 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Ayes Academy for the date 13th of July 2020. The list of news articles along with the page numbers of five different editions is given here for your reference. 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 comments section in the best interest of the viewers. Let us now begin our analysis. This news article is about an inspiring story of Kalmejwara Farmer Producer Company Limited, which is a farmer producer organization located in Dharwad district of Karnataka. Know that it has become the first farmer producer organization in Karnataka to become a certified seed producer. Now, in this context what you need to know from exam perspective is about the farmer producer organizations. Let us discuss in detail now. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. First, let us understand a producer organization. Know that it is a legal entity that is formed by primary producers namely farmers, milk producers, fishermen, weavers, rural artisans and craftsmen. Producer organization can be producer company, cooperative society or any other legal form that provides for sharing of profits among the members. Here producer company means body corporate that is registered under the amended companies act of 1956. Now, why do we need producer organizations? See the main aim of producer organization is to ensure better income for the producers through an organization of their own. Small producers do not have the volume individually both in terms of inputs and produce in order to get the benefits of economies of scale. And besides, if you see in agricultural marketing there is a long chain of intermediaries that is middlemen who very often work in a non-transparent manner. So, all these leads to a situation where the producer receives only small part of the value that the ultimate consumer pays. Say for example, if a product is sold at 20 rupees in the market the farmer will receive only 3 to 4 rupees and the remaining money all goes to the middlemen. Now, through aggregation of such farmers who are the primary producers they can avail the benefit of economies of scale and they will also have a better bargaining power with respect to the bulk price of produce and the bulk suppliers of inputs. So, it is in this juncture the producer organizations become important. Know that farmers producer organization is one type of producer organization. In this the members are the farmers and know that small farmers agribusiness consortium is providing support for the promotion of farmer producer organization in India. Here I have an idea that this small farmers agribusiness consortium is an autonomous society that is registered under Society's Registration Act of 1860. It is promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare and it is governed by a Board of Management which is chaired ex-officio by the Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare. See this small farmers agribusiness consortium is a pioneer in organizing small and marginal farmers across India as farmers interest groups, farmers producer organization and farmers producer company for endowing them with bargaining power and economies of scale which we just discussed. Also know that this consortium implements the national agricultural market electronic trading that is the ENAM platform. The purpose of this ENAM platform is to provide a single unified market for agricultural products with much higher price discovery for the farmers. We saw that the producer organizations are not only for farmers it is a generic name for an organization of producers of any produce like agricultural, non-farm products, artisan products etc. The objective of the producer organization is to ensure better income realization to its producer members through aggregation and if feasible value addition. Know that the ownership of the producer organization is with its members so it is an organization of the producers by the producers and for the producers and if you see one or more institutions and or individuals will promote the producer organization by way of assisting in mobilization, registration, business planning and operations. However the ownership control is always with the members and the management is through the representatives of the members. So these are some of the basic concepts that you need to know about producer organizations and about farmers producer organizations. As a conclusion let us discuss the essential features of producer organization in a nutshell. First of all it is formed by a group of farmers for either farm or non-farm activities. Secondly it is a registered body and a legal entity. Next the producers are shareholders in the organization and it deals with business activities related to the primary product. Then it works for the benefit of the member producers and the part of the profit is shared amongst the producers. Finally the rest of the surplus is added to its own funds for business expansion. So this is all about the discussion of producer organization. To summarize we have seen the concept of producer organization about its importance and need and also we saw about the farmer producer organization which is a subset of producer organization. In this context we also saw about the small farmers agribusiness consortium. Now have a look at this practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This editorial discusses about the importance of tapping solar energy in India and it has been written in the wake of the inauguration of solar power project in Rewa Madhya Pradesh recently by the prime minister. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this editorial is given here for your reference. See recently the prime minister inaugurated the Rewa solar power project which has 750 megawatt power generation capacity and this solar power project will reduce the carbon emission equivalent to 15 lakh tons of carbon dioxide per year. This project exemplifies India's commitment to its nationally determined contributions under the 2015 Paris Accord that is the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. In this India pledged to attain 100 gigawatts of solar installed capacity by the year 2022. But if you see the timeline is almost nearing and as of June 2020 India has only 35 gigawatts of solar installed capacity. We were on the right path to achieve the targets but due to pandemic which affected all the sectors the author notes that the projected addition of capacity until 2024 is estimated to be 50 gigawatt only. So you can see that the projection shows a sharp deficit and it indicates the need for indigenization of solar power production. Other purposes which necessitate the indigenization of solar power production are first to attain a green deal for the future that is to draft a pact or a deal for accomplishing a greener future by using renewable energy especially the green power. Here the green power or the green energy or the clean energy is a subset of renewable energy and it represents those renewable energy resources and technologies that provide the highest environmental benefit and this includes electricity produced from solar wind geothermal biogas etc. According to the author of this editorial the COVID-19 pandemic provides a critical opportunity for India to plan a green deal in line with European Union's European Green Deal. It provides roadmap to European Union countries to boost the efficient use of resources by moving to a clean circular economy and it outlines investments that are needed and financing tools that are available and it explains how to ensure a just and inclusive transition. Secondly the indigenization of solar power production provides a path for self-reliant industrialization and energy sector to achieve these we need to build domestic solar manufacturing industry that delivers increasing volumes of quality photovoltaic cells and the quality photovoltaic modules and associated equipment but even though it is being proposed for a long time still India has low domestic cell manufacturing capacity which is at 3.1 gigawatt only and this picture will give you an idea about the present install solar photovoltaic manufacturing capacities in India. So from this we can tell that India relies heavily on imports in case of solar cells and modules India imports about 85 percentage of the total requirement and India heavily relies for the same on China. So the high ambition of solar power production must be supported by aggressive official policy for this the author suggests learning from China itself because if you see China had a steady rise from insignificant manufacturing capability in the 1990s and in the recent years it is virtually dominating this market. This happened because of active Chinese government support in identifying and acquiring top technologies globally during the financial crisis of 2008-2009 if you see China strengthened its grip on the export markets in 2009 its government identified solar manufacturing as a strategic industry and it unveiled many national solar PV subsidy package which subsidized PV demonstration projects and provided low cost financing. So all these encouraged installation of PV technologies and increased the solar PV installations to 6500 megawatt in 2012 in China and along with these schemes China also imported critical raw materials such as poly silicon for its manufacturing then if you see it acquired solar manufacturers abroad and it invested in third world countries with ready capability for manufacturing and more importantly Chinese domestic market was treated with great importance and the exports were also promoted. In the same lines the author of this editorial calls for a strategic shift of policies in India for rapid progress in solar related industries and to aid domestic manufacturing. He suggests Indian government to make solar energy a strategic sector and give equal importance as then the author tells that integrated policies need to be framed fully supported by the states and then since India is the architect behind international solar alliance the author calls the Indian government also to show leadership in advancing the manufacture and absorption of solar photovoltaic infrastructure and low-income and middle-income countries like China. Then policies should be framed by the government and FTAs may be encouraged for helping Indian solar industry for setting up facilities for availing low-cost financing and for investing in intellectual property then slowly industry should start incorporating emerging trends and it should deploy solar innovatively such as aesthetic photovoltaic window and roof tiles for buildings then greater use of residential and commercial buildings to deploy more panels etc. But remember some of these suggestions are already being implemented by the government of India through various schemes that are launched under the national solar mission as you can see here. So all these suggestions given by the author will increase the use of solar energy and promote domestic solar manufacturing industry as well. So our reliance on imports will be decreased and if opportunity presents India will also become a leading exporter in solar power market. This is all about the discussion of this editorial to summarize we have seen about the importance of tapping solar energy for India where author has presented many suggestions to increase the capacity of solar energy in India. Now have a look at this practice question let us move on to the next news article. This news article discusses about two methods of showing the rise it speaks about the advantages of direct seeding of rice versus the traditional transplantation method. So try to have a general understanding about this topic what do you mean by direct seeding and what do you mean by transplantation. See transplantation process includes growing of seeds indoors under controlled conditions which will give baby plants and this will be transferred to the fields whereas direct seeding means sowing the seeds directly in the field some advantages of direct seeding over traditional transplantation method is given here it has increased the crop yield number one number two there are savings on labor number three less water is required for irrigation number four very less post harvest stubble has been generated and number five early maturity of paddy crops. This news article tells that they mature early at least by 10 to 11 days so that there is time to prepare the field for the next crop season. So this news article speaks about the impact of COVID-19 pandemic which has forced the farmers to adopt direct seeding of rice technique in this current season due to various issues including labor shortage. So from this news article try to know the difference between direct seeding and transplantation and the advantages of direct seeding over transplantation which is mentioned in this news article. Now let us move on to the next news article. This editorial is with reference to improving health infrastructure and livelihoods in the urban areas. In this editorial the authors substantiate that public health is not given the required importance in the smart cities mission. Also the author gives few suggestions to improve such situation so we shall know more about this editorial now. The syllabus that is relevant for the analysis of this editorial is given you for your reference. See the author states that the COVID-19 pandemic has largely been an urban crisis so far with four mega cities accounting for most of the positive cases recorded in India. So because of the pandemic and the restrictions associated with it the Indian cities are facing public health crisis and also economic and lively hoops crisis. In this scenario let us see whether Indian cities are equipped to deal with these crisis or not. Firstly the author analyzes the status of the smart cities mission in urban development. As we know the smart cities mission sought to make 100 selected cities into smart cities primarily through an area based development model and this mission was launched in June 2015. But if you see in the last three years the mission has lost its enthusiasm particularly at the level of political leadership. Also if you see many of the projects undertaken under the mission are behind schedule. The author states that according to the ministry of housing and urban affairs out of the planned 5,151 smart city projects across 100 cities only around 4,700 projects have been tendered and out of these tender projects only around one third of the projects have been completed. So you can see that many of the projects under this mission are behind schedule. Next if you look in terms of expenditure out of the total investment of around 2 lakh crore rupees only projects worth 13 percentage of its expenditure have been completed. So this is the general status of the smart cities mission after five years since its launch. See in few cities under this mission projects related to integrated command and control centers has been set up. Now these centers are serving as war rooms to monitor the real-time data regarding the spread of COVID-19. This is one way how the smart cities mission has enabled few cities in tackling the crisis. But largely if you see the smart cities mission has not given public health the much needed importance. So what about the status of the mission with reference to health? Of more than 5,000 planned projects under this mission only 1.3 percentage or only 69 projects were for health infrastructure. Also these projects amount to just around one percentage of the total mission cost as well. As a result the author opines that the public health seems to be a major blind spot in India's smart city dreams. Now let us come to local capacities in urban areas with reference to tackling the pandemic imposed crisis. We should know that within seven schedule the entry public health is an entry in state list. At the same time health and sanitation is part of the 11th schedule and public health is a part of 12th schedule that is health and sanitation comes under rural local bodies and public health comes under urban local bodies. This is because of the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendment acts of 1992. From here we can understand that the local bodies have major role to play in public health. But India's urban local bodies continue to be financially and administratively weak and they are heavily understaffed. There is also high level of vacancy of accredited social health activist workers the frontline public health workers in urban areas. This means that the urban local bodies and local health infrastructure lack capacity to fight against the pandemic. The author highlights the relative success of Kerala in this regard mainly because of the decentralized political and administrative system with strong local governments and high investment in local public health care. With reference to loss of jobs and livelihood opportunities in urban areas the lack of an urban employment guarantee program in many states is the cause of concern. If you see Kerala has been running a scheme called as Ayyan Kali Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme since 2010. This scheme is somewhat similar to the Mandrega scheme for rural households that if you see states such as Odisha, Himachal Pradesh and Jharkhand have also recently launched similar such initiatives in the wake of COVID-19 crisis. But if you see an all India coverage is the need of the heart. So finally the author of this editorial suggests to increase projects and to increase expenditure for public health under the smart cities mission and then to strengthen the local bodies and local health infrastructure and then to bring an urban employment guarantee scheme with an all India coverage. So this is all about the discussion of this editorial. To summarize we have seen the points jotted by the author why the public health is not given the required importance in the smart cities mission and finally we also saw some suggestions to improve the situation. Now have a look at this practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This question has been framed based on this news article which speaks about National Intelligence Grid. As per this news article Nat Grid has signed the memorandum of understanding with the National Crime Records Bureau to access the centralized online database on FIRs and stolen vehicles. See this MOU will give Nat Grid access to CCTNS database that is Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems Database which is a platform that links around 14,000 police stations. So in this context let us discuss in brief about this CCTNS and Nat Grid. First let us see CCTNS see it aims at creating a comprehensive and integrated system for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of policing in India. What it will do is it will automate the police and it will create facilities to provide public services like registration of online complaints, providing the status of the registered cases, then verification of persons etc. And know that National Crime Records Bureau is the central nodal agency which would manage this CCTNS. Next let us see about Nat Grid which is the National Intelligence Grid. It is an attached office under the Ministry of Home Affairs. See it has been created as an IT platform. It will assist the intelligence and the law enforcement agencies in India in order to ensure national and internal security of India. The ultimate aim is to counter terrorism in India. Know that it was initiated with a budget of 2800 crore rupees. See this Nat Grid connects the approved user agencies such as security law enforcement agencies with designated data providers like airlines, banks, SEBI, railway, telecom etc. So the received information would be analyzed by the security agencies and it will be used for synergizing the efforts. That is the data would be pooled and analyzed at one place in order to enhance India's counter terrorism capability. As per this news article Nat Grid will be operational by the end of this year that is December 2020. Then all the security agencies instead of asking the airlines or railways for information will have to route their requests through the secured Nat Grid platform. So how this Nat Grid platform will function? See it will link 21 agencies which has citizen databases like banks, telecom firms, tax bodies, immigration department etc. This data will be available for at least 10 central agencies like Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing that is raw etc. So when they need information on a suspect they will request Nat Grid and the Nat Grid will then provide information from its database like the mobile call details, telephone connections, bank account details, passport details, immigration entry and exit data, income tax returns etc. of the suspected citizens. So the availability of real-time information in common secured platform of Nat Grid will actually help in enhancing India's counter terrorism capabilities. So Nat Grid is basically a technology tool to enhance India's counter terrorism capabilities. This is all about CCTNS and Nat Grid that you need to know from exam point of view. With this information let us look at this question. It is a two statement question about Nat Grid and you need to choose those statement or statements which are incorrect. Be careful when you read the question. Look at the first statement it tells that Nat Grid is an IT platform to assess the intelligence and law enforcement agencies in ensuring national and internal security with an ultimate aim to counter terror. Yes, this statement is correct. This is the aim of having national intelligence grid in India. Look at the second statement. It tells that Nat Grid is an attached office under Ministry of Defense. This statement is incorrect because it is an attached office under the Ministry of Home Affairs. So here the second statement is correct. The correct answer option be two only since you need to choose those statement or statements which are incorrect. Now let us move on to the next news article. This question has been framed based on this news article. This news article tells that a controversy has broken out over construction of a mansion close to the backwaters of Kabini reservoir. See this is an eco-sensitive zone of the Nagarhole Tiger reserve. Know that eco-sensitive zones are basically transition zones from areas of higher protection to areas of lower protection. They act as shock absorbers for the protected areas. If you remember we have discussed in detail about eco-sensitive zones in our 13th March 2020 the Hindu news analysis. We request the viewers to have a look at it to know more on eco-sensitive zones. Now from this news article try to know where this tiger reserve is located. Know that there are 50 tiger reserves in India which includes these three tiger reserves as well Nagarhole, Kamlang, Anamalai. Nagarhole Tiger reserve is located in the state of Karnataka. Kamlang is located in the state of Arunachal Pradesh. Anamalai Tiger reserve is located in the state of Tamil Nadu. So here all the three pairs are correct. The correct answer here is option D one two and three. Have a look at this map to know about rest of the tiger reserves. Kamlang Tiger reserve is the latest addition in 2018 so you might not see this tiger reserve in this map. Now let us move on to the next news article. This question has been framed based on this news article. This news article mentions that an online campaign has been started to gain support for the inclusion of Gondi language in the 8th Schedule of Indian Constitution. See for past several years there have been demands to include Gondi language to 8th Schedule of Indian Constitution and according to this news article various Adivasi organizations representing different states are going to observe the Gondi language stay on 21st of July. So in this context let us see about Gondi language and then about Gondites from example perspective. See Gondi language is spoken by the Gondi tribe across the Gondwana region that spans several states in India. It is said that Gondi has more speakers than some of the languages listed in the 8th Schedule of Indian Constitution but still Gondi language is not included in the 8th Schedule. Moreover if you see it is listed as vulnerable in UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. See this Atlas is intended to raise awareness about language endangerment and the need to safeguard the world's linguistic diversity. It is used to be tool to monitor the status of endangered languages and the trends in linguistic diversity at the global level. Now if you see Gond people speak Gondi dialects and these are derived from a mix of languages like Tamil, Kannada and Telugu know that the Gond tribe migrated from south India to central India. Thus they belong to the Dravidian descent or origin and they can be traced to the pre Aryan era. The word Gond comes from Gond which means green mountains in the Dravidian idiom. They are called as Gond since they lived in the green mountains. Know that at present Gond's are one of the largest tribal groups in the world and they are one of the largest adivasi communities in India. They are mostly found across these states and they are listed as schedule tribe in all these states as well. Know that Gond's are subdivided into four tribes as you can see here among them only the Maria Gond's from Maharashtra have been given particularly vulnerable tribal group status. Next the family system of Gond's is patriarchy. Usually the Gond tribes are engaged in agriculture. They also engage in other occupations like forest farming hunting fishing etc. So this is in brief about Gond language and Gond tribes. Now look at this question with reference to the Gond tribe considered the following statements. Three statements are given and you need to choose those statement or statements which are correct. Look at the first statement it tells that Gond tribes belong to the Dravidian descent. Yes this statement is correct. Look at the second statement it tells that Gondi the language spoken by these tribes is listed in 8th schedule of Indian constitution. No it is not listed. So the second statement is incorrect. Look at the third statement it tells that Gond tribes are mostly found in north eastern states. It is wrong because they have spread across central India and in parts of western and eastern and also parts of southern India. They are not majorly found in north eastern states. So here only the first statement is correct. The correct answer is option A one only since you need to choose those statement or statements which are correct. Let us move on to the practice questions discussion session. Look at this question which is about small farmers agribusiness consortium. Three statements are given and you need to choose those statement or statements which are incorrect. Here the first and the third statements are correct. Small farmers agribusiness consortium is a pioneer in organizing small and marginal farmers as farmers interest groups and farmers producers company for endowing them with bargaining power and economies of scale. And it is this small farmers agribusiness consortium which is the lead agency in implementing the national agricultural market electronic trading platform which is nothing but the enum platform. Here the second statement is incorrect. The board of management of this consortium is chaired ex-officio by the union minister for agriculture and farmers welfare not by the union minister for food processing industries as given in this question. So here the correct answer is option B two only since you need to choose those statement or statements which are incorrect. This question is about international solar alliance. The question is which of the following statements is not correct with reference to international solar alliance. Option A tells that it is a treaty based intergovernmental organization working to create a global market system to tap the benefits of solar power and promote clean energy applications. Yes, this statement is correct. See this international solar alliance creates a multi stakeholder ecosystem where the sovereign nations, multilateral organizations, industry, policymakers and innovators work together to promote the common and shared goal of meeting the energy demands for a secure and sustainable world. Now look at option B it tells that this international solar alliance was established by the 2015 Paris agreement. Yes, this statement is also correct. The Paris declaration established the international solar alliance. This declaration states that the countries shared the collective ambition to undertake innovative and concerted efforts to reduce the cost of finance and technology for deployment of solar generation assets. This ISA aims to pave the way for future solar generation storage technologies for the member countries needs by mobilizing over 1000 billion US dollars by the year 2030. The vision of this alliance is to enable one world once and one grid. So here option B is also correct. Look at option C tells that India's only a signatory to this international solar alliance and it did not ratify the framework agreement of this alliance. Note this statement is incorrect because India is a signatory and it has also ratified the agreement. If you see the launch of this alliance was announced together by the prime minister of India along with the president of France in November 2015 at the COP 21 which was held at Paris in 2015. So India is one of the founding members of this alliance. So here the correct answer is option C since option C is the incorrect statement. Option D is correct. The headquarters of this alliance is located in India. It is located at Gurugram. So option C is the correct answer. Now have a look at this main question under general studies paper two. The question is as is the role played by the smart city's mission of India in public health. In this context suggest few measures to address the crisis faced by urban areas in public health due to the COVID-19 pandemic. You can mention the points that we have discussed during our editorial analysis. It is a 15 marks question and you need to answer this question in 250 words. Please post your answers in the comment section. Suitable suggestions and feedback will be given by us 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.