 A very good evening aspirants welcome to the Hindi newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankarai's academy. Today's date is 10th of February 2022 so these are the list of news articles chosen for today's discussion. Firstly we will be discussing about text and context page article. Secondly we will be discussing about MRNA vaccine. And thirdly we will be seeing an important article about a scheme. And finally we will end our discussion by discussing about an important article regarding nuclear fusion. So now let us move on to the first news article discussion. This discussion is based on this text and context article which is about the new central media accreditation guidelines. Day before yesterday that is on 8th of February 2022 we briefly saw about the guidelines and its important provisions from prelims perspective. Today this article list out the concerns associated with it. So we will look into the guidelines from the mains perspective by seeing the concerns. The syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference please go through it. See basically the guidelines are a new policy on accreditation of journalist. The accreditation facilitates the journalist or media representatives to access information from the government sources. So the new policy is for accreditation of journalist. Note that this accreditation is also called as the PIB accreditation that is Press Information Bureau accreditation. Because PIB is the one that provides this accreditation at the headquarters as you know PIB functions under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It is the nodal agency of the government of India to disseminate information to the print and electronic media. The information is regarding the government policies, programs, initiatives and achievements. Now why this accreditation is important? See this accreditation is important for journalist because it allows access to government offices in Delhi. It enables them to cover some events attended by the Prime Minister and the President. They also can access the media workroom and the PIB library at Delhi's National Media Center if they have this accreditation. Now you might have a doubt why this policy is an issue now. See previously also there were guidelines on who should be provided accreditation. It was the 2013 guidelines. Now the new 2022 guidelines have many updates and changes. One of the major changes about the withdrawal or suspension of accreditation. Now this provision has raised many concerns. See previous guidelines also provided for withdrawal or suspension of accreditation but in a general sense. It mentioned that accreditation shall be withdrawn as soon as the conditions on which it was given cease to exist. That is for getting accreditation the journalist has to meet certain criteria. For example a working journalist should be employed full time in a news organization. So if that working journalist becomes part time employee then the accreditation will be withdrawn. Secondly the accreditation is also liable to be withdrawn or even suspended for a particular time if it was found that the accreditation was misused. Here also note that there is no particular mention of when the accreditation will be considered as misuse. So these 2 cases were the instances when the accreditation would be withdrawn or suspended before. But now the guidelines list 10 conditions or instances when the accreditation would be withdrawn or suspended. It includes conditions like using accreditation for non journalistic activities. If the person has been charged with a serious cognisable offenses like that there are some 10 conditions or instances. See among these the contentious condition is the condition hutch. It mentions that the accreditation of journalist would be withdrawn or suspended if the journalist acts in a manner prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India, prejudicial to the security of the state or prejudicial to the friendly relations with foreign states. It can also be withdrawal or suspension if the journalist acts in a manner prejudicial to the public order, decency or morality or when the journalist is in contempt of court. Plus it will also be withdrawn or suspended if the journalist act in manner of defamation or incitement to an offense. Now the moment you hear these terminologies you would have thought that I have seen these same wording somewhere else. Yes you are right these instances are mentioned in article 19 2 of Indian constitution. Mainly these are the reasons mentioned for imposing reasonable restrictions on the right to freedom of speech and expression. But do not forget that the same article 19 under its clause 1 provides the freedom of press as a fundamental right under the right to freedom of speech and expression. But this freedom of press is subjected to the reasonable restrictions note this also so we can say that article 19 clause 2 which prescribes the restrictions to free speech guaranteed to every citizen of the country is also used to serve as guidelines for the press and media curtailing free press. So far we saw about what is accreditation and then we compared it with the previous guidelines on the 2022 guidelines. Now we will see the other cause of concern. First because these conditions regarding the sovereignty and integrity of India etc they serve a censorship rule rather than guidelines. Why because these terminologies like prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India, security of the state etc can be subjective that is they can be decided as being prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India depending on one's personal feelings and perception. Therefore now the reports of the media which criticizes the government could even be seen as a prejudicial to the interest of the country. This will enable to withdraw the accreditation of the concerned journalist. Due to this the journalist will be forced to be not to be critical of the government that is why it becomes a threat in the way of the functioning of a free media. First point to be noted and this is the reason the article mentions the guidelines more proscribing in nature than prescribing. Proscribing means prohibiting but note that the policy is silent on who will decide if a journalist conducts violates any of these conditions. Secondly even the genuine reports of the media could be delegitimized saying that they are prejudicial to the interest of the country. Now the third concern is the defamation as a ground for cancellation of accreditation. Generally journalists are the ones that expose wrongdoing by public officials, politicians, big businessmen, corporate groups or other people in power. So to stop such information from coming out these people in power resort to defamation cases against journalists and media platforms and now unfortunately defamation is also one of the provisions that can lead to cancellation of accreditation. So this will provide the people in power more opportunity to intimidate the journalist. This is the third concern. Further whether a report is defamatory or not depends on the interpretation and discretion of the body that will decide on this matter. If their interpretation suggests that a report is defamatory they can easily deny accreditation to a journalist. I hope by hearing all these concerns you'll be feeling these concerns are logical. It is worrying also because already India does not hold a good position in the World Press Freedom Index that is WPFI. WPFI ranks the countries based on the freedom available to the press that is to the journalist. It is compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders RSF which is a Paris based international non-profit, non-governmental organization. Just to know remember it ranked 180 countries in 2021 WPFI and India was at 142nd position. Here rank 1 is the highest rank so India was placed in the lowest position. The index also criticized India by stating that India is one of the world's most dangerous countries for journalists who is trying to do their job properly because journalists are exposed to every kind of attack including police violence against reporters, ambushes by political activists and reprisals instigated by criminal groups or corrupt local officials. So on those lines now the guidelines provide further opportunity for the government to punish the journalist who are just trying to do their job. So these are all the important facts or points that you have to make note of from this text and context page. In this article discussion we saw about accreditation of journalists. We saw why it is important and then we compared the 2013 guidelines and 2022 guidelines. We saw some of the concerns in the guidelines. So with these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. See this news article here it says that the India's first homegrown vaccine is likely to be released before April. Apart from this the news article also says that the data from human trials are likely to be presented for evaluation before authorities. Which vaccine are we talking about? It is nothing but the mRNA vaccine which is being developed by Pune based Geneva Biopharmacuticals which is currently in phase 213 trials. As you know this trial is to evaluate the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of the candidate vaccine. Know that around 4000 volunteers had been recruited for the trial. See this is not the only mRNA vaccine there are other vaccines also. But a limitation of these mRNA vaccines or those made by Pfizer and Moderna was that they are required to be stored in sub zero conditions. But the Geneva vaccine can be stored in ordinary refrigerators. This is one added advantage. Apart from this it is said that the mRNA vaccine can be changed to be effective against new variants. But so far the Geneva vaccine is customized to the original SARS-CoV-2. So this is the crux of the article given here. In this backdrop let us learn about mRNA vaccine and how it works. First let us see what is this mRNA vaccine. See we all know that vaccines help prepare the body to fight foreign invaders especially pathogens such as bacteria or viruses to prevent infection. All vaccines introduce a harmless piece of a particular bacteria or virus into the body which triggers an immune response. So this is how a vaccine works and most vaccines contain a weakened or dead bacteria or virus. However scientists have developed a new type of vaccine that uses a molecule called messenger RNA rather than part of an usual bacteria or virus. This new type of vaccine is known as mRNA vaccine as simple as that. See this messenger RNA is a type of RNA that is necessary for protein production. As the name itself hints as messenger RNA it just gives the message to how to produce proteins. Have this basic understanding. Now you might have a doubt from where the messenger RNA gets its information. See in a cell mRNA uses the information in gene to create a blueprint for making proteins. So once cells finish making a protein they quickly break down the mRNA. So in simple words the messenger RNA vaccines teach our cells how to make a protein that will trigger an immune response inside our body. To have a better understanding let me explain how does it actually works step by step. Firstly the mRNA vaccine all given in the upper arm muscle. By this the mRNA will enter the muscle cells and instruct the cells machinery to produce a harmless piece of spike protein. That is the mRNA which is injected through the mRNA vaccine gives the information or instructs the cell to produce a harmless piece of spike protein. Now if you don't know what a spike protein means see members of the corona virus family have sharp bumps that protrude from the surface of their outer envelopes. These bumps are known as spike proteins. You can see that from the image given here. These spiked proteins are what give the viruses their name. Under the microscope these spikes can appear like a fringe or crown and interestingly in Latin corona means crown and also remember spike proteins play an important role in how these viruses infect their host. I hope now you can understand what a spike protein means. Now coming back to how the vaccine works see after a harmless spike protein is made our cells break down the mRNA and removes it. This is the first step. Nextly the cells display the spike protein piece on their surface. Now the immune system recognizes that the protein does not belong there. This triggers the immune system to produce antibodies and activate other immune cells to fight off what it thinks is an infection. This is what the body might do to fight off the infection if you got sick with COVID-19. And finally the body have now learned how to protect against future infection from the virus that causes COVID-19. So far we discussed how a vaccine works and we saw what is the mRNA and we saw what is the mRNA vaccine and then we saw how it works. Now talking about benefits of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine see like all vaccines the vaccinated people gain the protection without getting sick with COVID-19. This is the first important point that have to note. Apart from this note that mRNA vaccine or being tested for other infectious agents like Ebola Zika virus and influenza the mRNA vaccine technology also is being tested as a treatment for cancer. See cancerous cells they create unique piece of protein that are not found on healthy cells. A vaccine that produces those pieces can educate the immune system to attack those cells. Apart from this progress was reported with melanoma as well. Theoretically mRNA technology also could produce proteins missing in certain diseases like cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia or diabetes. So that's all about the article. In this discussion we saw about vaccine specifically we saw about mRNA vaccine and the mechanism of how it works and finally we saw some of the significance of mRNA vaccine. So with these take away points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now have a look at this news article here. It says that the Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smithy Rani said that the number of beneficiaries who enrolled for the maternity benefit program exceeded the government's target of 51.7 lakh per year in each of the last three years. According to the article the minister said this in the Rajesh Abha in response to a question from Tirnaumul Congress member. See the maternity benefit program called the Pradhan Mantri Mantru Vandana Yojana PMM VY has been criticized for under funding and failing to cater to all targeted beneficiaries. So this is the crux of the news article given here. See let us not get deep into the issue but instead let us take this as an opportunity and learn about the scheme Pradhan Mantri Mantru Vandana Yojana. We will also see some of its objectives. See under nutrition continues to adversely affect majority of women in India. Every third woman is undernourished and every second woman is anemic and undernourished mother almost inevitably gives birth to a low birth weight baby right. Owing to economic and social distress many women continue to work to earn a living for their family right up to the last days of their pregnancy. Furthermore they resume working soon after childbirth as well. Even though their body might not permit it they resume their work soon after childbirth thus preventing their bodies from fully recovering on one hand and also impeding their ability to exclusively breastfeed their young infant in the first six months. So considering all these situations to change them Pradhan Mantri Mantru Vandana Yojana was introduced in 2017 by the Ministry of Women and Child Development. Remember this scheme is a conditional cash transfer scheme meaning the cash will be directly provided to the household only if they satisfy specific conditions mentioned in the scheme. Now who are the beneficiaries of the scheme? See the targeted beneficiaries include all pregnant women and lactating mothers excluding the ones who are in regular employment with the central or state government or public sector undertakings or those who are in receipt of similar benefits under any law. So it includes all pregnant women and lactating mothers. Apart from this all eligible pregnant women and lactating mothers who have their pregnancy on or after 1st of January 2017 for the first child in the family is eligible for the scheme. Now let us see about the incentive. See the scheme offers cash incentive of rupees 5000 and this cash incentive is provided to pregnant women and lactating mothers. The incentive is provided for the first living child of the family for fulfilling the specific maternal and child health conditions. So make note of these points the incentive is provided for the first living child and the condition here is to fulfill the specific maternal and child health conditions. Here this image shows you the dispersal of the incentive in three installments just go through it. So to sum up it is a partial compensation for the wage loss which is a part of a plan to provide a total sum of 6000 rupees on an average to the women. The remaining cash incentive that is rupees 1000 rupees is provided under Janani Suraksha Yojana that is JISY after institutional delivery. Institutional delivery means giving birth to a child in a medical institution under the overall supervision of trained and competent health personnel. So that's all about the scheme. In this article discussion we saw about Pradhan Mantri Madhru Vandana Yojana we saw about its objective we saw about the beneficiaries of the scheme and finally we saw about the incentive given under the scheme. With these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Take a look at this article. This article talks about the nuclear fusion process and the effort taken to replicate the process in the scent. So in this context let us learn about nuclear fusion and what happens in the process. Before that why are we learning this? See so far we have been generating electricity only through nuclear fusion process. An alternative to this process is the nuclear fusion process. So let us first understand what is this nuclear fusion process and then we'll learn about some of the applications and uses of nuclear fusion process. See the nuclear fusion occurs when atomic nuclei collide at extremely high temperatures forming a new heavier nucleus and releasing energy in the process. So when atomic nuclei collide each other at extremely higher temperature as a result they form a new heavier nucleus with a release of energy. Here atoms of tritium and deuterium which are nothing but the isotopes of hydrogen 3 and 2 respectively they unite under extreme pressure and temperature to produce a neutron and a helium isotope. Just to recall isotope is nothing but one of two or more forms of a chemical element that have different physical characteristics but the same chemical characteristics. We call them as isotope and the isotope of hydrogen 3 is tritium here and isotope of hydrogen 2 is deuterium. Now for extra information know that deuterium occurs naturally in seawater that is they occur 30 grams per cubic meter in seawater which makes it very abundant relative and talking about tritium they occur naturally only in trace quantities. They are produced by cosmic rays and this radioactive with a half time of around 12 years. Now usable quantities of tritium can be made in a conventional nuclear reactor. So when atoms of this tritium and deuterium unite under extreme pressure and temperature to produce a neutron and helium isotope along with this enormous amount of energy is released which is several times higher than the amount produced from fusion. I hope you are all aware that fission process is only used in the nuclear power reactor. This is because fission can be controlled and fusion cannot be controlled. Let us see why. See a very good example of nuclear fusion is the phenomenon which happens in sun and other stars. See fusion powers the sun and stars as hydrogen atoms fuse together to form helium and matter is converted into energy. Here hydrogen is heated to very high temperature as a result it changes from a gas to a plasma in which the negatively charged electrons are separated from the positively charged atomic nuclei. See normally fusion is not possible because the strongly repulsive electrostatic forces between the positively charged nuclei prevent them from getting close enough together to collide and for fusion to occur. However if the condition allows the nuclei to overcome the electrostatic forces to the extent that they can come within a very close range of each other then the attractive nuclear force which binds protons and neutrons together in atomic nuclei will over weigh the electrostatic repulsive force. See this will allow the nuclei to fuse together. Such conditions can occur when the temperature increases causing the ions to move faster and eventually reach speeds higher enough to bring the ions close enough together. Then the nuclei will fuse causing a release of energy. But the problem here is in the sun massive gravitational force creates the right condition for fusion but on earth they are much harder to achieve especially fusion fuel that is the different isotopes of hydrogen must be heated to extreme temperatures near 250 million degrees Celsius and they must also be kept stable under intense pressure and confined for long period to allow the nuclei to fuse. So here the aim of the controlled fusion research program is to achieve ignition which occurs when enough fusion reactions take place for the process to become self-sustaining. Once ignition is achieved there is net energy yield about four times as much as with nuclear fission. So to put it in simple words if nuclear fusion can be replicated on earth it could provide virtually limitless clean safe and affordable energy to meet the world's energy demand. After knowing the significance the scientist in the uniter kingdom had achieved a new milestone in producing nuclear fusion energy or imitating the way energy is produced in the sun. As per the UK Atomic Energy Authority a team at the joint European Taurus facility that is JET facility near Oxford in central England generator 59 meha joules of sustained energy during an experiment. It is said that a kilogram of fusion fuel contains about 10 million times as much as energy as kilogram of coal oil or gas. Just look at the difference 10 million times of energy is produced with a kilogram of fusion fuel when compared with a kilogram of coal oil or gas. Apart from this know that the energy was produced in a machine called a tokamak a donut shaped apparatus and this experiment used deutrium and tritrium which are isotopes of hydrogen and are heated to temperature 10 times hotter than the center of the sun to create plasma. This was held in place under superconductor electromagnets as it spins around fuses and releases tremendous energy as heat. Now the record and scientific data from these crucial experiments are a major boost for the ITER which is nothing but the larger and more advanced version of joint European Taurus. See the ITER is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering meha project supported by seven members which includes China the European Union India Japan South Korea Russia and US. See make note of these important forums there might be question in preliminary examination. Specifically this ITER it seeks to further demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy. So that's all about the news article in this news article we saw about what is nuclear fusion and we saw why nuclear fusion cannot be controlled and we saw some of the advantages of nuclear fusion. Finally we ended our discussion by seeing some of the important points mentioned in the news article. With this we came to the end of the news article discussion now let us move on to the next part of the news article discussion which is nothing but the preliminary practice question. Now look at this first question this question is about mRNA vaccines. Consider the following statements regarding the mRNA vaccines. Statement one mRNA vaccines uses a weakened bacteria or virus to trigger immune response. Statement two mRNA injected in the body through vaccine would stay inside the cell forever which of the statements given above is or or correct. Option a one only option b two only option c both one and two option d neither one nor two. See the correct answer for this question is option d neither one nor two because both the statements are incorrect. Now look at this first statement in our discussion we saw that mRNA vaccine is a new type of vaccine that uses a molecule called messenger RNA or mRNA rather than part of an actual bacteria or virus. So the first statement is incorrect. Now look at the second statement this statement is also incorrect because in cell mRNA uses the information in genes to create a blueprint for making protein. Even though mRNA is messenger RNA the information is provided to mRNA by genes to create a blueprint for making proteins. Once cells finish making a protein they quickly break down the mRNA. So they do not stay inside the cell forever which makes the second statement is incorrect. So the correct answer here is option d neither one nor two. Now moving on to the second question this question is about Pradhan Mantri Mathru Vandana Yojana. Statement one the targeted beneficiaries include all pregnant women and lactating mothers including the central and state government employees. Statement two the scheme offers cash incentive to pregnant women and lactating mothers. Which of the statements given above is or correct? Option a one only option b two only option c both one and two and option d neither one nor two. See the correct answer is option b two only because first statement is incorrect in our discussion it's a we saw that the targeted beneficiaries includes all pregnant women and lactating mothers excluding the one who are in regular employment with the central or state government or public sector undertakings right and the pregnant women and lactating mothers those who are in receipt of similar benefits under any law will not be covered under this scheme so the first statement is incorrect. Second statement is actually correct the scheme offers cash incentive of 5000 and it is provided for the first living child of the family for fulfilling the specific maternal and child health conditions in the discussion we saw that this scheme is a conditional cash transfer scheme so the second statement is correct here the correct option is option b two only now moving on look at this third question which of the following statements with reference to nuclear fusion is correct they are asking about nuclear fusion option a nuclear fission produces more energy than nuclear fusion option b the process includes a neutron and helium nuclei and forms two isotopes of hydrogen option c nuclear fusion is happening in the sun and other stars and option d fusion process can be controlled easily than the fission process so i have to find the correct statement from these options c option a is incorrect because in the fusion process net energy yield will be about four times more than the nuclear fission so the statement one is incorrect moving on to option b this option is also incorrect because in nuclear fusion atoms of tritium and deuterium which show nothing but the isotopes of hydrogen unite under extreme pressure and temperature to produce a neutron and helium isotope here the statement is interchanged the process and the byproducts are interchanged so the option b is also incorrect now look at the option c this statement is correct because in our discussion we saw that nuclear fusion is happening in the sun and other stars right so this statement is correct option d is incorrect because in sun massive gravitational forces create the right condition for fusion but on earth they are much harder to achieve fusion must be heated to extreme temperatures near 250 million degrees celsius and they must also be kept stable under intense pressure and confined for long enough to allow the nuclei to fuse this is the reason why fusion process is uncontrollable fission is easily controllable whereas fusion is uncontrollable the option given here is interchanged so the option d is also incorrect the correct option for the question is option c nuclear fusion is happening in the sun and other stars the main question is displayed here please go through it write an answer and post it in the comment section with us we came to the end of the news article discussion if you like the video like comment and share and do subscribe to shankarae's academy youtube channel thank you