 Dear aspirants and viewers, we have great news to share with you. As you know, Shankar IS Academy is a preferred coaching partner for the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for its free UPSC coaching scheme. Every year, a set of selected candidates will receive free UPSC civil service coaching at Shankar IS Academy under the government scheme. We are very glad to inform you that one of the candidates who received free coaching under the scheme at our academy has successfully cleared UPSC civil service examination 2020. He is Mr. Ranjit from Tamil Nadu. See, Mr. Ranjit is a differently-abled candidate with earring disability. We are happy to inform you that he has secured 750th rank in UPSC civil service examination 2020. A special fact to share is that he attempted GS mains and optional papers and intervened Tamil medium. As usual, we are extremely happy to also announce that more than 360 students from Shankar IS Academy have cleared the prestigious UPSC civil service examination 2020. The list of topics chosen for today is displayed on the screen. We have also provided page number of these topics in various editions. Interested aspirants can go through them. Now let us begin our discussion. Now look at this editorial article. This article is regarding PEM CARES FUND. See recently, a petition was filed to bring the PEM CARES FUND under the Ambit of RTA, Right to Information. But the Prime Minister's office rejected this petition. According to the Prime Minister's office, PEM CARES FUND cannot be brought under the Ambit of Right to Information Act. According to the government, PEM CARES FUND is not a fund of the government. Its amount does not go into the consolidated fund of India. So because of this reason, Prime Minister's office rejected to bring the PEM CARES FUND under the Ambit of RTA. This is the context behind this editorial. I hope aspirants can follow. So in this background, this particular editorial has been written. So with this idea in mind, let us approach this discussion. The relevant syllabus is given below for a reference. Interested aspirants can go through it. See, first of all, let us understand about PEM CARES FUND. By understanding the PEM CARES FUND, we can understand the discussion better. See, PEM CARES FUND is an abbreviation. It stands for Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situation Fund. This fund is a public charitable trust. The main objective of this fund is to provide relief to the affected person during an emergency. For example, take COVID-19 pandemic. During this pandemic times, this fund collected a lot of money to help the people who are in distress. This is the main objective of the fund. Now, let us discuss some important points related to this fund. Who is the trustee of this fund? See, the Prime Minister of India is the ex-officio chairperson of PEM CARES FUND. This point is very important. The Prime Minister is the ex-officio chairperson of PEM CARES FUND. Apart from the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defence, Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Finance. They are the ex-officio trustees of this fund. Let me repeat, Minister of Defence, Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Finance. These Ministers are the ex-officio trustees of this fund. Another important point is, this fund is administered by the Joint Secretary in the Prime Minister Office. So, the Joint Secretary in the Prime Minister Office administers this fund. This Joint Secretary is assisted by Deputy Secretary or Director in the Prime Minister Office. They provide the necessary support to administer this fund. Joint Secretary, Director or Deputy Secretary in the Prime Minister Office. Okay? See, all contribution towards the PEM CARES FUND are 100% exempted from income tax. And remember, any contribution made to the PEM CARES FUND by any company or a PSU will be qualified as Corporate Social Responsibility Expedition, CSR Expedition. This is why many companies and many PSU contribute to PEM CARES FUND. It is tax-exempted and it also comes under CSR Responsibility. So, these are the important points regarding this fund. Now, let us discuss the important point highlighted in this editorial. See, the author of the editorial begins the discussion by highlighting the shortcomings with the fund, the negatives with the fund. What is the first negative? See, the PEM CARES FUND centralizes the collection of donations and its utility. Centralization of collection of donations. This is the first negative. See, according to the author, the centralization of collection is against the federal character. We all know that India is a federal country. So, centralization of donation is against the federal character of India. Another problem is, it is also inconvenient. So, this is the first important shortcoming highlighted in this editorial. Now, moving on to the second one. See, the PEM CARES FUND as prime ministers and ministers from the ruling party. The PEM CARES FUND does not have president of India. It does not have leader of opposition as its trustees. So, it is mainly governed by the ruling party of the government. So, this is the second major negative of this fund. It does not include the president of India. It does not include the leader of opposition. It is mainly governed by the ruling party. So, it can be misused. Now, moving on to the third point. See, the PEM CARES FUND was not created by any law or notification. It was created by a creation of a webpage. So, it does not have any statutory backing. So, because of these reasons, the functioning of the fund can be done in arbitrary manner. It can be misused. This fund can be less efficient. So, this is the third major negative with respect to this fund. It was not created through any law or notification by the government. So, so far we have discussed about the negative regarding PEM CARES FUND. Now, let us move on to the next section of this editorial. See, in the beginning of this discussion, I said the prime minister office has rejected the petition to bring the PEM CARES FUND under the ambit of RTA. According to our government, this fund is not a government of India. This fund does not go into the consolidated fund of India. So, it cannot be brought under the ambit of RTA. The author of this editorial challenges these notions. The author gives suitable explanations to substantiate his claim. Let us say them one by one. See, PEM CARES FUND is operated by prime minister office. We all know that prime minister office is a public authority. So, PEM CARES FUND is operated by a public authority. So, this fund has to be brought under the ambit of RTA. The government cannot say PEM CARES FUND is not a public authority. This is because this fund is operated by prime minister office. We all know that prime minister office is a public authority. So, because of this reason, PEM CARES FUND should be brought under the ambit of RTA. This is the first important point given by the author. Now, moving on to the second point. See, PEM CARES FUND make use of prime minister's designation. It uses designated symbols of the nation. It also uses the tricolor flag of our country. This fund also grants tax concessions. In addition to all that, a prime minister is directly making a pill for contribution to this fund. So, how can we say this fund is not a public authority? It has all the qualifications of a public authority. Another point is, prime minister is this chairperson of the PEM CARES FUND. So, saying PEM CARES FUND is not a public authority is unjustified. This is another important point highlighted by the author. Now, moving on to the third point. See, as I already said, PEM CARES FUND does not go to the Consolidated Fund of India. Since it does not go to the Consolidated Fund of India, it is not audited by the CAG, Comptroller and Auditor General of India. See, if a fund goes to Consolidated Fund of India, then it will be automatically audited by the CAG. Since PEM CARES FUND does not go into the Consolidated Fund of India, it is not audited by the CAG. I hope aspirants can follow. So, because of this reason, there is lack of transparency in PEM CARES FUND. You are not sure how the fund is collected and how the fund is dispersed. So, because of this reason, the author believes we should bring PEM CARES FUND under the Ambit of RTI. Only by bringing it under the Ambit of RTI, we can bring transparency in this process. I hope aspirants can follow. Now, moving on to the final point. See, the name of the fund is PEM CARES. So, it literally means Prime Minister CARES for People. So, this acronym signifies the statutory obligations of a public authority. So, because of this reason, the author believes PEM CARES should be brought under the Ambit of RTI. So, to conclude, we can say PEM CARES FUND has all the qualifications of a public authority. So, it should be brought under the Ambit of RTI. It will be beneficial in the long run. So, these are the important points highlighted in this editorial. With this, we have come to the end of the discussion. In this discussion, we saw about PEM CARES FUND. We discussed the features of PEM CARES FUND. Next, we discussed the shortcomings with the fund. What are the shortcomings? Centralization of collection of donations. Non-inclusion of president and leader of opposition. Not created through any law or notification. These are the negatives regarding PEM CARES FUND. Next, we saw the reasons why PEM CARES FUND should be brought under the RTI. What were the reasons? The fund is operated by Prime Minister Office. The fund makes use of Prime Minister designation, symbols of a country, tricolor fag. So, it has the qualification of a public authority. Next, this fund is lacking transparency since it is not audited by CAG. So, it must be brought under RTI. And finally, this fund has statutory obligations of a public authority. So, these are the reasons highlighted in this editorial. Now, let us move on to the next discussion. Now, look at this article. This article is regarding H-1B visa. See, H-1B visa is a very important topic from Prillim's perspective because H-1B visa is constantly repeating in news. So, it has a high chance of being asked in Prillim's. So, with this knowledge in mind, now look at this article. See, according to this article, H-1B will exist till talent issue is tackled globally. What does it mean? See, in the past few months, because of COVID-19 pandemic, many of the employers and many of the employees are working from home. So, the physical presence of employees is no longer required. So, many believe that the demand for H-1B visa will fall because no longer the physical presence of employees is required. But this was not the case. There is still demand for H-1B visas. So, according to this article, the demand for H-1B visa will exist as long as talent issue is not tackled globally. This is the gist of this article. See, the news in this article is not that important, but the H-1B visa is very important. So, in this context, let us see about H-1B visa. See, H-1B visa is a visa of United States. It is under the Immigration and Nationality Act of United States of America. See, this visa allows US employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations. This is the beauty of this visa. It allows US employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupation. This is the key word, specialty occupation. Now, we have a question. What is specialty occupation? See, a specialty occupation is a occupation which requires application of specialized knowledge. In addition to application of specialized knowledge, that person should have a bachelor's degree or an equivalent work experience. So, combination of these criteria is called a specialty occupation. Application of specialized knowledge, bachelor's degree, or equivalent work experience. If a person has these features, then the person is occupied in a specialty occupation, he or she is eligible for H-1B visa. I hope, aspirants can follow. See, this visa is issued for a duration of three years. So, if a person has this visa, the duration of stay is three years. It can be extended up to six years. See, most of the applicants of H-1B visas This is why this visa is very important. Almost 65,000 H-1B visas are issued annually by the United States of America. Out of the 65,000, 70% of the applicants are from Indian back room. So, majority of the application of H-1B visas are Indians. So, these are the important points regarding H-1B visas. What are the key words? Specialty occupations, duration of stay is three years. It can be extended to six years. Almost 70% of the applications are from Indians. Now, let me give you additional information. Let us discuss about some other visas of United States of America. H-1B is one of the most popular visa of United States, but it also has some other visas. For example, take L-1. L-1 is regarding intra-company transfers. So, in case of intra-company transfers, L-1 visa is issued. There's also another visa called J-1 visa. J-1 visa is issued in the context of exchange of visitors for example, exchange of visitors regarding academic purposes. In this context, J-1 visa will be issued for that person. There's also another visa called H-2B visa. H-2B visa is issued for temporary visitors. For example, if a person is transferred to US location to fill a transient vacancy, that is temporary vacancy, then H-2B visa is issued. It is issued for temporary visitors. And finally, let us discuss about H-4 visa. H-4 visa is usually issued for dependent or spouses of H-1B visa holders. So, if a H-1B visa person wants to take his wife or husband to USA, then H-4 visa will be issued for the dependent or spouses. These points are highlighted in this table. You can see the visa on the left side, the purpose on the right side. L-1, intra-company transfers, J-1 exchange visitors, H-2B temporary visitors, H-4 dependent of H-1B. So, these are the important points regarding visas of United States of America. See, these are all additional information of all these visas. H-1B visa is very important. It has a chance of being asked in problems. So, with this, we have come to the end of the discussion. Now, let us move on to the next topic. Now, look at this news article. This news article is about an interview. See, recently, the head of nutrition at the United Nations Children's Fund gave an interview. In this interview, they have mainly discussed how Corona pandemic has contributed to the high levels of maternal and child under nutrition. This was the main topic discussed in this interview. So, let us cover about it. See, there's a reason why I've chosen this article. This article has a lot of very good points which can be used as value addition in your main sense. So, let us see about it. First, let us discuss how the Corona pandemic has affected the nutritional interventions in India. See, because of the COVID pandemic, we took a lot of containment measures. So, because of these containment measures, there was reduction in production of goods and services. We disrupted the supply chain. So, because of these disruptions, the products were not available for many families. The goods and products were not available to many families. So, because of the low availability, there was increase in prices of goods and services. There was price hike. It led to inflation. So, because of these reasons, many families shifted to cheap food. Most of the cheap foods are low in nutrition value. So, due to the high inflation, many families shifted to cheap food with a low nutritional value. So, this has affected the cognitive development of children. This is the first point highlighted in this editorial. The Corona pandemic has caused long-term adverse impact on the cognitive development of children. Now, moving on to the next impact. See, as I already said, because of COVID pandemic, there were a lot of containment measures, many places experienced lockdowns. So, because of these measures, there was disruption in health and social services. For example, take the Anganwadi Centers. Take the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centers. These centers functioning were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, COVID-19 pandemic required lot of health care workers. So, most of the workers from the Anganwadi Centers and Nutrition Rehabilitation Centers were diverted to COVID pandemic work. These people were diverted from nutrition programs. So, this has again affected the nutritional intervention programs of India. Because of this diversion, the food insecurities and nutritional challenges are constantly increasing. This is the second major impact caused by COVID-19 pandemic. Disruption of health and social services. I hope aspirants can follow. So, these are the two main impacts discussed in this interview. The first one is impact on the cognitive development of children due to shifting off food from costlier food to cheap food. Second impact is disruption in health and social services and diversion of health care workers to COVID pandemic work. So, these are the impacts of the pandemic on the nutritional security discussed in this interview. Now, let us see the way forward. We will discuss some effective measures to address the nutritional related challenges in India. This is also given in this interview. That is why this interview is very important. It has lot of value addition material. The first solution. Strong leadership. See, currently, strong leadership is needed at all levels. Right from national to district levels. So, we need a strong leadership to overcome this challenge. By having a strong leadership, we can address the problem of food income and nutritional security. So, this is the first point given in this interview. Strong leadership. Now, moving on to the second point. Second point is regarding the nutritional services. See, according to the interview, universal, timely and high quality coverage of essential nutritional services should be ensured. See, these kinds of points are very important. You can use it as a way forward in your mains answer. It will differentiate your answer. Universal, timely and high quality coverage of essential nutritional services. See, in these nutritional services, we should give special focus to critical development periods. What are critical development periods? Children below the age of two, pregnant women and adolescent girls. These periods are called as critical development periods. So, in these nutritional services, special focus should be given to the critical development periods. This is the second important point given in this interview. Ensuring of nutritional services, special focus to critical development periods. Now, moving on to the third important solution. See, we need more strategies. We need more innovation in the service delivery mechanism. This is because due to COVID-19 pandemic, the service delivery mechanism is severely disrupted. So, we need more strategies and innovation to ensure quality service delivery mechanism. These mechanisms should be adapted to COVID-19 guidelines. This is the third important solution. Service delivery mechanism. Now, moving on to the fourth solution. Fourth solution is regarding financing. We need adequate and additional financing for ensuring food and nutritional security. These are the keywords, adequate and additional financing for ensuring food and nutritional security. Now, moving on to the fifth solution. Fifth solution is regarding schemes. See, in this interview, the head of nutrition has stressed the need for more effective health, nutrition, and social protection schemes. And these schemes should be delivered effectively. This is the important solution stressed in this interview. More effective health, nutrition, and social protection schemes. So, these are the important solution given in this interview. Make sure you understand these points. You can use it as a value addition in your main's answer. See, nutrition is a key indicator for development. This is because nutrition affects the welfare of our future generation. So, we should give more importance to nutrition. Just because we had COVID-19 pandemic, we should not ignore nutrition. Both the pandemic and the issue of malnutrition are equally important and urgent. These are the important points highlighted in this interview. So, with this, we have come to the end of the discussion. In this discussion, we saw about the COVID-19 pandemic effect on nutritional interventions. What were the effects? Shifting to cheap food, which affected the cognitive development of children. Disruption in health and social services. These are the two major impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on nutrition. After discussing the impacts, we discussed about the solutions. What were the solutions? Strong leadership, nutritional services, service delivery mechanism, adequate and additional financing, and finally, nutrition and social protection schemes. So, these are the important points highlighted in this article. Now, let us move on to the next discussion. Now, look at this editorial article. This article is regarding PM Digital Health Mission. This mission is also called as Aishman Bharat Digital Mission. So, in this context, let us understand the important features of this scheme. Let us also discuss the advantages of this scheme. Very, very, very important topic from problems as well as main's perspective. This topic is constantly being in the news. So, it has high chance of being asked. The syllabus relevant to this article is displayed on the screen. Interested aspirants can go through it. See, before discussing this scheme, let us discuss about Indian Health Infrastructure. See, Indian Health Infrastructure faces a lot of problems. We have few hospitals. We lack doctors. We have poor infrastructure. We also have huge population. Another major problem is we lack fluidity in medical records. Right now, there is no easy transfer of medical records from one place to another place. So, it reduces the utility of medical records. So, in order to overcome these challenges, Aishman Bharat Digital Mission has been introduced. This scheme will provide seamless transfer of medical information across various places. For example, if you are in Delhi and you are getting treatment in Chennai, the medical record can be easily transferred from Delhi to Chennai. This is the main purpose of PM Digital Health Mission. Now, let us discuss some of the important features of this scheme. See, this scheme will utilize the foundation laid out by the jam trinity of the government. We all know that jam trinity stands for Jandan, Aadhar and Mobile. Through this trinity, our government has linked Jandan accounts, Mobile numbers and Aadhar card of Indians. This initiative is called as Jam trinity. See, Jandan accounts are free accounts created by government to ensure financial inclusion. So, through this trinity, we are connecting Jandan accounts, Mobile numbers and Aadhar cards. This foundation is used by PM Digital Health Mission. See, jam trinity is very important because it has reduced the leakages of government subsidies. It has brought transparency and it has increased accountability. And right now, we are utilizing this foundation for PM Digital Health Mission. Now, look at this blue figure. This figure describes the working of jam trinity. Okay, now let us discuss some more features of Aashman Bharat Digital Mission. See, this digital health mission will provide health ID for every citizen. This ID will work as their health account. To this account, personal health records will be linked. So, by accessing this account, personal health record of a person can be viewed. And all this thing can be done with a mobile application. This is a unique feature of this scheme, health ID for every citizen. In addition to health ID, this scheme also creates HPR and HFR. What is HPR and HFR? HPR stands for Health Care Professionals Registry. HFR stands for Health Care Facility Registries. See, HPR and HFR will act as a repository of all health care providers. So, it is a database of all health care providers. It will include both modern as well as traditional system of health care providers. These repositories will contain details of every test, every disease, doctors, visitor, medicine taken, and the diagnosis. So, by accessing these repositories, the doctor who is examining the patient can give more well-informed advice. So, these database will be valuable for a better diagnosis. This is the next major feature of this scheme. HPR and HFR. HPR stands for Health Care Professionals Registry. HFR stands for Health Care Facilities Registries. Now, moving on to the next important feature. See, next important feature is Aishman Bharath Digital Mission Sandbox. This is a unique feature of PM Digital Health Mission. This sandbox is created as a part of this mission. It will act as a framework for technology and product testing. So, if an organization joins the Aishman Bharath Digital Mission Sandbox, it can become a health information provider or it can become a health information user. This is the important feature of Aishman Bharath Digital Mission Sandbox. It is a part of PM Digital Health Mission. So, these are the basics of the scheme. Now, let us see some advantages. What are the advantages? First advantage. See, this scheme will allow a citizen to access the health records from any corner of the world. So, there won't be any logistical delay in access of health records. It will be a real-time access. So, this is the first important advantage. Quick access to health records. Now, moving on to the next important advantage. This scheme will increase the transparency. See, as I already said, PM Digital Health Mission relies on e-governance. And as we know, e-governance increases the transparency in the transactions. So, this is the second major advantage. Increase of transparency. Now, moving on to the third important advantage. Direct benefit transfer, DBT. See, PM Digital Health Mission makes use of DBT. So, whenever DBT is applied, there will be minimal corruption. There will be minimal leakage. So, this is the third important advantage of PM Digital Health Mission. Minimal corruption and minimal leakage. Now, moving on to the fourth important advantage. See, through this scheme, Indian citizen can access health records with just a click. So, it provides quick access to health care. Thereby, it brings inclusivity. Right to access of health care is provided by this scheme. This is the fourth important advantage. Bringing inclusivity. So, these are the important advantages of this scheme. You can use these points as value addition in your main's answer. See, PM Digital Health Mission is much required scheme in today's scenario. This scheme creates interoperability within the digital health ecosystem. It will reduce delays. It will increase access. It will address the access challenges and it will minimize corruption. This is why this scheme is very important. I hope aspirants understood the basics of this scheme. With this, we have come to the end of the discussion. In this discussion, we saw about PM Digital Health Mission. It is also called as Aishman Bharat Digital Mission. First, we discussed about the Indian Health Infrastructure, the problems faced by Indian Health Infrastructure. Next, we discussed about the key features of the scheme. We also discussed about jam trinity of the government. In key features, we discussed about health ID for every citizen. We discussed about HPR and HFR. We also discussed about Aishman Bharat Digital Mission Sandbox. After discussing the features, we discussed about the advantages of the scheme. What were the advantages? Accessing health records from any corner of the world, minimizing corruption and leakages, increasing transparency and increasing inclusivity. So these are the important points regarding Aishman Bharat Digital Mission. Now let us move on to the next discussion. Now let us solve a practice problems question. With reference to H1B visa, consider the following statements. First statement, it allows Indian employers to temporarily employ US workers. Second statement, a majority of applicants of H1B visas are Indians. Which of the statements given above are correct? A, one only, B, two only, C, both one and two, D, neither one nor two. See, first statement is wrong. See H1B visas are visas which allows US-based employers to temporarily employ foreign workers to some specialty occupations. So it doesn't allow Indian employers, it allows US-based employers. So first statement is wrong. Now moving on to the second statement. A second statement is correct. Majority of the applicants of H1B visas are Indians. Almost 70% of applicants are from Indian background. So the correct answer is option B, two only. Ains practice questions are displayed on the screen. Interest or aspirants can write the answer and post in the comment section below. If you like this video, click like. If you want to post a comment, post a comment in the comment section below. And don't forget to subscribe to Shankana S. Akram Mithya. Thank you.