 Welcome to the hindi news analysis by Shankar Ayes academy the list of topics chosen for today's discussion along with the page numbers is given here for your reference. Let us start today's news analysis. Let us take up these two news articles which talk about the India-European Union relations. First let us see what this op-ed column says. So the author is of opinion that in today's fragmented world India and European Union which are having much in common to support each other. This is because both India and European Union are aiming to enhance their strategic autonomy and the global standing. In addition both the countries are diversifying their strategic value chains and to address the climate change. So because of these common things the author says that India and EU should support each other. So to have a brief recap on India-European Union relations know that the first India-EU summit took place in the year 2000. Later in fifth India-EU summit which was held in 2004 the relationship was upgraded to strategic partnership level. In economic terms European Union is India's largest regional trading partner and India is 9th largest trading partner of European Union in the year 2018. And coming to foreign direct investments European Union is the biggest foreign investor in India amounting around 67 billion euros in the year 2018. But this is very less compared to the European Union investments in China which is almost three times of its investment in India. So author says that India and European Union are having a lot of space to enhance their business cooperation as well as foreign investments. So the first step to enhance business cooperation is by facilitating the people's mobility and connectivity. This would help both European Union as well as India to diversify their strategic value chains and reduce their economic dependency on China. Also India can attract the European Union investment which is moving out of China because of recent happenings across the globe. So what India and European Union must do to improve their economic partnership. So according to author the first step towards this is signing the bilateral broad based trade and investment agreement. So this is an FTA between India and European Union which is pending since 2007. On talking about climate front the European Union has released a great ambitious European green deal which aims to make the Europe carbon emission neutral by 2050. And if you see India is also moving away from fossil fuels and India also pioneered international solar alliance. So by working together India and European Union can help each other to achieve carbon neutral status by 2050. And also by improving the strategic partnership with European Union India would be placed at a higher pedestal in geopolitical significance. So this rise in the geopolitical significance will help India in facing the powerful rivals like China and Pakistan. So we have talked about climate front, economy, geopolitical standing and not just that one more important thing to be noted here is India and European Union are like minded economies. If you see both respect democratic values and champions a rules based international order respect for multilateralism and promote sustainable reform of multilateral institutions. So author says that a strong partnership between India and European Union would help both of them to become global decision makers. And the other news article states that Prime Minister Modi had a virtual meet with presidents of European Council and European Commission. So during the summit both sides committed to a framework for strategic cooperation till 2025. In addition both sides proposed for a high level dialogue between India's commerce minister and EU's trade commissioner to take the broad based trade and investment agreement forward. We have already said that this BTIA is long pending since 2007. So now that the Britain has left European Union there is even more interest on both sides to finish this free trade agreement as soon as possible. So this is all about these news articles we have talked about the relations between India and European Union across different fronts and the recent happenings between India and European Union. The practice question will be discussed at the end of session. Let us take up this editorial which has been written following the release of consumer price index and wholesale price index. And these indices suggest an accelerating inflation. So in this discussion we shall see what is inflation, how is it measured and what are the reasons behind accelerating inflation. The relevant syllabus is highlighted here for your reference. First what is inflation? See inflation is the rise in general level of prices of goods and services. It can also be defined as sustained rise or persistent increase in general level of prices. See for example 10 years back the price of vegetables is much lower compared to the current price of vegetables. So this shows that the prices of every good generally increases over a period of time. Actually the slight increase or a mild inflation is very good for economy because when there is increase in prices it motivates the producers to produce more goods. So when there is high production followed by high consumption it leads to increased domestic product which is nothing but economic growth. But here the problem is the inflation is accelerating. See this inflation erodes the purchasing power of money which results in the rise in the cost of living and which ultimately affects the poor or vulnerable communities. See if you are having 100 rupees and the price of onions is 10 rupees per kilogram then you can buy 10 kilograms of onions with the money you have. But the price of onions increase to 20 rupees for example. Then you can buy only 5 kilograms of onions with the 100 rupees you are having. So the rise in prices or inflation eroded or affected the purchasing power of money. So previously we can get 10 kilograms now we are getting only 5 kilograms it means the purchasing power of money has been reduced. So this is about inflation. So how it is measured? So the inflation is generally measured using price index or price indices. So these indices measure the changes in general level of prices and goods and services over a period of time. So these indices are the indicators which reflect changes in prices over a specified period of time. As a result these indicators are very important tools for review and management of present economic positions and plan formulation. This is because only if we know why prices are increasing and what prices are increasing we can do something to control them. Generally the rate of inflation is measured either through wholesale price index or consumer price index. On 14th July two days back we discussed the consumer price inflation in detail. That day we said that the retail inflation has increased to 6.09% due to higher prices of food items. In today's discussion we shall see what is wholesale price index. The wholesale price measures the average change in price of commodities for bulk sale of goods at level of early stage of transactions. So you can understand the difference between the words wholesale and retail. Wholesale is generally concerned with the bulk sale while retail is what consumers buy from the market. So this wholesale price index is a very important measure to monitor the dynamic movement of prices at wholesale level. So for every index there is a basket of goods whose prices are considered in calculating the index. Coming to wholesale price index its basket commodities can be classified into three major groups primary articles fuel and power and manufactured products. Here manufacturing has the highest weightage and the prices of these goods are compared with a base year that is 2011-12. Note that the wholesale price index does not contain services in its basket. So who releases this wholesale price index? The Office of Economic Advisor in Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade that is DP-IID which comes under Ministry of Commerce and Industry is responsible for compiling wholesale price index as well as releasing it. And coming to today's editorial discussion we have already said that the inflation in food articles is accelerating the consumer price inflation. Before June the inflation was due to crippling lockdowns and nation-wide shutdown which cost disruptions in supply of goods and services. Now since June the lockdown restrictions are relaxed and economy reopened. But still there is depressed demand for goods and services and still inflation is rising. So this is what is worrying because the common logic is when there is more demand and less supply there is inflation in prices. As it leads to demand pull inflation. But now the supply is better than strict lockdown months. So normally we expect that the reduction in price of commodities because there is no demand but supply is there. But contradictingly the prices are increasing. So what might be the reason for this increase in prices with less demand? This may be because we are seeing sustained increase in fuel prices in recent times. So this is leading to higher cost for transporting farm produce. We know that mostly the agricultural products are produced in rural areas and from there they are transported to urban areas. So because of increase in fuel prices the cost of transportation is increasing and as a result the price of agri commodities increased. Additionally to insulate their business from weak demand the providers of goods and services are hiking the prices. So that even when there is a weak demand they may get good profits. And experts are of opinion that food prices may not reduce in the near term. However there is hope that the price rise in farm produce will reduce as we have witnessed the timely onset of monsoon with even more higher rainfall. If this rainfall sustains harvest will be more and as a result the prices of farm produce may decrease. But now on the other hand we are having one more problem. Currently the researcher company IHS market has released its latest India business outlook survey. According to this survey the confidence of firms is witnessing a steep drop. So when confidence of firms is decreasing the employers will generally cut jobs to cope up with reduce the operational expenditure. In addition companies are also planning to raise the selling prices over the next 12 months to protect the profitability. He just said because of less demand the companies make it less profits. So if they increase the prices even with less demand they get the same profits which they used to get before. So the editories of opinion that all this together pose a risk of stack inflation. See stack inflation is the combination of high inflation and low growth. At this time not only the inflation is higher but unemployment is also higher. See generally whenever inflation is increasing that is the price of goods is increasing the economic growth also increases. This is because when the prices increase as a result the product of quantity into price increases which is used to measure economic growth. But what is happening is the inflation is increasing but growth is decreasing. This is because there is no demand. When there is no demand there will not be any production as a result the economic growth will reduce. So this is what we call stack inflation a combination of high inflation and low growth. Because of reduced demand the companies are cutting jobs which leads to more unemployment. When people have no employment they cannot buy as a result demand further reduces. The further reduction in demand will lead to further reduction in economic growth. So this looks a little complicated. So just remember that stack inflation is a situation when there is high inflation and low growth. Now author also fears that the economy is on a path to stack inflation because the retail inflation has crossed the limit set by the central government. So what is this limit on inflation? So know that the retail inflation target set by central government in consultation with Reserve Bank of India is 4 plus or minus 2. It means it should not be less than 2% and it should not be more than 6%. But as we just said the inflation has crossed the 6% upper limit. So the increased inflation coupled by low demand is leading to stack inflation. So whenever demand is less RBA generally gives cheap loans by reducing the reporate. So when reporate is reduced RBA gives cheap loans to banks which in turn gives cheap loans to consumers. So to boost demand what is RBA doing? It is giving cheap money to the consumers. So when consumers are having cheap money they can buy more so that the demand will be increasing. But unfortunately already inflation is on higher side. If RBA gives cheap money at this moment this easy credit or cheap money leads to further inflation called demand pull inflation. So here author worries that if RBA chooses further rate cut in reporate to revive economic momentum it will lead to faster price rise. Plus we saw that companies are going to cut jobs so this together may lead to stack inflation. Guys this might look a little confusing for you so I am repeating what I just said in a nutshell. Firstly when there is slight increase in inflation this will help in rising economic growth. This is because when prices increase the GDP also increases which is nothing but economic growth. But sometimes what happens is the prices of goods will increase but demand is reducing. So this leads to situation where inflation is very high but there is no demand. If there is no demand there won't be any economic growth. This is what we call stack inflation. High inflation and low economic growth. So this is what we have to remember in your film's point of view. Under the last we said that generally when economic growth is low RBA gives cheap money that is called easy credit. So this easy loans will boost the demand. Automatically when there is more money with public this leads to inflation. So now RBA cannot choose this move of giving cheap loans because inflation is already high. If it gives further cheap loans inflation will further increase. So this is what the editor discussed in this editorial. Let us move on to next news article discussion. Let us take up this news article appeared in editorial page. So this column was written by two American scholars and they talk about the China's foreign policy forced COVID-19 and they opine that this aggressive policy of China is reshaping the geopolitical equations in Asia. Firstly they discuss the recent happenings with respect to China in Indo-Pacific and in the end they discuss various possibilities available for US and the states of Indo-Pacific and to counter China's aggressive foreign policy. The relevant syllabus is highlighted here for your reference. Firstly the authors start by telling the China's mask diplomacy. We have already heard of debt trap diplomacy of China which means the strategy used by China to trap developing or underdeveloped countries by making them borrow money for infrastructure projects. But now the authors talk about the mask diplomacy. So what is this mask diplomacy? See know that the mask diplomacy is China's move to win the hearts of nations by shipping medical supplies to the countries which are facing the coronavirus pandemic. Interestingly China used this medical or mask diplomacy both for coercive approach as well as benevolent or winning hearts approach. Recently in 2009 China used mask diplomacy in Mexico during H1N1 virus then it tried to show the world that it is very benevolent and very supportive to developing and underdeveloped countries. But if you see in the recent period China used this medical diplomacy to coerce its will on the small countries. For example it imposed control over export of pharmaceuticals to the European countries and Australia as well. So this is what the coercive diplomacy of China according to the authors. Next authors observe that the China's aggressive approach is leading to closer coordination and close relations between the Indo-Pacific partners. See we know that the Indo-Pacific countries are now taking initiatives to reduce their economic exposure to China. To explain this further the authors take the example of India, Japan, Malaysia and Australian governments which are taking steps to reduce their economic exposure to Beijing. This includes the reducing Chinese investment or putting a strict supervisory mechanism on Chinese investment and even boycotting Chinese products and technology. We can also consider the recent the logistics agreement signed by India and Australia as an example for increased coordination between the Indo-Pacific countries. We can also talk about quad grouping where it is expanding to a new Indo-Pacific coordination group by including New Zealand, South Korea and Vietnam. So these are the initiatives happening at the governments level. The authors also talk about the initiatives at civil society level. See we can talk about the milk tea alliance. So what is this milk tea alliance? So know that it is an alliance formed by thousands of internet users from Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong in social networks against the authoritarianism of Chinese government and its supporters. See we can also talk about the trending boycott China products hashtags in India as well. And one more important happening in the recent past is the ASEAN members issued one of their strongest statements till date regarding the China's aggression in South China Sea. If you see until now the ASEAN is always careful about its statements on China. But for the first time they issued a strong statement on China's aggression in South China Sea. The statement insisted for the resolution of maritime disputes in South China Sea in accordance with UN law of sea or UN clause that is UN Convention on Law of Sea. So here authors observe that ASEAN is becoming a dominant body to oppose Chinese hegemony in Asia Pacific. So these are the recent happenings with reference to China's aggression in Indo Pacific. So next to the authors talk about how US should take leadership in the Asia Pacific region. First the authors feel that US leadership will not be able to counter to Chinese aggression with its current strategies. They observe that the current US administrative strategies are highly unpredictable. They take the example of WHO. On one hand Australia is pushing for world level investigation on coronavirus at WHO. In this context the US which should be supporting Australia but instead it is leaving WHO. So Australia is little worried to push its global level investigation on coronavirus in the absence of support from US. Similarly there are many moves of US which are not so encouraging for the Indian nationals working in US. For example the recent curbs on H-1B visa and other restrictions on students who are studying in US are having serious repercussions for India-US relationship as well. Additionally US instead of supporting the countries in Indo Pacific as well as in Europe against China's aggressive stance it is forcing countries to come into its line of thought. For example it forced UK to ban Chinese Huawei company from 5G networks in United Kingdom. But authors observe that this dominating and coercive strategy of US will not be helpful in containing China's aggression. So authors feel that America should do to gather support of nations in Asia Pacific region further it gives a chance to US to improve multilateral coordination among its allies. Further the authors also opine that the United States need to make two major shifts in its policy. First as we just said US should be supporting Indo Pacific members rather than commanding or dominating them. Here the authors are of opinion that the partners of US need an agenda that is framed on broader terms rather than simply to counter China. Here we should remember that the Asian countries have strong historically rooted ideas about their own security and the future of region. For example when entire world is polarizing into two sides during Cold War the India and the Asian states have followed the non-aligned movement and resisted the Cold War by not joining either US or USSR. So here authors mean that if US comes with only one strategy that is to counter China the Indo Pacific countries may not side with US completely. So the US policy should be on a broader framework which include trade, connectivity as well as security in the region. So this is all about this news article though this article discussion is mainly focused on US it gives a broader picture on how the foreign policies of different nations are going to be. So by having a broader outlook on all the happenings across the globe we can enhance the quality of means answers when it comes to GS paper too. So this is all about this news article let us move on to next news article. Let us take up this news article which talks about a campaign against cybercrime which was recently started in state of Telangana. The name of campaign is cyber as you can see from the name this campaign is targeted towards women. So this campaign is started in the backdrop of significant increase in cybercrime during covid 19 lockdown. So what is this campaign about? See this is a month long online campaign to make cyber world safe for women and children and it is being run by women's safety wing of Telangana police along with symbiosis law school. So the aim of this campaign is to amplify the sensitization on cybercrimes during critical times of covid 19. Further the campaign aims to educate both women and children about the immediate risks and threats on cyberspace. So this is all about the cyber campaign know that this campaign is an initiative of Telangana state police and focused on safety of women and children in cyberspace. So in this context let us see other cyber safety campaigns across India as well as in global level. Firstly the Maharashtra government launched a cyber safe women campaign in January 2020 and this campaign was done to educate women about how the web can be used by anti social elements and child predators to commit various types of crimes. And one more initiative called kid glow of Kerala police. So this initiative aims to create cyber security awareness among children, teachers and parents across the state. Another campaign initiated by Google India on cyber safety is Pahala safety. It is a comprehensive public outreach campaign started by Google India on safer internet day of 2020. And this campaign is intended to create awareness around internet safety and for protection of netizens from cyber attacks. So here what you have to remember is Pahala safety campaign is started by Google India. And talking about the cyber safety campaigns at global level, the European Union came up with safer internet day. So it is an international event taking place in February every year. So this safer internet day is aimed to promote a safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones by children and young people across the world. So these are the different campaigns related to cyber space. Firstly we have talked about cyber from Telangana police. Then we talked about cyber safe campaign of Maharashtra government. Then kid glow of Kerala police. And we also talked about Pahala safety from Google and safer internet day from European Union. This is all about the discussion of this news article. The practice question will be discussed at the end of session. Let us move on to the next news article. Let us take up this news article for discussion. This article is about the speech made by the Prime Minister of India on the occasion of World Youth Skills Day, which is celebrated on 15th July every year. So the Prime Minister speaking in that context said that the youth should skill, reskill and upskill themselves to remain relevant in the rapidly changing market conditions. So with reference to this news article, let us discuss some of the important skill related missions, schemes and other institutions launched by the government of India. The relevant syllabus is highlighted here for your reference. See firstly know that 5 years back on 15th July that is on World Youth Skills Day, the government of India has launched skill India mission or national skill development mission. See whenever you come across any mission or scheme, you should be knowing what is the scheme about, what is the objective and who is the implementing agency. So coming to the objective of this skill India mission, it has been developed to create convergence across sectors and states in terms of skill training activities. So in order to achieve the mission of killed India, the mission consolidates and coordinates killing efforts across the country. So we have seen what is the objective of this mission, then who is the implementing agency. Know that this mission is implemented by the mission of kill development and entrepreneurship that is MSDE. And as you can see here, this mission has three tier mechanism, first the governing council chaired by the prime minister, second the steering committee chaired by the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship and third one the mission directorate which serves as executive body and is chaired by the secretary of ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship. And this mission directorate that is the executive body is supported by three other institutions. They are national skill development agency, national skill development corporation and direct rate general of training and all these three institutions have horizontal linkages with the mission directorate to facilitate the smooth functioning of national institutional mechanism. And at state level, states are encouraged to create state skill development missions along with the national skill development mission. Similar to the national level, there will be a steering committee as well as mission directorate at state level and they will be further supported by district committees. So from this you can understand that the skill development is a highly decentralized structure ranging from the prime minister level to district level. So this is all about the skill India mission or national skill development mission. Know that the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship intended to establish the visible and aspirational model of training centers in every district of the country. So to establish this aspirational model training center, the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras are being set up. So what do these Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras do? They create benchmark institutions which demonstrate the aspirational value for competency based skill development training and they focus on elements of quality, sustainability and they connect with stakeholders in skill delivery process and they transform from a mandate driven footloose model to a sustainable institutional model. So these centers will run industry driven courses of high quality with a focus on employability. So the main focus of these Kendras is on employability by skilling up the youth. So the implementing agency of this project is obviously the National Skill Development Corporation. And before moving on to other important schemes related to skill development, let us have a very brief discussion on Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana. See this was a flagship scheme of ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship which was approved for four years that is from 2016 to 2020. And so the scheme was expired by the March 31st of 2020. This scheme was implemented by National Skill Development Corporation. And now let us see two other important schemes related to skill development. First one Sankalp which stands for skills acquisition and knowledge awareness for livelihood. This scheme was launched in 2018 to strengthen institutional mechanisms for skill development and to increase the quality and market relevant training for youth across the country and know that this scheme is implemented by ministry of skill development in collaboration with World Bank. And coming to its mandate, the Sankalp aims to address the ongoing challenges like bringing about convergence, infusing quality in skill development programs and making them market relevant and also accessible and ensuring private participation. So this is all about the Sankalp scheme which is mainly focused to strengthen institutional mechanisms for skill development. And coming to STRIVE which stands for skill strengthening for industrial value enhancement. Know that it is also a World Bank project and a ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship. And coming to its mandate, this project is aimed to create awareness through industry clusters which would address the challenge of involvement of MSME enterprises. Further, it also aims at integrating and enhancing delivery quality of ITIs. Here ITIs mean industrial training institutes. So this is all about this news article discussion where we talked about Khilidiya Mission, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras as well as Sankalp and STRIVE. Very importantly, it is to be noted that both Sankalp and STRIVE were World Bank supported projects. Let us move on to practice questions discussion. First question, consider the following statements with reference to cyber. Statement 1, it is an online campaign to make the cyber world safe for women and children. Yes, the statement 1 is correct. Statement 2, it is an initiative of Google India launched on a safer internet date. No, this statement is incorrect since statement 2 talks about Pahala safety campaign of Google. So statement 2 is incorrect, therefore the correct answer is option A, one only. Question number 2, in the light of India-European Union relations, consider the following statements. Statement 1, the first ever India-European Union summit was held in 2020. No, this statement is incorrect because the first India EU summit held as back as in 2000. Statement 2, currently exports from India to European Union attract little or zero tariffs under bilateral trade and investment agreement. No, statement 2 is also incorrect since the bilateral trade investment agreement BTIA is not yet signed. It is still in deliberation stage. Since we are supposed to find not correct statements, the correct answer is option C, both 1 and 2. Question number 3, consider the following statements with reference to wholesale price index. Two statements are given and we are supposed to identify not correct statements. Statement 1, the basket of products used to measure WPI does not include services. Yes, statement 1 is correct. Coming to statement 2, it is released by Office of Economic Advisor, Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Yes, statement 2 is also correct. Office of Economic Advisor comes under DP-IIT, which interns functions under Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Both statements are correct and we are supposed to identify not correct statements. Therefore, the correct answer is option D, neither 1 nor 2 because both the given statements are correct. Fourth question, the sunkal and strife schemes are initiatives of Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Diering and Fisheries. Simple question, the answer is option C, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and both schemes are supported by World Bank. Let us take two practice main questions. The first question says that India is one of the youngest nations in the world. So in this context, we are supposed to discuss in brief the important skill development schemes launched by Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. So the question seems to be bigger, but what we are supposed to write is the different schemes launched by Ministry of Skill Development. See, we have talked about different schemes in our today's discussion. You just write them in the body, start with a proper intro and end with a good conclusion. And coming to question number two, in today's fragmented world, the power of any aspiring global player depends on the number and quality of its bilateral and multilateral relationships. In this scenario, the European Union is the best partner in which India should invest more, elaborate. So simply we can say like this, why is European Union a best opportunity for India? See, we have talked about economy, climate, people-to-people movement, as well as free trade agreement and similar ethos which we believe in, like democratic values, rules-based international order. So you can talk about all these things in detail. With this, we conclude today's news analysis. If you find this session resourceful, click on the like button, show your appreciation in the comment section and don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Stay home, stay safe.