 Welcome to the Hindu news analysis by Shankar Ayesakarmi. The news articles along with the page numbers are displayed here for your reference. The PDF link of the handwritten notes and the timestamping of the news articles is given in the description box as well as in the comment section. Now let us start our today's news analysis. This question is based on the contaminated sites which are contaminated by toxic heavy metals and hazardous substances. And this news article is based on the Central Pollution Control Board which has notified around 128 contaminated sites in India. See based on the orders of NGT, that is National Green Tribunal, the Union Environment Ministry has started commissioning of cleaning these sites. And for around 20 sites in 6 states, detailed project reports is being prepared to clean up the notified sites. In this context, you should know that out of many contaminated sites, 5 or 6 sites are frequently in news. And these sites are Ranipeet in the state of Tamil Nadu, then Elur Creek in the state of Kerala, then Ganjam in Vadisha, then Raniya and Muradabad in Uttar Pradesh, then Nibra village in West Bengal and Ratlam in the state of Madhya Pradesh. If you look at the given question, it is asking that what is common to the places known as Ranipeet, Muradabad, Ganjam, Elur Creek and Ratlam? So for this question, the correct answer is sites contaminated by toxic and hazardous substances. See, Raniya in the state of Uttar Pradesh is known for chromium contamination and Ranipeet in the state of Tamil Nadu had been contaminated by chromium industries since 1970s till 1995, whereas Nibra in the state of West Bengal is also contaminated by chromium over-processing residues and other heavy metals, whereas Muradabad in the state of Uttar Pradesh, that is on the banks of river Ramganga, are contaminated mainly by improperly disposed electronic waste. And then Ganjam in the state of Vadisha is known for mercury contamination. And if you look at Elur Creek in the state of Kerala, which is known for pesticide and heavy metal contamination. These are some of the information with reference to this news article. And if you see the last option of the given question, it states that venues for first five Raisina dialogues. So in this context, you should know about Raisina dialogue, which is an annual geopolitical and geostatastic conference usually held in New Delhi. So far, that is from 2016 till 2020, five such dialogues were held in New Delhi only. So in the context of this news article, you should know that Ranipeet, Muradabad, Ganjam, Elur creeks and Rathlam sites are known for contamination by toxic heavy metals and hazardous substances. With this information, let us proceed to the next news article analysis. Let us see another news article with the help of a practice film's question. And this question is about Kaisanur forest disease in short KFD. In this context, you should know that KFD is a tick-borne viral disease. It means that tick act as the vector. See the virus causing this disease is called as Kaisanur forest disease virus in short KFD virus. See, this virus belongs to the genus Flavivirus. You know that this disease is endemic in the state of Karnataka and this disease is also referred as monkey fever by the local people. See initially the disease was limited to the state of Karnataka but later it was reported in other states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu. If you look at the news article, it mentions that so far four new confirmed KFD cases have been reported in the Wynod district of Kerala. In this context you should know about the mode of transmission of this KFD virus. See small mammals that is rants and squirrels are main reservoirs of the virus and monkeys act as amplifying host for the virus. That is they increase the virus load and spread the infection easily. Know that the viral transmission occurs to humans after an infected tick bites the human beings. And it is reported that most of the infected monkeys die from KFD infection. Also, if you see that cattle supports tick population by providing them blood mills. So the cattle herders are more susceptible to the viral infection. Apart from them, people who visit for recreation to rural or outdoor settings like hunters, forest workers or farmers are potentially at risk for infection when they come in contact with the infected ticks. So some of the symptoms of this disease include hemorrhagic infestations and certain neurological complications. And in KFD cases, the fatality rate is about 2 to 10 percent. And know that at present human to human transmission is not known. So with this information, let's take up the question. If you look at the first statement, it says that this disease was first reported in the state of Karnataka. And this statement is the correct statement. Then the second statement says it is a tick-borne bacterial infection. And this statement is incorrect because it is a tick-borne viral infection. And know that at present human to human transmission is not known. Therefore, the given thought statement is incorrect. And for this question, you have to choose incorrect statements. So option B, 2 and 3 only is the correct answer for this question. Now let us proceed to the next news article analysis. Now let's take up one more news article based on the practice question. And this question is based on Basmati variety of rice, which is a special long grain aromatic rice, which got JTAG in 2016. If you look at the news article, it mentions that the state of Madhya Pradesh and Madhya Suresht Basmati Groves Association have lost two separate cases filed by them in the Madras High Court in 2016, challenging the exclusion of 13 districts in the state from a map submitted by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority seeking geographical indication tag for Basmati rice grown in the Indo-Ganjati plain. From this news article, you should focus two important aspects. One is about Apeeda, which is a statutory body under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Then the next important aspect is about Basmati rice. This Basmati rice is a special long grain aromatic rice, which got JTAG in 2016. And this variety is one of the aromatic paddy varieties and it is known for its quality. This Basmati rice variety, which is mainly grown in Indo-Ganjati plain, got GA certification rights for Basmati cultivation only for in the states like Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and the two districts of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Though the state of Madhya Pradesh has been claiming that Basmati rice is grown in certain districts of Madhya Pradesh, however, these districts are not included in the geographical indications registry. Therefore, from the recent judgment, we can say that the GA certification rights for Basmati cultivation will be limited only in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and then the two districts of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and then the National Capital Territory of Delhi. So, to answer this question, you need to say whether the Madhya Pradesh is included or not. So, from our analysis, we have seen that Madhya Pradesh is not included in the geographical indications registry. So, for this question, option C is the correct answer. With this information, let us proceed to the next news article analysis. Now, let us take up this question which is based on COVID-19 disease. They have given two statements and you have to choose correct statements. See, this question was framed based on the numerous news articles reporting COVID-19 disease. See, COVID-19 is slowly spreading across the globe, including the states of India. This front page news article states that Punjab, Jammu and Karnataka have reported their first cases. Even if you look at this picture which appears in the foreign column, it tells that COVID-19 has reached about 105 countries and territories. And we know that this disease was first discovered in the Wuhan city of Hubei province of China. And from this city, it is now spreading across the globe. So, we can see that COVID-19 is spreading past across new countries and territories, including India. The highlighting fact is that more than a quarter of the confirmed cases are outside China. And out of the overall cases that were reported last week, about 97% have been reported outside China. So, the entire world is now facing some sort of health emergency. Now, let us see in brief about this COVID-19 disease. See, initially there was no official name for the disease and the virus, but it was called as 2019 novel coronavirus. And in the month of February, the official names were given. And the disease is now officially called as COVID-19 disease. And the virus which is responsible for COVID-19 is officially called as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. So, in short, it is known as SARS-CoV-2. This name was chosen because the virus is genetically related to the coronavirus which is responsible for the SARS outbreak in the year of 2003. But note that though they are genetically related, the two viruses are different. Remember, you should note that viruses are named by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, but the diseases are officially named by WHO. So, these are official names. But if you see WHO, which is referring to the virus as the virus which is responsible for COVID-19 or the COVID-19 virus when communicating with the public to avoid any confusion and unnecessary fear. Now, if you look at the Delhi edition of the Hindu newspaper, there is an advertisement to create awareness about COVID-19. So from this picture, you can see the symptoms and the mode of transmission of the virus. Here one important feature to know is that the SARS-CoV-2 is mainly transmitted through contact with respiratory droplets rather than through the air. So, we can say that SARS-CoV-2 virus is mainly transmitted through contact with respiratory droplets. And as of now, this is the official available data on the mode of transmission of COVID-19 disease. So, this is all about the discussion of this news article and also the advertisement given in the Delhi edition. With this information, if you look at the question that is given here, the first statement says that it is caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus. And the second statement says the virus that causes COVID-19 is mainly transmitted through contact with the respiratory droplets rather than through the air. So from our discussion, we have seen that the given two statements are correct statements with reference to COVID-19 disease. So for this question, option C, that is both 1 and 2, is the correct answer. These articles are with reference to the S-Bank crisis. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of these news articles is highlighted here for your reference. In our 7th March 2020, we have discussed about the crisis in S-Bank. And in this video, we have discussed about the moratorium application of RBI and its imposition by central government. Then we discussed the silent features of draft S-Bank limited reconstruction scheme of 2020. Then we saw about authorized capital, additional tier 1 capital and prompt corrective action framework of RBI. In today's analysis, we will discuss the some of the suggested measures mentioned in these editorials. See, the financial position of S-Bank limited has undergone a study decline and this is largely because of inability of the bank to raise additional capital to address the increasing loan losses and this inability has triggered the withdrawal of deposits. It was found that the bank has also experienced serious governance issues in the recent years which is also a reason for the study decline of the bank. In this juncture, the bank management was in talks with various investors and these talks were hoped to be successful by S-Bank limited. The bank was also engaged with a few private equity firms to infuse capital. In spite of all these engagements, infusion of capital did not happen to the S-Bank. Instead, the regular outflow of liquidity was observed from the S-Bank. Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India gave reasonable opportunity to S-Bank to bring a credible revival plan so as to avoid regulatory restructuring. However, the moment RBI understood that a credible revival plan was not on table even after adequate opportunity was given. Therefore, RBI applied for temporary suspension of business for S-Bank to the central government. As a result, the central government also imposed the moratorium. See, this moratorium period is to be from 5th March 2020 till 3rd April of 2020. Meanwhile, in this moratorium period, RBI has released a draft S-Bank limited reconstruction scheme of 2020. See, the scheme is to be finalized and yet to be sanctioned and notified by the central government. So, these are the reasons in general but we will see the specific reasons for the study decline of S-Bank. See, this bank is said to have given huge loans to financially stressed or bankrupt entities. It has given loans to Devon Housing Finance Limited, Infrastructure, Lacing and Financial Services and also to Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. It has also given credit even to Vodafone Group which is now stressed due to adjusted gross revenue issue. In addition, there are also allegations of corruption and abuse of power by Rana Kapoor who is a co-founder of this bank. See, the allegation is that S-Bank has given loans to stressed companies by the involvement of Rana Kapoor in corrupt practices. If you look at the news article, even it has reported that CBA has been conducting searches in the entities associated by Rana Kapoor and his family members. One of the allegations is that S-Bank has forwarded credit of Rs 3700 crores to Devon Housing Finance Limited which in turn have forwarded Rs 600 crores to an entity owned by wife of Rana Kapoor. So, these are actions against the interest of depositors of S-Bank. Also, the promoters of S-Bank are alleged to have violated applicable rules and regulations. See, one of the editorials states that the patent of S-Bank failure is seen in many promoter-driven companies. Say, in S-Bank, there is a CEO and a Managing Director. This CEO will run the company, but in general, the CEO is answerable to the board because the board of directors is the ultimate governing body of a company. But in family or promoter-controlled business, it was found that the board of directors do not function effectively. Rather, they almost take side with the decision of the promoters, though there are also independent directors in these boards because it is reported that independent directors are not performing their functions in the lettering spirit and they are rarely upholding the property or ethics in their functioning. And in most cases, they are not protecting the rights of minority shareholders. Even in some cases, when such independent directors question the decisions of the CEO, they are influenced and pressurized to vacate their office. So, one of the editorials is asking to strengthen the post of independent directors both in the appointment and also in functioning. So, this is to act as a check for promoter-driven entities from making decisions against the interest of depositors, credit seekers and also from making decisions against the interest of Indian economy. In addition to this, Indian regulators should take needed legal and regulatory actions against the promoters whenever they are found to have violated the required discipline. Indian regulators are asked to learn from Western regulators who are known for punishing the promoters. For example, Elon Musk was recently punished and asked to step down as Tesla Chairman by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. And he was penalized for issues related to insider trading. Even Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg have been fine for violations. So, Indian regulators should also take appropriate action at all times, not only when some institution is at trouble. It was also found that there is a delay in the side of RBI in taking actions on S-Bank. See, the present action should have been taken by RBI almost a year ago. This is because the news about governance failures and balance sheet weaknesses in S-Bank has been there in news for the last two years. This delay in responding has now made the S-Bank crisis as an unavoidable issue. And State Bank of India, which is a public sector bank, is now required to intervene to save the private bank at a time when S-Bank itself having its own problems to resolve. And because of the crisis, both the depositors and creditors are at great risk. See, depositors are worrying that whether their money will be given back. Such depositors are attracted by private banks as they promise high rate of interest for their deposits. The present situation in S-Bank is expected to trigger withdrawal of deposits from other private banks and also from some weak public sector banks. In addition, the creditors who were dependent on S-Bank to get credit are now searching for other financial institutions for their required credit. However, these tough times for S-Bank is expected to be in short term only. This is because that the reconstruction plan of RBA by involving S-Bank and other potential investors is likely to succeed. The main reason behind this optimism is that the role of investment to be played by S-Bank and 20 other potential investors. If nobody backs out and everything goes well, S-Bank can be bailed out. And once it is saved, RBA may sell its stake. So these are some of the important points we have to take note from these two editorials. To conclude these editorials, we have discussed the need for the strengthening of Board of Directors in the banking sector. Then we have discussed about the need for independence of independent directors in the Board of Directors. And then regulators should take action against the CEO or promoters of a company when they fail to adhere discipline in later in spirit. Then we also saw some specific reasons that has put S-Bank in trouble and then the delay in taking action against S-Bank by the Reserve Bank of India. However, if there is an infusion of capital to the tune of more than Rs 20,000 crores, S-Bank can be saved. With this information, let us proceed to the next news article analysis. This news article mentions that oil prices crashed after the collapse of OPEC less supply agreement. And this has created panic throughout the energy sector. So in this discussion, let us see about the supply agreement and the reasons for the collapse of this supply agreement. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference. See the OPEC less supply agreement is an agreement of organization of petroleum exporting countries. And this supply agreement which is mentioned in this news article is one of the two agreements of OPEC that was signed in 2016. See these agreements were drafted as the international oil sector was struggling to find equilibrium since the oil prices fell in the month of July 2014. See numerous factors contributed to the 2014 drop in oil prices and one of them was the low demand from the emerging economies such as China. And also the increased efforts of United States of America and Canada to increase their production capacity. So these led to the over supply of oil in the global market. And this was to be mitigated by these two agreements. Therefore, the principle aim of these agreements is to ease an ongoing oil over supply situation and to reduce a stock overhang which is needed for rebalancing of the oil market. Here stock overhang is used to describe a sizable block of stock or shares. If released in the market in one go then it would flood the market and therefore will put a downward pressure on prices of the commodity. And this leads to reduction in the prices of the given commodity. See they mentioned agreements required about 24 nations of the global leading oil producers to remove around 1.8 million barrels per day of crude oil from global supplies. And this was to be done from the beginning of 2017 over an initial six-month period. And from this picture you can notice the mentioned 24 leading oil producers. Now let us see the both agreements one by one. That is the first accord was reached at Vienna in Austria on 30th November 2016. And thus it is known as the Vienna Agreement. In this agreement the OPEC that is the OPEC countries agreed to reduce total oil production by about 1.2 million barrels per day from 1st January 2017. But few months later that is in the month of December 2017 again the organization reached a supplementary deal with a group of non-OPEC producers mainly led by the Russian Federation. And this agreement is named as the declaration of operation of the OPEC non-OPEC countries. Therefore through this declaration the member countries of OPEC coordinated with 11 non-OPEC oil producing countries to accelerate the stabilization of the global oil market through voluntary production adjustments. And as per this agreement the non-OPEC countries committed to a reduction in output or to reduce total oil production by almost 6 lakh barrels per day. And out of this the Russian Federation alone committed to lowering its output by about 3 lakh barrels per day. So this declaration seeks sustainable oil market stability in the interest of producers, consumers, investors and the global economy at large. See the declaration was an outcome of the joint OPEC non-OPEC producing countries ministerial meeting. This meeting was held in the month of December 2016 and the voluntary production adjustments that were agreed in this meeting was effective for an initial period of 6 months. But after every joint OPEC non-OPEC producing countries ministerial meeting the time period was extended. So the recent extension is still 31st March 2020 which was extended in the month of July 2019. In addition in the recent 7th OPEC non-OPEC ministerial meeting which was held in the month of December 2019 an additional voluntary production adjustment of 5 lakh barrels per day has been agreed by the OPEC nations. So this leads to a total reduction in oil production by 1.8 million barrels per day by OPEC nations. So together these two agreements constitute the landmark OPEC non-OPEC crude oil production agreement. See the newspaper is mentioning this agreement as OPEC plus supply agreement as in this agreement OPEC plus group includes both OPEC members and several other oil producing countries. So this was the scenario until recently but today's news is that Russia refused to support deeper oil production cuts proposed by OPEC recently. See the deeper oil cuts were proposed to mitigate with the outbreak of COVID-19 disease. See we have been seeing for the past few weeks that due to outbreak of COVID-19 there is a reduction in demand for oil. So to maintain the equilibrium in the oil prices OPEC suggested further production cuts under the declaration of cooperation. But now the agreements have collapsed because according to the news article OPEC presented Russia with an ultimatum. See the ultimatum was accepting a deal with much bigger cuts than expected or no deal at all. Here remember that already for three years Russia has been adhering to the production cuts. Now Russia was again asked to do much deeper cuts but Russia chose the later option of no deal at all. So as a response to the move by Russia OPEC removed all limits on its own production and even Saudi Arabia plans to boost its production above 10 million barrels per day in April 2020 after the current deal that is to curb production which is going to be expired at the end of March 2020. Now since Russia will not adhere to the production cut and OPEC has also removed the production limits this will lead to increased production of oil supply. So this scenario has created a fear of a supply hike in a market that is already flooded with crude oil. This scenario will lead to fall in oil prices further. And as per the news article Saudi Arabia already cut its official crude selling price and even Russia has said that it could cope with low oil prices for next 6 to 10 years. So that means that Russia will also reduce its official oil selling prices. Therefore this leads to price war as the country selling at the lowest price will prefer by the importing countries. As a result this will affect the economy of other oil producing countries which are not selling at lower prices. So to conclude this news article we have discussed about OPEC place supply agreement and also the various reasons for the collapse of the supply agreement. With this we have come to the end of analysis of this news article. Let's take up one practice prelims question based on declaration of cooperation of the OPEC and non-OPEC countries regarding production of oil. Here they have given two statements and you have to choose correct statements. Statement one says it aims to increase the total oil production by non-OPEC countries. The second statement says Russia and China are major non-OPEC countries in this agreement. So to answer this question you should know about declaration of cooperation of OPEC. See there are two important agreements of OPEC regarding production of oil. The first agreement is VN agreement and the second agreement is the declaration of cooperation of the OPEC and non-OPEC countries. The first agreement that is VN agreement was signed on 30th November 2016. So as per this agreement the OPEC nations agreed to reduce total oil production by 1.2 million barrels per day from 1st January 2017. Then in the month of December 2017 the organization has reached a supplementary deal with a group of non-OPEC producers led by the Russian Federation and this agreement is named as the declaration of cooperation of the OPEC non-OPEC countries. So as per this agreement that is a declaration of cooperation the non-OPEC countries agreed to a reduction in output or to reduce total oil production by almost 6 lakh barrels per day and out of this the Russian Federation alone committed to lowering its output by 3 lakh barrels per day. So these two agreements aims to reduce the oversupply of crude oil in the global market. But if you look at the first statement it mentions that it aims to increase the total oil production by non-OPEC countries. So this statement is incorrect statement. Now if you look at the second statement it mentions that Russia and China are major non-OPEC countries in this agreement. Know that China is not a part to this agreement. Therefore the given second statement is also incorrect statement. For this question you have to choose correct statement. So option D neither 1 nor 2 is the correct answer for this question. Now let's take up one practice main question in GS paper 3 that is recently S Bank has undergone a study decline in its financial position to prevent ramifications on depositors and the economy as a whole reconstruction was considered necessary. Discuss in this regard how to avoid such debilitating instances in the banking sector. This is a 10 marks question and you have to write in 150 words. For this question you can post your written answers in the comment section and your posted answers will be evaluated and suitable feedback will be given in the reasonable time frame. With this we have come to the end of analysis of today's Indian news analysis. If you like the video please do like, share, comment and subscribe Shankar I.S. Academy YouTube channel for more updates. Thank you.