars Creek from United Kingdom third pair Feinusix from Sweden and fourth pair is RBS 70 which of the pairs given above is or are incorrectly matched so you have to find the incorrectly matched pair option A 1 and 2 only option B 2 and 3 only option C 3 and 4 only and option D 1 and 4 only see the correct option for the question is option C 3 and 4 only first pair is correct because Igla which is also called as SA 24 Grinch is a Russian origin manpads second pair is also correct because Stars Creek is a United Kingdom origin manpads third pair is wrong because Feinusix or FN6 is manpads was developed by China fourth pair is also wrong because RBS 70 is designed and manufactured by the Swedish defense firm of Bafors defense actually it is the mistral series of manpads that has its origin in France other examples of manpads includes Chiron of South Korea Anza of Pakistan and MP DMS of India so the correct option for the question here is option C 3 and 4 only now moving on to the second question this question is about inflation demand pull inflation is caused by option A a strong brand option B natural disasters option C an outward shift in aggregate supply and option D an increase in cost see here the answer is option A a strong brand see natural disaster cost rise and shift in aggregate supply or all causes of cost push inflation growing economy strong brand and technological innovation or all causes of demand pull inflation so here our answer is option A a strong brand for example take apple brand prices for this goods are higher than comparable products right but still demand for the product of high this allows apple to charge higher prices so the correct answer here is option A a strong brand so moving on the mains question is displayed here please go through the question write an answer and post it in the comment section write one answer every day and you will be ahead of everyone each day so with this we came to the end of the news article discussion if you like the video hit like comment and do share and don't forget to subscribe shankara is academy youtube channel thank you