 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Raya's Academy for the date 16th April 2019. Displayed are the list of news articles selected for today's analysis and their page numbers in Chennai, Bengaluru and Delhi edition of the newspaper. Now let us move on to the first article. The first news article is about a major medical breakthrough that advances the possibilities of human heart transplants. The aspects of this article become part of prelim syllabus under the subtopic of current events of international importance in general science and under mains it shall be discussed under science and technology, their developments in applications in everyday life and in awareness in the field of biotechnology under the GS3 syllabus. Previously medical scientists had been attempting to print a three-dimensional human heart but they were unsuccessful in printing a human heart with working human cells, blood vessels, ventricles, chambers etc. and previous attempts only printed simple tissues that are without working blood vessels. Recently as published in the journal Advanced Science the medical researchers at Tel Aviv University in Israel have revealed to the world a three-dimensional print of a human heart with working cells and blood vessels. This heart is modelled based on a human patient where the human cells were taken from the patient through biopsies. The heart as of now is in the size of a rabbit's heart or the size of a cherry and is in the early stage of the development. Coming to what next? Now the heart is of small size and the development will lead to production of a human sized heart and this finding will enrich various researchers that are aspiring to produce various other organs of human body. Also the researchers must conduct medical trials by transplanting the heart into animal models and to make these printed hearts to behave like the real human hearts. This new development thus advances the possibilities of heart transplants because as of now the heart transplantation is the only definitive treatment for patients in the end stages of the congestive heart failure disease. The medical researcher now should also ensure the issues with biocompatibility of the developed human heart as transplant rejection is a common problem among heart transplant patients which happens when the immune system of the person undergoing transplantation targets the transplanted heart. It is highly expected that in few years there will be human heart printers in finest hospitals to carry out heart transplants as a result of this medical breakthrough. With this let's move on to the next article. This article appears on page number 1 and page number 10 in Chennai and Delhi editions and in page number 10 in Bangalore edition. The information in the article comes under physical geography of India and current events of national importance in prelims examination and under salient features of physical geography under G.S. paper one of the main syllabus. It is about the IMD's prediction about this year's southwest monsoon. One should note that last year IMD predicted normal southwest monsoon but it was rather a below normal monsoon only and this year it predicts a normal monsoon of around 96% of long period average and normal monsoon means when the actual rainfall received falls between 96 to 104% of long period average. Long period average is the average rainfall received by the country as a whole during the southwest monsoon for a 50 year period from 1951 to 2000. The present long period average is 89 centimeter. The southwest monsoon is said to be deficient if the rainfall received is less than 90% of LPA or long period average. Southwest monsoon is said to be excess if the rainfall received is more than 110% of long period average. Now the reason for IMD's prediction of normal rainfall is that weakening LNO factor and positive Indian dipole moment that would neutralize the negative effect of LNO during the southwest monsoon. To better remember a simple memory trick is that a positive Indian dipole moment is always positive for Indian monsoon. The detailed explanations regarding LNO and positive Indian dipole moment has been explained by our colleague Mr. Shanmugam on 14th April 2019 current affairs analysis under the head will LNO impact the monsoon. With this let's move on to the next article. Now this article states that the wholesale price index for the month of March is 3.18% spiking from 2.93 in February and 2.76% in January 2019. Now the various aspects of this news article could come under current events of national importance and economic and social development in prelim syllabus and in Indian economy and issues relating to planning and mobilization of resources growth and development in GS3 of main exam syllabus. It is found that there is rise in inflation in food articles, fuel and power, diesel and petrol. The WPA increase in food articles is due to the inflation of around 28.13% that is seen in the vegetable prices. Now the central bank of India that is the RBI has predicted the retail inflation or the CPA or consumer price index to be around 2.9% to 3% for the first half of financial year 2020 that is the period from April to September 2019. The reasons for this prediction is that the expectation of lower food and fuel prices and the expectation of a normal southwest monsoon. In the context of this article let us know about WPA that is the wholesale price index which measures the average change in the prices of commodities for bulk sale at the level of early stage of transactions in simpler words it captures all bulk transactions of goods carried out in the domestic market. The universe of wholesale price index comprises all possible transactions at first point of bulk sale in the domestic market before the retail level. WPA is compiled and released on monthly basis by office of economic advisor under the department of industrial policy and promotion in the ministry of commerce and industry. Now the department of industrial policy and promotion is renamed as department of promotion of industry and internal trade. The index basket of the WPA covers commodities falling under the three major groups namely primary articles, fuel and power and manufactured products. The prices tracked are X factory price for manufactured products, agree market or Monday price for agricultural commodities and X mines prices for minerals. Weights given to each of these commodities covered in WPA basket is based on the value of production adjusted for net imports of which manufactured products have the highest weightage of 64.2 percent and primary articles have a weight of 22.6 percent which is subdivided into food articles, non-food articles, minerals, crude petroleum and natural gas and the final major group is fuel and power with a weightage of 13.2 percent which is subdivided into coal, mineral oil and electricity. This index covers prices of products or commodities only pertaining to four sectors comprising of agriculture, mining, manufacturing and electricity. Now the other sectors of GDP in particular the services sector is not covered under wholesale price index and wholesale price index is calculated using the base year 2011-12. The number of items in the basket is 697, the wholesale price index does not include taxes so as to remove the impact of fiscal policy. Further core inflation WPA which is also known as non-food inflation measured by excluding food and fuel items from WPA that is as its name insists it includes only non-food manufacturing industries. Now the uses of WPA are WPA is an important measure to monitor the dynamic movement of prices at the wholesale level. In a dynamic world prices keep on changing. WPA is used as a deflator of various nominal macroeconomic variables including GDP. WPA provides estimates of inflation at the wholesale transactions level of the economy. This helps in timely intervention by the government to check inflation inflation in essential commodities before the price increase pills over to retail prices. WPA is also used for indexation by users in business contracts. See this indexation is a technique to adjust income payments by means of a price index in order to maintain the purchasing power of the public after inflation. And finally global investors also track WPA as one of the key macro indicators for their investment decisions. The displayed prelims question will be discussed at the last part of this video with this let us move on to the next article. Now this article appears on page number 12 in all the relevant editions. The information given under this article is relevant under the subtopic general science and current events of national and international importance under the preliminary examination syllabus and India and its neighborhood relations and effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India's interest Indian diaspora of GS2 main syllabus and achievements of Indians in science and technology indigenization of technology and developing new technology and awareness in the fields of computers robotics of GS3 main syllabus. Coming to the article China is using advanced facial recognition technology to track and control the Uighurs. It is the first known example of a government intentionally using artificial intelligence for racial profiling. This practice makes China pioneer in applying next generation technology to watch over its people thus assuring a new era of automated racism. China has already been using vast surveillance including tracking people's DNA. The article here highlights that the facial technology now would enhance the scope of monitoring into many other parts of China. However in the end the article highlights certain issues with respect to this technology. They are accuracy which has depended on environmental factors like lighting and positioning support. The other one is that it needs human support. Humans are needed to categorize people based on definitions of race or ethnicity which is then fed into the systems or the surveilling systems. In the context of this article it becomes relevant to know about few topics which will be helpful for our exam. Firstly let us know about Uighurs. See the Uighurs are a Muslim ethnic minority who lived in Central and East Asia and now mainly concentrated in the Xinjiang province of China. They are considered as an official minority by the Chinese government. They speak Turkish and consider them as ethnically close to Central Asian regions. The tension and recent violence between the Uighurs and the China are mainly caused by economic and cultural factors. See the priority being given to hunts Chinese who come from eastern provinces to Xinjiang big prosperous cities they land up in best jobs and their economic well-being in the region mostly contribute to the resentment or the displeasure among the Uighurs. China has faced severe international criticism for its recent crackdown on this minority population and for placing them in detention camps. Now let us know about artificial intelligence. See it is the intelligence demonstrated by machines in contrast to the natural intelligence demonstrated by humans and animals. Artificial intelligence is designed by studying how human brain thinks and how humans learn, decide and work while trying to solve a problem and then using the outcomes of this study as a basis of developing intelligent software and systems. The development of artificial intelligence is still in nascent stage in India. However here are few steps taken in India in the recent times acknowledging the growing significance of artificial intelligence. Recently the central board of secondary education noted that artificial intelligence in the past few years has gained geo-strategic importance and a large number of countries are striving to stay with their policy initiatives to get their country ready. In this context CBSE has introduced artificial intelligence as a part of its curriculum for students of class 9. It is introduced as an optional subject. The next development is inclusion of a mission on artificial intelligence among the 9 missions identified by prime minister, science, technology and innovation council that is PM STIAC to address major scientific challenges to ensure India's sustainable development. The other development is the partnership between Nithya Yogi and Google to promote artificial intelligence ecosystem in the country. Under this startups will be mentored and coached by Google and its affiliates to enable them to better leverage artificial intelligence in their respective business models. Google will also conduct hands-on training programs to sensitize policy makers and technical experts in governments about relevant artificial intelligence tools and to use them for streamlining the governance. We will be discussing this prelims question at the end of the video. With this let's move on to the next article. Now this article appears on page number 1, 8 and 10 in said editions of the newspaper. The information given under this article is relevant under subtopic policy and governance and the prelims exam and salient features of the representation of people lack, appointment to various constitutional posts, powers, functions and responsibilities of constitutional bodies in GS paper 2. Coming to the first article, the election commission on Monday imposed restrictions on campaigning of four politicians for violating the model code of conduct and also prevented them from giving interviews or making any comment on the electronic print or social media in connection with upcoming loaves of election. Among them, the politician Maya Vati who has evoked communal remarks, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh has referred to armed forces for political gains and Ms. Menaka Gandhi clearly violated section 123 of representation of People's Act in of 1951. This section mentions that seeking for votes on religious grounds amounts to a corrupt practice. Next, the second article highlights that the Supreme Court gave election commission exactly 24 hours to explain its submissions that it was largely toothless and powerless to act against religious or hate speech. Now, let us move to main part of our discussion, that is the editorial. The author here mainly highlights the weakening commitment of election commission to model code of conduct as a cause of concern. Before digging deep into the editorial, let us understand model code of conduct in the first place. See, the MCC refers to a set of guidelines issued by election commission. It is a unique Indian innovation and is important for the conduct of free and fair elections. It comprises directions with respect to the conduct of government functionaries, political parties and candidates and polling agents. The origins of the MCC lie in the assembly elections of Kerala in 1960 when the state administration prepared a code of conduct for political actors. Subsequently, it was also used in the Lok Sabha elections in 1962. Model code of conduct comes into force when the election commission announces the election dates, that is the poll schedule. Now, let us get back to the editorial. See, the author here points to effectiveness of election commission over the years in enforcing model code of conduct. It can be classified into mainly three time periods. The first period is from the time of 1967 to 1991. The election commission followed the code of conduct as articulated in Kerala. Later, it refined and renamed it to MCC. It demanded model code of conduct to be incorporated in the law, but no such law was actually passed. In this period, there was an increasing political competition which resulted in parties resorting to corrupt practices, coming up with populist schemes, intimidating voters and booth capturing. Hence, the code of conduct was largely ignored. Election commission then made the code more stringent and renamed it as MCC or the model code of conduct. However, it did not have a statutory binding as it was not made a law. The second period is mainly after 1991 and mainly during the tenure of TN session, the then chief election commissioner. During the period, election commission reinterpreted its past to fix election dates and postpone the elections. This created a fear among the political class and hence MCC was taken seriously. This is considered as a turning point and the election commission began to command a new respect and electoral malpractices declined dramatically. Then comes the current period. The MCC now is at a crossroad. Electoral malpractice has appeared in new forms that is water bribery and manipulation through the media have become the techniques of unethically influencing voters in place of water intimidation and booth capturing. These malpractices are hard to trace and stem or prohibit as they are spread over time and space. The author here states that the election commission of India's response to these new challenges has been inadequate. Election commission has appointed expenditure observers and evolved a code for social media but has failed to get to the core of the problem as it did after 1991. The election commission's capacity to respond to the older types of violations of the model code of conduct has weakened. Its response to inappropriate statements by powerful political actors has been weak or delayed. Consequently political actors are regaining the confidence to disobey or flout the model code of conduct without facing the consequences. Thus the author says that the model code of conduct which is the guiding light of free and fair elections and of democracy and that the commitment of election commission to it has become a concern. The displayed main question will be discussed in the last part of the video. With this let's move on to the next article. The last article for the day features as an editorial and is about the economic slowdown of India appearing on page 8 in all editions. The information given are part of current events of national and international importance and under economic and social development in prelim syllabus and in Indian economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and effects of liberalization on the economy changes in industrial policy and their effects on industrial growth in GS3 paper in Mainz examination. Moving on to the article the author points out the indicators that show a decline in Indian economic growth. The first indicator he shows is that of industrial growth which was just 0.1% in February at the slowest pace in 20 months. The industrial growth as measured by index of industrial production that is IIP has been slowing down considerably in recent months dropping to just 0.2% year on year in November 2018. Manufacturing was the biggest drag in the slowdown of industrial growth because it contributes to almost 78% weightage of the index of industrial production. Next the largest contributor to the overall slowdown in February was the capital goods sector which shrank by close to 9%. Additionally the author points the slowest GDP pace in the quarter ended in December 2018 that is slowest in the last six quarters which was just 6.6%. And also various institutions such as RBI and IMF have been lowering their expectations for India's growth in the coming quarters. RBA has cut the 2019-20 growth projection for India to 7.2% from 7.4% blaming the rising risks to global economic growth as well as weakening domestic investment activity. And IMF has also lowered the growth projection by 0.2% for 2019 for India according to the latest edition of World Economic Outlook published by International Monetary Fund. The report showed that India is expected to grow at 7.3% in fiscal year 2019-20. This is 0.2% or 20 basis points lower than January Outlook and 10 basis points lower than October's forecast. The slowdown is also visible with other economic indicators such as the Purchasing Managers Index and automobile sales signaling a decrease in momentum we will discuss Purchasing Managers Index later in this discussion. However, the overall scenario when viewed along with the slowdown in industrial output is suggesting that a turnaround in economic growth is not in sight or not happening. And finally the author says that to a large extent the slowdown is due to the disappointments in the investments in sectors caused because of the credit cycle tightening. This is due to the high levels of troubled depth in the banking sector and non-banking financial companies which are hurting the credit or loan or investment markets as they do not have the money for lending. And moreover, retail inflation as measured by consumer price index reached a 5 month high of 2.86% in March due to the rise in food and fuel prices which though remain below the RBI stated inflation threshold of 4%. But the retail inflation trajectory which we observe can hardly hold in the threshold level in the coming days. And to help the strengthening of economic growth RBI has cut interest rates two times recently and due to the above factors it is likely to be tempted to opt for more interest rate cuts. In the fiscal year that ended in March 2019, new investment proposals fell to a 14-year low. This is given in the report by the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy. The report added that 2018-19 would be the fourth consecutive year of decline in new investment proposals and 2018-19 would be the year of very poor investments in India. The author states that monetary easing could be an easy solution to the growth problem but the policy makers must look into structural issues behind the slowdown. See the monetary easing is a policy in which a central bank lowers interest rate and deposit ratios to make credit more easily available. This makes borrowing easier for the business and stimulates investment and expansion of business operations. But here the author means the troubled depth in financial institutions as structural issues that need to be addressed first and unless the issues of this debt are resolved the rate cuts will not serve as an effective stimulus. And finally he concludes that easing interest rates without structural reforms may only help to hide investment mistakes as a result of troubled depth instead of fostering a genuine economic recovery. In context of this article let us know about PMI and IIP. PMI stands for Purchasing Managers Index which is an indicator of economic health for manufacturing and service sectors. The purpose of the PMI is to provide information about current business conditions to company decision makers, analysts and purchasing managers. The purchasing managers index data is published by Japanese firm Niki but compiled and constructed by market economics. These provide an advanced indication of what is really happening in the private sector economy by tracking variables such as output, new orders, stock levels, employment and prices across the manufacturing, construction, retail and service sectors. Moving on to IIP, this topic has been widely covered by our colleague Ms. Kirtana on 13th April video. Take a look at it. We are in our last part of our video that is the revision come practice session. Let us take a look at the first question with reference to wholesale price index. They have given four statements and are asking which among the above statements are correct. The first statement says it measures the average change in the price of the commodities for bulk sale at the level of the early stage of transactions. Now we know that from our discussion that it is the definition of wholesale price index and hence it is a correct statement. And the second statement it is released by central statistics office, ministry of statistics and program implementation. Now it is a confusing statement to the aspirants but the correct statement would be that WPA is compiled and released on monthly basis by the office of economic advisor under department of industrial policy and promotion which is now renamed as department of promotion of industry and internal trade under the ministry of commerce and industry. Now the third statement states the base year used for calculation is 2011-12. Now this statement is correct and the fourth statement the index is calculated under three major groups namely primary articles manufactured products and services. Now the fourth statement the final statement first part of the statement is right that is WPA is calculated under three major groups but those are primary articles manufactured products and fuel and power and not services because we clearly saw on the article discussion that services are not included in WPA and similarly taxes are also not included so as to eliminate the impact of fiscal policy. Therefore the correct answer for the statement is option C 1 and 3 only. Now let us move on to the next question. Now the next question is with respect to Uyghurs. Uyghurs the term which is often seen in the news is related to now this is a direct question the answer for the question is option B and ethnic Muslim minority population in Xinjiang province of China. Now let us go to the next question. Now this question states that what do you understand by model code of conduct how effective had election commission been in enforcing the model code of conduct. For the first give a brief note about MCC and its most important two or three provisions for the second part you may highlight the points from the analysis to substantiate your point of view. Now the next question the present situation of Indian economy is at a declining trend substantiate with the macroeconomic indicators and suggest suitable measures to augment the growth prospects. Now for the first part of the question list out the indicators which we have discussed in the article analysis and for the second part highlight the points under the issue sub-aiding of our analysis with appropriate justification for the answer. With this we come to the end of today's analysis do press the like button if you like the video comment share and subscribe to the Shankara AS Academy YouTube channel for more updates and content on civil services preparation.