 Good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankar IAS Academy for the date 11th of January 2022. Displayed here are the list of news article chosen for today's discussion. See today I have discussed two topics exclusively in prelims perspective and two more topics in mains perspective and as I assured you I have discussed an economic topic also. Now without wasting much time let's move on to our discussion. Look at this image which shows a tusk cut taking part with the aid of its owners in ahead of the temple festival season in Kerala. See now let us take this opportunity to know about the elephant species in detail. So today I will focus mainly on the prelims perspective on this topic. Ok now let us start our discussion. The elephant belonging to the Elephantidae family is the largest living land animal characterized by its long trunk, columnar legs and huge head with the temporal glands and wide flat ears. See this long trunk is nothing but elongated upper lip and nose and the nostrils are located at the tip of this trunk. See the trunk is large and powerful weighing about 130 kg that is 290 pounds in an adult male and it is capable of lifting a load of about 250 kg. The trunk is innervated by two probocidian nerves which render it extremely sensitive. See at the end of the trunk are flap like projections enabling the elephant to perform amazingly delicate functions such as picking up a coin from a flat surface. See the elephants are greyish to brown in color and their body hair is sparse in color. See the breathing, drinking and eating are all vital functions of the trunk. Most breathing is performed through the trunk rather than the mouth. The elephants drink by sucking as much as 10 litres that is 2.6 gallons of water into the trunk and then squitting it into the mouth. See they also eat by detaching grasses, leaves and fruits at the end of the trunk and using it to place this vegetation into the mouth. The trunk is also used to collect dust or grass for spraying onto themselves. Why do they do so? See they do so for protection against insect bites and the sun and if danger is suspected the elephants raise and swirl the trunk as if it were an olfactory periscope possibly sniffing the air for information. See now let us see few more body parts of an elephant and few important behavior of it in prilims perspective. Now we will see about the tusks. See the elephant tusks are enlarged incisor teeth made of ivory. In the African elephant both the male and the female possess tusks whereas in the Asian elephant it is mainly the male that has tusks. See when present in the female tusks are very small, thin and often of a uniform thickness. Some male Asian elephants are even tuskless and are known as muknas. See the tusks size and shape are inherited. See the tusks are used for defence, offence, digging, lifting objects, gathering food and stripping bark to eat from trees. So they protect the sensitive trunk which is stuck between them when the elephant charges. Ok in times of drought elephants dig waterholes in dry river beds by using their tusks, feet and trunks. See how intelligent is it right. Now we will see about the reproduction and life cycle of this elephant species. See elephants live in small family groups led by old females where food is plentiful the groups join together. Most females live in bachelor hoods. Male elephants become uncontrollable even by their own handlers during the must period which is the time for establishing their reproductive hierarchy. See elephants are able to assess the reproductive status of one another by using their keen sense of smell. See the gestation period of the elephants is the longest of any mammal which is about 18 to 22 months. Now let's see about the newborn. The newborn elephant is about a meter that is 3.3 feet tall and weighs about 100 kg. So it is about 220 pounds. See the newborn suckles by using the mouth and not the trunk at the memory glance. And this female reminds with their natal herd for their whole lives. Despite living apart the adult male and female elephants from short lived mating or feeding associations with one another. See elephants can live to 80 years of age or more in captivity but they live only for 60 years in the wild. Elephants produce two types of oculization by modifying the size of the nostrils as air is passed through the trunk. For example the low sounds like the growl and high sounds like trumpet, pulsated trumpet, gruff, cry etc are produced by this kind of modification. See they use low frequency that is 5 to 24 hertz sounds for calls that are responded by other elephants up to 4 kilometers away. Now let's see about their migration. The elephants migrate seasonally according to the availability of food and water. Here you have to note that the memory plays an important role during this time as they remember the locations of water supplies along with the migration routes. See as I said before these are intelligent species. Intelligence has also been observed in conjunction with their memory. They can reach a top speed of about 40 kilometers that is 25 miles per hour since their feet are well adapted to carrying their great time. Interesting right? And see these elephants are found most often in savannas, grasslands and forests but occupy a wide range of habitats including desert, swamps and highlands in tropical and subtropical regions of Africa and Asia. So far we saw in general about the elephant species. Now we'll discuss about the two African elephant species namely African forest elephant whose scientific name is L'Occidenta cyclotus and the African savanna elephant whose scientific name is L'Occidenta africana along with an asian elephant species whose scientific name is Elephus maximus. Note that the African forest elephant which lives in rainforest was recognized as a separate species in the year 2000. Now we'll see one by one in detail and then we'll discuss few major differences between the asian elephant species and the two African elephant species. Okay first let us start with forest elephants. Forest elephants are smaller, darker and their tusks are straighter and point downward. Actually they have more oval shaped ears. They are the eluzu cousin of the African savanna elephant and they inhabit the dense rainforest of western Central Africa and are uniquely adapted to the dense forest habitat of the Congo basin. See their preference for dense forest habitat prohibits traditional counting methods such as visual identification. Then how will their population be estimated? They are estimated through dunk counts and analysis on the ground of the density and distribution of the feces. See the forest elephants also have a much slower reproductive rate than the savanna elephants. So they cannot bounce back from population declines as quickly at the same rate. That's the reason this African forest elephant is given a critically endangered status under the IUCN. The last strong holes are located in Caban, Republic of Congo with smaller population remaining in other African countries like Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea and Cote d'Ivory and Ghana in West Africa. See they live in family groups of up to 20 individuals and forage on leaves, grasses, seeds, fruit and tree bark. They are referred to as the mega gardener of the forest. Why so? See their diet is dominated by fruit and hence they play a crucial role in dispersing many tree species, particularly the seeds of large trees which tend to have high carbon content. Also they gather at mineral rich waterholes and mineral lakes found throughout the forest to supplement their diet with minerals. Okay next we will see about the savanna elephants. Savanna elephants are larger than the forest elephants and their tusk curve outwards. There are also differences in the size and shape of the skull and skeleton. You can see in these images to understand their structural difference. See this African savanna elephants are the largest species of elephant and the biggest terrestrial animal on earth. They are easily distinguished by their very large ears which allow them to radiate excess heat. See their front legs are noticeably longer than the hind legs. Their largest population are in southern and eastern African countries including Boswana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya, Namibia, Zambia and South Africa. See they are well studied and populations are easily estimated because of their visibility within the open areas where they live. Each family unit usually consists of around 10 females and their cubs and the male associated with these herds only during the mating. See several family units often join together to form a clan consisting of up to several hundred members led by a female. Yes it is a matriarchal community. See due to their habitat savanna elephants are often found grazing on grasses but they also browse on a wide variety of plants and fruits. The selection varies depending on the time of the year that is during rainy season the elephant will feed more on grass than during the dry season. So in general you can say that the African elephants weighs about 8000 kg that is 9 tons and its height is 3 to 4 meters that is 10 to 13 feet at the shoulder level and the African elephants have much large ears which are used to dissipate body heat. Now let us see about the Asian elephant. See the Asian elephant includes three subspecies the Indian or mainland the Sumatran and the Sri Lankan. See the Asian elephant inhabit dry to wet forest and grassland habitats in 13 range countries spanning South and Southeast Asia. While they have preferred forage plants they also have area based resources adaptation to survive. They are extremely sociable forming groups of 6 to 7 related females that are led by the oldest female. Yes they are also matriarchal community. Like African elephants these groups occasionally join others to form larger herds although these associations are relatively short lived. In Asia elephant herd sizes are significantly smaller than those of the Savanna elephants in Africa. See their weight is about 5500 kg and has a shoulder height of up to 3.5 meters. Their favorite foods are cultivated crops such as bananas, rice and sugarcane. They are always close to a source of fresh water because they need to drink at least once a day. In Asia humans have had close associations with elephants over many centuries and elephants have become important cultural icons. Remember elephant is a national heritage animal of India. Now let us see few more important differences between the African elephant and the Asian elephants. See the African elephants have two trunk extremities one above and one below whereas the Asian elephant have only one and the Asian elephant most often curls the tip of its trunk around an item and picks it up in a method called grasp whereas the African elephant uses the pinch. That means picking up of objects in a manner similar to that of the humans. See the trunk of the African elephant may be more extendable but that of the Asian elephant is probably more dexterous and the last difference see the African elephants become sexually mature sooner than the Asian elephants. That's all about this news article. So we have mainly discussed about the elephant species in general and in particular we discussed about the African elephant species and the Asian elephant. Now let's move on to the next news article discussion. Look at this news article. This news article provides insights on the recent visit of Chinese foreign minister to Sri Lanka. During this visit many initiatives to strengthen Sri Lanka-China bilateral relationship were discussed. So in this discussion let us see these initiatives briefly and its implication on India. See the syllabus relevant to this news article is given here for your reference. Please go through it. Now let's start our discussion. The Chinese foreign minister visited Sri Lanka as a part of his fination tour in the new year. See additionally the visit also marks two important anniversaries in the Sino-Lanka relationship. See China and Sri Lanka established their diplomatic relations in the year 1957. So this year marks the 65th anniversary of this diplomatic relations. Right? But even before this an agreement strengthened Sino-Lanka relations. It was the rubber rice pack between China and Lanka. See it was signed in the year 1952 and this was a post independence period for Lanka and it was facing its worst food crisis including rice shortage. This was due to the global rice shortage. So this led to the rise in world price of rice by 38 percentage. Additionally Lanka was the key exporter of rubber but the world price of rubber slumped. At this time China came to its aid and China needed to import rubber. So this rubber rice pack was signed and under this pack China provided rice to Lanka at lower prices than international prices. And in turn China also imported rubber from Lanka at higher prices than in the global market. So this pack provided a market for Lanka surplus rubber and it also accessed food grains at lower prices. In this manner China-Lanka relations got strengthened even before they formally established their diplomatic relations. And note that in the year 2022 this pack is going to celebrate its 70th anniversary. See this pack gained significance in the current scenario because Sri Lanka is battling a severe economic crisis now and through the discussion it is expected that China will again extend its helping hands to Sri Lanka. See this economic crisis existed during pre-pandemic period and is further aggravated by the pandemic. It is mainly the result of many irresponsible moves of Sri Lankan government in the past. Let us see what were these briefly. First is the high government spending and tax cuts. This eroded state revenues. Second its foreign exchange reserves reduced. It came to its lowest levels in a decade. Third is the debt repayment owed by Sri Lanka to other countries especially to China. See Lanka owes more than 5 billion dollars to China. Apart from all this the pandemic affected Lanka's tourism sector. See this aggravated the economic owes because more than 10% of Lanka's GDP is contributed by its tourism sector. This in turn has also affected its exchange rate because tourism is one of the Lanka's main foreign currency earners. This led to dollar crunch to the level that in 2021 Sri Lanka rupee fell by 7.5% age against the US dollar. This again led to inflation that is rising prices of many essential items over the last year. Why because Lanka is a net importer of food and other commodities. So overall currently Lanka faces persisting dollar crunch, increasing living cost and shortage of essentials. Therefore during this visit by Chinese foreign minister many measures were discussed to ease the economic stress and enhance the bilateral relations. Let's see them one by one. First Sri Lankan president urged China to restructure Sri Lanka's debt. Second Chinese side stressed on Colombo port city project and Hambantota port projects. See for modernizing the Hambantota port Sri Lanka took loan from China but it couldn't repay it. So in the year 2017 an agreement was signed for debt equity swap under which the loan was converted into equity. So as of now Chinese side holds the majority of the shares of this port. Therefore the Hambantota port was declared as a part of its Belt and Road initiative by China. See this move is what is called as Debt to Trap Diplomacy of China's Belt and Road initiative. Apart from investing in Hambantota port China has also invested in Colombo International Financial City. See which is also called the Colombo Port City project. The investment for this project was announced in the year 2014 but it raised many concerns. It raised environmental concerns as a project involved reclamation of and from the sea. Second India raised concerns over maritime sovereignty because during the start of the project Chinese submarines and warship was docked in Colombo port. Apart from this there were also acquisitions of lack of transparency and corruption in the project. So the project was suspended in the year 2015. Again it was restarted under a new government in 2016 but here the Sri Lankan government assured that investors from all the countries would be invited to invest in the port city. More importantly it assured that it will not allow Chinese warships to use its harbours but India is concerned over these projects. Mainly India's fear is about China's intentions in its neighborhood. We know that already China is increasing its naval presence in the Indian Ocean and the access to these two ports will further increase China's naval presence in the Indian Ocean. See India is also worried that China would eventually take control of the Sri Lanka's infrastructure. So overall like other neighbors of India China is also roping in Sri Lanka under its pure of influence. This is a definite threat to India's economic security and maritime security. For instance it might affect the India and Sri Lanka's largest joint military exercises called Mitra Shakti and a naval exercise called Slenex SLI NEX. So these points can be utilized in your main answers especially when questions comes under the topic security threats due to neighborhood countries. That's all about this news article. Now let us move on to the next article discussion. See this editorial article here is written by the India's former ambassador to Russia and India had invited Central Asian leaders to be the chief guest of the Republic Day Parade. So in this context the author had discussed about the importance of the Central Asian countries in India's security interest and foreign diplomacy. He also talks about the shift of focus on Eurasia by global geopolitical powers and India's continental and maritime security issues has also been covered by the article. So this is the crux of the article. We will discuss each and every part of the article in detail. More importantly you can use these points in your main answers. So pay close attention. Before starting our discussion the syllabus relevant to the topic is given here for a reference. Please refer it. Now let's start our discussion. See we have heard the word strategy a lot of times. In this discussion also we are going to see the continental and maritime security strategy of India. So what does the word strategy mean? Strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a long term or overall aim. Thus strategy mentioned in this article is meaning the highest level of national statecraft that establishes how states or other political units prioritize and mobilize military, diplomatic, political and economic also other sources of power to ensure what they perceive as national interest. Thus a careful plan determines how goals can be achieved with the resources we have. I'll give you an example here for a better understanding. Now take the focus on Russia. To achieve connectivity and economic interest is the goal and how India will achieve this and the plan it formulates to make this goal come true is the strategy. I hope you understood the meaning of the word strategy. Now we'll see what is continental strategy and maritime strategy. See if the plan is formulated to achieve interest regarding border issues then it is called continental strategy and if it is to secure the maritime interest then it is called as maritime strategy. Now we'll see the continental issues for India. India's partition and the emergence of a persistent two front threat from Pakistan and China has set the stage for a tough continental dimension of our security. There is an increased militarization of the borders with Pakistan and China. See connectivity means nothing when access is denied by hostile activities of the persistent neighbouring states which is contrary to the provisions of the international law. The difficulty here is in operationalizing an alternative route. See the international north-south transport corridor is not bearing fruits on account of the US hostile attitude towards Iran. We have Kaladan multimodal project and trilateral highways which provides connectivity to the east but that is also not without any issues. Who all set the stage for a complex geopolitical competition on the Eurasian land mass? There are many like China's assertive rise, the withdrawal of forces of the US and the NATO from Afghanistan, the rise of Islamic fundamentalist forces that is the Taliban, then the changing dynamics of the historic stabilizing role of Russia and related multilateral mechanisms like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Eurasian Economic Union. See all these have set the stage for a complex geopolitical competition on the Eurasian land mass. We will see the assertive rise of China and what it means. See the Chinese capacity for military intervention and power projection are growing far beyond its intermediate region. It is expanding on the Eurasian continent like its Belt and Road Initiative projects in Central Asia up to Central and Eastern Europe and the Caucasus is an example. It undermines the traditional Russian influence, it is gaining access to energy and other natural resources and another major strategy is its dependency creating investment otherwise called as depth trap diplomacy. See regarding this depth trap diplomacy I had already discussed in the previous article with China-Lanka relations right. Thus depth trap diplomacy makes the regional countries dependent on China for the funding of all development projects. Cyber and digital penetrations and expanding influence among political and economic allies also is prevalent across the continent. For that the American military food print has shrunk dramatically on the Eurasian land mass though it has a substantial military presence on the continental peripheries. So these developments India's physical connectivity challenges with the Eurasia have only become more difficult. The marginalization of India on the Eurasian continent in terms of connectivity must be reversed otherwise with two hostile neighbours there is Pakistan and China it will be difficult for India to further its connectivity to the world. Like how the association of Southeast Asian nations that is Asian centrality is the key to Indo-Pacific the centrality of the Central Asian states is the key for Eurasia. Now let us see the maritime issues for India. But before that let us see about India's coast. India has a 7,516.6 kilometer long coastline which includes 5,422 kilometers of coastline in the mainland and 2,094 kilometers of coastline bordering the islands. The peninsular coastline of the country is shaped by the Bay of Bengal in the east, Indian Ocean in the south and the Arabian Sea in the west and is spread over 9 states and 4 union territories namely Gujarat, Diamond Endu, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal. In addition there are two island groups who are the Lakshadeep and Minikoy in Arabian Sea and the Andaman and Nikko bar in the Bay of Bengal. Every India has a rich maritime tradition however the colonial period and the ensuing years of post independence when the country faced significant security threats along its land borders to the north and the west. These land security issues have severely undermined India's capacity for maritime thought. See the 2008 Mumbai terror attack was the largest catalyst in transforming perceptions of the maritime security in India. Before these attacks there was little government engagement with maritime security issues. Okay see India's maritime security issues are multi-fold. Take the creek areas of Gujarat and the Sundarbans in West Bengal that are in particular vulnerable to criminal and anti-national activities. Then take the northern Gujarat and southern West Bengal that is the Sundarbans areas which have several large creeks some of which are the international borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh. See these creeks are all interconnected by smaller water bodies. The interconnectivity of the creeks has made the border porous for infiltrators, smugglers and terrorists who have been using these routes to sneak in and out of India. Okay now let's see the other issues. The other issues include armed robbery in some ports in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, illegal fishing in Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Next we'll be poaching of sea cucumbers from Lakshadipan, Minicoi Islands and Tamil Nadu. Then drug trafficking of the Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. Then you can take smuggling of gold in Tamil Nadu, red sandalwood in Gujarat and Maharashtra, cigarettes in Maharashtra, also the smuggling of fuel in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Then smuggling of tendu leaves in Tamil Nadu and smuggling of textiles in West Bengal. Even you can take the smuggling of turmeric in Tamil Nadu. All these issues are of concern for India. Adding to the already discussed issues, the physical proximity of India's coast to politically, volatile, economically depressed and unfriendly countries such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Gulf countries adds to its vulnerability. Now we shall see how. Firstly, the geographical closeness of the southern coast to a conflict-ridden Sri Lanka also poses security challenges for India. For example, the presence of LTE militants seriously undermined India's internal security as they started indulging in the smuggling of essential items, diesel, arms, explosive, drugs, etc. to sustain their war in Sri Lanka. See they also created an extensive criminal network to smuggle Sri Lankan refugees from India to develop countries to generate funds for their struggle. Now you can link the previous news article discussion here. That is why Sri Lanka's relationship with China is a cause of concern for India. Okay. Now coming back to this article, secondly, let us see the case of Bangladesh. See the eastern Indian seaboard has been increasingly witnessing a steady increase in illegal migration from Bangladesh. Various push and pull factors such as poverty, demographic pressure, religious persecution in Bangladesh and the promise of better opportunities in India have contributed to this migration. And finally, the unsettled maritime boundaries not only pose serious security challenges but also hinder offshore development. India's maritime boundaries with Pakistan are not delineated because of overlapping climes. See having seen about the issues, now let us see what India has done so far. See India's maritime vision and ambitions have grown dramatically during the past decade. It is symbolized by national maritime strategy, the security and growth for all in the region. That is Sagar initiative for the Indian Ocean region. And it is also visible through other initiatives relating to the Indo-Pacific and the Quad. In which maritime security's concentration is prominent. See it is a response for the dramatic rise of China as a military power in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean region. See the maritime security is crucial when considering China because it is important to keep sea lanes open for trade, commerce and to ensure freedom of navigation by resisting Chinese territorial aggrandizement in the South China Sea and helping littoral states resist Chinese bullying in the interstate relations. Okay, however maritime security and associated dimensions of naval power are not sufficient instruments of state craft. This is not sufficient because India seeks diplomatic and security constructs to strengthen deterrence against Chinese unilateral actions and the emergence of a unipolar Asia that is China centric Asia. So from this it is very clear that India will not have the luxury of choosing one over the other. That is choosing between continental strategy and maritime strategy. India needs to acquire strategic vision and deploy the necessary resources to pursue the continental interest without ignoring the interest in the maritime domain. That's all about this news article. See you can very well utilize the points of the previous news article and this news article for your mains answer writing especially under India's security and its neighborhood relations. Okay, now let's move on to our next article discussion. Look at this news article, this article talks about the growth potential of the Indian IT industry. See the article says that with various industries all over the world increasingly adopting cloud computing and quickly modernizing their technology the Indian IT sector will be in demand all over the world. So it is expected that in 2022 the IT industry will witness a growth rate of 20 percentage to 30 percentage. This is the crux of the news article here. So in this context let us discuss the various sectors in the Indian economy, their contributions to GDP and finally we'll discuss the importance of the IT sector for the Indian economy. The syllabus regarding this discussion is highlighted here. Just go through it. Now let us start our discussion. See the various sectors in the Indian economy can be divided based on three broad categories. They are on the basis of the nature of the activity, second on the basis of the work condition, thirdly on the basis of assert ownership. First let us take classification based on the nature of work conditions. See here the sectors can be classified into organized and unorganized. What are these organized sectors? See organized sectors in the Indian context are sectors that are registered with the government. So the people working in the organized sectors have fixed employment terms and social security coverage. Then take the case of unorganized sector. See the government regulations are relaxed with respect to the unorganized sectors which means they are not sufficiently strict. See the workers have no security of employment and social security coverage in the unorganized sectors. Now coming to the next classification. Here the classification is based on the nature of ownership. See here the sectors are classified as the public sector and private sector. Take the case of public sector. The government has the majority ownership in terms of public sector. Okay see the government has the majority ownership and you take the public sector. But in the case of private sector, the private individual has the majority ownership. Finally let us take the classification based on the nature of activity. Here the sector can be divided into three types. What are they primary sector, secondary sector and tertiary sector. Now let's see in detail one by one. See the primary sector produces the base for all other sectors. So it involves activities where natural resources are directly used. The example you can see is agriculture, mining, dairy and fishing industry. Now take the secondary sector. They mainly include processing of the materials produced by the primary sector. See here cultivation of cotton comes under the primary sector and conversion of cotton fiber in the textile mills comes under the secondary sector. So the secondary sector mainly includes the industry sector. Okay now we'll see about the tertiary sector. See it mainly includes the service sector. Means it includes the IT sector, banking and finance. Even transportation services, retail, hospitality etc are also under this sector. Okay now look at this data from the 2020 to 2021 economic survey. See the graph shows the contribution of important sectors like agriculture, industry and services to India's gross value addition that is GVA. In the case of India the maximum contribution that is to the tune of 54 percentage of GVA is by the service sector and agriculture contributing only 20 percent of GVA. If you look at the graph carefully you can see that from the 2019 to 2020 to 2020 to 2021 the contribution of agriculture increased by two percentage. This is due to the COVID induced lockdown which did not affect the agriculture sector as much as it affected the other sectors. Okay now having done with this various sectors in the Indian economy let us now move on to the importance of the IT sector to the Indian economy. See India is the leading outsourcing destination across the world. India accounted for approximately 55 percent of the global market share of the US dollar 200 to 250 billion in the year 2019 to 2020. In terms of FDI inflow the computer software and hardware sector attract the second highest FDI between April 2000 and March 2021 it attracted over say US dollar 71 billion. See domestically the IT industry accounted for 8 percent of India's GDP in the year 2020. So according to the Software Technology Park of India that is STPI the software exports by the IT companies stood at rupees 1.2 lakh crores. If you say it in US dollars it is 16.29 billion US dollars in the first quarter of the financial year 2022. See in case of employment if you consider the IT industry it is the largest contributor to their private organized employment. See the Indian IT industry employs close to 4 million directly. Further every job in the technology sector had a multiplier effect leading to the creation of 2.5 indirect jobs in the adjacent sectors right. So it is projected that by 2025 India will have 900 million active internet users. See this coupled with the growing demand for cloud computing and every business rapidly taking steps to have a digital footprint the Indian IT sector will continue to propel India's growth story. So now the government in its part has recognized the importance of this IT sector. How it has announced various initiatives for boosting the sector. See take the national policy on information technology that was announced in the year 2012. See this NPITs or you can say national policy on information technology has a vision to develop India into an IT hub and use IT cyber space as a source for inclusive and rapid growth in the national economy. It also aims to make India into a knowledge economy. Also in 2020 the government published the draft data center policy. This policy was published by the ministry of electronics and information technology. What is the aim of this policy? It aims to make India the global data center hub. The main component of the policy is the government providing infrastructure status to the data center sector. This will help the sector avoid cheap credit and help in the development of the sector. Okay see this policy will help the growth of the digital economy in India. Now that's all about this news article. See as I assured you of an economic topic in my every video through which I try to brush up some basics of economy. In this discussion we discuss about the various sectors of the Indian economy then contributions of agriculture industry and services to the Indian economy. And finally with respect to the news article we discuss the importance of the IT sector to the Indian economy and some measures and policies taken by the Indian government in regards to the IT sector. With this let us conclude the discussion and take up the next news article. See this image here shows the Kathakali performance in progress in Palakkad. It is a part of the National Women Kathakali Mahotsavam which coincides with the anniversary of the Kathakali Gramm Kalyakulangara. So in this context we are going to learn about Kathakali for a prelims perspective and a brief about the festival also. See this Kalyakulangara Kathakali Gramm is a non-profit organization. It was established in the year 2012 that works primarily in the domain of art and culture. Its primary office is in Palakkad Kerala. So for the anniversary of this organization Kathakali performances are organized. So this is the background now let us see about the dance which is only useful for us for the prelims. See in the temples of Kerala two forms of dance drama Ramanatham and Krishnatham evolved under the patronage of feudal lords. These dramas narrate episodes from Ramayana and Mahabharata. See these folk drama traditions later became the source of Kathakali which derived its name from the word Katha meaning story and Kali meaning drama. It is closely related to Kodiatham which is a Sanskrit drama tradition and other ancient martial arts performance also. See it is a wonderful combination of music, dance and drama. However with the breakdown of the feudal setup Kathakali began declining as an art form. It was revived in the 1930s by the famous Malayali poet V. N. Menon under the patronage of Mukunda Raja. See now let's see some of the features of the Kathakali dance. Kathakali is generally an all male true performance. There is minimal use of props in the Kathakali recital. However very elaborate facial makeup along with the headgear is used for different characters. The main feature of the costume is a large blowing shirt for male characters. Different colors have their own significance like green indicates nobility, divinity and virtue whereas red patches beside the nose indicate royalty and the black color is used to indicate evil and wickedness whereas the yellow color is for saints and women and the completely red painted face indicates evil while the white beard indicates beings with higher consciousness and divinity. See it involves both dance and drama and the two cannot be clearly separated. Most of the Kathakali recitals are a grand representation of the eternal conflict between good and evil. It draws its themes from the stories narrated in the epics and the puranas. It is also called as the Ballad of the East. Generally the language used for Kathakali songs is Manipravalam that is a mixture of Malayalam and Sanskrit. See music is important to rightfully convey the entire drama to the viewers. Next the important part is gestures. They are perhaps the crown jewel of the entire dance drama. Right? See the Kathakali is remarkable in the representation of the rasas through movements of eye and eyebrows through which the story is conveyed. See nine important facial expressions called Navarasas are taught to convey the different emotions. Extensive hand gestures are also used. Therefore this dance form calls for strenuous training. See Kathakali is generally performed in open air theaters covered with colds, mats or temple premises with lush green trees of Kerala providing a backdrop. See a brass lamp is used for lighting. The arrival of dawn accompanied with the continuous sound of drums, chenda and madala marks the beginning and end of a Kathakali recital. Kathakali symbolizes the element of sky or ether. The famous proponents include Guru Kunchukurup, Gopinath, Kottakal Sivaraman, Rita Ganguly etc. And that's all about this news article. With this we have come to the end of our news article discussion. Now let us discuss the answers for our prelims practice questions. Take the first question. It is with reference to the elephant species and see it is a statement type question. So you can go in for elimination technique here. Okay read the first statement. It has good memory power. Yes it is correct. Elephant species has good memory power and good intelligence and due to its temporal gland. Okay second statement. Asian elephants weigh more than its cousin African elephants. No the statement is absolutely wrong because the African elephant weighs more than the Asian elephant. I'll just recall you the weights that we saw in our discussion. See African elephant weighs about 8000 kg and this Asian elephant weighs about 5500 kg. So the statement is incorrect. Now look at the third statement. Both male and female African elephants possess tusks. Yes it is correct. Both the male and female will have tusks in African elephant species. Okay now coming to the options. See when you found that statement 2 is incorrect you can just go in for eliminating the options. So you can eliminate options C and D and you will have option A and B. Now you know that statements 1 and 3 is correct. So your answer here is option B 1 and 3 only. Now let's take the next question. It is about the Cyber Surakshit Bharat initiative. See it is a two statement question. Here both statements are correct. How? See first statement says it focuses on recognizing the need to strengthen the cyber security ecosystem in India. Yes and it is in alignment with the honorable prime minister's vision for a digital India. So that is correct. And looking into the second statement it is launched by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. Yes it was launched by them along with the National E governance division and industry partners. So your answer will be option C both 1 and 2. Now I'll give a brief about the Cyber Surakshit Bharat. See it will be operated on the three principles which are awareness, education and enablement. So it will include an awareness program on the importance of cyber security, a series of workshops on best practices and enablement of the officials with cyber security health toolkits to manage and mitigate cyber threats. And the Cyber Surakshit Bharat is the first public private partnership of its kind and it will leverage the expertise of the IT industry in cyber security. See the founding partners of the consortium are leading IT companies. Now let's take the last question. See it is with reference to the Kathakali that we discussed lastly. See two statements are given so you have to go through both the statements. Statement one is incorrect because generally it's an all male form of dance but the statement here says no female is depicted is not true because yellow painted face depicts female character in the dance. So statement one is incorrect. See look at this second statement in that the second part which says black is used to indicate evil and wickedness is correct but the first part is wrong. This is because the color yellow indicates saints and women and the color green only indicates nobility, divinity, divinity and virtue. So the answer here is option D neither one nor two because both statements are incorrect. Displayed here are the main questions. Please go through it and write your answers and post it in the comment box. Whenever we get time we'll evaluate it and reply back to you through the comment box itself. If you like this video do like share and comment and don't forget to subscribe to our Shankar Ayes Academy YouTube channel. Thank you for listening.