 A very good evening aspirants. The results for the third test of current affairs test series 2020 is out. The top performers in June current affairs test that is the third test are Mr. Anand Rawat, Mr. Afrid Ali Khan and Ms. Karunia. Congratulations winners and all the best for your prelims examination. The topos will receive a confirmation email within two to three working days and they will be given reimbursement of Rs 1000. And aspirants who have not yet registered note that the registrations for current affairs test series 2020 are open till 4th October 2020. For more details and for registration visit the link given in the description box and comment section. With this let us move on to the hindi news analysis by Shankara Ace Academy for the date 15th September 2020. The list of news articles along with the page numbers from different editions of hindi newspaper are given here for your reference. Let's move on to the first discussion for today. This discussion is based on this news article which talks about the recent development in the Middle East. And as you can remember in the recent days we are seeing many political developments happening in the Middle East or in the West Asia. One such development was the UAE Israel peace deal and now we have the Bahrain Israel peace agreement. So today let us try to understand these recent developments and its significance. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. Since the recent development is with respect to Israel it becomes important for us to discuss about the Israel-Palestinian issue and Israel's strained relations with the Arab countries even though we have discussed it very recently. All of us know about the persecution and fleeing of Jews from Europe and then the formation of Israel by Jews in an Arab Muslim dominated region. This led to the Arab-Israeli war of 1948 and after this war the holy land was divided into three parts which is the state of Israel then the West Bank and then the Gaza Strip. Then after this another war happened in 1967 in this Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip from Egypt. It also captured the East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan and it captured the Golan Heights from Syria. So because of this Arab countries passed the Khartoum resolution of the famous three no's which are the no peace with Israel no talks with Israel and no recognition of Israel. But as we can see this position has been changing over the years and particularly in the recent times. It first changed when Israel and Egypt concluded their peace treaty in the year 1979. As part of this peace treaty Israel withdrew from Sinai and Egypt gave recognition to Israel and then after a decade another peace treaty was signed but it was between Jordan and Israel in the year 1994. So in this Jordan agreed for Israel's recognition and in return Israel agreed to the formation of Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza. And now after a two and a half decades recently last month another peace deal was signed. This peace deal was negotiated by USA it was between UAE and Israel. This peace deal is also known as the Abraham Accord and we have discussed this peace deal in detail on our 20th August analysis and in the same lines within a month another deal has been announced with Israel. This deal was announced by US President. He has announced that Bahrain would establish full diplomatic relations with Israel. Here just know that Bahrain is a small Arab state which is situated in a bay on the southwest coast of the Persian Gulf. As you can see this is the southwestern coast of Persian Gulf and Bahrain is an archipelago. When we say archipelago it means it is a stretch of water which has many islands or simply an extensive group of islands is known as archipelago. So this Bahrain is an archipelago it consists of the Bahrain island and some 30 smaller islands. So we can see that the situation is changing from the Arab countries boycotting Israel to normalizing relations with Israel. So what does it mean? Experts believe that these agreements could be signaling a strategic realignment of ties in the Middle East. See when we say strategy in international relations it means gaining an overall long-term advantage such as a military advantage. So these deals with Israel means that there could be a strategic realignment of ties in the Middle Eastern region. And experts also speculate that even other countries in the region like Morocco, Sudan and Oman they may also follow these footsteps of UAE and Bahrain. And here just note that this is where Morocco is and Sudan is. Morocco and Sudan are African countries and Oman is here. If this speculation of experts come true then we might be able to see a more peaceful and prosperous Middle East in the coming years. But what about the Palestinians? Now when we talk about the Israel-Palestinian issue we should remember the Arab peace initiative because the recent Arab position on Israel was based on this Arab peace initiative only. This initiative was proposed by Saudi Arabia and it was endorsed by the Arab League in 2002. Here just note that Arab League is a regional organization of Arab states in the Middle East and parts of Africa. It was formed in 1945. Now this Arab peace initiative is endorsed by Arab League and this initiative it basically outlined the comprehensive steps for ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Here as a part of this initiative what Arab leaders offered was the collectively offered recognition for Israel and also normalization of diplomatic ties with Israel in exchange for Israel's complete withdrawal from the Arab Islands which it captured since 1967. And under this initiative it is also proposed for a just settlement for the Palestinians and it would be done by establishing an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. But the recent initiatives by UAE and Bahrain would weaken this initiative. It is because on one hand Israel gets what it wants such as recognition and diplomatic ties with the countries but on the other hand the agreements don't mention much about Palestinian crisis. And this is why the Palestine Liberation Organization which is an umbrella political organization that claims to represent the world's Palestinians it has called for the rejection of both the agreements with Israel. This organization also asked the Arab League and the organization of Islamic cooperation that is OIC to reject these agreements. Partially we can also agree with the Palestine Liberation Organization because here the situation is really worrying for Palestinians as they have received nothing in return for these agreements. We can also say that since these deals are being silent on Israeli occupation of Palestine this means the deals actually endorsed the military occupation on Palestinians. So this leaves the Palestinians more isolated and that is why experts say that a deal without resolving the issues of ongoing Israeli annexation of the territories the future of Palestinians and their demand for an independent state is unlikely to succeed. So let us wait and see how the events unfold in the future. With this we come to the end of this discussion there is quick practice questions will be discussed in the last session. Now this discussion is based on this opiate article which talks about the flaws or shortcomings of the doing business report of World Bank. So in this discussion first we'll see about this doing business report and also the shortcomings as mentioned by the author. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. First know that the doing business project of World Bank was launched in 2002 and it is published annually and the World Bank's famous ease of doing business index is actually published under this doing business project report only. Now coming to its mandate this doing business project provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 190 economies and selected cities at the sub national and regional levels. So in this regard World Bank looks at domestic small and medium-sized companies and it measures the regulations applying to them through their life cycle. It also compares business regulation environments across economies and it encourages economies to compete towards more efficient regulation and through this it offers measurable benchmark for reform and the latest report is the doing business 2020 report. This is the 17th report of World Bank and it has covered 11 indicators and 190 economies and from exam perspective indicators are important. So know that the doing business project covers 12 areas of business regulation and 10 of these areas are included in the ease of doing business core and ease of doing business ranking and these 10 include starting a business dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. And the other two areas which are not included in the ease of doing business core and ranking are the employing workers and contracting with the government. Now based on the 2020 report you should note that India has been noted as one among the economies with the most notable improvement in doing business 2020 and the ease of doing business ranking for India is 63 with the doing business core of 71 whereas if you see China was ranked at 31st position and it has a score of 77.9. So now why this report is in news? It is because recently there was a news that World Bank has decided to pause the publication of this report. This was due to a perceived number of irregularities regarding the changes to the data in the previous reports. So based on this author of this editorial has listed some of the shortcomings in the index. The first shortcoming is that there is a lack of transparency and objectivity in the scoring. Here author has taken the example of Russia because many have raised questions on Russia's improved ranking from 2012 to 2015 because in 2012 it was ranked at 120th position and in 2015 it suddenly showed a lot of improvement and it improved to the 62nd rank. So the scoring in this index has raised some questions. Now the second flaw is that the survey excludes the informal sector from its purview and as you know if you consider our country itself informal sector plays a greater role in generating employment. So an important area is left out from this survey. Now the third flaw is that the index don't give importance to the societal costs of uncontrolled pollution, worker safety and health risks. In this regard author has also opined that the rankings actually encourages countries to compete even by cutting vital regulations on health and environment. Here we can take the example of China and India itself. In the recent years both these countries have improved their scores especially in 2019 and 2020 and this has happened even though they are the world's first and third largest emitters of carbon. While we are blaming China and India we should also take note of USA because this index has ranked USA at the sixth position even though it has increased its fossil fuel consumption considerably. And as you know last year in November US began the year long process to pull out of the Paris Agreement of 2015 and for this it has sent a formal notification to the United Nations. So by the next month that is by 4th of November which is the next day to the presidential election of USA, USA would formally withdraw from the Paris Agreement of 2015. So that means USA will no more be obligated to cut down its emissions but even then it has been ranked at sixth position by this index. Then the next flaw is regarding the factory regulations. According to the author several indicators of this survey presume that less regulation is better and they ignore the impact on health, worker protection and right to information. And because of this countries have started easing their factory regulations in order to compete with others and get a better ranking in the index. With respect to this author crucially notes the example of Bangladesh. If you remember in 2013 in Dhaka a garment factory collapsed because of low building and construction standards. So in this regard if the index encourages less regulation then such kind of incidents will increase in the future also. So these are the flaws noted by the author in this index and as a conclusion author has suggested for the revamping of this survey and index and it should be revamped in a way that it will reward investments in workers skills, health, safety and it will also reward low polluting activities and climate resilience. So that ease of doing business does not contribute to compromising health and rights of workers and compromising the environment. That is all about this discussion. The displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session. Let's move on to the next discussion. Now this discussion is based on this editorial which is about the importance of urban employment in India in the background of the issues surrounding the lockdown imposed by the pandemic and authors of this editorial focuses on high unemployment and vulnerable employment in the urban areas. So we will discuss these aspects in this discussion and also the solutions given by the authors to overcome these issues. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. First authors discuss about the unemployment. Recently if you remember the National Statistical Office has released the GDP estimates for the first quarter of financial year 2020 to 2021 and as you can see in this table majority of the sectors have been affected the most and they have shown a high negative growth rate. The highlight here is that these are the sectors that create the maximum new jobs. They create both direct jobs and also allied informal jobs in the economy. Hence the heavy contraction of these sectors is likely to lead to a decline in employment and also a subsequent rise in unemployment in our country. And one of the reasons given by the authors for the contraction of these sectors is the mass reverse migration of the migrant workers from urban to rural areas post lockdown announcement. This is still a prevailing issue because it is doubtful that whether the migrated population would return to their places of work in the near future or not. The next authors focus on the concept of vulnerable employment. First let us see the definition of this term vulnerable employment. As per international labour organizations definition vulnerable employment means own account workers and contributing family workers as a proportion of total employment. See own account workers are those who hold the type of jobs which is defined as a self employment jobs that is jobs where the remuneration is directly dependent upon the profits derived from the goods and services produced and the own account workers also do not engage any employees to work for them on a continuous basis. And next is the contributing family workers. These are the workers who hold self employment jobs as own account workers in a market oriented establishment which is operated by a related person living in the same household such as a younger member of the family working in a market oriented establishment of the father. So these two types of workers as a proportion of the total employment is what is called as the vulnerable employment. So what is these status of vulnerable employment in India? See with respect to India the vulnerable employment if you see it is characterized by inadequate earnings low productivity and also difficult conditions of work that undermine the basic rights of workers. So they are more likely to be informally employed and they also lack effective representation by trade unions. In this regard authors have quoted the 2018 World Employment and Social Outlook Report of International Labour Organization. This report highlights that poor quality jobs and high informality in the jobs have led to a high level of working poor in India. Here working poor refers to those who are living on incomes of less than 198 rupees in a day. That means these are the persons who work but still they are categorized as poor. Thus the authors tell that despite high economic growth in recent years working poverty in the country is also high which means inequalities in the income exist in our country. See here just note that authors have used the 2018 report data because in the latest 2020 World Employment and Social Outlook Report ILO has mentioned that the periodic labour force survey of India is insufficient in determining the status of employment in India. So far from the discussion so you can say that the focus of this editorial is the high unemployment and vulnerable employment in the urban areas. Why there is high unemployment in urban areas because we saw in the beginning that reverse migration happened due to the lockdown and now why vulnerable employment is high in urban areas it is because the nature of the structural transformation process in India that is new job opportunities are created every now and then but they are of poor quality. So what happens is that the capital and the labour keep moving in the low value added activities from one sector to another but they do not move on to higher value added activities and this ultimately leads to a high incidence of informal employment due to which the prospects of reducing working poverty becomes comparatively low. Already these issues existed in the country and the abrupt announcement of the lockdown has exposed such severe vulnerabilities of urban low and informal jobs. So by quoting the ILO data which we saw and based on the current economic status where there is contraction and lack of demand authors note that there would be a significant dip in the urban employment generation further in the future which directly signifies that the unemployment rates in the country will increase. So what is the solution to this problem? As a first solution authors demand two policy interventions to secure the livelihoods of workers in the urban areas. One intervention is needed to generate more jobs and second intervention is needed to reduce vulnerabilities by providing decent wages and some form of job security. Then secondly authors list out certain measures to generate urban employment like involving the local governments and mobilizing resources for them to generate employment. Then the next suggestion is to design and implement employment incentive investment policies where the focus should be given on the private investment enterprise formation and focus should also be given to small and micro enterprises so that all this would help in generating urban employment. In the recent years our government is focusing on enhancing these small and micro enterprises which play a major role in generating urban employment. Then the next solution is prioritizing urban infrastructure and for this infrastructure investment is needed so that it would spur employment it would generate earnings and it will also contribute to small enterprise formations. For example there can be a construction of low-cost housing using labor intensive methods so at the end infrastructure will be created and at the same time urban employment will also be generated. So authors also suggest to immediately launch an urban employment scheme which is oriented towards building large-scale medical infrastructure health and sanitation infrastructure in the cities and towns across India. In this regard if you remember a few days back while we were discussing about youth empowerment in our country we saw the suggestions of other authors where they suggested that India should come up with Indian Youth Guarantee Program similar to the European Union Youth Guarantee Program. In this European Union Youth Guarantee Program the European Union member states are committed to guarantee that all young people under the age of 25 they will receive a good quality work offer to match their skills and experience or the chance to continue their studies or undertake an apprenticeship or professional traineeship and all this is guaranteed within four months of becoming unemployed or living formal education and the authors suggested a similar Indian Youth Guarantee Initiative in our country. If such an initiative is launched then all the solutions of the authors can be incorporated in that and particularly when we talk about employment generation we think about the MG Narega Program but it would also be a problem in the current scenario as the authors have noted that MG Narega would not be able to accommodate the entire reverse migration population. So there are large number of workers who need to be provided with alternative sources of employment hence the conclusion is that generating decent urban jobs is the only possible solution for the high unemployment scenario in the country. So that is all about this discussion. The displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session. Let's move on to the next discussion. Now this next discussion is based on this article which talks about a report asked by Madras High Court about the quantum of red sanders seized and about the number of persons arrested for illegal filling of red sanders. So you often red sanders in news for its illegal filling. So in this context it becomes important from exam perspective to know about red sanders. It is a tree species whose botanical name is Terocarpus Santillinus. It is an endemic and endangered tree species in the southern eastern guards and it is found in tropical dry deciduous forests in India. See the natural habitat of red sanders is a hilly region with hot dry climate and this species is a strong light demander and it does not tolerate overhead shade and cannot withstand waterlogged conditions and the preferred soil for the species is calcareous that is the soil should contain calcium carbonate and the soil should be shallow with sandstones. It should have a hard substratum and quartzite rocks and preferred rainfall for the species is about 752,000 millimeter per annum. Now with respect to its geographical distribution you should note that Terocarpus species is distributed in peninsular India and in Sri Lanka and as we already saw it is found in southern eastern guards and it is a predominant species in the Sesachalam hills of western guards in Andhra Pradesh where it forms a gregarious red sanders bearing forest. Apart from this some wild growth is also seen in some contiguous patches in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and the specialty of the species is that red sanders yield a hard fragrant timber and in the recent years the population has been declining at an alarming rate and the main reasons for this is the illegal filling and restriction of the species to a tiny geographical area. See these red sanders are known for its rich hue that is color and therapeutic properties so it is high in demand across Asia particularly in China and Japan. It is also used in cosmetics, medicinal products and for making furniture, woodcraft and musical instruments. It is so popular that a ton of red sanders costs between 50 lakh rupees to 1 crore rupees in the international market. So because of this red sanders is illegally filled and to conserve this species it is listed in appendix 2 of convention on international trade of endangered species of wild fauna and flora that is sites and it was listed as endangered by the icing red list but it has been reclassified as near threatened. But we saw that this species has a good economic value but still its trade was restricted under the foreign trade policy of India but this ban along with its high demand made the illegal trade of red sanders very rampant in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. So the export policy of red sanders was revised in 2019 by the director general of foreign trade which is an agency of ministry of commerce and industry. So now the export of red sanders is permitted if it is obtained from a cultivated land. So these are the information that you should know with respect to red sanders. The displayed questions will be discussed in the last session. Let's move on to the next discussion. Now this next discussion is based on this news article which talks about homosexuality in India. The news article mentions that union government is not in favor of same sex marriages. As we all know not just in India but also across the world people are fighting both for and also against the homosexual relations and in this context from exam perspective it becomes important to know about the supreme court judgment which decriminalize the homosexual relations among consenting adults. Here supreme court decriminalized the section 377 of IPC and this was done in the Navtej Singhs Johar case of 2018 and before this section was decriminalized this section punished people involving in sexual activity against the order of nature and according to IPC the order of nature recognizes sexual activity only between opposite genders and this section offered punishment such as imprisonment even for 10 years and also fine but this provision which criminalizes the consenting homosexual activity was struck down by supreme court. It is because this section was against equality under article 14 it was against personal liberty under article 21 and it was promoting discrimination so it is against article 15 and also it was against the freedom of expression under article 19. While delivering this judgment the supreme court even took reference from the Yogyakarta principles of sexual orientation. See in 2006 a distinguished group of international human rights experts they met in Yogyakarta of Indonesia they met to outline a set of international principles relating to sexual orientation and gender identity. These principles promise a different future where all people born free and equal in dignity and rights can fulfill that precious birthright. So from exam perspective just remember that the Yogyakarta principles are about the international principles relating to sexual orientation and gender identity. Now the supreme court judgment was considered as a milestone in the evolution of homosexual rights in our country but however even after two years of this judgment the homosexual adults are still facing trouble to register their marriages. This is because there is no legislation to register the marriages of homosexual adults and today's news is that the central government has opposed before the Delhi High Court when the court was discerning a petition seeking the recognition of same sex marriages. So from the side of central government the solicitor general has said that our legal system society and values they do not recognize marriages between same sex couples. He also added that in 2018 the supreme court judgment just decriminalizes homosexuality or lesbianism nothing more nothing less. So the homosexual relations are not punished there is no enabling legislation to register their marriages. So because of a lack of a legislation even today the homosexual couples are still facing injustice and discrimination and today's news is very unfortunate because instead of bringing a progressive legislation government is taking a step in the backward direction and one of the reason for this is that government fears backlash from the conservative society of our country but we live in a country which glorifies equality and prohibits discrimination. So if we want to keep up with these principles then the government should immediately formulate a legislation which will enable the homosexual adults to register their marriages. That is all about this discussion that split practice question will be discussed in the last session. Now we have come to the last session the practice questions discussion session. This first question is a previous year question asked in 2016. This question is about red sanders the question asks with reference to red sanders sometimes seen in the news consider the following statements. The first statement is it is the tree species found in a part of South India. This statement is correct during discussion we saw that it is found in eastern guards in Andhra Pradesh and some parts of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka also. So statement one is correct. Now statement two is it is one of the most important trees in tropical rainforest areas of South India. Now the statement is incorrect because we saw that in India these trees are found in the dry deciduous forest. Now your question asks for the correct statements so the correct answer is option A one only. Now this is a practice question on red sanders. The first statement is its export is not permitted in India. This statement is incorrect because we saw that the export is permitted if it is obtained from cultivated land. Statement one is incorrect because it is a generic statement. Now the second statement is recently red sanders has been reclassified as critically endangered in IUCN Red List. Now this statement is incorrect because previously it was classified as endangered but now it has been reclassified as near threatened and here the question asks for the correct statements but both these statements are incorrect. So the correct answer is option D neither one nor two. Now let us take another previous question which was asked in 2015. This question is with respect to Golan Heights. The question asks the area known as Golan Heights sometimes appears in the news in the context of the events related to option A Central Asia option B Middle East option C Southeast Asia option D Central Africa and as we know the correct option is option B Middle East and this is in news with respect to the affairs of Israel and Syria as Israel captured Golan Heights from Syria after the 1967 war. Now this is another previous question which was asked in 2015. The question asks which one of the following countries of the southwest Asia does not open out to the Mediterranean Sea option A Syria option B Jordan option C Lebanon option D Israel now in this map you can see that Syria opens to Mediterranean Sea Israel also shares border with Mediterranean Sea so does Lebanon but Jordan it does not share border with Mediterranean Sea but if you ask whether Jordan is a landlocked country it is not because as you can see here it opens to the Gulf of Acaba which is the northeastern arm of Red Sea so Jordan is not a landlocked country. Now these two previous questions are given so that you will know how questions are asked in prelims examination from the international relations. Now this is a practice question. The question asks the Abraham Accord often seen in the news was signed to normalize the relations between option A China and Singapore option B Iran and the United States option C Saudi Arabia and Iran option D Israel and UAE. Now the correct answer is option D Israel and UAE this Abraham Accord was signed in August 2020 and it was negotiated by USA and under this Accord the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and then the Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed who is the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and the Deputy Supreme Commander of UAE has agreed to the full normalization of relations between Israel and UAE. Now this agreement has been given the name Abraham because Abraham was the father of all three great faiths he is referred to as Abraham in Christian faith he is referred to as Abraham in Muslim faith and he is referred to as Abraham in Jewish faith so the name of the Accord symbolizes the potential for unity among all these three great faiths. Now this next question asks world employment and social outlook is published by which of the following option A international monetary fund option B United Nations conference on trade and development option C international labor organization option D world bank now the correct answer is option C international labor organization and some of the other flagship reports of ILO are global wage report then world social protection report. Now this next question asks Yogya Kartha principles often seen in news are related to option A sexual orientation and gender identity option B gender equality and women's empowerment option C human trafficking and child labor option D international peace and security. Now the correct answer is option A sexual orientation and gender identity. Now remember that option B gender equality and women's empowerment is related to the Beijing platform for action. Now this next question is about the doing business 2020 report first statement is it is published annually by international monetary fund. Now this statement is incorrect because it is released by world bank. Now the second statement is in 2020 report India is among the countries with most notable improvements. Now this statement is correct the other economies with the most notable improvements are Saudi Arabia Jordan then our neighbors Pakistan China also then Nigeria Tajikistan etc etc. Now here the question asks for the incorrect statements so the correct answer is option A one only. Now let us take main questions there are two questions this is from GS paper 3 and this is from GS paper 2. Now this question asks the pandemic imposed lockdown and the subsequent reverse migration has exposed the vulnerabilities of informal sector in India analyze. This next question asks the recent peace agreements of Israel with the UAE and Bahrain indicates a strategic realignment in the Middle East politics its successful implementation depends on addressing the concerns of all stakeholders especially Palestinians elaborate. Both of these questions are 10 mark questions so answer in 150 words write your answer and post it in the comment section we'll review it and the appropriate suggestion will be provided within a reasonable time frame. With this we come to the end of today's Hindi news analysis if you like the video don't forget to like comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar Ayesh Academy YouTube channel for more updates related to civil service examination preparation.