 A very good evening, aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankar IAS Academy for the day 25th of December 2022. Displayed here are the list of news articles that we have chosen for today's discussion and today we have seven articles for our discussion. So, kindly pay attention and after this we will be having the practice preliminary questions. And followed that we will have some quiz questions also. Now, without wasting much time, let's get into the first news article discussion. Now, have a look at this news article. The news article talks about some data regarding the Manas initiative of the government. See, before getting into the data mentioned in the news article, let us first see what is this Manas initiative? See, on 10th of October this year, which happens to be the World Mental Health Day, our union government launched the Tele Manas initiative. Tele Manas is nothing but tele mental health assistance and networking across states. See, why was this initiative launched? See, the main objective behind this initiative is to provide better access to quality mental health counselling and quality mental health care to all the citizens in our country. It tries to make access to affordable mental health services even available to the remote test corner of the country. See, the service is made available 24 by 7 on toll free number 100416. And the nodal centre for this initiative is Nihans. That is the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences. The technical basis for this initiative is provided by International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore. Now let us see the working of this initiative. See, the Tele Manas works at two levels or you can say two tyres. Say, if a person is calling the toll free number 100416, first the caller will be directed to the mental health counsellors and mental health specialist. This is the first tyre and entire one only voice call is used. If the issue is not resolved in the first level, the caller will be directed to tyre 2. In the tyre 2, the caller will be directed to have a physical consultation with the specialist at district mental health program or the caller will be directed to consult with the specialist via video call. So you can see this is how the Tele Manas two tyre structure works. Having seen the basics about Tele Manas, now let us see the data mentioned in the news article. Firstly, within two months now of its launch, the Tele Manas helpline received over 20,000 calls. This number shows that the mental health problem among Indians is significant and it is increasing. Secondly, it is people in the age group of 18 to 45 who mainly use this helpline. And thirdly, among the callers, the majority of them complained about stress, sleep disorders and anxiety. Lastly, the majority of calls were received from Tamil Nadu and it is followed by Maharashtra. This shows there is a direct relationship between economic growth and increase in mental health issues. See now you may wonder why I have stated this data. You can actually use this in your mains answer. See in GS paper 1, in the society part we have effects of globalization on Indian society as a part of the syllabus. If there is a mains question from this part, you can use the data that we have discussed in your mains answer. And finally, you have to know that Tele Manas is under the National Mental Health Program. So what is this National Mental Health Program? It was launched by the Government of India in the year 1982. See, the Government of India launched this program keeping in mind the increasing mental health issues and non-existent mental health related infrastructure in the country. See the National Mental Health Program know has three components. First is the treatment of mentally ill and the second one is the rehabilitation and finally prevention of mental health issues by the promotion of positive mental health. Now what strategy does this program use to address mental health issues? The first level mental health care of the grassroots is provided by augmenting the primary health infrastructure with the mental health professional. In the second level tertiary mental health care is provided by district hospitals. Then the program also focuses on eradicating the stigmatization of mental health disorder through institutions like the Central Mental Health Authority and the State Mental Health Authority. Then the program also recognizes the need for community participation in mental health. So through these strategies the Government uses the National Mental Health Program to ensure the availability and accessibility of minimum mental health care for all. So this is all regarding this discussion. So you had known both about the National Mental Health Program and the treatment us. So this all is very much important for your mains as well as in prelims because this kind of initiative all can be put as a preliminary type of question as well. And with these key points in mind now let's move on to the next news article discussion. Have a look at this news article it says that Greater Chennai Corporation conducted a vitamin A campaign from December 19 to 24 for the children. See the campaign will administer doses of vitamin A to children between the ages of 6 months and 60 months. See the campaign known is a part of the National Vitamin A Disorder Control Program. Know that in India National Vitamin A prophylaxis program was launched in the year 1970 in seven states and it expanded to the entire country in the year 1975. So this is the crux of the news article given here. In this context let us see about the National Vitamin A prophylaxis program. See first of all let us see the need for this program. See vitamin A is an important micronutrient. It is essential for maintaining normal growth, regulating cellular proliferation and differentiation then for controlling development and maintaining visual and reproductive functions. Now you know that vitamin A is so significant for human beings but the diet service showed that the intake of vitamin A is significantly lower. It is lower than the recommended daily allowance in young children, adolescent girls and pregnant women and this led to the prevalence of clinical and subclinical vitamin A deficiency in India and as per reports vitamin A deficiency in India is among the highest in the world and we all know vitamin A deficiency results in blindness. Am I right? See according to the reports it is found that vitamin A deficiency is causing blindness in children below five years. Considering the serious nature of the problem it was felt that urgent remedial measures should be undertaken and it should be in the form of massive dose vitamin A supplementation covering the entire population of the susceptible children. See accordingly in the year 1970 the national prophylaxis program against the nutritional blindness was initiated as a centrally sponsored scheme. Know that and at the scheme all children between ages of one and three years were to be administer vitamin A orally once in six months but in the year 2006 the age group of eligible children was broad-ended to include children between six months and five years. This was done after considering recommendations of the WHO, UNICEF, and Ministry of Women and Child Development. Okay. Now let us see the objectives of this program. The first and foremost objective is preventing vitamin A deficiency. The second one is promoting the consumption of vitamin A rich food. This is done by increasing the regular dietary intake of vitamin A rich foods and by increasing local production and consumption of green leafy vegetables. The third one is administering supplemental dose of vitamin A. Every infant six to eleven months and one to five years is to be administered vitamin A every six months. And the fourth one is treating vitamin A deficient children. See all condition resulting from the vitamin A deficiency should be treated in proper health care facilities especially zero-talmia. See it is a term for various type of relations resulting from vitamin A deficiency. Okay. And the final objective is creating awareness about the importance of preventing vitamin A deficiency. Okay. So this is all regarding vitamin A prophylaxis program with these key points in mind. Now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now have a look at this news article. See for the past some days know we are hearing that COVID-19 cases are rising in some countries. So now the Indian government has made it mandatory for passengers from certain countries to bring a negative RT-PCR test report. This includes passengers from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand and South Korea. So it's been so long since we have talked about the RT-PCR right. So now let's see about that today in this discussion. You know that a virus is a microscopic package of genetic material that is surrounded by a molecular envelope. This genetic material can be either deoxyribonucleic acid or ribonucleic acid. That is it can be either RNA or DNA. In case of DNA it holds a genetic code or blueprint for how the organisms are made and developed. But RNA copies transcribes and transmits parts of the genetic code to proteins so that they can synthesize and carry out functions that keep organisms alive and developing. See different variations of RNA are responsible for copying, transcribing and transmitting. Okay and what does the virus causing COVID-19 disease has? See the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 causes COVID-19. It only contains RNA which means that they rely on infiltrating healthy cells to multiply and survive. So once inside the host cell the virus uses its own genetic code that is RNA to take control of and reprogram the cells. This helps them to multiply hence our own cells become virus making factories. See this RNA cannot be detected easily. I have given this much explanation so that you need to understand why we are going in for RT-PCR test. Now what does this RT-PCR test do is it changes the RNA to DNA. See here RT-PCR stands for Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction. See it is a laboratory method used to make many copies of a specific genetic sequence for analysis. Okay and what happens is it uses an enzyme called reverse transcriptase. The enzyme knows what helps in changing a specific piece of RNA into a matching piece of DNA. This piece of DNA is then amplified by another enzyme that we call it as DNA polymerase. The amplified DNA copies help to tell whether a specific mRNA which we call it as messenger RNA is being made by a gene or not. In simple words RNA is reverse transcribed to DNA using a specific enzyme. Then the scientists add additional short fragments of DNA that are complementary to specific parts of transcribed viral DNA. If the virus is present in a sample these fragments attach themselves to target sections of the viral DNA. Some of the added genetic fragments are used for building the DNA and adding marker labels to this trans which are then used to detect the virus. It is then placed in an RT-PCR mission. The mission know cycles through temperatures that heat and cool the mixture to trigger specific chemical reactions that create new identical copies of the target sections of viral DNA. As new copies of the viral DNA sections are built the marker labels attached to the DNA strands and what happens is they release a fluorescent dye. This dye is measured by the mission's computer and presented on the screen. Here the computer tracks the amount of fluorescence in the sample after each cycle. If a certain level of fluorescence is surpassed then it means the virus is present. Scientists also monitor how many cycles it takes to reach this level. So this is to estimate the severity of the infection. Few of the cycles are more severe the viral infection is. So that is why for COVID-19 RT-PCR test are preferred even now. So this is all you have to know about the RT-PCR test and why it is done for COVID-19. And with these key points in mind now let's move on to the next news article discussion. Have a look at this news article. See it says that ST Advanced Composites is going to develop a world class composite manufacturing facility in the Chennai Aero Park. And as per the article it is a Chennai based MSME which made components for UAE's first lunar mission. See this is the rashed rover okay. And it is said that now the MSME is going to manufacture aerospace and defense parts, radom for radar system, defense antennas, satellite structural parts etc etc. So this is the crux of the news article given here. In this context we are going to see what is MSME. See the definition of it and its significance will be discussed in this discussion okay. First of all what is this MSME? MSME is expanded as Micro Small and Medium Enterprise. The term was introduced by the government of India in line with the Micro Small and Medium Enterprise Development Act 2006. The MSME is initiated and managed under the ministry of MSME. So there is a separate ministry itself for this Micro Small and Medium Enterprise okay. And know that these are the entities which are engaged in the production, manufacturing, processing or preservation of goods and commodities. Now don't think they are concerned with only manufacturing. They undertake service activities also okay. Now coming to the definition of MSME. See there was a revision in the definition of MSME and this definition was announced in the Atmanidbar Bharat package on 13th of May 2020. As per this announcement the definition of MSME is if the investment in plant and machinery is not more than 1 crore and the annual turnover is not more than 5 crore then we call it as Micro Enterprises okay. Likewise if the investment in plant and machinery is not more than 10 crore and the annual turnover is not more than 50 crore then we call it as Small Enterprises. Then what about the medium enterprise? If the investment is not more than 50 crore and the annual turnover is not more than 250 crore then we call it as Medium Enterprise okay. See this definition is only important for us because we do not have to bother about the previous definition. Just know that the previous definition is very low in terms of financial limits and in the previous definitions it was divided into manufacturing and services sector okay. Now let us see the significance of this MSME. See MSME sector is considered the backbone of the Indian economy and it is said that it contributes nearly 27 percentage of the country's GDP and it primarily works for the development of people from backward and rural areas. So we can say that it helps in employment generation also. Then it also promotes the development of entrepreneurship. See by exporting products they bridge the gap in trade deficit. So these are all some of the significances that is important significances of this MSME sector. See the significance point you can use it in your main sensor and little bit of explanation of this sentence will help you fetch more marks okay. And the definition more regarding that preliminary questions will be definitely asked so that is why we are discussing only the definition part and know the current updated definition that is more than enough okay. So these key points in mind now let us move on to the next news article discussion. See take a look at this news article it talks about the increasing influx of narcotics and other illegal items into the state of Mizoram. This is after the military coup which occurred in Myanmar last year. See this article becomes important because it talks about the issues present along the Indo-Myanmar border. So this is the crux of the news article given here and in this context through this discussion we will try to learn about Indo-Myanmar relations and also about the issues relating to the 1643 kilometer border present between the India and Myanmar okay. Before that the syllabus relevant to this news article is given here for a reference kindly go through it. Firstly let's start with a little bit of history. See just like India Myanmar was also a colony of Britain. See it was brought under the control of Britain through the three Anglo-Burmese wars fought in the 19th century. What happened is at the end of the third Anglo-Burmese war Myanmar was totally annexed to British India. Here note one interesting fact Myanmar is sometimes referred to as the Scottish colony this because of the heavy role played by Scots men in colonizing and running the country. Finally through the Government of India Act 1935 British separated the administration of Burma from that of the British India okay and subsequently after a brief occupation of its territory by the invading Japanese forces during the World War II Burma was granted independence from the British rule on 4th of January 1948 okay. So this is all about the brief history of Burma. From this we can see that India and Myanmar had some sort of administrative connection going to the British occupation. This bilateral relation between India and Myanmar further got developed post the independence of both the countries. Here the first major agreement between the newly independent countries came in the year 1951. This was the year in which India and Myanmar signed a treaty of friendship see a number of agreements enhancing bilateral corporations have been signed ever since between the two countries. Institutional mechanisms for facilitating regular dialogue on a range of issues of bilateral interest have also been established. Here note that India's Look East policy played a big role in further promoting cooperation between India and Myanmar. So now let's see briefly about the Look East policy. See Look East policy is an effort by the government of India to cultivate extensive economic and strategic relations with the nations of the Southeast Asia. This was to be done to bolster its standing as a regional power and to counterweight the strategic influence of the People's Republic of China in the region. And this policy was initiated in the year 1991. The success of this Look East policy led the Indian foreign ministry officials to develop the policy into more action-oriented and outcome-based one. Finally know after a couple of decades India's Act East policy was announced in the 2014 as a successor to the Look East policy. Now we'll specifically see about the importance of Myanmar to India. See Myanmar acts as a land linkage to the Southeast Asian nations. If India can maintain a cordial relationship with Myanmar, India can easily gain access to the wide market of Asian countries. As you already know India's northeastern states don't have any major harbor linkages to overcome this problem only India initiated the famous Colored and Multimodal Transit Transport project. Okay if materialized this will help in enhancing the port connectivity to the northeastern states of India. So now let us briefly look about this project. See this project intends to develop the Sitwe Port. Here from the map you can see that the port Sitwe is located in the Colored and River along the Myanmar coast. From the port goods can further be moved up north through the River Kalladan. From there a highway will be developed which will connect the Indian state of Missouri with the River Kalladan. So this is about Kalladan Multimodal project. Other than this India has a huge population of northeastern tribes who has cross-border cultural linkages for the people living in Myanmar. By promoting friendly relations with Myanmar, India can integrate this tribal population within the broader idea of India. This is the idea behind the free movement regime operationalized between India and Myanmar. Now let us quickly see about this free movement regime. See to enable greater interaction among the tribes who are separated by the international border the Indian and the Myanmarese governments established the free movement regime. This allows the people living along the Indo-Myanmar border to travel 16 kilometers across the border on either side without any visa requirements. So this is all about this free movement regime that you have to know. So these are some of the areas in which India is concentrating to promote its relationship with Myanmar. Now coming to the security challenges discussed in the news article. See the article says that post power grab by military junta in Myanmar there has been increasing influx of illegal immigrants from Myanmar into the state of Missouri. Here note that because of the illegal immigrants the pressure on the Indian state has considerably increased. Recently there has been record seizure of contraband substances in the state of Missouri. This increase in recoveries can be attributed to instability in Myanmar. This is due to the fact that some armed groups are involved in smuggling activities to sustain their operations against the Myanmar army. So India to contain the situation is trying its best to guard the 510 kilometer border of Missouri and Myanmar. And this is done by using its paramilitary force Assam rifles. And the article says that there are numerous challenges faced by Assam rifles while guarding the porous Indo-Myanmar border. Some of the challenges faced by the Assam rifles are limited human resource, then the free movement regime which we saw earlier and the proximity of golden triangle to the state of Missouri. So this is all with respect to the news article given here. And with this we have come to the end of the discussion. So through this discussion we came to know about the Indo-Myanmar relationship from the period of British India to the current times we had a review of that. And also we saw the security challenges that we are facing now between the Indo-Myanmar border. This is all you have to know about the current Indo-Myanmar relationship. When we talk about positive points we can mention about the Indo-Myanmar relationship culturally and economically. Even you can refer the free movement regime that is helping in economic development between these two countries. But when we talk about the challenges you can talk about the security challenges. Okay? So these key points in mind now let's move on to the next news article discussion. Now have a look at this news article. It talks about the issue of poppy cultivation in the remote mountains of Manipur. See these remote racks of land are under the domination of tribal chief tins. The chief minister of Manipur brought up the issue that these tribal chief tins are not cooperating to bring down the cultivation of poppy. Then he also said that his government won't tolerate poppy cultivation further and declared war against the chief tins who are into poppy cultivation. So this is the crux of the article given here. In this context let's learn about this poppy crop. See before entering into the discussion know that poppy flowers dried in latex is used to produce heroin and this dried in latex from poppy plant is what we call it as opium and this opium only is used in the production of heroin. Now coming to the poppy plant. See poppy is a type of annual plant which can reach about 1 to 5 meters tall and it has lobbed or toothed silver green foliage and bears blue purple or white flowers some 30 centimetre white okay. And this poppy is native to turkey most poppies are found in the northern hemisphere and several species of poppies are cultivated as garden ornamentals. See the poppy family know is well represented in western North America and best known of these is the California poppy an annual variety with brilliant orange colored flowers that is extensively naturalized in California, Australia and India. See here it should be noted that many alkaloids are derived from the milky latex found in its unripe seed capsule of the poppy. In the snow the six opium alkyloids which occur naturally in the large amounts are morphine, narcotin, codyne, tabine, papyrine and narsin. And of these no three are phenanthrin alkaloids and are under international control. Who are they? They are morphine codyne and tabine. See here note that phenanthrin is a likely carcinogenic compound that possess a large toxicity risk to exposed to living organisms. And note that all the three that I mentioned now that is morphine codyne and tabine are used in the drug industry. Here I am mentioning about the pharmaceutical industry. And now of the other three no not under international control that is the narcotin and narsin and all have scarcely any medical and other uses. Consequently the four economically significant alkaloids of opium are morphine, codyne, tabine and papyrine. And about 20 other alkaloids exist in opium but they have little or no significance medically or economically up to the present time. And additionally note that poppy is also grown for its tiny non-narcotic ripe seeds. Before this and all we were talking about unripe seeds and the latex that we extracted from that. Here we are mentioning about the non-narcotic ripe seeds. See they are used in bakery products and for seasoning then in oil and bird seed. Here note that the famous biryani spice that we use is a form of poppy seed only. So with this now let's talk about the cultivation of poppy in India. See know that opium poppy cultivation is prohibited under section 8 of the narcotic drugs and psychotropic substance act 1985. But it can be cultivated under a license issued by the central bureau of narcotics and this is under rule 8 of the narcotic drugs and psychotropic substance rules 1985. And at present know the lizard opium poppy cultivation is permitted by the government of India and selected tracts in 3 traditionally opium growing states. They are Madhya Pradesh Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. And among the few countries which permitted to cultivate opium poppy for export and extraction of alkaloids. If you take India they currently only extracts alkaloid from opium gum. And it is extracted at facilities controlled by the revenue department in the finance ministry. See this control measures are done because this opium can be used for narcotic substance production like heroin right. So that is why the cultivation of this opium poppy is very much controlled. For example they are used in pharma industry for producing certain drugs that is here I am talking about medicinal drugs okay. And this is all you have to know about this poppy plant and with these key points in mind now let's move on to the next news article discussion. Have a look at the science page article see the article title says for the first time scientists have frozen the coral from great barrier reef. What is meant by freezing the coral? Why it needs to be done? Using what technology they did it? Let us understand all these and before that we will see how corals are formed okay. And before all this let us look at the syllabus 11 to this news article discussion kindly go through it. See corals form an important part of the marine ecosystems. They are invertebrate animals and belong to a large group called niteria. They have same simple structures called the polyp. So a polyp is each individual coral animal. Corals feed on small organisms that swim nearby and apart from this know another organism forms the main diet of some corals. It is zoosanthley. See they form the main food source for shallow water corals that live in warm water. This zoosanthley are single-celled algae and they photosynthesize and pass some of the food they make from the sun's energy to their host that is the corals here okay. And in the exchange the coral gives nutrients to the algae to survive. Quite a symbiotic relationship isn't it? See this relationship allows corals to grow fast enough and to build the enormous structures called reefs. In another interesting factors zoosanthley is also the reason for some colors in corals like green, brown and reddish colors okay. And there are different types of corals but they are generally classified as either hard coral or soft corals. See you would have heard the term colonies and reefs in case of corals. What do they actually mean? The corals mostly live in groups of hundreds to thousands of genetically identical polyps and this group is called a colony. Generally a coral polyp is very small usually less than half an inch in diameter but the size of a colony if you take it can be much larger and when there are a large group of colonies we call it as reefs hence coral reefs are made up of many colonies or much bigger okay. And the reefs form when the corals grow in shallow water close to the shore of continents or smaller islands so we can say that not all corals forms reef. Only the hard corals are reef building corals. For building reefs hard corals extract a benton calcium from surrounding sea water and makes calcium carbonate. This calcium carbonate is a building block of a coral skeleton so I hope you got an idea about what corals are. Now how they are formed? See corals are basically animals hence they also reproduce. Corals have multiple reproductive strategies. They can be male or female or both and can reproduce either asexually or sexually. So generally asexual reproduction generates offspring that are genetically identical to a single parent. Add in sexual reproduction two parents contribute genetic information to produce a unique offspring. The same happens in case of corals also okay. See when you take asexual reproduction it is important for increasing the size of the colony. Here the polyps or colonies made through this type of reproduction are clones of each other am I right? And in this type corals undergo either of the two process called budding or fragmentation. In budding coral polyp divides after reaching a certain size. So this genetically produces an identical new polyp. On the other hand if you take fragmentation it means the existing colony itself breaks off and forms a new colony. So this could happen due to the result of some disturbances such as a storm or being hit by fishing equipment etc. So what happens in sexual reproduction? As I said it produces a unique offspring so this increases the genetic diversity in corals and even leads to new colonies that can be far from the parents. Let me tell you how this happens. I said that corals can be both males or females or both right? Hence some produce eggs and some sperm. Usually the eggs and sperms are from different colonies. What happens is the sperms fertilize the eggs and this develops into a larva. This fertilization could happen in two ways either inside the coral or outside. When it happens inside we call it internal fertilization. Here the corals brood or incubate their eggs in the body of the polyp and when it comes in contact with the sperm fertilization happens inside the polyp. When the fertilization occurs outside the body of the coral we call it external fertilization. For this to happen broadcasting of spawning is necessary. Spawning here means release or deposit eggs and broadcast means scattering. So the eggs and sperms are scattered by colonies here. Note that in a phenomena called mass spawning huge numbers of eggs and sperms are released and often they are glued into bundles. Such bundles flow towards the surface and when they find the hard surface to attach to they start growing there. We saw the basics regarding coral so far. Now let me tell you where it is found. See corals are found across the world's ocean. They are found both in shallow and deep water but the reef building corals are only found in shallow, tropical and subtropical waters. So what about India? Coral reefs are present in the areas of Gulf of Karj, Gulf of Manar, Andaman and Nicobar islands, Lakshadip islands and Malvind. See these coral reefs are important but why? First because basically it helps to maintain the marine ecosystem. About one quarter of all ocean species depends on reefs for food and shelter. That is why we say coral reefs are the big cities of the sea and they support more species per unit area than any other marine ecosystem. Secondly it is important for us that is to people. See they support commercial and subsistence fisheries and also generate jobs and businesses through tourism and recreation. Many drugs are now being developed from coral reef animals and plants. See the value of coral reefs has been estimated to be between 30 to 172 billion US dollars each year and also this coral reef structures act as barriers and protest shorelines against 97 percentage of the energy from waves, storms and floods. This in turn helps to prevent loss of life property damage and coastal erosion. So not only marine animals but humans are also dependent on corals but they have been facing threat for a long time now. The main threat is from people only that is anthropological activities. See this includes overfishing and destructive fishing, then pollution, mining, tourism etc. See environmental reasons also harm corals like you can say warming ocean and changing ocean chemistry and even invasive species is a reason and due to these factors in some places reefs have been entirely destroyed. Here the warming ocean causes no coral bleaching. High water temperatures cause corals to lose zoosanthle and as I said in the beginning zoosanthle are not only required to produce the food for corals but also the reason for colors of such corals. So if they are lost colors are also lost without colors the corals look white. The best example of changing ocean chemistry is ocean acidification. See oceans become acidic when there is rise in oceanic carbon dioxide levels. Here the pH of ocean drops but the issue is only when there is certain specific pH calcium carbonate can form which is required for coral skeleton. So if the sea water is more acidic corals cannot build their calcium carbonate skeleton. High acidification can also break apart the existing skeletons. See threat is also from the population explosions of voracious predators of corals. See corals are eaten by animals. Various fish, worms snails and sea stars feed on baby and adult corals but some are voracious feeders. For example the crown of thorns, sea stars. It is a starfish and is a voracious predator in many parts of the Pacific Ocean. They settle on reefs and starts eating coral. Thus population explosions of such predators can kill the corals that too within a year itself. See marine competitors are another threat. For example seaweeds are a dangerous competitor as they typically grow much faster than corals and we contain nasty chemicals that injure the coral as well. So to save the coral many measures are taken. One such measure is mentioned in the news article. The article talks about the Great Barrier Reef. See it is the largest coral reef which spans about 1600 miles that is about 2600 kilometer. See it is so large that it can be seen from space. It is located off the east coast of Australia. It is said that this Great Barrier Reef began growing about 20,000 years ago but this reef was majorly affected during the 2014 to 70 and it was because of the coral bleaching event where hundreds of miles of corals in the Great Barrier Reef were bleached. This event was partially associated with the strong El Nino. So what was mentioned in the news article? See scientists have found a way to freeze and store coral larvae. It is by using cryopreservation. See cryopreservation is a process that preserves organelles, cells, tissues or any other biological constructs. Basically it cools the samples to a very low temperature. In that way the method was explored to preserve the corals also. By preserving they can be rewild in future. That is it can be later reintroduced into the wild. This in turn will help to restore the reefs. For freezing they have used cryo mesh. It is a new lightweight material that can be manufactured cheaply. It helps to store coral larvae at minus 196 degrees cell degree. So this cryo mesh is found to better preserve coral than the other techniques. Such cryopreservation using cryo mesh particularly helps to save reef diversity. See diverse coral species can be preserved for hundreds of years before they can go extinct. Then when better methods for reef restoration are developed the species can be unfrozen and reintroduced into the wild. So now the news is this cryo mesh has been successfully tested using sample taken from the Great Barrier Reef. So that's all regarding this news article discussion. See we covered about the coral ecosystem in a wider way. We saw about hard corals, soft corals, then how the coral reefs are formed and then we saw where are the coral reefs found in India. Then we came to talk about the cryo preservation technique that is used to preserve the coral larvae and that too tested successfully with the Great Barrier Reef larvae. So this coral is a famous or you can say it is an evergreen environment based topic. Wherever we saw about corals, it's basic from those areas you may get preliminary type of questions. And when it is asked in mains you can utilize this preservation technique which is a measure to prevent the degradation of corals. So with these key points in mind now let's move on to the next part of the news article discussion which is the preliminary practice question discussion. See today we have five questions in which three I'll be discussing and two will be a quiz question for you. Okay now let's start with the first question. See it is with reference to the opium poppy. Now look at the first statement it says Operation Garuda is related to anti-smuggling activities launched to buy CBI that is Central Bureau of Investigation. See this statement you might think that Operation Garuda is something related to air force or something but this statement is actually correct because Operation Garuda is related to anti-smuggling activities that is launched by CBI. See why this happened is due to the increasing smuggling of contraband reported in India CBI in the month of September 2022 launched this operation Garuda. Okay so this statement is correct. Now look at the second statement see opium poppy can be cultivated without prior approval of the government of India in some areas within the territory of India. No this statement is incorrect because we saw in the discussion itself that it can be cultivated but only with the proper and prior license from the government of India and this is what mentioned in the narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances act 1985. Okay so what is the answer for this question since the question is demanding for correct statements your answer here will be option A one only is the correct statement. Now look at the second question which among the following are the sources of vitamin A here you might think all are correct but see egg white is wrong. If you remove egg white what is the answer yes it is option B 2 3 4 and 5 only. See know that all the others are sources of vitamin A but in egg no egg yolk is rich in vitamin A and not the egg white since it is mentioned specifically as egg white we are removing that and arriving at the answer. Okay and here you have to know that in animal sources vitamin A is found as retinol that is it is the active form of vitamin A liver egg yolk and not the white. Okay and then diary products such as milk including human breast milk cheese and butter are good sources of vitamin A meat from the animals know is not a good source. Okay plant sources if you take they contain vitamin A in the form of cartinoids which have to be converted during digestion into retinol before the body can use it. See cartinoids are the pigments that gives the plants their green color and some fruits and vegetables their red and orange color. See plant sources of vitamin A include mango papaya and many of these squashers then carrot sweet potatoes and maize but here also note that not the white varieties of maize. Okay So finally what is the answer for this question? Here the answer is brismal carrot sweet potatoes and papaya are the sources of vitamin A that is option B, 2, 3, 4 and 5 only. See now look at the third question consider the following statements about Mano Darpan initiative here two statements are given regarding the initiative. Okay you have to find which among the following are the correct statements. Okay now look at the statement one it is aimed to provide psychological support to students, family members and teachers for their mental health and well-being during the times of COVID-19 yes this statement is correct then look at the second statement it is launched by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. No this statement is incorrect because it is launched by actually the Ministry of Education. So now what is the answer for this question? Here is the answer is option A, 1 only See through this question you would have known about a new initiative that is Mano Darpan. Okay already we saw about the national mental health program in a discussion and relating to that only this question was framed. Okay now that's all for today's pralams practice question and displayed here are two questions for you see kindly go through the question and it will be very much easy because it is framed based on our discussion part only. If you had keenly observed that part of the discussion it is going to be much easy for you to answer and I expect you all to comment your answers in the comments section and the right answer will also be posted in the comments section itself. Okay displayed here are the two main practice questions for you see go through the questions and try writing answer for these questions it will be really helpful for your main examination and that's all for today's discussion if you like this video do like share and comment and don't forget to subscribe to the Shankar IS Academy's YouTube channel. Thank you for listening.