 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Ayes Academy displayed at the list of news articles taken up for today's analysis along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Thiruvananthapuram editions. The handwritten notes in PDF format on the timestamping of all the news articles taken up for today's analysis is available in the description section below and also in the comment section for the benefit of the smartphone users. Let us now start our analysis. First, let us see about the lead editorial which is about draft immigration bill of 2019. The analysis of this editorial will be helpful in your film's preparation under current events of national importance and in your main's preparation in your general studies paper 1 under effects of globalization on Indian society. The authors in this editorial tell that the draft immigration bill of 2019 seems to be dealing more about managing the export of human resources than being a humanitarian framework. Here export of human resources is nothing but the labors or students who migrate to other nations for work or study purposes and this process of migration from India to abroad is called as immigration. The authors tell that since historical times India has seen many incidences of immigration even now many people from India emigrate to other countries for various purposes like work, study, etc. They follow different migration strategies in search of new opportunities like some take the legal route or some take the illegal route. Next, the authors have discussed some benefits of a large immigrant population for India. First, we get a lot of remittances from the immigrants that is the immigrants send their money to their families who reside or stay in India. If you see the international remittances for India touched 80 billion US dollars which is approximately 50,000 crores in Indian currency value. The immigrants also have a positive impact on foreign direct investments, trade and foreign relations. Then the Indian diaspora nothing but the Indian people who live abroad also provide much needed money as donations in the health and education sectors to help India achieve its sustainable development goals. Also the Indian diaspora fund the political parties of their choice during the elections. Though these are some of the positive benefits that India has the authors share the other side that is the negatives or difficulties that the emigrated Indians face. Now there are a lot of information and power asymmetries in the global labour markets which includes exploitation, inhuman or worst living conditions, then violence and also human rights violations with regard to the emigrated Indians. Now to help the emigrated Indians safeguard their rights and welfare the Indian government enacted the immigration act of 1983. The authors tell that this particular act looked like an outdated act when it was enacted in the parliament. They tell that it was an act that was formulated with the mindset of the 19th century and enacted in the 20th century and this act was implemented in the 21st century. If you see in the last 35 years the government has told that the nature, pattern, directions and volume of migration have undergone a paradigm shift. It means that Indians are emigrating in large numbers for different purposes to different countries across the world. So, in an effort to update and upgrade the immigration act of 1983, a draft immigration bill of 2019 was released. Now if you see the immigration act of 1983 is more of a regulation of the emigrant but the draft immigration bill of 2019 will be more of the management of this emigrant population. Now let us see some of the positive provisions of the draft bill which the authors think. First is the inclusion of all students and migrant workers in the draft bill. Next is the abolishment of the two passports regime. Remember that one passport requires emigration clearance which is called as ECR and the other passport does not require emigration clearance which is called as ECNR. Now both these passports were issued based on a person's educational qualifications if you see. The authors tell that abolishing the two passports regime will significantly improve the collection of migration flow data. If you see the current system excludes most migrants living in India. Next let us see some negatives of this particular draft bill which the authors discuss. First they tell that this bill continues the post 1983 ad hoc approach towards emigration. Here ad hoc means emergency. The draft bill still relies on the regulation of recruiting agents or the employers. Also many provisions give more powers to the government of the day so it is completely based on the discretion of the government. Then the bulk of the draft bill focuses on establishing new statutory bodies. The authors tell that the draft bill has given some broad and vaguely defined duties to these statutory bodies. Now some of the statutory bodies that have been mentioned in the draft bill include emigration management authority, Bureau of Emigration Policy and Planning, next Bureau of Emigration Administration etc. The authors tell that the draft emigration bill has excluded many issues that are currently affecting many immigrants in India. First one is the case about the dependent migrants. If you see the family members of those who have already gone to abroad visit them abroad. After some months or years these family members who have gone there end up settling there only and they also work and earn some money to live their life. If you see some studies show that each member of immigrant families often contributes some remittances that are sent back to India. So these set of people are called the dependent migrants. They migrate and they are dependent. Now many of these family migrants often convert their immigration status from visitors to workers. The authors tell that the draft bill has not considered these dependent migrants. Now the problem is that these dependent migrants have increasingly little economic or political freedom in the country they live. The authors have given an example in the editorial. They tell that the US administration had repealed the employment eligibility of spouses of high skilled H1B immigrants. If you see H1B is a type of visa that is issued by USA. And majority of these high skilled immigrants are from India only. So you can call the spouses of the high skilled immigrants as dependent migrants. Also many incidents have been reported regarding Indian spouses being attracted abroad in marriage and then they get stranded or exploited in the abroad to the country wherever they go. The authors have given a small data here where between January 2015 and November 2017 the government has received 3,328 such complaints on standing and exploitation. The next category that is excluded in the draft bill which the authors tell is that the undocumented migrants. The authors tell that the general definition or understanding of the undocumented migrants means those persons who leave India through informal channels nothing but through illegal channels. But if you see most cases of the undocumented migrants include those who have their visas or permits expired. If you see especially in Gulf countries many Indian or many other migrant workers often escape from the exploitation of their employers due to things like overtime working, less pay or doing more harder jobs. Now if they escape even a single police complaint from the employer can make them undocumented for no fault of theirs. The authors tell that the data from the US and Europe reveal a dramatic rise in the number of Indians being caught by the authorities for immigration related crimes. If you see many of these migrants live in poverty abroad and this draft bill has excluded or not included these undocumented migrants which means they have not considered the ground realities before drafting this bill. Next the authors have discussed regarding the regulation of intermediaries. They tell that the draft bill has incorporated many already established unplanned emergency regulations nothing but the ad hoc regulations and obligations for recruiting agents. The draft bill has also included sub agents who are often a relative or friend of the potential immigrant and also student enrollment agencies into its regulatory authority. The authors tell that these intermediaries play an instrumental role in minimizing the information asymmetries and migration costs. Now if you get all the information at one point then you can call it as an information symmetry and the opposite to this is called as the information asymmetry. So the authors suggest that any regulatory framework needs to ensure efficient supply of affordable intermediary services for the prospective workers and students who wish to emigrate abroad. They have suggested this because the present immigration policies in India have actually affected a certain set of population like for example the nurses can be recruited only through government recruitment agencies and so the cost of their immigration obviously increases. So we need some liberal immigration policies. If you see because of a liberal immigration policy emigration from Bangladesh to West Asia that is to the Gulf countries have increased but at the same time emigration from India to the Gulf countries has decreased because of a stricter immigration policy of India. Next the authors tell that different regulations should be present in for different kinds of agencies. For example student enrollment agencies have a different business model and a completely different customer base that is the students who are applying overseas. But the present draft bill has prescribed the same regulations for all calling them as recruitment agents. Next the authors discuss about return migrants. If you see the complete migration cycle of an individual who goes in search of a work abroad or for studies abroad it includes the following like first they have the pre-departure formalities then their journey then their destination country where they work or study and finally they are returned to India. The authors tell that the draft bill addresses only the first three parts of the cycle that is the pre-departure journey and destination but they have completely ignored the return migration. They also share a fact that globally one in four migrants today is a return migrant. If you see the current estimate of return migration in Kerala alone ranges from 1.2 and 1.5 million that is nothing but 12 lakhs to 15 lakhs according to the Kerala Migration Service conducted by the Center for Development Studies since 1998. So from all the negatives or the concern that has been shared by the authors of this editorial the authors can see that the government has a restricted understanding of migration from India. If you see there is no complete database about the number of Indian migrants who are living abroad even enough. Also the authors tell that there is a wrong assumption that Indian migrants in a developed destination country have sufficient protection and welfare. The authors feel that the draft bill shows that the government's primary view of immigration policy is for managing the export of human resources rather than having a humanitarian framework. So this humanitarian framework is to safeguard the welfare and the rights of the Indian migrants who live abroad. Instead it is just like a management of the export of human resources. The authors tell that migration is a complex and a highly dynamic process with constantly evolving profiles of migrants and their destinations like what the author mean to tell that is there are people who emigrate for different purposes and to different nations. So this trend keeps on changing year on year. So that is why they are telling it as constantly evolving profiles of migrants and their destinations. The authors suggest that a rights-based approach for all Indian migrants as we saw during our discussion many classes of migrants like dependent migrants, undocumented migrants, written migrants have not been considered in the draft bill. So the authors suggest that the bill should be inclusive of all the Indian migrants who live abroad and the government must provide them adequate security and welfare. The authors tell that there are a lot of multilateral migration related treaties and conventions which can provide the necessary guidance for India's immigration policy framework. They tell that it should be a visionary and a future proof policy framework. The authors finally tell that without drastic changes to the draft bill's approach India will miss the opportunity to fulfill the shared objectives of the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration. If you see this global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration is called as the global compact for migration in short. Now this global compact was signed in the year 2018 in the month of December and know that this global compact is a non-legally binding one. It is the first intergovernmentally negotiated agreement for migration and this was prepared by the United Nations or under the United Nations. This global compact for migration covers all dimensions of international migration in a very comprehensive manner. So it aims to promote efforts to strengthen the regular migration pathways and to protect the human rights of the migrants because in recent news we have been seeing many people who are taking the illegal migration route. So in order to regularize it this global compact of migration will be of great help. If you see India as an historical reluctance to sign the international laws and treaties that are related to migration but surprisingly India signed this global compact on migration. With this we come to the end of the analysis of this editorial. Now let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about the prevention of a possible terrorist attack in Indian soil by the vigilance of personnel involved in internal security and intelligence. The article will be relevant in your prelim syllabus under current events of national importance and in your main syllabus under your general studies paper 3 in the main heading security management within which it comes under role of external state and non-state actors in creating challenges to internal security. This article states that there were plans allegedly made by some supporters or sympathizers of Islamic state organization. Three suspected persons were arrested recently. They have planned to become suicide bombers in the attack that was planned. The targets were churches, temples and public places in Coimbatore city which is located in the state of Tamil Nadu. This is an example of preventing a possible terrorist attack by the intelligence and internal security officials. Thus they have saved a lot of lives and damages to the property beforehand. You can keep this news as an example of prevention of a terrorist attack recent times. Recently in the month of April if you see there was a coordinated terrorist attack which happened in Sri Lanka on the Easter day. This plan could be similarly planned one but unlike Sri Lanka the Indian officials have successfully prevented it. Now you shall know that the Islamic state and its five other manifestations of variants have been declared as terrorist organizations under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of 1967. In 1960s committee on national integration and regionalism has given a unanimous recommendation to impose reasonable restrictions in the interests of sovereignty and integrity of India. These are reasonable restrictions on the freedom of speech and expression then right to assemble peacefully and without arms and also the right to form associations or unions. Based on this recommendation this Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of 1967 was enacted to make powers in dealing with the activities directed against the integrity and sovereignty of India. One thing to note about this act is that section 15 of this act defines the term terrorist act. Now terrorist act is defined by this legislation in two parts. The first part deals with the intention, the second part deals with the mode of operation and also the damages of the terrorist act. With respect to intention of terrorist act it is any act with intent to threaten or likely to threaten the unity, integrity, security or sovereignty of India. Also any act with an intent to strike terror or likely to strike terror to the people of India or foreign country. So these two constitute the first part. The second part is about the mode of operation and about the actions of the terrorist act. It talks about the use of weapons such as bombs, explosive substances to cause or likely to cause some damages like death or injury to persons, loss or damage to public or private property. Then disrupting essential supplies for life of people of India or any other foreign country. Then attempting to cause death or causing death of a public functionary. So here the public functionary means constitutional authorities and any other functionary notified in the official gazette by the central government as a public functionary. The act also includes detaining, kidnapping and abducting any person and threatening to kill or injure the person. So as to compel the Indian government or a foreign government to do something or to abstain from doing a particular act. Like take an example where a person has been, a person has abducted one individual and is threatening to kill him. So that person's intention is to strike terror and to attack the security of India. He says he will not kill if the government releases a terrorist who has kept an imprisonment in one of the Indian prisons. So here he has committed the terrorist act because by abducting the person and by threatening to kill him is compelling the government to do something or to take some certain action. That is here the releasing of the terrorist. This is how this Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of 1967 defines terrorist act. Now you may use this definition of required and need and relevant be in your main general studies papers in answer writing or in your essay writing. Earlier on May 25, 2019 we have discussed about this Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of 1967 with respect to what is unlawful activity and what is meant by unlawful association and also about the unlawful activities tribunal. Now the link of that article discussion is provided in the description box. Have a look at the practice film's question. Let us move on to the next news article. This article is about an editorial which discusses about the serious concerns of B.T. Brinjal. Now this discussion will be relevant in your film syllabus under current events of national importance, then in general issues on environmental ecology and biodiversity and also under general science. Now this discussion can also be linked to your main syllabus in your general studies paper 3 under science and technology developments and their applications and effects in everyday life. Next in the awareness in the field of biotechnology and also under conservation environmental degradation and environmental impact assessment. In April 2019 it was found that a farmer in Haryana was illegally growing the B.T. Brinjal crop. Now B.T. Brinjal is a vegetable so a farmer can grow the vegetable and you might think what is wrong in it. The issue is actually that the Brinjal which the farmer was growing was a genetically modified Brinjal that is B.T. Brinjal and growing this genetically modified Brinjal has been banned in India. Now to understand what is this B.T. Brinjal is about you can just visit our analysis on which was done on 15 June just before a couple of days back because we had explained in a very detailed manner about the B.T. Brinjal crop. So today in our discussion we will be focusing on the issues and concerns relating to this B.T. Brinjal crop which the author has discussed in this editorial. Now let us understand the background for this ban. Originally the B.T. Brinjal was actually developed by Mahayeko the Maharashtra Hybrid Corporation which is the Indian wing of a multinational company and a global seed chain called as Monsanto. Now Mahayeko developed this in association with Tamil Nadu Agricultural University which is located in Coimbatore in the state of Tamil Nadu and also with the University of Agricultural Sciences which is located in Dharwad in the state of Karnataka. For introducing a genetically modified crop in India the crop has to undergo scrutiny by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee which is now changed as Genetic Engineering Appraisals Committee. Here note that appraisal means evaluation. So in 2006 Mahayeko submitted biosafety data to this GEAC for seeking its permission to conduct trials in large scale. So for the critical examination of the GM crop the GEAC set up an expert committee. Now this expert committee submitted its report in the year 2007 so this committee has approved large scale trials and it has also recommended that seven more studies on biosafety shall be repeated. These studies are for reconformation of the data which has been generated by Mahayeko during its confined multi-location trials. So based on GEAC direction the Indian Institute of Vegetable Research in short called as IIVR took up the responsibility of large scale trials of Mahayeko's BT Brinchot. Now it did trials at 10 research stations across the country in 2007 and across 11 research institutions there 2008. Now know that this IIVR is situated at Varanasi. It is a field unit of ICAR nothing but the Indian Council of Agricultural Research under the ages of the protection of the Department of Agricultural Research and Education and this department comes under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. Then this GEAC set up a second expert committee to address the biosafety concerns. So this was called as expert committee 2 and the biosafety concerns which were recommended by the committee 1 will be addressed by this expert committee 2 and this expert committee 2 will also address the concerns raised by all the stakeholders. Now this committee submitted its report in the year 2009 and the report notes that the benefits of BT Brinchot far outweigh the perceived and projected risks which means benefits are more than the risks of BT Brinchot. So based on the committee's report GEAC approved the environmental release of BT Brinchot but there were widespread protests all over the country because of this approval. So the then environment minister announced an indefinite moratorium on introducing BT Brinchot. Now know that moratorium means temporary prohibition of an activity but minister announced an indefinite moratorium which means how long the prohibition would continue was not mentioned. Now let us come back to this editorial discussion. The BT Brinchot which was illegally cultivated in Haryana a month ago was found to be a different BT Brinchot from the one which was developed by this Mahiko. Even though there is a government ban on cultivation of GM crop, some farmer groups have demanded the release of Mahiko's BT Brinchot and other GM crops. They wanted to be released under regulations of the government so that illegal marketing and cultivations of the GM crop can be curbed across the country. So in this editorial the author discusses about why the moratorium was imposed by the environmental minister. The moratorium was imposed after the minister conducted public consultations in seven cities of India. The public consultation was to discuss the environmental impacts and implications of BT Brinchot for the consumers and also for the farmers. The meeting was attended by approximately 8000 people which includes farmers, scientists, activists and many of them out of these opposed the introduction of BT Brinchot into India. Now let us see the issues and concerns pointed out by the experts. Firstly there is no evidence that BT Brinchot will benefit the farmers. Even after continuous demands from activists and social scientists the Ministry of Agriculture has not offered any evidence that BT Brinchot will benefit the farmers. But on the contrary the national institute of agricultural economics and policy research has anticipated one thing in its report. It is that if the BT Brinchot actually performs as the company proposes then Brinchot output will increase. So the report says when the output increases then the retail prices will fall so that the crop loss are also reduced. Hence it will benefit both the farmers and also the consumers. But the author contradicts this and says that it will benefit the consumers far more than the farmers because this report actually ignores the scenario that companies might charge premium prices for the BT Brinchot seats. If the companies charge premium prices for seats then the farmers would have to pay the premium price to acquire the seats. So even though this crop loss will not happen the farmer may need more money to acquire the GM seats so in this case the farmers might not benefit at all. Next the author talks about the biosafety issues in BT Brinchot. The author says that the scientific opinion on the biosafety of BT Brinchot is divided. Some scientists from Delhi University were in favor of releasing BT Brinchot while some other scientists were opposed to the introduction of BT Brinchot. The scientists who actually opposed BT Brinchot were from India, USA and also the vice chancellors of Acharya N. Jiranga Agricultural University and the vice chancellor of Dr. Weiser Horticultural University. Now all these people have highlighted crucial deficiencies in the characterization or the distinctive nature of this BT Brinchot and they have also highlighted some crucial deficiencies in the environmental impact assessment. Know that environmental impact assessment is a process of evaluating the likely environmental impacts of a proposed project or development. So this assessment actually takes into account both the beneficial and the adverse impacts and the interrelated socio-economic, cultural and human health impacts. The Indian scientist Dr. P. M. Bhargava was the Supreme Court nominee on GEAC. Actually opposed this GEAC recommendation on the ground that all necessary tests had not been carried out before coming to this decision of introducing the BT Brinchot into India. Then the ecologist Mr. Mahathap Ghatgill also warned about the contamination of India's diverse Brinchot varieties because if one variety of Brinchot has been modified as GM crop then the farmers will keep on using that variety to yield more benefits and to also to reduce the crop losses. So on a long run if you see there will not be any other variety which is available in India other than this BT Brinchot. So the biodiversity is very much critical for nutrition and sustainability and biodiversity is the variety of plant in the world or in a particular habitat. So we have many kinds of Brinchots that is actually in Indian market now but once this BT Brinchot comes then we might have only this variety in the future. Now even the government's own task force and biotechnology in the year 2004 had recommended that no GM crop be allowed in this biodiversity rich areas of India. Further majority of the technical expert committee appointed by the Supreme Court had recommended a ban on genetically modifying those crops for which India is a center of origin or diversity and India is a center of origin for majority of varieties of Brinchot and the origin of the crop plants is very important so as to avoid the genetic erosion then the loss of germ plasm and also the loss of habitat. Next the author lists the nutrition issues the author says in terms of nutrition there seem to be some significant differences between BT Brinchot and an ordinary Brinchot. Many health researchers and professionals and also scientists such as immunologists have argued that BT Brinchot poses risks to human health even MS Swaminathan who is known for his leading role in India's green devolution and the then director general of the Indian Council of Medical Research have asked for long-term toxicity studies and these to be conducted independently without relying on mahaiko for data. So this should be done before taking any decision of BT Brinchot. Here know that toxicity is the quality or degree of being toxic or poisonous. Toxicological aspects are the most important part in the assessment of potential health risks of food derived from genetically modified organisms because proteins introduced by a gene transfer might themselves have toxic or anti-nutritive properties if you see or the modified plant itself could exhibit toxic properties so it will be dangerous to human health at the end. Now let us see the political issues that have been discussed in this editorial. If you see the BT Brinchot did not find any support from the state governments the states of Kerala and Uttarakhand asked for a ban on GM crops. Also the states with substantial Brinchot cultivation like the states of West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar also opposed the release of GM crop as the rigorous extensive testing of crop is still pending and the same concern was also expressed by the states such as Chattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and also the undivided Andhra Pradesh. Also two committees of government assess the GM controversy in the year 2012. One is the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture assess the matter and in 2017 the Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forest assess the matter. As a result both of these committees expressed grave concerns about lapses or failure in the regulatory system. The author says the committee on agriculture was alarmed by the regularities in the assessment of BT Brinchot. So it recommended a thorough probe by a team of eminent independent scientists and environmentalists but this thorough probe never happened. Additionally both these committees recommended the labelling of genetically modified foods. This was proposed to protect the consumers right to know whether that food which they are consuming is genetically modified or not. The author justifies the moratorium on BT Brinchot by saying that one there is no scientific consensus on the safety and efficacy or effectiveness of BT Brinchot. Then also because the states and the parliament have extreme doubt and suspicion about the regulatory system. Also in recent years pests have developed resistance to BT cotton. So this is forcing farmers to spray lethal pesticides on the crops and this action has led to over 50 deaths by pesticide poisoning in the Darbar region of Maharashtra in the year 2017. So the author says that a GM based strategy of pest control is unsustainable. The author shows concern over the government's recommendation to plant refuge crops. Here refuge cropping is a practice where farmers grow GM crop. Now they are requested to grow refuge plots adjacent to the GM crop field. The refuge plots are non-transgenic plants. This strategy of growing refuge plants between or around the GM plants is to prevent or delay the development of BT resistant insects. The author says that farmers do not and cannot assess long-term impacts on ecology and health and even after nine years of this moratorium there has hardly been any progress in addressing the above mentioned issues. So the author concludes by saying that the government must detail the steps it has taken since 2010 to address the scientific gap and the government should precisely clarify how BT brinjal will benefit the farmers. Then the government should also demonstrate how BT brinjal helps in sustainable farming and biodiversity conservation. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. Next let us see about the data point which discusses few statistics regarding Mandrega payments. You can use the statistics in any of the main answer related to Mandrega scheme or for answers related to the delay in the payments made by the government and also for answers that are concerned with employment. So the analysis of this data point will be helpful in your mains preparation especially in your general studies paper 2 under government policies and interventions and next under important issues related to governance. It will also be relevant in your general studies paper 3 under Indian economy especially under issues related to employment. Now let us see about Mandrega scheme before moving on to see about the data point. Mandrega is nothing but Mahatma Gandhi national rural employment guarantee scheme. Now the mandate of this Mandrega scheme is to provide at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. If you see Mandrega is a bottom up people-centered demand-driven self-selecting and rights-based program. So bottom up means the demand for the jobs comes from the people and so it is a people-centered program and as we already told it is a demand driven program. Now this program provides a legal guarantee for wage employment by providing allowances and compensation both in cases of failure to provide work on demand and also delays in the payment of wages for the work undertaken by the Mandrega workers. So if the Mandrega workers demand for job and if their payments are delayed once their job is over then they can demand for the allowances and the compensation and now they have or the government has a legal requirement to provide the allowances and compensation in case of failure of these both. So we can tell that Mandrega is a demand-driven wage employment program and here if you see the resource or the money transfer which is happening from the center to the states is based on the demand for employment in the each state. Now let us see the data point there are three pictorial representations in the newspaper the first graph is regarding the employment provided under Mandrega scheme. This graph has analyzed the demand supply gap here the demand means the employment demanded by the households and supply means the employment or the jobs provided by the government under this scheme. If you see this graph there has been a 5.2 crore demand of jobs by the households under this Mandrega scheme. This number is for the financial year 2018-19 and only data till January 17th 2019 is available but out of these 5.2 crore demand only 4.5 crore jobs were provided by the respective state governments. Now if you see this graph the employment under Mandrega is supposed to increase year on year but we can see that the graph is same for the financial year 2016-17 and also for the financial year 2017-18 also only two months data is not available for the next financial year that is the financial year 2018-19. So we can presume that the one year value of this financial year 2018-19 will be close to or below these two values only. Now it is noted in the paper that this demand supply gap has widened marginally which means it has increased slightly so there is a huge demand but this supply is not met by the government which means the government is not providing enough jobs. Now let us see the second graph this second graph discusses about the average wages that have to be paid to the Mandrega workers per day in the financial year 2017-18. If you see the minimum wage amount fixed by the central government is 242 rupees for this particular financial year. From this graph we can see that only Haryana and Kerala has fixed their minimum wages above the national wages that has been fixed by the central government. If you see Haryana has fixed 277 rupees and Kerala has fixed 258 rupees and both these states have also paid wages which is above the wages fixed by them. If you see the average wage is 1 rupee extra in case of Haryana and 3 rupees extra in the case of Kerala but most of the states especially in 8 major states which you can see here the wage payments have been less than what the states have promised. The states which have fixed the lowest wages from this graph are the states of Bihar and Jharkhand at 168 rupees. If you see Bihar has paid an average 9 rupees extra amount that is 177 rupees then the promised 168 rupees and Jharkhand has paid the amount what it has promised nothing but the 168 rupees. Now know that this is the average wage amount that has been taken for calculation. If you see within states at intra-district level the amounts can vary so the average wage rates have been taken for the consideration. Now let us see the third graph this third graph speaks about the delayed paychecks. Now we saw that as per Mandrega scheme the workers are provided with a legal guarantee for wage employment compensation in case of delays in the payment of wages for the work already undertaken. Know that this compensation is based on the duration of the delay. Now this graph tells that there is a delay also in the compensation to be paid to the workers. If you see the graph in the financial year 2018-19 only 54 percentage of the total amount has been approved as compensation that has been given to the workers and this is not for the complete financial year if you see this graph. So from this graph you can tell that the overall the proportion of delay compensation that is paid to the workers has been decreasing in the last 5 years from 93 to 91 to 85 to 77 finally to 54. We can tell from this that the government is not serious in handing out the compensation amounts. Now as already told you can use any of these statistics in your mains answer related to Mandrega scheme or for answers related to delay in the payments made by the government or also for answers concerned with employment. Now let us move on to the next news article. This editorial is about the failure of authorities in Bihar with respect to preventing the deaths of children due to encephalopathy. Now the analysis of this editorial will be relevant in your problems preparation on the current events of national importance and in your mains preparation it will be relevant in your general studies paper too under functioning of the executive and also in issues relating to health. Now there are 38 districts in the state of Bihar. One of the district is the Muzafu district which is located in the northern part of Bihar and know that the state of Bihar shares border with three Indian states and one neighboring country that is Nepal. The three Indian states are West Bengal, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh and the capital of Bihar is Patna and Bihar has a population of around 10.3 crores according to the 2011 census. Now in Muzafu district in Bihar recently in one month almost more than 90 children have died due to low blood sugar level which the author says. It is stated that the children showed symptoms of acute encephalitis syndrome. This syndrome is a set of clinically similar neurological manifestation which is caused by several different viruses, bacteria, fungus, parasites, pyrokeets, chemicals or toxins. Now the symptoms include an acute onset of fever and clinical neurological manifestation and neurological manifestations include mental confusion, disorientation, delirium or coma. Here a delirium means there is some serious disturbance in the mental abilities which results in confused thinking and reduced awareness of the environment and acute encephalitis syndrome also includes your Japanese encephalitis. This acute encephalitis syndrome predominantly affects the population aged below 15 years. The outbreaks of acute encephalitis syndrome particularly in the north and east in India have been linked to children who are eating unripe leachy fruit on empty stomachs. This is because unripe leachy fruit contain two toxins one is hypoglycin A and the other is methylene cyclopropyl glycin shortly called as MCPG. This fruit if taken in large quantities cause vomiting. These two toxins perform two different trolls in the body of children if you see. The hypoglycin A is a naturally occurring amino acid which is found in the unripe and leachy. This hypoglycin A causes severe vomiting and this vomiting is also called as Jamaican vomiting sickness. Next let us see the toxin methylene cyclopropyl glycin. This is a poisonous compound which is found in the seeds of the leachy fruit. This toxin causes a sudden drop in blood sugar, then vomiting, then altered mental states which leads to lethargy unconsciousness, coma and even death. Now these toxins cause sudden high fever and seizures of much serious nature and it requires hospitalization on young and severely malnourished children. A seizure is a sudden surge of electrical activity in the brain sometime it is also called as FITS. The sudden drop in blood sugar causes severe brain malfunction which is also called as encephalopathy. Encephalopathy means disease in the brain. Now the root word encephalo means brain so whenever you see some words with encephalo it has to do something with the brain. The author states that the toxins in the leachy fruit causes serious problems overnight or within a night. It is found that the well nourished children who eat the fruit are not affected even if they go to bed on an empty stomach but the under nourished children are at grave risk. This is because the under nourished children lack sufficient glucose reserve in the form of glycogen and also the production of glucose from non-carbohydrate sources blocked as a result of the intake of this particular leachy fruit. So this leads to low blood sugar level then ultimately this could also lead to death just within one night. The author says there is an established method of prevention of these deaths of children but the authorities in various levels of Bihar government have failed to act. The author says that the reason that these toxins are behind the deaths of children was confirmed in the year 2017. It was found that the under nourished children who ate the fruit during the day and went to bed on an empty stomach had serious illness in the next morning. Way back in the year 2014 if you see an Indo US medical team has saved around 74 percentage of 6 children through a simple intervention. Now this simple intervention is infusing 10% dextrose within 4 hours of the onset of illness. So a 5% dextrose infusion is helpful in cases of general low blood sugar. Just know that this dextrose is nothing but a sugar. The children suffering from acute encephalopathy can be saved only by infusing 10% dextrose within 4 hours of onset of illness. Recovery is quick and complete if 10% dextrose is infused within the golden hours of these 4 hours time frame. So this dextrose infusion is a treatment method. In 2015 in addition to the simple intervention another prevention strategy was used if you see that is to ensure that no child goes to bed without eating a meal in the evening or by late evening. So this prevents the children from being affected by this illness. The author states that it is appalling that this year the government has failed to raise awareness on these prevention and treatment strategies. Here appalling means shocking or horrifying. Also adding insult to injury some doctors even provided wrong explanation for the syndrome like some of them said it is caused by heat wave which is wrong says the author. The author says that if encephalopathy was the cause of death of these children these simple medical interventions could have saved many lives. One intervention we saw with respect to prevention and the other intervention was what we saw with respect to treatment. The author finally concludes saying that the Bihar government has failed in both these steps. Now we will see few information with respect to the leachy fruit. The National Horticulture Board under the Ministry of Agriculture says that it is a delicious juicy fruit of excellent quality. The origin of leachy fruit is from southern part of China. Leachy reached India through Myanmar and northeast region during the 18th century and India's second largest producer of leachy in the world after China. In India Bihar stands first in the production of leachy fruit. Now have a look at the practice problems question. Let us move on to the practice question discussion session. The first question is about the unlawful activities prevention act of 1967. They have given two statements and have asked you to choose the correct statements. Here the first statement which has been stated or given year is correct and it is a part of statement of object and reasons of bringing this act based on the recommendations of committee of national integration and regionalism. Therefore the statement is correct. Now come to the second statement. It actually tells that the act defines unlawful activity and unlawful association but does not define terrorist act. Today in our news article analysis we saw that the act also defines terrorist act in section 15 of the act. The term unlawful activity and unlawful association are explained in section 2o and 2p of the act. Therefore though the statement is partly correct it becomes an incorrect statement because the terrorist act is also defined under this act. So the question is asked for the correct statements. Here statement 2 is wrong so the correct answer is option A1 only. Moving on to the next question, consider the following statements. They have given two statements. So here the first statement says that Bihar is the second largest producer of leachy fruit in India. This statement is wrong because Bihar has been the top producer of leachy fruit in our country. The second statement is correct as it is true that the children below 15 years of age are predominantly affected by the intake of leachy fruit in the state of Bihar because of the toxins that are present in this fruit. Now this question is asked for the correct statements. Here only the statement 2 is correct so the answer is option B2 only. Moving on to the next question. The question is the toxins hypoglycine A and methylene cyclopropylglycine of the leachy fruit is associated with which of the following diseases. Here the two toxins are associated with acute encephalitis syndrome. So the first toxin hypoglycine A leads to vomiting and the next toxin methylene cyclopropylglycine causes sudden drop of blood sugar level in children, particularly in undernourished children. Both these lead to serious illness on the next day morning after eating the leachy fruit and it also leads to symptoms of acute encephalitis syndrome which has the potential to cause even death. Now let us see the main question. The question is recent illegal cultivation of BT brinjal as exposed challenges of regulatory systems. Elucidate various benefits and challenges associated with cultivation of BT brinjal. When you look at this question you may concentrate on the line which is given in quotations but keep in mind that normally these type of questions are given only to distract you from the real question. Here you have to concentrate on the second statement which asks you to elucidate. You can just mention a line or two about the quoted statement. Do not waste much energy and space on that quoted statement. Now for answering the actual question about the benefits and challenges of BT brinjal for the benefits you can mention about how it will control the pest attacks and how it will reduce the crop loss and then you can also quote the report by the National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research which said that if the BT brinjal actually performs as the company proposes then the brinjal output will increase. So when output increases the retail prices will fall and the crop loss are also reduced. Hence it will benefit both the farmers and the consumers. Then for the challenges you shall refer to our today's analysis of the editorial which talks about the issues related to the non-beneficial activities of this GM brinjal crop, then the nutritional and health issues, then the political challenges and concerns that have been told by the experts and scientists such as we saw that today MS Swaminathan has asked to conduct a toxicity test of the crop before it is released. So wherever such expert opinions or expert quotes are available in any of the editorials as and when you see you can mention in the main answers. With this we come to the end of the analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the practice question analysis session. Do like, comment and share the video and do subscribe to Shankar Ayes Academy YouTube channel for latest videos and updates. Stay focused and motivated friends. Thank you.