 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Reyes Academy. In our today's news analysis, we have included a special session called as comments and clarifications. We have picked up some of the recent comments by our viewers and have given clarification for the questions raised. We have planned to do it once in a while so as to ensure accountability and to be responsible on our part with respect to the content that we provide in the Hindu News Analysis. In a way, it will also provide clarity to our viewers on various issues. Now, displayed are the list of news articles selected for today's analysis and the page numbers in five different editions of the Hindu newspaper. The link for the handwritten notes and the time stamping of the displayed articles are provided in the description box and for the benefit of smartphone users, the time stamping is also provided in the comments section. Now, let us move on to the analysis of first news article. This news article is about Biotic Interaction and Triangular Biotic Interaction in particular. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article has been highlighted here for your reference. See, we know that almost all organisms that live on this earth are interlinked to one another in one way or other, maybe for survival, maybe for sake of food, maybe for shelter, also for defense purposes. And the interaction between the organisms are fundamental for the functioning of the ecosystem as a whole or in totality. These interactions between living organisms is called as Biotic Interaction. There may be positive interactions or there could be negative interactions or in some cases there could also be neutral interactions. First let us see different types of interactions with some illustrations or example. First let us see about mutualism. In this type of interactions, both the species benefit. Here consider that two species are interacting with each other. So in mutualism, both species benefit. A classic example could be the pollination process. See bees go in search of flowers for nectar. They get the nectar from different flowers and at the same time they also transfer pollen from one flower to another. Here the act of transferring the pollen grains through the bees is what we call as pollination wherein the pollen grains from the male antler of a flower will be transferred to the female stigma. And know that one of the ways that plants can produce offspring is by making seeds and seeds can only be produced when pollen is transferred between flowers of same species and bees help in this transfer of pollen. So in this mutualism bees get nectar or honey whereas the plants that cannot move or the stationary plants they reproduce with the help of bees through the offspring such as seeds. So here both the species are benefited and therefore it is also a positive interaction. Next interaction is commensalism. See it's an interaction where one species gets benefited whereas the other is unaffected. For example, say creepers like money plant. See money plant grows on the trees for the purpose of getting sunlight. And this growth of money plant will no way affect the trees. So the money plants benefit because of this interaction whereas the tree on which the plant grows remains unaffected. This is also a positive interaction. See next interaction is competition. See this is a negative interaction. Here both the species are affected or harmed by the interaction. For example, let us take a pond where there are limited zoo plankton. We know that zoo plankton are a source of food for fishes in the pond. If a fresh species of fish is introduced then the resident fishes and the introduced new fishes will compete for food that is the zoo plankton. So this is a type of interaction where there is competition. And it is an example for negative interaction. Next interaction is amensalism. When we saw commensalism there we saw that one species is getting benefited other is unaffected. In amensalism one species is harmed whereas other remains unaffected. For example, take a large tree and a small plant. The large trees will shade over small plants that grow nearby the large trees. Because of shading the growth of the small plant is affected because there will be less amount of sunlight received by small plants as large trees shade the small plants. But the presence of small plant has no effect on large tree. So here small plant is harmed whereas the large tree remains unaffected. This is a negative interaction. Now let's see two more negative interactions. One is parasitism and the other is predation. In both these things one species is benefited and the other is harmed. For parasitism let us take an example of ticks. We know that their main food is blood. They feed on the blood of hosts such as mammals or birds. So here the host is harmed whereas the tick is benefited. For predation let us see the example of interaction between larger and smaller animals. For example, a lion or a tiger hunting small animals like deer. Here the deer is harmed or affected whereas the lion or tiger is benefited. So these are some types of biotic interactions. Now let's come to the news article. The news article is about an example of predation. Here they have discussed the interaction between a plant, pest and a predatory insect. Here pest refers to a destructive insect that attacks crops or food or livestock. And this news article is based on the research carried out by the researchers from National Centre for Biological Science which is in Bengaluru. They have studied the interactions between the cotton leaf worm which is the pest in this case and the predatory insect which is wasp. Here cotton leaf worm is scientifically called as sprodoptra littera and the wasp is brachan brivicornis. We are saying this just to differentiate. Here the cotton leaf worm is the pest that eats cotton plant that eats cotton plant leaves. When the worm feeds on the leaves of cotton plant, the leaves release aromatic or volatile vapors into the air. These aromatic vapors or volatiles they spread in the air and they attract the wasps which are predatory insects. We say predatory because the attraction of wasps harms the cotton leaf worm. This is because the wasps lay their eggs on the skin of the cotton leaf worm. When the eggs of these wasps hatch, the larvae feed on the worm itself thereby in the end killing the worm. That's why we call this wasp as a predatory insect. So this is a type of triangular interaction where there is plant, there is a pest and there is a predatory insect. Here the offspring of wasps are benefited and the cotton leaf worm is harmed. Now let's see how the wasp was able to lay its eggs on the skin of the worm. See the wasp first stings the worm and it injects a toxic substance into the worm. This action immobilizes the worm. That is the worm will not be able to move and this is taken advantage by wasp. Then the wasp takes its own time to lay its eggs on the skin of the worm. The news article also talks about one more similar example which is about the interaction between the cabbage plant and the cabbage worm called as Plutella Silostella and the pest which is a wasp called as Cotesia Vestalis. See in this case the wasp injects the eggs into the body of the worm. These eggs hatch inside and they feed on the cabbage worm as they grow. So here the cabbage worm is harmed and the offspring of the wasp is benefited. So these are some of the interactions that you can know from this news article. The news article also talks about another interesting finding from this research. We just saw that when the worm feeds on cotton plant leaves, the leaves release aromatic and volatile vapors into the air. The scientists have found out that the immunity levels are boosted or increased in the pester when it eats the leaves of the cotton plant. They are saying that when the leaves release aromatic and volatile vapors, this increases the immunity of the pests. Scientists studied it by spraying the plant volatile substances on the cotton leaf form at different time durations and they observed the immunity levels of this cotton leaf form. And they are saying that specific volatile substances could modulate the immunity status of cotton leaf form. And the modulated cotton leaf worms were made to interact with their natural enemies for example wasps. It is found that because of the increased immunity in the cotton leaf form, the worms were now able to withstand the sting of the wasp. See when we say wasp stings on this cotton leaf worm, it means that the wasp produces a small but painful injury to this worm with a poison either by brushing against the skin or by making a very small hole in the skin of the worm. Now because of increased immunity in the cotton leaf form, the negative interaction of predation by the wasp is kind of arrested or stopped. So this is one another matter discussed in this news article. These are some of the findings and in the research so far, scientists have exposed the cotton leaf worms only to one plant volatile substance at a time. Now they want to know whether this immuno modulation that is the change in the immunity due to exposure to the plant volatiles, when the worms are exposed to a mixture of plant volatiles and they also want to study whether this immuno modulation is specific only to cotton leaf worms or whether all such pests behave the same way or not. And they will be also studying about whether the wasps build any natural mechanism to combat or to find increased immunity of the worms. So these are the matters that will attain some development in the times to come. So from this news article, we saw about biotic interaction and two examples of triangular biotic interaction and then we saw about different types of biotic interactions. So these are some of the information with respect to the analysis of this news article. Now let us move on to next news article. This news article is with reference to checks and balances in the matter of political advertisements in social media intermediaries. And this news article talks about the concerns raised by the United States with respect to a video application in smartphones called as TikTok. First let's see the news article about political advertisements. Here when we say intermediary, we are referring to a person or an entity that stores or receives or transmits an electronic record. It also includes any person or entity who provides some service with respect to electronic records. Know that intermediaries here include telecom service providers, network service providers, internet service providers, web hosting service providers, search engines, online payment sites, online auction sites, and online marketplaces and also cyber cafes. This definition of intermediary is based on section 2W of IT Act of 2000. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of these news articles has been highlighted here for your reference. See recently the CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey has said that his company would not accept political advertisements hereafter. And the news article states that the online ecosystem of political advertising is dominated by two intermediaries, Facebook and Google. And within Facebook and Google, the opinion is that Facebook gets much more attention from the advertisers. And this is because of the level of targeting that is available in this platform and also because of the possibility of engagement or the possibility of interaction by way of comments or getting likes or in way of sharing the posts or information. Here when we say engagement or interaction, it could be, you know, seeing the advertisement and choosing to click the advertisement or putting a like or commenting or even sharing. So when we say interactions made by persons in Facebook, it means all these things. The news article mentions the extent of the amount spent in these platforms for political advertisements since February based on some calculations. If you take Google, the political advertisements is amounted to 29 crores. See this means this much money has been spent in India using this Google platform to manipulate or to promote or to influence the voting mindset of the adult citizens. And in Facebook, the amount spent so far since February in India by the advertisers for social issues, elections or for politics is around rupees 39 crores. However, the article at the end mentions that it is unclear whether these political advertisements got required certification from the Media Certification and Monitoring Committees of Election Commission of India. The social media platforms earlier agreed that they will undergo certification, that they will ensure the certification process is being obtained by the advertisers from the Media Certification and Monitoring Committees under a voluntary code of ethics. See earlier in March 2019, the social media intermediaries and social media platforms, they voluntarily agreed to comply with certain standards for free and fair elections under this voluntary code of ethics. See this code of ethics has been developed as a result of the engagement of Election Commission of India with the Internet and Mobile Association of India and also the representatives of social media platforms including Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, Google, Share Chat and also TikTok and others. And these social media platforms and Internet and Mobile Association of India, they presented a voluntary code of ethics to the Election Commission of India in March 2019. And note that this news article says that we have to check whether the social media intermediaries ensured compliance under this voluntary code of ethics and note the code mentions that it will be in force for the duration of 2019 Indian general elections. So there is a loophole that the intermediaries can say that we agreed compliance only for the general elections. Now our focus here has to be on the committees of the Election Commission of India. See this media certification and monitoring committee. This framework is an initiative of Election Commission of India and it has a hierarchical structure. We are saying hierarchical structure because they are at the levels of states and also at the levels of districts. See these committees are interested with two tasks. One is pre-certification of election related material that is to be projected on the electronic media and the committees will also monitor the various print and electronic media for publication or broadcast of the election related material whether they are repugnant or violative of the model code of conduct or whether these information that is projected in electronic media violates any election loss. See the certification for political advertisements has to be obtained from the state level or district level media certification and monitoring committee of Election Commission. Certification by this committee is required for the political advertisements that are to be telecast or broadcast over TV or radio channels, audio, video displays, cinema halls, internet based media, websites including social media, e-papers and cable network. With respect to this article you note that social media is also coming under the purview or the range of this committee. The purpose of having this committee is to have necessary checks and effective monitoring of emerging technologies and advances in mass communication and also in social media platforms because we have to ensure that whatever that is possible in social media platform should not affect or compromise the purity of the electoral process. So end of the day the news article raises a question whether these political advertisements to the tune of around 39 crore in Facebook or to the tune of around 29 crores in Google got the required certification from these committees. Any one of you can also find an answer to this question by filing an RTA application to say state election commission or district election commission by paying a very nominal fee of rupees 10. Now if you see the next article it talks about an application called as Tiktok. See this video application Tiktok is owned by a Chinese startup company which is called as ByteDance and ByteDance acquired this video app in 2017. At that time the application was called as Musically. Now there are certain concerns that are raised by the legislators in United States of America over this Tiktok. They are saying that this application could be used by the Chinese firm under the pressure from the Chinese government to influence the American voters in the upcoming election. Experts are saying this is possible by allowing certain content or certain videos of certain leaders to be propagated in the way the company wants and the platform could also be used by party workers either by projecting a leader in a video or by attacking a leader and majority of the people who are infected or affected by the platform would be the young people and when they attained the age of 18 it could act in their decision making. In addition to this the United States lawmakers are also saying that there are national security risks because whatever information the Chinese app collects could also be used for spying by China and see all these concerns expressed by the US lawmakers will also apply to India and Indian citizens. Now the issues that United States has decided to investigate this video application through its committee on foreign investment it is going to look certain issues with respect to the acquisition of this app by the Bidance firm which is a startup in China. These are some of the information with respect to the analysis of these news articles now let us move on to next news article. This news article is with respect to adjusted gross revenue shortly called as AGR and its impact on telecom operators because of a recent judgment by the Supreme Court. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article has been highlighted here for your reference. See when we say adjusted gross revenue it refers to gross revenue after some specific deductions. See this adjusted gross revenue amount is taxable by the government. So now the issue discussed in this news article is between the government that is department of telecommunications versus the telecom operators in India and the matter is about what all the things that constitute this adjusted gross revenue. The news article states that the matter about the definition of AGR has been in litigation in courts for around 14 years. Telecom companies are saying that it should comprise revenue only from telecom services but department of telecommunication argues that it includes all revenue earned by a telecom operator even those includes that are not core telecom operations. For example earnings from rent profit on sale of fixed assets corporate deposits real estate transactions and others. So these are some of the examples of operations that are not core telecom operations. See when this AGR increases that is when this adjusted gross revenue increases the telecom operators have to pay more money to the department of telecommunication. That is why they are opposing to the wide definition of AGR put forward by the government and note that this adjusted gross revenue is also the basis on which levies or taxes and certain charges are also calculated from telecom operators or telecom companies. The article states that telecom operators pay 8% of adjusted gross revenue as license fee and their payment with respect to spectrum usage charges vary between 3 to 5% of AGR. That is why they are saying this adjusted gross revenue is a basis on which certain charges and levies are calculated. So the lower the adjusted gross revenue the lower the levies and fees and hence lower the money flow from telecom operators to the government. So what is the judgment of the Supreme Court with respect to this matter? See on October 24 Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Department of Telecommunications interpretation of adjusted gross revenue. This is seen as a strike or a blow to the telecom operators and as a result of the Supreme Court judgment the around more than 10 telecom operators have to now pay an estimated amount of rupees 1.4 lakh crore to the government that too within a tune of three months. They are saying that the telecom operators have to now pay the government not just the required amount but also the interest on the amount that is taxable according to the definitions of government with penalty and the interest on the penalty as well. They are saying that the outstanding license fee alone is to the tune of 90 to 1000 crore and when we add spectrum usage charges interest and penalty of various telecom operators it will come up to the tune of 1.4 lakh crore. But can the government recover the entire amount from the telecom operators? See the total amount to the government has to be paid or wowed by around 15 operators. But note that around 10 of them have either closed operations or in the process of closing their operations because of financial difficulties or they are undergoing insolvency proceedings in the period of last 14 years. This includes some agencies such as Reliance Communications, TeleNord, Tata Tele Services, Arsail and Videocon. Right now if you see Indian telecom sector has four major players, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Geo, Vodafone and State-owned PSNLR, MTNL. So because of the financial distress in some of the telecom companies, the authors of the opinion that the government is unlikely to recover the entire amount of dues owed by these companies to the government. Of the current players who are the mostly affected? They are saying Bharti Airtel and Vodafone idea they are worst affected because they have to pay individually to the tune of around 40,000 crores to the government. And BSNL and MTNL together have to pay around 5000 crore. And they are saying that the least impacted will be Reliance Geo because it is a relatively new entrant in this telecom market. Entered only in September 2016 and they have to pay around some 14 crore. So the most affected will be Airtel and Vodafone. But the telecom industry as a whole along with these telecom operators it is being said that they are already reeling under a debt of around 4 lakh crore. So in this scenario the verdict of the Supreme Court acts as a big blow to this industry and on several counts even the government has admitted that the telecom sector requires support and is undergoing financial stress. And the government has recently announced setting up a committee of secretaries to examine the financial distress in the telecom sector and also to recommend measures to mitigate the financial stress. And this committee of secretaries will be headed by cabinet secretary and includes secretaries of ministry of finance ministry of telecommunication ministry of law and also other members. This committee will also consider some of the long standing demands of telecom industry. For example reduction in spectrum usage charges are granting a delay in paying the dues for spectrum for next two financial years that is 2020-21, 2021-22 and few other demands. So these demands may help the sector to resolve the debt issue or the financial distress. And another important issue mentioned in the article is about the infighting between the private telecom players. They're talking about the rivalry on one side from Redan's Geo versus two old operators Airtel and Waterphone. The article says that Geo has strongly objected the financial relief sought by other two players. And Geo has also criticized that the Cellular Operators Association of India which is a non-governmental industry association of mobile service providers, telecom equipment providers and internet services provider. This association is siding with older players. And note that if there is unhealthy competition among the top players of Indian telecom industry this is not good for the telecom market also not good for the consumers. And recently on 16th October we discussed a part of the infighting between private telecom players in connection with the interconnection usage charges or the IUC charges. And we also discussed about the tri's decision on this that is the telecommunication regulatory authority of India's decision on this matter on 16th October the Hindu news analysis. The link is also provided in the description. And as a result tri may also examine the merits of the minimum charge that operators may charge for voice and data services. And few operators like Airtel and whatever they have sought to increase the tariff being charged as they are saying the present charges are unsustainable. And from the side of government the government has recently announced plans to merge BSNL and MTNL. So after merger there will be one single entity and gradually Indian telecom industry is moving to have few big players. So unhealthy competition if available between players would definitely hurt the consumers as they will have very limited options. So in the last part the author says that the telecom operators may request the government to waive the complete amount or at least to waive the interest and the penalty charges. But whether they will receive the waiver is a question because it may be assumed as going against the Supreme Court's verdict. And the operators are also left with one legal option that is to file a review petition in the Supreme Court. So these are some of the information with respect to the analysis of this news article. So we saw about the adjusted gross revenue and we saw about the amount that can be taxable based on this adjusted gross revenue and what are the issues that are faced by the telecom operators because of this. And we also saw some issues that are presently in the telecom sector at the national level and these are some of the information. Now let us move on to next news article. This news article from the FAQ section is about sequencing Indian genes. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is highlighted here. We will discuss what is meant by genome sequencing. Then we will talk about indigen project of CSIR and its significance and also about CSIR in brief. See when we say genome of a particular organism, it refers to complete set of genes of the organism. See genes are made up of DNAs that is deoxyribonucleic acid and genome sequencing is figuring out the order of DNA nucleotides in a genome. That is in what order adenine, guanine, cytosine and thiamine are making up the DNA of a organism. A translated DNA sequence has shown here in the form of alphabets. In this particular piece of DNA, the genome sequences that we can see and adenine is followed by a guanine which is followed by thiamine which in turn is followed by cytosine, another cytosine and it goes on in the way as depicted or shown here. Now let's come to the news article. It states that the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, they have recently announced completing or concluding a six month exercise of whole genome sequence of around 1008 Indians. The project the exercise has started from April 2019. See this project is part of a program called as indigen. This project is aimed at indigenous genetic mapping effort by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. It has sequenced the genomes of nearly 1000 Indians from various parts of India so as to represent the diversity of country's population. See this project also involved collaboration of Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology from Hyderabad and also the CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology. See in this project genomes were sequenced based on the blood sample of individuals who gave samples voluntarily and as a result of this project every person whose genomes were sequenced and they were given a report which will try to establish a correlation between gene variations and the responsiveness of a particular person to various medicines. That is the report given to the individuals will highlight the gene variants that make the individuals less responsive to certain classes of medicines and other similar information. Now if you see the significance of the project see the project will help in understanding the biological diversity of India with respect to genetic matter. We can study whether there is any commonality with respect to certain parameters or with respect to resisting a disease or with respect to reduced immunity against a particular parasite and etc. This can be studied with respect to different regions also and the sequence genomes will also help in understanding and determining the unique genetic traits and the susceptibility and the resilience offered by various genetic material to certain diseases. Under unique genetic traits they may study about the genetic behavior when a person is infected by a particular disease. The genome sequencing will also help to find links between disease and the genetic makeup of every individual. For example see there are certain diseases say for example thalassemia they are saying that it is a disease which is a result of malfunctioning of single gene and this infection is nothing but a disorder they are saying inherited blood disorder that is characterized or when a person has this blood disorder here she will have less hemoglobin or fewer RBCs in their body than the normally required levels. So understanding genome sequencing and carrying out such projects will help in treating such kind of inherited diseases. See inherited diseases are a huge problem because if any one of the parent has certain disease then normally naturally that the children are also doomed to inherit such diseases so genome sequencing will revolutionize by saving such children from inherited diseases and there is a perspective with respect to cancer that it is being seen as a disease of certain organs only or tissues only or cells only but with genome sequencing they are saying that cancer can be understood from the viewpoint of genetics so as to enlarge our knowledge on this particular disease. I will conclude our discussion by seeing few facts about CSIR which will be important from the prelims point of view this was established as an autonomous body under society's registration act of 1860 in the year 1942 so it was established before independence so it right now it works under ministry of science and technology headed by the prime minister of our country it covers a wide spectrum of science and technology be it geophysics chemicals drugs genomics aeronautics and even information technology it is said that it is a pioneer of India's IPR rights movement that is India's intellectual property rights movement of the total us patents granted to any Indian publicly funded rnd organization 90 percent is granted to CSIR so that shows the importance and the achievement of CSIR among the research and development organizations funded by the government and it is also said that CSIR is also a leader in terms of filing for patents and also securing patents at the international level among its peers who are publicly funded research organizations in various countries and various regions so with respect to this news article analysis we saw about genome sequencing indigent project and the significance of this project and genome sequencing and we also saw some facts about council of scientific and industrial research so these are some information now let us move on to the analysis of next news article now this news article is with respect to signing of naga peace accord the deputy chief minister of naga land is saying that it will take few more days or more time to sign the peace deal between the government of india and some of the naga groups including the national socialist council of naga land IM faction and one of the reasons for the delay is because now there are more major groups involved in involved in this process and the present government of naga land is yet not clear about their role once the peace accord will be signed and there is also issues with respect to neighboring states of Assam, Manipura and Arunachal Pradesh because these states also have pockets of naga populated areas and we know that one of the demands of the naga groups is that these areas which are contiguous with naga land has to be territorially integrated with naga land or naga lim agenda or greater naga land agenda and it is said that these states are not interested in territorial reorganization and the news article also talks about the words of the chairman of ceasefire monitoring group see on 1st November we discussed the background of the naga land political problem since 1918 we discussed based on a timeline of events till the present developing issues related to this naga land issue we discussed about naga club and naga national council then the two track policy followed by government of india with respect to naga land issue and formation of state in 1963 and signing ceasefire in 1964 and some of the demands raised by the major groups that are currently in that are currently acting as stakeholders in this issue to have a historical perspective we urge the viewers to kindly watch the first news article on 1st November 2019 the link for the analysis will be provided in the description as some of our viewers have requested to provide the links of articles that are repetitive in nature so that in case they have missed the analysis earlier they could visit to the earlier analysis by using the links and we request our viewers to kindly understand our situation see when some things are repetitive in nature only in those instances we would like to prefer we would like to urge you to see the undiscussed matters that are discussed in detail in a previous video so this is an evolving issue we'll have more and more news in the coming days we'll discuss as and when it is appropriate now let us move on to next article see this news article is with reference to the spyware called as Pegasus in news recently we know that Pegasus is a spyware allegedly developed by an Israeli technological firm called as NSO group and on November 1 we saw that it has snooped into the smartphones of various members of civil society community on November 1 we discussed about the spyware Pegasus then we saw the protocols established at the national and state level for interception or monitoring of various information among the citizens and based on Indian telegraph rules 1951 and also based on section 69 of IT Act and also about and also based on IT procedure and safeguards of interception monitoring and decryption of information rules 2009 this news article states that way back in May 2019 WhatsApp has sent communication to the Indian computer emergency response team about hacking of phones using malware through its messaging platform which is WhatsApp the article mentions that however there was no mention of Pegasus or the extent of the breach caused by Pegasus in the communication sent by WhatsApp to cert see this cert or the computer emergency response team is in operational since January 2004 it is the national nodal agency for responding to computer security incidents when such incidents occur and according to information technology amendment act of 2008 it has been also designated to serve as national agency to perform various actions in the area of cyber security see this cert in comes under ministry of electronics and information technology of government of India so these are some of the information with respect to the analysis of this news article now in this session we'll provide or we will respond to some of the doubts of our viewers that we have received in the form of comments to the videos of the Hindu news analysis see many times we have replied in the comment section itself but we also acknowledge that at times we are unable to respond some of your comments so in this session let us see some of the comments and we'll provide clarifications as part of the analysis itself we may not have this session in everyday analysis but once in a certain timeframe we would have this session so we'll be having as and when possible along with the news analysis itself and this is to ensure accountability and to be responsible to the content that we provide in our Hindu news analysis one another reason is that the same doubt could have come to other viewers also but they might not have put it in the comment section so this will benefit those who had the same doubt or it will provide clarification for the viewers yesterday we discussed a news matter with respect to US-China trade war and we have mentioned that WTO is not a united nation's body so one of our regular viewers has asked the question is WTO not a specialized agency of united nations see when we say specialized agencies of united nations it is a separate set of agencies under UN these are international organizations that coordinate their work with the united nations through negotiated agreements so right now there are 15 specialized agencies of united nations you can see the 15 agencies here and from this list you can clearly say that WTO or world trade organization is not a specialized agency of UN and whenever we have discussed about WTO we have said that it is the only global international organization that deals with the rules of trade between nations see this organization is based on agreements which has been negotiated and signed by majority of world's trading nations and ratified by those nations in their parliaments or legislatures according to the requirement so the WTO aims to ensure that the trade flows are smooth predictable and free as much as possible in the world and also between the nations so as we have said WTO is not a UN specialized agency but it has maintained and is maintaining strong relations with UN and united nations agencies since its establishment in 1995 the relations between WTO and united nations are governed by arrangements for effective cooperation with other intergovernmental organizations relations between WTO and united nations this arrangement was signed in november 1995 and also know that the dg of WTO participates in chief executive board of coordination of united nations now what is this chief executive board see it is the organ of coordination within the UN system it brings together the executive heads of 31 organizations called as specialized organizations see here the terminology is specialized organizations these are different from specialized agencies of united nations the chief executive board brings together executive heads of these organizations to deliver as one or in a uniform manner at the global level or regional level or at the country level and this chief executive board is the prime instrument or important instrument for strengthening the coordination role of UN intergovernmental bodies on social economic and other matters so this ceb includes UN its specialized agencies that are 15 in number then three related organizations of these three related organizations one of them is WTO then there are 12 funds and programs that are created by UN general assembly the recent member to join ceb is international organization for migration and WTO is also a member in chief executive board we saw that dg of WTO participates in this board so WTO is a related organization to UN and it is not a UN specialized agency and this comment is with reference to our discussion on october 29 with reference to the impact of legal provisions in forest rights act of 2006 and panjayat extension to scheduled areas act of 1996 and the indian forest act of 1927 here the viewer has asked please clarify whether noik pod tribe is in pvtg list i have checked the latest list from ministry of tribal affairs and only column tribe is there we have mentioned that day that the hydropod edition of the hindu newspaper on that day has mentioned that both the column tribe and the noik pod tribes are particularly vulnerable tribal groups but this fact is incorrect this is because only column tribe has been notified as particularly vulnerable tribal group not the noik pod tribal group see so far around 12 tribal groups residing in andhra pradesh and telangana were declared as particularly vulnerable tribal groups and noik pod tribal group is not one among them but note that both these tribal groups are listed as scheduled tribes in both these states and note that the column tribal tribal group is declared as pvtg in three states even though they reside in five states that is they reside in andhra pradesh telangana maharashtra madhya pradesh and chattisgarh however they are pvtg in ap telangana maharashtra now this comment is with reference to our discussion related to national health profile of 2019 on november 1 can you please explain central bureau of health intelligence is in which ministry as a one-liner we can say it comes under ministry of health and family welfare within this ministry it comes under direct rate of it comes under direct rate general of health services see this central bureau of health intelligence is the national nodal agency for health intelligence so it comes under ministry of health and family welfare this comment is with reference to our discussion on the king of spices which is none other than black pepper on 31st october 2019 in case there is low production i think inflation will happen so how falling off prices possible please clarify so that day we discussed about important reasons for falling prices of pepper we discussed about domestic reasons and international reasons see as a domestic reason we saw about low production and changing rainfall pattern and low production is due to various diseases that affect pepper plants and changing rainfall pattern also acting as climate vagaries or in other words extreme rainfall below or beyond requirement is a damage see our viewer has interpreted correctly that when there is low production there will be inflation or increase in price of that commodity but in our case the domestic reasons and international reasons are linked to each other and one depends on another see there is definitely low production of black pepper in our country because of heavy rainfall floods landslides in pepper growing districts of keraland karnataka so this has increased the pepper prices in domestic markets initially so there is rise in prices but problem arise when we got cheaper imports from countries such as vietnam and it is said that in vietnam the price for black pepper is just 150 to 160 for a kilogram see to import into our country the price has to be at least rupees 500 per kilogram below rupees 500 pepper should not be imported but what actually happening is many importers are found to be flouting this value that is they are importing pepper at a price lower than rupees 500 per kilogram so imagine we are importing from vietnam because of flouting selling at rupees 150 to 160 and indian value for pepper due to inflation is around some 450 to 500 so if you take the average price because of these factors indian domestic market will be ranging to some 300 or 330 per kilogram so this is much lesser than price of domestically produced black pepper so on one hand there is high price and on the other hand there is cheap price of imported pepper so on the whole the average price in the domestic market for pepper has come down so this is the reason for falling in prices now this comment is with reference to our detailed discussion on contract forming on 30th october we said that Tamil Nadu has become the first state in india to enact a law on contract forming now the question is why Tamil Nadu has to send the bill to the ascent of president now this matter is with respect to polity see under article 201 of indian constitution whenever a bill has been passed by the state legislature it shall be presented to the governor the governor shall either give ascent to the bill or he can withhold ascent to the bill or he can reserve the bill for the consideration of the president so in this matter the governor of Tamil Nadu would have reserved the bill for the consideration of the president and thereby under article 201 of indian constitution the president has given the ascent to the bill and with reference to what are the specific reasons why the governor of Tamil Nadu would have reserved the bill for the consideration of president we are unable to get the reasons from authentic sources now the next comment will you please explain the latest indias lost case in wto which was filed by america regarding export subsidy so we would like to inform that this matter will be discussed along with the hindu news analysis when we analyze a similarly situated news article with respect to wto so with this we come to the end of this comments and clarification section now let's see some practice questions based on the information from today's analysis now this question is with reference to indigen project they have given two statements and are asking which of the above statements are correct first statement the project is aimed at an indigenous genome sequencing of every indian by council of scientific and industrial research the statement appears to be correct but see they are saying every indian which is wrong we know that it has sequenced the genomes of nearly thousand indians in different regions from different regions of india so the first statement is wrong because of the words every indian though the project is an effort of council of scientific and industrial research the second statement the sequenced genomes would enable in understanding and determining unique genetic traits susceptibility and resilience to diseases now this statement is correct so the correct answer for this question is option b 2 only now this question is with reference to biotic interactions they're asking which of the following are the types of negative biotic interaction here when we say negative biotic interaction it means when two or three species interact with each other if one of the species is harmed in the interaction then it simply means it is a negative biotic interaction see there are two positive interactions they are mutualism and commensalism for this question you can arrive at the correct answer if you just eliminate commensalism and mutualism from the options thereby the correct answer for this question is option b 2 and 4 see there are four negative biotic interactions they are competition amensalism parasitism and predation in competition both the species are harmed in amensalism one species is harmed and other species is neither benefited nor harmed that is it remains unaffected in parasitism and predation one species is benefited whereas the other species is harmed in mutualism both the species benefit in commensalism one species benefit and other is unaffected so this question asks about negative biotic interaction so within the given four types we can say amensalism and parasitism are negative interactions so the correct answer for this question is option b 2 and 4 only with this we come to the end of practice questions discussion session with this we have come to the end of all the sessions if you like the video click the like button comment share and subscribe to Shankaray's academy youtube channel for more updates and content on civil service examination