 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Iyer's Academy. Displayed are the list of news articles selected for today's analysis and their page numbers in Chennai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram editions of the newspaper. The link for the handwritten notes and the time stamping of the news articles are provided in the description box and the time stamping for the benefit of smartphone users has been provided in the comment section. Now let us move on to the first news article. This news article is about the Dam Safety Bill of 2019. Recently, this bill was passed in Lokshaba. This bill provides for surveillance, inspection, operation and maintenance of specified dams across the country. The provisions of the bill provides for setting up of certain institutional mechanisms for the purpose of ensuring dam safety. Now let us see some of the important provisions. So according to section 5 of the bill, it talks about setting up of a national committee on dam safety. This will be chaired by the chairperson of Central Water Commission. It includes some 10 representatives from the central government, up to 7 representatives of state government by rotation and it also includes experts of dam safety to the tune of 3 members and all the members other than the chairperson of Central Water Commission will be nominated by the central government. Now what will be the functions of national committee on dam safety? This was mentioned in section 6 of the bill and also mentioned in first schedule of the bill. So they have to work to prevent dam failures and dam failure related disasters and they have to maintain standards of dam safety and they have to evolve dam safety policies and I also have to recommend necessary regulations. They will analyze causes of major dam failures and also prescribe changes in the dam safety practices. Then the bill aims to set up a national dam safety authority. This is according to section 8 of the bill. It will be headed by an officer not below the rank of an additional secretary and the officer has to be appointed by the central government. This authority will be implementing the policies formulated by the national committee on dam safety. This is according to section 9. They will also resolve the disputes between state dam safety organizations and they will also specify regulations for inspection and investigation of dams and they will provide accreditation to the agencies working for construction design and alteration of dams. So we saw about national committee on dam safety and national dam safety authority. So this is at the central level. Now let's see at the state level we have state dam safety organizations and also state committee on dam safety. Section 14 talks about state dam safety organization. A state government shall establish the state dam safety organization for its jurisdiction and control. So all specified dams within the state will fall under the jurisdiction of the state dam safety organization. But under certain circumstances the national dam safety authority will be acting as a state dam safety organization. For example if a dam is owned by central public sector undertake then SDSO will not be having the role to play but it will be national dam safety authority. If a dam is owned by one state but the dam is situated in another state in that case also the particular state dam safety organization will not have its own role to play. This will be taken no more by national dam safety authority. This provision of jurisdiction limit or limitation of jurisdiction for SDSO is according to section 24 of the bill. Now relating to the functions of state dam safety organization it includes surveillance, inspecting, monitoring, the operation and maintenance of dams and also keeping a database of all dams and also recommending safety measures to the dam owners. Now we said there will also be a state committee on dam safety. This will be based on section 11 and it will also be constituted by the state government. They will be reviewing the work of state dam safety organizations. They will order dam safety investigations and they will also assess the potential impact on upstream and downstream states. Now with respect to the obligations on dam owners it was mentioned in section 35 of the bill. The dam owners are required to provide dam safety unit in every dam. So there has to be a dam safety unit. And this team has to inspect the dams before and after monsoons, during and after every earthquake or flood or any other calamities. They will be conducting risk assessment studies at regular intervals and also prepare emergency action plan. And they also will conduct comprehensive dam safety evaluation at regular intervals or in a periodic time frame. So they will be conducting this comprehensive evaluation whenever there is a major modification to the original structure of the dam or whenever there is extreme hydrological or seismic events such as earthquake. So this dam safety unit they inspect the dams before and after monsoons. So they conduct risk assessment studies. They prepare emergency action plan. They conduct comprehensive dam safety evaluation. So now let's come to offenses and penalties. This is dealt by section 41. Abstracting a person to carry out his functions based on the act or if someone is refusing to cooperate with the directions issued under the bill, then that means an offense. Offenders can be punished with imprisonment up to one year or fine or both. In case of loss of lives, the imprisonment can go up to two years. Here the offenses can be cognizable that is arrested without warrant by the police officer only when the complaint is made by the government or any other authority that is established or constituted in this particular bill. We have been reading that some states are unhappy with the bill. Now this also has link with the concept of federalism as well. Now this is because according to entry 17 in the state list of schedule 7 of Indian constitution. Water comes under state list but it is subject to the provisions of entry 56 of union list. When we say water in the state list, it means water supplies, irrigation and canals, drainage and embankments, water storage and water power. All these come under state list but subject to the provision of regulation and development of interstate rivers and interstate river valleys. So this we have to keep in mind. So overall we can say other than whatever mentioned in union list, water comes under state list but states are thinking that this bill is aimed at taking control of dams from the states and this amounts to unconstitutionality. So they claim that the bill encroaches the sovereignty of the states to manage their dams. States object the provisions particularly mentioned in section 24 of the bill because this section mentions that if the dam that is controlled by one state is actually situated in the territory of another state then the role will not be performed by the concerned state dam safety organization but it will be taken over by national dam safety authority. So government says the authority will take over to avoid possible interstate conflicts. But for example if you take the case of Tamil Nadu, it owns the dams such as Mulle Periyar dam and Parambikulam dam both within the territorial jurisdiction of state of Kerala. So the state of Tamil Nadu believes that this bill will compromise their rights over these dams that are in the territory of another state. This bill is also criticized for lack of adequate provisions with respect to providing compensation to the people affected by the dams. Certain states criticize that. They are saying that dam construction is mostly associated with displacement of people belonging to tribal communities and people belonging to the nearby areas where the dam is constructed and there will also be loss of livelihood and submergence of land. So they are saying that this issue was not addressed by the bill. So this is one set of criticism but we can say that before the construction of the dam this will be taken care by the Land Acquisition Act. And if you see first schedule of the dam safety bill of 2019, it talks about providing compensation with respect to breach in dam safety or dam failures. So the first schedule deals with the functions of national committee on dam safety. See this committee can explore compensations by means of insurance coverage for the people affected by dam failures. So we can say that this bill addresses dam failures not dam construction. So that can be dealt adequately by the Land Acquisition Act. Now with respect to the bill, the Union Water Resources Minister has stated that there are around 5,344 big or large dams in India and around 293 of them are more than 100 years old. So seeing the lifetime of this dam it raises serious concern with respect to safety of these dams. Recently we saw a dam breach in Tiware Dam in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra. In July 29 we have also analyzed the particular article on the day. It has killed more than 20 people. So we also discussed that even during last year in November when many people represented the problems or the structural faults with respect to the dam to the concerned authorities, there was negligence with respect to the safety of the dam and that is one of the reason for the dam breach as well. So this bill will a set of regulatory arrangement as we have discussed already at the central level, at the state level and also even in every dam we saw about dam safety unit. So all this will take care of the dam safety and it will prevent the loss of lives because of dam failures. So this bill also helps to adopt uniform dam safety procedures across the country. Way back in 1986 a standing committee has recommended for unified dam safety procedure for all dams in India and it also recommended for a necessary legislation on dam safety. But at that time it was felt that let concerned state governments take care of dam safety. But however recently some of the states favored the idea of uniform central legislation on dam safety and this bill is with respect to addressing the concerns of these states and these idea to have a uniform structure for all dams in our country. So it is expected that a proper effective and strict implementation of this bill if it becomes an enforceable legislation will minimize the incidents of dam failures and will protect human life and property. So we saw that there will be periodic surveys and there will be efficient management of dams. This will also help to reduce the problem of water scarcity because of proper assessment and proper regulation of dams will also help to mitigate their disputes between the states. So these are some of the provisions with respect to the dam safety bill of 2019. With this we come to the end of the analysis of this news article. Now let's move on to next article. This news article is about the recommendation of University Grants Commission for 20 institutions with respect to granting the status of Institute of Eminence. So now that these 20 institutions are considered by the UGC, the Ministry of Human Resource and Development based on this consideration may grant the Institute of Eminence. Some of the institutions of the 20 institutions are IIT Madras, IIT Kharagpur, Delhi University, University of Hyderabad. We can also see some institutions were not considered to be granted this status of Institute of Eminence. Actually in December 2018 the Empowered Expert Committee constituted by University Grants Commission has recommended 19 institutions to the UGC for its consideration for granting IOE status. So of these institutions the UGC has denied the consideration to five private universities and they are Azim Premji University, Ashoka University, Kriya University, Indian Institute of Human Settlements and Indian Institute of Public Health. See the ground for denial of the status to these private institutions is that they have not been placed or that they have not yet got any global ranking or national rankings so far. But we can see one private institution has been considered by the UGC that is Satya Bharti Foundation. It is the philanthropic arm of the telecom company Airtel that has been considered by the UGC for the award of this Institute of Eminence status. The first Greenfield institution was Geo Institute which was backed by the Reliance Foundation. When we say Greenfield institution in this context it means the institution that has not been established yet. It's a special category where the particular sponsoring organization will set up new institute or institution. Here when we say sponsoring organization for Geo it will be Reliance Foundation. Now let's see about this institutions of Eminence status. See it is granted under the scheme institutions of Eminence. Here Eminence means greatness or prestige. This scheme was launched in order to implement the commitment of the government to empower higher educational institutions so that these higher educational institutions can become world-class teaching and research institutions or in other words these institutions should become or should attain international standards in teaching and in research. Under the scheme 10 public and 10 private institutions are to be identified so that they can emerge as a world-class teaching and research institution. One another purpose is also to enhance affordable access to high quality education. So for the implementation of the scheme the UGC has issued an enabling regulatory architecture. So when we say enabling regulatory architecture here it means the principles or the rules or the legal obligations that the IOE institutions have to adhere. So for this purpose the ministry of human resource and development and the university grants commission they evolved a policy. So this policy was incorporated into the UGC declaration of government educational institutions as institutions of Eminence guidelines of 2017 and also in UGC institutions of Eminence deemed to be universities regulations of 2017. These guidelines and regulations were issued to enable 10 public and 10 private institutions to emerge as world-class teaching and research institutions and these institutions are to be called as institutions of Eminence. The aim of the scheme is to bring higher educational institutions that are selected or declared as IOEs to the top 500 institutions in the world and this target has to be achieved within a period of 10 years. So after 10 years the aim will be to bring these institutions of Eminence to top 100 of the world ranking. So one another objective as seen already is to provide world-class teaching and research facilities to Indian students within the country and also to enhance general level of education of the country. So one of the salient features of the scheme is to give greater autonomy particularly with respect to admitting foreign students. Now the admission of foreign students will be up to 30 percent of the admitted Indian students. Next salient feature is that to recruit foreign faculty they are saying that it will be up to 25 percent of the total faculty strength and the scheme also enables to offer online courses for up to 20 percent programs of the institutions and the scheme also allows these declared institutions of Eminence to enter into academic collaboration with top 500 world ranking institutions. So in all these things the institutions will be given autonomy and it is stated that with respect to certain aspects of all these things there will not be any requirement of permission from the university grants commission. Then the scheme also allows the institutions to fix the fees and also to charge fees from foreign students without any restriction and there is also flexibility to frame core structure in terms of number of creditors and also number of years to take a degree. So this also means they will be given complete flexibility with respect to fixing the curriculum and also the syllabus. So the institutions will have freedom to choose their own path so as to become world-class institutions. Now let's come to those institutions that are public institutions or non private institutions what will happen to them if they are declared as Institute of Eminence. See each public institutions once declared as institution of Eminence they will be provided financial assistance of up to thousand crore. This will be given over a period of five years so it is expected that this kind of financial support will also create a healthy competition among the institutions and the fund will also give a boost or at least fill the gaps with respect to the funding related to research activities. So the support by the scheme will also enable the particular institution to work for better research output and also to achieve in international rankings. Now with respect to private institutions that are to be declared as institutions of Eminence there will be no financial support but these institutions are entitled for more autonomy as they will be considered as a special category deemed university. Now we also saw certain institutions are considered by the UGC and these institutions are called as green field institutions meaning those institutions were not yet established. So with respect to these institutions they will be given a three-year period to establish and to operationalize the institution. After a period of three years the empowered expert committee of UGC will consider whether to give Institute of Eminence status to such institution. So at the primary level of selection for all these institutions it will be carried out by the Empowered Expert Committee of UGC which is constituted for this purpose of selection. It will monitor and review their implementation plans of the institutions that have applied for receiving the status of Institute of Eminence. In 2018 the Empowered Expert Committee has recommended for eight public institutions and three private institutions. Of the recommended institutions three public institutions were already declared as institution of Eminence and the three institutions are Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, Karnataka then Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, Maharashtra and then IIT Delhi that is IISC, Bangalore, IIT, Bombay and IIT Delhi. These are the three public institutions which were already declared as institution of Eminence. So according to Press Information Bureau no private institution has been so far declared as institution of Eminence but three institutions were given letter of intent and also they were already selected for the purpose and they are Bitspilani of Rajasthan, Manipal Academy of Higher Education and then Geo Institute in Maharashtra. So with this we come to the end of the analysis of this news article. Now let's move on to the next article. This news article is with respect to Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty shortly called as INF Treaty. It states that the United States and Russia have terminated a Cold War era missile pact. So this missile pact or missile treaty is what we are referring here as INF Treaty. So the termination of this treaty has now alarmed the danger of arms race between the global superpowers. In the ASEAN meet that held in Bangkok Russia has pronounced that the treaty has become dead. After this announcement by Russia the US Secretary of State has also announced that US is now withdrawing from the treaty. In recent times for many months both the countries United States and Russia have in some way communicated through signals that both the countries intend to withdraw from this INF Treaty. They were accusing each other for breaking the terms of the deal or the treaty. So what is this INF Treaty? So first between which countries? It is a treaty between United States of America and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics that is present day Russian Federation. It was signed in December 1987. So whether this treaty targets for reduction of certain range of missiles or it is targeting elimination. This treaty is for the elimination of intermediate range missiles and elimination of shorter range missiles for both the countries. It required destruction of ground launched ballistic missiles of United States and Russia. When we say ground launched ballistic missiles and ground launched cruise missiles according to this treaty those missiles those have a range capability between 500 kilometers and 5500 kilometers. Here ballistic missile means a missile that has a ballistic trajectory over most of its flight path. So it is a missile with high arcing trajectory that is initially powered and guided but falls on the target with the help of gravity. So though initially powered and guided it attacks the targets or it falls on the target due to gravity. When we say cruise missile it means an unmanned self propelled vehicle that sustains flight through the use of aerodynamic lift for most of its flight path. It is a low flying missile that is guided to its target by an onboard computer. So this is with respect to cruise missile. So along with this ground launched ballistic missile and ground launched cruise missiles the associated launches the support structures and the equipment that are associated with these missiles has also to be distracted under the treaty. So it is not just the missiles but also the launcher support systems etc. These weapon systems are considered as destabilizing systems. This is because the missiles can reach their targets within 10 minutes. So it gives little warning about the impending destruction or impending attack and it also gives little time for the opponent to decide attacking these warheads. That is say for example one country launches these missiles to another nation within 10 minutes it can reach. Now this means the opponent if more time is given can attack and destroy the missile itself. Now when there is no time that means the missile can destroy the entire place of the opponent or the target. So according to this treaty the destruction of these missiles were to be done within 3 years after the treaty enters into force. This treaty entered into force in 1988 so the deadline was 1991 3 years after the treaty entering into force. So it is said that at the time when the treaty was signed the treaty's verification regime was the most detailed and also the strictest procedure in the history of nuclear arms control. And this INF treaty as stated already was designed to eliminate all prohibited systems in a short time span that is within 3 years and there was also mechanism to ensure compliance of the countries. The treaty had a total ban on the possession, protection and flight testing of such prohibited missile systems. And this INF treaty was for an unlimited duration and it is stated that within the given deadline of 1991 the two countries together had destroyed a total of around 2692 short range and intermediate range missiles. The Soviet missiles were around some 1846 and American missiles were some 846. This destruction of 2692 missiles it marked the first part of eliminating the whole set of weapons that were able to carry nuclear warheads. In one another aspect with respect to this INF treaty it is very important and crucial for the security of Euro-Atlantic region. This is because the treaty has eliminated a set of nuclear weapons that actually threatened the European region in the 1980s. Well that was in 1980s and 1990s but in recent years it is stated that in some way or other both the countries have crossed the line with respect to this treaty. One such example is with respect to Russia that it has developed, produced, tested and deployed a new intermediate range missile known as 9M729 or SSC-8. Now this particular missile is actually mobile that is it is it can move and it is possible for this missile to hide as well. It is mobile that is it is movable and it is also capable of carrying nuclear warheads. As we know already this missile also reduces the warning times it reduced to some minutes only. So this lowers the threshold to react to destroy the launched nuclear weapon. Say if Russia launches this weapon the target needs time to prepare for or to destroy this nuclear weapon but this time to prepare is very less that before thinking the entire place will be destroyed by the nuclear weapon launched by the opponent. And it is also stated that this particular missile and some of the missile systems allegedly developed by Russia against this INF Treaty can also reach European capitals from certain parts of Russia. So these actions of Russia actually violates this INF Treaty and also it poses a significant risk to the security of the member countries of North Atlantic Treaty Organization. They are called as NATO allies. We should also know in this organization the United States is also a member and this United States has raised its concerns with Russia with respect to this INF Treaty. It stated that more than 30 times it has raised the issue and this issue of INF Treaty with Russia for United States has started way back since the time of the presidency of then US President Barack Obama and the US is saying that even after several times Russia is not complying with the treaty citing this as reason now United States also has withdrawn from the treaty. It has also indicated that it will now accelerate the protection and development of new cruise and ballistic missiles. So this termination of pact between these two countries has now created fears that both these countries will now start production development and deployment of all these missile systems and it will also lead to a new arms race among the superpowers that could threaten Europe or even the whole world. With this we come to the end of the analysis of this news article. Now let's move on to the next article. This news article states that the census 2021 is unlikely to collect data cost-wise. At one point the article is also telling that the census would restrict itself to the data of the scheduled costs and the scheduled tribes. They may not go deeper into the individual cost names within the scheduled costs or within the scheduled tribes. Even if we are not yet clear whether they will go to the individual cost names of the other backward classes also because the news article tells that as per national commission for backward classes there are 2479 entries in the central list of other backward classes. The article talks about socio-economic caste census. During the conduct of the census at the end it was found that there were around 40 lakh caste names as entries and they felt very difficult to tabulate the data. So this socio-economic and caste census was conducted in 2011 by the Ministry of Rural Development for rural areas and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Elevation in urban areas. This Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Elevation is now called as Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Now some of the reasons why it is difficult to enumerate the caste name-wise data is because of lack of standardization. Here when we say there is no standardization it means at the field level when they go and collect the details of caste name. They say multiple names for a single recognized caste. For example for Yadav caste people say Yadu, Yaduanshi etc. So all these things leads to confusion and at some times people confuse caste name with Gotra. So when we say Gotra is kind of similar to clan whose members are supposed to be descendants of a same ancestor. The news article mentions that the 2011 caste data which is collected as a part of socio-economic and caste census is yet to be released by the center. If you go through the government documents it will say the results of the socio-economic caste census is available in public domain. But the caste data of this particular census is yet to be released. Now coming to the census that is carried out once in 10 years. Here for 2011 census the information was recorded on paper which was later scanned and fed into the database. It resulted in various data sets. One such data set on migration for census 2011 was published last week by the central government. The news article also talks about certain elements or certain process that will be carried out for census 2021. They are saying it is a decennial exercise. That means this exercise will be carried out once in 10 years. So the census 2021 would involve around more than 30 lakh trained enumerators. Enumeration exercise will be conducted by government school teachers and this time the data is expected to be collected digitally using android based mobile phones. And they are saying that the data will be collected on a web based application developed under the registrar general of citizenship registration. And the census enumeration exercise will be done in three phases. One is house listing then enumeration then revision of the enumerated data. And the process of digitization is expected to make the data crunching quicker. When we say data crunching it means processing of large amount of data and it is used in making certain decisions or deriving information. So to complete all these procedures and to arrive at publication of census 2021 they are saying all this data would be available by 2024-2025. But around 45,000 villages are there in our country with no internet connectivity. So here they cannot use web based application or android mobile phones to collect information. So here the data will be expected to be collected on paper. And one very important thing with respect to census exercise is that the news article mentions every Indian citizen is compelled by law to participate in the census exercise. And if he denies to participate in census it could lead to criminal action. Now how is this possible? If you look at section 8 of the census act 1948 it states that every person of whom any question is asked by the census officer on behalf of the central government the person shall be legally bound to answer such question to the best of his knowledge. So that's what they are saying compelled by law with respect to inclusiveness in the census. The 2021 census will also have the third gender category for the first time. Now enumerating the person belonging to the third gender will increase the focus on the problems of the persons belonging to the third gender. So here we can note that since independence this is the first time a census is going to enumerate persons belonging to the third gender. This also means till now they have been neglected with respect to census. With this we come to the end of the analysis of this news article. Now this question they are asking recently the dam safety bill 2019 was passed in Lokshaba. Water comes under which list in schedule 7 of constitution of India. During our analysis we saw that water as such is in state list in entry 17. It includes water supplies, irrigation and canals, drainage and embankments, water storage and water power. But this is subject to the provisions of entry 56 of union list. When we go to union list entry 56 talks about regulation and development of interstate rivers and river valleys. So the correct answer for this question is option B state list water comes under state list. Now this question is with reference to institutions of eminent scheme. They have given three statements and are asking which of the above statements are correct. The first statement under the scheme 15 public and 15 private institutions are to be identified to emerge as world-class teaching and research institutions. Now this statement is incorrect because as of now the scheme targets 10 public institutions and 10 private institutions so that they can emerge as world-class teaching and research institutions. But the empowered experts committee has actually recommended to this overall number from 20 to 30 so that there will be 15 public institutions and 15 private institutions. But as of now the government has decided or planned to go only with the initial plan of choosing 10 plus 10 20 institutions only. So the statement one is wrong. So once statement one becomes wrong you can easily eliminate option A and option B because they have first statement in it. The second statement mentions that all the institutions of eminence will be provided financial assistance of up to rupees 1000 crore by the central government. This is incorrect because only the public institutions will be given the financial assistance and not the private institutions. So now we can eliminate option D also. So the correct answer for this question is option C 3 only. So with respect to green field institutions see these institutions are not yet established or yet to be established category. So these institutions would get a three-year period to establish and operationalize the institution and thereafter the empowered expert committee will consider giving institution of eminent status to such institutions. So statement three is correct. So the correct answer for this question is option C 3 only. Now this question is with reference to the INF treaty the intermediate range nuclear forces treaty. They have given three statements and are asking which of the above statements are correct. First statement it is for the elimination of intermediate range missiles and shorter range missiles. Now this statement is correct and this treaty required the destruction of ground launched ballistic missiles and ground launched cruise missiles. So that has a range capability between 500 kilometers and 5500 kilometers. Now the second statement is it's a trilateral treaty between India United States and Russia. This statement is incorrect because it is signed between US and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics the present Russian Federation. India is not a part of the treaty. So the second statement is wrong. That means option B and option D cannot be the answers because they have statement two in them. Now come to statement three. It says it only prohibits the flight testing of the banned missiles. Now this is incorrect because it had a total ban on the possession production and flight testing of the prohibited missile systems. So the correct answer for this question is option A 1 only because only the first statement is correct. Now this question is with reference to census in India. Again they have given three statements and they're asking to select the correct answer from the following code. That is we have to identify the correct statements. Now the first statement the 2011 census has third gender as a separate category. Now this statement is wrong because so far the third gender has not been included in the census data. So once first statement is wrong we can eliminate option A and option C. Now the second statement it mentions that the first census of independent India was conducted in 1951. Now this statement is correct. Third statement the census act 1948 bounds every citizen to participate in the exercise of census. Now this statement is correct because during the analysis we saw that section 8 subsection 2 of the census act of 1948 states that every person to whom any question is asked by a census officer with respect to the limits of the local area or relevant questions for census the particular person shall be legally bound to answer. So therefore the third statement is also correct. So the correct answer for this question is option D 2 and 3 only. So it is proposed that the 2021 census will have the category of or enumeration of the persons belonging to the third gender. With this we have come to the end of our today's news analysis. If you like the video press the like button, comment, share and subscribe to Shankar Ayes Academy YouTube channel for daily updates and content on civil service exam preparation.