 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar IAS Academy for the date 31st of December 2019. Today we have a lot of news articles and editorials on various reports and indices. So today's discussion is largely based on these reports and indices like the India State of Forest report 2019 and then the SDG India Index 2019. Then we have an editorial on human development indices and such other news articles. The page numbers of these news articles are displayed here for five different editions. The handwritten notes in the PDF format and the time stamping of all the news articles taken up for today's analysis is available in the description section and also in the comment section for the benefit of the smartphone users. So brace yourself for more statistics today. Let us now start our analysis. This news article is about India State of Forest report 2019. See every two years Forest Survey of India undertakes assessment of India's forest resources and the results of this assessment are presented as India State of Forest report. If you see since 1987 15 such assessments have been completed and the current assessment is the 16th in the series. So this is the 16th such India State of Forest report which has been released by Forest Survey of India yesterday. In our today's analysis we will see in brief about what kind of information is available in this report, the objectives of this report and some definitions to know the findings of this report which will be seen. In our report findings will be mainly focusing on forest cover, then on tree cover, then on mangrove cover, then on forest carbon stock and finally we will see some special features of this IFSR 2019. So the discussion of this analysis will be helpful from prelims point of view and you can make use of the statistics that we are going to discuss in your mains answers especially in questions related to environment. And then this discussion will also be helpful for those as parents who are preparing for Indian forest services. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Let us now start our analysis about this India State of Forest report in short ISFR 2019. See this report provides information on forest cover, tree cover, mangrove cover, then on growing stock, then about the forest types in India and the biodiversity of the forests. Then it also provides information on forest fire monitoring. Then there is also findings about the forest cover in different slopes and altitudes of India. Then this report has also provided information about the bamboo resources in India. See the assessment for this report is largely based on digital data which is in tune with government of India's vision of digital India. So the forest cover and the forest cover changes have been assessed from Indian remote sensing satellite data which is resource at 2. So just remember this in mind. The satellite data from this resource at 2 will be helpful in monitoring the forest cover and the forest cover changes at district level, state level and at national level. And if you see this information also provides inputs for various global level inventories like the greenhouse gases inventory, then about the growing stock, then about the carbon stock and also for international reporting to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and then also to refer to the targets under United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. Then this data will also be helpful in global forest resource assessment which is done by the Food and Agriculture Organization. So these are some of the places where this data will also be helpful apart from this ISFR report 2019. Now let us see the main objectives of this report. As we saw one is to monitor the forest cover and the changes in the forest cover at national, state and district levels. And then the information on the forest cover will be generated based on different density classes and based on the information thematic maps will be developed. All this data and maps will help in the assessment of different parameters like growing stock, forest carbon etc. And if you see this data and the maps will act as a source of information for reporting to international conventions like the ones we saw. So these are some of the objectives of this India State of Forest report 2019. See we just saw that the forest cover will be monitored with the help of satellite data and satellite is from the space. So basically the satellite will cover the top view of the forests. So this top view of the forests is called as canopy which is nothing but the cover of branches and foliage which is formed by the crowns of trees. Now based on the density of this canopy there is a separate classification of forest cover which we will be seeing now. So what is meant by forest cover? It refers to all those lands which are more than 1 hectare in area where the tree canopy density is more than 10 percentage. This forest cover will include those lands with a tree canopy density of more than 10 percentage from a recorded forest area or from a non-recorded forest area and this also includes orchards, bamboo and palm. So what is meant by recorded forest area? It refers to those forest area which are recorded as forests in the government records. So these are some of the definitions that you need to know. Now let us see the classification of forest cover based on the canopy density. We saw that the land with a tree canopy density of more than 10 percentage is called as forest. So there are three types one is very dense forest the second is the moderately dense forest and the third is the open forest and the description for each of these classes is given here. So for very dense forest the tree canopy density should be 70 percentage and above for moderately dense it should be 40 percentage to 70 percentage and for open it should be from 10 to 40 percentage. Now there is also a classification for those forest lands with canopy density of less than 10 percentage. They are called as scrubs and there is one more classification which is non-forest it includes all those lands which does not come under any of these four classes. So this picture will clearly give you an idea of what is meant by very dense forest, moderately dense forest, open forest and scrub. Now let us see the major findings of the report. First we will focus on the forest cover. See we are going to see some more statistics in this report finding and at many places the data will be compared to the previous India state of forest report 2017. So always remember when we tell there is change of some value it refers to the previous assessment. Now this pie chart gives you a clear idea about the forest cover in India. You can see that the total forest cover in India is 21.67 percentage of the total geographical area of India and the scrubs represent 1.41 percentage of the total geographical area and the remaining land portion is non-forest. Now this report tells that there is an overall gain in the forest cover when compared to the previous report. Next if you see the states which have recorded an increase in forest cover in terms of area are Karnataka, Antara Pradesh and Kerala but there are some other states which have seen loss in forest cover which are the states of Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Mysore. Now don't focus on the values just remember the top three states. Now if you come to the news article there is a picture in the news article. From this graph you can see those states which have the largest forest cover in India. The states are Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh followed by Chattisgarh then we have Odisha and Maharashtra. So these are the five states with the largest forest cover in India. Next you also need to know one more data in terms of forest cover as percentage of the total geographical area in that particular state that is out of the total geographical area of the state how much percentage is forest. If you see under this category the top five states are the north eastern states which are the states of Mysore, Arunachal Pradesh followed by Meghalaya, Manipur and Nagaland. So you can see that the north eastern states are rich in terms of forest cover. Next this report tells that the quality of forest cover in terms of canopy density classes is wavering that is it is changing. When compared with the previous assessment that is the India state of forest report 2017 only a few portion of moderately dense forest has become very dense forest whereas a larger portion of land which is classified as moderately dense forest has got degraded in quality. Now come under open forest or scrub forest or even some have been classified under non forest. So you can see that there is degradation of the land area under moderately dense forest. So you can see that the quality of forest cover in terms of canopy density is varying across India. Now you need to know one more classification we just saw the definition of recorded forest area which is nothing but those area which have been classified by the states or by the central government as forests. If you see this report tells that there is a decrease in the forest cover within the recorded forest area whereas those forest cover outside such recorded forest areas have increased. So these are some of the important statistics under forest cover that you need to know from exam point of view. Now let us see the tree cover of India. We saw that the total forest cover of India is 21.67 percentage whereas the tree cover is 2.89 percentage. So what is this tree cover? Now apart from the forest areas there are also tree or we can tell that there is also a certain amount of canopy that is present in the city areas and even in some rural areas. So as per this report tree cover comprises of three patches of size less than one hectare which is occurring outside the recorded forest area. So this is the difference between tree cover and the forest cover. Now as per this report it tells that there is an increase in the total forest cover as well as in the total tree cover when compared with the previous report. And overall if you see the total forest and tree cover of India is 24.56 percentage this is a 0.65 increase when compared to the previous report. Now here you need to know that the national forest policy of 1988 as envisaged that India should have at least 33 percentage of total forest and tree cover. But throughout the assessments since 1987 this value is varying only between 21 to 25 percentage. So still India is not able to meet the target as envisaged by the national forest policy of 1988. So this is all that you need to know about total forest and tree cover. Next let us see about mangrove cover. In this year's report the mangrove cover has been extensively covered. Now from exam point of view you need to know that the mangroves are present in nine states. And all these nine states are the coastal states because we know that the mangrove forests are located near to the coastlines. And they are semi brackish or brackish in nature. So all those nine states are Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal. And apart from this mangroves are also present in three union territories which are the union territories of Andaman and Nicobar islands, Damanandayu and Puducherry. Now sometimes UPSC tests you with the known topic but unknown facts. Now one such fact that you need to know is that in Andaman and Nicobar islands mangroves are present only in North Andaman, South Andaman and in Nicobar group of islands. Then mangroves are also present in both Damanandayu portion of Damanandayu union territory. And if you see in the union territory of Puducherry mangroves are present only in Yanam. And here Yanam is located within the geographical territory of Andhra Pradesh. So just remember some unknown facts from this report. Now this report has said that there is an overall increase in mangrove cover by 1.1 percentage when compared to the previous report. So far we have seen about forest cover, then about tree cover and then about mangrove cover. Now let us focus on one more topic which is the forest carbon stock. Here you need to know the component of the forest carbon stock. This includes above ground biomass, then the biomass that is below ground, then the dead wood, then litter and also soil. So all these are components of the forest carbon stock. Now this report has said that there is an increase in forest carbon stock when compared to the previous report. Here one thing that you need to focus from this table is the annual change in carbon stock which is 21.3 million tons. So the assessment is for the previous 2 year which is 42.6 so if you divide by 2 it is 21.3 for 1 year. So for 1 year the annual change in carbon stock is 21.3 million tons. Now this 21.3 million tons is equivalent to 78.2 million tons of carbon dioxide. Now why we are discussing this fact is because India has one nationally determined contribution under this Paris agreement which is to create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by the year 2030. So if you roughly take this fact from 2015 to 2030 India has to add additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tons. So within this 15 year period roughly every year India must add 200 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. But from this report you can see that India is able to add close to 80 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. So it is highly doubtful if India will achieve this target. So this is one significant analysis that you need to know from this report. Next let us see some of the special features in this ISFR 2019 report. One is the assessment of plant biodiversity in forests. So this report has assessed the plant biodiversity in forests. See there are different drivers which tend to cause degradation of forests that leads to loss of biodiversity and reduced ecosystem services from the forests. Some of the important causes of loss of biodiversity are biotic pressure, then climate change and even forest fires. So this assessment gives an idea of how the biodiversity exists in different kinds of forests. Next if you see this report has also discussed about the wetlands in forest areas because wetlands are very important from biodiversity point of view. And they play an important role in forest water regime and forest hydrology. So the wetlands within the forest areas form important ecosystems because they add richness to the biodiversity in the forest areas for both the fauna species as well as the floral species. That is for both animals and plants. And then this report has also mapped the fire prone forest areas across India. Then this report has also put down the major invasive species which affects the forests. Because the invasive species pose serious threat to the sustainable management of the forests. In one way or the other they will also affect the biodiversity of the forests. So this report has taken state wise and union territory wise data of the major invasive species in the forests. Then if you see this report has also covered the important non-timber forest produce that is available in the forests. Because the non-timber forest produce are important source of livelihood for many tribal communities and villages who are living in the proximity of forests. So a state wise data is available for the non-timber forest produce as well. Then if you see this report has also quantified the estimation of those people who are living in the forest fringe villages and dependent on the forest for their fable wood or fodder, small timber and bamboo. So this report has given an estimation of such category of people as well. Then apart from this report has also discussed about the extent of trees which are outside the forest in the country. Then the major species out of these trees outside forests. Then it has come up with a refined forest type map of India. And also if you see this report has covered the forest cover on slopes. Because the high forest cover on steep slopes are a good indicator of stability of the mountains. So likewise this report has got many special features which will be helpful in proper management of forest areas in the country. And also to meet the international conventions like UNFCCC or the United Nations Convention to Combat Decertification or to say even the Sustainable Development Goals. Now if you take the Sustainable Development Goals there are two goals which are directly or indirectly related to conservation of forests. One is Sustainable Development Goal number 14 which discusses about life below water. Under this there are some targets for the mangrove forests. Then if you see we have Sustainable Development Goal number 15 which is life on land. Under this goal there are targets on increasing the percentage of forest area than the tree outside forest cover. Then also the total tree cover outside the forest area and such other targets. So you can see that this report is a highly updated report in order to provide information for international reporting. We saw that it is also one of the main objective of this India State of Forest report 2019. See now you also need to know one more special feature in this report. For the first time this report has submitted its findings for the newly created Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Now we have been seeing many indices and reports in the news article and also during our analysis. So always try to know if the data is available for the newly created Union Territories or if the data is available for the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir State. Because if you see during our 27 December analysis we saw that the data for both these Union Territories were not available for good governance index. But the data for the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir State was available. So Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory was classified under North Eastern Hill States category. Whereas Union Territory of Ladakh was not considered for the rankings under good governance index. So always try to know if both these Union Territories are a part of the reports or indices that you are seeing at the national level. You can maybe maintain separate sheet on the indices at national level and have a separate column if the data for both these Union Territories are available or not. Because in UPSC problems you might get a statement if the data for both these Union Territories have been included or not. So you can expect such type of questions in the problems. So always remember this. We saw that this report has been released by the Forest Survey of India. See it is a premier national organization that is working under Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. This organization is responsible for assessment and monitoring of the forest resources of India on regular basis. If you see the headquarters of this Forest Survey of India is located at Deradun in Uttarakhand. This Forest Survey of India does many activities like remote sensing based nation wide forest cover mapping which is nothing but the assessment that we are seeing. Then it also deals with national forest inventory. Then it monitors the forest fires across India. Then it also does forest carbon assessment. Then it does forest type mapping and several projects on various emerging issues and state specific requirements. So it has a leading role in monitoring the forest resources of India. So this is all about Forest Survey of India that you need to know. And this is all about the discussion of this news article and the India State of Forest Report 2019 which has been released by the Forest Survey of India. To summarize, we have seen in brief about this India State of Forest Report 2019. Then about its objectives, then some various definitions that are needed for the analysis of this report findings. And under the report findings, we saw a lot of findings under forest cover, then for tree cover, then report findings for mangrove cover. Then we saw a unique fact which was reported regarding the forest carbon stock and how it is helpful in comparing with the India's nationally determined contributions. Then we saw some special features of this report and finally we saw about the Forest Survey of India. So try to make use of the statistics that we have discussed in this news article. It will be highly relevant from prelims point of view and the entire news article discussion will also be helpful for those people who are preparing for Indian Forest Service. And try to make use of these statistics in any of your main answers in your general studies paper 3 on questions related to environment. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about SDG India Index 2019. See last year the first edition of this Sustainable Development Goals India Index was released. So this year the second edition has been released by Niti Ayo. In this context, let us discuss in brief about the Sustainable Development Goals, then about the Sustainable Development Goal Index and the findings of this index. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. See the Sustainable Development Goals are also known as Global Goals. The idea for developing Sustainable Development Goals was conceived at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development which was held at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in the year 2012. The objective was to produce a set of universal goals which means the urgent environmental, political and economic challenges during that time. And if you see the Sustainable Development Goals were adopted by all the member states of United Nations in the year 2015. So all the nations committed to act towards ending poverty then to protect the planet and also ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by the year 2030. So this is the crux of this Sustainable Development Goals. There should be development but at the same time the development should also be sustainable without damaging the environment or any other thing for that sake. Now if you see these Sustainable Development Goals replace the Millennium Development Goals which started in 2000. These Millennium Development Goals established measurable then universally agreed objectives for tackling same issues like extreme poverty and hunger, then for preventing deadly diseases, then for expanding the primary education to all children and such other development priorities. So the Sustainable Development Goals replace this Millennium Development Goals and these Sustainable Development Goals are for the time period 2015 to 2030. So there are 17 goals under which there are 169 targets and 306 national indicators. One special feature of these Sustainable Development Goals is that the goals are integrated in one way or the other. It means that the action in one area will affect the outcome in another area so that there will be an overall development which balances the social, economic and environmental sustainability. Then if you see the countries also pledged to leave no one behind. So what is this leave no one behind? It means the member countries have committed to fast track the progress in these goals for those countries which need first. So this ensures that no country is left behind in terms of development. So this is the reason why the Sustainable Development Goals are designed to bring the world to several life changing zeros like zero poverty, zero hunger, zero AIDS that is no AIDS and then zero discrimination against women and girls. Next if you see India played a very prominent role in formulating these even Sustainable Development Agenda 2030. And if you see much of India's national development agenda is a mirror of these Sustainable Development Goals. And worldwide if you see India's progress in these Sustainable Development Goals is very crucial because India is home to about one sixth of the world's population. So if India is lacking in any of the indicators of development then it means the world is also lacking in those areas of development to a certain extent. In India Neethi Ayog has the responsibility to provide the overall coordination and leadership to implement the Sustainable Development Goals. I know that the Prime Minister of India is the chaperone of Neethi Ayog. So as a part of this Neethi Ayog has constructed the Sustainable Development Goal India Index to measure the progress of all the states and union territories towards achieving this target. So this index has been developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Then also in collaborations with the United Nations Office in India. Then also in collaboration with the Global Green Growth Institute. Now let us discuss the second edition of this SDG India Index. This SDG India Index 2019 tracks the progress of all the states and union territories on 100 indicators which are drawn from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Now what is this National Indicator Framework? See it was developed by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and it contains several indicators which are very crucial for measuring India's progress towards achieving its Sustainable Development Goals. Now if you see this year's index is more robust when compared to the first edition because there is a wider coverage of goals, targets and indicators and all of them are mostly aligned with the National Indicator Framework. So this index has quantitatively assessed 16 out of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the goal number 17 which is partnership for the goals has been qualitatively assessed. If you see in 2018 index only 13 goals were assessed and the states were ranked based on the performance in these 13 goals but this year all goals have been included. And next if you see this index has also a new section on the profiles of all the 37 states and union territories. So it will be very useful to analyze the performance on each of the goals. Now here you need to note that the index calculates score on a scale of 0 to 100 for each state or union territory based on its aggregate performance across 16 indicators. Say if a state or union territory achieves a score of 100 then it signifies that it has achieved the 2030 national targets. So the higher the score of a state or union territory the closer it is towards achieving the national targets. The classification criteria is aspirants, performers, front runners and achievers. So achievers means a score of 100, front runners the score will be between 65 to 99 and if they are performers the score will be between 50 to 64 and if the score is between 0 to 49 then they are aspirants which means they still need to improve to meet the targets. Now if you see India as a whole that is the composite score of India it has improved from 57 in the 2018 index to 60 in this year's index. So we can see there is a noticeable progress towards achieving the sustainable development goals. And another significant achievement is that all the three states that were in the aspirant category which are the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and SM have now moved on to the next category which is the performer category. And five states Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Goa and Sikkim have moved from performer category to the front runner category. So you can see that states are improving by working towards the targets. Now in this year's index Kerala has achieved the first rank. So Kerala has got a score of 70 and this is followed by Himachal with a score of 69 and in the third position there are three states which are the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu which have scored 67. And if you see the biggest improvements when compared to 2018 are the states of Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim. And in this index the state of Bihar is the bottom performer. This year's score is 50. But one point to note here is that it has improved its score when compared to previous year's index. Last year it was 48. This year it is 50. And 50 means it comes under the performer category. So you can see that Bihar still has a long way to go in achieving the targets. Now according to this news article it tells that the maximum gains have been made in certain sustainable development goals like goal number 6 which is clean water and sanitation. Then goal number 9 which is industry innovation and infrastructure. Then goal number 7 affordable and clean energy. And goal number 16 which is peace, justice and strong institutions. Then this news article also tells that most of the states have showed poor performance in certain goals like ending hunger and achieving gender equality. So zero hunger is your sustainable development goal number 2. Then achieving gender equality is your SDG goal number 5. Next this news article has also listed certain achievements specific to certain SDG goals. First let us discuss the performance in SDG goal number 2 which is zero hunger. According to this news article the states of Kerala, Gover and most of the parts of northeast have performed better. But overall if we see 22 states and union territories have scored below 50 which means they are in the aspirant category. The states which still need to improve are the states of Jaq and Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Chattisgarh because their scores are below 30 under this SDG goal number 2 to achieve zero hunger. So this shows that there is a high level of hunger and malnutrition in these states. Next this news article has also discussed about SDG goal number 5 which is to achieve gender equality. Here it tells that all the states have shown poor performance in this year's index. And according to this news article only Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala have managed to cross 50 points. And some of the indicators under this goal include crimes against women, then eradicating sex selection, then discrimination against daughters, then access to reproductive health schemes, then as well as indicators that show women's economic and political empowerment and leadership. So these are some of the indicators under SDG goal number 5 which is to achieve gender equality. Now there are some statistics given in the news article. You can make use of these statistics in your main exam. See the first statistic that has been given is the sex ratio. It tells that the sex ratio for India is 896 females per 1000 males. And then it has also reported that there is 17.5% female labour participation rate. And it also reports that 1 in 3 women experience violence by their spouse. So these are some of the statistics which contribute to low scores countrywide. So this clearly indicates that the central government, the state governments and the citizens should work together to improve gender equality in India. So make use of these statistics in any of your main answers related to gender equality or gender inequality. Now if you see there is also this map in the news article. From this map you can see that the southern states are performing much better towards achieving the sustainable development goals. And also the states of Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim are the front runners. But still many states are lagging behind. So it is high time that the states in India must work together. They should share their strategies and they should help the poorly performing states to move forward. So all the states have to work with the spirit of competitive and cooperative federalism which is essential for the overall development of India. So this is all about the discussion of this news article. In today's news article we have seen in brief about the sustainable development goals. Then we saw about India and the sustainable development goals. Then finally we discussed about the SDG India Index 2019 wherein we compared with the previous year's index on certain parameters. Then finally we focused on 2-3 goals where India needs to improve like SDG goal number 2 and 5. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. So far we have seen India State of Forest report 2019 and then we saw about SDG India index 2019. Now let us take a break from index and let us see this news article on APSPA which is the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. This news article is about the extension of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in Nagaland. In this context we will be discussing in brief about this act which is popularly called as APSPA. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. See there are 2 APSPAs in operation. One is exclusively for Jammu and Kashmir which is called the Armed Forces Jammu and Kashmir Special Powers Act of 1990. We discussed in detail about this APSPA Jammu and Kashmir in our second November analysis. We request the viewers to have a look at the analysis for the subject priority. The other act is applicable to some of the Northeastern states of India and this act is called as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act of 1958. So today we will be focusing on this particular act. Know that APSPA 1958 is an act which confers certain special powers to the members of the armed forces in the disturbed areas in the Northeastern states of India. We are aware that the Northeastern states in India are hit by violence and insurgency movements for decades. So APSPA was an act to give additional powers to the armed forces in order to maintain the public order in those disturbed areas of the Northeastern region. So what are the special powers that are available to the armed forces in the disturbed areas granted under APSPA? So first let us see the special powers, then we will see the definition of disturbed area as given in this act. Now coming to the special powers, the armed forces will have the authority to prohibit an assembly of five or more persons. So five or more persons cannot meet if APSPA is prevailing in a particular area. Then if you see the armed forces can prohibit carrying the firearms or the ammunitions under this act. And also if any person is acting in contravention of any law which is in force, then the armed forces can use force or the armed forces can even fire upon them even if it will cause the death of such persons who are acting in contravention of any law. Then if you see the armed forces can arrest without warrant, so they can arrest any persons even if that person has committed a cognisable offense or even if there is a suspicion that if he has committed or if he is about to commit a cognisable offense. So from this you can see that armed forces have a huge authority to maintain the law and order. Then if you see under this act the armed forces enjoy impunity that is their exempt from punishments for their acts. So these are some of the special powers which are available to the armed forces in the disturbed areas as granted under this APSPA. Now what are these disturbed areas? What do we mean by it? And who has the authority to declare an area as a disturbed area? See as per section 3 of this APSPA a disturbed area is declared by a notification. It can be invoked in places where the use of armed forces is necessary. So under this section 3 the governor of that particular state or the administrator of a particular union territory or even the central government can declare the entire portion of such state or union territory or a part of such state or union territory as a disturbed area. If they are of the opinion that if that area is in such a disturbed or dangerous condition and there is a need to maintain law and order. So such areas can be declared as disturbed areas under APSPA. Now if you see this APSPA is applicable in the entire state of Assam then in the entire state of Nagaland and then in the entire state of Manipur except the municipal area of Imphal which is the capital of Manipur. And then this APSPA is also applicable in few areas in the state of Arunachal Pradesh. So this is all about APSPA that you need to know from exam point of view. Now let us come to the news article according to the news article. The Ministry of Home Affairs of the Government of India has declared the entire state of Nagaland as a disturbed area for 6 more months under this APSPA. See we know that Nagaland has a long history of insurgency and Nagaland attained statehood in the year 1963. But even after that armed insurgency continued because there was a demand for cessation of Nagaland from the union of India. And then in 1975 the central government signed Shillong Accord with the Nagaribals. But this Accord was criticized by certain Nagaribal leaders and they continued their insurgency. And if you see the most important insurgent group among them is the National Socialist Council of Nagaland Isaac Muiva. In short NSCN IM faction. So in 2015 a historic agreement was signed between the central government and this NSCN IM faction. So this paved the way for peace in the state. But even after this if you see APSPA still continues in this state. And now the news is that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has declared the entire state of Nagaland as a disturbed area for 6 more months. So this is all about the discussion of this news article. In this news article we have discussed in detail about the Armed Forces Special Powers Act of 1958. And the states where this act is applicable as of now. And under this act we saw some of the special powers and what is meant by disturbed area. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This open editorial is about India reflecting itself by holding a mirror to its face. That is why the title of this oped is holding a mirror to our face. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference. See this editorial is largely based on the development scenario in India. This editorial has two parts. In the first part the author assesses the development scenario. For this assessment he uses indicators such as human development index then GDP in purchasing power parity terms. Then in the second part the author talks with respect to the proposed regional comprehensive economic partnership deal. Let us see few points on the human development index which has been used by the author to assess India's performance. See the human development index is released by the United Nations Development Program. We know that the human development indices are released as a part of human development reports which are published by this United Nations Development Program. And this report is released on an annual basis that is it is being released every year since 1990. See in addition to the human development index this report also contains data on inequality adjusted human development index then gender development index and gender inequality index. So all these are released together under this human development report. For our editorial we will be focusing on human development index. We know that human development index was created to emphasize that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country. So this means that the assessment of a country should not be based on economic growth alone. It should be people centric. See this HDI is measure of average achievement in three important dimensions of human development. One is long and healthy life. The second is knowledge that is being knowledgeable. The third is to have a decent standard of living. In this the health dimension is assessed by life expectancy at birth. Then if you see the education dimension is measured by using mean of years of schooling for adults who are aged 25 years and more and the expected years of schooling for children who are of school entering age. Then if you see the standard of living dimension is measured by gross national income per capita. This is not the gross national income rather it is the gross national income per capita. So remember this. Now as per this United Nations development program India's HDI value for the year 2018 is 0.647. And if you see India is placed under medium human development category. So based on this value the rank of India worldwide is 129 out of the 189 countries assessed in this report. So this is where India stands at the global level with respect to human development. Then if you see China and Sri Lanka China has a score of 0.758 and is at the 85th position. Whereas Sri Lanka's score is 0.78 and it is at the 71st position. So we can see China and Sri Lanka have scored better when compared to India. Now in addition to this the author also mentions that India is suffering from malnutrition. Also every year the number of children who drop out of school is in alarming numbers. And there are millions of young people but they are not trained. And if you see it is these untrained unskilled youth who entered the workforce. Since they are not trained they become unfit for anything more than the hard manual labour. That is they are not having enough skills to fit in to the jobs they enter. So we can tell that they are unable to be used in skilled employment. Now this is important because if there is skill and training then the chance to earn money is more for an individual. And the income will grow over the years for that individual. But if you see in the present context the Indian youth is lacking such skills and training. So in absence of skills India's potential demographic dividend is morphing or till it is modifying into a nightmare. Here it means we might have the human resources but they cannot be utilized properly. So instead of contributing to the welfare of the nation they become a burden for the nation's development. So we can relate it this way. Now let us come to the second assessment that has been made by the author. Here the author uses the indicators such as gross domestic product in purchasing power parity terms and then gross domestic product in purchasing power parity terms per capita or for one individual. Now if you take this gross domestic product that is GDP in purchasing power parity terms in total India is at the third position in the world whereas China is at the first position and US is at the second position. And if you remember in this year's prelims that is 2019 prelims there was a question on purchasing power parity. So here the author has highlighted these numbers based on data from international monetary fund. Now let us see where do we stand if we measure or assess India using per capita GDP in terms of purchasing power parity. See per capita GDP in terms of purchasing power parity is obtained by dividing the GDP in terms of purchasing power parity by the population of India. So based on this calculation India's position is 124 out of 192 economies of the world. This means that the income of India is not distributed among the masses. It means inequality of income or we can also tell that income is concentrated in few hands. So this means that GDP as an indicator for economic growth is actually misleading because we get to know the real picture when we are using this GDP per capita as an indicator. So here the author points that if there is no development then in future people will not have the purchasing power better than or comparable to other countries. And India may have a huge population but the population without purchasing power or development will dilute the tremendous negotiating power that India has presently because of the huge population. So human development is the key to economic growth. Now in addition to this the author criticizes the government since it is spending very less for education as a result the future generations of India will be at disadvantage when compared to the citizens of other countries. See as mentioned by the former RBI governor Mr. Raghuram Rajan, India needs more modern schools and universities which will open the minds of children and such educational facilities will help them to keep or hold their position in the competitive globalized world of tomorrow. So this is one area where the government has to focus it has to increase its spending on education. Now let us come to the second part of the editorial. In the second part the author criticizes the government as it has not brought the Indian economy to such a level that would have placed India in a better bargaining position with respect to the proposed RCEP deal. Nothing but the regional comprehensive economic partnership deal. If India had achieved better development indicators for farmers and for the small producers maybe India could have joined the RCEP deal. So if India had the matching capacity to join this deal then India could have joined with one of the most vibrant economic regions in the world where there is a potential to bring immense prosperity to not just to India but also to the entire South Asian region. Now in this context no in brief about this RCEP deal it is a proposed deal between the 10 nation member countries and countries such as India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. But the recent current affairs is that India has walked out of this deal in its present format. So it is not sure if India will join the RCEP deal in the future we need to wait and watch. So to summarize this editorial we have seen the assessment made by the author in relation to the development scenario of India and then we saw the views of the author with respect to the proposed RCEP deal. Now have a look at the practice questions. Let us move on to the next news article. Next let us see a data point on the recently released global gender gap report. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this data point is given here for your reference. If you remember we saw during our discussion of the second news article which is SDG India Index 2019 about SDG goal number 5 which is on gender equality that is to achieve gender equality by 2030. Various initiatives are taken by the countries across the world and there are certain monitoring tools across the global level. One such is the global gender gap report which is released by World Economic Forum every year since 2006. Now this data point tells that India has slipped four places when compared to last year's rank. Last year it was ranked 108th this year it has dropped to 112th rank. So before discussing more on India let us first discuss in brief about this global gender gap report. As we just saw it is being released annually every year by World Economic Forum since 2006. So what is this gender gap? It is basically the gap between the men and women across certain sectors. Say in a workplace there are 50 employees. Now gender equality is a condition when there will be 25 men and 25 women. But if there are more men when compared to women then we can tell there is a gender gap. So the universal scenario is that it is usually the males who are dominating the females across various sectors. So at present gender gap refers to a condition where there are less number of females when compared to males. So this gap between men and women across four areas such as health, education, politics and economics is what is being measured under this gender gap report. So as a part of this report the global gender gap index is released. This global gender gap index quantifies the extent of gender based gaps among four key dimensions. One is economic participation and opportunity the next is the educational attainment. Then comes the health and survival and then the gender gap in political empowerment. And this index also tracks the progress towards closing all these gaps over time. Then it allows for effective comparisons across the regions so that there is an improvement in closing the gender gaps. And if you see this index covers 153 countries and India comes under the South Asian region. You can see that it has been mentioned global gender gap report 2020. See various sub indicators are taken for scoring the countries based on these four dimensions and the time period of each data set varies. But if you see this report is valid for the next one year so that is the reason why it is being mentioned as for 2020. Now let us see the outcomes of the report. This report tells that the global gender gap score stands at 68.6%. This means that on average the gap is narrower that is 68.6% of the gap is closed. So the remaining gap that needs to be closed in order to achieve gender equality is now 31.4%. And till date if you see no country has achieved full gender parity. And if you see among the top 5 countries in this index these top 5 countries have closed only close to 80% of their gaps. And if you see the best performer is the country of Iceland where it has closed near to 88% of the gender gaps. And this ranks number one in the index. If you see India has closed only 66.8% of the gender gaps. And India has ranked 112 out of the 153 countries taken up for ranking this index. So we can see that India has closed two-thirds of its overall gender gap. Now let us see the performance of India based on the four key dimensions. First let us see the economic participation and opportunity dimension. In this dimension India has closed one-third of the gap only that is only around 35.4% of the gap has been closed. Since 2006 if you see this gap has in fact widened that is there is more gender inequality. And it is also said in this report that India is the only country where the economic gender gap is larger than the political gender gap. That is politically women are represented better but women are not represented in an equal manner in terms of economic opportunities. That is in terms of employment. This report tells that only one-quarter of women that is only around 25% of women engage actively in the labour market. Whereas if you see in case of men 82% of them are actively engaging in the labour market. And this report tells that it is one of the lowest participation rates in the world. The next sub index is health and survival. India's rank is poor in this parameter as well. If you see there are two sub-parameters under this dimension. One is life expectancy for women and second is the sex ratio at birth. Now why India's code law is because the sex ratio at birth is skewed. Here sex ratio is defined as the number of female life births per thousand male life births. Say for example if 100 boys are born then only 91 girls are born. So this indicates that the remaining 9 girls children may potentially have been aborted which has resulted in a skewed sex ratio. The next sub index is educational attainment. This report tells that the situation on the trend are more positive in terms of gender gaps in education. Because from primary to higher education the share of women who are attending the school is quite larger when compared to men. Though the gap is huge but still India is performing better under this sub-index. The next and the final sub-index is political empowerment. Now out of the four sub-indices India ranks better only in this sub-index. Because of the past 50 years India was headed by a women for 20 years. So this is the reason why India's rank is strong because this is one of the indicators that the number of women leaders in the past 50 years is one of the indicators. But today if we see the political representation of women in Indian politics is quite low because women make up only for 14.4% of the parliament. And women make up only for 23% of the entire ministers in India. So this is about the performance of India if you look at the sub-index level. Next let us compare the performance of India among the BRICS nations. From this table you can say that India is the least performer because all the other countries of BRICS which are South Africa, Russia, Brazil and China are ahead of India in this index. In fact South Africa's ranks 17th out of the total 153 countries taken up for this index. So India has to work lot in closing the gender gaps. If you see in this picture you can see the performance of India when compared to certain BRICS nations and certain other South Asian nations. So you can see that in terms of economic participation India's score is below when compared to Bangladesh and also in the health and survival sub-index. Here one thing which you need to know is the highest possible score is one which represents gender parity. And the lowest possible score is zero which represents there is no gender parity or we can tell it is imparity. So if your score is going towards one it means that particular country is closing the gender gap. In other words we can tell that there is more equality. Because if you look at this picture under the sub-index health and survival you can see scores from 1 to 1.08. We just saw that the score is between 0 to 1. If it is more than 1 it means the women are outperforming when compared to men. So from this picture you can tell that the health expectancy of women is greater than men. So this is how this index is being calculated. And this is all about the discussion of this data point. To summarize this data point we have seen in brief about the global gender gap report released by World Economic Forum. And about the global gender gap index 2020 the four dimensions and the performance of the world overall. And then we saw the performance of India in this index and also we saw the performance of India in each of the sub-indices under this index. Now have a look at the practice question. Now look at this news article. This news article is about the simultaneous buying and selling of government securities via open market operations. This news article tells that it is the second special open market operation. If you remember during our 20th December the Hindu news analysis we have covered in detail about the first phase of this open market operations. Wherein we discussed in brief about bonds then about the government securities then about its types. And then finally we saw about the open market operations. So we request the viewers to know the basics of the operation that has been reported in the news article. You need not look at all the values that is given in the news article. All you need to know is the concepts like bonds, government securities and open market operations. So please have a look at our 20th December the Hindu news analysis. Let us move on to the practice questions discussion session. Look at this first question. It is about India's state of forest report. Two statements have been given and you need to choose the correct statements. Look at the first statement. It tells that forest survey of India presents findings of its mapping and forest resource assessment activities at the national level by annually by publishing India state of forest report. It looks though as if the statement is correct but it is wrong because it is a biennial report not a biannual report. Biannual means twice in a year but biennial means once in two years. So know this difference. So the first statement goes wrong. Now look at the next statement. It tells that the extent of trees outside forests has been derived for the first time in India state of forest report 2019. Yes, this statement is correct. Now let us see the definition for trees outside forests. It refers to those trees which are found outside the recorded forest areas. And if you see the extent of trees outside forests is 36.40 percentage of the total forest and tree cover in the country. So we did not discuss this fact during our discussion. Please make a note of this fact. Now you need to choose the correct statements. The correct answer is option B2 only since the first statement is wrong. Now look at the next question. This question is about United Nations sustainable development goals. Three statements have been given and you need to choose the correct statements. The first statement tells that this UN Sustainable Development Goals was adopted by the UN member countries during the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development at Rio de Janeiro in 2012. This statement is wrong because the idea of having sustainable development goals was conceived in this conference but it was actually adopted in the year 2015. So this statement goes wrong. Now look at the next statement. It tells that in India, Niti Ayog has the responsibility to provide the overall coordination and leadership to implement the SDGs. Yes, this statement is correct. We saw this during our discussion. Now look at the third statement. It tells that the Sustainable Development Goals India Index is released by Niti Ayog. This statement is also correct. Niti Ayog has developed this SDG India Index in collaboration with the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Then in collaboration with United Nations in India. Then also in collaboration with Global Green Growth Institute. So this index is basically to measure the progress of all the states and union territories towards achieving the SDG targets. And if you see Niti Ayog has released the second edition of this index recently. So this statement is correct. Now you need to choose the correct statements. The correct answer is option B2 and 3 only. Let us look at the next question which is about Armed Forces Special Powers Act of 1958. Two statements have been given and you need to choose the correct statements again. The first statement tells that only the central government can declare an area as a disturbed area under this Armed Forces Special Powers Act of 1958. This statement is wrong. Note that as per section 3 of this act the governor of a particular state or the administrator of a particular union territory or the central government can declare the entire part of such state or union territory or a portion of such a state or union territory as a disturbed area. If they are of the opinion that if that area is in a disturbed and dangerous condition and it is necessary to maintain the law and order. So it is not only the central government, even the governor of the state and administrator in case of union territory have the power to declare any area as a disturbed area. Now look at the second statement. It tells that at present APSPA 1958 is operational only in the states of Assam and Nagaland. Note that as of today that is as of 31st December 2019. This act is operational in the entire states of Assam, Nagaland, Manipur in Manipur except Imfal municipal area and it is also applicable in few areas in the state of Arunachal Pradesh. So the second statement also goes wrong. Now you need to choose the correct statements. The correct answer is option D neither one nor two since both the statements are wrong. Now look at the next question. The question is both the Gender Development Index and Gender Inequality Index are released by which of the following? In the options you have World Economic Forum then United Nations Development Program and then World Bank and Option D none of the above. Here the correct answer to this question is option V UNDP which is United Nations Development Program. So it is this UNDP which releases both Gender Development Index and Gender Inequality Index. Now if you see World Economic Forum releases Global Gender Gap Index. So do not confuse this have a clarity on the indices related to Gender Inequality and Gender Development. So the correct answer to this question is option B United Nations Development Program. Now look at the next question. The question is Human Development Index is often seen in the news. It is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development. Which of the following are the key dimensions? Four dimensions have been given and you need to choose the correct answer. See there are three key dimensions in measuring this Human Development Index which are long and healthy life, then knowledge and then a decent standard of living. So your empowerment can be eliminated. If you see the Gender Inequality Index, the key dimensions of this Gender Inequality Index are Health, Empowerment and Labour Markets. So do not confuse between the Gender Inequality Index and the Human Development Index. Also if you see the three dimensions of the Human Development Index is the same for Inequality Adjusted Human Development Index as well. And this index is being released by United Nations Development Program. So the correct answer to this question is option C one, three and four. Now look at the next question. This question is about Global Gender Gap Index. Two statements have been given and you need to choose the correct statements. The first statement tells that it is released by World Economic Forum. We just saw that Global Gender Gap Index is being released by World Economic Forum. So this statement is correct. Now look at the second statement. It tells that it benchmarks national gender gaps on economic and political criteria only. So you have got a superlative only. So reread the statement. It tells that it benchmarks national gender gaps on economic and political criteria only. Know that it benchmarks national gender gaps based on four criteria. Economy, education, health and political criteria. So there are four criteria based on which this index is calculated. So this statement goes from the correct answer to this question is option A one only. Since this question asks you to choose the correct statements. Now look at the main question. Answer this question in 150 words. It's a 10 mark main question. Do you agree with the view that economic growth in terms of GDP reflect the development of people and their capabilities? Give reasons in support of your arguments. So here you need to focus about the economic growth of India in terms of GDP and how it is being portrayed that India is actually growing but it is not growing because this GDP value is not reflecting the actual development of the people. So you need to give some reasons on whatever stand you are taking. Please post your answers in the comments section. Your answers will be reviewed and suitable. Feedbacks and suggestions would be given in the next 7 to 10 working days. 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. And with this we also come to the end of this year 2019. Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous new year. Stay focused and motivated friends. Thank you.