Newspaper Analysis for UPSC and APSC | 11th July 2025 | APSC and UPSC Exam Preparation | SPM IAS

0:00 Hello and Welcome to SPMIS Academy Today We Will Analyze Newspaper Articles of 11th July 2025 Please Note You Can Download the PDF Version of Today's Newspaper Analysis by Clicking the Link Given in the Comment Section This is the List of the Topics That We Will Be Covering from Today's Newspaper. The first topic is about ICC International Criminal Court warrants against Taliban leaders. This topic is from our syllabus GS paper to international relation point of view. The discussions here can also be used in Ethics and Integrity. Let's see how. First of all, we will understand about International Criminal Code. It is an international judicial body which is located in The Hague, Netherlands.

0:47 It has been made on an international law named Rome Statute which came into force in 2002. ICC works under this law and the main objective of ICC is to prosecute those individuals i.e. to punish them who are involved in these types of crimes. Genocide means killing of an individual kind of community on mass level is called genocide, crime against humanity. So any crime like massacring children and all which can be called crime against humanity, or forcing people to starve on mass level, cutting down the supply of food and water to them, war

1:35 crimes, torturing during war, if a person does all these things then a case can be filed against him in ICC under Rome Statute. The ICC is needed when the national courts are unwilling and unable to prosecute true criminals. If the court of any country is not able to bring a case against the people committing such crimes then the ICC is required in that case. Apart from this, a case is taken up within the ICC only when the United Nations Security Council or any individual state which is a member of the ICC refers any matter to the Court. Any non-member state can also refer a matter. If the court

2:21 believes then it can take up the true case. But remember that ICC is not officially a formally part of the United Nations. Yet ICC works in coordination with UASC. The ICC may take up cases recommended by the UASC. Many major countries of the world have not joined the ICC. Like India, China, Iraq, Korea, if we talk about North Korea, Turkey, then these countries have never signed even Rome Statute. Some countries like America, Russia, Israel have signed the Rome Statute but they have never ratified it. Meaning they are still not officially part of the Rome Statute. So the jurisdiction of ICC is not applicable to all these countries.

3:08 Let us talk about India. Why is India not a member of ICC? You can see all these countries. The yellow colour represents countries that have signed the Rome Statute but have not ratified it. Those in green colour are those who have signed and are now members of the ICC. That means the room statue has also been ratified. And the rest which are in brown color are the countries which have neither signed nor ratified the Room Statute. Now coming to India, India is not part of ICC. What is the reason behind that? A major reason is concerns over sovranity. Once we become a member of the ICC, ratify it by signing the room statute, then

3:58 cases can be filed against individuals of our country, be it government officials or ministers, even the Prime Minister, military personnel in the ICC. We believe India believes that our judicial system is robust enough. If any such incident happens, it is a crime against humanity, a war crime, then our judicial system itself will punish them. We have such a strong integrated judiciary, we have the Supreme Court at the top. We don't need any international judicial system. But if we sign and become a part of the Rome Statutes, then it is possible that our position may be politicized and cases may be filed against dignitaries of our country to tarnish their image and reputation. So hence the first reason is concerns over

4:45 sovereignty or issues of damage to reputation of important dignitaries of our country. Suppose a case is filed against the Prime Minister, some country files a case against him, Pakistan files a case against him, then somewhere or the other our country's reputation will be marred or damaged or any other objection in the definition of crimes, these terms are genocide, crime against humanity, war crimes, these words are very broadly abusive and this could be interpreted with vested interest, for example, if counter insurgency or counter terrorism operations are going on in Jammu & Kashmir or the North East and the Indian Army is running it, and if this is projected as a war crime by the ICC, then there will be concerns. I already talked about the

5:32 possibility of politicisation. If India becomes a member of ICC then it can be misused by western countries. Strategic Autonomy Towards Nuclear Weapons. It is possible that India may get compromised. Despite having nuclear weapons, we are fighting a war with a country in a hostile situation. In that, ICC may interfere with it and limit our possibilities of using nuclear weapons. Well we already follow no first use policy or doctrine, our nuclear doctrine has no first use in it. But suppose there is a war with Pakistan. Pakistan uses nuclear weapons. That case limits our possibilities to interfere with the ICC. And mostly ICC lacks universal application. Most of the major

6:18 countries like Russia, China, US are not members of ICC. So anyway here the Rome statute does not seem to have much weightage because major countries have not joined. That is the reason why India has also not joined. It does not have universal application. When all the strong countries of the world go, then it becomes meaningful for India to be there. If India is there and everyone else is not there, then these other strong countries can try to corner India by filing a case against India with the help of their LI. We have analysed this. I understood what ICC is and why India is not its member. Now let's come to some current news. I have told you at least two-three times in the last two-three months

7:05 about the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and how the Taliban came into power again in 2021. Ever since the Taliban came back to power in Afghanistan, they are not implementing as orthodox or conservative approach as they used to earlier. When they headed over Afghanistan from 1996 to 2000, at that time they were very conservative, very radical, but now when they have returned, from 2020 till now, when they are in power, they have liberalized their regime a bit. Yet last year in 2024, the Taliban came up with a 114- page document called Morality Law, under which very harsh

7:52 restrictions were imposed on women. Many conditions were imposed. Conservative law was brought and this law for women known as morality law brought last year in September 2024 it bans women from singing and showing any of their body part in public forbidding public speech for women restricting eye contact with men criminalizing LGBT people so many conservative radical orthodox ideas were brought last year under morality law and it is being implemented. The two top most leaders of Afghanistan who have framed this law are Habitullah and Kundaza Dada and Abdul

8:41 Hakim Haqani. There is no need to remember this name. But the point is that this law is being seen as a crime against humanity. And for this reason a case was filed against both of them in ICC. And now the ICC has issued an arrest warrant against him. Even last year, when this morality law was introduced, the United Nations had criticized this law. The United Nations had used the word gender apartheid. Gender based discrimination. One term used for this was United Nations. And now after the recommendation of the United Nations Security Council, the ICC has issued an arrest warrant against these people. Now that we are talking about ICC, we should also briefly look into other important

9:27 judicial organisations at the global level. Apart from ICC, the second most important judicial organization is ICJ (International Court of Justice). This ICJ is officially part of the United Nations. It is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations. And the work of the ICJ is different from that of the ICC. Cases are brought against individuals in the ICC. If he is involved in war crime or genocide, then if there is any dispute between two countries in ICJ with respect to any international law regarding its interpretation or implementation, then a case can be brought in ICJ. Meaning, the dispute between two countries gets resolved in ICG. The

10:15 ICG is headquartered at the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands. The same place where the ICC headquarters is located. Basically ICC ICG is in the same building. That building is called The Peace Palace The Hague Netherlands. Apart from this, there is another body, Permanent Court of Arbitration. This is also in the same building. And its main work is to resolve any dispute between two countries or between international organizations or even private parties. This can be seen as an arbitral tribunal. So when there is a dispute regarding international law then we go to ICJ. If there is a dispute regarding any butteral law then we go to the Permanent Court of Arbitration. For example, if there is a dispute between India and Pakistan regarding the Indus Water Treaty, then it will

11:07 go to the Permanent Court of Arbitration. But if there is any dispute regarding the Vienna Convention, which is an international law, then two countries can go to the ICJ. This is a prelims practice question related to ICC. Please attempt this question and submit answer in the comment section. You may be asked a question like what does ICC do in Mains? What does the ICJ do ? Give examples of these two. Explain their functioning with examples. I have also given hints here. I have explained to you about ICC. For example, you can tell how ICC issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin. The ICC had issued an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Now recently you can write

11:54 that ICC has also issued arrest warrant against the top most Taliban leaders. You can also write about ICJ. Remember a particular case related to ICJ between India and Pakistan. Kulbhushan Yadav, an Indian citizen, was arrested by Pakistan. On some spying charges. Those people had arrested him from Iran and brought him here. Now the Indian officers who were posted in Pakistan wanted to meet Kulbhushan Yadav so that they could prepare his defense case. Pakistan was not allowing our officers to meet Kulbhushan Yadav ji. So then India found this, violation of an international law called Vienna Convention on Consular Access. And then

12:43 India took this case to the ICJ that Pakistan is not allowing our country's diplomatic officers to meet our national Kulbhushan Yadav who is imprisoned in a Pakistani jail. So this is violation of an international law. And then the decision came in our favor. He came in favor of India and then Indian officers were allowed to meet with Kulbhushan Yadav ji. So remember this particular case related to ICGA. Next topic is about World Population Day from our Syllabus GS Paper 3 Indian Economy Point of View Today i.e. 11th July is celebrated as World Population Day all across the world. Right Since 1989. The United Nations declared this day as World

13:28 Population Day in 1989. This decision was taken in 1987 itself when the world population reached 5 billion. But it started being celebrated since 1989. The aim of World Population Day is to highlight the issues of addressing population-related concerns. All the concerns related to population like reproductive health, family planning, gender equality, demography, all these things should be discussed on this day and awareness should be created. This is the main aim of celebrating World Population Day. The theme of World Population Day 2025 is Empowering Youth to Build the Family They Want. Here basically the target is that in 2025, the youth who want to start a family now should be

14:15 provided with correct information so that they have access to all family planning related services and information. Now let us talk a little about the basic things that have been said in this article, we will also add some value to it from our side so that our exam related preparation can be done. So today is World Population Day, so we will talk about India's population. There will be discussion about India's demography. What is demography? Demography is population related data. Demos means population, geography means data. So population related data is called demography. What is the population ? What is the sex ratio? How is the age distribution? That means how many are in working age? How many dependent people are there ? What is the literacy rate? All these are

15:00 collectively called demography. If the demography of India is seen in the present time, especially from the age perspective, then it is quite favourable. If we talk about the world's youth i.e. people between 15 to 29 years of age, then India has the highest number of youth. 371 million. From this perspective it can be said that India is the world's largest youth country or most young country. This can be said. There are 371 million youth who are between the ages of 15 and 29 years. The average age of our country is 28 years. 63% of the population is in working age group. Meaning it is between 15 to 64 years. Due to all this it can be said that the demography of India is quite young. And there is a

15:47 huge possibility of deriving dividends from it. Dividend means benefit from it. So what is the demographic dividend ? You understand that. The possible benefit, economic benefit that could be derived from the population of a country, is called demographic dividend. So, the argument given in the article is that since India's population is very young, if we focus on their education, health, nutrition and skill development, then this demography can give a huge contribution to the economy of India. This is called demographic dividend. That means demography could help in extracting demographic dividend. IF IF THE POPULATION IS EDUCATED GIVEN PROPER

16:34 HEALTH NUTRITION ETC. So where is the problem in extracting, actualizing or realizing the demographic dividend? When there is a young demography then why is India's economy not able to extract dividends from its demography ? The reason behind that is skill level. There are young people but they do not have that much skills. There is a mismatch between skill demand and supply. According to NITI Aayog's report New India at 75, only 5.4% of the Indian workforce has formal skill training. So, there is no skill. Somehow I am doing some small work. So due to that reason, despite having a young population, they are not able to contribute that much to the economy. Then Industrial Revolution Four is coming. This

17:20 is the age of AI, this is the age of robotics. According to that, unemployment is again increasing. Youth are not getting job opportunities. Therefore the demography is remaining unutilized or underutilized. Rural Urban Divide: Opportunities in rural areas are decreasing further. It is becoming more difficult to extract demographic dividend in rural areas. Then there are cultural factors, due to which there are many restrictions on women in the patriarchal society, women are not allowed to extract many economic opportunities. The labour force participation rate of women is only 25%. So imagine if we assume that half of the country's population is women, only 1/4th of that half population is

18:07 working or looking for work. Looking for economic engagement. This is called labor force participation rate. Then how will we be able to extract demographic dividend? Just being young wo n't suffice. You will need to have skill and also have to work. But the cultural factors impose restrictions on us women. The Prevent Agency Among Women. Or Women Because of the Cultural Factor Lack Agency. So on this term, UPSC has asked a separate question in the first mains that women lack agency in India. So today we will ask a Mains question on this. Another reason is the cultural factor because there is so much craze for government jobs. This can also be taken as a cultural factor that the youth prepares only for government jobs for a long time, for

18:53 three to three years, four to five years. So, somewhere this was a wastage of demographic dividend. Then child marriages also take place. Because of child marriages, especially girls then go into pregnancy without any objection. Due to which his health also gets compromised. The child's health is also compromised. And she is not able to focus on her education and economic independence. And that ultimately leads to denial of demographic advantage. Loss of demographic dividend. Remember the data related to child marriage. Child marriage has reduced by about 50% in our country. In 2005, 48% of marriages were child marriages. It has come down to 23% in yet there is a problem of child marriages in

19:41 our country. What initiatives are being taken now ? To prevent child marriage. There are initiatives like Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao. NASTAR is an Adolescent Health Program to prevent child marriage or to prevent fertility or reproduction in adolescents i.e. early teens, to prevent early pregnancy, this is the National Adolescent Health Program. So these are initiatives at the national level. If you can remember the names of some good state level initiatives then it will be easier to write the answer. Project Uran by Rajasthan Government. Here emphasis is being given on educating girl children as much as possible. Their secondary level education from 1st to 12th level is being promoted under

20:26 Project Uran by Rajasthan Government. According to a UNICEF report, if any girl child studies for one extra year, then her chances of child marriage are reduced by 6%. Each additional year of secondary education can reduce likelihood of child marriage by 6%. So if you study for an extra year, the chances of child marriage reduces. Because if any girl reads even a little then she understands one thing that if I get married during a child marriage then I will become completely dependent on my husband. I will not be able to explore any economic career for myself. So if you teach even a little bit. Even one year of additional secondary education reduces the possibility of child marriage by 6%.

21:14 By writing all this data your answer becomes very good. Project to be run by Rajasthan Government Advika Program by Government of Osa again in the direction of preventing child marriages. So all this was an analysis related to why we are not able to realise the demographic dividend. Now when we are not able to realise the demographic dividend, what problems are we facing because of that? The youth are not getting opportunities. At the same time, what is happening now is that our economy is young today. Ok? He is young right now. But we will not remain young for ever. Gradually the total fertility rate is reducing in our country also. We have just reached the replacement level. 2.1 On. Now gradually he will go even lower than that. Infact currently we are

22:00 below replacement level. We are on 2.0. But the population will increase for a few more days which is called population momentum. But after 20, 40, 20, 45 our country's population will also decrease. Our old age population will also gradually increase. Working age population will decrease which means dependency ratio will increase. In that case, when the number of working people decreases, then the demographic dividend possibility of our country will end. So the point is that right now we are having once in a lifetime opportunity. When the demography of our country is young and if we do not take advantage of it now, then in the long run we will have to pay the price for it. So that is one big challenge associated with under utilization of demographic dividend that right now India is having once in a

22:48 lifetime window of young demography and we must cash in on this situation. Secondly, if the demography is young and is not utilized properly then that may lead to demographic disaster or demographic bomb. Now the youth are in greater numbers. The youth also have a lot of energy. If you do not engage him properly and do not put him to work, then he will commit social crimes. Like he will take drugs, commit petty violence, pickpocketing, he will do all this. So that will lead to demographic disaster. Due to all these reasons, we are not able to fully utilize the demographic dividend. This is the reason why our country has a poor ranking in the Human Development Index. Poverty is high. Gender based inequality is high. Because women are

23:33 not being given that many opportunities. That is overall leading to wastage of demography as well as gender based inequality is also increasing. Lack of inclusive growth. Right now, some growth is taking place within the country. But there is no inclusiveness in that growth. Young rich people are getting richer but larger population of younger people because they are not being able to absorb in the economy for economic opportunities. Because of this, growth is happening but rich people are getting richer but the poor are not able to extract opportunities. That is leading to lack of inclusive growth which we also call jobless growth or poverty paradox that on one hand we are the fifth largest economy in the world. It is the world's fastest growing economy. But on the other hand, our HDI ranking etc. is all bad. So if we look at the broader issue, it is

24:20 young demography. But just having demography is not enough. It has to be utilized. Only then will the demographic dividend come. If not utilized, then instead of demographic dividend, we may see demographic disaster or demographic bomb. And plus when the opportunity ends, we will only suffer losses in the future. Right now we have a young demography so we need to engage more and more people and the economy needs to grow as much as possible. So what should be done? Job creation should be done. Skill development of youngsters should be done so that they can get absorbed in the economy. The cultural challenges, patriarchy etc., have to be dealt with so that economic opportunities for women can also be explored. Plus we need to

25:08 motivate the youth to not get caught up in just one type of job. You should also explore entrepreneurship. Rather than becoming a job seeker. You try to become job creator also and prevent child marriages. There are prelims practice questions based on this topic discussion. Please attend this question and submit the answer in the comment section. It may be asked that despite numerous legal and policy interventions, the lack of agency among women remains a significant barrier to gender equality in India. Please pay attention to this word. This can also come in Ess. Lack of agency among women. The term lack of agency

25:53 among women may also appear in pay essays. Rest of the GS Paper One can also come in Indian Society. It can also come in Paper to Governance. It can also come in Indian economy. Lack of agency among women simply means their capacity to make informed choices with respect to their lives. There is a lack of agency within everyone. This means in simple words, they do not have freedom to make choices with respect to their lives. And here freedom is not in any physical sense. There is freedom here but it is absent in the intellectual sense. You neither have the knowledge nor the skills. It is then said that you lack the agency to make choices regarding your own life. So women lack agency in general in our country because of many factors, patriarchal

26:38 factors, economic dependence and all. Here in conclusion you can also mention India's poor performance in the gender gap report. Next topic is about revival of bamboo economy in assam. Important From Our Syllabus GS Paper Five Assam Issues Point of View What is the News So a new bio refinery is coming in Newmel of Assam. Most probably it will begin its operation by the end of this month of July. This Newgar Refinery is one of its own kind. This will become India 's first bio refinery with second generation ethanol technology. What does second generation ethanol bio refinery mean ? See, ethanol is produced

27:24 from any material which is having cellulose and starch. Ethanol can be made from there. Different things contain cellulose and starch. Like food items, cereals, starch, sugar, oil crops. Apart from that, industrial waste, grass, forest residue like bamboo etc. are also found in algae. Apart from that, ethanol can also be extracted from genetically modified algae. But using which feed, which input, ethanol is being produced. On that basis the ethanol is named first generation, second generation, third generation or fourth generation. Like remember in hydrogen, I told you that now hydrogen is hydrogen. But based on the process

28:11 used to produce hydrogen, it is named green hydrogen, blue hydrogen, grey hydrogen. Similarly, here ethanol is ethanol. Whatever you feed, the product will be ethanol. C2H5OH right? But what is the feed stock being provided ? On that basis those ethanols have been given different names. First generation ethanol, second generation ethanol, third generation and fourth generation. First generation ethanol is the one in which ethanol is being produced by adding food crops. After pressing them, ethanol is made from there. Their liquid is extracted before that. Then ethanol is produced by fermentation etc. So the point is that the first generation

28:58 ethanol is not considered that good because it is being produced by giving input from edible sources i.e. food items. Of course it will not be considered very good. Especially in a country like ours, where the problem of hunger is also big. Just yesterday we saw how bad India's ranking is in the Global Hunger Index. So first generation ethanol is not considered to be very good. Because the feed stock there are edible sources. There are things to eat and drink. Second generation ethanol production is done. Where the feed stock comes from industrial waste, grass, forest residue. And similar second generation ethanol is coming in Numalikar Refinery which is being called bio refinery. Here, by giving bamboo biomass input which will be the primary feed stock, ethanol will be produced.

29:43 So approximately 5 lakh metric tons of bamboo will be converted every year into 49000 metric tons of ethanol. 5 lakh metric tons of bamboo will be added every year and which will produce 49000 metric tons of ethanol. And the ethanol that will be produced will mainly be used for blending with petrol. So whatever petrol is sold, 80% will be petrol and 20% will be ethanol. This is the policy of the Government of India, called Ethanol Blending Policy, under which E20 petrol is to be sold by 2025, in which ethanol will be 20% and petrol will be 80%, what happens with this is that the overall fuel also becomes a bit clean, due to which greenhouse gas emissions are reduced, air pollution is reduced due to ethanol

30:30 blending, plus the forex reserve of our country will also be saved because we will not have to import a lot of crude oil, so we are managing with 20% ethanol in place of petrol. So what will happen is that the import of crude oil will decrease and our forex reserves will also be saved. So this is the significance of this new bio refinery that is coming in new way. Do they understand that this is a general benefit which will accrue to the entire nation? It will help in reducing crude oil imports. I told you this. And it is also a clean source of energy. But he understands what benefit it will have to Assam's economy. Local jobs will be created. Rural livelihood will be generated because bamboo grows more in rural areas. Mostly the bamboo growing sector, in all the

31:16 areas where bamboo was grown like Nagao etc., a lot of losses were being witnessed because of the closed paper mills in Assam. When the paper mills are being closed in fact because of economic constraints, the bamboo sector was facing huge losses, but now with the coming up of this new bio refinery in new way the bamboo sector will get a boost, it will lead to revival of bamboo economy in Assam plus it will also encourage entrepreneurship in remote areas. This is the Prince practice question on the basis of topic discussion. Please attempt this question and submit the answer in the comment section. The next topic is about cat bonds. CAT Bonds basically stands for Catastrophe Bonds. In short these are called cat bonds. Prelims may be perceptive. He should

32:02 ask you a straightforward question of one or two lines. See. The job of insurance companies is to provide us money in any emergency or catastrophic situation so that we can recover from our damages. But now the insurance companies also have to insure themselves , protect themselves so that if there is massive damage somewhere then the money is not wasted in paying it. So, to avoid this situation, insurance companies come up with this. Sometimes there is talk of introducing Catastrophe Bond in India which is called Cat Bond in short. These are special types of bonds or securities. Both are the same thing; they are bonds or securities

32:50 that protect insurance companies in case of any natural disaster like earthquake, flood or hurricane. So let us see how exactly cat bond works. Suppose there is an insurance company called ABC and it wants to protect itself against disasters like earthquakes. So it created the Catastrophe Bond and gave it to its investors. Sold it. Basically a lot of bonds of ₹10,000 were made and released in the market. Now investors will buy these bonds. Now suppose disaster does not occur, then in that case the insurance company will give the money back to the investors on maturity with some interest but if a disaster occurs like earthquake etc. then in that case the insurance company will keep the money and pay the

33:36 claims. Those who have suffered loss, whoever has suffered loss due to earthquake, if they were insured with this insurance company, then now the insurance company has to pay their claim money, so now the money which was raised against this CAT bond in the form of loan, it will now return the money in the form of claim. So what this means is that the insurance company is saved from economic damage to a great extent in case of catastrophe. But yes, those who invested in this catastrophe bond may lose some money. Investors may lose some money. So it is a simple matter. Look, I have a company called ABC. I took insurance thinking that brother, if an earthquake occurs, he will give you the insurance. I took insurance from company XVZ. Now XV is thinking that if an earthquake occurs then he will have to pay a lot of money.

34:22 What did he do? Catastrophe bonds released. Sold it to many people. Now all those people 1 2 3 4 5 have given money to that company X and Z, the insurance company X and Z. Now, in case disaster does not occur, Company X, Z will give the principal amount along with interest to 1, 2, 3 and 4 people at the time of maturity. But if disaster strikes then the money of 1, 2, 3, 4 will not be refunded. The same money which is X and Z will be given to my company ABC. So in this way, the insurance company in the middle, XVZ, is minimizing its risk a little bit. This is called hazing. The 1, 2, 3, 4 investors have taken a little risk that if there is no natural disaster, we will

35:08 get some interest. So in this way, an attempt is made to balance one's risk. This is basic prince practice question on cat bond. Attempt this question and submit answer in the comment section. The third statement related to the Coss for Disaster Region Infrastructure is wrong because it is available across the country, not just for Asia Pacific Region Again the second statement related to Agriculture Infrastructure Fund is wrong, it is not only for large agro business corporations Here both the statements are correct Related to Optical Clock and Atomic Clock, here the third and fourth statements are wrong Not Karnataka, not Kerala, Karnataka has the most efficient population, that's all from our side for today.