 Good evening, aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankara Ace Academy for the date 25th June 2019. The list of articles which has been chosen for today's analysis along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Tiruvannathapuram editions are provided here. The link for the handwritten notes in the PDF format and the timestamping for the displayed articles is given in the description box below. And for the benefit of smartphone users, the timestamping is also provided in the comments section. Let's move on to our first article discussion. This news article is about the deaths that was caused by acute encephalitis syndrome that happened in the state of Bihar. The discussion is relevant in prelim syllabus under the area current events of national importance, then in poverty and also in general science. The discussion can also be linked to main syllabus under GS paper 2 in the area issues relating to development and management of social sector relating to health, then also in issues relating to poverty and hunger. The Indian Medical Association study team has released a ground report. The ground report is based on the death of children in the Musafarpur district of Bihar due to the acute encephalitis and encephalopathy. As we have already discussed many times, encephalopathy and encephalitis both affect the brain, but there are significant differences. Encephalitis refers to the inflammation in the brain which often results from a viral infection and encephalopathy refers to permanent or temporary brain damage disorder or disease which leads to an altered mental status. It affects the brain's function or structure and it can also be degenerative. Here degenerative means the progressive deterioration and loss of function in the organs or tissues. Then the acute encephalitis syndrome can be defined as a person of any age at any time of year with the acute onset of fever and a change in mental status which includes symptoms such as confusion, disorientation, coma or inability to talk with or without the new onset of seizures. The report by the Indian Medical Association states that the deaths could have been prevented if the health awareness campaign had been conducted and the correction information was provided to the families. The report also mentions about the causes for the deaths. It reasonably concluded that the prevailing heat and humidity together with malnutrition contributed substantially to the deaths. Along with this heat and humidity and malnutrition, dehydration, hypoglycemia and the heat syndrome also played a significant part leading to the death of the children. Here dehydration is a significant loss of body fluid that impairs normal bodily functions. In other words, dehydration occurs when more water and fluids leave the body than the water and fluids that enter the body. And here hypoglycemia is a condition that occurs when a person's blood glucose level drops too low. The report also added that the persistence of a very high atmospheric temperature with humidity throughout the day and night and that too without fluctuations or change might be causing a heat syndrome in children. Heat syndrome is caused when the body's capacity of production of heat increases at a faster rate than the body's ability to dissipate or disperse the heat. We can say that the heat syndrome is developed when the body uses all its mechanisms and still cannot keep the temperature down and the excess heat is retained. Then the report noted that awareness is key, that is knowledge about the acute encephalitis syndrome or AES and the immediate first aid is the key to reduce deaths in AES. The report mentions about the first aid or the immediate measures that can start right from home. The first immediate measure is tepid sponging. Tepid means lukewarm water. Tepid sponging means sponge bath in which the patient's body is not immersed in water but is wiped with a wet cloth or sponge. This is most often done for reduction of body temperature when there is fever. This may be used to reduce the heat syndrome. Then next is the correction of dehydration. Dehydration can be corrected by giving extra fluids to the patients at home or it can be treated simply and effectively by giving adequate glucose electrolyte solution. This glucose electrolyte is called as oral rehydration salts solution or in short ORS solution. Oral rehydration salts contain a variety of salts that is electrolytes and sugar. The combination of electrolytes and sugar stimulates the water and electrolyte absorption from the gut that is the digestive part of the human body. Therefore, the ORS solution prevents or reverses dehydration and replaces lost salts. Normally ORS is available in the market in a powder form in sachet or ready-made solutions or can also be made easily at home. The next measure is correction of hypoglycemia using the clinical methods such as the intravenous dextrose. Intravenous means through the veins. Dextrose is the name of a simple sugar that is made from corn and is chemically identical to glucose or blood sugar. So, this will help in correction of hypoglycemia. Then the report also mentions some simple interventions to prevent further deaths in the form of a package program. This package program should be focused on health awareness, then free meals to children especially at night and the public availability of the ORS solution. Then the report also said that going by the observations no definite conclusions can be made on the etiology of the syndrome that is the cause of the AES. It states that the current problem seems unlikely to be an infectious cause with the present evidence and then leachy consumption cannot be attributed as the major factor of the AES as even infants have been affected. Here infants are below the age of one and they take only liquid food normally. That is why the report is saying leachy consumption is not the only major factor. Finally the report says that a foolproof scientific epidemiological study that is the study of incidence distribution and control of these diseases and then a follow-up among children who survived in previous episodes and outbreak of this disease in 2014 and 2015 should be done systematically. With this we have come to the end of this discussion. The displayed practice problems question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next news article which is about the protection of elephants in the country. The discussion is relevant in problem syllabus under current events of national importance, then in public policy, then also in general issues on environment ecology, biodiversity. The discussion is important also in main syllabus under the area conservation in GS paper 3. The news article talks about the questioning by the Gauhati High Court on clearing the transit of four juvenile elephants to Gujarat for a religious event. The court has questioned the Assam's chief wildlife warden on whether she had taken note of a 2016 Supreme Court order against transfer of elephants while approving the transit. Also based on two separate petitions, the High Court bench had sought clarification from the centre with regard to the operation of the apex courts interim order in 2016 which prohibited the transfer of elephants outside a state by their possessors. The wildlife activists have argued that the juvenile elephants will not survive the heat wave. This is because the elephants will be transported in a metal railway wagon for about 3106 kilometers from eastern Assam to Ahmedabad. They also insisted that none of the elephants sent outside Assam on temporary leases have returned till date. Even the railways had sought clarification on the Supreme Court's interim order before transporting the elephants. The bench also referred to a letter of the Project Elephant Division of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. This letter seeks a legal step for the welfare of the captive elephants and the strict monitoring of the captive elephants. This is to prevent illegal transport of elephants between the states. It was also pointed out that like Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Assam has not framed any rules for the management and maintenance of captive elephants under section 64, clause 2 of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. The section 64 of Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 is about the power of state government to make rules. And the clause 2 in this deals with all the matters regarding the rules such as regulation of the possession, transfer and the sale of captive animals, their meat, animal articles, trophies and uncured trophies. Here trophies means horns, antlers, skulls, skins, tusks or teeth of animal which are used for display. And trophy hunting is defined as the killing of animals for recreation with the purpose of collecting these trophies and this is illegal. Then uncured trophy means a freshly killed wild animal. While discussing the news article, we saw a term which is project elephant division. This is a separate division of wildlife division under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change of Government of India. The Government of India has concerns for the primary need to restore the elephant habitats and reduce suffering of both elephants as well as the human population. So, the Government of India launched project elephant in 1991 and 92 period. It was launched as a centrally sponsored scheme of the then Ministry of Environment and Forests. Now this ministry is called as Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. The project elephant was intended to provide financial and technical support to the elephant range states of India. This support is for the protection of elephants, their habitats and corridors and also to address the issue of human-animal conflict. It also sought to promote welfare of the captive elephants. See the captive animals under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 means any animal which is captured or kept or bred in captivity. These are the animals which are specified in Schedule 1, Schedule 2, Schedule 3 or Schedule 4 of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. In short, we can say that it provides financial and technical support of wildlife management efforts by states for the free-ranging population of wild elephants and also monitoring against their poaching. Hence, the objectives of project elephants can be summarized as to protect elephants, their habitat and corridors, then to address issues of man-animal conflict, then to ensure and promote the welfare of captive elephants and the domesticated elephants. Here the financial and technical support are being provided to the major elephant bearing states in the country. At present, the project is being implemented in 22 states and union territories, which includes Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chathisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Andamananikobaar, Bihar, Punjab, Gujarat and Haryana. In all these states, an elephant rescue center has also been set up, which is supported by Project Elephant. With this, we have come to the end of this discussion. The displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next discussion, which is about basic rights and basic needs. The article discussion will be relevant in your prelim syllabus under the area rights issue, which comes under Indian polity and governance. It can also be linked to your main syllabus in general studies paper 2 under the area issues relating to health and also in important aspects of accountability. The article is a response to the recent tragedy that happened in the Musafarpur district in Bihar. We know that around 140 children have died in this district from a preventable acute encephalitis syndrome. The author states that the death of the children was due to the systemic failure of the healthcare in the state. We have already seen how this disease could have been easily prevented on 18th June, while analyzing the editorial article titled as the leechy link. The link is provided in the description box. Now, coming to this editorial, the author is deeply concerned and worried about the state of vulnerability and helplessness of the families in the district with respect to the recent tragedy. Therefore, the author shares that he had three thoughts in the aftermath of this tragedy. One is that there has to be basic rights, like we have basic structure doctrine with respect to our constitution. The author relates the basic rights to the basic structure that we have for Indian constitution to stress that the basic rights should not be altered by the government. We know that Supreme Court in Keswananda Bharati case has stated that the basic structure of the constitution should not be amended by the parliament using article 368 of Indian constitution. Now, the author proposes that the basic rights must be viewed primarily as a positive rights. This is because positive rights confer a duty upon the government to provide services. And thirdly, when the government of the day violates the basic rights, it has to be held legally accountable and shall be punished. When there is systemic violation of basic rights, it has to be treated in the same manner as the breakdown of constitution machinery. Then the author attempts to explain basic rights. He says that basic rights flow from basic needs. Now, we have to understand what is a basic need? Basic needs are those needs that are essential for survival and sustenance. Physical security is essential for survival. Then clean air, water, food are essential for survival. These are the basic needs that the author mentions. Here, he explains the difference between a need and a want. A need is something essential, whereas a want is not an essential one. To have at least one home is a need, whereas desire to have more than one home is a want. Now, this difference is important because non-fulfillment of basic needs can cause great harm and even kill human beings. For example, not able to get an antibiotic medicine can lead to infection of a disease which can become more serious. That is why the author says basic needs are necessary. Then the author adds that the basic needs cannot be substituted. There is no substitute for clean air, uncontaminated water and food. So, these basic needs are important for the survival. Providing these basic needs is the basic duty of the government in the purview of positive rights. This is because when we say basic rights, it means that it is an entitlement to get these services from the government. Right is not a favor from the government, rather it is what owed to us. So, basic rights are claims on the state to provide goods and services to satisfy the basic needs of the citizen. Then we can say basic rights are the shield for the defenseless against the most damaging threats that they face against their survival. These are the threats that make the vulnerable population unable to get their basic needs satisfied. An example could be a single mother living below poverty line having no access to drinking water. This threat will vanish if basic rights are declared. These are the author's opinion because the author feels that if there are basic rights, then people can make the governments accountable and also punish them. It is like giving the people the veto power. That is when the government fails to provide basic services, then people can exercise their veto power to overrule the statements of the government and also hold them accountable for the same. To highlight this, the author quotes the statement made by a philosopher Henry Shoe. The statement is that the basic rights will be an attempt to give to the powerless a veto over some economic, social and political forces that harm them. Also, basic rights are important to ensure elementary justice to the people. By saying elementary justice, the author here means that the state providing everything to satisfy all the basic needs of the citizen. If a state carries out this responsibility, then such a country ensures elementary justice to its citizens. Then the author gives three rights that must be declared as basic rights. Firstly, the right to physical security. Without this right, there is no possibility of survival. We can say that it can become a socially guaranteed right only when the government provides a police force that has two qualities. One is that it has to be well trained and the other it has to be professional police force. The word professional in this context refers to a police force that has behaviors of high ethical and moral standards. The next right that has to be declared as a basic right is the right to minimum economic security and subsistence. This right includes the right to have clean air, uncontaminated water, nutritious food, clothing and shelter. This right also should include the right to primary health care. The government should provide primary health care to those who cannot afford it. This right can be guaranteed if the state establishes institutions and practices to assist the vulnerable population. These mechanisms will also handle the threats to these basic rights. In establishing these mechanisms, there has to be proper budgetary allocation and political priority and also commitment. Then the third basic right is the right to free public expression of helplessness and frustration. This right includes the right to announce the vulnerability publicly. The right to get information about the commission and omission of the government that affected the satisfaction of basic needs. Here commission means doing an act that is not right. Omission means not doing an act that is required. For example, not having a driving license while driving is omission and ration negligent driving is commission. Then the third basic right also includes the right to critically examine the government officials and hold them publicly accountable. To guarantee this basic right, the government has to make certain arrangements for the people. These arrangements are to demand basic rights and to complain whether their demands are met or not and also to report lapses and omissions on the part of the government. Finally, government should make arrangements for citizens to criticize the government without fear when the government fails to provide basic services. These are required for the survival and sustenance of citizens. The author finally sums up the three basic rights into a single phrase which can be called as right to a minimally decent life. This right the author calls as a threshold right. Threshold in this context refers to a minimum level of leading a decent life. All the three rights we discussed constitute the minimum level of leading a decent life and no person should fall below this minimum level of existence. And then having such basic rights will prevent similar tragedies that happened in PR in the future. With this we have come to the end of this discussion. The displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next discussion which is based on the article about the stands taken by the departmentally related standing committee of finance with respect to the estimation of unaccounted income and wealth in the country. This article discussion will be relevant in your prelim syllabus under the area current events of national importance then in Indian polity and also in economic development. This topic can also be linked to main syllabus in general studies paper 3 under the area money laundering and its prevention. The article talks about the stand taken by the standing committee on finance on the estimation of unaccounted income and wealth in the country. Recently the standing committee on finance has released a preliminary report titled as status of unaccounted income or wealth both inside and outside the country a critical analysis. This report states that the reliable estimation of unaccounted income and wealth inside and outside the country is a difficult task. The report also mentions that the chief economic advisor has given his opinion that there is no scope for arriving at a common estimate of unaccounted income by combining estimates from three reports. We will see what these three reports are in a short time. In 2010 the then finance minister gave approval for the study of the thorough assessment or survey of accounted unaccounted income and wealth. It was decided at that time that the study may be conducted separately by three institutes and the final view was to be taken by the government after the submission of the individual study. The three institutes are National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, National Institute of Financial Management and then National Council of Applied Economic Research. Before seeing the estimation given by the each of the institute let us see some facts about these institutes. The National Institute of Public Finance and Policy is a center for research in public economics and policies. It was established in the year 1976 and it is an autonomous research institute under the Ministry of Finance. Then the National Institute of Financial Management also carries out research but the main function of this institute is training and capacity building of professionals. It is a center of excellence that is specialized in capacity building of professionals in the fields of public policy, financial management and other governance issues. It was established in 1993 and at that time it was mandated to train the officers recruited by the Union Public Service Commission through the civil services examination but over a period of time it has become a premier resource center to meet the training needs of central governments, state governments, defense establishments and also financial institutions. Next the National Council of Applied Economic Research is a non-profit economic research institute that was established in 1956. It was established as a public-private partnership. Now coming back to the news article, the article states that there are variations of about 7% to 120% of GDP for unaccounted income and wealth inside and outside the country. According to the assessment of National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, the unaccounted income and wealth amounts to 72% of the GDP and according to the National Institute of Financial Management it amounts to around 7 to 17% of the GDP and then according to the National Council of Applied Economic Research, the unaccounted income and wealth both inside and outside the country amounts to two values. One is 120% of GDP in one method and then around 55% in another method. At the end it was found that there is difference in the final estimation by these three studies and therefore it was decided that there is no scope for arriving at a common estimate from the three reports. This decision was understood as they have decided not to proceed with the thorough assessment or estimation of unaccounted income or wealth. This unaccounted illegal income or wealth is also called as black money. So the view of the Standing Committee on Finance in the matter as of now is a common estimate from these three studies is not possible. We will see in the coming days whether the government of the day will take any steps to proceed with the estimation or not. There is also a possibility that the government may accept the estimates of these reports also but the possibility is very less because the government may take the opinion of the Chief Economic Advisor in this matter. We already saw in the beginning that he is of the opinion that there is no scope for a common estimate from the three studies. Now in this context let us see about the departmentally related Standing Committees. The system of department related Standing Committees was introduced by the Parliament of India in 1993. The purpose was to ensure a specialized and ministry or department specific scrutiny and oversight of the Executive by the Legislature. We saw about the Standing Committee on Finance in the article discussion. This committee is different from the financial committees. Financial committees include Public Accounts Committee, Estimates Committee and the Committee on Public Undertakings. So Standing Committee on Finance is not a committee which comes under the financial committees. Remember this Standing Committee on Finance is not a committee which comes under the financial committees. Rather it is a part of departmentally related Standing Committees. The Standing Committee on Finance examines the matters concerned with the Ministry of Finance, then Ministry of Corporate Affairs and also the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation. With this we have come to the end of this article discussion. The displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next article discussion which is about the regional comprehensive economic partnership agreement that are said to be in the final round of negotiations. This article will be relevant in a prelim syllabus under current events of national and international importance. Then the article will also be relevant in Main's examination under GS paper 2 in bilateral regional groupings and agreements involving India and or affecting India's interests. The news article talks about the recent statement given by the Malaysian Prime Minister. The statement is that ASEAN may proceed with the regional comprehensive economic partnership agreement that is the RCEP agreement with just 13 countries leaving India, Australia and New Zealand. Recently India has some issues with respect to Malaysia. This we have been seeing in our news analysis. One with respect to the extradition of Zakir Naik, then Malaysia also supports Pakistan in financial action task force. We saw Malaysia along with China and Turkey has almost blocked the proposal to blacklist Pakistan in the public statement of FATF. As another issue now we see that the Malaysian Prime Minister is stating that he will prefer to have an RCEP agreement with just 13 countries. We have seen on 12th June that RCEP is an agreement which has not yet been finalized between 10 countries of ASEAN and 6 other countries. The 6 other countries are India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Some of the ASEAN countries feel that countries such as China, Japan and South Korea much more cooperative than India, Australia and New Zealand. So there is also an understanding between some countries in ASEAN grouping to initially have just 13 countries onboard and India, Australia and New Zealand can be joined later. Recently on 22nd June the foreign ministers of association of Southeast Asian nations that is ASEAN held a meeting in Thailand and on 23rd June the 34th ASEAN summit was held in Thailand. The final declaration of the summit has urged the ministers and officials of ASEAN to redouble their efforts to reach the RCEP agreement. The Bangkok declaration which is the final statement of the 34th ASEAN summit has also asked the partners to prioritize the RCEP negotiations. It also asked India and 5 other countries to work with ASEAN to conclude the RCEP negotiations within this year. The new efforts that are taken recently appears like the ASEAN countries may leave India and proceed with RCEP. This will have serious implications to Indian businesses and the asserting role of India in the present geopolitical scenario. The news article states that the officials of Indian government have stated that it is still not time to judge whether India will be left out from regional comprehensive economic partnership or not. What we have to note here right now is that China is in the positive note with respect to RCEP negotiations with the ASEAN countries and one reason why India has some issues with respect to RCEP is that countries in the negotiations particularly China demands India to open up industrial and manufacturing sector of India. If India proceeds with such an agreement it will result in huge damage to Indian domestic industries and domestic manufacturers. There had been a delay in taking the negotiations forward because four countries that are currently party to the negotiations had undergone elections this year between March and May. The four countries are India, Indonesia, Thailand and Australia. Further we can note that right now Singapore has expressed its interest in having India in the RCEP agreement. We can expect serious developments about RCEP before the end of 2019. We will see more about this as repeatedly news will be coming hereafter. With this we have come to the end of our article discussions. Moving on to the last session for the day that is the practice questions discussion session. If you see the first question it is about the encephalitis. The first statement states that encephalitis refers to the inflammation of the stomach lining. Now by seeing the second statement which talks about leachy fruit you may think the disease is related to stomach but this disease is related to the brain. Encephalitis refers to the inflammation of the brain. Remember this encephalitis refers to the inflammation of the brain. So the statement one is wrong but also know that the inflammation of stomach lining is known as gastritis. Now if you look at the second statement if you are regularly reading the newspaper and watching our analysis you can say that leachy fruit has been associated with the acute encephalitis syndrome which led to deaths of many children in the Musapharpur district of Bihar. So this statement is correct. Sometimes going through the news headlines will also help you in the examination. Since the question asks for the correct statements here statement two is the only correct statement. So the correct answer to this question is option B two only. Now if you see the next question it is about the project elephant of government of India. If you see the first statement it states that project elephant is a centrally sponsored scheme of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. So here we have to ensure two things whether it is a centrally sponsored scheme or not and next whether it comes under this ministry or not. During our analysis we saw that it comes under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. You can remember this because elephant is related to forests and environment you can simply remember it comes under Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. And we also discussed that it is a centrally sponsored scheme. So this statement is a correct statement. Now here the second statement states national elephant conservation authority is the nodal agency for its implementation. Now if you see this statement you can remember a project tiger of government of India under which national tiger conservation authority functions. But in this question you should not make a mistake because there is no such authority called as national elephant conservation authority under project elephant of government of India. Because the proposal was given for the creation of national elephant conservation authority as a part of 12th plan and it was considered in the meeting of expenditure finance committee in the Ministry of Environment and Forests in 2013. But the committee did not recommend the proposal saying that there is a lack of any enabling statutory provisions in the Wildlife Protection Act. So this means there is no such authority called as national elephant conservation authority. But there is a authority known as national tiger conservation authority. Don't confuse both. Here the question asks for the correct statement. Here statement one is the only correct statement. So the correct answer to this question is option A1 only. Now if you look at the next question it is based on the committees of the government. Now if you see the first statement it talks about the financial committees and it says that financial committees in the parliament include public accounts committee, estimates committee and standing committee on finance. Now there are two kinds of parliamentary committees. One is standing committees and other is ad hoc committees. Standing committees are permanent in nature and ad hoc committees are temporary. Now within this standing committees we can see financial committees and departmentally related standing committee. Now based on today's analysis you can say that the standing committee on finance comes under the departmentally related standing committees as both have the common word standing committee. And during our discussion we also saw that the financial committees consist of three committees only and they are public accounts committee, estimates committee and the committee on public undertakings not the standing committee on finance. So the first statement here is wrong. Then if you look at the second statement it states that the system of department related standing committees was introduced to ensure specialized and ministry or department specific scrutiny and oversight of the executive by the legislature. Now this is a correct statement. We discussed this during our analysis. So the question asks for the correct statement. Only statement 2 is the correct statement. So the correct answer to this question is option B 2 only. Now let us see one main question based on GS paper 2. The question is basic rights are Sineqo are known for the fulfillment of very basic needs discussed. For those who would already gone through previous year's main question papers you would not be shocked to see Sineqo are known in the question. Sometimes questions are asked like this in main examination. Even last year in GS paper 3 the first question was access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy is the Sineqo are known to achieve sustainable development goals. Comment on the progress made in India in this regard. So here the word Sineqo are known means an essential condition or absolutely necessary. Now you read the question which we have given today. It says that basic rights are absolutely necessary for the fulfillment of very basic needs. Now for this question you can focus on discussing keywords given in the question that is basic needs and basic rights. Therefore begin with what constitutes basic needs. Here basic needs constitute very minimal human needs like food, shelter, health and education, safety and security, clean elements of weather etc. Which makes existence of a human life decent and meaningful. And furthermore you can also add that securing basic needs can be subjected to constitutional limitation of non-justiciable nature of directive principles and judicial interpretation of the fundamental rights as these basic needs are not exclusively imbibed in the justiciable fundamental rights. Therefore you can use the suggestion of the author like it would be better way to secure the basic needs by including the above mentioned basic needs as the core of the justiciable part of the fundamental rights. This would enable that every citizen is secured with humanly needs besides meaningful right. You can also add your own viewpoints based on today's discussion. With this we have come to the end of our analysis sessions. If you like the video don't forget to like, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for more updates on civil service examination preparation.