 Good evening as friends, welcome to the Hindu News Analysis session by Shankara Ace Academy for the date 23rd December 2021. These are the list of news articles we will be discussing today. Without wasting much time, let us start today's discussion. Today as a part of the main answer writing session, I will be discussing a question from 2020 GS paper 4, that is 2020 ethics paper. I will try and discuss the question in detail. Another important thing is that I started this main answer writing discussion session to give you an idea about how to frame your answer and make you all start practicing main answer writing. See, you can read all you want, but if you don't practice answer writing, clearing mains will be a difficult task. So, if you have not started the practice of answer rating, start today. For those people who have been regularly writing, keep it up. I have seen a lot of improvement in your answers, so as I always say, keep writing. Now, let us start our discussion. Let us take up this question. Let me deal with the question first. The will to power exists, but it can be tamed and be guided by rationality and principles of moral duty. Examine this statement in the context of international relations. Here the key word or the directive word is examine. Examine normally means having a clear understanding about the topic given and you have to dig deeper and establish facts about the topic given. Since the question has examined this statement, you have to have a good understanding about the statement. Then you have to focus on the applicability of the statement in the context of international relation. And you have to give facts or establish facts regarding this. I hope everyone is clear with the keyword and how we are going to approach the question. Now, let us start by understanding the statement. The will to power exists, but it can be tamed and be guided by rationality and principles of moral duty. So, before understanding the statement, let us start by understanding the basics. See, there are two main schools of thought or two ethical theories in relation to international relations. I will give you a brief about each schools. I will not go very detailed into it because if I do that, this session will turn into a full blown ethics class. So, I will restrict myself. See, the two ethical theories concerning international relations are realism and liberalism. First, let us take realism. The three main proponents of this school include two-sided is Machiavelli and Hans Morgenthau. See, according to this school, like humans, nations are also motivated mainly by animus dominandi or will to power or desire to accumulate power. I am specifically including the word animus dominandi here. You have to use words like this in your answers. Using words like this will show the evaluator that you are strong in your basics and it will help you fetch more marks. No coming back. Like I said, the proponents of realist school believed that nations are motivated by animus dominandi or desire for power. According to Machiavelli, morality and politics are separate things. There is no reason for morality in domestic or international politics. Machiavelli claims that all means either moral or immoral are justified to achieve certain political ends. One of the famous statements of Machiavelli is, the state has no higher duty of maintaining itself. Say for example, on 16th December, Soumya ma'am discussed about the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War rate in that she might have mentioned about Operation Searchlight in which Pakistani military was brought into Bangladesh to curb Bengali nationalism. According to Machiavelli, this action of Pakistan is justified. He would argue that Pakistan took this measure just to maintain itself. So, what Pakistan did is justified according to realist school of thought. Another important proponent of this school is Hans Morgenthau. He was the first to develop realism into a comprehensive international relations theory. Unlike Machiavelli, who separated ethics completely from politics, Hans Morgenthau said there are some space for ethics in politics. Both ethics but ethics should never dominate politics and the quest for power. He claimed that universal moral or ethical principles should not be applied in international or domestic politics without any restraints. Ethics should be applied only according to circumstances and timing. One of the famous statements of Hans Morgenthau is, A man who was nothing but political man would be a beast, for he would be completely lacking in moral restraints. A man who was nothing but a moral man would be a fool, for he would be completely lacking in prudence. So, ethics and politics should act together, but upper hand should be given to politics. For example, take Operation Polo. Operation Polo is the name given to the police action used by India to annex the state of Hyderabad. According to Sundarlal Committee report published in 2013, an estimated 20,000 people lost their lives due to India's annexation of Hyderabad and the resultant communal riots. Is India's action justified then? According to Hans Morgenthau, India's action in the annexation of Hyderabad should not be even put under the lens of ethics. He would argue that India's action is justified by claiming that this annexation prevented future bloodshed. Now, I hope we have a little understanding about the principle of realism in international relations. Now, what are some criticism against it? See, if every nation applies the principle of realism and focus only on power maximization, the world would become a total chaos. There would be constant war. Every nation would lose trust in every other nation. In a sense, the world would be seen as a zero sum game where one nation's benefit is always another nation's loss. See, these are some of the criticism against this school of thought. Now, moving on to liberalism. The main proponents of this school include Erasmus, Hugo Grotes and Immanuel Kant. The school believes that conflict is not the goal in international relations. So, at any cost, conflict should be avoided. The proponents of liberalism claim that by the rational application of universal principles, a harmonious social order can be established. They accept that, like humans, nations are also motivated by animus dominandi. But they also claim that this quest for power can be controlled. It is the liberal school of thought that propounded the statement the will to power exist. But it can be guided by rationality and the principle of moral duty. See, this statement says that although every nation is motivated to desire to dominate or desire for power, it can be controlled. How can this be controlled? It can be controlled by rationality and morality. See, this school focuses less on power politics and more on mutual cooperation. This school focuses on three factors to reduce conflict and improve cooperation. The first one is international organizations like United Nations and World Trade Organization, or WTO, that provides a forum to resolve disputes in a nonviolent way. The second factor is international trade. See, nations that have trade links with one another are less likely to go to war. The third factor is spread of democracies. See, well established democracies do not normally go to war. Thus, by spreading democracy all over the world, conflict can be brought down. See, these are the three factors that can be used to reduce conflict according to liberalism school of thought. Immanuel Kant put forth the idea that democracies do not fight wars because leaders were too worried about re-election. He believed that war was naturally unpopular among citizens. So Kant thought that leaders of democracies would avoid war at any cost. See, this is not always true because there are many instances in world history where democracies have gone to war against one another. So, Joseph Nye proposed that democracies do not fight wars with other democracies because of capitalistic ties or commercial ties. Democracies are economically dependent and therefore are more likely to resolve issues diplomatically. So, democracies are not democracies. Commercial ties between countries will prevent conflicts from escalating into war. Take India and China for example. India and China mutual trade hovers around 80 billion dollars every year. So, whatever border issues we have with China even if sometime it can escalate into conflict both countries would not allow it to grow into a full blown war to protect the commercial ties between the countries. Now, we have had a basic understanding and some differences between realism and liberalism in international relations. So, coming back to the question. What to write in the introduction part? In the introduction, you can explain the statement in simple words. Since this is a 10 more question, a 2 or 3 line explanation would be enough. If you want to make your answer unique, you can explain the statement using the liberal school of thought like we discussed. Now, coming to the body of the answer. See, in our discussion we saw that this statement which had its origin in liberalism principle focus on mutual cooperation. The statement says that desire for power can be tamed by rationality and morality. That is, the quest for domination can be curbed using international institution, commercial ties and spread of democracy. Since this question has the directive word examined in it, you have to give 3 or 4 examples from recent events highlighting the applicability of this statement in international relations. See, here you can mention about Germany using its Nord 2 pipeline as a leverage against Russia. Germany said Nord 2 pipeline would be cancelled if Russia invades Ukraine. Here, commercial ties is acting as a restraint against war. You can also mention about India and China relations like I discussed here. How, due to commercial ties between the two countries, various conflicts like the recent one in Galwan valley has not risen to a full blown war. This is mainly because of the commercial ties between India and China. You can also mention COP 26. You can use this to highlight the role of international institutions like UNFCCC in restricting the developed country from exploiting developing and lesser developed countries. You can talk about climate justice and the role of UNFCCC in upholding it. You can also mention about the role of WTO helping in providing a forum to settle disputes in an amicable manner. You can talk about this in the background of the recent trade war between China and the United States. You can also mention about the International Atomic Energy Agency and its role in preventing the use of nuclear energy for military purposes. You can also use other examples. The more recent the example, the more attractive your answer will be. For a 10 mark question, 3 or 4 good examples is enough. The important thing is that your example must have a component of international institution, commercial link or democracy acting as a check on nations quest to power power. So, if you have interesting examples, post them in the comment section for the benefit of everyone. Now coming to the conclusion. Here you can try and balance your answer. You can mention about the failure of WTO in containing the COVID spread. You can also say that realism and liberalism must be balanced. They must be applied in a case-to-case basis in international relation for the good of the nation. This will be a balanced conclusion. See, this is one way of approaching the question. You can also approach the answer by writing about the role of the principle of liberalism and its proponents in approaching international relation. In this method, you can compare and contrast realism and liberalism and its applicability in real world. Instead of giving examples like we did, you can focus on the static part. You can write about various thinkers from liberalism school of thought and how they said this principle would be applied in international relation. The choice is yours. Now I think I have discussed all the aspects of this question. With this, let us conclude the main answer discussion session. Now let us take up the first article for our discussion. Look at this news article. This is in reference with Sebi's decision to suspend trading in key form commodities. The decision is taken to curb raising inflation. So in this context, we will learn about derivatives, futures trading, hedging and shorting of assets. We will also learn about inflation level in India, reason for it and also the steps taken by government to control inflation. Please note that Sebi is a regulator of the capital market. The syllabus relevant for this discussion is highlighted here for your reference. You can go through it. Now let us start this discussion. First, let us see about the terms mentioned in the article. The article mentions about derivatives. So what are derivatives? See derivative is a contract between two parties. The derivative derives its value or the price from an underlying asset. It can be any asset. The underlying asset can be stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, etc. The two most common type of derivatives are futures and options. Now what is a future derivative? See futures are also a financial contract to be specific. They are derivative financial contracts. See futures contract obligate the parties to transact an asset at a predetermined future date and price. The buyer must purchase or the seller must be selling the underlying asset at a set value. On the other hand, options offer the contract holder the right but not the obligation to buy or sell the underlying asset at a specific price. That is, he may or may not necessarily stick to the contract. Futures contract are mainly used to hedge the price movement of the underlying asset. It helps to prevent losses from unfavorable price changes. Now what is hedging? Hedging is a risk management strategy. It is mainly used to offset or prevent losses in investment. The best way to understand hedging is to think of it as a form of insurance. When people decide to hedge, they are insuring themselves against negative events impact on their finances. This doesn't prevent all negative events from happening. However, if a negative event does happen and you are properly hedged, the impact of the event can be reduced. So hedging acts as a bumper or a buffer. Then you should know about what is short selling of assets. See short selling occurs when an investor borrows a security and sells it on the open market. And he is planning to buy it back later for less money. Short sellers bet on a drop in a securities price. This can be contrasted with long investors who want the prices to go up. To simplify things, short selling is done to make profits when the prices are falling. When a price of a stock is falling, you can short sell it to make money. Now we have an understanding about inflation in the article. So let's come back to the article. Why are inflation levels raising in India? See inflation is nothing but a rate of increase in prices over a given period of time. Inflation in India raised to 4.5% age in October 2021. Here when I say inflation, I am mainly talking about consumer price index or CPA. See the RBI has projected consumer price index inflation at 5.3% for the 2022 financial year. A big reason for high inflation in India was the high inflation in food prices, mainly edible oils. So it becomes important to control food prices. So how will SEBI's decision to suspend trading in key farm commodities help in controlling inflation? See the increase in domestic prices of agricultural commodities is basically a reflection of international prices. Because India meets 56% of its domestic demand through imports. In the international market, the price of edible oil has jumped shortly in recent months. Note that India is the world's largest importer of vegetable oil. Vegetable oil is one of the actively traded commodity on the exchange. The speculators play a role in increasing the volatility in prices causing inflation. So by suspend trading speculation can be controlled. With the control of speculation, the volatility of the price associated with edible oil will also come down. So inflation can be controlled. What is government and the RBI doing to control the price rise? See the government and the RBI are undertaking multiple interventions to control inflation. Recently the prices of edible oil hit a near record high. So the union government substantially reduced taxes on imports of palm, soy and sunflower oil. It is done to reduce the price of edible oil. But the move had limited impacts on combating inflation. The union and the state government has also reduced excess duty and wagged on petrol and diesel. It was mainly aimed to bring down inflation by curbing fuel and transportation cost. See presently central government levies an excess duty of Rs 32.9 per liter on petrol while VAT is levied by the state government. VAT varies from state to state. A reduction in excess duty and VAT could lead to a increase in disposable income in the hands of the common man. This will also help bring down the transportation cost thus bringing down the overall inflation. These are the steps taken by the government. See in this segment we discussed about the basic terms like derivatives, futures, option, hedging and short selling. We also saw the current increase in inflation in India and the steps taken by government and SEBI to control oil prices. With this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this editorial article. This editorial article is written in the backdrop of recent arrest of fisherman by Sri Lanka. We know that this is a persisting issue which is a result of unresolved fisheries conflict in the Park Strait between India and Sri Lanka. So today let us see the issue and the remedy to this problem as suggested by the author of this editorial. The syllabus regarding this discussion is highlighted here for your reference. Now first of all the bone of contention for the fisherman issue is the Park Strait and the island in it called Kachatibu. As you know Park Strait along with Gulf of Minnar forms a narrow channel of sea which separated Sri Lanka from India. And the Kachatibu is a tiny rocky island in the Park Strait which is about 12 km from the Indian coast and about 18 km from the nearest Sri Lankan island. Now the Strait is rich in marine resources. So the Park Bay area is a preferred location for fishing by fisherman from both the countries for centuries. Therefore historically Kachatibu is used by fisherman from both the countries okay. Particularly Indian fishermen the island is a part of their traditional fishing grounds. We have discussed the issue regarding this in detail on our October 26th Hindu News Analysis. See on the 26th October Hindu News Analysis we saw that after signing agreements to demarcate the marine boundary and regarding fishing rides the fisherman of both the countries continued fishing in the Park Bay peacefully. But everything changed after 1983. During this period civil war broke out in Sri Lanka. So fishing in the area was banned. See after this ban due to their habit of fishing there Indian fishermen still entered the waters for fishing. And this led to the gradual rise of attacks on Indian fishermen by Sri Lankan Navy in the vicinity of Kachatibu. These attacks killed many Indian fishermen and many were even arrested. And the one in the news is one such incident. Day before yesterday 13 Indian fishermen were detained by Sri Lanka on the charges of poaching and illegal fishing. So totally from December 18 to 20 around 68 Indian Tamil fishermen have been arrested. If you remember in October and November many Indian Tamil fishermen were also killed. But in addition to the fishing rides in the water there is another issue in this matter. This is the issue of mechanized fishing vessels with bottom trawling by Indian fishermen. This method provides sizable profits for local owners and a small income for the fishermen. But bottom trawling is an exploitative method of fishing because in this large fishing nets are dragged along the seabed. It scoops out huge quantities of prawns small fishes and everything else on the seabed at one go. So this practice affects the marine resources. Therefore bottom trawling is banned in Sri Lanka. But Indian side the bottom trawling is still in use. So this is why Sri Lanka is opposing fishing by Indian fishermen. So what about Indian Government? Did it take any measures to address this issue? Actually yes. See Government of India launched a scheme called Blue Revolution Integrated Development and Management of Fisheries. It also approved with a total central outlay of Rs 3000 crores. The scheme was implemented during a period of 5 years from 2015-16 to 2019-20. This scheme has two important sub-competence relating to the issue. The first is conversion of bottom trawlers into deep sea tuna long liners. Deep sea tuna long liners is a resource specific deep sea fishing vessel. This had 100% subsidy assistance with a ceiling of Rs 15 lakh per vessel. The second component is assistance for deep sea fishing vessel for traditional fishermen and their societies in coastal states or union territories. It had a 50% subsidy and the actual cost was with a reduction of Rs 80 lakhs. See these sub-components are applicable all over India. But then in 2017 a scheme focused on Indian Tamil Fishermen issue was launched by our Prime Minister. It was the Palk Bay scheme. The official name of the scheme is diversification of trawler fishing boats from Palk Strait into deep sea fishing boats. It was launched under the Blue Revolution program. This is a joint scheme of the central government and the Government of Indian Nadu at the cost of Rs 1600 crores. The project envisaged the conversion of 2000 trawlers in the state into deep sea fishing boats. It provides a subsidy assistance of 70% to fishermen of Palk Bay districts for the conversion. The total cost will be of 80 lakhs rupees. So the cost will be shared by the beneficiary and both the governments that is central and the state government. And the beneficiary is responsible for 30% of the cost since 70% is given a subsidy by the central and the state government. This cost born by the fishermen is what is delaying the scheme because they are even unable to pay the 30% cost. Additionally, now the government is already planning to increase the unit cost from Rs 80 lakhs to Rs 1.3 crores. So this increase will also delay the conversion of bottom trawlers into deep sea fishing vessels. The next scheme is Pradhan Mandri Matsya Sampathayodhana. See it was launched for a period of 5 years from 2020-21 to 2024-25 after the ending of Blue Revolution scheme. So this scheme also aims to bring Blue Revolution through sustainable and responsible development of fishery sectors in India. This scheme is designed to address the critical gaps in the fisheries value chain from fish production, fish productivity and quality to technology post harvest infrastructure and marketing. See one important aspect of the scheme is that the scheme has both central sector scheme component and the centrally sponsored scheme component. See one of the important component of the scheme is the development of deep sea fishing. It is a centrally sponsored scheme component. So the subsidy will be shared by both central and state governments. Now it has a sub component support for acquisition of deep sea fishing vessels for traditional fisherman. See this component has a unit cost of rupees 1.2 crores. This means around 60-40% cost will be borne by the beneficiary of the scheme. So the author has suggested changes in these schemes. First in the Palk Bay scheme government must increase their share of subsidy from the current 70% because if the unit cost becomes 1.3 crores it will be an additional burden for the fisherman. The same can be done in the case of Pradhan Mandri Matsya Sampatha Yojana. The second suggestion that the author gives is that the government should motivate the farmers to adopt other types of fish farming such as sea cage farming and ocean ranching. Both these types of fish farming are covered under Pradhan Mandri Matsya Sampatha Yojana. So now let us see what these two terms are. See sea cage culture involves growing fish in the sea but they are grown while they are being enclosed in a net cage. See this net cage allows free flow of water. So it is a production system. It comprises of floating frames of varying dimensions and shape, net materials and mooring system. These are required to hold and culture a large number of fishes. The advantage of this type of farming is that it can be undertaken in open seas, sheltered base or lagoons. Also the production per unit in case of sea cage culture is 50 times more than shore based system. Also the recurring expenditure is also very low compared to shore based farming practices. More importantly the harvesting can be done very easily and it can be done in a planned manner based on the demand in the market. Next let us see ocean or sea ranching. See ocean or sea ranching is a type of fish farming in which juvenile fishes or baby fishes are released into the ocean or sea. They are released to grow unprotected and unassisted until they are harvested. See this is different from ocean farming because here the fishes are not artificially enclosed. So here the fishes are artificially recruited into their natural habitat for stock improvement or for enhancing the production or even conservation of resources. Plus these fishes feed naturally with no input from the farmer. So its major advantage is that it permits to raise the population of fishes in the natural environment without spending much energy, feed or labour. This is the advantage of ocean or sea ranching. See these are some of the suggestions mentioned by the author in the editorial. So in this segment we discussed about the background of the India-Shilanka Sherman issue, some recent issue, steps taken by India to address the issue, some faults in the measure taken by India and finally we saw some suggestions mentioned by the author of the editorial. With this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this article. See the article here is about Forest Rights Act 2006. That is FRA 2006. It also discusses about the issues in the implementation of the act. So this is the crux of the article. In this article discussion we will cover every aspect of the article and understand them. But before that, the syllabus regarding this discussion is highlighted here. Go through it. Now let us start our discussion. First of all, you should know about FRA. I will briefly tell you the important points of the act for your better understanding. First, see it is the Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers recognition of Forest Rights Act 2006. It is a result of the long struggle by marginal and tribal communities of our country to assert their right over forest land over which they were traditionally dependent. See historically forest dwellers are deprived of forest rights. The act trade to correct this wrongdoing. The act does this by providing both individual rights to cultivated lands in forest land and community rights over common property resources. So this is about forest act. Now let us move to see the issues in the implementation of the act as mentioned in the article by the author. Note that for providing land rights, the act mandates for the constitution of a forest rights committee. It should comprise members from within the village by conducting a Gram Sabha with two-thirds of the members present at the meeting. But the issue here is that the process is not followed in many places. See what is happening in the ground level. These committees are mostly constituted by the panchayat secretaries by the directives received from the district magistrate at short notice. And the members are not selected by conducting Gram Sabha meetings. The second issue is the issue of transparency. See the nominations from the members of the Taluk level and district level committees are not done in the transparent manner. See we all know the contribution of women to the forest economy right. The forest rights acts provide for the equal rights in titles issued under the act for women. They also have the equitable role at every stage of decision making. However on the ground level it is not the case. The women are not provided legally mandated right. See in some villages in Chattisgarh the plots claimed and the documents confirming the award does not match. Besides the extent of the land that was awarded was far smaller than what was claimed within the ceiling. See the worrying factor here is the claimants do not protest fearing that whatever little they have received could be taken back by the authorities. This is also an issue here. Adding to this is the various welfare and development schemes of rural department which are not extended to the tribal peoples who received documents of land possession under the forest rights act. This is happening despite the directives issued by the ministry to treat them equally with others. The most important issue is lack of awareness among tribal people. NGOs are helping them in some areas like Gujarat but in some areas where insurgency is there like in Chattisgarh it is difficult for NGOs to help the tribal people. It is found that implementation is better in areas close to urban setting or in areas where accessibility to central and state schemes are easy. This is because the schemes such as Mandrega National Health Mission Pradhan Mandiri Avasyogina Pradhan Mandiri Gram Sadhakyogina they help in empowering the people. So till now we saw the issues in the implementation of the act. Now we shall see the difficulties faced by the tribal people as mentioned by the author. Know that many tribal areas are witnessing a decline in the quality of forest produce in their vicinity. This forces them to look for other sources of livelihood. See in Chattisgarh earnings from activities such as collection of tendu leaves for rolling local cigars are affected by the influx of cheap labourers from Bihar. Whoever market and exploitation by local traders and middlemen are one among the demoralizing thing that the tribal people faces. The recognition given to the lands under the forest right act gave the tribal people a psychological boost. However the lands that are given under FRA are small or of low quality and they are not very fertile. The lands lack irrigation facilities and this makes the forest dwellers dependent only on rainfall. See to enhance their income they migrate to workers construction or road laying labourers in the urban setting. So keeping the difficulties in mind the author mentions the measures to improve the standard of life of tribals. See NGO representatives believe that to improve the livelihood of the tribals horticultural practices should be promoted. They should be done in addition to bamboo and aloe vera plantations with an assured market. The civil society groups believe that providing skilled education with assured jobs on a large scale is important to make a difference. See a majority of tribal communities in India are poor and landless. They practice small scale farming, pastoralism and nobody hurting. On the human development index the tribal populated states always rank lower than the national average. Not long ago a tragic news article was published in this newspaper. It was about a tribal man walking 12 kilometers in Odisha carrying his dead wife on his shoulder all night. See this is the condition of tribals in our country. So to improve the conditions of tribals there needs to be a push in every possible aspects of the socio economic life of tribal people. This can be attained if schemes and programs already dafted are implemented in letter and spirit across the country. That is fine but the schemes and programs that are already present should be implemented with vigor with protective laws like panjayat extension to scheduled area sack 1996. This is only a matter of will. So with this we have come to the end of our discussion. Here we saw about forest rights act and the issues in the implementation of that and some difficulties faced by tribal people and finally we saw some way forward in regards to this issue. These are the key takeaway points from this article. So with this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next article. Now look at this article. See this was written in the backdrop of Indian Ocean Conference held this year. As the title hints this article highlights some of the challenges faced by India as a regional leader and the article also highlights how India must respond to problems in the neighborhood by emphasizing that it is the sole decider of its own and region's fate. We will discuss them in detail one by one. The syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. First we will see what happened in the Indian Ocean Conference. See the fifth Indian Ocean Conference was held on Dubai on December 4 and 5, 2021. The theme of the conference was Indian Ocean, Ecology, Economy and Epidemic. The conference was chaired by Shilankan President Gottabaya Rajapaksha and our Union Minister for External Affairs Mr. S. J. Shankar also attended the conference. While speaking in the conference our minister of external affairs identified two events that have most influenced the evolution of Indian Ocean countries. The first is the increased power projection by United States in the Indian Ocean region which is a concern for India and other countries of the region. The second thing is the race of China. See the race of China has resulted in territorial tensions. He also mentioned two recent events in the region that have raised the biggest concern. First is American withdrawal from Afghanistan and the second is the new coronavirus pandemic. These two events and their associated threats to India and its neighbors were correctly identified. But according to the author of this article it is on these issues India's leadership in the area has fallen short. See for example consider the Afghan situation after the withdrawal of United States. See it has been four months since Taliban took over Kabul. To be precise it was on August 15, 2021 Taliban took over Kabul and it has been four months since then. See after taking a historical role in Afghanistan India failed to influence the outcome in the country. So the only thing India can do know is manage the risk arising from Afghanistan like terrorism, narcotics and mass migration. And as per the articles three failures mark Indian government's effort on Afghanistan so far. The past, the present and the future. The first is the failure to see the direction in which the US policy was heading. Particularly when United States and Taliban signed the Doha agreement on February 2020. According to the author this is the first failure which India did in the past. If you remember this Doha agreement declared that Taliban as a legitimate partner who takes part in dialogue or conventions. And this Doha agreement did not impose a ceasefire with Afghan security forces as a precondition. Just remember ceasefire is an agreement to stop fighting a war for a period of time so that a permanent agreement can be made to end the war. And this ceasefire clause was not included in the Doha agreement as a precondition to conclude a permanent agreement. The second is the problem that nudity continues to have today. Here the author is talking about the failure to secure India's friends in Afghanistan. See after the Taliban capture of Kabul India cancelled all the visas that had been granted pre-ar to August. There was a stubborn resistance to allow Afghans who were in need of shelter to enter the country. These include students, artists and national defence and security forces and national directorate of security officials and members of Afghan minorities that are not Sikhs or Hindus like Hazaras, Tajikis, Ahmadis and Shias. As per the author they consider India as their second home. This move has only strengthened the belief that the government has closed its door for the very Afghan brothers and sisters in Afghanistan. It also made them feel betrayed by a country which they once considered second home. The third is a failure to take the necessary steps today for a better future of Afghanistan. The future of Afghanistan where India is planning to play a significant role. See among the Afghan friends, India has chosen to avoid members of opposition groups including the resistance front led by Ahmad Masood and former vice president Amrullah Saleh. The fear of meeting, supporting or hosting those who oppose the Taliban regime today even providing a platform for them to speak contrast sharply with the 1990s. India maintained a close contact with the northern alliance. For those who are not aware, the northern alliance fought a defensive war against the Taliban regime. They were supported by India, Iran, Russia, Tajikistan, Israel, Turkmenistan, the United States and Uzbekistan. While the Taliban were extensively backed by Pakistan army and the Pakistan's internal security intelligence. Coming back in 1990s, New Delhi maintained contact with the northern alliance and supported their families in India. See, this act of India earned India a good fight among the Afghan people. But now, India chose to avoid engaging with the opposition groups like it did in 1990s. See, India on its part took some steps by sending food aid establishing contact with the Taliban and convening a conference of national security advisors from Central Asian countries. But these efforts are very small. These efforts of India will not help India achieve its long-term goals. Now, having done with India and Afghanistan relationship, let us move to India-Chinese relationship. See, the biggest challenge India face is from Chinese aggression. Regardless of Indian Prime Minister's statement on June 2020 that neither has anyone come in nor is anyone inside India territory, it is clear from number of sources that Pakistan Liberation Army has assembled along the line of actual control. They even built villages and settled population inside disputed territory claimed by India. Apart from this, it has also dug trenches. They have brought in heavy artillery. They have even prepared roads and helicopter and aircraft landing infrastructure for their forces right up to the border with India. Regardless of this, the official claim of the government is that there is no Chinese presence in the disputed territory. See, series of rounds of military and ministerial talks were held. But all those lacked strategic thinking. Those who analyzed the situation more closely have pointed out five decided objectives behind Chinese aggression along the line of actual control. The objective are to claim territory it believes it has lost over centuries from the South China Sea to Tibet. Second is to restrict India's recent effort to build infrastructure bridges and roads along the border. Third is to limit any possible potential threat to Xinjiang and Tibet. Fourth is to restrict India's ability to threaten China's Key Belt and Road Project that is China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. And the last and most important thing is to prevent any military preparation announced by India's Home Minister in 2019 to recapture Aksai Chin and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. So these are the objectives behind China's aggression along the line of actual control. So considering all these, the author of the editorial suggests some of the ways that India can use while moving forward. See, in the face of such clear Chinese aggressive policy, India must not only speak out more forcefully against China, but also provide regional leadership which can outpower China's influence. And for this to happen India must not repeat the mistake it did during the corona crisis. See, during the corona crisis, India failed to honor the commitment given to Nepal and Bangladesh in case of vaccine supply. India even failed to send vaccine to Bhutan and Maldives. Even after receiving money from them. Second, India, before using its democratic ideals to fight China, must take steps to follow the ideals of democracy. Before preaching to China, India must practice the ideals of democracy first. If this is done, India's neighbors might admire the qualities that set newly apart from Beijing. The third important thing is that India must ensure that it must block all external attempts to portray India as a middle power. It should also block portraying India as one that relies on assistance of other countries to chart its course in the neighborhood. India's response to neighborhood challenge must not be painted as a victim of circumstance but as an umpire of its own destiny. This is what the author is trying to convey using this editorial. See, in this segment we discussed about the mistakes committed by India in relation to India-China relationship and India-Afghanistan relationship. We also discussed some measures taken by India in respect to China. And finally we saw about the objectives that are motivating people's liberation armies move along the Indian border and finally some steps that India can take to address the China issue. With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this news article. See, the article here is about Madras High Court's review of its own direction. The direction is to the state government to constitute a press council for Tamil Nadu. So, the high court is reviewing this direction to the state government. It is being done because the direction by the high court was not backed by any legislation or any statute. The acting chief justice pointed out that the press council at of 1978 provides for the constitution of only one body, that is the press council for the whole country. He also mentioned that there are no provisions in the act that empowers the state government to constitute individual commissions of similar nature. So, this is the crux of the news article. With this article as a background, we are going to learn about press council of India from film's point of view. First, let us see about the genesis of the body. The press council of India was first set up in the year 1966 by the parliament on the recommendation of the first press commission. The present council functions under the press council act 1978. It is a statutory quasi-judicial authority functioning as a watchdog for the press and by the press. Now, let us see the objectives of the body. It was established with the objective of preserving the freedom of the press and maintaining and improving the standards of press in India. It adjudicates the complaints against press for violation of ethics. It is open to any person to lodge a complaint with the press council against a newspaper. It can be done for a breach of recognized ethical canons of journalistic proprietary. The plaintiff need not necessarily be the person aggrieved or directly involved. The alleged breach may be in the publication or non-publication of a news item or statement or other material like cartoons, pictures, photographs, strips or advertisements which are published in the newspaper. And it also adjudicates the complaints by the press for violation of freedom of press. A newspaper, a journalist or any institution or individual can complaint against central or state government or any organization or person for interference in free functioning of the press or encroachment of freedom of the press. Now, let us see the composition of press council of India. The press council is headed by a chairman who has by convention been a retired judge of supreme court of India. The council consists of 28 other members of whom 20 represent the press and they are nominated by press organization and news agencies. Five members are nominated by the two houses of the parliament and three members represent cultural, literary and legal fields as nominees of Sahitya academy, university grants commission and the bar council of India. Now, let us see how the press council of India is funded. See, the council is funded by the revenue collected as fee levied on the registered newspapers in the country and the basis of their circulation. No fee is levied on newspapers with circulation less than 5000 copies. The central government will also provide fund to address the deficit in the budget of press council of India. See, in this segment we saw about the body press council of India, its statutory status, its objectives and composition and finally we saw the funding for press council of India. With these key take away points, let us move on to the next news article. Look at this article. This news article is with reference to the prohibition of child marriage amendment bill which was introduced in Lokshaba on 21st December 2021. We know that this bill seeks to increase the marriage age for women to 21. In this context, we will discuss about how this marriage age contradicts with other laws in our country. If you want to know more about the marriage age and the issues regarding that, I request the viewers to watch my 19th December 2021 news analysis. In that I have discussed the issue extensively because in this discussion we will be focusing only on how the prohibition of child marriage amendment bill contradicts with other laws in our country. Now let us start our discussion. See, the protection of child marriage amendment bill 2021 seeks to raise the age of marriage for women to 21, right? It also amends the definition of child to mean a male or female who has not completed 21 years of age. But this definition overwrites personal laws of Hindus, Christians, Muslims and Parsis as well as special marriage act of 1954. It also overwrites other laws in our country. How does it overwrites? Let us see now. The 61st Constitutional Amendment Act of 1988 defines the voting age for election to parliament and legislative assemblies as 18. So if someone has the mental ability to choose the rulers of the country after attaining the age of 18, can they not choose the person who they are going to marry? This is a conflict here. Next is the majority act of 1875. This act also defines the age of majority as the age of 18 years. Under the Indian Contract Act 1872, a person should have attained the age of majority that is 18 years in order to be able to enter into a contract. Next the law to punish sexual crimes against children, the protection of children from sexual offenses act that is the Poxo Act 2012 to recognizes a child as someone under the age of 18 years. Thereby it implies that the age of consent for sex is also 18 years. See the juvenile justice care and protection act 2015 that deals with juvenile offenders and children also defines child as under 18 years. Finally the highly popular right to children to free and compulsory education 2019 act that guarantees access to education also defines a child. According to this act, a child is someone between the age of 6 and 14 years. Whereas the child labor prohibition and regulation act 1986 simply the anti child labor law defines child as someone below the age of 14 years. It prohibits engagement of children in all occupation. So what can be understand from these facts. After analyzing the above laws we can conclude that the age to enter into contracts and to vote is 18 years. We are indirectly recognizing that a person has the mental ability to make decision in that regard. The decision to vote will affect the life of the citizen as well. But at the same time when it comes to her personal life that is marriage she doesn't have the right to make decisions. The proposed law thereby makes an artificial distinction and thus a contradiction. See by making marriages under 21 years invalid we are criminalizing those who marry under this age. So it will be depriving them of legal protection. See any new law that we are making should enable some protection and must not deprive them. That is it should be progressive and not regressive. So this is all with the article. With this we can conclude the news analysis session and take up the practice prelims question. We have only one practice prelim question for today. Let me read out the question first. Consider the following statements regarding press council of India. The first statement it is a statutory body. The second statement it adjudicates complaint filed against the press only and not complaints filed by the press. We have to select the correct answer here. See the first statement is correct. See we saw in our discussion that press council of India functions under the press councils act 1978. So it is a statutory body. But the second statement is incorrect. Here again we saw in our discussion that under the objectives the press council of India adjudicates the complaints against press for violation of ethics and also it adjudicates the complaints by the press for violation of freedom of press. So the second statement is incorrect. Since the first statement is correct and the second statement is incorrect the correct answer here is option B 1 only. The main question based on today's discussion is displayed here. Write the answers and post them in the comment section. If you like today's discussion like comment and share it with your friends. And to get more updates regarding UPSC preparation subscribe to Shankara AS Academy YouTube channel. Thank you.