 A very good evening aspirants. Let us start today with an announcement. As you all know, Shankarai's Academy has launched free all India mock test for prelims. It will be conducted both online and offline modes and it will be conducted across 13 centres. And if you are someone who is wondering when it will be conducted, here's the dates for you. It will be conducted on 15th May, 22nd May and 29th May 2022. See, attending mock test, it is a way of analysing yourself. You can evaluate where you are standing. So, please don't miss this golden opportunity. I'll give you the link in the description. And with this announcement, now let us get into the Hindu Daily News Analysis for the date 8th May 2022. Displayed here are the list of articles that we are going to discuss today. Now, without any delay, let's start our discussion with the previous year prelims question discussion. And after that, we'll continue with the article discussion. And finally, as usual, we'll discuss some of the prelims question and I'll give you a main question for your practice. And we'll start the session with this previous year prelims question which was asked in the year 2019. See, this question is one such question where only if you know about the topic, you can answer it. See, for you to answer this question, you should know what is New World and what is World World. See, World World is that part of the world that was known before the discovery of the Americas. So, the World World comprises of Europe, Asia and Africa which is collectively called the Eastern Hemisphere. Now, the New World, it refers to the Americas and it is inclusive of North America, South America and Central America. The term New World was developed in the year 1492 when Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer, arrived in the Americas. So, with this information, now let us look at the question. What does the question say? It says which of the following groups of the plants was domesticated in the New World and introduced into the Old World. So, the question is about the introduction of plants that are grown in the New World to Old World. So, the introduction of plants from America to Europe, Asia and Africa. So, our job is here to find out the plants which were new to the Old World, that is, which were not grown in the Old World before. So, here it is crucial that we know about the term Columbian Exchange. See, Columbian Exchange refers to exchange of diseases, ideas, food crops and populations between the New World and the Old World following the voyage to the Americas by Christopher Columbus in the year 1492. See, the Eastern Hemisphere gained a lot from this Columbian Exchange. Discoveries of new supplies of metals are perhaps the best known. But also, the Old World gained new staple crops such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, maize and cassava. And less calorie intensive foods such as tomatoes, chili peppers, peanuts and pineapples were also introduced. And they are now the culinary centerpieces in many Old World countries. See, in Italy, Greece and other Mediterranean countries, tomatoes are famous. And in India and Korea, chili peppers are famous. In Hungary, paprika made from chili peppers are famous. And in Malaysia and Thailand, chili peppers, peanuts and pineapples are famous. See, apart from this, Tobacco, another New World crop, was so universally adopted that it came to be used as a substitute for currency in many parts of the world. The exchange also drastically increased the availability of many Old World crops such as sugar and coffee. See, how is this possible? See, this is because it is found that these crops are well suited for the soils of New World. So, it is cultivated in large scales in the New World. See, the Old World came to know about Tobacco after 1492, that is after Columbus discovered America. So, Tobacco is one such crop which was domesticated in the New World and introduced in the Old World. So, since we found that, we have narrowed it to option A and option B because both the options have Tobacco in the answer. See, historical records indicate that Columbus first brought back specimens of cocoa pots to King Ferdinand I after his second voyage to the New World. Outside of the Americas, Coco was first cultivated in the 1590s by the Spanish off the coast of Africa on the island of Fernando Po. At first, it was used in expensive chocolate drinks mainly confined to aristocratic quotes. So, after knowing this information, we can safely say that option A is the right answer because it has cocoa in it. See, this is one way to approach this question. You can solve it in ways whichever you are comfortable in. So, don't stick to one way. Use this as an example of solving such questions. And with this, we'll proceed into the news article discussion. See this article here. This FAQ article is suggesting that India might be at the verge of a wheat crisis. That is low availability of wheat for domestic distribution and usage and for export purposes. And based on this assertion, let us analyze the extent of impending wheat crisis and reasons behind it and also a few facts about wheat production. But before that, the syllabus relevant to the article is given here for your reference. Please go through it. Now, let's start with knowing about wheat production. See, wheat is a fine grain and falls under the category of cereals. It is a temperate and subtropical crop. So, it requires cool growing conditions like moderate temperature and annual rainfall of 50 to 75 centimeter evenly distributed over the growing season. But during ripening, it needs bright sunshine. And therefore, wheat is cultivated in the Rabi season in India. That is, its cultivation starts in the month of October, November with the onset of winter and is ready for harvest in March, April. See, this season provides the required low temperature conditions and there is also availability of precipitation or rain during winter months due to the western temperate cyclones. And also remember that wheat is mostly grown under irrigated conditions and sometimes under rain-fit conditions also. The soil type required is well-drained loamy soil and from exam perspective, know that the major wheat producing countries include USA, Canada, Argentina, Russia, Ukraine, Australia and India. In India, according to the NCRT, about 85 percentage of the total area in this crop is concentrated in the northern, central regions of the country. This includes Indo-Gangetic Plain, Malwa Plateau and Himalayas up to 2700 meter altitude. That means states in these regions will be the lead wheat producing states of India. Yes, it includes Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. Among these states, high yield is from Punjab and Haryana and UP, Rajasthan and Bihar have moderate yields. Plus wheat is grown under rain-fit conditions in the Himalayan highlands and parts of the Malwa Plateau. So they have low yield here and this includes states like Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu Kashmir region. Now you should know that wheat is important for India and why is that? See it is because wheat is India's second most important cereal crop after rice and about 14 percentage of the total cropped area of India is under wheat cultivation. And India accounts for about 12-13 percentage of the total wheat production of the world and for these reasons wheat is important for India. And with these basic facts about wheat, let us see the FAQ article. See it mentions that India is nearing a wheat crisis. This is said because recently the government lowered its wheat production estimates and many other factors are also suggesting so. The production estimates have been lowered by 5.7 percentage for the crop year ending in June. Earlier it was projected to be 111.32 million tonnes. Now the estimates have been downgraded to 105 million tonnes. So let us see the reasons behind lowering estimates and also the factors suggesting a wheat crisis. The first reason is the lower production of wheat. This happened due to the persistence of unusually warm weather conditions during the month of March to April. As per the data, in March and April 2022, India witnessed a record-breaking heat. In March the monthly average stood at 33.1 degree Celsius which was the highest in 122 years since 1901. It was worse for April as the average stood at 35.05 degree Celsius which was 1.12 degree above normal. This was the fourth highest in 122 years since 1900 and these weather conditions transmitted into high number of severe heat wave conditions. But why this affected wheat production? It is because high temperatures severely limit the wheat yield. As we saw March, April are the harvesting months. It includes the crucial growth stages of wheat like heading and flowering and ripening and maturity. See heading and flowering is the pollination stage. That is when the head will fully emerge from the stem and reproductive growth or the flowering starts. So pollination determines the number of kernel per head. Number of kernel is an important component that influences the yield. But the issue is high temperatures and wrought stress during heading and flowering can reduce the kernel numbers and the yield. And flowering is followed by the grain filling period and during this period grains swell due to the water uptake by the plant and then the starch and protein deposition happens. See these determine the kernel size and weight and thereby determines the final dry grain weight of the yield. So grain filling period is critical for producing high yields. But temperatures above 25 degree Celsius during this period tend to depress the grain weight. Because when temperatures are high too much energy is lost and the reduced residual energy results in poorer grain formation and lower yields. And then comes the ripening stage. See here moisture loss happens and continues till the grain is dry enough to harvest. As we saw earlier ripening needs bright sunshine but it does not need a scorching climate that is hard and hard climate. It only requires about 14 to 15 degree Celsius optimum average temperature but when there is high temperature it leads to shriveling of wheat kernels. See shriveling means the kernels wrinkle due to the loss of moisture so it results in low wheat size and weight and this ultimately results in lower yields. So did the required temperature conditions prevail during March April 2022 in key wheat producing states? As we saw the answer is no. Temperature was above 30 degree Celsius it resulted in shriveling. Official estimates say that 20% of the wheat grain shriveled but actual estimates say that a whopping 80% of the crop purchased by the government shriveled. So ultimately the early summer of 2022 affected the yield. Now the second factor is higher market prices offered by the private traders. Due to the lower yield and higher demand private traders are exploiting the situation. They are offering higher prices for the produce which is higher than the minimum support price provided by the government. So rather than selling to the government at MSP, farmers are selling it to the private traders for higher remuneration. This resulted in low procurement of wheat by the government. And thirdly due to the above factor the traders bought a large quantity of wheat and they are storing it. They suspect that the yield will decrease further and the demand will increase and at that time they can sell the wheat for much higher prices. Even some farmers are storing wheat expecting this to happen. So this is one of the reasons behind lowering estimates. And the next factor is the price of wheat at the international level increased. See the cause for this is the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. In the beginning we saw that both these countries are major wheat producing countries. So export of wheat from these countries have been affected resulting in international high demand and low supply. This has substantially increased the price of wheat internationally. So this is encouraging domestic traders to provide high prices for the produce resulting in low procurement. And these are the reasons behind low wheat production and procurement by the government. See the fact to remember is there will be certain notable impacts. One notable positive impact is the opening of new wheat export markets for India due to Russia-Ukraine war. According to the FAQ article here India has promising export opportunity in Israel, Egypt, Turkey European Union, Tanzania and Mozambique. Now in contrast to the first impact lower procurement by the government will affect the implementation of government run programs like public distribution system that is the PDS and Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anayojina. So based on this what we know the poor will get majorly affected. And it will also affect the stability of prices including wheat price domestically and this will lead to inflation in general and food inflation in specific. And finally it also results in the lower availability of grain for the internal consumption. See even though this might be the situation as usual the government is dismissing these councils saying that India is in a comfortable situation and has higher availability of grains in stocks in the next one year. Now let us hope that government is not hallucinating and it is well informed of the situation so that it will be prepared to take necessary step to avert any crisis. And with this we have come to the end of the discussion. In today's discussion we saw some basics about the wheat production. It is a fine grain which falls under the category of cereals. It is a temperate and subtropical crop. It requires cool growing conditions like mid-temperature annual rainfall of 50 to 70 cm and during harvesting it needs bright sunshine. It is grown under irrigated conditions and sometimes under rain-fit conditions. The soil type required is well drained loamy soil. Major wheat producing countries include USA, Canada, Argentina, Russia, Ukraine, Australia and India. And we saw some details about major wheat producing states in India and after that we saw why wheat is important for India. See it is important because India's second most important cereal after rice is wheat and about 14% of the total cropped area of India is under wheat cultivation India accounts for 12 to 13% of total wheat production of the world. And after that we saw the reasons behind lowering estimates and the factors suggesting wheat crisis. The first one is lower production of wheat and the second one is the higher market prices offered by the traders and the third one is hoarding and the final reason is the increase of price of wheat at the international level. And after this we moved on to see about the notable impacts of lower wheat production. We saw one positive impact which is the opening of new wheat export markets for India due to the Russia-Ukraine war and we also saw some of the negative impacts. See it will affect the implementation of government-run programs who will get majorly affected. It will affect the prices including wheat price domestically. It will lead to inflation. It results in the lower availability of grain for the internal consumption. And with these points in mind now let us move on to the next article discussion. See this news article here. It talks about a pangolin. Recently a pangolin was rescued from Rathambore National Park and this pangolin is now kept in captivity in Nahrgarh biological park near Jaipur. See the issue here is that this rescued pangolin is not eating any food and is mostly spending time in a burrow which it has dug out for itself. Does this sound familiar? Yeah it is acting like UPS aspirin right? See jokes apart it is not eating any food and this is serious and the forest officials have contacted experts from around the world for help. They tried feeding it with worms specially brought from Ahmedabad and wild eggs but without sexes. They are also trying to specially bring red ants from Odisha. See this is one lucky pangolin right? It is getting all pampered for throwing a tantrum. But don't expect we are going to discuss in deep about this tantrum because we are going to revise facts about pangolin from the Prillim's perspective. See pangolins are actually mammals but many people think they are reptiles. See in fact they are the only mammals fully covered in scales look at this image here you will understand. See they use the scales to protect themselves from predators in the wild that is if under threat pangolins will immediately curl into a tight ball and will use their sharp scaled tails to defend themselves and this is how they survive from their predators. See pangolins they eat ants, termites and larvae and are often known as the scaly ant eaters. They have no teeth and they pick up food with their sticky tongue. Know that their tongue can sometimes reach lengths greater than the animal's body. See most of the pangolins they are nocturnal mammals as nocturnal animals pangolins spend their days sleeping and they are nights searching for food and digging their burrows. I told you it's like UPS aspirins right? See some of the UPS aspirins are also nocturnal. We spend our days sleeping and at night we search for food but instead of digging burrows we read books for civil service examination. Now coming back there are 8 types of pangolins these are 4 species of Asian and 4 species of African pangolins. Asian pangolins include Chinese Sunda, Indian and Philippine pangolins. African pangolins include Cape or Temmix ground pangolin, white bellied or tree pangolin, giant ground pangolin and black bellied or long-tailed pangolin. And with this information now we'll see how many species of pangolins are found in India. Note that in India 2 species of pangolin can be found. They are the Indian pangolin and the Chinese pangolin. The Indian pangolin occurs sporadically throughout the plains from the Himalayan foothills to southern India. In the northeast it is replaced by Chinese pangolin and its range extends to Southeast Asia. See both these species they are listed under schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. The IUCN status of Indian pangolin is endangered and the IUCN status of Chinese pangolin is critically endangered. Note the difference here Indian pangolin endangered and Chinese pangolin critically endangered. And next both the Chinese and Indian pangolins are placed in the appendix 1 of the convention on international trade in endangered species that are shortly called as sites. Here appendix 1 includes species threatened with extension and trade in specimens of these species is permitted only in exceptional circumstances. See before concluding this discussion know that pangolins are the most trafficked mammals in the world. Why? See pangolin meat and scales are consumed and they are used in traditional medicines in countries like China, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries. So there is a huge demand for pangolin in the international black market and this makes it the most trafficked mammal in the world and with this we have come to the end of the discussion. In this discussion we saw a brief about pangolins, they are mammals and they are fully covered in scales. They use their scales to protect themselves from the predators and their diet include ants, termites and larvae and they are often known as the scaly anteaters. They pick their food with their sticky tongue and they are nocturnal mammals. And after that we saw different types of pangolins Asian and African. In Asian there are 4 types Chinese, Sunda, Indian and Philippines In African pangolin there are also 4 types Cape or Temmings ground pangolin, white bellied or tree pangolin, jain ground pangolin black bellied or long tailed pangolin. And after that we saw the species of pangolin that are found in India which includes Indian pangolin and Chinese pangolin. Indian pangolin it occurs throughout the plains from the Himalayan foothills to southern India but in the north it is replaced by the Chinese pangolin and it is strange extents to Southeast Asia. And after that we saw the conservation status of pangolin see the Iusian status of Indian pangolin is endangered Chinese pangolin is critically endangered Both are protected under schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. Both are placed in appendix 1 of the sites. And after that we saw the reason why it is the most trafficked mammal in the world because meat and scales are consumed and they are used in traditional places in countries like China, Vietnam and other Saudi station countries. And with these points in mind now let us move on to the next article discussion. See look at this news article. This article talks about the impacts of La Nina on Indian summers. To understand this article better first let us brush our basics about El Nino and La Nina and then we will see about the article. Now what is El Nino? Look at this map here this is the ocean current pattern during the normal years. Here you can notice a cold current near the Peru coast. This is called Peru current. So in normal year the sea surface temperature in the eastern pacific is cold. In an El Nino event the sea surface temperature in the central and eastern tropical pacific ocean becomes substantially higher than normal. In other words a warm ocean current temporarily replaces the cold Peruvian current. And this warm current starts flowing during Christmas. Therefore baby Christ was the name given to this event. See El Nino is a Spanish word meaning child and it refers to the baby Christ. See this oceanic event is associated with changes in pressure patterns in the southern oceans. And the change in the pressure pattern is called southern oscillation. See El Nino and the associated southern oscillation is shortly called as ENSO. Because of the changes in the pressure pattern and the atmospheric acerculation, several regions experience swings in their normal rainfall pattern. Some regions receive lesser or no rainfall and some regions receive extreme rainfall. See both have extreme consequences such as drought in one place and flood in another place. See whenever it is El Nino it affects the Indian monsoon from June to September. This is because El Nino is associated with weakening of trade winds which are driving the Indian monsoon winds. That is abnormally warm equatorial Pacific waters pull the moisture laden clouds away from the Indian subcontinent. In that sense El Nino is associated with droughts like conditions in India. And then there is La Nina event. See La Nina in Spanish means the girl. In a La Nina event the sea surface temperature in the eastern tropical Pacific ocean becomes lower than normal. This results in the intensifying of trade winds that brings monsoon to India. So whenever it is La Nina, India experiences more rainfall and the associated floods in some places. So El Nino means drought in India La Nina means rainfall in India. And having understood the basics about El Nino and La Nina now let us come to the article. As we already saw during La Nina years the summer monsoon in India becomes wetter and winters become colder. But this year scientists believe that La Nina conditions may be the reason for long spells of heat waves in India. Normally from March the land temperature in India starts rising. This rise in temperature is moderated by the arrival of the western disturbances. Western disturbances are low pressure systems that originate in the Mediterranean region. They are moisture laden and when they reach India they bring rain. For the western disturbances to travel from the Mediterranean region to India there needs to be a significant difference in temperature between Europe and the latitudes over India. But due to the presence of La Nina conditions this temperature difference was absent this year. So the western disturbances did not bring much rain to India this year. And this is one of the reasons for harsh summer conditions this year according to the article. And with this we have come to the end. In this discussion we saw about El Nino in which the sea surface temperature in the central and eastern tropical Pacific region will become higher than normal. A warm ocean current will replace the cold Peruvian current. And this event is associated with changes in the pressure patterns in southern oceans. And this is called southern oscillation. El Nino and the associated southern oscillation together is called as ENSO. See what is the impact of it? The changes in the pressure pattern and the atmospheric air circulation result in swings in the normal rainfall pattern. Some regions receive lesser or no rainfall. Some regions receive extreme rainfall. In India El Nino means drought like conditions. And after that we saw about La Nina event which means the sea surface temperature in the central and eastern tropical Pacific ocean becomes lower than normal. So when it is La Nina, India experiences more rainfall. And after that we ended our discussion by seeing the points that are mentioned in the article. See the article says that La Nina is the reason India experienced long spells of heat waves. And with these points in mind now let us move on to the next article discussion. Look at this final article here. See on 5th May we saw about foot poisoning incident in Kerala. And this news article is an extension of that. See the news article says that from the food samples accessed by the officials it is found that there was presence of Salmonella and Shigella bacteria. The fact that both Shigella and Salmonella bacteria were detected in the food samples indicates that contamination has happened at multiple levels. And this is about the news article given here. See on our 5th May daily news analysis session we saw about Shigella bacteria. So today we will cover Salmonella and Salmonellosis. See Salmonella or a diverse group rod shaped gram negative bacteria of the family Entero Bacteria CA. They were first discovered by an American scientist named Dr. Daniel E. Salman in 1885. We all know about the disease typhoid right. Its causative agent is a type of Salmonella bacteria called Salmonella typhi. Now let us see what Salmonellosis is. See Salmonella bacteria resides in animals. But when it enters a human body it causes Salmonellosis which is an infection that attacks the intestine and cause diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever, vomiting, bleeding and stool and nausea. See the symptoms of the infection last anywhere between two and seven days. However the bowel function could sometimes take months before returning to normalcy. In some cases it spreads the infection from intestine to the bloodstream also. See the infection fits children below the age of five and senior citizens the worst. The good news is less than one percentage of the infected people died due to infection. See Salmonella can transmit to humans through contaminated water or food. In this case health officials pointed out that the mayonnaise served with Shawarma could be the culprit in transmitting Salmonella. Now let us see the treatment available for this infection. See most people with Salmonella recover in four to seven days and do not need any treatment. But during the illness the person should drink plenty of fluids to replace the fluid lost by diarrhea. See a person with a severe diarrhea or is sick for longer than a week may need to be hospitalised. In hospital he or she will be treated with intravenous fluids and antibiotics may be used to treat infants, people over age 65 and people with a weak immune system. See with this basic understanding now let us know about the preventive steps that can be taken to avoid Salmonellosis. The first one is wash your hands regularly with soap and the next one is wash fresh vegetables and fruit thoroughly before eating and the next one is cook foods at recommended safe temperatures and finally as prelims is nearing avoid street foods as much as possible if at all there is no other option try eating from safe sources and more importantly take care of your health. And that is all about this article. In this discussion we saw about Salmonella bacteria, rot shaped gram into bacteria of family entero bacteria C.A. discovered by American scientist Dr. Daniel E. Salman in the year 1885 a type of Salmonella bacteria which is Salmonella typhi is the causative agent of typhoid and after that we saw about Salmonellosis which is an infection that attacks the intestine and it causes diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever, vomiting, bleeding in stool and nausea. We saw about the transmission of Salmonella and we transmitted to humans through contaminated food and water and the treatment for this infection is to drink plenty of fluids to replace the fluid lost by diarrhea. If the infection is lasting more than a week the person should be treated with intravenous fluids and antibiotics should be taken. And finally we ended our discussion by seeing some of the preventive steps which includes washing hands regularly with soap, washing fresh vegetables and fruits thoroughly before eating and cooking foods at recommended safe temperatures. And with these points in mind now let us move on to the next part of our discussion that is the practice prelims question discussion. Today we have three prelims questions and as usual one of them is a quiz question for you. Let us solve the first question consider the following statements about pangolins. Statement one World pangolin day is celebrated on the third Saturday in February every year. See this statement is correct because pangolin day is celebrated on third Saturday in February every year and it is an international attempt to raise awareness about pangolins and bring together stakeholders to help protect these species from extension. Now coming to the second statement Chinese pangolins have smaller scales than the Indian pangolins. See this statement it is also correct. See the Chinese pangolin is distinguished from other Asian pangolins by its helmeted appearance smaller scales than the Indian pangolin, a larger air pinna and a post anal depression in the skin and a narrowing near the distal end of the tail. So these are the characteristics from which the Chinese pangolin is distinguished from other Asian pangolins. So among these one such feature is smaller scales than the Indian pangolin. So from this we know that statement two is also correct. So the correct answer for the question will be option C both one and two. Now moving on to the second question this is a quiz question for you. See consider the following statements about El Nino. Statement one El Nino event increases rainfall in South Africa. Statement two El Nino event causes drought condition in Australia and Indonesia. See you have to be very careful here because you have to find out the incorrect statements. So attempt this question carefully try to recall the points post your answer in the comment section. Now moving on to the final question consider the following statements about Rotavirus. Statement one Rotavirus is a leading cause of severe diarrhea and death among children less than 5 years of age. This statement is correct actually Rotavirus infection is responsible for around 10% of total child mortality every year. This is why government has introduced Rotavirus vaccine as a part of Mission Indra Danush program. Now coming to the second statement Rotavirus is transmitted by fecal oral root via contact with contaminated hands, surfaces and objects and possibly by the respiratory root. See the statement this is also correct Rotavirus is a highly contagious disease. It is transmitted by fecal oral root via contact with the contaminated hands, surfaces and objects and note that in some cases it is also transmitted by a respiratory root. So the correct answer for this question will be option C both 1 and 2. I have given a main question for your practice so interested aspirants write it and post it in the comment section and if you have any queries related to the articles that we discussed today post that also in the comment section and with this we have come to the end. If you find the video useful like share and comment and do subscribe to Shankar A.S. Academy's YouTube channel for further updates. Thank you.