 Good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu news analysis. These are the list of news articles that will be discussed in the news analysis. They are provided along with the page numbers of the different editions of the newspaper. This editorial article talks about announcing the thought partnerships. So in this discussion let us see what is meant by thought partnership and the need for it. The syllabus for this news article is given below. See a partnership is a collaboration among business non-profit organizations and government in which risk resources and skills are shared in projects that benefit each partner as well as the community. And according to business experts, a thought partner is someone who challenges the thinking, who causes to modify or change our paradigms, assumptions or actions and who has got information or a way of thinking that provokes us to innovate or which leads to value creation in the business, career or life. So thought partners are usually people who possess information and knowledge that challenges and provokes diversion, thinking and action. Thus we can say that thought partnership provides a position where the domain knowledge and resources of private individuals can be used to the maximum advantage. So the author here defines thought partnerships as a structured mechanism for private entities to lend relevant strategic expertise to the government on matters of policy design, evaluation and implementation. One of the important reasons to build thought partnership is a lack of capacity in government, both in terms of size as well as ability. In terms of size if we see there is a large number of vacancies in the central government which in turn over burdens the civil servants and also it makes the government under resourced. Similarly in terms of ability the lack of capacity is visible in comparatively low standard policy decision and also in the poor implementation of those policies. Now let us see what are the issues with engaging in thought partnerships. The first issue is funding. Here you should note that every time it is not feasible for the government to fund and also comes the issue of red tapism which refers to the official rules and processes that seems to be unnecessary and those that delay the results. And in our context red tapism is present in the process of getting required approvals for such fundings which is often a tedious process. On the other hand if we think about getting fund from other agencies then government has to be cautious in accepting it after analyzing their implicit and explicit agendas. In order to resolve this issue the author suggests to have a funding from committed external partners that have no special demands. For this purpose there are several domestic and international philanthropies and impact investing firms who are already investing in the critical sectors of developing countries. Here you should note that impact investing is a kind of investment strategy that generates financial returns along with the creation of constructive outcomes and also it aims to generate specific social or environmental effects in addition to financial gains. An example for this would be investing in non-profit organization that benefit the community or investing in clean technology enterprises that benefit the environment. Those firms that do impact investing are called as IVFs and such IVFs investments should fund the systematic or sectoral transformation program in our context. In this regard the author has given these examples where government has occasionally tried systematic thought partnerships. You can take a note of it then comes the issue that even though such thought partnerships have been established occasionally between the government and private entities the author feels them to be disconnected and irregular and then comes the issue government private collaboration they do not provide for prospective government private collaboration. The next issue is that India lacks scholars and practitioners who are singularly focused on researching and solving India's problem that will ultimately result in better policies. Therefore the need of the R is to forge more thought partnerships and to fund it in order to channel external expertise and skills. In this regard you should also take note of the recently launched third version of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. As you are aware it aims to encourage and promote skill development in the country by providing free short duration skill training and incentivizing this by providing monetary rewards to youth for skill certification. Among its many objectives comes the objective to promote skill centers for greater participation of private sector. Here thought partnerships can be applied it can also be applied in the creation of implementation framework for the second phase. With this we have come to the end of this news article. Let us now move on to the next news article. See these two articles which talk about the United Nations Security Council. As we all know India has joined the UNSC as a non-permanent member from the first of this month for a period of two years. In this context the author of this lead column discusses what should be the priority issues for India at the height table that is at the UNSC. The syllabus relevant for this article is given below. First let us have a brief overview of the UNSC. As we all know the UNSC is one of the main organs of the UN. It has 15 members, five permanent and 10 non-permanent members. Under the UN Charter the Security Council has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. It calls upon the parties to a dispute to settle it by peaceful means and recommends methods of adjustment or terms of settlement. In some cases the Security Council can resort to imposing sanctions or even authorize the use of force to maintain or restore international peace and security. The Security Council has a presidency which rotates and changes every month. This presidency is held by both permanent and non-permanent members in the English alphabetical order of their names. Now let us come to UNSC membership. The five permanent members of the UNSC are China, France, Russia, UK and the USA. Out of the 10 non-permanent members five are elected every year by the General Assembly for a two-year term. They are elected based on geographic representation. Over a period there has been a demand for reforming the structure and membership of the UNSC and this is essential as it was formed in 1945 and does not reflect the present-day geopolitics. The leading countries aspiring a permanent seat in the expanded UNSC are the G4 namely India, Japan, Germany and Brazil. As said before India is a current non-permanent member in the UNSC. India deserves a permanent seat at the high table of the UN and the India deserves a permanent seat at the high table of the United Nations that is a UNSC but it is almost sure that India won't be getting it soon. So therefore this two-year non-permanence tint at the UNSC should be viewed as a once in a decade opportunity to clearly identify and pursue its national interest both regionally and globally. See India's entry into the UNSC coincides with the emergence of a new world order and this new world order the new global order is marked by systemic uncertainty, little care for global commons, absence of global leadership and the steady division of the world into rival blocks. The author feels that the new US president by rejoining the Paris climate agreement and possibly the Iran nuclear deal may solve some of the important global problems. Then the UNSC has also reached a point where its very relevance is questioned so can it ensure its primary objective that is the maintenance of international peace and security? It is a serious question only time can answer and not just global order even India is different now contemporary India is more confident the contemporary India is more self-confident resolute and it wants to be a shaper of geopolitics even though it lacks the material capital the economic heft and the domestic consensus. So the author feels that India's pursuit of its interest at the UNSC should therefore reflect its material and geopolitical limitations and its energy should be focused on a clearly identified agenda. Then comes the China factor already India is in border clash with China the impact of which is already started to be felt at the UNSC meetings in New York even China is opposing India has chairperson of the counter terrorism committee in 2022 and this reflects the challenges India is going to face at UNSC. If the president Biden continues with Trump's policy of pushing back Chinese aggression including at the UNSC it will be much helpful for India in countering China but this could hamper India's relations with Russia. India's seat at the UNSC is also significant because the next two years will be key to ensure checking further Chinese incursions along the line of actual control and in building up enough infrastructure and mobilizing sufficient forces in the forward areas. Our experience from Doklam to Ladakh to now Anarchal Pradesh clearly tell that Chinese land grab attempts will continue and in pushing China back we would need all the assistance we can get. Next terror is likely to be a major force for India the UNSC. India recently it assumed the chair of the Taliban sanctions committee which assumes significance given the fast-moving developments in Afghanistan and India's new found desire to engage with the Taliban. The issue of terrorism has been a major theme in the country's national security and foreign policy discourse for decades now. However, India must formulate its policy towards terrorism with far more diplomatic finance and political nuance. Another area India wants to focus on would be to use a forum to build coalitions among like-minded states and to set out its priorities for the next decade that is from climate change to non-proliferation. India it should also use its bargaining power at the UNSC to pursue its national interest in other forums and domains as well. Then India's UNSC strategy should also involve shaping the narrative and global policy engagement like the Indo-Pacific. Given India's centrality in the Indo-Pacific region and the growing global interest in the concept, India would play a decisive role in projecting Indo-Pacific. Further, India's pursuits of its national interest at the UNSC should understand that it is very unlikely that UNSC will be expanded in the near future. And the recent debates on UNSC reforms and the state of the international system today should tell us that submitting to Big Five that is to the permanent countries to enter the UNSC will not make a difference and so India must focus its energies on what it can achieve during the short period that it would be in the UNSC. Recently came the most hard-eating comments on the real impact of the COVID-19 crisis by the United Nations Secretary General in which it says that the COVID-19 has revealed the fractures in our society and has exposed the falsehood about free markets that it can deliver free healthcare for all and also that unpaid care work is not work at all. Also, it created a delusion that we live in a post-racist world and free market has created the myth that we are all in the same boat. But the truth is we are all in floating sea in which some people aren't supercharged while others are clinging to drifting debris. It is to be noted that Oxfam International's annual report on inequality for the year 2021 which is aptly titled the Inequality Virus goes on to prove the statements made by the Secretary General. The Oxfam report highlights on how the virus led to increased existing inequalities of wealth, gender and race. For example, the richest of the world both individuals as well as corporations are thriving while hundreds of millions of people are being forced into poverty. Also, it was found that worldwide billionaires saw their wealth to increase by a staggering 3.9 trillion dollars between March 18 and December 31 of the year 2020 and within nine months the top thousand billionaires, mainly white men, had recovered all the wealth that they had lost. On the contrary, recovery for the world's poorest could almost take over a decade and it is estimated that the total number of people living in poverty could have increased by between 200 million and 500 million in the year 2020. Now let us look at the gender and racial aspects of the impacts of COVID-19. Globally if we see women are overrepresented in the sectors of the economy that are hardest hit by the pandemic. If women are represented equally in all sectors where men predominate then 112 million women would not be at the risk of losing their job or income. Talking about racial discrimination, let us take for example Brazil, people of Afro descent have been 40% more likely to die of COVID-19 when compared to white people. The virus has also led to an explosion in the amount of underpaid and unpaid care work which is done predominantly by women, particularly women from groups facing racial and ethnic marginalization. When you analyze the impact of the virus in India has expected the rich have escaped from the pandemic's worst impact. Note the wealth of Indian billionaires has increased 35% during this lockdown and 90% since 2019. Interestingly the increase in the wealth of the top 11 billionaires during the pandemic can easily sustain the MG Narega scheme or the health ministry for the next 10 years. According to the International Labour Organization almost 90% population of India works in the informal sector and about 40 crore workers in the informal economy are at risk of falling deeper into poverty and it was also found that during lockdown 24% of Indian population was earning less than 3000 rupees for a month. With all these available data about inequality there comes a need or a significance to strengthen our resolve to fight this virus of inequality. Importantly we must take this as an opportunity to fight inequality of all shades including gender and racial inequality. Whatever countries like South Korea, Sierra Leone and New Zealand have shown the path in this regard. On talking about India's measures in fighting the zene equality the first thing we should do is to invest in free universal healthcare, education and other public services. Following it comes a need to guarantee income security for all citizens and for this to happen we need not just these living wages but a far greater job security with labour rights, sick pay, paid parental leave and unemployment benefits if people lose their jobs. Following this we should also reintroduce wealth taxes and ensure financial transaction taxes also we must ensure that tax avoidance and evasion does not take place. Importantly we need to invest in a green economy and prevent further degradation of our planet. For the time being we should focus more on this since as we know a degraded planet affects the poor and marginalized more. Have a look at this data point it is based on an analysis done by the Hindu team on the data available from NCW and the NFHS since 2015. In this context let us discuss this data point in detail and also we will discuss about NCW. The syllabus relevant for this article is given below for your reference. Know that according to the UN women one in three women worldwide experience physical or sexual violence mostly by an intimate partner. See we have been hearing of news regarding data and reports from those on the front lines that since the outbreak of COVID-19 all types of violence against women and girls particularly domestic violence has intensified and recently we heard that the National Commission for Women has registered an increase of at least 2.5 times in domestic violence complaints since the nationwide lockdown and now this data point says that complaints received by the NCW regarding crime against women reached a six-year high in 2020 and the reason for this hike is attributed to the rise in the prolonged lockdown. However there are also opinions that the perceived rise in violence against women during lockdown period is just the tip of the iceberg since 86% of women in India who experience domestic violence do not seek any help from anyone. The report says that in 2020 more than 23,000 complaints were received by the NCW which is the highest since 2014 also as shown in the graph the complaints registered had risen sharply since 2017. Now talking about the nature of the crime the highest number of complaints is recorded for 10 types of crimes which includes complaints related to right to live with dignity, the protection of women against domestic violence, dowry harassment, molestation, police apathy against women, rape or attempt to rape, horn or crimes then comes dowry, death and sexual harassment. In this 71% of complaints were regarding infringement of a woman's right to live with dignity, domestic violence and marital or dowry related harassment. Now this graph shows statewide distribution of the number of complaints registered in 2020 against the number of complaints received per 1 million women. It shows that the complaints from UP were the highest followed by Delhi and Haryana and Goa had the lowest in the graph. The report also says that about 77% of the victims did not even mention the incident to anyone and around 14% victims sought help from some source out of which only 7% reached out to relevant authorities like police, doctors, lawyers or social service organizations and more than 90% of the victims sought help from immediate family members. Moreover women who faced physical and sexual violence sought the help from others and the authority more when compared to those who suffered only one form of abuse. Now let us have a brief understanding about NCW. Know that NCW was formed on the basis of recommendations by the Committee on the Status of Women in India or the CSWI. The NCW was set up as a statutory body in January 1992 under the National Commission for Women at 1990. The mission of NCW is to enable women to achieve equality and equal participation in all spheres of life. This will be done by securing her due rights and entitlements through suitable policy formulation, legislative measures, effective enforcement of laws and the implementation of schemes. This can be done by securing her due rights and entitlements through suitable policy formations, legislative measures, effective enforcement of laws and by the implementation of schemes. NCW would also devise to solve specific problems that are arising out of discrimination and atrocities against women. It envisions and Indian women secure in her home and outside fully empowered to access all her rights and entitlements with opportunity to contribute equally in all walks of life. Now, let us look at some of the important functions of NCW. See, it reviews the constitutional and legal safeguards for women. Then it reports the Center about working of such safeguards and it recommends for its effective implementation by the Center and States. It also suggests remedial legislative measures to address the shortcomings in the existing legislations. They can sewer motor consider matters of deprivation of women's rights, non-implementation of laws and or non-compliance of policy decisions etc. The Center shall submit the report of the NCW before each House of the Parliament and they shall also explain the action taken or proposed to be taken on the recommendations and the reason for non-acceptance of any such recommendations. Know that NCW shall have the powers of a civil court while investigating any matter. Now, let us discuss the composition of the NCW. See, there shall be a chairperson committed to the cause of women and there shall be five members from among persons of ability, integrity and standing. They must also have experience in law, trade, unionism, management of an industry potential of women, voluntary organization and administration etc. Know that at least one member each shall be from among persons belonging to the schedule cast and schedule tribes respectively. And there shall also be a member secretary. Note that all of them are nominated by the central government. With this, we have come to the end of this discussion. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article talks about the projections of the world economic outlook by the International Monetary Fund. It is projected an 11.5% growth rate for India in the year 2021 and 6.8% in 2022. The point to be noted is that India is the only major economy to have growth projections in double digits for 2021 whereas other major economies like China is projected to have a 8.1% growth in 2021 followed by Spain with 5.9% growth and France with 5.5% growth. India's projections are a reflection of the rebound in the economy because the activity and mobility recovered much faster than expected in India. But unfortunately due to the pandemic Indian economy has contracted by 8% in the year 2020. In this context, let us now know about WEO and IMF. IMF or the International Monetary Fund was created in the year 1945. It is an organization that is governed by and accountable to the 189 member countries. It is working to foster global monetary cooperation to secure financial stability to facilitate international trade, to promote high employment and sustainable economic growth and finally to reduce poverty around the world. Thus the IMF's primary purpose is to ensure the stability of the international monetary system and it does this in three ways. First by keeping track of the global economy and the economies of member countries, then by lending to countries with balance of payment difficulties and finally by giving practical help to members. Apart from this, it also monitors the economic and financial policies of its member countries and it releases reports such as the Global Financial Stability Report and the World Economic Outlook. The Global Financial Stability Report provides an up-to-date assessment of global financial markets and prospects and it highlights the imbalances and vulnerabilities that could pose risks to financial market stability. Next is the World Economic Outlook. See these reports are a survey by the International Monetary Fund which is published twice a year and it presents the IMF's analysis of global economic development during the near-term and medium-term. It also provides an overview and more detailed analysis of the world economy. It considers issues affecting industrial countries, developing countries and economies and transition. Now let us take up this editorial article. Here the author talks about the recent announcement which was made by the Chief Election Commissioner of India. The announcement was that the Election Commission of India will be commencing trials of a remote voting project. So in this discussion, first let us refresh our knowledge regarding electronic voting mission and the VVPAT and then we will discuss this article in brief. See electronic voting mission is nothing but voting using electronic means. It helps or takes care of the chores of casting and also the counting of votes. It is to be noted that an EVM is designed with two units that is a control unit and a balloting unit. With the EVM instead of issuing a ballot paper, the polling officer will press the ballot button which enables the voter to cast the vote. A list of candidates name or symbols will be available on the mission with a blue button next to it and the voter can press the button next to the candidate's name they wish to vote for. So you should note that the program used in the EVMs cannot be reprogrammed in a particular manner and furthermore the EVMs are standalone missions which are not accessible remotely from any network. So it eliminates the chances of getting tampered. Coming to VVPAT, it is an independent system which is attached with the EVMs and it allows the voters to verify that their votes are cast as they have intended. A printer is attached with the EVM and it is kept in the voting compartment. The printed slip remains exposed for seven seconds under a transparent window and then it gets cut automatically and falls into a drop box which remains sealed. Now let us look about the remote voting project which is a system that is being developed by the IIT Madras and it uses blockchain method for two-way remote voting at designated centres. It is same as the bitcoin blockchain technology which records a list of transactions of bitcoins in a decentralized manner and in the case of this blockchain-based voting system the voting authority will authenticate a bulletin board in which users sign in using cryptographic signatures to register their votes in a ledger. See the bulletin boards are a component of cryptographically secure end-to-end verifiable voting systems. It is a storage system where all the public information related to the election is published for anyone to see, review and audit. Now in this article the author advises the Election Commission of India to make the available safeguards before deploying these methods in elections. The author also opens that the Election Commission of India should seek solutions to make the EVM more robust in order to eliminate the apprehensions that is related to EVM mechanism. See this question which is based on this news article. The news is that Indian and Chinese troops clashed at Nakula in North Sikkim last week. You know that in the last nine months there have been many such incidents where China tried to encroach Indian territory. Now read the question and options. The question says which of the following contentious areas between India and China are in Sikkim? The options are Debsang Plains, Daulatbeg Oldi, Nakula, Galwan Valley and Difu Pass. So the question asks us to select the correct answer. See Nakula is in Sikkim, the Debsang Valley, Daulatbeg Oldi and the Galwan Valley are in the Union territory of Ladakh along the India-China border and the Difu Pass is at the tri-junction of India, China and Myanmar. And therefore the right answer is option A that is three only that is Nakula. Now let us move on to the prelims practice question. Let us look at this question regarding the electronic voting missions. The questions ask us to identify the incorrect statement. When you look at statement one they say EVM uses reprogrammable microchips. But this statement is incorrect because the microchip used in EVMs is a one-time programmable or a masked chip which can neither be read nor overwritten. Hence the program used in the EVMs cannot be reprogrammed in a particular manner and therefore our statement one is incorrect. Statement two which says an EVM being used by ECI can record a minimum of 2000 ores and this statement regarding the EVM is correct. Coming to statement three which says they have been devised and designed by the technical experts committee of the election commission in collaboration with public and private sectors. When you look at the statement this statement is also incorrect since the EVMs have been devised and designed by the technical experts committee of the election commission in collaboration with two public sector undertakings that is Bharat Electronics Limited and Bagluar and Electronic Corporation of India Limited Hyderabad. So the EVMs are manufactured by the above two undertakings and not with the public and private sectors. So therefore the right option is option B that is one and three only. Look at this question it says which is or are common to the two financial institution known as World Bank and International Monetary Fund. See both first statement is both are Britainhood's institution then both are institutions in the United Nations system then the wealthy as well as the poor can get financial assistance from both the institutions. So when you take the first statement statement one is correct because the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were both created at an international conference that was convened in Bretton Hoots New Hampshire US in the year 1944. Talking about statement two it is also correct since they are institutions in the UN system and they are UN specialized agencies. So UN specialized agencies are autonomous organizations that work with the United Nations all were brought into relationship with the UN through negotiated agreements and they are independent international organizations that is funded by both voluntary and assist contributions. Coming to statement three it is incorrect because see the bank and the IMF are twin intergovernmental pillars supporting the structure of the world's economic and financial order. So neither wealthy countries nor private individuals borrow from the World Bank which lends only to credit worthy governments of developing nations. The poorer the country the more favorable the conditions will be under which it can borrow from the bank. The banks lend money to middle income countries at interest rates which are lower than the rates on loans from commercial banks and in addition to that the bank lends money at no interest to the poorest developing countries that is those that often cannot find other sources of loans. And also in contrast to all member nations both wealthy and poor have the right to financial assistance from the IMF because maintaining an orderly and stable international monetary system it requires all participants in that system to fulfill their financial obligations to other participants and therefore the right option is option C that is 1 and 2 only. Look at this question consider the following statements with reference to Oxfam inequality report titled the inequality virus. Statement one it mentions that income inequality reduced between the rich and poor globally due to the ongoing pandemic. Statement true it also mentions that due to work from home culture men have realized the importance of care and work that women do at households. So as seen above statement one is incorrect because globally the income inequality as widened and not reduced. Coming to statement two it is incorrect because the pandemic has led to more explosion in terms of women's unpaid work. So the question asked us to identify the correct statements is both the statements are wrong the right option is option D that is neither one nor two. So let us look at this question related to the data point which says with reference to the national commission for women consider the following statements. Statement one says that it is a constitutional body. So this statement is incorrect because as we saw in the discussion the national commission for women is a statutory body that is set up in January 1992 under the national commission for women act of 1990. Coming to statement two it says the recommendation of the commission are binding on the government. This statement is also incorrect because the national commission for women has got only the powers to recommend amendments to submit reports which are not binding on state or union governments but however the centre shall submit the report of the national commission for women before each house of the parliament and also they shall explain the action taken or proposed to be taken on the recommendations and the reason taken based on the recommendations and the reason for non acceptance of any such recommendations. Coming to third statement which says the commission does not have the power to select its own members is correct because the power to select the members for the commission it does not lie on itself but rather it is vested with the union government and therefore since the question asked to identify the incorrect statement the right option is option A that is one and two only. Main's practice question is displayed below write the answer and post it in the comment section. With this we have come to the end of today's news analysis. If you like the video don't forget to like comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IA's academy youtube channel for updates regarding UPSC civil service preparation.