 Good evening aspirants. Today there are two important announcements regarding Phoenix initiative course and 2020 prelims test series The Phoenix initiative course consists of four modules along with free access to 18 tests This course along with the prelims test series will help the aspirants to revise the syllabus effectively for the upcoming 2020 prelims examination and here note that the admissions are open till 4th October 2020 and for more Information regarding these initiatives, please visit the registration link given in the description and also in the comment section of this video With this let us move on to the in the news analysis of Shankara Ace Academy These are the list of news articles chosen for today's analysis It has been provided along with the page numbers of different editions of in the newspaper Let's move on to the first discussion for today Now this news article talks about the recent steel exports from our country the steel exports from India have more than doubled between April 2020 and July 2020 so in this context, let's have a brief discussion on steel Manufacturing in India then steel imports and exports, etc The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference She first know that the iron and steel industry is basic to the industrial development of any country from this Representation you can correlate between the GDP growth and steel consumption and with respect to India almost all sectors of Indian industry depend heavily on the iron and steel industry for their basic infrastructure So what about steel production? See the main raw materials for steel production, which we know are iron ore and cooking coal other than this There are also other essential raw materials for iron and steel industries such as limestone dolomite manganese and fire clay now here know that all these raw materials are gross that is their weight losing Therefore the best location for the iron steel plants is near the source of raw materials And if you take India there is a crescent shaped region which comprises parts of our country that are extremely rich in high-grade iron ore Which are rich in good quality cooking coal and other supplementing raw materials and this region comprises of Chhattisgarh, Northern Odisha, Jharkhand and Western West Bengal This was the scenario for a longer time But after the fourth plant period government started setting up new steel plants Which were also away from the main raw material sources in this regard We should know about three steel plants which are located in South India The first one is Vizag steel plant in Visagapatnam in Andhra Pradesh It is the first port based plant and its port location is an advantage Then the next one is the Vijayanagar steel plant at Hosepeite in Karnataka and then the third one is Salem steel plant in Tamil Nadu So from this you can easily say that since 90s the setting up of steel plants have moved away from raw material based region to proximity of ports and to further promote the steel manufacturing and to attain Self-sufficiency our government has come up with national steel policy in 2017 The vision of this policy is to create a technologically advanced and globally competitive steel industry Which promotes economic growth and here should take note of the objectives of this policy Which are very important from mains perspective First it aims to build a globally competitive industry Second it aims to increase the per capita steel consumption to 160 kgs by the year 2030 to 31 Apart from this the policy also aims to domestically meet the entire demand of high-grade automotive steel Electrical steel, special steels and alloys for strategic applications And the target period for this is also by the year 2030 to 31 And the policy also has the objective to encourage the steel industry to be a world leader in energy-efficient steel production in an environmentally suitable manner And further since our country is trying to move to a green economy This policy in the same line aims to substantially reduce the carbon footprint of the steel industry So like this these are the objectives of this policy Next you should know that with respect to the steel industry India has a high import dependence of washed coking coal It is because the availability of high quality coking coal that is low ash coal in our country is very limited And therefore there is no option left for us rather than to resort to import of coking coal But to address this problem the steel policy aims at reducing import dependence from 85% to 65% by the year 2030 to 31 And next there is also a relation between the per capita steel consumption and nations economic development And for this reason the policy aims to increase the per capita steel consumption to 160 kilograms as we saw already Now this table represents the steel imports and exports of our country in the last three years And as you can see for the year 2018 to 2019 the steel imports have exceeded the exports Now keep this fact in mind now this map represents the major steel producing areas of our country As you can see initially we saw that the steel industries were concentrated in the eastern part of our country Then later totally it moved to southern part and now you can see that it is also concentrated in the west part of our country So this is the background that you should know with respect to steel industry Now today's news is that India's steel exports have more than doubled between April 2020 and July 2020 So you can see that in 2018 to 2019 period the steel imports were more than the exports But now in this four month period itself the steel exports have more than doubled And the reason for this rapid increase in steel exports is because of Chinese buying According to the news article China bought 1.3 million tons of steel But you should note that Vietnam has been a regular buyer of Indian steel And Vietnam has bought 1.37 million tons of steel But now only China has emerged as a leading buyer of steel in our country And this development is quite surprising because the traditional Indian markets for Indian steel are Nepal, Italy, Belgium and Vietnam only So we can conclude that China's emergence as a leading buyer of steel in our country is quite surprising Considering the current prevailing border tensions So these are the recent developments that you should know from example's perspective In this discussion we saw about the Indian steel industry We saw about import and export of steel also We also saw about the details regarding import and export of steel The displayed practice questions will be discussed in the last session Let's move on to the next discussion Now this discussion is based on this editorial As we know the West Asian countries have been historically fighting against each other So today this editorial discusses about the ongoing Israel Hezbollah issue We will see that now Before that the syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference Now firstly to understand the issue let us know about the geography of Israel and Lebanon As you can see in this map Israel shares border with Lebanon in the north And Israel shares border with Syria in the northeast And it shares border with Jordan in the east and southeast Then it shares border with Egypt also as you can see here Now Israel is not a landlocked country since it shares border with military agency to its west So just keep in mind that whenever we discuss about the geography of any country You should know whether it is a landlocked country or not And what are the countries which it shares border with These aspects are important from Prelim's perspective And with respect to Israel know that Jerusalem is the proclaimed capital of Israel But its status is still disputed by many countries Now next is the geography of Lebanon It is bounded to the north and east by Syria And it is bounded to the south by Israel And Lebanon is also not a landlocked country since it also shares border with military agency So now what is this Hezbollah which we are talking about See Hezbollah is both a political party and a militant group When we discuss about the history of West Asia We talk about the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979 It was led by a Shia cleric Ayatollah Khomeini This Islamic revolution strengthened the Shias in Middle East After this happened the first Lebanon war of 1982 In which the Shia clerics in Lebanon formed the Hezbollah And Hezbollah's main aim was to drive away Israel from Lebanon And also establish an Islamic Republic there And we can say that Hezbollah was successful in its aim Because in 2000 after 18 years of occupation Israel was forced to withdraw from Lebanon And that was mainly due to the fighting of Hezbollah Then later in 2006 Israel invaded Lebanon to destroy Hezbollah's military capabilities But so far the tensions along the volatile border of Lebanon and Israel have remained relatively calm But we can see that in the recent times the cross-border attacks have emerged Here what you should note is that Israel is backed by USA and Hezbollah is backed by Iran And as you know Iran has a considerable influence in Lebanese politics So the politics in Lebanon depends on the foreign politics of both Iran and Israel One another such example which we can see is Syria that is hit by civil war And it is a neighbor of Lebanon In Syria Iran and Hezbollah are supporting President Bashar al-Assad And Mr. Assad has survived the civil war in Syria So Iran has substantially increased its footprint in Syria also So this has changed the geopolitical scenario in the region And this has strengthened the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah axis And according to the author of today's editorial Israel sees this axis that is the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah axis as a growing security challenge And this is why Israel has started the bombing operations in southern Lebanon and Syria But the reason given by Israel for bombing is that Iran military is supplying supplies to Hezbollah via Syria So Israel is targeting these supplies only This is the reason given by Israel But whatever might be the reason we can see that these bombing operations might result in another conflict between Hezbollah and Israel This is the current scenario now Now in this regard you should remember about another development in Israel which we saw recently Which is the Israel UAE peace deal We discussed this peace deal on 16th August Until now there is no direct connection between this deal and the increased cross-border attacks by Israel on Lebanon and Syria But if you remember on that day we saw that one of the major factors that brought Israel and UAE together was their shared antipathy or hatred or dislike towards Iran So that means Israel is trying to consolidate its power in the region And it is trying to become a major power than Iran Even though the Israel UAE peace deal and then the recent attacks of Israel on Lebanon are on two different lines We can say that they are aiming at one main point only But here also remember that Israel-Hezbollah issues are historical and they are not the recent issues So to conclude we can say that despite its military might Israel will find it difficult to eliminate Hezbollah in the region On the other hand if we take Hezbollah, if it engages in war then it will further destabilize the already unstable Lebanon As we know Lebanon is politically and economically unstable And recently Beirut in Lebanon also witnessed a catastrophic explosion that killed more than 100 people And it injured thousands of people So we can see that here Lebanon is in a very difficult situation not only politically but also economically If the region wants stability in Lebanon then both sides that is both Israel and Hezbollah should stop their attacks and they stick to ceasefire So that is all about this discussion The displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session Now this next discussion is based on this Ground Zero article It talks about the recent landslide which occurred in the Idiki district of Kerala So in this context we will discuss on the major issues highlighted in this editorial The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference So first what happened in Kerala? As we all know that Kerala has witnessed heavy rains this year like the last two years And in the beginning of this month a massive landslide occurred in Petimudi which is located in the Idiki district of Kerala This was not the first time we are hearing natural calamities in the state As you can recall the landslides which happened in the Malappuram district and Vainat district of Kerala in August last year also And that was also a similar incident to the recent one And in every one of these natural calamities the casualty is increasing every year So what is the reason for such severe calamities in Kerala every year? Now to understand this we have to first understand the geography of Kerala So you know that Kerala is divided into three geographical regions First one is Highlands which is the slope down from the western guards The second one is Midlands which are the undulating hills and valleys That is the hills and valleys are in the form of a wave And the third one is an unbroken coastline and it has many picturesque backwaters that are interconnected by canals and rivers And almost 30% of the geographical area in Kerala is densely forested with many national parks and wildlife sanctuaries And Idiki is one of the hill districts of Kerala It has many national parks including Irawikulam National Park, Pambadam Chola, Madhkettan Chola etc It also has many famous hill stations Some of them are major tourist spots like Munar, Vagamon etc And most importantly the highest peak in the western guards and the highest peak in the peninsular India which is Animudi Is also located in the Idiki district of Kerala only And based on the geography of Kerala we can say that most of the land in Kerala can be termed as ecologically fragile zones Now we are saying this based on an important government report It is the report submitted by the western guards ecology expert panel that was constituted by the central government And this panel was a 14 member panel under the chairmanship of Madhav Gadgil So the report submitted by this panel is also known as the Gadgil commission report And whenever we talk about the natural calamities happening in Kerala, this is one of the important reports that are cited So take note of it, it will help you while answering a main question Now this panel was tasked to suggest measures so that they can stop the ecological devastation in the western guards by human activities And this panel's report designated the entire western guards as an ecologically sensitive area And in its report it categorized western guards into three zones of varied ecological sensitivity They are ecologically sensitive zone 1, ecologically sensitive zone 2 and ecologically sensitive zone 3 And these zones are in addition to the protected areas that are managed under the acts such as the wildlife protection act etc Now the report also suggested that the ecologically sensitive zones 1 and 2 would be largely no-gone zones Which means the mining, then polluting industries and large-scale development activities are restricted in these zones And the report also objected new dams, thermal power stations or massive windmill farms or new township in the ecologically sensitive zone 1 The report also called for stricter regulation on tourism, it called for phasing out of plastics and phasing out of chemical fertilizers in the ecological sensitive zones Then it also suggested for a ban on diversion of forest land into non-forest applications Then it suggested for a ban on conversion of public lands into private lands etc So like this many important suggestions were given by this Gadgil commission But sadly the report was unacceptable to all these six western guards states So the recommendations were not implemented So now let us discuss about the major reasons for occurrences of landslides and high casualties in Kerala as mentioned in this Ground Zero article The first reason is that Kerala witnesses extreme rainfall during southwest monsoon And most parts of the state receives more than 1500 millimetre average rainfall in each rainy season And sometimes some areas even receive more And this year's rainfall if you take in Idk district itself was 30 centimetre And according to experts extremely heavy rains of 30 centimetre or more can trigger landslides And further hill slopes are more vulnerable in this region So this means these heavy rainfalls have destabilized the already vulnerable hill slopes in the high ranges of Kerala Now some of them which may not have seen landslides in the past are also now becoming potentially vulnerable to heavy sliding Now a second reason we can mention the two factors which contribute to landslides that is mentioned in the article And these factors include the static ones like the slope of a hill or its shape This means if the slope is higher the possibility of landslide will also be higher Then the factors also include the triggering factors which are the human activities like deforestation Then construction use or land use and land grab etc Now here it should be noted that most of the hills in Kerala are under high threat due to encroachments by private persons to build resorts and houses Apart from this mining then deforestation for plantation crops are among the most important reasons for the destruction of ecologically sensitive land of Kerala Now with respect to Petimudi itself if you see it comes under the landslip prone localities So obviously people live in these areas they are vulnerable to natural calamities And moreover the Gutgill commission report had designated the Petimudi locality as a region of highest ecological sensitivity Still there are tea plant stations present over there So this shows that the recommendations of the Gutgill commission was not implemented Now when we talk about the landslip prone localities you should know about the findings of geological survey of India Because according to the geological survey of India about 19,000 square kilometer out of the 39,000 square kilometer area of Kerala have hills with slopes of more than 10 degrees So GSA conducted studies about 10 landslides in Idiqui and it had cited that human interference and unscientific land use are among the geoscientific causes that triggered the landslides Now apart from this the Ground Zero article mentions that GSA has now completed a new landslide susceptibility map for all landslide prone areas And this has been completed under the National Landslide Susceptibility Mapping Project But the map for the Idiqui district is not ready yet You can note these points for answering a main question regarding the natural calamities in Kerala Now apart from these the other reason which is given for the occurrences of landslides and high casualties in Kerala is the negligence and poor disaster prevention mechanism in the state For example it was said that before the Pettimodi incident the Mayanard and Idiqui districts of Kerala were given red alert for extremely heavy rainfall And the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority recommended for evacuating people in the landslide prone areas And they were to be evacuated to safe areas during the day itself But it was not implemented in the labour colonies of Pettimodi And this led to high casualties in the Pettimodi landslide incident So these are the reasons for the high number of landslides and increasing casualties in the state of Kerala Now what could be done to prevent the loss of life and properties during such calamities? Now for this the experts have given some suggestions such as Firstly there should be real time rain gorging systems and they should be set up in all landslip prone localities So that people can be moved to safer locations when the rainfall is heavy And secondly the accurate landslide susceptibility map should be developed for all ecologically sensitive zones And moreover early warning systems based on rainfall thresholds should be deployed In addition to all these the mother critical report should be given respect by the governments And the recommendations of the commission's report should be implemented Because again and again every year such incidents in Kerala and the high number of casualties resulting because of it Only prove the importance of these reports So until the government civil society and the citizens start respecting the nature And hear the suggestions of the experts such kind of disasters cannot be eliminated So that is all about this discussion That is a great practice question will be discussed in the last session Now this next news article mentions that the upper catchment of the Mahanade river has received heavy rain for the past two days So the coastal districts in the Odisha state are bracing for heavy floods Now this is the third river which is in use in the recent times The other two were the Godavari river and Krishna river So today we will discuss about the Mahanade river and certain important facts related to the river from the exam perspective First know that it is one of the major rivers of Indian peninsula which flows eastwards and drains into the Bay of Bengal Now the Mahanade river rises in the highlands in Raipur district of Chattisgarh It flows through Odisha to reach the Bay of Bengal The length of the river is about a 60 kilometer And more importantly its drainage basin is shared by Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha Also know that the Mahanade river ranks second to the Godavari river among the peninsula rivers in respect of water potential Now with respect to the east flowing rivers you should note that most of them form deltas before entering into the Bay of Bengal As you can see in this map and one among them is Mahanade river It forms a delta before flowing into Bay of Bengal And here note that the Chilika lake which is the largest salt water lake in India It lies to the south of Mahanade delta only Then the river is bounded in the north by central India hills Then it is bounded by east and guards in the south and the east And then it is bounded by Maikal hill range in the west Now next we have to discuss about the major tributaries of this river Its main tributaries are Seonath, Jong, Hasdev, Mand, Ib, Ong and Tel Now in this note that the three main tributaries Seonath, Ib and Tel They together constitute nearly 46.63% of the total catchment area of the river Mahanade And in this Seonath is the longest tributary of Mahanade Now with respect to the important dams and reservoirs constructed on this river The most important one is the Hirakut Dam project It is a multipurpose project intended for flood control, irrigation and power generation Now this dam is built across river Mahanade At about 15 km upstream of the Sambalpur town in the state of Odisha And note that this is one of the oldest Hydel projects of India Most importantly it is the first post independence major multipurpose river valley project in our country Now apart from Hirakut Dam project, the other important projects are Ravishankar Sagar project, Dudwa Reservoir, Sondhu Reservoir, Hasdev Bango and then Tandula These are some of the other major projects on river Mahanade So that is all about this discussion These are the information that you should know from examination perspective Now this practice question will be discussed in the last session Now this next news article mentions that the congress leader in the Lok Sabha has written to the speaker by opposing a proposal Now this proposal aims to curtail the question hour and zero hour during the upcoming parliament session So in this context let us try to understand what is this question hour and zero hour Generally the first hour of the parliamentary sitting is devoted to the questions And this hour is called as the question hour This question hour has a special significance in the proceedings of the parliament Because asking questions is an inherent and unfettered parliamentary right of the members That is asking questions is an unrestricted right of the members of parliament Now during this question hour only the members can ask questions on every aspect of administration and governmental activity Here know that the question hour is mentioned in the rules of procedures of the house Now when a question is asked the concerned minister stands up and answers for her or her administration's acts of omission and commission Now through this question hour only the government is able to quickly feel the pulse of the nation And is able to adapt its policies and actions accordingly Now the questions asked in this question hour are of three kinds They are start questions, unstart questions and short notice questions Now in this the start question requires an oral answer and hence supplementary questions can also follow But in an unstart question the answer has to be in a written format and hence supplementary questions cannot follow And then a short notice question is the one that is asked by giving a notice of less than 10 days And this short notice question is also answered orally Obviously the questions can be directed at ministers and the questions can also be asked to the private members Thus a question may be addressed to a private member if the subject matter of the question relates to some bill, resolution or other matter Which is connected with the business of the house for which that particular member is responsible So that is all about the question hour Now what is this zero hour? See the time which is immediately following the question hour is taken up in the house as zero hour It starts around 12 noon and this period is commonly termed as the zero hour Now for raising matters during this zero hour in Lok Sabha Members have to give notice to the speaker stating clearly the subject which they consider to be important And which they wish to raise in the house But it is up to the speaker to allow or not to allow for raising such matters in the house Now in this note that the term zero hour is not formally recognized in our parliamentary procedure That is it is not mentioned in the rules of procedure of the house It is just an Indian innovation in the field of parliamentary procedures So from this you can understand the significance of both these parliamentary instruments Because these instruments give the opposition a chance to hold the ruling government accountable for its actions and inactions So if these instruments are curtailed then it may lead to reduced role of opposition in the democracy So that is all about this discussion Let's play practice question will be discussed in the last session Now this next discussion is based on this news article which talks about barn owls The news article mentions that barn owls were shipped to Lakshadeep islands from Kerala in 2019 They were shipped to control the rodent pests which were destroying the coconut plantations in the unit territory of Lakshadeep So remember that barn owls are related to the control of rodent pests which were destroying the coconut plantations in Lakshadeep So in this context let us know few facts about the barn owls It is a medium sized owl Its scientific name is Taito Alba And it has a heart shaped face as you can see here It has spotted back and spotted wings And its under parts are purely white Now generally the male barn owls tend to be much paler than females And there are between 28 to 35 recognized subspecies And there are considerable distinctions between the subspecies It depends on the habitat conditions of those species Now these barn owls can be found in variety of areas like grasslands, deserts, marshlands and wetlands Agricultural areas and other open lowland areas etc They are also found in towns, suburbs, villages or more isolated buildings that are suitable for daytime roosts and nest sites That means it is present in most of the states of India Now these barn owls are nocturnal birds of prey like any other owl species That is they are active both in day and also in night Now these species feed on small mammals mostly rodents So in this regard they have some specially adapted characteristics to help them to hunt for food at night And these characteristics include an incredibly sensitive hearing And the ability to see with very little light etc And then another interesting fact about these barn owls is that they appear to practice population control also That means when food is scarce they lay fewer eggs or they may not breed at all So now what are the threads to this species? The threads include illegal trade, then loss of habitat due to the loss of nest and roost site Then they are also killed due to electrocution They are killed due to collision with the wind turbines etc And these species sometimes also feed on farm pests So pesticides which are used in agriculture also possess a great risk to this species Now next from example's perspective we should know about the conservation status of this species The barn owls are categorized as least concerned by the IUCN Red List And they are listed under Appendix II of Sites And with respect to India they are protected under Schedule IV of Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 So these are the information that you should know with respect to barn owls And why we are discussing barn owls today? Just remember those facts The displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session Now we have come to the last session for the day, the practice questions discussion session This first question is based on geological survey of India The first statement mentions it creates and updates the national geoscientific information and mineral resource assessment This statement is correct, this is the objective of geological survey of India Now the second statement is it is a government organization attached to the Ministry of Earth Sciences Now this statement is incorrect because GSI comes under the Ministry of Mines And be careful because here the question asks for the incorrect statements So the correct answer is option B2 only Now this next question is a map based question The question asks which of the following countries share border with Israel One Egypt, two Syria, three Lebanon, four Iraq, five Azerbaijan Now in today's discussion we saw that Israel shares border with Egypt, Syria and Lebanon So definitely one, two and three should be in the answer If you look at the given options, one, two and three are only present in option B So you can directly arrive at the correct answer which is option B Now Israel also shares border with Jordan as you can see in this map So take note of all the countries which repeatedly appears in the newspaper And in the recent times we have seen about Lebanon also Then about Turkey, then Iran and United Arab Emirates So you should know about all the countries and the seas and oceans which these countries share border with Now this next question asks which of the following procedural devices are mentioned In rules of procedure and conduct of business of Lok Sabha Three options are given First one is calling attention, second one is question hour Third one is zero hour Now we discussed about question hour and zero hour Now when this calling attention means a member with the prior permission of the speaker of Lok Sabha Call the attention of a minister to a matter of urgent public importance And that member requests that minister to make a statement on that matter Now this procedure is purely Indian innovation It is aimed at fulfilling the needs felt by members to bring to the notice of the house about the matters of urgent public importance And this is mentioned in the rules of procedure and conduct of business of Lok Sabha So one should be in answer and during discussion we saw that question hour is mentioned in the rules of procedure And zero hour is not mentioned in the rules of procedure So the correct answer is option A, one and two only Now this next question is based on river Mahanadi The first statement is it is a major river of Indian Peninsula Which flows westwards and drains into the Arabian Sea Now the first half of the statement is correct It is a major river of Indian Peninsula Now the second half is incorrect because river Mahanadi flows eastwards And it drains into Bay of Bengal Here note that Narmada and Taapi are the only long rivers which flows westwards Since statement one is incorrect it should not be in the answer Because the question asks for the correct statements Now from the remaining options you can easily say that statement two is correct The Hirakut Dam project is built across river Mahanadi This is correct Now the third statement mentions Sionath, Junk and Tail are its main tributaries This statement is also correct Its other tributaries are Hasdev, Mand, Eib and Ong So the correct answer to this question is option C, two and three only Now this next question is a previous year question which appeared in 2015 Regarding steel production industry The question asks, in India the steel production industry requires the import of Option A, Solpeter, Option B, Rock Phosphate, Option C, Coking Coal Option D, all of the above Now today also we were discussing about the import of Coking Coal The correct answer is option C, Coking Coal only See Solpeter and Rock Phosphate are not utilized by majority steel companies in India Further India is a producer of Solpeter and usually does not import this product in large quantity But for steel production we import large quantities of Coking Coal Now this next question is about Barn Owl The first statement is they mostly occur in temperate regions of Europe and America And are rarely found in India Now this statement is incorrect because Barn Owls are widely spread throughout the world And they can be found in most states of India Now the second statement is they are categorized as endangered under IUCN Red List of Threatened Species This is incorrect because they are categorized as Least Concern under IUCN Red List And here the question asks for the correct statements But both the statements are incorrect So the correct answer is option D, neither one nor two Now let us take one main question based on GS Paper 3 A major criticism faced by the Gadgil-Kamichi report is being more environment friendly And not in tune with the ground realities Critically analyzed the above statement in light of the recent landslides of Kerala Along with major recommendations of the report Aspirants can write the answer for this question But keep in mind the answer should not exceed 250 words After writing the answer, post it in the comment section We will review it and appropriate suggestions will be provided to improve your answers Within a reasonable time frame With this we come to the end of today's Hindi News Analysis If you like the video don't forget to like, comment And also share among your friends And do subscribe to Shankarai's Academy for receiving more updates Related to civil service examination preparation