 Good evening, aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis session by Shankar A.S academy for the date 23rd September 2021. The list of articles that we are going to discuss are displayed here. Please go through it. Before going into today's session, I want to make a small correction. Actually, on the 17th of September discussion, I mentioned that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has 8 members and 4 observer states. But actually, in the recent concluded summit that happened in the Dushnabhi, Tajikistan, Iran was promoted from observer state to member state. So, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has 9 members. They are India, China, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Iran. The remaining observer states are Afghanistan, Belarus and Mongolia. So, without wasting much time, let's move on into today's discussion. Before going into the newspaper discussion today, we will be discussing two map based prelims practice questions. The first question is taken from this article. Actually, Ketra Ma'am covered this article on the 28th September newspaper discussion. But she covered it based on the nuclear enrichment part. I am going to take the map based part. So, this is the question. Four statements regarding North Korea are given. We have to find which of the following given four statements are correct. Now, let's take the first statement. North Korea shares land border with South Korea, China and Russia only. So, in this statement, note the word only. When in a statement, the word only comes, it makes the statement an extreme statement. In most cases, when there is an extreme part like most, all, only, the statement will be false. But in this case, if you look at the map, North Korea actually has boundary with only three countries. That is, South Korea and the South, China and Russia and the North. I deliberately added the only part just to make you guys know that not all extreme statements are wrong. So, no moving on to the second statement. The second statement states that river Yalu in the east and river Tumen in the west forms the border between China and North Korea. Now, let us look at the map. See, here is river Yalu and here is river Tumen. Actually, these both rivers form the boundary between China and North Korea. But river Yalu forms the boundary between China and North Korea in the west and river Tumen forms the boundary between China and North Korea in the east. So, this statement is wrong. An extra point is, in Korea river Yalu is also called Amrok or Amnok. This is a unique thing, a geographical feature forming a political boundary between two countries. So, now let us see what all the other rivers that form political boundaries between two entities. First, let us look at Jilam. We all know Jilam has its source at a spring in Veernag, in southeastern part of Kashmir valley. See, Jilam near Muzaffarabad takes a sharp harpin bend like this and moves southwards. In that process, it forms the India-Pakistan boundary for 170 km. After flowing through the India-Pakistan boundary, it emerges again near the Putwar valley in Pakistan. Another important river that forms a political boundary between two countries is Rio Grande. See, Rio Grande river forms the boundary between US and Mexico. Note that. The third river that we are going to see is river Kali. Actually, in May of 2020, there was a border issue between India and Nepal regarding the Kala Pani area. So, this may appear in this year's prelims. River Kali forms the boundary between Nepal and India. If you want to know more about the Kala Pani issue, we have already covered this in our newspaper discussion. If you want to revise that, it appeared in the 24th May of 2020 in our discussion. You can go there and revise the part. River Kali forms the boundary between Nepal and India. Another point, the border between Nepal and India is based on the Treaty of Sagoli of 1850. Now, we are going to see two more rivers which forms political boundary between states of India. First is river Kaveri. River Kaveri forms the boundary between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. We all know that river Kaveri originates in Karnataka, in Thalai Kaveri, in Kodugu district. Initially, river Kaveri flows through the South Karnataka Plateau and when it reaches the plains, it forms the Siva Samudram waterfalls. Near the Siva Samudram waterfalls, there is a hydroelectric station for manufacturing electricity. Note this. After that, Kaveri River joins with Arakavati, which is a tributary of Kaveri near Makadattu and then it flows into the plains of Tamil Nadu. So, before entering Tamil Nadu, the Kaveri River forms a 64 kilometer boundary between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Now, the second river that forms a political boundary between Indian states is Indravati. Indravati originates from Taumul Rampur in Odisha. Indravati is largest and most significant in Buster part of Odisha, but it forms the political boundary between Maharashtra and Chattisgarh. So, note that Indravati originates in Odisha and it forms the boundary between Maharashtra and Chattisgarh. So, you take a look and look for all other rivers that forms political boundaries. In the Pilems, map-based questions, they may give some rivers and they may ask you what all the rivers form the political boundaries between two entities. Now, let us move on to the third statement. In the third statement, it is given that North Korea has Sea of Japan in the East and Yellow Sea in the West. This statement is correct. See, Sea of Japan is actually in the East and Yellow Sea in the West. So, this third statement is correct. In the last discussion, I said when a new location comes in the newspaper, I told you to take the Atlas and have an aerial view of it. This is what I meant. So, when you are taking Atlas and seeing North Korea, what I want you to do is see all other physical features near that. See, there are five marginal seas near North Korea. They are Sea of Oxtok, Sea of Japan, Yellow Sea, East China Sea and South China Sea. So, in the preliminary, they may ask you to arrange the following marginal seas from North to South or South to North. Since we are discussing about North Korea, some of the important cities near North Korea or East Asia specifically are Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Pyongyang, Seoul. When looking at these cities, you must look what is in the North, what is in the South. You must be able to arrange the following cities from North to South. These type of questions will appear in the next questions. The next thing near North Korea is Japan. Japan actually has five islands. They are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Koyasu and Okinawa. Actually, I arranged them from North to South while I am telling you. So, map-based questions will come like that. They will give you these islands and ask you to arrange it from North to South or South to North. So, now let us move on to the fourth statement. Four multilateral forums are given. The fourth statement states that North Korea is a part of UN non-aligned movement, ASEAN Regional Forum and WTO. Actually, the statement is correct. North Korea is a part of United Nations non-aligned movement, ASEAN Regional Forum and WTO. In this, ASEAN Regional Forum is little new. So, let us look into that alone. Actually, ASEAN Regional Forum or ARF was launched in 1993. It is a 27-member multilateral grouping. Why was this forum initiated? This forum was initiated to facilitate cooperation on political and security issues, to contribute to regional confidence building and preventive diplomacy. Let us see what preventive diplomacy is. Preventive diplomacy is the action to prevent disputes from arising between parties, or to prevent existing disputes from escalating into conflicts, or to limit the spread of the conflict. This is a very fancy word. You can use it in the main censors regarding geopolitical issues to make your answers better. So, now we saw the four statements. We know first statement is correct and third statement is correct. So, the correct answer is option A. Now, let us move on to the next question. This question is based on the country called Haiti. Haiti was recently in use for two reasons. There was a political crisis in Haiti, caused by the assassination of Haiti and president Gervanel Mosey on July 9th this year. And in August, there was an earthquake. Haiti was in use for two times this year, one in July and again in August. Actually, Gautam Sir covered various aspects of Haiti regarding its geography, history, climate, flora and fauna, ways of life, and environmental concern in our news discussion, which appeared on 10th July 2021. If you want to revise about that topic, you can refer to that discussion. Now, let us move on to the question. In the question, five Caribbean islands are given and they have asked us to arrange the islands from east to west. Note that. The islands are Cuba, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobacco, Dominican Republic and Haiti. Now, let us cut the map. See Cuba is located here. It is in the easternmost part. Next comes Haiti, then Dominican Republic, then Puerto Rico and then Trinidad and Tobacco. So, the east to west arrangement is Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Trinidad and Tobacco. So, the correct option is option B, 1, 5, 4, 2 and 3. Since we are seeing the Caribbean part of Atlantic, let us see some nearby areas as well. So, now, let us look at the Central America part. Central America actually has seven countries. They are Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. So, an important feature here is except for Belize and El Salvador, all the five other countries have both Caribbean coast and Pacific coast. Belize has only Caribbean coast and El Salvador has only Pacific coast. Except these two countries, all the other five countries that is Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama has both Caribbean and Pacific coast. Praline's question may be based on this. They may give you all the seven countries and ask you what all the countries have both Pacific and Caribbean coast. So, note that. Now, let us move on to South America. So, some facts about South America are like Colombia is the only country in South America which has both Caribbean and Pacific coast. Note that. And then only two countries are landlocked in this. All other countries have coastline. The two countries which are landlocked in South America are Bolivia and Paraguay. Note that. So, just an add-on point. U.P.A.C. in the prelims in MAM-based Christine, they may add some other facts also. They may give some countries and give an international multilateral forum and ask whether the countries are part of the multilateral forum or not. So, in this aspect, let us discuss about North American Free Trade Agreement. Actually, all the Central American countries are part of North America. But in the North American Free Trade Agreement, only three countries are there. They are USA, Canada and Mexico. So, let us see a little bit about North America Free Trade Agreement. Actually, it came into force in 1994. It was in force from 1994 to 2020. After President Trump came to power in 2017, he tried to replace North American Free Trade Agreement with a new agreement. And he made several steps. And finally, in 2020, a new agreement was reached. And the North American Free Trade Agreement is now replaced with United States, Mexico and Canada Agreement, which is also called USMCA. So, North America Free Trade Agreement is no defunct and it is no replaced by the United States, Mexico, Canada Agreement. So, having completed with the MAM-based Christine discussion, now let us move on to the first topic of our newspaper analysis. Let us start today's discussion with this article. This article focuses on the importance of Quad in the economic dimension. In this part of the discussion, we will know what is Quad, the evolution of Quad in brief, and the Quad's economic importance for India. So, before diving into Quad, let us know about the term Indo-Pacific. The term Indo-Pacific is a recent concept. It was about a decade ago that the world started talking about the Indo-Pacific. But its rise has been quite significant. One of the reasons behind the popularity of this term is the world's economic center of gravity has shifted towards Asia with the rise of China and India. Earlier, that is, during the Cold War times, the center of gravity of the world was around Atlantic because the trade was actually transiting between the Atlantic Ocean. But now, this has shifted to Asia. Before Indo-Pacific, during the Cold War times, the term Asia-Pacific was used. So, while mentioning Asia-Pacific, India was excluded. The shift from the term Asia-Pacific to Indo-Pacific shows the rise of India in the world ladder. The term Indo-Pacific is interrupted differently by different stakeholders. India considers this region as an inclusive, open, integrated, and balanced space. India continuously emphasizes on the strategic interconnectedness, common challenges, and opportunities between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. While the US considers this region as a free and open Indo-Pacific, highlighting the importance of rules or norms of conduct in the region. Thus, through this, the United States is trying to contain the role of China in this region. Now, let us move on to Quad. See, Quad is an informal grouping. Note that it is an informal grouping of four countries that includes India, Japan, United States, and Australia. So, it is a coalition of maritime democracies. All the four countries are democratic countries and they are maritime powers. The Quad countries have a common interest of maintaining a stable balance of power in the Indo-Pacific region. This is seen in the context of raising security threats steaming from China. If one has to trace the history of Quad, it goes back to 2007. The then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe put forth the idea based on 2004 tsunami collaboration between these countries. But the idea didn't take shape. That is, no progress was made based on that idea. But again, the idea came into four in 2012 under the name Democratic Security Diamond. But again, the idea didn't take shape. Only in 2017, the first official dialogue took place between India, Japan, Australia, and the United States in Manila. Note the point. The first official dialogue took place in 2017 in Manila, Philippines. So, we can say that Quad has evolved from a loose coalition of democracies to a concrete entity that has met thrice since 2019 at ministerial levels. The last ministerial level talk was in February 2021. The talk that happened in February 2021 was held online. There was no physical meeting. But the talk that is going to happen tomorrow will be a physical meeting. So, to attend Quad, our Prime Minister has gone to United States. And recently, the Quad process has expanded to include more countries under the term Quad Plus. The countries include New Zealand, South Korea, Brazil, Israel, and Vietnam. But this is still in a theoretical phase. That is, it hasn't seen light yet. Now coming back to the article. This article emphasized the economic importance of Quad. See, while leaving for this meet, our Prime Minister announced that Quad is not a military alliance. He said, to quell the Chinese fear that Quad might turn into an Asian NATO. So, our Prime Minister has cleared all doubts by announcing that it is not a military alliance. The author tries to look Quad from an economic perspective. The author first identifies that this alliance has a good trade and investment potential. Statistically speaking, India's total trade with the three Quad partners was over 108 billion in 2020-21 alone. This accounts for 16% of India's total imports and exports. Talking about India and USA, United States is the second largest source of foreign direct investment in India. And Japan has a notable footprint in India's major infrastructure projects. See, many infrastructure projects like Delhi Metro, Chennai Metro, the proposed Delhi, Mumbai, Freight corridor are all funded by Japan. So, you can see there is a huge potential in trade and investment that can be unearthed in this forum. To unlock the trade and investment potential, the author mentions about the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative. Let's quickly see what the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative is. See, the trade ministers of India, Japan and Australia recently launched the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative. This is mainly launched to counter the dominance of China in the Supply Chain. See, China has rapidly grown to make a number of products at a very cheap price. So, what does it do with these cheap products? It dumps the products in other countries. In other words, it starts supplying goods at a dead cheap price across the globe. As a result, alternative manufacturing supply chains in many countries are underdeveloped, because they couldn't compete with the low prices that China offers. So, a lot of nations have grown to depend on China for a lot of products. This has led to China dominating the Supply Chain. This was especially apparent during the Covid times. You guys remember the silicon shortage, right? Actually, the silicon shortage is still going on. The silicon shortage happened because most of the IC chip manufacturing companies were based in China. So, due to Covid, the total supply chain of the integrated circuit chips got collapsed. It even had some unexpected consequences. With automobiles becoming more and more electronics dependent, with the shortage of silicon, the automobile prices started shooting up. So, that is about silicon shortage. So, this supply chain resilient initiative is a move by Australia, Japan and India to counter the trend and make the supply chain more diversified geographically, so that shortages like this won't happen in the future. Gauter also mentioned there is another area for cooperation, that is green infrastructure. With the countries committed to counter climate change, the infrastructure that has to be developed must be green and must be climate chain resilient. So, with the technology from developed countries like Japan and USA and Australia and the manpower from India, the new infrastructure that will be developed will have a green component tied to it. These are the points mentioned in the article to sum up. In this discussion, we started with discussion about the evolution of the term Indo-Pacific. Then we moved on to Quad. We saw the origin of Quad, its evolution and then we saw about the economic aspects of Quad that can be focused for the better development of the Quad countries. So, that's all in this article. Now, let us move on to the next article. Look at this news article. The article mentions that WHO, that is the World Health Organization, has updated its air quality norms. So, in this discussion, let us see what were the previous norms and what are all the updates that have been made. We can also discuss about the Indian standards, that is the national ambient air quality standards. So, the syllabus is given here for your reference. Now, going into the article, the guideline that we are talking about is the WHO global air quality guideline. What is the reason for WHO to provide this guideline? See, WHO has provided these recommendations for protecting the public health from the adverse effects of air pollution. These recommendations are based on scientific evidence and these are just recommendation. Note that they are not binding on the WHO member states. This guideline mainly focuses on eliminating or at least reducing exposure to hazardous air pollutants. It also guides, note that not binding, it just guides the national and local authorities in their risk management decisions. These guidelines are applicable to both outdoor and indoor environments globally. Before the current updated guideline, the air quality guideline global update 2005 was in force. It covered five classical pollutants. The pollutants were particulate matter 2.5, particulate matter 10, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide. So, totally it covered five classical pollutants. The air quality guidelines global update 2005 set both short-term and long-term limits for these pollutants. See, the long-term limit is the annual limit. The recommended annual limit for particulate matter 2.5 was 10 microgram per cubic meter. While the annual limit for particulate matter 10 was 20 micrograms per cubic meter. While the long-term limit set the annual limit, the short-term limit focuses the 24-hour limit. The recommended 24-hour limit for particulate matter 2.5 was 25 micrograms per cubic meter. While the same 24-hour limit for particulate matter 10 is 50 micrograms per cubic meter. The limits for other pollutants are given in the table. Please go through it. The table also has the updated limits. That is, the recently updated 2021 limits. Note here, the annual limit for PM 2.5 has been reduced from 10 micrograms per cubic meter to 5 micrograms for cubic meter. Similarly, the annual limit for PM 10 has been reduced from 20 micrograms per cubic meter to 15 micrograms per cubic meter. So, UPSC won't focus on these minute changes. But we must know why this sudden update is necessary. Why WHO has made the updated guidelines? See, this update has been made because air pollution is becoming one of the biggest environmental threat to human health. For example, both PM 2.5 and PM 10 are capable of penetrating deep into the lungs and PM 2.5 is even more dangerous because it can even enter into the bloodstream. This results in cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, etc. It can even affect other organs also. Remember, in 2013, the particulate matter 2.5 was classified as a carcinogenic by the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer. See, PM 2.5 can even cause cancer. Not only cardiovascular and respiratory impacts, it can even lead to cancer. So, this is why WHO has updated its guidelines. And according to WHO, exposure to air pollution in general is estimated to cause 70 lakh premature deaths every year. So, this demanded the reduction in the limits set by the guidelines. So, this is all regarding the updated guidelines of WHO. For our exam perspective, we must know what India has taken regarding air pollution. For India, there is the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. We follow the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. Let us see what is it? So, before diving into that, let us see what ambient air is. Ambient air is the outdoor air. In India, we are focusing only on the outdoor air, not on the indoor air. Now, looking at National Ambient Air Quality Standards, this monitors 12 pollutants. These 12 pollutants are notified by the Central Pollution Control Board under the Air Prevention and Control of Pollution Act 1981. The Central Pollution Control Board is established by Air Prevention and Control of Pollution Act 1981. These limits set by the Central Pollution Control Board helps to ensure that vegetation, health and property are not affected. One of the objectives is to maintain a uniform yardstick for the assessment of air quality at the national level. It also indicates the extent and need for the monitoring program. Remember, although the 12 pollutants are notified by the Central Pollution Control Board, the National Air Quality Standards was notified by the Ministry of Environment in 2009. The list of the 12 pollutants monitored by the National Air Quality Standards and their limits for industrial, residential, rural and other areas and the ecological sensitive area are provided here. The pollutants are sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter 2.5, particulate matter 10, ozone, lead, carbon monoxide, ammonia, benzene, benzopyrene, arsenic and nickel. See in these 12 pollutants, the first 8 that is sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter 10, particulate matter 2.5, ozone, lead, carbon monoxide and ammonia are monitored daily. The air quality index that is published daily uses these 8 pollutants. The air quality index has 6 categories. They are good, satisfactory, moderately polluted, poor, very poor and severe. These are color coded. See in the Hindu newspaper, under the weather watch section, important cities like Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad and their color code regarding the pollution level are provided daily. This is based on the air quality index. Note that the air quality index only focuses on the 8 pollutants, not on the all 12 pollutants. So, now looking at the table, you can know that India has set limits higher than the ones set by WHO. So, the national air quality standards do not meet the WHO's previous standards and definitely do not meet the updated standards also. But why did WHO update the new guidelines? This is because although the new guidelines are not binding, WHO is of the opinion that it will help pressurize the government in setting new limits and achieving the reduction of air pollutants, thereby increasing the health of the citizens. So, in this discussion, we discussed about WHO's updated guidelines for air quality, the previous guidelines of 2005, the national air quality standards and the national air quality index that is published daily. With this, we can conclude this article and move on to the next one. Now, let us take up this article. The IPCC, that is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, recently released its sixth assessment report. The report was titled Climate Change 2021, The Physical Science Basis. This article is based on the assessment report. This article mainly focuses on the sea level rise aspect. So, before going into the article, let us briefly discuss about the IPCC and the sixth assessment report, that is the Climate Change 2021 Physical Science Basis. The syllabus regarding this article is displayed here. Please go through it. Now, let's start with IPCC. IPCC, that is Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as a Body, was first formed on 1988. First formed on 1988, note that it was formed by two bodies. They are United Nations Environment Programme, that is UNEP and World Meteorological Organization, that is WMO. So, note that IPCC is formed in 1988 by two organizations, that is UNEP and WMO. We said that it recently released its sixth assessment report, right? The first assessment report was released in 1990. The first report warned the world about the potential consequences of the Racing Greenhouse Gas Emission. This first assessment report of IPCC helped in forging the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, two years later, that is 1992. This UN FCC helped in forging the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement that aims to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degree Celsius of the pre-industrial level. These assessment reports that are released by IPCC are called as Synthesis Report. Actually, these reports that the IPCC released covers three aspects of climate change, that is the scientific aspect, the technical aspect and the socio-economic aspect. In the scientific aspect, it covers about the causes of climate change. In the technical aspect, it covers the solutions to climate change. And in the socio-economic aspect, these reports cover the impacts of the climate change. The scientific aspect, the technical aspect and the socio-economic aspects are covered by the assessment reports of IPCC. Now moving on, these reports also cover the future risks and the steps that the governments have to take to mitigate the changing climate. IPCC also produces special reports on topic agreed upon by its member governments. Now let us talk a little bit about the sixth assessment report, that is the Climate Change 2021, The Physical Science Basis. Some observation noted by this assessment report are the follows. They are heat waves and humid heat stresses will become more intense and frequent over Southeast Asia during the 21st century. We are actually experiencing that right. Previously, heat waves were limited only to the northern part of India during summers. But for the past couple of years, even Chennai is experiencing heat waves. Heat waves has become a yearly affair, a common affair in Chennai summers. So in the 21st century, these episodes will continue to rise. This is the first observation made by the report. The second observation is both the annual and the summer monsoon precipitation will increase. But there is a catch, that is most of the rainfall will be concentrated for a very small amount of time. Already 90% of Indian monsoon rainfall happens only for 100 hours. So when you take up the whole rainfall India receives, 90% of the rainfall happens in a space of 100 hours. So this will further intensify, that is very small amount of time resulting in flash floods and everything. And the other parts will be very dry. The third observation is heat extremes have increased while the cold extremes have decreased. And this trend will continue over the coming decades. So the fourth observation, glacier runoff in Asian high mountains, that is in Himalayas, will increase up to mid 21st century. And subsequently the runoff will decrease due to the loss of glacial storage. So up to the mid of 21st century, the runoff will continuously increase by the time most of the glacier would have melted. So after the mid of 21st century, the glacial runoff will continue to decrease. And the fifth observation is relative sea level change will be more pronounced in Asia, particularly Southeast Asia with coastal area loss and shoreline retreat amplified. The regional mean sea level rise will be more pronounced in the Southeast Asia. So these are the five observations made by the sixth assessment report regarding India and Southeast Asia, that is Southeast Asia in particular. Now let us move into today's article. The author has raised concern about the rising sea level. Sea level can rise by two different mechanism. The first one is with global temperature rise, the ocean will get warmer. We know that with increasing temperature, the volume of the water will tend to increase. So with increasing global temperature and resulting in the ocean getting warmer, the volume of the water in the ocean will increase. This will lead to sea level change. The second aspect how there will be a sea level change is melting of the ice overland. This melting of ice overland will lead to adding more water into the ocean. This will result in rising sea level. So based on these two aspects, many models have been created projecting the sea level rise. This graph shows the sea level change from 1880 to 2020. See look at this graph. This graph shows a very linear rise in sea level. But the author claims that this may not be true. That is sea level change might not be very linear in the future. She claims that by stating two points. The first one is not all places in the earth will have a uniform rise in sea level. In some areas sea level rise will be more pronounced and in some areas it will be less pronounced. See we saw in the assessment report in the fifth observation it said that relative sea level around Asia increased faster than global average. Since sea level change is not uniform around the world, the graph that is the future projection of sea level change will not be linear. That is the first point that the author proposes. The second factor is concerning ice sheets. Here the author mentions two new terms. They are marine ice sheet instability and marine ice cliff instability. So when the sea gets warmer marine ice sheets that is ice sheets in particular Antarctica and Greenland might break off and fall into the ocean and with increasing global temperature there will be rapid melting of water from these broken off ice sheets. This will lead to rapid rise in sea level. So the graph won't be linear. There will be spikes because of the marine ice sheet instability and marine ice cliff instability. So when the ice sheet breaks from continents like Greenland and Antarctica and when they move into the ocean and start melting at a rapid pace the sea level change will be more pronounced and more rapid. So the linear rise in sea level model that is proposed will not be applicable. These are the two points that the author proposes. The author also says that with India investing more in infrastructure development mainly along the coast must take this modified graph that is one that is not linear into account to develop the cities. See India has many important cities along the coast like Calcutta, Vishakhapatnam, Chennai, Kochin, Mumbai, Mangalore, Surat. Government is developing all these places so they must take into account the modified graph in which the sea level rises rapid to develop this place because if we take the linear model and develop the place without accounting for the sea level these areas will be affected in the future. So while building infrastructure in these areas government must take the modified model into account to build resilient infrastructure. So summing up in this part of the discussion we discussed about basics of IPCC like when it was started which organization involved in starting IPCC the reports produced by IPCC and the recently released sixth assessment report that is climate change 2020 the physical science spaces. We also discussed about the author's view on the linear model of sea level rise and why this model will not predict the future sea level rise. The author substantiated these points by giving two aspects that is sea level change will not be uniform all around the world and because of marine ice sheet instability and marine ice cliff instability the rising sea level will not be linear but will have spikes due to rapid melting of ice sheets. Now let us move on to the next article. Take a look at this article. The article mentions that the Kovalam beach near Mamalapuram in Tamil Nadu has been awarded the blue flag tag. This facility was awarded the blue flag tag because it has shown improvements in various facilities like providing surfing, bathing, parking and the overall safety aspect of the beach. Apart from this Eden beach in Pudicherry has also been awarded the tag. In this context let us look about the blue flag certification from the preliminary perspective. Okay go through it. Now let us start with when the blue flag program was initiated. Actually the blue flag program was first started in France in 1985. Initially it was restricted only to Europe. Only in 2001 this program was expanded to all the places in the world. Okay no coming to the important part. This certification is awarded by a Denmark based non-profit named foundation for environmental education. See note this the program was started in France in 1985 but the certification is awarded by a Denmark based non-profit named foundation for environmental education. Okay this certification that is the blue flag certification can be obtained by either a beach or a sustainable boating tourism operator. So UPSC can know this point and ask a question regarding this because we used to think that blue flag tag is only provided to beaches but in reality it can be provided to both the beach or a sustainable boating tourism operator. Okay the international jury that selects the beach or the sustainable boating tourism operator for blue flag tag are the following organization. They are IUCN that is International Union for Conservation of Nature then UNWTO that is World Tourism Organization then United Nation Enrollment Program and United Nation Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. So let's go over this again the jury members for selecting the blue flag tag are IUCN, UNWTO, UNEP and UNESCO. The criteria that is the criteria which is looked into for awarding this blue flag tag or the blue flag label are environmental aspects, educational aspects, safety related aspects and access related aspects that is connectivity, parking and everything. These are the four criteria that is looked into for awarding this label. This label is awarded annually. Now let us see why this blue flag tag or the blue flag label is awarded. This is mainly awarded to promote sustainable development in both freshwater and marine area to maintain water quality, good environmental management practices, promoting environmental education and ensuring safety aspects. These are the four priority areas that the blue flag tag aims to achieve. Okay now let us see the list of blue flag certified beaches in India. Presently we have 10 beaches in India. Actually there used to be eight. Now with the two beaches added, totally 10 beaches are in India. Okay the following beaches are Shivrajpur that is located in Gujarat, Gohula that is located in Diyu, Karnataka has two beaches. They are Kesar God and Padu Bidri. In Kerala there is Kappada, in Andhra Pradesh there is Rushi Konda, in Odisha there is Golden and in Annaba Nikoba there is Radhanagar beach. Adding to the above mentioned eight beaches, the newly added Kovalam beach which is in Chennai and the Eden beach which is in Puducherry are also the beaches that have blue flag tag in India. So just go through all the beaches it may be asked in a map based question and UPSC may also ask which is the first beach in India to receive blue flag tag. So the first beach in India to receive the blue flag tag actually the first beach in Asia even to receive the blue flag tag is the golden beach in Odisha. So note this point, note the first beach and locate these beaches in your map and note which is in the northern most, which is in the southern most, note the beaches and its states. These are the aspects by which UPSC may ask a map based question regarding that. Okay in this article we discussed about the recently added beaches in the blue flag tag which organization provides the certificates, who are the jury members, what are the criterias they follow to provide the certificate and we also saw the list of beaches in India that have got these certificates. So let us end this discussion and move on to the next article. Now coming to the last article of today's news discussion, this article states that yesterday that is 22nd September 2021 the Assam government turned 2500 rhino horns into ashes. Why was this event held? This event was held to dispel the myths that the rhino horns have a medicinal value and to prevent poaching of the vulnerable animal. Okay why was 22nd September 2021 specifically chosen? Because yesterday is world rhino day. Okay note that. So now let's start with discussing what world rhino day is. So when you are reading newspapers and come across these specific days like world rhino day, world water day, world earth day, you must note five aspects. Okay when it is celebrated, why is it celebrated? Which organization started it and when it started it? The theme of the recently held particular day and the objective of the recently held particular day. Okay so first when is world rhino day celebrated 22nd September of every year. Okay now looking at why it is celebrated. Okay it is celebrated to spread the awareness for all five species of rhino and the work being done to save them. Okay when it was started. Actually the world rhino day was first announced by the World Wildlife Fund that is WWF in South Africa in 2010. The five species of rhino whose conservation world rhino day deals are white rhino, black rhino, greater one horn rhino, Java rhino, Sumitran rhino. In that India has only greater one horn rhino. The IUCN status of the following five rhinos are white rhino is near threatened. Okay greater one horn rhino is vulnerable and the rest of the three rhinos that is black rhino, Java rhino and Sumitran rhino are critically endangered. Note these points in films in match based question. UPSC might ask you to match the rhino with the concerning IUCN red list status. Okay the theme for 2021 world rhino day is keep the five alive. Okay the objective of the world rhino day is strengthening protection, expanding the distribution range, enabling research and providing additional fund and sustained fund for the conservation of world rhinos. Okay note all the five points regarding world rhino day. Only from these points UPSC will ask questions in the films perspective. Okay now let us see a little bit about greater one horn rhino. So when you are reading about an animal in particular there are some factors you must remember. They are where the animal is present that is the habitat. Okay the conservation status. Okay the threats they are facing and the efforts made by India to conserve the animal. So in case of greater one horn rhino let us start with some basic facts then let us move on to its habitat, its threats, its conservation status and finally let us end with the conservation efforts provided by India. So first some basic facts about greater one horn rhino. Greater one horn rhino is present only in India. Okay it is also called Indian rhino. In India only 2600 rhinos are present of that 90% are concentrated in Assam's Kaziranga National Park. Okay greater one horn rhino is also called Indian rhino. Only 2600 rhinos are present and 90% are concentrated in Assam's Kaziranga National Park. Okay they mainly feed on grass and leaves and they follow a herbivore diet. Okay now let us move on to the habitat of greater one horn rhino. They are mainly located in the India, Nepal, Terai region. You know Terai region right and in the northern West Bengal and Assam region. In India greater one horn rhino is restricted to the following protected areas. They are Kaziranga National Park, Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, Uurang National Park, Manas National Park. These five are located in Assam and then Jaldapara National Park, Gorumara National Park. These two are located in West Bengal and finally Dudua National Park that is located in Uttar Pradesh. So five protected area in Assam, two in West Bengal and one in Uttar Pradesh have greater one horn rhino population in India. Okay some of the main threats that greater one horn rhino faces in India are first and foremost is poaching. So it is common for all animals. Second is habitat loss. Third is decreasing genetic diversity. So this is important. Previously we saw that 90 percent of the rhino are concentrated in Assam's Kaziranga National Park right. So since all the population are concentrated in a particular area there is inbreeding. So since there is inbreeding the genetic diversity among the greater one horn rhino is constantly declining. Now let us see the protection status of greater one horn rhino. We already saw in the IUCN red list greater one horn rhino is classified as vulnerable. In the sites program greater one horn rhino is placed in the appendix one that offers maximum protection and according to the wildlife protection act 1972 it is placed in the schedule one. In the IUCN red list it is vulnerable. In the sites it is placed under appendix one. In the wildlife protection act it is placed under schedule one. So now let us look at the conservation efforts made by India. Actually two important conservation efforts made by India are creating a DNA profile of all the rhinos and the next one is India rhino vision of 2020. The first conservation effort that is creating a DNA profile of all rhino is done to curb the poaching activities and to prevent the wildlife crimes regarding rhinos. So only after we have collected the DNA profile of all the rhino and if we catch a poacher with the rhino horn we can match the DNA of the rhino and the horn and solve the involved wildlife crime. So to curb the poaching and have efficient solving of wildlife related crime involving rhino DNA profiles of all the rhinos are taken. So the next conservation effort is India rhino vision of 2020. India rhino vision of 2020 is a collaborative effort of the following organizations. They are international rhino foundation, Assam's forest department, Bodo land territorial council, world wild fund of India and the US fission wildlife service. Let me repeat that again. The following organizations are involved in the India rhino vision 2020. They are international rhino foundation, Assam's forest department, Bodo land territorial council, world wild fund for India and the United States fission wildlife service. They may ask the following organization in the prelims examination. So note that India rhino vision has two aims. The first one is to increase the wild population of greater one horn rhino to 3000 by the year 2020. Actually the target period has crossed but we haven't achieved the target of having 3000 wild population of greater one horn rhinos. But with 2600 greater one horn rhinos in the wild, we are nearing the target. We will achieve it in the upcoming years. The second aim is wild to wild translocation. In the threats parts, while discussing about the threats faced by greater one horn rhino, we discussed about the decreasing genetic diversity. Since 90% of the rhinos are located in Kaziranga national park. So to increase the genetic diversity, wild to wild translocation was focused. It was mainly about moving the rhinos from Kaziranga national park to other national parks. Actually government planned to move the rhinos from Kaziranga to Manas national park, Urang national park and Pobitura national park. Although planned, only translocation happened from Kaziranga to Manas. The other part that is translocating from Kaziranga to Urang and Kaziranga to Pobitura has not materialized it. So these are the efforts made by India to conserve greater one horn rhinos. So to sum up, in this discussion we saw about world rhino day, when it is celebrated, why is it celebrated, when the celebration started and which organization started it. The theme of this year's world rhino day, the objectives of world rhino day and we saw about greater one horn rhino. In that we saw about its protection status, its habitat, its location in India and we also saw about the conservation efforts made by India regarding greater one horn rhino. So now let us wrap up the newspaper discussion and move on to the prelims practice questions. We have four practice prelims questions today. Let us take up the first question. Which of the following beaches and states are correctly matched? First pair, Kasarkode, Kerala, second pair, Kappad, Karnataka, third pair, Eden, Puducherry, fourth pair, Radhanagar, Andaman and Nikobar. So in the given pairs Eden is located in Puducherry and Radhanagar beach is located in Andaman and Nikobar. The other two pairs are reversed. Actually Kasarkode beach is located in Karnataka and Kappad beach is located in Kerala. All the given four beaches have earned the blue flag tag given by the Denmark based non profit named foundation for environmental education. So the correct answer is option D, three and four only. Moving on to the next question. Let me read out the question first. Consider the following statements regarding quad. That is seen in news recently. The first statement quad is a grouping of countries that include India, Japan, Australia, the United States and South Korea. Second statement quad is purely oriented to security issues of Indo-Pacific. Third statement quad has its secretariat at Seoul, South Korea. Which of the above statements are incorrect? From the discussion we know that quad is a informal grouping of four countries that is India, Japan, the United States and Australia. So the first statement is wrong. It is an informal grouping so it does not have a secretariat yet. So the third statement is also wrong. In the recently held quad dialogue, quad had an expansive role that is many issues like vaccines, environmental issues and technical cooperation were discussed. So quad is not a purely security oriented grouping. So the second statement is also incorrect. Since the question asks us to find all the incorrect statements, the answer is option D, one, two and three. Moving on to the next question. Let me read the question first. Consider the following pollutants. The pollutants given are sulphur dioxide, nitric oxide that is NO, carbon monoxide, particulate matter 2.5 and ozone. The question asks which of the above pollutants concentration are limited by the WHO's global air quality guidelines 2021, national ambient air quality standards 2009 and also monitored by the system of air quality and weather forecasting and research that is SAFAR. We have to be careful while attending questions like this because three different standards are here and they must be considered. The given standards are the WHO standards, the national ambient air quality standard and the system of air quality and weather forecasting and research. We saw about the first two in the discussion. So now let us see what is SUFFER that is SAFAR. SUFFER was developed indigenously by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology Pune and operationalized by the Indian Meteorological Department that is IMD. SUFFER provides location specific information on air quality in real time that is it is updated real time. It forecasts one to three days in advance which is the first time in India. The system is an integral part of India's air quality early warning system which is operationalized in Delhi. The ultimate objective of the project is to increase awareness among the general public regarding the air quality in their city. The two well in advance SUFFER monitors all weather parameters like UV radiation, temperature, rainfall, humidity, wind speed, wind direction and solar radiation. It also monitors regular air quality parameters like PM1, PM2.5, PM10, sulfur dioxide, ozone, nitrogen oxides like nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, volatile organic compounds like benzene, toluene and xylene. So this means all the given pollutants are monitored by SUFFER. Be careful. The second pollutant given is nitric oxide. We saw in the discussion that the WHO standards and the national ambient air quality standard monitors only nitrogen dioxide not nitric oxide. So except nitric oxide the rest that is sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, particulate matter 2.5 and ozone are monitored by all the three standards that is WHO standards, national ambient air quality standard and system of air quality and weather forecasting and research standard. So the correct option is option C 1, 3, 4 and 5 only. Now moving on to the last brilliant practice question. Let me read out the question. The question is regarding Manas National Park. Three statements are given. The first statement. Manas National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a project tiger reserve and elephant reserve. Actually the statement is correct. Manas National Park is a project tiger site and project elephant reserve. Recently after the rhinos were relocated from Kajrangar to Manas, Manas National Park was also awarded the UNESCO World Heritage Site. So the first statement is true. The name of the park is originated from the Manas River. This is an easy statement. This statement is true. In fact the Manas River passes through the Manas National Park. Due to this river only it has gained its name. The third statement. Manas National Park is located in the Himalayan foothills in Assam. It is contiguous with the Royal Manas National Park in Nepal. Actually this statement is wrong. The Royal Manas National Park is not in Nepal. It is in Bhutan. Both the Manas National Park in India and the Royal Manas National Park are contiguous and the animals move freely between the two national parks. So the third statement is wrong. Since the question asks us to find the correct statement, the answer is option B 1 and 2 only. Now we have reached the end of the discussion. The main question based on today's discussion is displayed here. Please write your answers and post it in the comment section below. So if you like this video please like and share it with your friends and do subscribe to Shankara IS Academy YouTube channel. Thank you.