 Good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankar IAS Academy for the date 22nd September 2021. So these are the list of articles chosen for today's discussion and let us start our first discussion by discussing about two important previous preliminary questions and we will be discussing exclusively about Hampi in the first discussion and followed by that we will be discussing about Indian Agricultural Export and followed by that we will be seeing about an important syndrome which is called as dementia and followed by that we will be seeing an data point which will be about NEET and finally we will end our discussion by discussing about an interesting article regarding Sahitya Academy Awards and without wasting much time let us look into the two previous year preliminary questions. Today we have chosen two important questions from previous year preliminary examination. These two questions were asked in 2019 preliminary exam and both the questions are related to art and culture. So by discussing this question today it will be very helpful for you in your preliminary preparation. Now look at this first question. Building Kalyana Mandabas was a notable feature in the temple construction in the Kingdom of. Option A Chalukya, Option B Chandela, Option C Rashtrakutta and Option D Vijaynahara. So the question asked us to find which of the following Kingdom had Kalyana Mandabas as their notable feature in the temple construction. See to answer this question you have to know about the temple architecture. There are two main styles in temple architecture. The first style is Nahara architecture and the second one is the Dravidian architecture. Nahara is mostly seen in the Northern India and Dravidian style is mostly seen in the Southern India. Now let us see some of the distinct features of Dravidian temples and we shall discuss about the components of Dravidian architecture. See the Dravidian temple is enclosed within a compound wall. The front wall has an entrance gateway and this entrance gateway is in its centre and this is called as Gopuram. The shape of the main temple tower is known as Vimana in Tamil Nadu and it is very distinct from the Nahara architecture because it looks like a stepped pyramid that rises up geometrically rather than the curving Shikara of North India. So it is a very distinct feature that you can see in Dravidian architecture. So the Dravidian temple is enclosed within a compound wall and the front wall has an entrance gateway in its centre and the gateway is called Gopuram. The shape of the main temple tower which is known as Vimana looks like stepped pyramid and very important point to notice that in the South Indian temples the word Shikara is used only for the crowning element at the top of the temple which is usually shaped like a small stupika. So in this picture you can see here right in the top of the temple there is a crowning element and this crowning element is called as Shikara. See in the entrance of the South Indian temples you will generally see sculptures of Dwarapallas. These Dwarapallas are also called as the doorkeepers and their main function is to guard the temple. So this is also an important distinct feature of South Indian temple that you have to make a note of and it is very common to find a large water reservoir or a temple tank enclosed within the complex. See subsidiary shrines or either incorporated within the main temple tower are located as a distinct separate small shrines beside the main temple and the North Indian idea of multiple Shikaras rising together as a cluster was not popular in South India. One of the surprising fact is that at some of the most sacred temple in South India the main temple in which the Garpagraha is situated has in fact one of the smallest towers. Do you know what is the reason for this? This is because it is usually the oldest part of the temple. So with the passage of time the population and size of the town associated with that temple would have increased and it would have become necessary to make a new boundary wall around the temple. This would have been taller than the last one and its cobra would have been even loftier. So this is the reason why the main temple in which the Garpagraha is situated has one of the smallest towers. For example the Sri Rangam temple in Tiruchirapalli has as many as seven concentrated rectangular enclosed walls each with goprams. Usually as time progressed goprams and mandabas in terms of temple architecture. When it reached 14th century certain new features were in evidence. One of such new features is the Kalyana Mandaba and it is meant to celebrate divine weddings. And this distinct feature is seen in the temple construction in the kingdom of Vijayanahara. So the correct answer for the question is option D Vijayanahara. For your additional information know that the Chalika Kingdom was a classical Indian dynasty that ruled large part of southern and central India between 6th and 12th century. And to know about Chandelas see Chandelas were a royal dynasty in central India. They ruled most of the Bundelkhand region between the 9th and 13th century. And to know about Rashtrakutta see Rashtrakutta was a royal dynasty ruling large parts of Indian subcontinent between 6th and 10th century. And we will be discussing about Vijayanahara empire in our news article discussion. Now moving on to the next question see this question was also asked in the year 2019. The question is consider the following pairs on the left side famous places were given and the right side reverse were given. You have to choose the correctly matched pair. So the first pair is Pandarpur, Chandrabaha, second pair is Tiruchirapalli, Kaveri, third pair is Hampi, Malaprabha. So you have to choose which of the pairs given above or correctly matched. Now look at the first pair. The first pair is correctly matched. See Pandarpur is famous for the Lord Vithal temple situated on the bank of Bhima river. See the Bhima river is also called as Chandrabaha because the river looks like moon. And the place Pandarpur is a major holy place in Maharashtra and it is also called as South Kasi in Maharashtra. Now coming to the second pair see Tiruchirapalli district is located along the Kaveri river in Tamil Nadu. If you know we have discussed previously a lot of time about Kaveri basin just go through it once again and coming to the third pair Hampi, Malaprabha. See Hampi is a city near the Tungabhatra river with numerous temples, farms and trading markets which means the pair is wrong. Know that the Malaprabha river flows in western part of Kanataka and there is no direct link with Hampi. So this makes pair three is wrong and the correct answer for the question is option A1 and 2 only. Now look at this news article. See the news article mentions that a review meeting was held regarding the infrastructure in the group of monuments in Hampi. So as you know Hampi was the capital city of mighty Vijayanahara empire. So it was the last capital of last great Hindu kingdom. The city was founded in 1336 and it is situated along the banks of Tungabhatra river. So we already saw this in our previous year question discuss and write. So this discussion will be very important for your preliminary and mains examination. You can use these temple sites and the illustrations and diagrams provided for you in the discussion as value addition in your mains exam. Now coming back see that city was glorified in its past for its palaces and travidian temples. It was administered by many travelers between the 14th and 16th century like Pochegis traveler, Domingo Pais or Italian traveler Nicolo Dai Conti or the Persian ambassador Abdul Razak. See if you have to really know how beautiful the city is Abdul Razak who was an Persian ambassador. Describe the city like this the city is such that the pupil of the eye has never seen a place like it and the year of intelligence have never been informed that there existed anything equal to it in the world. So by these words itself you can infer how majestic and how beautiful the city is. Such was the glory of the city. So it has luxurious palace, marvellous temple, massive fortifications, markets, aqueducts, stables for royal elephants and elegantly carved pillars and etc. See the city was also known for its trade in diamond, pearls, horses, fine silk and brocades. But later in 1565 it came under Muslim rulers of the Deccan and the city was subsequently robbed and abandoned. But the reins of the city and its historical monuments have withstood the ravages of man and time. Because of its cultural importance it was declared a world heritage site by UNESCO and known as the group of monuments at Hampi. Note that this historic town is also the world's largest open-air museum. So let us look into the world historic site now. See as we already saw the site is located in the Tungabathra basin in the Bellari district of Karnataka. Most of the important sculptures and reins in the site are located in two areas. The area are generally referred to the royal center and sacred center. So the important structures were divided into two areas. One area is called as the royal center and the other area is called as the sacred center. See the royal center is in the southwest part of the site. It contains structure that seems to have been palaces, baths, pavilions, royal stables and temples for ceremonial use. Next the sacred center is along the banks of the holy Tungabathra river. It stretches around the Virupaksha temple and the Hampi Bazaar area. Now let us see some of the important structures which will be very helpful for your preliminary and main examination. Next the King's palace. It is the largest enclosure in Hampi and it includes two major platform structures underground chamber and double fortification walls etc. So this is an important structure and the second important structure is the Virupaksha temple. So this temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva and his companion Pampadevi. The temple has nine storied gopuram and this is the only temple in Hampi that is still used for worship. So we saw in the question discussion itself what is the gopuram and how it looks like and this Virupaksha temple has nine storied gopuram. Now looking at the third important sculpture, it is the Narasimha sculpture. Also called Lakshmi Narasimha or Lakshmi Narasimha sculpture. See it is a 6.7 meter high monolith. So a monolith consists of a single massive stone or rock and this sculpture made from this single large block of stone is called as a monolith. You can see that in this image it depicts the man lion form of Vishnu which is called as the Narasimha. Narasimha is seated on a 7-headed serpent. See the serpent is nothing but it is one of the oldest and most widespread mythological symbol and it is nothing but a snake. So the Narasimha is seated on a 7-headed serpent and this sculpture is one of the last constructions of Krishna Devaraya's regime. Next the Vithala temple it was built by Devaraya too in the 15th century. The temple includes a stone chariot. It also has a large ranka mantaba. This mantaba has 56 musical pillars that resound with musical chimes when they are struck. So you would have seen this stone chariot in 50 rupees note. If you have a 50 rupees Indian currency you can open it and see. This currency have the image of the stone chariot of Hampi. So next the Lotus Mahal. The Mahal derives its own name from its beautiful geometrically arranged cusped orcs. So you can see in this image these are the cusped orcs and they add beauty to the monument. These arches resemble the petals of the lotus opening to the sun. This structure has two levels with opening power line at the bottom and balconies above. It highlights the fusion of Hindu and Muslim style of architecture. So these are some of the important points you have to know about the group of monuments at Hampi and in this discussion we saw about Vijay Nahara empire. We saw about the world heritage site, the group of monuments at Hampi. We saw some of the important structures. First we saw about King's palace which is the largest enclosure in Hampi and second we saw about Virupaksha temple which has nine storied Gopuram in the entrance. Next we saw about Narasimha sculpture which is a 6.7 meter high monolith and we saw about Vithala temple. Vithala temple is famous for its stone chariot. And you can see the stone chariot in Indian 50 rupees note. And next we saw about Lotus Mahal. It is called as Lotus Mahal because the arches in the Mahal resembles the petals of lotus opening to the sun. So with these important points in mind let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now look at this article. This article talks about India's agricultural export. See this article is very important because it carries information which is very important for your preliminary and main examination. I believe as of now you would have gone through the economic survey. UPSE do ask questions from economic survey every year. So discussing this article will be a small recall or revision to what you have learned in your economic survey and it will be very helpful for your upcoming preliminary examination. So now let us discuss about the article detail. The syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference. See India broke into the top 10 list of agricultural produce exporter in 2019. This is an important fact because in 2019 Mexico and India, Mexico with 3.4 percentage and India with 3.1 percentage share in global agricultural produce exports, they replaced Malaysia which was in the 7th place and New Zealand which was in the 9th place as the largest exporter of agricultural produce. So India broke into the top 10 list of agricultural produce exporters in 2019. See the agricultural export basket of India predominantly consists of rice. About 33 percentage of exporter rice in the world is India's as of 2019. India is also the third largest cotton exporter and fourth largest importer in 2019. In the meat and edible meat of a category, of a is nothing but the heart and other organs of an animal used as food. So in that category, India was ranked 8th in the world with a 4 percentage share in global trade. Besides this, Indian buffalo meat is seeing a strong demand in international markets due to its near organic nature. So these are the major important export from India but India is lagging behind an export of processed food items. See from 2015-16 to 2019-20 the value of agricultural and processed food increased significantly from 17.8 billion to 20.65 billion dollars. This is a very good news but we still have some structural difficulties. Let us see them one by one. First are the inspection requirements. See there is a need for mandatory pre-shipment examination by the Export Inspection Agency and this is a lengthy and costly process which can add up to the cost exported items which in turn will affect the export competitiveness. See to understand this better, for example we are exporting rice. Let us take rice as an example, we are exporting rice and to export the rice itself first we need and pre-shipment examination and this pre-shipment examination is conducted by Export Inspection Agency. So this agency examines the quality of the rice and they certify the rice. The problem is this process is lengthy and costly. So if you know the rule of economics, when a value or service is added to a product the market price of the product will increase which in turn will affect the sale of the product. So this will also happen in case of the rice. So when we export rice from India to for example Japan because of this costly examination process the cost of the rice will be high and this will affect the sale of rice in Japan. Because there will be other rice varieties from various other countries which will be cheaper than Indian product. So this is how an examination process will affect the export competitiveness. Similarly compulsory spice board certification is needed even for ready to eat products which contain spices in small quantities. This also add to time and cost. The problem here is these items are perishable. In the examination itself take a lengthy process and it consumes a lot of time. The good may itself get perished at the end of the examination. So this is a problem right? In this case we cannot liberalize the standards but what we can do is we can speed up the process so that the product will satisfy the standards and it also will be delivered on time at cheap cost. The second structural difficulty is about the policy issues. See there is a lack of strategic planning of exports by most state governments largely because they remain oblivious of the international waters. See most of the state governments are unaware of the situation that is prevailing in the international waters so they lack a strategic planning of export. So there is a lack of predictable and consistent agricultural policy. See when government keeps changing the policy private players will get skeptical about investing right? That is the private player will have doubt or they will not be easily convinced when the policy is keeping on changing and they will have doubt about investing in the products. That is what happening in India as well and this is an issue. So we have to consider it on this also. Now coming to the third issue, third is the external challenge that India faces. See many countries have restriction or requirements for taking Indian products. For instances prohibition of imports of meat and dairy based products is in place in most of the developed countries. And similarly if you take US export shipments to the US requires an additional health certificate for Indian products. So they act as a hurdle and they have placed restrictions for taking Indian producers. Lastly India lacks equivalency certification with many countries for the organic produce. Let us understand this equivalency certificate. See generally equivalency agreement or trade agreements made with other countries and organic equivalency is when two countries recognize each other's organic program as being equivalent. For example if country A and country B have a equivalency agreement they just need one organic certificate to sell their organic products in either countries. If country A and country B made an equivalency agreement the products of country A can be easily sold in country B if country A provides an organic certificate for that product. So by this agreement two countries are equivalent and the organic products can be sold in either countries with just one organic certificate. So in this case both the countries agree that organic certification procedure of their country is correct or authentic. India lacks this equivalency certificate with many countries for the organic producers. So this is a problem and as per the available statistics India ranked 8th in terms of world's organic agricultural land and first in terms of total number of producers as per 2020 data. So with that potential the lack of equivalency agreement has been hindering the export of organic agricultural producers. So we have the potential to produce but due to the lack of this equivalency agreement we cannot perform to the maximum level. Now this take us to the question of way forward. See the Indian government has been encouraging agriculture export to meet an ambitious target of 60 billion dollars by 2022. They should be aptly coordinated with the states as well. India should also diplomatically invest in reducing the external trade barriers set up by the western countries in order to boost the export of processed food and besides this reputed Indian brands should be encouraged to export processed goods globally as they can comply with the global standards of corrects. To conclude primary processed agricultural commodities form the majority share. As export earning will increase by focusing more on value added processed food products rather than primary processed agricultural commodities. For that focused efforts are needed. We already saw India is lagging behind in export of processed food items we are just exporting only the raw materials as of now which is a problem actually and government must encourage and focus more on value added processed food products instead of focusing on primary processed agricultural commodities. So in this discussion we saw some of the facts about India's agricultural export. We discussed some of the points which is acting as a structural barrier for Indian export and we also saw some of the points which can encourage this export. So with this points in mind now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now look at this news article the news article mentions that an inpatient care center has been inaugurated for dementia. See it was inaugurated in the wake of World Alzheimer's Day which was celebrated on 21st September that is yesterday on the wake of World Alzheimer's Day this inpatient care center was inaugurated. In the center people with dementia will be stabilized observed and provided with therapies. So in this regard let us know some of the important points about dementia. See dementia is a syndrome that leads to deterioration in cognitive functions that is it deteriorates the ability to process thought which means it affects memory thinking orientation comprehension calculation learning capacity language and also judgment. So it is a syndrome that leads to deterioration in all these cognitive functions. But note that the consciousness of a person is not affected. See consciousness means being aware and responsive to the surroundings. So in this condition the person will not lose his consciousness but his other thinking ability will be affected. So remember dementia is not a specific disease but it is a general term for the impaired ability to remember think or make decisions. See we already saw that will be a deterioration in cognitive functions right. So such deterioration in cognitive function is beyond the usual consequences of biological aging. So we know that when people age they tend to lose memory and forget things to some extent right. But in case of dementia all these are exacerbated. Also remember dementia does not exclusively affect old people. There is also young onset dementia where people below 65 years of age get affected with this illness. So what causes dementia? Dementia results from a variety of diseases and injuries that primarily or secondarily affect the brain. So if there is a disease that affects the brain then it can cause dementia. For example even a stroke can also cause a dementia and dementia affects each person in a different way. It basically depends on the underlying causes. But the signs and symptoms linked to dementia can be understood in three stages like early stage, middle stage and late stage. Some of the common signs and symptoms in each stage are given here for your reference. Please go through it. It will be very helpful for your preliminary examination. So we saw what causes dementia. It may be caused by a variety of diseases and injuries which affects the brain and it varies from person to person. And based on the underlying causes there are different forms of dementia. So in this manner I will say that disease itself is a common form of dementia. So what are the consequences of having dementia? See it is a leading cause of death. Currently it is the seventh leading cause of death among all diseases. It is also one of the major cause of disability and dependency among old people. Then it has physical, psychological, social and economic impacts. So it not only affects people with dementia but also impacts their career, families and society at large. So how prominent is this illness? See according to WHO report around 55 million that is 5.5 crore people have dementia worldwide. And over 60% of these people live in low and middle income countries. And do we have a cure for this disease? Okay currently there is no cure for dementia but treatment is available to some extent to manage the illness. We have anti-dementia medicines and disease modifying therapies. So this can help the patient to an extent. See we already discussed about a number of diseases which has been repeatedly showing up on the news. We discussed about autism in that line we are now discussing about dementia. See these kind of diseases are actually causing an impact in society but there is no proper attention for these diseases. So you can use these informations to write an answer about health related questions. So in this discussion we saw about dementia, what is dementia, what causes dementia, what are the consequences and the prominence of this illness and what is the cure for the disease. So with this information in mind now let us move on to the next news article discussion. See look at this data point. This data point is about the change in pattern of admission which is noted after the introduction of NEET. The data points out that the urban children and CBSE children make it to the medical colleges and students from rural backgrounds are left behind in medical college admissions. This scenario is seen after the advent of NEET. So the data point mentions that the urban children and the CBSE children could easily get admissions in medical colleges when compared to the students from rural background and this has a ramification. That is this step has an unwelcome consequence. See when a majority or urban settlers they will also want to serve the urban area only right. That is a student from city may feel that serving in the urban area itself will be convenient for them right. But the problem is the rural area which is already facing shortage of medical personnel will be left behind in the healthcare system. So this is what the data point is trying to convey and in this context let us discuss about NEET as well from the preliminary point of view. See the national eligibility come entrance test that is NEET is the entrance exam for entry to all undergraduate and post graduate medical and dental courses in the country. Very important point to note that is until 2016 the all India pre-medical test AIPMT was the national level entrance examination for medical colleges while state governments used to hold separate entrance exams for seats that were not contested at the all India level. So this was the scenario before 2016 and in 2016 the Supreme Court upheld the newly inserted section 10D of the Indian Medical Council Act 1956. In 2016 section 10D was inserted to the Indian Medical Council Act 1956 and Supreme Court upheld this move. The section 10D provides for a uniform entrance examination to all medical education institutions at undergraduate level and post graduate level in Hindi, English and other languages as well. And what you have to note here is the Indian Medical Council Act 1956 stands repealed. It has been repealed by the National Medical Commission Act 2019. So officially NEET is validated under the National Medical Council Act 2019. And remember NEET is conducted by the National Testing Agency that is NTA. So these are some of the important points that you have to remember from the preliminary perspective. So in this discussion we saw an important concern raised after the introduction of NEET as an entrance examination for entry to all undergraduate and post graduate medical and dental courses in the country. And we also saw about NEET and what was the scenario before the introduction of NEET and we also saw who is conducting the NEET examination. So with this point in mind now let us move on to the next news article discussion. See recently Sahitya Academy Fellowship has been granted. See Sahitya Academy Award is an important area for preliminary exam so pay attention. See in India the highest literary honour is given through the Nyanpith Award. The second highest is the Sahitya Academy Award. See Sahitya Academy Award was established in 1954. It is a literary honour that is conferred annually by Sahitya Academy. The Academy gives 24 awards annually to literary works in the name. It has recognized an equal number of awards to literary translations as well. So the Academy gives 24 awards annually and it recognizes literary work in both in languages and literally translations as well. Besides the 22 languages enumerated in the Constitution of India the Sahitya Academy has recognized English and Rajasthani as languages as well as for the awards. This is to be noted here and another important point to note is that this award is given only to Indian nationals. See that sole motive of the Sahitya Academy is to promote Indian literature throughout the world. Now let us briefly say about Sahitya Academy itself. See Sahitya Academy is famously called as the India's National Academy of Letters. It is the central institute for literary dialogues that is it promotes literature in 24 languages which is spoken in India including English. See the Sahitya Academy was formally inaugurated by the Government of India on 12th March 1954 and it was set up through a Government of India Resolution. Although it was set up by the Government of India the Academy functions as an autonomous organisation only and later it was registered as a society in 1954 under the Societies Registration Act 1860. See there are various awards given out by the Academy but we have only discussed the most important of that for the benefit of the exam. So in this discussion we saw about Sahitya Academy awards, we saw about the criterias and in brief we saw about Sahitya Academy itself. With this we came to the end of the news article discussion. Now let us see some of the preliminary practice questions. Now let us take up this question. This first question is about Krishna Devaraya's regime. The question is one of the last constructions of Krishna Devaraya's regime. The Narasimha sculpture which is a 6.7 meter high monolith is present at option A, Patadakal, option B, Badami, option C, I-hole and option D, Hampi. See the correct answer for the question is option D, Hampi. We already saw that in the news discussion. Narasimha's sculpture is a 6.7 meter high monolith. So what is a monolith? A sculpture or monument made from a single large block of stone is known as monolith and this Narasimha sculpture which is a monolith is present at Hampi. Now moving on to the next question. See this question is about dementia. Consider the following statement. First statement dementia is a normal part of aging. Second statement dementia exclusively affects older adults and statement three Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia. Which of the statement given above is or correct? Option A, one only, option B, one and three only, option C, three only and option D, one, two and three only. See statement one is incorrect. We saw that in the discussion itself. See dementia mainly affects older people but it is not an inevitable consequence of aging. Therefore it is not a part of aging. Many older adults live their entire lives without developing dementia. So statement one is incorrect. Now coming to statement two. See you have to concentrate on keywords like exclusively, only, consistently. See in this statement it is said that dementia exclusively affects older adults. Which means it affects only the older adults which makes the statement incorrect. We saw that young onset dementia is also there and people below 65 years of age get affected with this illness also. So statement two is incorrect. And coming to statement three Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia. This statement is correct. So the correct answer for the question is option C, three only because both the first and second statement are incorrect. Now moving on to the next question with reference to national eligibility entrance test that is need. Consider the following statements. First statement it is conducted for admissions to medical colleges at UG levels only. Statement two it is conducted by national testing agency which of the statement given above is or or correct. Option A one only, option B two only, option C both one and two and option D neither one nor two. See statement one is wrong because it is conducted for PG levels as well. And coming to statement two we saw that in the discussion it's upright. It is conducted by national testing agency. So the correct option for the question is option B two only. Now moving on to the next question. See this question is about Sahitya academy. With reference to Sahitya academy, consider the following statements. Statement one it is famously called as India's national academy of letters. Statement two it has been set up through government of India resolution. Which of the following statements given above is or or correct. Option A one only, option B two only, option C both one and two, option D neither one nor two. See if you don't have any exposure to this topic, you would blindly say that statement two is wrong. But in reality it was set up by government of India resolution and it is famously called as national academy of letters. We saw in the discussion that the sole objective of the academy is to promote Indian literature. So both statement one and two are correct and the correct option for the question is option C both one and two. The main questions are displayed here. Please write answers and post it in the comment section. With this we came to the end of the news article discussion. If you like the video like comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IS Academy YouTube channel. Thank you.