0:41 Hello and welcome to an academy. Good morning to all of you. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. So today I welcome you to the Hindu analysis. We'll be discussing six important articles out of the Hindu newspaper. Sunday paper generally quite important because of FAQ. You will not find FAQ in every edition. It is there only in Delhi edition and international edition. So don't look for these articles in regional editions in that regard. Good morning. Now the 17999 offer plus 12 months free extension is going to end on May 6th. So your window of opportunity for joining the ANAC academy family at the least cost is now going away and therefore you should use this opportunity and to get this price and even better you have to
1:27 use the code is English. By using this code you will get the best price possible along with that you will get an extension of 12 months. So do use this opportunity when it comes to the pricing of our plus or iconic program. This has this this is the least historically the lowest price in that regard. Okay. Now you will find the PPT in this telegram channel for anybody who's looking for the PPT for the marathon session which I took on art and culture. I will upload that PPT by tomorrow. That is getting processed once the session is over with 500 slides. It is getting processed. That processing should be over by tonight and therefore by tomorrow you will get that PDF for sure in this
2:13 telegram channel. If you've not joined it, you should join it. I will share this is a much smaller PPT within the next hour once CNA is over in this telegram channel. The PPT of this session. Now we have that ways three very interesting articles. The first one deals with cast and the concept of cast census. Then we'll talk about vaccination and a very dangerous trend which is emerging across the world. Then we'll talk about research and development and how public which is government affiliated research and development facilities are doing. Then we'll talk about a development in the IndiaPakistan relationship. Last two this one is an eyeopening article which is judicial vacancies and backlogs. The
3:00 numbers are staggering in that regard. And last but not the least is how do how does Rafal actually make our navy better. So three to four heavy articles, two simple articles. The only thing which I want from you is that because I'm going to go from 0 to 100. I'll give you a basic understanding. You just have to take the static also. Do understand one thing. The static portion of for example the first article is very important. And I also want a response from you when I'm going to ask a question or when I'll ask you can we go forward. I have mains questions aligned. So therefore we'll be able to figure that out also. Now let's talk about the first concept which is cast senses. Now I would like to first ask you one thing
3:45 which is do you know the difference between varna cast and jati? I have the comments there. Do you understand the difference between varna cast jati or do you think that they're the same thing or what is the difference between jati and cast and in the larger thing because varna cast people are able to differentiate then what is the difference between jati and cast some of you saying four fa four kinds I think means color good morning yes sir on the okay so if you know what is the difference between varna and cast or rather I'll say can you tell me the difference between cast and
4:32 jati subcast is jati both same sir jati occupational varna is on the basis of work jati means subcast not necessarily I'll tell you that is why I am having this discussion with you I want to know further whatever you know about this concept I would like to know both are same varna color both are same. So most of you what you are telling me is that varna rather jati and cast is the same thing don't know sir cast is a broader term but refers to the hierarchical system of social stratification classified by British jati comes under cast okay both are the same maybe jati refers to specific local
5:20 endogamas groups not same okay so in this context we have Cast is a modern word. Good point. Okay. See, presuming that you've not done ancient Indian history at least with me, let me develop this concept in front of you and then we can come to this article. Can I do that? Can I discuss Jati Varna cast and the history behind it? Because if you understand that then you will understand the problem of a cast census right okay let's do one thing so why are we discussing this because the cabinet has taken a decision to add cast into the census which is going to happen no specific timeline has
6:07 been given this is a change in the government's policy previously we have only three states which have done a cast census now the center is also planning to do it as part of the census of India now let's try to understand two to three things which is what is This kas jati senses first I'll give you an understanding of two things. See varna cast jati and how are they two different to one another. Now you have to understand one thing that there are two connotations here. What do I mean by two connotations?
6:52 meaning pre 18th century I would rather you not even say 18th century pre 15th century meaning before the Portuguese came to India there were two words varna and jati Varna and Jati. Now when the Portuguese came to India their advent is 1498 and by the time they come to 1529 30 Goa becomes their capital.
7:39 The Portuguese distort this word jati and use a Portuguese word called castas which becomes cast which becomes cast. So at the face value cast is equal to j. But the problem is this is also not true. I'll tell you what is the process of jati formation. What is the concept of cast itself? But as of 1600 cast equals to jati however there's a problem. The problem is that once the
8:27 British start to establish themselves, they distort this further because cast goes in a different direction and cast becomes a colonial concept where rather than naturally picking up what were the casts of India, the British rather started to project things onto the Indian subcontinent that is called the concept of colonial form of knowledge. There is a historian his name is Bernard Cohen. He argues that cast became a colonial form of knowledge. Rather than you telling me what is your cast, I started to ask you what is your cast? Tell me in the list.
9:15 I'll come to that concept also. But cast and the association of jati with tribes this disjuncture happens under the British. So what I'm trying to do is here the ethmology of these words which is the the knowledge of this word itself which is varna is distinct. Everybody knows that varna is distinct from jatian cast. But what they don't realize is that jati cast at a given point of time meant the same thing. It is only the British who started to then push this word jati towards tribes and cast towards the concept of society and social differentiation. So this is the first
10:01 thing which you should know that there is today a difference. So if you will ask a society teacher, if you'll ask a sociology teacher, if you'll ask anybody who's teaching modern cast, he or she will then say cast equals to jati or cast is a totally different concept from jati. They will make these two mistakes. either they will use the old connotation or they will use the the new connotation which is either they would have absorbed the Portuguese understanding or the British understanding. But what I want to say to you is only one thing which is varnati are the two original words. Castas itself is a Portuguese word which makes
10:46 for example a word like cast in ancient India an anacristic proposition. Anoristic proposition means you are looking for something which does not exist. Jati in ancient India makes sense but cast in ancient India makes no sense. But what we do today is we tend to use these words interchangeably. So what I'm trying to first complicate for you and this is pure static which I teach in ancient Indian history later Vic period is you have to understand that these two words are different. I will tell you how they are different and then you should know that the word cast itself has a certain history which is first related to the Portuguese and then to the British. Now if you understand this, I would like to
11:32 develop this further. I want your assertion here sir. Yes, we understand what you mean by this concept that the Portuguese are a different connotation and the British started to distort this pure static concept. Yes. Okay. Now, now let's understand how jati formation happens. Now that will explain to you and that will give you a little bit of insight into how to understand this in the larger context of things. Now you see jati is not a British thing. Sir see there's something called varna samscara or the concept of what is called as varna
12:18 puriferation there's a word which we use for ancient India it's called pliferation of varna identity varna samsa now we know that there are four varnas which developed in the later vic period you have the brahin You have the shatria, you have the va and you have the shud. Now a lot of you actually said a very interesting line in the comment section which is vera equals to occupation or you all were talking about cast and occupation. You are creating an
13:03 association between occupation and cast. But what you should understand is that here it is based on birth. It is based on the concept of purity. And there is an association of occupation to these varnas. Not during the what we call as the ancient period. But the British are the one who gave this concept that this is an occupational differentiation. Brahins control knowledge and the society. Chhatrias are the ruling class. Veas are the trading and commercial classes and sudras are the society are the part of the community which maintain society. Now initially these varna identities
13:50 were what is called as endogamus or they used to marry within themselves which is Abrahin marries Abrahin. A chhatria marries a chhathatria. Avesa marries a veha. A shud sudra marries a sudra. Endogamus marriages. However, you would know that the 6th century BC, the Mahajanpatada phase, the Morian phase and the postmorian phase is a phase in which a lot of foreigners start to come into India. You have the Sakas, you have the Indogreeks. So with the Indo- Greeks also called as
14:36 Yavanas plus the Shakas and the Kushanas coming through. Now if your ruling dynasty or ruling power becomes a foreigner the brahinss needed to integrate them into the vic society or the varnab society. So what happened was that certain parts of the indogreeks, shakas and kushas they were added into these vernas. This is called the concept of a very useful concept for UPSC. This is
15:22 called assimulation of foreigners. This is the first process. This is the first process. Now why is this process so important? Because brahinss chhatrias va and sudra now there are two types of brahinss two types of chhatrias two types of vshas and two types of sudras and that is an original inhabitant which is let's take it as red color bs and at the same point of time we also
16:08 now have a new Brahmin who is basically a foreigner who has been given a connotation of being a Brahmin. So now we have two types of Brahmans. One who are the original inhabitants and one more who has been assimilated as a part of foreign integration. Now this is where the original inhabitants the societ the society of the Indian subcontinent wanted to create a distinction that I am the brahin who was originally here. He is a brahin who was not originally here but has been now
16:54 given a brahin concept. This is the first process of jati formation which is today called as cast formation which is two different types of brahins. That is why jati and cast exist within the varna identity. So within brahinss now there are two types of brahins. One was original inhabitant. Second who now was a foreigner who was actually given a connotation of brah. Now today if I say to Donald Trump you are a shatria you should adhere by shatria dharma. What will will Donald Trump give
17:40 any heed to the line which I said to him that you are a shatria shatria dharma? Will he ever ever even give one point? He will not understand it firstly but even if he understands it he will not honor it. He will not honor it because for him for him trump for Trump brahin chhathatriaudra is nothing. It's just a random word. So now what happens is these new brahins new chhatrias new vias and new sudras what they start to do is is one of you already predicted that it is called intermixing. This is the second process. The second process is exogamus
18:30 marages or what is called as intermixing. Intermixing of vernox. Now the problem is if you intermix brahmanhatria sun should be called what? Va chhatria. The son should be called or the daughter should be called what? And therefore there is a further proliferation of varna identity which is called the two main processes which together created jati. Therefore what jati is is a subcategorization within varna identity which happens because of assimilation of
19:18 of what we today call as the foreigners and the same point of time it is because of the intermixing of verm. Do you understand these two processes? Do you understand these two processes? Yes or no? Come on. Yes sir. Okay. Now in the Gupta period the third process happened which is tribal assimilation which in turn led to further varna samscara and together if you will learn anytime history optional or you will go into sociology or you will do anthropology optional or you
20:03 will go to a level higher than GS you will realize that the reason which is quoted for jati formation or cast formation in India is assimilation, integration and intermix. So these three processes together create cast or rather jati and therefore this jati is nothing but varna subcategorization. Vera subcategorization. Now when the Portuguese come they cannot use the word they cannot pronounce the word jati so they call it cast and then jati becomes cast. However what the British did was
20:49 they further complicated this to give a separate connotation to the word jati which is tribal and cast to the to the concept of social differentiation. Now here what I want you to understand here what I want you to understand is a very simple straightforward concept which is that when we talk about jati or cast when we talk about jati or cast there is a fluidity there is a fluidity
21:36 What do I mean by fluidity? Meaning pre-colonial pre-colonial period there is fluidity. Fluidity means That firstly religion, cast, vera, subver or subcast. These are not direct
22:22 lines. Please try to understand this point. Religion, cast, verna, subcast are not directly related to one another because there could be a community which could be out of a different cast would have a different subcast and that is why in India today in India today there are thousands of casts and thousands of casts within that itself which is called subcasts. What I've been trying to do for the past 10 minutes is I'm trying to do three things. First tell you where does cast come from and at the same point of time I want you to understand one thing which is varna is not a complicated
23:11 concept but cast is gorra is a totally different concept. Go comes from what is called as kinship concept. See the this is something which I teach in history optional. You have to understand the way you divide society is you have household pay attention you have household from household you have extended family which is called the concept of you and your family members. A bigger word which is used for extended family is go clan or kinship based clansship which is called go. Go together make a cast or subcast subcast make a cast make a
23:57 va but what happens is that is why people tend to say don't marry within your go because you are related to one another. The idea being that you are part of the larger extended family. But in India, what actually has happened today is that we tend to look for the cast identity of a person in his or her surname. But the problem is most of the people don't really know their cast or their subcast and their surname may be misleading. That is why you must have seen something. For example, I'm a Mishra. My name is Abhishek Mishra. But a mishra from Bihar, from UP, from Udisa, from West Bengal and from for
24:43 example Rajasthan may not be related to one another or may not be the same go also, may not be the same cast also, may not be the same subcast also because in India there has been so much subcategorization that it is if you go by the socio, economic and cast census which was conducted and sometimes used 46 lakh casts were identified under it. 46 lakh but when the British identified in 1931 there were only 4,700 casts. What I'm trying to do here is only one thing. I'm trying to tell you a very simple straightforward thing. Cast
25:29 is a complicated concept which is varna there are four-fold but cast there are multiple and within cast there are multiple further subcast now you should also know one thing in the northwestern sector are you understanding what I'm trying to say here this is pure static I'm trying to give you a gist of it we discuss it in a lot of detail can I further complicate this concept if you're following me what I'm trying to say varna straightforward jatika same thing later become different and jati and cast is complicated because it becomes more and more you can say the proliferation is such that it becomes like a geometric progression rather than an arithmetic progression because out of war vera comes multiple casts from then
26:16 cast come multiple subcasts from those then come multiple subcasts for now you have to understand one more In northwestern sector because it was a fluid boundary there were certain people or communities which may or may not be of a certain cast but were designated certain casts. And what is interesting is that in sik communities in India in Muslim communities in India there is also the concept of castinity because northwestern sector was very fluid. Now how can it be that within Sikhism
27:04 which is a separate religion itself within Islam there's a separate religion itself there's the concept of cast and here in come the distorted the distorters of our history their name is the British now I don't know how many of you been a part of a census process maybe you've seen your parents do it see census is a very dangerous you can say knowledge system which the British created it's called a colonial form of knowledge I'll tell you why if you've ever seen a cast census happening a census happening census does
27:51 not ask you it asks you to identify the categories it has created Meaning there is something called cast sensus based on open-ended input and there's something called cast census based on closedended input. I'll tell you how. For example, there are two ways in which I can ask you your cast. I can say what is your name? Please tell me your cast. I will note it down. The other way is please tell me your name. This is the list of five casts A, B, C, D and
28:37 E. Now tell me which cast are you. Now the problem is you may not be out of these five to six casts but you then would have to identify which is I am not A I'm not B I'm not C I'm not D or not not E I may be F but F is not there only so therefore I may have to say that I am closely related to E but am I an Ecast? I'm not an E-cast. M&F cast and therefore leave it to the British to document the cast or jati history of India itself. They never understood the Indian
29:23 subcontinent but the categories which we use today still is British. Further I'll give you a very simple example. You must have seen this in OBC. Some casts are centrally recognized. Same cast is not recognized is recognized by the state but not by the center. I hope you know this concept. There are there you may be a state OBC or be a center OBC. But how can that be? The question is how can that be? Because now this distortion happens because of the lists which the British gave us. Now what is the whole point of this
30:14 discussion? The whole point of this discussion is cast or what is called as jati is a complicated concept. Varna samscara is a process which has been happening for now centuries. And in multiple cases you may not be the exact cast you should be because some family member misappropriated that cast or that category itself was not available. This means that this is not an outputbased understanding. It's an input based understanding. Meaning if the British knew your cast, they you are
30:59 now identified by that cast. But if you were not in that cast, you were then identified in something else. So therefore cast what the British created is a totally different concept. This is what I said to you in the beginning. Va jati were very clean structures. Still jati very complicated clean structures. When the Portuguese came they just said we can't pronounce jati so we'll call cast but what the British did in 1881 they conducted the first census proper census in 1901 and through that process they then complicated cast further creating so many subcategories that one
31:44 of the biggest challenges which the government of India will today face is that when you go into a census. You can't type into a census your religion, your cast and your what we call as gender. Meaning it's like a drop- down category. It will say gender or sex drop down male, female, third gender. Then when the census taker is going to open the category of the way UPSC made such a complicated form this time as soon as you are going to touch cast the list is going to be in thousands and what is more problematic
32:32 is most people don't know if they are a central cast or a state recognized cast what is their recognized category within center within the state itself. Imagine the time it will take to identify if you are a and see the same cast can be from a different varna in a different state. That has also happened. That also happens. And this is where the newspaper argues that it is very easy to say that census will have cast. State level cast census is easy comparatively to a all India level
33:19 cast census. And more than that, the biggest issue is you tell me how much time will it take for a census taker to get frustrated looking for a cast which may not be there in that list and randomly then allocating a cast to another person. Imagine the list is of 10,000. You think he will sit scroll then he will push the the search then you will say my cast is KH then the spelling may be different in the center may be different in the state may not be there itself. So he will random randomly click he will give you a cast which you may not have also. So the point is that what you need
34:05 to first assertain. Yes. Control F. What you need to first assertain is and that is the most important point which has been made by this this article is first assertain what cast are you talking about. Are you talking about the Jati cast? Are you talking about the British cast? Are you talking about cast as an occupational group? Because that is what the British created. Are you talking about cast as a concept which the the Portuguese wanted to say or are you talking about cast as what it is today? More than that I'll tell you one more thing in urban areas some of you may not all of you some of you may not even know your cast because 75 years of independence and
34:53 being a republic cast identities have started to blur. Cast identities have started to blur. We may think we are of a certain cast and whatna. The only way you can remove cast prejudice and discrimination and social exclusion based on cast is by blurring that identity. But what this is going to do is it will then categorically ask you if you have never asked your parents what is my cast. Now you will ask this question what is my cast? This is another slippery slope which will further maybe regress us because the more we should be coming out of it. See positive discrimination
35:39 based on OBCST is okay that is constitutionally mandated that is based on the discrimination which has happened for centuries of the depressed classes but now identification on that itself is also very very dangerous. So I hope you understand what we are trying to assertain here. The static portion is not available in the newspaper. But I want you to understand one thing. When you see this word in the newspaper cast, you should know that cast is a very complicated concept. And there is nobody in India who can 150% properly establish as of right now what this cast actually means. And this is what the article also said that now that the union cabinet before I
36:25 go into the current of S part are we all clear about what is cast cast jhati British cast in the ancient period if that can be used as a word itself jati I want everybody's assertion yes sir we understand what you are saying we understand that tangent let's come back and discuss what the article wants to say you have now given us the background yes that is a separate issue altogether that is called that is a category which exists in Bihar which is extremely backward based on economic idea. We'll come to that. See now the article says that what we today use as a word as cast is a British concept. The British for the first time used the word cast and used it in the
37:11 census. Now this is basically giving you the history of census and cast. Now when the British first took their census in 1881 brief summary is only one thing muskan that cast jati and varna are complicated concepts in India there's no clearcut definition and it is complicated to this point that you really need a very good understanding of what you mean by cast to actually add it into the census. The idea is British use it for the first time in 1881. The data which we actually used at the time of independence to create the SCST category was the 1931
37:59 census. This data till today is quoted in multiple places and total number of casts were 4174 which is 4,147 casts were identified by the government of India, British government of India at that given point of time. Now thereafter one more cast census was taken in 1941 but it was not used because of wartime problems and in 1931 a very interesting thing happened. The person who was the census commissioner his name was J Huton. Hutton was given two mandates. First try to drop cast. He
38:44 said no cast we will take because cast makes sense to understand the whole Indian subcontinent we need to take cast but in the same senses the British government of India said create the hierarchy of casts as in Indian society put to that categorically said no we can't do that because that is very difficult to assertain and the association of cast with occupation is actually something which was created in 1931. Today if you'll ask any layman person what is cast he will say it is an occupational differentiation of the Indian subcontinent. That is technically not true. It is not an occupational
39:31 differentiation. It used to be much more complicated based on purity and cast identity based on social differentiation but the British got it associated with occupation. Since government since India got independence till this point the government of India has avoided using the word cast within the census because assertaining cast was a very difficult aspect and difficult task. However, in 2011, we did kick off a very interesting you can say concept which was called the socioeconomic cost census. But the problem with the soioeconomic cast census is it is not an
40:16 outputbased but an input based understanding wherein 46 lakh casts were identified because it was an open-ended discussion. Here they did not ask you to identify to a list rather they said you tell us what is your class. That is why people say that the socioeconomic and cast census of 2011 is unreliable data. It is unreliable data because people can misappropriate and misidentify themselves. So therefore from 41 74 we if we go by the logic we have 46 lakh
41:03 casts. I I'm just imagining how difficult it would be to integrate 46 lakh cars into a system and then have a drop- down or a control F for it. Imagine 46 lakh different categories to choose from. That is why people say that this data which was produced was was halfbaked or in itself useless because this open-ended gathering would only lead to further confusion only lead to further confusion.
41:49 However, in the name of politics, in the name of politics, three states did do a cast census and these three states are Bihar, Telangana and Karnataka. Bihar conducted a cast census and gave the data in 2023 which assertained a very interesting but very you can say alarming development which is OBC's and extremely backward cast previously considered to be less than 40% of the population were 63% of the state's population and this was this is this is
42:35 the data which is now being used for the Bihar elections Telangana was able to assertain in 2023 that 56% of its population is backwards classes and Karnataka conducted this very maybe close to 10 years back but recently the data which was released tells us 70% of the population of the state is OBC. Now let's be very honest. This is a politically motivated concept. Meaning whatever data is being generated is politically motivated. And what is common to Telangana and Karnataka is Congress government. And this is where
43:21 the opposition had a certain rhetoric and the rhetoric of the opposition was we are here to protect the minorities. we are here to protect the minority interest. So this time the go the ruling government gave into it and said okay if you are the vanguard of the minority we are also the vanguard of the minority and we will also do cast senses. Now for a UPSC aspirant a very simple question could be what is the use of this data? What do you do with cast census data? And the answer to that question is very simply you drive political change and policy which is
44:11 policy and research. Meaning if I have to assertain a certain concept wherein I need to come up with a scheme I need to understand the quantum. I need to understand the quantum and the volume that can be understood through a census that to a car sensus. Policym it is important but what the experts are arguing is that it is not not the real purpose. The real purpose is these are politically motivated actions. And now in vote bank
45:00 politics and in reservationbased politics all of this data is going to be in a way used. This is where the politicization of the cast s census and the politicization of this data can then become a new fabric of differentiation. And as a UPSC aspirant you have to understand this constitutionally we are all Indians. An Indian may have multiple identities but as a civil servant as a public servant public does not have a cast does not have a religion
45:47 does not have a gender and therefore in the larger scheme of things there is a lot of good which can be done via cast senses but there's a lot of dangerous trends which can also be pushed into a certain space which in turn could lead the division. Religion is already a axis of division in India. Maybe this is the next one because as of right now no credible data is available. The SECC which is soioeconomic and cast census data is generally considered too vague to be used. But when it comes to this this coalition politics of break and make politics of end politics this can be in
46:34 a way misused. Now if you understand the larger sentiment of this article coming out of the Hindu newspaper can I summarize all of this for you into one space and then we can look at the mains question. Can I summarize all of this? Did this make sense? Longish article because the static is there but I hope you understand this concept. Yes. Okay. Great. So, what is the concept? See, cast has now been argued that will be part of the census whenever it happens. We don't know when the next census is going to happen because of COVID 19. 2021 census was indefinitely as of right now with no direct date given. Then we know that
47:21 Jati cast and varna are different. Varna is an identity based on four-fold division more clean cast and jati at certain given points of time have meant the same thing but now today have a different connotation because of the British. We also know that cast in India is a complicated concept because it is not just a ci category which existed but was also created by the British through their subcategorization. Further you should know that cast was is a process in in Vic period it is called varna samscara and cast is the concept of
48:11 assimilation integration and the concept of intermixing of varnas intern created jati or cast and varna samscara is something which has happening for centuries now. Further the problem which comes out is that if we add it to the census because it is like an AI concept you need input where and how do we get the input how many inputs and at the same point of time we also have to understand that three states have already done it. There
48:57 is a political motivation behind this and therefore it has the chance of becoming a new feeder into World Bank politics. Clear everyone? This is basically the argument. What is the history of 1931 data is mostly what we use. 1941 it happened but nobody has that data. 1931 census data we use. Perfect. Now this is a question which you can expect either in GS paper 1 or GS paper 2. GS paper one as part of society GS paper 2 as part of governance. The integration of cast into census will
49:43 open a Pandora's box of political and identity politics. Do you agree? Now this question cannot be answered without historical understanding and this is why you have to use the timeline I have given you in order to write an answer like this you will be able to answer this question you have basic for basic understanding for this yes okay now now comes The second article again out of FAQ again an interesting one. See we may be extremely privileged or
50:31 lucky that we have gone through all the vaccines which are available to us. We have the most iconic dunig polio DPT dtheria ptosis tetanas. We have measles. Now we have HPV, we have a lot of vaccines which are available and if you go by basic understanding a lot of diseases which previously used to be very very lethal for example like yes BCG which were very lethal previously fatality rate mortality rate was affected by it fatality was very high are all preventable today. So there are lot of vaccinereventable diseases. Now
51:20 you should know that a vaccine is nothing but there can be two. We know a lot about vaccines because of covid 19. It could be a modified you can for example if the disease is caused by a virus your body is given a certain you can say dose of it in a controlled manner. Either it's an inactivated virus or it is a virus which mimics the same characteristics of the virus which causes. For example, kovish shield co vaccine and Johnson and Johnson Johnson. This is the whole differentiation. We had certain vaccines which were inactivated meaning killed covid-19 vaccine and the other one which used to mimic the same type of response from the body. So vaccinebased prevention of diseases is very very common and if you
52:05 go by the data which has been given by the WHO close to 154 million lives in the past 50 years have been saved and prolonged because of the immunization of their family members and them itself which is 40% % of all improvement in infant survival, health and children health is because of immunization. Meaning as an educated Indian nowadays there's a lot of because of Asha Benz and because of the the the way we have the immunization program
52:50 universal immunization program UIP as it is called India is very cognizant of the importance of vaccines. However, in vaccine there are doses and the biggest problem in a dosage based vaccine in for example co kov shield or co vaccine indush used to be there it's now called UIP if there were two doses we had a booster dose also vaccines have to be given at multiple points in your life. What is happening is because of funding crutch, because of geopolitical tensions, because of
53:37 conflict and because of people like Donald Trump who want us to inject bleach into our blood which is called misinformation. Either people are not vaccinating their children or they are not completing the dose itself. not completing the dose itself. So what this article points out is an alarming development which recently has been pointed out by the WH UNICEF and Gabi. Gavei is an NGO. WH, UNICEF, UNICEF and GBI have pointed out that due to misinformation, population growth and
54:23 humanitarian crisis, immunization is going lower and the deaths related to preventable diseases, vaccinereventable diseases is increasing and this is the biggest issue. What they are saying is for example you note that US aid used to be a funding body. It used to be the principal body which used to run humanitarian programs for the US across the world. Soft power. US a has now stopped funding. We know that out of the WH the Americans have exited. Trump has exited WHO. Very significant funding comes from the WHO of the WHO comes from
55:11 the US. Then we have the staterun program. What WH UNICEF and GI are arguing is because of these bodies getting affected because of these bodies getting affected there is a funding issue. There's a funding issue. This is the first thing which they identify. Now for example look at the Israel or rather let's talk about not the Israel but the
55:58 Palestinians. Let's talk about the Ukrainians. Let's talk about other conflict zones. For example, Sudan, Nigeria, in all of these zones, you really think vaccine is the most important issue which they have? You tell me. Afghanistan, same issue. Yes. You really think the biggest issue which they have is vaccines? And the answer to that question is no. They are in a humanitarian crisis. They don't
56:45 know where they will get their next meal from. So the children in these conflict zones have no food to eat let alone vaccines. Third is refugee crisis. Very closely related to it is the concept that we have misinformation.
57:36 Misinformation together all of these factors is leading to either no immunization or immunization program not being covered properly. Meaning if four doses were needed only one or two doses are being given. This only tells you one thing that the current geopolitics and if I go by the inherent poverty in Africa as a continent they already are under the reeling concepts of Ebola. We have the
58:21 South American sector under Zika. Let's be very clear. Funding, humanitarian crisis, ceui crisis, misinformation of poverty in in Africa generally, all of these issues only lead to one thing which is immunization being the last thing which anybody wants to think about. But you have to understand one more thing which is that if the children don't get immunized they are not given the vaccine their the infant mortality rate will start to go up the life expectancy is now going to be affected and the overall health of
59:09 the human resource is going to be affected. But you will say sir you are talking about all of these things. I want proof. I want proof that there is a problem. How can you say that that this is true? And this is where there is data and that data has now come through the WH and GI and UNICEF. Out of the 108 offices which these organizations have across the continents
59:54 itself. Nearly half of those are facing moderate to severe disruptions when it comes to vaccination campaigns because of reduced funding. 14.5 million children, 1.4 4 cr children missed their routine vaccination increasing from 1.3 million children in 2022 and the reason is either conflict fragility or instability and because of people like Trump and now his health secretary Kennedy who believe that vaccines are a
1:00:41 hoax. who believe that it's all mumbo jumbo and it's just a way of making us dumb. Measles which was mostly considered to be eradicated in the US is now coming back and the numbers are exponentially increasing. There's a measel epidemic and crisis which is running through America as of right now. All because Americans, the dumbest of this world, think that vaccines are making their children dumber. And therefore, they are there's a proper campaign in America supported by MAGA supporters, by Trump supporters who argue that vaccines are bad for your
1:01:29 children, therefore no immunization and preventable diseases. India in 2014 was polopree. In 2015 tetanus free, prenatal and neonatal. We have stood by that understanding that we will keep polio away from our children. But a developed country like US now having close to 935 cases of a disease which is generally considered preventable is now coming back. Now this is where how this is how GS paper 2 and three interact with another. international relations,
1:02:15 geopolitics, the larger things which are happening in the world in turn lead to GS paper 3 diseases concept become very very important. So therefore the human cry of this article is only one thing. Now is the time that at least in India we don't go into this category of regressing in immunization. So therefore based on this article the question which we are expecting in the examination is something like this which is the need of the R is parents public and politicians to strengthen their support for immunization. This is directly picked up from the
1:03:01 article but you cannot answer this question if you don't know this data. You should remember this 13.5 and 14.5 an increase of close to 10 lakh children and you should know these reasons. Please remember these reasons why there is a immunization crisis. Sort it everyone. Easy article, straightforward article. Yes. Come on everyone. I want everybody. Yes sir. Yes. Make America Bimar again. Very good. No. Trump would be really happy to know you. Yes, sir.
1:03:47 Okay. Misinformation. Ram Singh means vaccines are bad for you. Vaccines lead to death. That is a misinformation which is basically uh fake news. Right? How to make intro 250 words? See two uh if you want to know this in a 250word question see 100 to 150 words has to go into the body. So any intro has to be maximum 50 to 80 words intro and conclusion has to be 50 to 80 words. Now in that context your introduction
1:04:33 will be always extremely brief very straightforward. If there is anywhere you have current affairs you write the current affairs context in the introduction. If it's a history based question you write the historical context. If it's geography you define that. There are tricks to write that but never exceed more than 50 60 words. Then you're just citing everything in the introduction. That's not a good answer. the main chunk of your words has to go into the body right okay the third article which was again in the FAQ section which you'll find in the Delhi in the international edition was it that public research and development meaning government affiliated research and development are they innovating enough or
1:05:21 not now defense atomic research and space. These three areas because they are critical were not part of the study. Critical, crucial, national security based. You cannot give public access to the research which is happening in defense atomic research which is nuclear and and space. So therefore the study which has happened for 244 R&D organizations by the government of India, Confederation of Indian Industries and Center for Technology CI,
1:06:06 Coot and the Government of India. It did not take into account these three sectors. After that 244 organizations which were affiliated to various ministries were asked to rate themselves which is they were asked to evaluate themselves on their research quality. Now any nation can only go forward if we value our researchers. If we don't value our researchers, if we don't value our scientists, if we don't value our you can say men and women who are sacrificing the glamour of other employment opportunities to make sure that India has the best ramjet,
1:06:52 scramjet or best bombs and best engines in India, they should be honored. Unfortunately, that is not the case. We tend to honor people who who who are standing in front of a camera and are doing anything and everything today. Unfortunately, that is the truth. Serious research, serious researchers, intellectuals in India and people like you who are trying to contribute to this nation through the process of a grueling task of clearing this examination. It is not a small feat to clear the is examination. You are not valued as much as a person who may getting who may be getting one to two lakh rupees out of making vlogs and dancing in front of a camera or
1:07:37 selling tea that's a separate issue altogether. So R&D if India needs to go forward in any sector it has to be based on research and development. We cannot be imitating. We cannot be reverse engineering. We cannot be just looking for the west to give us a technology. Now in that context there are two types of research which can exist. One is called curiositydriven academic research and the other one is called demands of the industry based research. Tell me one thing. Which research will take India forward in the true sense? Which research will take India
1:08:24 forward in the true sense? The first one or the second one? Which one? Come on, tell me. I'm waiting for your response. Which research is going to take India forward? See to be very honest it is the first one. Second one will always be demand supply based meaning if Zumato needs a better bike you will give them a better bike. This is called industrydriven research. If in India really needs to innovate, it has
1:09:10 to go into the first category where researchers are given are given free hand to now develop the next nuclear reactor, now develop the next fuel, now develop the next alternative fuel-based engine. Remember, demanddriven research will always be catching up. It's playing catch-up. So maybe hydrogen cells are not viable today. There's no demand for it. But someone has to work on a hydrogen cell because it is the future. So you have to understand this point very clearly that you have to develop an understanding where curiosity based research should also be given as much as importance. You can be an experimental
1:09:56 physicist but you should be given the funding for that. Therefore, what this survey tries to capture is what type of research are we actually doing. The whole point of what Push Goyel said at the startups Mahakum that what we are doing in India is startups and innovation is happening in consumer-driven markets because it is based on driven consumerbased driven demand innovation. But what what China is doing is it is doing research in drone technology. It is doing research in nuclear technology. It is doing research in critical sectors. So therefore how do you assertain it? 62 parameters were sent as a questionaire to the to the labs to
1:10:43 these 244 associations and they were asked tell us what type of research are you doing? Are you doing basic research? Are you doing applied research or are you a hybrid? Meaning you do something for the market also but you're doing something for curiosity also. Yes, that is true Shrea. That is true. Now let's look at the data though you don't have to remember this data. You cannot remember this data per se. But look at look at the data. 25% of all labs in India are giving support to startups. 16% are doing deep tech, deep research into machine learning or
1:11:31 AI only 15% have overseas collaboration or have researchers from the foreign which is outside India. Half of the labs are trying to contribute into make into make in India initiative. 35% are skill India oriented. 30% are oriented towards swatch bharat mission. This means it is demand driven. Curiosity based research is not there but it is more demand driven. Make in India needs innovation so we are doing make in India. Swatch mission needs innovation so they're doing swatchab mission. skill India needs. So therefore it's a demanddriven innovation. But what is more, you
1:12:17 obviously can't remember this for the examination. What is more dangerous is the next point which is this one. More and more institutes have contractual employees rather than permanent employees which is never good for motivation to do research. Meaning the permanent staffs are going down is called informalization and the and the contractual staffs are going up. The median share of a young researcher has increased but the women
1:13:04 involved in this research is stagnated. So therefore the number of women researcher and scientists is exactly the same which is not a good thing. But more dangerously the number of fellows permanent fellows and researchers are lower contractual are more. Now when you don't know that your and this would then explain demanddriven innovation. I hope you understand this point. This would purely explain demand-driven innovation because if demand is you if you're innovating for the market your research is relevant and therefore you will get funding. But if you're you're doing curiosity based research, you have nothing to show for at least 5 years. Nobody's going to fund
1:13:51 your research itself. And therein lies the problem which we are in right now. If the way we are doing what we are doing and the way we are incentivizing research in the research public sector R&D labs, we will never be able to be the harbingers of change. We will only be absorbing new technology, reverse engineering it and we will not be able to innovate something new. And this point you have to understand. Now what what is the whole point? The point is if the article says public R&D should be focused on critical technologies and must adopt this
1:14:37 strategy at a war footing. Exactly. Exactly. A point which I previously also discussed that in India innovation and creativity are on two different spectrums. We are very creative but we are not innovative because we don't harness creativity into innovation. Discussed on CNA itself. We should understand one thing that in in this case in this case what happens is you should be able to argue that why do we need to go for critical technologies but will critical technologies be rewarding in the short term? You tell me. Will critical technologies be rewarding in the short term. What is the answer to that question? Come
1:15:23 on. No. Critical technologies need time and therefore we need to reorient our understanding. If we are not doing that then we will always be playing catch-up. Long-term growth innovation can only come if we actually are able to orient and look at the right what we call as areas which need to be targeted. three articles of the FAQ, one based on cast census, one based on R&D in public sector and one based on vaccinereventable diseases. All three topics sorted. Contractual means that
1:16:11 you can be removed at any given point of time with no job security. You would never go into critical technologies. Everybody's on the same page with me? Yes, sir. Very good, sir. Okay. Now something which Shams had predicted had suggested in our podcast with regards to what is going to be the next step for India. India has now cut three critical ties with Pakistan. Already we had very limited interaction here. No postal link is going to be there. containing any inbound package from Pakistan or any outbound package from to Pakistan will not be allowed. So all postal linkages are
1:16:56 gone. Second is that as part of our retaliation no direct indirect trade can happen with Pakistan now and no ship with a Pakistani flag can be docked in an Indian port. So we have suspended all postal links. We have suspended all or prohibited the direct and indirect import of all goods originating or exported by Pakistan itself which was already not a lot. But what is more important is with Pakistan test firing Abdali which is their nuclear capable missile and also conducting a operation what is called military operation or military exercise near the LOC. It is very clear that Pakistan is nervous.
1:17:43 India right now is using what is called as the soft power means or the diplomatic channels are being closed slowly slowly which is IWT Indust water treaty being put into abance. Thereafter we have the next concept which is the uh visas visa control has now become very very you can say stringent 48 hours were given for visas. Thereafter, now we move to one more step which is this one which is no postal linkages, no ships being allowed and therefore all forms of economic ties with Pakistan are being severed which will have an impact on Pakistan but a limited one in that regard not something out of the box. This is this is something which is developing. What I
1:18:28 really want to discuss with you is this one judiciary. Now you know that the judiciary has been in the news quite a lot. Gashwant the concept of judicial activism what happened with regards to Tamil Ladu governor. We have multiple different contexts in which judicial space judicial accountability judicial transparency has been questioned. Now in that case this article is going to either astonish you or it is the data is actually shocking. Data is shocking. Can we discuss this topic? This may be a very important topic for any introduction you have to write for judiciary or conclusion you have to
1:19:13 write for judiciary. Now this article in the news section gives you two things. First it tells you the vacancies which are there within high courts in India and it then gives you the quantum of cases which is pending with the courts of India. Let's understand the vacancies first. Delhi High Court has sanction strength of 60. Total number of judges is 36. 40% of all judicial appointments or appointment uh that post is
1:19:59 vacant. If I go by Allahabad High Court, 81 seats out of 160 are only occupied. Close to half of the seats are empty. meaning appointments into these judges positions have not happened. Punjab and Hana High Court 32 out of 85 are only occupied meaning 32 judges are there against the strength sanction strength of 82 36 are there for 60 81 is there for 160 overall in India 25 high courts have
1:20:45 combined sanction strength of 1,114 judges And the number of judges is only 769 or 1114 means 30% of all positions are vacant. Now you will say sir but judicial independence is important. The first judge's case, the second judge's case, the third judge's case, the collegium is important. We cannot just push anybody into the judiciary. We need to be very very clear that the right judges are pushed into the judicial mechanism. The government will say you are the problem. The judiciary because your collegium is very very complicated. Judiciary will say we are doing it because you are impartial. You
1:21:32 will then lead to executive interference into judicial space. We all talk about judicial independence. I will see you in court. The type of faith we have with the judiciary. All of this is good. Only sikkim and misor meghala high courts are the only ones where there are all seats filled up. But then you will say sir what is the point of this when something like this happens where 30% of all positions for judges is open only we are talking about high courts this is the number you
1:22:21 get total number of cases pendenc meaning They are awaiting the pendency of cases pend the cases which still have to be heard. Supreme Court in 2022 had 78,000 pending cases. In 2023 it became 80,000. In 2024 it became 82,000. As of February 202, 81,000 cases are pending with the Supreme Court. Still, let's go further. High courts 53 lakh cases in
1:23:06 2022, 54 lakh in 2023, 55 lakh in 2024, and as of February, 62 lakh cases are pending in the high courts of India. And if that is not enough, let's go one step further. District and subdistic codes or subordinate codes. 4 K 32 lakh cases. 4 K 39 lakh cases. 4 K 54 lakh cases. 4 K 57 lakh cases are pending at the subordinate level. You tell me is this a normal
1:23:54 number? Is this a normal number? Four k you and me will not go to the high court or the supreme court. We will first go to the subordinate courts. Tariq parik this is because tarikar 4.57 lakh 4 cr 57 lakh cases are pending. The Indian Justice report 2025 argues the depth of the crisis is that between 20 to 2024 pending cases have surged by 20%. Des despite this sharp rise judicial vacancies persist and 33% of all positions are empty. Now you
1:24:40 tell this is why I wanted you to have this conversation because you can now use this in the examination. It's not a laughing matter. It's actually not a laughing matter. But what can you say? Judges have closed themselves. You can't say anything to them because contempt of court and they are not ready for reform themselves. NJC may be one answer but imagine 4 cr 57 lakh people associated with different cases are waiting for justice. This data is gold for you
1:25:26 because now you can use it in the examination. What you remember is 81,000 in supreme court 62 lakh in high courts 4 cr 57 lakh in subordinate courts I don't know what you will do with this information per se but it is eyeopening when we say that judicial reform needs to be there this is the This is the reason the depth of crisis is that we don't have enough judges. When we don't have enough judges, this is the cascading effect which is created. If you really think that the vacancy of judges is a joke, this is
1:26:14 because the judges the the capacity is not full. But this is where you have to also understand the judicial culture. You tell me one thing in school you used to get a summer holiday but children summer holiday what is the point of having a vacation bench and a vacation in judges and if I'll say it I'll be maybe prosecuted by the supreme court or the high court or someone what's the point of a vacation for a judge you tell you tell we have for 2 to 3 months in a vacation benches where the full capacity of the judges are not there and we have
1:27:00 smaller critical cases being pushed because vacation bench is there not full capacity judges first we don't have judges and then they also want to go for summer break you and me in a corporate job will not get two months of summer break and I I think I'm not the one who giving justice to anybody you tell me your job right now my job Even an IS officer does not get 2 weeks 2 months of holiday. No. Or not all is officers are going to work. The DM of Agra will take care of DM of three two other places because other DMs also have to chill. Judicial reform has to come from within. This is an introspection which they have to
1:27:46 do. So a vacation bench concept in this day and age makes no sense. So very simply quote this number. Next time somebody says judicial independence is important tell them car cr 4 cr c cases are pending. What to do? Unfortunately, we have more lawyers than judges and unfortunately lawyers don't get jobs or the lawyers are keeping these things pended pending so that they can actually get some money out of it. So either it's a nexus that again you cannot say because once you go into court and kachari which is courts it is a unending
1:28:32 process you will enter your grandson is going to or granddaughter is going to solve that issue. What has to be done is judicial reform. Judicial reform from outside is always going to be seen as a basic structural issue. Therefore, the judiciary has to understand this number keeps on increasing is not a good thing for a healthy democracy. It has to be a introspection by the judiciary. They have to change their culture. They have to change and do reform from within. Yes, appointments may not maybe collium is inefficient. Therefore, you have to figure that out. The NJC was a good answer but NJC was considered to be problematic by the judiciary because they thought that it was an imposition on their independence. Kacher is the Hindi for quote. So very
1:29:18 simply please understand this point judicial independence transparency 142 is all good but at the end of the day judiciary also has to look at its reports report card. This is the report card. You tell me if as DM as a as a district collector, as an IS officer, you had so many file spending, you would be fired by the government of India because there's something called efficiency and most maybe not all 10 to 15% of these cases can be sorted out in two to three hearings. But because there's so much dependency today I get it then I get the next after 6 months.
1:30:03 So the same thing gets dragged for months. So I hope you understand why I wanted to discuss this with you. This data may be very critical with the judiciary in the news so much. We finally have some tangible data to play with. Sorted everyone. Yes. I hope you will use this data. Yes sir. Very good sir. Okay. The last topic is by 2028 and 2030 with India signing an understanding with France 26 Rafals are going to be provided to India. This was this these are going to be in the navy
1:30:50 configuration. Once these 26 files will be delivered to India, our two aircraft carriers INS Vik Vikram Majiti and INS Vikrant, their capacity to hold aircrafts is going to reach to the fullest. We will then retire our MIG 29Ks and the Sukoy MKIK which is basically the ones configured for the Navy and therefore India is on route to at least fill its kota of fighters on its next generation aircraft carriers. Rafal a 4.5 generation not a fifth generation properly 4.5 fifth generation fighter we would need to make a little bit of changes to Vikramaditya and Vikrant because the lifts would need to
1:31:36 change and we use what is called as a catapult system based on short runways you would have to change that also retrofitting would needed to be done but this has been in the news I'm talking about the implication of something like this what is the implication of 26 Rafals being inducted into the Indian Navy via this deal. So again not something 4.5 fifth generation in between not better than a F22 Raptor equally good or below it not like F-35
…
