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subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon so that you never miss any video lesson from rao is study circle hello and welcome to daily news simplified an answer to what why and how of newspaper reading from a upsc perspective now today we shall analyze the important news which has appeared in the new delhi edition of the hindu newspaper dated 25th january 2021 the news to be discussed has been displayed on your screen and time stamping for the same has been provided in the description box below so on this note let's start today's discussion which are important from our examination perspective the first news to be discussed appears on page number one it says mock trials of remote voting project soon chief election commissioner poll panel to launch e-epic today and voters will be able to download photo id card now all these announcements are with respect to india's 11th national voters day which is today which is 25th january 2021 so on the eve of 11th national voters day election commission has announced a future vision for indian voters and the theme for this year's national voters day is making our voters empowered vigilant safe and informed now this theme has been taken consciously by the election commission of india to ensure active and participative voters as the election commission intends to increase voters base in india or increase voters participation in india so the election commission has said that the focus of election commission is not only to conduct elections safely during kobe 19 times but also to conduct elections in a transparent and a fair manner and accordingly the election commission has announced certain measures to improve this active and participative voters now conduct of a periodic elections is an important facet of democracy keeping this aspect in mind let's see these two previous questions asked by upsc in the means examination now in 2018 the question was in light of recent controversy regarding the electronic voting machines what are the challenges before the election commission of india to ensure trustworthiness of elections in india so this aspect of trustworthiness becomes an important point regarding the credibility of indian democracy and based on the same theme a similar question was asked a year earlier that is in 2017. the question was to enhance the quality of democracy in india the election commission of india has proposed electoral reforms in 2016. so what are the suggested reforms and how far are they significant to make democracy successful so we understand that all these steps taken by the election commission is to improve or increase the trustworthiness or credibility of elections in india thereby improving the quality of democracy in india so based on this understanding of a link between periodic and fair elections and indian democratic process let us understand certain measures which have been taken by election commission of india which has been announced on the eve of 11th national voters day now we know that any democracy thrives on a periodic election and in the case of india this periodic election is conducted as per the constitution of india by election commission and this conduct of periodic and fair election by election commission has ensured a thriving democracy in india so this can be said to be the link between democracy and periodic elections now this aspect of a democratic government has also been enshrined in the preamble to the indian constitution which starts with the words that we the people of india having solemnly resolved to constitute india into a sovereign socialist secular democratic republic and it also ensures various rights for its citizens so overall we can say that democracy is a form of government which is elected by its people or by its citizens and accordingly the constitution of india allows indians universal adult franchise further we can say that in a democracy final decision-making power rests with those elected by the people that is members of parliament and members of state legislative assembly another important aspect of democracy is the conduct of free and fair electoral competition now here electoral competition is not only for those who are in power but also for those in the opposition so it provides a fair platform for conduct of election for both those holding power and also the opposition members so accordingly we can say that those currently in power must have a fair chance of losing in a fair election another important aspect of democracy is that each adult citizen must have one vote and each of their vote must have same value another important aspect of democratic government is that democratic government rules within the limit set by its constitutional law and citizens rights in case of india we can see this has been done through part three that is fundamental rights so this is the link between democracy and periodic election and as already mentioned that in the case of india this periodic election is conducted by election commission to ensure a thriving democracy in india now this is important because election commission must empower every citizen electorally so that each of the citizens participate as much as possible in all the direct elections conducted across india at various levels so election commission through various processes empower the citizens thereby improving the quality of democracy so based on this understanding let us go through these measures which has been provided by the election commission of india on the eve of 11th national voters day now i have said in this discussion that today that is on 25th january we are celebrating india's 11th national voters day so as a upsc aspirant the question which should come to your mind is that why are we celebrating this national voters day only today that is on 25th january now the answer to this question is that it was on today that is 25th january in the year 1950 election commission was founded so we are celebrating national voters day on 25th january to mark the foundation day of election commission of india so this becomes an important point to be known from your examination point of view now celebrating national voters day helps to encourage facilitate and also maximize enrollment of voters especially the new voters now as i have already mentioned about the importance of election so it's also important that more number of people should vote so here the encouragement is not only in order to increase or maximize enrollment of voters but also to make them aware about their electoral rights so basically we can say it has two aspects number one is to ensure maximum enrollment and second to increase electoral awareness among voters especially regarding their voting rights as both these aspects are important for a thriving democracy so overall celebrating national voters day helps in spreading awareness among voters especially the new voters it promotes informed participation in elections as these new voters have to choose a particular candidate belonging to a particular political party so now they are exposed to the indian political process where these new voters have a fair chance of contributing towards shaping of a new and an informed democracy further some new voters are also facilitated at a function conducted by the government and handed over epic cards that is elector photo identity card and this overall encourages even other new and young voters to vote in various elections so the whole idea behind these functions is not only to maximize enrollment for election but also to increase electoral awareness among voters especially the new and young voters now there are certain announcements which is to be made at the function of national voters day now the president of india will confirm national awards for the year 2020-21 for best electoral practices and these awards will be given to state and district level officers for their outstanding performance especially with respect to conduct of elections and also associated activities regarding conduct of elections such as initiatives in the field of information technology initiatives in the field of security management election management especially during covert 19 times and also steps taken by district and state level administration regarding contribution towards voter awareness and outreach so these awards given by the president to the state and district level officers encourages them for better conduct of elections in future times further the president of india will also launch election commission of india's online digital radio service namely hello voters so this radio service of election commission will help in voter awareness and also educate voters on electoral process and this will be available in different languages further the chief election commissioner also announced about various efforts which are being made by the election commission of india in collaboration with iit madras and various other institutes to digitize voting processes and these experiments are being done by using blockchain technology for the conduct of elections as this technology will facilitate two-way remote voting processes now this two-way remote voting will help indian citizens to vote from the place where they are situated and they need not go to their electoral constituency or to their native place so this step will greatly help the migrants who are staying outside their native place especially in places like bangalore mumbai delhi for various jobs so if the trials regarding the two-way remote voting processes is a success then it will increase voter participation as there are number of voters who are not able to vote because of their jobs or other constraints further the chief election commissioner also stated that it is planning to grant postal ballot to overseas voters and the decision is spending in the ministry of law and justice now regarding postal ballot overseas voters voting would be done through etpbs or electronically transmitted postal ballot system the etpbs allows service voters to fill up their ballots and post them back using normal postal services now the service voters receive these ballots electronically and then post them back using normal postal services so this is what is 80 pbs electronically transmitted postal ballot system now regarding service voters service voters are those who have service qualifications and they include member of armed forces of the union of india members of armed police forces of the state serving outside that state and persons employed under government of india on post outside india and as per existing arrangements members of indian army navy air force border road organization border security force itbp assam rifles nsg crpf cisf and sastrasimabal are eligible to be registered as service voters now the election commission is planning to extend the facility which is being used by service voters to the overseas citizens of india now this process of voting is done in two steps at step number one blank postal ballot is sent electronically however at step number two once ballot is being cast that is once vote is being given then such a ballot is sent through postal service so on one way the ballot is sent electronically whereas in the second step the ballot is sent through postal service so this is one way electronic voting now in two-way electronic voting both these steps will be done electronically that is the ballot being cast will not be sent through postal service so this is the basic difference between one-way electronic voting and two-way electronic voting and it is here regarding two electronic voting blockchain technology is being experimented with further the chief election commissioner also stated that citizens can now download the electronic version of epic card so this will again make it easier for the citizens to have epic card as they do not have to run from pillar to post to get their elector photo identity card further at the functions there will be three publications which will be released namely conducting election during pandemic a photo journey sweep endeavors especially the awareness initiatives during lok sabha election 2019 and chalo curry madan which is a comic book which aims at voter education in a fun and thought-provoking way so these are some of the steps which have been planned for national voting day function to be held today now regarding elections you must know certain basic provisions which are provided in the constitution of india and here article 3 24 and specially article 326 becomes important now article 324 says the superintendence direction and control of the preparation of electoral rules for and the conduct of all elections to parliament and to the legislature of every state and of elections to the offices of president and vice president held under this constitution shall be vested in a commission referred as election commission further article 326 states that the elections to the house of people and to the legislative assembly of every state shall be on the basis of adult suffrage that is to say every person who is a citizen of india and who is not less than 18 years of age on such date as may be fixed in that behalf by or under any law made by appropriate legislature so both these conditions becomes important that is every person who is a citizen of india and who is not less than 18 years of age so some of these provisions of the constitution regarding elections becomes important both from our prelims and our means perspective thus this topic becomes important both from our prelims and our mains point of view in the prelims this topic gets covered under indian polity and governance constitution and also rights issues especially voting rights whereas in the means it gets covered under gs paper too especially regarding important features of indian constitution especially with respect to election and salient features of representation of people's act where the representation of people act 1951 is for conduct of elections and representation of people act 1950 is regarding the limitation of constituencies so after discussion on this very important article let's move to the next article the next news to be discussed appears as an article on page number six it says in agri-credit small farmers are still outside the fence the agriculture sector's performance has not been commensurate with the increasing subsidized credit it receives now this article primarily deals with the problems or challenges of agricultural credit especially for small and marginal farmers now both these extracts have been taken from the economic survey of 2019-20 now this extract from economic survey says that agriculture and its allied sectors still remain an important sector because of its continued role in employment income and most importantly in national food security further it says that its contribution to national income has gradually declined from 18.2 in 2014-15 to 16.5 percent in 2019-20 this overall reflecting the development processes and the structural transformation taking place in the economy now it further highlights that the realization of the objective of doubling farmers income requires that the challenges of sectors such as access to credit insurance coverage and irrigation facilities etc are addressed it also mentions about the aspect of lower farm mechanization in india and also compares it with that of brazil and china it says that farm mechanization in india which is only about 40 percent as compared to 60 percent in china and 75 in brazil now regarding the agricultural trade distribution the economic survey mentions about regional imbalances especially in the northeast it says that it is observed that credit is low in the north eastern hilly and eastern states and the share of northeastern states has been less than one percent in total agricultural credit disbursement so overall we understand that the aspect of agricultural credit is not only important but there are also certain issues or challenges or concerns associated with agricultural credit and regional imbalances is one of the major concern so in this regard let us go through this aspect of agricultural credit and also certain problems which has been highlighted in this article regarding distribution of agricultural credit especially with respect to small and marginal farmers now overall the purpose of agricultural credit can be said to be primarily fulfilling investment needs boosting agricultural productivity and ensuring financial inclusion however there are certain concerns specially regarding all of these aspects especially with respect to small and marginal farmers now regarding small and marginal farmers the first thing which you need to know is that who are these small and marginal farmers now small farmers are those who has less than five acres of land or less than two hectares of land whereas marginal farmers are those who have less than 2.5 acres of land or less than one hectare of land now regarding the data of agricultural credit it is important to note that the volume of agricultural credit has improved however there are certain imbalances not only with respect to regions but also with respect to kinds of farmers holding different kinds of lands so these are certain issues with respect to agricultural credit now here what you also need to understand is that how does agricultural credit helps any kind of farmers including small and marginal farmers so agricultural credit plays a major role in meeting the credit needs of poor and marginal farmers it prevents them from entering into debt trap further agricultural credit enhances investment in agriculture it enhances productivity as farmers adopt new technologies mechanization etc and it's important to note here that roughly every one percent increase in agricultural credit results in or produces 0.3 percent increase in agricultural gdp so we can say that agricultural credit does play an important role in the life of a farmer as it primarily provides institutional credit to poor and marginal farmers however there are certain problems associated with agricultural credit the first problem highlighted here is regarding lower share of long-term credit regarding long-term credit and short-term credit short-term credit is primarily or mostly taken for crop loans to meet seasonal production requirements demand and these loans that is short-term credit loan is invested in buying seeds fertilizers etc now farmers take more short-term credit as compared to long-term credit which is generally taken for capital formation in the agricultural sector farm mechanization for example buying tractor or any other machine and infrastructural developments for the farmers so as you can see that only 35 percent of agricultural credit goes to long-term credit whereas farmers goes mostly for short-term credit for their crop loans now there are mainly two major reasons number one that interest subvention scheme is available only on short-term agricultural loans now the question is that what is this interest convention scheme so say for example the rate of short-term credit interest for agriculture is eight percent and the government announces that interest subvention scheme would be three percent so it means that the government would pay three percent as subsidy whereas the farmer has to pay back the interest at five percent so this is interest subvention scheme and this interest summation scheme is not available on long term agricultural credit so this is one of the major reasons why farmers only go for short-term credit and the second reason is the inability of farmers to provide collateral for long-term loans and this is also because of fragmented land records so these two can be said to be the major reason why farmers mostly go for short-term credit loans mostly taken to meet the seasonal production demands thus provision of long-term credit by the government will especially help the small and marginal farmers from entering into debt trap now as you can see in this particular picture institutional credit leads to higher investment it also leads to modernization of agriculture which further leads to higher yield and this overall increases farmers income and this eventually helps the farmers to stay away from the debt trap so institutional credit is very important especially for small and marginal farmers so lower share of long term credit especially for small and marginal farmers can be said to be one of the problems in agricultural credit the second problem as already highlighted is regional imbalances and if you can see in this map which has been taken from economic survey the southern states have taken more agricultural credit as compared to the rest of the country and the northeastern states have comparatively lesser share of agricultural credit so this is the regional imbalance in agricultural credit we were talking about other problems regarding agricultural credit includes rising npas of banks as banks are not able to provide loans to small and marginal farms cursive action on loan repayment further leads to farmer suicides and this eventually makes the farmer stay away from bank credit further the article also highlights certain problems with priority sector lending especially for agriculture now according to priority sector lendings norms of rbi 40 of loans have to be given to priority sector lending areas and of the 40 percent 18 has been fixed for agriculture now among these 18 percent 10 percent of the loans has to be given to small and marginal farmers now the article says that rbi's definition for agriculture is quite loose and hence many loans given in urban areas are also included within agriculture alone so rbi needs to improvise the definition of agriculture so that more loan is disbursed for crop loans and also for mechanization of agriculture another problem highlighted here is regarding the aspect of march rush now march rush is when most agricultural loans concentrate during the months of january to march now this is because banks have to fulfill their priority sector lending targets and accordingly during the month from january to march they rush to provide loans to the agricultural sector now this at times devoid farmers from getting loan during the other months of the year and lastly another reason provided is regarding lack of modernized land records and this affects especially the small and marginal farmers as it impacts their lack of institutional credit because they cannot provide substantial collateral so all these can be said to be problems regarding agricultural credit and because of these problems mostly the small and marginal farmers suffers so as a way forward the article says that the government should expedite or enhance the speed of digitizing land records the government should use mobile phone penetration which is close to 90 percent in the rural areas as this can be used to provide loans to small and marginal farmers thereby improving financial inclusion and the government must also provide interest subvention scheme on loans for agricultural capital formation that is long-term credit especially for capital formation or farm mechanization thus these can be said to be the way forward regarding this particular article on challenges for agricultural credit now this topic becomes important both from your prelims and your mains examination point of view in your prelims it gets covered under economic and social development and in your mains it gets covered under gs paper 3. especially regarding major cropping patterns e-technology in the aid of farmers and inclusive growth and issues arising from it thus after understanding the challenges and problems regarding agricultural credit let's move to the next article the next news to be discussed appears as an article on page number seven it says a big push for education the pandemic gives us a chance to make education systems more inclusive flexible and resilient now this article highlights that because of covet 19 embodying education was not possible especially to billion of children across the world so now is the time to put education at the center of overall develop and it is in this aspect this article highlights about january 24 which has been marked as international day of education now unesco highlights that education is a human right it's a public good and also a public responsibility now these three phrases are very important the moment we say it's a human right it means that these rights has to be bestowed in various legislations of the country for example in india article 21a of the indian constitutions mentions about right to education and hence right to education in india especially for children from age group of 6 to 14 years becomes a fundamental right further it's a public good and also a public responsibility hence government across the world becomes responsible for imparting quality education to their children keeping these things in mind the united nations general assembly has proclaimed january 24 as international day of education in celebration of the role of education for peace and development so we see that education has been used as a role model for peace as well as development and such education must be inclusive and equitable as according to united nations without inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong opportunities for all countries will not succeed in achieving gender equality and also breaking the cycle of poverty so four aspect becomes important here the un says that without inclusive and equitable quality education lifelong opportunities for all and also without lifelong opportunities for all with respect to education countries in the world cannot succeed in achieving gender equality and also countries will not be able to break the cycle of power which is leaving millions of children youth and adults behind so through this paragraph we understand the importance of education as highlighted by united nation and also unesco now the theme of third international day of education is recover and revitalize education for the kobit 19 generation so this is the message with respect to this theme regarding recover and revitalize education for the kobe 19 generation that is for such children who underwent a disruption in their schooling activities due to lockdown imposed due to covet 19. so based on these understandings this article highlights the impact of pandemic on learning outcome of students especially whose schooling was disrupted due to covet 19. and in this regard the article highlights certain data where it says that 1.6 billion students were affected by school closure and according to unesco schools were closed on an average between three and a half to five months now there is another aspect which has been discussed in this article which is the financial aspect that is response for education during kovit 19. now article sees that the global financial response to covet 19 was 11.8 trillion dollars now out of 11.8 trillion dollars only 91 billion dollars was spent or was allocated to education and out of the 91 billion dollars 73 billion dollars were spent in high income countries so this means that middle and lower income countries could not spend much on education during covet 19 lockdown however this article further provides for certain data especially for south asia it says that south asia spent more on education from kovid 19 package and as compared to a part of the package south asia particularly spent 0.85 percent on education and this shift was primarily in developing information and technology measures which were adopted to ensure education is imparted seamlessly now here the author mentions about national education policy which also mentions about technology use integration that is integration of technology within the imparting of education now as compared to south asian countries europe and north america spent 0.73 percentage on education and latin american and caribbean countries spent 0.69 percentage on education so we can see that south asian countries especially india focus their shift in upgrading their technological measures in order to impart education to their children and it is in this regard the author mentions about national education policy of 2020. now this aspect of national education policy of 2020 was discussed in the dns dated 11th december 2020 that is last year where we discussed in detail about technology use integration as part of new education policy 2020. now as you can see this aspect of technology use integration was discussed in detail directly from the document of national education policy where we mentioned about use of technology and also improving multiple aspects of education so the national education policy provides for enhancing learning assessment planning and also administration as it says that it aims to provide independent evidence based advice to central and state government agencies on technology based interventions it aims to build intellectual and institutional capacities in educational technology it aims to envision strategic thrust areas in this domain and also articulate new direction for research and innovation further the document also focuses on teachers training and also different methods of assessment for teachers especially regarding online education so to understand the aspect of technology use integration please go through the dns dated 11th december 2020 so it is in this regard this article says that despite these different measures taken by different countries including india much still needs to be done especially in the field of education and this is because over 800 million student still faces disruptions in education especially due to kovite 19. and it is here where all stakeholders in education especially the government private sector institutional development partners various institutes of research and innovation should come forward with a plan for more funding for education making education system more resilient and also to make education more inclusive flexible and more sustainable as you can see that sdg4 provides for quality education so it is here where the author says that education needs to be placed at the center of recovery so that we as a society can move towards inclusive safe and sustainable societies especially for our children now this topic becomes important both from your prelims as well as maine's point of view on your prelims it gets covered under public policy and rights issues and in the mains gets covered under gs paper too especially with respect to social justice and issues relating to education so with this discussion let's move to the next article now the next news appears on page number 10 and it says sundarbans is home to 428 species of birds says zoological survey of india and the publication which mentions this is birds of the sundarban biosphere reserve which is a publication of zoological survey of india it says that one in three species in india have been found in the unique ecosystem with some of them exclusive to the region now regarding rare species this news mentions about a derrick sand piper and also about hawk eagle and salt water crocodile now regarding sundar months you need to know that sundarvan is a tiger reserve it is also a ramsar site as it is a wetland it is the largest contiguous mangrove patch on globe it's a biosphere reserve and it is also a national park now all these aspects becomes important from the perspective of your prelims examination now regarding the location of sundar months sundarbans is the largest delta and mangrove forest in the world and indian sunda bun is bound on the west by river muri ganga and on the east by river hari bhanga and raimangal now other major rivers flowing through sundarban includes sapta mukhi thakuran matala now please remember these important rivers especially with respect to sundar months it further says that sundarban has extremely rich diversity of aquatic and terrestrial flora and fauna and in fact sundarban's highly productive ecosystem acts as a natural fish nursery another important point is that a region is situated south of the tropic of cancer so here it says that although it is situated south of the tropic of cancer the temperature in the sunda buns is equivalent due to its proximity to the sea so average annual maximum temperature is around 35 degree celsius and average annual rainfall is around 1920 millimeter the news further says that the biogeography of sudna buns is unique and the region harbours a rich diversity in terms of species content ecosystem and habited types further the delta ecosystem which is the single largest continuous area in the world for threatened bengal tiger and largest contiguous mangrove patch on glo is very productive it further says that this biosphere reserve is located in the vast delta of ganga south of calcutta which is bordering bangladesh in the east and it represents the largest mangrove diversity in the world with 81 mangrove plant species and provides habitat for the threatened royal bengal tiger further the core area of sundarbad national park has been designated as the unesco world heritage site now this again becomes an important point from your examination perspective further it says that the entire eastern india is dependent on the fishery resources from sundar months this news becomes important primarily from the perspective of environment and geography now based on our discussion this becomes your practice question for the day the question is consider the following statements first right to education has been mentioned under udhr that is universal declaration of human rights second right to education is a fundamental right under article 21a of the constitution of india and third education has been mentioned only in the state list under constitution of india so the question is which all the statements given above is are correct options are a 1 and 2 only b 2 and 3 only c 1 only and d 1 2 and 3. now coming to the answer of yesterday the question was consider the following statements first drought is a natural phenomena yes this is correct second atmospheric disturbance in the mid-latitude region over the north atlantic ocean can influence onset of drought in india yes this is also correct and third rods are declared by central ministry of rural development now this is incorrect as state governments has power to declare droughts so the question was which are the statements given above is are correct so the correct answer becomes b that is one and two only now today there is an announcement on the eve of republic day there will be no dns tomorrow the next dns would be continued from 27 january 2021. so from rao's ia study circle we wish all of you a very happy republic day so with this we come to an end to today's discussion thank you you