 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Reyes 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 and the timestamping of the discussed articles are provided in the description and also in the comment section for the benefit of mobile phone viewers. Now let us move on to the analysis of first news article. This news article is about Israel sued on peace deal. It's about current affairs with reference to the Arab world. We'll see various factors related to this deal. We'll see how Sudan is associated with Israel in the past and we'll see some implications at the international level for this deal. The syllabus relevant for the analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Now this peace deal is reportedly an offshoot of the ongoing Israel-Palestinian conflict. That is it is something that developed in association with the ongoing Israel-Palestinian conflict. The Israel-Palestinian conflict as we know dates back to the end of 19th century which was primarily a conflict over territory. Jews who faced persecution in Europe, they fled from Europe and they wanted to establish a national homeland in Arab and Muslim majority territory in the Ottoman and later British Empire. So this led to a war called as Arab-Israeli War of 1948. Now after this war the holy land was divided into three parts. One the state of Israel, two the West Bank of the Jordan River and the Gaza Strip. Actually United Nations planned to give part of the land to each group that was an early plan but it failed and Israel and the surrounding Arab countries they fought several wars over the territory and we cannot conclude that today's lines they reflect you know some kind of peaceful understanding among these countries certainly not. So today's lines they largely reflect the outcomes of two of very important wars. One which was waged in the year 1948 and another waged in the year 1967. So what happened in 1967 See in this war Israel captured Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt. Then it captured East Jerusalem and West Bank from Jordan and then it captured the Golan Heights from Syria. So after suffering this defeat in the hands of Israel Arab countries convened in Khartoum which is the capital of Sudan and there they declared the famous three no's. One is no peace with Israel then no talks with Israel and no recognition of Israel. So this is a background related to this Israel-Palestinian conflict. So at that point of time Arab countries were all on one side and they supported Palestinian cause. However very soon this position was abandoned or this position shifted by some Arab countries like Egypt and Jordan. For instance in the year 1979 Israel and Egypt they concluded a peace treaty. So as a part of this treaty Israel agreed to withdraw from Sinai and in return Egypt agreed that it will recognize Israel. Then in the year 1994 Jordan became the second Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel. In return Israel agreed to the formation of Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the Gaza. But since the 1994 peace deal of Jordan nothing much has changed actually until mid 2020. Now in August 2020 a peace deal was signed between Israel and United Arab Emirates and it was brokered by United States of America. As per this deal United Arab Emirates and Israel would establish formal diplomatic relations and in exchange Israel would suspend its plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank. Well this is what happened in August 2020 something special happened in September 2020 when Bahrain and Israel signed a peace deal which again was brokered by USA. So now with reference to this the latest news is that there is a continuous opposition in Bahrain for its decision to normalize ties with Israel. Well that is the development for September 2020 however in the month of October the news is that Sudan and Israel have come to agreement to normalize their relations. Again this deal was also brokered by USA. Now you might wonder that Sudan is in Africa and why it is important to normalize ties with Israel. See when we tell Arab world it not only includes the countries of western Asia or the Middle East it also includes northern African countries as well including Sudan which predominantly follows Islam. And we also saw earlier that Arab countries convened in the capital of Sudan and declared their famous three-nose. So Sudan has technically been in war with Israel since the year 1948 when Arab-Israeli war happened. So normalizing ties is of great significance and importance in the geopolitics of Arab world. So what is the advantage for Sudan, Israel and USA because of this Israel-Sudan deal. See for Sudan signing this deal is important as US has announced that it will be removed from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism. So if the US sanctions are removed Sudan could receive much needed economic aid from various countries and international organizations to develop its economy. And we should also know that Sudan's long-time ruler-president Omar al-Bashir was removed out of power this happened in April 2019 and Sudan is right now ruled by a transitional civilian military council. Even there were people protesting against this deal that this transitional government is not authorized to sign such deals. So with this peace deal coming to Israel it is slowly being recognized by the countries of the world which earlier some 50 or 60 years ago denied the existence of Israel. And it is also expected or predicted that few other Arab nations could also join this type of diplomacy to normalize their ties with Israel. For USA under Donald's administration it's a political gain for him in the backdrop of upcoming presidential elections. This is because once things are settled this way it will help US to reduce its troops involved in the conflict zones in northern Africa, East Asia etc. So they can return to their homeland which is a promise given by Donald Trump when he contested for presidential elections in 2016. The news article then tells that many allies of USA like Germany, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain they have welcomed this deal because it is expected to boost stability in the West Asia. However Palestinian leaders have strongly condemned the deal. Also Iran which supports Palestine has also opposed this deal telling that Sudan has signed this deal for its own gains that is to be removed from the US terrorism blacklist. 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. Now let's see this news article from the science and technology page of today's newspaper. The news is that NASA's Osiris Rex it collected about 60 grams of material from the surface of Bennu asteroid. In this context let us have a brief understanding about this mission called as Osiris Rex. The syllabus relevant for the analysis is highlighted here for your reference. See Osiris Rex is the acronym for origins spectral interpretation resource identification security regolith explorer. This is the first mission of NASA that is meant to return a sample from this ancient asteroid. This mission is essentially a seven year long voyage and is to conclude when at least 60 grams of sample are delivered back to the earth. And in the last week Osiris Rex has collected required amount of Bennu sample. See this mission was launched in the year 2016 to be specific it was launched in September 2016 from Florida and it reached its target in the year 2018. Since then the spacecraft has been trying to match the velocity of the asteroid using small rocket thrusters. It has also utilized this time to match the velocity for surveying the surface and to identify potential sites to take the samples. In March 2021 the window for departure from the asteroid will open and Osiris Rex will begin its return journey to earth and once it begins to start from Bennu it will arrive in around two and a half years. It is expected to arrive earth in September 2023. The sample return capsule will separate from the spacecraft and it will enter the earth's atmosphere. The sample will be later studied by the scientists. So what is an asteroid? See asteroids are rocky objects that orbit the sun. These are much smaller than planets therefore they are also called as minor planets. Asteroids are divided into three classes. One those asteroids that are found in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. See in this belt around 1.1 to 1.9 million asteroids are estimated to be there. The second group is called as Trojans. See these are asteroids that share an orbit with a larger planet. There 2011 it is reported that earth is also having a Trojan asteroid. Now the third classification is near earth asteroids. See these asteroids have orbits that pass close by the earth and among these asteroids some cross the earth's orbit these are called as earth crosses. More than 10,000 near earth asteroids are known and out of which around 1,400 are classified as potentially hazardous asteroids. See when we say potentially hazardous object or asteroid here it refers to a near earth object or a near earth asteroid whose orbit brings it within 7.5 million kilometers of earth's orbit and if its size is greater than 500 feet or 140 meters and NASA says by the current definition Bennu is a potentially hazardous asteroid. That means these are asteroids that are potential to make a close approach to earth and however this does not mean that these objects will impact earth. However they are studied they are observed so as to improve predictions of risk of these objects impacting earth. Now let's see what do we mean by comets and meteors. See comets are frozen leftovers from the formation of solar system and these are composed of dust, rock and ice. They range from few miles to tens of miles wider but as they orbit closer to the sun they heat up and they spew gases and dust into a glowing head and this glowing head that can be larger than a planet. This material forms a tail that stretches millions of miles. There are likely to be billions of comets orbiting sun in the creeper belt and comets are also likely in the distant oot cloud. The oot cloud is the most distant region of our solar system. This region is suspected to be the source of most of the long period comets. Now meteoroids are those objects in space that range in size from dust grains to small asteroids. You can think of them as space rocks but when meteoroids enter earth's atmosphere or atmosphere of another planet like Mars at high speed they burn up the fireballs or the shooting stars or called as meteors. When the meteoroid survives a voyage or a trip through the atmosphere and it hits the ground it's called as meteorite. So these are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this news article where we saw about Osiris-Rex mission, we saw about comets, meteoroids, meteorites, meteors. Now let's move on to next news article. This news article talks about a recent study that was conducted on Himalayan brownbeer. The study was conducted by scientists of Zoological Survey of India. It is predicted that the species may undergo a massive decline of 73 percent in terms of the suitable habitat and biological corridors by the year 2050. According to scientists this reduction is mainly attributed to the climate change. So they suggest an adaptive spatial planning of protected area network in the western Himalayas for conserving this species called as Himalayan brownbeer. In the context of analyzing this article let us understand few important and interesting facts about this Himalayan brownbeer. The syllabus relevant for the analysis is highlighted here for your reference. See Himalayan brownbeer it is the world's second largest terrestrial carnivore. The world's largest terrestrial carnivore is polar bear. Now coming to its physical attributes it's a large bear with thick fur which is most often sandy or reddish brown in color. The body coat of this bear is shorter in summer and longer in winter. The head is large and the body is heavy and the legs stocky that is broad and strongly built. Males are larger than females where males range from 150 to 250 centimeter height or length compared to around 137 to 183 centimeter for female bears and weights are also higher for males where we could see 130 to 550 kilograms and female weighs 80 to 250 kilograms. They are omnivorous they are diurnal or active during the day and they have a solitary life except during mating and except mothers with cubs. Mating takes place during May and June with cubs being born in the winter in December and January and interestingly it seems to be arguably the least arboreal of all the bear subspecies. Here arboreal refers to the animals that prefer living in trees. India has four species of bears. These are Himalayan brown bear, sloth bear, sun bear, Himalayan black bear or sometimes called as Asiatic black bear. Now the Asiatic black bear is also known as moon bear or white chested bear. It is a medium sized species of bear that occurs through much of southern Asia, Korea, northeast in China, Russian Far East and also found in limited parts of Japan. This is classified as vulnerable by IUCN. Now coming to sloth bear it is endemic to Indian subcontinent. We can see sloth bear in India, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. This particular species an interesting fact is there that it is the inspiration for the much-loved character Baloo in Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book. IUCN lists the sloth bear as vulnerable. Now coming to sun bear it is mostly distributed in southeast Asia. In India it occurs in northeastern region. However in that region we could not commonly find it though it occurs there. It is the smallest of the eight bear species that is found across the globe. Again it is also listed as vulnerable by IUCN red list. Now let's come to Himalayan brown bear. See these are found in northwestern and central Himalayas. We can find this in Nepal, Tibetan Autonomous region of China and also in Bhutan. They may also be present in south and western Ladakh particularly in the upper Suru and Sanskar valleys. Now in the Indian Himalayan regions the brown bear is mostly distributed in high altitude ranges of alpine meadows scrub and sub-alpine forests of the two union territories Jamun, Kashmir and Ladakh. They are also distributed in high altitude ranges in the two Indian states Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand as well. A good number is present in great Himalayan national park. See this national park was constituted in 1984 and it was formally notified as a national park in the year 1999. It is located in Banjar sub-division of Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh in the far western Himalayas. In India if you take the habitat of Himalayan brown bear it includes high altitude open valleys and pastures. During the summer months the bears move up as high as the snowline at around 5,500 meters and then descend into the valleys in the autumn. Now coming to the threats faced by Himalayan brown bears mainly habitat loss killed by livestock herders. They are also poached for body parts. Bear bile is used in medicines in countries such as China, Japan and South Korea. Bear paws, meat and fat are also traded. It is also learned that this bear it avoids areas nearer to the human settlements which indicates that the species is sensitive to the anthropogenic changes. So they say that increasing human population and expanding encroachments of forests for settlements are a major threat to these species. Now coming to its protection status know that Himalayan brown bear along with malai bear and sloth bear are protected under schedule one of wildlife protection act of 1972. As per some reports Himalayan black bear is in schedule two. Few resources though say that it is listed in schedule one of WPA. We will clarify this information about Himalayan black bear tell you the right information after confirming with the government. 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 talks about an interesting study conducted on onophoresensis which is smell. The study was conducted in Iceland and it involved examining the olfactory genes in humans. See when we say olfactory genes these are genes relating to smell. See the study was the largest genome-wide association study of olfactory genes in humans. It involved a sniff test where around 9,000 people participated from Iceland. Reports were published in the journal called Current Biology. Participants were asked to smell odors from pen-like devices. After sniffing each pen the researchers asked what the smell was, intensity of the smell and the pleasantness of the smell. Here they sniffed key ingredients that are found in licorice, cinnamon, fish and others. Here licorice is a flooring plant. From the root of this plant a sweet aromatic flavoring substance can be extracted. Know that the perception of odors in human beings is mainly achieved through olfactory receptors or ORs encoded by olfactory receptor genes. The researchers have known that people perceive odors based on olfactory receptors that are encoded by 855 olfactory genes but about half of those genes in people are thought to lack functioning. This leaves us with a relatively small ability to use about only 400 such genes. The reason humans have lost so many OR genes has remained mysterious. Now coming to the smell of fish, we know that for some the smell of fish is rather strong and unpleasant. The study says that but some people carry a mutation in a particular gene that makes fish order less intense. The olfactory receptor gene called as trace amine associated receptor phi or tar phi. This gene was pinpointed as the reason for the variation in smell. See a variant in this tar phi gene affects the perception of fish order containing trimethylamine. Trimethylamine is a compound that is found in rotten and fermented fish as well as in other animal odors and various bodily secretions. So now this means those participants who have this tar phi variant they were more likely to not smell anything when presented with fish order or they could only smell it with less intensity and therefore they often named the order incorrectly. Now these findings are the first to show an important role of this gene in people where a variation in the gene causes less intensity in the smell of the fishes. Makes the smell of fishes less intense when sensed. The study also shows that people vary in their ability to discern the smell of licorice and cinnamon as well. These two discoveries were found in more typical and common olfactory gene variants. They influenced an individual's ability to name licorice and cinnamon orders. They also influenced the intensity and pleasantness associated with those orders as well. Here the researchers discovered a common variant in a cluster of olfactory receptors and this common variant is associated with increased sensitivity to transanithole that is found in black licorice. Now carriers of this variant they find licorice order as more intense, more pleasant and they can name it more accurately. Overall the findings show that variation in olfactory genes influences order perception in humans. Now this is the very important statement that we have to keep in mind. Then the researchers also show that while humans have fewer olfactory genes compared to other species, some of the genetic variation that people carry makes them more sensitive to particular smells such as licorice or cinnamon. So these are some of the important information with reference to the analysis of this news article. Now let's move on to next news article. This news article talks about an MOU that was signed by National Institute of Siddha with aims in Raipur. The memorandum of understanding pertains to collaboration in R&D particularly in strengthening research activities dealing with COVID-19. So as to initiate randomized clinical trials to treat COVID-19 using traditional Siddha system of medicine. In this context let us have a brief understanding about National Institute of Siddha and All India Institute of Medical Sciences. See National Institute of Siddha is one of the 11 national institutes established across the country by department of Ayush. It was established in 2005 at Tambaram Chennai in Tamil Nadu. The institute's purpose is for study and research of Siddha medicine. Siddha system is one of the ancient traditional medical system in India. It uses herbs, minerals, metals, animal substances depending on the drug formulations. The system is unique and it is evolved by Tamil sages called Siddhars. The procedure includes Vatham, Vaithyam, Yogam and Jnanam. This institute aims to provide the best possible post-graduate education in Siddha. It intends to develop curriculum so that the benefits of traditional science can be integrated with modern science. Admissions to MD Siddha courses are made on the basis of merit of candidates secured in All India Ayush post-graduate entrance test. This test is conducted by All India Institute of Ayurveda. See the union minister or the minister of state or the deputy minister holding charge of the work relating to Siddha in the ministry of Ayush shall be the president of the institute. Minister in charge of health of government of Tamil Nadu shall be the vice president of the institute. The institute is affiliated to Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University. The institute is also the national headquarters of the central council of research in Siddha which is the exclusive body of research in Siddha. Coming to aims, it is an autonomous institution set up in Delhi under the legislation called as All India Institute of Medical Sciences Act 1956. This act provides for the establishment of aims as institute of national importance. The institute awards its own medical degrees and other academic distinctions. Other than aims Delhi, 22 new All India Institute of Medical Sciences have been announced or approved by union government to be established in various states of the country. One of the objective of aims is to develop pattern of teaching in UG and PG medical education in all its branches so as to demonstrate high standard of medical education to all medical colleges and allied institutions in India. The other objectives and functions of aims are displayed here for your reference. With this we come to the end of analysis of this news article. Now let's move on to next part of the discussion. We have come to the last session the practice questions discussion session. See this question which of the following countries share border with Red Sea? Saudi Arabia, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan. Now of these five countries we know that Iran, UAE, Bahrain, they share border with Persian Gulf not Red Sea. Here Sudan and Saudi Arabia they share border with Red Sea along with other countries like Egypt, Eritrea, Yemen which you can see here. Note that South Sudan is a landlocked country. Here the correct answer is option A 1 and 5 only. Which of the following best relates to the trace amine associated receptor phy tar phy recently seen in news? Option A it is a gene variant which affects perception of fish order in humans. This is the correct answer for this question. Here they have given space missions and associated asteroids or studied asteroids. O-Series Rex Benno, Hayabusa Itokawa Hayabusa 2. See all the missions are correctly matched here. So the correct answer for this question is option D 1 2 and 3. This question is with reference to Himalayan brown beer. Three statements are given. They are asking which of the statements are incorrect. First statement they are found in Bhutan and China but not in India. Statement is incorrect. They are found in India as well in addition to Bhutan and China. They are found in high altitude ranges of alpine meadows, subalpine forests of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Second statement they are protected under wild life protection act 1972. Yes it is correct under schedule one. Third statement they are nocturnal mammals who are predominantly arboreal. This is incorrect because they are diurnal mammals and they are considered to be least arboreal of all the beer subspecies. So first and third statements are incorrect. Therefore the correct answer is option A 1 and 3 only. This question is with reference to Siddha system of medicine. It is an ancient traditional medical system in India which uses herbs, minerals, metals and animal substances as drug formulations. The procedure under the system includes vatham, vaityam, yogam and jnanam. Both the statements are correct. Therefore the correct answer is option C both 1 and 2. This question is with reference to AIMS. Three statements are given. We have to select correct statements. It is an autonomous institution established by an executive order of government of India. The statement is incorrect. It is through a legislation. It is categorized as an institution of national importance which is correct. The institution provides only undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. This statement is incorrect because it states it provides only. See it provides UG and PG teaching in medical education and also in related physical biological sciences and its functions include nursing and dental education as well. So the correct answer for this question is option C 2 only. With this we come to the end of today's the Hindu News Analysis. If you like the video click the like button, comment, share and subscribe to Shankaray's Academy YouTube channel for more updates and content on civil service exam preparation.