 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankaray's Academy. Displayed on the list of news articles taken for today's analysis and their page numbers in different editions of the newspaper. The link for the handwritten notes in the PDF format and the timestamping of the discussed articles are given in the description and also in the comment section for the benefit of mobile phone viewers. Now let's move on to the analysis of first news article. This editorial article is with reference to India's silent emergency which is the crisis of malnutrition in our country. In this context let us understand what is meant by malnutrition then we will see some of the important points mentioned in the editorial. The syllabus relevant for the analysis is highlighted here for your reference. When we say malnutrition it refers to deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in a person's intake of energy and nutrients. The term covers two broad groups of conditions. One is undernutrition. Undernutrition includes stunting, wasting, underweight and micronutrient deficiencies or insufficiencies meaning lack of important vitamins and minerals in the body. Stunting refers to low height for age, wasting refers to low weight for height, underweight refers to low weight for age. The other group of conditions is overweight, obesity and diet related non communicable diseases which include stroke, diabetes, heart diseases, cancer. Now India is a fast growing economy. The nation also has the largest anti malnutrition program to tackle child malnutrition. Here we are referring to ICDS program abbreviated as integrated child development services scheme. Though we are having this scheme for a long period of time, India is still among the nations that have the world's worst level of child malnutrition. According to national and international studies, India's performance on key malnutrition indicators is considered poor. Now let us see what the authors have to say about this scenario in India. The authors have taken examples from global studies to show the real picture of grave malnutrition in our country. They bring in the findings from two recent reports. One is the annual report on the state of food security and nutrition in the world 2020, which is an annual flagship report jointly prepared by five agencies, a FAO, International Fund for Agriculture Development, UNICEF, World Food Program and WHO. Then the other is the 2020 hunger report titled as Better Nutrition, Better Tomorrow. This report is released by Bread for the World Institute. Now don't confuse this hunger report with Global Hunger Index report, which is released by Concern Worldwide and World Hunger Health. Now coming to the two reports which were highlighted in this article, both of them they use globally recognized indicators which are prevalence of undernourishment and prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity. When we say prevalence of undernourishment, it refers to estimate of proportion of population whose habitual food consumption is insufficient to provide dietary energy levels that are required to maintain a normal, active and healthy life. It is expressed as percentage and when we say prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity indicator, this indicator provides internationally comparable estimates of the proportion of population who face moderate or severe difficulties in accessing food. And both these indicators, they measure progress towards SDG target 2.1. As we know, target 2.1 talks about ending hunger and ensuring access by all people, particularly the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants to save nutritious and sufficient food all year around and this is to be achieved by the year 2013. Both these reports reveal staggering or shocking facts about Indian food insecurity and malnutrition. They indicate that India is one of the most food insecure countries having highest rates of strutting and wasting among the South Asian countries. And interestingly in India, malnutrition has not declined on the levels comparable or on the levels similar as the decline of poverty. And it is to be noted that in the year 2000, India along with other neighboring countries, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh had somewhat similar levels of prevalence of undernourishment and over the years, the reduction in malnutrition is found to be much lower in India compared to China, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. This is despite the fact that these countries except China are economically weaker than India. For India, the prevalence of undernourishment has declined only by 24.7% between 2001 and 2018. And if you see the decline in Nepal, it is 74, Pakistan 42 and Afghanistan 37 percentage. Now the authors also talk about the reports of food insecurity experience scale survey. See, this is conducted by Food and Agriculture Organization. It includes experience based measures of household or individual food security. This survey module, it is composed of eight questions with the SR No Responses. Two different versions are available that includes individual and household level. The survey questions are given here for your reference. And though the survey is not allowed to be conducted in India by the government, the authors through some technical calculations worked to infer extent of prevalence of food insecurity in India. In this record, the authors tell that between 2014 to 16, about 20% of total population was food insecure and this number has risen close to 33 percentage in 2017 to 19. Also, the hunger watch by the Right to Food campaign, it presents a very grim situation with close to one out of every three respondents reporting low food consumption and massive compromise on food quality. The authors also state that non inclusion of nutritious food items, one and exclusion of potential beneficiaries to these two are major problems though we have National Food Security Act of 2013. As we know, this act aims to provide for food and nutritional security in human life cycle approach. And it also aims to ensure access to adequate quantity of quality food at affordable prices to people to live a life with dignity. So here we can find the three A approach accessibility affordability and availability. So as way forward, the authors are calling for a major shift in public policies that the government should work hard and smart so that PDS could be universalized as soon as possible. Also, distribution of quality food items and innovative interventions should be prioritized. Here when we say innovative interventions, we are referring to, for example, setting up of community kitchens and there should be right utilization and expansion of existing programs to cover more beneficiaries, more vulnerable population, which is the need of the R. So when these aspects are fulfilled by the government, then we can surely alleviate lakhs of children from malnutrition. With this, we come to the end of this editorial article. In this analysis, we discussed about malnutrition, the scenario in India through some international instruments and we also discussed what can be done to alleviate children from malnutrition. Now let's move on to next news article. This news article is with reference to the bloom of noctilucca scintillins in the Karnataka coast. See noctilucca scintillins are commonly known as sea sparkle. We'll see why it is called a sea sparkle in the analysis. In this context, let us discuss about this and its impact on marine organisms. The syllabus relevant for the analysis is highlighted here for your reference. See noctilucca is a kind of microalgae or a tiny plant-like organism. This noctilucca algae, they emit light when they are disturbed. Now this bioluminescence is what is called as the sea sparkle, which is mentioned in the news article. Now this noctilucca algae is known as noctilucca scintillins. It is a species of one-celled phytoplankton. See phytoplankton is a one-celled algae. It forms the base of ocean's food chain. Diatoms, denoflagellates, which are called as larger phytoplanktons, they undergo a process called photosynthesis. Phytoplanktons feed on nutrients that float nearby and they are eaten up by small sea animals or zoo planktons. These in turn are eaten by larger fishes and other sea creatures. But unlike most phytoplanktons, the noctilucca species, they are not capable of photosynthesis. So how do they survive? See they grab free energy from millions of green phytoplanktons that are living within their cell walls. These green phytoplanktons are called as endosymbions, which are found to be key to noctilucca's advantage. These endosymbions are smaller phytoplanktons which convert carbon dioxide into energy by photosynthesis and they pass on the energy to noctilucca like rent. So it becomes additional food for noctilucca, which are already not capable of photosynthesis. And noctilucca usually feed on other phytoplanktons, zoo plankton eggs and on decaying organic particles in the seawater. Now what do we mean when we say endosymbions? See these are organisms that form a symbiotic relationship with another cell or organism. Some endosymbions they are found inside the cells which are called as intracellular while others are found attached to the surface of cells called as extracellular. And as we know symbiotic relations refer to those relationship in which both parties benefit. Now let's discuss the impact of bloom of noctilucca algae. Algal bloom when we say it refers to rapid out of control growth of algae. And algal blooms are harmful as they can kill marine animals and can disturb the ecology. And these blooms are called as harmful algal blooms. Now coming to noctilucca, it excretes ammonia into water. So during their bloom they excrete large amounts of ammonia into the sea and mostly lead to massive fish mortalities that is causing deaths in fishes. Also zoo plankton which can eat diatoms they cannot eat noctilucca because they are too big. Only jellyfish, sea salps and turtles can feed on noctilucca. So if zoo plankton starve and die larger creages in the food chain are also compromised. So this trend could severely affect the fishing industries. And not just that algal blooms can restrict the penetration of sunlight this will result into death of aquatic plants. So it restricts the replenishment of oxygen. The primary consumers like small fishers are killed because of oxygen deprivation that are caused by algal blooms. See death of primary consumers adversely affects the food chain and leads to destruction of higher life forms which are up in the food chain. And one another thing there is increased turbidity associated with algal blooms that is in other words decreased transparency and this causes loss of codal reaps as well as it limits sunlight. Now what causes this algal bloom? See it is widely believed that eutrophication is the main reason behind it and eutrophication refers to nutrient enrichment of waterways by sewage influence by runoff from fertilized agricultural areas and also by chemical pollution. A algae that feed on nutrients results in blooms and eutrophication sets off or starts a chain reaction in the ecosystem starts with an over abundance of algae and plants. Now this excess algae and plant matter eventually decompose producing large amounts of carbon dioxide. This phenomenon lowers the pH of seawater which is a process known as ocean acidification. Acidification slows the growth of fishes and cell fishes and can prevent shell formation in bivalve molluscs. Now this leads to reduced catch for commercial and recreational fisheries that means there is only smaller harvest and seafood becomes more expensive. So in that way it also affects nutritional security as well. So with this we come to the end of analysis of this news article. In this article we discussed about sea sparkle which is mentioned in the article Noctiluca Sintilens What Causes Algal Bloom, Impacts of Algal Bloom and Eutrophication. Now let's move on to the analysis of next news article. This news article states that the speaker of Mizoram Legislative Assembly has disqualified Nalduhoma who is a member of Mizoram Assembly. Interestingly Nalduhoma was also the first member of parliament to have been disqualified from Lokshaba under the Anti-Defection Law of 10th Schedule of Constitution in the year 1988. In this context let us have a brief discussion on disqualification provisions given in the Constitution of India. The syllabus relevant for the analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Generally we often see members elected from one party switching or shifting their allegiance to other parties for benefits such as ministerial births. Now this switching is called as defection. As a result elected governments collapse and this may lead to loss of public trust in democratic governments. So to bring stability to democratically elected government the anti-defection provisions were introduced in Indian constitution as a separate schedule. Now how it leads to stability to democratically elected government see a person gets elected by people on the ticket of a particular political party. People elect the person the person becomes a member of legislature and after becoming the member the person switches to another party. Now this is contrary to public confidence because people voted him or her thinking that the person belongs to the original party. So it is the 10th schedule of Indian constitution that lays down the process by which legislators may be disqualified on grounds of defection. They can be disqualified by the presiding officer of a legislature based on a petition by any other member of the house. Now for this reason this 10th schedule is popularly known as anti-defection law. It was introduced by the constitution 52nd amendment act of 1985 and was amended by 91st constitutional amendment act of 2003. So simply defection refers to an MP or an MLA or a member of legislative council switching sides for example switching from one political party to another and remember that switching sides is one of the grounds of defection as per the 10th schedule. So let's see the grounds of disqualification under the 10th schedule. One is that if the member voluntarily gives up the membership of the political party on whose ticket the member is elected to the house then if the member votes or abstains from voting in the house contrary to the direction given by her or his political party. If any nominated member joins a political party after the expiry of 6 months then the person can be disqualified and if any independently elected member joins any political party then also the person can be disqualified. This is as per paragraph 22 of 10th schedule. It is based on this provision today's news states that the member of Mezoram assembly has been disqualified and recently this member has declared himself as representative of Zoram people's movement though he was elected as an independent candidate from his constituency. According to the speaker the member has lost the character of an independent legislature because of the declaration he made as representative of Zoram people's movement. Zoram people's movement is a registered political party in Mezoram. Under the 10th schedule note that if any question arises as to whether a member has become subject to disqualification under 10th schedule the question shall be referred for the decision of chairman or the speaker of such house and her decision shall be final. Initially a special privilege was extended to the decision of the speaker as a protective provision. This is class 7 of 10th schedule which mentioned that no court shall have any jurisdiction in respect of any matter connected with disqualification of a member under the 10th schedule. But note that in the case law of Kihotho Holohan versus Sachilu and others in the year 1992 supreme court held that in these matters a speaker functions as any other tribunal which comes under the jurisdiction of high courts and supreme court and supreme court upheld the speaker's discretionary power. However made her are his decisions subject to judicial review and note that 10th schedule does not provide any time limit for the speaker on deciding on petitions. It is understood that within a reasonable time frame the petition should be disposed of. However we do not find in many cases that within a reasonable time the petitions are disposed of. Therefore the matters went up to supreme court several times. In one of the recent cases supreme court ruled that when there is an exceptional circumstance the speaker can take time to decide but the time taken should be reasonable. In the absence of such exceptional circumstances the speaker must decide within a period of three months from the date of filing the petition. So these are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this news article. Now let's move on to next news article. This news article is about the rising incidents of retinal vascular occlusions and the role played by COVID-19. We all know that the retina is a thin layer of tissue that lines the back of the eye on the inside. It is located near the optic nerve. The purpose of retina or the role of retina is to receive light that the lens has focused and to convert the light into neural signals and to send these neural signals to the brain for visual recognition. The retina processes light through a layer of light sensitive cells which are responsible for detecting qualities like color and intensity of light. It processes the information gathered by the cells and send this information to the brain through the optic nerve. Now because of the vital role played by retina in vision damage to it can cause permanent blindness. Now one such issue is the retinal vascular occlusion which is also called as retinal vene occlusion. It is a situation when the flow of blood through the retinal vene is interrupted or stopped. Now if the flow of blood from retina has stopped it can lead to leakage or swelling that interrupts the work of the human eye. Now know that retinal vene occlusion is the second most common retinal vascular disease and it is a common loss of vision among the older patients. There are two types of retinal vene occlusion. One is branch retinal vene occlusion and the other is central retinal vene occlusion. Central retinal vene occlusion is a condition where main vene that drains blood from retina closes off partially or completely. The branch retinal vene occlusion is a blockage of one of the tributaries of central retinal vene. See the retinal vene occlusion is most often caused by hardening of the arteries or arthrosclerosis and the formation of a blood clot. A blockage of smaller or branch veins often occur in places where retinal arteries have been thickened by arthrosclerosis and this places pressure on retinal vene. Now coming to some of the risk factors of retinal vene occlusion it includes arthrosclerosis and diabetes, high blood pressure or hypertension. Now other eye conditions like glaucoma, macular edema they are also high risk factors. The risk of these disorders increases with age and therefore retinal vene occlusion most often affects older people. Now coming to the article it says that people recovering from COVID-19 had a tendency to form clots or occlusion. Now this could be a reason behind rising incidence of retinal vascular occlusions. So COVID-19 could be a reason for increase in patients with eyesight loss. So COVID-19 could have permanent effects on human beings. That is what this news article is saying. So these are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this news article. Now let's move on to next part of the discussion. This news article talks about a status report filed by the state government of Tamil Nadu to the Madras High Court. The government has informed the high court about a proposal sent by the state government to the union ministry of tourism. This proposal has sought around 560 crore for the overall development of Mammalapuram Township and other Swadesh Darshan scheme. In this context let us have a brief understanding on Mammalapuram which is also known as Maha Bali Puram. See this place lies in the governmental court or on the shore of Bay of Bengal south of Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu. The name Mammalapuram was given to it as a tribute to the famous Palava king Narasimha Varman 1. This king was called as Mammallan meaning great wrestler. Mammalapuram has a great significance with regard to India's cultural heritage. It consists of a group of monuments that were founded by the Palava kings in the 7th and 8th centuries. These monuments can be grouped under four categories rocket caves, monolithic structures, open air base reliefs and structural temples. Now let's see some of the important attractions of this place. Firstly the place is known specially for its radhas or chariots. There are five rocket radhas in the southern end in Mammalapuram. Then the monuments also have mantabas which are also rocket cave sanctuaries. We can also see the famous open air relief which is called as the descent of the Ganges. It is also called as Arjuna's penance and there is also a famous shore temple called as the temple of Raiwaj. This temple has three structural temples and it has many sculptures that portrays or depict the glory of Lord Shiva. The place was also called as land of seven pagodas. There is a belief that once there were six other great structures along with the present day shore temple. Note that pagoda means Hindu or Buddhist temple. In the end we can say that the monuments here are living examples of the artwork of rocket architecture by the Palawa rulers. Some historians are saying that Mammalapuram has once served as an active port with extensive trade with Rome and other places at least from 1st century CE. Note that the group of monuments in Mammalapuram is one of the 30 cultural world heritage sites in India listed by UNESCO. The monuments in Mammalapuram were declared as world heritage sites in the year 1984. Note that there are 30 world heritage sites in India, 30 are cultural, 7 are natural, 1 mixed criteria site. The group of monuments in Mammalapuram are protected as protected monuments or sites under the archaeological survey of India as well. Note that in the year 2017 the Mahabalipuram stone sculpture has received the GI tax status under the category handicrafts. The techniques used in the historic pieces of artwork of 7th and 8th centuries are still practiced by the present-day sculptors of Mahapalipuram or Mammalapuram. So there are also a few other important attractions in this place which includes Krishna temple, Mahishasura, Mardini cave, Varaha temple, Krishna's Butterball, Tiger cave etc. So these are some of the important information with reference to the place Mammalapuram. We saw some historical significance and also the cultural heritage associated with this place. Now let us move on to the next part of the discussion. We have come to the last session, the practice questions discussion session. This question is with reference to human eye. See the question. With reference to human eye, consider the following statements. Two statements are given. They are asking which of the above statements are correct. Most of the refraction for the light rays entering the eye occurs at the outer surface of the cornea. So this statement is correct because of the transition from air into the cornea which marks the largest change in index of refraction that the light experiences. They are saying that around 80% of refraction occurs in the cornea and about 20% in the inner crystalline lens. First statement is correct. Second statement, the retina is a delicate membrane having light sensitive cells that gets activated upon elimination. This statement is also correct. Therefore the correct answer is option C, both 1 and 2. See the next question. The term Noctilucca scintillens often seen in news refers to an invasive weed founded semi-arid natural grasslands of India, a newly discovered polymeric absorbent of oil spills, small creages that have adapted to constant darkness in caves, as species of one-celled phytoplankton with bioluminescence properties. The correct answer is option D. Now this question is with reference to 2020 hunger report. Which of the following organizations published the 2020 hunger report, better nutrition, better tomorrow, recently seen in news. The correct answer for this question is option B, Bread for the World Institute. See this question. Four statements are given. They are asking the above statements refer to which of the following. This place is located in Coromandel coast. The place consists of a group of monuments which were built in the 7th century AD and 8th century AD. The famous open air relief called the descent of the Ganges is located here. This place is included in the list of cultural world heritage sites in India. The above statements refer to group of monuments of Marmalapuram. The correct answer is option C. We have given you two practice main questions in GS2. You may write answers and post it in the comment section. With this we come to the end of today's the Hindu news analysis. 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