 A very good evening friends, I welcome you all to the Hindu Newspaper Analysis brought to you by the Shankara IAS Academy. Today's date is 12th January 2024. Here are the list of articles which we are going to discuss today. So before entering our discussion, I have an important announcement to make. See Shankara IAS Academy's much-awaited Prelims Fitness Test or Prefit Test series is going to begin from 22nd January 2024. See this test series will consist of 63 tests out of it, 37 will be half test and there will be 6 revision tests and there will be 7 full tests. In addition to this, there will be a 10 CSAT test for you to practice. See the test series will be conducted both in online and offline mode. The other details regarding the test series is given in the comment section. So kindly check. So coming back to our discussion, look at this news article. The chief of army staff mentioned that the Agnipath scheme was implemented after consultations with the army. He also mentioned that the situation along the border with China is stable but sensitive. See this is about the news article. In this context in our discussion today, we will revise about the Agnipath scheme in detail. First of all, Agnipath is a defence personnel recruitment scheme under which 45,000 to 50,000 soldiers will be recruited annually. Here note that most of them will leave the service in just 4 years time. That is, it is the requirement for a short duration period. After total annual recruits, only 25% will be allowed to continue for another 15 years under the permanent commission. See the most important thing to be noted here is that the new system of recruitment under the Agnipath is only for the personnel below office ranks. Note that non-office rank personnel denotes that those who do not join the forces as commissioned officers. Okay, now coming to the eligibility criteria to become Agnivir. See under the scheme aspirants between the age of 17.5 years to 21 years will be eligible to apply for the scheme. Note that for the recruitment year 2022 to 23 alone, the upper limit has been increased from 21 to 23 years. See the recruitment standard will remain the same and the recruitment will done twice a year through various recruitment rallies which will be organised across the country. Okay, now coming to the question. What happens after selection? See once selected the aspirants will go through a rigorous training for 6 months and then they will be deployed for 3.5 years to perform their duties as defence personnel. See during this period they will get a starting salary of 30,000 along with additional benefits which will go up to 40,000 by the end of fourth year service. Importantly during this period 30% of their salary will be set aside under save and duty program. Note that in this program the government will also contribute an equal amount every month and moreover it will also occur interest. Okay, now after the end of fourth year each soldier will get 11.71 lakh as a lump sum amount which will be tax free. Moreover they will also get 48 lakh insurance cover for the fourth year. In the case of death the payout will be Rs 1 crore including the pay for the unserved tenure. See however as I said earlier after 4 years only 25% of the batch will be recruited back into the respective services for the next 15 years. For those who are unselected the initial four year period will not be considered for retirement benefits. See these are all the futures of Agni Path scheme. So in this discussion we saw about the various futures of Agni Path scheme in detailed manner. So with this basic information let's conclude this discussion and take up the next news article for our analysis. It talks about the Maharashtra assembly speaker's ruling on the disqualification petitions of its MLAs. See the speaker's decision based on the anti-reflection law favours the Ekna Shinde faction over the Uddhav Thakuray faction. See it is widely believed that a wide variety of political factors would have influenced this decision. So in order to prevent these biociditions by the speakers the author of this article suggests to bring an independent authority to adjudicate the disputes regarding the defection of MLAs. See this is the crux of the news article given here. In this context let us quickly go through why impartiality is important for the speaker using our main's answer writing discussion. Let me read out the question for you. Once a speaker always a speaker. Do you think this practice should be adopted to impart objectivity to the office of speaker in Lok Sabha? How lack of impartiality is impinging the parliamentary business in India? See this question can be asked in G.S. Pivot 2 under the syllabus of Parliament and State Legislatures. Structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers and privileges and the issues arising out of this. Now let us see how to approach this question. See this is a very straight forward question with no keywords. So in the introduction part you can write a few words about what does the praise once a speaker always a speaker means. Then you can split the body part of the answer into two parts. In the first part you can take a stand and mention why the practice should be adopted to impart objectivity to the office. In the second part you can write about how biocidal decisions is or impinging the parliamentary business in India. See in the conclusion part you can give a balanced judgment. So this is how we are going to approach this question. Okay now let us start with the introduction part. Here you can write like this. The position of the speaker is a position of great prestige and dignity. In the UK there is a convention that once a speaker always a speaker. Let me explain this. See the British speaker is elected at the beginning of parliament by and from among the members of House of Commons. Once such person is appointed a speaker he gives a formal designation from his political party. See this makes the position of the speaker impartial during the conduct of parliamentary businesses. Also as per the convention the major political parties in the UK will not field a candidate in the speaker's constituency. See since the speaker constituency is unchallenged he could easily become a member of parliament again and he or she could be re-elected as many times as necessary. See the special privilege given to the British speaker insists on the phrase once the speaker always the speaker. See this healthy convention is not fully established in India but the speaker does not resign from the membership of the party upon is elected as the speaker. In recent time this has led to the various contensions between the opposition and ruling party regarding the partial behavior of the speakers. See this can be your introduction. Note that your introduction need not be this long. I try to explain briefly about the concept. You can concise this point and write as per the demand of the question. Now let us move on to the body part of the answer. Here in the first part we can take a stand and mention why India could emulate the practice of once a speaker always a speaker. Now you can give the points. Firstly the practice helps the speaker remain politically unbiased all the time. See in India whether a member belong to a ruling party is elected as the speaker or the ruling party nominates candidate he or she is not always elected unopposed. This means he is not about the party politics and need backing, involvement and support of the party. See this might affect his extensive functions to perform in administrative, judicial and regulatory matters which are widely falling under his domain. See it is for this reason it is good to implement this practice. OK now secondly this practice gives a strong security of tenure to the speaker which again helps the speaker to remain politically impartial. See in UK usually speaker is elected at the beginning of each parliamentary term after the general election. When selected a speaker continues in office until the dissolution of parliament or until they resign prior to this. So the decision to retire is a personal choice made by the speaker and it is not tied to the timing of general elections. See this process aids the speaker in making independent choices. Thirdly this practice contributes to the continuity and preservation of institutional knowledge of the speaker. See this could be tapped to resolve the procedural issues interrupting precedence and maintaining the integrity of the parliamentary proceedings. Fourthly it ensures the freedom from interferences and pressures which provides a necessary atmosphere where one can work with absolute commitment to the cause of neutrality as a constitutional value. Finally this process will enhance the credibility of the speaker's decision and contribute to the overall trust of the parliamentary proceedings. See you can write all these points in the first part of your answer. OK having said this let us move on to the second part. In the second part you can write about how biocid decisions are impinging the parliamentary business in India. Firstly the biocid decisions are increasing the disruption in parliament. See biocid conduct and its apathy towards the opposition parties demands leads to the constant disruption of parliament with opposition. These continuous disruptions impede the normal functioning of the sessions. Moreover it will hinder the legislative process and prevent the discussion on very important bills. For example recently parliament witnessed the passage of three crucial bills by the Lok Sabha even in the absence of more than 140 Indian opposition politicians. Know that they were suspended from the parliament for their protest against a recent security breach in the parliamentary premises. Secondly Percival biases can contribute to the increased political polarization and division among the parties. See this polarized political environment can hinder the constructive debate and collaboration making it difficult to address the pressing national issues in an effective manner. Thirdly biocidition of the speaker may prompt legal challenges with affected parties seeking judicial intervention to rectify their injustices. See this leads to the legal battles and diverts the attention from the pressing legislative issues of the recent times. Fourthly the functioning of the parliamentary committee is crucial for the in depth scrutiny of legislation and policy matters. See this may be hampered if the perception of bias in the selection are the conduct of the proceedings. Fifthly the misuse of the powers of the speaker in desire for the future gains can lead to the overturn of the government itself. For example in deciding the question of disqualification under the 10th shield. See you can write all these points in the second part of your answer. Finally in the conclusion part you can write like that. Addressing the issue of bias in the parliamentary decision is essential for maintaining the integrity of the democratic processes. This will foster cooperation among the political party and overall it will ensure the effective governance in India. So instead of constituting a new independent body to educate the defective disputes it's good to implement the practice of once a speaker always a speaker. See this practice can restore both the essential qualities in a speaker that is independence and impartiality. So in this way you can give a conclusion for this topic. See this is all regarding this discussion. In this discussion first we saw why once a speaker always a speaker is a good practice. In the second part we saw how biased decisions of the speaker are impinging the parliamentary business in India. See with this learned points let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article for our analysis. Look at this news article. India-Japan Fund. It is a fund managed by National Investment and Infrastructure Fund Limited is going to invest 400 crores in Mahendra last mile mobility limited. See this is the crux of the news article. In this context in our discussion today let us focus on National Investment and Infrastructure Fund Limited or NIAF. See to understand about NIAF you must first know about development banks. See development banks are specialized banks that provide long term and high volume funding to the various developmental projects. For example this development banks provides funding for the construction of ports, transport corridors etc. See the main difference between development banks and commercial banks is that the commercial banks takes deposit from the public and provide it as a loan to others. But the development bank rise funds from high net worth individuals or high net worth investors by issuing bonds and letting the amount which is being raised to various developmental projects. See this phenomenon or development bank is not a new phenomenon for India. We had various government-owned development banks in the past. Some examples include Industrial Finance Corporation IFC IDBA and ICICI Yes you heard it right. IDBA and ICICI are started as a development bank. But the problem was these development banks were lost making. So post 1991 double decision they were transformed into commercial banks or in some case they were got privatized. So currently in India we do not have any big development bank focusing mainly on the infrastructure. But as India is fast growing there is an ever increasing demand for infrastructure. So it obviously needed funding right. Although commercial banks can lend to this project they lack expertise in this regard. So basically the large infrastructure projects needed funding but there was no dedicated institution to provide them. So there used to be a vacuum there. It is to fill this vacuum the NIIF was created. Okay now let us see about NIIF. See NIIF was created in 2015 with an initial funding of 40,000 crores from government of India. See the Indian government has 49% holding in this and the rest of the capital is being raised from third party investors either foreign or domestic investors. Since Indian government holds 41% age it is also termed as quasi sovereign wealth fund. Okay but what is a sovereign wealth fund? Sometimes the national government generate excess income right. This excess income is maintained as a separate fund. If this excess amount lies idle it will not generate any income. So what the government will do? They will invest this amount in a low risk area to generate revenues. So such kind of fund is called sovereign wealth fund. As you saw earlier Indian government had 49% investment in NIIF. Then who are the rest of the investors? Look at this image to understand it. See these are the institutions or the major investors in NIIF. Okay now using this fund NIIF invest in commercially viable greenfield, brownfield or stalled infrastructure projects. It mainly focuses on energy, transportation, housing, water and waste management sector. So basically NIIF achieves two things. One by investing in commercially viable projects it provides commercial return to the investors and secondly it provides the much needed funding to the investment stalled infrastructure sector of India. So basically NIIF kills two birds with one stone. Now continuing our discussion another important point about NIIF that it is registered as a category two alternative investment fund with security and exchange board of India that is SEBI. Now let us see that NIIF maintains three funds with it. Let us see brief about three funds. Firstly it is the master fund. It is also called as NIIF core infrastructure fund. See this fund is primarily used for investing in various infrastructure projects like roads, ports, airports and power generation etc. Secondly the fund is called fund of funds. See this fund is maintained by third party well-renowned fund managers. These fund managers can use this fund and other private funds to invest in equity that is share market. See funds of funds main role is to earn the returns to the investors of NIIF. The third one is strategic opportunity fund. See SOF or strategic opportunity fund has been established with objective to provide long term capital to high growth future ready business of India. See these are the three funds of NIIF. Now the main advantage of NIIF is that since the risk is divided among these three funds even if one fund is loss making the other two can cover up for that. In this way they will ensure that the amount provided by the investor is secure. See this is attracting investor confidence that is why many investors are planning to provide funding to NIIF. See this is all regarding the discussion. In this discussion in the first part we saw about the basics of development of banks and the second part we saw about NIIF which is very important for our exam. So with this basic idea let's conclude this discussion and take up the next news article for our analysis. Look at this text and context article. It talks about how India first policy of Maldives is turning into an India out policy. Let's understand them in this news article discussion. As we all know Maldives is a key maritime neighbor of India in the Indian Ocean region. Maldives and Indian ties have been mostly cardio over the years but from 2013 to 2018 there was a noticeable tilt towards China during the presidency of progressive party of Maldives PPM leader Abdullah Yamin. Even it was during his regime that Maldives was included as a part of China's Belt and Road Initiative in 2018 the opposition party MDP took over the government. The Maldivian government under the presidency of Ibrahim Mohammed Soley improved the bilateral ties between India and Maldives. For example Mr. Soley adopted an India first foreign policy to establish a closer relationship with India in the various fields. The fields are defense, security and economics. In 2021 the Maldivian government even signed a deal with India to jointly develop the National Defense Force Coast Guard Harbor in Maldives. The name of the deal was Uthru Thila Fallu deal or UTF deal. But the opposition party to Mr. Soley was unhappy with this deal. They alleged that the government is compromising the sovereignty of the nation and allowing Indian boots on the ground. Gradually an India out campaign was parented by the opposition. This bear fruit as in 2023 election the PPM parties Mohammed Mizzou and Mr. Soley contested the presidential election. In this election Mr. Mizzou won the election with 54 percentage of votes and became the eighth president of island nation. See Mr. Mizzou promised to remove Indian troops from the Maldivian shores and balance the trade relationship with India. And he refused to be labeled as pro-China and maintained that he was pro-Maldives. Anyways he termed China as the valuable ally and integral collaborator during his recent visit to China. See it was a long tradition of the Maldivian heads visiting the newly first. But Mr. President on his first official visit traveled to Turkey in November. See all this deflects the deviation of the Maldives India first policy to an India out policy. So we have to wait and watch how this relationship will develop further. This is all regarding the news discussion and let us move on to the next part of our video that is to discuss the preliminary practice questions. Today I'm having three questions. Let us solve them one by one. See the first question with reference to the Agni Path scheme consider the following statements. See the first statement. The system of recruitment under the Agni Path scheme is only for the personal below the officer rank. See statement one is correct as we have already discussed this in our analysis. See the second statement. Initial recruitment under the scheme is same for all the three armed forces. See the statement two is incorrect because separate recruitment drives are organized by the armed forces according to their specific needs. So there's no initial recruitment which is same for all the three forces. Let us see the third one. Seva Niti package is accorded only to the soldiers who are retained in the armed forces after initial four years of service. See this is also incorrect because Seva Niti package which includes the contribution from both the individual and the government will be given to the soldiers who are moving out of the armed forces. Here note an important point that soldiers who are retained by the armed forces after the initial four years of service will only get what they had contributed towards the package. Here note that the governmental contribution towards the package is not given to the soldiers who are going to continue with the armed forces after four years. So this statement is also incorrect. So the statement one alone is correct. So the correct option is option A. See the second question of the day. Consider the following statements about NIIF or National Infrastructure and Investment Fund. See the first statement. It's a sovereign wealth fund of the Indian government which invests in the infrastructure projects of India. See statement one is wrong because NIIF is only a quasi sovereign fund as the government investment is only up to 49% age. Also it is not only investing in the infrastructure but it's also investing in the equity projects as well. So the statement one is wrong. See the second statement. It's registered as the category two alternative investment fund with RBI. See this is also wrong because NIIF is registered as a category two alternative investment fund with SEBI not the RBI. So statement two is also wrong. See the third statement. Core infrastructure funds, funds of funds and strategic opportunity fund are the three funds maintained by NIIF. See the statement is correct as we have already seen in our discussion. So statement three alone is correct. So the correct option is option A. See the final question of the day. Consider the following statements about the Maldives. See the first statement. It's a member of SARC. See as we all know that Maldives is a member of SARC because South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation or SARC has eight member countries. They are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. So the first statement one is correct. See the second statement. The Uttru Fitila Fallu deal signed in 2021 involves the joint development of the National Defence Force Coast Guard Harbor. See, see this is the landmark deal which was signed between India and Maldives. So this is correct. See the third statement. President Mohammed Mujoo, elected in 2023, initiated the India Out campaign during his electoral campaign. See, this is also correct because as we have seen in our analysis. So all the three statements are correct. So the correct option is option C. If you like today's video, like, comment and share it with your friends. For more updates regarding the UPC preparation, subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy. Thank you.