 Very good evening to all our friends and welcome to the Hindu News Analysis of Shankar IAS Academy for the date 8th January 2021. We are happy to inform you that the third test batch of Pre-Storming 2021 program of Shankar IAS Academy has started from today and it is the prelims test series for the upcoming UPSC preliminary examination 2021. Our pre-storming program is India's first full-fledged artificial intelligence supported preliminary test series and all the required details are provided in the description of this video and also in With this information let us start our news analysis for today. The list of the relevant news articles taken for today's discussion from five different editions of the Hindu newspaper along with their page numbers are given here for your reference. Also the handwritten notes in the PDF format and time stampings for all the news articles taken for today's discussion are given in the description box and also in the comment section for the best interest of the viewers. Let us begin with our first news article. This news article talks about the advanced estimate of India's gross domestic product as released by the National Statistical Office. So in this context, first we will understand the basic economic terms like the national income, the gross domestic product, gross national product, net domestic product, then net national product and also the gross value added. And after that we will see this news article. The syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. First, let us know what is national income. See each sector of the economy employs natural human and material resources and contributes towards the aggregate flow of goods and services during a year. And this aggregate income drawn from the aggregate flow of goods and services, which is earned by the factors of productions employed during the year, is termed as national income or national product. The rate of growth of national income when compared to the rate of growth of population indicates whether the economy is declining, stagnant or developing. In India, the first attempt to estimate the national income and the per capita income was made in the year 1867-68 by Sri Dada by Naroji. And remember, national income can be measured using three methods. They are the income method, consumption method and the product method. And it can also be measured by different concepts. Let us see them one by one. First comes the gross domestic product or GDP. See it is the monetary value of all the final goods and services produced in a country in a year. Please note that in this method, the income generated by foreigners in a country is also included but the income generated by nationals or the citizens of a country outside the country is not included. The next one is gross national product or GNP. See this refers to the monetary value of all the final goods and services produced by the residents of a country in a particular year. Then next comes the net domestic product or NDP, which refers to the value of GDP after detecting the depreciation of plant and machinery from GDP. We know that machines are subjected to wear and tire and their value gets reduced gradually when we use them. So the net domestic product is the value of GDP after we detect the depreciation of plant and machinery from GDP. Similarly, we have net national product or NNP, which indicates the value of GNP or gross national product after detecting the depreciation of plant and machinery. So remember as a trick, when N comes first that is NDP, NNP, etc. It means we are detecting the depreciation of the plant and machinery from GDP or GNP. Now finally, let us talk about the gross value added. See this is a measure of the total output and income in the economy. So it provides the rupee value for the amount of goods and services produced in an economy after detecting the cost of inputs and raw materials that have gone into the production of those goods and services. It also gives a sector specific picture like what is the growth in an area, an industry or a sector of an economy. Now when we talk about the differences between the gross domestic product and gross value added, while gross value added gives the picture of the state of economic activity from the producers side or supply side, the gross domestic product gives the picture of the state of the economy from the consumers side or from the demand perspective. So in this discussion, we saw about gross domestic product, gross national product, net domestic product, net national product and gross value added. With this information, let us see this news article. See as per the observations, the India's gross domestic product is estimated to contract by 7.7% in 2020-21 and also a 7.2% shrink in the gross value added. When we see back in 2019-20, the Indian economy faced an expansion of about 4.2%. But due to COVID-19 pandemic and the associated lockdown restrictions, the Indian economy entered into a phase of recession, which witnessed sharp contrast in the two successive quarters. In the April-June period, the economy collapsed by 23.9%, which led to the shrink of GDP by 7.5% in the second quarter. And this resulted in a contraction of the real GDP to 15.7% in the first half of 2020-21. Please note that the real GDP is computed by taking the market price of some base year. Now according to the advanced estimate of the National Statistical Office, near zero growth or a mere 0.1% contraction may be expected in the second half of 2020-21. And on talking about the gross value added or GVA, two sectors are estimated to have a positive growth. One is the agriculture sector with a 3.4% growth and the next is the utility services with an expected estimation of 2.7% growth. Trade, hotel, transport, then communications and broadcasting services are some of the sectors expected to witness a sharp decline in growth followed by construction, quarrying, mining and manufacturing. And other services are expected to contract. Whereas financial, real estate and professional services are projected to record marginal decline in the year 2020-21. Now on moving to the price estimations, the real gross value added at basic prices is estimated at Rs 123.39 lakh crore in 2020-21 compared to around Rs 133 lakh crore in 2019-20. Similarly, the real GDP in 2020-21 is expected to attain a level of Rs 134.4 lakh crore in comparison to around Rs 145.5 lakh crore which is the GDP estimate for the year 2019-20. Now according to the statement by the Finance Ministry, the advanced estimate reflects the continued resurgence in the economic activity in the third and the fourth quarters. And this denotes the strength of Indian economic fundamentals that is capable of sustaining a post-lockdown v-shaped recovery. And on talking about the demand side, the real GDP in the year 2020-21 has been supported by an estimated increase in the government consumption expenditure. And as per the statement given by the State Bank of India Group, Chief Economic Advisor, due to the pandemic situation, India is expected to witness negative GDP growth rate for the first time after 1979-80. So this is all about this news article. With this information, let us move on to the next news. Now this article is about disinformation. See, it talks about where we stand with respect to disinformation in 2021. We will discuss the related aspects in this analysis. The syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. First, let us see what is meant by disinformation. See, disinformation refers to knowingly spreading misinformation or false or incorrect information. Therefore, the author calls it as a malice that has been worsened by the infodemic of the social media age. See, infodemic is a blended word from information and epidemic. So infodemic refers to an excessive amount of information about a problem like COVID-19 pandemic. So such excessive information are typically unreliable and they spread rapidly and makes a solution more difficult to achieve. So that is why the Director General of World Health Organization earlier said, we are not just fighting a pandemic, we are fighting an infodemic. So he reportedly added that fake news on COVID-19 pandemic spread faster and easier than the virus and such misinformation are dangerous. Now, let us see what the article states about the modes and means of disinformation in India. See, the scenario with respect to India is using primarily old videos and images to represent or mislead something in the present. Know that disinformation is carried out if they have an element of violence or if they have an element that is highly politicized. For example, during the Delhi riots in the last week of February 2020, a video was rapidly spread in Twitter and other social media platforms. The video was claimed as that of a Muslim person being beaten by a Hindu communal mob in association with Delhi riots. But while debunking the footage, it was found that the video was recorded in the first week of February that is much before the Delhi riots happened. It was found that the video footage was recorded in Madhya Pradesh after allegations of child lifting or abduction of children. So in India, even now disinformation is based on old images and videos. Massive spikes of disinformation were observed on the Anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests and on elections on the Delhi riots of 2020 and also about the pandemic. In all these issues, the kind of disinformation which was perpetrated was pretty simple and not that difficult to debunk. However, disinformation is done in an organized manner where fake news are produced every single day. As discussed already, such content have multiple false claims using photos, images and texts. And it is found that a lot of people in India are consuming fake news every day. And with respect to this, they are also forming their political opinion. Next, let us see the basic dynamics or driving factors of misinformation in India. And we'll also see these aspects with respect to other countries such as US and Brazil. See, it is based on four piece. One is disinformation that is spread and created in pursuit of power. Often it comes from the political establishments, sometimes from the ruling party and sometimes from the opposition. Then there is disinformation that is spread for profit. This is mostly sort of low grade clickbait. See, clickbait refers to articles, photographs, etc. on the internet that are intended to attract attention and also to encourage people to click on links of a particular website. Then the third piece that is there is disinformation that is driven by profound public disagreement. So this is bottom up disinformation where people in good faith spread information that others think as disinformation. We see this around vaccines, climate change, community relations in countries, etc. And this is observed in India as well. And the final piece disinformation enabled by platform companies such as Facebook, Google and YouTube, then Twitter and others. These companies enable the creation and spread of disinformation in ways that divide people from where they were before the advent of digital media. So the article notes that these four piece of power, profit, profound public disagreement and platforms will continue to drive disinformation in 2021. While the driving factors continue to be the same, there are few changes in operation. The disinformation actors have embraced formats that are harder to fast check and harder to moderate. This is because popular platforms are sometimes taking actions against disinformation very aggressively. And because of this, we are seeing a migration or a partial migration of disinformation actors away from large consumer facing platforms to smaller and more specialized platforms. Examples of such newly embraced platforms include encrypted messaging applications or chat functions in online gaming platforms or newsletters or any number of other platforms where currently there is less effort to combat disinformation. Secondly, there is improvement on the part of traditional media that they fast check powerful and prominent individuals. The best example would be Donald Trump. Here, the traditional media have recognized that even the ruling and powerful people like Donald Trump and the traditional media becomes a tool for the disinformation by highlighting those statements in headlines. Therefore, we can see that such media now uses sentences like so and so have falsely claimed without evidence that this is the case. And when we see there are few issues in India regarding disinformation. While the mainstream media has acknowledged organized disinformation, many new organizations actually do not do fact checking. Then it is reported that even main purpose of disinformation in India currently is to target minorities. In relation to combating such disinformation, very little fact checking is done to reduce the harm. Thirdly, while science is arguably the most best obtainable version of the truth, there are clear examples of misinformation and disinformation that is in direct conflict with the best available scientific evidence. One of the main reasons for such disinformation is that most news organizations don't have a science team that is trained to cover science. The article reports that a number of cures were put in place in Amazon and Google claiming to be COVID-19 cures. It is found that many people are buying these drugs believing them as cures after falling prey to disinformation campaign. So these are some of the information with reference to this news article. In this analysis, we saw about disinformation, the scenario of India at present, then the driving factors of disinformation and what has changed or improved. And we also saw some of the issues that contribute to disinformation in India. With this information, let us move on to the next news article. Now see this editorial article. It says that a highly pathogenic avian influencer of subtype H5N1 and H5N8 have been reported in dozens of epicenters across the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala. And one more worrying news is that thousands of poultry birds have died in Jharkhand, Gujarat and Haryana. And the cause of these deaths are yet unknown, making the issue very serious. So let us discuss this editorial in detail. The relevant syllabus is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. See this avian influencer outbreak assumes significance because it was just three months back that our country had declared ourselves free from avian influencer outbreak. Now these two subtypes that is H5N1 and H5N8 have affected different birds in different states. For example, it has affected cross in Rajasthan and also in Madhya Pradesh, then migratory birds in Himachal Pradesh and poultry birds in Kerala. We will see more about these two subtypes of virus at the end of the discussion of this article. The H5N1 subtype caused death of over 2000 migratory birds in Himachal Pradesh and H5N8 caused the death of poultry in Kerala and also hundreds of crows in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Therefore, to stop the spread of the virus, over 69,000 birds including ducks and chickens were culled in Alapura and Kottem districts of Kerala and it is as per India's 2015 national avian influencer plan. So keeping this in mind, other states have now become careful of any unusual death or disease outbreak amongst the birds, particularly migratory ones because generally it has been the migratory birds that have been largely responsible for long-distance transmission of the virus into India during the winter season. It then quickly spreads through local movement of residential birds and also the poultry and it is to be noted that movement of men and material from poultry farms has also been a cause of further spread. So the states have been asked to strengthen the biosecurity of poultry farms and also to strengthen disinfection and proper dispersal of dead birds. Also recently, a European Food Safety Authority report found that 561 avian influencer detections were made between August-December in 15 European countries and the UK. The virus were predominantly found in wild birds and a few in poultry and captive birds and note that H5N1 and H5N8 were the two of the three subtypes found in Europe and genetic analysis showed that the virus is spread across Asia to west-central Europe. So this shows a persistent circulation of this virus strain likely in wild birds in Asia. Now we should know that the avian influencer virus crossing the species barrier and directly infecting humans happens occasionally. However, the human to human spread is rare but mutations or genetic reassortment of an avian influencer A virus and a human influencer A virus in a person can create a new influencer A virus that could likely result in sustained transmission between humans and this can create a pandemic type of influencer. So efforts should be made to control and stop the outbreaks in the affected states. Also, it is important to undertake genomic sequencing of the virus samples in order to track the evolution of the virus. Finally, in this editorial from the examination point of view, we should know about the two strains of virus subtypes mentioned here and that is H5N1 and H5N8. See the influencer type A virus that is causing the outbreak has two subtypes. They are the hemagglutinin that is HA and the neuraminidase that is NA. So this division of viruses based on the two proteins that is present on the surface of the virus that is the hemagglutinin and the neuraminidase and based on this classification, there are 18 non-HA subtypes and 11 non-NA subtypes. So based on these subtypes, different combinations of HA and NA proteins are possible. So we can say that an H5N8 virus indicates that the influencer virus A has 5 HA protein and 8 N protein. Similarly, in H5N1 virus, there are 5 HA protein and 1 NA protein and know that even though both the virus is lethal for birds, the H5N8 strain of avian influencer has a lower likelihood of spreading to human compared to H5N1. So this is all about the bird flu outbreak. With this information, let us move on to the next news article. Now have a look at this question. It is based on this news article. Recently, it has come to light that the government's three top committees on nutrition which are responsible for providing policy directions and monitoring the implementation of various schemes and reviewing the nutritional status of various states and union territories have failed to meet even once since the COVID-19 pandemic. So this has come as a shock because they are very much required to meet the developmental aspects of every quarter and also there is repeated global warnings of rising level of hunger, malnutrition and child mortality. A leading member of one of these bodies, Chandrakant S. Pandav, who is also known as the iodine man of India, claims that the nutrition system in India has collapsed and the situation has gone from bad to worse. So in light of the worsening nutritional status of the country, the cabinet had approved the potion avian or the national nutrition mission in December 2017. So in this context, let us have a brief understanding about national nutrition mission. See the potion avian or national nutrition mission is a flagship program of the ministry of women and child development of government of India. It is aimed at improving the nutritional status of children from zero to six years, then adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers in a time-bound manner during the next three years beginning 2017-18. And it also aims to achieve convergence with various welfare programs of the government. The mission has a target to reduce the under nutrition and low birth weight by two percentage each year and it will strive to achieve reduction in stunting from 38.4 percentage as per the fourth edition of the national family health survey to 25 percentage by 2022. And in this regard, it targets to reduce stunting, under nutrition and low birth weight by two percentage per annum. It also aims to bring down the anemia among young children, women and adolescent girls by 3% per annum. So in order to achieve these objectives, three committees were set up by the government and they are the National Nutrition Council, the Executive Committee of National Nutrition Mission and the National Technical Board on Nutrition. See the National Nutrition Council is headed by the Vice-Chairman of Neethi Aayog and the Executive Committee of National Nutrition Mission is headed by the Secretary of the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the National Technical Board on Nutrition is headed by a member of the Neethi Aayog. So their mandate is to supervise the policy framework and the implementation of various government programs and also to review the performance of various states, give scientific and technical recommendations for the execution of these schemes and propose collective measures. I know that the National Nutrition Council held its last meeting in October 2019 and the Executive Committee met last year that is in February 2020 and the National Technical Board on Nutrition has met only twice and its last meeting was held in August 2018. Now Dr. Chandrakant S. Pandav says that these committee members need to realize that the COVID-19 has put a lot of pressure on the underprivileged especially women and children who need nourishment at a time when the income levels have gone down. So experts feel that it is high time that these committee members put their heads together and come up with a solution to tackle the crisis. So this is all about this news article. In this discussion we saw about the National Nutrition Mission or Portion Abhiyan, its objectives and also about the three committees which were set up by the government to achieve these objectives. With this information have a look at this question. Consider the following statements with regard to National Nutrition Mission. It is a two statements based question. The first statement reads, it aims reduction in stenting from 38.4 percentage as per the National Family Health Survey 4 to 25 percentage by 2025. This statement is incorrect because it aims the reduction in stenting from 38.4 percentage as per the National Family Health Survey 4 to 25 percentage by 2022 and not by 2025. Now the second statement reads, the Executive Committee of National Nutrition Mission is headed by the Prime Minister of India. See this statement is also incorrect because we saw that the Executive Committee of the National Nutrition Mission is headed by the Secretary of the Ministry of Women and Child Development. So in this question we have to identify the incorrect statement or statements. Since both the statements are incorrect, the correct answer for this question is option C both 1 and 2. And now have a look at this question. It is based on this news article which talks about the Prime Minister of India inaugurating the new Ravari new mother section of the western fried corridor by flagging the world's first 1.5 kilometer long electrified double stack long whole container train. In this regard, let us see in detail about the dedicated fried corridor project and then the question. See the Indian Railways is building the fried corridors in order to enable the government to run fried trains as per a time schedule. For this purpose, the dedicated fried corridor Corporation of India Limited is developing the eastern and western fried corridors which covers a total length of over 3000 kilometers. So therefore at present the Ministry of Railways is implementing the two dedicated fried corridors namely the eastern dedicated fried corridor and the western dedicated fried corridor. See the eastern dedicated fried corridor covers a span of 1856 kilometers from Ludhiana to Dhankuni and the western fried corridor ranges from Dhadri to the Jawaharlal Nagaroo Portrest covering to about 1504 kilometers. Both the corridors are targeted to be completed in phases by December 2021. And adding to this, the Ministry of Railways has decided to undertake detailed project reports or DPR for new dedicated fried corridors. In this regard, a concession agreement has been signed between the Ministry of Railways and the dedicated fried corridor Corporation of India Limited on February 2014. And through this concession agreement, the corporation is joined with others to allow authorized railway users including the Indian Railways to run their own trains on the dedicated fried corridor network. And know that the dedicated fried corridor Corporation of India Limited has been set up as a special purpose vehicle to undertake planning, development, mobilization of financial resources, construction, maintenance and operation of dedicated fried corridors etc. In the first phase, the organization is constructing the western dedicated fried corridor and the eastern dedicated fried corridor spanning a total length of 3,360 kilometers route. And it is also to be noted that the dedicated fried corridor is one of the largest rail infrastructure projects undertaken by the government of India, which spans around a total length of 3,360 kilometers with an overall cost estimated to be around 81,459 crore rupees. Now, let us see why this project is important. Remember, currently at present, the fried trains fail to get priority over the passenger trains. But once the fried project is completed, at least 70% of the fried trains will be transferred on the fried corridor network. And this measure will eventually impact in the timely movement of cargo. And adding to this, the fried project also helps e-commerce companies like Amazon and Flipkart to transfer their fright through railways once the dedicated fried corridor project is complete. Apart from e-commerce, the fried corridor project will also open up doors for the automobile sector. And according to a recent talk by the Prime Minister of India, this project is part of the mission to modernize the country's infrastructure and is expected to be a game changer for India in the 21st century, as the project leads to the development of growth centers and points in several cities. And this thereby facilitates the creation of job opportunities and enables conditions attracting more investments to India. Moreover, it is expected to give a new josh to the local industries and the manufacturing units by providing faster and cheaper access to national and international markets. So this is all about the fried corridor project. With this information, have a look at this question. Consider the following statements regarding the dedicated fried corridor project. It is a three statements based question. The first statement reads, It is being developed by the dedicated fried corridor corporation of India under the Ministry of Railways. Yes, this statement is correct. Now the second statement reads, A concession agreement has been signed between the Minister of Railways and the dedicated fried corridor corporation of India Limited. Yes, this statement is also correct. As mentioned, the concession agreement has been signed between the Ministry of Railways and the dedicated fried corridor corporation of India Limited. And through this concession agreement, the corporation is joined with others to allow authorized railway users, including the Indian railways, to run their own trains on the dedicated fried corridor network. Now the third statement reads, The dedicated fried corridor is one of the largest rail infrastructure projects undertaken by the government of India. Yes, this statement is also correct. So in this question, we have to identify the correct statement or statements. Since all the three statements are correct, the correct answer for this question is option D, 1, 2 and 3. With this, let us move on to the next news. Now have a look at this question. It is based on this news article which talks about the world food price index. The news is that the world food prices rose for a seventh consecutive month in December. So what is this world food price index and who publishes it? See, it is an index which measures monthly changes in the international prices of a basket of goods including cereals, oil seeds, dairy products, meat and sugar. Now today's news says that for the year 2020, the benchmark index increased by 3.1 percentage compared to 2019. The index for 2020 is 97.9, which is the highest in the last three years, but much better than 2011. In 2011, due to global issues, the index touched its peak with a value of 132. Now coming back to the index, it has five sub-indices for cereals, vegetable oils, dairy products, meat and sugar and based on the average of these five indices, the world food price index is calculated and it is published on a monthly basis by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. Now talking about Food and Agricultural Organization, it is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. It has over 194 member states and it works in over 130 countries worldwide. The objective of Food and Agricultural Organization is to achieve food security for all and to make sure that people have regular access to enough high-quality food so that they can lead active and healthy lives. And with this information, see this question. The World Food Price Index, which measures monthly changes in international prices of a basket of goods, is published by the correct answer for this question is Option A, Food and Agricultural Organization. With this, we have covered all the relevant news articles from today's The Hindu Newspaper and now let us move on to the practice questions discussion section based on today's news analysis. First we have this prelims practice question. Consider the following statements with regard to influenza type A virus. It is a two statements based question. The first statement reads, division of viruses based on the two proteins that is present on the surface of the virus. Yes, this statement is correct. Now the second statement reads, among the H5N8 and H5N1 subtypes of the virus, H5N8 strain of avian influenza has a lower likelihood of spreading to humans compared to H5N1. Yes, this statement is also correct. So we have to identify the correct statement or statements from these given statements. Since both the statements are correct, the correct answer is Option C, both 1 and 2. Now we have two main practice questions. Please write your answers and post it in the comment section and our feedback will be given in a reasonable time frame. Now we have come to the end of analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the discussion of practice questions. 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