 Good evening aspirants, welcome back to the Hindu news analysis by Shankar IA's Academy. These are the list of news articles that we will be discussing today. They are provided along with the page numbers of the different editions. Now look at this news article, this article analyzes the black marketing trend in the midst of the corona pandemic and the author here has analyzed the reasons for this and has also suggested a way forward for the policy makers to adopt. So in this slide, let us see some important points from this article. The syllabus covered by this news article is given below for your reference. See with the second wave of infections and the rise in COVID-19 positive cases in India, the necessity for integral medicines, hospital beds and oxygen supplies has gone up incrementally. With that, the black market has also seen a spike. See black marketing is nothing but circumventing the legal ways of supplying a good or a service or in other words it is to trade something illegally. In recent times, we witnessed a lot of cases that have been reported in this regard. For example, even during the first wave in July 2020, a racket of selling fake injections in Surat and Hamadabad was unearthed by the Gujarat food and drugs control administration and this trend has got even worse in the second wave. For instance, recently the police in Hamadabad, they arrested a few people who were selling salt water labeled bottle as Remdesiva for exorbitant prices. And in fact, in Mumbai, people paid huge amounts ranging from 35,000 to around 50,000 for Remdesiva vials. Even oxygen is also not sped. If you see in Kanpur, oxygen racket was busted and in fact, the Haryana police have registered at least 21 FIRs in connection with the black marketing of many of these medical essentials. We know that in India, the major medical supplies are being regulated by government missionaries but the question is why still we find people seeking other routes to buy these life-saving essentials. And the author here is trying to answer this question by mentioning some possible reasons for the flourishing of such black marketing in India especially in the medical field. Now let's see them one by one. See, a major reason behind why many are in the situation they are facing is because administrative missionaries are being overwhelmed and then the inadequacy of resources is another reason. And apart from this, the helplines that were provided by the government in this regard keep the people in loose ends without giving a closure. So this makes the people to feel like they are left out in the lurch. The time constraints is also a reason that is the urgency of the people are not met with by the government. Lastly and sadly, the reported VIP culture practices that give preferential access have also contributed to the erosion of trust in the government. So this makes people to look outside for help. And all this together has culminated in public seeking source outside the government. The author while analyzing the reasons has also given some possible ways to alter or to mitigate these issues. Firstly, the author finds an urgent need to expand the administrative mechanisms both quantitatively as well as qualitatively. But that should be done in a short while and for that he suggests to join hands with volunteering organizations since they are a good source of manpower indulged in public service. So adopting them and training them would scale up the administration missionary quickly as intended. Further, in the case of an overwhelmed helpline, the author notes the need to refine the communication process by taking help from technology. And further, the information of the supplies need to be sharpened and they should be made more precise to have a better inventory of drug information. And besides this, a robust model should also be planned and the planned model should be able to allocate the resources judiciously and this should be backed up with a follow up of the entire process say GPS tagging and all. By doing so, we can ensure that there are no illegal forces in play. So to back this all up, a decentralized and an independent vigilant system which promotes transparency in the supplies has to be put in place. And to the top of it, government should scale up its efficiency to build confidence among the people and it is only then the people would stop seeking help from such illegal agencies. So to conclude, as we all know, India is in the middle of its second year of the battle against the coronavirus. So at such a critical juncture, the persistent challenges that many citizens face in medical aid is a wake up call to revisit the administrative mechanism and to map its limitations. And this also proves the need for a quick action to reach out to people. So with this, we've come to the end of this news discussion. So in this article, we saw about medical black marketing, the reasons and also the way forward. With these informations in mind, let's move on to the next part of the news discussion. Now look at this article. This article is regarding the volcanic eruption of Mount Yiragongo in Democratic Republic of Congo. The Indian Army contingent part of the ongoing United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo assisted the civilians and the United Nations officials during the evacuation. So in this context, let us discuss in detail about volcanoes, its formation and different types. The syllabus covered by this article is highlighted below for your reference. As we know, volcanoes are openings or vents where lava, tephra or small rocks and steam erupt onto the Earth's surface. The vent may be visible as a small bowl shaped depression at the summit of a cone or shield shaped mountain. And through a series of cracks within and beneath the volcano, the vent connects to one or more linked storage areas of molten or partially molten rock called magma. You can have a look at the image in order to understand the basic process of magma formation, its movement to the surface and also its eruption. Now let us understand the mechanism behind eruption of volcanoes. See the molten rock below the surface of the Earth that rises in volcanic vents is known as magma. But remember after it erupts from a volcano, it is called as lava. This magma is made of molten rocks, crystals and dissolved gas. And the molten rock is made of chemicals, oxygen, silicon, aluminium, iron, manganese, calcium etc. After cooling, the liquid magma may form crystals of various venerals until it becomes completely solid and forms an igneous or magmatic rock. So originating many tens of miles beneath the ground, magma is lighter than surrounding solid rock and it is driven towards the Earth's surface by buoyancy as it is lighter than the surrounding rock. So magma forces its way upward and may ultimately break through the weak areas in the Earth's crust and if so an eruption begins and this is what is happened in Congo now. See geologists generally group volcanoes into four main kinds. They are cinder cones, composite volcanoes, shield volcanoes and lava domes. When you take cinder cones, they are the simplest type of volcanoes and they are built from particles and blobs of congealed lava that is ejected from a single vent. Now as the gas charged lava is burned violently into the air, it breaks into small fragments that solidify and fall as cinders around the vent and fall as cinders around the vent to form a circular or oval cone. And most cinder cones have a bowl shaped crater at the summit. For example, Mauna Kea Volcano on the American island of Hawaii is covered with hundreds of cinder cones. Coming to composite volcanoes, they are also called stratovolcanoes and they are typically steep sided symmetrical cones of large dimension built of alternating layers of lava flows, volcanic ash, cinders etc. And examples are Mount Fuji in Japan and Mount Kotopaxi in Ecuador. On talking about shield volcanoes, which is the third type of volcano, we are built almost entirely of fluid lava flows and flow after flow pours out in all directions from a central summit vent or group of vents, thereby building a broad gently sloping cone of flat domical shape. And they are built up slowly by the accretion of thousands of highly fluid lava flows called basalt lava that spread widely over great distances. And the Hawaiian islands are composed of linear chains of these volcanoes including Kilauea and Mauna Loa on the island of Hawaii which is a two of the world's most active volcanoes. The last one is volcanic or lava domes. They are formed by relatively small bulbous masses of lava to viscous to flow any great distance. A dome grows largely by expansion from within and as it grows its outer surface cools and hardens, then shatters, spilling loose fragments down its sides. An example for this is a nearly circular Navaraptor dome that was formed during the 1912 eruption of Katmai volcano in Alaska. So with this we have come to the end of this discussion. With these informations in mind let's move on to the next news discussion. Now our next discussion is going to be based on this oped article. This oped article highlights need foreign environment tax reform for multiple benefits to the society. And it also throws light on the health expenditure in India and the need for an eco tax for the purpose of increasing the revenue source and also to counter the externalities associated with the environment. The syllabus covered by this article is given below. The author in the first part of the article highlights the health spending in India. And for your information we have already discussed about the health infrastructure of our country in detail on May 21st 2021 Hindu news analysis. So we recommend the aspirants to watch it for a better understanding. Now let us have a brief discussion about the health related expenses. See World Health Organization provides data on the percentage of the total population where the household expenditure on health was greater than 10% and 25% of the total household expenditure or income in India in 2011. According to it, considering health expenditure above the 10% mark, nearly 17% of the population in India made out of pocket payments on health. Note that the percentage of population was higher in rural areas compared to that of urban areas. Similarly, 3.9% of the population in India had made more than 25% of out of pocket payments on health with 4.34% in the rural areas. See, out of pocket expenditure is nothing but the money that people spend on their own at the time of receiving healthcare. Now in addition to this information, economic survey of 2019-20 has outlined the fact that an increase in public spending from 1% to 2.5 to 3% of GDP can decrease out of pocket expenditure from 65% to 30% of overall healthcare expenses. So hence for this purpose, there arises a need for raising the health expenses for better social welfare and this is where the importance of alternate sources of health financing in India needs to be stressed. Continuing with this, the article says that India has a great potential for revenue generation in this aspect about which we will be seeing now. See the article lists several forms of environmental regulation and they include command and control, economic planning or urban planning, environmental tax or subsidies and cap and trade. At present, India's primary focus is on the command and control approach in tackling pollution but however this article stresses for environmental taxation for the purpose of tackling pollution and it says that in India the success of this eco tax would mainly depend upon its architecture that is on how well it is planned and managed. The author here prefers the eco tax to be designed in a way that remains equal to the marginal social cost arising from the negative externalities associated with the production, consumption or disposal of goods and services. Hence, the eco tax rate may thus be fixed commensurate to the marginal social cost evaluated. See it also mentions about the different activities of environmental tax reforms. Firstly, it ensures eliminating existing subsidies and taxes that have an harmful impact on the environment. Secondly, it helps in restructuring the existing taxes in an environmentally supportive manner and in addition to that it leads to initiating new environmental taxes. Know that this collected eco tax can be a revenue neutral or revenue augmenting source. In case of revenue augmenting, this additional revenue can either be targeted towards the provision of environmental public goods or directed towards the overall revenue pool. Now connect this suggestion with the first part of the article. This tax revenue can also help in increasing the public health expenditure to reduce the overall out-of-pocket expenditure. And this article even suggests the main areas that could be targeted for eco taxation. Accordingly, the authors suggest for a differential taxation based on the vehicle's fuel efficiency. In addition to that, taxing the fuel used in the energy sector, tax on using natural resources and for generating waste is another way of sourcing revenue. Finally, the article mentions the benefits of the proposed eco taxation. It says that the set taxation would help in reducing the fiscal deficit alongside reducing poverty and issues in the environment. Also, it adds that this tax form may have significant cost on the private sector in the form of slow productivity growth and high cost of compliance. But the authors are confident that there is no evidence on green taxes with sustainable development goals leading to a no-growth economy. And they also share that the experience of European countries had helped them in generating substantial revenue from this sort of tax model. And the article is concluded by asserting that this is the right time for India to adopt environmental fiscal reforms as they will reduce environmental pollution and also generate resources for financing the health sector. So with this, we have come to the end of this news article. Let's move on to the next news discussion. Now, look at this news article. We know India is importing oxygen and navy has been roped in and for this INS Jalashwa has been deployed. So in this context, let us see a few facts about this INS Jalashwa. See, INS Jalashwa is named after the Sanskrit word, which means Ippopotamus. This ship is an amphibious transport dock that is currently in service with the Indian Navy. See, an amphibious transport dock is something that can transport cargo as well as troops along with landing docks for air vehicles. It was formally called USS Trenton. Yes, it was procured from the United States by India in 2005. Remember that INS Jalashwa is the only Indian naval ship to be acquired from the United States. And this amphibious dock is massive with a displacement of 16,400 tons and 179 meters length. And this makes INS Jalashwa the Indian Navy's second largest warship. And the first largest is the INS Vikramaditya. See, the ship was commissioned as INS Jalashwa on 22nd of June in 2007. And currently it is based in Vishakhapatnam under the eastern naval command. So let us see what this ship is capable of. See, it has got a flight deck for helicopter operations. And from this up to six medium helicopters can operate simultaneously. Notable is that the deck can also be used to operate vertical takeoff and landing aircraft in special circumstances. And besides this, the ship is capable of embarking over 1000 troops and it is fully equipped with extensive medical facilities including four operation theaters, a 12 bed ward, a laboratory and a dental care. See, this INS Jalashwa is notable for its achievement in Operation Safe Homecoming. Remember, on 26th of February 2011, the INS Jalashwa along with INS Mysore was deployed to the Southern Mediterranean Sea in Operation Safe Homecoming. And it was carried out to evacuate Indian citizens in Libya who were stranded there following the 2011 Libyan Civil War. Now look at this article. This article says that the Southern Railway through its oxygen express services has delivered more than 1000 metric tons of liquid medical oxygen to Tamil Nadu. So in this context, let us understand what exactly is this liquid medical oxygen, how is it made, etc. As we know 65% of human body is oxygen and in fact every cell in our body requires oxygen. And this oxygen is crucial for the treatment of patients with severe COVID-19 since the disease affects lung functioning. Shortness of breath or difficulty of breathing is one of the most common symptoms in patients with severe COVID-19 and it also hampers the supply of oxygen to various parts of the body. And hence they need oxygen therapy to be supplied through medical oxygen. And one of the ways in which this oxygen can be supplied is through liquid medical oxygen. See, liquid medical oxygen is nothing but high purity oxygen that is used for medical treatment and it is developed for the use in human body. So why is it in liquid stage? See due to its low melting and boiling points, oxygen is in a gaseous state at room temperature. Liquification of oxygen enables storage in larger volume and easier transportation. See there are several methods to produce this liquid medical oxygen and the most common production method is separation of oxygen in what are known as air separation units. See air separation units are basically plants that separate large volumes of gases and they use a method called fractional distillation method to produce pure oxygen from atmospheric air which consists mostly of nitrogen and oxygen. In this method gases from the air are separated into various components after cooling them into a liquid state and then liquid oxygen is extracted from it. Here atmospheric air is first cooled to minus 181 degree Celsius. Oxygen liquefies at this point and since the boiling point of nitrogen is minus 196 degree Celsius it remains in a gaseous state. But argon has got a boiling point similar to that of oxygen that is minus 186 degree Celsius and hence a significant amount of argon liquefies along with oxygen. The resultant mixture of oxygen and argon is drained, decompressed and passed through a second low pressure distillation vessel for further purification and we then get the output as final purified liquid oxygen which is then transported using cryogenic containers. Finally let us see about the pressure swing adsorption technique often seen in use. Know that oxygen can also be produced non-cryogenically in gaseous form using selective adsorption and this method leverages the property that under high pressure gases tend to be attracted to solid surfaces. In this method air is passed under pressure through a vessel containing an adsorbent bed of zeolite that attracts nitrogen more strongly than oxygen. So the gas exiting the vessel will be richer in oxygen. Note that hospitals can also opt for on-site generation of oxygen by this method. With this let us move on to the prelims practice question discussion. Now look at this prelims practice question which asks about the location of Mount Iragongo. So based on our discussion we know that the right answer is option B that is Democratic Republic of Congo. See this Mount Iragongo is an active volcano in the Virunga mountains of east central Africa and it lies in the volcano region of Virunga National Park Congo near the border with Rwanda. Remember this volcano is known for its devastating eruptions in 1977 wherein some 2000 people were killed. Now look at this question statement 1 says that air separation units use the fractional distillation method to produce pure oxygen from atmospheric air. So from our discussion it is clear that this statement is correct. Coming to the second statement it says pressure swing adsorption relies on air being filtered through alumino silicate minerals known as zeolites. Note that the pressure swing adsorption relies on air being filtered through alumino silicate minerals known as zeolites and the one used for the pressure swing adsorption of oxygen has been specially designed so that the nitrogen gas is adsorbed onto it while oxygen and argon pass straight through. So statement 2 is also correct and since the question wants us to identify the correct statement the right option is option C that is both 1 and 2. Now look at this question about INS Jealousywa we need to find the correct answer. When you take the statement 1 this statement is wrong because it is not an aircraft carrier. On coming to the second statement this statement is incorrect as well because as we saw in our discussion INS Jealousywa was procured from US and it was formally called as USS Trenton. Since the question wants us to find the correct option the right answer is option D that is neither 1 nor 2. The list of main questions is given below for your reference. You can write your answer and post them in the comment section. With this we have come to the end of today's Hindu news analysis. If you like the video then don't forget to like, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IA's Academy YouTube channel for more updates regarding QPSC civil services preparation.