 Dear viewers, from today onwards, we are assuming the Hindu news analysis. During lockdown period, because of COVID-19 pandemic, we have uploaded the most needed month-wise compilation of current affairs from July 2019 to March 2020 so far. And the April 2020 month video will be uploaded during the course of time, well before your prelims 2020 exam. The topics covered in the Target UPSC 2020 prelim series were chosen to meet by keeping the aspirants requirement and simplifying efforts for the upcoming prelims 2020 exam. We heartfully acknowledge your immense support and appreciation received for our Target UPSC 2020 prelim series. And now, from today onwards, we are assuming our well-received the Hindu news analysis. Every day, you will receive simple, in-depth, comprehensive analysis of the important current affairs topics chosen from the Hindu newspaper. The analysis will offer you to develop right perspective for approaching the UPSC prelims and main examinations. The list of topics chosen for today's analysis, along with the page numbers of five different editions, is given here for your reference. The PDF link of the handwritten notes of today's analysis is available in the description section and also in the comment section in the best interest of the viewers. Let us now start our analysis. Now, let us see two news articles which discuss about an initiative of the World Health Organization called Solidarity Trail. One news article tells that the state government of Tamil Nadu is to be a part of this solidarity trail. So, for this purpose, two centers have been chosen from Tamil Nadu, which is mentioned in the another news article. Now, let us see what is this solidarity trail of the World Health Organization. See, recently the World Health Organization cautioned against physicians and medical associations recommending or administering the unproven treatments to patients who are having COVID-19. They have also heard about people self-medicating with tablets like chloroquine and causing themselves serious harm. So, in this context, the World Health Organization and its partners have come up with this solidarity trail. Note that solidarity is an international clinical trial to help find an effective treatment for COVID-19 disease. So, as a part of this trial, patients from multiple countries will be enrolled and the aim of this trial is to rapidly discover whether any of the drugs slow the disease progression or improve the survival of the human beings who are affected with COVID-19. And other drugs will be added in the due course based on emerging evidence. As per World Health Organization, the solidarity trail will compare four treatment options to assess their relative effectiveness against COVID-19. The four treatment options that are available as of now are Remdesivir, Lopinavir or Ritonavir, then Lopinavir or Ritonavir with interferon beta 1a and chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine. See, Remdesivir was previously tested as an Ebola treatment. And if you see it also generated promising results in animal studies for Middle East respiratory syndrome and severe acute respiratory syndrome. We know that MERS and SARS were also caused by Coronavirus. Next, if you come to Lopinavir and Ritonavir, both were used as a licensed treatment for HIV-AIDS. Next, interferon beta 1a is used to treat multiple sclerosis. And then if you see chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are very closely related and they are used to treat malaria and rheumatology conditions respectively. So, these are the four treatment options which will be a part of this solidarity trial. So, what is the rationale behind this solidarity trail? See, the pressure that COVID-19 disease has put on health systems has forced the World Health Organization to speed up this trial. See, randomized clinical trials normally take a lot of years to design and conduct and to arrive at the results. Whereas, if you see this solidarity trial will reduce the time taken by 80 percentage. Because enrolling patients from different parts of the world in one single randomized trial will help facilitate the rapid worldwide comparison of unproven treatments. If you see in case of small trials, they will not generate strong evidence that is required to determine the relative effectiveness of potential treatments. But with the help of this single randomized trial, this risk can be overcome. And know that in randomized clinical trials, the participants are divided by chance into separate groups that compare different treatments. So, here the time is reduced and it will be a single randomized trial. See, as per World Health Organization, the solidarity trial provides simplified procedures to enable even overloaded hospitals to participate with no paperwork required. And if you see as of 21st April 2020, over 100 countries are working together to find effective therapeutics as soon as possible via this solidarity trial. So, the greater the number of participating countries, the faster the results will be generated. And if you see the World Health Organization is facilitating access to thousands of treatment courses for the trial through donations from a number of manufacturers. Also, World Health Organization is inviting developers and companies to collaborate on ensuring affordability and availability of the treatment options if they prove effective. So, this is in brief about the solidarity trial. No in brief about the trial who has initiated this trial and what are the treatment options that are available under this trial. Now, coming to the news article as we saw earlier, two centers in Tamil Nadu have been co-opted for solidarity trial. And this news article mentions that there are certain criteria for enrolling the patients for the purpose of the solidarity trial on the clinical trials registry of India. Like patients should be adults who are aged 18 or above and they should not receive any of the study drugs already and people should be without any known allergy to any of the study drugs etc. etc. So, these are some of the criteria that are mentioned in the news article. This is all about the discussion of both these news articles. To summarize we have seen about what is meant by solidarity trial initiated by the World Health Organization. Then we saw the aim of this solidarity trial and then the four treatment options that are available under this solidarity trial. Now, let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about the Thoda tribes of Tamil Nadu. It mentions about how these Thoda tribes use their artwork during these pandemic times. So, in this discussion we shall see who the Thoda tribes are, their geographical location and also the current happenings that have been mentioned in the news article. See, Thoda tribes are a small pastoral tribal community. They live in Nilgiri Plateau in the state of Tamil Nadu. If you see their way of living, they traditionally live in settlements called Mundh. It consists of three to seven small tatched houses as you can see in this picture. As we just said, their economy is basically a pastoral economy and it is based on the buffalo. The buffaloes are reared on the grasslands of Nilgiri which are called the Sholas and the dairy products obtained from buffaloes are traded with neighboring people of the Nilgiri hills. Know that Thodas are endemic to Nilgiri and their population is quite less concentrated in the present Nilgiri district of Tamil Nadu. See, there is one interesting fact about this Thoda tribe. They practiced fraternal polyandry that is a practice where women marries all the brothers of a family. But if you see this practice is no longer present among the Thoda tribes. Then if you look at the religion of Thodas, they are polytheists. That is, they believe in an indefinitely large number of spirits, gods and goddesses. So, this is in brief about the culture and the way of living of Thoda tribes. Now from Prillam's perspective, know that they are listed as a particularly vulnerable tribal group under the state of Tamil Nadu. If you see the other tribal groups that are listed under this PBTG list from the state of Tamil Nadu are Kartanayakans, Kotas, Kurumbas, Irulas and Paniyans. A quick recap for you about the criteria for identifying particularly vulnerable tribal groups. There are four criteria, pre-agricultural level of technology, low level of literacy, economic backwardness, a declining or stagnant population. And as of now, there are a total of 75 particularly vulnerable tribal groups in 18 states. And in the union territory of Andaman and Nicobar islands, the state of Udisha has the highest number of tribes listed as particularly vulnerable tribal groups. This is followed by the combined states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. So, whenever you are studying about a tribe, try to know if that particular tribe is a particularly vulnerable tribal group or not. Now, coming to today's news article, it tells that during this COVID-19 outbreak across the world, the Toda artisans from Nilgrize are producing thousands of stylish embroidered masks. Here, know that the Toda women are known for their embroidery work. If you see their traditional garment, it is made of thick white cotton cloth with red, black or blue specks. And this is further beautified with hand embroidery. And usually woolen or cotton thread are used for this embroidery work. And this embroidery work is very well known. If you see in 2013, Toda embroidery also got a G8 tag. So, this Toda embroidery is quite a famous embroidery. Now, if you see the Toda tribes make a variety of items using this Toda embroidery design to make cell phone pouch, tablecloth, scarf and shawl, skirts and tops, frogs, backs and many such items. Now, making use of this COVID-19 pandemic, the masks that are being made by these Toda tribes are now being sold in the market. And this will provide a much needed revenue for the Toda tribes. So, this is in brief about this news article. Through this news article, we have seen about the Toda tribes, about their culture, about their way of living, if they are a particularly vulnerable tribal group or not, and about their famous Toda embroidery. Now, let us move on to the next news article. Now, let us look at the editorial which discusses about the contemporary global concerns that are surrounding this COVID-19 pandemic. In this editorial, the author explores the global health crisis and what its effect could be on the global economy and how this COVID-19 crisis accelerates or redirects the geopolitical trends in the coming years. Here, the author has mentioned six geopolitical trends that might shape the post-COVID-19 world. They are rise of Asia, retreating of USA, then crisis amongst the European countries, then the emergence of China, then the fading international organizations and other multilateral organizations, and finally, the energy politics which is the sixth geopolitical trend. Now, let us look at all these six geopolitical trends one by one, which the author has discussed. First is the rise of Asia. See, in historic times, Asia accounted for half of the global GDP. But if you see the industrial revolution accompanied by the European naval expansion and the colonialism of the European countries contributed to the rise of the West. But after the 2008 financial crisis, Asia was economically sound when compared to the developed economies because of its macroeconomic policies. The author tells that even during this COVID-19 pandemic, India and China are the only G20 countries to register economic growth despite the pandemic. Also, the author appreciates that India, China and many other Asian countries have shown greater responsiveness in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic compared to advanced economies like the US and the Europe, because we can see that the rate of infections are on the rise in countries like US and certain European countries like France, Italy, etc. Here, the author has also noted that the recovery rate of the Asian countries from this COVID-19 pandemic is around 30 percentage. This number is high when compared to the developed nations. So, through this, the author tries to tell that the Asian economies will recover faster when compared to the Western economies. So, this is the first geopolitical trend, rise of Asia. The second trend which the author has discussed is the retreat of USA. See, almost for one complete century, USA was shaping the global order. But now, if you see USA's retreating, so here the author has mentioned the historical role of USA in how it helped in shaping the global order, like starting from the Treaty of Versailles that brought the World War I to end, then came the League of Nations after World War I and then after World War II, this League of Nations was replaced by the United Nations and then came the Cold War, which happened between the capitalist Western countries led by USA on the one side and the communist Russia on the other side. So, in all these events, USA was at the forefront. And if you see in the recent history, the author tells that USA dealt with terrorism by intervening in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq. And it also was readily engaging in tackling the emerging threat, which is the climate change. So, in all these areas as well, USA played a decisive role. But now, if you see in the past 2-3 years, this trend is changing. Because under the current presidency of Donald Trump, America's first policy is being pushed. So, here USA is trying to portray a protectionist attitude. We can see that USA is taking efforts to control the supplies of scarce medical equipment and medicines during this COVID-19 health crisis. So, the author tells that all these present events show the America alone attitude of the present government. So, this is the second geopolitical trend, which has been discussed by the author, which is retreat of USA. Thirdly, the author has discussed about Europe. Here, the author tells that the European countries are already facing many internal challenges like expansion of the membership of the European Union to the East European states, who are comparatively poor countries. And then if you see, there is an impact of financial crisis of European Union zone. And also, there is one more issue, which is the ongoing Brexit negotiations. And also, if you see, there is also slight tension and drift between the US and Europe. And all these are further aggravating the internal challenges in Europe. And now, with this COVID-19 pandemic, it has led to the North-South divide, according to the author. Here, the author tells that countries like Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal have accused the Northern nations like Germany, Austria, Netherlands that they are not doing enough. They have accused that these nations have persuaded the European Central Bank to impose severe economic restrictions and measures on the Southern nations. And even during the COVID-19 pandemic, Italy was denied medical equipment by its EU neighbors, who introduced export controls. So, there is an accusal by the Southern European nations against the Northern European nations. So, right now, Europe is also not stable, according to author. And this is where China comes, which is the fourth geopolitical trend discussed by the author. Because if you see, when Italy was denied the medical equipment, China was the one which airlifted medical teams and critical supplies to Italy. And apart from this, the author has also spoken about the emergence of China as a global player. Here, the author has discussed about China's growing role after joining World Trade Organization. Here, the author also discusses about the emerging trade war and the technology war between the US and China. So, now, the relationship between US and China has moved from cooperation to competition. And then, the author has also discussed about the Belt and Road Initiative of China. This initiative seeks to connect China to the Eurasia and the African continent through maritime as well as land routes. So, the author discusses all these events. And he tells that this indicates China is likely to emerge as a global leader. So, China is the fourth geopolitical trend discussed by the author. The fifth and the main trend discussed by the author is the fading organizations. That is the fading international and multilateral organizations. See, global problems demand global level response. But if you see during this COVID-19 crisis, the author tells that the international and the multilateral bodies are nowhere on the scene. They have just merely become the victims of big power politics. So, here, the author has listed certain examples. First, he has discussed about World Health Organization. We know that US has recently blamed China for the COVID-19 outbreak. And it has accused China for suppressing the important information that contributed to the spread of this SARS-CoV-2 virus. And along with this, USA also pointed out that WHO has failed to exercise global health leadership. And it accused that WHO has become a tool of Chinese politics, power and propaganda. Also, if you see, the USA cut the funding for World Health Organization. So, the author tells that all these instances are showing that World Health Organization has lost its autonomy and it has become a victim of politics. Next, the author has discussed about the United Nations Security Council, which is one of the six principal organs of UN. Here, he mentions that the tussle between the US and Russia, since the Cold War till now, is blocking this United Nations Security Council on many sensitive issues. And thus, it has led to the paralysis of this United Nations Security Council. And also, if you see, the author has mentioned that certain multilateral organizations like G7 and G20 are also losing its relevance at present. Here, he has also mentioned about World Bank. He tells that the World Bank is under the influence of the western nations, especially the USA, because of its veto power and politics. So, the author feels that there is a need for reforms of these international and multilateral organizations. And he tells that it can be achieved only through collective global leadership. So, the fading international and multilateral organizations is the fifth geopolitical trend discussed by the author. Finally, the author discusses about energy politics. The author tells that the energy markets across the world are changing. Now, because of this burning issue called climate change, the countries across the world are turning towards renewable and green technologies. And the author tells that at present, USA is emerging as a major energy producer, altering the energy markets. And apart from that, we have this recession which is going on now because of this COVID-19 crisis. And also, because of the fight between the oil producing nations like Saudi Arabia and Russia, the oil prices have also been reduced. And along with this, the COVID-19 pandemic has also aggravated and led to further decrease in the oil prices. So, here the author tells that all these will lead to internal tensions in the oil dependent west Asian countries that are the major producers of oil and it will further create political instability in this region. So, these are the six geopolitical trends which the author has discussed in detail in this editorial. The author concludes this editorial by saying that the global health crisis could possibly come to an end if a vaccine has been found by the end of this year. Here, the author tells that this COVID-19 crisis has given an opportunity to know about the rising nationalists and the protectionist trends across the world. He tells that it will only prolong the economic recession. And this might lead to an economic depression further leading to increased inequalities and polarizations across the globe. So, the author tells that all these geopolitical trends will lead to a more unpredictable and disturbing times in the coming future across the world. So, this is all about the discussion of this editorial. To summarize in this editorial, the author has discussed about how the six geopolitical trends such as rise of Asia, retreating of USA, crisis among the European countries, emergence of China, fading international and multilateral organizations, and the energy politics will shape the post-COVID-19 world. Now, let us move on to the next news article. Now, let us look at this question which has been framed based on this news article. This news article tells that the budget session was terminated prematurely in the month of March because of the COVID-19 pandemic. And in this news article, the Lok Sabha speaker has said that the monsoon session may be held on time. So, in this context, you need to know about the constitutional provisions related to the sessions of parliament. It is discussed in Article 85. See, this Article 85 deals with the sessions of parliament, its prorogation and dissolution. It has empowered the president to summon each house of parliament to meet at such time and place as the president thinks fit. And as per this article, the maximum gap between two sessions of parliament cannot be more than six months. In other words, the parliament should meet at least twice in a year. Article 85 also says that the president may from time to time prorog both the houses or either one of the house. And president is also empowered to dissolve the house of the people or Lok Sabha. Now, let us understand this in brief. See, know that there are usually three sessions in a year. One is the budget session, which happens from February to May. And then we have the monsoon session, which happens from July to September usually. And then the winter session, that happens from November to December. Here the term session of parliament is the period between the first sitting of a house and its prorogation or the dissolution in case of Lok Sabha. The period between the prorogation of a house and its reassembly in a new session is called recess. And another important term which you need to know is adjournment. See, a session consists of many meetings and each meeting has two sittings, morning sitting and post lunch sitting. When the presiding officer adjourns the house, it suspends the work in a sitting for a specified time. It may be hours, it may be days or it may be even weeks. And the term adjournment signe die means terminating the sitting for an indefinite period. And this power also lies with the presiding officer of the house. As we said, the power of prorogation lies with the president and know that prorogation terminates the sitting and that particular session. The president issues a notification for prorogation within few days after the presiding officer declines the house as adjourned signe die. It is important to know that the president can also prorog the house while in session. So these are some of the important points that you need to know about the sessions of parliament. Now look at this question, it is a two statement question and you need to choose those statement or statements that are not correct. Look at the first statement, it tells that under article 85, the presiding officer of a house is empowered to prorog the session. This statement is wrong. The president is empowered to prorog, not the presiding officer. Now look at the second statement, it tells that when the presiding officer declines adjournment signe die, the entire session comes to an end. This statement is also wrong because adjournment signe die only terminates a sitting for an indefinite period. It does not terminate the session. So you should know the difference. So here both the statements are incorrect. This question asked for the incorrect statement, so the correct answer is option C, both 1 and 2. Now look at this question, Pangongso recently seen in news is located in. Here the correct answer is option C, Union Territory of Ladakh. See this question has been framed based on this news article which has appeared in the front page in all the editions. It is titled Indian Chinese troops face off in Ladakh and Sikkim. See two incidents of face off occurred between the Indian and Chinese troops last week. One was at the Nakula sector located in Sikkim and the other was near this Pangongso lake which is located in the Union Territory of Ladakh. Know that this Pangong Lake extends from the Union Territory of Ladakh in India to the Tibet region in China and this water body is not demarcated properly. So usually if you see temporary and brief face offs occur between the Indian and Chinese troops in this region. If you see similar such incidents also happened in the years 2017 and 2019 and geography ways know that Ladakh is a part of northwestern Himalayas. Some of the other important lakes that are located in this northwestern Himalayas region are Dal Lake, Vular Lake and Somuriri Lakes. Here also note that Somuriri Lake is a designated Ramsar site that is a wetland of international importance. So this is in brief about this news article which mentions about Pangongso lake. So the correct answer is option C Union Territory of Ladakh. Now let us see two more news articles which are framed based on an operation called as Operation Samudra Setu. See this operation has been launched by Indian Navy as a part of India's efforts to repatriate Indian citizens from overseas. Under this operation the Indian naval ships Jalashwa and Magar were sent to Maldives for evacuation operations. Here the news is that on 10th of May INS Jalashwa has evacuated around 700 Indians from Maldives and it has arrived the Kuchipot and this second news article mentions about the challenges faced by the Indian Navy during this evacuation operation like ensuring the safety of the crew so that they are not infected with COVID-19 etc. So the correct answer to this question Operation Samudra Setu recently seen in news is option A an Indian Navy operation to repatriate Indian citizens from overseas during COVID-19 crisis. Now we will also look at the remaining three options. Option B speaks about Operation Samudramaitri which is an humanitarian assistance operation to Sulawesi province of Indonesia and option C the Indian Navy operation to evacuate standard Indians from Sokotra which is an island of the country Aiman speaks about the operation Nishtar and option D speaks about Operation Venila which is again an Indian Navy operation to assist the cyclone affected Madagascar. So this is in brief about Operation Samudra Setu. Look at this question Lipulek Pass sometimes seen in news is situated in which of the following states. Here the correct answer is option B Uttarakhand. See recently the union defense minister inaugurated a new 80 kilometer road in Uttarakhand. This road originates at Gatia Bagad in Uttarakhand and it terminates at Lipulek Pass. This route is famously known as Kailash Manasarovaryatra route. This new road aims to reduce the travel time for pilgrims to Kailash Manasarovaryat region. See Lipulek Pass is a high altitude mountain pass that is situated in the western Himalayas in the state of Uttarakhand. It is located near to China India border. In this news article the foreign minister of Nepal has said that India's decision to build this road through the territory which Nepal claims is a breach of an agreement that has been reached between India and Nepal. The foreign minister also added that Nepal will increase the number of security outposts and deploy more armed personnel in this region. In this context let us see about this Kalapani territory which is situated on the southern side of the Lipulek Pass. Know that Kalapani is a disputed territory between India and Nepal. Recently it was in news when Nepal raised objections. At the time when India released its new map also know that river Mahakali flows through this Kalapani area. So both India and Nepal claim this Kalapani as an integral part of their territories. India claims it as a part of its Uttarakhand's Pithoragar district whereas Nepal claims it as a part of its Darchala district. See this Kalapani area is also a tri-junction point where the Indian, Nepalese and the Chinese borders meet. This region has been manned by the Indo-Tibetan border police since the year 1962. In this context you need to know that a treaty was signed in the year 1816. This is called as the Treaty of Sagauli. This treaty was signed between the British India and the then Nepal. It defined river Mahakali as the western border of Nepal. See river Mahakali has several tributaries all of which merge at this Kalapani region. India claims that the river begins in Kalapani as this is where all its tributaries merge. But Nepal claims that it begins from Lipulek Pass the origin of most of its tributaries. So to back this claims both the countries have been showing their official records to prove that this Kalapani is a part of their territory. In 1981 the two countries formed a joint technical boundary committee to resolve this Kalapani dispute but if you see this committee fail to reach a final settlement. Later in 1994 a joint working group was formed to resolve this issue and according to some sources the Kalapani dispute was also discussed during the Indian Prime Minister's visit to Nepal in the year 2014. Till date this dispute remains unsolved. Meanwhile India has constructed this road which passes through this disputed territory. Hence Nepal has raised its concerns as you can see in this news article. So here know that Lipulek Pass is located in the state of Uttarakhand. Option B is the correct answer. Now let us look at the other practice questions that have been framed based on the topics that we have discussed today. This first question is about Solidarity Trial. The term Solidarity Trial often seen in news refers to as we saw during the discussion the correct answer here is option D an international clinical trial led by World Health Organization to help find an effective treatment for COVID-19. So the aim of this trial is to discover whether any of the drugs slow the disease progression or improve the survival and we saw that it has four treatment options. So the trial will compare these four treatment options to assess their relative effectiveness against COVID-19 disease and India is also a partner in this trial. So the correct answer is option D. This next question is about Thoda Tribe. Three statements are given and you need to choose those statements which are correct. Look at the first statement it tells that Thoda Tribes are endemic to eastern guards and are mostly present in Andhra Pradesh. During our discussion we saw that Thoda Tribes are endemic to Neelgris region and Neelgris is present in the state of Tamil Nadu. So if you know Thodas belong to the state of Tamil Nadu then you can tell that the first statement is incorrect. So here the first statement is incorrect. If you go by the elimination technique you can arrive at the correct answer which is option B 2 and 3 only. So the second statement is correct. The third statement is also correct. Thoda Tribes are listed under particularly vulnerable tribal groups from the state of Tamil Nadu and the unique Thodas embroidery as a geographical indication TAC that is GA TAC. So the correct answer is option B 2 and 3 only. Now look at this practice main question from Justinian plague of sixth century to the Spanish flu of the last century. Pandemics have triggered the collapses of empires weakened the institutions and had shaped human society and politics throughout history. In this context discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated the nationalist and protectionist responses of the countries worldwide and how it will shape the geopolitical order in the coming future. Answer this question in 250 words. It's a 15 marks question. Please post your answers in the comment section. The answers will be reviewed and suitable suggestions would be given within a reasonable time frame. With this we come to the end of the analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the practice questions which have been framed based on the analysis of these news articles. 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