 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar IA's Academy. The list of news articles taken up for today's analysis is displayed here along with the page numbers of five different editions. The handwritten notes in PDF format and the timestamping of all the news articles taken up for today's analysis is available in the description section and also in the comment section for the benefit of the smartphone users. Let us now start our analysis. First let us see an editorial about India's disaster management. In this editorial the author has spoken about the drawbacks that are present in India's disaster management. So in this context first let us see the salient features of Disaster Management Act 2005. Then we'll see what is meant by disaster management. After that we'll see if there are any international agreements on disaster management. Then we'll see about National Disaster Management Plan. And finally we'll discuss the editorial where the author has spoken about the drawbacks in India's disaster management. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this editorial is given here for your reference. First let us understand the meaning of disaster. See a disaster is a catastrophe or a calamity or a grave occurrence which has arisen from a natural or man-made cause or because of man-made negligence. And this results in substantial loss of life or human suffering and destruction and damage of property and environment. If there are any small issues in a particular area then it can be managed. But if any issues happen in such a magnitude that it is much beyond the coping capacity of that particular community which is affected then we can term that as a disaster. For example natural weather phenomenon like cyclones, droughts, then earthquake, floods, forest fires, hailstorms which happen in local areas or some industrial disasters or chemical disasters, some nuclear disasters or maybe even oil spills. Sometimes you even hear news on pest attack in a particular area. If you remember before 2-3 weeks there was locust attack in Rajasthan, Gujarat and some major rail accidents or road accidents or even air accidents can all be classified as disasters. If you remember we know that in the beginning of this century that is in the 21st century India faced 3 major disasters. One was just before the start of the 21st century the 1999 super cyclone which happened in the state of Odisha and then in 2001 we had the earthquake at Buch in Gujarat and then in 2004 we had the Indian Ocean tsunami. So all these events resulted in deaths of tens of thousands of people and they even displaced lakhs and lakhs of population. So the government started to realize that there is a need for an efficient disaster management system in India. So based on this the parliament enacted the Disaster Management Act in 2005. This Disaster Management Act of 2005 gives an overall comprehensive legal framework for disaster management. Now let us discuss some of the silent features of Disaster Management Act. This act led to the establishment of disaster management authorities at three levels. First it established a national disaster management authority at the national level which is shared by the prime minister. And then in each states or union territories we have a state disaster management authority and this will be shared by the chief minister for each state. If you see in the case of union territory of Delhi the left-hand governor is the chaired person and the chief minister of Delhi is the vice chaired person of the state authority. And in case of Puducherry which has a legislative assembly the chief minister is the chaired person of the authority. So just remember this difference. So we have a disaster management authority at the state level or the union territory level. And the third level is the district disaster management authority. This district disaster management authority is shared by the collector or the district magistrate or the deputy commissioner. So these are the three levels of disaster management authority. Then if you see this act laid down the framework roles and responsibilities of all these bodies to formulate and implement disaster management plans at their levels. And after this this act also established the national institute of disaster management. The objective of this institute is to develop training modules to undertake research and documentation and disaster management and then to organize training programs and provide assistance in national level policy formulation etc. Then if you see this act also led to the formation of national disaster response force for a specialist response in case of any threatening disasters. And then this act also established two funds. One is the national disaster response fund and the next is the national disaster mitigation fund. And these funds were created at the state levels and at the district levels. So these funds will be used for emergency response then mitigation relief and rehabilitation in case of a disaster. So what are all these terms to know these now let us see in brief about disaster management. Know that roughly there are four phases in disaster management. One is mitigation the next is preparedness the third is response and finally the recovery and rehabilitation. Now for a simple understanding take an example of cyclone. We know that cyclones happen frequently in India. So an occurrence of cyclone is a sure factor and cyclone is likely to cause a disaster. Now if you look at the mitigation stage this involves taking steps to reduce the risk of this disaster. It involves like spreading awareness then assessment of vulnerability then building resilient infrastructure etc. Now come to the second phase this is about ensuring preparedness to deal with any disaster in our case the cyclone. So the state level authorities and the district level authorities will be prepared to deal the cyclone. So there will be some strong disaster management body and then they will be having standard operating procedures in case if there is going to be a cyclone in their area. So this is about the second phase. Now if you look at the third phase it is about response to any disaster in our case the cyclone for example we know that the cyclone is going to happen how we are going to respond to that cyclone. We need to evacuate the people we need to rescue the people and provide relief to the people. So this phase will give an idea how effective a country is in minimizing the loss of lives and damage to the property and environment. So this is the third phase that is response and finally we have recovery and rehabilitation. So the cyclone is now over and this is the post disaster phase that is the post cyclone phase in our case. So this phase will involve the reconstruction and restoration of the lost infrastructure especially the houses. Then it also involves that the affected people need to be properly rehabilitated and their livelihood needs to be restored. So this is the post disaster phase. Now if you look at the provisions of this 2005 Disaster Management Act they largely focus on improving the preparedness then providing immediate relief and protecting the infrastructure. It means that the focus is more on the first two phases of disaster reduction which is the mitigation and preparedness. Now because of the emphasis laid on this act on preparedness it has led to timely warnings in case of disasters like building relief shelters and massive evacuation exercise. Now because of all these actions at the national level and at the state and the district level our country was able to be prepared for most of the disasters and because of this they were reduced number of casualties that is there was a low number of population who actually died because of the disasters. And also because of the creation of funds at several levels it provided immediate relief in the aftermath of the disasters. But these steps are not enough and this is what this editorial is about. Now let us see the editorial. In this editorial the author says that the focus of this Disaster Management Act of 2005 on the last two phases of disaster management that is the response and then recovery and rehabilitation is very limited. But we know that long term recovery and rehabilitation is key to the well being of those people who are affected by the disaster. So the authors are trying to establish a point that there is an imbalance in giving equal focus to all the four stages of disaster management. Because of this the outcomes in disaster management are fragmented. Like for example in most cases the post disaster rehabilitation and recovery are left to the respective ministries and departments. And according to the authors only select states like Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Odisha have department level disaster management plans. So from all this we can see that the post disaster rehabilitation and recovery that is there not well established. So how can we improvise it? Now to know this we need to understand some of the international agreements on disaster management. The first and foremost is the Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction 2015-2030 or simply the Sendai framework. See it is the successor of Hyogo framework for action 2005-2015. And this Sendai framework is implemented by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. It provides a concrete action plan to the member states to protect their development gains from the risk of disasters. So it mainly focuses on four areas. First is understanding the disaster risk. Second is strengthening the disaster risk governance in order to manage disaster risks. And then the next focus is on investing enough in disaster reduction for resilience. And it also focuses on enhancing the disaster preparedness for effective response and to build back better. This simply means focus on recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction. So this is all about this Sendai framework. Apart from this we also have one more significant international agreement which is the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2015-2030. See there are a number of sustainable development goals that are associated with disaster risk reduction. For example we have sustainable development goal number 1.5 which aims to build the resilience of the poor and vulnerable in order to reduce their exposure to climate related extremes and other economical, social and environmental disasters. So this is the second international agreement. Now if you look at one more international agreement it is the Paris Climate Agreement which came into force in 2016. This agreement aims to keep the rising global temperature well below 2 degree Celsius above the pre-nurse levels and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degree Celsius. So if we can achieve this target then we can minimize the impacts of climate change related disasters. For example there are frequent forest fires that are happening across continents like North America, Australia and the recent times and there is also an increased frequency of cyclones across the world. So if you are able to meet the Paris Climate Agreement targets then to some extent we can minimize impacts of climate change related disasters. So these are some of the international agreements. Now based on all these agreements and based on adopting the best disaster management practices across the world, the National Disaster Management Authority released a plan which is called the National Disaster Management Plan in 2016. If you see this plan provides for a framework and direction to the government agencies for all phases of disaster management cycle. Now one of the main objectives of this plan is to minimize or eliminate the existing ambiguity in the responsibility framework. That is now there will be specific department or a specific authority who is responsible for different stages of managing disasters. Now if you look this National Disaster Management Plan was revised in 2019. If you look at this 2019 plan it gives more emphasis to three different aspects of post disaster recovery. The first aspect is the physical aspect which includes restoration and reconstruction of damaged community infrastructure then critical infrastructure like hospitals and then the private houses of the individuals and then even the cultural heritage buildings. So physical aspect is the first aspect of recovery. The second aspect it is the economic aspects of recovery like ensuring livelihoods, then ensuring productive activities and ensuring market services. And the third aspect of recovery is the social recovery. This includes the social and psychological aspects of personal, family and community functioning and well-being because usually if you see post the disasters the affected families might face certain social and psychological issues. So even this has been addressed in this 2019 plan. Now what the authors suggest in this editorial is that few more measures are required to improve the post disaster recovery and rehabilitation efforts of the government. One suggestion which they give is integrating post disaster rehabilitation measures with the existing development schemes. But they tell that there will be a challenge in implementing this because all the different ministries and departments have to come together and try to implement it. For this the authors have given an example from the state of Odisha. If you see cyclones are quite frequent in Odisha. So the Odisha government takes up post disaster housing reconstruction activities. Now if you look at these reconstruction activities they are aligned with the central housing schemes and the state housing schemes. For example at the state level they have Biju, Pakka, Gar Yojana and at the central level we have the Pradhan, Mantri, Abbas Yojana. So all their post disaster housing reconstruction activities are aligned with the central and state housing schemes. So we can see that Odisha has actually integrated the post disaster rehabilitation measures with the existing development schemes of central and the state. But there are issues with poor implementation even in Odisha because there are evidences which suggest that the Pakka houses that were built under these housing schemes are in bad conditions. And many of them are even uninhabited. That is people are not living anymore in the houses that were built. So this shows that the quality and the disaster resilience should be maintained while reconstructing infrastructures. So this is what the authors are trying to emphasize. So we can conclude by saying that the recovery measures should not be limited to just providing food, water and medicines soon after the disasters. But the recovery should be a long term. Even the long term recovery measures should be well designed to address all the needs of the vulnerable communities. So its focus should not be limited to just addressing the physical aspects like providing shelters but it should also address the psychosocial needs of the communities. For example, like ensuring access to education, water, sanitation and health and then focusing on skill building and livelihood diversification schemes, etc. So the authors believe that the Disaster Management Act will be amended in the near by future in order to accommodate all these needs. So let us wait and watch if there will be any amendment to the Disaster Management Act. Meanwhile, we have the National Disaster Management Plan of 2019 which actually lays down the needs post the disaster. So this is all about the discussion of this editorial. In this editorial, we have tried to explain what is meant by disaster and about the silent features of Disaster Management Act of 2005. Then we saw in brief about the different phases of disaster management and then we saw some of the international conventions and then finally we saw the editorial where the drawbacks of India's Disaster Management has been discussed by the authors. This is all about this editorial. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This editorial is about the views of the author regarding a recent regulation by the International Maritime Organization in short IMO. The regulation was related to limiting the sulfur content in the fuel oil that is used for the movement of ships. So in this context, let us see in brief about this International Maritime Organization then about the recent regulation of International Maritime Organization about its pros and cons. And finally, let us see how India's national interests in maritime is not adequately represented in the international arena. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this editorial is given here for your reference. See shipping is the lifeblood of the global economy because it is one of the cheapest modes of transport. So bulk of international trade happens only through shipping where raw materials, then food, manufactured goods are all traded across countries. And this seaborn trade continues to expand even at present. If you look at the recent statistics, the international shipping industry is responsible for the carriage of around 90 percentage by volume and 80 percentage by value of the entire global trade. And there are approximately around 50,000 merchant ships that are trading internationally. As we just saw, they're one of the cheapest modes of transportation and they're also efficient in terms of energy. Though they are efficient form of transportation, the shipping industry is responsible for pollution of air all across the globe. Some reports tell that poor air quality due to international shipping accounts for approximately around 4,000,000 premature deaths per year worldwide. Now how is that possible? It is because of the fuel that is the heavy oil that is used in the ships. If you look at this fuel oil, it contains huge amounts of sulfur. And after the combustion of the fuel oil in the engine, the ships emit sulfur oxides into the air. We all know that the sulfur oxides are known to be harmful to human health like it causes respiratory problems, then lung cancer, then cardiovascular disease, then asthma, stroke, and so on. And the sulfur oxides can also lead to acid drain which might harm the crops, forests, aquatic species, and it also contributes to the acidification of oceans. Not only the sulfur oxides, there are also certain other byproducts due to the combustion of fuel oil in the ships like nitrogen oxides, then ozone depleting substances, then volatile organic compounds to a certain extent. So we can see that air pollution due to the movement of ships is high across the world. So this is one issue related to the shipping industry. So for the regulation of the shipping industry, at the world level, we have international maritime organization. See, it is a London-based United Nations agency. The main responsibility of this agency is safety of life at sea and the protection of marine environment. Now let us have a brief outlook about this international maritime organization. See, it is an United Nations specialized agency. As we just saw, the main responsibility of this organization is to ensure safety and security of shipping and to prevent marine and atmospheric pollution by ships. So as a specialized agency, the international maritime organization sets the global standards for safety, security, and environmental performance of international shipping. So the main role is to create a regulatory framework for the shipping industry, which is fair and effective and which is universally adopted and implemented. Now let us look into the structure of this international maritime organization. See, it has an assembly, a council, and five main committees. First, let us look at the assembly. It is the highest governing body of this international maritime organization. It consists of all the member states and the assembly meets once in every two years. The assembly is responsible for approving the work programs, then voting the budget and determining the financial arrangements of the organization. And this assembly also elects the council. So what is this council? It is the executive organ of this international maritime organization. Now this council is responsible under the assembly for supervising the overall work of this international maritime organization. So the council members are classified into three categories for 2020, 2021, category A, category B, and category C. If you look at category A, it has 10 states. There is 10 countries who have large interest in providing international shipping services. Then we have category B, wherein there are 10 states who have a large interest in international sea bond trade. So India is also one of the 10 members under this category B. And finally, we have category C where 20 states are present under this category C, apart from category A and category B. And this category C countries ensure representation of major geographical areas of the world. So this is all about council that you need to know. Then we have five committees. The five committees are the Maritime Safety Committee, then the Marine Environment Protection Committee, then the Legal Committee, and then the Technical Cooperation Committee, and the Facilitation Committee. And apart from this, there are also a number of subcommittees that support the work of these main technical committees. So all these five committees are designated for separate aspects of shipping. Say for example, the Marine Environment Protection Committee is concerned with the prevention and control of pollution from ships. Now this committee is particularly concerned with the adoption and amendment of conventions and other regulations and even other measures which ensure in enforcing the prevention and control of pollution from the ships. And as we told, each committee supported by subcommittees and there are working groups and correspondence groups that support the subcommittees. Now let us look how the decisions are made. See first the proposals from the member states are forwarded to the subcommittees and the subcommittees after considering the proposal that was forwarded, they forward this proposal to the main committees. And once the assembly gives the approval, the main committees put the approved proposal for enactment through convention, amendments, orders, or circulars. So this is how the decisions are made in international maritime organization. Now if you look at this organization, it has been working since 1960s to reduce the harmful impacts of shipping on the environment. So as a part of this, we have the Marpol Convention. See Marpol Convention is an international convention for the prevention of pollution from ships. And this convention was adopted in the year 1997 under this international maritime organization. See Marpol is the abbreviation for marine pollution. So this convention seeks to control airborne emissions from ships such as sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, then ozone depleting substances and so on. Because all these airborne emissions are the major cause for local and global air pollution and environmental problems. And as we saw earlier, the fine particulate matter that is released after combustion of fuel oil can lead to a lot of human health impacts like lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, and asthma. Now if you look at this Marpol Convention, it introduced certain regulations to reduce the sulfur oxide emissions. As per the regulation, we have a global limit for the sulfur content of the fuel oil that is used by the ships. So what is this global limit? If you see until 31st of December, 2019, for those ships which were operating outside the emission control areas, the limit for the sulfur content in the ship's fuel oil was just 3.5 percentage mass by mass. But if you see from 1st January, 2020, that is from the starting of this year, this limit has been reduced to 0.5 percentage. So now the sulfur content in the fuel oil is reduced. Now the member states have the responsibilities to implement this 0.5 percentage limit. And if you see this limit is applicable only for shipping outside the emission control area. So in this context, let us know what is this emission control area. See, this picture will give you an idea about the emission control areas. See, the emission control areas are declared by international maritime organization. This includes regions such as Baltic Sea area, then the North Sea area, then the North American area, which covers designated coastal areas of the countries of United States and Canada. And then we have the United States Caribbean Sea area, where waters around Puerto Rico and United States Virgin Islands are covered. So all these form the emission control area. Now, if you look at the sulfur limit for fuel oil in these emission control areas, it is 0.1 percentage mass by mass, which is followed since 2015. So we can see that the sulfur limit for these emission control areas are quite less. Now as per the recent regulation from the starting of this year, for any maritime regions excluding this emission control areas, that is for those maritime regions that come outside these areas have to limit the sulfur content in fuel oil to 0.5 percentage. So now the reduction is from 3.5 percentage to 0.5 percentage. So you can see that the regulations are tightened. Now there are some problems that is associated with this regulation. First one is that the very low sulfur fuel would be incompatible with the engines that are present in the ship and also with other vessel equipments, where the usage of fuel oil is necessary. Next, these regulations require massive technological operational and structural changes across the world. So these changes are going to be costly in terms of money and many of these changes have to be born to a larger extent by developing countries such as India. And we saw that India comes under category B, which has largest interest in international sea bond trade. So it is in this context that we need to look at this editorial now. The authors tell that India's participation in the international maritime organization is inadequate. The authors tell that the permanent representative who was posted at London has remained vacant for the last 25 years. Plus there is no enough delegation to represent India in the meetings of international maritime organization. But if you see India's shipping industry plays a crucial role in Indian economy because 90 percentage of India's trade in terms of volume is done via the sea route. And if you look at one more statistics, India's shipping stands at 8 percentage of the entire world trade. So we have a significant share in the world trade, but India's presence and intervention in international maritime organization is inadequate. It is not up to the level when compared to India's share in global shipping. See in this editorial, the authors have also mentioned about one more issue which happened around the 2015 regarding the declaration of high risk areas by the international maritime organization. This resulted in the demarcation of half of the Arabian Sea and virtually the entire southwest coast of India as piracy infested region. In order to counter the activities of the sea pirates because the activity surged around the coast of Somalia then near the Gulf of Aden and in the Horn of Africa. So to counter this, the international maritime organization declared certain areas of this region as high risk areas. But at that time, India did not respond swiftly in expressing its interests in the international maritime organization. And because of this, India was at disadvantage. It affected the shipping in India's maritime region and it also affected the movement of goods that came into or went out of India. So we can see that there are issues faced by India due to inadequate representation at the international maritime organization. But in contrast, if we see this editorial tells that the European countries have their permanent representatives at London and even they have representatives in every subcommittee, working groups and correspondent groups of international maritime organization. For example, countries like China, Japan, Singapore and South Korea all have permanent representatives, larger delegation and interventions in order to ensure their voice to be heard at international maritime organization. And they're fiercely protecting their maritime interests, but at the same time, India's not doing. So the editorial concludes by saying that India must regain its status as a major maritime power. And it can be achieved only by ensuring permanent representation and large delegation. So India should make its presence felt at international maritime organization so that its maritime interests are served. This is all about this editorial that you need to know. To summarize this editorial, we have seen about international maritime organization, which is a specialized agency of United Nations about its functions, representations. And then we saw about the recent regulation that was introduced by the international maritime organization and how it's going to affect India's interests. And in this context, we saw about inadequate representation of India at international maritime organization. This is all about the discussion of this editorial. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is related to the recent announcement by the government in the union budget where it has decided that the district government hospitals will be handed over to private medical colleges through public private partnership move. In this regard, the union minister for health and family welfare has issued certain clarifications. So in this context, let us see about the announcement made by the government in the union budget and then the clarification issued by the union minister. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given you for your reference. See, if you remember during our yesterday's analysis, we discussed in detail about viability, gap funding and public private partnership. In the health sector, there were two announcements that we saw. One was that there was a proposal to set up viability gap funding window for setting up hospitals in public private partnership mode. And the second proposal was that to attach medical college to an existing district hospital in public private partnership mode. Now, let us discuss some of the important constitutional as well as certain statutory provisions regarding healthcare in India. See, public health and sanitation, hospitals and dispensaries is a state subject and education including medical education is in the concurrent list of the seven schedule of Indian constitution. So based on this, we have the Indian Medical Council Act of 1956 which regulates the standards of medical education, then permission to start colleges, then courses or increase the number of seats, registration of doctors, then related to standards of professional conduct of medical practitioners and so on. See, this Medical Council Act of 1956 was amended from time to time. The recent amendment is the Indian Medical Council Amendment Act of 2019. Based on this amendment, the Medical Council of India is now called as the National Medical Commission. So for this purpose, an act was enacted which is the National Medical Commission Act of 2019. So note this current affairs. Next, let us see the clarification given by the Union Health Minister regarding the public private partnership mode and healthcare. See, the Union Minister has told that this proposal has been made as per the existing regulation related to medical colleges which is the establishment of Medical College Regulations 1999. See, in class two, five of this establishment of medical college regulation, there is a provision which prescribes that the appropriate government may allow the utilization of facilities of a hospital that is owned and managed by it for establishing a medical college by a person or an agency or a trust or a society or a company by entering into a memorandum of understanding. So as per this amendment, the Union Minister is telling that the proposal made by the government in the budget to have a public-private partnership mode and healthcare is eligible to be allowed legally. So in this direction, the Nitiayoga has come out with draft norms to link the existing private medical colleges with the district hospitals through viability gap funding as announced in the Union budget. So the Union Minister has clarified that the government will offer the district hospitals to the private sector without compromising on the interests of the patients. And he has clarified that it was not being done to private the private sector rather to promote the quality of healthcare in India. But if you see there is a strong criticism against this proposal by the government because it might lead to dominance of corporate sector similar to sectors like telecom sector where government has lost the effect of control over a period of time because if you remember BSNL was once a prominent telecom player but right now its prominence is no more. So similarly, the health sector might also reach a final point where the term health is wealth will become a term for the corporate rather than for the citizens of India. So this is all about the discussion of this news article. To summarize, we have discussed about the proposed plan by the government in the Union budget to allow for public-private partnership mode in medical education. Then in relation with this, we saw the constitutional and legal provisions that are dealing with this proposal. And finally, we saw the criticisms against this proposed move by the government. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. Now let us see a news article which is related to foreigners tribunals. We know that the budget session of the parliament is underway. And this news article is related to an answer that was made by the government in Lok Sabha on foreigners tribunals. So in this context, let us discuss in brief about foreigners tribunals, the syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. See, we all know that the National Register of Citizens or NRC was published in ASAM on 31st August, 2019. And there were more than 3.2 crore applications to get enrolled in this National Register of Citizens. But if you see more than 19 lakh applications were excluded from this list, so what they will do, know that the individual whose name is not figured in the final NRC can represent their case to the appellate authority. And this appellate authority is known as the foreigners tribunals. See in India, we have the foreigners act of 1946. According to this act, a foreigner is a person who is not a citizen of India. Now know that as per section three of this foreigners act of 1946, the central government can make any order or any provision with respect to foreigners or with respect to any particular foreigner or even with respect to a prescribed class or a description of foreigner for prohibiting, regulating or restricting their entry into India or their departure from India or even regarding their presence in India. So based on the section three, the government issued the foreigners tribunals order. The main objective of these tribunals is to identify whether a person is a foreigner or not. And if at all any individual has to prove a citizenship, then they need to provide some evidence in the tribunals. And after going through the documents, the tribunal will take a decision on his or her citizenship. So this is all that you need to know about foreigners tribunals. Now, if you remember, during our 29th December The Hindu News Analysis, we have explained in detail on the detention centers in SM and the role of foreigners tribunal in detail. So we request the viewers to have a look at it for further subject clarity. Now, let us come back to the news article. In this news article, the central government has informed the loks about that the SM government has not constructed any detention camps to exclusively detain those persons who do not have documents to prove their citizenship under this NRC. And as per this news article, at present there are around 1,381 people who are in detention centers across SM. And also around 761 data news were released from the detention centers in the last three years. And apart from this, the number of cases that were referred to the foreigners tribunals in SM has also come down over the last few years. As you can see here, in 2017, there were close to 9,500 cases. And this came down to approximately 2,000 cases in 2018. And in 2019 till the month of November, only 599 cases have been referred to the foreigners tribunals. So this is all that you need to know about this news article. To summarize, this news article is about foreigners tribunals. So we have looked at the legal provisions related to foreigners tribunals in India. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is related to a scheme called ICDS scheme. It is based on a government's response to an RTI query where it discusses about the proportion of Anganwadi beneficiaries in India, in the urban and in the rural areas. So in this context, first let us see about this ICDS scheme and then what are the services that are provided under this scheme? Then about the role of Anganwadi's and then we'll see some of the key announcements in this union budget related to Anganwadi's. And finally we'll discuss the news article. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. So what is this ICDS scheme? See ICDS stands for Integrated Child Development Services. This scheme is one of the flagship programs of the government which was launched on 2nd of October 1975 and it is being administered under the Ministry of Women and Child Development. See the major objectives of this ICDS scheme is two. The first objective is to address the malnutrition then morbidity that is the rate of disease of the population and also the mortality on the one hand. And the next objective is to provide pre-school non-formal education on the other hand. So from the objectives itself we can easily tell that the ICDS scheme mainly targets children. Know that the children in the age group of zero to six years are the major beneficiaries under this ICDS scheme. Apart from children there are also pregnant women and lactating mothers who get services under this scheme. So what kind of services are provided under this scheme? This scheme offers a package of six services. Before seeing these six services, know that Anganwadi's which are daycare centers have been set up under this ICDS scheme to provide all these six services. The six services are supplementary nutrition, then pre-school non-formal education, then nutrition and health education and then immunization and then health checkup and referral services. Now if you look at these last three services, immunization, health checkup and referral services, they are related to health and they're provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare through the National Rural Health Mission Program and the Health System. So these are the six services under this ICDS scheme. So the aim is to integrate all the schemes related to the development of children. That's why we have ministries like Health and Family Welfare which provide services under this ICDS scheme. Next, know that the ICDS services are provided by the ICDS team. This ICDS team comprises of Anganwadi workers, then Anganwadi helpers, then supervisors, then child development project officers and then district program officers. You know that Anganwadi worker is usually a woman who is selected from the local community. She is a frontline honorary worker of this program. She delivers the services to young children, then girls and then women. And apart from this, if you see, we have medical officers, auxiliary nurse, midwife, and then accredited social health activists who also assist the ICDS functionaries. So this ICDS team as a whole tries to achieve the convergence of different services that are provided under this ICDS to the Indian population. Here, know that Anganwadi workers and Anganwadi helpers are honorary workers. That is, they are paid in monthly honorarium. Recently, if you see the government has increased the honorarium of Anganwadi workers at the main Anganwadi centers to 4,500 rupees per month and at many Anganwadi centers to 3,500 rupees per month. This announcement was made by the government in November, 2019. Next, let us see about the recent announcements made by the government in the union budget which are directly or indirectly related to the ICDS services. For the past two, three days, we are seeing the three main themes of this budget. One of the theme is caring society. Under this caring society, women and child and then social welfare is targeted. So to ensure women and child welfare, 1,000 crore is allocated for nutrition related programs in this union budget. And apart from that, if you see under Poshan Abiyan, more than 6,000,000 Anganwadi workers will be equipped with smartphones in order to upload the nutritional status of more than 10 crore households. And then if you see to speed up the benefit outreach to the grassroots levels, the union budget highlighted its vision that all the public institutions at gram panchayat level will be provided with digital connectivity. Those institutions include Anganwadi's, then health and wellness centers, and then the public distribution system outlets and so on. And this will be done under the government of India's Bharat Net program, which aims to provide high-speed digital connectivity to all 2.5 lakh gram panchayat in the country that covers nearly about 6.25 lakh villages. So high-speed digital connectivity will be provided to all the gram panchayats at affordable prices by utilizing the existing optical fiber. So Anganwadi's are also one of the beneficiaries under this announcement by the government in the union budget. So these are some of the announcements that are directly or indirectly related to this ICDS scheme. So whenever we see such news articles related to some of the schemes, we shall try to link that with the announcements made by the government in the union budget. Now let us come back to the news article. This news article tells that there is a clear urban rural disparity in terms of number of beneficiaries under ICDS scheme. It tells that for every 100 Anganwadi beneficiaries in the country, only seven beneficiaries are in urban areas under the ICDS scheme. See, as per census 2011 data, 32% of India's population live in cities and a total of 7.95 crore beneficiaries are there in the country under this Anganwadi scheme as on September 2019. Now out of the 7.95 crore beneficiaries, only 55 lakh were registered at urban Anganwadi's. The remaining population were all registered at rural Anganwadi's. So this is the reason why the news article tells that for every 100 Anganwadi beneficiaries in the country, only seven beneficiaries are in urban areas under ICDS. Now why such poor coverage in the urban areas? One main reason is severe lack of Anganwadi's in the cities. So this has led to the poor coverage of ICDS in urban areas. If you see this news article substantiates this fact, it states that out of the 9 lakh Anganwadi centres that are reporting to government through online, only 1 lakh are in the urban areas and the remaining 8 lakh Anganwadi centres are in rural areas. So what should be done to make this ICDS scheme more inclusive, that is to cover the entire section of population, not only across the rural areas, but also in the urban areas. This news article suggests that the ICDS programme in urban areas need to be strengthened by increasing the number of Anganwadi centres in the cities so that ICDS would be more inclusive. Apart from this, you can also add your own suggestions like proper targeting of beneficiaries who are in need of ICDS services in the cities, then increasing the allocation of the honourarium that is given to the Anganwadi workers and so on. So this is all about the discussion of this news article. In this news article, we have seen about this Integrated Child Development Services scheme in detail and then we saw about the role of Anganwadis and some of the key announcements that were made in the union budget which are directly or indirectly related to this ICDS services. And finally, we saw the news article which reported poor coverage of Anganwadi beneficiaries in the urban areas of India. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. Let us see the final news article of the day which is related to the announcement made by the government in the union budget regarding the increase in the insurance cover on bank deposits. See, during the union budget, the government announced that the insurance cover on bank deposits would be increased from 1 lakh rupees to 5 lakh rupees. If you remember during our second February, the Hindu News Analysis, we discussed about this announcement by the government in detail wherein we also discussed about the authority Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of India. And we also told that now the government will amend the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation Act of 1961 in order to increase this limit. Now we would like to give you a clarification because if you see the news article, the Reserve Bank of India has issued a statement telling that the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation increases the insurance coverage for depositors in all insured banks from 1 lakh to 5 lakh. And this is with effect from 4th of February 2020 with the approval of the Government of India. So what is this approval of the Government of India? Now if you look at this picture, this is the subsection one of section 16 of this, the Deposit Insurance and the Credit Guarantee Corporation Act of 1961 which speaks about the liability of cooperation in respect to insured deposits. So as per this section, the Corporation that is the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation can raise the amount of insurance cover on bank deposits from time to time with the previous approval of the central government. So initially when the Act was enacted, this limit was 1,500 rupees. Later it was increased to 5,000 in 1968, 10,000 in 1970 and so on. The latest increase was in 1993 where it was increased from 30,000 to 1 lakh. Now almost after a gap of 27 years, the insurance cover on bank deposits has been increased to 5 lakh. And this is with effect from 4th of February 2020. So know that the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation can increase the insurance cover on bank deposits with the previous approval of the central government. And whatever value that has been raised by this cooperation will be included under this Act through an amendment. This is the reason why the news article mentioned that it will be increased through an amendment of this 1961 Act. So this is the clarity that you need to know regarding this news article. Now let us move on to the practice questions discussion session. Look at the first question which is about International Maritime Organization. Three statements are given and you need to choose the correct statements. Look at the first statement. It tells that International Maritime Organization is an independent organization to promote maritime safety. This statement is wrong because the International Maritime Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations which is responsible for regulating shipping. So the first statement goes wrong. Now look at the second statement. It tells that India is a member country of IMO. This statement is correct. Currently if you see IMO has 174 member states and there are three associate members. Apart from this there are non-governmental organizations and various governmental organizations which form a part of this IMO. Know that IMO is headquartered at London, United Kingdom and India is also a member country of IMO. So the second statement is correct. Now look at the third statement. It tells that the Marpole Convention is adopted under IMO. Yes, this statement is correct. Marpole is the abbreviation of marine pollution. See the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships was adopted under IMO in the year 1997 and this convention seeks to control airborne emissions from ships such as sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, ozone-repleting substances, then volatile organic compounds and so on. So the third statement is also correct. Now you need to choose the correct statements. The correct answer is option C, 2 and 3 only. Now look at this next question which is related to health sector. Three statements are given and you need to choose the correct statements. Look at the first statement. It tells that public health and sanitation, hospitals and dispensaries is listed under the state list of the Seventh Schedule of Indian Constitution. Then statement two tells that education including medical education is listed in the concurrent list of the Seventh Schedule of Indian Constitution. Note that there are three lists under the Seventh Schedule of Indian Constitution, Union List, Stateless and Concurrent List. The Parliament has the power to enact laws regarding the subjects that are mentioned under the Union List. And then under the Stateless, the respective state legislatures of different states have the power to enact laws for the subjects that are mentioned under the Stateless. And for Concurrent List, both the center and the state can enact laws for those subjects under this Concurrent List. Now look at the first statement. This statement is correct. Public health and sanitation, hospitals and dispensaries are listed under the Stateless. Now the second statement is also correct. Education including medical education is listed in the Concurrent List. So based on this only, the Indian Medical Council Act of 1956 was enacted by the Parliament. See this act was amended from time to time. The recent amendment was the Indian Medical Council Amendment Act of 2019. This amendment replaced the Medical Council of India with the National Medical Commission. So a new act was brought, which is called the National Medical Commission Act of 2019 based on which National Medical Commission came into existence. With this background knowledge in mind, now let us look at the third statement. It tells that the central government has no authority to allow private sector in the medical education. Know that there are certain regulations which have been introduced by the central government under the Indian Medical Council Act of 1956. One such regulation is the MCI's Establishment of Medical College Regulations, 1999. Clause 2-5 of this regulation prescribes that the appropriate government may allow the utilization of facilities of a hospital that is owned and managed by the government for establishing a medical college by a person or agency or a trust or a society or a company by entering into a memorandum of understanding. So there are opportunities for the private sector to take part in medical education. And now if you see, there was a recent announcement by the government in the union budget to go for public-private partnership mode in healthcare. So this statement is actually incorrect. So the correct answer to this question is option A, one and two, one B. Now let us look at the next question which is about foreignness tribunal. Three statements are given and you need to choose the correct answers. Look at the first statement. It tells that foreignness tribunal was established under the Citizenship Act of 1955. This statement is wrong. Know that foreignness tribunal was established under the Foreigners Tribunal's Order 1964. This order was issued by the central government based on the powers which it has as per section three of the Foreigners Act of 1946. The main objective of the tribunals is to identify whether a person is a foreigner or not. So know that it was established by Foreigners Tribunal's Order 1964 not based on the Citizenship Act of 1955. So the first statement goes wrong. Now look at the second statement. It tells that foreignness tribunal has the power of a civil court while trying a suit. Yes, this statement is correct. The foreignness tribunal has the powers of a civil court while trying a suit under the Code of Civil Procedure of 1908. It includes the power of summoning and enforcing the attendance of a person and also requiring the discovery of any document, et cetera. So the second statement is correct. Now look at the third statement. It tells that at present the foreignness tribunals are functioning in the state of Assam only. Now just going by this superlative only don't think that the statement is wrong. In fact, the statement is correct because we know that as of now the National Register for Citizen process that is the NRC process is going on only in the state of Assam. So the foreignness tribunals have been established as per the Foreigners Tribunals Order of 1964. As of now, it is present only in the state of Assam. It is not present in any other state or union territory of India. And this has been declared by the central government. You can find in one of the press release by the Press Information Bureau. So this statement is correct. Now you need to choose the correct statements. The correct answer to this question is option B, two and three only. Next, let us look at a question on integrated child development services. The question is which of the following services are provided under the Integrated Child Development Services scheme? Four services are given. And you need to choose the correct answer. See, under this Integrated Child Development Services scheme, there are six services which are provided, health and nutrition education, then supplementary nutrition program, then preschool education, then immunization, then health checkup, and referral service. See, it is like a convergent scheme because many ministries are involved in providing the services. Hence, it is named as Integrated Child Development Services. Now if you look at these three, referral service, health checkup, and immunization, all these three services are related to health of a child. And these are provided by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Now if you look at the scheme, the scheme covers the children who are aged between 0 to 6 years. So keep these facts in mind. Now look at the options. First, we have the supplementary nutrition program. It is correct. Second, we have the preschool and secondary education. Here you need to be careful because we just now told that this program covers the children of age 0 to 6 years in general. But secondary education covers children who are aged between 11 and 16. So the second item goes wrong. Look at the third item, health and nutrition education. This is correct. The fourth immunization, it is also correct. So the second item is incorrect. If you are able to eliminate two, then the correct answer is option C, 1, 3, and 4. So always be careful in reading the statements. Here secondary education is not related to integrated child development services scheme. By this, you can eliminate this item. So the correct answer is option C, 1, 3, and 4. Now let us look at the main questions. We'll be seeing two questions which are related to disaster management. One question is a previous year question which was asked in UPSC Main's General Studies Paper 3 related to disaster risk reduction. This is the question. The question is describe various measures taken in India for disaster risk reduction before and after signing the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. And how is this framework different from Hyogo Framework for Action 2005? You need to answer in 250 words and 15 marks. Know that in your General Studies Paper 3 syllabus, there is a separate line Disasters and Disaster Management. So disaster management is a recurring topic in every year Main's. You will get some questions directly or indirectly related to disaster management. And this is one such direct question which is asked about the international commitments related to disaster risk reduction. So just have an idea about this question. Now let us look at the practice question. The question is India's disaster management system will be effective only if India acts beyond mitigation and preparedness in its approach towards disaster management elaborate. You need to answer this question in 150 words for 10 marks. In this question, you need to answer the different phases of disaster management system. Next, try to analyze where India is strong. That is, in which phases India's actions are commendable and in which phases India needs to improve. So you need to substantiate this part of the statement, only if India acts beyond mitigation and preparedness. And try to give some examples. For example, post disaster schemes in the state of Odisha that we discussed during the editorial. You can also add relevant examples if you have any. So try to answer this question in 150 words. It carries 10 marks. Please post your answers for this question in the comment section. We will review the answers and give suitable feedback within a reasonable time frame. 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, press the like button, comment, and share. And do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for latest videos and updates. Stay focused and motivated, friends. Thank you.