have been sated will switch gears to the front of the eye. So completely different topic, it's far away from retina and research as we can get. So I'm going to share a few different cases that I think will be of interest to anyone doing cataract surgery. Patient one, and I'll try to keep this interactive. So I'm going to pick on certain residents. So no offense to anyone. Patient number one, 64-year-old, 3 plus NS in the right eye, uncorrected vision 2100, refraction is given. So we do the topography. Let's see, Russell, how would you interpret this topography? That's a crab claw, Peter. What does that signify? Excellent. So this patient did indeed have polisid marginal degeneration. And Russell's referring to this crab claw appearance of skewed deviation of the zones of astigmatism. So you have patients with PMD and cataract. Now Russell noted he picked out the astigmatism of 5.6 generated by the computer. But if you look closer at the central zone, actually there's about 7.3 diopters of astigmatism essentially. And the reason I point that out is in these complex eyes, the astigmatism given by the topographers often. And so it is valuable to take a step and look at the central zone. If you average these numbers, you get about 7.3 diopters of cylinder. So what I planned to do was insert a T9 lens, should correct about 4.4.1 diopters of cylinder, and do AK incisions, astigmatic caratotomy incisions at a 380 micron depth at a 7 millimeter optical zone. And by my nomogram, that should correct about 2.3 diopters. I did not want to be too aggressive on the AKs at a 7 millimeter optical zone, because if you do too much, you can destabilize the cornea, especially in a patient with PMD. So conceptually what we did was take this cornea, inserted the lens along this axis, did AK incisions at the maximal areas of astigmatism. And that resulted in an uncorrected visual acuity of 2040 with a best correction of 2025, very close to our target. So 7.3 diopters take away 4.1 with the toric, take away another 2.3, is left with about one and a half, as you'd expect. Now, could I have done more AK? Sure, but that would have risked some destabilization of the cornea, so I chose not to. Number two, in question with RK, about 20 years ago, 8-cut RK, got a cataract in the right eye, best correction with refraction was 2100. Brian, how would you interpret this topography? Oh, sorry, Brian Zog. Sorry, Brian, I did see you, but I'm afraid to Zog. I can't even say Brian Arx Foundation, both of Arx. Yeah, that probably doesn't matter so much. So again, the computer tricked you. So 0.6 diopters of cylinder on this computer reading and everything just looks blue centrally from the RK flattening. Now, one thing to bear in mind here is that everything looks blue, but the scale only starts at 30 and a half. So if you get this kind of picture, ask your tech to lower the scale. Because when you look centrally, you see there's actually, it's not just all flat. 32 diopters, 31 diopters vertically, 36 or 37 more obliquely. So there's actually a lot of stuff going on in the central cornea that's not visible by just looking at that central tilt. And so paying attention to the scale relative to what's going on is key. And very often the computer just sees something, the tech prints it out, no one takes a moment to look at the scale. And you think there's only 0.6 diopters of cylinder when there's a lot more. No, the computer would still say 0.6, but you would have a color cue that would say, hey, I need to take a look at this more. Yeah, I'm a master is measuring the central, three, three and a half millimeters. It's measuring at 12 points. The Lens Star measures at 21 points. The Lens Star measures out to 4.5 millimeters as well. In the post refractive surgery cornea, the IOL master is essentially useless for keratometry reading. It's great for axial length, but it's essentially useless for keratometry reading. And for that matter, the topography doesn't, you can't go off the topo numbers either by themselves. Okay, so, talk about the central cornea. Now, if you plug all this into the IOL, Ascrus Calculator for post-RK patients, it recommends doing a IOL power of 23.5. Okay, now remember that number, 23.5 is what the Ascrus Calculator recommends. PenaCAM, we have. PenaCAM measures the posterior cornea. It's very helpful in these post-refractive corneas. And this is a typical PentaCAM printout. And for refractive surgery for Lasik and PRK, you're gonna pay attention to the front. You're gonna pay attention to the thickness map and the posterior cornea. But that's not actually what we need here. We need what's called the EKR report. Again, you have to ask your tech to go print the EKR report. And here, what you find of use is the following. First, look at the central K given by the PentaCAM and the K is given at the one in two millimeter zones. And if you average all of these numbers, that I find, the zero, one in two millimeter zones in the PentaCAM, that I find gives a very nice estimate of keratometry in a post-RK or post-Lexic eye. And then the next thing you wanna piece is the astigmatism, about six diapters at a two millimeter zone, about four and a half diapters at a three millimeter zone. And averaging the cylinder at two and three millimeters gives you a very good sense of what astigmatism you need to treat. Again, on these post-RK and post-Lexic eyes. And when you average the zero, one in two zones and plug that into the IOL master, 31.61 millimeters, axiolength of 26.92, given by the IOL master, we get a predicted using master KT formula of 24.5 millimeters, 24.5 diapters, as opposed to if you adjust use the IOL master numbers. Okay, do you see that? The IOL master gives a much higher reading than what we plugged in from the PentaCAM.  Let's see, first to your resident. Is Russell down the line? Ah, Brian, sorry. Keep forgetting you, you're at a table. So Brian, if we had inserted a 20 diapter rather than the 24.5, what would have happened to the refractive error? So patient would be left excellent, right? So that would have resulted in a hyperopic surprise. That's my prediction. And as it turned out, we inserted a T9 lens to treat that about five diapters of cylinder that we observed in the PentaCAM. And with the 24.5, we achieved very close to our target. Okay, as opposed to the IOL Ascrus calculator, which recommended a 23 and a half, we would have been left with probably a plus one of spherical equilibrium. Or the IOL master by itself, which would have resulted in a plus five, most likely. That makes sense. Let's see. He had a pretty bad cataract, about two and a quarter. So he wasn't a very good refractor for optropatia. Number three, 67 year old lot of cylinder on the manifest, pretty dense cataract. Dan, what do you see on this topo? Big red blob, excellent. Look at these numbers for a second, 56 and 48. Do those mean anything to you? Those high caratometry readings? Right, does that point you to any particular diagnosis? Right, and so if you look at the central K, inferiorly is actually 62.9 versus the superiors of 59. So that's 3.9 more inferiorly than superiorly. So does that prove caratoconus? But it's highly suggestive. It's highly suggestive of caratoconus, and he did have caratoconus, and you can look at the rings on the caratoscope, and you can see very steep axis pointing this way. If you probe it with the pentacan, you get a much nicer look at what's going on in the central cornea, inferior zone of steepening. And again, if you do that same exercise of averaging the central zone, zero, one, two, you get a much different number than what's on the IOL master. And so this was a complex case, caratocon with cataract, and so I looked at the caratometries every which way until Sunday, central topography, pentacan, zero, one, two, EKR report, and when you have all of these numbers not really hanging very closely together, I just tend to throw out things I don't like if I don't like the scan, or I average things. And in this particular case, I averaged it, I got a mean of 54.08, the cylinder, the topo and the pentacan disagreed substantially. So here, you have no choice but to sit down with the patient and have a really earnest conversation that part of this is shooting darts in a dark room. And you have to set that expectation that we're gonna give it our best effort, but ultimately we can't predict refractive perfection. And the patient was very good about it. Put in a T9 lens. I did do some LRIs on this caratoconic patient and put the T9 along that axis to the LRIs here and here. Not too aggressive with the LRIs, even though he's 67 and is probably cross-linked from life, didn't want to be too aggressive with the LRIs in the caratocone. An outcome was pretty good. You know, he was happy, he actually wanted some gear. Just two more cases, got about 15 minutes. Cemetery old status most lacy, about 15, 16 years ago. Mild cataract, you already know he's a high expectation person because he's had his Lasik in the early days. Topo shows this nice central blue zone for a classic of Lasik. Panicam numbers, 31.2 centrally, are quite different than what the Topo predicts. And so running through that same exercise, averaging the zero, one, and two millimeter zones for predicting the central caratometry and then averaging the cylinder at two and three millimeters which results in about one and a half doctors of cylinder. Plugging that into the IOL master. This is from the Panicam zero, one, two, that's the axial length, predicted 22, technus lens. This actually correlates very nicely with what the Oscars calculator predicted, 0.75, that we hit the nail on the head. Now for the astigmatism, I treated AK at a seven millimeter optical zone. Reason being he has a Lasik flap. So I don't work as well in a patient with Lasik because it's beyond doing a limborelexing ascension is beyond the optical zone created by the flap. So I do AKs in that context at a seven millimeter zone within the flap. Certainly do need to know the corneal thickness there. Know what depth to go to. Last case, 62 year old at transplants for keratoconus 30 years ago. Had a cataract done seven years ago in the right eye, left eye, four years ago. Their spherical equivalent was very good. What's the spherical equivalent in the left eye? Try again. Good. So minus 3.5 plus half of six, minus 3.5 plus three, minus a half, circle of the root there. Tret, what's the spherical equivalent on the right eye? So they did a good job with their cataract lens insertion because he was left with circle of the root plus 0.37 in the right eye and minus a half on the left eye. This is what the topo shows. Now, 6.12 dieters of cylinder on the right eye, correlating pretty nicely with that refraction. If he had stitches, we would take the stitches out but all his stitches are out. This thickness map will be important. Just remember, he's got thicknesses of about 600, 700 in the mid peripheral cornea in the right eye. Now the left eye, he's got 9.16 dieters of cylinder. Why does he only have six dieters of a stick to his under refraction? Any gaseous trend. Got nine dieters of cylinder on the topo and the topo is a good topo. Okay, lens is not tilted. Postural cornea is a good guess. Check the pentakam. The pentakam says the same with trial lenses. This was done with trial lenses. Good, good thought. Any guesses, Dan? Leah? Jim? Any guesses? Not the postural cornea. Okay, so what happened about five, six years ago in the world of PCILLs? Indeed. So the lens that he had in the left eye, the lens that he had in his left eye, so he didn't have his lens card. We only saw that on dilation. So very important, always dilate your patient.  Try again. T9 corrects 4.1. So a T5 corrects about two and a quarter, two and a half. So he had nine dieters of cylinder corrected two and a half dieters by the T5 lens that was inserted at the time. He was left with about six dieters of cylinder on his refraction. Okay, so now he comes. He's had his transplants, he's had his cataracts docked and used something for me. I can't wear my contacts anymore, wear glasses. Any recommendations? So, so LRIs would be outside the graft, AK, fair enough. So we did a new version of AK using the interlaced laser. So we have femtosecond laser already. Femtosecond laser that works very nicely and that we paid a lot of money for. Can do an interlaced AK based on this corneal thickness map. We did about 380 microns deep at seven millimeters on the left eye, on the right eye based on this corneal thickness map. We did about 580 microns deep with the interlaced laser. And that's the real value of the interlaced. With the step knives, with the diamond guarded blades, you have fixed depths. With the interlaced, you can really set your depth to whatever micrometer. And so, we did about three clock hour incisions on both eyes to treat the six dieters of cylinder. Seven millimeters. Got 20, 25, day one, we just did this last week. This is what they look like. Very clean, beautiful cuts, precisely done by the interlaced. I feel like I'm a good corneal surgeon but I'm not as good as this. The manual diamond blade just isn't cut as good as this. And you can see how that overlays very nicely with the astigmatic zones on the topo. So, from a series of cases, I hope you'll take away is that first, don't be afraid of these complex cases, the situations can be tackled in a logical manner. Diaspora's calculator is helpful, but not the final word. The central keratometry on the topo and the pentakam are both very valuable resources. Generating both astigmatic planning and keratometric calculation. In the context of RK, very important, figure out how big the optical zone is. Use midday readings. If you have, all right, what do I mean by that? Okay, Jim, what happens to RK patients over the course of decades? Do they become more myopic or hyperopic with time? Excellent, RK is a progressive surgery. They become more hyperopic over the course of years and decades. What's the trend? What happens to an RK patient over the course of an individual day? Do they become more myopic at the end of the day or hyperopic at the end of the day? It's the opposite of their decadal progression. And so, an RK patient, if you measure them at eight o'clock in the morning, they will be having a flatter cornea than if you measure them at six o'clock at night. So, in RK patients, ask what time do you wake up? What time do you go to sleep? And pick a time that they can come in in the middle of that day to get a good reading. Or you can tell them to come in the morning and at the end of the day and average that, but that's a little bit harder to do. Shoot for additional myopia because of that decadal progression of hyperopia. In the post-lasic PRK patients, a couple of points. Post-myopic lations have more prolate cornea, so you want to treat their spherical aberration more with the technus lens, which has the most negative spherical aberration because the myopic glacial patients have more positive spherical aberration. The reverse is true for hyperopic glacial patients. The hyperopic treatment induces negative spherical aberration, so use an older model lens, which has positive aberration to counteract it. And in these really strange corneas with PMD or keratoconus, I just like to get all the measurements and average them and have that conversation with the patient setting expectations. And then in the arsenal of astigmatic therapy, we have lots of different options that can be combined or used individually, depending on the situation. Toric lenses, which are useful even if the astigmatism is skewed, you don't need a perfect bow tie for a toric to be useful. Manual MRI, manual AK, and interlaced AK. All right, I think my time is up. What questions do you have? I know I've covered a lot of material today. Yeah, with RK patients, don't do anything for at least four or five months because they're gonna change and just hold their hand and let them know things are gonna keep getting better. So it does take a while for the post-RK cornea to stabilize. No, the one I showed was about three months out and he was pretty stable from that. Any other questions or thoughts? Brad, there's no real long-term data. I under-treat in PMD in Karateconas. I'm pretty aggressive in LASIK and RK with astigmatic correction. I pretty much treat close to what I would normally treat in a normal cornea. The older the patient, the more stable their cornea is probably going to be just because their cornea is probably cross-linked just from natural life. Those are my general rules of thumb. Thank you. Pollucent margin.


Burke is very competitive. Burke is very introverted. Burke is just always positive. Burke is a super unique personality. Burke Irving is one of the most naturally talented half-fipe skiers today. I think Burke just has a style that is just unmatched. You know, you see a lot of people going through the half-fipe and then you see Burke and you know it's Burke. I'm Burke Irving, I'm 22 years old and I'm from Winter Park, Colorado. He would go 9-0 until the moment he fell asleep. We had a tramp in the backyard. That's all he would do is jump, jump, jump, jump. Getting the kid to read and sit down and do homework was really tough because he just has a really hard time sitting still.  Let's try some more. Read for a little bit, back out, jump on the tramp. He used to play with GI does. Then he would go out by the river and he would build little ramps and stuff and he would act like they're on skis and just do his run. He's a super homebody. Like when he's here, he just hangs out. He's going to be, he'll be fishing in the back river here at the house. He's flyfishes a ton. He's really good at downhilling. He's good at everything he does, which is annoying. Well, living like where we are, there's not much else to do. If you don't ski, you're going to spend the whole winter inside. Winter parks is just a super special place to me. I grew up skiing here. Very grateful to grow up in such a nice, tight ski community and having the parents that I have that have just brought me into this sport and basically just given me everything that I have today. It's just cool just being up here surrounded by these big mountains and just having so many places to go and escape. Like ride sleds, hit the mountain, just do whatever. You know, in the summertime, go bike and fishing. This ski town, like, definitely made my sister and I who we are. We're back at Stomping Grounds Winter Park, Colorado, where it all began. Burke and his dad are really close. He is the director of ski patrol at Winter Park. So when he goes up, all the patrolers are looking out for him or, hey, I saw Burke do this, he can't get away with anything. Yeah, I can't sked out of bounds. Everybody knows who he is. My relationship with Burke is we're very close. You know, I like to check in at the end of the day, find out how the day was, make sure nothing went wrong, try to keep it loose, I try to keep it calm and not add any pressure to him. It seems to be a great relationship between the two of us. Ever have to pull as fast? No. Never had to. I get away with murder after it comes down to. Not quite true. Dad definitely influenced my ski career just by helping me whenever I needed it. When I was younger, he would bring me to every single contest. I remember him and my mom both. They would just travel everywhere with me to all the contests and bring me places, pay the way, so that I was able to do these things and get to where I am now. If I'm a parent, I would definitely like to do the same thing for my kids. He's a really big fan base. And I think that's just because he's just like a fun, smoky kid and people just love his energy and he's just kind and he's always having a good time and he talks to all the little rippers. Yeah, Burke has that it factor, that style that you can't teach and the way he looks at tricks, the way he looks at the half vibe or jumps or whatever, he figures it out and does things the way he wants to do it. I love his approach to life. It's very nonchalant. He's quiet, filled with dry humor, loves to ski and is super passionate about his craft. If it's like just a groomer, he's dipping through the trees. Two and three six, he's off of little side hits. It's just all over the place. What's up? We're out here in Copper. We're in my home state of Colorado. We got due tour finals coming up on Saturday, third Olympic qualifier. Pipe's running amazing. Everyone's on some insane tricks right now. So it's yeah, I'm excited. It's going to be a real good final and my family's coming up from Winter Park to come support and we've got some friends. My uncle might even make it and it's going to be dope to have that sport system there to cheer me on. Vibe is sick just with the piping right at the base. Super dope for spectators. They did an amazing job cutting the half pipe. It's vert, it's good, it's dialed, it's smooth. Yeah, we're all hyped on it. The better the pipe is, the more you are able to do and the safer you are doing it and it definitely just makes for just a way better competition just a safer environment for all of us as well. Qualifying and getting ready for the games this year, it's a big year. We're excited obviously. These guys have all competed against each other but this is a diverse group. Any day can lead to one person or another and it makes for great competition. I think they all deal with it very well. I think Burke has a good chance. I think he just stands out and he's just unique and has that style and I think the judges love that. I feel like Burke deals really well with the pressure. He's found a way to make that work for him so that you can calm himself down and do what he has to do. Yeah, right now I think I'm sitting pretty good. I honestly haven't paid too much attention to it. Obviously that's definitely on my radar but yeah, I'm just skiing as good as I can and just not really trying to put pressure on myself to be like, alright, I need to do this here, I need to do this here. It's more just ski, it's another season just with one extra comp really. That's all it is to me. We got a super dope crew in the pipe. We're all buddies. Everybody right now is really fun to watch. There's so many different varieties of skiing in the pipe. I'd love to watch Nello for sure because he's just got that smooth effortless style going down that makes everything look so easy and flows so nice. And then obviously Nico with just some big corkathons. I mean it just wasn't my day as far as equipment and all that goes but I still ended up fourth which I'm happy about and I know I got a lot more in the tank and I know what I'm capable of so yeah, I feel good moving forward.  So much like family and friends out here. It's just, yeah, it's a good scene, I like it a lot. The plan after I'm done with Half Pipe for the year is definitely get out in the back country and start filming. Not gonna get as much time in this year but it'd be sick to film like somewhat of a segment. Yeah, just hanging crews and have like a pretty stress-free rest of the season.


Good morning, John. It's Friday. Do you remember a couple weeks ago when we got together and raised $1.6 million for charity during the Project for Awesome?  We made videos to promote charities. Maybe we've lost it. Maybe we've forgotten it some. Maybe that wonderful feeling isn't something you can have all the time. But maybe you can have it just a little bit right now in case you've forgotten some of what went down. Or maybe you weren't there for the whole thing. Like, I was, was anyone? Cause that's a lot, that's a, that's dedication. John, it's time for that. It's recap time. Look, it's the Project for Awesome. It's, it's raw. It's real. It's got a butt crack in it. Do the thing! Do it! Whoa! Let me see the finished result. Welcome to the Project for Awesome! Ho, ho, ho! Does anyone have any updates on the Agnes situation? Oh my god. Final hat. I'm just happy to be alive and speaking to humans. Can you explain the sheep?  Maaaah! This is the worst of the plans! What's under my pants? What does this mean? Uh, I learned a lot. I love you as high as I can reach. Said this one up, Brian Haas. If an episode is challenging or if a topic is challenging, it inspires me to keep working on it. Cause I'm like, this means that something here is worth talking about if it's hard. Give me that or not! Or give me death! It's not really for sitting. It's more of a standing costume. You want me to get an adult in there for you? We've got two, I mean three adults if you count me. I like how you didn't though, or racially. I'm a damp person, I can do this all day. I'm just way to the moon, everybody! Is this gonna be okay? Can you talk to the lawyers?  Big daddy likes her crime. Big daddy likes poor crimes. Whoa, Matt, no! She's perfect! Huge thanks to everybody again for being part of the 2018 Project for Awesome. Here in the live stream we're having a great time and it appears to have been a development. I wish that Alice were here right now to see what proper face painting looks like. Gosh! Gumball Mike is the first dinosaur on the moon. Crunch! Why don't you just fight them? You know, this is what I've always wanted, is just to watch a grown man shave. I don't know how to be famous. Because I didn't know the last time I was shot in Hank, it was gonna be the last time. A problem like global health can feel like spitting on a wildfire, but it's not. All the resources, all the power that you're able to exert on the world, that has real world effects. Sorry, you made me cry. This has been a beautiful time. I'm so happy. Everyone in Nerdfighteria, thank you. And as they say in our hometown, don't forget to be awesome. Thank you to Nicole Sweeney for editing this video with me. She did like 90%, 95% of the, probably more percent of the work than that. And thank you of course to all of the Project for Awesome's donors and volunteers and video makers and guests and champions and to all the non-profit organizations that are making the world a better place with their hard work. Thank you. I will see you on Tuesday.


Send the gas Manitoba Morning everybody We have this Load behind us on the flatbed And running into Winnipeg right now. I picked this up south of Minneapolis yesterday I'm running into Winnipeg now in Manitoba I'm gonna drop it off and then we're gonna rush back over to Kenora where we were the other day and grab another load It's gonna be a bit of another rush rush kind of day That's what every day seems to be and that's okay. At least it means we're busy, right? So let's get out there. I don't want to waste any time Before we can go anywhere. I don't want to be staring at this dust All day Swiffer Actually not a nap. I don't know why I just said that it's Swiffer It's the quicker picker upper or no wait, that's bounty bounty the quicker picker upper Swiffer the They're not so quicker picker upper. I don't know It works good in the truck anyway, this is their their pet model good for pet hair and said works great for dust Absolutely Oh, yeah, oh that feels good. Yeah, there we go. Oh, don't forget up here. Don't forget up here Everything I don't want to stare at dust all day. There we go Wonderful. Oh, no, I gotta wipe this down. Oh, no Oh, no, okay, put that away. This is the way you start the day Nice Let's roll You guys ready buckled in Saddled up first come first serve first there and first serve Wow 500 meters take the entrance to the ride on highway 100 Few friends I'm taking along with me they needed a ride we're at this rest area just into Ontario and We have an empty trailer Got unloaded real quick. I got there at oh when did I get there what 930 and I was out of there by 10? So took a half hour. There's no one in line. No one waiting first come first serve. I was first I got served We got a deal with all this construction traffic that's going through Ontario They're twinning this highway or making it into a four lane My last time I said that someone was telling me that they've never heard it called twinned before Maybe that's a prairie term because you know running through the hills the highways not really twinned because both Directions sort of take their own path to get around the hills on the prairies They're two identical highways side-by-side one going one way one going the other way we call it a twin highway Maybe that's just me. I just met four lane divided Truck is getting a little bit dirty But we're gonna wash it before we go home for the weekend or when we get home on the weekend And I'll be that so we got to go a little bit further down the road yet. Oh It's such a beautiful day. I just want to stand outside all day. You know, I'd love to be sitting on the beach right now Just picturing it in my head on a nice lake fresh water. It's not the ocean No, I don't like the ocean things in the ocean want to eat me. I don't like that No, it's a nice freshwater lake Yeah Beautiful waters not too cold Beautiful and we're back. Okay. That was a fun vacation Let's get back to work The sooner we get to canora the sooner we get loaded the sooner we get loaded the sooner we get to Brainerd The sooner we get to Brainerd sooner we get unloaded The sooner we get unloaded the sooner we get our reload the sooner we get our reload the sooner we go home You follow Today june here. Come on. I don't get paid by the hour Do they do it at night when traffic is but I got those straps over the top just to keep the tarp from flapping so that Those corners stay put and they don't rip Hopefully that'll work The guy like this is the same load I took earlier this week and that guy who loaded it loaded it higher and Center so I could just use two tarps right now. I had to use all three tarps so it was a little bit more work, but Now we're getting her done right it is a hot one out here Beautiful lake right over there. I just want to jump in so bad It's the corner of highway 17 and 71 This takes us down to Fort Francis and then we cross into international falls load and tarping it It's got myself soaked in sweat so I had to change all my poles It felt like I just jumped in the lake which gave me the idea. I should go jump in the lake I already feel like I jumped in the lake And there's the lake over there. I don't know how to get to it and I already changed So it's time to get going time to keep going that six I'm not even moving Karen.  I don't have a reload tomorrow yet once I get this unloaded I guess they're gonna see what time I get unloaded at because I won't be their first thing I'm thinking I'll probably make it down to Deer River tonight Sleep there again, and we'll see what time we get there if there's a line up and how fast we get unloaded And then we'll check in with the load gods and see if they have something for us or what's going on Let's go all soon arrows on terrible. Oh, sorry Ontario Soon arrows Ontario. I'm gonna stop in here for a coffee. You know what get about two trucks here When it's open you take you take the opportunity to be right back after these messages from caffeine So we made it here to Deer River, Minnesota But an hour and a half. This is my usual stop on my way down if I can't quite make it I ran out of time on my 14 hour clock. So once I'm in the US here You can only run 14 hours or Work 14 hours a day By law in Canada it's 16 hours, but since I'm in the US now I have to follow their rules So I started my day in the morning 14 hours later and tell me I got a stop. I still got lots of energy Walking around here at the truck stop. There's a bar and grill over there. It's already closed though Nothing to really do that. It's such a beautiful night out here. I just want to be outside Mosquitoes aren't that bad. I'm not getting eaten alive being out here So you'll notice that I parked opposite The other trucks Every other truck is pointed the other direction. There's a good reason for that It's because the guy to my right there or to the right there against my left the guy next to me Has an engine fan. He has his truck idling even though it's a perfect night And his engine fan keeps kicking on and off now mine does the same thing I left mine on right now To demonstrate, can you hear the engine fan?  We'll sit here and wait until mine kicks on again Sam I got my engine at the rear end of all the other trucks Purposely I came in this way Same way as them to begin and I realized that guy had his truck idling engine fan roaring on and off So I figure you know what I'll turn around so I don't have to listen to it Put my head over here And now I'll show you what I mean You hear the truck idling now, right? Just wait My engine fan will kick on soon Just imagine trying to sleep beside this We'll just have to wait Any second now See I could sleep beside this a nice steady noise Just the sound of an engine Puts me right to sleep. I actually like it But when the engine fan kicks on it startles me That's what I'm talking about. Leave my truck idling like keeps it on so at least since it's a nice night Sometimes there's a very good reason to keep the truck idling Some guys have a sleep apnea machine or other machines that help them breathe at night And if you turn the truck off all night with those machines running it'll kill the battery and you won't be able to Start your truck in the morning That's why I don't get too upset about it It is what it is However, if I have the option to change my situation I will like I did today when I pulled in here I had my nose pointed the other way right beside him I stopped there listen does the call this guy's got his truck Idling it might be for a good reason or it might just be wasting fuel and no reason at all But none of my business right so what I did as pull forward I turned around I came back in and They put my truck at the back of his truck So that all that noise is over there I Can still hear it from here still here every time it kicks on it still bugs me a little bit, but Like I said there could be a very good reason why he has his truck idling the guy beside me over here on this side Also has his truck idling, but it had a very low idle So he could be damaging his engine if he does that every night over a like long period of time over over years if you're gonna idle your truck for a Length of time you need to bump that idle up Put your cruise on and press the set button just to bump your idle up So that is that about between 800 and a thousand rpm at least look at your oil pressure your psi Make sure your psi gauge is up to Every truck is a little different or every brand is a little different every engine is a little different Gotta get that oil pressure up so that the top of your motor is being lubricated Otherwise all that oil just sits at the bottom It's very hard on the engine to idle at a low speed like that for a long time It's bad for any diesel engine to idle at all, but it's much much worse for it to idle at low idle I'm gonna bring it up to a healthier Healthier rpm when I add on my truck overnight like on the really cold nights during the winter when I have to Otherwise, I won't be able to start it again. I bring my idle up to 1,000 rpm And the way I do that is I press I turn my cruise on and I press set now in my truck when I press set It brings the rpm up to 800 and then I press resume and that brings the idle up If I keep pressing resume the idle will go up up up up and if I press set again The idle will go down down down and I keep it at about a thousand rpm. That's for this truck This truck's got a Cummins ISX in it every engines a little different But this truck in particular Peter Biltz and Kenworths they have obnoxiously loud engine fans It even bothers me inside my own truck I'm so self-conscious about it because when I have to idle my own truck I just show you I turn the engine fan on so it just stays on the whole time So at least it's a steady noise, right? So Depends I'm a little picky about sleeping I can sleep through anything this thing behind the truck idling over there I could sleep through it But my question would be why stay in a situation when I could be in a better situation All right, let's turn around and it's quieter this way. See Two points for trucker Josh. He's in the old noggin. It's not just for looks Got a few brain cells left in there yet. Don't worry See So thanks for joining me today everybody got nothing else to say Don't forget to hit that like button hit that subscribe button join our family here We've been making videos all the long time you can go to my playlists and see them all in order And make sure you turn on all notifications because they get released at different times throughout the day Turn on your notifications so you get a little ding on your phone And even if you're busy at the time connecting. Oh trucker Josh uploaded a video Just make a mental note go back to that later and watch it when you have a chance I'll see you tomorrow everybody. Take care. Have a good day


Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Reyes Academy. Displayed on the list of news articles taken for today's analysis and their page numbers in different editions of the newspaper. The link for the handwritten notes in the PDF format and the time stamping of the discussed articles are provided in the description box and also in the comment section for the benefit of mobile phone viewers. Now, let us move on to the analysis of first news article. This discussion is based on a measure to curb stubble burning. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this discussion has been highlighted here for your reference. We are continuously discussing about worsening air quality in Delhi and one of the contributing reasons for air pollution in the capital is stubble burning in the neighboring states particularly Punjab and Haryana. Here when we say stubble burning, we are referring to burning the crop residues which could be which could be the rice straw and the rice stalk particularly with reference to paddy and even though the Delhi government has taken many measures for example like 7 point parallee production action plan to handle this problem still it is not it contained. Now as the measure to address this problem of stubble burning union government is testing one new technology that is called a storey faction. Now this technology is Swedish origin or it is a Swedish technology. The technology is tested under a pilot project that is funded by the office of the principal scientific advisor to the government of India. For this purpose a pilot plant has been set up in Punjab in the National Agri Food Biotechnology Institute. This project is being carried out as a product of the major announcement that was made during the India-Sweden high-level policy dialogue which was held on 2nd December 2019. Here the major announcement was the Agri waste to high energy bio coal conversion which is a pilot project established under the waste to wealth mission of the prime minister's science technology and innovation advisory council shortly called as PM STIAC. This is the project that we are discussing. So the office of the principal scientific advisor in partnership with Swedish company named as called as bio endow has set up a torrefaction pilot plant and this plant is for the conversion of agri waste or stubble into bio coal. This bio coal is made from unutilized crop waste. This bio coal produces 20 times lower emissions than conventional coal. Now let us see the expected outcomes of this pilot study then we will see about the technology. The first expected outcome or the first advantage of this project is the improved air quality with reduction of crop residue burning then it will lead to reduced emissions as a result of using bio coal which is a clean energy source at least we can say it's a relatively clean energy source. Then generation of livelihood opportunities for farmers this is because bio coal production creates new market linkages for agricultural waste. Next the bio coal can be used as a clean energy input source in thermal power plants also in households for example whenever there is a requirement of burning or in some cases for cooking. Next it will help in capacity building through technology development and employment generation. See this is a new technology if something is to be developed from this technology there will be industries based on this there will be employment based on this there will be generation of jobs and this will also result in improvement of soil quality. See this is because stubble burning will now be avoided and we know that one of the disadvantages or one of the negative impacts of stubble burning is that the loss of soil nutrients because of stubble burning. Now let us see about this technology torrefaction. See it is a thermochemical process this involves heating of biomass in the absence of air at 200 to 350 degrees Celsius temperature. What happens at this high level temperature in the absence of air? Volatization takes place. What do we mean when we say volatization? See it is nothing but transition of chemicals from solid state or from liquid state into vapor phase. So as the volatization of biomass takes place in this 200 to 350 degrees Celsius temperature range around 30 percent mass of the original biomass is reduced. See the torrefaction is called as a near net zero energy process. This is because the 10 percent energy that is released in the form of a combustible gas is reutilized in the process. This combustible gas is also known as torrefaction gas. This gas is reutilized for pre-drying the biomass feedstock. So what happens in the pre-drying step? In this step free water available in biomass is evaporated from that biomass at a constant temperature of 100 degrees Celsius using the torrefaction gas. If you see the previous experiments around the globe it shows that the efficiency of co-firing biomass in large coal based thermal power plants. This efficiency is much higher than utilizing the same biomass in the dedicated bio power plant with 100 percent energy supply from biomass. Also if we adopt for co-fired plants there if you see the incremental investment that is required are lower than dedicated bio power plants which are designed for 100 percent firing of biomass. Now let's see how this torrefaction process is producing efficient biomass. See this process is based on simple energy mass balance. In the process as we saw earlier 10 percent energy is reduced and 30 percent mass is reduced. So the energy density of biomass increases by approximately 1.3 times in the process. So by this we can imply that the torrified paddy straw almost exceeds the energy density of domestic bituminous coal that is used in power plants. So here paddy straw is the biomass and we can also observe the gross calorific value of the two products. See the gross calorific value is the total amount of heat that is released when a fuel is burned. The gross calorific value of torrified paddy straw is 4500 kilocalories per kilogram whereas it is 4000 kilocalories per kilogram approximately for domestic bituminous coal. Next let us see about the capital cost or the input cost of torrefaction process and the cost effectiveness of this process with another biomass creation process known as pelletization. If you see torrefaction here the capital cost is three times higher than pelletization process where traditional pellets are created. See this pelletization is a process where in simple densification of biomass happens and this process involves shredding, hammering, drying and densification. But it is found that though the input cost of torrefaction is three times higher than making or producing traditional pellets the torrefaction process is cost effective. How we are saying that this process is cost effective? This is mainly because of the high energy value of the finished product and also because of near net zero energy process of torrefaction. We saw that 10% of the reduced energy is reused for pre-drying whereas 90% of the energy can be found in the finished product. Then the torrified biomass has combustion characteristics that are similar to coal and this torrified biomass looks exactly like coal and that is why it is termed as bio coal and this torrified biomass gives significant environmental advantages when we compare with coal and traditional solid biofuels and this is because of the improved fuel characteristics of torrified biomass for example like high energy density, low moisture content, near zero sulfur content. Normally because of high sulfur content in coal we can see sulfur oxide emissions from power plants but this torrefaction process reduces the sulfur content of biomass to the tune of around 30 to 80 percentage and it also reduces the chloride content of the biomass to around the to the tune of around 20 to 70 percentage. So that is why the final product bio coal or the torrified biomass is safe for the environment and less polluting compared to coal and then this torrified biomass has water rippling properties and therefore the torrified coal particles are hydrophobic in nature that is they ripple water. So this property helps in addressing storage issues that are present in farm waste that is the farm waste that are heaped in huge bundles can be now made into products with longer storage periods and torrified biomass are far less prone to degradation from longer storage periods and from weather conditions and even after longer storage periods it is found that the torrified coal or torrified biomass the energy content remains stable that is even if the torrified biomass had longer storage life it was without fuel degradation. So this process helps us to convert farm waste into torrified biomass through the process of torrefaction which may address some of the important concerns of energy requirements of our country in the future and that is why it is that is one of the reasons why this project comes under the waste to wealth mission of prime ministers science technology and innovation advisory council. With this we come to the end of analysis of this news article now let's move on to next article. This editorial article is focused on the state of our economy the article talks about the reasons for economy's troubles and it also suggests some of the possible remedies to address these troubles that are faced by our economy. The various matters have been discussed by the director of the national institute of public finance and policy who is a former member of the prime minister's economic advisory council. We are talking about Mr. Ratin Roy. Now with reference to the national institute of public finance and policy see it is a center for research in public economics and policies. It was founded in 1976 set up as an autonomous society at the joint initiative of union ministry of finance the planning commission several state governments and some distinguished academicians. Now it is a premier think tank in our country with an independent non-government character though it receives an annual grant from ministry of finance of government of India and from some state governments. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article has been highlighted here for your reference. So far in many discussions we have discussed that our economy is in slow down. In this context recently you might have heard a statement made by union finance minister that our economy is not in recession. So what is the difference between slow down and recession. See economic slow down is a situation in which GDP growth slows but the value of GDP decreases or the GDP growth witnesses a negative growth. For example when we say that GDP goes from 5% growth rate to 3% growth rate and economies experiencing a slow down here you see that there is growth but it is lesser rate of growth whereas in the case of recession it will be negative growth or that there will not be any growth at all. Even though many analysts see many economic experts may say that a slow down is not a recession but note that in a slow down there may be increase in unemployment and there may be drop in productivity. Now if you talk about recession that is not technical definition of recession but many economists they use the definition given by a non-profit institution or think tank of united states. This institution is the national bureau of economic research. It defines recession in a more broad manner. It defines recession as a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy which is lasting more than a few months and this decline is normally visible in real GDP growth, visible in real personal income, visible in terms of employment, industrial production and wholesale retail sales. In simple terms we can say that an economic recession signifies a drop in GDP whereas a slow down is just a decline in the GDP growth rate. This difference is like the difference between a salary cut or a salary reduction and a smaller increment. In a salary cut an individual's actual income itself is reduced but in case of smaller increment there is a drop in the growth of the income of the particular person. Here when we say salary cut we are referring to recession and when we say smaller increment we are referring to economic slow down but know that a slow down usually precedes a recession that is a slow down comes before a recession but a slow down need not necessarily lead to recession that means if a country takes appropriate required actions when it faces slow down it may be saved from recession. In a recession there is a general fall in demand and this is because of drop in economic activity. Then inflation remains lower or it shows signs of falling down. Here the inflation remains lower because see people do not have enough money to purchase things anyhow the produced goods have to be sold out even at the rate of lower prices. This is one aspect that we can see during recession and there is also fall in employment rate or in other words we can say that the unemployment rate increases and industries they resort to price cuts to sustain their business as we told already you know whatever produced goods are there it has to be sold out rather than becoming a mere waste as a measure of damage minimization there is low inflation that is reduced to prices so that these goods can be sold out. In some of these aspects a recession is also similar to a depression. Now with this background in mind let's see the editorial article. The GVA growth in the first quarter of this financial year was 0.6%. First quarter April May June of 2019. In the second quarter it witnessed a negative growth of 1%. Here if you take gross value added it is defined as the value of output wherein the value of intermediate consumption is subtracted. The value added here represents the contribution of labor and capital to the production process. It is a measure of the contribution to the nation's economy made by an individual producer or an industry or a particular sector that is it is a measure of contribution to GDP by an individual producer or an industry and we know that GVA depicts or portrays the situation of economic activity from the producer's point of view or from the side of supply whereas when the net tax is added with GVA that is the difference between indirect tax and subsidies the GVA becomes a GDP and this GDP gives the picture from the consumer side or from the demand perspective. So the GVA growth rate was 0.6 in the first quarter and minus 1% in the second quarter of the 2020 financial year then there is a question whether manufacturing sector wherein much of production processes are carried out is very close to being a recession. The author states that manufacturing sector is definitely close to being in recession but it is for different reasons not because GVA is negative this is because according to the author measuring a recession in terms of negative growth in two quarters is not a concept that is followed in developing countries but a concept that is followed by some of the developed countries developed countries when their economies are in a steady state and recession is considered a departure from the steady state any departure from the steady state is a recession usually in developed economies they would have fully utilized their land and capital so for making growth possible there needs to be improvements in technology and productivity but there are no improvements in technology and productivity but if the improvements or growth rate with respect to technology and improvements in productivity decreases or becomes negative then the country is in recession but what happens in developing economies is that growth is possible when there is increasing use of resources for example the use of land for increasing the economic activity so in this context the author agrees with the finance minister that in terms of conventional economics that in terms of conventional economics there is a slowdown and not a recession but what should be the level of GDP growth rate for a growing economy to stay positive and this level is around some at least six percent or seven percent but if you see for the latest quarter the GDP grow by just 4.5 percentage so in the sense of developing and growing economy the author mentions that we are in recession and this recession is structural in nature then the author discusses about what needs to be done to make sure that the full year growth rate does not fall below five percentage or it does not dip to sub five percentage if you take for now just only one quarter has the GDP growth rate of less than five percentage so according to the author since the recession we require structural actions so as to take our growth rates to be consistently up to seven plus percentages if these structural actions are taken along with some short term actions this will keep the growth rate above five percentage for at least over a two year window period so now let us see the short term actions and the structural actions that are mentioned by the author the first short term action that is required is from the Rousseau Bank of India that it has to quickly increase the amount of cash in the economy that is to increase the liquidity in the economy then banks particularly public sector banks they can use that cash together with interest rate policy so that they can provide easy credit to the clients easy credit is also known as easy money as the name implies that it is the easy availability of credit or money that is in other words we can say that there is no need to pay much interest to access the credit so when there is increased supply of money into the banking system this makes the money easily available for public lending with lower interest rate now what are the intentions of this easy credit it is intended to encourage economic growth but you know it also leads to inflation particularly demand pull inflation because when there is more supply of money in the economy the purchasing power of people has increased more money chasing less goods demand pull inflation happens but the next action suggested by the author is the reduction in RBA's repo rate we know that repo rate is the rate of interest that RBA charges from its clients that are banks for the short term borrowing obtained from RBA by these banks when repo rate is higher bank loans will be more costly that is when repo rate is higher the interest rate based on which loans are given by loans will also be higher so what we have to take care is that when there is an action to increase liquidity by the RBA the credit should be made cheaper as well that is why the author is suggesting for reduction in repo rate these are some of the short term actions referred by the author see they are temporary measures for boosting aggregate demand both consumption demand and investment demand because on one side the loans given at lower interest rate can be taken by people and that can boost consumption on one side these loans can be simply used as investments but if these are the only actions that are to be taken that means structural measures are neglected that leads to inflation and further it will also lead to stagflation see when we say stagflation there are three things one is high inflation then there is low growth and then there is high unemployment so these components of stagflation that you have to keep in mind to tackle the structural measures so as a structural measure the author calls for a skills and industrial policy for example if you take textile sector we have a market for textiles but we are losing that market to Bangladesh according to the author there is one reason why we are not able to compete with Bangladesh in this area the reason is we are unable to locate textile factories in the states where the textile industries are moderately priced where the textile industries have high volume capacity and the states where the labor is also relatively cheap in such states we are unable to locate textile factories if you see textile factories are seen on high wage labor locations such as Tirupur and Gujarat so author is suggesting to invest in north India and eastern India for example states such as Bihar Jharkhand and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh so because we have reasonably priced labor while we compare with Tirupur and Gujarat and the author is mentioning that because of migration to various parts of India the laborers in these states are reasonably skilled so this requires structural action such as action in a policy for example skills and industrial policy now this is a complex policy making which requires political investment political commitment and also political will when we say political investment it could mean two things one is political will and the other is the tangible resources that can be committed by the government to take all these structural actions now when we talk about structural action strategy there are few other sectors which are very important to this strategy these are sectors such as agriculture housing sector health sector and even the education sector if you take the agricultural sector when we compare the states of Maharashtra and West Bengal the former suicides are more in number in terms of Maharashtra and there is much lesser with respect to West Bengal so it is said that the business model with respect to agricultural sector in West Bengal works better than the business model in Maharashtra here the business model has to be in such a way that whenever there is an agrarian crisis the crisis should not affect the lives of the farmers or during agrarian crisis there should be alternative livelihood opportunities or there should be adequate supporting arrangements from the government and the civil societies and there is variation with respect to states in agriculture sector because we know that agriculture is an entry in the state list in the seventh schedule of Indian constitution therefore the author is calling for the change in business model in agriculture particularly in states you know where there is where the crisis is more and where the impact because of crisis is also more now if you come to healthcare or health sector people who earn minimum wage they are unable to afford the healthcare facilities so the author is suggesting that there should be a business model that allows people to earn the minimum wage and use their earnings to utilize the required healthcare facilities and you know the gap amount shall be supplemented by the government in a later period of time that is people will spend some percentage of money for the healthcare whereas the remaining money which they are unable to pay in accessing healthcare that shall be spent by the government at a later period now this kind of a suggestion is very easier to say than to do because it requires serious commitment from the level of government and also the private enterprises and also the private entities have also to be supportive to work with the government in ensuring accessible healthcare with respect to this suggestion so here the author is not suggesting subsidies or welfare schemes or giveaways because according to author it will not work as we do not have supply of medical personnel to deliver affordable healthcare at a large scale then if you come to housing sector land is available with the government so the question is whether the government is willing to use those lands for affordable housing or whether the government wants to use those land to build golf courses and flyovers only so if government is willing if government is ready to carry out the political investment if the government is willing government expresses willing in the form of political will it can provide affordable housing so as a conclusion the author is stating that the economic slowdown is an outcome of supply side constraints and not demand side constraints here when we say supply side constraints say if the government has already given the affordable housing supply when we say supply side it can be meaning supply of affordable housing by government it can mean supply of quality education in government so that the population need not spend hefty 60,000, 70,000 or 1 lakh within one year for one kid in private schools so that these amount can be diverted for consumption of other activities then government can give affordable healthcare or it can have a some kind of tie up with private hospital so that the poor or the affected communities because of economic slowdown need not worry about accessing healthcare facilities so when structural issues are addressed the author feels that automatically aggregate demand will increase and then consumption will rise and this will in turn revive our economy from the present slowdown it faces so that the present slowdown will not proceed a recession now let us move on to the analysis of next news article this news article states that the indian ocean region is likely to be affected by tsunamis that are generated by earthquakes at the time when the generated by earthquakes at two potential source regions in this context we'll be seeing about the potential source regions then we'll see about some important keywords that are mentioned in this news article for example indian ocean tsunami warning and mitigation system which was established by the intergovernmental oceanographic commission of unisco then we will see about incoes which is indian national center for ocean information services see the syllabus relevant for the analysis has been highlighted here for your reference now the news is that incoes is hosting a two-day meeting of experts in hydropower and these experts are coming from different countries this meeting is being held in the light of the intergovernmental coordination group for indian ocean tsunami warning and mitigation system of unisco as this intergovernmental coordination group has decided to implement a project that is funded by unescap trust fund now this unescap is nothing but the united nation's economic and social commission for asia and the pacific now this commission for asia and the pacific serves as united nation's regional hub promoting cooperation among countries to achieve inclusive and sustainable development it has 53 member states and nine associate members know that india is a member state now coming to incoes it is the indian national center for ocean information services it was established as an autonomous body in 1999 at hydropower under the ministry of earth sciences so it's a unit of earth system science organization that is why it is also called as so incoes now the mandate of this national center is to provide ocean information and advisory services not just to government agencies but also to society industry and also to the scientific community this information is provided on the basis of continuous observations made on the oceans now let's see about the indian ocean tsunami warning and mitigation system see it was established by the intergovernmental oceanographic commission of unesco this system was established as a response to the tragic tsunami that hit the course on 26th december 2004 that have led to the deaths of more than two lakh thirty thousand people in several countries that border the indian ocean this system is funded by the unescap trust fund for tsunami disaster and climate preparedness it became operational in the year 2013 and this system has tsunami service providers in australia india and indonesia which are providing tsunami services to around 28 member states in the indian ocean region now the news article mentions that indian ocean is likely to be affected by tsunamis generated by earthquakes at two potential source regions these are andaman nikobar sumatra island subduction zone and makran subduction zone see this andaman nikobar sumatra island subduction zone is also known as indonesia subduction zone makran subduction zone is off the coasts of iran and pakistan and this zone is poorly understood because of inadequate data or inadequate researchers and during the meeting the experts have stated that it is possible that the tsunami waves generated by makran source can reach the shores of india iran oman pakistan and some of the nearby countries within few minutes with heights up to several meters so therefore this subduction zone poses huge challenges to the existing tsunami warning systems because of inadequate data with respect to this particular zone so experts have called for the development of probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment for the makran subduction region if you observe this makran subduction zone you can find that the denser arabian plate is moving down or dipping down or subducting against the uracian plate because of this convergence of arabian plate against the uracian plate this zone is potential source for the generation of earthquakes if the magnitude of the earthquakes is sufficient to trigger the tsunami waves then these tsunami waves will travel in all the directions and tsunami means giant waves which are triggered by displacement of oceanic waters as a result of earthquakes are at times because of volcanic eruptions now let's see the other potential source that is indonesia subduction zone here the indo australian plate is subducting or moving down against the uracian plate this zone is known for high magnitude earthquakes that can trigger tsunami waves which are also called as killer waves and once it's tsunami we have witnessed on 26th december 2004 and the source of that earthquake is near sumatra island of indonesia so better understanding of these potential subduction zones will enable us to learn more about these zones and it will help in early tsunami warning system for indian ocean region with this we have come to the end of the analysis of this news article now let us move on to next news article this news article is with reference to the reply made by the central government regarding the demand from various states with respect to the matter of transferring pending compensation payments as a result of the implementation of gst system the reply from the central government is that the compensation sys might not be enough to pay for the losses because of the tax system there are states for example rajasthan kerala delhi panjab and west bank all they have openly stated that they have not received the dues for several months while we have been discussing about various aspects related to indian economy in recent days with respect to private final consumption expenditure government final consumption expenditure gross fixed capital formation investment rate all these things one another important concern in the last few months is with respect to lower gst and compensation sys collections see the government has budgeted for the financial year 2019-20 that it will be able to collect around 6,63,000 crore in gst collections but so far in the first eight months of the financial year 2020 that is from april to november it was able to collect only 50 percent of the budgeted target while this is with respect to gst collections there is compensation sys collections for which the government has targeted approximately 1,09,000 crore if you see in terms of collections so far only 59 percent were collected in the first eight months so this obviously gives a clear picture that the targeted gst collections in particular and the compensation sys collections may not be able to achieve by the completion of 31st march 2020 here when we say sys it is a temporary tax that is levied for a particular purpose and the money accrued by this sys will be used for particular purpose in this case it will be utilized to compensate the losses that have been faced by the various states as a result of gst taxation system whenever we study about sys we will also apparently look about one another term called as surcharge surcharge is different from sys because it is an additional tax levied on the amount of income tax it is simply a tax on the income tax we know that the gst system got introduced on 1st july 2017 before which there were several discussions related to convincing various states to agree for such a system and one important promise that enabled many states to join this initiative was the promise of compensation to the states for the losses arising out of gst implementation in simple terms the central government had promised compensation for any shortfall in tax revenue because of gst implementation and the time frame in other words or in terms of law this is called as transition period and this period amounts for five years now let's see some of the provisions that were included in the gst act of 2017 to deal with the loss of revenues because of gst implementation if you see section 7 of gst compensation to states act of 2017 it states that the loss of revenue to states on account of implementation of gst shall be payable during a transition period which is a period of five years it also mentions that it can be such period as may be prescribed on the recommendations of gst council and the compensation payable to a particular state has to be provisionally calculated and it has to be released at the end of every two months during the transition period of five years or such period as prescribed based on the recommendations of gst council but in news we have seen that some of the states have reported dues in receiving the payments for several months and which year has been taken as the base year for calculating compensation amount that are payable to states see according to section four of gst compensation to states act of 2017 the base year fixed is financial year 2015-16 this is with respect to the compensation that is payable states on account of implementation of gst in addition to this there is also a mechanism for meeting the loss of revenue to the states by collecting says and this says is called as compensation says it is simply a says that will be collected on some of the prescribed or select goods and services or select goods or select services or both till 1st July 2022 and why it is 1st July 2022 this is because the prescribed transition period of five year comes to an end by 31st June of 2021 and the center has also created a compensation fund and know that the compensation says collections are deposited in this fund so as mandated the union government has the power to compensate the states on by monthly basis so these are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this news article now we will be getting more information particularly after the upcoming gst council meeting which is scheduled for the second fortnight of December that is it is scheduled to be held in the last two weeks of December we have come to the last session the practice questions discussion session the term torref action recently seen in news is related to which among the following new technology for soft landing on moon physical property of metals defining their ability to be hammered pressed or rolled into thin sheets without breaking now this physical property is called as malleability one example we can say that is gold which is a malleable metal the third option process for making high energy bio coal from agri waste and finally a method to produce biodiesel we know that this is a swedish technology that is a process for making high energy bio coal from agri waste and this torref action is a thermo chemical process that involves heating of biomass in the absence of air at 202 350 degree temperature to convert the biomass into bio coal or biomass into torrified biomass so the correct answer for this question is option c now this question is with reference to the compensation that is payable to a state with respect to loss of revenues on account of implementation of goods and services tax system they have given two statements and are asking which of those statements are correct the first statement the compensation payable to a state shall be provisionally calculated and released at the end of every two months period now this statement is correct according to section seven subsection two of the GST compensation to states act of 2017 now the second statement the goods and services tax compensation fund which shall form part of the public account of India is a non-lapsable fund now this statement is also correct based on section 10 of the GST compensation to states act of 2017 so both the statements are correct the correct answer for this question is option c both one and two now this question is with reference to the Indian Ocean tsunami warning and mitigation system they have given three statements and they're asking to select the correct statements using the codes given below the first statement it was established by intergovernmental oceanographic commission of UNESCO in response to the tragic tsunami of 26th december 2004 now this statement is correct and you can eliminate option b second statement it is funded by united nations escap trust fund for tsunami disaster and climate preparedness now this statement is also correct so you can eliminate option c now UNESCO stands for united nations economic and social commission for asia and the pacific now the third statement the indian tsunami early warning center established at incoise acts as one of the regional tsunami advisory service provider along with australia and indonesia for the indian ocean region now this statement is also correct so the correct answer for this question is option d one two and three now this is a main question in gs paper three indian economy is in slowdown not in recession in the light of this statement discuss the structural changes and other measures needed to revive the economy now you may give two three statements justifying the given phrase that indian economy is in slowdown not in recession see the main question is mainly about discussing the structural changes and other measures that are needed to revive the economy for structural changes you can mention the change in industrial policy suggested and giving special focus to skill development and here you can cite the example of locating textile industries in the states of bhar charkand and varanasi in uttrapadesh where cheaper labor or low-cost labor is available in contrast to high-cost labor in in thirupur and gujarat then you can talk about changing the business model adopted in various states for sectors such as agriculture health and education so that it will empower the low-income groups to avail the basic services so that they need not spend huge money from their pocket for purchasing basic services that money can be utilized for purchasing goods and services thereby increasing the consumption demand if we address this structural issue then demand will naturally increase then the demand is expected to increase then with respect to housing sector the government can provide affordable housing on priority basis with the government that is in its fold these are some of the points that you can take from the today's analysis in answering this question for other measures that are needed to revive the economy you may mention about infusion of money in the economy by rba by reduction of report and this reduction of report can be utilized by banks so as to credit so as to provide easy credit on low interest rate to the citizens to generate the aggregate demand so these are some of the points you can take from today's analysis you can also use your own viewpoints and some of the additional points under structural changes and other measures for this question with this we come to the end of today's the hindu news analysis if you like the video click the like button comment share and subscribe to shankarae's academy youtube channel for more updates and content on civil service exam preparation we'll meet you tomorrow