 Good evening aspirants welcome to the hindu news analysis by Shankarase academy for the date 29th of January 2022. These are the list of news articles we will be discussing today. Today before starting the daily news analysis we will discuss one previous year prelims question and one previous year mains question. I have chosen both the questions the prelims and the mains from the static part of modern India. I chose this topic because as prelims is approaching I want you guys to brush up on your static part. First let us take the prelims question. This question appeared on the 2016 prelims paper. Let me read out the question. The plan of Sir Stafford Cripps envisioned that after the second world war this is the question. The statements given are first statement India should be granted complete independence. The second statement India should be partitioned into two before granting independence. Third statement India should be made a republic with the condition that she will join the commonwealth. Fourth statement India should be given dominion status. See this is a very easy question. I am very sure everyone will be aware of the answer. The correct answer here is option D India should be given dominion status. So in the context of this question as a revision we will discuss everything about Cripps mission. Ok that is its background its significance and why the Cripps mission failed. First a little bit of background. We know that in 1939 world war 2 started when Britain and France declared war on Germany when Germany invaded Poland. The Viceroy at that time in India was Lord Linlithkov. See Linlithkov declared that British India would take part in the war in support of the British Empire. He did so without consulting the Indians. This move of Linlithkov angered many. See we Indians were angry because of our previous experience during world war 1. During world war 1 Indians supported the British war efforts hoping to get concession after the war. But this did not happen and we felt cheated. So when Linlithkov said British Indian army will fight in big off of the British Empire everyone was arguably angry. So Congress party which was heading 7 provincial governments at that time resigned from all the 7 provinces. On a side note here the day when the Congress government resigned the Muslim League celebrated the day as the day of deliverance. So although the British Indian army was fighting for the British Empire Indians in general were against the war. See in 1941 Japan carried out an air strike on Pearl Harbor. This made the United States entered the war in support of the Allies. When the United States entered the war it was creating pressure on the British government against its imperial policies in India. Also the United States was keen on getting Indian support for the war. This was one of the reasons that motivated the British government to send the Krips mission. See the next reason is that Japan was rapidly advancing. The fall of Burma to Japanese forces worried the British. The threat of Japanese invasion of India was very evident. See this threat of Japanese invasion pressured the British to get Indian cooperation for British war efforts. This was the other reasons that motivated the British to send Krips mission. So due to these reasons the Krips mission was sent to India on March 1942. Having done with the reasons now let us see the proposals made by the Krips mission. The most important proposal of Krips mission is setting up of an Indian Dominion. Krips mission also proposed that the Dominion would have the freedom to remain with the British Commonwealth or to cede from it. The Indian Dominion would also be at liberty to take part in the international organizations. On a side note here I am going to list out the various places where Dominion status is mentioned. It was mentioned in the Nero report of 1928 where Mothilal Nero asked for the Dominion status for India on the lines of Australia and Canada. Then the Dominion status was again mentioned during the Calcutta Congress session of 1928. In the Calcutta Congress session the Congress gave a one year ultimatum to the British government to accept and give the Dominion status to India. Congress said if the British government does not offer Dominion status to India within one year civil disobedience movement for complete intubations will be launched. Then during the Irwin's declaration of October 1929 the Viceroy proclaimed that the ultimate aim of the British government is to provide Dominion status to India. Here note that during the Irwin declaration he did not offer any time limit during which the Dominion status would be given. Then during the Delhi manifesto of 1929 the National leaders proposed that the purpose of the Raul table conference should not be to determine whether and when to give the Dominion status but to formulate a solid plan for the implementation of Dominion status. So in the Delhi manifesto of November 1929 also the Dominion status was mentioned. Then again in August of 1940 Lord Linditko announced Dominion status as the objective for India and again like we discussed it was mentioned during the Crips mission. See the Dominion status was also mentioned in the Mountbatten plan of 1947. Here it was proposed for the immediate transfer of power on the basis of grant of Dominion status to the Indians. Finally Dominion was again mentioned in the Indian independence act of 1947. The act here proposed for the creation of two independent Dominion of India and Pakistan. See these are the places Dominion status is mentioned. I think I have covered everything. If I have missed something just post it in the comment section. Now coming back we saw that the Crips mission proposed for the setting up of an Indian Dominion once the war gets over. The mission also said that the Dominion also had the right to be with the British common wealth or it has the right to seed from the common wealth. See this right to seed from the common wealth indicated that in the future full sovereignty would be provided. Next the mission proposed that a constituent assembly would be formed to frame a new constitution for the country. This assembly would have members elected by the provincial assemblies and in the case of princely states the members would be nominated by the princes. See this was the first time it was mentioned that Indians could form their own constitution. The next is that the mission also said that any provinces unwilling to join the Indian union could form a separate union and have a separate constitution. See this provision is important because this proposal of giving freedom to the provinces to be a separate union turned out to be the model for the country's partition in 1947. The mission said until the new constitution is formed the defense of India would be under British control and the power of Governor-General would remain the same. Finally the Crips mission also ensued that the rights of the minorities would be protected. See these are some important proposals of the Crips mission. We know that the Crips mission ended up a failure. The failure of the Crips mission resulted in Mahatma Gandhi initiating the Quit India movement in August 1942. So now we will see why the Crips mission ended up a failure. See the Indians considered the proposals of the Crips mission to be more conservative while the Britishers considered the proposals of the mission to be more radical. This was the main reason for the failure of the Crips mission. The Indian National Congress specifically rejected the mission due to the following reasons. First is that the mission gave right for the provinces to form separate union. The INC thought this provision could lead to Balkanization of India so it opposed the Crips mission. Again the next is that the Indian National Congress opposed the proposals of the Crips mission because there was no provision for the sharing of defense related powers with Indians. Also the proposal mentioned that the Governor-General would continue to have the power. The INC just wanted the Governor-General to act as a constitutional head. This was also the reason for the INC not accepting the Crips mission. Finally the Indian National Congress opposed the proposal because it lacked a concrete plan for the immediate transfer of power. So these are the reasons why the Indian National Congress opposed the Crips mission. Now we will see why the Muslim League opposed the Crips mission. Actually they opposed the Crips mission for different reasons. First is the Muslim League was against the idea of a single union for India. The next reason is that the Muslim League did not like the procedure in which the constitution assembly is to be created. So the Congress and the Muslim League opposed the Crips mission. See including them the Hindu Mahasabha also opposed the Crips mission because the Hindu Mahasabha was against the provision that gave the rights for the states to seed or separate from the Indian Union. The mission also failed because there was a clear lack of support for it from the Viceroy Linlithgau, the British Prime Minister at that time Winstead Churchill and the Secretary of State for India Leo Amri. This is all you have to know about Crips mission. I think I have covered every nook and corner of it and with this discussion I am sure you would be able to answer any question asked from the Crips mission part. Before moving on to the main question discussion I want a suggestion from you guys. In my future discussions if I am doing a discussion based on previous year's problems question should I cover it like today that is take one question and discuss the entire topic elaborately or instead should I limit the discussion and focus on covering three or four questions okay. Give your suggestions because your suggestions will be helpful for me to take this thing forward. So post your suggestions in the comment section. Now let us complete this session and take up the main question for discussion. This is the main question we will be discussing today. This is from the 2019 General Studies paper one. This question is also from the static part of modern India. Let me read the question. The 1857 uprising was the culmination of the recurring big and small rebellions that had occurred in the preceding 100 years of British rule. Elucidate. See here the key word is elucidate. See elucidate actually means to explain clearly. So while writing the answer for this question you must explain clearly to the evaluator how the 1957 uprising was indeed a culmination of big and small rebellions that had occurred in the preceding 100 years. Since this is a static question I am not going to discuss the entire answer here. Instead I am going to guide you how to approach the question okay. See in the introduction part you can mention about the nature of the pre 1857 rebellions. We know that they were small localized in character and they were very isolated. See the rebellions that is the pre 1857 rebellions had their own goals and they lacked a common goal. See even though these pre 1857 rebellions lacked a long term vision they are still important because they helped motivate people. See this introduction is enough okay. You can also write your own introduction for your answers okay. Now moving on to the body of the answer. See the question here has a statement saying 1857 uprising was the culmination of recurrent big and small rebellions okay. So if you just list out the rebellions that happened before 1857 uprising you won't get the maximum marks. What you must do is by listing out the rebellions you must link the answer to the question by mentioning how these small rebellions eventually resulted in the 1857 uprising. This is why the keyword elucidate is given. So stay cautious. You should not just list out the rebellions. You should write them and link them to the question to fetch the maximum marks. Now I am going to give a general structure of the body of the answer okay. See the pre 1857 uprising can be classified into three types. That is tribal uprising, peasant uprising and the uprisings that have religious nature. First let us take up tribal uprising. Here you can mention about Santal uprising, Konda uprising and the Kohl uprising. The main reason behind all these uprisings is changes in the land revenue system brought by the British which affected the tribal way of life and once the rebellions took place the British government stopped the rebellion with a heavy oppression. So the tribal population were angry at the British. Second let us take the peasant uprising. Here you can mention about Rangpur Dihang, Pagalpanthiri vault and the Narbalberia uprising of 1831. See the peasants were also affected by the changes in land revenue brought by the British. Due to the new changes the peasants were exploited by the moneylenders and the local landlords. So they were also dissatisfied with the British. The third type of uprising that happened before 1857 are the rebellions of religious nature. Here you can mention about Fyrazi movement and the Sanyasi rebellion. See the British interfered with the religion of the people. They also supported the work of Christian missionaries. This also angered the people. See in all these cases the British took well the rebellion came down with a heavy hand. So there was a general resentment against the British from all the sections of the society from tribals to peasants to religious people. So this is how the big and small rebellions culminated in the 1857 uprising. That is this general resentment against the British policies resulted in the 1857 uprising. See here I did not just list out the rebellions. What I did was I wrote the rebellions and tied it up with the question. So this is how you have to write an answer for the question which has the word elucidate on it. Okay here I did not give the entire answer. I want you to try writing this answer and post it in the comment section. Now let us wind up the previous year main question discussion and take up the first article for our discussion. See this article here it says that banks are planning to transfer the non-performing assets to the national asset reconstruction company limited that is NIRCL or the bad bank. It is set up to help resolve the stress faced by the banks. The article says that 15 non-performing assets or accounts worth rupees 50,000 crores are to be transferred to the NIRCL and also according to the article approvals have been received for setting up of the NIRCL and the India Debt Resolution Company Limited that is IDRCL. So this is the crux of the article given here. In this discussion let us see about NIRCL and IDRCL in detail. The syllabus regarding this discussion is highlighted here you can go through it. First of all what is a bad bank? See our bad bank is a bank set up to buy the bad loans of another financial institution. The entity or institution holding significant non-performing assets will sell these holdings to the bad bank at a set market price. By transferring such assets to the bad bank the original institution may clear its balance sheet. So this is exactly what banks are planning to do according to the article we have taken here. So with this understanding let us see about NIRCL. See the plan to form a bad bank to clean up banks balance sheets was announced in the union budget last year that is 2021. The new entity is being created in collaboration with both public and private sector banks. The NIRCL has been incorporated under the Companies Act and has applied to the Reserve Bank of India for license as an asset reconstruction company or ARC under the new structure approved by the regulator that is the Reserve Bank of India. The bad bank that is the NIRCL will acquire and aggregate the bad loan accounts from the banks while the India Depth Resolution Company Limited that is IDRCL will handle the resolution process under an exclusive agreement. See what is the role of these two bodies? Under the new framework banks will aggregate and consolidate stressed assets with NIRCL for resolution. Here stressed assets mean non-performing assets. Public sector banks will hold 51% ownership in the NIRCL. NIRCL will acquire fully provisioned stressed assets by making an offer to the lead bank in a consortium of lenders. And once the offer is accepted NIRCL will engage with IDRCL for management and resolution of the stressed assets. In IDRCL private entities will maintain 51% ownership with the government holding the rest. The NIRCL will acquire the stressed assets of about Rs 2 lakh crore in a phased manner. The stressed asset will be acquired through a 15% upfront cash payment and 85% in the form of security receipts. For this purpose the cabinet cleared the proposal to provide a government guarantee worth Rs 30,000 crores to security receipts issued by the NIRCL. The difference between the phased value of the stressed asset from the realized value from the sale or the liquidation of asset represents the guarantee offered by the government. The guarantee will be valid for a period of 5 years. Now you may think why such a guarantee is given by the government? See it is done to impart credibility and to provide for a contingency buffer. And now we will see what the IDRCL will do. See IDRCL is a service or an operational entity established to manage the stressed asset and engage with market professionals including turn-around experts. Stressed assets acquired by NIRCL will be managed by IDRCL for price discovery and value addition. So to simply put NIRCL will acquire and aggregate the stressed assets. The IDRCL will handle the resolution process of the assets by doing value addition. Now we will see the significance of the bad bank. See basically if a bank has a high non-performing assets a large part of its profits would be utilized to cut losses. As a result any bank with more non-performing assets is likely to become more risky and it would be less willing to lend money to the borrowers. This in turn will make it difficult for the businessmen and customers or consumers to take loans from the banks. This affects the overall functioning of the economy. Ok because people are not able to get credit from the bank. See moreover in India a large portion of non-performing assets is with the government owned public sector banks or the PSBs. In the past the government has issued more capital to take care of the non-performing assets problem and to improve the financial health of the public sector banks. So this means the government will have very less money for other welfare schemes. So this is also an issue associated with non-performing assets. See as per the World Bank data the share of NPA to the gross loans in India is significantly high compared to the developed western economies. Look at this image here. See when compared to other economies like the United States the United Kingdom Germany and China India's NPA is significantly higher. Ok see till now we saw about the significance of the bad banks now we will move on and see the issues associated with the bad banks. One of the issues which may arise is telling the stressed asset to potential buyers and resolving the underlying crisis in the system. See in the current situation when economic conditions are deteriorating finding a potential buyer for distressed asset can be a very significant challenge. There is a lack of buyer's demand also the public sector banks will be both shareholders and customers of the bad bank ok and it will lead to the danger of bad bank being a means to shift bad depth from one book that is from the public sector bank to the other book that is the bad banks book ok. And the next key challenge includes the need for rapid reliable data collection and analysis because there is actually a lack of reliable data collection and analysis ok. It requires financial as well as more manpower. Now we have seen the issues associated with bad banks. Now let us understand why the move is a much needed one especially in the current economic situation. See bad banks in the system are expected to increase in the wake of contraction in the economy and the problems faced by many sectors. The RBI noted in its recent financial stability report that the cross non-performing assets of the banking sectors are expected to be shot up to 13.5% of advances by September 2021 from 17.5% in September 2020. So in this context the aggregation of stressed assets at only entity's hand is undoubtedly expected to speed up the process for finding interested buyers transfer of assets restructuring of debts etc. And more than anything else the quality of such asset will matter the most. Historically we have seen proven examples of formation of bad banks. A plenty of it relied on the evolving socio-economic and political conditions of the country. See as India requires from its hardest economic hit due to Covid-19 the challenges going to be faced by the bad banks are not going to be easy but if tackled properly this could provide a much needed momentum to the entire banking sector. So a fully professionally run bad bank funded by the private lenders and supported by the government can be an effective mechanism to deal with the raising non-performing assets. The bad bank concept is in some ways similar to the asset reconstruction company but the difference is that it is funded by the government initially with the banks and other investors co-investing in its due course. The presence of the government in the bad bank is seen as a means to speed up the cleanup process. Many other countries have set up institutions for dealing with non-performing assets. For example in the United States there is a troubled asset relief program which deals with the problem of financial stress in the economy. This has been successful in the United States. Now before winding up the discussion here we saw some points about NARCL and the IDRCL. We saw about the functions of NARCL and IDRCL. Next we moved on to the significance of bad banks and we also saw some issues associated with the bad banks. And finally before concluding we saw about the importance of bad banks in the present economic condition. With this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this news article. This news article mentions about a study on the coronavirus called as NIOCOV. The study has found that a change in the molecular level of NIOCOV could enable it to infect humans. So in this discussion let us see about NIOCOV then about the set study. To understand NIOCOV we must brush up our basics about coronavirus. Here I am not just talking about COVID-19 but the set of viruses called as coronavirus. See coronavirus are a large family of viruses. They belong to the family called as coronavirus family which is also simply called coronavirus family. One of its sub-families have four genera. They are alpha coronavirus, beta coronavirus, gamma coronavirus and delta coronavirus. Gamma coronaviruses and beta coronaviruses generally affect mammals such as bats and humans. The gamma coronaviruses and the delta coronaviruses are primarily found in birds. Now what impacts does these coronaviruses have? They typically cause respiratory disease in humans and enteritic disease in animals. Entertic disease is the name of any disease caused by an intestinal infection and affects intestines and stomach. Here the one that infects humans are called as human coronaviruses and similarly ones that infect animals are called as animal coronaviruses. So it was thought that coronaviruses cause agriculturally important disease in animals. On the other hand they usually cause milder moderate upper respiratory tract in less like common cold in humans. Currently there are four coronaviruses that have been recognized to cause common cold in humans. They are H-C-O-V-O-C-43, H-C-O-V-H-K-U-1, H-C-O-V-N-L-6-3 and H-C-O-V-229-E, the first two are alpha coronavirus and the next two are beta coronavirus. See this was the scenario before SARS-C-O-V and MERS-C-O-V came into play. That is severe acute respiratory syndrome coronaviruses and the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronaviruses came into play. Here both are beta coronaviruses, they are highly pathogenic coronaviruses and can cause serious and widespread illness and death. The SARS-C-O-V that is the SARS coronavirus emerged in China in 2002. It caused severe acute respiratory syndrome. It was highly pathogenic and there was a 10% fatality rate worldwide. It is said to have disappeared by 2004. Then again after 10 years in 2012 another one emerged in Saudi Arabia. It is called the MERS-C-O-V or the MERS-Coronavirus. It caused Middle East respiratory syndrome and it almost had a 35% mortality rate worldwide. This virus is still causing sporadic and localized outbreaks. Then within the same decade in 2019 the third novel coronavirus emerged which was called as SARS-Coronavirus-2. It causes coronavirus 2019 that is COVID-19. This one emerged in China and it is still causing global pandemic with its variants. The fact to be noted here is that many of these human and animal coronaviruses appear to have origins in a variety of bad species. See, we have heard that bats are natural reservoirs of viruses and harbor a variety of viruses. Now many of these viruses in bats can cause diseases in humans and diseases in agriculturally important animal species. For example, Lysovirus causes Rabbis, Filovirus causes Ebola and Henipa Viruses cause Nepha. And over 200 novel coronaviruses have been identified in bats. Particularly, bats are major hosts for alpha coronaviruses and beta coronaviruses. Even the SARS-Coronavirus and the MERS-Coronavirus have their origins in bats. And the one that causes common cold that is Hutch coronavirus NL63 and the Hutch coronavirus 229E are thought to have origins in bats. This map provides you a bat associated and presumably bat associated emerging infectious diseases around the world. Just go through it. See, several MERS-related coronaviruses are found in bat species. Sometimes they are called bat coronaviruses. One among them is Neo-Coronavirus or the Neo-COV. Note that at the genetic level, Neo-Coronavirus is closer to MERS-Coronavirus than other bat coronaviruses. There is 85% identity at the whole genome level. So it is also a beta coronavirus. Therefore, it is also deadly and dangerous like MERS-Coronavirus. But now, why is it suddenly in news? See, researchers have found that after some molecular changes, the Neo-Coronavirus can also efficiently infect human cells using the same pathway like the SARS-Coronavirus-2 that is COVID-19. So what is the way used by the SARS-Coronavirus-2 to infect human cells? It is the ACE2 receptors. See here, ACE2 stands for angiotensin converting enzyme 2. It is expressed in humans and animals. When it is present in humans, it is mentioned as Hutch ACE2. It is expressed in various human organs, mainly in cell membranes of heart, kidney, lungs, arteries and intestines. It is said to play an important role in regulation of cardiovascular function, renal function and fertility. It is said to protect lungs from severe acute lung injury and kidney from kidney damage. It also plays a role in regulating hypertension and electrolyte balance. Along with this, it also acts as a function receptor for SARS-Coronavirus-2. That is, it provides entry to SARS-Coronavirus-2 or we can say SARS-Coronavirus-2 sneaks into the humans through Hutch ACE2 receptors. In other words, we can also say SARS-Coronavirus-2 spike protein has a strong binding affinity to the Hutch ACE2 receptors. This is the problem. See, when SARS-Coronavirus-2 binds or sneaks in, it down regulates the expression of Hutch ACE2. This makes the ACE2 to forego its protective effect in different organs. Thereby, it is unable to protect from severe acute lung injury, which it was able to before. So, this results in higher infection and transmissibility of SARS-Coronavirus-2, which causes COVID disease. So, this is how ACE2 is related to COVID-19. Now, the research study while studying Neo-Coronavirus have made some findings regarding ACE2 in bats and humans. They found that Neo-Coronavirus can efficiently use some type of bat ACE2. That is, the ACE2 in bats provides entry to Neo-Coronavirus. On the other hand, they found that Hutch ACE2, that is, human ACE2 is less favorable for Neo-Coronavirus's entry. It is unable to bind with Hutch ACE2. So, basically, as of now, there is a species barrier for Neo-Coronavirus in humans, which is preventing human infection. This is a good thing. But there is a cause for worry, because when researchers artificially introduce mutation in Neo-Coronavirus in laboratory settings, the mutated Neo-Coronavirus was able to bind to Hutch ACE2. In the mutated form, the Neo-Coronavirus was 15 to 30 times more efficient in infecting the Hutch ACE2. Plus, they also found that this mutated one could not be suppressed by the antibodies which generally targets SARS-Coronavirus-2 and MERS-Coronavirus. So this poses a potential biosafety threat. So in the future, if there is a natural mutation in Neo-Coronavirus that increases its ability to bind to Hutch ACE2, it may even lead to MERS-Coronavirus-2, resulting in both high fatality and a very high transmission rate. This was the findings of the study. Now, before concluding this session, in this discussion, we saw about basics of coronavirus, SARS-Coronavirus-2, MERS-Coronavirus-2, how SARS-Coronavirus-2 used the Hutch ACE2 receptors to infect humans. And we also saw some points about Neo-Coronavirus. With this, let us conclude this discussion and let us take up the next news article. Look at this editorial article. This article is with reference to the joint statement issued by India and the Central Asian Republics, that is, CAR at the end of the India Central Asia Virtual Summit, which was held on 27 January. During the summit, Prime Minister Modi and the Central Asian leaders discussed the next steps in taking India-Central Asia relations to new heights. This is the crux of this editorial. In this context, we will learn about the significance of Central Asian region for India and the challenges in the India-Central Asian relations. We will also discuss some of the ways to improve India-Central Asia relations. The syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference. Kindly go through it. Now let us start our discussion. See, Central region of Asia, which is called Central Asia, extends from the Caspian Sea in the west to the borders of western China in the east. It is bounded on the north by Russia and the south by Iran, Afghanistan and China. The region consists of the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. These five countries constitute the Central Asian republics, which is Khar. The region is strategically vital for many countries like China, Russia, India, the United States and even Europe. Therefore, a geographer named Halford MacKinder observed, he who controls the heartland controls the world. In recent years, foreign affairs analysts have begun observing what they call the new great game in Central Asia. It is characterized by a fierce competition between various states, all aiming to increase their influence, hegemony and power over the Central Asian region. You can see the Central Asian region countries in this map here. Now, we will see in brief about what happened in the virtual summit that is held recently. See, this is the first India-Central Asia summit. It coincided with the 30th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relationship between India and Central Asian countries. In a historic decision, the leaders agreed to institutionalize the summit mechanism by deciding to hold it every two years. They also agreed on regular meetings of foreign ministers, trade ministers, culture ministers and secretaries of security council to prepare groundwork for summit meetings. Moreover, and India-Central Asia secretariat in Delhi would be set up to support the new mechanism. The leaders discussed about the cooperation in areas of trade and connectivity, developmental cooperation, defense and security. They also stressed on cultural and people-to-people contacts. They also discussed about round table on energy and connectivity and the use of Chabahar port. They went on to discuss about showcasing of Buddhist exhibitions in Central Asian countries and joint counter-terrorism exercises also. Prime Minister Modi also discussed the evolving situation in Afghanistan with the Central Asian leaders. The leaders reiterated their strong support for a peaceful, secure and stable Afghanistan with a truly representative and inclusive government. Prime Minister conveyed India's continued commitment to provide humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people. Now, let us understand the significance of the Central Asia for India. The Central Asia serves as a land-bridge between Asia and Europe and it is very rich in natural resources. It is thus geopolitically significant and economically offers a wide range of opportunities. Okay? Now, we will see the significance of each countries. First let us take Tajikistan. Tajikistan's importance for India lies in its geostatic location. It shares borders with China, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is also located in proximity to the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Next let us take Kazakhstan. See Kazakhstan's importance for India needs to be viewed in the context of India's growing energy needs and Kazakhstan's immense hydrocarbon resource. Next we will take up Turkmenistan. The importance of Turkmenistan for India lies in its enormous gas resource, transit potential and geostatic location. The India imports 70% of its oil requirements right now and it is likely to go up to 90% by 2025. And this fact has made Turkmenistan an attractive destination for India and it is a part of the Tappi which is nothing but a gas pipeline connecting Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Turkmenistan can also serve as a gateway to Central Asia through Iran. Okay? India's point of view, north south corridor would not only help India in reaching out to Central Asia but also enable it to transport goods at a cheaper cost to the European markets also. Now let us take Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan has been appreciative of India's reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan and supports India's candidature for full membership in the United Nations Security Council. Okay? Finally let us take Kyrgyzstan. India has offered assistance to Kyrgyzstan by sending a team to train Kyrgyz armed forces in UN peacekeeping operation and imparting English language skills. Also Kyrgyzstan is located in a geopolitically strategic position. Okay? See, these are the significance of Central Asian Republic nations to India. Okay? Now let us see about the trade relations between Central Asian Republics and the outside world. See, Russia is still a widely influential political and security player in the region. Russia has been promoting its own Eurasian Economic Union to pursue regional and economic integration. See this image here? It shows the trade relations of Central Asian Republics with major countries. It is evident from this graph that the presence of Russia and China is more in the region than other countries. India's trade with this region amounts to just $2 billion, moving to limited connectivity and low economic engagement. Okay? As India ascertains its position as one of the fastest growing major economies of the world, its increased engagement with the region can lead to mutually beneficial gains both in economic and strategic terms. The presence of multiple strong powers in the region offers options to the regional actors like India to balance external pressures also. Okay? Now we have seen the significance of the region. Now we will move on to look at the challenges in the India-Central Asia relations. Okay? To begin with, there is the problem of trade. See, as we discussed, India's trade with the region amounts to just $2 billion, which is a very small amount. And in that too, India spends mostly on Kazakhstan's energy exports to India. See, compare this with China. China-Central Asian Republic trade figures exceed $41 billion, which is over 20 times what India and Central Asian Republics traded. Apart from this, China also invested billions of dollars in the Belt and Road Initiative in the region. This is the first challenge. Now moving on to the second challenge. This is in regards to Pakistan. Actually, Pakistan is denying India's transit rate. So India's other option is to establish route through Iran's Chabahar port. See, Chabahar port is located on the Gulf of Uman, which is just 75 kilometers away from the Gwadar port in Pakistan, which has been developed by China. The port serves as the only oceanic port of Iran and consists of two separate ports, named Sahid, Bihasti, and Sahid Kalanthar. To make the Chabahar port fully operational, greater investment in railways, roadways, through Iran's northern boundaries with the Central Asian Republics is required. But India is hesitant to do so because India fears of U.S. sanctions. In this image, you can see how Chabahar port is closer to Gwadar port of Pakistan. The other option that India can use to establish connectivity to the Central Asian region is through the Russia-Iran International North-South Transport Corridor. See, this Russia-Iran International North-South Transport Corridor is via the Bandar Abbas port. But the thing is that the Bandar Abbas port is not fully operational. And the other issue is that two Central Asian Republics, that is Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, are not members of the International North-South Transport Corridor. See, the International North-South Transport Corridor project was originally decided between India, Iran, and Russia in 2000 in St. Petersburg. Later, it included 10 other Central Asian and West Asian countries as observers. The countries are Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Oman, Syria, and Bulgaria. See, the International North-South Transport Corridor proposed a 7,200-kilometre-long multimodern network of ship, rail, and road route for transporting freight. It was aimed at reducing the carriage cost between India and Russia by about 30% and bringing down the transit time between 2 by half. You can see the route of International North-South Transport Corridor project in this image. Now coming to the third challenge. India has delayed Tappi gas pipelines due to its tensions with Pakistan. See, Tappi gas pipeline, also called as Peace Pipeline, is a 1,814-kilometre natural gas pipeline that originates from Turkmenistan and passes through Afghanistan and Pakistan to reach India. It aims to monetize the Turkmenistan's gas reserves and supply them to the neighboring countries to promote the use of natural gas and to improve energy security. You can see the pipeline project in this image. This is the third challenge and now let us move on to the final challenge. This is the challenge of Afghanistan. See Afghanistan is becoming a weak link between Central Asia and South Asia. After the Taliban took over Afghanistan, there is no official government and a humanitarian crisis is also building. There are also worries of terrorism, radicalism spreading across its boundaries. So far we discussed the challenges in the India-Centrelation-Republic relations. Now we will discuss some of the solutions to the challenges. The first solution proposed is setting up a joint working group on Afghanistan and Chabahar. This has been even outlined in the summit joint statement, but the thing is that this must be put into action for effective result. Now coming to the second solution. See India has attempted to establish many projects like Chabahar, International North South Transit Corridor and TAPI, but without much success. So India has to complete and operationalize the project by means of diplomatic dialogues. Developing Chabahar port should be on the top priority list. The next solution is that India should remember that it is not the only country strengthening its ties with the Central Asian republics. While Russia is the most important strategic player, China is now the biggest development and infrastructure partner of these countries. So India can diplomatically use Russia to strengthen its ties with the Central Asian republics. India should institute and strengthen defence and security dialogue with the Central Asian countries. Now we will see the fourth suggestion. See education and medical field provide an excellent opportunity for India to showcase its soft power. However, this will require considerable strengthening of infrastructure at home so that the Central Asians who come to India find it a hospitable and a comfortable country. Finally, India will need to move smartly to ensure it adapts with the changes. India should try to make the ties with the Central Asian republics which closely resemble the deep ties of the distant past. This is all regarding this editorial. In this discussion, we looked at the recent virtual summit between India and the Central Asian republics. The importance of the Central Asian republics for India challenges in the India-Central Asia relations and some solutions to overcome these challenges. With this, let us conclude this discussion. Now we will move on to the next news article. Look at this news article. This article states that the Center on Friday appointed Mr. V. Anantanageswaran as the Chief Economic Advisor. In this context, we will learn about the appointment process and the functions of the Chief Economic Advisor. Now let's start our discussion. See, the Chief Economic Advisor is the head of the Economic Division of the Department of Economic Affairs which comes under the Ministry of Finance. This Economic Division examines domestic and international economic trends. The Economic Division undertakes research studies that deals with economic policies and the management of the economy. The Economic Division also offers policy advice. Note here that the recommendations of the Economic Divisions are advisory in nature. Also, the Chief Economic Advisor plays an important role in bringing out the Economic Survey. Note that the Economic Survey presents the Economic Report Card of the Government during the year. It also gives suggestions on possible reforms. The Chief Economic Advisor is a post in the Government of India and is usually equivalent to the rank of Secretary to the Government of India. You can see this in the table that Chief Economic Advisor is placed on par with the Secretary rank. Okay? The Chief Economic Advisor is either selected from inside the Government or from outside like some Professors of Economics. Here Mr. V. Ananta Nageshwaran is a teacher of international economics, exchange rates and financial markets at leading business schools in Singapore as well as India. See this Office of Chief Economic Advisor is not to be confused with the Office of Economic Advisor. Note here that Office of Economic Advisor is an attached Office of the Department for the Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade under Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The main function of the Office of Economic Advisor is giving policy inputs on industrial development. So, the functions of Office of Economic Advisor is different from the functions of Chief Economic Advisor. Note that. Okay? So, now we will see some functions of the Chief Economic Advisor. As we have discussed, the Economic Division of the Department of Economic Affairs is headed by the Chief Economic Advisor. Some of the main functions of the divisions are given in the table. You can go through it. With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Take a look at this article given here. It talks about the Water Connection Targets for the States for 2021-22 under the Gel Jeevan Mission. It is the Centrally Assisted Rural Waters Apply Initiative. With just two months left in the fiscal year, the state government is nowhere near achieving the objective of 29.38 lakh functional household tap connections. So, this is the crux of the article. In the context of this article, we are going to learn about Gel Jeevan Mission from the prelims point of view. First of all, the mission. The Gel Jeevan Mission, a central government initiative under the Ministry of Gel Shakti, aims to ensure access of piped water for every household in India. It is envisioned to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections by 2024 to all households in rural India. The Hargar Nalsi Gel Program was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sita Raman in her budget speech of 2019-20. This program forms a crucial part of the Gel Jeevan Mission. The program aims to implement source sustainability measures as mandatory elements such as recharge and reuse through greywater management, water conservation, and rainwater harvesting. The Gel Jeevan Mission will be based on a community approach to water, and it will include extensive information, education, and communication as a key component of the mission. As you can see, you should know the significance of the scheme as well. As you know, already India is facing one of the most serious water crisis. According to the Nithya Yog's Composite Water Management Index, 2018, 21 Indian cities could face day zero in the coming years. Day zero here refers to the day when a place is likely to have no drinking water of its own. Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, and Hyderabad are among the most susceptible cities. The report also says that 75% of the Indian households do not have drinking water on the premise, and about 84% of the rural households do not have piped water access. And also water is not properly distributed where it is supplied through pipes. See, megasities like Delhi and Mumbai get more than the standard municipal water norms of 150 liters per capita per day, while other cities get less than 40 to 50 liters per capita per day. So in the present scenario, the Jaljeevan mission's implementation is highly important. The component of Jaljeevan mission that deals with ensuring sustainability should be given more focus to ensure that there is no major water crisis in India in the near future due to climate change. See in this discussion, we saw some important points about Jaljeevan mission. Then we saw the importance of Jaljeevan mission in present scenario. With this, let us conclude the news article discussion session. Now let us take up the practice brilliance questions. Let us take up the first question. This is a previous year question which appeared in the 2021 brilliance paper. Let me read out the question. The term ACE2 is talked about in the context of. See, from our discussion itself, you can easily say that ACE2 is related to the spread of viral disease because it acts as a functional receptors for certain coronaviruses such as SARS coronavirus and the SARS coronavirus too. But also remember, ACE2 has some positive functions also, like it plays a role in regulation of cardiovascular function, relan function and fertility. It is said to protect lungs from severe acute lung injury and kidneys from damage. The ACE2 also plays a role in regulating hypertension and electrolyte balance. From our discussion, we know that the correct answer here is option D, spread of viral diseases. Now moving on to the second question. This is a two statement question. We have to find the correct statement. Okay. Let us take up the first statement. SARS coronavirus, MERS coronavirus and the Neo coronavirus are beta coronaviruses. This statement is correct. From our discussion, we know that SARS coronavirus, MERS coronavirus and Neo coronavirus are indeed beta coronaviruses that infect animals and humans. Okay. Now, let us take up the second statement. SARS coronavirus and SARS coronavirus 2 spike proteins have a strong binding affinity to human angiotensin converting enzyme 2 that is HACE2. See, this statement is also correct. Along with SARS coronavirus 2, SARS coronavirus 1 also have a strong binding affinity to human ACE2. Since both the statements are correct, the correct answer is option C, both 1 and 2. Now moving on. See, this question is about chief economic advisor or CEA. We have to find the incorrect statement. See, this is a very easy static question. We saw in our discussion that chief economic advisor is the head of economic division of the department of economic affairs, which comes under ministry of finance. And the chief economic advisor play a key role in bringing out the economic survey. So, from the statements given here, we know that statement B and statement C are correct and statement A is incorrect. Since they are asking us to find the incorrect statement, the correct answer is option A. Now, let us take up the last problems question for today. This question is in regards to GELG1 mission. Here also two statements are given. We have to find the correct statement. Let us take up the first statement. Okay. It is implemented by ministry of rural development. This statement is incorrect because the program is implemented by ministry of Jalsakthi. Okay. Now, let us take up the second statement. The mission of the program is to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connection by 2024 to all households in rural India. See, this statement is correct because it is the mission statement or the vision statement of the program. The program aims to ensure access to piped water to every household in India. Since statement one is incorrect and statement two is correct, the correct answer here is option B2 only. The main question based on today's discussion is here. Write the answer and post it in the comment section. If you like today's discussion, like, comment and share. And for more updates regarding UPSC preparation, subscribe to Shankar A's Academy YouTube channel. Thank you.