Hi everyone, Joe for jazzy's case breaks calm coming at you with a random number block randomizer That fills up upper deck premiere hockey number one our first my first look at this. I haven't seen any of this yet It's an 11 team number block. Everyone knows how this works by now and There are the teams involved There you go some good teams involved here. I think right people like these teams Big thanks to these folks for getting into it. There are the numbers right there. Let's roll it Let's randomize it one and a six seven times for each list one two three and Seventh and final time after seven we got a couple Williams down to a Stephen K seven times for the numbers one two and Seventh and final time There you go six and a one there seven there seven right there eight down to zero remember zero gets any and all Redemptions including one of one redemptions But William you'll still get live one of ones. It's alive William with eight and one Eric with seven Chris with three William with nine Jack with six Ryan H with two Brian with four Corey with five and Stephen K with zero All right, so coming up next in a separate video will be the break itself to ask these case breaks calm. Bye


Okey, so today my talk is going to be directions of the web. If you understand Chinese, the four words say si mian bafang. Si mian bafang means the all types of directions. Yes, it's going to be a very quick running talk enough for my esteem speaker here to take a breath, come down and like stop sweating, it's okay, fine, moving on, very very sweat. Okay, so because this is semi-official, this is me and this is the stuff I do. I must mention that I represent Malaysia. Yes, that's the most important thing. Okay, I'm also this thing called, as you can see, I feel obliged to do some semi-marketing things for things that are relevant to me, so please bear with me for a little bit. So there's this thing called Mozilla Tech Speakers. Basically, they want to sort of support local community speakers, developers want to do technical speaking. So they are now open for people to apply. So if becoming a speaker, the bar very low. So if you see, anyhow, you can stand here, right? So if there's something interesting to you, there are resources, they offer training and things like that. If this is something that you feel that you're interested to get into, applications are open at this website, or you can just kind of talk to me, I can send you the link and stuff like that. Huijing is employed, guys. I'm not a fun individual. There is a company paying my CPF. So old people in my family are very happy that somebody is paying for a retirement. Very good. So I recently joined a company called Nexmo as a developer advocate. Nobody knows what a developer advocate is. Even my own company, like in Singapore, didn't know I spent the first three days explaining what I do. So basically, developer advocates only present themselves in companies that their product is a product that developers use. So my company makes communication APIs. So they need developers to talk about it. We also make a lot of cool stickers. And yeah, I have to work on this. I just joined for two months. So if you talk to me again in six months, I probably have a better speech about my company. But okay, moving on. Oh, jok. I never update slide. We are technical difficulties. Force, brother, force. Never push, never push. The more the story is, must push. Never push. So now I must load from local. Oh, I have stories about that. That went wrong. We will share one day when I have no speakers. Okay. Hopefully, this one is a later one. If not, then oh, hello. Okay, try again. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's look at some old pictures. This is a drawing of the... Eh, eh, eh. Why you laugh? Why you laugh? Don't laugh. Be serious. Be serious. I'm very serious. I did those slides, guys. So this is a picture of an analytical engine by Charles Babbage. It's a very early iteration of what a computer is. This is a Z1 by Conrad Zuse. I cannot pronounce Germans. Please enlighten me on how to pronounce this name. Okay, what he said. This is, again, a very early prototype by this computer scientist. There's, I think, his parents' living room. This is a state diagram of a Turing machine by Alan Turing. So this was probably about 50s. This is the colossus. It was designed by Tommy Flowers, used during the war. And this is also an ABC computer by someone called Vincent Athanasoff and Cliff Berry. See, all black and white. These are very early iterations of computers. But what do all these early computers have in common? Made in Ang Moe countries. See? So in most Ang Moe countries, right, their writing system is top to bottom, left to right. Like, German, English. But if you look at the world as a whole, the writing systems can go in many different directions. So, like, the Arabic one is right to left. We got the East Asian ones that can go vertical or both. There are some very interesting ones. Inuit up top, Eskimos. There's Russian. So different writing systems, different directions. But on the web, generally the default is top to bottom left to right. Largely because, like I've shown in all the beautiful pictures of ancient computers, this digital age was pioneered in countries whose writing systems were horizontal top to bottom. So naturally, we all got very used to it. Like when we see something that is on a screen or digital, we kind of accept that the default is horizontal top to bottom. But of course, it's called the worldwide web for a reason. And there are a lot of initiatives that want to strive to be able to represent the world's writing systems accurately on the web as far as possible. So a lot of this in the early days were constrained by the limitations of hardware. But I think we have reached a point where hardware is relatively, how to say, good, cheap and powerful that there are a lot of things that can be implemented. So specifically to the web, a lot of the things now on the web we use Unicode to encode our characters. So for Unicode covers a lot of things, but in terms of directions, these are links. So if you are interested in this sort of thing, it's quite, it's a very detailed technical document that explains how and it's not just for, it's not just for browser's internet per se. It's just for any software application that uses Unicode how they handle bi-directional. Of course, can you imagine if you mix Hebrew text with English text or Arabic text with English text. If you've tried it, of course I have done that for some of my previous talks where I had to give the talk in or I shouldn't say this on camera ammunition passport. I build demos that use this right to left languages and if you try to type in the browser actually does this quite well. If you type a Hebrew line of text, it will start from the right automatically. And but funny thing start to happen if you have a mix, if you mix left to right and right to left. And for the most part, the computer can get it right because of this Unicode bi-directional algorithm, they are like rules attach to to the nature of each character, et cetera, et cetera. There's also Unicode Vertical Text Layup but this is a bit less it's much shorter than this because for vertical for vertical text it's something that I think the Unicode Consortium agreed that it can be handled in another way which is through CSS. So if we do want to do vertical writing on the web there are CSS properties that can do it and it's called it's specified in the writing mode specification which is pretty much what I talk about a lot of the time. So these are the these are what dictate I don't want to say alternative but non-default writing directions on the web. So today it's going to be like a lightning talkish thing but I just want to cover how you can change direction of the layout of your content or your websites through CSS basically. So the first thing we're going to cover like I mentioned is writing modes so the default is this horizontal top to bottom so it's like which one ah oh it's not because it's default I didn't I didn't have to do anything anyway but if you the alternative properties are vertical RL which is right to left I think it's the first one so it's right to left and or you can also do left to right this is specific from a language perspective Mongolian the not the Cyrillic one the actual Mongolian script right it's vertical but it's read from left to right so this particular property really actually is targeting targeting Mongolian the rest of the East Asian languages your Japanese your Chinese will go with vertical right to left because we read it from right to left and you can also combine with transforms because as you can see right even though it's right to left or left to right all the text have been sort of rotated clockwise if you have to rotate it anti-clockwise then you probably have to do some transforms but in general it's quite possible to rotate text even though you are using say latin based language like English from a from a graphic design perspective Vertical text has been around for quite a while in print and it's just that we couldn't do it properly on the web like I think early on some people just like type one letter then enter type la letter then enter type la letter then enter which is you get the visual effect but I mean from a from a semantic perspective it's quite bad but because now we have these writing modes and it's now since 2012 it's almost like fully supported across the board except for opera mini one of the nice things you can do is if you don't want all your letters to lie on the side there's a text orientation property that allows you to sort of like switch things upright okay wait change font size a bit yeah so you can sort of do something like this so if you want to design I guess you know if you go to like Hong Kong or maybe if you go Penang more denser cities they'll have those like neon street signs that have this vertical text effect this is totally doable and your text can still remain you know you can still highlight it copy it and whatever so I think even though you don't design for east Asian languages specifically there are a lot of things you can play around with from a graphic design standpoint with the writing mode property so that's for like individual letters but in a broader perspective in terms of the layout of the items on your web page they are also ways for you to lay out your text and actually Flexbox is really fun I think most people use Flexbox for very practical reasons like oh I have a I have a navigation bar that I have one item that I want to kick to the right okay I use Flexbox you know like very nice respectable reasons but I think not a lot of people play around with the different combination so what we have here for Flexbox in terms of directions is that well first of all we have wrap and no wrap so if you do a no wrap I'm not going to go into the details of Flexbox this could take all day but if you don't wrap by default and if I don't apply anything on my flex item the default start value is zero one auto so it's just going to try to squish everything onto the same line but the moment I start wrapping you'll notice that there is an order to how things are flowing so in this example I use numbers right so there's also a property sorry there's also a value other than wrap called wrap reverse which will let you start your content from the bottom see so instead of top left to right top to bottom it becomes left to right but bottom up right there's also this property called flex direction okay so now what flex direction does is default is row so again default is a horizontal sort of a flow but you can change it to column and instead of flowing horizontally now flows vertically so let's go back to wrap so if I just do column then it goes it starts from top to bottom left to right so I think you can notice now that because there are two different properties that you can play around with right you can sort of mix and match the values and end up with a lot of different directions so now if I do wrap reverse with column it becomes right to left for vertical and row and column that's two wrap and wrap reverse that's two but if we we throw in writing modes into the mix right you end up so in this sense because writing mode affects the layout of the content the individual characters right you can also adjust the how your tax within your flex items is displayed whilst still changing how your layout looks so long story short there are many different possibilities I hope this slide is updated yes so there's also left to right and right to left languages so mathematically speaking two options times four options times two option times four option equals 64 possibilities but as you notice from the demo earlier some of them end up with the same result so like if one find day you are very bored with your life and I'm sitting around here and I'm better to do in my life you can try to attend to hit all 64 combinations I'm just saying it's an interesting way to spend your time and the last bit I want to cover is grid because with grid there's also the ability to change the flow of your layout by default again is left to right top to bottom but there's this particular property called grid auto flow which is kind of fun because it by default is row if I change it to column I will have to do some adjustments here but you can also change it from a horizontal flow to a vertical flow but what's nice about grid auto flow is that it also affects the density of packing so this particular property takes another keyword which is the dense keyword okay let's let's sort of like do a before after so abc in alphabetical order if I put in the word dense you'll see that eh h got inserted in here n t that's because when you introduce the dense keyword the algorithm tells the browser to try to fit in if there are any items that can can fit into any blank space it's like go ahead and and and sort adjust adjust forward so I guess I can I can see I can see from a art direction perspective that sort this sort of behavior would be would be ideal for for a lot of things so that is a javascript free sort of option for for sort of laying out your items I think this this this this this particular property is pretty useful it's a bit okay I understand it's a bit odd to just suddenly throw this this particular property without explaining the whole thing of grid but the thing about grid is that it it offers a lot of different options that we never had before it allows us to control space like we've never like we never could before because previously everything had to line up next to each other but with grid and now I'm because now I'm not specifying like the manual placement properties but grid actually does both of them very well it does the auto placement meaning you give it like a general instruction like oh I want my items to flow vertically but like pack everything together and the browser does it for you or you can also like be very specific like I want item G specifically to be on the bottom right corner yes you can do that with grid also so I think it's something worth exploring if like you you you keep hearing people talk about grid talk about flex box and then you're like eh nah nah like floats are working fine for me I'm like I mean just if that this is the sort of thing that you get more you get a better idea of the possible use cases only when you use it because you would have very unique ideas about how you want to use it like I can tell you all the funny ways that I use it may not be relevant to you but when as you try around you will probably it could sort of like spark some you would be able to use grid in a way that other people will never have thought of so just this is just my like spiel to encourage y'all to try try out these kind of newer things and support is actually very good like 80% left so quite safe quite safe so I'm just going to end off in the science like art science like of wow I thought it was quite nice so just to a reminder that directions are not by default horizontal top to bottom they can go like all over the place and with that I'm done I hope you have good okay so yeah so as you can see I put in some effort because I made slides I didn't stand up here and any howly point point point click click click on articles so I would like to welcome our our next speaker Mr Lim Se Hao


will get started. So I see a question from Anita. In the new world will there be babies born as far as as 65-20? So the answer is in the millennium that is in the thousand year reign of Christ that is right after the you know the the battle of Armageddon at the end of the seven year tribulation there's a battle of Armageddon, Revelation 19 and then Revelation 20 verses one through six talk about the thousand year reign of Christ the millennium which is what Isaiah 65 about verse 20 which you're referencing talks about and during the thousand year reign of Christ yes people will be born in the millennium babies will be born people live and die during the millennium the ones not us who have glorified bodies but the ones who are in their natural human bodies they will live and die during the millennium but in the new heavens and the new earth there we said most likely from what we understand in scripture that will not happen because we said in class that we you know when we are all when we are in our glorified bodies we are like the angels of God we don't procreate is it okay okay any other questions of thanks we have covered so far before we Christopher please go ahead oh yes thank you pastor i just i'm just going to look at the the the rapture in in sort of conjunction with the with these signs and just wanted to get a confirmation that these signs could be independent of of the rapture itself and hypothetically the rapture could happen anytime you know as you know during during these these signs lead all the way up to the battle of Armageddon and when when use actually comes comes down onto the earth so hypothetically it could happen you know it could happen tomorrow and you know there could be a could be you know a gap between rapture and then you know this this second coming of Jesus so we just wanted to get a confirmation on that and what is your view on that okay so yeah so as we talk about you know these signs these signs have to be understood not just saying that all of them have to be fulfilled before the rapture because some of these for example ethical 38 what we have been saying and then the previous one when you talked about the one world the one world economic system and identification system those are things that are actually fulfilled during the rapture uh during the tribulation sorry they're so those will actually come together or actually be fulfilled during the tribulation so the rapture already happens before that so as we are looking at the science we're just saying that things that need to be fulfilled during the tribulation there's a build up towards it so to answer your question the rapture will take place before these things are actually culminated the culmination of these signs the actual fulfillment of you know what we've been talking about is equal 38 or those things will happen after the rapture and so the answer is yes the rapture will take place before you know many of these things are actually fulfilled because these will be fulfilled during the seven-year tribulation period now how much of time gap will there be from the time the rapture takes place and the beginning of the tribulation just based on script the Bible of course doesn't state you know so much time as per se but just based on what we see in scripture it could be a very very short time because uh second Thessalonians chapter two says that there's only one thing that's restraining the man of sin from being revealed and then that which restrains is taken out of the way then the son of perdition will be revealed it's it's second Thessalonians chapter two so it's giving us a picture is so to speak where it's it's almost happening one after the other with very little time in between now again you know that that very little uh you know is it what is it you know 10 days is it one year I don't know but it's it's it's indicating that and what that which restrains is taken out of the way the antichrist is going to be revealed so it's going to be soon after that we just don't exactly you know in terms of days or how quickly so it's not a very definite answer to your question but overall the answer is yes rapture happens then tribulation suggests I hope it's okay right so I'm going to to confirm that uh the rapture could could really happen anytime yes anytime yeah um um um I mean some of the signs um you know we are we as believers would not really have uh would not really experience it at all yes yes we don't we won't be here when these things happen yeah right okay thank you get any question please yes thank you thank you who's restraining the antichrist currently the rest laina uh good sir shriek of our your question please thank you sir sir my question is now as a believer um when we know um that these are prophecies uh which has to be fulfilled when we see the persecutions and other things um then um uh many times when we see these things we sometimes we um we move to pray against all these things for example we try to we pray that god let it be stopped let it be uh even though we know that uh this is the end time and these things has to be fulfilled as per the part of the prophecy so how much uh it is uh how true it is like uh you know that um when we are praying against these things to be stopped is it the right way of praying or as a believer how we have to pray like uh is it only we have to pray that god in the midst of all these persecutions uh guard us keep us safe what kind of a prayer we we should pray as a believer thank you pastor so good question so we have to pray of course we want to pray the will of god uh in any situation and uh so some things we do know about the will of god what is god's will he wants people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth he wants people to experience goodness right so those are things we definitely do pray even in so example in the in the crisis that we're seeing right now and the and what's happening we pray you know 10 million people already displaced the numbers are just keep increasing every every day uh so we pray for the well-being we pray for their salvation we pray for peace in the land for the land to be restored and the war war to cease because you know some 49 says god causes wars to cease so we we pray those print those are in line with the will of god right so we're saying god uh we want to see uh what was it um yeah uh we we want to see uh uh this war to you know stop we want to see nations changed and healed and restored and so on so we're praying for the well-being of people which is god's will god desires for that um now what has what god has determined to happen will happen in the sense that yeah a time will come when you know is equal 38 will be fulfilled uh we won't be there to see it but that is going to happen uh and even in the midst of that suppose there was a believer and of course there will be believers uh what would they pray we would pray for the salvation of israel we pray for the protection of israel we would pray for the salvation of people and we would pray for peace but uh ultimately you know what god has determined will will take place so from our perspective we are praying the will of god what is the will of god people to be saying the well-being and the preservation of people uh for wisdom to prevail in the hearts of the leaders uh these are things that is the will of god for us to pray and so we're praying again praying aligned to the will of god because it's the word of god and that's that's how we pray thank you master okay thanks nothing else any other questions yeah yeah chris about please go ahead yes i just have one question to my earlier question so although we we are we know that um in the rapture will um will happen before the fulfillment of the of the signs um is there any sort of um you know kind of a definitive event which could indicate that the rapture could it's it's unlikely that the rapture would happen before before that that that event um is there i mean is there anything in the bible or you know you know even through the through the study of fire scretology to you know to indicate that hmm so if we look at all these signs which we are going to enumerate of which we are enumerating right now i think the biggest sign to say time for rapture is is the readiness of the church because the rapture is the gathering of the saints the church being taken up and the church will only be taken up when it is ready because in Ephesians 5 tells us he's coming for a glorious church without spot or wrinkle on that's the rapture right so that cannot happen until the church is brought into this place uh of being a glorious church without spot or wrinkle so if you ask me what is that one sign of all these signs that we talk about because of course many of these signs are going to take place during the tribulation later on of all these signs which is that one sign that will take place just before the rapture the one sign that has to take place well Ephesians 5 the church has to be brought to this place of being a glorious church without spot or wrinkle because he's coming back for such a church in other words the rapture cannot take place until the church is ready so that's the sign i would point to so that would mean that that churches will be united and there will be some some kind of you know togetherness of the churches what could be a definition of this glorious church so now churches coming together doesn't mean you know that we would all like no obviously we're not going to be under the same roof we're not going to be under the same name per se in the sense you know we're not all are going to be called you know XYZ's church then so that will not happen now we're not going to all be under one denomination that that's not gonna there will be many denominations but the kind of unity we're talking about is what paul wrote in Ephesians form you all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of god yeah so what's going to unite us the faith and knowing Jesus you know of course we are going to have different variations in how we worship and styles of worship and these kinds of things but we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of god and we come to a perfect man and i'm quoting Ephesians 4 13 14 we come to a perfect man to a mature man what is a mature man a mature man is able to fully represent so we the church will be brought to a place where it fully represents or it it represents Jesus right or Ephesians 5 a glorious church what is a glorious church a church that is emitting or manifesting the glory of god right without spot or wrinkle what are the spots in the wrinkles it's the sin and the division this type those become wrinkles so that unity is not the unity is a spiritual unity the unity and the faith and of the knowledge of the son of god so what is happening globally actually is very wonderful you know and for example if you if you look into this classroom that we're all connected all of us have actually come from diverse backgrounds we are from diverse backgrounds we all have our you know our individual differences our individual you know individual experiences and whatever but whatever we agreed upon we agreed upon the unity of the faith and the son of god we agreed upon Jesus and what is our desire our desire is to be a perfect man to be a mature man to be like Jesus to fully represent Jesus and so you know what what is happening right here in this little group is in some way it's an expression of you know what god is doing in the church worldwide and this is happening worldwide meaning there are people everywhere god is working all around the world and you know people are being brought to this place of understanding of knowledge of the son of god and saying we want to be mature now doesn't mean everybody in the christian world is going to be like that no there are going to be lots of people who will still be stuck in the denomination and in their own religious traditions they're going to miss out on this but when god looks at the church that means his people he sees people who are coming to the unity of the faith we may belong to different churches and you know we have our own local churches etc but we all in the unity of the faith maturing growing into that mature man the full man representing christ becoming the glorious church and he's coming back for such people will there be people in denominations who don't bother anything yeah they will still be those but they'll just be having a form of religion without the power right so that is and that's going to you know that's going to be one of the signs we'll talk about so Anita says where are we in that regards can you point that if possible yeah so hopefully answer the question either you know god is working if you look at things and you separate out the shell that is the form and the denomination and you look at what's happening the lives of people it is happening right and we are beginning to be able to to love each other because we have one thing in common is the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of god right we all are different you know we all may worship in different churches and have different names and labels and denominations all that but we can still love each other and work because once one thing unity of the faith you know the knowledge of the son of god that's happening and it's wonderful yeah okay let's move forward we'll have time again later to take up questions let's try to cover a few more signs so so we talked about you know peace talks Israel planted by the land number eight is the church coming to maturity which is what we were talking about right now so this is a very important sign you know Paul wrote several places he said in Ephesians 4 11 15 he said that the Lord has placed in the church apostles prophets events as pastors teachers they're going to equip the saint to the work of the ministry they're going to edify the body of Christ for what till we all come to the unity of the faith that means they're going to be doing their work doing their work doing their work and it's going to result in us coming to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of god this is where we're going to be united and this is what unites us it's faith in god and faith in in the god we know and the knowledge of the son of god and we will all come to a perfect man a mature man that means we are going to come to a place where we can represent christ fully and that should be our each one of us individual desire lord i want to represent you fully i want to be like jesus right i'm not i may not be 100 person like him but i'm growing into that full measure into that statue the fullness of christ and you know we won't be tossed to and fro with all this wind of doctrine and man you know this is going to be happening and there's going to be all these winds blowing different ideas and things that people are coming up with but none of these things matter we're going to just leave them all aside we're going to grow up the main thing that is that we're going to be focused on is we want to grow up and be like jesus we're not worried about all these winds of doctrine it's you know silly things that people preach these days they're not interested in that our focus is we want to be like jesus in acts three um well peter was preaching in acts three he says you know he's going to send jesus christ and heaven must receive or the word receive simply means to retain he must be until the times of restoration of all things so how long is jesus going to be retained in heaven until this time when things are going to be restored until the restoration of all it's easy to retain so part of this restoration of all things is the church itself you know the church itself has to be you know of course a lot of other things that need to be restored but when you look at the church the church itself has to be fully restored right and the church being restored is one of the things that you know so until that happens until that happens jesus will be retained in heaven when is he going to come well and for what kind of a church is he going to come and be referenced this just now you know he will he's coming back for a glorious church not having any spot or wrinkle or any such thing but a church that is holy and without blemish so the church is being brought to this state it's being brought to a place where it is holy without blemish no spot or wrinkle or any such thing but it's a glorious church a church that is revealing the glory of god now you know sometimes when we look at the church we say well how is this ever going to happen you know look at all the things that are happening there's so much of you know fighting and division and all sin and these things happening in the church how is the church going to become a glorious church well we must look at the history of the church and you see where the church has come in just 500 years right so I think you have this course on church history and you know from about 15 I think it was 1583 or forget the exact year from the time the beginning of the reformation 1500s here we are about 500 years later from a time when the Bible was available only in Latin and a few languages and the common man didn't have access to the scriptures in 500 years scriptures are available in just you know I mean in all the major languages people have easy access to it churches are everywhere people can worship anytime listen to some it's such a big change that's happened and more and more understanding of the word is is is is being made available to us today all in just 500 years so 500 years ago people didn't even have a Bible to read the masses I'm talking to people 500 years later such a big difference people know the truth the truth is being proclaimed so the church is being you know brought into this place of becoming a glorious church so it is it is really amazing now our focus should be on the people who are being changed not necessarily the system that's around it the system around it may may be bad the structure the system the politics the all those kind of things that are happening it of course is very disappointing it is very bad and we don't have to worry whether that changes don't bother don't bother with it look at the people people's lives are being changed people are seeking people are hungry for God people are loving Jesus more people are fellowshiping with each other you know that is happening so the church which is really the people are becoming more and more glorious the systems around it the structure around it don't worry about it may not even change or it's not going to change but he's not coming back for the system he's not coming back for the structure he's coming back for the church which is the people and that definitely is becoming more and more glorious so today believers are being challenged to be like Jesus they're not you know nobody cares about being like your denomination or being like you know they're being true to some sort of a form or a structure of the system those who want to do that they're going to be dead I'm dead meaning spiritually dead no life but there are people who say I want to be like Jesus I want to grow up in all things to be like him now that's the real church okay so this is happening right before our eyes it's just getting better and better and sure enough when this culminates meaning the Lord will be satisfied it's okay my church is ready it's come into a place where there is no spot or wrinkle any such thing and holy and without blemish and and you know of course God is also doing the shaking meaning things that shouldn't be part of the church he's shaking and they're coming down and you know he's shaking up all the the dirt and the filth and out of the church so he's getting it ready and when he's when he is satisfied he's going to come but all we can say is we're getting closer and closer because when you look past the structure and you look past the systems and you look at the people people are becoming beautiful day after day maybe we'll do one more sign one or two more so another sign is the gospel to the nations and Jesus said in that list in Matthew 24 when his disciples said you know Lord what are the signs what will be the signs of your coming he said the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations now I want you to just imagine this with me just imagine this with me if you were standing next to Jesus in Matthew chapter 24 and you were with the 12 apostles and you were there and you heard Jesus say the gospel will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations what would you have thought impossible impossible so what Jesus you me we are living in this tiny place in Jerusalem and we're going around here and there we're going up to you know about less than 100 kilometers north and south and we're just moving around here and there preaching this gospel of the kingdom we hardly have we don't even have a church we don't even have a building you haven't even written your first book nothing and Jesus you're saying this message that you are preaching and which we have been listening to you the 12 of us this gospel is going to go to the nations you know if you and I if we were standing then listening to Jesus in Matthew 24 it's like this cannot happen I mean we can't get it 100 kilometers beyond us in our own hometown people are not believing us in Nazareth we are rejected how is this gospel going to go to the nations and you're thinking about the Roman government you know they are not going to listen to anything like this just gospel of the kingdom doesn't make sense to them they have their own kingdom they have their own gospel they have power they are the Romans are in charge a Rome has you know so powerful where are we what message do we have you know honestly if you imagine you are standing next to Jesus and you're listening to him say this this is going to be one of the signs what I am preaching here today in Jerusalem what I am preaching here in this little town of you know where in Capernaum in Bethsaida what we are preaching here we are going around these little towns and preaching this message will be heard all over the world how is it going to be possible Jesus even if we have five lives to live fire we can't do it how are we going to do it and here we are 2000 years and truly the same message Jesus preached starting there in you know from Capernaum and Nazareth and but you know starting there in and around Jerusalem that same gospel has covered the whole world and it's being preached 24 seven proof just about every possible channel every possible means in every possible language that we can think of you know and it's happened and it's happening and it's one of the signs Jesus gave this gospel will be preached to all the nations then the end will come now it's taken 2000 years but it's done so we are now in the last mile or the last frontier which is it's those individual tribes in different places that need to hear the gospel I mean otherwise you know major cities have already been reached but it's going beyond the cities into the tribes at the gospel this is the last frontier the final the last mile that is happening right now people are pushing for it all over the world but this is amazing okay so I'm going to stop here and we will cover the yeah just a few more we will cover those next week and we will be done with the course I think next week and and then we will just kind of do a quick review and take some questions so any thoughts so far any questions so far everyone's good so yeah so basically you know we will have probably one more week of classes next week I'll probably finish and just see if there are any more questions do a quick review then month of April will be time for assessments I will create assessments and put them out and so the month of April you could use to do the assessments I'll create assessments which will be like last semester which will be multiple choice questions three sets covering we don't just bring the whole portion into three parts questions that get in there and so in the assessments yeah just questions covering the content that we've gone through it will be open book open bible and open news questions so you can refer to everything and answer the questions so we'll keep month of April for that for just to do your work right so next year will be your last year your third year and I just just just wanted to give you a heads up the third year we are going to be doing you know courses that are a little bit more intense in terms of studying the scriptures so we should be doing a lot of book study going through chapter and verse understanding the books of the bible but it'll also be a lot of practical that is you know how do you the church and ministry administration we'll be talking about it we'll talk about urban church planting how do you start a ministry in an urban context which can be of course applied in any any other way so we'll be dealing with a lot of practical things you know how do you run a children's ministry youth ministry how do you run small groups we talk about media and technology and ministry and so a lot of practical things also a lot of study oriented studying the scriptures right but then one of the things I want you to start thinking about is and some of you may already be doing ministry many of you will already be doing ministry but one of the things I want you to start thinking about is what are you going to do after you graduate right so you're going to graduate you know in a year's time approximately 12 months from now you'll finish your bachelor's you'll get your degree you'd have done all these courses but what are you going to do and one of the things we will learn next year in our urban church planting course is how to you know actually kind of come up you know in in the in in the corporate well we call it a business plan and so when you when you want to start a business when you want to start a venture what do you do you write a business plan you put down your thoughts what are you going to do so you know of course an urban church planting we will kind of do something like that and if you want to start a ministry how would you what would you write church planning we'll have another course on church and ministry administration how do you organize that ministry and how would you do it right so and of course a lot of things we will share with you very very practical but the objective is you need to put down if you're going to start a church what do you need to think about or a ministry you know so church or some other ministry if you're going to you know and how do you organize it how do you know so you learn all these things but then you need to write it down and what we are going to set up is you know we're going to set this up and we've been talking about it for a while where we will have people meaning students who've finished their three years with us to you know submit their what you know what we call as proposals it's something like if in the corporate world if you want to start a business you want to start something you have to write it down and you have to present it to people so that you know you you share your idea with them and convince them that your ideas is feasible it's good it's something they need to invest in right so we're going to ask those of I mean it's not a compulsory thing we're going to give you all the information you need in terms of setting up a church or a ministry in your third year but then you need to put down what God wants you to do and you need to write it down as a proposal and then you can share it with us we will review it and then you know so we will get ourselves organized in terms of actually you know how to fund the ministry though though your your idea and then you know so you work out all the details when we talk about accounting and so on so forth and how you do it and then when you present that we can review it and then you know if I'm not saying every proposal will be you know funded and accepted but our desire is to help as many people as we can to start out on their ministry so whether it's planting a church or maybe it's an urban ministry or a rural ministry whatever it is that's something God has to put in your heart you have to find out we are not here to tell you what to do but we are here to show you how to go about it how to write it down how to hear from God how to do your survey how to you know go about planting a church or starting a ministry and how to administer it organize it how you how you can leverage tools and technologies and how you can you know and so our goal is to help you but then you must hear from God you must write down what God puts on your heart and you must commit to working on it right and so then you know when that happens and you submit your proposals and then you know our goal is to bless you that okay God here here are you know 10 churches that that that can be started whether in India or outside around the world or here are the 10 different ministries you know that we can back up financially and help get it off the ground and then then you have to run with it you have to do the work but we'll be there to you know just be a support and encouragement to you but what I want the reason I'm talking about it now is I want you to start praying I want you to start thinking about it and then putting your ideas down and next year third year you'll have courses that will teach you how to what to think about how to do your survey how to plan it out and then hopefully we'll have some great proposals coming from all of you and you know over the years that's how all our churches around the country in India have started it has been students who've gone out and they have started the churches and they are doing a great work right but now since your batch it's opened up across outside of India many of you from outside India and God's helping us position ourselves so that we could help students outside India so our goal is to help within India which we are already doing and we can do we'll continue doing and then also students who are from outside India but remember it's got to be your vision it's got to be something God wants you to do our goal is just to help you right and make sure you become fruitful for God's kingdom all right question Abraham says is it possible to come to India for a month you're welcome Abraham but I think let's just maybe wait for sometime after August when our campus opens up but yeah those who want to come you're welcome to do that Srikumar your question please thank you sir is it only for the church planting or for any other ministries yeah anything anything right so church planting of course is one important aspect but we will learn next year you know urban missions could be church planting it could be starting something else example it could be reaching street children in a certain city it could be working with you know whatever whatever need you see right ultimately we have to bring the gospel to all people so church planting is one way of doing it but they're just n number of opportunities and God puts different things in different people's hearts so we have some people who are itinerant ministers that means they're traveling but it has to be a really committed minister most of what so far is going on is church plants but you know as as just it all depends on what the student come what God puts in the hearts of the students yeah thank you sir okay so the reason I brought it up is I just want you to start praying I want you to start you know you need to seek God you need to pray about it and write down your ideas we will tell you how to do it of course but pray and see what and look around you you know in the cities where you are what is the need what what touches your heart right that has to come from God into your heart okay all right let's wrap up can I ask please somebody to close in prayer and then we will dismiss anybody faster can I pray yeah go ahead precious father we thank you and praise you for this wonderful day we bless you holy name of father thank you father god for every every precious word what we received from your servant of father let it be deeply rooted in us and father we pray lord master let me let me hold on this revelation let me hold on lord master these these words of father god so that we can move ahead of father god and he pray that father god let these words strengthen us and help us to fight our lord master fight a good fight of faith lord master in our in the in this journey of father god we ask you that your holy presence and your anointing increase in your servant's life of father god and strengthen each one of us or lord master who heard from his from his mouth thank you father god for strengthening him thank you for lord master giving us the grace and understanding to receive your word all the glory only one praises belongs to in jesus day we pray amen god bless y'all thank you god bless you god bless you see you again tomorrow thank you thank you pastor bless god bless thank you god bless you see you tomorrow god bless


Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar IA's Academy for the day 28th of August 2019. Displayed at the list of news articles taken up for today's analysis, along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Trivandrum editions, the handwritten notes in PDF format and the time stamping of all the news articles taken up for today's analysis will be available in the description section and also in the comment section for the benefit of the smartphone users. Let us now start our analysis. This news article is about India's child well-being report. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Let us now see the news article. This report has been jointly released by World Vision India and IFMR LEAD. Know that World Vision India is a non-governmental organization and IFMR LEAD is a non-profit research organization. This report is an attempt to look at how India fares or how India presents on child well-being. This was given by using a composite child well-being index. This child well-being index is a tool that is designed to comprehensively measure and track children's well-being. When we say comprehensively, we mean by including all the aspects relating to children. One of the primary objectives of this index is to gather attention to the under-research theme of child well-being in India. So the child well-being is an under-research theme. Another objective is to inspire further academic and policy conversations on the related issues. So this report provides insights on health, nutrition, education, sanitation and child protection which is all concerned with the well-being of a child. This report is important even though it is not released by a government organization. Even the CEO of Neethi Ayog has noted this point while speaking on this report. He has said that India child well-being index is a crucial report that can be analyzed by the government as well as civil organization in order to achieve the goal of child well-being. This index focuses on three key dimensions. The dimensions are healthy individual development, positive relationships and protective contexts. And these three key dimensions consist of 24 indicators. These 24 indicators were selected to develop the computation of the child well-being index. Apart from these 24 indicators, some other important indicators also needs to be studied as per the Executive Director of IFMR LEAD. So the Executive Director has told that some indicators like mobile usage by children, then digital access to children, then financial literacy to children, then the mental health of the children and also the quality of relationships which include the relationship with parents, peers, or friends and other children needs to be studied along with these 24 indicators. So this report highlights the multi-dimensional approach towards measuring child's well-being. So it not only just measures the income poverty but also other aspects that are related to child well-being like their access to educational facilities, then the rate of school dropouts, then the child's survival rates, then the crimes against children, then malnutrition, then access to clean drinking water and also the sanitation facilities that the children get. This report has asked for the state governments to look at their respective scores on the dimensions of child well-being. The report has also urged the states to prepare for the priority areas of intervention with specific plans of action because some states might have got low score in some dimensions. So the report has asked the states to prepare the priority areas of intervention so that they can be addressed. From this, this report also lists the following necessary steps to help in enhancing the quality of life of all the children in the country like it seeks for changes at the policy level with respect to children, then it also seeks for better budgetary allocations so that more money can be spent towards the children well-being, then it has also sought to initiate discussions with all the stakeholders who are concerned with child well-being. According to this report, Kerala is the best performing state as you can see in this picture where Kerala has scored 0.76 in the child well-being index which is the highest score across India. This is because Kerala has showed a great performance in nutrition, health and educational facilities for children. The report has mentioned the reason for Kerala's exceptional performance. It has cited that Kerala has a great number of children who complete their schools and Kerala also does well enough to provide access to quality education for all the children. Then the state also provides a healthy start to the newborn babies that is why the state has a good child survival rate. Then the state is also performing well in combating the problems of malnutrition and also ensuring access to clean drinking water and sanitation facilities. So these were some of the dimensions of the report that we saw. So Kerala has performed in majority of these dimensions. Then from this picture, you can see that Tamil Nadu has scored 0.67, so it is the second best state after Kerala. Also Himachal Pradesh has scored the same score 0.67 and Puducherry has scored 0.77. So among union territories, Puducherry has scored the highest. The highest score is because of the good scores in health care and nutrition. Now if you consider the worst performing states, it includes states like Meghalaya, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh. Out of this, Madhya Pradesh has scored the lowest of all where the score is 0.44. Now this lowest score is because of the higher rate of crimes against children. Then the score is also low when compared to the other states because it is scored low in child survival and also the state had poor nutrition among the children. Then the state of Jharkhand has scored 0.50. This is because Jharkhand has a lack of basic education and nutrition. Along with this, Jharkhand is also witnessing high school dropout rates in the state. So this is all about this report. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This editorial speaks about the recent decision of the Reserve Bank of India to transfer around 1.76 lakh crores to the central government for the fiscal year 2018-19. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this editorial is given here for your reference. Let us now see the editorial. In this editorial, the author is telling that after a long tug of war, the central government has managed to get a part of the accumulated reserves of the Reserve Bank of India. So for a long time, the central government has been insisting the Reserve Bank of India to transfer a part of its surplus reserves in order to meet the shortfall in the revenue collections. See in government, there is both expenditure and revenue. So the government needs money for its expenditure and it is only possible when it gets some revenue. Say revenue in the form of tax collections and non-tax collections. So whenever there is a shortfall in the tax collections or non-tax collections, we can tell there is a shortfall in the revenue. Now if the government is able to get the money from the Reserve Bank of India, it will help the government to meet the shortfall in the revenue collections. So this is what we mean by the term shortfall in revenue collections. So a total of 176,051 crore will be transferred by the Reserve Bank of India to the central government. Out of this around 123,414 crores is the surplus of RBA and 52,637 crores is the contingency fund of RBA that will be transferred to the central government. Now surplus means the difference between the income earned by the RBA and the expenditures of the RBA. So this is the surplus amount that is being transferred and we shall be seeing about the contingency fund or the contingency reserve in the later part of our analysis. In 2018, the Reserve Bank of India had constituted a panel or a committee to recommend and review the economic capital framework. So this committee was headed by the former RBA governor Bimal Jalan. So this committee name is also called as Bimal Jalan committee. Here the term economic capital is nothing but the amount of capital that is required to be maintained by an institution or a company. When we tell capital, it is nothing but the money. So the capital that is required to be maintained by an institution or company in order for that company to remain solvent that is it should keep operating. So this will be calculated based on the risk profile. So we can also tell that it is the risk capital that is to be maintained by the Reserve Bank of India. So whenever there is an unforeseen market risk or an operational risk or even say whenever there is a loss with RBA then RBA can use up this money. So this is the economic capital which RBA needs to maintain. This editorial tells that Bimal Jalan committee has decided to keep a major part of the reserve with the Reserve Bank of India and it will be out of the reach of the central government. And it has also decided to transfer a part of Reserve Bank of India's reserves to the central government with strict terms and conditions. In the editorial it is mentioned as stipulations. So based on this decision the Reserve Bank of India is transferred around 1.76 lakh crores to the central government. Just in the editorial the currency and gold revaluation account is mentioned. Know that this account represents the value of the gold and the foreign currency that the Reserve Bank of India will hold on behalf of the government of India. So it is the unrealized gains. The term unrealized gains are also called as paper profits because if you see the Reserve Bank of India holds some foreign currency and also the gold. Now depending on the market situation the value of the foreign currency will be fluctuating. Say before 2 years 1 US dollar might have been 60 rupees but at present it is around 71 rupees. So the value of that particular currency keeps changing and the money is just with the Reserve Bank of India. Now only when the Reserve Bank of India decides to utilize this money and pulls out the money then we will get to know the actual value of that money at the present exchange rate. Until it is with the Reserve Bank of India we can only call it as unrealized gains because they just remain in paper the value of the particular foreign currency and also the value of the gold just remains in paper. So this is what we call as unrealized gains and these unrealized gains cannot be distributed by the Reserve Bank of India or say it cannot be transferred by the Reserve Bank of India to the central government. So basically the Reserve Bank of India holds these foreign currency and gold in order to have enough liquidity that is enough money so that whenever our country faces any sort of economic crisis we will be in a position to utilize these reserves. And know that this CGRA that is the currency and gold revaluation account is not considered in the income account of RBI. So under this account RBI has almost 6.91 lakh crore as of 30th June 2018. So the committee has recommended that these CGRA reserves cannot be used to bridge the shortfalls in any other reserves. So this is separate the other reserves are separate. Now let us see the contingency reserve or the contingency fund. The contingency fund is basically a specific provision which is meant for meeting the unexpected contingencies. When we tell contingency it can be an emergency that can arise because of the monetary policy of the Reserve Bank of India and also because of the exchange rate operations. So whenever there is an unexpected contingency the Reserve Bank of India will intervene and it will make use of the money that is under this contingency fund in order to prevent some large fluctuations in the currency value. So this is how RBI makes use of the contingency fund. Now the Bimal Jalan Committee has recommended that the contingency fund should be maintained within 6.5 to 5.5 percentage of the total assets of the Reserve Bank of India. So based on the recommendations of the committee the RBI board has decided to fix this ratio at 5.5 percentage. If you see the present contingency fund value is around 6.8 percentage of the total assets of the RBI and we saw that RBI has fixed the contingency fund ratio at 5.5 percentage. So the remaining 1.3 percentage which is around 52,367 crores for this fiscal year that is for the fiscal year 2018-19 has been transferred by the Reserve Bank of India to the central government. So in the starting of the editorial we saw that a surplus amount of 123,414 crores has been given by RBI to the central government plus 52,637 crores from the contingency fund which was in excess for the financial year 2018-19 has been given by the Reserve Bank of India to the central government. So one is the surplus amount, the second is the contingency fund. Then in this editorial the author has quoted one argument where it can be considered that the government is the sovereign nothing but the ultimate authority which owns the Reserve Bank of India. So there is nothing wrong if the government decides to use the central bank's reserves but the author of this editorial is telling that the government's decision to do so is quite unfortunate because the reserves have been generated by the Reserve Bank of India over different governments that is different governments were there in the previous 2-3 decades still and the RBI was generating these reserves over different governments but now a particular government is using that funds in order to meet its expenditure shortfalls. So this is morally unacceptable. So this is what the author is telling. Next in the editorial the author has also mentioned about the Jalan committee's quote where the committee has said that the reserves of the RBI represents the country's savings for a rainy day. When we tell rainy day it means a period of monetary or financial crisis. So whenever there is a monetary or financial crisis the Reserve Bank might be in a position to use these savings. So in the starting of the editorial we saw about the surplus of the Reserve Bank of India which is nothing but the difference in the income and the expenditure. So RBI has a practice of transferring its surplus to the government over the years but if you see the transfer for the fiscal year or the financial year 2018-2019 is around 1.23 lakh crores. So this value is double than that of the previous year. If you see in the previous financial year that is the financial year 2017-18 it was 50,000 crores. So it is more than double the amount of the financial year 2017-18. Now we do not know the reason how this much surplus was generated by the Reserve Bank of India. The author is telling that we will be getting to know in the annual report of the Reserve Bank of India and this report is not yet released. So we will get to know the reasons why RBI was able to get such a huge amount of surplus in the financial year 2018-19. The author is concluding the editorial by telling that this amount is a bonanza. So the term bonanza means sudden increase in wealth or whatever resources we have. So suddenly the government has got 1.76 lakh crores now and we saw that the government is facing revenue shortfalls that is during our discussion we saw that the shortfall and revenues can happen when the government has not got its target of tax revenues and non-tax revenues. So in this case it is the shortfall in the tax revenues. The government has received less tax revenues than expected so this amount will be a bonanza for the government. The author is telling that if the government is able to access these funds it will help the government to meet the deficit targets that is the fiscal deficit targets then the government can also use this money that is nothing but the capital into the weak banks. So with this money the government can infuse some capital into the weak banks that is those banks which are not performing well so that when money is infused into those banks the money or capital which is infused into those banks will help them boost their lending process so that the banks can perform better and also the government can make use of these funds in order to fund the welfare programs. So one is meeting the deficit targets second is to boost the banking sector and third is to make use of these funds for the social welfare programs. So this is how the author is suggesting that the government should make use of this money that it has got from the Reserve Bank of India. Now note that these are the suggestions that has been given by the author but the recent news is that the finance minister has told that still the government has not decided how to make use of this 1.76 lakh crore money that it has received from the Reserve Bank of India. Now have a look at the practice question let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about the spotting of rare tarantula species in the state of Tamil Nadu the syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Now the word tarantula means large hairy spiders these spiders belong to the family of Therafocidae. The news article is that team of researchers from indigenous biodiversity foundation have spotted peacock parachute spider which is also called as Gutti tarantula. It has been spotted in the Pakkamalai reserve forest. If you see during our 7th May analysis there was also a news article which discovered grizzled squirrels in this Pakkamalai reserve forest. These reserve forests are located near Chenji in Viliperam district of Tamil Nadu and know that indigenous biodiversity foundation is a puducheri based non-governmental organization which is working towards protecting the indigenous species of India. This peacock parachute spider or Gutti tarantula belongs to the genus posilotheria which comes under the family of Therafocidae and these spiders are listed as critically endangered under IUCN red list of threatened species and it is under proposal to be appended under the sites list which is the convention on international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora and know that these spiders are not protected under the wildlife protection act of 1972. At present these tarantula species are found in the degraded forest. These forests form a part of eastern guards and they are located near Nandiyal in the state of Andhra Pradesh. So this is the known habitat of these tarantula species. Now the major threats that these species face are the hunting which happens in the forests and subsequent logging and wood harvesting and these species are also being hunted for pet trade. So these are domesticated as pets in the western nations. This news article tells that the team from the indigenous biodiversity foundation was involved in a field work in these Pakamalai reserve forests and they happened to cite this Gutti tarantula resting in a cave. Later they cross-matched these species with a photographic evidence which was published by the zoo outreach organization and the wildlife information license development society in the previous decade. This spider was cited for the first time in the year 1899 by a researcher named Reginald N.S. Pocock. He happened to just find a single female specimen in Gutti and after 102 years that is in 2001 the species has been recorded at the degraded forest between Nandiyal and Giddalur in the eastern guards of Andhra Pradesh. So this species did not occur naturally in Gutti. It could have come from the eastern guards which is located at least 100 kilometers away from Gutti. This news article has also mentioned some comments made by the wildlife researcher where he has said that this particular tarantula species had not been cited so far in any other part of India or Sri Lanka except in the degraded forests of Andhra Pradesh. So now these tarantula species has been recorded in Pakamalai reserve forests in the state of Tamil Nadu. So we can see that its distribution has expanded further south because this Pakamalai reserve forest is located south to the degraded forest of Andhra Pradesh. Now we have been seeing the term degraded forest. The definition for degraded forest as given by the convention on biodiversity is that it is a secondary forest that has lost the structure, its function, then the species composition which it once had and also the productivity which should normally be associated with the natural forest type. But because of the human activities all these components have been degraded. So there is a reduced supply of goods and services from that particular site. When we tell reduced supply of goods and services it means the forest resources, then the water supply and also some other services like reducing the pollution, regulating the climate, protecting the soil etc. So these are some of the basic goods and services which a forest provides and there will also be limited biological diversity in the degraded forest. Because of human activities the entire structure and the species composition of the forest have changed. So we can expect only a very limited biological diversity which means less species of both flora and fauna. Flora means trees and fauna means animals. And these degraded forests are secondary forests. So a secondary forest is nothing but a forest that has been logged and it has recovered naturally or artificially. Log means the trees in the forest have been cut for human purposes and later the forest have recovered by themselves that is naturally or through human intervention that is artificially. So this is a secondary forest. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about combating land degradation. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. India will be hosting the 14th session of the conference of parties or COP 14-2 the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. This will be held from 2nd of September to 13th of September that is in the next month. So this announcement was made by the Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change on the occasion of World Day to Combat Desertification and Draught. See yesterday we saw that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change or UNFCCC had a COP or the Conference of Parties. But this Conference of Parties is for the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. So both are different, do not confuse. So the term Conference of Parties means a conference or a gathering of the parties or the members which are party to a convention. So this is a meaning of COP. So there can be n number of COPs for different conventions. So the COP for this convention is different from the COP for UNFCCC. The Conference of Parties for this United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification was established by the convention as a supreme decision making body. So this Conference of Parties comprises of the ratifying governments and the regional economic integration organizations such as the European Union. Since the year 2001 the COP has been meeting biannually that is once in two years and till now the COP had held 13 sessions. The one which is going to take place at New Delhi is the 14th session so it is called as COP 14. One of the primary functions of the COP is to review the reports that are submitted by the parties to the convention. The reports detail or explain how the parties are carrying out their commitments. Then the COP makes recommendations on the basis of these reports. It also has the power to make amendments to the convention or to even adopt new un-exists that is new additions to the existing convention. In this way the COP can guide the convention according to the changes in the global circumstances and also according to the changes in the national needs. Also know that India will take over the COP presidency from China for two years. This is until the next COP which will be hosted in 2021. So during COP 14 representatives from 196 countries will address the issue of combating desertification then land degradation and also drought during the two-week event. These representatives will be from national governments from regional governments and also from the local governments then from science and research communities then there will be representatives from the private sector then also from international and non-governmental organizations and also all forms of media will be representing this conference of parties. Now this conference is important to India because about 30 percentage of the country's total geographical area or about 96.4 million hectares are considered degraded or is being affected by land degradation. So to combat this India is strongly committed to the convention. So whatever convention that we are seeing now is the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification or UNCC Indie. Here you have to note that United Nations has three RIO conventions. They are United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change or the UNFCCC. Second one is the Convention on Biological Diversity or CBD and the third one is United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification or UNCCD. This UNCCD was established in the year 1994 and it is the only legally binding international agreement that links environment and development to sustainable land management. So this convention addresses specifically the arid areas then the semi arid areas and also the dry subhumid areas. So all these are known as the dry lands. This is because it is where some of the most vulnerable ecosystems and people can be found. So as the name of the convention itself suggests the main objective is to combat desertification. When you see the term desertification don't think that it is just the natural expansion of the existing deserts but it is also the degradation of the land that is happening in arid semi arid and dry subhumid areas. So it is a gradual process of loss in the soil productivity and also the thinning out of the vegetative cover. So the soil productivity comes down and also the vegetative cover also will reduce. All this happens because of the human activities and also because of the climatic variations like prolonged droughts that is droughts for a continuous period of time and also sometimes floods for a continuous period of time. The next objective of this convention is to mitigate the effects of drought in countries that are experiencing serious drought and or desertification. So this convention involves some long term integrated strategies that is two or three strategies or two or more strategies that are integrated together and are implemented together. So there will be a simultaneous focus in the affected areas to improve the productivity of land and the rehabilitation, conservation and sustainable management of the land and water resources. So the parties to the convention will work together to improve the living conditions for the people in dry lands then to maintain and restore the land productivity and also the soil productivity and also to mitigate the effects of drought and know that this convention is particularly committed to a bottom up approach. When we tell bottom up approach the participation of the local people is very much required in combating the certification and land degradation. So a bottom up approach will be followed. Also know that India became a signatory to this convention in the year 1994 and it ratified it in the year 1996. See in 1994 the United Nations General Assembly also declared 17th June as the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. This is to promote the public awareness and the implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in the desertification affected countries. So remember the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought which we mentioned in the beginning where we told that the minister announced that COP 14 will be held in India is celebrated every year on 17th of June. During one of the press conference that happened yesterday the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change noted that India will convert degraded land of nearly 50 lakh hectares to a fertile land in the next 10 years. The news article also mentions that this 50 lakh hectares or the 5 million hectares were part of the Bond Challenge commitment. But if you see the Press Information Bureau says that this 50 lakh hectares or the 5 million hectares were part of the LDN targets for India. So now let us see what is this Bond Challenge and LDN target. First let us see about the LDN target. LDN is the acronym for Land Degradation Neutrality. So this involves shift in the land management policies and practices. It will basically aim towards recovering the degraded areas so that it would be able to counter balance the expected loss of productivity of the land. So it will strategically place the measures to conserve then measures to sustainably manage and restore land. And all these measures will be in the context of planning of land use. So based on this the countries have said the LDN target. Now let us see about Bond Challenge. In the year 2010 a study was undertaken by the International Union for Conservation of Nature that is IUCN and World Resources Institute. So they together produced a world of opportunity map. This world of opportunity map found that globally there was more than 2 billion hectares of degraded land which offered opportunities for restoration. So in September 2011 at a high level event which was co-hosted by the German Ministry of the Environment and IUCN the 2020 Bond Challenge target was launched by leaders from around the world. So know that in 2011 this Bond Challenge target was launched. This Bond Challenge is a global effort to bring around 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested land into restoration by the year 2020. This target was later extended to cover 350 million hectares of degraded land by the year 2030. So this extension was made by the New York declaration on forests at the 2014 UN climate summit. Here land degradation or the degradation of land means the deterioration in the quality of the land mainly the deterioration of its top soil. Now why this top soil or the land gets deteriorated it is because of excessive and inappropriate exploitation of the land and know that the International Union for Conservation of Nature or IUCN is the secretariat for the Bond Challenge. So this Bond Challenge is an implementation vehicle for the national priorities such as boosting the landscape productivity then improving water and food security then conserving the biodiversity and also combating desertification. According to the Bond Challenge the restoration of the 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested lands in biomes around the world will create approximately 170 billion US dollars per year in net benefits. So the benefits will be from watershed protection then from the improved crop yields and also from the forest products. So once these degraded and deforested lands are restored then we'd be able to get benefits like this. So this will also bring in some additional income opportunities for the rural communities. Apart from this there is also one another advantage that is 1.7 giga tons of carbon dioxide equivalent can be sequestered on restoring this 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested lands annually that is every year. The basis for this Bond Challenge is the forest landscape restoration approach or the FLR approach. Now let us see about this approach. This approach mainly aims to restore the ecological integrity at the same time it will help in improving the human well-being through multifunctional landscapes. So this forest landscape restoration approach is not just about planting trees but it is about restoring a whole landscape in order to meet the present needs and also the future needs and also to offer multiple benefits and land uses over time. So it is about forests and landscapes. Now why forest because it involves increasing the number and or health of the trees in an area and why it is about landscape is because it involves the entire watersheds the entire jurisdictions or sometimes even the countries in which many land users interact and it also involves restoration because it involves bringing back the biological productivity of an area. So once we have this biological productivity the people in general and also the planet that is the entire world will receive a number of benefits by restoration. So based on this at the conference of parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 2015 which was held in Paris the government of India made a Bond Challenge Pledge. So this challenge is to bring 13 million or 130 lakh hectares of degraded land into restoration. This is to be done by the year 2020 and after this an additional 8 million hectares or 80 lakh hectares are to be restored by the year 2030. So together India has committed to restore 21 million hectares or 210 lakh hectares. Also know that this pledge by India is one of the largest in Asian continent. The restoration could also sequester up to 1.99 giga tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually. So once these landscapes are restored that particular landscape would be able to store the carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere. So this is what we meant by sequestering of the carbon dioxide equivalent. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about Congo fever. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Let us now see the news article. This news article says that 75 year old women from Surendranagar district in the state of Gujarat died because of Congo fever. The Gujarat state has directed the health authorities to remain alert in order to contain the spread of this deadly disease. So let us first understand in detail about the Congo fever. Congo fever is also called as the Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever. It is a viral disease which is caused by a tick-borne virus which is called as Nirovirus and this virus belongs to Bonyaviride family. So we saw that it is a tick-borne virus so ticks acts as a carrier for this virus and it is also a zoonotic vector-borne disease. It means it could be transmitted from animals to humans. This Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever causes severe illness in humans and it has a case fatality rate of up to 40 percentage that is death is reported in 40 percentage of the cases. Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever was first characterized in Crimea in the year 1944. So the name was Crimean hemorrhagic fever. This region of Crimea is also called as the Crimean Peninsula. So this Crimean Peninsula was annexed by the Russian Federation in 2014. Before that it was a part of Ukraine and even before that it was a part of the United Soviet Socialistic Republic. Nothing but the USSR. Later it became a part of Ukraine. Then again Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014. Then in the year 1969 it was recognized that the pathogen that was causing this Crimean hemorrhagic fever was the same which was responsible for an illness that was identified in Congo in the year 1956. So that is how this fever name has been arrived at. So now it is called as the Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever. In India the first confirmed case of this Congo fever was reported during an outbreak in Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat in the year 2011. Then outbreaks were also reported from different districts of Gujarat every year. Then the outbreaks were also reported in the state of Rajasthan. Earlier one case was reported from Uttar Pradesh as well. Now let us see how this disease is transmitted. This Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever is primarily transmitted to human beings from ticks. We saw that tick-borne virus and then it is also transmitted from the livestock animals and it can also be transmitted via nosocomical infections that is those infections that are caught in hospitals. They are called as nosocomical infections and this virus is considered endemic to the Middle East then to Africa then also to Asia and then human to human transmission can also occur because of the close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of the infected persons. So the outbreak of this Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever constitutes a threat to the public healthcare services. Why? The first reason is its epidemic potential that is the biological capacity of the pathogen can cause a disease in a particular environment and there will be a widespread occurrence of this disease. So this is the epidemic potential. The next reason is the high case fatality ratio that is the fatality ratio can somewhere be between 10 percentage to 40 percentage and there is also a potential for nosocomical outbreaks. We saw what is meant by nosocomical outbreaks that is those infections that are acquired in hospitals and there are also some difficulties in treating and preventing this disease. So they cause a major threat to the public healthcare services. Now let us see some of the symptoms of this Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever. The symptoms are more or less similar to the common viral fever symptoms like having sudden fever, then muscle ache, then dizziness, then headache, then back pain, joint pain, vomiting and also red eyes. Next we shall see who are those persons who are at risk of acquiring this Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever. They mostly include livestock workers that is those workers who are involved in livestock farming, then animal herders. So those people who herd the animals then those workers or people who are employed in slaughterhouses that is the place where they cut the animals for culinary purposes and even veterinary agents that is the animal doctors or the doctors who are specialized in treating animals are also likely to be exposed to this Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever. Then the travelers who are going to those countries which are endemic to the Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever are also at a risk of high exposure. There are some diagnostic tests which are used to confirm the virus like through antigen detection, then through enzyme linked immunosorbent assay and also through serum neutralization. Know that there is no vaccine at present for treating this disease for both animals and humans. So the treatment is currently restricted to supportive care for the symptoms that is just addressing the symptoms of this particular disease like fever, muscle ache, dizziness, headache. So that is what we meant by supportive care. So the best way is to prevent the occurrence of this Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever. So the World Health Organization has proposed some steps to reduce the transmission of this virus like wearing long sleep protective clothing, then using repellents on skin and clothing and also measures like quarantining animals that is keeping the animals separate before they are brought into the first slaughtering purposes. So these are some of the steps that has been proposed by the World Health Organization in order to reduce the transmission of Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us now move on to the practice questions discussion session. The first question is the India child well-being report is an attempt to look at how India fares on child well-being by composite child well-being index. This report was released by which among the following organizations and they have given four options UNICEF, CARE International, International Committee of the Red Cross, World Vision. In examination we have to mark the most relevant option among the given options. We know that this report has jointly been released by World Vision India and IFMR LEAD. World Vision India is a non-governmental organization. Here among the given options the most relevant is World Vision. So the correct answer is World Vision. Particularly it is World Vision India which is an Indian branch of World Vision. So the correct answer is Option D World Vision. Moving on to the next question consider the following statements and they have given two statements and they have asked you to choose the correct answer. The first statement is Bimal Jalan committee was constituted to recommend and review the economic capital framework of the Reserve Bank of India. This statement is correct. In the year 2018 the Reserve Bank of India had constituted a panel or a committee to recommend and review an economic capital framework and this committee was headed by the former RBI governor Bimal Jalan. Hence it is called as Bimal Jalan committee. Moving on to the second statement the statement tells that the committee recommended transfer of surplus from the currency and gold revaluation account of RBI. We saw what is meant by this currency and gold revaluation account. This represents the value of the gold and the foreign currency. The Reserve Bank of India holds on behalf of the government of India. So the committee said that this account represents the unrealized gains that is the value remains only on paper and hence it is not distributable to the government. So it recommended that it cannot be transferred to the government. So the second statement goes wrong. The question is asked for the correct statements. The correct answer is option A 1 1 B. Moving on to the next question consider the following statements with reference to the United Nations convention to combat desertification and they have given you two statements and I've asked you to choose the correct answer. The first statement tells that it is the only legally binding international agreement that links environment and development to sustainable land management. When you look at the first statement you will think that the statement is wrong because the statement has the superlative only in it. We feel that the statement is only partially correct but in this scenario the statement is correct according to the United Nations convention to combat desertification. The convention is the only legally binding international agreement that links environment and development to sustainable land management. So this statement is correct. The second statement tells that India is a signatory to this convention but it did not ratify. During our discussion we saw that India's hosting COP 14 and the COP presidency will be with India for two years. So by this you can guess that India should at least be a signatory to the convention. Yes India is a signatory to this convention. Know that India became a signatory to this convention in the year 1994. This means the first half of the statement is correct. When we say signatory to a convention it means that the head of the state or the government or the foreign minister or any other designated official has indicated his or her country's agreement with the adopted text of a treaty and they indicate their intention to become a party by signing it. So this is what we meant by a signate. Now the second half says that India has not ratified the convention. After signing a treaty a country must ratify it with the approval of its parliament or other legislature. Such process implies not only an expression of interest which was indicated by the signature but it also indicates the transformation of the treaties principles and obligations into national law. The instrument of ratification must be deposited with the secretary general of the United Nations. Then the country will become party to the convention by the completion of a period of 90 days after the deposit of the instrument of ratification. So this makes the country legally bound to the convention. But whether India ratified it or not? Yes, India ratified it in the year 1996. So this means the second half of the statement is wrong. So this makes the entire statement as a wrong statement because the statement tells that it did not ratify but it actually ratified. And the question is asked for the correct statements. The correct answer is option A 1 only. Moving on to the next question consider the following statements and they have given two statements which are related to the Crimean-Kongo-Hemorrhagic fever and they have asked you to choose the correct statements. The first statement tells that the Crimean-Kongo-Hemorrhagic fever is a viral disease. This statement is correct. This fever is commonly called as Congo fever and it is caused by a tick-borne virus which is called as Nairo virus. In India the first confirmed case of this Crimean-Kongo-Hemorrhagic fever was reported during an outbreak in Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat in the year 2011. The second statement tells that human to human transmission of the virus that is responsible for causing Crimean-Kongo-Hemorrhagic fever is possible. This statement is also correct. During a discussion we saw that human to human transmission can occur through close contact with the blood or through secretions or organs or other bodily fluids of the infected persons. So human to human transmission of Nairo virus which causes the Crimean-Kongo-Hemorrhagic fever is possible. So this statement is also correct. The question is asked for the correct statements. The correct answer is option C both 1 and 2. With this we come to the end of the analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the practice questions discussion session. Do like comment and share the video and do subscribe to Shankar IA's Academy YouTube channel for latest videos and updates. Stay focused and motivated friends. Thank you.