 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar A.S academy, displayed are the list of news articles selected for today's analysis and their page numbers in different editions of the newspaper. The link for the handwritten notes and the time stamping of the displayed articles are provided in the description box and the time stamping is also provided in the comment section for the benefit of mobile phone viewers. Now let us move on to the analysis of first news article. This news article talks about special protection group. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article has been highlighted here for your reference. The news article mentions that the government has decided to withdraw the special protection group cover for the Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her family members, you know member of parliament Mr. Raghul Gandhi and another family member Priyanka Gandhi. And it is saying that the SPG cover will be replaced with EZ plus security cover which is given by the Central Reserve police force. Now the CRPF is one of the seven central armed police forces. See generally security is provided on the basis of threat assessment of individuals. So based on the nature of threat and based on the intensity or the gravity of the threat, the category of security is decided and these threat assessments are done by security agencies. Now the category of security, now some of the categories of security are EZ plus security cover, EZ security cover, Y plus then Y and X security cover. So recently we have been hearing about the special protection group cover. Even some months ago the central government has replaced the SPG cover for former prime minister Mr. Manmohan Singh with the security cover of Central Reserve police force. So it is in this context, it is important for us to know some facts with respect to special protection group from our prelims perspective. See the year of establishment of SPG or the special protection group was 1985. The intention is to provide proximate security cover or the closest security cover to the prime minister of India and to his or her immediate family members and then to provide proximate security cover to the former Indian prime ministers and their immediate family members. As one of the special feature of this special protection group, it is said that the officers of SPG, they have high leadership qualities, professionalism, particularly the knowledge of proximate security and they have the culture of leading from the front. They have all these special features by adopting innovative methods in its own working and also they adopt some innovative methods in their security arrangements in collaboration with intelligence bureau and state or union territory police forces and it is this special protection group that ensures fail proof and zero error security for its protectees or the persons who are protected by this group. Where do they provide the security cover to its protectees? See it is providing security at the office and residence during local functions, during internal tours as well as external tours that is tours within the country and outside the country and see this forces an all-round force or a versatile force and this is because it provides protection 24 bar 7 that is simply all the time throughout the year. The motto of special protection group is Shauryam, Shamarpanam, Surakshanam which refers to bravery, devotion and protection. So now let us see whether this group is backed by any legislation or not. According to some of the authentic sources they are saying that the group was established in 1985 particularly after the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Ms Indra Gandhi by her bodyguards in October 1984. So at that time there was no legislation however later an act was enacted by the parliament and this act is called as the special protection group act of 1988. Now the purpose of this act is to provide for the constitution and regulation of an armed force of the union for providing proximate security to the prime minister of India and the former prime ministers of India and members of their immediate families and this act has been amended from time to time. We have been seeing in our analysis the term proximate security or the closest to security. See this legislation defines what do we mean by it. It means protection provided from close quarters whether during a journey by road or a journey by rail or aircraft or watercraft or on food or journey by any other means of transport. The protection is given in the places of functions, engagements, residence or wherever the dignitaries stop or halt or wherever the protectees halt or stop. The security cover shall comprise ring round teams and then isolation cordons. See cordon means a line or circle of polos or soldiers or guards who are preventing access from an area or building. So by this we can say that the special protection group has layer of defenses and lines of defense to protect the protectees and their family members. And then the security cover comprises a sterile zone around the place. See in this sterile specifically means an area that is officially under control and this area has no threads or this area is clear of threads and the security cover also includes a rostrum. A rostrum means raised platform on which a person stands to make a public speech. It is something like a podium or mantabam as all these have raised platforms. And one of the most important things of this cover by special protection group is that it is this protection group that provides access control to the protectees or his or her immediate family members. Now here when we say access control say for example this means if someone wants to meet the Indian prime minister the access is controlled by the special protection group. Therefore they provide access control to the protectees or their family members. Now with respect to special protection group there is one of the most important statement that was earlier made by the supreme court. It has stated that the special protection group protective cover cannot be lifted from the protective. It goes with the person of the protective as the shadow of a man. So does this mean the protectees enjoy protection for infinite time or forever? No it is not so. The statement made by supreme court here means that there has to be necessary arrangements for reviewing the framework of protection as and when required with a certain level of periodicity. Simply as SPG protective cover cannot be lifted from the protective. That is what the statement made by supreme court means. So we saw that the former prime minister or the members of his or her immediate family members enjoy this proximate security. If you take section 412 of the special protection group act of 1988 it states that the protection is given for a period of one year from the date on which the prime minister seized to hold the office of the prime minister. This time period can be extended for any period beyond one year provided there is a case where the level of threat faced by the former prime minister or by any member of his immediate family and the level of threat justifies the provision of proximate security. So based on the level of threat the time period can be extended for any period beyond one year. Some of the factors that are taken into account when the central government assesses the levels of threat you know they are any threats that emanates from any militant or terrorist organization or any other threat that is of grave and continuing nature. So who assesses the levels of threat periodically see it is the central government in such a manner that not more than 12 months shall elapse between two consecutive assessments that is once a threat assessment is carried out within a time period of 12 months the next threat assessment should begin and should have completed. So it is based on this threat assessment the special protection group cover has been withdrawn from the congress president and Mr Rahul Gandhi and also from Ms Priyanka Gandhi and there is one another important provision that we have to know from this legislation with respect to special protection cover. Now this section answers to the question who can decline security see any former prime minister or any member of immediate family of the incumbent prime minister or any member of immediate family of former prime minister may decline security this is according to section 4 one capital A of this act but the section does not mentions that the incumbent prime minister can decline security only the immediate family members of an incumbent prime minister or a former prime minister may decline security so from this we can infer that the present prime minister or the current prime minister or the ruling prime minister cannot decline security cover now let us see who controls this SPG and who give directions to this SPG again it is the central government see the general superintendents direction and control of this group is carried out by central government the command and supervision of the group lies with the director of this group and the director of this group is appointed by the central government so these are some of the information with respect to the analysis of this news article now let us move on to the analysis of next article this news article talks about the various reasons why India has decided not to join the regional comprehensive economic partnership the syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article has been highlighted here for a reference in the recent days we have been discussing about the proposed R sub deal and today we will discuss few technical reasons why India has decided not to sign the deal in its present draft format the news article mentions the issues such as rules of origin auto trigger safeguard mechanism then base year for tariffs and also issues with reference to most favored nation status now these issues are long-standing issues that were available in the public domain and these issues were also been part of our sub negotiations since the beginning of negotiations of this proposed deal now let's see with reference to rules of origin see India on its side has been demanding a standard or clear cut details about rules of origin here when we say rules of origin we are referring to a set of rules through which the origin of the goods can be tagged and relevant tariffs could be imposed based on the origin of goods when there is tagging of goods the importing country will be at ease to fix tariffs to be imposed on certain countries now when there is no clear cut details about rules of origin in a trade deal say for example R sub this is not in the interest of our country know that with respect to R sub around 13 countries including Australia Japan and New Zealand they are against India's demand to have strict rules of origin now what is the problem if we don't have a strict rules of origin criteria in the deal say for example imagine for a time being that we have signed this R sub deal and under this deal we are having 20% import duty for a particular product from China and for the same product we are having 10% import duty from Myanmar and for the same product there is zero import duty to be imported from China to Myanmar now if there is no tagging of goods under rules of origin China to evade the 20% import duty could route the goods through Myanmar to India and this will impact Indian revenues because now India can charge only 10% import duty to Myanmar rather if we have rules of origin we can eliminate these disadvantages and thereby we can receive our legitimate revenues and also avoid increasing trade deficit with respect to certain nations now let us see with reference to auto trigger safeguard mechanism India has proposed this mechanism to safeguard itself against any sudden increase in the imports and India has been demanding this also to protect its domestic market against the flooding of cheap imports if you see India's experiments with free trade agreements with some countries and because of the free trade agreements it has led to huge import surges and that has affected domestic industry because of dumping so India has proposed to have auto trigger mechanism to be invoked practically within 15 days of imports exceeding a particular limit that is prescribed by India so once this auto trigger mechanism is invoked there will be safeguard measures against the import of a particular product or some products from a particular country and this can remain in force for 200 days in one instance as per the proposal of India but RSAP nations expressed no consensus for India's proposal with respect to auto trigger safeguard mechanism and this is one of the reasons why India did not sign the RSAP deal in the present draft format now let us look at the base year for tariff reduction which is one another reason the RSAP countries proposed to use 2014 as a base year for tariff reduction whereas India wanted 2019 to be the base year for tariff reduction because it is expected that RSAP deal will be effective from 2022 and by the year 2022 the year 2014 as base year will be outdated and India has been demanding 2019 to be a rational reason to consider it as a base year for tariff reduction and this demand of India has not been accepted by RSAP countries and it is one of the reasons why India did not agree to the deal now another key issue for India is the lack of availability of most favored nation classes in the RSAP deal now when we say most favored nation it is the status granted to trading partners as per world trade organization with or without reciprocal basis if you take the case with respect to India and Pakistan while India has given most favored nation status to Pakistan Pakistan has not accorded the status to India and India has revoked the most favored nation status after the Pulwama terrorist attack extending MFN status means extending any advantage or privilege or favor that is given to one country to all other contracting parties of WTO this measure is adopted so that a WTO member country to treat other trading nation in a non-discriminatory manner so here we can say that the nation that receives MFN status would be enjoying certain tariff benefits from the nation which has granted MFN status to it see India is demanding the MFN clause in the RSAP agreement so that to provide certain benefits to those countries who would like to invest in India that is by granting MFN status to some of the investing nations these countries would get tariff and some other benefits however these concerns and proposals of India were not considered not satisfactorily addressed by the participating countries in the proposed RSAP agreement and recently Prime Minister in Thailand has stated clearly that it is against his consigns and also against the talisman of Gandhiji and as a result India will not sign the RSAP agreement in its present draft format so these are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this news article now let us move on to next news article this news article is about the release of latest sample registration system which is titled as special bulletin on maternal mortality rate in India for the time period 2015-2017 the syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article has been highlighted here for your reference so in this context we'll be discussing the overall maternal mortality rate in India and also some of the data pertaining to various states or category of states so first let us see who is giving estimates on fertility and mortality using the sample registration system see it is office of the registrar general under the ministry of home affairs see this office is already tasked with two main things one is conducting population census to monitoring the implementation of registration of births and deaths act in our country and when we say SRS sample registration system it is the largest demographic sample survey in our country that provide direct estimates of say for example various indicators such as maternal mortality infant mortality birth rate death rate and other indicators both at national and sub national levels when we say sub national levels we refer to data pertaining to state level see this SRS project or SRS survey was initiated in 1964-65 on a pilot basis by the office of registrar general under ministry of home affairs as a pilot basis it was started in few selected states at that period of time it became fully operational during 1969-70 now the today's article provides MMR data for 2015-2017 so what is maternal mortality rate this definition is important from our prelims perspective it is defined as number of maternal deaths during a given time period for 1 lakh live births during the same time period so here the term maternal death it refers to number of female deaths because of any cause related to pregnancy or any cause aggravated by pregnancy or any cause because of management during pregnancy and childbirth or deaths within 42 days of termination of pregnancy for a specific time period expressed per 1 lakh live births now in the recently released data of office of register general India the states have been categorized into three groups so this is to understand the maternal mortality situation in the country in a better way and also to map the changes that have taken place particularly at the regional levels one of the category of states is empowered action group states see it comprises of eight states these are Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Mathya Pradesh, Odisha then Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand you can easily memorize these states because the states such as Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chattisgarh, Mathya Pradesh and Rajasthan these are all contiguous in nature you can observe this in a Indian map you can observe this in a political map of our country now they are saying that about the empowered action group states these states were identified after the conduct of 2001 census as these states were lagging in containing population and few other demographic parameters for example socioeconomic backwardness having very high fertility levels and very high mortality rates so to deal with these indicators an empowered action group was constituted in ministry of health and family welfare for these states so therefore these eight states are together called as empowered action group states now the next category of states are southern states it included Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and all the remaining states and unit territories are categorized into other states now let's come into the news article it states that maternity mortality rate in India has seen a decline the decline is from 130 per 1 lakh live births in 2014-16 to 122 per 1 lakh live births in 2015-2017 period and because of this reduction India has saved nearly 2000 women from dying due to maternal fatality and if you see India has progressed significantly since 2011-2013 at that time the level was 167 and then 130 in 2014-16 and now 122 in 2015-17 so if you take since 2013 there is a remarkable 26.9% reduction now let us have a look at some of the information at the regional level among the empowered action group states and Assam the reduction is from 188 to 175 and among the southern states the decline has been from 77 to 72 and in other states the decline is from 93 to 90 of all the states Kerala if you see it has very good numbers from 46 in 2014-16 to 42 in 2015-17 Maharashtra presently has 55 Tamil Nadu presently 63 and if you see Assam it is higher to the tune of around 229 new P it is 216 Madhya Pradesh 188 now all these numbers we are mentioning just to understand that there is huge variation in terms of this many levels between various states on one end we have a state where the mmr is just 42 per 1 lakh live birth on the other hand in Assam there is 229 maternal deaths per 1 lakh live births though overall on an average we can you know say that in India it is 122 in the time frame of 2015-17 we have to actually look at this aggregated data with respect to states and even within states there could be regional variation among several districts so the present improvement maternal mortality rate is in line with both global target and national target when we say global target in this context we are referring to United Nations sustainable development goal target under 3.1 it aims to bring down maternal mortality rate to less than 70 per 1 lakh live births by the year 2030 three Indian states Kerala Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have already achieved this but these states should focus now within their districts to address variations rather than saying proudly as an average they should say each district achieves this target now the national health policy 2017 if you see this target this is what we are saying as national target according to this NHP it states that mmr should come down to the level of 100 or below by the year 2020 and more than 10 states including all southern states have achieved this target already so this shows that the government efforts to bring down mmr is showing positive results now let's see some of the important governmental efforts the article mentions that government has focused on providing quality health services and improving coverage through various programs such as laxia that is labor room quality improvement initiative then poshaan abhyan to improve nutritional status among pregnant women then Pradhan Mantri shurakshit matriva abhyan that is to provide quality anti natal care see when we say natal it means birth and anti means before so anti natal care refers to the care given to the pregnant woman before childbirth and it also includes the health care received during the course of the pregnancy of the woman when we say post natal care it refers to the care given to the mother to the tune of around six to eight weeks after the birth of the baby so the pradhan mantri shurakshit matriva abhyan is to provide quality anti natal care then janani shushu shuraksha karyakram this is to provide better health facilities to pregnant women and the newborn baby and then janani shuraksha yojana to reduce maternal and infant mortality by promoting institutional delivery then pradhan mantri matru vandana yojana in which cash incentives are provided in installments to the pregnant women and lactating mothers for first living child of the family and one another initiative shurakshit matriva ashwasan initiative shortly called as suman now this initiative aims at providing dignified respectful and quality health care at no cost for every woman and newborn visiting public health facility and there should be zero tolerance for denial of services the objective is to end all preventable maternal and newborn deaths it also aims to provide a positive birth experience to both mother and infant this initiative was launched in october so these are some of the government efforts which overall contribute to the reduction of maternal mortality rate in the country now when we receive news articles with respect to individual schemes we will discuss these schemes and initiatives in detail now today with this we come to the end of the analysis of this news article now let's move on to the analysis of next news article this news article talks about the acceptance of the finance secretary and the chief economic advisor of india and the chief economic advisor that the indian nation is going through economic slowdown the syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article has been highlighted here for your reference so till yesterday there was no official acceptance from these two parties that the nation is witnessing an economic slowdown and the news article mentions that according to the chief economic advisor indian economy is growing at the rate of five percent presently the news article also mentions that the cea and the finance secretary also acknowledged the impact of demonetization on the economy and also the negative or lag effect of the gst and then in the end the news article mentions about the growth rates in indian agriculture it states that indian agriculture is expected to grow at four percentage this expectation is based on the target set by the national agricultural policy 2000 but if you see practically indian agriculture is stagnant with the growth of just one percentage so today we limit our discussion with respect to national agricultural policy of 2000 see this is the first national agricultural policy that was announced in july 2000 launched by ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare it actually seeks to tap the untapped vast growth potential of indian agriculture and to strengthen rural infrastructure the purpose is to support faster agricultural development and then to promote value addition in agriculture production and other parameters and then to accelerate the growth of agro business and then to create employment in rural areas to secure a fair standard of living for farmers agricultural workers and their families and also to discourage migration to urban areas and it also seeks to face challenges that comes because of economic liberalization and globalization over the next two decades that is till 2020 now let us see some important saline features one is that it targets a growth of over four percentage annually in the agriculture sector then it also aims to have greater private sector participation through contract forming then it also aims to dismantle restrictions on movement of agricultural commodities throughout the country then it also aims for rational utilization of countries water resources for optimum use of irrigation potential then it also aims to minimize fluctuations in commodity prices and to provide adequate and timely supply of quality inputs to farmers then it also aims to set up agro processing units and to create off-form employment in rural areas that is for example a farmer involved in raising crops may also get involved in poultry fishery or silk culture or honey culture etc and still though the agriculture policy was announced in 2000 even after 19 years still there are so many challenges in achieving these targets we have not yet consistently achieved the growth rate of agriculture above four percentage now the in some years it has went to the tune of below one percentage so agriculture sector still suffer from a low and fluctuating growth rate and one another challenge is there is still irrational use of water as a result there is depletion of underground water resource and there is still variation in commodity prices acting as a disadvantage for farmers however there have been some very important government measures with respect to farmer welfare one national program we can say is prime minister kisan initiative p.m. kisan that is and then even several states for example raitu bandhu and talangana or kaalia scheme and odisha these are a aim to provide investment and input support for the farmers and there is also a national target as announced by the prime minister to double the farmers income by the 75th year of indian independence that is by 2022 have in mind the salient features of national agriculture policy with this we come to the end of the analysis of this news article this is with reference to special protection group they have given two statements and are asking which of the other statements are correct first statement it provides proximate security cover exclusively to the prime minister of india and to hera his immediate family here the word exclusively takes the meaning of the word only if you read the statement it provides proximate security cover only to the prime minister of india and to hera his immediate family this statement is incorrect because special protection group provides proximate security cover not only to the incumbent prime minister of india and to hera his immediate family but also to former prime ministers of india and to their immediate family members depending on the threat assessment or depending on the level of threat as known through various threat assessments carried out by security agencies so the first statement is incorrect though the proximate security cover is given to the incumbent prime minister of india and to his or her immediate family now the second statement proximate security cover can be declined by the prime minister of india and his or her immediate family if you take section 4 one capital A of special protection group act 1988 you can find that any members or any protectees other than the incumbent or the present prime minister of india may decline the security cover that means even the immediate family members of present prime minister can also decline but it cannot be declined by the prime minister of india so the second statement is also incorrect correct answer for this question is option d neither one nor two is correct now this question is with reference to maternal mortality rate they're asking which of the following statements is correct first point mmr is the number of maternal deaths during a given time period per one lakh pregnant women during the same time period the statement appears to be correct but it is wrong because mmr is number of maternal deaths during a given time period per one lakh live births not per one lakh pregnant women so option a is incorrect now the second statement mmr covers female deaths from causes related to pregnancy or its management during pregnancy and childbirth or within six months of termination of pregnancy here everything is correct except six months of termination of pregnancy it is within 42 days of termination of pregnancy so the second statement is also incorrect now the third statement the sustainable development goals targets to bring down mmr below 70 by 2030 now this statement is correct so the correct answer for this question is option c now see the fourth statement or the last option in India states such as Assam Kerala and Maharashtra have the least maternal mortality rate see this is wrong because this statement has two extremes of mmr in our country for example if you see Kerala Kerala has mmr of just 42 during the time period 2015-17 whereas Assam it was 229 one of the highest mmr in India so the statement is wrong if at all the statement has to be correct it would have been like Kerala Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are the states that have least mmr in India because according to the sample registration system published by the office of registrar general of India in its special bulletin in November 2019 Kerala's mmr is 42 in 2015-17 Maharashtra it's 55 in 2015-17 in Tamil Nadu it is 63 so the correct answer for this question is option c now if you see the national target under national health policy it is targeting an mmr of 100 per 1 lakh live births that is to be achieved by the year 2020 now let's move on to next question which is regarding the national agricultural policy 2000 they have given three statements and are asking which of the above statements are correct first statement the policy explicitly mentions about increasing the private sector participation in agriculture through contract farming now this statement is correct it is one of the explicit objectives mentioned in the national agriculture policy 2000 which is the first ever national agriculture policy of our country launched by the ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare therefore the third statement is also correct now come to the second statement they are saying one of its objectives is to achieve an annual growth rate of six percent in agriculture now this is wrong because we are aiming to achieve annual growth rate of four percent in agriculture sector so if you see the option c all except two are correct so the correct answer for this question is option c now see this mains question coming under general studies paper two regional comprehensive economic partnership is a proposed free trade agreement between 10 asian countries and six other nations including india examine the various concerns raised by india for not signing the deal you may post the answers by taking photograph of the handwritten answers and uploading it into your drive wherein in the sharing settings you can give anyone with the link can view and you can copy that link and paste it in our comment section and we will give the necessary feedback at least within next five to seven days and for this question you can utilize various points that we have discussed so far say with respect to trade deficits or with respect to upover convention with respect to reusing the seeds after cultivation by farmers and or it can be with respect to auto trigger safeguard mechanism proposed by india or it can be with respect to most favored nation status classes demanded by india it could also be with respect to base year to fix tariffs and you can utilize points with respect to rules of origin then data localization and the threats to domestic manufacturing and farmers and daring sector these are some of the points you can mention here as various concerns raised by india and examine those concerns in this mains question with this we come to the end of the practice questions discussion session if you like the video click the like button comment share and subscribe to Shankar Ayes academy youtube channel for more updates and content on civil service exam preparation