 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Aayush Akrami. These are the news articles chosen for today's discussion. They are given along with the page number of different traditions. Link for the handwritten notes in PDF format and the time stamping for the discussed articles are given in the description box as well as the comment section for the benefit of the mobile viewers. Now let us take up this sports article. It is about the recent inductees into the International Cricket Council All-of-Fame. In this context, let us discuss in brief about ICC, it's All-of-Fame and the recent inductee from India. See, sports questions and personality type questions are rarely asked in civil services exam. But there are chances. Moreover, in state services and bank exams, sports questions and personality type questions are regularly asked. So, it is a smart strategy to learn about them, at least in brief. With this information in mind, let us discuss about this article. First, let us discuss about International Cricket Council, ICC. See, ICC is a global governing body for cricket. We all know this. It represents one-not-four members. ICC governs and administrates the game and works with the members to grow the sport of cricket. ICC is responsible for staging all ICC events such as World Cup, Champions Trophy, World 2020, etc. See, ICC was found as Imperial Cricket Conference in the year 1909 by the representatives from Australia, England and South Africa. It was later renamed International Cricket Conference and finally it became International Cricket Council. This is the brief history of International Cricket Council. See, the International Cricket Council has a long-term ambition for cricket to become the world's favourite sport. ICC presides over ICC code of conduct, playing conditions, decision review system and other ICC regulations. ICC also appoints all match officials that officiate all-section international cricket matches. It also has an anti-corruption unit. Through anti-corruption unit, ICC coordinates action against corruption and match fixing. So, these are the important points associated with ICC. Now, let us discuss about ICC Cricket All of Fame. See, ICC Cricket All of Fame was launched in 2009. It was launched in association with FICA. FICA stands for Federation of International Cricketers Association. See, ICC Cricket All of Fame was launched as a part of ICC centenary year celebrations. We all know, we all saw that ICC was founded in 1909. So, in 2009, it was launched as a centenary year celebration, 100 years. What is ICC Cricket All of Fame? See, the ICC Cricket All of Fame recognizes the achievements of legends of the game from crickets long and illustrious history. The ICC Cricket All of Fame selects a group of inductions each year. See, the induction ceremonies take place throughout the cricket calendar. During the induction ceremonies, the inductees are presented with commemorative ICC Cricket All of Fame can. Now, ICC has inducted 10 cricket icons into the All of Fame to celebrate the prestigious history of Test Cricket. Have a look at this image. This image has 10 cricketing legends who were recently inducted into the All of Fame. Cricket lovers will recognize some of the prominent names like Andy Flower, Kumar Sangakara, Vinu Mankard, Bob Willis, etc. Now, let us discuss about Vinu Mankard. See, Vinu Mankard had played 44 tests. He has scored 2,109 runs and has taken 162 wickets. Mankard was an opening batsman and slow left arm orthodox bowler. He was one of India's greatest ever all-rounders. Another interesting fact about Mankard is, he is one of the only three cricketers to have batted in every position during his test career. He was also coach of another legendary cricketer Sunil Gawaskar. We all know about Sunil Gawaskar. He is a cricketing legend. He was also inducted into ICC All of Fame. Besides these achievements, Vinu Mankard is known for a famous term. Most of the cricket lovers will know about this term. That cricketing term is Mankading. See, Mankading is an act when a bowler runs out a batsman at the non-strikers end who has left the crease. This act of wicket taking is legal according to the cricket rules but it is frowned upon by many cricketing players. The Mankading act of wicket taking is named after Vinu Mankard. Most of the cricket lovers will know this. In recent years, Ravichandrashwin is known for Mankading incidents. So with this, we have come to the end of the discussion. In this discussion, we saw about International Cricket Council, All of Fame and the recent inductees into the Cricket All of Fame. Now, let us move on to the next article. Look at this article. This news article highlights the controversial statement of French President Emmanuel Macron regarding the status of Northern Ireland. As a response, the British Foreign Secretary calls it an offensive statement. So in this context, let us know about United Kingdom from a map perspective. The map questions are usually asked from places which are trending in news. So it is prudent we learn about United Kingdom from a map perspective. See, the United Kingdom is also known as UK. We all know that. See, the United Kingdom consists of a group of islands. These islands are found in the northwest coast of Europe. The United Kingdom is made up of four nations. The four nations are England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. All these four nations make up United Kingdom. Now, let us see some major rivers and water bodies of United Kingdom. Firstly, there is a lake named Logney. Logney Lake is located in the central east part of Northern Ireland. So it is located in Northern Ireland. This lake covers nearly 396 km2 with a catchment area of 5700 km2. Another important lake is Lake Lochness. It is located in Scotland. See, Lake Lochness is an interesting lake. It has a mythological tale associated with it. Many believe a monster is found in Lake Lochness. So many monster movies are directed with Lake Lochness as its setting. Interested aspirants can Google it. It is not useful for exam, but it is fun. Now, coming back to the discussion. So far, we have discussed about lakes. Now, let us discuss about the river systems in the United Kingdom. The first important one is river themes. We all know about river themes. We have seen it in a lot of English movies. It is the chief river of southern England. River themes is also known as river Isis. An unfortunate coincidence. River themes rises in the Coddswater Doles and it covers an area of 14,250 km2. Next major river in the United Kingdom is River South. This river is Britain's longest river. It is about 290 km in length. This river, after flowing through Britain, finally drains in Bristol Channel. So these are some of the important rivers of the United Kingdom. In addition to this information, let us learn some important channels of the United Kingdom. See, the United Kingdom is surrounded by few important channels such as English Channel, North Channel, Bristol Channel and State of Dover. Let us see one by one. The first important channel is English Channel. See, English Channel is a narrow arm of Atlantic Ocean, separating the southern coast of England from the northern coast of France. So England and France are separated by English Channel. The second one is North Channel. See, North Channel is a straight linking the Irish Sea with the North Atlantic Ocean. Third one is Bristol Channel. See, Bristol Channel is an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, separating southwestern England from southern Wales. Finally, State of Dover. State of Dover is a narrow water passage separating England from France. State of Dover also connects English Channel with the North Sea. So these are the important channels surrounding United Kingdom. Now let us see about Northern Ireland. See, Northern Ireland is a part of United Kingdom. This is an important point. Republic of Ireland is not a part of United Kingdom. Only Northern Ireland is a part of United Kingdom. Northern Ireland lies in the northeast end region of Ireland of Ireland. Northern Ireland occupies about one sixth of the island of Ireland. Northern Ireland is separated on the east from Scotland by the narrow North Channel. Northern Ireland is separated from England and Wales by Irish Sea. England lies to the east of Northern Ireland, whereas Wales lies to the southeast of Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland is bounded by the Republic of Ireland in southern and western borders. Since 1920s, the Northern Ireland has been officially separated from Ireland, but it has been inflicted by sectarian violence. With this, we have come to the end of the discussion. In this discussion, we saw about United Kingdom from map perspective. We discussed about countries and United Kingdom. We discussed about important lakes in United Kingdom, important river systems in United Kingdom, the channels surrounding United Kingdom. And finally, we discussed about Northern Ireland in brief. Now, let us move on to the next discussion. Now, look at this article. This article deals with security dimension of synthetic biology. In that context, let us look into synthetic biology, its perils, the conventions governing them, and India's biosynthetic security preparedness. The syllabus for reference is displayed on the screen. Let us start by understanding synthetic biology. See, synthetic biology is a design and construction of new biological parts, devices and systems. It also involves the redesign of existing natural biological systems for useful purposes. The redesigning of organisms is done so that they produce a substance such as a medicine or fuel, or gain a new ability. Let us see some examples of what scientists are producing with synthetic biology. First example, microorganisms are used for bioremediation to clean pollutants from water, soil and air. Second example, rice modified to produce beta-carotene. See, beta-carotene is a nutrient usually associated with carrots. They prevent vitamin A deficiency. Vitamin A deficiency causes blindness in 2,50,000 to 5,00,000 children a year. Vitamin A deficiency also greatly increases a child's risk of death from infectious diseases. Third example, yeast engineered to produce rose oil. See, rose oil produced from engineered yeast is an eco-friendly and sustainable substitute for real roses. We all know that real roses are used by perfumers to make laxary scents. So by using rose oil from synthetic biology, we are making an eco-friendly and sustainable choice. So these are all the benefits of synthetic biology. But synthetic biology also comes with a danger. If you see in 2002, scientists in the United States synthesized a viral genome for the first time. Viral genomes are much smaller compared to genomes of bacteria and microorganisms. By the synthesis, the scientists show that it was possible to create the polio virus from scratch and brought attention to the risk of synthetic biology that it can be used to develop biological weapons. Author of the editorial notes that, with such technological development, synthetic biology stumbling into the precarious field of defense and bio weaponry is not far away from reality. And even the conventions governing them don't address these potential assets. See, the world has recognized three types of weapons of mass destruction. Nuclear, chemical and biological. Of the three types of weapons of mass destruction, nuclear weapons have received the maximum safety and security attention. It has treaty and institutional arrangements associated with it. Chemical weapons comes next. When it comes to chemical weapons, there is an international convention and an implementing body. So it is also protected. However, when it comes to bio weapons, all we have is the biological and toxic weapons convention, BTWC of 1972. This convention doesn't even have an implementing body. The BTWC does not even have a verification clause and it doesn't regulate the research. If you see the first article of BTWC, it bans bio weapons, but research for medical and bio defense purposes are allowed under BTWC convention. This is a problem because there's a thin line between bio defense research and bio weapons research. Bio defense research can culminate into bio weapons. This is similar to nuclear technology which led into nuclear weaponry. In addition to this, pharmaceutical industry is also vehemently opposed to any intrusive inspection regulations. See, pharma companies use a lot of synthetic biology. So in order to address these shortcomings, an ad hoc group was set up in 1994. This ad hoc group was set up to negotiate a protocol to enhance the transparency and activities to help deter violation of BTWC. This ad hoc group also submitted a report, but no consensus was achieved. The initiative has since been shelved. All these inadequacies and events have thrown light on the inadequacy of the existing mechanisms to address a biosecurity scenario at global level. In this editorial, the author also highlights India's under preparedness when it comes to biosecurity. See, India faces challenges at three levels. The first challenge. The poor state of health system in India. We have poor disease surveillance, insufficient coordination among various government departments and weak state of health care system. This is the first challenge faced by India, according to the author of the editorial. Second challenge. We have multiple institutions dealing with biosafety and biosecurity threats. But there is no coordination among them. For example, implementation of biosafety guidelines is the responsibility of science and technology and environment ministry. But the labs dealing with biological research are set up under Indian Council of Medical Research, ICMR and Indian Council of Agriculture Research, ICIR. ICMR and ICIR are under the ministries of health and agriculture. The author of the editorial notes two implications because of this setup. The first implication. The multiplicities of bodies and ministries make coordination difficult. We don't even have a coordinating body. Second implication. Given the rising risk of diseases of zoonotic origin, the traditional ministry-wise separation might not be useful. So these are the two implications because of the second challenge. Now let us move on to the third challenge. India has porous borders that are ill-equipped to deal with pathogen entry. This is the third challenge faced by India. So these are the three challenges faced by India when it comes to biosecurity. Finally, the author of the editorial concludes by saying that COVID-19 pandemic should serve as a wake-up call for India. India and the world should act fast to regulate biosecurity. Now let us conclude the discussion of the editorial by knowing some quick facts about biological weapon convention. See, this convention was formally known as the convention on the prohibition of development, production and stockpiling of bacteriological and toxin weapons and on their destruction. So it's a lengthy name. This is the reason why it is called as biological weapon convention in short. The convention was negotiated by the conference of the committee of disarmament in Geneva, Switzerland. It opened for signature on 10th April 1972 and entered into force on 26th March 1975. Biological weapons convention supplements the 1925 Geneva Protocol. So far a total of eight review conference have taken place. The first review conference was in 1980. The ninth review conference is due in November 2021. With this we have come to the end of the discussion. In this discussion we saw about synthetic biology, advantages of synthetic biology, dangers of synthetic biology, conventions governing synthetic biology. We also discussed about India's under preparedness when it comes to biosafety. And finally we saw about biological weapon convention in brief. Now let us move on to the next article. Now let us take up this article. It is about domination of China in rare earth metals. The syllabus for reference is displayed on the screen. Aspirants can go through it. First let us understand what is rare earth metals or rare earth minerals. See rare earth metals are also called as rare earth elements, REE. Rare earth elements are a group of 17 metallic elements. These 17 metallic elements include 15 lanthanites and scandium and yttrium. So in total it makes up 17 metallic elements. Some of the lanthanites are lanthanum, cerium, neodymium, promethium, gadolinium, dysprosium, almium, etherbium etc. So to put it in simple words, rare earth elements are 15 lanthanites plus scandium and yttrium. Have a look at this table for better understanding. The orange highlighted parts are rare earth elements. You can see scandium, sc, yttrium, yttrium and lanthanites. LA, ifan, LA. At the bottom of the table 15 lanthanites are displayed. They are highlighted in orange. So aspirants can go through this table for better understanding. See the rare earth elements are all metals. And this is the reason why they are often called as rare earth metals. These metals have many similar properties and they are found together in geological deposits. So this is the reason why they are grouped together in the periodic table. They have similar properties and they are found together in geological deposits. Rare earth metals are also called as rare earth oxides because many of them are typically sold as oxide compounds. So rare earth elements or rare earth metals or rare earth oxides, they all mean the same 17 elements. Now let us discuss about the applications of rare earth elements. This is very important. UPSC, when it comes to problems, they usually go for applications-oriented questions. They will give you two or three statements regarding applications of particular technology or particular element and they will ask which of the above statements are correct. So you can expect application-oriented questions from rare earth elements in upcoming problems. See we have approximately 120 days for 2021 problems. So concentrate more on problems-oriented topics, problems-oriented questions to boost your score. Now let us discuss about the applications of rare earth elements. See rare earth elements play a critical role in energy independence, environmental future and economic growth. Many advanced technologies have components made from rare earth elements. For example, magnets, batteries, phosphorus and catalyst. All these components make use of rare earth elements. These components are used in various sectors. For example, they are used in healthcare, transportation, power generation, petroleum refining, consumer electronics, etc. So rare earth elements are almost used in various sectors and their potential is huge. Rare earth elements are necessary components of more than 200 products across a wide range of applications. They are used in many devices that people use everyday. For example, take your smartphones, computer screens, computer memory, DVDs, blue rays, rechargeable batteries, catalytic converters, magnets, fluorescent lighting, etc. All these components make use of rare earth elements. They also play an essential role in defence technology. For example, they are used in night vision goggles, precision guided weapons, communication, GPS equipment, batteries, guidance systems, lasers, radars, sonars. Rare earth elements are used in these technologies. So they play an essential role in defence part. So far we have discussed about rare earth elements and their applications. Now let us discuss about the global production of rare earth elements. See in the year 1993, almost 30 years back, 38% of world production of rare earth elements was from China. So China was producing 38% of rare earth elements. United States of America was producing 33%. Australia was producing 12% of rare earth elements. Malaysia was producing 5% of rare earth elements. India was producing 5% of rare earth elements. And the remainder percentage was from Brazil, Canada, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Thailand. So we can see in 1993, no country had monopoly over rare earth elements. But this pattern changed drastically. For example, in the year 2008, China accounted for more than 90% of world production of rare earth elements. So from 38% in 1993, China started producing 90% of rare earth elements in 2008. This number increased further. For example, in the year 2011, China accounted for 97% of world production. So it started enjoying huge monopoly in the sector. There are also frictions between China and other countries. This was because the government of China began to change the amount of rare earth elements that it allows to be produced and exported. The Chinese government also limited the number of Chinese companies that could export rare earth elements from China. So China started enjoying huge monopoly in rare earth elements and it also started to control the trade of rare earth elements. So it was indirectly influencing the trade of other countries. As we have already discussed, rare earth minerals are essential for making electric vehicles, turbines, drones, etc. Many clean energy technologies heavily rely on rare earth elements. In the year 2019, United States of America imported 80% of its rare earth minerals from China. Similarly, European Union in the year 2019 imported 98% of its rare minerals from China. So the West is heavily dependent on China for its future technological developments. So in order to overcome this hurdle, the US Senate recently passed a law which improves the critical mineral supply chains and boosts the local production of rare earth elements. This law also focuses on working with allies to increase sustainable global supply and reduce reliance on China. So to put it in simple words, US has proposed a law to boost the local production of rare earth elements and to reduce the reliance on China. That is the gist of this article. See, every dependence on one country for any item is not good for anyone. Hopefully India will also come up with its own plan to diversify its supply for rare earth elements. With this, we have come to the end of the discussion. In this discussion, we saw about rare earth elements, applications of rare earth elements and global production of rare earth elements. Now, let us move on to the next article. Now, have a look at this article. According to this article, a budgetary support of 498.8 crores has been allotted to Innovation for Difference Excellence, IDEX Challenge under the Defense Innovation Organization, DIO for the next five years. That is the gist of this article. In that context, let us discuss about IDEX, which is important from preliminary perspective. First, what is IDEX? See, IDEX stands for Innovations for Difference Excellence. It was launched in April 2018. What is the aim of IDEX? IDEX is aimed at creation of an ecosystem to foster innovation and technological development in defense and aerospace. So, the key point is, it aims to develop innovation and technological development in the area of defense and aerospace. It is a defense-oriented initiative. See, the IDEX tries to engage industries. For example, industries like MSMEs, startups, individual innovators, research and development institutes, R&D and academia. IDEX tries to engage all these industries to develop an ecosystem of innovation and technological development. IDEX also provides grants to these industries. Also, IDEX provides support to these industries to carry out research and development which has good potential for future adoption for Indian defense and aerospace. So, these are the important aims and objectives of IDEX. So, in order to achieve these objectives, IDEX has set up defense innovation hubs throughout the country. These hubs will provide necessary incubation and infrastructure support to different startups. These defense innovation hubs will also roll out periodic challenges to identify the potential talent in the field. So, incubation, infrastructure support and talent identification are some of the important aims of defense innovation hubs. So far, we have discussed about IDEX. Now, let us see about Defense Innovation Organization, DIO. See, IDEX functions as an executive home of DIO. What is DIO? See, DIO is a not-for-profit company. It is registered under Section 8 of Companies Act 2013. This is the key point. DIO has two important founding members. They are Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, HAL and Bharat Electronics Ltd, BEL, BEL. Both Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd and Bharat Electronics Ltd are defense public sector undertakings, DPSUs. They are also Navaratna companies. So, these are the important points related to the article. These points are highly beneficial from the film's perspective. Now, let us move on to practice film's question. First question. Consider the following pairs. Lake Location. First pair. Lake Logney. Location Northern Ireland. Second pair. Lake Victoria. Location North America. Third pair. Lake Ontario. Location Africa. Fourth pair. Lake Baikal. Location Russia. Which of the pairs given above are correctly matched? Option A, 1 and 2 only. Option B, 2 and 3 only. Option C, 1 and 4 only. Option D, 1, 3 and 4. See, the first pair is correctly matched. From the discussion of the article, we know that Lake Logney is located in Northern Ireland. Now, let us take up the second pair. Lake Victoria. See, Lake Victoria is the largest lake in Africa. It is not located in North America. So, the second pair is incorrect. Lake Victoria is the chief reservoir of River Nile. Lake Victoria lies mainly in Tanzania and Uganda, which is located in Africa. Lake Victoria is not located in North America. So, the second pair is incorrect. Now, moving on to the third pair. Lake Ontario. See, Lake Ontario is the smallest of the great lakes of North America. So, it is located in North America, not Africa. Lake Ontario is bounded on the north by Ontario, which is in Canada. And it is bounded on the south by New York, which is in United States of America. So, the third pair is incorrectly matched. Moving on to the fourth pair, Lake Baikal. Lake Baikal is located on the southern part of eastern Siberia of Russia. So, it is located in Russia. Lake Baikal is the oldest existing freshwater lake on Earth. So, the first pair and the fourth pair are correctly matched. The correct answer is option C, 1 and 4 only. Moving on to the second question. Which of the following rare earth elements are used in smartphones? One, neodymium. Two, praseodymium. Three, gadolinium. Four, lanthanum. Select the correct answer using the code given below. Option A, 1 and 3 only. Option B, 1, 2 and 4 only. Option C, 4 only. Option D, 1, 2, 3 and 4. See, as we discussed in the article, rare earth metals are found in varying quantities in smartphones. Neodymium, dysprosium, praseodymium, terbium, gadolinium and lanthanum are found inside displays and other electronic components of smartphones. So, the answer is option D, 1, 2, 3 and 4. All the four elements are found in smartphones. Moving on to the third question. IDEX, seen in news, often is associated with which of the following. A, defense innovation. B, defense export policy. C, annual defense expo. D, none of the above. From the discussion of the article, we know the option is A, defense innovation. IDEX is often associated with defense innovation. So, the answer is A, defense innovation. Main practice questions are displayed here. You can write your answer and post in the comment section below. With this, we have come to the end of the news analysis. If you like the video, click like, comment and subscribe. Thank you.