 Good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindi news analysis by Shankar Ayes academy. These are the list of articles chosen for today's analysis. It has been given along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Trivandrum and Hyderabad editions. The link for the hand heater nodes in the PDF format and the time snapping for the displayed articles is given in the description box below. And for the benefit of smartphone users, the time snapping is also provided in the comment section. Let's move on to our first news article analysis. This discussion is based on electoral bond scheme. The discussion can be linked to the syllabus that is given here for your reference. In the month of April, that is before elections, the electoral bond scheme was one of the hot topics in the country. At that time, many were in support of electoral bonds and many opposed this electoral bond because of some of its features. Even today's news article is one such aspect only. So for better understanding of the news article, let us first discuss about electoral bond scheme. Government notified this electoral bond scheme in the year 2018. So, what is an electoral bond? Electoral bond is a bearer banking instrument. So, what is a bearer instrument? A bearer instrument refers to an instrument that is payable to anyone who is possessing the instrument and it is a negotiable instrument, which means it is a signed document that promises a sum of payment to a specified person or the assignee. So, electoral bond is a bearer banking instrument which is to be used for funding eligible political parties and it is designed to be a bearer instrument like a promissory note which is in effect. That is, it will be similar to a bank note that is payable to the bearer on demand and it is free of interest. Now these electoral bonds will be issued in multiples of 1000, 10,000, 1 lakh, 10 lakh and 1 crore rupees. The bonds will be available for purchase for a period of 10 days each in the beginning of every quarter that is in January, April, July and October which is specified by the central government. Now who can purchase these electoral bonds? It can be purchased by a person who is a citizen of India or incorporated or established in India. So, you may be confused you know what this line means. Now it can be understood only if you know what the person actually means. The definition of person includes an individual or an Hindu undivided family or a company or a firm or association of persons or any agency or office or branch which is controlled or owned by such person. So, this means the definition of person also includes company or firm which are incorporated or established in India. Now this bond can be bought by the donor only if they have a know your customer or KYC compliant account and a person if he or she is an individual can also buy electoral bonds either singly or jointly with other individuals and donors can donate these bonds to the party of their own choice and the party can cash this bond through its own verified account within 15 days. Now in the beginning we saw that this electoral bond is used for funding eligible political parties. So, what do we mean by eligible political party? Under the scheme eligible political party is the party which is registered under section 29A of the representation of the People Act of 1951 and it is the political party that secured not less than 1 percent of the votes which are pulled in the last general election to the house of the people or to the legislative assembly. These electoral bonds can be redeemed only by an eligible political party by depositing the same bond in their designated bank account that is maintained with the authorized bank. Now keep this point in mind because this is one of the important points on this point only our today's news article is based on. Now these electoral bonds are valid for 15 days from the date of issue that is if an electoral bond is issued on 1st April 2019 then it will be valid up to 15th April 2019 only and one of the most important feature of this bond is that these bonds will not bear the name of the donor. The name of the donor will not be mentioned in the bond further the donor and the party details will be available with the bank but the political party might not be aware about who the donor is because the bond does not bear the name. Now the intention of this anonymity is to ensure that all the donations made to a party will be accounted in the balance sheets without exposing the donor details to the public. Now in this context it is crucial to know the benefits of this scheme the benefits are it paves way for transparent political funding it will protect donors from harassment then there will be no disclosure of information to third parties then it will also help to bring the donations under the tax purview. Now let us see about the controversy which is around this electoral bond scheme the controversy is with respect to the anonymity that is offered by the electoral bonds even the election commission of India had a stand against the anonymity of the electoral bonds saying that the scheme has legalized anonymity. See the problem with electoral bond is that the information of the person who is buying the bond is known to the bank but the donor's identity that is who donates it to the political party is not known this is because electoral bonds are bearer bonds as we discussed earlier. So this is the anonymity in this scheme in addition to this a person who buys the bond can give it to another person and if this another person actually donates it to the political party then there will be no record of the person who takes it from the person who buys it. Now to understand this in a simple manner let us take one example let us assume that person A buys the bond from the bank so the bank has the information about person A. Now person B buys this bond from person A and then person B donates it to a political party X. Now here the one who bought the bond that is person A is different from the one who donated it that is person B and from this we can say that the bank will not have any information about person B so this brings anonymity to a different level that is why many are suggesting that details of the person who actually donates it should be known. Now based on this only the election commission of India wants the removal of anonymity. Even in April this year ECA made it clear that it is only against the anonymity and it is not against the scheme itself and the reason given by ECA was the scheme creates a lack of transparency due to the anonymity. In addition to this the commission also noted that political parties should put the information on donations on their website so that people will get to know how much donations the political parties actually got and moreover right to vote means making an informed choice and we know that knowing the candidate is only half of the exercise. So people should know the political parties and also they should know who funds them that is why we say it is more important to know the principle than the agent. Now on contrary to this argument central government argued that voters do not need to know from where political parties get their funds our government even argued that the bond was an experiment to eradicate black money. Now on this controversy the supreme court bench noted that merely knowing KYC information that is know your customer information will not block the entry of black money into the political funding because KYC only covers the identity of the bond purchaser and KYC would not be able to tell whether the money with the person used to buy the bond was black money or white money further supreme court even added that black money could be converted to white money by rooting it through multiple shell companies and these shell companies conceals the origin of money so it will be difficult to identify whether the money is black money or white money. Now recently the controversies have surfaced again so yesterday also there was a news article which mentioned some of the concerns of RBA with respect to this electoral bond scheme. RBA had advised the government that the electoral bonds will not solve the problem of unaccounted money or the black money it is because the donor's identity will never be known. Now this concern of RBA was mentioned in the communications on electoral bonds between the RBA and the Ministry of Finance this communication was obtained by an RTI activist through RTI application. The communications showed that RBA had expressed serious concerns on electoral bonds but still the ministry implemented the system without addressing the concerns. Now in addition to this today's news article also talks about the concerns with respect to the electoral bond scheme and these concerns were mentioned by the law ministry and this was also obtained by the activist through the RTI query. The law ministry had repeatedly objected to the finance ministry's provision that political parties must have a one percentage vote share in the Lok Sabha or the state assembly elections in order to be eligible for the scheme. We saw about this provision in the beginning now instead of this one percentage the law ministry recommended two things either the imposition of six percentage vote share requirement or the removal of the vote share requirement entirely. Now this six percent vote share is similar to the condition that is required for a political party to be recognized as a state party or a national party. These conditions are prescribed by the election commission of India in the election symbols reservation and allotment order of 1968 and this order is amended from time to time. Further the documents which were obtained by the RTI activist also revealed that this same objection regarding vote share was expressed by the chief election commissioner also. However the finance ministry chose to ignore these concerns and insisted that only registered political parties which had secured not less than one percentage of votes that were pulled in the last general elections to the house of people or the legislative assembly shall be eligible to receive the bond. So again this shows that the ministry set aside the concerns of RBI the law ministry and even the supreme court before implementing this system. So these are the information that you should know with respect to the electoral bond scheme but this we come to the end of this discussion that is played practice question will be discussed in the last session. This discussion is based on national intelligence grid the syllabus that can be linked to this discussion is given here for your reference. The news article talks about the recent development in establishing the national intelligence grid. So in this context let us discuss in brief about the national intelligence grid or in short NAT grid. As we all know the 2611 Mumbai terror attacks which happened in the year 2008 is one of the worst terror attack that was witnessed by independent India. This attack exposed the weaknesses in India's intelligence gathering networks. So as a solution to this the project of NAT grid was begun in 2009. This NAT grid is attached to ministry of home affairs. It has been created as an IT platform to assist the intelligence and the law enforcement agencies in ensuring the national security and the internal security of our country. Its ultimate aim is to counter terror and terror activities. So as we just saw NAT grid is conceived to be an information technology framework which connects the approved user agencies with designated data providers. The user agencies could be the security agencies and law enforcement agencies and the data providers will be the airlines, banks, SEBI, railway, telecom industry etc. So the information or the intelligence that is received will be analyzed by the security agencies and then it will be used for synergizing efforts to enhance the country's counter terrorism capability. So how does this NAT grid functions? The news article mentions that the national intelligence grid will link 21 agencies and these citizen databases are available with the banks, telecom firms, tax bodies and immigration department etc. And this NAT grid database will provide information such as mobile call details and telephone connections, bank account details, passport details, immigration entry data, immigration exit data, income tax returns etc. So all these data will be available in a common platform. The news article also mentions that NAT grid will provide access to at least 10 central government security agencies and intelligence agencies such as National Investigation Agency, Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing etc. So once the NAT grid is fully functional these agencies will get real-time information. Real-time means the actual time during which an event occurs. At that same time information will be provided to these agencies. So this real-time information will immensely help the agencies to enhance our country's counter terrorism capabilities because it will enable us to retaliate immediately. But there are some concerns associated with this NAT grid. Certain sections of the civil society have raised concerns over the right to privacy regarding the information that will be provided. See even though only the authorized agencies will get real-time information there are chances that private data might be misused and government must make sure that this data from NAT grid will only be used for countering terror. Now this concern of the civil society is not baseless because the same happened with a network of USC. This network is the secret internet protocol router network or in short SAPRnet which is similar to NAT grid. The problem which happened was the classified information which was available in the SAPRnet was accessed and released by WikiLeaks in 2010. So this is a security breach in SAPRnet. So same can happen with NAT grid also. That is why Indian authorities should put extra care to ensure the safety of the database. Now then if you look at the article it mentions that this NAT grid project will be operational by December 31st 2020. Article also mentions that NAT grid has developed an application software for proof of technology. So what do we mean by this word proof of technology? Proof of technology is the checking of feasibility of the software to achieve the intended objectives. In addition to this news article also mentions that NAT grid is exempted from the Right to Information Act of 2005 under section 24 clause 2 of this act. See actually as per section 24 clause 1, RTI Act does not apply to several agencies which are mentioned in second schedule of the RTI Act. And this schedule includes agencies such as Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing, Border Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force etc. So these agencies does not come under the purview of RTI Act. And the clause 2 of this section that is the section 24 clause 2 empowers the center to amend the second schedule. And by this amendment the center can include any other intelligence or security organization which is established by the government or it can also omit any organization that is already included in this schedule. So based on this the newspaper is saying that NAT grid is also included in this second schedule and it will be exempted from RTI Act of 2005. We will get more information regarding this NAT grid in the future. So that is all about this news article. With this we have come to the end of this discussion. The displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next news article discussion which is about road accidents in India. The syllabus that can be linked to this discussion is given here for your reference. The news article speaks about the statistics based on the road accidents in our country. These statistics are based on the annual report of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways which is titled as Road Accidents in India 2018. In this context we will be discussing the important statistics related to road accidents in India and the measures taken by the government to improve road safety. Now unfortunately India ranks at the top with respect to road accidents. India has highest number of road fatalities with about 11 percentage share in the world. The Road Accidents in India 2018 annual report is an effort of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to highlight these statewide data with respect to road accidents and also to highlight the causes of accidents and these fatalities. So the data provided in this report will help the policy makers to establish, focus the initiatives that will address the menace of rising road accidents and their resultant fatalities. The report has provided data on the number of road crashes in the year 2018. According to the report more than 1.5 lakh people lost their lives in road crashes in India in the year 2018. Now this number is an increase from the previous year because in 2017 there were only 1.47 lakh people who lost their lives in road crashes. So there is a 2.4 percentage increase in road fatalities in 2018 as compared to 2017. The report also mentions the daily average with respect to the road crashes. On an average there is 1,280 road crashes daily and the 415 deaths every day and if you consider every hour then there is 53 crashes that is happening every hour and we are losing 17 lives because of these road fatalities every hour. So you can see that how serious the road accidents are. Then another worrying factor is that during the year 2018 young adults in the age group of 18 to 45 years accounted for nearly 70 percentage of road accident victims and then the working age group of 18 to 60 years accounted for a share of 84.7 percentage in the total road accident deaths. So we can say that majority of the road fatalities are among the working age population. Then the report also gives state-specific data. So among the states Tamil Nadu has topped the country in terms of total number of road crashes. Tamil Nadu accounted for 13.7 percentage of road crashes in the country. This is followed by Madhya Pradesh and then Uttar Pradesh. Then with respect to highest road fatalities Uttar Pradesh accounted for highest number of road fatalities. It was around 22,256 road fatalities and this is followed by the state of Maharashtra and then the state of Tamil Nadu. So we can see that from these data the state of Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh are in the top three with respect to road crashes and then highest road fatalities. Now you may think why we are discussing so much data with respect to road accidents. It is because road traffic injuries is the eighth leading cause of deaths in India in the year 2018 and also the data is consistent with the world road statistics of 2018 which is released by the International Road Federation. In the newspaper it is wrongly mentioned as world road federation please correct it. So based on these data article is mentioning that India was the most unsafe country in the world for road users across 199 countries. After India comes China and then USA. Now with respect to this IRF that is International Road Federation just know that it was established in 1948 and it is a non-governmental not for profit organization. Its mission is to encourage and promote development and also maintenance of better safer and more sustainable roads and road networks. This federation is based in Geneva Switzerland. Now let us discuss the important reasons for road accidents and fatalities. As we know road accidents are due to various factors such as human error, road environment and vehicular condition etc. According to the report under the category of traffic rules violation over speeding accounted for majority of fatalities. It accounted for 64.4 percentage of the persons who were killed due to accidents. The next major cause is driving on the wrong side of the road which accounted for 5.8 percentage of the accidents related to deaths. Then use of mobile phones accounted for 2.4 percentage of deaths. Then drunk driving accounted for 2.8 percentage of deaths. Then driving without valid license or without a learner's license accounted for 13 percentage of accidents. Then 29 percentage of deaths attributed to non-use of helmets. Then 16 percentage of deaths was due to non-use of seat belts. Then also vehicles which were more than 10 years old also accounted for 41 percentage of accident related deaths. Then overloaded vehicles accounted for about 12 percentage of deaths. Now these are some of the data which is mentioned in the report. Now these data is important because it shows that a majority of the road fatalities could have been avoided if road rules were properly followed because all these causes account for some kind of traffic rule violations. So what are the important measures that were taken by the government to improve road safety in our country? The most important and the recent initiative that is taken by the government is the enactment of Motor Vehicle Amendment Act of 2019. We know that this act provides for a hike in penalties for traffic violations and from the above data we can say that if people are obeying to the road rules then majority of the accidents and fatalities could have been brought down. So now let us see some of the provisions in this amendment act of 2019 that is related to our today's discussion. First is the section 215B of the act. It enables central government to constitute a national road safety board. This board will advise the central and state governments on matters related to road safety, traffic management such as the standards of design, then operation and maintenance of motor vehicles, then standards for road safety, then road infrastructure and control of traffic, then programs for educating and sensitizing drivers and other road users etc. So these things will be carried out by the national road safety board. The next provision is section 134A. It deals with the protection of good Samaritans. According to this section, a good Samaritan shall not be liable for any civil or criminal action for any injury or death of the victim which is a resultant of an accident. This section was inserted to encourage more and more people to help the accident victims. Now when there is a good Samaritan means a person who in good faith then voluntarily and without expectation of any reward or compensation renders emergency medical or non-medical assistance at the scene of an accident to the victim or even when the person transports such victim to the hospital. Then next provision is the section 162 of the act. This section mentions that central government shall make a scheme for the cashless treatment of victims of the accident during the golden hour. The golden hour is the immediate time following a traumatic injury during which emergency treatment will be more successful. Hence this will save more lives as victims will get immediate treatment. The next section is with respect to 164 B. This section provides for constitution of a motor vehicle accident fund. This fund will be used for the treatment of a person who is injured and it will be also used for compensation in the case of hit and run. The next provision is section 110 capital A of the act. According to this section the central government may direct the manufacturer to recall motor vehicles of a particular type if a defect in that type may cause harm to the environment or it may cause harm to the driver or the occupants of such motor vehicle. Now this provision will help to bring down the casualty rates due to vehicle related issues. So, these are some of the important measures taken by the government under this Motor Vehicles Amendment Act of 2019 and these sections and provisions will help to improve road safety and it will also help the victims. So, that is all about this news article. The displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next discussion, this discussion is based on this picture. This picture depicts the Buddhist monks who are reaching Bodh Gaya. So, based on this we will be discussing about Bodh Gaya Temple. The discussion can be linked to the syllabus that is given here for your reference. So, from the examination point of view, let us discuss the facts related to this temple that is the Bodh Gaya Temple. The actual name of this temple is Mahabodhi Temple. This Mahabodhi Temple is situated in Bodh Gaya which is in the central part of Bihar. This Mahabodhi Temple complex is one of the four holy sites that is related to the life of the Lord Buddha and it is related particularly to the attainment of enlightenment by Buddha. So, what are the other four holy sites? These sites are Lumbini in Nepal, Sarnath in Uttar Pradesh and then Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh. So, all these four temples are related to Buddha. This Mahabodhi Temple complex is the first temple built by Emperor Ashoka and it was built in third century BC and the present temple dates from fifth or sixth centuries. It is one of the earliest Buddhist temples which is still standing in India from the late Gupta period. So, this present Mahabodhi Temple complex at Bodh Gaya comprises a 50 meter high grand temple, then the Vajrasana and then sacred Bodhi tree. Vajrasana means diamond throne. This Vajrasana is next to the Bodhi tree which is a platform attached to the main temple and it is made of polished sandstone. This was originally installed by Emperor Ashoka to mark the spot where Buddha sat and meditated. Now, this temple assumes importance because the famous Chinese traveler and Chinese pilgrim that is Fahian or Fashian made reference to the main temple and the Bodhi tree in 404 to 405 AD for the first time. Then another famous Chinese traveler, Huansang also visited this site later. Then another importance of this site is this site is named as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. UNESCO has listed this World Heritage Site under the category of cultural category. It was listed in the year 2002. Then another importance of this temple is its architectural style. This Mahabodhi Temple is constructed of brick and it is one of the oldest brick structures in eastern India. So, this temple is considered as a fine example of Indian brickwork and this temple also greatly influenced the development of architectural traditions in the later period. Then with respect to the architectural style, the Mahabodhi Temple's central tower rises to 55 meters and another four small towers are constructed in the same style and these small towers surround the central tower. Then the railings which surround this Mahabodhi temple on the all four sides are about two meters high. These railings reveal two distinct types. They are distinct both in style as well as in the materials that were used to make these railings. The older ones are made of sandstone and the new ones are constructed from unpolished coarse granite and these new railings have been dated to the Gupta period. So, these are the information that you should know with respect to Mahabodhi Temple complex. With this we come to the end of this discussion. That is the practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next discussion which is based on this editorial. This editorial is regarding the comprehensive national nutrition survey report. The syllabus that can be linked to this discussion is given here for your reference. In this editorial, author has discussed about the performance of our country regarding certain nutrition parameters. So, before discussing the editorial, let us first see about Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey or in short CNNES. This comprehensive national nutrition survey or CNNES was conducted between 2016 and 2018. It was conducted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and UNICEF. The CNNES is a cross sectional household survey. It has covered children and adolescents in the age group of 0 to 19 years in both urban and rural areas across all the states of India including Delhi also. The survey has aimed to measure malnutrition including worm infestation and micronutrition deficiencies. These were measured through the biochemical measures such as testing the blood samples and the urine samples. The survey has also measured anthropometric data such as weight for age, height for age, weight for height etc. Now in this anthropometry is nothing but the scientific study of the measurements and proportions of the human body like weight for age, like height for age etc. In addition to this, the survey has also focused on details of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol, kidney function in children and adolescents etc. And then it has also focused on the prevalence of obesity or overweight, then muscular strength and fitness etc. other than the above mentioned parameters. So, with this background in mind let us discuss the editorial. According to the author, this report that is the CNNES report assumes importance especially against two important factors. The first factor which the author mentions is the recently released Global Hunger Index of 2019. In this index, India has been ranked 102nd out of 117 countries and which is very low. And the second factor which the author has mentioned is about India's past performance in reducing child under nutrition. According to the author, India's performance in reducing child under nutrition is mixed. That is, sometimes the performance is good and sometimes it is really bad. So, with regard to the nutrition parameters, the author has also talked about stunting, wasting and underweight. So, let us understand what these terms actually mean. Firstly, stunting refers to the condition where the children have low weight for their age. It is a sign of chronic under nutrition that reflects failure to receive adequate nutrition over a long period. It also reflects recurrent and chronic illness. The next comes the wasting. Child wasting refers to the condition where the children have low weight for their height. It is a measure of acute under nutrition and it represents the failure to receive adequate nutrition which in turn leads to rapid weight loss or failure to gain weight normally. And child wasting may also result from inadequate food intake or from a recent episode of illness which has caused the weight loss. The next comes the underweight. It refers to the condition where the children have low weight for their age. It includes both acute and chronic under nutrition. So, now let us see what the author has conveyed with respect to these conditions. Author has mentioned that between the years 2005 to 6 and 2015 to 16 that is within these 10 years, child stunting and the condition of being underweight has declined. Child stunting has declined by 10 percentage and the condition of being underweight has been declined by 7 percentage points. But when it comes to wasting, the decline was just 1 percentage point. So, author is mentioning that factors like these make the CNNS report very timely and important. Then the author has mentioned one more importance of this report. According to the author, this report is a new beginning in the collection of national level nutrition data. He is stating this because this report shows that India has sustained its progress with respect to the number of stunted and underweight children. In the last decade, our country has made a significant progress in the reduction of number of stunted children and the underweight children. But in this, there is one worrying factor. According to the author, despite such sustained decline, the present stunting level is still very high. As per this CNNS report, child stunting is 34.7 percentage out of the population surveyed. Now, if you see, child stunting was around 38.4 percentage in 2015 to 16. But it has reduced to 34.7 percentage. But still, this is very high because according to the target under portion of our government, child stunting has to be reduced to 25 percentage by the year 2022. So, that is why the author is insisting that it is time to focus on increasing the rate of decline. But this rate of decline cannot be increased all of a sudden. So, author mentions a factor which is key to increase the rate of decline of stunting. But this particular factor has not received necessary attention. So, what is this particular factor which the author is mentioning? It is about the education attainment of the mothers. According to the author, if the mothers are well educated, then conditions like stunting will reduce. Now, author is mentioning this based on certain proofs from this CNNS survey report. According to the author, stunting among children under four years has come down from 46 percentage to 19 percentage. And this happened at a time when maternal education went up from illiteracy or no schooling to 12 years of schooling completed. So, this 27 percentage decline is a huge number. Now, this also applies to the reduction of conditions such as underweight children. In addition to this, author also mentions that there is a significant gap between the poorest and richest groups of our society with respect to maternal education. He also notes that it is next to impossible to transform poorest households into richest so soon because it will take time. But increasing the educational attainment of women among the poorest sections of our society is certainly feasible. Now, after talking about this education of mothers, author also talks about open defecation, then safe water and sanitation. He mentions that ending open defecation and enhancing access to safe water and sanitation are appropriate policy goals and these should be sustained. But why author is mentioning this? It is because lack of access to clean drinking water and sanitation and not ending open defecation leads to malnutrition. So, how is it related? It is because all these three are major determinants for malnutrition. Intake of clean drinking water is important for proper nutrition and children will be saved from water related diseases. And there should not be any open defecation because open defecation leads to gastrointestinal problems and this problem affects the body utilization of food which is consumed by the children. And also open defecation contributes to the incidence of diarrhea and it spreads intestinal parasites which causes malnutrition. So, that is why author is stressing on ending open defecation and enhancing the access to safe water and sanitation. But author also mentions that just both these would not be sufficient rather more efforts are required. So, other effort which the author has mentioned is with respect to dietary diversity that is having more diversified diet that includes millets instead of eating the same regular food like wheat and rice for example. So, having diversified diet needs to be embedded into nutrition policy also according to the author. He also suggests that it would be worth if millets are included in public distribution system on a pilot basis. And this can be implemented especially in the states where child stunting levels are high. According to the author there are evidences which suggest that dietary diversity is good for reducing iron deficiency than anemia levels which is also high in India. With respect to diversified food author mentions that food habits from the marginalized sections of society can be learned it is because they are used to consuming diversified diet. But if you consider the rich sections in India they are more used to consuming less diversified diet which is leading to obesity. So, rising obesity among these groups is a cause for concern also it is emerging as a public health problem in India which is demanding equal attention. Then the author has talked about child wasting. We saw that child wasting means low weight for height. In the beginning we saw that there was only one percent in decline in child wasting. But one interesting fact that is to be noted here is that the extent of decline in wasting is larger than that of stunting. It is because in the time period when the survey was conducted child wasting had declined by 4 percentage points within these 22 months. But if you see in the last 10 years the rate of decline in child wasting was only 1.2 percentage. It declined by 21 percentage in 2015 to 16 from 19.8 percentage in 2005 to 2006. So, according to the author this is a remarkable achievement. Then if we compare the child wasting statistics among the states, states like Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana have reduced child wasting by 10 percentage points. 10 percentage points are more within just 30 months or less. Out of these states the best performer is Uttarakhand. It has reduced child wasting by 14 percentage points. Next if we consider all over India the consistency in the rate of decline of child wasting is missing. It is because according to the author all these 5 states had witnessed increase in wasting during the last decade that is between 2005 to 2006 and 2015 to 16. But now there is a rapid decline in wasting. So, according to the author there was a increase of child wasting in these states that is why now it is declining. Further author also notes that if this decline has actually happened then it means that these states have taken adequate measures to achieve the decline of child wasting within a short span of time. But with respect to this author is having a doubt. The doubt is because these states have not relatively performed well in reducing stunting as they have performed with respect to child wasting. Author is having this doubt because both child wasting and child stunting share many common causes. So, if there is a decline in child wasting because the causes which lead to child wasting have been addressed and some of these causes also lead to child stunting then there should have been some decline in child stunting also but it is not so. That is why author is doubtful whether the data which is captured in this CNNS is proper or if there is any anomaly in the data. Now to remove this doubt author is suggesting an independent validation which will dispel or eliminate any doubt regarding data quality. Also it will help to identify the drivers of rapid reduction in child wasting in India. So, if we can identify these drivers it can be used as a case study for other countries so that they can also follow. So, these are some of the inputs provided by the author with respect to this comprehensive national nutrition survey. With this we come to the end of this editorial discussion that is split practice question will be discussed in the last session. Now we have come to the last session for our day which is the practice questions discussion session. This question is with respect to national intelligence grid. The first statement is it is an IT platform with real time citizen data to assist the intelligence and law enforcement agencies in ensuring national security with the ultimate aim to counter terror. Now always remember that the national intelligence grid concept emerged after the 2611 attacks because these attack expose the weaknesses in India's intelligence gathering networks. And this national intelligence grid is a information technology framework which connects the approved user agencies such as security agency, law enforcement agency with the designated data providers and these data providers will be airlines, banks, railway, telecom industry etc. So, the information of the intelligence that is received will be analyzed by the security agencies and it will be used for synergizing efforts to enhance the country's counter terrorism capability. So, this means this first statement is correct because its ultimate aim is to counter terror only. Then the second statement states it is attached to the Ministry of Home Affairs. Yes, this statement is also correct. Here question asks for the correct statement. So, the correct answer to this question is both one and two. This next question is based on national road safety board. The first statement states the central government has constituted the national road safety board under the Motar Vehicle Amendment Act of 2019. Now this statement is wrong because central government has not yet constituted this board but the section 215 capital B of this Motar Vehicles Amendment Act of 2019 enables the central government to constitute this board. So, this statement is wrong. The second statement is the board can advise both the central and state governments on matters related to road safety and traffic management. Now this statement is correct as per this section 215 capital B the board can advise central and state governments on matter related to road safety and traffic management such as the standards of design operation and maintenance of motor vehicles then standards for road safety, road infrastructure and control of traffic then you can also advise on matters related to the programs for educating and sensitizing drivers and other road users etc. So, this statement is correct. Here the question asks for the correct statement. Here statement two is the correct statement. So, the final correct answer to this question is only two. Now this next question is with respect to UNESCO World Heritage Site three Buddhist monuments are given and we have to choose which among these belong to World Heritage Site. The first one is Bodh Gaya temple in Bihar then Buddhist monuments in Sanchi then ancient Buddhist site in Sarnath. Now in this Bodh Gaya temple that is the Mahabodhi temple complex in Bodh Gaya is a World Heritage Site under UNESCO and this temple has been listed under the cultural sites of the World Heritage Site. Now the second one is Buddhist Monuments of Sanchi. Now know that this is also a part of UNESCO World Heritage Network and it is listed as a World Heritage Site under the cultural category. So, one and two are in the cultural category then the third one ancient Buddhist site Sarnath. Now this site is a part of tentative list of UNESCO network. Now when we say tentative list it means the list has been submitted to the UNESCO committee for evaluation and acceptance but still it has not yet been accepted by the UNESCO committee. So, this means this site is not a World Heritage Site yet but you have to choose the World Heritage Sites only. So, here the correct answer is one and two so the final correct answer to this question is option A. Now always remember that there are three classification of heritage sites under UNESCO. One is natural heritage sites then cultural heritage sites and then mixed heritage sites and currently from India there are 30 sites which are under the cultural category and then 7 sites are under the natural category and one site is under the mixed category. So, totally we have 38 sites which are listed under the UNESCO World Heritage List. Now this next question is based on comprehensive national nutrition survey. First statement states it was jointly conducted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and World Health Organization. Now this statement is wrong because this survey was conducted by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and by UNICEF that is United Nations Children's Fund and the survey was conducted between 2016 to 2018. So, this statement is wrong then the second statement is the aim of this survey is to exclusively measure the malnutrition status of children across India. Now this statement is also wrong because the statement mentions the term exclusively which is just a fancy word for only. So, whether this survey covers only malnutrition status of children across India? No. It also measures anthropometric data such as weight for age, height for age, then weight for height etc. And the survey has also focused on details of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol and kidney function in children and adolescents, then prevalence of obesity and overweight, muscular strength and fitness etc. So, this means it is not exclusively about nutrition. So, this statement is also wrong. Now in this while answering the question you have to be very careful because the question asks for the incorrect statement. Here both these statements are incorrect so the correct answer to this question is both 1 and 2. Now in this next question three statements are given and we have to choose the correct statement. First statement states stunting refers to a condition of high height for age. Now always remember that stunting refers to the condition where children have low height for their age not high height for their age. So, this statement is wrong. Now the second statement states iron deficiency can lead to a condition called anemia. Yes this statement is correct. Then these third statement states underweight refers to a condition of low weight for their height. Now in this underweight refers to low weight only but whether it is compared with height no it is compared with age of the children. So, underweight refers to a condition of low weight for their age is the correct definition. So, this statement is wrong but there is one nutritional parameter which talks about the condition of low weight for their height that is known as child wasting. Here question asks for the correct statement. Here statement 2 is the only correct statement. So, the correct answer to this question is option B. Now let us see one mains question based on GS paper 2. The question states in the light of the recent controversy regarding the anonymity in the electoral bond scheme. What are the challenges to ensure transparency in political funding? Now for answering this question you can start with the electoral bond scheme. You can mention what the scheme is about. Then you can also mention some two or three lines about the controversy which is about the anonymity in the electoral bond scheme. Then you can mention other controversy also which was with respect to the vote share of the political parties to be eligible for the scheme. Now the question asks for the challenges to ensure transparency in political funding. Now the challenge with this scheme is that the civil society organizations are having a concern that this anonymity leads to lack of transparency because the bond does not have the name of the donor. So, the political party will not know who donated that money. Then another problem with anonymity is that one person can buy bond and then another person can donate it. So, in that way the person who buys the bond will be only giving his or her identity in the bank and the person who is donating and his identity will not be known to the bank. Then we can say that the money which will be used by the donor could be black money also because there is no way in KYC to know whether that money is a legitimate money or not. Then another challenge can be the black money can be converted to white money and then it could be donated by the donor and this could happen through multiple shell companies which conceals the origin of money. So, like this you can also mention your own viewpoints based on today's analysis. Then for a positive ending you can mention some of the benefits of the scheme such as it will protect donors from harassment and it will bring donations under the tax per view. So, some amendments can be made to the scheme rather than scrapping the scheme itself. With this we have come to the end of today's Hindu News Analysis. If you like the video don't forget to like, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for more updates related to civil service examination preparation.