 A very good evening aspirants, I welcome you all to the daily Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankarayesh academy for the date of 7th June 2023 displayed here are the list of articles that we are going to discuss today. Now, without wasting any time, let us get into our discussion. Look at this article from the science page. This article is speaking about antimicrobial resistance that is AMR. This antimicrobial resistance is recently seen in news because in late May the new version of the draft pandemic instrument which is also called the pandemic treaty was shared with the member states of WHO. The draft instrument was shared at the World Health Assembly convened last May. The main idea of this instrument is to strengthen and coordinate national and international efforts to prevent, prepare and respond to future pandemic emergencies. See the work on the pandemic instrument began in December 2021 under the constitution of WHO. Since the beginning of the negotiations on the pandemic instrument there have been calls from many stakeholders to include the so called silent pandemic of antimicrobial resistance in the instrument. See if antimicrobial resistance is included in the pandemic instrument it would be very helpful to the member states of WHO to deal with AMR. But many experts point out that there is a risk of removal of all mentions of addressing antimicrobial resistance in the pandemic instrument. So basically the draft pandemic instrument tries to remove the existing provisions to deal with antimicrobial resistance. This is the news. Because of this only the topic related to AMR appeared in the news today. In this discussion we will understand the points provided in this article. Before that take a note of the syllabus relevant to this topic. First let us look at the antimicrobial resistance. See antimicrobial resistance is the process by which infections caused by microbes become resistant to the medicines developed to treat them. To put it simply AMR refers to the resistance of the infection causing microbes to the antibiotic medicines. Here microbes include bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites. Some of the examples of the drug resistance infections include drug resistant tuberculosis, drug resistant pneumonia and so on. See these infections are killing and affecting millions of people annually. So the AMR is now one of the leading causes of death worldwide. This is the brief information about AMR. Now moving on let us see about the issues associated with the draft pandemic instrument of WHO. Just now we saw about the ill effects of antimicrobial resistance. From those facts we can say that AMR is one of the serious issues that needs to be addressed without any delay. But there is a possibility that the provisions related to addressing antimicrobial resistance in the pandemic instrument of WHO may be removed. This is one of the issues. Apart from this some experts say that the pandemic instrument has focused on preventing pandemics that resemble COVID-19. It means that instrument has focused on addressing viral infections only. But if we look back the past pandemics have been caused not only by viruses. There were also other pandemics such as plague and cholera that were caused by bacteria and it is not certain that all pandemics in the future will be caused by the viruses alone. It means that there is also a possibility that the next pandemic could be caused by bacteria or any other microbes. So overall pandemic instrument does not address the pandemics that are caused by microbes other than the viruses. See even if the world faces another viral pandemic secondary bacterial infections will be a serious issue. For example during the COVID-19 pandemic many of the hospitalized people require treatment for secondary bacterial infections like pneumonia. To treat these bacterial infections it requires effective antibiotics. But as we saw earlier the antimicrobial resistance keeps on increasing. So it suggests that safeguarding the remaining effective antibiotics is critical in responding to any future pandemic. But the problem is that instead of addressing this AMR issue the pandemic instrument of WHO tries to remove all mentions of addressing antimicrobial resistance. See the sections of the text which may be removed include the measures to prevent infections which are caused by bacteria, viruses and other microbes. Therefore the exclusion of these matters would hinder the efforts to protect people from future pandemics. These are all the issues associated with the draft pandemic instrument. Now what can be done to address this issue? The pandemic instrument is the best option to mitigate antimicrobial resistance. The instrument will also help us to safeguard life-saving antimicrobials to treat secondary infections in future pandemics. As of now the problem of AMR cannot be solved by any single country or sector. Therefore global political action is needed to collectively mitigate antimicrobial resistance and to support the conservation, development and equitable distribution of safe and effective antimicrobials. So the world governments should initiate bold measures to conserve the effectiveness of antimicrobials within the WHO's pandemic instrument. So in this discussion we have seen about antimicrobial resistance, why it has been in use and what will be the implications if this antimicrobial resistance is not added to the pandemic instrument. That is all regarding this topic. Now let us take up our next article for the discussion. Look at this news article. The union social justice and empowerment ministry has admitted that only 508 out of 766 districts in India are free of manual scavenging. This seems to be contradicting with the previous claims made by the government. It also says that the ministry's rehabilitation scheme for manual scavengers has merged with the namaste scheme for sewer mechanization. In this context let us learn about the namaste scheme. Namaste stands for national action for mechanized sanitation ecosystem. It is an initiative to ensure the safety of sanitation workers. The scheme was launched in 2022 as a central sector scheme. Note that the scheme is a joint effort by the ministry of housing and urban affairs and the ministry of social justice and empowerment. The main goal is to put an end to unsafe sewer and septic tank cleaning practices. Now let us understand the key objectives of the scheme. Firstly, to achieve zero fatalities in sanitation work. The scheme aims to eliminate any death that occurs during sanitation work in India. This is a crucial objective to ensure the safety of the workers. Then to train the workers so that all sanitation work will be performed by skilled workers. This means that those involved in sanitation activities will receive proper training to carry out their work efficiently and safely. Thirdly, to ensure that there is no direct contact with human fecal matter. The scheme focuses on ensuring that sanitation workers do not come into direct contact with human waste. This is essential to protect their health and well-being. Then fourthly, to empower sanitation workers. Under the scheme they will be organized into self-help groups and they will be given the power to run sanitation enterprises. This empowerment will enable them to have a say in their work and livelihood. Fifthly, to strengthen supervisory and monitoring systems. The scheme will establish stronger systems for supervision and monitoring of safe sanitation work at national, state and urban local body levels. This will help in enforcing the safety standards efficiently. Finally, the scheme aims to raise awareness among individuals and institutions who require sanitation services. They will be encouraged to seek services from registered and skilled sanitation workers. Next, let us discuss about the key features of the scheme. Firstly, Namaste will identify the sewer and septic tank workers who are involved in sanitation work. Then the scheme will provide training to those workers to improve their skills and they will also receive personal protective equipment. That is PPE kits to ensure their safety while working. The scheme will also provide assistance in acquiring safety devices for the sanitation response units. Know that these sanitation response units play a crucial role in responding to the sanitation-related emergencies. The scheme also offers health insurance benefits. The identified workers and their families will be eligible for health insurance coverage under the Aishman Bharat Pradhan Mandiri Jan Naroke Yojana. This will help them access medical services when needed. Then it provides livelihood assistance. Namaste scheme will support mechanization and enterprise development. For this, the scheme will provide financial support and subsidies to sanitation workers. This will help them to procure sanitation-related equipments. Then the scheme will undertake massive campaigns to spread awareness about the interventions of Namaste. These campaigns will use information education and communication. That is IEC methods to educate people about the scheme and its benefits. In summary, Namaste is a scheme that aims to improve the safety and well-being of sanitation workers in India. It focuses on skill development, safety measures, empowerment and rising awareness about the importance of proper sanitation practices. That is all regarding this topic. Now let us take up our next article for the discussion. Now look at this article here. This article highlights the importance of Indian states in the process of energy transition. That is in the transition of generating energy from fossil fuel to clean fuel. See, India has globally pledged to increase its non-fossil-based electricity generation capacity of more than 50% by 2030. Apart from this, India is also planning to become a net-zero emission country by 2070. To achieve these goals, India has rolled out several climate policies. Most of India's climate action policies are backed by domestic energy targets at national level. Here, the author's concern is that whether these national targets drive actions at state level or not. By keeping in mind this concern, the author has provided some points about the importance of states in the process of energy transition. In addition to this, he also provided some steps that would be taken to improve states into the process of energy transition. This is the overall idea of this article. In this discussion, let us understand the points provided in this news article. Now, first let us understand the importance of Indian states in the process of energy transition. See, the states are critical actors in India's energy transition. As we all know, India has a multi-tay government. That is, we have a government at national level, state level and at the local level. Because of this, there is a multi-tay governance of energy production and energy usage throughout India. As per the recent reports, the installed electricity generation capacity of the center and states stood at 24% and 25.4% respectively. And the remaining 50.6% is with the private sector. From these facts, we can observe that the states contribute to one-fourth of the installed generation capacity in India. Therefore, an effective energy transition can be achieved by bridging the ambitions and implementation gaps between the center and the states. This is about the importance of Indian states in the process of energy transition. Now, moving on to see about the steps that would be taken to include states into the process of energy transition. See, the author of the article provides some four steps that are needed to be carried out for the effective energy transition. Let us look at them one by one. Firstly, the author says that the states are the spears of implementing targets. So, the states are very much important to the realization of national targets. Therefore, the author says that the national targets are aligned with the priorities and capabilities of each state. This would be helpful to achieve the targets in time. Secondly, the author says that the legacy issues in the electricity sector such as high losses, underlabeled supply and service quality could be a potential hindrance to energy transition. And these issues are mostly embedded in the state political economy. So, the author says that the issues must be addressed at state level. Thirdly, the author highlights that states are the laboratories of policy innovations. For example, the early initiatives by Gujarat and Rajasthan on solar and Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu on wind energy technologies have contributed significantly to renewable energy uptake at national level. From this, we can say that the states have been instrumental to India's energy transition. So, the policy innovations of the state should be encouraged at national level. This in turn motivates other states to adopt such successful policies. And fourthly, the author says that the states could also act as roadblocks to national goals. This is because some national goals are not aligned with state priorities. So, the author advocates that national goals should be aligned to each state based on the state's priorities. These are the four critical functions that are needed to be carried out for the effective energy transition. To conclude, a state level framework is needed to understand the plans, actions and governance process towards an energy transition. And the effective implementation of such a state level framework will enable us to expedite energy transition. That's all. So, in this discussion, we have seen about the importance of Indian states in the process of energy transition. And what are the steps that could be taken to include states into the process of energy transition given by the author. With this, let us move on to our next article for the discussion. This news article talks about a wild elephant named Ari Kumban that was released in Kalakkad, Mundandurai, Tiger reserve in Tamil Nadu. The forest officials are using a radio collar to track the elephant's movements. In Kerala, local tribes are protesting and demanding that Ari Kumban should be returned to their area. This is the crux of the article. We'll use this opportunity to learn about Kalakkad-Mundandurai Tiger reserve. See, the Kalakkad-Mundandurai Tiger reserve of Tamil Nadu is situated in the southwestern Ghats. It was declared as the first tiger reserve of Tamil Nadu. Note that this reserve forms a part of the Agastiyar Malay biosphere reserve. So it includes three sanctuaries namely the Kalakkad Wildlife Sanctuary, Mundandurai Tiger Sanctuary and part of Kanyakumari Sanctuary with portions of Tirunelveli forest division. As many as 14 rivers originate from this reserve and there are 11 dams in and around the reserve with three hydroelectric power stations. The core area is 895 square kilometre and buffer zone is 706.542 square kilometre. And so totally it is 1601.542 square kilometre. Now we will see about the attributes of this habitat. Talking about the flora, the vegetation of the reserve varies from Taani shop jungle to Lash evergreen forest. Then as many as 448 endemic species of angiosperms have been identified. Besides this there are 161 fern species. The forest type can be mainly categorized under West Coast tropical evergreen forest and southern dry mixed deciduous forest. In addition to this forest savanna woodlands and grassland patches can also be seen. Also there are tea and coffee plantations within the reserve. The habitat also has old plantations of teak, eucalyptus and other miscellaneous species. Besides this the Mundandurai Platu and Nambi Covil forest areas have been identified as a medicinal plant conservation area. Now coming to the faunal diversity of the reserve. Around 84 threatened species have been reported in the reserve. The reserve has elephants, tigers, co-predators like leopard, ungulates like sambar and spotted deer. Then there are birds, reptiles like crocodile and fish species. Other animals in the tiger reserve include Nilgiri thar, Nilgiri langur, wild boar, chithal, jungle cat and 67 other mammal species. The birds that freely fly around the reserve include the great Indian hornbill, grey-headed bull bull, oriental bay bull, great pied hornbill, broad-tailed grass wobbler etc. That's all regarding Kalakad Mundandurai Tiger Reserve. Now let us move on to our next article. Look at this news article. It says that Indian Navy has successfully test-fired the indigenously developed heavyweight torpedo named Varunastra against an undersea target. Varunastra will replace the older torpedoes on the naval ships and serve as the primary anti-submarine torpedo. It was designed and developed by the Naval Science and Technology Laboratory in Vishagapatnam under the Defense Research and Development Organization, that is DRDO. So in this discussion, we are going to learn about the Varunastra torpedo. First we will understand what is a torpedo. Torpedo is like a special underwater missile. To even simplify this, we can say that torpedo is a bit like a rocket, but it moves underwater instead in the sky. It is shaped like a cigar as you can see in this image. Now torpedoes are launched from different places like submarines, surface vessels or even airplanes. Torpedoes are made to explode when they hit other ships or submarines. Now let us talk about the Varunastra torpedo. Varunastra is a heavyweight torpedo because it is quite big and heavy. The Varunastra torpedo is about 7.78 meters long and 533.4 millimeters in diameter. It can travel at speeds of 27 to 40 knots. One cool thing about Varunastra torpedo is that it can go really deep underwater from 8 meters all the way down to 600 meters. It has special propellers that help it to move through the water kind of like the fins on a fish. These propellers help it to go forward and they even rotate in different directions to make it really maneuverable. That is, it has a long range with multi-maneuvering capabilities. Another cool feature is its acoustic homing. See, we know dolphins use sound to navigate and find their way around. Similarly, the Varunastra torpedo listens to sounds in the water and uses that information to track down submarines. The Varunastra torpedo also has advanced acoustic countermeasure features which means it can defend itself against the tricks and tactics that submarines might use to try to avoid being detected or hit. It even has an autonomous guidance algorithms which are like smart instructions that tell the torpedo where to go. Another feature is its low drift navigational system. Imagine if you're floating on a raft in a big river, sometimes the reverse current can push you off course, right? But Varunastra torpedo is smart and has a system that helps it stay on the right path and not drift away. With this, let us move on to our next part of discussion. That is Prillim's practice questions discussion. Now let us take up our first question. This is a statement based question about torpedo Varunastra. Statement one says that torpedo Varunastra is equipped with acoustic homing features. And the second statement says that torpedo Varunastra can track down silent targets under the sea. In our discussion, we saw that torpedo Varunastra is equipped with acoustic homing features. It means that it can listen for sounds underwater and track down submarines that are trying to be really quiet. So here both the statements are correct and statement two explains statement one. So the answer here is option A. Now let us move on for our next question. This is a previous year question. Here three statements are given and you have to find the correct ones. The first statement is correct because according to section 39 of the wildlife protection at 1972, every wildlife animal shall be the property of state government. The second statement is also correct. The wildlife protection at 1972 does not discriminate between animals found in protected areas and outside. It provides for equal protection for wild animals irrespective of where they are found. But statement three is incorrect. According to wildlife protection at 1972, only if the wild animal becomes danger to human life or is diseased or disabled beyond recovery, it can be allowed to be captured or killed by the competent authority. Mere apprehension or fear that a wild animal could endanger human life is not a ground for capture or killing. So the correct answer here is option A. One and two only. Now let us move on to our next question. This question is about Namaste scheme. Namaste scheme is an initiative to ensure the safety of sanitation workers and provide them with livelihood opportunities. So the correct answer for this question is option C. So this is your quiz question. Think well and type down the answer for this question in comment section. This is the main practice question of the day. The interested aspirants can write the answer and post them in comment section as well. With this we have come to end of our discussion. You can share your thoughts in the comment section. If you found this video useful hit the like button, share it with your fellow aspirants and don't forget to subscribe Shankar Ayes Academy's YouTube channel for more UPS related content. Thanks for listening patiently. Have a nice day.