 A very good evening aspirants. I have a small announcement for you. As you know Shankar Ice Academy is going to start the next prefit batch. This batch is called as prefit rapid morning evening batch. And in this batch the entrance test will be conducted on 20th March of 2022. And don't worry you can attend this test both online and offline. The test will be conducted from 2.30pm to 4.30pm at all Shankar Ice Academy centers and also online as I said. Now this prefit program will start on 28th of March of 2022. So in order to facilitate students we have arranged for morning and evening batches in both online and offline formats. The course duration will be for 2 months that is from 28th of March to 29th of May. And on a total you'll be having 45 tests. This will also include 3 mock tests. Now as you know the course fees for prefit general program is 2,499 rupees. And the course fees for prefit with scholarship based on performance in entrance exam is 1,250 rupees which is inclusive of GST. And to know about the registration process you can click the link given in the description box of this video. So these are the last months of your preparation. Take this opportunity and join our prefit rapid batch. Now let us get to the Hindu news analysis. Today we will be covering the Hindu news edition dated 19th of March 2022. And today I have taken these news articles for discussion. We'll be discussing many of these articles from prelims perspective. And as I already promised in my last class I also have the special session of previous year question discussion. Don't miss it. And then at the end I also have a quiz question for you. So pay attention to all the discussions today. Now let us get to the previous year question discussion session. Now in the previous year question discussion session we are going to start with this previous year question. It appeared in 2012 problems. See if you remember we were actually covering 2019 problems questions. But today I took this question on vulture due to this news article that appeared today which is about vulture's death. So if you look at this question it asks about the reason behind declining vulture population. And now today's news is that in Assam at least 100 vultures have died. And it is suspected that they have died due to poisoning. So you can correlate why I took this question. So before looking into the answer to this question let us see some facts about vultures. See vultures are scavenging birds of prey. Scavengers mean that the animal feeds on carrion and dead plant material. What is a carrion? It is the decaying flesh of dead animals. Now the species of vultures have been divided into two. The New World vultures and the Old World vultures. Now the New World vultures include Californian condors and Andean condors. On the other hand the Old World vultures include the white-rumped vultures and red-headed vultures. Note that the New World vultures are found in North and South America whereas the Old World vultures are found in Europe, Africa and Asia. But remember according to government source there are no vultures in Australia and Antarctica. Now what about India? In India we have nine species of vultures and among them five belong to the genus gypses. As you can see in this table. Now in these five species the three gypses vultures namely the white-rumped vulture, long-billed vulture and slender-billed vulture are residents of India whereas the remaining two which is the Eurasian griffon vulture and the Himalayan griffon vulture they are largely wintering species. Wintering species means they come to India during winters in their natural ranges. Now these vultures are actually important for the ecosystem because they clean up the rotten carcasses which are left in the open. See normally vultures scavenge on carcasses of animals and thereby they keep the environment clean. Now in addition to this vultures also prey on or scavenge on human carcasses. Now this is particularly common in the Parsi community you would have heard about it because the Parsi community has a religious practice regarding the disposal of dead bodies. See the community follows the practice of sky burial and in a sky burial the corpse is exposed to the rays of sun and the corpse is consumed by the birds of prey such as vultures and crows. So in this manner only vultures scavenge on human carcasses also. But the problem is the population of Jips vultures in the Indian subcontinent especially has crashed since 1990s. Actually according to a study by the Bombay Natural History Society along with other organizations the study was conducted in 1990s. Now they found that the population of the Jips group in India and Nepal has actually declined. There was a drastic decline. It declined by 99.9 percentage in just two decades and which way the Jips group we saw in India? It was the white trumpet vulture, then long-billed vulture and slender build vulture. Now the decline of these species has affected the ecosystem. Why? Because the removal of a major scavenger affects the equilibrium between the populations of other scavenging species. For example in some areas the population of feral dogs have been observed to have increased. These feral dogs become the main scavenging species in the absence of vultures. Further the declining vulture population also resulted in the increase in purifying or decaying carcasses in the open. Now the problem is both increasing in purifying carcasses and changes in these scavenger populations have associated disease risks. It is risk for the wildlife, livestock as well as for humans. And there is also absence of alternative mode of disposal of animal carcasses. So because of this they continue to be disposed of in the open. And this led to the increase in the number of feral dogs also. And these feral dogs increase the risk of spread of rabies and livestock-bound diseases like anthrax. And we can also say that the decline in vultures have also affected the traditional custom of parcies. So in this regard we need to know the conservation status of these three species particularly that is white-rumoured vulture, long-billed vulture and slender-billed vulture. As you can see here all these three has been listed by the IUCM Red List as critically endangered. This means there is a high risk of global extinction of the species in the wild in the near future. But now the question is why their population declined. If we look at today's news article we can find one such reason which is the poisoning of cattle carcasses which was done to kill the feral dogs. But instead of the dogs, vultures scavenged on the carcasses and they died. And according to the news article the 100 vultures which died in this event belong to the species Himalayan Gryphon. So the poison which should have actually killed the feral dogs have now led to the death of vultures. But along with this there is another major reason for the decline of vulture population. Now this reason is the veterinary use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs especially the use of the drug called dichlofenac. This is the main cause for drastic population decline of vultures. See dichlofenac definitely it is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug in short NSAID. These NSAIDs are the drugs which help to reduce inflammation and in this way it helps in relieving the pain. So dichlofenac is used for variety of painful and inflammatory conditions. But in the 1980s it was introduced for veterinary use in the Indian subcontinent especially livestock were treated with this drug. Now the problem was the vultures get exposed to this drug when they consume the carcasses of such livestock. But why they get affected according to experiments vultures are highly susceptible to dichlofenac because they are killed by kidney failure within a short time of feeding on the carcass of the animal. So you can say that dichlofenac in a way acts as a poison to the vultures. Therefore already the government of India banned the use of dichlofenac in the veterinary medicine. But then in 2015 the large vials of dichlofenac that were for the human use were also banned. This was to prohibit the repurposing of these large vials of the drug for livestock use. So overall dichlofenac is banned in our country. But remember that just dichlofenac is not the only culprit. It is just one among over dozens of NSAIDs that are available in India. There are also other NSAIDs such as acyclofenac, carprofen, flunixin, ketoprofen, nemiculite, etc. These NSAIDs are toxic and they are also dangerous for vultures. And particularly their threat is arguably greater than dichlofenac. Why because these drugs are still legal. But now you may ask me that then how to treat inflammation in veterinary medicine. For that we have one known non-toxic NSAID. It is called the meloxicam. So if the cattle are treated with meloxicam then it will not affect vultures because it is non-toxic to vultures. So we saw about vulture species and the species that exist in India. We saw why their population declined and we also saw their conservation status. Now let us come to the question. Let me first read it. Vultures which used to be very common in Indian countryside some years ago are rarely seen nowadays. This is attributed to option A. The destruction of their nesting sites by new invasive species. Option B. A drug used by cattle owners for treating the diseased cattle. Option C. Scarcity of food available to them. Option D. A widespread persistent and fatal disease among them. Now those who don't know about why the vulture population declined they would normally choose option A or C because these are the general reasons why a species population might decline. But in case of vultures remember that it mainly happened due to the NSAID drugs such as dichlofenac and these are the drugs that were used by the cattle owners to treat their cattle. But these same drugs are toxic to the vultures which feed on the carcasses of those same cattle. So the correct answer to this question is option B. A drug used by cattle owners for treating their diseased cattle. So this is why we say we need to read current affairs. So this is not a simple question that you could attend just by guessing until and unless you know all the facts you can answer this question incorrectly. So pay attention to current affairs especially regarding environment, biodiversity, science and technology etc. So with this question let us move to the next part which is the articles discussion session. So we are going to start our news article discussion session with this news article. Let us see what it says. It mentions that steps are being taken to translate and publish hundreds of original Buddhist manuscripts which were from two important universities which were the Nalanda University and the Vikramshila University. See these manuscripts were saved from being burned by the Bhaktiar Kilji army and it was brought back to India from Tibet by a traveler come freedom fighter and monk Rahul Sankrit Yayan. Currently these manuscripts are in Patna museum. These were written in Sanskrit by the scholars of the two universities between 7th and 12th centuries A.D. And currently know that the state government has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies and this institute will do the translation and publication of these manuscripts. So taking this opportunity let us revise about the two ancient universities of Nalanda and Vikramshila. We will see few facts that are relevant for problems examination and before that this is the syllabus for this discussion. Now you would have studied in history that a number of monasteries grew up during the Pala period in the ancient Bengal and Magadha. And according to Tibetan sources five great Mahaviras stood out. What is a Mahavira? It is nothing but the Sanskrit and Pali term that denoted a Buddhist monastery. We call a Buddhist monastery a Great Vihara or in other words Mahavihara. So these five great Mahaviras include Vikramshila, Nalanda, Somapura, Udantapura and Jagadala. These five monasteries formed the network and all of them were on the state supervision and there even existed a system for coordinating among them. And according to several evidences the various Buddhist study centers that operated in eastern India under the Pallas were seen as creating a network like interconnected group of institutions. So it was common for great scholars to move easily from one position to another among these institutions. Now coming to Nalanda. See Nalanda is an ancient center of higher learning in Bihar. It was from 427 CE to 1197 CE. So it was established in 5th century AD in Bihar. Actually it was not so far from what is today the southern border of Nepal. To be specific it is located in present day Rajgir in the Bihar state. This institution was wholly devoted to Buddhist studies but it also trains students in fine arts, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, politics and even the art of war. This center had eight separate compounds. It had ten temples, meditation halls, classrooms, lakes and parks. It even had a nine-story library. Here the monks carefully copied books and documents so that individual scholars could have their own collections. Along with this Nalanda University also had student dorms. Some say it is the first educational institution to have a student dorm. It could accommodate 10,000 students in peak time and could house 2,000 professors at the same time. And most importantly Nalanda's main importance comes from its Buddhist roots because it was a center of learning. See Nalanda University not only attracted scholars and people from India but also from other countries like Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey. For example how we can forget about Huan Sangh was the famous pilgrim from China. He came to Nalanda University and studied here. He even taught there for five years in the 7th century AD. And it is said that between the 5th and 12th centuries Nalanda was the center of scholarship and Buddhist studies in the ancient world. This was the story till 12th century. After that a great fire wiped out the library that contained over 9 million manuscripts. And even at the beginning of 12th century the Muslim invader Bhakti R. Khilji sacked the university. So if there is a question of who destroyed Nalanda University the answer is Bhakti R. Khilji. Then later in 1860s the great archaeologist Alexander Gunningham identified this site as the Nalanda University and then only in 1915 to 16 period the archaeological survey of India began excavations of this site. So till date only a small part of the entire site has been excavated and much of the site and its ruins are beneath the existing villages and are unlikely to be revealed. But the present site is well maintained and very pleasant to visit. Now coming to the Vikram Shela University. See it was founded by the Pala King Dharampala. It was founded in the late 8th or early 9th century and it is said that Vikram Shela prospered for about four centuries because after that it was destroyed by Bhakti R. Khilji again along with the other major centers of Buddhism in India. It happened around 1193. So history will always remember the Afghan military chief Bhakti R. Khilji as the man who destroyed the great universities of Nalanda, Vikram Shela and even the Odantapuri University. Now if you ask me the location of Vikram Shela University it is now the site of Antichok village in the Bhagalpur district of Bihar and this Vikram Shela is known to us mainly through Tibetan sources only. Especially we know it through the writings of the Tibetan monk historian of the 16th to 17th century. Yes I'm talking about Taranatha. So Vikram Shela was one of the largest Buddhist universities. It had more than 100 teachers and about 1000 students. It even produced eminent scholars who are often invited by foreign countries to spread Buddhist learning culture and religion. So here you should know about the most distinguished and eminent scholar among them. It was the Adisha Dipankara. He is the founder of Sarma traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. So he was a scholar from Vikram Shela and note that subjects like philosophy, grammar, metaphysics, Indian logic were taught here and most importantly Vikram Shela existed as a branch of learning for Buddhist Tantra also. So these are the few facts that you need to know about Nalanda University and Vikram Shela University. Both were part of the five great Mahaviras that existed during the Pala period. So with these facts in mind now let us get to the next discussion. So now let us see what this news article says. It mentions that India has plans to introduce eight deep ocean gliders, 48 deep Argo Floats and another 150 wave drifters and this is to be done to strengthen the capacity of observations in the Indian Ocean and notably this will be done as a part of deep ocean mission. This is the news today. So let us understand what is this deep ocean mission and particularly we'll see these three important technologies that is deep ocean gliders, Argo Floats and wave drifters which are important in deep ocean research. The syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is highlighted here for your reference. Let us first understand about deep ocean mission but why deep ocean? It is because the deep ocean or deep sea harbors the highest biodiversity on earth. It even has novel biomolecules that are of industrial importance and biomedical importance and there are also resources important in other sectors. So to harness these resources Government of India launched the deep ocean mission. It was launched by the Ministry of Earth Sciences. So the main intention of this mission is to develop technologies to harness the living and non-living resources from the deep oceans and this mission has six thematic areas as you can see here. Now among these six the one that is relevant to today's discussion is the Team 3 which is about technological innovations for exploration and conservation of deep sea biodiversity. Now this theme is being implemented by the Center for Marine Living Resources in association with National Institute of Ocean Technology and Baba Atomic Research Center. Now why this theme is important? Because Indian deep sea environments are meagrely explored plus there is also lack of cutting-edge technologies for harnessing the deep sea resources. So to address this challenge only this theme on technological innovations has been brought under the deep ocean mission and this theme has these objectives as you can see the first objective is inventorization and archival of deep sea fauna and also development of DNA bank. So inventorization means developing of inventories and it also aims to build capacity on deep sea taxonomy which will be done through systematic training. It also aims to screen for novel biomolecules and it also has the objective of assessing the biofouling, biocorrosion processes in deep sea environments etc. Just go through these objectives and note down. Now you should also know that under this initiative that is under theme 3, bioprospecting of deep sea biota for sustainable utilization of deep sea based bioresources will be focused. Here the deep sea biota will also include microbes but what is bioprospecting? It is the research for plant or animal species or microbes in order to obtain medicinal drugs, biochemicals and other commercially valuable material. Now along with this you also saw that inventorization of deep sea fauna and flora will be also done and this will be done through systematic sampling. Now for bioprospecting and inventorization they use technologies which are remotely operated vehicles and these are operated from sea mounds in the Indian Ocean and in this regard India's planning to introduce three important technologies in deep ocean research and among them the first one is deep sea gliders. So, what is it? A sea glider is an autonomous underwater vehicle or we can call it as an underwater glider. These underwater vehicles are used for measuring oceanographic parameters such as you know it records chlorophyll levels, temperature of the ocean and even the salinity of the ocean. Now after measuring these parameters the data is transmitted back to the shore. Therefore these deep sea gliders are very effective tools for gathering data from the ocean. Now this is how the deep sea glider works. Note that this equipment is designed for missions that will cover thousands of miles in distance and which will last for many months and also note that this equipment can operate at depths up to thousand meters and one of the main features of this equipment is that the hull compresses. See hull is the main body of a ship. Now in this case this will be the hull. Now this hull will compress as it sinks so it will match the compressibility of a seawater. So this makes it easy for the equipment to move in the water and it will move in a sawtooth like pattern and it will also surface again and again to determine its position using GPS. It will also have internal sensors which will determine the vehicle heading depth and attitude while it dives. See vehicle heading is the direction in which the vehicle is pointed at. Now it will also have external sensors. Now these external sensors only will scan the ocean to collect oceanographic data. So from this data various climatic conditions and the monsoons can be predicted because we know that climatic conditions and monsoons depends on sea temperatures, currents, salinity etc. So this was about the deep sea glider. Now the second technology is deep argofloaters. So generally the standard argofloat mission is a 10-day cycle. This is the 10-day cycle and most of the float's time is spent drifting along the deep ocean currents. Now while doing this drifting it will take series of measurements and then it will move back up to the ocean surface. Now once the float is on the surface it gets its location. For example it will get its location through GPS. Then with the help of communication satellites it will send the data and it will also receive any new mission instructions. So this mission cycle repeats until the float dies. According to some sources the float is active for four to five years. Now what are the uses of an argofloat? See the data which is collected by the argofloat which we can call it as argodata. They're used by weather and climate centers to help understand the way by which the oceans affect climate. See these climate centers are working to improve forecasts of El Nino events and also to understand other climatic features like monsoons and global warming. Now like the deep sea gliders this argo is also a main source of subsurface temperature and salinity from deep oceans. Further many researchers also use this data to better understand the fundamentals about ocean. So this was about the argofloat. Now next comes the wave drifters. This wave drifter is a preferred wave observing instrument. It is used for marine environment observation especially it is used for open sea wave measuring application. And it is a low cost instrument which is of small size and this instrument is developed based on the GPS receivers and it is deployed in open sea. Now this device provides standard wave parameters and these could be used for many applications like data simulation into wave forecast models. Then they could be used in the validation of wave forecast models for calibration of satellite wave sensors and even for the investigation of ocean wave climate and variability. So these are the three important deep ocean research instruments that you need to know. See the deep ocean mission and these instruments are important for us from exam perspective because government is focusing on them. Why it is due to the fact that oceans are key to understand the climate and this understanding will help us in securing the lives and livelihoods because we have a vast coastline. So on those lines government of India is already drafting a policy on blue economy and this deep ocean mission which we saw today forms an integral part of that policy. Here what is blue economy? It is the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth for improved livelihoods and jobs and for ocean ecosystem health. Plus through blue economy policy and through the deep ocean mission it is expected that we'll get socially useful and commercially relevant knowledge and also the technology is relevant to it. Further it is also expected to enable our country to become a transnational as well as a regional hub for marine biology and biotechnology research. So that is why deep ocean mission along with the blue economy policy is important for us. So in this discussion we saw what is a deep ocean mission. It has six themes and today we saw about the theme related to technological innovations and under that we saw its objectives plus we saw three important technologies or instruments that are used in deep ocean research. So with these points in mind now let us get to the next discussion. So now our discussion is going to be based on this news article. It talks about the world happiness report of 2022. So note that this report was completed before the Russian invasion of Ukraine so whatever data has been taken by the report is before the Russia-Ukrain war. So let us see few facts about world happiness report and the findings of 2022 report. See basically it is a publication of United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network and this report is based on the World Happiness Index which is a UN sponsored index and it is published annually. And note that the index basically highlights the level of happiness and for this purpose it takes into account six factors. So you can say these are the six indicators. They are GDP levels, life expectancy, generosity, social support, freedom and corruption in the nation. In addition to this the effects of COVID-19 on the people and the performance of governance system were also taken into account in the 2022 report. Plus in 2022 report authors also use the data from social media. This was to compare people's emotions before and after COVID-19 pandemic. And note that the index assigns a happiness score. It varies from 0 to 10 and particularly this 2022 report is based on an average of the data over a three-year period which is from 2019 to 2021. So when was the report first released? It was first released in 2012. But note that before that happiness was not considered as an objective of governance. But since 2012 the connection between law, governance and happiness started gaining attention due to the World Happiness Report and Index. Now let us come to the 2022 findings. See again Finland has gained the status of world's happiest country. It has gained the status for the fifth consecutive year. As you know Finland is a Nordic country. But on the other hand our neighbour Afghanistan is ranked as the unhappiest country. That is it is lost in the list. Afghanistan is closely followed by Lebanon. Now this situation of Afghanistan is due to the humanitarian crisis that is caused by Taliban. And in the case of Lebanon economic meltdown is the reason. But now what about India? Are we in the top or are we in the bottom or are we in the middle? Unfortunately India is in the bottom 10. India has been ranked 136 out of 146 countries. And note that India has ranked even lower than Pakistan. Pakistan is at 121st position. Now if you compare India's rank with the Sark countries as they already said Afghanistan is at the worst position. But next comes India at the 136th position. And then we have Bangladesh at the 94th position. Nepal at 84th position. Sri Lanka at 127th position. And Pakistan at 121st position. Now with respect to Sri Lanka we can assume that in the current economic crisis of Sri Lanka its rank may drop further if the data is collected now. But you can note that Nepal's and Bangladesh's rank are in two digits. But among the Sark countries Maldives and Bhutan are not taken into account in the report. But with respect to Bhutan remember that it stands as an inspiring example for the world. Why? Because it showed the world on how to combine health and happiness by using the principles of gross national happiness. And this even led to the avoidance of a single COVID-19 death in 2020 in Bhutan. So overall the important lessons that need to be learned from the 2022 report is that first one should give social support and show generosity to another. And second honesty in government is crucial for well-being. So these are the few facts that you need to know from world happiness report and index. So now let us get to the next discussion. So now our next discussion is going to be based on this lead editorial article. See the article talks about active citizens, passive citizens and political subjects and it also talks about the difference between these citizenry. And according to the author of this editorial there is a re-emergence of passive citizens and political subjects and there is also disappearance of active citizens. So today to understand the editorial let us understand who are active citizens, who are passive citizens and who will be called political subjects. We'll see the difference between them and what their roles have led to. Particularly in India. So you may think why I have chosen this topic. Is it relevant to the examination? Actually yes it is very much relevant. Generally you see these terms that is active citizens, passive citizens when you study about French Revolution. On the other hand understanding these terms are important to know about the political system of a country. So this topic is important from the perspective of policy and also from essay perspective. And particularly in the current scenario you can link this topic to the issues that are going around in various countries like Ukraine, Sri Lanka where war and protests are going on. And the public is demonstrating any of these characteristics. And finally you can also assess what kind of citizenry exists in a country including ours. So when you understand these terminologies then only you can use them in the exam and that is why we are going to discuss these terms today. So before that the syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. Now let us start with the understanding of active citizens. Who is an active citizen? She is the one who is able to do mainly three things. First she is able to vote. Second she can publicly discuss the common good and use legally available means to influence public policy and law. Along with this she can also criticize, modify and even repeal them if such policy and law does not address their requirements. And third she can also run for public office. So when we say active citizen we mean that these three features are there. And according to the author the first decade of the 21st century can be called as an era of active citizenship. Why because if you take the example of India the then Congress-led coalition government was compelled by activists to grant everyone the right to information and right to education. If you remember the government was also compelled to launch the employee guarantee scheme of MG Narega. Particularly the Nirbhaya incident of the national capital turned thousands of young women and men into political activists. And there was also another significant incident which was the anti-corruption movement that virtually paralyzed the then government and by replacing that government the present government came to power. So these kinds of citizen empowerment were termed as the era of active citizenship. Now you should understand that this active citizenship is in sharp contrast to passive citizenship. Who are passive citizens? See they are the ones who rarely act in the public domain. They are either unable to vote or unwilling to vote. Actually they don't even bother to take a stand on public issues. And particularly standing for public office is the last thing they would imagine or want. So generally they are most satisfied with the things that they receive from the state and they do not even actively demand for it. That is why we call them passive. But still remember that passive citizens are citizens of a country and they enjoy some basic rights. Now along with these two we also have a third type that is the political subjects. And according to author there are two features from which we can distinguish a political subject from a passive citizen. See first, political subjects do not have any rights. They live by the grace of the ruler and they get his or her protection. They get benefits by being loyal to the ruler. Now this dedication makes them to devote themselves to promote the personal interests of the rulers. And this helps the ruler to easily subordinate those subjects. And secondly the passive citizens never equate the state with the current ruler. Actually if you notice a democratic ruler will not call the state as her own. But however on the other hand political subjects identify the state with the ruler. That is we can even say that in the eyes of political subjects the ruler is the state and the state is the ruler. So here belonging to the state means becoming the ruler's subjects. Now here the subject's condition is a mixture of subordination and servitude. But here that subject gratefully accepts it because the ruler provides protection. And here she interprets the wishes of the ruler as commands and thereby she has no appetite for rebellion also. And that is why in case of political subject when the subject receives a negligible portion of the state's treasury she believes that it is the charity flowing directly from the ruler's personal generosity. So by this the subject becomes overjoyed and is more respectful of the ruler. And more importantly here the subject will feel that disobedience would amount to shameful betrayal. So this is how we differentiate an active citizen from a passive citizen and a political subject from a passive citizen. But now why we are discussing about these political subjects? It is because author has cited the example of current ruling government of India. According to the author in the recently held elections the leader of the current ruling party rightly went to the subjects with the expectation that they would vote for him. Here by this author means that the leader knew that those who had eaten his salt cannot betray him. So from this we can understand that author gives an impression like you know today's political world is clearly divided between rulers and their passive but loyal subjects. Now in addition to this author also talks about another class of citizens called citizen subject. Now this citizen subject category is a mix of passive citizens and active subjects. They are an extremely large group of people who are neither rulers nor passive subjects. Now here they are active in the sense that they surrender aspects of citizenship and they are also passive because they embrace subjecthood. So according to the author the conclusion is now the passive subjects are making a comeback and this is severely compromising our democracy and it has made citizenship virtually redundant. So this is the conclusion of the author. Now from this discussion what you have to take notice who are active subjects, who are passive subjects, who we will call as political subjects and you also learned a new terminology called citizen subject. You can use these terms while talking about the current political system of our country or even any other country. You can use these terminologies for criticizing the government as well as for praising it. So it depends on you on how you perceive the political system of our country. So with these points in mind now let us get to the next discussion. So now let us take up this next article. It states that three spotted deer died in IIT Madras campus and anthrax is suspected to be the cause of deer death. Now I have taken this news article because prelims is nearing so we can revise about spotted deer and anthrax in prelims perspective. See always remember that with respect to deer species there are many questions and prelims. For example even if you take the prelims 2020 we had a question on Indian swamp deer. So it is better to know about spotted deer also. See this spotted deer is native to Indian subcontinent. It is also known as the cheethal deer or access deer. It is found in the forests of Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka along with the forests of India. And mainly the species occurs in subtropical grasslands and forests. And they also prefer habitats of riverine forest during the hot dry season whereas they prefer salt forest during the monsoon season. So generally they occupy grassland habitats and allows to graze a newly grown grass that has formed after burning of the area. But note that a species is threatened by many activities especially certain anthropological activities. It is highly vulnerable to poaching habitat destructions and livestock-borne diseases. So they are illegally hunted for trade and human encroachments also cause habitat loss and degradation. And certain invasive alien plant species are also a major threat to their diet. Thereby it affects the species also. So that is why this species is globally categorized as least concern in the IOCN Red List. But it is not yet listed in sites. And under Indian Wildlife Protection Act spotted deer has been given the protection under Schedule 3. So these were the facts about spotted deer. Now let us come to anthrax. See anthrax is an infectious zoonotic disease. And you know that we often get questions on zoonotic diseases in problems. See when we say zoonotic disease it means it could be transferred from animals to humans. Now domestic and wild animals can become infected when they breathe in or ingest anthrax spores which are in contaminated soil, plants or water. Now here we are talking about animals like cattle, sheep, goats, antelope and deer. And in areas where domestic animals have had anthrax in the past routine vaccination helps to prevent outbreaks. So basically it is an infectious zoonotic disease and it is caused by gram positive rod shaped bacteria which is called as bacillus anthracis. This bacteria naturally occurs in soil and it commonly affects domestic and wild animals as we already saw. Now people will get sick with anthrax if they come in contact with infected animals or contaminated animal products. So know that here anthrax not only causes illness in animals but it also affects humans. But it is not contagious which means you cannot catch anthrax from one person to another like how we catch cold. But we get affected or infected with anthrax when spores get into the body. When they get into a body they can be activated and the bacteria spores can then multiply and spread out in the body. They produce toxins and cause severe illness. And this can even happen when people breathe in spores or eat food or drink the water that is contaminated with anthrax spores. But what about the treatment for this zoonotic disease? See it responds well to antibiotic treatment. So it must be provided with medical advice. And note that antibiotics can prevent anthrax from developing in people who have been already exposed but have not developed any symptoms. And along with this there is also a vaccine for anthrax but it is not approved for widespread use. That is anthrax vaccine normally isn't available to the general public. So these were the facts that you need to know about anthrax as well as about spotted deer. So with these news article discussions now we have come to the last session for the day which is the practice questions discussion session. Now look at this question. See this is how a question is framed by UPSC in the subject of ancient history. Let us read the question. What is or are not common to the historical places known as Nalanda and Vikramshila. So let us first see what is common to these places based on these sentences. And then we will see which is not common to these places. Now first statement both were built in the same period. Now this statement is incorrect because Nalanda was established during the Gupta Empire era and it was supported by numerous Indian and Japanese patterns who were both Buddhists and non-Buddhists. And to be specific the Emperor Kumara Gupta established the university in the 5th century AD. But on the other hand Vikramshila was founded by Pala king Dharmapala in the late 8th or early 9th century. So first statement is wrong here. So this is not same among these two universities. Now second statement both were patronized by Pala dynasty. Now this statement is correct actually. Why? Because both these universities were supported by numerous Indian and Japanese patterns. Now Vikramshila was built by Pala rulers. So obviously Pala's patronized Vikramshila. On the other hand the rulers from 8th to 12th century patronized the Nalanda university also who belong to the Pala dynasty. So statement two is correct. Now statement three. Both were destroyed during invasion by Afghan invader Bhakti R. Kilji. We saw this during discussion itself. So the statement is correct. Now we have to find which statement or which fact is not common to both the universities. First statement is not common. They were not built in the same period. So the correct answer to this question is option A one only. Now let us take up this next question. It is on deep ocean vision. First statement is it is an integral form of blue economy. Statement is correct. We saw that our government is also framing the blue economy policy under which deep ocean mission is an integral part. Now statement two. One of its thematic areas cover the development of technologies for deep sea mining. This is the first theme among the six themes under deep ocean mission. So this statement is also correct. And here the question also asks for us to choose the correct statements. So correct answer is option C both one and two. Now let us take up this next question. It is on spotter deer. Which of the following statements about spotter deer is correct. Now first statement. They are found only in India. This statement is incorrect because we saw that this species is native to Indian subcontinent. But it is also found in the forests of Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Now statement B. It is listed as endangered by the ISN Red List. This is incorrect because this species is categorized as least concerned by the ISN. Now third statement. Invasive alien plant species such as Mekania, Mekranta, Lantana, Kamara and Chromolena, Odorata are major threats to the spotter deer. Now this statement is correct. See these invasive alien plant species. Note the names of these species. These are major threats to the spotter deers. We did not see this fact in the discussion. So note this down. Therefore the correct answer to this question is option C. Why? Because option D says both A and C. But option A is incorrect. So with these three problems practice questions, let me take the quiz question for today. It is a very simple question. Actually even if you did not listen to the analysis, I think you may guess the right answer for this question. So try it and post the answer in the comment section. And now I have two main questions for today. Interested aspirants can write the answers and post the answer in the comment section as usual. And whenever we get time, we will definitely review your answer. So with this we have come to the end of today's India news analysis and practice questions discussion session. If you like this video, don't forget to like, comment and share. And also subscribe to Shankar Ayes Academy YouTube channel for receiving regular updates. Thank you.