I ask members who are leaving the chamber to do so as quickly and as quietly as possible. The final item of business is a member's business debate on motion 2360, in the name of Sarah Boyack, on ending pharmaceutical monopolies of Covid-19 vaccines. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put, as ever I would ask members who wish to participate to press the request-to-speak buttons as soon as possible or place an R in the chat function. I call on Sarah Boyack, who joins us remotely, to open the debate for around seven minutes, Ms Boyack. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. First of all, I do want to thank colleagues for their support in getting us tonight's debate. If the last few months have taught us anything, it's that we are not safe until everyone is safe. But there is a massive inequality in access to vaccines across the globe. As of last week, in high income countries, 66 per cent of people had been vaccinated with at least one dose, but in low-income countries, only 9 per cent of people had been vaccinated with at least one dose. With Omicron cases rising daily, it has never been more important to debate the need to end pharmacutical monopolies of Covid-19 vaccines. To address the cost of vaccinating 70 per cent of the population in high-income countries, it would mean an increase of 0.8 per cent in healthcare spending, but in low-income countries, an eye-watering 56 per cent increase would be needed. That money is simply not available. It was noted in the excellent briefing from the People's Vaccine Alliance that work has been on-going to get a solution. In October last year, South Africa and India submitted a joint proposal to the trade-related aspects of international intellectual property rights council at the World Trade Organization, titled waiver from certain provisions of the trips agreement for the prevention, containment and treatment of Covid-19. But the UK Government rejected the text on the waiver at the trips council meeting in October, saying in that year that it wasn't necessary, while also stating that existing measures to overcome intellectual property barriers would suffice. The waiver would allow all world trade organisation members to choose to not grant or not enforce patents and other IPs related to Covid-19 drugs, vaccines, diagnostics and other technologies until widespread vaccination is in place globally and the majority of the world's population has developed immunity. It would only be applicable to Covid-19 technologies. In debates and discussions about vaccinations, it is easy to get caught up in the numbers and the percentage. As a key job for us, as MSPs, recognising our own Government on making vaccines available and now boosters accessible for our constituents. However, we know that there is more than a delay in rolling out vaccines globally. The more there is a delay, the more people suffer. Right now, as Oxfam has pointed out in its campaign, the whole world is dependent on just a handful of pharmaceutical corporations who simply cannot make enough vaccines for everyone. As a country that rightly prides itself on the universality of our NHS, it is morally indefensible that we are not taking every possible action to waive the rules that are creating vaccine monopolies and allowing large pharmaceutical companies to profit off the back of a global pandemic. In my motion, I note that those monopolies are artificially limiting vaccine supply to low-income countries and that the vaccine inequality has resulted from a handful of companies rationing supply about refusing to share their vaccine recipes and their know-how with the rest of the world. That must end now. As former Prime Minister Gordon Brown highlighted in the Guardian, in June, Boris Johnson promised that he and the G7 countries would use their vaccine surplus to immunise the whole world. In September, at a summit chaired by President Biden, a December target of 40 per cent vaccination was set for the 92 poorest countries. Two and a half months on, there is a little chance of this target being met in at least 82 of them. By Thursday, the United States, which to its credit has been responsible for half the vaccines donated, had still delivered only 25 per cent of the vaccines promised. We are now living as a world with the consequences of those broken promises. It is not all doom and gloom, however. I do want to welcome the fantastic work of the People's Vaccine Alliance, a prize of organisations such as Oxfam, Christian Aid and Global Justice. People's Vaccine Alliance continues to advocate for fairness and an end to vaccine inequalities. My original motion, very similar to the one that we are debating today, gained the support of 55 MSPs. To our credit, following my motion being laid, First Minister wrote to the Prime Minister, urging him to support the waiver. However, one letter is not enough. I would like to hear what work the Scottish Government is doing behind the scenes, working with UK Government colleagues to ensure that those opposed to the waiver are challenged and to work with campaigners. Under the Conservatives across the chamber tonight, I would like you to say what work you are doing to communicate with your colleagues in Westminster to get a different outcome. In June, the European Parliament supported a temporary Covid-19 vaccine patient waiver. It was not the unanimous vote, but it reflected the strong agreement that action was urgently needed to produce affordable vaccines that could be distributed across the globe. Evidence from the Covid-19 response so far and many other public health issues throughout history, including that AIDS crisis in the 2000s, clearly illustrates that IP does restrict access, and this will only get worse unless Governments intervene. The issue of high-price medicines has become a global problem, not just affecting low-income countries but middle- and high-income countries alike. In the UK in the past few years, we have seen a breakthrough, hepatitis C medicine, being rationed on the NHS due to its high cost, cancer patients having the crowd fund and campaign for treatments that have not been available on the NHS, and cystic fibrosis patients having to wait over three years to access a new therapy as a pharmacurical company priced the drug above the reach of our NHS. Even though we have vaccines in Scotland, our NHS is under massive pressures from the pandemic, but let us just imagine, colleagues, what the Covid pressures look like in a low-income country with a small health budget and even fewer resources. I want to thank colleagues for their support in getting us to debate tonight. I will continue the campaign on the need to raise political action to focus on the concrete steps that we through the Scottish Parliament and how individual MSPs can take to bring vaccine equality globally. We need a life-saving escalation in global vaccine production to ensure that people in low-income countries are kept safe, because, as I said at the start of my contribution, we are not safe until everyone is safe. Thank you very much indeed, Ms Boyack. I remind members to direct their comments through the chair. I call first Emma Harper to be followed by Carl Mocken for in four minutes, Ms Harper. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I congratulate Sarah Boyack on securing the debate, and Ms Boyack has rightly outlined the issue of vaccine monopolies. I need to remind members that I am a nurse, and I am part of the NHS to the Freezing Allways vaccine team, although I have not done many booster shifts recently, but I have one schedule coming up on December 30. I support the calls from charities for the Prime Minister to waive intellectual property rules and to insist that vaccine technology is shared with the World Health Organization's Covid-19 technology access pool. As Action Aid pointed out, more than 200 million people have contracted Covid-19 infection during this pandemic. More than 4.5 million people have died, and at least nine new billionaires have been minted because of Covid. That must change. Instead of creating vaccine billionaires, we must vaccinate the billions of people across the globe. Access to vaccines is not solely about ethics or fairness, but it is also about reducing and limiting the reach and spread of a global and deadly virus. Ensuring global access to Covid-19 vaccinations is in everyone's interest. It will have many knock-on advantages for societies, economies and businesses and supply chains across the whole globe. At the end of September, the United Nations chief Antonio Guterres spoke to world leaders on the disgraceful state of vaccine inequality, calling it, and I quote, a moral indictment of the state of the world. It is an obscenity. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, vaccines have been produced, and although the proportion of the population needed to safely achieve global immunity to Covid-19 is uncertain, the World Health Organization has highlighted that herd immunity against measles and polio required 80 to 95 per cent of the population to be vaccinated. That means that, to be more effective, the use of vaccines will likely need to be more widespread, globally widespread. However, currently, the availability differs vastly from country to country. Work by our world in data project at the University of Oxford has shown the differences in availability of vaccines. Using data from Governments and Health Ministries around the world, the project provides daily updates on global vaccination levels. On 23 August 2021, it reported that 32.5 per cent of the world population had received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and 24.5 with two vaccines. However, only 1.4 per cent of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose. Many of those low-income countries could be considered part of the global south. 1.4 per cent is an incredibly low number. In April 2020, a global initiative called COVAX was set up to ensure fair access to Covid-19 vaccines between countries, regardless of their income level. Jointly directed by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, CEPI, the Vaccine Alliance Gavi in the World Health Organization, the initiative pulls global funding to invest in research, manufacture, purchase and distribution of vaccines. However, most high-income countries, including here in the UK, have made direct deals with manufacturers. That has led to high-income countries dominating the purchasing and administration of vaccines. As a consequence, vast regions of the world experience a rapid rise in Covid cases and deaths are unable to access vaccines, which is our primary route out of the pandemic. Companies such as Pfizer and Moderna are currently selling—sure, I will take an intervention. Stephen Kerr. Emma Harper, I hope, recognises that it is because the major economies of the world were prepared to make those advanced purchases. Even though there was no vaccine in existence that supported the research, development and introduction of those vaccines, that is a good thing. I hope that, in her comment, she is not denigrating the actions of the UK Government and other Governments around the world in making those investment decisions very wisely. Emma Harper, I can give you the time back. Okay. Thank you for that intervention. What I am keen to do is make sure that we are aware that a lot of public funding went into the development of the vaccines as well, public funding from the UK. It is great that we have those vaccines, but, as Sarah Boyack pointed out, we are just going to go round and round with a new variant. I am coming to that in a bit more detail. I will point out that Pfizer and Moderna are selling more than 90 per cent of the vaccines to rich countries, charging up to 24 times the potential cost of production, according to analysis by Alliance. It costs about $1.08 to produce a vaccine dose, and those are being sold to countries in the global south for $9.72 each. Last week, a former surgeon colleague of mine, Mr Fannis Dreyer, who is the new president of the International Federation of Surgical Colleges, told me last week that the only way to reduce new variants in the transmission of the virus is to ensure that the world is vaccinated. That is exactly what Antonio Gutierrez also echoed. He said that if the virus is allowed to spread like wildfire in the global south, it will mutate it again and again. That can prolong the pandemic significantly, enabling the virus to come back to plague the global north. It does benefit us if we look at whatever we can do to make this vaccine available globally. I again call on the Prime Minister to act in the interest of global public health and address intellectual property law and ensure that vaccine tech and know-how is shared globally. I am so delighted to support Sarah Boyack in this important motion. I believe that adequate healthcare is a basic right that everyone should enjoy, and that includes the right to be vaccinated against Covid. Had we taken that approach globally rather than simply looking at Covid as a national issue, we might not be in the situation that we are in now. For the very first moments, the crisis struck a strange territorialism, and that has come forth rather than the co-operation that we need. Whether it is seeking to apportion blame to China or looking at vaccination tables such as a football league, that attitude is quite wrong. Where prevention and co-operation has worked at its best is the rapidity of the vaccine production and the goodwill from members of our own communities. They have looked after each other. Every one of us has been impressed by that spirit. I assure you that not one person that I have spoken to thinks that it is wise to deprive others of the vaccine simply to protect corporate intellectual property. What we must recognise is that the idea of the vaccines that were created by the private sector alone is utter nonsense. There is no such thing as a solely private sector research and development when it comes to pharmaceuticals. Most of the technologies and formulas used to reach the point where a vaccine could even be made possible began decades ago in state-funded laboratories across the world. They have found success on the back of others' work. It is not a sole effort. By refusing to make those formulas and vaccines available globally, we are simply shooting ourselves in the foot as well as dooming millions to the worst possible exposure to Covid, a significant number of whom will die. We can have lockdown after lockdown, but, in a global and free-flowing economy, the movement of people will always bring new cases and new strains back to those shores. Why, then, should companies have benefited from state subsidy and public research be able to deprive in-need countries of vaccine technology and know-how or make them completely unaffordable?  The fact is that plenty of people have looked at Covid as an opportunity and ranked it in cash. Whether it is dodgy PPE companies with links to UK ministers or multinational retailers hiking up prices, there is a cash grab going on and it must not be allowed to happen with people's health. We have some fortune in this country, at least, where tests, vaccines and treatments are all free. Sadly, in the world's wealthiest nations, people are expected to bankrupt themselves to simply fund simple drugs such as insulin and are now being asked to pay for Covid tests too. Their homes are taken away and their livelihoods are ruined just to make it to the next month. I know that my party says that a lot, but thank goodness for the NHS and the fantastic work of those pioneers in the 1940s. We too could have ended up with a similar system based on primal greed and selfishness. In the spirit of that legacy, I back Sarah Boyack's call to the Prime Minister, we must wave intellectual property rules and insist that the vaccine know-how and technology is shared via the World Health Organization's Covid-19 technology access pool. As soon as possible, Britain should lead the way on something positive, rather than spending all our time discussing how to cut overseas aid or close our borders to fleeing refugees. We must do the right thing. Wouldn't that be a Christmas message to send to the world? I thank my Lothian colleague Sarah Boyack for bringing the debate to the chamber this afternoon. The UK Government is already supplying vaccines to less-developed, low-income countries, and the World Health Organization has acknowledged that the UK is a leading country in that respect. By the end of 2021, the UK Government will have donated 20 million more Oxford AstraZeneca vaccines to countries in need as part of our country's 100 million commitment. A further 10 million of Oxford AstraZeneca vaccines have been sent to the UK to covax. Those additional donations mean that 30.6 million surplus doses of Oxford AstraZeneca will have been given to those in need in 2021. While further donations in 2022 will mean that our entire UK Janssen supply and half of the UK Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine supply will have been donated or will be donated to countries in need. Oxford is one of the world's most widely used vaccines, accounting for more than half of all the covax deliveries. Thanks to AstraZeneca's commitment to the UK Government to distribute the vaccine on a non-profit basis, 1.5 billion doses have been used in more than 170 countries. Does my colleague agree that that is why the rhetoric that we heard a few moments ago from Carl Mawkins is so regrettable to rail against businesses such as AstraZeneca who are doing what they are doing in conjunction—admittedly, of course—in conjunction with Governments, including the UK Government, but to rail against them, the way that we just heard from Carl Mawkins, deeply regrettable, is not it, in this debate? Thank you, Mr Kerr. Yes, indeed, we have the best scientists in this country, at the universities and in industry. It was with Government, industry and research that brought together the opportunity that we had to be leading the way in terms of vaccination. Surplus donations alone will not be enough to allow us to defeat the pandemic, and that is why the UK is backing the Oxford AstraZeneca production model while providing development countries with the financial support that they need to obtain vaccines. It is not as simple as giving away the developing countries the intellectual property, as the manufacturing process might not be able to deliver the product in some places, and that has been stated by AstraZeneca. However, the commitment to providing the initially developed vaccine at cost and perpetuity for less developed countries is extremely welcome. Domestic need for the current booster programme will be met through our mRNA vaccines and Oxford AstraZeneca, meaning that the UK, as I have said, can donate its full Jansson order to developing countries. The UK continues to proactively manage our vaccine supply and does not hold a stockpile of Covid vaccines. All procured, regulated doses are either used rapidly by our domestic programme or already shared internationally with countries in need. Let us not ignore the role of other manufacturing arrangements that are being made. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, announced at the start of December that it had reached an agreement to access an additional 150 million doses of the mRNA vaccine against Covid-19 manufactured by Moderna to be made available to COVAX at the lowest global tiered price. The amendment to the existing advanced purchase agreement between Gavi and Moderna means that a total of up to 650 million doses of Moderna vaccine would be available to COVAX participants through 2021 and 2022. Furthermore, as part of an urgent call for manufacturers to prioritise supply to COVAX, Gavi and Moderna have reached agreement to make available 20 million doses to COVAX. Those doses, originally scheduled to be released to COVAX rather in quarter 1 2022, are now going to be available in this quarter, accelerating the response. We need to be mindful and acknowledge how the innovative global initiatives between Governments, research and industry are all coming together to tackle the massive challenge ahead of us. We are not out of this pandemic until we are all out of this pandemic, as Ms Boyack said earlier. We need to help others while ensuring that we contain the virus here as well. I therefore welcome both the UK Government's commitment to and their action in sending 100 million vaccines to countries in need. Thank you very much indeed, Ms Weber. Before calling the next speaker, I remind members who want to participate, including by intervention, that they will need to put their card in their devices. I thank my friend Sarah Boyack for tabling the debate in Parliament. Covid has brought out the very best in our society, but it has also brought out some of the very worst. In our local communities, we have seen solidarity in action. The power of people coming together, helping one another, benefiting everyone. In the globalised world of big business, however, too many have viewed the pandemic and the human misery that it has wrought as a commercial opportunity, a racket from which excessive profits can be plundered. Take the giant pharmaceutical companies, monopolistic private corporations benefiting from billions of pounds of public money to research and develop the Covid vaccines, and now they are raking off massive pay-outs to line the pockets of the idle and undeserving rich. The People's Vaccine Alliance, which includes leading UK charities such as Oxfam and Action Aid, estimate that Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna alone stand to siphon off almost £50,000 a minute in profits this year alone. That is double the median annual wage in Scotland every minute. Emma Harper I thank Mr Leonard for taking an intervention. Some of the figures that I quoted were that it is $1.08 to produce a vaccine dose, but they are being sold to countries in the global south for $9.72. Do you think that that is something that should be addressed? Yes, I do. That is why the motion talks about monopolies and excessive profitering, because that is what is going on. Let us take AstraZeneca. AstraZeneca, which until very recently made a virtue of selling doses at a cost price, is still laughing all the way to the bank after making the equivalent of £1.5 billion from its vaccine in the first nine months of this year. If you want to know what an upward curve looks like, compare Moderna's share price in early 2020 to its share price today. There are those who say that when businesses profit, we all do. I do not believe that, because if it was true, we would all be sharing in the success of big pharma. If it was true, vaccine rates in poorer countries would not be catastrophically low. If it was true, the walls of patent protection of gas and of trade-related intellectual property rights would be tumbling down, but they are not. We hear complaints about delays in getting access to the vaccine here—booster appointments not before the bells but a month away. However, when you think that fewer than 6 per cent of people in Africa are fully vaccinated at all, and in Africa's largest nation, Nigeria, it is just 2 per cent, there is a much bigger crime taking place right in front of us. No wonder that nursing trade unions, representing more than 2.5 million health workers across 28 countries, have described the situation as vaccine apartheid, and they are right. They have lodged a formal challenge before the United Nations over the refusal of the UK, Switzerland, the EU and others under pressure from these drugs companies to lift the patents on Covid vaccines. South Africa, where Omicron was first identified, has been one of the countries pressing the world trade organisation to change the rules to widen access. I say to those, including those on the Tory benches, who continue to oppose this, that the public health case is irresistible, the humanitarian justification is unanswerable and the moral case is irrefutable. I say as well that, if we do not act now, we are not only putting more people's lives at risk, we are condemning the world to a cycle of outbreak containment, outbreak containment. Waving those patents will be an active equality and an expression of our common humanity. Of course, it would need to be forged into a reality by global investment in the mass production, distribution and exchange of vaccines across the world. The skewed allocation of the worldwide vaccine roll-out is one of the clearest examples that we have of not just the global inequality of wealth but the global inequality of power. In many ways, the pandemic has given us a glimpse of how things could be, the solidarity that we have seen in our communities, but it has also shone a light on how unequal our society is. Let's start here. Let's end this racket. Let's put the needs of the people before the greed and profiteering of the corporations. Let's get behind a people's vaccine and let's go into 2022 with renewed hope that together we can defeat this virus and with the message loud and clear that we simply cannot and we simply will not wait any longer for global justice. I now call on Maggie Chapman to be followed by Paul Sweeney for around four minutes. I thank Sarah Boyack for bringing this debate this evening and acknowledge and thank all the organisations that she referred to earlier who are campaigning against vaccine apartheid. As someone who is double vaccinated and boosted by the bells, I am very grateful to all those involved in the development, distribution and giving of the vaccines. However, I am very aware that I am in a hugely privileged position. I am also aware of how easy it is to take all of this for granted. I have not always had comfort of access to healthcare free at the point of need nor the certainty of preventive medical care when needed. And yet I am reminded every time I speak to family and friends in Southern Africa just how lucky I am and just how unequal the world is. I say luck, but really luck has very little to do with it. The global health inequalities that we see are a product of political and economic decisions. They are a product of colonialism and empire. They are a product, as we have heard already this evening, of capitalism and greed. Why do we accept a world where generic life-saving drugs such as those for HIV, AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria that the world health organisation includes on its essential medicines list can be sold at prices up to 150 times the cost to produce them, package them, tax them and then get 10 per cent profit? Those of the generic medicines, brand name drugs, can be much more expensive. A short while ago Emma Harper has outlined the cost to price differential for Covid vaccines. Why do we accept this? We know that global health inequalities we see are not inevitable. That means that if we seriously believe that no one is safe until everyone is safe, we need to change this unequal and unjust system. We know that one of the key reasons that Omicron and other novel variants of Covid will arise is because vaccines have not been made available to the global south in anything like the numbers needed—£3 billion—just in early 2022 already. No, I am not going to take an intervention. While we are getting third doses, many have not even had access to one dose. That creates the conditions for viruses to mutate and avoid the human immune system, just like SARS-CoV-2 has done in developing both delta and Omicron variants. It is truly the case with vaccines that the only way for any of us to be safe is for all of us to be vaccinated. The argument for making vaccines available to the global south is one of social justice, of global justice, but it is also one of self-interest. We need to ensure that we have vaccine equality and the proposal that we deploy the trips exclusion for vaccine manufacture is vital. The decision by countries, particularly the United States, to stockpile vaccines only for them to go out of date and be destroyed, is criminal, I think. I am sure that everyone or many of us around this chamber will join me in condemning that atrocious selfishness. We need to do more. Even if we had the vaccines available in the global south, the global south does not necessarily have all the infrastructure it needs to roll out the vaccines at the rate needed to keep us all safe. That is one function of our neocolonial approach to the global south, but it is something that we can and must rapidly fix. We know that mRNA vaccines will give us the opportunity to develop resistance to a much wider range of viruses. From the potential HIV vaccine, we should offer those in the global south the access to the newly available immunisations by building a global vaccine programme that can be quickly switched to emergency vaccination for the next novel virus that could decimate lives across the world. That infrastructure will offer real and on-going defences. While billionaires are going on joy rides in space, a really fitting mission for our world should be to create a global programme for vaccinating as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. It is more than time for us to rest power from the pharmaceutical companies and their interests and act in the interests of all, so we can all be truly safe. I thank Sarah Boyack for bringing that motion for debate and some stirring speeches that we have heard tonight. It is clear from what we have heard this evening that viruses have no regard for the human invention of national barriers. They flow with the current of humanity around the world. That interdependency is one of the great strengths of the civilization, but, as we have seen in the past couple of years, it is a major vulnerability, too. To not have a coherent global vaccination strategy is a bit like your house going on fire, but then only being interested in putting out the fire in the room that you are in. Eventually, of course, the house will be engulfed in flames anyway, and worse still, we are denying our housemates the tools to fight the fire. We have seen it with the Omicron variant. Originating in South Africa, a country with a fully vaccinated rate of just 26 per cent has made its way to the UK, resulting in increased restrictions on our lives once again. It is no doubt that history will repeat itself with new variants time and time again, unless we make vaccinating the rest of the world a priority. Just three weeks ago, the UK acquired 114 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, and of the more than 450 million doses that have been acquired since the start of the pandemic, the UK has donated just 70 million to the global south—a figure that we must see increased dramatically. Surely, Deputy Presiding Officer, given the significant public investment expenditure that went into funding the development of the vaccines in the first place, we, the citizens, should expect better from the manufacturers. As time goes by, barriers to vaccine production at a global scale have been erected by large vaccine manufacturers, and we are all playing the price. In Africa, one in four health workers are vaccinated, while in developed countries three in four health workers have received their vaccinations. For the general population, a mere 8 per cent of adults in Africa are vaccinated. In this effort to increase equality across the world cannot simply mean donating surplus vaccines from our own stocks, a move that simply foists vaccines with short expiry dates on strained healthcare systems that cannot always administer them, but must mean a fundamental rethink of the way that the intellectual property for vaccines operates. Right now, surely it is undoubtedly in the global public interest to provide access to vaccines and the technologies that are required to produce them in the regions that need them most. It has been over a year since the South African and Indian delegations to the World Trade Organization tabled their proposal to temporarily waive the trips to intellectual property protections governing Covid-19 vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics. 77 per cent of the 6.4 billion vaccine doses so far ministered globally have gone to people in high and upper middle-income countries, but the proposal remains stalled despite the support of more than 100 countries. That is European and UK opposition arising from nebulous concerns about the impact on pharmaceutical innovation that has been enough to block the waiver's adoption. At the very least, if we had taken that step a year ago and started that process a year ago, a lot of countries would have been a better spot, we would be facing a different global landscape. So says Rachel Thrasher, a researcher at Boston University's Global Development Policy Centre. A position of lack of control over productive capacity amid rampant vaccine nationalism has resulted in only nine African countries hitting a world health organisation benchmark to vaccinate 10 per cent of their populations by the end of September this year. I think now we understand that the price we have to pay to install vaccine production capacity around the world is far smaller than the price that we are all paying now as a result of the Omicron variant. That goes to attention at the heart of our public and private realms. Self-interest and the private profit interest versus the public good that benefits all of mankind. Indeed, we are seeing this play out in the UK itself. The Conservative Bench has made much play about the UK vaccine, but the UK Government is just about to sell the vaccine manufacturing innovation centre in Oxfordshire, which has yet to open despite investing £200 million in the investment to ensure that we can have vaccine sovereignty in the UK so that we can control the distribution and production of vaccines globally. Indeed, the French company Valneva, which has been investing in a vaccine production facility in Livingston, has now stopped that effort because of the UK's controversial decision to cancel its order for Valneva vaccines in September. That was described as a disaster that this is not continuing. Is this the symptom of how we are not even making an effort to build that vaccine sovereignty in the UK? It never remains justice for the rest of the world. We now move to ministerial response to the debate. I call on the minister to respond for up to seven minutes. I fully recognise that the Covid-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global health crisis. The emergence of the Omicron variant serves as a really stark reminder that no one will be safe until we are all safe, as many have said this evening. That crisis calls for an unprecedented global response. Frankly, that is what we have seen from pharmaceutical companies. As the First Minister outlined on Friday, Omicron has now become the dominant stream in Scotland. The surge in cases is already putting significant pressure on our health services and will have an impact on businesses. Scotland has made difficult decisions to introduce new measures to combat the rising wave of Omicron cases. We all need to play our part to slow down the speed of transmission, including reducing social contact, taking a test before joining activities and, most importantly, getting vaccinated. I agree that more action is needed to prevent new, more dangerous variants developing and spreading across the globe. The best action available to us is to vaccinate as many people worldwide as possible. That will help to protect lives and livelihoods globally. At the start of the pandemic, it was far from certain that we would have vaccines available for use within a year. On 8 December 2020, the UK became the first country in the world to deploy an approved Covid-19 vaccination. As a pharmacist, I am absolutely in awe of the speed of that development. It is quite incredible how many academic brains came together with some underwriting from Governments to rise to meet a global challenge. It is astonishing that we have managed to develop a vaccine in one year. I absolutely hope that we can maintain some of that collaborative effort for future use, because we have plenty more challenges that I would like to see us work together on. The World Health Organization currently recognises nine vaccines and several more are under development. Those vaccines, alongside other non-pharmaceutical interventions such as hand hygiene and face masks, are estimated to have the number of potential fatalities from Covid-19 at a global level. They have saved over 27,000 lives here in Scotland. It is really important to recognise the vital work that researchers, manufacturers and all those involved in developing the vaccines have contributed and continue to contribute. It is thanks to their collective efforts that we have a range of safe and effective vaccines available. I thank the minister for taking the intervention. Can I ask what the Scottish Government is planning to do to work with the vaccine-producing companies to deliver a corporately socially responsible approach that will seek Covid-19 vaccines provided worldwide? I will certainly come on to the details of that. It is the bulk of the speech, so I will not respond to your particular intervention, but I will tell you what we are doing. Alongside public health professionals, the continued work of the academics to sequence and share data on the virus will be absolutely pivotal to enabling us to respond to new variants that might escape the protection that is afforded by existing vaccines. I also recognise the important work that many Scottish charities are doing. In particular, members of the People's Vaccine Alliance have worked so hard to ensure that vaccine equity remains really high in our agenda. Further, I commend the monumental efforts of vaccinators and public health professionals in the delivery of Scotland's largest ever vaccination programme and the solidarity of the people of Scotland in rolling up their sleeves to participate in that achievement. It really has felt like a national effort. As a global citizen, in the Scottish Government, we are committed to international solidarity, not just in response to Covid-19 but in tackling other shared global challenges, including poverty, injustice and inequality. So far, we have allocated £3.5 million of our international development budget to support the Covid-19 response within our partner countries of Malawi, Rwanda, Zambia and Pakistan. We have provided funding to support vaccine preparedness and delivery, including £2 million to UNICEF to help with vaccine distribution and rollout and online healthcare education. We are also committing a further £1.5 million from our international development fund this financial year specifically for initiatives responding to Covid-19 in Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia. Our international development work continues to support those most vulnerable to the impacts of Covid-19, including women and girls through a new equalities programme. The UK's participation in Covid-19 is an important step in helping other nations to access Covid-19 vaccines, but the initial aim of making 2 billion doses available by the end of 2021 is likely to be missed. Demand for Covid-19 vaccines will continue to outstrip supply, and, as of 14 December 2021, only 7.2 per cent of people in low-income countries had received at least one dose. Further, covax is not designed to build and expand vaccine production capacity. As members are aware, on 9 December 2021, First Minister urged the Prime Minister to support a temporary waiver under the World Trade Organization's agreement on trade-related aspects of international property rights for Covid-19 vaccines. The waiver is one measure that would help to facilitate critical access to patents, technology and know-how. It would enable global expansion of vaccine manufacture and distribution, including in low and middle-income countries. Increasing global manufacturing capacity will benefit all countries and provide additional, much-needed supply chain resilience. There is also an important step towards building a local capacity and know-how here in Scotland, which will be invaluable for future pandemics. I wonder if the minister could address the issue of the vaccine manufacturing innovation centre sale in Oxfordshire. That was highlighted as a major opportunity to ensure that the Government-sponsored vaccine manufacturing capacity was a vital component of the UK's preparedness for future pandemics. That is now going to be lost. Could the minister address what could potentially be done in Scotland to develop an equivalent capability? Minister, I'm happy to give you back time for both of those interventions. Thank you. You'll know my colleague Ivan McKee works really closely with the life sciences industry. I, too, sit on a group with the life scientists industry. We are very keen to build capacity to rise to all of the challenges, so we did great work in terms of ensuring that PPE could be manufactured and produced in Scotland at the start of the pandemic, when there was a global shortage. We are keen to do the same for every aspect that we might need in the future. In terms of vaccine manufacturing, testing facilities and the know-how for genomic sequencing, all of those things are on our radar because we recognise how much work needs to be prepared for the next pandemic. The World Health Organization's Covid-19 technology access pool, or Ctap, has an important part to play in that. Ctap provides a platform for developers of Covid-19 vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics and other health products to share their intellectual property knowledge and data with quality-assured manufacturers around the globe. That enables manufacturers that have additional capacity to produce the high-quality tools that we need to tackle Covid-19 effectively, efficiently and equitably. Contributions to the pool are voluntary, and I commend all manufacturers that decide to share their intellectual property in this way. We recognise that the decision on a trips waiver is a reserved matter, but we will continue to urge the UK Government to join the more than 100 countries who are supportive of this measure. In closing, enabling equitable access to safe and effective vaccines is essential to ensure that as many people as possible are protected as quickly as possible. That will be critical to ending the pandemic and bolstering global health security. In action in this regard would contradict Scotland's commitments to international solidarity. Moreover, as others have said, allowing the virus to continue to circulate and further mutate would likely be epidemiologically self-defeating and undermine the monumental progress on vaccination made to date. We are committed to enabling greater vaccine equality. We will continue to urge action by the UK Government on reserved matters and we will continue to take action to deliver impact through our life-saving international development work.


Greetings as friends, welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar A. Sakadami for the date 16th of June 2022. Displayed here are the list of news articles we will be seeing today. Now let's get into the discussion. Now let us take up this news article. It talks about various petitions that have been filed stating that Article 300A of Indian Constitution is being violated. So, what is the background of these petitions? If you can remember few days ago, certain derogatory remarks were made about Prophet Muhammad by two members of the ruling party. This led to widespread reaction throughout the world. While Middle Eastern countries demanded India to apologize, internally, protests happened in various Indian states. Particularly, the protests in Uttar Pradesh turned violent and police force was used to handle them. After this incident, the Uttar Pradesh authorities started demolishing houses of Muslims, alleging that it was illegally constructed. But opposition alleges that these Muslims were targeted because they participated in the protest. Whatever might be the reason, houses of Muslims have been demolished without any prior warning. This has violated many rights including the rule of law. Particularly, it has violated right to property under Article 300A and that is why petitions have been filed now. So, let us see the status of right to property in India. First of all, what is property? In the 1970 case law, R. C. Cooper was union of India, which is also called the bank nationalization case. The Supreme Court interpreted that property means the highest right that a man can have to anything. Particularly, it is the right one has to lands or tenements, goods or chattels and it is that right which does not depend on others' courtesy. So, throughout the history and world, right to property is one of the most controversial human rights because of unequal distribution of wealth. We cannot refuse the fact that property is associated with the amount of money one holds. In case of India, unequal distribution of wealth was prevalent mainly during British Indian times due to the various systems like zamindari system, riyadhwari system, mehalwari system and the jagirdari system. So, when India attained independence, land reforms were introduced. Land reforms include fixing ceiling on land holdings. But again, such land reforms contradicted right to property, mainly of the rich section which held more land. But, right to property was seen as a necessary social transformation to achieve a liberal democracy. Due to this, it is said that constitutional assembly debated on the right to property for over two-and-a-half years and finally, it became one of the seven fundamental rights under part three of Indian constitution. Constitution provides this right under two articles. What are they? They are article 19-1-F and article 31. Here, article 19-1-F guaranteed to every citizen the right to acquire, hold and dispose of property. And then, article 31 guaranteed to everyone the right against deprivation of his or her property. It provided that no person shall be deprived of his or her property except by an authority of law. The article also empowered the state to acquire or requisition the property of a person only on two conditions. First, it should be for public purpose. Second, it should provide for payment of compensation in the form of amount to the owner. Note here that article 31 was applied to both citizens and non-citizens. As I already said, right to property is a controversial one because of this, many petitions have been filed in the court of law and even the parliament dealt with this a number of times. This resulted into numerous constitutional amendments. The constitutional amendments like the first, fourth, seventh, 25th, 39th, 40th and 42nd amendments all dealt with this matter. Through these amendments, articles 31A, 31B and 31C have been added and modified from time to time. But what are the objectives became such amendments? They mainly aimed to nullify the effects of Supreme Court judgments on the right and also aimed to protect certain laws from being challenged on the grounds of contravention of fundamental rights. Mostly, the compensation aspect was the bone of contention. All this finally ended with the 44th Constitutional Amendment Act of 1978. Why? Because this amendment repelled article 19-1F and article 31 from part 3 of the Constitution thereby abolishing the right to property as a fundamental right. Additionally, the 44th Constitutional Amendment Act of 1978 made right to property as a legal right under article 300A in part 12 of the Constitution. Article 300A provided that no person shall be deprived of his or her property except by an authority of law. This means due procedure is to be followed for each such deprivations. This did not happen in the demolition of houses in Uttar Pradesh. That is why the petitioners argue the UP authorities violated article 300A of the Constitution. So, remember that right to property still remains a legal right and a constitutional right. But it is no longer a fundamental right. So, it is not a part of the basic structure of the Constitution. But what is legal right here means? It means it can be regulated. It can be curtailed, abridged or modified by an ordinary law of the parliament without the need of a constitutional amendment. It also protects private property against executive action but not against legislative action. Plus, in the case of violation of this right, the aggrieved person cannot ask for its enforcement and cannot directly move the Supreme Court under article 32 that deals with the right to constitutional remedies. It also means that there will be no guaranteed right to compensation in case of acquisition or requisition of private property by the state. But amendments were again introduced to provide for exception to this one. Under two instances, compensation has to be paid. First is, when the state acquires the property of minority educational institutions, it was added by the 44th Constitutional Amendment Act and is provided under article 30. Second, the compensation has to be provided when the state acquires the land held by a person under her personal cultivation and the land is within the statutory ceiling limits. This was added by the 17th Amendment Act of 1964 and is provided under article 31A. That's all regarding this discussion. See, in this discussion, we saw the evolution of the right to property jurisprudence in India. Okay? With this, let us conclude this discussion and move on to the next news article. Look at this news article. This news article talks about LGBTQ community. The article just argues that the homophobic attitude of society goes against the constitutional principle of fraternity. So, in this news article discussion, let us see what is this homophobic attitude and how this attitude goes against the constitutional principle of fraternity. Firstly, what is this homophobic attitude? See, homophobia is a culturally produced fear or prejudice against homosexuals that can take the form of legislative limitations, bullying or even violence against homosexuals.   Female homosexuality is often referred to as lesbianism. No coming back. See, the term homophobia was coined by George Weinberg, an American clinical psychologist. In his book, Society and Healthy Homosexuals. As you know, the suffix phobia generally designates an irrational fear. Here, in the case of homophobia, the word instead refers to an attitudinal temperament that ranges from milder dislike to outright hatred of those who are sexually or romantically attracted to others of the same sex. It is an socially constructed reaction to homosexuality. The author says this homophobic attitude runs against the constitutional values of fraternity and dignity. The Supreme Court also felt that this is why recently, the Supreme Court decriminalized homosexuality by striking off parts of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which were held violative of fundamental rights of LGBTQ community. Talking about Section 377, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code 1860, which is a relic of British India, states that voluntary carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman, or animal shall be punishable. This included private consensual sex between adults of same sex. In this judgment, the Supreme Court made it clear that Article 14 of the Constitution guarantees equality before law, and it applies to all classes of citizens, and it clearly stated that equality before law cannot be denied by prioritizing public or religious morality. The verdict thereby ensured inclusiveness of LGBTQ community, and through this, Supreme Court held the supremacy of constitutional morality in India. Apart from this, the Supreme Court also observed that homosexuality is not unique to humans, which dispels the prejudice, that is, against the order of nature. Since modern psychiatric studies and legislations recognize that a gay person and transgender do not suffer from a mental disorder, the Supreme Court stated that they cannot be penalized based on those conditions. So, based on this observation, the Supreme Court decriminalized homosexuality by striking of parts of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. After the recent Supreme Court judgment, provisions of Section 377 remain applicable only in cases of non-consensual carnal intercourse with adults, all acts of carnal intercourse with minors, and acts of bestiality. And keep in mind that this judgment does not come easily or quickly. There was a lot of work that went into it. So, here are some of the notable judgments that you have to know about. Let's see them one by one. First is the NAS Foundation versus Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi 2009 case.  Next is the Suresh Kumar Koshla case 2013. In this case, Supreme Court overturned the previous judgment by Delhi High Court that decriminalized homosexual acts and criminalized homosexuality once again. The Supreme Court in this case argued that in 150 years, less than 200 persons have been prosecuted under Section 377. So, plate of sexual minorities could not be used as argument for deciding constitutionality of law. Further, the Supreme Court ruled that it was for the legislature to look into the desirability of deleting Section 377 of Indian Penal Code. Thirdly, in the landmark judgment in the Justice case Puttasamy v. Union of India case 2017, the Supreme Court ruled that fundamental right to privacy is intrinsic to life and liberty, and so it comes under Section 21 of the Indian Constitution. The Supreme Court declared that bodily autonomy was an integral part of right to privacy.  And finally, let us take the Navjit Singh Johar v. Union of India 2018 case. The judgment in this case decriminalized homosexuality. The judgment dismissed the position taken by Supreme Court in Suresh Kumar Koshla case 2013, that the LGBT community constitute a miniscule minority, and so there was no need to decriminalize homosexual act. Despite the judgment, homophobia is still prevalent in our society. Apart from this, they also face some of the challenges like finding or building a supportive community, worrying about others' reaction to coming out or changes in their relationship status, tension in family relations, finding and engaging with romantic and sexual partners, and finally, loneliness or isolation. So, here comes the question of what can be done. See, the community no longer needed legislative reforms. All it needed was increased acceptance from the society. Violence against the LGBTQ community must stop. LGBTQ activism must be encouraged and parental power should be unleashed. That's all regarding this discussion. With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this news article. This news article talks about the tiger that was involved in cattle kills. See, this happened in a place which is one kilometer away from the Billy Giri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve and six kilometer away from the Thalawadi Reserve Forest in Satyamangalam Tiger Reserve. There was a six-day joint combing operation by Forest Department officials of both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. In this operation, no traces of tiger movement were found in the border area. And finally, the team made a confirmation that the tiger had returned to Karnataka. This is the crux of the news article given here. In this context, let us learn about the two tiger reserves in the news. One will be about Billy Giri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve and the other one will be about Satyamangalam Tiger Reserve. Now, let's start our discussion. First, let us see about Billy Giri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve. It is located in Chamarajanagar District of Karnataka State. This unique biogeographical habitat is in the middle of the bridge between western and eastern Ghats in South India. The Tiger Reserve derives its name from Billy Giri, the white rocky cliff which has the temple of Lord Vishnu, locally known as Rangaswamy. It is also believed that the hill ranges gets its name due to the white mist and the silvery cloud which covers those lofty hills for the greater part of the year. Now, let us see about the floral nature of the Tiger Reserve. The major forest type of the reserves as per champion and sith classification are southern tropical evergreen forest, southern tropical semi-evergreen forest and the southern tropical moist deciduous forest. Look at this image to see some of the major species in the Billy Giri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve. Now, let us see about the fauna in the Billy Giri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve. See, as many as 26 mammals have been recorded of which gore, sambar, spotted deer, barking deer and four-horned antelope are the major ungulates. What are ungulates? Ungulates are hoofed, titically herbivorous quadruped mammals. For example, pigs, camels, hippopotamus, horse, tapirs, rhinoceros or elephants. Then, when we talk about the carnivorous of the habitat, it includes tiger, leopard, wild dog, lesser cat and severe cat. The aborial mammal comprises of two primates and three species of squirrels including the giant flying squirrel. There are 12 bird species that are endemic to the region. The notable ones are yellow-throated bull bull, neel-greed wood pigeon, roe-first-billed hawk eagle and perigee falcon. Then, as many as 22 reptiles and 11 amphibians have been recorded. Lastly, let us see the tiger status of the Billy Giri Rangaswamy temple tiger reserve. The habitat has considerable tiger presence with a density of 9 per 100 square kilometer. The major koi-dose of the reserves are edayar hallee, doda sampinj, chamarajanagar, talamalai at punjur, chamarajanagar, talamalai at mudahali. The major elephant koi-dose in this resource include punjur satyamangalam and bailur edayar hallee. These koi-dose are vital as they help in the movement of animals including elephants during the pinch period in the forest. Antipoaching operations and stepped up protections are important thrusty areas in this tiger reserve. The tiger reserve management has innovatively developed a software called Hooli which is a footprint patrol monitoring system using GPS. This is about the Billy Giri Rangaswamy temple tiger reserve. Now, let us move on to the satyamangalam tiger reserve. See, satyamangalam tiger reserve is located in the western gods in the Eero district of Tamil Nadu. Satyamangalam wildlife century was declared a tiger reserve in the year 2013. It is an important link between Neil Gries and the eastern gods landscape. You can see the location of the satyamangalam tiger reserve in this map. See the satyamangalam tiger reserve encompasses large contiguous reserve forest with diversity of vegetation types from dry thronged shrubs to patches of semi evergreen forest in the upper regions. Now, look at this image to know about the wildlife and birds in the satyamangalam tiger reserve. This area has been continuously receiving huge influx of visitors to view the various migratory and native birds visiting and nesting in the tiger reserve. This satyamangalam tiger reserve is part of the Neil Gries biosphere landscape. Then, this satyamangalam tiger reserve is connected to other well established tiger habitats like Mudumalai tiger reserve, Bandipur tiger reserve and the Billy Giri Rangaswamy temple tiger reserve. And most importantly, this satyamangalam tiger reserve won the prestigious TX2 award. Who is this award given? This award is normally given for tiger conservation activities. See, satyamangalam tiger reserve got this award because the tiger numbers in this tiger reserve doubled to 80 since 2010. So, that's all about satyamangalam tiger reserve. With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this news article. This news article talks about making the hillocks south of Tirupati greener. This hillock is known as Yogula Parvatham. Now, the question is, how will it be made greener? This is to be done by using the drones. See, these drones will drop clay balls with 11 lakh seats. Yes, the 11 lakh seats will be mixed with clay and then molded into a shape of a ball so that it can be air dropped over the hillocks. Note that the seats have been precued from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. See, this will ensure a permanent habitat and make the region rich with biodiversity, thereby attracting visiting animals and birds. This is the crux of the news article given here. In this context, let us learn about the measures taken by our government to promote drones in India. First, let us see about Drone Mahotsav. See, Bharat Drone Mahotsav 2022 was inaugurated by the Prime Minister. It is India's biggest drone festival. See, promotion of drone technology is a medium of advancing the government's commitment to good governance and ease of living. In this event, our Prime Minister interacted with Kisan drone pilots, witnessed open drone demonstration and interacted with startups in the drone exhibition center. Also, the importance of drone technology in the fields of defense, disaster management, agriculture, tourism, film and entertainment are highlighted by the Prime Minister. See, drones can be significant creators of employment and economic growth. This is due to their reach, versatility and ease of use, mainly in India's remote and inaccessible areas. This is about the Bharat Drone Mahotsav 2022. Now, let us see about production-linked incentive schemes for drones and drone components. The central government approved the production linked incentive scheme for drones and drone components. This is a step towards realizing our collective vision of Atman Irbar Bharat. See, India has the potential of becoming a global drone hub by 2030. This is because of its traditional strengths in innovation, information technology, frugal engineering and its huge domestic demand. See, this production-linked incentive scheme comes as a follow-through of the liberalized drone rules 2021. This production-linked incentive scheme and the new drone rules 2021 are intended to catalyze supernormal growth in the upcoming drone sector. So, this production-linked incentive scheme has a tenure of three years starting in the financial year 2021 to 2022. Now, what are the drone rules 2021? See, in 2021, the aviation ministry notified a liberalized drone rules with the aim to encourage research and development and to make India a drone hub. It abolished several permissions and approval. The number of forms that needed to be filled was reduced from 25 to 5 and the types of fees was brought down from 72 to 4. Then, no permission is required for operating drones in green zones. Also, there is no need for remote pilot license for non-commercial use of micro and nano drones. Then, it allowed for payloads up to 500 kilograms. This have been allowed so that drone can be used as unmanned flying taxis. See, further, the foreign ownership of companies operating drone has also been permitted. This is about the drone rules 2021. So, that's all regarding this discussion. In this discussion, we saw about the measures taken by the government to promote drones in India. With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Have a look at this news article. It talks about the 5G technology. See, according to market watchers, the 5G spectrum auction will bring significant advancements for the telecom industry and the consumers. However, some said the base price for spectrum remained an issue for the bidders. This is for bidders who are expecting much lower rates. So, the roads are no clear for 5G auctions. This is probably one of the most awaited spectrum auctions. See, the auctions will commence on July 26. Note that the cabinet has approved 5G auctions at reserve prices recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. The TROI recommended 39% cut in the reserve or floor price for the sale of 5G spectrum for mobile services. This is the crux of the news article given here. So, in this context, let us discuss about the 5G technology. Then we will see its benefits and the applications. To understand 5G, it's helpful to understand what comes before it. Broadly, first generation of mobile technology that is 1G was about voice. The ability to use a phone in a car or away from home really took root during the 1G ages. The advent of 2G introduced a short messaging layer. See, this feature can still be seen in today's texting features. The move to 3G provided the core network speeds needed to launch smartphones. And 4G, with its high data transfers, gave us video with minimal buffering. And 4G also gave raise to many of the connected devices and services that we relay and enjoy every day. No people are beginning to experience 5G and its transformative capabilities. See, 5G is the fifth generation of wireless technology. It is one of the fastest, most robust technologies the world has ever seen. See, it has quicker downloads, much lower lag and a significant impact on how we live or can play. Let us see some of the important features of this 5G technology. It can provide higher speeds, lower latency and higher capacity than 4G networks. Here, latency refers to the delay before a transfer of data begins following an information for its transfer. 5G speed and other connectivity benefits are expected to make businesses more efficient. So, it gives consumers access to more information faster than ever before. For example, tech connected cars are smart stadiums and advanced gaming. They all will rely on 5G networks only. I have given here some of the applications of 5G technology. You can go through it. With this, let us conclude this discussion. In this discussion, we saw the basics about 5G and the applications of 5G. Now, let us conclude the news analysis discussion and take up the practice problems questions. We have four practice problems questions. Let us see them one by one. Let us take up the first question. It is a 2021 prelims question. What is the position of right to property in India? Four options are given. We have to find the correct option. Option A, legal right available to citizens only. Option B, legal right available to any person. Option C, fundamental right available to citizens only. Option D, neither fundamental right or legal right. See, in our discussion itself, we saw that right to property is a legal right available to both citizens and non-citizens. So, the correct answer is option B, legal right available to any person. Now, let us move on to the second question. It is a two statement question. We have to find the correct statements. Let us take up the first statement. Billigree Rangaswamy temple tiger reserve won the TX2 award. This statement is incorrect because it is the Satyamangalam tiger reserve that won the TX2 award for doubling tiger count when compared to 2010. Now, let us take up the second statement. Satyamangalam tiger reserve is part of the Neelgree biosphere reserve. See, this statement is correct because in our discussion itself, we saw that Satyamangalam tiger reserve is part of the Neelgree biosphere reserve. Since they are asking the correct statements, the correct answer here is option B2 only. Now, let us take up the third question. This is also a two statement question. We have to find the correct statements. This question is in reference to drone rules 2021. Let us take up the first statement. It reduced the number of forms to be filled. This statement is correct because in our discussion itself, we saw that the number of forms to be filled was reduced from 25 to 5. Moving on to the second statement. It is to encourage India to become a drone hub. See, this is a easy statement. We know the drone rules 2021 was introduced to encourage India to become a drone hub. Since both the statements are correct, the correct answer here is option C both 1 and 2. Now, let us take up the last question. This question is in reference to 5G technology. Two statements are given and we have to find the correct statement. Let us take up the first statement. Key feature of 5G technology is its high latency. This statement is incorrect because latency is the delay before transfer of data begins following an instruction for its transfer. So in 5G technology, the latency rate is very low. This is why this is the fastest technology available till now. So statement one is incorrect. Moving on to the second statement, its usage reaches to the level of smart devices. This statement is correct. See, this we saw in our discussion itself. Using 5G, we can store the data collected via smart devices in any type of cloud computing like public cloud, private cloud or even hybrid clouds. So here statement one is incorrect and statement two is correct. So the correct answer here is option B 2 only. The main question based on today's discussion is displayed here. Write your answers and post them in the comment section. If you like today's video, like comment and share it with your friends. For more updates regarding UPSC preparation, subscribe to Shankara Ace Academy YouTube channel. Thank you.


This is a mathematical snack from the Association of Teachers of Mathematics for you to enjoy. This video shows you how to play a simple game called NIM. It's a game for two players and we're going to have a game now and you can see how we play it. We start with some tally marks and we can have tally marks in as many rows as we want. I'm going to choose five there, four there, two there and one there. You can have as many rows as you want and you can have as many tally marks in any row that you choose. Anyway, we're going to take it in turns to cross out tally marks and the rule is this. You can cross out as many tally marks in any one row that you choose. The person who crosses out the last tally loses. Let's play. I'm going to cross out three. We're going to cross out two. I'm going to cross out one. I'm going to cross out the whole of that row. I'm going to cross out those two. I'm going to cross out that one. I'm crossing out the last one so I lose. Let's have another game. You can start this time. I'm going to take out those three tallies. I'm going to take out all of that row. I'm going to take out that one. I'm going to take out all of that row. I'm going to take out that one and lose. You've lost. So, with this activity, this is your task. Have fun.


Let's discuss a method of preparing haloalkanes from alkanes. So this method is called the electrophilic addition of Hx or hydrogen halides. So as you can see here, when hydrogen halide adds across the double bond of alkanes, we get a haloalkene. Now this is an electrophilic addition because you see the double bond which is electron rich will attack or will abstract an electrophile which is the proton here. So the proton of hydrogen halides adds across the double bond of alkanes to give an electrophilic addition product. So let's quickly look at the mechanism of this reaction. So the first step in this reaction is the protonation of double bond. That is when proton adds across the double bond of the alkene. Now the important thing to remember here is that when the pi electrons of the double bond attacks the electrophile here which is proton of hydrogen halides, the carbocation or the positive charge is formed on the most substituted carbon atom. In this case we have a symmetrical alkene so positive charge on either of the carbon atoms would give you the same product but when we have an unsymmetrical alkene it is important to remember that the positive charge forms on the most substituted carbon atom because that would generate the most stable carbocation. And in the next step, x-attacks the carbocation here or the carbon with the positive charge because this carbon is now electrophilic right, it is electron deficient. So nucleophile attacks this electron deficient carbon and gives us the final product which is nothing but a haloalkene. So let's take an example to understand this mechanism better. So here we have an unsymmetrical alkene and when this alkene reacts with hydrogen bromide HBr here, so the Hx that we have taken here is HBr. The first step is nothing but protonation of double bond right. So the pi electrons attack the electrophile which is proton here and this attack can produce two different types of carbocations. If the proton adds to the secondary carbon here then we get a tertiary carbocation right because the pi electrons shift in such a way that you get positive charge on the tertiary carbon. On the other hand if the proton adds to the tertiary carbon atom which is this carbon here, in that case we get a secondary carbocation. So here we have a tertiary carbocation and here we have a secondary carbocation. Now which among the two would be most stable? Obviously tertiary carbocations are more stable than secondary carbocations due to hyper conjugation and inductive effects. In the next step the halodion or bromide ion in this case attacks the carbocation to produce the corresponding haloalkene as shown here. Now you will notice that the product that is formed or the bromide formed from tertiary carbocation will be obtained in major amounts whereas those formed from the secondary carbocation would be formed in minor amounts. That is the major product is the one where the bromide ion attacks the most stable carbocation. Now this is also called Markovnikov product. Essentially electrophilic addition of Hx to alkenes follows the Markovnikov's rule. What does this rule say? It states that in an electrophilic addition to an alkenes the electrophile adds in such a way as to generate the most stable carbocation. So now that we have familiarised ourselves with the mechanism of this reaction let's quickly solve a couple of questions. So here we have two reactions. Now the question is to find out the major products formed in both of these reactions. So let's pause the video here and try figuring out the answer. Okay so the first step would be protonation of double bond or the attack of pi electrons on the proton and this would generate two different type of carbocations. So the two different carbocations formed would be a tertiary carbocation and a primary carbocation. Now which among the two is most stable? Obviously tertiary carbocation is much more stable than primary carbocation and that means the major product would be formed from this intermediate. So in the next step halide ion attacks this tertiary carbocation to give you the final product which is a tertiary alkyl iodide. So this would be the major product in this reaction. Now what about the second reaction? Here again the pi electrons can attack the electrophile to generate two different type of carbocations right? One is a tertiary carbocation and one is a secondary carbocation. So the carbocations would look like this tertiary. So this is a tertiary carbocation and this is a secondary carbocation. Here again a tertiary carbocation is much more stable than a secondary carbocation. That means the major product formed would be from the tertiary carbocation. So the final product here or the major product formed in this reaction would look like this. So this is the major product formed in the second reaction.


Hello, I'm Dr. Sunil Kini, consultant joint replacement and arthroscopy surgeon at Manipar Hospital's Bangalore. To start off with hip and knee replacements, I'm one of the most successful joint replacement surgeries all around the globe. The recovery after knee replacement starts immediately after surgery. First, we start mobilizing the patient or walking the patient on the same day or probably the next day after surgery. We start with the gentle knee range of motion or bending exercises. We also make the patient first to stand up and then even walk a few steps if possible on the first day itself. The goal is to get the knee to bend about 90 degrees by the time the patient is discharged. We also have set a few more goals at the time of discharge. Firstly, the patient should be able to use the toilet themselves. The patient should walk a considerable distance out of the ward. The patient should have pain-free joint, the range of motion as I previously said to about 90 degrees. The knee pain and swelling should be at a minimum during the time of discharge. Once the patient goes home, we have a physiotherapy team which visits the patient home. It's very important that the physiotherapy continues four or six weeks after surgery and not just during the hospital admission. So the goal at home is to continue with the knee exercises which includes the strengthening of the muscles around the knee, the quadriceps, the hamstring muscles. It also includes improving the range of motion to say maximum to about 130 degrees, which is possible. It also includes that the patient's swelling and the pain considerably goes down. It is important to note that the improvement in knee joint surgery in terms of pain can occur up to about three months after surgery so that anyone comes to me at three months down the line with some amount of pain that is expected. Similarly, the swelling can be there for a considerable duration, say six months or 12 months after surgery, which is considered normal. In terms of walking aid, we advise the patient to use a walker immediately after surgery, see up to the first couple of weeks and once the patient is comfortable in terms of pain and mobility, then we advise the patient to use a crutch or a walking stick. So this is usually for either two to three weeks. So by about four to six weeks, the patient can be independent without using any aid. Also if patients like want to drive, we advise that it would be advisable for a minimum of six weeks before the patient can start driving again. And also for people who want to ride a stationary bike, about six weeks to three months would be an ideal target to look at.


Hi, it's Brickett. Welcome to Above Life Channel. The purpose here is to inspire your spirit and to fill you with hope. This is a chat style video. This is not a channeling. I wanted to respond to this whole topic of gender and spirit and I think it's really important to address this because especially because I just got a wonderful email from transgender non-binary person and I have to be honest Super transparent because that's what I am. I didn't know what non-binary meant. I mean, I know I know what transgender means, but Not non-binary. What is that? I mean, there's so many you guys are so many different classifications of identification of gender that it's so confusing now all of a sudden and I wanted to first I'm gonna look I looked it up. I haven't read it yet I looked it up. So I'm gonna read to you the definition of non-binary and what that means So we're gonna have a conversation about gender in the human context and then I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about it in the spiritual context now It's a busy Day, it's a weekend day in my house and so we might get interrupted and that's just the way it's gonna be Because I really wanted to connect with you about this issue of gender and spirit So I didn't know what non-binary meant. So I'm looking it up And I'm gonna share it with you because I like to be real transparent like that. So understanding non-binary people How to be respectful and supportive is this? This is from the National Center for Transgender Equality online. It was one of the first Ones that popped up. It's from October 2018 So non-binary defined most people including transgender people are either male or female But some people don't readily fit into the categories of man or woman or male or female For example, some people have a gender that blends elements of being a man or a woman Or a gender that is different than either male or female. Some people don't identify with any gender Some people's gender changes over time People whose gender is not male or female use different terms to describe themselves with Non-binary being one of the most common other terms include genderqueer Agendered by gender and more None of these terms means exactly the same thing, but they all speak to an experience Of gender that is not simply male or female Interesting. Okay you guys so I don't know why we need all these terms maybe because There are different levels of understanding and compassion in society That's probably why we need different terms because some people are just not with it And don't get that people have different ways to express themselves and are created differently in the world and Some people just don't readily accept that maybe that's why we need that Little sassy Brigitte there commentary, but This but not in binary. I don't identify with a male or a female essence or energy That's what spirit is you guys this transgender this new kind of It's not new it's been around for like ever We just haven't had words to articulate it and lots of people haven't Haven't found each other or figured out That it's except I don't want to say that it's acceptable But that more people are coming into awareness and awakening Just like people awaken to their intuition their spirituality people are awakening to their gender. I that's what I think The spirit of things Is non-gender like that you guys.  It's so ironic you guys When especially like politicians or some like community leaders and things can come out strong with their Values and beliefs about things that include very specific man or woman or Definitions of marriage or definitions of love And it's so crazy because I'm like this person that's so Not in understanding and not in compassion like people that are like anti Like gay or transgendered whatever people who have anti views rude people that are really rude about that And talk about that openly and are jerks about it. Let's be honest. I'm just gonna be honest I'm not holding back here on this one They have been women before in past lives so particularly one I'm thinking of a figurehead who's a leader who Is not for a gay marriage is not for transgender stuff is it's changing laws and things about military transgender people I mean, it's just ridiculous.  Oh my goodness Oh, I bet you're feeling kind of bad about that now There's an opportunity for gloating in the afterlife just so you know Those people that were all about the hate you can say see You know because the people who are accepting and understand that love is love and unconditional We'll go right in the VIP line into the afterlife and the other people that was so rude and mean and trying to impress rules to control people's bodies and their thoughts and their minds and their Expression of love as what they think is other people that they people in power think is right and wrong Then they have to wait in the long line They're going to be waiting a little longer But the rest of us who are compassionate and loving and understanding about love is love will just go right Because that's what it's all about Love that's what's at the core of spirituality. That's what's at the core. That's what Jesus represents That's what the universe represents. That's what heaven and the afterlife represents That's what spirit energy. Yes. It's just like this loving energy. It's just a state of flow of love and it's pure And it's whole and there's no need for approval or definition or identity and identification. It's just loving It's so awesome, you guys And I hope that for those of you who are watching this here at the Bublite channel that you can totally relate to that and celebrate with me And I know it gets confusing for those of you who are not sure about that like whether or not you're you're I you identify as a male or female or whatever I can tell you right now that when you do past life regression stuff and connect with your past lives It's kind of weird at first to go. Well, yeah, I was totally a guy And you can totally identify and see how you present as a male. I do. I feel that Being a very female in this lifetime. My preferences are you know to have a spouse that is male and so But that's like no big deal and whose business is that anyway, you know So particularly because I got this sweet email from a transgender youth. That's non-binary I wanted to talk about this concept of gender and spirituality and yes I know that people are going to have a lot of different opinions and I was pretty fiery in this video pretty fiery and But that's just the way it is and it's okay to have different levels of understanding, but the commonality is the understanding piece the want to understand That is the intent that is the standard is the wanting to understand Even if that's not for you, that's fine Even if you don't understand it, that's fine But you want to understand you have a general desire to be compassionate and loving And there's like this baseline of understanding that just it's just love is what connects us And there's not a lot of definition in there and that's beautiful. Although it can be complicated So this this is like this non-binary thing is totally new to me. Like I didn't know Like that there's a term for that, but I'm like, oh my gosh, it's totally spirituality That's what that's what gender is like in spirit. There really isn't gender gender is a body thing But energy does have male and female attributes. It's like an axis You know, it's a balancing point a male and female and so there is The representation of energy flow that feels Divine masculine or divine feminine there is that but it's not in the context of like gender specifically as body Okay So I mean, it's interesting. We can have so much conversation around this like what does divine masculine mean? What does divine feminine mean? Who do we identify as divine masculine representatives? Like is it jesus or jesus feminine? Think about that one loving honoring healing nature Hmm. Think about that one. What roles do we typically identify as male or female? Do we have nurturing roles primarily divine defined as female motherly? Well, what about men who are very nurturing and loving? What does that mean? What does that mean? Is that acceptable in our society and on their different levels of cultures and parts of the world that perceive these roles differently that honors some of the roles more than others or degrade roles more than others There's so much information. We could just chat about this so much There's so much you could explore in the context of gender and spirit So wow, thank you. This was so interesting to me to talk about this I do also want to say that if you've had private session with me I talk about this. I specifically talk about angels because I work with angels a ton They're non-denominational. They're not identified with a specific religion religious belief religious practice. They're just non-denominational They're multicultural. They're diverse angels But I identify them with a gender. I give them a personality that helps our minds to Connect better with them with their name as a male or a female We can I kind of formulate this understanding based upon our cultural experience which for our society experience of what human Human experience is like and so when I talk about angels, I say they're androgynous Androgynous which means they're not masculine and they're not feminine. They're both They're all of it. They're non-defined But when I talk to you in session, I will identify them as male or female And you'll probably notice that I have a lot. I don't say a lot of females But I have a pretty good mix of both actually, but I also am usually very careful to say Just because I identify Archangel Gabriel as a man as a male energy as dominant That doesn't mean that that's how you'll identify Archangel Gabriel energy. You might identify Gabriel energy as very feminine and Truthfully Gabriel for example, he's a perfect example because to me.   He's like my fun gay friend, you know And I hope that doesn't offend anybody by me saying that but that's like When I grew up in the 90s, that's kind of how it was, you know, and so But that's his vibe I love him. He's like one of my very favorites. I love him. I love him so much And but but for you, you might show up as a woman as a nurturing loving caregiver Because Archangel Gabriel often helps with connection communication and relationships so family relationships If you don't have a mother figure that was strong for you Gabriel might show up as that And you might need Gabriel to be a woman our strong divine feminine energy and showing up for you But for me Kind of masculine, but very kind of gender fluid too in a fun way in a really great loving Freedom of expression way. All right Okay, so this is Bridget. Wow. I'm really curious about the comments on this one to see Hey, I have opinions and views too. It's just the way it is, right? Wouldn't you rather know Then for me to pretend like oh, I don't ever have any opinions. Yeah, I think you'd rather know So this is Bridget. This has been a chat video here at above life channel The purpose always with all the videos is to inspire your spirit and to fill you with hope because this is your life It's your life and your job is to live it. Thanks so much for watching


What's with you guys? It's Adana, and I am back with another video for you guys. So guys I am going to be reading my first cringy personal state statement, and I'm gonna be comparing that to my new beautiful Personal statement. Thanks to my husband who helped me out with that. So stay tuned because we're gonna be looking at that Thank you guys so much for watching Um, if you liked this video go ahead and hit that like button go ahead and subscribe leave a comment in the Comment section below and go ahead and have my description box up because I have my go fund me page for you And also you guys I'm gonna be doing another video that has three points three simple points to make your personal statement All right, so let's get into it, right? This is my first personal statement. Yes. Oh my gosh I'm like I read the first sentence. I had to stop because I Don't know what I was talking about I was like I have to make a video on this because this was really really bad. So it starts off saying homeless and poor What are you talking about Adana? Homeless and poor these are the characteristics that describe my life over the past four years I graduated from university got married and two weeks after my wedding my husband lost his job I was unable to do anything with my degree because of my status. I got pregnant and Immediately after I had a time I'm depressed already like I'm sad for this girl. I'm sad for this girl I don't know if I want her in my school or not But I think I just want to like adapt her at this point and help her out That says um, oh Gosh, I was no longer eligible for insurance because I had aged out of the program That's when the whole like 26 I think what was the 23 like once you were 23 you were no longer eligible This was like before Obamacare. I think I took showers in hotel bathrooms and I slept in my car And fascination with the human body has never wavered. What? That is bad you guys. So that was really really bad I talked about being homeless and losing my apartment Losing insurance and but yet still wanting to be in medicine like it's guys. That was just it's it's Depressing it doesn't want me to keep reading it really doesn't I just kind of want to like put this off to the side and say hey Where can I donate to this girl's life? I?  I'm like what it what are you doing mice the body of my personal statement? I go more in-depth into What I did in college? research any all of my Service stuff because I felt like oh, you know, they want to know about me as a Service person because medicine and health care is about like it's about servitude. You're serving the community So of course I'm gonna highlight my service points. I talked about let me I talked about the program that I was in at My school, but I didn't really talk about my personal experience. I talked about somebody else's I talked about someone else's personal experience And then I tried to say like but this Influenced me to do this and feel this kind of way and I don't really think that that was good. I think that was bad I don't think that's what somebody wants to hear They want to hear about you and your personal experience and what has brought you to this point Let me read my last paragraph for you guys because this really should be the paragraph that is bringing it all home Okay, it says all although I still very much a rookie My lack of medical training has not hindered my mission to serve others I have actively sought to make humanitarianism in action where by using my past Experiences to guide me through new ones and my struggles Perseverance and triumphs qualify me as an applicant excellent applicant For a career as a physician's assistant as I offer myself a PA as a PA candidate in your graduate school I bring to the table experience in the field and understanding an unrelenting pursuit for knowledge a Compassion for people and a belief that anything is possible to those who love the Lord throughout my life I never lost my path and I hope that you will allow me to continue my path at your school So I think that last statement was pretty good But in that whole paragraph it was like again still depressing and also contradictory My first sentence talks about how although I'm still very much a rookie My lack of medical training has not hindered my mission to serve others But then maybe four sentences down I say as I offer myself as a PA candidate to your graduate program I bring to the table experience in the field you just talked about being a rookie But then you say you have experience in the field. How does that quantify it doesn't like so again? And I had people read this you guys and they were like, oh, yeah This is good, but clearly this was really bad looking back on it This was a really poorly written personal statement. There was nothing personal about it And that's probably why I didn't get into PA school with this one But let me read you guys my really beautiful one that I'm super proud of that has been helping with okay All right, so let me read you guys my Beautiful personal statement that my husband helped me with this is the one that I'm proud of and this I believe also Was a part in getting me into PA school. This is my first paragraph.  He says to me you have awakened me from my somber and now I would like to grant you Three wishes anything you want in the world is yours I smile to myself because I already know what my answer is as a matter of fact I've known how I would respond to this genie since I was a little girl I opened my mouth and say thank you genie But I only need one of those three wishes you can give the other two wishes to someone else who really needs them more As for me my only wish is to be a well-learned physician's assistant that was Bum you guys It's like you I brought them into like Aladdin We were on a magic carpet ride together. It was amazing you guys like I I brought them into this I told them what I wanted which is to be a PA. I told them that this is the only thing that I've ever wanted It shows just how important this is to me And that was definitely so much more better than the first one in my second paragraph because this one only really has About four paragraphs the other one had five or six so in my second pair and third paragraph I talked about my experiences in the medical field that propelled me to be a PA so I talked about being working at a nursing home and Getting in to like acquiring like a friendship with some of the residents there and then Realizing that you know one of them passed away that I was really close to it and how that affected me and then also in talking to my Mentor and just how her life experience Helped me kind of mold myself and understand like I didn't want to be a physician anymore because I wanted to spend more time with My family so it really just kind of put everything into perspective on why I wanted to be a PA And then I end off with this paragraph which is again the paragraph that's supposed to bring things home, right? So I say When I am commissioned to a particular assignment, I am committed whether it be school work or community service I get it my everything in order to be successful I was a part of the national association for the prevention and starvation in college And my involvement with nats inspired me to continue serving those who need help as I offer myself As a PA candidate to your graduate school I bring to the table an unrelenting pursuit for knowledge a compassion for people And a belief that anything is possible throughout my life I've never lost my path and I hope that you will allow me to continue this path at your school I've rubbed the lamp and now you're the genie. You already know my wish It only needs granting What my husband again No helping me with that. It was amazing. I I want to accept this person to my program again You know, I still use parts for my old PA personal statement because there were aspects in there was good, but it just wasn't structured, right? Um, so those were my personal statements Um, I will leave a link so that you guys can actually compare them Just the body and everything that I didn't go to through in detail side by side So you guys can see from for yourselves Make sure that you have people that have gone and gotten into PA school or into med school Where whatever school you're trying to get into have them read your personal statements not like Your friend who's really good at english because that's kind of what I did and they're like, oh, yeah, this is great No, it sucked and that's probably why I didn't get into PA school when I used that personal statement So, um, I'll leave that link for you guys. You guys can look at that Leave your comment below. Let me know what you thought of my personal statements If you thought the first one was just as cringy as I thought or and you know, how you like my my second personal statement Um, also if you have a comment or a question about anything else, leave that in the comment section below as well Go ahead and like this video Subscribe if you haven't already done so join me on this journey and hit up my go for me page It will be in the description box below Stay tuned because I will have three points in my next video on How to make a bomb personal statement. All right, you guys. Thank you guys so much for watching. Talk to you later. Bye