Hi folks, John Bergman here. I am going to talk to you guys about flipped classroom for administrators I really want to emphasize what that looks like for you guys a couple things I want to highlight here if you're interested in following me on Twitter There's my Twitter handle. I've got a couple of important websites I'd like you to look at flipped learning org is a nonprofit organization that Aaron Samson. I started recently Lots of information training opportunities, etc. My personal blog is very similar flipped hyphen learning comm Lots of resources there as well and my musings and then probably the best place to go is this right here flipped classroom.org I'd encourage you to go to flip classroom.org. It is website social media website for flippers completely free Place for you to contact and connect with other people who are interested in the flip classroom And of course if you're a Twitter follower the hashtag flip class is a great thing to follow There's a flip class chat every Monday night if you're at all interested But I want to talk today about administrators and how administrators play in this game So I really believe that we're in exciting times. What I mean by that is exciting times of change You see I think we're moving from this classroom that that teacher centered classroom of the past To this classroom this learner centered Inquiry driven problem-based classroom of the future. This is where I think we're moving and administrators Are starting to see this as important, right? And let me emphasize something one thing that's important that Aaron I often say is that this this idea of the flip classroom was built in the trenches. So it was built by by teachers Practicing in classrooms. You see this is education from the bottom up a grassroots movements If you will not not education reform from the top down which has sadly so often occurred and frankly been I would see largely Ineffective so what let's kind of do a little background at the flip classroom the flip classroom really needs to start with one question How many questions that's right one question. What is that one question? It is this what is the most valuable use of your class time or should I say go face-to-face time with students? What is the best use of your class time? If you answer that question, I think you can get so far. Well, let me explain what how we answered that question So in the 2007 2008 school year as we actually came up with the idea. No 2006-7 school year anyways Erin and I thought What if we took our direct content and we moved it to home so the lecture, right? So we were high school science teachers particularly chemistry and there's let's say there's this much time in class But the problem is there's this much stuff to cover, right? And so what we did is we took that that home time was right here this extra stuff that had been pushed to the Home and we moved it back into the class and out of the class we took the lecture There were still things that you know activities and labs and stuff that we'd always done and we kept doing we didn't change any of that eventually we did which I might briefly touch on a little bit later, but That's the flip what was done at home was in a class was done in class has done at home Okay, now before I really talk to you administrators I want to make a couple of important things that everybody seems to want to ask these like Critical questions and they are important, but they've been resolved question number one flipped learning relies on the videos So many people say it's all about these videos It's about the videos there's been a lot of hype about the Sal Khan Khan Academy videos a lot kind of stuff It's not about the videos It's about the active engaged stuff that you can do in the class. That is the key Another big misconception is they think it really hurt students who have little access at home to technology This is an important issue. So don't don't say I'm demean diminishing this problem But we solved this problem at least for us in our school in the mountains of Colorado We had 25% of our kids without internet at home. So what did we do? Well, some kids had computers, but no internet So we gave them flash drives to put them on and then we had kids who had no computer no internet And so we put them DVDs so you could like a unit at a time like, you know six or seven videos We put them on a DVD. They took it home. They put in their TV and they pushed play Every kid so far has had a DVD player access to one and with the advent of more and more phones that have video capability The vast majority of students have that option as well So it can be solved and in fact another thing to say about this whole digital divide You don't have to always have the videos as homework another big Problem that people cite when they discuss the flipped learning is they say that it's just propagating a bad Teaching technique that is lecture that lecture is a bad technique of communicating content If you are a person who can teach completely without direct instruction of your whole class Then you're probably a better teacher than me because I really needed that time that direct instruction I just don't believe the place of it is me with 30 kids all at the same time So I guess you know if you if you don't believe in direct instruction at all, that's fine But for those of us who do I think this is a viable and important technique now when I talked about the flip classroom At least in that first iteration I talked about it in our actually we did that for one year and then we moved to what we called the flipped mastery approach That's something important to say that it's I would really really encourage and I challenge teachers all the time Who flipped their class to take it to the next level to what we're calling flipped class 201 or possibly 202 or to some other level? And we moved to a mastery system Which we talked in our book about a second half of our book is about the flipped master approach where you start with the Direct instruction you move to practice application and then when they get to the end of a unit of study It's assessed that was that's always the process, but if they don't understand it they don't reach a prescribed level of mastery then they have to remediate and So kids it becomes asynchronous with the kids work at different levels And if you want to know how that works I'd encourage you to read the books and benefits of the flipped mastery model is like students were independent learners They learn how to learn for themselves They the teachers able to differentiate that the subtitle of our book is reach every kid in every class every day Why because we talked to every kid in every class every day. We truly had a differentiated experience It was a personalized learning environment for students now another benefit of the mastery models that there's no gaps So a student actually has to learn it before they can move on so So often in some subjects that kid you get to the end of the unit kid gets a 42 And what do you do the next day? Well, you move on to the next chapter or the next unit or whatever, right? And then kids get lost and then there's gaps and then they don't understand something and then they're lost, right? Also, if you're talking every kid every kid how many kids every that's right every kid There's no place for them to hide. I like to say that you really can reach every kid in every class every day So now let's let's dive down to the administrator piece So if you've got teachers who are flipping or considering flipping their classes, what does that look like? Number one know that class like this it will not look like this. You're gonna have a Very different active engaged classroom Don't expect the case to be sitting in nice neat rows and don't expect it to be necessarily a quiet environment Okay, also, you know, I've talked to a number of interstates. Oh, I want this change I want this change the reality is is people change at different rates And I'm sure you administrators understand this and and now that I'm in an administrative role as a district technology coordinator and instructional coach That role I've realized that I need to be patient with teachers as they undergo the process of change So give them time to change Also give them time to collaborate the flip-class, you know, like I said was born earlier on I said by by Teachers in the trenches, but you know At first it was just Aaron and me right in our classrooms that were next to each other But then our world expanded and we got with social networking and met other teachers and whatever It's become much better because we've got a collaborative group of people to work with it's best Of course if you can collaborate face-to-face at your school with teachers But there's also other ways to collaborate that is not necessarily on in a face-to-face environment It could be you know through social media or something like that Also give them permission to make mistakes, okay We made a lot of mistakes our administrator our principal del Garrick principal at the Woodland Park High School He gave us we made mistakes and he basically forgave us for mistakes and you know He allowed us to just experiment and I would encourage you to do that and no it's not going to run completely smooth You know a teacher evaluation is kind of an interesting thing, right?  How do you how do you measure this, right? Here's the question. I want you to ask are the students engaged Your teacher evaluation will need to look different. Okay Adele my my Adele Garrick our principal He came in our class. He looked around. He said the kids are active. They're engaged. They're learning. I get it. You're good Okay, not exactly the big formal thing that fit into the nice little rubric, but he got it Okay, you know also it can be discouraging as you are working through Something new as teachers are trying something new encourage them to just keep on keeping on, you know And one thing also I'll come back to Dell. I think he had some wise words One thing we were talking about change just change in general not just the flip classroom But the flip classroom is the context of our conversation. He said, you know John and Aaron the first year you're trying something new It's hard Roadblocks you've got push back from people etc the second year you work out the kinks the third year It's culture and you know what that's exactly the progression that we saw He said that year one and it was exactly the progression. We saw by the third year You know, I think the best way to if you really want the flip classroom to happen in your school Is you need to get a coach and so I'd encourage you to reach out to some of the flip class experts Frankly, this is one of the things that we're doing at flipped learning org our nonprofit organization is that we are beginning a coaching model where Experienced flip class teachers can come alongside Schools districts etc. So I encourage you to find a coach that can walk them through this It doesn't have to be one of us, but find somebody else, you know, and clearly the flip classroom does rely on some technology And so I want to remind you that you are the boss of the it department So often I've seen as I've had a lot of experiences and opportunities to travel around this country and the world even About the flip classroom It seems like the it department rules the school and I I encourage you To make sure that the it people are there to support this endeavor It's not like it's huge amounts of it, but there is a level of technology that they're going to need support on You know, be a buffer didn't have a cool picture for this one But be a buffer for them, you know, there's going to be some pushback from possibly the community I would encourage you to stand behind your teachers and say we're doing this and this is what we think is best for kids And so be that for your teachers Also be a sounding board There's going to be some some hiccups. There's going to be some road bumps in the in the road as they make this So be the person that they can listen to And have a conversation with, all right Now here's something I really like to challenge you administrators on model it Flip your faculty meetings. I have sat into too many faculty meetings With administrations who sometimes are using it as just content dissemination They've gone to the lecture mode really and there's got to be a way what I ask you like I asked At the beginning, what is the best use of your face-to-face time not your face-to-face time with students But your face-to-face time with your teachers I would bet it's you know if I and I am I have flip faculty meetings or not really faculty meetings, but my technology committee meetings I really want us to use that time to have conversation So if there's information that needs to be got out to my group I'm going to email it and I'm going to expect them to read it So I would really encourage you to model this and think through what this could look like from your level And by modeling it, I think that's a very powerful thing. You know, ultimately, I think this is all about personalization The flip classroom is about personalizing the learning environment for all kids or in your case personalizing the the professional development of your teachers or Yeah, so back in 1950 when you're buying a car, you know your choices were, you know gray or tan or Red or whatever, right? But you know if you move now if you go to the the ford website and you can build Your own escape from the roof rails down. You see our world has moved to a personalized environment Our schools sadly have not caught up to the personalized Revolution that has taken place in in the world You know you go to starbucks and you can order exactly what you want But in education you walk in and it looks the classrooms in many cases Not always in many cases still like look like the classes of 40 50 and 100 years ago Even with the teacher standing in front of the board Or maybe they've got a projector doing the same old thing So I would really encourage you to think about how the flip classroom can personalize learning environment for all students I would encourage you if you want to read more to check out our book Copolished by ASCD and I este or este Flip your classroom reach every kid in every class every day. Have a great day Thank you


Good evening, aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Ayes Academy for the date 9th May 2019. The list of articles which has been chosen for today's analysis along with the page numbers of Chennai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Tiruvannapuram Editions are provided here. Link for the 110 notes in the PDF format and the time stamping for the displayed news articles have been provided in the description box. For the benefit of smartphone users, the time stamping has also been provided in the comments section. Moving on to the first article discussion for the day which is an editorial about proprietary seats. This article has appeared on page 9 in all the four editions. The information under this discussion will be relevant in the prelim syllabus under the area current events of national importance and in the main syllabus under GS paper 3 in major crops, cropping patterns in various parts of the country and marketing of agricultural produce and issues and related constraints. Stepping into the main discussion, the author starts the article with the controversy of PepsiCo company suing the farmers, which has triggered the discussion about the proprietary seats. PepsiCo company was suing small farmers in India for growing a potato variety that is used in its lace chips. Immediately, the national and international communities sympathized with the farmers and due to this pressure, PepsiCo withdrawed their lawsuit. The author states that the farmers are reliant on these proprietary seats, either directly or indirectly. Now to further understand the article, let us first know what a proprietary seat is. In the seed industry, proprietary is often used to indicate germ plasm or breeding methods that are solely used internally within a company for breeding or research. Often these breeding methods or germ plasms are protected as trade secrets. The term proprietary is also used to indicate that a company or organization owns the seed or technology. Here the term germ plasm mentioned means a living tissue from which a new plant can be grown. A germ plasm can be a seed or another plant part such as a leaf, a piece of stem, pollen or even just few cells that can be turned into a whole plant. Germ plasm contains the information for a species genetic makeup and it is a valuable natural resource of plant diversity. Now the seeds are grown using a high input environment that does with the usage of fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation methods. And the proprietary seeds have a narrow uniform and non-variable genetic builds so there is no diversification possible here. There are many disadvantages of these proprietary seeds like it erodes or destroys local biodiversity because the farmers are changing the local conditions and farming traditions in order to make them to adapt to the usage of genetically standardized seeds. Here you can see the problem which is the farmers should be using genetically distinctive seeds that will be adapted to local conditions and farming traditions and not the vice versa. This unusual adaptation is ruining the local biodiversity. They are changing the natural setting because the proprietary seeds are high yielding in nature and the socio-economic impact is that these seeds are expensive because the seeds are proprietary and hence farmers must pay royalties to use them. They need to purchase new seeds every season and the cost of the seeds is also rising every season and additionally the high input environment also incurs more cost and all these increase their debt and further they are also losing their skill because they are no longer using the indigenous varieties which they are used to and hence they are not saving and exchanging the seed of indigenous varieties also. Now beyond all these disadvantages let us see why farmers are preferring the proprietary seeds and think they are better. One of the reasons is the green revolution where they were taught to buy high yielding variety of seeds. Here the yield may be high but it comes at a cost of losing the local biodiversity and then the common science and industry knows best concept which has driven them to demand the government to pass a new seed law in India which permits the sale of certified seeds only. Another reason is small scale farming which is the production of crops and livestock on a small piece of land without using advanced and expensive technologies and this continues to stay on a downward spiral of low income low status and lower dignity. As a contrary to the PepsiCo's allegation India already has a protection of plant varieties and farmers rights act of 2001. It is a plant variety protection law which regulates the intellectual property rights in seeds. This law provides a broad permission to the farmers. We can say it provides for a farmer's privilege like the law permits farmers to save, sow, re sow or multiply the seeds and it also permits the farmers to sell these seeds to other farmers irrespective of the original source of the seed. Next the author focuses on how to minimize the harm and maximize the gain for farmers. For that the author suggests India to shift its agriculture from a high yield ideal to a high value one. The values mentioned here include an agricultural model that strives to minimize environmental harm while maximizing nutritional gains and foremost importance to farmers welfare. The author lists some measures that can be taken to achieve this shift. Firstly the small farmers must be educated to engage with institute agriculture that conserves and improves traditional or these seeds and they should be encouraged to do it with proper incentive structures rather than with improved proprietary seed varieties. Secondly an immutable or fixed record keeping system should be introduced to break the link between the profitable and the proprietary. This system would allow India and its rural communities to keep a proper track of where and how their seeds are being transferred and traded. Moreover the system would also ensure smart contract facilitated micro payments to the farmers from the monetary returns coming from users and buyers of these seeds around the globe. These monetary returns would effectively incentivize continuous cultivation and improvements of indigenous seeds on one hand and ensure sustainable growth of agriculture and of rural communities on the other. Thirdly as a key prerequisite to the execution of the first few plants the author mentions that India's invaluable traditional ecological knowledge systems must be revived and it should be made a part of mainstream agricultural research and education. The author points to the ancient Indian literatures like Vriksha Ayurveda and Krishi Parashar which lists indigenous and traditional technologies for agriculture. Vriksha Ayurveda is the ancient Indian science of plant life and Krishi Parashar talks about the general agriculture and the revival of these technologies is central to promoting sustainable high value agriculture. With this we come to the end of this discussion. The displayed main question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next article for the day which is about the Patta Chitra paintings. This news article has appeared on page 7 of Delhi edition only. The contents and the analysis of this news article will be relevant in the preparation on the current events of national importance and remains preparation in general studies paper one under Indian culture salient aspects of art forms from ancient to modern times. This news article discusses about the damage caused to the heritage village of Raghurajpur by Cyclone Fawney. This village is located in Puri district of Odisha and the heritage village is famous for its traditional works such as Patta Chitra, paper marks and wooden carvings to dolls etc. In this context, let us know about the art form of Patta Chitra which has utmost importance in the preliminary examination. Patta Chitra paintings are the oldest and the most popular art form of Odisha. Patta Chitra is a Sanskrit word where patta means canvas and chitra means picture. The painters who paint these patta chitra are called as chitra cars locally. Patta Chitra is a painting done on canvas. The paintings are created by rich colorful application, creative motives and designs and it portrays simple themes which are mostly mythological depictions. In the traditional method, making the patta is the first thing. The painters start preparing a tamarin paste which is made by soaking tamarin seeds in water for three days. The seeds are later pounded with a crusher mixed with water and then heated in an earthen pot to turn it into a paste. The paste is then used to hold two pieces of cloth together with it and for a couple of times it is coated with a powder of soft clay stone until it becomes firm. As the cloth becomes dry, a final touch of polishing is given first with the rough stone and then a smooth stone or wood until the surface becomes smooth and leathery. After this, the canvas is ready to be painted on. The colors that are used in the paintings are sourced from naturally available raw materials. As we saw earlier, very simple mythological themes are used in these paintings. Some of the popular themes represented through these art forms are Thea Badia which is the depiction of the temple of Jagannath. Next is Krishnalila which is the enactment of Jagannath as Lord Krishna displaying his powers as a child. And next is Dasabhatara patta which means the depiction of 10 incarnations of Lord Vishnu and then Panchamukhi which is the depiction of Lord Ganesh as a five-headed deity. These patta-chitra paintings have been awarded geographical indication tag that is GI tag under handicrafts category in the year 2008 to 2009. The patta-chitra logo has also been awarded GI tag in the year 2013 to 14 under handicrafts category. Now try to know some of the other popular paintings of India. Majority of these paintings have been awarded GI tags as well. The years of awarding GI tags for some of these paintings are also mentioned here for your reference. Some of the other popular traditional paintings of India are Madhubani paintings of Bihar, Varley folk paintings of Maharashtra, miniature paintings of Rajasthan and Tanjo paintings from Tamil Nadu. Madhubani paintings are practiced in the Mithila region of Bihar. Varley folk paintings is practiced by the Varley tribal people of Maharashtra and Gujarat. Next the miniature paintings are practiced in many areas of Rajasthan state which was patronized by the Rajput rulers. Finally we have Tanjo paintings which is practiced in the Tanjavur district of Tamil Nadu. With this we come to the end of this discussion. The displayed are the previously asked questions in the preliminary examination relating to the paintings of India. It has been provided for the benefit of the viewers. Have a look at it. Here displayed practice prelims questions will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next article which is about trans fat. This news article has appeared in page 18 of Delhi edition only. The contents of this news and their analysis will be relevant in prelims preparation under current events of national and international importance and under general science also. And in main preparation in general studies paper 3 under food processing and related industries in India the scope and significance. Stepping into the main discussion world health organization is partnering with international food and beverage alliance. In short IFBA to achieve the goal of eliminating industrially produced trans fat by 2023. For this very purpose the world health organization has released replace action package in May 2018. The replace package serves as a roadmap for countries to implement actions to reduce and eliminate industrially produced trans fats. In this context let us know in brief about trans fats. Any food which we consume includes micronutrients like carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Different kinds of fats are present in our food such as saturated fats, unsaturated fats and trans fats. And there are two major unsaturated fats namely mono unsaturated fatty acid and polyunsaturated fatty acid.  Let us know the sources of this unhealthy trans fat.  And trans fats are formed during the reuse of cooking oil also. They are also formed when the oil is heated above 180 degree Celsius. And trans fats are largely produced artificially in industries. They are produced by partial hydrogenation of the vegetable oils. Hydrogenation means addition of hydrogen to oils. This leads to the formation of trans fats. Some of the advantages of partial hydrogenated oils are that they are quite inexpensive compared to the existing fats available. Also they have a long shelf life. And these oils improve the stability of the flavors, taste and texture of the food to which it is added. The main disadvantage is that the intake of the food containing these trans fats increase the bad cholesterol in the body. The low density lipoprotein levels or LDLs in the body shoots up leading to cholesterol accumulation in the blood vessels. This will lead to blood clots and in turn it will affect the blood flow. And finally this leads to coronary heart disease. The intake of food containing trans fats also leads to obesity and high blood pressure in humans. Since trans fats are more in oils it is commonly found in foods that require more fats or oils for preparation. So trans fats are found in chips, cakes, biscuits, frozen pizza, margarine and in vanaspati or dalda and in many such foods. Now you also need to know about the trans fat scenario from Indian perspective. In India FSSAI that is the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has mandated that the trans fat should not exceed more than 5% by weight in vegetable fats. Also FSSAI has recently proposed to limit its usage to less than 2%. In line with WHO's campaign FSSAI has also launched heart attack rewind campaign in December 2018. FSSAI aims to create awareness about trans fat and eliminate them in India by 2022 which is one year ahead of WHO's target. Now let us get back to the news article. We saw that WHO has partnered with International Food and Beverage Alliance. Let us now know in brief about this alliance. This International Food and Beverage Alliance was founded in the year 2008 by the CEOs of the world's leading food and non-alcoholic beverage companies. They include companies like Coca-Cola, Nestle, PepsiCo, Unilever, Mondelez, Mars, Kellogg's, McDonald's etc. All these companies produce world's most chunk of processed food and non-alcoholic beverage. Globally this alliance has pledged that the amount of industrial trans fat will not exceed 2g for every 100g of fat or oil produced and this will be done by 2023. This alliance has also pledged that the salt, sugar and the saturated fats used in their food products will be reduced gradually. WHO's partnership with this alliance is of great significance since it would help to meet WHO's targets by the 2023 deadline. With this, we come to the end of this discussion and the practice problems question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next news article for the day which is about the discussions that happened between 15 finance commission and Reserve Bank of India. This news article appears on page 13 in all the four editions. We will be covering three aspects in this news article which includes budgeting, PM Kisan scheme and also about finance commission. So, the contents and the analysis of this news article will be relevant in your problems preparation under current events of national importance next under Indian polity and governance, economic development including social sector initiatives. It will be also relevant in mains preparation under General Studies paper 2 in the areas appointment to various constitutional posts, powers, functions and responsibilities of various constitutional bodies. Next, under government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation and also in General Studies paper 3 under government budgeting and finally under issues related to direct and indirect farm subsidies and minimum support prices. Stepping into the main discussion, RBA has presented the Indian government's finances for the financial year 2019-20 to the finance commission. The RBA has predicted a possible fiscal slippage in the revised estimate of the financial year 2018-19. It means that the fiscal deficit is likely to increase. Let us know what is meant by budget estimate, revised estimate and fiscal deficit in brief to understand the article. Budget estimate refers to the likely expenditures and revenues of the government. Say for example in the February month this year that is 2019 the finance minister announces the budget. He gives the budget estimate for the financial year 2019-20 which means the upcoming financial year because February 2019 will be a part of the financial year 2018-19 and not 2019-20. Now in the budget announcement the revised estimates are also presented. The revised estimates are nothing but the budget estimates that undergo revision. Here in this case the revised estimates are for the financial year 2018-19. If you see in this picture the budget estimates and the revised estimates of the corresponding financial years are given which will give you an idea. Next the fiscal deficit means the total expenditure minus the total receipts except the borrowings and other liabilities of the government. It simply means the deficit that arises when the government's expenditure exceeds its revenue. Here the money generated as revenues from the borrowings is excluded. Let us come back to the news article now. In the meeting with the finance commission RBA has presented that the fiscal deficit budgetary estimate for the financial year 2019-20 were budgeted to be lower. But the fiscal deficit is much higher for the revised estimate of the financial year 2018-19. Generally based on the revised estimates of the current year only the budget estimates for the upcoming budget are planned for all the budget heads. But here the fiscal deficit in the revised estimate is high but it is predicted as low in the budget estimate. RBA notes this deviation as poor fiscal marksmanship. RBA has also given some reasons for the possible fiscal slippage. First one is PM Kisan scheme which was announced in the interim budget. It is likely to cost 75000 crore this financial year. Secondly the revival package for power distribution companies under the UDAI scheme and then farm loan waivers have also been mentioned as reasons that would lead to fiscal slippage. It means that the fiscal deficit is going to increase. Some of the other issues that were discussed during the meeting include public sector borrowing requirements and continuity of the finance commission and development of expenditure codes since the expenditure norms vary from state to state. On the continuity of the finance commission the government statements said that this was required more in view of the fiscal management requirements of the states especially given the absence of mid-term reviews of awards granted by the finance commission as it used to happen earlier with the awards granted by the planning commission. Now let us know about PM Kisan scheme and finance commission in brief from problem's perspective. First let us see PM Kisan scheme. PM Kisan is the acronym for Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi. It is an income support scheme where the government will give 6000 rupees every year to the farmers families in three installments of 2000 rupees each. The beneficiaries are the vulnerable land holding small and marginal farmers who possess us a cultivable land of up to two hectares. It is a direct benefit transfer scheme meaning the money is directly transferred to the farmers bank accounts. Note that here the tenant farmers are not the beneficiaries of the PM Kisan scheme. Tenant farmers are those who rent and agricultural land and carry out farming activity. Some of the ineligible beneficiaries of PM Kisan scheme are number one the institutional landlords or land holders and next all those farmer families when at least one member is or was a holder of constitutional posts or government employees. If the income tax of the previous year is paid then they are not eligible to get monetary benefits under this scheme. Also if a member of the family is a professional like chartered accountant or doctor etc then they are also not eligible. Next let us see about finance commission. Finance commission is a constitutional body. At present the 15th finance commission is in place. Article 280 of Indian constitution tells that the president of India has to constitute a finance commission once in every five years or even earlier than that if he feels necessary. This finance commission shall consist of a chairman and four other members who shall also be appointed by the president. Article 280 has also mentioned that the qualifications for appointment of the members of the finance commission shall be decided by the parliament. Thus the finance commission act of 1951 has been enacted by the parliament for the same. The main duty of the finance commission is to make recommendations to the president regarding the distribution of tax proceeds between the union and the states and also allocation of the shares of tax proceeds between the states. Next the finance commission can also recommend principles which would govern the grants in aid to the states that is being given from the consolidated fund of India. Also the finance commission can give its recommendation on any other matter referred to the commission by the president in the interests of sound finance. With this we come to the end of this analysis. The displayed problems question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next article for the day which is about the newest pit viper species. This article has appeared in page 18 of Delhi edition only. The information under this article is relevant under current events of national importance. Stepping into the main discussion a team of herpetologists has found a new species of pit viper. It is India's fifth brown pit viper but with a reddish shade. It was found in a forest in west coming district of Arunachal Pradesh. This new species has been named Arunachal Pit Viper or Trimerosaurus Arunachalensis. It makes Arunachal Pradesh the only Indian state to have a pit viper named after it. Only one male reddish brown pit viper has been found. It was found to be venomous snake with a unique heat sensing system. More sightings of the species would gradually help the study about its habits, diet and breeding and about whether it lays eggs or bears young ones. A comparative analysis of DNA sequences of this new species and examination of its morphological features that is the form and structure of the snake suggested that the snake belonged to a species which was not yet described before and the single known specimen of the species makes it currently the rarest pit viper in the world and it was donated to the museum of the State Forest Research Institute in Itanagar. Before the discovery of this new pit viper, India had four brown pit viper namely Malabar Pit Viper, Horshu Pit Viper, Hump Nosed Pit Viper and Himalayan Pit Viper and these were discovered 70 years ago. All these are protected by the Schedule 4 of Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 and all these are listed as least concerned by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources that is the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In February 2019 another snake which was named crying keel bag was discovered in Arunachal Pradesh in the Leparada district and it was found to be a non-venomous snake. Note that it has been wrongly mentioned as 2018 in the newspaper. With this we come to the end of this discussion. The displayed films question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the last article for the day which is about the bilateral relations between India and the United States of America. This article has appeared on page 9 in all the four editions. The article is relevant in brilliant preparation under the areas current events of national importance and in main syllabus in G.S. paper 2 under the area bilateral agreements involving India and affecting India's interests and also in effects of policies and politics of developed nations on India's interests. Before entering into the article let us see few facts relating to India and United States relationship. The joint statement issued by India and the United States in June 2016 states India and U.S. as enduring global partners in the 21st century. The Ministry of External Affairs calls India-U.S. relationship as global strategic partnership. USA has designated India as a major trading partner in June 2016 which makes the U.S. to facilitate the technology sharing to the level that it shares with its closest allies and partners. This measure will also facilitate industry collaboration for defense co-production and co-development. Another fact is about the Indian diaspora in the United States. Around one percent of the total population in U.S. are Indian Americans which is approximately 35 lakh of the population and they constitute an important ethnic group in U.S. The Indian Americans include a large number of professionals, business entrepreneurs and educationalists with increasing influence in the society. Coming to this editorial article the crux of the article is that in the present scenario a true strategic partnership between India and USA is difficult to achieve and this is due to various deleterious or damaging developments and non-solving of these damaging developments. The author highlights the recent finalized decision of United States about not to extend the Iran sanctions waiver to India and the another decision announced by US on March 4th about the termination of generalized system of preferences or the GSB designation and its associated benefits to India. The termination may take effect at least after a minimum notice period of 60 days. However no decision about the withdrawal of benefits is finalized yet even though the minimum notice period is completed in the first week of May. With respect to e-commerce rules the new e-commerce investment rules specify that it is the responsibility of an e-commerce platform to ensure that none of its vendors sell more than 25% of their products in the e-commerce platform. If a vendor is found selling more than 25% of product in an e-commerce platform say in Amazon then Amazon becomes ineligible for FDI. There were various other measures of the new e-commerce policy that frustrated American industries particularly Walmart and Flipkart. The concerns of US industries with intellectual property regime is with respect to drug price control and the intellectual property regime in India. The complaint that the Indian patent policy allows compulsory licensing which means when the drugs made by patent holders are too costly or highly expensive and are out of reach of people who need them then the government can allow someone else to produce the patented product or patented process without the consent of the patent owner. Know that compulsory licensing is a flexibility given to developing countries under the World Trade Organization's agreement on intellectual property or the trade related aspects of intellectual property rights agreement which is shortly called as TRIPS agreement. US companies particularly pharmaceutical and medical devices industries say that this compulsory licensing does not allow or does not facilitate commercialization for their firms in India. Regarding data localization the US wants India to allow all payment data on domestic transactions to be stored outside India which is carried out in India with Indian citizens. Here India stands as that all payment data on domestic transactions in India to be stored inside the country only that is within India. The author says that the economic and trade tensions between India and US are not new and now in the present administration of the US government these tensions and the complaints from the US companies have intensified. The author suggests few measures to make proclaimed strategic partnership between two countries into reality. The first suggestion is the multiple long-standing issues on trade and economy between the countries has to be resolved. The author calls these issues as non-security nuisances. Right now the non-security dimension between the countries has been lagging behind the fast growing security dimension to be called a true strategic partnership both security and non-security aspects of the relationship has to move hand in hand in terms of value, volume and timing. A shift from a strong security relationship to a bona fide strategic partnership is required and to execute this shift the prerequisite is to solve existing non-security issues. India and USA should simulate the similarity of economic aspects of relationship like between US with UK, Australia and Israel and a broad based strategic partnership with trust and cooperation across a wide spectrum of issues is necessary. However the author concludes due to the array of issues a true strategic partnership is difficult to achieve between India and US at least for now. With this we come to the end of the analysis session. The displayed main question will be discussed in the next session. Moving on to the last session for the day which is practice questions discussion session. The first question is with reference to Patta Chitra consider the following statements. First statement it is the oldest and the popular painting art form of Odisha. Second statement some of the popular themes used in these paintings are Krishna Leela and Panchamuki. Third statement these paintings are usually painted on mud walls in the villages of Odisha which of the above statements is or are correct. Keep in mind we have to look for the correct statement. Let us use the elimination technique for this question. Here if you see from all the options the first statement is correct. Next Patta Chitra means painting on a canvas where Patta means canvas but in statement three it is said that they are painted on the mud walls. So the third statement is wrong. If we eliminate the third statement options C and D are out of contention. And from our analysis session we know that Patta Chitra themes are based on mythological depictions like Krishna Leela, Panchamuki, Doshapatara Patti and Thea Bhadia to name few. So the second statement is correct. The question is asked for the correct answer so the correct answer for this question is option B 1 and 2 only. The next question is consider the following pairs. Here the first pair is paintings and the second pair is states. Select the incorrect pair from the options given below. Here the first pair is wrong. As we have already discussed today Madhubani painting is practiced in the state of Bihar not Assam. And from our analysis session we also know that Patta Chitra is practiced in the state of Odisha. So second is correct. And the third pair is also wrong because Varley is practiced in the state of Maharashtra and Gujarat not West Bengal. So the correct answer to this question should be the incorrect pairs. So here the incorrect pair is 1 and 3. So the correct answer is option A only. Next question is consider the following statements with respect to trans fats often seen in news. First statement world health organization has developed replay action plan with an aim to eliminate the industrially produced trans fat from the global food supply by 2023. Second statement trans fats are artificially produced in industries using the method of partial hydrogenation of oils. Which of the above statements is or are correct? Keep in mind we have to look for the correct statement. Here the first statement is correct. World health organization has developed the replace action package. The main aim is to eliminate the industrially produced trans fat from the global food supply by the year 2023. Next the second statement is also correct as trans fats are artificially produced in food industries using the methods of partial hydrogenation of oils. The question is asked for the correct answer. So the correct answer for this question is option C both 1 and 2. Next question is consider the following statements regarding PM Kisan scheme. First statement is it is an income support scheme for the vulnerable land holding farmer families having cultivable land up to 2 hectares. Second statement a direct income support of Rs 6000 per year is transferred directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiary farmers in 4 installments of 1500 each. Which of the above statements is or are correct? Here the first statement is correct. This is an income support scheme for the land holding farmers of less than 2 hectares. The second statement is partially wrong. The total amount is correct here with just Rs 6000 but the amount is paid in 3 installments of 2000 rupees each and not in 4 installments. Since the question is asked for the correct answer the correct answer for this question is option A one only. Next question is consider the following statements regarding finance commission. First statement it is a constitutional body constituted as per article 280 of Indian constitution. Second statement one of the duties of the finance commission is to make recommendations to the president regarding the distribution of tax proceeds between the union and the states. Which of the above statements is or are correct? Here the first statement is correct as finance commission is constituted as per article 280 of the Indian constitution. The second statement is also correct because one of the duties of finance commission is to make recommendations to the president regarding the distribution of tax proceeds between the union and the states and also allocation of the shares of tax proceeds between the states. The question is asked for the correct statements so the correct answer for this question is option C both 1 and 2. Next question is which among the following is the only state in India to have a pit wiper named after it? Option A Assam option B Nagaland option C Mizoram option D Arunachal Pradesh. This is a direct question we saw in our analysis that Arunachal Pradesh is the only state in India to have a pit wiper named after it and the name of the pit wiper is Arunachal pit wiper or Chimeresuras Arunachalensis. So, the correct option for this question is option D Arunachal Pradesh. Let us see one main question based on GS paper 3. How do proprietary seeds affect the crop diversity and economy of farmers? Suggest measures to shift Indian agriculture from a high yield ideal to high value ideal. For the first part of the question define what is proprietary seeds and its disadvantages as we have discussed in the analysis like it erodes local biodiversity high expenses etc. Then for the second part mention the points like educating the small farmers encouraging them with incentives fixed record keeping and reviving traditional ecological knowledge of India etc. And do not forget to explain these points in brief. Let us see one main question based on GS paper 2 which is the economic ties between India and USA are not commensurable to the levels of a true strategic partnership. What are the reasons that hinder the realization of the stated partnership and suggest few measures to improve the situation? For the first part you may write the potential trade between India and US which is around 500 billion US dollars but right now only 140 billion US dollars business is happening and also state the nature of a true strategic relationship provide the various deleterious developments that hinder the realization of the proclaimed relationship by both countries and also suggest the measures as discussed by the author in the editorial article today such as resolving the long standing issues in trade taking the security and non-security relationships hand in hand and your own suggestions in the answer. Don't forget to like comment and share and do subscribe to our Shankar Ayes academy youtube channel for more updates on civil service examination preparation.


But you gotta think about it, podcasting has become a thing now. So you see the podcast and nowhere I'm gonna put another one. Oh, damn, Bob Supreme. Bob gets the big shout out. He just gave the boy the big shout out. He didn't need our cries, man. He said you sent that letter, man. I mean, that, uh, text, man, and said he was the police, man. He said, I don't F with Supreme. He a rat. Yes, he worked for the FBI. That's why he bringing them cameras to y'all hood. Yeah. Say, why would they even do that? Yeah, we on boss talk one-on-one. So that's the end of the day. But let me make it clear, I made it cool that it's the new interview. Are you killing the interview, though? But you talking about everybody. Everybody can't do interviews, though. You can't say that. You might be cool, but. No, it may be cool, but everybody can't deliver. Yeah, but I'm saying I made it cool for. After all, I'm saying I have kind of people just doing interviews now. I'm like, I have kind of people. But you got to think about it. Podcasting has become a thing now. So you see, podcasting is nowhere on my mind. Oh, damn, Bob Supreme. Bob gets the big shout out. He just gave the boy the big shout out. I didn't hear that cry. He said you sent that letter, man. I mean, that, uh, text, man, and said he was the police, man. He said, I don't F with Supreme. He a rat. Yes, he worked for the FBI. That's why he bringing them cameras to y'all hood. Yeah. Say, why would they do that? That was the Hispanics. Yeah. This was the other day, man. It's recent. So basically, did that put you in any kind of altercation? Because if you call somebody and rat in their hood. And these guys ain't playing over there where we was at. They serious business about their business. Some people neighbor hood them cameras.  You know what I'm saying? You be messing with Supreme, man.   Since you're running a label now, and you've been in this business a long time. Your bio compel for me. That's what he doing. He doing a documentary.  He did a documentary. Yeah, come follow me. Dude, I mean, would you ever work with him? Would you ever sit down with Supreme? I already let me know you had him. Y'all never met like that. Y'all used to talk a little bit, you already seen the call. Bro, it's so many people in my phone right now. I'm like, hey Ray, I want to work with you. All of them. They sent me $10,000 and I work with you. Man, I said send me $10,000. What I get out of $10,000? Nothing. You just give my attention.  I need you this and that. That's why Mode 3 was this and that and that. I'd bring the hate out. I'd rather bring the hate out of them before I even work with them.  I know what I'm facing. I know who they are. You know what I'm saying? I ain't mad at you for doing that though because you will see if a person wants to put skin in the game. I know that from working with people. Yeah, but a lot of people do that though. Somebody else came on the show and said they did that. Everybody should have been doing it. They wanted to work with somebody and he said, Give me $1,000. That would search all Jones and bad news. Yeah, that's what it was. I want you to give some. Hold on, let me go get it. He wouldn't have got the money. He wouldn't have got the money and gave it to him. The people that go get the money and this and that because at the end of the day they would like, Bro, you want some more? I understand because a lot of people, you think I'm going to stop what I'm doing, invest my time into what you got going on, but you want to invest yourself in what you got going on. Exactly. That's real. You know what I'm saying? I'm going to stop what I'm doing and invest my time, but you ain't going to do the same thing for yourself. Which you are in a label. How important is it to pay for advertisement? Do you believe in that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I say paid for advertisements. I mean, like, you have an artist. I pay the bloggers. No, I'm saying, hold on, you have an artist because I see so many artists who are buying views, buying followers, buying all of that to look a certain way to capture with the labels, to look at them, capture an audience. What's the importance of doing that if you can look at that and you see even when that one dude came through here? I remember him. I know exactly what you're talking about. That's what happened to him. K-talk. K-talk. K-talk, man. K-talk, man.   Keep it solid. Keep it solid. Why is everybody doing it if it's not beneficial? They not chasing the rap dream. They chasing the cloud. You got to understand what you want. You got to understand what the rapper want.  So, it doesn't bring the labels. The labels don't look at that.  Yeah, you right. I ain't lying. I see it. I'll be seeing it. I'll be like, damn, I can't go to everybody. I done been asked by people too. They ain't got a million followers. Ain't nobody... I ain't heard from them. I ain't heard from them. Have you ever been doing that no more? Damn. We didn't go ask the million people to follow them.


What's up everybody, I'm the Mangoos, you are awesome and if you've been paying attention to Ethereal's Discord, you may have noticed a channel called the Ethereal Development Fun Facts. While we haven't received a lot of new information regarding Ethereal of late, this Discord channel has many interesting tidbits. Most of them are pretty straightforward, however some of them are kinda confusing so I sat down with Owen, one of the founders of Undying Games, to clarify some of them. Let's go line by line and go into a bit more detail on these little fun facts. First up are the animations. Each myth is scheduled to have 400 animations upon full release of the game. To put that in perspective, most Paragon Heroes had around 150 to 200 animations and we all know how detailed Paragon was. It is of note however that they specify full release, the alpha version will of course not be as detailed as the final product. We also learned that Dante was the first myth to be worked upon, in my experience with covering the game he seems to be the frontrunner to be the poster boy. The jungle camps in Ethereal will be heavily inspired by games like Diablo 3 and Dark Souls, instead of just wailing on the minions you'll have to dodge and time your abilities. This adds another layer of depth to the jungle role and will hopefully free up the opportunity for more than just bruisers to be effective junglers. They plan to have 151 items in Ethereal, the rusty ring being my personal favorite, and most of the top tier items will tie into their very extensive lore. This one's a bit sad, their mocap studio used to have 12 cameras.  Atropos, the PvE boss of Ethereal, will have corresponding music to go along with his phases. If you didn't know, taking Atropos will be a 3 phase encounter. Little touches like this are always nice, kinda adds to the immersion when you got that standard video game ramping up the music as the boss changes phases. I'm gonna skip over this hair one there, just kinda talk about how hard it is to do realistic 3D hair and epic is trying to put more into their engine to make hair easier to do and like flowy and stuff, but that hasn't happened yet. Now we get to the stuff that I find interesting, while the art style of Ethereal is different from Paragon, the map and models are no less detailed which can be a cause for concern if you're not swinging a big dick graphics card. This graph shows us that their new level designer has been tweaking things and optimizing the game to ensure that it still runs as smoothly as possible. Every myth will have at least one skin, one of the perks of creating the game from scratch instead of using free assets is that you have to be able to create new models and skins. I love all the models and authoritative skins that I've seen so far. They will have their own launcher in place for the free alpha, that's a big old sigh of relief for anyone that has been dicking around with the over-prime downloads. This post talks about animating through physics to give a realistic feel to the game. What they're talking about here are things like Severog's flowing robes or Rogue Kalari's cape. Items like that are animated with their own physics, Undying will be doing the same with Ethereal while still paying attention to the performance of the overall game. The items will not be restricted, you can buy whatever you want for whomever you wish and as always, the item art is fantastic. Dr. Grace's mech has a name, the Mars 3, not much to say here. The sound effects for the game are being produced by Tricolor's Star. They have a budget that allows him to buy the items he needs to produce the effects. If you've watched any of the videos I have that feature Tricolor, you know that he has an absolute passion for sound design as well as access to a variety of voice actors and other resources, really looking forward to his work in Ethereal.  What it shows is that once again, their level designer is doing everything he possibly can to keep the game optimized without sacrificing shader complexity. The lighter the color, the better the optimization. Undying is trying to strike the perfect balance of looking great and performing well. They've been testing the game on lower grade graphics cards to make sure that the finished product is accessible to as many people as possible. They specifically designed the game to leave room for the inclusion of other classes. This seems to be a direct reference to the mysterious Overseer class that is planned for the final release, but will not be there in the pre-alpha. Asheron's voice lines are done yet will not be released yet. He's one of the few that we haven't heard. Undying seems to be storing up a load of good stuff to hit us with all at once. 90% of the assets used in Ethereal were created from scratch. While you see many pre-made epic assets in the old map videos, those are just that. Old map videos. There is another map in the works and they're working hard to make everything unique to Ethereal. This last one cracked me up. Did you know there are secondary objectives aside from Atropos and the Wyverns? That looks like an unintentional leak to me. I knew about the Wyverns, but I'm pretty sure this is the first time anyone's ever mentioned it to the entire community.  That's all for now folks. It seems that all the games I track have learned a lesson from both Strange Matter and Soul Leave, and that lesson is to keep your mouth shut and release everything at once in one giant info bomb. I'm hoping that Undying starts blowing up soon. I am so ready for this game. I've already been talking with Jellynees, who you may recognize as one of the co-hosts I had on For the Minions, about doing our own Ethereal focus podcast. I'll provide links in the video description if you want to check him out. Very charismatic dude. If you liked the video please hit that like button. If you didn't like it let me know why I'm open to criticism.  For now this is the man goose signing off. You guys have a good one.