 A very good evening aspirants, welcome to the hindi news analysis by Shankar Ayes academy for the date 8th February 2021. The list of news articles chosen for today's analysis along with its page numbers from different editions of hindi newspaper is given here for your reference. Let us start our analysis with this first news article. Now let us start our first discussion based on these news articles. These news articles talk about the recent catastrophic event of glacial outburst in Uttarakhand. This glacial outburst happened yesterday on Nanda Devi of Uttarakhand. This glacial outburst triggered an avalanche and it also caused flash floods in Rishi Ganga and Dhavali Ganga rivers which are tributaries of Ganga river. These flash floods already killed 7 people and it has injured more than 100 people. And this event has brought many unexpected consequences such as it has nearly washed away the Rishi Ganga power project. We have been frequently hearing of such disasters in the Kosenste Himalayan region which makes it one of the most important issues in the present times. If you remember in 2014 there was a massive glacial outburst in Ladakh which caused great destruction in the area. And also in 2013 we saw the Kedarnath deluge which led to widespread devastations in the ecologically fragile Himalayan region. So in this context let us have a brief discussion about glacial outburst and we will try to understand how it is different from a cloud outburst. Then we will also see about the tributaries of Ganga especially the Rishi Ganga and Dhavali Ganga rivers. The syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. First let us talk about the glacial lake outburst. See the glacial lakes are bodies of water that are influenced by the presence of glaciers. Actually when glaciers move they carry a field of dirt and rock or debris along with them. And these field of dirt and rock or debris is known as moraine and once the glacier melts it will change into a lake where these moraines act as dam to the lake. In these pictures you can see the moraine structures and you can see that how these moraines are acting as dams. And sometimes when this moraine dam fails the water will be drained through the subsurface tunnels of moraine. So we can say that a glacial lake outburst flood is caused. See this glacial lake outburst flood is a release of the melt water from a moraine dam glacial lake due to dam failure but it is also the melt water from ice dam glacial lake due to the dam failure. Here you should understand that these dam lake structures are not only formed by moraines but they are also formed by ice. And this video will give you an overall understanding about what happens in a glacial lake outburst flood. Now next what is this cloudburst? See a cloudburst is a sudden very heavy rainfall which is usually local in nature and it is of brief duration. Here it is to be noted that most so called cloudbursts occur in connection with thunderstorms. It usually occurs in high altitude areas due to the formation of a low pressure area on the top of a mountain. The low pressure zone attracts clouds to the top of the mountain with great force. And when they hit the peak the moisture content is released in the form of rain. And here it is to be noted that in some cloudbursts up to 5 inches or almost 30 centimeter of rain can fall in an hour. And the rain is often in the form of extremely large droplets. But remember all heavy rains are not necessarily cloudbursts. So we can see the basic difference here a cloudburst is caused by heavy rainfall whereas a glacial lake outburst flood is not only caused by a rainfall but it could also be caused by the falling of a bedrock or slope failure etc etc that is it could be caused by any number of reasons that could lead to the breach of that moraine dam or ice dam. So now what are the consequences of GLOF? See they often result in catastrophic flooding downstream which is now happening in Uttarakhand and they have major geomorphic impacts and socio-economic impacts and many a times they can have catastrophic outcomes like loss of life and property also and also serious environmental damages. But what is the main reason for such a catastrophic event? It is nothing but climate change. In this regard we have this news article which tells that global warming is the main reason for frequent glacial lake outburst flood in the Himalayan region. Here the environmental experts have pointed out that the number and the area of glacial lakes will continue to increase in most regions in the coming decades. See this happens when temperature increases and this temperature increase causes glaciers to melt and form the lakes. So new lakes will develop closer to steep and potentially unstable mountain walls and in these regions lake outbursts can be more easily triggered. This point is also pointed out in the latest assessment report of IPCC that is United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. So now from exam perspective let us understand about the tributaries of Ganga. Ganga system has six head streams and they are Bhagirathi, Alaknanda, Mandakini, Dhawli Ganga, Pindar and Nandakini. And all of these rivers rise in the mountainous region of Uttarakhand. Now out of these rivers the two main head streams are Alaknanda and Bhagirathi. Both these Alaknanda and Bhagirathi united Dev Prayag to form the mainstream which we know as Ganga. And a large number of other tributaries also joined River Ganga at different confluence points during its journey in the 11 states of our country. And these tributaries are Ram Ganga, Kali, Yamuna, Gomti, Gagra, Ganta, Kosi and so on. Now talking about Dhawli Ganga as we just saw it is one of the six source streams of Ganga. And this river originates from Vasundhra Tal. It is one of the largest glacial lake in Uttarakhand and it flows through the Nandadevi National Park. So the Dhawli Ganga river is joined by Rishi Ganga river at Raini in Uttarakhand where actually this disaster at the power project dam took place. And here note that Dhawli Ganga merges with Alaknanda at Vishnu Prayag near Joshimath in Uttarakhand and Alaknanda meets the Mandagini river in Rudra Prayag and then it joins the Ganga at Dev Prayag near Kedarnath. So these are some of the points that you should take note from the glacial outburst. Now let's move on to the next discussion. This opiate article talks about the frequent internet shutdowns announced by the government of India and their implications. So the internet shutdown is an intentional disruption of internet based communications and this shutdown makes the internet inaccessible or effectively unavailable for a specific population or for a specific location or for a specific mode of access. And this internet shutdown is announced by the government to exert control over the flow of information. Now let us understand how it is imposed. See for this purpose rules have been framed by the government. It is the temporary suspension of telecom services public emergency or public safety rules of 2017. It was brought by Ministry of Communications under the Indian Telegraph Act of 1885. Now as the name indicates these rules enable the government to regulate the temporary suspension of telecom services due to public emergency or public safety. Now as per the rules the directions to suspend the telecom services shall be passed by the union home secretary or by the secretary to the state government who is in charge of the home department in the case of a state government. Now such an order shall contain reasons for such direction and also a copy of such order has to be forwarded to the concerned review committee by next working day. Now in center this review committee comprises of cabinet secretary and the secretaries of the departments of legal affairs and telecommunications. So this is the background that you need to know with respect to internet shutdown. Now with this let us discuss the author's views in the op-ed article. According to the author India shuts down internet services more than any other democracy in the world. In the past four years itself India saw over 400 shutdowns. For example if you remember Jammu and Kashmir was under internet shutdown for more than 200 days after the abrogation of article 370 in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and only very recently even the 4G mobile internet was restored in Jammu and Kashmir. So several rights groups have criticized these shutdowns as an overreach of government on citizens' rights and liberties. Now in this regard we should note one of the important development which is the Supreme Court judgment in January 2020. In the significant ruling Supreme Court said that access to internet is a fundamental right under article 19 of the constitution. So now what are the implications of such shutdowns? We know that the ones without digital literacy or connectivity will be completely left out from the most of the social and economic systems and this will be enhanced especially during the pandemic. So due to internet shutdowns people may not be aware of the health and welfare alerts especially the elderly and pregnant women will be affected. And the next implication is that it affects education. See in the pandemic most classes have shifted online so students may lose access to education due to these internet shutdowns. Along with this internet shutdowns will also freeze economic activities related to education sector. And in this regard author has noted that India is estimated to have lost over 20,000 crore rupees in 2020 itself because of internet shutdowns. So because of these implications author has given a suggestion that internet bans should be a last resort and they must be enforced only after following a well formulated protocol. Along with this some emergency response and relief systems should be put in place for the vulnerable people such as elderly and pregnant women. And these emergency response and relief systems should work parallely when internet shutdowns are implemented. So these are some of the points that I should take note from this open article. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Now this next news article mentions that the hope probe of United Arab Emirates is nearing Mars. So in this context let us see about this hope probe. See this hope probe is a part of the Emirates Mars mission. This mission is the first Arab interplanetary mission which has been launched by United Arab Emirates. So it is UAE's first mission to Mars. And this mission has launched the hope probe or the al-amal because al-amal in Arabic means hope. It was launched in July 2020. It was launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. But note that the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center is responsible for the execution and supervision of all stages of the hope probe. This Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center is UAE Space Agency. Now this Emirates Mars mission is designed to orbit Mars and study the dynamics in the Martian atmosphere on a global scale. It will use scientific instruments on board of the spacecraft which will enable the mission to provide a set of measurements that are fundamental to an improved understanding of the circulation and weather in Martian atmosphere including the lower atmosphere and middle atmosphere. The main objective of this mission is the first complete picture of Martian atmosphere. And under this the mission will aim to understand the climate dynamics and the global weather map through characterizing the lower atmosphere of Mars. It will also aim to explain how the weather changes the escape of hydrogen and oxygen. It will also aim to understand the structure and variability of hydrogen and oxygen in the upper atmosphere as well as it will also identify why Mars is losing hydrogen and oxygen into the space. So this hope probe will be the first probe to provide a complete picture of Martian atmosphere and its layers when it reaches the red planet's orbit in this year that is in 2021. It will help the human community to answer key questions about the global Martian atmosphere and also the loss of hydrogen and oxygen gases into space over the span of one Martian year. And now today's news is that this mission is expected to reach Mars's orbit on Tuesday that is tomorrow. So that means in the coming days we are going to see many news articles regarding this hope probe based on this UAE's exploration. So these are some of the points that you should note from this news article. Now let's move on to the next discussion. This discussion is based on this editorial which is authored by the former foreign secretary of India. This editorial is about the issues associated with the India-European Union trade deal. So in this context, we will discuss in brief about the India-European Union trade and also some ongoing issues in the European Union. The syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. First, let us see about India-European Union trade. Know that European Union is one of India's largest trading partners. It accounted for 80 billion euros worth of trade in goods in the year 2019. And this is almost 11.1 percentage of total Indian trade which is on par with USA and it is ahead of China's trade with India in 2019 which is just 10.7 percentage. Also, European Union is the second largest destination for Indian exports after the USA. EU accounts for over 14 percentage of total Indian exports. Now because European Union is one of the largest trading partners of India, there were negotiations for a comprehensive free trade agreement between European Union and India. And these negotiations were launched way back in 2007 itself. But these negotiations were suspended in 2013 due to a gap in the level of ambition between European Union and India. That is, there were differences of opinion between these two entities. And the main differences were on movement of professionals, labour, human rights and also on environmental issues. Along with this, European Union also raised concern about India's high tariffs, inconsistent tax regime, et cetera. But even with these existing gaps, both European Union and India remain committed to working towards an ambitious, comprehensive and balanced agreement of free trade agreement. They want a free trade agreement that responds to each side's key interests and such a free trade agreement which is a win-win for both the entities. But the issue is not due to the differences of opinion between both these entities, but the turbulent situation in the European Union brings down the possibilities of an free trade agreement of EU with India. See, as you know, the European Union is a unique economic and political union between 27 European countries. It all began with the formation of European Economic Community. It was created in 1958. It was created with the initial aim of increasing economic cooperation between six countries. These six countries are Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and Netherlands. And since then, 23 more countries joined. But currently, European Union has 27 countries only because very recently, the United Kingdom left EU in 2020, which is popularly known as the Brexit, that is Britain's exit from European Union. So currently, it is a group of 27 European countries. So what is the ongoing friction or discords within the European Union? The challenges faced by European Union are multifaceted. They range from adherence to the rule of law to lacking a common strategy for dealing with China, Russia, Turkey, Iran, et cetera. So the first conflict or friction was caused by European Union's budget of around $2 trillion. That is, this budget was the money which the European Union can spend over the next seven years. And this budget included a COVID-19 recovery package also. But the fund transfers under this to the European Union countries are conditional and it will be transferred only upon adherence to the rule of law, democratic values, human rights and the independence of the judiciary. But the budget and the exhaust package needed unanimous support. And due to these conditional values, this budget was blocked by Poland and Hungary because these two countries had been accused of human rights violations and lack of judicial independence. So they feared that the rule of law, democratic values clause will cause them billions of euros in EU funding. But later after negotiations, Poland and Hungary agreed to this budget and recovery package in December 2020. So this shows that there are many countries in the Union which does not adhere to the values of the Union. Now the next biggest challenge faced by European Union is the rising Euroscepticism. Euroscepticism is a European political doctrine that advocates disengagement from the European Union like they were carried out by Britain recently. See the political parties that embrace a Eurosceptic viewpoint, they tend to be broadly populist and generally they support tighter immigration controls. An example for this is the conservation party of United Kingdom under Mr. Boris Johnson because the current UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson led the movement which culminated in the Brexit. But here the danger in this Euroscepticism lies in the fact that it is not just Britain which agitated to leave European Union. For example, Germany and Netherlands, both these European Union countries are going to face elections this year and these countries also have strong Eurosceptic movements. In this, if we take Germany, it has the Alternative for Germany party which is now the official opposition in Germany and they are having a significant rise in the country. So their rise even forces the mainstream politicians to adopt more populistic rhetoric. See when we say populistic rhetoric, it refers to a political discourse that aims to convince a fictional majority that the liberal democracy gives rise to the tyranny of minorities. And that is why we said those political parties that embrace Eurosceptic viewpoint, they generally support tighter immigration controls. So now European Union is under the trouble of Euroscepticism which is giving rise to nationalistic viewpoints. Now apart from all these comes the instabilities in decisions under the Trump administration of USA. See it was a troublesome period for the European Union as the policies of Trump were unpredictable, especially on trade, climate change, security, etc. But we can expect this to change because the administration of USA has changed and it is now under President Joe Biden. Then another issue in European Union is the difference of opinion on a common security and defence policy for the European Union. For example, France favours a greater control over security but whereas if we consider Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, they are generally against building larger military. For a common security and defence. And then comes the lack of unity within the European Union which was exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, pandemic led to anti-lockdown rights in Netherlands for the first time in 40 years and rights even forced the Italian Prime Minister to resign due to divided opinion on spending in the coronavirus crisis. Additionally, European Union initially hoped that there will be a central vaccination procurement and this would be a symbol of unity between the European Union countries. But many countries including Germany seemed to not want that. It is even said that Germany had already negotiated a separate vaccine deal with a company. So now there is also a divisive vaccine nationalism in the European Union. So based on these issues only, author concludes that the priority of European Union will be to resolve these innumerable problems without widening the existing issues. Otherwise it could lead to a slow disintegration of European Union also. So the author says trade agreements with India will be the least of European Union's problems. So let us hope that European Union comes out of these issues and a free trade agreement between India and EU will be successfully completed. So these are some of the points that I should take note from this editorial article. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Now this next news article talks about an internal report by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment about the Kiran Helpline. As per this report it is said that around 70 percentage of the callers to this Kiran Helpline were found to be men and around 32 percentage among the callers were students. So in this context let us see about this helpline. Kiran Helpline is a 24 into 7 toll free mental rehabilitation helpline. It was launched by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities. This department comes under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. Now this helpline is available in 13 languages and these include Asami's, Tamil, Marathi, Odia, Telugu, Malayalam, Gujarati, Punjabi, Kannada, Bengali, Urdu, Hindi and English. And this helpline functions with an aim to provide relief and support to persons with mental illness. Now this helpline functions 24 into 7 with the technical coordination of BSNL. Along with this 25 institutions including eight national institutions are involved in this helpline. And this helpline is backed by more than 600 clinical psychologists or rehabilitation psychologists and psychiatrists. Now the objective of this Kiran Helpline is to provide early screening, first aid, psychological support, distress management, mental well-being, preventing divine behaviors, psychological crisis management and also referral to mental health experts. Now this helpline is dedicated to resolve mental health issues related to anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder that is OCD, then suicide, depression, panic attacks, adjustment disorders, then PTSD that is post-traumatic stress disorders and substance abuse. It also provides help to the pandemic-induced psychological issues and mental health emergencies. Also note that the helpline is coordinated by National Institute for the Improvement of Persons with Multiple Disabilities which is situated in Chennai and by the National Institute of Mental Health Rehabilitation which is situated in Sehar of Madhya Pradesh. And the professional help support that is the psychologists and psychiatrists for the helpline is given by the Indian Association of Clinical Psychologists and Indian Psychiatrics Social Workers Association. So these are some of the points that I should take note from this news article and also about the Kiran Helpline. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Now this discussion is based on this news article which talks about the recent agreements that were signed between Ukraine and India and these agreements were signed at the AeroIndia 2021. This AeroIndia is an international air show or exhibition that is organized by the Defence Research and Development Organization. It is organized every alternate year for the aerospace and defence industries and it also includes a public air show. So in this discussion let us see about these agreements and also about the India-Ukraine relations. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. As per a statement released by Ukrainian state defence companies, Ukraine is looking forward to procure military hardware from India in addition to its efforts in strengthening their presence in Indian defence market. It is expected that India and Ukraine will further discuss on a range of proposals to improve and develop the bilateral cooperation between the two countries and this will be done at the bilateral working group meeting between the defence ministries of both the countries and this meeting is expected to be held in the month of April this year. And in the recently held AeroIndia 2021 which was held at Bengaluru, Ukraine signed four agreements worth of 70 million dollars and these agreements are for the selling of new weapons as well as for the maintenance and upgradation of the existing ones which are in service with the Indian Air Force. So in the light of this news article let us discuss in brief about Ukraine. Ukraine is one of the largest countries in Europe. It is situated at the central part of Eastern Europe. Ukraine is bordered by Belarus to its north. It borders Russia to the east. It borders Maldova and Romania to the southwest and it also borders Hungary, Slovakia and Poland to the west. And it is one of the countries that shares borders with Black Sea and Black Sea is situated to its south and it also borders the Sea of Azo which is also situated to the south of Ukraine. Its capital is Kiev. Ukraine lies on the crossroads of major transportation routes from Europe to Asia and also from these Scandinavian states to the Mediterranean region. Ukraine possesses around 5% of the world natural resources and as per the estimations Ukraine has got one quarter of the world's black soil reserves which is deemed to be the best in the world for their physical, chemical, agrochemical and mineralogical properties. Also Ukraine has got open deposits of precious and semi-precious stones and note that the mineral and raw stock in Ukraine has got a significant economic potential. Now from political perspective you should note that Ukraine was part of Soviet Union or the USSR that is the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic and Ukraine announced its independence from the USSR in 1991. Now along with Ukraine many USSR countries declared independence which eventually led to the disintegration of Soviet Union. Now let us come to the relations of Ukraine with India. See soon after the breakup of Ukraine from Soviet Union government of India recognized Ukraine Republic as a sovereign independent country in 1991 itself and after this India even established its embassy in Ukraine in the year 1992. So India has got an extensive bilateral relationship with Ukraine across wide range of areas of cooperation and both the countries also conduct regular high-level visits in addition to regular interactions through joint working groups and foreign office consultations. India and Ukraine has also signed several memorandum of understandings or agreements that are related to diplomatic relations, visa matters, consular matters, trade and commercial matters etc. and the bilateral relations particularly intensified after the successful visit of Ukrainian President Yanukovych to India in the year 2012. So after that the bilateral trade between the two countries has grown significantly and also it has grown significantly in the last 25 years and according to the data available in 2018-19 the bilateral trade between Ukraine and India reached to 2.8 billion US dollars. Also note that India is Ukraine's largest export destination in the Asia Pacific and India is also the fifth largest overall export destination for Ukraine. Now India also imports from Ukraine. It includes agricultural products, metallurgical products, plastics and polymers etc. Well India exports pharmaceutical products, machinery, chemicals, food products to the Ukraine. Apart from all these economical relations Ukraine also exhibits a great interest for the Indian culture of dances, yoga, philosophy, Ayurveda and spirituality and note that more than 30 Ukrainian cultural associations or groups are spread across the country to promote Indian art forms, particularly the Indian dances. And in this regard India also offers training programs to Ukraine under ITEC and ICCR. ITEC is the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation which offers training or capacity building programs in different centres of excellence in India and ICCR is the Indian Council for Cultural Relations. India offers a ICCR scholarship which provides a high level course covering wide range of subjects in eminent Indian institutions. Apart from these Ukraine has also been a reliable source of military technology and equipment for India since independence and Indian companies are collaborating with Ukrainian companies in the areas of defence. And as a part of this only now four agreements has been signed between India and Ukraine in the Arrow India 2021 exhibition. So these are some of the points that you should know with respect to this news article. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Now we have come to the last session the practice questions discussion session. This first question is a map based question. The question asks which of the following countries border the Black Sea? Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Turkey. As you can see in these maps six countries border with the Black Sea and these include Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania. So that means Belarus does not border with Black Sea hence the correct answer is option B, one, two and four only. So you can attend this question in another way also. If you know that Belarus is a landlocked country then you can easily eliminate Belarus then also you can directly arrive at the correct answer because the only option without three is option B. Now this next question asks consider the following statements. Statement one, Dauliganga is a head stream of river Ganga. This statement is correct. Ganga system has six head streams and they are Bhagirathi, Alatnanda, Mandakini, Dauliganga, Pindar and Nandakini. Now the second statement is Dauliganga merges with the Rishi Ganga at Deva Prayag. Now this statement is incorrect because Dauliganga is joined by Rishi Ganga river at Raini in Uttarakhand and then Dauliganga merges with the Alaknanda at Vishnu Prayag and then Alaknanda meets the Mandakini river at Rudra Prayag and then it joins the Ganga at Deva Prayag and here the question asks for the correct statement. So the correct answer is option A, one only. Now this next question is a two statement question. First statement is Helpline Kiran was launched by Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to provide relief and support to persons with mental illness. Now this statement is correct. We discussed this during the analysis. Now the second statement states Manodharpan is an initiative of the Ministry of Education to mobilize psychosocial support to help children and adolescents. Now this statement is also correct. Manodharpan is launched for the psychological well-being of students, family members and teachers during the time of COVID-19 pandemic. Manodharpan initiative provides psychological counseling through website, through toll-free helpline, through National Directory of Counselors and through interactive chat platform. And here the question asks for the incorrect statements. But both the statements are correct. So the correct answer is option D, neither one nor two. Now this next question asks, consider the following statements regarding the temporary suspension of telecom services, public emergency or public safety rules, 2017. First statement is it enables both central government and state governments to regulate the temporary suspension of telecom services on certain grounds. Now this statement is correct. Both the central government and state governments have this power under these rules. Now the second statement is under the rules, a committee headed by the cabinet secretary decides on the suspension of telecom services. Now this statement is incorrect because as per the rules, the direction to suspend the telecom services is passed by either the union home secretary or it is passed by the secretary to the state government who is the in charge of home department in case of a state government. And a copy of such an order to suspend the telecom services is reviewed by the committee which is headed by the cabinet secretary. Now here the question asks for the correct statements. So the correct answer is option A, one only. Now let us take one main question based on GS paper two. What do you mean by free trade agreement? Discuss the possibilities of an free trade agreement between India and the European Union. You have to answer this question in 150 words. You can write the answer and post it in the comment section. With this we come to the end of today's Hindi news analysis. If you like the video, don't forget to like, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for more updates related to civil service examination preparation.