 A very good evening everyone. Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis brought to you by Shankaray's Academy for the date 7th of September 2021. So fortunately unlike the last time our discussion is going to be very brief. We had a lot of articles on the Afghanistan issue. We have chosen to skip all those issues because we have dealt with them already in so much detail. And apart from that we had some articles on GST and even in the last discussion we briefly saw about GST and a lot of previous discussions also had information on GST. So we have also chosen to skip that. But otherwise we have covered all the other issues. The first issue that we will be dealing with today is about the NIPAA. So sadly there has been an outbreak of NIPAA in Kerala once again. So we will be dealing with that particular deadly disease first. And our next discussion is going to be a small case study based on a Suketh model. And this particular model can be used in your main essays as well as in your GS exam. And the next discussion is going to be based on the Manda Buffalo. See this Manda Buffalo has made news and a related question will also be discussed today. And recently that was discussed but again we are taking up because of the relevance of the topic. And next we will be talking about the Neil Geary Biosphere Reserve because the Tiger Census has begun in the YNR and YLF Sanctuary. So in that context we will be discussing what is a biosphere reserve as well as the Neil Geary Biosphere Reserve. And next we will be talking about the social media versus journalism. See we all know right now our generation and the future generation will be seeing social media as a source of information. But the generation before us has seen journalism as a source of information that is the newspaper be the TV radio they have seen that as the source of information. So this author has said that the social media cannot replace the traditional journalism. So the author has also suggested some of the solutions to retain the elitism of the journalism. So that is the discussion. And lastly we will have a quick take away topic that is the Greece has created Ministry for Climate Crisis. So we will be quickly rewinding that and lastly we will be wrapping up our discussion with practice preliminary questions and we will also see a main question and with that we will wind up our discussion for today. So let's move into the analysis. Now look at this article. This article has been making front page news in almost all the editions. Of course it is a serious issue of a deadly disease outbreak and one person has already lost the life and the contacts have been traced and apparently most of the contacts are health workers and the kin of the deceased. So in this context let us understand what is this deadly disease who is the host what is the vector and the symptoms and the treatment if any available. So this is important from the preliminary point of view. So pay attention. See Nipah fever is caused by Nipah virus simple and if you see Nipah virus is a zoonotic virus. Understand what is zoonotic virus means? Zoonotic means it is transmitted from animals to humans that is it can be transmitted from animals to humans and the virus can also cause severe diseases in animals such as pigs resulting in significant economic losses for farmers and the fruit bats of the family pteropodidae particularly species belonging to the teropis genus are the natural host of the Nipah virus but in these particular bats they do not cause any disease but in some other animals such as pigs and all they cause really severe diseases and of course in humans as well. So the bats are mere hosts or passive hosts or you can even call them as vector to an extent and the Nipah virus can be transmitted through contaminated food or directly between people through physical contact as well that is why we have done contact tracing of the deceased remember and all this means human to human transmission is also possible. So consider a preliminary question which says that Nipah virus is transmitted strictly from animals to humans in that case the statement will be false because humided human transmission is possible and that is exactly why we are doing contact tracing and the Nipah virus has caused only a few known outbreaks in Asia but it infects a wide range of animals and in them they cause death among the animals and when they transmitted to people they are also deadly. So given the deadly nature the world health organization has declared Nipah virus infection as a public health concern and now let us look at the symptoms see the human symptoms can range from asymptomatic infection to acute respiratory infection and severe cases it can also result in fatal encephalitis. So understand encephalitis encephalitis is nothing but inflammation of the brain see brain is the most important neural tissue in the body when that particular organ is in distress due to a pathogen neural symptoms or neurological symptoms manifest. So the infected people initially what they do is they develop symptoms including fever headaches vomiting sore throat myalgia myalgia is nothing but muscle pain body pain so the initial symptoms are these and as the disease progresses they are followed by dizziness drowsiness altered consciousness and all these will be the neurological science and even in the severe cases the patient may progress to encephalitis which can be followed by seizures also and which may even progress to coma within 24 to 48 hours. So this is a case with the severe disease manifestation and in a moderate case some people can also experience atypical pneumonia and the severe respiratory problem including acute respiratory distress see acute respiratory distress is manifested as a moderate disease and in severe forms encephalitis seizures and coma follows okay and all this combined puts the case fatality rate at 40 to 75 percentage. So what is a case fatality rate see of hundred people who are infected about 40 to 75 people are prone to die so this is what case fatality rate means see for corona and all the case fatality rate is still much lesser it is about 2% 3% 4% whereas for Nipah it is as high as 40 to 75 percentage even for Ebola the case fatality rate is about 50 percentage and for Nipah it goes up to 75 percentage. So currently there are no drugs or vaccines specific for Nipah virus infection and intensive supportive care is recommended to treat severe respiratory and the neurological complications and the Nipah virus infection can be prevented by washing the fruits thoroughly and peeling them before consumption and since the fruit might be contaminated with the urine or saliva from the infected fruit bats we have to wash the fruits before we consume and if at all the fruit has signs of bat bites that should not be touched at all we should be discarding that and based on the experience gained during the outbreak of Nipah involving pig farms in 1999 routine and thorough cleaning of the disinfection of pig farms with appropriate detergents may be effective in preventing the infection and if an outbreak is suspected the animal premises should be quarantined immediately and culling of the infected animals with close supervision of a burial or incineration of carcasses may be necessary to reduce the risk of transmission to the people and restricting or banning the moment of animals from the infected farms to the other areas can reduce the spread of the disease as well. So this is all about the Nipah infection which is very relevant for your preliminary exam. Keep in mind with that let's move on to the next segment of today's discussion. Now let us take up this news article for our discussion. So this article reports about a novel project that is being practiced in the Madhubhani district of Bihar. See this article we are discussing because this can be an important case study. You can use this in multiple locations in say environment aspect in social aspect for the empowerment of women and you can also use it in places where you're talking about Pradhan Mantri Ujwala Yojana. Okay so let's discuss it. So as we know the issue of LPG cylinders has always been a hot topic about the rural India and if you remember through the social welfare scheme of the Pradhan Mantri Ujwala Yojana our Indian government aimed for a smoke-free rural India by providing LPG connections at a concessional rate. So that was the aim but the main problem here is this in spite of being a beneficiary the rural Indians are still not able to reap the full benefit of LPG and the main reason for this is that the refill cost of the LPG cylinders. See the connections are provided but the refill is done by the people only. They only have to shell out the amount of refill cost. So the rising prices of LPG cylinders are pushing the refills out of the reach for most people and this puts the cleaner cooking fuel at stake and see there are two major reasons for people not being able to refill the LPG cylinders. First is economic condition that is they're not able to afford the refill costs. Number two is the patriarchal nature of the society. See the men in the house they are not willing to spend on the refill because they think the normal firewood stuff will do that is the women can cook only using the firewood stuff and really not concerned about the indoor pollution affecting the health of the women at the household. So the patriarchal nature of the society is also hindering the reach of the Ujwala Yojana. So it was to address this problem a model called Suketh model was introduced and see the Suketh model is an initiative by Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agriculture University. So this university is in Bihar only. So basically according to this model the rural population they can get their LPG cylinders refilled every two months in exchange for cow dung and the farmyard waste that is when a household gives them cow dung and farmyard waste they can get their LPG cylinders refilled in return and this collected cow dung and waste will be used for the purpose of vermicomposting because agricultural university and they will need this for vermicomposting. So it is like a barter where both have a win-win situation. So on that line any family which gives 1200 kg of cow dung and wet garbage waste every two months can get their LPG gas cylinders refilled for free and for that every day they will have to meet the target of 20 kg of cow dung and a garbage waste to avail the refill. So if you carefully pondered upon you can find that this model offers four benefits. First it ensures pollution free environment at home because we are not going to bond the firewoods so indoor pollution is reduced. Second it provides a utilitarian platform for the waste disposal. See waste disposal is one of the pressing issues in India and this particular mechanism is providing a win-win situation where you trade the waste for an LPG. So it provides a utilitarian platform for waste disposal. And third it provides monetary assistance for the LPG cylinders and finally it paves the way for the availability of organic fertilizers to the local farmers. Now adding to that it also helps in generating employment for the local youth and also making the village soil nutrient self-sufficient because they don't really have to rely on some other fertilizers because they are saving the waste and they're using it as fertilizers. However the main problem with the model is that only those households who have cattle can get benefit from the Sukhet model. So that's the only disadvantage of this particular model. So to conclude by treating this as a micro-industry by considering the contract work under Mandreka scheme and also through the CSR funds by the industries this particular model can be made to sustain on a longer basis. So remember Sukhet model in Madhubani district of Bihar and how the LPG cylinders are refilled in exchange for waste. So keep that in mind this is a very important very innovative case study. See adding these case studies in your main answers or in your essay answers can give you a significant difference. Okay so with that let's move on to the next segment of today's discussion. Now let us take up this article. This article reports about the Mandab Buffalo and according to this news article the National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources has recognized the Mandab Buffalo as the 19th unique breed of buffaloes found in India. Now based on this context let us briefly see about the Mandab Buffalo. First let us look at the location and appearance. See this Mandab Buffalo are small sized but sturdy buffaloes which are native to the hill range of eastern guts and they are mainly found in the plateau of Koratpur. See the Koratpur region is in Odisha as you can see from the map and generally these buffaloes have a unique coat color of ash gray and gray with copper color hair. This you can see from the picture and the lower part of their legs is also light in color with copper color hair at the knees and some mandas are also silver white in color. So it's very rare to see buffaloes in silver white color so that makes this very unique. Now let's talk about the reproductive characters next. See these buffaloes have an isolated breeding tract and usually these buffaloes get matured at around 3 years and they drop their first calf at 4 years and since then they give birth to calf every one and a half to two years for up to 20 years that is their fertile up to 20 years of age. So on an average these buffaloes yield about 2 to 2.5 liters of milk at a time with more than 8 percentage fat. Note the fat percentage it's 8 and some are even capable of yielding up to 4 liters of milk. Now let us see the utility and the uniqueness of this particular buffalo. Note that the male and female of this breed are used for ploughing and other agricultural operations as well and this is spotted mainly in the Kauratpur, Malkingiri and Nabarangpur districts and one important notable characteristics of these manda buffaloes is that they are resistant to parasitic infection. So this is very important. See when we are breeding cattle in buffaloes and sheeps the infections that are caused to these cattle in buffaloes and cows is the major cause of loss for those who are breeding these creatures and the manda buffaloes being resistant to parasitic infection is something very unique that you'll have to think about and this in turn means that the species have the potential to live, produce and reproduce at a low or no input system. So the manda buffaloes can be very profitable for those who are breeding these buffaloes. Now let us see some associated statistics. At present there are about 1 lakh buffaloes of this breed and they are present in the native tract itself and most of them contribute to the family nutrition of the households. See they are not commercialized and in addition to that they also play an important role in the agricultural operations. We saw they are also used for ploughing and all at the hilly terrains of the southern districts for many many generations. So keep that in mind. Now coming back to the news as we saw the mandas have got the national recognition as the 19th unique breed of buffaloes found in India. So now on that line efforts will be made by both the central and the state government for the conservation of this unique buffaloes genetic resource and to contribute to this process steps will be taken to enhance their productivity through scientific breeding strategies and adding to that the produce from the breed will also be made available at premium prices as a means to improve the livelihood of these stakeholders in the native tract. Understand this. See we already saw that they were not commercialized they were only feeding the family in which they were growing. Now if at all some marketing strategy like that of premium price is being introduced the produce from this particular buffalo can be sold outside the community lines and thereby the livelihood of those people dependent on the buffalo will also improve. So this is all about the manda buffalo found in the Odisha. See there are two possibilities of this being utilized in the examination. First of all a question can simply ask the manda buffalo commonly referred to in news comes from which of the following states. So we just saw that they are from Koratpur district and this Koratpur district is in Odisha along the east coast of the eastern guns. So that you will know besides the nature the habitat of the manda buffalo can also be a question. See there was a question asked about karai camels say in 2016-17-18 problems and it was a three statement question. See this karai camel article was featured on the Hindu on a Sunday and it was a full page article on karai camels and the question papers set us probably were inspired from that particular article and they framed this three statement question. So the question was mainly centered around the habitat of this particular camel. Now let us look at the question. See the statements for one goes that it is capable of swimming up to three kilometers in seabed water and it survives by grazing on mangroves. See these two statements are quite interlinked because if at all you know that karai camels are from the mangroves of the Gujarat you will know that both these statements are correct and the unique feature is that they are able to swim for about three kilometers in the seabed water and they search for their food which is the mangroves. So we know option one and two are right. Now going to the third statement it lives in the wild and cannot be domesticated. See let me tell you in a desert ecosystem say in a dry ecosystem say that of Rajasthan or for that matter Gujarat most of the animals will be domesticated because the resources are scarce and the people will want to depend on the animals rather than plants which is not available. So the people will tend to domesticate the animals present in the desert. So with that guess we can say third statement is wrong. So even if you don't know that karai camels are from Gujarat if you apply this kind of logic and if you eliminate statement three you will directly reach for option one which is one and two and if you know the correct answer if you know the statements by the facts well and good but this is something that you can take away from today's discussion with respect to problems. So with that let's move on to the next segment of today's discussion. Now take a look what this news article our next news discussion is going to be based on this article about the tiger census. So the news here is that monitoring of tigers using the camera traps is carried out as a part of all India Tiger estimation 2021 2022. So this is going to be carried out in the region known for high tiger density which includes the vineyard wildlife sanctuary and two other territorial forest divisions in the district. See remember the vineyard wildlife sanctuary which is spread over 340 square kilometer forms an integral part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve in the Western Guards and it also lies contiguous to the tiger reserves of Nagarhole National Park and Bandipur of Karnataka and Mudumalai of Tamil Nadu and in this slide let us brush up our learning about the biosphere reserves very briefly. So as we know biosphere reserve refers to a part of the Earth which supports life or the part in which the living organisms exist and when you take the concept of biosphere reserve it generally refers to a unique and a representative ecosystem of terrestrial and the coastal areas which are internationally recognized within the framework of UNESCO MAB program or UNESCO's man and biosphere program. See this man and biosphere program is an intergovernmental scientific program it was launched in 1970s itself one of the earliest conservation efforts and the main aim of this program is to send a scientific basis for improving the relationship between people and their environment globally. So like many other conservation efforts it is not that people should not interfere with the biosphere at all no that is not it but it is trying to improve the relationship between the people and the environment and know that the biosphere reserve aims at achieving three main objective first is conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem second is association of ecosystem with development and third is logistics or internal network for research and monitoring. So like you see this has importance for conservation and the development of the ecosystem and besides the third component also gives important for the research of the particular ecosystem. All right now let us very briefly discuss about the Neelgrie biosphere reserve. See this Neelgrie biosphere reserve is very unique because it is the first biosphere reserve in India look at the map for the location it's quite a huge area and see the reserve is located in the western Ghats and it encompasses three states that is Tamil Nadu Kerala and Karnataka that is wherever the Neelgrie range spreads and this Neelgrie biosphere reserve falls under the biogeographic region of the Malabar rainforest further the Mudumalai wildlife sanctuary the Vyanard wildlife sanctuary then we have Bandipur National Park then we have Nagarholy National Park we have Mukherthi National Park and we also have the Silent Valley National Park they are all protected areas present within this reserve. So you can imagine how huge this particular biosphere reserve is and this place is very rich in plant diversity. In fact among the 175 species of orchids that is found in the Neelgrie biosphere reserve around 8 are endemic only to this particular biosphere reserve and it also hosts a wide variety of fauna. We know about Neelgrie which is the state animal of Tamil Nadu. We also have Neelgrie langurs and we have the slender laurus and we have the black buck, tiger, Indian elephant, gore and we also have Martin and some of the examples from this particular biosphere reserve. Remember this reserve is one of the critical catchment areas of Peninsular India and many of the major tributaries of Kaveri like that Bhavani, Moyar, Kabini and also rivers like Chaliyar and we have Punambula and they all have sources and catchment areas within the reserve boundary. So keep that in mind with that let's move on to the next segment of today's discussion. Now let us take up this open for discussion now. See in the last two decades we have witnessed a boom in the commercial media and numerous digital journalism platforms have emerged and the media is growing exponentially in number and influence. But if you see along with its growth the problems have also increased. So we can see that the quality impact and the credibility of journalism is deteriorating in the recent years because when you say quality it is the quality of the news that is being delivered the way the trivial news is given priority whereas the most important ones are neglected. So the impact that they create on the people is also going down and apart from that the credibility which means the reliability of the journalism is also deteriorating that is it is hard for people to differentiate between what is true and what is untrue what is important what is unimportant. So these recent trends have placed journalism under fire and so people are also losing their trust in the media. So in this context the author of the editorial provides solutions to the issues. Let us see about it. Here is the syllabus relevant for this part of the discussion. Take a note. So let us see the solutions now. See according to the author of the editorial journalism education can counter these issues. See the certified courses in journalism can overcome these hurdles and that is what the author believes. See journalism education is not something new in India and know that 2021 even marks the centenary of journalism education in India and see in India the discipline of journalism education was first introduced back in 1920s. Guess who? It was the British activist Annie Besant and she launched this course on journalism at the National University at Adair in Madras and there are now about 900 Indian colleges that offer journalism and mass communication programs. So according to the author we should strengthen these journalistic programs to counter the issues faced by journalism. So it will basically streamline the experience and the knowledge of journalism and the author believes it can better the quality of journalism. So this takes us to the question as to how can we strengthen it? So here author gives an example. Take a note. The global initiative for excellence in journalism. See this program was launched by the United Nation Education Scientific and Cultural Organization. So what is this? This is nothing but the UNESCO and this program was launched by UNESCO in 2014 to strengthen the journalism. So through this program the journalists were made aware of the challenges of the fast-changing world. See the challenges that the world presents is not going to be the same. Right? As the world evolves the challenges also evolve because right now in the digital age the challenges are completely different from where the media was print or it was radio. So right now the challenges are completely different and through this particular program the challenges were made aware to the journalists. And also the UNESCO through this program assembled a team of experts to develop a syllabi on the issues such as climate change, data journalism, science journalism and others. So according to the author such initiatives should be encouraged and replicated to strengthen the journalism. See only when a journalist knows that some particular issue is important. The journalist is going to bring it to the news table right? Only when you as a journalist feel that climate change is important only when you feel that climate change is real. Only then you will cover the aspects of climate change and you will bring it to the news table. So according to the author such initiatives should be encouraged and stakeholders like media houses, media training institutions and governments should join hands and accelerate efforts to give vision to the code. And in addition to that we must address the quality issues in the media. So how can we do that? This can be done by constantly improve the quality of media by training and providing access to the training to everyone. And also we should address the concerns arising out of the changing media landscape. For example, take social media. Social media is now the new source for many people and it has created a lot of problems. So we should address this issue. Let us see how. See according to the author the national education policy of 2020 can help in this case. Apparently the national education policy of 2020 encourages us to make media education more holistic multidisciplinary inclusive of the latest technological advancements. So we can evolve our teaching techniques according to the changing landscape of the media. Through this we can improve the media literacy of our citizen. See the previous suggestion was to improve the quality of the journalists who are covering the media. And this particular suggestion national education policy of 2020 makes the recipient of the journalistic data more literate. That is the people will know what to look for in the news. People will know what is important and therefore they will look for such news is in the media. So media literacy of our citizens is what the author suggests through this particular solution. So these are the solutions given in the editorial. See freedom of press and the free flow of information is a basic right and the citizens cannot exercise and enjoy their citizenship in the absence of crucial information. Only journalists can provide this crucial information. But they have to ensure that the news is conveyed in high quality and this can be done only by strengthening journalism education for the journalists and the media literacy for the citizens. So this is the essence of this particular open. So with that, let's move on to the next segment of today's discussion. So these are the major articles that we're taking up for discussion and we have lastly one article which has a quick takeaway just reading the headlines could actually fetch you like two marks in your exam. So look at this article. Apparently one country has been so climate responsible that it has created a ministry in itself to deal with a climate crisis. So that country is nothing but Greece. So you can expect a question of this sort. Which of the following countries created a ministry to deal with climate crisis and you may have four options and of that one of the option could be Greece in that case. Yes, you can actually have a quick score of two marks just by knowing the headlines. So that's a quick takeaway question. So with that, let's move on to the last segment of today's discussion that is practice preliminary questions. So we have three questions for discussion today. Let's go over it one by one. So in the due course of our discussion, we saw about a case study based on Suketh model. So the question asks the Suketh model is in reference to what and from the discussion we know that this model which was implemented in Bihar in the Madhubani district was to refill the LPG cylinders in exchange for the waste from the cow down. So with that we can narrow down at option A that is refill of LPG cylinders. So moving on to the next question, we again have a two statement question. And remember we had a small discussion on the biosphere reserves. So it's based on that. So first statement is this, a biosphere reserve is a unique and a representative ecosystem of terrestrial and coastal areas recognized within the framework of UNESCO's Man and Biosphere Program. So from the discussion we can say option A is right. Now moving on to the second statement, the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve is the first biosphere reserve in India. We saw that in the discussion as well. And this is the most unique feature of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve which has an extensive area of over 340 square kilometers, spread over three states. So with that we can say the right answer is option C both one and two. Moving on to the next question, this question isn't referenced to the National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources. So this has been framed in the context of the Manda Buffalo which we saw in the discussion. So it's a two statement question. So it's a factual question with a factual takeaway. And this question has been formed just to spread the knowledge not inspired from the discussion today. All right. So pay attention here. So first statement is this. It is the nodal agency for the registration of the newly identified geomplasm of livestock and poultry of the country. See the first statement is correct because the National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources that is NBA GR is located in Karnal is the nodal agency for the registration of the newly identified geomplasm of livestock and poultry of the country. Now coming to the second statement, this National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resource conducts systematic survey to characterize, evaluate and catalog farm livestock and poultry genetic resources. See if we go through the objectives of the National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources, we find that the second statement is also right. So it's completely a factual question. See this statement based question, if at all asked in your exam, if at all you're not exposed to National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources, attempting this could be very difficult. So remembering this will also be difficult. So in that case these kind of questions can be the very few questions which you can actually skip attempting if at all asked in your preliminary exam because the risks associated with attempting this question is much higher. So just keep that in mind. So with that we are winding up our practice preliminary question discussion session. Our discussion was very brief today. So we only have one main question from our discussion today and I was delighted to see that two people have returned the answers for the questions that were posted previously in my previous sessions and all and we were even fortunate enough to have some time to give some review as well. So I suggest you people to keep writing and inspire others to write as well. See it is not only about main exam. Okay, it will also give you an analytical perspective. Okay, to approach the preliminary exam and in one of the last sessions one particular person had asked a doubt regarding the data that we have to furnish in the main answers as well as the analysis. See data analysis both are equally important. The more the data you furnish the more the analysis you do the more the marks you are going to get. Okay, you can't base your answers solely based on data. You can't base your answers solely based on analysis. Memory and analysis both come together to your success. So keep that in mind. So with that let's wind up our discussion for today. We are mask stay safe. Good day.