 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar IA's Academy for the day 28th of August 2019. Displayed at the list of news articles taken up for today's analysis, along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Trivandrum editions, the handwritten notes in PDF format and the time stamping of all the news articles taken up for today's analysis will be available in the description section and also in the comment section for the benefit of the smartphone users. Let us now start our analysis. This news article is about India's child well-being report. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Let us now see the news article. This report has been jointly released by World Vision India and IFMR LEAD. Know that World Vision India is a non-governmental organization and IFMR LEAD is a non-profit research organization. This report is an attempt to look at how India fares or how India presents on child well-being. This was given by using a composite child well-being index. This child well-being index is a tool that is designed to comprehensively measure and track children's well-being. When we say comprehensively, we mean by including all the aspects relating to children. One of the primary objectives of this index is to gather attention to the under-research theme of child well-being in India. So the child well-being is an under-research theme. Another objective is to inspire further academic and policy conversations on the related issues. So this report provides insights on health, nutrition, education, sanitation and child protection which is all concerned with the well-being of a child. This report is important even though it is not released by a government organization. Even the CEO of Neethi Ayog has noted this point while speaking on this report. He has said that India child well-being index is a crucial report that can be analyzed by the government as well as civil organization in order to achieve the goal of child well-being. This index focuses on three key dimensions. The dimensions are healthy individual development, positive relationships and protective contexts. And these three key dimensions consist of 24 indicators. These 24 indicators were selected to develop the computation of the child well-being index. Apart from these 24 indicators, some other important indicators also needs to be studied as per the Executive Director of IFMR LEAD. So the Executive Director has told that some indicators like mobile usage by children, then digital access to children, then financial literacy to children, then the mental health of the children and also the quality of relationships which include the relationship with parents, peers, or friends and other children needs to be studied along with these 24 indicators. So this report highlights the multi-dimensional approach towards measuring child's well-being. So it not only just measures the income poverty but also other aspects that are related to child well-being like their access to educational facilities, then the rate of school dropouts, then the child's survival rates, then the crimes against children, then malnutrition, then access to clean drinking water and also the sanitation facilities that the children get. This report has asked for the state governments to look at their respective scores on the dimensions of child well-being. The report has also urged the states to prepare for the priority areas of intervention with specific plans of action because some states might have got low score in some dimensions. So the report has asked the states to prepare the priority areas of intervention so that they can be addressed. From this, this report also lists the following necessary steps to help in enhancing the quality of life of all the children in the country like it seeks for changes at the policy level with respect to children, then it also seeks for better budgetary allocations so that more money can be spent towards the children well-being, then it has also sought to initiate discussions with all the stakeholders who are concerned with child well-being. According to this report, Kerala is the best performing state as you can see in this picture where Kerala has scored 0.76 in the child well-being index which is the highest score across India. This is because Kerala has showed a great performance in nutrition, health and educational facilities for children. The report has mentioned the reason for Kerala's exceptional performance. It has cited that Kerala has a great number of children who complete their schools and Kerala also does well enough to provide access to quality education for all the children. Then the state also provides a healthy start to the newborn babies that is why the state has a good child survival rate. Then the state is also performing well in combating the problems of malnutrition and also ensuring access to clean drinking water and sanitation facilities. So these were some of the dimensions of the report that we saw. So Kerala has performed in majority of these dimensions. Then from this picture, you can see that Tamil Nadu has scored 0.67, so it is the second best state after Kerala. Also Himachal Pradesh has scored the same score 0.67 and Puducherry has scored 0.77. So among union territories, Puducherry has scored the highest. The highest score is because of the good scores in health care and nutrition. Now if you consider the worst performing states, it includes states like Meghalaya, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh. Out of this, Madhya Pradesh has scored the lowest of all where the score is 0.44. Now this lowest score is because of the higher rate of crimes against children. Then the score is also low when compared to the other states because it is scored low in child survival and also the state had poor nutrition among the children. Then the state of Jharkhand has scored 0.50. This is because Jharkhand has a lack of basic education and nutrition. Along with this, Jharkhand is also witnessing high school dropout rates in the state. So this is all about this report. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This editorial speaks about the recent decision of the Reserve Bank of India to transfer around 1.76 lakh crores to the central government for the fiscal year 2018-19. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this editorial is given here for your reference. Let us now see the editorial. In this editorial, the author is telling that after a long tug of war, the central government has managed to get a part of the accumulated reserves of the Reserve Bank of India. So for a long time, the central government has been insisting the Reserve Bank of India to transfer a part of its surplus reserves in order to meet the shortfall in the revenue collections. See in government, there is both expenditure and revenue. So the government needs money for its expenditure and it is only possible when it gets some revenue. Say revenue in the form of tax collections and non-tax collections. So whenever there is a shortfall in the tax collections or non-tax collections, we can tell there is a shortfall in the revenue. Now if the government is able to get the money from the Reserve Bank of India, it will help the government to meet the shortfall in the revenue collections. So this is what we mean by the term shortfall in revenue collections. So a total of 176,051 crore will be transferred by the Reserve Bank of India to the central government. Out of this around 123,414 crores is the surplus of RBA and 52,637 crores is the contingency fund of RBA that will be transferred to the central government. Now surplus means the difference between the income earned by the RBA and the expenditures of the RBA. So this is the surplus amount that is being transferred and we shall be seeing about the contingency fund or the contingency reserve in the later part of our analysis. In 2018, the Reserve Bank of India had constituted a panel or a committee to recommend and review the economic capital framework. So this committee was headed by the former RBA governor Bimal Jalan. So this committee name is also called as Bimal Jalan committee. Here the term economic capital is nothing but the amount of capital that is required to be maintained by an institution or a company. When we tell capital, it is nothing but the money. So the capital that is required to be maintained by an institution or company in order for that company to remain solvent that is it should keep operating. So this will be calculated based on the risk profile. So we can also tell that it is the risk capital that is to be maintained by the Reserve Bank of India. So whenever there is an unforeseen market risk or an operational risk or even say whenever there is a loss with RBA then RBA can use up this money. So this is the economic capital which RBA needs to maintain. This editorial tells that Bimal Jalan committee has decided to keep a major part of the reserve with the Reserve Bank of India and it will be out of the reach of the central government. And it has also decided to transfer a part of Reserve Bank of India's reserves to the central government with strict terms and conditions. In the editorial it is mentioned as stipulations. So based on this decision the Reserve Bank of India is transferred around 1.76 lakh crores to the central government. Just in the editorial the currency and gold revaluation account is mentioned. Know that this account represents the value of the gold and the foreign currency that the Reserve Bank of India will hold on behalf of the government of India. So it is the unrealized gains. The term unrealized gains are also called as paper profits because if you see the Reserve Bank of India holds some foreign currency and also the gold. Now depending on the market situation the value of the foreign currency will be fluctuating. Say before 2 years 1 US dollar might have been 60 rupees but at present it is around 71 rupees. So the value of that particular currency keeps changing and the money is just with the Reserve Bank of India. Now only when the Reserve Bank of India decides to utilize this money and pulls out the money then we will get to know the actual value of that money at the present exchange rate. Until it is with the Reserve Bank of India we can only call it as unrealized gains because they just remain in paper the value of the particular foreign currency and also the value of the gold just remains in paper. So this is what we call as unrealized gains and these unrealized gains cannot be distributed by the Reserve Bank of India or say it cannot be transferred by the Reserve Bank of India to the central government. So basically the Reserve Bank of India holds these foreign currency and gold in order to have enough liquidity that is enough money so that whenever our country faces any sort of economic crisis we will be in a position to utilize these reserves. And know that this CGRA that is the currency and gold revaluation account is not considered in the income account of RBI. So under this account RBI has almost 6.91 lakh crore as of 30th June 2018. So the committee has recommended that these CGRA reserves cannot be used to bridge the shortfalls in any other reserves. So this is separate the other reserves are separate. Now let us see the contingency reserve or the contingency fund. The contingency fund is basically a specific provision which is meant for meeting the unexpected contingencies. When we tell contingency it can be an emergency that can arise because of the monetary policy of the Reserve Bank of India and also because of the exchange rate operations. So whenever there is an unexpected contingency the Reserve Bank of India will intervene and it will make use of the money that is under this contingency fund in order to prevent some large fluctuations in the currency value. So this is how RBI makes use of the contingency fund. Now the Bimal Jalan Committee has recommended that the contingency fund should be maintained within 6.5 to 5.5 percentage of the total assets of the Reserve Bank of India. So based on the recommendations of the committee the RBI board has decided to fix this ratio at 5.5 percentage. If you see the present contingency fund value is around 6.8 percentage of the total assets of the RBI and we saw that RBI has fixed the contingency fund ratio at 5.5 percentage. So the remaining 1.3 percentage which is around 52,367 crores for this fiscal year that is for the fiscal year 2018-19 has been transferred by the Reserve Bank of India to the central government. So in the starting of the editorial we saw that a surplus amount of 123,414 crores has been given by RBI to the central government plus 52,637 crores from the contingency fund which was in excess for the financial year 2018-19 has been given by the Reserve Bank of India to the central government. So one is the surplus amount, the second is the contingency fund. Then in this editorial the author has quoted one argument where it can be considered that the government is the sovereign nothing but the ultimate authority which owns the Reserve Bank of India. So there is nothing wrong if the government decides to use the central bank's reserves but the author of this editorial is telling that the government's decision to do so is quite unfortunate because the reserves have been generated by the Reserve Bank of India over different governments that is different governments were there in the previous 2-3 decades still and the RBI was generating these reserves over different governments but now a particular government is using that funds in order to meet its expenditure shortfalls. So this is morally unacceptable. So this is what the author is telling. Next in the editorial the author has also mentioned about the Jalan committee's quote where the committee has said that the reserves of the RBI represents the country's savings for a rainy day. When we tell rainy day it means a period of monetary or financial crisis. So whenever there is a monetary or financial crisis the Reserve Bank might be in a position to use these savings. So in the starting of the editorial we saw about the surplus of the Reserve Bank of India which is nothing but the difference in the income and the expenditure. So RBI has a practice of transferring its surplus to the government over the years but if you see the transfer for the fiscal year or the financial year 2018-2019 is around 1.23 lakh crores. So this value is double than that of the previous year. If you see in the previous financial year that is the financial year 2017-18 it was 50,000 crores. So it is more than double the amount of the financial year 2017-18. Now we do not know the reason how this much surplus was generated by the Reserve Bank of India. The author is telling that we will be getting to know in the annual report of the Reserve Bank of India and this report is not yet released. So we will get to know the reasons why RBI was able to get such a huge amount of surplus in the financial year 2018-19. The author is concluding the editorial by telling that this amount is a bonanza. So the term bonanza means sudden increase in wealth or whatever resources we have. So suddenly the government has got 1.76 lakh crores now and we saw that the government is facing revenue shortfalls that is during our discussion we saw that the shortfall and revenues can happen when the government has not got its target of tax revenues and non-tax revenues. So in this case it is the shortfall in the tax revenues. The government has received less tax revenues than expected so this amount will be a bonanza for the government. The author is telling that if the government is able to access these funds it will help the government to meet the deficit targets that is the fiscal deficit targets then the government can also use this money that is nothing but the capital into the weak banks. So with this money the government can infuse some capital into the weak banks that is those banks which are not performing well so that when money is infused into those banks the money or capital which is infused into those banks will help them boost their lending process so that the banks can perform better and also the government can make use of these funds in order to fund the welfare programs. So one is meeting the deficit targets second is to boost the banking sector and third is to make use of these funds for the social welfare programs. So this is how the author is suggesting that the government should make use of this money that it has got from the Reserve Bank of India. Now note that these are the suggestions that has been given by the author but the recent news is that the finance minister has told that still the government has not decided how to make use of this 1.76 lakh crore money that it has received from the Reserve Bank of India. Now have a look at the practice question let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about the spotting of rare tarantula species in the state of Tamil Nadu the syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Now the word tarantula means large hairy spiders these spiders belong to the family of Therafocidae. The news article is that team of researchers from indigenous biodiversity foundation have spotted peacock parachute spider which is also called as Gutti tarantula. It has been spotted in the Pakkamalai reserve forest. If you see during our 7th May analysis there was also a news article which discovered grizzled squirrels in this Pakkamalai reserve forest. These reserve forests are located near Chenji in Viliperam district of Tamil Nadu and know that indigenous biodiversity foundation is a puducheri based non-governmental organization which is working towards protecting the indigenous species of India. This peacock parachute spider or Gutti tarantula belongs to the genus posilotheria which comes under the family of Therafocidae and these spiders are listed as critically endangered under IUCN red list of threatened species and it is under proposal to be appended under the sites list which is the convention on international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora and know that these spiders are not protected under the wildlife protection act of 1972. At present these tarantula species are found in the degraded forest. These forests form a part of eastern guards and they are located near Nandiyal in the state of Andhra Pradesh. So this is the known habitat of these tarantula species. Now the major threats that these species face are the hunting which happens in the forests and subsequent logging and wood harvesting and these species are also being hunted for pet trade. So these are domesticated as pets in the western nations. This news article tells that the team from the indigenous biodiversity foundation was involved in a field work in these Pakamalai reserve forests and they happened to cite this Gutti tarantula resting in a cave. Later they cross-matched these species with a photographic evidence which was published by the zoo outreach organization and the wildlife information license development society in the previous decade. This spider was cited for the first time in the year 1899 by a researcher named Reginald N.S. Pocock. He happened to just find a single female specimen in Gutti and after 102 years that is in 2001 the species has been recorded at the degraded forest between Nandiyal and Giddalur in the eastern guards of Andhra Pradesh. So this species did not occur naturally in Gutti. It could have come from the eastern guards which is located at least 100 kilometers away from Gutti. This news article has also mentioned some comments made by the wildlife researcher where he has said that this particular tarantula species had not been cited so far in any other part of India or Sri Lanka except in the degraded forests of Andhra Pradesh. So now these tarantula species has been recorded in Pakamalai reserve forests in the state of Tamil Nadu. So we can see that its distribution has expanded further south because this Pakamalai reserve forest is located south to the degraded forest of Andhra Pradesh. Now we have been seeing the term degraded forest. The definition for degraded forest as given by the convention on biodiversity is that it is a secondary forest that has lost the structure, its function, then the species composition which it once had and also the productivity which should normally be associated with the natural forest type. But because of the human activities all these components have been degraded. So there is a reduced supply of goods and services from that particular site. When we tell reduced supply of goods and services it means the forest resources, then the water supply and also some other services like reducing the pollution, regulating the climate, protecting the soil etc. So these are some of the basic goods and services which a forest provides and there will also be limited biological diversity in the degraded forest. Because of human activities the entire structure and the species composition of the forest have changed. So we can expect only a very limited biological diversity which means less species of both flora and fauna. Flora means trees and fauna means animals. And these degraded forests are secondary forests. So a secondary forest is nothing but a forest that has been logged and it has recovered naturally or artificially. Log means the trees in the forest have been cut for human purposes and later the forest have recovered by themselves that is naturally or through human intervention that is artificially. So this is a secondary forest. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about combating land degradation. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. India will be hosting the 14th session of the conference of parties or COP 14-2 the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. This will be held from 2nd of September to 13th of September that is in the next month. So this announcement was made by the Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change on the occasion of World Day to Combat Desertification and Draught. See yesterday we saw that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change or UNFCCC had a COP or the Conference of Parties. But this Conference of Parties is for the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. So both are different, do not confuse. So the term Conference of Parties means a conference or a gathering of the parties or the members which are party to a convention. So this is a meaning of COP. So there can be n number of COPs for different conventions. So the COP for this convention is different from the COP for UNFCCC. The Conference of Parties for this United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification was established by the convention as a supreme decision making body. So this Conference of Parties comprises of the ratifying governments and the regional economic integration organizations such as the European Union. Since the year 2001 the COP has been meeting biannually that is once in two years and till now the COP had held 13 sessions. The one which is going to take place at New Delhi is the 14th session so it is called as COP 14. One of the primary functions of the COP is to review the reports that are submitted by the parties to the convention. The reports detail or explain how the parties are carrying out their commitments. Then the COP makes recommendations on the basis of these reports. It also has the power to make amendments to the convention or to even adopt new un-exists that is new additions to the existing convention. In this way the COP can guide the convention according to the changes in the global circumstances and also according to the changes in the national needs. Also know that India will take over the COP presidency from China for two years. This is until the next COP which will be hosted in 2021. So during COP 14 representatives from 196 countries will address the issue of combating desertification then land degradation and also drought during the two-week event. These representatives will be from national governments from regional governments and also from the local governments then from science and research communities then there will be representatives from the private sector then also from international and non-governmental organizations and also all forms of media will be representing this conference of parties. Now this conference is important to India because about 30 percentage of the country's total geographical area or about 96.4 million hectares are considered degraded or is being affected by land degradation. So to combat this India is strongly committed to the convention. So whatever convention that we are seeing now is the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification or UNCC Indie. Here you have to note that United Nations has three RIO conventions. They are United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change or the UNFCCC. Second one is the Convention on Biological Diversity or CBD and the third one is United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification or UNCCD. This UNCCD was established in the year 1994 and it is the only legally binding international agreement that links environment and development to sustainable land management. So this convention addresses specifically the arid areas then the semi arid areas and also the dry subhumid areas. So all these are known as the dry lands. This is because it is where some of the most vulnerable ecosystems and people can be found. So as the name of the convention itself suggests the main objective is to combat desertification. When you see the term desertification don't think that it is just the natural expansion of the existing deserts but it is also the degradation of the land that is happening in arid semi arid and dry subhumid areas. So it is a gradual process of loss in the soil productivity and also the thinning out of the vegetative cover. So the soil productivity comes down and also the vegetative cover also will reduce. All this happens because of the human activities and also because of the climatic variations like prolonged droughts that is droughts for a continuous period of time and also sometimes floods for a continuous period of time. The next objective of this convention is to mitigate the effects of drought in countries that are experiencing serious drought and or desertification. So this convention involves some long term integrated strategies that is two or three strategies or two or more strategies that are integrated together and are implemented together. So there will be a simultaneous focus in the affected areas to improve the productivity of land and the rehabilitation, conservation and sustainable management of the land and water resources. So the parties to the convention will work together to improve the living conditions for the people in dry lands then to maintain and restore the land productivity and also the soil productivity and also to mitigate the effects of drought and know that this convention is particularly committed to a bottom up approach. When we tell bottom up approach the participation of the local people is very much required in combating the certification and land degradation. So a bottom up approach will be followed. Also know that India became a signatory to this convention in the year 1994 and it ratified it in the year 1996. See in 1994 the United Nations General Assembly also declared 17th June as the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. This is to promote the public awareness and the implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in the desertification affected countries. So remember the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought which we mentioned in the beginning where we told that the minister announced that COP 14 will be held in India is celebrated every year on 17th of June. During one of the press conference that happened yesterday the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change noted that India will convert degraded land of nearly 50 lakh hectares to a fertile land in the next 10 years. The news article also mentions that this 50 lakh hectares or the 5 million hectares were part of the Bond Challenge commitment. But if you see the Press Information Bureau says that this 50 lakh hectares or the 5 million hectares were part of the LDN targets for India. So now let us see what is this Bond Challenge and LDN target. First let us see about the LDN target. LDN is the acronym for Land Degradation Neutrality. So this involves shift in the land management policies and practices. It will basically aim towards recovering the degraded areas so that it would be able to counter balance the expected loss of productivity of the land. So it will strategically place the measures to conserve then measures to sustainably manage and restore land. And all these measures will be in the context of planning of land use. So based on this the countries have said the LDN target. Now let us see about Bond Challenge. In the year 2010 a study was undertaken by the International Union for Conservation of Nature that is IUCN and World Resources Institute. So they together produced a world of opportunity map. This world of opportunity map found that globally there was more than 2 billion hectares of degraded land which offered opportunities for restoration. So in September 2011 at a high level event which was co-hosted by the German Ministry of the Environment and IUCN the 2020 Bond Challenge target was launched by leaders from around the world. So know that in 2011 this Bond Challenge target was launched. This Bond Challenge is a global effort to bring around 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested land into restoration by the year 2020. This target was later extended to cover 350 million hectares of degraded land by the year 2030. So this extension was made by the New York declaration on forests at the 2014 UN climate summit. Here land degradation or the degradation of land means the deterioration in the quality of the land mainly the deterioration of its top soil. Now why this top soil or the land gets deteriorated it is because of excessive and inappropriate exploitation of the land and know that the International Union for Conservation of Nature or IUCN is the secretariat for the Bond Challenge. So this Bond Challenge is an implementation vehicle for the national priorities such as boosting the landscape productivity then improving water and food security then conserving the biodiversity and also combating desertification. According to the Bond Challenge the restoration of the 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested lands in biomes around the world will create approximately 170 billion US dollars per year in net benefits. So the benefits will be from watershed protection then from the improved crop yields and also from the forest products. So once these degraded and deforested lands are restored then we'd be able to get benefits like this. So this will also bring in some additional income opportunities for the rural communities. Apart from this there is also one another advantage that is 1.7 giga tons of carbon dioxide equivalent can be sequestered on restoring this 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested lands annually that is every year. The basis for this Bond Challenge is the forest landscape restoration approach or the FLR approach. Now let us see about this approach. This approach mainly aims to restore the ecological integrity at the same time it will help in improving the human well-being through multifunctional landscapes. So this forest landscape restoration approach is not just about planting trees but it is about restoring a whole landscape in order to meet the present needs and also the future needs and also to offer multiple benefits and land uses over time. So it is about forests and landscapes. Now why forest because it involves increasing the number and or health of the trees in an area and why it is about landscape is because it involves the entire watersheds the entire jurisdictions or sometimes even the countries in which many land users interact and it also involves restoration because it involves bringing back the biological productivity of an area. So once we have this biological productivity the people in general and also the planet that is the entire world will receive a number of benefits by restoration. So based on this at the conference of parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 2015 which was held in Paris the government of India made a Bond Challenge Pledge. So this challenge is to bring 13 million or 130 lakh hectares of degraded land into restoration. This is to be done by the year 2020 and after this an additional 8 million hectares or 80 lakh hectares are to be restored by the year 2030. So together India has committed to restore 21 million hectares or 210 lakh hectares. Also know that this pledge by India is one of the largest in Asian continent. The restoration could also sequester up to 1.99 giga tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually. So once these landscapes are restored that particular landscape would be able to store the carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere. So this is what we meant by sequestering of the carbon dioxide equivalent. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about Congo fever. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Let us now see the news article. This news article says that 75 year old women from Surendranagar district in the state of Gujarat died because of Congo fever. The Gujarat state has directed the health authorities to remain alert in order to contain the spread of this deadly disease. So let us first understand in detail about the Congo fever. Congo fever is also called as the Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever. It is a viral disease which is caused by a tick-borne virus which is called as Nirovirus and this virus belongs to Bonyaviride family. So we saw that it is a tick-borne virus so ticks acts as a carrier for this virus and it is also a zoonotic vector-borne disease. It means it could be transmitted from animals to humans. This Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever causes severe illness in humans and it has a case fatality rate of up to 40 percentage that is death is reported in 40 percentage of the cases. Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever was first characterized in Crimea in the year 1944. So the name was Crimean hemorrhagic fever. This region of Crimea is also called as the Crimean Peninsula. So this Crimean Peninsula was annexed by the Russian Federation in 2014. Before that it was a part of Ukraine and even before that it was a part of the United Soviet Socialistic Republic. Nothing but the USSR. Later it became a part of Ukraine. Then again Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014. Then in the year 1969 it was recognized that the pathogen that was causing this Crimean hemorrhagic fever was the same which was responsible for an illness that was identified in Congo in the year 1956. So that is how this fever name has been arrived at. So now it is called as the Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever. In India the first confirmed case of this Congo fever was reported during an outbreak in Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat in the year 2011. Then outbreaks were also reported from different districts of Gujarat every year. Then the outbreaks were also reported in the state of Rajasthan. Earlier one case was reported from Uttar Pradesh as well. Now let us see how this disease is transmitted. This Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever is primarily transmitted to human beings from ticks. We saw that tick-borne virus and then it is also transmitted from the livestock animals and it can also be transmitted via nosocomical infections that is those infections that are caught in hospitals. They are called as nosocomical infections and this virus is considered endemic to the Middle East then to Africa then also to Asia and then human to human transmission can also occur because of the close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of the infected persons. So the outbreak of this Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever constitutes a threat to the public healthcare services. Why? The first reason is its epidemic potential that is the biological capacity of the pathogen can cause a disease in a particular environment and there will be a widespread occurrence of this disease. So this is the epidemic potential. The next reason is the high case fatality ratio that is the fatality ratio can somewhere be between 10 percentage to 40 percentage and there is also a potential for nosocomical outbreaks. We saw what is meant by nosocomical outbreaks that is those infections that are acquired in hospitals and there are also some difficulties in treating and preventing this disease. So they cause a major threat to the public healthcare services. Now let us see some of the symptoms of this Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever. The symptoms are more or less similar to the common viral fever symptoms like having sudden fever, then muscle ache, then dizziness, then headache, then back pain, joint pain, vomiting and also red eyes. Next we shall see who are those persons who are at risk of acquiring this Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever. They mostly include livestock workers that is those workers who are involved in livestock farming, then animal herders. So those people who herd the animals then those workers or people who are employed in slaughterhouses that is the place where they cut the animals for culinary purposes and even veterinary agents that is the animal doctors or the doctors who are specialized in treating animals are also likely to be exposed to this Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever. Then the travelers who are going to those countries which are endemic to the Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever are also at a risk of high exposure. There are some diagnostic tests which are used to confirm the virus like through antigen detection, then through enzyme linked immunosorbent assay and also through serum neutralization. Know that there is no vaccine at present for treating this disease for both animals and humans. So the treatment is currently restricted to supportive care for the symptoms that is just addressing the symptoms of this particular disease like fever, muscle ache, dizziness, headache. So that is what we meant by supportive care. So the best way is to prevent the occurrence of this Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever. So the World Health Organization has proposed some steps to reduce the transmission of this virus like wearing long sleep protective clothing, then using repellents on skin and clothing and also measures like quarantining animals that is keeping the animals separate before they are brought into the first slaughtering purposes. So these are some of the steps that has been proposed by the World Health Organization in order to reduce the transmission of Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us now move on to the practice questions discussion session. The first question is the India child well-being report is an attempt to look at how India fares on child well-being by composite child well-being index. This report was released by which among the following organizations and they have given four options UNICEF, CARE International, International Committee of the Red Cross, World Vision. In examination we have to mark the most relevant option among the given options. We know that this report has jointly been released by World Vision India and IFMR LEAD. World Vision India is a non-governmental organization. Here among the given options the most relevant is World Vision. So the correct answer is World Vision. Particularly it is World Vision India which is an Indian branch of World Vision. So the correct answer is Option D World Vision. Moving on to the next question consider the following statements and they have given two statements and they have asked you to choose the correct answer. The first statement is Bimal Jalan committee was constituted to recommend and review the economic capital framework of the Reserve Bank of India. This statement is correct. In the year 2018 the Reserve Bank of India had constituted a panel or a committee to recommend and review an economic capital framework and this committee was headed by the former RBI governor Bimal Jalan. Hence it is called as Bimal Jalan committee. Moving on to the second statement the statement tells that the committee recommended transfer of surplus from the currency and gold revaluation account of RBI. We saw what is meant by this currency and gold revaluation account. This represents the value of the gold and the foreign currency. The Reserve Bank of India holds on behalf of the government of India. So the committee said that this account represents the unrealized gains that is the value remains only on paper and hence it is not distributable to the government. So it recommended that it cannot be transferred to the government. So the second statement goes wrong. The question is asked for the correct statements. The correct answer is option A 1 1 B. Moving on to the next question consider the following statements with reference to the United Nations convention to combat desertification and they have given you two statements and I've asked you to choose the correct answer. The first statement tells that it is the only legally binding international agreement that links environment and development to sustainable land management. When you look at the first statement you will think that the statement is wrong because the statement has the superlative only in it. We feel that the statement is only partially correct but in this scenario the statement is correct according to the United Nations convention to combat desertification. The convention is the only legally binding international agreement that links environment and development to sustainable land management. So this statement is correct. The second statement tells that India is a signatory to this convention but it did not ratify. During our discussion we saw that India's hosting COP 14 and the COP presidency will be with India for two years. So by this you can guess that India should at least be a signatory to the convention. Yes India is a signatory to this convention. Know that India became a signatory to this convention in the year 1994. This means the first half of the statement is correct. When we say signatory to a convention it means that the head of the state or the government or the foreign minister or any other designated official has indicated his or her country's agreement with the adopted text of a treaty and they indicate their intention to become a party by signing it. So this is what we meant by a signate. Now the second half says that India has not ratified the convention. After signing a treaty a country must ratify it with the approval of its parliament or other legislature. Such process implies not only an expression of interest which was indicated by the signature but it also indicates the transformation of the treaties principles and obligations into national law. The instrument of ratification must be deposited with the secretary general of the United Nations. Then the country will become party to the convention by the completion of a period of 90 days after the deposit of the instrument of ratification. So this makes the country legally bound to the convention. But whether India ratified it or not? Yes, India ratified it in the year 1996. So this means the second half of the statement is wrong. So this makes the entire statement as a wrong statement because the statement tells that it did not ratify but it actually ratified. And the question is asked for the correct statements. The correct answer is option A 1 only. Moving on to the next question consider the following statements and they have given two statements which are related to the Crimean-Kongo-Hemorrhagic fever and they have asked you to choose the correct statements. The first statement tells that the Crimean-Kongo-Hemorrhagic fever is a viral disease. This statement is correct. This fever is commonly called as Congo fever and it is caused by a tick-borne virus which is called as Nairo virus. In India the first confirmed case of this Crimean-Kongo-Hemorrhagic fever was reported during an outbreak in Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat in the year 2011. The second statement tells that human to human transmission of the virus that is responsible for causing Crimean-Kongo-Hemorrhagic fever is possible. This statement is also correct. During a discussion we saw that human to human transmission can occur through close contact with the blood or through secretions or organs or other bodily fluids of the infected persons. So human to human transmission of Nairo virus which causes the Crimean-Kongo-Hemorrhagic fever is possible. So this statement is also correct. The question is asked for the correct statements. The correct answer is option C both 1 and 2. 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 questions discussion session. Do like comment and share the video and do subscribe to Shankar IA's Academy YouTube channel for latest videos and updates. Stay focused and motivated friends. Thank you.