 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar IA's Academy for the date 29th November 2019. Today we shall be seeing an important editorial on agro-biodiversity and also some important topics like GST Compensation Fund, Nato and such other news articles which are displayed here along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Trimantram and Hyderabad editions. The handwritten notes in PDF format and the time stamping of all the news articles taken up for today's analysis is available in the description section and also in the common section for the benefit of the smartphone users. Let us now move on to our discussion. First, let us see this editorial which is titled, India's Food Basket Must Be Enlarged. Now look here, these are the questions which appeared in 2018 mains in your general studies three paper. Look at this question, the question is how has the emphasis on certain crops brought about changes in cropping patterns in the recent past? The essence of this part of the question is about the laws of agrobiodiversity and if you look at this question this question is direct, how does biodiversity vary in India? This speaks about overall biodiversity where your agrobiodiversity is also a component and if you see in this year that is 2019 in your general studies three mains question paper around seven questions were related to agriculture farmers and food sector and particularly three questions were on agriculture itself. So every year agriculture related question is getting more importance in the mains paper and not only in the mains paper also in your prelims paper aspect and in addition to this in the past two years there was at least one prelims question which focused on the theme hunger and now if you see these questions all these have appeared in 2019 mains related to agriculture. They focus on systems or methods which have been implemented by the government or the contributions of both these personalities due to the overuse of resources such as land, water, etc in order to get more outputs. One of the solution is agrobiodiversity and also in the context of the hunger status of India and also in the context of nutrition status of India agrobiodiversity is of high relevance and high importance. To tell in brief in this editorial the authors have tried to highlight the hunger status and nutrition status of India and they have tried to establish the fact that agrobiodiversity and genetic biodiversity is most required to address the hunger related issues in India. If you see this editorial is authored jointly by a former consultant at SEPPOL of National Biodiversity Authority and Executive Director MS Swaminathan Research Foundation. In this SEPPOL stands for Center for Biodiversity Policy and Law. It has been established by India under the National Biodiversity Authority. So it has been established in collaboration with the Norwegian government that is the government of Norway. See this particular center has been established to develop professional expertise in biodiversity policies and laws and to develop capacity building. This center is focusing on biodiversity policies and laws related to national and international rulemaking on the issues of biodiversity and it also focuses on subsequent implementation of the policies. So now you would have understood why this editorial is important as it is an expert opinion in the field of hunger, nutrition, agrobiodiversity, etc. and many measures that have been taken by India to address the low nutrition then also recommendations by the former consultant at SEPPOL are all discussed in this editorial. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this editorial is given here for your reference. See first the authors have discussed about various indicators, global indices, then they have also discussed about the initiatives of India relating to hunger and nutrition. So this editorial is very important from Main's perspective and also from Trillum's perspective because we will be seeing certain indices, certain terminologies related to nutrition. Firstly, the authors try to show the status of India in the domains of hunger and nutrition. For this, they have discussed the Global Hunger Index of 2019 first. See the Global Hunger Index or GHI is a tool designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at global, regional and national levels. These GHI scores are calculated every year to assess the progress and also the setbacks in combating hunger. This index is basically designed to raise awareness and also to raise the understanding of the struggle against hunger and it provides a way to compare levels of hunger between the countries and the regions. Further, this index calls for attention to those areas of the world where the hunger levels are highest and where additional efforts are required to eliminate hunger. So in this year's Global Hunger Index, that is the Global Hunger Index of 2019, India has been ranked 102nd out of 117 qualified countries and India scored 30.3. According to this score, India suffers from a level of hunger that is serious based on the severity level calculated for this index. Now, see this score trend for India. If you can see this picture, the trends are declining after the year 2005. This means India has been performing well with respect to combating hunger overall. It is because the scores are based on 100 point severity scale where zero is the best score and 100 is the worst score. Zero means no hunger and 100 means suffering from hunger. Since India's score is coming nearer to zero, we can say comparatively that India is performing well but still the performance is not enough for India. It is because the top scoring countries have scored less than 5 points. So as a country, we are quite far from achieving this target. In this context, we should know how actually the term hunger is defined. Hunger usually refers to the distress that is associated with a lack of sufficient calories. If you see the Food and Agriculture Organization that is the FAO of the United Nations even defines food deprivation or undernourishment as the consumption of very few calories to provide the minimum amount of dietary energy that each individual requires for a healthy and productive life. To simplify, you can tell the food we eat consists of many nutrients like carbohydrates, proteins, fat and also certain other micronutrients like vitamins and minerals. All these carbohydrates, proteins and fats from the macronutrients and the vitamins and minerals from the micronutrients. Now the amount of food we eat is not important but the caloric intake as a result of eating food is what matters. So sufficient calories are important to come out of the menace of hunger and undernourishment. That is why the author is defining hunger as caloric deprivation then protein hunger and hidden hunger by deficiency of micronutrients. Yeah micronutrients are nothing but the vitamins and minerals. Then according to the Global Hunger Index, India's child wasting rate is extremely high at 20.8 percentage. Here you should know child wasting means the children who have low weight for their height. It reflects acute undernutrition. If you see from this Global Hunger Index report, this 20.8 percentage is the highest value for any country out of the data that is available in this report. So we can tell that India is having an extremely high child wasting rate. Then if you see the author has discussed about India's child stunting rate which is at 37.9 percentage. It is also categorized as very high in terms of its public health significance. Here you should know that child stunting means children who have low height for their age. It reflects chronic undernutrition that is continuously a person is suffering from under nutrition for a particular period of time because of which child stunting happens. In addition to this the Global Hunger Index 2019 report also notes that in India just 9.6 percent of all the children between 6 and 23 months of age are fed a minimum acceptable diet. So these are some of the status of India in terms of hunger and nutrition standards with respect to the Global Hunger Index of 2019. So to summarize we have seen India's scores and why this index is important and then about also some conditions like child wasting and child stunting. Now after this index the author talks about Global Nutrition Report. See the Global Nutrition Report is the world's leading report on the state of global nutrition. It is a data led report that is the report is based on data and the report is produced independently each year to identify where progress has been made regarding nutrition and to identify where still there are challenges. So this report aims to inspire the governments civil society and also the private stakeholders so that they act to end malnutrition in all its forms. This report also plays an important role of holding the stakeholders to account on their commitments that they have made towards tackling malnutrition. Now based on this Global Nutrition Report 2018 India is one of the three countries with the largest number of children who are stunted. We just saw the definition of child stunting which is low height for their age. The authors of this editorial mention that around 46.6 million children or to tell nearly 47 million children or 4.7 crore children suffer from chronic under nutrition or stunting. We just saw chronic under nutrition is an indicator for child stunting. So according to the report India holds almost one-third that is 31 percentage of world's burden for stunting. So it is approximately one-third. Now if you see this stunting is often associated with cognitive impairments such as a delayed motor development then impaired brain function that is improper brain function and also poor school performance. So the authors also note that stunting leads to diminished learning capacity that is reduced learning capacity then it also leads to increased chronic diseases then low birth weight infants from malnourished parents. In addition to this India is again among the three countries with the largest number of children who are wasted. If you see around 25.5 million children that is 2.5 crore children suffer from child wasting in India. Then this global nutrition report also tells that around 51.4 percentage women of reproductive age are anemic in India. So all these values depict the burden of malnutrition in India. So from this data you can see that the burden of malnutrition is high even in the adult age population of India. This is all about this global nutrition report. So in this global nutrition report we have seen some statistics regarding child stunting, child wasting and about anemia in adult women. So first we saw the global hunger index and next the global nutrition report. From these two reports and their findings we have a clear picture now of what is the nutrition status of India and from both these reports we can tell that India is not doing so well. Hence in this context the authors provide the reason why the nutrition levels are low in India. Now the first reason which the authors tell is the lack of agrobiodiversity. Here you need to know what is meant by agrobiodiversity. See agrobiodiversity is also known as agricultural biodiversity. This relates to the diversity of crops and varieties. Just from the word you can get it, biodiversity which means diversity of crops and varieties. Now according to the Food and Agricultural Organization, agrobiodiversity is the variety and variability of animals, plants and microorganisms which are used directly or indirectly for food and agriculture and this also includes the crops, livestock, forestry and fisheries. Now a simple example is the rice crop. We have a variety of rice in each of the state. There are many traditional varieties that even we do not know but which are existent in many parts of India. This is one example for agrobiodiversity. Now this agrobiodiversity comprises of the diversity of genetic resources such as the species, varieties, their breeds and it also comprises of species which are used for food, fodder, fiber, fuel and pharmaceuticals. Then agrobiodiversity also includes the diversity of non-harvested species which support productions such as soil, microorganisms, predators and pollinators. Then agrobiodiversity also includes those species in the wider environment which support agroecosystems as well as the diversity of the agroecosystems. So we can tell that agrobiodiversity is the result of interaction between the environment, genetic resources and the management systems and the practices that are used by culturally diverse peoples which include the land and water resources that are used for production in different ways. So we can say agrobiodiversity is the result of both natural selection and also human invention which was developed over the years. Now this agrobiodiversity is crucial in food security and also for the nutrition, health and it is also essential in agricultural landscapes. Now according to the authors out of 2.5 lakh globally identified plant species about 7,000 have historically been used in human diets but if you see today only 30 crops form the basis for the world's agriculture. And if you see just three species out of these 30 crops supply more than half the world's daily calories which are nothing but rice, wheat and maize. Even in India we can see rice and wheat are the staple crops and to a larger extent maize is also being consumed. So from this we can tell there is a lack of agrobiodiversity in the current global scenario. So this is the first reason. The first reason is lack of agrobiodiversity. Now let us see the second reason. The second reason which the authors tell is loss of crop genetic resources or we can tell it as a loss of genetic diversity. We just saw that genetic resources are a part of agrobiodiversity. We know that all forms of life on earth whether microbes, plants, animals or human beings contain genes. So we can tell genetic diversity is the sum of the genetic information that is contained in the genes of individual plants, animals and microorganisms. So each species has their own genetic information in the form of traits characteristics etc. That is for example if a short grass is there it has certain genes which tell that why that particular grass is short. And if you see for a long grass there are certain genes which tell that why that particular grass is always growing tall. These are nothing but the traits of that particular grass. So each species has its own genetic information in the form of traits and characteristics. Now if you see this genetic differentiation within species occurs as a result of sexual reproduction in which the genetic differences between the individuals are combined in their offspring to produce a new combination of genes. So because of this the DNA gets changed. So this genetic diversity is usually mentioned with reference to agriculture and maintaining food security. This is because the genetic erosion of several crops has already occurred that is leading to the world's dependence for food on just a few species. If you see according to Terry currently only 100 odd species account for 90 percentage of the supply of food crops. And as we just saw the three main crops which are the rice, wheat and maize account for 69 percentage of the calories and they also account for 56 percentage of the proteins that people derive from plants. So you can see that the entire burden is only on these three crops and some 100 odd species in terms of calorie intake. So from this we can say that the genetic diversity of crops, the genetic diversity of livestock and their wild relatives are fundamental to improve the crop varieties and the livestock breeds. So agro biodiversity helps nutrition sensitive farming and bio fortified foods because if there are diverse food crops available then we can make sure that we have nutritious food crops and also naturally the food is having the micronutrients like vitamins and minerals. So we can also tell them as bio fortified. So in this way agro biodiversity helps nutrition sensitive farming and bio fortified foods. Also if you see the authors of this editorial tell that India is the center of origin for rice, brinjal, citrus, banana and cucumber species. Apart from these some other varieties have also been mentioned by the authors. Now according to the authors in India over 811 cultivated plants and 902 of their wild relatives have been documented. Now certain examples which the authors have mentioned are the Konamani rice from the state of Tamil Nadu, then the Agnibora rice from the state of Assam and then the Pokali rice from the state of Kerala. Then if you see with respect to wheat we have the Bhalya wheat from Himachal Pradesh and also Gucci mushroom from Himachal Pradesh etc. So these are some of the examples of the genetic resources from India. Now how did the loss of genetic diversity or genetic erosion actually occur? It is because humans started to adapt to new crop varieties without conserving the traditional varieties. This is one thing. The second thing is because expectations were high for high output breeds for producing meat or milk or egg or even some other plant species. So only certain breeds were selected for getting high output because of this the traditional varieties got lost and so the genetic erosion happened. So these are the two reasons. Now coming to the question did we take any measure to tackle these situations? The answer is yes. Even recently the Ministry of Human Resources Development introduced school nutrition garden guidelines. See these guidelines are for encouraging eco club students to identify the fruits and vegetables that are best suited to topography, soil and climate. This nutrition garden is also called as kitchen garden. Now the objectives of this nutrition garden is to help address malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies by consuming freshly grown vegetables. Also it will give a first-hand experience with nature and gardening for the children. The next objective is to enhance the knowledge of children regarding the nutritional aspects of vegetables and the harmful effects of junk food. So these nutrition gardens can give students a lifelong social numerical and presentation skills and it will enable them to care for living organisms and it will also teach them about teamwork. So there are multiple dimensions to this initiative and in this initiative the students can also learn to cultivate fruits and vegetables in their homes so that their micronutrient deficiencies could be well addressed. This is the initiative taken by a government. Now you may have heard about the globally important agricultural heritage systems or in short GIAHS. See it is also a measure to safeguard agro biodiversity. Know that this GIAHS was launched by Food and Agricultural Organization of United Nations in the year 2002. It was launched during the World Summit on Sustainable Development which was held at Johannesburg, South Africa. Now the overall goal of the GIAHS program is to identify and safeguard globally important agricultural heritage systems that is the eco-friendly traditional farm practices and their associated landscapes, agricultural biodiversity, then the knowledge systems of the local communities and also their culture which is associated to that agricultural system. Now across the world if you see 37 sites are designated as globally important agricultural heritage systems. Out of these 37 sites, three sites are from India. The first site that was declared as a GIAHS site from India was the saffron heritage of Kashmir. It was declared in the year 2011. The second site is the Kaurapur traditional agriculture from Odisha which was declared in the year 2012. And the third site is the Kuttanath below sea level farming system from the state of Kerala which was declared in the year 2013. So these are the three sites from India which are designated as globally important agricultural heritage system sites. This is all about GIAHS. Then in addition to these we also have UN Sustainable Development Goal with respect to hunger. Now the goal too of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda seeks to end hunger and all forms of malnutrition and it also seeks to double agricultural productivity in the next 15 years. So this goal pushes us to achieve zero hunger. Then apart from this we have the Aichi biodiversity target. Know that the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted a revised and updated strategic plan for biodiversity including the Aichi biodiversity targets for the 2011-2020 period. If you see it has five goals and 20 targets and it focuses on conserving the genetic diversity of plants then the genetic diversity of farm livestock and also the wild relatives that is the wild varieties of the plants and the livestock. These targets emphasize that countries develop strategies and action plans to stop the biodiversity loss and also to reduce direct pressure on biodiversity. So this way we can sustain the agro biodiversity across the world. So far we have seen about the initiative by the Ministry of Human Resources Development of the Government of India, then about GIAHS and then about the UN Sustainable Development Goal number two and finally about Aichi biodiversity target. Now comes the recommendations by the Center for Biodiversity Policy and Law that is SEPOL which we saw during the starting of this editorial. Now they have given some list of recommendations. Let us see them one by one. Now the main aim of these recommendations that have been given by SEPOL are to increase India's agro biodiversity in the year 2019. These include a comprehensive policy on ecological agriculture. This is basically to enhance the native pest and pollinator population which are providing ecosystem services for the agricultural landscape because these pests and pollinators will diverse the agriculture or we can tell it will contribute to agro biodiversity. See as a part of these recommendations SEPOL suggested for the promotion of bio village concept of MS Swami Nadhan Research Foundation. Now in this context let us see in brief about this bio village concept. So what is this bio village concept? This was initiated in the year 1991. At that time it covered 19 villages in the Union Territory of Puducherry. This bio village concept focused on improving the living conditions of people by offering multiple livelihood opportunities, then improvement in sanitation, then development of inland aquaculture and also on integrated pest management. So by promoting these concepts it will help for enhancing the ecologically sensitive farming for conserving the wild relatives of the seedle crops, then the millet crops, soil seed crops, fibers, forages, fruits and nuts, vegetables, spices, etc. So all these are important for crop genetic diversity and also for having a healthier food. So one is the bio village concept. Now coming to the recommendation. One recommendation was to suggest providing incentives to the farmers who are cultivating native land-raised varieties and also incentives for those farmers who are conserving indigenous breeds of livestock and poultry varieties. The next recommendation includes encouraging community seed banks in each agro-climatic zone. This is nothing but a place where the seeds will be collected and stored. This is basically for saving the regional biotic properties of a particular plant variety that grows in that particular agro-climatic zone. So once they are saved they can be used by the new generation of farmers for growing the traditional crops. So this will definitely have a push in attaining agrobiodiversity. The next recommendation is that an agrobiodiversity index needs to be prepared. Also the traditional practices needs to be documented through people's biodiversity registers and it also recommended for identifying biodiversity heritage sites under the provisions of the Biological Diversity Act of 2002. The next recommendation is strengthening biodiversity management committees. So what are these biodiversity management committees? They are those committees which are formed as per Section 41 of Biological Diversity Act of 2002. These committees basically focus on conserving agrobiodiversity and traditional knowledge. So the recommendation calls for strengthening the biodiversity management committees. Then the recommendation also suggested to develop a national level invasive alien species policy. Now what are these invasive alien species? They are nothing but those species which outgrow the traditional crops or plants of that particular area. One good example is this Prosopsis Julia Fora which is called as Karvelam Aram in Tamil. These invasive alien species also damage the agrobiodiversity of a particular area. So the recommendations have suggested to develop a national level invasive alien species policies so that pathways can be easily identified then mapping can be done and these invasive alien species can be monitored, managed, controlled and be eradicated in the long run. So these are some of the recommendations given by CEPPOL to sustain and maintain agrobiodiversity with genetic variety. Now all these measures along with the expansion of consumption pattern and achieving culinary diversity need to be carried out. Expansion of consumption pattern is nothing but we should restrict the eating of rice and wheat and maize on daily basis and try to diversify our food that we eat like intake of more fruits and vegetables and those millets and grains that are not easily available so that we get right amount of macronutrient as well as micronutrient. So if we have agrobiodiversity in India, it will help India to increase its food basket with varieties of food and also at the same time with high nutritional content. In this way we can eradicate hunger and malnutrition in India. So as a conclusion the authors are suggesting a way to conserve indigenous crop, livestock and poultry breeds. They recommend to mainstream biodiversity into the agricultural policies, into the agricultural schemes, into the agricultural programs and also into various projects of agriculture so that in addition to the above measures we will be able to achieve food and nutrition security and we can also minimize genetic erosion by these methods. So to summarize this editorial we have seen certain indicators of malnutrition and hunger with the help of reports like Global Hunger Index and the Global Nutrition Report. Then we saw in brief about what is meant by agrobiodiversity then about certain measures taken by India like the nutrition garden then about certain measures taken at the world level to promote agrobiodiversity like the GIAHS and finally about the recommendations of the Center for Biodiversity Policy and Law that is SEPPOL. Now this editorial is of high importance because in the recent years we can see an increasing trend in the number of questions from prelims and also mains in the area of agriculture. So this topic is of high relevance though this particular editorial is lengthy whatever subtopics that we have covered as a part of this editorial is highly relevant from exam point of view. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article mentions that the finance ministers of non-BJP ruled states have planned to take a legal recourse on GST compensation delay. In this context we will see the important aspects of the news article then what is about this present issue and why the state of Kerala and the other states are weighing options to take a legal route to get the compensation from the central government on timely basis and also we will see what are those actual provisions which are in the GST act with respect to the compensation to the states. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. See the central government has delayed the bimonthly GST compensation which it has to give to the states because of this the state of Kerala has been heavily affected. There is a loss of revenue to about 1600 crores which is mentioned in the news article. Hence the decision by Kerala to collectively move to the court to take in order to get the compensation from the center assumes significance. See the other non-BJP ruled states like Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal and also Delhi are planning to take a legal route to get the compensation as per the legal provisions of the GST act. So let us now see what are those actual provisions of the GST act. Know that the new indirect taxation system was introduced in 1st of July 2017 which is nothing but the Coots and Services Tax Act. See before this GST act came into enforcement some of the states expressed concerns over loss of revenue on the account of the new taxation system. Therefore to deal with the expected loss of revenues to the states some provisions were included in the GST compensation to states act of 2017. Now as per section 7 of this GST compensation to states act of 2017 the loss of revenue to the states on account of implementation of GST shall be payable during transition period that is for a period of 5 years or for such period which may be prescribed on the recommendations of the GST council. So this is the section 7 of this GST compensation to states act 2017. So the compensation that is to be payable to a state will be provisionally calculated and it will be released at the end of every 2 months during the transition period. Now we will see how this compensation is calculated. As per this act the total compensation that is payable in any financial year shall be the difference between the projected revenue for any financial year and the actual revenue collected by a state. So if you see every year the government will project some revenue say for example this year we will collect 1000 crores but if you see the actual revenue would be only 600 crores for that particular financial year. So 400 crores has to be paid as compensation in this case. So this is the compensation amount. Now as per section 4 of this act financial year 2015-16 has been taken as the base year for calculating the compensation amount that is payable to the states for the loss of revenue during the transition period and the projected nominal growth rate of revenue during this transition period has been calculated to be at 14 percentage per annum that is every year. In addition to this the loss of revenue to the states is met by collecting CES this CES is called as the compensation CES. See this compensation CES is a CES that will be collected on the select goods and also sometimes on select services till 1st July 2022 and the amount collected from this CES will compensate the states for any revenue loss on account of implementation of GST. So a compensation fund was created and those collections by imposing this compensation CES are deposited in this fund. From this fund only the union government compensates the states on bimonthly basis as per the provisions in the act. Now today's news article mentions that the bimonthly compensation for the months of August September 2019 is delayed by the central government and as a result of this some of the states are facing serious challenges of revenue short faults in order to meet their expenditure. Now if you see the union government tells that it is delaying mainly on the grounds of shortfall in the collection of the compensation CES but the reality is because of the slowdown that is the economic slowdown. If you see the state of Kerala had been consistently seeking timely release of GST compensation since the introduction of this GST and also if you see the state of Kerala is demanding to raise the states fiscal deficit limits from the present 3 percentage to at least 3.5 percentage or to ideally at 4 percentage of the state domestic product. Like how we have GDP for the entire country for states it is the state domestic product or SDP. Then if you see Kerala is also demanding to keep the externally aided projects outside the fiscal deficit limits. So here the fiscal deficit is nothing but expenditure is more than the revenue. Now why expenditure is more in the state of Kerala is because Kerala has been affected by floods for the 2 successive years that is this year and also the previous year and it is also affected by the overall economics slowdown. So one side it has spent a lot on flood rehabilitation and the other side there is also economics slowdown. So Kerala is really in want of money and now since this 1600 crore is delayed by the central government Kerala has decided to move to the court to get this money. So this is all about this news article. In this news article we have seen some of the provisions of the GST compensation to states act 2017 and about the compensation says and why Kerala is in dire need of getting this money from the central government. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. Next let us see an editorial which is about the recently released United Nations emissions cap report. This editorial speaks in brief about the outcomes of the report and then about the steps taken by some of the countries like United Kingdom then European Union and it also speaks about what India must do to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and in order to bring down the rising global temperature. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this editorial is given here for your reference. See during our 27th November session we told that we will be getting more news articles and editorials about the upcoming conference of parties 25 which is to be held in Madrid Spain. So you are likely to get more news articles and editorials related to climate change global warming about the initiatives taken by some of the governments about some of the coalitions that have been formed by some of the groupings and so on. So this is the right time to revise the environment syllabus especially the syllabus related to global warming and climate change. Now let us see about this emissions cap report in brief and then we will move on to the editorial. Know that this emissions cap report is being released by the United Nations Environment Program. This report represents the difference between the current actions to reduce the greenhouse gases and what is needed to meet the target which is set under Paris Climate Agreement. See many of the targets are under this Paris Climate Agreement which was signed in the year 2015 has to be achieved by the year 2030. If this particular emissions cap report outcomes are neglected by the countries and if they do not come together in the upcoming conference of parties which is to be held at Madrid Spain then that cop also will be over without any productive outcome. So the author is telling that every year of inaction that is if countries do not take necessary actions and if they fail to do so every year then it would jeopardize that is it would affect the main goal of the Paris Agreement which is to keep the rise in global temperature over pre-industrial times below 2 degree Celsius and ideally at 1.5 degree Celsius. So this is the important goal of the Paris Climate Agreement. Now this emissions cap report estimates that there would have to be a 2.7 percentage average annual cut in emissions from 2020 to 2030 that is in the next one decade if the temperature rise has to be contained at 2 degree Celsius whereas if we are going to target for the ambitious 1.5 degree Celsius then we need to have an average annual cut in emissions of around 7.6 percentage which is quite ambitious. So this is what the report estimator and this is all you need to know about in brief about the report to know more about the report refer to our 27th November analysis. Now moving on to the editorial the author is telling that the countries with large emissions such as the countries of United States, China, the European Union and also India should all put efforts to bring down the emissions. So if all these biggest contributors to emissions are not taking corrective measures then it would make the entire work futile that is pointless that is there will not be any results towards the efforts that have been made. Next the author is telling that the warnings on climate change and its impacts on hundreds of millions of people have failed to impress most politicians one example which the author has quoted is the United States. Here you need to note that under the administration of the President Donald Trump has already started to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. Here you have to know that USA is the world's biggest carbon emitter so the author is telling that such an irresponsible move from a country like US will have the potential to affect the efforts that have been put by other countries. So let's hope that some considerable pressure is put by the environmentalists in United States and across the world which may force the government in the future to reverse its stand on climate change. Next the author has discussed about certain positive developments that have happened across some of the countries of the world one country which the author has mentioned is the United Kingdom. He tells that the Parliament of United Kingdom has adopted a resolution in 2018. This resolution targets net zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050. So this has made the country of United Kingdom the first G7 country to set such a goal. Here you have to note that G7 is the group of world's most industrialized nations and also if you see recently the European Union Parliament has approved a resolution declaring a climate and environmental emergency in Europe and also globally. So the resolution has set a target that the European Union should cut emissions by 55 percentage by the year 2030 in order to become climate neutral that is to achieve net zero emissions by the year 2050. But here you need to note one thing both United Kingdom and the European Union are relatively rich and they have less population when compared to other countries. So their road to lower emissions will be focused on technological innovations and higher efficiencies in energy use. But if you see countries like India and China which are also one of the world's largest emitters of carbon they have to manage their emissions along with their developmental needs. In this context the author discusses what are the options that are available before India. So what can India do to reduce its emissions. First the author tells that India must scale up its investments that is it should increase its investments in renewable energy. Next he tells that India should go for more efficient and cleaner technologies in building and also transport. And next the author tells that India should focus on greater carbon sequestration that is the process of removing the carbon dioxide from atmosphere. This is nothing but the carbon capture and sequestration technology which is a process of capturing the waste carbon dioxide from large point sources like the fossil fuel stations. For example you can tell the thermal power plants. So if the waste carbon dioxide is captured it will not enter the atmosphere therefore the pollution will be reduced to a larger extent. So the author is telling that India should focus more on carbon sequestration. So overall the author is telling that India should provide consistent support for the renewable energy sector and India should also have a long term plan to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels such as coal based power plants. The next measure which the author has discussed is about the adoption of green industrialization strategy in order to make India a green economy. This is nothing but sustainable development that is development without degrading the environment. Next measure which the author mentions about what India can do is to expand quality mass transport system. See many times we see news that one bus can take off approximately 40 to 50 cars of Thiru because a bus can approximately fill 40 to 50 passengers. So mass transport systems like buses or trains will help in reducing the pollution. So if this mass transport system which is the public transport services if they are provided with improved quality and if the government makes sure that last mail connectivity is given then more and more people are likely to turn towards public transport systems and this would significantly reduce the vehicular emissions. So the author is telling that India should try to expand its mass transport systems. So these are some of the measures that have been mentioned by the author which India can start doing. The author finally concludes this editorial by telling that if India makes use of green technologies then India would be able to create new jobs and also become a climate leader in the future. So this is all about this editorial. Now apart from this editorial we have tried to give two or three initiatives which India has taken forward in terms of renewables. Now let us see them in brief. See under this Paris climate agreement which was signed in the year 2015 we have the nationally determined contributions. If you remember in our 27th November session also we discussed about that in brief. Now one of the pledge made by India as a part of this nationally determined contribution is that by the year 2030 40% of installed power generation capacity shall be from clean sources and based on this India set a target to install 175 gigawatt of renewable energy capacity by the year 2022. You would have frequently seen this target in news also. If you see this 175 gigawatt consists of 100 gigawatt from solar power, 60 gigawatt from wind, 10 gigawatt from biopower and 5 gigawatt from small hydro power. And if you see as of 31st October 2019 you can see that out of the 175 gigawatt of installed power generation capacity which is the target near to 83.4 gigawatt of power generation capacity has already been installed that is as on 31st of October. So you can see that we have only three more years to go and we have just achieved only half of this target. India still needs to do more to augment its renewable energy sources. The next initiative which India has taken is the introduction of energy conservation building code rules 2018. See this aims to increase the efficiency of energy use in the building sector. As we know that the building sector in India consumes around 30% of the total electricity that is consumed overall in India. And also if you see this building sector that is the infrastructure sector is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases after the industrial sector. So if there is a strict enforcement of the code in the building sector then this will help to achieve energy efficiency and therefore the emissions can be reduced to a greater extent. So though India has brought the rules it still needs to be properly implemented. So this is one initiative which has been taken by India. The next initiative is the formation of the international solar alliance. See this alliance was formed in the year 2015. The primary objective of this alliance is to work for efficient exploitation of solar energy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. The highlight is that this has been initiated by India and the headquarters of this alliance is located at Gurugram India. So this is yet another initiative of India. One more recent current affairs is that India has launched the coalition for disaster resilient infrastructure. This was launched by a prime minister in the month of September 2019 at United Nations Secretary General's Climate Action Summit which was held at New York US. And this coalition has been formed in line with the sustainable development goal target 9.1 which commits to developing sustainable and resilient infrastructure. We just saw if the infrastructure is sustainable then it would contribute towards reducing the emissions. So these are some of the measures or initiatives that have been taken by India in terms of cleaner energy and also in terms of reducing the emissions. So to summarize this editorial we have seen about the emissions cap report in brief and about the initiatives taken by some of the developed countries like United Kingdom, European Union and then about what India needs to do in terms of reducing the emissions and finally we have also seen some of the measures that have been taken by India in terms of renewable energy and also in terms of reducing the emissions. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is related to the change in the funding in Indian NATO that is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Now why this news article is relevant because if you see earlier this year in the month of July the US Senate has passed the National Defense Authorization Act in short NDA for the fiscal year 2020. So by passing this act US has brought India at par with its NATO allies and countries like Israel, South Korea etc for increasing the defense cooperation. So this act is on defense cooperation. In this context it is important for us to know in brief about NATO. So today we shall be seeing in brief about this North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given you for your reference. See the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created in the year 1949 by the United States, Canada and several Western European nations. Now you need to know the broad objectives of this particular organization or we can tell it as an alliance. One is to deter the expansionism of Soviet Union that is to stop the then USSR that is the Soviet Union from expanding its territories. In one way you can tell that it was about countering the spread of communism because communism is a core idea of Soviet Union. The next objective was to stop or forbid the revival of nationalist militarism. It is a belief that a strong military is essential in this concept of militarism. It means increased influence of military in the administration activities. So the second objective was to stop the revival of nationalist militarism in Europe through a strong North American presence on the continent. And the third main objective why this alliance was formed was to encourage European political integration because if you see around the years 1949 it was a period when the Second World War was over and still political integration was required in Europe. So these are the three broad objectives why this particular alliance the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed. So most of the Europe was completely devastated that is affected politically and also economically by the end of World War II. At this time the ideology of communism which was supported by the then Soviet Union which is at present Russia plus other countries started to take root in European continent. And if you see it often threatened the democratic principles and institutions across Europe. So in order to rebuild the war devastated Europe and to counter the spread of Soviet influence that then US Secretary of State Mr. George Marshall proposed the European recovery program. If you see this European recovery program is called as the Marshall Plan and this plan was proposed in the year 1948. This Marshall Plan not only facilitated European economic integration but it also promoted the idea of shared interests and cooperation between the United States and European continent as a whole. This plan acted as a catalyst in the formation of NATO in the year 1949. So whenever you are studying about NATO remember Marshall Plan simultaneously. By signing the NATO Treaty which is popularly known as the Washington Treaty this NATO came into existence in April 1949. This treaty commits its member countries to protect each other and it also ensures that the member nations stand together as one. And if you see at present NATO as 29 member countries. Here you have to note that collective defence is the most important principle of NATO. Article 5 of the Washington Treaty says that an attack against one ally is considered as an attack against all the allies. So when one allies attack the member countries would stand together and counter the adversary that is the enemy. And if you see NATO invoked Article 5 of this Washington Treaty for the first time in its history after the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States by Al Qaeda. Here you have to know that collective defence means all the countries which are members to this NATO collectively work towards defending themselves. So we can tell that it also requires some money which is collective spending. If you see NATO member countries make direct and indirect contributions to the costs of running NATO and also for implementing its policies and activities such as volunteering equipment or troops to a military operation then providing voluntary funding etc. So today's news article is related to the issues with this funding. Now let us see the news article. Recently the US administration run by President Donald Trump had criticized the funding mechanism of NATO. If you see the United States President had said that while US is paying a huge amount as direct funding to run NATO the European members are not contributing enough. According to this news article the United States currently pays 22.1 percentage of the entire NATO budget and as per this news article the new agreement has been arrived at. Now the United States will cut its contribution to around 16.3 percentage of the total budget and Germany's contribution will rise from around 14.8 to 16.35 percentage and also the other allies will be paying more. So this is seen as a move please or appease the United States President that is to make him happy. Why because since he became US President Trump had been attacking the NATO allies that they are not spending much towards NATO. And another issue which was raised by the US President was regarding the amount spent by the individual members on defence. If you see in the year 2014 NATO leaders agreed to a guideline of spending no less than 2 percentage of the national GDP on defence of which at least 20 percentage should go on major equipment including research and development. But if you see most of the members including Germany and Canada are not doing so. It means they are not spending as per the targets agreed in the guidelines. So we can hope that this issue might also be resolved in the near future. So in this news article we have seen why NATO is relevant from Indian perspective. They need to know about NATO then we saw in brief about NATO and finally about the news article. Now if you see there are two perceptions regarding the relevance of NATO at present. One perception is of those who are against NATO because when this NATO was formed the main objective was to counter the communism of Soviet Union. But if you see the Soviet Union is integrated in 1990s and the objective is more or less achieved and also the continent of Europe has been politically integrated. We have the European Union now and those who oppose NATO are telling that NATO is no more relevant and the next perception is of those who support NATO. They are telling that though the main objectives are achieved a third world war should not happen anytime in the future. So in order to be prepared for that they insist that NATO is still relevant. So these are the two perceptions about the relevance of NATO in the present scenario. So just have a brief idea about the relevance of NATO in the present global scenario. With this we come to the end of this news article discussion. Now have a look at the practice question. Now look at this question. The question is consider the following statements with reference to GST compensation fund. They have given three statements and you have to choose the correct statements. Look at the first statement. It tells that it is a statutory fund established as per the provisions of GST compensation to States Act 2017. Yes this statement is correct. Now look at the second statement. It tells that the loss of revenue to the states on account of implementation of goods and services tax shall be payable during the transition period that is for a period of five years since 1st July 2017 or for such period as may be prescribed on the recommendations of the GST council. Now this statement itself is self-explanatory in order to overcome the loss of revenue to the states as per this act certain provisions were introduced. So the centre is liable to pay GST during the transition period that is for a period of five years to the state governments. So this statement is also correct. Now look at the third statement. This statement is about the base year. It tells that the financial year 2017-18 has been taken as a base year for calculating compensation amount payable to states for the loss of revenue during the transition period with the projected nominal growth rate of revenue during the transition period which is 14% per annum. So one is regarding the base year and the other is the projected nominal growth rate. Here the value for this projected nominal growth rate is correct but the base year which has been given here is wrong. The base year is 2015-16 it is not 2017-18. So the third statement goes wrong here. This question asks you to choose the correct statements. So the correct answer to this question is option B1 and 2 since the third statement is wrong. Now look at this question. The question is considered the following statements regarding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization NATO. They are given two statements and you have to choose the correct statements. Now look at the first statement. It tells that one of the objectives of NATO is to forbid the revival of nationalist militarism in Europe through a strong North American presence on the continent. Now you need to know that the NATO or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created in 1949 by countries such as United States, Canada and several Western European nations. There were three broad objectives of this particular organization. One is to deter the Soviet expansionism that is to stop the growth of Soviet Union. The second is to forbid the revival of nationalist militarism in Europe by having a strong North American presence on the European continent and the third objective was to encourage European political integration. So out of the three objectives we saw, we have the objective to forbid the revival of nationalist militarism in Europe through a strong North American presence on the continent. So this statement is correct. Now look at the second statement. It tells that only countries bordering North Atlantic Ocean are the members of NATO. Now don't get carried over by this statement since it tells that only those countries bordering North Atlantic Ocean are members of NATO. In fact it is wrong because we have countries from the eastern part of Europe like Romania and Hungary which are also member nations of NATO. So this statement goes wrong. Now this question is asked you to choose the correct statements. The correct answer is option A, one only since the second statement is wrong. Know that at present there are 29 member countries in NATO. It is not possible to remember all the 29 countries but even some Eastern European nations are members of NATO. Now have a look at this main question. This question is based on the recent emissions gap report. The question tells that the recent emissions gap report released by the United Nations Environment Programme had said that to get in line with the Paris Agreement emissions must drop 7.6 percent per year from 2020 to 2030 for the 1.5 degree Celsius goal and 2.7 percentage per year for the 2 degree Celsius goal. In light of the above statement discuss the important measures taken by the Government of India to achieve this target. Also suggest suitable measures to achieve the target by 2030. Now you can split this question into three. First is the quotation which the report released by UNEP has said. So you have to explain in brief about the Paris Agreement then about what is this 1.5 degree Celsius goal and 2 degree Celsius goal and about the significance of this statement which is mentioned in the report released by UNEP. So you have to give a brief intro not exceeding 30 to 40 words. In the second part of the question you have to discuss the important measures taken by the Government of India. Now during our news analysis we saw some measures. We also encouraged the viewers to include certain other measures which has been taken by the Government of India in the recent past apart from the discussion that we had. And also give your own suggestions to address the third part of the question which is suggest suitable measures to achieve the target by 2030. So try to diversify the answer which you are giving. For the second and third part of this question that is discuss the important measures and suggest suitable measures try to address each part in 80 to 100 words and try to conclude the answer in another 40 to 50 words so that you meet the word requirements for this question and also you address all the aspects of this question. Please post your answers in the comment section. Our team shall review the answers and give appropriate feedback in the next 5 to 7 working days. 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. If you like the video do like comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IA's Academy YouTube channel for latest videos and updates. Stay focused and motivated friends. Thank you.