Newspaper Analysis for UPSC and APSC | 10th July 2025 | APSC and UPSC Exam Preparation | SPM IAS

0:01 Hello and welcome to SPMIS Academy. Today We Will Analyze Newspaper Articles of 10th July 2025. Please Note to and Download the PDF Version of Today's Newspaper Analysis by Clicking the Link Given in the Comment Section. This is the list of the topics that we will be covering from today's newspaper. The first topic is about PM Modi in Namibia. This topic is from our syllabus GS paper to international lessons point of view. We will also discuss some areas related to disaster management here. So let's look at the current context. You know that our Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited five countries in the last eight days. So in this visit, the last country that was to be visited was Namibia.

0:46 Reached there from Brazil. And with this he becomes the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Namibia. The government of Namibia also honoured him with the highest civilian award and along with this Prime Minister Narendra Modi has received 27 international honours since he became the Prime Minister in 2014. So this reflects India's growing soft power. If there is a question on soft power in the mains then you can also write this point there that India's structure is increasing in the global order. 27 countries have confirmed the highest civilian award. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been honored ever since he became the Prime Minister. So in

1:32 this way you can write your points on soft power. These are the names of those 27 countries, but there is no need to memorize them all. Recently wherever he has gone, he has met him in Ghana, Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil and now in Namibia. When he reached Namibia, he looked at the matters on which important decisions were taken, one by one. UPI LCH in Namibia. So now Namibia will also launch UPI in its country by the end of this year and for that NPCI, which is India's agency, has been launched by RBI to promote digitisation in India, digital payment in India, which has launched UPI, so NPCI has signed an agreement with Bank of Namibia

2:19 in order to launch UPI in Namibia. You will remember that UPSC had asked a question in the prelims this year that in which countries UPI has been launched. There were some options like France etc, UAE. So in this way, you have to keep these things in mind in the prelims as to where is UPI available and in which countries has the Government of India launched UPI now. So now UPI, which is a digital payment system, has been launched in Namibia also. Apart from that, India and Namibia will jointly open an Entrepreneurship Development Centre in Namibia through which the human resources there can be trained. Namibia has Joint India's Initiative of Global Biofuel Alliance where many important countries of the world have come together and are

3:07 trying to ramp up biofuel production. Brazil was already in it and now Namibia has also joined it. Namibia also joins the quota for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure. So these are two important initiatives which India has brought at the international level. Global Biofuel Alliance and Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure. We have already seen the Global Biofuel Alliance recently in newspaper analysis. So today we will not look into it in detail as to what it is. Today we will see in detail what is the Coalition for Disaster Relieve Infrastructure which Namibia has recently joined. At the same time, while addressing the Parliament of Namibia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked the entire Namibia and the

3:52 Government of Namibia for the Cheetah Reintroduction Programme in India. The cheetahs that were brought to India were released in Kunopalpur National Park in Madhya Pradesh. Those cheetahs were brought from two African countries. He also thanked South Africa and Namibia for that. So, let's assume that there should not be any direct question on India-Namibia relations. But recently he has visited Namibia, so it is possible that questions may arise on India Namibia relations. So you must have some points to manage. Right? So you can write in conclusion that Namibia helped India in cheetah reintroduction programme. Now let's talk a little about Coordination for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure

4:38 CDRI Namibia Joint India Spect CDRI So what is CDRI, see the name CDRI, as you can understand that such infrastructure should be developed be it roads or buildings or railway lines that in case any disaster occurs like earthquake or flood, then in that case the damages are minimized. See, there is an international framework in the field of disaster management named SADAI Framework. A statement was agreed there by the member countries that every $1 spent in disaster risk reduction leads to gain of $, meaning in simple words,

5:23 if ₹1 is spent today in building disaster resilient infrastructure, or in building a good building, suppose an earthquake resistant building, if ₹1 is spent on it today, then it will save ₹7 for us in the future. This is the benefit, if a good road is built for building disaster resilient infrastructure, which can withstand different types of disasters, then in the future, if ₹1 is spent there today, it will save ₹7 in the future. So guided by this idea, an international initiative or platform was brought, CDRI Collision for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure. This CDRI was launched in the year 2019 at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York. This was proposed by

6:09 our Prime Minister Narendra Modi that all the countries of the world should come together and form a group, Create a Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, where the countries share best practices among themselves on how disaster resilient infrastructure can be developed. So an international grouping was formed on the basis of the Prime Minister's idea. Now this African country Namibia has also joined it. So before Namibia joined, there were 31 countries, six international organisations and two private sectors that were part of CDRI. Now Namibia has also joined it. This is prelims practice question related to CDRI. Please run this question and submit the answer in the comment section. You may be asked CDRI related questions in Mains also. So you attempt this question that what is CDRI? What are its benefits

6:56 ? I have given some points. You can easily frame this answer on the basis of the rest of the discussion. If needed read the points and then you can attempt this question. Next question is about food wastage in India. This topic is from our syllabus. GS Paper Three, Indian Economy Point of View. Food related questions can come in GS Paper 2 Governance or GS Paper 3 Indian Economy. If there is a question related to food wastage, then you have to start your answer with a data that according to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, 1/3rd of the food produced in India gets wasted. It gets spoiled. And what is the

7:42 reason behind food getting wasted or spoiled ? One reason is the hot and humid climatic conditions here. Due to hot and humid climatic conditions, bacterial activities are very high here. And because of this, if the food is not preserved properly even for a short time, it starts to spoil immediately. Because of high bacterial activity and the reason behind it is hot and humid climatic conditions. The second reason is poor storage facility. The refrigeration and storage facilities here are not that good. And because of this, when food grains are not stored properly, they get wasted. This is called post harvest wastage. So to deal with this problem, the

8:28 Government of India has brought a massive project named Agriculture Infrastructure Fund Project. Under this, a fund of Rs 1 lakh crore has been created. With the help of which, startups who want to develop infrastructure in the field of agriculture like developing cold storage etc. in rural areas, will be given loans at concessional rates. With the help of this fund, loans will be available only through banks. Loans will be available only through rural banks. Suppose, but those rural banks will be supported or funds will be made available to them through this Rs 1 lakh crore fund which is known as Agriculture Infrastructure Fund. We also saw this during the revision of current affairs. So if you ever have any questions related to agriculture then I have to

9:14 tell you one thing that in rural areas, the facility for storage of post harvest related crops is not good in our country yet. Just to strengthen this, Agriculture Infrastructure Fund of Rs 1 lakh crore has been introduced. This will also minimize crop or food wastage. The third reason behind 1/3rd of food wastage in our country is big fat weddings. A big fat wedding is just a term to highlight the grand celebrations that are done in our country. If there are a thousand people coming to eat here, then food is prepared for 3000 people. Food wastage is considered a matter of pride that look, we prepared so much food that

10:00 it got wasted. To say this, people get a lot of food prepared. So, you may have to write all this in ethics also. You can use these ideas in ethics or such matters also. The Big Fat Weddings and the Lack of Deeper Consciousness About the Impact of Food Waste. People do not even realize what harm is caused by food wastage. For this reason they waste food. If you can remember all this data then you can quote on food wastage that 68.7 million tons of food is wasted annually which is 1/3 of all the food produced in the country. In these simple 1 person wastes about 50 kg of food per year. If we talk in amount, then $1.53 trillion worth of agricultural produce is wasted every year post harvest.

10:48 And what are the harms caused by food wastage ? The harm caused by food wastage is that the problem of hunger and malnutrition increases in our country. Similarly, the problem of hunger mal nutrition is big in our country. Economic losses: It is estimated that 1% of GDP is depleted because of food wastage. And when there is food wastage, we dump it on these unscientific men. So the drainage system gets clogged. Due to which when it rains in cities, water accumulates. We call this artificial flooding or urban flooding. What initiatives have been taken to deal with food wastage ? So a platform has been created called IFSA. Indian Food Sharing Alliance. This has been

11:33 developed by Food Safety Standards Authority of India. What is the work of that IFSA ? That he collects food. Wherever food is being wasted, you can upload on IFSA that food is being wasted here. We had so much food prepared for these celebrations, for the party. This food is going waste. People from the IFSA platform will come and collect the food and get it distributed to those in need or recycled. There is a need to develop awareness. So the Government of India has suggested to all the state governments to include a chapter on prevention of food wastage in their school text books. And at the same time, food wastage should not be directly dumped. Because if

12:18 we directly dump the food waste, it releases greenhouse gases which will also contribute to global warming. So instead of dumping food waste, we should develop some fuel from food waste. For this, PMG One Scheme has been introduced. It aims at converting food waste into usable fuel. So actually I am just talking about this topic mainly because I have taken this whole topic. If we do a mains question related to PM Jeevan Scheme then we will understand more about it. This was the prelims practice question related to Agriculture Infrastructure Fund. Please attempt what we have discussed here. Question: What came in UPSC Mains? Discuss several ways in which organisms can help in meeting current fuel shortages. So the

13:06 small organisms are micro organisms such as algae, bacteria, yeast. How can we generate fuel from these? So basically we can produce biogas by anaerobic digestion of wastes. We can put the organic waste from cattle etc. in the village into the biodigester plant. When the organic wastes decompose in the absence of oxygen and the bacteria etc. present in it, it leads to the release of biogas. Biogas can be used for heating, cooking, electricity purposes etc. So in the same way, micro-organisms are used in biohydrogen, bioethanol, biodiesel, bioremediation etc.,

13:52 which can help in dealing with the problem of fuel shortages to a great extent. In the conclusion you have to write PM G1 Scheme. Now you will understand that the organism present here is representing these micro organisms. G1 Its National Biofuel Policy of the Government of India it mainly aims at using micro-organisms to convert food or other organic wastes into fuel in order to deal with the fuel shortage problem. At the same time they help in generating clean fuel sources. Ok? So remember the PMG1 scheme, questions related to Agriculture Infrastructure Fund may also come for both Mains and Prelims.

14:38 Next is about atomic clock vs optical clock. This topic is from our syllabus GS paper 3 Science and Technology point of view. First of all, let us understand how the clocks, wall clocks, etc. that are in our homes work, how each second of it is measured, so these are called, basically the clocks that are in our homes are called quartz clocks, a quartz crystal is fitted in a quartz clock and whenever electricity is passed through the quartz crystal, that quartz crystal vibrates. All this happens in the back end. Quartz crystals vibrate

15:24 after the application of electricity. It vibrates in this manner. And 32768 32768 Times When It Vibrates. So that is called one tick or one second. So after that, as soon as it vibrates for this much time, this clock will move forward by one second. Then it will vibrate for that much time and then move forward by 1 second. So this is how the quartz clock works; it has quartz crystals fitted in it and it vibrates with the help of electricity. Its vibration frequency is this much and after 32768 vibrations there is one tick of 1 second. So in a quarks clock, one second is such a measure. But it is not that scientific or you can say not that precise for time

16:11 measurement. That is why, you will notice that many watches which have a period of three to four years have gone a little behind or ahead because they are not that precise. Someone has only 32765 vibrations. Someone got 32700 78 vibrations. So, some are a little fast , some are slow. So over a period of two to three to four years you may see a gap of two to three minutes. Quasar clocks are not that precise. But atomic clocks are more precise than these. They are very precious. What is used in them to measure one second? Cesium atom is used in it. Now what is a cesium atom like and what is there inside it

16:56 ? There is a nucleus around the nucleus. Then there is the electron which keeps revolving. And electrons have different energy states. Lower energy level, higher energy level. So when the electron revolves near the nucleus then it is called lower energy level. When it revolves away from that then it is called higher energy level. Now there are different orbital levels in which the electrons orbit around the nucleus. Now to go from lower energy level to higher energy level, this electron needs energy or you can say energy in the form of waves. And when it gets energy in the form of microwaves, then this electron jumps from the lower energy level to higher energy level or higher orbital level. Then

17:44 he stays there for some time. Then it emits microwaves and comes back from the higher orbital level to the lower orbital level. So in this way, the electron inside the caesium atom keeps jumping up and down from lower to higher, higher to lower, lower to higher, higher to lower in this manner. And the amount of jumps one makes and the time in which that jumping takes place is absolutely fixed. Basically, the electron present inside this caesium atom jumps these many times per second, it vibrates so many times, from lower to higher, lower to higher, lower to higher, it vibrates these many times,

18:31 so on this basis one second has been created in an atomic clock, so I am telling you again that atomic clocks are used all over the world where one second has been defined in a very precise manner and this one second has been created there. These atomic clocks are used for all those things where very precise timing is required. Where even a slight variation can cause problems. So basically atomic clock is used for GPS international time keeping. It is used for scientific research. It is used for aviation purposes atomic time clock. The atomic time clock will

19:16 vibrate that many times. That means, in the caesium atom, there are vibrations from lower to higher, from lower to higher that many times of an electron for 1 second. So the simple question is how much bigger is this figure than 32,000. If it is vibrating so many times in 1 second it means that the chances of variations here are less. Now see, if instead of 32768 it becomes 32778 then how much percentage change will occur? Here, even if 777 instead of 770 becomes 772 in any clock, the variation will still be very less. Basically, I am

20:02 telling you agar do aap agar as there is a Hindi proverb to explain that the work which can be done with a needle cannot be done with a sword. Why so? Because there is more precision inside the needle due to its small size. Right? So work can be done there in a more precise manner. So here this is related to the sword. Its overall frequency is greater. You can say that the number of frequencies and vibrations in it are very high. Right? So here, even if there is one or two more, in any atomic clock, even then there is not going to be much variation over the period of time. So basically this is more sensitive. This is more precise because here one second is divided

20:48 into so many times. There are so many variations that will lead to one second. Here only 32,000 variations will lead to one second. That is why this is more precise. And today atomic clocks are used all over the world. Wherever precise time keeping is required. But now better clocks than atomic clocks are coming. Which are being called optical clocks. The basic phenomena of optical clocks are the same as those of atomic clocks. The only difference is that cesium atom is used in atomic clock. Tronsium atoms are used in optical clocks. The nucleus of the strontium atom has electrons in it and its electrons also keep jumping from higher to lower levels. But this

21:35 electron inside the trontium atom jumps to higher lower level. 430 trillion times per second. It keeps fluctuating so rapidly between higher and lower levels that to understand it and measure it, a laser light has to be thrown from outside to measure the variation. So that is the main difference between atomic clock and optical clock. If we look at the similarities then the basic idea is same in both that an electron keeps jumping between lower and higher levels and 1 second is defined on the basis of how many times it jumps in 1 second. But in atomic clocks, caesium atom is used and in optical clocks, stronsium is used and strontium has so much fluctuation per second, 430 trillion per second,

22:22 that it is more precise, that is why optical clock is considered to be more precise, it is used for super specific super precise time keeping. So if we look at the main difference between atomic clock and optical clock, then atomic clock uses microwaves. Basically, in an atomic clock, when the electrons fluctuate up and down, microwaves are released or emitted. When you move from lower level to higher level the microwaves will be absorbed. When you move from higher level to lower level microwaves will be emitted. Whereas in optical clock the visible light is emitted or absorbed. The first thing is this. Secondly of course in atomic clocks there is cesium here. Strontium is present here. But in an optical clock, there is a

23:11 fluctuation of 430 trillion dollars between one tick i.e. one second. So optical clocks are used for much more accurate or precise timing. Till date, the clock that is being used throughout the world for the most precise timing is the atomic clock. In fact one second is defined as the atomic clock on the edge. What is 1 second currently? That is, any unit of measurement will have to be defined. So 1 second is currently defined as this cesium 133 atomic clock. The fluctuation that occurs so many times between the electrons of caesium in the upper higher level is called one second. That is the current definition. But our scientists around the world want to further upgrade the definition of second. And they

23:59 want to define it not as atomic clock but as optical clock. With the help of optical clock he wants to define one second. That is the goal for scientists that they have established for themselves that by 2030 they want to define one second per optical clock. And for this, research is going on all over the world and comparison of different types of optical clocks is being done and it is possible that most probably by 2030, scientists from all over the world and scientific agencies together will adopt a new scientific definition of one second. That scientific definition will be an optical clock based on strontium that an electron in strontium fluctuates so many times that it is actually known as

24:44 one second. And currently one second is defined as a cesium atomic clock. By 2030 there is a plan that one second should be defined as an optical atomic clock. Optical clock. I'm so sorry its based on stonesium. I hope you have understood this discussion. There are prelims practice questions on the basis of this discussion. Please run this question and submit the answer in the comment section. This topic is from men's perspective. We will extract even smaller points from here than Prelims Perceive. Let's see. So this topic is going to be very-variant for our syllabus GS paper five Assam is the point of view wild life institute of India has published a report on man elephant conflict in assam in which they have stated that in 23 years from year 200 to 2023 1468 human

25:32 lives have been lost due to man elephant conflict and during this period 626 elephants also have died because of anthropogenic factors meaning human factors what is the reason behind man and elephant conflict? Why is it on the rise? Deforestation: Forests are being cut down. We ourselves are growing and settling there. So elephants will definitely enter our house. Expansion of agriculture in again forested areas. Human Settlement Encroaching on Elephant Habitats. Habitat Fragmentation of Elephants. Disruption of Elephant Corridor. What is an Elephant Corridor? Understand this. See, elephants are bulky on an individual level and secondly, they like to live in herds. Therefore, whatever ecosystem they live in, whatever forest area

26:18 they live in, they immediately destroy its resources. They eat and drink and then leave. So a herd of elephants cannot stay in any area for very long. Then he has to migrate from that area and go to another place. Then they will stay in other biomes and other ecosystems for a long time, maybe a month. Then we will eat and drink there too and finish everything. Then we will go to the third place. So in this way elephants have their own corridor which connects one forested area with another forested area. And preservation of the corridors is very important. Only then will elephants be able to go from one place to another and survive. But nowadays we are developing infrastructure at such a fast pace. Elephant corridors like roads and railway lines are being destroyed. Now due to this, the conflict between elephants and humans is increasing. What will happen if you build a road from here? There will definitely be a

27:04 conflict between animal and human. What will happen if you lay a railway line? Elephant will definitely have conflict with humans. Different types of infrastructure like drains, electric wires are also getting complicated due to this. Elephants are also dying. The two districts in Assam where maximum deaths of elephants or human-elephant conflict has been seen the most are Nagaon and Sonepur West. Now what initiatives are being taken to curve and reduce the human-elephant conflict ? Remember these five points. Gaj Yatra Initiative: With the help of Gaj Yatra Initiatives, efforts are being made to free the elephant corridors from human interference. It is not that the Gaj Yatra initiative has been brought only for Assam. It is for different states but within Assam also, Gaj Yatra initiative is being brought to make efficient corridors free from

27:50 human interference. Our National Highway near Kaziranga is National Highway No. 37 If I am not wrong National Highway No. 37 please let me know in the comment section whether I am right or not. Perhaps, a proposed elevated corridor plan of this type is being brought over the National Highway no. 37 so that whenever there is a flood in the Kaziranga area, as there is a flood every year in that area, these poor elephants or rhinos start coming out from there and on the road and then they die there due to accidents with cars or vehicles. To prevent that from happening, this type of elevated corridor is being built so that the animals can leave Kaziranga National Park and go to other higher areas like Karbanlong etc. without coming on the highway.

28:37 Sense radio colonization of elephants to track their movement. There should be advance warning so that human-elephant conflict can be avoided. Sensitization of local villagers. See how it often happens that fire crackers get burnt. To chase away the elephants. What happens is that the elephant sometimes gets more agitated and starts attacking people. So, this is not to be done at all. Do not pour kerosene or oil on it. The villagers are being sensitized about all these. And another initiative was brought named Rehab Initiative. Reducing Elephant Human Attacks Using Bees. Rehab in short. See, elephants are not afraid of bees. So I am scared of these seeds. So to prevent elephant raids, elephants should not raid these agricultural crop areas.

29:23 For this, nowadays under rehab projects, two honey bees have been placed like this and they are connected to each other with the help of heavy wire which will not be visible to the elephants. Suppose an elephant came to raid this crop. He will definitely break this thread to raid this agricultural field. As soon as the thread breaks, honey seeds will come out from the bee hives and they will come out and scare the elephants, they will bite them and the elephants will run away and will not raid the crops. So that is the idea under rehab initiative where the idea is that elephants are scared of honey bees. This idea is used to prevent human elephant conduct. It is not directly related to this topic, but

30:09 this question on Efficients came in UPSC Prelims in the year 2020. Try to attempt this question by searching a bit on Google etc. The second statement in the question on Belt and Road Initiative is wrong. India is not part of Belt on Road Initiative. Here again the second statement is wrong. Related to Green Climate Fund. It is labour intensive and skill based but skill based industries generally focus on utilization of specialized knowledge and advanced technology and of course require small work. This statement is also correct. The answer to this will be both. I have mistakenly written A here. So the answer to this will be both. Scale based industries generally focus on utilization of specialized knowledge. That is true answer would be B. C.

30:55 Here again the second statement is wrong. Camroo is not a metro in the top 10. In fact, no district of Assam is in the top 10. That's all from me for today.