 Good evening aspirants. Welcome to the news analysis discussion session by Shankar A.S. Academy for the date 3rd of June 2022. These are the list of articles we will be discussing today. Without wasting much time, now let us get into the discussion. Look at this news article. The news article mentions that the International Liquid Mirror Telescope saw the first light recently. That is, telescope has been commissioned. It will start scientific observations in October this year. So, let us see few relevant facts about this telescope. See as the name suggests, this telescope has a liquid mirror. So, what is it? A liquid mirror is the one that uses a liquid material as a reflecting surface when it is spun. This is based on the principle that when a liquid is steadily rotated, its surface would take up a paraboloid shape. A perfect paraboloid directs and concentrates light to a focal point of a telescope. This happens due to the influence of gravity and centrifugal acceleration. Here, gravity pulls the liquid down and the inertia of the centrifugal force pulls it radially sideways. This principle was first realized by Sir Isaac Newton. Now, what liquid is used in these types of telescopes? Since the liquid needs to be a mirror, it should reflect light. So, liquids like mercury, gallium, gallium-indium alloy or oil infused with reflecting particles are commonly used. Now, when this liquid mirror is used in telescopes, it is called the liquid mirror telescope. Majorly, mercury is used as the reflecting liquid. This mercury is kept in a bowl container which is also called as a bath. The bath is a lightweight structure whose surface is parabolic and only a thin layer of mercury is needed to produce the accurate mirror shape. This ensures that the mirror overall remains lightweight even though mercury has high density. Then a camera is put at the focal point of the paraboloid. So, what happens is the bath is rotated smoothly around a accurately vertical axis at a constant angular velocity. The rim of a typical 4 meter mercury telescope spins about 3 miles per hour and the images are captured in the camera. Now, let us see certain factors that are ensured in the liquid mirror telescope. First, the liquid mirror acts as a primary mirror. That is, it is the mirror that collects and focuses the incoming light in a reflecting telescope. Second, the mirror has a fixed position. Third, the mirror has to remain accurately horizontal and cannot be tilted. Why is that? This ensures that the liquid does not pour out and it always points towards the zenith. That is, directly overhead. Because of this, the liquid mirror telescopes are also called as zenithal pointing telescope. Next, the mercury is covered with a thin layer of transparent mylar which is kept few centimeters above the mercury surface. This helps in eliminating the ripples formed due to the spinning and mylar also acts as a protection from the wind disturbance. Next, due to the toxic nature of the mercury, suitable protections are taken to protect the operators of the telescope. Now, the major advantage of the liquid mirror telescope over a conventional telescope is that it is very cheap. This is due to the low capital and operating cost. Liquid mirror telescope costs only 1-2% of a conventional glass telescope mirror of same size. And a conventional glass telescope mirror needs to be cleaned, adjusted, polished and aluminized. What does aluminized mean? Aluminized mean, an aluminum film is deposited on the glass. But these are absent in the case of liquid mirror telescope. So, a liquid mirror telescope is also cheaper to maintain. This low cost advantage of liquid mirror telescope also allows it to be dedicated to a narrowly defined project which is unpractical with conventional telescope as they are expensive. Apart from these advantages, liquid mirror telescope has a major drawback which is liquid mirror telescope always have to look straight up at the zenith that is overhead and cannot point at any directions or at different objects. See, this limits the telescope's field of view. But this drawback is also minimized because of Earth's rotation which makes a zenith to move continuously. So, these are the basics about the liquid mirror telescope. Now, the news article talks about an liquid mirror telescope called as the International Liquid Mirror Telescope. It is built with collaboration among India, Belgium, Poland and Canada. It is the first liquid mirror telescope in the country and the largest in Asia. There are three main components of the International Liquid Mirror Telescope. First is the primary rotating mirror. It is a 4 meter liquid mirror and uses mercury as a reflecting liquid. Second is the focal structure. The third is the upper end. The upper end is composed of a charged coupled device camera and a optical corrector. International liquid mirror telescope is kept at the Aryabata Research Institute of Observational Sciences site in Davasthal in the state of Uttarakhand. The site is located at Davasthal P in the central Himalayan range in India. This site is chosen due to its ideal condition like it has approximately 210 clear nights in a year which will help in capturing the image clearly. Know that International Liquid Mirror Telescope is the first liquid mirror telescope designed exclusively for astronomical observations. So, it will be used to carry out deep survey and hide photometric and astrometric observations of solar system, galactic and extragalactic objects within a narrow strip of sky. It is expected to detect and regularly monitor quasars, supernovas, asteroids as well as space debris. That's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw the basics and the components of a liquid mirror telescope. Also, we saw about the recently commissioned International Liquid Mirror Telescope in Uttarakhand. With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. See this article here. It says that India's merchandise trade deficit widened to a record 23.33 billion in May month. This is because exports grew by 15.5% that is 37.3 billion dollars while imports jumped to 56.1% that is 60.62 billion dollars. And this preliminary data is from the Commerce and Industry Ministry. The article also says that goods exports shrank 7.2% from April's 40.19 billion dollars and this results in the trade deficit for the first two months of 2022-23 period. And that is all about the news article given here. In this context, we will brush up some basic facts for prelims perspective. See, every day Indians and Indian entities such as firms and governments import foreign goods and services and they also export domestic goods and services. And apart from these, they receive investments from abroad and make investments in other countries also. Know that each of these transactions involve a demand for a foreign currency or a demand for Indian currency. For example, we need dollars to import something from the United States or to invest in one of United States stock exchanges. By the same logic, other countries need Indian currency to buy goods from India or to invest in Indian stock exchanges. The interplay of these transactions decide the exchange rate of the rupee vis-à-vis the foreign currency. And recording of these transactions is called balance of payments or BOP. Know that the BOP has two parts. One is the capital account. This includes all the types of trading in capital. In other words, all investments inside and outside of the country are recorded here. For example, if an Indian firm invests money in the United States to build a new company there or if an Indian buys stocks in an American exchange. The second part of the BOP is the current account. See all the trade in goods and services noted here. For example, if an Indian imports an American gadget or software made by an American company or if an American entity imports Indian steel or engages an Indian IT company to create a software. See the current account has two specific subparts. First one is the important export of goods. This is called the trade account. The second one is the important export of services. This is called the invisibles account. Now with this basics, let us see the deficit. First of all, what is trade deficit? See, it is a broad term. To be more specific, it is a generic term. It is possible that a country, say India, imports more than it exports. In such a case, it would have a deficit on its trade account. In other words, more money is going out of the country than coming in. See this is called trade deficit. Now coming to current account deficit. It is the shortfall between the money received by selling products to other countries and the money spent to buy goods and services from other nations. If the value of goods and services we import exceeds the value of those we export, the country is said to be in a deficit. And the difference between the two values is called current account deficit. Now that current account deficit includes net income including interest and dividends and transfers like foreign aid. Also note that the current account deficit also includes the remittances transferred. See India's current account position is largely on the negative side because of our country's excessive dependence on imported oil. Now moving on to capital account deficit. As we saw earlier, the current account consists of visible trade that is export and import of goods and invisible trade that is export and imports of services. It also includes unilateral transfers and investment income that is income from factors such as land or foreign shares. But the capital account is a record of inflows and outflows of capital that directly affects the nations foreign assets and liabilities. The components of the capital account include foreign investment and loans, banking and other forms of capital as well as monetary movements or changes in the foreign exchange reserves. So a capital account deficit occurs when the equity turns negative. This means the total amount of liabilities exceeds the total amount of assets. Here a point to notice that NRA depositing money in an NRA account comes under the capital account whereas someone sending money via remittance comes under current account. Note this difference. Now moving on to balance of payment deficit. See like trade deficit, the balance of payment deficit is also a broad term. A balance of payment deficit means a nation imports more commodities, more capital and more services than it exports. This is about balance of payment deficit. That's all regarding this discussion. See in this discussion we saw some basic terms for our PLIMS examination in that we saw about current account deficit, capital account deficit, trade deficit and balance of payments deficit. With this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this news article. This news article talks about the state formation day celebration in Telangana. See the Telangana chief minister mentioned in his speech that people in the country need employment, projects, power and water. This is the crux of the news article given here. In this context let us discuss about article 2, 3 and 4 of the Indian constitution which is talking about the formation of states, renaming of states etc. Now let us start our discussion. First let us start with article 2. See this article that is article 2 talks mainly about the admission or establishment of new states. Article 2 states that the parliament may by law admit into the union or establish new states. Now moving on to article 3. Article 3 talks about firstly the formation of new states. Secondly it talks about the alteration of areas, boundaries or names of existing states. Now comes the question. How can it be done? See this can be done by parliamentary laws. Firstly parliament may by law can form new states. This can be done by separation of territory from any state or by uniting two or more states or parts of states or by uniting a union territory to a part of any state. Secondly parliament may by law can increase the area of any state. Not only this parliament may by law can also diminish the area of any state. Fourthly parliament may by law can alter the boundaries of any state. Lastly parliament may by law can alter the name of any state also. Note that in these five classes that is from article 3a to 3e the word state includes a union territory also. Here when we talk about article 3 there are two important conditions that you have to remember. One is the bills for the purpose mentioned in article 3 can be introduced in either house of the parliament but only on the recommendation of the president. Secondly the bill that affects the area, boundaries or name of any states should be referred by the president to the state legislature and the state legislature can express its views within such period as the president may allow. This is about article 3. Now moving on to article 4. See article 4 talks about this. It says that loss made under article 2 and article 3 provides for the amendment of the first and the fourth schedules. Now do you remember what is spoken in the first and fourth schedule? See the first schedule talks about the names of the states and the union territories. It also includes the territorial jurisdiction of the states. Now moving on to fourth schedule. See fourth schedule talks about the provision in relation to the allocation of seats for states and union territories in Rajeshaba. Then article 4 also mentions that no such law as mentioned in article 2 and article 3 shall be deemed to be an amendment of the constitution for the purpose of article 368. That's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion we saw about article 2, article 3 and article 4 of the Indian constitution. With this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this data point article. It talks about India's domestic crude production. See the domestic crude production in India has been on a constant decline. In the financial year 2022 it slipped to 28.4 million metric tons. This is the lowest in over two decades. See India has the third largest consumer of oil. But for 85% of its needs, our country depends on imports. This is the crux of the data point given here. In this context let us analyze the data point and extract some important points which will be useful for your main sensor rating. Before that we will see about the distribution of petroleum or mineral oil in India which is important for your plumes. See petroleum and mineral oil products are functional fluids derived from petroleum. To form fuel or non-fuel products we have to refine petroleum. This can be done using midstream oil and gas processes. The fuel produced include gases, petrol, kerosene, diesel and fuel oil. While the non-fuel products include petrochemical feedstock, base oils, mineral oils, intermediaries and base polymers. See the term petroleum is derived from the Latin prefix petra meaning rock and olium meaning oil. So petroleum essentially means rock oil. This term is correct because petroleum are actually extracted from sedimentary rocks. See the term can be used to describe any mixture of gaseous, liquid or solid hydrocarbons found beneath the earth's surface. It is a naturally occurring hydrocarbon based fuel with various molecular weights. Just have a look at this table to know about the well defined elemental composition of petroleum. See petroleum or mineral oil is obtained from sedimentary rocks of the earth. Now just have a look at this image to know how petroleum or mineral oil is being formed. See firstly dead tiny sea plants and animals got buried on the ocean floor. Then over the time they were covered by layers of sediments and rocks. Since these are all buried deeper and deeper they will be under enormous heat and pressure. As a result of this they are turned into oil and gas. This is what we extract during drilling today. Note that petroleum fuels on burning gives little smoke and leaves no ash. So they are a better fuel than coal. Now let us see about the distribution of petroleum and mineral oil in India. See the process of formation of petroleum or mineral oil started in the tertiary period that is 3 million years ago. So most of the oil reserves in India are associated with anticlines and fault traps in the sedimentary rocks. Just have a look at this image to see how oil is trapped in anticlines and fault traps in the sedimentary rocks. See when we talk about the distribution of petroleum or mineral oil we should know about the petroleum and natural gas basins in India. See the petroleum and natural gas basins in India are the Upper Assam Basin, the West Bengal Basin, the Western Himalayan Basin, the Rajasthan-Saurashtra and Kutch Basin, the Northern Gujarat Basin and finally the Ganga Valley Basin. Note that Mumbai High, the Kambat Gulf and Assam are the most productive area in case of petroleum or mineral oil. Now let us start the second part of a discussion. See here we are going to see about the analysis of the data point which will be useful for your mains examination to make your answers look unique. Now look at this graph. This graph shows the import dependence of India on crude oil. As I mentioned earlier, India is the third largest consumer of oil but the country failed to increase its domestic production. Because of this when the crude oil prices in the international markets increased, India's import bill grew in large numbers. So India's import bill for crude oil stood at $120.4 billion in the financial year 2022. Okay? Now comes the question why is India unable to reduce its import bill by increasing its domestic production? For this there are two main reasons. Firstly it is due to its ageing oil wells. Just have a look at this graph. This graph shows that the dry oil wells are increasing. This is happening due to the increasing demand in our country. The aged oil wells are the ones which had become less productive over time or in simple words it is becoming dry. And you can also see the new oil wells are not enough to meet the country's demands. Because of this the crude oil production in India is decreasing. Just have a look at this graph to know how the domestic crude oil production in our country is declining. See secondly there are less exploration or discoveries. See to understand this look at this graph you can very well understand that whether it is development of wells or exploring wells both has declined. See here development of well means maximizing the known resource and exploring wells means locating new resource of oil. Okay? That's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion we saw the basics about the formation of petroleum or mineral oil. Then we saw about the basins where petroleum or mineral oil or natural gas is found in India. Finally we saw some points from the data given in the data point. Okay? That's all regarding the news article discussion session. Now let us take up the practice prelims questions. We have four prelims questions today. Let us see them one by one. Let us take up the first question. See this question is about the International Liquid Mirror Telescope. Two statements are given. We have to find the correct statement. Let us take up the first statement. It uses a 4 meter diameter rotating mirror made up of liquid mercury to collect and focus light. See from our discussion we know that this statement is correct. Now let us take up the second statement. It is kept near Moons North Pole. See this statement is incorrect. First, because International Liquid Mirror Telescope is on Earth and it is kept at air site in India which is in Davastal Peak in the Central Himalayan Range in Uttarakhand. Second, it is incorrect because in Moon we cannot use liquid mercury as it will freeze. Instead in case of Moon, low temperature ionic liquid that do not evaporate are employed. The liquid would have to be made reflective by depositing a metallic film on its surface while the mirror is spinning. So statement one is correct, statement two is incorrect. So the correct answer here is option A one only. Now let us take up the second question. This is also a two statement question. Two statements are given. We have to find the correct statements. Let us take up the first statement. Current account includes only the visibles. See this statement is incorrect because as we saw in our discussion current account involves both visibles and invisibles. Visibles here mean goods and invisibles means services. Now let us take up the second statement. Currency depreciation makes the imports cheaper. See this statement is also incorrect. See depreciation happens when the demand for a currency goes down. Let us take the Indian currency for example. Let us say it is 60 rupees against 1 dollar. Now it has changed to 75 rupees against 1 dollar. Here the value of Indian rupee has actually declined. Think about it. Before to get a product worth 1 dollar from the United States you have to spend 60 rupees. But after the depreciation you must pay 75 rupees. So rupee depreciation has made the import costlier and not cheaper. So since statement one is incorrect and statement two is also incorrect and they are asking for the correct statement. The correct answer here is option D neither one nor two. Now let us take up the third question. This is also a two statement question. Two statements are given. We have to find the correct statements. Let us take up the first statement. Diminishing the area of the state amends the fourth schedule of the Indian constitution. See this statement is correct because diminishing the area of a state comes under article 3. So we saw in our discussion that any changes made through article 3 requires amendment of both first and the fourth schedule of the Indian constitution. So statement one is correct. Now let us take up the second statement. Alteration of the name of the states can be done by the state laws only. See this statement is incorrect. Because alteration of the name of the states can be done by parliamentary laws only and not state laws. This is mentioned in article 3. See the states can initiate a process to alter the name but it cannot wholly do it by its own law. So statement one is correct and statement two is incorrect. So the correct answer here is option A only. Now let us take up the last question. See two statements about petroleum or mineral oil is given. We have to find the correct statements. Let us take up the first statement. All sedimentary rocks contains mineral oils. See this is wrong. Not all sedimentary rocks contain mineral oil. Okay. Now let us take up the second statement. All products produced by refining petroleum are all fuel products. See this statement is also incorrect. Not all products produced by refining petroleum will be fuel products. There will also be non-fuel products like petrochemical feedstock, base oil, mineral oil, intermediaries and base polymers. So since both the statements are incorrect, the correct answer here is option D neither one nor two. If you like today's discussion, like, comment and share it with your friends. For more updates regarding UPC preparation, subscribe to Shankara IS Academy YouTube channel.