 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankarayesh Academy. We at Shankarayesh Academy are happy to share with you about the pre-storming 2021 program which is the prelims test series for the upcoming 2021 UPSC civil services preliminary examination. Shankarayesh Academy has started admissions for the second test batch and this has started from 11 December 2020. Our pre-storming program is India's first full-fledged artificial intelligence supported preliminary test series. All the required details are provided in the description of the video about this program and also in the comments section. With this let's move on to the analysis part. These are the list of news articles taken up for today's discussion and their page numbers in different editions of the newspaper. The link for the handwritten notes in the PDF format and the time stamping of the discussed articles are provided in the description box and also in the comments section for the benefit of mobile phone viewers. Now let's move on to the analysis of first news article. This news article talks about the demands by members of parliament to release funds under member of parliament local area development scheme. In this context let us see about the scheme in detail and also the news article. See the MPLAT scheme was launched in December 1993. It is a planned scheme that is fully funded by government of India. That is it is a central sector scheme. The scheme was needed because general public usually approach members of parliament for provision of certain basic facilities and community infrastructure in their areas. Therefore to respond to such requests from the public a mechanism was needed. Therefore government of India decided to have the scheme to meet the needs of such people. So the objective of the scheme is to enable members of parliament to recommend and to get executed works of developmental nature with emphasis on creation of durable community assets. Such assets are created and taken up based on the locally filled needs in each of their constituencies. Now to carry out such developmental works fund is needed. So in 1993-94 when the scheme was launched an amount of rupees 5 lakh per MP was allotted but currently the annual MPLATs fund entitlement per MP constituency is increased to rupees 5 crore. So it is released in two equal installments and note that for administrative expenses 2% of the entitlement can be used. Now this program it comes under the control of ministry of statistics and program implementation. So this ministry is responsible for the policy formulation release of funds and also about prescribing monitoring mechanism for the implementation of the scheme. Now let's see what kind of works are carried out under the scheme. See all the works that provide for the creation of durable community assets to meet locally filled community infrastructure and development needs are permissible under the scheme. Now these include creating durable assets for drinking water facilities, for education, public health, sanitation, roads and other such things. In addition the scheme also has a special provision for the development of areas that are inhabited by persons belonging to the schedule cast and the schedule tribes. That is every year members of parliament have to recommend developmental works that cost at least 15% of MPLATs fund for the areas inhabited by people belonging to schedule cast and they have to recommend developmental works casting at least 7.5% of the fund for areas inhabited by the persons belonging to schedule tribes. So that is in other words out of an amount of 5 crores an MP shall recommend around 75 lakhs for areas inhabited by persons belonging to schedule cast and around 37.5 lakhs for the areas inhabited by persons belonging to schedule tribes. But there are some works that are prohibited under the scheme. These works are given here for your reference. Now let's see who can recommend the works. See Lokshaba members, they can recommend works for their respective constituencies. Then elected members of Rajasabha, they can recommend works for implementation in one or more districts as they may choose in the state of their election. The nominated members of Lokshaba and Rajasabha, they can recommend works for the implementation in one or more districts anywhere in the country and in the event of calamity of severe nature if that occurs in any part of the country. A member of parliament can recommend works up to a maximum of 50 lakhs for the affected district which could be in any part of the country. Now let us see how the scheme is executed. See a particular department in the state or union territory is designated as the nodal department for the scheme within the state. This nodal department has an overall responsibility of supervision, monitoring and coordination of MPLATs implementation with their districts and other line departments. Now here government of India informs this state nodal department about the release of MPLATs funds to the district authorities. Therefore the district authority gets this scheme implemented through local self-governments or even through government agencies. In some cases, district authority also engages reputed non-government organization for the execution of MPLATs work and after this the district authorities report the status of implementation to government of India and the state nodal department. And one important aspect of this scheme is that the funds released to the district authority are non-lapsable that is if there is some amount which is not spent in a particular year the amount will not lapse. The amount will add up for utilization in the next financial year. So these are some of the basic information that we have to know with respect to this scheme. Now the news is that there is demand from MPs for release of funds under MPLATs. See it because of adverse impact of outbreak of COVID-19 in India, the union cabinet temporarily suspended release of funds under the scheme for the financial year 2021 and 2022. However now the members of almost all parties are unanimously asking the government to release funds for the projects that were sanctioned in 2018 and 19 as these were sanctioned before pandemic. It is reported that the government has replied that resuming the funds before March 2022 is impossible. So these are some of the important information with respect to the analysis of this news article. We saw about the scheme in detail how it is implemented who can recommend etc. Now let's move on to the analysis of next news article. Now this news article states that according to a study the non-banking financial companies are expecting higher credit loss mainly due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. In this context let us discuss about NBFCs and also let us see how they differ from banks. First know that NBFC is a company registered under the company's act. It is engaged in the business of loans and advances or it is engaged in acquisition of shares, stocks, bonds, debentures or securities that are issued by government or local authority or it is engaged in other marketable securities of the nature same as shares, stocks, bonds, debentures, securities issued by government or local authority or it is engaged in leasing, higher purchase, insurance business or cheat business. But here note that NBFCs does not include any institution whose principal business is in agricultural activity or industrial activity or in purchase or sale of any goods or providing services or in sale or purchase or construction of immovable property and a non-banking institution which is a company is also NBFC when it has principal business of receiving deposits under any scheme or arrangement in one lump sum or in installments by contributions or in any other manner. Here the term principal business is not defined by the SOB of India Act but RBI itself has given the above definition source to ensure that only companies that are predominantly engaged in financial activity gets registered with RBI and are regulated and supervised by the central bank. Here also note that sometimes we hear that NBFCs are companies having financial activity as principal business. This is when a company's financial assets constitute more than 50% of the total assets and the income from financial assets constitute more than 50% of the gross income. So a company which fulfills both these criteria will be registered as NBFC by RBI. Also it is mandatory that every NBFC should be registered with RBI. This is as per section 45, capital A of RBI Act of 1934. So under this no NBFC can commence or carry out business of a non-banking financial institution without obtaining a certificate of registration from RBI. However there is an exception that certain categories of NBFCs which are regulated by other regulators say for example SEBI. They are exempted from requirement of registration with RBI. For example stock broken companies are registered with SEBI so they need not register again with RBI. Now let's see how NBFCs differ from a bank. See NBFCs lend and they make investments yes and therefore their activities are similar to banks. However they differ from banks because NBFCs cannot accept demand deposits like banks then NBFCs do not form part of payment and settlement system and they cannot issue checks drawn on themselves and also the deposit insurance facility of deposit insurance and credit guarantee corporation is not available to depositors of NBFCs. However if you see the depositors in the case of banks there is such facility for example in banks each depositor is insured up to a maximum of 5 lakh rupees for both principal and interest amount held by the particular individual. The individual will be paid this amount in case the bank is liquidated or if the bank's license is cancelled or if the bank is merged with other banks. So these are the ways in which NBFCs differ from banks and with this we come to the end of analysis of this news article where we saw about NBFCs what do you mean by NBFCs what are the legal provisions related to that and how they differ from banks. Now let's move on to the analysis of next news article. Now this news article talks about the siting of bar-headed geese at the Point Calimer Bird and Wildlife Sanctuary at Kodiakarai in Tamil Nadu. In this context let us see in brief about this bar-headed goose and the Point Calimer Sanctuary. So when we talk about bar-headed goose this species is identified in gray and white colors it has two horseshoe shaped brownish black bars on the back of its white head. The body is gray overall the bill and legs are pink, orange or yellow. They have a size of approximately 75 centimeter they weigh around 1.87 to 3 kilograms. Importantly their diet includes plants and occasionally crustaceans and invertebrates. They have an extremely large range and they can be found in lot of our neighboring countries Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, in our country Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam. They have also been introduced to Canada and Spain as well. They prefer high altitude mountain lakes and marshes that are on highland platoons for the purposes of breeding. During every spring that is from the months of March to May large flocks of bar-headed geese they fly from India to their nesting grounds in Tibet through the Himalayan Range above the Mount Everest. Now this shows that they are high flying birds and also hardy birds meaning they are capable of enduring difficult conditions. They are capable of flying through passes of mountains with heights ranging from 3600 to 4300 meters and they can fly with winds that blow at speeds of more than 322 kilometers per hour and in freezing temperature and at this height oxygen levels drop by one third and even kerosene cannot burn there and helicopters are also not flying at this altitude. Now how these birds are able to fly at this altitude at this tough conditions? This is because they have a special type of hemoglobin. Now this type of hemoglobin absorbs oxygen quicker than other birds. They can also extract more oxygen from each breath than other birds and they are also able to fly more than 80 kilometers per hour without wind assisting them. Now it is interesting to know that these geese are able to migrate to around 1600 kilometers in a single day and according to IUCN Red List they are at present designated as least concerned. Now let's come to Point Calimer wildlife sanctuary. See this wildlife and bird sanctuary it is situated on a low promontory in Park Strait on the Coromandel coast. It covers areas mainly in the district of Nagapattam of Tamil Nadu however it also covers some areas in Tiruvaru and Tansavo districts of Tamil Nadu. The specialty of this sanctuary at present is that it is the only site in Tamil Nadu to be declared as a Ramsar site. It was declared in the year 2002 and bird life international has also declared it as an important bird and biodiversity area. The sanctuary consists of tidal swamps, tropical dry evergreen forests and mangroves and low-laying coastal grazing lands and it has variable rainfall regimes and it is not typical of a tropical monsoon climate. While northeast monsoon is a major contributor to this area some areas receive rainfall even during the southwest monsoon. Now this sanctuary is famous for its flamingos and blackbuck. It is also an extremely important staging and wintering ground for migratory birds. We can find flamingos, ducks and birds like Vedas, gulls and turns. It is also a very important feeding ground or foraging ground for several other species as well. So far around two 57 species of birds have been recorded here and around 119 of them are water birds. One can also find spot-built pelican which is designated as near threatened by IUCN in this sanctuary. Now some of the major mammals that are found in this sanctuary are given here for your reference and in this area a large number of feral cattle and feral horses are also seen. Now coming to the threats faced by this site it includes illegal collection of firewood and forest produce, the spread of invasive prosopis ciliensis. Then there is increasing brackish groundwater which is caused by expansion of historical saltworks. Then there is also decreasing inflow of freshwater and recently cyclone gajah caused devastation wherein thousands of birds were reportedly died and numerous trees have been uprooted. So these are some of the information with reference to point calimabird and wildlife sanctuary. In this analysis we saw about bar-headed geese and also about the sanctuary. Now let's move on to the analysis of next news article. Now this news article talks about the launch of Himgri and Saksham for the first time into water. In this context let us see about both of these and the projects under which they were built. Let's start with Himgri. See here Himgri is the first of the three stealth frigates. The stealth frigate is a modern warship with a built-in technology which makes it difficult to be identified through radar or sonar detection. This Himgri was launched into the waters of Hoogley river on 14th December 2020 which is yesterday. See this frigate was built for Indian Navy and it was built under the project called as project 17 capital A built by garden-reach shipbuilders and engineers limited Kolkata. See this garden-reach shipbuilders and engineers limited is a shipbuilding company in our country which is also a public sector undertaking or a public company under the administrative control of Ministry of Defense. It primarily caters to the shipbuilding requirements of Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard. Now coming to the news article under the project 17 A program a total of seven ships were planned and among them four are constructed at Mazagon dock shipbuilders limited and three at garden-reach shipbuilders and engineers limited. Now if you take P-17A ships these are state of the art guided missile frigates and each of them are 149 meter long they will have deep displacement of 6,670 tons and a speed of 28 knots. Now these ships would be the most powerful frigates in the arsenal of Indian Navy and they are packed with capabilities to tackle threats from all three dimensions. When we say three dimensions it refers to from air from surface and from surf surface and they also have potential state of thought weapons and sensors fit inside them and according to Press Information Bureau P-17A ships are the first gas turbine propulsion platforms and also the largest combat platforms ever built at garden-reach shipbuilders and engineers limited. Now this project plays a very important role given India's vision for Atmanir Barbarath because another project ships are indigenously designed by directorate of naval design is a premier organization of Indian Navy and its website states that it is the only one in the country for the design of submarines and submersibles. So P-17A ships are designed by directorate of naval design and these ships are built at Indian yards which are Mazagon docks limited and garden-reach shipbuilders and engineers limited. See these ships are sourcing 80% of the material or equipment required for the project from Vendors within India and has generated employment for more than 2000 firms and MSMEs within our country. Now with respect to technology upgradation capability enhancement a company called Fincan Theory from Italy has played a vital role and this company is one of the world's largest shipbuilding groups and despite the disruptions in the supply chain because of COVID-19 the GRSC or the garden-reach shipbuilding and engineers limited has completed 100% of the construction work within 18 months. Now let's come to Saksham. See it is an offshore patrol vessel that is the fifth and last in the series of OPV project. It was built at Goa Shipyard Limited and it is expected to be delivered to the Indian Coast Guard by the month of October next year. See offshore platform vessels they are long range surfaced ships they are capable of operation in maritime zones of the nation even including island territories and it also has helicopter operation capabilities. They are highly versatile ships they are designed to perform economic exclusive zone management rules. Now when we say exclusive economic zone it's an area in the sea in which sovereign state has special rights with respect to exploration and use of marine resources including energy production from water and wind. Now some of the roles undertaken by offshore patrol vehicles we can say coastal and offshore patrol policing maritime zones of the country surveillance and operations for anti-smuggling and anti-piracy. See this indigenous offshore patrol vehicle project was launched on November 13th of 2016 that is in November 2016 and as per the Indian Coast Guard all the five vessels under the project have been launched and two among them have been commissioned into service. With this we come to the end of analysis of this news article. In this article we saw about Himgiri which is an advanced stealth frigate and we saw about project 17 capital A then we saw Saksham and also the project called us offshore patrol vessels project. Now let's move on to the analysis of next news article. This editorial article is in response to the release of data fact sheets for 22 states and union territories based on phase one of national family health survey five. Before we see the article in detail let us see about NFHS and few terminologies associated with it. See NFHS is a large-scale multi-round survey that is conducted in a representative sample of households throughout India and this survey provides state-level and national information on fertility, infant and child mortality, family planning, maternal and child health, reproductive health, nutrition, anemia and on utilization and quality of health and family planning services. Here the term malnutrition it covers two broad groups of conditions one is under nutrition where we could see stunting, wasting and underweight and we could also see micronutrient deficiencies or insufficiencies which refers to lack of important vitamins and minerals and the other is overweight, obesity and diet related non-communicable diseases for example stroke, diabetes and heart diseases. So in this article we will see what the survey details find about the nutritional aspects of the population in these 22 states or union territories. See the survey provides not a promising status or it provides a grim picture about the nutritional standards of population in these states for which the survey details were released. Let us see one by one. See there is an increase in acute malnutrition in 16 states or UTs compared to the previous survey which was conducted in 2015-16. Now if you come to children who are under the age of five years the percentage of those who are underweight has also increased in 16 states or UTs and coming to the status with reference to anemia levels among children and this along with adult women has increased in most of the states. However a decline in anemia was found in only four states or UTs and also adult malnutrition is also increasing. Now this is observed by the fact that those having body mass index of less than 18.5 is also increasing. Now there is also an increasing trend of obesity and overweight among children and also among adults so this shows inadequate attention being paid to diet in terms of quantity and also in terms of quality. So from this we can observe that there is a situation called as double burden of malnutrition. On the one side we have under nutrition and on the other hand we have obesity related issues. Then we can observe that there is increase in childhood stunting in 13 of the 22 states when we compare it with NFHS4. Now this is very important as stunting is an indicator of chronic under nutrition and it is considered as a sensitive indicator of overall well-being of the child and when we say stunting it refers to low height for the appropriate age. Now of the remaining 9 states out of 22, 5 have seen marginal improvement of less than 1 percentage in this 5 year period and some states that have improved more than 1 percent as Sam we can see Sikkim has improved more than 7 percent, Manipura and Bihar more than 5 percent. Now despite this improvement it is observed that the achievement is still below the goals that are set by the government. Now let us see the pace at which these changes are taking place. See there was a 10 percentage point decline in stunting among children between 2005-6 to 2015-16. Now this means stunting reduced from 48 percent in 2005-6 to 38 percent in 2015-16 so the pace average to just 1 percentage point per year. So though stunting is declining it is not at the desired pace. On the other side we can see there is Poshan Abhyan which was launched to reduce nutritional deficiencies in the country which aims at reducing stunting at 2 percentage points every year. Now we know that Poshan stands for Prime Minister's overarching scheme for holistic nutrition or it is also called as national nutrition mission. It is the flagship program to improve nutritional outcomes for three groups for children pregnant women and lactating mothers. So it aims to reduce the level of stunting under nutrition anemia and low birth weight babies. Now with respect to reducing anemia among young children women and adolescent girls the pace of reduction expected as per this program is 3 percent per annum for remaining that is for stunting under nutrition and reducing low birth weight the pace of reduction under this program is 2 percent per annum. So based on the survey data experts are predicting that India will witness an increase in childhood stunting in the coming years and this is not something good to hear because children as per national children policy are the future and supreme national assets of the country and stunting is very serious as WHO calls it as a marker of inequalities in human development and the author brings into picture of some other aspects that have contributed to this difficult situation. We know that post 1991 India opened up its economy and there has been high economic growth. However at the same time that has also led to increasing inequality there is greater informalization of labor force and the employment elasticities of growth is also reducing. So this calls for greater government intervention in the areas of nutrition child welfare and social protection. The more the inequality the more will be the proportion of malnutrition. Now to address the concerns related to nutrition government has introduced MNREGA scheme so as to provide some income to the beneficiaries then there is public distribution system ICDS and also mid-day meal scheme. However it is observed that there is underfunding of these schemes and also under utilization of schemes and this leads to non-achievement of nutritional goals. It is found that of the total funds released for Poshana beyond from 2017-18 only around one third of the funds were utilized. So there are also other factors that contribute to the malnutrition problem slowdown in economic growth stagnant rural wages and there is also high levels of unemployment and off late we also see there is an increase in starvation deaths in the country the volunteers of right to food campaign have listed more than 100 starvation deaths since the year 2015 and with the pandemic induced lockdown and related economic challenges it is predicted that unless necessary efforts are taken starvation deaths might increase and recently the hunger watch survey it has reported that there are massive levels of food insecurity and decline in food consumption especially among the poor and vulnerable households. However there is one good trend that was observed in NFHS-5 that is there are improvements in the determinants of malnutrition some of the contributing factors of malnutrition show some improvement on this improvement in access to sanitation and improvement in access to clean cooking fuels and improvement in status of women. However there is improvement there is regional variation among the states so with respect to addressing all these concerns the policy makers are called to get rid of piecemeal approach and to address the issue of nutrition in a more comprehensive manner and government has to directly intervene in the form of providing supplementary food like fruits and eggs and it has to monitor the growth of children and behavior change through the ICDS program and it has to strengthen the school meals and more resources have to be given then changes are also required in the cropping pattern as well as right wheat pattern has to be changed with more nutritional crops wherever possible and the linkage between agriculture and nutrition has to be strengthened universal maternity entitlements have to be made a norm then childcare services to enable breastfeeding to should be set up and women's unpaid work has to be recognized and the author concludes by saying that there should be more focus on basic determinants of malnutrition which are household food security access to basic health services and equitable gender relations now these were called as the basic determinants of malnutrition and nutrition attainment should not be confined to just ICDS or mid-day meal scheme rather it should shift to employment centered growth strategy where it includes universal provision of basic services for education health food and social security so from all these things what we can say is the problem of malnutrition needs to be tackled from multiple fronts in a comprehensive manner so a comprehensive policy to tackle double burn of malnutrition is required so that by 2030 we can achieve sustainable development goal two which aims to end hunger and to achieve food security and improve nutrition so these are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this editorial article now let's move on to next part of the discussion we have come to the last session the practice questions discussion session see this previously asked question with reference to funds under MP lads which of the following statements are correct statement one MP lads funds must be used to create durable assets like physical infrastructure for health education etc now the statement is correct a specified portion of each MPs fund must benefit SCST populations see 15 percent of each MPs fund must go to areas with people belonging to schedule cast and 7.5 percent for areas with people belonging to schedule tribes and in case a constituency does not have area inhabited by persons belonging to schedule tribes such fund may be utilized for areas where people belonging to schedule cast are there and this is vice versa second statement is correct third statement MP lads funds are sanctioned on yearly basis yes it is correct what about the next part the unused funds cannot be carried forward to the next year now this is incorrect according to the statement it says MP lads is laxable however we know that under MP lads the funds are non-lapsable they are carried forward to the next year so third statement is incorrect so you can eliminate options B and option C now you have to find whether the fourth statement is correct or not to arrive at the correct answer the district authority must inspect at least 10 percent of all works under implementation every year now the statement is correct see the district authority is responsible for overall coordination and supervision of the works under the scheme at the district level and the authority shall inspect at least 10 percent of the works under implementation every year authority should involve the MPs in the inspections of projects to the extent it is feasible so correct answer for this question is option D now see this question which of the following works are not permissible under MP lads select the correct answer from the code given below see the correct answer for this question is option A one only works within the places of religious worship is not permissible under MP lads now we have given you a list of works that are prohibited under this program now these works are allowed correct answer for this question is option A one only now this question is with reference to nbfcs two statements are given they're asking which of the statement given are incorrect first statement institutions whose principal business is agriculture and industrial activity is not registered as nbfc this statement is correct the second statement it can accept demand deposits like banks the very first part of the statement is incorrect therefore the entire statement becomes wrong and deposit insurance facility of deposit insurance and credit guarantee corporation is not available to depositors of nbfcs so though the second part is correct first part is incorrect so the correct answer for this question is option B two only only the second statement is incorrect now this question is with reference to point calima wildlife and birds sanctuary two statements are given they're asking which of the above given statements are correct it is famous for its flamingos and blackbuck which is correct and it is the only site in Tamil Nadu to be declared as a Ramsar site correct answer option C now this question is with reference to bar-headed goose they are flightless birds native to South Asia this is incorrect they are birds that fly high elevations so the tune of about 3.5 kilometers to 4.3 kilometers they have an extremely long range they can be found in Afghanistan Bangladesh Russia Thailand India Mongolia Nepal Pakistan and they are also been introduced to Canada and Spain the correct answer for this question is option B two only because second statement which says they are declared as least concerned and IUCN red list is correct now this question is with reference to Himgiri recently the term Himgiri is seen in news it is an Indian research station in Antarctica see Himadri which is translated as the abode of snow is India's first research station located in international Arctic research base in Norway so it is located at a distance of 1200 kilometers from the north pole so it is not Himgiri it is Himadri the second statement corresponds to affordable rental housing program under ministry of housing and urban affairs to provide rental housing for migrant workers that is not Himgiri and it is not an offshore patrol vessel being built to address the needs of Indian Coast Guard for example we can say Saksham corresponds to option C the correct answer is option D it is the state of art guided missile frigate built with stealth features for the use of Indian Navy now we have given you a practice mains question you may write answers for this question and post it in the comment section with this we come to the end of today's the hindu news analysis if you like the video click the like button comment share and subscribe to Shankara's academy youtube channel for more updates and content on civil services 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