 Good evening as friends welcome to the hindu news analysis by Shankar A.S academy for the rate 17th of May 2023 displayed here are the list of news articles we will be going through today. Now let's start the discussion. Let us start today's discussion with this article from the editorial page. This article is talking about the recent trends in India's trade. India has rolled out a new foreign trade policy 2023 from April 2023. Now one month has been completed. So in this backdrag only this article was written. This article gives us a picture about how India is doing on its exports and imports after rolling out the foreign trade policy 2023. Now in this discussion we will learn about India's foreign trade policy and we will also see the trends in India's exports and imports. Let's start with India's foreign trade policy 2023. The trade policy has been launched to promote exports and facilitate ease of doing for exporters. The new foreign trade policy is aimed to increase India's goods and service exports to 2 trillion USD by 2030. Note that this new foreign trade policy 2023 came into effect from April 1st 2023. The policy is built on the principle of trust and partnership with exporters. It is based on four pillars. They are firstly incentive to remission. Secondly export promotion through collaboration. Thirdly ease of doing business and finally emerging areas. These are the four pillars and based on this only the FTP 2023 is working. Apart from this the FTP 2023 also introduces several new schemes to promote exports. Firstly the policy introduced a one time amnesty scheme for exporters. This scheme helps the exporters to close old pending authorization and to start afresh. Secondly the policy rolled out the towns for export excellence scheme. This scheme encourages the recognition of new towns for export purposes. And finally the FTP 2023 introduced the status holder scheme. This scheme gives recognition to exporters. These are the schemes introduced by the FTP 2023 to promote exports. Now talking about the objectives of the FTP 2023. Firstly the FTP 2023 strives to induct re-engineering and automation technology to facilitate ease of doing business for exporters. Secondly the policy emphasizes the use of automated IT system with risk management for various approval. And it also aims to codify the implementation mechanism in a paperless online environment. Thirdly the policy reduces fee structure and IT based scheme to make it easier for MSMEs and others to access export benefits. Fourthly the FTP 2023 promotes the exports from the district level and accelerates the development of grass root trade ecosystem. For this purpose the policy builds partnership with the state governments and takes forward the districts as exports hub initiative. This initiative helps us to identify export worthy products and services and also helps to resolve concerns at the district level. And finally the policy aims to prepare district specific export action plans for each district. This is done by outlining the district specific strategy to promote the export of identified products and services. This is all about the new foreign trade policy 2023. Now moving forward let us see the trend in India's exports and imports as given in the editorial article. The article reports that India's goods exports declined to 34.6 billion dollars in April from 42 billion dollars in March 2023. This was the lowest since October. If we compare this data with April 2022 India's goods exports in April 2023 was 12.7 percentage below the April 2022 records. No coming to imports. The imports also declined to a sharper 14 percentage and it stood at 50 billion dollars. It was a 15 month low. In last March imports stood at 60 billion dollars. See overall both exports and imports of goods declined in last April. Now what are all the reasons for this decline? Globally the demand for goods is restrained due to recessionary effects in major economies like the US and the EU. This majorly affects India's exports. Apart from this the Russia Ukraine war and the raising covid cases also has some impact on the decline in India's exports and imports. So that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion we saw the important points about the new foreign trade policy 2023 and we also saw the current trends in India's trade. With this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this news article. The European Union's foreign minister Joseph Borrell stated that Europe should not allow the entry of refined petrodium products from India made using Russian crude oil. Also a Finland based think tanks report alleged that five countries including India acted as laundromats to buy Russian oil and sell refined products to European countries. The said reports is titled as laundromat how the price cap coalition whitewashes Russian oil in third countries. In this discussion today we will first try to understand the highlights of this report by CREA that is Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air and we will also see what this report means by the term laundromat countries. We know that many European countries have imposed sanctions on Russian crude oil because of the Russia-Ukrain war. This is to keep down the Russian oil revenue. Some countries have joined this coalition and it is called as price cap coalition. Russia started selling oil at a discounted price to countries which are not part of this coalition. India and few other countries benefited from this because of the cheaper price. The Indian government even has explained that it chooses to buy oil from Russia because it believes it is the most cost effective option. Now let us see what this report says. First we will understand what this report means by the term laundromat countries. As per the report the laundromat countries are the ones which buy cheap crude oil from Russia. India, China, Singapore, the UAE and Turkey are considered as laundromat countries. So basically these countries take the cheap crude oil from Russia and then they process it into refined pentrodium products like gasoline and diesel. Then they sell these processed oil products to other countries mainly in Europe and the G7 nations. These processed oil products are kind of laundered or cleaned in other countries to make it look like they did not come from Russia. The CREA report further says that among these laundromat countries, India is the biggest consumer of Russian crude oil delivered by sea. And India is exporting about 3.8 million tons of these processed oil products to countries in the price cap coalition. I explained about the price cap coalition earlier right. So this price cap coalition includes countries like the European Union, G7 countries, Australia and Japan. This coalition has a rule that they won't trade or provide insurance for any oil purchased from Russia if it is above a certain price. As per the report, Western countries have bought about $42 billion worth of these laundered Russian crude oil products from friendly nations. For example, India's diesel exports to European countries tripled to about $160,000 per day in March 2023. This is after the Russia-Ukraine war started. Previously, European countries used to buy oil products directly from Russia. However, now it is like they are substituting these products with the same ones that are whitewashed in other countries. These whitewashed products are sold at a higher price. This is higher compared to what they used to pay for directly buying oil from Russia. So this is a matter of concern to the European countries. Also it undermines the efforts of the European countries to restrict funding for Russia. This means effort to restrict funding for Russia are being weakened because Russian oil is finding its way into Europe indirectly through the laundromat countries. The report also accuses Indian sellers and European buyers of finding ways to buy for the sanction imposed on Russia by Western countries. So this is all about the crux of the report. In this discussion, we saw about the report published by CRA and we also saw what is mean by laundromat countries and how they whitewash the Russian crude oil. So that's all regarding this discussion. Now let us take up the next news article. Look at this editorial article. See recently, the Chief Minister of Rajasthan announced that the state would set up India's first welfare fund called the Rajasthan platform-based gig workers social security and welfare fund. Based on this announcement only, this editorial is written. This editorial highlights various aspects of the steps taken by the Rajasthan government. It also highlights the challenges associated with it. So in our discussion today, let us see who are gig workers. We will also see the code of social security 2020. Then we will see the steps taken by the Rajasthan government. And finally, we will see the challenges associated with the steps taken by the government. Okay, this is the plan for today. Now let's start. Let us start by seeing who are gig workers. Gig workers are independent contractors or freelancers who typically do short-term work for multiple clients. The work may be project-based, hourly or part-time and can either be an ongoing contract or a temporary portion. The job in gig economy typically requires interacting with users online through an online platform. The drivers engaged in platforms like Uber, Rapido and food delivery partners associated with platforms like Zomato and Swiggy are some of the best examples of gig workers whom we encounter on a day-to-day basis. Recently, Nithya Yoginidh's India's booming gig and platform economy report estimated that India's gig workforce is expected to reach about 23.5 million workers by 2029.30, which is nearly a 200% jump from the current 7.7 million workers. Although the sector is booming, it is not without its fair share of issues. Now we will see the challenges faced by the gig workers. The first and foremost issue faced by the gig workers are the income fluctuations. The income for gig workers will not be the same amount unlike the monthly salarized person who will be earning a fixed amount of money throughout the year. The income of gig workers will be based on the demand for the service or labor they provide. So this makes them face the issue of fluctuating income every month. This is the first and the foremost issue. Moving on to the next issue, the next major issue is the job security. Most of the gig workers can be fired from their job without prior notice. Next, the gig workers may lack benefits which other employees enjoy such as ESAPF or insurance. We can say that gig workers enjoy very minimal or close to no social security. This is also a major challenge faced by the gig workers. Also there is no proper wage regulation in case of gig workers because they are not covered under the Code of Wages 2019. The Code of Wages 2019 prescribes minimum wages for various jobs but the Code of Wages does not cover gig workers. This is also a major issue. The next one is high commission charges. See the gig workers are affected by the high commission charges by the online platform in which they work. The online platforms provide offers to attract consumers and they compensate this loss by charging high commission from the gig workers. The last one is the delayed payment made by the platform companies. These are some of the major challenges faced by the gig workers. Our government for its part has taken steps to address some of these challenges. One among the many steps taken by the government is the Code on Social Security 2020. Moving forward we will see some of the important finds from the Code on Social Security 2020. Let us start with the objective. The main objective of the Code on Social Security 2020 is to amend and consolidate all the existing labour laws relating to social security. This is done to extend social security benefits to all employees and workers irrespective of belonging to the organized or unorganized sector. Now we will see some of the major provisions of the Code. Firstly the definition of employees was expanded to include contract workers that is the gig workers. It also expanded the definition of platform workers to additional category of services or activities as may be notified by the government. Next the Code impoverished the central and the state government to set up social security funds for unorganized workers and platform workers. It also makes provisions for registration of unorganized workers, gig workers and platform workers. The Code also provides for the establishment of national and state level boards for administrating schemes for unorganized sector workers. The National Social Security Board established for this purpose will also look at the welfare of the gig and the platform workers. Finally there is the issue of funding. According to the Code funding for the scheme for gig and platform workers is to be funded through a combination of contribution from the central government, the state government and the aggregators. Here the aggregators are none other than the companies like Vola and Uber. The aggregators have to make a contribution between 1 to 2 percentage of their total revenue for the scheme supporting the welfare of the gig workers. These are some of the provisions of the Code. Although the Code seems promising, these provisions under the Code has not come into force yet. Rajasthan has become the first state in India to take the first step in this regard. The Rajasthan government is in track to enact the law for social security of the gig workers. The Rajasthan government has brought out a Rajasthan platform based gig workers registration and welfare bill 2023. The bill established welfare boards and welfare funds in the government's budget for 2023-24. The Rajasthan platform based gig workers welfare board will have representatives from bureaucracy, employers and workers. This will enable better communication between the parties and it will serve as a platform for workers to bring a common voice for their concern. The Rajasthan government has also proposed to establish Rajasthan platform based gig workers social security and welfare fund. The fund will start with a seed money of Rs 200 crores, but it is still not clear how the fund will be sourced. The Rajasthan government is also planning to put in place stringent provisions for non-compliance. Here non-compliance include not filing annual reports and not integrating gig worker data with the board's database. The employer will have to pay a penalty of Rs 10 lakhs for the first violation and up to maximum Rs 1 crore for subsequent violations. See these are some points about the steps taken by the Rajasthan government. See earlier we saw about the code and social security rate. One of the key proposal of the code is to address the challenges of the gig workers. And to address the challenges the code proposes setting up of a welfare board or the social security board. But there are some challenges associated with the setting up of social security board as the last part of today's discussion. Let us see the challenges associated with setting up of the social security board. The first challenge is meager benefit. The gig workers have to spend lot of time to get themselves registered with the welfare board. Also the collectivization of gig workers is an enormous task. After the long ordeal of getting the gig workers collectivized and getting themselves registered in the board the benefit they derive from the board is very minimal. This acts as a deterrent for the collectivization of gig workers. This is the first challenge. The second challenge is that the code of social security only protects the gig workers against vulnerability. It does not provide rights to the workers. These are the two main challenges associated with the welfare board and the code on social security 2020. So that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion first we saw who are gig workers. Then we saw the challenges faced by the gig workers. After that we saw the steps taken by the government to address the challenges in that we saw about the code on social security 2020. After that we saw the recent steps taken by the Rajasthan government. And finally we saw the challenges in the social security board and the code on social security 2020. With this now let me complete this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this news article. It says that our Prime Minister will be visiting Japan, Puppa Nuguniya and Australia from May 19 to 24. He will attend the G7 summit in Hiroshima. After that he will travel to Port Morse Bay to attend the third summit of the Forum for India Pacific Islands Cooperation. Finally he will visit Sydney for the Quad Summit. In this discussion we will see in brief about the Forum for India Pacific Islands Cooperation or FIPIC. The FIPIC was launched in November 2014 during our Prime Minister's visit to Fiji. It includes 14 island countries in the Pacific region. The countries are Cook Island, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niu, Samau, Solomon Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Tualu and one or two. These countries are relatively small in land area. But these countries have large exclusive economic zones. So they offer potential for cooperation with India. India has traditionally focused on the Indian Ocean, right? But the FIPIC initiative demonstrates India's effort to expand engagement in the Pacific region. Currently, the total annual trade between India and the Pacific Island countries is around $300 million, with exports of $200 million and imports of $100 million. When FIPIC was launched, India offered several assistant projects to these countries. The projects include a special fund of $1 million for climate change adaptation and clean energy and then setting up trade offices in India and so on. India also increased the annual grant in aid to $200,000 for each of the 14 Pacific countries and launched a visitors program for them. Now we will see the objectives of the FIPIC. The objectives are to provide information and facilitation for trade and investment, promote meeting between businessmen, facilitate business delegations, provide matchmaking services and organize events and trade fairs. The forum focuses on various areas of cooperation between India and these specific nations such as agriculture, fisheries, food processing, solar energy, e-networks for teleeducation, telemedicine, space cooperation and climate change. So that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw that the FIPIC initiative aims to enhance India's engagement with the 14 Pacific Island countries. These countries may be small in area, but they have vast exclusive economic zones. We also saw through various projects and areas of cooperation, India seeks to strengthen its ties with these nations, so as to expand its presence in the Pacific region. So that's all regarding this discussion. Now let us conclude this and take up the next news article. Look at this article here from the text and context page. It says that 22 people died after consuming spurious liquor in Chengalpattu and Vilpuram districts of Tamil Nadu. Also 30 more are being treated in the hospital. In this context, this article here has discussed about the ill effects of consuming spurious liquor and what are the factors that lead to tith. As a part of this discussion, we will see the important points discussed in the article. Before getting into the discussion, I have highlighted here the syllabus regarding this discussion. You can pause the video and go through it. Now let's start the discussion. First of all, we will know some information about alcohol and liquor. Liquor is differentiated into many things by its alcohol content. As you guys are familiar, beer contains 5% alcohol, wine contains 12% alcohol and distilled spirits like whiskey contains 40% alcohol. All these percentage are by volume. The beverages that we consume for recreational purpose almost always contains ethanol. There is another type of liquor known as spurious liquor. The spurious liquor mainly contains methanol. This is more injurious to health. But as far as WHO is concerned, no level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health. As per WHO, the long term consumption of alcohol leads to dependence on alcohol and it also leads to increased risk of cancers and heart disease and it may also lead to death. Now let's see how consuming alcohol is injurious to health in a scientific way. First let's take ethanol. Ethan is a psychoactive drug. In low doses, ethanol reduces the level of neurotransmission in the body. This only causes its typical intoxicating effects. But the people always forget their ill effects. The chemical composition of ethanol is C2H5OH. It contains two carbon atoms, five hydrogen atoms and one hydroxyl group, which is also known as OH-ion. Now let us say a person A is consuming this ethanol. Inside his body, it will be metabolized in the liver and the stomach by an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase. These enzymes convert the ethanol into acetaldehyde. And then aldehyde dehydrogenase enzyme present in the body will transform the acetaldehyde into acetate. The adverse effect of alcohol consumption that is from hangover to cancer, they are mainly due to the acetaldehyde. So long term consumption or consistent consumption of ethanol is injurious to health. This is about ethanol. Next we will see about methanol. This is spurious liquor. The chemical composition of methanol is CH3OH. So it contains one carbon atom, three hydrogen atoms and one hydroxyl group. Here let us say a person B has consumed spurious liquor which contains methanol. After the methanol enters the body of person B, it will be metabolized in the liver by alcohol dehydrogenase enzyme to form formaldehyde. The aldehyde dehydrogenase enzyme converts the formaldehyde into formic acid. Here only the problem starts. Only the accumulation of formic acid over time leads to a dangerous condition called metabolic acidosis. This is nothing but build up of too many acids in the blood. And this acidosis will lead to acidemia. It is a condition where blood's pH level drops below its normal value of 7.35. So the blood will become more acidic. See normally our blood's pH is maintained by a balance between acid and base. Now when methanol is metabolized, the concentration of bicarbonate ion drops. This only leads to increased acidic condition of our blood after consuming methanol. The ill effects of consumption of methanol are increased heartbeat, having headache, feeling tired or weak all the time, loss of appetite and feeling confused. So basically consuming methanol and the resulting acidosis has all the symptoms that a typical UPSC aspirant has after 3 or 4 years into preparation. Now coming back, see these symptoms are a result of acid build up inside the body. The formic acid formed due to methanol metabolism will not just cause metabolic acidosis. It will also interfere with an enzyme called cytochrome oxidase. This in turn will disrupt our cells ability to use oxygen and this leads to build up of lactic acid in our body. The build up of lactic acid will again contribute to acidosis. Apart from this methanol poisoning can also cause cerebral endema, hemorrhage and death. Also here note that a paper published by Archives of Toxicology in January 2022 said that methanol consumption leads to methanol induced optic neuropathy. It is a serious condition that results in long term or irreversible visual impairment or even blindness. This is what we often see in news, sometimes when people consume spurious alcohol the immediate effect is loss of eyesight. Now coming back, see from our discussion you know the ill effects of consuming both ethanol and methanol. The food safety and standards alcoholic beverages regulation 2018 has given the maximum permissible quantity of methanol in different liquors. In country phony methanol should be absent. Methanol can be present 50 grams per 100 liters in country liquor and 300 grams per 100 liters in pot distilled spirits. I am telling you this because in today's article death is caused by industrial grade methanol. It is found that the liquor seller bought industrial grade methanol and sold it to the victims. It said that for an adult more than 0.1 ml of pure methanol per kg of body weight can be devastating. That is if a person weighs 80 kilogram consuming just 8 ml of methanol can be devastating. But people in Tamil Nadu consumed industrial grade concentrated methanol and this wouldnt be caused death in Tamil Nadu. So thats all regarding this discussion. In this discussion we saw the ill effects of methanol and ethanol we also saw the scientific reasons why ethanol leads to cancer and other ill effects and why methanol leads to loss of eyesight and a condition called acidosis. Now let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this news article. The Kasi Traips recently made news. This is due to the controversial order by the Kasi Tribal Council. The Kasi Tribal Council issued an order not to issue a scheduled tribe certificate to any Kasi person who adopts the father's surname. This is about the news article given here. In this regard we will discuss about the Kasi Traips in Prelims perspective. The Kasi people are an indigenous ethnic group of mehalaya. In addition to mehalaya there is a significant population of Kasi tribes in the bordering states of Assam and in certain parts of Bangladesh. The Kasis inhabit the eastern part of mehalaya in the Kasi and the Jainthia Hills. They are the largest community in mehalaya with a population of around 48%. The Kasis have been granted the state of scheduled tribe under the Indian constitution. The Kasis residing Jainthia Hills are known as Pnars. The Kasis speak Mohan Kemmer language which is part of the astro-asiatic stock. Moving forward let us see the social structure of Kasis. They are a matrilineal society. When it comes to inheritance, the youngest daughter of the family are eligible to inherit the ancestral property. The youngest daughters are known as Ka Khadu. The marriage within a clan is considered a taboo in a Kasi society. The Kasis are no mostly Christians but before they believed in the supreme being called the Yubili Nongtha and under him there are several deities for water, mountains and also for other natural objects. Now coming to the occupation of the Kasi tribe. The main crops produced by Kasi people are beetle leaves, arachanet, oranges, local Kasi rice and vegetables. The Kasis are famous for wearing cane mats, stools and baskets. They make a special kind of cane mat called kliyeng which will last up to 20 to 30 years. Finally let us see the important first evils celebrated by the Kasis. First one is the Nongkram dance. In this festival people offer prayers to the God Almighty thanking him for good harvest, peace and prosperity of the community. It is held annually during October or November. The dance is performed in the open by men and virgin women. The second important first evils of Kasi tribe is the Shadshukh Myshyam which literally translates to the dance of peaceful hearts. Shadshukh Myshyam is the Kasi way of offering their thanks to the creator of the bountiful harvest received. It is mainly celebrated in Shilang district during the month of April. So that is all regarding this discussion. In this discussion we saw the important points about the Kasi tribe in prelims perspective. Note the points we discussed, it will be very helpful for your prelims examination. Now let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this news article. The Sirem Institute of India and Pinaka Biotech have submitted their responses to the ICMR for phase 3 clinical trial of an indigenous dengu vaccine. Currently there is no specific treatment for dengu. So there is an urgent need for an effective vaccine. So these two drug makers that is the Sirem Institute of India and the Pinaka Biotech are progressing towards phase 3 trials of the vaccine. This trial is for evaluating the efficacy, safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine. This is about the news article. In this context in our discussion today, let us see some points about dengu. See dengu is a tropical disease transmitted by mosquitoes, particularly the adis egyptian species. This mosquito also spread diseases like chicken gunia, yellow fever and zika. The symptoms include sudden high fever, severe headache, eye pain, muscle and joint pain. Diagnosis is done through a blood test and unfortunately there is no specific medicine for treating dengu infection. So as of now the focus is on managing the symptoms and providing supportive care to the patients. Moving forward let us see some interesting data associated with dengu. The data shows that in 2022 Tamil Nadu had the highest share accounting for 32% of all the reported cases of dengu until May. The southern states mainly Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh together contributed 60% of the reported cases. This is an interesting data which can be asked as a statement in the problems examination. See these maps. These maps provide the visual representation of dengu outbreaks over different periods of time. Each dot here represents an outbreak with the size of the dot indicating the number of the cases. Interestingly the outbreak pattern aligns with the movement of the southwest and northeast monsoons. This suggests that the dengu outbreaks are influenced by the seasonal patterns of rainfall. This is because monsoon plays a role in creating favorable conditions for mosquito breeding and also the spread of the disease. That is all regarding this discussion. In this discussion we saw the basics about dengu and we also saw some interesting data regarding the dengu incidents in our country. Now with this let us conclude this discussion and take up the final article for today's discussion. Now look at this data point here. It is about the worrying maternal health care in India. This article gives us data about the global as well as Indian information about maternal deaths. Also it gives information about the measures that help in reducing maternal deaths. So we will see the points given in this article in detail. First of all let us see the data about maternal death. The data is as per U1 report. It shows that 10 countries together account for 60% of global maternal deaths, stillbirth and newborn death. Out of these countries, one is India. In 2020 alone, India accounted for 70% of maternal related death. That report also showed that India has the second highest number of maternal death after Nigeria. This is regarding the data about maternal death. According to the United Nations, there are three steps that can be taken to address the issue of maternity related deaths in India. First is ensuring four antenatal care visits during pregnancy. Second is having a skilled attendant at birth. Third is receiving postnatal care, that is visiting hospital after childbirth within first two days of childbirth. These three interventions are needed to reduce the maternity related deaths in India according to the United Nations. But how does these interventions help reduce maternal deaths? The antenatal care visits helps the women to get access to micronutrient supplements such as iron and folic acid supplements. This will help in preventing anemia, which is the leading factor for maternal and perinatal mortality. During these visits, women will also be educated about the complications related to pregnancy and delivery. Despite these advantages, many mothers are not going to the hospitals for antenatal care visit. What are the reasons for this? This table here shows the reason. As you can see, wealth and education plays a major role in antenatal care visit. Now look at this table. Most mothers did not go to the antenatal care visit not because of their own choice but because of her husband or her family. The husbands do not allow the pregnant women to receive antenatal care from hospital as they feel that making constant visit to hospital is no good. You can use these points in your mains examination. You can use them while explaining the status of women in India. You can highlight these data and say that women in India are still in a position where they cannot even decide when it comes to their own health. The same is the case for postnatal care. Postnatal care with then first two days after childbirth is crucial because mothers will be in their most vulnerable state in this period. During this period also many mothers did not receive postnatal care for the same reasons. See these information given in this article are very important. Note down the article and try to use this information in your main sensor because these information are taken from the UN report and it is very valid. While you use these points in your main sensor, it will highlight your answer. It will help you fetch you more marks. Now that's all regarding this discussion. With this we have come to the end of the news article discussion session. Now let us take up the practice prelims questions. We have five practice prelims questions today. Let us see them one by one. Look at the first question. This question appeared in 2017 prelims paper. Two statements about Zika virus is given. We have to find the correct statements. Look at the first statement. In tropical region Zika virus disease is caused by the same mosquito that transmits dengue. This we saw in the discussion itself. This statement one is correct. Zika virus and dengue are transmitted by the Addis Egypti mosquito. Okay, so statement one is correct. Moving on to the second statement. Sexual transmission of Zika virus disease is possible. See this statement is also correct. Although Zika virus is primarily transmitted through mosquitoes, it can also be sexually transmitted as well. So here both the statements are correct and the correct answer here is option C both one and two. Moving on to the second question. This is a two statement question and it is a map based question about the Pacific Islands. Okay, let us take up the first statement. Kiribati and Cook Island are part of Polynesia. This statement is correct. Look at this map here. Here regions highlighting the Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia are given. From the map we know that statement one is correct. Moving on to the second statement. Solomon Islands and New Zealand are part of Micronesia. This statement is incorrect because from the map we know that New Zealand is part of Polynesia and Solomon Island is part of Melanesia. Okay, both are not part of Micronesia. So statement two is incorrect. So the correct answer here is option B one only. Moving on to the third question. In this question on one side, particularly vulnerable tribal groups are given and on the other side, union territories and states are given. We have to find the correct pairs. The correct answer for this question is option D. All the four pairs. All the four pairs given here are correctly matched. You can note them down. Also, take a note that Cartnoy can tribe is considered as a particularly vulnerable tribal group in both the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. And also know that when it comes to Maram Naga, you should not be deceived by the word Naga and think about Nagaland. The state of Nagaland actually does not have a particularly vulnerable tribal group. Maram Naga is a particularly vulnerable tribal group from Manipur. So the correct answer once again here is option D. All the four pairs. Moving on to the fourth question. It is a two statement question. We have to find the correct statements. Let us take the first statement. According to the National Family Health Survey five, institutional births have increased in the last five years. This statement is correct. In National Family Health Survey five, institutional births have increased in seven states more than 90% of the birth in the last five years were institutional births. But there is huge disparity in India. For example, in Kerala, nearly 100% of the births were institutional, but only 46% of the birth in Nagaland were institutional. Okay, note this point. Moving on to the second statement. When compared to National Family Health Survey four, infant mortality rate has declined in National Family Health Survey five due to good nutritional status. See, this statement is incorrect. Although compared to NFHS four, the infant mortality rate has declined in NFHS five, it is not due to the good nutritional status because as per National Family Health Survey five, nutritional status of children below five years of age is worsening. Stunting and chronic malnutrition have increased in 11 out of 17 states. So although the infant mortality rate has declined, it is not due to the good nutritional status. So statement two is incorrect. Since only statement one given here is correct, the correct answer here is option A only. Moving on to the last question. This is a quiz question for you. Interested aspirants can post the answer for this question in the comment section. The main question based on today's discussion are displayed here. Interested aspirants can write the answers for this question and post it in the comment section. If you like today's video, like, comment and share it with your friends. For more updates regarding UPSC preparation, subscribe to Shankara IS Academy's YouTube channel. Thank you for listening.