 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Reyes Academy, two important announcements about Phoenix Initiative course and about 2020 Prelims Test Series. The Phoenix Initiative course consists of four modules along with free access to 18 tests. This course along with Prelims Test Series will be helpful to revise the syllabus effectively for the upcoming 2020 Prelims exam. Dear aspirants, note that the admissions are open till 4th October 2020 and for more information visit the registration link given in the description of this video and also given in the comments section. Now let's proceed to the analysis. These are the list of news articles taken for today's analysis and their page numbers in different editions of the newspaper. Now let's move on to the analysis of first news article. This discussion is based on this advertisement of Southern Western Railway about the first roll-on roll-off service train from Karnataka to Maharashtra, particularly between Nellamangala near Bengaluru in Karnataka and Bali near Solapur in Maharashtra. So today we'll see what is this roll-on roll-off service train and what are its benefits. The syllabus relevant for the analysis is highlighted here for your reference. See RORO stands for roll-on roll-off. A roll-on roll-off train does not have bogies or wagons like the normal trains we know. In Indian slang bogie is a railway carriage like a passenger coach as you see in this picture. Wagon refers to a railway freight vehicle as shown in these pictures. So what does a roll-on roll-off train have? See it has long metal platform in the place of bogies or wagons. And the roll-on roll-off train pulls this long metal platform on which lorries or trucks with goods are loaded. The driver and cleaner of the truck travel along being in their truck cabin and they are dropped at a particular point. Now in this arrangement trucks are loaded through a ramp provided at the dead end of a loop on BRN wagons. This picture shows a bogie air brake flat wagon or BRN wagon. These wagons are suitably modified for through passage of trucks over them. See in these wagons the top side is empty so that trucks or other road transport vehicles can also be loaded. Before loading over the wagons the trucks are weighed and passed under a height gauge to ensure that they conform to the maximum moving dimensions for safe passage. Here note that even other road vehicles can be transported. So in short roll-on roll-off service carries road vehicles on rail transport. So the roll-on roll-off is a delivery model which can provide multi-modal transport mix. It provides a unique road rail synergy. So from the above discussion we can also call it as trucks on train system. Now this roll-on roll-off service was introduced by Indian Railways in the period 1998-1999. It was introduced on Kongan Railway when the Kongan Railway Corporation did not have enough freight traffic. Now let us see the benefits of this roll-on roll-off service or system. First it is a convenient hassle-free system for the movement of trucks. Second it is economical because it saves fuel and also saves time. Time is saved because the speed of roll-on roll-off train is fast enough as compared to the movement by road. Therefore it ensures faster transport of essential goods, perishables, food items and also smaller cargo as well. And the terminal time of loading or unloading is just normally 15-20 minutes in roll-on roll-off. So in this way it reduces turnaround time for trucks or in other words it provides better turnaround of trucks. A turnaround refers to the process of completing a task or the time needed to complete a task. More importantly the cost of transport is lesser than that of the transport by the road. Then there is no hassle of duties like toll duty etc. Then there is almost no risk of accidents so it improves safety. When it also helps to avoid congestion on the roads then there is no extra paperwork. It is also an environment friendly mode of transport. This is because of the less pollution as trucks are not plying or not travelling on the roads. Many sectors are benefited from this roll-on roll-off service trains. These sectors are agriculture, industries, chemicals etc. These goods of these sectors can be transported. It brings prosperity particularly for farmers as it provides linkage between agro-producing regions and agro-consumption centres. Therefore it also gives boost to government initiatives like operation greens. As you know the objective of operation greens is to enhance the value realization of top farmers by targeted interventions to strengthen top production clusters and their former producer organizations and also to link and connect the production clusters with the market. Here when we say top we are referring to tomato, onion and potato. Now operation greens also aims to reduce post harvest losses through creation of farm gate infrastructure development of suitable agro logistics. So it also aims to establish firm linkages with production clusters. These objectives of operation greens are comfortably or easily achieved through the linkages provided by roll-on roll-off service trains between agro-producing regions and agro-consumption centres. Because of all these benefits the roll-on roll-off system facilitates safer, speedier and more reliable transport while at the same time it also plays a crucial role for sectors like agriculture. With this COVID-19 pandemic this service has come in handy particularly with restrictions on movements of vehicles on road were imposed by government as part of the lockdown. During the lockdown period Indian railways upscaled transportation by using roll-on roll-off facilities so as to carry loaded trucks to ensure speedy and efficient supply of essential commodities. And now for the same purpose railway ministry has notified roll-on roll-off service for transporting goods laden vehicles between Karnataka and Maharashtra so as to ensure smooth flow of essential commodities. Now the roll-on roll-off service to be introduced between Karnataka and Maharashtra is to have a capacity of carrying 42 trucks in a single system in one trip. So these are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this news. In this analysis we discussed about roll-on roll-off trains. What are the various benefits of these trains? We saw the objectives of operation greens. We saw how roll-on roll-off service plays a crucial role in achieving the objectives of operation greens. Then we saw how amidst lockdown these trains are crucial in the movement of essential items. Now let us move on to the analysis of next news article. This news article talks about the ongoing tussle between Turkey and Greece. The news states that Turkey will be conducting a military exercise in the Mediterranean Sea close to north-west Cyprus for the next two weeks. In this regard we had discussed about the ongoing issue in the Mediterranean region in our 28th August news analysis. On that day we saw in detail about the geography of the Mediterranean Sea and also the countries that border the Mediterranean Sea. In today's discussion let us concentrate on Turkey. See Turkey is a country which is large and roughly rectangular peninsula. It lies partly in Asia and partly in Europe and in this regard it occupies a unique geographic strategic position and it acts both as a barrier and also as bridge between the two continents. The European portion of Turkey is called as Thrace. It encompasses 3% of total area of Turkey but it is important as it is home to more than 10% of the total Turkish population. Thrace is separated from Asian portion of Turkey by Bosporus Strait, then the Sea of Marmara, then Dardanelles Strait. Now this is important from the perspective of geography. The Asian part of this country is known by variety of names. For example Asia Minor, Asiatic Turkey, Anatolian Plateau, Anatolia and Turkey extends more than 1600 km from west to east but generally less than 800 km from north to south. Now coming to the borders of Turkey if we go clockwise see it is bounded by Black Sea on the north. On the northeast if you observe it is bounded by Georgia and Armenia. On the eastern side it is bounded by Azerbaijan and Iran. On the southeast it is bounded by Iraq and Syria. On the southwest it is bounded by Mediterranean Sea and the west of Turkey is bounded by Aegean Sea. On the northwest if you see we can find Greece and Bulgaria. So and we should know that most of the islands along Aegean coast they are part of Greece and some of the islands of Greece are very very close to Turkey and it is said that only two islands in this agency remains in Turkish hands. And the maritime boundary with Greece has been a source of dispute between Turkey and Greece and coming to Cyprus Cyprus is an island nation which is south of Turkey in the Mediterranean Sea. Coming to other geographical information related to Turkey it is a predominantly mountainous country and the true lowlands are confined to the coastal fringes. Its highest mountain is Mount Ararat and know that the Tigris Euphrates river system which is the great river system of southwestern Asia they have their sources in eastern Turkey. Then they travel southeast through Syria and Iraq and reigns into Persian Gulf. Now let's see briefly about Turkey's involvement in the geopolitics of the region. See we should know that Turkey's unique geographical strategic position straddling Europe and Asia gives an increasing role as a destination country and also as a transit country for migrants and refugees so as to reach Europe. In 1997 Turkey was declared eligible to join the European Union this was because Turkey plays a strategic role with respect to European Union issues such as migration, security, counter-terrorism and also in the sphere of economy. But know that it is still not yet a member of European Union though it is a member of NATO. So why it is not a member of European Union? There have been concerns with respect to establishment of customs union. The reports say that there are issues yet to be settled regarding certain agreements like Ankara Association Agreement of 1963 etc. But in the current times if you see why Turkey might not be able to join European Union is because of going backwards in the realms of democracy, rule of law, fundamental rights particularly in the context of secular credentials. You can relate the backsliding of secular credentials of Turkey, the recent announcements or conversions of museums into mosques. So these are some of the information with reference to Turkey that we have seen in this analysis. Now let's move on to the analysis of next news article. Let us take this frequently asked questions column which is titled as what is the new idea on supply chains. This article tries to explain how trade supply chains are heavily dependent on international or bilateral relations. It also talks how they are affected by the pandemic scenario as well. In this context, let us have a brief discussion on India-Japan relations and how diversification of sources would build resilience and economic stability. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this article is highlighted here for your reference. So first let's have a brief recap of Indo-Japanese relations. See the friendship between India and Japan has a long history that is rooted in spiritual affinity and strong cultural and civilizational ties. See this is the opening statement given by the Ministry of External Affairs on the brief of India-Japan relations. See India's earliest documented direct contact with Japan was with the Todaiji Temple in Nara where the consecration of Lord Buddha was performed by an Indian monk by name Bodhisheena. This took place in 752 AD. Here when we say consecration of Lord Buddha we are referring to eye opening of the towering statue of Lord Buddha. Now in contemporary times among prominent Indians associated with Japan were Swami Vivekananda, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, J. R. D. Tata, Shubhash Chandrabosh and Judge Radha Binodpal. There is also Japan-India association which was set up in 1903 and it is today the oldest international friendship body in Japan. Now coming to this century India and Japan relationship elevated or raced exponentially with very frequent high profile visits between both the countries. In the year 2019 alone that is in last year there were as many as seven Indian high profile visits to Japan ranging from president, prime minister to external affairs minister. Now talking about trade if you take the financial year 2017-18 India-Japan bilateral trade stood at or reached 15.71 billion US dollars. So this is about the close relationship between two Asian democracies India and Japan. In the recent years India and Japan are even moving closer in the realm of security interests as well. One such example we can see both India and Japan being part of quadrilateral or quad. Quad stands for four it was initially conceived in the year 2007. It is an informal dialogue mechanism among four countries which are India, Japan, United States of America and Australia. It was also reported that quad was the initiative made by Japan. Now as per the news article Japan has come up with one more initiative called as supply chain resilience initiative. So what do we mean by supply chain resilience? See it is an approach that helps a country to ensure that it has diversified its supply risk across a clutch of supplying nations instead of being dependent on just one or just few countries. Simply to say our imports or exports should not be dependent on any particular country. We can take the example of China here. China's share of imports into India in 2018 it stood at 14.5% according to an analysis by confederation of Indian industry. Particularly if you see areas such as active pharmaceutical ingredients for medicines like paracetamol India is almost fully dependent on China and also in the sphere of electronics China accounts for 45% of India's imports. So when China was enforcing lockdowns in the months of February and March, India was much worried about shortage of active pharmaceutical ingredients because China is the principal supplier of these APIs for India. Now coming to Japan, Japan also faces a similar problem with heavy dependence on China for its imports and exports. See though we are moving past the COVID-19 impact on supply chains there is always worry of hostility with China not just for India but also for Japan. Now it means if China intentionally blocks exports of critical nature say for us it could be active pharmaceutical ingredients in such cases both the nations India and Japan would suffer and not just that the rising tensions between US and China is also another factor that affects global economic ties and threatening the supply chains. So in order to effectively counter these developments Japan has proposed supply chain resilience initiative as a trilateral approach to trade. So who are the other two partners the other two partners proposed by Japan are India and Australia. Now similar to India and Japan both being dependent on China Australia is also highly dependent on China. Reports suggest that China is Australia's largest trading partner and it accounts for 32.6% of Australia's exports. That means almost one-third of exports from Australia go to China. During COVID-19 the anti-conversion between Australia and China was on the rise as Australia pushed for global inquiry on COVID-19. So in the context of these developments Japan has now proposed this strategy with India and Australia as partners. As of now this initiative is at the strategy stage or strategy planning stage and it has some way to go before participants can realize trade benefits through the implementation of the initiative. Now we have to wait and see how India responds to this supply chain resilience initiative proposed by Japan. If India enhances self-reliance or in other words if India works with exporting nations other than China it could bring resilience into the economy's supply networks. On August 13, 2020 we saw that such a foreign policy is called as self-reliant foreign policy where diversification of cooperation is the essence of self-reliance. Internally though we have done a lot to make India to appear as an attractive destination for investors both as a market and also as a manufacturing base there is even more to work upon particularly in areas like ease of doing business and also in skill building. We definitely have to make considerable progress in these areas and it is high time for India to reduce its dependence on China particularly in the context of tensions between India and China. While we should diversify our sources at the international cooperation so as to attain self-reliance and foreign policy we are also pushing to tap the inherent potential in our country through various campaigns like Atman Bar Bharat Mission for which the Prime Minister's call is to be vocal about local to make India self-reliant. So these are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this news article. Now let us move on to the analysis of next news article. Now let's take up this news article titled as CSIR to track employees health for a period of 30 years. In this discussion let's have a brief overview about CSIR and we'll discuss the news article in brief. CSIR stands for the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. It was set up in the year 1942 before independence as an autonomous body. At present it is the largest publicly funded multi-disciplinary industrial research and development organization in our country. It functions under the administrative supervision of Ministry of Science and Technology. It operates as an autonomous body and it is registered under the Societies Registration Act of 1860. Now coming to the President and Vice President of this CSIR. See it is headed by Prime Minister as President and the Union Minister of Science and Technology as the Vice President. This Council is known for cutting edge R&D knowledge base in various science and technology areas. It has Pan India presence with dynamic network of 38 national laboratories, 39 outreach centers, 3 innovation complexes and 5 units. Now today's news article states that the Council is aiming to track health vitals of its 10,000 employees for a period of next 30 years. It is to build a medical cohort to give long term perspective on the analysis that affect Indians and also to determine whether such a data bank can be used to help in predicting the onset of diseases. See cohort studies or type of longitudinal study meaning the length of the research study will be more. For example here it is 30 years. Such cohort studies are common in medical research and in psychology which are used to investigate the causes of disease or psychological disorders and also to establish links between risk factors and health outcomes. Now this program is reportedly optional and will also be done only with the consent of the employee. The news article also mentions two other such cohorts running in our country. One is Vado Rural Health Program in Pune in Maharashtra which is an initiative of KEM hospital and its research center. It has been tracking a cohort of patients since 2002 and it is monitoring births, deaths, causes of death and migrations. Now the other program is Garbini in Guru Gram of Khariana. Now it is a pregnancy cohort to study multi-dimensional aspects of preterm birth in India. So these are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this news article. Now let us move on to next part of this news article talks about national sports awards which were awarded by the president of India. It was given on August 29th that is yesterday. Every year on August 29th India celebrates national sports day to commemorate the birth anniversary of hockey wizard Dayan Chint. In this context let us have a brief understanding of the national sports awards. Coming to Dronacharya awards, it was instituted in the year 1985. The awards are given to other eminent coaches who have successfully trained sports persons or teams so as to achieve outstanding results in international competitions. And then we have Arjuno awards which was instituted in 1961. The award is given to players who have exhibited good performance consistently for the previous four years at the international level and have shown qualities of leadership, sportsmanship and a sense of discipline. Now coming to Dayan Chint awards for lifetime achievements in sports and games. This award was instituted in 2002. It is given to honour sports persons who have contributed to sports by their performance and continue to contribute to the promotion of sports even after their retirement from sporting career. Now coming to Rajiv Gandhi Kail Ratna awards, it was instituted in 1991-92. It is given to sports persons who have shown spectacular outstanding performance over a period of four years immediately preceding the year during which the award is given. Now the Rastriya Kail Protsahan Puraskar, now it is given to recognise the contribution made to sports development by entities other than individual sports persons and coaches. This award consists of a certificate and a trophy. Then we have Maulana Abulkala Masath trophy. It was instituted in 1956-57. This trophy is awarded annually to the university that has given best all-round performance during the year of award. So these are some of the information with reference to the national sports awards. Now let's move on to next part of the discussion. This news article states that Andhra Pradesh Government is likely to release water from Krishna river to Chennai by September 14 or in the middle of September. In this context it is important for us to know about river Krishna. In relation to this we would like to inform viewers and participants that on 24th August 2020 we have discussed in detail about Krishna and on 20th August 2020 we discussed in detail about river Godavari and yesterday August 29th we discussed about river Maganadi. You may go through those classes for the knowledge related to these rivers. Now let's move on to next part of the discussion. We have come to the last session, the practice questions discussion session. See this question. Consider the following. Iran, Iraq, Greece, Moldova, Caspian Sea, Mediterranean Sea, which of the other regions border Turkey? See of these Moldova is a landlocked country and it does not share border with Turkey. If you know this fact we can arrive at the correct answer option B. Otherwise we know that Greece borders with Turkey but option A does not contain Greece. So you can eliminate option A in that way also. We know that Turkey does not share Caspian Sea. The coastlines of Caspian Sea are shared by Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan. So the correct answer for this question is option B 1, 2, 3 and 6. Now see this question with which of the following countries India had trade surplus in financial year 2018-19. USA, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Germany. See the correct answer for this question is option B 1 and 2 only. This is as per the data available from department of commerce as presented in economic survey 2019-20. India had trade surplus with USA and United Arab Emirates in financial year 2019 that is 2018-19. So the correct answer is option B. Now this question is with reference to roll on roll off service trains. Question reads which of the following are benefits of the roll on roll off service trains of Indian railways recently seen in use. Avoids congestion on the roads environment friendly mode of transport more turnaround time of road vehicles linkage between agro producing regions and agro consumption centres. See the correct answer should not contain third statement. Because turnaround time is reduced in case of roll on roll off service trains. In case of trucks loaded on roll on roll off service trains. So the correct answer for this question is option B 1 2 and 4 only. Know that roll on roll off service trains provides reduced turnaround time of trucks. Because the transport is faster compared to the travel of trucks through roads. Now this question is with reference to council of scientific and industrial research. Two statements are given. They are asking which of the statements are correct. It is a statutory body functioning under ministry of science and technology. This statement is incorrect. Though it functions under the administrative supervision of ministry of science and technology it is not a statutory body rather it is an autonomous body that is registered under Societies Registration Act of 1860. So the first statement is incorrect. The second statement the president of India and the union minister of science and technology serve as president and vice president of CSIR respectively. While the union minister of science and technology serves as vice president it is not the president of CSIR it is the prime minister of India who is the president of CSIR. So the correct answer for this question is option D neither one nor two. Now see this question which is with reference to national sports awards of India. Two statements are given. They are asking which of the given statements are correct. First statement Dronacharya awards are given to players who exhibited good performance consistently for the previous four years at the international level. Now this statement is incorrect. This award is referring to Arjuna award. Remember that Dronacharya was a teacher in the Maha Bharata Epic. So as the name suggests Dronacharya awards are given to honor eminent coaches who have successfully trained sports persons of teams so as to achieve outstanding results in international competitions. The second statement Rashtriya Kail Protsohan Puraskar is given to recognize the contribution of sports persons and coaches to sports development. Now this statement is also incorrect this award is given to recognize the contribution of sports development by entities other than sports persons and coaches. For example if you take the national sports awards 2020 this award is given to Army Sports Institute, Lakshaya Institute ONGC, Air Force Sports Control Board and International Institute of Sports Management. So it is not given to individual sports persons or coaches. Rather it is given to entities. So the correct answer for this question is option D neither one nor two. See this main question in GS paper 3 what are roll on roll off service trains of Indian railways. Explain how it can be helpful in ensuring PDN efficient supply of essential commodities. So you have to first talk about roll on roll off service trains then you have to explain how they are helpful through their advantages or benefits in ensuring PDN efficient supply of essential commodities you can relate it with trouble such as the one imposed by COVID-19 pandemic. You have to write within 150 words you may write and post your answers in the comment section. Feedback for your answers will be given within a period of one week. With this we come to the end of today's The Hindu News Analysis. If you like the video click the like button, comment share and subscribe to Shankarae's Academy YouTube channel for more updates and content on civil service exam preparation.