 A very good evening to all our friends and welcome to the Hindu News Analysis of Shankar IAS Academy for the date 6th December 2020. First of all, Shankar IAS Academy would like to thank all of you for the overwhelming response which we have received from you guys towards our programs. And we are also happy to share with you about our pre-stoming 2021 program, that is the prelims test series for upcoming UPSC preliminary examination 2021. Shankar IAS Academy also started the admissions for the second test batch, and this will start from 11th December 2020. Our pre-stoming program is India's first full-fledged artificial intelligence supported preliminary test series. All the required details are provided in the description box and also in the comment section. Please go through it. With this, let us start our news analysis for today. The relevant news articles taken up for today's discussion from five different editions of the Hindu newspaper, along with our page numbers are given here for your reference. Also the handwritten notes in the PDF format and timestampings for all the news articles taken up for today's discussion is given in the description box and also in the comment section for the best interest of the viewers. Let us start with our first news article. Now this news article talks about quantum computing. We will try to understand what is quantum computing and also how it is different from classical computing. The syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. First with an example, let us see how classical computing works. See most of us would have done an online transaction and we often see statements like the transaction is protected by 128 bit 256 bit encryptions. So what is this encryption? See every online transaction which we make with another person is protected so that a third person cannot read it without the permission of the two people exchanging the information in the first place. So this process is called as encryption of data. For example, the first person say Alice sends an encrypted message to the second person say Bob. How can Alice ensure that only Bob has the key to the core which she has set and a trespasser say Kate cannot intercept or open it. For this assume that Alice sent a trunk or a suitcase to Bob with a lock on it. Now Bob receives the trunk and locks it for the second time with his own lock again sending it back to Alice. Now Alice removes her lock and sends the trunk back to Bob. Now Bob can unlock the lock which he had put and open the trunk to see the secret message. Thus while the transaction took place in full public view only Alice and Bob were able to read the message which was inside the trunk. So in layman terms this is what encryption means. In normal computing the lock in the above example means a mathematical problem. So Alice may use two big numbers and multiply them and she may use this product of multiplication as lock. Similarly Bob will also set his own lock. So if Kate wants to open the lock she must solve this complicated problem involving very big numbers. So this is very difficult task because if the numbers are large enough the problem becomes very difficult to crack for a classical computer. So we can say that it would take the classical computer exponentially large time to guess the numbers in order to crack the lock. So most of our online transactions are generally safe from fraud. To further protect the transactions banks keep a time limit for completing the transaction as well as a limit on wrong password entries. But with the advent of quantum computing the realities are going to change. So what is quantum computing? See quantum computing is an area of computing focused on developing computer technology which are based on the principles of quantum theory. See quantum theory explains the behavior of energy and material on the atomic and subatomic levels. So in quantum computing we will be dealing with subatomic levels. In case of classical computers that we use today they can only encode informations in bits that take the value of one or zero. This restricts their ability. But quantum computing on the other hand uses quantum bits or qubits. Quantum computing harnesses the unique ability of the subatomic particles that allows them to exist in more than one state that is a one and a zero at the same time. So remember in classical computing it is either zero or one but in quantum computing it can be even both one and zero at the same time. And this empowers quantum computers to handle the operations at speeds exponentially higher than the conventional computers and at much lesser energy consumption. So now the question is can a quantum computer solve the mathematical equation of an encrypted data? In the first example we said that the classical computers needs exponentially large time to guess the numbers to crack the lock. The answer is yes for quantum computer. And with the help of quantum computer the regular encryptions can be decrypted so our transaction will not be safe. So a new encryption has to be devised which will be difficult even for the quantum computers to decrypt. And this is what we call quantum cryptography. Now that cryptography is a method of protecting information and communications using codes so that only those for whom the information is intended can read and process it. And today's news article says that the IIT Madras Professor Shweta Agarwal is working in this direction. She works not just with quantum cryptography but also with past quantum cryptography. See past quantum cryptography is a field which deals with additional possibilities offered by the quantum system which goes beyond being able to break the mathematical codes. So with the recent developments in modern cryptography not only we can create locks on information so that even quantum computers cannot break them but we can even design the locks so that the information inside the locks can be manipulated without even opening the locks. So in this discussion we saw what is quantum computing and how it is different from classical computing. We saw what is meant by encryption and also about quantum cryptography. So with this we'll move on to the next news article. This news article says that astronomers have discovered a galaxy NGC 1052 df2 in 2018 and another one NGC 1052 df4 in 2019. The article says that the second one did not contain as much dark matter as expected. So in this context let us discuss in detail about the dark matter and dark energy. The relevant syllabus is displayed here for your reference. Please go through it. First of all let us understand some basics. See for the first 150 million years after the big bang there were no galaxies or stars or planets that means the universe was futureless and as time passed the first stars formed and stars collected into galaxies then galaxies began to cluster together that is they formed groups and those clusters are made up of the galaxies and all the material between the galaxies and then clumps of matter in galaxies smashed into each other and then the planets in our solar system began to form around our sun. So there should be something to hold our solar system galaxies and the cluster of galaxies together and this glue is nothing but the gravity. In some clusters the space between galaxies is filled with hot gas that can only be seen with x-rays or gamma rays. Scientists look at these gases and measure how much gas is there between the galaxies in the clusters and by doing this they discovered that there must be five times more material in the clusters that we can detect. Now how about the undetected matter? See the invisible matter which we cannot detect is called as dark matter. The Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwiske was the first to use the term dark matter in 1930s. In many ways scientists know more about what dark matter is not though they do have a few ideas about what it could be. See dark matter possibly could be brown dwarfs or failed stars that never ignited because they lack the mass needed to start burning and dark matter could be white dwarfs that is the remnants of cores of dead small to medium size stars or it could be neutral stars or black holes which are the remnants of large stars after they explode. See in the first fraction of a second following the big bang the universe grew at an exponential rate and this process known as inflation is an extension to the big bang theory and helps explain many observations related to the structure and the evolution of the universe. As we know the universe is full of matter and the attractive force of gravity pulls all the matter together. Initially it was believed that the force of gravity would slow the expansion of universe but the observation made by the Hubble Space Telescope proved that the expansion of the universe has not been slowing due to gravity as everyone thought but it has been accelerating. An astronomers theorist that the fast expansion rate is due to a mysterious dark force that is pulling galaxies apart and this is called as dark energy. See dark energy is an as yet unexplained force that appears to be accelerating the expansion of the universe and it is to be noted that the scientists are conducting studies to determine whether the dark energy is consistent with the cosmological constant which is a term Albert Einstein originally included in his equations to counterbalance the gravity. Alternatively dark energy may not be constant that is it is something that changes over the history of the universe and know that dark energy accounts for about 70 percent of the total mass energy of the universe. In contrast to this dark matter accounts for about 25 percentage of the universe mass energy and ordinary matter only five percent. So what do we know about the dark matter? First is that it is dark which means that it is not in the form of stars and planets that we see. Observations show that there is far too little visible matter in the universe to make up the 27 percent which is required by the observations. Now second dark matter is not in the form of dark clouds of normal matter but possibly they are matter made up of particles called as barions. The third is that dark matter is not antimatter. Here antimatter refers to subatomic particles that have properties opposite to normal subatomic particles that is they are the opposite of the normal matter and more specifically the subatomic particles of antimatter have properties which are opposite to those of normal matter. So dark matter is not antimatter because we do not see the unique gamma rays that are produced when antimatter annihilates with matter. See antimatter particles are almost identical to the matter counterparts except that they carry the opposite charge and spin and when antimatter meets matter they immediately annihilate into energy. So in this discussion we saw about the dark matter and dark energy. With this we will move on to the next news. Now this FAQ article is written based on the recent monetary policy statement released by the Monetary Policy Committee of RBI. In this many projections have been made by the Monetary Policy Committee including for the CPI or Consumer Price Index Inflation. So in this discussion we will see about inflation, retail inflation, core inflation and also about the related projections. The syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. First what is inflation? See inflation is the rise in general level of prices of goods and services. It is also defined as sustained rise or persistent increase in the general level of prices. If the price of one good or item has gone up then it cannot be termed as inflation. Inflation can happen only if the prices of most goods have gone up. Now this inflation affects all the people as it erodes the purchasing power of the money which results in raising the cost of living and ultimately affects mostly the poor section of the population. Hence inflation is one of the most closely monitored macroeconomic indicators. It is measured using the price indices as they measure the changes over the time. In general level of prices of goods and services and they incorporate its importance in the basket of goods and services. So generally the rate of inflation can be measured using the price indices such as either the wholesale price index or retail price index which is generally the consumer price index. Now know that inflation indicated by CPI is the CPI inflation. As you know CPI is used to measure the changes over the time in general level of retail prices of selected goods and services. These goods and services are those which the households purchase for the purpose of consumption. So these changes affect the real purchasing power of the consumer's income and also the welfare. And know that CPI measures the price changes in a period of time by comparing the cost of a fixed basket of commodities. See here basket refers to a fixed set of consumer products and services which are valued on an annual basis and the basket is based on the expenditures of a target population in a certain reference period. Now see CPI has six components. They are food and beverages, barn, tobacco and intoxicants, clothing and footwear, housing, fuel and light and lastly miscellaneous. See miscellaneous include health, education, transport, recreation etc. Out of all food and beverage have the highest weightage. Additionally know that CPI is used as a tool by the government and the RBA for targeting inflation and for monitoring the price stability. See targeting inflation or inflation targeting is the announcement of official target ranges for the inflation. It is done by the central government in consultation with RBA as a part of the monetary policy every five years. And this is to realize the objective of a stable rate of inflation. See the RBA Act of 1934 provides a statutory basis for the implementation of the flexible inflation targeting framework. And based on this the central government has notified 4% CPI inflation as the target for the period from August 5, 2016 to March 31, 2021. This target has a plus or minus two tolerance range that is the upper tolerance limit is 6% and the lower tolerance limit is 2%. Now keeping these facts in mind, let us see about the CPI inflation projection. See CPI inflation is projected at 6.8% for quarter three of 2020-21. It is above the upper tolerance limit of the inflation targeting that is above the 6%. And for quarter four period it is projected at 5.8%. And this is close to the upper tolerance limit of inflation targeting. Now the fact of CPI inflation above or below the inflation targeting is important because they are the components of the factors that constitute the failure to achieve the inflation target. See these factors are given here. The first one is when the average inflation is more than the upper tolerance limit of the inflation target for any three consecutive quarters. And the second factor is when the average inflation is less than the lower tolerance level for any three consecutive quarters. Now let us come to retail inflation. See in simple words, it is the inflation experience that retail shops retail inflation gives the actual reflection of the price rise in the country. In India, the inflation rate at retail level is given by the consumer price index. And this is because as we have already seen CPI records the changes in price for a sample of family budget items or a basket of items that are representative of what consumers typically spend their household income on. Now when there are frequent or faster changes in the retail or CPI inflation, it indicates that the price of household items are rising quickly. And if this high inflation is persistent, then it pushes several household items out of reach of certain categories of consumers. And these categories include the poor sections of the population, the low income stratum of the society, and even the elderly people relying on a fixed pension. And this in turn affects the family diet because they cannot afford the nutrient rich food. This simply means that the consumption capacity of the society is reduced. If consumption is low, then economic growth will be low. That is why measuring retail or CPI inflation is important as it affects the economic growth itself. Now RBA tackles this inflation by maintaining them in the inflation target. This is done by using various monetary tools such as the repo rates and reverse repo rates. This is the reason why RBA announces whether there is any change in the repo rates in its monetary policy committee meetings. And in the meeting which was recently held, the repo rate has been kept unchanged at 4% to ensure that credit availability remains adequate. Now before projecting CPI inflation and also before taking decisions on monetary tools to control inflation, RBA looks into the core inflation. Now what is core inflation? See core inflation is the CPI which excludes food and fuel. Remember that the prices of food and fuel changes frequently which makes it really difficult to calculate the real inflation. Thus the core inflation helps to measure the inflation after excluding the effects of temporary volatility in prices of food and fuel items. So in this discussion, we saw what is inflation, then what is CPI inflation, what are the components of CPI and how it is used by the government and RBA for targeting inflation. Then we saw about the CPI inflation projection of RBA. And last we saw about retail inflation and core inflation with this we'll move on to the next news article. Now have a look at this question. It is based on this FAQ article which says that the Tamil Nadu government has decided to appoint a commission to formulate a methodology for collecting caste data. In this context, let us discuss in brief about the socio-economic caste census which was conducted in 2011. See census is not new to us. The ancient literature Rigveda reveals that some kind of population count was maintained during the period of 800 to 600 BC in India. And the Artha Shastra which was written by Kautilya or Chanakya in the third century BC also prescribed the collection of population statistics as a measure of state policy for taxation. And during Mughal rule that is during the regime of Akbar, the administrative report that is Aini Akbari also included comprehensive data pertaining to population, industry, wealth and many other characteristics. Now a systematic and modern population census in its present form was conducted non synchronously between 1865 and 1872 in different parts of our country. And this effort culminating in 1872 has been popularly labeled as the first population census of India. However the first synchronous census in India was held in 1881. Since then census have been undertaken uninterruptedly once in every 10 years. Now coming to socio-economic caste census that is SCCC of 2011, it is a study of socio-economic status of rural and urban households. And this FAQ says that caste was among the details collected by the enumerators during the decennial census of India until 1931. Know that the socio-economic caste census has three census components and they were conducted by three separate authorities under the overall coordination of department of rural development. And the census in rural areas has been conducted by the department of rural development. And census in urban areas is under the administrative jurisdiction of ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation. The caste census is under the administrative control of the registrar general of India and census commissioner of India under the ministry of home affairs. See remember these points because it can be asked in our problems questions. Now see the principal criticism against the caste census was that the act of labelling a person as belonging to a particular caste would perpetuate the caste system which our nation is trying to eliminate. Remember that till now only the details of the economic conditions of the people in rural and urban households were released. The caste data collected under the socio-economic caste census have not been released till now and this might be due to the politically sensitive nature of the caste data. For example the data might antagonize the dominant and powerful castes if their projected strength in the population is not as high as claimed. The FAQ also says that collecting and releasing caste data might be important because the Supreme Court has raised the question of high levels of reservation in some states. Its rationality can be explained only with quantifiable caste data as evidence of underrepresentation in services. Such database will also help in periodic review of community wise lists so that the benefits do not perpetually go in favour of a few castes. So here we have discussed about the socio-economic caste census of 2011 and also the points mentioned in this FAQ article. Now see this question. Consider the following ministries. We have four ministries given here. Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. Which of the above ministries were involved in the socio-economic caste census of 2011? Here note that the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is not involved in the socio-economic caste census of 2011. So when we eliminate that we can arrive at the correct answer that is option D, 1, 2 and 3 only. With this we will move on to the next news. Now have a look at this question. It is based on this news article which talks about the Great Indian Busted. See the Karnataka High Court has directed the Karnataka State Government to inform about the immediate steps proposed to protect and preserve the Great Indian Busted in its habitat at the Bellary District of Karnataka. So in this context let us see some of the important facts about the Great Indian Busted. See it is one of the rarest birds in the world and one of the world's heaviest flying birds. Its scientific name is Ardiotis negriseps and know that it is the state bird of Rajasthan and this species generally prefer flat open landscapes which have minimal level of visual obstruction and less disturbance. Studies have found that the Great Indian Busted typically uses arid and semi arid areas that are dominated by grasslands having 30 to 70 centimeters of height but its habitat requirements may vary with season and behavior. It is also known to nest in open barren land during the summer and as you can see in this map historically it was distributed throughout the western half of the India and was found in 11 states but in the last three decades the species have disappeared from 90 percentage of its former range. Its current distribution is restricted to fragmented pockets in six states of India. The largest global population is found in Rajasthan and there are between 120 to 125 birds in the desert national park which spreads through the districts of Jaisalmer, Burmer and Bikaner. Then some 25 to 50 birds are found in Ajmer, Pali and Tongue districts of Rajasthan. All other populations have less than 35 birds each and these populations are located within the states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. Next know that it is a diurnal species that is they are typically active in the daytime. It is omnivorous which means it feeds on grass seeds, agricultural crops such as groundnut, millet and legumes and also on insects, lizards and rodents. And also know that this species is a desert adapted species that is it is adapted to the desert culture or climate and for this reason it drinks water only if it is available. Now coming to the reproduction of these species see reproduction is slow in this species because the female busters typically lays a single egg or rarely two eggs in a secluded open ground and she incubates without any cooperation from the male buster in the guarding of the nest. So the disturbance to the nesting sites is a major cause of concern that is it is a major cause of egg and chick mortality and this is also the reason why its population is not increasing and there are also threats to these species. Historically it has been hunted as a game bird and it continues to be hunted in our neighbouring Pakistan. Low intensity poaching outside the protected areas still persists within India. Another threat is collection of its eggs for consumption and this is prevalent in some parts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. So this directly threatens the breeding success of this species. Moreover domestic dogs of farmers and also free-ranging dogs of villagers have caused serious damage to the nest of this bird. Then unethical photography during the breeding season of buster often acts as a constant source of disturbance and in addition to this severe habitat loss and the alteration over the recent past is also a threat and this happened due to these reasons which include the widespread agricultural expansion and mechanization of farming, then infrastructural developments such as irrigation, roads, electric poles, windmills and constructions etc and also mining and industrialization. And another major threat is fatal bird collisions. See these birds collide with high-tension electric wires, fast-moving vehicles and other human structures in the industrial development zones that are near to the areas where the great Indian buster exists and for this reason they die in high numbers. Now let us see the protection status of this bird. See it is protected under the Schedule 1 of Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 and it is listed as critically endangered in the IUCN Red List. It is also listed in the appendix 1 of the convention on the conservation of migratory species of wild animals or simply CMS and also in the appendix 1 of the convention on international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora or simply sites. So these are the informations with reference to the great Indian buster. Now see this practice question with reference to great Indian buster consider the following statements. It is one of the rarest and heaviest flying birds in the world. Yes this statement is correct in the last three decades the species has disappeared from 90 percentage of its former range. Yes this statement is also correct. Then the third statement reads collisions with high-tension electric wires and fast-moving vehicles is a major threat to this species. Yes this statement is also correct. So here we have to identify the correct statement or statements. Since all the three statements are correct the correct answer is option D 1, 2 and 3. So with this we have discussed all the relevant news articles from today's the Hindu newspaper. Now let us move on to the practice questions discussion section based on today's analysis. Now see this first question consider the following statements. Statement 1 reads dark energy is the force that is pulling galaxies apart causing faster expansion of the universe. Yes this statement is correct. Statement 2 reads together dark matter and dark energy makes up 95 percentage of the universe. Yes this statement is also correct. So here we have to identify the correct statement or statements. Since both the statements are correct the correct answer for this question is option C both 1 and 2. Now we have a previous year question which is related to inflation and it was asked in Prelims 2015. With reference to inflation in India which of the following statements is correct. Here option A reads controlling the inflation in India is the responsibility of the government of India only and option B reads the Reserve Bank of India has no role in controlling the inflation. See both these statements are incorrect. It is to be remembered that RBA and government both play a role in controlling the inflation and that is inflation targeting and option D reads increased money circulation helps in controlling the inflation. See this statement is also incorrect since increased money circulation leads to increased inflation as demand increases. So we can arrive at the correct answer here that is option C which reads decreased money circulation helps in controlling the inflation. Here we should know that RBI increases the bank rates and the statutory liquidity ratio etc. in order to reduce the money supply in the market which in turn tames demand and controls inflation. So here option C is correct. Now see this practice question in the consumer price index which one of the following is given the highest weight. Remember as we have seen food and beverages is given the highest weightage and the lowest weightage is given to pan tobacco and intoxicants and now we have a mains practice question which is related to quantum computing. Please write your answers and post it in the comment section. Our feedback will be given in a reasonable time frame. Now we have come to the end of analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the discussion of practice questions. If you like this video please press the like button comment share and do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for more videos and updates related to civil service preparation. Thank you.