 Good evening, aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankarae's Academy for the date 2nd and 3rd June of 2019. Displayed are the news articles chosen for today's analysis for 2nd June along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Tiruvannanda Para Medicines and here are the news articles chosen for 3rd June analysis along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Tiruvannanda Para Medicines. The link for the handed notes in the PDF format and this time-champing for the displayed articles has been provided in the description box below and for the benefit of smartphone users, the time-stamping is also provided in the comments section. Let's move on to our first article for the day. This article appeared on 2nd June and it is about the arguments of National Highway Authority of India with respect to the Chennai Salem Eight Lane Greenfield Expressway. The discussion based on this article will be relevant in your prelims syllabus under the area of current events of national importance and also in economic and social development. Recently, on April 8, Madras High Court has given an order quashing or cancelling the land acquisition notifications for the proposed Chennai Salem Eight Lane Greenfield Expressway. In response to this order by the Madras High Court, the NHAI has filed a special leave petition at the Supreme Court. It has urged the Supreme Court to stay or to make the order inactive given by the High Court. The proposed Chennai Salem Eight Lane Greenfield Expressway is a part of the scheme Bharat Mala Pariyojana Phase 1. Bharat Mala Pariyojana Phase 1 also includes balanced road works under National Highway Development Program or in short NHDP. When we say Phase 1, we mean implementation over a five-year period that is from 2017 to 18 to 2021 to 22. It aims to have a better people-to-people connectivity as it has the potential to change road infrastructure and the road use experience in most parts of the country. It aims to set up 50 corridors with better wide roads that is with a minimum four-lane configuration to enhance connectivity by having world-class road infrastructure for more than 550 districts in the country. It aspires to facilitate high-volume freight movement that is up to 70 to 80 percent of the freight. Then efforts will be taken to have decongested roads by having ring roads, bypasses, elevated roads, grade interchanges at key cities, etc. Then it will set up a Greenfield Expressway to have high-speed freight and passenger movement. Next, the Bharat Mala Pariyojana plans to have improved first-mile and last-mile connectivity to the industrial zones. It also aims to have improved trade facility and to increase trade with countries such as Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Myanmar. Strategically, it aims to have improved road infrastructure at border areas for meeting strategic requirements. Then, seamless road connectivity to key ports and the coastal economic zones is also to be made. Also, provisioning of pedestrian facilities, grade-separated intersections, access-controlled highways for safer roads and improved road use experiences will be made. These are the key features of the Bharat Mala Pariyojana. Now, here we saw that under the program, the government aspires to have high-speed freight and passenger movement by setting up of Greenfield Expressways. It is under this head the proposed Chennai Salem Expressway comes. Chennai and Salem are two districts in the state of Tamil Nadu. The National Highway Authority of India has asked the Supreme Court to stay the High Court judgment because NHAI feels if this judgment is not state, then it will lead to multiple litigations in all such mega projects by various litigants. The NHAI states that this litigation and the resulting process in the court would cause adverse impacts on the economic and overall development of all such projects on an all India basis. This litigation and the associated process will also delay these projects. It has stated that the Madras High Court's requirement to get the environmental clearance even before acquisition of lands will indefinitely delay all ongoing and the future infrastructure projects in the country. The Chennai Salem Greenfield Expressway was finalized to have the advantage of creating straighter, shorter and faster connectivity at a much lower cost. Also, to considerably reduce the traffic on the Chennai-Krishnagiri section of the Golden Quadrilateral and the Chennai-Ullundur-Pet section of the Chennai-Madurai Economic Corridor also. This project was chosen over other proposals because other proposals had the problem of higher land acquisition costs and there would have been a need for relatively more rehabilitation and resettlement. The other proposals also had the need for cutting trees and shifting pipelines and electricity posts. We saw that the Salem-Chennai Expressway is being called as a Greenfield Expressway. A Greenfield Expressway means that the project is constructed on unused land where there is no need to demolish or remodel an existing structure. It also refers to something that is built from the scratch. It is also that the Greenfield projects do not require felling of trees and demolition of structures. There are no clear-cut definitions available. The government in this case takes the relative cost, relative felling of trees etc over other project proposals to declare as a Greenfield project. Here the main reason why they are calling the Chennai Salem Expressway as a Greenfield Expressway is that this project is planned to start fresh right from the scratch. The reasons we have discussed in these articles are the central government's way of convincing the judiciary to stay the high court judgment. We will see the other side in the coming days as this corridor and several of the other corridors will be news frequently. With this we have come to the end of this article discussion. The displayed prelims question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next article which appeared on June 2. This news article is about the generalised system of preferences status. The analysis of this article will be relevant in your prelims preparation under current events of national and international importance and will be relevant in your main preparation in general studies paper 2 under bilateral agreements involving India and affecting India's interests. Next in effect of policies and politics of developed countries on India's interests and also in general studies paper 3 under Indian economy and issues relating to growth and development. The article talks about the suspension of generalised system of preferences that is GSP eligibility to India by USA president. The US president has issued a proclamation that ended the trade benefits to India. This will come into effect from June 5. US has suspended GSP status to India on the argument that India has not assured the United States that India will provide equitable and reasonable access to its markets. If you see GSP is a program that seeks to aid developing countries by giving some of their products non reciprocal duty free access to US markets. It was aimed at providing economic development to the developing countries by importing their goods and services. According to the congressional research service in 2018 some 6.3 billion dollars of Indian merchandise exports to the US were covered by GSP. This represents 11 percent of all merchandise from India. India was the largest beneficiary of the GSP program. India's exports accounted for over one quarter of all the US's GSP covered imports. Because of this move by USA the industries that are likely to be affected are gem and jewelry, leather and processed foods industries. This move by US would also cost American companies 300 million dollars in additional annual tariffs. The American importers will have to pay more while some American exporters will continue to face current market access barriers in India and others including farmers are very likely to be subject to new retaliatory tariffs in the future. If you see there is one more news article on GSP in page 8 of June 2 newspaper. It is titled India hopes GSP issues will be resolved. As the program mentions GSP aims to give a non reciprocal duty free access but US itself has cancelled the status on the argument that India is not giving a reciprocal access to its markets to USA. We can see that US has a wrong intention in this matter. India's commerce secretary has stressed that the move by USA will have a minimal and moderate impact amounting to only 190 million dollars on the total value of India's exports to the US which is valued at 5.6 billion dollars. India's stand is that like the US and other nations India shall always uphold its national interest in these matters. The secretary has also stated that India has significant development ambitions and concerns. Also Indian people aspire for better standards of living. So all these factors would remain the guiding factor in the government's approach in this matter. If you see the decision to withdraw special trade status of India was notified on March 4, 2019 itself. The opposition party in India has attacked the ruling party that it has not taken any action since the notification. And because of this sectors like agriculture, auto parts, pharmaceutical are already facing serious crisis. Also up to 66% of Indian exports would be impacted by this decision of US. The opposition party has urged that the prime minister should make a comprehensive statement on how he has intended to overcome this grave trade and economic crisis. With this we have come to the end of this analysis. This news article is about the rice blast disease. The analysis of this news article will be relevant in a plan preparation under current events of national and international importance and also under general science. First let us see what is meant by rice blast. Rice blast is a disease caused by a fungus named as Magna porthe orise. It is one of the major diseases of the rice crop. It can affect all the parts of the rice plant that is above the ground level like leaf, collar, node, neck, parts of the panicle and sometimes leaf sheath also. Blast can occur wherever blast spores are present. Blast usually occurs in areas where there is low soil moisture or where there is frequent and prolonged periods of rain shower and cool temperature in the daytime. In rice that is grown in hilly areas or on high lands, the large day night temperature differences cause due formation on leaves and the overall cooler temperatures will favor the development of this disease. Rice can have blast in any of its growth stages. However, leaf blast incidents tends to lessen as plants mature and develop adult plant resistance to the disease. Now, why is it important to study about rice blast? Because rice blast is one of the most destructive diseases of rice. A leaf blast infection can kill seedlings or plants which are up to the tillering stage. Tillering stage means the rice plants shoot that springs from the root or bottom of the original rice stem. It can also be called as the side shoot. At later growth stages of the rice plant, a severe leaf blast infection reduces the grain yield. Leaf blast can also kill rice plants at seedling stage and can cause yield losses in cases of severe infection. So, if you see in all the stages of a rice plant growth, be it the seedling stage, tillering stage or the later stage, it affects the rice yields. Let us see some of the ways to tackle this rice blast disease. We saw that blast usually occurs in areas where there is low soil moisture. So, if the rice seeds are sown after the onset of the rainy season, the blast disease can be controlled to a larger extent. Also, flooding the rice field as often as possible will help in controlling the blast infection. We saw that rice blast is caused by a fungus. So, fungicide application will help in controlling the blast disease. Next, silicon fertilizers can be applied to reduce the blast. Also, split application of nitrogen fertilizer will help in controlling the blast. Now, let us come back to the news article. The researchers from the ICAR National Rice Research Institute, Odisha have mapped out the diverse genes in rice that help in disease resistance. The scientists have identified new markers associated with blast resistance. Here, know that markers means the genetic markers. It is basically a DNA sequence. If a particular DNA sequence is varying from the original DNA sequence of an animal or a plant, then we can tell that the animals or plants may have a disease risk. So, during research, the scientists will compare a particular DNA sequence with the DNA sequence extracted from the diseased plant. Next, blast resistance means those genes that is present naturally in the rice plant which can resist the growth of the rice blast. From 1980 to 1987, seven blast endemics have occurred in India causing severe losses. Fungicides are very expensive and harmful for the environment and inappropriate application can also cause health issues. So, researchers around the globe are searching for resistant genes against this blast pathogen. If you see, so far more than 100 resistance genes in the rice genome have been identified. Here, genome means the complete set of genes or genetic material present in a cell or organism. In this case, it is the rice plant. The seeds of rice plants which were grown over nine states were collected from the national gene bank. Know that different national gene banks exist for different types of crops. The national gene banks are generally located in the research institutes of the specific crops. The gene bank for rice is located at the Central Rice Research Institute, Cartag in the state of Odisha. Now, the seeds collected from the national gene bank were grown in a rice farm, which was a hotspot for rice blast disease. The study showed that the rice plants collected from northeastern states of India had the highest resistance for the blast disease. This may be due to co-evolution of resistant genes along with the fungal pathogen over several centuries. Specific DNA markers were used for accurate identification of specific resistant genes. The researchers found the presence of 24 previously pinpointed resistant genes in the 161 rice types. The rice types were found to harbour 5 to 19 resistant genes. The rice types from Tripura had the highest number of resistant genes followed by those from Maharashtra. The study also pointed out that those rice varieties in the same ecological conditions can have different resistance or susceptible behaviors. The purpose of this research is that the identified associated marker could be used for the improvement of existing varieties with blast resistance in the future. And these plant varieties will be selected for cultivation. With this, we have come to the end of this analysis. The displayed prelims question will be discussed in the last session. This news article is about the ghost voters in the recent Lok Sabha elections. The discussion based on this news article will be relevant in prelim syllabus under current events of national importance and also under Indian governance. The election commission has recently clarified there were no ghost voters in the recently concluded Lok Sabha election. Recently, there were some reports in the media that there was mismatch between the number of votes polled and the number of votes counted on the day of result. In some cases, votes polled were more than the votes counted. And in some cases, votes counted were more than the votes polled. The excess or deficit votes with respect to the both votes that is the polled and counted votes are called as ghost votes. The name ghost is used because in either way, one finds difficult to explain the excess or the deficit as if some ghost has come and casted its vote. If votes polled are more than the votes counted, then some polled votes have disappeared. If votes counted is more than votes polled, some has casted illegal votes or some kind of extra appearance of votes in the counting has been seen. This nature gives the name ghost as if some ghost has done it. Actually, these both the polled votes and the counted votes has to tally. But the media reports state that in around some 373 Lok Sabha constituencies, there were mismatches. The difference in votes ranged between some 18,000 additional votes in Tamil Nadu's Kanchipuram seat to 19,000 deficit votes in Tripura's West Parliamentary seat. These media reports use the data for the votes polled from the provisional or the tentative list of voter turnout published by the Election Commission on its website. For these mismatches, the Election Commission has stated that the number for voter turnout published on its website is provisional or just a tentative list. And it will take some more time to reach the accurate data. The Election Commission has clarified that since these media reports have used these tentative lists, they are telling that ghost voting has taken place. Thus, the Election Commission clarifies that there were no ghost voters this time in this Lok Sabha election. When the Election Commission puts the accurate details of votes polled, in some weeks, these issues will be cleared. With this, we have come to the end of this article discussion. This news article appeared on June 3. This article is an editorial about how the present government should bring the Indian economy on track. The discussion will be relevant in mains preparation under G.S. Paper 2 in the area government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation. Then in welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the centre and the states and the performance of these schemes. Then it is also relevant in G.S. Paper 3 under the area Indian economy and issues relating to planning, mobilisation of resources, growth, development and employment. The author in this editorial discusses about economic hardships or the problems that is present for the current government. First, the author points to the GDP growth for the year 2018-19 which was published by Central Statistics Office. It has slowed to a five-year low of 6.8 percent. This has happened even as the unemployment rate saw a rise of 6.1 percent in 2017-18. This was the highest in 45 years. Then for the January-March quarter, the agriculture gross value added growth or GVA growth has been estimated at negative 0.1 percentage and manufacturing GVA growth at 3.1 percentage. Here the gross value added or GVA is a measure of total output and income in the economy. It provides the rupee value for the amount of goods and services produced in an economy. But after deducting the cost of inputs and raw materials that have gone into the production of those goods and services, here value added represents the contribution of labour and capital to the production process. It gives a sector specific picture like what is the growth in an area, industry or sector of an economy. Keep in mind that GVA gives a picture of the state of economic activity from the producer's side or supply side. The GDP gives the picture from the consumer's side or a demand perspective. Another hardship the author points to is that the economy is struggling with an investment and a manufacturing slowdown. Remember that whenever we say slowdown in economics, it means a decline in economic activity. And then the unrenumerative farm incomes, as we know because of delay of delay in monsoon or excessive rain, the farmers are not able to have a profitable yield. And there is no remuneration also. And all these resulted in farmer's suicide. We all know that. Then there is also stagnating exports, meaning there is a lack of activity growth or development in the export sector. Then as we have discussed already in many days about the banking and financial sectors crisis like non-performing assets of banks, then the non-banking financial sector which are facing liquidity crisis and asset liability mismatch, etc. Remember we discussed these in our last editorial analysis and then the never ending unemployment problem of our country. As we also discussed on the other day about sales of fast-moving consumer goods and production of car, which have been low for past few months. In turn, these confirm that consumption spending have slowed. This is a problem because the Indian economy is excessively dependent on domestic consumption. These are the current economic hardships that the present government have to face. In this editorial, the author also talks about the structural reforms of the previous tenure of the government. The author states that the last tenure began on a good note, but it soon lost direction as the much needed manufacturing push like make in India had been abandoned by the end of 2015. Then the author blames that the initial energy and enthusiasm of the government in the previous tenure led to misadventures such as demonetization. Know that demonetization is a process of stripping a currency of its status as a legal tender. In simple words, when the government demonetized the 500 and 1000 rupees notes, they were no longer valid as legal currency. This process is called as demonetization. Next, the author blames that the much awaited goods and services tax was poorly designed and rolled out in 2017, which also created lots of chaos. One of the reasons was that many companies found it difficult with respect to the compliance, that is meeting the rules and standards of GST. Then the author notes that there was less policy attention to the public banking system, which was in a weaker position and then to the problems of the financial sector also. Even the insolvency and bankruptcy code of 2016 was introduced gradually and tentatively. This reform was a sound economic reform which applies to companies and individuals. It provides for a time bound process to resolve insolvency. Insolvency means being bankrupt. When a default in the repayment occurs, the creditors gain control over the debtors assets and they must take decisions to resolve the insolvency within a period of 180 day period. This is provided by the insolvency and bankruptcy code. The author fears that this may get diluted. Then the author criticizes that the amendment of the constitution for the 10% reservation of the economically weaker sections and the PM Kisan scheme which gave income supplement to small and marginal farmers was unaware of the magnitude of the challenge on the economic front, that is the money for these schemes and implementation challenges were not realized initially. The author says the economic structural problems cannot be resolved with political tactics. Rather these problems demand a well crafted economic remedies such as sound policies. In the middle of all these problems, there are also some schemes which provide a source of relief. Like this watch Bharat Abhyan which provided for a public provision of toilets. Then the Ujwala scheme which gave LPG cooking gas connections to women from below poverty line. Then the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act that is MG Narega Act which provides a legal guarantee for 100 days of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural household. The adult has to be willing to do public work related unskilled manual work at a statutory minimum wage. Then finally the PM Kisan scheme all these are temporary source of relief. These schemes can help the poor to survive by providing meager or limited resources but they are not an economic growth model or economic growth strategies for reducing poverty. Because reducing poverty needs economic growth which will generate sustainable livelihoods for the poor. Another problem the author points to is the structural weakness because of the capital intensive production. They only worry about the profit not the welfare of the workers. The capital intensive production make generate few organized sector jobs but it is created despite the abundance of low wage laborers in the country. This is because there are many seekers for one job opening. So the competition is very high and everyone wants a job so that they can fulfill their basic necessities like food clothing etc. Now this results in a low bargaining power of the employees relative to that of employers. So they cannot ask for high wages. If they do their job will be snatched and given to other person who agrees for a low wage. If you take small firms they can create more jobs but the messy GST compliance and refund framework etc have imposed an uneconomic compliance costs on them. One of the ruling parties executive called this as creative destruction and said it is necessary for shutting the informal firms so that the formal economy can live but this gives advantage only to the bigger companies over the smaller ones. Then one final problem is the recent controversy that is the questions raised over unemployment and GDP statistics. The government did not care to give a reasonable answer. These statistics are important for framing policies that would really help the economy. If questions are arised in these then the author says that there is no credibility on the government's side. For all the problems mentioned the author also gives few suggestions. First the top economic priority for the new government should be framing a credible policy which has the correct setting of goals that will result in economic growth. Then the make in India program needs to be revived with proper incentivization like the needed fiscal and monetary stimuli should be given because this will give boost to the manufacturing sector. Then production should be less capital intensive so that more organized sector jobs can be created and plus labor's bargaining power would also improve. Then for the role the small firms play in job creation they need to be incentivized with easy credit and taxation norms. Then the credibility in the collection estimation and presentation of official statistics should be provided and if questions are raised then it is to be addressed appropriately by the government. The author concludes that the government should take the questions posed on the government as a constructive criticism. With this we have come to the end of this article analysis. The displayed main question will be discussed in the last session. This news article appeared today and it is about the provisions of the draft national education policy imposing Hindi in non-Hindi speaking states. This article discussion will be relevant in prelims syllabus under current events of national importance public policy under Indian polity and it means it comes under government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of the design and implementation. Then also in social sector initiatives relating to education. This article is in use because of some provisions in the draft national education policy 2019. This is yet to be officially released as a final national policy on education. The draft recommends that from class 6 onwards choices have to be given to students to choose the language subject from only three languages. For non-Hindi speaking states three languages are one Hindi, two English and the local language. In Tamil Nadu this means the choices are Tamil, Hindi and English. It was also stated that there were also provisions for mandatory Hindi teaching in schools of non-Hindi speaking states. These provisions have created confusions in various non-Hindi speaking states particularly in Tamil Nadu and also in West Bengal. Three ministers from the central government have stated that the government of India respects all languages and no language will be imposed through an education policy. Even the ruling party of the state government in Tamil Nadu has stated that it will not dilute the two-language formula of Tamil and English in the state. The two-language formula of Tamil Nadu does not mandate Hindi teaching. Note that usually when a committee submits a draft report to the central government after the submission of the report the government will make the report available to the public to receive the feedback from the public. Also state governments will be consulted if the matter given in the report deals with the state governments. Only after this a draft report will be finalized for the official publication. Anti-Hindi agitations are very serious for our country as it has the potential to create the cessationist and separatist tendencies in a non-Hindi speaking state and in these states neighbourhood also. If the government which cherishes in the value of unity and diversity does not handle such issues properly this may even lead to insurgencies. The news article also states that protests also have erupted in other non-Hindi speaking states such as West Bengal. The people of these states argue that when Tamil or Bengali is not made to be taught mandatorily in Hindi speaking states why the central government is unfairly imposing Hindi in non-Hindi speaking states. Even in UPSC civil service preliminary examination we could see mandatory conduct of the exam in only two languages and one of them is Hindi. Some experts say that we can create a situation where every person can study in his or her preferred language and let all people in India can understand one common language. But the people of Tamil Nadu say let Tamil be that one common language and friends from Kerala may say that let Malayalam be that one common language. Also friends from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana will say let it be Telugu. Some of us from Hindi speaking states will propose Hindi to be that common language. The draft national educational policy states that critical knowledge of the issues of development of classical and modern languages were central to defining a comprehensive policy in this area. Also it states a multilingual India is better educated and also better nationally integrated. Here also the problem is the term multilingual can be subject to interpretations. The unfairness here is imposition of Hindi because people from non-Hindi speaking states ask why not their local languages such as Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu be imposed or made mandatory in Hindi speaking states. Such questions always have to be handled carefully. There have been news reports that the center has revised these controversial Hindi imposing provisions in the draft national education policy. But we do not know whether this revision is carried out in the Hindi version of the policy submitted by Dr. Kasthuri Rangan committee. Dr. K. Kasthuri Rangan was the chairman of the committee which submitted the draft national education policy 2019 on 31st May 2019. We will hear more news related to this issue and the more similar issues in the coming days. Now let us move on to the next news article for analysis. This news article has appeared today. It is about the neighborhood first policy of India. The analysis of this editorial will be helpful in your problems preparation under economic development. Since we will be seeing about an economy related concept here. The analysis will mainly be helpful in your main preparation in GS paper 2 under India and its neighborhood relations and also under bilateral regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and or affecting India's interests and also under government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation. Before analyzing this editorial, let us know in brief about the neighborhood first policy of India. If you see India accounts for over 75 percent of South Asia's land area, population, economic activity, resources, etc. The size of India is an important factor in the way our neighbors view India. The successive governments have emphasized on this neighborhood first policy. We can offer here the academics or the leaders insisting on a peaceful, prosperous and a stable neighborhood. Here our neighborhood countries in the South Asian perspective include Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Afghanistan. Here except for Pakistan, India has more or less peaceful relations with the rest of the nations. So a peaceful neighborhood means less trouble for us and it will enable us to focus on development without distraction. So the neighborhood diplomacy is challenging and difficult, but it is the one that is satisfying at the end for both, that is for us and also for our neighbor. Hence the present government is also emphasizing on neighborhood first policy. An example to this is the new government invited the leaders of beamstick nations which include all our neighbors in South Asia except Pakistan and Afghanistan for the oath taking ceremony of the newly formed government. Also the newly sworn in Prime Minister will visit Maldives as the first official visit. So we can see that India will engage its neighbors for the next five years to position itself as a regional power. It is not just peaceful relations but also financial aids and projects that India provides to its neighbors which would help in their growth also. In the last five years many projects or support were implemented in our neighborhood countries. Some of them include military assistance during 2015 earthquake in Nepal, then India's role in Nepal's hydroelectric project construction etc. It also includes the financial assistance given to Bhutan and hydroelectric project development in Bhutan as well. In case of Maldives after the change of power in Maldives the new government under the Mohammed Ibrahim Sole reiterated the India first policy of Maldives. Also India had announced 800 million US dollar line of credit to Maldives. Similarly India and Bangladesh peacefully amended the land boundary agreement of 1974 in the year 2015 by swapping some border areas. Also India has announced a line of credit of 4.5 billion US dollars to Bangladesh. India is also involved in many of the projects in Bangladesh. Similarly India is helping and supporting its other neighborhood countries for their growth. In this context we can predict that India will vigorously follow the neighborhood first policy to position itself as a regional power in the coming years as well. Now the author of this editorial is stating that the main factors that stop India's performance in this foreign policy are domestic level problems. Here foreign policy refers to not just our regional neighbors but also countries such as USA, Europe, China, Indo-Pacific nations etc. He tells that many regional policy challenges can be addressed with three major fixes. The first domestic issue is trade. The author has shared two advantages of India in terms of trade. First is the fact that India's trade to GDP ratio is higher than China's or the USA's. Here trade to GDP ratio means the trade which happens in a particular year divided by the GDP of that particular year. Trade is nothing but the sum of the exports and imports. The trade to GDP ratio of India, USA and China is 41, 27 and 38 respectively as per the World Bank data. The second advantage of India is India's market. India's market size is very big. So access to our Indian market is always an advantage for us to trade with other countries. But the challenge which the author mentions is that much of India's commerce involves raw materials and low value added goods. Also India's commerce is still insufficiently integrated into global supply chains. The author then notes the current global trends like the stagnant global trade due to the ongoing trade wars and a non-performing world trade organization which adds further problems to India to enhance its trade potential. The author suggests that the only way for India to seize a larger share of exports is through well negotiated preferential trade agreements. He tells that India's trade performance still needs an improvement as it is closed and underperforming at present. So a smarter trade agenda will not only create jobs and drive reforms in India but it could also become a potent strategic tool in India's foreign policy which also includes the neighborhood first policy of India. The second domestic issue that the author points to is about India's defense sector. The author has quoted some statistics like India has the world's fifth largest defense budget and India is also world's second largest arms importer. From both these statistics we can tell that our requirement for defense arms is more but at present it is met by imports only. So firstly it compromises national security and secondly it means that India cannot play a role as a defense supplier to its neighborhood and also to other South Asian countries. So the author suggests that India should take massive or large steps in producing the defense arms and weapon indigenously within India only. He tells that defense indigenization will require financing in the areas of defense capital expenditure. Here assessment of costs technology transfer capabilities and export potential must also be taken into account while producing indigenous arms and weapons. He also suggests that while producing defense arms and weapons within India a fair competition between the Indian private and public sectors should be ensured. The third issue which the author discusses is the overseas project implementation. It is nothing but the projects that are implemented with India's support in the neighboring countries and also in other foreign countries. The author notes that India's outgoing aid budget that is the financial aid that India provides to its regional neighbors has been relatively the same amount. Instead India has now started to explore other financing options like overseas credit. Here overseas credit is nothing but a loan given by India to other foreign nations on a condition of repayment at a set time and with an interest which is usually very less. The author notes that Indian overseas credit has increased significantly with over $24 billion extended primarily to South Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa. The author suggests that only overseas credit will not position India as a regional power. It should also include better project planning, more attractive and competitive financing terms, more reliable dispersal of funds and enhanced coordination and communication with private sector for implementation of projects in our neighboring and other foreign countries is also necessary. So, the author concludes this editorial by saying that India could be able to address many regional policy challenges by fixing these three major domestic issues, the trade, defense and the overseas credit that India gives. He tells that key policy interventions in these areas will now be necessary for India to realize its grander objectives like promoting itself as a regional power. With this we have come to the end of this analysis. The displayed main question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the last news article for the day which is about Nipah fever. The analysis of this news article will be relevant in your prelims preparation under current events of national and international importance and also under general science. The news article mentions about the confirmation of presence of Nipah fever in a patient at a private hospital in Kochi. But the collector of Enna Kulam district has dismissed the reports as rumors and said that Nipah fever has not been confirmed anywhere in the district. So, now let us see about Nipah fever from prelims point of view. Nipah fever is caused by Nipah virus. If you see Nipah virus is a zoonotic virus. Zoonotic means it is transmitted from animals to humans. The virus can also cause severe disease in animals such as pigs resulting in significant economic losses for farmers. Fruit bats of the family Theropodidae, particularly species belonging to Theropus genus are the natural hosts for Nipah virus. There is no apparent disease in fruit bats but it only acts as a host and can be transmitted from bat to humans. Nipah virus can also be transmitted through contaminated food or directly between people through physical contact. All this means human to human transmission is possible. Nipah virus has caused only a few known outbreaks in Asia but it infects a wide range of animals and cause severe disease and death in people. Thus, world health organization has declared Nipah virus infection as a public health concern. Human infections range from asymptomatic infection to acute respiratory infection and fatal encephalitis. Infected people initially develop symptoms including fever, headaches, myalgia, vomiting and sore throat. This can be followed by dizziness, drowsiness, altered consciousness and neurological signs that indicate acute encephalitis. Some people can also experience a typical pneumonia and severe respiratory problem including acute respiratory distress. Encephalitis and seizures occur in severe cases progressing to coma within 24 to 48 hours. The case fatality rate is estimated at 40 percent to 75 percent. There are currently no drugs or vaccines specifically for Nipah virus infection. Intensive support care is recommended to treat severe respiratory and neurological complications caused by Nipah. Nipah virus infection can be prevented by washing the fruits thoroughly and peeling them before consumption. Since the fruit might be contaminated with urine or saliva from infected fruit bats, also fruit with signs of bad bites should be discarded. Based on the experience gained during the outbreak of Nipah involving pigs' farms in 1999, routine and thorough cleaning and disinfection of pig farms with appropriate surgeons may be effective in preventing infection. If an outbreak is suspected, the animal premises should be quarantined immediately. Culling of infected animals with a close supervision of burial and incineration of carcasses may be necessary to reduce the risk of transmission to people. Restricting or banning the movement of animals from infected farms to other areas can be reduced to reduce the spread of the disease. With this we have come to the end of our analysis session. The displayed prelims question will be discussed in our next session. Moving on to the last session for the day that is the practice questions discussion session. The first question is based on the Nipah fever. Here if you see the first statement is wrong. Remember both Nipah fever and chiasinol forest disease are caused by the virus and their names are same as the disease name. So Nipah fever is caused by Nipah virus and chiasinol forest disease is caused by chiasinol forest disease virus. So first statement is wrong. Now the second statement is correct because fruit bats are the natural hosts of Nipah virus but the bats are not affected by the disease. The virus is transmitted from bats to humans and also from pigs to humans and also human to human transmission is possible. We already discussed this in our analysis. The question asks for the correct statement. Here a statement is the correct statement. So the correct answer to the question is here the next question is based on the disease resistant genes. If you see the first statement it is correct because these disease resistant genes in plants help in preventing the growth of a particular pathogen. So first statement is correct. If you see the second statement it is wrong because if you have keenly listened to our analysis today the scientists have already identified more than 100 resistant genes in the rice genome which makes a second statement as the wrong statement. The question asks for the correct statement. Here statement one is the only correct answer. So the correct answer to this question is option A1 only. Now here the next question is based on the Bharat Malha Pariyojana project. So if you see the first statement it states phase one of the program is implemented from 2017-18 to 2021-22 which is a correct statement. If you see the second statement it is wrong because it states that the Chennai Salem is a brown field expressway which is wrong. We have already discussed that Chennai Salem is a green field expressway which is proposed under Bharat Malha Pariyojana. So you should first know what is the difference between brown field and green field. A green field as we know it means that the project is constructed on unused land where there is no need to demolish or remodel an existing structure. It also refers to something that is built from the scratch and it is also that the green field projects do not require felling of trees and demolition of structures also. But the brown field project are built up over existing facilities for example widening a road in an urban area and brown field projects also requires felling of trees and high acquisition and rehabilitation costs also. So the second statement is wrong. If you see the third statement it is based on a discussion now about green field and brown field which makes the statement 3 as correct. The question asks for the correct statements. Here statement 1 and statement 3 is correct. So the correct answer to this question is option D, 1 and 3 only. Now let us see one main question based on GS paper 3. Among several factors for India's economic growth potential physical and monetary policy adjustments are not always effective. Do you agree? What are the other factors available for growth potential? If you do not agree to the statement you can answer based on your understanding of today's editorial analysis. But if you agree to the statement then mention about the structural reforms we discussed in analysis like demonetization which created chaos in the country. You can also mention some solutions like credible policy formation, incentives to small firms also. If you have a solution of your own mention that also. Now let us see one question based on GS paper 2. In the recent times India is strongly promoting its neighborhood first policy to position itself as a regional power. But the main factors inhibiting India's performance as a regional power are strongly domestic in nature. Do you agree? You can split this question into two parts. The first part is the first statement. The second part is these other two sentences. Here the first statement is a fact which tells that India's neighborhood policy and how India is promoting it in recent times. So explain about India's neighborhood first policy and how India is engaging with its neighbors through financial, military and economic assistance, support and project. Then in the second part of the question which is opinion based it asks if you are agreeing to the fact that domestic problems are the main blocks or inhibitors for India's performance as a regional power. If you agree to the statement you can discuss the three issues and solutions to the issues which the author has given. They are trade, defense and overseas project implementation. You can also add any other domestic issues if you feel are suitable. If you do not agree to the statement then mention the external factors that are inhibiting India's performance as a regional power as you feel correct. 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