 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar IA's Academy, displayed at the list of news articles taken up for today's analysis, along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Trivandrum editions. The handwritten notes in PDF format and the timestamping of all the news articles taken up for today's analysis will be available in the description section and also in the common section for the benefit of the smartphone users. Let us now start our analysis. This news article discusses about the ban on oxytocin, the syllabus for this news analysis is given here. Let us now see the news article. In April 2018, the central government has issued a notification as per the powers given to it under section 26A of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940. Now as per this section, the central government has the power to regulate, restrict or prohibit the manufacture, sale or the distribution of drug and cosmetics in public interest. The central government has such powers if it feels satisfied under these three situations in public interest. The first one is if the use of any drug or cosmetic is likely to involve any risk to the human beings or animals. Next, if any drug does not have the therapeutic value as claimed or as perverted or stated to be claimed for that particular drug. Finally, if the drug contains ingredients and if that ingredient is in such a less quantity for which there is no therapeutic justification, then the central government can exercise its powers. In our case, that is as per the April 2018 notification, the central government has restricted the manufacturing of oxytocin for domestic use to only to the public sector undertakings. So, only the PSUs can manufacture oxytocin in India for domestic use. In this notification, there is also one more provision for the purpose of exports. The private players can actually manufacture oxytocin but for domestic use, it is restricted one to the public sector undertakings. Now, let us see about oxytocin. It is a natural hormone that is secreted by the pituitary glands of the humans and also some mammals. This hormone plays an very important role in women during childbirth. It is used as a first-line drug which is administered or given to the young mothers in order to save their lives when they are suffering from excessive bleeding immediately after childbirth. Then, oxytocin also plays an important role during lactation, that is feeding of mother's milk after childbirth. Then, this hormone is also manufactured artificially if you see and it is being given as a prescription drug. It is used to start birth contractions by the uterus during the delivery. In simple terms, it will accelerate the normal labor process. This hormone is also used in milk animals, that is to those animals that provide milk. So, when this hormone is injected into the milk animals, the animals will give more milk. Also know that oxytocin is included in the national list of essential medicines in India. This particular list is provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Now, let us see some of the old issues and cases related to this oxytocin use. This news article tells that the trigger for the notification was a 21-year-old controversy or a problem which is the clandestine or the secret manufacture of the oxytocin drug. And if you see, this drug was misused by the dairy owners where they injected oxytocin on the milk animals in order to artificially extract more milk from those animals. In March 2016, if you see, the High Court of Himachal Pradesh had given a judgment. In that particular judgment, the High Court asked to check for the feasibility of restricting the manufacture of oxytocin only in the public sector companies, nothing but the public sector enterprises. Since it observed a large-scale clandestine manufacture and sale of the oxytocin drug, the High Court asked to check for the feasibility of restricting the manufacture. So, we saw that this drug was misused by the dairy owners, which is harmful to both animals and humans. After this judgment, this matter was considered by the Drugs Technical Advisory Board. Know that this Drugs Technical Advisory Board is a statutory body which is constituted under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940. And this board comes under Central Drugs Standard Control Organization. Now, this board recommended that oxytocin formulations for human use needs to be regulated and restricted. And they should be supplied only to the registered hospitals and clinics in both public and private sector in order to prevent its misuse. So, the supply will be only to the registered hospitals and clinics. Now, based on the recommendations of this board, the Central Government issued a notification in April 2018. So, this is the April 2018 notification. In this notification, the Central Government restricted the usage of oxytocin, like it restricted its imports. And it also decided to confine the manufacturing to a public sector enterprise, which is Karnataka Antibiotics and Pharmaceuticals Limited. Now, the news is that yesterday, the Supreme Court has referred or mentioned all the petitions that have challenged this April 2018 notification to a three-judge bench. So, we just need to wait and watch how this case will move forward. Now, have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article speaks about the poultry farmers in the state of Karnataka who are demanding for importing the genetically modified maize crop. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Let us now see the news article. Now, before discussing the news article, let us first understand the meaning of genetically modified organisms. According to the World Health Organization, genetically modified organisms are defined as those organisms which can be plants, animals or even microorganisms in which the genetic material has been altered in such a way that it does not occur naturally, like naturally means by mating or through natural recombination. Instead, it is being done artificially to alter the genetic material in the organisms. So, this is called as genetically modified organisms. Now, the news article tells that the poultry farmers and breeders in the state of Karnataka are facing a shortage of indignously grown maize. So, this maize is used to feed the broiler chickens. In order to overcome this shortage, now the poultry farmers are demanding for the import of the genetically modified maize. Otherwise, they will have to wait for a few months in order to get the non-GM maize that is the regular maize till the state authorities import the non-GM maize. But they might have to pay more for that non-GM maize because there will be a huge demand by then. So, this is why the poultry farmers and breeders are demanding for the import of GM maize. If you see maize is one of the chief sources of feed for the broilers, the author says that in this news article it was mentioned that maize was available at a cost of 17,000 rupees per ton last year. So, this maize was imported by the state trading enterprises like the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India, in short the NAFET. Now the proposed import will cost them at least 23,500 rupees per ton. So, this is an increase of 6,500 rupees. So, this will ultimately bring down the profit of the poultry breeders because there is a huge scarcity for the indignously grown maize. When we tell indignously it means the maize that is grown within India. The yield of the indignously grown maize has been severely compromised or affected due to pest attacks and also due to drought nothing but water scarcity. Another reason for the low availability of maize is that we import maize from countries like Ukraine but now in that country it is an off season for maize so that we cannot even import the non-GM maize from Ukraine. So, this is one another reason but if you see the GM maize is available globally in abundance that is it is available in huge quantities and also it is cheaper when compared to the non-GM maize nothing but the regular maize. So, this is why the poultry farmers are pushing for importing the GM maize. They have asked the state authorities to get permission from the central government and they personally have assured that GM maize will only be used for feeding the poultry and it will not be used for sowing that is agriculture or even for human consumption. In this news article it is mentioned that any decision in the matter of permitting import of GM maize has to be taken by the directorate general of foreign trade know that this office of directorate general of foreign trade is attached to the ministry of commerce and industry. The news article also tells that for the time being the state trading enterprises who trade this maize crop are allowed to import only non-GM maize for feeding poultry and they are prohibited to import GM maize. Also know that the import of any food, any feed which is raw or processed or any other ingredient of food then food additives or any food product that contains GM material and which is being used either for the industrial production or for environmental release or field application will be allowed only with the approval of the genetic engineering appraisal committee. Now know that in the newspaper the term is given as genetic engineering approval committee. It was called as genetic engineering approval committee till 2010 then after a Gassett notification in 2010 this genetic engineering approval committee was renamed as genetic engineering appraisal committee and know that this functions under the ministry of environment forests and climate change. In the news article it is mentioned that in 2018 the government of India allowed the import of chicken from United States to India. So India had to allow the import of chicken from the US after a ruling from the world trade organization. So now the poultry industry has taken this point and they are justifying their demand for the import of GM maize because if you see in the US the poultry that is nothing but the chicken they are fed with GM maize and also with GM soya and that poultry is being imported to India for which the Indian government gave approval in 2018. So the poultry industry is justifying that GM maize can also be imported. The poultry industry has also said that the residue from the GM cotton seed oil has long been used as a feed for chicken cattle and fish in India. So this is their justification for importing GM maize from abroad. Now let us see some facts about the directorate general of foreign trade. It is attached to the ministry of commerce and industry as we saw it was formed in there 1991. Its main role is that it acts as a facilitator of exports and imports keeping in use of the interests of India. So it will help in exporting products from India and importing products to India and the main objective of this directorate general of foreign trade is to regulate and promote the foreign trade in line with the principles of liberalization and globalization. Also it is responsible for implementing the foreign trade policy or the Exim policy of India and know that earlier this directorate general of foreign trade was known as the chief controller of imports and exports till there 1991. So once the LPG reforms or the liberalization, privatization, globalization reforms came into effect this particular division was renamed as directorate general of foreign trade. That is why we can see that its objective is to regulate and promote foreign trade in line with the principles of liberalization and globalization. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This editorial talks about the Belt and Road Initiative of China and the challenges faced by the syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this editorial is given you for your reference. Let us now see the editorial. The Belt and Road Initiative is one of China's most ambitious policy. It was initially conceived as a response to China's over capacity in infrastructure related industries. That is the infrastructure related industries in China were producing more than what needs to be produced. In order to consume their production, this initiative was put forward by China. Now this over capacity happened due to the credit-fewable growth in China during 2008. It means providing more credit to produce more so that the demand will rise automatically. Till the global economic recession which happened around 2007-2008, the Chinese economy was booming because of huge exports. But since the international economy faced recession, the global trade reduced and so the Chinese exports also came down quite heavily. So in 2009 the Chinese administration came up with a proposal called the Chinese Marshall Plan. This plan suggested that China should use its vast foreign exchange reserves and then its expertise in building infrastructure then the over capacity nothing but the over production in iron, cement, aluminum, glass, coal and shipbuilding industries and then the unemployed labor. So all these must be used to meet the infrastructure demand in Southeast Asia, then in Central Asia and also in Africa. We have an original Marshall Plan that is the Marshall Plan in 1948. This was actually a US initiative to provide economic assistance to Western Europe. So this in turn will benefit the US economy. Similar to that in 2009, China came up with its Chinese Marshall Plan. The author of this editorial is telling that the Chinese leadership is enough compelled to review the Belt and Road Initiative due to a lot of reasons. Here the author has mentioned the China-US trade war which is still ongoing between China and US. Then the mounting criticism on the Belt and Road Initiative and also the growing division nothing but the schism in its Politburo. So Politburo is nothing but the decision-making body of the Communist Party of China. So all these are some of the reasons why the author is telling that the Chinese leadership is now compelled to review the Belt and Road Initiative. Now, let us see in brief about this Belt and Road Initiative. It was announced in 2013 by the Chinese president. It has two parts. First one consists of belt of rail routes, then highways, then oil and gas pipelines and other infrastructure projects which will be extending from Xi'an and Central China and it will pass through Central Asia, Russia, West Asia and Europe. It has another branch which will extend from the Khashkar in Xinjiang province in China to Guadar which is located in Balochistan and this will travel via the Pakistan occupied Kashmir. So this corridor is called as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Now the second part of this Belt and Road Initiative consists of a network of ports and coastal infrastructure. So this will stretch from Eastern China across the Southeast Asia and South Asia, then the Gulf countries, then Eastern Africa and through the Mediterranean up to Rotterdam and Europe. So one is the land route, the next is the water route. According to China more than 120 countries have signed and joined this Belt and Road Initiative and the China's trade with these countries has crossed more than 5 trillion US dollars and the investment has totaled around 200 billion US dollars for around 2600 projects since 2013. And the author has mentioned also one more statistics here. He tells that in 2019 China's trade with the Belt and Road Initiative countries was 6% higher when compared to the growth of its global trade. According to the author, the Belt and Road Initiative has not succeeded in the full utilization of over capacity in infrastructure industries. If you see China had to close many companies about one third of its projects are failing due to several issues like there is no open tendering or there is no competitive building or there is no practice of an independent pre feasibility or environmental impact studies as per the global norms which has to be conducted for the BRH projects. And if you see most of the projects are suffering from lack of local resources and then there are protests on the land procurement and there are also protests that the projects might cause pollution, then the performance delays, then corruption, then financial viability, then unsustainable debt and low investment returns. So these are some of the problems that the BRH projects are facing. And also the interest rate that is charged by China for these projects is also quite high. For government loans that is the loans given by Chinese government to the other country which is a part of this BRH network is 3%. And for the commercial loans that is the loans that are given to the companies in other BRH countries, the interest rate is ranging between 17% to 18%. And this again comes with the sovereign guarantee of the local government. Now many of these loans, both the government and also the commercial loans that were provided, have turned into non-performing assets, which means whatever projects that China is trying to implement has either not been completed or for those completed projects the rate of return is quite low. So now China has become quite selective in giving new loans. According to the author, some Belt and Road initiative projects do not make any economic sense because the cost of transportation via the proposed BRH projects is much more when compared to the existing routes. Also if you see many countries like Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Malaysia have asked China to either restructure or downsize that is reduce the proposed BRH projects. In one way it is good that India did not participate in the BRH. The reason why India did not participate in BRH was due to the concerns that were related to the sovereign tissue since the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor passes through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. And also there were many other reasons why India did not join this BRH like lack of transparency, openness, then financial sustainability, then the high interest rates that China is charging and also the tide nature of the Chinese loans. Here the tide nature of Chinese loans means China will insist the receiving country to spend money on particular things so as to benefit the Chinese firms. So this is what is the concept of tide loans. So whichever country that is receiving the money will not have that freedom to spend the money as and how it wishes. Instead it has to go by the terms and conditions of China. So the author is telling that after all these international criticisms high expectations about the Belt and Road initiative have now faded down that is now there reduced. And to highlight this the author has given one statistics he tells that the growth of the Belt and Road initiative projects is now down because the China's investment in all these projects in the first quarter of the financial year 2019 grew only by 4 percentage whereas if you see in 2018 the growth was around 22 percentage. So the author is telling that the growth of BRH is quite low now. Next the author has mentioned about the Belt and Road initiative forum that was held in April 2019. In this forum the Chinese president promised to fine tune the Belt and Road initiative. So he assured that there will be an open consultation in order to bring more transparency and also to bring in clean governance and also implementation of green projects that is environment friendly projects or sustainable projects. Then the author has mentioned that now the Belt and Road initiative is a Chinese scheme which is dominated by the state-owned enterprises that is those public enterprises that are controlled by the Chinese government. So the author is concluding the editorial by telling that the real challenges whether all these best practices can be incorporated into the Belt and Road initiative or it will remain only as a Chinese scheme because we saw that the state-owned enterprises only play a lead implementing role in implementing these projects. So the author hopes that China will fine tune the BRH projects by having open consultation clean governance and also by implementing green projects. So from this editorial the author has given an idea about how the Belt and Road initiative was formed and some details about the Belt and Road initiative and why it failed and how the Chinese government wishes to overturn the BRH as it announced in the BRH forum in April 2019. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about the humanoid robot that was launched into space by Russia. The syllabus for this news analysis is given here. Yesterday that is on 22nd August Russia has launched an unmanned rocket to the International Space Station or in short ISS. This unmanned rocket is carrying a life-size humanoid robot. Now a humanoid robot is a robot which has human-like features. If you see the size of the robot will also be similar to the size of the humans that is where it is called as a life-size humanoid robot. In this news article it is mentioned that the silvery anthropomorphic robot is 1.8 meters tall and it weighs 160 kg. Now the term anthropomorphic means having human characteristics. The purpose of this humanoid robot is to assist the astronauts who are in the International Space Station. The name of this humanoid robot is Fyodor. Fyodor is the acronym for Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research. Fyodor is also known as SkyBot F850. Know that this is the first robot ever sent to space by Russia. This robot was put in the Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft and the spacecraft was launched from Russia's Cosmodrome which is located at Baikonur in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz spacecraft will dock with the International Space Station on Saturday that is 24th August and it will stay that till 7th of September. This news article tells that normally Soyuz spacecrafts are manned during trips to the International Space Station but on Thursday no humans travelled in this spacecraft. These humanoid robots will also be potentially useful in Earth. They can be deployed in high radiation environments. Now if you need to know that there are also some other robots which have been to space this includes Robonaut 2 from NASA. If you see this NASA's Robonaut 2 which had head and arms but no legs performed simple test tasks between 2011 and 2014 but there were some difficulties in its operations so it returned back to Earth in 2018. This Robonaut 2 is expected to make another flight to the International Space Station in 2020. Next you need to know about Simón or Crew Interactive Mobile Companion. This was developed by the European Aerospace Company Airbus on behalf of the German Space Agency which is well known by its German acronym DLR. This Simón is a small robot which is endowed with artificial intelligence and this visited the International Space Station in June 2018. If you see Japan has also sent a small robot to International Space Station in 2013. This small robot's name was Kirobo. This robot was developed along with Toyota which is an automobile manufacturing company. This robot was also able to make some conversations but only the Japanese language. Apart from these there are a couple of NASA's free flying robots in the International Space Station. They are Spears and Astrobee. Here Astrobee is the more advanced version when compared to Spears. Now the purpose of sending all these robots is to basically assist the astronauts who are living in the International Space Station in their day to day activities. Now let us see in brief about International Space Station. It is a joint project between five participating space agencies which are NASA from USA, Roscosmos from Russia, JAXA the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency from Japan, next the European Space Agency from Europe and next the Canadian Space Agency from Canada. The purpose of this International Space Station is to learn more about living and working in space conditions. So scientific research is being conducted International Space Station. Now also know that India announced to build its own space station in June 2019. It would take another five to seven years to build this space station as per Astro's announcement. So whenever you are learning about a particular class of technology like today it was humanoid robots always try to know if similar such technologies exist in some other countries as well. So this is how we connect the current affairs. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article speaks about the World Health Organization publication on microplastics in drinking water. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Let us now see the news article. Recently if you see the World Health Organization has released a publication which is titled microplastics in drinking water. This study is related to the presence of microplastics in treated tap and treated bottled water which have raised questions and concerns about the impact that microplastics in drinking water might have on human health. Now we need to know the term microplastics. They are very small pieces of plastic generally with a length of less than five millimeters. So in this publication it has been said that the level of microplastics in drinking water is not yet dangerous for humans but it has stressed upon the need for more research in the future because in the future it can be a potential risk to human health. Now the World Health Organization's coordinator of water and sanitation has said that based on the assessment the risk for drinking water consumer from around the world is low. It has also said that at present the data on the presence of microplastics in drinking water is quite limited. So with these few reliable studies it is very difficult to analyze the results and the impacts of microplastics on human health. So the World Health Organization has called on the researchers to conduct more in-depth evaluation into microplastics and the potential impacts on human health. Then the World Health Organization has also urged a crackdown on plastic pollution in order to benefit the environment and also to reduce the human exposure to microplastics. Now why the World Health Organization is urging a crackdown on plastic pollution? Because at present without any limitation plastic is being used by the human beings across different countries. We also saw during our 16th August analysis that microplastics have been found in Arctic snow and also on the Alps mountains in the European continent. So we can see the presence of microplastics across the globe. And if you see basically there are two types of microplastics. One is the primary microplastic where like microbeads, fibers which are manufactured and whose size or length is less than 5 millimeter. But there are secondary microplastics which are formed when the larger plastics break down. So when the plastic pollution is more the formation of secondary microplastics in the environment will also become more. This is the reason why the World Health Organization has urged a crackdown on plastic pollution. So they have told that for the time being the microplastics in the drinking water may not be threatening the human health. But they have insisted that policy makers and the public should take measures in order to better manage the plastics and reduce its use wherever possible. And also if you see in the Independence Day speech, the Prime Minister of India told that India needs to put an end to the single use plastic. So the threat that the microplastics are likely to cause to humans in the future is quite high. The World Health Organization has also said that microplastics which are larger than 150 micrometers are not likely to be absorbed by the human body. But it said that the chance of absorbing very small microplastic particles including nano sized particles is quite high. Now in order to conduct a more robust that is a more active human health risk assessment of these microplastics, several data gaps should be addressed. Now let us see them. First is we need to have a better understanding about the occurrence and the detection of microplastics and also the nano plastics in drinking water. So we need to find the source of these microplastics in drinking water. Then we need to do more research on adverse health effects of these microplastics and then also the influence of the size, shape and the chemical composition of these microplastics on human health. Then we also need to conduct research on the capacity of microplastics to transport pathogenic bacteria over long distances. So a lot of research needs to be done on microplastics in the future as stressed by the World Health Organization. Now let us move on to the practice questions discussion session. The question is which among the following hormones has recently been in use for its rampant misuse in milk animals? We saw during our discussion that oxytocin is being misused in large quantities by the dairy farmers because the farmers inject them to the milk animals so that they can get more milk. So the correct answer here is oxytocin. Let us also see the other hormones that I mentioned here. First is the insulin. Insulin is the hormone that is responsible for regulating the blood sugar levels in human body. Next is the adrenaline hormone. It is also called as the fight or flight hormone. It is basically released in response to a stressful situation or an exciting situation or when there is a dangerous or threatening situation. Next we have dopamine. Dopamine is generally called as the happy hormone. So it is responsible for our experiencing happiness. So here the correct answer for this question is option C oxytocin. Also know that the intake of oxytocin is associated with the onset of early puberty in children. So if you see particularly child traffickers misuse this hormone. So these child traffickers traffic the children for the purpose of prostitution and they misuse this hormone to induce early puberty in those children who are trafficked so that they can be involved in child prostitution. So this is a fact just remember. Moving on to the next question. Consider the following statements. They have given three statements and I have asked you to choose the correct answer. The first statement tells that the direct trade general of foreign trade is under the Ministry of External Affairs. Now this statement is wrong. We saw during a discussion that the direct trade general of foreign trade comes under the Ministry of Commerce and Industries. So remember that the term trade is used. So it is basically to regulate the foreign trade. So it will come under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and know that it was formed in the year 1991. So the first statement is wrong here. Now if the first statement is wrong and if you are going by the elimination technique we can arrive at the answer which is option C 2 and 3 but let us also see the other two statements. The second statement tells that it regulates and promotes foreign trade in line with the principles of liberalization and globalization. So this is the objective of the direct trade general of foreign trade. So this statement is correct. The third statement tells that it is responsible for implementing foreign trade policy of India. So this is one of the function of the direct trade general of foreign trade. It is responsible for implementing the foreign trade policy of India or the Exim policy of India. So the correct answer to this question is option C 2 and 3. Moving on to the next question. The question is international space station is a joint project of the space agencies of which of the following countries? They have given USA, Russia, India, Japan and China. During our discussion we saw that the international space station is a joint effort or a joint project of the five space agencies of five countries which are NASA from USA, then Roscosmos from Russia, then JAXA from Japan, then ESA from Europe and CSA, the Canadian Space Agency from Canada. So here we can eliminate three India and five China. So the correct answer is option 1, 2 and 4 which is option A. So the correct answer is option A, 1, 2 and 4. During our discussion if you remember we also saw that India is going to come up with its own space station likely in the next five to seven years. So the PACE Agency of India which is the Indian Space Research Organization announced this in June 2019. So this is the current affairs. So remember it. So if you are able to eliminate India which is number three, you can eliminate three options here which are options B, C and D. So if you go by the elimination technique, you can easily arrive at this answer. So the correct answer is option A, 1, 2 and 4, 1, D. Moving on to the next question. The question is consider the following parts. They have given space robots and international space station and space agency. Now just see the names Fedor, Robonaut 2, Vikram. So just by seeing the names you can eliminate Vikram because we know that Vikram is the name of the lander that is used in Chandrayaan 2 mission and it is nowhere connected to being a space robot in international space station. So you can easily eliminate three but you also need to know the other two pairs. Fedor is the space robot of Roscosmos. So this is a news today that it has been launched yesterday to the international space station and we also saw that Robonaut 2 is the space robot of NASA which is the space agency of USA. So 1 and 2 are correct, 3 is wrong. Now the question is asked you to choose the incorrect pair or pairs. So here the incorrect pair is only the third pair. So the correct answer is option B, 3, 1, D. With this we come to the end of the analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the practice questions discussion session. 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