 Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar IA's Academy, dated 4th June 2019, displayed at the list of news articles taken up for today's analysis along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Thiruvananthapuram editions. The handwritten notes in PDF format and the time stamping of all the news articles taken up for today's analysis will be available in the description section and also in the comment section for the benefit of the smartphone users. Generally many viewers require clarity on how to read the handwritten notes that our team provides. Many feel that after compilation there will be many number of pages to read and at the end of the year before one appears for the exam. Now, the purpose of the handwritten notes is to provide subject clarity and guidance. Some may feel that revision with the help of audio will be easy and some may feel that this handwritten notes which we provide itself will be helpful for them to revise and some may feel that their notes and their own handwriting will be easy for them to revise. So it is an individual convenience like what would suit your revision requirements. Taking notes but not having an habit of periodic revision will not serve the very purpose of retaining the subject knowledge till the exam and please note this. So revision with a deep level understanding of the subject that is nothing but the subject clarity or the concept clarity will help you as the exam approaches rather worrying about the volume of the notes at the year end. If you just revise them with a proper self evaluation methods like tests or taking tests on a periodic basis it will help you easier preparation process. So never worry about the volume but always worry about your revision and you need to build your knowledge level as and when the news related to the same issue appears again and again. If you see today there is a news on Nipah virus which we just discussed yesterday which will also be seen today. So building your knowledge and self evaluation of your knowledge is the key to success. Now let us start our discussion for today. Firstly, we shall be seeing the lead editorial title Rocky Road for Strategic Partners. This editorial is about the policies of USA that are affecting India's trade interests and also India's foreign policy interests. Now the analysis of this news article will be relevant in your mains preparation. In general studies paper 2 under bilateral regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and or affecting India's interests since we will be seeing about how Iran nuclear deal is affecting India's interests and this preparation or the content will also be relevant under effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India's interests and Indian diaspora. Now the author starts the editorial by telling that the present US administration under the leadership of Donald Trump has failed to have two different approaches that is one approach for its friends and the other approach for its enemies. The author notices a very visible pattern in the foreign policy of the United States and he lists out some of the insensitive approaches of the US. First, US is heavily criticizing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that only US is contributing in huge amounts to NATO and not the other members of NATO. Next, the United States is also criticizing the European Union and it is threatening to impose tariffs on the EU goods in connection with trade disputes and also in connection to the Europe's relations with Russia. Also US is unilateral or one sided withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal is also showing this visible pattern that US is treating its friends and enemies alike. The author tells that in the year 2017 US saw India as a strategic counterweight to China. If you see in the year 2017 the United States even replaced the jargon in its foreign statements from Asia-Pacific to Indo-Pacific. Next, the author tells that in May 2018 US changed the name of the US-Pacific command to the US-Indo-Pacific command emphasizing not only the strategic linkage between the Indian and Pacific Oceans but also the geopolitical prominence of India in the United States Asian strategy. The author then notes that US administration seems to have reversed the course of its relationship with India in the recent months. Sir has discussed three issues or the decisions of USA that are affecting India's trade and foreign policy interests. Let us see them now. They are nothing but the US non-renewal of significant reduction exemptions. Next, the S-400 missile defence system purchase issue and finally regarding the suspension of GSP status given to India by the United States. Let us see one by one now. First let us see the non-renewal of significant reduction exemptions given by USA to India. Now as we just saw USA pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal. So USA has asked all the nations of the world including India to completely stop the oil trade or any other economic trade with Iran. But it gave exemption to purchase oil to certain countries under a program called significant reduction exemption. Now this term is not mentioned in the editorial we have included it for your easy reference. So this exemption was given under the assurance that all these countries which got exemption should zero out their oil trade with Iran gradually. And on April 2019 the United States said that it is not going to renew the significant reduction exemption given to India and to some other nations to whom it gave the exemption. If you see the Iranian share of Indian oil imports stood at 10 percentage. Now India can easily replace the Iran's oil imports by purchasing oil from other countries. But the actual problem is that USA has failed to consider the strategic importance of Iran in Indian foreign policy and also the damage it could do to India-Iran relations in the future. If you see Iran's strategic location and the common concerns of both countries regarding the future of Afghanistan and also the threat of terrorism that is emanating from our neighbouring country Pakistan makes Iran an ideal geopolitical ally of India. So Iran is very much important to India from geopolitical point of view. So if you see India is engaged in building the Chabahar port in the southeastern Iran. Once this port is completed it could act as a gateway for India to access Central Asia thereby bypassing our neighbouring country Pakistan. So USA has forced India to accept its decision to non-renewal of significant reduction exemptions because it is totally a one-sided decision. USA has told that it will not renew the exemptions and India has to just blindly accept it. If you see this is against the strategic autonomy that the Indian policy makers had long seen as fundamental creed of Indian foreign policy. So it is nothing but strategic autonomy is to have an independent foreign policy instead of aligning with any particular nation. But all these recent developments are showing that India is forced to accept the USA's decisions. Now let us see the second issue. The second issue is the United States threat to impose sanctions on India if it buys the S-400 missile defence system from Russia. If you see this deal has been signed in October 2018 by Russia and India. The US argument is that if India purchases the S-400 systems it will violate the countering America's adversaries through sanctions act which is in called short called as CATSA. This is an US federal law and it requires United States to impose sanctions on countries that enter into major military deals with Russia. So this is the argument which the United States has put. If India defies United States threats and goes ahead with the purchase then the United States would impose economic sanctions on India and also cut the defence and high-tech cooperation with the United States. But if India bows down to America's pressure and cancels this particular S-400 deal it will start to have a major negative implications with Russia. If you see Russia's India's largest arms supplier and a very good friend since India's independence and if India bows down to American pressure then the world nations will think that India's become subordinate of USA therefore the credibility of India will be heavily damaged at the world scenario. Now let us see the third issue. The third issue that India faces is the trade hurdles. So for the past two days we have discussed at large about GSP or the Generalized System of Preferences issue in our discussion. This GSP gives the developing countries an easier access to the United States market and it also lowers the United States duties on their exports. Now the US administration has announced that it is cancelling the GSP status given to India. It is based on the argument that India has not assured the United States that India will provide equitable and reasonable access to its markets. If you see all these three decisions show that USA is not valuing India as its strategic partner. The author notes that United States is caught with a unilateralist syndrome meaning USA is taking one sided decisions and these decisions does not distinguish a friend and an enemy as well. The author tells that such an attitude will affect the future of America's relations with its friends and allies together. The author suggests that the newly spawned external affairs minister of India who was also an ex-diplomat of United States should try to address the issues with United States. Now have a look at the practice main question. Let us move on to the next news article. The next news article is titled as four startups in TN tie up with BARC for water purifiers. Now the discussion based on this news article will be relevant in your current events of national importance and also in general science. Then it will also be relevant in your main examination in general studies paper three under the area science and technology and next under indignation of technology. This news article states that four startups in Tamil Nadu have tied up with the Baba Atomic Research Center in short called as BARC. Here you should know that startups mean a newly established business. This tie up is to manufacture the unique membrane based water purifiers of BARC. This technology does not require electricity if you see and it is said that it has the potential to replace the traditional reverse osmosis plants. If you see the reverse osmosis weighs up to three times more than the converted pure water. Now we just saw a lot of technical terms like reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration etc. Let us understand these terms from examination point of view. The device that was developed by BARC is based on a polysulfone type of ultrafiltration membrane. Now we need to know what is meant by a polysulfone. It is basically a polymer which is a semi-transparent and heat resistant and polysulfone provides an excellent mechanical, electrical and chemical resistance. The device has a unique cylindrical configuration and it is very useful to purify the domestic water with respect to microorganisms, color, order, suspended solids and organics. So this purification process is called as ultrafiltration. The device is very effective because it removes bacteria to the extent of more than 99.99 percentage. So as the device filters out bacteria there will be no dead bacteria in the final product water. Then it removes a complete turbidity as well. Now we need to know what is meant by turbidity. It is basically a condition when the water quality is very cloudy or opaque or it is very thick with a suspended matter. Now as the device removes turbidity it produces crystal clear water. This device does not need electricity to function then it does not need addition of any chemical as well. This device is a dead end device that is every drop of water is collected and purified so not even a single drop of water is wasted over here. As we saw the device has a highly strong polysulfone membrane so the life of the device is 3-5 years. This device is also maintenance free except for some occasional cleaning. The occasional cleaning is mainly for the suspended solids which is deposited on a membrane surface and this does not take even more than 3-4 minutes time and this device can also produce about 40 liters of pure water per day. Let us see about reverse osmosis. Reverse osmosis in short RO water which we call it very commonly across our households is basically liquid driven membrane process. The reverse osmosis membranes are capable of allowing water to pass through while at the same time it rejects the solutes such as salts or a low molecular weight organic materials. Reverse osmosis means the passage or diffusion of water or other solvents through a semi permeable membrane that blocks the passage of dissolved solutes. Now this is a very technical definition but if you want to know in simpler terms you can say that reverse osmosis is a technology that is used to remove a large majority of contaminants from water. This is done by pushing the water under pressure through a semi permeable membrane. Now let us see how this reverse osmosis work. Just see this block diagram. It shows how RO works. This reverse osmosis works by using a high pressure pump to increase the pressure on the salt side of the reverse osmosis that is the side which contains the saline water and force the water across the semi permeable RO membrane as you can see it here. This leaves almost 95% to 99% of the dissolved salts behind in the reject stream. The amount of pressure required depends on the salt concentration of the feed water. The more concentrated the feed water is then the more pressure is required to overcome this osmotic pressure. So here osmotic pressure means the pressure that happens as the molecules in the water move. The desalinated water that is demineralized or deionized is called as the permeate or the product water. The water stream that carries the concentrated contaminants that did not pass through this RO membrane is called the reject stream. Now this is the problem with the reverse osmosis process because it rejects huge amounts of water. If you see the RO water filter in your home you can see through one pipe where the water will be flowing to the drainage or the sink. So this is the reject water that we just saw. If you try to fill this reject water in a bottle you can measure how much water this reverse osmosis process weighs. It is quite high. That is why BARC has developed this new device which does not waste the water but purifies the water at the same time. Now let us see some facts related to Baba Atomic Research Centre. Dr. Homi Jahangir Baba conceived the nuclear program in India. Dr. Baba then established the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in short the TIFR for carrying out nuclear science research in the year 1945. To intensify the effort and to exploit the nuclear technology for the benefit of the nation Dr. Baba established the Atomic Energy Establishment at Trombay in Mumbai which is in short known as AEET. It was established in the year 1954 in the month of January for the multidisciplinary research program that is essential for the ambitious nuclear program of India. Then after the demise of Dr. Baba in the year 1966 AEET was renamed as Baba Atomic Research Centre or BARC. Now this is just for a knowledge point of view you need not remember any year or how it came into being and stuff. Now you just need to know that BARC is primarily involved in the field of research in nuclear sciences. It does societal commitment domains of research and application as well and here water is one of them. The meteoric rise in technology development of desalination and water purification reflects this organization's commitment to focus on the cutting edge research for the unique diverse requirements of a country including the rural adaptability of the technology that is to make use of new technologies in the rural areas. BARC has developed and demonstrated several types of thermal and membrane based desalination and water purification technologies as well and the ultra filtration that we are seeing today is just one among them. Now have a look at the practice problems question we shall discuss at the end of the analysis session. The next article is titled as India's LAMPS OIC for naming special NY on Kashmir. This discussion will be relevant in your current events of national and international importance under your prelim syllabus and then in your main syllabus is important under the area important international agencies and fora their structure mandate under a general studies paper too. Now the news is that India has slammed or severely criticized the organization of Islamic cooperation that is OIC. This is because OIC announced a special NY for Jammu and Kashmir. Here NY means a representative. The Ministry of External Affairs said that the organization has no right to interfere in India's internal affairs. In this context let us know about OIC. The organization of Islamic cooperation or OIC is the second largest intergovernmental organization after the United Nations. It has around 57 member states and it is spread over 4 continents in the world. This includes our neighboring countries of India like countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh but if you see India is not a member even though India has a significant number of Muslim population so keep this in mind. Also know that recently in March the then external affairs minister attended the inaugural plenary of the foreign minister's conclave of the organization of Islamic cooperation. However India is not a member. India was just invited as a guest of honor. It is for the first time that India has been invited to a meeting of the OIC which you need to know. India was invited to attend this OIC meeting in the year 1969 but Pakistan got the invite withdrawn. The organization of Islamic cooperation calls itself as the collective voice of the Muslim world. It endeavours to safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world. So this will be done in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony among various people of the world. The organization was established upon a decision of the historical summit which took place in the Kingdom of Morocco, number 1969. It was created following the criminal arson of Al-Aqsa mosque in occupied Jerusalem. In here means deliberately setting fire to any property. And a permanent secretariat is established in the Jadha city of Saudi Arabia. It is headed by the organization's secretary general. Now this organization for Islamic cooperation as consultative and cooperative relations with the United Nations and other intergovernmental organizations. This is to protect the vital interests of the Muslims and also to work for the settlement of conflicts and disputes involving its member states. The organization has taken various steps to remove misperceptions and has strongly advocated elimination of discrimination against Muslims in all forms and in all manifestations. This organization of Islamic cooperation focuses on 18 priority areas with around 107 goals. Now the priority includes the issues of peace and security, Palestine and Al-Quds. Al-Quds is nothing but an Arabic word for the city of Jerusalem. Then about issues on poverty, alleviation, counter-terrorism issues, investment and finance related issues, food security, science and technology, climate change and sustainability, moderation, culture and interfaith harmony, empowerment of women etc. There are many priority areas and there are specialized organs under this banner of organization of Islamic cooperation which includes your Islamic Development Bank and the Islamic Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization as well as some other subsidiary and affiliate organs. All these play a vital role in boosting the cooperation in various fields among the OIC member states. Now have a look at the practice problems question. The next news article of the day is about bond yields. The title is actually bond yields below 7% for first time since November 2017. Now the discussion will be relevant in a problems preparation under current events of national importance and next in economic development. Then in main syllabus under general studies paper 3 in the area Indian economy as well. The news article talks about the fall in the bond yield below 7% if you see this has happened for the first time since November 2017. The government bond yield ended at 6.99% on Monday. The article also mentions about the Monetary Policy Committee meeting of the Reserve Bank of India. If you see it is to be held on coming Thursday and this committee will announce its decision on interest rates that is whether to cut or reduce the interest rate or not. In conclusion of today let us discuss about the government bond and government bond yield. To understand this you need to know about what is meant by bonds and government securities first. First let us see what is meant by bond. Bond is a debt instrument in which an investor loans money to an entity. The entity can be a corporate one or a government one. The entity borrows the funds for a defined period of time at a variable or a fixed interest rate. Companies, municipalities, states and sovereign governments use these bonds. They use it to raise the money to finance a variety of projects and activities if you see. And owners of bonds are known as debt holders of the issuer or creditors of the issuer. Now let us see what is meant by a government security. It is also in short called as GSEC, they are tradable instruments which are issued by the central government or the state governments. This acknowledges the government's debt obligation. When these securities are short term they are called as treasury bills. They have original maturities of less than one year. And when the securities are long term they are called as government bonds or dated securities where their original maturity is of one year or more than one year. Now let us see some types of government bonds. First we shall be seeing fixed rate bonds. These are the bonds on which the coupon rate is fixed for the entire life that is still the maturity of that particular bond. Most government bonds in India are issued as fixed rate bonds if you see. Whenever we say coupon or coupon rate with respect to bonds it actually means the annual interest payment or the annual interest rate. Next we shall see about floating rate bonds, they are in short called as FRBs. So these FRBs are securities which do not have a fixed coupon rate. The coupon is reset at pre-announced intervals like say for every 6 months or for every one year. FRBs were first issued in September 1995 in India. Next we shall see about zero coupon bonds. As the name suggests zero coupon bonds are bonds with no coupon payments. These bonds are issued at a discount or and redeemed at the face value. The government of India has issued such securities in the 1990s but it has not issued any zero coupon bonds after that if you see. So just know what is meant by zero coupon bonds. Next we shall see about capital index bonds. Now these are bonds where the principle of the bond is a link to an accepted index of inflation. This is basically to protect the principal amount of the investors from inflation. Next coming to the inflation index bonds. These are bonds wherein both coupon flows or interest rates and principal amounts are protected against inflation. The inflation index used in IIBs may be wholesale price index or consumer price index. Now the government of India issues IIBs based on WPA since June 2013. Then based on the success of these IIBs or the inflation index bonds. The government of India in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India has started issuing the inflation index bonds based on CPA exclusively for the retail customers from December 2013. Under the market borrowing program the government of India also issues a special securities to entities like oil marketing companies, fertilizer companies, the food corporation of India etc from time to time. These are popularly called as oil bonds or fertilizer bonds or food bonds respectively. Now if you see all these securities are usually long dated. Now we need to know what is meant by a bond yield which is actually mentioned in the title. So bond yield is the return an investor realizes on a bond. The returns accrued by holders are measured by the yield which is the rate of the interest paid as coupons. When the investors buy bonds they essentially lend money to the bond issuers. In return the bond issuers agree to pay the investors an interest on the bonds through the life of the bond that is till the bond maturity gets over. And they also agree to repay the face value of the bonds upon maturity. Now if you see this bond yield is inversely proportional to the current value of the bond which means the greater the yield the lower the current market price of the bond or as bond prices increase the bond yields fall. Now why we are discussing this bond yield which is very much technical to understand. Conventional metrics used by economists to diagnose the health of a country's economy include factors like inflation, lending rate of the central bank, growth rate and national income. However bond yields are also a very predictive means of estimating the trajectory of an economy. As investors sell the government bonds the prices drop and the yields increase. So higher yield indicates a greater risk and if the yield offered by a bond is much higher than what it was when issued there is a chance that the company or the government that issued it is financially stressed and may not be able to repay the capital. If you see in developing countries like India where the government is among the biggest investors in the economy the bond yields can be a useful parameter in assessing the economic health of that particular country. It can be noted that at the height of the recession of 2008 which means nothing but the recession that happened in the year 2008 the economy grew at only 3.89 percentage. The yield on the benchmark 10-year government paper was 7.529 percentage. Now have a look at the practice problems question. Next we are going to see the concept of gene editing. There are actually two news articles one is that of today's and one other news appeared on Sunday which is dated 2nd of June. If you see there was an article in FAQ column on gene editing concept which was very clearly explained with illustrations. So analysis of this news article will be relevant in your problems preparation under current events of national and international importance and also under general sense. This can also be relevant in your main preparation in your general studies paper 3 under science and technology developments and their applications and effects in everyday life and also under awareness in the fields of biotechnology. So let us first see about the gene editing process. Generally when you are studying such biotechnology related topics for the very first time you need not go and know too deep about the process. Just try to know the important terms in that particular topic. Next try to know have a basic understanding of the functions of each component or a sub process and next you need to know about its uses or applications in their day to day life. Then you would keep getting news articles related to that topic frequently either in the science and technology column or even daily in the news articles. So related to some other biotechnology related topics. If you have seen the recently concluded Trillium's exam there was a question on Cas9 protein which we will be seeing today. It is a very basic question which for the function of a particular component in the gene editing process. So the question is what is Cas9 protein that is often mentioned in the news. So it is nothing but the molecular success which is used in targeted gene editing. And in the same exam there was one more question with regards to RNA interference technology that is nothing but the RNAi technology. If you see all the four options or the statements that were given there were related to the uses or the applications of the RNAi technology or applications of some other technology. So whenever you are studying such topics try to know all these now let us know what is meant by gene editing. So gene editing or genome editing is the insertion, deletion or replacement of DNA at a specific site in the genome of an organism or cell. So your genome means the complete set of genes or genetic material that is present in a cell or in an organism. This gene editing is usually achieved in the lab using engineered nucleases which are also called as molecular scissors. Now there are three types of engineered nucleases or molecular scissors that are used at present. The first one is the zinc finger nucleases which is in short called as ZFN. Next is the transcription activator like effector nucleases in short TALENs. And finally we have the CRISPR Cas9. So for today's discussion we will be seeing about CRISPR Cas9 engineered nucleases because this has appeared in both the news articles the one on Sunday and the other one today. So the scientist had been observing unusual but repeated DNA structures for some time. These repeated DNA structures were given a name by the scientist which was clustered regularly interspaced short palentromic repeats or in short the CRISPR. In 2012 the scientist discovered that this CRISPR is actually a key part of the immune system of a human body. So let us see how Cas9 is naturally produced by the bacteria. For instance when a virus enters a bacterium it fights back by cutting up the viruses DNA. This actually kills the virus but the bacterium stores some of the viruses DNA. The next time when there is an invasion by any virus the bacterium will produce an enzyme called Cas9. So this enzyme matches the stored DNA which is inside the bacteria with that of the virus that has invaded. And if both these matches then the Cas9 can snip the invading viruses DNA. So if you see here Cas9 actually acts as a scissors or you can tell that as a molecular scissors. So this Cas9 protein is engineered in labs. The CRISPR Cas9 gene editing tool has two components. Number one a short RNA sequence that can bind to a specific target of the DNA and number two the Cas9 enzyme which acts like a molecular scissors to cut the DNA as we just saw now. Now to edit a gene of interest the short RNA sequence that perfectly matches with the DNA sequence which needs to be edited is introduced. So you can call this as a guide molecule as it is mentioned in this clipping and it is also illustrated here. Once the RNA sequence binds to the DNA the Cas9 enzyme cuts the DNA at the targeted location where the RNA sequence is bound. Now if you see in this picture it is called as a DNA cutting enzyme. Once the DNA is cut the natural DNA repair mechanism is utilized to add or remove the genetic material or make changes to the DNA. So from this process the important terms are CRISPR and Cas9. So CRISPR is nothing but the guide molecule from in this picture and Cas9 is nothing but the DNA cutting enzyme which is given in this picture. Next you need to know about the functions of both these CRISPR and Cas9. CRISPR acts as a part of the immune system as it was discovered by the scientist that we saw and Cas9 protein acts as a molecular scissor to cut the DNA. Next we need to know the applications of this CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing tool. We just saw that once the DNA is cut the natural DNA repair mechanism is utilized to either add or remove the genetic material or it can even make changes to the DNA. Now some of the major applications of CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing tool is that they can be used in gene silencing, gene activation, embryonic stem cell and transgenic animals. You just know the names only here. The Sunday article was regarding the disabling of the gene called CCR5. So this CCR5 gene actually encodes a protein and this protein allows HIV to enter and infect the human cells. So if this CCR5 gene is removed or disabled then the humans would become resistant to HIV. But this particular CCR5 gene also has some other functions that protect the human body like they protect many organs like lungs, brains and many other organs. So if the CCR5 gene is disabled then the life expectancy of any human being will become less where the CCR5 genes are disabled. Till now there has not been any gene editing studies conducted on the humans apart from this experiment that was conducted in China by a scientist which is mentioned in Sunday's news article. So this experiment was regarded as against the medical and the scientific ethics since this experiment was directly conducted on humans without any animal studies. Now let us see our today's news article. It has like it is about the gene editing in chickens to make them resistant to bird flu which is again a disease. If you saw on Sunday's article it was making the genes resistant to HIV which was a disease and this is also a disease resistant application. So the bird flu virus is currently spread very fast in wild birds and poultry and they can at times even affect the humans. This particular bird flu is one of the greatest threats to humans as a bird to human transmission is possible. In this gene editing research conducted in the United Kingdom they have removed a portion of DNA using this CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing tool and the removed DNA is actually responsible for producing a protein called as ANP32 on which all flu viruses depend to infect a host cell. So the application of this gene editing tool is either to add or remove or disable a DNA which is responsible for causing certain diseases like the cases that we saw. So as said earlier just focus on the important terms like CRISPR-Cas9 and next about their functions and their applications. And remember we have seen only one type of gene editing tool called CRISPR-Cas9 today. This news article is about Nipah virus. We saw about Nipah virus in our yesterday's discussion. So this news is likely to appear again and again at least for the next two months in some of the editions. Now let us see some of the recent developments mentioned in today's news article. If you see the state of Kerala has stepped up the surveillance measures to tackle fresh Nipah cases and as a part of the prevention measures the travel history of the patient who is suspected to have Nipah virus is being checked and the patient's blood samples are also being tested at the National Institute of Virology Pune. Also the isolation warts where the affected patients would be treated separately have been readied in several medical colleges and general hospitals across Kerala. And also the private hospitals have been asked to report the suspected cases. With this we come to the end of the analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion. Let us move on to the practice question discussion session. First question. In this question if you look at the statements you can tell that the statement 2 is correct because it is known that Dr. Homi Jahangir Baba is known as the father of the Indian nuclear program. So this eliminates option C. Now the first statement tells that BARC comes under the Department of Atomic Energy. It is correct and please include this in your notes that BARC comes under the Department of Atomic Energy. So this makes statement 1 as correct. Now we have to see whether statement 3 is correct or not. The name is Baba Atomic Research Center. So we know that the center is involved in nuclear sciences as atomic energy is a discipline of nuclear science. But in the question it states that BARC is involved only in the field of research in nuclear sciences. Now you may easily get carried away by this logic and may consider statement 3 as correct. But it is actually wrong. So it is where the newspaper reading and analysis is useful. Because we know that today's news was about four start-ups which have tied up with BARC to manufacture the unique membrane based water purifiers. That water is not a discipline of nuclear science. So from this we can tell that BARC is involved in multidisciplinary research as well. We also discussed during analysis that BARC or BARC does societal commitment domains of research and application as well. Now these points make sure that the word only should not be there in the statement. So it makes this third statement wrong. So this question is asked for the correct statements. The correct answer is option B1 and 2 only. Moving on to the next question which among the following are the member states of the organization of Islamic cooperation. And they have given some five nations which includes Saudi Arabia, Iran, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. Here all the countries are members except India. Please keep this in mind. So the question is asked for the correct answer. So the correct answer is option D1, 2, 3 and 5 only because India is not a member of OIC. Moving on to the next question. Consider the following statements. Here they have given two statements and they have asked for the statement which is not correct. So please bear this in mind. They have asked for statements which is not correct. Now if you see here the first statement is correct. Bond is a debt instrument in which an investor loans money to an entity. Here the entity can be a corporate one or a government one. The entity borrows the funds for a defined period of time at a variable or a fixed interest rate. So this is the correct definition of bonds. Now if you look at the second statement it states that a government bond is a short term government security. Always remember that a government bond is a long term one and not a short term one. That means it has a maturity period of one year or more. So this makes the statement 2 as an incorrect one. Now the question asks for the statements which are not correct. That means the incorrect statement. In a hurry do not assume that the question asks for correct statement and put option A as the correct answer. Now you need to develop a habit of looking into the question before marking the final answer. So here the incorrect statement is statement 2. So the correct answer to this question is option B2 only. Moving on to the next question which is the main question. The question is the unilateral foreign policy of the present US administration is affecting the strategic autonomy of India's foreign policy and discuss. So here just discuss about the unilateral foreign policy of the United States towards India like your significant reduction assumptions, then your generalized system of preferences and the economic sanctions under CATSA if India is going to purchase the S-400 missile weapons from Russia. Then you also have to explain how India's independence in determining its foreign policy is disturbed. So India's independence in determining its foreign policy is nothing but the strategic autonomy of India's foreign policy. So here you can quote the example of India-Iran relations for their significant reduction assumptions and the India-Russia relations for the economic sanctions under CATSA. How both these relations with Iran and Russia would get affected. 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. Please do like, comment and share the video and please do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for latest videos and updates. Stay focused and motivated friends. Thank you.