 A very good evening to all our friends and welcome to the Hindu News Analysis of Shankar IAS Academy for the date 17th October 2020. The list of the news articles along with the page numbers of 5 different editions is given here for your reference and the handwritten notes in the PDF format and time stampings for all the news articles taken up for today's discussion is given in the description box and also in the comment section for the best interest of the viewers. Now let us start with our first news. This article talks about the interim results of the Solidarity Trail conducted by the World Health Organization. So in this context, let us discuss the concept of repurposing of drugs, then about the Solidarity Trail, its interim results and finally about other similar trials. The syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. First of all, let us understand what is meant by repurposing of drugs. We all know that traditional drug development process consumes time and resource immensely and despite huge investments, the chances of a lead molecule to enter open market are often minimal. Here lead molecule refers to a chemical compound which might prove to be a good candidate for drug development. So in such cases, one of the viable options for newcomers in the field of new drug research is drug repurposing. Drug repurposing or drug repositioning is studying the drugs that are already proved to treat one disease or condition to see if they are safe and effective for treating other diseases. It is said that the vaccine for COVID-19 may take years to develop so the best alternative is drug repurposing. Hence several trials such as the Solidarity Trail coordinated by the World Health Organization have been doing it. Now what is Solidarity Trail? See it is an international clinical trail to help find an effective treatment for COVID-19. It was launched by the World Health Organization and its partners. And know that it is one of the largest international randomized trials for COVID-19 since enrolling almost 12,000 patients in 500 hospital sites in over 30 countries. And know that the trail is evaluating the effects of drugs on three important outcomes in COVID-19 patients. And they are the mortality, then the need for assisted ventilation and duration of hospital stay. And according to the World Health Organization, Solidarity Trail will compare four treatment options to assess the relative effectiveness against COVID-19. The four treatment options are Remdesivir, then Lopinavir or Retinavir, then Lopinavir or Retinavir with Interferon Beta1a and finally the Chloroquine or Hydroxychloroquine. Here Remdesivir was previously tested as an Ebola treatment. Then Lopinavir or Retinavir is a licensed treatment for HIV. And know that Interferon Beta1a is used to treat multiple sclerosis. Then Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine are very closely related and are used to treat malaria and rheumatology conditions respectively. See the pressure which the COVID-19 puts on health systems forced the WHO to speed up its trials and while randomized clinical trials normally takes years to design and conduct, the Solidarity Trail will reduce the time taken by 80% because enrolling patients from different parts of the world in one single randomized trail will help facilitate the rapid worldwide comparison of unproven treatments. And this will overcome the risk of multiple small trials not generating the strong evidence needed to determine the relative effectiveness of potential treatments. And know that randomized clinical trials is a study in which the participants are divided by chance into separate groups that compare different treatments. But see as the news says, the interim results of Solidarity Trail is not positive. It says that all the four treatments evaluated had little or no effect on overall mortality, initiation of ventilation and duration of hospital stay in hospitalized patients. So Solidarity Trail is considering evaluating other treatments to continue the search for effective COVID-19 therapeutics. And here we must also know about the Recovery Trail and Placid Trail. See Recovery Trail is a large randomized controlled trial in United Kingdom. The trail involves assessing five candidate drugs and convalescent plasma therapy for treating COVID-19 in patients in United Kingdom hospitals. Finally know that the Placid Trail is conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research to assess the safety and efficacy of convalescent plasma to limit COVID-19 associated complications. So this is all about the discussion of this news article. In this discussion, we saw about the repurposing of drugs, Solidarity Trail and what are the interim results of this trail and also about the Recovery Trail and Placid Trail. With this, we'll move on to the next news. Now we have this news article which is with reference to the Global Hunger Index. See very recently the Global Hunger Index 2020 results were published. So in this analysis, we will be seeing about the index, then who releases the index, then various parameters of the index and finally the highlights of the Global Hunger Index 2020 results. See previously in 2016 prelims, this question was asked with reference to Global Hunger Index. See at that time the International Food Policy Research Institute was part of the release and in 2018, this question was asked. See the scenario with reference to Yemen and South Sudan in the context of hunger and starvation was in use in 2017-18. And the 2017 Global Hunger Index report reiterated the statements made by the United Nations. So what we must do is, we must connect the special important and extreme highlights of such reports or news and also the statements of international agencies with man-made and regional happenings. So with this, we'll start the analysis of this news article. The syllabus relevant is highlighted here for your reference, please go through it. And remember that other than prelims, knowledge with reference to hunger is going to help you a lot in your mains preparation because it facilitates in the main syllabus under GS Paper 1 in poverty and developmental issues and in GS Paper 2 under the issues relating to poverty and hunger. So what do we mean by Global Hunger Index? See Global Hunger Index is a tool for comprehensively measuring and tracking hunger at global, regional and national levels. The Global Hunger Index scores are based on values of four component indicators. One is undernourishment, which refers to the share of population with insufficient caloric intake. Then the child wasting, which refers to share of children under age of 5 who have low weight for their height. Know that child wasting reflects acute under nutrition. The other one is child stunting, which refers to the share of children under 5 who have low height for their age and this reflects chronic under nutrition. And the fourth component indicator is child mortality. It refers to mortality rate of children under age of 5. And this indicator partly reflects the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments. So based on the values of these four indicators, the Global Hunger Index determines hunger on a 100 point scale. In this scale, 0 indicates no hunger and therefore it is the best possible score and 100 indicates the worst form of hunger. We have given the severe discount and the determination of GHI score for your reference. Please go through it. Know that since 2006, on an annual basis, the Global Hunger Index has been reporting on the state of hunger globally by region and by country. Until 2017, the index was released jointly by the International Food Policy Research Institute along with two international non-governmental humanitarian organizations called as Concern Worldwide and Weld Hunger Health. But since 2018, the IFPRI is not part of this release. So this is the basic information regarding Global Hunger Index. Now let us see the highlights of 2020 report and what it has to say about India. See, the report states that far too many individuals are suffering from hunger and under nutrition. Nearly 69 crore people are undernourished. 14.4 crore children are suffering from stunting. 4.7 crore children suffer from wasting. And in 2018, 5.3 million children died before their fifth birthday. And in many cases, mortality happened as a result of under nutrition. The next major fact is that the worldwide hunger is at a moderate level according to the 2020 Global Hunger Index. This average height major challenges in particular regions, countries and communities. You can see the region-wise trend in hunger for these four years here. The report states that Africa, South of Sahara and South Asia have the highest hunger and under nutrition levels among the world regions. And the 2020 GHI gave them the scores, 27.8 and 26 respectively. South Asia's child-wasting rate is the highest of any world region. And that South Asia has the highest number of undernourished people in the world. For this year's report, there was enough data for only around 107 countries. And for several countries like Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, and some other countries, there is a lack of data. Within the 107 countries, the least performer was Chad. And it had a score of 44.7. And with reference to Democratic Republic of Congo, the report states that it faces a tremendously challenging situation of widespread extreme poverty, ongoing armed conflict, political instability, and multiple health emergencies. But for these countries which are given here for your reference, the report notes that it is possible that with complete data, one or more of them would fall into the extremely alarming category. However, without sufficient information to confirm that this is the case, we have conservatively categorized each of these countries as alarming. So as such, the report does not name any country in extremely alarming category, but it is us who categorized these countries as alarming. See, one important cause of concern is that the report observes that the word is not on track to achieve the second sustainable development goal, known as zero hunger by 2030. At the current pace, approximately 37 countries will fail even to reach low hunger in global hunger index severity scale, even by 2030. Even within the borders, countries show wide disparities in different indicators and along several lines such as wealth, location, ethnicity, and gender. Now let us come to India. See, this year India has scored 27.2. What we can observe from these numbers is that while India has improved significantly from 2020 scale, the progress from 2012 is marginal. With the 2020 scale, India is in the serious category in the severity scale. And for your reference, we have also given you the comparison of India's standing with our neighbors in South Asia. So some of us may say India is bound to have such a score because of the huge population. However, this perception is negated by the fact that China being the most populous country in the world is placed among the top 17 countries which were collectively ranked one to 17th ranks. And the difference in GHI score is minimal. See, China scored less than five. And note that India's performance in the last five years has improved comparing to 2010 to 2014 in all indicators except child wasting. So what are we supposed to do here? Adequate steps must be taken to make a remarkable progress in all indicators and special focus must be given to child wasting. So these are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this news article. With this, we'll move on to the next news. Now this news article is about the Fukushima nuclear plant which is located in Japan. We know that a nuclear accident occurred in Fukushima nuclear plant due to earthquake in 2011. And following the earthquake, sea water that entered into this nuclear plant due to tsunami disabled the power supply and cooling of three reactors. And the contaminated radioactive water leaked from three units. Now almost after a decade, Japan will be releasing more than 1 million tons of treated radioactive water into the sea from 2022 onwards. So in this context, let us take this opportunity to know about India's nuclear program. The syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. See, India has a three stage nuclear program. In 1950s, Dr. Homi Baba gave India a roadmap for the development of nuclear energy. See, India has less uranium reserves but huge thorium reserves. Almost a quarter of world's thorium reserves are found in India. So in order to utilize this thorium reserves, India came up with a three stage nuclear program. You can see in this picture. See, the first stage involves the creation of a fleet of pressurized heavy water reactors or PHWRs. See, PHWRs use domestic natural uranium which contains 0.7% fissile uranium-235 and 99.3% uranium-238 as fuel. And it uses heavy water as moderator and primary coolant. They produce electricity and here, reprocessing of the spent fuel from the pressurized heavy water reactors and the waste management are important components of the first stage. From the spent fuel, uranium and plutonium are chemically separated and recycled. And plutonium-239 which is extracted from the spent fuel serves as the fuel for the fast breeder reactors and know that fast breeder reactors constitute the second stage. And we will see about it shortly. Now coming to reactive technology. The first few nuclear plants were of boiling water reactors which are based on imported technology. Subsequent plants are indigenously built pressurized heavy water reactors type and here know that India has set up a water cooled water moderated energetic reactor or water water energetic reactor that is VVER type nuclear power plant. And it is based on Russian technology and it is located in Kudam Kolam in Tamil Nadu. The VVER reactors belong to the family of pressurized water reactors. So this VVER is a new technology used in stage one process. Now coming to the second stage, the second stage would see the setting up of several fast breeder reactors. If you see, these fast breeder reactors would use a mixture of plutonium and the reprocessed spent uranium that contains plutonium-239 from the first stage. This will produce energy that is electricity and more plutonium as the uranium will get converted into plutonium. Since more plutonium is produced it is called as breeder. Along with this these breeders would convert some of the thorium into uranium-33 which can also be used to produce energy or electricity. So this uranium-233 is the input for stage three. Here we should know that after three or four decades of operation the fast breeder reactors would have produced enough plutonium for use in the third stage. In the third stage the uranium-233 would be used in specially designed reactors to produce energy and convert more thorium into uranium-233. And you can keep adding thorium endlessly. So our ultimate aim is to use the thorium resource to produce uranium-233 for more energy generation that is electricity. Now previously we saw that this three stage nuclear program was conceived in 1950s. But now it is almost 70 years and India is still stuck in the first stage. For the second stage we need the fast breeder reactors. The construction of a prototype fast breeder reactor by Bhavini began in 2004 but it is yet to be launched. So we can say that we are yet to begin the second stage. In India the nuclear power cooperation of India Limited is responsible for design, construction, commissioning and operation of nuclear power reactors that is stage one. It is a central public sector undertaking under the administrative control of the Department of Atomic Energy Government of India. NPCIL is presently operating 22 commercial nuclear power reactors with an installed capacity of 6,780 megawatts. The reactor fleet comprises of two boiling water reactors located at Tarapur Maharashtra. And 18 pressurized heavy water reactors located at Tarapur Maharashtra, Ravad Bhattain Rajasthan, Kalpakam in Tamil Nadu, Kaiga in Karnataka, Narorain Uttar Pradesh and Kakarapar in Gujarat. And it also comprises of two water water energetic reactors located at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu. Currently the nuclear power cooperation of India Limited has eight reactors of 6,200 megawatts total capacity under construction. And in case of construction of fast breeder reactors that is stage two in India, the Bharatiya Nabhikeya Vidyudnigam Limited that is Bhavini, which is a government company under the administrative control of Department of Atomic Energy is the responsible authority. Bhavini is in the process of constructing and commissioning the prototype fast breeder reactor at Kalpakam, Tamil Nadu. And it will be also responsible for construction, commissioning, operation and maintenance of subsequent fast breeder reactors in India. So this is in brief about India's nuclear program. With this we'll move on to the next news. Now have a look at this question. It is based on this news article which talks about a report released by the credit rating agency ICRA. The report says that even during COVID-19 pandemic, farm sentiments remained positive due to a healthy monsoon and due to further optimism of a good caref crop. It also said that the rural household income was resilient. The reasons were healthy farm cash flows and a bumper ruby harvest followed by high levels of ruby procurements under various government schemes. Here financial resilience indicates the ability to withstand life events that impact one's income or assets. ICRA also said that the increased government support through MGNREGA and PM Kisan also helped create employment and easing liquidity pressure on rural incomes. So in this context, let us discuss in brief about credit rating and then about ICRA. Know that credit rating is an analysis of possible credit risks associated with granting a financial instrument to an individual or a company. The rating is provided based on the credit worthiness and the credentials of an individual or a company. The credit worthiness of an individual or a company is decided based on the lending and borrowing transactions done in the past. The credit rating is determined after weighing the statements of reliability and assets and their ability to meet the debt obligations. See, credit rating agency is a commercial concern engaged in the business of credit rating of any debt obligations or of any project or program requiring finance in the form of debt or otherwise. The most significant aspect of credit rating is that it is an opinion made available for the public influencing the decisions of the participants in financial market. Know that the credit rating agencies are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India through SEBI credit rating agencies regulations 1999. And this was amended in 2003 and followed up with a court of conduct in 2003. At present, there are several credit rating agencies registered under SEBI. Of this, Crissel has been the oldest having been in operation since 1988. And know that ICRA started its operations in 1991 and other credit rating agencies in India are CARE, BRICKWORKS, etc. Now let us discuss about ICRA. See, ICRA Limited was formerly Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency of India Limited. It was set up in 1991 by leading financial or investment institutions, commercial banks and financial service companies as an independent and professional investment information and credit rating agency. Know that the International Credit Rating Agency Moody's Investment Services is the indirect largest shareholder of ICRA. Now see this question. Crissel ICRA CARE often seen in news refers to see the correct answer is option A credit rating agencies in India. With this, we'll move on to the next news. Now have a look at this question. It is based on this news article which is with reference to the Institute of Eminence Status. The Tamil Nadu Minister of Higher Education has said that the Institute of Eminence Status to one of the universities in the state would mean the loss of 69% reservation. There could also be a hike in fees, then declaration of entrance exams and disproportionate admission of students from other states. And according to him, this might have a huge impact in accessibility and affordability of higher education for students from socially, educationally and economically weaker sections in the state. So in this context, let us have a brief discussion on the status of Institute of Eminence. See the Institutions of Eminence Scheme was launched to empower the higher educational institutions and also to help them to become world-class teaching and research institutions. The objective is to enable them to achieve rankings within top 500 in any of the world-renowned ranking frameworks. 10 public and 10 private institutions will be identified to emerge as world-class teaching and research institutions. And this will enhance affordable access to high quality education for ordinary Indians. Having said that, the freedom is given to these institutes to fix and charge fees from foreign students without restrictions. Also freedom is given to determine the domestic student fees, but this is subject to the condition that no student who gets selected for admission is turned away for lack of finance. To assist such students, the institutes are asked to encourage scholarships and extension of launch facilities. And in relation to this institution of Eminence Scheme, the University Grants Commission has notified regulations for private institutions and guidelines for public institutions in 2017. And it is in order to provide regulatory structure for enabling these institutions to become world-class teaching and research institutions. And because of this status, the selected government institutions will get financial assistance of Rs. 1000 crores over a period of 5 years in addition to the grants already being provided. The institutions selected from the private sector will have autonomy to promote innovation and creativity. The various benefits for these selected institutions under the scheme are given here for your reference. So these are some of the information about the Institution of Eminence Scheme. Now see this question with reference to the University Grants Commission's declaration of Government Educational Institution of Eminence Guidelines 2017. Which of the following is or are the expectations from a government institution of Eminence? It is a two statement based question. The first statement reads there should be a reasonably good mix of domestic and foreign students. Yes, this statement is correct. The second statement reads it should come in top 500 of any of the world renowned ranking frameworks in the first 10 years of setting up on being declared as an institution of Eminence. Yes, this statement is also correct. With this we are covered all the news articles taken up for today's discussion. Now we will move on to the practice questions discussion based on today's news analysis. Now see this first question. The term Solidarity Trail often seen in news refers to. See the correct answer is Option B, an international clinical trial led by WHO to help find an effective treatment for COVID-19. Now here Option A that is India's humanitarian assistance operation in Sulawesi province of Indonesia. It refers to Operation Samudra Maitri and Option D that is a joint exercise on urban earthquake search and rescue by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is nothing but SEO JTEX. So here the correct answer is Option B. Now see this second question. With reference to concepts related to malnutrition which of the following statements are correct. It is a four statements based question. Statement one reads under nutrition makes children more vulnerable to disease and death. Yes, this statement is correct. Statement two reads a young child who is moderately or severely wasted has an increased risk of death. Yes, this statement is also correct. Now you can easily arrive at the correct answer because statement one and statement two are correct. So it is included in Option D and here statement three reads stunting holds children back from reaching the physical and cognitive potential. Yes, this statement is also correct. And fourth statement a child who is underweight may be stunted wasted or both. Yes, this is also correct. So here the correct answer is Option D, one, two, three and four. See here you might have anticipated questions on indices but many a times the UPSC may surprise you by giving such basic concept based questions. Now see this question which of the following reactors are used in the first stage of India's three stage nuclear program. We have four types of reactors given here. Pressurized heavy water reactor fast builder reactor boiling water reactor super critical water reactor. See the first stage reactor technologies include boiling water reactor pressurized heavy water reactor then water cooled water moderated energetic reactor or water water energetic reactor. And the second stage includes setting up of several fast breeder reactors. So here the correct answer is Option A, pressurized heavy water reactor and boiling water reactor. And see super critical water reactor is a concept fourth generation reactor mostly designed as a light water reactor. And it operates at super critical pressure and know that generation four reactors are a set of nuclear reactor designs currently being researched for commercial applications. And it is being researched by Generation 4 International Forum. We'll see about this technology on some other day. And with this we'll come to the end of analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the practice questions discussion. If you like this video press the like button comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IIS Academy YouTube channel for latest videos and updates relating to civil service preparation. Thank you.