 A very good evening aspirants. I would like to begin with a cheerful announcement regarding UPSC civil services preliminary examination. Results for problems 2022 was released and we are proud to let you know that more than 927 candidates of Shankaray's academy have cleared 2022 problems. More than 70 of them have cleared their problems in the first attempt. My hearty congratulations to all these candidates. Put your best efforts in mains preparation and on behalf of Shankaray's academy I wish all of you success in mains 2022 also. With this joyful mood let us get to the Hindi news analysis for the date 2nd of July 2022. These are the news articles that I have taken for discussion today and at the end I also have a quiz question for you. Let us get to the first discussion. Today we are going to start our news article discussion with this news article which talks about the test flight of a new combat technology. This technology is called as the autonomous flying wing technology demonstrator and the DRDO has successfully carried out the maiden test flight of this technology now. So what is this autonomous flying wing technology demonstrator? So it is actually nothing but a new unmanned aerial vehicle in short UAV and it is also officially called as the Swift UAV. Swift stands for stealth wing flying test bed. So this Swift is being developed under India's secretive unmanned combat aerial vehicle program. See this secretive UCAV program is linked to the development of India's fifth generation stealth fighter advanced medium combat aircraft. And now this program has reached a new milestone with the test flight or the maiden flight of this Swift UAV. Actually this Swift is a scaled down version of Ghatak UCAV. What is a UCAV? It stands for unmanned combat air vehicle. It is also known as combat drone which is again an unmanned aerial vehicle only. Now this UCAV is mainly used for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and even it is used for reconnaissance and it carries aircrafts ordnance such as missiles and bombs for drone strikes. And note that such UCAVs are generally under real time human control and it provides varying levels of autonomy also. But you should understand the difference between a normal unmanned surveillance and reconnaissance aerial vehicle and this UCAV. The difference is that UCAVs are used for both drone strikes as well as for battlefield intelligence. Now since it is a UAV that is unmanned aerial vehicle from that itself we can know that this type of aircraft have no human pilot onboard. Then how it is controlled? It is controlled through an operator who is situated in a vehicle from a remote terminal. Now this also means that the equipment that is necessary for a human pilot is not needed in this type of aircraft. And this helps in aiding the low weight and small size of these aircrafts. And that is why drone strikes and gathering battlefield intelligence is much easier in UCAVs. But I said that Swift UAV is a scaled down version of Guttuk UCAV. So what is this Guttuk? See Guttuk is an autonomous UCAV. It is being developed by Aeronautical Development establishment of the RDO and it is being developed for Indian Air Force. So like the UCAVs this Guttuk will be capable of releasing missiles, bombs and precision guided munitions. In addition to this Guttuk also has stealth features to avoid detection by enemy sensors in contested airspace. And since Swift UAV is a scaled down version of this Guttuk that means Swift will also demonstrate and prove these stealth technology. Along with that it also has high speed landing technology in autonomous mode. But what does this stealth technology mean? Which I am saying again and again. Stealth technology is also known as low observable technology. It is actually a subdiscipline of military tactics. The goal of this stealth technology is to make an airplane invisible to radar. Stealth means being invisible, right? Now there are two different ways to create this invisibility. One way is that the airplane can be shaped in such a way so that any radar signals which is reflected by that airplane are reflected away from the radar equipment. And another way is the airplane can be covered in materials that absorb radar signals. So in both these ways the airplane is made invisible to the radar and thereby it becomes stealth. So this is one of the important features of Swift UAV. Other than that you should also know that Swift is powered by a small turbofan engine. This engine is a Russian TRDD-50 MT and this engine was originally designed for cruise missiles. But here note that the smaller turbofan version of this engine is being developed indigenously for the purpose of Swift UAV. So who is developing this Swift UAV? It is designed and developed by the Aeronautical Development Establishment which is situated in Bengaluru. Actually it is a premier research laboratory of DRDO. So from these observations itself you would have known that the maiden flight of Swift UAV marks a major milestone in terms of proving critical technologies towards the development of future unmanned aircraft of India. This also shows a significant step towards self-reliance in strategic defence technologies. So these are few facts that you have to know about the Swift UAV which is also called as autonomous flying wing technology demonstrator. Now let us move on to the next discussion. Now this discussion is going to be based on this news article and this text and context article. This text and context article actually appeared in yesterday's newspaper. See both these articles talk about the depreciation of Indian rupee. Recently Indian rupee hit an all-time low against the US dollar. It is now selling as low as 79.05 rupees against the dollar. And now in the scenario there is an increase in gold imports. So now the news is that Indian government has decided to hike the duty to spare rupee from getting affected from it. So this is what is mentioned in both these news articles. So in this context let us understand about rupee depreciation and the factors that cause rupee depreciation and we will also understand why government has decided to hike the duty for gold imports etc. But before that this is the syllabus that is relevant to the discussion. Now let us begin by seeing what rupee depreciation is. See generally when we say depreciation of currency it refers to a fall in the currency's value in the floating exchange rate system. See this floating exchange rate system works in such a way that the demand and supply determine the value of a currency. And in case of rupee, the rupee depreciation refers to the fall in the value of rupee against dollar. It implies that the rupee has become less valuable and weaker against the dollar. Let us take an example. Assume that the value of one dollar increases from rupee 75 to 80. Then this change will be termed as depreciation of rupee. See here we are talking about the face value of the rupee and not its actual value. And when rupee depreciates it loses its actual value but the face value increases. Here we are calling this change as depreciation because now if a product is mentioned as one dollar that means you will be paying 80 rupees instead of 75 rupees. You are paying more rupees for that same product and that is why we are saying rupee has depreciated. Now on the other hand, appreciation of rupee is opposite of this. For example, if the value of one dollar decreases from rupee 75 to 70 then this is appreciation of rupee. Here the actual value has increased but the face value has decreased. Now this is appreciation because previously you were paying 75 rupees for a one dollar product but now you will be paying only 70 rupees. So this is the basics of rupee depreciation. Now we saw that the demand and supply determines the value of a currency. So now let us understand how this is happening. See the general relationship is in such a way that when the supply of a currency increases its actual value drops. On the other hand, when the demand for a currency increases its actual value rises. This is the general relationship between supply and demand towards a currency. Now note that in a wider economy, central banks determine the supply of currencies. In our case, RBI is responsible for printing money, right? But on the other hand, the demand for currencies depend on the amount of goods and services that is produced in the economy. Now if you take the forex market, this supply of rupee is determined by the demand for imports and various foreign assets in India. See if we want to buy something, then we should have money to pay for it, right? For example, if you take oil, if there is high demand by India to import oil, then it can lead to an increase in the supply of rupee in the forex market. Because you will be paying to import and this causes the rupee's value to drop. This is what happens in the supply side. Now on the demand side, the demand for rupee in the forex market depends on the foreign demand for Indian exports and other domestic assets. For example, when there is a great enthusiasm among foreign investors to invest in India, then it can lead to an increase in the supply of dollars in the forex market. So this in turn causes the rupee's value to rise against the dollar. See this is the same concept that we saw before. If there is more supply of currency, then the actual value decreases. And if there is more demand for a currency, then its value will increase. That means if India is importing more, then it will be giving more money to exchange it for dollars. This is required to pay for the imports. So what is happening here is, the supply of rupee is more and the demand for dollar is more. And as I said in the beginning, the currency whose supply is more, it will lose its value, right? On the other hand, the currency whose demand is more, it will gain value. So by this logic, when India imports more, then the rupee will depreciate. And at the same time, the dollar's value will appreciate. See this might seem like a confusing concept, but it is actually very easy if you revise it again and again. Now similarly, if you take a scenario when India is exporting more, then other countries will exchange their dollars for Indian rupee. Now here what is happening? This supply of dollars is increasing. And at the same time, the demand for rupee is also increasing. So here, rupee's demand is increasing. That means rupee's value will appreciate, but dollar's value will depreciate. So this is the concept based on which the rupee value is determined. Now in today's article, they are talking about gold imports. See the issue was, gold imports have been increasing tremendously. Now the government has decided to curb the gold imports by increasing the import duty. The import duty for gold has been increased from 10.75% to 15%. See when duty for a product increases, its import will automatically decrease. And when import decreases, that means the rupee supply will decrease. And this will lead to rupee appreciation. Or we can say that lower imports will have less effect on the rupee dollar exchange rate. That is why this move has been taken by the government. So with this information, let us move on to see what is causing the rupee to lose its value. Since March of this year, the US Federal Reserve has been raising its benchmark interest rate. See what happens when interest rate is increased is, it will give high returns for the investors. So that means those who are investing in USA, they will be getting higher returns. So automatically the investors will be attracted to the US market. This is what actually happened. Investors who wanted high returns, they pulled the capital away from emerging markets such as India and they invested back into USA. And this has put pressure on the emerging market currencies which have depreciated significantly against the US dollar. Actually, even the developed market currency such as Euro and the N have depreciated against the dollar because of this reason. In fact, some analysts believe that RBI's surprise decision to raise interest rates in the month of May might have been to defend Indian rupee by preventing any rapid outflow of capital from India. In addition to this, India's current account deficit is also a matter of concern here. See, current account deficit measures the gap between the value of imports and exports of goods and services. Now the problem is, India's current account deficit is expected to hit a 10-year high which will be of 3.3% of GDP in the current financial year. This means that India's import demand is going to increase amidst the rising global oil prices. When import demand increases, it will lead to more imports and definitely it will have negative effect on rupee. Now such a kind of situation is generally overcome when foreign investors pour sufficient capital into our country to fund this current account deficit. But as we saw just now, the foreign investors are unlikely to put capital into India because they are going to USA where their investment is getting more yields. So in this way the capital and trade factor affects the rupee value. Other than this, when it comes to rupee, it should also be noted that it has consistently lost value against the US dollar for several decades now. And the major reason for this is the consistently higher domestic price inflation in India. Higher inflation in India suggests that RBI has been creating rupee at a faster rate than the US Federal Reserve has been creating dollars. So while the capital and trade flows gain a lot of attention in discussions on the rupee's value, the another factor which is the difference in the rates at which US Federal Reserve and RBI regulates the supply of their currencies is often left out of discussions. But it should be kept in mind that this difference is important as it plays a much larger role in determining the value of rupee in the longer run. So to sum it up, what are the factors that are responsible for rupee depreciation? First is lower export revenues. Second, a surge in imports. Third, reduced monetary policy interest rates. Fourth, central bank intervention. Fifth, traders and speculators selling currencies on the market. So in this scenario, several steps are taken by the central banks of the country to handle the depreciation of a currency. Let us see these steps briefly. The first one is improving the climate for foreign investors. See when there are more foreign investors investing in India, that means it will not only increase growth of our country, but it will also bring more dollars into the system. So this will be reducing the current account deficit. So how can we improve the climate for foreign investors? It can be done by relaxing norms for foreign institutional investments. Now the next one is making external commercial borrowings easier. See with this move, manufacturing companies who want to borrow up to 50 million dollars can do it with the maturity period of one year. So this will help in bringing dollars quickly into the economy. And the next measure is increasing masala bonds. It helps to reduce the risk from the fluctuations in the exchange rate. And the final and the obvious measure that is taken as increasing exports and decreasing non-essential imports. Now apart from this, the central bank of India, which is RBI, also uses certain instruments to arrest the depreciation. And such measures include curbing the speculative trading and sale of dollars in the forex market. As a measure, it also limits the borrowing. Here RBI makes borrowing by banks costly by capping the borrowing of funds by banks as a part of repurchase agreement. This is what we call as liquidity adjustment facility. Now this attracts more buyers, including the foreign institutions. That means it will be increasing dollar supply. And as you already saw, when there is more supply, it means the value of that currency will decrease. And when dollars value decreases, the depreciation of rupee will either reduce or it will stop. So in this discussion, we saw the common factors that lead to the depreciation of rupee. Then finally we saw what are the measures taken to handle the situation of depreciation of rupee. Now let's get to the next discussion. So our next discussion is going to be based on this news article. It talks about India Pakistan fisherman issue. See according to the news article, India has called Pakistan to release and repatriate 536 Indian fishermen and 3 civilian prisoners who have completed their jail term and whose nationality has been confirmed. In addition to this, Pakistan has also been asked to provide immediate consular access to 105 fishermen and 20 civilian prisoners who have been in Pakistan's custody. This is what is mentioned in the news article. See generally when we talk about fisherman issue, we talk about the India Sri Lanka fisherman issue, right? But today we will see what is this India Pakistan fisherman issue. For this, first we need to know about the maritime boundary of India and Pakistan. See this maritime boundary is an issue. Why? Because it is not properly defined or it is not properly fixed. The main issue arises with respect to the Sir Creek. See the Sir Creek is a small strip of water. But the problem is where this Sir Creek ends is the issue between India and Pakistan. Green line is the boundary claimed by Pakistan and red line is the boundary claimed by India. Now the Sir Creek is important because as you can see in this image itself, it is mentioned that location of the last point on the Sir Creek boundary will be the first point of maritime boundary between India and Pakistan. So this is where the maritime boundary begins. But when the Sir Creek boundary itself is contested, how can you say where is this maritime boundary? So because of that, this line is the one that is claimed by Pakistan as the maritime boundary and this line is claimed by India. So you can see the difference in these areas. So this leads to the possibility of conflicts between India and Pakistan. This is because the Indian fishermen by mistake step over the territorial waters of Pakistan and then they are arrested by the Pakistani officials. The same also happens in the case of India, Sri Lanka fishermen also. Now why normally Indian fishermen are getting into Pakistan territorial waters? See they, you know, while searching for fish, they go deep into the sea. Now in the sea, there is no physical boundary for fishermen. So they do not know when they are stepping over to Pakistan's territory. So this leads to arrest by Pakistani officials. Another reason is that, as you already said, what is the boundary itself is a problem here. So this leads to arrest of innocent fishermen by Pakistani authorities. Now according to the news article, India has asked the Pakistan government to release the 536 Indian fishermen and to provide consular access to 105 fishermen and 20 civilian prisoners. But how did India know how many fishermen were actually captured? See this is known because of the India-Pakistan Agreement on consular access. This was signed in the year 2008. What is the term consular access means? It means the ability of foreign nationals to have access to embassies of their own nation, in the nation which is hosting them. So that means consular access if the foreign nationals, for example, if the Indian nationals are in Pakistan, then in Pakistan they will have the access to Indian embassy. Now according to this agreement, the list of civilian prisoners and fishermen of each country who are lodged in jails of the other country will be exchanged. And this exchange happens two times. One is on 1st January and the other is on 1st July of every year. So this is the first step taken by the Indian government to safeguard Indian fishermen. So this shows the priority of Indian government towards the welfare, safety and security of Indian fishermen. And as a result of these sustained efforts, so far more than 2000 Indian fishermen and 57 fishing boats have been repatriated from Pakistan since the year 2014. So as a part of this agreement of 2018 only, Pakistan has shared with the Indian High Commission a list of 682 Indian prisoners who were detained in Pakistan. And this included some civilians also. The same was done by Indian side also. Now apart from this agreement, there are also several other measures taken by the Indian government. For example, the India Pakistan Judicial Committee on Prisoners was set up in the same year 2008. Now this committee comprises of the retired high court judges from both sides. That is from both India and Pakistan. And the purpose of this committee is to recommend steps for human treatment of prisoners and fishermen and even steps to expedite their release. Then in addition to this, Indian Coast Guard also plays a role because Indian Coast Guard has taken several steps to guide the Indian fishermen so that they do not cross over the perceived international maritime boundary line between India and Pakistan. And they do this through various community interaction programs for the fishing community. This helps the Indian fishing boats to stay clear from the perceived international maritime boundary line. This helps in preventing the arrest by maritime security agencies of neighboring countries. In addition to this, the government of Gujarat also has specified a no fishing zone near the coastline. Along the perceived IMBN, around 5 nautical miles there is a no fishing zone. So these many measures have been taken by the Indian government and the State Government of Gujarat to safeguard the Indian fishermen. I hope you had a wholesome idea about what is the issue. Now let us get to the next discussion. Now let us take up this news article for discussion. It talks about the delisting of tribals in northern Chattisgarh. See the tribals who have converted to other tribes have been delisted. Primarily they convert to Christianity. Now this delisting is done in order to deny the reservation benefits to those converted tribals. And this move has gained momentum nationally. Particularly in the northern Chattisgarh this is creating an issue because in the Jashpur district, 67% of tribal population is from the Uraun tribe. Now the issue here is majority of them have converted to Christianity several generations ago. So it is worried that they will not be getting reservation benefits from now on. This is what is mentioned in the news article. So in this scenario let us know about this Uraun tribe. See it is one of the most culturally vibrant tribe. They constitute a major tribal community of Odisha. They call themselves as Khuruk or Khurung. This Khuruk is actually the name of their mother tongue. The original dialect of this Khuruk is classified as an offshoot of Dravidian language. See even though this is their mother tongue, at present they are also conversant with other languages like Laria, Hindi, Ho, Odia and Sonti. Also it is said that in certain areas Uraun people are called as Dhangar. Dhangar means unmarried young man who works for wage. Another important fact to know is history reveals this tribal community as a daring community who fought against the British. See they fought against the historical injustices done to them through curtailing their rights over natural resources. So where can we find this tribe in India? Their origin is traced back to southern India and it is said that from there they migrated to Chotarnakpur plateau. So they are found in the border districts of Odisha, Bihar, West Bengal, Chathisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Particularly in Odisha they are mostly settled in Sambalpur and Sundargarh district. These are the ornaments and traditional dresses that these tribal people just take note of it. Also know that the Urauns wear once upon a time more conservative. But now due to the impact of modernization they are in a transitional stage. Also they are traditionally animus that is they believe in supernatural beings. But now because of planned change in development, their perception is changing which is resulting in their lifestyle change. Similarly two things have affected their traditional way of life to greater extent. One is the impact of mining and industrialization in their habitat and second is the impact of Christianity which many of them have embraced. Both of these have affected their traditional way of life. Now when we talk about their occupation, primarily they practice settled agriculture. Paddy is their principal crop and these agricultural activities are supplemented by secondary occupation such as wage earning, hunting, fishing, collection of miner for produce etc. Also know that Uraun people are experts in rural arts and crafts like carpentry, tile and brick making and rope making. Even the women in this community weave mats from date palm leaves and prepare broomsticks from the wild grass. And when it comes to the dance and music, the most colorful and popular dance of Urauns is the Karma Dance. This is usually performed in Karma festival that is observed in the month of September to October. In this festival they worship the branches of Karma tree. So these are few facts that you have to know about this Uraun tribe. Now let us move on to the next discussion. So now let us take up this news article for discussion. It talks about a new body called as the Financial Services Institutions Bureau in short FSIB. What is this new body? Actually it is not a new one rather the center has transformed the already existing Banks Board Bureau into this FSIB and for this certain amendments have been introduced by the central government. But why this sudden move? It is based on one of the observations made by Delhi High Court last year. In that observation, Delhi High Court noted that the Banks Board Bureau is not a competent body to select the general managers and directors of state owned general insurers. Therefore to solve this problem, the central government has introduced amendments to transform the Banks Board Bureau into Financial Services Institutions Bureau. That means now the guidelines for selection of general managers and directors of public sector general insurance companies are made part of this FSIB. This is what is mentioned in the news article. In this context you should know about BBB that is Banks Board Bureau. See its constitution was approved by Prime Minister in the year 2016. It was to function as a body of eminent professionals and officials. Its work was to search and select appropriate officials for the Board of Public Sector Banks Public Sector Financial Institutions and Public Sector Insurance Companies also. That is, this Banks Board's Bureau will make recommendations for the appointment of whole time directors as well as non-executive chairpersons to these Public Sector Banks and state owned financial institutions. Along with this it also recommends measures to improve corporate governance in these institutions. This is done by engaging with the Board of Directors of all the Public Sector Banks and this engagement is for the purpose of formulating appropriate strategies for the growth and development of those institutions. But as the name itself suggests it is a Banks Board Bureau. So a case was filed in the Delhi High Court stating that this Bureau was not a competent body to select the general managers and directors of state run general insurance companies. That is they told that this Bureau should only focus on Banks and it should not be focusing on other financial institutions. And in this particular case law there was a complaint that in two occasions people junior to the general manager were selected by the Banks Board's Bureau for the position of directors in Public Sector General Insurance Companies. So taking cognizance of these facts the Delhi High Court set aside relevant circulars that enabled to make such selections and it also noted that this Bureau is not competent enough to make such appointments. And that is why the central government has now made this decision to transform the Banks Board's Bureau into a new entity called as the FSIB. So in this way you should remember that FSIB will be doing the same job as Banks Board's Bureau but it will have a wider mandate. So overall Financial Services Institution Bureau is established as a single entity for making recommendations for the appointments of whole-time directors and non-executive chairman of Banks and financial institutions. This is the point that you have to remember. So the discussion of these news articles now let us get to the next discussion which is based on practice questions. This is the first question. It is a two statement question. First statement is stealth wing flying test bed that is Swift is being developed under India's secretive unmanned combat aerial vehicle program. This is correct and note that Swift is the scaled down version of Guttuck. Second statement, Swift has features to avoid detection by enemy sensors in contested airspace. See if the first statement is right then the second statement is also correct because in the name itself it is stated as stealth. Stealth means being invisible. Now in a combat technology how do you remain invisible? It is by avoiding the detection by sensors. So this statement is also correct. Here the question asked you to choose the correct statements. The correct answer is option C both 1 and 2. Let us take up this question. This was asked in the year 2019. Which one of the following is not the most likely measure the government or RBA takes to stop the slide of Indian rupee? Slide of Indian rupee means rupee depreciation. So which is the unlikely measure? You have to choose the unlikely measure. Option A curbing imports of non-essential goods and promoting exports. This is actually done curbing imports helps you to increase the value of Indian rupee. So one should not be in the answer. Second, encouraging Indian borrowers to issue rupee denominated masala bonds. This is also a measure taken by the Indian government. Third one, easing conditions relating to external commercial borrowings. This is also a measure taken by the government to stop rupee depreciation. Option D following an expansionary monetary policy. This is incorrect because expansionary monetary policy is taken when RBA would use its tools to stimulate the economy. So such kinds of monetary policy increases money supply and in that you know there is lower interest rates and it also increases the aggregate demand. Now when there are lower interest rates it will tend to reduce the value of the currency. We saw this during discussion itself because if the domestic interest rates fall then it becomes less attractive to save money in banks and even the investors will not be interested in investing because they will not be getting profitable returns. Therefore this leads to outflow of foreign currency and therefore it leads to slide of Indian rupee. That is why this is not the measure taken by the Indian government. The correct answer is option D. Now this next question is based on our own tribe. First statement, they are declared as a particularly vulnerable tribal group. This statement is incorrect. They are not considered as a PVTG in any of these states in which we can find this tribal community. Statement 2 they are known for the worship of Banin tree branches. This statement is incorrect because we saw that Karma festival right or Karma dance in that they worship the Karma tree not the Banin tree. So this statement is also incorrect and here the question asks you to choose the correct statements and since both the statements are incorrect the correct answer is option D neither 1 nor 2. So with this practice question let me give you the quiz today. Read both the statements carefully we have discussed these statements during discussions itself. You can write the answer in the comment section and I will tell you whether your answer is right or not and try to give reasons as to why your answer is right. Along with this take this main's question also since main's is approaching those aspirants have cleared problems keep practicing by writing many answers you can write answer to this question posted in the comment section also. So with these loads of information today if you like this video don't forget to like comment and share and also subscribe to Shankar Isaac Academy YouTube channel for receiving more updates regarding civil services preparation. Thank you.