 A very good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankar IAS Academy. Today's date is 27th of November 2023, displayed here are the list of news articles that we are going to discuss today. As you can see, we have chosen news articles from yesterday's newspaper as well. So, without much delay, let us get into the first news article discussion. This data point from today's newspaper talks about the problem of Femicide. Femicide is the act of killing women or girls on account of their gender. Recently, a study was conducted on killing of women and girls. The study was conducted by the United Nation Office on Drug and Crime and United Nation Women. The study found that in 2022, about 88,900 women and girls were intentionally killed worldwide on the grounds of gender-related factors. The study also noted that this is the highest number of such fatalities in the past 20 years. Coming to the India-specific data, the study found that there has been a small decline in gender-based killing in India over the past decade. However, the killing of women due to dowry-related reasons, honour killing and other gender-related factors still persist in India. So, these are all some of the takeaway points that I have to remember from the data point. So, in this news article discussion, we shall see what is Femicide in detail, its causes and some of the steps taken by government to curb Femicide in India. See, as I already said, Femicide is the act of killing women or girls on account of their gender. Basically, Femicide forms part of the gender-based violence. The World Health Organization defines Femicide as the international murder of women solely for the reason that they are women. So, to put it simply, Femicide is the intentional murder of a female because of the reason that she is a female. Now, coming to the causes of Femicide, see, the first important cause is the prevalence of patriarchal mindset. To exercise their authority in the family, men are often involved in ill-treating the woman. Sometimes, it aggravates the violence-like situation and results in the death of the woman. The second cause is dowry. See, dowry-related violence, one of the main causes of violence against women in India. According to the study, more than 5,000 women are killed annually by their husbands and his family members if the demands for dowry or not meant. The third cause is the honor-killing. In some places across India, the women are being killed for marrying outside the caste or religion. This practice is termed as honor-killing. Note that women are the main victims when it comes to honor-killing. And the final important cause is abuse of women. See, sometimes the women are sexually harassed or sexually abused by their husbands or partners. This sometimes end up in the death of the woman. Now, let's see the steps taken by the government to curb Femicide in India. Firstly, the government set up the National Commission for Women in January 1992. This body is continuously working to improve the status of women and their economic empowerment. It also advices the government on all policy matters affecting women. Secondly, the government brought the Dowry Prohibition Act in 1961. This act was enacted to prevent giving or receiving any form of dowry. This act provides punishment to those who demand dowry from the women's parents, relatives or guardians. This act penalized the evil act of dowry and empowered the women. Thirdly, the government has enacted the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act in 2005. This act deals with any kind of violence against women that are occurring within the family. Fourthly, the government has launched the Mission Shakti Program. This is a mission mode project that aims to improve interventions for women's empowerment, safety and security. Apart from all these, the government also brought in various schemes like Beti Padao, Beti Bachao, PM Ujwala, Stand Up India and so on to empower the women in India. So, these are also some of the important points that you have to remember about Femicide in India. With these learned points, now let us move on to the next news article discussion. This news article talks about Biogas Blending. The National Biofuels Coordination Committee announced that there will be a mandatory phased introduction of blending of compressed biogas, in short called a CBG, in compressed natural gas, CNG and piped natural gas or PNG. The blending will start at one percentage for use in automobiles and the households from April 2025. Apart from this, our government is also aiming to achieve the blending of five percentage by 2028. This is the crux of the news article given here. So, in this news article discussion today, let us see some facts about the National Biofuels Coordination Committee, then the advantages of compressed biogas, in compressed natural gas and piped natural gas and we will see the other steps taken by government in this regard. See in 2018, our government framed the National Biofuels Policy, the National Biofuels Coordination Committee was set up to implement the policy. The Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas is the chairman of the committee. The committee also has members from 14 other ministers. The main objective of the committee is to ensure coordination, monitoring and implementation of biofuel programs. This is about NBCC. Moving on, let us see the advantages of blending compressed biogas with compressed natural gas. See the first advantage is that it would stimulate the domestic demand for compressed biogas. The increased demand will bring down greenhouse gas emission. So, if you ask how this will happen, let me explain. See biogas is produced through the anaerobic decomposition of organic materials like agricultural waste, food waste, animal manure, sewage and other biomass. So, when there is no demand for CBG, these organic materials will end up in the landfills. In the landfills, these organic materials will decompose and release methane, which is a highly potential greenhouse gas. But when the demand for CBG is high, these organic materials would be used to produce useful CBG. On one hand, it will help in the reduction of methane emission. And on the other hand, it will help in effective waste management. So, it is a win-win situation. The second advantage is that this move will initiate a circular economy. See, in a biogas plant, organic waste materials undergo anaerobic decomposition to produce biogas. The waste left out after biogas production is called a digestate. This digestate serves as a nutrient-rich fertilizer. This digestate can be used to enhance soil fertility, promoting agricultural productivity and completing the cycle of resource utilization. This is why the increased CBG will promote a circular economy. The third advantage is reduction in import bills. See, India meets most of its natural gas needs through LNG imports. So, when the natural gas is blended with locally produced CBG, then our import bill will come down. This in turn will help us save precious forex reserves. Then it will also help us achieve net zero emission by 2070 as the CBG has very less carbon footprint. Lastly, it will aid in employment generation. According to the Ministry of Petroleum, mandatory blending of natural gas with CBG will encourage investment of around 37,500 crore and facilitate establishment of 750 CBG projects by 2028 to 29. This in turn will generate more green jobs. So, these are all some of the advantages of introduction of blending of compressed biogas in compressed natural gas and piped natural gas of PNG. Now finally, we shall see some of the initiatives by the government in this regard. Firstly, in the Union budget 2023, the government announced that it would establish 500 ways to wealth plans or the biogas plans. The ways to wealth plans will be established under the galvanizing organic bio agro research done scheme in short called as GOBA done. As we all know GOBA done scheme aims to promote the use of cow dunk and other cattle waste for various purposes including energy generation, organic farming and waste management. Secondly, there is the ways to energy program. The ways to energy program was established by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. The program supports setting up of plans for generation of CBG from urban, industrial and agricultural waste by providing central financial assistance CFA. Then there is sustainable alternative towards affordable transportation in short called as SA-TAT initiative. This program which was initiated by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas encourages entrepreneurs to set up CBG plans. The CBG plans will produce and supply CBG to oil marketing companies for sale as automotive fuels. Finally, to support research and development, eight biogas development and training centres have been established at premier institutions in India. These centres provide technical assistance research, testing and validation of new biogas models as well as training and skill development. These are all some of the efforts taken by the government to augment the production of compressed biogas in India. So, these learnt points and now let us move on to the next news article discussion. This news article from yesterday's newspaper talks about India's stand on ongoing Israel-Hamas war. So, in this news article discussion, we shall understand some of the important points mentioned in the news article using a main's question. Now, let me read out the question for you. Analyze the repercussions of the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict on India's economy. Also, discuss India's stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict. See, the only directive used in the question is Analyze. So, when a candidate is asked to analyze, he or she is expected to break an issue into constituent parts. And then we have to analyze the components with the relevant facts and figures. In the second part of the question, it asks us to discuss on the India's current stance on the issue. So, in the introduction part, you can write like this. The ongoing conflict between Israel-Hamas will have a great bearing on the international peace. On October 7, Palestinian militant organization, Hamas attacked Israel that left at least 1200 people dead. The retaliatory attacks from Israel have led to the deaths of more than 13,000 people in the Gaza Strip. Moreover, Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has warned of a long and difficult war. Know that this is having a major impact on the Indian economy, which we can see in our body part of the answer. So, in this way, you can link the introduction part and the body part of the answer. Having written this introduction, you can straight away move on to the first part of the body. Here, you have to write about the impacts of Israel-Hamas conflict on Indian economy. See, the first impact short term, which is already possible, it is nothing but the rise in crude oil prices. Know that there have surged nearly 5% since the war began. An increase in oil price will lead to higher fuel prices, which can trigger inflation on economy. So, to put it in simple words, the higher fuel price will lead to an increase in the transportation and production cost, which can lead to higher prices of goods and services across the economy. Secondly, with respect to trade relations, Israel is a significant trade partner for India. Know that it is ranked as the third largest trade partner in Asia and 10th globally. Apart from this, the bilateral trade between the two countries has diversified into several sectors like pharmaceuticals, agriculture, water, IT and telep. Major exports from India to Israel includes precious stones and metals, chemical products and textiles. On the other hand, major exports from Israel to India includes pearls, precious stones, machinery and electrical equipment, petroleum oil, defense, machinery and transport equipment. So, let's see the data regarding this. In financial year 2022-23, Indian merchants exports to Israel amounted to $7.89 billion, while Israel's exports to India were $2.13 billion. Therefore, the total stood at over $10 billion. Thirdly, India also has substantial investment in Israel according to data. The cumulative overseas direct investment from India during April 2000 to May 2020-23 was $383 million. Indian companies like TCS, SBI, Jain Irrigation, Sanfama, Infosys, Tech Mahendra, Adani and Wipro have vested interest due to their investments in Israel. Fourthly, if the conflict develops into a full-blown one with many Arab countries joining together, then it may affect India's interest exponentially. It means the energy, security of the country can be under threat. Apart from this, India has a large diaspora and immigrant population in West Asia. Indian diaspora are the source of large amount of remittances to India which is equivalent to $40 billion. So, if the conflict turns into a full-blown war across the Middle East, this will reduce our remittances. And the safe evacuation of the Indian diaspora will also be a grave challenge. Fifthly, the war and increase in the crude will lead to supply shocks in the global value chain of production. This will lead to reduction of inflow of FBI and FDI. However, it will lead to depreciation of the Indian rupee. Lastly, it may result in the increase in India's current account deficit, CAD and fiscal deficit. Lastly, the war will have major repercussions on various connectivity projects affecting our interest. For example, the recent project of India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor, in short called as IMEC, announced recently by the leaders of India, Saudi Arabia, the US and UK will be tough to implement due to the war. You can write these points in the first part of the body. Now, moving on to the second part of the body, here you have to discuss India's stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict. See, historically, India has followed the policy of third world solidarity and non-alignment on world issues. This is also with the case of Israel-Palestine issue. To put it simply, India has shown consistent support for the Palestinian cause. However, India's position on Palestine was always aligned with the general consensus in the Arab world, the Nam and the United Nations. In this context, know that India was one of the last non-Muslim state to recognize Israel, but it became the first non-Arab state to recognize the PLO. Secondly, according to the news article, after the Kargil war when Israel provided India crucial and timely shiftments of weapons and ammunition, India's stand at the UN is showing a softening trend against Israel. This includes mildly condemning the Israeli airstrikes on Gaza and etc. But know that it ordered regularly with the developing world to stop the violence in Palestine. Thirdly, a watershed moment in the relationship happened in 2017. Since then, India has followed a dehyper-nation policy. This means an independent relationship with both Israel and Palestine. Fourthly, with respect to the recent conflict, India abstained from the UNGA resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. This was a departure from the earlier stand of India. However, India also joined the US-led formulation of total condemnation of terror attacks. On the other hand, India, being a responsible power, supported the socio-economic welfare of the Palestinian people. It had same 70 tons of humanitarian assistance including 16.5 tons of medicine and medical supplies through each to the Gaza Strip. Overall, India's stand is very clear with respect to solving Israel-Palestine issue. It advocates for a two-state solution. Here, two-state solution aims to establish an independent Palestine state alongside Israel, that is two states for two peoples. You can write these points in the main body of the answer. Now coming to the conclusion part, you can write conclusion like this. Overall, the various steps like Abraham Accords, Arab Peace Initiative, UNSA Resolution 2334 should be implemented with full force to stop the ongoing war between Israel and Palestine. In this issue, India being a responsible and aspiring power has a crucial role to play. It should take steps to ensure a balance between its national interest and global peace. It can advocate for its two-state solution to bring a sustainable peace in the Middle East. So, these are all some of the important points that I have to remember about India's stand regarding the Israel-Hamas war and Israel-Palestine issue. So, with these learned points, now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Look at this news article from yesterday's newspaper. According to the news article, the cotton corporation of India, in short called the CCI, has purchased nearly 2 lakh bales of cotton at the minimum support price MSP. See, due to lack of demand, now the price of cotton is remaining very low in the market. So, to support the cotton farmers, the CCI purchased the cotton at the rate guaranteed by the MSP. This is the corrects of the news article given here. So, in this news article discussion, we shall understand some of the important points about cotton crop and about the cotton corporation of India. First, let us see about cotton crop. See, cotton is one of the most important fiber and cash crop of India. Cotton is basically a cariff crop. That is, it is sown from June to July and harvested from October to January. Now, talking about the climate requirement for growing cotton, cotton can be grown in tropical and subtropical conditions. Cotton requires nearly 210 frost-free days and 5200 centimeters of rainfall for its growth. A minimum temperature of 15 degree Celsius is required for better seed germination at field conditions. The optimum temperature for vegetative growth is 21 to 27 degrees Celsius. Know that cotton can tolerate temperature to the extent of 43 degrees Celsius. But temperature below 21 degree Celsius is detrimental to the crop. During the period of fruiting, warm days and cold nights with large diurnal variations or conducive for good fiber development. These are some of the points that you have to remember about the climate requirement for growing cotton. Talking about the soil requirement, see cotton is grown on a variety of soils. In Northern India, it grows in well-drained, deep alluvial soils. Then in the central region of India, cotton grows in black clay soil of varying depth. And in southern India, cotton grows in black, mixed black and red soils. Now coming to the cotton growing areas, see cotton is grown all across the country. But note that the cotton is not grown extensively in some northern states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttarkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The cotton is also not grown extensively in north-eastern states Kerala, Jharkhand, Chatishkar, West Bengal and in the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. This is due to less suitable climatic and soil condition in such regions. The top three cotton producing states in the financial year 2022-2023 includes Maharashtra, Gujarat and Telangana. Some of the other major cotton growing states include Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha and Tamil Nadu. So this is about cotton. Now we shall see some of the important points about cotton corporation of India CCI. CCI is a public sector undertaking PSU in India. It was established in 1970 under the company SAG 1956. So it is a statutory body. The CCI comes under the administrative control of the Union Ministry of Textiles. Note that CCI is headquartered at Navy Mumbai which is in Maharashtra. Talking about the roles played by CCI, initially the CCI was mandated to carry out marketing activities for cotton. Later the role of CCI expanded according to the changing scenario. Now the major role of the CCI is to undertake price support operations whenever the market prices of cotton fall below the minimum support price. This role is what is mentioned in the news article. Apart from price support operations the CCI also undertakes commercial purchase operations to fulfill the raw material requirements of the domestic textile industries during lean sea. So these are all some of the important points that you have to remember about the cotton crop and the CCI. Very potential problems question area. So make note of it and revise it whenever you get time. So with these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Look at this print page article. Yesterday the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs said that the rules for the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 will be framed by March 2024. The Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 was passed by Parliament in December 2019 but till now no rules have been framed in order to implement the Act. So yesterday the minister said the rules will be framed by March 2024. This is the corrects of the news article given here. So in today's discussion we shall see some of the important points about Citizenship Amendment Act 2019. See the amendment act was enacted to grant citizenship to certain migrants in India. This act has made some amendments in the Citizenship Act 1955 to meet this purpose. Talking about the key provisions of the act. Firstly this act aims to grant citizenship to the people belonging to six religions who came from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The six religions include Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jain, Parsis and Christians. Here note that the act does not apply to Muslims who migrated to India from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The act says that people belonging to six religion from three countries who entered India on or before December 31, 2014 will not be treated as illegal migrants and they will be granted citizenship in due course. Secondly the amendment act relaxed the requirement of naturalization. Generally 11 years of staying in India is required to get Indian citizenship through the process of naturalization. But the Constitution Amendment Act 2019 relaxed this 11 year requirement to just five years. So if the people belonging to these six mentioned religions and who stayed in India for five years they can be granted Indian citizenship through naturalization. Thirdly the act says that the people belonging to six mentioned religions shall be deemed to be citizens of India from the date of their entry into India. This status can be granted once they acquire Indian citizenship. The act further mentions that all legal proceedings against such people with respect to illegal migration will be closed. Basically this act aims to grant citizenship to those who faced religious persecution in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The act also aims to protect such people from the proceedings of illegal migration. Finally the act mentions that the provisions of Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 shall not apply to illegal migrants who are living in the tribal area of Assam, Mehalaya, Mizoram or Tripura. The act also mentioned that it is not applicable to the areas covered under the inner line notified under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation 1873. That's all regarding the provisions of Citizenship Amendment Act 2019. With these learned points let us move on to the next news article discussion. Take a look at this science page article. It talks about an interesting phenomenon called phiso-electricity. So in this news article discussion let us see about what is this phiso-electricity. So what is meant by phiso-electric effect? See it is a phenomenon whereby some materials like quarts, then ceramics like lead zinconate, titanate, in short coders PZT, then certain biological substances like bone tendons that can generate an electric current in response to mechanical stress. This phiso-electric effect was discovered in 1880 in quarts by Jack was and Pyrie Query. Now let us understand how this phenomenon actually happens. Know that when the material is subjected to a mechanical stress it will make the molecules of the material to become polarized. It means the positive and negative charges within the material are separated from each other. When this polarization occurs an electric potential is generated across the material and if the material is connected to a circuit a current can flow through it. Here we should be aware of the phenomenon called reverse phiso-electric effect. In this effect a crystal becomes mechanically stressed or deformed in shape when a voltage is applied across its ends. So, phiso-electric materials allow the conservation of energy from the mechanical domain to the electrical domain and vice-versa. So, this basic understanding now let us see some of the phiso-electric materials. See there are a wide variety of materials which exhibit this phenomenon. This includes natural quarts, crystal, semi-crystalline, polywindiline, polymer, cane sugar, quarts, road chile, salt, tapas, bone and even wood. Talking about the application of phiso-electric materials, see phiso-electric materials are used in a variety of applications like sensors, actuators and energy harvesting devices and etc. They are also used in ultrasonic applications like intrusion detector and allurems. They are also employed at audio frequencies as pickups, microphones, earphones, beepers and busses. Recently, scientists from IIT Madras and the DRDO has developed phiso-electric ME-MS that is micro-electromechanical system. This technology will help in underwater communication. This discovery will add Indian underwater combat capabilities. So, these are all some of the important points that you have to remember about phiso-electric effects. So, these learn to points. Now, let us move on to the next part of the new discussion which is the preliminary practice question discussion. Now, look at this question about biomass gasification. Three statements are given and you have to find how many statements given here are all correct. See, the correct answer for this question is option B, only two. Statement 1 and 2 is alone, correct here. Statement 3 is incorrect. Firstly, what is biogasification? See, it is a thermo-chemical process in which biomass is heated in an anaerobic condition. This help in the production of syn-gas, which is a mixture of carbon monoxide, CO, hydrogen, H2, methane, CH4 and CO2. This syn-gas has higher calorific value than the biomass and also it leaves less waste than biomass. So, this is the basics about biomass gasification. Here, the first statement is actually correct. Coconut shell, grounded shell and dry husk can be used in biomass gasification. Statement 2 is also correct. As we just saw, it involves heating the biomass in anaerobic condition. Now, the third statement is incorrect because it contains carbon monoxide, hydrogen, methane and CO2. So, the correct answer for this question is option B, only two. Going on, this question is about physoelectric effect. Three statements are given and you have to find how many statements given here are all correct. See, here the first statement is correct. Conversion of energy from mechanical domain to the electrical domain and vice versa is possible in this effect. The conversion of electrical to mechanical is called reverse physoelectric effect. Now, look at the second statement. The second statement is wrong. It can be experienced in liquids as well. Now, the third statement says quarts is the only material which can exhibit physoelectricity. The statement is incorrect. We saw various other materials other than quarts that exhibit this phenomenon. So, the correct answer for this question is option A, only one because statement one is alone correct here. So, displayed here are the main practice questions for you today. Just go through the questions, try to answer it in the comment section. So, with this, we came to the end of the news article discussion. If you like the video, hit like, do comment and don't forget to subscribe to Shankar Iyer's Academy YouTube channel. Now, thank you so much for listening.