 A very good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis by Shankarayas Academy for the date 7th of October 2021. So before getting into the news article discussion, let us take a moment and congratulate all the 360 plus candidates who have cleared UPSC civil services examination 2020 from our academy. Congratulations on your well deserved success, you made it and with this positive note now let us move on to the news article discussion. First let us discuss about an article regarding the malaria and followed by that we will be discussing about an opad article about WTO and followed by that we will be seeing about three important prelims oriented topics and we will end our discussion by discussing about three important preliminary practice questions. So without wasting much time now let us move on to the first news article discussion. Now look at this article, this article is about the anti-malarial vaccination. See yesterday the World Health Organization that is the WHO adopted the first anti-malarial vaccination which marked a significant milestone in mankind's decades long war with the mosquito that is the carrier of the disease and as per sources the masquericks is a Malarian vaccine which is approved by the WHO and this malaria vaccine is based on recombinant proteins and this vaccine is approved by the WHO for use in children's in sub Sahara Africa and other areas where Plasmodium, Phalziparam, Malaria transmission is moderate to high and very important point to note here is that the World Health Organization's recommendation was based on the result from an ongoing pilot program in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi. So this is the crux of the news article. So with this basic knowledge in mind now let us see some of the important points that you have to remember about malaria we will see how the malaria disease gets transmitted and we will see the life cycle of the Plasmodium. See some of the human disease are caused by protozoans too and what is a protozoa first? See protozoa are microscopic unicellular eukaryotes that have a relatively complex internal structure and carry out complex metabolic activities. See all life on earth consist of either eukaryotic cell or prokaryotic cell and it is said that prokaryotes were the first form of life. Now what is the difference between the prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells? See the primary distinction between these two types of organism is that eukaryotic cell have a membrane bound nucleus and prokaryotic cell do not have that. I hope you remember the nucleus is where eukaryotes store their genetic information and in prokaryotes DNA is bundled together in the nuclear region but it is not stored within a membrane bound nucleus. To put it in simple words remember prokaryotes do not have a defined nucleus because it lacks a membrane bound nucleus. So this is the very basic distinction between these two types of organism and some of the other important distinction between these two organism are given below please go through it and some of the examples also have been provided here in this table you can go through it so that you can get better idea about the prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. So now coming back protozoans are microscopic unicellular eukaryotes that have a relatively complex internet structure and carry out complex metabolic activities. So these protozoans can also cause diseases in human and most important thing you have to note here is that all parasitic protozoa require performed organic substances that is their nutrition is holozoic as in higher animals. To put it in simple words they feed on the host. So all the parasitic protozoans feed on the host have this in mind if you understand this it will be easier for you to understand how the protozoa cause a disease in humans. See you might have heard about malaria I believe and it is a disease for which man has been fighting since many years and plasmodium it is a tiny protozoan which is responsible for this disease. See different species of plasmodium are responsible for different types of malaria for example there are plasmodium like plasmodium vivax, plasmodium malaria and plasmodium falciparum. So there are different types of malaria caused by different species of plasmodium. What is a plasmodium? It is nothing but it is a tiny protozoan and this protozoan is a parasitic protozoan. So coming back of the above mentioned different types of plasmodium malignant malaria caused by plasmodium falciparum is the most serious one and can even be fatal. Keep this in mind and you can go through this table to further understand about the distinction between different plasmodiums. Now let us quickly take a glance at the life cycle of plasmodium. See plasmodium enters the human body as sporozoids that is they enter the human body as a infectious form. Now how do they enter the human body? They enter human body through the bite of infected female anaphyllus mosquito. What happens next? The parasite initially multiplies within the liver cells and then attack the red blood cells that is the RBCs and finally they will result in the rupture of RBC and this rupture of RBC is associated with release of a toxic substance called haemazoin and this toxic substance is responsible for the chill and high fever recurring every 3 to 4 days. See when a female anaphyllus mosquito bites an infected person these parasites enter the mosquitoes body and undergo further development. The parasites multiply within them to form sporozoids that are stored in their salivary gland and when these mosquitoes bite a human the sporozoids are introduced into his or her body thereby initiating the events mentioned above. So this is how the cycle gets completed and it keeps on spreading and the very interesting fact to note is that Malarial parasite requires two hosts that is it requires human and mosquito to complete its life cycle and the female anaphyllus mosquito is the vector which acts as a transmitting agent. See why should we discuss about malaria to this extent? What is the purpose? See Plasmodium vivax is very common in America continent and Plasmodium falciparum is common in rest of the world especially in Africa, South East Asia and Western Pacific and malaria is the disease that killed more than 260,000 African children under the age of 5 annually. Talking about the serious malaria effects in children see the children with severe malaria frequently develop one or more of the following symptoms like severe anemia, respiratory distress or cerebral malaria. In adults also multi-organ failure is also frequent. Here you have to note that anemia means a condition in which there is a deficiency of red cells or deficiency of hemoglobin in the blood. Pneumological malaria is a neurological complication characterized by coma and asexual forms of the parasite on peripheral blood smears. Keeping these serious impacts caused by malaria, WHO organized a pilot program in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi and now the World Health Organization has recommended that children in Sub Sahara Africa and other places with moderate to high Plasmodium falciparum malaria transmission can receive the most curious malaria vaccine which is a recombinant protein based malaria vaccine. If you remember we already saw Plasmodium falciparum is the most serious one and can even be fatal. So this recommendation is a boon in times of difficulties especially when it comes to African continent. So with this we came to the end of this news article discussion. In this news article discussion we saw about eukaryotes and prokaryotic organisms. We saw what are the distinction between these two organisms. We saw some of the examples also and we saw what are the types of Plasmodium that causes different types of malaria and we also saw why this recommendation is very important. So with these important points in mind now let us move on to the next news article. Now look at this open article see the 12th ministerial conference of the WTO is about to take place this year between 30th November to 3rd December 2021 in Geneva, Switzerland and this particular editorial is written in that background. So in this article the author talks about the present existential crisis that is faced by the WTO and on that line he puts forward 5 major challenges that lay ahead of WTO and these 5 major challenges needs immediate address. So this is the ultimate crux of the editorial here. So in this discussion let us see about the above mentioned 5 major challenges that lay ahead of the WTO. The syllabus covered by this open article is given below for your reference. Now moving on to the article the first and foremost comes the challenges posed by the United States that is the US has begun to lose its interest in the WTO. This is because the US feels that the WTO hasn't served the American national interest or to put it in simple words the US feels that WTO is supporting China more because of which it fails to stem China's rise. That is the US believes that the World Trade Organization favors China more and as a result it is unable to hinder China's rise. Likewise it also has a feeling that WTO is regularly indicating or it is regularly accusing the US in several trade disputes. So this is the first challenge that the author tries to convey that is the US has begun to lose its interest in the WTO as it feels that the WTO favors China more and as a result US is unable to hinder China's rise. See when a country like US which is a superpower loses interest on trade organizations like WTO then there will be a major change in the geopolitics. So this is what the first challenge conveyed by the author here. Now moving on to the second challenge second comes the issue of public stock holding for food security purposes. See public stock holding program are used by some countries to purchase stockpile and distribute food to people in need right. Even WTO allows these programs but if these stockpiling programs involve purchasing from farmers at prices fixed by the government say like the minimum support price which is practiced in India then they are considered to deteriorate trade and are subjected to an overall cap. Here you have to make a note of one thing WTO allows public stock holding programs and it allows government to purchase stockpile and distribute food to people in need. But if the stock holding program itself involve purchases from farmers at prices fixed by the government then they are considered to deteriorate trade and are subjected to an overall cap. When you take India there are high chances for it to breach this cap because we need to do higher procurement to support farmers and provide food to the poor at subsidized price. So this becomes a concern. Even though a clear mandate to find a solution was done in 2015 Nairobi ministerial meeting still no solution has been found in this regard. Therefore this needs address and this is the second challenge that the author tries to convey here and especially when it comes to India we need to do higher procurements to support farmers and provide food to the poor at subsidized price. But when an overall cap is placed on those procurements then there is an issue. The third challenge is the trade related aspects of intellectual property rights is abbreviated as TRIPS. If you remember last year India and South Africa proposed a TRIPS waiver for increasing the accessibility of COVID-19 medical products including vaccines but till now there exist a disagreement among the WTO member countries on the need of doing it. So it would be really good if it adopts a waiver in the upcoming ministerial meeting. The fourth online comes the WTO signing of a deal on the regulation of irrational fishing subsidies. See these irrational fishing subsidies provided for fishing that has led to the over exploitation of marine resources by countries like China which is the largest catcher and exporter of fish. See the problem here is that a lot of lives are being involved in this process so therefore instead of merely signing the deal this agreement should strike a balance between conserving ocean resources and the livelihood concerns of millions of marginal fishermen. And apart from this an effective special and differential treatment provisions should be accorded in order to provide an adequate policy space. Is something countries like India and other developing countries should insist on this ministerial meeting and finally comes the emergence of MEHA plurilateral trade agreements. Say like that of the comprehensive and progressive agreement for trans-specific partnership and regional comprehensive economic partnership. See the problem here is that these plurilateral agreements are likely to cause fragmentation in the global governance of international trade. So this is the final challenge and this has to be addressed in the ministerial meeting which is about to be held. So these are the challenges that lie in front of the WTO at present. Therefore to conclude the upcoming WTO ministerial meeting which is scheduled for next month in January actually provides an opportunity for the WTO to receive a solution to the above problem and make things less complicated. So in this discussion we saw about WTO's 12th ministerial conference which is about to be held this year between 30th November to 3rd December 2021. So in this open article the author has talked about five major challenges that lay ahead of WTO which needs immediate address. So the first and foremost comes the challenge posed by the United States. United States has begun to lose its interest in the WTO and WTO is in its high time to prove that it is an organization of neutralism. And second comes the issue of public stockholding for food security purposes. The caps on subsidies should be relaxed so that countries like India and other developing countries can help and support farmers and provide food to the poor at subsidized price. And the third comes the TRIPS agreement. A waiver for increasing the accessibility of COVID-19 medicinal products including vaccines should be adopted in the upcoming ministerial meeting. And the fourth online comes the WTO signing of a deal on the regulation of the irrational phishing subsidies. This agreement should strike a balance between conserving ocean resources and the livelihood concerns of millions of marginal fishermen. And finally comes the emergence of MEHA plurilateral trade agreements as they are likely to cause fragmentation in the global governance of international trade. It should be addressed in the upcoming ministerial meeting. So these are some of the important points that we have learned from this open article. Now let us move on to the next news article. Now look at this article. See Telangana earlier had come to the Supreme Court complaining that it had been unjustly denied an equitable allocation of the Krishna water. And it had made the center and the riparian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra respondents. In its plea Telangana had complained to the Supreme Court that it had written a letter to the center in 2014 to constitute a tribunal under section 3 of the Interstate River Water Dispute Act of 1956 to adjuricate the issue. Basically a tribunal wasn't set up. So Telangana approached the Supreme Court. But now Telangana has withdrawn the plea based on center's assurance to set up a tribunal. So in this context, let us see some of the important facts about Krishna River. It will be very helpful for your preliminary examination. See the river Krishna is an interstate river in southern India. And it is the second largest river in Penunsula, India. Also it is the fourth biggest river in terms of water inflows and river basin area in India after the Ganga, Godavari and Brahmabutra. Note that the river is also called Krishnaveini and it rises in the western guard at an altitude of 1337 meters. It rises in western guards near Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra state and it flows across the whole width of the Peninsula from west to east. So as you can see it flow eastwards and drain into the Bay of Bengal. It flows through Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. And see the basin is roughly triangle in shape and it is bounded by Balgat range on the north by the eastern guards on the south and the east and by the western guards on the west. See its principal tributaries joining from right or Gatprabha, Malprabha, Koyna, Venna, Varna, Panch Ganga, Duth Ganga and Thungabhatra. Whereas Bhima, Musi and Munneru or principal tributaries joining Krishna from left. So far we saw about Krishna river talking about its origin. It originates or it rises in the western guards at an altitude of 1337 meter near Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra state. It flow eastwards and drains into the Bay of Bengal. And it flows through four states Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. See the Krishna river is an interstate river in southern India and it is the second largest river in Peninsular India. And it is the fourth biggest river in terms of water in flow and river basin area in India after the Ganga, Godavari and Brahmaputra. See as we already saw Krishna river is a east flowing river and it forms delta at the mouth of the river. See this is unique and something you have to note because most of the west flowing rivers do not form delta in India. See the reason behind this is rivers form delta when the flow or the speed of the river water slows to the extent such that the silt it carries gets heavier and the water cannot carry it forward to the sea. And that is where delta is formed and when you see the west flowing rivers they do not form delta. As the slope of the western guards is steep and that is the reason that these rivers have a rapid flow. When there is a rapid flow, the silt is carried forward to the sea and the condition do not allow the formation of delta. So this is the reason why the west flowing rivers do not form delta in India. Now coming to the Krishna river, the Krishna river has a large and high fertile delta continuous with that of the Godavari river to the northeast. Now moving on some of the important dams are highlighted in this map. Here know that the longest dam in the basin is Narayanapura dam on Gatprabha river in Belgam district of Karnataka with a total length of 10.64 kilometer. The most important is the Naharjuna Sahar dam. It is the world's largest masonry dam located in Andhra Pradesh-Telangana border. Other important dams are Almati dam in Karnataka, Sri Sailam dam in Andhra Pradesh and Thungabhatra dam in Karnataka. See the Krishna basin is said to possess rich mineral deposits which create a good potential for industrial development. Importantly, iron and steel, cement, sugar can, vegetable oil extraction and rice milling or some of the important industrial activities are present in the basin and the major urban cities in the basin are Pune and Hyderabad. See these points will help you in eliminating an option in the preliminary examination. So, make a note of it and this is all you have to know about the river. So, in this discussion, we saw about Krishna river, its origin and we saw about the boundaries and we saw some of the principal tributaries of Krishna river. We saw the reason why delta is not formed in west flowing rivers and we also saw some of the important dams on the Krishna river. So, with these important points in mind, now let us move on to the next news article. Now, let us take up this news article for our next discussion. See, Taiwan has been in news repeatedly now. China has sent record number of military jets into Taiwan airspace. Western countries in turn flexed their military muscle of the Japanese coast in support of Taiwan. So, in this part of discussion, we'll understand the issue in detail. Let's start with the geography of Taiwan Strait. See, Taiwan Strait is also called the Formosa Strait. The Strait was named Formosa, meaning beautiful by Portuguese navigators in the late 16th century. Although it is still known in the west by its European name and now most westerners use the name Taiwan Strait. As you can see from the map, Taiwan Strait is located in one of the contentious areas of the east in the vicinity of South China Sea, parcel islands and the Nine Dash Line. See, this Strait is the connection between South China Sea and East China Sea and it lies between the People's Republic of China or China and Taiwan. See, Taiwan is commonly called the Republic of China. Pay attention to the differences in name here and its south lies the Bashi Canal. Note this, Bashi Canal separates Taiwan from the Philippines. So, the Taiwan Strait is located in one of the contentious areas of the east in the vicinity of South China Sea, parcel islands and the Nine Dash Line. The Strait acts as a connection between South China Sea and the East China Sea and it lies between the People's Republic of China or China and Taiwan. And important point to note here is that Taiwan is commonly called the Republic of China and to the south lies the Bashi Canal and note this, Bashi Canal separates Taiwan from the Philippines. And also remember that topic of cancer process through it and with that geographical information now let us understand the tensions in the area. See, the Taiwan Strait has three major crisis tracing its origin to the Chinese Civil War that ended in 1949 and US policy towards East Asia in the early Cold War contributed to further tensions in the Taiwan Strait. See, the China claims Taiwan to be a part of its own territory whereas Taiwan and the West considers Taiwan as a separate entity with a democratic government. Although they consider it so, US still date has no official ties with Taiwan. In fact, the United Nations doesn't recognize Taiwan. Now looking at the crisis, see problems between China and Taiwan is always breathing. That is, it is creating a situation that causes difficulty and Taiwan is a loose entity which may or may not be a part of China. That is the issue here. See, the first and second Taiwan crisis were armed conflict in 1950s between China and Taiwan. The third crisis took place in 1990s to be precise in 1996 around the election time of Taiwan. See, the China sensed that Taiwan might vote in favor of a democratic party. We know China is communist and the communist in power in Taiwan would be in its favor, right? So, seeing the popular trend in favor of democracy feeling threatened, the People's Republic of China or China flexed its army muscle in the stride. And when this was happening, it was reciprocated by US in support of Taiwan and the third crisis ended. Since then, various issues have flared up like what happened recently making experts predict a fourth crisis. So, in a nutshell, the issue is this. Taiwan wants to be separate from China because it has democratic colors. In fact, it has its own constitution, elected leaders, and it even has three lakh troops of its own. And the separate entity status have been widely supported by the West. But China claims self-governing Taiwan assets own territory. This is the reason for the recent standoff in the stride. So, with this, we came to the end of this news article discussion. So, in this news article discussion, we saw about Taiwan's stride, its geographical position, and we understood that tensions prevailing in the area. We saw about the third crisis took place in 1990s. And to be precise, it took place in 1996 around the election time of Taiwan. And we also discussed about the reason for recent standoff in the stride. So, with this, we came to the end of this news article discussion. Now, let us move on to next news article. Now, look at this news article. See, recently, an analysis has been conducted by CEEW, that is the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water. See, the Council is a research body and it is a Delhi-based, not-for-profit policy research institution. So, what it did was, it looked at five of the most reliable data sources. According to that, UP has emerged as the largest emitter of particulate matter 2.5 and the highest emissions from UP were largely due to a significant share of PEM 2.5 emissions from solid fuel use in households. This is a very important point to note, because the high emission level is due to the share of PEM 2.5 emission from solid fuel use in households. The households are responsible here and we know UP is India's most populous state and it has a higher proportion of households and they also rely on this form of fuel leading them to emit more of it. So, this is the problem here and another notable finding is that, see the body collected data from five different sources. For any given parameter, the data collected showed high variability. Understand this, say for example, one source says the amount of PEM 2.5 emitter is 100, but another source said that PEM 2.5 emitter is 125. This significant variability has underlined the need to maintain a comprehensive database on these pollution level in air. So, an analysis was conducted by Council on Energy, Environment and Water. It is a council. This council is a research body and it is a daily based not-for-profit policy research institution. And for its analysis, it took five most reliable data sources and according to that, UP has emerged as the largest emitter of particulate matter 2.5. This emission is mainly due to the solid fuel used in households. We know UP is India's most populous state and higher proportion of households are relying on this form of fuel, which is further leading to emit more of particulate matter 2.5. Apart from this, the study also shows that different sources showed high variability. So, this significant variability has underlined the need to maintain a comprehensive database on these pollution level in the air. Now, moving on, the news article also talks about the National Clean Air Campaign, NCAP. We'll also quickly learn about it. See, NCAP was launched by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in 2019. It is the first ever effort in the country to frame a national framework for air quality management with a time-bound reduction target. See, it seeks to achieve 20% to 30% reduction in particulate matter concentration by 2024. Basically, it seeks to cut the concentration of cores, that is the particulate matter of diameter 10 micrometre or less, or PM10 and fine particles, that is the particulate matter of diameter 2.5 micrometre or less or PM2.5 by at least 20% in the next five years. And it uses 2017 as the base year for comparison. See, basically the plan includes one, 22 non-attainment cities. And what are these non-attainment cities? These cities are those that have fallen short of the national ambient air quality standards for over five years. These cities are spread across 23 states and union territories and these cities were identified by the Central Pollution Control Board. So, these are some of the important points that you have to remember. In the last part of the discussion, we saw about national clean air campaign, that is NCAP, which was launched by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in 2019. And we saw some of the important time-bound reduction targets, which we have to keep in mind. So, with these important points in mind, now let us move on to the next segment of the news article discussion. That is, we shall discuss some of the preliminary practice questions. Now, look at this first question. This question is about river Krishna. Consider the following states. First one is Maharashtra, second one is Telangana, third one is Karnataka, fourth one is Tamil Nadu and fifth one is Andhra Pradesh, which of the above states formed the drainage basin of river Krishna. So, this is the question. And from our discussion itself, you can infer that option B is the correct answer. River Krishna does not flow through Tamil Nadu. Even it is a peninsula river that is even it is second largest peninsula river that flows in the southern India. It does not flows through Tamil Nadu. So, the correct answer for the question is option B, 1, 2, 3 and 5, 1D. Now, moving on to the next question. See this question. See you have to arrange the following geographical location from north to south. First is Philippines, second one is Taiwan Strait and the third one is East China Sea. You have to select the correct answer by using the code given below. Option A, 1, 2, 3, option B, 2, 1, 3, option C, 3, 2, 1 and option D, 3, 1, 2. See from the discussion, we know that correct answer is option C. Now, have a look at this map for the arrangement of the geographical features. The Taiwan Strait connects the east and south China Sea. So, the east China Sea is northmost. Then the Strait comes and then the Philippines. You can see that in the map here. So, the correct answer for the question is option C, 3, 2, 1. Now, moving on to the next question. This question is with reference to national clean air campaign. Consider the following statements. First statement, it has time-bound reduction target for air quality management. Second statement, plan includes 122 non-attainment cities identified by Central Pollution Control Board. See this campaign aims to cut the particulate matter in air by 20 to 30 percentage in air by 2024. It has 2017 as the base year for comparison. So, statement one is correct. That is, the campaign has a time-bound reduction target for air quality management. From our discussion, we know that statement two is also correct. The plan includes 122 non-attainment cities identified by Central Pollution Control Board. So, the correct answer for the question is option C, both 1 and 2. Main questions are displayed here. Interested aspirants can write answer and post it in the comment section. So, with this, we came to the end of the news article discussion. If you like the video, like, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IS Academy YouTube channel. Thank you.