 A warm greetings aspirants, welcome to the Hindu News Analysis brought to you by Shankar Ayes Academy for the day 8th of October 2021. Our UPSC preliminary exam for the year 2021 is about to come in two days. My sincere wishes for those who are giving your attempt this time. Study well, stay calm and give your exam with full confidence. So with this let us move on to our Hindu News Analysis. So these are the list of news articles that we have chosen for today's discussion and they are also provided along with the page numbers of different editions. So without wasting much time let us get into our discussion. Now our next news discussion is going to be based on this oped article. See as the title stronger at the grassroots end, this article is about the Panchayati Raj institutions. See this article talks about the importance of the Panchayati Raj institutions in tackling adverse situations, say like that of the pandemics and disasters. See as we know the role of the Panchayati Raj institutions in tackling the disease was very evident. In this article the author throws light on replicating the same mechanism to combat any diseases as well. So through this discussion we will see a brief overview of the Panchayati Raj institutions and also the important points mentioned in this article. The syllabus covered by this oped article is given here. Now before going into the discussion let us consider a main question like this and this question goes like, the Panchayati Raj institutions as a grassroots institutions have an important role to play during the crisis situations elucidated. Now say for example you have a main question like this, so when you have such a question you can actually make use of the points which I am about to discuss in this discussion. So first let us go through the entire discussion and then towards the end I will guide you on how to structure your answer if you get a question like this in your main exam. So first let us see the article. See as we know panchayat is a name that is given to the local government system in India and this word panchayat it means a group of 5 persons whether in practice a panchayat is a council of elders representing a village and this panchayati Raj is a form of government at the village level wherein each village is responsible for its own activities. So when you take ancient India it had some similar form of local governance but then the formal institutionalization came with the Magna Carta of local democracy in British India that is the Rippon Resolution of 1882 provided for rural local boats and then online came the Montagu Clemsford reforms of 1919 which made the local self-government under the proposed scheme of Diarchy a transferred subject and finally at last through the 73rd constitutional amendment constitutional status was accorded to these panchayats. So this is a very brief history on the evolution of the panchayati Raj institution so far. See generally such established panchayats they came in handy during the pandemic and now let us see how they came in handy during such difficult situations. So firstly these institutions they responded swiftly and they also helped people to recover quickly and thereby they contributed a lot in minimizing the deaths and most importantly these institutions they provided essential leadership at the local level and for doing that they performed both regulatory and welfare functions. Now say for instance during the nationwide lockdown these panchayati Raj institutions they set up containment zone and they arranged transport for the people and they even identified buildings for the quarantining people and they also provisioned food for the incoming migrants. So these are some remarkable and appreciable jobs that were done by the panchayati Raj institutions and moreover the effective implementation of welfare schemes say like that of the MG Narega and the national rural livelihood mission was also ensured by these panchayati Raj institutions and this actually quickened the pace of recovery of our economy and then the basic unit of Gram Sabha actually acted as idea chambers where in deliberations and consensus could be reached. So on those lines the author here believes that these panchayati Raj institutions has got the potential to serve as an institution to combat disasters as well and on that line he puts forward Yokohama strategy which focuses on disaster prevention. See for those who are not aware this Yokohama conference is nothing but the first world conference on natural disasters and the author here believes that for disaster prevention these panchayati Raj institutions can come handy. So now let us see how the author proposes to make this claim a reality. See in order to make use of these panchayati Raj institutions effectively when it comes to tackling a disease the first and foremost thing that needs to be done is to include the disaster management chapters in the panchayati Raj acts and along with that it is equally important to make disaster planning and spending a part of the panchayati Raj development plans because this will ensure that planning of resources is done with citizen in mind. Now next comes the importance of conducting regular location specific training programs for the communities through the concerned panchayati Raj institutions. Now understand the idea behind see some areas are vulnerable to some disasters only to understand better. For example when you take coastal Orisha it will be vulnerable to cyclone but it will not be vulnerable to landslides so at such a case specific training needs to be imparted to the concerned villages through these panchayati Raj institutions and another important thing in this regard is to organize platforms for sharing best practices say for example some Kerala village has a robust mechanism to deal with flooding so at such a case this can be shared and it can be replicated elsewhere in Bihar as well so in this way it is important to organize platforms for sharing best practices. Now moving on to the third point see since the community is usually the first responder in case of a disaster the community based disaster management plans can be laid down with the help of panchayati Raj institutions because these would provide a strategy for resource utilization and also for maintenance during a disaster so generally such plans should be designed by tapping the traditional wisdom of local communities and this can be used along with modern practices in order to strengthen disaster resilience. So this is how the panchayati Raj institutions can play an important role in extreme situations. Now coming back to the question which I showed you before see when you have a question like this the focus of the first part of your answer should be on how these panchayati Raj institutions help in times of disease outbreaks or disasters or any other such national calamities and then in the next part try to introduce some glitches that these PRRs face when it comes to the implementation of certain strategies. For example under this part you can include points like financial crunches, power deficit etc and then in the third part you can finish the answer by giving some way forwards in this regard. See here I've just given you only a rough overview to arrange the ideas that we have discussed today so you can structure the answer in this way and apart from this you should also feel free to add more points and case studies as well in order to enrich the essence of your answer. Now say for example few days ago in Ajanta Ma'am's session we saw a case in a tribal village in Kerala wherein the education was modernized at village levels in order to ensure education to children during pandemic time. So you can actually put together the various informations that you have learned from such articles and then you can combine them and you can write the answer because it is really helpful and it would actually help you in the main exam in a significant manner. So these are some of the takeaway points here. Now let's move on to the next news discussion. Now look at this news article. This article talks about the history of sheep domestication and it also throws light on the origin of sheep domestication in India. So first let us understand as to what is domestication and then on why it is done and then further we will move on to see the points that is mentioned in today's article. See domestication is a process in which people grow plants and look after animals. So generally the choice of the plants and the animals that are being domesticated will depend on the different climatic condition that is prevalent in a particular region. See generally the domesticated animal will be different from that of the wild animal of the same species and a major reason for this is because people do selective breeding when it comes to the domestication of animals. See when you look back the roots to the practice of animal domestication can be traced to the period when hunting was realized as an unsustainable activity or to the period when people realized that hunting cannot be totally reliable in a sustained manner. See the domestication of animals actually represented a new way of life or a kind of radical way of life because before domesticating people were totally indulged in hunting wherein they killed an animal and they consumed it immediately. But then with domestication this idea of killing and consuming immediately changed and people started to rare animals in order to use it in times of scarcity. So you can also say that food production and animal domestication represented a new and a changed outlook for the food quest because with domestication people moved on from their old hunting life where they hunted an animal and consumed it the same day to a new radical life in which they planned not only for a day but for the season as a whole so that means they with domestication the art of long-term planning also came to people. So we can say that when food production and animal domestication combined together as a mode of life it amounted to a new way of revolution to our ancestors. See as I said earlier when you take animals the ones that are relatively gentle they were selected for breeding and this is the reason why they are very different from their wild counterpart or they are different from the wild animals of the same species and a popular example for this would be the teeth and the horns of wild animals because they are usually larger than that of the domesticated ones. So far we learned about domestication and we also learned when this domestication actually started or when our ancestors started indulging in the process of domestication. So now let's see why this domestication is done. See when you take animals domestication is generally done since they provide milk which is an important source of food for our ancestors and apart from milk these animals also provide them with meat. While learning our sixth standard history NCRT you might have come across the concept of domestication. See according to NCRT domestication began about 12,000 years ago. See some of the earliest plants to be domesticated were wheat and barley and on the other hand the earliest domesticated animals include sheep and goat. So as I said earlier our focus today is going to be on the domestication of sheep. See sheep is generally domesticated for the purpose of meat, milk, wool and hides and when you take domestic sheep they are extremely adaptable in the sense they exist in extremely adaptable. This is because they have the potential to exist in a wide variety of habitats say ranging from temperate mountain forest to desert conditions. So coming to the core idea of the news article here see there was always a controversy when it comes to the debate on where this sheep domestication started and according to many sources and researchers the first domesticated sheep were said to reside mainly in the Middle East and Central Asia and from there it is believed that they have been introduced everywhere and when you take the chromosomal and archaeological evidence so far even they indicated that the first sheep domesticated were from the Moflon flocks. See this Moflon flocks which is mentioned here is a flock of wild sheep. So generally they say that the domestication started from the Moflon breeds in the parts of southwestern Europe and some even say that it started in the Moflon breeds of mountains of Asia Minor and Southern Iran. So on the whole it was claimed that the domestication of sheep or the sheep domestication happened in the mountains of southeast Europe and in the central or southwest Asia and these areas will include the countries of Greece, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Hungary, Uzbekistan, Syria, Yugoslavia, Turkmenistan, Iraq, Romania, Tajikistan, Bulgaria, Afghanistan and also Iran. Now coming to the cracks of today's news article see today's news article put forwards different claim in regard to the origin of sheep domestication and these claims are basically made on the basis of genome sequencing which were obtained from the various breeds of sheep. So among the various sequencing done one such sequencing has given a new different insight into the domestication of sheep. See during the course of this research the researchers studied the sheeps from two different lineages and let's name them as Lineage A and Lineage B and these are the examples of some of the breeds belonging to the Lineage A and these are the breeds from the Lineage B. So coming back the researchers have found that the domestication of those sheeps from Lineage A had taken place in the Indian subcontinent and this was said to particularly happen in the regions of the Indus Valley civilization in the 6th or 7th millennium BC. So this shows that the Indian subcontinent was one of the domestication centers but then this is a new claim because previously it was believed that domesticated sheep they arrived in the Indian subcontinent through migration. So now this belief which was there so far was ruled out by this new finding. Now on the other hand when it comes to the sheeps belonging to Lineage B the research found that their introduction into the Indian subcontinent happened through sea route. Now this again contradicts the previously held belief because the earliest stipulated fact was that they were migrated from the Mongolian plateau. So this also rules out the previously held belief. It is believed that the further study in this regard will provide more insight into this matter and this will actually help us in understanding more about the history of agriculture especially in the Indus Valley civilization. Now in a line or two I will brief about the domestication in the Indus Valley civilization. As we know the Indus Valley civilization dates back to 2500 to 1700 BCE and this civilization is also known as the Harappan civilization and when you take the Harappans they domesticated animals like dogs cats humped bull and shot on cattle. While apart from these we also have evidences of domestic fowl camels buffalo as well as pigs when it comes to the Indus Valley civilization. So by now I think you have a broad idea on domestication the reasons for domestication the origin of domestication on how domestication changed the lives of people and then we also saw a broad overview on the origin of domestication and the controversy is related to it and then we finally ended our article with the findings of this new research study and we also saw on how this study contradicts the previous held beliefs. Now with all these ideas in mind let's get on to the next news article. Now look at this news article the news article reports that the World Bank has retained the growth forecast for India for the financial year 2022. See in June the growth was forecasted to be at 8.3 percent and this forecast is now being retained due to the existing supportive measures in the economy and when I say supportive measures it includes the increase in public investment which has actually boosted the domestic demand and apart from this it also includes schemes like production linked incentive which actually plays an important role in boosting manufacturing and thereby boosting the entire economy. So this is the crux of the news article here now in this context let us see about the World Bank which is mentioned in this article. See first of all know that World Bank is a part of the World Bank group and this World Bank group is the largest multilateral development bank and know that it is the only multilateral development bank that is not bound to a specific region. See this World Bank group has got two ambitious goals note that the World Bank group is made up of five institutions and these five institutions are the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Development Association, the International Finance Corporation, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. Now among these five institutions the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association they together are what refer to as the World Bank. Now know that this IBRD or the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the IDA or the International Development Association are the World Bank Groups Instruments for Public Lending. So when you take this IBRD or the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development it provides low interest loans to middle income poor countries that are credit worthy and then next when you take this International Development Association or the IDA it is the world's largest source of interest free loans and grants to the poorest countries and many of these poorest countries are situated in Africa and note that this International Development Association's funds are replenished every three years by donor countries but then remember the support from the IBRD and IDA is provided depending on the eligibility of the member country. So coming back the World Bank's mission is to help people so that they help themselves and also the environment and this help is done by providing resources through sharing knowledge, building capacity and also by forging partnerships in the public and private sectors and apart from this it also provides services and advice and it also facilitates the private sector finance and investment in developing countries and also have in mind this World Bank plays many different as well as complementary roles say like that of a banker or donor an advisor, a knowledge resource as well as a partner and remember this World Bank has got 189 countries as its members and in this regard also make a note that World Bank offers two basic types of lending instruments to its client governments and these two types are the investment loans and the development policy loans. So with this let us wind up our discussion on World Bank. Now let us take up this editorial discussion. If you remember yesterday we had a discussion on the recently approved anti-malarial vaccine and this particular editorial is written in that background. So since we had a comprehensive understanding yesterday so in today's discussion let us quickly brush through the important points that is given in this editorial article. See as we know for the first time the World Health Organization has approved the anti-malarial vaccine and this approval actually marks a milestone in the long and the laborious process that was involved in tackling the malarial disease. See this WHO approved vaccine has been used in pilot program participants in Africa from the year 2015. See the intensity of malaria around the world is quite intense because as per the WHO in 2019 nearly half the world's population was at risk of malaria and among them most cases and deaths were found to occur in the sub Saharan Africa and also note they were an estimated of about 229 million cases in 2019 and the malaria deaths stood at around 4,9,000 with the WHO African region carrying a disproportionate burden of up to 94 percent of the cases and deaths. See one main thing you should note here is that children under the age of five with the most vulnerable group were affected by malaria in the year 2019 and they alone accounted for about two-thirds of all the malarial deaths. See as per WHO it has made the recommendations for the use of this malarial vaccine based on the key findings of pilot projects and these pilot projects were implemented in the child health clinics that were situated in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi and this pilot projects were happening for over two years. See based on the data and insights that were gathered from these studies it was evident that this particular vaccine was not only feasible to introduce but in addition to that it was also found to improve the health and save lives. Now this not by the WHO for the vaccine has come at a time when there was a fear among the world regarding the progress against malaria because the progress against a solution for this disease was found to be lagging. Now with the emergence of this vaccine it is said that it would significantly reduce the severity of cases and also that it would prevent the deaths. Now this is an important step not only with regard to malarial control but also with relation to child health and science itself because this vaccine has got the potential to facilitate equitable access to malaria prevention. And also have in mind this malarial vaccine which has been in making for nearly 30 years is said to act against PFALSI Parum which is believed to be the most deadly malarial parasite globally. And while many steps are taken to enhance or to further improve the manufacturer fund and the rollout of this vaccine to the nations affected by malaria the important point or the important initiative that should always be followed is to maintain the equity of access because this is the key to the effective implementation or effective solution. And the author here also notes that while this vaccination process is going on apparently the routine malarial prevention activities like providing insecticide, treating bed nets and such other activities should also be followed simultaneously for a more effective and for a more comprehensive coverage and control of the disease. And the next expected measure in this regard is the speedy implementation of the malarial vaccine from the lab to the actual field or reality. So these are the important points that is covered in this editorial article. So now let us move on to the next news discussion. Now let us take up this news article. It reports about the beginning of a 21-day drive to clean River Yamuna and this has been started as per the Swachh Bharat Abhyan or the Clean India program. See this is a much needed initiative because according to the government data currently Yamuna is polluted and it is not even fit for bathing in the Delhi stretch. So this is the crux of the news here. Now in this context let us see some important facts about River Yamuna. See Yamuna is a tributary of River Ganga and it is the western most and also the longest tributary of River Ganga. So Yamuna originates in the Yamuna 3 glacier which is situated on the western slopes of the Bandar Punch peak and this Bandar Punch is in the Musuri range of the lower Himalayas which is in Uttarakhand. See Yamuna initially flows parallel to the Ganga and then it joins the Ganga at Prayag which is in Halahabad and note that Yamuna is a right bank tributary of Ganga and also have in mind Yamuna and its catchment together is around 40.14% of the total Ganga river basin. See in its journey Yamuna traverses through many states and these states include Imachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi as well as Madhya Pradesh. Now coming to its tributaries, see in the first 170 km stretch of the river the tributaries Rishi Ganga Kunta, Anuman Ganga, Tones and Giri join the main river and apart from this some important major right bank tributaries are Chambal, Sindh, Betwa and Ken. Now when talking about the left bank tributaries of Yamuna it includes Hindan, Rind, Senghar and Varuna and among these tributaries Tones is the largest tributary and the Chambal is the longest tributary. See one of the major issues with the river is that it has been subjected to over exploitation and this Yamuna river is exploited more in terms of quantity as a large population is dependent on the river and when you talk about the quality of the river see this river is polluted by the inhabitants in the national capital Territory, Agra as well as Madhura and Delhi is a major contributor to the pollution in the national capital Territory. See the stretch of the Yamuna in Delhi is only 2% of the length of the river but then this small stretch accounts for over 75% of total pollution load in the river and it is said that approximately around 85% of the total pollution is from domestic source. So these are some important takeaway points about river Yamuna. So by now we are done with the article discussions for today and now let us move on to the next segment of our intro news analysis which is going to be our practice question discussion. Now look at this practice question which among the following rivers are tributaries of river Yamuna, Statement 1, Tones, Statement 2, Sionath, Statement 3, Girri, Statement 4, Pranita and Statement 5, Chambal. See the tributaries of Yamuna includes the Rishi, Ganga Kunta, Anuman Ganga, Tones, Girri, Chambal, Sindh, Betwa, Ken, Hindan, Rind, Senghar and Varuna. So based on this we can find that only option 1, 3 and 5 are right and option 2 and 4 are incorrect because Sionath is the longest tributary of Mahanadi and Pranita is the largest tributary of Godavari. So since only the first third and fifth option here are right the correct answer here will be option D that is 1, 3 and 5 only. Now look at this prelims practice question with reference to the history of the world consider the following statements. Statement 1, wheat in barley where some of the earliest plants to be domesticated. Statement 2, domestication of sheep did not happen in Indian subcontinent. See as we saw in our discussion wheat and barley were the earliest domesticated plants and sheep and goat were the earliest domesticated animals. So that makes the first statement correct. Now coming to the second statement see this statement says that the domestication of sheep did not happen in Indian subcontinent. Now this statement is incorrect because as we saw in our discussion the recent research has shown that sheep domestication happened in the Indian subcontinent also. So that makes the second statement incorrect. So since the question wants us to find only the incorrect statement here the correct answer will be option B that is 2 only. The practice remains question for today is given here. So those who are interested kindly write your answers and post them in the comments section. So with this we have come to the end of today's inter-news analysis and if you like the video then don't forget to like, comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar Iyer's Academy YouTube channel for more updates regarding UPSC civil services preparation.