 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Iyer's Academy for the date 1st November 2020. The list of news articles taken up for today's discussion along with the page numbers of five different editions is given you for your reference. The handwritten notes in PDF format and the time stamping of all the news articles taken up for today's analysis is given in the description section and also in the comment section in the best interest of the viewers. Let us now begin our analysis. Our first news article for today's discussion is this news article from effective section. This news article talks about the foundational agreements between India and the United States of America. We know that India and US have signed the last foundational agreement which is the basic exchange and cooperation agreement for geospatial cooperation in short BECA. This was signed during the two plus two ministerial dialogue which was held last week. So in this context from exam point of view, try to know about the foundational agreements between India and the United States of America. See, US enters into four foundational agreements with its defense partners. These are the four agreements. Number one, general security of military information agreement in short GSOMIA. Next, the logistics exchange memorandum of agreement in short LEMOVA. Number three, the communications compatibility and security agreement in short CONCASA. And the fourth agreement is BECA which we just saw. See these four agreements govern the nature and scope of the defense partnerships of the United States of America. These partners enhance the capabilities of the US military in distant places through sharing information, platforms and logistics. See, we know that the competitive advantage of the US military is maintained primarily by the advanced technologies that the country develops continuously. But if you see the US sells military equipment to other countries with strict control over their deployment and use. For example, consider the B77 300 year aircraft that India bought from Boeing recently for the use of VVIPs. The sale of advanced communication and security systems on the aircraft are not commercially available. But India got it from US because of the signing of these foundational agreements. It is one such application of these agreements as you can see. By the way, the United States is also eager to advance interoperability with the defense forces of the countries that are its defense partners. Here the term interoperability involves real time coordination of forces. Now, let us see about these four foundational agreements in brief. The first agreement GSOMIA was signed in the year 2002. This agreement enables the sharing of military intelligence between the two countries that is India and USA and it requires each country to protect the others classified information. In the 2019 2 plus 2 dialogue, India and USA signed the industrial security annex, which is an add on agreement to this GSOMIA. This industrial security annex enables the transfer of key high end technology from the US defense firms to India. Now, moving on to the second agreement, which is LEMOVA, it is an Indian specific version of the logistic support agreement, which the US has with many countries. This agreement was signed in the year 2016. It gives access to both countries to designated military facilities on either side for the purpose of refuelling and replenishment. This agreement primarily covers four areas, port of call, joint exercises, training, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. It also enables logistic support, say refuelling of planes or ships, then supply of spare parts or maintenance to each other. For instance, if you see US Navy's P-8 aircraft landed in Port Blair last month for refuelling under this LEMOVA agreement. Now, coming to the third agreement, which is KAMKASA, this agreement was signed in the year 2018. It is an India specific version of the communication and information on security memorandum of agreement, in short, SISMOVA. See this agreement allows India to procure and transfer specialized equipment for encrypted communications. It is meant to facilitate the use of high-end secured communication equipment to be installed on military platforms. It will also help to receive modern, secure and net-enabled weapons systems such as precision armament, air-to-air missiles, etc. If you see such equipment was earlier denied for US origin platforms such as C-17, C-130 and so the commercial systems were used in their place. Only after signing of this KAMKASA agreement, the encrypted systems are now being provided to India. For example, the same aircraft which we saw earlier, which is B-77-300ER. Now, moving on to the final agreement, BECCA, which was signed last week. This agreement allows India and US to share geospatial and satellite data such as topographical, nautical and aeronautical data with each other. Similar to a GPS that enables navigation, such exchange of geospatial information enhances the accuracy of a missile or the utility of a drone. So, this is in brief about all these four foundational agreements. Now, what is the strategic importance of these agreements? See in the year 2005, India and US signed a civil nuclear agreement. It was a landmark agreement between both the countries. Since the signing of this agreement, the India-US defence cooperation has been advancing at a very faster pace. After this, the US relaxed restrictions on technology trade in India's favour considerably, and India was also designated as a major defence partner. Now, these four foundational agreements will deepen the defence cooperation in trade and operation. And you might have also come across news that India and US are also a part of broader shared vision for the Indo-Pacific region, where both the countries along with Japan and Australia are increasing their military cooperation. US-built platforms used by their partner countries can talk to one another and share operational information. We will be seeing more about this aspect in our today's analysis. There is one more related news article. So, this is in brief about the strategic importance of these agreements. Now, are there any concerns? Yes. The critics worry that India is moving so close with the US, and hence it may limit India's choices in the area of defence. The evolution of technology makes it inevitable that all the military platforms will be integrated and networked in the future. The US is very particular about the integrity of its networks, and the pressure could mount on India to remain firmly in its camp. Also, if you see, US is unhappy with India's continuing defence cooperation with Russia, because India will be taking the delivery of Russian S-400 missile defence system next year, ignoring the objections by USA. So, the result is that at any rate, it will not be possible for India to integrate Russian and American platforms, because both are opposite poles, and hence this could throw up new challenges of military planning for India. And there is also an evergreen question, since Cold War era, can India maintain its strategic autonomy when aligning with the big powers? In the last century, the question was in the context of the erstwhile USSR, the present day Russia, and in this century it is now about the USA. This is all about the discussion of this news article. From this news article, try to know about these four foundational agreements from prelims perspective, and try to know the pros and cons of these agreements from mains perspective. Now, have a look at this practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. Now, let us look at this news article, which talks about the important developments related to COVID-19 vaccine. In this context, let us discuss in detail about COVAX facility, and GAVI's COVAX Advanced Market Commitment, which are the terms mentioned in this news article. The relevant syllabus is given here for your reference. First of all, try to know about access to COVID-19 tools accelerator, in short, ACT accelerator. See, this ACT accelerator is a global collaboration to accelerate the development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines. It is organized into four pillars of work, diagnostics, treatment, vaccines, and health system strengthening, and COVAX is the vaccines pillar of ACT accelerator. So, what is COVAX? It is a global initiative, which is aimed at working with vaccine manufacturers to provide equitable access to safe and effective vaccines for the countries worldwide, once they are licensed and approved. COVAX currently has the world's largest and most diverse COVID-19 VAX portfolio. There are nine candidate vaccines, and for the nine more vaccines that are under evaluation. Know that almost 172 countries across the world are now engaged in discussions to potentially participate in this COVAX. See, this COVAX is led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, in short, CEPI, then by GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, then by the World Health Organization. All these institutions are working in partnership with the vaccine manufacturers from developed and developing countries. At present, COVAX is the only global initiative that is working with governments and manufacturers to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines are available worldwide, to both higher income as well as lower income countries. Now, let us see about COVAX facility. Know that GAVI is coordinating the development and implementation of the COVAX facility. It is basically a procurement mechanism of COVAX. This COVAX facility will invest across a broad portfolio of promising vaccine candidates to make sure at-risk investment in manufacturing happens now. So it pulls the purchasing power from all countries that participate in order to have rapid access to doses of safe and effective vaccines as soon as they receive regulatory approval. Then what this COVAX facility will do is it will equitably distribute the vaccine doses to all the participating countries in order to protect the most at-risk groups. This will be guided by an allocation framework that is being developed by the World Health Organization. So by paying into the COVAX facilities, higher income countries can place orders for the doses they need to protect their priority populations. The upfront payments on these orders will ensure that the manufacturing is increased before the vaccines have been approved. So once the vaccines are approved, the manufacturing setup will be in place and it will be easy to produce more number of vaccines. But here there is also one more risk. Many vaccines are likely to fail and hence it comes with risks. But this is the only way to ensure that vaccines can be delivered at a scale as soon as they are approved which is enough for all the participating countries including those countries that cannot afford to pay. So this is how this COVAX facility has been planned. Given that the COVID-19 is costing the global economy more than 500 billion US dollars a month, this will ultimately save money for all. Finally, let us discuss GAVI's COVAX advanced market commitment which is mentioned in this news article. See it is the financing instrument that will support the participation of 92 lower middle and low income countries in the COVAX facility. Its development and implementation are being coordinated by GAVI, the vaccine alliance. So we can say that COVAX advanced market commitment is critical to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines regardless of income level. It is estimated that this initiative requires an urgent investment of 2 billion US dollars from the sovereign donors, philanthropies and the private sector by the end of this year which is 2020. This news article says that the discussions are about the India's potential participation in this GAVI's COVAX advanced market commitment which are underway. This is in brief about the discussion of this news article. From this news article try to know about COVAX, then about COVAX facility and about GAVI's COVAX advanced market commitment from example's perspective. Now have a look at this practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. Now let us take up this news article from the profiles page which talks about the Malabar 2020 exercise. Know that this year's Malabar 2020 exercise will be conducted in two phases in Arabian Sea and in this year's Malabar exercise Australia will be taking part for the first time since 2007. This participation is significant because all these four countries are part of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or simply the Quad Grouping. So in this context let us understand the relevance of this Quad Grouping in today's geopolitical scenario along with some of the important points relating to Malabar exercise which I mentioned in this news article. The relevant syllabus is given here for your reference. See given that India faces directly towards Indian Ocean, India has become a prominent actor in the Indo-Pacific and over the years India's engagement in the region has transcended from economic relations to security relations. If you see India's at-east policy has strengthened its approach in Indo-Pacific region by increasing India's involvement in the region through strategic partnership. Now before knowing about Quad you should know about the importance of this Indo-Pacific region. See this region stretches from the east part of Indian Ocean to the west Pacific Ocean and both Indian and Pacific Oceans are connected with each other by the Strait of Malacca which is one of the busiest trade routes. Due to its strategic location Indo-Pacific has become the central area for maritime geopolitics, security, trade and environment activities and it also stands at the intersection of international trade. So with such great importance this Indo-Pacific region has been contested with powerful nations such as China, India, Australia, Japan, the Southeast Asian nations and even the United States. For example we are seeing in news about China's assertiveness in the South China Sea and this has caused maritime border disputes with the southeastern nations. All these issues have eventually drawn the attention of the United States of America. Now for India concerns are not only in the Pacific region but mainly in the Indian Ocean region. We know about the increased presence and aggression of China in this region. Through the so-called maritime Silk Road China built a deep water port in Kyokpo which is located in the country of Myanmar and then at Haman Tota which is located in Sri Lanka and if you see China has also opened its first overseas military base in Djibouti. However China's major entry point is in Gwadar port which is located in Pakistan. This port is part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. So we can say that India is facing twin challenges from China. One at the long line of actual control where China has compromised India's sovereignty through its ambitious China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and second encircling India in the Indian Ocean region through its policy of string of pulse which manifested through the maritime Silk Road. So one is from the land side and the other is from the sea side. So in order to contain China's maritime assertiveness India along with the United States, Australia and Japan came to form a quadrilateral security relation in the Indo-Pacific region and this is how Quad came into existence. It is basically an informal grouping between the four countries as we saw earlier the countries are India, Australia, Japan and USA. Now if you see some of the objectives of Quad are to make a free, open, prosperous and inclusive Indo-Pacific region which will serve the long-term interests of all the countries in the region and of the world at large then to tackle common challenges of terrorism and proliferation in the region then to uphold the rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific region and respect for international law, freedom of navigation and overflight. These are some of the objectives of Quad. The first meeting of Quad happened in the year 2007 but if you see it was almost in an inactive state for the next one decade when the next meeting was conducted only in the year 2017. Now let us see the relevance of Quad for India in the present context. First, Quad will help to set the customary laws or rules in the Indo-Pacific and it will also ensure that these rules are maintained. So it will help in countering China's aggression and South China Sea and this in turn will also pursue the idea of a free and open Indo-Pacific. Second with respect to India, Quad can be used to enhance Indian capabilities and for internal balancing. See we know that in the recent times China is increasingly aggressive and assertive and this is leading to a situation where the capability gap between India and China is growing. So India needs mechanisms like Quad to bridge this gap and if you see Quad is limited use with respect to land border issues but regarding the maritime issues, Quad will be of greater help if it is militarized. Also apart from maritime security cooperation, Quad will provide alternatives to many domains like the Belt and Road Initiative in which India has not joined. Next we will see how Quad is important to its other members. First, talking about USA, USA had followed a policy to contain China's increasing influence in East Asia. Therefore USA seized this coalition as an opportunity to regain its influence in the Indo-Pacific region as well. Now coming to Australia, it is concerned about China's growing interest in its land infrastructure and politics and influence on its universities. Now with respect to Japan, in the last decade, Japan has expressed concerns related to China's territorial transgression in this region. So you can see that all the countries in the Quad grouping have their own concerns but the main concern is the growing assertiveness of China. So the main aim is also to tackle China through this Quad grouping. Now whenever we are discussing about Quad, it cannot be complete without looking at the Malabar naval exercise. As the author of this news article says, this exercise began in 1992 as a bilateral exercise called a passage exercise between India and USA. In short it was called passage and later this exercise was expanded to occur every year and Japan became a permanent member of this exercise in the year 2015. So since 2015 it is called as Malabar trilateral exercise. In between if you see in the year 2007 Malabar exercise saw the participation of not just India, USA, Japan but also Australia and Singapore. But this move annoyed China and immediately China lodged its protest. Since then if you see Australia has been absent in this exercise. So this is the first time since the year 2007 that India, USA, Japan and Australia are together joining in this Malabar naval exercise. While the Quad grouping till now did not have any sort of military dimension, now all the countries under this grouping are teaming up to exercise together under the Malabar banner. In this context the author also mentions the importance of Malabar exercise for India. As the author mentions the 2020 Malabar exercise is the first Malabar exercise since India signed mutual logistics packs with all the three countries. India has also now signed all the four foundational or enabling agreements with the USA as we saw during our first news article. This means India has got access to encrypted communication kits, then centrics which is combined enterprise regional information exchange system of US so forth and so on. Likewise now India will also be able to access and gain knowledge of various systems deployed by the other members of the exercise. So this is in detail about the discussion of Quad grouping and also about Malabar exercise that you need to know from exam perspective. Try to know the participating countries from prelims perspective and about the significance of both these engagements for India from mains perspective. Now have a look at this practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about the contested presidential election in the country of Tanzania. Know that the sitting president of Tanzania John Magoofully won a landslide victory in the recently held elections but if you see the opposition parties have denounced this election and called on their supporters to protest. So in this context let us discuss about Tanzania especially about its geography which will be useful for your prelims and we shall also see about political history so that you have a general knowledge about Tanzania. See Tanzania is an east African country that is situated just south of equator. Know that Dar es Salaam is the administrative capital of Tanzania and Dodoma is the legislative capital of Tanzania. In the year 1996 Dodoma was designated as the national capital but still Dar es Salaam remains the de facto capital it is the country's largest city and commercial center. Now you can relate this concept of different capitals with respect to India. In India we have some states which have different capitals for administrative legislative and judicial purpose. Now coming back to Tanzania let us look at the geography of Tanzania. See the Tanzania mainland is bounded by the country of Uganda the country of Kenya and Lake Victoria to the north. In the east it is bounded by the Indian Ocean then if you look at south and southwest it is bounded by countries such as Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia and also Lake Nyasa and if you look at the west Tanzania is bounded by the countries of Burundi and Rwanda and also by Lake Tangyanika. So it is important to know about the geography of the world countries why because even this year you had a question in 2020 prelims which was of match the following type the question was reverse that flows into and from Africa Zambia river was given it flows into Indian Ocean so always you get questions related to world geography. So try to know the important aspects of Tanzania. Now coming to the relief of Tanzania except for the narrow coastal belt of the mainland and the offshore islands most of the mainland Tanzania is somewhat elevated that is the altitude is high. You know that Africa's highest mountain Kilimanjaro which is 5895 meters high and one of the world's deepest lake which is Lake Tangyanika that is almost 1436 meters deep both are located in Tanzania. Next coming to the demography of Tanzania know that Tanzania's population includes more than 120 different indigenous African people. Due to the effects of rural to urban migration then due to modernization and politicization some of the smallest ethnic groups are gradually disappearing. Today majority of Tanzanians are of Bantu descent the important ethnic groups in Tanzania include Tsukuma, Nyamvesi, Haya, Chaga, Makongue etc and if you look at the religion roughly one third of the population is following Islam and the next one third of population follow Christianity and the remainder of the population practice traditional beliefs. Now let us discuss the political history of Tanzania. Know that mainland Tanzania fell under German rule during the late 19th century as a part of German East Africa after World War I Britain governed the mainland as Tangyanika but if you look at the Zanzibar Archipelago it remained a separate colonial jurisdiction and shortly after achieving independence from UK in the early 1960s Tangyanika and Zanzibar merged to form the United Republic of Tanzania in the year 1964. So this is in brief about the political history of Tanzania. Now coming to the government of Tanzania it is a presidential republic the president is both the chief of state as well as the head of the government and the cabinet that is headed by the prime minister is appointed by the president from among the members of the national assembly or parliament. So just try to have an idea that Tanzania is basically a presidential republic and the news is about the sitting president of Tanzania who has been elected but is facing opposition from the opposition parties. This is in brief about Tanzania that you need to know from exam perspective as said earlier try to focus on the geography aspects of Tanzania. Now have a look at this practice question let us move on to the next news article. This news article discusses about the anti-Dengu campaign that is thus half day thus budget minute that was conducted by the Delhi government. The campaign is about to end now and the Delhi government has appreciated this particular campaign for ensuring zero deaths by Dengu in Delhi this year. This is in brief about the news from this news article let us try to know some facts about Dengu from exam perspective because in the previous exams there have been questions about diseases or disease causing microorganisms like Zika virus, Hepatitis etc. So let us look in brief about Dengu know that it is a mosquito-borne viral infection the virus that is responsible for causing Dengu is called as Dengu virus in short DENV. This virus belongs to Flaviviridae family and there are four distinct but closely related serotypes of it. They are DENV 1 2 3 and 4 so it means it is possible to be infected four times and the recovery from infection is believed to provide lifelong immunity against that particular serotype. Now coming to transmission whenever you are studying about any disease try to know about the transmission route. In case of DENV it is transmitted by female mosquitoes mainly of the species Aedes aegypti and to a lesser extent by Aedes albopictus. If you see these mosquitoes are also vectors of diseases such as chicken gunia, yellow fever and Zika viruses and it is to be noted that Dengu cannot be spread directly from person to person. The only possible ways are mosquito to human transmission and human to mosquito transmission there is also evidence of the possibility of maternal transmission while the vertical transmission rates appear low when a mother was infected when she is pregnant the babies might also suffer from pre-term birth or from low birth weight and fetal distress. When we talk about the geographical cover of Dengu know that it is found in tropical and subtropical climates worldwide mostly in urban and semi-urban areas. Now talking about the symptoms while many DENV infections produce only mild illness they can also cause an acute flu-like illness and occasionally this develops into a potentially lethal complication called severe Dengu and severe Dengu can bring complications associated with severe bleeding organ impairment and or plasma leakage and it has a higher risk of death when not managed appropriately. In order to diagnose DENV infection several methods are used which includes virological tests like RT-PCR that is the reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and also serological tests such as ELISA that is enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Now coming to the treatment know that there is no specific treatment for Dengu early detection of disease progression that is associated with severe Dengu and access to proper medical care will lower the fatality rates of severe Dengu to below 1%. Mainly if you see this Dengu prevention and control depends on effective vector control measures that is to control the breeding of mosquitoes but for this community involvement is required so sustained community involvement can improve the vector control effects substantially. This is in brief about Dengu that you need to know from exam perspective. Whenever you are studying about diseases try to know about the microorganism that is responsible for the disease about the transmission root what are the common symptoms and about the treatment that is given and if there are any vaccines to prevent the disease. Now have a look at this practice question. Now let us move on to the next news article. This first news article speaks about a forest department road that is likely to endanger the core habitat in Kalakkad Mundandurai tiger reserve which is located in the state of Tamil Nadu and if you look at this news article it speaks about a Tigress which has escaped from enclosure in Neyar. Now whatever news that is here is not important now both these terms Kalakkad Mundandurai tiger reserve and Neyar are related to a particular biosphere reserve recognized by UNESCO under its MAP program that is MAN and the biosphere program. This biosphere reserve also appeared in 2019 UPSC prelims. Yes we are speaking about Agastya Mala biosphere reserve this Agastya Mala biosphere reserve was recognized by UNESCO in the year 2016 and these wildlife sanctuaries Neyar, Pappara and Shendurni and Kalakkad Mundandurai tiger reserve all form part of Agastya Mala biosphere reserve. So in this context what you need to know from exam perspective is the list of biosphere reserves recognized under the MAN and the biosphere program by UNESCO. These are the list of biosphere reserves have a look at it. Every year if you closely observe there is one or two question related to these biosphere reserves. If you remember in the same 2019 UPSC prelims there was a question about the valley of flowers national park which forms a part of Nandadevi biosphere reserve and this year also we had an indirect question which is related to Musk deer which is indirectly associated with the Nandadevi biosphere reserve. So from prelims perspective try to know in detail about the biodiversity its flora fauna of all these biosphere reserves it will be helpful in your prelims. With this we come to the end of the news articles which we have taken for today's discussion. Now let us move on to the practice questions discussion session. This first question is about COVAX. It is a two-statement question and you need to choose those statement or statements that are correct. Look at the first statement it tells that COVAX is a global initiative working with vaccine manufacturers to provide countries worldwide equitable access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines. Yes this statement is correct COVAX is such a global initiative. Now look at the second statement it tells that it is jointly led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations that is CEPI and the World Health Organization. Yes this statement is also correct. So the correct answer here is option C both one and two. Now if in the second statement if the statement had been like it is jointly led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the World Health Organization only then that statement might have gone wrong because if you remember during our discussion we saw that it is led by CEPI World Health Organization and also GAVI the vaccine alliance. This is a generalized statement hence the statement is correct. So the correct answer is option C both one and two. Now let us look at a map based question about Tanzania. The question is which of the above countries share border with Tanzania Uganda Kenya Zimbabwe Rwanda Somalia. As we saw during our discussion the countries that share border with Tanzania out of the countries given here are one Uganda two Kenya and four Rwanda. Hence the correct answer is option B one two and four only. Zimbabwe is located south of Tanzania it borders Mozambique and Somalia is located northeast of Tanzania and Kenya borders Somalia not Tanzania hence the correct answer is option B one two and four only. Now look at this question about dengue fever it is a three statement question and you need to choose those statement or statements which are incorrect. Look at the first statement it tells that dengue fever is transmitted by female mosquitoes mainly of the species Anophilus. This statement is incorrect we saw during our discussion that dengue is transmitted by female mosquitoes mainly of the species Edis Egypti and to a lesser extent Edis albopictus. Hence the first statement is incorrect. Now look at the second statement it tells that dengue can be transmitted from human to human human to mosquito and from mosquito to human. This statement is also incorrect because during our discussion we saw that human to human direct transmission of dengue is not possible. From both these you can conclude the answer which is option B one and two only. Here the third statement is correct dengue fever mostly causes only mild flu-like illness in the infected persons. Now let us move on to the practice main questions. We have two questions today this first question is about Indo-US ties the question is do you agree with the view that India may lose its strategic autonomy by moving close to US discourse. It is a 10 marks question and you need to answer this question in 150 words. The second main question is about a particular regional mechanism which is the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Quad. The question is with the emergence of China economically and militarily the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific region is in the center of attraction. The growing Chinese aggression is a major cause of concern for India as well as the Indo-Pacific region as a whole. In the light of this statement discuss the importance of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue. It is a 15 marks question try to answer this question in 250 words. With this we come to the end of the analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the practice questions discussion session. If you like the video press the like button comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IA's Academy YouTube channel for latest videos and updates. Stay focused and motivated friends. Thank you.