 A very good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankar Reyes Academy for the day 7th of February 2022. Displayed here are the list of articles that we are going to discuss today. Without any delay, let's get into our discussion. Look at this editorial article here. This article is with reference to National Health Authority and Aishman Bharat Digital Mission. It states that the NHA has initiated a consultation process on the retention of health data by healthcare providers in India. The consultation paper asks for feedback on what data is to be retained and for how long it has to be retained. So this is the cracks of the article given here. In this context, we'll learn about Aishman Bharat Digital Mission and National Health Authority. We'll also discuss about the key issues regarding retention of health data and we'll see some suggestions mentioned in the article. Before that, the syllabus relevant to the article is given here for your reference. Now let us start our discussion. First of all, we have to know about Aishman Bharat Digital Mission. See the Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi launched Aishman Bharat Digital Mission on September 2021. The mission aims to connect the digital health solutions of hospitals across the country with each other. It aims to create a seamless online platform that will enable interoperability within the digital health ecosystem. According to the mission, every citizen will get a digital health ID and their health record will be digitally protected. Using their ID, personal health records can be linked and viewed with the help of a mobile application. See the mission will not only make the processes of the hospitals simplified but also will increase the ease of living. So this is only the significance of the mission. See a health care professional registry and health care facilities registries will act as a repository of all the health care providers across both modern and traditional systems of medicine. So this will ensure ease of doing business for doctors, hospitals and health care service providers. Therefore, the ABDM which is the Aishman Bharat Digital Mission aims to create national digital health ecosystem that supports universal health coverage in an efficient, accessible, inclusive, affordable, timely and safe manner. See emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, the internet of things, blockchain and cloud computing provide additional opportunities for facilitating a more holistic digital health ecosystem. This can increase the equitable access to health services, improve health outcomes and reduce cost. Therefore, the implementation of ABDM is expected to significantly improve the efficiency, effectiveness, transparency of health service delivery overall. So this is about the mission. You can see the ecosystem of ABDM in this figure. See all these parameters are linked with citizens and patients, right? So this creates a network of data which provides opportunities for a holistic digital health ecosystem. Now who administers this ABDM? It is the NHA, which is nothing but the National Health Authority. We'll see about NHA now. See the NHA is the apex body which is responsible for implementing India's flagship public health insurance scheme called Aishman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Narogya Yojana. It has been interested with the role of building technological infrastructure and implementing of Aishman Bharat Digital Mission to create a national digital health ecosystem. See the National Health Authority is the successor of National Health Agency which was functioning as a registered society. Note that it is an attached office of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and also NHA has full functional autonomy. It is governed by a governing board chaired by the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare. It is headed by a chief executive officer who is an officer of the rank of secretary to the Government of India who manages its affairs. The CEO is also the ex-office member secretary of the governing board. See I've given you the table here which states the key responsibilities of National Health Authority under the mission. So you can go through it. Now we'll discuss about the issues mentioned in the article. See in the collection and retention of health data individuals are exposed to harm. The harm here includes bodily or mental injury or the laws or theft of identity and even financial laws. It also covers the laws of reputation or humiliation, laws of employment and any discriminatory treatment. See the harm here arises from over collection and retention of unnecessary data. At the same time the one size fits all system which the ABDM follows can also lead to under retention of data that is genuinely required for research or public policy needs. So we should first classify data based on its use. By this classification health data which are not required for an identified purpose should be anonymized or even deleted. See anonymization is the process of removing personal identifiers that may lead to an individual being identified. Personal identifiers includes names, addresses, religion, sex etc. Coming back to the discussion now see the collecting and retaining a data saying that the data on patients with the heart conditions will help better understand the cardiac health is a vague explanation. So it becomes essential to demonstrate the study which requires personally identifiable information and if the data are not required for an identified study it should be anonymized. But even anonymization may not be the solution to safeguarding patients' rights in all these scenarios. That is the first issue and secondly there is an issue of right to privacy. See the mandatory retention of health data is one of the form of interference with the right to privacy. The Supreme Court of India has clarified that privacy is a fundamental right and any interference into the right must pass a four part test. That is the first one is it should be legal. The second one is it should have a legitimate aim. The third and fourth are there should be principle of proportionality and there should be appropriate safeguards. Here principle of proportionality means nothing but choosing the least intrusive option available. See here individuals entire health or medical record can be retained on the grounds that they might be useful for research someday. So the benefits of retention of data must be clearly defined and identifiable before retaining the data. Now moving on to the third issue. See there is the question of legality that is there is a question about the legal standing and the authority of NHA. See the consultation paper asks whether the health data retention policy should be made applicable only to health care providers who are participating in the ABDM ecosystem or to all the health care providers in general. But in the opinion of the author it should be applicable only to health care providers participating in the ABDM ecosystem because NHA is not a sector wide regulator and it has no legal basis for formulating guidelines for all health care providers in general. Moving on the fourth issue is with regard to the balance of benefits and risks. See the aim of data retention is described in terms of benefits to the individual and public at large. That is individuals will benefit through greater convenience and choice created through portability of health records and there will also be a broader public benefits through research and innovation. They are driven by the availability of more and better data to analyze. But there is also a risk because the health data is sensitive and improper disclosure of this data can expose a person to a range of significant harms as we discussed before. The harms include theft of identity, financial loss, humiliation, loss of employment or any discriminatory treatment. So effort must be made to minimize the extent of data collected and also effort must be made to hold it only for the amount of time needed so that it will reduce the likelihood of any data breach. So in data retention there is the provision of getting informed consent of the individuals. However, there are limits to how consent can apply in the context of health care in India. In general, health care is a field where patients rely on the expertise and advice of the doctors. So the idea of informed consent becomes complicated. For example, if consent is made mandatory for accessing state provided services, many people may agree simply because they lack any other way to access that care. This issue has to be addressed. So far we discussed the issues that are in the data retention and now let us see some of the safeguards to address the data breach that are mentioned by the author in this article. See the first safeguard is that there should be a clear testing for retaining data and the testing should follow a rigorous process run by suitable authorities for collecting data. The second safeguard would be to anonymize data that is being retained for research purposes and if there is no need for keeping personally identifiable information, the data should be deleted. And finally, all the stakeholders, especially the health care service providers will have to comply with the data protection law once it is adopted by the parliament. The current data protection bill already requires purpose limitation for collecting, processing, sharing or retaining data. So a use based classification process would thus bring the ABDM ecosystem actors and complains with this law as well. So that's all regarding this article here. Let's have a quick recap. What all we saw? We saw about the Ayushman Bharat digital mission which aims to connect hospitals across the country with each other. It aims to create a seamless online platform that will enable the interoperability within the digital health ecosystem. And after that we saw about national health authority which is the apex body responsible for implementing India's flagship public health insurance scheme, Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana. It is the successor of national health agency and it is headed by a chief executive officer and officer of the rank of secretary. And after that we saw the table of key responsibilities of NHA and after that we moved on to see about the issues mentioned in the article which is the collection and retention of health data posing harm. The harm includes bodily or mental injury, laws are theft of identity, financial laws, laws of reputation or humiliation, laws of employment or any other discriminatory treatment. The second issue is the right to privacy. Third issue is question of legality and the fourth issue is with regard to the balance of benefits and risks. And finally we ended our discussion by seeing some of the safeguards to address the data breach which is there should be a clear testing for retaining data and the retained data should be anonymized which are collected for the research purposes and finally health care service providers will have to comply with the data protection law. With these key points in mind let's move on to the next article. Look at this news article. This article is with reference to a confidential report of the United Nations. The report stated that North Korea is developing a nuclear and missile programs despite international sanctions. This report was then shared with the United Nations Security Council. This is the crux of the article in this context we'll learn about UNSC that is the United Nations Security Council in prelims perspective. See the United Nations Charter of 1945 established the Security Council. It is one of the six main organs of the United Nations. The other five organs include the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusty Ship Council, the Secretariat and the International Court of Justice. Except for the International Court of Justice all the other five organs are headquartered in New York City. Note that the ICG is located at the Hague in Netherlands. The primary responsibility of the United Nations Security Council is to maintain international peace and security. The UNSC is composed of 15 members. Each member has one vote. These 15 members include five permanent members and 10 non-permanent members. Five permanent members include China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States which are collectively known as the P5. Any one of them can veto a resolution. That is if any one of the five permanent members cast a negative vote in the 15 member Security Council the resolution or the decision would not be approved. The 10 non-permanent members are elected for two year terms by the General Assembly. These non-permanent members do not enjoy veto power. India is currently one of the non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. See these non-permanent members of the Council are elected on a defined pattern. That is five is elected from African and Asian states, one from Eastern European states, two from Latin American states and Western European states. Note that the Council's presidency rotates on a monthly basis among its 15 members who are elected by two-thirds vote of the United Nations General Assembly. A representative of each of its member must be present at all times at UN headquarters so that the Security Council can meet at any time as the need arises. So that's all regarding this article. In this discussion we saw about UNSC which is the United Nations Security Council and we saw the United Nations Charter of 1945 which established the Security Council and we saw that it is headquartered in Newark and the primary responsibility is to maintain international peace. And after that we saw about the membership. There are five permanent members who are China, France, Russia, UK and US and there are 10 non-permanent members. Currently India is a non-permanent member and we saw the procedure for electing president among the non-permanent members. With these points in mind, let's move on to the next article discussion. See this news article here. It talks about site-specific limits that are to be introduced by the center. This is to be done at the no-build zone around the monuments. See, the 100 meter radius around centrally protected monuments make up these zones. The Union Culture Ministry said that it is likely to be introduced post amendments to the Ancient Monuments in Archaeological Sites and Reminds Act 1958. Note that this was amended in 2010 to declare the 100 meter radius of protected monuments as prohibited areas. Also, it declared the next 300 meter radius as regulated areas. In this context, let us see the current regulations under Ancient Monuments in Archaeological Sites and Reminds Act. See sections 20A, 20B and 20C under the Ancient Monuments in Archaeological Sites and Reminds Act, talks about the prohibited and regulated areas. Now let us see what these section tells us. First, let us take section 20A. See, it talks about the declaration of prohibited area and it also talks about carrying out public work or other works in prohibited area. Secondly, section 20B. It talks about the declaration of regulated area in every aspect of every protected monument. Thirdly, section 20C. See, it talks about the application for repair or renovation in prohibited area. Not only this, it also mentions about the construction or reconstruction or repair or renovation in the regulated area also. Now, let us see what is this protected area, prohibited area and regulated area. See, protected area means any archaeological site and remains, which is declared to be of national importance by or under the Act. Then what is this protected monument? A protected monument means an ancient monument which is declared to be of national importance by or under the Act. Now let us move on to see what is prohibited area. See, every area beginning at the limit of the protected area or the protected monument and extending to a distance of 100 meters in all directions shall be prohibited area. Now what is this regulated area? See, every area beginning at the limit of prohibited area of every ancient monument and extending to a distance of 200 meters in all directions shall be regulated area. So far, we saw the sections and different criteria and the different areas. Now let us see what are all the regulation available for construction activity under the Act in each of these areas. First, take the construction activity in prohibited area that is 100 meter radius from the protected area. See, construction of new buildings within this area is not permittable under the Act and also note that the reconstruction or repairs or renovation of the existing buildings within this area requires prior permission from the competent authority. Secondly, let us take the construction activity in regulated area that is the 200 meter radius from the prohibited area. Here the construction of new buildings, reconstruction or renovation or addition, alteration, modification of existing buildings within this area requires prior permission of the competent authority. So what happens if the construction activity within the prohibited or regulated area takes place without the prior permission of the respective authority? See, under the Act such activities will result in penal action against persons or organization who undertake such construction activity. It may be an imprisonment up to a period of two years or a penalty to the maximum of rupees 1 lakh. See, the issue under this Act is that there is a lack of rationalization of these prohibited and regulated areas of the respective protected monuments. For example, for a monument like Taj Mahal, these areas can be as wide as 500 meters. Hence, it would be right if the decision of the prohibited area around a monument is taken by expert monument committees. Thus the center would soon make a proposal to change section 20A of the Act, which refers to the prohibited area. In addition to this, if the Act is amended, it would enable the Archaeological Survey of India to act against encroachment. How is this possible? This can be done by holding the relevant authorities liable in case of illegal buildings at a protected site. See, this would be similar to enforcement powers under the Indian Forest Act. So that's all regarding this article here. What all we saw? We saw about different sections of the Act, ancient monuments and archaeological sites remains at which are 20A, 20B and 20C. 20A is nothing but declaration of prohibited area. 20B is declaration of regulated area. 20C is application for repair or renovation in prohibited area. And after that we saw about protected area, prohibited area and regulated area. So what is protected area? It is any archaeological site or remains which is of national importance. And after that we saw about protected monument, which is an ancient monument having national importance. And after that we saw about prohibited area, which is area beginning at the limit of protected area and extending up to 100 meters in all directions. And after that, regulated area, which is the area beginning at the limit of prohibited area and extending to a distance of 200 meters in all directions. And after that we moved on to see about the construction activity in each of these areas. That is construction of new buildings is not permissible in the prohibited area. But the reconstruction, repairs or renovation can be done with prior permission. And after that the construction activity in regulated area needs prior permission from the competent authority. And finally we ended our discussion by seeing punishment for undertaking any construction activity within this area without prior permission. Which is an imprisonment up to a period of two years or a penalty to a maximum of 1 lakh rupees. With these points in mind, let's move on to the next article discussion. See this news article here. It talks about the artificial neural networks which function like neurons. We all know what a neuron is. It is the building block of the brain. See the researchers from many scientific disciplines wanted to make a computer to perform tasks like a brain. For this we need billions of artificial neurons to build an artificial brain. You may think it is very difficult but with the increase in computing power mimicking billions of neurons is now possible. This is what we call it as artificial neural networks. This is the cracks of the article given here. Now let us learn about artificial neural networks in detail. See artificial neural network abbreviated as ANN are a technology based on the studies of brain and nervous system. ANN's model simulates the electrical activity of the brain and nervous system. Look at this image here to understand this. See we all know in a neuron the input is taken by the dentritis and the output is given to another neuron by the axon which is terminals. Here in ANN's the exact same thing is happening. Input will be given and a desired output is obtained by mimicking the function of the neuron. So what is the significance of this ANN's? They are designed to solve a variety of problems in pattern recognition, prediction, optimization, associate memory and control. See ANN's provide exciting alternatives to the conventional approaches and it has a variety of applications. Now let us see the concept behind this ANN. See an artificial neural network is used to define inputs and outputs and to feed pieces of inputs to the computer programs. Then the program will make inferences or calculations then forward those results to another layer of computer programs. And the results from this computer program will be forwarded to another set of programs and so on until a desired outcome is obtained. As a part of this neural network a difference between intended output and input is computed. So this difference is used to tune the parameters to each program. This method is called back propagation and it is an essential component of neural network. See it is also observed that instead of the CPU's that is the central processing units, graphic processing units which are good at performing massive parallel tasks can be used for setting up ANN's. See we all have CPU's right for our computers so for setting up of ANN's, graphic processing units are used. And also note that to avoid time wastage in manual sampling, ANN's with its back propagation are used to perform automatic tasks. See this image here, it depicts the concept of the ANN. Input is given and through the neural networks a desired outcome is obtained. This kind of using neural networks of many layers to automatically detect patterns and parameters is called deep learning. See deep learning is a computer software that mimics the network of neurons in a brain. It is a subset of machine learning. It is called as deep learning because it makes use of deep neural networks. See the machine uses different layers to learn from the data. The depth of the model is represented by the number of layers in the model. Thus ANN's using deep learning performs better. See the automatic image recognition of popular images and speech recognition are the two popular uses of deep learning. Many commercial and free softwares have become available which use GPU's that is the graphic processing units and cloud and they offer readily available ANN's. A few popular free neural network frameworks are TensorFlow, Keras, PyTorch, Tiano. Now have a look at this image for some of the applications of ANN's. See it have applications in psychological field, medical field, educational field, financial, traffic, information and even in control field. So with this we have come to the end of the article. Let's have a quick recap. We saw what is an artificial neural network. It is nothing but a model that simulates the electrical activity of the brain and nervous system. And we saw the concept behind this ANN which is nothing but back propagation and deep learning. Back propagation is nothing but computing the difference between the intended output and the input at each layer. And deep learning is nothing but using neural networks of many layers to automatically detect patterns and parameters. What is the significance of this deep learning? See the ANN's they perform better when there are many layers. As we saw now the definition of deep learning is using neural networks of many layers to automatically detect patterns. So obviously to make the ANN's to perform better deep learning is significant. And finally we saw some of the applications of ANN's. With these points in mind let's move on to the next article. See this news article here. It talks about the Bessai wetlands in Gurugram. See it is an oasis or a fertile spot in the heart of a concrete jungle. It has shrunk to a quarter of its original size over the years. Hence the environmentalists are seeking protection for it before it's too late. So this is the cracks of the article given here. In this context let us learn about the characteristics significance of Bessai wetland. And also we'll discuss about the importance of wetlands along with some important conventions. Okay first of all what is a wetland? Wetlands can be found wherever water bodies meet the land. This is the simplest definition of wetlands. Wetlands include mangroves and marshes, peatlands, rivers, lakes and other water bodies, deltas, floodplains and swarms in the forested areas, paddy fields and coral reefs. Now let us see about Bessai wetland. See Bessai wetlands are located close to Delhi about two kilometer west of Gurgaon and eight kilometer east of Sultanpur National Park in Haryana state. The major source of water is from a breached water channel bringing wastewater and treated sewage from Gurgaon water and sewage works. See the core area is predominantly covered with water hyacinth that's a water plant, large typhoon, reed beds and some fields of Paspalam grass. Now let us see the significance of this Bessai wetlands. Firstly the Paspalam species which grows extensively in this area is cut for fodder by villages. Secondly it provides an ideal grazing sword for a significant flock of wintering bar-headed geese. Thirdly a deep water reservoir close to Ashtomondi, Sultanpur road attracts diving duck, cormorants and grebes. Fourthly in the poor agricultural land adjoining the core areas, rice, wheat and mustard are seasonally grown. Now let us see this Bessai wetland as a place of ecological importance. It is recognized as an important bird and biodiversity area. Bird ringing, cams are organized twice a year here. This is done with collaboration of Bombay Natural History Society. Bessai is recognized as a key biodiversity area by international union for conservation of nature that is IUCN and the Wildlife Institute of India and the Bird Life International Global Network of NGOs Protecting Bird Habitants. Now let us see what is the problem with this area. See the problem here is lack of awareness about history and importance of wetlands. Also it is seen as wasteland to be dumped with garbage. It faces a threat of water scarcity, receding groundwater table, flash floods during heavy rains and depletion of greenery. Thus the 250 acre shallow wetland has shrunk to a quarter of its original size over the years. Hence we need to prevent further encroachment with immediate action. See the immediate action is needed because Bessai serves as a Gurugram's bird paradise sheltering 60% of the total bird species seen in the national capital region. Now let us see some of the importance of wetlands. See the wetlands are nurseries of life because 40% of animals breed in wetlands and they are also called as the kidneys of earth because they clean the environment which are contaminated by the pollutants. And moving on wetlands matter for climate change because they store 30% of land-based carbon. See wetlands they minimize disaster risks because they observe the storm surge and they provide livelihood to 1 billion people since their ecosystems are worth 47 trillion dollars annually. See knowing the importance of wetlands now let us see some of the important conventions that are protecting these wetlands. Firstly wetlands are protected under UNESCO that is United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. Secondly Ramsar convention whose mission is the conservation and wise use of all wetlands. Thirdly as a part of Ramsar there is a register of wetlands sites called Montrex record. See this consists of wetlands in which changes in ecological character have occurred or occurring or likely to occur as a result of technological developments, pollution or other human interference. Finally also know that World Wetlands Day is celebrated every year on 2nd February. The theme of World Wetlands Day this year is Wetlands action for people and nature. With this we have come to the end let us have a quick recap. What all we saw? We saw about the wetlands which is the place where the water bodies meet the land and after that we saw some of the examples of wetlands which includes mangroves, peatlands, rivers, lakes, deltas, floodplains, swarms, paddy fields, coral reefs. And after that we saw about Bazaay wetland, its location and the source of water and after that we saw about the significance of Bazaay wetlands which is they are used as fodder, used as an grazing field and it is used as a deep water reservoir and seasonally wheat, rice, mustard are grown in the nearby agricultural land. It is recognized as important bird and biodiversity area. It is recognized as a key biodiversity area by IUCN, World Life Institute of India, Bird Life International and a global network of NGOs. And after that we saw some of the issues regarding this area which is lack of awareness about the history and importance of wetlands, threat of water scarcity, receding groundwater table, flash floods, heavy rains and depletion of greenery. And we moved on to see the importance of wetlands which includes they are the nurseries of life, kidneys of earth, they are crucial for climate change, they minimize disaster risks, they provide livelihood to a larger section of people. And finally we saw some of the conventions that protect the wetlands. We saw about UNESCO, we saw about Ramsar Convention and we saw about Montrex Recreation and finally we saw about the World's Wetlands Day which is second of February and the theme for this year is wetlands action for people and nature. With these points in mind, let's move on to the next part of our discussion that is the practice prelims question. I have taken four prelims questions today for our practice. For the first question, you are going to give me the answer and I'll solve the remaining three questions. I'll read out the first question for you which of the following statements with reference to UNSC, that is United Nations Security Council is correct. Option A, UNSC is composed of 10 permanent members and five non-permanent members. Option B, it is headquartered in the Hague in Netherlands. Option C, each permanent member has one veto in UNSC. Option D, Council's presidency rotates on an early basis amongst its 15 members. So aspirants try to solve this question. It is a very easy question. We saw in our discussion, try to solve it and post it in the comment section. Moving on to the second question, consider the following statements regarding ancient monuments and archaeological sites and remains act. Statement one, the act consists of provisions to declare an area as prohibited area with respect to a protected monument. See, this statement is correct. We saw this in our discussion itself. Under the section 20A of the AMASR Act, an area can be declared as a prohibited area with respect to a protected monument. This prohibited area starts at the beginning of the protected monument and extends up to 100 meters. Statement two, every area beginning at the limit of the protected area and extending to a distance of 500 meters in all directions of a protected monument shall be the regulated area. This statement is incorrect because a regulated area is such that an area beginning at the limit of the prohibited area of every ancient monument and extending to a distance of 200 meters in all the directions from the protected monument. So from this, we know that statement one is only correct. So the correct option here is option A, one only. Moving on to the third question, consider the following statements regarding artificial neural networks. Statement one, it uses only deep learning technique. This statement is incorrect because in our discussion, we saw that it uses various algorithms like machine learning, deep learning, back propagation, et cetera. Moving on to the second statement, it is not flexible and cannot be used outside its domain. This statement is also incorrect because it is flexible and it can be used in different domains. In fact, this is the major difference between the conventional approaches and the artificial neural networks. So from this, we know that the correct option here is option D, neither one nor two. Moving on to the last question, consider the following statements regarding wetlands. Statement one, Ramsar convention is a UN convention to protect wetlands. This statement is incorrect because we know that Ramsar convention is a convention on wetlands that was signed in 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar. The negotiations for the convention started in the year 1960 by different countries and NGOs for the protection of wetlands and their resources. Finally, it came into force in 1975. Here it is given that Ramsar convention is a UN convention. That is exactly why the statement is incorrect. Moving on to the second statement, wetlands absorb storm surges preventing disaster risks. This statement is correct. This we saw in our discussion under the important of wetlands. See wetlands such as swarms, estuaries and mudflats act as sponges for tropical cyclones. As the cyclone makes the land fall, the marshy land and the plants absorb the water and energy of the storm surge. And the swamp vegetation, they prevent the most intense part of the storm surge from hitting homes and businesses. Hence statement two is correct. So the correct option here is option B2 only. I have given a main question for your practice. So interested aspirants, write it and post it in the comment section. If you have any queries related to the articles that we discussed today, post that also in the comment section. With this we have come to the end. If you find the video useful, like, share and comment and do subscribe to the Shankar Reyes Academy's YouTube channel for further updates. Thank you.