 Good evening aspirants. These are the list of news articles that will be discussed in the news analysis. They are provided along with the page numbers of the different editions of the newspaper. This news article is based on the autobiography of former president Shri Pranab Mukherjee. In his book he stated that the India Sri Lanka bilateral ties had been greatly influenced by Tamil politics in India. Further he also noted that the LTTE had the support of Tamil Nadu So as you all know the LTTE or the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam were a group of militant separatists who were fighting for an independent homeland for Hindu tunnels in northeastern Sri Lanka. Now let us look at the bilateral relations between India and Sri Lanka. See whenever you study bilateral relations between India and any country for that matters try to know the recent history of the country. So when you try knowing the recent history of a country you will get an idea how the bilateral relations have evolved. In this context let us see about the recent history of what happened in Sri Lanka. See after Sri Lanka's independence tension arose between the Sinhala majority and the Tamil majority. This resulted in a bloody civil war in Sri Lanka. This civil war started in the 1980s and it ended only in 2009. Please note that the president of Sri Lanka during the period was Mahindra Rajabakshi. He was the president from 2005 till 2015. Traditionally Sri Lanka has maintained good bilateral relations with India and during the post civil war period that is under Raja Paksa. Sri Lanka became more and more dependent on China especially for its investment to rebuild the country. China invested heavily in Sri Lanka an example for this would be the Amban Tota port. At the end of Raja Paksa's rule when the civil war was in progress his brother gota by Raja Paksa was the defence secretary. So understand that the Raja Paksas are viewed as Chinese friendly and they were a concern for India. Then in 2015 when the presidential elections were held Raja Paksas were defeated and again in November 2019 the presidential elections were held in Sri Lanka and this time the Raja Paksas came to power. So this time it was gota by Raja Paksa who became the president and once he became the president he appointed his brother that is the ex-president Mahindra Raja Paksa as the prime minister of Sri Lanka. So you can see that the Raja Paksas are back to power now. As soon as gota by was elected as president he said that the foreign policy of Sri Lanka would be neutral. Next if you see when gota by Raja Paksa visited India in November 2019 after he was elected as the president India extended a line of credit worth 400 million US dollars in order to boost the development of Sri Lanka. Also India gave an extra 50 million dollars line of credit to Sri Lanka in order to fight terrorism and for security cooperation. So we can see that India has given priority to its relations with Sri Lanka under its neighborhood first policy. So we can see that Raja Paksas are trying to maintain cordial relations with India and we can also see that India has reciprocated positively by giving 450 million dollars line of credit. Also if you see India, Sri Lanka and Maldives are expected to revive their trilateral relations on security including joint maritime security talks and anti-terror cooperation. Now coming to this Ambandota port when Mahindra Raja Paksa was the president Sri Lanka offered India to develop Ambandota port but India showed no interest in this. So Sri Lanka offered China to develop this Ambandota port and it created a huge depth trap to Sri Lanka as well. So the bilateral relations between India and Sri Lanka were not good since then. So next India is concerned about the welfare of Tamils in Sri Lanka especially after the civil war ended. India hopes that the expectations of the Tamil people for equality, justice, peace and respect would be realized and that devolution of powers according to the 13th amendment of the Sri Lankan Constitution would be taken forward. So as of now India is maintaining cordial relations with Sri Lanka but still some distrust and differences do remain and both the countries have got the responsibility to address this. Moreover the relations with Sri Lanka is important for India in order to tackle the geopolitical ambitions of China in the Indian Ocean region. So with the COVID-19 almost all the South Asian countries including Sri Lanka are dependent on India for vaccines. It is time for India to prioritize the small neighbours like Sri Lanka in exporting vaccines in line with Gujarat doctrine. With this we have come to the end of this news article. Now this news article is with reference to a Chinese soldier being apprehended on January 8th on the Indian side of the line of actual control in the area south of Pangong lake in eastern Ladakh. The People's Liberation Army soldier had transgressed across the line of actual control and he was taken into custody by the Indian troops deployed in this area. And in this regard China has sought help from the Indian side in order to return its soldier immediately. So as we know that the India-China relationship has been through a crisis in the year 2020 which is evident with some of the incidents like the June 15th incident in the Galwan Valley which claimed the life of 20 Indian soldiers in subsequent firing incidents first bloodshed in 45 years followed by an unprecedented buildup of the People's Liberation Army along the line of actual control. So in this context let us have a brief understanding about the line of actual control and also on the recent trend in India-China relations. The syllabus relevant for this news article is highlighted here for your reference. On moving to the article first let us talk about the line of actual control. We know that the entire Sino-Indian border is more than 4000 km long and it transverses the Union Territory of Ladakh, Imarchal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. So the line of actual control in its wider sense is the effective border between India and China and this border covers the western sector which includes the Union Territory of Ladakh, middle sector which includes the Imarchal Pradesh and Uttarakhand and the Mechmoren line in the east that which covers Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. First let us understand the western boundary between India and China. See India claims that China occupies more than 38,000 square kilometer in erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir which at present is a Union Territory of Ladakh. Now here note that in 1964 Pakistan ceded a part of Indian territory in Pakistan occupied Kashmir to China. Also the China administers the Akshay Chin area which is the part of Union Territory of Ladakh in India. The border dispute in the western part is shown in the following picture. Now let us come to the eastern boundary between India and China. So we know that in 1914 the British Indian authorities Tibet and China signed the Shimla Accord. During the discussions the boundary between Tibet and the northeastern India was proposed by the British officer named Henry Mechmoren and this is the reason why the demarcation between Tibet and the northeastern India came to be known as a Mechmoren line. However in 1950 China started to incorporate Tibet into the People's Republic of China and from then onwards boundary disputes emerged between India and China. Now here you should note that China officially does not agree with the Mechmoren line. So as we have said that the line of actual control is the effective boundary between India and China. Still there is no commonly delineated line of actual control between India and China. So you should also know that there are areas along the border where China and India have differing perceptions of the line of actual control and due to both sides undertaking patrolling up to their respective perceptions of the line of actual control transgressions do occur. The government regularly takes up any transgression with the Chinese side through established mechanisms as we have seen in today's news. Now let us see in brief about the India-China relations. See on April 1, 1950 India became the first non-socialist bloc country to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China. While the India-China border conflict in 1962 was a serious setback to Thais, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's landmark visit in the year 1988 began a phase of improvement in the bilateral relations between India and China. In the year 1993 the signing of an agreement on the maintenance of peace and tranquility along the line of actual control on the India-China border areas further improved the bilateral ties. So remember in the year 2013 both countries signed a Border Defence Cooperation Agreement and this agreement aims to facilitate ways and means to implement Border Defence Cooperation measures to facilitate contacts and to Henan's understanding and cooperation between the border defence forces as well as the procedures to be followed where there is no common understanding of the line of actual control. But even then we have been hearing news of Chinese transgressions into Indian territory and as we are seeing both sides see the contested border areas as strategically important in the event of a conflict and this had resulted in many standoffs along the border. The military tension in the border is mirrored by the growing political and economic tensions between the two nations. With this we have come to the end of discussion of this topic. See these two Hindu news articles which are in reference to COVID-19 vaccines. For months we have talked about the impacts of COVID-19 and now we are diverting our attention to COVID-19 vaccination. If you recollect the government had earlier approved Emergency Use Authorization or EUA for two vaccine candidates that is Covishield and Indigenus Covaxin and accordingly the Union Health Ministry on Saturday announced that the COVID-19 vaccination drive will begin on January 16th and with the Saturday's announcement that the country is set to begin population level immunization for COVID-19 and it finds itself to be facing one of the biggest logistical challenges in our long while. So now let's see what are these challenges. India with its vast geographical spread the large population and problems of access the vaccination drive will be fraught with challenges which shows that most careful planning down to the last mile is required not only to vaccinate and provide both the doses but also to monitor the adverse events. The center recently conducted the dry runs of COVID-19 vaccination to check if the systems laid down for the operationalization of vaccine delivery are in place and are working well. So with this info let us see who will be vaccinated first and according to government the priority will be given to health care and frontline workers were estimated to be around 3 crore in number and followed by them will be those above 50 years of age and the under 50 population groups with co-morbidities who are ranging to about 27 crore people and people who have an active COVID-19 infection or associated symptoms are advised not to come to vaccination camps in order to avoid spreading the virus. Remember taking the COVID-19 vaccine is entirely voluntary. On coming next in the recent days we also talked about COVID-19 which is a remodeled event or a remodeled electronic vaccine intelligence network for COVID-19 vaccine. See it is a comprehensive digital database of every COVID-19 vaccine that will be administered in India and this database includes tracking beneficiaries intimating them about vaccine sites and dates, pre and post vaccination procedures and also about the issuance of vaccination certificates and it also includes the follow up through the booster dose. At a later stage of implementation COVID-19 will also be available as an application or as a website in multiple Indian languages so that the beneficiaries can access it to keep track of their own progress and to be connected organically to the system. Moreover it will also be a tool for others to register for a vaccine once the first line of targeted beneficiaries is cleared. Next after receiving the second dose the COVID-19 will generate a digital certificate of completion for individuals who have been vaccinated. Messaging chat box and helpline assistants are available on the app and any adverse event after the vaccination may be communicated back to the authorities through one of these access points. So now let us see what is the kind of field level mobilization required for the drive. The existing state and district health networks are readying themselves to set in place every nut and bolt in the elaborate systems that will be required for the vaccination drive and this includes the mobilizing personnel making sure transportation systems are in place to take the vaccine packs to different camps and in ensuring whether the healthcare personnel are able to reach the spot on time and in making sure whether a cold chain system is in place in identifying and removing hurdles that might prevent beneficiaries in the general population at a later date from reaching the spot and also in ensuring coordination between different teams on actual vaccination days in order to avoid any itches. So these are the challenges and measures being taken for the effective vaccination of COVID-19. Moving on to the next article it talks about the challenges in conducting clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccine candidates. See here there is a problem in getting volunteers for phase 3 trials because they felt that they had only a 50 percent chance of getting the candidate vaccine because others will only get a place-bowl. The news about vaccines soon becoming available is making the recruitment to be even more challenging and further with the daily cases coming down many people who would have volunteered would not see the urgency now as earlier. And also with the number of daily fresh cases slowing down since mid-September the spread of the virus appears to be slowing down and this raises an altogether different challenge in carrying out the phase 3 trials where the efficacy of the vaccine is measured by comparing the number of COVID-19 cases and the kind of protection offered in participants who received the vaccine, who received just a place-bowl. Generally health care workers are relatively better informed of clinical trials and are more likely to participate in trials but now with the government vaccinating them on priority this section of potential participants will now hesitate to take part in COVID-19 trials. So with a free vaccination to begin in coming week it will be even more difficult to get recruits for clinical trial and not just that more precautions are required even for those who are getting vaccines. So this is all about this news article now let's move on to the next article. Recently we know that the avyan influenza is spreading in India in this article let us see how serious the outbreak is and how it can be contained. The syllabus relevant for this news article is highlighted here for your reference. Now moving on to this article avyan influenza popularly known as bird flu has been reported from states like Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat and also Uttar Pradesh. During the first week of January reports of unusual deaths of a large number of birds including wild ones started coming in from various states. So this indicates that the virus is being actively transmitted among various bird groups. So in this regard let us see about virus types that were identified so far in these outbreaks. So they include the H5N1 and the H5N8 viruses. Both these virus types come under the category of highly pathogenic avyan influenza also called as the HPAI which is of a major concern to those keeping birds because it leads to disease and the death of the fowl and it may also lead to economic havoc. An in-depth analysis of these two strains have already been discussed in the 5th and 8th January 2021 indonews analysis. So if in case you have not watched that please go back and watch it. On coming back as we know H5N1 is an own threat to humans right now there is a serious issue because the virus has spread to vast geographical areas and as this is also a time of seasonal movement of migratory birds. So due to this the central government has taken serious note of this and it has sent an alert to the state to adhere to the national action plan for prevention control and containment of avyan influenza 2021. Internationally the world animal health information system in December 2020 identified outbreaks of HPAI in Taiwan, Iran, Israel, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam a dozen European countries, Ukraine, Russia and the UK. This led to the loss of over 4.8 million birds by the end of December 2020. Now let us see how serious this avyan flu for bird health. See the avyan influenza is a highly contagious viral disease affecting a variety of birds including the birds that we consume like the chickens, ducks, turkeys, whales and also the pet birds and wild birds. The World Organization for Animal Health which collaborates with the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization says that HPAI virus strains including H5N1, H5N2, H5N8 and H7N8 have been identified in outbreaks indicating the active circulation of these virus strains. So among these virus strains H5N1 and H7N9 viruses pose a threat to human health as well. As per this FAQ the wild birds act as a natural reservoir of AI viruses. Since these are migratory birds their migratory movements could bring these pathogens to poultry, water fowl and other domestic birds through contact. HPAI produces severe clinical signs of illness in these birds which causes a high degree of mortality for these birds and it will also lead to economic loss. So in this regard the government is now resorting to containment strategy which primarily involves removing the diseased birds through kaling. So these type of mass destruction cause a severe impact on farmers. In the latest viral spread in just one instance Kerala has already identified over 69,000 birds which are mostly ducks being striking with H5N8. So these birds will be culled at four infection sites in the Kuranad area of Alapura. With this information now let us see the economic impact that the flu outbreak will have. India's poultry sector according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers welfare is worth rupees 80,000 crores of which the organized sector represent 80% and the rest is distributed among an organized sector which includes backyard poultry keeping. So this backyard poultry is crucial when it comes to income and nutritional security. Exports from India mainly focused on West Asia, neighboring countries and East Asia and these exports were valued at rupees 533 crores in the year 2017 which includes export of items such as the egg powder, yolk powder, pharma ingredients and chicken products. This avyan flu is seen as a threat to the further growth of the sector as a whole. See the government now estimates that there are 30 million farmers who keep backyard birds and the small and medium farmers who contribute to the aggregators are crucial players in the larger ecosystem. India has got a base of over 729 million poultry birds of which 30% are layers that is chickens raised for the purpose of eggs and 40% are broilers which means they are chickens raised for the purpose of meat and this information is according to the National Action Plan for Egg and Poultry 2022. So this large base shows that a serious outbreak of HPAI can be really catastrophic. During 2005 to 2006 there was a flu outbreak in some states and as per an official data the number of culled birds were found to be over 1 million. So when culling of birds is undertaken to combat bird flu the National Action Plan prescribes compensation to be given to farmers at fixed rates. Now let us see whether the bird flu pose a threat to human beings. The WHO says that humans can be infected with virus subtypes like the H5N1, H7N9 and H9N2. Recently a one-year-old was confirmed to have H5N1 in Laos People's Democratic Republic and this one-year-old was thought to have been acquired this virus from backyard birds that was kept by the family. The WHO says human cases of H5N1 avian influenza occur occasionally but it is difficult to transmit the infection from person to person. However when people become infected the mortality rate is about 60%. The global health body records that since 2003 there have been 862 laboratory confirmed cases of human infections with H5N1 and 455 deaths have been reported from 17 countries. Now let us see above the H5N8 strain. See the scientists feel that human infection cannot be ruled out although the likelihood is low. According to the WHO the H5N6 infection has occurred among humans. Another example would be the H9N2 strain being reported in a three-year-old girl last December from Guangdong China and the strain was found to be mildly symptomatic and it was detected during routine surveillance for influenza like illness. As per the WHO, AI viruses in poultry have a public health dimension. They cause severe disease in humans and have also got the potential to mutate to increase transmissibility among humans. So this calls for the need of a pandemic preparation. However we should know that the human to human transmission is believed to have taken place in some instances as a result of close and prolonged contact but there has been no sustained human to human transmission identified so far. So now let us see why does bird flu keep occurring. Please note it is impossible to eradicate influenza viruses because they persist in a vast reservoir of aquatic birds. Periodic outbreaks are due to local bird keeping conditions and after the unprecedented outbreak in 2006 in Asia when as many as 258 cases of bird flu in humans had been reported till November 13 of that year experts who met at an international conference in New Delhi under WHO felt that continuous growth in poultry farming under poor sanitary conditions was sustaining the virus with multiple susceptible species living in the same area. So this underscores the importance of prevention and surveillance. See the Delhi declaration passed at the summit resolved on a common framework for countries to build local strategies but it did not lay emphasis on preserving the natural environment which is the key to help the wild birds to move safely in an unspoiled habitat and to improve transmission of viruses among domestic birds which threatens humans with infections and a potential pandemic due to mutating viruses. Now let us see what is a way forward to contain the spread. See the government have laid on biosecurity measures to keep domestic birds safe from transmission by wild or migratory birds and also to prevent the local spread. The protocol involves active surveillance of bird areas to identify emerging outbreaks on the other hand there is an attempt to eliminate wild birds near human settlements through hunting poisoning and habitat destruction and according to this FAQ it is wrong and counterproductive because such activity only disperses wild birds and the viruses to new areas. Moreover hunting of wild birds and the absence of biosecurity measures bring the viruses directly to domestic birds. So some of the measures suggested includes housing or netting all captive birds, cleansing and disinfecting clothing, footwear and vehicles, reduction of people's movement in the farm bird areas to reduce contamination, eliminating or reducing contact between captive and wild birds particularly through feed and water storage and cleansing and disinfecting production areas. See the central government is now asked veterinary staff to conduct inspections periodically under the prevention and control of infectious and contagious diseases in animals act 2009 in order to catch any signs of disease among birds and other animals at an earlier phase. However aquatic wild birds are often found in close proximity to domestic ones in many locations in India near lakes, dams and reservoirs they by making it difficult to achieve segregation. So this is all about the avian influenza now let us move on to the next topic. Now let us take up this news article it tells that about 900 residents of the Institute of Mental Health or IMH will get disability identity cards and the work on registering the patients with the state government and in getting them the Centre's Unique Disability ID which is also called as UDID is in progress. So in this regard let us have a brief understanding about the UDID and some of the important initiative of the government for people with disabilities. See the UDID project was initiated by Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and this project aims at building a holistic end-to-end integrated system for the issuance of universal ID or is also called as Swaulamban card and also disability certificate for persons with disabilities with their identification and disability details. And this UDID project comes with a number of benefits and the list of their benefits is given below. Let us see them one by one. First of all the application for the UDID card can be submitted online which means it will make life which denotes that can be submitted online so it will make life easier for persons with disabilities. Second the UDID card holder will no longer need to carry lengthy documents as a proof of his or her disability and the UDID card will be acceptable everywhere to prove one's disability condition. Here it is also to be noted that at present the disability certificates of one state are not recognized in the other and with the coming of these universal cards the differently abled can tide over these problems that they face at railway counters or even to avail any benefit at educational institutions. The card will have a unique number which if fed on the website would help an authority to access all the details related to that person with disability. Fourth the UDID card will have all the relevant details related with the person and his or her disability and this information can be easily read with a card reader device. Fifthly the real time data about the disabled persons will be available to the government to act upon and also the disability related data will not get duplicated as the computer system can ensure uniqueness of all the data related with the disabled individuals and also the system can be easily upgraded if more disability conditions get recognized by the government. Another benefit is that it would be easy to identify the extent of persons disability that is a person with less than 40% disability would have a card with a white stripe. Similarly person with 40 to 80% disability would have a card with yellow stripe and those above 80% disability will be having a card with a blue stripe and this UDID card will help government to track a number of aspects say for example they can track whether the benefits of welfare schemes are reaching to the disabled persons or even they can track whether the beneficiaries are getting benefited or if the schemes are contributing to the progress of UDID card holders. So this UDID project also includes other facilities like online availability of data of person with disabilities across the country to a centralized web application. Having done with this let us see some of the schemes initiated by the government for empowering persons with disabilities. We know that there are many schemes but today we will just list out some of them. Some of the important schemes include the Accessible Elections, Accessible India Campaign or the Sugamya Bharat Abhyan, the ADIP scheme which is also called as the Assistance to Disabled Person for Purchasing or Fitting of AIDS Replyances scheme and the Deen Dayal Disabled Rehabilitation scheme. We also know that persons with disabilities are entitled to GST concessions by the Department of Heavy Industries and moreover the National Awards for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities are constituted by the government and also scholarships for persons with disabilities are provided by the government. With this we have come to the end of this news article. This news article deals about the Coloury Pyrite which is one of the oldest martial arts in India and Coloury was one of the most important educational institutions of South India. Having originated in the state of Kerala around third century BC Coloury Pyrite is being practised in most parts of southern India. It is coming to Coloury which is a Malayalam word. It refers to a specific type of school or gymnasium or a training hall where martial arts are practised or taught and this art form includes mock duels both with armed and unarmed combat and also physical exercise. See it is not accompanied by any drumming or song and the most important aspect of this Coloury Pyrite is the style of fighting. This Coloury Pyrite's most important key is the footwork which includes kicks, strikes and weapon based practice and it is also to be noted that even women practice this hard. Colouries were intended to foster martial spirit of the Nires and to keep them fit for war. Even the Nambudri youths received military training in the Coloury during the wars of the 11th century. This Coloury Pyrite is still rooted in the traditional rituals and ceremonies and it includes a number of techniques and aspects and some of the techniques include the Ulichil or the massage with gingerly oil, the fighting with Otta which is an S shaped stick and the Mai Pyrite or body exercise then Puli and Kum or sword fight, Verumkai or bare-handed fight and Angatari or the use of metal weapons and the sticks of Koltari. So with this we have come to the end of this news analysis. Now let us move on to the next part of the discussion which includes the prelims practice questions. Now let us take up this prelims practice question. India-China borders can be divided into three sectors which are the western, middle and eastern sector. See the western sector includes the Union territory of Ladakh, the middle sector includes Imarchal Pradesh and Uttarakhand and the eastern sector includes Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. So with reference to the line of actual control which of the following statement is statements is correct. Statement A, it refers to the border between India and China in the western sector only. Statement B, it refers to the border between India and China that traverse the western, middle and eastern side of India. Statement 3, it refers to border between India and China in the eastern sector only. Statement D, it refers to border between India and China in the western and middle sector only. Now on coming to the answer, as we have discussed the entire Sino-Indian border is more than 4000 km long and it traverses the union territory of Ladakh, Imachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. And this line of actual control in its wider sense is the effective border between India and China which covers all the sectors, that is it covers the western and middle sectors and also the eastern sectors of the line. Therefore the right answer is statement B or option B which says it refers to the border between India and China that traverses the western, middle and eastern side of India. Now let us take up this prelims practice question with regard to UDID. See the question states, consider the statements with reference to UDID or Swavlamban card sometimes seen in the news. Statement 1, it is issued by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities. Statement 2, the card will be accepted only in the domicile of the card holder which of the above statement is or are incorrect. So when you look at this statement 1, as seen in this discussion it is issued by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities. So therefore statement 1 is right. Coming to statement 2, which states the card will be accepted only in the domicile of the card holder. This statement is wrong or incorrect because as we have discussed UDID card will be acceptable everywhere in India in order to prove one's disability condition. Therefore the wrong or the incorrect statement is statement 2 and therefore the right answer is option B that is 2 only. Now let us do this prelims practice question. With reference to India's culture and tradition, what is Kalaripayat? Option A, it is an ancient Bhakti cult of Shaivism, still prevalent in some parts of South India. Option B, it is an ancient style bronze and brass work still found in the southern part of Coromandel area. Option C, it is an ancient form of dance drama and a living tradition in the northern part of Malabar. Option D, it is an ancient martial art and a living tradition in some parts of South India. So as discussed in the news, we know that Kalaripayat is one of the oldest martial arts in India which is practiced in most parts of southern India. So therefore the right option, the right statement is option D which states it is an ancient martial art and a living tradition in some parts of South India. Now look at this prelims practice question. The 13th amendment constitution often seen in news is related to which of the following Indian neighbors. So as we know the 13th amendment of the Indian constitution is related with Sri Lanka. The right option here is option B, Sri Lanka. The list of mains practice question is displayed below. Write the answer and post it in the comment section. With this, we come to the end of today's news analysis. If you like the video, don't forget to like, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankara's academy YouTube channel for updates regarding UPSC civil service preparation.