 A very good evening aspirants. Welcome to Hindu News Analysis brought to you by Shankar IAS Academy for the date 19th of July, 2022. The list of articles we are going to discuss today is displayed on the screen. You can go through it. Now let's start our discussion. Have a look at this editorial article. It talks about the work timings of the staffs. See currently we have the five days of work per week right. But the article talks about a revolution in this structure. We will see what that revolution is and we will also see in brief about the current working time. After that we will proceed to discuss about the impacts of the change of working hours. We will discuss both the positive and negative impacts. Before that the syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference you can go through it. Now let's start the discussion by seeing the current structure. See we have all seen our parents working right. Even some of you may be also working. So most of us and our parents work five days a week and some work for six days a week. It largely depends on the nature of the job and this is what the current structure of work is. So a normal person would work five days a week and eight hours a day so they have two days weekend. And of course exceptions are there but we are not going to discuss that here. See before 1920 the working hours were nearly 60 hours but this has been reduced to 40 hours per week by the efforts of Henry Ford. He is an American industrialist. Now what the editorial is saying is that there has been discussions for decade to convert this five day work week to four day work week. Here the editorial gives an interesting fact. It says that noted English economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that his grandchildren would only work about 15 hours a week. But this vision is very far. As of now the discussions are going on for changing the work structure from five days to four days. Now you may ask a question whether it is possible. See you will be surprised to know that there are trials going on to bring this change into the mainstream. We will see some examples. The first example is the most recent one. Here a trial was run by Microsoft in Japan in 2019. The trial is very simple. It involves a typical eight hours work per day for four days. So it amounts to 32 hours per week right. And there will be a three day weekend. And the interesting fact is that the salary is for five day work week. That is you are working for four days but getting the salary for five days. Here the results are 40% increase in worker productivity. This is because of increased job satisfaction and lower bone outs. This is with respect to the workers. Now the benefits for the company is realized in the form of lower office cost. That is dip in electricity cost and fall in the number of pages printed in the office. And the same trials has been conducted by a New Zealand trust management company called Perpecial Guardian. It was conducted in the year 2018. This trial also reported a 20% increase in worker productivity. With this information let us see the benefits that will be realized by lowering the working house. Firstly it will lead to a positive impact on the environment. How is this? See the reduction in the working house will lead to a fall in electricity consumption in office. Secondly it will act as a tool to revive employment rates. Reducing working house will bring in more persons into the workforce. Thirdly it benefits women. It is seen as a step towards gender equality and women's career progression. Because this will be more helpful to the mothers with young children. Now let us talk about the disadvantages of these reduced working house in various sectors. First of all there is limited applicability. Why is this? See this working house cannot be applied to all the sectors. For example take the service sector here. Let us take the work of hairdresser. Can a hairdresser cut more hair by reducing house? Definitely not right. And like this there is limited applicability in schools and hospitals. Teachers and doctors cannot work 4 days a week and have 3 day weekend. You get it right? Secondly it cannot be applied to a manufacturing firm. Here for an increase in productivity an employee in the manufacturing sectors would have to work 10 hours on working days. This can lead to increased stress and decreased satisfaction. And this will affect labour productivity. Another concern is that the implementation of a 4 day work week can affect employees' holiday entitlements. With this information now let us see the conditions in India. See a study was conducted between February and March across sectors in 2022. This was conducted by genius consultants in India. They found that 60% of people preferred a 4 day work week. Also they believed that it would positively affect employee productivity and wellbeing. Now as recognition to this growing trend of reducing the working days in a week, the central government is said to bring new labour codes. It includes rules for a flexible 4 day work week. But here the new codes stipulate the requirement of minimum of 48 hours per week. That means the employee will have to work for 12 hours on each working day. How strainful it will be? This definitely won't increase productivity right. See the increased working hours will work against employee motivation to increase the output. It is well known that productivity declines after a certain number of hours a day. So the draft code should remember that only a reduction in the number of work days by keeping the number of hours fixed will contribute to increased labour productivity. That means instead of proposed 48 hours, current 8 hours per day for 4 days which comes around 32 hours per week will contribute to more labour productivity. This is what the author is trying to convey. So that's all regarding this news article. In this editorial article we saw about the current structure of working hours and the proposed changes and some of the field trials. Then we saw about the positive and negative impacts of the proposed changes. Finally we ended our discussion by seeing its limited applicability in various sectors. With these key learnt points let's move on to next news article discussion. See this article here. It says that the Supreme Court extended the time for completion of the special audit of 25 years of accounts of Steve Patmanabhaswamy temple and its trust. And this is the crux of the news article given here. We are not going to discuss the issue here. Instead we are going to know about the Patmanabhaswamy temple from Pralem's perspective. See we all have heard about this temple right. We know this temple is one of the richest temples in the world. And this reputation is because of the treasures it holds in its walls. See historian says that the temple dates back to the 8th century but the present structure was built in the 18th century by the then Travancore Maharaja Marthanda Verma. This temple is built in the unique Chera style of architecture and its main deity is Lord Vishnu. It is known to be one of the 108 holy temples associated with Vaishna Visam in India. See since independence the temple had been controlled by a trust run by the royal family until 1991. Even after the death of the last Travancore ruler Chitra Tirunal Balarama Verma in 1991 the state government allowed the management of the temple to be taken over and retained by his younger brother Uttaradam Tirunal Marthanda Verma. But in 2011 the Kerala High Court ruled that the family cannot continue to exert its Shabayat rights. See Shabayat is a person who serves a Hindu deity and manages the temple. And this legal battle started with the opening of the treasure walls in the temple. In 2017 the Supreme Court appointed a 7 member panel headed by Gopal Subramanyam to assess the value of the treasure inside the walls. This includes two chambers that had not been opened for over 130 years. And the interesting fact is that when the vault was opened by Gopal Subramanyam committee it unearthed treasure which is estimated to be roughly around 1 lakh crore. So that's all about the details to be known about the temple. This is quite essential for our preliminary examination. With these learnt points let's move on to next news article discussion. See this advertisement here. It says that 73rd one Mahotsav is going to be celebrated in Haryana. It also says that in the series of Amrit Sarovar Abhyan plantation will be done in 2200 Johars in 22 districts of the state. This is about the advertisement given here. In this context let us understand about one Mahotsav from Prilim's point of view. First of all what is this one Mahotsav? See one Mahotsav literally means forest festival. It is an annual tree planting festival celebrated in the month of July in which thousands of trees are planted all over the country. Why was this festival celebrated? See we all know that the trees and forest plays a very crucial role in maintaining an ecological balance and providing oxygen to human beings on the planet. And the forest or tree cover makes 31 percentage of planets land area. See according to the United Nations last forest mean the disappearance of livelihoods in rural communities, increased carbon emissions, diminished biodiversity and the degradation of land. To create awareness about forest specifically trees India celebrates one Mahotsav. So one Mahotsav is like a reminder that we must protect forest and stop deforestation and practice the 3R rule which is reduce reuse and recycle. So when was this first started in India? See the activity dates back to 1947 when it was first organized by Punjabi botanist from July 20 to 27. But only in the year of 1950 it was declared as a national activity by the then Minister of Food and Agriculture Mr. Munshi. Later on the festival was moved to the first week in July and was renamed to one Mahotsav in the same year. And now in Haryana 73rd one Mahotsav is going to be celebrated. See as we saw earlier the main objective of celebrating one Mahotsav is to encourage people to plant more and more trees as they are being cut down on a large scale for industrialization and urbanization. This is because trees are beneficial to us in many ways. Trees contribute to the production of food resources, they maintain ecological balance, improve air quality, climate amelioration, conserves water, preserves soil, supports wildlife, reduces drought and prevents soil erosion and pollution etc. With this information about the forest festival let us see a few facts about the Amritsarovar Abiyan. See the Prime Minister had started the Amritsarovar Abiyan on April 24, 2022. He has started this initiative with a deadline to develop 75 Amritsarovars that is the ponds in every district by August 15, 2023. About 50,000 such Amritsarovars are to come up across India. The project was launched by Prime Minister in the backdrop of the acute water crisis that the country faces and the Amritsarovars are expected to play an important role in increasing the availability of water both on the surface and underground. So that is all regarding this news article. We will discuss more about this Amritsarovar Abiyan in the coming days. With these learnt points let us move on to next news article discussion. Look at this news article. This news article talks about the steps taken to reopen Lyon Safari Park at Nayar. See a proposal to reopen the facility by relocating it adjacent to the nearby deer rehabilitation center is under consideration. But the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had cancelled the recognition of the park. The decision was taken since the park was found lacking in facilities prescribed by the Central Zoo Authority. Especially it lacked facilities for a safari park meant for a large carnival like Lyon. This is the crux of the news article given here. So taking this as an opportunity let us revise about Central Zoo Authority. As the name suggests the Central Zoo Authority is the framework of the authorities of India responsible for taking care of the zoo. It is a companion member of VASA or the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums. This was created to get Indian zoos to global standards. The Central Zoo Authority of India was constituted under Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. This authority was constituted with major objectives. The first objective is to implement and strengthen the national effort in conservation of rich biodiversity of our country. Particularly it strengthens the national effort in conservation of the fauna as per the National Zoo Policy 1988. Then the second objective is that it should enforce minimum standards and norms for upkeep and health care of animals in Indian zoos. Now coming to the third objective it should enforce norms to control mushrooming of unplanned and ill-conceived zoos. Firstly the authority should recognize every zoo in the country. For this they evaluate the zoos with reference to the parameters provided under the rules and it grants the recognition. Secondly the authority provides technical and financial assistance to the recognized zoos. Thirdly it regulates the exchange of endangered animals that are listed under Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 of Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. In addition to this they should approve the exchange of animals between Indian zoos and foreign zoos. This has to be done before the clearances under exam policy and the sites. Then lastly they should coordinate and implement programs on capacity building of zoo personnel, planned conservation breeding programs and executive research. This includes biotechnological intervention for conservation of species for implementing in situ efforts in the country. See you can go through the remaining functions from this image. It will be helpful for your examination. Now just look at this flow chart to know about the organizational structure of Central Zoo Authority. So this authority includes 10 members, a chairman and a member secretary. The foremost goal of the authority is to supplement the country wide attempt in the conservation of untamed life. So that's all about this news article. In this news article we saw about the Central Zoo Authority, its objectives and functions. With these learnt points let's move on to next news article discussion. See this article here. It is about the excavation works of Maha Stupa at Sanathi. It is believed that the stupa was developed in three constructional phases and it is also believed that the stupa was destroyed in an earthquake and hence works are being done to restore the stupa to its original position. And efforts are being taken to turn the place into a tourist spot. And this is the crux of the news article given here. In this context let's understand more about the sites Sanathi and Kanangana Hali. See Sanathi is a small village in Gulbarga district at the north bank of river Bhima which is a tributary of river Krishna. Archaeological excavations are being conducted by Karnataka's Directorate of Archaeology in Sanathi and by Archaeological Survey of India at the Rana Mandala and Kanagana Hali sites. Important thing to be noted here is that the ASI excavation at Kanagana Hali near Sanathi unearthed the remains of a large stupa. See the stupa at Sanathi was known as the Shakya Maha Chaitya. This stupa is believed to have been initially built during Ashoka's reign and later renovated by Satvahana Kings. But today it is almost in ruins. See the sculptures and inscriptions found in the sites indicates the vibrant Buddhist art and culture in the region. Excavations at Sanathi have contributed many Buddhist sculptures including inscribed historical figures of Ashoka and Satvahana Kings, depiction of the Jadaka tales and miracles of the Buddha. A slab edict of Ashokan period and a portrait of Ashoka were also discovered. Now we will see briefly about all of them. Firstly in the cultural depiction the emperor with his queen and attendants are carved on a slab and this has an inscription identifying Ashoka as Raya Ashoka which is Raja Ashoka. It is the first ever sculpture of Ashoka with his name inscribed. There is another interesting sculpture depicting the revival of the Bodhi tree by Ashoka. The emperor is shown as paying respect to the tree. It is also believed that Ashoka also visited a place called Swarnagiri in Kannataka. It should be reminded here that the puzzle of Devanapriya and Ashoka was solved by the Ashokan edict at Muski in Kannataka's Raichu district. It revealed that Devanapriya which means the beloved of the gods is a name found in many early Mauryan inscriptions was an epithet of Ashoka. The birth narratives of the Buddha are among the most interesting sculptures in Sanathi. They come with a dream of his mother Maya Devi. His departure renouncing the palace life, the defeat of Mara, Buddha's enlightenment, his first sermon at Sarnath Deapak, his miracles and sermons to his followers and the panel narrative finally culminates with the great departure Mahapari Nirvana. There are also narratives depicting the distribution of the relics of the Buddha to his followers and the celebration of departure in the Tushita heavens. The Jataka stories such as Chadanta, Briga, Suttasoma and Vidura Pandita have been inscribed on sculptural slabs. All these slabs served as decorative venering to the drum and platforms of the stupa. The Jataka tales narrates the incidents of the previous lives of Buddha as Bodhisattva. See, the Bodhisattva is a pious person who would always help others. In Chadanta Jataka, the Bodhisattva was born as an elephant with six tusks. The Queen of Kashi wanted to have the tusks chopped so that she could get them and the Chadanta elephant would die. A hunter was appointed to get the tusks. In the narration, the artist has carved the elephant with six tusks within the herd. The hunter was unable to cut the tusks as they were heavy. The elephant, having known the intentions of the hunter, helps him cut the tusks and gives him a sermon. The Sannadhi stupa also has symbolic and anthropomorphic forms of the Buddha. These depict the Manusya Buddhas. The Buddha is depicted with symbols such as Naga-Muchalinda which means serpent with five or more heads. The symbols also include elephant, swan, dharma chakra and empty throne with cushions. The slabs are decorated with architectural motifs and flora and fauna. See, the excavation showed that the Sannadhi stupa has the maximum number of inscriptions among all stupas. It has more than 700 inscriptions. So that's all regarding this news article. In this news article, we saw about the sites Sannadhi and Kanahanali in the prelims point of view. With all these learned points, let's move on to the next part of our news article discussion which is preliminary practice questions discussion. Today, we have four questions. I will solve three of them and one question is a quiz question for you. Now look at the first question. Consider the following statements regarding the Dravidian style of architecture. Statement one, Dravidian style of architecture is comprised of temples laid out in panchayatan style with the principal temple and four subsidiary shrines. Statement two, the subsidiary shrines have Vimanas unlike the Nagaras style of architecture. We have to find the incorrect statement here. See, statement one is correct. This is because Dravidian temples were surrounded by high boundary walls. The front wall has a high entrance gateway known as Gopuram. The temple premise was laid out in panchayatan style with the principal temple and four subsidiary shrines. Statement two, it is incorrect. There is only one Vimana in the Dravidian architecture on top of the main temple. But the subsidiary shrines do not have Vimanas which is present in Nagara architecture. Okay, so statement one is correct and statement two is incorrect. And the question demands incorrect statement. So our answer is option B2 only. Look at the second question with reference to central zoo authority. Statement one, they can deregognize a zoo in India. Statement two, they cannot provide financial assistance for the management of zoos. We have to find the correct statement here. See, statement one, it is correct. Because they can deregognize a zoo in India. Statement two, it is incorrect. Because they can provide technical, financial and other assistance for the proper management of zoos in specific line. Okay, so our correct answer is option A1 only. Look at this third question. This is a pair based question. Consider the following pairs regarding stupa and its location. See here, the first pair it is correct. Because the Mahacaitya at Amravadi or the Amravadi stupa was one of the biggest in Andhra Pradesh. This is correct. And the pair two and three are interchanged. Sanchi stupa is in Madhya Pradesh and Chaukanti stupa is in Uttar Pradesh. See, the great Sanchi stupa is one of the best preserved ancient stupa in central India. And it is also one of the oldest stone structures in India. We know that it is an important Buddhist monument. The construction work of this massive structure was commissioned by the Emperor Ashoka the Great in the third century BC. Okay, and this Chaukanti stupa is one of the important Buddhist stupa at Sarnath and a popular tourist site in Uttar Pradesh. It is believed to have evolved from a centuries old burial mound. This large ruined stupa was initially built in the fourth and sixth centuries as a terrorist temple during the Gupta period. Okay, so pair one is correct and two and three are wrong. So, our answer will be option A, only one pair. See this question. This question is a quiz question for you. It is regarding the Indian state of forest report 2021. Find the answer and post it in the comment section. You can answer this question in our community poll also. The main question based on today's discussion is displayed on the screen. Write your answer and post it in the comment section. If you like the video, hit the like button, post your comments and share the video with your friends. And don't forget to subscribe Shankar IIS Academy YouTube channel. Thanks for watching.