 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar A.S. Academy. We would like to inform that Shankar A.S. Academy has started admission for the third test batch for pre-storming 2021. That is the prelims test series for the upcoming prelims 2021. Shankar Academy's pre-storming prelims test series is India's first full-fledged artificial intelligence supported preliminary test series. The test will commence from 8th January 2021. You may enrol for the test batch and keep yourself prepared for the upcoming prelims. These are the list of news articles taken for today's analysis and their page numbers in different editions of the newspaper. The link for the handwritten notes in the PDF format and the timestamping of the discussed articles are provided in the description and also in the comments section. Now let's move on to the analysis of the first news article. This news article talks about the implementation of Prime Minister Swarni's scheme in Chennai city. Like the pandemic has affected everything and every sector, it has also affected the dispersal of loans under this particular scheme. More than 80% of hawkers in Chennai itself, they are yet to get loans under this particular scheme. You see, when we say hawker here, it refers to a person who travels about or who moves about selling goods and advertises about them by shouting. Therefore, it includes treatment as well. In this regard, the public sector banks have been directed to disperse loans to all beneficiaries within 10 days. So in today's discussion, let us see about this particular scheme. The syllabus relevant for the analysis is highlighted here for your reference. CPM Swarni stands for Prime Minister Street Vendors Atma Nirbar Nithi. As you are aware, Atma Nirbar means self-reliance and Nithi means fund or also loan in this particular context. So the scheme is aimed at street vendors as they represent a very important constituent of urban informal economy. And as we know, they also play a significant role in ensuring availability of goods and services at affordable rates at the doorstep of city dollars. And because COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent lockdowns have adversely impacted their livelihoods and businesses, there was an urgent need which was felt to provide credit for working capital to the street vendors so that they will resume their business. So it is for this purpose, this particular scheme was introduced during lockdown period in the month of June 2020. So who is a street vendor or hawker under this particular scheme? See, any person who is engaged in vending of articles, goods, wares, food items of daily use, or any person offering services to the public in a street or in a food path or payment, etc. They are included as street vendors or hawkers. The goods supplied by them include vegetables or fruits or ready to eat street food, eggs, even textile and books are stationary and even includes other eligible items and services side include services provided by barbers, cobblers and others. This scheme was launched by union ministry of housing and urban affairs. An important thing to note here is it is a central sector scheme. That means the scheme is fully funded by the union government that is the union ministry of housing and urban affairs. So who is the implementation partner for the ministry in relation to the scheme administration? It is SIGB or the Small Industries Development Bank of India. Now let's come to the objectives of the scheme. See, it facilitates working capital loan up to rupees 10,000. Then it also aims to incentivize regular repayment. See the working capital loan has a tenure of one year and it has to be repaid in monthly installments. And note that for this loan no collateral will be taken by the lending institutions and on timely repayment or on early repayment of loans, the vendors will be eligible for next cycle of working capital loan with an enhanced limit. Then it also has the objective to reward digital transactions. How it will reward? See the scheme will incentivize digital transactions by vendors through cashback facility. The vendors will get a monthly cashback in the range of rupees 50 to 100 according to various criteria laid out under the scheme. In addition to this, there is also a concept of interest subsidy. So under the scheme, an interest subsidy at the rate of 7% is available on timely or early repayment of loan. So with these objectives, the scheme will help to formalize street vendors and it will open up new opportunities for them and it will help them to move up the economic ladder. Now let's see who are all eligible. See this scheme is eligible for beneficiaries belonging to only those states or unit territories which have notified rules and scheme under the street vendors protection of livelihood and regulation of street vending act of 2014. So for almost 33 states or unit entries have done this particular measure. Specifically, the scheme is available to all street vendors engaged in vending in urban areas as on March 24, 2020 or before March 24, 2020. See the street vendors surrounding peri-urban or rural areas are also eligible. Now the eligible vendors will be identified as per these criteria which are given here for your reference. Now let us see who can lend for this particular scheme to the beneficiaries. So the lending institutions include scheduled commercial banks, regional rural banks, small finance banks, cooperative banks, even non-banking financial institutions or companies then microfinance institutions and those self-help group banks that are established in some states or unit territories they can also lend and the scheme is to be implemented up to the month of March 2022. So these are some of the information about this particular scheme called as Prime Minister's street vendor Atmanarbar Nidhi. Now let us move on to the analysis of next news article. This editorial article talks about the supply chain disruptions that are caused because of COVID-19 and why India can't afford such disruptions. In the analysis we will see what do we mean by supply chain, we will see examples of natural or man-made supply chain disruptions, we will see why India can't afford such disruptions and we will see how countries like Japan and Australia are tackling supply chain disruptions and finally we will conclude the article by seeing a new international initiative to handle disruptions in the supply chain. The syllabus relevant for the analysis is highlighted here for your reference. See the world has learnt a key lesson during the pandemic that is about the importance of creating resilient supply chains that can withstand disruptions and that can ensure reliability for the global economy. So first let us see what do we mean by supply chain. See it is a network between a company and its suppliers. Now the objective here is to produce and distribute a specific product to the final buyer or the end consumer. So this network includes different activities, different people, different entities, information and resources and for any thriving economy supply chain management is crucial and such an economy can't afford the supply disruption as these disruptions drastically impact the growth prospect of a particular nation. Now these disruptions in supply chains can be natural or man-made. In case of natural disruption we can cite the example of Japan earthquake of 2011 which was followed by tsunami and it also led to a nuclear disaster. So this is a natural disruption in the supply chain. Now let's come to man-made supply chain disruption. Here we can cite the example of the terrorist drone attacks on Aramco's oil refineries in Saudi Arabia in 2019. This man-made activity it resulted in a drop of oil production and that resulted in sharp spike or increase in the global oil prices. Then let's come to one another example for man-made supply chain disruption. Here we'll take the role of China which for a long period of time practicing supply chain politics. Chinese government it stopped the export of rare earth metals to Japan when Japan detained a Chinese fishing trawler captain near the disputed Senka Islands in the year 2010. So these are examples for man-made supply chain disruptions. Now coming to 2020 the pandemic had an immediate effect on supply chains starting from China. In India several companies felt the disruption in the automotive sector, in the electronics sector and also in various other sectors. And come to pharmaceutical sector we say we are excelling in pharmaceutical sector but there is over relay and so on active pharmaceutical ingredients from China. So many supply chains of India are highly dependent on China for the raw materials. So India can't afford the shocks of disruption in the supply chains or it also cannot allow itself to be held hostage because of over reliance on imports. For example, pandemic caused a breakdown in global supply chains in the automotive sector because most global manufacturers in China they abruptly stopped production. And how is India associated with this? India imports 27% of its requirement of automotive parts from China. So this incident became a wake up call for India as sudden stoppage of automotive imports from China resulted into shortage of braking components, electrical components and other related components and this affected Indian economy. Now come to medical devices in terms of medical devices we say India is a fourth largest market in Asia. Having said that India also has an import dependency of as high as 80% and the biggest exporters to India in this field are again China, United States, Germany and other countries. So from this picture we can understand that this too is not clearly sustainable and India is giving more trust in the healthcare sector and this is right time to fill gaps through local manufacturing. So as to handle supply disruptions at the international level or at the regional level. Now let's come to defense and we know that defense is among the key pillars of Atman Irbar Bharat policy. Government is providing a big boost to defense manufacturing under the Make in India program. It has identified a negative import list of around 101 items. So this means these 101 items cannot be imported they have to be procured indigenously and also there is a tremendous opportunity for foreign countries to come into tie ups with Indian defense company. So as to develop defense equipment in India and coming to the Atman Irbar Bharat there is a criticism by some that this is an isolation policy but it is not. This is because Atman Irbar Bharat or self-relent India does not imply closure of Indian economy to the foreign trade and it does not imply India will hither to own part speed in the global economy. So what does self-relent India aims to achieve? It is aimed at strengthening India's capacities. So as to participate more vigorously without falling prey or without being affected or without being disrupted by the supply chain disruptions. So in this context author cites the examples of Japan and Australia. See China usually uses its economic advantage to weaken the open resolve and stand on contentious issues and in relation to this China imposed sanctions on Australia as Australia demanded an inquiry into the origins of coronavirus and also because Australia advocates a robust Indo-Pacific vision. However as a response to these sanctions Australia has demonstrated strong political will to counter arbitrary Chinese sanctions and these are sanctions imposed on Australia's exports of grain, beef, wine and other items. And come to China, Japan here since 1970s. Japan has invested billions of dollars in Chinese economy. For many Japanese companies global performance and profits are linked to manufacturing facilities and supply chains in China. However Japan has shown an early capacity for risk mitigation through a business strategy called as China plus one. Now this strategy aims at diversification of investments from Japan to Asian countries to Bangladesh and India. Then Japan also has another scheme called as relocation package. Now this package provides incentives and subsidies to Japanese companies that move out of China. It is reported that in phase one of Japan's relocation package around 89 Japanese companies availed subsidies to diversify of these 57 companies relocated to Japan from China 30 to Southeast Asia and 2 to India. Now let's conclude the article with seeing a new international initiative to counter supply chain disruptions. This initiative is called as supply chain resilience initiative. Now it was initiated by India, Japan and Australia so as to overcome the problems of supply chain disruptions. It was initiated in September 2020. This initiative focuses on automobiles and parts of automobiles, petroleum, steel, textiles, financial services and also in IT sector. And there is a lot of potential for this initiative which may be further strengthened because of the interest from the side of France and United Kingdom. They have shown interest and they may join in the future in this initiative. So from the wake up call of COVID-19 and from the examples of Australia and Japan, India should learn that over reliance on China is disastrous for Indian economy. Also the natural and manmade disruption in supply chains are also disastrous for Indian economy. So what should India do? India should focus on diversifying its imports by creating resilient supply chains at the international level. And also it should develop alternatives through indigenous production of critical necessary equipment. So these are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this editorial. Now let's move on to next news article. This advertisement mentions about an exhibition by Cardi and Village Industries Commission. They are going to showcase the heritage Cardi attires that were worn by Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhai, Subash Chandra and also other prominent leaders. Such an exhibition assumes importance because it reflects the efforts of freedom fighters in using Cardi for mass awakening. Note that Cardi is a fabric that is hand spun and hand woven. It acquired patriotic status during the Indian freedom struggle and it gave a Swadeshi spirit. In this context let us see about Cardi and Village Industries Commission. First it is a statutory body as it is established by a statute called us the Cardi and Village Industries Commission Act of 1956. It comes under the support or ages or control of Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, shortly Ministry of MSME. This Cardi and Village Industries Commission it took over the work of a board called us All India Cardi and Village Industries Board. The work was taken over in the year 1957. Now the broad objectives of KVIC can be termed into or grouped into three areas. First it serves the social objective of providing employment. Then the economic objective of producing saleable articles. Thirdly it has a wider objective of creating self reliance amongst the poor and to build up a strong rural community spirit. Now let us see some of its functions. Say out of many functions first and foremost it plans, promotes, organizes and implements programs. For the purpose of development of Cardi and other Village Industries in the rural areas in coordination with agencies that are engaged in rural development. Then we can see that it organizes training of artisans who are engaged in these industries. Then it promotes sale and marketing of Cardi and products of Village Industries or handicrafts. Then it sets linkages with established marketing agencies for the sale of Cardi and products of Village Industries. Then this statutory body is entrusted with the task of providing financial assistance to institutions and also to individuals for the operation and development of Cardi and Village Industries. Then it also takes steps to ensure genuineness of products and also to set standards of quality of products. So these are some of the important functions of this Cardi and Village Industries Commission. Now let's come to the composition of this commission. See its members are appointed by the central government. It has six non-official members. These members have specialized knowledge and minimum of ten years of experience of Cardi are Village Industries. One of these six members are appointed as chairman of the commission by the central government. In addition to the six non-official members, there are another four non-official members. Each of these four members are from these disciplines. Then there is a chief executive officer and a financial advisor. They will serve as ex-offissue members. One important point to note the chairman of State Bank of India is also an ex-offissue member of this Cardi and Village Industries Commission. So these are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this news article. In this analysis we saw about the Cardi and Village Industries Commission, the objectives of the commission, the important functions of the commission. Then we saw about the composition. Now let's move on to the next part of the discussion. This open article is written by former director of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. In this regard the author talks about the past and current trends of greenhouse gas emissions across the world. The author also talks about the need for a new global climate policy and how India can take a leadership role in bringing that policy. In this regard let us discuss this article. The syllabus relevant for the analysis is highlighted for your reference. First let us see the past and current trends in global emissions and where India stands in it. See this graph. The graph shows the time period from 1850 to 2011. It shows the data on carbon dioxide emissions. You can observe that the five major emitters which are the United States, European Union, China, Russian Federation and Japan, these five players together they have contributed to two-thirds of world's historic carbon dioxide emissions. They have used up around 37% of global carbon budget and this graph accounts only for carbon dioxide emissions. Now what were the causes for this trend? We know about the industrial revolution. It transformed rural agrarian societies in Europe and America into industrialized urban societies. So as you can see in this next graph emissions rose slowly to around 5 billion tons a year in the mid 20th century. By the end of the century it reached around 30 to 35 billion tons per year and as the author notes by 1950 the contribution of United States to the total emissions peaked at 40%. That is the 40% of total emissions has come from United States in 1950. And as of 2010 China accounted for 12% of total emissions and China had population four times the population of United States. And coming to India India is having a population close to that of China but India accounts for only 3% of cumulative emissions that lead to global warming. In this context the author talks about the iniquity prevalent in relation to finding India and the top list of nations with large emissions. This is because of iniquity in the climate agenda that is adopted by the world. They consider total emissions, total size of the country and the population. And this is what makes India the fourth largest emitter and according to United Nations data the richest 1% of global population emit more than two times the emissions of bottom 50%. So these are the scenario with reference to emissions and we saw industrial revolution was behind this historic emission. Now let's see some of the important factors that are responsible for global emissions as mentioned by the author. One of the most important factors is resource use or material use. Now resources like iron and steel, cement, construction materials and energy they were intensely used during industrial revolution and after for increased human consumption. And if you take the reconstruction activities in the west after the second world war we could find acceleration of resource use and therefore there were emissions and sharp rise in global temperature around 1970. And 1970 is important because all these things which we have spoke about west has happened before the start of industrial growth in Asia. So in this regard the author notes that North America and Europe are responsible for almost half of global material use. But if you take the population of North America and Europe they are less than 25% of world population. So here we have to note that less than 25% of the world population have consumed almost half of global resources. And if you take Asia which has half of global population it used its legitimate share of half of global resource use only in the year 2010. So if you compare the population numbers you can understand that there was discriminatory use of global resources. We are talking about Asia but Asia has a lot of countries. And coming to the required level of infrastructure worldwide around 2050 to achieve the required infrastructure 50% of available carbon space would be utilized. So the author states that peaking of emissions will come some 20 to 30 years after the saturation of infrastructure has been achieved. And with this saturation related high levels of well-being will be achieved as in the case of the west. So it is only after that achievement of well-being can we bring real and workable mechanisms to reach the target of net zero emissions and not before that. So if such mechanisms come after achieving well-being in Asia then it would be fair and yes humans would be carbon neutral and the global temperature will also stabilize. Secondly the author talks about meat industry. The former director of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change states that meat industry contributes to one third of global emissions. For example a person in European Union eats on average about 65 kilogram of meat in a year and Americans eat about 100 kilogram of meat a year. But on average Indians eat just 4 kilogram of meat in a year. And in case of food wastage also average American household waste nearly one third of its food. And the next point is transportation. Emissions because of transportation accounts for one fourth of global emissions. They are the fastest growing emissions worldwide. Author points that transport emissions are the symbol of western civilization. Then the author talks about use of coal for energy. Almost all of the developed nations they have used coal in the past extensively so as to power their industries and to generate electricity. However India though it has abundant reserves and though the per capita electricity uses one tenth of the United States is being pressurized by the developed countries. Why to stop using coal even though we have not yet completely used our share of resources to achieve enhanced well-being which West has achieved by 1970. Then the author talks about iniquity prevalent in the world on climate action responsibilities among the developed and developing nations. He opens that the global agenda to adopt carbon neutrality is creating an unbalanced responsibility for late comers like India. This is because as we have discussed the developed nations have used much of the world resources and these developed nations were the biggest emitters historically. And developing nations like India they are already having less energy intensive pathways that will not encroach on the ecological space of other countries. And India with a young population is growing fast to reach enhanced well-being similar to the West. Therefore developed nations which are trying to enforce such carbon neutrality agenda without recognizing the fact that they were the biggest contributors of emissions is not going to ensure a level playing field for India and it will only burden India. Then the author talks about the issues with respect to unsustainable growth that is happening in the world. In this regard he notes that industrialization and urbanization they are not the problems by themselves. That is industrialization is not a problem by itself. The problem is the way they were designed in the colonial context. Now it means keeping commodity prices low promoting development activities that are overly resource intensive then defining progress as material abundance and assuming that technology would solve the ecological problem. So what are the ways forward and what India can do in this regard. See India has to achieve two things. One is to modify unsustainable patterns of natural resource use. Then we should ensure comparable levels of well-being as in the case of West. See both are societal transformations and these are linked with international cooperation to follow or to serve the sustainable development. And since India is performing very well in various parameters like in case of per capita emissions being one-third of global average India has the soft power to bring together the high and low emitters. So author calls India to raise voice against the iniquity in climate treaties. So in this regard India should push an alternate goal or a delayed deadline for countries that are currently having below global average per capita emissions. So that these nations can also achieve a comparable standards of living. With this we come to the end of analysis of this article. Now let's move on to next part of the discussion. This news article talks about digital ocean. See it is a first of its kind platform for ocean data management. It includes set of applications and these applications are developed to organize and present heterogeneous oceanographic data. They will be presenting these data by adopting the advancements in geospatial technology. In addition to this it also facilitates online interactive web-based environment for the purposes of data integration, 3D and 4D data visualization data analysis etc. So digital ocean platform serves as one-stop solution for all the data related needs for a wide range of users. This includes research institutions, operational agencies, strategic users, academic community, public maritime industry etc. Now this platform was launched yesterday by the union minister for science and technology. This was developed by Indian national center for oceanic information services shortly called as INCOIS. See it is one of the centers under the earth system science organization which is an executive arm of union ministry of earth sciences. This SO is an umbrella organization that coordinates all meteorological and ocean developmental activities. Now in the year 1999 INCOIS was established as an autonomous body under the ministry of earth sciences. It provides ocean information and also advisory services to various stakeholders in the country. This includes issuing advisories with reference to potential fishing zone, then ocean state forecast, highway alerts, tsunami early mornings, storm surge and also about oil spill advisories. To perform these tasks it uses state of the technologies and tools so as to get real-time information on oceanographic and marine meteorological data. So these are some of the information with reference to the digital ocean platform and also about INCOIS. Now let's move on to the next part of the discussion. We have come to the last session, the practice questions discussion session. See this question with reference to PM Swanidhi. Three statements are given. They are asking which of the following statements are correct. It is a central sector scheme launched by ministry of labor and employment. It provides a special micro credit facility for street vendors up to Rs. 50,000 at subsidized rate of interest. It is available to all street vendors engaged in vending in urban areas, as on or before March 24, 2020. Now in these three statements, if you know that statement three is correct, you can eliminate options A and B. So now we have two options, options C and D. We have to find whether the second statement is correct or not. Second statement is incorrect because it provides a special micro credit facility for working capital up to Rs. 10,000. So second statement becomes incorrect, correct answer option D. Another way, if you know that the first statement is incorrect, that is it is a central sector scheme which is not launched by ministry of labor of employment rather launched by ministry of housing and urban affairs. Then also you can eliminate options A and B because both these options say first statement is correct. So the correct answer for this question is option D, three only. So this question is with reference to Kadi and village industries commission. Two statements are given. They are asking which of the statements given above are incorrect. It is a statutory body under the ages of ministry of MSME. It provides guidance as well as financial assistance to institutions and individuals for development and operation of Kadi or village industries. Both these statements are correct. The correct answer is option D neither one nor two are incorrect. See this question, it is the first of its kind platform for ocean data management. It facilitates an online interactive web-based environment for data integration, 3D and 4D data visualization, data analysis, etc. It has been developed by Indian National Center for Oceanic Information Services. Which of the following is described in the above passage? Correct answer is option A digital ocean. We have given two practice mails question. You can write answers and post it in the comment section. With this we come to the end of today's the hindu news analysis. If you like the video, click the like button, comment, share and subscribe to Shankarai's Academy YouTube channel for more updates and content on civil services exam preparation.