 A very good evening aspirants, I welcome you all to the Hindu Daily News Analysis brought to you by Shankar Ayes Academy. Aspirants, many of you are watching our video without subscribing to our YouTube channel. So please subscribe and hit the bell icon button so that you will get regular notifications about our videos. Now, before getting into discussion, I have an important announcement to you. The announcement is regarding Pritilum's test series. The batch 2 of pre-storming is about to begin. The orientation for the first test will be conducted on 15th October 2023 and the first test will be conducted on 22nd October. A total of 48 tests including C-Sat and Mach tests are provided in the test series and the test is conducted both in offline and online mode. Aspirants, this is a weekend batch, so kindly register to the test series immediately and boost your film score. Now, with this happy announcement, let us get into the news analysis. Today, I am going to cover important news articles from the Hindu newspaper dated 29th of September 2023. Displayed here is a list of news articles that we will be discussing today. At the end of the video, we will also have Pritilum's practice question discussions. So try to watch the entire video. Now, let us get into our first news article discussion. Look at this article. This article is taken from the Text and Context page. This article is speaking about the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance. Now, why is it in the news? Recently, the Canadian Prime Minister alleged that Indian agents were involved in the killing of Kalistani leader, Hardeep Singh Nijer, on Canadian soil. It is believed that the Canadian Prime Minister made these allegations based on the intelligence received from the Five Eyes Alliance. This is why the Five Eyes Alliance made the news today. So, in this discussion, we will see the important Pritilum's related facts about Five Eyes Alliance. Now, first, let us see the origin of the Five Eyes Alliance. Post World War II, the United States and the United Kingdom decided to enter into an Intelligence Alliance Agreement to combat the expanding influence of the Soviet Union. In 1946, this alliance was formulated through a treaty called the British-U.S. Communication Intelligence Agreement, or BRUSA, which is now known as the UK-USA Agreement. Later, Canada joined the alliance in 1948, while Australia and New Zealand became part of the alliance in 1956. See, this treaty remained top secret for a very long period of time. It was only in 2010 that the text of the agreement was first officially released in public. So, currently, the Five Eyes Alliance is a multilateral intelligence sharing network of five countries, namely the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. See, very recently, that is in 2016, the Five Eyes Intelligence Oversight and Review Council was established. This council shares best practices and it engages with non-Five Eyes countries. Okay, here you may have a doubt. Why the name Five Eyes? See the intelligence documents that are shared between the five members are classified and it is titled Secret AUSCANNZUKUSISONLY. Because of this title, the alliance is called the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance. Okay, now moving on to see about the objectives of Five Eyes Alliance. As I already mentioned, the Five Eyes Alliance was initially established to prevent the expanding influence of the Soviet Union. But post the collapse of the Soviet Union, the goals of the Five Eyes Alliance shifted to combat terrorism and to restrict the growing influence of China. Okay, see to achieve these objectives, the countries take up various surveillance activities. The activities include ocean and maritime surveillance, scientific and defense intelligence analysis, medical intelligence, geospatial intelligence, counterintelligence and the continuous sharing of intelligence products. See the intelligence gathered through these surveillance activities are stored in a database called the STONE GHOST. Okay, this is all about the objectives and various surveillance activities carried out by the Five Eyes Alliance. Now finally, let us look at the concerns regarding Five Eyes Alliance. The first concern is the issue of privacy. Some members of the alliance have been accused of engaging in extensive surveillance activities both domestically and internationally. So this affects the privacy of the people. The second concern is lack of transparency. As we saw just now, the Five Eyes Alliance operates in secrecy and many of its activities are undisclosed. So this lack of transparency can lead to distrust between the nations. Then the next concern is regarding the lack of oversight mechanism. See the Five Eyes Alliance operates without meaningful checks and balances. This might lead to potential abuses of power. And the last concern is regarding economic espionage. See there have been some allegations that some members of the alliance had used the gathered intelligence for national security purposes to benefit their own economic interests. This is a major concern that can lead to an increase in distrust over the alliance. Okay. These are all some of the important concerns surrounding the Five Eyes Alliance. And that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion we saw about the origin of Five Eyes Alliance. Then we saw about the objectives and activities of Five Eyes Alliance. And finally we saw some concerns regarding Five Eyes Alliance. See this topic is very important for your problems exam. So revise all the facts that we discussed. Now with these points in mind, let us move on to the next news article discussion. Look at this editorial article. This article highlights the major issue of India's organ shortage, especially in the transplantation of kidney. This article provides us some data about kidney transplantation. The data says that in 2022 over 2 lakh patients needed a kidney transplant. But there were only about 7,500 transplants happened in India. So only around 3.4% of transplant demand was met. The author here compares the data from United States and other developed countries. See the US and other developed countries can able to perform 20% kidney transplants over a demand. But India can perform only 3.4% kidney transplants. So the author argues that this transplant gap is more due to stringent regulations in India. Okay. This is the crux of the editorial. Now in this discussion, we will see the challenges prevailing in organ transplantation in India and then we will see the steps taken by the government to promote organ transplantation. As part of our new initiative, we will approach this topic with mains answer writing approach. Before that, let us look into the syllabus. In prylums, this topic comes under general science. And in mains, this topic comes under GS2 and GS3. And it falls under the topics like issues relating to development and management of social sector and health and science and technology developments and their applications and effects in everyday life. Okay. This is the syllabus. Now let us get into the discussion. Now first we will look at the mains question. Here the question is in 2022 over 2 lakh patients needed a kidney transplant in India but there were only about 7,500 transplants happened in India. In this light of above statement, discuss the challenges in organ transplantation in India and steps taken by the government to promote organ transplantation in India. 250 words, 15 marks. See this is the question. This question contains two parts. First, we have to discuss the challenges in organ transplantation in India. Here the key word is discuss. See if the question contains the word discuss, we have to provide a written debate that is the arguments on the issue and keep in mind our arguments should be backed up with evidence. In simple terms, in these types of questions, we have to discuss various perspectives of the issue by presenting a logical argument. Okay. So for this question, first we have to provide some argument regarding the challenges in organ transplantation in India. Okay. Here the second part of the question demands us to list out the steps taken by the government to promote and regulate organ donation in India. See this is the direct demand. So it is enough for us to list out the steps. Okay. Now having decoded the question, now let us begin to answer the question. What can be the introduction for the question? Here the question is about the organ transplantation. So we will start our answer with some basic facts about organ transplantation in India. Keep in mind we should be very careful while writing the fact in introduction part. If you make mistake in introduction itself, it will create a bad opinion in the minds of evaluator. So be careful while writing facts. You can also begin the answer by writing the source of the data like according to WHO, according to UN, according to ICMR and so on. Okay. Now coming to intro for this main question, we can write the intro like according to the national organ and tissue transplantation organization that is the NOTO in India over 3 lakh patients are waiting to receive organ transplantation. The huge demand is because the supply of organs from the donors are not up to the line with increasing demand. The NOTO also states that approximately 20 individuals die daily without awaiting organ transplants and this is due to shortage of organs. As we are going to discuss the challenge in organ transplantation, this can be a better intro for this question. Okay. Now coming to the body part, here first we have to discuss the challenges prevailing in organ transplantation in India. As it is a discussed question, we shall give some examples to back our arguments. Now let us look at the challenges. The first challenge is there is a huge gap between the demand and supply of organs in India. The data shows that only around 10% of the patients who are in need getting the organs. If you put it in numbers, for the estimated 1.5 to 2 lakh persons who need a kidney transplant every year in India, only around 8000 people get organs and of the 10,000 people who need a hot transplant in India, only 200 get the heart. So there is a huge mismatch in supply and demand. This is the first challenge. Then the second important challenge is cultural factor over donating the organs of deceased persons. The India conducts the third highest number of transplants in the world. The data shows that organ transplants in India have increased from 806 transplants in 2002 over 15,000 transplants in 2022. But the problem here is that over 80% of the organs were received from living donor transplants. Therefore only 20% of organs are coming from the deceased persons. This huge gap is due to stringent cultural aspects that various religions follow in India. This is the second challenge. Then the third important challenge is lack of awareness and superstition. See in India the concern from the family of deceased person is necessary to harvest organs even though such person has registered as an organ donor. So if the family refuses, the organ cannot be harvested. And note that the countries like Spain have an opt-out system for organ donation. As per the system, a person will be automatically a donor after his death if such person does not mention anything about his organ donation when he is alive. But as we saw earlier, this is not the case with India. In India we need concern from the family and most of the time the family refuses to organ donation due to superstitious belief and lack of awareness. This is the third important challenge. And finally the lack of necessary infrastructure to preserve the harvested organs in many parts of India is also pose a challenge in organ transplantation in India. These are all the challenges of organ transplantation. See like we discussed, if you provide points with some data, it would give you an edge over other's answers. Now coming to the second part, the second part of the question demands us to list out the steps taken by the government to promote the organ transplantation in India. Now we will see the steps one by one. Firstly, the government of India has adopted one nation, one policy for organ donation and transplantation in February 2023. Under the policy, the government has removed the requirement of domicile of the state for registration of patients for receiving organ from the deceased donor. For example, earlier if a patient heals from Tamil Nadu, he can only register in Tamil Nadu for obtaining organs. But as per the new policy, the patients will be able to go to any state in India and register themselves for organ transplantation. This is the first important step. Secondly, several states like Gujarat, Telangana, Maharashtra and Kerala, they have removed registration fees for the registration to receive organs. This helps poor patients to afford organ transplantation in India. Thirdly, the National Organ and Tissue Transplantation Organization has removed the age cap to get registered for organ transplantation. Earlier, the NOTO guidelines prohibited the person's age above 65 from registering for organ transplants. But now this age cap has been removed, so everyone irrespective of the age will now register for organ transplantation. And finally, the government is taking more efforts to streamline organ transport processes through air, rail, metros and so on. For example, recently in May 2023, the government amended the metro rules to allow for organ transport through metro rails. These are some of the steps taken by the government to promote organ transplantation in India. So we have finished the body part. Now finally, let us see the conclusion aspect. Since it is a discussion, we can give a forward-looking conclusion. Here you can write a conclusion like, even though the good initiatives are taken by the government, the demand for organ transplantation is keep on increasing. So the government should bring in comprehensive reforms through suitable policies for the efficient management of organ donation and transplantation in India. In addition to this, the government can also collaborate with NGOs to spread awareness about the organ donation. This is a balanced conclusion for this question. And this is how you have to approach these types of questions. If you like this approach, do like and share your thoughts in the comment section. As friends, we are planning to follow this approach based on your feedback. So don't forget to comment your opinion in the comment section. And that's all regarding this discussion. Now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Look at this article. This article is taken from the side column of the editorial page. This article is written in the backdrop of recently released India Aging Report 2023. Note that this report was released by the United Nations Population Fund. The report provides us some facts about India's elderly population, that is the population aged above 60 years. This editorial here highlights some crucial data from the India Aging Report 2023. This is the essence of the editorial. Now in this discussion, let us first understand the data from the report. Then we'll see the challenges faced by elderly population in India. And finally, let us see the steps taken by the government to assist the elderly population. This is the plan. Now first, let us understand a few facts from the India Aging Report 2023 as provided in the editorial article. Firstly, the report mentioned that the elderly population in India will increase from 10.5% in 2022 to 20.8% by 2050. This means that the elderly population will be doubled in the next 25 years. Secondly, the report observed that there were variations in elderly population within the states itself. As per the report, the southern states have a higher proportion of elderly residents compared to the national average. Meanwhile, states with higher fertility rates like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh also have an increase in the elderly population. But it is below the national average. This is the second finding. Thirdly, the report noted that women constitute a larger proportion of the elderly population in India. The report observed that most of the elderly women do not have economic and social security. So they will become more vulnerable in old age. And finally, the report says that more than 2.5th of the elderly population have poor wealth and they do not have any income. So these factors will create significant implications on health, economy and society in the long term. Okay, these are all the important findings of the report, as mentioned in the news article. Now moving on to see about the challenges faced by the old age population in India. See, although aging is the natural stage of human life, it brings innumerable problems and challenges. The challenges generally vary from financial to psychological to social aspects. Now first, let us take financial issues. See, the elderly population are generally not preferred for any jobs. So they are pushed out of the labor force. This leads to loss of employment and income. This in turn burden the elderly people financially. Okay, this is the first challenge. Secondly, the elderly people face psychological stress due to their deteriorating health. See, the elderly people are more vulnerable to cardiac diseases, high sight and hearing problems. So they have to make periodic visits to the hospitals and they take lots of medicines. So this affects the elderly people mentally. Okay, this is the second challenge. Thirdly, the elderly population are more vulnerable to be the victim of crimes. The elderly people become soft targets for the criminal elements. For example, the aged persons are facing many problems such as murder, theft, cheating and back snatching. Okay, this is the third problem. And finally, most of the elderly population are lost social relevance with the increasing age. Here, losing social relevance means that the elderly people are seen as a liability by the younger generation. So this leads to widespread depression among the old age population. Okay, so these are the major challenges faced by the old age population in India. Now let us see some of the important initiatives taken by the government for the welfare of elderly community in India. See the constitutional safeguards for elderly are included under Article 41 and Article 46 of DPSP. Here, Article 41 mandates the state to provide public assistance to the old age population. Then Article 46 wants to remove social injustice and all forms of exploitation with respect to the weaker sections of the society. Here, weaker sections also include the elderly population in India. So in the line of these two articles, the government of India has created many welfare schemes and aids for elderly people. Now let us see the schemes one by one. The first scheme is Raashtriya Vayyoshri Yojana, or the Y. It was introduced by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in 2017. This scheme aims to provide assisted living devices and physical aids for senior citizens belonging to the BPL category who are suffering from age-related infirmities or disabilities. So the main purpose of the Raashtriya Vayyoshri Yojana is to provide assistance to the poor elderly people who are facing difficulties in walking with increasing age. Note that the Raashtriya Vayyoshri Yojana is a central sector scheme, which means the scheme is entirely funded by the central government. And note that the expenditure for implementing the Raashtriya Vayyoshri Yojana scheme will be made from the senior citizens welfare fund, okay? The Raashtriya Vayyoshri Yojana scheme is implemented through the Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation, which is in short called as Alimco. It is a public sector undertaking, working under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. The Alimco distributes physical aids, equipment and assisted living devices at free of cost to all the beneficiaries of Raashtriya Vayyoshri Yojana. And note that 30% of the beneficiaries in every district should be women. Then the second important initiative is Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme. The scheme was launched in 2007 as a part of National Social Assistance Program. And the scheme is being administered by the Ministry of Rural Development. Under the scheme, below poverty line persons aged 60 years or above are entitled to a monthly pension of Rs.200 up to 79 years of age. And after 79 years, they will get Rs.500 under the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme, okay? Then the third important initiative is Pradhan Mantri Vayyavandana Yojana. The scheme was launched in May 2017. It aims to provide social security for old age people. Note that Pradhan Mantri Vayyavandana Yojana is exclusively available to those who are 60 years of age and above. It is basically a pension scheme for senior citizens. And note that the scheme is implemented by the Life Insurance Corporation of India, that is the LIC. And the final important initiative is Integrated Program for Older Persons. It was launched in 1992. The main objective of the scheme is to improve the quality of life of the older persons. This objective is being made by providing basic amenities to elder people like shelter, food, medical care and entertainment opportunities. Okay, these are all some of the important steps taken by the government for the welfare of old age population in India. And that's all regarding this discussion. And this discussion is about the important facts from the recently released India Aging Report 2023. Then we saw about the challenges faced by the older age population in India. And finally, we saw some points about the steps taken by the government to aid elderly population. Since the discussion we have discussed various schemes which can be asked in prilams. Also, you can quote these schemes while writing your main censor. This will definitely enrich your main censor. Okay, now with these points in mind, let us move on to the next news article discussion. Look at this news article, the chief architect of our country's Green Revolution, Mr. M. Swaminathan passed away yesterday. It was under the guidance of Mr. M. Swaminathan, India adopted chemical biological technology in agriculture. The Green Revolution helped India to transform itself into a agriculturally surplus country. Okay, so in this discussion, we'll cover some important points about the Green Revolution. Now first, let us cover the background. If you can recall after independence, India adopted a centralized planning method through fire plans. The first fire plan, India adopted the Harrod-Domer model and focused on agriculture. And in the second fire plan, India adopted the Magalonobis model and focused mainly on capital intensive industries. And this plan neglected agriculture. Due to the complete neglect of agriculture during the second fire plan and two successive droughts, India faced a severe food shortage during the 1960. So to address this dire situation, India decided to act quickly. Therefore, in the mid 1960s, India adopted the Green Revolution. The Green Revolution in India started with the introduction of high yielding varieties of wheat and rice. The other features of Green Revolution were expansion of farming areas and adoption of the double cropping system with improved irrigation facilities. Okay, this is how the Green Revolution came into being in India. Now what were the objectives of the Green Revolution? The primary objective of the Green Revolution was to increase food production and productivity, especially wheat and rice. Through this, India aimed at achieving self-sufficiency in food production. And the other objectives of Green Revolution include adoption of modern techniques, addressing hunger, and increasing agricultural employment. Okay, these are all the objectives of Green Revolution. Now coming to the question, was Green Revolution successful in achieving its objectives? The answer is yes. As you can see in the graph, India's food production increased tremendously due to introduction of the Green Revolution. Due to increased food production, India became self-sufficient in food grain production. The increased productivity in turn helped the farmers economically. See, many big land owners, mainly in the Punjab-Haryana region, became extremely rich. Also, agriculture allied sectors like the fettelace industry, tractor industry, pump industry also witnessed their growth. Okay, these are all some of the positive outcomes of the Green Revolution. The Green Revolution also had some unintended negative consequences as well. Now, what are those? Firstly, the Green Revolution widened the regional disparity in India. The Green Revolution was not evenly distributed across India. The states with good irrigation facilities like Punjab and Haryana benefited more than others. Secondly, the Green Revolution increased chemical fertilizer use, which negatively affected the environment. The excessive chemical fertilizers, which were washed away due to runoff, caused eutrophication in nearby water bodies, which compounded the problem. Thirdly, the high-gilled varieties that fueled the Green Revolution needed more water than native varieties. So, farmers exploited the groundwater indiscriminately. This resulted in groundwater shortage and salinization of arable land. Fourthly, as the Green Revolution promoted the use of high-yielding varieties, the use of native crop varieties declined. This resulted in the reduction of genetic diversity. The reduced genetic diversity made the crops more susceptible to best attack. And finally, as the Green Revolution focused only on food crops, mainly rice and wheat, farmers also preferred growing only rice and wheat. This coupled with the skewed minimum support price policy, which resulted in monoculture of rice and wheat all over the country. And this monoculture, in turn, led to land degradation. Overtime, the Green Revolution faced sustainability challenges. Issues like soil degradation, pest resistance, depletion of groundwater, they led to diminishing returns on agricultural investments. This, in turn, made agriculture a loss-making or less profitable venture, which is only now kept afloat by government subsidies. These are also some of the negative impacts of Green Revolution. See, later the government has realized its mistakes and it is taking some corrective steps in recent times to address the negative impacts of Green Revolution. And that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw about the background of Green Revolution, then we saw about the objectives of Green Revolution, then we saw about the benefits and consequences of Green Revolution. Now, with these points in mind, let us move on to the next news article discussion. Look at this small article from the Text and Context page. Recently, the Indian Bureau of Mines has released the index of mineral production of the mining and querying sector. According to the index, the mineral production in India was increased from previous year. In July 2023, the index of mineral production was stood at 111.9. This is a 10.7 percentage increase when compared with July 2022 mineral production. This is all about the news. In this discussion, we'll see important prelims-related facts about the Indian Bureau of Mines. The Indian Bureau of Mines, which is in short known as IBM, is a central government agency functioning under the Ministry of Mines. It was established in 1948. Note that its headquarters is located in Nagpur, Maharashtra. The Indian Bureau of Mines is responsible for the regulation and development of mining sector in India. Initially, the Indian Bureau of Mines functioned purely as an advisory body. During its initial years, the Indian Bureau of Mines helped the central government in framing various legislations and rules regarding mining sector. Some of the legislations and rules framed with the guidance of IBM include mines and minerals, regulation and development act, 1948, mineral concession rules, 1949, and petroleum concession rules, 1949. And later in 1950, the scope of the Indian Bureau of Mines was extended and it was given a set of functions to perform. And these functions kept on evolving over the years. Now, let us see the various functions performed by the Indian Bureau of Mines. Firstly, the Indian Bureau of Mines publishes the National Mineral Information Repository. See, this repository is nothing but a database that contains all mines and mineral related information in India. Secondly, Indian Bureau of Mines functions as the National Technical Regulator in respect of mining sector. As a National Technical Regulator, the Indian Bureau of Mines lays down regulations and procedures to guide the state governments in mining activities. Thirdly, the Indian Bureau of Mines establishes an institutional mechanism to coordinate between the center, the states, mineral industry, research and academic institutions. This mechanism helps in addressing the demands of the mining industry. Fourthly, the IBM promotes research in the mining industry sector and it acts as a bridge between academia and industry. Fifthly, the Indian Bureau of Mines provides technical consultancy services to both the government and the private organizations. Finally, through international collaboration projects, the Indian Bureau of Mines brings useful inputs for the development of Indian mining industry. Okay, these are all some of the important functions performed by the Indian Bureau of Mines. And that's all regarding this discussion and this discussion we saw about the formation of Indian Bureau of Mines. Then we saw about the objective of Indian Bureau of Mines and finally we saw some points about the functions and organizational structure of the Indian Bureau of Mines. See, this topic is very much important for the problem's exam and that's why we have chosen this topic for today's discussion. So, revise all the facts that we discussed. Now, with these points in mind, let us move on to the next part of the video that is to discuss preliminary practice questions. As friends, today we are having three questions. I will solve two of them and one will be a quiz question for you. Look at the first question. This question is regarding green revolution. Here, four aspects are given. We have to find how many of them most appropriately describes the nature of green revolution. First one, seed fertilizer water technology. Second one, high yielding variety. Third one, intensive cultivation of green vegetable. Fourth one, chemical biological technology in agriculture. Here, the correct answer is option D, one, two and four only. As you saw in the discussion, the green revolution focused on intense cultivation of food grains like wheat and rice. And it is not focused on cultivation of green vegetable. Here, all other aspects are covered under green revolution. So, the correct answer is option D, one, two and four. Moving on, let's take up the second question. This is a previous question which was asked in 2022 UPSC prelims. This question is regarding cold controllers organization. Here, four statements are given. We have to find which of these statements are correct. Look at the fourth statement. CCO is the major source of cold statistics in government of India. See, this statement is correct. The cold controllers organization is responsible for carrying out annual cold and lignite survey and publishing of provisional cold statistics and cold directory of India. So, this makes the cold controllers organization the major source of cold statistics in government of India. So, statement one is correct. Now, come to the second statement. It monitors progress of development of captive cold or lignite blocks. See, this statement is also correct. The cold controllers organization is tasked with monitoring captive mines. It also gives permission for opening and reopening of coal mines. So, second statement is correct. Now, coming to the third statement. It hears any objection to the government's notification relating to acquisition of coal bearing areas. See, this statement is correct. Under coal bearing area acquisition and development act 1957, the cold controllers organization hears objection to the central government's notification relating to acquisition of coal bearing areas. So, third statement is also correct. Now, coming to the fourth statement. It ensures that coal mining companies deliver the coal to end users in the prescribed time. See, this statement is incorrect because it is not a function of coal controllers organization. Here, only first, second and third statements are correct. So, the correct answer for the question is option A, one, two, one, three, one, B. This is a quiz question for you today. I will post this question in a community section. Try to answer it. And displayed here is a main question for your practice. Go through the question, write your answer and post it in the comment section. With this, we have come to the end of the video. If you found our video to be useful, do like, comment and share it with your friends. And don't forget to subscribe Shankar IS Academy YouTube channel. Thank you for listening.