Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankaray's Academy. Today along with the analysis of these displayed news articles, we'll be seeing few important topics such as the President's Rule in Maharashtra and information pertaining to the Integrated Global Action Plan for the control of pneumonia and diarrhea. Then we'll be also seeing about the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee and the Electronic National Agriculture Market and we will also see the status of cancer incidents and mortality in India. The link for the handwritten notes and the time stamping of the discussed articles are provided in the description and also in the comments section for the benefit of mobile phone viewers. Now let's move on to the analysis of first news article. This news article is with reference to a release of a global report on pneumonia and diarrhea. This report provides data about these two infections among children under the age of five years. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article has been highlighted here for your reference. Yesterday that is 12th November 2019 was the World Pneumonia Day. So on the observation of the World Pneumonia Day, a report on pneumonia and diarrhea has been released. This report is called as the 10th Pneumonia and Diarrhea Progress Report card and this report is released annually that is every year by International Vaccine Access Center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. This report actually highlights the gaps or the shortcomings in pneumonia and diarrhea control in around 23 countries. Now why they have taken these 22 countries in which India is also one among them? This is because these 23 countries together account for 75% of global pneumonia and diarrhea deaths among children under the age of five years. One of the information provided is about the number of deaths of children under five years of age because of pneumonia and diarrhea burden. This information is pertaining to the year 2017. If you see among the 15 countries with highest number of under five pneumonia and diarrhea deaths, India has the largest number of deaths to the tune of around 2.3 lakh children who have died in 2017 because of this burden. We may be thinking that India will anyway be in the top because of the population that it has. Let us compare this number of deaths with one of our neighbors who has a sizable population comparable to our country. We are talking about China. See the population in China at present is around some 137 crore whereas in India it is between some 132-133 crores. In India we saw that the deaths because of pneumonia and diarrhea burden is around 2.3 lakhs whereas the same number in China is just around 24,000. So this means the situation is worser in India to the tune of around 9 to 10 times more than that of China. See we know that health is one of the important parameters that is assessed or taken into consideration for measuring development in a country. In pertaining to this matter under pneumonia and diarrhea, in addressing the deaths of children under the age of five, we are certainly lagging. The news article also talks about two vaccines. One is rotavirus vaccine and the other is pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. See rotaviruses are the most common cause of severe diarrheal disease in young children. To prevent children from getting infected from rotaviruses they will be given a vaccine called as rotavirus vaccine. See this rotavirus infection is a contagious disease meaning a communicable disease and it can spread easily from one child to another child. Now come to pneumonia. See pneumonia is an infection of the lungs. It could be caused by bacteria or viruses or even fungi. What happens is the air sacs in the lungs become inflamed and they get filled up with fluid. Now this inflammation in lungs makes it hard for the oxygen that is breathed to get into the bloodstream of the human body. Now this pneumonia is also a communicable disease. It is often spread through coughing, sneezing, touching or in some cases even by breathing. So coming to the vaccine that is the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. See this vaccine prevents children from getting infected from pneumonia particularly that is caused by a bacterium called as streptococcus pneumonia. Now if you see the news article here and there you can see the term targets. They have given the explanatory version only in the small picture in this news article. See these targets that are referred are the targets under the integrated global action plan for the prevention and control of pneumonia and diarrhea. This global action plan was developed by World Health Organization and UNICEF. Under this global action plan there are certain targets. The main targets are to reduce deaths from pneumonia to less than three children per thousand live birds and to reduce the deaths from diarrhea to less than one in thousand live birds and both these targets are to be achieved by the year 2025. The progress report card gives the data related to number of deaths per thousand live birds because of pneumonia and diarrhea burden for the year 2017. For India it is 9.3 per thousand live birds that is around nine children or dying per thousand live birds in India because of pneumonia and diarrhea burden. We will see few more information with respect to this global action plan. See this action plan has recommended certain coverage targets under the heads protect prevent and treat under protect the target is to achieve 50 coverage of exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of life of a child under prevent the target is to achieve 90% coverage for vaccines such as pertussis, measles, HIV, pneumococcal conjugate and rotavirus vaccine. Here you see five indicators these are relating to these five vaccines. Here HIV vaccine refers to hemophilus influenza type B vaccine which is used to prevent hemophilus influenza type B infection. Now for treatment 90% coverage is required to be achieved under two indicators each for diarrhea and pneumonia. For diarrhea the indicators are receiving oral rehydrate solutions and also receiving zinc supplements. For pneumonia the indicators are one is that infected children being taken to appropriate healthcare provider and the other indicator is receiving antibiotics measuring these indicators the total treatment coverage is measured. At the end under both these diseases a country is expected to reach a overall target score of 86. In the news article they have mentioned about 10 indicators so these are the 10 indicators exclusive breastfeeding then about the five vaccines then two indicators each under two infections. Now where do India stand with respect to these coverage targets? See India has achieved exclusive breastfeeding target it has attained 55% already though the target is achieving 50%. Now under vaccination under vaccination India has performed just 62 out of 90 under treatment India fairs moderate in pneumonia and extremely poor in the case of diarrhea the overall score achieved by India is just 56 whereas it is expected to reach 86 out of 100 under the global action plan. So the current rate of progress that India is making the news article mentions that India will not be able to reach the intended main targets under the global action plan within the estimated year of 2025 or within the target year of 2025. Next the news article also mentions about the highest risk factors among children why they are being susceptible for pneumonia infection. According to some studies they are saying that in 2017 the high risk factors among children for pneumonia infection are according to some studies in 2017 53% of child pneumonia deaths are caused because of child wasting child wasting refers to low weight for corresponding height among children. So this is a developmental problem and 25% of deaths among children because of pneumonia is because of the risk factor called as outdoor air pollution and 22% of the deaths are caused by indoor air pollution particularly from solid fuels. Now for solid fuels you may say it could be wood or coal or even charcoal but mostly in indoor air pollution is mainly from wood that is used for burning in homes. Through these factors you can relate the environmental factors playing a role by acting as risk factors among children for lung infection that is pneumonia. So with this we have come to the end of analysis of this news article we saw about the recently released progress report card on diarrhea pneumonia on the world pneumonia day on 12th November then we saw in brief about the two infections then we saw the targets under the integrated global action plan for the prevention and control of pneumonia and diarrhea which is developed by World Health Organization in partnership with United Nations Children Emergency Fund. Now let us move on to the analysis of next news article. This news article mentions that the president has approved the recommendation of the governor of Maharashtra to impose president's rule in the state. The syllabus relevant for the analysis has been highlighted here for your reference. In the course of the analysis of this news article we will be seeing why president rule is imposed in Maharashtra and on what grounds president rule can be imposed and the possible consequences of president rule and whether the proclamation of president rule can be challenged in the court of law or not. We know that after the recently concluded state elections in Maharashtra none of the parties got majority. Out of the total elected members of Maharashtra that is 288 BJP got 105, Swisena got 56, NCP Nationalist Congress Party they got 54, Congress got 44 and other parties and independent candidates they got around 29 seats. So for a simple majority it has to be 50% plus 1 that is around 145. That number is not with any of the parties. So while contesting in this election there was a pre-poll alliance between Bharatiya Janatha Party and the Swisena. However after the declaration of results both the parties failed to form government because of certain factors such as disagreement on sharing of power particularly with reference to the post of chief ministership for half of the total tenure of 5 years. So in this scenario the governor of Maharashtra first invited BJP to form the government but obviously without the support of Swisena or any other parties definitely the number of 145 could not be arrived at and therefore the BJP declined to form the government and later the governor has invited Swisena to form the government because it is the second largest party. However it is said that on the same day in which the governor invited Swisena to form the government night of the day the governor has invited nationalist congress party to form the government that is the third largest party in terms of numbers on the next day the governor wrote to the central government saying he was satisfied that the government cannot be carried out in accordance with the constitution in Maharashtra and therefore he was recommending president's rule in Maharashtra and union cabinet also agreed with the proposal of the governor and soon president has signed a proclamation to impose his rule or president's rule in Maharashtra and kept the state's legislative assembly in suspended animation. So this means that the central government temporarily takes over the governance of Maharashtra and the state assembly's role will be taken over by the national legislature that is parliament. See when president's rule is imposed that means both the legislative and executive powers of the state will be taken by central government. Generally in a president's rule two things occur for the state legislature one is dissolving two is secondly suspending when the state legislature is dissolved the MLAs will lose their membership and this means anyway after president's rule fresh elections has to be conducted but when a legislature is under suspended animation the members who are elected they do not lose their membership but they cannot enact laws for the state because the legislative powers will be taken by the central government in meaning the parliament. But the positive with respect to suspended animation is that during the course of president rule if two three parties come in agreement to form a government that is possible as the members do not lose their membership and later the president rule can be revoked this case applies perfectly to the president's situation of Maharashtra. So in Maharashtra the legislative assembly will be kept under suspended animation. Now let's look at the constitutional provisions regarding the proclamation of president's rule. Now this proclamation for the president rule is made by the president under article 356 of our Indian constitution he can proclaim either with the receipt of a report from the governor of the state or without the report from the governor also. See once the rule is proclaimed both the houses of parliament have to approve president rule within two months from the date of proclamation and once approved the rule president's rule can be continued for six months and it can be extended for a maximum period of three years with the approval of parliament for every subsequent period of six months. And after three years after the maximum period for president rule it should come to end and normal constitutional machinery must be restored in the state either by way of fresh elections or by forming a government that is either there has to be fresh elections or the legislative assembly has to be reactivated from suspended animation. When we say constitutional machinery it means forming the state executive that is the chief minister and council of ministers. Now if you see today's editorial column titled as the betrayal of the mandate here the crux of the editorial is that the author expects fresh elections to take place in the state of Magarastra once the president rule is removed. Now this actually means that no party will come together to form the government during the period of president's rule. So anyway once the president rule is removed there has to be fresh elections that is the suspended animation may not be reactivated rather it will be directly dissolved. Now let's see whether the proclamation of the president's rule can be challenged in the court of law or not. See it can be challenged in court of law and yesterday that is on 12th of November Sivasena has moved a petition in the supreme court challenging the governor's decision to deny its request to give a time period of three days to prove its majority. Now this petition that is filed in supreme court by the Sivasena party is important because it is stated that the governor of Magarastra has not given reasonable time neither for Sivasena nor for nationalist congress party. The congress party is saying that the governor has called three individual parties but he did not call Indian national congress which is the fourth largest party according to the recent elections and there is also a completely arbitrary allotment of time with respect to these parties for example two days have been given to BJP but just one day for Sivasena and not even one day for nationalist congress party and this means there is a complete arbitrary allotment of time from the side of the governor. So these are some of the information with respect to the analysis of this news article. Now let us move on to next article. This news article talks about the increasing cancer burden in our country and also about the inadequacy or the lack of healthcare facilities to address the cancer burden in our country. In this context we will briefly discuss about cancer and also some of the existing issues in the Indian healthcare system in addressing cancer. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article has been highlighted here for your reference. See cancer is a generic term for a large group of diseases that are characterized by growth of abnormal cells. These cells grow beyond their usual boundaries and they invade adjoining parts of the body or they will spread to other organs. Now some of the other common terms that are used to describe cancer are malignant tumors and neoplasm. What happens is uncontrolled cell divisions which lead to abnormal tissue growth in our body. See an uncontrolled cell division is called as a tumor. Not all tumors are cancerous. There are two types of tumors. One is malignant tumor and the other is benign tumor. Malignant tumor is named because these tumors are harmful for human body and benign tumors are named as benign because they are harmless. See malignant tumors are those cancerous cells that invade and destroy surrounding healthy tissue or surrounding healthy organs. This cancer can spread to distant parts of the body through the blood stream or in terms of anatomic language they will say this cancer can spread to distant parts through lymphatic system. Now coming to benign tumors as we said already these are harmless or non malignant tumors. These tumors do not grow uncontrollably or they will not invade neighboring tissues. They will not destroy surrounding healthy tissues and organs and they do not spread throughout the body though there is an uncontrolled cell division. So they are saying that cancer can affect almost any part of the human body and it has so many subtypes that each type require specific management strategies. They are saying there are over 200 different known cancers that affects human beings and most of the cancers are named from where they start. For example a lung cancer starts in the lung and a breast cancer starts in the breast. So the cancers are named from where they start. Now there is a term that they are using to indicate the spread of cancer from one part of the body to another part. This term is metastase. Now let's see if you get information with respect to symptoms and treatment with respect to cancer. See they are saying symptoms and treatment depend on specific cancer type and how advanced a particular cancer is. General symptoms are unexpected or unintentional weight loss, fever, fatigue, extreme tiredness, even change in skin color. Most common treatment plans include you know surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and at times stem cell transplants. So now let's see some of the important causes of cancer. In some connotations they are also a lifestyle disease. For example consuming alcohol and tobacco or diet and physical activity. These are two parameters or causes that is making cancer lifestyle disease. There are other causes for example exposure to harmful radiation, genetic mutations, hereditary causes also there and some environmental factors and there are some unknown reasons in medical terminology to highlight unknown reasons they are using the term idiopathic disease or infection. Now let us come to the news article. This news article is based on a report presented by a departmentally related parliamentary standing committee on science and technology, environment, forest and climate change. Now this report states that the incidence of cancer annually that is in one year is estimated to be around 16 lakhs and the mortality of cancer is estimated to be around 8 lakhs every year that is around 8 lakh persons who are affected by cancer or dying every year in our country. See these data are based on the data given by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as highlighted in the report submitted by the parliamentary standing committee. The report also talks about most common types of cancers in India, most common cancers among women or breast cancer followed by cervical cancer which is followed by oral cancer. Among men the most common cancer first comes oral cavity or oral cancer, second comes cancer of the pharynx or cancer of throat cancer and which is followed by cancer in the gastrointestinal tract or simply called as cancer in the digestive system or in stomach. Now if you compare the incidence and death because of cancer in India with developed countries, in India the ratios 0.68 that means out of 100 new patients 68 cancer infected patients died. The ratio in very high human development index countries are just 0.38 and in terms of high HDI countries it is around 0.57 whereas in India it is 0.68 higher than both the very high HDI countries and high HDI countries. In terms of human development index India was ranked as 130th country in the world with the score or HDI value of 0.64. India is in the medium development category now these values are based on HDI 2018 released by United Nations development program. The news article states that because of India's systematic failure to address the needs of cancer patients there is 20% higher mortality in India than in countries with a high human development index that is the death risk because of cancer in India is 20% more than that of those countries that are in the range of high human development index. Now when we say systematic failure here we refer to lack of infrastructure and having inadequate treatment facilities and we can see the accessibility for cancer treatment is also less. Usually people have to travel for longer distances for treatment and most of the best treatment facilities for cancer are located in the heart of cities or in urban areas. This reduces the accessibility for the majority of cancer patients that is why India is having high mortality to incidence ratio. There is a small difference in the incidence to mortality ratio as presented by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the data pertaining to incidence mortality ratio mentioned in this Parliamentary Standing Committee report. So why India should invest more on cancer care health infrastructure. See the threat of increasing cancer deaths is before India. See according to International Agency for Research on Cancer they are saying that cancer deaths in India are expected to rise from about 8.8 lakh in 2018 to the tune of around 13 lakhs in the year 2035. So if you have to save these precious human resources from deaths due to cancer we should have accessible affordable cancer health care in our country of highest quality. Now see the International Agency for Research on Cancer is a specialized cancer agency of world health organization. Its objective is to promote international collaboration in cancer research. So these are some of the information with respect to the analysis of this news article. Now let us move on to next article. This news article is with reference to agricultural produce marketing committees and also electronic national agricultural market. The crux of the news article is that the central government is now shifting from favoring the APMCs to ENAM that is electronic national agriculture market. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article has been highlighted here for your reference. What is an agricultural produce marketing committee? See this committee is a statutory market committee which is constituted by a state government in respect of trade in some notified agricultural or horticultural or livestock products. We said statutory market committee right. So this comes under the agricultural produce market committee legislation that is issued by a concerned state government. Now the reason why we are telling that it is coming under state government is because agriculture is a state subject in the seventh schedule of Indian constitution. See agricultural markets are in most parts of the country and they are established and regulated under the state APMC legislations. So their main purpose is that they will provide a platform for farmers to sell their produce. Now let's see some of the important objectives of APMCs. First they have to ensure that farmers are not exploited and they have to ensure that farmers receive a remunerative price for their produce and they should also ensure transparency in the pricing system and also transparency in the transactions that take place in the market area and they have to promote public private partnership in the management of agricultural markets and they have to publicize the data with respect to arrivals of agricultural produce and also they have to provide data with respect to the rates of agricultural produce that is brought into the market area for selling purposes and there are few more objectives also but these are some of the important objectives. See we have discussed it comes under the domain of states so there will be regional variation within the states so there is no uniformity. So with an objective to bring uniformity across agricultural markets in our country the center proposed a model legislation in the year 2003. This model act is called as Model APMC Act so that there will not be a state monopoly on agricultural markets or agricultural Mondays. This is to be achieved by promoting direct marketing. Now why there is a state monopoly in agricultural produce and marketing committee. Now generally these committees will have representatives from farmers traders warehousing platforms then registrar of cooperative societies and few other officials and this composition varies with states also. See the producers of agricultural produce they have to do their first sale in the markets regulated by agricultural produce marketing committee. So this committee restricts the farmer from entering into a direct contract with any processor or manufacturer or trader for that matter of concern. So any produce is required to be routed through these regulated markets only and these first sale in some notified agricultural commodities has to take place only under the support or under the supervision of APMC through the licensed commission agents and there will also be some kind of payment of taxes and fees for using the market space and etc. So end of the day these agricultural produce marketing committees they are playing a dual role of being a regulator and also serving as a market. So over a period of time these committees and their markets regulated by them have become a much of restrictive and monopolistic nature that end of the day harmed the farmers rather than helping them to realize remunerative prices. So to redeem farmers from this situation this model APMC Act it stated there shall be direct marketing of agricultural produce that means a farmer can directly contract with a private buyer and he can sell his produce and it also promotes contract forming. It also allows public private participation in the management and development of agricultural markets so that there will not be monopoly of the state and it also aims to relax the licensing norms. Here when we say licensing norms it could be relaxing norms for licensing with respect to commission agents or with respect to the small licensing fees that are being charged from warehousing agents or loading agents etc or it could also means relaxing norms with respect to traders license and it also had provisions so that the revenue earned by APMC could be utilized for creating necessary marketing infrastructure but know that it is a model act the central government at that point of time urged states to inculcate the provisions from this model legislation but note that not all states adopted the provisions of the model act. That means all the reforms that the central government aimed to bring into agricultural markets were not adopted by the state governments and there was a criticism placed on APMC's in 2013 by the committee on agricultural reforms. It noted that almost all APMC's have become some sort of government sponsored monopolies in the supply of marketing services. So to resolve some of the issues pending with the various state markets and APMC's the central government in 2017 brought another model act called as model agricultural produce and livestock marketing act. This model act was also not taken seriously by the state governments. So central government tried a totally another measure to establish an efficient agricultural marketing system in our country and this is establishing national agricultural market called as electronic national agricultural market. See this is a all India electronic trading portal and this portal connects existing APMC Mondays so as to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities. So who is the lead agency that is implementing ENAM. See it is the small farmers agribusiness consortium that acts as lead agency for implementing ENAM under the ages of ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare. So the electronic national agricultural market aims to promote uniformity in agriculture marketing and this is to be achieved by streamlining various procedures across the integrated markets under the framework of ENAM. It also aims to remove information asymmetry between buyers and sellers and since it is an electronic portal it also promotes real-time price discovery based on actual demand and supply. ENAM will also serve as a platform for better price discovery through transparent auction process for agricultural produce brought by the farmers. This is because at present APMC regulated market auction will happen but it is criticized that it happens mostly in a non-transparent manner and there is also criticism that timely payment is also not given to farmers for their produce in the present markets. However in ENAM these disadvantages will be addressed and there will be timely online payment and there will be transparent auction processes and this ENAM will also facilitate pan-India trade in agricultural commodities through a common online market platform. So these are some of the points that gives electronic national agricultural market an upper hand over the state-controlled agriculture produce marketing committees. Now let us see into the news article. Till now the central government has been trying to reform the APMC's and it has also tried to allocate funds to upgrade them persuading states to adopt the model APMC act. However now the central government has shifted from its approach from APMC towards ENAM. However even within ENAM this news article raises some concerns about the effectiveness. The news article mentions that out of 12 crore cultivators in our country only 1.6 crore cultivators have so far registered in this ENAM portal. So this means that this portal at least in the present time has not yet reached more than 85 percent of our cultivators and we saw that it aims to connect existing APMC Mondays or APMC markets so as to create a unified national market for agricultural communities. But of almost around some 2500 APMC's only some 20 percent of them have been connected to this ENAM portal that is roughly some 585 APMC's have connected to this portal. So this ENAM has to go a long way in networking all the APMC's in the country and this will definitely require time. So with this we can conclude that a sudden shift to electronic national agricultural market may not be possible. So for the time being the state should adopt model APMC act and they should make necessary reforms in their agricultural produce marketing committees because even though there is ENAM these APMC's are going to take part in that ENAM. So reforms are required in this APMC's also and more investment has to be made in infrastructure particularly agricultural marketing and storage infrastructure. These infrastructure could be for storage quality control assessment transportation and other allied services. Once these things are carried out it will be efficient and it will be easy to integrate the APMC's to the ENAM network. So these are some of the information with respect to the analysis of this news article. So we saw about how the state governments are exercising monopoly in the agricultural produce and marketing committee and we saw about electronic national agricultural market and the advantages it has over the APMC markets and then we saw the current scenario with reference to ENAM. Now let's move on to the practice questions discussion session. Now this question is with reference to president rule. They have given three statements and are asking which of the above statements are correct. Now the first statement as per article 356 president rule can be imposed only on the recommendation of the governor. Now this statement is wrong. This is because the president rule can be imposed or proclaimed by the president either with the receipt of a report from the governor or without the receipt of report from the governor. So the first statement is wrong. Immediately you can eliminate options A and D. Now your probability of hitting the right answer has increased to 50%. Now the second statement the proclamation of the president's rule shall be approved by both the houses of the parliament within two months. Now this statement is correct. Within two months from the date of proclamation it has to be approved by both the houses of parliament. Now see the third statement the president's rule cannot be extended beyond six months. This statement is wrong. The president rule can be extended for a total period of three years. After that it has to be removed and normal constitutional machinery has to be restored in the state. So the third statement is wrong. So the correct answer for this question is option C 2 only. Now this question is with respect to electronic national agriculture market. They have given two statements and asking which of the statements are correct. First statement ENAM is the Pan India Electronic Trading Portal which networks the existing APMC Mondes to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities. Now this statement is correct and it is the definition of ENAM. The second statement NABAD is the lead agency for implementing ENAM. Now this statement is incorrect. This is because ENAM will be managed centrally by an agency called as small farmers agribusiness consortium and this consortium is also called as the lead implementing agency of electronic national agriculture market. And note that if there is a statement that comes as NAM is only a virtual market and it does not has any physical market this is wrong because NAM is a virtual market but it has a physical market at the back end. These physical markets could be private markets or you know even APMC regulated markets. So the correct answer for this question is option A 1 only. Now this question is with reference to international agency for research on cancer. They have given two statements and they are asking which of the above statements are correct. IARC is a specialized agency of world health organization to promote international collaboration in cancer research. Now this statement is correct. This agency for research on cancer was created in the year 1965 by resolution of world health assembly. It is headquartered in France in Lyon. Its objective as given is to promote international collaboration in cancer research. So the first statement is correct. The second statement mentions that it releases world cancer report in every five years since 2003. Now this statement is also correct. For the first time the world cancer report was published by IARC in 2003. Since then it has been releasing world cancer report for every five years. This report focuses on global cancer burden causes of cancer then biological processes and cancer development and various other matters pertaining to cancer. So this statement is also correct. So the correct answer for this question is option C both 1 and 2. If you like the video, click the like button, comment, share and subscribe to Shankaray's Academy YouTube channel for more updates and content on civil service exam preparation.


And we'll take the first one from Meredith Morakovitz. Meredith, please unmute your line. Hey, Mike, do you feel ready for the season to begin, being that it's just a week away now? Yeah. I mean, not many options, but to feel ready. But no, I think staff and team has done a great job of getting us a lot of app ads. And we just finished up some of the group today. I think that we also have the added benefit of the quality arms we're facing every day. It's a really good challenge. I think it's a good challenge for the hitters to be facing that caliber pitching and then vice versa. But yeah, I mean, we got some exhibition games against some other arms coming up soon. But I think whether or not you're ready, you kind of got to be ready. Overall, how do you feel at the plate right now? How has your timing been? It's gotten better. There's nothing really that can simulate the game speed of a guy standing in the mound throwing to you. I think a lot of guys would agree that pitching early on is usually a little ahead of hitting. But I would definitely say that I've noticed collectively the last few days, guys are starting to put together some really good app ads.  So that's great to see coming up. Because obviously, Washington's got really good pitching staff. So we're getting that preparation we need. With everyone in the outfield seemingly healthy right now, how do you see yourself fitting in in this 2020 season? That's where I'm needed. You know, that's not something you can really control, I guess. But try to control my preparation. Obviously, we have a really, really talented team. And when we're healthy, you know, we're going to be really tough. So I'm just, you know, I'm happy to get it going.  And just being back to baseball is exciting. Thank you. Thank you, Meredith. We'll take our next question from Christy Eckert. Christy, would you please unmute your line? Hi, Mike. I'm just curious what you expect facing another team this weekend. What will be the benefits of that? And how will it be different than what you've been doing lately? I mean, I think it'll be fun. I think it'll be great. But, you know, I think as there are a couple of things that as much as you want to try to simulate in an inner squad, it's like those are guys. And there's always a level of competitiveness, just, you know, our personalities. But I think playing another team, and you know, guys, you don't like know, quote unquote, it adds another level of that. So, you know, it's going to be interesting to see how lack of crowds and different things kind of affect adrenaline and kind of the day-to-day nature of playing. But I think that playing against another team will sort of add a level. So I'm excited. I'm looking forward to that and it should be good. This is about, I guess, one week left in spring training or summer camp or whatever this is. Do you feel like you would in a normal spring training a week out or is it a little different now? I mean, it's pretty much the same. You know, I think trying to, you know, kind of over the break, stay on top of a lot of stuff, just in terms of, simulate game speed as much as possible.  You know, you can argue they count even more. So, you know, I think that it's kind of that last week is just going to be the same that it, you know, kind of normally is. Thank you. Thank you, Christy. We'll take our next question from Brian Hoke. Brian, would you please unmute your line? I'm like, just wondering what your main takeaway was from facing your own pitchers. Is there anything you learned about them?   I don't think, I don't think you can say that our team's never prepared.  And I think it gives a little bit of insight into, you know, what we can expect, you know, from other teams, I guess, just from a game-planning, scouting preparation standpoint. Thank you. Thank you, Brian. We'll take the next one from Ron Blum. Ron, would you please unmute? Hi, Mike. Has anyone from the coaching staff or Aaron talked to you yet about the possibility of being used as the runner-in-second to start the next training? And what do you think about that? And how would you, what would be the preparation just to be stretched out and ready for that? Yeah, just keep your legs loose. I mean, I think, you know, spending some time in a bench player role, it forces you to kind of think along the lines of a manager in just what situations you could be used for.  So the opportunity to win the game, you got to be ready for it. Do you like this innovation? What did you think of it when you saw it used in the minor? You know, I'm not a huge fan of it. I understand why it's being done, but I'm not a huge fan of it. I understand why pitchers don't like it, having to deal with a runner that they didn't create. I think that there's going to be some experimentation with it. I think in the minor leagues, though, you kind of just get used to it a little bit, but I would have to say that I would rather, I guess we play it a little bit more straight up. Thank you. Thank you, Ron. We'll take the next one from George King. George, would you please unmute? Mike Boyd was in where you were a little while ago. He said he saw Lameyue, and he said he was really excited to see him back. I'm sure that goes for the rest of the players too. Yeah, yeah. I mean, from a production standpoint, I mean, everybody saw what he did last year offensively, and then just to have, you know, kind of that, sort of have that presence at the top of lineup, he kind of kick starts the whole thing, and, you know, from a defensive standpoint, just to kind of solidify that, you know, the infield because I think he's shown, you know, goal-globability at three positions. I know he's probably going to be seeing a lot of second base. I don't know. I guess I don't really know, but, you know, whatever the case is to have a player who was, you know, like a top four or five MVP last year getting him back right before we go, it's huge. And did you see him and if you did, what did he look like? I didn't see him. I didn't see him. I can't wait to see him, though. Thank you. We'll take the next one from Sweeney Murdy. Sweeney, would you please unmute? Mike, I actually also had a question for you about the extra innings because you were part of that, the simulated stuff the other night. What did you take from that, getting a chance to kind of put it in action, try to lay down a bond? Is there anything about just the pressure of trying to push that run across in that situation that you guys learned or talked about during the game? No, I just think it honestly comes down to execution, you know? Whether or not we're gonna be bunting more, whether or not we're gonna be a little bit more aggressive on the bases, you know, putting somebody that has the capability to steal third base possibly or just, yeah, like you said, get a little creative. I think, you know, there's a lot of possibilities and it was good to practice it and then, so at least we're prepared for the first time it happens because it's gonna happen, you know, it's gonna happen. So, you know, I think it was good for the pitchers too, you know, not a lot of runners get to second base on Chad Green, Tommy Kaylee, Zach Britton, and Adam Montevino. So, good practice for them too, good practice for the catchers in that situation, the middle and fielders. But yeah, no, I mean, you know, we'll find out a little bit more once we get that situation in the regular season. Thank you, Mike. We'll go to James Wagner. James, would you please unmute? Hey, Mike, just a quick question. I know you talked about in off season, I'm sorry, during the pause that you had a place to hit and you were getting to see, but have you ever used the concept of like visualization where you, I don't know whether it's virtual reality or watching all that batsy yourself to try and you know, prepare when you're not actually, or keep your mind sharp and focused when you're not actually like creating physical ideas? Any sort of VR stuff I've seen to this point, I haven't come away too impressed with. I often find that the only way to truly know what a guy looks like is to be in the box with him. Now I think there are things in your mental library and catalog of at bats that based on arm slot or size or repertoire might be able to give you a little bit of an idea of what a guy's stuff will look like. And I think that I've found that prepares me better than any VR tech that I've seen to this point. To your second point, I think everybody at some point likes to watch videos of themselves having success. In terms of using that, I'm not a huge fan of going back to look at mechanical cues that I've used in the past because a lot of times your body changes, your thought processes evolve, maybe you're stronger or weaker or you've dealt with some sort of physical limitation in some way or something. So I try to really focus on how I'm feeling presently and what seems to be feeling good that day, but it does, sometimes you do need to watch some of your highlights to get the juices flowing a little bit. Thank you, James. We'll go to Max Goodman. Max, please unmute. Hey, Mike, thanks for taking some time. As a fellow outfielder, I just wanted to, I'm just curious what you think about where Aaron judges at and swung the ball well yesterday, swung the bat well yesterday, but since you're out there with him in drills and you were with him when he was hurt earlier this spring, where do you think he's at and what do you expect from him this year? Hey, it looks great. You know, his drill work looks great.  The times that we've been starting our games, right field is, you're basically just staring right into the sun and there was a ball that he went back on that was, I can pretty much guarantee was in the sun and he made a, I mean, he made it look pretty easy, but it was not an easy play.  Thanks. Thank you. We'll go back to Meredith. Meredith, please unmute. Hey, my p Yankees released a commercial the other day featuring you and Tommy Kainley. Have you watched it? Did you enjoy doing it? What did you think of the finished product? It was great. I was wondering when we were going to see it. Yeah, we did it back in spring training, you know, they did a great job with that. They did a great job with all of them. I loved, I loved Glaber's commercial. I watched it like 10 times when it first came out. No, they, all of them, they do a really good job with. And yeah, I mean, if you want something to, you know, get a lot of views, you put Tommy Kainley in it, I think. So, no, it was, it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun doing it with him, just kind of goofing around and, and yeah, yeah. And it was fun. I liked it.