 A very good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankar Reyes Academy for the date 20th of December 2021. So these are the list of news articles chosen for today's discussion, we will be discussing 5 different articles for today. So without wasting much time, now let us move on to the first news article discussion. Now look at this article, see this news article talks about the baby friendly hospital initiative BFHI. See this initiative promotes breastfeeding in the golden hover after birth of the child, this golden hover is important for the newborn to receive colostrum. So in this discussion, let us understand this BFHI, importance of breastfeeding and golden hover and also what is this colostrum. The syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference, please go through it. See nutrition and nurturing during the first year of life or crucial and one of the best ways of getting nutrition during infancy is through breastfeeding. Why because breastfeeding is an incomparable way of providing the ideal food for infants which is the breast milk. See breast milk is the natural first food for babies. It is the low cost, high quality and locally produced food. Also exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months is the optimal way of feeding infants. Now exclusive breastfeeding is nothing but it is a process in which the infant only receives breast milk without any additional food or drink not even water. See exclusive breastfeeding is the leading preventive child survival intervention. So to put it in simple words, the breast milk provides all the energy and nutrition that the infant needs during the crucial period of the infant's life. The crucial period is up to 2 years after childbirth. So breast milk provides nutrition for the first month of life of the child and it also continues to provide up to half or more of a child's nutritional need during the second half of the first year of the child. Importantly it also provides up to one third of a child's nutritional need during the second year of the life. So first benefit of breast milk is nutrition and it is an excellent source of high quality calories for energy. Secondly, it promotes sensory and cognitive development of the child. Thirdly, it also addresses the micronutrient and iron deficiency needs in the child. Fourthly, it protects the infants against infectious and chronic diseases, particularly exclusive breastfeeding is proven to reduce infant mortality that happens due to common childhood illnesses such as diarrhea or pneumonia. Moreover, breast milk also helps for a quicker recovery during illness. Apart from this, breast milk also protects against chronic conditions in the future such as type 1 diabetes, ulceratic colitis and Crohn's disease. It also advocates with lower prevalence of type 2 diabetes, over-weighting and obesity during adolescence and adult life of the child. Apart from this, research also suggests that exclusive breastfeeding and continued breastfeeding for two years is associated with reduction in underweight in children. Therefore, breastfeeding enables the child to get breast milk which has all these benefits. In addition to this, breastfeeding contributes to the health and well-being of mother because it is an integral part of the reproductive process as you can see here in the image given here. Here, the normal question that arises is when to start and stop breastfeeding? See WHO recommends that infants should start breastfeeding within one hour of life and they are to be exclusively breastfed for six months. So after six months period, the infant should be introduced with complimentary food while continuing breastfeeding. This shall continue for up to two years of age of the child or beyond. Here the first hour is called the golden hour for breastfeeding and this provision of breast milk within one hour of birth is referred as early initiation of breastfeeding. It is golden hour because it ensures that skin to skin contact between mother and infant is established. It ensures the successful lactation and also ensures that the infant receives the cholesterol. Now, what is this cholesterol? See it is also called the first milk. It is thicker and yellowish than the milk. It is rich in protective factors, highly nutritious and contains anti-infectious substances. It is very rich in vitamin A and has more proteins up to 10 percentage. But it is less in fat and carbohydrate lactose than the mature milk. In this way, colostrum helps in building store of nutrients. So to put it in simple words, it is basically the first immunization a child receives from the mother because it helps the child to start building up his or her immune system. But the problem is colostrum is only present for the first few days of life. So if the baby is not fed colostrum through breastfeeding, then it loses all the necessary nutrients and anti-infective substances. But in many countries, starting breastfeeding is delayed by even 5 days. One of the common reasons for this delay is due to the fact that the colostrum has different color than milk and also due to superstitions. Additionally, according to WHO, only one in three infant is exclusively breastfed during the first six months of life. So to ensure that there is early initiation of breastfeeding and the child gets colostrum and also there is exclusive breastfeeding for six months, steps have been taken by the WHO. One such step is the baby-friendly hospital initiative, which is nothing but BFHI. Now let us see some of the points about BFHI. See BFHI was launched by WHO along with UNICEF in 1991. It was launched following the Innocenti Declaration of 1990. This was a declaration on the protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding, which sets an international agenda regarding breastfeeding. Mainly it called for all governments to ensure that every facility that is providing maternity and newborn services fully practices the 10 steps. The 10 steps is the 10 steps to successful breastfeeding that was formulated by WHO and UNICEF. See, this 10 steps promotes optimal clinical care for new mothers and their infants. The 10 steps are given here for a reference. Just go through it. There is also evidence that implementing 10 steps significantly improves breastfeeding rate. So, on those same line, BFHI was launched as a global effort to implement practices that protect, promote and support breastfeeding. It mainly encourages the health facilities worldwide to better support breastfeeding by implementing the 10 steps. See this encouragement is given through designating health facilities as baby friendly. So those facilities that document their full adherence to the 10 steps as well as their compliance to relevant WHO guidelines could be designated as baby friendly. So now what about India? See India also adapted BFHI in 1993 but it did not sustain beyond 1998. So to promote breastfeeding, Government of India took another initiative in 2016 called the Mothers Absolute Affection that is MAA or MA program. This program renewed India's commitment to improve breastfeeding in the health facility and it incorporates the 10 steps. But the issue was MA program do not reach private hospital facilities. Therefore, two organizations jointed hands to implement the MA program in private hospital facilities. These organizations are the Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India, BPNI and Association of Health Care Providers in India that is AHPI. Through the initiative, the organizations improve standards of care for early breastfeeding and skin to skin contact within an hour of birth. Additionally, the project has launched a National Accreditation Center that is NAC which is in the news today. This National Accreditation Center is established as a unit of BPNI. So it serves as an agency for certifying hospitals as breastfeeding friendly hospitals. They are certified so after implementing MA program guidance or the 10 steps to successful breastfeeding. According to the news, Chennai's Bloom Health Care has become the first hospital to be recognized as breastfeeding friendly under this program. So overall, BFH TAG helps the mothers to identify breastfeeding healthy hospitals before they give birth. This is a welcome initiative as India's early initiation of breastfeeding indicator remains below 50%. So according to NFHS-5, early initiation of breastfeeding remains stagnant around 41%. So such initiative will improve this indicator as well. So this is all you have to know about this news article. With these learnt points, now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now let us take up this news article for our next discussion. See this news article reports about a unique duty undertaken by the forest department workers. Here we are talking about the forest department workers attached to the Manamboli forest range of the Animali tiger reserve. See they have been doing this unique duty for the past three days. Do you know what the unique duty is? They were taking turns on babysitting three leopard catcubs. See these three leopard catcubs, they have been taking shelter along with their mother in a gap in a firewood stack near to a tea factory at Thonimudi near Valparai. When the public saw them, they initially thought they were leopard cubs, but on a closer examination they found out that they were leopard catcubs. Now you might have a question why they were doing babysitting, right? See cat families, especially those with cubs, they have a habit of altering their position when humans approach them. So the forest rangers, they decided to patrol the area until the mother relocate the cubs to a new location. So this is the story behind the article. So in this context, let us see some of the important points about the leopard cat, which will be very important for their preliminary examination. So before knowing about leopard cats, have a basic understanding. Leopard cats are different from leopards. See leopard cats, they are a forest dwelling cats. They belong to the family Filade and they are found across India, Southeast Asia and nearby islands. See these leopard cats, they are noted for their leaped like colors. It has a round head, a short narrow mubble. Mubble is nothing but the nose and mouth of an animal. So they have a short narrow mubble and a big rounded ears. Usually males are larger than females and when you talk about the entire structure of a leopard cat, they look like a miniature long-legged and more slender version of a leopard. So in this sense it is understood that leopards and leopard cats are not the same species. Have this basic understanding. Now talking about special characteristics of the leopard cats, see the coat of leopard cat is usually yellowish or reddish brown above and white below. It is heavily marked with dark spots and streaks. The length of the animal ranges from 45 to 75 centimeters. See its tail length, it ranges from 23 to 35 centimeters. Here you can note the difference right. The tail length is nearly half of its total length. So by this way you can distinguish between a leopard and a leopard cat. Now talking about their conception nature, see the leopard cats or nocturnal hunters that is these animals they are mainly active during the night. They usually hunt or feed during the night and sleep during the daytime. So those kinds of animals are called nocturnal animals and these leopard cats they are nocturnal animals which preys on birds and small mammals. Leopard cats they especially breed in spring season when we talk about litters. Litters means a number of young animals born to an animal at one time. So when animal is giving birth, how many number of young animal it gives birth to? It is termed as litters. So the litters of leopard cats they consist of 2 to 4 young ones and the gestation period is about 56 days. See in prelims they might ask some of the facts like these. So make a note of all these they might ask a question in preliminary examination. Now talking about their distribution, see the leopard cats occur throughout India, West Pakistan, Afghanistan and Southeast Asia. So its range extends into the Himalayan foothills along China, Korean Peninsula and into the Russian Far East. See it is the only cat species which is native to Japan and Philippines. You can see the distribution of the leopard cats in the map. Now we shall see some of the threats to the leopard population. See it includes habitat loss and hunting. In a disturbed area and regions with high human activity, it has higher mortality than in protected area where survival rates are high. Now new studies they also suggest that the leopard cat population in the north and south are not connected. As they are not connected, they could not migrate and this also causes a decline in leopard cat population. Specifically talking about western guards, the main threat is urbanization. In China it is commercially exploited for its fur and other potential threats include introduction of exotic animals and the spread of diseases etc. So these are some of the threats to the leopard cat population. Now let us see the conservation status of leopard cats. See it is listed as species of least concern by IUCN. But it is listed on schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. And talking about sites, it is listed on appendix 2 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. So with these important points in mind, now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now look at this image. See this image shows the living root bridge in Mehalaya. Before getting into our discussion, just have a look at this UPSC previous year question. This question was asked in the year 2015. Keep this question in mind. We will come back to this question again after our discussion. Now let us see some of the important points about the image mentioned here. See we know that in most places around the world, bridges are constructed using concrete and steel, right? But increasingly in Mehalaya, bridges are grown from roots. These are called live root bridges. The original architect of this natural bridge building technique are the forefathers of the local tribes in Mehalaya. See though this ancient technology appears to be theoretically simple, practically it is very difficult and time consuming. Let us see how these live root bridges are constructed. See roots of certain fickus trees, including fickus elastica, which are locally known as deangery, are trained to serve as payment for these natural bridges. These natural bridges are found across the rivers or steep valleys. See, the strong secondary roots of these plants are manipulated or trained to grow horizontally. This manipulated growth is done through the tunnels of hollow, brittle nut trucks or bamboos. So that the roots and branches of these fast growing trees get trained along the bamboo or brittle nut. This takes years until they supersede its support. At later stages, stones are inserted into the gaps. This is done to eventually give us the beautiful walkway. The bridges are further improved upon with additional handrails and steps that you can see here in the image. Now let us see some of the advantages and disadvantages of these live root bridges. See, the major disadvantage is its time conception. See, the construction of modern concrete bridges may take three to four years, but these live bridges take longer time to develop into a firm bridge, say around 15 to 20 years. But the greatest advantage is the lifespan of these bioengineering wonders. It is estimated to be 500 years, which is much more than the lifespan of most of man-made modern bridges. The other advantage or the length and the capacity of these bridges, the bridges are made often for a length of 50 to 100 feet and even up to 50 to 55 meter length. They are proved to carry the load of up to 50 peoples at a time. Also note that these root bridges remain alive and grow stronger over time. You can compare to wooden bridges which might rot and decay in high rains. Just remember, the development and upkeep of these bridges is a community affair. That is the community they take care of the development and upkeep of these bridges. Now coming back to the 2015 UPSC problems question, you will now be able to easily mark the answer as option A, Mehalaya. Because Mehalaya is the place where the local people are trying the roots of living roots into robust bridges across the streams, as the time passes these bridges become stronger and these unique living root bridges are found only in Mehalaya. So the correct answer here is option A, Mehalaya. So with these learned points, now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now look at this news article. This news article is taken from the text and context page. See this news article talks about the cyber security attack that happened over the world in the last one year. This article mentions terms such as cyber attack, ransomware and critical infrastructure systems. We'll be discussing these aspects in this analysis. The syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. So first we'll learn about malware. What is a malware? See malware is a short term used for malicious software. It is any software developed with an intention to damage hardware devices, steal data or cause any other trouble to the user. Viruses, worms, ransomware, trillions and spywares are some of the kinds of malware. The table shown here is about the types of malware. Just go through it. It will be very helpful for your preliminary examination. If you know one type of malware, you can use that to eliminate another one. So now we'll see what is a cyber attack. See cyber attack is an attack through cyberspace. It actually target and enterprises use of cyberspace for the purpose of disrupting, disabling, destroying or maliciously controlling a computing environment or infrastructure. It will also destroy the integrity of the data or steal controlled information. So those kinds of attack through cyberspace is known as a cyber attack. Now coming back to the article, see it talks about the cyber attacks which took place in the last one year. We'll see them one by one. First point to note here is that the hackers, they increasingly targeted critical infrastructure systems this year. See critical infrastructure is nothing but a vast network which includes highways, connecting bridges and tunnels, railways, utilities and buildings necessary to maintain normalcy in daily life. It also includes transportation, commerce, clean water and electricity, all rely on these vital system. For example, the hackers attacked fuel pipeline operator, colonial pipeline with a ransomware that forced it to shut down causing fuel shortage under state of emergency in four states. For those who are not aware, see colonial pipeline consist of more than 550 miles of pipeline originating at Texas on the coast of Gulf of Mexico and terminating at the port of New York and New Jersey. So this is a typical example of critical infrastructure and this critical infrastructure was attacked for ransom. The company's operation were back to normal after they paid 5 million in ransom. Cyber criminal group Darkside, they took responsibility for the ransomware attack but it did not end there. The colonial pipeline Debell followed the attack on a water treatment plant in Florida and on SolarWinds IT company and so on. So the hackers, they mainly target the critical infrastructure system for ransom. Secondly, as the pandemic kept people connected to their devices for another year, cyber attacks and data breaches raged on, especially it raged on social media platforms. Social media platforms became a breeding ground for cyber criminals to steal data. For example, Facebook suffered a massive data breach as private information of 533 million users was leaked online. Facebook reported that information related to CEO Mark Zuckerberg was also part of the leaked database from 2019. So as people were more connected with cyber space, even the social media platforms, they also have become a breeding ground for cyber criminals to steal data. Now, coming back to India, India alone witnessed over 6 lakh cyber security incidents in the first six months of 2021. See, this has happened by taking advantage of a flaw in the platform's contract import feature. For example, YAR India reported a cyber security incident that affected data of over 4.5 million of its customers. The breach was reported to the company in February and involved personal data including name, data-worth, contact information, password information, ticket information, star alliance and YAR India frequent flyer data, but no password data or credit card data were affected. The hackers, they also targeted vaccination portal, Covin app to steal personal data. They developed fake apps posing as Covin app. I hope you all remember the Covin app. The Covin app is the official platform for booking Covin 19 vaccination slots or registering for the vaccine and circulating or registering for the vaccination. The hackers, they developed fake apps appearing as Covin app and they circulated these apps through viral messages. The SMS carries a link that installs the malicious app on Android-based devices which essentially spread itself through SMS to victims' contacts. The app also gains unnecessary permission that attackers could leverage to acquire user data such as contact list. So this has also happened here in India. Apart from this, according to US cyber security firm Recorded Future, Chinese state sponsored attackers attacked India's electricity industry as border tensions between the two countries increased in May last year. So according to the research, 10 different Indian power sector organizations were targeted in a coordinated attack on India's key infrastructure with malware known as shadow pad. This attack can give attackers complete access of the system. However, the power ministry said no data breach or data losses was detected due to this incident. So what can be done to address the cyber attacks? See, to counter cyber attack, we should follow cyber security protocols. Cyber safety is nothing but the safe and responsible use of information and communication technology. So it is about keeping information safe and secure, but also about being responsible with the information, being respectful to other people online and using good internet ethics. It includes body of technologies, processes and practices designed to protect network, computers, programs and data from attacks, damages or unauthorized accesses. Apart from this continuously accessing the situation and updating the system will help in protecting the cyber space. Finally, strong cyber laws involving all the stakeholders is the way forward here. So with these learned information, now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now let us take up this article for our next discussion. See, in this, the author talks about cryptocurrencies. He argues that cryptocurrencies must be neither banned nor regulated. The author had taken this topic after the tweet of our prime minister stating that India has officially adopted Bitcoin as legal tender, but this tweet was later deleted citing technical compromise. See, the author is mainly talking about the cryptocurrency and not the hacking or any technical fault that caused the false tweet. So in our discussion, we'll see about the impacts of banning or regulating the cryptocurrencies. And we also see very briefly about the opinions of the author when it comes to cryptocurrencies in India. The syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference. First, let us begin our discussion with what is cryptocurrency? See, cryptocurrencies are digital tokens. They are a type of digital token that allows people to make payments directly to each other through an online site. Just remember, cryptocurrencies don't have a legal backup or an intrinsic value. The worth of cryptocurrency simply depends on the willingness of the people to pay for them in the market. Here itself, you can note the difference, right? This is in contrast to national currencies. See, national currencies are legislated as legal tenders. But instead, cryptocurrencies simply depend on the willingness of the people to pay for them in the market. See, though there are a number of cryptocurrencies, the most well-known is Bitcoin. See, nearly 15 million Indians are investing in cryptocurrencies. Not only that, they are even betting on cryptocurrencies. Because of this reason, the value of these cryptocurrencies keep on oscillating thereby creating risk to these investors and the financial systems. And this oscillating nature, it also depends on the nature of transaction. See, it is a private transaction between Indian adults with consent, right? Here, the government is not involved. So, a question arises here as how these 15 million Indians are gambling on cryptocurrencies. The answer would be hope. Yes, they just have a hope that the value of the cryptocurrency will keep rising. This hope is based on the ultimate belief that they will be socially accepted as a valid medium of exchange. See, the cryptocurrencies can become an acceptable medium of exchange only when each person in society trusts that the next person will accept it. The other way for building up of trust is through the government. Here, the government can explicitly induce trust in the society. For example, the government did such inducement of trust with paper currency. So, with respect to cryptocurrencies in India, there is a hope that the value of cryptocurrency will be keeping on increasing and there is a hope that they will be socially accepted as a valid medium of exchange. So, in such a case, if government make it clear that India will not legitimize cryptocurrencies, then it means cryptocurrencies cannot be exchanged for rupees in a bank. See, this will dampen the enthusiasm for investment and speculation. See, after all, the value for cryptocurrencies stem from the hope that it will eventually be a socially acceptable medium of exchange or legal tender, right? So, if we ban cryptocurrencies, this will actually dampen the enthusiasm for investment and speculation. So, what can be done is it actually requires a global compact of all major nations to jointly resolve to not accept cryptocurrencies as currencies. Inevitably, there will be some countries that will stay out and allow a loophole. But as of now, the Indian government must be explicit that India will never recognize cryptocurrencies as currency. See, here you might have a question. If we could not ban the cryptocurrencies or if we are never going to recognize cryptocurrencies as a legal tender, then we can regulate the cryptocurrencies. Even some experts, they have advised regulation of cryptocurrencies. But here is also a problem, because if government want to regulate a currency, it also needs to accord the status of a financial instrument. This is because only recognized instruments can be regulated. So, if government is planning to regularize cryptocurrencies, it actually means indirectly government is giving the status of a financial instrument to cryptocurrencies. See, this is also a bad idea, because as per author, the argument for regulating cryptocurrencies is the notion that millions of investors indulge in risky cryptocurrency trading, which can cause losses, increase volatility spur shadow finance and pose a systematic risk. And as per the author, regulation of cryptocurrencies is just an advice triggered by the hangover of the 2008 financial crisis caused by mortgage trading. If you remember in 2008 financial crisis, the fear of a systematic risk has led the world down a dangerous path of excessive financialization, reckless money supply and world state control of economic policy, which ultimately led to huge disparities in the societies. So, we should not fall prey to it once again. So, this is what the author tries to convey here. Just imagine a situation. If the government recognizes cryptocurrencies as assets and the regulator is established to supervise this, it actually runs the moral hazard risk of signaling official sanction to speculators and implying government protection. So, we are not actually sure about the fact that cryptocurrencies are free from speculators, right? So, if the government recognizes the cryptocurrencies as assets, it actually signals the speculators and approval to speculate. This could accidentally contribute to an increase in the number of persons trading bitcoins. And India does not have the resources and governance capacity to set up a new regulatory infrastructure to oversee the interest of speculators gambling in cryptocurrencies. So, it is a situation like if the government avoids the responsibility of cryptocurrency or it takes responsibility for cryptocurrency, the government might send a clear message to the speculators. Instead of this ambiguity, when it becomes very clear that the government will neither legalize nor regulate cryptocurrencies in India, the speculation activity will reduce, eventually is what the author tried to convey here. So, to conclude, cryptocurrencies should not be banned or regulated since they are neither possible nor wise. But instead, making it crystal clear that India would never accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment is the only solution for a longer run. So, with these learned points, now we came to the end of this news article discussion. Now, let us see some of the preliminary practice questions. Now, look at this first question. This question is about the breastfeeding topic. Consider the following statements. Statement one, Polistom is the first immunization a child receives from the mother. Statement two, baby-friendly hospital initiative was launched by WHO and UNICEF as a global effort to implement practices that protect, promote and support breastfeeding. Which of the following statements are correct? Option A, one only, option B, two only, option C, both one and two and option D, neither one nor two. See, in our discussion, we have extensively discussed about what is colostrum and we also discussed about the baby-friendly hospital initiative. Here, both the statements are correct. Colostrum is the first immunization a child receives from the mother. So, the first statement is correct. And coming to the second statement, second statement is also correct because it was launched by WHO and UNICEF. Importantly, two implement practices that protect, promote and support breastfeeding. So, both the statements are correct. Now, the correct answer for this question is option C, both one and two. Now, moving on to the second question. See, this question is about the leopard cats, which we discussed in our discussion. Evil quartet, sometimes seen in news, refers to which of the following? Statement one, habitat loss and fragmentation. Statement two, overexploitation. Statement three, alien species invasion. And statement four, co-extinction. Which of the statements given above is or are correct? Option A, one, two and three only. Option B, two and three only. Option C, one and two only. And option D, all the above. See, evil quartet is used to describe the four major causes that have led to the accelerated rate of extinction of species. These causes have been attributed mainly to human activities like extensive deforestation and poaching. So, to put it in simple words, evil quartet actually causes habitat loss and fragmentation, overexploitation, alien species invasion and co-extinction. So, the correct answer for the question is option D, all the above. Now, moving on to the third question. See, this question is about shadow pad. The term shadow pad often in news refers to which of the following? Option A, it is a malware. Option B, it is a new launch pad of ISRO. Option C, it is a virus. And option D, it is a cryptocurrency. See, the correct answer is option A. If you remember, in our discussion, we saw about this shadow pad, which is a Chinese state-sponsored cyber attack on India. See, 10 distinct Indian power sector organizations were targeted in a concerted campaign against India's critical infrastructure with malware known as shadow pad. We saw in the discussion that this shadow pad will hand over full control of the system to the attackers. So, the correct answer is option E, malware. Now, moving on to the last question. With reference to live route bridges, consider the following statements. Statement one, it has a long lifespan. Statement two, it consumes a very short time for construction. Which of the statements given above is a raw correct? Option A, one only. Option B, two only. Option C, both one and two. And option D, neither one nor two. See, in the discussion, we saw that it has a long lifespan, which is estimated to be 500 years. Hence, statement one is correct. Now, coming to the statement two. See, the statement two is incorrect because it consumes a longer time for construction that is around 15 to 25 years. So, the second statement is incorrect. So, the correct answer for the question is option A, one only. Nine questions are displayed here. Please go through it, write an 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 Shankaray's Academy YouTube channel. Thank you.