 Good evening, I welcome you all to the Hindu Daily News Analysis brought to you by Shankara Hes Academy for the newspaper dated 12th of January, 2023. Displayed here are the list of articles that we will take up for discussion today. There are 8 articles, we have covered the articles both from rhythms and memes perspective. Have a look at it. Now we will begin with the first article discussion. Take a look at this text and context page article. It talks about the recent land subsidence event which took place in the town of Joshimath in Uttarakhand. So this article analyzes the causes of the land subsidence in great detail. See this topic is particularly important for us in both GS1 and GS3 of our main examination. So let us see the important points discussed in this article. We have already covered water's land subsidence and various causes for it in our Hindu News Analysis dated 9th of January 2023. This discussion will be a continuation of that discussion. In that video we have covered holistically about land subsidence. So I recommend you all to first watch that video before coming to this discussion. Firstly, let's see the location of Joshimath. See Uttarakhand is one of the hilly states present in India. It is also the source of two important rivers Ganga and Yamuna. These two rivers start their journey towards Bay of Bengal from this state only. Now Uttarakhand as a state is divided into two administrative units. The northwestern part is called Garhwal and the southeastern part is called Kumon. Joshimath is located in the Chamoli district which is located in the Garhwal division of Uttarakhand. The population of the town has been estimated to be something around 20,000. Even though the population is quite low due to strategic location and the tourism potential of this place, huge number of hotels have sprang up all over the town. Adding to this, Joshimath also acts as a transit area for a number of tourist places which are located deepest in the state. For example, to go to the famous valley of Lars, we need to first cross the Joshimath town. So from this we can see the importance of Joshimath as a transit town. Here also note that even if the Indo-Tibetian border police has to use the border areas of Indo-China border, they have to use the roads of Joshimath. So this shows the strategic importance of this town. Now let's move on to see the event of land subsidence which took place in the town. See what happened was that cracks first appeared in few houses in Joshimath in October 2021 itself. And over a year later, by January 11, 2023, 723 houses in all the 9 wards in the town have developed major or minor cracks on the floor, ceilings and walls. In response to this scenario, around 145 families have been temporarily moved to safer locations within the town. Now experts are of the opinion that cracks in the houses have occurred due to land subsidence. We will now see the causes for this land subsidence. Let's start with the natural causes. Firstly, Joshimath is located on sand and gravel which has been brought down by an old landslide. So the natural topography of the place itself is not stable. A small trigger is what is necessary to bring about a huge disaster. Secondly, the town is marked to be in the zone 5 which is as per the India seismic zone denoted as the high risk area. Here from the map provided, you can see the various seismic zones of India. Darker the colour, more the area is prone to earthquakes. Thirdly, climatically also, the region of Joshimath receives uneven rainfall. This sudden rainfall has been the cause for landslides and flash floods. When landslides and flash floods occur often, it results in the loosening of the soil in the ground. This is another main reason for land subsidence to happen. In the year 2021, due to cloudbursts, there was a sudden flood in the district of Chamoli where Joshimath is located. This flood resulted in 83 deaths. So this is not the first time where catastrophe has striked the Chamoli district. So simply to say, it has been a prime location for disasters even before the Joshimath land subsidence. What we have seen till now are the natural causes for land subsidence. Now let's see the man-made causes of land subsidence. We have already seen about the strategic importance of Joshimath. Due to its importance, there has been numerous infrastructure development projects which are carried out in this region. Some geologists have climbed that it was due to the geographic stress caused by the developmental projects, the land subsidence has been caused. Now let's see what are the development projects that are going around in this region. Locals climbed that the Tapowan-Vishnagarth hydropower project is the main reason for the event of land subsidence. During the year 2009, there was a huge drilling exercise that was carried out in the place. It was just 5 kilometers from Joshimath. So this drilling was part of the Tapowan-Vishnagarth hydropower project. This drilling punctured an aquifier which was present 3 kilometers inside the ground. Locals climbed that this incident has led to groundwater shortage in the town of Joshimath and they also climbed that the Tapowan hydropower project is one of the main reasons for the land subsidence. However, note that there have been no scientific studies establishing links between the puncture and the subsidence in the Joshimath. Therefore, the NDPC which is the developmental institution behind Tapowan project in its press release denied any role in the ongoing crisis. Nextly, there has been another major road development project going on near Joshimath. The project is none other than the famous Chardham Road Development Project. This project is being implemented by the Border Road Organization. This particular project has been protested by the environmental groups climbing that the project is causing a huge stress on the fragile Himalayan ecosystem. And this particular case was taken to the Supreme Court by the environmental groups. But the Supreme Court opened that Chardham Road is connecting the strategic border areas of Indo-China border with the mainland India. So it said that it cannot stop quoting the reasons of ecosystem. So these are the two large developmental projects which are being carried out near Joshimath. Here note another important fact. Previously also, there has been reported cases of land subsidence in Uttarakhand. So a committee was formed under MC Mishra in 1970s itself to study the causes of land subsidence. The committee's report of 1976 warned against heavy and unscientific construction in the town of Joshimath. The exact text of the committee is as follows. Joshimath is a deposit of sand and stone. Hence was not a suitable place for coming up of a township. Vibrations produced by blasting and heavy traffic will also lead to disequilibrium in natural factors. But as we have seen earlier, there has been continuous development of large scale infrastructure in and around Joshimath which the committee report was totally against. This is all with respect to this text and context article. So through this discussion, we learnt about Joshimath's location and the causes of land subsidence which happened there in the first week of January 2023. With this points in mind, we will move on to the next article discussion. Now look at this editorial article. It starts with the Nelson Mandela's quote. He said that, there can be no meaner revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children. Now you would have found out what we are going to see in this article. Yes, we are going to see about the children. Particularly, we are going to discuss about the child mortality and stillbirths. And we will see some solutions to address these problems. Before that, the syllabus relevant to this discussion is displayed here. Go through it. First of all, let us start our discussion by seeing the reports mentioned in the article. The first report is the report on child mortality. It is the Levels and Trends in Child Mortality Report released by the United Nations Interagency Group for Child Mortality Estimation. Note that, as per the report, 5 million children died before their fifth birthday, which is under 5 mortality in the year 2021. The report also says that over 2.7 million deaths occurred among children aged 1 to 59 months. And the remaining 2.3 million deaths occurred in just the first month of life, that is neonatal deaths. This is the global scenario. Now let's see what's happening in India. As per the report, India's share of child mortalities was estimated at 7,9,366 under-5 deaths, 5,86,787 infant deaths and 4,41,801 neonatal deaths. Now let's see the second report. It is from the Sample Registration System. So the Sample Registration System is basically a large-scale demographic survey for providing reliable annual estimates of infant mortality rate, birth rate, death rate at the national and subnational levels. So this report highlighted that there are interstate variations in child mortality in India. Note that, for every 1,000 live births, the infant mortality rate in Madhya Pradesh was 6 times the rate in Kerala. Another finding is that the children in the rural areas have much higher mortality rates than those in the urban areas. So the data in this report shows that India is in a very bad condition, right? So what is the reason for these child deaths? The author of this article says that there are two major factors which are being neglected and that results in child deaths. The first factor is children being born too early. This is called as the preterm births. It means that children are born alive before the completion of 37 weeks of pregnancy. Note that preterm babies are 2 to 4 times at higher risk of death when compared to those born after 37 weeks of gestation. Studies have shown that preterm births contribute to 1 in every 6 under 5 child deaths. Globally, 1 in every 10 births is preterm. However, in India if you see, 1 in 6 to 7 births is preterm. The second major factor is stillbirths. Now you should understand what is stillbirth. See, if a baby dies any time after 22 weeks of pregnancy but before or during the birth, then it is classified as stillborn. Note that globally 1.9 million stillbirths happened in 2021. In India alone, the number of stillbirths was 286,482 in the year 2021. And these are the two factors that drive the neonatal infant and child mortality rate upward in India. Sadly, these are often neglected. The main reason why we are neglecting these factors is that we lack granular and reliable data. Generally, countries have extensive data about child mortality. But they do not have enough data about child mortality caused by stillbirths and preterm births. Even if you see a global level, the first ever report on childbirth was released only in October 2020. So now experts are saying that there should be timely and reliable data on stillbirths and preterm births from the block, district and state levels. And this is about the factors which are the main reason for child deaths in India. Now, what can be done? Is there a way out? Yes, there is. See, childbirths and preterm births can be prevented by improving the quality of health services. Note that half the childbirth happens during antipatom and the remaining during delivery. So, the focus should be on improving antinatom services, including the intake of iron folic acid by pregnant mothers. Then, we should also provide counselling on the importance of healthy diet and optimal nutrition. We should focus our attention on identifying and managing other risk factors and finally, increasing access to family planning services. Secondly, early diagnosis of diseases. See, there are certain diseases which put the mothers at high risk and it also causes stillbirths and preterm births. So, by preventing these diseases, we can help in reducing the future neurological complications for preterm babies. Thirdly, the data on preterm births and stillbirths should be recorded and reported. This will help to understand the situation better and take steps accordingly to reduce the preterm births and stillbirths. Fourthly, the maternal and perinatal death surveillance guidelines should be effectively implemented. Adding to this, the international classification of diseases definition for perinatal mortality must be adopted. The use of international classification will help standardize the causes of stillbirth reporting. Fifthly, India needs to identify the hotspots of childbirths and preterm births for local and targeted interventions. See, we earlier saw a comparison between Madhya Pradesh and Kerala, right? So, it is very important to identify the hotspots and stillbirths and preterm births are highly sensitive indicators of the quality of maternal and child health services. So, the hotspots should be identified and the deaths should be reduced via targeted measures. Finally, the fund allocation to health sector should be increased. In the national health policy of 2017, the government has committed to investing 2.5% of the GDP on health by 2025. But the government's allocation for health has increased only marginally. It is only around 1.5% of the GDP. So, the investment on the health sector should be increased. While concluding, the author is saying that India's health system needs more government funding because children are dying from preventable causes. And the author also says that these two reports are reminding us that it is time for the government to allocate more funds for health sector. He suggests that the government should start by increasing the funds in the upcoming budget. So, in this news article discussion, we saw what are the causes for child deaths in India and some way forwards as suggested by the author. Now, we will move on to the next article discussion. A constitution bench of the Supreme Court said that it will not try the centre's 2010 curative petition like an original suite. See, this is related to the Bhopal gas tragedy that happened in the year 1986. I hope you all know about the tragedy. In 2010, the government filed a curative petition asking the Union Carbide Corporation to pay increased compensation. The company said if the 1989 settlement which it had earlier reached with the government was outturned, it would not pay an additional funding. This is the story so far. In this background, let us understand about curative petition. See, curative jurisdiction is a rare remedy which was evolved by a constitution bench of the Supreme Court in 2002. This happened in the Ashok Hurra vs Rupa Hurra case. The question arose whether an aggrieved person is entitled to any relief against the final judgement or order of the Supreme Court even if the review petition is dismissed. So, it was then decided that in order to prevent the misuse of its process and prevent any incident of a miscarriage of justice, the Supreme Court would reconsider its judgement within the limited power it has. Thus, the term curative petition was derived. Now, before proceeding further, we will first try to understand what a review petition is. See, in India, a binding decision of the Supreme Court or High Court can be reviewed in a review petition. So, a review petition can be filed by the parties aggrieved by the decision of the Supreme Court. In simple terms, if a party feels that there is a miscarriage of justice or the party is unhappy about the decision of the Supreme Court, it can file a review petition. The provision of review is an exception to the principle of stare decisis because courts rarely overturn a decision unless there is a compelling reason to do so. Here, I was talking about a principle or doctrine called stare decisis. This in Latin means to stand by things decided. So, the principle of stare decisis binds courts to follow legal precedents said by the previous decisions. Which in simple term means the court has to stand by the things that it has decided in the earlier judgments. So, now what happens when a review petition fails? We know that the Supreme Court is the court of last resort. Its verdicts should never result in a miscarriage of justice. So, to prevent the abuse of its process, the court itself evolved the concept of a curative petition which can be heard after a review is dismissed. That is, when the review petition is dismissed, we have another remedy called as the curative petition. With this basic understanding, now let us look into the procedure of a curative petition. See, a curative petition is supported by article 137 of the Constitution of India. As per this article, the Supreme Court has the power to review any judgments or orders made by it. So, in that line, a curative petition needs to be made within 30 days from the date of judgment. Now, remember, a petitioner can file a curative petition only if the review petition has been dismissed. As I told earlier, now the petitioner must also state or assert specifically the grounds for the review petition. And they can take only two limited grounds in a curative petition. One is that he or she was not given an opportunity to be heard and another ground is the judge was biased. The curative petitions are heard by top three judges including the Chief Justice of India plus the judges who dismissed the review petition. When and only a majority of the judges decide that the matter needs a hearing, the review petition can be listed before the same bench. An open court hearing is permitted if a request is made but a curative petition is usually decided by judges in the chamber itself. If the petition lacks any reasonable grounds for consideration, the court may impose an exemplary cost on the petitioner. So, this is how the curative petitions are filed and processed. That's all regarding this news article. Now we will start with the next article discussion. Now, look at this article. Yesterday, the union cabinet has approved an outlay of rupees 2600 crore to promote payments using rupee cards and unified payments interface which is UPI. An official press release by the government said that this incentive money will be provided to the banks to promote digital payments. So, this is the crux of the news article given here. So, in this context, we will learn about the different modes of digital payments. See, there are multiple digital payment methods available in India. Here in this discussion, we will understand some important digital payment modes one by one. First, let's see about UPI. UPI stands for Unified Payments Interface. Here, you should remember one thing. UPI was developed by the National Payments Corporation of India but it is regulated by the Reserve Bank of India. With UPI, you can link more than one bank account in a single smartphone app. So, basically, it facilitates money transfer between two parties using smartphone which happens through a payment identifier. Here, what is payment identifier? It is nothing but a type of ID that has a combination of a bank account number and IFSC code. Know that this payment identifier is otherwise called as the virtual payment address. Generally, your virtual payment address is same as your UPI ID. Here, to carry out a transaction, you need not remember the receiver's account number, IFSC code or even bank name. Instead, you can transfer the money only if you know the receiver's Aadha number or registered mobile number or even with the UPI ID or the VPA. So, this is about UPI. Now, we will move on to understand about BIM. See, BIM stands for Bharat Interface for Money. BIM is a mobile app that helps us to make money transactions quicker and easier using UPI. You can make instant bank-to-bank payments using this app. So, you can basically pay and collect money using mobile number, bank account number, Aadha number or using the VPA that we saw earlier. Know that BIM also has the facility to scan and pay through QR codes. With the help of this app, users are also able to check their transaction history and they can even raise compliance for any declined transactions in the app itself. So, this is about BIM. And then coming to IMPS or immediate payment services. See, IMPS is a real-time inter-bank electronic fund transfer service. It is capable of processing person-to-person, then person-to-account and person-to-merchant transactions. Through IMPS, individuals can basically make payments 24-7 using their mobile number, Aadha number, bank account and IFSC code. Know that users can access IMPS through multiple channels such as mobile internet, ATM and even SMS. Now we will see about Aadhaar-enabled payment system. See, it is a payment service which empowers a customer to use the Aadhaar as an identity to access his respective Aadhaar-enabled bank account. Here, the only inputs that is required for a customer to do a transaction are bank name, Aadhaar number, fingerprint capture during the enrolment. So, with the help of these, the customers can perform banking functions like balance enquiry, cash deposit or even cash withdrawal. Know that these banking transactions are done through a business correspondent of a respective bank. Business correspondents will carry out the Aadhaar authentication and then the transaction is done. Now, BAREC Bill Payment System or BBPS. See, this is a one-stop platform that provides an easily accessible bill payment services to the customer. It provides services through multiple channels like internet banking, mobile banking, mobile apps, UPI etc. Users will be able to make payments across various categories including electricity, gas, water bills, telecoms, GTH. So, sitting at the ease of your home, you will be able to make all the bill payments. Now finally, let's see about E-Rupi. See, E-Rupi is basically a digital voucher. It is developed by National Payment Corporation of India in collaboration with various other government agencies. It was launched on 2nd of August 2019. So, how does this work? You go to the bank and pay the required amount. And the person to whom you wanted to send the money will get the E-Rupi on his phone in the form of an SMS or QR code. So, basically we can say that it is a pre-paid voucher. The beneficiary can go and redeem it at the center that accepts the E-Rupi. This means that the beneficiary will be able to redeem the E-Rupi vouchers without a card, digital payment app or even without the internet banking access. Know that this contactless E-Rupi is very safe and secure as it keeps the details of the beneficiaries completely confidential. The entire transaction process through this voucher is relatively faster and at the same time it is very reliable. This is because the required amount is already stored in the voucher itself. So, these are some of the important payment modes which are used in India. That's all for this news article discussion. Now, we will move on to the next article. Look at this news article. It talks about the criteria for listing a tribe as scheduled tribe. As per the article, the office of registrar general of India is following the criteria set out by the local committee. But now, the government is discussing about the new criteria proposed by the government task force on scheduling of tribes. So, this is the crux of the news article given here. So, in this discussion, let us see about the local committee's criteria, the drawbacks associated with it and the newly proposed criteria for listing a tribe as scheduled tribe. Now, let us start with the local committee's criteria. So, as per the committee, there are five basic criteria for deciding if a particular tribe can be classified as a scheduled tribe. First, indications of primitive tribes. Two, second criteria, distinctive culture. Third, geographical isolation. Fourth, shyness of contact with the community at large. And fifth criteria being the backwardness. So, if these criteria are present, then any community can be called as a scheduled tribe. But there are some drawbacks associated with these criteria. Firstly, these criteria are said to be outdated because of the process of transition and acculturation. So, here acculturation is the process of borrowing the trades from another culture. See, there is a lot of interaction that is happening between the tribes and the outside population. So, when tribes are adopting and transitioning according to the needs, the distinctive culture criteria becomes irrelevant. Secondly, the requirement of primitivity shows the condescending attitude by outsiders. See, when you're calling someone primitive, it means that you're calling yourself advanced. Primitivity is a very relative term, right? So, this criteria gives a sense that these tribes are considered inferior compared to the outsiders. Thirdly, infrastructure development has reached the nook and corner of the country. So, the geographical isolation criteria also becomes very irrelevant. And owing to these reasons, the government has constituted a task force on scheduling of tribes under the leadership of the then tribal affairs secretary, Ruchikesh Panda, in February 2014. The proposed criteria under the government's task force include common community name for group identity, distinct language or dialect, presence of core culture relating to life cycle, song, dances, paintings and folklore, endogami or in case of exogami, marital relationships primarily with other SD population, autonomous religious beliefs and practices, traditional institutions of social control relatively intact, low level of techno-economy, relative socio-economic and educational backwardness. We will see them all in detail in some other discussion. Just know that as of now, only the local committee criteria is followed. We do not know what the government is going to decide regarding the adoption of new criteria. We have to wait and see. So, in this news article discussion, we firstly saw what are the local committee criteria and why it is slowly becoming irrelevant. We saw that there are three major drawbacks associated with the local committee criteria. First, there is a lot of acculturation that is happening. Then, we also saw that the requirement of primitivity and geographic isolation are also slowly becoming irrelevant. Then, we also saw the new criteria that is proposed by the government task force that was set up recently. So, this is all that I wanted to discuss regarding this news article. Now, we will move on to the next article discussion. Now, have a look at this news article. Yesterday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Google's appeal against a penalty which was imposed by the Competition Commission of India. The Competition Commission of India imposed this penalty on Google for alleged anti-competitive practices relating to Android mobile devices. So, in this background, let us revise few points about the Competition Commission of India from Prelims perspective. Before that, have a basic understanding about competition. See, competition is the best means of ensuring that a common man has access to the broadest range of goods and services at the most competitive prices. See, with increased competition, producers will have maximum incentive to innovate and specialize. This, in turn, will result in reduced cost and wider choices to the consumers. So, in order to achieve that, a fair competition in the market is essential. Right? That is where the Competition Commission of India comes in. Their goal is to create and sustain fair competition in the economy that will provide a level playing fields to the producers and make the market work for the welfare of the consumers. Now, have this in mind. Without simply learning if a body is a statutory body or not, or how many members it has, try to remember the actual working of the body. This will help you remember the facts for longer. Before the Competition Act of 2002, we had something called as the Monopolis and Restrictive Trade Practices Act of 1968. Based on the recommendation of the Raghavan committee, this particular act was repelled and it was replaced by the Competition Act 2002. The Competition Act was enacted to prohibit firms from engaging in contact which will distort the competitive processes and harm the competition. The Competition Commission of India was established in March 2009 by the Government of India under the Competition Act 2002. So, basically, Competition Commission of India is a statutory body. This commission consists of one chairperson and six members as per the Competition Act. All these members are appointed by the central government. They will be appointed by the central government based on the recommendation of a selection committee. So, this particular selection committee will be headed by the Chief Justice of India or his nominee. The other members include the secretary in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and the secretary in the Ministry of Law and Justice. Apart from them, two experts possessing special knowledge and professional experience are also part of the committee. Coming to the eligibility of members. The chairperson and every other member shall be a person of ability, integrity and standing and who has been or is qualified to be a judge of a high court or has special knowledge of and professional experience of not less than 15 years in international trade, economics, business, commerce, law, finance, accountancy, management, industry, public affairs, administration or in any other matter which in the opinion of the central government may be useful to the commission. The chairperson and every other member of the team hold office for a term of five years provided they have not attained the age of 65. And note that they are eligible for reappointment. In case of a vacancy caused by the resignation or removal of the chairperson or any other member, then the position shall be filled by fresh appointments based on the committee recommendations. And in case of vacancy in the chairperson's office, the senior most member shall act as the chairperson until the new person is chosen. Here you should know about some of the functions of the competition commission. Firstly, they try to eliminate practices which have adverse effect on competition because customers can be easily manipulated by big firms, right? And as I earlier told you, competition is very good for the functioning of the market. So competition commission aims to promote and sustain this competition. So it basically establishes a robust competitive environment through proactive engagement with all stakeholders. Then it protects the interest of consumers. It ensures freedom of trade in the markets of India by showing professionalism transparency in enforcing the Competition Act of 2002. This is all that I wanted to discuss regarding this news article. Now we will move on to the next article discussion. See this news article from the numbers column. 4276 crores worth of three procurement proposals have been approved by the Defence Ministry. This includes the Helena anti-tank guided missiles. So in this news article discussion, let us understand a few points about the anti-tank guided missiles. As the name suggests, the primary purpose of anti-tank guided missile is to destroy tanks. So these are medium or long range missiles which can be used to destroy heavily armed vehicles. These missiles can be transported by a single soldier or by large tripod mounted weapons. These missiles rely on an electro-optical image seeker, a laser or a W-band radar seeker in the nose of the missile. And they are fire and forget missiles. That is the operator can retreat right after firing the missile. Because there is no more guidance required. Once the anti-tank guided missile is launched, it directs itself towards the target using digital imaging. Now let us see some important facts about the anti-tank guided missiles of DRDO. First is the Helena. It has a maximum range of 7 km and has been designed and developed for integration on the weaponized version of the advanced light helicopter. The missile system has an all weather, day and night capability and it can even defeat battle tanks with conventional armour or even explosive reactive armour. Second is the Nag. It is a third generation fire and forget missile developed for mechanized formations to engage heavily fortified enemy tanks. Then MPATGM. It stands for man-portable anti-tank guided missile which has a range of 2.5 km with fire and forget and top attack capabilities for infantry use. Finally, SANT. It stands for smart stand-off anti-tank missile. It is being developed for launch from the MI-35 helicopter for the Air Force anti-tank operations. Have an idea about these missiles from Prillim's perspective. Now we will move on to the next article discussion. Take a look at this snippet taken from the foreign page of today's Hindu. It reports that the African country Uganda has declared itself to be Ebola free after a recent outbreak of Ebola which resulted in the death of nearly 55 individuals. This is what is given in this small article. So in this discussion, we will try to learn about the deadly disease Ebola. See, Ebola is a viral disease which was caused by a virus called Ebola. Here, note that within the gene as Ebola virus, 6 different species have been identified. They are Zaire, Buntobogio, Sudan, Tiforrest, Reston and Bomboli. Then, according to WHO, the natural host of this Ebola virus is a species of fruit bats. Now, when animals like monkeys, apes, forests, antelopes or porcupines come into contact with these birds in the wild forests, they are also infected with the Ebola virus. And when these infected animals come into contact with humans, then the Ebola virus will be introduced into the humans also. The humans who are infected with this Ebola virus can then transmit the infection to other human beings through direct contact. Now, when a healthy person comes in contact with an infected person or when the healthy person touches the object that has been contaminated by an infected person, then he or she is also likely to get infected by the Ebola virus. So this is how the human-to-human transmission of Ebola virus takes place. Then, the incubation period for Ebola virus. Incupation period is nothing but the time interval between the infection and the onset of symptoms. So the incubation period here is 2 to 21 days. According to WHO, a person infected with Ebola cannot spread the disease until they develop symptoms. So you first develop symptoms and then you spread it to the other person. So what are these symptoms? The symptoms include fever, fatigue, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. These symptoms are followed by vomiting, diarrhea, rashes in the body. In some cases, both internal and external bleeding happens as a result of this infection. So this is about the symptoms. Now let's see what are the treatment setters available for Ebola infection. Generally, supportive care like rehydration with oral or intravenous fluids is given to the infected human. Also, giving treatment to specific symptoms improves the survival rate of the human. And in the last couple of years, there has been development of vaccines as well against the Ebola virus. Firstly, the Erwebo vaccine which has shown to be effective in protecting people from the species called Zaire Ebola virus. In December 2020, the vaccine was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and it is pre-qualified by WHO for use in individuals 18 years of age and older. There has been another vaccine called Zabdeno and Vabia for the prevention of Ebola virus. The vaccine is delivered in two doses. Firstly, the Zabdeno vaccine is administered and then Vabia vaccine is given approximately 8 weeks later as a second dose. Here, note that this two-dose regimen is therefore not suitable for an outbreak response when immediate protection is necessary. So these are the two vaccines which are in currently use against the Ebola virus. Through this discussion, we learnt about Ebola virus, how it is spread, what is the transmission route, we saw what are the symptoms and finally we saw about the vaccines for the prevention of Ebola infection. With this, we have come to the end of the discussion. Now we will move to the next part of our discussion which is practice questions. Here, there are six questions, five will be discussed by me and one will be the quiz question. Question number one, consider the following statements with reference to the Competition Commission of India. Statement one, it is an executive body which aims to establish a robust competitive environment. Statement two, the appeals from the Order of Competition Commission of India lie with the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal. Here, statement one is incorrect. See, executive bodies are bodies which are formed by the executive resolution or government action. These are not mentioned in the constitution and are not established by an Act of Parliament. So these bodies can be converted into statutory body only by enacting a law. In the discussion, we saw that the Competition Commission of India is a statutory body of Government of India as it is established under the Competition Act of 2002. Here, the second statement is correct. Earlier, in accordance with the provisions of the Act, the Competition Commission of India and the Competition Appellate Tribunal had been established. However, the government replaced the Competition Appellate Tribunal Compact with the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal NCLAT in 2017. So the correct answer here is option B, two only. Question number two, consider the following statements regarding missiles. Statement number one, direct hit mode when the missile travels at a lower altitude directly striking the target. Statement two, it is top attack mode when the missile is required to climb sharply after launch and travel at a certain altitude then plunge on to the top of the target. Which of the above statements is or are correct? Here, both the statements are correct. So the answer to this question is option C, both one and two. Question number three, this is a 2017 prelims question. Which of the following is the most likely consequence of implementing unified payments interface or UPI? Option A, mobile violence will not be necessary for online payments. Option B, digital currency will totally replace the physical currency in about two decades. Option C, FDI inflows will drastically increase. Option D, direct transfers of subsidies to poor people will become very effective. See, UPI allows a customer to pay directly from a bank account to different merchants. So there is no hassle of typing debit or credit card details or even IFSC code. You don't have to rely even on net banking or mobile ballots. So if you go through these options, you will easily arrive at option A. Mobile ballots will not be necessary for online payments. Question number four, Ebola virus is transferred to humans through close contact with other zoonotic species. Which one of the following organism cannot transfer Ebola virus to humans? Option A, mosquito. Option B, chimpanzee. Option C, porcupines. Option D, apes. As we saw in our discussion, chimpanzees, apes and porcupines all have the ability to transfer Ebola virus to humans. According to WHO website, forest antelopes also transmit Ebola virus to humans. So from the options given here, only mosquito cannot transfer Ebola virus to humans. So the correct answer here is option A, mosquito. Question number five, consider the following statements. Statement one, a curative petition which follows the dismissal of a review petition is the last avenue open in the Supreme Court. Statement two, mercy petition will be considered based on mercy rather than legality of the case. Choose the correct answer using the codes given below. Here statement one is correct. We saw that if the review petition is dismissed, then the person can opt to file a curative petition. So this is the last legal avenue open in the Supreme Court. Here statement two is also correct. See, about curative petition, there is something called as the mercy petition. In the context of Indian judicial system, mercy petition is the last resort. When a person has lost all the remedies available to him or her under all the prevailing laws and he has also exhausted all the constitutional remedies, he or she may file a mercy petition before the president of India under article 72 of the Indian constitution or to the governor of the state under article 161 of the Indian constitution. Such a petition will be treated on mercy and not on the legality of the case. Since mercy petition is outside the legal avenue of Supreme Court, curative petition is the last legal avenue open in the Supreme Court. So the correct answer here is option C, both one and two. Moving on to the last question, which is the quiz question for the day. This question is related to the discussion we had regarding the criteria for Schedule Tribalist. Read the question carefully and post the answers in the comment box below. The state here are the main question for your practice. Interested aspirants can write the answer and post it in the comment box below. If you have found a video to be useful, hit the like button, share it with your friends and subscribe to the channel. Happy learning.