 Good evening aspirants, I welcome you all to the Hindu Daily News Analysis brought to you by Shankarai IS Academy for the newspaper dated 8th of February 2023. Displayed here are the list of articles that we will take up for discussion today. There are 8 articles, we will begin with the first article discussion. Now, take a look at this text and context page article. Talks about a new form of cancer treatment which is called as CAR T therapy. It also talks about the types of cancer where this new treatment method can be used. India specific information about the new treatment is also given in this article. So through this discussion, we will try to learn about cancer and the various types of treatments available against it. Finally, we will also see the points about CAR T therapy given in this article. So the syllabus relevant to this discussion is highlighted here. You can go through it. First, let's start with the question, what is cancer? See, cancer is a term used to describe the abnormal growth of cells in our body. As you all know, our body is made of tissues which in turn is made of cells. In a normal circumstance, when cells grow old or become damaged or they die, new cells take their place. But when there is an uncontrolled growth of cells, it results in tumors inside our bodies. Such tumors can be cancerous or non-cancerous. Cancerous ones are called malignant tumors and non-cancerous ones are called benign tumors. The cancerous tumors have the capacity to spread into nearby tissues and they can even travel to distant places in the body to form new tumors. So from this, we can say that cancer is a type of disease which is caused due to abnormal growth of our own body cells. Since the cancerous tumors are made up of our own cells, it becomes difficult for us to separate them from other normal cells to treat them specifically. This is about cancer in general. Now let us look at the treatments which are available against cancer. See, there are three types of treatments to treat cancer. First and the famous one is the surgery. Normally, surgery is done on the malignant tumor to remove it from our body. Second type of treatment is the radiotherapy. In this type, external radiation is applied on the tumor. The radiotherapy uses high doses of radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. This is about the second method. Finally comes the treatment of systemic therapy. This particular treatment involves administering specific medicines which acts only on the tumors. Some of the systemic therapies presently used to treat cancer includes chemotherapy, immunotherapy, etc. Here note that CAR T therapy which we are going to see next is also a type of systemic therapy. This is all about the different types of treatments presently used to treat cancer. Now let us see about the CAR T therapy. The expansion of CAR T therapy is chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy. Here note that this particular type of systemic cell therapy uses a patient's wound T cells to treat cancer. The main difference between the other forms of systemic therapy and this CAR T therapy is that other therapies use external mass produced injectable or oral medication while CAR T therapy uses one's wound T cells. See these T cells are modified in the laboratory to enable them to find and attack cancerous tumors. These modified cells are then infused back into the patient's bloodstream. As these cells are more specific, they end up directly activating the patient's immune system against cancer. This makes the treatment of CAR T therapy more clinically effective. This is why they call this the living drug. Now let us see the working of CAR T therapy. To understand that we have to first know about the different components of our blood. See human blood contains four components. They are RBC, red blood cells, WBC, white blood cells, platelets and plasma. Each of these components performs specific functions. See now we are going to see about only white blood cells or the WBC. These WBCs have multiple components present in it. One among them is the T cells. These T cells are the primary component which is used in the CAR T therapy. Here note that these WBCs present in our blood also contain another important component which is called as the B cells. We will see about them in some other discussion. Now coming back to the working of CAR T therapy. In CAR T therapy the patient's blood is drawn to harvest the T cells. Researchers then modify these harvested T cells in the laboratory so that they are attached with specific proteins on their surface which are known as the chimeric antigen receptors. These receptors have a special affinity towards the proteins on the surface of tumor cells. This modification in the cellular structure allows CAR T cells to effectively bind to the malignant tumor and destroy it. So from this we can say that CAR T therapy involves three step-by-step processes. One is the extraction of T cells from the WBC in the blood. Second step is the modification of the extracted T cell in the laboratory to attach certain antigen receptors to it. Then comes the third step which involves the infusion of modified T cells back into the patient's body. This is all about the working of T cell therapy. The complexity of preparing CAR T cells in the laboratory has been a major barrier to this use. Here note that modifying CAR T cells in the laboratory is not cost effective. Because of the high cost associated with this CAR T therapy, only those people who can afford huge costs are able to use this new form of systemic therapy. Now let's see some India specific information on CAR T therapy. In India the Department of Biotechnology which is operating under the Ministry of Science and Technology has been taking steps to reduce the cost of CAR T therapy to make it possible for the use of wider population in India. As I already said, the manufacturing complexity is a major reason for the huge cost. In order to promote and support development of cost-effective mode of CAR T therapy against cancer, Department of Biotechnology and Birak together are taking certain measures. Here note that Birak stands for Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council which is a not-for-profit Section 8 Schedule B public sector enterprise. This is the primary step taken by the Government of India to make the treatment of CAR T available to the common masses of our country. Also note that private clinical trials of CAR T therapy are already going on in some part of our country. Before ending our discussion, let me give you all a few additional facts about this therapy. See presently CAR T therapy is predominantly used as a treatment methodology for two types of cancer. The cancer types are leukemia and lymphomas. Here note that CAR T therapy can also be used in the treatment of other cancers. But the efficacy of CAR T therapy treatment in producing the cancer cells is less for the other types. Now let's see some quick pointers regarding CAR T cell therapies side effects. The main side effects associated with CAR T therapy are Cystokine Release Syndrome and some other neurological symptoms. Here the term Cystokine Release Syndrome refers to the widespread activation of the body's immune system due to CAR T therapy. Here the term neurological symptoms include severe confusion, seizure and speech impairment. These are all some of the side effects associated with this particular therapy. With this we have come to the end of this discussion. Through this discussion we came to know about cancer, the various treatments related to it and finally we also saw in detail about the CAR T therapy. Now we will move on to the next article discussion. Look at this editorial article. It talks about fiscal consolidation. For any country to grow it needs two things. One is economic growth and the other is economic stability. To achieve growth with stability the government must follow the path of fiscal consolidation. So this editorial is written in this context only. It highlights the various steps taken in the 2023-24 budget to achieve fiscal consolidation and it also tries to analyse whether the steps taken are sufficient or not. So in this discussion we will first understand what fiscal consolidation is and then we will see the important points highlighted in this article. This is the syllabus relevant to this discussion. You can go through it. Now let us start with fiscal consolidation. Fiscal consolidation refers to all the steps taken by the government to reduce fiscal deficit. Here the fiscal deficit is basically the difference between total expenditures of the government and the total revenue of the government. The total expenditure of the government includes revenue expenditure and capital expenditure and total income includes revenue receipts and the non-debt creating capital receipts. Non-debt creating capital receipts are types of capital receipts that result in decrease in government assets without any change in the government liability. For example, disinvestment is a non-debt creating capital receipt because when the government starts disinvesting its assets in PSUs the total assets of the government comes down but there will be an increase in the government liability. See, basically the fiscal deficit is the amount the government spent beyond its income. Fiscal deficit is usually expressed as a percentage of GDP. So in order to bring down the fiscal deficit our government has two options. One is by reducing government spending, other is by increasing our country's GDP. In the 2023-24 budget our government has taken both the steps. It has taken steps to control expenditure and also it has taken steps to increase income. As I already said the steps taken by the government are mentioned in this editorial but before seeing that let us understand why fiscal consolidation is very important. Firstly, without fiscal consolidation the interest burden of the government will increase. Take the 2023-24 budget for example. The total budgeted expenditure is around 45 lakh crores. In that 20% that is around 10.7 lakh crore goes into interest payments. Due to such a huge interest burden the space available for the government making important expenditure is getting limited. So by following fiscal consolidation the government's debt burden can be reduced. This in turn reduces the interest burden of the government. Secondly, without fiscal consolidation the government will crowd out the private investment. But how? Let me explain. We already saw that fiscal deficit is the amount the government spent beyond its income. So how does the government finance this shortfall? It finances the deficit through market borrowings by issuing government securities and treasury bills. The amount of finance that is available in the economy is limited. According to the article the total investable resources available in the economy includes two things. One is the financial savings of the household sector and two the net foreign capital inflows. At present these two add up to 10.5% of GDP which is the total investable resources available in the economy. But if you can remember the budgeted fiscal deficit for the year 2023-24 is 5.9% of the GDP. In addition to this 2023-24 budget enhanced the fiscal deficit limit for state governments to 3.5% of their gross state domestic product. So both the central and state governments are planning to purchase 9.4% of GDP from the market. This means that the investable resources available for private sector to borrow from is reduced to 1.1% of GDP. This phenomenon of governments sucking up the majority of investable resources is called crowding out of the private sector. Due to this reason the private sector will find it difficult to borrow money and hence private investment in the economy will come down. Here you may have a question. But the government can also borrow from the market to make investments? No. No because the government mainly borrows from the market to pay interest for its old loans. For example according to recent budget the government is planning to borrow 7.8 lakh crores from the market. And as we already saw interest payment expenditure the government is 10.7 lakh crores. So most of the government borrowing goes into interest payment. This is why the government borrowing in most cases will not turn into productive investment. Only by following fiscal consolidation the government can reduce its debt and thereby reduce its interest payment obligation. Once the government's interest payment obligation decreases the government will not crowd out private sector. Thirdly if the fiscal deficit is high the interest rate on government borrowings will increase. Let me explain this with an example. You have 1000 rupees you are planning to lend to someone. Person A and Person B approach you to borrow the 1000 rupees. Person A already has borrowed 10,000 from various other sources. And Person B does not have any outstanding debt. In this situation you will most likely to lend to Person B only. And if you are planning to lend to Person A you will charge him a very high interest. This is because lending to Person A is more risky compared to lending to Person B. Now let us take the Indian economy. Look at this graph. The graph shows India's debt-to-GDP ratio. According to the 2023-24 budget India's debt-to-GDP ratio will remain around 57%. Due to such a high debt-to-GDP ratio the interest at which the Indian government will borrow will be high. This in turn will increase the interest burden of the government. We already saw the ill effects of increasing interest burden. So by fiscal consolidation the interest rate on the government borrowing can be reduced. These are the main reasons why fiscal consolidation is given so much importance in emerging countries like India. Having understood the importance of fiscal consolidation now let's see the steps taken by the government to achieve fiscal consolidation. As we already saw fiscal consolidation that is reduction in fiscal deficit can be achieved by reducing expenditure or by increasing the GDP. For reducing expenditure a government is planning to bring down food subsidies by 90,000 crore rupees. Government has also cut down fuel subsidies, fertiliser subsidies and allocation for NGNREGA. All these steps will help reduce the government expenditure. Then to spark GDP growth a government has amped up its capital expenditure. According to estimates by the Reserve Bank of India the multiplier associated with central government capital expenditure is 2.45 while that for revenue expenditure is 0.45. For example if the government spends 1000 rupees in capital expenditure like building roads or railways then the output received from the investment would be 2.45 into 1000 which is 2450 rupees. Likewise if the government spends 1000 rupees in revenue expenditure like pension then the output received from that investment is 1000 into 0.45 which comes into 450 rupees. This is why the government has increased allocation to capital expenditure by 37% and the revenue expenditure by a meager 1.2%. This will help to increase the GDP. By increasing GDP the fiscal deficit as a percentage of GDP can be reduced. These are the two steps that are taken by the government to reduce the fiscal deficit and achieve fiscal consolidation. Actually fiscal consolidation is legally mandated in India. Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act that is FRBM Act which was passed in the year 2003 mandated limiting the fiscal deficit to 3% of GDP. In 2018 the FRBM Act was amended and the time limit was set at March 31, 2021 to achieve the target of 3% fiscal deficit. The FRBM Act also mandated the government to bring down the total debt to GDP ratio to 40%. But unfortunately we failed to meet this target. Every time the government deviates from the FRBM targets it is required to state the reasons. The government stated that it is not able to limit the fiscal deficit to 3% of GDP due to external conditions. It also said that the fiscal deficit will be brought down to 4.5% of GDP by 2025-26. But in the budget the government did not mention when it will achieve the fiscal deficit target as mandated by the FRBM Act. For ensuring growth with stability sticking to the FRBM Act and ensuring fiscal consolidation is mandatory. This will help our country in the long run. So in this discussion we understood what is fiscal consolidation. We saw why fiscal consolidation is very important and we saw some of the steps taken by the government to achieve fiscal consolidation. So with this we will move on to the next article discussion. Have a look at this article from the text and context page. Last week the USA shot down a Chinese pie balloon. This happened days after the surveillance device was first spotted over the American airspace. The shooting down of the Chinese balloon has brought the dramatic saga to a climax. But this created it another blow to the already strained diplomatic relation between the USA and China. In this context let's learn about the spy balloons and we will also see in detail about the recent issue between USA and China. See spy balloons are high altitude surveillance tools that usually operate at a height of 80,000 to 120,000 feet. The operating height is well above the cruising altitude of commercial aircrafts. So now what is the purpose of using spy balloons? Spy balloons are generally used to gather intelligence and to carry out other military missions. Typically a spy balloon is equipped with cameras and imaging devices. These devices are suspended beneath the gas filled white balloon to capture things of interest. Due to their proximity to the earth surface, spy balloons can widely scan an area and can capture clear and high resolution images of the target. Now there are certain disadvantages that are associated with the spy balloons. The first disadvantage is that spy balloons are not directly steered by the operator. They can be roughly guided by changing altitudes to catch different wind currents. So we can say that the course of the balloon is not in the hands of the operator. Then the second disadvantage is that spy balloons are relatively easy targets. This is because they are not capable of drifting their trajectory when they come under attack. So once if it is spotted chances are high that it would be shot down. Now coming to the Chinese spy balloon we were talking about earlier. So is this the first time China is using such a balloon? No. Even Taiwan has accused China of using spy balloons in the past. Apart from Taiwan, a similar sighting was also reported over Andaman and Nicobar Islands in January last year. However there has been no official confirmation or evidence that establishes its link with China. Earlier this month there was a report that a massive white balloon was floating high above US state of Montana. The American military officials confirmed that this military observation balloon had come from China. The balloon entered the Aleutian Islands on January 28. Know that most of the Aleutian Islands belong to the USA state of Alaska. But some parts belong to Russia. After the course over the Aleutian Islands the balloon subsequently moved over land across Alaska and then moved to the Canadian airspace. After this the balloon shifted back into the US over the Idaho state. After the confirmation by military officials US President Joe Biden was briefed on the matter and the US military considered shooting down the balloon. The Pentagon which is the headquarters of the US Department of Defense believed that the balloon was a Chinese surveillance tools carrying sensors and equipments to collect information about military and other strategic information from the key strategic sites like the Montana. Know that Montana is the home to one of the three nuclear missile silo fields of the US. As the news of the spy balloon caused a sensation the Chinese Foreign Ministry acknowledged that the balloon was from China but it rejected any claims of spying. China insisted that the balloon was a civilian airship used mainly for meteorological research and it went off course due to winds. China also expressed regret over the incident and insisted that it respects the sovereignty of other countries. Now can the balloon be simply shot down? No, steps should be taken to protect any information outflow firstly. Then these balloons are not very small balloons. US channels reported that the balloon was of the size of three school buses. So before shooting down the balloon the US officials took steps to protect against the balloon's collection of sensitive information. Then NASA assisted the debris field based on the trajectory of the balloon. The US air has deployed multiple fighters and refueling and tanker aircrafts. But it was an F-22 Raptor fighter jet that took down the balloon by firing a short range AIM-9X side window missile. As per reports debris was spread across 11 km with most landing in the shallow water. After the completion of the mission US informed China of its action. The downing of the balloon by the missile drew a strong reaction from China. China insisted that the flyover was an accident and criticized the US for an obvious overreaction. The Chinese Foreign Ministry in its statement said the shoot down of the balloon has seriously impacted and damaged relations between the two countries. So this is the news for now. We have to wait and see for any future updates on the issue. So this is with respect to this news article discussion. Now we will move on to the next article discussion. See this news article. It presents various data about the increase in the number of eligible voters in India. It also provides some data about the voters turnout. In this discussion we will see the important points mentioned in this article in detail. Look at this graph. The graph shows two pieces of data. It shows the increase in the number of registered electors over the years and it also shows the voter turnout over the years. India witnessed a fourfold increase in the number of electors since 1962. In the 1960s the number of voters was around 21.63 crore and this has increased to 94.5 crore this year. Among the world nations, India has the largest number of electors. India's voter base exceeds the combined numbers of US, Indonesia, Brazil, Russia, Pakistan and Japan. You can see the voter base of different countries in this graph. In the case of India, while the number of electors increased significantly, the voter turnout has not changed much. The voter turnout in the recent election reached 65% but 35% of the electors that is around 30 crore electors are not participating in the election. Interestingly, of the 30 crore non-participants, majority people belong to people from urban areas, young voters and migrants. Look at this table. The table shows the three parliamentary seats from various states that recorded the lowest voter turnout. If you notice carefully, in almost all the states, the voter turnout was very low, mainly in the urban areas. See in Telangana, it's Hyderabad, in Tamil Nadu, Chennai, in Karnataka, Bangalore, in Kerala, Tiruvananthapuram. These are the main capital cities of these states. This shows the apathy of the urban voters towards the election process. Now, what can be done to increase the voter turnout? The Election Commission from its part has launched the SWEET program, which stands for Systematic Autors Education and Electoral Participation Program. The main aim of this program is to spread voter awareness and promote voter literacy in India. Increase in voter literacy will slowly increase the voter turnout. Secondly, to address the issue of migrants missing out on election process, the Election Commission of India has developed the prototype for a multi-constituency remote electronic voting machine. So, these remote electronic voting machines can handle multiple constituencies from a single remote polling booth. This will enable remote voting by migrant voters. Thirdly, to increase the youth voter participation, voter education programs can be taken up. This will motivate the youth to vote in elections. Finally, model polling booths can also be developed to increase the accessibility of old age people and divyungs. All these steps can be taken for increasing the voter participation in elections. So, in this news article discussion, we saw who are the missing voters. And we also saw steps to increase the voter turnout in India. With these points in mind, we will move on to the next article discussion. Take a look at this article. It reports about the recent earthquakes which took place in Turkey and Syria. According to the article, these earthquakes have resulted in the death of 6000 persons across both the countries. Turkish presidents said that nearly 13 millions of the countries, 85 million were affected in some way and declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces in order to manage the response. This is a crux of the article given here. In this context, let's learn about the science behind earthquakes. See, the earth's crust is a rocky layer of varying thickness. The crust does not occur as a single piece, but rather it consists of multiple portions called plates of varying sizes. These plates are in continual motion. So during their movement, they brush past one another or a plate goes under another due to collision. So when these plates contact each other, stress arises thereby releasing energy and this causes disturbances in the earth's crust. It is this disturbance that shows up as an earthquake on the surface of the earth. The release of energy during an earthquake occurs along a fault. See, a fault is a sharp break in the crustal rocks. Usually rocks along a fault tend to move in opposite directions. As the overlying rocks attract up, presses them, the friction locks them together. But their tendency to move apart at some point of time overcomes the friction. As a result, the blocks get deformed and eventually they slide past one another abruptly. This causes a release of energy whose waves travel in all directions. Remember, the point of rupture or the point where the energy is released is called the focus of an earthquake. This focus can be located near or deep below the surface. And the point on the surface directly above the focus is termed as the epicenter of the earthquake. Now let us learn about the vibrations caused by these earthquakes. As we saw earlier, the fault rupture generates vibration. And these vibrations are called as seismic waves meaning shock or earthquake waves. Now these waves radiate from the focus or the point of rupture in all directions at various frequencies and velocities. Usually these vibrations travel outwards from the epicenter as seismic waves. Remember, these waves are basically of two types. They are body waves and surface waves. Body waves are generated due to the release of energy at the focus and they move in all directions travelling through the body of the earth. Hence, they are called as body waves. Note that these body waves are of two types. They are called as P waves and S waves. P waves or the primary waves are those that move faster and are first to arrive at the surface. They are similar to sound waves and they can travel through gaseous, liquid and even solid materials. Coming to the S waves or the secondary waves, they arrive at the surface with some time lag. Also, they can travel only through solid materials. Now next is the surface waves. See, the body waves interact the surface rocks and generate new set of waves called as the surface waves. These waves move along the surface and are more destructive. As they cause displacement of rocks, it leads to the collapse of structures. Now coming to the measurements of earthquake. See, an earthquake is measured with a mission called as seismograph. Generally, the earthquakes are measured based on the magnitude or intensity of the shock. The magnitude of the earthquake is measured on the richer scale. Based on its estimation, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6 or higher is considered very strong and 7 is classified as a major earthquake. Richer scale starts from 1 and ends with 10. Here you should also know about the Merkali scale. This scale is also used to calculate the earthquake's intensity. It expresses the intensity of earthquake effect on people's structure and earth's surface. And the range of this intensity scale is from 1 to 12. The major difference between the richer scale and the Merkali scale is that richer scale measures the magnitude of the earthquake while the Merkali scale measures the intensity of the earthquake. So in this discussion, we learnt what is an earthquake and we saw the science behind it. We also saw how the earthquake can be measured. With this, we'll move on to the next article discussion. Look at this news article. S&P Global Ratings reported yesterday that India's core inflation has been declining sequentially. According to the report, after being elevated for a long period of time due to external factors like the Russia-Ukrain War, it began to decline sequentially in the second half of 2022. So in this context, let us use this opportunity to make a quick revision on inflation. Now, what is inflation? See, inflation in simple terms refers to the rise in the average price of goods and services for a long duration in the economy. So what happens when prices increase? The purchasing power of the money will get reduced over a period of time. For example, I used to buy two cotton candies for Rs.10. But due to inflation, I have to spend Rs.20 to buy the same two candies. Because here, the value of the cotton candies have increased due to high demand or any other factor that led to inflation. Earlier, for Rs.10, I got two candies. But now, the value of candy has increased with respect to money. And now, only if I have Rs.20, I get two candies. Which means, what Rs.10 could do earlier? That is, to get me two candies can no longer happen. The purchasing power of this Rs.10 has come down. So, too much of inflation might lead to a decrease in economic growth. However, a moderate level of inflation is preferred in the economy to ensure that production is promoted. Inflation in an economy is measured by indices like consumer price index, wholesale price index and producer price index. In simple words, the average price change in a basket of commodities and services over time is measured through indices like the consumer price index, wholesale price index and the producer price index. So, inflation is a macroeconomic phenomena which has many forms and implications. Now, we will see two such forms. One is the core inflation and two is the headline inflation. First, we will understand about headline inflation. See, headline inflation is the normal inflation rate that is traditionally targeted by the RBI. From the basket of commodities that are used to calculate this rate, if we take out food and fuel component, it brings out the core price inflation. So, core inflation is the change in the cost of goods and services but it does not include those from the food and energy sectors. This measure of inflation excludes these items because their prices are very volatile. Usually, due to transient price shocks that may happen due to an ongoing crisis like Russia-Ukraine war, the fuel prices go high. Therefore, the anticipated overall inflation numbers may be pushed up artificially. To rule out this possibility, core inflation is calculated to determine the actual inflation without taking into account any transient shocks or volatility. Simply to say, core inflation is equal to headline inflation minus inflation from food and fuel. Generally, the supply-side shocks affect the inflation measures. Therefore, we can say that headline inflation is a more volatile measure than core inflation. This is one of the reasons why economists argue that RBI should focus on core inflation rather than headline or CPA inflation. So, in this news article discussion, we saw what is inflation and then we saw two forms of inflation which is the core inflation and headline inflation. So, with these points in mind, now let us move on to the next article discussion. Look at this tiny article from the text and context page. It talks about the non-fossil fuel power generation capacity of India. India is the third largest producer and consumer of electricity worldwide. We have an installed power capacity of 408.71 gigawatt as of October 31, 2022. In that, 174.53 gigawatt amounts to non-fossil fuel power generation. Also, as part of our international climate commitment, India has said that it would source roughly half its energy needs from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030. So, in this news article discussion, let us go through the fuel-wise data of total installed power generation capacity in India. As we all know, the most viable form of energy which is often identified with progress in modern civilization is power, that is electricity. It is a critical component of our infrastructure that determines the economic development of a country. The growth rate of demand for power is generally higher than the growth rate of GDP. Studies point out that in order to have a 8% GDP growth per annum, power supply needs to grow by around 12% annually. In India, we generate both fossil fuel and non-fossil fuel-based power. See, this is our energy mix as of now. Here, we see large share comes from the fossil fuels, especially coal. As of 31st December 2022, coal accounts for approximately 50% of power generation in India. This is followed by gas, which contributes 6.1%, lignite, which contributes 1.6%, and diesel, which contributes 0.1%. I hope you all know about lignite. It is often referred to as brown coal. And it is a soft brown, combustible sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. Although it can be consumed for household heating and some industrial purposes, it is mostly used for electricity generation. So, totally 57.5% of power generation comes from burning fossil fuels. And the remaining 42.5% of power generation comes from non-fossil fuels. Among them, wind, solar and other renewable energy contributes highest percentage of 29.5%. Solar power alone contributes to 15.1%, hydropower to 11.4%, wind power contributes 10.2%, BM power, otherwise called as the biomass power and co-gen contributes to 2.5%. Here, regarding the hydropower, you should know that recently the union cabinet approved a new hydroelectricity policy that included the large hydro projects within the ambit of renewable energy. Prior to the policy, only small hydro projects of a capacity of less than 25 MW were treated as renewable energy. And large hydro projects were treated as a separate source of energy. Then coming to biomass, it is a renewable organic material that comes from plants and animals. Biomass power systems produce electricity from the chemical energy contained in the organic matters. On the other hand, co-gen or co-generation is a combination of heating plant and power generator in one plant. They are also known as combined heat and power. It is basically the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time. Then, small hydropower contributes 1.2% and at the last comes a waste to energy power generation. They contribute 0.1%. Nuclear power is the third category under power generation. They account for 1.7%. But here, you should know that nuclear energy is not a renewable source of energy. This is because nuclear power uses up radioactive fuel which is not renewable in the same way as other renewable sources. So in this news article discussion, we saw what are the fossil and non-fossil fuel power generation capacity in India. With these points in mind, we'll move on to the next article discussion. This article here says that over the next 3 to 4 years, $3.5 billion will be invested by the ONGC to boost output from its western offshore assets. Here, the article is talking about the Krishna-Godavari basin. So in this news article discussion, let us quickly go through Krishna-Godavari basin in Prelims perspective. See, the Krishna-Godavari basin is an extensive deltaic plane formed by two large east coast rivers, the Krishna and the Godavari. It is located in the state of Andhra Pradesh in the adjoining areas of Bay of Bengal. The basin is crucial because it is a proven petroleum-ferrous basin of continental margin located on the east coast of India. Apart from this, the basin also contains about 5 km thick sediments with several cycles of deposition ranging in ages from the late Carboniferous to Plistocene. This site is known for the D-Block with the biggest natural gas reserves in India. The first gas discovery was made in the year 1983 by ONGC. Apart from this, a recent study conducted by researchers have found that the methane hydrate deposits are located in the Krishna-Godavari basin and these are of biogenic origin. Methane hydrate is a crystalline solid that consists of a methane molecule surrounded by a cage of interlocking water molecules. It is an ice that is formed when hydrogen bonded water and methane comes into contact at high pressure and low temperature such as in the oceans. But the issue with methane hydrates is that if the ice is removed from the temperature or pressure environment, it becomes unstable. It is for this reason, methane hydrate deposits are difficult to study and handle. And they cannot be drilled and quote for study like other subsurface materials because as they are brought to the surface, the pressure is reduced and the temperature rises. This again causes the ice to melt and the methane to escape. Now, why this methane hydrate is so significant? Firstly, we all know methane is a clean and economical fuel. It is estimated that one cubic meter of methane hydrate contains 160 to 180 cubic meters of methane. Even the lowest estimate of methane present in the methane hydrates in the Krishna-Godavari basin is twice that of all fossil fuel reserves available worldwide. So with this, we have come to the end of the discussion. Now we will move on to the next part of the discussion which is the practice questions. First, we will see the prelims practice questions. Today we have five questions. Four questions will be discussed by me and one question will be the quiz question for the day. Question number one. This is a previous year question from 2017. Consider the following statements. Statement number one. The Election Commission of India is a five member body. Statement number two. Union Ministry of Home Affairs decides the election schedule for the conduct of both general elections and by elections. Statement number three. The Election Commission resolves the disputes relating to the splits or mergers of recognized political parties. Which of the statements given above is there are correct? Here, statement number one and two are incorrect. See, Election Commission of India is a three member body and it is the Election Commission which decides the election schedule for both general election and by elections. Then here, statement number three is correct. One of the functions of Election Commission is to resolve the disputes relating to the splits or mergers of recognized political parties. So, the correct answer for this question is option D, three only. Question number two. Which of the following is the correct sequence of energy sources in the order of their highest to lowest share in the power sector in India? Here, the correct answer is option A. See here, even if you didn't know the answer for this question, you should have been able to eliminate option B. See, there has been a push for solar energy recently by the government and you should also be knowing that nuclear energy constitute a very small proportion of our energy mix. By this, you should be able to eliminate option B. So, you should also be knowing such elimination strategies while doing your problems, right? Then, moving on to the third question. This is also a previous question from 2020. Consider the following statements. The weightage of food in consumer price index is higher than that of wholesale price index. Statement number two. The wholesale price index does not capture changes in the prices of services which CPI does. Statement number three. Reserve Bank of India has now adopted wholesale price index as its key measure of inflation and to decide on changing the key policy rates. Select the correct answer using the codes given below. Here, statement number one is correct. Weightage of food group in wholesale price index is 24.4 percentage and the weightage of food group in CPI is 39.06 percentage. So, here, statement one is correct. Then, statement two is also correct because WPI does not include services. Then, third statement is incorrect because since 2014, CPI combined is taken as the key measure of inflation and to decide on changing the key policy rates. So, the correct answer for this question is option A, one and two only. Question number four. With reference to earthquakes, consider the following statements. Statement number one. Earthquakes above six in Richard's scale occur only in plate boundaries. Statement number two. Rayleigh waves and love waves are associated with earthquakes. Which of the statements given above is that are correct? See, here statement one is incorrect. The famous Butch earthquakes which show Gujarat in the year 2001 was an earthquake of magnitude 7.6. Here, you should note that this earthquake occurred inside a plate boundary. There are numerous earthquakes which have occurred like this inside the plate boundaries all across the world. Also, this type of earthquakes is called as Interplate Earthquakes. Here, statement number two is correct. Rayleigh waves and love waves are associated with earthquakes. So, the correct answer for this question is option B, two only. Question number five. This is the quiz question for the day. I guess you should be able to answer this question very easily. Read the question carefully and post the answers in the comment box below. These are the main questions for your practice. Interested aspirants can write the answer and post it in the comment box below. 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