 A very good evening to all our friends and welcome to the Hindu News Analysis of Shankar IAS Academy for the date 29th October 2020. The list of the news articles along with the page numbers of five different editions is given here for your reference. Also the handwritten notes in the PDF format and time stampings for all the news articles taken for today's discussion is given in the description box and also in the comments section for the best interest of the viewers. Let us now begin our news analysis. First let us take up this editorial which talks about a term called deep fake and its effects in distorting the truth. The editorial mentions terms such as media literacy, disinformation, synthetic media and factual relativism. So we will be discussing these aspects in this analysis. The syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. First let us see about the term synthetic media. See synthetic media describes media that is either algorithmically created or algorithmically modified. An example could be where news anchors are real human but the background, screen, desk and graphics are computer generated. Here synthetic refers to a mix of real elements and computer generated elements. And this is an example of positive evolution of synthetic media. See in positive evolution there is also another example where education content being automatically translated and delivered in multiple languages. And there is also something called negative evolution and in this negative evolution of synthetic media comes deep fake. Now let us see about deep fake. See deep fakes are a type of new tool that is used to spread computational propaganda and disinformation at scale and with speed. It is a media creation and a manipulation tool where the digital media including video, audio and images are manipulated using artificial intelligence. The media content created in this way is referred to as deep fake. To understand it better let us take an example. Imagine a political leader is supporting unity in diversity in her talk but using deep fake technology the content of the speaker can be removed and in the place of her content an artificial content spreading come in a hatred can be inserted. So in this regard the tool will synchronize the lip movements and also the actions of the speaker. So this is just an example of replacing the content and the end video will be as if the speaker is spreading communal hatred in her own voice and the video will look very real. And it should be noted that this tool as known till date is mainly used for pornography that exclusively targets women. And this tool enables the criminals to change the face of the real person in a porn movie. Say a person X has acted in the porn and the tool can generate a video which portrays another person performing the acts of the original actor. Reports say that as of now more than 95% of deep fake videos are exclusively targeting women. This also shows how the technological world that is a world in the 21st century have perverse men attitudes. So with this you could have understood what exactly can be done using deep fake. Literally anything can be done in a video, audio or image format. And for your reference we have given various ill effects of the deep fake AI tool. See deep fake can be used by criminal elements to fabricate media like swapping faces, lip-syncing, puppeteering, mostly without the consent of the owner and bring threat to security, political stability and business disruption also inflicting emotional and reputational damage and violence towards the individual. It can also be used for distorting truth, spreading false information, disinformation then manipulating voting behavior, creating social discord and to increase polarization. Also it can be used to influence an election outcome or to inflict damage to individuals, institutions, business and democracy. And the other areas where it can be used is to create deep fake pornography and to contribute to factual relativism. See we saw about the deep fake pornography and we'll see about the factual relativism later. Before that let us see about the terms disinformation and media literacy. See disinformation refers to knowingly spreading misinformation or false or incorrect information. In the article, in the part where the author talks about solutions he states that improving media literacy is a precursor to addressing the challenges presented by deep fakes. See media literacy refers to skills in the abilities to access, analyze and evaluate information received from all forms of communication. It also includes creating information and acting using all forms of communication. To make it simple, if a person has these skills she will be easily able to identify fake news and misinformation. Now let us see about factual relativism. See relativism is a belief that there is no absolute truth and factual relativism is a belief that there is no absolute fact and fact varies with people and their perspectives. Anything contributing to factual relativism is not right simply because it helps people in believing fake news and at influences of people to doubt the established scientific truths or facts. So with reference to deep fakes, the author concludes that we need a multi-stakeholder and multimodal approach. We need collaborative actions and the collective techniques across the legislative regulations, platform policies, technology intervention and media literacy. And this can provide effective and ethical countermeasures to mitigate the threat of malicious deep fakes. So this is all about this discussion. In this discussion, we saw about the terms such as deep fake, media literacy, disinformation, synthetic media and factual relativism. With this, we'll move on to the next news. Now let us take up this news article from page one, which talks about the annual status of education report or ASR, which was recently released. See, ASR is a nationwide survey of rural education and learning outcomes in terms of reading and arithmetic skills. And the survey has been conducted by the NGO Pratham for the last 15 years. And this year, the survey was conducted via phone calls, reaching rural households with school-age children in 30 states and union territories. So in this context, let us try to understand what this report says. The syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. See, the recent global estimates suggest that school closures, then unequal access to technology-based educational inputs used for remote learning and other related disruptions due to the pandemic are likely to result in learning loss and higher drop-out rates. And this would further aggravate the existing equity gaps in education among other consequences. Now coming to India, we know that numerous studies have been conducted on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic in the country since the first lockdown, but very few are about children's education. Even though a lot of digital content have been generated and transmitted to help children to continue learning, there is limited evidence to know whether it's reaching children and whether children are engaging with it and the impact it is having on their participation and learning. So to focus on these aspects, the ASR 2020 Wave 1 survey has been conducted and the objectives of the survey are, what resources do families have to support children's learning at home? Then how are families and other community members helping children with learning activities? Then what learning materials and activities are children and families receiving from the schools? Then how are families and children accessing these learning materials or activities? Then are children engaging with these learning materials and activities? And what kind of contact do teachers and children or parents have with each other? And what kind of challenges are families and teachers facing with regard to remote learning? So these are the questions asked. Now what did the survey found? Have the enrollment patterns changed as a result of COVID-19 pandemic? The answer for this question is yes. See very much interestingly, there has been a clear shift from private schools to government schools between 2018 and 2020. The reasons may include the financial distress in households and our permanent school shutdowns among the private schools. Now are fewer children enrolled in 2020 than before? Yes because schools are closed and many young children have not yet secured the admission to standard one. So this seems to indicate that due to the disruptions caused by the pandemic, families are waiting for the physical opening of schools to enroll their youngest children with about 10% of six-year-old children not in school. Now how much schooling do parents of children have? See more than half of all the mothers that is 53.1% and even an higher proportion of fathers that is 70.8% have completed more than five years of school. Now does parents' education level influence whether children get learning support at home? See here the data level shows significant family support for children's education during lockdown. Even among children whose parents have only studied up to fifth standard or less, there is a significant family support. For example, among children whose parents have completed fifth standard or less, more than half of these children get help from home whether they study in government school or private school. And 14% receive help from their fathers and almost 8% from mothers. Further, if parents have low levels of education, older siblings and others play a more significant role. Now do children have textbooks at home? See about 20% of rural children have no textbooks at home. In Andhra Pradesh, less than 35% of children had textbooks and only 60% had textbooks in Rajasthan. More than 98% had textbooks in West Bengal, Nagaland and Assam. So this shows disparities among children belonging to different states. In 2018, about 36% of rural households with school going children had smartphones. By 2020, that figure had spiked to 62% and about 11% of families bought a new phone after the lockdown of which 80% were smartphones. So the proportion of owning a smartphone increased enormously, that is from 36.5% to 61.8%. And did children do any kind of learning activities during the reference week? See, even though only a third of all the children received materials from their schools during a reference week, it is reported that most children did some learning activity. Now the last question, how much contact was there between school and home? See, more educated parents had greater contact with the school teachers as well as lower proportion of children who did not do any kind of activity in the reference week. So this suggests that children whose parents could offer supported home were also those who got more support from school. So it is to be noted that in the week of the survey, about one in three rural children had not done any kind of learning activity at all. About two in three had no learning material or activity given by the school and only one in 10 had access to live online classes. See, we have seen a lot of discussions on the impact of COVID-19 on different sections of the society, but this report shows how children and schooling got affected by the pandemic. And it is clear that along with economic disparities and digital divide, parents' education also play a significant role in children's learning outcomes. So this is all about the survey. Though we don't expect any kind of direct questions from this report, the findings of this report can be quoted in your main answers. With this, let us move on to the next news. See, this editorial talks about the ongoing developments and challenges faced by India in the Indo-Pacific region. So let us discuss some of the important points mentioned in this editorial. The syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. As we all know, India and the US concluded their third annual US-India two-plus-two ministerial dialogue. And during this dialogue, the landmark defense agreement that is the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement or BECA was inked. And apart from this, the dialogue widely discussed India's role in the Quadilateral Security Dialogue or Quad. Then it also discussed about the Indo-Pacific region and the threats faced by this region from China. The dialogue also stressed on the importance of the United States as a potential alliance partner. If you see in the recent times, the Indian foreign policy is stressing more on the Indo-Pacific and Quad. During the mid-2000s, the world expected India to be an economic powerhouse and the author says that India's economic growth in the last decade was modest. Now the world expects India to play a decisive that is a strategic and military role in the Indo-Pacific region. So in this editorial, the author discusses about the challenges faced by India in meeting this expectation. Firstly, the author briefs about the similarities and differences between the Indo-Pacific and Quad. See, the similarity is that Quad members are also major states in the Indo-Pacific region. Also both Quad and Indo-Pacific constructs are focused on China. Not just that, both are centered around India's geographic location and its policies. So the two important players are India and China. Now what are the differences between Indo-Pacific and Quad? See, the first is a political-economic vision and the last is a military-strategic forum among India, US, Australia and Japan. See, the Indo-Pacific provides a political and economic picture with a hesitant but growing articulation of China as a strong strategic challenge. But the Quad is inherently more anti-China in its character and it is intent. According to the author, though anti-China feelings are growing among the Indo-Pacific countries, they cannot completely avoid China. The role of Quad in challenging China is too early to predict now. So how successful can be India's Indo-Pacific strategy? See, according to the author, for a political-economic region such as the Indo-Pacific to survive, there must be strong economic partnerships and linkages among its members. Mere strategic talks and military cooperation alone won't work. Coming to India's economic engagement in the region, India has recently opted out of the regional comprehensive economic partnership that is RCEP, the region's flagship free trade agreement. And the author says that this will negatively impact India's future engagements in the region. So this should be looked along with the existing huge gap between India and China on trade with almost every Indo-Pacific country. Have a look at this figure which is given in the editorial. We can see that there is a huge trade gap between India and China. And this growing trade gap that India and China have with these countries will be a major determining factor in shaping the region's strategic realities. It should also be noted that China also overpowers India in terms of bilateral free trade agreements in the region. For example, India does not have a free trade agreement with Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Bangladesh and Maldives. And India has free trade agreements with South Korea, ASEAN, Japan and Sri Lanka. But China has free trade agreements with all these countries barring US, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. So it clearly indicates the importance of trade with China for these countries. Even if they attempt economic decoupling from China, it would be a long process. And this is why the author stresses that strategic talks alone cannot trump economic realities. Now let us compare the military engagements of India and China in the region. See, China is a major defense supplier to several countries in the region such as Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. But India's defense role is minimal barring occasional defense dialogues and joint military exercises. So what is the way forward? See, India's role in the Indo-Pacific region will remain limited if it does not prove to be a major economic partner to these states in the region. But the economics lord on in India today coupled with the domestic issues over the agreements such as RCEP weakens India's ability to economically engage in the region. India must also build upon the military strategic side as well. So the author suggests India to sustainably engage in the Indo-Pacific region using economic, strategic and military tools rather than forming a military alliance with US and its allies. The time has come for India to recognize its present weaknesses and rethink and redesign its strategic posture. So this is all about the discussion of this editorial with this we'll move on to the next news. Now, have a look at this question. It is with reference to this news article which states that the US investors want more reforms in the initial public offering rules. First, let us see about a public issue. See when an entity makes an issue or offer of shares to new investors or becoming a part of shareholders' family it is called as a public issue. And public issue is further classified into initial public offer and further public offer. When an unlisted company makes a fresh issue of shares or convertible securities for the first time to the public it is called an initial public offer. Similarly, when an unlisted company offers its existing shares or convertible securities for sale for the first time to the public it is also called as an initial public offer. And this means where for listing or trading the issuer's shares or convertible securities on the stock exchanges. In simple terms, initial public offering is the first time a company goes public. When we say a company has gone public it means it has offered its shares to the public at large and that it is ready to get listed at the stock exchanges of the country. See we have two stock exchanges. One is Bombay Stock Exchange and the other one is National Stock Exchange. So the first time a company gets listed at BSE, NSE or both and offers its shares to be publicly traded the offering is called as initial public offering. And IPOs are regulated in India under the relevant provisions of the Securities and Exchange Board of India issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements Regulations 2018 and Companies Act. Now what do you mean by further public offer or follow-on offer? See when an already listed company makes either a fresh issue of shares or convertible securities to the public or an offer for sale of such shares and convertible securities to the public it is called as a further public offer or follow-on offer. That is a follow-on public offer is the issuance of shares after the company is listed on a stock exchange. In other words an FPO is an additional issue whereas an IPO is an initial or first issue. See generally a listed company refers to a company which has any of its securities listed on any recognized stock exchange. Next let us come to the term Sandbox which is mentioned in this article. See the article states that the US investors have shown interest in taking part in innovative ideas under the Regulatory Sandbox Framework. See whenever new technology intensive innovations are deployed proper regulatory oversight is required to mitigate the risks to investors and economies. So a live testing environment is required to test these new tech intensive innovations. And this environment is called as a Regulatory Sandbox. It refers to a live testing environment where new products, processes, services and business models can be deployed on a limited set of eligible customers for a specified period of time. And for this Regulatory Sandbox some of the requirements under the existing SEBI regulations and guidelines will be relaxed. Now see this question, consider the following statements. A follow on public offer is the issuance of shares after the company is listed on a stock exchange. See this statement is correct. The second statement reads, the first time a company gets listed at recognized stock exchange and offers its shares to be publicly traded the offering is called an initial public offer. See this statement is also correct. Here we are supposed to identify the correct statement or statements. So both the statements are correct. So the correct answer is option C both one and two. With this we'll move on to the next news. Now have a look at this question which is based on this news. The news is that the joint committee of parliament on data protection bill sought an affidavit from Twitter asking them to explain why it had shown Ladakh as a part of China. A few days back, Twitter had shown Ladakh as a part of China which caused a major uproar in the social media. Later Twitter has apologized and claimed it to be a mistake as the app's geo-tagging had suffered a technical glitch. So in this context, let us have a brief understanding on the terms geo-tagging, geo-fencing, geo-targeting, geo-referencing, then geo-coding, etc. First what is geo-tagging? See geo-tagging is the process of adding geographical identification data to various media such as photographs, video, websites, etc. And these data usually consist of latitude and longitude coordinates though they can also include latitude, bearing, accuracy data and place names. For example, when we post a video on Facebook or Instagram, the location will be automatically added to the post. And most of the social networks use some form of geo-tagging in order to track the location of their subscribers. And this allows users to augment their posts and updates with their current location. If you're traveling the world or visiting a new restaurant or a night sport, this can be a great way to let your friends know where you are and what you're doing. Now what is geo-fencing? See geo-fencing is a location-based service in which an app uses GPS, RFID, Wi-Fi or cellular data to trigger a pre-programmed action when a mobile device or RFID tag enters or exits a virtual boundary setup around a geographical location known as a geo-fence. For example, these days smartwatches have this feature. Assume that such a watch is worn by a child, then whenever the child crosses a particular boundary setup by the parents called geo-fence, it sends an alert to the parents. Same is also used in the cars as well. Now what is geo-targeting? See geo-targeting refers to the practice of delivering different content or advertisements to the consumers based on the geographical locations. For example, if you are staying in Chennai, you will get ads of businesses in Chennai. And based on your geo-location, ads are targeted. Now what is geo-referencing? See geo-referencing is a process of taking a digital image or adding geographic information to the image so that the mapping software can place the image in its appropriate real world location. We can see this in Google Photos app in which the photos can be seen on India map precisely where they have taken. The photos are sorted using geo-location as a reference. Now finally what is geo-coding? See geo-coding is the computational process by which a physical address is converted into geographic coordinates as well as locating a place using coordinates. We often used to see this in English movies. With the help of the latitude and longitude, they can locate the place. See the geo-code for Shankar IAS Academy is given here. If you search this code in Google, you can reach us. So in this discussion, we saw about geo-tagging, geo-fencing, geo-targeting, geo-referencing and geo-coding. In this regard, we have a previous prelims question which was asked in 2019. In the context of digital technologies for entertainment, consider the following statements. See here statement 3 and 4 are correct. Augmented reality allows individuals to be present in the world and improves the experience using the camera of a smartphone or a personal computer. And statement 4 reads, virtual reality closes the world and transposes an individual providing complete immersion experience. So here the correct answer is option B, 3 and 4. With this, we have discussed some of the important news articles from today's newspaper. Now see this practice question. Consider the following statements. Geo-tagging refers to the practice of delivering different content or advertisements to consumers based on the geographic locations. See this statement is incorrect. Here the statement refers to geo-targeting and geo-tagging means the process of adding geographical identification data to various media such as photographs, video, websites, etc. Now the second statement reads, geo-targeting refers to process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as photographs, video, websites. See as we have seen, this statement refers to geo-tagging. Here both the statements are wrong. So the correct answer is option C, both 1 and 2. Now let us move on to the practice questions discussion section based on today's news analysis. Now see this prelims practice question. It is a new tool to spread computational propaganda and misinformation at scale and with speed. Which of the following is this tool? Which is sometimes seen in news? See the correct answer is option C, deep fake. Now here are two main practice questions. Please write your answers and post it in the comments section. Our feedback will be given in a reasonable time frame. So friends, with this we have come to the end of analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the discussion of practice questions. If you like this video, please press the like button, comment, share and do subscribe to Shankar Iyer's Academy YouTube channel for more updates related to civil service preparation. Thank you.