 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar IA's Academy dated 19th of April 2019. Displayed are the list of news articles taken up for today's analysis with the respective page numbers from the Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Trivandrum editions. Let us now move on to our discussion. The first news article of the day is CSIR Plans Genome Sequencing to Map Population Diversity. This news article appears in page number seven of the Chennai edition, page number one of the Bengaluru edition and in pages one and ten of the Delhi edition and finally in page number nine of the Trivandrum edition. This topic will be useful for prelims preparation under general science and also current events of national and international importance and for main preparation in general studies paper three under achievements of Indians in science and technology, indignation of technology and developing new technology and next in awareness in the field of biotechnology in particular and next issues relating to intellectual property rights. This article speaks about genome sequencing. Before going to the news article, let us understand what is genome sequencing in the first place. Genome means complete set of genes. Genome sequencing is figuring out the order of DNA nucleotides or bases in a genome that is the order of A's, C's, G's and T's that make up an organism's DNA. A DNA sequence that has been translated from life's chemical alphabet into our alphabet of written letters might look like this. That is in this particular piece of DNA an adenine A is followed by a guanine G which is followed by a thymine which is in turn followed by a cytosine C another cytosine C and so on. Now coming to the news article, it highlights an indignous genetic mapping effort by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, nothing but the CSIR. It will sequence genomes of nearly 1000 rural youth from the length and breadth of India who are representative of the country's population diversity. This is the first time that such a large sample of Indians will be recruited for a detailed study. This project would cost rupees 18 crores and involve the collaboration of Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology and the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology. Genomes will be sequenced based on the blood sample of the individuals. Every person whose genomes are sequenced will be given a report. The report would try to establish a correlation between gene variations and responsiveness to medicines that is the report will highlight gene variants that make them individuals less responsive to certain classes of medicines. The project holds significance in the following ways. Firstly, it takes genomics to rural population which was largely confined to urban India. Secondly, it would help to track the health changes by following people over long periods. For instance, why diarrheal infections are rather in developed countries and do genes have any role in that? Finally, it will enable to find links between disease and the unique genetic makeup of each individual. For example, diseases like cystic fibrosis and thalassemia are known to be the result of single gene malfunctioning. Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder characterized by less hemoglobin of fewer red blood cells in your body than normal. Genome sequencing has shown that cancer too can be understood from the viewpoint of genetics rather than being seen as a disease of certain organs. In this context, it becomes important to understand genome sequencing developments. The first project was the Human Genome Project or HGP. It was an international scientific research project with the goal of determining the sequence of nucleotide base pairs that make up human DNA and it was started by United States in the year 1990 and it completed in the year 2003. Thus, the first human genome was sequenced in the year 2003. Next was the Thousand Genomes Project. This project set up to map the genetic variations in humans across the world and sequenced around 1092 individuals from 14 different populations. It was started in the year 2008 by the collaboration of various countries like USA, United Kingdom, China, Italy, etc. Next was the 100K Genome Project. 100K is one lakh here. It aims to sequence the genomes of one lakh infectious microorganisms to create a database of bacterial genome sequences for use in public health, outbreak detection and bacterial pathogen detection. It was a US funded project started in the year 2012. And finally, Genome Project Right which was announced in the year 2016. It is an extension of human genome project to include development of technologies for synthesis and testing of many genomes of microbes, plants and animals. Now, let us see the development of genome research in India. Two important developments have taken place. One was the Genome Valley Project and second Genome India Project. Genome Valley is India's first organized pharma biotech cluster for life sciences, R&D activities and largest life sciences destination in Asia. The cluster was conceptualized in the year 1999 in Shamir Pet in the city of Hyderabad. Genome Valley version 2.0 has the vision to upgrade the cluster into a world class knowledge led integrated corridor in self-sufficient life sciences ecosystem. Telangana government has signed memorandum of understanding with a Singapore-based firm for preparing roadmap for this in the year 2018. Next, coming to the Genome India Project. Genome India initiative was launched in the year 2017 to sequence thousands of Indian individuals in order to unravel details of the Indian genomes. It will be based on the next generation sequencing platform that is the latest and best in sequencing technologies so that there is adequate representation in terms of geographical coverage, cast, tribal and linguistic groups. The initiative was launched by the Indian Institute of Science in association with the Center for Brain Research. Now, let us conclude our discussion on this topic by knowing a few facts about CSIR. This will be important from the prelims point of view. CSIR, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. It was established as an autonomous body under Society's Registration Act of 1860 in the year 1942. CSIR works under the Ministry of Science and Technology. The President of CSIR is the Prime Minister of India. CSIR covers a wide spectrum of science and technology from radio and space physics, oceanography, geophysics, chemicals, drugs, genomics, biotechnology and nanotechnology to mining, aeronautics, instrumentation, environmental engineering and information technology. It is a pioneer of India's intellectual property rights movement. CSIR is granted 90% of US patents granted to any Indian publicly funded R&D organization that is the research and development organization. Amongst its peers in publicly funded research organizations in the world, CSIR is a leader in terms of filing and securing patents worldwide. With this, we come to the end of our topic. From prelims preparation point of view, try to know the different human genome projects that we have seen and also about CSIR. Have a look at these two practice questions we shall discuss at the end of the session. The second news article of the day is, Travelling Abroad a Basic Rights Says Supreme Court. This news article appears on page number 7 in Chennai, Bengaluru and Delhi Editions and in page 9 in the Trivandrum edition. This topic will be useful for Aprilum's preparation under Indian polity in rights issues and for main preparation in your general studies, paper 3 under Indian constitution and evolution and next in functioning of Indian judiciary. Supreme Court has given a verdict recently on 9th of April with respect to an appeal filed by Mr. Chathish Chandra Verma who is an IPS officer and also currently the principal of Central Training College in the CRPF in Coimbatore in the state of Tamil Nadu. He is not involved in any criminal case and he has in the year 2017 sought a similar permission from the Supreme Court to travel abroad and has kept his words with respect to the returning date. The officer has sought permission to travel abroad for a private foreign visit for a period of 28 days. He has some departmental enquiries pending against him so he was not granted permission by the Central Administrative Tribunal. The High Court also denied the permission citing lack of vigilance clearance but the apex court or the Supreme Court gave the permission to the officer. In this case the Supreme Court has opined that the right to travel abroad is an important basic human right for it nourishes independent and self-determining creative character of the individual by extending a freedom of action and also by extending the scope of his experience. The court referred to two case laws one is Mrs. Menaka Gandhi v. Union of India in the India country and next is the Kent v. Dulles in the country of USA. The right to travel abroad comes under personal liberty in article 21 of the Indian Constitution and personal liberty here signifies the liberty of freedom from restraining a person under the case of Mrs. Menaka Gandhi v. Union of India and freedom to go abroad as much social value and represents the basic human right of great significance stated just as William Douglas in the USA case law in Kent v. Dulles. Do not get panicked by the case names or the case details discussed here just try to use them as quotations while writing a mains exam answer or in your essay etc. Thus the Supreme Court has allowed the officer to travel abroad and stated that the pendency of departmental proceedings cannot be a ground to prevent the person from traveling abroad. Now for prelims preparation in particular try to know about right to travel as an implied right and right to life and personal liberty and also the articles under the Indian Constitution related to this particular right. Have a look at the practice question which I will discuss at the end of the session. Now let us move on to the next article. The third news article of the day is HIV used to fix bubble boy disease. This news article appears in page number 18 of the Delhi edition only. This topic will be useful for prelims preparation under current affairs of international significance and general science in particular. This news article discusses about the immune disorder called bubble boy disease. It is also called as X linked severe combined immunodeficiency or SCID X1. It is caused by a mutation in the gene called IL2RG in humans. This gene keeps a bone marrow from making effective version of blood cells that comprise a human immune system. Immune system means it is the body's defense against infections. This particular immuno disorder incidence is 1 is to 2 lakh cases which means 1 in 2 lakh are likely to be affected by this immune disorder especially here the male kids are affected. Kids suffering from this immune deficiency will easily catch any infections and they mostly end up being fatal that is the kids would die. Let us now see about the cure available. Bone marrow transplant is a conventional method of cure but it has several risks attached. Gene therapy is a possible method of cure. Here the scientists have tried to cure bubble boy disease using gene therapy. This gene therapy uses HIV to deliver the gene inside the human body. HIV is nothing but human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS which we all know. Here the infectious strains inside this human immunodeficiency viruses are removed. Let us see in brief about the process of this gene therapy. The HIV is genetically engineered by adding this IL2RG gene that the kids lack. Before and the infectious strains inside HIV that causes AIDS are removed and then this IL2RG gene is inserted. This HIV now becomes a genetically engineered HIV or an altered HIV. This altered HIV is then inserted into the patient's bone marrow cells as you can see here and slowly the kids start developing immunity with the generation of the red blood cells that comprise the immune system functions as we saw here. This gene therapy has been declared successful. The nickname bubble boy disease comes from a famous case in the 1970s where a Texas boy who lived in the United States for 12 years in a protective plastic bubble in order to isolate him from the germs. With this we come to the end of this topic. Let us now move on to the next topic. The fourth news article of the day is Clean Supreme Court on Voting Rights of Undertales and Convicts. This news article appears in page number 7 in the Chennai, Delhi and Bengaluru editions and in page 9 of the Trivandrum edition. This topic will be useful for your prelims preparation on the rights issues in Indian polity and famous preparation in your general studies paper 3 under Indian Constitution as it mentions about the article 326 of Indian Constitution and next in functioning of Indian Judiciary as the Supreme Court has accepted the plea of the student. It can also come in general studies paper 2 in silent features of the representation of the People's Act. The article is regarding a plea filed in Supreme Court under the right to constitutional remedies in article 32 of Indian Constitution regarding the voting rights of Undertales and Convicts. This plea filed by a third year law student challenges the section 62 class 5 of the representation of People's Act 1951 as this section uses confinement as the yardstick for whether a person can vote or not in an election. This section states that no person shall vote any election if he or she is confined in a prison whether under a sentence of imprisonment or transportation or otherwise or is in the lawful custody of the police. Those who are confined in prisons or in police custody can be classified into four categories. They are remand prisoners, undertale prisoners, convicted prisoners and detainees. Remand prisoners are those prisoners who are arrested by police and are in judicial custody before the beginning of the trial in the court of law. Trial begins in a court after the submission of the charge sheet or the final report by an investigating officer. Undertale prisoners are those prisoners in judicial custody after the beginning of trial in the court of law but not yet proven guilty or innocent. A convicted prisoner is a person who was found guilty or convicted of committing offenses or under sentence of punishment of a court. In the above category except convicted prisoner all the others are not yet convicted but the section 62 class 5 keeps all these three in the same footing and those in bail are also not in the same footing with those undertales in the prison. Now detainees are those persons detained in prison that is preventive detention to prevent them from committing crime on the orders of the competent authority under the relevant preventive laws. Here we must note that the section 62 class 5 has made an exception that is a person subjected to preventive detention under any law as a right to vote. Those who are not yet convicted but are out on bail can exercise a right to vote as the confinement provision does not apply to them. Now the arguments are that the section treats both an undertrial and a convicted person equally. A person is innocent until proven guilty by law. It denies an undertrial the right to vote but allows a detainee the same right to vote. This provision violates the rights to equality and right to vote under article 326 of Indian Constitution and thus whatever stated as of now in the provision is arbitrary and thus the given restrictions to vote mentioned in the section is not a reasonable restriction. In this context let us now have a look at article 326 of the Indian Constitution. Article 326 deals with elections to the house of the people which is also called as Lokshaba and to the legislative assemblies of states which are to be based on adults of rich and the eligibility to be a registered voter at any such election. It states that only Indian citizens who are above the age of 18 and who are not disqualified under the constitution or any other law on the grounds of non-residents and soundness of mind and crime or corrupt or illegal practice are eligible to become a registered voter. Originally the constitution of India fixed the age eligibility as 21 for voting. This was changed by the 61st Constitutional Amendment Act of 1989. Have a look at the practice question. We shall discuss at the end of the session. Now let us move on to the next article. The fifth news article of the day is Heart Landing which has appeared in the editorial section in page number 8 in Chennai, Delhi and Bengaluru editions and in page 10 of the Trivandrum edition. This topic will be useful for a prelims preparation under current affairs of national and international significance and in economic development in particular and for mains preparation in a general studies paper 3 under effects of liberalization of the economy changes in industrial policy and their effects on industrial growth and next in infrastructure energy ports roads airports railways etc. Coming to the news article jet airways announced a temporary halt of its operations as funds to keep the airline going dried up. Banks have refused to provide emergency support and this is probably an indicator of burden that banks have already been facing. The collapse of jet has caused turbulence in the market and also has raised some serious questions over the domestic airline industry as more than half a dozen private airline companies have fallen by the wayside in the last decade like Air India, Kingfisher, Air Deccan etc. Overall the article highlights two main issues for the current crisis. One is the high fuel costs which account for about half of the expenses of running an airline and second is the high competition among the various players in the market which has resulted in undercutting each other on fares. It means that for example if spice jet reduces prices to a low then it forces other airlines also to cut their prices. This reduces the overall profitability of the airlines. Now let us understand the main issue that is plaguing the aviation sector that is the ATF issue. ATF stands for aviation turbine fuel. It is a specialized byproduct of petroleum used to power aircraft. Currently center imposes an excise duty on ATF. It has recently been reduced from 14 percent to 11 percent to relieve the burden on the airline industry. On top of this excise duty states impose VAT sales tax. This varies according to the states and can go up to as much as 29 percentage. This overburdening tax has been the main reason for rising fuel costs. Apart from this it is also influenced by the global oil price and currency fluctuations. Despite the introduction of GST few commodities like petrol diesel and also ATF have been kept out of it. This is mainly because of the opposition from states as they fear a loss in revenue. In this context it becomes important to know about the national civil aviation policy of 2016. Its vision is to make flying affordable and convenient and pave way for significant growth in the civil aviation sector. Further it aims to achieve the following. First increase the domestic ticketing to 30 crore by 2022 and to 50 crore by the year 2027. Similarly increase the international ticketing to 20 crore by 2027 and also increase the domestic passenger traffic by 4 fold to 300 million by the year 2022. One of its silent features is the scrapping of the existing 5 by 20 rule. According to this rule only local airlines having a fleet of minimum 20 aircrafts with at least 5 years of operational experience are only allowed to fly overseas which means abroad. Scrapping it creates a level playing field to the new players. It aims for a single window clearance system for all the aviation related transactions, complaints and queries in order to improve the ease of doing business. As a part of this policy the regional connectivity scheme in short RCS has also been introduced. Now let us look at about the regional connectivity scheme. It is also called as UDON that is Ude Deshka Am Nagrik. It was launched to develop the regional aviation market and is a vital component of the national civil aviation policy of 2016. It aims to make flying affordable by providing connectivity to the unserved and underserved airports of the country through revival of existing airstrips and airports so that persons in regional towns are able to take affordable flights. Airports authority of India is implementing agency for this scheme. It is applicable on flights covering distance between 200 kilometer and 800 kilometer. It seeks to reserve a minimum number of UDON seats that is seats at subsidized rates and also cab fare for short distance flights at Rs. 2500. For implementing the scheme it is based on a viability gap funding mechanism. Under it funding will be shared between the center and the states in the ratio of 80 is to 20. In case of the Northeastern states this ratio will be 90 is to 10. Finally before concluding the discussion vision 2040 document becomes important for prelims. The union minister of civil aviation released a vision 2040 document in the global aviation summit in 2019 organized in Mumbai with the theme flying for all. The vision document among its various recommendation has recommended two place airline turbine fuel under GST regime. With this we come to the end of this topic. Have a look at the practice main's question. We shall discuss at the end of the session. The final news article of the day is need to address growth challenges. This news article appears in page number 13 of the Chennai, Delhi and Bengaluru editions and in page 15 of the Trivandrum edition. This topic will be useful for a brilliant preparation on the current affairs of national and international significance and an economic development in particular. And for main's preparation in your general studies paper 3, under Indian economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth in particular and next effects of liberalization of the economy, changes in industrial policy and their effects on industrial growth. Moving on to the analysis. This news article has discussed the minutes of meeting that contains the remarks made by certain members of the monetary policy committee in their second bi-monthly meeting. The remarks largely contain the decisions taken by the members in the first bi-monthly meeting regarding the interest rate cuts where it was cut by 25 basis points. Four out of the six members of the monetary policy committee have voted in favor of a vote cut that includes RBI governor Shakti Kanthadas. Two members voted in favor of a status quo, that is not in favor of a rate cut, which means a no vote. It includes Viral Acharya, who is a deputy governor of RBI. RBI governor Shakti Kanthadas had favored a rate cut as remarked that despite inflation outlook remaining gentle and headline inflation remaining below the RBI target, it is necessary to address the challenges to the sustained growth of the Indian economy. The deputy RBI governor Viral Acharya, who preferred a status quo as highlighted the risks of stubborn core inflation. We have now seen some economy related terms like monetary policy committee, headline inflation and core inflation. Let us now see them about them in brief. First, let us see about the Monetary Policy Committee. The Monetary Policy Committee determines the monetary policy parameters. I have discussed in detail about the various parameters or instruments of monetary policy on 14th April session. Just have a look at the topic for further subject clarity. This Monetary Policy Committee should meet at least four times in a year. It is an executive body consisting of six members, three from RBI and three nominated by the central government. The chairperson of this Monetary Policy Committee is the governor of RBI. Let us now what is meant by inflation. Inflation is the upward movement or increase in the general prices of goods and services and is estimated as the percentage rate of change in a price index over the reference time period. Here, the price index can be wholesale price index or consumer price index and the reference time period is nothing but the base year taken for calculation. For example, take the base year as 2012. If a commodity which is costed rupees 10 has now become rupees 20 by this year that is 2019, then there is a price rise of 100% for example when compared with the 2012 price that is rupees 10. Just take this as a rough example. This is how the values are arrived at. These values can be a normal one or on a higher scale. You can often see the term base effect in newspapers. It is this calculation only. Let us now see about headline inflation. Headline inflation is a measure of total price rise within an economy. The price index taken for calculation in India is the consumer price index which is CPI combined. Initially, India calculated using WPA or the wholesale price index but it is no longer used. When we tell total price rise, it includes the entire commodities including your food and energy component. The target for headline inflation is fixed at 4 plus or minus 2% that is a lower tolerance limit of 2% and an upper tolerance limit of 6%. The base year for CPI or the consumer price index is 2012. Remember these three from prelims point of view. Let us now see about core inflation. Core inflation is a measure of price rise in the economy excluding certain commodities. These include food and energy component. Food includes fruits and vegetables and energy also includes a gas and oil. Their prices are volatile and are largely seasonal or temporary in nature. So the core inflation can also be said as headline inflation minus food and energy. With this we come to the end of this topic. Now for prelims preparation in particular, try to know about the monetary policy committee, headline inflation and core inflation in particular. Have a look at the practice question we shall discuss at the end of the session. With this we come to the end of today's analysis. Let us now move on to the practice questions discussion session. Let us start with the first question. Consider the following statements. Statement 1. Human genome was first sequenced in the year 2003. Statement 2. Genome Valley is India's first organized pharma biotech cluster for life sciences in the year 2018. Here the first statement is correct. After the completion of human genome project in 2003, the first genome was successfully sequenced. The second statement is incorrect. It was established in the year 1999 in Hyderabad. This has already been discussed in our analysis. So the correct answer is option A 1 only. Next practice question. With reference to CSIR, consider the following statements. It is an autonomous body established through Society's Registration Act of 1860. Statement 2. It is presided by Minister of Science and Technology of the Government of India. Here the first statement is correct. This was already discussed in our analysis. CSIR despite receiving its funding from Ministry of Science and Technology operates as an autonomous body under the Society's Registration Act of 1860. So the statement 1 is correct. The second statement is incorrect. It is presided by the Prime Minister of India, not the Minister of Science and Technology of the Government of India. So the correct answer is option A 1 only. Let us now move on to the third practice question. Right to travel abroad is an implied right under right to life and personal liberty. Which of the following in the Constitution of India appropriately imply the above statement? In the recent order given by Supreme Court and more importantly in Mrs. Menaka Gandhi v. Union of India case, the court has stated that the right to travel abroad is an implied right under right to life and personal liberty. Article 21 of the Indian Constitution which comes under the right to freedom set of rights in part 3 of the Indian Constitution deals with this protection of life and personal liberty. Therefore, option B article 21 and the freedoms guaranteed in part 3 becomes the correct answer. Let us see the fourth question. Consider the following statements. Statement 1, according to section 62 class 5 of the representation of people's act 1951, those who are in confinement under a sentence of a court are not eligible to vote any election. Statement 2 reads article 326 of Indian Constitution deals with elections of the lower house, state legislative assemblies and local body elections. Here the first statement is correct and the point is stated clearly in section 362 class 5 of the representation of the people's act 1951. The second statement is only partly correct. The article 326 of Indian Constitution deals with elections of the lower house and state legislative assemblies only. It does not deal with the local body elections. Therefore, the statement is wrong. Thus, the correct answer is option A 1 only. The fifth practice question. Consider the following statements regarding headline inflation. Statement 1, it is a measure of the total inflation or the price rise within an economy. Statement 2 is CPI combined is considered to measure the headline inflation and in statement 3 the base year fixed for headline inflation is 2012. First statement is correct. It is the definition of headline inflation so it is correct. And the second statement is also correct. CPI combined is considered to measure the headline inflation. In the third statement headline inflation measure is nothing but the CPI combined and the base year for the CPI combined is 2012. Hence, the base year for headline inflation is also 2012. So, the statement is correct. So, the correct answer here is option D 1, 2 and 3. Let us now see the practice main question. What is aviation turbine fuel or ATF and how it affects the airline industry? Discuss the national civil aviation policy of 2016. For the first part of the question, mention that ATF is a fuel that powers aircrafts and ATF costs account to half of the total airline costs. Also say that this has been the main issue that has been hitting the airline industry since a long time. For the second part, highlight the points from a discussion in the answer like scrapping of the 5 by 20 rule and your regional connectivity scheme, etc. With this, we come to the end of today's session. 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