 Good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankara Ace Academy for the day 31st of May 2023. Displayed here are the list of articles we will be going through today. Now let's start the discussion. Look at this news article. This news article is taken from the FAQ page of Sunday's newspaper. This article gives us a picture about the status of cheetah reintroduction project in India. Why is this topic suddenly in the news? Last week, three of the four cheetah curbs that were born in Kanno National Park of Madhya Pradesh died from natural causes. In response to this tragedy, the government has constituted a new committee of experts to monitor project cheetah. This is why the article about cheetah appeared in the news. In this discussion, we will see the points given in this article in detail. First let us see some points about project cheetah. Project cheetah refers to India's cheetah reintroduction program. Second is that the National Tiger Conservatory Authority is the nodal agency of the Ministry of Environment that is tasked with coordinating the project cheetah. As a part of this project cheetah, Indian government aims to bring in 5 to 10 cheetahs every year from African nations until a self-sustaining population of about 35 cheetahs is established in India. Till now, 20 cheetahs have been introduced in Kanno National Park of Madhya Pradesh under project cheetah. Of that, 8 were brought from Namibia and 12 were brought from South Africa. The cheetahs in South Africa and Namibia lived in fenced reserves but India is planning to grow cheetahs in natural and unfenced wildlife conditions. As of now, only 17 adults out of 20 are alive and the rest 3 have died in recent months. And currently, only 6 of the 17 adults are in wild and the rest of the cheetahs are lodged in large specially designed enclosures. This is to help the animals adapt to the Indian condition. The government is planning to release all the remaining cheetahs into the open natural environment by the end of the year. Note that all the animals are radio-colored and tracked 24 by 7 by the forest official. This is all about project cheetah. Now moving on, let us understand how did the 3 cheetah cubs die? On March 24, an adult female cheetah named Javala gave birth to 4 cubs. On May 23, one of the cubs seemed disoriented and was unable to trial its mother. A closer inspection revealed that the cub was unable to lift itself and it soon died despite an examination by the veterinary doctors. The remaining 3 cubs also did not appear healthy. So the vets took the cubs for a closer inspection. However, 2 of the 3 cubs died subsequently. The post mortem conducted on the 2 cubs revealed that the cause of death has been attributed to extreme heat, weakness and malnutrition. As of now, of the 4 cubs born to Javala, only one cub is alive. The vets said that the cub is now doing well and recovering rapidly and they said that they are planning to raise the cub for a month and then reunite with its mother. Now coming to the big question, whether the death of the cheetah cubs was unusual? The answer is no. Experts say that cheetah cubs in the wild have very high mortality rate compared to the cubs of tigers or lions. The cheetah cubs have a survival rate of only 10% age and roughly the same fraction makes it to the adulthood. In 1994, a study was conducted by the University of Cambridge. It revealed that 66% of cheetah deaths are attributed to predation and about 16% are attributed to abandonment by the mother. From this we can observe that the rate of survival of cheetah cubs is very low. So the death of the cheetah cubs in Kanno National Park is not unusual. However, it is a duty of our government to ensure the survival of cheetahs in India. Now finally let us understand the problem associated with Project Cheetah. Many critics have argued that there are some basic flaws in the project cheetah. Some people say that government made a mistake by placing all 20 cheetahs in Kanno. Usually cheetahs need larger fields of play. But if you take Kanno, the area is very small and there is no prey available for the cheetahs. So the people argue that placing too many cheetahs in one place will lead to increased mortality of cheetahs. In response to this criticism, the officials of the NTCA that is the National Tiger Conservation Authority say that Kanno is capable of hosting a lot of animals. They further said that future batches of cheetah will be sent to other reserves. We have to wait and see what will happen in the future. So that is all regarding this discussion. In this discussion we saw the important points about Project Cheetah. Then we saw the reason for the death of three of the four cheetah cubs that were won in Kanno National Park. And finally we saw the criticism associated with Project Cheetah. Now let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this article. Yesterday as a part of World Immunization Week 2023, a webinar was conducted by the Hindu on the disease shingles, its impact and prevention. Using this as an opportunity, let us understand some of the points about shingles. Shingles or herpes zooster is a viral infection that causes an outbreak of painful rashes or blisters on the skin. Shingles is caused by the reactivation of the varicella zoster virus or VZV, the same virus that causes chickenpox. When we have chickenpox as a child, our body fights off the VZV and the physical signs of the chickenpox fades away. But the virus always remains in our body in a portion of our spinal nerve root called dorsal root ganglion. For the majority of people, the virus stays there quietly and doesn't cause problems. But in adulthood, sometimes the virus becomes active again. This time, the varicella zooster virus makes its second appearance in the form of shingles. Remember, shingles can't spread from person to person like chickenpox. But if you have shingles, you can spread the virus to someone who isn't immune to or protectant from chickenpox, that is someone who hasn't had chickenpox and isn't vaccinated against it. If that happened, the person might get chickenpox but not shingles. So note this point. Moving on, let us see the symptoms of shingles. The symptoms include rashes, blisters, fever, headache, chills and stomach upset. See, researchers are not always sure why the virus gets reactivated. But this typically occurs at the time of stress. Recently, it was found that the herpes zooster can also occur prior to the development of the COVID disease. Usually, at least 1 in 3 adults get shingles but after COVID-19, the prevalence has risen to more than 50%. For some people, the infection can occur in and around the eye. Such infection can lead to serious problems including long-term vision loss and permanent scarring due to swelling of the cornea. It can even lead to Ramsey Hunt syndrome, which can occur if shingles affect the nose. It can result in partial face paralysis or hearing loss if untreated. These are some of the other symptoms associated with shingles. Remember, there is no cure for shingles but there are treatments for managing the symptoms. The only way to prevent the disease is through vaccination. Vaccination is actually the effective preventive option. There are two vaccines currently available to prevent shingles. They are Zostavax and the other one is shingles. So that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw the important points that you have to know about shingles in regards to prelims examination. Now let us conclude this and take up the next news article. Look at this editorial article. This editorial article is about India's toy sector. India has recently turned into a net exporter of toys from being one of the largest importers. In this editorial, the writers analyzed the reasons for the increase in exports and tries to showcase the actual picture of the toy industry in India. This is about the editorial. Before getting into the discussion, the syllabus relevant to this article is given here for your reference. You can go through it. In today's discussion, we will look at the present status of India's toy industry. Reasons for the sudden surge in India's toy export, why we should focus on toy sector, the challenges faced by Indian toy sector and finally about the steps taken by the government to improve the toy sector. First we will look at the current scenario of Indian toy sector. India had become a net exporter of toys during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 period. The official data reveals that India's toy export had increased to $177 million from the earlier $109 million. The imports have also decreased to $110 million from the earlier $371 million. As per the 2015-16 data, India had 15,000 toy enterprises. Their total annual production is worth Rs 1,688 crores. Toy industries provide employment to about 35,000 workers. One interesting fact to note here is that registered factories, that is factories which employ 10 or more workers, accounted only 1% of the number of the toy manufacturing enterprises in India. But they have provided employment to 20% of the total workforce in this industry and utilized 63% of the fixed capital and produced 77% of the total toys manufactured in India. So this shows that India's toy manufacturing enterprises are mostly unorganized. India had been an import dependent country in the toy market. Imports accounted for 80% of the domestic sale of toys. Imports were nearly three times higher than the exports during the 2000 and 2018 period. India is not a prominent player in the global toy industries also because exports from India accounted only for half a percentage point in the global market. India from this position has become a net exporter of toys. Now let us see how this sudden turn of events happened. This all-time high-end manufacturing of toys in India is credited to Make in India initiative which was launched in 2014 by our Prime Minister. Our Prime Minister also promoted toy manufacturing through his stock show Monkey Bath. But the writers of the editorial put forward a different opinion. The writers argue that this sharp turn of events in the toy trade is because of the imports which have fallen down, not the increase in exports. The reason for the decline in toy imports are due to various factors. The first one is increase in basic custom duties on toys. The custom duties were tripled from the existing 20% to 60% in February 2020. The second reason is imposition of non-tariff barriers like production registration orders and safety regulation codes. The writers are of the opinion that India becoming a net exporter of toys is not due to the increase in exports but due to the decrease in imports of toys due to the protectionist measures taken by the government. This is not really due to the increase in industrial capability in India. See these protectionist measures taken by the government can do good only in the short-term. So the government should also focus on increasing the sustainable production and enhancing the production capabilities of toys in our country. Okay both must go hand in hand. Moving on we will see the significance of toy manufacturing and why India should focus on the toy sector. See half of the total population of India is under the age of 25 so the demand for toy will be ever increasing. So by becoming self-reliant in toy manufacturing, trade deficit can be reduced considerably. So the current value of Indian toy sector is more than $1 billion and it has the potential to double by 2025. If proper focus has been provided, India can become one of the global leaders in toy manufacturing. Moving on we will see the challenges faced by Indian toy manufacturers. The first and foremost issue is the unorganized nature of Indian toy manufacturing sector. As we already saw unorganized sector dominate the Indian toy manufacturing enterprises. So due to its unorganized nature, the production capability also the social security provided to the employees are very low in India. This is the first issue that is plaguing the Indian toy manufacturing sector. Second is lack of technology. Due to the unorganized nature of Indian toy sector there is a lack of technology for mass production of toys in India. And this is one of the reasons India is not able to increase the exports of toy from India. The third reason is high import duty. Here the government is not only imposing high import duty for toy imports, it is also imposing high import duty for the capital equipments that is used for manufacturing toys. This is also linked to the lack of technology for production of toys in India. Due to the high import duty placed on toy manufacturing equipments, our Indian enterprises are not able to adapt to the new technology. This is the third issue. The fourth issue is the competition from foreign countries. This is one of the biggest challenges faced by Indian manufacturers. Low quality toys from China have penetrated deep into the Indian market because of its affordable pricing. And Indian toy manufacturers are not able to compete with the low cost Chinese products. The last issue is the issue of raw material. See there has been a rapid increase in the price of raw materials used for toy manufacturing which is basically plastic. Due to this increase in price of raw material, Indian toy products are not able to compete with the other toy manufacturers in the global market. These five are the major challenges faced by the Indian toy manufacturing sector. Having seen the challenges faced by Indian toy manufacturers, moving on we will see the important steps taken by the government to improve this sector. Firstly, Indian government has introduced the national action plan for toys in 2020 to promote toy manufacturing, traditional handicrafts and handmade toys. Next Indian government is planning to launch Rs 3000 crore production linked incentive scheme for Indian manufacturer of finished toys. This will act as an incentive for domestic manufacturers to increase their production thus making India a net exporter of toy in the global market. The third step taken by the government is the switch toy cotton. Switch toy cotton has been conducted by the government to explore the possibility of utilizing waste products in toy manufacturing. See this has two advantages, one the raw material cost for the production of toys is reduced and on the other hand the issue of legacy waste in big urban setup is also reduced because it will lead to the formation of circular economy in the plastic products. Then government is planning for the creation of toy cities and cluster parks around the country to bruised toy manufacturing significantly. India's first toy cluster has been under development in Khopal district of Karnataka. See once the toy cities and cluster parks are created, the cost of production of toys will come down because there will be common utility for all the toy manufacturers in the cluster parks. This will make Indian toy products competitive in the global market. This is also a step taken by the government. The last step taken by the government to provide a short term relief to the Indian toy manufacturers is the increasing custom duties for import of toys. This makes Indian toys affordable and competitive in the Indian market. Although this is only a short term measure, this is necessary for the Indian toy manufacturers to grow to a certain level so that they can compete in the international market. So these are all some of the steps taken by the Indian government to give boost to the Indian toy sector. So that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion we saw the current scenario in Indian toy manufacturing sector. Then we saw the reason for India becoming a net exporter of toys in the recent time. Then we saw the importance of toy manufacturing sector. Also we saw the challenges faced by sector and finally the steps taken by the government to address these challenges. Now with this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this news article. See the working president of BRS has asked the people and politicians of the southern states to raise their voice against the proposed delimitation of constituencies. The proposed delimitation will be taken up in 2026 and it is based on population. Here lies the issues. If the delimitation happens based on population then the southern state will receive fewer states in Lokshaba and Rajashaba when compared to the northern states. Here it is actually the southern states that has to be rewarded for their effective implementation of population control policies. But the opposite is happening here. This is why delimitation appeared in news today. So in our discussion today let us see few points related to delimitation process. See delimitation literally means that the act or the process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country or a province having legislative body. The job of delimitation is assigned to a high powered body. Such a body is known as delimitation commission or boundary commission. In India delimitation commission have been constituted four times. That is in 1952, 1963, 1973 and 2002. The orders of the delimitation commission have the force of law and cannot be called in question before any court as it would hold up an election indefinitely. When the orders of the delimitation commission are laid before the Lokshaba or state legislative assembly they cannot affect and modification in that orders. So they work without any executive influence. The orders come into force on the date to be specified by the President of India in his behalf. Now we will see the process involved in delimitation. Under Article 82 the parliament enacts a delimitation act after every census. Under Article 170 the states also get divided into territorial constituencies as per the delimitation act after every census. Once the act is in force the union government sets up a delimitation commission. The commission then exercises the delimitation. Remember there was no delimitation after the 1981 and the 1991 census. Later delimitation was done based on the 2001 census but the total number of seats in the assemblies and parliament were decided as per the 1971 census and this was not changed. The 87th amendment act of 2003 provided for the delimitation of constituencies on the basis of 2001 census and not the 1991 census. However this can be done without altering the number of seats allotted to each states in the Lok Sabha. The constitution also capped the number of Lok Sabha and Rajesh Sabha seats to a maximum of 550 and 250 respectively and the increasing population are being represented by a single representative. So the process of delimitation is very important to provide equal representation to equal segments of a population. It provides fair division of geographical area so that one political party doesn't have an advantage over other in the election process. It helps us to follow the principle of one vote one value in a democratic country like India. So that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion we saw the basics about delimitation and delimitation commission. Now let us conclude this and take up the next news article. Look at this article. This article describes chytridomycosis as the world's worst wildlife disease. So in this context we will discuss about chytridomycosis disease, how it affects amphibians, its symptoms, mode of transmission, how it is diagnosed and about the impacts of this disease on amphibians. See chytridomycosis or chytrid is a fungal disease which affects the amphibians. The causative organism of chytrid is batrococytium dendrobatidus or BD. BD is a water bone fungus. Chytrid has originated from Asia and it has spread across the world because of human activities and trade in amphibians. BD grows best in water with temperature between 17 to 25 degree Celsius. This single celled fungus enters into the frog and affects the keratin layer of the skin. This damage caused to the skin of the frog affects its ability to balance the water and the salt lovers. Amphibians need salt for their circulation. When the infection rate of chytrid is high this salt level drastically falls down. In such a condition the heart of the amphibian will stop functioning which will eventually lead to death of the organism. This is how chytrid affects an amphibian. Next we will look at the transmission of chytrid. BD once entered into the skin of the frog it multiplies by producing zoospores. These zoospores persist in waters for V depending on the temperature. When a new frog comes in contact with the zoospore in environment it will be affected. This is how the transmission of chytrid works. Now we will see the symptoms of the disease. The common symptoms of chytrid infection include reddening of skin, excessive skin shedding, skin ulceration, abnormal feeding behavior and discoloration near the mouth. Now we will see how the disease in amphibians are diagnosed. The answer to this question lies in the QPCR. Here QPCR stands for Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction. The swab sample is collected from the skin of the amphibian and QPCR test is done to diagnose the infection. The test was developed from chytrid in Australia. So the major issue is that it cannot detect Asian strains of chytrid. To address this issue only, scientists from CSIR, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in India have been working to develop a new QPCR test which can detect Asian strains of chytrid. With this basic information of chytrid information now let us look at the impacts of this disease on amphibians. This disease had affected over 500 frog species which resulted in severe decline in their numbers. This infection is the main reason for extension of about 90 species of frog including 7 in Australia. This disease is known as the world's worst wildlife disease because of its high mortality rate and infection rate. So that is all regarding this discussion. In this discussion we saw all the aspects related to the chytridomycosis disease. Now with this let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this news article. This news article talks about health to maturity securities. Before we get into the content of the news article, let us first familiarize ourselves with the term HTM securities. The securities that are purchased to be owned until maturity are known as HTM securities. Bonds and other depth intruments like certificate of deposit are the most common form of HTM investments. Bonds and other depth instruments that have fixed payment schedule, a fixed maturity rate and they are purchased to be held until they mature or generally classified as HTM securities. Since stocks do not have a maturity rate, they do not qualify as HTM securities. And another point that you have to know about HTM securities is that they cannot be liquidated in the short term like stocks. A classic example for HTM securities is government bonds or government securities. See when we purchase government securities in the primary market, our main aim is to hold the bond until its maturity period. Very rarely we sell the bond or the government security in the secondary market. This type of investment is only termed as held to maturity securities. Here our main focus is on the fixed monthly revenue, not the appreciation of the bond value or the security value and selling it in the secondary market. See for accounting purposes, corporations use different categories to classify their investment in depth and equity securities. In addition to held to maturity securities, other classifications include held for trading and available for sale. On a company's financial statement, these different categories are treated differently in terms of their investment value as well as related gains and losses. In that way, HTM securities are typically reported as a non-current asset. They have an amortized cost on a company's financial statement. Here amortization is an accounting practice that adjusts the cost of the asset incrementally throughout its life. The company's interest income appears on the company's income statement, but change in the market price of the investment does not change the firm's accounting statement. Let me explain this with an example. In our country, the main consumers or the main buyers of government security are banks. Banks have to maintain certain amount of government securities with themselves as a part of their SLR requirement. So we can say that banks are the major buyer of government security. So Bank A buys a government security to keep it as a part of its SLR requirement. Here the main aim of the bank is to have a safe investment and rely on the interest earned from the government security. Banks motive is to keep the bond till its maturity. Here the banks have an option to sell the bond or the government securities in the secondary market as well, but the banks prefer to keep it till its maturity. Here if the banks decide to keep the government security till its maturity, it is classified as a HTM security and it is a form of non-current investment. If the same government security is held by the bank for the sale of the security in the secondary market when the price appreciates, it is classified as held for trading or available for sale securities. Here this type of government securities that is the banks which buy the government security so that it can sell in the secondary market, that type of investment is classified under current asset. This is the difference between current and non-current asset. Non-current asset is kept for a longer period as an investment and current asset is kept for a shorter period to make a sale in the secondary market and make a decent earning. So another point you have to note here, HTM securities or held to maturity securities are reported in the current assets. They are reported in the current asset if they have a maturity date less than one year. Securities with maturities more than one year are stated in the long-term asset and they appear in the non-current asset. Another point you have to know is that unlike the held for trading securities, temporary price changes for held for maturity securities do not appear in the corporate accounting statement. Both available for sale and held for trading securities appear on the fair value on the accounting statement. Moving forward, this is the basics about HTM securities. Moving forward, let us see the pros and cons of HTM securities. First, let us take up the pros. HTM securities or HTM investment allow for future planning with an assurance of their principal return on maturity. It is considered as a safe investment because every month we will receive a small interest and we will definitely know that at the end of the maturity period, we will get back the principal as well. This is the main pro of HTM investment. One is interest earning, another one, it is a safe investment and there is very little risk involved with HTM investment. These are the pros associated with it. Now moving forward, let us see the cons. That is the disadvantages of HTM securities. See as we all know in HTM securities or HTM investment, the fixed return is predetermined. So, there is no benefiting from the favorable changes in the market condition. Let me explain this with an example. Assume that a bank A buys a government security at the rate of Rs.1000 and it is earning an interest of Rs.10 every month. If it is held as a HTM security, it will earn a monthly income of Rs.10 and it will get the principal amount at the end of the maturity period. But suddenly due to some market changes, the cost of the bond is appreciated from Rs.1000 to Rs.2000. At that time also, the bank will keep on receiving a fixed interest of only Rs.10. It will not get an increased income due to the appreciation of the bond value. So, this is one of the cons associated with HTM investments. When there is a favorable market conditions, the investment will not fetch us increased revenue. But it is also one of the pro also because when there is a downturn in market condition also, we will get the same assured investment. This is the first con. The second is, although it is considered as a safe form of investment and we are assured of the returning of principal at the end of the maturity period, there is a slight bit of risk involved also. It is not as safe as a savings account investment or a fixed deposit investment. These are the cons associated with HTM securities. Now coming back to the article. What this article is talking about is that currently the market values of the government securities are very low. So, a sale of securities like HTM securities could lead to large losses when it is sold at the current market value. But since the interest rate are increasing or held constant, there is slight risk associated with HTM securities. So, that's all regarding this discussion. I hope I have explained in a simple way the details about HTM securities. Now with this, let us conclude the news article discussion session and take up the practice problems questions. We have four practice problems questions today. Let us see them one by one. Let us take up the first question. This question is about delimitation commission and it is a previous year question from 2012 paper. Let us take up the first statement. The orders of the delimitation commission cannot be challenged in the court of law. This statement is correct. This we saw in the discussion itself. The orders of the delimitation commission cannot be challenged in the court of law. Moving on to the second statement. The orders of the delimitation commission are laid before the Lok Sabha or the state legislative assembly. They cannot affect any modification in the orders. This statement is also correct. This also we saw in the discussion itself. So, the correct answer here is option C both 1 and 2. Moving on to the second question. Here two statements are given. We have to find the correct statements. Look at the first statement. Open market operations are conducted by the Reserve Bank of India with an objective to adjust rupee liquidity conditions in the market on a durable basis. This statement is correct. The RBI resorts to OMO to adjust the liquidity situation in our market. So, statement one is correct. Moving on to the second statement. RBI carries out OMO through commercial bank and do not directly deal with the public. This statement is also correct. While conducting OMO, RBI deals with the commercial bank and not with the public. Since both the statements are correct, the correct answer here is option C both 1 and 2. Moving on to the third question. This question is about the disease chytridomycosis. Look at the first statement. It can affect humans. This statement is incorrect. Chytrid does not affect humans. It mostly affects the amphibians as we have seen in our discussion. Let us take up the second statement. No vaccine has been discovered for the treatment of chytrid till date. This statement is correct. Research has been going on to find the new vaccine, but there is no major breakthrough yet. See, here they have asked for the incorrect statement. We know statement one is incorrect and statement two is correct. So the correct answer here is option A only. Look at this question. This is the quiz question for you today. Five diseases are given here. You have to find which of these diseases are viral diseases. Interested aspirants can post the answer for this question in the comment section. The main questions based on today's discussion are displayed here. Aspirants write the answers and post it in the comment section. If you like today's discussion, like, comment and share it with your friends. For more updates regarding UPSC preparation, subscribe to Shankarayesh Academy's YouTube channel. Thanks for listening.