 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankaray's Academy, displayed on the list of news articles taken for today's analysis and their page numbers in different editions of the newspaper. The link for the handwritten notes in the PDF format and the timestamping of the discussed articles are provided in the description and also in the common section for the benefit of mobile phone viewers. Now let's move on to the analysis of first news article. In this article, the author talks about new rules made by Indian government regarding international trade of electricity or cross-border trade of electricity and what is going to be the impact of these new rules on the South Asian electricity market. So we will discuss relevant aspects in this analysis. The syllabus relevant for the analysis is highlighted here for your reference. So India has released new rules that govern trade of electricity across the borders. These new rules, they place clear limits on who can buy from India and who can sell electricity to India. Now these rules are going to shape the framework of South Asian electricity market. See countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, they have already aligned their energy policies with the Indian market. But the new changes brought by the government is expected to have huge ramifications for these smaller neighboring countries. Now let us see some of the important changes. The first one is about the rules on ownership. The new rule strongly discourages the participation of power plants owned by a company that is situated in a third country with whom India shares a land border and a country which does not have a bilateral agreement on power sector cooperation with India. Say for example, if India and Bhutan are partnering, a power plant might be located in Bhutan but this power plant in Bhutan could be owned by Chinese enterprises. So even though the power plant is in Bhutan, this power plant cannot have access to Indian electricity market. So this rule on ownership is important as we see Chinese companies establishing power plants in our neighboring countries like Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. And this new rule of ownership will surely affect these Chinese companies because for them the Indian energy market will be cut off. So they will have a hard time making a return on their investment in these smaller neighboring countries of India. Next comes the tripartite agreements. Here the new rules state that the cross border trade of electricity across India will be allowed under the overall framework of bilateral agreements only that is those agreements that are signed between Indian government and the governments of respective neighboring countries of the participating entities. This rule is also a buttressing rule or a supporting rule for the first one we saw on rule on ownership and this also again will affect the Chinese companies because for them the Indian energy market will be cut off because it is found that a third country in the tripartite arrangement is found to have taken advantage of bypassing the bilateral agreements. So when we say tripartite agreements these are agreements involving three parties. So here the simple fact is that if three parties are joining for a partnership say India, Nepal and Bhutan the transactions between India and Nepal will not be governed by tripartite agreement of the three members rather the bilateral agreement between India and Bhutan. In addition to these changes the new rules also set an elaborate surveillance procedure so as to detect changes in the ownership patterns of entities that are trading with India. So what does this mean say for example currently a power plant from Nepal is partnering with India and is trading with Indian electricity market and right now this company is owned by a Nepali citizen. If we don't have surveillance procedure over a period of time say next year this power plant in Nepal may transfer ownership to a Chinese enterprise. So such surveillance procedures are necessary so as to ensure that trade happens as per the agreement. So with these changes the author opines that these new rules are unmistakably political why we say these are political because they have been brought to balance the growing influence of China in the South Asian region. See when a new government came to power in India in 2014 under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra India used the framework of SARC to make historical moves towards liberalizing electricity trade but soon China began to make its presence in the South Asian region. So in order to counter China India slowed down its policy of electricity liberalization because China entered Indian market through the SARC member states and India also imposed stringent restrictions that discouraged everyone other than Indian and government entities from participating. So even private entities from neighboring countries found it difficult to participate so these restrictions threatened to undermine private sector participation and promising joint ventures across our region. In fact it is reported that Nepal and Bhutan were severely affected by these changes and they also have protested vehemently. So over a period of time a new set of guidelines was introduced in 2018 to find a middle ground it was brought as a balancing act that allowed private sector participation excluding Chinese investments. Though it was brought as a balancing act it is still reported that even the 2018 rules and guidelines were restrictive when it comes to borderless trade. Now the reason why Arthur states this is because in order to restrict certain players in the process it actually becomes even for the legitimate players to participate and this results into lack of leveraging adequate potential of cross-border trade of electricity. Now Arthur also states that Indian government through its institutional mechanisms and geographic and economic advantage has made the South Asian electricity market largely India centric and there is also lack of independent regional body so as to govern trade. The absence of such a body also aids in having India centric electricity trade therefore India enjoys the rule sitting powers in the South Asian arena. But if this continues what will happen is it will attract the anger of already unhappy smaller neighbors because they feel their economic growth is being stunted by their decisions made by India. The author also suggests that these rules provokes some larger questions with respect to India's ambition of leading a global super grid called as once and one world one grid shortly called as Ossovog. See this initiative was proposed by India the objective is to set up a framework for facilitating global cooperation so as to build a global ecosystem of interconnected renewable energy resources and these resources should be easily shareable among the participating countries. So this initiative aims to begin with connections to West Asia and Southeast Asia and then to spread to Africa and beyond. It benefits from grids that cover vast areas and diverse geographic conditions. Now what is the advantage of having multi-country grids of renewable energy see this allows unpredictable outputs from renewable energy plants so as to be balanced or shared across countries. So an unutilized surplus in one country could be utilized in a deficit country. This also avoids spending for expensive country specific balancing technologies which are like hydropower and gas plants. So a plan like Ossovog is very promising but it needs an institutional vision for borderless trade. So far it is said that the Indian rules and policies have collided with the other South Asian countries and also have damaged the expansive visions of borderless trade of electricity. So there should be impartial institutions with reference to planning investments and conflict resolution which are crucial for an initiative like once and one world one grid and then Ossovog needs management of dozens of countries that are across different continents so the new rules and even past regulations questions the ability of India to anchor this initiative that actually relies on electricity liberalization and borderless trade. This is the theme point of the author. We will see about Ossovog in detail in the end of the analysis. See the South Asian electricity market is a competitive space. Each and every country has its own ambitions therefore an attractive institutional model is required to survive in this competitive space. This will help to gain investments and will also discourage defection of our partners to other countries like China. Only a considered stable institutional model can likely counter and even surpass anything that China has to offer to our smaller neighbors and we should note that we have dedicated a lot of political capital and time in last decade to garner the support of Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. So the author concludes by saying that India instead of tightening its rules when it comes to South Asian electricity market should create a rule based regional institution that can counter Chinese influence in the region and this need not be done through rules that emerge from Indian government which makes this area to be filled as India's centric market which the smaller neighbors may not like. Now let us see about Ossovog as we know it stands for one sun one world one initiative. The parent body of this initiative is the union ministry of new and renewable energy of government of India. It aims to build global consensus about sharing solar resources among more than 140 countries in regions such as West Asia, Southeast Asia and even Africa and beyond. The vision is the sun never sets. You see globally when one part of the world is experiencing night the other part of the world experiences daytime because of earth's rotation so the sun never sets. It has been taken up under the technical assistance program of the World Bank. See by 2030 India would be generating around 40 percent of power from non-fossil fuels and India has called for connecting solar energy supply across borders giving the mantra of one world one sun one grid and this proposed integration would lead to reduced project costs high efficiencies and increased asset utilization for all the participating entities and this plan will require only incremental investment because it makes use of existing grids and it will help all the participating countries in attracting investments in renewable energy sources in addition to utilizing skills technology and finances. The resulting economic benefits would positively impact poverty alleviation through trickling down of economic benefits and there will also positive support in mitigating challenges in water sanitation food and other socioeconomic challenges. Some of these sectors are directly benefited because of renewable energy sources some of the sectors are indirectly benefited say for example if you have adequate renewable energy we need not import coal this will reduce import bill and just like rice and crude oil prices affects directly or indirectly many sectors adequate renewable energy capacity will also positively impact almost all sectors. So if we have an institutional arrangement and a regional independent body to govern trade in electricity the author opines that India will become a leader in the field of renewable energy so these are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this editorial article in this analysis we discussed about the new rules that India have made which are considered unmistakably political as it aims to counter China and various other positive aspects of it and how some aspects of the new rules may be considered damaging by some of the smaller neighbors like Nepal Bhutan and Bangladesh and we also saw about the initiative of Ossovog and its benefits. Now let's move on to the analysis of next news article this news article talks about what happened at the United Nations Human Rights Council with reference to a resolution that was smoothed against the Sri Lankan government's administration in the matter of protection of human rights on 27th February 2021 we discussed an article wherein the secretary to Sri Lanka's ministry of foreign affairs requested India's support at the United Nations Human Rights Council for the Sri Lanka government at that time we discussed about the civil conflict in Sri Lanka and also the gross human rights violations that happened during the period today's article is in continuation with this see recently there was a UN report on Sri Lanka that highlighted the path of the current government or the recent governments toward a recurrence of grave human rights violations particularly against the Tamil population in relation to this a draft resolution was submitted at the UNHRC by UK, Canada, Germany and few other countries so as to discuss and debate the issues in Sri Lanka so India was in a dilemma whether to vote for Sri Lanka or against the Sri Lanka or in other words whether to vote against the resolution or to vote for the resolution see voting in support of Sri Lanka might enhance political relations with the current Indian leadership and the Sri Lankan leadership but it might be against values of democracy human rights etc but voting against Sri Lanka might compromise the political relations however it could have raised electoral stakes at the domestic level for the central ruling party in Tamil Nadu where election is due in next month on April 6th let's see what happened see this news article says that India along with 13 other countries have abstained from voting on the resolution against Sri Lanka for war crimes against Tamils that is India had not exercised right to vote instead India abstained from the process of voting so with these 13 members abstaining voting happened with other members this resolution is titled as promoting reconciliation accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka and it was adopted after 22 states in this human rights council voted in favor of the resolution with 13 countries abstaining 22 is a majority number but the Sri Lankan government has rejected the resolution this is criticized as unwillingness of the Sri Lankan government to prosecute war criminals through an evidence gathering and investigation mechanism at the international level see when the resolution was brought about the Sri Lankan government asked India to vote against the resolution however the Tamil national alliance which represents Sri Lankan Tamil minority it asked India support for the resolution however the decision taken by India to abstain from voting it seems to be a calibrated diplomatic move to satisfy both sides within Sri Lanka and also as it effectively amounts to support for neither party it was also considered as a balancing move as some balance is observed between international and domestic level because if government voted in favor of the Sri Lankan government that would have cost heavily the electoral prospects of the NDA at the state of Tamil Nadu now some of the countries that abstain from voting we can say Japan, Nepal and some countries that voted against the resolution are China, Pakistan, Russia and Bangladesh so voting against the resolution means these countries have supported Sri Lankan government actually they are saying that Sri Lankan government is very well performing in terms of human rights record here we must say that this even resolution on Sri Lanka is an important step as it offers renewed hope for justice for the victims of the civil conflict primarily Tamil population according to human rights groups like Amnesty International more than 60,000 people disappeared during Sri Lanka's 30-year civil conflict disappearance here means most of these people almost all of them have been killed by the Sri Lankan army or by the predominantly by the authorities of the government but there is no justice consecutive even investigations have found credible allegations of human rights violations and also abuses of international human rights standards and international humanitarian law see this resolution should be an eye opener for the Sri Lankan government apart from this there needs to be enhanced monitoring and strong preventive action by the international community the resolution wants that Sri Lanka's current trajectory sets the scene for the recurrence of the policies and practices that gave rise to grave human rights violations some of the early warning signals highlighted so as to support the previous statement made that is the current trajectory sets the scenes for recurrence of policies giving rise to human rights violations one is that accelerating militarization of civil governmental functions that the military in Sri Lanka is taking much of the civil functions reversal of important constitutional safeguards guaranteed for Tamil population then political obstruction of accountability then exclusionary rhetoric intimidation of civil society and also there is blatant misuse of anti-terrorism laws so these were considered as warning signals that are happening in Sri Lanka might give rise to grave human rights violations so these are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this news article now let's move on to next part of the discussion this news article talks about the encroachments around protected monuments recently ministry of culture gave an answer or a reply in the rajasabha according to which there are encroachments in around 321 monuments and ancient sites across several states since the year 2014 in this list we can also find encroachments happening around Purana Kila in Delhi and also around the Elora caves in Maharashtra note that with respect to removal of encroachments the archaeological survey of India is dependent on appropriate state governments or state administrations and how these removals are usually undertaken see these are undertaken by enforcing the provisions of a law called as ancient monuments and archaeological sites and remains set of 1958 in this regard let us steer our today's discussion towards Purana Kila in Delhi see the word Purana in Hindi means old and Kila means fort so it literally translates to old foot it is a fortified citadel and according to Hindu literature or mythology this fort it marks the site of Indra Prastha and as per the mythology Indra Prastha was the magnificent capital of Pandavas mentioned in Mahabharata now coming to this fort it has been built on a small hill which stands on the banks of river Yamuna and this fort is roughly rectangular in shape when we come to its architecture it includes massive rubble wall and grand or impressive gateways rubble walls as you can see in this picture here these were made with use of undressed rough stones then the fort has three large sandstone gateways and these gateways were decorated with white marble inlay and colored tiles the northern gateways called as tala ki darwaza or the forbidden gateway now this gateway it compines the typically islamic pointed arch with hindu chathris and brackets and we say chathris these refer to canopy like structures as you see in this picture here is that dome part these part are sometimes the entire structure with dome are also called as chathris or canopy like structures the southern gateway is called as the humayun darwaza it also has a similar plan and they are saying that humayun darwaza it bears evidence to the elegant architectural style of mughals this gate is bordered by the remains of two huge circular towers that have window openings it also has an arched roof and this roof is covered by an open pedestal having two chathris on either side these chathris are made of black and red stone surprisingly the gateway also has two white elephants sculptures that are engraved and this part is said to have been inspired by hindu architectural styles because buildings of humayuns period are basically Persian in concept this point we have to take note of so there is some evidence of co-mingling of cultures or architectural styles therefore the design of the gate waves that formed the beginning of more artistic ornamental type of building construction and it marked an important architectural development of the period one of the important facts to note regarding the fort is that it has been built by two rulers its construction was started by the mughal emperor humayun and it was finished by the afghan ruler shersha suri here humayun is believed to have rebuilt the city at the present site of the purana kila in delhi and at that time the city was known as dinpana so humayun started construction of the fort at dinpana but what happened in between was he was defeated by shersha suri and suri gained the throne of delhi after the defeat what happened therefore suri completed the fort roughly in the time between 1538 to 1545 during his rule and this happened before humayun once again regained his throne in 1555 ed. shersha had his residence treasury and seat of government all in the purana kila and purana kila is significant as it had been the seat of administration for many empires for example a legendary ruler prithivaraj saukhan also ruled from here now let's see who constructed what see the wall was built by humayun while the buildings in the fort are attributed to shersha the fort houses includes a mosque of shersha which is called as kila kikuna mosque it has a double-storing octagonal tower which is called as shermandal it is made of red sandstone now it is also said that humayun fell from this tower accidentally and also died as a result of that so shermandal is traditionally associated with humayun's death now see this reference question asked in a previous year of prylums which has been provided to you to give a glimpse of how upsi may frame questions on such topics from indian history or from topics of historical significance so these are some of the important aspects with reference to the analysis of this news article in this analysis we discussed about purana kila in detail various importance associated with this monument now let's move on to the next part of the discussion this editorial article is with reference to india taiwan relations the author talks on the current status of bilateral relations between india and taiwan and how to improve the ties in this context let us know about taiwan and then we will see the opinions expressed by the author in this article see taiwan is an island country in east asia its capital is tai pai the main island is historically known as farmosa and this main island makes up of 99 percent of the area that is controlled by republic of china see the government in taiwan is called as republic of china whereas the government in the mainland china normally what we call as china is called as people's republic of china now come to taiwan taiwan lies cross the taiwan straight from the southeast and coast of mainland china note that taiwan has got east china sea to its north in its east we can see pili pine sea then in its south we can see luzon straight and we can see south china sea to its southwest now we should know about one china policy related to taiwan according to this policy there is only one sovereign state under the name china and only one chinese government is there and taiwan is a part of that one chinese government that governs in mainland china there is still aspirations in taiwan so as to make it as a independent country but current political understanding and setup is that taiwan is part of people's republic of china from 1950s to 1970s many countries had diplomatic relations with taiwan and with growing political clout of china since 1970s china commanded that any country that wants to have diplomatic relations with mainland china should break their official ties with tai pai see china does not use the term taiwan rather it uses chinese tai pai whereas those parties in taiwan which wants to make taiwan as an independent country they shed usage of chinese tai pai instead they use taiwan so as we saw initially many governments recognize taiwan from 1950s to 1970s and they shied away from china at that period of time but with growing power and political clout at the international arena since 1970s and with the mutual need to develop relations with china countries disconnected their ties with chinese tai pai so as to favor beaching now let's come to india taiwan ties see most of the member states of u n do not maintain formal diplomatic ties with taiwan and india is one among them and when we say formal diplomatic ties this refers to having a embassy for taiwan in india having an embassy for india and taiwan mainly so we do not maintain formal diplomatic ties with taiwan because india considers taiwan is a part of china however over the last two decades since 1990s india taiwan relations have progressed considerably particularly in terms of trade and economic contacts right now india has a range of bilateral agreements under the chinese government with taiwan this covers agriculture investment customs cooperation civil aviation industrial cooperation to name some areas now the main context or the background of this article being discussed in the context of india has to improve the relations with taiwan is because of the recent disputes and confrontation with china and therefore there has been a growing sentiment for india to invoke the subject of taiwan and to have closer ties with taiwan see any country moving closely with taiwan actually irritates the mainland chinese government that is why many a time us brings chinese tai pai or talks about more funding financial relations contact with taiwan source to irritate china now let's come to the opinions expressed by the author the author notes that the growing relationship between india and taiwan has been low key affair that is this relation was not given high priority so far this is because india has been hesitant to publicly acknowledge improving ties with taiwan so the author opens that it is now time to recalibrate india taiwan relations and in this regard the author suggests some measures to strengthen our engagements with taiwan the first and foremost is creating a political framework for mutual engagement here author notes that india and taiwan has always ensured openness with democracy diversity freedom human rights justice and rule of law as the guiding principles so in this regard both sides may create a group of empowered persons or a task force and can use the shared principles or ethics so as to strengthen the relations second thing is about expanding cooperation in the field of health care see both the countries gained considerable compliments from across the world in containing the spread and in minimizing the deaths because of covid-19 therefore both countries have already taken the leadership in the global fight against covid-19 so author says this is an example of shared vision of india and taiwan moreover india and taiwan already collaborate in the area of traditional medicine remember recently india donated 1.5 million rupees to taiwan's national research institute of chinese medicine this is to boost cooperation in traditional medicine so more initiatives in this regard should be taken to improve cooperation third is related to cooperation in the field of sustainable development this is in the context of improving air quality in india particularly in many cities where the quality is one of the least in the world stubble burning mainly in north indian cities is one of the major reasons for winter pollutions in the country so india must share and adapt bio-friendly taiwanese technologies through agreements and transfer of knowledge also a joint research and development in the field of organic farming should also be promoted and taiwanese engagement will also help us to enhance farmers income fourth aspect is with respect to cultural cooperation here taiwan and india should deepen people-to-people connection for this tourism sector should be leveraged especially the buddhist pilgrimage author notes that taiwan tourism bureau is already partnering with mumbai metro and in this regard taiwan is trying to raise awareness about india and there is also increase in inflow of indian tourists to taiwan so india should make similar initiatives in this regard so as to cooperate in the tourism sector and fifth aspect is economic relations as we know india's blessed with huge market because of huge population the second most populous nation in the world it also provides taiwan with investment opportunities taiwan is significant when it comes to semiconductor and electronics as it is a world leader in that regard and this can complement with india's leadership in information technology enabled services and the convergence of interest can create new opportunities in addition to this the signing of bilateral trade agreement in 2018 was a recently achieved important milestone and there are around some 200 taiwanese companies operating in india in various fields but opinion is that more potential is there to be leveraged further so in this regard india should rework on our regulatory and labour regime so as to promote taiwanese investments in the form of foreign direct investments and foreign institutional investments so these are some of the opinions expressed by the author in this article so as to strengthen our engagements with taiwan with this we come to the end of analysis of this news article in this analysis we discussed in brief about taiwan what do we mean by chinese tai pai etc the role of china in managing the relationship that countries have with china in itself and also with chinese tai pai we saw the current relationship between india and taiwan and saw the author's views to strengthen india taiwan relationship now let us move on to next news article analysis this article is with reference to the information provided by union ministry of home affairs which informed the looks about that there is no panchayat system in six schedule areas of asam and presently there is no proposal to implement panchayat system there in relation to this let us see information with reference to six schedule of the indian constitution see this schedule it consists of provisions for the administration of tribal areas in four states asam megalaya mejoram and trupura it establishes autonomous district councils in these four northeastern states see these councils they provide autonomy in the administration of these scheduled areas it also aims to protect and preserve the tribal culture there now the rationale behind the creation of autonomous district councils is the belief that relationship to the land is the basis of tribal or indigenous identity the culture and identity of indigenous people they can be preserved by ensuring their control over the land and natural resources these councils are empowered to make laws in the areas under their jurisdiction in the subjects of land forest cultivation inheritance indigenous customs and traditions of tribal groups etc they are also empowered to collect land revenues and certain other taxes in short these autonomous district councils are like miniature states having specific powers and responsibilities and all three arms of gonons which are legislature executive and judiciary see the governors in these four states they are empowered to reorganize boundaries of the tribal areas in their states in simple terms the governor can choose to include or to exclude any area to increase or decrease the boundaries and to unite two or more autonomous districts into a single autonomous district the governors can also alter or they can change the names of autonomous regions without separate legislation as of now there are 10 autonomous councils that are existing in these four states in january 2019 the union cabinet approved amendments to increase financial and executive powers of these autonomous councils in addition to that the article also talks about the 125th constitutional amendment bill 2019 that was introduced in the rajasheba in february 2019 this amendment bill it proposes that the state election commissions would hold elections to the autonomous councils village and municipal councils and the article states that this bill is still active despite the change of government in 2019 because the bill was introduced in rajasheba there were some concerns that whether the existing arrangements are going to be modified or whether any proposal to implement panjayat system in asam etc so with reference to these concerns a reply has been given by union ministry of home affairs in loksha with this information now let's move on to next part of the discussion these news articles are with reference to the ongoing developments in afghanistan after years of wars and killings last year the united states signed a peace deal with the taliban and under the peace deal or the peace agreement the afghan government was required to cooperate with the taliban with reference to negotiations related to pristner swap and power sharing etc the news article reports that now the afghan president ashraf ghani is planning to reject the us peace plan and is also proposing a new presidential election within a period of six months in this context let us discuss in brief about the history of afghanistan and the role that india can play in ensuring peace there the syllabus relevant for the analysis is highlighted here for your reference see afghanistan is a landlocked multi ethnic country and it is located in the heart of south central asia it witnessed a ussr backed revolution in the year 1978 and as a result a pro-soviet government was established in afghanistan and in 1979 in the name of protecting the communist government there the soviet army invaded afghanistan this was resisted by several local insurgent groups you know for example mujahideen and the groups that were backed by the united states pakistan and south arabia over a period of 10 years situations changed and in 1989 soviet troops withdraw from afghanistan and in couple of years we also see in the international relations and in history the breaking of the soviet union and what happened there and during the time of soviet troops withdrawing from afghanistan thaliban originated as a extremist hardcore religious students movement this religious movement later became a hardcore religious terrorist organization and we know about the 9-11 attacks on the united states on 11th september 2001 and the role played by thaliban and after these attacks the united states invaded afghanistan to eliminate the thaliban regime so since then we witness the presence of united states troops in afghanistan and there are also troops from us's allies from natto in february 2020 us on behalf of its allies signed a peace deal with the thaliban it was announced that united states would withdraw 5400 troops from afghanistan within 20 weeks as part of agreement with the thaliban representatives the deal also promised a proportionate reduction in the number of other international forces in afghanistan and there will be efforts from afghan government and from the thaliban government and also there will be support from united states in relation to intra-afghan peace negotiations here when we say intra-afghan it refers to the negotiations between afghan government and thaliban and there will also be a prisoner swap which means prisoners from thaliban group will be released by afghan government and thaliban in turn will also release the people from afghan government and civilians whom it has captured and kept under confinement and the thaliban also agreed to reduce violence and to prevent other terrorist groups such as al-qaida and isis khorasan from operating on afghan territory and over a period of time there were a lot of disconnect between what was mentioned in the deal and there was also lack of understanding among thaliban and afghan government now let us discuss another article which says that india should have a bigger role in afghan peace process see india is a neighbor to afghanistan and on the map india shares border with afghanistan however in much of the international discussions related to afghanistan india was not included and one of the reasons was said that india do not want to participate in the negotiation table where thaliban representatives are present because india says thaliban is a terrorist organization however there are several international requests for india to change its perception towards thaliban we will see a lot of these aspects being discussed in the coming days as well now coming to india and afghanistan we have a strong relationship based on historical and cultural links india has played a significant role in the reconstruction and rehabilitation of afghanistan which was affected mainly because of terrorist elements in the recent past india afghanistan relations have been further strengthened by the strategic partnership agreement this agreement was signed in the year 2011 it provides for assistance from indian side to rebuild afghanistan's infrastructure and institutions and to provide education and technical assistance and these are assistance provided to rebuild indigenous afghan capacity in different areas this is done by encouraging investment in afghanistan's natural resources and also by providing duty-free access to the indian market for the exports that come from afghanistan and with reference to reconciliation process or peace process india states that there should be afghan lid afghan owned broad-based and inclusive process of peace and reconciliation and india also advocates the need for a sustained and long-term commitment from the international community to afghanistan and underlining these aspects the visiting foreign minister of afghanistan said that afghanistan wants a larger role for india in the peace and reconciliation process and this is significant because in the future afghanistan should not become a safe haven for international terrorists who carry out terrorist activities against countries including india the article also states that the foreign minister of afghanistan also discussed the peace plan proposed by president ghani with the national security advisor of india the plan proposes fresh elections to be conducted within a year if taliban agrees to a ceasefire and if taliban agrees to hand over power to the elected government and this plan is highlighted as a plan that goes against the us plan with taliban which stressed more on afghan taliban negotiations for a power sharing arrangement so these are some of their developments with respect to peace process in afghanistan let us hope that the new plan if agreed would ensure creating a lasting peace in afghanistan which will be helpful not just for the afghan people but also for the entire region as a whole so these are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this news article now let's move on to next part of the discussion this news article is with reference to the report titled as fighting inequality in the time of covid-19 the commitment to reducing inequality index 2020 this report was published by oxfam international in collaboration with development finance international the report had ranked india at one 29th position overall out of 158 countries in terms of workers rights india was ranked at 151 out of 158 countries and this was criticized by minister of labor in lokshubha where he said that the ranking and methodology used by oxfam lacked clarity in this regard oxfam had replied that it will stand by the report and the methodology adopted in the index which is available in the public domain in this context let us know first about the index then we will have a brief look at this report ccr index is a joint project by development finance international and oxfam international with inputs from independent experts here development finance international is a non-profit capacity building advisory advocacy and research group which works with more than 50 governments international institutions and civil society organizations so as to help development financing to fight poverty and inequality oxfam is an international confederation of 20 organizations which are networked together in around more than 67 countries so as to build a future free from the injustice of poverty the release to cr index it monitors what governments are doing through their policy commitments so as to reduce inequality see the index ranks 158 governments across the world on their commitment to reduce inequality in this regard it measures government policies and actions in three areas that are proved to be directly related to reducing inequality onus public services which includes education health and social protection then comes taxation and finally labor or workers rights the 2020 report is the third edition of the index it focuses on as we said initially fighting inequality in the time of covid-19 coming to the report the most committed nation of the nation which performed the best was Norway which is followed by Denmark Germany and Belgium the least committed nation was South Sudan which ranked 158 the report also notes that at the bottom of the public services pillar ranking South Asian countries are doing far too little to fight inequality in fact in this particular pillar India Nepal and Sri Lanka all are in the bottom 10 and Bangladesh is the 16th from the bottom of the list and as we have seen India was ranked at 129th position out of 158 this means India is among the world's least performing countries in tackling inequality going into the pandemic now let us see some of the important points mentioned in the report about India the reports notes that India's health budget is the world's fourth lowest one half of the population in India has access to even the most basic healthcare services that means around 50% of India's population are deprived to have most basic healthcare services and more than 70% of health spending is met by people themselves which we call us out of pocket expenditure and it is one of the highest levels in the world secondly the report notes that India has weak labor rights and has a high incidence of vulnerable employment in this regard most workers earn less than half of the minimum wage also 71% of workers do not have any written job contract and 54% do not have paid leave moreover only about 10% of the workforce in India is formal here when we say formal they have safe working conditions and social security and the report also notes that India's response to COVID-19 so far has been not promising or woeful as huge numbers of deaths was noted and millions of people entered into poverty because of COVID-19 and mismanagement is also considered as one of the aspects that has pushed a lot of people into the poverty so these are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this news article now let's move on to the next part of the discussion we have come to the last session the practice questions discussion session see this question with reference to Purana killer from the cultural history of India consider the following statements it was completely built by humayun in dinpana the statement is incorrect it was not completely built by humayun rather its construction was started by humayun it was completed by shersa suri so once the first statement is incorrect you can eliminate option b because question asks for incorrect statements option b do not say first statement is incorrect second statement it has large sandstone gateways known as talaki darwaza and humayun darwaza the statement is correct it includes share mandal which is traditionally associated with the death of humayun this statement is also correct humayun died in 1557 ad when he fell from the stares of share mandal so the correct answer is option a one only as only the first statement is incorrect inequality index 2020 recently seen in news is published by which of the following organizations the correct answer is option d oxfam actually it was released by oxfam in partnership with or in collaboration with development finance international see this previous year upc question the provisions in fifth schedule and sixth schedule in the constitution of india are made in order to correct answer is option a protect the interest of schedule tribes see fifth schedule contains provisions in relation to administration and control of scheduled areas and schedule tribes sixth schedule contains provisions in relation to administration of tribal areas in the states of asam mega leah trippura and miso see these practice main questions you can write answers to these questions and post them 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 shankarae's academy youtube channel for more updates and content on civil service exam preparation