 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Reyes Academy. Displayed are the list of news articles selected for today's analysis and their page numbers in Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore and Tiruvannanthapuram editions of the newspaper. The link for the handwritten notes and the time stamping of the displayed articles are provided in the comment section for the benefit of mobile phone viewers and the time stamping is also provided in the description. Now let's move on to the analysis of first news article. This news article is about the statements made by India in the 42nd regular session of United Nations Human Rights Council. This regular session is being held in Geneva in Switzerland. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article and the syllabus that can be linked to the analysis has been highlighted here for your reference. So this news article talks about United Nations Human Rights Council, shortly called as UNHRC. This council was established in the year 2006 by the United Nations General Assembly. We know that UNGA is one of the six principal organs or one of the six main organs of United Nations organization. See this UNHRC reports directly to UN General Assembly. So whether we had any other entity responsible for human rights across the world till 2006, yes we had UN Commission for Human Rights. See this commission was established in the year 1946. It was established as the main United Nations legislative body so as to work to promote and to protect human rights. The commission has provided policy guidelines with respect to human rights. It has studied human rights problems. It has developed and codified new international norms and it has also monitored the observance of human rights around the world. This commission also acted as a forum for states, civil society, you know, who are represented through non-governmental organizations and it has also provided a forum for international organizations to raise and voice their concerns about issues related to human rights. The most important achievement and which is also the first significant achievement of the commission was the careful drafting of UDHR, Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The commission met for the first time in 1947, though it was established in 1946. And within a period of one year, they have completed the task of drafting this UDHR and this declaration, Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by United Nations General Assembly on 10th December 1948. See this date on which the declaration UDHR was adopted by UNGA was remembered and celebrated as Human Rights Day. This day will be remembered and observed in most of our almost in all state human rights commissions in our country and also in National Human Rights Commission. So what happened in 2006? This commission was replaced by United Nations Human Rights Council in the year 2006. So what is this council? This HRC or Human Rights Council is an intergovernmental body that was established by General Assembly as a body that will be responsible for human rights. It is made up of 47 member states of United Nations and these member states are elected by UN General Assembly. With respect to India's membership in this council, as of now, India is a member since 1st January 2019 and this membership will be for a period of 3 years. So we saw that the members of Human Rights Council are member states of United Nations. So that means if India is a member, it will have a representative from Indian state or Indian government and therefore UNHRC said that it is a council that consists of state representatives and therefore it is primarily a political body with a comprehensive human rights mandate for the world. Now let us come to the most important activity of the council. This is conducting sessions, both regular and special. Mostly they will be conducting regular sessions. Special sessions will be conducted when one third of the member states request to organize a special session. Maybe to address some human rights violations immediately or whenever there is some emergencies with respect to human rights, say one third of member states may request to conduct a special session. If you look at regular sessions, see these are conducted for a minimum of three times in a year. That is, they will conduct at least three regular sessions in a year. That means we will also be reading at least three times in the newspapers. So we can revise whenever they conduct regular sessions. They will conduct these sessions in the months of March, June and September. See as a part of this activity, the UNHRC is conducting 42nd regular session in Geneva. In this session in September is for a period of almost three weeks. They are scheduled to conduct from 9th September till 27th September. The schedule will be the same three weeks, also in the month of June. For March it will be for four weeks. So overall we can say that the Council dedicates around 10 weeks of time in a year to discuss human rights situation in the world through regular sessions. So these information are about the UNHR Council. Now in newspapers you may also read the Office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Sometimes they use the word UN Human Rights. See the word UN Human Rights is addressed to the Office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and it is not a term that is used to address UN Human Rights Council. So we will see the difference between the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights and Human Rights Council. See the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights is a part of UN Secretariat. It is one of the offices that will be part of UN Secretariat that reports or answers to the UN Secretary General. This office will be staffed by international civil servants who will be working on human rights activities, human rights activities across the world and they will be headed by the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The High Commissioner for Human Rights is called as the Principal United Nations Human Rights Official. The headquarters of this Office of High Commissioner is located in Geneva in Switzerland. One of its offices is also found in New York. Now in what way the UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Council can be related, both of them work for human rights, promotion and protection of human rights across the world and this UN Office of High Commissioner, they provide technical support, substantive and secretariat support to the UN Human Rights Council. So in this way they are related. Now let's come to the news article. We have been seeing several news articles with respect to the statements made by the Pakistan Government and the Pakistan Prime Minister about the internal decision that India has made with respect to the territory that is an integral part of India, the Jammu and Kashmir. Even in the regular session that is being held in Geneva, Pakistan has raised multiple Kashmir centric statements and this news article talks about the statements that were made by Indian Government, countering Pakistan's statements on JMK. So we have said that we have been seeing several allegations with respect to human rights violations for those people who are minorities in terms of religion living in Pakistan. But while Pakistan could not guarantee human rights for minorities, Pakistan is focusing on India's internal affairs in Jammu and Kashmir and this amounts to interference and India has said that terrorism is the worst form of human rights abuse. The Secretary for the Ministry of External Affairs who has led the special diplomatic team to Geneva has also stated that democratic processes have been initiated in Jammu and Kashmir. We know that the panchayat elections took place in JNK in December 2018 and the news is that by the end of September, most probably there will be elections for block development councils and after the formal declaration of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir on October 31, most probably we can expect an election for the Assembly of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir by March next year. So these are some of the information with respect to the analysis of this news article. We saw about the UN Human Rights Council, we saw about the office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and how they both differ and we saw the statements made by India in the 42nd regular session of Human Rights Council in response to the Kashmir centric statements made by Pakistan. Now let's move on to the next news article. This news article talks about Apple procurement from Jammu and Kashmir. It states that the famous Kashmir Apple will be procured by the National Agriculture Cooperative Marketing Federation of India shortly called as NAFED that is the Kashmir Apple from JNK will be procured by NAFED and this is because NAFED has been appointed as the central nodal agency for procurement of apples in JNK for the apple harvesting season 2019-2020. The apples will be procured under a special market intervention price scheme of the central government. See after the abrogation of temporary provisions for JNK under article 370 in the constitution One of the primary plans of the central government is to ensure that the apple produced in the Kashmir Valley are bought and the right prices or remunerative prices are paid to the local farmers. But the farmers there are actually struggling to export the apples from the state to other states due to many reasons. Say the lockdown in the Kashmir Valley as a result of the lockdown we could see less availability of a number of trucks. It is also reported that militants are campaigning against the export of fruit from JNK to other states. They are also forcing the growers to stop exporting apple this year to break ties with other states of India. See this is one of the strategy used by the militants. But we should know that apple production is the mainstay or the backbone of incomes of farmers in Jammu and Kashmir region. Therefore particularly this needs to be protected otherwise it will drive a large population of farmers involved in production of apples will be pushed to extreme poverty. So to address these concerns to solve this problem the government has announced the procurement plan. See according to the officials Kashmir has produced 20 lakh metric tons of apple in the year 2018. This amounts to 73% of total apple production in the country. This means that in the year 2018 the top producer of apple in the country is the state of Jammu and Kashmir. This is in 2018. So now the government is planning to procure almost 12 lakh metric tons of apple from JNK in this season. So this means nearly 60% of the estimated annual apple production will be procured from the apple grovers of JNK. The procurement will be made directly from genuine apple grovers. Direct payment in the bank accounts of apple grovers will be made through DBT that is Direct Benefit Transfer and it is expected that the scheme will enhance the income of farmers by about 2000 crore. This is overall that means those farmers who are engaged in the production of Kashmir apple for all the farmers there as a total overall there will be increase in 2000 crore. The period of procurement is for 6 months. The procurement will start in September. The total cost incurred for the scheme by the government is expected to be around 8000 crore. Now this is because anyway government has to spend money to purchase apple from the farmers then the apples has to be transported there will be storage cost and there will also be damages there will also be losses because these are perishable products. So that is why there will be a total cost of around some 8000 crore to the government. The news article mentions that the fair prices of various categories of apples will be fixed by the price committee and this price committee includes a member from National Horticulture Board. So as we saw earlier the nodal procurement agency from the central government or from the government of India will be NAFED and from the side of government of JNK the nodal procurement agency will be the directorate of horticulture of Kashmir and others. So we saw that the apples will be procured under a special market intervention price scheme. So now let's see about this MIS. Really it is a price support mechanism. It is a temporary scheme or otherwise called as ad hoc scheme. Here it means it is created or done for a particular purpose when it is necessary. So what are they doing here under the scheme horticultural commodities and other agricultural commodities that are perishable in nature are covered and if certain commodities are covered under MSP scheme that is minimum support price scheme these commodities are not covered under MIS scheme that is the market intervention scheme. This scheme is actually to protect the growers or farmers of horticultural or agricultural commodities from making distressed sale. When we say distressed sale it means urgent sale of goods or commodities made by farmers at deeply discounted prices that is the price may go below the level of input cost means there will be no remuneration for the farmer for all the hard labor here his family has endured in the production of the crops. Distressed sale happens in the event of bumper crop production that is when a crop has yielded an unusually agricultural productive harvest that is during a peak arrival period. Peak arrival period also means peak harvesting period due to bumper production there will be reduction in the fall of prices sometimes it will go to very low level for example a farmer spends some 30 rupees for production of particular commodity but due to bumper production he has to sell it below the input cost that will make the life of the farmer miserable. So therefore the scheme intends to protect the farmers from making distressed sale. So the basic objective of market intervention price scheme is to provide remunerative prices to farmers in case of glut or surplus in production and also during the fall in prices of commodities. The central government implements the scheme for particular commodity on the request of a concerned state government or concerned union territory. See these state governments or union territories they should be willing to share the losses that arises as a result of the procurement here the losses could be because of transport loss or because of damage because these are perishable items and these losses suffered has to be shared on 50s to 50 basis between central government and the state government but there is also a special consideration for northeastern states because for northeastern states central government will take 75% of the losses suffered and states will be a 25% that is 75s to 25 basis and the share of losses is restricted to 25% of the total procurement value of that particular product. Say for example the total procurement value is rupees 100 and the losses come at say rupees 20 then for other states for states other than northeastern states central government will take the burden of 10 rupees and state government will take the burden of 10 rupees. Say if the burden if the losses come around rupees 60 now in that case for other states it will be divided into 30s to 30 30 30 this 30 is more than 25% of the total procurement value therefore central government will not take this share of losses or it will take only the share of losses up to 25% that is what we mean when we say the share of losses is restricted to 25% of total procurement value of that product. Now there will be losses because these horticultural commodities are highly perishable in nature they have short shelf life and there will be transit loss and transportation to distant markets is not possible since transportation to distant markets is not possible the quantities procured are dumped in the same market which will create a situation of glut or surplus in the market this leads to heavy loss to the central and the state governments. Now let's see two situations in which MIS is applicable and sanctioned first when there is an increase of at least 10% in the production over the previous years normal production now here we have to understand so there is a possibility of farmers not receiving remunerative prices whenever there is increase of at least 10% in the production so that government has to intervene see the name of the scheme is market intervention scheme so as to provide remunerative prices to the farmers secondly when there is reduction in market prices by at least 10% over the rates of previous normal season so these are two situations when MIS is applicable and sanctioned the scheme also provides for a capping on the period of stocking after procurement the period of stocking after procurement should not be more than three months generally under the scheme the central procuring agency will be NAFED and the state government will designate their procuring agency so far MIS has been implemented for commodities like apples, Kino, Malta, garlic, oranges, grapes, mushrooms, clove, black pepper, pineapple, ginger, red chilies, coriander seeds, onions, potatoes, cabbage, mustard seed, castor seed, palm oil etc we are saying these things to get some idea about some of the commodities the scheme was also implemented in many states in our news today we saw about JNK, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and also in union territories now let's see few facts with respect to NAFED see this national agricultural cooperative marketing federation of India limited was established in 1958 it is registered under multi-state cooperative societies act of 2002 it was set up with the objective to promote cooperative marketing of agricultural produce so this was done to benefit the farmers see the agricultural farmers are the main members of NAFED they have the authority to say in the working of NAFED in the form of being the members of general body of NAFED this means the membership of general body of NAFED is extended to farmers also now let's see some of the objectives of NAFED first to organize promote and develop marketing in agricultural commodities horticultural commodities other commodities articles and goods and then to process and to store agricultural, horticultural and forest produce and thirdly to distribute agricultural machinery agricultural implements and other inputs then to undertake interstate import and export trade see this trade may be wholesale or retail now one another objective of NAFED is to act and assist for technical advice in agricultural production in horticultural production these are some of the information with respect to NAFED with this we come to the end of analysis of this news article we saw about the market intervention price came and we saw few facts of NAFED with respect to the analysis of this news article now let's move on to next article this editorial article deals with the subject of promoting occupational and industrial safety in other words safety in workplace environment there have been several scientific studies that have proved that safety in a workplace environment promotes productivity of a particular workforce that works in the particular company or industry or for that matter any workplace India's structure with respect to occupational and industrial safety remains weak even though there is a direct correlation between productivity and safety in work environment we could see a low priority is being given to bringing safety in a workplace ensuring safety health and welfare of the workers will create a healthy and a more productive workforce and it will also prevent accidents and it will also minimize the damages that means there will be no or less loss to the company or the industry in that way it will add economic benefits to the employers so what will happen if a workplace environment is weak in terms of safety there could be large number of accidents that will lead to fatalities that means deaths and also injuries here when we say safety it could mean you know the safety norms with respect to handling machinery or laying down electricity lines or various safety norms that a particular workplace has to adhere when we say about safety it also means a safe workplace for women this means there will be establishment of internal complaints committee there will be reporting mechanisms for women to report if at all there is any allegations of sexual harassment etc here when we say safety it means the safety norms with respect to the machinery plant etc the author says that the policy makers and also the employers tend to ignore the losses that arise as a result of accidents in a workplace that may result into fatalities and injuries and this is because of a steady supply of labor the author cites two recent industrial accidents if a man's question is asked with respect to such occupational safety you could cite these two accidents as example one is with respect to death of four people say in human rights parlance it's killed they were killed in an accident at a fire that happened in oil and natural gas corporation facility in Navi Mumbai there have been several locations the human rights commissions have awarded compensation government authorities for not following safety norms that has resulted into injuries and deaths so first example is that the fire at the ONGC facility in Navi Mumbai which has killed four people the next tragedy that happened in Punjab in a firecracker facility where we saw that more than 20 people died in that accident the author states that the central government should learn from these incidents and should engage in serious reforms to prevent any such incident in future and to minimize the damages to human lives with respect to this the author talks about a bill called us the occupational safety health and working conditions code bill of 2019 this bill had been drafted after the amalgamation simplification and rationalization of various provisions given in 13 central laws with respect to labor we know that with respect to labor laws the government has initiated drafting four codes one is code on wages 2019 then the code on industrial relations code on social security and also code on occupational safety health and working conditions we know that of these the code on wages 2019 has become an enforceable legislation after receiving the ascent of the president but the remaining codes say the code on industrial relations the code on social security and the code on occupational safety health and working conditions are still in the form of bills only the author talks about one or two provisions mentioned in this bill related to the occupational safety health and working conditions that is with respect to the formation of safety committees and appointment of safety offices author states that one of the major shortcomings in the particular bill is with respect to the formation of safety committees and also in the appointment of safety offices if you take clause 22 of this bill it states that the appropriate government may require any establishment to constitute a safety committee that means the state governments are given the discretion it says the government may it is not saying as the government shall require every establishment to constitute a safety committee so that is why we say it is left to the discretion of state government and in the same clause 22 sub clause 2 says that in every establishment relating to factory and building and other construction work wherein there is 500 workers or more there the employer shall appoint safety officers and they will be performing their duties as prescribed by the state government and there shall be safety officers in mines if there is more than 100 workers or even 100 workers there shall be safety officers in mines even if there are 100 workers or more here the bill says they shall perform such duties as may be prescribed by the appropriate government or the appropriate state government this means that there could be variations among the provisions governing the qualifications and duties of these safety officers in different states because each state government may prescribe different provisions with respect to these matters that means there will not be uniformity in this provision of safety under the clause 22 sub clause 2 with respect to safety officers and we saw that if it is a factory or a building or any other construction work if there has to be safety workers then number of workers has to be at least 500 or more the author calls this stipulation on safety officers as a very narrow minded stipulation this is because if we go according to this norm only a small fraction of industries will be there that employ more than 500 workers that means any industry that has less than 500 workers will not have a safety officer or it will not have a required number of safety officers the author considers this as one of the major shortcomings one we saw with respect to constitution of committee it is also in description of the state government two with respect to the safety officers the provision may apply to very few industries and there could be variation among the states with respect to safety standards then the article talks about a provision in the factories act of 1948 in contrast to the discretions provided in the occupational safety health and working conditions code bill of 2019 this provision is nothing but section 41 capital G of the factories act of 1948 where it says that every occupier shall in every factory where there is hazardous processes or where there will be usage of hazardous substances or handling they shall set up a safety committee that will have equal number of representatives of workers and management this is to maintain proper safety and health at work the author states that this provision given under 41 capital G is missing in the code bill that is proposed or introduced in the parliament in the name of occupational safety health and working conditions code bill of 2019 even in the factories act of 1948 there is an exemption that is yes it says every occupier must set up a safety committee but the state government by order in writing can exempt an occupier of any factory or class of factories from setting up such safety committee so if you have to carefully adhere to the safety norms there should not such exemptions and every factory irrespective of such exemptions has to have a safety committee where there shall be equal number of representatives of workers and employers or management that is why news article mentions it as a bipartite committee one party will be from workers one party will represent the employer or employers so this means the author demands the code bill to include mandatory provision of setting up of safety committee in a workplace with special considerations to those workplaces where there will be hazardous processes or handling of hazardous substances the author states that a safe work environment is a basic right of a worker that is one of the reasons why the international covenant on economic social and cultural rights has recognized safe and healthy working conditions under article seven we should know that India is also a party to this international covenant on economic social and cultural rights now with respect to the provisions under the Indian constitution if you see the directive principles of state policy it talks about right to work under article 41 according to international human rights standards right to work also includes right to work in a workplace that is safe article 42 talks about just and human conditions of work and article 43 states that the state shall endeavor to secure conditions of work to ensure a decent standard of life now we saw certain provisions with respect to the committees they are saying that the committee should have equal number of representatives on both sides both from the side of workers and also from the side of management this is because of article 43 capital A it states that the state shall take steps to secure the participation of workers in the management or establishments or any other organizations engaged in any industry the author states that even though there have been high growth in the recent decades the governments have not felt it necessary to ratify many international conventions of international labor organization now the understanding here is that if India has ratified these conventions India has to strengthen the safety standards otherwise there would be international pressure the author states that India has not ratified many conventions one such convention is the occupational safety and health convention of 1981 we could see overlapping of areas of activity in this occupational safety and health convention of 1981 and also the occupational safety health and working conditions code bill of 2019 the author states that the bill has been drafted without including certain enabling provisions to empower workers so that we could be able to tell that systemic reform has taken place with this with the drafting of this bill therefore the author asks for a proper scrutiny of the new code bill by experienced parliamentarians and they also have to get new inputs from employees employers and also and experts working for labor rights the author asks for giving special attention to those industries that use hazardous processes and hazardous chemicals and the code bill in future should have clear definitions and should specify limits of exposure for workers who work in such hazardous environments and if safety is compromised in such environments such hazardous environments it could lead to extreme consequences like a black mark in the nation's memory as in the case of Bhopal gas disaster or Bhopal gas tragedy for the case of Soviet Union the black mark is the Chernobyl nuclear power station disaster we saw the accidents happened in Navi Mumbai and Punjab and we saw the provisions with respect to safety committee and also the safety offices in the proposed occupational safety health and working conditions code of 2019 we saw about international conventions and we saw about proposals made by the author of this editorial and with this we come to the end of analysis of this news article now let's move on to next article this news article states that two new species of ginger have been found in the state of Nagaland these species are zinjiba provenance and zinjiba demoparence these species were identified by the scientists from the botanical survey of India zinjiba is commonly known as zinja zinjiba is the genus name of ginger species it comes under the family of zinjiba ACA when we say genus in plural that is janira it means ranking in the biological classification it comes after family and before species comes between family and species now this genus or janira is a group of animals or plants that are more closely related than a family but less similar than a species within a family we can find more than one genus and within a genus we can find more than one species now the new species zinjiba provenance this was discovered from proven district of Nagaland that is why they have named it as provenance now the another species was discovered from demapur district of Nagaland then they have named as zinjiba demoparence these are the reasons behind the scientific names if you take this zinjiba genus it has around 141 species these species are distributed throughout Asia Australia and South Pacific regions but they say that the center of diversity of this genus is in southeast Asia so when we say center of diversity or it is also called as center of origin so when we say center of origin or center of diversity it refers to geographic region where we can find the greatest variability of a particular crop in northeastern India so far more than 20 species of ginger have been discovered if you take the plant of zinjiba provenance this species was found growing in moist shady places particularly on the bank of a small stream and this small stream is found in hilly terrain forest of tessin village under this proven subdivision so we saw that even within this northeast in India more than 20 species of ginger have been discovered or found so this high diversity of ginger species in the northeastern region of India it shows that the climate in the northeastern region is conducive for the growth of the genus zinjiba now let's see one species of ginger that is known all over the world for its therapeutic properties many of us would have heard from the family members that the ginger has medicinal properties now the species known for this purpose is called as zinjiba officinale rasco here officinale indicates medical properties of the particular species this ginger is consumed as a delicacy or as a medicine or even as a spice this plant is sterile in nature that is it does not produce any seed and it only propagates or it only grows by its rhizomes rhizome is a horizontal underground plant stem that is capable of producing the shoot and root systems of a new plant like ginger the underground stem or the rhizome of this plant has been used as a medicine spice and food in asian indian and arabic traditions since ancient times now let's come to the extent of cultivation of ginger in india ginger is cultivated in many parts in our country it is said that it is cultivated throughout india but large-scale cultivation can be found in south india in warm moist regions it's cultivated relatively lesser extent in bangal and panjab as we saw it also found in northeastern region the ginger species has specific medicinal properties as we have told earlier see in unani classical literature some properties of ginger were mentioned one is that they are good for digestive action then they are good for carminative action now this means it relieves flatulence flatulence is nothing but buildup of gas in the digestive system that can lead to abdominal discomfort so it relieves this abdominal discomfort or this flatulence and it is also an appetizer so if you take it before a meal it will stimulate people's desire to eat more or it will stimulate a person's appetite it is laxative that means it will facilitate proper and healthier bowel movements therefore helping in relieving constipation then it is also anti-emitic that means it will prevent vomiting then it is also anti-tussle that is it will be helpful to prevent or to relieve cough and it also has the properties of vermicide that is it will kill parasitic intestinal worms now if you look at the extracts of ginger say for example ginger oil they exhibit certain properties these are anti-inflammatory properties antioxidant anti-fungal anti-mycobacterial and anti-carcinogenic properties also so this means that they also prevent or delay the development of cancer they work effective against mycobacteria they reduce inflammation or swelling and they can prevent or slow the damage to cells that can be caused by free radicals now the purpose of antioxidant that is they can slow down the damage to cells that can be caused by unstable molecules produced as a reaction to environmental and other pressures these unstable molecules are called as free radicals as we said they are also used to treat fungal infections they are anti-fungal these are some of the medicinal properties of the ginger species and also the extracts from the ginger now we saw it is also used as a spice there are three main products of ginger one is fresh ginger and dried whole ginger or dried powdered and also finally preserved ginger fresh ginger is used widely for cooking in southeast station region and it is also used as a flavoring agent or even also used as a vegetable so these are the uses with respect to the uses spice now it is also applied as a antidote against snake poison this usage of ginger we can find in indonesia and in china there are some poisonous fishes and some poisonous crabs as an antidote against these poison they are applying ginger they are providing ginger so these are some of the uses of this species now let's see the botanical survey of india we saw that the new species of ginger were discovered in nagaland by the scientists from the botanical survey of india it's the topmost or apex taxonomic research organization in our country it works under ministry of environment forest and climate change it was established way back in 1890 at that time the mandate was to explore to collect to identify and document the rich plant resources of erstwhile british india so at that time the objectives was to explore the plant resources and identify plant species with economic value but in 1954 the government of india reorganized this organization botanical survey of india now the objectives are firstly to undertake intensive floristic surveys and to collect accurate and detailed information on occurrence distribution ecology and economic utility of plants in the country and then collecting identifying and distributing materials that could be useful for educational and research institution and it also acts as the custodian of authentic collections in a well-planned herbaria that is it is acting as a custodian of authentic collections of preserved plant specimens and these collections are preserved in botanical museums are maintained in botanical gardens they will also document plant resources in the form of local flora district flora state flora and also national flora so these are the objectives and the functions performed by botanical survey of india now these are some of the information with respect to the analysis of this news article we saw the discovery of two new species of ginger in northeastern region of india then we saw about the medicinal properties we saw that there are around some 20 species of ginger in northeastern region that means climatic factors are favoring growth of ginger in northeastern region then we saw various uses of this ginger we also saw that it is also used as antidote against poisoning by snake or fish or crab then we saw a few facts about botanical survey of india now let's move on to next news article this news article talks about the china pakistan economic corridor see recently the chinese foreign minister has visited pakistan and the china and pakistan have issued a joint statement on cpik and it is reported that this statement had reference on jammu and keshmir and in a response to a query on reference to jnk in the joint statement the official spokesperson of ministry of external affairs he has responded that india rejects the reference to jammu and keshmir in the joint statement issued by china and pakistan after the recent visit of chinese foreign minister and jammu and keshmir is an integral part of india and therefore india has called on both the countries to stop activities related to cpik in pakistan occupied keshmir see india has consistently expressed concerns to both china and pakistan on cpik this is because it passes through the territory illegally occupied by pakistan since 1947 this illegal occupied territory is called as pakistan occupied keshmir see cpik is a part of china's ambitious one-belt one-road initiative it is reported that it's around some nearly 50 billion dollars project it connects kashkar in zhinziang province of china with the guadar port in balochistan pakistan from kashkar to guadar port is cpik it is connected through a vast network of roads and other infrastructure projects such as dams railways pipeline now let's see pakistan's interest with respect to cpik cpik is also associated with energy projects so using those energy projects that are associated with cpik pakistan can meet its energy requirements and it is said that it involves hydro projects nuclear projects and also solar energy projects so from the side of pakistan this corridor is expected to enhance the infrastructure capacity it will also boost its road and rail network in addition to this it will offer employment opportunities these are some of the interests of pakistan in addition to this it will reinforce or strengthen pakistan's claim on the region in which the cpik corridor passes through now coming to china's interest see if the project materialized china will get alternative and reliable access to the middle east since it gets access to guadar port it will give china access to the persian gulf china is the leading funder of this project and it will give china huge commercial benefits and also geopolitical and strategic advantage in this tense neighborhood now from indian side the main concern or probably the most important concern is that it passes through indian territory that is it passes through pakistan occupied kashmir the problem here is by this pakistan violates the shimla agreement signed between india and pakistan it tries to legitimize its climb over pok it wants to internationalize the kashmir dispute which from indian side is not warranted and any dispute related talks with kashmir will be only on pakistan occupied kashmir which india claims as indian territory because of illegal occupation by pakistan since 1947 china may also establish a naval base at guadar port and this will increase the maritime hegemony of china in the indian ocean region and if this materializes it will be a very important part of string of pearls theory as well these are some of the information with respect to the analysis of this news article now let's move on to practice question discussion session this question is with reference to market intervention scheme they have given three statements and are asking to select they're asking to select the correct statements first statement it is a price support mechanism announced by government of india at the beginning of the sowing season for certain crops see if you see the first statement it can be divided into two say first it is a price support mechanism next at the beginning of sowing season for certain crops now regarding this market intervention scheme during the discussion we saw that it is to protect the growers of horticultural or agricultural commodities from making distrust sale so the scheme will provide remunerative prices to the farmers whenever there is surplus in production and whenever that results into fall in prices of commodities prices do not fall in sowing season there is no logic behind it and surplus in production means obviously harvesting season not sowing season so what is the price support mechanism that is announced by government of india at the beginning of the sowing season for certain crops see it is the minimum support price scheme or msp scheme so therefore the first statement is incorrect now the second statement it covers the horticultural commodities and other agricultural commodities that are perishable in nature this statement is correct now let's come to third statement the losses suffered under this scheme or shared on 50 is to 50 basis between central government and all the state governments and union territories this statement on an overall seems correct but we discussed that the share of losses for northeastern states is on 75 is to 25 basis this means all states does not share losses in 50 is to 50 basis therefore third statement becomes wrong so the only the second statement is correct therefore the correct answer is option c to only now this question the term zinziba recently seen in news is related to which of the following the first option talks about vaccine to prevent tuberculosis so what is the vaccine to prevent tuberculosis it is basil galmat gairan or shortly called as bcg vaccine so the second option states it is an exoplanet discovered by Kepler spacecraft of nasa generally normal parlance exoplanet the term is not given to those planets that revolve around the sun so exoplanet is a term that is given to those planets that orbit around other stars or stars other than sun so in the year 2009 nasa launched spacecraft called as kepler the purpose is to look for exoplanets that is to look for planets that revolve around certain stars other than sun the mission has come to an end in the year 2013 in a real exam environment when the time is running out you could seem this option is correct but it is not during today's analysis with the discovery of two ginger species in nagaland in parain district and in demapur district the discovery by botanical survey of india scientist we saw that zinziba is commonly referred as ginger and zinziba is the genus so therefore the correct answer for this question is option c a plant genus now option d talks about a unified mobile application for new age governance launched by the central government they are talking about umang app the app you know the full form of umang is unified mobile application for new age governance so the correct answer is option c a plant genus now this question is with reference to botanical survey of india they have given three statements and are asking which of the above statements are correct now the first statement it is the custodian of authentic collections in well-planned herbaria see in an exam environment you can state whether statement one is correct or not only if you know the meaning of the word herbaria see herbaria consist of the term herb so that is one way we can relate it is talking something with respect to plants we are talking about botanical survey of india see botany is the scientific study with respect to plants so that could be one of the objective of botanical survey of india and it is one of the objective of bsa so that is one way now the actual meaning of herbaria is it means a collection of preserved plant specimens again botanical survey of india is related to botany which is the scientific study of physiology structure genetic psychology distribution and classification and economic value of plants so we can relate it to herbaria therefore the first statement is correct it is one of the objective of bsa and bsa is a custodian of authentic collections in well-planned herbaria so even if you don't know the objective of bsa if your vocabulary is good you can answer this statement so by this we can eliminate option d as it does not have statement one because statement one is correct so now your probability of attempting correct answer has increased from 25 to 33 percent now let's see the second statement it has a mandate to train government and non-government personal carry out research and advise on matters of conservation and management of wildlife resources see it tells that it is training personal it sounds like a duty of an institute because an institute trains personal here the institute they are referring to is wildlife institute of india it doesn't match very well with the survey botanical survey of india and the given statement is the mandate of wildlife institute of india therefore the statement two becomes incorrect so the option b can be eliminated now your probability has increased to 50 percent because you have to attempt either option a or c third statement it works under ministry of earth sciences now this statement is wrong even if they give ministry of agriculture the statement is wrong even if they give ministry of science and technology the statement is wrong this is because bsa comes under ministry of environment forest and climate change so the third statement is also incorrect so only the first statement is correct that means the correct answer is option a one only with this we come to the end of today's the hindu news analysis if you like the video click the like button comment share and subscribe to shankarae's academy youtube channel for more updates and content on civil service exam preparation