 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Ayyase Akrami. These are the news articles chosen for today's discussion. They are given along with the page number of different traditions. Link for the handwritten notes in PDF format and the time stamping for the discussed articles are given in the description box as well as the comment section for the benefit of the mobile viewers. First let us see some past problems questions. As I said in my previous presentation, past problems questions are highly valuable. From past problems questions, one can guess the style of questions usually asked. We can also know the priority areas and we can filter the information better. And if we are lucky, there are chances that these questions may repeat also. So let us practice some past problems questions. Also last time we used a technique called elimination technique to solve some of the questions. This technique has been appreciated by many viewers. They have found it to be useful and they said it has improved their accuracy. So we will use this technique again today to solve few questions. Practice along with me. Now let us move on to the first question. The Gandhi-Irwin pact included which of the following? We are given four statements. The first statement, invitation to Congress to participate in the round table conference. Second statement, withdrawal of ordinance promulgated in connection with the civil disobedience movement. Third statement, acceptance of Gandhi's suggestion for enquiry into police excesses. Fourth statement, release of only those prisoners who were not charged with violence. So we are given four statements and the options are combination of these statements. For example, option A is A1 only, option B is 1, 2 and 4 only, option C is 3 only, option D is 2, 3 and 4 only. See with this kind of questions where we are given lot of statements and the options are combination of the statements, we can apply elimination technique. How to apply it? Let me show you. Now let us take the first statement, invitation to Congress to participate in the round table conference. See this statement is very easy to assess. Any aspirant who has studied about Gandhi-Irwin pact will know that Vice Roy Irwin proposed Congress to suspend civil disobedience movement and participate in the second meeting of the round table conference. So the statement 1 must be true. It is the right statement. This is like the first point when we read about Gandhi-Irwin pact. So only two options has statement 1 in their combinations. For example, option A and option B. Option A is 1 only, option B is 1, 2 and 4 only. The answer must be option A or option B. So by just going through the first statement, we have eliminated option C and option D. This is the beauty of elimination technique. By applying this technique, you have increased your accuracy and you have increased your chance of getting it right. Now let us again apply this technique to narrow down the answer. Let us take up the fourth statement. What is the fourth statement? Release of only those prisoners who were not charged with violence. Again, when we read about Gandhi-Irwin pact, we know that Gandhi-G demanded release of political prisoners not convicted of violence from jails. This demand was accepted by Vice Roy Irwin. So the statement must be true or the statement must be correct. So from our assessment, we know that the statement 1 and statement 4 are true. So only one option has this combination of statements. That is option B, 1, 2 and 4 only. So this must be the right option. The answer is B, 1, 2 and 4 only. There is a way we can cross check this answer. We can take up this third statement. What is the third statement? Acceptance of Gandhi's suggestion for inquiry into police excess. See when it comes to Gandhi-Irwin pact, there were two suggestions which were rejected by Vice Roy Irwin. The first suggestion was demand for public inquiry into police excess and the second suggestion was commutation of dead sentences of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru. So the statement 3 is wrong. Again, we have eliminated option C and option B, which has statement 3 in it. This is the way we cross check the answer. So try to use this elimination technique in a judicious manner to increase your score. Important points related to Gandhi-Irwin pact are displayed on the screen. Interested aspirants can go through it. Now let us move on to the next question. Now let us take up this question. It is asked from the static portion of polity. See these kind of factual questions are easy to score. So aspirants should make maximum use of it. Last year around 20 questions were asked from polity. So practicing a lot of polity questions will be beneficial. Now let us solve this question. Consider the following statements. The first statement. The constitution of India defines its basic structure in terms of federalism, secularism, fundamental rights and democracy. Second statement. The constitution of India provides for judicial review to safeguard the citizen's liberties and to preserve the ideal on which the constitution is based. Which of the statements given above are correct? The options are A, 1 only, B, 2 only, C, both 1 and 2, D, neither one nor 2. Now let us take the first statement. The constitution of India defines its basic structure in terms of federalism, secularism, fundamental rights and democracy. See this statement is wrong. The constitution of India does not define the term basic structure. See the basic structure is a judicial tool invented by the Supreme Court in the Keshavnanda Bharati versus state of Kerala judgment. It is not mentioned in the constitution. So the first statement is wrong. Thereby we can eliminate two options. A, 1 only, C, both 1 and 2. These two options can be eliminated since the first statement is wrong. Now let us move on to the second statement. The constitution of India provides for judicial review to safeguard the citizen liberties and to preserve the ideals on which the constitution is based. See this statement is correct. The article 13 of the constitution provides for judicial review. Though it is not explicitly mentioned in article 13, article 13 deals with judicial review. So this statement is correct. So the answer is B, 2 only. Now let us move on to the next question. See for someone following the news with an eye for important areas like stem cell technology and gene editing technology, this question can prove factually easy. So let us go right statement by statement. So the first statement is about gene editing. Genome editing is also called as gene editing. See it is nothing but a group of technologies that give scientists the ability to change an organism's DNA. And this includes also humans. And that is why it has an ethical perspective also that we need to ponder. And for gene editing to be effective, it should be done only in the embryonic stage. Say zygote or at the level of sperm and egg. This is because it is from this cells that an individual is formed. So you might have read it in the context of world's first gene-edited babies that were made in China using the novel CRISPR-Cas9 technology. So CRISPR is nothing but a gene editing too. So now we know that statement 1 and 2 are right. So option D is the answer. Now let us understand the third statement. These stem cells are of three types. Totipotent, pluripotent and multipotent. So the totipotent cells can form all the cell types in a body plus the extra embryonic or placental cells. And the embryonic cells within the first couple of cell division after fertilization are the only cells that are totipotent. Next is pluripotent. Pluripotent cells can give rise to all of the cell types that make up the body except the placental cells. And the embryonic stem cells are considered pluripotent. And coming to the multipotent cells, multipotent cells can develop into more than one cell type but are more limited than pluripotent cells. And it is true that these pluripotent cells can be nurtured in a different uterine environment including that of the pigs. So remember that in 2018 there was a question on CRISPR. So keep in mind that emerging technologies with potential future applications is an area of interest for UPSC. And the 2020 question paper also had a question on artificial intelligence, which is an emerging area of interest. And our discussion today will also have a small discussion on artificial intelligence. Now let us move on to the next question. See this is based on MPLATS which is famously called Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme. See these kind of schemes are very important. Some landmark schemes like MPLATS, Mandrega or some acts like National Food Security Act which has brought about some perceptible social change or social impact. These are very important from the example perspective. And through this question let us go through the MPLATS scheme also comprehensively in today's discussion. See MPLATS was launched in 1993 and it is a plan scheme fully funded by Government of India. That is it is a central sector scheme. And Government of India decided to have this scheme to meet the felt needs of the people. That is what people need from time to time. And its objective is to enable the members of parliament to recommend and get executed the works of development nature and with an emphasis on creation of durable assets which can be used by the community and large. And such assets are created and taken up based on the locally felt needs in each of their constituencies. Now to carry out such developmental works fund is needed. So in 1993-1994 when the scheme was launched rupees 5LATS per MP was allotted. But currently the annual MPLATS fund entire tillment per MP constituency is increased to rupees 5 crore and the amount is released into equal installments. And note that Ministry of Statistics and Program implementation responsible for the policy formulation, release of funds and prescribed monitoring mechanism for the implementation of the scheme. So what kind of work is carried out under this scheme? See all the works to meet the locally felt community infrastructure and development needs with the emphasis on creation of durable asset in the respective constituencies are permissible under MPLATS as we saw before. And these include creating durable assets of drinking water facilities, education, public health, sanitation, roads and others. And inferring from this statement one is correct. And additionally the scheme has a special provision for the development of areas inhabited by schedule cast and schedule tribes. Which is every year MPs are needed to recommend developmental works costing at least 15 percentage of MPLATS funds for the area inhabited by SC population and 7.5 percentage of MPLATS funds for areas inhabited by schedule tribes population. Therefore statement two is also correct. And next, who can recommend the works for this scheme? See Lok Sabha members can recommend works for their respective constituencies. And for Rajesh Sabha members they can recommend works for implementation in one or more districts as they may choose in the state of their election. Further the nominated members of Lok Sabha and Rajesh Sabha can recommend works for implementation in one or more districts anywhere in the country. Now let's see the execution of the scheme. The district authority has an very important role to play as the district administration would be responsible for overall coordination, supervision of the work under the scheme at the district level. And the district authority gets the MPLATS implemented through locals as governments such as panchayats and municipalities or even through government agencies which can be SPVs also. In some cases the district authority also engages reputed NGOs for execution of MPLATS work. And after this the district administration reports the status of MPLATS to the government of India and the state nodal department. And additionally the district administration has to inspect at least 10 percentage of the works under the implementation every year. So statement 4 is correct. Therefore correct option is option D and we say statement 3 is incorrect because the funds released by the district administration are non-lapsable. See what is this non-lapsable? Any amount that is remaining from this expenditure of one particular year will not go back to the government. It will be retained in the coffers of the district and the unspent amount will continue to get accumulated in the next financial years subsequently. So here the funds are non-lapsable so statement 3 is incorrect. So that brings us to the end of discussion on past year questions. Now let us move on to the discussion on the articles. Now let us take up this editorial article. In this editorial the author put forward three key lessons for India. These lessons are based on the critical assessment of the standoff between India and Chinese troops in East and Ladakh. So in this light let us see what the article has to tell us. The syllabus covered by this editorial article is given below for your reference. So in order to understand this article, first let us see about Ladakh. Ladakh is located in the northern part of Indian subcontinent. It is located in the area surrounding Karakoram and the westernmost Himalayan mountain ranges. Ladakh is one of the highest regions of the world and its natural features consist of high plains and deep valleys. Also the region is prone to violent seismic activity and light to moderate tremors are common in Ladakh. See the cultivation in Ladakh is restricted to the river valleys where it consists of small irrigated plots. However pastoralism notably yak herding has been a vital feature of Ladakh economy. As we all know Ladakh became a union territory on 31st October 2019 and it is administered by a lieutenant governor appointed by the president of India. Also Ladakh sends one elected representative to the Lok Sabha. Ladakh is also served by the I court of Jammu and Kashmir union territory. So these are the important points relating to Ladakh. Now let us see about line of factual control. See the line of factual control is the disputed boundary between India and China. The line of factual control is the demarcation that separates India control territory from the Chinese control territory. The LAC is divided into three sectors. The first one is the eastern sector which spans Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim. The second one is the middle sector which is in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. And third one is the western sector which is in Ladakh. India considers LAC to be 3488 km long while the Chinese consider it to be only 2000 km. When you take the eastern sector, the alignment of the LAC is along the 1914 Mechmoan line and there are minor disputes about the positions on the ground in the sector. The line in the middle sector is the least controversial one whereas the line in the western sector has major disagreements. See the main issue with the LAC is it is not agreed upon by the two countries and it is neither delineated on a map or demarcated on the ground. And also there are areas along the border where India and China have differing perception of the LAC. And they also disagree on the exact location of the LAC in various areas. So the two armies try and dominate by petrol to the areas up to their respective perceptions of LAC. And this often brings them into conflict and lead to incidents such as those witnessed in Pangong Seoul. See last year the border tension between India and China flared up many fold in June when troops of both countries engaged in a violent face-off in Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh. See India was constructing a new road to a high altitude airbase. This construction was seen as one of the major trigger for the clash with the Chinese troops. Since the Galwan Valley clash, India and China have been locked in a high altitude standoff in eastern Ladakh. Even after a year of standoff between India and Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh, there seems to be no signs of resolution. The Chinese are continuing to strengthen its troops and the peace talks are mostly fruitless. This has caused a rupture in the India-China bilateral relationship. And even if the disengagement continues, there are chances for the relationship to remain vulnerable to unrest and disturbances. Now coming back to the editorial, see the Lowy Institute has published a study on the role played by Ladakh in shaping India-China relations. In this study it has presented three key lessons based on the critical assessment of the Ladakh crisis. This editorial is mainly on the three key lessons. Now let us see them one by one. First comes the need for military strategy based on denial. See in a denial strategy, an opponent's action is prevented by putting the opponent's objective out of reach, regardless of whether the opponent chooses to pursue it. According to this editorial, denial military strategies are more useful than powerful or punishment strategies. For example, India so far adopted strategies based on punishment, wherein it deters the adversaries with a threat of massive punitive retaliation. But when you look closely, you can find that it did not prevent China from launching unprecedented attacks. In contrast to that, India's occupation of Kailash range denied the key terrain to the Chinese army. So it gave the Indian army a stronger defensive position to protect a larger segment of its front line. This is why a denial military strategy is advised. It will give the Indian military a greater capacity to prevent future land grabs across LAC. And it will also preserve crisis stability. It will also allow India to reduce their resource strain in the longer run. Now let us move on to the second key lesson. The second key lesson is the value of political trust. See that China values the threat of political cost more than the threat of material cost. See the threat of political rupture with India raised the risk of crisis for China. And it is this threat of political rupture which played a significant role in disrupting its existing priorities more than the material burden of the crisis. Why was this? This is because a permanently hostile India or an accidental escalation to conflict. It is an unnecessary additional burden for China, especially at a time when it was struggling with the instability of its territorial disputes and pandemic response. And in fact the main reason for China to adjust its position in the Ladakh crisis is due to the cumulative effect of multiple pressure points, most of which is out of India's control. So far we saw about two lessons. Now let us move on to the third one. The third lesson is with respect to India's position in the Indian Ocean. See it is good for India to accept more risk on the LAC in return for a long-term advantage and influence in the Indian Ocean region. This is because the future of the Indian Ocean region is more consequential and uncertain compared to the Himalayan frontier. If India fails to answer the rapid expansion of Chinese military power, then there are a lot of chances for it to affect India's dominant power and its political influence and security in the Indian Ocean. So this is the third important key lesson. Now let us see about the way forward. The key takeaway from the article proves that the India need to make tough-minded strategic trade-off by prioritizing military modernization and joint force projection. So in order to rebalance India's strategic priorities, the central government should issue firm strategic guidance to the military services. As such initiatives proved to be great support to India's long-term position against China. With this we have come to the end of this editorial. In this discussion we saw about Ladakh, line of actual control and the important points from the editorial. With this information, let us move on to the next part of the discussion. Thank you for discussing that with us. Now let us take up the next news article for discussion today, which is about the new emerging infection in the pandemic situation. ENT specialists and ophthalmologists from around the country have begun to see cases of a rare infection. It is of a very aggressive and invasive fungal condition called mucoir mycosis. And this is specially noted in patients cured of COVID-19 in the country. And in this context, let us know more about this disease. And this is the syllabus for your reference. Mucoir mycosis is a serious but rare fungal infection caused by a group of moles called mucoir mycetus. And it is also called a zygomycosis or commonly black fungal disease. And as the news reports in the pandemic scenario, the incidence of the disease has increased multifold. And the news article reports that a doctor who saw about five to 10 cases a year now gets about five to 10 cases a day of mucoir mycosis. But the disease manifestation usually occurs in immunocompromised patients. See, immunocompromised patients are those whose immunity has dropped. See, decline in immune condition is either due to immunosuppressants that is being administered to the patients like the steroids or those who have an underlying condition like diabetes or cancer or some nephrotic syndrome or many others. So, in the current context, COVID patients are administered steroids and monoclonal antibodies that alter or moderates the immune response of the body to the COVID virus. Now, let's understand it better. See, COVID triggers amplified immune response in the body. And this leads to high temperature and a phenomena called cytokines and all these proves adverse in the COVID recovery. And in order to address this, immunosuppressants and antibodies are administered. The commonly used immunosuppressants are the steroids and especially in diabetic patients or other patients where the immunity is already compromised, steroid administration leads to further crippling of the immune system. And this opens up the possibility of catching these otherwise rare infections like mucar mycosis. And this is how COVID leads to immunocompromised immunity in patients leading to higher incidence of the disease. So, it makes sense as to why that is so surge in these mucar mycosis cases now. See, the mucar mycosis although is very rare, it has high mortality and morbidity rate. The mortality rate is over 40 percentage in patients and based on the variant and the area the infection sits, this differs. The most fatal variant is the rhinocerebral variant. See, what is this rhinocerebral variant? This variant affects the sinuses of the face including the frontal sinus and affects the nasal passage along with the orbit that is the eye sockets. Soon it also spreads to the brain. So, it can cause blindness and death in cases involving the brain. And if you see the symptoms, the rhinocerebral variant presents with symptoms of stuffy nose, black or red nasal discharge and apart from that fever is also noted in individuals. And in very severe cases, blackening of the tissue around the nose and the eyes is a common manifestation of this disease. See, the treatment of the disease involves a cheap medication and antifungal called the amphotericin B. And although it is cheap, it is availability is questionable in the present scenario because the production will not match the current sudden surge in the incidence. And besides this, the medication period also extends to few weeks requiring high degree of patient cooperation. All these challenges the treatment of the disease. And if you see the prognosis of the patient, it largely depends on the early diagnosis. Earlier the diagnosis is a better disease prognosis of the patient. Treating the underlying immunocompromised state, be it the high sugar level and others, is also needed to improve the treatment outcome. Okay? So, as we just saw, this is a new disease of emerging concern, which is further adding to the health burden of the country. In conclusion, in this discussion we saw about myocardomycosis, its incidence, symptoms and its treatment. Now, let's move on to the next section. Our next discussion for today is based on this news article. So, this news article reports about the risk posed by the ecological sensitive areas of Narduvatam due to the construction of buildings as well as an illegal road cutting through the forest land. So, in this regard, let's see some important facts about the ecological sensitive areas. See, the eco-sensitive zones, also known as ecologically fragile areas, are areas with 10 kilometers around the protected areas, national parks and wildlife centuries. And in case of areas with sensitive corridors, connectivity and ecological important patches, this is very crucial for landscape linkages, then even an area beyond 10 kilometer width can be included in the eco-sensitive zone. See, these zones are ecologically important areas designated to be protected from the industrial pollution and unregulated development under the Environment Protection Act of 1986. And the zones are notified by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of our government. And note that these zones act as a kind of shock absorber for the protected areas and they also act as a transition zone from the area of high protection to areas involving lesser protection or higher human activity. See, the basic aim behind this is to regulate certain activities around protected areas in order to minimize the negative impact of the human activities like industrial pollution and noise pollution and others. Remember, these activities in the eco-sensitive areas are of regulatory in nature rather than prohibitry in nature, unless or otherwise, specifically notified. And according to the guidelines, activities including commercial mining, setting up of saw mills and industries causing pollution, commercial use of firewoods and major hydropower projects are prohibited in such areas. And it also prohibits tourism activities like flying over the protected areas in an aircraft or a hot air balloon and discharging of effluents and solid waste in the natural water bodies within these eco-sensitive areas. All right. And similarly, felling of trees, drastic changes in agricultural ecosystems and commercial use of natural water resources including the groundwater harvesting and setting up of some hotels and resorts are all regulated activities in these areas. On the other hand, activities permitted in these areas include ongoing agriculture and horticultural practices by local communities, rainwater harvesting, organic farming, adoption of green technology and use of renewable energy resources. So, these activities are very well permitted in the eco-sensitive area. So, they are not like completely prohibited. Some activities are still allowed, some are regulated and some are completely disallowed. All right. So, you have to go through these activities classification for the exam point of view. With this information, let's move on to the next topic based on science and technology. Next, look at this article. This article is regarding an upcoming webinar on artificial intelligence and its impact on students and employment. In this context, let us understand what is artificial intelligence and its applications also. As we know, artificial intelligence refers to the ability of machines to perform cognitive tasks like thinking, perceiving, learning, problem solving and decision making. Initially, it was considered as a technology that could mimic human intelligence only. But artificial intelligence has evolved in ways that far exceeded its original conception. The artificial intelligence might just be a single largest technological revolution of our times with the potential to disrupt almost all aspect of human existence. And that is why the transformational aspect of artificial intelligence is commonly compared to the act of electricity that was invented about 100 years ago. And with many industries aggressively investing in cognitive and artificial intelligence solutions, global investment forecasts say that the investments achieve a compound annual growth rate of 50.1 percentage to reach about 57.6 billion US dollars in 2021. See, have a look at this diagram for better understanding on the artificial intelligence. See, here we shall know about machine learning and deep learning. Okay, see, machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence application. That is, it learns by itself. It actually reprograms itself as it digests more data to perform the specific task it's designed to perform, but with greater accuracy. Okay, and deep learning is a subset of machine learning application itself that teaches to perform a specific task with increasing accuracy without human intervention. Alright, now considering artificial intelligence impacts, Nithya Ayog had released the national strategy on artificial intelligence in 2018. And the strategy is termed as artificial intelligence for all, as it is focused on leveraging artificial intelligence for inclusive growth in line with the government policy of Sapkashath, Sapkavikas. So in this strategy, the role of government has been clearly delineated to develop the research ecosystem, promote adoption and address skilling challenges. The strategy, if you see, also flag some important issues like ethics, bias, and privacy issues relating to artificial intelligence. We know artificial intelligence thrives on big data and big data has a lot of privacy issues, right? Focus of this particular scheme is agriculture, health and education, where the public investment would be necessary. All that said, let us see some of the applications of artificial intelligence as well. The first and foremost is the healthcare. See, artificial intelligence can help address issues of high barriers to access of health facilities, that is basically accessibility to health and particularly in rural areas. And this can be achieved through implementation of artificial intelligence-driven diagnosis and personalized treatment. And if you see in the field of healthcare, the artificial intelligence has some remarkable accuracy as well, which even beats the top physicians of the world, okay? Now, let us come to agriculture. Agriculture holds a potential field of application for artificial intelligence and artificial intelligence holds the promise of driving a food revolution and meeting the increased demand for food. And it also has the potential to address challenges such as inadequate demand prediction, lack of assured irrigation, and overuse or misuse of pesticides and fertilizers, all right? So in case of smart mobility also, artificial intelligence has its application. See, artificial intelligence here, it can be used for autonomous fleet of ride sharing, semi-autonomous features such as driver assist and predictive engine monitoring and maintenance as well. So these are the few applications of artificial intelligence, which you must know. And this area is very important from the preliminary as well as main suspect and 2020 question paper had a question on artificial intelligence, all right? Now, with this, let's move on to the next section. Let us take up this news article for discussion. This news article is regarding the recently released seventh population census of China. And it recorded a slowing population growth rate indicating China's population peak as early as 2025. So India may overtake China's population growth by 2025. So in this context, let us discuss important points from the article and compare it with the Indian scenario, all right? So this is the syllabus for your reference. See, this discussion is going to entail a lot of facts. Let's go over it one by one. The article says that in China, 12 million or 1.2 crore babies were born last year. And it is the lowest number since 1961. And as per the census, China's population was 1.41 billion in 2020. And compared to the 2010 census, the population has to be about 72 million, recording a 5.3 percent growth. And the average annual growth rate was 0.53 percentage, all right? The census recorded 26.4 crore in the age group of 60 and over. And this shows an increase of 5.44 percentage from 2010 and the account for 18.7 percentage of the population. These are in the 15 to 59 age group. Those in the 15 to 59 age group were 89.4 crore. And this has decreased by 6.79 percentage from 2010, accounting for 63.35 percentage of the population. See, the slowing population growth rate is a result of China's stringent planning rules and better known as one child policy. See, this along with other restrictions has evoked several concerns such as rapidly aging society, impact on China's labor force, etc. And that is why the article says that the China fears that it will get old before it gets rich. So, we can say that these concerns are validated by census data. So, considering this in 2016 itself, China scrapped the one child policy but this was not successful. Hence, China is likely to enter a period of population decline very soon. And know that China's workforce is in the bracket of 15 to 59 age and it peaked in 2011. And in this census, this has dropped to 89.4 crores and may further drop to 70 crores by 2050. And this indicates the huge impact of aging population in China on the labor force and the economic growth. See, why is aging population a concern? See, aging population is a liability on the government. The government should be able to fund the medical expenses of the aging population. But the young population is considered as an asset because they are the one who constitute the labor force and they help in the growth of the economy. So, the census has also highlighted China's increasingly educated workforce and its rapid pace of urbanization. All right, the details are here in the slide. Now, let's come to the Indian scenario. Coming to India, India's population is expected to increase from 121.1 crore to 152.2 crores during the period from 2011 to 2036. And this indicates an increase of 25.7 percentage in 25 years at the rate of 1 percent annually. And the crude birth rate will decline from 20.1 during 2011-2015 to 13.1 during 2031-35 because of the falling levels of total fertility. Right? So, in contrast, the crude death rate is expected to increase marginally due to the changing age structure of the demograph. So, this is a result of the continuing decline in fertility and increase in the expectation of life at birth. Okay? Between 2011 and 2036, because of the declining fertility, the proportion of population aged under 15 years is projected to decline from 30.9 to 20.1 percentage. The proportion of the middle-aged group that is 15 to 59 years and the older ages 60 years and above are said to increase considerably. So, you can see even India is aging. Right? And the number of older persons in the population is expected to increase by more than double from 10 crores in 2011 to 23 crores in 2036. Also, the proportion of the population, the working age group is 15 to 59 years and is expected to rise from 60.7 percentage in 2011 to 64.9 percentage in 2036. So, as we just saw in the discussion, the entire article is facts, facts and facts. So, what I suggest is pick three or four facts from the article, which is very easy for you to remember. And you can quote these facts in your GS2 paper and as well as in your SA paper if necessary. And apart from that, you should also keep in mind the trends of Indian population growth for you to be able to answer any prelims question if at all asked on this area. Right? So, that brings us to the end of discussion on this particular news article. So, with all those information right now we are at this section where we are going to test our knowledge from the discussion, the practice question sessions. So, we have three questions for discussion today. So, let us go over it one by one. Now, look at this first question which is about artificial intelligence, which of the following statements regarding artificial intelligence is or are correct. So, the first statement goes like this, artificial intelligence enables computers and machines to mimic the perception, learning, problem solving and decision making capabilities of the human mind. So, from our discussion, we know that first statement is correct. So, coming to the second statement, machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence application that learns by itself. And statement two is also correct. So, the correct option is option C, both one and two. Alright? Now, let us go to the next question. So, this is an environment based question. So, there are three statements and the question asks us to identify the incorrect statement. So, let us go over the statements one by one. So, the first statement is this. They are areas strictly within 10 kilometers around protected areas, national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and sensitive corridors. And we know first statement is incorrect because of the word strictly. See, the first statement is partially correct if not for the strictly area because it is true that ecosensitive zone or ecologically fragile areas are areas within 10 kilometers of protected areas but it has some exceptions. But when it comes to areas with sensitive corridors, connectivity and ecologically important patches crucial for landscape linkages that even an area beyond 10 kilometers can be included in the ecosensitive zone. So, because of this word strictly, the first statement goes wrong. Right? Now, coming to the next statement, they are notified under environment protection act of 1986, which is very much correct. And we know this from our discussion. So, coming to the third statement, commercial mining saw mills major hydroelectric projects and the commercial use of wood are some of the regulated activities in these zones. But this statement is again incorrect because the third statement says that they are regulated activities but actually they are prohibited activities in the ecologically fragile area. So, the correct answer is option C 1 and 3 because we are asked to identify the incorrect statements. Now, let us go on to the next question. This is about mucormicosis that we recently saw in the discussion. So, what is mucormicosis refers to? That is what the question asks us. So, we have four options but from the discussion, we factually know that it refers to a serious but a rare fungal infection. So, the correct option is option A. So, with those questions, let us wrap up today's news analysis session. If you like the video, like, share, comment and subscribe to Shankara AS Academy for updates on UPSC preparation. Stay home, stay safe, good day.