 A very good evening aspirants. The much awaited results for main scholarship tests are declared now. Link for the results is given in the description box and also in the comment section. All the aspirants who participated in the test, please check the link to know the results. Shankara Ace Academy congratulates all the winners and extends best wishes to all the participants. Now let's get to the Hindi news analysis for 9th August. These are news articles chosen for discussion. Today's discussion is quite important since we are going to cover topics of landslides, tabletop, airports etc which are recently in news so much. So the discussion will not only be helpful in exam preparation but it will also help you to understand the events that are going around you. The link for the handwritten notes in the PDF format and the time snapping for the displayed articles is given in the description box and also in the comment section. Let's move on to first discussion. The first discussion is about landslides. This news article mentions that a portion of a hill underwent landslide in the Koduga district of Karnataka on Thursday due to heavy rains and in recent days also we have been seeing many landslides in Kerala where in one case more than 50 people are feared to be trapped and still rescue operations are going on. So this situation has made us wonder about how this happens and what should be done to mitigate it and for these questions we will find answer in today's discussion because today we will have a comprehensive discussion on landslides. We will see what makes western guards a landslide prone region. Then we will also see some of the disaster mitigation measures with reference to landslides. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. First what do we mean by landslides? Landslides are defined as the mass movements of rock, debris or earth down a slope. See mass movements are also called as mass wasting. These mass movements transfer the mass of rock debris down the slopes under the direct influence of gravity and these landslides often take place in conjunction with earthquakes, floods and volcanoes. Particularly in the hilly terrain landslides have been a major and widely spread natural disaster which results in loss of life and property and therefore it has become a major concern. Now these landslides are quite rapid and perceptible movements and here know that the size and shape of the detached mass depends on three things one is the nature of discontinuities in the rock then the degree of weathering and more importantly the steepness of the slope because as you know the more the steepness the influence of gravity will be more and depending upon the type of movement of materials several types are identified in landslides category and these types are slump, debris slide, debris fall, rock slide and rock fall. Now in this slump is slipping off one or several units of rock debris here the units of rock debris slip with a backward rotation with respect to the slope over which the mass movement take place as you can see in this picture the horizontal line gives you an idea that how the slump body has had a backward rotation. Now the next is debris slide it refers to the rapid rolling or sliding of earth debris without backward rotation of mass when we say debris it is a mixture of soil regolith and rocks and here regolith refers to loose unconsolidated rock and dust that sits above a layer of bedrock or bedding surface. Now these bedding surfaces or planes are visible in the sedimentary rocks. Now next type is debris fall now it is nearly a free fall of earth debris from a vertical or overhanging face. The next is rock slide see the sliding of individual rock masses down the bedding surfaces joint or fault surfaces is called as rock slide and over steep slopes rock sliding is very fast and destructive. Then the next type is the rock fall it is free falling of rock blocks over any steep slope which keeps it away from the slope and these rock falls occur from the superficial or surface layers of the rock face and this differentiates rock fall from rock slide because rock slide affects materials up to a substantial depth. So just now we saw the types of landslides now let us come to the scenario with respect to India. In India landslides occur very frequently in the Himalayas this is because of some reasons such as the Himalayas are tectonically active or in other words they are relatively tectonically unstable. Then the Himalayas are mostly made up of sedimentary rocks and unconsolidated and semi-consolidated deposits and then more importantly the slopes are very steep in Himalayas. On the other hand if you come to Nilgiris and the western guards here also we can see landslides but however landslides here are not as frequent as in the Himalayas. Now this region is relatively tectonically stable and mostly they are made up of hard rocks only. Then what are the reasons for landslides here? Here the main reason is that many slopes are steeper with almost vertical cliffs and escarpments. Then in addition to this mechanical weathering because of temperature changes is more here and this weathering aids in mass movement. Apart from this these regions receive heavy amounts of rainfall over short periods so because of these reasons there is almost direct rockfall quite frequently in these places along with landslides and debris avalanches. And here just note that Kodagu where the landslide is reported in the news article today is located on the eastern slopes of western guards. So this is the background about landslides and the reason behind it. Now what are the disaster mitigation measures with reference to landslides? Say here mitigation refers to reducing the severity or impact of a disaster. So what should be done? And in this first thing is hazard mapping. They should be done to locate areas which are prone to landslides. Now this hazard mapping is important because last year that is in 2019 in GS3 mains a 15 mark question related to hazard mapping was asked and the question is disaster preparedness is the first step in any disaster management process. Explain how hazard zonation mapping will help disaster mitigation in the case of landslides. So you can understand the importance of this particular area. Now this hazard mapping should be done at the national and also at the local levels and the main advantage of this hazard mapping is that areas which are prone to landslides could be noted and such areas can be avoided for building settlements. So by this we can reduce the damages to properties and also we can reduce the loss of life. Now know that at the national level we have this landslide hazard map and here we can observe that the Himalayas of northwest and northeast India and then the western guards are two regions that are highly vulnerable and prone to landslides. So simply using such hazard mapping activities can be regulated to minimize the impact on human lives and properties. Then next measure could be construction of retention walls to stop land from slipping. Then we can increase vegetation cover which is an effective way to arrest landslide because the roots of the trees go deeper and they may not cross fault plane or they may tie the bedding surfaces. This is important because the root reinforcement of vegetation cover plays a very important role in slope stability. Then next the surface drainage control works are also important in disaster mitigation because they control the movement of landslide along with rainwater and spring flows. Now these drainage control works prevent water courses from entering the slide prone area. Also these help in diversion of all the springs that are originating within the slide area to outside the landslide prone area. Now these are some of the mitigation measures with reference to landslides. That is all. In this discussion we saw about landslides, types of landslides. We saw why western guards despite being relatively tectonically stable is prone to landslides and then finally we saw few mitigation measures also. That is played practice question will be discussed in the last session. Let's move on to the next discussion. This discussion is based on this news article which is about ammonium nitrate. See few days back the world witnessed a catastrophic explosion that killed at least hundred people and also injured thousands of people in Beirut of Lebanon and this explosion was caused by ammonium nitrate only and the explosion was more catastrophic because around 2700 tons of ammonium nitrate was kept in storage for many years. So after this catastrophe every country is taking measures to reduce the storage of ammonium nitrate. So in this sense this news article mentions about one such move by Chennai city and it mentions that Chennai has a large consignment of ammonium nitrate which is lying in storage for the past five years. So today's news is that the consignment will be moved to a neighboring state in the coming days. In this sense the topic of ammonium nitrate becomes important from prelims perspective. So let us discuss about it, its uses and also about the ammonium nitrate rules of 2012. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. So you first know that the chemical formula of ammonium nitrate is NH4 NO3 and the pure ammonium nitrate is a white crystalline substance that is water soluble and it has a melting point of 170 degrees Celsius. I know that in India ammonium nitrate is defined under the ammonium nitrate rules of 2012 and these rules come under the explosives act of 1884 and according to these rules ammonium nitrate is a compound which has a chemical formula of NH4 NO3 and it includes any mixture or compound having more than 45 percentage ammonium nitrate by weight. So this includes emulsions, suspensions, melds or gels which has ammonium nitrate. See this differentiation is simply based on the variation of dispersion of the compound that is ammonium nitrate in these substances and also know that according to this definition ammonium nitrate does not include emulsion explosives or slurry explosives and non explosives emulsion matrix and fertilizers from which the ammonium nitrate cannot be separated or extracted. There is no need to go into detail about these just know that they are excluded. Now in this you should note that ammonium nitrate is not an explosive by itself but it is classified as an oxidizing agent of class 5 division 5.1 as per the United Nations classification for dangerous goods and this classification denotes how much hazardous a substance is. So ammonium nitrate is in the division 5.1. Now let us see the uses of ammonium nitrate. It is an ingredient for manufacturing anaesthetic gases, fertilizers, cold packs etc. Cold pack is nothing but the ice pack which we use when we have any sports injury like that and more importantly know that ammonium nitrate is one of the base ingredients which is used in the manufacture of commercial explosives also but here the point is even other ingredients like fuel or compostable material have to be added to make ammonium nitrate and explosive. Now such explosive mixtures require initiators like detonators to explode. Now due to this reason ammonium nitrate has been declared as an explosive and it is defined under the ammonium nitrate rules of 2012 and know that according to these rules the manufacture conversion or import, export and even transport or position of ammonium nitrate for sale or even for use for manufacturing requires a license and this license is issued by petroleum and explosives safety organization under these 2012 rules and this license is issued for a maximum of five years but the license for import and export is valid for one year only and it is renewable. Further know that the concerned district authorities such as commissioner or district magistrate they are responsible for ensuring the security of ammonium nitrate consignment in factories in storage depots are also violent transit that is when it is transported from one place to another and they have to ensure its safety. Now are there any health hazards of ammonium nitrate itself because we saw that in Beirut it killed several hundred people when it exploded so whether it has any health hazards yes it does have it becomes an irritant when it comes in contact with skin or eye and even prolonged exposure to the substance may result in skin burns and ulcerations and overexposure even by inhalation may cause respiratory irritation so you can imagine the conditions of survivors of this Beirut explosion so that is all you need to know about ammonium nitrate from examination point of view now we saw that the license under 2012 rules is issued by petroleum and explosives safety organization now let us see about this organization it was formerly known as the department of explosives and it was established long back in 1898 itself and at present petroleum and explosive safety organization is headed by the chief controller of explosives and it is headquartered at Nagpur I know that this organization comes under the department for promotion of industry and internal trade which comes under the ministry of commerce so remember it does not come under the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers now this organization is the nodal agency to look after safety requirements of the explosives and petroleum sectors so its overall objective is to ensure the safety and security of the public and property from fire and explosion and for realizing this objective the petroleum and explosive safety organization is entrusted with the administration of explosives act of 1884 then petroleum act of 1934 then inflameable substances act of 1952 and also all the rules that have been framed under these acts also so with this we come to the end of this discussion in this discussion we saw about the definition of ammonium nitrate according to the 2012 rules and how it is classified under the United Nations classification for dangerous goods then we saw about its uses and its health hazards etc the displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session let's move on to the next discussion our next discussion is about tabletop airports this discussion is based on this news article and this FAQ article yesterday we talked about the mishap which happened in core code international airport where an air india express plane coming from dubai had overshoot or went beyond the runway after touching down at the airport i know that this core code airport is a tabletop airport in this case as you can see here the plane fell into a valley and the fuselage that is the body of the aircraft broke into parts now this accident has led to loss of life of many people and almost all of the people who were onboard are injured so in this scenario the FAQ article has comprehensively discussed about these tabletop airports their safety aspects and also about the measures that are needed to be taken to make our airports much safer we will discuss all these in this discussion the syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference see first what is a tabletop airport it is an airport that is located or built on top of a plateau or hilly surface here either one end or both ends of the runway will be adjacent to a steep cliff which drops into a deep gorge as you can see in this picture and according to aviation officials there is no such term as tabletop airport in any international civil aviation organization technical document but india's director general of civil aviation that is dgca used this term to refer to those airports for highlighting on the safety measures during operations on these runways so now how many tabletop airports are there in india we have some airports in the country which can be called as tabletop airports and this includes lengpui airport in mezoram then shimla airport and kulu airport in himachal pradesh then pakyong airport in sikkim then mangalore airport of karnataka then obviously kodikode airport and kannur airport of kerala but here note that with respect to kannur airport the length of the runway is much better so it nullifies the limitations that is posed by all other tabletop runways so what is the danger which is posed by these tabletop airports or tabletop runways according to the officials runway overshoots is the most common problem but these runway overshoots also occur on non-tabletop runways also but in such cases the aircraft has a much better probability of surviving but however in case of a tabletop runway and overrun by even a few meters can turn into catastrophic for those tabletop runway landings then there is also a danger of optical illusion this is nothing but the different illusions that is perceived by the pilots in this regard we should know about an important illusion called as black hole effect it is an inherent risk of night visual approaches see these black hole conditions exist on dark nights that is usually with no monor starlight when there are no ground lights also between the aircraft and the runway threshold and sometimes this condition is also called as featureless terrain illusion and this condition fools pilots into thinking that they are higher than what they actually are and this causes them to fly dangerously in low approaches and this is very dangerous especially in case of tabletop runways and thus it causes major accidents now to take one example of tabletop runway accident other than the recent one we can remember the accident of Mangalore airport accident which happened in 2010 here also an air India express flight which again came from Dubai to Mangalore over and the runway while landing on the runway then it went down a steep embankment after which there was fire and in this mishap out of 160 passengers and six crew members almost 158 passengers lost their lives and this incident caught the attention of authorities on the nature of operations such airports because they operate in a shorter runway now what are the safety measures that have to be taken by the aviation sector in infrastructure and operations to avoid such accidents according to international civil aviation organization for every runway there should be a safety feature called RSA or runway and safety area now this is an area adjacent to the end of the runway and it is primarily intended to reduce the risk of damage to an airplane when it undershoots or when it overruns the runway in simple terms you can say that they are formal means to limit the consequences when airplanes overrun the end of runway during landing or during a rejected takeoff or when the airplanes undershoots the intended landing runway and with respect to tabletop airport operations IC AO says that runway and safety area should be of 90 meter mandatory and the recommendation area is 240 meters in addition to this I see a document nine and eight one for airports also serves as a guideline for compatibility study of the operation of larger aircraft in a comparatively smaller aerodrome now this document has recommendations on many things including aerodrome infrastructure and its ground handling capabilities and aeroplane characteristics etc and generally all these guidelines are taken into consideration by the government before giving the aircrafts a no objection certificate for operation now then coming to pilot training according to officials usually no specific training are given for pilots for operating on tabletop runways however airlines conduct route check for short runways then there is also crew resource management which is mandatory training for all pilots and this was made mandatory following the recommendations made after the Mangaluru crash and this crew resource management includes classroom and simulated training then simulated training is also provided to explain various types of optical illusions including those illusions which are caused by tabletop runways then apart from this monsoon is a major factor in Indian aviation so monsoon training is also given to the pilots this includes training for landing in low visibility during heavy rain and winds and with respect to this DGCA has mandated a monsoon minimum equipment list for the aircraft operations now here you should note about the precautions taken by pilots during landing the pilots start landing operations only after getting a clearance from air traffic control it can start landing only when visibility is within the minimum and the pilot must have a clear visibility of the environment both at the altitude of decision height and also at the minimum descent altitude in order to land safely now here decision height is a point normally around 200 feet in case of instrument landing system this instrument landing system is nothing but a system that works by sending radio waves from the runway end to the aircraft in order to guide the plane onto the runway this is a precision approach in landing and then the next is minimum descent altitude it is another point in case of non-precision approach it is a specified altitude or height below which descent must not be made without the required visual reference here there is no need to go into much technicality just know these facts so these are the normal safety measures that are taken in the aviation sector in infrastructure and operations to avoid accidents now what are the recommendations made after the manglore crash especially because it was a tabletop airport series of recommendations were made after this crash since the aircrafts have large momentum a downward slope in the overrun area can worsen the outcome so one of the recommendations was to avoid such downward slope in the overshoot area particularly on the tabletop runways it also recommended for the need for a ground arresting system for aircraft i know that it is an engineered materials arresting system and this uses a specially installed surface which quickly stops any aircraft that moves on to it that is if the aircraft moves on to it then it will come to a halt immediately and such a facility is maintained at almost all airfields of Indian Air Force so it can be also used in tabletop runways so that we can avoid future accidents then thirdly there should be visual reference system to alert the pilot while landing and it should alert about the remaining distance to be covered then the recommendations also advised on the location of air traffic control tower then approach and area radars etc it also mentioned about the role of rescue and firefighting service etc so these were the recommendations made after the manglore crash but after the recent accident of kodi kodi dgca has said that all the recommendations were implemented but still there was an accident so what is the way forward according to aviation safety experts government should allow only narrow body aircraft to land on tabletop runways it should also ensure that all runway condition standards are enforced and moreover pilots should be given approach and landing accident training so that they can easily handle the situation and finally the government should be transparent and it should be safety oriented and the government should not only concentrate on commercial interests so if all the rules and standards are properly enforced we can hope that in the future such accidents can be avoided with this we come to the end of this discussion where we had a comprehensive discussion on tabletop airports and runways and what are the safety measures that should be taken to avoid accidents in these airports or runways there is play practice question will be discussed in the last session let's move on to the next discussion now this next news article mentions that artifacts and stone tools have been discovered in Madurai of Tamil Nadu and these artifacts and stone tools belong to micro-lithic age so in this discussion we'll see about this micro-lithic age and also about the cup marks art which is mentioned in this news article as you know human history is divided into three main periods they are stone age bronze age and iron age now the name implies the material which was used to make tools and weapons in that period like stone was used during stone age then bronze was used during bronze age and iron was used to make tools and weapons during the iron age but these periods are also unique for their subsistence economy or the ways of acquiring food social organization they were unique for their mode of disposing of the dead they were unique for their art and other aspects of life also now in this stone age is divided into three periods they are paleolithic or the old stone age then the mesolithic period which is the middle stone age and then the neolithic period which is the new stone age now here the word lithic is derived from the greek word lithos and it means stone and in this the oldest period is the paleolithic age obviously and it extends from two million years ago to about 12,000 years ago now this long stretch of time is divided into three which is lower paleolithic middle paleolithic and upper paleolithic i know that this long span of time covers 99 percentage of human history now the next one is mesolithic age and it was a much shorter period than paleolithic and in india it began about 12,000 years ago till about 10,000 years ago and technological hallmark of this period are tiny stone tools or the microliths now these microliths comprise of non-geometric forms like rectangular blunted back blades and points and these microliths or the tiny stone tools also comes in geometric forms like crescents triangles and trapezes and these microliths were too small to be used as tools individually so they were used as components of tools and weapons by being hafted in bone wood or reed handles and in shafts now in this half thing is nothing but the process by which an artifact is attached to the handle so in this the microlith is attached to bone wood or the shaft now in addition to the microliths mesolithic people also used a variety of non-microlytic tools which were made of flakes cores and blades and these comprise of choppers scrapers etc and know that mesolithic people made a number of technological inventions also like bow and arrow for hunting then grinders and hammer stones for grinding and pulverizing plant foods etc and they also created large volume of earth in the form of paintings and engravings now the next stage is from about 10,000 years ago and it is known as Neolithic period and after that coming further is the early iron age in India and it marks the period of beginning of iron technology and its production and its wide spread use along the subcontinent and initially the emergence of iron in India was ascribed to 7th to 6th century BC but now the beginning is marked to the early part of 2nd millennium BC so now what is this cup marks art which is found on the rocks that is mentioned in the news article now these cup marks are prehistoric art form that is found on rocks across the world as you can see in these pictures it is roughly circular hollow in the rock surface and it is often surrounded by one or more concentric rings and they are collectively called cup and ring marks so that is all about this discussion in this discussion we saw about three main periods we also saw about what do we mean by microliths and then also about cup mark art that is play practice question will be discussed in the last session let's move on to the next discussion our next discussion is based on this news article which talks about the opinion of UNICEF India's chief on India's nutrition security with respect to that he has noted that there is an impending risk of increasing hunger and malnutrition in the country due to COVID-19 pandemic see according to a study which was conducted last year on an average every day around 1934 children under the age of five years die with malnutrition and UNICEF India's chief worry that due to COVID-19 induced food insecurity and malnutrition these figures will go up and with respect to this he particularly notes about the nutrition rehabilitation center it is a unit in a health facility where children with severe acute malnutrition are admitted and managed here children with severe acute malnutrition along with medical complications are referred by frontline workers such as Asha and Anganwadi workers and the children are admitted to NRCs as per the defined admission criteria now in order to improve their health condition medical and nutritional therapeutic care is provided during their stay at nutrition rehabilitation center and once they are discharged from this center the child continues to be in the nutrition rehabilitation program till the child attains the defined discharge criteria from the program now where are these NRCs located according to national health mission states should prioritize the establishment of NRCs in high need areas now these high need areas includes tribal districts and high focus districts identified under national rural health mission then districts with high under five mortality and then districts with high under nutrition rates these districts are turned as high needed areas and in these areas establishment of nutrition rehabilitation center should be prioritized then the nrcs should also be established at medical college hospitals and district hospitals they can also be established in sub-district hospitals and community health centers only when the facilities are geared to manage pediatric emergencies and complications in children with severe acute malnutrition now here know that a medical officer will be in charge of nrc and nrc should also consist of a nutrition counselor a nurse a cook come care taker an attendant and also a medical social worker so regarding nrcs the units of india's chief has noted that there was a fall in numbers of children being admitted to nrcs due to the fears that they will get infected and there might be also another reason that these nrc facilities are being poorly equipped and because of this also there could be fall in numbers of children being admitted to these facilities he also added that community screening to identify malnourished children who are in need of management is not taking place currently and therefore this affecting the uptake of services at nutrition rehabilitation centers so that means children with severe acute malnutrition are also severely affected by this pandemic and government should immediately take actions for better management of these centers so that is all about this discussion that is played practice question will be discussed in the last session now we have come to the last session for the day the practice questions discussion session the first question asks which among the following play a major role with reference to landslides in the western guards the first one given is high tectonic activity second is the region is mostly made up of sedimentary rocks and unconsolidated and semi-consolidated deposits third one is steeper slopes with almost vertical cliffs and escarpments now the first and second one are favorable points for landslides in the Himalayas during discussion we saw that western guards relatively have a tectonic stability and they are mostly made up of very hard rocks so third one is true for western guards apart from this other contributing factors are the region receives a heavy rainfall in short period of time then there is also mechanical weathering of rock because of temperature changes etc so the correct answer is option c 3 only next question is about mesolithic age three statements are given the first statement is mesolithic age was a much shorter period than prolific second statement is mesolithic people used a variety of non-microlithic tools third one is rocks discovered from some of the mesolithic sites in India had cup and ring marks now all these three we discussed during analysis and all these three are true for mesolithic age so the correct answer is option d 1 2 and 3 because the question asks for the correct statements now the next question is about international civil aviation organization first statement is it is a specialized agency of united nations now this statement is correct i c a o is a specialized agency of un which has charged with coordinating and regulating international air travel the second statement mentions it manages the administration and governance of chicago convention now the chicago convention is also known as the convention on international civil aviation so this statement is also correct this convention establishes rules of airspace aircraft registration and safety etc and this convention provided for the sovereignty of airspace above the utility of each state and here the question asks for the incorrect statements but both the statements are correct so the correct answer is option d neither one nor two now this next question is about ammonium nitrate first statement is it is a water soluble substance this statement is correct it is a water soluble white crystal substance second statement is pure ammonium nitrate is not an explosive by itself now this statement is also correct because though ammonium nitrate is one of the base ingredients used in the manufacture of commercial explosives it requires other ingredients like fuel or combustible materials to make ammonium nitrate and explosive now the third statement is the petroleum and explosives safety organization under ministry of chemicals and fertilizers issues license for manufacturing transportation and position of ammonium nitrate now petroleum and explosive safety organization issues the license for these but does it come under ministry of chemicals and fertilizers no it comes under the department of promotion of industry and internal trade which comes under ministry of commerce so statement three is incorrect and the correct answer to this question is option a one and two only because the question asked for the correct statements this last question is about nutrition rehabilitation center the first statement is it is a unit in a health facility where children with severe acute malnutrition are admitted and managed this statement is correct about nrc now the second statement is children are provided with both medical and nutritional therapeutic care during their nrc stay this statement is also correct they are given both therapeutic care now the third statement is it is mandatory to establish nrcs in all community health centers in india now see during discussion we saw that nrcs can be established in sub-district hospitals and community health centers if the facilities are geared to manage pediatric emergencies and also if they have facilities to manage complications in children with severe acute malnutrition but the guidelines does not mention that it is mandatory to establish nrcs in chc they are to be established at medical college hospitals and district hospitals now since statement three is incorrect the correct answer is option b one and two only with this we have come to the end of today's discussion if you like the video don't forget to like comment and share and do subscribe to shankar eyes academy youtube channel for more updates related to civil service examination preparation