 A very good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindi News Analysis brought to you by Shankara Ice Academy for the date 24th of December 2022. These are the articles I have taken today for discussion. I also have a good question for you at the end. So pay attention to all these discussions. Now let's get to the first article discussion. Today I am going to start the discussions with this editorial article. It is focused sector. This editorial emphasizes on the need to bring down private health care expenditure in India without compromising on the public health spending. See this topic is quite important for us because health care is a favorite topic of UPSC. Actually there is already a question in mains regarding public health system and private health system. Look at this 2015 mains question. Public health system has limitation in providing universal health coverage. Do you think that private sector can help in bridging the gap? What other viable alternatives do you suggest? So UPSC also realizes the need for functioning of public health system along with private sector and that is why today's discussion is quite important for us because in this discussion we are not only going to analyze the issues in public health system. We'll also see the issues in private sector and we'll see what solutions are provided by the author to address these issues. Okay now the syllabus relevant to this discussion is highlighted here. Just take note of it. First let me tell you what constitutes health care system in our country. It includes hospitals, medical devices, clinical trials, telemedicine, medical tourism, health insurance, medical equipment manufacturers etc etc. And these are not only provided by the government but they are also available with the private sector. It is to the extent that private spending constitutes nearly 60 percentage of overall expenditure on health but there are differences in the kinds of services provided by the public health system and the private health systems. The public health system that is the government mainly focuses on primary health services. On the other hand the private concentrates on giving a majority of secondary tertiary health care and that too in tier 1 and tier 2 cities. Can you name the tier 1 and tier 2 cities? Answer it in the comment section. Here primary health care denotes the first level of contact between the individuals and the families. So the services include family planning, immunization, prevention of locally endemic diseases, treatment of common diseases or injuries, provision of essential facilities, health education etc etc. And in India primary health care is provided through sub-centers and primary health centers. And if you talk about the secondary health care, it refers to the health services provided by specialists. In India the secondary health centers include the district hospitals and community health centers. Then comes the tertiary health care. It includes specialized consultative cares. So what will come under those specialized intensive care units, advanced diagnostic support services etc. And this tertiary care service in India is provided by medical colleges and advanced medical research institutes. But according to the author the focus of government is more on the primary health services only. And that is why I said private sector concentrates on the secondary and tertiary care. Okay now when it comes to health care we are more worried about expenditure right? Especially if you want to go to a private hospital rather than worrying about the disease will be worrying about the expenditure. It is because they charge exorbitant fees. It is said that for local Indians the cost of private health care is about four times greater than the country's public health care. And that is why the out-of-pocket expenditure is way too high in India. It is around 2.3 percentage of GDP. What is out-of-pocket expenditure? It is the expenditure that we spent from our pocket for any health care services. Okay so this is the first issue with private sector. And second the government is unable to fix consolidated price for the services in the private sector. And this is because existing private health care organizations are of varying size and scope. Why different size and scope? The reason is the income disparities and different regulations. Because of this the private sector health care is costing different to different customer basis. So don't you think this would make it difficult for the government to make a consolidated fee? Let me give you an example here. Assume you have an infection. Now here you have two choices. You can visit a normal clinic which is nearby. And what will be the consulting fees here? It will be around 100 or 200 depending on the type of city. Now what if you want to go to the big multi-specialty hospital? Definitely the consulting fee there will be 500 or more than that. So like this all different sizes of private organizations providing health care make it difficult for the government to fix a consolidated price. Another major issue is there is no public policy with respect to private health care. If there is a policy then it will easily guide the private system to provide good quality of health care as well as health care at low cost. But there is no policy so this is an issue. Next issue cited by the author is lack of business process innovation. According to the author innovations can bring down costs. But the issue is only few philanthropic health care organizations concentrate on these kinds of innovations. But the private hospitals that want to just make profit they do not care about this. Another issue is disproportionate distribution of health care providers in different parts of our country. That is there are different number of health care providers in cities and rural areas and even among cities the number changes between a normal city and the metropolitan city. And because of this only author points that the high cost in private sector is this increasing number of health care providers in the cities. And the final issue cited by author is the cost of medical degree in India. So it is quite high we know that. So this triggers a money making attitude among the doctors. And because of that they resort to resource intensive practices to recover the cost which they incurred in education. Lack of policy is also a reason for this. So these are the major six issues highlighted by the author with respect to private hospitals. Now what about the public sector is it free of problems. Definitely not. The first and foremost issue is public health expenditure. In India it is just 1.8 percentage of GDP. According to author this figure is similar to those of the most poorest countries. Another issue is the limited services. See in the beginning I said government highly focuses on primary health care in our country. Now the issue here is they offer only some services related to pregnancy care limited childcare and some services related to national health programs. And these services represent only 15 percentage of all mobility is for which people seek care. So for the other 85 percentage we have to go to private sector only. Apart from this another issue with public health sector is there are supply side deficiencies like there are mismanagements lack of training among the professionals also inadequate medical practitioners is an issue. So all these issue doesn't encourage the people to reach out to public hospitals even when the private hospitals charge a high fee. So what can be done here. Can this issue in private health care be solved if we simply bring down private health care expenses. According to the author the answer is no because we saw that the issue in private sector not only pertains to the money but also other factors are playing their role. So here the first solution provided by author is increasing public spending on health care. This is because no country in the world has ever achieved universal health care through predominantly private means. So this will not only make the public health sector better. It will also enable a scenario where both public and private sectors would supplement each other. That is affordable private health care. On one hand it should be supplemented with a strong public health care. Second solution given by author is creating affordable and effective private health insurance products. If there are affordable health insurance then also the expenditure part of issue will be solved easily. Another suggestion is moving towards a value based health care. Here also author suggests this will bring down the cost. See value based health care is a type of health care model where health care providers are incentivized to focus on the quality of services rendered as opposed to the quantity of services. In this model health care providers are compensated based upon patient health outcomes. So when there is healthy patient outcome and there is reduction in chronic disease burden and when the health care providers help patients to live healthier lives through evidence based medicine then only they will be rewarded in value based health care. Now this is different from the one which we normally follow. It is the FFS model fee for service model. Under this model health care providers are compensated based upon the amount or the quantity of services which are delivered. For example how many tests are taken how many visits are made by the patient etc etc. That is why in the FFS model health care providers focus on increasing the number of services rather than focusing on the quality of services which are given. Okay, so I think this is a good suggestion India should bring in a roadmap to achieve this. Along with this another suggestion is increasing the health care professionals in our country. See because there is a shortage of health care professionals. Here we have differing data because on one hand few months back government said India's doctor population ratio is better than what WHO suggests. According to WHO the doctor patient ratio should be 1 is 2000 and the ministry of health and family welfare is saying India's doctor patient ratio is 1 is 234. So this means India's ratio is much better right. But if you look at some private research studies they are saying before pandemic the doctor patient ratio in India was 1 is 2400 and after pandemic it is around 1 is 2800. So if you believe this data we can say definitely there is shortage of health care professionals in our country. So this should be addressed. Other than this health policy could be framed in such a way that it would widen the ambit of practice of the nurses and allied personals because if they are given practice in different services then they can be used in different delivery of medical services. Now this can be applied not only in the public sector but also in the private sector. And the final suggestion given by author is to have regional health boards like Canada. Author is saying this will help to solve the problem of disproportionate availability of health care providers. So what does this regional health board say in Canada these boards they organize the health care providers equitably across the city. So this helps the providers not only to exploit the economies of scale but also to further bring down the prices of health care. Other than that these boards have adequate representation from all communities and they also have enough power to determine local policy and resource allocation. They can also impose caps on maximum number of health care providers and they can build working networks of care. So the same kind of boards can be instituted in India which will make sure that whether we are in rural India or urban India we get proper health care services. So that's all regarding this editorial discussion. In this discussion we saw the major issues in the health care sector. We divided it as issues in private sector and issues in public sector. And finally we saw the solutions offered by author. This can be implemented by the government through a policy framework. Now can you go to the question which I displayed in the beginning. Try to answer it and post your answer in the comment section. Okay. With all these points in mind we are moving to the second news article discussion for today. See this news article talks about a recent issue in Tamil Nadu regarding reserve forest. Earlier Tamil Nadu government placed a ban on mining and quarrying in the vicinity of reserve forest that is within one kilometer of the reserve forest. But recently the Department of Industries has removed this ban. So now the environmentalists are worried that this will result in pollution and shrinking of the forest. It will lead to migration of animals and will also increase man-animal conflict. We are hearing about reserve forest a lot in these days right. Have you all watched the Kantara film. There also the issue is about reserve forest only. So I'm going to take this opportunity to tell you what is a reserve forest. So it is a forest declared under Indian Forest Act of 1927. It is declared under section 4 of the Act. And these forests are constituted by the state government. As per section 3 of the Act state government would constitute any land or waste land which is the property of the government as reserve forest. And these reserve forests are provided the most protection because many activities are prohibited in these reserve forests. These prohibited activities are listed in section 26 of the Act. Activities like hunting grazing are banned even for the local communities under the Act. But exception is provided when specific orders allowing for such activities are issued. Other than this here you can see there is a ban on leaving any fire burning in the forest. Negligently no one can fell a tree or cut it. You cannot clear any land for cultivation in reserve forest. So like these if anyone does any activity mentioned in this section 26 they'll be punishable with imprisonment along with a fine. Okay. Now while talking about the reserve forest we also need to know about the forest settlement officer. The officer forest settlement officer is provided under section 4 of the Act. And this officer has some special powers. Forest settlement officer that is FSO can enter the reserve forest. She or he has the authority to map and demarcate the forest land. Other than this if any person is making a claim regarding their right of way right to use water right of pasture right to forest produce in reserve forest then the FSO can allow such a claim by passing an order or the FSO also has the authority to reject such claims. Okay. So the authority to constitute a reserve forest rests with the state government. Remember this. With these facts in mind we are moving to the next discussion. Let us now see what this next news article says. It mentions about a loan given to HDFC. The news is international finance corporation has extended $400 million loan to HDFC and this is to help the bank to provide finance for greenhouses. So what importance does this greenhouse hold? Let us know about it in this discussion. First of all if you recall in COP 26 which was held in Glasgow a prime minister made an observation that for long-term environmental benefits people worldwide must adopt mission life. Here life means lifestyle for environment. So basically if people adopt an environmentally conscious lifestyle then environmental sustainability can be achieved. In this regard the green housing which we are going to see now can be placed under such environmentally conscious lifestyle. This green housing can also be called as green building. Actually there is no single common definition for this but if a building has certain characteristics it can be termed green. So what are these characteristics? First of all that building must be built in a resource efficient manner. Resource efficient means using the earth's limited resources in a sustainable manner. At the same time minimizing the impacts on the environment. So green building must be built in a resource efficient manner. This is the first point. Then the second characteristic is it should be highly energy efficient also and then it must have low impact on the environment and also the human health. Along with all these significant attention must be given for recycling also. So if these characteristics are present in a building we call that as a green building or green housing. Based on these characteristics you can assume some of the advantages right but basically these advantages can be classified into two heads. One is the environment related advantage and the other is people related advantage. Under the environment related advantage the first one is this green housing is less resource intensive. What is resource intensive? It means using a lot more resources than another thing. Like using more time, energy, land, people etc. But this greenhouse is less resource intensive because it is built in a resource efficient manner and that is why it causes less strain on the environment. So this is the first advantage. And the second advantage is that there is less carbon footprint. See we saw it is resource efficient. When green housing is highly resource efficient it means it is less resource intensive also and this helps in less carbon emission. Let me take an example. Take the current building methods for example. These building methods and design result in higher carbon footprints. Why? Because they overuse carbon intensive materials such as steel, cement and glass. But on the other hand if these buildings are lighter and they are built using less material then it can lower associated emissions. So that is why we say when a thing is highly resource efficient it will be less resource intensive thereby it will reduce carbon footprint. Another advantage is associated with recycling. Since attention must be given for recycling it will mean that there will be optimal use of the available resources and this will have a positive impact on the surrounding environment. Other than that green housing also reduces pollution. Another major advantage is it addresses the urban heat island issue. See this urban heat island is an effect that is phased in urban areas. It usually occurs when cities replace natural land cover with dense concentrations of pavements, buildings and other surfaces and these surfaces absorb and retain heat and because of this urban heat islands are created. But on the other hand the concept of green housing adopts trees and plants into it. So the issue of urban heat island can be addressed by moving towards green housing. So all these aspects helps to ensure long-term environmental sustainability. So these are the environment related advantages. Let me come to the people related advantages now. First of all living in green buildings provides thermal and visual comfort. So this affects our health positively. Also integrating the trees and plants into the construction enables the green housing method to break the monotony which actually exists in urban concrete jungles. And these plants and trees also provide people with mental peace. Thereby it protects our mental health to some extent. Plus greenhouses also incorporate kitchen gardens into it. So this provides people with healthy nutritious food. So thereby our physical and mental health is protected. Also in the long term green housing is highly economical compared to the conventional houses. Why because it is resource efficient and less resource intensive. So from all these advantages we can say green housing is very relevant for India. Particularly because buildings currently account for a quarter of total energy use in India. And if the current model continues in the future it is expected that India's building material related emissions might double by the year 2060. Therefore there is a need to prevent this and also we have a target to become carbon neutral. And for this India must adopt green housing. Since India is fast urbanizing people are already moving towards urban areas. So more houses need to be built now. So rather than building the conventional housing the government can go for green housing. And it can encourage people to build green housing. This will easily enable India to achieve its climate goals. So that is all about green housing. In this discussion we saw what is green housing. It is resource efficient. It is highly energy efficient. Has low impact on environment and human health. And there is scope for recycling also. And it has many advantages like less strain on the environment. Less carbon footprint. Optimal use of resources. Reduced pollution. Reduced urban heat island effect. Good physical and mental health. And also highly economical. So with all these points in mind let us move on to the next article discussion. Now this news article presences with an ongoing issue in Kerala. It talks about the ongoing protests in various areas. Now this protest is over the draft buffer zone demarcation map that was published by the state government. So through this draft the Kerala government has demarcated buffer zones around the protected areas. Because of this people are worried that this will lead to dispossession of properties. But on the other hand the government is trying to assure people that it will not happen. And still the protests are not subsiding. So taking this opportunity we'll learn about buffer zones in this discussion. Buffer zone. It is nothing but an area that surrounds or adjoins the core areas where the nature is conserved. So the areas around the protected areas like the national parks and wildlife sanctuaries are the ones which are declared as buffer zones. These are ecologically fragile. And that is why popularly these buffer zones are called as the ecosensitive zones. Now in this buffer zone humans and animals coexist. But what is the reason for declaring these buffer areas? The aim is to regulate certain activities around the protected areas that is around national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. By doing this the aim is to minimize any negative impact on the fragile ecosystem. So in short these buffer zones or the ecosensitive zones they act as shock absorbers for protected areas. In this map you can see the core area of Tadoba National Park and you can see that the buffer area is around the core area. Now the need for such zones was felt in 2000s. So through the wildlife conservation strategy of 2002 it was recommended to have a buffer of 10 kilometers around sanctuaries and national parks. Now as I said the aim to declare such zones is to regulate certain activities. Therefore there are three different sets of activities under these buffer zones or ecosensitive areas. First is the permitted activities. This one includes the ongoing agricultural or horticultural practices the rainwater harvesting, organic farming, use of renewable energy sources adoption of green technology etc etc all these are permitted. Now the second one is the regulated activities. This includes filling of trees, establishment of hotels and resorts, commercial use of natural water and erection of electrical cables, drastic change of agricultural system like adoption of heavy technology even some developments like widening of roads. All these activities are regulated using certain parameters. That is why these are called the regulated activities. Now the main one is the third one which is the prohibited activities. These activities should not be done in these buffer zones. These includes commercial mining, saw mills then the industries causing pollution cannot be set up in these zones then establishment of major hydroelectric projects cannot be done. Even commercial use of wood is prohibited along with these tourism activities like hot air balloons are also prohibited in these buffer zones. Okay so now let us see how these ecosensitive zones help. See very often in news we hear about illegal encroachments as part of development. So conserved areas are also not an exception here. Development activities are undertaken in these conserved areas also which includes the protected areas. We hear about construction of a dam or setting up of industries and thereby discharging of industrial waste in that ecosystem. All these happens as part of development activities and these can deteriorate the natural ecosystem. So in order to prevent these it was required to regulate the activities around the core areas. So by regulating these activities what we are doing is we are making a zone which will act as a transition zone from the areas of high protection that is the core area to the areas of low protection which will be the urban area or the rural area having human settlements and other kinds of development activities. Not only these ecosensitive zones helps us to conserve the ecosystem but it also reduces human-animal conflict. So these are the two main advantages of ecosensitive zones. So what are these ecosensitive zones? They are declared around the protected areas and they surround the core area of a protected area. As per the wildlife conservation strategy it was recommended to have a 10 kilometer buffer zone around sanctuaries and national parks. And another important point to notice it regulates activities. So therefore all the activities are not prohibited. Some are permitted, some are properly regulated, some are prohibited. So that's all about this discussion with this let's move on to the next news article discussion. Now let us take this article. It is about centrally protected monuments or sites. As per this article around 356 centrally protected monuments or sites are facing issues of encroachment in the country and the states having the maximum of this problem is Uttar Pradesh around 75 protected monuments are facing encroachment. Tamil Nadu is right behind UP with 74 protected monuments facing the issue. So do you know what is a centrally protected monument? What is the legal basis for it? We are going to see that in this discussion. First let me tell you under what provision a particular monument is declared centrally protected monument. They are declared under the provisions of ancient monuments and archaeological sites and remains act of 1958. So has been given the responsibility of protecting and maintaining such monuments. It is given to archaeological survey of India. It is in charge of protection and also maintenance of these monuments. You should note that conservation, preservation and environmental development of these protected monuments is an ongoing process which is undertaken by the archaeological survey of India as per archaeological norms. Now the act which we saw right it was amended in 2017. This amendment declared an area of 100 meters around the protected monument as a prohibited area and the central government has the discretion to extend this provision beyond 100 meters also. Here you should note that the amendment allows for construction in prohibited areas when it is for public purposes. So if there is a question of whether a particular construction is for public purposes not this matter is brought to the attention of national monuments authority. This authority will give its opinion in writing to the central government and based on the recommendations of this authority central government can take the final decision. So the ultimate control is in the hands of central government to provide for construction in prohibited areas. So if there is a statement saying construction in prohibited areas around protected monuments is not allowed then that statement is incorrect because central government can allow it based on the recommendations of national monuments authority. So that is why there are many criticisms around this amendment especially the critics are worried that allowing construction for public purpose will further deteriorate public monuments and will lead to further damage and maybe this was one of the reasons for increasing encroachments around many monuments as we saw in the news article. So rather than just saying construction for public purposes the central government can define what is a public purpose that would provide a much better clarity. So that is all about this discussion. We saw who declass a centrally protected monument and which legislation and also what kinds of protection it enjoys. With these points in mind now let us move on to the next news article discussion. So now we are going to take this news article which mentions that a nasal vaccine has been approved to be used as a booster. Here the nasal vaccine which I'm talking about is INCOVAG. It was co-developed by Bharat Biotech and a US based Washington University. So already this vaccine was approved for restricted emergency use for those aged 18 years and older and now it has been approved to be used as booster also. So that is why in this discussion we are going to see some relevant facts about INCOVAG and we'll also try to understand how it works. Here I have given these syllables you can just go through it. The first point that you should remember about INCOVAG is it is an intranasal vaccine which means these vaccines will be administered via the nasal route and they will be administered in the form of drops. If you want to know more about intranasal vaccines and their advantages you can watch our 30th November Hindi News Analysis. We have covered in detail about the intranasal vaccines but today we'll see how this INCOVAG works and how it is made. This INCOVAG is a type of recombinant vaccine. If you look at the news article it mentions this vaccine as adenovirus vectored vaccine with a perfusion stabilized spike protein. Don't you want to know what this means? To know that we need to first have understanding about each of these terms. So let me begin with adenovirus. Adenoviruses are non-enveloped double standard DNA viruses. They are named like that because they were first discovered in human adenoid tissue. But that doesn't mean they are only found in humans. They are also found in animals as well as birds. Here are an additional information for you. The family of adenoviruses divided into two genera. One is the mammalian adenovirus. It is called the mast adenovirus and the other one is avian adenoviruses which is called avian adenoviruses. Regarding the mammalian adenovirus that is a human adenovirus what you need to know is they target the respiratory tract. So these adenoviruses cause mild respiratory infections and gastrointestinal infections in humans. But if a person is immunocompromised then adenovirus induced infections can be life-threatening also. Otherwise it is a mild infection only. So we saw what is an adenovirus. Now how it is used in development of INCOVAG? To know that you should understand what is a recombinant vaccine. It is also called recombinant protein vaccine. See the term recombinant is used when a piece of DNA is created by combining at least two fragments from two different sources. They are a combination of two fragments. Okay that is why it is called recombinant. So in case of recombinant vaccines a small piece of DNA is taken from the virus or bacterium and this virus or bacteria is the one against which we need production. Okay now this DNA which has been taken will contain instructions for the production of certain protein which is also known by the name antigen. Let me take an example. Take covid virus itself. We all know covid virus contains spike proteins. These spike proteins binds to the host cell that is the human cells and they induce virus cell membrane fusion. This process that is the process of membrane fusion plays a vital role in the process of virus invasion and that is why we need protection against this spike protein. So if we are taking a medicine or if you are taking a vaccine for covid virus we expect that vaccine or medicine to act against this antigen that is the spike protein by triggering our immune system to produce antibodies. Here if we want to make a recombinant vaccine for covid virus that means here the piece of DNA of covid which contains the instruction of spike protein will be cut from the virus and this DNA will be inserted into the manufacturing cells. See normally these DNA will be fed to yeast or other bacteria for manufacturing the proteins and after the yeast or bacterial cells manufacture the required quantity of proteins they will be taken and then purified. Now this purified version of this protein only will be used as an active ingredient in the vaccine. So here a part of covid virus is taken and it is fused into the yeast cells or bacterial cells. A combination is happening here that is why these types of vaccines are called recombinant vaccine but the incovac we saw it is a recombinant viral vector based vaccine. In this type of recombinant vaccine a live virus is used. How is this possible? Here a live virus will be taken and it will be fed with DNA and this aids in the production of specific antigen or the specific protein like in the case of covid it will aid in the production of spike protein. Now this virus will be injected in the form of vaccine into the human body. After injection the human cells produce the protein of our interest and immediately our immune system will recognize that protein and it will become alert as it is a foreign material. So immediately our immune system will start producing antibodies. This means that the virus contains antigens that can trigger an immune response but here remember it contains only the code to make the antigens that is why it doesn't cause any infection of its own. So this is how we gain immunity using recombinant viral vector based vaccines and what viral vector is used in case of incovac it is the adenovirus. Okay now don't you have several doubts regarding what we just saw let me clarify one by one. You might be thinking what if viral vectors cause infections or even worse what if they cause death. See all these scenarios are already considered by the scientists before producing the vaccine. That is why they choose virus carefully. The viruses which do not have serious health impacts on humans will only be used and that is exactly why adenovirus is used in this case of incovac. Can you recall that I said adenovirus are a diverse group which are found naturally in the upper respiratory tracks and gastrointestinal systems of humans and we also saw that they only cause mild infections and that is why this adenovirus is considered harmless for the creation of vaccines and hence they are used as viral vectors. But at the same time I also said the immunocompromised people might be at threat. This is true it will cause life-threatening situations for immunocompromised people and for this reason only many trials have been conducted before approving the vaccines. See all these factors like whether it will be affecting a normal person will it affect a child or will it be harmful for immunocompromised people all will be taken into account for the development of vaccines and if there is any concern regarding that then further changes are made in the vaccine and the concerns are rectified. If they could not rectify then the manufacturers will themselves say these categories of people should not take the vaccine okay. So hence you need not worry about the safety of such vaccines. Now I have a doubt whether viral vectors are the only means for the production of vaccines. Actually no even bacterial vectors can be used. One such common example of bacterial vector is lactic acid bacteria. So I hope you got an idea about incovac especially about the adenovirus vector vaccine part. Now we saw it is a vaccine with a perfusion stabilized spike protein. What this means? Here we know about spike protein. Now these spike protein are found in two confirmations. One is the perfusion state and the other is the post-fusion state and these help in the binding of the protein to the host cell. That is they mediate the cell entry via fusion of host cell and the viral membranes. So for this purpose in these vaccines perfusion stabilized spike protein is used rather than post-fusion state because the perfusion stabilization helps in triggering the immune response better. This is all you need to know about perfusion stabilized. More technical detail is not regarded for UPSC examination. So just to know that a perfusion stabilized spike protein will trigger the immune response better and that is why it is used in incovac. So in this discussion we saw about incovac which is a nasal vaccine. Now it is not only used as a primary dose but it has been approved to be used as a booster dose also. It is a recombinant vaccine. It was created using a viral vector adenovirus okay. With these facts in mind now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Our next discussion is going to be based on this news article. Don't get intimidated by the size of the article it just holds information regarding the Bodo community. According to the article land deeds were handed over to the heads of more than 1,300 Bodo families in the Chardwar reserve forest and these beneficiaries were selected by the forest rights committee. So in this discussion we are going to see about the Bodo community. So they are a tribal community. They are indigenous tribe that inhabits Assam. They are also called as Boro. Here you should note that the term Bodo kachari is an umbrella term for all the tribal communities. It is used by anthropologists and linguists to define a collection of ethnic groups who live predominantly in northeastern Indian states of Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya. And this tribe is also one among them. Bodo tribe are mostly located in and around the Brahmaputra river valley. You should note that they were one of the earliest settlers of Assam and today they are one of the largest ethnic groups in the state. Now let us see some characteristics of this tribe. First if we talk about the language they speak the Bodo language. It is different from the Assamese okay. Bodo language has Tibetan-Burman origins and it is one of the official languages of Assam. Also remember that this is one of the languages mentioned in the 8th schedule of the constitution. And note that they follow a religion called Bhattuism but it is said that now Bodo religion is intermingled with Hinduism. And if you talk about the family system they follow patriarchal system that is the father is the head of the family. And regarding their marriage system you should note that they follow polyandry is also absent in Bodo society. Polyandry means marriage of a woman to two or more men at the same time. Dowry system is also said to be absent in the society but some bride families gives as a token of love. And adultery is seen as a serious sin in the society. Practice of child marriage is also not prevalent in the Bodo society. And if you talk about the status of women particularly they have important role in family, social, economic and religious functions. They do all the works in the agricultural land. A Bodo woman also produces her own dresses and necessary clothes in the family by weaving. She also helps in pole tree, animal husbandry also. And they said that now they hold prestigious positions in the government offices, banks and education institutions. Therefore the Bodo women are considered to have a good status in their community. Can you name one cultural festival of Bodo community? Post your answer in the comment section. So these are few facts that you need to know about the Bodo community. They are basically from Assam. Okay, their language is Bodo language. It is one of the languages in 8th schedule. They are a patriarchal society. They follow monogamy. Adulteries consider the serious sin. And women in their society hold a good status. So with this news article discussion we have come to the end of articles discussion. Now we are moving to the next part which is the practice questions discussion. Look at this first question. Which among the following tribes is or are declared as particularly vulnerable tribal groups of Assam? Options given are Maramnagar's, Riyang's, Kota's, Sentinelese. You have to find out the PVTG's from Assam. The correct answer is option A none of the above. Because as of now no tribal group has been declared as a PVTG in Assam. Among these if you see Maramnagar's they belong to Manipur. They have been declared as a PVTG in that state. And Riyang's they belong to Tripura. They have been declared as a PVTG in Tripura. Kota's are PVTG from Tamil Nadu and Sentinelese are from Andaman and Nicobar Highlands. As you know there are a total of 75 PVTG's across the country. And all the four tribes given here are PVTG's only. But none of them are from Assam. Only two states in Assam have PVTG's. One is the Manipur and the other one is Tripura. This is because in the northeast region anti-population is tribal population only. And you know that one of the main criteria for identification of PVTG is declining or stagnant population. So the correct answer is option A. Now look at this next question. It is about national monuments authority. Three statements are given. First statement it is established under the ancient monuments and archaeological sites and remains amendment and validation act of 2010. This is correct. NMA was established based on this amendment only. Second statement NMA studies the impact of the large scale development projects on monuments and provides recommendation in this regard. This statement is also correct. Here you have to note that NMA can make only recommendation. But the discretion to accept or reject such recommendation is with the central government. Third statement NMA makes recommendations to the central government for grading and classifying protected monuments. This is one of the functions of NMA. So all the three statements are correct here and the question also asks us to choose the correct statements. So the correct answer is option D. 1, 2 and 3. Now look at this next question. Consider the following statements regarding green rating for integrated habitat assessment. It is developed jointly by Terry and Ministry of Environment. This statement is incorrect because this rating of GRIHAR has been conceived by Terry along with Ministry of New and Renewable Energy not Ministry of Environment. Since first statement is incorrect you can remove options A and D as the question asks you to choose the correct statements. From the remaining options you can easily say statement 2 is correct. GRIHAR decides and evaluates the performance of buildings for aspects such as energy consumption along with that waste generation, renewable energy utilization, reduction in demand for water. All are evaluated. Now the third statement GRIHAR has five ratings and a higher number denotes a more environment friendly building. This statement is correct. Here you can see the ratings are based on the performance of the buildings. Higher rating means more environment friendly. So the correct answer is option B 2 and 3 only. Now look at this next question. Consider the following statements regarding reserve forest and protected forest. First one both are declared by state government. This is correct. See like the reserve forest which we saw in the discussion protected forests are also declared by the state government. Second statement in reserve forests activities like lumbering, grazing and hunting are banned whereas in protected forests the rights to all these activities are given to local communities. During discussion we saw reserve forests are provided higher degree of protection when compared to the protected forest. I said that because of this reason only. So statement 2 is correct. Third statement protected forests are often upgraded to wildlife sanctuaries which is not the case with reserve forest. This is incorrect because both reserve and protected forests can be upgraded to wildlife sanctuaries. Recently even Tamil Nadu government declared an area in the reserve forests of Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri as Kaveri south wildlife sanctuary. Okay so pay attention to the discussions when we talk about such sanctuaries. Now here question asks you to choose the incorrect statements so be careful. Only one statement is incorrect which is statement 3 so the correct answer is option c 3 only. Now this is the quiz question for today. If you have listened to the discussions carefully you can easily answer to this question. Post your answer in the comment section as usual. Along with this I have two main questions for you. Interested aspirants can write answer to these questions and post it in the comment section. So with this we have come to the end of today's analysis. If you like this video click the like button and those who have not yet subscribed click the subscribe button for receiving regular updates regarding civil services preparation.