1 India’s No.1 Teacher in Bank Exams for English Language and Editorial Website: www.vishalparihar.com | Email: [email protected]
Today’s Vocabulary Vigilance (noun) = The action or
state of keeping careful watch for
possible danger or difficulties
(जागरूकता) Grim (adj) = Very serious or
gloomy (विकट) Mortality (noun) = The state of
being subject to death, especially
on a large scale (मतृ्यु दर) Low median age = Low median
age in some countries means that
The
Hin
du
Ed
ito
rial
Best Faculty of English Language in 2017
7+ years experience in Bank Exams.
Best Editorial Analyst on YouTube in 2019
Super30 Teacher’s Award in 2019
Wifistudy YouTube Channel
/vishalparihar
Editorial 10-September-2020
V i s h a l P a r i h a r ( A V P )
www.vishalparihar.com
2 India’s No.1 Teacher in Bank Exams for English Language and Editorial Website: www.vishalparihar.com | Email: [email protected]
Disparity (noun) = A great
difference (असमानता)
Glaring (adj) = Giving out or
reflecting a strong or dazzling
light (स्पष्ट)
Stratum (noun) = A level or class
to which people are assigned
according to their social status,
education, or income (स्तर)
Chasm (noun) = A profound
difference between people,
viewpoints, feelings, etc
Alacrity (noun) = Brisk and
cheerful readiness (तत्परता)
Refurbish (verb) = Renovate and
redecorate (something,
especially a building)
Contentious (adj) = Causing or
likely to cause an argument;
controversial (वििादास्पद)
Overdrive (verb) = Drive or work
to exhaustion
Expedite (verb) = Make (an
action or process) happen sooner
or be accomplished more quickly
(शीघ्र)
Amenity (noun) = A desirable or
useful feature or facility of a
building or place (सुविधाएँ)
Alleviation (noun) = The action
or process of making suffering,
deficiency, or a problem less
severe (उन्मूलन)
Collapsible (adj) = (of an object)
able to be folded into a small
space
Dilapidated (adj) = (of a building
or object) in a state of disrepair or
ruin as a result of age or neglect
(परुाना)
Sustainability (noun) = The
ability to be maintained at a
certain rate or level (वस्िरता)
Penetration (noun) = The selling
of a company's products in a
particular market or area (प्रिेश)
Paucity (noun) = The presence of
something in only small or
insufficient quantities or
amounts (कमी)
Imbibe (verb) = Absorb or
assimilate (ideas or knowledge)
Sprint (verb) = Run at full speed
over a short distance
Untenable (adj) = (especially of a
position or view) not able to be
maintained or defended against
attack or objection (अवस्िर)
Dilution (noun) = The action of
making something weaker in
force, content, or value
3 India’s No.1 Teacher in Bank Exams for English Language and Editorial Website: www.vishalparihar.com | Email: [email protected]
Title: Digital disconnect (Poor access to the Internet in many States must be bridged urgently to help e-learners)
Context: The full report of the
NSO’s survey of ‘Household Social
Consumption on Education in India’, for
July 2017-June 2018, highlights the poor
state of computer and Internet access in
several States. The disparities are glaring
among different economic strata as well.
The digital chasm that separates the
privileged from the deprived remains
unbridged years after the broadband
policy of 2004, and its effects are painfully
evident during the pandemic as students
struggle to log on to online classes.
Only in Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and
Kerala did the survey find Internet access
exceeding 50% for urban and rural
households taken together, while Punjab,
Haryana and Uttarakhand exceeded 40%,
unimpressive numbers still. Large States
— Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra
Pradesh and Karnataka — had access
below 20%.
Prime Minister Modi has acknowledged
the digital divide by announcing in his
Independence Day address that all villages
would be connected with optical fibre
cable in 1,000 days. This target, reflecting
enhanced ambition, follows the one set in
2011 to link panchayats through a national
optical fibre network — to raise
administrative capacities through
information infrastructure.
Evidently, successive governments have
dropped the ball. States have not shown
the alacrity to make a big leap either, and
the deficit has now dealt a blow to
students.
Some companies in India have made the
valuable suggestion that their used
desktop computers could be refurbished
and donated, for which governments need
to open a programme. On the network
technology front, a new gigabit speed
‘wireless fibre’ standard is being viewed in
developed countries as a leapfrog option to
link inaccessible areas; it involves high
capacity spectrum (E and V bands), and is
commercially not contentious.
The government needs to look at all
possibilities and go into overdrive to
bridge the digital divide.
4 India’s No.1 Teacher in Bank Exams for English Language and Editorial Website: www.vishalparihar.com | Email: [email protected]
Title: A necessary
pause (Vaccines take time to develop; the
first to roll out might not necessarily
be the best)
Context: The global clamour for a
COVID-19 vaccine has whipped up
unrealistic expectations that one is just
around the corner. It is thus a reality
check when biopharma company
AstraZeneca, piloting its vaccine
candidate, AZD1222 — there were large
Phase-3 trials this month — said it was
voluntarily putting the multi-national trial
on hold.
This was after a ‘serious adverse event’ in
a volunteer, which a data safety
monitoring board will now examine. The
company’s move was first reported by an
independent medical news site,
underlining the critical role that
independent scrutiny plays in one of the
greatest global crises.
U.S. President Trump has ‘demanded’ that
a vaccine be available before voting day in
November. India had its moment of
vaccine controversy when the ICMR
harried trialists to expedite testing of
Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin by August 15.
Russia, which is to commence its Sputnik
V’s Phase-3 testing, has launched a
publicity blitz. Just before reports of the
trial pause, AstraZeneca and eight
companies developing vaccines signed a
pledge that they would not approach
regulatory authorities, such as the U.S.
FDA, until they had safety and efficacy
data from a Phase-3 trial.
Vaccine trials take years of development
precisely because of the chances of
unexpected complications and to expect a
vaccine, which has cleared accelerated
Phase-1/2 trials, to inexorably clear
Phase-3, flies in the face of evidence from
the history of vaccine development.
Developed at Oxford, AZD1222 was
evolved on an adenovirus platform not
used in a commercially approved vaccine
in humans. They have however been used
in an experimental Ebola vaccine.
5 India’s No.1 Teacher in Bank Exams for English Language and Editorial Website: www.vishalparihar.com | Email: [email protected]
Putting down a standard operating
protocol for every stage of the vaccine will
serve the government well when the
baton is finally passed on to it.