 A very good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankarai's Academy for the date 26th of February 2022. So these are the list of news articles chosen for today's discussion. Today we have four different news articles. In this first news article we will be discussing about corruption, its impacts and we will be seeing the current status of India with respect to corruption. Then we will be seeing about invasion of Russia into Ukraine. Thirdly we will be seeing about flood mitigation projects and finally we will end our discussion by discussing about Chernobyl nuclear disaster. So now without wasting much time let us move on to the first news article discussion. See this article here is about a massive ride on Bengaluru Development Authority which is nothing but BDA by the Anti-Corruption Bureau ACB. See the Anti-Corruption Bureau launched a city-wide ride on the civic bodies such as Revenue Department, Town Planning Department, the personal section of the special commissioner, finance department, health, stormwater drains, roads and infrastructure, technical vigilance, cell under the commissioner, transferable development rights department. So the ACB they launched a city-wide ride on the civic bodies like which I mentioned just now. Now you might have a doubt why there is a sudden ride. See the ACB said that the agency had received several oral and written complaints about officials in these departments. The complaint is that the officers had joined with middlemen and private individuals and allowed the civic bodies assets to be misused causing losses to the government. And as a result of this the ACB registered a sumo-to-case under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 and conducted the rights. So this is the story behind the sudden ride and this is the corrects of the news article given here. In this context let us learn about corruption in India, its causes and some of the measures to tackle it. But before that the syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. Firstly what is corruption? See corruption is the dishonest behavior by those in position of power. As simple as that according to Transparency International it is defined as the abuse of interested power for private gain. Corruption can include giving or accepting bribes or inappropriate gifts under the table transactions, manipulating elections, diverting funds, laundering money and defrauding investors. See in India corruption exists at high, middle and at lower levels also. A corruption of systems and institutions formulating and implementing public policy. They mall practice during defense purchase, public investment in infrastructure, procurement for food grains for the public distribution systems etc. So these can be cited as examples of corruption at higher level. Mall practices at the execution or implementation levels for the public projects or during delivery of services are the example of middle level corruption. The petty level corruption frequently occurs in everyday life. Though the amounts are small it is exploitative in nature. So so far we saw what is corruption and we saw some of the examples of corruption which exist at high, middle and at lower levels. Now let us move on to see the status of corruption in India. See there is no denying the fact that there is widespread corruption in India. Petty corruption which affects the basic rights and services of common men is highly prevalent in India. Besides the petty corruption, the grand corruption scandals break out every now and then. To understand the reality now let us see a report on bribery in India published by Trans International. It states that 91% of the bribes were demanded by government officials. 77% of bribes demanded were for avoiding harm rather than to gain any advantage. It is a misery right? And remember of these 51% were for timely delivery of services to which the individual was already entitled. For example clearing customs or getting a telephone connection like that. Apart from this see Indian economy is sixth largest in the world and it fares pretty well in some of the global competition indices. In terms of the strength of financial institution, business sophistication and innovation we are among the first 30 countries in the world. But in terms of corruption we are ranked 85th by the corruption perception index of transparency international for the year 2021. That means half of the countries of the world are less corrupt than India. And the transparency international bribe pair index for 2011 ranks India in very poor position that is at 19th rank among 28 countries. Note that Indian firms are perceived by international business as highly likely to engage in bribery when doing business abroad. Most of the corruption as well as governance indicators show that there is little change in India's position over the year. Having seen the condition in India now let us see what the impacts of this corruption are. Note all these points you can use it as value addition in all of your main paper. See corruption is a development issue. It can distort the entire decision making process on investment project and other commercial transactions. In India corruption is like a cancer for society. It is destroying Indian economy, democratic and political system as a whole. Secondly corruption reduces public revenue and increases public spending. It thus contributes to larger financial deficits making it more difficult for the government to run a south fiscal policy. Corruption is likely to increase income inequality because it allows well positioned individual to take advantage of the government activity at the cost of the rest of the population. So this is an issue right? And corruption distorts markets and the allocation of resources because it reduces the ability of the government to impose necessary regulatory controls and inspection to correct for market failures. It reduces the fundamental role of the government itself. Along with it it reduces the legitimacy of the market economy and increases poverty. See corruption invariably increases transaction cost and it forces the entrepreneurs to divert their scarce time and money to bribery rather than production. This is also a problem and more importantly black money is generated through corruption and this black money destroys the economic growth of India and its democratic system. Politically corruption increases injustice and disregard for rule or law. Basic human rights and freedom comes under threat. See while commenting on the socio-political consequence of corruption the Supreme Court of India observed that corruption in a civilized society is a disease like cancer. If not detected in time it will surely lead to disastrous consequence. So I hope now it is clear that corruption needs important attention as it has retarded the development of the country. So while we saw what is corruption we saw that corruption is the dishonest behavior by those in positions of power. Then we saw some of the examples for corruption which exist at high middle and low levels and then we saw what is the status of corruption in India. Then we saw what are all the impacts of the corruption. Firstly we saw that corruption is a development issue which distort the entire decision making process on investment project and other commercial transactions. Then we saw corruption reduces public revenue and increases public spending. Then we saw corruption invariably increases transaction cost and it forces the entrepreneur to divert their scarce time and money to bribery rather than production. Then we saw that black money is generated through corruption. So to counter all these impacts many anti-corruption measures have been taken by the Indian government to address the impacts caused by the corruption. We will see them now. See government of India in perseverance of its commitment to zero tolerance against corruption has taken several measures to combat corruption. See this includes systematic improvements and reforms to provide transparent citizen friendly services and reduce corruption. Some of the efforts include disbursement of welfare benefits directly to the citizens under various schemes of the government in a transparent manner through the direct benefit transfer initiative. Other efforts include implementation of e-tendering in public procurements, introduction of e-governance and simplification of procedure and systems, introduction of government procurement through the government e-marketplace. So government has taken some of the efforts like which I have mentioned. Secondly the Central Vigilance Commission was created in 1964. See it became an independent statutory body in 2003 by an act of parliament based on a judgment of the Supreme Court. It investigates cases of corruption arising out of compliance or detection by vigilance wings in the various departments and it also recommends punishment wherever required. Thirdly the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 has been amended in the year 2018. It clearly criminalizes the act of giving bribe and will help check big ticket corruption. Fourthly see the Lokpal is established under the Lokpal and Lokayakta Act 2013. The main function of Lokpal is to inquire and investigate into allegations of corruption against public functionaries who are falling within the ambit of this act. And finally India has ratified the United Nations Convention against corruption and as a result it is expedient to enact a law. For more effective implementation of the conversion and to provide for prompt and fair investigation and prosecution in case of corruption. So to conclude we all know that governance is the key to attaining global competitiveness and rapid inclusive growth. Given the state of India's economic development, good governance is absolutely critical to give us a competitive edge and sustainable growth. Therefore it is becoming increasingly evident that it is impossible to separate good governance and sustainable development. So it is imperative for the government to take necessary steps to curtail corruption. In that direction anti-corruption viewers ride on the civic bodies to be specific on Bengaluru Development Authority is a welcome step. And with this we have come to the end of our discussion. With these key takeaway points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Have a look at this editorial article. This editorial article is written in the backdrop of recent developments in Ukraine-Russia conflict. As you know Russia has started its invasion of Ukraine and has launched devastating attacks. Now Russian President's reason for these attacks is demilitarization of Ukraine. So author of the article here explains three important circumstances. We will see them one by one in detail. The first is how NATO was a major reason behind Russia's actions. Second why the diplomacy failed. Third why the attack was not a great strategic move by Russia. So we will see all these three circumstances in detail in this discussion. Before getting into the discussion the syllabus relevant to the article is highlighted here for your reference just go through it. So firstly let us begin with what NATO did which in turn triggered Russia. See remember this is not something that NATO did now but its action over decades against Russia. You might be wondering what NATO did against Russia. The answer is very simple its expansion to the East Europe. See NATO is the alliance of countries from Europe and North America but when it was created in 1949 it only had 12 founding members. But after that NATO has gone through 8 rounds of enlargements in the year 1952, 1955, 1982, 1999, 2004, 2009, 2017 and 2020. As a result of this elongation or expansion now NATO has 30 members particularly in Europe the enlargement is moving close to Russia. See this is a cause of concern for Russia due to two reasons. First if you closely see many of the NATO members who joined later they were part of Warsaw Pact of 1955. Yes you are right Warsaw Pact was the difference treaty which established an eastern bloc organization countering NATO. And it was composed of the then Soviet Union countries but this bloc became non-existent with the disintegration of Soviet Union in 1991. According to Russia it was agreed that there will not be expansion of NATO's jurisdiction to the East. But NATO is refusing saying that no such promise was made. Plus NATO is arguing that it openly has an open door policy which is based on its Washington Treaty. See I expect this policy NATO membership is open to any European state in a position to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic Sea. The second concern for Russia is that Russia thinks that NATO is encircling and trying to contain Russia. In such a scenario only at Bucharest summit in 2008 it was also agreed that Georgia and Ukraine will one day become NATO members. This further triggered Russia. After this only Russia intervened in Georgia and it even took over the northern provinces of Georgia namely Abkhazia and South Ossetia. So Abkhazia and South Ossetia both declared independence under now autonomous regions recognized by Russia. Here know that both Abkhazia and South Ossetia enjoyed substantial autonomy throughout the Soviet period and wanted to remain in the Soviet Union. This is why they have Russia's support. And in case of Ukraine we know that Russia maintains a historical claim especially to Crimea in the southeast Ukraine. Why because Crimea has an ethnic Russian majority of about 60%. Plus the Russians colonized Crimea long back in history. Apart from all this Crimea is important for Russia in the military perspective. Because Sevastopol which is in Crimea was founded by Russia. Sevastopol is the peninsulas main port and largest city and it is the home port for the Russian Black Sea fleet. But after disintegration of Soviet Union Sevastopol became the principal base of the Ukrainian Navy also. And a lease agreement was signed between Ukraine and Russia which allowed the Russian Black Sea fleet to continue to be stationed there. So when in 2014 it was signaled that Ukraine might be joining European Union and later NATO. This triggered Russia. And Russia in turn illegally annexed Crimea in 2014 this strained Ukraine-Russia relation. Along with this NATO's open door policy further deteriorated Russia-Ukraine relations. But remember on the same lines of Crimea Russia has been fanning separatism in the Donbass region of Ukraine also. This is where the conflict is happening now. See Donbass region borders Russia to the east and the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk to the west and north respectively. Donbass has more than 35% is ethnic Russians. Therefore already the region was occupied by pro-Russia separatists who are assisted by Russian mercenaries. And now Russia declared Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states. So overall NATO's open door policy is one of the main reason. Second reason is in 2020 Ukraine was made a NATO enhanced opportunity partner. This enabled the increase of British and US warship in the Black Sea. So this also triggered Russia. Remember that before this itself in 2019 UK entered into a cooperative agreement with Ukraine to develop two new naval ports. They are Ozakiv on the Black Sea and Berdyansk on the Sea of Azov. So this made Russia more hostile towards Ukraine. Third reason is Kosovo. This was one of the main triggering point in history. See in 1999 NATO alliance bombed Serbia for 78 days. This was to force the then president of Yugoslavia to withdraw troops from Kosovo and allow international peacekeepers in. Here note that Serbia was part of former Yugoslavia and Yugoslavia was an ally of Russia. So this bombing represented a drastic use of military force and was seen by Russia as contrary to international law and attack on the power of Soviet Union. Fourth reason is the failed diplomacy. See the diplomatic measure I am mentioning here is the Normandy format. Normandy format is a dialogue between group of four countries namely France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia, France and Germany or NATO members. It was formed in the aftermath of the Crimea crisis in 2014. See it was aimed at diffusing tensions between Russia and Ukraine. And first they made to resolve the socialist war in the Donbass region. The dialogue culminated into the Minsk protocol which had a set of two agreements between Ukraine and Russia in 2014 and 2015. See the 2015 agreement even outlined conditions for the settlement of the conflict. Overall it was agreed that Ukraine will introduce certain constitutional amendments to provide a degree of autonomy to the two provinces in Donbass region. On the other hand Russia was to assist in withdrawal of all foreign forces but according to author neither side implemented their tasks. So this inactivity fueled the current crisis. Even in recent times there were talks of reviving the Normandy format but as per the author the Ukrainian president did not agree. And even the readers of other countries were busy with their own issues. So these were the actions of NATO and its member which triggered Russia. But will the recent escalation of conflict be advantageous to Russia? See according to the author the answer is no. Why because the transatlantic unity of NATO has strengthened. And fortunately Russia's economic ties with Europe has been adversely impacted. So the sanctions imposed by the US and European Union may not affect Russia now but will definitely have long term impacts. Additionally this will increase Russia's dependency on China that will eventually weaken Russia's position in Central Asia. So author concludes that Russia may only have short term tactical gains but no strategic victory in the long run. So these are some of the important points that you have to note from the editorial article given here. Make note of all these points. With these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Take a look at this news article. It says that the Greater Chennai Corporation is set to work on the development of integrated stormwater drains in Kosas-Talayar basin to mitigate flooding in the northern part of the city. So for this purpose a government order was issued for the release of 87 crore rupees for the 2004 70 crore rupees project. See the government share for the project is 681 crore rupees while the Asian Development Bank is expected to give 1789 crore as financial assistance. So this is the crux of the news article given here. We are not going to discuss the article in detail. Instead we are going to discuss about the flood management measures in prelims point of view. See management of urban flooding is an emerging subject and it has to be treated holistically in a multidisciplinary manner. There are many issues that need to be considered in order to develop sound, reliable and most representative urban flood or disaster management strategies. See the standard operating procedures that is SOP covers the three phases of disaster management for effective and efficient response to urban flooding. The first one is pre-monsoon phase. This phase includes preparedness. Here planning for disaster reduction focuses on plans to respond to a threat or occurrence of urban flooding. The second phase is during monsoon phase. This phase includes early warning, effective response and management and relief planning and execution. And the final phase is post-monsoon phase and this phase includes restoration and rehabilitation. This includes all necessary measures to stabilize the vulnerable situation and restore the utilities. This phase is to establish a program to restore both the disaster site and the damaged materials to a stable and usable condition. Now let us see some mitigation measures. See depending on locality and the nature of the flooding, a number of structural and non-structural mitigation measures are taken. See flood mitigation measures may only lessen the impact of flooding. No amount of intervention can stop heavy rain or high tide. Remember this. Firstly let us see about structural flood mitigation. See it is where physical structures are constructed or modified to reduce the impact of flooding on individual properties or whole catchments. The measures includes building infrastructure including dams, leaves, bridges and culverts, maintaining the existing infrastructure. See maintenance to existing creeks and storm water drainage system is vital to maintain the hydraulic performance of drains. Targeted cleaning of creek systems does help reduce the impact of smaller more frequent floods. Third is the individual flood proofing measures. See it is possible to keep flood waters out of homes by installing solid fences, raising windows, sealing doors with stop wards and limiting sewage contamination through reflex or backflow walls. Fourthly improved traffic access can be done. See it provides a benefit to flood affected residents by allowing residents to escape floods and allowing emergency service access. So far we saw about structural measures. Now let us see some non-structural measures. The first one is property survey. See it is done because house owners, insurers and buyers can understand the actual impact of flooding on each property. The second one is land use planning controls. See it will identify the extent of flood impacted land to limit the construction of urban and rural residential, commercial and industrial land. Thirdly catchment flood modeling and early warning systems. See they are extremely important in flash flooding events to provide residents with the ability to respond to impending flood waters. This may include relocating of parked vehicles, collecting pets and valuables and implementing personal emergency plans. Fourthly developing household emergency plan can help. See every household must be prepared for extreme weather including flooding. Fifthly access to information and warnings. See this gives advices on planning for emergencies and provides up to date information during and after emergencies including major flooding, extreme weather and cyclones. The final is understanding and awareness. Knowing the local flood history and developing an understanding of how floods behave in an area provides the ability to respond in time. Apart from this remember the flood risk mitigation scheme that is FRMS is a scheme under preparation. The scheme covers activities like pilot projects for development of model multi-purpose flood shelters. Secondly development of river basin specific flood early warning system and digital elevation maps for preparation of inundation models for giving early warning to the villagers for evacuation in case of flooding. See under the scheme financial support is to be provided to the flood prone states for undertaking pilot schemes in respect of two activities which I just said. So schemes such as FRMS also help in mitigating floods and with this we have come to the end of the news article discussion. In this discussion we saw about flood mitigation measures. We discussed about both structural flood mitigation and non-structural flood mitigation. With these learnt points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Now this news article is about Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine. The news is that Ukrainian officials had told the international atomic energy agency that they lost control of highly radioactive fuel rods from the power plant. Due to this the radiation levels have increased in the area and now the plant has been seized by Russian troops as part of their Ukraine invasion. But increase in the radiation levels pose health and environmental concerns. So in this discussion let us know about the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster and the concerns associated with radiation. First know that the Chernobyl nuclear plant which is officially called the Chernobyl power complex is in Ukraine. It lies about 130 km north of Kyiv which is the capital of Ukraine. This plant is about 20 km south of Belarus. The Chernobyl power complex consists of four nuclear reactors. These reactors are of RBMK 1000 design. Units 1 and 2 were constructed between 1970 and 1977 while unit 3 and 4 were completed in 1983. And two more RBMK reactors were being constructed when the disaster happened. Also note that nuclear reactors need cooling water. This was provided by an artificial lake that was constructed beside the river Pripyat. See river Pripyat is the tributary of river Denipar. Note these points important from the problem's perspective. See this area of Ukraine had a low population density. People were living in the city of Pripyat and Chernobyl Pripyat was just 3 km away from the reactor and Chernobyl 15 km away. So overall around 115,000 and 135,000 people lived in the area at the time of the accident. So when did the disaster happen? See the Chernobyl accident happened in 1986. There was steam explosion and fires. This was due to the fact that the uranium fuel in the reactor overheated and melted through the protective barriers. It destroyed the reactor number 4. The reasons for this was first the flawed reactor design. See RBMK reactor do not have what is known as a containment structure. The containment structure has a concrete and steel dome over the reactor itself which is designed to keep radiation inside the plant in the event of such an accident. But this was absent leading to radiation leakage. Second the reactor was operated with inadequately trained personnel. Third there was lack of safety culture because it was the period of Cold War isolation. So now what is the consequence of such disaster? First is the radioactive contamination. See the disaster released at least 5% of the radioactive reactor core of the plant into the environment. This was the largest uncontrolled radioactive release into the environment ever recorded for any civilian operation. Further large quantities of radioactive substances were released into the air for about 10 days. This resulted in the deposition of radioactive materials in many parts of Europe, especially in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. So the contamination is widespread in case of radioactivity. Secondly this contamination is dangerous for human as it can lead to death. See the radiation causes acute radiation syndrome that is ARS. This mainly occurs if a person is exposed to more than 700mg of radiation within a short time frame. The common symptoms of ARS include gastrointestinal problems such as nausea and vomiting along with this headaches, burns and fever are also symptoms. ARS will lead to death in 50% of the victims of radiation if the whole body dose of radiation is between 4000mg and 5000mg within a short time. But if it is 8000-10000mg then it is universally fatal. This is the danger associated with radiation contamination. Here remember that the maximum dose required in Chernobyl accident was estimated to be 20,000mg. So you can understand the range of health issues it would have cost. Initially 50 people died and around 150 were diagnosed with ARS. It is said that the accident also led to thyroid cancers in many in following years. And 350,000 people were evacuated due to this. Along with this, millions of acres of forest and farmlands were also contaminated. This means the radiation stays in the environment. This causes deformities in the newborn humans and animals. Overall it caused humanitarian and environmental consequences. And as per the news article, the Ukrainian officials have told the international atomic energy agency that they lost control of highly radioactive fuel rods from the power plant. And due to this, radiation levels have increased in the area. If left uncontrolled, this might also cause humanitarian and environmental consequences in the future. That is why we are discussing this news article here. So in this discussion we saw about the location of Chernobyl power plant. Then we saw what happened during the disaster. We saw three important reasons which led to the disaster. And we saw some of the consequences of such disasters. With this we came to the end of the news article discussion. Now let us move on to the next part of the news article discussion. Which is nothing but the preliminary practice questions. So look at this first question. What is the correct sequence of occurrence of the following places in the Eurasia as one proceeds from west to east? First one is Kosovo. Second one is Abasia. Third one is South Ossatia. And fourth one is Sevastopol. Select the correct answer from the code given below. Option A-1432. Option B-1423. Option C-4213. And option D-3241. See the correct answer for the question is option B. Kosovo. Sevastopol. Abasia. And then comes the South Ossatia. See Kosovo is in Siberia. It is the eastern most among these. Abasia and South Ossatia is in the Georgian region. Bordering carcass mountains. And Abasia is in east. And Ossatia is in west. This region is in western most of these places. Sevastopol is in Crimea which is between Kosovo and Georgia region. So the correct order here is 14213 which is nothing but option B. Now moving on to second question. Consider the following statements with reference to National Disaster Management Authority. Statement 1- It is the apex body of disaster management in India. Statement 2- It is headed by the Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Which of the statements given above is or are correct? Option A-112. Option B-212. Option C-112. And option D-102. See the correct answer here is option A-112. Statement 1 is correct because it is the apex body for disaster management in India. Setting up of NDMA. And the creation of an enabling environment for institutional mechanism at state and district level is mandated by the Disaster Management Act 2005. So first statement is correct. Now moving on to the second statement. Second statement is wrong because the NDMA is headed by the Prime Minister of India. And it comes under the Ministry of Home Affairs. But here it is given that it is headed by Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. So the correct answer for the question is option A-112. Now moving on to the third question. The Chernobyl power complex where the Chernobyl accident happened in 1986 is situated in option A, Russia, option B, Romania, option C, Ukraine and option D, Belarus. The correct answer here is option C, Ukraine. Now the main question for the day is displayed here. Please go through the question, write an answer and post it in the comment section. With this we came to the end of the news article discussion. If you like the video, hit like, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar Ayes Academy YouTube channel. Thank you.