Hello and welcome to NewsClick. Today we are joined by Prabir Prakash to discuss the recent developments in the coronavirus outbreak. So from what it seems the disease is continuing to spread, there are over 17,000 cases which have been reported so far, around 360 deaths. The first casualty outside of China has also been reported in the Philippines and three cases of confirmed coronavirus have so far been reported in India. But Prabir, before we talk about all of that, can you tell us about the virus itself from the studies that have been done? What do we know about its origins, about its development, etc? First thing is to call it coronavirus itself is a problem because it's only one variant of a coronavirus because even the common cold as you know, it's a coronavirus. So this is 2019 novel coronavirus or in short the novel coronavirus which is, I would have thought that if we had called it the Wuhan virus, perhaps you would have identified it more clearly. Otherwise it's a feeling if somebody says that I've got a coronavirus infection, people immediately put him in quarantine. What is got is really a common cold. So that is one part. I think when you talk about the coronavirus itself, novel coronavirus, this particular variant of it, there are two parts to it. One is it still seems to show an infection rate which is quite high. And one of the reasons which now we know is because it incubates in the body for about seven to days to 14 days, once two weeks. And it is asymptomatic in this period. And even when it is asymptomatic, you don't see the symptoms, it can still infect others. So to identify such people is the difficulty. And you can do it only when you see a particular person who has been infected, show symptoms, test positive, and then you trace back the contacts and then try and see how to also monitor them, put them in quarantine and so on. So it's a secondary level of contact that you can really start tracing and isolating. From that you may be able to control the spread of the disease. So one of the things has been this new feature rather something which is not obvious and something that doesn't happen with other such viruses is that even when you don't show symptoms, you can infect other people. As you see the flu virus for instance, when it only shows symptoms, only then you are really infecting others. So I think this has taken the authority some time to realize and also put in place things. The second reason why you saw a sudden jump in the numbers is also the fact that the diagnostic kits were not available that quickly. And these diagnostic kits needed development because we hadn't seen the virus earlier. So the fact that now the diagnostic kits are available in large numbers, Chinese really have acted fast on that, means that now a lot more detections are taking place even if we have not shown the symptoms. So I think this is the reason you see a sudden rise in the number of cases and then stabilization. The third thing I think about it is of course the quarantine measures, how good they are, how much they're holding, how much it has already spread. It had already spread before you quarantined the people. The entire province of Hubei seems to be under quarantine. Wuhan people cannot get out of Wuhan for quite some time now. And China has followed it up with really very large scale attempts to get people not to move around too much unless it's absolutely essential. So they're really attacking the transmissibility route which is people to people transmissions. I think these are all the elements that have to be looked at. And yes, this coronavirus, this variant of the coronavirus, it seems now a higher transmission rate but a lower mortality. So as of now, the number of people who are coming out as cured are now beginning to rise and the number of deaths are holding at the moment. And it does seem also that its fatality rate is lower than for instance the SARS virus or some of the other MERS virus for instance. So yes, more infections, the more infections but less lethal. That's what the verdict still is which is what we had discussed earlier. So this would be the first analysis that we can reach fairly conclusively about how this disease is behaving and what the future might therefore be for us. Praveer, where are we now also in terms of development of a vaccination for this? Well, you know the first important issue is how quickly the genome sequence has been done. As you know there's been a Lancet study which has come out. The Chinese have made the genome sequence public and has put also a number of such sequences of patients who have been infected. Their genome sequence of the infection has been made public. So last that I looked of I think about 34 or 35 such sequences made public by the time you are in discussion probably it exceeds 50. Now what it allows you therefore is to look at all the variations that are there and trace back what the original virus would have been when it would have jumped from a certain species and come into the human population. After that it is a human-to-human transmission. It looks like after that it is not spread from other animals but it has really been from a particular jump and then human-to-human transmission. This is what we seem to see from the genome sequences. It also shows that before it became apparent in the human population which is somewhere in December this probably had started somewhere in November. So the first such leap probably took place. If you do the genome sequence and look at what would be the original ancestor virus that original parent as it were then probably this was in November. So all of this information is now available in public domain. This is allowed because this genome sequence has been made public. It allows us to look at the possibility of a vaccine. Now there are two kinds of vaccines which take place. One is you use the old method which is really take a snippet of the virus itself or you take some you know more inert form of the virus really be the same thing in some sense and get then the reaction to that that would be the then used as a vaccine. That means you take a snippet let the body then react to it or take a more weakened virus let the body react to it and then that provides you the immunity for actual infections. Now this takes considerably longer time to do and this normally would be the earliest is four months the actual rate till date the fastest we have ever developed six months. So this is a traditional vaccination method then you have to go for clinical trials and then you have to put it into mass production. So this normally happens after the disease had really run its course and you already have developed what would be called herd immunity enough people are infected so their new infections don't take place. Now this time we have another instrument or another weapon in our armory which is we have the ability to use what are called messenger RNAs which gives signals to the body to produce certain proteins and those proteins then would be such that the body's immune reaction against it would also give us the equivalence of a vaccine in fact this is the mRNA vaccine. So therefore body is body makes the protein which then the body's immune system reacts to and that stops other future infections. This mRNA vaccines messenger RNA vaccines it seems that we have the platforms available so if we have the genome sequence we have the mRNA which we can derive out of it then we can put it into this platform and generate the vaccine rather quickly but rather quickly would also be in something like 30 to 40 days and then of course you'd have to do the clinical trials to see the effectiveness of this and then of course it should be it has to be mass produced but the process is such that this kind of systems are already in place and all we need is a mRNA template so to say which can create this kind of vaccine and now to my knowledge about four such initiatives are taking place one of course out of China which has a biotech company which is producing the mRNA vaccine is slated to produce the mRNA vaccine and there are three other companies which are also in this task I think in this case more the many are it's not competition because we'll have to see in field trials which works best so if you have four such candidates or five such candidates or six such candidates it's all the better for us we can test it out in different places and then choose which ones are the most effective. So I think that is positive signs yes we can do it much faster than you have ever done for the first time it might be possible to develop a vaccine while the epidemic is still developing so I think that's a positive sign but the same time we will probably not see the vaccine before three to four months so that's the also the time period of that. So right now the measures that have to be taken are essentially quarantining and attacking the transmissibility route which if it is more than one the epidemic will spread if it is less than one the epidemic will slowly die out and that's where we are at the moment. And so despite what seems like a very rapid response by the on the part of the Chinese government we know that they managed to construct a thousand bed hospital in a matter of 10 days there's still some criticism that the Chinese failed to recognize or they were slow to recognize that the outbreak has begun so can you tell us about that you know this I think is a part of the larger propaganda war in which the Chinese are will be attacked for whatever they do if for instance they had taken action and the epidemic hadn't occurred then they would have been abused for being too authoritarian now they've been accused they didn't recognize it on the first day they got one infection I think it's quite absurd because really if you look at the response of the Americans on swine flu if you look at any other part of the world what the reaction has been as a director general of world health organization said the Chinese response have been not only exemplary this is not a reaction that any country can perhaps do anywhere in the world they have shut down one province they have quarantined the town of 11 million people they have found the that they have genome sequenced it within a very short period they've made the genome sequence available publicly so all of these would seem to indicate that they have responded really rapidly of course you can always say retrospectively they should have done better and yes even the Chinese should have competition from the Chinese that how they can better this response but I don't think we have seen this kind of response to any epidemic and if you see the periodic flu epidemics that take place even now the world loses 700,000 600,000 people every year due to flu because flu ultimately converts to pneumonia and pneumonia as you know is in effect and flu is also coronavirus so it's not that this is not happening continuously so I think this reaction of the Chinese has been as the director general of WHO said it's been exemplary I really do not look at it only as the Chinese government's reaction but also the people's reaction because people have by and large followed all the steps that the government has said wear masks avoid public places travel only when you must go into places where you meet others only when you must wash your hands as frequently as possible this has been not only followed by and large but there is a complete belief in the government that yes the government is taking the right steps and we must cooperate with it and a sense that yes if they do it then they will be able to address the epidemic as yet I see that the Chinese people have been completely supportive of the government I do not think that this kind of response would have taken place anywhere else it's also the credibility of the Chinese state the people still believe the Chinese states really is a state of its people I think that kind of social sanction existed very few countries in the world today so I would say that I would endorse what the WHO has said that this is very unusual in terms of response I would also say that the WHO has said that trade the travel links with China doesn't need to be broken and all we have to do is to see the Hubei province and the Wuhan that epidemic is tackled the rest of the world there is no need to do ban all traffic and some people are already suggesting I will also say there is a lot of hysteria which is being built up which is anti-Chinese a lot of this is simply racist and that's that is not unusual in a world where race or ethnic identities are still there sometimes nationalist sometimes is racist and the yellow peril is still a motif that seems to come back again and again in the west particularly so I would take this all with a pinch of salt but I will also say there is one other element which is much more mischievous which is to argue that Wuhan was a center of biological research in China so this is a biological weapon which has got loose this is a periodic shall we say campaign which is launched again any new infection that comes up in the belief that any novel infection virus anything which is novel must be a human creation it cannot happen in nature but the reality is of course there is a continuous shall we say biological competition between human species and the viruses and the bacteria it's not that we are only evolving they are also evolving and they evolve obviously much faster than we do and we have to accept that periodically there will be normal diseases which will break out which we have not seen AIDS was an example and it took us a long time for us to recognize there was even an AIDS epidemic in fact we denied there was an AIDS epidemic for quite some time and the US in fact argued this was only a homosexual or a black disease it didn't really affect anybody else till it became apparent it did so this battle between the virus the bacteria and us is a continuous one and in this case I think the fact that science has reached a level we can decipher the genome of the virus so quickly look at all of this and quickly develop instruments to identify as well as possibly in the future vaccinate the people is one major development in this particular case we are also testing a lot of antiretrovirals and other drugs to see if they can help addressing the sea distance of the infection and some of the anti AIDS drugs anti what would be called retrovirals are also being pulled into this war and it does seem that some of them will be will be partially effective and even if it is partially effective it means it can slow down the infection it will give the people some breathing space in order to recover the body has to recover and you see the most of the people who have been affected is what happens in all coronavirus infection including the flu it's those whose immune systems are compromised or those who are old who then can suffer increased intensity of the infection and also mortality and I think all of those things this time has to be seen and how this disease can now be modulated and hopefully the Chinese government and the institutions of science in China as well what the people are doing will help you hopefully beat this epidemic in a certain period of time but yes still early days still incubation we do not know how many people are infected and infecting others have we reached the crest and is it now going to slowly die down these are things yet to be need to watch so thank you probably for talking to us today and this is all the time we have keep watching news click


In telling the story of one of its most distinguished wartime leaders, Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. The Nimitz story is not simply the account of an outstanding naval officer who rose to a position of greatness and honor. It is also the chronicle of our modern navy. It's coming of age and its greatest triumph in the epic struggle for the Pacific during World War II. This is a project that's been underway for quite a while and the true significance of it is a connection of the history of the navy during one of the most important parts of the very definitions of the freedoms that we have today back to that period of World War II where Chester Nimitz was involved in the planning and the actual execution of how the war was fought in the Pacific. The Grey Brook is an amazing historical treasure. It's a rare, very rare survival of the decision-making and the top leadership in the Pacific. Nimitz looked at this every day and records every day the situation that he faced.  Everything brought together in a very succinct way so that he could make a decision about it and know exactly what the Fleet was doing. The highest level of decision-making in combat was something called the running estimate of this situation and that's what this document is. To my knowledge it's the only one that survived anywhere from this period and actually been used in combat. I think in closing the significant takeaway message here is that I would invite everybody to visit the new naval historical collection website, examine the Nimitz Grey Book, not necessarily to find a key to unlock some hidden treasure but more view it as an account of the events of the unfolded. Try to see it as Nimitz sought with all the engagement of a Fleet admiral, drawing out the truth and sharing what you find with others and we do this with the hopes of enlarging our understanding of what the Grey Book means and what our perspective of what this Grey Book is all about. As a military history buff myself, I cannot wait to dig into this online and I encourage every sailor, marine, navy, civilian to check it out. Under Admiral Nimitz's leadership, the war in the Pacific turned in America's favor and today our naval presence in the Indo-Asia Pacific helps maintain an international system of well-established norms that promote security, stability, prosperity and peace. Working closely with allies and partners in this region is vital to America's ongoing Pacific rebalance. This whole of government effort is based on a wide range of shared issues including economics and trade, people-to-people ties and security. This is an effort that I believe that Admiral Nimitz here would appreciate if he were with us today.


Metaphysics. Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the essence of a thing. This includes questions of being, becoming, existence, and reality. The word metaphysics comes from the Greek words that literally mean beyond nature. Nature in this sense refers to the nature of a thing, such as its cause and purpose. Metaphysics then studies questions of a thing beyond or above questions of its nature, in particular its essence or its qualities of being. Metaphysics seeks to answer, in a suitably abstract and fully general manner the questions. What is there and what is it like? Topics of metaphysical investigation include existence, objects and their properties. Space and time, cause and effect, and possibility.


Good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar Ayes Academy for the date 24th October 2019. These are the articles chosen for today's analysis. The page numbers for these articles in the different Hindu editions, namely Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Tiruvannapuram and Hyderabad editions is also given here. The link for the handwritten notes in the PDF format and the time stamping for the displayed articles is given in the description box below. And for the benefit of smartphone users, the time stamping is also given in the comment section. Along with this, the link for the answers of yesterday's practice questions in the PDF format is given in the description box and also in the comment section. And before starting our news analysis, one small announcement for our viewers. On the occasion of Diwali, there will be no Hindu News Analysis video till Monday. You can catch the next Hindu News Analysis on Tuesday. Now this news article discussion is based on the first ever survey that is to be conducted to estimate the population of snow leopards in India. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Yesterday, that is 23rd October is the World Snow Leopard Day. On this occasion, the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change has launched the first national protocol on snow leopard population assessment in India. This national level protocol is called as the Snow Leopard Population Assessment of India or in short SPAI. Now also yesterday and today, an international conference and steering committee meeting of the Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection Program is being held at New Delhi. Now let us see few information about this program. This program is an initiative of 12 snow leopard range countries in the world. These countries are Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russian Federation, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. If you observe, all these 12 countries are in the Asian continent. Also, if you observe 5 members of South nations are in this initiative except Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Maldives. This initiative is the result of Global Snow Leopard Conservation Forum which took place in Bishkek which is the capital of Kyrgyz Republic. This conservation forum took place during World Snow Leopard Day in 2013. Now being a snow leopard range country, India is also a member in this program. Under this program, the 12 countries have agreed to work together to identify and secure at least 20 snow leopard landscapes across the geographical range of snow leopards and this has to be done within a period of 7 years that is by 2020. As a result, this target is also called as Secure 20 by 2020. Under this Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection Program, the governments of these 12 countries have jointly initiated an effort to conduct a population estimation. This is called as the population assessment of the world's snow leopards. This is shortly called as PAWS. That is PAWS. This PAWS is the Global Protocol and from these global efforts, we have evolved our national protocol called as the Snow Leopard Population Assessment of India or in short, SPAI. Now let us see the geographic range of these species in India. Snow leopards are found in the high altitude cold mountainous regions. They are found in the mountainous areas at elevations from 540 meter to even more than 5000 meter. In India, we can see snow leopard in six regions in the Himalayan region. They are Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. So the snow leopard is the flagship species of conservation in the Indian Himalayas. So what is a flagship species? A flagship species is a species that is selected to act as an ambassador or icon for a defined habitat. So as to campaign with respect to environmental cause. So the conservation of the flagship species improves the status of many other species which share the same habitat of the flagship species. Now one fact with respect to this snow leopard is that it is most active at dawn and dusk. Here dawn refers to the time in which there is first appearance of sunlight that is early in the morning. Simply we can say early morning and dusk refers to the time when sun sets in the evening. So simply we can say it refers to the time when daylight has almost gone but it is not completely dark. So these snow leopards are active at dawn and dusk. Now also know that the snow leopard is the apex predator of its ecosystems and therefore it sits at the top of the food web. Now the news article mentions that this assessment is going to be the first assessment of the animal that is snow leopard in the country. So far such an exercise was not carried out because of the difficult and inhospitable terrain in the Himalayan regions and it was also not carried out because of the reclusive nature of the animal. So what is this reclusive nature? This means they avoid the company of fellow animals or other animals. Like most of the species of cats these snow leopards are also solitary animals. They wish to be alone so it is very difficult and dangerous to visit its place of aloneness. So if it is difficult then how India will carry out its assessment. This assessment will be carried out by relying on technology tools such as camera traps. However other scientific surveys will also be used to estimate the population. Now let us see the status of the animal snow leopard. This snow leopard species is threatened with extinction. In India snow leopard is protected under schedule one of the wildlife protection act of 1972 and at the global level it is listed in appendix one of convention on international trade in endangered species that is sites. Then it is also listed in the appendix one of the convention on migratory species that is CMS. It is listed under convention on migratory species because snow leopards move to different altitudes along with the summer and winter migrations of their prey animals. So now coming to the status in the IUCN red list at present snow leopards are listed as vulnerable. Now remember that before 2017 snow leopards were listed in the endangered category. Now along with all these measures now apart from these conservation measures Indian government also launched a conservation measure to protect snow leopards. This measure was launched in January 2019. The conservation measure is named as project snow leopard which is to conserve the species. This project is currently implemented in six regions in India which are the geographical range of the species in our country. So with this we come to the end of this news article discussion. This news article is about the recent guidelines released by the union health ministry. The guidelines are for establishing peritoneal dialysis services under the Pradhan Mantri national dialysis program. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Before discussing about peritoneal dialysis and Pradhan Mantri national dialysis program let us see some facts related to kidneys. The kidneys are among the most vital organs of the human body. The kidneys are located at the upper and back side of the abdomen they are located on either side of the spine. They are protected from damage by the lower ribs of the body. They have two important functions one is to flush out harmful and toxic waste products from the body and the other is to maintain balance of water fluids minerals and chemicals such as sodium and potassium etc in the body. So if there is a malfunction of the kidneys then it can lead to serious illness or sometimes even death. Now one condition that is associated with kidney is the chronic kidney disease or in short CKD. It is a condition characterized by a gradual loss of kidney function over time. Chronic kidney disease is recognized as a health crisis globally because 10 percent of the world's population is affected by it and millions die each year because they do not have access to affordable treatment. Now with respect to India the proportion of chronic kidney disease patients eight to 17 percent of the total population. The number of cases of kidney failure is expected to increase disproportionately in developing countries such as India. This is especially due to the increase in non-communicable diseases risk. Now another condition with respect to kidney is the end stage kidney failure or in short ESKF. This end stage kidney failure is the most advanced stage of kidney failure when survival without some form of renal replacement therapy is not possible. Reinal replacement therapy includes kidney transplant or maintenance dialysis etc and about 10 to 20 percentage of those who are with chronic kidney disease are expected to develop end stage kidney failure. Now the commonly available treatment for kidney failure is dialysis. Dialysis is a treatment that filters and purifies the blood using a machine. This helps to keep the fluids and electrolytes in balance in the body when the kidneys cannot do their job. Now there are two main types of dialysis. One is hemodialysis and the other is peritoneal dialysis. Now when there is hemodialysis in short is known as HD it is also known as blood dialysis. In hemodialysis the blood is filtered through a machine that acts like a artificial kidney and then the blood is returned back into the body. Hemodialysis needs to be performed in a designated dialysis center and this hemodialysis is usually needed about three times per week for kidney failure patients and each episode takes about three to four hours to complete. Now coming to the peritoneal dialysis in short it is known as PD and peritoneal dialysis is also known as water dialysis. In peritoneal dialysis the blood is cleaned without being removed from the body. This happens with the help of the abdomen sac which is present in the body and this abdomen sac acts as a natural filter. So in the peritoneal dialysis a solution which is made up of salts and sugars is injected into the abdomen. This solution encourages filtration such that the waste is transferred from the blood to the solution. Now under this peritoneal dialysis there are two types one is continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis or in short CAPD and the other is automated peritoneal dialysis in short APD. Now when the CAPD needs to be done three to five times every day but it does not require a machine and APD uses an automated cycler machine. This machine performs three to five exchanges during the night while the patient is asleep and also close medical supervision is not required for most peritoneal dialysis cases. So peritoneal dialysis is the most feasible option for patients who may want to undergo dialysis in the home sitting. Now with this background in mind let us see the step taken by the government of India to tackle kidney failure. In 2016 the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched the Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Program or in short PMNDP. This was launched under the national health mission. We know that this national health mission encompasses two submissions one is national rural health mission and the other one is national urban health mission and the main components of national health mission includes health system strengthening then reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child and adolescent health and then communicable and non-communicable diseases. This national health mission envisages the achievement of universal access to equitable affordable and quality healthcare services that are accountable and responsive to people's needs and this NHM has been extended till March 2020. Now coming back to the Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Program it was rolled out for providing hemo dialysis services under public private partnership mode. This PMNDP envisaged the participation of private dialysis service providers in government hospitals as per the guidelines the private partner will provide medical human resource dialysis machine etc and the government will provide the space, drugs, power and water supply within the district hospitals. Now in this you should note that till now the Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Program only included hemo dialysis it did not include peritoneal dialysis but today's news is that the new guidelines also includes peritoneal dialysis under this program. So what are the advantages of peritoneal dialysis? Under peritoneal dialysis many costs are reduced such as the substantial costs for infrastructure such as hospitals then cost for maintenance and staffing is reduced then it also reduces the demand on the healthcare system and it offers patients autonomy because PD can be done in the home setting so the present move to include peritoneal dialysis is expected to improve the quality of life as well as it will be cost effective in the long run. It helps the patients to avoid the need to travel to and fro to district hospital for treatment because we saw that under peritoneal dialysis every day the dialysis has to be done 3 to 5 times then this move will also reduce the out of pocket expenditure of the patient because it offers dialysis services at home itself. Since the services are available within house the consistency of patients will also improve. Now the news article also states that the union health ministry has requested all states to include proposals for establishing peritoneal dialysis under their respective program implementation plans and this move is intended to benefit 2 lakh Indians who develop end stage kidney failure every year in India. The news article also states that children who are with kidney failure will also be benefited because until now children were disadvantaged due to the exclusion of peritoneal dialysis under Pradhan Mantri national dialysis program. The young children who are especially below the 5 years of age are often unsuitable for hemo dialysis. So that is why peritoneal dialysis is done for children and after the new guidelines now children can also undergo peritoneal dialysis at their home but adequate facilities at home and the support of parents or the caregivers are essential and the guidelines also envisage for providing training to community health workers or non-physician health workers so that they can provide support to persons for peritoneal dialysis at home or in primary healthcare settings. So that is all about this news article. Let us move on to the next news article discussion. This discussion is based on this editorial which talks about intermediaries. It talks about the proposed rules which are nothing but the intermediaries guidelines rules then it also talks about the threats of social media. It also raises important concerns with respect to the proposed requirement of the intermediaries to decrypt the end to end encrypted messages for the government whenever needed under certain circumstances. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. First let us deal with what the author calls as proposed rules for online intermediaries. These are the information technology intermediaries guidelines amendment rules of 2018. These rules have not yet come into force however according to the government it could be one of the important mechanisms that it aims to make enforceable by the January of next year to regulate the social and telecom media. These rules are for the intermediaries. So who are these intermediaries? The intermediaries are those with respect to any particular electronic records. An example for electronic record can be a WhatsApp message or a Facebook post. According to the information technology act of 2000 the term intermediary means any person who on behalf of another person receives stores or transmits the electronic record or provides any service with respect to such records. It also includes telecom service providers, network service providers, internet service providers, web hosting service providers, search engines, online payment sites, online auction sites, online market places and also cyber cafes. So obviously from this we can say that intermediaries include Facebook then WhatsApp because it is an internet service provider for instant messaging then even Google which is a search engine and also other telecom service providers. So now let us see some of the proposed rules. One of the proposed rule is that the intermediary shall observe and follow due diligence while discharging his duties. Due diligence means taking responsible steps to avoid the commission of an offense and one of the duties of the intermediary is to publish the rules and regulations, privacy policy and user agreement for the access or usage of the intermediary. These rules and regulations, privacy rules and user agreement shall inform the users not to host or display or upload, modify, publish, transmit, update or even share any information that belongs to another person or to which the user does not have any right. So this applies to the information that is grossly harmful harassing, blasphemous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, pedophilic, libelous etc. In this blasphemous information means information that disrespects God or sacred things of our community and by pedophilic we mean pedophilic content.  So those contents which show any sexual interest in children will not be allowed in the social media. Then libelous information means information that assassinates the good character of other person. So all these kinds of information will not be allowed in the social media and the telecom media. Along with this the rules shall inform the users not to upload or share the information that are invasive of privacy of another persons and they shall also not upload or share the information which contains any hateful information or the information which is having a content which is racially and ethnically objectionable. So any disparaging or derogatory content shall not be uploaded or shared or transmitted and the content relating to or encouraging money laundering or gambling or any other unlawful content shall not be displayed, uploaded, shared and transmitted by the users. Such information shall also should not violate any laws that are in force and the information that threatens critical information infrastructure shall also be covered in these policies so that legal actions may be taken. In this critical information infrastructure refers to the computer resource. These resources if they are weakened or destroyed then the actions shall have debilitating or weakening impact on national security, economy, public health or safety. So by having such rules and regulations privacy policies and user agreements the intermediaries are asked to observe due diligence in discharging their duties. Then another proposed rule is that the intermediary shall inform its users at least once every month that in case of non-compliance with rules and regulations, user agreement and privacy policy the intermediary has the right to immediately terminate the access or usage rights of the users to the computer resource of intermediary and the intermediary can also remove such non-compliant information also. Then another proposed rule is the intermediary shall provide information or assistance within 72 hours or 3 days of communication from the government. This is to enable the tracing of the originator of the information on the intermediaries platform and this will be done as required by the government agencies who are legally authorized to do so. Then one more important provision is if intermediary who has more than 50 lakh users in India or the intermediary is in the list of intermediaries that is specifically notified by the government of India then they shall be a company incorporated under the Companies Act of 1956 or the Companies Act of 2013. Along with this they should have a permanent registered office in India with physical address and more importantly they have to appoint a nodal person of contact and alternate senior designated functionary in India. Now this is for 24 into 7 coordination with the law enforcement agencies and offices so that the law enforcement agencies can ensure compliance to their orders or requests. So these are some of the important proposals of the governments for the intermediaries. Now the argument of the government is that much of hate speech, fake news and objectionable content originates in social media who are the intermediaries. Now once originated these unlawful contents are transmitted shared by numerous other users and sometimes even without going through the entire content people share the information and the content. So these are detrimental against individuals rights as social media is also used for stalking women and other genders by sending repeated messages or otherwise and they are also detrimental to the societal fabric of harmony and peace and then it can be used by the terrorists or rebels to wage terrorism or information warfare or to wage cyber warfare against the nation. Then in the online media there is also undesirable objectionable online content such as child pornography then other unregulated porn sites which may lure or attract children for wrong purpose or it may also lure adults into porn addiction etc. However now if you closely observe the things and terms that are proposed in the rules that we just discussed these provide ample loopholes and space for the law enforcement agencies to misuse them under the pressure of the political masters if such masters have malign or bad intention. The proposed rules can be even misused by the law enforcement agencies by themselves if they have a bad intention and mostly we don't hear any punishment for such misuse. So even a criticism against a policy or a criticism against any law of the government could be unlawful or objectional content according to some government authorities. So an affair can be registered and the individuals could be harassed for such things and all these amounts to increased surveillance or monitoring on the personal messages posts etc and this will be done by the state through appropriate mechanisms. So these may violate the right to privacy which is an implied fundamental right under article 21 of Indian constitution. Now this was held by the Supreme Court in one of its famous judgment in the Justice case Putta Swami versus Union of India and others case. In addition to these the measures will be complemented with provisions to arrest and prosecute those who have posted or shared or forwarded such objectional unlawful content. Now because of this the public may fear the harassment by the law enforcement agencies so as a result they may not speak anything about the policies or laws or directions and orders of the government in social media or in any other media by using telecom intermediaries. So from this we can clearly say that the rules will hamper right to freedom of speech and expression in our democracy which is again a fundamental right under article 19 of Indian constitution. Now you may have heard that at present Supreme Court is hearing various petitions regarding the web content regulation, intermediaries and other related matters. Therefore the author mentions that this is time of both opportunity and challenges. It is an opportunity because the principle of proportionality and legitimacy that was mentioned in the Putta Swami case can now be tested. Also in the Putta Swami case law the court stated that there shall be provisions for limiting the discretion of the state in interfering with privacy. Now this is under the principle of proportionality and legitimacy and under this principle the court stated four yardsticks for the actions of the government and the first yardstick is the action must be sanctioned by law and the second one is the proposed action must be necessary in a democratic society for a legitimate aid. Then the third yardstick is the extent of such interference must be proportionate to the needs for such interference which means when there is a need then only there should be interference. Then the fourth yardstick is there must be procedural guarantees against abuse of such interference. Now this fourth point means that there must be procedural guarantees against the misuse or abuse. This is an opportunity to see whether the government will impose severe punishment to its staffs in case they misuse the provisions with respect to privacy and the regulation of social media and its intermediaries. Now it is a challenge because there is a need to strike a balance between requiring access to the originators of encrypted content and respecting individual privacy. So this means while getting access to the encrypted content an individual's privacy must not be violated. Now with respect to this the author states that the appeals made by the government are vague with respect to security and sovereignty and the government also states that there is a crime prevention contingency or there is a contingency to prevent such crimes which are emanating from social media and telecom platforms. According to the author these are vague because the circumstances in which a person may be arrested and prosecuted are not narrowly defined which means the scope of such circumstances does not have any limit in the proposed guidelines and this can have a devastating effect on privacy of individuals. Such circumstances have to be limited because the state or the government should not have wider powers to arrest and prosecute its citizens for such matters. If you see the draft rules it states a content violating any law in force shall be subject to action by the intermediaries. Now this is not narrowly defined which means it is not specifically defined in the rules. So there should be mechanisms to identify when someone's account is hacked or used for publishing or used for hosting or sharing unlawful and objectionable content. When there is an absence of such mechanism any person can be easily wrongly framed in a case by a law enforcement agency even though she or he has not committed the act of hosting or sharing the information. So the author calls for a clear demarcation of the balance between national security and public interest versus the individual rights and this balance line between the public interest and individual rights should be thick and clear so that no one's privacy is violated and no one is harassed. With this we come to the end of this news article discussion. Moving on to the next news article discussion. This news article is about the level of participation of India in the non-aligned movement summit. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. The non-aligned movement was formed in 1961. After the second world war the world was largely a bipolar world till 1990s. Now in this USA and USSR were the two poles and we know that USSR is the union of Soviet Socialist Republics which is also known as Soviet Union. These two poles had exercised rivalry but the rivalry was short of a full fledged military conflict and this rivalry is what we call as Cold War. So both the nations sought for allies to support them so that they will defeat another and the winner will become unilateral superpower or the great power. But for other countries supporting them meant aligning the foreign policies to suit the interest of one of these two countries. Therefore since 1950s leaders from India, Egypt, then Yugoslavia, Indonesia and Ghana were having an alternative idea that is forming an alliance of states that did not wish to formally align either with the United States or with the Soviet Union. Hence these are the states that sought to remain independent or neutral. As a result of this in April 1955 an Asian African conference was held in Bandung in Indonesia. Now in this know that Bandung is the capital of Indonesia. Now in this conference around 29 heads of state from Asia and Africa participated. The aim was identifying and assessing world issues at the time and about pursuing joint policies in international relations. At the end of the conference 10 principles of Bandung were proclaimed by the participants. One of the 10 principles was recognition of the equality among all races and recognition of the equality among all nations both large and small. According to historians this Bandung Asian African conference is the most immediate antecedent or the kind of precursor to the creation of non-aligned movement. Therefore with the 10 principles of Bandung as the basis the non-aligned movement was established and it was launched at the first summit conference of Belgrade. This first summit conference was held from September 1st to 6th in the year 1961. This conference was attended by 25 countries including India and 29 countries joined this movement in 1961. Now it has grown to 120 members so at present the movement has 120 member states, 17 observer countries and 10 observer organizations. So the Bandung principles were adopted as the main goals and objectives of the non-alignment policy of the movement. One of the important criteria for the membership is that the participating country should not be a member of a multilateral military alliance that was concluded in the context of great power conflicts. If you see the theme of this year NAM summit is also upholding the Bandung principles to ensure concerted and adequate response to the challenges of contemporary world. So from this we can say that non-aligned movement or NAM is a movement and it is not an organization. It does not have a formal constitution or permanent secretariat and its administration is non-hierarchical and it is rotational. Now the next two years are important in the context of non-aligned movement. It is because 2020 will be celebrated as the 65th anniversary of Bandung principles and 2021 is the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the non-aligned movement. Now the present news is that the 18th NAM summit is to be held in Baku which is the capital of Azerbaijan. This summit will be held on 25th and 26th October that is tomorrow and day after tomorrow. Now earlier if you see the 17th summit was held in Margarita island of Venezuela. This summit was held in September 2016. Now in both the summits India has decided not to participate at the level of Prime Minister which means Prime Minister did not represent our country. Now this has raised eyebrows among the foreign policy experts as the non-participation at the level of Prime Minister symbolizes the lack of high level political commitment in the non-aligned movement from the Indian side. Now though India is a founding member of non-aligned movement in the upcoming summit the vice president of India will be leading the Indian delegation. Then the news article also mentions that India has participated in all the NAM summits at the level of Prime Minister except in 1979. In 1979 Mr. Chaudhary Charan Singh was serving as the caretaker Prime Minister. This was due to several local domestic politics and rivalry. However after 1979 India did not participate at the level of Prime Minister in the 2016 summit only and even this year India will participate in the same way. Now this has created speculations that whether India has started to align or take sides in international conflicts. However it is also said that it may not be possible for Indian Prime Minister to attend all multilateral events because there is a huge demand on his time and also this time vice president of our country will be leading the delegation. So therefore the non-participation of Prime Minister does not mean downgrading of India's representation at the NAM summit. Then the news article also mentions about the statements made by the Indian Minister of External Affairs at the NAM Ministerial Summit. At the summit he spoke about the importance of reforming international structures at a time when multilateralism is undoubtedly under strain. Now in this multilateralism refers to multiple countries that are being recognized in the international area and they should have an effective say on the global affairs or regional affairs. But if you see at present much of the global affairs are either being dictated by USA or by China or in some cases it is dictated by Russia. As a part of reforming international structures our Minister for External Affairs also called for the expansion of the United Nations Security Council. Then reforming international structures will also mean reforming the World Trade Organization and International Monetary Fund and other international agencies that require correction and reformation. The Minister for External Affairs has also stated that the NAM members must resolve to fight terrorism collectively and across all fronts and he also advocated finalizing of the comprehensive convention on international terrorism in short CCIT. This CCIT was proposed by India in the year 1996. We will see about the CCIT in some other discussion so that's all about this news article discussion. This discussion is based on this article which is about the upcoming missions of PSLV. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. The news article states that the upcoming three missions of PSLV will carry 14 small foreign satellites. These three missions are PSLV C-47, C-48 and C-49 missions. So in this context let us first discuss about PSLVs. We know that PSLV is the acronym for Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. A launch vehicle or a launcher is used to carry spacecraft to space. See India has two operational launchers. One is Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle that is PSLV and the other one is Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle that is GSLV. But today our discussion will be focused on PSLV only. This PSLV is third generation launch vehicle of India. It is the first Indian launch vehicle to be equipped with liquid stages of fuel. The first mission of PSLV was in 1993 but it was not successful. The first successful launch of PSLV was in 1994 and after that PSLV emerged as a reliable launch vehicle. So from 1994 to 2017 period PSLV has launched 48 Indian satellites and 209 satellites for customers from abroad. Now you should remember that PSLV has successfully launched two Indian spacecrafts. One is Chandrayaan 1 in the year 2018 and the other is Mars Orbiter Mission in the year 2013. And also remember that Chandrayaan 2 was launched by GSLV Mach 3. So because of its successful missions and consistency PSLV has earned the title the workhorse of ISRO. So now let us see some of the other features of PSLV. PSLV is used for delivering satellites to low earth orbits. It is designed mainly to deliver the earth observation satellites or remote sensing satellites which has a lift off mass of up to 1,750 kilograms. It will deliver to sun synchronous orbits or polar orbits of 600 to 900 kilometer altitude. Now in this low earth orbit is an orbit around earth which is high enough to cross all the mountains and also which is high enough that the atmospheric drag will not disturb the satellites. This atmospheric drag is caused by the collision between gas molecules and the satellites. So this will not disturb the satellites. Most of the communication satellites are sent to this orbit due to good service and low cost. So what is polar orbit? Any satellite with an orbital path which is going over or near the poles maintains a polar orbit. Polar orbits are usually low earth orbits. Eventually earth's entire surface passes under a satellite in this polar orbit. A satellite in a polar orbit has a 90 degree inclination. This is the angle of the satellite in the orbit with respect to the equator. Now this sun synchronous orbit is a nearly polar orbit. A satellite in the sun synchronous orbit passes over any given point on earth's surface at the same time of a day. Now the satellites in the sun synchronous orbits use their inclination and altitude to get constant illumination from the sun. So now let us come back to the features of PSLV. PSLV is a four-staged launch vehicle. Its first and third stage uses solid rocket motors and the second and fourth stage uses liquid rocket engines. The most recent launch of PSLV was the PSLV C-46 mission which was launched in May 2019. It carried RISAT-2B which is a radar imaging earth observation satellite of ISRO. So now let us come back to the news article discussion. The news article says that 14 small spacecraft of four international customers will be accommodated as minor secondary passengers in the next three PSLV flights. According to the article ISRO will have one of its earth observation satellites as the larger primary payload on each of the three PSLVs. For example, Cartosat-3 of ISRO will be the main payload of PSLV C-47. So what is a payload? Payloads are nothing but the modules that are carried by the rockets or the launch vehicle. The payloads will carry out the assigned activities such as weather forecasting, reconnaissance etc. So now let us see the foreign customers and their payloads. One of the payload is the spacecraft mesh bed which will be carried by PSLV C-47. This payload belongs to analytical space international corporation which is in USA. This payload is aimed at providing an antenna technology that will enable faster access to satellite data including strategic communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Now the next payload is from Japan. It is the IQPS payload. It will be carried by PSLV C-48. It is for testing a revolutionary 100 kilogram synthetic aperture radar micro-satellite for all weather and 24 into 7 earth observation. Then the next payload is from a Luxembourg based Cleo space which is launching a three Cleo's scouting mission satellites on the PSLV C-49. So these are the three new foreign customers of ISRO. One of the old customers is Spire Global. It is sending a four Lemur nanosatellites for earth and sea observation, then for weather and aviation and weather monitoring also. These foreign missions are arranged by spaceflight which is a US based space company that arranges flights for agencies that are seeking to put their spacecraft into orbits. So from this we can say that the continued success of ISRO and its workhorse PSLV is beneficial to us because it acts as a reliable and dependable launch vehicle not only for Indian satellites but also for the foreign satellites. So this helps to increase our profits and it will establish India as a leader in space research and technology. With this we come to the end of news article discussion sessions. Next the questions based on today's discussions is given here for your self-evaluation. Try to answer these questions after listening to the analysis and you can also post the answers in the comment section. From our side the answers for these questions will be given in the next Hindi news analysis video. So with this we come to the end of today's Hindi news analysis. If you like the video don't forget to like comment and share and do subscribe to Shankar IS Academy YouTube channel for more updates related to civil service examination preparation and happy Diwali to all.


Thanksgiving is a time for thanks. So in the midst of family gatherings, feast and football, remember those for whom we are thankful. Remember the things important or common that we are thankful for, but above all, be thankful. Lead well this week.


Irina Sabalenka vs Karolina Mukova is the second semi-final for the women's Cincinnati Open for 2023. And both have been very impressive to get to the semi-finals. Mukova entered the tournament, unseeded, and will take on Adaj Mayer, the 12th seed in the first round. And after dropping the first set, would fight back to win 6-7, 6-1, 6-4. In the second round she'd take on Martich, and again Mukova would have to fight in 3, dropping the second set but rallying in the third, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. In the third round she'd take on the number 8 seed Sakari, the player that she'd beaten in the French Open a few months ago. And again after dropping the second set, Mukova would have to win in 3, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 to advance to the quarter-finals. In the quarter-finals Mukova would take on fellow Czech Buzkova, who had had a nice run into the quarter-finals. Unfortunately Buzkova was injured and would have to retire in the first set, with Mukova winning 3-love retirement to make the semi-finals. Sabalenka started the tournament off as the number 2 seed, and would get a buy in the first round. In the second round she'd take on the qualifier Lee, and after dropping the second set Sabalenka would fight back to win 7-5, 2-6, 6-4. In the third round she'd take on the 14 seed Kazakina, who had been pretty decent on the courts the last couple of weeks. There's no problem for Sabalenka getting through in straights 6-3, 6-3 to get to the quarter-finals. In the quarter-finals Sabalenka would take on the number 5 seed Jabir, who she'd lost to at Wimbledon in the semi-finals a couple of weeks ago. And after a close first set Jabir would get injured in the second, with Sabalenka getting the win in the end 7-5, 6-3 to advance to the semis. They still have played twice before, with their most recent meeting being at the French Open in the semi-finals back in June, and of course we all remember that Sabalenka had match points in the finals set at 5-2, but Mukaver came back to win that one to make that French Open final, so Sabalenka will be looking for some revenge. If Mukaver's gonna win this one, she needs to hit the variety like she has, she comes to the net a lot as well. That's what she did so well in that French Open semi-final. Slice it up, come to the net, really mix it up against Sabalenka and frustrate her from the ground strokes as well. Sabalenka's gonna win this one, it all comes down to serve. She's got to serve well in this, and she's also got to limit the errors. Now she did serve okay against Mukaver, but there were still a lot of double folds, and Mukaver gave a lot back, so she's gonna have to really serve well against Mukaver and better than she did against Mukaver. What a great matchup with a rematch of what we saw at the French Open, one of the matches of the year so far in that French Open semi-final, maybe for all the wrong reasons for Sabalenka, but it's gonna be so fun. I'm gonna go with Sabalenka in this one. I reckon she gets a revenge on these courts. I think the slower court suited Mukaver back at the French Open, but the faster court here is gonna suit Sabalenka and she's gonna get the win and get that revenge to make the final, but let me know down in the comments below who's gonna make the final.


All this month at Appalachian Wireless, get the only truly water-resistant Android smartphone the Samsung Galaxy S7 for just $99.99 and get a second one free while supplies last. Service agreement is required. Better service, bigger savings. That's today's Appalachian Wireless. Living in Appalachia, we all know how dangerous life in the mines can be. This week, the training and hard work that goes into protecting those lives will be on full display here at Bob Amos Park in Pikeville. We've got happening tomorrow, Tuesday. We've got three events. The pre-shift, which will occur up on the Bob Amos Park field. We've got first aid, bench occurring down here at the YMCA, and so total of three tomorrow. And then Wednesday and Thursday will be a mine rescue contest. It'll be occurring each day. We've got 12 teams that's going to be competing. For the mine rescue contest, what we're doing is simulating a mine emergency. And the teams are given a scenario and they will enter a mine that's simulated to rescue people that have been trapped in mines. So it's a simulation of a mine emergency. The competition will continue through Thursday when a winner will be crowned and a trophy presentation will be held. Training from Pikeville, for EKB News, I'm Jackson Ladder.