 Good evening aspirants welcome to the hinder news analysis by Shankar IA's academy for the day 22nd July 2021. These are the list of news articles chosen for today's discussion and they are given along with the page numbers of different editions. Also, the link for the handwritten notes in PDF format and the time stamping for the discussed articles are provided in the description box as well as in the comment section for the benefit of mobile phone viewers. So now let us move on to the analysis of the first news article. Now have a look at this news article. We by now know that the United States has been pulling out of Afghanistan by keeping up with a promise in Doha Accord and following the troops pull out the Taliban is gaining its ground there and recently even India has been pulling out its ITPB and diplomats as well from there due to the new developments. So this is the current ongoing situation that is happening in Afghanistan and traditionally if you see India has been an expressing supporter of a democratic government there with Ashraf Ghani at the helm and also we have traditionally opposed recognizing and engaging with Taliban and this article is discussed on why India is refusing to engage with a new reality and it also discusses why India should change its diplomatic stance and engage with the new reality. The syllabus covered by this article is given below for your reference. See the author in this editorial has listed down a few reasons as to why India is hesitant when it comes to engaging with Taliban. So let us now look at them one by one. See first is the engagement with Ashraf Ghani. See if New Delhi chooses to engage with the Taliban directly then there are high chances for it to make the Afghanistan president of Ashraf Ghani uncomfortable and as we know he is one of India's trusted partner. So engaging with Taliban could potentially nudge him to engage with China and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization for national security and also for personal political survival. So in our calculation a bird in the hand is worth than two in the bush. So that is one of the reasons why we are still hesitant when it comes to engaging with the Taliban. Second is the structure of the Taliban itself. See Taliban doesn't have a single definite structure with a well-defined hierarchy and it has got a lot of fragments and verticals. So due to this you are not really sure has to whom to engage with in the Taliban and besides this New Delhi has got little access to the members of the Quetta Shura or the fighters on the ground in Afghanistan. So therefore the only option is the leader such as Abdul Salam Zeff but this person is a close associate of Pakistan so this makes it difficult for us to engage with them. Now third comes the unpredictable nature of the Taliban and the suspicions surrounding them because they have been indulging in terror activities that is they are not reliable and we don't know what is their intention. So this is also one of the reasons why still we don't want to engage with them. Now finally and most importantly it would be possible that Pakistan would act against India in Kashmir if at all India engages with Taliban and this could prove detrimental to our domestic integrity. So all these are the arguments surrounding why India is reluctant to engage with the Taliban. Now having said that the author also finds some compelling reasons for India to engage with Taliban. So in the next part of a discussion we are going to see about these compelling reasons highlights the need for India to engage with Taliban. See first and foremost whether we like it or not the Taliban is going to be a part of the political scheme of things in Afghanistan either in one way or the other and a large number of players in the international community are definitely going to recognize and do business with them. So at such a juncture it is really better if we also accept the new reality and make plans accordingly in tandem with our national interest. Now secondly if you see the Taliban today is looking for regional and global partners so that it is recognized as a legitimate entity especially in the neighborhood. So this means that lesser the Indian engagement with the Taliban the better Pakistan-Taliban relations would become. See even though the Taliban is widely considered to be formed and supported by Pakistan still it would be a mistake if we assume that the Taliban will continue to serve Pakistan interest even after gaining power in Afghanistan. So we can say that it is more likely to develop its own agency and also its own sovereign claims. So there are chances for it to question the legitimacy of the Duran line separating Pakistan and Afghanistan. And this was something Pakistan was always concerned about. So to put it in simple words Taliban may not continue to listen to Pakistan and this is one of the reasons why New Delhi should engage the Taliban. See India has spent around three billion US dollars on Afghanistan infrastructure and it has created many assets there like that of the Salma Dam the parliament building etc. So at such a point withdrawing now can jeopardize all the investments that we made there to earn social capital. And the next reason is see if India doesn't engage now then at a later stage it will have many competitors like Russia, Iran, Pakistan and also China who may play a greater role in shaping the Afghan interest. It is obvious that they won't favor India's interest. So it is good for us to take that initiative now itself. Finally and perhaps most importantly we know that Afghanistan is called the gateway to Central Asia but this area has remained inaccessible to us largely due to the issues we have with Pakistan. So we have been investing our diplomacy into Iran and all and except for the strategic foray into the Indo-Pacific, India today is strategically boxed in our region only. And it must break out of it and Afghanistan could provide India with such a way out. So engaging with Taliban can actually bring us a possibility to open into Central Asia. But however in the end India's engagement with the Taliban may or may not achieve much but as far as the author here is concerned he feels that non-engagement will definitely hurt India's interest. So these are the important points that we need to know from this editorial article. Let us now move on to the next news article. Now look at this editorial article. See our country has a lot of vacancies when it comes to healthcare workers and the recent COVID-19 pandemic has put this shortage of healthcare workers in the spotlight and this editorial article has written in this back row. So come let us move into the article to see what it has got to tell us. The syllabus covered by this article is highlighted below for your reference. See recently our union government announced the phase two of India's COVID-19 emergency response and health systems preparedness package. So firstly we should know why this package is announced. See this package was announced with the stated purpose to boost the health infrastructure and also to prepare for a possible third wave of COVID-19. And through this financial package we are actually planning to increase the COVID-19 beds, improve our oxygen availability and supply and also to create buffer stocks of essential medicines, purchase equipment and also to strengthen pediatric beds. But however the package barely has any attention on improving the availability of health human resources. See our country is lagging when it comes to healthcare workers and many of our healthcare facilities have huge vacancies. So upgrading our healthcare facilities without recruiting healthcare workers can be detrimental to our goals and the author of the editorial explains this issue with an example. See in the mid-1980s our government built a lot of new healthcare facilities and new buildings with imported state-of-the-art medical equipment were constructed throughout the country. And we thought these upgrades will improve our countries in healthcare but in reality that was not the case. This is because the number of patients attending these facilities continued to be low even after the upgrade. And this is because there was a shortage of health staff. So this was the ultimate reason behind the failure. So many of these new healthcare facilities were repurposed for something else and these upgraded facilities failed to meet the health needs of poor people. See the discussed example shows that we have to first address our shortage of healthcare workers before going for the upgrade of healthcare facilities. Now for example an intensive care unit bed or ventilator is of no use unless or until there are trained staff to run these equipment and qualify doctors and nurses to attend to patients. So recruitment of healthcare workers should be given at most priority. However it cannot be denied that our government took some positive steps in this direction and for instance the union ministry of health in May 2020 announced that it is recruiting 300 epidemiologists to address the shortage. Also many state governments announced recruitment of healthcare workers in order to fill up the vacancies but these announcements have not addressed the challenge of shortage of healthcare workers and also many of these recruitment announcements focus only on a few specialties of healthcare and it is not holistic. So what can be done or what is the way ahead? See according to the author the second phase of the COVID-19 package needs to be urgently supplemented by a financial package plan and this supplement plan should focus on filling up existing vacancies of health staffs at all levels and in the long run the union and state governments should have to come up with another financial package for human resources to complement the COVID-19 second phase of health package and that alone can make the health facilities to function in a sustainable manner. So this is the main crux of this editorial article. With these points in mind let us now move on to the next part of our discussion. Now look at this news article we know that OPEC is a consortium of oil producing countries. See when there is a cut in production the oil prices obviously goes up. Likewise when there is a glut oil prices come down. So this is based on the simple principle of demand and supply theory. So these OPEC nations what they do is they come together and they desire the amount of production that needs to be done so as to keep the prices optimum and to put it in simple words it is more like a self-regulating mechanism. So earlier when the world went into a lockdown the prices plummeted to as low as $20 a barrel of oil. Back then the demand for fuel was less as many stayed home and even industries were shut and due to this oil consumption and demand was less. So these countries along with other oil producing countries they decided to cut the output of oil so that the prices can be stabilized and the agreement was reached then. But as the world gradually opened up the oil demand picked up but the production cut remained. So the prices went up drastically and in India we know the oil breached 100 rupees mark and India has already seen a 21.7% increase in the price of petrol and diesel and petrol is currently retailing at rupees 101.8 per litre. In the national capital and diesel is retailing at rupees 89.87 per litre. Now coming back the open met again to moderate the production in tandem with the needs of the world so that prices can also be moderated but an agreement couldn't be reached because two member countries were at logariths due to their political differences and other differences and these two countries are the United Arab Emirates and Saudi. See this United Arab Emirates or UAE is one of the leading producer of oil and due to the disagreement that is going on it threatened to leave OPEC. You may ask what is the big deal about UAE leaving OPEC? See UAE is one of the leading producer of oil so only when all the oil producers are on board a coordinated decision on oil productions can be made but when any leading producer leaves then achieving a consensus could become a major problem to alter the productions because already a small trailer to that effect was seen in 2019 when Qatar left OPEC and note that the leaving country would end up having an independent policy. Now besides this OPEC countries have also displayed apprehensions that the oil demands can fall in the near future with a push for greener sources of fuels taking over especially after the Paris Agreement and this was also a contentious issue that was raised against increasing oil output to more rate the prices but the fears have been set aside by various reports and its own report last year has spent hopes on population growth and the report also predicts an expansion of the middle class who will continually depend on oil for fuel and the international energy agency also in the year 2016 forecasted a continued rise in oil consumption until the 2040s so all these issues were discussed over various rounds of talks but thankfully an agreement has been reached on this including Russia which is a major oil producer on board and this agreement is to last till September 2022 according to it they have decided to increase the production on Sunday and this led to the fall in oil prices per barrel on Monday itself this is a news for us to rejoice because we in India we are a net oil importing country so when oil is procured or oil is imported with huge prices then there is a high risk of inflation piling up so these fears can be elate as of now with this fall in oil prices especially when the economy is going through a turbulent phase so with this we have come to the end of this news discussion now look at this news article this news article mentions that for the first time the researchers have reportedly recorded the song of blue whales off the coast of Kerala researchers were planning to capture the sounds of migrating humpback whales using hydrophones but accidentally they captured the blue whale songs see previously there was a suspicion that blue whales are present in the waters near the Kerala coast this is because few carcasses of several whale species beached some time ago and it included blue whale and brides whale carcasses now this recording that is mentioned in the news has confirmed the presence of blue whales along the Kerala coast stretch of the western coast of India but note that so far occurrence of pygmy blue whale has been reported in the Indian Ocean so in this context at today's discussion we are going to discuss about this species the syllabus covered by this article is highlighted below first generally know that whales are a group of marine animals and they are collectively known as cetaceans and there are approximately 90 species of cetacean and the ones which we saw now that is the blue whales brides whale humpback whales and pygmy blue whales they all belong to the family of Baleno Teride which comes under the sub order of misty city so these are also known as misty sets or baleen whales note that baleen whales have got no teeth and they are generally known for long migrations and they breed in warm equatorial waters and they also feed in polar waters during the summer now let us see some important facts about the blue whales see blue whales are the largest animal in the world and even it is the largest animal ever to have lived on our planet and blue whales can grow up to 100 feet in length and they can weigh around 160 to 200 which is equal to approximately 33 elephants so you can just imagine how big they are in fact even the newborn blue whales are about 23 feet or 7 meter long and they roughly weigh about 30 tons and for your additional information they are known as blue whales because they are motiled blueish green color but they appear light blue underwater as you can see in this picture see these giant blue whales are found in all oceans except Arctic Ocean and according to the IUCN they are absent in some regional seas such as the Mediterranean Sea, Accord Sea and the Bering Sea and also there are many interesting facts about these blue whales for example they are the largest animals to have ever lived on earth and they are even larger than dinosaurs also the heart of a blue whale is the size of a small car and it is said that blue whales aorta which is the main blood vessel is so large that even a human can crawl through it and as we know blue whale blues and it is called as spouts see this spouts consist of air and water and the spout rise to about 30 feet or around 9.1 meter high see the whales breathe air just like humans but however as they live in water breathing becomes little more difficult for the blue whales than it is for us and due to this reason most whales hold their breath for prolonged periods of time and to take a breath whales swim to the surface wherein they exhale through their blowhole as shown in the image below and this action of exhaling air is called as spouting or blowing and the spouts help people to identify blue whales as they have the highest spout and apart from this blue whales are louder than a jet engine see a blue whale calls reach to around 188 decibels whereas a jet reaches to about 140 decibels only and they emit a series of vocalizations such as pulses, groans and modes and they produce several types of single note calls but however males are the predominant singers see even though they are louder blue whales calls are generally introsonic and it is too low for humans to hear but at 188 decibels they are one of the loudest and the lowest sounds produced by any animal and that is why their whistle can be heard for hundreds of miles and one such song was recorded by researcher which is the news today see scientists think that blue whales use these vocalizations to communicate to sonar navigate the dark ocean depths and also to attract other blue whales for mating and apart from all these the diet of blue whales exclusively includes krill which is a tiny shrimp like animal and also in general the distribution of blue whales is driven largely by food availability only so they usually occur in waters where krills are concentrated and know that whales are at the top of food chain and they have an important role in the overall health of the marine environment know that like other large whales blue whales are also threatened by environmental change including habitat laws and toxics and these blue whales are harmed by ship strikes or impacts with large ships by becoming entangled in fishing gears etc and they are also known to fall victim to attacks by sharks and killer whales however the population decline is also caused by major commercial hunting in the late 19th century which brought the species to the verge of extension by the 1960s but since 1966 hunting is prohibited by the international whaling commission so for its protection the species is listed on appendix one of sites and the convention on the conservation of migratory species of wild animals and further it is listed as endangered on the high uc and red list and with effective implementation of conservation measures there are signs that the blue whale population is slowly recovering so with these facts about blue whales in our mind let us now move on to the next news article now let us take up this picture for our discussion this figure shows a historic jama masjid in new delhi and due to the ongoing covid 19 pandemic and the fears of a third wave only a very few people have turned up at the masjid to offer prayers during bakrit so in this context let us discuss in brief about the history of this jama masjid and also the significance of bakrit their relevant syllabus is given below for your reference see the jama masjid in new delhi which is also known as the mosque of friday is the country's largest and perhaps it's the most magnificent mosque of india and it stands across the road from the red fort note that this mosque was begun in the year 1644 and it ended up being the final architectural extravagance of shajahan the mughal emperor who built the taj mahal and the red fort have a look at this great architecture see this magnificent building has a courtyard capable of holding 25 000 devotees and also the mosque measures around 65 meter by 35 meter and its court forms a square of 100 meter see the mosque was also known as masjid i jahanuma or the mosque commanding view of the world and it was designed as emperor shajahan's principal mosque and having situated in ancient town of old delhi this monument was built by around 5000 artisans see this monument has got three gateways four towers and two minarets and on the east it faces the famous lalkila or red fort and note that the masjid is constructed of alternating vertical strips of red sandstone and also white marble in the three domes white marble has been used extensively and also they have been inlaid with stripes of black and apart from this white star cases and arched gateways are the hallmark of this popular mosque and the main eastern entrance which is probably used by the emperors remains closed on big days and the main prayer hall on the west side is adorned by a series of high cast archers and also it is standing on 260 pillars and supports about 15 marble domes at various elevations see the premises of the south minaret are about 1076 square feet wide wherein around 25 000 devotees at a time may sit together for namaz or prayer and it is said that emperor shajahan built jama masjid at the cost of rupees 10 crore back then and it can be called as the replica of mohti masjid in agra and also it is said that jama masjid combines the best of hindu hand muslim styles of architecture and this magnificent structure stands on the bojala which is one of the two hills of the old mogul capital city of shajahanabad and also remember that this structure was placed on a high platforms in order to make this magnificent facate to be visible from all the adjoining areas now having learnt about this jama masjid let us discuss in brief about the iidul zuha a great festival of muslims see it is also called as iidul hadha in arabic and bakarith in the indian subcontinent it gets this name due to the tradition of sacrificing a goat which is called as bakar in urdu and the word id derived from the arabic word if means festival and zuha comes from ujaya which translates to sacrifice see according to islamic belief in order to test prophet ibrahim Allah commanded him to sacrifice his very own son ismail and he also agreed to do it but later he found his paternal feelings hard to suppress so he blindfolded himself before putting his smell on the altar at the mount of minna near mecca and when he removed his bandage after performing the act he saw his very own son standing in front of him alive and on the altar laid a slaughtered lamb so this is the belief behind this bakarith festival and apart from this know that festivities and religious rituals mark this event and every muslim was owing a property worth of 400 grams of gold or more is expected to sacrifice a goat sheep or any other four-legged animal during the festival and this symbolizes devotion to god and also is desires apart from this the festival also marks the completion of hajj the pilgrimage to mecca in south arabia so with this we have come to the end of this news discussion now let us move on to the next news article now it is discussed this oped article which focuses on the roles and responsibilities of the public prosecutor see this article is written in the background of the death of father stan swami a tribal activist who was arrested under the unlawful activities prevention act and he was accused in the bima koregon case and was denied bail by the nia court and this happened as a prosecutor has submitted evidence to prove a prima facie case against the accused and the author alleges that the prosecutor in this case has represented the investigating agency's views demanding prolonged detention of the under trial so in this context let us understand the role of public prosecutors in the criminal justice system in india see a public prosecutor is considered as the agent of the state to represent the interest of common people in the criminal justice system and the prosecution of the accused is a duty of the state but not individually the duty of the aggrieved party and they are appointed in almost all countries know that the court of criminal procedure defines a public prosecutor see a public prosecutor is the person who is appointed under section 24 of the court of criminal procedure and it also includes any person who is acting under the directions of public prosecutor see section 24 of this court of criminal procedure says that for every high court the central or state government shall after consultation with the high court appoint a public prosecutor and they may also appoint one or more additional public prosecutors for conducting any prosecution or appeal in that court on behalf of the central or state government and the central government may appoint one or more public prosecutors for the conducting of any case in any district or local area and also for every district the state government shall appoint a public prosecutor now let's see what are the reasons for the appointment of public prosecutors see whenever any crime is committed against a group or an individual it is assumed that it has been committed against the society and it is a duty of the state to provide justice to any group of society or person who is affected by the crime so in india it is necessary that the criminal justice system should function within the limits of the indian constitution and this means that it is necessary for the public prosecutor to act in accordance with several principles and these principle includes like that of equality before law the protection against double-gear party protection against self-incrimination equal protection of laws speedy trial etc so therefore it is clear that public prosecutors are influential at every stage of trial and then they have an ethical obligation to seek justice balancing the interest of the victims of crime society and also of those accused of crimes and note that the public prosecutors represent the public and are not mere mouthpieces for law enforcement agencies so therefore they are obliged to ensure that the accused person is not unfairly treated so with this we have come to the end of this news discussion having done with the article discussion let us now move on to the practice question discussion now look at this prelims practice question the jama masjid of delhi an impressive example of islamic architecture in india was built by akbar khutupuddin aibak ibrahim lodi see this jama masjid of delhi was constructed by the mughal emperor shah jahan he was a noted patron of islamic architecture whose most famous work is the taj mahal and agra so therefore the right option here is option d that is shah jahan now look at this question which of the following statements with reference to blue whales is incorrect the first statement is they are the largest animal than dinosaurs to have ever lived on earth so based on our discussion we can find that this statement is right so statement one is correct now coming to the second statement a second statement is blue whales calls are one of the loudest and lowest sounds produced by any animal see now this statement is also correct because the sound made by blue whales are the lowest sound now this means generally the sound is infrasonic between 17 to 20 hertz and it is too low for human ears to hear now coming to this third statement they are extant in the wild now see this statement is incorrect because they're not extant in the wild and even the commercial hunting in the 19th and 20th century almost drove the species into extension the greatest number of blue whales was taken in the first half of the 20th century with nearly 30,000 whales killed in the 1930 to 31 season alone and over three lakh blue whales were killed in the southern hemisphere alone and a further 20,000 in the north atlantic and north pacific combined but now blue whales have been protected from hunting by the international whaling commission since 1966 and has by this international whaling commission today some population appear to be recovering at rates of up to 7% per year so therefore the right option here is option see that is they are extant in the wild the list of main's practice questions is displayed here you can write your answers and post them in the comment section below so with this we have come to the end of today's hinder news analysis so if you like the video then don't forget to like comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IA's academy youtube channel for more updates regarding UPSC civil services preparation