 A very good evening aspirants. I have an announcement for you. See, Prillim's is coming nearby. Hardly one month is there. So keeping this in mind, Shankar Ayes Academy has launched an all India free Prillim's mock test. So it is going to be conducted both online and offline mode across 13 centres. The first mock test is going to be conducted on 15th May 2022. And there will be two other mock tests which will be conducted on 22nd May and 29th May. So interested aspirants make use of this. See, you have both the options. You can write both online and offline mode. So if you are able to come to the centre and write the exam well and good, you take the offline mode exam. If you are not able to come to the centre and take the test, then you can always take the online mode test. I have given the link in the description. Go check that out. And with this announcement, now let us go into the Hindu daily news analysis for the date 20th April 2022. See, displayed here are the list of articles that we are going to discuss today. Without any delay, now let's get into the discussion. See this data point here. It is a depiction of how cold shortages are affecting the power supply in our country. So let us see what is the situation and the reasons for cold shortage and its consequences while discussing the data in the data point. But before that, the syllabus 11 to the article is given here for your reference. Please go through it. As you know, cold is a fossil fuel and it is an exhaustible natural resources. What does it mean? It means that it is limited in nature. But among fossil fuels, it is the most abundantly found one. That is, it is available in large quantities. Here, remember that the coal-producing areas of India are in Damodar Valley, which is the West Bengal, Jharkhand region. Its important coal fields are Zaria, Rani Ganj, Bukaro, etc. Along with this, Gotawari Valley, Mahanati, Saun and Varda valleys also contain coal deposits. Now the one we have to focus here is its applications. See, mainly coal is used in thermal power plants to produce electricity. It is also used as a fuel in various industries such as iron and steel industry. So coal provides a substantial part of India's energy needs. And this is why India is highly dependent on coal for meeting its commercial energy requirements. See, I am going to give you a data here. You can use it in your mains answer also. As of January 2022, India's coal-based power generation capacity stood at 2,03,900 MW. And this is 51.6% of the total installed capacity, including the fossil and non-fossil fuels. And its share is highest among all. Now you can understand how much we rely on coal. So knowing this information, now think about this. If there is a shortage in coal, what will happen? First, it will affect the power supply. See, this is what is mentioned by the data point also. As per the data in the recent months, coal stock, that is the inventory of coal, has fallen below the critical mark in more than 100 thermal power plants. See here, critical mark means the amount of available stock is 25% of the required stock. So, what does this mean? This means that in 100 thermal power plants, coal stock is less than 25% of what is required. See, this is depicted as orange dots in the representation here. And the red dots represent the coal stock is less than 10%. Which is the scenario in around 50 thermal power plants. See, what is the implication here? It implies that less coal means less power generation in the thermal power plants. And this ultimately means decline in power supply. Already, this situation has led to power shortages in many states as you can see in this representation. See, the states include Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and many more states. See, as per the data, Andhra Pradesh has been witnessing 10% power shortage every day for the past week. See, we should not forget that summer has started and the demand for power supply will increase. This is clearly given in this graph. You can see that as summer approaches, India's power demand has increased by 5 gigawatts. It is even higher than the average demand for the past months. So, decline in the power supply is the first consequence of the shortage of coal. Second, less coal leads to less coal allotment to the thermal power plants that are located far from the coal mines. See, this again leads to decline in power production. Already, plants are shutting down due to insufficient coal allotment. For example, Amravati power plant in Maharashtra shut down one of its units due to coal shortage resulting from insufficient allotment. So, this again leads to power production decline. And thirdly, it leads to less coal supply to non-power sectors. So, the industries that depend on coal will get affected. See, some industries depend on coal as a fuel like the iron and steel industry, cement industry etc. Some industries also need coal as a raw material. For example, coal is converted into coke to produce steel. So here, directly steel production is affected. Overall, industries affected include iron and steel, cement, paper, aluminium and fertiliser industries etc. See, so far we saw the consequences of the coal shortage. Now we will see what are all the reasons that led to these coal shortages. See, the first reason for the coal shortage is the reduced coal imports. See, in the year 2021, India's coal imports reduced to a 9-year low. This happened due to elevated prices of sea-bond coal. Again, sea-bond coal became expensive in the year 2022 due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Imports also get affected by Indonesia's coal export ban in January 2022, which was later lifted with some conditions. See, this less import led to the next reason which is more dependence on domestic production, especially on coal India Limited. So to balance the high demand, coal India prioritised coal allotment to power industries first, leading to shortages in the other industries. So this is the second reason. Now the third reason is disruption in the coal supply chain. This is mainly caused by restrictions on coal transportations which were put in place to handle pollution. See, in the year 2020, government mandated that coal transportation should be done by rail or conveyor belt or other environment-friendly modes. But until railway or conveyor belt infrastructure is made available, road transportation of coal will be allowed in tarpaulin-covered trucks. So this affected the transportation to some level. And another fact is unavailability of rail freight capacity. See, this is due to delays in the construction of new rail lines. See, rail rakes, which are the single railway carry-age, are the best mode to transport coal. Why? See, it is because a rake can carry 4,000 tons of coal while a truck can typically deliver about 25 tons only. This means carrying coal in trucks is an extremely inefficient, costly and polluting option. So using rakes is the efficient and less polluting mode. But if the rail lines are fully constructed and made functional, using rakes is not possible, leading to difficulty in transportation. And another disruption is heavy rain. See, heavy rain in many regions led to cutting the supply of coal. So these are the disruptions that are in the coal supply chain. The next reason is sudden surge in the demand of power, which leads to increased demand for coal. See, this is more pronounced in the summer months. Now the final reason is that lack of planning coordination between various ministries involved. See, power ministry, coal ministry and railways are integral part of the coal supply. But lack of planning and coordination regarding allotment of coal, proper loading and unloading of coal is affecting the coal supply. So these are some of the major reasons behind the coal shortages. Now what is the response of the government? And as usual they are saying there is no shortage of coal in the country. Only certain constraints are there in the coal supply. So government's position is that the constraints are being rectified and the coal supply is increasing gradually. And with this government's response, we came to the end of the discussion. We'll see what all we saw. We saw about the fossil fuel coal, which is an exhaustible natural resource and it is found abundant. We saw the coal producing areas, Damodar valley, West Bengal, Jharkhand region, Godavari valley, Mahanadi, Saun and Barda valleys. And we saw the application of coal, which is in the thermal power plants to produce electricity and as a fuel in many industries and as raw materials in some industries. And we saw the consequences of shortage in coal. The first one is it will affect the power supply and it will lead to power shortages. See, summer has started and the demand for power supply has increased tremendously. And the next consequences, less coal allotment to thermal power plants and less coal allotment to other industries other than the power industries. So these are the consequences and we ended our discussion by seeing the reasons for the coal shortages. One is reduced coal imports. The other one is dependence on domestic production, which led to shortages in other industries. And third one is disruption in the coal supply chain. And fourth one is sudden demand for power. Like I said, summer months has started and finally lack of planning and coordination between various ministries. And with these points in mind, now let us move on to the next article discussion. See this news article here. It talks about the foundation stone laid for the World Health Organization Global Center for Traditional Medicine. That is GCTM. See this is laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday at Jamnagar in Gujarat. Also this happened in the presence of Mauritius Prime Minister and World Health Organization's Director-General. Note that this is the first of its kind. And the GCTM will be a global outpost center for traditional medicine across the world. See it is a recognition of India's contribution and potential in the traditional medicine field. According to Prime Minister, India takes this partnership as a huge responsibility for serving the entire humanity. So in this context, let us learn about traditional medicine and then we'll have a brief look at the World Health Organization Center for Traditional Medicine. That is the GCTM. See first of all, let us see what is traditional medicine. According to World Health Organization, traditional medicine, it is the total sum of the knowledge, skills and practices that are indigenous and also different cultures have used them over time. See the major purpose of the traditional medicine is to maintain health and prevent, diagnose and treat physical and mental illness. Examples include acupuncture, yoga, ayurveda, etc. So this is about the traditional medicine. And with this basic understanding, let us discuss about the World Health Organization Center, that is the global center for traditional medicine. See it is a knowledge center for traditional medicine. As a part of WHO's overall traditional medicine strategy, it has a strategic focus on many things. Firstly, it has focus on evidence and learning, secondly on data and analytics and then on sustainability and equity and lastly on innovation and technology. So what is the purpose of this focus? See these are to optimize the contribution of traditional medicine to the global health and the sustainable development. At the same time, it is to respect the local heritages, resources and rights of the people. So the center is established as a knowledge center and to optimize the contribution of traditional medicine to the global health and sustainable development. See now being established with the support of the Government of India, the center reflects the WHO Director General's leadership vision. And what is that vision? It is the harnessing the potential of traditional medicine. See traditional medicine would be a game changer for health when founded on evidence, innovation and sustainability. Thus, Prime Minister and the Government of India are supporting the establishment of WHO Global Center for Traditional Medicine. As I said already, it is in Gujarat, India and it is in the spirit of Vasudeva Kudumbam that is the world's one family. So these are all the basics about the center and now let us see why it is needed. Firstly, around 80% of the world population is estimated to use traditional medicine such as the herbal medicines, acupuncture, yoga, indigenous therapies and others. Hence, they request to WHO for evidence and data to inform the policies, standards and regulatory frameworks. And all these requests are for safe, cost-effective and equitable use. And the second need is that traditional medicine has been an integral resource for health for centuries and communities around the world. So it is still a mainstay for some with inequities in access to conventional medicine. See the socio-culture practice and the biodiversity heritages of the traditional medicine are invaluable resources. And why is it invaluable? Because it will help in evolving inclusive healthcare and diversifying the sustainable development. So in simple words, second need is that everyone should get it. And thirdly, traditional medicine is also a part of the growing trillion dollar global health, wellness, beauty and pharmaceutical industries. So obviously there is a need for a regulatory framework or there is a need for a knowledge center so that these industries can get information from the center. Thus, as a lead investor in the WHO Global Center for Traditional Medicine, India has committed an estimated 250 million US dollars. So this is to support the center's establishment, infrastructure and operation. This includes 35 acres of land in Jamnagar, Gujarat for a new building also. It includes the premises in 2024 and interim office and then India supports for the GCTM operational cost with the 10-year commitment. And with that we have come to the end of the discussion. We will see what all we saw. We saw the traditional medicine definition according to the World Health Organization which includes knowledge, skills and practices that are indigenous and are used by different cultures over different time. And what is the purpose of the traditional medicine? To maintain health, prevent, diagnose, treat physical and mental illness. Examples include acupuncture, yoga or Ayurveda. And we moved on to see about the Global Center for Traditional Medicine. See it is a knowledge center for the traditional medicine. And it focuses on evidence and learning, data and analytics, sustainability and equity and finally innovation and technology. See the center, it fulfills the vision of the WHO Director General. And what is that vision? It is the harnessing the potential of traditional medicine. And as far as India is concerned it is committed because it is in the spirit of Vasudeva Kudumbam which is World is One Family. And finally we ended our discussion by seeing the need for the center. See 80% of world population is estimated to use traditional medicine. So evidence and data to inform the policies, standards and regulatory framework are needed. And traditional medicine are an integral resource for health. So to achieve inclusion and to diversify the sustainable development center is needed. And we saw that it is a part of many industries such as health, wellness, beauty and pharmaceuticals. So to regulate it and to get information from it the center is needed. And with these points in mind now let us move on to the next article discussion. Look at this article here it talks about the health star rating system. See the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India planned to adopt this system. The purpose is to help consumers reduce their intake of unhealthy foods. Also the article talks about the critics of the recommendation of a study conducted by the IIM Ahmed Abad. See it's according to this recommendation the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India decided to adopt the health star rating system. So in this context let us discuss about the FSS AI in Prillim's perspective. So what is this FSS AI? See Food Safety and Standards Authority of India is an autonomous statutory body. So it was established under the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006. It is under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Government of India and its headquarters is in New Delhi. And with this basic understanding now let us see the functions. See firstly it needs to frame regulations to lay down the standards and guidelines for food safety. Then it grants the FSS AI food safety license and certification for food business. And thirdly it lays down procedure and guidelines for laboratories and food business. And then it provides suggestions to the government in framing the policies. And then it collects data regarding contaminants in food products, identification of emerging risks and introduction of rapid alert system. And then it creates an information network across the country about food safety. And lastly it promotes general awareness about food safety and food standards. So these are all the functions of FSS AI. Now just for your information let us see the structure of this authority. See FSS AI comprises of a chairperson and 22 members out of which one third should be women. The chairperson of FSS AI is appointed by the central government and then the authority is assisted by scientific committees and panels in setting standards and the central advisory committee. So FSS AI is coordinating with the enforcement agencies but the primary responsibility for enforcement is largely with the state food safety commissioners. See here take a look at this image to know about the structure of FSS AI. The chairperson, 22 members, scientific committee, central advisory committee, scientific panel, state level steering committee, district level advisory committees. And with this we have come to the end. We saw about the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. It is an autonomous statutory body established under Food Safety and Standards Act 2006. It is under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Headquarters is in New Delhi. Here all the functions, it frames regulations to lay down standards and guidelines for food safety. It grants food safety license and certification. It lays down procedure and guidelines for laboratories, suggestions to government in framing the policies. It collects data regarding contaminants, risk and introduces a rapid alert system. It creates an information network about food safety. It promotes general awareness about food safety. And finally we ended our discussion by seeing the structure of the authority which comprises of a chairperson and 22 members chairperson is appointed by the central government. See the authority it coordinates with the enforcement agencies but the primary responsibility for enforcement is with the state food safety commissioners. And with these points in mind now let us move on to the next article discussion. See this news article here it talks about the forecast for India's GDP growth by IMF. You all know what is IMF right? This International Monetary Fund. See IMF on Tuesday has cut its forecast for India's GDP growth. It has cut the India's GDP growth in the current fiscal year to 8.2 percentage. See this is a 0.8 percentage reduction from January. See the reason cited was the economic impact of the Russia-Ukraine war. See the global impacts of Russia's invasion of Ukraine are seen through commodity price increases, direct impacts on countries with trade links with Russia or Ukraine. And then it is seen via disruptions to cross-border production networks. For example, neon gas production and input for silicon chips is concentrated in Russia and Ukraine. So citing these reasons the IMF has cut its forecast to 8.2 percentage for India's GDP growth. So this is the crux of the article given here in this context let us discuss about the International Monetary Fund that is the IMF in prelims perspective. See the International Monetary Fund or the IMF works for the achievement of sustainable growth and prosperity for all of its 190 member countries. So from this we know there are 190 member countries. And how does the IMF achieve this? IMF achieves this by supporting economic policies that promote financial stability and monetary cooperation. See these are essential to increase the productivity, job creation and economic well-being. The IMF is governed by the member countries and it is accountable to its member countries. Now let us have a brief look at the history behind the establishment of IMF. See IMF was established in the year 1944 in the Bretton Wood Conference. This is in the aftermath of Great Depression of 1930s and after the Second World War. 44 founding member countries sought to build a framework for the international economic cooperation. Today its membership embraces 190 countries with staff drawn from 150 nations. See like I said the IMF is governed by the member countries and it is accountable to member countries. So it means it is governed by and it is accountable to 190 member countries that make the IMF an organization which has a near global membership. Now with this basic understanding we will see what does the IMF do. See the IMF has three critical missions. First one is furthering the international monetary cooperation. Second one is encouraging the expansion of trade and economic growth. And third one is discouraging policies that would harm the prosperity. See to fulfill these missions IMF member countries work collaboratively with each other and with other international bodies. Having seen the missions now we will see how does the IMF work. See firstly IMF gives policy advice here the IMF monitors economic and financial developments and it advises the countries. Secondly the IMF provides financial assistance that is loans another financial aid to member countries. Especially for countries experiencing actual or potential balance of payments problems. And thirdly IMF provides for capacity development. This is by providing technical assistance and training to help governments to implement sound economic policies. See as a part of its world economic and financial surveys the IMF publishes flagship reports on multilateral surveillance twice a year. And what are they? They are the world economic outlook, global financial stability report and the fiscal monitor. And with this we have come to the end of the discussion. We will have a quick recap. See we saw that IMF works to achieve sustainable growth and prosperity for all of its 190 member countries. And it achieves this by supporting economic policies that promote financial stability and monetary cooperation. So here I will tell you the keywords you have to remember only the keywords. Achievement of sustainable growth, prosperity for all and promotion of financial stability and monetary cooperation. See these four keywords are very important. And after that we saw about the history behind the establishment of IMF. It was established in the year 1944 in the Bretton Wood Confluence. And we saw that it is governed by and it is accountable to 190 member countries which makes it a near global membership organization. We saw three critical missions of IMF. What are they? They are furthering the international monetary cooperation, encouraging the expansion of trade and economic growth and discouraging policies that harm the prosperity. And how does the IMF work? It gives policy advice. It provides financial assistance. It provides for capacity development. And it publishes flagship reports on multilateral surveillance. And what are all the reports that are published by the IMF World Economic Outlook WEO Global Financial Stability Report GFSR Fiscal Monitor FM. With these points in mind, now let us move on to the next part of our discussion. That is the practice prelims question discussion. Today we have four prelims questions. One of them is a previous year question that was asked in the year 2019. And one of them is a quiz question for you. Firstly let us take the previous year question. Consider the following statements. The coal sector was nationalized by the government of India under Indra Gandhi. Statement two, now coal blocks are allocated on lottery basis. Statement three, till recently India imported coal to meet the shortages of domestic supply. But now India is self-sufficient in coal production. See this is a fairly tough question. You may not know anything about statement one and statement two. But still you can arrive at the correct answer through the elimination method. Try to remember our discussion today about the coal shortages. We saw that still there are coal shortages in the country and we saw about the consequences of it also. So from today's discussion itself we can say that India is not yet self-sufficient in coal production. So in the year 2019 it definitely would not have been a self-sufficient country in the coal production. So the statement three is incorrect. We found that the statement three is incorrect. Now take a look at the options. Option B, option C and option D. All the three options have three as the answer. So we can safely eliminate these three options. So obviously option A is the right answer. But we'll also discuss about the statement one and statement two. See statement one is correct because the nationalization was done in two phases. The first with the coaking coal mines in 1971 to 1972 and then with the non-coaking coal mines in 1973. And who was PM at that time? It was Indra Gandhi who was the Prime Minister of the country from 1971 to 73. Now coming to the second statement. Statement two is incorrect because the coal blocks are allotted through auctions and not on a lottery basis. So the correct option here is option A one only. Moving on to the next question. With reference to traditional medicines, consider the following statements. Acupuncture is an example of traditional medicine. Statement two, WHO Global Center for Traditional Medicine. Purpose is to respect local heritages, resources and rights. See here the statement one it is correct. We saw in our discussion itself that acupuncture is an example of traditional medicine. And what are the other examples? Now coming to the second statement. This also we saw in our discussion. See one of the purpose for the establishment of global center for traditional medicine is to respect the local heritages, resources and rights. Then the other purpose is to optimize the traditional medicines contribution to global health and sustainable development. So we found that statement one and statement two are correct. So the correct option here is option C both one and two. Now this third question it is a quiz question for you. With reference to food safety and standards authority of India, consider the following statements. It is a statutory body. It lays down standards and guidelines for food safety. It creates an information network for food safety. Which of the following statements given above is or are correct one only, one and three only, one and two only and all the above. Recall our discussion, attempt this question and post your answer in the comment section. Now the final question with reference to International Monetary Fund. Consider the following statements. IMF works to achieve sustainable development and prosperity for all. Statement two India is not a member of IMF. See the first statement here. It is a little bit confusing right? We saw the statement in our discussion itself. But then if you are a person who is looking at the statement for the first time without the background of the IMF. What you will think? IMF is the International Monetary Fund. So it is a financial institution right? Then how come it works for achievement of sustainable development and prosperity for all? Here is where you have to be very careful. This case is true right? We saw in our discussion. It works to achieve sustainable development and prosperity for all of its member countries. So here statement one is correct. India is not a member of IMF. This statement is incorrect because India became a member of IMF in the year 1945. So here the correct answer is option A, 1, 1, Lee. See aspirants have given a mains question for you. So if you are interested, write it and post it in the comment section. If you have any queries related to the articles post that also in the comment section. And don't forget to attend the quiz question. And with this we have come to the end. If you find the video useful, like, share and comment. And do subscribe to Shankar Iyer's Academy's YouTube channel for further updates. Thank you.