 Welcome to the India News Analysis by Shankar Ayes Academy for the date 13th April 2019. The list of articles chosen for today's analysis along with their Chennai and Delhi editions page number are provided here. The first article for the day is about the slowed industrial growth and this article appears on page 1 in 17 of Chennai edition and page 1 in 11 of Delhi edition. The information given under this article is relevant under subtopic Indian economic and social development and also in current events of national and international importance under the preliminary examination syllabus and under the main examination syllabus in GS paper 3 in the areas Indian economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment and in effects of liberalization on the economy, changes in the industrial policy and their effects on industrial growth. Stepping into the main discussion, the official fiscal data highlights that industrial growth slowed in February to 0.1%. This was driven by an across the board slowdown, especially in key sectors like manufacturing, mining, capital goods and infrastructure. Unlike other sectors, the electricity sector was the only sector that saw an acceleration in growth at 1.18% in February. And secondly, there was an increase in retail inflation in March, 2.86% from 2.57% in February. Retail inflation here refers to consumer price index. Now, CPI is also used as headline inflation. Earlier it was WPI, which was considered as headline inflation. The increase in retail inflation was mainly driven by the food and fuel sectors. However, CPI is well below the RBI threshold of 4%. The article also highlights what these changes indicate for the economy. It indicates a need for stimulating investment demand in the economy through monetary and fiscal measures. On the monetary side, steps have been taken through two successive rate cuts by the RBI. This we have already covered in the yesterday's news analysis by Mr. Raj Kapil. On the fiscal side, however, the prospects were limited. This is because there is a shortfall in both direct and indirect tax revenue collections in the revised estimates. So the government has also been pushing for curtailing expenditure in general and capital expenditure in specific. In order to meet fiscal deficit charges, the fiscal deficit target for the current year stands at 3.4%. Now, let us understand a few basics in this context. First, let us know about index of industrial production. The All India Index of Industrial Production is a composite indicator that measures the short-term changes in the volume of production of a basket of industrial products during a given period with respect to that in a chosen base period. The base period for IAP has been changed from 2004-05 to 2011-2012. It is compiled and published monthly by the Central Statistics Office with a time lag of six weeks from the reference month. CSO is under Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. It is calculated based on the performance of three sectors namely manufacturing, mining and electricity, of which manufacturing has the highest weightage. It takes into account the following types of goods from the above sectors. They include basic goods, capital goods, intermediate goods, consumer durables and non-durable goods. The following are the eight core industries of IAP. They are considered as core because they impact every economic activity and serve as a backbone of all other industries. The eight core industries constitute 40.27% of the total index of industrial production. Finally, let us see the significance of IAP. The All India IAP provides a little representative figure to measure this general level of industrial activity in the economy on a monthly basis. It is free of any influences like price changes and lastly it also influences GDP on a quarterly basis. Now let us move our discussion to CPI or Consumer Price Index. A consumer price index is used to measure the changes over time in general level of retail prices of selected goods and services that households purchase for the purpose of consumption. Such changes affect the real purchasing power of consumers income and their welfare. The CPA measures price changes by comparing through time the cost of a fixed basket of commodities. The basket is based on the expenditure of a target population in a certain reference period. Since the basket contains commodities of unchanging or equivalent quantity and quality, the index reflects only pure price. Over the years CPIs have been widely used as a macroeconomic indicator of inflation or headline inflation. As discussed earlier, it replaced the WPI or the Wholesale Price Index. It is also used as a tool by government and central bank that is RBI for targeting inflation and monitoring price stability. Lastly, CPI is also used as deflaters in the national accounts. For example, as a GDP price deflator, it means the difference between real GDP and nominal GDP. So, it signifies whether the gross domestic product has happened on account of higher prices or because of increase in output. Therefore, CPI is considered as one of the most important economic indicators. CPI is released by Central Statistics Office, which falls under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. The overall combined CPI is given by computing CPI Rural, CPI Urban, CFPI, which means Consumer Food Price Index. CFPI accounts to more than 50 percent of weightage. Finally, these are the six components of CPI. They include food and beverages, pan, tobacco and intoxicants, clothing and food wear, housing, fuel and light and lastly miscellaneous, which include health, education, transport, recreation, etc. Out of all, food and beverage highest weightage. With this, we come to the end of this article discussion. The practice question displayed here will be discussed at the last. Moving on to the next article, which appears on page 12 of Chennai edition and page 6 of Delhi edition. The aspects of this article is relevant under subtopic current events of national and international importance in preliminary examination syllabus and also in the GS paper too of main syllabus under the areas bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and or affecting India's interests and it also in effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India's interest. Before going into the news article, let us know about geographical significance of Israel. As you can see in the map, it is located above Tropic of Cancer and its capital city is Jerusalem. It is open to the Mediterranean Sea and coming to its polity, Israel follows a parliamentary democracy and its legislature is called Keneset. Coming to the news article, Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu pulled off a fourth consecutive win in general elections to the Keneset. This was mainly possible with the support of the Donald Trump administration in the US because the Donald Trump administration recognized Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights. Golan Heights is a disputed territory between Israel and Syria. If you see in the map, it is surrounded by Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Trump's administration also shifted the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and finally recognized Israel as the nation state of Jewish people. These all signal the growing support of US to Israel. In this context, the author highlights in the news article a few issues in India-Israel relations despite increasing collaboration. Mainly is with respect to the policy of de-hyphenation, which India follows with respect to Israel-Palestine. India has been supporting the cause of Palestinian freedom from the time of Gandhi. This continues to gain strength, especially under the growing support of US to Israel. Thus, India's policy to de-hyphenate Palestinian freedom from India's relations with Israel increasingly hollow in this context. India and Israel have a robust defense relationship. India is the largest arms buyer from Israel. Barak-8, a medium-range surface-to-air missile, has been jointly developed by India and Israel. India also purchased Falcon AWACS, a surveillance aircraft from Israel. Another area of close cooperation is water and agriculture. Now, agriculture has become the mainstay of the relationship, with these centers for excellence being set up focusing on water management and drip irrigation. Another possible area of cooperation is with respect to cleaning of polluted rivers. With respect to research and development, a new industrial and technological innovation fund has been launched in 2007 by Israel and India. This is to support high value added R&D and strengthening Indian industry. In counter-terrorism, Israel has an exceptional record on intelligence gathering and retaliation. Cooperation in this regard would enable India to deal with Mumbai 2008 kind of terror attacks more efficiently. Both India and Israel are vulnerable to cyber attacks. Cooperation in cyber security would be very important concern of both governments. Finally, increasing collaboration can also be witnessed in the field of space. This is with respect to the areas especially atomic clocks and electric propulsion small satellites. We come to end of this discussion and we will discuss the displayed prelims and main question at the end session. Moving on to the next article which talks about the olive ridley turtles, which appeared on page 5 of Chennai edition only. The information in the news article is relevant under the preliminary exam syllabus in general issues on environmental ecology and in the main syllabus paper 3 under the area conservation environmental pollution. Stepping into the main discussion, the article states that three hatcheries were set up by the Tamil Nadu forest department for the purpose of incubation of eggs from the nesting of olive ridley sea turtle. This measure was taken to protect the eggs from the predators and the humans. The news also states that 950 hatchlings were released yesterday from the Besenagar beach in Chennai into the sea. One important thing to note here is that the natural survival rate of olive ridleys is 1 in 1000. That is, only one hatchling survives to reach adulthood from 1000 hatchlings that enters the seawater. Coming to sea turtles, globally there are seven species of sea turtles that are green turtles, hawksbill turtles, olive ridley turtles, leatherback turtles, loggerhead turtles, kemp ridley turtles and flatback turtles. Of these sea turtles, kemp ridley turtles and flatback turtles are not seen in India. In this context, let's now discuss the olive ridley turtles. The scientific name of this turtle is Lepidokiles olivacea. They predominantly live in the warm and tropical waters. These turtles along with kemp ridley turtles are known for a special characteristic that is mass nesting of female olive ridley sea turtles in the beaches which is also known as aribada, meaning arrival in Spanish. In India, Odisha coast is known for mass nesting during the months of April and October. The Gahirmata marine sanctuary is specially known for mass nesting. This species of turtle comes under vulnerable category in the IUCN red list and its population trend currently is decreasing. Coming to protection, in India the turtle is protected from hunting and trade under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species that is Sites Agreement provides absolute protection by banning any trade involving olive ridley turtles with offenses prescribed with highest penalties. The turtles face threats from anthropogenic activities like trawl fishing without the use of turtle excluder device. Various projects in coastal areas are damaging the environmental ecology of the turtle and marine pollution also. Here it refers one shall note that climatic parameters and beach conditions has a profound impact in the nesting of olive ridleys. Also cyclones have an influence over the nesting characteristics of the turtles as they affect the breeding grounds of the beaches. With this we come to the end of this topic and the practice plan question will be discussed at the end of the video. Moving on to the next article which discusses about the recent central drug standards control organizations directive which appears on page 11 of Chennai edition and page 5 of Delhi edition. The aspect of this news article are important from the prelims point of view and it falls under the subtopic current events of national and international importance and Indian economic and social development of prelim syllabus. Stepping into the main discussion the article focuses on the recent central drug standards control organizations directive to the manufacturers of seven common antibiotics to include the adverse reaction information in the drugs they manufacture. This directive is based on the alert given by the national coordination center of the pharmacovigilance program of India which has noted adverse reactions on the commonly used antibiotics. Let us now see some details about the adverse information to be mentioned. First where it has to be mentioned the drug manufacturers must mention the adverse reaction information in the leaflets inserted into the drug packets or in the promotional literature. Secondly what are the details that need to be mentioned the details should include the adverse reaction information such as the known symptoms on the consumption of the particular antibiotic and also the possible side effects if any and this need to be declared by the drug manufacturer. Next why this information needs to be mentioned it is because declaring the adverse reaction information would ensure the awareness amongst the doctors and the users of the possible adverse reactions on the consumption of the antibiotic. Finally it is critical to know which are the drugs that should contain the adverse reaction information as directed by the CDSCO. This table given here contains the list of antibiotics their uses and the known or the possible side effects that needs to be declared by the antibiotic drug manufacturer. The first three are used as common antibiotics consuming this drug may cause swelling under the skin due to the accumulation of the fluids. Consuming this drug can cause rashes or blisters on the skin and mucus membranes and consuming this drug may cause pain, diarrhea, nausea and headache. And consumption of pranexamic acid which controls bleeding can cause nausea, diarrhea and seizures. Next this drug is used as an anti psychotic drug and is likely to cause involuntary leakage of urine. Next in the list is sulphazalazine which is used as an anti rheumatoid drug to cure rheumatoid arthritis. Finally we have sodium valparate in the list that is used as an epileptic medicine. Epilepsy is a neurological disorder which means valip in Tamil and in Hindi as mirgi rogue and consumption of this drug is likely to cause drowsiness and unsteadiness. Now from the examination point of view let us know about CDSCO and PVPI. First let us see about the national coordination center of the pharmacovigilance program of India in short PVPI. As the name indicates it acts as the national coordination center with the main objective of handling the adverse drug reactions reporting. Its aim is to protect the public health by promoting safe drug therapy. It also provides skill development in areas of adverse drug reporting. It functions under India Pharmacopia Commission which is an autonomous institution under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Pharmacopia means an official publication containing a list of medicinal drugs with their effects and directions for their use. Next let us see about CDSCO which stands for Central Drugs Standard Control Organization. It is the central drug authority that discharges the functions assigned to the central government under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940. The organization functions as under the Directorate General of Health Services under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. CDSCO primarily ensures the safety efficacy and the quality of medical products manufactured, imported and distributed in the country. Medical products include the drugs as well as the medical devices. The functions of CDSCO are it is the regulatory controller for the import of the drugs, approval of the drugs and the clinical trials. CDSCO also provides drug license approval for critical drugs such as blood and blood products, intravenous fluids, vaccines and Sira which is the plural for Sira. With this we come to the end of this topic. The practice question displayed here will be discussed at the last session. Moving on to the next article which discusses about the recent study by NASA and it appears on page 24 in Chennai edition and page 18 in Delhi edition. The aspects of this article are mainly important from the prelims point of view under the subtopic general science and current events of national and international importance and also in main syllabus in GS paper 3 under the area science and technology and its development. Stepping into the main discussion let us first see what the study is about. It is about the twin study. This study is a NASA's integrated research which reveals some interesting surprising and reassuring data about how one human body adapted to and recovered from the long duration exposure to extreme environment of space. The twin study demonstrated the resilience that is the capacity to recover quickly and robustness which means the ability to withstand adverse conditions and rigorous testing of how a human body can adapt to a multitude of changes induced by the space flight environment. In short the study provides for the effects and impacts of space flight on the human body in a very comprehensive and integrated molecular view. The study recorded the molecular, cognitive and physiological effects on the astronaut during the mission. It was one year mission beginning in March 2015 and ending in March 2016 and the study was conducted on identical twin astronauts because identical twins share the same genetic makeup and twin studies provide a way for scientists to explore how our health is impacted by the environment around us independent of the physical variations that naturally occur between most of us as individuals. This study is a first of its kind to compare molecular benefits of identical twin. The findings of the study encourage scientists and engineers to envision an interplanetary travel such as an eventual trip to Mars a mission that could last two to three years. This study will also guide future biomedical space researchers in studying molecular profiles of astronauts and the findings serve as a genomic stepping stone to a better understanding of how to maintain crew health during human expedition to the moon and Mars. The two twin astronauts were Scott and Mark. Even though the names are not important from the examination point of view, we have given it here to have a better understanding of differences that have been found in the study. Mark provided a baseline for observation on earth and Scott provided a comparable test case during the 340 days he spent in the low earth orbit in space about the international space station for expeditions. Researchers found that many of Scott's responses observed return to pre-flight levels by the study's end. These included immune responses, epigenetic changes, gut bacteria, body weight and serum metabolites. Some factors were affected only after landing. These include some indicators of inflammation and immune response. A few factors remained altered at the conclusion of the study like a small subset of changes in gene expression, telomere dynamics, DNA disruption, carotid artery thickening, ocular changes means vision changes and some cognitive functions. Telomeres are the ends of each strand of DNA that protects our chromosomes. Telomere lengths tend to get shorter as we age but it was unexpectedly longer in space in Scott than shorter after his return to earth. In contrast, his brother's telomeres remained stable throughout the entire period. This telomere research may improve the efforts to mitigate the effects of aging and disease. A second key finding is that Scott's immune system responded appropriately in space. For example, the flu vaccine administered in space worked exactly as it does on earth. A fully functioning immune system during long duration space missions is critical to protecting astronauts' health from opportunistic microbes in the spacecraft environment. A third significant finding is the variability in gene expression which reflects how a body reacts to its environment and this will help inform how gene expression is related to health risks associated with space flight. While in space, researchers observed changes in the expression of Scott's gene with the majority returning to normal after six months on earth. It might be because of a lengthy stay in space and a little DNA damage observed was maybe due to the radiation exposure. With few exceptions, Scott's cognitive performance such as mental alertness, spatial orientation, recognition of emotions remained largely unchanged during his time in space. It was also found that Scott's body mass decreased by seven percent during flight. This is likely due to increased exercise and controlled nutrition while on his mission. This point has been wrongly mentioned in the news article so take note of it. And the next observation is changes in microbiome that is the bacteria in the gut which is generally associated with good health and finally there were also some epigenetic changes in Scott. With this, we conclude the topic. The displayed friends question will be discussed in the end of the last session. Moving on to the next article which talks about the experiment that was conducted to gain more knowledge about the evolution of human intelligence. This news article appears only on page 18 of daily edition. The news article is relevant under the preliminary examination syllabus in current events of international importance and general science. Stepping into the main discussion, researchers from China and United States of America have conducted an experiment to gain more knowledge about the evolution of human intelligence. In this experiment, they implanted a gene named mcph1 into 11 rhesus macaque monkeys by means of a virus that carried the gene. Scientists believe that the gene mcph1 is playing an important role in human brain development. During the experiment, it was found that the implanted monkeys performed well in short-term memory tasks and they had a quicker reaction time in comparison with other monkeys. The rhesus macaque monkey is the first transgenic primate. The first genetically modified rhesus macaque monkey was born in the year 2000 which was named Andi for inserted DNA in a reverse transcribed direction. Some of the other genes that are believed by scientists for human brain development are srgap2c for its role in the emergence of human intelligence and foxp2 for its role in humans having language abilities. This experiment has also started and fueled an ethical debate. Firstly, of the 11 monkeys used for the experiment, five of them died. This put a question about the lethal procedures of experiment and keeping these animals in cage or in confinement. Secondly, this may fundamentally change the way a monkey perceives as they may even end up more like humans. And there are also comparisons with the science fiction movie Planet of the Apes where apes rule and humans were just beasts. With this, we conclude this topic and the practice brilliant question displayed here will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the last and final article for the day which is an editorial on the first image of the black hole. This article has appeared in page 12 of Jenny edition and page 6 of deli edition. This editorial speaks about the achievement of the event horizon telescope collaboration that has provided the first evidence of the black hole which was so far a theory. The editor notes that the first image of black hole is a reassurance of science and reason. The Higgs boson particle was detected 50 years after it had been postulated. So is the detection of the gravitational waves a century after Einstein predicted them. The visual proof of the existence of the black hole comes a century after they have appeared in the scientific literature through Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity. The data from the eight radio telescopes were collected and combined with the help of algorithm to create the image. Developing the algorithm was led by Katie Bowman who works as the assistant professor at the California Institute of Technology. She has noted that the success has been made possible only with the involvement of interdisciplinary expertise that is people from different scientific backgrounds working to create this image. A very detailed discussion containing these topics along with the syllabus with respect to the capturing of the first image of black hole has been discussed on 11th April session of the Hindu news analysis by our colleague Mr. Shanmuga. The link for this topic is given in the description below. Have a look at it for the subject clarity. With this we are winding up today's analysis. Let us move on to the practice question discussion. The first question is consider the following statements with reference to the index of industrial production. In that first statement says it is a composite indicator that measures short term changes in the volume of production of a basket of industrial products during a given period with respect to that in a chosen base period. And the second statement is it is published by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Third statement is the base year for its calculation is 2004 to 2005 which among the above statements is or are correct. So we have to choose the correct options. As we know from the discussion first option is right. Coming to the second statement it states it is published by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion. We know from our discussion that it is published by Central Statistical Organization under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Hence statement two is wrong. Coming to the third statement which says the base year for its calculation is 2004 to 2005. As we know it has been changed to 2011 to 2012. Hence option three is also wrong. Hence the final answer for this question is option one only. The second question is Golan Heights which is often seen in news is surrounded by first option Israel, second Jordan, third Iraq, fourth Lebanon, fifth Syria. Select the correct codes given below. So we have to see which of these countries surrounds Golan Heights. As we know from our discussion Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria surrounds Golan Heights. Hence our option one, two, four and five that is option C is the correct answer. Third question is with reference to Olive Ridley Turtle which of the following statements is or are correct. First statement is it is given legal protection under schedule one of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. Second statement they are known for their unique behavior of enormous nesting aggregations called as Aribada. And third statement is it is listed as endangered by the IUCN. Select the correct answer using the code given below. Now we have to select the correct answer in these statements. As we know first statement is correct because schedule one of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 prohibits hunting and trade of Olive Ridley Turtles. Hence option one is correct and option two is also correct as we discussed in our article discussion. And option three is false because Olive Ridley Turtles are in the IUCN red list under the vulnerable category and not under the endangered status. Hence our option one and two only is the correct answer. Fourth question is consider the following statements with reference to central drug standards control organization that is CD SCU. First statement it is the national regulatory body for pharmaceuticals working to ensure the safety efficacy and quality of the medical products manufactured imported and distributed in the country. Second statement it also prepares the report on adverse drug reactions. Third it functions under the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers. Choose the correct answer below. So we have to choose the correct answer from the below options which has options one only one two only one and three only one two and three. So first statement as we know from our discussion is correct and the second statement states it also prepares the report on adverse drug reactions. As we know this report is prepared by National Coordination Center of the Pharmaceutical Co-Vigilance Program of India. So second option is wrong and the third option says it functions under the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers. As we know CD SCU functioned under the ministry of health and family and not under ministry of chemicals and fertilizers. So hence option three is also wrong. So the correct answer given below is option one only. Fifth question is with reference to the twin study recently news consider the following statements. First statement it provides for the effects and impacts of space flight on the human body. Second statement it is a one-year mission of National Center for Space Studies France. Third statement it is a first of its kind study to compare the molecular profiles of identical twin astronauts which among the above statements is or are correct. So we have to choose the correct option. As we know from our discussion first option is and in the second statement it states it is a one-year mission. We know it is a one-year mission but it has been given as National Center for Space Studies of France. We know this study has been conducted by NASA which is in USA not France. So hence second option is wrong and the third option is it is a first of its kind study to compare the molecular profiles of identical twin astronauts. Third statement is also correct. Hence our option one and three is the correct option. Moving on to the next question with reference to a recent research by scientists on implanting human brain into the research mechag monkeys consider the following statements. First statement says the monkeys performed better in short-term memory tasks compared to other wild monkeys. Second statement says the experiment fueled ethical debates as this may change the way a monkey perceive and think which of these statements above is or are correct. So we have to look for the correct statement. Statement one is correct as we have seen in our analysis that they performed well in short-term memory tasks and had quicker reaction time in comparison with wild non-implanted monkeys and statement two is also correct as there were huge ethical debates surrounding this experiment that may fundamentally change the way these monkeys perceive and may become more human-like. Hence our option C both one and two is the correct answer. Now let us see one practice question based on main's paper GS3 paper. In the context of growing support of USA to Israel analyze India-Israel relations particularly India's dehyphenated policy towards Israel and Palestine. For answer to this question mention cooperation in defense space and R&D sectors which had been discussed in the analysis. With respect to dehyphenation mentioned growing US support which makes it a normal imperative for India to stand with Palestine. This would probably make the policy of dehyphenation hollow. With this we come to the end of this video. If you like this video don't forget to like comment and share and subscribe to our Shankara Ace Academy YouTube channel.