 Good evening as friends, welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankara's Academy for the date 17th of July 2022. These are the list of news articles we will be discussing today. Now let's start our discussion. Look at this news article. This news article states that the Kerala government has imposed a 30-day ban on the transportation of pigs, pork and pork products and pork menu to and from the state. This ban was made in view of the outbreak of African swine fever in pigs in Bihar and northeastern states. This is the crux of the news article given here. In this context, let us quickly go through African swine fever. What is African swine fever? African swine fever is a severe viral disease that affects wild and domestic pigs. It is caused by African swine fever virus. What does it result in? It typically results in acute hemorrhagic fever. Hemorrhage is nothing but a bleeding from damaged blood vessels. The disease has a case fatality rate of about 100%. Its main root of transmission is direct contact with an infected or wild pig. It can also transmit through ingestion of contaminated material such as food waste or garbage or through biological vectors such as ticks. The disease is characterized by the sudden deaths of pigs. Other manifestations of the disease include high fever, depression, anorexia, loss of appetite, hemorrhages in the skin, vomiting and diarrhea among others. There is no treatment or vaccines available for this disease. So the only way to stop this disease is to depopulate all the affected or exposed pig herds. See, even though African swine fever is lethal, it is less infectious than other animal diseases such as food and mouth disease. That is, even though African swine fever is deadly, it does not spread as quickly as the food and mouth disease. And as I said, there is no approved vaccine for the disease. To prevent the spread of infection, the animals that are exposed to the disease have to be culled. So note that the African swine fever does not infect humans. Now let us see how the African swine fever is different from the conventional swine flu. Swine influenza or swine flu is a respiratory disease of pigs which is caused by Type A influenza virus. This Type A influenza virus regularly causes outbreaks of influenza in pig populations. According to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, while the swine flu causing virus leads to a high number of infection in pig herds, the disease is not as fatal as African swine fever and causes fewer deaths. Specific swine influenza vaccines are available for pigs against swine flu. Swine flu viruses are spread among pigs through close contact and through contaminated objects between infected and uninfected pigs. Symptoms for swine flu include fever, depression, coughing, discharge from nose and eyes, iridiness and inflammation. Swine flu viruses don't typically infect humans, but few cases have been reported when humans have direct contact with infected pigs. When humans are infected with swine flu viruses, the symptoms are similar to human seasonal influenza which include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing. So basically the difference between African swine fever and swine flu is that African swine fever is caused by African swine fever virus, while swine flu is caused by Type A influenza virus. While African swine fever is highly deadly with the mortality rate of 100%, they are less infectious. But in case of swine flu, while the disease is less deadly, they are more infectious. That is, they spread more easily. And the third difference is African swine fever does not infect humans, but in case of swine flu, there is possibility of human infection. And finally, there is no vaccination available till now for African swine fever, while in case of swine flu, protective vaccinations are available. That's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw the basics about African swine fever and we also saw the difference between African swine fever and swine flu or swine influenza. With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this news article. This news article talks about quantum computers. Currently, our online activity is protected by cryptographic keys. With the growth of quantum computers, the rising concerns is that this cryptographic key is that protectors would be easily cracked. So new cryptographic technology that could not be cracked by quantum computers is a need of the hover. So the article mentions about a new cryptographic technology called the crystals kyber, which cannot be cracked by the quantum computers. In this context, let us learn about what is quantum computing, how it is different from normal computers, and then we will discuss about the national mission on quantum technology and applications in brief. See quantum computing is the latest innovation in computers that is centered around the principle of quantum theory. What is this quantum theory? See quantum theory explains the nature and behavior of energy and matter on the quantum level, that is atomic and subatomic level. Now coming back to quantum computing. In the earlier days, we had mechanical computers. There is a movie called the imitation game. The movie is based on the life of Alan Turing and how he built the famous Turing machine and cracked the German Enigma code. So in this movie, he literally built a mechanical computer. After mechanical computers, we had vacuum tubes. And finally, in the current phase, we have transistor based computers. The next step in this evolution is quantum computing. Quantum computing uses a combination of bits to perform specific computational tasks. See all these are at a much higher efficiency than their classical counterparts. The quantum computer gains much of its processing power through the ability for bits to begin multiple states at one time. They can perform tasks using combinations of once, zeros and both one and zero simultaneously. For example, quantum computing excels at simulation, communication networks, big data, etc. Just have a look at this image to know more examples and applications about quantum computing. Now a question arises, why do we need quantum computers? See the standard computers or the conventional computers can do what they are told well enough. They can fit the right computer program by the human. But when it comes to predicting things, they are not so smart. This is why the weather forecast is not always accurate. In case of weather forecast, there are too many variables, too many things changing too quickly for the conventional computer to keep up. Because of their limitations, there are some computations which an ordinary computer may never be able to solve or it may take literally a billion years to solve. But a quantum computer is so fast that it could respond to changing information quickly. Then they can also examine a limitless number of outcomes and permutations simultaneously. An additional advantage of quantum computers is that quantum computers are relatively small because they do not rely on transistors like traditional machines. In addition to this, they also consume comparatively less power than the traditional computers. Now look at this table to know about the differences between the quantum computers and the classical computers. Now I guess that you have a general idea about quantum computing. So now we will see about the national mission on quantum technologies and applications. See the government in its 2020 budget had announced a national mission on quantum technologies and applications. The government had announced a total budget outlay of Rs. 8000 crore for a period of 5 years. This is to be implemented by the Department of Science and Technology. Note that the area of focus of the mission will be in fundamental science, translation, technology development, human and infrastructure resources generation, innovation and startup to address issues concerning national priorities. Quantum principles will be used for engineering solutions to extremely complex problems in computing, communication, sensing, chemistry, cryptography, imaging and mechanics. See the implementation of the mission would help develop and bring quantum computers and secured communications. This is through fiber and free space quantum encryption and crypt analysis and associated technologies within reach in the country. This will also help address India specific national and regional issues. So a solid research base and workforce founded on significant and reliable government support can lead to the creation of innovative applications by industries. This will stimulate economic growth and job creation which will feedback into a growing quantum-based economy. The government's financial and organizational support will also ensure both public and private sectors will benefit. That's all regarding this discussion now let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Take a look at this article. See this article talks about the impacts of Euro dollar parity. See recently the Euro and the US dollar reached parity meaning one dollar could buy one Euro in the foreign exchange market. Here you must note that for the past two decades it took more than one US dollar to purchase one Euro. A year ago it took about 1.2 US dollars to buy one Euro but since the beginning of the year the Euro has lost about 12 percent against the US dollar and it is expected to lose even more value in the future. So this is the background of the article given here. In this context let us quickly go through some of the important points mentioned in the news article. Firstly we will start with what determines a currency's exchange rate. See the price of any currency in a market economy is determined by supply and demand. Here the supply of a country's currency in the foreign exchange market is determined by various factors like central bank policy and the local demand for imports and foreign assets. While the demand for a country's currency is determined by factors such as central bank policy and the foreign demand for exports and domestic assets. Now talking about why the Euro has fallen against the US dollar the article mentions two important reasons. Firstly the analysts believe that the divergence in the monetary policies of the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank is the primary reason behind Euro's significant depreciation against the US dollar. See what happened is in response to the economic crisis caused by the lockdowns imposed due to the corona pandemic both the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank expanded their balance sheets to boost spending. But soon this led to inflation that is it led to sharp price in prices. See yesterday itself in our discussion we saw why inflation is very bad. So due to this cheap money policy followed by US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank the inflation in both the United States and Europe started raising. For example inflation in the United States hit a 4 decade high of 9.1% in June while inflation in Eurozone reached its highest ever level of 8.6% during the same month. So just to fix the issue and slow down the US money supply growth the US Federal Reserve responded to the raising prices by raising the interest rate this year. But even though the inflation rate is as high as 22% in some European countries the European Central Bank had much less aggressive monetary policy. So this has caused the value of Euro to slide against the dollar or in other words the supply of Euro in the market is raising relative to the supply of dollars. Here another important thing that you have to notice that the Euro is not the only currency that is depreciating at the moment. The Japanese yen is another major currency that has lost about 20% of its value against US dollar this year. This is happening because the Chinese Central Bank continues to stick to its easy monetary policy or cheap money policy. The second reason for the depreciation of Euro in relation to dollars is that due to the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the actions taken against Russia has created uncertainties in energy supply to Europe. This has also affected the value of Euro. So limited energy supplies means that Europe now has to spend more money to ensure its energy supply needs. And this again has adversely affected the value of Euro against the US dollar. So these are the two reasons that has led to depreciation of Euro in relation to the US dollar. The article also says what will be the next step in this process. See as the US Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rate it is likely to exert further downward pressure on the Euro. Also the European Central Bank might also be forced to raise interest rates to slow down money supply growth in the Eurozone in order to prop up the value of Euro. But this might not lead to a slowdown in growth in the Eurozone as all the 19 countries which uses the same currency have to readjust to tighter monetary policy. If that is the case European nations might even opt to enact tax and regulatory reforms to expedite recovery. That's all regarding this news article. Now let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this FAQ article. This news article talks about the bail law reforms that is to be made in India as soon as possible. First of all let us see what is mean bail bail. Then let us take the discussion in this flow like what is the present law for availing bail. What did the Supreme Court observe from the conviction rate in India and what are some of the legal guidelines given by the Supreme Court. And finally let us conclude with United Kingdom's Bail Act of 1976. Before starting our discussion the syllabus relevant to this article is given here for your reference. Just go through it. Now let us start our discussion. First of all let us see what is meant by bail. The concept of bail is a basic part of the Indian criminal jurisprudence and it is a well recognized principle among all the judicial systems of the world. Bail in law means securing of release from prison of a person who is awaiting trial or an appeal. This is by the deposit of security. This is to ensure his or her submission at the required time to the legal authority. The security may be cash or papers giving title to property. The bail bond is set by the court having jurisdiction over the prisoner. Understand this the bail bond is nothing but a written document by the person in question to the court ensuring that he or she will ensure his or her presence for investigation. The bail bond also has the penalty when the terms of the bail condition is breached that is if the person released on bail fails to surrender at the appointed time it results in forfeiture or giving up of the security. Note that in the case of offence that are classified as bailable the matter of bail is a right. So in the case of bailable offence the courts have to mandatory give bail but in the case of non bailable offence the bail is not a right. So the courts have greater discretion to grant or deny bail to the person. Now let us see what is the present law regarding bail in India. In India bail is governed by the provisions of the CRPC that is the criminal procedure code 1973. Offences are categorized as bailable and non bailable offences. Under section 436 of the CRPC bail is a right in bailable offences and the police or the courts are bound to release the accused following the furnishing of a bail bond with or without surety. For example, bribery, public nuisance all these comes under bailable offences. Then for a non bailable offence an accused cannot bail as a right. The discretion here lies with the courts. Section 437 of the CRPC sets out the circumstances in which courts can give bail for non bailable offences. See, provisions mandates the court to consider granting bail to an accused below 16 years or someone who is sick or a woman. For example, murder comes under non bailable offences category. This is about the present conditions regarding bail in India. Now let us see the observation made by the Supreme Court. See on July 11th the Supreme Court urged the center to bring a new law. This is to simplify and streamline the process of bail and the Supreme Court has referred to the bail act of the United Kingdom for this matter. The observation made by the Supreme Court is that there is low conviction rate in India. See, a conviction rate is a number usually presented as a percentage that indicates how frequently arrest in a given community lead to actual criminal charges. Now, if you look at the data made by the National Crime Records Bureau, the conviction rate of states or unit territories relating to cognizable crime under Indian Penal Code and the special and local law crimes during 2018, 2019 and 2020 is 66.6, 66.4 and 73.4 respectively. Since these rates are low, the Supreme Court felt that there is a pressing need to reform bail laws. The reason that they cited for such an observation is such detention reflects a colonial mindset and create the impression of a police state. Here, the Supreme Court feels so because the unwarranted arrest carried out under section 41 of the CRPC empowers police to arrest without a warrant and under section 41A of the CRPC, which deals with the procedure for appearance before police. This is the observation made by the Supreme Court. Now finally, let us see some of the guidelines given by the court. Firstly, the Supreme Court stresses the need to empower due procedure for arrest. Secondly, the Supreme Court stresses a time limit for disposal of bail please. See, the court said that the bail please have to be disposed of within two weeks except when provisions mandate otherwise. A plea for anticipatory bail has to be decided within six weeks. See, here, anticipatory bail is nothing but an interim bail. See, when any person has a reason to believe that there is a chance to get him or her arrested on false or trumped up charges due to enmity with someone, he can approach the court for an anticipatory bail. He or she has the right to move to the court of sessions or high court under section 438 of the CRPC. This is for grant of bail in the event of his or her arrest by the court if it thinks fit. This is about the time limit for disposal of bail please. Thirdly, the Supreme Court said that courts need not insist on a formal bail application in some stages such as proceedings under section 88, section 170, section 204 and section 209 of the CRPC. This means that the accused can be granted bail on court's own discretion in some situation. For instance, when a person is present in court and is required to appear again later, it can take a bond under section 88 instead of remanding in custody. Bail can also be granted when a person is produced before court by the police. This is under section 170. When the court's issue processes either a summon on a complaint or a warrant after the police files a charge sheet. This is according to section 204 and when case is committed by a magistrate for trial to a session's court. This is under section 209. Then, in addition to these three guidelines, the Supreme Court also said that the investigating agencies and the officers have to comply with section 41 and section 41A of the CRPC. The Supreme Court ruled that non-compliance with section 41 and 41A at the time of arrest will entitle the accused to bail. Here section 41 deals with arrest in a cognizable offense where punishment is imprisonment for a term which may be less than 7 years. And section 41A relates to the notice of appearance before a policeman in cases where the arrest is not required. Notably, a police officer is required to record sessions for arresting or not arresting the person. Then, the Supreme Court directed the state governments and the union entities to facilitate standing orders. These orders are for the procedure to be followed under section 41 and 41A. So as to avoid unwarranted arrest. The Supreme Court directed high courts to identify under-trails who are unable to comply with bail conditions and take actions to facilitate their release. So for ensuring all these, the Supreme Court ordered the center to consider introducing a bail act. And for this, the Supreme Court has given UK law on bail as a reference. See, in United Kingdom, the Bail Act of 1976 governs the procedure for granting or denying bail. It recognizes a general right to bail. It also aims to reduce the number of inmates or prevent clogging of jails. It says an accused should be granted bail unless there is a justified reason to refuse it. See, a bail can be rejected if the court finds substantial grounds for believing that the defendant will fail to surrender, commit an offense, or interfere with witnesses if released on bail. But whatever, it is the courts that has to give reason whether to withhold or alter bail conditions. So this United Kingdom's Bail Act of 1976 may be taken as a reference for reforming the bail laws in India. So that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw about the present conditions for granting bail in India. Then we saw about the observation made by the Supreme Court regarding the conviction rate in India. Then we saw about the general guidelines given by the Supreme Court to prevent clogging of jails. And finally, we saw about the reference act, that is the Bail Act of 1976 of the United Kingdom, which is given as a reference by the Supreme Court to the states and unit territories to enact a better bail law. With this, let us conclude this discussion and move on to the practice problems questions. We have three practice problems questions today. Let us see them one by one. Let us take up the first question. It is a two statement question. Two statements are here. We have to find the incorrect statement. Let us take up the first statement. Quantum computing uses a combination of 1s and 0s only. See, this statement is incorrect because in our discussion, we saw that quantum computing uses a combination of 1s, 0s and a state, which can be 1 and 0 at the same time. So, there are three qubits in quantum computing. So, first statement is incorrect. Let us take up the second statement. National mission on quantum technologies and applications is implemented by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. See, this statement is also incorrect because in our discussion, we saw that national mission on quantum technologies and applications is implemented by Department of Science and Technology. Okay? So, in this question, they are asking for the incorrect statement. Since both the statements are incorrect, the correct answer here is option C, both 1 and 2. Let us take up the second question. Here also, two statements are given. We have to find the correct statements here. Let us take up the first statement. Nominal effective exchange rate, that is NEER, is an unadjusted weighted average rate at which one country's currency exchanges for a basket of multiple foreign currencies. See, this statement is correct. The nominal exchange rate is the amount of domestic currency needed to purchase foreign currency. And the nominal effective exchange rate, NEER, is an unadjusted weighted average rate at which one country's currency exchanges for a basket of multiple foreign currencies. So, statement one is correct. Let us take up the second statement. The real effective exchange rate is nominal effective exchange rate adjusted to purchasing power parity. See, this statement is also exactly correct. So, since both the statements are correct, the correct answer here is option C, both 1 and 2. Let us take up the last question. This question is in regards to African swine fever. See, this we saw in our discussion. So, take this as a quiz question and post your answers in the comment section. Having completed the practice problems questions, now let us take up the mains question. We have only one mains question today. Let me read it out. Do you feel that bail laws in India need reforms? Discuss. See, here the keyword is discuss. So, you must not just list out the reforms that is needed. You must analyze whether bail laws in India need reforms. That is, you must post the positives of the bail laws in India and the issues with the bail laws in India. And in the final way forward, you have to give a balanced conclusion. That is what the keyword discuss entitles. So, interested aspirants, write the answer for this question and post it in the comment section. With this, we have come to the end of the news analysis session. If you like today's video, like, comment and share the video with your friends. For more updates regarding UPSC preparation, subscribe to Shankara IS Academy YouTube channel. Thank you.