 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar IA's Academy, displayed at the list of news articles taken up for today's analysis, along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Trivandrum editions. The handwritten notes in PDF format and the time stamping of all the news articles taken up for today's analysis will be available in the description section and also in the comment section for the benefit of the smartphone users. Let us now start our analysis. The first news article discusses about the procurement or the purchase of biodiesel which is manufactured from used cooking oil. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. The Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas has announced that three public oil marketing companies will procure or purchase the entire supply of biodiesel that is produced from used cooking oil and this will be for a three-year period. On 10th August 2019, the Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas released the expression of interest by the three public sector oil marketing companies. Say X, Y and Z are biodiesel producers who are manufacturing biodiesel from used cooking oil. Now, public sector oil marketing company would like to purchase the biodiesel that is manufactured or produced from the used cooking oil. So, they release an expression of interest and if the companies that are manufacturing this biodiesel from the used cooking oil, the companies X, Y and Z, if they are interested then they can give an indication to the public sector oil marketing company that they are interested to sell their produce that is nothing but the biodiesel. So, here the biodiesel producers X, Y and Z are the service providers and expression of interest, it is a process of seeking an indication of interest from the potential service providers who are capable of undertaking specific work. In this case, it is the supply of the biodiesel that is produced from used cooking oil. So, this is what we call it as expression of interest. Now, the expression of interest has been released by the Union Minister in order to procure or purchase the biodiesel from used cooking oil across 100 cities of India. The three public sector oil marketing companies are IOC which is the Indian oil corporation then HPCL Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited and BPCL Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited. Note that every year 10th of August is being celebrated as World Biofuel Day. This day is being celebrated by the Indian government in order to create awareness about the importance of non-fossil fuels. So, these non-fossil fuels are alternative to the conventional fossil fuels and this day is also celebrated to highlight the various efforts that are made by the government in the biofuel sector. If you see the theme for this year's World Biofuel Day is production of biodiesel from used cooking oil. So, you can see that initiatives are being taken by the Indian government to promote the production of biodiesel from used cooking oil. Now if you see across India, see diesel is a fossil fuel. When we tell fossil fuel it is a natural fuel which has been formed in the geological past from the remains of living organisms. But if you see manufacturing of biofuels is also possible. Now biofuels can be manufactured from various sources. One such source is the used cooking oil. So, let us focus on this used cooking oil today. But if you see the proportion or the quantity of the biofuels that are produced when compared to the diesel the quantity is quite low. Thus, to address this the government of India has come up with the national policy on biofuels in the year 2018. Now the national policy on biofuels 2018 plans for a target of 5 percentage blending of biodiesel in the high-speed diesel by the year 2030. Now high-speed diesel is a type of diesel which is used in the commercial vehicles as a fuel. And present if you see approximately 850 crore liters of high-speed diesel is consumed on a monthly basis in India. So for a year it is approximately 10,200 crore liters and 5 percentage of this quantity is 510 crore liters. So to achieve the 5% blending target as per the policy approximately we need 500 crore liters of biodiesel every year. The next fact is that in India approximately 2700 crore liters of cooking oil is used. Out of this 140 crore liters of used cooking oil can be collected from the bulk consumers such as hotels, restaurants, canteens, etc. And when we convert this 140 crore liters we approximately get 110 crore liters of biodiesel in one year. So just try to know that as per the national policy on biofuels 2018 the used cooking oil is one source of biodiesel. And if you see at present there is no established collection chain for used cooking oil. So there is a huge opportunity in production of biodiesel from the used cooking oil. And to promote the utilization of used cooking oil the government has taken this initiative. So always try to understand the background information behind every news article. So it will be easy for you to connect the relevant topics and study. So under this expression of interest the three public sector oil marketing companies will pay biodiesel producers Rs. 51 per liter in the first year and in the second year they will pay Rs. 52.7 per liter and in the third year they will be paying Rs. 54.5 per liter. And these oil marketing companies will also bear the cost of transportation and GST for the first year. The news article also tells that the union minister has announced this just a day after the directions issued by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India to the Food Safety Commissioners. As per this directive the Food Safety Commissioners have to ensure that the food business operators who consume more than 50 liters of edible oil for frying per day have to stop reusing the oil more than three times which means they can use that oil only for three times more than that they have to discard or dispose the oil. What if you see in India the same cooking oil is being used for repeated frying and when we eat a fried food in such a condition it will badly affect our health that is a human health due to the formation of polar chemical compounds during frying and these polar chemical compounds are associated with diseases such as hypertension, atherosclerosis, liver diseases etc. Now hypertension means high blood pressure and atherosclerosis means building up of fats, cholesterol and other substances in the walls of the artery. So artery carries blood so when the fat gets built up on the artery wall then it will restrict the blood flow. So to prevent such possible health risks the order has been issued by FSSAI. The order also says that all the food business operators should compulsorily dispose of their used cooking oil to authorize collection agencies or aggregators and the order has also listed some eight biodiesel manufacturers which have enrolled with FSSAI so far to collect the used cooking oil. So we can see that FSSAI is also taking steps to address the safety disposal of used cooking oil. Know that FSSAI calls this used cooking oil as RUCO. Now RUCO or RUCO means repurpose used cooking oil. It means that the used cooking oil is available for reuse. So FSSAI has come up with this RUCO initiative. This RUCO ecosystem or the RUCO ecosystem by FSSAI will enable the collection and conversion of the used cooking oil to biodiesel. Also if you see the used cooking oil is discarded or disposed of in an environmentally hazardous manner. So they just dump the oil like that in the drains and this chokes the drains and also the severage systems especially if you see at the restaurant or the catering level. So this initiative by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to procure biodiesel manufactured from used cooking oil will indirectly help in preventing the discarding of the used cooking oil in an hazardous manner because it gets collected through a proper supply chain and this is being ensured by FSSAI. So that it will ensure the collection of the used cooking oil from the restaurants and the catering businesses. So we can see that both FSSAI and the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas are involved in utilizing the used cooking oil to manufacture biodiesel. This news article also tells that the Union Ministry for the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has also launched a repurposed used cooking oil sticker and yes also launched a phone app to enable the collection of used cooking oil. So the restaurants and the hotels that are interested in supplying the used cooking oil can affix the sticker in their establishments or in the places where they operate in order to show that they have used cooking oil with them. Finally let us see in short about FSSAI or the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. FSSAI has been established under Food Safety and Standards Act of 2006. The administrative ministry for the implementation of this FSSAI is the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. So remember the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article explains the currency war between United States and China in detail. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given you for your reference. Let us now see this news article. Recently the United States designated China as a currency manipulator. This move by US came after the Chinese Central Bank or the People's Bank of China let its currency which is called as yuan to weaken further. Now if you see currency manipulator country engages in certain policies that changes the exchange value of its currency in its favor. So through the central banks those countries buy or sell the foreign currency in exchange for its domestic currency. So this will influence the exchange rate. Now exchange rate is the rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another. The present devaluation by China can be viewed in the background of the ongoing trade war which is happening between US and China. In this trade war between USA and China both the countries are imposing heavy tariffs on each other in retaliation. That is if one country imposes a tariff immediately the other country will impose the tariff. So the main objective on imposing tariffs for going trade war is to reduce the imports from the rival country. And devaluation of currency is the official or the deliberate action of setting a lower exchange rate for a currency in exchange for other. The tag of currency manipulator will not have much impact on China. The United States cannot initiate any legal action against China. But the United States can use this as an excuse to justify the retaliatory sanctions against China. And the United States can also take this issue to international monetary fund. In short the IMF. But the news article tells that IMF cannot punish China for devaluing its currency. If you see the trade war between China and the United States is ongoing since 2018. The US administration under its President Donald Trump has often accused China of devaluing yuan in order to boost its exports to the United States. So the United States has been imposing heavy tariffs on goods from China in order to protect the interests of the local manufacturers. Though the currency manipulation does not affect China much, it gives a clear signal that the ongoing US-China trade war is not going to end soon. So if this issue gets worse, it will further affect the already weakened global economy. Now let us understand how devaluation of a currency boosts its exports. When we tell the yuan weekends against the dollar, it means that with one dollar a person can buy more yuan than before. For example, assume that one dollar was equal to five yuan. After devaluation, this one dollar became ten yuan. So with the same one dollar, a customer can buy twice the goods which are valued in yuan than before. So this increases the demand for goods which are valued in yuan and hence it increases the Chinese exports. Here it is important to note that the central banks in most of the countries uses monetary rates such as repo rate, reverse repo rate. For example, even in India we have this concept, repo rate and reverse repo rate. So all these will regulate the money supply in the economy and it will either strengthen or weaken the currency rate. But if you see the Chinese central bank exercises more control over its exchange rate. It does so by intervening the forex market. It means that the central bank will buy or sell yuan in the market in order to increase or decrease the value of yuan. When there is more supply of yuan, then its value with respect to other currency. In this case it is the dollar. It will come down and when its supply is reduced, then its value increases. But few analysts have countered this view of US. That is they are against this view of US. According to them, in the past China might have deliberately sold yuan to weaken the yuan against the dollar. But now it is engaging in selling the dollar from its forex reserve in order to increase the value of yuan. So the analysts are telling that US view might be wrong. Now let us understand why China let the yuan weaken against the dollar. If you see devaluation is a very common tool used by the economies that faces slowdown in order to boost the demand for their goods. A currency is devalued or say it is weakened when the central bank increases its supply in the forex market. That is a foreign exchange market. So this allows more units of the currency to be purchased using fewer units of other foreign currencies. In the present case more units of yuan can be purchased by few units of dollar. So this is a way of transferring the purchasing power to buy Chinese goods from the hands of local Chinese into the hands of Americans. Now the local Chinese will stop or reduce their purchasing of the Chinese goods. Instead the Americans will start increasing the purchase of Chinese goods because the Americans possess more amount of dollar than the Chinese now. And China believes that this can boost Chinese exports and kickstart its growth. If you see the present Chinese economies witnessing a slow growth. So this devaluation move by China is not a big surprise. Next let us see how will these developments affect the global economy. The news article tells that things will get more worse if the United States tries to counter this by weakening the dollar. The US administration has already signaled its desire for a weaker dollar and it has also criticized the US central bank for keeping the dollar strong. Now assume that the United States would weaken its own currency in retaliation. Then we can call this as a currency war because China devalued now. And then if USA also devalues in retaliation then it is called as a currency war. If you see such a situation at horizon in the past during the Great Depression of the 1930s, then the world countries were facing economic slowdown and they tried to boost their economies by devaluing the currencies in a retaliatory fashion. Along with this they also imposed heavy tariffs. So this led to a steep fall in the international trade. That is the international trade totally went down. So right now we are facing such a situation and if there is a fall in the international business this will weaken many economies and this will push the world to uncertainty. So always know that the currency devaluation can boost the exports temporarily by transferring the purchasing power to the hands of the foreigners. But it can never increase or sustain the domestic production. For that a healthy competition is required between the countries instead of doing trade war or currency war. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about finding the reasons for the shift of monsoon rainfall to the northwest region of India. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Let us see the news article now. In the recent years the scientists have observed a shift in summer monsoon rainfall that is the southwest monsoon to the northwestern region of India. They have also observed the intensification of extreme rainfall happening over central India. So both these phenomena are occurring during the month of September and scientists have been studying the reasons behind these changes. Normally we say that the soil moisture is increased by rainfall and this has been well studied and understood but the role of soil moisture to increasing rainfall is not much studied or say it is ignored particularly in a country like India. Now one reason why it was not studied is because of the lack of appropriate land surface modeling to take into account the actual soil irrigation and agriculture pattern that is found in India. Now the researchers in IIT Bombay have developed a module for land surface model in order to better reflect the soil irrigation and the agriculture pattern in India. Using this model they found that irrigation and agriculture can shift the monsoon rainfall pattern. They also found that the intensity of extreme rainfall in central India could also be altered because of irrigation. The scientists are saying that the agricultural lands in northern India are highly irrigated during the month of September and the crops get matured accordingly. The article calls this irrigation as excess or uncontrolled irrigation in northern India. As a result of such excess irrigation there is maximum evapotranspiration and this evapotranspiration leads to highest contribution of moisture in the atmosphere. So this moisture is from the land. In our context evapotranspiration means the process by which water is transferred from the land to the atmosphere by evaporation from the soil and it can also happen through the transfer of water by transpiration that is evaporation from the leaves of the matured plants. So both these process will be very much high in the month of September. This transfer of water from the soil and the matured crops to the atmosphere is called as the feedback of irrigation to the atmosphere. This moisture feedback intensifies the monsoon rainfall in central India in the month of September. Also, it shifts the monsoon rainfall even to the northwestern region in the month of September. The article states that there is uncontrolled irrigation in India around 50 percentage of crop area in India is covered by paddy cultivation where the paddy fields are kept in the condition of submersion under water. So if you see in such type of irrigation practices the evapotranspiration and the heat fluxes can be profoundly affected that is very much affected by the soil moisture or the moisture in such crop fields. This means that the heat flux will be modified because of the soil moisture. When we say heat flux it means the rate of transfer of heat energy through a given surface. The modified heat fluxes along with the changes in the atmospheric moisture content and this can result in a shift in monsoon rainfall towards the northwestern part of the country. And it can also increase the extreme rainfall over central India during the month of September. If you see the research study that is mentioned in the news article as focused only on the irrigation practices in northern India and its influence in summer monsoonal rainfall that is nothing but the southwest monsoon. Therefore for understanding the contribution of irrigation and agriculture in entire India because of the southwest monsoon more studies more research studies are required. The news article mentions that the irrigation policy can affect the shift in rainfall. Imagine the Indian government announces heavy subsidies for all the crops other than paddy. Also imagine there is no incentive for cultivating paddy. Now the farmers in order to avail the benefits of subsidies may go to cultivate any other crop other than paddy. So now think that all the farmers have stopped cultivating paddy. This means that all the crop area in India are not in submerged conditions. In such cases there will be no effective feedback of water from the crop area to the atmosphere. This means that there will not be any modification to the heat flux because of soil moisture. So the monsoon will not shift towards the northwestern region and the monsoon intensity where extreme rainfall occurs will not happen in central India. So this is how an irrigation policy can affect the geographical distribution and the intensity of the summer monsoon rainfall according to the researches of IIT Bombay. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article discusses about the usage of DNA foreign six in order to analyze the wildlife crimes then it has also mentioned about Kanchanzonga landscape. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Let us now see the news article. The news article tells that in July 2018 the officials from the directorate of revenue intelligence have seized six pieces of ivory. From Siliguri which is located in West Bengal. Two persons were arrested for smuggling the ivory and this ivory was suspected to have been sourced from an elephant that was killed in the Budhbhare area of Nepal's Japa district. The DRA officials send the ivory for analysis to the scientists at the Zoological survey of India which is located in Kolkata. After this intelligence was shared from India to Nepal, the samples from the Kerkas of the deceased elephant that is the elephant which has died and a small piece of ivory which was smuggled were obtained by the DRA and was handed over to the Zoological Survey of India. After studying the samples using DNA foreign six, the Zoological Survey of India team came to a conclusion that the samples did not match. So the scientists have used DNA foreign six to know if the ivory belonged to that particular elephant. The science of DNA foreign six is simple because you just have to know that all the cells in the human body contains exactly the same DNA. So the samples can be taken from any part of the body which can include hair, skin, blood or any other bodily fluids. So here the DNA samples of the ivory were compared with the DNA samples of the skin or the Kerkas of the died elephant and they were able to come to a conclusion that that particular ivory did not belong to that elephant because the DNA samples did not match. The news article also tells that over the past few years several kilograms of ivory have been seized by different agencies which includes the Department of Revenue Intelligence and also the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau in North Bengal. Now this region falls under Kanchenzonga Landscape. So let us know in brief about the Kanchenzonga Landscape Conservation and Development Initiative in this regard. The Kanchenzonga Landscape is one of the six trans-boundary landscapes which has been identified by the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development in the Hindukush-Imalen region. This Kanchenzonga Landscape spreads across parts of eastern Nepal, then Sikkim and West Bengal states of the country of India and also it spreads through the western and southwestern parts of the country of Bhutan. Now 56% of this landscape belongs to India and 23% belongs to Bhutan and 21% belongs to Nepal. And in between this landscape we can find Mount Kanchenzonga which is the third highest peak in the world. And this landscape also has many important Himalayan rivers and crucial watersheds. This Kanchenzonga Landscape is a part of Himalayan biodiversity hotspot. So it has a significant portion of the world's biodiversity. There are about 19 established protected areas which comprises around 30% of this Kanchenzonga Landscape. Also this landscape serves as a contiguous habitat that is a continuous habitat for many species like snow leopard, red panda, Himalayan black bear, Himalayan musk deer, tiger, Asian elephant etc. And this landscape is also home to around 72 lakh people some of whom are from unique ethnic groups like the Lepcha, Swalumpas, Lobdoyas etc. So we saw that Kanchenzonga Landscape is one of the 6 trans-boundary landscapes that has been identified by the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development. In short ICIMOD. So it is a regional intergovernmental learning and knowledge sharing center. And this center serves 8 regional member countries of the Hindakush Himalayas. The countries are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan. And this center is based at Kathmandu which is the capital of Nepal. So this ICIMOD supports regional trans-boundary programs through partnerships with regional partner institutions and it will facilitate the exchange of experience and it serves as a regional knowledge hub. This ICIMOD focuses on 6 regional programs and trans-boundary landscape is one such regional program. And under this trans-boundary landscape the Kanchenzonga Landscape comes. Now let us see in short about the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence is the APEX Anti-smuggling Agency of India. This Directorate of Revenue Intelligence works under the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs which comes under the Ministry of Finance. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence has few functions like detecting and curbing the smuggling of contraband which includes your drug trafficking. Then they have to detect and curb the illicit international trade in wildlife and environmentally sensitive items. Then the Directorate also works in combating commercial frauds that are related to international trade and they also combat the evasion of customs duty. So know that this Directorate of Revenue Intelligence comes under the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs under the Ministry of Finance. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This editorial speaks about considering novel methods for water conservation and water transfer from the water surplus areas to the water deficit areas. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this editorial is given here for your reference. Let us now see the editorial. The author starts with the fact that Chennai is suffering from huge water scarcity and to mitigate this water scarcity that is to address this water scarcity a water train was used. So this water train actually transported some 2.5 million litres of water from a location called Vellur which is located in the state of Tamil Nadu to Chennai which is the capital of Tamil Nadu. But at that very same time if you see in other part of India especially in the states of Assam and Bihar they were suffering from huge floods because of the southwest monsoon. So even today we can see that many parts of India are suffering from drought while at the same time some of the areas like the states of Karnataka and Kerala are suffering from huge floods because of the southwest monsoon. So the author is telling that India is a country of contrasts. Now he has also given one more illustration where he is telling that the animals in the Kazhinaga National Park are trying to save themselves from the flood waters because of huge floods in the river Brahmaputra. But at the same time some innocent children are carrying huge quantities of water in their backs in some droughted areas of India like Chennai. So the author is telling that it is a cruel fact that the rains are not even across the planet and also across India. So when it rains heavily in one place in the other place it is not raining heavily. And now with another problem of climate change this issue is likely to go even worse which means if it is raining very heavily in one part of the world the other part of the world might suffer from very severe drought not just normal drought but very severe drought. So climate change will be one factor. Here in this editorial the author has discussed about three novel methods for transferring the water from the water surplus areas to the water deficit areas. The first is transporting water using trains which is a terrestrial mode of transport that is on the surface that is on the land surface. The second method is using pipelines to transport the water especially when long distances are involved. And the third is using water itself to transport water that is transporting water across the water bodies. Now let us see some of the advantages and disadvantages of all these three methods. The first method which we saw was transporting water using trains or some other terrestrial mode of transport but this idea has not been given enough attention because it involves high costs that is the expenditure is quite high. The second method which we saw was transporting water through pipelines especially when long distances are involved and you need an infrastructure like pumping stations and the pipeline itself is a huge infrastructure. So even this method of transporting water through pipelines would be a very costly affair that is it would involve high expenditure. Here the author has mentioned one international example which is the country of United States. He tells that the city of Las Vegas had a plan to use the excess water from the Mississippi River. So it was planning to construct a multi-billion dollar project but it is still in the proposal stage so it still remains a pipe dream or fantasy. The third method that we saw was transporting water using water as a medium that is transporting water across the water bodies. Here again in this editorial the author has given some examples of transporting water through different methods which different countries are planning to follow. The first one is the French engineers they have plans to help the water starved African nations by hauling icebergs to their shore so that it is nothing but icebergs will be carried across the water body to Africa. They can tow these icebergs through the ships. Similarly if you see the country of United Arab Emirates is also planning to tow the icebergs from Antarctica to solve its water shortage. Next the author has mentioned the example of Greece. Greece is successfully hauling massive amounts of water using crack bags and zippers. Now crack bags are nothing but flexible watertight bags which are used for transporting the bulk amount of fresh water or say chemicals or even oil and zippers are being used to expand the capacity of these water bags. Then this method of transporting water using water was followed in a Caribbean country called Antigua when Antigua faced drought in the years 1983 to 84. So we can see that the author has mentioned quite a few examples of carrying water through water. So what is the advantage of transporting water over water? The author tells that 1 horsepower of energy can move 150 kg on road but at the same time it can move 500 kg on a rail network and at the same time 1 horsepower of energy can move around 4000 kgs on water. So we can see that less energy is required to move huge amounts of water. The author has given one more comparison where he tells that 1 litre of fuel can move 24 tons per kilometre on road. At the same time 1 litre of fuel can move 85 tons on the rail network but at the same time 1 litre of fuel can also move 105 tons on inland water transport. So we can see that here also transporting items through water as an advantage. But there are some disadvantages which are associated with this method especially when it comes to inland water transport. Now in inland water transport that is transporting across the rivers especially in a country like India it is very difficult because the loading and the unloading facilities are quite expensive to construct. And most of the Indian rivers does not have enough depth and width in order to accommodate large barrages or say the water carriers throughout the year. And if you are going to use such barrages or water carriers then we need to dredge the rivers that is dig the rivers. Now dredging the rivers in order to increase the depth of the rivers is again quite an expensive task that is it is a very costly work. And again it might harm the underwater ecosystem of the rivers. So we can see there are quite a few disadvantages in using the inland waterway system of India. The author is telling that though India is having a plan to use its inland waterways for transporting the absence of large industries near the river belts will not attract any investment in implementing this particular plan. Because if you see the industries are not quite located near the rivers. So again it will involve some other mode of transport say land mode of transport. So many people will not invest in this particular project. So till now we have seen some methods of transporting water through different modes of transport. And all these have been discussed by the author to address the water scarcity problem. But we also have simpler solutions to preserve the water resource. The author has mentioned some few examples like desilting of lakes, desilting of rivers that is removing the sediments from the lakes and the rivers. And also disposing of the garbage that is actually polluting the lakes and the rivers. Once if we do both these tasks desilting and disposing the garbage then the water resources will by themselves get replenished. So we might be able to save more water. Then we also have some other innovative solutions like rainwater harvesting then desalination process a process where sea water is being converted into portable water. And also we can recycle the water. So all these small innovative techniques will help us in conserving the water. So instead of going for the method of transporting the water from the water surplus to the water deficit areas. We can go for such small innovative solutions like desilting, disposing the garbage, rainwater harvesting, desalination, etc. Next the author has quoted a magazine, a body views on principle migrations of water in India. Here he means to tell that water which was once used for agriculture is now being consumed more by the industry. And water which is very much required in the rural areas is now being consumed more by the urban areas. And water which is required for cultivating food crops is now being used to cultivate more of cash crops. And water which is very much required for the poor people is now being used a lot by the rich people. And water which is source of livelihood for the human beings is now being used as a form of lifestyle. Here he means to tell that lifestyle means unnecessary usage of water. So we can see that there is a typical migration pattern happening from agriculture to industry, rural to urban, food crops to the cash crops, from poor people to rich people and from livelihood to lifestyle. So we cannot keep blaming on the climate pattern but we have to blame the poor water management strategies that we are following. So the author is emphasizing more on the water management strategies like rainwater harvesting, desalination, recycling of water, etc. The author also tells that such novel innovative methods are not completely successful but enough attention must be given to them. Because if they become successful then it has the potential to reduce the adverse impacts of floods and droughts not just in India but across the entire world. So in this editorial the author is stressing on the fact that we need to have proper water management strategies and simple but effective solutions to conserve the water. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This pictorial news article which appears in the Delhi edition is based on the special report which is released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In short IPCC, the special report is named as Climate Change and Land. Now this pictorial representation explains in brief about the drivers of climatic change, the impact of climate change on land and the possible solutions. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Let us now see the news article. First let us understand about the climate change and its causes. Climate change can be defined as the abnormal change in the climatic patterns of different regions and its impacts on earth. If you see this is mainly driven by global warming. Now when we tell global warming it is the increase in the planet's overall temperature. The temperature increases due to the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere of earth. Now according to this pictorial representation that is according to this report agriculture, deforestation and other land use are the significant drivers of climate change. Together if you see they produce about 23 percentage of the human caused greenhouse gas emissions. So greenhouse gas emissions happen naturally but there are also some emissions which happens because of humans. The report also says that deforestation and food production or the agriculture process are often tied together because if you see quite a lot amount of forests are being cleared in order to do agriculture. Now they do agriculture in order to produce the food grains for human consumption. So both these activities are tied together. So this global food system only contributes up to 37 percentage of the global greenhouse gas emissions as per this report. If you see primarily it happens through rising cattle and other ruminants such as sheep. Now ruminants are those types of animals which can bring up the food from its stomach and again chew it. So we can see very commonly that cows keep chewing always whenever they are idle. So they bring up the food from the stomach and they chew the stored food. Also if you see animals like deer, giraffes, antelopes or all ruminants. The other important cause for the greenhouse gas emissions are cultivating rice and also applying fertilizer to the pastures and range lands. Pastures means land covered with grass or other plants which are suitable for the animals to graze that is to have their food especially if you see animals like cattle or sheep. And range land means open space which is used for grazing or hunting the animals. So let us understand in brief about how is this happening. Huge tracts of forests are cleared for agriculture all over the world. So this process is called as deforestation and this deforestation process will considerably reduce the amount of carbon that could have been trapped if the forests were existing. Next if you see the Indian livestock is the largest in the world. They release the methane gas into the atmosphere and this methane gas is a harmful greenhouse gas. Some scientific studies have also shown that the paddy cultivation releases methane to the atmosphere. So it also contributes to the global warming. Also if you see excessive usage of nitrogen based fertilizers in agriculture will also contribute to the emission of nitrous oxide to the atmosphere. So this nitrous oxide is also a greenhouse gas. So we can see that there are various factors which leads to climate change or we can tell that which drives climate change. Now let us understand the impact of climate change on land. The article says that the lands are degrading from multiple stressors like rise in temperature, changing climate etc. So as a result of the increasing temperatures the phenomena of heat waves have become more frequent. Now what is a heat wave? A heat wave is a period of abnormally and uncomfortably hot and humid weather. Also if you see the rainfall patterns are shifting due to climate change. So this will severely impact the Indian agriculture or say most of the agriculture process in India are rain fit. It is to be noted that if the global temperature rises about 1.5 degree Celsius the water scarcity in the dry regions will get even worse. So the change in climate, varying rainfall patterns and abnormal rise in the temperature will reduce the crop yields and this will ultimately undermine the food security. So once the crop yields become less which means we will not have enough food to consume so it will undermine the food security. And the livestock will also be unable to bear these extreme conditions. Now when they are not able to tolerate heat or when they are not having enough water or food it will reduce their productivity. So this is how it affects the livestock population. Then it is also been reported that the climate change is increasing the risk of agricultural pests and diseases in certain regions. Now let us discuss the possible solutions that has been mentioned in this pictorial representation. The IPCC report has suggested some simple but effective solutions. The first and the foremost solution is to adopt farming practices that work with the nature. It means that the existing farming practices must be changed in order to adopt to the varying climatic conditions such as water availability, temperature, rainfall pattern etc. We saw that climate change will threaten the food security that is it will undermine the food security. So to address this the most important thing that we have to do is to eliminate food wastage and also we must focus on eating a balanced diet. Now what is a balanced diet? Balanced diet includes different types of food which provides adequate amounts of nutrients required for a proper health. So when we switch over to a balanced and a diversified diet it will increase our nutritional status and it will also reduce our dependency on a particular type of food because if you see in a country like India dependency on the major crops like rice and wheat is more because on a daily basis we consume huge amounts of rice and wheat in our diet so we are depending or say we are totally depending on this particular food. Now if we are able to diversify a diet like say we are taking protein rich foods then fruits then vegetables then it will reduce our dependency on a particular type of food. But the most effective solution will be to halt the deforestation process and restore the damaged ecosystems. So if you are able to bring back whatever ecosystems that we have damaged then we would be able to reverse the climate change. So this solution will also have a long-term impact. Now let us see in brief about the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It was established by the United Nations Environmental Program and World Meteorological Organization in the year 1988. So this Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the leading international body for the assessment of climate change and IPCC provides reports on climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic impacts. The main objective of IPCC is to assess scientific information which is relevant to human-induced climate change and about its impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about a discovery of a plant species in Andaman Islands. Now this discovery is expected to help the scientists to study a possible continental connection of this island region with the peninsula region of India in the remote past that is before few thousands or lakhs of years. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Let us now see the news article. We just saw that Andaman Islands might have had an possible continental connection with the peninsula region of India. So when we mean by the term continental connection it means the entire island region of Andaman and Nicobar Islands which is located in the Bay of Bengal at present might once have been a single part along with the peninsula region of India and Sri Lanka. A group of around 300 islands are called as Andaman Islands in the island region of Bay of Bengal. In their 2003 an exploration was carried out in the semi evergreen forests of a region called as Right Mayo. If you see this region is in the southern islands of Andaman group. This exploration was carried out by the scientists from the Javaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute. During the exploration the scientists have come across an interesting species which is belonging to the genus Eugenia. They discovered around 12 mature plants as undergrowth from the location. The term undergrowth refers to those plants and bushes which grow together under the trees in the forest. Let us now see in brief about this Javaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute. It is an institute that comes under the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Kerala government particularly under the wing the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment. This institute was established in the year 1979 as an autonomous research and development organization by the government of Kerala. The objective is to establish a conservatory botanic garden of tropical plants of the country that is the tropical plants of India in general and for the state of Kerala in particular. So as a part of this research the scientists have also collected two seedlings of the species and they have introduced them at the field gene bank of the Research Institute in Kerala. On research study it was found that the growth rate of the life specimens was extremely slow. One of the life plants grew into a small shrub to about 2 meter high and this has started flowering regularly since year 2015 and it finally bore fruit in the year 2019. All these are a part of the research assessment of the particular plant species. The detailed taxonomical studies were carried out by the scientists and these studies established the species as Eugenia muniana. Before this assessment this particular plant was known to occur only in the states of Assam, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and in the country of Sri Lanka. But now they are found in the Andaman Islands. So the scientists are having a new thought for inquiry. The thought is that how can the plant species which are found only in these regions that is in these mainland regions are also available in the Andaman Islands because Andaman Island is an island region which is located in the Bay of Bengal. So the scientists came up with a hypothesis and they are thinking this might be true. The hypothesis is that once the Andaman Islands and the other islands in the Bay of Bengal region were together that is as a single part with the peninsular India and Sri Lanka. Gradually due to various geological processes the island region could have separated apart from the mainland. So this could be one reason why the plant species is also found in the Andaman Islands. So this is just a hypothesis. Remember hypothesis means assumption. It is just an assumption and it further needs to be subjected to detailed research in order to conclude whether this assumption is true or not. This plant Eugenia muniana is characterized by profuse and slender branches that is repeated slim or narrow branches then the leaves of the plant are slightly crimson colored and the plant blossoms white flowers with elliptic petals. Scientists are saying that there are around 1026 common species in the Andaman Nicobar Islands and the western guards of the peninsular India. This means that the distribution of these species is fragmented in the western guards and also in the Andaman and Nicobar islands. So the term fragmented means it is not continuous it is located in patches. So the scientists say that this fragmented distribution of the floral species demonstrates the geological connection of the two widely separated regions that is Andaman sea and the western guards. And this geological connection could have been there in the remote past when we tell remote past it might be some millions of years before that is some around more than 10 lakh years before. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the practice questions discussion session. The first question is consider the following statements and they have given two statements which is related to biodiesel and they have asked you to choose a correct statement. The first statement tells that as per national policy and biofuels 2018 an indicative target of 5% blending of biodiesel is proposed by the year 2030. Now this statement is correct during our discussion we saw that there are plans to achieve a target of 5% blending of biodiesel with diesel. It is proposed to achieve this target by the year 2030. So this statement is correct. Moving on to the next statement it tells that used cooking oil is used as one of the source to manufacture biodiesel in India. This statement is also correct. In fact we saw that 10th August of every year is being celebrated as World Biofuels Day and the theme for this year's World Biofuels Day that is the theme for the World Biofuels Day 2019 is production of biodiesel from used cooking oil. So used cooking oil is one of the sources or the raw materials for manufacturing biodiesel in India. The question is asked for the correct statements. The correct answer is option C both 1 and 2. Moving on to the next question consider the following statements with respect to summer monsoon in India. They have given two statements and have asked you to choose the correct answer. The first statement tells that the Himalayas trapped the monsoon winds forcing them to shed their moisture within the subcontinent. This statement is correct because of the height the Himalayan mountains will not allow the monsoon winds to go beyond it. Therefore it traps the monsoon winds forcing them to pour out or shed their moisture within the Indian subcontinent. Know that the Himalayan mountains also protect the subcontinent from the cold northern winds that are coming from the Siberian high pressure zone. So this statement is correct. Moving on to the second statement the statement tells that the moisture transferred from the soil and crops to the atmosphere is not one of the contributing factors for the shift in the summer monsoonal rainfall towards the northwestern region of India. During the analysis we saw that the moisture transferred from the irrigated land and crops has shifted the Indian summer monsoon towards northwestern part of India. Therefore it is one of the contributing factors for the shift of Indian summer monsoon. So this makes the statement 2 as an incorrect one. The question is asked for the correct statements. The correct answer is option A 1 1 B. Consider the following statements about directorate of revenue intelligence. They have given two statements and have asked you to choose the correct answer. The first statement tells that it is the apex anti-smuggling agency of India. This statement is correct. The second statement tells that it works under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. We saw during our discussion that the directorate of revenue intelligence works under the central board of indirect taxes and customs which comes under the Ministry of Finance. So this statement is wrong. The question is asked for the correct statements. The correct answer is option A 1 1 B. Moving on to the next question. The question is the lesser known species called as eugenia muniana was sometimes seen in the news for. They have given four options during the analysis. We saw that the scientists have discovered the plant species in Andaman Islands. And now they have confirmed that the plant discovered was eugenia muniana. This plant was earlier found to be present only in the states of Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Assam and the country of Sri Lanka. Therefore, because of its presence in the Andaman Islands, this has raised a new hypothesis about possible continental connection of Andaman Islands and the other islands in the Bay of Bengal region with the mainland region, nothing but peninsular India and also Sri Lanka. So it has appeared in news for both the reasons possible continental connection and also it was found in few of the states that are mentioned in option B. So the correct answer to this question is option C both 1 and 2. Moving on to the main question. The question tells that recently India has witnessed droughts in several areas and floods in other areas at the same time. Suggest certain measures to tackle this persistent issue. So to address the first part of this question, which tells that India's witnessed droughts in several areas and floods in the other areas at the same time, you can give some examples like during our editorial analysis we saw that there is an impending water scarcity in cities like Chennai, whereas at the same time there are floods in states like Assam, Bihar, Karnataka, Kerala. So just try to substantiate this statement. Then it has asked you to suggest certain measures to tackle this issue. One way of tackling this issue is to transport the water from the water surplus areas to the water deficit areas. And we saw three methods. One is through the terrestrial transport that is through trains. Next is through pipelines. And the third is through water. So you can give some examples like we saw some examples from USA, United Arab Emirates, then also Greece. Then we also saw some other measures in tackling the water crisis like a desiliting of lakes and rivers, then rainwater harvesting, desalination, recycling of water, etc. And try to substantiate each suggestions that you give in order to address this question. Moving on to the next question. The question is an IPCC report released as suggested that the impact of climate change on land will be severe. Discuss the important land related causes of climate change, their impact and possible solutions. So to address the first part of the statement which tells that an IPCC report has suggested that the impact of climate change on land will be severe. So just try to mention the report name which is the climate change and land and IPCC special report. The main question is discuss the important land related causes of climate change, then their impact and third the possible solutions. So first you have to give answers for the land related causes of climate change. The main causes that we saw during our discussion were agriculture, deforestation and other land use. And you can mention the statistics that we discussed during our discussion. Next is the impact of the land related causes. We saw impacts like land degradation, then heat waves, then water scarcity because of which the crop yields will get down and because of which there will be food insecurity across the world. And also there are chances in the increase of the risk of agricultural pests and diseases in certain regions. So these are some of the impacts because of climate change on the land. And next is the possible solutions. We saw some solutions like adopting farming practices that works along with the nature. So all these existing farming practices must be changed in order to adopt to the varying climate conditions like water availability, temperature, rainfall pattern, etc. Then since there is a possible chance of food insecurity, we have to focus on eliminating food wastage and also we must focus on eating a balanced diet. Then you can give one more solution like halting the deforestation process and restoring the damaged ecosystems. And if you have any other impacts or possible solutions, you can also mention them. With this, we come to the end of today's analysis of all the news articles and also the practice questions discussion session. Do like, comment and share the video. And do subscribe to Shankar IA's Academy YouTube channel for latest videos and updates. Stay focused and motivated friends. Thank you.