 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar IA's Academy for the date 26th of May 2020. The list of news articles taken up for today's analysis along with the page numbers of five different editions is given here for your reference. The handwritten notes in PDF format and the time stamping of all the news articles taken up for today's analysis is given in the description section and also in the comment section in the best interest of the viewers. Now let us begin our analysis. This news article discusses about the house panels. Some committees are mentioned in this news article. So let us see what this news article speaks about and then we will see about the committees that I mentioned in this news article. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. See yesterday the domestic flights have been resumed across India and this has paved the way for holding the parliamentary committee meetings. Since the present fourth phase of lockdown ends on 31st of May and it has also raised the prospect of the parliament holding the monsoon session as per schedule by third week of July. The government is taking all measures to resume the parliament. Meanwhile if you see the chairman of the standing committee on home affairs has demanded virtual meetings for the members of the parliamentary standing committees. Earlier if you see the chairman of standing committee on information technology and the chairman of standing committee on labour had sought meetings of committees through video conference. But if you see both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariat have rejected their demand. So this is what this news article discusses. In this context what you need to know from exam point of view is about the parliamentary committee and about the different types of parliamentary committee that are in existence and the need for parliamentary committees. So what is a parliamentary committee? If we consider parliament the work done by the parliament is varied or diverse and if you see the work is generally complex in nature. The major functions of the parliament are representing the citizens, then lawmaking, then oversight of the executive and then also the scrutiny of the budget. Here parliamentary oversight is essential because the executive can act in an arbitrary manner and also sometimes certain unconstitutional actions may be taken by the executive. So the parliament has to give close consideration to all the legislative and other matters that come up before it. These works are also considerable in terms of volume. But if you see there are time constraints because the parliament has to act within a limited amount of time. Therefore the parliament cannot give close consideration to all the legislative and other matters that come up before it. So a good amount of parliament business is transacted in the committees of the house. These committees are what we call it as parliamentary committees. So parliamentary committee means a committee that is appointed or elected by the house or nominated by the speaker of the either house of the parliament. The parliamentary committee works under the direction of the speaker of that particular house and it presents its report to the house or to the speaker. Know that in parliament there are two kinds of parliamentary committees. One is the standing committees and the other is the ad hoc or temporary committees. Many standing committees are elected or appointed every year or periodically and their work goes on more or less on a continuous basis. Whereas ad hoc committees cease to exist when the task assigned to them is completed. So this is the difference between standing committees and ad hoc committees. Now coming to the standing committees based on the nature of functions performed the standing committees are classified into six categories as you can see here. Now this news article mentions about three standing committees. Standing committee on home affairs, standing committee on information technology, standing committee on labour. See all these three come under departmentally related standing committees. In short DRSCs see they are based on specifically mentioned rules in the rule books of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. You should know that specific schedules of the rule books deal with allocation of ministries or departments to various department related parliamentary standing committees. The chairman of Rajya Sabha and the speaker of Lok Sabha may alter these schedules pertaining to these departmental standing committees from time to time in consultation with each other. At present if you see there are 24 department related standing committees in the parliament. Each committee will have a set of related ministries and departments and each committee shall have a maximum of 31 members of these 10 members are nominated by the chairman of Rajya Sabha from the members of Rajya Sabha and the remaining 21 members are nominated by the speaker of Lok Sabha from the members of Lok Sabha and this committee has to examine and report on the bills pertaining to the related ministries and departments. Now let us look at an example. See there is a standing committee on information technology which is mentioned in this news article. It is one of the 24 departmentally related committees that is in existence and it is constituted under rule number 331C of the rules of procedure and conduct of business in Lok Sabha. And these are the ministries and departments that are under its jurisdiction. Ministry of communications, department of posts, department of telecommunications, ministry of electronics and information technology and also ministry of information and broadcasting. So similarly we have the other standing committees which are mentioned in the schedule of the rules of procedure in either Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha. So remember all these three committees that are mentioned in this news article are departmental related standing committees. Now let us discuss the functions of departmental related standing committee. One function is to consider the demands for grants of the related ministries or departments and report. The next function is to examine the bills pertaining to the related ministries and departments that are referred to the committee by the chairman of Rajya Sabha or by the speaker of Lok Sabha. And the next function is to consider the annual reports of the ministries or departments and report. And one more function is to consider national basic long term policy documents that are presented to either houses if referred to the committee by the chairman of Rajya Sabha or by the speaker of Lok Sabha. So these are the main functions or the role of departmental related standing committees. So this is in brief about the discussion of this news article. To summarize we have seen about parliamentary committees, two types of parliamentary committee which are standing committees and ad hoc committees and then we saw six types of standing committee under which we saw departmental related standing committees in the context of this news article. Now have a look at this practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is in the context of institutions of eminent scheme. We know that India had so many world class educational institutions during the ancient and medieval period and at present we have a huge number of educational institutions but if you look at the quality of the educational institutions which are at present in India then over compared to those in the developed world. So the Ministry of Human Resource and Development had launched the institutions of eminent scheme basically to empower the higher educational institutions and to help them become world class teaching and research institutions. So now let us look at this scheme in brief. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given you for your reference. In 2017 the Ministry of Human Resource Development came with UGC declaration of government educational institutions as institutions of eminence guidelines 2017 and UGC institutions of eminence deemed to be universities regulations 2017. Now both these regulations were aimed to enable 10 public and 10 private institutions to emerge as world class teaching and research institutions and these institutions would be called as institutions of eminence. Remember note that the applications for the institutions to become institutions of eminence are invited from the eligible and interested applicants under three categories. They are existing government educational institutions then existing private higher educational institutions and finally sponsoring organizations for setting up new institutions of eminence. Now let us discuss the objective of this scheme first and foremost it aims to provide for higher education leading to excellence in innovations. It also aims to ensure that the university education system would develop the capacity of the students and the researchers to compete in the global tertiary education marketplace. Next if you see another objective is to pay special attention to teaching and research in unique and emerging areas of knowledge including interdisciplinary areas. Through all these the final aim is to make institutions of eminence rated internationally for its teaching and research as a top 100 institution in the world over time. So these are some of the primary objectives behind why this scheme was introduced by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. Now let us discuss the benefits that are to be enjoyed by these institutions of eminence. We saw that there are three categories among these three categories the government institutions will get an additional funding of up to 1000 crore rupees. Also the selected institute will have complete academic administrative and financial autonomy and the academic collaborations of the institutions of eminence with the top 500 foreign higher educational institutions would be exempt from government approvals. Next if you see the public institutions under the institutions of eminence will have the freedom to recruit 25 percentage of its faculty from outside India and then it can also admit foreign students on merit and then if you see the institutes also have the freedom to offer online courses with certain restrictions and these institutions also have the freedom to have their own merit based system for admission and they are also free to charge fees from foreign students without any restrictions. Next if you see all these institutes also enjoy flexibility in fixing the curriculum and syllabus with no UGC mandated curriculum structure and also if you see there is no flexibility to frame course structure in terms of the number of credit hours and number of years to take a degree. Most importantly the UGC inspection shall not apply to these institutions of eminence. So we can say that in all aspects the institutions of eminence will have freedom to choose their own path to become world class institutions. If you see as of September 2019 we have 16 institutions as institutions of eminence apart from this the University grants commission awaits the consummation and commitment of the state governments for four institutions one among them is Annan University which is located in the state of Tamil Nadu. The news article says that till date the Ministry of Human Resource Development has not received any communication from the state of Tamil Nadu on awarding institutions of eminence status to Annan University. In view of the ongoing lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic Tamil Nadu has been given time by the Ministry of Human Resource Development till 31st of May to decide on this. This is all about the discussion of this news article. In this news article we have seen about the institutions of eminence scheme introduced by the Ministry of Human Resource Development its objectives the benefits that the institutions will enjoy as institutions of eminence and then finally about the news article. Now have a look at this practice question let us move on to the next news article. This OPED is with reference to the use of data in the post COVID-19 world. It also discusses about the changing idea of privacy during this COVID-19 pandemic. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this OPED is given you for your reference. The authors of this OPED start this article by telling that proper data related to COVID-19 outbreak were not shared in time and this has resulted into much anger towards the World Health Organization in China. If we had a proper international framework on the use of data and if we had evolved the global norms of data governance in the pre COVID-19 world then things would have been much easier for the mankind. So at the global level several things related to data are yet to be done and yet to be structured. The authors highlight two changes in this regard in the context of data. One is a change associated with recent years and another is a change that is felt more during the pandemic. First is the role played by technological giants like Google, Facebook and Amazon. At one point of time these tech giants needed the support of every national government. But now because of their global reach and because of their access to data on significant number of persons it is the governments that are dependent on them now. And the authors tell that these giants are taking a lead role in geopolitics now and there is one important concern with respect to them. That is these entities are known for often playing in their own terms in an unfair manner and sometimes they act as proxies of nation states to influence policy making and national regulations. So these are some of the comments given by the authors related to the role played by the technological giants. Now let us come to the next change highlighted by the authors. This is the changing idea of privacy of an individual. Earlier sharing the live locations with the governments and the power of governments to track individuals were firmly resisted because it affected the privacy of the individual. Now this resistance has suffered a change as a result of this COVID-19 pandemic. Now why because the governments need to track every individual in order to prevent the spread of the pandemic. So the countries have introduced applications that require sharing the live locations and movements with the government or with the authorized agencies. While in some countries these data sharing appears to be in line with sufficient protection standards. In some other countries these were highly criticized as certain technical standards were not met. So overall we can see that the governments are criticized that they are using this opportunity to start or to carry out surveillance on their citizens. In addition to these things the authors also talk about other things related to data. One is that if we see at present there are data protection laws in some regions of countries. For example we have this general data protection regulation of the European Union and with regards to USA we have the cloud act. Here the full form for cloud is clarifying lawful overseas use of data act. This cloud act enables the United States government to enter into agreements with other countries to get access to data stored in the foreign soil. If you see there are some problems with respect to these legal frameworks pertaining to data. One is issues related to data localization and the next is issues related to cross border flow of information. And if you see these frameworks have not solved the issues of data sharing and interoperability particularly at the multilateral level or at the global level. In post COVID-19 world we may see countries signing interoperability agreements in the sphere of data in the way like there are agreements on interoperability and logistics cooperation on military facilities. Then apart from this the authors also talk about consensus at the international level among the countries, tech giants and the people on the preparation of a framework on behavioral norms in cyberspace. The preparation of such a document and enforcement of such norms after coming into force are very important. Now why because even U1 could not bring consensus on these matters so far. So a consensus is necessary as the authors feel that data flow is to become more and more important in the post COVID-19 world. In this context the authors call for some important requirements. One is that a credible international law has to be developed and this law should govern various parameters related to data. This law has to deal with various issues related to data localization, data sharing, interoperability etc. This international framework should guide the data flow for the welfare of mankind and society with adequate protection to privacy and security of individuals and nations. Then the authors tell that the framework must ensure that the tech giants should never act in their own interests that compromises the arrived standards and such technological entities should never act as proxies to other countries or agencies as we saw earlier. So for all these requirements, first we have to identify an international body that may now evolve global norms for data governance and may implement them in future. If you closely observe the opinions expressed by the authors, all these require tremendous cooperation between the countries, people, tech giants and other stakeholders at the international level. This means these entities have to come out of their domestic politics and also the regional geopolitical interests. That is why this oped is titled as moving beyond geopolitics. The authors call to establish a baseline of global norms of data governance that go beyond privacy and beyond geopolitical considerations. Now let us see what the authors have mentioned in the context of India. The authors mentioned that it is a right time for the Parliament Select Committee to look at the data protection framework. See, we know that the Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 was introduced in Lok Sabha in the month of December 2019 and on the same day, a joint committee on the Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 was constituted to examine the bill. And this committee is called as Joint Parliamentary Committee. Since the members represent both the houses of the Parliament. And the chairperson of this committee is a member of Lok Sabha, Ms. Meenakshi Leke. If you see this committee has so far conducted four sittings and it's yet to submit its report to the Parliament. So the authors ask this joint parliamentary committee to consider the data requirements post COVID-19 world and to suggest appropriate mechanisms in relation to the data protection framework that are proposed in the bill. So these are some of the suggestions given by the authors that emphasizes the changes in the current concept of privacy and cross-border flow of information. This is all about the discussion of this open article. In this analysis, we saw about the dominance of tech giants in the field of data, then the change in perception of privacy. Then we saw what efforts are required at the international level to ensure data sharing in order to achieve welfare of mankind. In other words, to achieve what the world could not achieve in data sharing with reference to COVID-19 crisis. Now have a look at this practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. Now let us look at this question which has been framed based on this news article. Excavation commences at Adi Chandallur, Sivakalai Sites. See both these sites are located in the state of Tamil Nadu. This news article tells that the sixth phase of excavation began at Adi Chandallur, which is popularly known as the cradle of ancient Tamil civilization. The previous five excavations were taken up at Adi Chandallur in the years 1876, 1902, 1905, before Indian independence during the British era and later excavations were carried out in the years 2004 and 2005 by the Archaeological Survey of India. As we all know, Tamil language is one of the oldest languages and its culture dates back to before common era, that is BCE times. These excavations are expected to give information about ancient civilization that flourished in this region, since one can find a good number of burial urns and metals that were used by ancient Tamils in this region. If you remember, there was one more place which was in the news article in 2019, which is Keeladi. This Keeladi gives a glimpse of the civilization that was present on the banks of river Vaigai, which is located southeast to the present city of Madurai. This is in brief about this news article. In this picture, you can also find some other important archaeological sites of India, which is given in your Class VI History and CRT book. Now, let us get back to the question. Read this question. The places Adi Chandallur in Tamil Nadu and Ratnagiri in Maharashtra recently seen in news are commonly associated with, here the correct answer is Option A, Archaeological Excavations and Findings. See, this question has been framed based on this question which has appeared in 2019 prelims, which is common to the places known as Aliyar, Isapur and Kangsa Bharti. Here, the correct answer is Option D, Water Reservoirs. So, you can expect such questions from UPSC. Now, if you remember, in our July video of Target UPSC Problems 2020 series, we discussed about this Ratnagiri, which is located in the state of Maharashtra. It is located along the Konkan coast. In that video, we discussed that more than thousand petroglyphs were discovered in an archaeological excavation in this Ratnagiri area and also in the nearby Rajapur area. Here, just I have an idea that petroglyph is a form of rock art. It consists of images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising or peaking or carving or abrading. So, have a look at this topic as well. So, whenever you come across such commonly related news articles, like in this case, Archaeological Excavations, try to list it down and you can refer it during your revision. This is all about the discussion of this news article. Now, let us move on to the next news article. This question about Purandaradasa is framed based on this news article, which discusses about the claims regarding the birthplace of this saint. Know that Purandaradasa was a great devotee of Lord Krishna. He lived during the 15th and 16th centuries. He was a poet and a musician and he is also known as father of Karnatic music. Purandaradasa has contributed significantly to the codification of Karnatic music and he gave a clear format for its teaching and performance. Now, know that the birthplace of Purandaradasa is disputed. It is widely believed that this poet was born at Purandaragar, which is located in Maharashtra. However, many in the Malnad region of Karnataka state claim that he hailed from this region. According to some sources, Purandaradasa was born to a rich merchant. He was called as Srinivasanayaka. Here, you need to note that Nayakas were the military chiefs during the Vijayanagara empire. They controlled forts, they had armed supporters and they usually spoke Telugu or Kannada. Later, if you see Srinivasanayaka became a disciple of the great saint Vyasaraja, who gave him the title Purandaravitala. Know that Purandaradasa's songs expresses love for Lord Krishna. In many of these songs, he criticizes the practices that prevailed in the society at that point of time, like castism. And most of his songs were composed in a simple, easy-to-understand Kannada language. His compositions are beautiful and they have inspired many musician poets in Karnataka. Know that Purandaradasa identified 84 ragas. Each of his lyric is a beautiful musical composition. His works touched a variety of musical types like krithis, kirtans, padams and even many rare forms of music. And his influence on Kannatic music is profound. Sri Tyagaraja was greatly influenced by him. Here, just have an idea that Tyagaraja, Murtaswamy Dixitar and Siyama Shastri are known as Trinity of Karnatic music. So, this is in brief about Purandaradasa. Now, with this information in mind, let us look at this question. Two statements are given and you need to choose those statement or statements which are correct. Look at the first statement. It tells that Purandaradasa was a contemporary of Samudra Gupta of Gupta dynasty. This statement is incorrect because we saw that Purandaradasa lived in 15th and 16th centuries, whereas Samudra Gupta lived during the 4th century. Now, look at the second statement. He was a great devotee of Lord Vishnu and is considered as the father of Karnatic music. This statement is correct. So, here the correct answer is option B2 only. If you remember in 2019 prelims, there was a question on Saint Nimbarka. As you can see here, one of the statements was Saint Nimbarka is the contemporary of Emperor Akbar. So, sometimes you get such questions in UPSC. Whenever you study about the artisans, try to know the contemporary rulers of those artisans. This is in brief about this news article. Now, let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about virtual courts. See the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 as forced the Supreme Court to resort to virtual court hearings in order to ensure the safety of lawyers, litigants, paralegal, intense and media personnel. So, in the current scenario, if you see the facilities provided for litigants to file the complaint electronically through e-filing and also pay the court fees or fine online, that is through e-pay through the government website. And litigants can view the status of the case online through various channels created for service delivery. So, all this e-filing, e-pay and virtual courts are the services under the e-court project. So, you should know that virtual court is different from e-court. Virtual court is a part of e-court projects. Now, let us look in brief about e-court's project. See, it is a Mission Mode project and it is a Pan India project. It is monitored and funded by the Department of Justice that comes under the Ministry of Law and Justice. So, what is an e-court? An e-court or an electronic court means a location in which matters of law are adjudicated upon in the presence of qualified judges, which has a well-developed technical infrastructure. The working of e-courts requires an online environment and an information and communication technology-enabled infrastructure. So, they are aimed at making the legal processes easier and more user-friendly. But if you see for adjudication purpose, the litigant may have to appear in person or through the lawyer in the court. So, the physical presence is necessary in case of e-court. Now, this virtual court is a concept that is aimed at eliminating the presence of litigant or lawyer in the court, that is, eliminating the physical presence in the court. So, the adjudication of the cases will go online. So, this is the virtual court concept. So, remember the difference between virtual court and e-court. Now, know that the Supreme Court's e-committee has decided to use these virtual courts for petty offenses such as traffic violations and offenses that attract fine amount of less than 1000 rupees. The first virtual court was inaugurated in the month of July 2019 and it deals digitally with on-spot traffic chalans that are generated by the Delhi Traffic Police via e-chalan application developed by the National Informatics Center. Now, if you look at this news article, it tells that Tamil Nadu has established virtual courts for trying petty offenses in traffic chalan cases. So, this virtual court system will have a e-chalan software, payment gateway, and a court software. And this news article also tells that the computer committee of the High Court of Madras had entered into a memorandum of understanding with State Bank of India for providing payment gateway services for depositing fines and penalties. So, these virtual courts will reduce the number of cases in the regular courts as the accused need not visit the courts to plead guilty. Thus, the burden on regular courts will be reduced and many judicial offices can be deputed for hearing other cases. Also, the cases will get disposed within hours in this virtual court. So, all those judicial offices were so far dedicating their work to try petty offenses of traffic violations will now be available to dedicate their time to court judicial work. So, this is in brief about this virtual courts. With this information, if you look at this question, you can easily arrive at the answer, which is option A. The question is, which of the following best describes the purpose of virtual courts? It aims at eliminating the presence of litigants or lawyers in the court and adjudication of the case online. Option B is about E code and option C is about mobile code. So, this is in brief about the discussion of this news article. Now, let us move on to the next news article. Now, look at this question, which is framed based on this news article. This news article discusses that the last zamindar of one of the place located in southern Tamil Nadu has passed away. It states that the zamindar lost ownership of few lands as a result of the abolition of zamindari system. And this article also mentions that the zamindar was administering a temple which is located inside the Kalakkad-Mundandurai Tiger Reserve. In this context, we will see in brief about the abolition of zamindari system and the tiger reserve that is mentioned in this news article. See, during the pre-independence era, zamindari system was in operation in many parts in India. Large parcels of land were under the ownership of zamindars. In some cases, the rulers of that particular area gifted an entire village to these zamindars. At the same time, many of the cultivators do not even own a piece of land. They worked as tillers, sharecroppers, tenants at will in the lands of zamindars. Since they do not own the land, they had to pay tax or rent to these zamindars. This is one side. And if you see, the zamindars also have to pay tax or rent to the then British India government. And in this system, the government will not directly collect the rent or tax from the individuals. Rather, it collects from the zamindar. As a result, the zamindar collected payments from the individuals, that is the tenants and the cultivators. So these zamindars served as an intermediary. A part of money will go to the ruler and a part will go to the zamindar. So this system exploited the cultivators to a large extent. And as historians put it, the colonial government did not use the collected money for the advancement of agriculture or for the welfare of cultivators. So in this juncture, the freedom fighters were demanding to abolish the zamindari system. This task was given to the states after independence as land was made a state subject. That is, land rights over land, land tenures, including the relation of landlord and tenant and the collection of rents. So all these came under the purview of the state legislatures. And accordingly through various social welfare legislations, the zamindari system was abolished in India. The abolition included taking parts of lands from the ownership of zamindars and giving it to the cultivators and also paying the compensation to the zamindars for the land that was taken away and also removing the zamindars as intermediaries between the government and the cultivator. So all these abolition were part of India's land reforms. So remember this fact, this reform was followed by a fixing of a limit for land ownership, which is what we call as land sealing. So this is in brief about the zamindari system that existed before independence and about the abolition of the zamindari system. Now let us look at the Tiger Reserve which is mentioned in the news article, which is Kalakkadu-Mundandurai Tiger Reserve. Know that this Kalakkadu-Mundandurai Tiger Reserve is located in the state of Tamil Nadu. It was formed by combining the Kalakkadu Wildlife Sanctuary and the Mundandurai Wildlife Sanctuary. Now this Mundandurai Wildlife Sanctuary is special because it was declared as India's first Tiger Sanctuary in the year 1962 itself, which is much before the start of Project Tiger. And know that this Tiger Reserve is one of the four Tiger Reserves that is located in the state of Tamil Nadu. The other three Tiger Reserves are Anamalai Tiger Reserve, Mudumalai Tiger Reserve and Satyamangalam Tiger Reserve. This is all about the discussion of this news article. Now with this information, let us look at this question. You can easily answer this question. Which of the following Tiger Reserves are located in the state of Tamil Nadu? Four Tiger Reserves are given and you need to choose the correct answer. We just saw that four Tiger Reserves are there in Tamil Nadu, Kalakkadu-Mundandurai, Anamalai, Mudumalai and Satyamangalam. You know that Periyar Tiger Reserve is located in the state of Kerala. So if you can remove this third item, you can easily arrive at the answer which is option D, one, two and four. This is all about the discussion of this news article. Now let us move on to the next news article. Now let us look at this question which is framed based on this news article where an academic from United States has expressed his opinions about the support of U.S. for India regarding the border issues with China. See in this news article, the academic has explained the success of India-U.S. ties in reviving and upgrading the Quad. Then the establishment of two plus two foreign and defense ministers dialogue. Then signing of Comcast Agreement and likely signing of Beka Agreement this year and also related to stationing of an Indian officer at the central command of the U.S. So from exam point of view, you need to know about Quad and the defense-related agreements signed between India and U.S. Here know that Quad grouping consists of four countries which are U.S, India, Japan and Australia and coming to the defense agreements signed between India and U.S.A, you need to have a brief background. Know that U.S.A has four foundational agreements that it signs with its defense partners. They are GSOMIA, which is the General Security of Military Information Agreement. Then LEMOVA, which is Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement. And then COMCASA, Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement. And finally, Beka, Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geospatial Cooperation. Out of these four agreements, U.S.A has signed the first three agreements with India. And the fourth agreement, Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geospatial Cooperation is A to B signed. If this agreement is signed, it will allow India and U.S. to share geospatial and satellite data such as topographical, nautical and aeronautical data with each other. And if you look at COMCASA agreement, this agreement will allow India to procure and transfer specialized equipment for encrypted communications. So from this, you can tell that both the statements are incorrect in this question. Here, both the aims have been interchanged. And also you need to know that Beka has not yet been signed between India and U.S.A. Now we need to choose those statement or statements which are incorrect in this question. So the correct answer is option C, both one and two, since both the statements are incorrect. So this is in brief about this news article. From this news article, know about the Quad grouping and then about the foundational agreements that U.S.A has signed with India. This news article is about the message expressed by the Director General of International Labor Organization. The Director General has expressed concern and has urged the Prime Minister of India to send a clear message to the central and state governments to uphold international labor laws. Because if you see, some states diluted their labor laws. Due to this, the trade unions agitated against this decision. And if you remember, in our 12th May, the Hindu news analysis, we saw that these trade unions might approach international labor organization. And based on their plea, the Director General has urged the Prime Minister to not dilute the labor laws. Because some states like Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat have either suspended a large number of labor laws for two or three years or even diluted them in order to attract industries in the middle of this COVID-19 pandemic. So this is in brief about the news. In this respect, you need to know about international labor organization. We have discussed in detail about this international labor organization and then about the conventions of this international labor organizations in detail in our 12th May, the Hindu news analysis. We request the viewers to have a look at it for better subject clarity. So always remember one fact. Majority of the current affairs are the sequence of events like the one that we have seen today. So try to extract from such news articles what you need from exam perspective. In this case, you need to know about ILO from prelims perspective and about the sequence of events from mains perspective. So this is how you should approach current affairs. Also, if you see, sometimes you might not get news articles that are relevant from exam perspective on a particular subject. Say for example, economy. Like today, if you see the business column, there aren't much news that are related to prelims perspective. So on such days, try to focus on rest of the news articles. But here, the key is not covering the entire newspaper but knowing what to study and what not to study. In this aspect, we would suggest the viewers to focus on all the news articles that we analyze on daily basis. And if any potential news articles are not covered, it would be covered in the subsequent days. As I already told, most of the current affairs is a sequence of events. With this, we come to the end of the analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion. Now let us move on to the other practice questions discussion session. For those news articles, we haven't discussed. Now look at this question which is about institutions of eminence scheme. Here the question is, which of the following is not the benefit extended to an institution of eminence? Here the correct answer is option C, public institutions under institution of eminence scheme cannot admit foreign students. Know that they can admit foreign students and they also have the freedom to recruit faculty from outside India and they will get an additional funding of up to 1,000 crores and UGC inspection shall not apply to institutions of eminence. So here the correct answer is option C. Now let us look at this practice mains question. Why do you think the committees are considered to be useful for parliamentary work? Discuss in this context the role of the departmentally related standing committees. It is a 15 mark question and you need to write the answer in 250 words. If you remember in 2018 there was question related to estimates committee of the parliament. So often you get questions related to the parliamentary committees in your mains exam. So in the first part try to address the importance of the parliamentary committees and in the second part discuss about the departmentally related standing committees and its functions. Now let us move on to the next mains question. The question is data sharing has assumed significant importance in the backdrop of COVID-19 pandemic. Discuss the measures required at the international level to ensure safe and interoperable data sharing. You need to answer this question in 150 words. It is a 10 mark question. So relate the given statement briefly to the lack of data on the origin spread and other crucial information on COVID-19 in the months of December 2019 till present. And you need to discuss the measures. So you can suggest measures which we saw during our editorial discussion like having a credible international data framework then a need for an international body for data governance and also the need for cooperation from all stakeholders moving beyond geopolitics. You can also mention some other relevant points that are appropriate for this question. With this we come to the end of the analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the practice questions discussion session. 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