 A very good evening to all our friends and welcome to the Hindu News Analysis of Shankar IAS Academy for the date 27th October 2020. The list of the news articles along with the page numbers of 5 different editions is given here for your reference. Also the handwritten notes in the PDF format and time stampings for all the news articles taken up for today's discussion is given in the description box and also in the comment section for the best interest of the viewers. Let us now begin our news analysis. First let us take up this news article. The news is that two units of Sri Shailam power plant which were damaged in August 2020 in a major fire accident were relaunched yesterday. In this context let us have a brief understanding of the Sri Shailam power plant, the reservoir and also about the Krishna river. The syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. See Sri Shailam Dam power plant is constructed across the Krishna river and is at the borders of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Now that it is the second largest capacity working hydroelectric station in the country. The dam was constructed in a deep gorge of the Krishna river in the Nalla Mala hills and also know that there is also a tiger reserve in this area that is the Nagarjuna Sagar Sri Shailam Tiger Reserve. Yes, the 2020 plumes question is based on this tiger reserve. See it is the largest tiger reserve in the country and is spread over 3800 square kilometer. And it covers Guntur, Prakasham and Karnol districts of Andhra Pradesh and Nalgonda and Mahabubnagar in Telangana. It was officially declared as a tiger reserve in the year 1978 and has been recognized by the Project Tiger in the year 1983. And this reserve has been renamed as the Rajiv Gandhi Wildlife Century in the year 1992. Also know that the river Krishna flows across this Nalla Mala Tiger Reserve and the multi-purpose reserve wires constructed across this river that is the Sri Shailam and Nagarjuna Sagar are located in this tiger reserve. Now talking about river Krishna, see it is an interstate river in the southern India. It is the second largest river in Peninsula, India. The river is also called as Krishnaveni. It rises in the western Ghats near Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra state. It flows across the whole width of the peninsula from west to east for a length of about 1400 kilometers. So it flows eastwards and rains into the Bay of Bengal and it flows through the states Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The basin is roughly triangular in shape and is bounded by Balagat range on the north then by the eastern Ghats on the south and east and by the western Ghats on west. Its principal tributaries joining from right are Ghatprabha, Malprabha, Koina, Venna, Varna, Panchaganga, Doodhganga and Tungabhadra whereas Bhima, Musi and Munneru are the principal tributaries joining this river from the left. And some of the important dams built across Krishna are Narayanapura Dam, Sri Sailam Dam, Priyadarshani Jurala Dam or Jurala Dam, then Nagarjuna Sagar Dam, Prakasham Barrage etc. So in this discussion, we saw about the Sri Sailam Power Plant, the Nagarjuna Sagar Sri Sailam Tiger Reserve and also about the Krishna River. So this is all about this news article with this we'll move on to the next news. Now this news article is about the interview given by the new director of Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services in short INCOIS. Previously he was associated with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission or IOC of the UNESCO. And in this news article, the new director has spoken about how India is much safer against the threat of tsunami than it was in 2004. And he was referring to the State of the Arts Tsunami Early Warning System established at INCOIS at Hyderabad. So in this context, let us have a brief understanding of how tsunamis are formed then about the INCOIS and the UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission or IOC and also about the Tsunami Ready Initiative of IOC. The syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. See, a tsunami is a series of great sea waves caused by an underwater earthquake, landslide or volcanic eruption. More rarely, a tsunami can be generated by a giant meteor impact with the ocean. An underwater earthquake generates a tsunami. If it is of sufficient force and there is a violent movement of the earth to cause a substantial and sudden displacement of a massive amount of water. A tsunami is not a single wave, but a series of waves, also known as a wave drain. The first wave in a tsunami is not necessarily the most destructive and remember tsunamis are not tidal waves. Here, know that a tidal wave is a regularly reoccurring shallow water wave caused by effects of the gravitational interaction between the sun, moon and the earth on the ocean. And in case of tsunamis, scientists are able to calculate the arrival times of the tsunamis in different parts of the world based on the knowledge of water depths, distances and when the event that generated them occurred. That is the time. The tsunami waves can be very long as much as of 100 kilometers and be as far as one hour apart. They are able to cross the entire oceans without great loss of energy. If you see, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami traveled as much as 5000 kilometers to Africa. It arrived with sufficient force to kill people and destroy property. A tsunami may be less than 30 centimeters in height on the surface of the open ocean. Which is why they are not noticed by the sailors. But the powerful shock waves of the energy travels rapidly through the ocean as fast as a commercial jet. And once the tsunami reaches shallow water near the coast, it is slowed down. The top of the wave moves faster than the bottom causing the sea to rise dramatically. And it is this rise in the sea which impacts the coasts. Here, know that the geological features such as reefs, bays, river entrances and undersea formations may dissipate the energy of a tsunami. In some places, a tsunami may cause the sea to rise vertically only a meter. And in other places, the tsunami have been known to surge vertically as high as 30 meters. Most tsunamis cause the sea to rise not more than 3 meters. So, this is about tsunami. Next, let us see about ESSO in Coise. See, ESSO stands for Earth System Science Organization. See, this Earth System Science Organization is an executive arm of the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences. It is an umbrella organization that coordinates all meteorological and ocean development activities. One of the centers under ESSO is in Coise, that is the Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services. See, in Coise was established as an autonomous body in 1999 under the Ministry of Earth Sciences. The mandate of in Coise is to provide ocean information and advisory services to society, industry, government agencies and the scientific community. And this is provided based on continuous ocean observations and research. One such service is the Indian Tsunami Early Warning System. Next, let us see about the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the UNESCO. See, it is the United Nations body responsible for supporting global ocean science and services. It was established in 1960. See, IOC is supporting all its member states to build the scientific and institutional capacity in order to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14, which is to conserve and sustainably manage ocean and marine resources by 2030. At present, IOC has 150 member states and India is one among them. The IOC enables its 150 member states to work together in areas such as ocean observations, tsunami warnings and marine spatial planning. And if you see, IOC has initiated a community performance-based program called Tsunami Ready to promote tsunami preparedness through active collaboration of various stakeholders. It provides a structured framework in order to build and measure capacities of coastal communities to respond effectively to the tsunamis. And it is done through 11 important indicators mentioned here. See, it includes the Community Tsunami Risk Reduction Plan, designated and mapped tsunami hazard zones, public display of tsunami information, easily understood tsunami evacuation maps, outreach and public education materials, at least three outreach or educational activities annually, then conducting an annual tsunami community exercise, addressing tsunami hazards in communities' emergency operations plan, supporting the IOC during a tsunami incident, and also redundant and reliable means for 24 hours warning point and or emergency operations centers to disseminate official tsunami alerts to the public. So based on this, in August 2020, the Venkat Tripur village of Ganjam district and Nolia Sahi village of Jagat Singpur district, which are in Odisha, were declared as Tsunami Ready by International Oceanographic Commission. So this is all about this news article. In this discussion, we saw about how tsunamis are formed, then we saw about INCOIS, then UNESCO's IOC and also its initiative Tsunami Ready. With this, we'll move on to the next news. Now these two opiate articles talk about the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic in different sectors and on women. It also discusses what the world and India in particular has done to reduce the negative impacts and what needs to be done to overcome or eliminate these negative impacts. One article is written by a World Health Organization scientist and the other by UN officials. So now let us discuss the review points on these aspects. The syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. First, both these articles talk about the impact on women. See, the major one is the health related impacts. As we know, the pandemic has significantly impacted delivery of essential services in the health sector, like the routine immunization is disrupted, mental health services are affected, also both outpatient and inpatient services for non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, high BP, heart disease, cancer, et cetera, have been greatly affected. And according to a recent study, because of this reduction in coverage of essential services, there could be a 60% more maternal deaths. And this is because more important interventions are not available, like the non-availability of administration of uterotonics and antibiotics, et cetera. See, uterotonics are life-saving chemical compounds that help in reducing the complications during and after labor. And further, the reduction in coverage of essential services could also increase the prevalence of wasting in children. And it can increase the prevalence of wasting by 10% to 50%. See, wasting means low weight for height among children. The second impact on women is sudden increase in domestic violence. See, when a study was conducted, it found that 1 third of the women in India had previously experienced domestic violence. But the worrying factor is that only less than 1% had sought help from the police. And this problem could be addressed by including response to violence against women as an essential service. And if we come to job aspects, many women have lost their work and livelihoods. And this is because more women work in the informal economy than men. And this pandemic has affected the informal sector the most and thus affected the income of women. And according to the author, women's income fell by over 60% during the first month of the pandemic itself. And this and other factors altogether is expected to increase the number of women and children living in extreme poverty to 100 million. Further, according to the India Voluntary National Review 2020, the female labour force participation rate, or LFPR, is showing a declining trend for the age group of 15 to 59 years. See, currently the female LFPR for 15 to 59 age groups stands at 25.3%. And according to the author, this is one of the lowest rates in the world. But on the other hand, there is a rise in demands of unpaid work or unpaid care work from women during the pandemic. And in this regard, the second article emphasizes on addressing the longstanding gender equality issues by empowering women with skills. Already we have the Disha initiative in this regard. See, Disha is a partnership between the United Nations Development Program and the India Development Foundation supported by IKEA Foundation. It aims to support 1 million underprivileged women in India to learn marketable skills and connect with income opportunities. It helps women to become economically self-sufficient through training, employment, and entrepreneurial skill development. So we need initiatives like this. They are not only going to address gender equality issues but also help to increase India's GDP. And this is because IMF has estimated that equal participation of women in workforce will increase India's GDP by 27%. So this was about the impacts on women and the way forward regarding the issues faced by women. Next, if we analyze the general scenario in health sector, we can see that there are disruptions in providing essential services like we have discussed earlier. And according to the author, who is a World Health Organization scientist, over 70% of countries reported partial or complete disruption of immunization services. So this means the disease burden could increase. And the next sector affected by the pandemic is education sector. And if you see, this intern also affected the health of the children as it has adversely affected the access to nutritious food which is offered to children through school meals. So malnutrition could increase in children. The next important issue is the financial burden on public due to pandemic. Already before the pandemic itself, the out-of-the-pocket expenditure for healthcare costs about 100 million population to fall into extreme poverty every year. Further, globally 800 million population spend more than 10% of their household budget on healthcare. These numbers will further increase due to the pandemic. So there is a need to ensure financial protection which could be done through a health coverage scheme like the Ayushman Bharat or else at least through private health insurance. So what could be done to improve the situation? First, there should be an emphasis on gender analysis and gender responsive public health policies. But the issue is lack of availability of separate data especially on sex and age and on violence against women and children. So this lack of data reduces the opportunity to provide targeted policies and services to women and children. So first, separate data should be made available. Secondly, the use of digital technology. See, digital technology can be utilized in multiple roles. For example, we are already using the platforms like ECHO in many states to train healthcare workers. See, Project ECHO is a massive global movement of knowledge democratization. It aims to amplify the capacity to deliver and extend equitable healthcare and other critical resources to the world's most vulnerable populations. This ECHO model harnesses a tele-menting outreach in order to upskill healthcare professionals by conducting various training sessions with their partners. And based on this, ECHO India partnered with premier Indian government healthcare institutions to strengthen the emergency response to COVID-19. And it is with consistent capacity-building programs for healthcare professionals, including doctors, nurses, Asha workers and paramedics. Then we have the East Sanjeevani platform for enabling telemedicine appointments. See, we have discussed about this East Sanjeevani platform in our 26th June Hindu News Analysis. And the next one is creating electronic and portable health records. For this, our PM has already announced the National Digital Health Mission or NDHM on our Independence Day. And we have discussed about this National Digital Health Mission on our September 4th Hindu News Analysis. And the next one to note here is that partnering with private sector is important to improve the use of digital technology. And thirdly, investments should be made to enhance the health literacy in our institutional mechanisms and also to enhance capacities in our regulatory bodies, research centers and public health institutions. Here we have to learn from the pandemic experience, which is the significance of investing in public health and primary healthcare. Finally, understanding the positive role of science and scientists. A global collaboration between scientists is necessary in order to take forward advances in knowledge and science. It becomes important if we need to reduce the mortality in the current pandemic and also in the future. So, this is all about the discussion of these opiate articles. With this, we'll move on to the next news. Now, have a look at this question. It is based on this news article from page one which talks about the foundational agreements between India and US. It says that India and the US will sign the last foundational agreement that is the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geospatial Cooperation, or simply BECA, during the 2 plus 2 ministerial dialogue which happened today. See, the 2 plus 2 ministerial dialogue is held between the Indian External Affairs Minister and Indian Defense Minister with their US counterparts, the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense. And this dialogue is considered as the highest level institutional mechanism between India and US that brings together our perspectives on foreign policy, defense and strategic issues. Now, let us see in brief about these 4 foundational agreements. See, the US enters into 4 foundational agreements with its defense partners. They are the General Security of Military Information Agreement, that is GSOMIA. Then the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement, that is LMOA. Then the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement, that is CONCASA. And the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geospatial Cooperation, that is BECA. Know that India and the US had signed the GSOMIA in 2002. It enables the sharing of military intelligence between the two countries and requires each country to protect the other's classified information. In the 2 plus 2 dialogue which happened in the year 2019, India and US signed the Industrial Security Annex, that is ISA. See, it is an add-on to GSOMIA. ISA enables transfer of key high-end technology from US defense firms to India. Coming to the second agreement that is Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement, that is LMOA. It is an India-specific version of the Logistics Support Agreement, that is LSA, which the US has with many countries. Signed in 2016, the LMOA gives access to both countries to designated military facilities on either side for the purpose of refuelling and replenishment. The agreement primarily covers four areas. They are the Port of Call Joint Exercises, Training, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief. Here Port of Call refers to Intermediate Stop for a Ship. And know that the third one, that is the Comcast was signed in the 2 plus 2 dialogue held in 2018. It is an India-specific version of the Communication and Information on Security Memorandum of Agreement, that is CASMOA, which the US has with the other countries. It allows India to procure and transfer specialized equipment for encrypted communications. It is meant to facilitate the use of high-end secured communication equipment to be installed on military platforms. It will also help to receive modern, secure and net-enabled weapons systems such as the precision armaments, air-to-air missiles, etc. And the final one is BECA, which will be signed today. See when it is signed, BECA will allow India and US to share geospatial and satellite data, such as the topographical, nautical and aeronautical data with each other. But India and the US have differences over the issue of reciprocity or the mutual exchange of information in the exchange of geospatial information. And we can hope that these issues will be resolved in this dialogue. With this, see this question. With which of the following countries, India holds two plus two dialogue at ministerial level? See, there are four countries given here, China, Japan, Canada, and the United States of America. See, the correct answer is option C, two and four only. India and Australia has two plus two dialogue at the secretary level. With this, we'll move on to the next news. Now, see this question. It is based on this news article which talks about the newly elected president of Seychelles. In the recent presidential election of Seychelles, the opposition candidate, Wavell Ram Kalevan, has won by defeating the incumbent president. And with this, the opposition has taken power in Seychelles for the first time since 1977. So in this context, let us know about the geographical details of Seychelles. See, Seychelles is an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean. An archipelago means a group of islands. And Seychelles is one of the world's smallest countries and also one of the smallest African countries in terms of both area and population. Know that the country lies south of the equator and major islands of Seychelles are located east of Kenya and northeast of Madagascar. And its capital is Victoria, which is situated in the island of Mahi. See, Seychelles is composed of two main island groups and totally there are 116 islands. One main island group is the Mahi group and the islands in this group are Rocky and they typically have a narrow coastal strip and a central range of hills. And they are mountainous granitic islands. The highest point in Seychelles is situated in Mahi. It is the Mornaya Seychalloi, which has a height of 905 meters. And also this Mahi group is home to about 90% of the population. The second group is the Coraline Islands and they are only a few feet above the sea level. They are flat with elevated coral reefs at different stages of formation. The islands are largely waterless and very few of them have a resident population. Here also remember that the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Aldebra et al is situated in Seychelles only. It is a natural world heritage site and it is located in the Indian Ocean and is an outstanding example of a raised coral et al. See, the et al is remotely situated and thus inaccessible. And due to this, the et al has remained largely untouched by humans for the majority of its existence. Here Aldebra contains one of the most important natural habitats for studying evolutionary and ecological processes. And it is also home to the largest giant tortoise population in the world. So this is all about Seychelles. Now see this question. It is an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean and one of the smallest African countries in terms of both area and population. It lies to the south of Equator. The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Aldebra et al, which is home to the largest giant tortoise population in the world, is part of this republic. Which of the following countries have been described in the Ebo passage? See the correct answer is Option C, Seychelles. With this we have discussed all the important articles from today's newspaper. Now let us move on to the Practice Questions discussion section. See this first question. It is a three statements based question. Consider the following statements. The first statement reads, the Krishna river is the largest river system in the Penunsular India. See this statement is wrong. We should know that Godavari river is the largest river system in the Penunsular India. And Krishna is the second largest river system in Penunsular India. Now the second statement reads, Kaleshuram lift irrigation project is built across the Krishna river. See this statement is also wrong. The Kaleshuram lift irrigation project is built across Godavari river and not across Krishna river. We have discussed about this Kaleshuram project in our 25th May Hindu News Analysis. See when we know that first and second statements are incorrect, we can directly come to the answer that is option A, three only. The third statement is correct. Krishna river flows through the Sri Shailam Nagarjuna Sagar Tiger Reserve. So the correct answer for this question is option A, three only. Now see this second question. Consider the following statements. A tsunami is caused by an underwater earthquake only. See this statement is incorrect because a tsunami can be caused by an underwater earthquake, landslide or a volcanic eruption. And they can also be generated by a giant meteor impact with the ocean. And the second statement reads, they are basically tidal waves which are caused by effects of the gravitational interactions between sun, moon and the earth on the ocean. See this statement is also incorrect. We have seen that tsunamis are different from tidal waves. So both the statements are incorrect. So the correct answer is option D, neither one nor two. Now see this means practice question. Write your answers and post it in the comment section. Our feedback will be given in a reasonable time frame. So friends, with this we have come to the end of analysis of all the news articles taken for today's discussion and also the discussion of practice questions. If you like this video, please press the like button, comment, share and do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for more updates related to civil service preparation. Thank you.