 Good evening aspirants welcome to the hindu news analysis by Shankar A.S academy for the date 27th of November 2022 displayed here are the list of news articles we will be going through today now without wasting time let's get into the discussion look at this article this article talks about sacred grooves the news is that the sacred grooves in Tamil Nadu are being recreated this is because recently the sacred grooves are shrinking this is due various reasons like encroachment spread of invasive species and human interference sacred grooves consist of many intimate and endangered species so it should be protected this is about the news article in this context let us discuss about sacred grooves in brief first of all what are sacred grooves according to UNESCO sacred grooves are a area of natural vegetation which are preserved through local taboos and they have spiritual and ecological values sacred grooves are dedicated mostly to local deities or tree spirits so basically sacred grooves are piece of land which are protected by the community due to religious reasons see in Tamil Nadu here we have a concept called Covil card which literally translates to temple forest so every small temple will have a land associated with it and this land will have a small forest and it will be protected for religious reasons although it is protected only for religious reasons it also have ecological values to it this is about sacred grooves so why do people protect the sacred grooves people believe that any kind of disturbance will offend the local deity they also believe that if at all the sacred grooves are affected or damaged it will result in disease natural calamities or failure of crops so they vigorously try to protect the sacred grooves but here you have to understand one thing this concept of sacred grooves is not a uniform entity every place will have its sacred grooves and every place will protect it with various degree in some place people are allowed to collect firewood and fruits from the trees but in some cases the sacred grooves are very strictly protected even the folly age or even fallen fruits are not touched so understand one thing this sacred grooves is not a uniform entity it varies from place to place having understood about the sacred grooves now let us see the significance of them first is ecological value the sacred grooves help in the protection of a number of rare endangered and endemic species so these sacred grooves are considered as important repositories of flora and fauna diversity also in case of sacred grooves it is the local community that come together and protect them in a sustainable manner this is the first significance the second important significance is protection of the soil the vegetation in the sacred grooves improves the soil stability by preventing soil erosion the last major advantage is enhancing the water table the sacred grooves are often associated with ponds streams or springs these support the water requirement of the local people and the vegetative cover of the sacred grooves helps in recharging the aquifiers also so these are the three main significance of sacred grooves moving on let us see the threats the sacred grooves are facing first and the most important threat is people's traditional beliefs are disappearing see in my family also in my generation I have moved to the urban area I am not having any connect with my rural background so even my traditional belief is disappearing because I am not able to visit my native rural area so due to this the concept of sacred grooves is also disappearing people are not attaching the religious values that sacred grooves wounds had so due to this the sacred grooves are fast disappearing the second important threat is rapid urbanization see in Chennai if you see like 20 years back it used to be little small no Chennai is fast expanding while it is expanding it is consuming the nearby villages since it is consuming the nearby villages due to the need of development activity these sacred grooves are destroyed this is the second threat faced by the sacred grooves next is invasive species it is one of the important threat faced by the sacred grooves these invasive species they do not allow the native trees in the sacred grooves to flourish so this affects the growth of native plants in the sacred grooves the last major threat is increase in pressure on the sacred grooves due to livestock and fuel would collection so these areas since population is fast increasing the need for fuel it is also increasing and people indiscriminately cut down the trees in the sacred grooves for their fuel would needs so this is also a major threat so these are the four major threats that the sacred grooves are facing no question arises is there a legal protection available to protect these important sacred grooves the answer is there is no direct legal protection but they are protected under the community resource and this comes under the wildlife protection amendment act 2002 so basically they are indirectly protected as a community reserve under wildlife protection amendment act 2002 so to protect these important sacred grooves the government must give them legal protection this will help to conserve sacred grooves in a long run so that's all regarding this discussion in this discussion we saw what is sacred grooves initially after that we saw the significance then we saw the threats faced by the sacred grooves and finally we saw the legal protection that is available to sacred grooves with this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article let us take up this article for our next discussion it talks about sleep I know sleep is a rare bird in the life of an aspirant but having a fixed amount of sleep is important for many reasons it is what is discussed in this article so to understand why we need a good sleep and how to get it let us see some basic concepts around sleep sleep is a basic human need it is essential for good health good quality of life and performing well during the day although we may feel that sleep simply rest our tired bodies our brain remains active throughout the night sleep plays an critical role in brain as well as physical functioning so how much sleep do we need according to the recommendation of american academy of sleep medicine and sleep research society you need this much amount of sleep as per your age you can go through it so what happens when you are sleep deprived you all know the answer already let me just point it out first is there will be physical effects like sleepiness fatigue and hypertension it will also lead to cognitive impairment like deterioration of performance deterioration of attention deterioration of motivation diminishment of mental concentration and intellectual capacity it also leads to other mental health complication also overall lack of sleep empires the ability to think to handle stress to maintain a healthy immune system and to moderate emotion sleep is given such a importance that there is a separate stream in medicine called the sleep medicine here you should know that there are two main states in sleep one is non-rapid eye movement that is non-rem and the other is rapid eye movement sleep which is rem first why is it based on eye movement because in the 1950s it was discovered that at certain points during the day the sleepers eye are moving behind the closed lids this movement was in similar manner as to eye movement that occurs when we are awake most often such eye movements meant that the individuals are dreaming so the scientist understood that while we are sleeping there is an active sleep phase and quiet sleep phase yes your assumption is right non-rem sleep is the quiet phase and rem sleep is the active phase interestingly non-rem and rem alternate in cycles each of them last for approximately 90 minutes scientists say that we go through these phases for about four to six times throughout the night and it is not uncommon to wake up between the cycles now let us understand about non-rem and rem sleep know that sleep normally begins with non-rem sleep in non-rem sleep there are different stages in one stage sleeper lies quietly on the bed and the brain waves are slow and regular your breathing your heart rate and muscle movement slows down your body temperature starts to drop in the final stage of non-rem sleep we are in the deep sleep state what happens when you are in the deep sleep the heart rate and the breathing are the slowest during this phase but note that you are not easily awakened when you are in the deep sleep during the deep sleep only events of the day are processed and stored in your memory so a lack of deep sleep can leave anyone feeling tired in the morning even if they achieve an adequate duration of sleep so note that the duration of sleep is not important but the quality of sleep is important so aspirants my advice to us to have a long-term memory that will boost your glimpse and main score have a quality sleep and also manage a decent time limit for sleep okay now coming back the rem sleep tends to occur later at night and into early mornings in this state also memory is processed and stored in rem state the brain waves look quite closely to those recorded during wakefulness in this state some could experience twitches and short movements so this is when your pupils twitch and move quickly side to side beneath your closed eyelids it means in this state you have high brain activity with fast breathing and increased heart rate so this is the phase when dreams are most common but we do not act out during the dream but the thing is that we do not physically move during our dream why is that because certain nerves signal your limbs to become temporarily paralyzed during your dreaming process so this stops you from acting out your dream overall rem sleep accounts for 20% and has dreams while non-rem sleep is for 80% of this time the conclusion is that the target one should have is deep sleep and not just sleep okay so that's all regarding this discussion with this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article take a look at this FAQ article it talks about the crisis in the Darjeeling tea industry the article says that the tea board has asked for the help of the government for a monetary support of thousand crore for a period of five years to revive back the tea industry in Darjeeling this is about the article given here in this context let us turn about the soil condition topography and climate required for growth of tea also we will see about the distribution of tea industry around the world with specific emphasis on India and finally we will see specifically about the Darjeeling tea industry before getting into the discussion i have highlighted here the syllabus regarding this discussion you can go through it now let us start let us start with the conditions required for tea cultivation the tea plants grow best in the tropical and subtropical climate here tropical climate denotes the region which stretches from the geographic zone of equator to the tropic of cancer in the north while in the south it stretches from equator to the tropic of Capricorn and subtropical climate refers to the region between 23.5 degree north and south latitude to approximately 35 degree north and south latitude so basically we can say that tea can grow best in the areas between equator to 35 degree north and south latitudes here also note that in some rare cases in some parts of the world tea is grown beyond 35 degree north and south latitudes also this is all about the geographic extent of the tea cultivation now coming to the soil and climatic conditions required for tea you have to note here that the tea bushes require warm moist and frost free climate for its growth the temperature of the region must be between 20 degree to 30 degree Celsius and the annual rainfall must be in the range of 150 to 250 centimeter frequent showers evenly distributed over the year ensures continuous growth of the tender leaves of the tea this is about the climatic condition now let us see the soil conditions required for tea cultivation tea requires deep fertile well-drained soil which must be rich in humus and organic matter for ideal growth of the plant so gently rolling topography in uplands is favorable for the tea cultivation here the term rolling topography means any landform that is not high enough to be considered a mountain so basically a small hillock may be considered as rolling topography okay now coming to the altitude within which tea grows tea worldwide generally grows in regions within the altitude of 2150 meters here let me give you an exciting fact the world's highest growing tea plantation is located in india do you know where it is located the world's highest tea plantation is located in the kerala tamilnadu border in the region of kalugumalai kalugumalai is a small hamlet in the border naik node thalug in the taini district of tamilnadu the tea grown here possess a special flavor and freshness because of the high altitude of the place it is situated near munar now coming back see these are all the geographic conditions required for the growth of tea now let us see the distribution of tea cultivation in the world the tea producing countries around the world are given here you can have a look at it by looking at it you can identify that china produces the highest quantity of tea in the world and it is followed by india and it is followed by kenya now let us shift our attention towards tea production in india have a look at this map you can clearly see the tea producing states present in india the major tea producing states in india are asam vespingal tamilnadu and kerala there was a question in this year problems regarding tea producing states in india let me do the question four states are given we have to find which of these four states are tea producing states the answer for the question is option d all four states that is andhra pradesh kerala himachal pradesh and thirupura are tea producing states this question was directly picked from your ncrt contemporary india too if you had read and revised ncrt's multiple times then you can easily answer question like this i have displayed the exact text where the question is taken here you can verify it now coming back let us see what is the points discussed in the faq article the article says that due to india napal trade relations which allows for cheap import duties on napal tea there has been huge influx of napal tea into india and this has resulted in affecting the darjeeling tea industry the article says that the tea imported into india is repackaged and exported out of india as darjeeling tea since napal tea is of low quality exporting it under the brand name of darjeeling tea has affected the brand image of darjeeling tea worldwide apart from this the tea plantation in darjeeling are also facing an acute labour shortage and rising input cost climate change is also affecting the tea industry in darjeeling area and all these factors has resulted in low production of tea from darjeeling these are the problems associated with darjeeling tea industry as per the article the article also makes another revelation the article says that tea production in dua region is four times higher than what it is in the darjeeling region here dua refers to a region present between the foothills of himalayas and the northern brahmaputra river basin this region is about 30 kilometer wide and stretches over about 350 kilometers from the tea star river in west Bengal to dhansiri river in asam here note that darjeeling is located on the western side of tea star river the article also provides some suggestions to address the problems that the darjeeling tea industry faces it says that tea planters of darjeeling were the government to restrict the influx of tea from napal here the standing committee of parliament has said that government should review and revisit the indonapal treaty that is allowing for the cheaper tea imports from napal so basically indonapal treaty that allowed for cheap import of napal tea must be revisited and amended okay apart from this the standing committee of the parliament also suggested that the small tea growers of the darjeeling should be recognized as gi registered producers so that they can get premium price for their tea secondly the industry experts called for raising the domestic consumption of tea in india the per capita tea consumption in our country remains at 850 grams per year and it is less than our neighboring countries so if we increase the domestic tea consumption the tea cultivators can get premium prices due to the increased demand so these two are the important suggestions mentioned in the news article to address the crisis that is affecting the darjeeling tea so that's all regarding this discussion in this discussion we saw about tea plantation we saw where it grows we saw the clay made soil and topography required for tea cultivation we also saw the distribution of tea cultivation in the world and in also in india then we saw the problems affecting the darjeeling tea industry and we also saw some solution to address the problems so that's all regarding this discussion with this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article look at this news article the article says that a new species of corals are found near australia it is nothing but black corals they are discovered below the surface of the great barrier reefs off the coast of australia this is about the news article in this context let us discuss about the black corals black corals are a group of corals that belong to the order antipatharia they are found all over the world under all depths although they are found in all depths they mainly inhibit the deeper parts of the ocean since they are found mainly in the deeper parts of the ocean the black corals are also called as deep sea corals here you have to know that black corals are rarely black in color but why does this corals have the name black with it even though it is rarely black in color this is because as i already said these corals are found in the deeper parts of the ocean since they are found in the deeper parts of the ocean they do not receive enough sunlight and since sunlight doesn't penetrate to the deeper parts of the ocean the condition in the deeper part says it is mostly dark in color so these corals get the name black corals i have displayed some black corals here you can see that these corals are found in various shapes and sizes now i hope you have a basic understanding about black corals now we will see the difference between black corals and shallow water corals the black corals greatly differ from the shallow water corals they differ in terms of their skeleton all black corals have a skeleton made up of protein and chitin this is same as the material that makes up the insect skeleton in addition to this black corals do not have a symbiotic algae associated with them and they do not require light and as i already said black corals are located in the deeper parts of the ocean now you might have a question they do not have a symbiotic algae associated with it also they do not require sunlight for their growth but how come these black corals get nourished see black corals are filter feeders and they eat the tiny zoo santhole that is found in the deeper parts of the ocean so by consuming the zoo santhole or zoo plankton they get their nourishment they do not use sunlight to produce their nutrition okay having seen this now let us see the distribution of black corals black corals are found across the globe in oceans from arctic to Antarctic they are particularly common in the tropical and subtropical region at depths below 50 meter here you have to note that they are found from depths below 50 meter and up to the deepest depths of the ocean in some cases they are found at the depths of 4000 meters below sea level and in some cases these corals are known to exist for over thousands of years okay these corals are generally found in areas with hard substrate low light and strong currents this is about the distribution of black corals now let us see the significance of black corals see as i already said these black corals live for a long period of time so by studying the black corals scientists can understand the changes that are made in the environment over the time period just like trees rings are formed in the skeleton of these corals as they grow and these rings capture the chemical nature of the environment and this allow the scientists to learn about the past oceanic environment this is the first significance of black corals in addition to this like the shallow water corals black corals also provide shelter to the deep sea fishes and bottom crawlers currently black corals are also harvested for making jewellery these are the three major significance of black corals so that's all regarding this discussion in this discussion we basically saw what is black corals why it has the name black coral then we saw where black corals are distributed in the world after that we saw the significance of black corals so that's all regarding this discussion with this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article our next discussion is going to be on a topic that is most analyzed and a delicate one apart from analyzing whether it is right or wrong or whether it should be criminalized or not the current government has finally realized that it's a problem affecting the youths and it needs to be addressed yes i am talking about suicides the acknowledgement of suicides as a problem has led to the formulation of national strategy for suicide prevention this FAQ has examined the strategy a few days ago we had a brief discussion on this topic today let us have a comprehensive discussion where i will be talking about the need for such a strategy its key elements and aspects what it is aiming to do does it have a target to achieve etc let's start suicide is a serious public health problem and more particularly a public mental health problem it not only takes the life of an individual permanently but also dramatically affects those around the individual like their families friends and communities what we fail to understand is often suicide is not an impulsive decision in the moment of crisis but it is also connected to other forms of injury and violence let me explain now for example people who have experienced child abuse bullying or sexual violence have a higher suicide risk the link between suicide and mental disorder is also well known more importantly suicide is preventable with intervention such an intervention should be timely and evidence based it should also have a scientific basis you may wonder is it that prevalent that needs such attention the answer is yes it is because suicide is more common than we know and we acknowledge w-h shows global estimate says that more than seven lakh people die every year due to suicide it is also the fourth leading cause of death among the young generation that is 15 to 29 year olds so the youth are particularly vulnerable to suicide if we see a country wise data it could be understood that most of the suicides that is around 77 percent occur in low income and middle income countries it also means that developed countries also face this problem to some level there they have country level strategies to ensure suicide prevention additionally w-h show has a well-devised approach it is the live life approach the approach recommends certain key effective evidence based interventions let me briefly say what are they first and foremost is limited access to the means of suicide that is limited access to pesticides firearms certain medication etc then promoting social emotional life skills in adolescence apart from this focus is given to monitoring of anyone who is affected by suicidal behaviors this includes early identification assessment management and follow up of such individuals interacting with media for responsible reporting of suicide is also one of the strategies this is about the live life approach of w-h show now let us come to india if you look at the india level data the scenario is worrisome india has a higher burden of suicide why i said worrisome because we are not just only a lower middle income country but also the country with the world's leading youth population as per youth in india report 2017 we already saw that youth are particularly vulnerable to suicide in india also the number one cause of death among those aged 15 to 29 years is suicide data also suggests that india's contribution to global suicide has increased it increased from 25.3 percentage in 1990 to 36.6 percentage in 2016 among women and from 18.7 percentage to 24.3 percentage among men what does this data mean it means that one in three women dying from suicide across the world is from india and one in four men dying from suicide across the world is from india if you want more specific data we can have a look at the national crime records bureau report the ncrb has a separate report for this which is the accidental deaths and suicides in india report it contains information on deaths due to accidents and suicides with respect to suicides there is information based on cause such as bankruptcy illicit relations illness dowry disputes divorce failure in examination family problems unemployment etc we can also find details of professional educational and social profiles of suicide victims now as per the latest accidental deaths and suicides in india 2021 report suicide rate in india has increased and it is 12 per 1 lakh population as of 2021 here you can see the increase of 7.2 percentage from 2020 in terms of number of suicides if you think about it you can definitely attribute this increase to the pandemic and pandemic induced lockdowns why pandemic is a reason here because there were many disruptions and uncertainties which affected the mental health of the people during the pandemic induced lockdowns see this graph shows the states and the unit territories which has higher suicide rates than national average many states have double the suicide rates than that of national average even city wise data shows the same trend it is also much higher than national average it is at 16.1 percentage among the reasons for suicide a mere three reasons accounted for maximum of suicides of around 56.6 percentage of total suicides they are family problems marriage related problems and illness other problems are given in the pie chart here for your understanding and if you find the gender gap splitwise the suicide victims are mostly males if you consider the educational qualification what category do you think accounts for higher rate of suicide victims take a guess it is a common misconception that most suicide victims are well educated the table is an example and it is not you can find the employment wise data in this next representation note the fact that housewives account for 14.1 percent of suicides in our country you can use this data to substantiate why women running households need to be given attention it can also be a valid point for the need of wages for housewives from the above discussion you can understand that age literacy level employment status social status gender see all these issues need to be addressed to effectively address suicide and yes we can agree that Indian government is on the right track as the national strategy is also on the lines of prevention is better than cure the national strategy for suicide prevention is a multiple stakeholder framework you can see the stakeholders in the image it is the first such national strategy that considers preventing suicide as a public health priority it will implement activities for prevention of suicides basically it sets the stage for facilitation and coordination of efforts of all the relevant sectors and stakeholders so do we have a target to achieve yes the strategy aims to reduce suicide mortality by 10 percent by the year 2030 to achieve this the national strategy has three objectives first is to establish effective surveillance mechanism for suicide within the next three years then to establish psychiatric outpatient department in all the districts within next five years this outpatient department will provide suicide prevention services it will be implemented through the district mental health program it also aims to integrate mental well-being curriculum in all the educational institutions within the next eight years so the children and the youth population will know how to handle any emotional outburst and mental disorders like depression now let us see some of the key elements of the national strategy first of all it is in line with the WHO's south east asia regional strategy for suicide prevention so the evidence-based intervention of WHO have been inculcated in the strategy it also provides a special focus to prevent suicides during pandemic such as COVID-19 pandemic it follows the reds path approach reds here stands for reinforce enhance develop and strengthen these four are priority areas let me tell about what the reds path mean reinforce will include policy calls for establishing guidelines of responsible media reporting of suicides and restricting access to means of suicide then under enhancing capacity they will establish crisis intervention centers and health plans under developing community resilience they will create awareness and under surveillance they will monitor mental health of the population and impacts of mental health programs then comes the action framework or action plan for every objective the action framework delineates different strategies actions indicators key stakeholders and the timeline the strategies are action needs to be achieved so it is a time-bound action plan let me take an example here we saw under reinforce the priority is media should responsibly report suicides so this responsible reporting by media will be the strategy where the action will include strict implementation of guidelines of press council of India the key stakeholder responsible for this would be ministry of information broadcasting the indicator which will show whether the action is done or not will be number of complaints against irresponsible reporting by media finally the timeline to do these is immediate meaning the outcome should be achieved within one to three years like this action plan has a detailed framework for all the objectives another point to note here is that all the plans or strategies will be implemented by using the current field level infrastructure finally the other key element of the strategy is that it has identified the crucial challenges and opportunities in implementing the strategies so all these shows that there is a strong political will to prevent suicides in our country but we should not forget that only action speaks so whatever is listed out in the strategy should be implemented to effectively prevent suicides in our country so that's all regarding this discussion in this discussion we saw some data about suicides in India then we saw about the major causes of suicides in India then we saw the important strategy and action plan mentioned in the national suicide prevention strategy so that's all regarding this discussion with this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article have a look at this article it talks about the need for India to tap its resource potential of rare earth elements the article says that even though India is having six percent of world's rare earth reserves it only produces about one percent of global output of rare earth elements the article also talks about the dependence of India on China for its rare earth element needs this is about the news article given here in this context let us learn about rare earth elements in detail and also about the worldwide distribution of rare earth elements and also about the present day importance first what are rare earth elements rare earth elements are a set of 17 metallic elements these include 15 lanthanides on the periodic table plus scandium and yttrium no coming to the nomenclature are rare earth elements truly rare in the earth's crust actually no the rare earth elements are actually abundant in the earth crust but the thing is that it is difficult to mine this is because it is unusual to find them in concentration high enough for economical extraction this is why these 17 elements gets the name rare earth elements okay now let us see the distribution of rare earth elements around the world see this infograph here the pie chart shows the global rare earth element reserve distribution while the bar graph shows the actual production of rare earth element by the country's present worldwide from this pie chart you can see that Vietnam although having second largest rare earth element reserve the final output it produces is less than one percent of global output now look at this graph this chart shows the history of rare earth element production in metric tens of rare earth element oxide equivalent this is from 1952 2021 and you can observe that the top competitors are usa and china here you have to note one thing usa only has two percent of global rare earth element resource but it is in the second position in total global output of rare earth element this is between the year 1955 to 2020 this is where today's article becomes important because countries like india even though having sufficient rare earth element resource are not able to mine them due to various constraints as per the article to come out of this situation industry leaders in india have urged the government to encourage private sector mining in the field of rare earth elements there was also a proposal to bring india rare earth mission in the likes of india semiconductor mission to make rare earth element exploration a critical component of deep portion mission plan of the government apart from this the confederation of indian industries said to the government that the rare earth element should not be held captive to the indian civil nuclear program the industry body has also recommended that the public sector firm that is the indian rare earth limited administered by the department of atomic energy should be split into two entities while the indian rare earth element limited primarily focuses on thorium mining cia that is the confederation of indian industry suggested that the second entity could pursue other minerals of the rare earth elements so this separation should be done so that the department of atomic energy has exclusive control over the mining and exploration of thorium the private sector can focus on mining and exploration of other commercially available rare earth elements this will help in increasing the indias production capacity of rare earth elements this is about the suggestion made by cia which is mentioned in the news article now before ending our discussion we will see where the rare earth element reserves are present in india look at this map this map shows the states in india which have sufficient reserves of rare earth elements so just pause the video and make note of all the states mentioned here now we will also see the applications of rare earth elements rare earth elements are used in variety of industrial application including electronics clean energy aerospace automotive industry and defense sector manufacturing permanent magnets is the single largest and the most important induce of rare earth elements accounting for 30 percent of the demand in 2020 this is about some of the applications of rare earth element in a future video we will exclusively deal with the applications of rare earth element in detail now that's all regarding this discussion here we saw about what is rare earth element global distribution of rare earth element then we also saw where it is distributed in india we also saw two suggestions that is made by the confederation of indian industries finally we saw an application of rare earth element with this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article look at this article the article talks about the measles outbreak in mumbai so in this context in this discussion we will see about measles measles is a airborne disease caused by a virus called as paramexovirus it is highly contagious when we say highly contagious this means that the infection can spread from one person to another easily so note that human to human transmission of measles infection is very much possible but how it is transmitted measles can be transmitted through the droplets from the nose mouth or throat of the infected person to a healthy individual these droplets can spread the disease even when they are released in the air they can be spread by the injection of the virus in the environment by sneezing or coughing so measles can be also called as communicable disease know what are all the symptoms of measles some of the symptoms of measles include fever cough conjunctivities and common cold also it can lead to serious health complications such as blindness encephalitis severe diarrhea ear infection and even in some cases pneumonia okay these are all the overall symptoms of measles note that severe measles is most likely associated with poorly nourished young children mainly those with insufficient vitamin a severe measles is also associated with children whose immune system is weakened by human immunodeficiency virus or other diseases since measles is particularly affecting the children who calls this disease as a killer childhood disease so till now we saw about measles and its symptoms and we know that it is a deadly disease but how can we address this disease one of the cheapest and the most effective way to address this disease is through prevention here prevention is ensued by following the vaccination schedule now we will see what kind of vaccine is used in India in India we use measles rubella vaccine or mr vaccine this is to prevent measles and rubella jointly how many doses are needed to prevent measles two doses of mr vaccine is administered to the children first dose of the mr vaccine is administered once nine months of age is completed then the second dose of mr vaccine is administered between 16 to 24 months of age of the child another combination of vaccine to address measles is measles mums rubella vaccine so this is about the prevention strategy for measles now let us take up the news article due to covid 19 there was less immunization among children the recent outbreak of measles in Mumbai is reported due to the lower immunization brought about by covid 19 lockdown and not only in Mumbai in Bihar Gujarat Haryana Jharkhand and Kerala also the number of measles cases are increasing this is because most beneficiaries in these regions are not vaccinated yet and other than the covid 19 pandemic there are two more reasons for lower immunization one is due to disruption in vaccination services and the other one is hesitancy among the parents to get their children vaccinated scientific evidence suggests that unvaccinated children have nearly 70 percent higher mortality risk compared to vaccinated children it is to be noted that the efficacy of the measles vaccination is estimated around 85 percent when the first dose is administered at nine months then it raises to around 95 percent when the second dose is administered so completing two doses of mr vaccine is an effective prevention strategy for measles the news article says that not only in these states many states in India there is a possibility of outbreak of measles so proper immunization should be done and awareness regarding this immunization benefits have to be spread to people to prevent the vaccine hesitancy among people so that's all regarding this discussion in this discussion we saw about measles its symptoms and its prevention strategies we also saw about the recent measles outbreak in Mumbai so that's all regarding this discussion with this we have come to the end of the news article discussion now let us take up the practice prelims questions we have six practice prelims questions today let us see them one by one let us take up the first question it is a pair based question one side local names of sacred gross is given another side the states are given you have to find the correct pairs actually all the three pairs given here are correctly matched in chat is good the sacred gross are called as devagudi in kerala it is called as kavu and in rajasthan it is called as urans so the correct answer here is option c all three pairs here i have displayed the different names of sacred gross in different regions you can pass the video and take note of it moving on to the next question it is a two statement question regarding corals we have to find the correct statement let us take up the first statement snowflake corals have many medicinal benefits see this statement is incorrect because snowflake corals are invasive species from hawaii it is a native of the tropical western atlantic and caribbean since 1972 when it was first described as a invasive species it has spread to australia thailand indonesia and philippines it is considered an invasive species because it has the capacity to dominate space and grow out other marine organism it is known to inhibit reefs and underwater structures such as shipwreck then it can also attach itself to metals concrete and even plastic in india it has been reported from andaman nikoba islands gulf of mannar gulf of kutch and goa so it possesses various threat to the ecosystem since it has the capacity to thickly settle and occupy a variety of surfaces it can destabilize the marine ecosystem it can grow out the local marine organisms like corals algae sponges etc and it adversely affect the richness of the local biodiversity so statement one once again is incorrect moving on to statement two black corals are also known as deep sea corals this we saw in the discussion itself black corals are indeed known as deep sea corals so statement two is correct so since statement one is incorrect and statement two is correct the correct answer here is option b two only moving on to the third question four diseases are given we have to find for which of the diseases vaccine is provided under mission indra dhanush here first let us briefly revise about mission indra dhanush mission indra dhanush was launched to fully immunize more than 89 lakh children's who are either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated under the universal immunization program it provides vaccination against 12 vaccine preventable diseases the diseases are tuberculosis diphtheria petruces tetanus polio hepatitis b pneumonia and meningitis due to hemophilus influence measles rubella japanese encephalitis and rotavirus diarrhea so all the five diseases mentioned in the question is covered under mission indra dhanush so the correct answer here is option d all of the above moving on to the next question here neurotransmitters and hormones are listed we have to find which of these four promote sleep let us take up the first one which is GABA GABA is nothing but gamma amino butyric acid it is the main inhibitor neurotransmitter in the mammalian brain it blocks or prevents the chemical messages from being passed any further so GABA is a neurotransmitter that decreases the nerve cell activity and plays an important role in allowing the bodies to sleep so GABA promotes sleep the second thing is adenosine adenosine is also another neurotransmitter that gradually accumulates in the brain during the day at high concentration it makes us sleepy at night but note that caffeine in coffee and other beverages can keep us awake as it blocks brain receptors for adenosine so adenosine is also another neurotransmitter that promotes sleep so two is also correct third is melatonin which we all know it is an important neurotransmitter that promotes sleep but the fourth one that is cortisol is wrong see cortisol is a hormone that is secreted in response to stress and causes our body to be awakened alert it does not promote sleep so here the correct answer is option c one two and three only moving on to the next question here four types of t are given we have to find which among the four t's have GI tag first let us take Darjeeling tea Darjeeling tea is the first product to be provided GI tag in India in the year 2004 it is an important fact make note of it and second is Assam tea actually Assam tea has not gotten any GI tag till now so second one is wrong third is Kangra tea Kangra tea is also provided with the GI tag Kangra is located in Himachal Pradesh and tea gardens present in Kangra produce black tea and green tea and Kangra tea was given GI tag in 2005 the fourth tea mentioned in the question is Neil Grease tea and it also does not have GI tag so the correct answer for this question is option c one and three only moving on to the last question see this is a quiz question for you it is based on our rare earth element discussion so interested aspirants can post the answer for this question in the comment section the main question based on today's discussion is displayed here interested aspirants can write the answer and post it in the comment section if you like today's video like comment and share it with your friends for more updates regarding UPSC preparation you can subscribe to Shankara IS Academy's YouTube channel thank you for listening