 A very good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankaray's Academy for the date 2nd of January 2022. So these are the list of news articles chosen for today's discussion. If you can see we have chosen 6 different articles from today's newspaper. See consistency is very important, it is the most important than being perfect. So let us be consistent this year and I am wishing you a very very happy new year to all the aspirants. So with this positive note, now let us move on to the first news article discussion. Now have a look at this picture. This is with reference to the Gateway of India which is desettered on the new year due to surge in COVID-19 cases. In this context we will learn about the significance of the Gateway of India and about Indo-Sarasenic architecture. Look at these pictures again, it is the Gateway of India located in Colaba in South Mumbai. See the Gateway of India is one of India's most unique landmarks situated in the city of Mumbai. It was constructed in 1924 and it is bordered by the Arabian Sea in the Colaba district. See the Gateway of India is a monument that marks India's chief ports and it is a major tourist attraction for visitors who arrive in India for the first time. At one point of time this monument represented the grand year of the British Raj in India. See the total construction cost of this monument was approximately 21 lakhs and the whole expense was borne by the Indian government. See the passing of the first battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry was recorded as the first main event that took place at the Gateway of India. See this ceremony was conducted on February 28, 1948 when the last set of British troops and divisions left India post-independence. See the main objective behind the construction of the Gateway of India was to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary to Mumbai, which is erstwhile Bombay. See in March 1911, Sir George Sidonham Clarke who was the Governor of Bombay laid down the monument's first foundation. Although this plan was approved only in 1914, it was completed only in 1919. See the architecture design of the Gateway of India was designed by architect George Wittitt. It took four years to complete this monument's construction. See the monument is structured in such a way that one can witness the large expanse of the blue blanket right ahead welcoming and sending off ships and visitors. See the structural design of the Gateway of India is constituted of a large arc with a height of 26 meter. The monument is built in yellow basalt and in dissolvable concrete. The structure plan of Gateway of India is designed in the Indo-Saracenic style as I already said. Now what is this Indo-Saracenic style? See in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, British architects in India created Indo-Saracenic architecture. See this architecture is nothing but a combination of Islamic ideas with Indian materials. So in a fascinating almost playful way, this hybrid architecture merged Hindu and Mohal architecture components with cusp arcs, domes, spires, tracery, minarets and stained glass. The following are the main features of Indo-Saracenic structures. I'll just draw it for you. Go through it. It will be very helpful for your prelims examination. See the onion or bulbous domes, they look like this. The overhanging heaps, they look like this. Now the pointed arches, they look like this. Cussed arches or scalloped arches, they look like this. Next is the vaulted roofs, they look like this. Open pavilions, they look like these. See some of other places in India which has an Indo-Saracenic architecture or Mysore palace which is located in Karnataka. Other example is Victoria Memorial which is located in Kolkata. Apart from this Kacheguda railway station which is located in Hyderabad is also an example and etc. You can see them in the image given here. That's all about the article. Now let us move on to the next news article. See the discussion is going to be based on this snippet article. It talks about research that studied harmful algal bloom in the prehistoric era. So today let us understand what is algal bloom and harmful algal bloom that is HAB and its effect on environment then we will discuss the article. See as you know algae or microscopic organisms that live in aquatic environment and they are always present in natural bodies of waters like oceans, rivers and lakes plus just like plants algae also use photosynthesis to produce energy from sunlight. Now when algae bloom extensively or rapidly and out of control it is called algal bloom. See most of the time this algal bloom is visible to the naked eye because you can see discoloration of the water body which is called red tide and depending on the type of algae the color could vary. As you can see in these pictures it could become green, blue green, red or brown. Now let us see some of the benefits of algal bloom. See generally algal bloom has some benefits. Here let us take the example of phytoplankton which is a one-celled algae. The phytoplankton forms the base of the oceans foot chain. It also converts the inorganic nutrients in water body into vegetative matter. This is done in the presence of sunlight through the process of photosynthesis. Plus phytoplankton plays significant role in atmospheric CO2 concentration by altering the rate of carbon sequestration. So its presence in large numbers is beneficial to some extent. But the problem is that there are few types of algae that can produce toxins. This toxin production in algae is stimulated by environmental factors such as light, temperature and nutrient levels of the water body. That is why eutrophication is linked to algal bloom. See eutrophication refers to the nutrient enrichment of waterways which is caused by anthropogenic factors such as sewage influence, runoff from fertilized agricultural area and chemical pollution. See this nutrient enrichment stimulates toxic production in algae. Such toxins can seriously harm people, animals, fish and other parts of the ecosystem. And when these toxic producing algae grow extensively in a body of water it is called harmful algal bloom or HAB. So this includes blue-green algae which is also called cyanobacteria etc. See the cyanobacterial blooms produce toxins called cyanotoxins. So now let us see how it harms people and ecosystems. First, HABs affect people because of the toxic production. See these toxins reach people through fish or from swimming in or drinking the HAB water and even from the yard they breathe. Here you can see some HABs and its harmful effects on people. Just go through it. UPSC might ask factual questions based on these facts. Second, this also affects marine ecosystem because HABs cause hypoxia in water. That is it depletes oxygen in the water. This results in fish kills plus the algal bloom is on the top layer of the water body. So they simply by blocking the sunlight from reaching organisms that are deeper in the water result in fish kills as well. You can see that in the image given here. Note that this effect on marine ecosystem is also caused by extensive non-toxic algal bloom also. See this in turn leads to economic losses to aquaculture, fisheries and tourism operation. Now how frequent is HAB? See actually if you take India noctiluca algal blooms are common. It is caused by noctiluca skin telens which is a dinoflagellate. See dinoflagellates are large phytoplanktons. Now during every winter the northwestern Arabian sea experiences outbreak of green noctiluca algal blooms. Now if you take the new snippet the study wanted to know whether there were HABs during prehistoric period or not. See for this they considered the pre-columbian Mayan period and studied lake Amatitlan situated in Gwittimala. See this lake hosted large prehistoric Maurian population in its watershed and presently the lake is affected by the HABs. See they found that even before 1000 years ago there was intense HABs and cyanotoxin concentration in the lake. That means there was prehistoric cultural eutrophication which was caused by pre-columbian Maya occupation of the lake. So the study concluded that human driven nutrient enrichment of water bodies is not an exclusively modern phenomenon but it also existed in prehistoric era. So with these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Have a look at this article. See this article is with reference to the SEBI's new rules on initial public offer that is the IPO. See these new rules tries to reduce the risks of the investors in the primary market. In this context we will learn about primary market, secondary market, IPO, SEBI's new rules and its impact. The syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. See we have discussed quite a lot of times about financial market. For a detailed analysis about financial market watch Shankarai's Academies Hindu newspaper analysis on December 9. Today let us quickly brush through the basics. First of all we should know about what is a market, especially capital market. See simply a market is a place where parties can gather to facilitate the exchange of goods and services. There are two types of market, they are money market and capital market. See the money market is the trade in short term dips. It is borrowing and lending for a term as short as overnight and no longer than a year. See it is a constant flow of cash between governments, corporates, banks and financial institutions. The capital market encompasses the trade in both stock and bonds. These are long term assets brought by financial institutions, professional brokers and individual investors. It is usually more than one year. Just note that money market in India is regulated by RBI and capital market in India is regulated by SEBI. See if you remember we have already discussed that this capital market is further divided into primary market and secondary market. The primary market is also known as the new issuers market. The secondary market is known as the stock market. See the primary market is used by issuers for raising fresh capital from the investors by making initial public offers. So what is the initial public offer? Simply when the share is issued for the first time it is called as initial public offer or IPO. See the private companies after issuing IPOs becomes public. These shares can then be traded in the stock market. And when this initial public offer is brought by you and you sell it to some another person you will sell it in secondary market. So an active secondary market promotes the growth of the primary market and capital formation as simple as that. So to summarize an initial public offer is the selling of securities to the public in the primary market. It is the largest source of funds with long and indefinite maturity for the company. See an IPO is an important step in the growth of the business. It provides a company access to funds through the public capital market. An IPO also greatly increases the credibility and publicity that a business requires. In many cases an IPO is the only way to finance quick growth and expansion. In terms of the economy when a large number of IPOs are issued it is a sign of a healthy stock market and economy. See when the company makes its first IPO to the public the relationship is directly between the company and investor and the money flows to the company as its share capital. See the shareholders thus become owner of the company through their participation in the company's IPO. They now have ownership rights over the company and the stakeholders of the company are free to exit their investment through the secondary market. That is they can sell their IPO in the stock market also. Now what's the issue in this IPO? See recently stock markets across the world have witnessed a boom in IPO offerings with a record amount of capital being raised by companies. In India alone capital worth over 1 trillion dollars has been raised through IPOs this year. It is natural for both the numbers and the size of IPO to raise during a bull market. See a bull market is nothing but the condition of a financial market in which prices are rising or are expected to rise. See the owner of many companies may also see the IPO boom as an opportunity to sell their stake in the business at an active price. But the issue is that a lot of companies that raise funds through IPOs this year such as Zomato, Paytm etc or loss making companies. See this puts investors who have invested in these IPOs at the risk of huge losses if the price of these shares witness a sharp correction. For example Paytm has lost more than one third of its value since it was listed for trading. So Sebi came up with the new rules. It believes that the new regulation will ensure that promoters of the companies will have more skin in the game. Now we will see some of the new regulations of Sebi. According to the new Sebi rules, the price band of an IPO should be set in such a way that the ceiling price is at least 105% of the floor price. See a price band is nothing but a value-sitting method in which a seller indicates an upper and lower cost limit between which buyers are able to place bits. For example if the lower price band is Rs 100 then the upper price band has to be at least Rs 205. See earlier companies going for IPO were free to set up price band as they wish but now they are mandated to set a price band in which the ceiling price is at least 105% of the floor price. So these price bands will ensure proper price discovery. See this particular rule is expected to ensure that companies price their IPO more realistically and aptly. Secondly companies will not be allowed to use more than 35% of the money that they collect through IPOs to fund the purchase of other businesses unless they offer sufficient details. See earlier companies aiming for IPOs did not have to specify how much of the raised funds would be earmarked for acquisition or for routine investments. So now companies cannot raise money only because the market was soaring high and the demand for IPOs was strong. See this new rule involving closest scrutiny may make the company a bit more judicious towards how much money they want to raise or why they have to raise the money. Thirdly the promoters with a stake of over 20% in a company cannot sell more than half of their stake in an IPO. See previously there was no limit on the sale of shares by existing stakeholders of the company going for IPO. But now early investors who were holding the advantage of higher valuation due to the booming market will now be forced to have some skin in the game. That is they will have some risk in this game. Indirectly this can result in better pricing of the IPO. Because any sudden failure in the secondary market can make it difficult for these investors to sell their remaining stake right. So this rule is expected to save the promoters as well. And lastly anchor investors will not be able to sell more than half their shares before 90 days from the date of the IPO. See anchor investors or institutional investors such as mutual funds or sovereign wealth funds it can be any institutional investor. See these anchor investors they buy substantial shares in the company just before an IPO opens for a subscription. So those kinds of anchor investors they cannot or they will not be able to sell more than half of their shares before 90 days from the date of the IPO. See currently the time stipulation is of 30 days like many countries used to allot shares to big name anchor investors with the aim to create a positive image. It is to ensure that their IPOs receive good response from retail and other institutional investors. See this resulted in anchor investors exiting their investment after 30 days of lock-in. This often hurts the non-institutional investors who have bought shares in the IPO and were still holding them. So to address this the limit was increased to 90 days. See we have discussed the new rules aims to protect retail investors from risk in the booming IPO market right. However some critics fear that the new rules may hinder the rising of view capital by companies to fuel growth. For instance mandating companies to be specific about how they will use the money that they collect through IPOs can affect flexibility. Because business conditions can change fast in the real world right further the restriction on anchor investors can affect liquidity in the market. See many large investors may not be willing to hold their investments over 90 days and thus decide to completely up stand from participating in IPOs. This might happen so there is also a risk here. Some critics also raise the question of whether SEBI should be trying to hand hold investors at all when it comes to making investment decisions. See they believe that the investors are facing loss or gain from their investment decision and they are best equipped to conduct the necessary due diligence before investing in IPOs. The same goes for companies who decide to price their IPOs. The companies who generally avoid underpricing or overpricing their issues because it would affect how much capital they can price. In fact sitting narrow price band could be a way to avoid valuation uncertainties that can affect fundraising. Despite these critics how SEBI's new rules will protect the investor in the market is a question here for which time have to answer. So we have to wait and watch whether this new rules made by SEBI will protect the investor in the market or not. So that's all regarding this article. Now let us move on to the next news article. Take a look at this article. See this news article talks about a proactive speech by a particular religious group against the other. See some political parties and concerned citizens have termed these proactive speech as hate speech and demanded legal action against those involved in the propagation of hate and violence. So in this context let us discuss about hate speech and Indian laws regarding these hate speeches. Finally we will also see the proposals of the law commission on this context. See article 19 of Indian constitution guarantees freedom of speech and expression. It implies that every citizen have the right to express his views, opinions, belief and convictions. He or she can freely express by words of mouth, writing, printing, picturing or in any other manner. But this right is not absolute. That means the state can impose reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the freedom of speech and expression. See it can be restricted on the grounds of sovereignty and integrity of India, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, decency or morality, contempt of court, defamation and incitement to an offense. See this article does not define anything called hate speech. Then what is hate speech? See there is no specifically legal definition of hate speech. But in the 267th report of the law commission of India, hate speech is defined as an incitement to hatred primarily against a group of persons. See this group of persons is defined in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief and the like. So in simple words hate speech is any word written or spoken, science, visible representations within the hearing or sight of a person with the intention to cause fear or alarm or incitement to violence. Now we will see the law provisions regarding these hate speeches in India. See the provision of IPC under section 153A and section 505 deals with inflammatory speeches and expressions that seek to punish hate speech. See according to article 153A, promotion of enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language etc and doing acts pre-judicial to maintenance of harmony is an offense. It is punishable with an imprisonment term of 3 years. The other section that is section 505 of IPC considers statements leading to public mischief as an offense. Note that the actions penalized under section 505 one should be one who promotes mutiny by the armed forces or that induces people to commit an offense against the state. It even includes the report or rumor statement or any publications as well. See this offense attracts a jail term of up to 3 years. In addition to the above sections, the law commission have also made certain proposals. See the first proposal talks about the addition of separate offense to the IPC. This is to criminalize hate speech specifically because as of now it is being subsumed in the existing sections concerning inflammatory acts and speeches. So the first proposal talks about addition of separate offense to the IPC. Talking about the second proposal, see the second proposal talks about the addition of two new sections which is section 153C and section 505A. See section 153C should make it an offense in the following two cases. The first case is if anyone uses gravely threatening words spoken or written or signs or visible representations with the intention to cause fear or alarm and statement two is if anyone advocates hate that causes incitement to violence on grounds of religion, race, caste or community sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, place of birth, residence, language, disability or tribe. See the draft of section 153C proposes a two-year jail term or a fine of 5000 rupees or both. See now coming to 505A, the committee proposes to impose one-year present term or a fine of up to 5000 or both for offenses like displaying of right or sign that are gravely threatening or derogatory. See similar proposals regarding hate speech have been made by the MP, Besbora committee and the TK Vishwanathan committee. So note that at present the committee for reforms in criminal laws is examining the issue of having specific provisions to tackle hate speech. That's all about this article. So we saw about hate speech, law provisions regarding these hate speech in India. Finally we ended our discussion with the proposal of the law commission on these hate speeches. Now let us move on to the next news article discussion. This news article mentions that scientists have found that recently evolved portions of DNA that code for proteins are associated with cesophrenia and bipolar disorder. They found this while investigating the dark genome. So today let us understand what is dark genome. To understand that first we must know what is gene and genome. See gene is the basic physical unit of inheritance which is passed from parents to offspring. It contains the information needed to specify traits. It is composed of a string of DNA and as you are aware DNA is composed of four bases called adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine. Note that gene encodes the information necessary to make a protein. These proteins perform some functions within our cells. So what is a gene? Gene is the basic physical unit of inheritance which is passed from parents to offspring and it is composed of a string of DNA. Now these genes are arranged one after another on structures called chromosome. See this chromosome contains a single long DNA molecule. But only a portion of this chromosome corresponds to a single gene. So a chromosome has many genes in it and humans have approximately 20,000 genes arranged on their chromosomes and within the genome. I hope now you are all clear about the terms gene, DNA and chromosome. Now let us understand what is a genome. The genome refers to the entire set of genetic instructions found in a cell. That is the complete set of its genes. Genome is comprised of chromosomes. In humans genome consists of 23 pairs of chromosomes and each set of 23 chromosomes contains approximately 3.1 billion bases of DNA sequence. But we saw that human have approximately 20,000 genes with the genome right which actually encodes the information necessary to make a protein. So these 20,000 genes are just about 1 to 2 percentage of the 3.1 billion base pairs of DNA. But what about the remaining 98 to 99 percentage of our entire genome? See this 98 to 99 percentage of genome is what is called by scientist as non-coding DNA. It is also called as dark matter DNA or DNA genome. See they are the intergenic regions in a genome. These regions do not encode information necessary to make a protein. So to put it in simple words genes which contain information or which encodes the information necessary to make a protein or simply called gene and the remaining part which does not encode information necessary to make a protein is known as dark matter DNA or dark genome. See previously this non-coding part was called junk DNA because scientists thought it had known purpose. But now it is found that it is integral to the function of cells particularly the control of gene activity. For example non-coding DNA contains sequences that act as regulatory elements which determine when and where genes are turned on and off. So this is all you have to know from this article. In this article we saw what is a gene, what is a DNA, what is a chromosome and what is a genome. Gene is the basic physical unit of inheritance which is passed from parent to offspring. It contains the information needed to specify traits and we saw that it is composed of a string of DNA. When you look at the DNA, DNA is composed of four bases called adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine. When genes are arranged one after another on a structure it is called chromosome. So chromosome contains a single long DNA molecule but only a portion of this chromosome corresponds to a single gene. Genome refers to the entire set of genetic instructions found in a cell that is complete set of its genes and we also saw that the gene which encodes the information necessary to make a protein is known as a proper gene and the gene which does not encode information necessary to make a protein is known as dark matter DNA or dark genome. See previously this non-coding part was called chunk DNA because scientist thought it had known purpose but now it is found that they are integral to the function of cell particularly in controlling the gene activity. So with these learn points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Take a look at this article see this news article mentions that for the fourth time a tiger is seen straying into the regions close to habitats in Sundarbans. So today let us see about Sundarbans from prelims perspective. See Sundarbans is located in West Bengal and borders the Bay of Bengal. It is situated in the Swampy delta of the river Ganga, Brahmaputra and Meghna. Actually it is located at the confluence of Ganga and Brahmaputra basin in between India and Bangladesh. See it extends over a vast area of 9,630 square kilometers but in India it spans a vast area covering 4,264 square kilometers only. Now this Sundarbans consist of mangrove forests, swamps, estuaries, river channels and more than 100 islands of various shapes or sizes. See actually Sundarbans is the largest single block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the world. Here halophytic means salt tolerant. Also this mangrove forest consist of an evergreen mangrove tree species called Heritera forms or Heritera minor. Locally this species is known as Sundari. This is the reason why it got the name Sundarbans. See additionally it houses many rare and endangered animals including aquatic mammals, tigers, birds and reptiles. Note that Sundarbans is the only mangrove forest in the world having tigers. Apart from this its biodiversity is most significant. See Sundarbans also serves as a crucial protective barrier against the floods. This occurs whenever there is cyclone and these Sundarbans serves as a critical barrier against the floods. Here Sundarbans mangroves also reduce the fury of cyclonic storms and prevent erosion due to tidal action. See apart from this the island are also of great economic importance because they are the source of timber and natural resources and support a wide variety of aquatic and terrestrial organisms. Now considering its ecological importance see Sundarbans national park has been designated as a natural world heritage site by the UNESCO. Then consequently in 1989 government of India constituted the Sundarbans biosphere reserve. This also received the recognition of global biosphere reserve under UNESCO's man and biosphere program which is nothing but the MAB program. So these are all the things that you have to make a note of Sundarbans. You can use it as a value addiction in your mains answer and there might be question and problems regarding Sundarbans in these dimensions. So with these learnt points now let us move on to the next part of the news article discussion which is nothing but the preliminary practice questions. Now look at this first question. This question is about Indo Sarasenic style of architecture. Consider the following statements about Indo Sarasenic style of architecture. Statement one it is also known as Indo Gothic style of architecture. Statement two it is completely indigenous in nature. Statement three some of the architectural elements include cusped arcs domes spires tracery and minarets which of the statements given above is or are correct. Option A one and two only option B two and three only option C two only option D one and three only. See the correct answer for the question is option D one and three only. See we have seen that the Indo Sarasenic architecture represents a synthesis of Islamic design and Indian materials which was developed by British architects in India. So option two is incorrect it is not indigenous in nature it is actually hybrid. If you eliminate option two you can directly arrive at the answer which is option D one and three only. See statement one is correct because Indo Sarasenic style is also known as Indo Gothic style of architecture. Now coming to the statement three the hybrid combined diverse architectural elements of Indo and Mohal includes cusped arcs domes spires tracery minarets and stained glasses. So statement three is also correct. The correct answer for this question is option D one and three only. Now moving on to the next question see this question is about algal bloom there is a concern over the increase in harmful algal bloom in the seawaters of India. What could be the causative factor for this phenomenon? Statement one discharge of nutrients from the estuaries. Statement two runoff from the land during the monsoon. Statement three availing in the seas. Select the correct answer from the codes given below. Option A one only option D one and two only option C two and three only and option D one two and three. See the correct answer is option D first statement is correct because discharge of nutrients from everywhere including estuaries is a reason for increase in harmful algal bloom. Now coming to the second statement second statement is also correct because we saw that in our discussion coming to statement three along with these reasons upwelling in seas is also a reason see upwelling occurs when deeper cooler ocean water is driven up to the surface now as time passes by the nutrients on top settles down so when upwelling happens deeper water gets pushed upward to take its place and this water tends to be very nutrient rich which can trigger an algal bloom. So the correct answer is option D one two and three. Now look at this question this question is also about algal bloom which of the following species cause algal bloom. Statement one noctiluca skin tilans. Statement two trichodesminum. Statement three coclodinium and statement four cyanobacteria. Select the correct answer from the code given below. Option A one and four only option B two and three only option C one two and three only and option D one two three and four. See the correct answer is option D one two three and four. See we saw one and four during our discussion right. Now note that trichodesminum is also a marine cyanobacterium or blue green algae. It is found worldwide in tropical and subtropical waters and it also causes algal bloom. Now coming to the third statement coclodinium is a dinoflagellate which also causes algal bloom. You should also remember other species that causes algal bloom for example gymnodium, gonial ex and ceratium etc. So the correct answer here is option D one two three and four. Now moving on to the next question see this question is about genome which of the following statement is incorrect with reference to genomics. Option A humans have approximately 20,000 genes arranged within the genome option B dark genome forms 98 to 99 percentage of the genome. Option C whole genome encodes information necessary to make a protein and option D both A and B. See option C is incorrect because a genome consists of gene that encode for protein which comprises of just 1 to 2 percentage of the genome whereas the remaining 98 to 99 percentage do not encode for protein that is why they are called non-coding DNA. So option C is incorrect because the whole genome does not encodes information necessary to make a protein. Now moving on to the next question see this question is about Sundarbans. Consider the following statements with reference to Sundarbans. Statement one it is declared as both natural world heritage site and global biosphere reserve by UNESCO. Statement two it is the only mangrove forest in the world that is home to tigers. Statement three it acts as a protective barrier against the floods and prevents erosion due to tidal action. Which of the statements given above is or are correct? Option A one and three only option B one only option C two and three only and option D one two and three. See the correct answer is option D one two and three because we saw all the three statements in our discussion it is declared as both natural world heritage site and global biosphere reserve by UNESCO. It is the only mangrove forest in the world that is home to tigers and it acts as a protective barrier against the floods and prevents erosion due to tidal action. So the correct answer is option D one two and three. The main questions are displayed here please go through it write an answer and post it in the comment section. With these we came to the end of the news article discussion. If you like the video like comment and share and do subscribe to Shankarayas Academy YouTube channel. Thank you.