 Good evening aspirants, welcome to Davy News Analysis by Shankara Ace Academy. Today's date is 1st November 2023. Displayed here are the list of topics we are going to see today. Now let us get into the discussion. Now before we get into the discussion, I have two important announcements. First is regarding Chakra initiative of Shankara Ace Academy. Under this initiative, we are providing 50 plus current affairs classes, 9 current affairs tests and 5 rapid revision sessions. And the next announcement is regarding pre-storming to series of Shankara Ace Academy. The batch 3 of pre-storming to series is going to begin on 16th November 2023. The first test will happen on 22nd November 2023. Other details regarding the announcement are given in the description, you can go through it. Now let us get into the discussion. Look at the editorial article here. It talks about recent railway accidents in India. The editorial highlights the causes of recent train accidents and also highlights the shortfall in steps taken by government. So this is all about the article. In our discussion today, let us focus on causes of recent train accidents and also few steps taken by government to improve the railway safety. As you all know, on October 29, there was a train accident in Andhra Pradesh. The accident happened in Kanta Kapalli station when Vishakapatinam Raya Gada passenger train clashed into Vishakapatinam Palasa passenger train. The main cause of this accident was human error. See in India, we follow multiple aspect color light signaling, that is four aspect color light signaling. The railway line is divided into different blocks. A signal in one block is interconnected to the signal in next block. Unlike in roadways, where a signal in one intersection is not linked to the signal in next intersection. As you can see in this image, if there is a train in particular block, the signal in previous block will have one amber light. Before that signal, there will be two amber lights and the signal behind it will be red. Here you can see the definitions of the signal. This type of signaling is used in railways, so there is ample time for the railway pilot to slow down the train. In Andhra Pradesh, the local pilot in Vishakapatinam Raya Gada passenger train did not observe the signal and moved past both the amber signals and overshot the red signal. So this leads to the collision of this train with another passenger train. So this is the major cause of the collision. To avoid this kind of human error, we have indigenously developed kavach system. But both the trains that are involved in the accident lacked this kavach system. So this is another reason why this accident took place. So we have seen the causes of the accident. Now let us see the steps taken by government to ensure railway safety. First we have kavach system which we saw detail in yesterday's discussion. Then there is rastriya rail sandraksha course. It is 1 lakh crore corpus fund. This was used to reduce accidents at railway crossings, derailments and collisions. Some of the activities taken using this fund, replacement of over aged assets, elimination of unmanned level crossings, upgradation and maintenance of track, rolling stock, signalling and interlocking systems. Thirdly, the government has implemented the electrical interlocking system at 6427 stations to eliminate human error related accidents in railway stations. Look at this image. This is an interlocking system. When a train is approaching a specific section of track, the interlocking system ensures that signals and switches are aligned in a way that guarantees a safe clear path for train to travel. Our government has electrified this to avoid human error. When a train approaches a specific section of track, the electrical interlocking system automatically adjusts the signal and switches to create a safe path for train to follow. Then there is vigilance control devices. Recently the ministry of railways mentioned that all locomotives are equipped with vigilance control devices. This device ensures the alertness of locomotives. In addition to this, GPS based fog safety device. This is provided to locomotives in fog affected areas. So this device enables the locomotives to know the distance of approaching landmarks like signals, level crossing gates etc. Finally the government has also taken up track laying activity by track machines to reduce the human errors. So these are some of the important steps taken by government to ensure railway safety. So that is all regarding this discussion. Now let us move to the next topic. Look at this article. This article is written by Karnataha Chief Minister, Mr. Siddharamaya. This article is written in the backdrop of recent speech of our Prime Minister. Recently our Prime Minister addressed a gathering at the Shara event held in New Delhi. In his address, he called upon Indian people to root out social distortions like regionalism. In response to PM's speech, Karnataha CM wrote this article. He highlighted that our constitution upholds and respects the diversity of Indian states. So according to him, regional diversity is not a divisive element whereas it is a bedrock of our unity. He also pointed out that regionalism reflects the multiplicity that binds our nation. So he said that embracing and celebrating regional diversity is not a threat but it is acknowledgement of our strength. Overall, Karnataha CM rejected the Prime Minister's call to eradicate regional diversity. So this is the crux of the news article. In this discussion, we will understand the positive and negative impacts of regionalism through main censor writing approach. Before that, let us look into the syllabus. This topic comes under GS paper one and it falls under the topic of social empowerment, communalism, regionalism and secularism. So this is the syllabus. Now let us look into the question. The question is, India's regional diversity is not a challenge to its unity but a cornerstone that makes country unique and strong. Critically examine the role of regional diversity in India. So this is the question. Here, critically examine is the main directive. If the question contains this kind of directive, we have to examine both the positives and negatives of the issue. And finally, we have to provide a balanced conclusion. Now coming to today's question. This question asks us to critically examine the role of regional diversity that is regionalism in India. So we have to provide both the positives and negatives of regionalism. So this is how we are going to approach this question. Now let us start with the introduction. Since a question is about regionalism, we can provide the definition of regionalism in intro part. Regionalism is a political ideology that favors a specific region within the country. The people who embrace regionalism give importance to their region in addition to the country as a whole. So basically, regionalism highlights the importance of local identity. Regionalism arises due to various reasons like political separations, religious geography, cultural boundaries, linguistic regions, managerial divisions and so on. So this can be a good intro for this question. Now coming to the body part. In the body part, we have to write the positives and negatives of regionalism. Since it is a 10 mark question, some 4 to 5 points under each subheading is sufficient. Now let us see the positive impacts of regionalism one by one. Firstly, regionalism helps in preservation and promotion of regional culture, language and traditions. Regionalism binds a large group of people who are with the same regional feelings under one number law. This enables the people to work together by setting aside their individual feelings. So this in turn helps in promotion of regional culture and language. For example, in several northeastern states, tribal councils were formed to preserve their cultural identity. Kasi Hills, Autonomous District Council, Thiripura Tribal areas, Autonomous District Councils are some of the examples. Secondly, regionalism brings healthy competition in the society. The regionalist ideas drives a particular set of people like politicians, business persons and activists to work for welfare of their region. This in turn attracts larger people to their side by seeing this other sets of people also start working for the welfare of their people. So this brings in healthy competition. Thirdly, regionalism helps in fostering economic growth. See in India regionalist feelings are so strong and stable. As we all know, most of the states in South India are bifurcated based on the language. So this language factor and associated regionalist feelings brought stability in the region. Apart from this, strong regionalist feelings among the people attract the focus of policy makers. So this helps the people to get better infrastructure and services from the government. Fourthly, regionalism places checks and balance in the actions of politicians. See if a country has single ideology, it is easier for politicians to manipulate large sections of people. But if there is varied ideologies with the regionalist feelings, politicians need to satisfy every section so they work efficiently in order to achieve people's support. And finally, regionalism helps in promoting diversity. See this regionalism allows the people to express their regional culture and identity. This contributes to the existence of dynamic society within India. Apart from this, it will also bring in the feelings of brotherhood between various sections of people. So these are the positive impacts of regionalism. Now let us see the negative impacts of regionalism. Firstly, regionalism may result in regional conflicts. For example, sometimes a hate speech against particular region may end up in conflict between two region people. So this poses a challenge to internal security of India. Also the conflict results in damage to lives and property. Secondly, regionalism may end up in political instability. See the people with regionalist feelings mostly vote for politicians who belong to their region. So it is harder for outside politicians to obtain votes from such people. This scenario sometimes results in lack of majority in assembly and general elections. So this causes political instability. Thirdly, regionalism causes sub-national feelings. See the regionalist feeling of one major group might affect the interest of other minor groups. This encourages sub-national feelings among minor groups and it in turn affects the unity in India. For example, college town movement is affecting the unity of India. And finally, regionalism results in divisive politics. Some political parties may use regional identities to obtain votes. This affects the cooperation and consensus between people and encourage divisive politics. So these are major negative impacts of regionalism. We have addressed the body part of the question. Now let us conclude the answer. India is a diverse country with a diversity in religion, caste, geography, language and so on. Despite these diversities, India is bound together by the principle of unity in diversity. Every citizen in India has a right to express their regional identities under article 19 of Indian constitution. But the expression should not affect the regional identity of others. So everyone should keep in mind that India's regional diversity is the base of unity and not a platform to persecute people from other regions. So that's all about the conclusion. In this discussion we have seen the positive impacts of regionalism, the negative impacts of regionalism and we can conclude this discussion. Now let us move to the next topic. This news article talks about India's deep ocean mission which is often termed as Gaganyan for sea. It is an ambitious program to explore and harness the depths of Indian ocean. So this is the crux of the news. In our discussion we shall see about deep ocean mission. As we saw already, deep ocean mission is India's ambitious mission to explore the depths of ocean that is approximately 6000 meters. The ministry of earth sciences will be the nodal ministry for implementing this mission. Know that an estimated cost of 4077 crores is set for the mission. The mission will be conducted for a period of five years that is from 2021 to 2026. Moreover, deep ocean mission is one of the nine missions under Prime Minister's Science Technology and Innovation Advisory Council. See the deep ocean mission has six major components. We shall see them one by one. First is development of technologies for deep sea mining and creating manned submersible vehicle. Know that under this mission, a manned submersible vehicle called Matsaya 6000 will be developed to carry three people to a depth of 6000 meters under the ocean. Also an integrated mining system will be developed for mining polymetallic nodules from 6000 meter depth in central Indian ocean. So this integrated mining system is named as Varaha. Secondly, the development of ocean climate change advisory services. In this component models will be developed to understand and provide future projections about important climate variables. So this will be done seasonal to decadal timescales. Thirdly, technological innovations for exploration and conservation of deep sea biodiversity. Under this component, the main focus will be on bioprospecting of deep sea flora and fauna including the microbes. It also includes studying about sustainable utilization of deep sea bio resources. The fourth one is deep ocean survey and exploration. The primary objective of this component is to explore and identify potential sites of multi-metal hydrothermal sulphide and other minerals along the Indian ocean ridges. The fifth component is energy and fresh water from ocean. This component consists of offshore ocean thermal energy conversion which will be used to power desalination plants. Know that OTEC technology utilizes the temperature difference of ocean from the surface to the depths to extract energy. Then the last component is advanced marine station for ocean biology. This component focuses on capacity building for our human resources in ocean biology and engineering. To put it simply, it focuses on translating research into industrial application and products through business incubators. So this is all about the important components of deep ocean mission. Now let us see about this, Matsuya 6000 in detail. Matsuya 6000 is also called Samudroyan mission. It is a part of deep ocean mission and in fact it is the first component of the mission. This is India's first manned mission to explore the depth of the oceans. It aims to send 3% to 6000 meter depth in the vehicle called Matsuya 6000. So the purpose of the mission is to explore deep sea resources like polymetallic nodules and other minerals. This vehicle was designed by National Institute of Ocean Technology under Ministry of Earth Sciences. Look at this picture. This is Matsuya 6000. It has a spherical titanium hull made up of titanium alloy. This was developed by Vikram Sarabhai Space Center at Gishro. Know that it is equipped with life support system, support for floating underwater and provisions for collecting water samples. It can be remotely operated even under the depth of 6000 meters. So this vehicle has an endurance time of 12 hours under normal operation and 96 hours in case of emergency for human safety. So this is all about the Matsuya 6000 vehicle. With this we conclude this discussion. Now let us move to the next topic. Now look at this article. According to the article our Minister for Power and Renewable Energy stated that international solar alliance is open to China's participation. So in this context let us revise about international solar alliance. The international solar alliance was started as a joint effort by India and France. It was established to mobilize efforts and scale up the deployment of solar energy solutions. It was created after 21st conference of parties to UNFCC convention which is held in Paris in 2015. Note that the headquarters of international solar alliance is located in Gurugram in India. Now who are the member nations? See the membership of ISA has been expanding rapidly. All the member states of United Nations are now eligible to join ISA. At present 116 countries are signatories to ISA framework agreement. Out of these 116 countries around 94 countries have ratified the agreement. Note that as the news article today mentions China despite being largest to producer and supplier of solar panels it is not member of international solar alliance. So this is why India has welcomed the participation of China in ISA. Now coming back to the discussion. The vision statement of ISA is let us together make the sun brighter. And the mission statement of ISA is every home no matter how far away will have a light at home. Now what are the objectives of the alliance? Firstly it aims to increase the deployment of cost-effective solar energy. Through this it seeks to achieve energy access, energy security and sustainable energy transition. Then it is guided by towards 1000 strategy. Through this strategy it aims to bring 1000 billions of investment into solar energy solutions by 2030. Thereby it aims to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide every year by million tons. Finally it provides special focus to countries which are categorized as least developed countries and small island developing states. Now we shall look at the organizational structure of ISA. See the ISA is headed by director general. He has a term of four years and he is responsible for ISA general assembly. The ISA general assembly is a decision making body. It has represented use from each member country. The main functions of the assembly are selection of director general approval of ISA budget, appeasement of programs that are implemented by ISA, finally determining the ISA course of action. So this is the organizational structure of ISA. So that is all regarding this discussion. Now let us move to the next topic. Look at this editorial article. It is about climate finance. The article highlights the need for climate finance to help the developing countries for their transition to low carbon economy. It also highlights the reason why climate finance is rare in developing countries. So this is a summary of the editorial given here. In this context let us discuss green climate fund and global environment facility. First let us take up the green climate fund. It is a financial mechanism within the framework of UNFCC. It was established in 2010 at 16th conference of parties in Cancun, Mexico. Green climate fund is headquartered in South Korea. The fund is governed by GCF board. The board has 24 members and it functions under conference of parties and it is accountable to conference of parties. The GCF serves under Paris Agreement in accordance with article 9 of Paris Agreement. The main aim of GCF is to help the developing countries to realize their nationally determined contributions. That is NDC ambitions. It is also mandated to invest half of its adaptation resources in most climate vulnerable countries. So these are the important points about GCF. Now moving on to the global environment facility. The global environment facility which is established on the eve of 1992 Rio et. Summit. The global environment facility has 185 members including India. The main function of GCF is providing funds to assist the developing countries in meeting the objectives of international environment conventions. In addition to this global environment facility acts as financing mechanism for five important conventions. Minamantha Convention on Mercury, Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, United Nations Convention to Combat Decertification, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. So these are the five important conventions for which GEF act as a financing mechanism. Now coming to the organizational structure of GEF. It has unique governing structure organized as assembly, governing council, secretariat, 18 agencies and an evaluation office. The GEF is composed of 186 member countries and it meets once every three to four years. The governing council is the main executive body of GEF. It consists of 32 members appointed by GEF assembly and they meet twice annually. The scientific and technical advisory panel provides GEF with scientific and technical advice on policies and operational strategies. The panel consists of six members who are internationally recognized experts in the areas of environment work. The evaluation office assess the impacts and effectiveness to GEF. It reports directly to the governing council. So this is all about the organizational structure of GEF. So in this discussion we have seen about basics of green climate fund and global environment facility. So this is all regarding this discussion. Now let us move to the next topic. Look at this article from text and context page. This article is speaking about state sponsored attacking of digital devices. Recently several opposition leaders and journalists of India who are using Apple devices have received email alerts from Apple. Through the email the Apple company informed that their digital devices were being targeted by state sponsored attackers. So this raised several questions against the current government. See in 2021 a similar attack was reported by leading digital news platform. They said that cell phones of over 300 Indians have been hacked with the help of Pegasus spyware. This case is pending before supreme court but within two years another similar attack was reported recently. So the author of this article says that there are significant gaps in surveillance framework employed in digital devices. So this is affecting the right to privacy and also the democratic principles of India. So this is all about the news. In this discussion let us learn some points about Pegasus spyware. See Pegasus is basically a hacking software which is otherwise called spyware. Now what is spyware? See spyware is a type of malware which is a program or file that is designed to disrupt damage or gain unauthorized access to computer system. So spyware forms a part of malware. It is a software that is installed on a computing device without the user's knowledge. The spyware gathers information from the infected system and sends such information to another entity without the user's concern. So to put it simply spyware is a type of malware that is employed to spy the targeted digital devices. Now coming back to the Pegasus. Pegasus spyware was developed and marketed by Israeli company named NSO Group. The NSO Group provides licenses to government across the world to use Pegasus spyware. Now moving on to see about the working of Pegasus. See the earliest version of Pegasus. Infected phones through text messages or emails. Through Pegasus software a malicious link is sent to the targeted person via text message or email. While clicking on this malicious link the device that contains the link will get affected. But the latest version of Pegasus is more developed. It infects through zero-click attacks. This means that by sending malicious link itself the hacker will be able to access the targeted device and it does not require any interaction from the phone's owner. So this is how Pegasus is used in spying activities. So this is all about this discussion. Now we have come to the prelims practice question discussion. Look at the first question. It is about global environment facility. The correct answer is option A. As we saw in discussion GEF serves as financial mechanism for Minamata Convention on Mercury, Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, United Nations Convention to Combat Decertification and UNFCC. So the correct answer is option A. Now look at the second question. It is about bio toilets used by Indian Railways. So this question was asked in 2015 prelims. The statement 1 is incorrect. The decomposition of human waste is initiated by anaerobic bacteria. Look at the statement 2. Ammonia and water vapor are the only end products in this decomposition. This is also incorrect. Methane, carbon dioxide and water are the end product of the decomposition. So the correct answer is option D. Neither one nor two. Look at the third question. It is about international solar alliance. This question was asked in 2016 prelims. The statement 1 is correct. International solar alliance was launched at United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2015. This is correct. Look at the statement 2. The alliance includes all the member countries of United Nations. This is incorrect. At present, 116 countries are signatories to ISA framework. So the correct answer is option A, one only. So this is the quiz question for you today. Interested aspirants can write the answer in the comment section. And this is the main question for you today. With this, we have come to the end of the discussion. If you like the video, please share with your friends and don't forget to subscribe to Shankara IS YouTube channel. Thank you.