 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Reyes Academy. Displayed on 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 box and they are also provided in the comment section for the benefit of mobile phone viewers. Now let us move on to the analysis of first news article. This editorial article is with reference to giving meaning to the existence of Human Rights Commissions in our country. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this editorial article is highlighted here for your reference. Generally, we can say that the distribution of power in a democracy is between three branches of the government. They are Legislature, Executive and the Judiciary. Each of these three branches have to act as a check and a balance upon the other branches. However, because of various lacuna in the governance and administration, in general, a need was felt for a fourth branch called us a set of independent bodies who are to perform the role of functions of oversight. These set of independent bodies are called us fourth branch institutions. Some of them are constitutional bodies, say for example, Election Commission of India, Comptroller and Auditor General of India. However, some of them are statutory bodies, say for example, National Human Rights Commission, State Human Rights Commission, Central Information Commission, Central Vigilance Commission, et cetera. Now coming to the act that was discussed in the news article, it is about the Protection of Human Rights Act 1993. We know that this act provides for the constitution of National Human Rights Commission at the national level and State Human Rights Commission at the level of states and also to constitute human rights courts for better protection of human rights in our country. In this editorial, the author has put forward a major criticism, that is the human rights commissions are toothless. This effectively means that their recommendations or their orders are not binding on the government. So they play just an advisory role or a recommendationary role and it is up to the government to act according to the recommendations of the commission, meaning the government may not even implement the recommendations of the commission. This means that the findings of the commissions are disregarded by the government. This is not a criticism that is specific to National Human Rights Commission or State Human Rights Commissions, even for most of the fourth branch institutions. We can see that the agencies are actually toothless. Say for example, Central Vigilance Commission, it is also a toothless body because its recommendations are not binding on the government. It is just a recommendationary or advisory body. Even the case of commissions established and the Right to Information Act, Take Central Information Commission or State Information Commissions, are also playing a recommendationary role. Their orders are not binding on the government. We can simply say that the binding nature of the orders of fourth branch institutions indicate that a government or governance in a country is actually progressive. Now let's come to this editorial. Here the author has written this editorial in the context of a pending case before Madras High Court. The author states that a full bench of the Madras High Court is to decide which power the recommendations of Human Rights Commissions hold in our country. In this context, we need to know some functions of Human Rights Commissions under the 1993 Act. Section 13 of this Act states that the National Human Rights Commission shall have the power of civil court when inquiring violations of human rights. The same power is also extended to State Human Rights Commissions by section 29 of the same legislation. And as we know, these are the matters that were taken for inquiry either so motto, that is either on the own initiative of the commission or on a petition presented to it. So what happens once the commission concludes an inquiry? See, once the inquiries are completed, then according to section 18, the National Human Rights Commission and the State-level Commissions they are empowered to recommend to concerned government to take necessary steps to help the victim whose human rights have been violated. Some of the recommendations could include granting interim relief or compensation or to initiate prosecution against the erring state authorities. Most of the complaints in the Human Rights Commission are with reference to human rights violations committed by police officials. And commission can also recommend a government authority to take any further action as it may think fit. Can also approach Supreme Court or High Court for various directions, orders or rits. Now the editorial is mainly about the interpretation of the word recommend which is found in section 18A of this Act. The Metra's High Court will be deciding on whether the recommendations are binding on concerned government or whether the recommendations are not binding. There have been various interpretations to this word by many smaller benches in Metra's High Court itself. One set of judgments say that the words need to be taken in ordinary sense that is they are merely recommendations and they are not binding on the government. And under this, they say that there is one action, the concerned government or the recommended government has to do. This is mentioned in section 18E of the Protection of Human Rights Act 1993. Once the commission sends a copy of its inquiry report along with its recommendations to the concerned government or authority that particular government or authority shall within a period of one month or in such further time as the commission may allow. This authority has to forward its comments on the report given by the commission. It should also include the action taken or the actions that are proposed to be taken to the concerned national or state human rights commission. Now the author states that of the entire legislation of Protection of Human Rights Act it is the only provision that makes an obligation upon the government. However if you see the effectiveness of this provision that is a separate question that is how far the government authorities have reported back to the commission preferably in the period of one month what are the action to be taken. So the first set of judgments they say that if at all the parliament has made this legislation with the intention to make the recommendations of human rights commissions binding then it would have been explicitly mentioned in the particular act. So in such a situation the word recommend needs to be taken in its ordinary sense. But the author and many of the human rights defenders in the civil society they reject this argument on the basis of some points. One of them is on the basis of constitutional commitment of human rights commissions. See if you see this 1993 legislation defines human rights as rights of an individual guaranteed by the constitution and also those rights embodied in international governance. So when they say it means the rights relating to life liberty equality dignity of individual guaranteed by the constitution these commissions have constitutional commitment of protecting the human rights. So the human rights commissions which stand between individual and state if their recommendations are left to the discretion of the concerned government or the authority then it would defeat the constitutional commitment of human rights commissions. This is the main point put forth by the author why we have to consider the term recommend as binding on the concerned government or authority. Time and again there have been various observations made by the highest court of appeal in India the Supreme Court which have stated that it is necessary to ensure the importance and independence of fourth branch institutions like say for example NHRC CBI Central Information Commission Election Commission etc. The next argument put forward by the author why we have to consider the word recommend as binding is based on the nature of the human rights commissions. This is because the commissions have the powers of a civil court therefore the proceedings before them are deemed to be judicial proceedings and their findings are quasi-judicial so therefore it is necessary to make the recommendations binding on the state. To substantiate this point the author has quoted the case of Abdul Kuddus versus Union of India in 2019. The Supreme Court held that the opinions given by foreign or tribunals are binding so in the same way the author expects that the Madras High Court would also say that the recommendations of the commission will also be binding so if the Madras High Court rules that the recommendations of human rights commissions are binding then it will have a crucial progressive impact on the future of human rights betterment and protection in our country this will make the appropriate human rights commissions with teeth to protect human rights and also to take appropriate action against the violations of human rights with this we come to the end of analysis of this editorial article we saw about the fourth branch institutions and how NHRC is also one among them then we saw about few functions nature of human rights commissions in India and we saw the toothless nature of these commissions then we saw the author's argument why the word recommend has to be interpreted as binding on the concerned government or authority now let's move on to the analysis of next news article this news article mentions that the four death row convicts involved in the brutal penetrative sexual assault and death of Nirbaya which was committed on December 16 2012 were scheduled to be hanged this morning and as per the schedule the death sentence was executed for the four convicts today morning and in this context we can find that after seven years since the commission of set of offenses the justice was served now from the perspective of study of punishments or from the perspective of penology or from the perspective of principles of punishment if you see this punishment does not qualify as a swift punishment now we know that punishment should meet three conditions to create fear or deterrence among the potential perpetrators or potential offenders in the society one is that the punishment should be swift that is as quick as possible there should not be unnecessary delay say for offenses such as this if death sentence for these convicts were executed say within a duration of one year from the commission of offense then we can say the punishment is swift then the second important condition is that the punishment has to be certain whoever committed the offense has to be convicted has to undergo punishment then thirdly punishment has to be proportionate for grievous offenses the punishment has to be very severe for less serious offenses the punishment has to be proportionate so only if these three conditions are met then only the punishment will serve the objective of creating deterrence or fear of punishment which will further reduce the crimes in the society meaning the victimization will reduce in the society now to a question do we have a uniform policy for death penalty or capital punishment in our country the answer is no this is because right now death penalty is given for offenses that warrant rarest of the rare cases and who defines this rarest of the rare cases this definition is based on the discretion of various benches that here various cases so right now there is no uniform policy to say what are the offenses what are the set of offenses what are the circumstances that qualifies rarest of the rare cases even there it have been hundreds of brutal sexual assault victimization and murders after the year 2012 as well and we can find most of them have not qualified as rarest of the rare case so that death sentence can be executed so here we can see that there is no uniform policy we can expect sooner the Indian judiciary will evolve a uniform framework so that all the perpetrators carrying out such offenses shall be brought to justice and also that justice shall be uniform now with reference to death penalty in general recently on 17th march 2020 we have discussed in detail about the timeline of death penalty in India the stand taken by government judiciary and the law commission with reference to death penalty we also saw arguments for and arguments against the death penalty so with respect to these aspects we suggest the viewers and aspirants to watch the analysis on 17th march 2020 now lets move on to the analysis of next news article this news article states that the number of deaths because of covid 19 in italy has surpassed the number of deaths in china because of the same disease the news article mentions locations such as Milan in italy severe efforts are being taken in almost all european countries including united kingdom in this context let us take a map based question which asks us to arrange the places or regions in italy from north to south they have given four locations one is Milan then Rome Sicily and Naples see of these four places Milan is in the north of italy so it should come first so you can eliminate option B and option C and note that you can also arrive at the correct answer directly if you know Sicily is in the south of these regions in that case you can eliminate option B option C and option D so from this map you can know that first Milan in the capital of italy Rome then Naples and finally Sicily which is island region of italy so the correct answer for this question is option A one two four three now note that italy shares land border with france swisserland austria slovenia and also with san marino which is surrounded by italy and also know that san marino is a united nations member country from this map you can also note other important regions such as sardinia island region of italy adriatic sea and terrenian sea now let's move on to the analysis of next news article the business page of today's newspaper is filled with impacts of coronavirus disease 2019 on various sectors of indian economy and various stakeholders of indian economy such as banks then on real estate sector then on retail shops and also on airline operators we will see some of the articles in the business page in this analysis the syllabus relevant for the analysis is highlighted here for your reference see this news article is with reference to some suggestions given by indian banks association source to deal with the threats posed by covid 19 to the banking sector so in this context let us first see in brief about this association called as indian banks association see it is an association of banks that are operating in india headquarters of indian banks association is in commercial capital of india which is mumbai and we say commercial capital it refers to a place where much of the financial transactions are taking place where many of the financial institutions are headquartered see this indian banks association was formed in india in 1946 at that time with 22 members as of 2018 the total membership of this association is 252 now let's see the objective of this association which is to work proactively for the growth of banking and financial services industry so it is a platform which offers the members of the association to raise any issue pertaining to banking sector there will be discussion on such issues and there will be consensus for the common good of the industry while maintaining the competitive spirit among the banking companies so who are eligible to become a member of this association see according to this IBA any bank or any corporation company or society which carries out banking business in india and which is governed by banking regulation act of 1949 these entities are eligible to become a member of this association if you see at present the membership of IBA consists of public sector banks, private sector banks, cooperative banks regional rural banks and also all India financial institutions it also includes foreign banks that have offices or branches in India but note that foreign banks become eligible only if they are doing banking business in India through a branch as per the license given by RBA and when it comes to cooperative banks only urban cooperative banks with working funds of at least Rs. 50 crore are eligible to become a member now let's come to the news article the article states that IBA has asked the Indian banking sector to take requisite and adequate preparations to meet any eventuality because of COVID-19 it has one of the suggestions is to relocate top officials of the banks presently working in a single location to different offices so that if the head office or if a single office has to be quarantined not all top level offices or official work will be affected similar suggestion has also been made for officials working in important setters in banking say for example like data centers of core banking solutions and in ATM switches which connect network of ATMs of a particular bank then treasury and swift operation centers of banks and other sectors of banks so in these areas a similar suggestion to relocate into different offices have been put forward so that source to prevent the entire banking system from getting affected another most important suggestion put forward by IBA is to set up an alternative disaster recovery center which means a parallel IT system to manage the banking business in case there has to be a complete shutdown of a building where banking operations are carried out so by these suggestions the Indian banks association has framed business continuity plan for banking system source to tackle the threats posed by COVID-19 now let's move on to next article which states that Indigo has decided to cut salaries of most of its employees we know that in order to curb the spread of COVID-19 to various countries through travel across borders several countries even including India have taken various mechanisms to ban the entry of travelers from foreign countries and India has also requested its citizens abroad to stay safe wherever they are rather than coming back to our country and several countries have been shortlisted from which a foreign traveler will not be allowed to our country so as a result of the shutdown on international and domestic flights to control the spread of the disease this has affected airline operators across the world and also in our country as a result airlines have seen significant drop in the booking of seats so this also means there will be sharp fall in the revenue to airline operators which may lead to a cash crunch or bankruptcy of a particular airline operator company in fact experts are also saying that because of COVID-19 which will also affect Air India and as a result this may not lead to the proposed strategic disinvestment of Air India and they are saying if the situation with reference to COVID-19 does not improve by May 31 many airline operators and companies are said to become bankrupt now let's move on to next news article which states that according to confederation of Indian industry it may take at least 3 to 6 months to restore normalcy and business continuity from the moment the threats of COVID-19 are over say if the threats are over by May 31 it will take at least next 6 months from June to restore normalcy now let's discuss in brief about this confederation of Indian industry see it is a non-government organization not for profit organization an industry led industry managed organization it is an institution that was founded in 19th century in the year 1895 now membership of this organization includes members from private sector and also from public sectors so this organization partners with various stakeholders such as industry government and civil society to create and sustain an environment that is conducive for the development in our country this organization also provides a platform for consensus building and networking on various important issues and with reference to making India a 5 trillion dollar economy by 2025 CIS focusing on 5 priority areas one is employment generation then rural urban connect then energy security environmental sustainability and governance so with this we come to the end of analysis of this news article now let's take this article which mentions about the impact of the disease on real estate sector it's a well known fact that a lot of economic activities have come to a grinding halt because of the disease COVID-19 as a result it has affected livelihoods of many sections of Indian society as a result the income usually earned by families have significantly come down and will come down in the coming days and this will also reflect in their spending as well with respect to real estate sector many people would have got loan from the banks to purchase homes now paying back their liabilities as interest or principal depends on their earning capacity now that many economic activities have come to a halt these individuals may not be able to pay back their loans or they may not be able to pay their installments to the developers as well in fact some of the developers would have also got credit from various financial institutions as a result this will also affect the developers as well in their paying ability article states that there will be a surge or significant increase in default by both customers and developers involved in real estate sector and this will also expected to reduce or impact on the demand for commercial and residential real estate as well as a result construction sector may get impacted and many wage earners dependent on construction sector may also lose their jobs so this is with reference to real estate sector now let's come to this article which talks about retail businesses so governments have asked people to confine themselves to their houses people to avoid mass gatherings and several malls business organizations where there is possibility of huge public gathering have been shut down temporarily because of covid-19 and some of the civic authorities in different cities have also ordered closure of shops malls and others other than those selling essential items say for example grocery vegetables and medicines so this has severely affected the retailers who deal with non-essential daily use items say for example like electronics furniture some of the able businesses they are now focusing on digital platforms to boost their sales others who do not know digital literacy they are to be severely affected by the impact of covid on retail sector now as a result of severe impact on various sectors in Indian economy the global analytical company called as chrysal has cut India's GDP forecast to 5.2% for the financial year 21 which starts from April 1 2020 and concludes on March 31 2021 note that this is a number which is significantly lesser than the number projected by economic survey which is around 6 to 6.5% for financial year 2021 with this we have come to the end of analysis of these related news articles which have appeared in the business column of the Hindu newspaper now let's move on to the analysis of next news article this news article is with reference to female infanticide in ramanathapuram district in Tamil Nadu a 5 day old girl has been killed by her mother where the offense also involves the role played by the mother in law of the mother of the child news article reports that according to a confession to the police the 27 year old mother has stated that they are resorted to this step to kill the girl child because of extreme poverty more frequently we encounter these reasons being said for killing girl children rather than boys and we also know that this is mainly because of the existence of social evils like dowry in our society so in this context we will see about Tamil Nadu government's intervention scheme called as cradle baby scheme which aims to eradicate female infanticide and to improve child sex ratio in the state therefore this discussion forms part of the syllabus under GS2 in welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of population by the states and the performance of these schemes so the syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference we know that there are many existing evils which are unfavorable to girl children and women one of them is the practice of social evil called as dowry then the practice of patriarchy where women of the family were not given equal share in family property and religious rights and there exists a more cruel system where after a marriage a woman walks out of the home not the man because of all these reasons and because of areas of the factors there is still prevalence of female infanticide in certain pockets in Tamil Nadu in certain states and certain areas in India female infanticide refers to killing or murdering the girl child after birth to be specific killing the child when the child is an infant so way back in 1992 when Tamil Nadu had a female chief minister the state government of Tamil Nadu has taken efforts to eradicate the practice of female infanticide in the state so it brought some measures one among them is the cradle baby scheme then it also sought to ensure legal action against perpetrators involved in infanticide then it also brought a girl child protection scheme so as to provide financial incentives to the families those that have only female children so to eradicate this practice of female infanticide the state government brought a series of measures one among them is cradle baby scheme so in our analysis today let's focus on the scheme see the scheme was launched in 1992 by the government of Tamil Nadu under the department of social welfare in Tamil Nadu and in some other states in India there is no separate department for women and child development like how we have at the national level so this is the case even now now coming to the scheme it was launched in response to the practice of female infanticide it was first introduced in Salem district in Tamil Nadu 1992 now what the scheme does is that it provides cradles at government hospitals primary health centers selected orphanages or children homes and non-governmental organizations to receive unwanted newborn girl children so under the scheme the unwanted baby girl children can be handed over to the state government anonymously once handed over the state would take care of the girl child later in 2001 the scheme was extended to various other districts such as madurai, theni, dinduqal and darmaburi as it was found that the practice of female infanticide existed in these districts in 2011 census in districts other than the extended districts what was found is alarming decrease of child sex ratio so as a result the scheme was also extended to these districts which are kadalur, aryalur, parambalur vilupuraman, thiruvannamalai so the scheme mainly aims to save the baby girl children from possible death because of female infanticide where daughters are seen as a burden and where murder is a common reality in those pockets in the state some experts also say that the scheme has causative relationship with reducing the number of female feticide or gender based abortion as well this is because once the parents find that they are unable to they cannot give proper care to the girl child they can hand over the baby to the government so they may not go for sex selective test or sex selective abortion thereby reduces female feticide as well now coming to the performance or the status of the scheme this scheme has played a very important role in reducing female infanticide since the inception of the scheme in 1992 around more than 5000 children have been received by the government until March 2019 around 20% of the children received were male children also however 80% of the unwanted children are female and majority of these children are given for adoption services and as a performance we can say that after the implementation of the scheme the child sex ratio in Tamil Nadu has seen a slight improvement say for example it was 942 in 2001 it has improved to 946 in 2011 in this way we could see a slight improvement in child sex ratio for which the scheme is also a reason now that the scheme is playing a very important role in reducing the number of female infanticide and it shows the commitment of the government to take the role of parents for the unwanted children what is required is the change in mindset with reference to the girl children however while we are saying the mindset of citizens to change we should also know how the mindset was with reference to giving command post for women in army what was the various reasons mentioned by the government of India against giving women the command post however supreme court ruled in favour of women to take up command post in the defense services so as a result serious how to be taken at all levels at all stakeholders to change the mindset against girl children and women however one another thing has to happen parallely with the change in mindset that is the protection measures for women and girl children and other vulnerable sections in the society should also increase significantly so that there is safety everywhere now let's move on to the analysis of next news article now let's take up some of the practice questions that were displayed along with the analysis of news articles this question is with reference to protection of human rights act 1993 they have given two statements asking which of the statements given above are correct first statement the national human rights commission has the powers of a civil court this statement is correct as per section 13 of protection of human rights act 1993 the commission shall have all the powers of a civil court while inquiring into complaints under this act this provision is also applicable to various state human rights commissions as per section 29 of this act so first statement is correct now the second statement the concerned government needs to forward the comments and the actions taken on the recommendations of national human rights commission compulsorily this statement is also correct here with reference to human rights commissions there are two perspectives one is whether the recommendation of NHRC and state human rights commissions are binding on the concerned government or authority and whether after receiving the recommendations the concerned government has to forward the actions taken on the recommendations to concerned commissions note that as per section 18e first the commission shall send a copy of its inquiry report along with recommendations to concerned government or authority once the concerned government or authority receives the inquiry report of human rights commission along with the recommendations this government or authority shall forward its comments including the action taken or actions proposed to be taken on the report and recommendations forwarded by the commission and these comments and actions taken or actions proposed to be taken have to be necessarily forwarded to the concerned human rights commission so both the statements are correct therefore the correct answer is option C both 1 and 2 this question is with reference to Indian banks association two statements are given which of the statements given above are correct first statement IBA is an association of banks operating in India which was formed before independence this statement is correct because the association of banks was formed in 1946 at that time with 22 members this association is headquartered in Mumbai and as of 2018 it has around 252 members therefore the first statement is correct the second statement a foreign bank doing business in India through a branch licensed by RBA is eligible to become a member of IBA this statement is correct with reference to foreign bank and in general the eligibility to become a member of IBA is that any bank or corporation or company or society which carries out business of banking in India and if such entity is governed by banking regulation act 1949 these entities are eligible to become a member of this IBA at present the membership of IBA is from private sector banks, public sector banks foreign banks that have offices in India cooperative banks, regional rural banks and also all India financial institutions so both the statements given here are correct therefore the correct answer is option C both 1 and 2 now let see one practice main question female infanticide is a social evil that still haunts the right to life of girl children in our country in the light of the above statement discuss the effectiveness of cradle baby scheme of Tamil Nadu in tackling this social evil we request the viewers to write answer for this question and convert it into a pdf and upload it into your drive and keep the sharing settings as anyone with the link can view and post the link in the comment section so that we can give you appropriate feedback within a reasonable time frame 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 Shankara's academy youtube channel for more updates and content on civil service exam preparation