 Welcome to Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Reyes Academy. As a part of our analysis today, we have discussed an editorial on political micro-targeting, then we have discussed about Goitre, hypothyroidism, then about India rejecting the mediation offer of United Nations Gensok, then we have discussed about neonatal deaths in Madhya Pradesh and also about a remote voting system that is currently under R&D stage in India. The handwritten notes in PDF format and the time-stamming of the discussed articles are provided in the description box and they are also provided 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 about micro-targeting and various problems surrounding it. In this analysis, we will be seeing what do we mean by micro-targeting, how it influences voters, problems in micro-targeting and some of the measures required to address these problems. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this editorial is highlighted here for your reference. We know that usually in researches or in surveys, there will be a sampling process. In this, a sample refers to a set of population whose data will be obtained for the particular research and if it is a representative sample, it will represent a bigger population. Now you come to micro-targeting, here also they use a sampling process. What they do is they will segment target audience in a detailed manner and this micro-targeting is mostly associated with online commercials or online advertisements. So what is micro-targeting? See it is a strategic process which is intended to influence the voters. How they will influence the voters? This will be done through direct transmission of stimuli to the voters and how these stimuli would have been formed? These are formed based on the data collected from the samples. What are the data that are collected? The preferences and characteristics of an individual. So micro-targeting is a strategic process that is intended to influence the voters through the direct transmission of stimuli that are formed based on preferences and characteristics of an individual. First of all, micro-targeting requires collection of large amounts of data. These data are collected so as to represent the political preferences and other non-political characteristics of voters. This data can be either manually collected or it could be acquired through data mining processes. What could be these data? These data will include information like a name of a person, the physical address of a person, or email address of a person, a voting history of a person. For example, whether the person has voted in previous elections, the information could be whether the person has openly stated that his or her vote is for this political party. They will also obtain information such as a person's opinion about political parties, person's opinion about political policies, and also a person's opinion about non-political topics to better understand the individuals. And they will also include the social activity and cultural background of individuals. So obviously various social media platforms that could be definitely be used for data mining about individuals because most of the platforms they contain persons name, photograph, their friend list, etc. So what will happen after gathering these raw data? These data will then be processed with the help of machine learning algorithms. So after processing, it is possible to make predictions about specific variables. For example, they could predict outcome of a political decision and they could also identify patterns of the received data and using these patterns, the population could be clustered or could be separated into different groups. For example, these are populations who are supporting a political party. These are persons who belong to this particular religious group like that. So when they identify patterns, political actors, they are in position to detect subgroups of voters who share common demographic and common attitudinal traits. So based on these algorithmic results, they can generate messages or they can develop actions. They can plan actions that are aimed at influencing each specific subgroup or each person. See, we know that data has been used for a long time and it is a common practice to support political campaigns all across the world. But what is happening in the recent time is that we could see advances in technology and these advances have significantly changed the amount of information that can be gained from data, especially from the internet use. So by analyzing specific data sets, political parties, they can achieve a highly detailed understanding of behavior of voters, opinions and feelings of voters and this allows political parties to group or categorize voters in complex groups and these groups can be targeted specifically through online political advertisements and the political advertisements will be related to a particular group or particular cluster. These advertisements will be in line with their concerns and their opinions and specific advertisements and messages. They can only be seen by voters in the targeted groups or clusters. So this is what we call as micro targeting. So this micro targeting actually aims to address the rapidly decreasing engagement between citizens and political parties. This is because nowadays more and more citizens do not opt for full alignment with one political party, but rather they incline towards one or other political party depending on very specific topics and very specific circumstances. The changing characteristics with respect to alignment is a problem for political parties because it is known that in many countries politics is becoming more issue based rather than being ideology based. So this micro targeting using larger and more precise data sets, it allows political parties to find out what issues matter the most to the voters. So with the help of micro targeting, the political parties can reach voters with customized information that are relevant to an individual voter or a voter in a particular categorized cluster or group. For example, if there is a region called A and people in this region A do not want their land to be acquired for the construction of a metro station. They may be receiving advertisements that will never contain any terms like acquisition of land for a construction of metro station. But if you see other clusters other than region A for them, the advertisements may say that metro infrastructure will be extended even to region A and thereby it will improve the connectivity. So there will be customized information relevant to voters in different clusters. So in simple terms we can say that micro targeting is nothing but a marketing strategy that uses consumer data or voter data and demographics to identify the interests of specific individuals or to identify the interests behavior and characteristics of small groups of very small groups of like minded individuals and they influence their thoughts or actions for voting in elections. And an important goal in micro targeting is to know the target audience so well so that the messages gets delivered through the preferred communication channel of the target or the targeted group. For example, if a person is always relying on WhatsApp to send communication then this person will not get message in a general messaging platform as a short messaging service rather this person will get message directly through WhatsApp. So water profiles and consumer data if we put them together they can be a good predictor of how an individual intends to vote and what are the issues that an individual care about. For a political party this may mean the ability to create hundreds of customized messages for each taluk for each subdivision and each message will be with highly personalized political content and even messages to a household level is created. So in this way a political party can talk directly to voters about the topics that they care about the most and they can talk through the platform that these voters use the most and the parties can talk with the language that will resonate with the voters more efficiently and there is a revolutionary innovation in this micro targeting that is to pair water profiles with social media user data. Why this is done? This is done to reach the right person with the right message. We have also been seeing ministers across political parties. There is a demand that they have to link other card with social media profile. So come to micro targeting. Here when they pair water profiles with social media user data they can use user data from Facebook. We know that Facebook keeps a detailed profile data of its users. So this is the background about micro targeting. Now let us discuss the editorial that mentions the negatives of micro targeting and what can be done to solve the negatives. First problem is that it uses personal data of users without their consent. Two years ago there was a massive outcry against hiring of Cambridge Analytica by Indian political parties. See Cambridge Analytica is a data mining and analytics firm. This analytics and marketing firm has reportedly worked for the presidential campaign of Mr. Donald Trump in the year 2016 and obviously we will hear reports in the coming days as well for the upcoming presidential election in the United States. So in 2016 it was reported that this firm has obtained the personal data of millions of users without their consent. What it sought was it stated that it sought to develop psychographic profiles of those users. In simpler terms Cambridge Analytica tried to leverage Facebook data to understand the personalities of the users and then to use that information to match advertisements to influence the voting behavior of people which is nothing but micro targeting. Now the next two problems is profiling. According to personal data protection bill of 2019, profiling refers to any form of processing of personal data that analyzes or predicts the aspects like behavior, attributes and interests of a particular person or data principle. Here data principle refers to a natural person with the personal data. So as we saw micro targeting users personal data of users and therefore such profiling has also raised huge concerns of data privacy for individuals. The third problem is that users are not aware of what they are being subjected to when they provide personal information. They are not aware that their personal information is used for purposes like micro targeting. Most of the time in online platforms users are asked to provide information for one purpose and these individuals they realize later that they have also granted permission for much broader use of their data and mostly people do not always fully read what they give consent to when they sign the terms of agreement for online services or online applications. Along with signing the terms of agreement users may also give consent to the companies to use their location data to obtain and sell their online activity to undisclosed third parties. Now the next problem is that there is a serious threat for the informational autonomy of the world. This is because the entire business of collecting personal data continues to remain unregulated and it is also proprietary in nature. When we say proprietary it means those who have the data they are the owner and also it is extremely difficult to trace the methods that are used by these firms to scrutinize the personal life and intimate details of the individuals. So there is serious threat for the privacy, personal life and intimate life and informational autonomy of a voter and this is also a serious harm to the country's democratic nature because of the loss of informational autonomy and because of the manner in which the political advertisements are made to influence the voter. These are also against free and fair elections and when we say democratic nature of the country is under serious threat due to loss of informational autonomy it refers to less freedom of free speech it may be with respect to voicing concerns about government policies etc because free speech is considered good for the health of a liberal democracy and because data could be mined because data could be generated to understand this particular individual in future people may not raise much concerns about government policies in various platforms that could be subjected to data mining for micro targeting and lack of free speech is also a very good ground for political parties because there could be a problem of spreading fake news and fake propaganda and this will have serious ramifications to the democratic culture of the country and to free and fair elections. So these are some of the problems because of micro targeting now let's see some solutions to handle these problems one is that there is a need to regulate social media platforms through a comprehensive data protection law we are in this process we will enact this legislation and soon we will have this data protection law and this data protection law should take micro targeting seriously and this law should also have various provisions against the misuse of various data that are collected by the government by the ruling parties or by various other persons in the government or outside the government and this law is very important in this internet age to save the users of internet from the potential impact of social media companies that involve in micro targeting or that involve in shaping public opinion right now if you see the personal data protection bill of 2019 it empowers the central government to notify certain social media intermediaries as significant data fiduciaries it states government can notify as significant data fiduciaries if their user base crosses a certain threshold and if the actions of the user base are likely to have an impact on electoral democracy this is as per section 264 of this 2019 bill and this data bill asks a data fiduciary to undertake a data protection impact assessment in accordance with the provisions this assessment is required for this data fiduciary when it intends to undertake any processing that carries a risk of significant harm to data principles or individuals these processing could involve new technologies large scale profiling or use of sensitive personal data for example genetic data or biometric data or any other processing that carries such risk so obviously a social media intermediary like facebook will be listed as a significant data fiduciary under this act and they have to comply with the provisions of this act like they have to undertake this data protection impact assessment so this can act as a limitation for using personal data available in online platforms like facebook without the knowledge of the user so the legislation is presently in draft form as a bill and we have to wait and see once this bill becomes an act after getting passed in both the houses of the parliament and once it receives the assent of the president the call is that this bill should respond to implications of political micro targeting and in one way or other the bill deals with electoral democracy this is because section 26 subsection 4 of the bill states that certain social media intermediaries will be notified as significant data fiduciaries one condition is that if their user base crosses a certain threshold and other condition is that whose actions are likely to have an impact on electoral democracy so right now the call is that this bill should definitely bring protective provisions with respect to micro targeting so these are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this article on political micro targeting to influence the decision making process of voters in this analysis we saw about micro targeting how it influences what is the problems and some measures required to address the problems now let's move on to the analysis of next news article this news article is about the prevalence of goiter among a tribal group which is called as corgu in maharastra in the analysis of this news article we'll see about goiter then we'll see about corgu tribal community in maharastra we'll see hyperthyroidism hypothyroidism and also their causes and available treatments the syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference first let us see about goiter in simple terms goiter refers to abnormal enlargement of thyroid gland see thyroid gland is a small butterfly shaped gland that is present in the neck just in front of windpipe which is called as trachea thyroid gland produces thyroid hormones and these hormones help to regulate the body's metabolism now the main symptom of goiter is swelling of thyroid gland which actually causes a lump to develop in the throat now when thyroid gland abnormally enlarges it puts pressure on trachea or the windpipe and also on footpipe which is called as esophagus and because of this pressure it can lead to breathing difficulties cough hoarseness of voice and also there will be difficulty in swallowing foods particularly with solid foods and the swelling of thyroid gland can also lead to swelling of neck or larynx which is also called as the voice box now let's see the causes of goiter see the most common cause as we all know is because of iodine deficiency therefore goiter is also known as iodine deficiency disorder also know that goiter can occur because of hyperthyroidism so what do we mean by hyperthyroidism see hyperthyroidism refers to a condition where thyroid glands become overactive or hyperactive and this leads to the production of too much thyroid hormones and as a result it can lead to enlargement or abnormal enlargement of thyroid gland which is nothing but goiter here the increased hormone production over stimulates the thyroid gland and therefore it leads to the enlargement now the disease or the disorder that is the leading cause of hyperthyroidism is called as graves disease now when a person has graves disease it causes the body's immune system to send antibodies to the thyroid gland and these antibodies they stimulate the thyroid gland because of this disease and cause the thyroid gland to produce increased amount of thyroid hormones and this in turn causes the thyroid gland to enlarge and therefore as a result of hyperthyroidism a person can have goiter while we saw how hyperthyroidism can lead to goiter you should also know that even hypothyroidism can also lead to goiter so goiter can develop if thyroid gland becomes underactive as well when we say underactive thyroid gland we are referring to thyroid gland not producing enough or required thyroid hormones and this condition is called as hypothyroidism what the body will expect is the required level of hormones and this will stimulate the thyroid gland to produce more hormones and this can cause the thyroid gland to abnormally enlarge and what causes hypothyroidism is an autoimmune disease called as Hashimoto's thyroid disease when we say autoimmune disease it refers to a disorder in the immune system now let's see how patients who are suffering from goiter can be treated see the treatment of goiter obviously will depend upon whether the patient is suffering from hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism first let's see the treatment of goiter when there is hypothyroidism that is when the thyroid gland is underactive in case of hypothyroidism the treatment will involve using of synthetic man-made hormone to replicate normal thyroid function this therapy is called as hormone therapy next we can also have iodine supplements to treat goiter now to know fact what provides protection for an individual from goiter due to hypothyroidism is having a regular consumption of salt that contains iodine next let's see the treatment of goiter when there is hyperthyroidism that is when the thyroid gland is overactive or hyperactive here the treatment involves drugs which are called as thionamide these drugs helps to reduce the amount of thyroid hormones that are produced by the thyroid gland and as we would have studied during our school days goiter related to hyperthyroidism can be treated using radioactive iodine as well this radioactive iodine is taken orally through pills when the iodine reaches thyroid gland it destroys the thyroid cells and reduces the size of goiter however medical experts also say that this treatment may cause the thyroid gland to become underactive as well one another treatment for goiter is surgery if goiter interferes with breathing or if it interferes with swallowing or if it has not responded to any other forms of treatment surgery may be required to remove a part of the thyroid gland or the entire thyroid gland as well and this surgical procedure is called in the medical field as thyroid dectomy so these are some of the information with reference to goiter which is an abnormal enlargement of the thyroid gland next let's see in brief about the korgu tribes in the state of maharastra who are affected by goiter the population of this tribal community they reside in the state of maharastra madhya pradesh and also in chattisgarh the news article mentions that korgu tribal population who are living in mail gut region in amravati district of maharastra is suffering from goiter and goiter here is seen especially in the women population so in order to treat goiter a surgery camp is being held every year at a remote hospital in a place called chikaldara in this amravati district the main problem for the worsening of situation among individuals in this tribal community with respect to goiter as said by doctors is that lack of adequate medical attention they are saying that people would usually seek medical help only when it becomes difficult to function with the growth of the thyroid gland on the neck we saw that iodine deficiency is the most common cause of goiter but if you see the staple diet of korgu tribal population it is fish which is a rich source of iodine also there is availability of iodized salt as well so there were questions raised so how did population from this tribal community are affected by goiter so the doctors are now thinking that there could be some genetic factors that could have been a factor in causing goiter in this population and the news article also states that the surgeries performed in this recent annual camp were relayed live for over 100 doctors at san mary's hospital in london so a company called valuable edutainment they have helped in the transmission using their vSATs vSAT is a satellite communications system vSAT stands for very small aperture terminal a vSAT end user needs a box this box will act as an interface between user's computer and an outside antenna with the transceiver this transceiver receives or sends a signal to a satellite transponder in the sky so based on this vSAT satellite communication system the surgeries were relayed live from india to london so these are some of the important information with reference to the analysis of this news article we saw about goiter we saw hyperthyroidism hypothyroidism causes and also treatment we saw a few important information about corku tribes in maharashtra and now let's move on to the analysis of next news article this news article states that the government of india has rejected the offer that has been made by the uan secretary general antonio goiteris he offered to mediate between india and pakistan on the kashmir issue in this context we'll see why india has rejected the offer made by uan jensek and we'll also see the stand of india in such offers that are earlier given by other countries the syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference in the last few decades we have been seeing various attacks in indian soil reportedly masterminded by the terrorists based in pakistan in 2016 in january pakistan based terrorists have attacked the indian air force base at patankot since this attack both india and pakistan have not been engaging with each other actively to resolve various contentious issues between the two countries and in the same year that is in september 2016 there was another attack in vuri in the erstwhile state of jamun keshmir patankot is in panchap and recently in 2019 we also saw pulwama terrorist attack and the stand of india is that talks and terror cannot go together so india is asking pakistan to leave terror as a precondition for talks so india is asking pakistan to leave its support to terrorism and then as a precondition to come for talks and recently some leaders have offered to talk or mediate between india and pakistan to resolve the keshmir issue in july 2017 the government of china offered mediation on this issue china said it was willing to play a constructive role in improving relations between india and pakistan and in july 2019 the united states president has also offered to mediate between india and pakistan and reports stated that he offered based on a request by the indian prime minister which government of india has clarified that the indian prime minister has not made such a request and very recently and in today's news article we can find the mention about the offer for mediation made by the united nation's general secret he said that he's ready to help if both countries agree for mediation and he could facilitate the mediation through his offices from a security and diplomacy perspective this could actually be a victory over the closed consultations on keshmir that happened in united nation security council by china at the request of pakistan in august 2019 and the closed consultation in august 2019 at united nations was also called us the first consultation on keshmir question since 1971 in united nation security council so now let's see what has india responded to all these offers and why india has rejected such third party mediation see india's response on all these offers is the same and india's stand is absolutely clear there are two conditions put forward by india one is that pakistan has to end the cross border terrorism or its support to cross border terrorism this is because the heart of the problem between india and pakistan is cross border terrorism emanating from pakistan and this cross border terrorism is seriously threatening the peace and stability both at the regional level and also at the global level and we also know that recently a pakistan court has sentenced hafi saeed for imprisonment for 11 years and hafi saeed is also reported as the mumbai terror attacks mastermind and why and why such terrorism is a threat at the global level as well one example see hafi saeed was also a specially designated global terrorist by the united states department of treasury and government of united states has offered 10 million u s dollars as reward for information that brings hafi saeed to justice and even for nine level attacks in the united states pakistan was alleged to have given various support to the organizations that have claimed responsibility for the attack on u s soil so cross border terrorism is threatening peace and stability at regional level and also at the global level and india has called pakistan to take credible sustained and irreversible actions to put an end to cross border terrorism against india while this is with respect to precondition for talks india's main objection to the third party mediation is based on what was agreed between india and pakistan in shimla agreement and reinforced in the lahore declaration see shimla agreement is a bilateral agreement signed between indian government and pakistan on 2nd july 1972 two main important provisions of this agreement it states that it calls for a mutual commitment between india and pakistan to the peaceful resolution of all issues through direct bilateral approaches and another provision is that it calls to settle differences through bilateral negotiations or by any other mutually agreed peaceful means so first is that it calls for only bilateral settlement second if there is any other means it has to be mutually agreed and it should be a peaceful means to resolve the issues so india's stand is that third party mediation is not required because india and pakistan will settle this issue at the bilateral level the news article also talks about united nations general secretaries expected visit to kartharpur corridor u n secretary has described this pilgrimage corridor as a unique experiment in cross-border ties between india and pakistan in fact one of the very important positives with respect to india- pakistan relationship in 2019 is this kartharpur corridor the news article also mentions that u n jensek was on four-day visit to pakistan for a conference on afghan refugees and this conference is reportedly hosted by united nations refugee agency in collaboration with the government of pakistan these updates will cover in the coming days with appearance of news articles related to this matter we'll have more editorials on the offer made by united nations jensek as well and with respect to india and pakistan we have discussed a frequently asked article on 19 th august 2019 that day we have discussed the developments and the situation in jamun kashmir and we have discussed the role of united nations security council and kashmir since 1947 we discussed about united nation security council resolution 39 resolution 41 and we also finally discussed why united nations cannot handle the kashmir issue at the present times so for these information we urge you to watch the first article that is discussed on the video published on 19 th august 2019 so with this we come to the end of analysis of this news article with respect to india pakistan issue recently we also seeing the news that turkish president during his visit to pakistan in last week and with respect to india pakistan issues recently turkish president erdogan has also made statements to support pakistan when it comes to kashmir and also to support pakistan at the financial action task force so that pakistan comes out of the gray list know that support of three countries at financial action task force is enough so that a country is not blacklisted by f a t f right now this support is huge per pakistan at least from three countries who are turkey malaysia and china and that is one of the reasons why many reports say that at the f a t f pakistan may not be blacklisted so these are some of the information now let's move on to next news article this news article is about the information given by national health mission with respect to neonatal deaths in india the news article is particularly in reference to the state of madhya pradesh in this context we'll discuss terms such as neonatal deaths infant mortality rate child mortality rate then we will uprise the situation in different states in our country with respect to taking appropriate steps against neonatal deaths in the country the syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference see when we say neonatal it refers to a period of 28 days since the birth of the child if a child dies during the first 28 days after birth then it is medically called as neonatal death so neonatal death rate it refers to number of deaths during first 28 completed days of life among 1000 live births in a given year in a particular year and this neonatal deaths are further divided into early neonatal deaths and late neonatal deaths early neonatal deaths refers to death during first seven days of life and if death occurs after first seven days until the 28th day of life it is called as late neonatal death now the indicators with respect to mortality during neonatal period maybe you know early neonatal death or late neonatal death these are very important and useful indicators with respect to taking learning studying maternal health care and also newborn health care when we see about neonatal death rate or neonatal mortality rate these we should not confuse with infant mortality rate or child mortality rate all the three are different infant mortality rate is the number of deaths of children who are under one year of age per thousand live births for a period of one year in a particular geographical area and child mortality rate refers to number of deaths under five years of age per thousand live births and therefore child mortality rate is also called as under five mortality rate these are very important indicators almost for all countries of the world because of sustainable developmental goals if you see sustainable developmental goal number three it aims to ensure healthy lives and to promote well-being for all people at all ages one of the sub goals or target under stg3 is with reference to neonatal deaths and child mortality stg targets under stg goal three it asks all the member states of united nations to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as lowest 12 per thousand live births and to reduce under five mortality or child mortality rate to at least as lowest 25 per thousand live births by the year 2030 and we also have national targets with respect to these indicators under national health mission we are aiming to achieve by the year 2025 itself a neonatal mortality rate of 16 and also under five mortality rate of 23 one of the important programmatic components under the national health mission is reproductive maternal neonatal child and adolescent health care so under this component national health mission aims to achieve all these goals and targets now let's come to the news article in the news article the national health mission compares the rate of new born deaths or rate of neonatal deaths among indian states there are two factors for comparison one is the number of newborns who are admitted into sick newborn care units of government run hospitals the second factor for comparison is of the number of newborn children who are admitted what is the number of neonatal deaths against the total admissions into these sick newborn care units so when we say sick newborn care unit we are referring to a special newborn care units in the public hospitals generally at the district level and these units are meant to reduce the case fatality or the death among sick newborn children and these units they also act as teaching and training hub to impart medical skills or learning with respect to newborn health care they have taken a time period of three years from 2017 to 2019 and in these three years madhya pradesh has recorded the highest percentage of newborn deaths of 11.5 percentage national average is seven percentage and this means that of the total number of newborn children who are admitted in the sick newborn care units around 11.5 percent of the children have died in the state of madhya pradesh in these last three years and when it comes to numbers west bangal has witnessed the most neonatal deaths in the country in the three years from 2017 to 2019 around 34,344 children have died in their first 28 days in west bangal after being admitted into sick newborn care units of government hospitals now you see this graph some of the states are marked in the shaded region this region indicates the states that have above average admissions of sick babies into sick newborn care units the region also indicate higher percentage of deaths among admitted sick newborn children we can see states such as madhya pradesh west bangal obviously rajasthan maharasthan karnataka in this region so now let's see some of the reasons for the increasing number of neonatal deaths in the country one of the main reasons is lack of facilities to treat the newborn children when they are admitted into sick newborn care units the article also states that there is inadequate staff strength in hospitals in the state of madhya pradesh alone they are saying that the government run hospitals particularly in the sick newborn care units they are having only 50 percent of the required staff nurse strength then another reason for increasing number of neonatal deaths is because of low community referrals community referrals here refers to number of sick children who are brought to sick newborn care units from the member of the community because of the recommendation from a community health worker more importantly it includes children who are born outside a hospital now other reasons are absence of special neonatal transport service to health centers and also lack of availability of enough units to cater to the increasing institutional deliveries so because of that non-institutional deliveries are increasing and here again the proportion of children born out of non-institutional delivery will be more in neonatal mortality the state of madhya pradesh has also recorded a lower sex ratio in terms of admissions in the three years against thousand boys only 663 girls were admitted in the national level about 733 neonatal girl children were admitted against thousand boys health workers are saying that one main reason for this is because of prevailing bias against girl child in society while part of the reason is attributed to better immunity among girl children in combating diseases the article also states that several districts have also under reported the deaths of neonates or newborn children this means that the actual figure of deaths of newborn children were hidden through the public or were covered to prove that these districts are performed well this is a worrying trend because it does not give the real picture of the status in the districts as a result the efforts to healthcare will not be targeted or will be misleading so more institutional facilities have to be developed to specifically target the newborn children and we need more qualified medical professionals such as surgeons, gynecologists, physicians and pediatricians when it comes to neonatal treatment and we also require a dedicated neonatal transport service this is because at present these children depend on the general ambulance service in the state government and more importantly both center and states have to increase their spending on healthcare particularly with reference to newborn children one of the reasons mentioned for a non admission of sick children in government hospitals is because of inability of parents to identify disease in the newborn children and also lack of awareness in this area so steps have to be taken to address this challenge as well now if you see the major causes of neonatal deaths premature births and low birth weight these two conditions are called for a major proportion of neonatal deaths if you see neonatal mortality rate is not uniform across India way back by september 2014 itself kerala has attained a single digit nmr around seven against thousand live births at the time it was found that four states in India Uttar Pradesh Madhya Pradesh Bihar and Rajasthan they contributed to 56 percent of total neonatal deaths in India and these four states together accounted for around 14 percent of global neonatal deaths that occur every year so we need targeted interventions in these four states with respect to neonatal healthcare so these are some of the areas that have to be taken care of and with this we come to the end of analysis of this news article we saw about what is neonatal mortality rate what is i mr what is child mortality rate or under five mortality rate then we saw the status with respect to neonatal deaths in the state of madhya pradesh from 2017 to 2019 and we saw various reasons for increasing neonatal deaths in madhya pradesh and also these reasons we can also say to various other states of our country as well now let's move on to next news article this news article mentions about a new electronic courting system the syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference see the new electronic courting system will be an adhar linked electronic courting system it will enable electors to cast their votes from any part of the country or for that matter even from abroad irrespective of the place where they are registered to vote so it will allow electors to vote from far away cities without going to the designated physical polling station in their respective local constituencies this project is actually at present in the rnd stage or research and development stage with the name to develop a prototype the voting system is being prepared for the election commission of india by iit madras and they are likely to present this model before the election commission next month if the model is approved by election commission then a final prototype will be prepared by the end of 2020 or in early 2021 note that if the project is approved by election commission then various laws and rules with respect to election have to be modified or amended now let's see some details with respect to this new electronic voting system see it will be a two-way remote voting electronic system in a controlled environment if you remember the election commission of india had used a one-way electronic system for service electors for the first time in 2019 loksa directions in a one-way electronic system a blank postal ballot is electronically transmitted to the voter and this system was called as e postal ballot system so under the system voters who are entitled to postal ballot say for example service voters they can download the postal ballot and print the blank postal ballot then they have to mark their vote after marking their vote in the blank postal ballot it will be returned to the concerned returning officer by post in this electronic transmission is happening in one way only we have discussed about this electronically transmitted postal ballot system in detail on 20th may 2019 you may see that analysis for more insights but if you see this new electronic voting system that we are presently discussing it would be a two-way electronic voting system so this means that the voting will also be done electronically along with the electronic transmission of postal ballot now the main technology that is to be used in developing the prototype or this model is the blockchain technology see this model will be on a white listed ip device on dedicated internet lines here ip white listing is actually a security feature which is used for limiting and controlling the access only to trusted users so ip white listing actually allows entities to create lists of trusted ip addresses or list of trusted ip ranges from such ip addresses the users can access the domains of the entity and this model will involve voter identification and also voter authorization this will be done using a multi-layered it enabled system that will be working on election commissions electoral registration officer network shortly called as ero net so this model will be integrated with ero net so that the ero net will reflect the status of voting of a particular person from a remote area and the voter identification and authorization will be done with biometric devices and a web camera will also be a part of this system so once a voter's identity is established by the system a blockchain enabled personalized e-ballot paper will be generated see this e-ballot paper will be known as smart contract in blockchain technology language a smart contract is actually a computer protocol intended to digitally facilitate verify or enforce a negotiation or performance of a contract such smart contracts actually allow the performance of credible transactions without the need for third parties so when the vote is cast that is when the smart contract is executed the ballot will be securely encrypted and a blockchain hashtag will be generated actually this hashtag notification will also be sent to various stakeholders like candidates and political parties note that this hashtag will not reveal to whom the person has voted but it will give information that a person has voted from a remote location the encrypted remote votes will again be validated at the pre counting stage they will validate at pre counting stage to ensure that the remote words were neither decrypted nor tampered or replaced so when we think the system they are presently developing as a two-way electronic voting system you should not think that this system is anytime anywhere any device voting system so in this new method of voting voters will have to reach a designated venue during a pre-decided period of time so in this new method of voting if voters want to use this facility they will have to reach a designated venue at a pre-decided period of time for example suppose there is a Lokshaba election and the person whose name is in the electoral role for a constituency in Chennai is in Delhi so instead of coming back to Chennai to vote or instead of staying in Delhi and missing an opportunity for voting under this new system the voter can reach a pre-designated spot set up by the election commission say for example the pre-designated spot is cannot place in Delhi then the voter has to reach this place in a particular time window and can cast her vote in this two-way electronic voting system so voters who want to exercise this option of voting first they have to apply in advance to their concerned returning officers the development related to this system has been seen as a welcome move as it will enable the voters who are lodged presently in various other states or countries as it will facilitate voters who are outside their local constituency to cast their vote without the need to travel to their local constituency and this will be helpful for various individuals who are migrated for various purposes like education exam preparations work etc so end of the day for the purpose of election it will definitely increase voter turnout and will add savings because there will be no need to spend money to travel to come to the local constituents and we have discussed blockchain technology in detail in our hindu news analysis on 21st july 2019 that day we have discussed what is a blockchain and how a blockchain works and various applications of blockchain technology and some of the challenges of blockchain technology we have come to the last session the practice questions discussion session this question is with reference to electronically transmitted postal ballot system they have given three statements asking which among the above statements are incorrect first statement service voters are eligible for this method of voting now this statement is correct here when we say service voters we are referring to those who are serving in armed forces of the union then those who are serving in a force to which army act of 1950 is applicable that is forces of asam rifle crp of bs of indo tibetan border police ssb national security guards etc and it also includes those who are employed in a post outside india under government of india say for example ambassadors of india and foreign countries and it also includes member of an armed police force of a state who is serving outside the state so these section of voters are called as service voters first statement is correct so it should not be in the answer because the question asks for incorrect statements so you can eliminate option a and option b now you have to verify whether second statement is correct or not they are saying proxy voting is not allowed in the electronically transmitted postal ballot system now this statement is correct and know that when we say proxy voting those voters who opt for proxy voting are called as classified service voters and we actually have the provision for proxy voting for those classified service voters only so this means that service water belonging to armed forces or forces to which army act is applicable they will have the option of voting through a proxy voter duly appointed by the classified service water so this proxy voting is not allowed in electronically transmitted postal ballot system so second statement is actually correct so the correct answer for this question is option d three only third statement says it is a two way electronic voting system so right now the electronically transmitted postal ballot system only electronically transmits the postal ballot which has to be downloaded and printed and then manually posted by the concerned authority so right now the electronically transmitted postal ballot system is a one way electronic voting system so the third statement is incorrect correct answer is option d three only see this question which among the following uses consumer data and demographics to identify the interests of specific individuals or very small groups of like-minded individuals and then influence their thoughts or actions logically you can arrive at the correct answer see very small groups and see there is a term micro targeting so that what they have given is the definition of micro targeting so the correct answer for this question is option c now see option a it talks about contact tracing now this is a process wherein those persons who were in touch with a disease infected individual and listing those contacts after identifying them and isolating them and giving appropriate treatment methods is what we call as contact tracing on 15th February we have discussed contact tracing and how they have utilized this concept in Kerala in effectively preventing any transmission of covid 2019 infection now see this question they're asking which of the following statements is not correct with reference to goiter option a goiter is a condition caused by bacterial infection b the main symptom of goiter is swelling of thyroid land goiter may cause difficulty in breathing or swallowing iodine supplements is one of the ways to treat goiter here the incorrect statement would be option a this is because goiter is not a condition caused by bacteria it is caused because of iodine deficiency or hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism option b is a correct statement because the main symptom of goiter is swelling of the thyroid gland goiter itself refers to abnormal enlargement of thyroid gland this thyroid gland produces thyroid hormones and these hormones help to regulate the metabolism of human body and when goiter persists it may cause difficulty in breathing or swallowing this is a serious condition and when it causes difficulty in breathing or swallowing surgical treatment is prescribed to remove part of thyroid gland or entire thyroid gland depending on the severity and iodine supplements is one of the ways to treat goiter particularly when there is hypothyroidism this is because in hypothyroidism thyroid gland becomes underactive but body stimulates thyroid gland to produce more hormones as a result the thyroid gland enlarges the condition called goiter so during hypothyroidism hormone therapy and iodine supplements are given as treatment whereas during hyperthyroidism drug therapy using thionamides and radioactive iodine and in extreme conditions surgery is also being prescribed so the correct answer for this question is option a because only this is not correct statement with reference to goiter and see this mains question under gs paper 2 india is a front runner when it comes to achieving the targets of sustainable development goals but it is far away from achieving the sdg targets on neonatal and child mortality rates discuss and see this another mains question under gs 2 the shimla agreement and the lago declaration provide the basis to resolve all issues between india and pakistan bilaterally discuss for these two mains questions you may write the answers in a paper and you can upload a speedier for image in your drive and in sharing settings you can give anyone with the link and view and you can share the link in the comment section for this video we'll give you feedback in a reasonable time frame with this we come to the end of practice questions discussion session and the hindu news analysis for today if you like the video click the like button comment share and subscribe to shankarae's academy youtube channel for more updates and content on civil services exam preparation we'll meet you tomorrow