 Good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Ayes Academy for the date 31st October 2019. These are the list of articles chosen for today's analysis. It has been given along with the page numbers of different Hindu newspaper editions namely Chennai edition, Bengaluru edition, Thiruvannapuram edition, Hyderabad edition and Delhi edition. The link for the handwritten notes in the PDF format and the timestamping for the displayed articles is provided in the description box below and for the benefit of smartphone users it is also provided in the comments section. Let's move on to our first news article analysis. This discussion is based on black pepper. The syllabus that can be linked to this news article discussion is given here for your reference. The news article talks about the falling prices of pepper in India and it also talks about the major reasons for this falling in prices. In this context, let us first discuss in brief about pepper cultivation in India. See, this black pepper is popularly known as king of spices. It is one of the important and earliest known spices that was produced and exported from India. Its original home is the dense evergreen forests of western guards in South India. The expeditions in search of spices especially pepper led to the discovery of new trade routes and this black pepper is believed to have been introduced by Arab traders into Indonesia and Malaya Archipelago and it was introduced as early as in the first century AD. Today, the important black pepper producing countries in the world are India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Thailand, China, Vietnam, etc. Now in this context, it is to be noted that in the year 1972, the international pepper community was formed. It was formed as an intergovernmental organization of pepper producing country. This community now includes India, Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam as permanent members and then Papua, New Guinea, Philippines are associate members. So now let us discuss the distribution of pepper in India. Black pepper cultivation in India is mainly confined to Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. It is cultivated in small amounts in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, then in Goa, Pondicherry and in northeastern states also. Now in this, you should note that Karnataka has 27% of black pepper crop area under cultivation and Kerala has 63% of black pepper crop area under cultivation and these states contribute about 54.6% and 34.3% of total production of black pepper respectively. So what are the preferred agro-climatic conditions for pepper production in India? Normally, a tropical climate with an average temperature of 28 degree Celsius is recommended. In a rainfall of 125 to 250 centimeter with high humidity of 75 to 90% age will yield the best results. Now with this background in mind, let us discuss the news article. The news article says that the price of black pepper has been drastically falling over the last few years. According to the article, the price has reduced from Rs.760 per kg in 2017 to Rs.490 per kg and then now it has reached to Rs.290 per kg. So what are the important reasons for falling in prices of pepper? The reasons are domestic and also international. The domestic reason is the low production and this low production is due to various diseases which are affecting pepper plants and then another reason for low production is climate vagaries or fluctuations such as changing rainfall pattern etc. Then some of the international reasons which are mentioned in the article are cheaper import of pepper from Vietnam via Sri Lanka. Now this is happening because of few free trade agreements of India with other countries and organizations. Now we know that free trade agreement is a pact between two or more nations to reduce barriers so as to import and export commodities among them. Now in this context you should know that India and Sri Lanka have signed Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement or in short ISFTA. This agreement came into effect in 2000 and also you should know that India and Sri Lanka are also members of SAFTA that is South Asian Free Trade Area. Now this SAFTA came into effect in 2006 and it replaced the SARC Preferential Trading arrangement or in short SAFTA. So all these SARC member countries are parties to this SAFTA. These countries are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Then the news article also mentions one more point that under SAFTA India could import 2500 tons of pepper per year from Sri Lanka that too without duty. So if India imports about this quota that is about 2500 tons of pepper then a duty of 8% will be imposed as per the ISFTA. Now the problem here is that this route is being used by Vietnam to sell its pepper to India. It is because direct pepper import from Vietnam will attract a duty of 52% under the ASEAN Trade Agreement. Now in this context you should note that India has signed a Free Trade Agreement with ASEAN countries which is known as ASEAN India Free Trade Area or in short AIFTA. This agreement entered into force in 2010 and you should also remember that Vietnam is a member of ASEAN. So these are some of the information with respect to free trade agreements of India with other countries and organizations. So what are the measures taken by the government of India to curb import of pepper from Sri Lanka and Vietnam? The first measure was taken in 2017 in which the government has fixed the minimum import price for pepper at rupees 500 per kg. In this minimum import price or MIP is the minimum price that have to be paid by the Indian firms while importing. So import of pepper below rupees 500 per kg is prohibited now. Then as an another measure India has requested Sri Lanka to prevent improper import of pepper from other countries which are taking advantage of the preferential access under ISFTA and SAFTA. Then another measure was taken by Sri Lanka in which Sri Lanka had introduced a new procedure to prevent misuse of certificates of origin for third country black pepper shipments which are destined to India. Such as as we just now discussed Vietnam is misusing this certificates of origin. In the certificates of origin is nothing but a certificate which indicates the actual origin country of that particular product. So these are some of the measures taken by government of India and also by Sri Lanka to curb the import of pepper and also to prevent the misuse or preferential access. Now in this whole scenario the irony is that despite the lower price in Indian market for pepper still importers are continuing to procure pepper at a high MIP of rupees 500 per kg and according to the news article almost 1600 tons of pepper was imported by India in August and September during this fiscal year for domestic use. So we can say that at this time intervention from government side is needed to protect the interest of pepper farmers. With this we come to the end of this news article discussion. The displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session. This discussion is based on this editorial. In this editorial the author talks about how India defended its much required developing country status at the World Trade Organization. The syllabus that is relevant for the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Firstly the author talks about dichotomy. When we say dichotomy it refers to the presence of a strong difference in the projection of a single entity. And in our context it means that on one side the Indian political leadership is being on a publicity overdrive which means excess publicity about India's development which is nothing but the narrative that India is making rapid development achievements since the year 2014. This narrative projects to the people that India has developed more than how it was in 2014. On the other side if you see the same political leadership is working very hard to prove that India is still a poor and a developing country. And they do this whenever a question on its developmental status comes at the World Trade Organization. So why India is trying so hard to prove that it is still a poor country or a developing country at the WTO. And how are the countries designated as least developed countries that is LDCs or developing nations at the WTO. According to the author under the WTO system countries are generally designated as developed developing and least developed countries. And with respect to least developed countries this is based on the WTO agreement. And in this context the author mentions article 9.2 of World Trade Organization Agreement. But you should note that there is a printing error it is not article 9.2 it is article 11.2 of WTO agreement which is the agreement establishing World Trade Organization. This particular article of WTO agreement states that the LDC status of a country in the WTO is based on such status being recognized by the United Nations. That is if UN recognizes that so and so countries are LDC countries then WTO will also recognize the countries as LDC. But what about the developing country status? The author mentions that the WTO agreement does not mention any criterion to determine the developing country status. And therefore countries including India self-designate themselves as developing country at the WTO. Now this status is taken by countries to take advantage of provisions like article 18 of a general agreement on tariffs and trade that is GATT and to take advantage of other special and differential treatment provisions that are present in the WTO agreements. If you see this article 18 of GATT it recognizes that attaining the objectives would require facilitating the progressive development of certain countries. These are countries that can only support low levels of development and they are at the early stages of development. Then the special and differential treatment provisions these are aimed at increasing trade opportunities for developing countries. Then the developing countries are given longer transitional periods to comply with the WTO obligations. And the developed countries has to provide technical assistance to developing countries in required matters under these special and differential provisions. So now let us see one or two important facts about GATT and how it differs from WTO. The GATT or the general agreement on tariffs and trade provided the rules for much of world trade from 1948 to 1994. Then after 1994 it is the world trade organization that has provided the rules for world trade. Now in this you should note that GATT mainly dealt with trade in goods whereas the WTO and its agreements cover trade in services and intellectual property in addition to trade in goods. So the birth of the WTO has created new procedures for the settlement of disputes also. Now coming to the editorial discussion generally we can say that there is a clearly visible uneven level of development between developed and developing countries in the WTO. Hence countries self designate themselves as developing country to get various benefits which we just saw. The special and differential treatment at the WTO which we saw are similar to the positive discrimination which we follow in our reservation system at the national level. Now let us see some of the arguments of India in WTO to retain the developing country status. The author mentions four points which are mentioned by India in its paper that was submitted to WTO. Firstly the paper showed that India's GDP per capita is very low. According to World Bank data the per capita GDP in India for the year 2018 is around 1.4 lakhs. That means GDP per person in India is just rupees 1.4 lakhs in 2018. But if you compare this with the per capita GDP of USA the US GDP per capita is 30 times more than Indian per capita GDP. Then second point mentioned by India was India has 36.4 crore people living in multi-dimensional poverty. This multi-dimensional poverty identifies multiple deprivations at the household and individual level in three main areas. They are health, education and standard of living. And at the international level we also know that there is also a multi-dimensional poverty index. The 2019 global multi-dimensional poverty index was developed and released by the United Nations Development Program and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative together. This report on multi-dimensional poverty states that India had 36.9 crore people living in multi-dimensional poverty in 2016. Then thirdly India stated that the domestic subsidies provided per farmer is also low which is to the tune of just 227 dollars that is around rupees 16,000 only. Then fourth point is that India has a very low research and development capacity. Now with these points India substantiates that India is still a developing country that is why the title of the article is still a developing country. So why there is a huge uproar about India's developing country status at the World Trade Organization and why India has to submit a paper to substantiate or to defend its developing country status. This is because of a particular country whose per capita GDP in 2018 is more than 30 times the per capita GDP of India according to the World Bank. This country is the United States of America. If you see in January 2019 the US has made a formal submission to the WTO that countries like India are no more developing countries and therefore they should not enjoy the special and differential treatment benefits. The US has presented data that India's GDP has grown from 0.60 trillion dollars in 1995 to 2.63 trillion dollars in 2017. This data was presented by US to substantiate its point of view. Then US has proposed that any country that meets even any one of the criteria mentioned by it should become ineligible for special and differential treatment benefits. So now let us see the criteria which was suggested by USA unilaterally on its own to WTO. If a country is a member of OECD or if a country is seeking accession to OECD then the country is not eligible for special and differential treatment benefits. Then if a country is a member of G20 then also the country is not eligible for special and differential treatment. Then finally if the country is share in the world exports is exceeding 0.5 percentage or if the country is classified as high income group by the world bank then also the country is not eligible for special and differential treatment benefits. Now among these criteria if you see India is a member of G20 and the author also mentions that India's share in world exports is around 1.7 percentage as of early 2019 so which is above 0.5 percentage. So based on this US is saying that as India has met around two criteria which is proposed by US itself India should not enjoy special and differential treatment benefits at the WTO. Now here you should note one point India is classified by the world bank as a lower middle income economy and US is classified as a high income economy. Now with respect to OECD which is the organization for economic cooperation and development in this India is just a key partner and India is not a member and India is not seeking accession to OECD. So these are the facts that you can know by analyzing this open editorial article. So from this we can say that India has rightly defended its developing country status though the United States has sought WTO unilaterally to alter India's status. So in the conclusion the author mentions that any unilateral action by the US will be a violation of international law and it will be another attack on trade multilateralism. In trade multilateralism multiple countries have a say in international trade rather than the trade unilateralism. Then the author also asks the Indian political leadership to refrain from making excess publicity about India's development in domestic or the national level. This is because excessive publicity or the statements made on Indian development may be utilized by USA at the WTO to remove developing country status to India. By this indirectly the author is telling the political leadership that they should tell the truth to its people and they should avoid dichotomy in the projection of development in different levels. So in this editorial article we saw the issues with respect to the developing country status of India. With this we come to the end of this news article discussion. The displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next news article discussion this article once again raises the concerns against the regional comprehensive economic partnership that is RCEP. The syllabus that is relevant to the discussion is given here for your reference. Now let us see why the concerns against RCEP have been raised again. It is because there is an upcoming RCEP summit which will be held at Bangkok on 4th November 2019 and in this summit the Prime Minister of India is also expected to attend and everyone is keenly waiting to see the outcome of this summit. Now in this context let us discuss in brief about RCEP then the concerns which is raised against RCEP and also about up of convention that is mentioned in the news article. As we saw in the beginning RCEP is the acronym for Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. RCEP is considered as the world's biggest free trade agreement. It is a proposed free trade agreement between 10 ASEAN countries with its six free trade agreement partners. The six free trade agreement partners are India, China, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea. If you see this RCEP includes countries that make up 45 percentage of the world's population then the RCEP countries GDP makes up for 33 percent of world's GDP and also the trade that happens between the RCEP partners are at least 28 percentage of total global trade that is why RCEP is known as world's biggest free trade agreement. Now let us look at the apprehensions or concerns against RCEP. You would have heard that India has been hesitant to commit to RCEP. Now this is due to the apprehensions or the concerns among local industry and trade unions and agricultural bodies. The concerns are that the free trade agreement if signed will lead to lowering of subsidies and it will give market access to China and if market access is given to China then it will overrun or exceed the local manufacturing in our country. So the farmers and the farmers affiliated organizations have appealed to the government to not to sign the deal. These farmers and organizations want the agricultural produce and the dairy sector to be kept out of the purview of RCEP. Now this news article particularly talks about the concerns which were raised by the agricultural scientists community. The scientists fear that the country may be forced to adopt the international union for protection of new plant varieties convention that is in short UPOW convention which favors breeders rights on plant varieties. Now to understand this let us see in brief about UPOW convention. The international union for the protection of new varieties of plants or in short UPOW is an intergovernmental organization it is based in Geneva Switzerland. This organization was established in 1961 by the international convention for the protection of new varieties of plants which in short is known as UPOW convention. Now the mission of UPOW is to provide and promote an effective system of plant variety protection and this will be done with the aim of encouraging the development of new varieties of plants for the benefit of society. Now the UPOW convention provides the basis for members to encourage plant breeding by granting breeders of new plant varieties and intellectual property rights as breeders right. Now you should note that at present India is not a member of UPOW convention but India has observer status in some of the UPOW bodies. Now in this context it is argued that UPOW's focus is on patents for plant varieties but its focus is not on the farmers because it does not allow farmers to use saved seed or to use seeds of protected varieties. In short UPOW convention denies farmers the freedom to reuse seeds and exchange them with other farmers without consent. Therefore the countries which are having strong farmers rights such as India cannot comply to all aspects of UPOW. Now you would have understood why the experts are raising concerns against this UPOW convention which is based on the possibility of India adopting this convention after joining the RCEP. However India will have to finally balance between our priorities to protect domestic interest and also to engage with the rest of the world. So with this we come to the end of this news article discussion. The respite practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next news article discussion which is based on air independent propulsion system. The syllabus that can be linked to this discussion is given here for your reference. The news article talks about the success that was achieved by defense research and development organizations that is DRDO in developing an indigenous air independent propulsion system. So in this context let us see some facts about DRDO and then we will discuss about air independent propulsion system. We know that DRDO is the premier defense research and development wing that was established in the year 1958. It functions under the ministry of defense. Its vision is to empower India with cutting edge defense technologies and also to achieve self reliance in critical defense technologies. DRDO has been playing an important role in equipping our armed forces with the state of art weapon systems and equipment. State of art means the most recent stage of development of a product which has the newest ideas and features. So now let us discuss about the air independent propulsion system or AIP system. See we know that submarines are used as principal weapon of naval warfare and ever since submarines became the principal weapon of naval warfare designers have focused on making the submarines more quieter and they have focused on increasing the submarines underwater endurance which means underwater stability. But if you see the traditional diesel electric submarines which are the conventional submarines they need to come to surface frequently to charge their batteries and they have an underwater endurance of only few days. So this led to the introduction of air independent propulsion. This AIP vastly improved the underwater endurance of these submarines and it gave them a distinct advantage. And the best part is that the AIP technology can be installed on existing older generation submarines during a retrofit. In this retrofit is nothing but adding a component to the submarine which did not have when the submarine was manufactured. So from this we can say that even if the technology was not present in the submarines during its manufacturing it can be later installed. But if you see the diesel electric submarines they have a large network of batteries which are charged by the diesel generator and these submarines have to snorkel for recharging which means they have to travel just below the surface of water for recharging. So once the battery gets drained in these submarines they have to surface again to recharge their batteries. Now when the submarines do so it exposes them and they can be detected by enemy radars which will make them as an easy target. So this is where the AIP has a role to play. There are four types of AIP one is closed cycle diesel engines second is closed cycle steam turbines third sterling cycle engines then fuel cells. So now let us discuss in brief how these types work. First is the closed cycle diesel engines. Now this technology involves storing a supply of oxygen in the submarine in order to run a diesel engine while the vessel is submerged and the oxygen is stored in the form of liquid oxygen and it is stored in tanks which are on board the submarine and then it is sent to the diesel engine for combustion. But the main challenge with this technology is the storing of liquid oxygen because it is highly prone to fire. Then the next type is closed cycle steam turbines. In this technology steam is used as the working fluid to run the turbine. In a conventional closed cycle steam propulsion the combustion of ethanol and oxygen is used under high pressure to generate steam. The next type is sterling cycle engines. In this sterling engine is a closed cycle engine with a working fluid which is permanently contained in the system and a source of energy is used to heat this working fluid and that energy is liquid oxygen and diesel fuel. Then the next type is fuel cells. A fuel cell is a device which converts chemical energy into electricity. This is done by using a fuel and an oxidizer. So a typical fuel converts hydrogen and oxygen into electricity. In this hydrogen is the fuel and oxygen is the oxidizer. As a result of this reaction byproducts like water and heat are also released. So we just now discussed how the different types of AIP works. Now what are the advantages of using AIP? The first advantage is that it greatly increases the underwater endurance of submarines. Now this allows the submarines to continuously stay submerged for weeks without surfacing. But you should note that the AIP-equipped submarines also have to surface after a long time. But this duration is much longer as compared to non-AIP submarines. And you should also note that the AIP-equipped conventional system will not match the endurance of nuclear powered submarines. Because these nuclear power submarines provide continuous and long term power supply using the nuclear energy. So with this background in mind, let us discuss the news article. The news article states that DRDO has successfully developed a land based prototype of AIP. That is DRDO has developed a model AIP which will be later implemented in submarines. The news article also mentions that all scorpion submarines of the navy are planned to be equipped with an AIP module in due course. These scorpion class submarines are a class of diesel electric attack submarines. And India's major scorpion class submarines are the Kalwari class submarines such as INS kandheri. So the DRDO has crossed several milestones in building a fuel cell based AIP. The news article also states that the navy has planned to install these AIP modules on the last two of its six scorpion submarines which will be rolled out by India. But this could not be realized due to developmental delays. So now navy is planning to install them on all scorpion submarines when they go for their first refitting. So in this article we have discussed in detail about the working and advantages of AIP system and the submarines which will be equipped with AIP will further increase the strength of Indian Navy. With this we come to the end of this news article discussion. The displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session. Now we have come to the last session for our day which is practice questions discussion session. If you look at this question there are two statements and we have to choose the correct statement. The first statement states in India, Goa and northeastern states are the largest pepper producing states. We know that black pepper is popularly known as king of spices and its original home is the dense evergreen forests of western guards in south India and the black pepper cultivation in India is mainly confined to Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. But it is also cultivated in small amounts in Andaman and Nicobar islands, Goa, Pondicherry and northeastern states. So from this we can say that Goa and northeastern states are not the largest pepper producing states. So this statement is a wrong statement. The second statement is India is a member of international pepper community. Now this international pepper community is an intergovernmental organization of pepper producing countries and India is also a pepper producing country so India is also a member and you should know that India is one of its permanent members. Other permanent members are Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. So this statement is correct. Here the question asks for the correct statement. So the correct answer to this question is option B2 only. Now if you see this next question four statements are given and in this question also we have to choose the correct statement. The first statement is India is a G20 member along with European Union. Now first we should know that whether India is a member of G20 or not. Yes India is a member of G20 and European Union is the only organization which is a member of G20. So this makes statement one and statement two as correct statements because it states European Union is the only organization other than a country that is a member at G20. Now you should also know that India is the only SAR country in G20. Now the third statement is India is also a member at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. That is nothing but OECD but as of now India is not a member and India is also not seeking accession to OECD as of now. So this statement is wrong. The fourth statement is according to World Bank India is an upper middle income economy. See the World Bank classifies the world's economies based on their income level and the World Bank classifies the world's economies into four income groups. First one is high income economy. Second one is upper middle income economy. Third is lower middle income economy and final one is low income economy. And if you remember our discussion we saw that India is an lower middle income economy. So this statement is wrong. Now additionally you should also know that our neighbors Pakistan and Bangladesh are also classified as lower middle income economy by the World Bank. Now here statement three and four are incorrect and the question asks for the correct statement. So the correct answer to this question is option C one and two only. Now this question is based on UPOW that is International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plans. The first statement is UPOW was established in 1961 by the International Convention for Protection of New Varieties of Plans of United Nations. Now when there is the first half of the statement is correct because UPOW was established in 1961 and it was established by this convention. But whether this convention is a convention of United Nations no it is not. It is not a convention of United Nations. So this makes this statement as an incorrect statement. The second statement states the UPOW convention provides the basis for members to encourage plant breeding by granting breeders of new plant varieties intellectual property right as the breeders right. Now this statement is correct. This is one of the important provisions of this convention and you should also remember that UPOW's focus is on patents for plant varieties but not on the farmers because it does not allow farmers to use saved seeds or the seeds of protected varieties. So it denies the farmers to have the freedom to reuse seeds or exchange them with other farmers without consent. Now the third statement states India is also the member of UPOW convention. Now this statement is incorrect because at present India is not a member of this convention. Now we have to just wait and see till the RCEP summit whether India adopts this convention or not. So here the question asks for the correct statement. So the final correct answer to this question is option C 2 only. Now this question is based on air independent propulsion system. Four statements are given and we have to choose the correct statements which defines this air independent propulsion system. The first one is AIP is used to increase the underwater endurance of non-conventional submarines. Now you should remember that air independent propulsion is related to submarines and it is used to increase the underwater endurance. Now for now just remember this. Let us see the next statement. The second statement is AIP is used to launch satellites to near earth orbits. Now this is not related to submarines so this statement is wrong and even statement D is also wrong because it talks about PSLVs. Now if you see statement C it also talks about submarines. Now we have to choose whether option A is correct or option C is correct. See the conventional submarines means the traditional diesel electric submarines. So the first statement states non-conventional submarines but if you see the AIP is used to increase the underwater endurance of diesel electric submarines that is the conventional submarines only. So this makes the statement one as incorrect. So the correct answer to this question is option C only and even recently DRDO has successfully developed a land based prototype of AIP. So remember this in mind. Now let us see one main question based on GS paper 3. India is still a developing country to enjoy the special and differential treatment benefits under WTO. Substantiate. Now to answer this question you should first define what are these special and differential treatment benefits which are provided by WTO. You can say that these provisions are aimed at increasing trade opportunities for developing countries and the developing countries are given longer transitional periods to comply with the WTO obligations and also the developed countries are required to provide technical assistance to the developing countries in certain matters. So these are some of the special and differential treatment that are available at the WTO for developing countries. Now you have to substantiate this statement. So before that you can also state the viewpoint of USA which has said that India is no more a developing country. Like it has said that India's GDP has grown from 1995 to 2017. During 1995 India's GDP was 0.60 trillion dollars and in 2017 it was 2.63 trillion dollars. Then you can also mention the criteria that is mentioned by USA which US proposes to make India as ineligible to avail special and differential treatment. Now for substantiating that why India is still a developing country you can mention that first India's GDP per capita is very low and according to World Bank data the per capita GDP in India for 2018 is around 1.4 lakhs and in terms of rupees it is around 43 lakhs for USA. Then secondly you can mention that India has 36.9 crore people who are living in multi-dimensional poverty. Now this was mentioned in the 2019 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index which is published by UNDP along with the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative. Then third point you can state that the domestic subsidies provided per farmer in India is also low. This is around 227 dollars that is only rupees 16,000. Then the fourth point you can say that India has very low research and development capacity. Then you can also add your own viewpoints based on your observation. With this we come to the end of Hindi news analysis. 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