 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar IA's Academy for the dates 15th and 16th of August 2019. Displayed are the list of news articles taken up for today's analysis along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Trivandrum editions. Note that Trivandrum edition is not available for 16th of August 2019. Let us now start our analysis. This news article discusses about the terms trade deficit, exports and imports. If you see all these terms are related to India's foreign trade, nothing but India's external sector. If you see in page 116, the volume 2 of economic survey for this year, that is the financial year 2018-2019, a table named balance of payments is mentioned. You can see this table here. All the exports and imports of India for a particular financial year are recorded in this table in the economic survey. And also the comparison of the exports and the imports of India with the previous financial year is also given in this table. Also if you see both the exports and imports come under the current account in this table, so let us first see what is meant by current account. Current account is the account that contains transactions that are made single time and the transactions which are one way transactions. Now transactions means the receipt of money or the payment of money. This receipt or payment happens only once and the transaction ends there. So these are single time and one way transactions. We saw that the transactions means the receipt of money or the payment of money. When do we receive money? Only when we can export a merchandise goods. So receipt refers to exports in the external sector. The export of merchandise goods has to happen from India to abroad. So from India we are exporting a particular good to abroad. It simply means we produce a material here and we are exporting it to the foreign nations nothing but abroad. So by exporting the goods we will receive some money. So the receipt of money. Now the exact opposite to this is the payments. Here payments refer to imports. The imports of merchandise goods happens from abroad to India. It simply means that we do not have a particular material. So we receive that particular material from a foreign country which produces that particular material and to receive that particular material we pay the money. This is what we call it as payments. The next term that you need to know from this table is trade balance. So if you see in this table trade balance 1 minus 2 is given. 1 means the exports and 2 is the imports. So the trade balance or the balance of trade refers to the difference between the export receipts and the import payments. It simply means export minus the import. For a country's economy to be healthy the trade balance has to be positive. That is it should be a trade surplus scenario. So trade surplus is possible only when the exports are more than the imports. So that we receive a lot of money. But if the imports become more than the exports then it becomes trade deficit. It indicates that the production is not happening in the economy and we are depending more from the foreign nations. So this is the basics which you need to know whenever you are seeing the news article that discusses terms like trade deficit or exports or imports. In this table you can see that the trade balance has always been negative. It means that there is always trade deficit in every financial year. So it means the imports are always more than the exports. Now let us come to the news article. The news article presents the values of India's foreign trade for the first quarter of the financial year 2019-20. Now know that the report of India's foreign trade is released by the economic division of the Department of Commerce. This department comes under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. As per the report India's overall exports in April to July financial year 2019-20 which also includes both merchandise and services has shown a positive growth and the growth is around 3.13% when compared to the April to July 2018-19 financial year data. And the overall imports in the April to July 2019-20 have shown a negative growth of 0.45% which is minus 0.45 when compared to April-July 2018-19 financial year data. Now out of this 3.13% of growth in exports the contribution from the services sector is more as you can see in this picture which is around 8.65% whereas the merchandise exports have shown a negative growth of 0.37%. So we can see that only services sector has contributed to India's foreign trade especially in this month. Now if you see the balance of payments table in the economic survey services come under the invisibles. So services is actually an invisible trade which is happening like the travel costs, transportation costs, insurance costs etc. And also some other miscellaneous services like the information technology services and information technology enable services, communication services, financial services etc. Now know that the services data for July month in this report is an estimation and it will be revised next month when the Reserve Bank of India releases the final actual figures. Next the news article has mentioned the sector wise growth of certain merchandise goods. It tells that the sectors that saw a strong growth in exports in the month of July 2019 when compared with the July 2018 data are electronic goods where this electronic goods actually saw growth of 51.39% next drugs and pharmaceuticals then organic and inorganic chemicals and then readymade goods of all textiles. Despite an expected global slowdown in demand for these products the growth in exports of the products that I mentioned here shows that India's products have started gaining acceptability in the global market which means the people in the other countries are ready to buy Indian products. Next the news article also tells that the imports of July 2019 was 10.28% lower in rupee terms when compared with the imports data of July 2018. Mostly if you see the imports of pearls, precious and semi precious stones declined and the imports of the petroleum and the crude oil reduced. Now you need not remember any of the values just try to know if they have reduced or increased. We saw that the imports have decreased in the month of July 2019. One reason given here is the low demand since many people are not having the purchasing power to buy a particular merchandise goods. It means that demand has gone down for these products so the imports of these products have also reduced. Now know that this is a negative impact of the reduction in imports. The other reason which is a usual reason for the reduction in imports can be more of indignous production that is if you are able to produce a particular product in India only and if that particular product is locally available we need not depend on the imports. For example you can even take oil suppose say India becomes self-reliant on crude oil and it is not going to import the particular product anymore from the global market. So the imports will drastically reduce. So this is the positive impact of the reduction in imports but what we saw in the news article is a negative impact because of low purchasing power the demand has gone down. So just know the difference. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This editorial speaks about India's ambitious targets of renewable energy and the lack of government efforts to tap the favorable conditions for increasing the production of renewable energy in India. The author tells that the expansion of renewable energy capacity in India is a step in the right direction which means India is in the right direction to expand the renewable energy capacity. In the first part of the editorial the author has mentioned some statistics. So these statistics were told by the Prime Minister of India when he addressed the plenary session of the World Environmental Day celebrations on 5th of June 2018. So in this plenary session the Prime Minister has told that India has engaged in a massive push towards renewable energy generation. Also India has set a target for generating 175 gigawatts of solar and wind energy by the year 2022. The Prime Minister has also told that at present India is the 5th largest producer of solar energy and India is the 6th largest producer of renewable energy in the world. So for all the policies that has been initiated by the Prime Minister of India he was awarded the Champions of Earth Award by the United Nations Environment Program. So with this quote the author of the editorial is telling that India's initiative towards expanding the renewable energy capacity is a step in the right direction. And there are two benefits from this. One is the environmental perspective because we are generating clean energy. The second is the generation of employment opportunities. The author tells that the existing conditions such as cost for production and the availability of onshore winds which are necessary for wind energy production are favorable for increasing the production of renewable energy. Also if you see some few years back when solar energy was in the developing stage the photovoltaic cells which is the prerequisite for generating solar energy was very costly. But now with more technological advancements the cost of production of the photovoltaic cells totally reduced. So it is quite cheaply available now. So we can see that because of the technological advancements the cost of generating power from the renewables are now more or less the same as generating power from the fossil fuels. When we tell fossil fuels it means generating power out of coal and oil. But the author's main point is that India has not been able to make full use of the reduction in costs of the renewable energy components. He also tells that the government has not put enough efforts to take advantage of this favorable condition. Now according to the author other developing countries like China and Brazil have performed much better than India in the renewable energy production. According to international renewable energy agency ranking China and Brazil are ranked first and third in terms of production of renewable energy. But at the same time India's ranked fifth. So India is producing lesser amount of renewable energy when compared to China and Brazil. Now let us compare India and China. If we compare between India and China, China is way ahead of India in its expansion. If you see in the years between 2014 and 2017, China has added almost 207.2 gigawatt to its renewable energy capacity. But at the same time period India could add only 33.3 gigawatt. Also if you see during the same time period China increased its install capacity in solar energy by 105.5 gigawatt while India increased its capacity by only 14.3 gigawatt. Also advanced countries like USA and Japan have installed almost twice the amount of solar capacity over this time period that is between 2014 and 2017 when compared to India. So from these statistics we can tell that India is performing relatively poor. So the author is telling that India needs to put more efforts to meet its ambitious target of generating 175 gigawatt of solar and wind energy by the year 2022. Next the author has given some few reasons why India could not benefit much despite the favorable conditions. If you see in July 2018 the government of India had imposed a safeguard duty over imported solar photovoltaic cells. So India imposed around 25 percentage of safeguard duty. The reason given by India was to safeguard the interests of the domestic manufacturers of solar photovoltaic cells. But if you see it as contributed to a rise in the cost of solar energy production since around 90 percentage of the photovoltaic panels which are used in India are imported from China and Malaysia. Now when we tell safeguard duty it is nothing but the tariff that is imposed on a product when its import raises exponentially and this starts to threaten the domestic manufacturers of the same product. So in order to protect the domestic manufacturers a safeguard duty is being imposed by the government. Also if you see the depreciation of Indian rupee when compared with US dollar has also lessened some of the advantages that are offered by declining costs. Now depreciation means the reduction in the value of a particular currency when you are comparing with some other currency. In this case we are comparing Indian currency with the US dollars and if we tell depreciation say today 1 dollar is equal to 60 Indian rupees tomorrow it becomes 1 dollar is equal to 62 Indian rupees. So there is a depreciation of 2 rupees. So even if the price of the cells in dollars comes down the depreciation factor of the rupee will force the Indians to pay more rupees for the same amount of dollar. So we are not able to benefit the complete advantage that is offered by the reduction in the cost. Another reason is that we are not investing much on research and development of renewable energy sources. So the author is stressing the fact that the government must invest more on research and development of renewable energy sources. Now one of the primary objectives for advocating the use of renewable energy is to limit and finally eliminate the use of fossil fuel especially coal. So this is the trend across the world everywhere they want to install renewable energy capacities in order to eliminate the usage of coal. But if you see India's annual coal demand has increased by 9.1 percentage. So the annual coal demand is around 1 billion tons in the year 2019 for India and coal is among the top 5 imports of India. If you see the total import of coal has increased from 166.9 million tons in the year 2013-14 to around 235.24 million tons in 2018-19. So the demand for coal in India is increasing year by year. The author says that among the fossil fuels coal is the dirtiest in terms of carbon emission and also in terms of environmental pollution because it emits more carbon and this leads to more environmental pollution. Here the author has quoted a study which has been done by the Center for Science and Environment New Delhi. This study shows that the coal fired thermal power plants in India are considered to be the most inefficient thermal power plants and they are also the most polluting thermal power plants in the world because more than 75 percentage of these thermal power plants do not comply with the governmental regulations. The author also tells that by passing the coal mines special provision act of 2015 and the mines and minerals development and regulation amendment act of 2015 the government seems to encourage the domestic coal usage for power generation instead of generating power through renewable energy. If you see this coal mines special provisions act of 2015 the main aim of the act itself is to ensure the continuity in the coal mining operations and the production of coal and also for promoting the optimum utilization of coal resources. So we can see that the government itself is encouraging the mining of coal in India and to utilize the coal in the power generation. So the government itself is dependent on coal for power generation. Next the author has also mentioned a report that has been published by an NGO name the Center for Financial Accountability. So this report was published in June 2018. This report has showed that there is a discrimination in lending towards renewable and coal fired energy projects. So you need not require the values that are mentioned in this editorial just know that there is a discrimination in lending towards renewable and coal fired energy projects. The report is telling that a large part of funding has gone to the coal fired power plants while the renewable energy projects have got less funding or we can tell that they have lack funding. One more interesting fact from this report is that the major lenders to these polluting thermal power plants are the public sector banks. So when we see public sector banks it is nothing but the government itself is indirectly interested in lending money to these polluting thermal power plants. So the author is telling that if the funding and the use of coal continues to expand then even an expansion in the renewable energy sources cannot control the emission levels. So the author is stressing the fact that the new renewable energy projects must be given more priority while funding instead of giving priority to the polluting thermal power plants. Now have a look at the practice question let us move on to the next news article. This news article states that the United States President has said that United States will leave the World Trade Organization that is WTO if it had to. The US President said this while he was referring to the trade disputes that US has against it in the World Trade Organization forum. The US President noted that the US is losing almost every case in World Trade Organization. So to understand this we should first know what World Trade Organization is and what is the role of World Trade Organization. The World Trade Organization or WTO is the only global international organization that deals with the rules of trade between nations. It is a goal is to ensure that the trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible. The primary purpose of this World Trade Organization is to open trade for the benefit of all. If you see the World Trade Organization as 164 member countries these 164 member countries represent 98 percentage of the world trade. Also remember that India is a member of World Trade Organization from 1995. The World Trade Organization has many roles such as it operate global system of trade rules then it acts as a forum for negotiating trade agreements. Then it also settles trade disputes between the members and it also supports the needs of the developing countries. So from this you now know that the World Trade Organization also settles trade disputes between its members. When there is a dispute of trade among the members of World Trade Organization they can file litigation in the World Trade Organization. After this it goes through the dispute settling mechanism of World Trade Organization. So we can say that there will be one litigant and there will be one respondent and the case will be settled in favor of either the litigant or the respondent. In this scenario when the litigation is against USA the US will be the respondent. This is where the US President has said that US loses almost every case in World Trade Organization. So because of this the US President is threatening to leave the World Trade Organization. Along with this the United States President has also named India and China as examples of countries that had taken advantage of the United States. The US President blamed that India, China and many other countries are still in the developing nation category so they are taking advantage of USA. He criticized that India, China and many other countries still view themselves as growing countries. He commented that these countries have grown now so they should be in the developed nation category instead of developing nation's category. Not only this but in the end of July 2019 the US President also directed the office of the United States Trade Representative in short USTR to convince the World Trade Organization. So the USTR was asked to convince World Trade Organization to rethink its classification of developing countries. So now let us understand what is this categorical differentiation of the countries as developed and developing countries. If you see the developing countries in the World Trade Organization comprise a majority of the World Trade Organization membership. They are grouped as developing countries and least developed countries based on different criteria. Actually if you see there are no World Trade Organization definitions of what is meant by developed country or what is meant by a developing country. The members of World Trade Organization can announce themselves whether they are a developed country or a developing country. So the developing countries in the World Trade Organization are designated on the basis of self-selection but note that this designation is not necessarily and not automatically accepted in all WTO bodies. Also you should see that the other members of WTO can challenge this decision of any member which is designating itself as a developing country. This is because it allows that member to make use of provisions that are available to the developing countries. The next thing which you need to know is that about two-thirds of the WTO members are developing countries. They play an increasingly important and active role in the WTO because they are more in numbers. This is because they are becoming more important in the global economy and also because they increasingly have the desire to trade. So involving in trade is a very important tool for all the developing countries in their development efforts. Now who are the least developing countries or LDCs in short. The World Trade Organization recognizes the countries as least developed countries which have been designated as least developed countries by the United Nations. Now know that there are currently 47 least developed countries on the UN list and 36 of them have become WTO members. So World Trade Organization has 36 least developed countries and some eight more least developed countries are negotiating to join the World Trade Organization. They are the countries of Bhutan, Comoros, Ethiopia, Sotomayor and Principay, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Timor-Leste. Now what are the advantages of developing country and the least developed country status. Let us see them now. The World Trade Organization deals with the special needs of developing countries in three ways. One is that the World Trade Organization agreements that contain special provisions on developing countries. For example, there are provisions in some World Trade Organization agreements which provide the developing countries with longer transition periods. So longer transition periods are basically the time periods which are given before implementing the particular agreement to the developing countries. So it is the extra time for the developing countries to fulfill their commitments. The second advantage is that the Committee on Trade and Development. So this Committee on Trade and Development is a main body that is focusing on work in this area in the World Trade Organization. Thirdly, if you see the World Trade Organization secretariat provides technical assistance for the developing countries. If you see this comprises mainly the training of various kinds. But also note that when a WTO member announces itself as a developing country, it does not automatically mean that the country will benefit from the unilateral preference schemes of some of the developed country members. One example if you see is the generalized system of preferences which is followed by majority of the developed nations. So it is the preference giving country and not the World Trade Organization that will decide the list of developing countries which can benefit from the preferences under this GSP program. One good example is the country of US's generalized system of preferences program. We saw that the US terminated India's status out of its GSP program since June 2019. So each and every developed country has its own GSP program. Next if you see the general agreement on tariffs and trade that is GATT, there are some special sections on trade and development. Here know that the GATT deals with the trade and goods. It includes provisions on the concept of non reciprocity in trade negotiations between the developed and developing countries. It simply means that when the developed countries grant trade concessions to the developing countries, the developed countries should not expect the developing countries to make such matching offers of trade concessions in return. It ultimately means that the developed countries have to support the developing countries in terms of trade and they should not expect anything in return from the developing countries. So this is one advantage for the developing countries. Then there are also certain provisions that are designed to increase the trading opportunities of the developing countries through greater market access. Then there are provisions that require the WTO members to safeguard the interests of the developing countries when they adopt some domestic or international measures. For example, if you see if the WTO members impose an anti-dumping duty, they have to keep the interest of the developing countries in mind. So this will also help the developing countries ultimately. Then if you see the WTO secretariat as special legal advisers for assisting the developing countries in case if there is any WTO dispute. So they will be giving legal counsel to the developing countries. So this is one advantage for the developing countries. Then the WTO agreements include numerous provisions that give special rights or say extra leniency to the developing and the least developed countries. It is called as special and differential treatment. Among these, there are provisions that allow developed countries to treat the developing countries more favorably than any other WTO members. So these are some of the advantages that the developing countries and the least developed countries have in the WTO forum. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. Now let us see the news articles of today's date which is 16th of August 2019. First let us see the editorial named trade rhetoric. In the previous news article we saw that the United States president has threatened to pull out of the world trade organization on the pretext that US is being treated in an unfair manner and he has also blamed that too many countries claim the status of being a developing country. In this editorial the author has mentioned some advantages and disadvantages for being a developing country in the world trade organization. First let us see the advantages. Now those countries which claim themselves as a developing country in the world trade organization enjoy certain partial exemptions from the world trade organizations rules. They can impose higher tariffs on imports from other countries and they can also give more subsidies to the local producers in order to protect the domestic interests. But the author tells that there is a disadvantage because of the developing countries. The main thing is the skewed global trade which is in favor of certain developing countries. Here the term skewed means more biased or distorted. We can see that the developing countries having the advantage in the global trade especially countries like China and India. So this is what is the argument of the United States president. Next the author has mentioned the arguments of the developed countries and the developing countries over having the developing countries status. The main argument of the developed countries like the United States is that the producers of their countries are put at a relative disadvantage because when more goods are being flooded from the developing countries into the developed countries the producers are not able to sell their goods and they are at a relative disadvantage. But the argument of the developing countries like China is that they justify the developing country status because they tell that they have low per capita income. So holding the developing country status is justified. Next let us see in brief about the author's views on the United States president's attacks on the World Trade Organization. We saw that the United States president threatened to pull USA out of the World Trade Organization. The author tells that he would welcome such a move if US was really concerned about creating a global trading platform with lower tariffs and also with fewer barriers on trade. But the author believes that the actual intentions of the United States is something different. The author tells that it is a convenient pretext or a convenient reason for the United States to justify further trade barriers against China and other countries because we can already see that there is a huge US-China trade war that is happening. So this is another pretext for US to justify the trade barriers in the future against China and also against certain other countries. So the US president will just point fingers on these countries and he would justify to impose the retaliatory tariffs against these countries. In a way this will also help embolster or strengthen his America first approach. We saw that the producers or the manufacturers in the United States have been heavily affected due to the cheap imports from the developing countries. The author tells that this move by the United States president will help him strengthen his America first approach so that he can successfully hold on to his political support base. Politically it will be useful for the American president. The author gives one more reason why the United States will not lower the tariffs even if countries like China and India offer to lower their tariffs because if China and India offers to lower their tariffs and United States if they have agreed they must also reciprocate in the way of lowering their tariffs but if they lower the tariffs then the interest of the local American producers will be affected. So it is again like dumping cheaper imports in United States. So the author is telling that USA will not agree to such a move. Hence the United States president is threatening that he would pull USA out of the World Trade Organization. So these are some of the views that has been shared by the author in this editorial. Have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about the new treatment which cures highly drug resistant strains of tuberculosis of the lungs in human beings. So before going into the news article discussion let us know in brief about tuberculosis. Tuberculosis or TV is caused by bacterium which is called as mycobacterium tuberculosis. If you see this bacterium most often affects the lungs. Know that tuberculosis is curable and preventable. If you see tuberculosis is spread from person to person through the air. When people who have lung tuberculosis the cough, sneeze or the spit are more than enough to propel the tuberculosis germs into the air. And if a healthy person inhales even a few of these germs then the healthy person is likely to be infected with tuberculosis. So to cure tuberculosis anti-tuberculosis medicines have been used for decades. If you see some of the strains became resistant to one or more of the medicines. So this is what we called as drug resistance. This drug resistance emerges when anti-tuberculosis medicines are used inappropriately like through incorrect prescription by the healthcare providers or when the drug is of poor quality or even when the patients stop the treatment prematurely or early. Or it can also happen when there is over consumption of drugs. So all these have given rise to two types of drug resistant TB. One is the multi-drug resistant tuberculosis which is in short known as MDR TB. It is a form of tuberculosis that is caused by bacteria which do not respond to isoniazid and rifampicin. The isoniazid and rifampicin are the two most powerful first line anti-tuberculosis drugs. Here the term first line means it is the first choice for treating a particular condition or we can say it as the initial treatment. So the MDR TB is treatable and curable by using second line drugs. But the second line treatment options are limited and therefore they require extensive chemotherapy for up to two years of treatment along with the medicines that are expensive and which are also very toxic. So here just know that chemotherapy is the use of any drug to treat any disease not only cancer. However in some cases more severe drug resistance can develop. This is the second type of drug resistant tuberculosis. It is known as the extensively drug resistant tuberculosis or in short XDR TB. It is a more serious form of MDR TB. It is caused by bacteria that do not respond to the most effective second line anti-tuberculosis drugs. So often it leaves the patients without any further treatment options. Now let us come back to the news article. The news article tells that a new treatment which cures highly drug resistant strains of tuberculosis of the lungs has been approved. This new treatment was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration. The news article states that the announcement was welcomed by the country of South Africa because if you see it is one of the countries with the highest number of tuberculosis cases. The news article states that out of more than 1.6 million tuberculosis deaths that is out of more than 16 lakh tuberculosis deaths that are recorded every year more than 75,000 are in South Africa alone. In the year 2017 alone South Africa recorded more than 322,000 active tuberculosis cases. This new treatment cures highly drug resistant strains of tuberculosis of the lungs and it will drastically shorten or reduce the treatment period. It is approved for treating a limited and specific population of adult patients with extensively drug resistant treatment intolerant and non-responsive multi-drug resistant pulmonary tuberculosis. As we saw earlier the multi-drug resistant tuberculosis and extensively drug resistant tuberculosis are difficult to treat due to its resistance to available therapies. According to the World Health Organization in the year 2016 worldwide there was an estimated 490,000 new cases of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis if you see it was along with smaller portion of cases of extensively drug resistant tuberculosis. This treatment includes three drug regimen. It has a Pritomanid tablets in combination with Bedakvillan and Lionzolin. So it is collectively known as BPAL regimen. So remember this name BPAL regimen. Here Pritomanid is the novel or the new compound that is developed by the Global Alliance for Tuberculosis Drug Development or Tuberculosis Alliance. Know that it is a New York based non-profit organization and Pritomanid is a nitro-imidazo-oxazine antimicrobacterial drug. The study has primarily demonstrated the safety and effectiveness of Pritomanid when taken orally in combination with Bedakvillan and Lionzolin. This study consisted of 109 patients with extensively drug-resistant treatment intolerant or non-responsive multi-drug resistant pulmonary tuberculosis of the lungs. So when the patients were evaluated for six months and after the end of the therapy 89% success rate was recorded. So this success significantly exceeded the historical or the prior success rates for the treatment of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis. So just remember this treatment regimen which has been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration which is the BPAL regimen. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This editorial speaks about the deluge in Kerala or the great floods of Kerala and the lessons that the Kerala state must learn from these floods. In the first paragraph of the editorial the author has given some facts about Kerala's geography. He tells that the varying elevations that is the altitude from the western guards to the coastal areas of Kerala has resulted in a vast river and network which means Kerala has got more rivers because of its geography. He tells that there are around 44 fast flowing rivers in Kerala that drains the river water into the Arabian Sea. So all these rivers are the lifeline of the Kerala state. They support the fertile lands of Kerala. They also support the unique flora that is the trees and the fauna the animals of Kerala and also the life of the people in Kerala. So all the flora, fauna and the humans live in a symbiotic way that is they live together and they depend on each other for their survival. Next the author tells that the state of Kerala is witnessing massive urbanization in the past two decades that is in the past 20 years urbanization has increased in Kerala and this urbanization is associated with development. But if you see this development has ignored the ecologically sensitive landscape of Kerala. So this is the main trouble which Kerala is facing now. The author tells that substantial portions of the revenue lands that is the agricultural lands in Kerala are wetlands and forests. So there is a shortage of buildable land parcels nothing but land which is suitable for buildings and residential purpose. So this is creating a huge pressure on the ecologically fragile areas because they are converted for building government infrastructures and also private enterprises. The author tells that the Kerala floods may be natural but its disastrous effects could have been mitigated if the government had been more vigilant because we saw that it has created huge damage to the Kerala state. If the government had proper plans in place maybe the floods could have been properly addressed. The author also tells that all the areas where the landslides and the floods happen are in the ecologically sensitive zones. So these areas were categorized as ecologically sensitive zones as per Madhav Gadgil report. Know that the Gadgil commission was an environmental research commission which was formed to study the ecology of western guards. So Kerala also forms a part of this western guards territory. Know that the Gadgil commission submitted its report to the central government in the year 2011. Next the author tells that following the Kerala floods which happened in 2018 the United Nations had prepared a post disaster needs assessment report for Kerala. In this report it has mentioned that there are certain gaps in the laws and policies. Also if you see the state of Kerala has also come up with many action plans to address the disaster risk reduction. Plans and laws like integrated water resources management or the coastal regulation zone notification all have a key solutions to address the natural disasters but if you see they are not implemented or followed properly. Also the state of Kerala has not come up with a proper legislation for regulating the housing and the land use in the fragile areas. Next the author tells that though many potential laws exist in the state of Kerala they suffer from dilution that is some of the provisions in the laws are diluted so that they are not implemented effectively. Here the author has mentioned one example he has quoted 2017 Kerala High Court judgment in this judgment the High Court mandated inclusion of a clause in the building rules. So that clause was natural drains and streams shall not be obstructed by the building but if you see this has not come into effect yet. Also there is a one more act which has been mentioned by the author which is the Kerala conservation of paddy land and wetland act of 2008. The author tells that this particular act has the potential to preserve the sensitive lands but this has also suffered from dilution of its provisions which means some of the provisions have been diluted so that they are not being able to be implemented in a very effective manner. Also Kerala does not have any data on the paddy fields and the wetlands so this has further aggravated this issue. Next the author of this editorial has mentioned the concept of climate change. He tells that there is an increasing frequency of heavy and unpredictable rainfall across the world in this era of climate change so we can see floods and landslides in one place and drought in the other place but what Kerala is being affected is with the disastrous floods and landslides. So the author is telling that Kerala must take proactive measures for disaster risk reduction. In Kerala the need of the hire is the review and the revision of building loss for both the urban and the rural areas with primary importance given to environmental stability. So here the author tells that Kerala must learn from the past experiences and take actions to reduce the impacts next time. Now let us just look at one example the 2018 Kerala floods brought high levels of silt from the high lands that is from the mountains. So it has reduced the depth of the rivers and it has also narrowed the river mobs because of the accumulation of the silt. So this has also reduced the carrying capacity that is the water carrying capacity of the rivers but if you see the silt was not removed even after one year of the 2018 floods and now again in this 2019 monsoons Kerala is again severely affected by floods. The author tells that there are cities in the world which successfully deal with heavier rainfall in a much less favorable topography than Kerala's. Here much less favorable topography means a very difficult land surface or land terrain. So what Kerala needs now is to have a proper watershed based master planning and development guidelines. For all the major river basins in Kerala now the term watershed means an area of land that separates the waters flowing to different rivers basins or seas. So the author is telling that Kerala should have a proper watershed based master planning and development guidelines. Here the author has mentioned some four areas of focus which the master plan should actually focus on. First is that there should be a clear demarcation or a separation of ecologically sensitive zones with the help of village survey maps and public participation. So there must be a clear land use pattern for these zones which have been identified and they should specify the flood plains, protected forest areas, agricultural zones and the plantation zones and then it should also provide for the types of crops, building usages which are permitted and also the density of buildings that are permitted within a particular area. The next area of focus should be the owners in the ecologically sensitive and non-buildable areas must be compensated and there must be strategies such as transfer of development rights to buildable zones in the cities. The next area of focus in this master plan should be that only ecologically sensitive building strategies should be permitted for the fragile areas and whatever legislation or the law that will be brought in should regulate the building heights, then the floor area and also the cutting and filling of the natural land. Then the next area of focus should be to have a strict scrutiny to ensure that all the infrastructural projects are carried out in a scientific manner. This should also cover the roads that are built on the difficult terrain and also all the public infrastructure projects in the wetlands and also in the high altitude areas that is in the high ranges. So, all these should be the areas of focus in the watershed based master planning. Now watershed based means depending on the hydrology. So, the author is telling that such an intensive hydrology driven master plan requires specialized experience and expertise. So, Kerala must hire the technology expertise that is required to implement this master plan. So, hiring such technology expertise will help to make short and long term policies and it will also help to skill the local agencies. Here just know that hydrology means the scientific study of occurrence, movement, physical and chemical properties of water on the earth's surface and also beneath the earth's surface that is below the earth's surface. In the final part of the editorial, the author has mentioned some global examples. He tells that even the developed cities in the world are facing similar problems, but they formulated successful strategies to tackle such problems. If you see countries like Netherlands and Denmark have successfully devised some strategies for their cities with high levels of water footprint in order to deal with the climate change issues. The city of Copenhagen and Denmark is mentioned here. So, this city faces similar problems of repeated flooding, but it has come up with a proper planning to develop Copenhagen in line with the climate change needs. So, the author is telling that we cannot just copy from whatever they have done, but we have to take the experiences from those solutions and with those experiences, we have to formulate our own strategies in order to address our own needs. Finally, the author is telling that the mutually beneficial relationship that is the symbiotic relationship that once existed between the rivers, flora, fauna should be re-established. So, this is the only way we can face a future of changing weather patterns. So, throughout this editorial, the author has given some challenges related to flooding which Kerala State faces and the need for adopting watershed-based master planning and also the need for Kerala State to review its building by-laws and other legislations. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article speaks about the presence of micro plastics in the Arctic snow and its health effects. This news article tells that the scientists have found minued micro-plastic particles in the Arctic snow and also in the Alps Mountains in the continent of Europe. Micro-plastics are defined as very small pieces of plastic with less than 5 millimeter length. The scientists believe that these micro-plastic particles were carried to remote locations by the wind. So, they have called for an urgent research to assess the health risks of inhalation of these micro-plastic particles. Every year, several million tons of plastic litter travel through rivers and they finally reach the oceans. There, they are gradually broken down into smaller fragments through the motion of the wave and also through the ultraviolet light of the sun. So, the discovery of the micro-plastic particles in the least inhabited Arctic area proves that they can be transported across long distances through the atmosphere. So, these are carried away by the winds and they are later washed out of the air by precipitation, particularly snow in the Arctic area. The team has used an infrared imaging technique to analyze the sample snow that was collected from the Arctic area and also from the Alps Mountains. The team has stated that the majority of the micro-plastic in the snow comes from the air. The concentration of the micro-plastic particles in the Arctic area was significantly lower than that of the Alps Mountain, but still the amount is quite a substantial amount. So, this team believes that the micro-plastic particles were transported by air. They have arrived at this hypothesis or the assumption based on the in the past research, they found that Poland which was located near the equator was also found in the Arctic region. Similarly, the dust from the Sahara Desert which is located in Africa can also travel thousands of kilometers and end up in North Eastern Europe. So, there is a chance that the micro-plastic particles were transported by air, but the scientists have said that little work had been done to determine the effects of exposure of the micro-plastic particles. So, they tell that there should be an urgent research that should be conducted for the micro-plastics that are inhaled by us and also the effects of such consumption on human health and also on animal health. And we saw that the micro-plastics get carried through the rivers and end up in the oceans. So, they also disturb the marine life. So, there is a greater threat because of the micro-plastics pollution that is caused to the marine life as well. Now, imagine there is also marine life that is living in the most remotest waters on the planet like in the polar regions. So, those marine life in the polar regions also face the threat from these micro-plastic pollution. So, this team also plans to understand the damage that the micro-plastics are doing to the fish, seabirds and also the large ocean mammals such as whales. Let us move on to the practice questions discussion session. The first question is with reference to balance of payments, which of the following constitutes or constitute the current account? Exports, imports, invisibles. Now, during our news article analysis, we saw that under current account we have exports, imports and invisibles. Under invisibles, we have services, incomes and transfers. So, all three are correct. The question is asked you to choose a correct answer. The correct answer is option D, 1, 2 and 3. Moving on to the next question, the question is consider the following statements with the reference to World Trade Organization. They have given two statements and have asked you to choose the correct answer. The first statement tells that WTO is a specialized agency of United Nations. Know that WTO is not a specialized agency of United Nations. The term specialized agencies means they are legally independent international organizations with their own rules, membership, organs and financial resources. And they were brought into the relationship with the United Nations through negotiated agreements. So, we can say that United Nations specialized agencies are international organizations that coordinate their work with the United Nations through negotiated agreements. If you see there are currently 15 specialized agencies of United Nations, they are number one food and agricultural organization, number two international civil aviation organization in short ICAO, number three international fund for agricultural development IFAD, then we have international labor organization ILO, then international maritime organization IMO, then international monetary fund IMF, then international telecommunications union ITU, then United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO, then we have United Nations Industrial Development Organization UNIDO, UNIDO, then Universal Postal Union UPU, then World Bank, then World Health Organization WHO, then World Intellectual Property Organization that is your WIPO, then World Meteorological Organization WMO, and then World Tourism Organization UNWTO. So, here the first statement is wrong, World Trade Organization is not the specialized agency of United Nations. Now, let us see the second statement, it tells that all the countries that share the international land borders with India are members of World Trade Organization. So, to answer this statement, you should first know which are the countries that share the international land borders with India, there are seven countries that share the international land borders with India, they are Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. Among these Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar became member of World Trade Organization in the year 1995, along with India, which also became a member in the year 1995, and then China became a member in the year 2001, then Nepal in the year 2004, then Afghanistan became a member very recently in the year 2016. But if you remember our news analysis discussion, we saw that some countries were negotiating to join the World Trade Organization. One country among the list that we saw was the country of Bhutan. So, this means currently Bhutan is not a member of World Trade Organization. So, this means all the countries that share the international land borders with India are not the members of World Trade Organization. So, this makes the second statement as an incorrect statement. Now, the question is asked for the correct statements and we saw that both the statements are wrong or incorrect. So, the correct answer is option D neither one nor two. Moving on to the next question, the question is which among the following diseases are caused by bacteria and they have given AIDS, tuberculosis, purchases, leprosy, hepatitis B. The first disease AIDS stands for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome which is a term that applies to the most advanced stages of HIV infection. Now, the term HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. So, it is a virus and not a bacteria. So, AIDS is wrong. Next is tuberculosis. This is caused by a bacteria called mycobacterium tuberculosis. So, this is correct. And the third is purchases which is also called as oofing cough. It is a highly contagious respiratory disease which is caused by a bacterium called as bodily purchases. So, this is also correct. The next is leprosy which is also called as Henson's disease. It is a chronic infectious disease that primarily affects the peripheral nerves, then the skin, then the upper respiratory tract, then the eyes and also the nasal mucosa that is the lining of the nose. This disease is caused by a bacterium, a bacillus bacterium called as mycobacterium lepre. So, this disease is also caused by a bacterium. So, 2, 3 and 4 are caused by a bacterium. So, you can just go for the correct answer which is option D, 2, 3 and 4. But also know that hepatitis B is a viral infection and not a bacterial infection. So, hepatitis B is a viral infection which attacks the liver and it can cause both acute and chronic disease. If you see this virus is most commonly transmitted from mother to child during birth and delivery as well as through contact with blood or other bodily fluids. So, the correct answer to this question is option D, 2, 3 and 4. Moving on to the next question, consider the following statements and they have given two statements and I have asked you to choose the correct answer. The first statement tells that multidrug resistant tuberculosis is caused by bacteria which do not respond to the most effective second-line anti tuberculosis drugs. Know that multidrug resistant tuberculosis or MDRTB is a form of tuberculosis that is caused by a bacteria which do not respond to isoniazid and rifampicin. The isoniazid and rifampicin drugs are the two most powerful first-line anti tuberculosis drugs. So, it does not respond to the first-line anti tuberculosis drugs, it is not the second-line. So, this statement is wrong. You should know that extensively drug resistant tuberculosis is caused by bacteria which do not respond to the most effective second-line anti tuberculosis drugs and it is a more serious form of multidrug resistant tuberculosis. So, the second statement is correct here. The questioners ask for the correct statements. The correct answer is option B, 2, 1, 3. Moving on to the first question, the question is India has an ambitious target of achieving 175 gigawatts of renewable energy, especially solar and wind by the year 2022. Do you think that the government has done enough to achieve this target? What are the reasons for the limited production despite the widespread enthusiasm for renewable energy? The first part is actually a statement. It tells that India has an ambitious target of achieving 175 gigawatts of renewable energy, especially solar and wind by the year 2022. So, nothing much to describe this statement. Let us see the second part which is do you think that the government has done enough to achieve this target? Now, to answer this part of the question, you need to have some statistics, which means you need to know India's present capacity of renewable energy as on 30th of June 2019. India has an installed renewable energy capacity of 80.47 gigawatt. Under this 80.47, solar energy comprises of 29.55 gigawatt and wind energy comprises of 36.37 gigawatts. Also, energy production from biomass constitutes around 9.81 gigawatts and small hydropower constitutes around 4.6 gigawatts. So, this is the statistics that you need to know and India has an ambitious target of achieving 175 gigawatt of renewable energy by the year 2022. But the present capacity is actually 80.47 only which is almost half of the targeted capacity. So, we can directly tell that the government needs to do more to achieve this target. Let us see the third part of the question which states that what are the reasons for the limited production despite the widespread enthusiasm for renewable energy? We can see the executives of the government telling that India is focusing more on renewable energy but still there are some reasons for the limited production. Now, we need to mention the reasons. Some of the reasons that we saw during our discussion are the government of India imposed 25% safeguard duty on imported solar photovoltaic cells. So, this has contributed to a rise in the cost of solar energy production as around 90% of the photovoltaic panels used are imported from countries like China and Malaysia. So, this is one reason. The second reason is the depreciation of the Indian rupee when compared with the US dollar. So, this is also less than some of the advantages that are offered by the declining costs. Another reason which we saw is that India has not invested much on the research and development of renewable energy sources. We are still dependent on the foreign powers for the purchase and also for the technical know-how. And one more reason which we saw was discrimination in funding where more funding was allocated to coal fired projects when compared to the renewable energy projects. The next reason that we saw was India is focusing much on power generation through coal. Even the legislations which were enacted supported power generation through coal. So, you can mention some other reasons also if you know and try to conclude that the government of India has to focus on improving the production capacities of renewable energy. Let us see the next question now. The question is what is the criteria to declare a country as a developing country in World Trade Organization. Discuss the benefits received by India as a developing country at World Trade Organization. We saw during our discussion that actually there is no WTO definition of what is meant by a developed country and what is meant by a developing country. It is up to the members of the World Trade Organization where they can announce themselves whether they are a developed country or a developing country. So, the developing countries in the World Trade Organization are designated on the basis of self-selection. But we also saw that this designation is not necessarily and not automatically accepted in all the WTO bodies. And also the other members can challenge this decision of a member who declares themselves as a developing country. Then you can also mention the statistic that about two-thirds of the WTO members are developing countries. The second part of the question tells that discuss the benefits received by India as a developing country at the World Trade Organization. During the discussion of the third news article, we saw some advantages that a developing country might receive at WTO. So, just mention the advantages that we saw during our discussion. Like imposing higher tariffs on imports from other countries, then more subsidies to local producers in order to protect the domestic interests, then about the special provisions in the World Trade Organization agreements, then the Committee on Trade and Development, then the technical assistance that is being provided by the World Trade Organization Secretariat and also provisions that are designed to increase the trading opportunities for the developing countries for a greater market access. So, we saw some more advantages. So, just try to mention the advantages that India might receive being a developing country at the World Trade Organization forum. With this, we come to the end of the analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the practice questions discussion session. Do like, comment and share the video and do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for latest videos and updates. Stay focused and motivated friends. Thank you.