 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Reyes Academy, displayed are the list of news articles taken for today's analysis and their page numbers in Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Tiruvananthapuram editions of the newspaper. The link for the handwritten notes in the PDF format and the time stamping of the displayed articles are provided in the description box and the time stamping is also provided in the comment section for the benefit of mobile phone viewers. Now let us move on to the first news article. These news articles are about income support schemes or you may also call as investment support schemes for farmers in two states. One is Odisha, other is Telangana. For Odisha it is Kaliya scheme and for Telangana it is Raithu Bandhu scheme. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of these news articles has been highlighted here for your reference. First let us see the news article with respect to the state government of Odisha. So they are talking about Kaliya scheme. The article states that the state government has identified fake beneficiaries who have received money under this Kaliya scheme. So they are saying around some 170 crore rupees have went into the wrong hands or fake beneficiaries. So first let us have a brief look at this Kaliya scheme. It stands for Krushak assistance for livelihood and income augmentation. See one way to address poverty among farmers is by financing the agriculture and also providing some kind of insurance to them. It could be life insurance or it could be personal accident cover or it could be crop insurance or anyway say an accident happens the farmer should not have the burden to take debt from moneylenders. There should be some kind of financial assistance to the poverty stricken farmers. Now this Kaliya scheme is based on the idea that if we enhance the accessibility to suitable financial services this will ensure agricultural productivity and it will also increase income among farmers particularly among the small and marginal landholders. Such a scheme would relieve farmers from going for lending money from informal moneylenders who may charge interest at very high rates. So here the state will give needful money and the farmers are not required to pay it back to the state government and they need not also pay interest for it. So such an income support scheme will save debt ridden farmers and it will also prevent farmers falling into debt trap. So this Kaliya scheme has five arms. One is assistance for cultivation, then assistance for livelihood, then assistance for vulnerable agricultural household, then life insurance for cultivators and landless agricultural laborers and interest free crop loans. So if you see assistance for cultivation here the state government of Odisha provides rupees 5000 for one season for one farm family or for one farmer family. So this means every year where we have two major seasons Karif and Rabi a farmer family will be getting rupees 10,000 under Kaliya scheme. This arm of the financial support is for small and marginal farmers so that they can purchase agricultural inputs such as seeds you know it could be fertilizers, pesticides and they can use this financial assistance also towards labor and other agricultural investments. It is said that this assistance has been implemented from the Rabi season of 2018-19. When we say Rabi cropping season it means the period from October to March. The best example for Rabi crop could be wheat. See the sowing of wheat takes place in October to December and harvesting is done between February and May. So the next arm of assistance under this Kaliya scheme is for livelihood. This arm provides one-time financial assistance of rupees 12,500 to each landless agricultural household for a period of three years. This amount could be used for agricultural allied activities say for example small goat rearing unit, mini lair unit, duckery units, mushroom cultivation for example bee keeping also. These are some of the agricultural allied activities for which this amount could be utilized. So who is a landless agricultural household? Any household which does not own any land and if the particular household is engaged for more than six months in agricultural activities, they are called as landless agricultural household. See here the terminology is landless agricultural household. Here they are not talking about small farmers or marginal farmers. This is because the terminologies small farmers or marginal farmers they are connected with land ownership. If you want to say who is a small farmer, a small farmer is a cultivator who owns one hectare to two hectares of agricultural land. In other words a small farmer is a cultivator who owns 2.5 acres to 5 acres of agricultural land. Marginal farmer is a cultivator who owns less than one hectare of agricultural land. So here we saw that the financial assistance is 12,500. This will be given in three installments for a period of three years. It will be given in three installments of rupees 5,000, then rupees 3,000 and then rupees 4. By the end of 2021 the landless agricultural households would have received rupees 12,500 per landless agricultural household. Now the third arm of the scheme is the assistance for vulnerable agricultural household. Here the vulnerability could be that farmers may be in old age they may have disability or they may have diseases or they may have any other vulnerability. This scheme identifies such vulnerable agricultural households and they will be given a financial assistance of rupees 10,000 per year for one family. Now the fourth part of this Kalia scheme is about insurance. It is called as life insurance for cultivators, landless agricultural laborers. They will be provided a life insurance cover of rupees 2 lakh and a personal accident cover of rupees 2 lakh. The annual premium for life insurance cover is rupees 330. 50% of this premium will be shared by the state government that is the state government will give 165 rupees and the farmer will give 165 rupees in a year as a annual premium. This will be provided to all savings bank account holder of age between 18 to 50 years. The annual premium for personal accident cover is 12 rupees half of the share that is rupees 6 will be borne by the government of Odisha. One special feature here is that for those cultivators and landless agricultural laborers if they are aged between 51 years to 70 years the entire amount of rupees 12 as annual premium will be borne by the government of Odisha that is the government of Odisha will contribute rupees 12 for them. The particular beneficiaries need not contribute for this insurance for personal accident cover. One of the major issues that torment the lives of farmers is that they fell into debt trap. So, to address these concerns there is a fifth arm to provide interest free crop loan. Crop loans up to rupees 50,000 will be made available to farmers at 0% interest. So, therefore these farmers are relieved from the clutches of informal money lenders who charge hefty rates of interest for the money given when taken as debt. The beneficiaries for interest free crop loans they are identified by gram panchayats. They could be vulnerable landless laborers cultivators sharecroppers and agricultural families. So, these are the five major components or five major arms of this Kaliya scheme. Simply we can say that this scheme includes financial support for cultivation financial support for agriculture allied activities which they call as financial support for livelihood. Then there is financial support for agricultural households based on vulnerability and there is insurance support there is also interest free crop loan support. So, for all these reasons this scheme has been named as Khrushak assistance for livelihood and income augmentation. If you take Kisan scheme the central sector scheme announced by government of India there the beneficiaries are landowners they have to be small and marginal farmers but special feature with respect to Kaliya scheme is that it considers it extends financial support to landless agricultural laborers also. The news article is that within one farmer family there are two beneficiaries. Now the scheme states that under assistance for cultivation a financial assistance of rupees 5000 will be given for one farmer family for one season. When there are two beneficiaries within a single family that means there is one fake beneficiary. This scheme is not for government employees and pensioners they are saying that there are around some 20,000 government employees and pensioners who are fake beneficiaries who have received such benefits under this Kaliya scheme. So, whatever amount these fake beneficiaries have received these will be deducted from their salary or pension. So, the assistance for cultivation is for small and marginal farmers only and not for large and big farmers and they have found there are some 12,000 big farmers who have received such benefits. So, these are some of the fake beneficiaries and the program is to provide financial benefits for adults and it is found that there are around 9000 boys and girls who have not completed 18 years of age have also received such financial benefits. So, at the end of the day around rupees 170 crore have went in the wrong hands. So, this is the news article now that the government has identified the fake beneficiaries this will act as a course correction so that the government money is not wasted. Now, let us come to the news article that has appeared in the Hyderabad edition of the Hindu newspaper. This article talks about the income support scheme for farmers in the state of Telangana. The name of the scheme is Raithu Bandhu scheme see Raithu means farmer Bandhu means a close relative. So, through the scheme the farmers will be treated as a close relative of the government. There is also a Raithu Bhima scheme Bhima means insurance. So, this is an insurance scheme of farmers. So, today we will restrict with Raithu Bandhu for our discussion. See this Raithu Bandhu scheme is called as agriculture investment support scheme. So, the scheme provides investment support for agricultural crops and also horticultural crops. The financial assistance is rupees 5000 for one farmer for one acre in every season. So, this money could be used for purchasing inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides etc. That is why it is called as agricultural investment support scheme. Last year it was rupees 4000 per acre performer. Now, they have increased to rupees 5000 per acre performer. Here the specialty is rupees 5000 is for one acre for one season. If a farmer has five acres for one season he will get rupees 25000. You calculate for a year there are two major seasons so a farmer who has one acre will get rupees 10000 and a farmer having five acres will receive rupees 50000 in a year. In the case of central sector scheme announced for income support for farmers that is PM Kisan. Here a farmer having five acres or one acre they will receive only rupees 6000 in one year but under the state government of Telangana a beneficiary having five acres under Raithu Bandhu will receive rupees 50000 in a year and one negativity with respect to Raithu Bandhu that Raithu Bandhu and PM Kisan is that only those cultivators who own land are given such financial support. We saw in Kaliya that there is financial support for livelihood for landless agricultural households. There is one requirement to be a beneficiary under Raithu Bandhu scheme in Telangana that is that the farmer should have patadar passbook that is registered with chief commissioner of land administration. So if a farmer does not have this patadar passbook registered with chief commissioner of land administration he becomes ineligible. Therefore many forest dwelling communities have become ineligible to become a beneficiary under the scheme particularly those farmers who are part of podu cultivation. It is found that in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana farmers go for podu cultivation. Most of them are people belonging to scheduled tribes and other traditional forest dwellers. So presently these farmers are not covered under Raithu Bandhu scheme because they do not possess the patadar passbooks. So what is podu cultivation? Is it a name of a tribal group? No. So it is another name of shifting cultivation or another name of slash and burn cultivation. Such a cultivation is practiced in the hill slopes. So what is shifting cultivation or slash and burn agriculture? Here farmers will clear a patch of land and they cultivate foot crops there. After some time in the parcel of land where they are cultivating foot crops there the soil fertility will decrease. When soil fertility decreases the farmers will shift from this parcel of land and they will go to next parcel of land. There they will clear the existing trees or other things and start cultivating in the next parcel of land where they have shifted. So what will happen to the initial parcel of land now? Through natural processes here the soil fertility will replenish or will be restored. Shifting cultivation is known in different names in several places. In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana it is known as podu cultivation or penda cultivation. In Madhya Pradesh it is called as bevar or dahiya cultivation. In Himalayan regions it is known as kil cultivation. In Jharkhand it is known as kuruva cultivation. In northeastern region it is known as jhum cultivation. They call us jhumming. So these are some of the names in which shifting cultivation is called in several regions. So we saw about Kaliya scheme. We saw about Raithu Bandhu scheme. Then we saw about shifting cultivation that is practiced on the hill slopes of Telangana the podu cultivation and we saw some of the names in which shifting cultivation is called in various regions of India. With this we come to the end of the analysis of these two news articles. Now let's move on to next article. This news article deals with renaming the Hyderabad Karnataka region in the state of Karnataka into Kalyana Karnataka. For our analysis for the newspaper published on 7th September 2019 that day we saw that the state cabinet of Karnataka has decided to rename Hyderabad Karnataka region into Kalyana Karnataka. That day we saw few facts about this region and we also saw article 371 capital J that was introduced in the Indian constitution to give special status for this region in the state of Karnataka. This article 371 capital J was inserted by 98th constitutional amendment act of 2012. In our today's analysis we will see few information about this region and we will also see why it is named as Kalyana Karnataka. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article has been highlighted here for your reference. See the Kalyana Karnataka region which was earlier called as Hyderabad Karnataka region. This region is in Karnataka in the northeastern region. It comprises of six districts Bidar district Kalaburagi district which is also known as Gulbarga district then Yadgir district Raichur district Koppel and Bellary districts. The chief minister of Karnataka has stated that renaming of Hyderabad Karnataka region was a long pending demand from the people that was now finally fulfilled. The chief minister has also given the reason for changing the name. One reason is to erase the bad memories with respect to the atrocities committed by Rasakas and the oppression by the then Nisam of Hyderabad. Another reason is to promote the Sharana culture. First we will see about Rasakas oppression by Nisam of Hyderabad then we will see about Sharana culture. Know that 17th September that is yesterday is celebrated as Hyderabad Karnataka Liberation Day. Now this is because it is on this day and 18th of September the Hyderabad Karnataka region merged with the union of India. See though India got independence on 15th August 1947 it was freedom for all parts of India except three princely states that did not access to Indian territory by 15th August 1947. So there were totally some 565 princely states it was a tiresome and a difficult task to join these states with union of India however this task was successfully carried out by Sardar Vallabhai Patel who was India's deputy prime minister and also the home minister during this crucial period. Patel was known for firmness and sometimes even ruthlessness because of the historic role in negotiating with the rulers of princely states firmly at the same time diplomatically and thereby bringing most of the princely states into the Indian union. So before 15th August 1947 through negotiations and various diplomatic strategies taken by Sardar Vallabhai Patel almost 562 princely states out of 565 princely states have become a part of Indian union. Through this instrument of accession the princely states agreed to become a part of Indian union. However three princely states did not sign this instrument of accession they were Junaagat in Gujarat, Hyderabad and Jammu and Kashmir. See today our focus will be on Hyderabad. It is said that Hyderabad was the largest of the princely states and it was surrounded entirely by the Indian territory. See we are talking about 1947 some parts of old Hyderabad princely state they are today parts of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The ruler of Hyderabad had the title Nizam and he was one of the world's richest man at that point of time. His name was Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan. The Nizam wanted an independent status for Hyderabad that is he was unwilling to access to Indian union and by November 1947 after India's independence Nizam entered into a standstill agreement with India. Indian government thought this agreement and this negotiations will lead to introduction of a representative government in this Hyderabad princely state. Eventually it would make Hyderabad princely state to merge or access to Indian union. This standstill agreement states that till new arrangements are made whatever was the state before 15th August of 1947 shall continue between India and the Nizam of Hyderabad and India should not send troops to assist the Nizam in maintenance of internal order in the Hyderabad princely state and if at all India has to station some troops in the Hyderabad territory it can be done in time of war and with the consent of Nizam and this agreement is for a period of one year it was signed on 29th November 1947. So after this agreement Indian government continued the negotiations with him so as to merge the Hyderabad princely state with India but Nizam prolonged the negotiations at the same time he planned to build his own military strength he was thinking that if he had military strength then he can force Indian government to accept his sovereignty and to accept the independent country of Hyderabad. Reports say that he also thought about blackmailing India that if India did not agree to his conditions that he will accede with Pakistan. So at this time there was a militant Muslim communal organization called us Itihad Ul Muslimin. This organization had a paramilitary wing which was supported by the Hyderabad princely state administration. This paramilitary wing is known as Razakas. On August 7 1947 the Hyderabad State Congress launched a powerful Satyagraha to demand the Nizam to join with Indian Union and you know that nearly 20,000 Satyagrahis they were jailed by the Nizam. The Razakas were attacking people and the state authorities were showing the repression against the people and because of this thousands of people fled the Hyderabad princely state and they took the shelter in the Indian territory at that point of time. So this event this Satyagraha was on 7th August 1947. Prior to this by the month of June the people of Hyderabad state they started a movement against this Nizam and this movement was called as join the union movement and it is said that small landholders the peasants agricultural laborers in the Telangana region in particular they were victims of oppressive rule of Hyderabad Nizam. So they rose against him and it is also said that many women also joined this movement against the Hyderabad Nizam. For all these movements demands the Nizam responded through the paramilitary force Razakas. The Razakas are also part of them were also involved in the private protection of the Nizam. Therefore it is also called as private militia raised by the Hyderabad Nizam. It is said that the leader of Razakas Qasim Rasvi he carried out many atrocities in the region. It is said that he has said to his battalion that each Razakas should carry a Nizam flag in one hand and a sword on the other. Reports were coming that the Razakas are murdering people they injured or maimed people and they committed sexual assaults and also looted the people particularly targeting the non-Muslims and also those people who were in favor of acceding to Indian territory. So to tackle these situations these atrocities the central government and especially Sardar Vallabhai Patel decided to undertake a police action. So this operation is called as Operation Polo sometime also referred as Operation Caterpillar. The action started on 13th September 1948 and it came to an end on 17th September 1948 the day on which Nizam of Hyderabad agreed accession to India and signed the treaty to merge with India. During the states reorganization in 1950s the Kannada speaking areas of the Hyderabad princely state was merged with Karnataka and these parts are called as Hyderabad Karnataka particularly the six districts. So this day the 17th September of 1948 as the region was merged with India and this day is 17th September is celebrated by the people of Hyderabad Karnataka's Hyderabad Karnataka Liberation Day. Also know that the princely state of Hyderabad was the last to join to the Indian Union. Kashmir joined in October 1947 October 26 27 of 1947. Zanjunagad joined in February 1948 and finally Hyderabad joined in September 1948. Now let's see the recent behind the name Kalyana Karnataka. See this name is a tribute to the contribution of social reformers from the 12th century. Way back in the 12th century itself 12th century AD the concepts of social justice equality women's emancipation or women empowerment these reforming agenda has gained strength in this region. This is because of the social reformers one of the prominent social reformers is Basavanna. He's also called us Basaveshwara Basava, Basavaraja, Basavadeva like that. He believed that all people are equal and everybody deserve equal rights and equal opportunities. He was known for his saintliness, transparent concern for enlightenment and welfare for all people including those people who were then considered by certain section of people as lower castes or outcastes like that. Because of his reform agenda because of his ideologies he became popular and many people came from distant parts to listen to his teachings. He also established Anubhava Mantaba which means spiritual parliament. In this Anubhava Mantaba there were hundreds of Sharanas men and women who took part in the spiritual discussions. Sharanas means those who have dedicated themselves to serve humanity and God. All of them together condemned the categorization of society based on castes, subcastes and they also condemned untouchability. They gave wisdom through their writings called as Vachana writings that means poetry. Through their writings they established Kalyana Rajya. Here Kalyana means welfare and Rajya means state so they established a welfare state. Historians also say that there is a region called Kalyana region in the Bidar district in Karnataka. See of the six districts that are called as Hyderabad Karnataka region or now Kalyana Karnataka region one of them is Bidar. So in this there is a place called Kalyana. It is said that the later Chalukyas or in other words Chalukyas of Kalyana they established their capital at Kalyana. These later Chalukyas who ruled some parts of this region during 11th and 12th centuries they were called as Chalukyas of Kalyana to distinguish Chalukyas of Badami. It is said that the place is now called as Basava Kalyana. It is said that Kalyana was the epicenter of social reforms because by 1154 AD Basavana was shifted to the capital Kalyana where he was appointed as prime minister of later Chalukyas of Kalyana. Some say that the present day Basava Kalyana in Bidar district was called as Kalyani in those days. So anyhow the word Kalyana means welfare, Raja means state. So then social reformers established a Kalyana Raja and present day government of Karnataka has renamed the Hyderabad Karnataka region into Kalyana Karnataka meaning welfare state in Karnataka. We know that this Kalyana Karnataka region is considered as one of the backward regions in India and within Karnataka it is the most backward region. So with the renaming of Kalyana Karnataka it is expected that the history of great humanists and the social reform agenda associated with the name is expected to lead to a new chapter of welfare and development in this region. The chief minister has also stated that there will be a separate secretariat for this region so as to facilitate development and he has also announced that the Kalaburagi airport will be officially open for public use. Know that these measures are in addition to Kalyana Karnataka region development board that was established based on article 371 capital J of Indian constitution this was established in 2013. So with this we come to the end of the analysis of this news article now let's move on to next article. This news article talks about discovery of two new plant species in the Shola forests of western Ghats. The plant species are Tylophora Balakrishnanai, Tylophora Neglecta. They belong to Asclepiodaceae family or Milkweed family from the Shola forests of western Ghats. The name Asclepiodaceae is a new name to the family name Asclepiodoidae. They are called milkweed because they contain latex or milky juice. Many milkweed butterfly species say for example Monarch butterflies they feed on this milky juice. So these butterfly species depends on such plant species. So without such plant species the butterfly species cannot complete their life cycle and therefore their populations will decline. Therefore the milkweeds have a very important ecological role to play. So as you are seeing in the picture these milkweed flowers have five united petals. Now let us see briefly about the two discovered plant species first Tylophora Balakrishnanai. This species was discovered from Tholayram Shola in Vayanad. The species is named after Mr. V Balakrishnan in recognition of his contributions to biodiversity. He is a member secretary of Kerala State Biodiversity Board and he is former director of MS Swaminathan Research Foundation Vayanad. Now this Tylophora Balakrishnanai is endemic to the southern western Ghats. As of now it is known only from two localities from Arunamala in the Vayanad district. We have been seeing Vayanad district recently in news. One is with respect to Edakal caves. Now let us see the Tylophora Neglecta. This species has been discovered from Shola forest on Tuval Malahil in Kullam district. It has been named Neglecta because it was a neglected species. Earlier scientists might have neglected this species or wrongly identified it as another Tylophora species. This species is also endemic to southern western Ghats. Currently known from three localities Kottavasal, Vellari Malah, Tuval Malah regions of Achangovil forest in Kullam district. We saw Ambukutty forest in Vayanad district with respect to Edakal caves. The end line is that discovery of these new species highlight the richness in biodiversity in western Ghats. We should know that western Ghats is a biodiversity hotspot in India. So the term biodiversity hotspot it was coined by British biologist Norman Mayors in the year 1988. Biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region that should have two characteristics. One it should have exceptional levels of plant endemism. Second it should have serious levels of habitat loss. In other words these are earth's most biologically rich but threatened terrestrial regions. Endemism means the plants that are found in western Ghats should be native to western Ghats and should not be native or found in any other regions. So to qualify as a biodiversity hotspot there are two strict quantifiable criteria. One is that the area should contain at least 1500 species of vascular plants that are found nowhere else on earth. That is it should contain this much of endemic species. Second it should have lost at least 70% of its primary native vegetation. Around the world we can see 36 areas being qualified as biodiversity hotspots. Though they represent just 2.4% of earth's land surface they support more than half of world's plant species as endemic plants and they support nearly 43% of bird, mammal, reptile and amphibian species as endemic animal species. In India biodiversity hotspots can be seen in four categories. One Himalaya category it includes entire Indian Himalayan region. Indo-Barma category see in Indo-Barma category northeast in India except Assam and Andaman group of islands are included. Then Nicobar group of islands of India they come under Sunda lands category. Entire western Ghats come under western Ghats and Sri Lanka category. Now let's see few information with respect to western Ghats. They are internationally recognized as a region of immense global importance for the conservation of biological diversity. It's a chain of mountains that run parallel to India's western coast. The Ghats travels across six states as you see in this map. They are Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat. The western Ghats mountains cover an area of around 1,040,000 square kilometer in a length of 1,600 kilometer. The length or the stretch is interrupted only by around 30 kilometer gap called as our Palakkad gap. So what is the highest point in western Ghats? See it is the Anaymudi peak which is at 2,695 meters. The mountains of western Ghats they mediate the rainfall regime of Peninsular India by intercepting the Mansoon storm systems. See the areas that are in the west of the highest elevations of western Ghats they receive greatest annual rainfall. They receive around 300 centimeter or 3,000 millimeter on an average. Annual rainfall levels decrease considerably along the eastern slopes of western Ghats and rainfall also decreases from south to north particularly the north of the Palgad gap. As we know the most important feature or the significant feature of western Ghats is their exceptionally high level of biological diversity and endemism. They are recognized as one of the world's eight hottest hotspots of biological diversity along with Sri Lanka. In terms of plant diversity western Ghats harbor approximately 5,000 species of flowering plants and about 1,700 species that is around 35% of these flowering plants they are endemic to this region and also know that western Ghats is a natural world heritage site. We discussed world heritage sites with respect to our discussion on Edakal caves day before yesterday. That day we discussed India has 30 cultural world heritage sites India has seven natural world heritage sites and India has one mixed world heritage site. That day we saw that the one mixed site is in the state of Sikkim and we saw that Ellora caves, Elephanta caves and Ajanta caves. These are the three caves in India that are part of cultural world heritage sites. So of the seven natural world heritage sites western Ghats is one of them. It was given the status in the year 2012. Now within western Ghats there are seven sub clusters. They are Agastya Malay, Periyar Malay, Anay Malay and Nilugris in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, Thalak Averi and Kudurai Mukku in Karnataka and Sahedri in Maharashtra. With this we come to the end of the analysis of this news article. Now let's move on to next article. This news article is about recent drone attack by the Houthi rebels on oil fields and oil processing facility owned by Saudi Aramco in Saudi Arabia. The author talks about some situations that could have led to the present situation and the implications on India. Recently the Kurai's oil field and upquake oil processing facility that was owned by Saudi Aramco was attacked using drones. Saudi Aramco is the Saudi Arabian national petroleum and natural gas company. The Houthi rebels in Yemen country they have claimed the responsibility for the drone attack over the Saudi Arabian region. After the attack Saudi Aramco has suspended more than half of daily crude oil output of Saudi Arabia. Also it is said that the attacked sites contribute to more than half of daily crude oil production of Saudi Arabia. So the suspension or the disruption in the production or in the crude oil output of Saudi Arabia has affected global supply of crude oil and therefore it has resulted into sudden increase or sudden spike in the oil prices. It is said that because of this almost five percent of world's crude oil production will be affected and it will affect the Asian countries who import oil from Saudi Arabia. The article says that the price of Brent crude has increased by around 20 percent and it is the highest price surge in Brent crude in more than a decade that is in last 10 years. When we say Brent crude it is a major trading classification of crude oil or sweet light crude oil and Brent crude is the major benchmark price for purchases of oil all around the world. It is described as light crude oil because of its relatively low density and it is called as sweet light crude oil because of the low sulfur content and Saudi Aramco has said that the suspended oil production will be restored by September end. Meanwhile USA has said that it will release some of its strategic reserves and as a result of which the price rise which was 20 percent has come down to 10 percent. See the price of the price of a barrel of Brent crude is now 66 dollars. Here one barrel means approximately 159 liters. So USA has said it will release its strategic petroleum reserves. These are reserves which are emergency fuel storage of petroleum that is maintained underground by the United States Department of Energy. So whenever there is an emergency these reserves will be used. The news article also talks about Yemen. See it is in the southwest corner of Arabian Peninsula borders with Saudi Arabia, Oman. Majority of its population belong to Islamic community. See there are different sects here. The majority population in northern Yemen they belong to Saidi sect. Their beliefs are closer with the Shias in Iran. The majority population in southern Yemen are mostly Sunni Muslims. The Haudi rebels what we talk about they belong to Saidi's. They rebelled against the former president Mansur Hadi. He had the support from the west that is the United States and the Saudi Arabia. So now the civil war is between the Saudi-led coalition of Arab countries and the Haudi rebels who are allegedly supported by Iran. See the responsibility of present drone attack on Saudi Arabia particularly on Saudi Aramco oil fields and oil processing facility was claimed by Haudi rebels in Yemen. U.S. has alleged that Iran was behind the attack whereas Iran had denied the charges of United States. We know that Iran-U.S. relations is in turmoil particularly after the U.S. had walked away from the joint comprehensive plan of action which is also called as Iran nuclear deal. United States is willing to make a more stronger nuclear deal with Iran but Iran is not ready to talk about the deal on the terms commanded by the United States. After the drone attacks United States President has made a provoking statement that United States was locked and loaded. Now this indicates that U.S. is ready for a military response to Iran if we exactly go by the statements made by U.S. President. But the article states that both the United States and Iran must work towards de-escalation of tensions through diplomacy. The author states that the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen with the logistical support from U.S. and U.K. should be halted. They must leave it to the United Nations to bring peace in Yemen. The author discusses important reasons for the sudden disruption in the global crude oil supply. One is with respect to Iran nuclear deal joint comprehensive plan of action. We know the deal was signed by the P5 countries U.S., U.K., France, China and Russia, then Germany, European Union and also Iran. This deal was expected to stabilize the Middle East but with the sudden withdrawal of United States it has made the deal virtually ineffective. The objective of JCPOA was nuclear non-proliferation in Iran by cutting the stockpile of enriched uranium. The sudden withdrawal of United States from the deal has led to escalations of tensions between U.S. and Iran. Therefore indirectly the author conveys that therefore Iran could have allegedly supported the Houthi rebels to carry out such a strike on Saudi Arabia. Now the second reason given by author is the adventure of Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. If Iran is not involved the Houthi rebels naturally are against Saudi Arabia. So this could be one of the reasons for the attack that has hampered the global crude oil supply. So the developments affected supply of crude oil and it will mainly affect the emerging economies or the developed economies say for example India which depends heavily on oil imports to meet the demand or needs. See India heavily depends on crude oil imports to meet its energy demands. Almost 87% of India's crude oil needs for the financial year 2018-2019 was met through imports. For imports India depends mainly on Iraq and Saudi Arabia for its energy needs. Earlier India was also depending on Iran now India has been asked by the U.S. not to purchase crude oil from Iran. So as a result this makes India's pressure to depend on Iraq and Saudi Arabia more. So any negative development in Saudi Arabia or Iraq or Middle East is certainly going to impact India and the rise in fuel price is expected to impact Indian current account. See current account keeps a record of transactions of India with the rest of the world. So increased fuel price will result in more dollar payment by India. This will increase the current account deficit that is the dollars spent for imports will So this will deplete or drain our forex reserve. An estimate states that one dollar increase in crude oil price may increase the import bill by around rupees 10,000 crore every year. Rise in crude oil price will also depreciate Indian rupee. With rupee depreciation more rupees is needed to buy one unit of foreign currency one unit of US dollar. Since we have to pay the increased fuel price in dollars during import the demand for rupee compared to dollar will come down. This will result in depreciation of rupee. Now the increase in import bill will lead to increase in fuel price that is fuel price inflation. Fuel price inflation will stimulate inflation in food products and other products. Because of increase in fuel price there will be increase in transportation cost. Therefore it will affect other products prices as well. Already Indian economy is witnessing a slowdown which has resulted in stagnating income of individuals and in many cases job losses as well. Any further increase in fuel price will also affect the situation. The author concludes by telling that the government should be prepared to handle these adverse impacts and government should reevaluate excise duties that are imposed on petroleum products so that the increase in import bill may not reflect into price rise in the petroleum products. So care should be taken when government imposes an excise duty in the coming time. So reevaluation on excise duty of petroleum products should be carried out by central government and the same shall also be carried out by state governments who impose a value added tax on the retail price of petrol and diesel. With this we come to the end of analysis of this news article. We have come to the final session, the practice question discussion session. This question they have given two statements asking which of our statements are correct. First statement the princely states of junagadh, hydrobot and jamu and keshmir did not sign instrument of accession before 15th august 1947. Now this statement is correct during the analysis we saw that about 562 princely states have signed the instrument of accession before 15th august 1947 but three princely states one is junagadh then hydrobot and jamu and keshmir did not sign instrument of accession before 15th august 1947. So when did they sign instrument of accession junagadh signed the instrument of accession in february 1948 jamu and keshmir in october 1947 hydrobot as we saw today in september 1948. Now come to the second statement junagadh is the last princely state to join to the union of india junagadh joined in february 1948 but hydrobot joined in september 1948. So hydrobot is the last princely state to join with union of india. So the second statement is incorrect only the first statement is correct therefore the correct answer is option a one only. Now this question is about biodiversity hotspot. Biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region characterized both by exceptional levels of plant optimism and by serious levels of habitat loss. Consider the following statements with reference to the criteria to qualify for a biodiversity hotspot. Two statements are given they are asking which among the above statements are incorrect. Now the first statement the region must have at least 1500 species of vascular plant's endomics. Now this statement is correct. Now second statement the region must have 30% or less of its original natural vegetation. Now during the analysis we saw that the region must have lost 70% or more of its original natural vegetation which means region must have 30% or less of its original natural vegetation. Both the statements are correct and are criteria to qualify for biodiversity hotspot but the question asks for incorrect statements therefore the correct answer is option d neither one nor two. Now this question is with reference to western guards they have given three statements and are asking which of the above statements are correct. First statement it traverses the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan. See we know it travels through six states but it does not travels through Rajasthan. In Rajasthan we can find Aravilli, Hills and we can find Mount Abu. So the first statement is wrong it passes through the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat. The entire stretches of the length of around 1600 kilometer and an area of around 14000 square kilometer. Now the second statement it is a natural world heritage site. Now this statement is correct during the analysis we saw India has seven natural world heritage sites. One among the seven is western guards. Assam is the only state in India that has two natural world heritage sites one is Manas wildlife sanctuary and other is Kasiranga national park. The recently declared natural world heritage site in India is great Himalayan national park conservation area. So the second statement which states that western guards is a natural world heritage site is correct. So on 6th July 2019 UNESCO has inscribed seven cultural world heritage sites in its list. One is from India that is Jaipur city. Now come to the third statement it states Animudi peak is its highest point. Yes it is the highest point in the entire western guards range and is at altitude of around 2695 meters. So only second and third statements are correct. Therefore the correct answer for this question is option B2 and 3 only. Now this is a main question recent drone attacks in Saudi Arabia had disrupted the global supply of oil. It is said that this would mainly affect the oil importing nations such as India. Discuss the potential impacts on India suggests solutions to minimize the impacts. We discussed the editorial article fire on fuel with respect to the drone attacks in Saudi Arabia. For impacts on India see 87 percent of India's crude oil requirements for the year financial year 2019 was met through imports. India heavily depends on Iraq and Saudi Arabia for its energy needs. We should also note that now India cannot depend on Iran because US has asked India not to purchase oil from Iran as part of US Iran relations and associated tensions. Any negative development in say Saudi Arabia or Iraq is bound to impact India heavily. One immediate problem is that there will be rise in fuel price will be spending too much for the import of oil as the oil prices internationally has risen at least to the level of 10 percent after the drone attack. We know that at least till the end of September there will be suspension of almost 50 percent of crude oil output from Saudi Arabia. So increased fuel price internationally means increased dollar payment by India. This would affect current account of India and will lead to current account deficit and will drain to drain forex reserves. So as a result Indian rupee will also depreciate. The rise in fuel price will lead to fuel price inflation which will lead to inflation in all other dependent sectors. This along with the economic slowdown will hurt the common public in India more. Some measures as suggested by Arthur is that the government should reevaluate the excise duties imposed on petroleum products. This the state government should do with respect to value added taxes. Then if there is some emergency with respect to oil to handle such emergency the strategic oil resource in India should be filled to their capacity to meet energy needs in case of emergency. At present India has strategic oil resources in Visakapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Mangalur and Padur in Karnataka. So in case of emergency if they are already filled to their capacity they can help to meet 10 to 12 days of countries energy needs. And then there should be more emphasis on electric vehicles so as to reduce dependency on fossil fuels. India should diversify its sources of crude oil and natural gas. For example India could depend on far eastern region of Russia and other central Asian countries rather than depending on the west Asian region which is presently fragile because of escalated tensions between Iran and United States. These are some of the points you can add for the answer rating of this question. With this we come to the end of today's the Hindu news analysis. If you like the video click the like button, comment, share and subscribe to Shankara's Academy YouTube channel for more updates and content on civil service exam preparation.