The Hindu Analysis: 20 Oct 2023 | UPSC Current Affairs

[00:00:00]hello a very warm good morning to all of you and welcome to BYU exam prep IAS welcome to today's the Hindu newspaper analysis where we shall be taking a look at the important articles which have appeared in today's newspaper that is for 20th October 2023 in the Delhi Edition and we shall be analyzing those particular articles in detail and we shall try to understand which of the areas are associated in terms of their importance for the prelims as well as their relevance for the mains examination and the end of the entire session we shall be holding a discussion for the two subjective type of questions which can easily be expected to be asked from these particular areas so without further Ado let us take a look at the topics that we are going to hold a discussion for today so in total today we are going to have a discussion for seven topics now out of those seven topics four of them we shall be discussing in slightly lengthier manner in a greater detail and three of the topics we are going to discuss only from the perspective of your prelims so the first top topic that is the shape of climate Justice in a warming India this has appeared in the editorial section of the newspaper this is going to be relevant for your GS paper 3 now this article basically talks about that while we have talked about climate Justice and whenever in India we talk about climate Justice we talk about it from the foreign policy perspective that how various other countries basically are involved in this particular process but here we have to internalize that and that is what this article is going to focus upon an opportunity to recast India's food system and this talks about the Triumph rate of the problems that we face in the face of growing malnutrition or hunger as indicated by the hunger index falling farm income and also impact on agriculture or food productivity due to climate change so how all of them together can impact our future generations to a significant proportion so that is again going to be relevant for your GS paper 3 then why SLS also need to be reformed so here we are talking about the special and the local laws so in the face of the various reform that we are observing in the case of Indian penal court and crpc why is it that SLS are not being reformed whereas the requirement for this reform is very high so this is going to be relevant for your GS paper to and then why are earthquakes frequent in Afghanistan so recently again Afghanistan suffered from a massive and a major earthquake but also in the regions around Afghanistan and Iran as well sometimes in Pakistan sometimes in India in that entirety of the area we experience a high frequency of earthquakes happening and that too of a very significant magnitude so why is that the case so that is going to be relevant for your GS paper 1 now few of the pro of areas or few of the topics we are going to discuss only from the prelims perspective so Southwest M soon finally has withdrawn from India completely Masa amini given the EU human rights award and India share of growth to rise to 18% in terms of the global growth that we talk about now this has been indicated by IMF so these are the topics that we are going to hold a detail discussion about so without further Ado let us de into the first topic straight away and the first topic which has appeared in the editorial page is about the shape of climate Justice in a warming India now here just by the face of it or just by the preview of the topic itself you get an idea that India is also suffering from the impact of climate change and that impact of climate change is something that we feel and we experience on a day-to-day basis if we talk about the amount of rainfall that we received now while certain parts of the country they re upon and they re under significant amount of cloudburst events and hail storm activities landslides Etc and that was caused due to humongous amount of rains cost meanwhile you have state such as Karnataka in many areas of Maharashtra you have many of the districts which have been declared to be drought hit in the same year at the same time now all of that is an impact on the ongoing climate change agenda which is in front of us so that is what this article is talking about that we are also suffering from the impact of climate change from the issue of climate change but here we have to understand that when we talk about the motives or the various different objectives that the countries they pursue in order to combat the impact of climate change how often times most of those particular moves they are left short-handed now recently in the G20 presidency and during the G20 Summit basically you had certain declarations in the part of the Delhi declaration certain portions of it also dealt with the fight against climate change and amongst the announcements of the Delhi declaration the couple of announcements that were pretty known for was basically tripling of Renewables and doubling of the rate of Energy Efficiency by the member countries by 2030 now this was the part of declaration which talked about how we can bring forward a cleaner energy and a Greener future but one of the most important things which the climate observationist basically they made a conclusion about immediately afterwards was the fact that the entire Delhi Declaration was silent upon the phasing out of the fossil fuels and this was very apparent right from the day one that while we are talking about climate impact of climate change on the the planet and impact on various different countries no one was talking about the need to move away from fossil fuels and how soon can we do that how quickly can we transition into that and what are the problems that the world is going to face as they transition from fossil fuels to the cleaner energy while the normal suspect in your mind would be that because Saudi Arabia was a major player in that G20 Summit and Saudi Arabia and India were to hold bilaterals as well as as they would eventually be instrumental in launching the India middle east Europe Corridor so that is why India did not want to antagonize Saudi Arabia on that G20 platform by talking about phasing out of fossil fuels but nonetheless that is a reality that is a stark reality which is confronting all of us that sooner or later the countries will need to transition away from these fossil fuels and it is that transition which is going to be a problematic one so that is something that we we are going to analyze that how that transition into cleaner energy even within India can be a problematic one but before that climate Justice what is the meaning of climate justice so when you talk about or when you think about the aspect of impact or basic existence of climate Justice it is to understand that whatever impact of climate change that the world is facing as of now the world is not facing those issues because of countries like India and China India and China they have become the polluters in centa basically quite recently that has not happened significantly in the past now whatever impact that we are facing has been because of the way in which economic progression has been carried out particularly in the western economies and the developed countries of the world including United States and in fact the entirety of the North American region as well as the Western Europe so historically ever since the time of Industrial Revolution for hundreds of years these areas and these regions have been polluters in Chief for the entire world it is after all these regions whose contribution and significant supply of greenhouse gases and pollutants into the atmosphere has led not only the pollution and increase in the greenhouse gas and overall global warming and its impact being very very high at the same time it also means that there is a substantial amount of impact such as ozone hold depletion acidification of oceanic Waters everything that is unfolding in front of us in front of our very own eyes which is impacting all of us that is primarily caused by the other nations so here where does the matter of Justice come in so when we talk about climate justice so you have these developed Nations developed Nations and rather developed economies now the argument is that their development has happened on the back of the manufacturing sector and The primary sector in those countries which used to be very polluting up very recently so they are the main cause or causitive factors for climate change okay whereas when we talk about underdeveloped Nations or developing nations transitioning economy such as India Brazil China Etc now if you talk about underdeveloped or developing nations even in the subcontinent be it Pakistan India all of them they are suffering from the wrath of climate change but that wrath of climate change has it been caused by these nations no so when we talk about any move or any initiative to combat the impact of climate change or the very scourge of climate change the imperative or the basic Common Sense here tells us that the developed economies the developed Nations they need to take a bigger responsibility they need to be held accountable for their actions it cannot be the case that underdeveloped Nations while they have not uted they will have to pay the same price for climate and for the global warming as come the developed Nations right so this is the factor which is included or which constitutes climate Justice and that is that there is a differential impact on different countries you also have to understand that when we talk about the impact of climate change such as let's say uh significant amount of floods or drops now in all these cases or let's say Cyclones any of these natural disasters that you talk about which are initiated due to climate change you will always come across a scenario where the developed Nations they have a better capability and a better wherewithal in order to basically face those disasters and in order to overcome those particular disasters in order to take care of their citizenry in order to ensure that their economy does not take that great a hit but when it comes to underdeveloped Nations or developing nations such as India Pakistan Bangladesh China Brazil all of these now China no longer is in part of that particular group but still China is also suffering significantly due to the impact of climate change now in all these countries whenever these events or incidents occur our capability to handle these events is not that good so the impact of these events will be felt much more on these particular underdeveloped or developing nations so when there is an inequality in terms of the impact there is an inequality in terms of the cause what what has led to the climate change that means there is a greater responsibility on the side of the developed Nations to combat and cater to climate change so here there comes the principle of common but differentiated responsibility where you have common responsibility but it is slightly differentiated in the sense what is the meaning of it that all the member nations basically we have a responsibility to conserve the planet we have the responsibility to get rid of the triple threats to the planet that is pollution loss of biodiversity and climate change but the greater responsibility lies on the developed Nations right so all the countries share the responsibility share the responsibility of conservation of the planet but greater accountability and responsibility is a fixed is a fix to the developed Nations now that is an agenda which all the global initiatives conventions and protocols have been following for for some time and the world agrees on this particular agenda it is a matter of a different discussion on a different date altogether where basically if you take a look at the present Stark realities on the ground you will come across a scenario where even the developed countries they are basically shrugging off the responsibility and they are seeking excuses how they can pin the blame on countries such as India and China being the greatest polluters and amongst the largest polluters of the world but it is just them being uh in a way irresponsible in the sense that they don't don't want to give out large sums of money but one has to realize look at the example of the floods which occurred in our neighboring country and nation of Pakistan the impact that those floods had basically one-third of the country the aable land of the country was drowned under those floods the agricultural output simply collapsed the inflation hit the or basically hit the roof and eventually the price rise which followed basically meant larger sections of the population they were denied the basic items of clothing shelter Etc so the impact is quite devastating for lot of these poorer Nations whereas the developed Nations they basically are splurging that money somewhere else so that is one of the Grievances that the poorer Nations have however one point that you have to keep in mind is that ever since these conventions on climate change since the Rio Summit of 1992 followed by the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 followed by the Paris agreement of 2015 all of them have basically catered to this principle of cbdr common but differentiated responsibility for countryes such as India it has always been the case that developed Nations need to go do more that means that our approach to climate change has also taken a marked shift towards it being a foreign policy issue that is what the article argues that in our entire principle of handling this cbdr or common but differentiated responsibility or us seeking climate Justice we have transitioned that portion of uh combating climate change into a foreign policy issue whereas it should be as much a domestic issue for us as much we are thinking about cbdr or getting some help from the developed Nations it should concern us as well because on our own as well we are polluting significantly much more so that is where we need to also have a plan in place in order to transition the country into cleaner forms of energy now in that case you have to understand that there is a stark inequality which is exposed on the face of climate change in the sense of what so for example climate change as we have already talked about about has got a much greater impact on poorer Nations and poorer sections of the society as well and there have been numerous case studies which have been done in order to prove this process basically when you take a look at an urban setting think about it why is it that we say that the poorer sections they suffer from the most when we talk about climate change you have very unusual activities or events such as sudden flooding of the rivers now which is a section which will be impacted if the rivers in your city suddenly get flooded while yes transportation system sea wage system Etc will be impacted for the whole city but many houses which will be submerged would be those of the poorer sections the migrants or the ostracized sections of the society who are living across the flood Plaines of the Cities when you have the impact of climate change being such that due to Rising temperature there will be significant amount of more diseases who will be impacted the most not obviously not the most affluent once it will be the poorer section so it is always the poorer section of the society regardless of the country which is impacted the most and if you consider the commity of Nations it is the poorer Nations which get impacted the most now the climate change basically has aggravated this inequality where the inequal or people who have less possessions who have who have uh less materialistic wealth or who are less well to do they are impacted more now think about it climate change also impacts agriculture now sudden crop losses due to hail storms due to Cloud burst due to uh uneventful rainfall That You observe now for example this year we had an extraordinary amount of rainfall in the month of July we had a condition of a drier April but significant amount of rainfall in the early part of May and as well as March so all these events they are destroying the agriculture natural crops and that is leading to farm loss farm income loss now farm income loss will impact which section of the population the rich or the poor always the poor same is the case due to climate change the oceans are turning acidic and in many of the cases the oceanic water is turning hypoxic that is it is being deprived of oxygen so there are large dead zones getting created in the region of the various different oceans more particularly so the trop iCal Waters now that basically means that the fishing community and the Fisheries they are suffering quite significantly and again who will suffer because of that it is not going to be the rich countries or the rich section it is always going to be the poor population so that inequality Matrix is much more apparent on the face of climate change now the results have also shown that wherever you have unequal Societies in the sense there is Stark inequality there are greater emissions which are caused in those areas there's a greater deprivation of the environment caused in those particular societies so we need to combat that at a national level at the level of the society we need to combat that and if you take a look at the present scenario what is it that we have set as a goal so India's own indc that is intended nationally determined contribution this indc basically is made or is announced by each of the country as per the requirement of the Paris agreement the requirement of the Paris agreement basically means that the countries have to declare their own particular goal their own particular objective and they have to revise it upwards in the upward territory every 5 years so as per India's indc India is aiming to have 40% of the installed energy capacity as a clean and renewable energy and India basically what it declared in the uh 26th Conference of parties for framework on climate change that was held in December 2021 in Glasgow now in that particular Summit in that particular Conference of parties India declared its intention to be carbon neutral or to have Net Zero emission by the year 2070 and the concept of Net Zero emission is also very interesting by the way relevant for your prelims as well Net Zero emission does not mean you don't emit any more amount of greenhouse gas it simply means that whatever amount of greenhouse gas you are emitting you are basically capturing and storing enough amount or an equivalent amount of that particular gas so that overall your net emission continues to remain zero now for a country like India in order to achieve any of these agendas or goals that in itself is a significantly uphill task because if you take a look at our energy Matrix overall as of 2021 coal was the major energy contributor 56% followed by crude oil that was around 33% so think about it majority of our energy which is produced is still dependent on fossil fuel and then the consumers of energy basically you had the energy sector the manufacturing sector Transportation sector residential sector agriculture sector here you will observe again it is a manufacturing the energy sector which is consuming the maximum amount so transitioning to a cleaner form of energy will have its own sort of problems what sort of problems are we talking about here so basically when we talk about let's suppose tomorrow the country decides that we have to transition to only renewable energy after all that is the solution that we provide let's move to solar and wind now what about those areas those particular states in the country when we talk about the manufacturing or generation of energy in the country this article also points out to the Stark reality and something that you would also observe that majority of the conventional energy in the country is generated from those states which are economically backward and are not doing particularly well on economic and social indicators for example jarand West Bengal udisha chattis gar these are the areas from where you Source your coal these are the areas from where all the mining is done now these particular States they get a share of that Revenue now think about it if tomorrow we were to Simply transition away from coal what about those particular States now where is it that the clean energy is being generated or is getting generated in our country as of now so the major centers of that clean energy are either the states in the western part that is Maharashtra Gujarat in some portions Rajasthan but that is largely due to the geographical conditions of Rajasthan or it is the southern states in the region around Tamil Nadu in the region around Karnataka so you will automatically observe that the conventional energy is being produced from the poorer regions and the cleaner energy The Greener energy is already being produced getting produced from the so-called richer States so if you further and suddenly go for that energy transition it can increase the level of inequality between the states in the country and that means the coal mining areas would suffer now we have seen that the manufacturing sector basically contributes majorly to the energy consumption but then if you let suppose if you were to minimize the amount of emission caused by the manufacturing sector it can lead to the loss of jobs in the manufacturing sector and as a country India cannot afford to minimize the or lessen the amount of jobs in the manufacturing sector why is that already we have closed to around 50% and more than 50% of our population indulged and involved directly and indirectly in agriculture so we do need people to move away from agriculture only if people decide to move away from agriculture will the level of farm income continue or begin to increase in the first place now where will people move away from agriculture in which sector do they move to generally the transition of Labor Force as observed in the history of uh the various different economies of the world the transition of the labor force is generally from agriculture to manufacturing and eventually after a couple of decades from manufacturing to Service as they become highly skilled and educated now in India's case we need that transition to happen in the manufacturing sector so we cannot simply curve down the manufacturing sector in terms of its emissions that means what we need to resort to Greener forms of manufacturing and that process and that technology if developed inhouse if grown inhouse we can be the suppliers of the newer methodology of manufacturing for the entirety of the world now job losses from the conventional energy sector how do we address that so basically if tomorrow you shut down the crude oil and B the coal generating power plants then in that case where will all those people go and where will those people who are employed in terms of thousands who are basically involved in mining processes Etc where will you reallocate those particular resources many of them don't have the skill required to suddenly shift to a solar power plant or a wind power plant for that matter and anyways the employment generated in these Greener areas in these nonconventional areas the amount of employment generated is much less as compared to the conventional sector so this is another issue that we have to be aware of so we need to go for reskilling and upskilling of the labor force whenever and wherever required then increased inequality at the federal level which we have talked about and that means that states poorer states are the regions for generation of conventional energy whereas example jarand chattis gar udisha Etc whereas Richard states are centers of renewable or green energy example Tamil Nadu Gujarat Maharashtra these are the examples that you can take so there will be in increased inequality between the states and also loss of Revenue by the mineral reach States will also be incurred so domestically if we transition or think about it just Shifting the problem from a foreign policy level to the domestic level means that we have so many problems that we have to confront with so we need to be able to find Solutions quick and fast if we want to implement maybe 10 years down the line or 20 years down the line if we expect a smooth transition to the cleaner form of energy we need to start acting now so what is it that we can do first of all fiscal assistance is required for the states why in order to facilitate transition to facilitate or simply to ensure and smooth the transition process then reskilling and upskilling of the labor force on a large scale needs to be done because the requirement of the future is the labor force which is well able to handle the modern forms of energy generation and is also capable to handle technology so the existing labor force either you upskill them or you resk skill the existing labor force in order for them to find job opportunities then energy transition goals need to be followed at the state level as well individual states can set up their own energy transition goal where they can give certain incentives to factories or Industries for example in the manufacturing sector which follow a cleaner mechanism of energy generation or energy utilization for example in Industries particularly dealing with aluminium fertilizer cement Iron and Steel these are the industries which are very carbon intensive in the sense that the amount of greenhouse gas that they generate is humongous so that is where it can always come as a remedy if the states have their own domestic policies as well rather than simply adhering to what the central government basically tells them to do so that is where we can go for a comprehensive Federal uh movement in which there will be a shift a gradual but at the same time a justifiable shift into the cleaner method of energy production which is going to benefit larger sections of the population so overall in this particular article We have dealt with the fact that what do we understand by climate Justice what is the principle of cbdr or common but differentiated responsibility we have talked about the fact that how this climate justice has largely been a form of our po foreign policy measure but it should be internalized By Us in order to basically understand how in our own country we will face significant amount of hurdles as we transition to cleaner energy so we need to smooth out those hurdles by upskilling reskilling providing financial assistance and the state level as well needs to work forward and work towards it so with the help of all these measures we will eventually be able to attain a kind of a smoother and a kind of a just transition okay moving on into the next article the next article which has also appeared in the editorial section is basically dealing with the impact and the problem that we face when it comes to food production now an opportunity to recast India's food system so here basically again this article can be thought to be written in the pretext of the fact that recently you had had the global hunger index report which was released where India performed abysmally low where we had one of the largest sections of children suffering for from undernourishment uh wasting stunting as well as mortality so that is where we have to understand what this particular food system is being talked about here so first of all article talks about the fact that on October 16th the world celebrated the world food day now in that that situation or in that case basically it was a time to think about availability of nutrition availability of nutrition and ensuring zero hunger to a larger population but when we talk about food in our country we have a producer side which is also suffering that the farmers basically are suffering from a very low income farmers and the food production and food security is also getting impacted because of climate change and at the same time the consumers that is the individuals who are not producing simply consuming the food they are suffering from malnutrition undernourishment stunting wasting Etc so the problem is triumverate here and we need to understand and treat those problems so what are the issues first of all we have an abysmally low farm income for a population where more than 50% as we have reiterated is directly or indirectly involved in agricultural sector a low farm income means agrarian distress which is Perpetual almost throughout the country and almost throughout the year so that means the buying ability of these Farmers purchasing ability also is very less so these people with low farm income basically means lesser wherewithal to get the nutritious food that is required to get rid of infectious diseases to build up your immunity system to basically V of any form of malnutrition or undernourishment so this is also a part of the problem for the rural and The Agrarian sector then there is significantly low level of nutrition majority of the women folk in our country they are anemic and also due to lack of understanding of what is required as nutritious food we have almost 1/4 of our population which is obese so think about it half of the population is anemic or is suffering from some or the other form of malnutrition and a quarter of the population is suffering from obesity obviously right amount of nutritious food Etc that information is lacking somewhere in the entire chain and climate change and impact on resources for example due to climate change we are experiencing increased occurrence and prolonged occurrences of drought-like conditions very dry drought-like conditions that that extend for a very long period of time now that is again due to induced due to climate change so this hampers food security or impacts food security because climate change is going to impact what availability of water the condition of the soil the air around it everything will be impacted that has led to a gross misutilization of the natural resources in the sense that due to climate change as the amount of rainfall started becoming sporadic and in a way not properly distributed regions such as Punjab they have experienced around 75% of utilization of all the groundwater resources which is present in that area so that tells you that the groundwater which is utilized Etc that is over extra extracted and overe exploited in many parts of the country now what that means means is that if soil if the groundwater all of that is put in a bad State obviously food production and generation in the coming days that also becomes problematic now the realities on the ground as per the national Family Health survey 2019 to 21 35% of children are stunted 57% of women and 25% men they are anemic right now 24% of adult women and 23% of adult men they are obese at the same time which tells you that it is not only the absolute lack of food in certain cases but a lack of nutritious food in majority of the cases which is leading to various health issues and various problems more than 68% of the marginal Farmers they are not getting enough income from their farming produce I hope we are aware that in in our country almost 87% of the farmers belong to either the category of being a small or a marginal Farmers so 87% of farmers in our country they are either small or marginal which means what that they will never have enough income because the size of the land in itself is so small that is the criteria on which the farming uh category is denoted that small and marginal Farmers medium and large Farmers also so basically they will never have enough income not only to feed themselves but also generate enough Surplus to bring about any changes in the farming process to bring about sustainable agriculture to ensure that the food produce is much more nutritious in terms of the vitamins and the various different qualities that it has so that is again a problem at the level of the low level of income low farm income okay so we have the low level of nutrition low farm income and climate change all incident at the same time now the solution as is suggested here is adopting a three-sided response or a three-prong response at the same time so we need to address all of them how first of all consumer needs that is you and I the consumers of food we need to transition to healthier forms of nutrition right now if consumers they basically and how can it be done so the public procurement which is done or the public distribution which is done they can basically make it a point that they will ensure a healthier food consumption production for example how you have seen that in our country for example oats right all of these are promoted and significantly they have have gained a mass level of acceptance amongst the larger population as well as a healthier source of nutrition similarly we can have that Initiative for millets already this is the year where India is celebrating the international year of millets and the world is celebrating that and India is portraying the utility of millets for the farmers and for the larger population in order to provide them with nutrition now those particular millets they can be particularly good for the health as well as they can give the farmers significant and substantial income so this constitutes the responsible consumption pattern that is for example healthier forms of nutrition here refer to example promotion of millets now in this the public distribution system the various uh Point Distribution Systems that we have from the government side raway catering Etc all of that can in a way promote promote this particular mechanism of gaining nutrition think about it for this as the article argues even the temple trusts Etc which operate across the country they can also play a role and the example has been given of the tirupati temple trust and there the all the procurement which is now being done is generally in the case of sustainable harvesting and sustainable production mechanism so that that automatically brings about a sustainability in not only the method of production but also consumption support to Farmers to transition towards organic farming natural farming for example the government policy of parar krishi uh yoga that is ensuring the promotion of Na natural methods of agriculture and natural methods of farming technique so that will also end up benefiting the larger farming community and the world is transitioning towards organic food and organic products so the demand of these products is going to increase in the coming times we need to provide the financial assistance now so that we can capitalize upon the production 5 years down the line now subsidies which are being provided to the farmers we can change that to cash transfer because subsidies they are not that particularly effective in terms of the reach and the penetration to the lowest strata whereas if we ensure cash transfer based upon the land area of the farm for example that can bring about a kind of a freedom economic independence to the farmer where whatever they choose as a value addition in their Farm they can bring that about okay so that will give the flexibility to the farmer to go for a sustainable method of production so rather than subsidies we can utilize that resource for cash transfer then value value addition value addition of what value addition of farm produce or agricultural produce now this particular value addition is very essential in order to increase and augment the farm income think about for a case study and as an example United States contributes to close to around 1/4 more than 1/4 of the global maze product tion but never will you hear across or come across a new story that due to Surplus production the farmers have not got their money but in India where we are amongst the largest or the second largest produ producers of sugar in the world you will always come across new story that there has been an over Supply so that means the farmers they have not received the aers so why does that happen because there is not enough value addition all these f farming goods for example sugar cane can be utilized the output of it or basically the waste of it which is generated that is BAS molasses Etc they can be utilized to produce bioethanol they can be utilized in paper and Pulp industry so that value addition if it is done at the level of the farmlands if it is done at a small local level it will s substantially increase the farm income and also utilization of those products by the consumers millets can benefit significantly by this value addition Karnataka as a state is pursuing many of these policies in order to add value then direct procurement from farmlands so the role of middlemen here also basically has been put into question where you have to understand that if you procure the food for example the market players the market suppliers now rather than roping in multiple sections of middlemen if they directly contact the farmers or the fpos and then they give it to the consumers like you and me there can be a substantial saving of the cost as well the farm to table uh increase in the prices or that particular inflation will be under control because the farmers as of now they sell the produce at a very cheap rate but the consumers buy it at a very high rate so all that money is incurred or is is accumulated by the middleman multiple layers of them so rather than that ensuring direct Farm to Table Supply that that is where many of the new agricultural startups and Agri startups are coming in they can basically augment the availability of nutrition at your table at a cheaper price ensuring fair price given to the farmers and because the farmers are producing responsibly because they are going for a kind of a regenerative agricultural practice organic agricultural practice it will help them build a resilient economic system which does not get impacted by climate change to that extent so that is how they can address or we all can address all these three issues which are posted in front of us and ensure a healthier Society for the coming tomorrow now that is all that we need to know from this particular article Now we move on to the next article this article particularly talks about why SL L also need to be reformed and here when we talk about SLS we are talking about special and local laws so the context in which this article has been written is very simple that recently you had basically the tabling of the bill in the parliament which seeks to amend the Indian penal code right now along with the penal code it seeks to amend the associated criminal procedure codes Etc but here you have to understand that the SLS they have not been touched upon so what are these SLS the importance of these SLS can be understood from the basic fact that nearly 40% of all the cognizable offenses registered in 2021 were under these slss nearly 40% of all the cases so think about that how many cases are registered on a regular basis under these SLS so what are they so special laws and local laws when we talk about special laws basically these are those which cover certain specific issues for example C in certain uh cases they end up creating laws for certain new offenses which have not been mentioned in the penal code for example the if you talk about let's suppose excise cattle trespass gambling Railway act OPM uapa makoka the organized Crimes Act all of these Poco now all of these particular acts basically which have been brought about have been brought about for those particular offenses which are not included in the penal code so in a way the special laws simply create new offenses right which have not been covered in the penal Cod they make crimes out of what are not previously covered in the penal Cod these are your special laws and then you have local laws which are applicable only in certain part of the the country for example the port trust that is the port trust act won't be applicable in your defense establishments and in those particular defense areas it will be applicable where only in the port localities so that is where these are your local laws now you have many of these SLS and local laws which also require a scrutinization and a scrutiny and day-to-day litigations which are filed in the courts that is at the of the high court or at the level of the Supreme Court majorly they would be challenging these SLS so that is what the article argues we need to go for a reform of this as well right because why is there a need for reform now if you take the case of any of these SL be it uapa that is unlawful activities prevention act or be it makoka which is a state act which is very very stringent that is basically Maharashtra control of organized crime act now all these always end up raising that discourse and discussion about the limit of state power that what is the extent till which the state can exercise its power there are many different terms mentioned under these laws such as terrorist act such as organized crime now you don't have an exact definition of those which are listed which means what it opens the door for ambiguities which means what the police if tomorrow let's suppose they don't have enough evidences against an individual they can hold them up based upon circumstantial evidences and that means infringement of the rights so the SLS they said discourses and discussions regarding the limits of the state power many of these particular acts they suffer from glaring deficiencies where you have many of the terms such as terrorist act unlawful activities organized crime all of them they are mentioned very vaguely which brings about lot of various preconditions or lot of various circumstantial evidences under which an individual can be imprisoned or incarcerated and this is already leading to issues where majority of the Indian prisons they are in a way holding much more number of people who are under trials under trials who have been incarcerated under the provisions of the these particular SLS now acts such as poxo that is prevention of children from sexual offenses act 2012 now think about it its Provisions are also so very vague that in many of the cases even when you have in certain cases consensual sexual activities amongst the minors even in that case a particular individual can be incarcerated depending upon who complains first so that also is a gross m utilization of the existing Provisions that has always raised the debate for the reform required in these SLS how these SLS are brought about how they are drafted it is in that draft where there are so many discrepancies and loopholes which get exposed so values of due process are diluted due process due process in the sense which should be followed by the state agencies such as the police such as the Judiciary Etc because of the loopholes and the Lacuna which are in existence stringent measures means granting of bail is impossible in majority of these SLS that is why you have a very large undertrial population as well so what is the way ahead or the future for this so what we need is an all encompassing legal code because when the IPC was initially drafted at that point of time you did not have many of these offenses which were identified which were a problem back then so over a period of time ever since that encapsulation of that IPC codification of that IPC since that point of time Law and Order Justice Everything Has Changed tremendously so the new code or the new reform which is being brought about should also look into the codification of these new offenses within that that is the prime purpose of having a penal code isn't it the penal code or you cannot have a Law and Order situation or the scenario in the country where you have certain Provisions under Penal Code certain Provisions dealt somewhere else that in itself brings about inefficiency in the justice system that is what leads to pendency of cases in many of the cases because of these ambiguities remember Justice delayed is Justice denied so that is why we need to urgently reform these SLS as well and go for an over encompassing code which does include all of all of the new offenses and wherever required we can augment or add on to that now then moving on to the Fourth Article so here the article talks about why are earthquakes more frequent in Afghanistan now this is an article which is going to be relevant for your GS paper 1 now in the recent past in your recent memory you would recollect many of the times that you have you would have heard about a massive earthquake hitting Afghanistan causing large amount of casualties the recent one which has hit Afghanistan caused close to around or left close to around 1300 to 2,000 people dead in its week so many of the villages many of the regions of Afghanistan in fact they resemble a ruined place or a ruined City because of their destruction or Devastation that they have suffered from the previous earthquakes and this article also points this out because for example in June 2022 you had more than thousand people who died because of this earthquake which occurred at that point of time right then in 2015 again 200 people lost their lives then again in 2002 you had again close to around thousand people losing their lives in 1998 you had close to 4500 people losing their lives because of these earthquakes so earthquakes have been occurring in this region not only in Afghanistan but also in the neighboring region of Iran and Pakistan continuously for a long period of time now the answer to it why does that happen is very very simple first of all why is it that the earthquakes happen the reason for it so the reason is very simple when we talk about the Earth's crust or the Earth's lithosphere now Earth's lithosphere is basically constituted of the crust so when we talk about the lithosphere in that we talk about the crust and upper solid mantle okay now this lithosphere is the one which we live upon this lithosphere is the world that we see underneath our feet on the ground now this lithosphere is not uniform this is broken into many small parts that is referred into plates broken into plates now think about it as many small jigsa puzzle pieces making up a larger image that is what this basically surmises into then after that when you have these particular plates these plates are continuously in motion with respect to each other why that is because there is huge and tremendous amount of heat which is generated from the interior of the Earth from the region of the mantle and the core there is a large amount of heat which has been trapped ever since the time of formation of the planet what is also regarded as the residual heat of the planet's interior so that residual heat in the planet's interior is the one which is responsible for the movement of these plates so move because of residual heat trapped in the interior now when these plates will move now that movement can never be smooth because we are talking about kilometers thick rocks so when these let's suppose they move against one another or with respect to one another now that movement can never be smooth because many kilometers of rocks are rubbing s so obviously there will be points of friction there will be points of resistance due to which many of the times there is development of cracks in these particular areas now think about it as these plates or these lithospheric regions they try to move against one another eventually due to the resistance their movement will be inhibited but over a period of time this residual heat from the interior continues to act and eventually these large Rocky pieces extending 30 to 50 km or even 100 km to the underground region they eventually overcome that and they suddenly move whenever there is that sudden movement that is when immense amount of energy is released and that energy which is released is sufficient to shake up the ground surface that is what we experience as earthquakes so whenever you have to think about it or you have to imagine that why the earthquakes occur always the simplest analogy is close the fish of both of your hands try to move these fists against one another the indentions of your fingers they will offer a resistance to one another but as you continue the push you will observe there's a sudden movement so something on a very similar scale happens underground and whenever that resistance is overcome large amount of energy is released in the process the point from where that energy is released in the interior that is referred to as the focus or the hypo center that is the point where the energy is released right in the interior it can be 10 km beneath the surface it can be 60 km beneath the surface 100 km even beyond that right so the point of release of energy of release of energy that is your hyp Center then immediately above the focus is the region which is considered to be on the surface which is considered to be the main origin of the earthquake right because focus is in the interior how do you reference it so on the surface you have a place which is immediately above the focus that is your epicenter so this is the basic now why is it that Afghanistan experiences this so the normal logic or the common sense tells us that as these plates they try to move with respect to each other the boundary regions will always experience that release of energy that obstruction which is faced by them so when we talk about the region of Afghanistan If You observe carefully this basically is an earthquake map and an earthquake zonation which represents various different areas experiencing those earthquakes so observe this particular area and observe this particular region now both these areas are quite significantly frequented with massive earthquakes now why is that that is because of a convergence convergence between the large Eurasian plate the Indian plate and the Arabian plate so when you have the Arabian plate which is undergoing subduction which is sinking underneath the Eurasian plate Iran and Western Afghanistan experience massive earthquakes when you have the Indian plate undergoing that kind of convergence at that point of time you have the Eastern portion of Afghanistan the region around hindukush mountains the region around Pakistan and also India experiencing these earthquakes so as you can observe that that because this particular motion is ever persistent is very frequent the entire region including the region of the Himalayas they are the ones which suffer and experiences massive occurrences of earthquake and this process has also led to many of these cracks and fault lines opening up on the ground surface across which as the rocks will move always it will trigger these seismic events or earthquake activi okay so what are these earthquakes shaking of the ground surface why does this happen as the Rocks they get compressed and eventually they overcome the force of resistance they will release massive amount of energy from a point which is referred to as the focus the point on the ground immediately perpendicular to the focus that is your epicenter or the origin of that particular earthquake so when you hear the new story that an earthquake has occurred with an epicenter at herat in Afghanistan so understand that the focus would be kilometers underground herat so that is basically your earthquake now why does that happen very frequently in Afghanistan Iran region because it lies in the region where you have Confluence of three different plates so you have the Indian plate undergoing convergence with the Eurasian plate and also Arabian plate undergoing conversions due to which these areas they suffer quite significantly okay now let us take a look at the few articles relevant for your prelims perspective first of all is the one where the Indian mological department has issued uh clarification or the notification that the Southwest Monsoon has withdrawn completely from India now this process of withdrawal is something that you need to be aware of only for your prelims that withdrawal of the monsoon is something which is initiated generally after 15th of September and that begins to happen from where from the Northwestern part of the country this is the image that IMD has basically released where If You observe this image carefully so this red line indicates the natural or the normal date for withdrawal and the blue line represents the actual so withdrawal is always initiated around 17th September and the process of this withdrawal what is also referred to as the retreat of monsoon that process goes on for at least 1 month sometimes it can extend to 2 months or more but that process generally lasts for 1 month on the minimum sometimes that Retreat or that entire process of withdrawal can be very quick within 14 to 15 days that also causes humongous amount of rainfall in central part of India now during this withdrawal you would observe basically what this withdrawal represents is the withdrawal of the low pressure systems which come over India during the month of May and June which brings these rains so the low pressure systems they start moving back so what happens after this after this withdrawal now has been completed within a week you will have the setting up and the establishment of the Northeast Monsoon the Northeast Monsoon is is going to set in now this northeast Monsoon means the wind direction in general will be somewhat like this that will be your wind direction Easter and northeaster Le that will be your prominent wind direction so while the remaining part of the country is dry it is the kandal coastline or the Tamil Nadu Coast Coastline or in general the Eastern Coastline which receives rainfall okay so you need to be able to understand that what happens after the monsoon withdraws the Northeast Monsoon is different from the withdrawal of monsoon it sets in later the withdrawal process continues for almost a month and which are the areas which will receive rainfall after this also and that is going to lead to the cropping season the sewing season especially in terms of the varieties of rice which are planted across the coromandel coastline during these particular months now moving on to the second article and for the prelims perspective that is the EU human rights price was awarded to Masa amini now Masa amini in case you don't remember was the activist who was basically punished by the Iranian uh authorities and that was because of the entire movement against hijab so she has been given this EU human rights prize now the EU human rights prize has been in existence since the 80s so basically it was created the EU award was created in 1988 right it was named after the Soviet dissident that is Andre sakarov Andre sakarov through the 70s and the 80s he had always been a champion for the human rights and the voice of the depressed and the deprived sections so after that or after that individual that is Andre sakarov after this individual you have this EU award which is nominated which is given and this year it has been given to Masa amini now India share in uh of growth to rise to 18% so here when we are talking about this particular growth we are talking about India's contribution in global growth as of now now here parameters and terminologies and also data pointers in this particular fact are important because here when we talk about the global growth IMF has basically said that India and China both of them they are responsible and they are basically accountable to bring about 50 % of contribution to the global growth is caused by India and China but out of that 50% India's share till now is only 16% and China's share in the global growth is the remaining portion that is 34% so what IMF has said that if the fiscal deficit targets the current account deficit targets all of them are met and the IMF has said that despite the increase spendings in manrega and other sectors the government seems to be online to fulfill its Target for fiscal deficit in that case India's contribution to the global growth is going to increase from 16% to around 18% in the coming years okay so that is something you need to understand because a multiple choice statement can be framed a multiple choice question can be framed from here that has India's contribution to Global growth surpass China Etc you need to be very careful that still even after India's share increases in terms of the supporting of global growth China share is still going to be close to around 30 to 32% which is massive so that is something you have to keep an eye out for now that brings us to the couple of questions which can be framed from here so what is climate Justice what are the key areas that India would need to focus upon B in order to ensure a seamless transition to Green economy so here two-part question 250 word answer which requires to be written so climate Justice when you talk about introduction is where you talk about climate Justice it is in that introduction that you talk about how the poorer Nations they get impacted much more due to the impact of climate change which has not primarily been caused by them but is attributable to the developed economies of the world that portion of 15 to 20 words or 25 words leave it at that immediately after that you will get a kind of a flow in the body as well where you can immediately start talking about cbdr and in the initial part of your body uh for a couple of sentences talk about what is cbdr common but differentiated responsibility very much a part of climate Justice then come to the second portion of your answer that is what are the key areas that India would need to focus upon so in that talk about the various different areas that we need to uh transition from agricultural sector and Manufacturing sector already is uh one of the largest energy intensive sectors that we have carbon intensive sectors that we have the revenue sharing between the states the mining areas like jarand chattis Gad udisha suffering from it all of that you can mention okay then why does the region of Afghanistan and Iran get frequented by earthquakes so this is a question a direct question for 150 words so simply and straightforward in the introduction itself you can talk about that the occurrence of earthquakes can be explained by the tectonic activity in the Earth's interior and the movement of the tectonic plates with respect to one another then in the main body part you can initiate the discussion by giving a brief image a rough diagram a schematic representation of these tectonic plates how do they Collide and how do they cause the earthquakes you can talk about about why Afghanistan and Iran experien that because of Arabian plate Indian plate and Eurasian plate so that is something you can finalize you can discuss and you can write the answer it is advisable suggested recommended please do write the answers that is how you will improve at the end of the day now I would also suggest all of you that after this session please do visit our telegram Channel take up the question take up the quiz which has been uploaded and assess your level of understanding so that will be all from my side I hope that this particular session has added some particular value in your existing knowledge set if you have liked the video please don't forget to click on the like share and subscribe button till we meet again do take care of yourself goodbye thank you