 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Ayes Academy for the date 9th of October 2019, displayed at the list of news articles taken up for today's analysis along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Trivandrum edition. The print version for Hyderabad edition is not available today. The handwritten notes in PDF format and the time stamping of all the news articles taken up for today's analysis is available in the description section and also in the comment section for the benefit of the smartphone news. Let us now start our analysis. This news article says that the government of India unveils faceless IT assessment and it opens National E-Assessment Center. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. See this news article mentions two important keywords. One is the E-Assessment Scheme and the second one is the National E-Assessment Center. First, we shall be seeing the details of the scheme. Then we shall see how the scheme will be implemented by setting up of national and regional centres and finally we shall be seeing the kind of advantages or benefits which will be there because of digital system of assessment. See one of the key highlights of Union Budget 2019-20 was that the government proposed to launch a faceless E-assessment with no human interface and based on this the central government recently notified E-Assessment Scheme on 2nd of September 2019. So this scheme aims to facilitate the faceless assessment of income tax returns and the scheme also completely aims to have an electronic communication between the tax officials and the tax payers and note that this E-Assessment Scheme is implemented by the Ministry of Finance. So what is faceless E-Assessment? It means that there is no human interface between the tax payers and IT department. The tax payers will receive notices on their registered emails then they will also receive real-time alerts by the way of SMS on their registered mobile numbers etc. So this new initiative of faceless assessment is expected to increase the ease of compliance for tax payers as the cost and the anxiety of tax payers are likely to be greatly reduced. See this E-Assessment Scheme is based mainly on four pillars. One is that there will be no human interface, next is that it will have a dynamic jurisdiction and third it is based on a team-based working and finally the functional specialization. So the first pillar is no human interface which means there will be a faceless assessment procedure which shall be adopted. The second pillar is the dynamic jurisdiction. This dynamic jurisdiction aims at the entire process of tax assessment in real-time and all the assessment cases are allocated to the tax assessing office on real-time. The third pillar is the team-based working that is working together in a team will promote the team spirit and the coordination among the tax assessing employees. We will see how and the final pillar is the functional specialization that is the entire process will be streamlined based on different functions like assessment unit, verification unit, technical unit and so on. And each unit is manned with offices of respective expertise or specialization. So there will be functional specialization for every unit. Now let us see how this scheme is going to be implemented. This scheme will be implemented with a network of regional e-assessment centers across India and also there will be one nodal center that is the national e-assessment center which will be located at New Delhi and this national e-assessment center will be headed by the principal chief commissioner of income tax and there will be eight regional e-assessment centers at different regions of India. One will be located in Delhi, the other at Mumbai, the other at Chennai, the other one at Kolkata and other regional e-assessment centers at Ahmedabad, Pune, Bengaluru and Hyderabad and all these regional centers that is each of these regional centers will be headed by chief commissioner of income tax. In addition to this all the offices of the national e-assessment center and the regional e-assessment centers will have dynamic and all India jurisdiction. So this kind of a connective and collaborative effort of the offices from different centers is likely to lead towards better quality of assessments because it will be a pan-India organizational structure so it is expected that it would impart greater efficiency and also transparency and accountability in the assessment process because now e-governance comes into place so it is more likely that there will be greater transparency and accountability in the assessment process and as we saw earlier this system will ease the compliance of the taxpayers and it will also improve the quality of the assessment process and the case disposals will also be fast so overall we can tell that it is expected to promote the ease of doing business in the country. So this is all about this news article in this news article we have seen about the national e-assessment center than the regional e-assessment centers then about the e-assessment scheme and the likely advantages or benefits which will be there because of the digital system of assessment and how it will promote governance. With this information test your understanding of the topic with the help of the practice question we shall discuss the practice question at the end of the session. This discussion is based on an editorial this editorial gives insights about the agricultural farming methods and the criticism based on those various agricultural farming methods. Also keep in mind that the editorial is written by two authors and one of the author is a chair professor of nabad which is the national bank for agriculture and rural development so this editorial is based on the author's scientific knowledge and his expertise on the field. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this editorial is given here for your reference. In this editorial the authors discuss about some modern agricultural practices let us first see about them in brief before moving on to the editorial. First is about the green revolution in the 20th century the term green revolution is applied to the successful agricultural experiments in many developing countries and India is also one of the countries where it was the most successful. See the green revolution resulted in a record grain output which was 131 million tons during the period 1978-79 so this established India as one of the world's biggest agricultural producers but green revolution technologies were criticized because of their increased use of chemicals in agriculture so those who oppose this method proposed that alternative to using chemicals that is a non-chemical agriculture is also possible so at this time only the term organic farming became very famous according to the authors the term organic farming represented a variety of non-chemical oriented methods of farming and less chemical oriented methods of farming there is a difference non-chemical and less chemical non-chemical means completely no chemical and less chemical means less quantity or amount of chemicals then the authors mention about another method which is Rudolf Steiner's biodynamics. See biological dynamic agriculture is also called as biodynamics it is a system of agricultural management which is based on a series of lectures given by Rudolf Steiner in the year 1924 the intention of a series of agricultural lectures where to instruct farmers how to influence the organic life on earth through cosmic and terrestrial forces now this is important because biodynamic agriculture consisted primarily of concocting or combining and utilizing eight biodynamic preparations so these eight biodynamic preparations would stimulate vitalizing and harmonizing process in the soil so just know about this method then the authors talk about the methods that are used in India one is homeofarming see in chemical agriculture some substances used to restore the material imbalance it is done by administering the substance in physical doses but in homeopathy it is a mode of action using small but more potent substance usually this substance is a diluted substance and this substance would have lost its toxicity and simultaneously it had acquired a stronger medicinal property so this substance stimulates the soils and its organisms intrinsic defensive mechanism and it also re-establishes the balance of vital forces within it which is capable of fighting the disorder so that the health of the soil will be restored so this homeofarming stimulates the already existing potential of soil rather than application of an external substance so this is what homeofarming does next there is a mention about Vedic farming or Vedic organic agriculture see this is a natural agriculture which is free from all poisonous fertilizers pesticides and herbicides and it is the agriculture that is grown by the farmers by using Vedic literature next Natu eco farming has been mentioned this farming is based on the principle of no tilling and also based on the principle of complete recycling and management of farm waste next Agnihotra farming has been mentioned Agnihotra means a healing fire which is from the ancient science of Ayurveda it is a process of purifying the atmosphere through a specially prepared fire this is usually performed at sunrise and sunset every day so this Agnihotra utilizes the combined effect of various factors such as burning of specific organic substances like the cows, ghee, rice grains, twigs of plants etc and according to this practice the burning of the organic substances injects the atmosphere with nutrients the proponents or the followers of this method say that modern science of agriculture stresses only about the soil quality and the water quality but there is no say about the atmosphere but according to the ancient science of Agnihotra or the Homa therapy atmosphere is the biggest factor in producing healthy and nutritious plant growth so atmosphere is also considered an Agnihotra and according to the practitioners of this method if you make the atmosphere more nutritious and fragrant by performing Homa then a type of protective coating is layered on plants so any diseases fungi, pests etc do not thrive or they do not live on the plants the next type of method that has been mentioned is Amrutpani farming here Amrut means the heavenly drink according to mythology it refreshes the gods and it has the power to resurrect the dead that is bring back the dead to life in the same manner Amrutpani is also compared here Amrutpani invigorates the living soil that is it gives strength to the living soil and it converts a dead soil into a living one and this Amrutpani is a liquid manure which is prepared by a technique known as Ahimsak Rishikrishi Deshpande technique like Panchakavya Amrutpani is also used to improve the soil fertility now in this context comes the recent farming technique which is the zero-budget natural farming or in short ZBNF and this method was popularized by an Indian agriculturist named as Subash Palekar the authors of this editorial state that this zero-budget natural farming is against both inorganic farming and organic farming it is because the authors say that according to Mr. Palekar all knowledge that has been created by the agricultural universities are false they are saying this because according to Mr. Palekar organic farming is more dangerous than chemical farming and it is worse than an atom bomb so what is this zero-budget natural farming or ZBNF it is a set of farming methods it is also a grassroots or most basic peasant movement that was carried out by Mr. Subash Palekar and this is spread to various states in India especially it has attained wide success in southern India in the state of Karnataka where it first evolved see the neoliberalization of the Indian economy that is the ideology of free market competition has led to a deep agrarian crisis and this crisis is making small scale farming a non feasible occupation this is because the privatized seeds then the agricultural inputs and the markets are all inaccessible and quite expensive that is quite costly for the farmers so they have to spend more on their inputs but they get only less on their outputs so the Indian farmers are increasingly finding themselves in a vicious cycle of debt under such conditions the zero-budget farming promises to end the reliance of farmers on loans and it promises to drastically cut the production costs by ending the debt cycle for the farmers so this method is a form of low external input sustainable agriculture or in short LEA SA it is because all the inputs are to be locally resourced from in and around the village or it can be resourced even within the farm in a symbiotic way the word budget in the zero-budget farming refers to credit and also the expenses thus the phrase zero budget means without using any credit and without spending any money on purchased inputs and natural farming means farming with nature and without the use of chemicals so this is all about zero-budget natural farming know that there are four pillars of this zero-budget natural farming one pillar is jivamruta or jivamrutam it is a fermented microbial culture it enhances the soil microbiome through the application of cow dung, cow urine and other local ingredients so the growth of the microorganisms in the soil will be enriched because it provides nutrients and most importantly it also acts as a catalytic agent that promotes the activity of the microorganisms also it increases the earthworm activity as well and jivamruta also helps to prevent fungal and bacterial plant diseases the next pillar is bijamruta or bijamrutham it is a treatment that is used for seeds seedlings or any planting material bijamruta is effective in protecting the young roots from fungus as well as from soil bond and seed bond diseases these diseases commonly affect the plants after the monsoon period if you see this bijamruta is composed of similar ingredients like jivamruta such as the local cow dung which is a powerful natural fungicide and it also contains cow urine which is a strong antibacterial liquid then it also contains lineman soil the next pillar is achhadana or mulching here mulching refers to the process where the materials such as decaying leaves, barks or compost are spread around a plant or the materials are spread over a plant this is basically done to enrich the soil or to insulate the soil the final pillar is vapsa or the moisture the plant roots need a lot of water and vapsa has a condition where there are both air molecules and water molecules which are made present in the soil so it is the building up of soil humus in order to increase the soil aeration so these are the four pillars in addition to these four pillars the zero budget natural farming also includes three methods of insect and pest management they are agni astra brahmastra and neem astra they depend on the nature and type of the insect or the pest attack for different attacks different formulations from locally available resources are prepared all the different preparations use cow urine cow dung tobacco fruits green chili garlic and neem so this preparation works as a biopesticide so according to the proponents of this method if all these preparations can be achieved then there will not be any need to use a chemical fertilizer so this is all about the zero budget natural farming but the authors of this editorial have some criticism over this method they call this method as unsubstantiated claims so why are they calling this method and its achievements as unsubstantiated claims let us see now for this the authors of this editorial have given some reasons they have given five reasons the first reason is that according to the authors the zero budget natural farming is a hardly zero budget which means it is not that much zero budget it is because many ingredients in this method and its formulations have to be purchased apart from this the method also includes other costs according to the authors like the wages of hired labor then the imputed value of the family labor which means the cost representing the value of the family labor the next cost is imputed or estimated rent over the owned land then the cost of maintaining cows and finally the cost on electricity and pumps the authors are criticizing that these costs are conveniently ignored by the zero budget natural farming proponents secondly there are no independent studies to validate the claims of this method there are no studies that the zero budget natural farming plots have a higher yield than the non-zero budget natural farming plots independent studies based on field trials are also not available for this method currently if you see one field trail is going on at the G. B. Panth University of Agriculture and Technology which is situated at Uttarakhand but according to the authors the full results of this field trial will be available only after five years moreover based on sources the authors are noting that the preliminary observations of this field trials have recorded a shortfall in the yield that is there is less yield the observations state that there is about 30 percent shortfall of yield in the zero budget natural farming plots when compared with non-zero budget natural farming plots so this is the second reason that there are no independent studies to validate the claims of this zero budget natural farming method now the third reason is that most of the claims in this method stand agricultural science on its head it means that the claims are opposite to the agricultural science this is because according to the authors expertise Indian soils are poor in organic matter content such as about 59 percentage of soils are low in available nitrogen and about 49 percentage of soils are low in available phosphorus and about 48 percentage of soils are low or medium in available potassium because nitrogen phosphorus and potassium are the basic micronutrients that is required for the fertility of the soil in addition to this the Indian soils are also deficient in certain other micronutrients like zinc iron manganese copper molybdenum and boron which is required for the fertility of the soil so the micronutrient deficiencies lead to decline in the fertility of the soil and also in some regions the soils are saline that is they are quite salty and in some regions soils are acidic this may be due to the nutrient deficiencies or due to the toxicity that has been caused by aluminum manganese and iron in the soil and in certain other regions soils are toxic due to heavy metal pollution from the industrial and the municipal waste or due to excessive application of fertilizers and pesticides so based on the soil nature the agricultural scientists recommend location specific solutions to nurture the soil health and to sustain soil fertility so agricultural sciences very much required but the zero budget natural farming is opposite to agricultural science because this zero budget natural farming method insists on one blanket solution this means the method suggests a general solution for all the problems of Indian soils but as we just saw soil in different locations is of different nature so the authors are saying that this one solution may not help to yield the productivity as this method claims now let us see the fourth reason the fourth reason is about the nutritional requirement of plants the authors are blaming Mr. Palakar that he has a totally irrational position on the nutrient requirements of plants according to Mr. Palakar 98.5 percentage of the nutrients that plants need is obtained from air water and sunlight and only the remaining 1.5 percentage is from the soil and also all the nutrients are present in adequate quantities in all types of soils but they are not in usable form so the formulation of Givamrith makes these nutrients available to the plants by increasing the population of soil microorganisms so this is a claim made by Mr. Palakar but according to the authors all these are baseless claims it is because the Givamrith gives just about 750 grams of nitrogen per acre per season but this is totally inadequate because the nitrogen requirements of Indian soils are more so we can see that there is a mismatch in the claims of nutritional requirement of plants made by Mr. Palakar and made by the scientists now the final reason is the spiritual nature of agriculture that is proposed by this method by Mr. Palakar it is because he has claimed that because of the zero budget natural farming's spiritual closeness to nature its practitioners will stop drinking gambling lying eating non-vegetarian food and they will also stop wasting the resources so the authors are also criticizing these claimed spiritual nature of this method so these are some of the reasons why the authors are calling this zero budget natural farming method and its achievements as unsubstantiated claims hence as a conclusion the authors are proposing for a more scientific approach towards agriculture the scientific approach should include the methods to improve the soil health then it should also contain steps to check the wind and water erosion of soils then it should also involve innovative technologies which will help to minimize physical degradation of soils due to water logging flooding and crusting. Here the term soil crusting refers to the forming processes and the consequences of a thin layer at the soil surface and this thin layer causes reduced porosity and high penetration resistance in the soil so this is considered as degradation of soil so the scientific method ultimately the scientific method should provide location specific interventions towards balanced fertilization and integrated nutrient management of the land and soil as against what the zero budget natural farming proposes hence according to the authors the inclusion of zero budget natural farming method in our agricultural policy is not a wise decision it is because the zero budget natural farming method does not include any scientific approach so in this editorial we have seen different kinds of agriculture in brief now you can use them in any of your mains answers and we have also seen why this zero budget natural farming will not work for a country like India which has varied soil pattern and soil nutrition requirements now have a look at the practice question let us move on to the next news article this news article is regarding the recently released comprehensive national nutrition survey the syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference see the comprehensive national nutrition survey was conducted by the ministry of health and family welfare and united nations children's fund that is UNICEF between 2016 and 2018 and the news article is telling that it is the first-ever national nutrition survey that is conducted by the government see this comprehensive national nutrition survey is a cross-sectional household survey covering more than 120,000 children and adolescents between the age group of 0 to 19 years from both the urban and the rural areas across all the states of India also Delhi this survey aims to measure malnutrition which also includes warm infestation and micronutrient deficiencies so how they will measure is by collecting biochemical samples like blood samples urine samples etc then this survey also measures the anthropometric data like weight for age then height for age then weight for height etc the survey also focuses on details of non-communicable diseases like diabetes hypertension cholesterol and kidney function in children and adolescents and also the prevalence of obesity or overweight then also data on muscular strength and fitness and know that clinical development services agency is the national monitoring agency to monitor the biological samples like blood urine and stool samples and this agency was created under department of biotechnology which comes under the ministry of science and technology the main aim for creating this agency is to facilitate the development of affordable healthcare products for the public health diseases now let us see the important facts that have been revealed by this comprehensive national nutrition survey the first point is regarding the rate of breastfeeding so in this table will be seeing certain set of parameters that has been mentioned in the news article for the urban population and for the rural population sample so first is the rate of breastfeeding as we told here the target group is the children between 12 and 15 months in both urban areas and rural areas this survey tells that overall 83 percentage of the children between the age group of 12 and 15 months are breastfed in urban area it is 76 percentage and in rural areas it is 85 percentage one thing which we can tell from this data is that the rate of breastfeeding is inversely proportional to the wealth of the households because if you see the urban households are comparatively wealthier so one could have expected that the breastfeeding percentage or breastfeeding rates have been higher for the urban households but in fact it is higher in the case of rural households one reason can be there are more number of working mothers in the urban areas so the breastfeeding is improper because they have to travel long distances to reach their workplace so they cannot breastfeed their baby in a timely manner and also most of the workplaces does not have facility to take care of the infants so the urban mothers lack time and also the facility to breastfeed their children another reason that is given is the prosperity of the urban household because usually the urban mothers are going for diversified or supplementary food for their children apart from the mothers milk so this is the reason why the rate of breastfeeding is lower in the urban households the next parameter is children receiving frequent meals the survey tells that 44 percentage of children from the rural areas receive meals more frequently when compared to 37 percentage of children in the urban areas so we can see that the rural children are receiving frequent meals next is the diversified diet the survey tells that 26.9 percentage of children in the urban areas are fed an adequately diversified diet but in case of rural areas it is only 19 percentage of children who receive diversified diet the next parameter is the iron deficiency in both children and adolescents the survey tells that 40.6 percentage of children and adolescents who are living in the urban areas suffer from iron deficiency but the iron deficiency prevalence is lower in the rural areas which is 29 percentage this news article is telling that the iron deficiency is lower because of certain health programs of the government like the national iron plus initiative to combat iron deficiency then also anemia mukh bharat to reduce the prevalence of anemia by 3 percentage points every year and also because of programs like potion abhyan which is the national nutrition mission which will be seen later then this survey has also measured the overweight and obesity by measuring the subscapular skin fold thickness in short SSFT based on different age groups basically this technique helps to measure the body fat that is the amount of fat present in a human body and this survey found that for the children who are in the age group of 5 to 9 years 14.5 percentage of the children belonging to urban areas at higher subscapular skin fold thickness whereas in case of rural areas it was lower which is 5.3 percentage and for the adolescents belonging to the age group of 10 to 19 years those adolescents in the urban areas had higher subscapular skin fold thickness which was 10.4 percentage whereas in rural areas the adolescents at lower SSFT which is 4.3 percentage the next parameter is vitamin D deficiency the survey reveals that 19 percentage of the children in urban areas were suffering from vitamin D deficiency when compared to 12 percentage of the children in the rural areas so you can see that vitamin D deficiency is higher in the cities this is despite the fact that higher percentage of children in cities consume dairy products when compared to those children who are in the rural areas the survey tells that 74 percentage of urban children consume dairy products when compared to 58 percentage of children in the rural areas so we can see that the children from the urban population consume more dairy products even though they consume more dairy products still they are deficient in vitamin D now one reason could be the wealthier household and the lifestyle like consuming more foods that are rich in fat and also the children from the urban households lead a sedentary lifestyle that is they involve very little or no physical activity so huge calorie intake and less or no physical activity is leading to vitamin D deficiency the next parameter is the zinc deficiency this survey tells that 20 percentage of the rural children who belong to the age group of 1 to 4 years suffer from zinc deficiency when compared to 16 percentage of children belonging to the same age group in the urban area so you can see that zinc deficiency is higher in the rural areas know that lack of intake of zinc can cause diarrhea growth retardation then loss of appetite and also impact immune function then the survey also mentions about stunting which is nothing but low height for age the survey reveals that 37 percentage of children in the rural area have stunting issues when compared to 27 percentage of children in the urban areas the next parameter is the underweight that is low weight for age this survey tells that 36 percentage of children from the rural areas suffer from underweight when compared to 26 percentage of children from the urban areas so we can see that children from the rural areas suffer from more of stunting and underweight when compared to the children from the urban areas but if you remember we saw that the rate of breastfeeding was more in case of rural children and also children receive more frequent meals especially in the rural areas but stunting and underweight is more for the children in the rural areas one reason is because their diet is not diversified we saw that diversified diet was high in case of urban areas when compared to rural areas and another reason can be severe acute malnutrition which is the most extreme and visible form of nutrition usually this severe acute malnutrition happens when the body does not get enough nutrients due to a poor diet or a lack of food so having food is one thing but we should have diversified diet and there are also certain people in the rural areas who do not have a proper food at all so both these can lead to stunting and underweight in children this news article tells that considering all these facts nithya yogas currently developing a strategy to deal with the problems that are unique to children who are living in the cities and it also aims to address the factors that hamper the implementation of the government schemes so the government has realized the need to give special focus to children who are living in urban areas under its portion abyan scheme know that portion abyan is also called as national nutrition mission it was launched in year 2018 to improve the nutritional status of children up to six years and also to improve the nutritional status of adolescent girls pregnant women and lactating mothers in order to achieve specific targets for reduction in certain parameters like low birth weight babies then stunting growth then under nutrition and also the prevalence of anemia so from this news article analysis we can say that malnutrition in india is characterized by relatively poor levels of breastfeeding and higher prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies like iron deficiency, zinc deficiency and also vitamin D deficiency as well as also due to obesity so we can see that india has both cases of obesity and under nutrition this means that well some children get more than required to eat whereas others suffer from a poor diet and the survey also shows that the health problems for children across india is not unique that is it is not the same there is always a rural urban divide so this is all about this news article there is one more news article along with the this big news article which is titled children face rising risk of diabetes high cholesterol this news article is also in continuation with the survey that we discussed which is the comprehensive national nutrition survey it tells that according to this survey indian children are facing the double burden of malnutrition and also the rising risk of non-communicable diseases now non-communicable diseases are diseases such as diabetes high cholesterol chronic kidney disease and hypertension we already discussed the survey results with regards to under nutrition and overweight and also with regards to obesity among the indian children from 0 to 19 years in detail this report tells that the prevalence of abdominal obesity among children and adolescents increased with the level of mothers schooling and household wealth this might be because of the increase in income which led towards greater spending so they spend more on fatty foods and soft drinks and when children consume more fatty foods and soft drinks and also when they lack physical activity it will ultimately result in obesity now you should know that abdominal obesity occurs when excessive fat around the stomach and abdomen as built up to the extent that it is likely to have a negative impact on health this survey results say that the highest percentage of children with abdominal obesity are observed in states such as Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Goa while the lowest percentage was recorded in states was observed in the state of Bihar and in case of adolescence the highest percentage of abdominal obesity was observed in Delhi and Tamil Nadu and the lowest percentage was observed in Assam and according to this survey the rural urban divide exists in case of abdominal obesity as well higher prevalence was observed among children and adolescents who are residing in the urban areas when compared to those children and adolescents from the rural areas in terms of abdominal obesity the largest prevalence was seen in states such as Goa and Delhi and the lowest prevalence of such a condition was seen in states such as Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand so this news article speaks about the survey results of the comprehensive national nutrition survey on abdominal obesity to sum up from both these news articles we have seen the results of comprehensive national nutrition survey and also about the survey and about clinical development services agency now have a look at the practice question let us move on to the next news article this news article speaks about the Hindukush Himalayan region the syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference this news article tells that India Meteorological Department will collaborate with the respective meteorological agencies in the countries of China and Pakistan for better data gathering in the Hindukush Himalayan region so that it will help to understand the impact of climate change in this region and also provide climate focus services to the countries that are present in the region so now let us discuss about this Hindukush Himalayan region according to India Meteorological Department the Hindukush Himalayan region comprises of both the Hindukush mountains and the Himalayan mountains it spans the countries of Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan China India Myanmar Nepal Pakistan Kyrgyzstan Mongolia Tajkistan and Uzbekistan so these are the 12 countries which form the part of Hindukush Himalayan region as per India Meteorological Department but know that according to International Center for Integrated Mountain Development the Hindukush Himalayan region covers across eight countries which are Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan China India Myanmar Nepal and Pakistan and also according to one of the national institutes under the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change which is G. B. Panth National Institute of Himalayan Environment and Sustainable Development this Hindukush Himalayan region consists of these eight countries only so only in this IMD report you can see the extra four countries which are the countries of Kyrgyzstan Mongolia Tajkistan and Uzbekistan so what is the significance of this region or the importance of this region this region is one of the greatest mountain systems of the world it is home to some of the world's highest peaks and unique cultures are present in this region also you can see numerous numbers of flora and fauna that is plants and animal species in this Hindukush Himalayan region and also it has got a vast reserve of natural resources also know that it is the source of 10 major rivers which are the rivers Amudarya, Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Ayuravadi, Salveen, Mekong, Yangtze, Yellow River and Tarim and this region also provides ecosystem services when we tell ecosystem services it means the benefits that the humans or the human population that reside in this area receive from the environment like water food and energy from the environment according to international center for integrated mountain development this Hindukush Himalayan region benefits almost 1.9 billion people who depend on this region for water food and energy and this region also represents the largest area of permanent ice cover and freshwater reserve apart from the two poles of the earth which are the north and the south poles so this region is also called as the third pole because it contains the largest area of permanent ice cover and also freshwater reserves and this region is also called as cryospheric zone cryosphere means the frozen water part of the earth such as ice, snow cover, lake ice, glaciers, ice sheets etc and this cryospheric zone that is the Hindukush Himalayan region is susceptible to climate change until now there is no proper climate analysis and also weather forecasting service in this region so the India Meteorological Department had organized a workshop in the first week of October to discuss ways to establish a regional climate center in order to provide climate analysis services and this proposed regional center will function under the world meteorological organization we saw that this Hindukush Himalayan region is vulnerable to climate change but the data gathering in this region is sparse that is quite low or say there is only scattered data available so this proposed regional center will facilitate the data sharing between the countries so that there will be improved forecast and improved predictions and according to the news article the world meteorological organization has proposed to establish nodal centers in these three countries that is India, China and Pakistan and this would provide data services then training and capacity building and research and development so this regional climate center will give us more research and more focus and it will also provide information on the hydrological extremes so this is all about this regional climate center let us see about India meteorological department it is the principal agency of the government of India in matters related to meteorology, seismology and related matters like weather forecasting meteorology is nothing but the scientific study of the atmosphere that focuses on the weather processes and weather forecasting and seismology is basically the study of earthquakes and the seismic waves that move through and around the earth this department was established in the year 1875 when the British ruled India now this department is functioning under the union ministry of earth sciences the mandate of this department includes the following one is that it aims to focus the weather and provide information for the optimum operation of the weather sensitive activities like agriculture, irrigation, shipping so with the help of this data these activities would be carried out and this department also aims to warn against the severe weather phenomena like tropical cyclones, dust storms, heavy rains, snow etc so that timely availability of data will prevent the destruction of life and property so basically we can say that it is the principal weather agency of the government of India and you can regularly see in the news articles whenever there is monsoon or whenever there is a cyclone or whenever there is an earthquake notifications come from this India meteorological department now let us see the world meteorological organization it is an intergovernmental organization around 193 countries and territories are members of this world meteorological organization this world meteorological organization originated from the international meteorological organization it was established by the ratification of the world meteorological organization convention in march 1950 and know that world meteorological organization is the specialized agency of the united nations so this organization focuses on meteorology that is the weather and climate which we saw and also on operational hydrology and related geophysical sciences know that the headquarters of world meteorological organization is in jenever so this is all about this news article and about the two organizations which we saw now in the context of this news article we must also look into one assessment report which was released by the international center for integrated mountain development know that this international center for integrated mountain development is a regional intergovernmental learning and knowledge sharing center of the hindukush himalayas it serves basically the eight member countries of the hindukush himalayan region which are the countries of afghanistan bangladesh bhutan china india myanmar napal and pakistan and the headquarters of this center is located at khatmandu the capital of napal now this international center has released the report which is called the hindukush himalaya assessment report this report has revealed some dangerous facts let us see some of them now one is that it tells that more than one third of the glaciers in this hindukush himalayan region could retreat that is it would melt by the year 2100 even if the global temperature rise is capped at 1.5 degree Celsius so this will have a major impact on the snow covering in this region so when the snow covering is impacted it will also affect the river flows and when the river flows affected water availability will also be affected in all those countries that are dependent on this hindukush himalayan region and the melting of ice will also result in rising sea levels so this will also threaten the low lying countries of the world and this report also said that the changes in the hindukush himalayan region that is the climatic changes in the hindukush himalayan region will significantly shift the monsoon patterns so this can either increase the rainfall or it will decrease the rainfall levels so this will affect the monsoon dependent countries like India and this report also says that even if the rise in the temperature can be limited to 1.5 degree Celsius it will lead to a 2.1 degree Celsius warming in the hindukush himalayan region that is the average temperature in this region will rise by 2.1 degree Celsius this is because of the elevation dependent warming it is nothing but the phenomenon of enhancing of the warming rate with the increase in the altitude that is with the increase in the elevation so that is why this region is more vulnerable to climate change and in order to tackle this climate change the world meteorological organization has come up with this regional climate center for hindukush himalayan region now have a look at the practice question let us move on to the next news article this discussion is based on an article on salt intake the syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference this news article states that in the journal of clinical hypertension a statement was published the statement suggests that the salt which is sold in supermarkets for consumption and the salt disperses which are used in the restaurants should carry a health warning and this warning should be in the front of pack front of pack is a term which is nothing but a labeling method many food and drink products nowadays display nutritional information on the front of the food package this is called as front of pack nutrition labels this is basically to provide a simple and a visible summary of the nutritional quality of the product that is being consumed then the journal has also suggested that the warning should be in a tobacco style health warning you may have seen a tobacco health warning on the package of the tobacco products the warning is given because according to world health organization globally many people are not fully aware of or they misunderstand or they underestimate the risks of tobacco and its smoke likewise this journal is also calling for a health warning for salt as well the warning label should be clearly visible and easily readable and the warning should indicate that consumption of excess sodium is a health risk and it should advise consumers to use less sodium if you see in India the food safety and standards authority of India does not currently require a reporting of sodium content on pack however it has a proposal for making it mandatory to display red color coding on their labels this is for the food products that are high on fat sugar and salt content levels now you may be surprised because salt is a staple ingredient in all the food that we eat and it gives the real taste to the food that we eat but what is the health risk in consuming excess salt it is because of the presence of sodium in salt the main source of sodium in our diet in the food that we daily take is salt and as we all know that normal table salt is nothing but sodium chloride so sodium is an essential nutrient in the salt and this sodium is necessary for the maintenance of plasma volume then acid base balance transmission of nerve impulses and also for the normal cell function in our body so sodium ensures normal functioning of our body at cellular level but if you see excess sodium is linked to adverse health outcomes according to world health organization elevated sodium intake or excess sodium intake has been associated with a number of non communicable diseases like hypertension cardiovascular disease stroke etc so decreasing the intake of sodium may reduce the blood pressure and it may also reduce the risk of associated non communicable diseases now how sodium enters our diet and our body the primary contributors to dietary sodium consumption depend on the cultural context and the dietary habits of a particular population the salt in the diet can come from processed foods this is because of two reasons one is because processed foods are particularly high in salt such as you can take the example of ready to eat meals then processed meats like bacon ham and salami then cheese then salty snack foods and instant noodles and such other products and the second reason is because they are consumed frequently in large amounts now this is because food products such as bread and processed cereal products have high salt content and we intake these products more than other processed foods then salt is also added to food during cooking that is normal cooking and they are added at the table in the form of soy sauce fish sauce and also table salt so all these products contain high levels of salt that is sodium then sodium is also contained in sodium glutamate this sodium glutamate is used as a food additive in many parts of the world so how to tackle the high blood pressure that is caused because of the intake of excess sodium it can be tackled by the intake of potassium know that potassium is an essential nutrient that is needed for the maintenance of the total body fluid volume then acid and electrolyte balance and also for normal cellular function of our body according to world health organization increased potassium intake will reduce systolic and diastolic blood pressure in adults see persons blood pressure is recorded as two different numbers one is a systolic blood pressure and the other is the diastolic blood pressure these two numbers reflect the different aspects of the pressure that is being exerted by a blood as it pulses through your arteries you would have noticed in the hospitals or in the clinics that while writing blood pressure it is written as 120 oblique 80 here 120 denotes the systolic blood pressure and 80 denotes the diastolic blood pressure so potassium intake will reduce these blood pressure in the adults and if you see potassium is commonly found in a variety of unrefined foods especially in fruits and vegetables now you should remember that intake of sodium should not be stopped but we should not take excess sodium so how much sodium in excess for this the world health organization has given certain recommendations on the intake of salt or the consumption of salt if you see world health organization recommends that adults should consume less than 2 gram of sodium per day so an individual can take 5 gram of salt per day this 5 gram of salt as 2 gram of sodium and 5 gram is just under a teaspoon then for children world health organization recommends that the recommended maximum intake of salt for adults shall be adjusted downward for children who are aged between 2 to 15 years and the amount can be based on the energy requirements of children relative to those of adults also the world health organization recommends that all salt that is consumed should be iodized or fortified with iodine this is essential because for healthy brain development in the fetus and also for the healthy brain development in the young children and also optimizes people's mental function in general now you should also know that the world health organization has established a target for reduction in the sodium intake this target is based on the global action plan for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases 2013 to 2020 by the world health organization this action plan provides a roadmap and a menu of policy options for all member states and other stakeholders it calls to take coordinator and coherent action at all levels that is from the local to global levels this is basically to attain the nine voluntary global targets under this action plan so in this the target 4 is a 30% relative reduction in mean population intake of salt or sodium so based on this target some manufacturers are reformulating their recipes to reduce the salt content of their products and if you see in the Indian context our government has also established a target this target is under the national multi-sectoral action plan for prevention and control of common non-communicable diseases 2017 to 2022 and know that this action plan is framed by the ministry of health and family welfare with other stakeholders and under this action plan the government of India has a target to achieve a relative reduction in the mean population intake of salt so the aim is to achieve the recommended level of less than 5 grams per day and by the year 2020 the target is to reduce 20 percentage salt intake and by the year 2030 the target is to reduce 30 percentage of salt intake so from today onwards let us educate our family and friends to take less sodium and salt in our diet now have a look at the practice question let us move on to the next news article this news article is about the concerns that have been raised by the union minister for agriculture and farmers welfare to the union minister for commerce and industry before the union minister of commerce and industry is about to leave India for the ministerial meeting on RCEP so in this news article we will be seeing about RCEP the syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference RCEP is nothing but the acronym for Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership this RCEP is a proposed free trade agreement between 10 asian countries with six other countries the six other countries are India China Australia New Zealand Japan and South Korea this idea of RCEP was announced by asian that is the association of southeast asian nations in the year 2012 the declaration for RCEP came at the asian summit in the year 2012 and the negotiators met for this free trade agreement for the first time in the year 2013 but know that till now a deal has not been arrived there are still discussions going on between the asian and the other six countries but until now the deal has not been arrived but it is expected that this RCEP would be signed in mid of the year 2020 certain countries like India are not willing to sign this RCEP because they have certain concerns we have discussed in detail about the concerns of India and certain other nations in our 30th June analysis just have a look at it for further clarity now let us focus on the news article this news article speaks about the concerns that have been raised by the union minister for agriculture and farmers welfare to the union minister of commerce and industry because he's going to visit Bangkok for the ministerial meeting on the regional comprehensive economic partnership this week the union minister for agriculture has conveyed that farmers interest should be India's priority during the negotiations for RCEP now why such a statement has been told by the union minister because we saw that RCEP is a free trade agreement generally if you see free trade agreements are signed between two or more countries to reduce the trade barriers so that there will be increase in the trade of goods and services say for example you can take the example of the trade in good that is any agricultural goods here in our news article the context is agriculture now if the free trade agreement is signed it might lead to flooding of agricultural goods from the other countries that are party to this agreement so it will affect the local agricultural trade so this is one concern which has been raised by the union minister of agriculture and farmers welfare and there are many other concerns of India that have been raised during various negotiations on RCEP and we have discussed in detail on 30th June analysis as already told just have a look at it for further clarity let us move on to the practice questions discussion session now see the question consider the following statements they have given two statements and they were asked to choose the correct answer the first statement tells that e-assessment scheme of income tax department aims at faceless assessment of income tax returns this statement is correct know that income tax department comes under the ministry of finance and during our discussion we saw that e-assessment scheme is being implemented by the ministry of finance so the first statement is correct now see the second statement it tells that the national e-assessment center and regional e-assessment centers as per the scheme will have all India jurisdiction this statement is also correct we saw that there will be a national e-assessment center at Delhi and eight regional e-assessment centers and based on the notification of the ministry of finance these regional e-assessment centers will have all India jurisdiction so the second statement is also correct this question is asked you to choose the correct statements the correct answer is option C both 1 and 2 now see the second question the question is consider the following statements regarding comprehensive national nutrition survey two statements have been given and you are asked to choose the correct statements see the first statement it tells that the objective of the survey is to measure only malnutrition in rural and urban children during our discussion we saw that the survey aims to measure the malnutrition and also to measure anthropometric data such as wait for age height for age wait for height etc and it will also focus on details of non-communicable diseases like diabetes hypertension cholesterol and kidney function and children and adolescence and also regarding the prevalence of obesity or overweight then muscular strength and fitness so it is not just only for the malnutrition but also for the other parameters that we saw so the first statement goes wrong now see the second statement it tells that the survey is released jointly by the ministry of health and family welfare and UNICEF this statement is correct we saw that this comprehensive national nutrition survey was conducted between 2016 and 18 by the ministry of health and family welfare and united nations children's fund which is in short UNICEF now this question is asked for the correct statements the correct answer is option B 2 only since the first statement is wrong now see the next question this question is for your understanding of the topic the question is consider the following statements regarding the Hindukush Himalayan region they have given two statements and you have to choose the correct statements the first statement it tells that a regional climate center for the Hindukush Himalayan region is proposed between India China and Myanmar this statement is wrong during our discussion we saw that a regional climate center is proposed between India China and Pakistan it's not Myanmar now see the second statement it tells that the proposed regional climate center will function under the ages of international center for integrated mountain development this statement is also wrong during our discussion we saw that the proposed regional center will be under the world meteorological organization not the international center for integrated mountain development now this question is asked you to choose the correct statements the correct answer is option D neither 1 nor 2 since both the statements are wrong now see the next question consider the following statements they have given two statements again and they have asked you to choose the correct statement the first statement it tells that world health organization recommend adults should consume less than 5 gram of sodium per day this statement is wrong read the sentence carefully because world health organization recommend adults should consume less than 5 gram of salt per day not 5 gram of sodium the correct amount of sodium recommended by the world health organization is 2 gram so the 5 gram of salt as 2 gram of sodium and 5 gram is just under a teaspoon but in the question is given as 5 gram of sodium so the first statement is wrong now see the second statement it tells that India has a target to achieve a relative 20 percentage and 30 percentage reduction in mean population intake of salt by the year 2020 and 30 respectively this statement is also correct India has a target to achieve a relative reduction in mean population intake of salt with an aim of achieving recommended level of less than 5 grams per day and by the year 2020 the target is to reduce 20 percentage salt intake and by the year 2030 the target is to reduce 30 percentage of salt intake also remember this target is under the national multi sectoral action plan for prevention and control of common non-communicable diseases 2017-2022 of the government of India now this question is asked to choose the correct statements the correct answer is option be 2 only since the first statement is wrong now look at the main question the question is what is zero budget natural farming how far it is helpful in sustaining agricultural production so first explain what is meant by zero budget natural farming then you have to mention the aims of this method of farming then also list the four pillars of zero budget natural farming that we saw now see the second part of the question it tells that how far it is helpful in sustaining agricultural production for this you have to mention how this method is helping in agricultural production and how it is also not helping in agricultural production so first list of the advantages that is the positive impacts of zero budget natural farming like you can say this method does not use chemical fertilizer so the damage to the environment is less then you can say that all the important formulations such as jivamratam, bijamratam etc can be prepared by the farmers themselves and they need not spend money to buy chemical fertilizer and they need not have any expertise to prepare the formulations then you can also say that this method is a form of low external input sustainable agriculture which we saw during our discussion it is because all the inputs are to be locally resourced from in and around the village or it can be resourced even within the farm in a symbiotic way then we also saw that zero budget natural farming also includes three methods of insect and pest management which are agni astra, brahma astra and neem astra and they depend on the nature and type of insect or pest attack and for different attack different formulations from locally available resources are prepared we saw some different preparations using cow urine, cow dung, tobacco fruits, green chili, garlic and neem during our discussion so all these preparations work as bio pesticides so that the farmers need not spend on other chemical fertilizers so with the help of natural methods the farmers can attain agricultural productivity so these are some of the advantages then you can also list the disadvantages of this method which we saw during our discussion like actually it is not zero budget because farmers have to spend money on certain inputs like this we also saw certain other disadvantages of zero budget natural farming finally you can conclude the answer by saying that inclusion of zero budget natural farming method in our agricultural policy is a welcome step but promoting it as a sole alternative to the existing agricultural practices may not be sustainable so this is how we can end this answer with this we come to the end of the analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion do like comment and share the video and do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for latest videos and updates stay focused and motivated friends thank you