 A very good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu news analysis brought to you by Shankar Iyer's academy for the day 14th of November 2021. So these are the list of news articles that we are about to discuss in today's discussion and they are provided along with the page numbers of different editions and also the link for the handwritten notes in PDF format and the time stamping of each and every article is displayed below for the benefit of mobile phone viewers. So without wasting much time come let us move into our discussion. If you look at today's edition there were quite a lot of articles related to cyber space like cyber crimes cyber attacks etc and there was even an article by our ISRO chairman on the need to prioritize plans to take on cyber attacks and among the many articles about cyber space I have chosen these two articles which is mainly about cyber transactions and as a title hints these two articles discuss about cryptocurrencies. So when you take the first news article it reports about the Indian government which is looking into the prospects for regulating cryptocurrency and the second news article here talks about the Karnataka Bitcoin scam. So now in this context let us learn quickly about cryptocurrency and bitcoins which are the two main areas of focus here. See cryptocurrencies are digital money or you can say they are a special kind of virtual currency which is controlled by cryptographic algorithms that is these currencies they are protected by cryptography as of now we know that in India virtual currencies do not have legal tender status. See legal tender status means the money or currency cannot be refused by any citizen of the country for the settlement of any kind of transaction as such. So coming back virtual currencies at present they do not have a legal tender status in India and the main reason for this is because they are not backed by a sovereign guarantee. So this is one main negative about cryptocurrencies. Secondly cryptocurrencies are decentralized that is there is no central authority to maintain their records of transactions and when you transact using them the money does not pass through a third party or a middleman and the reason why it does not pass through a third party or a middleman is because cryptocurrency they adopt a technology called distributed ledger technology. See these distributed ledgers are actually shared record of data across different parties and this technology it allows the organization of any chain of records or transactions without the need for an intermediary and this particular distributed ledger uses independent computers which are referred as nodes in order to record share and to synchronize the transactions in their own respective electronic ledgers that is the transaction data is generally recorded and it is shared across multiple distributor networks. So this obviously highlights the need for keeping data centralized like in a traditional ledger. So this absence of a central authority or a central entity or infrastructure is one major issue with cryptocurrency because due to the absence of a central authority there is no one to ensure the effective governance of the overall digital ledger infrastructure and thereby there is no governance over the cryptocurrencies as such and this lack of governance makes it really difficult to regulate the transactions or other activities which are involved with this cryptocurrencies and apart from this cryptocurrencies are also volatile and the transactions which are made using cryptocurrencies are generally irreversible and this leads to people who invest in them to lose a lot of money and thereby it incurs a lot of losses for people who invest in cryptocurrencies and beyond all these risks in recent times we can also witness advertisements about these cryptocurrencies which are circulated especially in social media and such ads are quite misleading because they overpromise the returns to investors and they also do not talk about the risks associated with investing in cryptocurrencies. So therefore by taking all these points in mind now the Indian government is planning to regulate these cryptocurrencies and for this reason a meeting has been shared by a prime minister. So this is the background and the ultimate crux of the first news article and when you take the next article it is about the Karnataka bitcoin scam. So we know that bitcoin is also a cryptocurrency and it was the first of its kind. So being a cryptocurrency bitcoin is also decentralized so it operates without a central authority or banks and being decentralized it is not backed by any government so that means it is also not reliable. See we know that bitcoin is an asset but then it has no physical existence since it consists of nothing but a digital record which is stored on computers. See generally bitcoins are created as a reward for a process known as mining and all the informations which are necessary to transact the bitcoins are stored in a wallet. Now here this wallet is actually a software that holds all the bitcoin addresses and the various secret keys which is used to send to receive and also to store the bitcoins. So therefore bitcoin is also used like money and it can be exchanged for traditional currencies like the US dollar. So that means it can also be used to purchase goods or services but then there is a limitation here that is bitcoin is limited only to those places that accept it as a currency but as of now not all the countries are accepting bitcoins. So coming to the scam here see this scam is related to bitcoin and the background is that an individual was arrested back in the year 2020 in a drug related case and this arrested person was accused of procuring drugs using bitcoin through darknet and peddling the drugs to his high-profile clients. See I mentioned the word darknet right. See darknet is generally a term which is used to refer to encrypted online content that is not indexed by conventional search engines or to put it simple it is a computer network with restricted access that is used mainly for illegal peer-to-peer file sharing. Coming back this arrest unheard other crimes say like that of hacking into bitcoin exchanges and Karnataka government's e-procurement site in 2019 etc. So at present the opposition party is demanding a special investigation into this scam and this is the news that has made headlines here. So with this let us wind up this discussion. So in this particular discussion we saw about cryptocurrencies the various negatives associated with it and we also saw about bitcoins. So with the learned points in mind now let us move on to the next article. Now let us take this article from the science and tech column. This particular article is about the Zika virus outbreaks and it throws light on how these outbreaks can be taken as an opportunity to improve the health care related to this virus in India. So this is the underlying theme of the article displayed here. So now in this context let's learn about the Zika virus in detail like its transmission, its various symptoms and effects and then we will also cover the other important points which are mentioned in the article. The syllabus covered by this article is highlighted below for your reference. So first let us start with the Zika virus. See this Zika virus disease is caused by a virus which is transmitted primarily by a mosquito known as ADIS mosquitoes and one important fact about these mosquitoes is that they have the tendency to bite during the day. So for every disease out there we have got certain symptoms linked with it right. So similarly even for the Zika virus disease we have certain symptoms. So the Zika virus disease is associated with certain mild symptoms which includes symptoms like fever, rash, conjunctivities, muscle and joint pain, malaise and also headache. So usually the symptoms are said to last between two to seven days and the incubation period of the disease is estimated to be between three days up to two weeks. See this incubation period is nothing but the time between the exposure to the virus to the time when the symptoms first show up. So as I told earlier this disease is transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito from the ADIS genus mainly the ADIS egypti in tropical and subtropical regions. Note that this is the very same mosquito that transmits dengue, chicken gunia and yellow fever as well. So one main concern with this virus is that Zika can be passed from pregnant women to our fetus by having sex with a person who is affected by this Zika virus and once this virus gets transmitted it has got the potential to cause microcephaly and other congenital abnormalities in the developing fetus and newborn and this can result in fetal loss, stillbirth and also in pre-tum birth as well and apart from this Zika transmission also triggers Guillain-Barre syndrome, neuropathy and myelitis and a pictorial representation of the complications which I mentioned just now are given here for a better understanding. See this virus was found for the first time in the year 1947 when the scientists they conducted routine surveillance for yellow fever in the Zika forest of Uganda and during that they isolated the Zika virus and during that event they isolated the Zika virus in samples taken from a resus monkey and the first human cases are detected in the year 1952 at Uganda and at the United Republic of Tanzania and when you take the years between 1969 to 1983 the geographical distribution of this Zika virus was found to expand to even equatorial Asia including India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan and remember on the first of February in the year 2016 the World Health Organization they declared the association of Zika infection with clusters of microcephaly and other neurological disorders to constitute a public health emergency of international concern. Now I will very briefly explain on what is this public health emergency of international concern. See this public health emergency of international concern which is shortly known as PHEIC is a kind of formal declaration which is made by the World Health Organization and this declaration is generally done to mark an extraordinary event which is determined to constitute a public health risk to other states through the international spread of disease. So when a particular disease is declared as a public health emergency of international concern then it results in the ability to rapidly mobilize international coordination for the disease to streamline the funding for it and also to accelerate the advancement of the development of vaccines the other therapeutics and diagnostics under emergency use authorization. So the ultimate purpose of such declaration is to catalyze the timely evidence based action in order to limit the public health and the societal impacts of emerging and re-emerging disease risks and at the same time to prevent the unwarranted travel and trade restrictions. So apart from Zika some other examples of public health emergency of international concern between the years 2007 and 2020 are the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, the Ebola pandemic, the poliomyelitis and also the COVID-19 pandemic. Now coming to the situation in India, see the first two outbreaks in India were reported in the year 2017 and then there were two more outbreaks in the year 2018 spotted from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and then in the year 2021 we had cases from Kerala, Maharashtra and recently even from Uttar Pradesh. So though the situation is not very serious in India still it is really important for us to address it because it is always better to be prepared because as per a nationwide vector surveillance which was published in 2021 that was carried out by the Indian Council of Medical Research, the surveillance showed that mosquitoes in three out of the 6492 pools which were assessed were found to be positive for Zika virus. So this shows us the need for stepping up preventive and other public health measures. So what can be done in this regard? So now let's very quickly see four points as a way forward in this regard. So firstly a systematic surveillance for evolutionary trends in Zika virus is something which is needed because there is American as well as South Asian lineage variants. Secondly, enhanced surveillance and equipping laboratories with testing kits is also something which is needed as states have started to report Zika virus with each passing day. Now thirdly the elimination of mosquito breeding sites and the public awareness campaigns especially for pregnant women should be prioritized. And fourthly coordinated actions between the state government and the municipal corporation in order to develop the joint action plans against vector-borne diseases also seems to be the need of the R. So implementing these initiatives carefully will actually help us in tackling the disease in the longer run and as the popular saying prevention is better than cure it is always advisable to be equipped beforehand. So with this we have come to the end of this discussion and now let's move on to the next news article. Now for our next news discussion I have taken this FAQ article titled will MP LATs be changed for post pandemic needs? This article basically talks about the members of parliament local area development scheme which is commonly known as MP LATs. So taking this opportunity let us quickly pour through the details of this scheme in this discussion. So first let's start with its origin. See back in the year 1993 on 23rd of December Adhan Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rahu had announced the members of parliament local area development scheme in the Indian parliament. And this particular scheme comes under the control of the Ministry of statistics and program implementation. See the objective of the scheme is to enable the MPs or the members of the parliament to recommend works of developmental nature especially on the creation of durable community assets. So based on the locally felt needs the works can be taken up in their respective constituencies. Now you may have a doubt regarding the jurisdiction of Lok Sabha and Raj Sabha MPs. So let me explain that to you. See under the MP LATs the Lok Sabha members can recommend works within their constituencies and elected members of Raj Sabha can recommend works within the state of election. And the nominated members of both the Raj Sabha and the Lok Sabha they can recommend works anywhere in the country. So this is the basic jurisdiction of the Lok Sabha and the Raj Sabha MPs under this MP LATs program. So on talking about the financial allocation see in the year 1993 to 94 when the scheme was launched an amount of rupees 5 lakh per member of parliament was allotted. But then this amount was revised and now it is no more 5 lakh but rather it is rupees 5 crore from the financial year 2011 to 2012. On talking about the working of the scheme see a member of parliament has to designate the choice of nodal district for which the developmental works will be carried out. And each MP will recommend works up to the annual entitlement during the financial year to the concerned district authority. And following that the district authority will get the eligible sanctioned works executed as per the established procedure of the state government consent. And note that the district collector or district magistrate or the deputy commissioner will be the district authority to implement this MP LATs in the district. Note that MP LATs works can also be implemented in the areas prone to calamities like floods, cyclones, tsunami, earthquakes, landslides, drought etc. And they can also be used for creating durable assets of national priorities like drinking water, primary education, public health, sanitation and roads etc. There has been controversies about the misuse of MP LATs scheme in 2006 quoting a trust run by the then election commissioner to have got funds under the scheme. But then this constitutional validity had been upheld by the Supreme Court and the scheme was suspended due to financial constraint in covid times. And now it has once again been restored since the country is in the path of economic recovery and the government may redefine the scheme to be spent on electronic gadgets to aid online education in the future. So with this let's wind up this particular discussion about the MP LATs and move on to the next part of our in the news analysis. Now look at this news article. This news here talks about a direction which was made by the Madras High Court regarding the illegal mining of beach, sand and monazite. So the news here is that a claim has been made by an amicus curie that around 37,000 tons of monazite can be extracted from several lakh tons of sand which are kept in the sealed goodounds, stockyards and factories in around three districts of Tamil Nadu. So shocked by this claim the court has asked the government to respond and this act of the court is due to the importance and concerns held by the monazite. So what is this monazite? See monazite is a phosphate mineral and when you take its appearance it looks honey yellow to golden yellow in color. So this is basically a common mineral in magmatic metamorphic and in over-forming environments and this mineral occurs as small resinous and heavy crystals in granite rocks and nesic rocks. So therefore it also occurs in the detritus of these rocks. See detritus is nothing but the sand or the gravel of the rocks. So here the mineral occurs as monazite sands and hence it is a beach sand minerals. So this is how monazite occurs in the beach sand mineral along the coastal tracks and it is also found along the coastal tracks of India and additionally this mineral occurs in association with other heavy metals as well say like that of iluminite, rutile, zircon etc. When you take this monazite mineral it contains to around 10 to 12 percent of thorium dioxide. So it is a major commercial source of thorium. Additionally the mineral has also got traces of uranium so hence monazite is radioactive. In addition to these monazite is also the major commercial source of cerium and it is a principal mineral from which the cerium and thorium are obtained. So hence monazite is a mineral mainly containing rare earth elements and monazite contains around 45 to 60 percent of the rare earth element oxides. See and for those who are not aware the rare earth elements are a group of 17 elements starting with lanthanum in the periodic table of elements and they are moderately abundant in the earth's crust and among them cerium is the 25th most abundant element in the earth's crust. So therefore in many countries this monazite is being mined and these countries includes India, Malaysia, Vietnam as well as Brazil. Now particularly when you take India around 12.47 million tons of monazite in the beach and inland placer deposits have been estimated. So this corresponds to about 1 million tons of thorium oxide and these are some of the major deposits in India which contain monazite. Also in India monazite is the only commercial source of rare earth elements at percent and actually it is the principal source of rare earths and thorium in India. Further monazite is defined as a prescribed substance under the provisions of the Atomic Energy Act of 1962 and it is also listed as an atomic mineral in part B of the first schedule of Mines and Minerals Act of 1957. See one important entity that you should know in this regard is the Indian rare earths limited which is wholly owned by the government of India and which comes under the administrative control of the Department of Atomic Energy. See this particular entity it utilizes monazite mainly for the production of rare earth compounds and thorium as needed in the Department of the Atomic Energy and this Indian rare earths limited is the only entity which has been permitted to produce and to process monazite and also to handle it for domestic use as well as for export and with this we have come to the end of this article discussion and now let's move on to the next news discussion. Now let us quickly have a look at this picture. If you look at its description it is mentioned that the camel traders are on their way to the Pushkar fair in Ajmer. Now based on this I just wanted to give you a very brief description about the Pushkar fair which is mentioned here. See the Pushkar camel fair which is locally known as the Karthik Mela or the Pushkar Kamela is actually a fascinating annual five-day festival that is held in the Oli town of Pushkar which is situated in the state of Rajasthan and the initial intention behind starting this fair was to drive the local livestock traders to do business during the Hindu month of Karthik and when you look at this Pushkar fair this camel fair has got two main components one is the livestock trading where thousands of camels, goats, cows and people congregate and the other is the carnival which is held after the first five days and this fair starts with the Hindu calendar month of Karthik and it hands on the Karthik Bhurnima. So whenever you hear about Pushkar fair you just remember that it is something related to camel and it happens in the state of Rajasthan. So we are done with the articles for today. So now let us move on to the next part of our Hindu news analysis which is going to be the practice question discussion. Now look at this question which of the following statements is or are correct with reference to bitcoins. Statement 1 it operates without a central authority. Statement 2 it is backed by the government. Statement 3 it can be exchanged for traditional currencies. So if you remember while discussing I clearly told you that bitcoin is also decentralized. So that means it operates without a central authority or banks and it is not backed by any government. So with this we can conclude that the first statement which is given here is correct and the second statement which is given here is incorrect because it is not backed by any government. Now coming to the third statement if you could recollect I mentioned during our discussion that bitcoins is used like money and can be exchanged for traditional currencies such as the US dollar. So that means it can also be used to purchase goods or services but then there is a limitation here that is bitcoin is generally limited only to those places that accept it as a currency. So with this we can find that the third statement which is given here is also correct. So the correct statements here are 1 and 3. So therefore the correct answer will be option C that is 1 and 3 only. Now look at this question. Consider the following statements about monocyte. Statement 1 it is the only radioactive substance in the beach sands. Statement 2 it is the only commercial source of rare earth elements in India and statement 3 it is an atomic mineral. So which of the statements given above is or are correct. So from our discussion we can infer that all the three statements which is given here are correct and therefore the right option here would be option D that is 1, 2 and 3. Now look at this prelims practice question which one of the following statements is correct with reference to Zika virus. So now let's take the first statement which states that the Zika virus disease is caused by a virus transmitted primarily by anophilis mosquitoes. See this statement is incorrect because the Zika virus disease is caused by a virus which is transmitted primarily by the aides mosquitoes which bite during the day. So the first statement is incorrect. Now coming to the second statement the symptoms are severe and include blood vomit, decrease in white blood cells and even death. So if you had carefully paid attention to our discussion then you will know that this statement is also incorrect because the Zika virus is identified with certain mild symptoms including fever, rash, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain and then malaise and also headache. So this statement is wrong. Now coming to the third statement it states that Zika virus is a mosquito bone disease that was first identified in Kerala in the year 1947 among monkeys. So this statement again becomes incorrect because in 1947 this virus was first spotted when a group of scientists conducted routine surveillance for yellow fever in the Zika forest of Uganda and North Kerala. So this statement again is incorrect. Now coming to the last statement it says Zika virus infection during pregnancy can cause infants to be born with microcephaly. So this statement is the right statement because as we saw earlier this particular virus has got the potential to cause microcephaly and also other congenital abnormalities in the developing fetus and newborn which ultimately can result in fetal loss, stillbirth and even in preterm birth. Therefore the right answer here would be option D which is Zika virus infection during pregnancy can cause infants to be born with microcephaly. So with this we have come to the end of today's Hindu news analysis and if you like my video then don't forget to like, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar Eye's Academy YouTube channel for more updates regarding UPSC civil services preparation.