 A very good evening aspirants, welcome to the hindi news analysis by Shankares academy for the date 25th march 2021. These are the list of news articles chosen for today's analysis. It has been provided along with the page numbers of different editions of hindi newspaper. And as you can see, we have chosen many news articles today, so the discussion is going to be a lengthy one. Now, let us start our discussion with this first news article, which talks about Suez canal. See, according to the news article, a 400 meter long giant ship has got stuck across the waterway in the Suez canal. And this happened as the ship's control was lost due to a sandstorm in Egypt. And this has resulted in a buildup of more than 100 ships which are waiting to cross this channel. So in this discussion, let us see about Suez canal and also its significance. See this canal is a human made artificial sea level waterway. It was completed in the year 1869. This canal runs north to south across the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt. See when we say Isthmus, it means a narrow strip of land that connects two larger land masses and which separates two bodies of water. So the Isthmuses around the world have been strategic locations for centuries. And one such Isthmuses is the Isthmus of Suez in eastern Egypt. So that means it should connect two larger land masses. So what are they? The Isthmus of Suez connects the continents of Africa and Asia and it separates the Mediterranean Sea and Red Sea. And as we just saw, the canal runs across the Isthmus of Suez. So it is also said that the canal connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea and it separates Africa from Asia. But exactly note that the canal runs between the Port Said harbor and the Gulf of Suez. And it has a length of around 193 kilometers. And you should note that this canal has many extensive straight lengths but there are also eight major bends as you can see in this map. Geographically you should also note that the low-laying delta of Nile River is to the west of this canal and the Sinai peninsula is situated to its east. Now this canal is a property of Egyptian government since 1956 because since that year Egypt is exercising complete control over the canal through its Suez canal authority. And these are the functions carried out by Suez canal authority, you can take a look at it. But this canal is often in use because of its importance. So why it is important? See before the construction of this canal, the ships which were heading towards Asia will undergo a tiring journey around the Cape of Good Hope which is situated at the southern tip of Africa. But after the construction of this Suez canal, it provided the shortest maritime route between Europe and the lands lying around the Indian Ocean and western Pacific Ocean. And because of this, it is also the fastest crossing from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean. I will show you a small representation which will tell you how distance is saved. In this representation you will see what will happen if a shipment from Colombo to New York travels through Penama canal and how much distance is saved when the same shipment travels through the Suez canal. So as you can see here around 40% of the distance has been saved if Suez canal is used. So that is why this canal holds strategic importance and due to this strategic location the canal is heavily used and it is also heavily protected shipping lane. So this is one of the importance of Suez canal. Now secondly, it is also important because of its economic importance and this economic importance comes from the fact that Suez canal is a critical choke point. See choke points are nothing but narrow channels which are long widely used global sea routes and these narrow channels are critical to global energy security because major energy related shipments such as crude oil, petroleum products are transited through these major choke points. So even if for some time that is even if temporarily if the oils are not able to be transported across a major choke point then it leads to a substantial supply delay and higher shipping costs which in turn results in higher world energy prices. So one of the important choke points other than Suez canal which we often discuss is the state of hormones. Now this Suez canal is a critical choke point in the Arabian Peninsula because of the large volumes of energy commodities that flow through it. See it is a strategic route for Persian Gulf shipments containing crude oil, petroleum products and liquefied natural gas which are being shipped to Europe and North America and because of this only we are saying it holds a greater economic importance and now today's news is that because of a ship the navigation through the Suez canal has been temporarily disturbed because of which hundreds of ships are waiting to cross the canal. Here you should also note one important point which is that Suez canal's international importance has played a major role in the geopolitical tensions in the region. So because of these geopolitical tensions Suez canal has been closed for five to six times in the past and once it was even closed for a longer period of eight years due to the Israel-Egypt 1967 war but since then it has not been closed and it is functioning properly. So these are some of the points that you should know about Suez canal which is not only important from a geographical perspective but also important from economic perspective. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Our next discussion is based on this news article which talks about the appointment of Chief Justice of India. See the news is that the current Chief Justice of India Sharad Boubde has recommended Justice N. V. Ramana as the next Chief Justice of India and this recommendation is widely discussed because of a complaint filed by the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh against Justice Ramana. This complaint was filed last year where the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh complained that Justice Ramana was influencing the Andhra Pradesh High Court judiciary to destabilize his government and this complaint was filed shortly after a bench led by Justice Ramana started hearing and fast-tracking hundreds of criminal cases against the ministers, legislators and politicians that are pending in trial courts across the country. But this complaint petition was dismissed under an in-house procedure of Supreme Court after due consideration. Here you should note that all the matters dealt with the in-house procedure are strictly confidential in nature. This means they are not liable to be made public. So the details of this procedure is not known and now the current CJI has recommended Justice Ramana as the 48th Chief Justice of India and he will take over CJI from April 24 and he will be the Chief Justice of India till August 26, 2022. So in this context let us discuss the appointment of Supreme Court judges including the Chief Justice of India. The syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. See at present Supreme Court consists of 31 judges. This includes one Chief Justice and 30 other judges. So what are the qualifications to be appointed as a Judge of Supreme Court? First that person should be a citizen of India. Second she should have been a judge of High Court for five years or she should have been an advocate of her High Court for 10 years or she should be a distinguished jurist in the opinion of the President. So based on these qualifications Supreme Court judges are appointed. Now here you should note that the Constitution has not prescribed a minimum age for the appointment as a judge of Supreme Court. Now who appoints them? They are appointed by the President and also the Chief Justice of India is appointed by the President but after consultation with such judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts as the President deems necessary. Now the other judges are appointed by the President after consultation with the Chief Justice of India and also such other judges of Supreme Court and the High Courts as the President deems necessary. But here you should note that the consultation with the Chief Justice of India is obligatory in the case of appointment of a judge other than the Chief Justice of India and most importantly here the word consultation has been widely discussed in various cases of the Supreme Court regarding the appointment of Supreme Court judges. So in these various cases Supreme Court has given different interpretations of the word consultation. So now let us see these cases to fully comprehend the whole picture. First comes the first judges case of 1982. In this case court held that consultation does not mean concurrence and it only implies exchange of views. Now this means that the advice tendered by the Chief Justice of India is not binding on the President in the matters of appointment of the judges of the Supreme Court. But this judgment was reversed in its 1993 case which is the second judges case of 1993 where Supreme Court reversed its earlier ruling and also changed the meaning of the word consultation to concurrence. So hence Supreme Court ruled that advice tendered by the Chief Justice of India is binding on the President in the matters of appointment of the judges of the Supreme Court. Now in addition to this Supreme Court also ruled that the Chief Justice of India would tender his advice on the matters after consulting two of her senior most colleagues that is two of the senior most judges. So this is what is the Collegium System that means the second judges case paved the way for Collegium System. And similarly another case came in 1998 which was the third judges case. In this case Supreme Court opined that the consultation process that is to be adopted by the Chief Justice of India this requires consultation of plurality judges. It also held that the sole opinion of the Chief Justice of India does not constitute the consultation process. But the Chief Justice should consult a Collegium of four senior most judges of the Supreme Court and here even if two judges give an adverse opinion then the Chief Justice should not send the recommendation to the government. And in this case Supreme Court also held that the recommendation made by the Chief Justice of India without complying with the norms and requirements of the consultation process are not binding on the government. But as you can see here this Collegium System lacks transparency and because of this only it is deemed to be highly controversial. So in order to overcome this hurdle government passed the 99th Constitutional Amendment Act of 2014 and the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act of 2014. Now this was done to replace the Collegium system of appointing judges to the Supreme Court and it was to be replaced with a new body called as the National Judicial Appointments Commission in short NJAC. But then came the fourth judges case of 2015 in which the Supreme Court declared the 99th Constitutional Amendment Act as well as the NJAC Act as unconstitutional and void. In this case Supreme Court opined that the new system that is the NJAC would affect the independence of the judiciary and thus the Collegium System which was present before became operative again. So now what about the appointment of Chief Justice of India? See when it comes to CJA's appointments the practice so far has been to appoint the senior most judge of Supreme Court as the Chief Justice of India. So this is an established convention but this convention was violated in the year 1973 when Justice A.N. Ray was appointed as Chief Justice of India by superseding three senior judges. Then again in the year 1977 M.U. Beg was appointed as the Chief Justice of India by superseding the then senior most judge. So to curtail this violation only in the second judges case of 1993 Supreme Court ruled that the senior most judge of Supreme Court should alone be appointed to the office of Chief Justice of India and based on this only currently the senior most judge of Supreme Court of India has been appointed as the CJAI. So these are some of the points that I should take note about the appointment of Supreme Court judges including the CJAI. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Our next discussion is based on this editorial article which talks about India's move to abstain from voting for a UNHRC resolution that was regarding Sri Lanka. We have discussed about this resolution in brief yesterday and we have also seen about UNHRC on our 23rd March in the news analysis but today we will focus on the rationality of India's move. See this editorial has been written because opposition parties have been critical of India's move to abstain in the voting of UNHRC resolution. They are saying that India is trying to shield Sri Lanka's attempt to dismiss the investigations into its war crimes and India is also trying to Sri Lanka from its lack of concern about the democratic ethos. But here author is of a different view where author has given a diplomatic justification for India's move that is author says that diplomatically what India has done is correct only. So now let us see what are the justifications given by author. The first justification is that India wanted to mitigate the influence of China and Sri Lanka and it wanted to earn the trust of Sri Lanka. That is why India abstained from voting. See here we should not forget that in the recent times Sri Lanka is increasingly coming under the Chinese influences and at the same time Sri Lanka's commitment with India is reducing. For example Sri Lanka terminated Indian commitment to develop its western container port terminal. But at the same time Sri Lanka has borrowed heavily from China. Now because of Sri Lanka's tilt towards China author argues that India has taken this move of abstaining from voting. Now the second reason given by author is that India did not want to support one and did not want to go against another in the Sri Lankan issue. See here you may recollect that both Sri Lankan government and its opposition which is the Tamil National Alliance had sought India support in their favor regarding the UNHRC resolution. That is Sri Lankan government asked India to vote against the resolution but the Tamil National Alliance asked India to vote in favor of the resolution. But now India has abstained from voting. So here India has formed the middle ground by not dismissing the Tamil minorities concern. Now the next justification given by author is that India has always stood for a in-house mechanism to address the issues of a country. So here also Sri Lanka should address its own issues. See here you can remember that India has always maintained in the Kashmir issue that it is an internal matter of India. So it should be sorted domestically only. Now since India has taken this stand for itself it should also have the same stand in its diplomatic relations also. And that is why author is saying that this move of India is justified. But in this line you may remember that way back in 2012 India voted in favor of a resolution against Sri Lanka. But here what India did was it made sure that Sri Lankan concurrence was included as a clause in the text of the resolution. So that is why author mentions that India's current stand is in line with this only and it is not a deviation from its previous stand. So on a whole although India's stand in this regard seems like it is turning a blind eye to the human rights violations in Sri Lanka. On the diplomatic front we can say that this move itself contains a diplomatic astuteness that can benefit India in the long run. See astuteness means the quality of being able to quickly understand the situation and see how to get an advantage from it. So here India has established diplomatic astuteness according to the author and that is why the editorial has been titled as tactical abstention. Meaning that it is a well calculated move of India. So these are some of the points that I should take note from this editorial. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Our next discussion is based on this editorial and this article is with a reference to the disparities associated with the development of various regions in India. So in this regard authors of this editorial talk about Tamil Nadu's development model to show how the state has effectively used its development model to achieve the social development and economic development simultaneously. And at the same time authors have also pointed out some of the current imbalances present in the developmental part of Tamil Nadu. So in this context let us see what the authors have to say. The syllabus relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. But before we discuss the article let us understand what is meant by economic growth and development. See it means fulfilling the material needs of people. It means enough resources are generated and utilized to meet the needs of the people. Along with this it also means that human well-being is possible only by creating societies whose social structure, political, economic and cultural structures empower their members. So when we talk about India we all know that India is the second most populous country and the seventh largest country by land. And it is also one of the most populous democracy in the world. But there are many disparities or inconsistencies in economic and social development across the regions of India. And along with these regional disparities we also have intra-regional disparities that is inconsistency among different segments of the society. Additionally we also have disparities with respect to different sections of the society. So now let us see what are these? When we talk about state-wise disparities you should note that Nitya Ayog has divided states into two groups with respect to the level of their development. Now the first group is the forward group. It contains the better developed states. And the second group is the backward group. It has the less or least developed states. Now when we see from a geographical perspective the forward group states generally fall in the western and southern parts of the country and they are contiguous. For example the forward group contains states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat etc. Now coming to the group of backward states they are in the eastern parts and northern parts of the country and they are also geographically contiguous. And these states include Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh etc. So this is how the state-wise disparities is present in India. Now coming to the intra-regional disparities that is the disparities existing within different states. We can take the example of Vidarbha region in Maharashtra and also the Saurashtra region in Gujarat. Along with this we have another important classification of disparity which is among the sections of society. Here authors of this editorial take note of what scholars like Myron Vayner have to say. The scholars have pointed out that India's human development policies have been historically biased towards elites. For example policies of our nation are privileging higher education rather than universalizing the primary education. We know that higher education is one which is accessible mainly to the rich sections of the society. We can also take another example that is more investments are going towards curative and tertiary healthcare and less investment are going into the preventive and primary healthcare. And here also we know that curative and tertiary healthcare are mainly accessible to the rich because they involve high costs. Based on these examples only scholars have pointed out that India's human development policies have been historically biased towards elites or elites. But authors of this editorial have a differing opinion here. According to them even when regions perform relatively better in one developmental dimension it does not often translate into all round development. Now for substantiating this viewpoint they take the example of Himachal Pradesh and Kerala in one category and then Maharashtra and Gujarat in another category. Here both Himachal and Kerala have attained better levels of human development but they lack adequate dynamism in the productive economy. In other words they lack efficiency in creation and growth of new enterprises and they also have an industrial sector which is not well developed. Or we can say they have a less developed industrial sector. Now on the other hand if you take Maharashtra and Gujarat they perform well in productive dynamism. We know that both the states have well established industrial sectors but on contrary to this both the states stay backward in human well-being. But is this developmental dimension true for all the states? No. Here author talks about an exception which is Tamil Nadu. According to the author Tamil Nadu has managed to achieve relatively high levels of human development with economic dynamism. Here you should note that Tamil Nadu has achieved good levels of human development which is superior to most states in India. Tamil Nadu has low infant mortality rates and malnutrition rates and this is among the lowest in India. And even across a range of health indicators Tamil Nadu has performed well compared to the high growth, high income states such as Gujarat. Additionally Tamil Nadu has also performed well in the education sector so far. So this is on the human development front. Now coming to the economic dynamism you should note that Tamil Nadu has diversified manufacturing sector and Tamil Nadu also features among the leaders in several industries like Tamil Nadu is a leader in automobile and auto components, a leader in engineering pharmaceuticals, garments, textiles, leather, chemicals, plastics etc. Tamil Nadu also ranks first among the states in terms of number of factories and also the number of industrial workers. Even the major automobile manufacturers such as Hyundai, Ford, Renault and BMW have had production facilities in and around Chennai for many years. And if you take the example of the textile sector we know that the Tirupur, Coimbatore, Salem corridor of Tamil Nadu has been dubbed as the Manchester of South India because they have large cluster of textile firms. So how Tamil Nadu could perform both well in human development and as well as in economic dynamism. How was this achieved? According to the author this distinct development trajectory was achieved due to the way the political mobilization happened in the state of Tamil Nadu. According to the author's populist political mobilization against caste based inequalities was the major reason for the overall development of the state and this was accompanied by a political emphasis on inclusive modernization. See the political and policy processes in the state began when the first Dravidian party came into power in 1967. Here you should also note that the ideology of self-respect movement was also instrumental in shaping the policy initiatives of the Dravidian parties and according to the authors this Dravidian mobilization has institutionalized two sets of policy interventions and these two sets are economic popular and the second one is social popular. Now combining both these interventions helped Tamil Nadu in achieving high levels of human development with economic dynamism. So here what both these interventions mean? Social popular means rights-based interventions. It ensured inclusive access to modern sectors and public goods through redistribution of wealth. It also included affirmative action policies, land reforms or legislation for equal property rights for women etc. And next the economic popular policies are driven by electoral imperatives that is they tend to address issues of absolute poverty. For example they addressed issues through expansion of food or education subsidies, health care reforms etc. To be precise particularly in health care social popular measures included the constituting of first state planning commission in India in Tamil Nadu and it included a task force specifically for health care. It also included investments in public health infrastructure and ensuring a socially inclusive pool of health personnel etc. And then coming to the economic popular measures of Tamil Nadu these include the subsidized health insurance, expanded noon meal schemes and also maternity benefits etc. Now combining these both social popular measures and economic popular measures Tamil Nadu has generated inclusive health outcomes. Here the social popular policies helped to build public health infrastructure and also to democratize the health governance in Tamil Nadu and the economic popular policies enhanced the coverage of such policies and it also added new schemes to meet the specific demands and these measures all together benefited all the classes and the castes of the society. Thus it also helped in reducing the caste disparities. So what was the result of these measures? All these measures resulted in Tamil Nadu having a higher share of entrepreneurs who belong to the so-called lower castes compared to the other states. In addition to this Tamil Nadu has also witnessed relatively better empowerment of labor force and according to the author this happened due to better unionization and welfare interventions outside the workplace because both these helped to enhance the bargaining power of the labor. So this is how Tamil Nadu has achieved human development with economic dynamism. So by taking Tamil Nadu's example, authors are trying to say that human development and economic dynamism can go hand in hand and they need not necessarily be sequential that is they need not be one after the other but as a conclusion authors have also noted some disparities which are present in Tamil Nadu currently. At present Tamil Nadu is witnessing unevenness in the quality of health care and education. For example there are poor learning outcomes among school children which are visible and also there is growing preference for private schools. Similarly there is an increase in reliance on private health care facilities compared to the public health care facilities etc. So all these trends are generating a new set of inequalities in the state of Tamil Nadu and Tamil Nadu is going to have its elections in the next month. So let us hope that the political party which assumes office after the elections will take note of these points and will ensure that Tamil Nadu remains in the high levels of human development along with economic dynamism. So these are the points that you should take note from this editorial. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Our next discussion is based on this opiate article which talks about the environmental impacts of coal mining. We all know that India has consistently reaffirmed its commitment of moving away from the coal based energy system and switching to renewable energy but this article has been written in the backdrop of Adani Group's 16.5 billion dollar Carmichael coal mine project in Queensland of Australia. Now this Carmichael is a thermal coal mine under construction in the Galilee basin of central Queensland and this project has been approved by Queensland and also by the federal governments of Australia and this project was given a go-ahead in June 2019 and after that construction began. Now here it is to be noted that this project has been highly controversial because there are ongoing disputes over its claimed economic benefits financial viability and also the environmental damage that it would cause. So that is why author has written this article highlighting the environmental impacts of coal mining. Now let us see them one by one. As you know coal mining adversely affects the ecosystem as a whole. Firstly it is usually associated with the degradation of natural resources and the destruction of habitat. This causes invasive species to occupy the area so it poses a threat to biodiversity. Secondly huge quantities of waste material are produced by several mining activities in the coal mining region so if proper care is not taken for waste disposal then mining will degrade the surrounding environment. And thirdly the method of waste disposal affects the land, water and air and this in turn affects the quality of life of people in the adjacent areas of the coal mine. In addition to this the mining of coal also emits massive amounts of particulate matter pollution and this contributes to heart disease, lung disease and even lung cancer. So these are some of the environmental impacts of coal mining. Now what about coal combustion? So remember there are also several principal emissions which result from coal combustion and these principal emissions include emission of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, carbon dioxide, mercury and other heavy metals, fly ash and bottom ash etc. And in this the sulphur dioxide contributes to acid rain and respiratory illness, nitrogen oxides contribute to smog and respiratory illness, then particulate matters contribute to smog, haze and respiratory illness and even lung disease. Then carbon dioxide as you know is the primary greenhouse gas and then comes the mercury and other heavy metals and these have been linked to both neurological and developmental changes in humans and other animals. So in this regard author has noted that in India coal contributes to around one lakh premature deaths annually and most importantly poor are the hit hardest due to this environmental pollution and degradation. And that is why the world is moving towards renewable energy and we have commitments under the Paris agreement also. But if you see at this time only Australian Queensland government of Australia has approved this coal mining project that will be carried out by the Adani group and that is why it is being highly criticized. So these are some of the points that we can take note from this open article. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Now this news article is about a statement by the union minister of state on the current status of India's third lunar mission. The minister has stated that Chandrayaan 3 is at its advanced stage and it is being planned to be launched in 2022. So in this regard let us see in brief about Chandrayaan 3 and also about the two other lunar missions. See first know that in Chandrayaan Chandra means moon and yarn means vehicle. So it is India's mission to the moon and Chandrayaan 3 is India's third mission to the moon. It is said to comprise of a lander and a rover and the launch is expected to take place in 2022 as we saw in the news article. And it is said that Chandrayaan 3 will be a mission repeat of Chandrayaan 2. It is because Chandrayaan 3 will also include a lander and rover similar to that of Chandrayaan 2 but Chandrayaan 3 will not have an orbiter. Additionally it is said that Chandrayaan 3 possesses the same configuration like Chandrayaan 2. So this third mission of India to the moon is believed to be critical for ISRO because it will demonstrate India's capabilities to make landing for further interplanetary missions. So in this regard it becomes important to know about Chandrayaan 2 also. It is a complex mission of ISRO which was launched by geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle that is GSLV Mach 3 and this mission comprised of an orbiter, lander and rover and it was said to explore the unexplored south pole of moon. And Chandrayaan 2 also marks India's first attempt to land on the lunar surface particularly on the moon's south polar region. This mission was launched in July 2019 and it was successfully inserted into the moon's electrical orbit. But unfortunately the lander could not attempt soft landing as planned. So even though soft landing could not be done according to ISRO's chairman this mission was around 95% each successful. And also remember that the technology and software used for Chandrayaan 2 was developed in India including its rover and India's first lander. So all of these were indigenously developed. So when was Chandrayaan 1 launched? It was launched in 2008 but it was launched using polar satellite launch vehicle that is PSLV C-11. This mission played a crucial role in discovering the water molecules in the moon. Also note that the spacecraft carried scientific equipments from other countries also in addition to five Indian instruments. It carried the scientific equipment from United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden and Bulgaria. So these are some of the facts that you should know about the Chandrayaan missions of India. So now let's move on to the next discussion. Now this discussion is based on this news article which talks about the majestic tulip garden that is situated in the Jammu and Kashmir. This garden is said to contain over 15 lakh flowers of more than 64 varieties. And this garden is located on the foothills of the Zabarwan mountains. So in this regard let us see about this tulip garden and also about the Zabarwan range or mountains. See tulip has its origin in Persia that is Iran and it was introduced in Europe in the 17th century. Further in Europe it was developed into different varieties. And note that Holland is the largest producer of tulips and it is also found to inhabit the mountain areas from Europe to Central Asia. Now the plantation of tulips usually begins from September before the start of winter season and it reaches its full bloom by mid-April. Now the tulip garden which we are talking about is the Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden in Kashmir. It is the Asia's largest tulip garden which is of 30 acres. It is located at the foothills of Zabarwan mountains and it is on the banks of Dal Lake. See this Zabarwan mountains or Zabarwan range is a short sub mountain range of around 32 kilometers. This Zabarwan range is located between the Pir Panjal and the Great Himalayan range in the central part of Kashmir valley. And you should note that this garden is commonly known as Siraj Bhag and earlier it was called as the Model Forticulture Center. And as we just saw this garden is surrounded by Dal Lake then by Nishad Bhag and the Chashma Shahi on three sides. Now the news is that our Prime Minister has called the citizens of the country to visit this tulip garden because now Jammu and Kashmir Unitarian is going to organize the tulip festival which is an annual celebration that showcases a range of flowers in the garden as part of tourism efforts by the government. So you can remember that Zabarwan range is related to Tulip Garden and then Dal Lake. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Now this discussion is based on this news article which mentions that a unique double mutant coronavirus variant has been found in India. So what is a double mutant? See double mutant means if an organism contains mutant alleles in the two genes of interest then it is called as a double mutant. And what are alleles? These are the two or more alternative forms of a gene that arise by mutation and they are found at the same place on a chromosome. So this double mutant coronavirus variant has a combination of mutations which has not been seen anywhere else in the world. So how this was found? It was found by the Indian SARS coronavirus II consortium on genomics when it did the genome sequencing of a section of the virus samples. So before discussing about the genome sequencing, let us see about this Indian SARS coronavirus II consortium on genomics in short INSACOG. See this INSACOG is a consortium of 10 national research institutions and this INSACOG is led by or coordinated by the Department of Biotechnology. Now these institutions will collaborate for carrying out effective surveillance and monitoring of the genomic variations that are observed in the new SARS coronavirus II virus strain. Now this INSACOG is also a platform for scientists, virologists, experts who are studying diseases and it is also a platform for government officials to interact and track the genome equations of the novel coronavirus. So the news is that when INSACOG did genome sequencing of a section of virus samples it revealed the presence of two mutations that is E484Q and L452R together and these were present in at least 200 virus samples from Haar Asha Delhi, Punjab and Gujarat. See mutations in the virus are not surprising but specific mutations can reduce the vaccine efficiency and it can also increase the severity of the virus. So it can also weaken the immune system of the individual and it can also cause a spike in the number of infections. But however with respect to this double mutant it is yet to be established whether it can decrease vaccine efficiency or whether it can increase virus severity or not. Here also note that these two mutations have been individually identified in other variants of SARS coronavirus II globally and they have been associated with the reduction in vaccine efficiency individually. But their combined effect and biological implications have not yet been fully comprehended and that is why it is not yet known whether they decrease vaccine efficiency or not. In addition to this news article also mentions that INSACOG will submit details of this variant to a global repository called as GISAID. See this GISAID stands for Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System. It is a public platform started by the World Health Organization in 2008 and it was started for countries to share genome sequences. Now this platform promotes international sharing of all influenza virus sequences. It is also a platform to share the related clinical and epidemiological data that is associated with human viruses and also the geographical data and the species specific data that is associated with the avian viruses and other animal viruses. Now this platform helps researchers to understand how the viruses evolve spread and potentially become pandemics. So it actively promotes the development of novel research tools for the analysis of influenza data by helping developers to facilitate the integration and connection of their tools to analyze the data available in this platform. So after the INSACOG submits details of this variant to GISAID, see whether this double mutant will classify as a variant of concern or not. See so far only three global variant of concerns have been identified. They are the UK variant, the South African variant and the Brazilian variant and after the study by this platform the double mutant may also be added to this list of variant of concern. So this news article was with respect to an update regarding the coronavirus pandemic. Now let's move on to the next discussion. Now we have come to the last session, the practice questions discussion session. This question is based on coal mines and the states. It is a pair based question and the question asks which of the above pairs are correctly matched? First pair is Rani Ganj coal field. It is matched with West Bengal and Jharkhand. Then Singh Rowley coal field Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and then Korba coal field. It has been matched with Chhattisgarh and then Talchir coal field has been matched with Odisha. I note that all of these have been correctly matched. So the correct answer is option D all of the above. Here we have given you a representative map of all the coal fields in our country. Now this next question is a two statement question. First statement is the second judges case ruled that the advice rendered by the Chief Justice of India is binding on the President in matters of appointment of the judges of Supreme Court. Now this statement is correct. We saw this during discussion. Now the second statement is Collegium system for the appointment of Supreme Court judges was introduced in the fourth judges case of 2015. Now this statement is incorrect because Supreme Court introduced the Collegium system in the second judges case itself and this Collegium system was expanded in the third judges case. It was expanded to a five member body comprising of the CJA and four of her senior most colleagues whereas the fourth judges case declared the 99th constitutional amendment act and then the NJAC act as unconstitutional and wide. So here the question asks for the correct statements. So the correct answer is option A one only. Now this next question is also a pair based question. On one side gardens are given and on the other side the name of emperors have been given and we have to identify the correctly matched pairs. The first pair is Nishat Bagh and Aurangazeb. See this Nishat Bagh or Nishat garden was laid out by Asif Khan who was the brother of Mughal Empress Noor Jahan and it was not built by Aurangazeb. So this is an incorrect pair. I know that it is a popular garden located on the eastern banks of Dalai. It is also called as the Garden of Bliss and it is the largest of the Mughal Gardens. Now the second pair is Shalimar Garden Emperor Jahangir. Now it was originally called as the Farah Bhaksh or Delightful Garden. It was built by Emperor Jahangir only for his wife Noor Jahan. It was built in the 1616. I note that it has got a canal in the center which was used as a source of water supply. So this is a correct pair. Now actually the moment you know that pair one is incorrect you can easily arrive at the correct answer which is option B 2 and 3 only. Now the third pair is also correct which is Gardens of Cheshma Shahi Shah Jahan. I note that this garden is the smallest of the Srinagar Mughal Gardens. It was built by Shah Jahan in the year 1632. Here Cheshma is basically an Urdu word that means waterfall. The garden is named so because of the mountain spring or the waterfall that feeds it. And this famous freshwater spring inside this garden is believed to have medicinal values and its garden is set up on the hillside that is above the Nehru Memorial Park. I note that all these three gardens are under the tentative list of UNESCO and we hope that soon they will get the World Heritage status. So here the question asks for the correct statements and the correct answer is option B 2 and 3 only as we said already. Now this next question is based on Chandrayaan 2. First statement is Chandrayaan 2 has been designed to expand the lunar scientific knowledge through a detailed study of the lunar atmosphere. Now this statement is correct. The mission is designed to expand the lunar scientific knowledge through detailed study of topography, seismography, mineral identification and distribution etc. of the lunar surface and atmosphere. So this statement is correct. Now the second statement is Chandrayaan 2 includes only a lander and rover and not an orbiter. Now this statement is incorrect because Chandrayaan 2 has lander, rover and also an orbiter but whereas the Chandrayaan 3 will not have an orbiter. So this statement is incorrect. Now the third statement is Chandrayaan 2 was carried by GSLV Mark III to its designated orbit. Now this statement is also correct. GSLV Mark III is a three-stage vehicle and it is India's most powerful launcher to date and it is capable of launching four ton class of satellites to the geosynchronous transfer orbit and here the question asks for the incorrect statements. So the correct answer is option B 2 only. Now this next question asks which of the following two water bodies does the Suez canal connect Adriatic Sea and Ionian Sea, Irish Sea and Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and Red Sea, Andaman Sea and South China Sea. And the correct answer is option C Mediterranean Sea and Red Sea. Now this next question is a two-statement question. GSIAD is a public platform started by WHO to share genome sequences. This statement is correct. We saw this during discussion. Statement 2 is Ainsacog is a consortium of 10 national research institutions led by Department of Biotechnology. Now this statement is also correct. We saw this also during the discussion. And here the question asks for the correct statements. So the correct answer is option C both 1 and 2. Now let us take two main questions. You can answer these questions and post it in the comment section. With this we come to the end of today's in the news analysis. If you like the video don't forget to like, comment and share and to subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for more updates related to civil service examination preparation.