 A very good evening, aspirants. See, before getting into today's discussion, there are three opportunities that is knocking your door to assist you in achieving the UPSC civil services examination. We are here to help you in your prelims and mains preparation. Those who are missed to end roll into the most reliable prelims test series offered by Shankarae's academy, your wait is over. Pre-storming batch three is starting on November 9th and the first test in this batch will commence on 20th November. Like the other batches, it will also have 66 tests. And now for mains examination, you are all aware about the mains booster 2023 and which you will be provided 40 mains oriented tests in 90 days. The booster is a quick plan drafted for you to boost your mains score. It starts on October 31st and will include sectional test, half papers and civil service examination emulators. It is available in both online and offline mode for just Rs.4,500. On top of that, we are launching a new initiative called SA Augmental 2023. Under this initiative, you will be provided with four tests to enhance your essays. It is also available in both online and offline modes. See, you will get a different approach towards essay writing along with pre-essay and post-essay discussions. To further enhance the content of essays, you will be provided with summarized easy material combined with mentorship. All these are for just Rs.6,000. Grab these opportunities to kick start your problems as well as mains preparation. And with this happy note, let's get into the news article discussion for 27th of October 2022. Displayed here are the list of news articles that we have chosen for today's discussion. And see, now without wasting much time, let's get into the discussion. Now take a look at this news article. It says that the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee again cleared the proposal for commercial cultivation of genetically modified mustard. And this is the essence of the news article given here. In this context, let us understand about GM crops and its approval process. First of all, what are GM crops? See, the GM stands for genetically modified. The GM crop is nothing but a plant that has a novel or unusual combination of genetic material obtained through the use of modern biotechnology. For example, a GM crop can contain a gene that has been artificially inserted instead of acquiring through pollination. The resulting plant is said to be genetically modified. And know that the genetic modification is a technology that involves inserting DNA into the genome of an organism. So to produce a GM plant, new DNA is transferred into plant cells. And after the new DNA is transferred to plant cells, they are usually grown in tissue culture where they develop into plants. And the seeds produced by these plants will inherit the new DNA. And the plants formed from these seeds will also inherit the new DNA. So this is how GM crops are produced. Now you may ask why a new DNA is inserted to plant cells? See, we all know that the characteristics of all living organisms are determined by their genetic makeup. The genetic makeup is nothing but the genome and the genome consists of DNA. Also know that gene is a region of DNA that contains instruction for making proteins. And these proteins only will decide the characteristics of plants. Now you know why we are inserting new genes into plant cells. See, by doing this know, we can obtain desirable characteristics in plants. We can make plants herbicide resistant, drought resistant and insecticide resistant. For instance, let us take BT cotton. BT cotton is a genetically modified pest resistant cotton variety which has the ability to combat ballworm. So far we saw about the basics of GM crops. Now let us see the procedure for approval in India. See, in India the Environment Protection Act 1986 is an umbrella legislation which provides a holistic framework for the protection and improvement to the environment. And rules for the manufacture use, import, export and storage of hazardous microorganisms, genetically engineered organisms or cells, 1989 have been notified under this Environmental Protection Act 1986. So these rules are only the apex rules for the regulation of all activities related to genetically engineered organisms and products. And know that six competent authorities have been notified under the rules. I have given here the authorities, please go through it. And have a look at this flow chart given here. It is talking about the procedure for approval of GM crops. See, applicant will give the application to Institutional Biosafety Committee. And this committee will forward the application to review committee on genetic manipulation. And this review committee on genetic manipulation will review the data and give approval for biosafety studies. And after this only the genetic engineering appraisal committee gives approval for field trials. And after this the approval for environmental release will be considered. If the committee feels that the particular variety is suitable for environmental release, then the genetic engineering appraisal committee will give approval for the commercial release. This is what is given in the news article today. As we saw earlier, the GM mustard is given approval for commercial release by this genetic engineering appraisal committee. Now comes the question. Is this the final step in the approval process? See, it is a big no. The genetic engineering appraisal committee evaluates research into GM plans and recommends or disapproves their release into farm or fields. The final call however is taken by the environment minister. So, as far as today's article is concerned, GM mustard or the genetically modified mustard should get a nod from environment ministry also. So, that's all about this news article. So, through this discussion we saw what are GM crops and then we saw how it is approved for commercial usage. See, whatever we discussed in this discussion is very much important for both your problems as well as means because regarding this approval and all you will be asked in your means. So, these key points in mind. Now let's move on to the next news article discussion. Have a look at this article. See, it is about the India Space Agency ISRO. The chairman of ISRO talks about the functioning of space sector on demand. He also talks about the space policy which will define the future of commercial space applications in India. So, this is the crux of the news article given here and using this opportunity let us learn about ISRO. See, ISRO is Indian Space Research Organization and before seeing any missions let us see about the foundation of ISRO. See, space activities in the country were initiated with the setting up of Indian National Committee for Space Research in the year 1962. But the Indian Space Program was institutionalized in November 1969 with the formation of Indian Space Research Organization that is ISRO. After this the Government of India constituted the Space Commission and established the Department of Space in June 1972. In September 1972 the government brought ISRO under Department of Space. Here the Space Commission formulates the policies and oversees the implementation of the Indian Space Program. This is done to promote the development and application of space science and technology for the socio-economic benefit of the country. Now coming to the Department of Space, first of all let us see the objectives of forming this Department of Space. See, this Department of Space only has the primary responsibility of promoting development of space science, technology and applications towards achieving self-reliance in assisting in all-round development of the nation. And to do this, the Department of Space has evolved certain programs. Now let us see them one by one. The first one is the Indian National Satellite Program. It is for telecommunications, TV broadcasting, metrology, developmental education etc etc. And the second one is the remote sensing program. It is for the application of satellite imagery for various developmental purposes. And the third one is the indigenous capability for design and development of spacecraft and associated technologies for communications, resources survey and space sciences. And the fourth one is design and development of launch vehicles with indigenous technology. See, this is done for access to space and orbiting spacecrafts and space science missions. And the final one is research and development in space sciences and technology as well as application program for national development. And know that this Department of Space implements these programs through Indian space research organization, that is ISRO. And both the Department of Space and ISRO are headquartered at Bengaluru. And they carry out the developmental activities at the centers and the units spread over the country. So see the map here to know about the centers of the Indian space program. Now coming to the status of ISRO, as of now ISRO has accomplished 116 spacecraft mission, 86 launch missions, 13 student satellites, two re-entry missions and 381 foreign satellites. Firstly, let us see about the launch vehicles. As we all know ISRO is using PSLV, GSLV MK2 and MK3. See PSLV is Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle and it is called as the Work Halls of ISRO. Then take GSLV, it is the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle. This vehicle uses indigenous cryogenic technology. And the next is ISRO has performed many technology demonstrations. I will tell you few examples. The first one is Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment, that is CARE. The re-entry characteristics and the recovery of the Crew Module was tested in this mission. And the next one is Experimental Mission of ISRO's cramjet engine towards the realization of an air breathing propulsion system. It uses hydrogenous fuel and oxygen from the atmospheric air as oxidizer. And the next example is Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstrator. See this demonstrates autonomous navigation, guidance and control and re-entry mission management. Next we will see about the satellites. The first one is Communication Satellites. Example for this is South Asia Satellite. And the second one is Satellite Navigation Constellation. Example for this is Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System, that is IR-NSS. And the third one is Earth Observation Satellite. An example for this is Cartosat, Insat and Scatsat. And apart from this ISRO has done many science missions. They include Astrosat, Mars Orbitar Mission. See the Astrosat is India's first multi-wavelength observatory capable of simultaneously viewing the Universe in the visible ultraviolet and extra regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Then take the Mars Orbitar Mission. It is India's first interplanetary mission. So this is all about the status of ISRO. Now the future missions include Chandrayaan 3 in which ISRO aims to launch Chandrayaan 3 in an attempt to soft land on the Moon after Chandrayaan 2 hard landed on the lunar surface in the year 2019. Then take Gaganyan. The project will demonstrate ISRO's capability for human space flight to the lower Earth orbit and save return to the Earth. See Gaganyan comprises two unmanned missions and one manned mission. Then take Aditya L1. See it is India's first mission to study the Sun. Aditya L1 aims to place a 400 kg satellite in the halo orbit around the Lagrangian point L1 of the Sun Earth system to continuously view the Sun without any eclipses. So that's all about this news article. See through this discussion we covered an important science topic that is ISRO and all the missions and satellites of ISRO is also discussed in this discussion. So with all these factual information in mind now let's move on to the next news article discussion. See this article here it says that ISRO is working on a series of improvements to NAVIC. This is done to motivate people to install and use NAVIC. As per the article plans are on the move to give NAVIC a global reach. So this is the crux of the news article given here and in today's discussion let us see in detail about NAVIC. First of all what is this NAVIC? See it is expanded as Navigation with Indian Constellation. Know that NAVIC is the operational name of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System that is IR NSS. Now what is this IR NSS? See as the name suggests it is an independent regional navigation satellite system developed by India. To put it in simple words it is nothing but India's version of GPS that is Global Positioning System. This is the basic information regarding NAVIC. Having seen the basics let us see about the functioning of NAVIC. See the NAVIC is designed to provide accurate position information servers to users in India as well as the region extending up to 2500 kilometer from its boundary. See this image here the circled portion is the primary service area of NAVIC and there is also an extended area. It lies between primary service area and area enclosed by the rectangle from latitude 30 degrees south to 50 degrees north and longitude 30 degrees east to 130 degrees east. See this is about the coverage area. Now coming to the satellite system the constellation currently consists of eight satellites that have been in orbit since 2018 and this is with an additional satellite on the ground as standby okay and out of the eight satellites three of them are located in geostationary orbit and the remaining five satellites are in inclined geosynchronous orbit. See I have given the satellites in this table just give it a glance and after this in the functioning let us see about the services provided by the satellites. See the IR NSS provides two types of services. The first one is the standard positioning service. See this service is for civilian use and can be used by all users okay and the second one is the restricted service. This service is encrypted and can only be used by authorized users that is for military purposes okay and now finally let us see about the operation of IR NSS. See the IR NSS operates in the L band frequency of 1076.45 mHz and in the S band frequency of 2492.028 mHz so it provides a position accuracy of better than 20 meter in the primary surface area. See this is what is given in news article also NAVIC is available for use in mainland India and within 1500 kilometer around it. But the main problem here is that mobile phones have not been made compatible to process its signals and this is why Indian government has been pressing manufacturers to add compatibility and has set a deadline of January 2023. See the ISRO chairman added that adding the L1 band into NAVIC would be a major change and this bandwidth is a part of the GPS and it is the most used one for the civilian navigational use. But currently NAVIC is only compatible with the L5 and S bands and it has an easily penetrated into the civilian sector okay and apart from this NAVIC only provides short code this has to become long code for the use of the strategic sector. So this prevents the signal from being breached okay. So that's all about this news article. See in a previous discussion we saw about ISRO its foundation and what are all these satellites and in that we saw this example of IRNSS right. So in this discussion we saw about this NAVIC in detail and also about this IRNSS satellite okay. So these factual information which is very much important for both your problems and means. Now let's move on to the next news article discussion. See take a look at this article it talks about the eviction of bats from a cave in the state of Manipur for the purpose of tourism. So this is what given in the article and in this context let's learn about the species of bats and the importance of them in an ecosystem. Firstly let's see what are bats. See bats are mammals of the order chiroptera. Here note that they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight and they have their forelimbs adapted as wings which helps in attaining agility in flight than most birds okay. Now coming to the importance of bats in an ecosystem. See though often feared and loathed their sinister creatures of the night bats are vital to the health of our environment and our economy. Now let's see how. Firstly bats play an essential role in pest control. See the recent studies estimate that across all agricultural production consumption of insect pests by bats result in a saving of more than 3 billion dollar per year okay. And now coming to the second benefit while many bats eat insects other feeds on nectar and provide critical pollination for a variety of plants like peaches, cloves and bananas. See in fact bats are the sole pollinator for the gave plant a key ingredient in tequila. Here also note that a gave plant grows predominantly in the decan plateau region okay. See the food source of bat is fruit and this is leading to yet another important role played by the bats in the ecosystem which is nothing but the seed dispersal okay. See fruit eating bats can account for as much as 95 percentage of the seed dispersal responsible for early growth in recently cleared rainforest okay. So these are all the positives associated with the presence of bats in the ecosystem. Now let's see about the disease carrying capacity of bats. See bats are the host for viruses such as Ebola virus, Nipah virus, corona viruses etc and these viruses are capable of causing severe and often deadly disease in humans as well as animals. But bats which are host of such deadly viruses exhibit no signs or minimal signs of the disease even when there is high viral loads of these viruses in the bats body. So to find out the reasons behind it a study was conducted by researchers in Singapore last year. See the research study found that bats can harbor these viruses without getting infected because bat special immune system enables them to avoid excessive virus induced inflammation. So because of its inbuilt immunity bats act as a perfect carrier of viruses and other deadly pathogens. See this is yet another important role played by the bats in the ecosystem but this is a negative role okay. So this is all regarding the disease carrying capacity with respect to bats and that's all about this news article. So through this discussion we came to know about the bats and its positive as well as negative role in the ecosystem. See whenever we come across a species that is having negative role we should know its positive role as well because you might get a mains question like this. Can the species be evicted completely from the environment? For that kind of question know you have to address by giving the positive role of that species in the ecosystem. Only then you can say that it cannot be evicted completely because every species will have both positive role as well as negative role. We should address the question by balancing both the positive as well as the negative role and in case the positive role is more then the species cannot be evicted completely but if the negative role is more it has to be evicted okay. Since you have listened to this discussion my question is should bat be evicted completely from the environment? If you are interested post your answers in the comment section. So with these key points in mind now let's move on to the next news article discussion. Now have a look at this editorial article. It talks about decolonization and the recent discourses surrounding it. See the author of the article identifies certain areas in which the coloniality still lingers in the previously colonized states. One of the areas he identifies is the governance mechanism. Other than this the author mutes the idea to make peace with what had happened in the past and not try to change it now. So through this discussion we will learn about the term colonization impacts of colonization and most importantly about the new arising discourse about decolonization in the erstwhile colonized states. Before that the syllabus 11 to this discussion is highlighted here for a reference. Kindly go through it. Now let's start a discussion. Firstly let us look at the term colonization. Colonization can be defined as the cultural and economic subjugation of an indigenous population of a foreign territory by people who are nowhere related to that territory. See colonization is said to be occurred when one nation subjugates another conquering its population and exploiting it for its own benefit. So colonization involves the process of forcing colonizers own language and cultural values upon the colonized people. By 1914 a large majority of the world's nations had been colonized by Europeans at some point. To make you understand colonization let us see an example. As you all know India was an erstwhile colony of Britain. During the British occupation of India huge quantity of wealth has been drained out of India through the policies of the British government. The book Drain of Wealth by Dada by Navroji exactly deals with this and again the colonial project of making the indigenous population to make use of the colonizer's language was also a huge success. Predominantly we Indians now try our best to converse in English. This is all with respect to the term colonization. Now let's see the effects of colonization. Firstly the colonized states which gained independence thereafter still reminds to be poor. Today India's per capita income is seven times lower than that of its colonizer Britain. So this is an evident that still the colonized states are remaining poor. Secondly communalism and ethnic violence are common features of states which were colonized earlier. Sri Sri Lanka is an example of how the unequal distribution of wealth during colonial times continues to affect ethnic relations between Sinhalese and Tamils and even after it gained independence from British. Okay and thirdly if you take culture that is including language and living traditions of indigenous populations were totally wiped out because of colonization. This case can be best explained by looking at the South American colonized states. Today all the countries in this region speak Spanish or Portuguese. Language of indigenous population like Incas were totally wiped out by the Western European colonizers. Okay and fourthly tech racism which was a byproduct of the interaction between the colonizer and the colonized even though declared illegal it is followed by the white population in certain pockets of the world. Okay the reason example of racism which became a widely talked issue around the globe was how George Floyd an African American was killed by the Minneapolis police. The police officer knelt on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down in a street. So this incident led to the famous Black Lives Matter movement in the western world and the fifth impact is this is what discussed in the newspaper. See the governance system in the post-colonial societies are predominantly a replica of colonial governance mechanism. For example imperial civil service which is now called as Indian civil service was built by British. This is to serve their interest and even till today Indian civil services play an important part in the governance mechanism of our country with only minor changes meant to it. I hope as a civil service aspirant you will be knowing all these things especially the last impact that we saw. So these are all some of the effects of colonialism which can even be felt today. Now moving on to see the term decolonization. See decolonization as a term was previously only used to denote the reclining of political power from the colonizer by the indigenous population. Here note that according to this definition India was politically decolonized in the year 1947 when British left India. But nowadays the term decolonization has been used with a much wider meaning denoting the existence of European coloniality in the cultural realms of erstwhile colonies. Here decoloniality refers to the doing away with the cultural relics of the colonizer present in the previously colonized states. So let me explain this to you briefly. If you have been to Indian courts you would have noticed lawyers and judges wearing long black gowns. You can ask yourself a question for a tropical country like India with scorching summer months is it necessary? See this is a perfect example European coloniality exerting itself on the cultural realm of the previous colonial states. This is even after the colonies obtaining independence. So now let's move on to see how far India is decolonized. As we have already seen India became a politically decolonized country when India became independent in the year 1947. But we cannot completely say that India gained decoloniality in its cultural sphere because India still uses English as one of its administrative language. More worryingly India still uses only English as the pleading language in most of its high courts as well as the supreme court. While it is difficult to move ourselves from English due to its global importance, India can try at least to implement regional languages along with English as a pleading language in its high courts. See the Tamil Nadu government has recently asked the centre to consider introducing Tamil as a pleading language in the Madras High Court. And now coming to the most important area where decoloniality is long pending. See the governance structure in India is still today a relic of its British past. This can be clearly seen in its policing apparatus. Till today lock up deaths are common in different parts of our country, am I right? And public in India cannot approach police stations freely due to the sturdiness with which police interact with them. See this is the perfect example of colonial governance structure which is present in India till date. So with this we have come to the end of the discussion. See as a conclusion to this discussion we can say that following certain things of colonialism is not a mistake because certain governance structures like the IPS officers or the IAS officers who are selected by the civil services examination is good for the governance of the country. But when you take the sturdiness with which police are interacting with the people all these know should be abandoned. There should be a friendly way of interaction of the officers and the public. This is how the British governance structure can be modified and implemented in India. So we can conclude that decolonization in India is a to progress. So through this discussion we came to know about what is meant by colonization, the impacts of it and also about the decolonization and finally we saw how far India has been able to decolonize itself from its colonial past. See though India has progressed a lot it this it to progress and to justify that we have seen two examples. One is the administrative language and another one is the sturdiness of the policing apparatus. So with these key points in mind now let's move on to the next part of the news article discussion which is the preliminary practice question discussion. See today we have four questions in which three I'll be discussing and one will be a quiz question for you. Now look at the first question. It is a two statement type of question. Now look at statement one. Ishthra was established in the year 1958 while Naza was established in the year 1969. See this statement is incorrect because Naza was established in the year 1958 by President Dwight D. H. Nover. It is as a plan to create a distinctly civilian orientation encouraging peaceful application especially in space science. See the Ishthra on the other hand was established in the year 1969 under the administrative control of the department of space which is under the government of India. Okay now coming to the statement two Naza is the primary space agency of United States but Ishthra is the nation's civilian space program for aeronautics and aerospace research. See this statement is also incorrect because both Naza and Ishthra are space agencies. Naza which stands for national aeronautics and space administration is the civilian space program for aeronautics and aerospace research in the United States of America. And Ishthra on the other hand is the primary space agency of India. Okay so having seen both the statements look at the full question it is demanding for correct statements so your answer here will be option D neither one nor two. Okay now take the second question. See it is also a two statement type of question and it is regarding the genetic engineering appraisal committee. Now look at statement one the genetic engineering appraisal committee functions under the ministry of science and technology. See this statement is incorrect because the genetic engineering appraisal committee functions in the ministry of environment forest and climate change. Okay now look at statement two as per 1989 rules this committee is responsible for appraisal of proposals relating to release of genetically engineered organisms and products into the environment including experimental field trials. See this statement is absolutely correct. This we saw in the discussion itself. Yes as per the rules of 1989 it is the responsibility of this committee for appraising of activities involving large scale use of hazardous microorganisms also the recombinants in research and industrial production from the environmental angle. Okay then the committee is also responsible for appraisal of proposals relating to release of genetically engineered organisms and products into the environment including experimental field trials. Okay so in the discussion part we didn't cover much about this committee right. So using this question you would have got an idea about this committee also. Now coming back to the question see the question is demanding for correct statements. So what will be your answer? Your answer here is option B 2 only. Okay now moving on to the third question see it is a pair based question here on one side countries are given and on the other side the navigation system of that particular country is given. See you have to find the correct pass among these. Okay the answer for this question is option D that is only four pass. Yes all the four pass given here are correctly matched. If you want to know about each and every navigation system mentioned here just look at this image. Here you can see that GPS which is the navigation system of US then GLONASS which is the navigation system of Russia then Galileo which is the navigation system of European Union then India's navigation system that we saw in our today's discussion which is the IRNSS. Okay then for China it is Baidu. Okay here just give it a glance of the starting year then how much satellite it has then the coverage area. Okay all these might help you in attending preliminary type of questions. From this itself you can understand that except this IRNSS all other navigation system that is GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, Baidu all are having a global coverage okay and in today's discussion also we saw that India is aiming for this global coverage. Displayed here is a quiz question for you go through the question and try answering this question. See interested aspirants post your answers in the common section and the right answer will be posted in the common section itself and displayed here is a mains practice question for you go through the question and try writing answer for this question because it will be really helpful for your mains examination okay and that's all for today's discussion. If you like this video do like share and comment and don't forget to subscribe to the Shankar IS Academy's YouTube channel. Thank you for listening.