 Hello friends, welcome to civil speedia. In today's video, we will be handling about three topics with respect to problems. We will be handling about the important scientific achievements made in the year 2018. And with respect to mains will be handling about the Assam Accord and some steps suggested for sustained high growth of the nation. Coming to our first topic important scientific achievements in the year 2018. Please note under this you'll have five sub topics. So it is a set of important discoveries and inventions made by the Indian researchers and scientists. Now our first topic is polyoxane. What is polyoxane? Basically it is a protective gel developed to reduce the exposure and toxicity of the pesticide to the farmers. It is developed by the Institute of Institute for stem cell biology and regenerative medicines located in Bangalore. So why there is a necessity for such a gel? Please understand most of the farmers especially the small farmers in the nation they handle pesticides without any protective gears such as gloves or masks. So what happens is most of the fertilizers used in India they are organopospate based fertilizers. So these fertilizers when they enter the human body they could cause you cognitive disabilities. They could affect the functioning of heart liver and other internal organs. So this is the problem. How it happens because these organopospate fertilizers they have esters. These esters they inhibit they attach they get attached to the body and they inhibit a hormone that is called as acetylchlorine esterase popularly called as ACE. Now how is this gel going to address this problem? Friends understand these esters in presence of a catalyst they can be converted into acids. So this gel it is going to act as the catalyst. So when a layer of gel is applied on the farmer's skin most of the organopospate fertilizers that falls on their skin it won't be absorbed by the body because the layer of gel on their body it will convert the ester into acids which are not harmful to them. Friends understand one more important thing is the penetration of organopospate fertilizers the penetration of esters inside the human body it's not mainly through ingestion it is actually through the layer of the skin. So that's why we need such a protective gel. Please understand one more thing the active ingredient of this oxy polyoxym is chitosan it is an ingredient which is found in the shells of crustaceans like crabs and shrimps. So that is used for developing the polyoxym gel. Now our second subtopic it is about the microcephaly. Basically the Indian researchers they have discovered how the Zika virus causes microcephaly. So the scientists were aware that microcephaly is caused by Zika virus but the mechanism was so far unknown. The Indian scientists from the National Brain Research Center they have discovered how microcephaly is caused by the Zika virus. Basically the problem is the envelope protein present in Zika virus unlike other flaviviruses they are mutated. Mutated in since their function is totally different their structure is also totally different. So how is it going to affect these envelope proteins of Zika virus they enter the brain stem cell of fetus. So what happens is let's say this is a brain stem cell. So the brain stem cell it undergoes division. The cell division happens in two way. First thing it is for auto-reneval that is one stem cell is divided into stem cell and the other one it becomes some other cells. This is a simplified mechanism I am telling you. So what happens is this envelope protein it cannot affect the stem cell. The stem cells are resilient to the envelope protein in Zika virus but these envelope protein it affects the other cells that is developed from the stem cells especially the neurons. So the envelope proteins in Zika virus it affects the neurons. What happens is it leads to premature neurons because of this the number of neuron cells in the brains is reduced so that the number of the size of the brain is also reduced that's why the size of head of the child born with microcephaly it is smaller. So this is the mechanism which the Indian scientists have discovered. Now the next thing is about the Alzheimer's detection. So earlier scientists are aware. So this is the structure of a neuron I've given you. So neuron has axon tendon and then dentrite which are branched patterns. So what the scientists were aware earlier is this dentrites they disappear. These dentritic spines they call it. There are small protrusions called as dentritic spines. These spines disappear. So that is the reason main reason for Alzheimer's disease this is earlier known but how this disappears what is the reason for such thing to happen that was unknown. It has been discovered by the Indian Institute of Scientists. What they have discovered is filamentous actin also called as fibrin. This protein it is broken down earlier in the brain that is a premature breakdown of filamentous actin in the brain is causing the dentritic spines to disappear. This is the reason for development of Alzheimer's disease. So what we can do now is what the scientists are saying is if the amount of filamentous actin present in the brain could be detected through various tests we can detect Alzheimer's disease in its earlier stage and because of this the condition could be reversed. This is one more important invention or discovered they have made in recent times. Now coming to the Huntington disease so what is Huntington disease basically when a person is affected by Huntington disease they lose their ability to talk they lose their ability to walk and also the cognitive abilities it is reduced. This is one of the rarest disease but in recent times the scientists have discovered how it could be restricted. See this is a autosomal dominant genetic disorder which means if one of the parent is carrying a Huntington this is affected gene there is a possibility that their child will have 50-50% possibility of getting Huntington disease. Now how they are going to restrict the Huntington disease what they have discovered is if you could increase the insulin level in the body the the brain neurons neuron cells it will activate the cell transcription machinery which gets deactivated when Huntington disease starts. So because of increased insulin levels the cell transcription machinery it will be renovated or you can say it is restored because of this the progress of Huntington disease could be restricted. So what is the implication of this this means the diabetic drugs it could be used as a therapy for Huntington disease. This is one more important discovery made by the Indian scientist right one more thing is about the tuberculosis friends the translational health sciences and technology institute they have discovered a new method for detecting tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is caused by bacterium that is called as mycobacterium tuberculosis. So what is the present test is a patient who is suspected to have tuberculosis they have to give their sputum. The sputum will be introduced with the antibodies and it will be kept in the bacterial culture for at least one day based on the protein that is developed in the tissue culture they will confirm the presence of mycobacterium tuberculosis. This is the present procedure and it takes a longer time. What they have discovered recently is they have discovered a mechanism called as Alisa which means optimal linked immobilized sorbent acid. This method could give you results in 3 hours. Also they have developed the electrochemical sensor that could detect the presence of mycobacterium tuberculosis in under 30 minutes. So these are the two important discoveries made with respect to tuberculosis. Please understand Alisa that is the optimal linked immobilized sorbent assays totally different from Alisa which is enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. This is a test used to determine the presence of proteins and some other lipids especially this test is used for HIV detection understood. Now coming to a main topic it is about the Assam Accord. So what is the news that is coming in recently? The center it has approved a high-level committee to look into the provisions for implementation of class 6 of the Assam Accord. The committee will be headed by the former civil servant MP Besbaruha. Now let us understand what is Assam Accord and what is the need for such an accord. The Assam is facing the problem of immigration. Illegal immigration is one of the biggest problem of Assam. So where it all started? It was in the year 1947 when India gained independence a district Sillat. There was a problem in deciding whether the Sillat district should be acceded to India or it should be given to East Pakistan that is the present day Bangladesh. What happened is they held a referendum and it was in favor of Pakistan. So the Sillat district it was given to the then East Pakistan. So because of this there was a large scale migration of the minorities other minorities other than Muslims such as Hindus, Parsis, Christians or other minorities they migrated to Assam from 1947. So when this issue stabilized the Bangladesh liberation were happened and in 1971 the Bangladesh became an independent nation. So what happened is since Bangladesh was said to become a Muslim dominant nation many minorities they started migrating to Assam again. So following this the all Assam student union they started a movement called Assam movement in 1979. So the purpose of Assam movement is they plan to detect they plan to determine the illegal immigrants and they wanted them to be deported back to Bangladesh or some other countries. This was the purpose of Assam movement. So following this there were few violations and violence. So what happened is the government of India it signed an accord with the leaders of Assam movement in the year 1985 in presence of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi that is called as Assam Accord. Under Assam Accord it promised many privileges to the indigenous people of Assam. So this is the problem. Now why are we talking about class 6 of Assam Accord? So this is the class 6 of Assam Accord which promises to give constitutional legislative and administrative safeguards to indigenous Assamese people. Don't take the entire clause into account. Please note the last two words. It says Assamese people. Now the problem is how we are going to determine who are the Assamese people or who are the indigenous Assamese people. This was the problem. So most of the people the Assamese people they said the cut off for determining Assamese people should be the year 1951. So anyone who has migrated to Assam before 1951 only they should be considered as indigenous Assamese people and the safeguards given under class 6 of Assam Accord should be given only to these people. Also they said citizenship could be granted to other immigrants but they should be they should have migrated before 1971 that is they should have migrated before liberation of Bangladesh. So these people they will give get citizenship rights but they won't get the rights guaranteed under class 6 of Assam Accord. So what are the type of safeguards they are expecting? One thing is they want right over natural resources. They want right over the land for the purchase of land for the cessation of properties. So they need special rights to Assamese people only. Also they want protection of culture by establishing cultural centers and other measures from the government and the most important thing is they want political rights. They want reservation in state legislature. They want reservation in local bodies and also they want reservation in employment education institutions and various other aspects. So these were some of the safeguards which is being demanded by the indigenous Assam people. So this committee it will take account it will take into account the opinions from different stakeholders and then it will determine what are the safeguards that will be given under class 6. So now the controversy is why is class 6 taken into account right now? Because it is not in letter and spirit it was only in the on the note. Now why is the government taking steps to implement class 6? Because there is a widespread controversy that the plan is to introduce the citizenship amendment bill of 2016. Because the government it is planning to table the citizenship amendment bill of 2016 this bill it is said to amend the citizenship act of 1955. So what is this bill saying? There are two important provisions please understand. If this bill is passed the illegal immigrants from minority communities from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Whoever migrated between nine before 1971 they will be eligible for citizenship. By the term minority communities please understand this will include the people from religions such as Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Christians and please note this includes Hindus also. Why it includes Hindus? Because Hindus may be majority in India but they are minorities in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. So these people they will get citizenship rights also if this bill is passed the citizenship by naturalization at present these immigrants they have to reside in India for 11 years this will be reduced to six years. So these are some important provisions of the citizenship amendment bill of 2016. So this is an ongoing problem we have to wait and see how the government is going to strike a balance between the problem of immigrants as well as the problem of Assam Accord. Now our last topic is related to sustained high growth. So friends there was an article written by Mr. C. Rangrajan who was a former RBI governor. So he has given few suggestions for sustained high growth of the nation. So I will be giving you some points from that article. So before that let us understand some of the crucial issues in the year 2018. First thing is the trade war because the growth rate of developed countries are high but at the same time there is a trade war that is growing especially between developed countries like United States, China and also the European nations such as Britain it is undergoing the process of Brexit. So there is an imminent trade war that is one point. Other thing is the crude oil prices because in middle of the year the crude oil prices went up and then at end of the year it has reduced. So because of this price volatility there was a heavy problem in the economy. Also the agrarian distress we all know that the past year has seen a lot of protests from the farmers following the stress faced by the farmers. So these are some of the issues we have to address. So first thing he talks about the investment ratio. So what he says is any country's growth it depends on two factors. First thing is the investment rate. Second thing is the productivity of the capital basically how the investment is going to perform. So these are the two main factors that will determine growth of the nation. So how can we determine this? It could be determined by using incremental capital output ratio. This is taken into account. So what is incremental capital output ratio in simple terms for a nation we can say annual investment by annual growth in GDP. Basically it determines the efficiency of the economy in simple words. It is the additional capital required to produce more. You can keep it in simple terms. So why is incremental capital output ratio is very much necessary because this mainly depends on quality of the labor. This in term depends on education and skill development. This again in term depends on technology. So there are multiple factors, performance of multiple factors it could be determined using the incremental capital output ratio. For good economic growth the incremental capital output ratio it should be kept low. Higher incremental capital output ratio is not good for the economy. So Mr. Sri Rangrajant says the incremental capital output ratio should be maintained less than four. Now the second problem he says is about the banking system. Because you know the banking system it is under heavy non-performing asset problem. So also about 11 public sector banks they are under the prompt corrective action. So what happens when there is a prompt corrective action? The lending capability of the bank is reduced. When a bank comes under prompt corrective action the lending capability is reduced. Their financial transactions will be reduced. For example they cannot start new branches and there will be more restrictions put by RBA. So there is a bigger problem of non-performing assets because of this capital expenditure it is getting low in the nation. So this is the problem. Also even in the non-banking financial companies there is a problem. What happens is most of the NBFCs they borrow from banks. So when NBFC collapses or when NBFC is stressed again the banks are stressed and written. So what is the suggestion given is we need more capital to be pumped into the banking system. We need recapitalization of banks. This is one suggestion given by him. Now coming to the employment generation. Let us understand even our economic service says a majority of economic growth or economic development happens in informal sector and not in organized sector. So we need to generate more employment at the same time. We have to bring these employment under formal sector. There are two ways suggested for growth of employment. First is employment generation. That is we are going to generate more employment. The second way is effective utilization. Basically we can generate employment or we can improve the employment in two ways. First thing is we can utilize the existing employment in an effective way. Second thing is we could generate employment. These are the two common things we could do but if you are going to do skill development or if you are going to improve the utilization of the existing labor the economic growth cannot go up after a particular level. So we need to generate more employment. So he has given one good example. In 2004 and 5 and 2009 and 10 there was a greater increase in the employment generation that is because of two things. One is the IT sector. Other thing is the growth in finance sector. But if you see at present both of these sectors are heavily stressed because IT is undergoing heavy dynamic changes such as automation and other problems and financial sector it is heavily stressed. So these are the two problems he outlines. So the government need to fix these problems and we need more employment generation. Now coming to the current account deficit. Once if you see the trade in goods and services to GDP in India is around 42 percent which means when external trade is affected or when other countries are affected it has direct implication on India also. So we have to take two things into account the export and import. How about the import? If you see we have to reduce our imports. Also we have to increase our export. If you see developed countries like America and China they are pushing more exports and because of this what will happen is our forex reserve it will go down. One good example is when oil prices went up what happened is the value of rupee dropped and also the capitals there was a heavy outflow of the capital from the nation. So what we have to do is we have to increase the export we have to decrease the import. We need a decent amount of current account deficit. We need a manageable amount of current account deficits. So coming to the last one it is about the agrarian distress. What is the present agrarian distress especially in the last year? First thing is price volatility because the prices are fluctuating randomly one couldn't determine the price properly. For example you people would have bought tomatoes for more than 50 rupee and at the same time later in the year you would have bought it for just 2 or 3 rupee. So there was a higher price volatility and next thing is there should be government intervention where when there is surplus when there is surplus production these surplus should be absorbed by the government. So what will government do after absorbing the surplus? They need to have cold storage facilities. They need good storage facilities so that when economy drops or when production drops they could use this surplus they could pump in the surplus into the economy this is one problem. Second thing is talking about the loan waiver this is only a short term. This is only a short term solution but the problem lies in a different place. Where is it? It is in the land holding because after the abolishment of zamindar system and everything the land holdings it has started to segregate now we have smaller land holdings because of this the profit is considerably low. So what the government should do is what is the suggestion given by him is we should go for collective farming. So we should try to consolidate the land resources. We should educate the farmers on the importance of consolidated lands so that there could be mass cultivation. So these are some of the suggestions given by Mr. Sri Rangrajan friends the views expressed are personal but you can use this for your answer writing it could enhance your answer writing right. So that is all for today's video. Like share and subscribe for more current affairs videos. Goodbye till I see you in the next video. Thank you.