 Good evening aspirants, welcome to the hindu news analysis by Shankarai's academy for the date 21st of October 2023. Displayed here are the list of news articles we will be going through today. Now without wasting time, let's start the discussion. Take a look at this ground zero article. This article talks about the accidents that happened in the firecracker industries of Sivagasi and Virudnagar districts. We all know that Sivagasi is known as little Japan due to its production of firecrackers. It accounts for nearly 90% of India's fireworks production, but many of these units operate with little supervision monitoring or official inspection. This has resulted in a number of tragedies in recent months. So in this discussion, let us understand some of the important points mentioned in this article using a mains question. Let me read out the question. Fireworks unit accident persist despite governmental initiatives. What are the factors contributing to this trend? What measures can be implemented to effectively curb these incidents? See this question can be asked in GS paper 2 under the syllabus Disaster Management. Now we shall see how to approach this question. See the question starts in this manner. Firework unit accident persist despite governmental initiatives. So in the introduction, you have to give some data to substantiate this statement. You can write that most of the fireworks that the country consumes comes from Sivagasi, which is a small town in Tamil Nadu. Two to three lakh people are engaged in firework industries out of which nearly 70% of the people working in the fireworks industries are uneducated. So the lack of awareness on the safety measures among the factory owners and workers and the non adherence to the safety requirements are the main reasons for such accidents. The accident statistics show that at least 240 employees died during the past 12 years in the state of Tamil Nadu alone due to firecracker unit accidents. This shows that fireworks unit accident persist despite governmental initiatives. This could be your introduction. Now moving on to the main body of the answer. Here you have to answer two questions. In the first part, you have to mention about the factors contributing to this trend. And in the second part, you should write about the measures that can be taken to effectively curb firecracker unit accidents. Okay. First, let us see the first part of the answer. Let us see some of the factors contributing to the trend. The first factor is presence of informal and unregulated units. See many firecracker manufacturing units operate in the informal sector. This makes it difficult to monitor and regulate. And this leads to insufficient safety standards. Secondly, there is a lack of training to the workers. See workers in the firework units may not receive adequate training in handling explosives. And this can lead to accidents due to ignorance of safety procedures. The third factor is use of unauthorized materials. In order to produce fireworks with bright colors, some manufacturers may use prohibited or dangerous materials. This can increase the risk of accident. The fourth factor is unsafe storage procedure. See improper storage of fireworks materials can lead to accidents. As these materials can be sensitive to temperature, humidity and impact. Finally, there is a lack of adequate safety equipment to the employees, which can increase the risk of accidents. See these are some of the factors that can lead to firecracker unit accidents even after proper implementation of the government policies. Now, we shall move on to the second part of the question. And in this we have to write about the measures that can be taken to effectively curb the accident. Now, let us see some points. Firstly, government should enhance and strictly enforce regulations governing the fireworks industries. Regulation should cover every aspect of manufacturing, storage, transportation and use of fireworks. Secondly, regular and surprise inspection of firework units should be conducted to ensure compliance with the safety standards and regulation. Thirdly, firework manufacturers and workers should be required to obtain license and certification in safety procedures. Fourthly, comprehensive training programs should be implemented to educate workers about the proper handling of explosives, safety protocols and first aid procedures. Then strict control on the procurement and use of hazardous material in firework production should be enforced. Then steps must be taken to ensure that fireworks materials are stored in secure, climate controlled facilities with proper ventilation, fire suppression system and security measures. Apart from this, government-guided public awareness campaign, local community engagement and protecting whistleblowers who report unsafe practices could be practiced. Finally, establishing and enforcing strict penalties for violation of safety regulation can create a strong deterrence against unsafe practices. These are some points that can be used in your answer highlighting the measures that can be taken to curb firework unit accidents. Finally, coming to the conclusion part, you can end the answer here with a positive notion. You can write that, in essence, it is important to recognize that curbing fireworks accidents require a combination of regulatory measures, public awareness and community involvement. So, efforts should focus on prevention, safety and responsible use to minimize the risk associated with fireworks. This could be your model conclusion. So, that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, through a main question, we discussed the challenges in controlling the firework unit accidents, and we also saw the measures that can be taken to put an end to firework unit accidents. Now, with this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Now, look at this news article. See, recently, the Union Finance Minister informed that the government is looking to reduce the overall depth level of the country. It will be done so that the future generations of India will not face the burden of debt. This is about the news article given here. In this context, let us see some points about public debt. Now, what is a public debt? Public debt is the total amount of money that a country's government owes to its various creditors. These creditors can be individuals, public, financial institutions or foreign governments. It is the cumulative result of past fiscal deficits and surpluses of the government. India's fiscal deficit is 6.4% of the GDP for the financial year 2023. The public debt to GDP ratio of India is 83.1% of GDP for the financial year 2023. India's public debt, that is the combined liability of the central and state government to the gross domestic product at constant price, increased to a record high of 100.86% in 2020 as against the 76.86% in 2024. These are some data about public debt. Moving forward, let us see the reasons for the increasing public debt in India. First one is low share of taxation in national income. Since immigrants, there has been a four fold increase in national income. But the gross tax to GDP ratio in India is around only 10.2% in 2023. This is the first reason. The second reason is increased public expenditure by the government. See, mainly during the COVID pandemic period, government spent liberally to help the people and also bring the economy back to the growth path from the path of stagnation. This increased the public expenditure by the government. The third reason is recapitalization of the last making PSUs. Infusing capital into the state and banks will increase the depth of the government. For example, the recapitalization bonds worth 80,000 crores in 2017-18 period increased the depth of the central government. It increased the debt both in absolute terms and as a percentage of GDP. The next reason is increasing spending on subsidies and transfer payments. This has led to debt burden of the country. It is not creating any asset for the nation, but at the same time it is increasing the debt burden of the government. The last reason is increasing populist measures like freebies and loan waivers during elections. This will make a major impact on the debt sustainability of the country. These are some of the reasons why India's debt-to-GDP ratio has been increasing in the past couple of years. Now moving forward let us see the ill effects of increasing public debt of the country. The first ill effect is that with increasing debt burden it is the future generation that will service the debt. It is basically an invisible tax on the future generation. The second ill effect is inflationary pressure. See large public debt can lead to increase in money supply and this in turn increases the inflation. Increase in inflation reduces the purchasing power of the general public. This is the second ill effect. The third one is crowding out of private investment. See crowding out means pushing the private sector out of the credit system of the country. For example if the government borrows heavily to finance the fiscal deficit it will lead to increase in interest rate. Thus it will make it difficult for the private sector to access credit in the market. This in turn will lead to crowding out of private investment in the country. This is the third effect. The next one is sovereignty issues. See if a country is facing large debt mainly fiscal deficit then it will have to borrow money from foreign resources like IMF. These institutions in turn put pressure on the domestic policies of the government. Ultimately it will be a sovereign issue as many countries are no facing due to the debt diplomacy of China. The last one is that the excessive public debt lead to higher interest rate payment by the government. It will reduce the resources for other capital activities of the government and this ultimately leads to contraction of GDP in the long run. These are some of the ill effects of increasing public debt in our country. So that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion we saw what is public debt. Then we saw the reasons for increasing public debt in India. And finally we saw the ill effects of increasing public debt. Now with this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Now look at this news article. According to this news article ISRO will conduct the Ganganyan's first flight test vehicle abort mission 1 on October 21st. As we all know Ganganyan mission aims to demonstrate India's human space flight capabilities. It aims to send three Indians to low earth orbit and bring them back safely to earth. In this context let us see about the first flight test vehicle abort mission 1 that is TVD1 of the Ganganyan mission. According to ISRO the TVD1 mission will demonstrate the performance of the crew escape system on the crew module. Here a little basic about these terms will help you understand the concepts clearly. Basically crew model is the place where the astronauts reside in a pressurized atmospheric condition like Earth during the Ganganyan mission. And the crew escape system is the emergency exit option which is very critical to any manned space mission. In case if there is any emergency during the launch of a mission and the mission is getting aborted then the crew escape system is designed to pull away the crew module from the launch vehicle of the mission. It will then take it to a safe altitude and bring it back to earth safely. Have a look at this picture this is the crew module of the Ganganyan mission. Now let us see the features of the TVD1. The test vehicle abort mission 1 will test preparedness of the crew module of the Ganganyan mission as we saw already. It is a single staged liquid rocket developed mainly for this abort mission. The payloads of the mission consist of a crew module, a crew escape system with their fast acting solid motors. It also has a crew module faring and interface adapters. This flight will stimulate the abort condition during the ascent trajectory of the mission. The vehicle's ascent trajectory will be at Mach 1.2 which is about 400 meters per second and this is equal to the ascent trajectory of the Ganganyan mission. This is about the main features of the TVD1 mission. Now let us see the objectives. Firstly, it aims to demonstrate the flight capabilities of the mission. Then it evaluates the subsystem of the test vehicle. Then it evaluates the characteristics of the crew module and the various separation system of the crew escape system. Finally, it aims to demonstrate the deceleration system at high altitude and its recovery. These are the main objectives of the mission. So, to put it in simple words, its prime objective is to check the safety of the crew escape system and test its capability to take the crew module back to Earth safely. Now having seen the objectives, let us see the process involved in the abort mission. See, in case there is an emergency and ISRO is planning to abort the mission then the process is that the crew escape system with the crew module inside it will be separated from the test vehicle. It is usually done at the altitude of about 17 km from the launch site. Subsequently, the abort sequence will be executed autonomously. It will lead to the separation of the crew escape system and the deployment of series of parachutes. Finally, it will result in the safe landing of the crew module in the sea about 10 km from the coast of Sriharikota. Prior to Ganganyan mission, three test vehicle flights have been planned by the ISRO. They are TV1, TV2 and TV3. Today will be the first flight and the second one will be in the beginning of the next year. TV3 will carry a humanoid to test the capabilities of the mission. So, that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we covered all the basic points and the pre-insulated facts about the test vehicle about mission 1. Now, with this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this news article. Recently, China announced various steps to curb the export of Graphite. China has cited national security as the reason to take this step. Here, you have to note that China is the world's largest producer and the exporter of Graphite in the world. So, this move of China is expected to cause global disruption. This is about the article given here. In our discussion today, let us see some points about Graphite and its distribution in India. We will also see the applications of Graphite in brief. See Graphite is a naturally occurring form of carbon. It is a stable element found in both metamorphic and igneous rocks. It is the only non-metal that can conduct electricity. It is extremely soft in nature and it cleaves or splits into layers when very light pressure is applied to it. It is extremely resistant to heat and it is highly unreactive in nature. Graphite is available in both natural and synthetic form. Natural Graphite is characterized into two commercial varieties. They are crystalline or flaky graphite. The second one is amorphous graphite. Both flaky and amorphous varieties of graphite are produced in India. The quality of the graphite depends upon its physical qualities and the carbon content in it. Having covered the basics, now let us see the distribution of graphite in India. According to Indian mineral yearbook 2019, in terms of graphite resources, Arunachal Pradesh accounts for 37% of the total graphite resources in our country. It is followed by Jammuun Kashmir which accounts for 32%, then comes Odisha with 9.7%, then there is Jharkhand with 9% and finally Tamil Nadu with 4%. However, in terms of resource Jharkhand has the leading share of about 52% followed by Tamil Nadu 42% and finally Odisha 6%. This is about the distribution of graphite in our country. Finally, let us take up the applications of graphite. Generally, graphite is used in the manufacture of batteries, steel and lubricants. In the battery industry, it is used to construct the anode of all major battery technology. It is mostly used as anode in the manufacture of EV battery throughout the world. In the nuclear reactor, graphite can absorb fast moving neutrons. As a result in the nuclear reactor, it is used as a material to stabilize the nuclear reactions. In the electrical industry, flaky graphite is used in the manufacture of carbon electrodes. It is also used in the manufacture of dry cell batteries. In the lubricant industry, graphite lubricants are used. Graphite based lubricants are unique due to their property to perform better in extremes of temperature. That is, they can perform very well in both very high and very low temperature. Graphite can also be used as graphene sheets. These nano-sized sheets are said to be 10 times lighter than steel, but 100 times stronger than steel. In the writing industry, modern pencil lead is made from graphite. Modern pencil lead is a mixture of powdered graphite . Finally, in the automotive industry, it is used in break linings of heavier vehicles. These are some of the common applications of graphite. So that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw some basic points about graphite. Then we saw about the distribution of graphite in India. Finally, we saw various applications of graphite. Now with this, let us conclude this and take up the next news article. See, yesterday there was a Monetary Policy Committee meeting. In that meeting, the MPC Hill talks about controlling inflation and also boosting household consumption. So in our discussion today, let us see some points about household consumption. Then we will see some preliminary facts about household consumption expenditure survey. First of all, what is household consumption? Household consumption is the expenditure made by households to meet their everyday needs. It accounts typically around 60% of the gross domestic product. So it plays an important role in influencing the demand in the economy. Moving forward, let us see some facts about household consumption expenditure survey. See, this survey collects information on the consumption spending patterns of households across the country. The survey is conducted every 5 years. It is conducted by the National Statistical Office. In this survey, information from both the urban and the rural areas are collected. The last survey was conducted in 2017-18 period. But it was discontinued due to data quality issues. So the government is conducting a new survey. And the results of this new survey will be published after the 2024 general election. Okay. See, the survey will reveal the average consumption expenditure on goods and services by the household. And it helps generate estimates of household monthly per capita consumption expenditure. Okay. This is some basic facts about household consumption expenditure survey. Now, what is the significance of the survey? Firstly, the survey helps in calculating the demand dynamics of the economy. Secondly, it helps in understanding the shifting priorities in terms of basket of goods and services. For example, few years back, the Indian middle class were mainly buying hatchback cars. But currently, according to team BHP data, 45% of the cars sold in India is in the SUV platform. This shows a clear shift in priorities. The survey will help us identify shifting priorities like this one. This is the second significance. Lastly, it also helps in assessing the living standards and growth trends in our country. These are some of the significance of the survey. So that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw what is household consumption. Then we saw some problems related facts about the household consumption expenditure survey. Now with this, we have come to the end of the news article discussion session. Now let us take up the practice problems questions. We have three practice problems questions. Let us see them one by one. Let us take up the first statement. Here three statements regarding graphite is given. We have to find how many of the statements given here are correct. Let us take up the first statement. It is available in natural form only. This statement is incorrect because in our discussion, we saw graphite is available both in the natural form and in the synthetic form. Moving on to the second statement. It is the only non-metallic conductor of electricity. This statement is correct. Moving on to the second statement. Jharkhand has the largest graphite resource in our country. This statement is also correct. So the correct answer here is option B only 2. Moving on to the second question. Here three statements regarding Ganganyan mission is given. We have to find how many of the statements given here are correct. Look at the first statement. It will be launched by an Excel variant of ISRO's PSLV. This statement is incorrect. The Ganganyan mission will be launched using GSLV Mk3 launch vehicle. Okay. Moving on to the second statement. Under this mission, Indian astronauts will be placed in low earth orbit. This statement is correct. Moving on to the third statement. With the success of this mission, India will become the fourth country to send humans to space. This statement is also correct. So the correct answer here is option B only 2. Moving on to the last question. Let me read this question. Which of the following best describes the primary objective of the household consumption expenditure survey conducted by the government? The correct answer here is option B to assess the consumption pattern and expenditure of households. So that's all regarding today's discussion. If you like today's video, like, comment and share it with your friends. For more updates regarding UPSC preparation, subscribe to Shankara IS Academy's YouTube channel. Thank you for listening.