 A very good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Iyer's Academy for the day 18th and 19th August 2021. So displayed below are the list of news articles that we have chosen for today's discussion. And as you can see, we have chosen three important articles from yesterday's edition. And then we also have six important news articles from today's edition, which we hadn't discussed in recent times. So without wasting much time, let's move into our discussion. Now one news discussion is going to be based on this editorial article. This editorial article reflects about the China's nuclear capability and also the rate of expansion of nuclear weaponry. See few days ago, we did see about India's nuclear program. And through this article discussion, we shall look into India's nuclear doctrine. And then we will also proceed on to know the gist or the essence of this particular editorial. The syllabus covered by this editorial article is highlighted below for your reference. See India first tested its nuclear capability through controlled detonation in the year 1974. And on doing that, India became the sixth country to detonate a nuclear weapon. And it again made a controlled testing in the year 1998. And after conducting five nuclear tests over two days in the month of May in the year 1998, India declared itself as a state armed with nuclear weapons. And according to the 2019 Cypriot yearbook, the Indian arsenal includes around 130 to 140 warheads. Now having said that, have in mind that India also has a well sorted nuclear doctrine to create an environment of certainty. Now let us look at this from the exam point of view. So please follow as I talk because points one to five are the most important. See first and foremost, India's nuclear prowess is aimed at building and maintaining a credible minimum deterrent. That is a weapon stock good enough to scare a nation that is actually contemplating on attacking India through nuclear power or nuclear weapon. Now the secondly, India follows a posture of no first use. See nuclear weapons will only be used in retaliation against a nuclear attack on Indian territory or on Indian forces anywhere. So to put it in simple words, see India will not be using nuclear weapons on anyone for the first time. That is we will be using it only when we are attacked with a nuclear weapon. So therefore until a country doesn't use its nuclear power on us, we will also not use. So the third nuclear doctrine of India is that nuclear retaliation to a first strike will be massive and designed to inflict unacceptable damage. See this is a continuation of the previous point. So when we actually retaliate with nuclear weapons, the damage that we will be causing will be massive. That is say they used one bomb on us and it is not that we will also use only one bomb on them. That is we may use more that is capable of bringing massive damage. So once provoked, the retaliation will be decisive. So this point is more like a subtle warning. Now the fourth point is about the responsibility mechanism for nuclear weaponry in India. See this point says that nuclear retaliatory attacks can only be authorized by the civilian political leadership through the nuclear command authority. So having said that you need to have an idea of nuclear command authority so that in order to understand this context. See the nuclear command authority comprises of a political council and an executive council. Now the political council is chaired by the prime minister and it is a sole body which can authorize the use of nuclear weapons. Now coming to the executive council, this council will be chaired by the rational security advisor and the body provides inputs for decision making by the nuclear command authority. So as you can see both are civilian bodies or in other words the military cannot authorize a nuclear attack in our country and only a civilian authority can. So as you can see this also reflects the democratic ethos of our nation. Now the final doctrine is the non-use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapon states. However in the event of a major attack against India or Indian forces anywhere be it biological or chemical weapons, India will definitely retain the option of retaliating with nuclear weapons. So that is we won't be using nuclear weapons against those who do not have nuclear weapons. So anyway we have no first policy but then in cases where we are attacked by other deadly means say like that of bioweapons or chemical weapons then we may surely retaliate with nuclear weapons. Now besides this doctrine also puts curbs on, exports on nuclear material and also on the commitment to nuclear disarmament. See when you closely analyze you can find that India has a pacifist strategic culture that is inspired by Gandhian non-violence or you can also say that India is a reluctant nuclear power that is although India wants to be free of nuclear weaponry it is also true that we are bothered by two dangerous countries like Pakistan and China and these two countries are nuclear states. So basically we are a nuclear state out of compulsion of security. Now coming to the editorial the author here is extensively talking about China's nuclear silos and apparently China has been expanding its nuclear weapon repository and this measure of China has got implications at two levels. One is that China has even failed to enter into a nuclear agreement with any of the states that it is engaging with say be it USA or Russia. So it means there will be no check. Now secondly India is in close proximity to China and we also have border issues with them. So there are high chances for this to disturb the strategic balance between the two countries and this is ultimately the essence of this particular editorial. Now with this understanding of India has a state armed with nuclear weapons and also with our understanding about India's nuclear doctrine let us now move on to the next part of our news discussion. So now we have this news article for our next discussion. See according to this article a central government has planned to offer price assurances, viability gap funding and planting material assistance to oil palm farmers and this is said to be done in order to boost the domestic production and also to reduce the dependence on imports and these initiatives would be offered under the national mission on edible oil or oil palm. So in this context in the next few minutes we are going to learn about oil seeds, palm oil and also the above mentioned national mission on edible oil oil palm. So come let us move into the discussion. The syllabus covered by this article is given below. Now first of all let us know about oil seeds. See India is one of the major oil seeds grower and importer of edible oils. We all know that India has got a diverse agroecological conditions because of these diverse conditions India is able to grow nine annual oil seed crops. Now of these nine annual oil seed crops are the primary source of vegetable oil in our country. Now out of the nine annual oil seed crops seven of them are edible oil seeds and these seven includes ground net, rapeseed and mustard, soybean, sunflower, sesame, safflower and niger and the remaining two are non-edible oil seeds and the non-edible oil seeds are castor and linseed. Now coming to the secondary sources of vegetable oil. See vegetable oil can also be earnest from secondary sources say like that of cotton seed, rice bran, coconut, tree bone oil seeds and oil palm. Now coming to the core issue see as I already said India is one of the major oil seeds grower and importer of edible oils. Now we may have a question like why is India one of the leading importers of edible oils even though India has got a rich production of oil seeds. Now the answer for this is see during the last few years the domestic consumption of edible oils in India has increased substantially and in fact it has touched the level of 18.90 million tons in the year 2011 to 2012 and is likely to increase further. And also the per capita consumption of vegetable oils is at the rate of 16 kilogram per year per person. So with the increasing population of India the total vegetable oil demand is likely to skyrocket in the coming years and this is one of the reasons why a substantial portion of our requirement of edible oil is met through the import of palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia. See palm oil is currently the world's most consumed vegetable oil and this palm oil has accounted for about 33% of global oils that are produced from the oil crops in the year 2014. And apart from this palm oil is also used extensively in the production of detergents, plastics, cosmetics and biofuels. So by this we ourselves can understand the high demand that is there for this particular palm oil. See when we are talking about palm oil the leading consumers are India, China and the European Union. When you take India 94.1% of its palm oil is used in food products especially for cooking. So thus palm oil becomes an extremely important to India's edible oils economy and also India's palm oil imports are almost 60% of its total vegetable oil imports and recently even India's dependence on expensive imports has driven retail oil prices to new highs. So having said that now let us move on to see as to what can be done in this regard. See India has to exploit its domestic resources in order to maximize its production of palm oil because only through this maximization India can ensure the edible oil security of our country. Since otherwise we will be heavily reliant on imports to support our edible oil needs. See oil palm is comparatively a new crop in India and also oil palm is the highest vegetable oil yielding perennial crop. So with area expansion, quality planting materials, irrigation and proper management we can actually enhance the palm oil production in our country and this really can help us in achieving edible oil security for the country. So in order to give vision to the discussed goals our government is implementing the national mission on edible oil oil palm. See this national mission on edible oil oil palm is an initiative to strengthen India's self-reliance in edible oil and this particular initiative involves an investment of Rs 11,000 crores in edible oil ecosystem over a period of five years and this mission hopes to increase India's oil palm acreage by an additional 6.5 lakh hectares by the year 2025 to 26 and to grow the production of crude palm oil to 11.2 lakh tons by the same year 2025 to 2026 and further it also aims to increase oil palm acreage up to 28 lakh tons by the year 2019 to 2030. Now having said that let us now move on to see the key features of this particular scheme. See the important objective of this scheme is to ensure self-sufficiency in edible oil production. Now this scheme it aims to reduce our import dependence from the present 60% to around 45% by the year 2024 to 25 and this particular reduction in import dependence will be done by increasing our domestic edible oil production from 10.5 million tons to 18 million tons. So with that we can say it has got a 70% growth target of domestic edible oil production. Also with this initiative our farmers will be getting all needed facilities from quality seeds to technology and along with promoting the cultivation of oil palm this mission will also expand the cultivation of our other traditional oil seed crops and most importantly remember this scheme is a centrally sponsored scheme and this scheme also gives special focus to the northeast region and the Andaman and Nicobar islands. So with this we have come to the end of this article discussion. So with these points in mind let us move on to the next news article. Now look at this news article the news is that the Reserve Bank of India has announced the formation of a composite financial inclusion index and this said financial inclusion index will be covering domains like banking, investments, insurance, postal as well as the pension sector and as reported by the news article the Reserve Bank of India is planning to release this index every July and with this release the Reserve Bank of India has also measured the financial inclusion for the year 2019 to 20 and according to that the financial inclusion was found to be at 54 percentage. See it is an increase from around 43 percentage in 2017 which means more people are financially included now. See the financial inclusion is an important concept that requires understanding because it can be a potential main exam area in the GS3 perspective. So kindly pay attention to the next few minutes. See the concept of financial inclusion was first introduced in India in the year 2005 by the Reserve Bank of India. So in simple terms financial inclusion refers to the process of ensuring access to financial products and services that are needed by vulnerable groups and these needed financial products and services are made accessible at an affordable cost in a transparent manner by the institutional players. Now understand this most of our parents or even most of us will have bank accounts. So in that bank accounts we can save money and we can also see clone using that and we can even get insurances in the bank and we can also buy investment bonds as well but some of us may not be included in this ecosystem and this can be due to various reasons say for example there may not be any bank in the vicinity for example think about a remote tribal settlement no banks will be there and because of this the entire settlement will be financially excluded. Likewise there can be social barriers as well for instance in many parts of India women aren't allowed to work. So when they don't work eventually they will not have a bank account for themselves at most cases. So what happens is the benefit of banking and financial services may not be available to them and you won't believe a few years ago the persons with disability were excluded from bank for a very simple reason that the banks did not have ramps that can make mobility easier for those who cannot walk and another reason could be the difficulty in doing the banking procedures due to literacy constraints. So like this many factors may keep us outside the formal financial sector and this particular concept is called as financial exclusion. Now this Zarbaya website reports that financial exclusion is more acute in central eastern and northeastern regions and these three regions together accounted for 64% of all financially excluded farmer households in the country. So when we try and make conscious efforts to bring them into the formal financial system then it is called as financial inclusion and this takes us to the question as to why do we need to bring them into the formal financial sector. See when people are left out of financial sector they rely on informal financial sources and in that case the local money lenders might harass the innocent and the already vulnerable people with high interest rates. So there is a large possibility for them to get into a debt trap and another reason for this is see the government provides us with a lot of services and subsidies and they provide interest free loans as well. So if people aren't in the formal financial sector then there are a lot of chances for them to actually miss out these benefits and besides these financial inclusion also strengthens the economy and the banking system. Note this there will be also be a reduction in cash based economy as more transactions can be made formula or digital and besides this experts say that financial inclusion can actually improve the productivity and it can also lead to the reduction in income inequality. So therefore on this line our Indian government in order to achieve financial inclusion set into motion the PM Jandan Yojana and around 192.1 million accounts have been opened under this Pradhan Mandiri Jandan Yojana and these zero bank balance accounts have been accompanied by 165.1 million debit cards and a life insurance cover of rupees 30,000 and also an additional insurance cover of rupees 1 lakh. Now other than this Pradhan Mandiri Jandan Yojana there are several other financial inclusion schemes in India and some examples for them are the Jeevan Suraksha Bandhan Yojana, the Pradhan Mandiri Vaya Vandara Yojana, the Pradhan Mandiri Mudra Yojana, then the Stand Up India scheme, the Venture Capital Fund for Scheduled Caste under the Social Sector Initiatives, the Pradhan Mandiri Suraksha Bhima Yojana, then the Atal Pension Yojana, then Varishtha Pension Bhima Yojana and the Credit Announcement Guarantee Scheme for Scheduled Caste and the Suganya Samrati Yojana. So just you need not mug up all these but just remember them for the preliminary exam. So with this we have come to the end of this article discussion now let's move on to the next news article. Now for our next news discussion we have taken this news article from the business column. The news article mentions that the Reserve Bank of India is going to conduct an open market purchase under its Government Securities Accusation Program 2.0. Now as you know GSEC is a tradable instrument and this instrument is usually issued either by the central government or the state governments and it acknowledges the government's debt obligation. See generally GSEC's are issued through auctions that are conducted by the RBI and these auctions are conducted on an electronic platform called the Ecuber and this auction is a secondary market. See when we say primary market it means the market where securities are offered to the public for subscription and the purpose here is to raise capital or fund whereas on the other hand secondary market refers to a market wherein the securities are traded after being initially offered to the public in the primary market and then these are listed on the stock exchange. So in other words secondary market is an equated trading avenue in which the already existing securities or pre-issued securities are traded among investors and this secondary market will comprise of equity markets and debt markets and generally it could be either auction or dealer market and note that the stock exchange is a part of an auction market only and also the majority of the trading is done only in the secondary market. So in this regard you should know that RBI has put in place a program in the secondary market and this program is called the GSEC acquisition program or which is shortly referred as the GSAP. See under this program RBI commits to a specific amount of open market purchases of government securities upfront that is beforehand and this is done with a view to enable a stable and an orderly evolution of the yield curve amidst the comfortable liquidity conditions. See now there comes a question why do we need a stable and an orderly evolution yield curve. Now to understand this first we should know the concept behind a yield and yield curve. See an yield is the annual percentage rate of return which is earned on a security and this yield is a function of a securities purchase price and coupon interest price and this yield tends to fluctuate according to numerous factors say like that of global markets and the condition of economy. Now comes yield curve. See the yield curve provides a graphical relationship between yield and maturity and that too among bonds of different maturities having the same credit quality. So this curve shows the term structure of interest rates that is the relationship between the short-term and the long-term interest rates and the curve also enables investors to compare the debt securities with different maturities and coupons. See your coupons is nothing but the rate of interest that is paid on a debt security. So this means that certain segments of the financial markets rely on the GSEC yield curve as a pricing benchmark that is it plays a central role in the pricing of other financial market instruments. So therefore a stable yield curve ensures compatible financial conditions for the economic recovery to gain traction. So therefore on this line the RBI has introduced the GSAP for the first quarter of the year 2021-22 and then the RBI has also as announced a GSAP of 1 lakh crore. So therefore the first purchase of government securities under GSAP 1.0 was conducted for an aggregate amount of 25,000 crore and this happened in April 2021. So similarly other purchases also happened under GSAP 1.0 and this resulted in the interest rates on commercial paper the 91 day treasury bills and certificates of deposit to remain low and range bound and another benefit is that through GSAP purchase calendar of RBI is known so it provides comfort to the bond or securities market and this means that market participants are made aware of RBI's commitment and this will calm the investor's nerves and it will help the market participants to bid better in scheduled auctions which in turn will reduce the volatility in bond or securities prices. So because of all these positive externality it was decided to undertake GSAP 2.0 in the second quarter of the year 2021-22. So under this GSAP 2.0 secondary market purchase operations of 1.20 lakh crore are to be conducted to support the market and now under this only the RBI is announced to purchase or buy the government securities of 25,000 crore. So with this we have come to the end of this article discussion now let us move on to say what the next article has got to tell us. Now let us look at this editorial article as we know after decades the US troops have now begun to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan and the Taliban who is a fundamentalist Islamic force who ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until the invasion by US forces in 2001 is now again gaining powers. So on that line the capital of Afghanistan that is the Kabul was completely brought under the control of the Taliban's and this particular editorial is written in that backdrop. So in this editorial the author has explained the current situation that is prevailing in the region of Afghanistan and he has also explained the implication of the Taliban's taking over the region. So in this context let's briefly see the important takeaway points from the editorial. The syllabus covered by this article is highlighted below for your reference. Know that before the US invasion in 2001 the Afghanistan was invaded by the Soviet in the year 1979 and the author here is drawn a comparison between the two withdrawals that is the Soviet withdrawal in 1989 with the US withdrawal at present. See there was a centralized government in Afghanistan back then and this centralized government was opposed by many insurgent groups and these insurgent groups were collectively called the Mujahidin and the uprisings and the internal fighting caused by these Mujahidin they actually favored the situation for the Soviet invasion. So what happened is after a long war until the year 1988 the Soviet failed to restore a friendly regime and after that they signed an accord with the United States, Pakistan and Afghanistan and as per this accord the Soviet agreed to withdraw its troops. So on this line the Soviet withdrawal was completed in the year 1989. Know that the Soviet got disintegrated in the year 1991 and the author here is comparing this event with that of the US withdrawal and according to the author the present condition is far worser than the condition that existed during the Soviet withdrawal and the author also feels that this withdrawal is actually causing a damage to the image of the United States as a superpower. See this is because it cannot be denied that the US troops are making a timely withdrawal based on the commitments they made but still the issue here is that they failed to take into consideration the prevailing situation within Afghanistan and neither did they take into account the possible consequences of their withdrawal on that particular land and moving on the author then throws light on the collapse of the organized resistance to the Taliban forces doesn't seem to be favoring the bright future of Afghanistan. Since instead of that the situation is likely to encourage the former terror groups and one among them is led by the Gulbudin Ekmatiar who favored Pakistan before and who is also a traditional opponent of the Taliban. So the point here is US withdrawal can lead to the re-emergence of such terror groups and the re-emergence of such terror groups will again lead to political instability in the region and apart from this the author also compares the situation in Afghanistan with that of the Syrian crisis but then in reality we cannot really compare Afghanistan with Syria because even at the worst time Syria had a strong precedent but this was not the case in Afghanistan because despite efforts there is a lack in the strong leadership in Afghanistan and likewise even the territory of Afghanistan is also very different from that of Syria that is Syria has an extremely porous borders and it is almost impossible to guard or protect the region but this is not the case with Afghanistan because Afghanistan shares borders with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and with these advantages the Taliban can possibly keep an absolute control over the region. Now apart from this the collapse of the Afghan state likely seems to lead to the re-emergence of the old threats. See if you remember the US troops were deployed and they were increased in the region with an intention to defeat the terrorism and the threats posed by terror groups like that of Al Qaeda and the Islamic state. So the US terror groups they also tried to defeat the Taliban military and also to rebuild the core institution of the Afghan state but then the US has failed in this regard and the complete withdrawal of the US troops will only lead to the increase in the terror activities in the region. So according to the author in this era of progression the prevailing situation in Afghanistan represents a severe set back to all such hopes and expectations and also the aftershock of the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban is expected to continue for a long time and especially incidents like the withdrawal of the US from Afghanistan the growing relationship between China, Pakistan and Russia across the region and also the Iran under the leadership of Ibrahim Rehzi remains at this advantage for India. So at such a juncture India has no other option than to contribute more to increase its regional ties and to address all the security concerns. So these are some of the important takeaway points from this editorial discussion. Now having that in mind let us now move on to the next news article. Now our next news discussion is going to be based on this picture. See this is a picture of Tiwa tribesmen performing the traditional dance during the celebration of Wanshuwa festival. So based on this context we are going to discuss about this Tiwa tribes and their Wanshuwa festival. See Tiwa tribes are also known as Lalung and they are an indigenous tribe of the Tibetan Berman race and these tribes are mainly found in Assam and Meghalaya and they are also found in Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur in small numbers. See it is important to know that only in Assam Tiwa tribes are recognized as scheduled tribes. Now coming to their numbers according to the 2011 census the Tiwa population in India is approximately around 371,000. Now we may have a question why are they called Tiwa or what does it mean? See Tiwa literally means the people who were lifted from below and these tribes they usually prefer the name Tiwa to Lalung and though they are referred to as Lalung in Assamese Boranches that is Assamese chronicles in colonial literature and even in the constitution of India still they prefer the name Tiwa over it. Now coming to their language see these tribes they speak a language called the Tiwa language and this Tiwa language it belongs to the Tibetan Berman language of the Bodo Garu group. Now know that the number of people speaking this language has been declining in the last few decades and according to the 2011 census only 34,800 people speak the language of Tiwa. Now moving on to the festival of these Tiwas. See the chief festival of the Tiwas are Tri Pisu or Bihu, the Borot Utsav, the Sogra Puja, the Vanshuva, the Johnville Mela, Kabla, Lankhon Puja and the Yangli Puja and since the Vanshuva is the festival shown in the picture we are going to have a discussion on this particular festival. See this Vanshuva festival is celebrated by the Tiwa tribesmen in order to mark their good harvest and this festival is usually celebrated with songs, dances and also with a bunch of rituals and during the occasion the Tiwa tribesmen wear their native attires to celebrate and also they wear plenty of makeup in the form of paste made of rice powder and they participate in the dance with this makeup. See the people of Tiwa tribe they associate the bountiful harvest with a higher power from nature so in order to thank this higher power for a bountiful harvest this particular festival is being celebrated and during this festival they also pray to this higher power in order to protect their crops from pests and natural calamities and as you can see from the picture during this festival celebration the rhythmically move around in a circle with bamboo sticks in their hand and see Tiwa tribe has got one of the richest reservoirs of folk songs and dances in India. So these are some of the preliminary related facts that you need to keep in mind when it comes to the Tiwa tribes now let's move on to the next news article. Now look at this article the news is that the Tamil Nadu government is planning to set up a lab for genome sequencing the covid samples. So based on this context we are going to quickly refresh our knowledge about the genome sequencing and also their applications. See both gene sequencing and genome sequencing are the same note that sequencing gene means to determine the order of the four chemical building blocks and these four blocks are called bases and these four bases make up the gene and the bases that is referred here are adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine. See their sequence will tell scientists the kind of genetic information that is carried in a particular gene segment that is one particular sequence will manifest in one particular character in the organism. Now hypothetically assume a sequence like AAT CCG this may correspond to a feature like blue eye color. So any one's gene having this sequence may have blue eye. So by knowing the sequence we can actually gain insight into the biological features of the organism. So to put it in simple words we will get to know about the organism in question biologically. Now let us see some of its applications. See one of the foremost emerging application of genome sequencing is the diagnosis of genetic disease even before the baby is born. Now this will allow early medical intervention like even abortion can be detected early. Now another application is the making of custom-made medicines. See making medicines specific for an individual can bring down the side effects that are associated with medication and this is also helpful in designing cancer-based medications. Now apart from this another famous example of genome sequencing is that of the recombination of gene or genetic modification. See recently we discussed about genetic modified organisms and unless we know the sequence this modification is not possible. So this is also an area where genome sequencing can be applied. Now adding to all these a recent application of genome sequencing is the identification of microorganism. See in the pandemic times we came across many variants of coronavirus say like that of alpha variant, delta variant etc and they were the mutants of the primal coronavirus. See such identification can be done by this genome sequencing and it has also got an interesting application in foreign sex. See when some biological remains are obtained from a crime site then the DNA sequencing can be used to narrow down the identity. Now besides all these genome sequencing can also be used to find the parental lineages in case of medical legal disputes. We know a child gets 50 percent age of genes from parents. So using that genome sequencing can determine the parent age of the offspring and if you see a large-scale application of genome sequencing is the assessment of the prevalence of a disease or a condition in a population. So these are some popular applications of genome sequencing and this is of great importance when it comes to the main exam perspective. So now let us move on to the next part of our news discussion. Now look at this news article. See the news is that many people in the remote tribal pockets of Badrachalam are affected by the vector bone diseases. See this Badrachalam is a district in the Telangana state and this rise in the number of cases is due to a recent rainfall that has occurred last month. See this particular rainfall severely damaged the sanitation situation in the region because of which the region provided to be a breeding ground for mosquitoes and this situation is posing severe threats in the region. So with this backdrop in this discussion we are going to learn about the vector bone diseases. We are also going to know about some ways in which we can prevent it and also we are going to see an important scheme called the National Vector Bone Diseases Control Program. The syllabus covered by this article is highlighted below for your reference. Now before knowing about vector bone diseases first we need to know the meaning of the term vector. See vectors are living organisms that are capable of transmitting infectious pathogens between humans or from animals to humans. So in simple words a vector will transmit infectious pathogens from one person to another person or it can even transmit them from animals to a person. So now comes the question how do they transmit these pathogens? See many of these vectors are blood sucking insects. So what they do is they ingest disease producing microorganisms when they suck blood from an infected host. Now this host can be an animal or a human. So later what they do is they transmit it into a new host after the pathogen has replicated. Know that mostly once a vector becomes infectious then they are capable of transmitting the pathogen for the rest of their life during each subsequent bite or each subsequent blood meal. So this is basically the meaning of a vector. Now coming to vector bone diseases. See the vector bone disease is a human hillness that is caused by parasites, viruses and bacteria that are transmitted by the set vectors. See the distribution of vector bone diseases is determined by various factors say like that of demographics, environmental and social factors. For instance the burden of these diseases is found to be highest in tropical and subtropical areas and this disproportionately affect the poorest population. And also the mortality rate in vector bone diseases is found to be more or is found to be high in the poorest population because not many of them will be able to afford the healthcare services. Some examples of such vector bone diseases and vectors are given below for your reference. So please make a note of it. Now let's move on to see the preventive measures or the measures that need to be taken in order to prevent these diseases. See usually see some wise measures that we can adopt to prevent these diseases are to use window screens in order to keep the mosquitoes outside the place where you're staying and it is really important to ensure proper sanitation in the place where you reside. Similarly cleaning the stagnant waters in areas where mosquitoes breed should also be encouraged and likewise you should avoid contact with the blood or the secretions or organs or other body fluids of infected people or animals and likewise storing food and disposing garbage properly can prevent rat infestation also and apart from this we can also carry out some basic measures like sleeping under insecticide treated bed net and also by getting vaccinated against diseases like yellow fever and Japan encephalitis. So these are some of the measures that could really help us in preventing the spread of these diseases. So by now we have a conceptual clarity on what a vector is and we also know what a vector bone disease is. Apart from these we also saw some preventive measures with which we can stay away from such diseases. So now let us see one important program of the government named the national vector bone disease control program. See this national vector bone diseases control program is the national level technical nodal office equipped with technical experts. Now this particular scheme is implemented under the union ministry of health and family welfare. So some of the functions of this scheme are given below for your reference. See as you can see it is mentioned that the directorate is responsible for framing. Technical guidelines and policies has to guide the states for implementation of program strategies. Now to understand the statement better see we know that health is a state matter which means the state is responsible for the implementation of program strategies in accordance to the program guidelines. So this is the reason why as you can see the guidelines are given by the center and the program is implemented by the state in accordance with the guidelines. And on that line there are sub centers in the district level and primary health care levels also. So these are some of the takeaway points that you need to have in mind whenever you come across the vector bone diseases. So with this information now let us move on to the next news article. Now let us take up this picture for our next discussion. As you can see it depicts a pair of one-horned rhinos enjoying their first wave of flood water in the Pobitora wildlife sanctuary. And this Pobitora wildlife sanctuary is situated in the Morrigan district of Assam. So based on this we are going to have a quick revision on some important facts about the one-horned rhinos and the Pobitora wildlife sanctuary since they are an important topic in a preliminary perspective. So come let us move into the discussion. Now first let us know about the one-horned rhinos. See the greater one-horned rhinoceros is one among the five different species of rhino and the other four are the Sumatran rhino, the Javan rhino, the black rhino and the white rhino. See there are three species of rhinos in Asia which includes the greater one-horned rhino, the Javan and Sumatran rhino. Among these three species only the great one-horned rhino is found in India and it is for this reason it is known as the Indian rhino and also remember this is the largest of the rhino species. See the greater one-horned rhinoceros lives in the northern India and southern Nepal and in riverine glasslands and adjacent hoodlands and in India they are mainly found in Assam, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. Know that the greater one-horned rhinos are herbivorous that is they feed on plants and the pasture land and when in water they graze on aquatic plants and their gestation period usually lasts approximately for 15 to 16 months and the mothers give birth to one calf in every two to three years and for your additional information the greater one-horned rhinos they usually enjoy being alone except for female with a young one and the males maintain loosely defended territories. Now comes the important points. See the protection status of one-horned rhinoceros and the high UCN red list is vulnerable and as per the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Florida that is the sites they are protected under appendix one of the convention and they are also protected under Schedule one of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. See Assam has got an estimated 2,640 rhinos in four protected areas which includes the Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary, the Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park, the Kasi Ranga National Park and the Mardis National Park. So these are some important points about the one-horned rhinos. So now let us move on to see about the Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary. See as we already saw the Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary is situated in the Marigwan district of the state of Assam and this sanctuary is famous for its great Indian one-horned rhinoceros and apart from rhinoceros the other animals in the sanctuary are leopard, wild boar, barking deer, wild buffalo etc and note that Assam's Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary is also the home to more than 2,000 migratory birds and various reptiles and it is also an important bird area. So with this information we have come to the end of this news discussion. Now let us take up this question about the GSEC Acquisition Program. Which of the following statements is or are correct with reference to the GSEC Acquisition Program? Statement one it is also known as open market operations. Statement two its purpose is to enable a stable and orderly evolution of the yield curve amidst the comfortable liquidity conditions and we need to find the correct answer here. See from our discussion we can infer that the second statement is correct but coming to the first statement you should know that the GSEC is not an open market operation but it is on the same lines and this is the reason why newspapers mentioned GSEC as a clone or counterpart of open market operations. As you know open market operations are OMOS is a monetary policy tool and it is used by RBI to smoothen or to control the liquidity conditions through the year and also to regulate the money supply in the economy. Now this open market operations is usually done by buying or selling of government securities and we can say that the primary aim of these open market operations is modulating or regulating rupee liquidity conditions in the market. So hence open market operations are an effective quantitative tool of the RBI but then during discussion we saw that under this GSEC program RBI commits to a specific amount of open market purchases of government securities up front that is beforehand. Now here the term up front is important this is because even though under GSEC RBI purchases the government securities the same is also done under open market operations but the main difference here is that under open market operations there is a biggest drawback that investors do not know the timing of these purchases and the RBI till now was disclosing open market purchases weekly which created uncertainty in the bond market. Now this particular uncertainty is removed by the government securities acquisition program this is because this program is providing the purchase calendar of RBI so with GSEC the RBI fulfills the long pending demand of the market participants of open market operations purchase calendar. So therefore the first statement is incorrect and the correct answer here is option B that is two only. Now look at this practice question about the applications of genome sequencing the question is which of the following are the applications of genome sequencing statement one forensic identification of an individual statement two fixing parentage statement three early disease diagnosis and statement four identification of superbugs see from the discussion we know that statement one two and three are correct now coming to the fourth statement see during our discussion we saw that genome sequencing will be helpful in the identification of mutant variant see and the term superbugs that is mentioned in the questionnaire are nothing but those organisms that have mutate to bypass the antibiotics see these superbugs are also mutated virals which means these superbugs are also mutated variants and therefore the fourth options is also correct so therefore the correct answer for this question is option D that is one two three and four. Now look at this practice question it is a viral disease caused by a mosquito-borne flavivirus and this disease is primarily transmitted by the bite of an infected head is egypti and also through sexual contact so which of the following diseases is described above see flaviviruses are vector-borne RNA viruses that can emerge unexpectedly in human population thereby causing severe diseases so when you take malaria yes it is a mosquito-borne disease but then it is transmitted by an infective female anophilis mosquito and not by the head is egypti and also this vector-borne disease is not transmitted through sexual contact so therefore malaria is not the right answer here moving on to the Japanese encephalitis so this is caused by a mosquito called hulux and not head is egypti so this again becomes a wrong answer now moving on to the next two options see yellow fever and zika virus are caused by the same species of mosquito called the edis but then remember yellow fever they do not transmit through sexual contact so with that yellow fever also gets excluded from the list so therefore the right answer here is zika virus and it is this zika virus which is primarily transmitted by the bite of the infected edis egypti and also through sexual contact and for your additional information we have already covered about the zika virus in detail in our July 21st interview analysis so we request the aspirants to just go back and brush up your learnings on the concept so therefore the right answer here is option d that is zika virus now let us take up this practice question consider the following statements about one honed rhinos statement one their gestation period is approximately 15 to 16 months and statement two their conservation status under ioc and red list is vulnerable so which of the statements given above is or are correct see as we saw in the discussion the gestation period last approximately between 15 to 16 months and we also saw that the mothers give birth to one calf every two to three years and usually these one-horned rhinos they tend to enjoy being alone except for female with a younger one and coming to the conservation we saw that the protection status of one-horned rhino in the ioc and red list is vulnerable and they come under appendix one of the sites and they are listed in schedule one of the wildlife protection act so based on this we can infer that both the statement given here is correct and since we need to find only the right statements here the correct option is option c that is both one and two now let us take up this prelims practice question consider the following statements statement one tiva tribes are mainly found in Assam and Meghalaya statement two tiva tribes celebrate a festival called Vanshuva festival to mark their good harvest so based on our news discussion we can infer that both the statements given here are correct so therefore the correct answer here is option c that is both one and two the list of mains practice question is displayed below so interest interested as parents please write your answers and post them in the comment section so with this we have come to the end of today's end of news analysis and if you have liked the video then don't forget to like comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar Eye's academy youtube channel for more updates regarding UPSC civil services preparation