 A very good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu news analysis by Shankar Iyer's Academy for the day 29th of August 2021. So displayed below are the list of news articles that we have chosen for today's discussion and they provided along with the page numbers of different editions and also the link for the handwritten notes in PDF format and the time stamping of the described articles are provided in the description box and also in the comment section for the benefit of mobile phone viewers. So without wasting much time let's get into our discussion. Now look at this news article, this is an article that talks about the BCG vaccine or the Bacillus Colmete gerin vaccine which is one of the oldest vaccines in the history. Know that this particular vaccine was designed to prevent tuberculosis, so let us know more about this through this particular news article. The syllabus covered by this article is highlighted below for your reference and before going into the article first let us understand about the disease tuberculosis. See tuberculosis is a disease that is caused by a bacteria called mycobacterium tuberculosis and this particular bacteria usually attacks the lungs but also know that they can damage other parts of the body as well like that of spine bone and all. Now if we see the spread of this tuberculosis this particular disease usually spreads through the air, so that means when a person with tuberculosis or TB of the lungs or throat coughs, sneezes or talks then there is a risk of that particular person spreading the disease and if at all you have been exposed then you need to go to a doctor for test but however you are more likely to get tuberculosis only if you have a weak immune system. Now having said that let us now see some important symptoms of this tuberculosis in the lungs. See the common symptoms associated with tuberculosis are a bad cough that can last for 3 weeks or longer and then weight loss, then the loss of appetite, then comes coughing up blood or mucous or weakness of fatigue or even fever. The night sweat is also one among the symptoms of tuberculosis, now all these symptoms on an immune compromised patient like that of a cancer survivor or an HIV patient or a renal transplant patient can be a result of tuberculosis. Now remember tuberculosis is a serious disease but then in spite of being a serious disease it is actually a treatable and curable disease. The active drug susceptible tuberculosis disease is treated with a standard 6 month course of 4 antimicrobial drugs that are provided with information and support to the patient by a health worker or trained volunteer. So without such support treatment adherence to this disease is more difficult why because the medicine has to be taken consistently without gap that do for a longer period because if not the patient carries a risk of making the bacteria in his body resistant to the antibodies and this may likely develop drug resistant tuberculosis. Now let us know the prevalence of this disease. See tuberculosis is a very ancient disease and it has been documented to have existed in Egypt as early as 3000 BC but see TB continues to be a major public health problem in the world and in fact according to the WHO's global TB report around 10 million people developed TB or tuberculosis in the year 2019 with 1.4 million deaths and among that India accounts for 27% of these cases. So therefore on this line in order to prevent the deadly disease the BCG was developed by two Frenchmen named Albert Kalmit and Camille Guerin and these two people they developed it by modifying a strain of the mycobacterium bovis which is actually a bacteria that causes tuberculosis among cattle. So what they did is they modified the bacteria to reduce the virulence and yet illicit the immune response and remember it was first used in humans in the year 1921. So that means it is now 100 years of this BCG vaccine and this particular vaccine still remains to be the only vaccine against tuberculosis and also highly effective against the disease and also it is the world's most widely used vaccine and people use about 120 million doses every year and another important thing is that it also has an excellent safety record and for your information in India this BCG vaccine was first introduced in a limited scale in the year 1948 but however later it became a part of the national TB control program in the year 1962. So these are the takeaway points from this particular news article. So with this we have come to the end of this article discussion and these are the important points that we need to have in mind whenever you learn about BCG vaccine. Having said that let's move on to the next part of our news discussion. Now we have chosen this news article for our next discussion. See the center is set to list life insurance corporation of India on the stock exchanges in order to meet this investment targets for the year. See life insurance corporation of India is India's largest insurance firm and it is also state owned. So recently what happened is in July the cabinet committee on economic affairs they approved the IPO or the initial public offering for life insurance corporation of India and now many global players and also many merchant bankers are helping LIC to manage the public issue and we can also expect the announcement from the government shortly and this particular FAQ article is written in this backdrop. So in this context let's see the important points mentioned in this FAQ article and we will also see the answers to some important questions that are related to the issue. So come let's move into our discussion. The syllabus covered by this FAQ article is highlighted below. So first of all before going into the discussion let us know what exactly is an IPO. See an IPO or an initial public offering refers to the process of offering shares of a particular corporation to the public in a new stock issuance and this initial public offering actually allows a company to raise capital from public investors and this transition from a private to a public company can be an important time for the private investors to fully realize gains from their investment since it typically includes a share premium for current private investors and meanwhile it also allows public investors to participate in the offering. So this is basically the background of this initial public offering. Now let's see why is LIC coming out with this public offering. See our government has in recent years found it really difficult to meet with the disinvestment targets and even disinvestment of stakes in Air India and the BPCL has been delayed for various reasons and for those who don't have an idea about disinvestment see disinvestment means the sale or liquidation of assets by the government usually center and state public enterprises projects or other fixed assets. Now it is important to note that the center has got an ambitious disinvestment target of around 1.75 lakh crore for the financial year 2022. So therefore a successful LIC initial public offering will actually help our government to to achieve or meet this goal. See according to the chief economic advisor the LIC's initial public offering has got the potential to fetch up to 1 lakh crore and even the government has amended the LIC Act of 1956 on this line to allow the listing. Now coming to the next part in this part let's see how this measure will benefit those with policies. See the government has said that it would reserve up to 10% of the issue size in the initial public offering for LIC policy holders. Now see according to Sebi's rule aggregate of reservations and firm allotments for employees either issue shall not exceed 10% of the proposed issue amount and market rules also set out that an issuer company can offer the shares to employees at and discount of maximum 10% to the floor price. So there are high chances of reserving 10% of the IPO issue size for LIC policy holders and in fact there are also reports that the government could offer a discount on the issue price for LIC policy holders. So having said that now let's see why is there a talk of a split in this IPO. See recently the stock market has seen numerous public offerings for example Zometo. See between April and July investors were hungry enough to absorb around 27,000 crore IPOs and also financial services provider like Paytm has also lined up an IPO worth 16,000 crore. So by the time the LIC IPO hits the road there are high chances for investors to not have enough appetite to absorb the entire offering at one go. So this is the reason why the IPO of LIC Life Insurance Corporation of India has been split into two and now let's see the role that was played by SEBI to smoothen the LIC IPO path. See what happened is in February SEBI tweaked its rules to allow promoters of companies with a market capitalization of 1 lakh crore post IPO in order to reach 10% public shareholding in two years and also to raise that figure up to 25% So this means that earlier any company with a market cap of 4000 crore and above had to achieve 25% shareholding in three years. Now finally let us know why the market is excited with expectation for this IPO. See life insurance in India is still in its nascent stage and according to insurance regulator IRDAI as of 2019 life insurance in India has only about 2.82% penetration. So therefore the addressable market is huge and also LIC is a key player when it comes to the insurance sector and even after two decades of allowing private players LIC's market share is still had a high of 66.2% as per the IRDAI's financial year 20 report. So therefore many are really interested in this IPO and also another major important point to notice LIC is India's largest institutional investor and according to the PrimeInfoBase.com the value of equity holdings of LIC touched an all-time high of 7.24 lakh crore as on March 31st 2021 and currently at present LIC has got an equity across almost 300 companies in which it had at least 1% stake. So these are some important points that we need to know from this FAQ article. So with this we have come to the end of this news discussion. Now let's move on to the next part of our Hindu news analysis. Now look at this news article. The news article mentions that the union defense minister has commissioned an Indian coast guard ship. See as you know Indian coast guard is responsible for the surveillance of two regions. One is the Indian territorial waters and the other one is the Indian exclusive economic zone. See this particular surveillance is aimed at preventing poaching, smuggling and also other illegal activities and apart from this they also protect and prevent the marine environment. Adding to this the Indian coast guard also conducts search and rescue operations. So for all these purposes our Indian coast guard maintains a constant vigil along the Indian Ocean by tasking air units and surface units including the Indian coast guard ship. Now see these air and surface units they constitute the work horses of the Indian coast guard because these air and surface units are deployed throughout the year in the maritime zone of India. Now the Indian coast guard ship that is mentioned in this particular news article is the Indian coast guard ship Vigraha which is an offshore patrol vessel of our Indian coast guard. Now before moving further first let us know what exactly is an offshore patrol vessel. See offshore patrol vessel are surface units of our Indian coast guard and these units are armed and they are capable of carrying an helicopter onboard and also these vessels are primarily designed for sustained all weather surveillance of the entire maritime zone of India and usually these vessels are approximately 100 meters long and in fact they are the largest ships of the Indian coast guard and most importantly they represent the multi-mission capability of the force and for your additional information the list of the roles performed by them is given below so you can just have a look at it. Now moving on further see India's offshore patrol vessels are being indigenously designed and the one we are discussing now that is high CGS Vigraha it is also designed and built indigenously by a private company called Larson and Tobroship Building Limited. Note that a series of seven offshore patrol vessels was contracted to this Larson and Tobroship Building Company by the Ministry of Defence back in the year 2015 and importantly note that this is the first time the entire design as well as the construction of the offshore patrol vessel class of ships was undertaken by an Indian private sector shipyard. See the ICGS Vigraha is the seventh and also the last offshore patrol vessel to be built by this private company and this particular vessel is 98 meter long and it will be deployed extensively for the exclusive economic zone surveillance and also for other duties to safeguard India's maritime interest and the list of the various advanced technologies that is fitted into this ICGS Vigraha is given below so as pirates are advised to have a look at it. Now apart from this ICGS Vigraha has got the potential to carry one twin engine helicopter and four high speed boats and these will assist in boarding operation, search and rescue, law enforcement and also in maritime patrol and apart from this the Vigraha is also capable of carrying pollution response equipment in order to contain the oil spill at sea. Remember this ICGS Vigraha is to be based at Vishakhpatnam in Andhra Pradesh and these Indian coast guard ships including the offshore patrol vessels they really augment India's security capabilities and they also safeguard the country from any terrorist attacks by sea route since the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack. So with this we have come to the end of this news discussion now let's move on to the next news article. Now our next news discussion is going to be based on this article. See the news is that the environment ministry has permitted seven hydroelectric projects and of that one of them is the 512 megawatt Tapavan Vishnokath project in Uttarakhand and if you can recollect this was damaged by a flood in February this year. So this particular article is written in this context and the article also talks about the contentious hydroelectric projects in Himalayas. See Himalayas is a sensitive region and in the era of climate change the glaciers are melting and the permafrost is also melting and for your additional information we have already seen about permafrost on our first of August Hindu news analysis so you can just go back and watch it. Now coming back in addition to the melting glaciers the permafrost is also contributing to an increased discharge into the river streams and all this has made the region prone to flood. Now adding to this is the local human interventions wherein we try to build the hydroelectric projects so this is also affecting this sensitive region. If you remember in 2013 the Uttarakhand floods had took the lives of about 3000 people and a few experts do point the reason to the hydroelectric projects in the locality has a reason for this. So on that line in order to proceed on with any further projects a 17 member export committee that was led by the environmentalist Ravi Chopra was set up by the ministry and this committee was set up to examine the proposed hydroelectric projects in the Alec Nanda and the Bhagirathi basin and this said Chopra committee they concluded that the projects would have an irreversible impact on the ecology of the region and following this six private project developers of the 23 projects that was mentioned in the report approached the Supreme Court asking them to give permission to continue with the project as they had already started it. As a response the Supreme Court directed a new committee to be set up to examine the case and this particular committee was led by Vinod Thare of the IIT Kanpur and this committee also concluded that these projects could have a significant environmental impact. So again the environment ministry in 2015 set up yet another committee and this committee was led by BP Das but in the Das committee recommended to continue all six projects with design modifications to some. See this has got implications as you know it Uttarakhand is an Malian state and it lags behind in the development indicators. So when viewed on that angle the hydro projects can actually provide an opportunity for the development of these states but whereas the environmental issues are actually hindering them and it should also be focused. See this is basically the gist of the article so you can say that this is actually a classic case of environment development conflict and you can use it as a case study in your mains for an environment development based question and also keep in mind the committee's names for the preliminary point of view. So with this we have come to the end of this discussion. Now look at this news article taken from the Bengaluru edition of the Hindu and according to the news article Indian Meteorological Department has now issued an orange alert in parts of the state. So this is the crux of this news article. Now based on this context we are going to see very briefly about this particular color coding that is used by the IMD or the India Meteorological Department and also their appropriate meaning. See often in news we happen to come across the IMD issuing color coded alerts or warnings to specific districts or states right. See the reason behind issuing these color codes or warnings is to alert the concerned administrators to keep ready the necessary arrangements and also to position their resources in order to handle a difficult situation that arises out of weather related disastrous events. Now coming to the color codes see usually four color codes high used by the IMD to provide inputs to the disaster management authorities for the management of severe weather events and these four color codes are green, yellow, orange and red. Now among these colors green stands for no warning which means no action needs to be taken by the authorities during such occasions since usually at these times the forecast is of light to moderate rain. Now next comes the yellow alert. See usually during this alert the authorities are advised to be updated on the situation and next comes the orange warning which stands for alert and generally when this particular warning is issued the authorities are expected to be prepared to meet the disaster or severe climatic conditions. Know that orange warning is issued when a heavy to very heavy rainfall is forecasted and finally comes the red color which stands for warning and this particular red color warning is issued when an extremely heavy rainfall is forecasted and generally this red warning is sent to alert the authorities to take immediate action. Know that the IMD actually clarifies that red color warning does not mean red alert but rather to take action and for your additional information many a times we come across weather warnings found to be displayed in the map form. So on such occasions if at all a red color is shown over a state you should always remember that it does not mean the entire state is under threat unless or until it is mentioned explicitly. So to conclude given below is just an estimation of the rainfall pattern that is followed by the IMD in order to issue color codes so just have a look at it you need not memorize it. So with this we have come to the end of this news discussion now let's move on to the next part of our Hindu news analysis. Now look at this news article the article is regarding the Yakshagana. See Yakshagana is a traditional theater form of Karnataka it is a temple art form that depicts the mythological stories and Puranas. Further it is performed with massive head gears elaborate facial makeup and also with vibrant costumes and ornaments and also note that this theater form is usually recited in Kannada but however sometimes it is also performed in Malayalam as well as Tulu which is a dialect of South Karnataka. See Tulu is a Dravidian language whose speakers are concentrated in the region of Tulunadu. See the said Tulunadu comprises of the districts like Dakshina Kannada and Udupi in Karnataka and also the northern part of Kasaragot district of Kerala and know that the oldest available inscriptions in Tulu are from the period between 14th to 15th century AD. Now coming back to the dance Yakshagana is performed with percussion instruments like that of chanda, madalam, jagata or chengila. See chengila is nothing but symbols and it is also performed with instruments like chakratela or elatalam. See elatalam refers to small symbols. See the most popular episodes of these Yakshagana are from the Mahabharata and Ramayana. Say for example Draupati Svayamvar, Subhadra Viva, Rajya Bishek and Lafkosh youth are popular episodes from Mahabharata and Ramayana. So by now we have a basic understanding about Yakshagana. So now let us move on to see some other traditional theater forms. First comes Kudi Atam. See Kudi Atam is from Kerala and it is one of the oldest traditional theater forms of India. And this particular theater form it follows the performative principles of the ancient tradition of Sanskrit theater and in the year 2001 this Kudi Atam was officially recognized by UNESCO as a masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity. Now next comes Mudiyattu. See Mudiyattu is also from Kerala which is another traditional ritual theater and folk dance drama and this particular theater enacts the mythological tale of a battle between the goddess Kali and the demon Dharika. I know that Mudiyattu is a part of the Bhagavati or Batra Kali cult. Now moving on to Bhavana. See Bhavana is a traditional theater form of Assam and this particular theater form is a creation of Srimanta Shankaradeva who is an Assamese saint scholar and these plays were usually written in Brajavali which is a unique Assamese mythally mixed language. Now coming back to the play Bhavana is primarily centered on the Hindu deity Krishna. Now further next comes the Bandh Padar. See the Bandh Padar is a traditional theater form of Kashmir and this particular theater form is known for its satire, wit and parodi and apart from this it also incorporates local mythological legends as well as contemporary social commentary. So these are some of the important traditional theater forms that you need to have in mind and also that which will be helpful for us in our exam preparation. Now with these important points in mind let us move on to the next part of our Hindu news analysis. Now having done with our article discussion let us now move on to the next part of our Hindu news analysis that is practice question discussion. Now let us take up this practice question. Consider the following statements. Statement one offshore patrol vessels are the smallest ships of Indian coast guard primarily designed for all weather surveillance of the entire maritime zone of India and statement two the offshore patrol vessels design and construction are only undertaken by Indian public sector shipyard. Now see the first statement is incorrect because these are not the smallest ships but rather they are the largest ships of our Indian coast guard. Now coming to the second statement see this statement is incorrect as well because the Indian private sector shipyard called Larson and Turboship building limited was contracted by the Ministry of Defense in the year 2015 to design and construct a series of seven offshore patrol vessels and among these the last one is the high CGS Vigraha about which we saw in today's analysis and this Larson and Turbo has already designed and built ICG is Vikram, Vijaya, Veera, Varaha, Varadan, Vajra. So therefore this statement is also incorrect and since both the statements are incorrect the correct option here is option D that is neither one nor two because the question wants us to find only the right statements. Now look at this question with reference to tuberculosis consider the following statement statement one it is caused by the virus mycobacterium tuberculosis and statement two the BCG vaccine is given to prevent the disease so we need to find the correct answer see the first statement is incorrect because this is a bacterial disease and it is caused by a bacteria not a virus so first statement is incorrect here on talking about the second statement based on our interview discussion we can infer that this statement is right so therefore the correct option here is option B that is two only because only the second statement is correct here now see this question BP Das committee recently seen in news is related to which of the following so from a discussion if you recollect the committee is relevant to Himalayan hydro projects and therefore the right option here is option A that is Himalayan hydroelectric projects look at this question you have two columns and in one column you have the theta forms and then in the other column you have the states to which they belong to and we need to find which of the pairs are correctly matched if you have carefully listened to our discussion you can easily find out that option C is right here because both one and two are correctly matched and the third one that is the bandh path is the wrong option here because it belongs to the state of Kashmir and not Gujarat so therefore the correct answer here is option C that is one and two only so list of mains practice question is given below interested aspirants can write your answers and post them in the comment section so with this we have come to the end of today's inter-news analysis and if you have liked the video then don't forget to like comment and share and to subscribe to Shankar Aya's academy youtube channel for more updates regarding UPSC civil services preparation