 Good evening aspirants and viewers. Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Reyes Academy. Displayed are the list of news articles taken for today's analysis and their page numbers in different editions of the newspaper. The link for the handwritten notes in the PDF format and the time stamping of the discussed articles are provided in the description and also in the comments section. Now let's move on to the analysis of first news article. This news article discusses about a research study with reference to repair mechanisms in a plant. We know that plants are constantly injured or wounded because of various factors say for example unfavorable weather or pathogen attack or because of herbivores that consume a portion of a plant and despite these harsh conditions plants have the capability to heal themselves and survive in the environment. What are the molecules and proteins that are aiding in this process? These questions were studied by an international team of researchers who have done research to know the repair mechanisms of a plant. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference. Before seeing some of the highlights of the research, let's first have a look at anatomy of a plant. See the basic unit of plants is cells. Group of cells are called as tissues. So a plant is made up of different kind of tissues and based on the structure and location of tissues they are classified into three types of tissue systems. One such type is vascular tissue system or conducting tissue system and within this vascular tissue system there are two types. One is xylem that transports water and dissolved minerals and then phloem that transports food. Now let's come to the research study. The researchers have tried to mimic or imitate natural injuries in growing leaf and stem of plants and they have studied how repair mechanism happens at the level of tissues. They searched for the proteins that are responsible for this healing process and they have found that a protein named plethora is helping in this regeneration process. Here when we say regeneration it refers to regeneration of vascular system at the site of injury or wound. This protein plethora it binds to a gene called CuC2 and on binding to this gene plethora activates the expression of this CuC2 gene. In other words it activates some functions of this gene. So it is found that this protein and the gene together they increase the production of plant growth hormone called oxin at the wound site. So it is this combination that helps the plant in repairing the wounds. This is the crux of this research. Now one more interesting finding is there that is the plethora protein did not play any role in the general development of vascular system but it functions only during the injury. Also in this research it was found that the injury healed not just at the surface level but also in the veins because veins were also regenerated. Here we need to know the basic structure of leaf. See leaf consists of three main parts leaf base petiole and lamina. Here lamina which is also called as leaf blade. It is the green expanded part of the leaf which has veins and veinlets. See veins provide rigidity to this lamina and they act as channels of transport of water minerals and food materials. So regeneration of veins is necessary. Also the researchers were able to see some changes at the cellular level of the leaf. They noticed functional restoration of tissue cells. Next the researchers found out that as the size of wound changes the nature of repair also undergoes a change. Here what they are trying to convey is when the size of the injury goes beyond a particular threshold or when it goes beyond the handling capacity the plant will not be able to regenerate or heal. So these are some of the important findings of this research study with reference to repair mechanisms at the level of tissues in plants. They are saying that this study has been carried out almost after 10 year period and researchers are hoping that these genes if can be produced in surplus amount. In the future the plants will be able to withstand insect attack and other injuries that the plants may face in the coming years. So these are some of the important information with reference to the analysis of this news article. You keep a note on plethora and CuC gene and in general about the repair mechanisms at the level of tissues. Now let's move on to the analysis of next news article. This news article is about some recommendations made by election commission of India to make Indian elections more fair and transparent so as to increase voters trust in the election system so that there will be better voter participation. In the recent general elections 2019 the recorded voter turnout was said to be the highest in the history of elections to the Lokshaba clocking at around 67.4%. Also the participation of women voters has also reached as high as 67.19%. In the later months in 2019 election commission of India has constituted several working groups so as to suggest recommendations to further consolidate electoral administration. The election commission of India has published these recommendations recently. We will be seeing about these recommendations in this analysis. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference. Now one of the important recommendations is the proposal to have a unified and simplified single form for all services to voters. At present if you see electors use different forms for specific electoral service say for example form 6 for voter registration for the first time, form 7 for deletion of names or filing objections and likewise there are multiple number of forms. This as a result the present system creates some kind of confusion and also affects the efficiency in the process. So that is one of the reasons why the election commission of India has proposed a single simplified form for all services to voters. The next important recommendation is to provide online registration facilities at schools and colleges so as to register prospective voters at the age of 17 years itself. This is to ensure that young citizens get enrolled in the electoral list the moment they become eligible to become an elector that is the moment they complete 18 years of age. If you see at present first of January is the qualifying date to calculate eligibility age for the electors. As a result of this date those who attained the age of 18 years after first of January they remain ineligible to vote for any election in that particular year. So therefore election commission of India has now recommended four qualifying dates in a year which are to be first of January first of April first of July and first of October. These two measures are therefore to ensure the inclusion of young voters in the electoral list. Next important recommendation of election commission is to explore the possibility and the feasibility of different voting methods which should be secure and at the same time should enhance electoral participation. Earlier in 2019 the election commission had implemented electronically transmitted postal ballot system. We know that it is a one-way electronic transmission of postal ballots to the service voters. The service voter will cast his or her vote in the downloaded ballot paper and will send it to respective returning officer through post. Even after implementing this method it is found that almost around 30% of electors are not able to participate in elections for various reasons. One such reason is because of internal migration or domestic migration. We have explained a newly proposed two-way electronic voting system in our 17th February analysis. This system is said to be another linked electronic voting system which will help electors to cast their votes irrespective of the locations where they are registered to vote. So as of now election commission of India and IIT Madras is working on this prototype. Having such a system with safety and security is said to improve electoral participation in our country. Next important recommendation is with reference to the regulation of print and social media platforms during election. Know that section 126 of representation of people act 1951 it provides for a silence period of 48 hours. In this period there is prohibition of election campaign activities through public meetings, processions, by means of television or other similar apparatus, by means of any musical concert or theatrical performance or by means of any other entertainment or amusement with the view to attract members of the public. And when we say silence period of 48 hours, it actually refers to the period of 48 hours ending with the conclusion of the poll. That is this silence period is the 48 hours before the completion of poll. So at present electronic media is prohibited from propagating any such election matter during the silence period. However, we should know that at present section 126 of representation of people act 1951 it does not cover print media and social media platforms. But we can understand that print media and social media platforms play a very important role in campaigning and in influencing voters. Therefore, election commission of India as recommended to cover print media and social media also under section 126. So this will ensure that voters will not be influenced by any means of campaigning during the silence period so that they can take an uninfluenced own decision to vote. And this is said to improve the quality of voting. Next important recommendation of election commission is with reference to political party expenditure. At present, actually there is no cap on the expenditure to be incurred for an election by the political parties. This is the statement made by election commission of India. Earlier in 2015, election commission of India recommended to law ministry to cap the maximum expenditure of political parties to create level playing field. The proposal of election commission for the cap. It is to be a multiple of half of maximum prescribed limit for individual candidates with the number of candidates fielded. So what do we mean when we say maximum prescribed limit for individual candidates? See, we should know that a candidate contesting in an election is not free to spend as much as he or she likes. So there is a maximum prescribed limit. It comes under rule number 90 of conduct of election rules 1961. So if a candidate violates this maximum prescribed limit, it amounts to corrupt practice under section 123. Six of representation of people like 1951 and section 90 and the table given in section 90 prescribes the maximum limit with respect to parliamentary constituency and also with respect to assembly constituency. So there is difference in the maximum prescribed limit even among the states also. A higher limit can be seen for larger states, whereas lower limit can be seen for smaller states and the limits is higher for parliamentary constituencies, whereas it is much lesser for assembly constituencies that is for assembly elections. So these numbers will be utilized to calculate the proposed maximum prescribed limit for political parties to spend for an election. So these are some of the important recommendations of election commission from around 25 recommendations that were made by election commission published in its website to receive public comments and suggestions. The time period for receiving comments will be up to the end of March. If one among you is interested, you may go through these recommendations and give feedback to election commission. So with this, we come to the end of analysis of this news article. In this analysis, we saw few important recommendations made by election commission. Say for example, having a single simplified form for all services, then with respect to online registration for prospective voters at the age of 17 years, then about new voting methods, then regulating print media and social media under section 126 of RPA 1951, then also with reference to capping the expenditure to be incurred for an election by the political parties. Now let's move on to next news article. This news article talks about the detection of Huanglongbing disease by training dogs to sniff out the disease at an early stage. In this context, we'll discuss about this disease and some existing methods of detection and then we'll see the news article. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference. This Huanglongbing disease is presently considered as the most devastating citrus disease in the world. This disease is also called as citrus greening disease. It is called as citrus greening because the citrus fruits will become green in color in the bottom half. While the leaves of the plant or tree, it becomes yellow. As a result of this infection, the fruits undergo deformation, one side of the fruit will be seen smaller than the other side and it is also found that such fruits are bitter tasting and also these fruits are unsuitable for human consumption either as a fruit or as a juice. Some of these fruits may fall prematurely and some fruits which remain in the tree, they do not color properly. In some of the trees, the green color in the fruits will not be visible because of shades. Therefore, it is difficult to detect the disease. Here we should know that this disease is caused by a bacteria. The name of the bacteria is Candidates Liberi Bacter Asiaticus. News reports are saying that this disease was found before 2005 only in Asia. However, now this disease is common in Florida, California and Texas of the United States and it is also known to have hurt citrus crops in Central American region and also in South American region. And once a tree is infected, there is no cure for the tree and therefore it has devastating effects on citrus crops. Say for example, oranges, lemons, etc. In India as well, almost all citrus growing regions are affected by this citrus greening disease. We can say, Nagpur which is famous for sweet oranges and Punjab and even the Northeast India is also heavily affected because of this disease. Now, one of the reasons why there is no cure is because this bacterium is unculturable. That is, they do not grow under laboratory conditions. Therefore, it becomes extremely difficult to characterize these bacteria and to understand them. As a result, developing an antibody becomes an extremely difficult option. Now, let's see who is the carrier of this bacteria from one plant to another. This citrus greening is caused by a disease infected insect called as Asian citrus silate and because of the yellow coloring of the leaves of the infected crop or tree, this disease is also called as yellow dragon disease. So, at present, the main way of curtailing the spread of citrus greening is first carrying out visual inspection and then eliminating the trees with the disease as quickly as possible to prevent any further spread. This early detection of citrus greening pathogen or citrus affected trees is very important because trees act as a source of this bacteria which could be spread from one plant to another by the insect. What they are saying is that the infected trees become a source to spread the disease months before showing symptoms that can be detected by the naked eye. There is one another method which is expensive and costly that is the infected yellow leaf samples will be collected. The DNA of the samples will be isolated then the DNA will be amplified through molecular biological technique called as polymerase chain reaction. This method also helps to identify the infection at an early stage. However, it is a expensive option. So, a team of researchers from Department of Agriculture in United States while carrying out a research, they found that dogs can be trained to sniff out the presence of this bacteria and they found out that the accuracy of detection of this infection is greater than 99 percentage and the special feature is that using dogs within period of some weeks the infection can be detected. The training to the dogs is similar as that of sniffing training for explosives. The dogs will be taught to recognize a particular order and to sit down next to the source once it finds the order and with respect to identifying this disease training is more extensive and specific as the dogs are trained to detect the bacterium which infects the plant and this is also understood as a faster and more accurate approach than collecting hundreds of leaves for lab analysis which is also a costlier method and research estimates are saying that about 92% of the trees in an orchard could be saved by such an early detection using dogs. So, these are some of the important information with reference to the analysis of this news article. We saw about Huang Longbing disease which is also called as citrus greening disease or yellow dragon disease. Then we saw it is a bacterial disease transmitted by a disease infected insect called as Asian citrus silent. Then we saw techniques to detect the disease. Then we concluded with seeing how dogs can be helpful to identify the presence of this disease. Now let's move on to the analysis of next news article. This news article is with reference to the representation of students belonging to schedule cast and schedule tribes in IITs. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference. We know that reservation is an important affirmative action taken by the government for adequate representation of persons belonging to socially and educationally backward classes and persons belonging to schedule cast and schedule tribes. In this regard, one important step taken by the government is the legislation called as Central Education Institutions Reservation and Admission Act of 2006. This legislation provides for reservation for students belonging to schedule cast to the extent of 15% of seats and for schedule tribes to the extent of 7.5% of seats and for other backward classes to around 27%. Recently, in Rajya Sabha, one of the members has raised the question about total number of students admitted in PhD programs of each IIT along with their SCST OBC composition from 2015 department-wise. So this news article is based on the data or the answer submitted to this question raised by the member. The news article states that the enrollment of students belonging to schedule cast and schedule tribes in PhD programs in IITs in the period 2015-2019 is abysmally low or very low out of more than 25,000 PhD scholars in 23 IITs. Only 9.1% of the scholars were persons belonging to schedule cast and only 2.1% of them belong to schedule tribes. To be specific, around 2,200 students belong to schedule cast and 526 students belong to schedule tribes and around 5,800 students belong to other backward classes. So this gives a picture that almost around two-third of the admissions for PhD programs it has gone to students belonging to other than SCST and OBC and situation with respect to IITs is in such a way that around 60% of all PhD admissions concentrate in around 5 IITs in Madras, Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur and Karakpur and all these 5 institutes have recorded some of the lowest enrollments in persons belonging to schedule cast and schedule tribes. What was found is that only IIT Dhanbad or which was earlier Indian School of Mines in Jharkhand only it had around 15% of scholars from schedule cast communities and only IIT Bilai in Chattisgarh has around 7.5% of total PhD seats taken by persons belonging to schedule tribes. The same can be almost observed in IIT Guwahati where persons belonging to schedule tribes almost around 7% of the seats. So this article is specific with reference to PhD program. Now let's see which of the central education institutions are presently exempted from central education institutions reservations and admissions act of 2006. See any central education institution which is established in the tribal areas referred in 6th schedule to the constitution. It is exempted from the definition of central education institution in the 2006 legislation and it also exempts the institutions of excellence, research institutions, institutions of national and strategic importance that are specified in the schedule of 2006 act. If you see the schedule of 2006 act you can find institutions such as Homi Baba National Institute and its constituent units, then Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad, National Brain Research Center in Gurgaon, and institutes such as Indian Institute of Remote Sensing in Dehradun and few other institutes are there and IITs do not fall under this schedule and minority educational institutions also exempted from 2006 reservation act and also know that programs at high levels of specialization including postdoctoral level are also exempted from the reservations under the central education institutions reservation and admission act of 2006. Now the government has to find why the admissions to the doctoral research in IITs could not meet the reservation as prescribed by the 2006 act. The government should also study the number of applicants for BTEC programs, EMTEC programs and also to doctoral research and qualitative steps have to be taken so as to increase the number of applicants from persons belonging to schedule cars, schedule tribes to doctoral research in IITs and steps should also be taken to increase representation in the admission. More and more information has to be disseminated about the vacancies and examinations that are conducted in print media, visual media and also in social media platforms particularly in vernacular medium so as to ensure that the information reach to the unreachable areas to the rural areas and to remote areas etc. So these are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this news article. Earlier on 22nd July 2019 we have seen underrepresentation of persons belonging to schedule cars and schedule tribes as scientists in biotechnology agencies or bodies and on 22nd November 2019 we saw about underrepresentation which is prevailing in top government positions. Now let's move on to the analysis of next news article. This news article is with reference to a report released by network of women in media India and gender at work. The research was conducted to assess how effectively media houses across India are responding to the issue of sexual harassment at the workplace. The survey included women participants from media houses including journalists, journalist trainers, researchers in journalism and also journalist educators and the report titled creating safe workplaces prevention and redressal of sexual harassment in media houses in India was released today on International Women's Day. Around one third of the respondents they have reported that they have experienced sexual harassment at their workplaces and of those who have experienced sexual harassment around 53% of them had not reported the offense and only a very small percentage reported the offenses to the internal complaints committee which is established based on the provisions of sexual harassment of women at workplace prevention prohibition and redressal act of 2013 and of the victims who have approached the internal complaints committee almost 70% of them have stated that they were not completely satisfied with the outcome of this internal complaints committee. 28% of the respondents said that they were not at all aware of existence of policies against sexual harassment in their workplace and 11% said that there was no such mechanism in their workplaces which are media houses and one of the most important finding here is that of the respondents who have said that their organization did not have a mechanism to deal with sexual harassment in those media houses 47% of women had faced sexual harassment. This survey was based on around 456 women participants though it may not be representative of all media houses in the country but it really portrays qualitatively the scale of sexual violence against women in the media houses workplaces. The report mentioned the kinds of harassment undergone by the women sexist comments unwelcome sexual jokes embarrassing gestures or body language and then attempts to establish unwanted sexual relationships or romantic relationship or persistent annoying disturbance for dates or intimate relationship and in these media houses it was also found that if a superior authority calls for sexual relationship and if a woman refuses then the superior authority has threatened the subordinate of the victim and the person has faced mistreatment from the superior authority and in some cases sexual assault and in other cases even penetrative sexual assault were also documented. So this report highlights that in some media houses there is no conducive environment, no safe environment and no secure environment for the women employees against sexual harassment. Now the report was brought by the collaborative effort of Network of Women in Media India and Gender at Work. This network of women in media India is a pan-India network. It aims to provide an informal forum for women in media professions so as to share information and resources to exchange ideas to promote media awareness and ethics and also to work for gender equality and gender justice within media and society. And gender at work it is an international feminist collaborative of gender experts. It was founded in 2001 to specifically focus on gender and development and also on feminist political analysis. So these are some of the important information with reference to the analysis of this news article. We have come to the last session the practice questions discussion session. Now this question is with reference to Huang Longbing. Recently Huang Longbing was in the news what is it? The correct answer for this question is option B. It is a bacterial disease which majorly affects the citrus crops such as oranges and lemons. The name of the bacteria is Candidatus Liberi Bacter Asiaticus. This disease was in news with reference to a discovery by scientists from USA that dogs can be trained to sniff the disease in the trees at an early stage to prevent further spreading of the disease. This question is with reference to Plethora Protein. With reference to the recent developments in science what is Plethora Protein? A molecular scissors used in targeted gene editing. We know that the protein that is involved in targeted gene editing is Cas9 protein and CRISPR Cas9 system is used by bacterial cells to recognize and destroy viral DNA. And it was found that using the components of this system researchers can remove or add or alter specific DNA sequences in the genome of human beings or other higher organisms. The second one is a protein that helps in the regeneration of vascular system in plants. This option is correct. Know that Plethora along with binding to a gene called CuC2 plays a very important role in increasing the production of plant growth hormone at the site of injury or at the wound site. This combination of Plethora and CuC2 and the plant growth hormone called Oxin helps the plant in repairing or regeneration of vascular system in plants. So the correct answer is option B. Now we can find the term gut flora in the option D. It refers to microorganisms that live in digestive tract of human beings. The correct answer is option B. Now see this mains question to be worthy of the status of a nation with better democratic and electoral credentials. Affair, transparent and robust electoral system is essential. In this context suggest certain measures to further consolidate the Indian electoral administration. And one another mains question from GS2. We know that members belonging to schedule cast and schedule tribes form around 25% of the total population of India. Despite their numerical strength and affirmative actions provided by the government they are still under represented in several echelons of the society. Comment with relevant illustrations. For these two mains questions you can write answers and take a photograph or convert into PDF and upload it into your drive and share the link in the comment section so that we can provide feedback to your mains answers within a reasonable time frame. With this we come to the end of today's the Hindu News Analysis. 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 exam preparation. We'll meet you tomorrow.