 Oh, very good evening everyone. Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis brought to you by Shankaraya's Academy for the date 23rd of May 2021. Here are the list of news articles and the video is timestamped for your consideration. Now let's start the discussion by discussing some past year preliminary questions before we jump into the news analysis. So here is the first question. So this question is based on international trade of India and this question asks us to identify the correct statement of the four statements. So it's an economic survey based question which is based on our export import trends and I would grade this question as easy because even without economic survey, a regular reading of newspaper or following our news analysis will get you through. Okay, so let's start with state on four. In our general understanding, we know that India suffers from current account deficit. We import more than we export and the economic survey data of 2018-19 agrees with us and we had also seen this in our discussions on the 1st of October 2019 and the 14th of December 2019. So with that information, we eliminate option A and C because they don't contain the statement four. Now we are left in a dilemma between B and D. Further India's merchandise goods export is less than its goods imports and this is again reiterated by the economic survey and we also refreshed this topic recently in our 3rd May discussion. So with that information, we arrive at the answer option D which is 1, 3 and 4. Moving on to the next question. This question is also about trade but it is about India's trade with other countries. So let's start solving the question. See this question is slightly a difficult one because we may not pay attention to these statistics in our everyday routine preparation, right? So with that in mind let's go with statement two first. So we know that India has been trading a lot of clothing and raw material thereof with nations like Vietnam, Bangladesh and all and this information you would come across even by a regular poll-opper news analysis. So we easily arrived that two is right and we are left with options A, B and D and we have also confirmed it with the various Ministry of External Affairs documents as well. So we eliminate option C. Now look at statement one. The phrase consistently increases little hard to digest, right? So we can guess statement one should be wrong which is just a mere guess. Now let us check the statistics for this. The appendix of economic survey 2018-19 shows that our exposed to Sri Lanka was greater than 34,000 crore in 2015 and over 2016 period it was 26,000 crore and in 2017 period was 28,000 crore. So as you can see the values are not consistent. So the graph would be zigzag, right? So statement one is wrong consequently we arrive at the option B. Now moving on to the next question. This question is based on the sugarcane one of the lot many questions on agriculture that was asked in 2020 paper. So there are four statement and the question asks us the correct statement. See it is a tough one because it requires a deeper understanding of the sugarcane cultivation which might not bother us much in our regular preparation but let us also discuss the easy way to arrive at the answer, right? So our 12th standard NCRT biology textbook talks about the tissue culture. So it is any part of the plant taken out and grown in a test tube. So scientists have succeeded in culturing meristems of banana, sugarcane, potato, etc. And with that information we say statement four is right. So we are left 50-50 between C and T and we probably know returning and settings are methods of sugarcane cultivation that is being referred in the other option, right? But by logic if we look at statement two, a plantation setup which has a backup will survive better, right? Even a bud which has a complement will survive better. So it is common sense, right? A set having multiple buds invariably will tend to survive better than one that is having a single set. So we consider statement two as wrong. And on research we also found a few research papers to support our logic. So we conclusively say that statement two is wrong. And if you see we can apply the same jugard and eliminate statement three as well. So with all that information we easily arrive at the option C as the right answer. So that brings us to the end of discussion on preliminary questions for today. Let us move on to the news analysis. So look at this news article. This article is comprehensively constructed based on the new variants of COVID taking hold of the pandemic. And the members of the Indian SARS-CoV-2 genomic consortia and advisory group to the central government has warned about the same. So the entire discussion on this is based on this foreground. So let's get into the article. Here is the syllabus for your reference. So let's begin the discussion by understanding what is INSACOG and what is their warning all about. See the INSACOG is a consortium of 10 labs across the country tasked with the scanning of COVID-19 samples from the patients and flagging the presence of the variants. And it had CSIR, ICMR, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, NCDC, Department of Biotechnology under its radar for its coordination. So you can imagine how high profile this organization is. So it has also been tasked with checking the spread of the variant in India itself. So some of these labs had begun scanning for mutation in April 2020, but it was not a Pan India effect then. But the Pan India work started in January by gene sequencing samples of people who had a history of travel from the UK. And the variants were traced and the variants are believed to have spiked the transmission rate across the globe. So to understand the article further, let's know what is gene sequencing and mutation, right? First, start with genome sequencing. Gene sequencing or genome sequencing is figuring out the order of DNA nucleotides or bases in a genome. That is the order of ACE, adenine, guanine, cytosine and thiamine that make up the organism's DNA and can also be RNA for a simpler organism. And the human genome is made up of over 3 billion of these genetic letters and every organism has a unique genome sequence, be it DNA or RNA. And our coronavirus has a RNA sequence. So that is being sequenced by these labs. And next, coming to mutation, mutation is defined as the sudden heritable change in the genome sequence, all right? So that can be transmitted from one viral generation to the next virus generation, okay? So this is what is mutation all about or coming back to the discussion. So with all the work that this consortia has done, by May 6th, Department of Biotechnology said about 20,000 samples had been sequenced and about 3,900 variants had been identified. So from these studies, what has been the findings? Let us look at that. The foreign variants identified were primarily three. The first one is B117, which was first identified in the United Kingdom. The second one is B1351, which was first found in South Africa. And the other one is the P2 variant from Brazil that was only found in very small numbers. So all these were there. But the new concern was flagged by some labs. What was it? A family of interrelated variants called as B1617 was found. This B1617 is also known as the double mutant variant. This double mutant variant is apparently becoming common in India. This is primarily due to two mutations. We might have seen about this mutation earlier in our discussions. So the two mutations are E484Q and L452R on the spike protein. And these mutations have been individually identified elsewhere. But only in India these mutations have been found together in a single virus. And note that this B1617 family was marked as an international variant of concern because it was associated with the spike in cases in the United Kingdom. And in March, it was also linked to the spurt of cases in Maharashtra. But one relief out of this is that there is no evidence yet to show that the variant is associated with increased disease severity. All right? But if you see the Instacog labs also found that the B117 variant was marked with increased infectivity. What does that mean? That is the infected person of B117 variant can spread it to more number of people rather than compared to the previously discovered corona, right? That is the R0 was increased. This unfortunately is prevalent in several northern and the central Indian states compared to the southern states. So that is how genome sequencing is of viral strain has been helpful. But if you see there are other advantages of the genome sequencing as well. First, the sequencing can help in assessing the effectiveness of the vaccines towards the new variants. How is this done? See, first, before that, let's just understand what is it about? See, when the virus mutates, a lot of its features changes. So the effectiveness of the vaccines that was tailor made for the previous form may or may not be suitable for the new form. That is what we mean by the effectiveness of the vaccines. So how is this testing done? Let's understand that. See, the COVID patient sample is cultured for virus, okay? It is drawn and cultured and the antibody from a recovered patient is used to test the neutralizing capacity. So in my earlier discussion, we saw the antigen is the virus, antibody is the body's immune system when we discussed about the convalescent plasma, if you remember. So the antibody is tried against the virus in a laboratory setting. So based on the trial, the vaccines were effective against the variants, which is a good news. But the rate of production of antibody was delayed by the body because the body finds it difficult to recognize the mutated virus strain. Now, secondly, the genome sequencing also helps in identifying the cellular level of immunity. See, antibody mechanism is not the only defense mechanism that body has, all right? Even at the cellular level, we have immunity and the genome sequencing traced this also on doing that. Thankfully, the vaccine efficacy at the cellular level hovered between 70 to 90% for all the available vaccines. So with this, we understand the importance of INSACOG. So it detects the new virus strain that is being circulated in the population, as well as the vaccine efficacy. But this has some practical challenges in its functioning, the INSACOG. It was supposed to sequence about 5% of the sample, but it has done only 1%. Why? Because it faces shortages of funds and it faces insufficient regions and tools necessary to scale up the process. So it has done insufficient sequencing. By now, we know that INSACOG has a very formidable role to perform in combating the pandemic. These issues need to be addressed to take the pandemics by the horn. So with this information, we have come to the end of discussion on this news article. So look at this article. So this is an interesting article that is published in the journal Viruses. It is interesting because it predicts the future trajectory of the current pandemic that is wrecking havoc around the world. And it draws parallel with the Russian flu pandemic that was prevalent in the 19th century. So in this context, let us discuss about the article, the important points mentioned in the article. Here is the syllabus for your reference. See, this study says that over the next decade, as the populations will collectively develop immunity, the severity of the COVID-19 may decrease. So what exactly is this collective immunity or herd immunity or population immunity that we are referring to very often in the context of pandemic? Let us know more about it. Let us understand it better. All right. So herd immunity is the indirect protection from a contagious infectious disease. This happens when a population is immune either through vaccination or through immunity developed through previous infections, right? So this means that even people who aren't vaccinated or in whom the vaccine does not trigger immunity are protected because people around there are immune. Now look at this picture for better understanding. See, in this picture, we have represented the active infection in blue color. So they are the people who are right now actively infected and who have the potential to spread it to the otherwise normal people. And the yellow color is referred to by the recovered or the vaccinated population. See, the recovered population will also have the immunity and the vaccinated population will also have the immunity against this particular disease and concern. And now they act as a buffer for the uninfected person who is represented by the pink color in the middle. So they act as a buffer between them and the infected person. So once herd immunity has been achieved for a while, the ability of the disease to spread is hindered and the disease can eventually be eliminated in the long run. So this is how we eradicated smallpox and all from the world. And this principle of immunity called as ring immunity is also being actively adopted for other diseases currently like Ebola to save some set of people. All right. So coming back to the article, but there are some challenges in creating herd immunity. Let's see how see the more the infectious disease, the greater the population immunity needed to ensure herd immunity. How for example, take measles. All right. Measles is highly contagious and one person with measles can infect up to 18 other people, which means the R naught of the measles is 18. And this means that around 95 percentage of the people need to be immune in order for a wider group to have immunity. The current coronavirus is that it has lower infection rate. The R naught is hovering between two and three, right? That is an infected person can pass on the infection for two or three people only. And this means that the herd immunity can be easily achieved when around 60 percentage of the population become immune to COVID-19. However, natural herd immunity achieved through infection rather than vaccination is very expensive. How is it expensive? Infected population would have seen a lot of serious illnesses, a lot of deaths and the health system will be overwhelmed. And this is the case even in the high income countries, right? So this is why herd immunity is generally pursued through vaccination program and WHO is also pushing for larger amount of vaccinations. So that said, even then, there are some challenges. Even when vaccines are available, it is not always possible to achieve herd immunity for very long, because some viruses such as seasonal flu mutate frequently, awaiting the body's immune response. So a mutated virus will not be the same as the previous virus. So it will be easy for the mutated virus to get past the immune system, which is only accustomed to battle the virus that was prevalent in the previous form, the same is happening with the novel coronavirus as well. So immunity doesn't always last forever, which is why flu shot is necessary every single year, right? Now coming back to the article, the researchers gives the example of the Russian flu pandemic in the late 19th century. This Russian flu is also called as Asiatic flu and it was a great pandemic in the 19th century that killed a lot of people. Though the agent responsible for it is not confirmed, studies say that it might not be a coronavirus, right? The agent caused the pandemic when it was severe, right? And the severity SARS-CoV-2 could similarly lessen over time. And the studies say that as more adults become partially immune, severe infections may disappear over the next decade. Then the only people who will be exposed to the virus for the first time will be the children, but they are naturally less prone to the severe disease in the unmutated form. So the article says that the research could not account for the new variants of the COVID-19, right? So as we have discussed, new variants will make it difficult to achieve herd immunity. And if new virus variants overcome partial immunity, then COVID-19 could become worse than what it is right now, right? So this article thus has tried to give a trajectory of the current pandemic, drawing parallels from the Russian flu pandemic that was prevalent in the 19th century. With this information, let's move on to the next segment. Now, let us take up this news article. This news article reports about the seventh meeting of BRICS Astronomy Working Group. See, under the Science, Technology and Innovation track of BRICS 2021, India virtually hosted the seventh meeting of BRICS Astronomy Working Group. And it witnessed participation from all the five BRICS countries, apart from other researchers, right? And it recommended for the networking of existing telescopes in the BRICS countries and in creating regional data network thereof. So in this slide, let us see some facts about BRICS. So we know BRICS is an acronym refers to the group of countries that is Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. These five major emerging countries together represent about 41 percentage of the global population, 24 percentage of the global GDP and 16 percentage of the global trade. So you can imagine how powerful this grouping is, right? Now, let us quickly go through the evolution of BRICS. The term BRICS was originally coined in 2001 as BRICS by the Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill in his report. And as a formal grouping, BRICS, BRICS started after the meeting of the leaders of Russia, India and China in St. Petersburg on the margins of G8 outreach in 2006. And later in 2009, the first BRICS summit was held in Jakaterinburg in Russia. Later in 2011, South Africa joined the BRICS to become BRICS. Thus the BRICS reached its final composition. Since then, BRICS has been meeting annually, but the notable achievement of the BRICS was in the sixth BRICS summit, which culminated in the Fortaleza Declaration. The sites signed the agreement on two major areas, one is New Development Bank, another one is Treaty for the Establishment of BRICS Contingency Reserve Agreement. These institutions will possess a total of 200 billion US dollars. Now let us quickly breeze through the agreements for the exam purpose. So as we saw, we will first start with the New Development Bank or the NDB. See, the New Development Bank was established in Fortaleza in 2014 and it supplements the financial institutions for alike World Bank and all. And the New Development Bank's key area of operation are clean energy, transport, infrastructure, irrigation, sustainable urban development and economic cooperation among the member countries. And the notable feature is that all the member countries possess equal rights unlike the Bretton Woods system of IMF and World Bank. In these institutions, we know that the voting rights are based on a lot of variables, right? So that is not the case here. And see, the New Development Bank is open to membership. It is not limited to the BRICS nations alone, but the share of BRICS members shall not fall below 55 percentage. So that is the only criteria that is being employed. And if you see the headquarters, the New Development Bank is headquartered in Shanghai. Remember, it is headquartered in Shanghai. Now let us move on to the next agreement that is the contingency reserve agreement. See, this was launched considering the increasing instances of global financial crisis, okay? The BRICS nations signed the BRICS contingency reserve agreement in 2014 as a part of the Fortaleza declaration as we just saw. And the BRICS contingency reserve agreement aims to provide a short-term liquidity support to the members through currency swaps to help mitigating the balance of payment crisis situations that the member nations may face. And it also aims to further strengthen the financial stability of the member nations. See, the initial total committed resource of the contingency reserve agreement has been 100 billion US dollars. And the contingency reserve agreement would also contribute to the strengthening of the global financial safety net. And it will complement the existing international agreements like IMF. And if you see the shares, the China has the highest share in the contingency reserve agreement. And India has about 18 percent, whereas China has about 41 percentage of the share in contingency reserve agreement. So with this information, let's conclude our discussion on BRICS. Now look at this news article. This news article mentions that doctors have suggested patients with inflammatory bowel disease IBD to get vaccinated for COVID-19. And doctors have urged to do this because of IBD patients get infected. There is a higher possibility of the COVID-19 disease becoming very severe in these patients. But according to studies, it should also be noted that due to medications taken by IBD patients, efficacy of the vaccine is also slightly lower. So in this context, let us see about inflammatory bowel disease. We will be referring to inflammatory bowel disease as IBD subsequently in this discussion. So IBD is characterized by chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. That is, what is gastrointestinal tract? It is the passage from mouth to the anus, including the esophagus, stomach, spinters, intestines and everything. And what is inflammation? Inflammation means red, swollen or something painful. See, this prolonged inflammation results in the damage to GI tract, gastrointestinal tract, which can result in other conditions. See, if a digestive system is healthy, food moves smoothly through the digestive system and out of the body. During this, the body absorbs the needed nutrients from the food and the rest passes out. But for someone with IBD, a part of their digestive system is always inflamed. And because of this, the digestive system of the body cannot absorb the required nutrients that is to be taken from the food. And this in turn can lead to bowel nutrition or can lead to other symptoms of IBD or even other health problems such as anemia. Now, here note that IBD is a broad term which includes two other diseases called Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Crohn's disease can affect any part of the GI and mostly it affects the portion of the small intestine before the large intestine. On the other hand, ulcerative colitis occurs in the large intestine and the rectum. And if you see how IBD is caused, let's understand the disease. See, IBD is a result of defective immune system. Either it is over expressive or under expressive. Normally, a proper functioning immune system protects our body by attacking the foreign organisms such as viruses and bacteria. But the IBD, the immune system responds incorrectly to the environmental triggers which results in inflammation of the GI tract. And other than this genetic predilection is also there. And apart from that, smoking also increases the risk of developing this disease. And some studies suggest that the risk of developing IBD is higher for women taking antibiotics, birth control pills and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin and ibuprofen. So, what are the symptoms? Symptoms are persistent diarrhea, abdominal pain, rectal bleeding and bloody stools, weight loss and fatigue. So, the common treatment is either medication. In the worser cases, surgery is also recommended. The common medications that is being taken are amino salicylates, corticosteroids such as prednisolone and immunomodulators. If you see, the patients are taking steroids and immunomodulators and that is all the more reason why the immune system of these patients are defective and why the COVID-19 can progress into a severe form. So, that is exactly why the doctors have been encouraging these patients to take vaccines proactively. So, with this information, let's conclude our discussion on inflammatory bowel disease. Let's move on to the next segment. Now, look at this article. This article talks about white flies. This is an invasive insect that is now found almost everywhere in India. So, in this context, let us discuss in detail about white flies. So, pay attention here because we know in 2020, question paper, a lot of questions were pertaining to agriculture. So, let's focus on this topic. See, white flies or snow flies are tiny sap-sucking insects which is often found on the underside of the leaves and they are related to other sucking insects such as aphids, mealybugs and scale insects and they tend to fly when the plant is disturbed. And the white fly adults resemble small moths and the body and the wings are covered in a powdery white wax and the nymphs of larvae are flattered and overshaped and look more like a scale insect. Have a look at this image for a better understanding and know that the spiraling white fly is native to Caribbean islands and the Central America and they probably came to India either from Sri Lanka or Maldives and in India it was first reported in 1993 in Kerala on the Tapioca plants. What are the plants is commonly feed on? See, the pest is highly polyfagus that is it can eat on large different varieties and it infest about two eighty different plant species only in India and the eggs are laid in a typical spiral pattern from which the white fly derives its common name and know that the development of spiraling white fly from egg to adult occupies about twenty to thirty days and the heavy sporadic rains and cool temperatures result in temporary direction in the population. So, as you can see it is more of a tropical phenomenon, right? And the news article says that the spiraling white fly allurodicus disperses is now distributed throughout India except JNK. Similarly, the rugos spiraling white fly is now spread throughout the country including the islands of Andaman and Lakshadeep. See, the white flies produce a sticky substance known as the honeydew. See, it is on this which is sooty mold can develop and the lower number of white flies are not usually damaging in themselves, all right? The adult by themselves will not cause any significant damage but what is damaging is that the viruses that these flies transmit. The viral symptoms include irregular ripening in tomatoes, blanching in carrots and broccoli and others. And when they are present in large number, the white flies when they are present in large number, white fly feeding can affect the plant growth causing distortion, discoloration, yellowing or silverying of the leaves, all right? And the white flies can be a problem of fruit trees as well and ornamental vegetable trees as well. And some species of white flies have a wide host range and the silver leaf white fly attacks more than five hundred different species globally, all right? And in North India, white fly is present throughout the year due to the wide range of crops grown, shifting from one crop to the other because they are polyphagous, right? But more damage is caused by the cotton leaf curl virus that is transmitted by the same insect as we saw before. There are no control measures for this virus. Now, coming to the cotton, the disease affected plants are stunted with fewer number of balls and reduced yields. Besides, the infected plants serve as a source of inoculums and infestation for the remaining healthy fields as well. So, how can this be controlled? The application of chemicals like dimethioate, triazopause, monocrotophause and cultural practices like pruning of the infested plants cause only temporary reduction in the population of the spiraling white fly. So, these are all temporary measures only and long-term measures are still yet to be devised. So, you can imagine the menace this white fly is causing to the Indian agriculture. So, with that information, we have come to the end of discussion on the white flies. So, with that article, we are in the last segment of the discussion today. We are here to test our knowledge that we gained from the discussion. So, let's go over the practice problems question one by one. We have four questions for discussion today. So, let's start with the first. With reference to the herd immunity, which of the following statement is incorrect? Pay attention. It asks for the incorrect statement. So, let's start with statement B and C. We infer from the discussion that statement B and C are correct. All right. If herd immunity is achieved, even people in whom the vaccine doesn't trigger immunity are protected. Yes, this is true. And the more infectious a disease, the greater the population immunity needed to ensure herd immunity. Yes, we saw that also to be true. For example, measles, the herd immunity that was to be achieved was 95 percent. But for COVID, it was only about 60 percent, right? Now, coming to statement A. So, statement A is incorrect because herd immunity is the indirect protection from a contagious infectious disease. And this happens when a population is immune either through vaccination or immunity developed through previous infection. So, with that, we arrive at the answer as option A. So, moving on to the next question. So, this question is based on the IBD, that is inflammatory bowel disease that we saw in the discussion. Consider the statement. There are three statements and we are supposed to identify the correct statement. The first statement is, Crohn's disease affects the respiratory system of a body. See, we know this statement is incorrect because it primarily affects the gastrointestinal tract or the digestive system of the body. So, first statement is incorrect. So, we are eliminating option A. And the second statement says, exact cause of IBD is unknown and we also saw this in discussion. Yes, the exact cause is unknown. So, statement 2 is right. So, we are narrowing down to option B and D. And coming to the third statement, there is no treatment available for IBD. This statement is incorrect. We saw medications and surgery as the available treatment options for IBD. So, the correct answer for this is option B. With that, let's move on to the next question. So, this question is about BRICS, which we saw in the discussion today. So, question asks us to identify the right statement. The first statement is, India is a founding member of BRICS. Yes, India is a founding member of BRICS. So, statement 1 is correct. And Asian Development Bank is an arrangement under BRICS. So, this statement is incorrect because New Development Bank is the arrangement under the BRICS. The Asian Development Banks is not an arrangement under BRICS, but primarily a Japanese initiative in which India is a founding member. So, the correct option is option A. Moving on to the next question. This question is about spiraling whiteflies, which we saw in the discussion. And we are supposed to identify the correct statement in this. So, the first statement is, when present in large numbers, whitefly feeding can affect plant growth, causing distortion or silvery of leaves. Statement 1 is correct, which we infer from the discussion. Coming to statement 2, statement 2 is incorrect because the spiraling whitefly is native to Caribbean islands. We saw this also in discussion. Caribbean islands and Central America. And it probably came to India either from Sri Lanka or Maldives. Now, the third statement, the whiteflies are highly polyphagous. Yes, they are highly polyphagous. What is polyphagous? Something that feeds on multiple sources. So, we saw that they infest about 280 plant species only in India. So, statement 3 is correct. So, our option is option C. So, with this, we have come to the end of prelims question discussion. And here are some main questions. I suggest you to write the answers and post it in the comment section for peer review. And if you like the video, like, share, comment and subscribe. That's it for today's news analysis. Stay home, stay safe, good day.