“Affirmative action (also sometimes called reservations, alternative access, positive discrimination or positive action in various countries' laws and policies)…”
No. Positive discrimination is a form of affirmative action in various countries' laws and policies. Positive action is another. Positive action is not positive discrimination. Paragraph 2 mentioned merely targeting encouragement for increased participation even if you did not know what positive action meant.
1) By saying x is sometimes called y under some circumstances, the text implies x (Affirmative action) is equal to or a subset of y (Positive discrimination)
2) The second paragraph also suggests examples of affirmative action that wouldn’t constitute positive discrimination
It calls them the same thing