 Good evening aspirants, I have an exciting announcement regarding your prelims preparation. The third pre-storming batch will commence on 9th November. The first test will commence on 20th November. Like the previous two batches, this batch will also have 66 tests. Make use of this test series to boost your prelims score. With this announcement, let us get into the Hindu News Analysis by Shankaray's Academy for the date 1st November 2022. Right here are the list of news articles we will be discussing today. Before getting into the news article discussion, I will be discussing three questions from the 2016 prelims paper. Now let's start our discussion. Let us take up the first previous year question for today. Here two statements regarding the lapsing of bill in the parliament is given. You have to find which of the following statements are correct. Let us take up the first statement, a bill pending in the Lokshaba lapses on its prorogation. See this statement is obviously wrong because prorogation means the action of discontinuing a session of parliament without dissolving it. If you know this basic fact, you can easily eliminate statement 1. Moving on to statement 2. A bill pending in Rajeshabha which has not been passed by Lokshabha shall not lapse on the dissolution of Lokshabha. See this statement is correct because if a bill is pending in Rajeshabha which is not passed by the Lokshabha and if Lokshabha is dissolved, then the bill will not lapse. So here statement 1 is incorrect and the statement 2 is correct. So the correct answer is option B 2 only. Look at this. I have given here all the other six conditions regarding the lapsing of bills in the parliament. Just pass the video and go through it. It can be bit tricky but if you read once or twice, you can easily understand the provisions. This is regarding the first question. Now moving on to the second question. See this question here. It is about the global hunger index report. Specifically, it is about the indicators that are used in the global hunger index report. If you don't know anything about this question, then also don't worry. We are going to try to attempt this question using common sense. What is this report called global hunger index? So let us think in that link. When do we feel hungry? When we do not eat food, we feel hungry, right? So not having adequate food leads to the state of hunger. We arrived at this conclusion very easily because on a daily basis we feel hungry and we also consume food. So we know that feeling. And on the worst-case scenario, we could have stayed hungry for a day long. Here we are not taking the cases of religious fasting and fasting for protest reasons. Normally, we consume three meals with some exceptions someday. Like I said, the longest we would have stayed hungry is perhaps one day. But there are people who do not get adequate food on a daily basis. Once in a while, they get to eat good and adequate food. So their condition is like the reversal of us. We stay hungry for long once in a while. But those people who do not get food, they will get adequate food only once in a while. Now you have to use your imagination power. Let us assume a child named A. He is having sufficient food supply from the day he was born. So what will be the consequence of this? He will get his nutrition. He will grow to be a healthy person. And this will be reflected in the height and weight of the child. He will be active. His mental health will be good. Now let us assume another child named B. From the day he was born, he was not able to get adequate food. So what will be the consequence of this insufficient food in his growth? Will he be healthy? No. Right? Will his growth like the child A? No. Will he be active? No. Will his mental health be any good? That also will be a big no. Now these are the things that we know generally. To know this, we do not need special knowledge. Right? No. With this itself, we can arrive at the answer. But before that, we will make some conclusion from our assumption. We assumed that one child gets adequate food and the other does not. And the consequence for both are in the form of healthiness, growth, activeness, nutrition and mental health. Right? No coming back to the question. Read the statement one, undernourishment. Will it be an indicator in the global hunger report? Yes. Probably. This is because if a person is staying hungry means he is not getting enough food and not enough nutrition. It can be said like this also. If a person is undernourished, then it means he is not getting enough food and he is staying hungry. Now do you see the connection? So first statement is definitely correct. The second one is child stunting. It means low height for age. This is related to growth. Here also some logic can be applied. Apart from the genetic or hereditary reason, if a child is stunned, then it means he is not getting enough food and nutrition that are necessary for the growth. This is also an indicator of hunger. Now the third one, child mortality. It is nothing but death before the fifth birthday. See the first five years are very crucial for growth of a child and its immune system. Though if child mortality is high, then it means that the child is not able to get adequate nutrition and strength that are necessary for surviving. This again is an indicator of hunger. Now you may think diseases are also reasons why children are dying right? Yes, you are right. But this again proves what I said right now. If a child is healthy, then he will be able to survive. No. For this, his mother should also be healthy. If a child's mother is not getting enough food, then how will she feed the baby? And how will the baby get its nutrition? So this gives a broader idea about hunger. From this itself, we can arrive at the answer which is option C. Here I have given different indicators of the global hunger report. Its weight age, the global hunger index score and the different categories based on global hunger index scores. So please go through it. If you want to know more about the global hunger index 2020, watch our 15th October 2022 news analysis. That's all regarding this question. Now moving on to the next question. Look at this question. This is the third and the final previous question we will be discussing today. Let me read out the question. There has been a persistent deficit budget year after year, which action or actions of the following can be taken by the government to reduce deficit. The actions given are reducing revenue expenditure, introducing new welfare schemes, rationalizing subsidies and reducing import duty. See, it is a very simple question. They are just asking what are the steps that the government can take to reduce the deficit in the budget. See, here they have not mentioned what type of deficit. They have not mentioned whether they have to reduce the fiscal deficit or budget deficit or revenue deficit or capital deficit. They have just mentioned what are the actions can be taken by the government to reduce deficit. So if we even have the basic understanding of the word deficit, we can answer this question. What does deficit means? See when there is a deficit in the budget, what it basically means is there is more expenditure and less revenue. So to reduce deficit, we must reduce expenditure and increase revenue. So of the four points given here, we have to see what all the points will help reduce expenditure and help increase revenue. Let us take of the first action, reducing revenue expenditure. See this is very direct. So they have given reducing revenue expenditure and we saw that to reduce deficit, we have to reduce expenditure. So the first action is correct. Let us take up the second action, introducing new welfare schemes. See what happens when we introduce new welfare schemes? Our government's revenue expenditure increases. But to reduce deficit, we have to reduce the revenue expenditure. So the second action is wrong. Introducing new welfare schemes will not reduce government's deficit. Now let us take up the third action, rationalizing subsidies. First of all, what is rationalizing subsidy actually mean? See rationalizing subsidy means the steps taken by the government to control its expenditure. See basically, these are the steps taken by the government to control the leakages in the subsidies. For example, introducing direct benefit transfer for LPG subsidy is a form of rationalizing subsidy. See through this, government has addressed the leakages but it has not reduced the actual beneficiaries. So by rationalizing subsidies, both the beneficiaries are also getting benefited and at the same time, government has reduced its expenditure. So basically, rationalizing subsidies will reduce expenditure and by reducing expenditure, government's deficit is decreased. So the third statement is also correct. Now let us take up the fourth statement, reducing import duty. See import duty is one of the major revenue earner for the government. So by reducing import duty, what happens is government's revenue decreases. And if government's revenue decreases, government's deficit will increase. So the fourth action will lead to increase in deficit, not decrease in deficit. So here, action one and action two will lead to decrease in government deficit. So the correct answer here is option C, one and three only. That's all regarding previous year questions discussions today. Now let us take up the first article for today's discussion. Look at this article here. It talks about Siddishenla. See yesterday, the Supreme Court has asked the government not to register any fresh FIRs under section 124A of the Indian Penal Code. For this, the government replied to the court that it is re-examining the Siddishen provisions and will bring some changes before the winter session of the parliament. This is the crux of the news article given here. In this context, let us learn about the evolution of the Siddishenla, section 124A of the IPC and the issues with Siddishenla in India. First of all, what is Siddishen? See, Siddishen is defined under section 124A of the Indian Penal Code. Siddishen is defined under section 124A of the Indian Penal Code 1860. Section 124A defines Siddishen as an offense committed when a person by words either spoken or written or by sign or by visual representation or otherwise brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt or excites or attempts to excite dissatisfaction towards government established by law in India. This is the original text from section 124A of IPC. Now, let me explain it in simple words. See, to put it simply, Siddishen can be any action. It may include speech, writing, behavior or any further action that brings about hatred or dissatisfaction towards the lawfully established government in India. This is what Siddishen actually means. Now, let us see the evolution of Siddishen. Let us see how Siddishen law came into being. See, the law of Siddishen was enacted by the British government in 1870 and it was added to the Indian Penal Code. Know that it was enacted mainly to deal with harsh criticism against the colonial government. So, it basically curbed free speech and fundamental rights in pre-independent India. See, the colonial government used this law to extensively curb the fundamental rights of freedom fighters like Balagangadhar Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Bahat Singh. After India achieved independence in 1947, there was constitutional debates. In the debates, considerable amount of time was spent in debating the inclusion of Siddishen law into the constitution. Later, our national leaders and the constitution makers decided not to include the word Siddishen in the original constitution, but they also decided to retain section 124A of IPC. However, this controversial law was again brought into force in 1951 by the First Constitutional Amendment Act passed by the government. We all know that in the First Constitutional Amendment Act, the Nehru government included friendly relations with the foreign state and public order as grounds for imposing reasonable restriction on free speech under Article 19, Class 2. So, in a way, the First Constitutional Amendment Act implicitly legitimized Siddishen. Further, in 1973, Siddishen was made a cognizable offense under new code of criminal procedure. What is a cognizable offense? If an offense is termed as a cognizable offense, police can arrest a person without any warning. So, after 1973, a person accused of Siddishen could be arrested by the police without any warrant. So, this is the background of the evolution of Siddishen law in India. Now, let us see about section 124A of the Indian Penal Code. As we saw earlier, this section that is section 124A defines the term Siddishen. It also provides for punishment. The section terms Siddishen as a non-bailable offense. Under section 124A, the punishment for Siddishen include imprisonment up to three years or it may extended to life imprisonment and it may be added with the fine also. This is with respect to section 124A of Indian Penal Code. Finally, before concluding, let us see some issues associated with Siddishen law. Firstly, it is against the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression which is mentioned under article 19 of the Indian Constitution because this section curbs the fair criticism against the government. Secondly, the Siddishen law was enacted by the colonial government to exclusively use against our freedom fighters. But in a democratic country like India, the presence of such Siddishen law is not justified. And finally, the definition of Siddishen is too broad. So, it is bound to be misinterpreted according to the prevalent situation. So, this ambiguity in the language is misused by the government to curb our fundamental rights. So, these are some of the basic issues associated with Siddishen law in India. So, that is all regarding this discussion. In this, we saw about the evolution of Siddishen law in India. Then we saw about section 124A of Indian Penal Code. And finally, we saw some basic issues associated with Siddishen law in India. So, that is all regarding this discussion. Now, let us conclude this and take up the next news article. Take a look at this editorial article. This article talks about the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. In short, UAPA. The article says that our Prime Minister recently said, nexalism must be prevented in all its forms. He basically said that nexels who use guns and the nexels who use pens must be prevented. He also highlighted the role played by Unlawful Activities Prevention Act in preventing terrorism and Maoist activity in our country. The article further discusses about the issues associated with Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. Finally, the editorial article concludes that while the need for a stringent law like UAPA is justified, government must also take steps to address the root cause of nexelism. That is, government must make sure that development programs reach the tribal areas to address the root cause of nexelism. So, both stringent law and development activities must go hand in hand. This is the crux of the editorial article given here. So, in this context in our discussion, today we will see about Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, the changes made by the 2019 amendment and the issues with the 2019 amendment. Before getting into the discussion, I have highlighted here the syllabus regarding this discussion. You can pause and go through it. Now, let us start. First, see what is the purpose behind enacting this stringent law. See, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act 1967 is the primary counter-terror law in India. Yes, the Act gives special procedures to handle terrorist activities. And this Act aims at effective prevention of unlawful activities and associations in India. Here, unlawful activities refers to any action taken by an individual or an association intended to disrupt the territorial integrity and sovereignty of India. Know that the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act is an enhancement to the THADA Act, which is nothing but terrorist and disruptive activities prevention act. The THADA Act lapsed in 1995. And it is also an enhancement of POTA Act, which is nothing but prevention of terrorism act. And POTA Act was repelled in 2004. See, the original Unlawful Activities Prevention Act was passed in 1967 under the Congress government led by or former Prime Minister Indra Gandhi. Since its enactment, this act has been amended number of times. The last amendment was made in 2019. Now, let us see the major changes made to the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act in the 2019 amendment. The first major change is with respect to who may commit terrorism. See, under the act, the central government is empowered to designate any organization as a terrorist organization. The conditions are, it must commit or participate in acts of terrorism. The second condition is, it must prepare for terrorism. The third condition is, it must promote terrorism. And the fourth condition is, it is involved in terrorism. See, the bill additionally empowers the government to designate even individuals as terrorists on the same grounds that we discussed. This is the first major change. Now, let us see the second major amendment. See, initially, investigation of cases were conducted by the officers of the rank of Deputy Superintendent or Assistant Commissioner of Police or ABO. But the act additionally empowered the officers of National Investigation Agency of the rank of Inspector or ABO to investigate cases. So, in addition to people in the rank of DESP or Assistant Commissioner of ABO, inspectors of NIA can investigate terror cases. This is the second amendment. The third major changes with respect to approval for the seizure of property by National Investigation Agency. See, under the act, an investigating officer is required to obtain a prior approval of the Director General of Police to seize properties that may be connected with terrorism. The amendment added that, if the investigation is conducted by the officer of National Investigation Agency, then the approval of the Director General of National Investigation Agency would be required for the seizure of property. The fourth major change is addition of treaties to the Schedule of UAPN. See, the schedule mentioned under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act lists nine treaties that includes convention for the suppression of terrorist bombings 1997 and convention against taking of hostages 1979. The recent amendment added one more treaty to the list under the schedule. The treaty is International Convention for Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism. See, these are the four major changes made by the 2019 amendment of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. These amendments are not without issues. Now let us see the issues associated with the amendment. The first issue is that the act assigns absolute power to the central government. That is, if the central government sees an activity as unlawful, it may declare it so in its official guesst. This affects the power relation between the central government and state government. In turn, affecting the federal structure which is mentioned in our basic structure of the constitution. So, this is the first issue associated with Unlawful Activities Prevention Act 2019 amendment. Secondly, the provision which designates an individual as a terrorist might trace multiple consequences. For example, an individual cannot be called terrorist prior to conviction in a court of law. Right? Because in our country, we follow the principle of innocent until proven guilty. But through this amendment, even before a person is deemed guilty by the court, he can be designated as a terrorist by the central government. So, this might result in sometimes wrongful designation of the terrorist tag. So, if some person is wrongfully designated as terrorist, it may cause irreparable damage to the person's reputation and career and his livelihood. This is the second major issue with the 2019 amendment. Now, let us take up the final issue. Everyone in our country, that is all citizens in our country, hate terrorism. So, we all want a stringent law that helps in preventing terrorism in our country. But at the same time, government must be mindful that it does not impinge upon the fundamental rights of the citizens. Because in a democratic country, fundamental rights are very important. So, the government, while taking stringent action against terrorism by enacting very strict laws, it must ensure that fundamental rights are not breached. This is the third major issue associated with Unlawful Activities Prevention Act 2019 amendment. So, that is all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw the purpose of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. In fact, we saw the major amendments brought about by the 2019 Unlawful Activities Prevention Act amendment. And finally, we saw the issues with the 2019 amendment. So, that is all regarding this discussion. With this, let us conclude this and take up the next news article. See this article here. It talks about the Tian Gang Space Station. See, yesterday, China had successfully launched the third and the final module of the Tian Gang Space Station. Know that the particular module was named as Meng Tian, meaning Dreaming of the Heavens. This is the crux of the news article given here. In this context, let us learn about the Tian Gang Space Station in detail and also about the difference between Tian Gang Space Station and the International Space Station. See, Tian Gang literally means Heavenly Palace. It is a space station being constructed by China and it will be operated by the Chinese manned space agency. Like the International Space Station, the Tian Gang Space Station will be placed in the low-earth orbit. See, the Tian Gang will consist of three modules, namely Tian He, Wen Tian and Meng Tian. While Tian He is dedicated as a main habitat for astronauts, the other two modules are dedicated to hosting experiments. See, in May 2021, China had launched the first module of the orbiting space station, that is Tian He. And it was also aimed to finish building the space station by the end of 2020. And subsequently, the two other modules, such as Wen Tian and Meng Tian, were launched in July 2022 and October 2022 respectively. So now, China is inching closer to the completion of the space station by the end of this year. See, the Chinese manned space agency, that is CMSA, is planning to keep the Tian Gang Space Station inhabited continuously by three astronauts for at least a decade. Also, the space station will host many experiments from both China and other countries. This is all about the Tian Gang Space Station. Now moving on, let us see the difference between the Tian Gang Space Station and the International Space Station. The main difference is that the Tian Gang will have a mass between 90 to 100 tons. But the mass of the International Space Station is about 420 tons. That is, the Tian Gang is roughly one-fifth the mass of the International Space Station. Then the other difference is based on the crew capacity. See, Tian Gang will host only three to six astronauts. But in the case of International Space Station, it can host more than seven people. For example, in 2019, a total of 13 people were in the International Space Station at the same time. Then the difference is in the number of modules. As we saw earlier, the Tian Gang Space Station consists of three modules. But the International Space Station is made up of 16 modules. Now let us look up the last major difference between the Tian Gang Space Station and the International Space Station. See, the International Space Station is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies. Namely, NASA of the United States, Roscosmos of Russia, ESA of the European countries, JAXA of Japan and the Canadian Space Agency of Canada. Whereas the Tian Gang Space Station is a project of China alone. So, that's all regarding this discussion. With this, let us conclude this and take up the next news article. See, this is a text and context article. And you may think why I have taken this particular article. See, this is about the amendment to an important rule. Which is nothing but the information technology, intermediary guidelines and digital media ethics code rules 2021. It is necessary to know the important provisions of such rules. Do you remember this question from UPSC Prelims 2019? Here, three statements about maternity benefit amendment act 2017 is given. We have to find the correct statements. So, basically, if there is an important amendment, then there is a possibility of questions regarding such amendment appearing in the prelims examination. So, we have to be ready about everything. And this is exactly why we are going to discuss this article today. In this article, we are going to see about the important amendments made to the information technology rules 2021. Before getting into the discussion, I have highlighted here the syllabus regarding this discussion. You can pause the video and go through it. Now, let us start the discussion with some background. The topic is in use because the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has notified the amendments to the information technology rules 2021. And the Ministry has put out the draft to get the feedback from the relevant stakeholders. This is the background of the topic. Now, before going into the amendments, let me introduce you to the information technology rules 2021. As I already said, it is concerned with the intermediary guidelines and digital media ethics code. So, now you know what the rule is about. Don't worry if you don't know what an intermediary is. The rule defines a social media intermediary as an intermediary, which mainly enables interaction between two or more users and allows them to create, upload, share, modify or access information using their services. This could include email service providers, e-commerce platforms, video conferencing platforms and internet telephony services. So, basically, it includes all apps and services that we are using in our daily lives. Some example includes YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Now, you may think they are just providing services and sometimes they are even helping us to make the communication easier, right? In a way, these social media intermediaries ensure that our right to freedom of expression and speech is expressed. You may have a question as to why we need to regulate these social media intermediaries. I understand your doubt. See, there is a need to regulate social media intermediaries because social media intermediaries assume multiple roles in our present society. The problems that comes with the social media intermediaries is also very diverse. So, it becomes necessary to address these issues. Are you still wondering about the problems that are caused by the social media intermediaries? Let me list out the problems for you. Firstly, the social media intermediaries assume centrality in shaping the public discourse. See, basically, this means that the social media influences the mindset of the public. Secondly, there is impact of social media intermediaries' governance on the right to freedom of speech and expression. This means that the social media intermediaries aid for the expression of opinion of any person. See, you may think as the social media intermediaries help in the freedom of speech and expression is a good thing. But you have to think in the other angle also. Sometimes, this aid might lead to the spread of hate speech, defamation and spreading of fake news. Thirdly, the social media intermediaries host a large magnitude of information. So, there is the problem of infringement of privacy. Sometimes, these information are used by multinational companies to promote their products. And finally, the constant technological innovation impact the social media intermediaries' governance. This means that the social media intermediaries functioning largely dependent on the technological innovations. So, it will be difficult to regulate the social media intermediaries if the legislation does not cope up with the changing innovation. All these are the reasons and the issues why it is important for the government to update their regulatory framework to face the challenges associated with social media intermediaries. And this is exactly why the IT rules 2021 came into existence. And the amendment that we are seeing today is one such step to cope up with the emerging challenges. Now, let us see what necessitated the amendment. Firstly, there was a need to ensure that the interest and the constitutional rights of netizens are not being violated by the big technology platforms. Here, netizens are active participants in the online community of the internet. Secondly, there is a need to strengthen the grievance-riddressal framework in the rules. And thirdly, the compliance with rules should not impact early-stage Indian startups. This means that the rules should not come as a difficulty to the new Indian startups. So, the amendments have to create an environment that are conducive for the functioning of early-stage Indian startups. So, these are the things that necessitated the amendments to the IT rules 2021. Now, according to the article, the proposed set of amendments can be broadly classified into two categories. The first category involves placing additional obligations on the social media intermediaries to ensure better protection of user interest. And the second category involves the creation of institution of appellate mechanism for grievance-riddressal. Let us see these one by one. We will take up the first category now, which is the obligation on social media intermediaries. I will tell you how we are going to see this particular portion. First, we will see the amendment and then we will see the effects of the particular amendment. Now, we shall start. See the original IT rules 2021 obligated the social media intermediaries to merely inform its users of the rules and regulations and the privacy policy and the user agreement. It also required the social media intermediaries to inform the category of content that the users are prohibited from hosting, displaying, sharing, etc. on its platform. But according to the new amendment, the obligation on the social media intermediaries does not stop but merely inform the users. It has no been extended to ensuring that the users are in compliance with the relevant rules of the platform. In the same line, the social media intermediaries are obligated to inform the privacy policy or the user agreement or any change in the rules to the user periodically or at least once in a year. Adding to this, the social media intermediaries are required to make reasonable efforts to prevent prohibited content being posted on its platform by the users. This is the first major amendment. Now, let us see the significance of this amendment. See, this move enhances the responsibility and the power of the social media intermediaries to police and moderate content on their platforms. And how it is received? As per the article, there is skepticism by both the platforms and the users regarding this obligation. This is because the content, speech and the multitude of information posted by the users are of subjective nature. So, social media intermediaries are unclear about the extent of measures they are expected to undertake. And the users, they are of the opinion that the increased power of social media intermediaries will allow them to curtail the freedom of speech and expression that are available to the users. So, both the stakeholders, that is the users and the social media intermediaries, are not very satisfied with the new amendment. This is the crux. And this is about the first obligation. Secondly, the social media intermediaries are obligated to respect all the rights accorded to the citizens under the constitution, including article 14, 19 and 21. Now, let us see the significance of this obligation. See, this is the most needed obligation. This ensures that the right of the citizens are protected at all cost. See, considering the importance of social media intermediaries in public discourse and the implications of their actions on the fundamental rights of the citizens, this obligation is appreciated by many. However, the social media intermediaries expressed the concerns that this would amount to heavy compliance cost. How is this? See, if the social media intermediaries violate this obligation, then they will be trade in courts. And the courts will suggest different measures to be adopted by the social media intermediaries to avoid violations in the future. So, the social media intermediaries are saying that frequent altercation to design and practice of the platform will result in heavy compliance cost. This is about the second obligation and its significance. Now, let us see the third one. See, currently the social media intermediaries are required to acknowledge the complaint made by the user within 24 hours. And they are required to resolve such complaint within a period of 15 days from the date of the receipt. But now, social media intermediaries are obligated to remove information or the communication link in relation to the six prohibited category of content. They have to remove such information within 74 hours of the complaint being made. I have given here those six categories. Please go through it. Now, what is the significance of such obligation? See, we all know how a random video is becoming so viral. But what if that video contains sensitive information about a person? At such case, an obligation like this is necessary to curtail the spread of the content. Now, lastly, the social media intermediaries are obligated to take all reasonable measures to ensure accessibility of its services to users, along with reasonable exception of due diligence, privacy and transparency. In this context of ensuring accessibility, the social media intermediaries are obligated to make available the rules and regulations, privacy policy and user agreement in English and in all languages listed in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution. Now, what is the significance of such obligation? See, this obligation is meant to strengthen the inclusion in the social media intermediary ecosystem. For instance, it will allow the participation by persons with disability and diverse linguistic background in the social media platform. That is all for the first category. That is, obligations on the social media intermediaries made by the environment. Now, coming to the second one, the institution of an appellate mechanism for grievance redress. See, a robust grievance redress mechanism is the most important one for empowering users of social media platforms. See, IT rules 2021 for the first time, unified the process and mandated all social media platforms to have a grievance officer. And he or she should acknowledge the receipt of complaint within 24 hours and dispose it within 15 days. But why is this instituted now? This is because of the following reasons. See, there is a lack of understanding of what is meant by resolution of complaint. For example, Facebook only mentions the number of reports where appropriate tools have been provided. These appropriate tools could just mean the automated replies that are sent to the complainants. Secondly, there is this opinion that users find it difficult to approach the platform for complaint resolution. Thirdly, there is no way to assess whether the complainant is satisfied with the resolution of the complaint or not. Fourthly, if the complainant is not satisfied, there is no appeal against the grievance officer's order. The only possible alternative is that the complainant can challenge the order under the rigid jurisdiction of the High Court or Supreme Court. But this is not an efficient one because this is a time-consuming and resource-intensive process. So, to address all these issues, the Government of India instituted the Grievance Appellate Committee. Here, remember this problem's question that was asked in 2019. The question says extended producer responsibility is introduced in which rules. See, questions like this are a possibility. In 2023, UPSC might ask a question about Grievance Appellate Committee. It may ask under which rules the Grievance Appellate Committee is instituted. At the time, you must note that the correct answer is IT Rules 2021. So, this is the importance of this discussion. See, we already saw about this committee on our 29th October 2022 analysis. If you want to know about it, watch that analysis. Now, coming back. See, there are many apprehensions related to this Grievance Appellate Committee. We will see them one by one. See, there is a doubt prevailing about the appeal to Grievance Appellate Committee and approaching to court. See, we don't know whether the user have to approach the Grievance Appellate Committee before approaching the court or not. This is because the press note stated that the institution of Grievance Appellate Committee will not bar the user from approaching the court directly against the order of the Grievance Officer. And the final amendment also do not provide any indication relating to it. Secondly, we all know that the Grievance Appellate Committee makes the in-house Grievance Retrocel more accountable and the appellate mechanism are more accessible to the user. But the appointment of Grievance Appellate Committee are made by the central government. So, there is this fear that it could lead to bias in the content moderation. Thirdly, the IT rules 2021 do not mention any explicit power to the Grievance Appellate Committee to enforce its orders. So, what is the use of establishing such a committee if you don't have powers to enforce their own orders? And finally, if it is true that users can approach both courts and Grievance Appellate Committee, then it will lead to conflicting decisions. This is seen as undermining the impartiality and merit of one institution or the other. These are the issues associated with the Grievance Appellate Committee that is instituted by the amendment made to the IT rules 2021. So, that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw about the recent amendments made to the IT rules 2021. While looking at the recent amendments, we also saw the implications of the amendment. After that, we saw about the Grievance Appellate Committee and we also saw about the issues associated with the Grievance Appellate Committee. We also saw the importance of knowing about the recent amendments made by the government. So, that's all regarding this discussion. With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this editorial article. This editorial article talks about the economically weaker section reservation in India. It talks about the difference between vertical and horizontal reservation. Then it focuses on the change in outcome based on the preference made in the vertical reservation process. This is about the editorial. Here on this, today in our discussion, we will see the constitutional provisions, important Supreme Court judgments and the major constitutional amendments related to reservation in India. This is the plan for today. Before getting into the discussion, I have highlighted here the syllabus regarding this discussion. You can go through it. Now, let us start our discussion. See, we know Article 15 talks about prohibition of discrimination. Right? That too, mainly on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. But then, we have these articles, 15, class 4 and 16, class 4, that enables the state and the central government to reserve seats in the government services for the members of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe. Why is this discrimination allowed? See, the main objective of providing reservation to the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and the other backward classes in services is not only to give jobs to some person belonging to this community, it basically aims at empowering them and ensuring their participation in the decision making process of the state. And thereby, the constitution makers wanted to ensure the objective of equity. So, now let us see what are all the constitutional provisions that are available regarding this reservation. First, take Article 15, class 4. It says that the state can make any special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes. Then, take Article 16. We know that it talks about equality of opportunity in matters of public employment. But in the same article in class 4, the state is given the power to make any provision for the reservation in appointment or post in favor of any backward class of citizens. This is done to uplift the inadequately represented citizens of a particular community in the service under the state. So, we can understand that though the Articles 15 and 16 talks about prohibition of discrimination and providing equality, it can be ensured only when the socially and educationally backward classes of citizens are given equal opportunity in power with others. This is why special reservation is given to them. Not only in education and jobs, even in Lok Sabha, we have reservation. Yes, this is what is mentioned in Article 330. See, the article here says that seats in Lok Sabha are reserved for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes. Then, this reservation for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes is extended even to the state legislative assemblies. This is done through Article 332. Then, when you take the grassroot levels that is in the panchayat, there is reservation for SCs and STs. See, it is clearly mentioned in Article 243D. This article provides for the reservation of seats in every panchayat. And not less than one-third of the total number of seats reserved shall be reserved for women belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes. Not only this, even in the office of chairpersons in panchayat, the seats are to be reserved for the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and women. See, the same kind of reservation is applicable to the municipality level also. And now look at Article 335. This has a direct bearing on reservation in services because this article says that the claims of the member of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes shall be taken into consideration. So, this article allows in making any provision in favor of the members of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes. For example, the qualifying marks in any examination can be relaxed or the standards of evaluation can be lowered. All this can be done for the reservation in matters of promotion to any class or classes of services or post in the union or the state affairs. Okay. Now coming to the cases and amendments regarding reservation. Firstly, take the State of Midrashvesh Champakam Durai Rajan case that happened in the year 1951. This resulted in the first amendment of the Indian Constitution. And this first constitutional amendment act addressed the country's reservation program. We saw Article 15, Class 4 in the beginning of our discussion, right? Yes. Through this article, the state is granted the power to work for the backward classes or the Scheduled Caste and the Scheduled Tribes by making special provisions for them in the educational and social upliftment. Okay. So, this was added after the State of Midrashvesh Champakam Durai Rajan case through the first constitutional amendment act. Okay. Then came the MR Balaji versus State of Mysore case that happened in the year 1963. See, in this case, the clear explanation was made that the reservation are made based on classes that are both educationally and socially down and not just one thing alone. So, for a class of citizens to avail reservation, the particular class must be both educationally and socially backward. This is about MR Balaji versus State of Mysore case. And one more thing that was concluded in the case is that reservations under Article 15, Class 4 and Article 16, Class 4 of the Constitution must be provided within reasonable limits prescribed under Supreme Court prescribed a limit of 50%. Okay. This is because reservation made to advance the weaker section of the society should not exclude qualified and deserving candidates. This is why the limit was fixed. Okay. Again, a problem came. A question arose whether economic factor can be used to classify a community under backward class. This issue was only dealt in the Indra Soni case in the year 1992. See, the judgment of this case said that backward classes under Article 16, Class 4 cannot be identified on the basis of economic criteria alone. It is only the socially and educationally backward classes that can avail reservation in India. Then the concept of creamy layer was laid down and it was directed that such a creamy layer should be excluded while identifying backward classes. Okay. Then the Supreme Court in the Indra Soni case reiterated that reservation shall not exceed 15% and moreover it is said that reservation in promotion shall not be allowed. And it concluded that any new disputes regarding criteria were to be raised in the Supreme Court only. Okay. And as a response to these judgments, the parliament enacted the 77th Constitutional Amendment Act in the year 1995. See, according to this Constitutional Amendment only, Class 4A was added in Article 16. Okay. So through this Article 16, Class 4A, powers are conferred to the state to reserve seats in favor of scheduled caste and scheduled tribe in promotion in public services. This can be done only if the communities are not adequately represented in public employment. This amendment was upheld by the Supreme Court in the M. Naharaj West Union of India case in the year 2006. And in this judgment, the Supreme Court laid out three requirements for the provision of reservation in promotion. Firstly, the scheduled caste and the scheduled tribe should be socially and educationally backward. Secondly, there should be inadequate representation of scheduled caste and scheduled tribe in public employment. And thirdly, it shall not affect the efficiency in the administration. And after considering all these requirements, reservation in promotion can be done. Okay. This is regarding M. Naharaj West Union of India case 2016. Then take the 93rd Constitutional Amendment Act. Its constitutionality was questioned by the Ashok Kumar Thakur West Union of India case in the year 2007. See, what is done through this amendment? Through the 93rd Constitutional Amendment Act, Class 5 was added to Article 15. Only after Class 5 was added to Article 15, reservation was provided in the private educational institution, regardless of whether they are aided or unaided by the state. Here, note that the minority educational institutions are accepted from the reservation law in India. Okay. While providing judgment in the Ashok Kumar Thakur case, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of the 93rd Constitutional Amendment Act. Then came the next issue. See, the Tamil Nadu government provides 69% reservation. To prevent it from the ambit of judicial review, it was added to the 9th Schedule of the Constitution through the 76th Constitutional Amendment Act. And the famous IR Coelho case is regarding this only. See, this case upheld the validity of the basic structure doctrine framed after the Kesavananda Bharati case. And the Supreme Court said that, any constitutional amendment should be made without affecting the basic structure of the Indian Constitution. So, basically, in the IR Coelho case, the Supreme Court said that, all legislation that is placed in the 9th Schedule after the Kesavananda Bharati case is subjected to judicial review. Okay. Then, in the John Nelsing, with Lakshmi Narayan Gupta case of 2018, the Supreme Court held that, the reservation in promotions does not require the state to collect quantifiable data on the backwardness of the scheduled cast and the scheduled tribes. In the same case, the Supreme Court extended the Creamy Layer provision to the SCST for promotion. This was done so that only the deserving candidates among the SCSTs get the benefit of reservation. Okay. Finally, in the Mukesh Kumar v. the State of Uttarakhand case, the Supreme Court held that, there is no fundamental right to reservation or promotion under Article 16 Class 4 or Article 16 Class 4a. According to the Supreme Court, the provision of reservation will be provided by the government only when there is a specific need for it. A citizen cannot claim reservation as a right. See, these are the major Supreme Court judgments regarding reservation in India. Finally, let us take up the last and the most important constitutional amendment regarding reservation. It is none other than the 103rd Constitutional Amendment Act of 2019. This constitutional amendment provided 10% reservation in government jobs and educational institutions for the economically backward in the unreserved category. Through this constitutional amendment, the government added Class 6 to Article 15 and Class 6 to Article 16 of the Constitution. And this 10% economic reservation is provided over and above the 50% reservation cap. So that is all regarding this discussion today. In our discussion, we started by seeing the important constitutional provisions regarding reservation. After that, we saw some of the major Supreme Court judgments regarding reservation. We also saw the important constitutional amendments regarding reservation. Although it is a very lengthy discussion, all the points we have discussed here are very important for both your prelims and the mains examination. In the prelims, the things we have discussed today can be asked directly. And in the mains examination, the content that we discussed today can be used as a fodder material. So, chart down all the points that we discussed and try to use it in your answer. With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. This news article talks about Sardar Vallabhai Patel. See, yesterday our union home minister has flagged off a run for unity event. The occasion was the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhai Patel. Our home minister said Sardar Patel has ensured the peaceful integration of more than 500 princely states into Indian state. This is the crux of the article given here. In this context, let us learn about the role played by Sardar Vallabhai Patel in the independence movement and the integration of princely states in India. See, Vallabhai Patel was born on 31st October 1875 in Nadiyad, Gujarat. He was a successful lawyer by profession. In 1918, Patel's life had encountered a turning point when he was chosen by Mahatma Gandhi as his deputy commander to lead the Kedasatyagra. This event has turned the trajectory of his life towards the path of public service. Know that Kedasatyagra was launched against the 23% tax increase by the British government. See, this tax was forced on the peasant Pattidar community of Kedas despite a crop failure and outbreak of plague and cholera. This Satyagra was successful as the British consented to minimize the tax rise and accepted to postpone the tax rise the following year. After that, Vallabhai Patel became increasingly involved with the struggle for India's independence. In 1928, Patel led the Bardoli Satyagra. This demonstrated Sardar Vallabhai Patel's organizational capacities and tireless resolute. It was here he earned the title Sardar. Know that Bardoli Satyagra was an agrarian movement to support the farmers of Bardoli, Gujarat. See, they were protesting against the unfair increase in taxes by the British government despite the situation of flood and famine. This movement was also successful as the British established the famous Maxwell-Broomfield Commission to investigate the matter and subsequently the tax percentage was reduced. Following the success of Bardoli Satyagra, Vallabhai Patel had grew into a true national leader. In 1931, Patel had presided over the Indian National Congress session which was held in Karachi. It is in this session the resolution on fundamental rights was adopted. Another important event that occurred in session was the endorsement of Gandhian Irvind Pact. See, the Gandhian Irvind Pact was signed to ensure the participation of Indian National Congress in the second round table conference. It also stopped the civil disobedience movement in India temporarily. These are the some of the important roles played by Sardar Patel in the Indian National Movement. Now moving on, let us see his role in the integration of princely states in India. See, on 15th August 1947, Sardar Patel took oath as the first deputy prime minister as well as the first home minister of independent India. During that time, there were many challenges presented in front of him. Mainly, the problem of accession of princely states into India. See, in June 1947, Jodhpur attempted negotiations with Pakistan for better terms. But later on, with great efforts of Patel and after several meetings and negotiations, finally Jodhpur was integrated into India. Subsequently, in July 1947, Trivancore had announced that it would assert its right to remain independent. But due to Patel's diplomacy and statementship, eventually the Raja of Trivancore had accepted to integrate into India. Then comes Junagadh. See, the Nawab of Junagadh initially decided to join Pakistan even though the people of Junagadh opposed it. Finally, in February 1948, Junagadh was integrated into India with Sardar Patel's resolute efforts. Then comes Hyderabad. See, the Nizam of Hyderabad had initially signed an agreement with the Government of India to maintain a temporary status quo on accession. However, communal tensions and violence in Hyderabad state prompted Sardar Patel to take action. Then the Indian army was moved into Hyderabad under Operation Polo. This operation was mainly done to integrate Hyderabad into India. Finally, in September 1948, the Nizam announced a ceasefire and Hyderabad was absorbed into the Indian Union. Finally comes Jammu and Kashmir. See, Raja Harising of Kashmir had been undecided about accession. However, in October 1947, when Kashmir came under the attack of Pakistan, the Raja sought assistance from India. Sardar Patel as the Home Minister extended the help of India and in return, Raja Harising signed the instrument of accession with India. Due to these efforts, Sardar Patel has earned the title of Iron Man of India. It is due to the efforts of Mr. Sardar Patel, India maintained internal stability in the initial years of its formation. This is why the National Unity Day or the Rashtriya Ekta Divas is celebrated every year on October 31 to commemorate the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhai Patel. That's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw the contributions made by Sardar Vallabhai Patel in our freedom struggle and we also saw the role played by Sardar Vallabhai Patel in the integration of princely states into Indian Union. With this, we have come to the end of the news article discussion session. Now, let us take up the practice films questions. Let us take up the first question. This question is in regards to the sedition law in India. Three statements are given. We have to find the correct statement. Let us take up the first statement. It is well defined in the Constitution of India. This statement is wrong. Sedition is not defined anywhere in the Constitution. It is defined under section 124A of the Indian Penal Code. So, statement one is wrong. Moving on to statement two. It is a non-bailable offense under section 124A of the Indian Penal Code. This statement is correct. Sedition is a non-bailable offense. Moving on to the third statement. The law of sedition in India was enacted only after independence. This statement is wrong. The sedition law in India was enacted by the British in the year 1870. So, statement one is wrong. Statement three is wrong and statement two is only correct. So, the correct answer here is option B, two only. Moving on to the second question. This question is about the International Space Station. Here also three statements are given. We have to find the correct statements. Let us take up the first statement. It is a collaborative project involving five participating space agencies. This statement is correct. The International Space Station is indeed a collaborative project involving five participating space agencies. Moving on to the second statement. India and China are also part of the International Space Station. This statement is wrong. India and China are not the part of International Space Station. The collaborating nations include United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada. Moving on to the third statement. It has 16 modules and has a mass of about 420 tons. This statement is correct. This we saw in the discussion itself. So, here statement one is correct and statement three is correct. So, the correct answer here is option C, one and three only. Moving on to the last question. This question is about the Bardoli Satyagragal. This is the quiz question for you today. Interested aspirants can post the answer for this question in the comment section. The main questions based on today's discussion is displayed here. Interested aspirants can write the answers and post them in the comment section. With this, we have come to the end of the news article discussion. If you like today's discussion, like, comment and share the video with your friends. For more updates regarding UPSC preparation, subscribe to Shankara IS Academy's YouTube channel. Thank you for listening.