 Good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindi News Analysis by Shankar Ayes Academy for the date 24th May 2019. The list of articles which has been chosen for today's analysis along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Tiruvannanthapuram Medicines are provided here. The link for the handwritten notes in the PDF format and the time stamping for the displayed articles is provided in the description box below and for the benefit of smartphone users the time stamping is also provided in the comments section. Let's move on to our first article discussion. This article has appeared on page 20 in Chennai, Bengaluru and Tiruvannathapuram edition. The discussion under this article will be relevant in prelims preparation under current events of national and international importance then in general issues on climate change and then also in general science. The discussion will also be relevant in main syllabus under GS paper 2 in agreements involving India and or affecting India's interest then also in GS paper 3 under environmental pollution and degradation. Stepping into the main discussion, the article discusses about a study which pinpoints the source of ozone depleting gas. It was found that emissions of a gas that harms the ozone layer that is the CFC Levin are coming from eastern China. In China the emission was primarily coming from two heavily industrialized provinces. They are Shandong and Hebei provinces. Even a year ago in 2018 another study reported new global emissions of gas that is the emission of CFC Levin but at that time the source was not clear. The study could only locate the source as East Asia. Now after this new study it is expected that the new research will add to the international pressure on the Chinese government to curtail the illegal use of CFC Levin. It was being used for making or manufacturing foam insulation. It is to be noted that China is a signatory to the Montreal Protocol and has agreed to phase out production of CFC Levin in 2010. Here phase out means to stop production. Now in this context let us understand about the ozone depleting gases CFC Levin and Montreal Protocol from the examination point of view. Now let us first know what is ozone? Ozone or O3 is a gas which is present naturally within earth's atmosphere. It is formed of three oxygen atoms that is why its chemical formula is O3. Its structure is much less stable than oxygen and is therefore much more reactive. This means it can be more easily formed and broken down through interaction with other compounds. So the ozone layer can be depleted and broken down through its interaction with man-made compounds in the upper atmosphere that is in the stratosphere. It is important because it reduces the amount of harmful ultraviolet radiation that reaches earth from the sun. Because ultraviolet radiation can have detrimental effects on both humans and the environment such as inducing skin cancer in humans distorting plant growth and damaging the marine environment also. Now ozone depleting substances or odors are the man-made gases that destroy ozone once they reach the ozone layer. They are gases containing chlorine or bromine which have the potential to break down the ozone. The ozone depleting substances include chlorofluorocarbons, hydrochlorofluorocarbons, hydrobromofluorocarbons, halins, methyl bromide, carbon tetrachloride, methyl chloroform and all. These have been used as refrigerants in commercial home and vehicle air conditioners and refrigerators. Refrigerant are the substances that cause cooling. Then it is also used as foam blowing agents meaning these agents expand to form the foam once it is sprayed. Then it is also used as component in electrical equipment, industrial solvents, solvents for cleaning, aerosol spray propellants etc. Now here today CFCs are our concern. So let us understand that in detail. For other substances just try to remember these names. Now CFCs or chlorofluorocarbons are an organic compound that contains carbon, chlorine and fluorine. A common subclass of CFC is the hydrochlorofluorocarbons which contain hydrogen as well. Chlorofluorocarbons are highly stable compounds that were used as propellants in spray cans and in refrigeration units. CFCs are manufactured under the trade name Freon. The main CFCs include CFC-11 and CFC-12 which is also called as a dichloro-difluoromethane. We saw that one of the elements that make up CFCs is chlorine. Very little chlorine exists naturally in the atmosphere but it turns out that CFCs are an excellent way of introducing chlorine into the ozone layer. The ultraviolet radiation at the altitude of ozone layer breaks down CFCs which in turn freeze the chlorine. Now this chlorine has the potential to destroy large amounts of ozone. This destruction of ozone has been observed especially over Antarctica. As a consequence levels of harmful ultraviolet radiation have also increased. As CFC-11 is our main concern today let us know about that. CFC-11 is also known as trichlorofluoromethane. It is commonly used as a refrigerant a foaming or blowing agent in industries and as a solvent and as an aerosol propellant and also in chemical synthesis. CFC-11 is a colourless odourless gas at normal temperatures and pressures. Under high pressure like in cans tanks or refrigerators it is in liquid form. When it is released from a pressurized container it evaporates almost instantly and it can cause freezing at the point of release. That is why it was used as a refrigerant. It is a man-made gas and its presence in the environment is due to releases from common household and industrial uses. It is extremely stable in the atmosphere and does not degrade naturally and because of its extreme volatility trichlorofluoromethane evaporates into the air almost as soon as it is released. It may escape into draining soils where it is protected from evaporation for months or even years. Then it can also enter groundwater and can contaminate the groundwater. Once it is deep in soils and groundwater it does not diminish or does not degrade on its own and in the atmosphere trichlorofluoromethane remains unchanged for many years and accumulates there. This compound is believed to be very destructive to the stratospheric ozone layer. That is why its production was banned by the Montreal Protocol. Now let us see about the Montreal Protocol. The Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer is the landmark multilateral environmental agreement. It regulates the production and consumption of nearly 100 man-made chemicals which is referred to as ozone depleting substances which we just saw. It was adopted on 15 September 1987 and the protocol is to date the only UN treaty ever that has been ratified by every country on earth and by all 197 UN member states. So it makes it the first international environmental treaty to achieve complete ratification. The Montreal Protocol phases down the consumption and production of the different odious in a stepwise manner with different timetables for developed and developing countries. Under this treaty all parties have specific responsibilities related to the phase out of the different groups of odious. Like control of odious trade, annual reporting of data, national licensing system to control odious imports and exports and other matters. Developing and developed countries have equal but differentiated responsibilities but most importantly both groups of countries have binding time targeted and measurable commitments. Now also know that the meeting of the parties is the governance body for the treaty and the technical support is provided by an open-ended working group. They both meet on an annual basis. The parties are assisted by the ozone secretariat which is based at UN Environment Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. The multilateral fund for the implementation of the Montreal Protocol was established in 1991. The fund's objective is to provide financial and technical assistance to developing country parties to the Montreal Protocol. This is to the developing countries whose annual per capita consumption and production of odious is less than 0.3 kg to comply with the control measures of the protocol. The Montreal Protocol has been further strengthened through six amendments which have been brought forward phase out schedules and added new substances to the list of substances controlled under the Montreal Protocol. The amendments are London 1990 amendment, Copenhagen 1992 amendment, Vienna 1995 amendment, Montreal 1997 amendment, Beijing 1999 amendment and then finally Kaigali 2016 amendment. So most recent amendment is the Kaigali amendment which called for the phase down of hydrofluorocarbons or in short HFCs in 2016. The Kaigali amendment entered into force on 1st January 2019. For those countries that have ratified the amendment, the HFCs were introduced as non ozone depleting alternatives to support the timely phase out of CFCs and HCFCs. Although they do not deplete the ozone layer, they are known to be powerful greenhouse gases and thus contributors to climate change because uncontrolled growth in HFC emissions challenges the efforts to keep global temperature rise below 2 degree Celsius this century. And countries those agreed to add HFCs to the list of controlled substances and also approved a timeline for their gradual reduction by 80 to 85 percentage. This will be done by the late 2040s. Under this amendment, the first reduction by developed countries are expected in 2019 and for developing countries, the reduction timing will be 2024 and for some nations it is 2028. With this, we come to the end of this discussion. The displayed problems question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next article which is about the nota option in the electronic voting machine. The article has appeared on page 12 in all the four editions. The discussion based on this article will be relevant in your problems preparation under the area current events of national importance and also in governance. The discussion will also be relevant in your main syllabus under GS paper 2 in the area salient features of representation of people's act and also under important aspects of governance. Before entering into the article discussion, let us have a look on this option called as none of the above which is available in the last panel of the electronic voting machines. Nota stands for none of the above. This option in the electronic voting machine is introduced in India because of a supreme court direction given in the year 2013 in the case law of people union for civil liberties versus union of India. People union for civil liberties is a non-governmental organization which strives to defend civil liberties and human rights of all members of the society. This organization is known for its role in filing rick petition in supreme court in 2004. This rick petition was to enable the electors in the country to exercise the right to reject the available list of candidates and especially with secrecy. For this rick petition, the final judgment came in the year 2013 only. Better late than never, the supreme court in this judgment has directed the election commission of India to provide necessary provision for the voters in the ballot papers or EVMs to exercise their right not to vote while maintaining their right of secrecy. Supreme court also ordered to provide a specific button called none of the above in EVMs for those who decide not to vote for any of the candidates contesting in the election that is to with secrecy. Exercising this right not to vote to any of the candidate is also called as negative voting. The supreme court states that this right comes under the definition of the electoral right which is given under section 79d of the representation of people act of 1951. Here you also note that this section and section 171a subsection b in the Indian penal code states that refraining from voting in an election is also an electoral right of an individual. In the judgment the supreme court observed that for democracy to survive best available individuals of high moral and ethical values should be chosen as people representatives. So, this measure of including the provision of nota will compel the political parties to nominate a sound candidate. Before nota there was rule 49o of the conduct of elections rules of 1961 which deals with elector deciding not to vote. Those electors whose wish to exercise the right not to vote and to reject all contesting candidates for constituency has to inform the presiding officer about their decision to not to vote by filling a form 49o at the voting booth. Now this compromised the secrecy of the ballot and violated the freedom of expression. Their numbers are not included in counting of votes. This method of filing form 49o also violates article 14 of Indian constitution which is for right to equality because this discriminates the voters who vote to a candidate and the voters who do not want to vote any contesting candidate hence compromising the right to equality as one set of electors can express their options secretly while the others cannot. Therefore the supreme court in the judgment said that 49o rule violates the article 14 and article 19 1a of Indian constitution that is the article which deals with the right to freedom of speech and expression. Then the option of filing form 49o also violates the section 128 of the representation of people's act of 1951. This section 128 deals with maintaining secrecy of voting. Thus after this direction by the supreme court judgment nota option was implemented by the election commission of India. Note that the votes casted as nota will be counted but are invalid votes because whatever may be the number of nota votes the candidate with highest votes among other candidates will be declared as a winner which indirectly means that the nota option only gives us the right to exercise our right not to vote and it has zero impact on the winner of the constituency which means there is no impact on the election results. The symbol for nota was designed by the national institute of design headquartered in Ahmedabad district in the state of Gujarat. The national institute of design is an institution of national importance by the introductory part of the national institute of design act of 2014 and based on the section 2 of the same act. This institute was established in 1961 and it is an autonomous institution under the department of promotion of industry and internal trade in the ministry of commerce and industry. One another specialty of the institute is that it is recognized as scientific and industrial research organization by the department of science and technology of Indian government. Now let us discuss the news article the news is that about 1.04 percent of the voters have used nota option in this Lok Sabha election which was 1.08 percent for the Lok Sabha election of 2014. So the news notes that it has remained virtually unchanged but there exists variation among the states as we can see as low as 0.65 percentage in the state of Sikkim and as high as 2.08 percent in Assam. The experts in the field of electoral and democratic reforms feel that the lack of awareness is the reason for the less percentage of nota option out of the total poll votes. Note that the Supreme Court in the discussed judgment has asked the election commission to undertake awareness programs to educate the masses. The final voter turnout in this Lok Sabha election is 67.11 percentage. The news has highlighted that this is the highest voter turnout in the history of Lok Sabha elections in the country. With this we have come to the end of this article discussion. The displayed practice film's question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next article it is about WHO's plan to tackle snake bite. This news article has appeared on page 20 in Bengaluru and Tiruvannandapuram editions. The analysis of this news article will be helpful in a prelims preparation under current events of international importance and also under general science. In this analysis we will be seeing about snake bite and venoming neglected tropical diseases and also about the strategy released by world health organization. The news is that the world health organization has launched a global strategy for prevention and control of snake bite and venoming. In this context let us see about snake bite and venoming from Prillin's perspective. Just from this word snake bite and venoming you can get an idea about this condition. Snake bite and venoming is a potentially life-threatening disease. When a venom a snake bites humans it injects the venom into the human's body so it transfers the venom. Venom is generally a mixture of different toxins so this process is called as n-venoming. Once the human is affected by snake bite it can lead to death or disability of certain organs or tissues of the body. This n-venoming can also be caused by having venom sprayed into the eyes by certain species of snakes that have the ability to spit venom as a defense measure. Now let us see some statistics regarding snake bite and venoming which will be helpful in your main sanser writing. Each year nearly three million people are bitten by poisonous snakes with an estimated 81,000 to 138,000 deaths. Also another flag survivors suffer permanent disabilities and other after effects according to WHO figures. You should know that the WHO has categorized snake bite n-venoming as a neglected tropical disease. Unlike some neglected tropical diseases snake bite n-venoming is impossible to eliminate. This is because venomous snakes play important roles in complex ecosystems including the natural biological containment of pest bioburden in the agricultural field that is the rodents. However snake bite n-venoming can be effectively addressed by improved access to well regulated supply of safe affordable and clinically effective antivenoms. So antivenoms are the cure for treating the snake bites. It is a serum that acts against the effects of venom. Now let us see about neglected tropical diseases. They are a diverse group of communicable diseases that prevail in the tropical and subtropical conditions in 149 countries. Populations living in poverty without adequate sanitation and in close contact with infectious vectors and domestic animals and livestock are the worst affected by the neglected tropical diseases. Generally these diseases are more prevalent in the developing countries. Some of the diseases which are classified as neglected tropical diseases are chicken gunia, leishmaniasis which is also called as kala azar disease and then dengue, leprosy, lymphatic filerizes, rabies, snake bite n-venoming, trachoma etc. Here note that it is called as dengue and not dengue. There are many more diseases which are classified as neglected tropical diseases. Just to remember the diseases mentioned here since they are prevalent in India except for trachoma. Know that trachoma was eliminated from India in 2017. With this background knowledge in mind let us see the news article now. The main aim under this global strategy for prevention and control of snake bite n-venoming is to halve the numbers of deaths and cases of disability due to snake bite n-venoming over the next 12 years that is by the year 2030. This will be done through a program that targets affected communities and their health systems by ensuring access to safe effective treatment and auxiliary medical care for snake bite n-venoming. Some of the objectives of this strategy include 25% increase in the number of manufacturers of clinically effective antivenoms. Then WHO plans a pilot project to create a global antivenom stockpile to avoid any antivenom shortage. Next WHO will work to encourage research on new treatments, diagnostics and health device breakthroughs that can improve the treatment outcomes for victims and speed up their recovery. With this we have come to the end of this analysis. The displayed practice problems question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next article which is about representation of women in STEM studies. This news article has appeared on page 18 in Chennai edition and on page 16 in Bengaluru, Delhi and Tiruvannathapuram editions. The discussion based on this article will be relevant in New Orleans syllabus under current events of national and international importance and the discussion could also be linked to general studies paper one under the area role of women, their problems and remedies. The news article is based on the information given by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization that is in short UNESCO. According to UNESCO women are underrepresented across the STEM studies. STEM is the acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This is a detrimental trend as it could further widen the gap or gender inequality in these fields that is both among the students who are taking STEM studies and also among those who are already working in these fields. It is found that only 29% of professionals in science research and development across the globe are women. The percentage of female researchers in South Asia in science research is just around 19%. This means around 81% men dominate in this field of science research. The article mentions few qualitative steps to improve the percentage of women in taking these STEM studies. One is that to specifically identify the issues that cause women to drop out of STEM studies and targeting these issues. Secondly, there are some misconceptions with respect to STEM studies among women. That is the stupid misconceptions such as women are inferior to women in STEM abilities, men are naturally more interested in STEM fields than women, then women are naturally more interested in care giving occupations and women can't successfully balance being a scientist and having a family etc etc. So, steps have to be taken so that these myths and misconceptions are broken to bring gender equality and empowerment in STEM studies and careers. Another way to improve the current trend is by giving young women and girls children more exposure to the women achievers. We have many role models in these fields notably the international women astronauts, women tech company founders, renowned academicians and researchers in these fields. The scenario can also be improved by designing the computer science curriculum around societal challenges. As one of the reasons for women's non-involvement in these fields is stated as they were unable to relate the subject to make an impact in the world. Note that the reasons for not taking STEM studies vary across countries and subnational regions. UNESCO in June 2018 has published a fact sheet on women in science. The fact sheet states that in 2015 only 13.9% of the researchers in science in India were women and more such researchers are required with disaggregated data. In separate manner like how many of the physically disadvantaged women take up STEM studies and careers in India, how many Islamic girls and women take up such studies in India, how many women from scheduled tribes and scheduled cast take up these careers in India and more information required on these fronts. Now let us see some important facts about UNESCO. UNESCO is short for the UN Educational Scientific Cultural Organization. It seeks to build peace through international cooperation in education, the sciences and culture. The UNESCO headquarters is located at Paris in France. UNESCO has been carrying out such initiatives and researchers about women so as to achieve the SDG goal number 5 in its operational domains that is in the areas of education, sciences and the culture. Note that the Sustainable Development Goal number 5 of UN is about women. With this we have come to the end of this news article discussion. Moving on to the last article for the day which is about the recent finding of an ancient fungus of Proterozoic Era. This article has appeared on page 22 in Chennai edition and on page 20 in Theranandapuram edition. The discussion based on this article will be relevant in Neuroplinus syllabus under the area current events of national importance and also in general science. As I said earlier, this article is about the recent finding of an ancient fungus of Proterozoic Era. So, first let us know about fungus. We know that fungus is a eukaryotic organism. Eukaryotic organisms are those organisms whose cells contain a nucleus within a membrane and the genetic material that is the chromosomes are within the nuclear membrane. Now fungi are spore-bearing animals. Now fungi are spore-bearing organisms. Here spores are reproductive cells that are produced by fungi and these cells develop into new fungi. Next, they are achlorophilus that is they do not have chlorophyll. Since they do not have chlorophyll they cannot have nutrition by photosynthesis. Fungi are therefore not autotrophs meaning they cannot make their own food by photosynthesis rather they are heterotrophs meaning they can get nutrition from plants and animals and others. If you see plants they are autotrophic because they are able to manufacture their food from solar radiation and water by photosynthesis. We know that photosynthesis is the process by which green plants and some organisms use sunlight to synthesize nutrients from carbon dioxide and water. Now fungi have absorptive mode of nutrition. This means they cannot eat using mouths. They eat by ejecting enzymes that breaks down surrounding cells. This breaking down is also called as external digestion. Then the fungi absorbs these food molecules formed from the external digestion. All fungi build their cell walls using a fibrous substance named as chitin. One of the tests to clear the doubt regarding the newly discovered microfossil fungi was whether the fossils could produce a pattern that can match that of chitin. Now fungi play various beneficial as well as harmful roles. They are used as food by humans that is in the form of mushroom because mushroom is a fungi know that. Not all mushrooms are used as food but only certain mushrooms whereas some mushroom fungi are dangerous to humans. Next the fungi are threat to frogs to a level because if affected by fungal infections the affected frog species could become extinct. Then there can be a huge threat to crops, plants and animals and to humans they can cause range of diseases such as ringworm, aspergillosis and several others. Cows grow fungi in their stomach to help break down the tough grass they eat and plants bond their roots with networks of underground fungal threats to get nutrient supply. Most important role played by fungi is that they break down dead tissues organically thus acting as decomposers. Now the news article states that the scientists have found out the oldest fungi in the earth. It was found during an excavation carried out in the Arctic region of northwestern Canada. The news article states it has a microfossil because of the microscopic size of the fungi fossil. Here know that a fossil is a hard remains of a prehistoric animal or plant that are found inside a rock. The discovered fungus is named as a resfera giralde. The scientists estimate that it could have lived in an estuary some 900 million to 1 billion years ago that is in the preterozoic era. This preterozoic era refers to a period pertaining to a later half of the Pre-Cambrian era that is from about 2.5 billion to 541 million years ago. Note that before this discovery the earliest fossil fungus available was only 407 million years old. Therefore, this discovery has created curiosity among scientists that this discovery will give more information like how life began on earth. With this we have come to the article discussion session. The displayed practice films question will be discussed in the next session. Moving on to the last session for the day that is the practice questions discussion session. The first question is the Kaigali amendment called for the phase down of hydrofluorocarbons in 2016. It amended which of the following. This is a very direct question. We have already discussed in our analysis session about the Kaigali amendment and we discussed this Kaigali amendment under the subheading of Montreal Protocol. So, the correct answer to this question is Montreal Protocol. Next question is consider the following statements. First statement the option of none of the above was introduced by the election commission of India based on the direction given by the Supreme Court in 2013. Second statement refraining from voting in an election is not an electoral right of an individual which of the statements given above is or are correct. Now here the first statement is correct as the option negative voting which means exercising the right not to vote to any of the contesting candidate with secrecy was introduced only because of the direction given by the Supreme Court in the case law of PUCL versus Union of India in September 2013. Now the second statement is wrong because we have seen in our analysis that under section 79 subsection D of representation of the People Act it has been stated that electoral right means the right of a person also to refrain from voting in an election. The same thing is also stated in section 171 A subsection B in the Indian Penal Code. Here the statement says it is not an electoral right therefore it is a wrong statement. So, the correct answer to this question is option A 1 only. Next question is consider the following statements. First statement snake bite n-venoming is a potentially life-threatening disease that typically results from the injection of venom following the bite of a venomous snake. Second statement snake bite n-venoming is classified as one of the neglected tropical diseases which of the above statements is or are correct. Here the first statement is correct. It is the definition for snake bite n-venoming. The venom is transferred as a result of a snake bite or also because of spraying by the snake. And the second statement is also correct as snake bite n-venoming is classified as one of the neglected tropical diseases. We also discussed some other neglected tropical diseases in our analysis session like chicken gunia, leishmaniasis which is also called as kala azar and then dengy, leprosy, lymphatic filerizes and rabies etc. As the question asks for the correct answer, the correct answer to the question is as the question asks for the correct statement the correct answer to this question is option C both 1 and 2. Next question is consider the following statements. First statement fungi are heterotropes that feed on plants and animals predominantly by way of following. Second statement fungi are acrolophilus organisms and hence they are unable to intake nutrients by photosynthesis. Which of the statements given above is or are correct? The first statement is wrong here because though fungi are heterotropes they do not take food by way of following. As we discussed in our analysis that they don't intake food by mouth. We also saw that they intake food through absorption method. That is they liberate powerful enzymes which will break down the external organic material and then it absorbs through the cell walls. Therefore the statement 1 is incorrect. Then the second statement now the second statement is correct because acrolophilus means that chlorophyll is absent in fungi. Because of the absence of chlorophyll they are unable to intake nutrients from carbon dioxide and water using sunlight. Therefore they cannot intake nutrients through photosynthesis. Which is what stated in the second statement. Hence as the question asks for the correct statements statement 2 is correct. So the correct answer to this question is option B 2 only. If you like the video don't forget to like comment and share and do subscribe to our Shankar IS Academy YouTube channel for more updates on UPSA civil service examination preparation.