Hello everybody, HoodedCobraCommander788 here, and it's time for another vintage GI Joe Toy review. And the last few reviews we have looked at action figures, well it's time for us to look at a vehicle. And the vehicle we're going to look at is a pretty well-known vehicle from 1986. We're going to look at the Havoc and the Driver Cross Country. I think you're going to enjoy looking at this vehicle. It's big, it's green, it's weird, but it has some surprises. So let's check it out. This is the 1986 Havoc with its Driver Cross Country. Havoc H-A-V-O-C is an acronym that stands for Heavy Articulated Vehicle Ordinance Carrier. I've expressed my dislike for acronyms as vehicle names before, and this is why. Havoc is a perfectly fine name for this vehicle. You do not need to turn it into a nonsensical acronym. The Havoc and Cross Country were first introduced in 1986. They were also sold in 1987. They were discontinued in 1988, and in 1988 it's really hard to say if it had a replacement that year. I guess the closest to a replacement would be the Mean Dog, but that's not exactly the same kind of vehicle, but I guess it's the closest thing in 1988 to this Havoc. The Havoc was worth four flag points. It came with the Driver Cross Country. I'm going to take a closer look at the Cross Country action figure a little bit later, so I'm going to set them aside for now. The Havoc is very close in size to the 1983 APC, Amphibious Personnel Carrier, with the APC being slightly larger, but they are pretty close, and these two vehicles would probably be considered to be in the same size class. One quick note about the name Havoc. In the Marvel Comics mini series G.I. Joe Order of Battle, on the page that features Cross Country, the Driver, it shows him as the Rhino Driver, not the Havoc Driver. Rhino would have been a prototype name for the Havoc, but this is also a mistake because later on the same page it does refer to the vehicle as the Havoc. So on this page the name was changed down here, but the prototype name slipped by up here. Another anomaly on this page is it has a prototype file name for Cross Country, but we'll talk more about that when we look at the figure. Let's look at the parts and the features of the Havoc, starting up at the front here with these two orange guns. These guns, as far as I can tell, are not listed on the blueprints for the vehicle, so I don't know what exactly these are supposed to be. They could be machine guns, they could be laser guns, really just who knows. They do both of them pivot independently, and as you can see they are bright orange, and a lot of the smaller features on this vehicle are this bright orange color. This is something that bothers me a little bit. From a design perspective I understand the need to have a bit of color to offset the very muted colors, the greens and the grays on the rest of the vehicle, but from a real world perspective, of course it makes no sense to put bright safety orange on your military vehicle. As a kid, I had a hard time overlooking that, I still have a hard time overlooking that. These orange accessories really do stand out. In the front we also have some headlight stickers, and I think these are misplaced on my Havoc. I think these stickers should be down here, not attached to the clear plastic canopy. Then of course we do have this clear plastic canopy, this very large clear plastic canopy. To access that to open it, you have to kind of move these guns, tilt them back in order to tilt the canopy back to access the cockpit. There's one obvious thing to point out here, this clear plastic canopy would essentially be a glass dome over the cockpit, and this is very impractical. It would leave your drivers in the cockpit completely vulnerable to enemy fire. It really makes no sense to have this heavily armored vehicle like this, but to leave the nerve center of the vehicle really completely unarmored. There is a potential practical use for a big glass dome like this. If this were an anti-aircraft vehicle, if these guns up here were anti-aircraft guns, then this big glass canopy would give the driver almost an all around view of the sky. You'd have almost no obstructions to your view with this big glass canopy. One problem with this theory is the driver is supposed to drive this vehicle face down, looking at this monitor here. So he doesn't get to take advantage of this very wide field of vision. So that makes this canopy again completely useless. Here's a look at the cockpit of the Havoc, and you can see it does have some fairly good detail in there, nice control panels. Unfortunately it has this little depression right here, and that is where the front tread clips on to the vehicle on the underside. It just shows right through there, and I do not like that. That just kind of looks cheap to me, I kind of feel like that should have been covered up somehow. Yeah, that's not my favorite thing. The way you're supposed to orient the driver inside the cockpit is a little bit unclear. It has these joystick things on either side of the control panels on both driver spaces, and it kind of looks like you're supposed to put the action figure's hands on those joysticks, but then the canopy has a little bit of trouble closing, because the figure's head is too far up. If you close it, it kind of pushes the figure toward the back. It does have this space back here, and down in the bottom there there is some sculpted detail. There's looks like a little pedal back there, and so I guess you can put your figure all the way back there, and his face is more lined up with the monitor on the control panel, and you can close the canopy better, but he's a mile away from these joysticks, so I guess you're not supposed to use those at all. This seems to be the correct way to put the figures in. You have front and back treads. The back treads are larger than the front treads, and these are fake. They're fake treads. Turning the vehicle over, you can see the wheels that it rolls on. These orange wheels, that's an interesting choice to make those wheels orange, but whatever. You can't really see them when the vehicle is upright.  That's really cool. I like that a lot. There are four of these, two front and two back. Make sure you watch out for those when you're trying to get a Havoc vehicle. If you want a complete one, sometimes these are just missing and people don't realize that they're missing because this does look pretty cool and pretty detailed without them. Both the front and the back treads turn independently. The front treads can turn quite a bit more than the back treads can, but that would give this vehicle a pretty tight turn radius for such a long vehicle. Up at the top here, we have this hydraulic gun seat, and it's on these two support arms, one on each side. That does move a bit. It can elevate with a bit of a ratcheting like that. That's about as high up as it'll go. And of course, since it has a pivot point right here, it can pivot up and move right over the canopy. The gun seat has some impressive details. They're really not skimpy gun details here. There's a little joystick for the figure to hold on when he's operating the gun. Definitely some very impressive detail, I'll give it that. According to the blueprints, these big guns are leveler, dual, recoilless, 75mm cannons, and they are huge. In comparison to the figure, these are some massive guns. But these are supposed to be cannons, but they don't really look like cannons. They have this sort of slotted barrel like this, and it looks kind of like it's supposed to be some kind of an energy weapon, a laser or something like that. One very disappointing thing about this whole gun system here is that it does not pivot. It will not turn side to side at all. It is articulated somewhat, you can elevate it, you can swing it forward, but that's all you can do with it. You can't turn it side to side, which means to aim this thing, you have to turn the entire vehicle. That to me is very impractical. The gunner fits comfortably in the gunner's seat. You can put his hand on the control joystick like that, and he can operate the cannons. This obviously is insane. You would never want a military vehicle like this. This is a death seat. He's completely exposed up there on the top, and the enemy just has to take him out, and they don't have to worry about these guns anymore. It would be insane to actually put somebody in that kind of position. You'd just never do it. Some GI Joe vehicles made the mistake of hiding the action figure inside the vehicle. When you put the figure in the vehicle, you really couldn't see them in there, and I do want to see the action figures when they're inside the vehicles. But this goes way too far in the other direction. Just because I want to see the action figures operate the vehicles doesn't mean that I want them impractically exposed up here at the top. This is just crazy. When we move the top cannons out of the way, we can access the engine cover. Remove that. It's got a little bit of detail on there. It's got some tools. That's kind of cool. Remove the engine cover, and you can see some engine detail. This is the engine detail, and it's pretty well detailed, and it looks like a pretty powerful engine. It would have to be to run a big vehicle like this. That's pretty cool. Excellent detail there. In the back, we have these rear-facing guns. They pivot independently, and they are identical. You can swap them out. There is no left and right one. The blueprints call these repeater 9mm auto-loading machine guns. Even though they don't look like machine guns, I guess they look more like laser guns. They are in this bright orange color. This bright orange color is probably the main thing that brings down the value of this vehicle in my estimation. That orange color, man, that's a really tough one. I have a hard time looking past that. I don't know who is supposed to operate these rear-facing guns. Maybe it's the pilot of the Recon car. We're going to look at that a little bit later, but there is a pilot that sits back there, so maybe he's the one who's supposed to control these, or maybe these guys up front control them on their monitors. I'm not really sure. And speaking of bright orange, we have four orange missiles, two on each side. These missiles peg into the side of the vehicle on this sort of universal dumb-bell peg here, and they usually depict it as being rear-facing. Oddly, this vehicle has a lot of armament facing rear. I guess it expects to be attacked from the rear pretty often in order to have everything essentially facing backwards. But you can take these missiles off and flip them around and put them facing forward. You can do that if you want to. Here in the back we have a standard GI Joe universal tow hook, and that is excellent. That should be on all vehicles, but it's not. Another added bonus, all the way around the back here. We have these troop carrying platforms, and there are foot pegs. Those foot pegs you can use to have the figures ride along, just put the foot peg in the hole on the bottom of the action figure's feet, and the figure can ride along so you can carry a whole bunch of additional figures on this vehicle. That's a very nice feature. It's very difficult to use these back two pegs on the side with the missiles on, so it works a lot better. If you take the missiles off, then it's much easier to put a figure on one of those back two pegs. Now we finally get to one of the main features on this vehicle. This shroud in the back here opens up to reveal a sub vehicle. It works better if you kind of move the cannons out of the way. You can open up this shroud that's around the recon vehicle, and this for all intents and purposes is a flying car. Now I know this isn't really a practical real world vehicle, but I loved this thing as a kid, and yes, we did treat it as a flying car, even though that's probably not what it's supposed to be, but it looks like a flying car. Underneath it has two non-working fans, and this whole fan assembly here kind of slides. It slides along the bottom, so it kind of looks like the recon vehicle is steering. It has a really fierce looking engine here in the back. It looks like a very powerful engine with exhaust pipes coming out the side. That looks great. It does kind of look like there should be an engine cover that fits on there, but it did not come with an engine cover for this engine. It does sort of look like there should be one, but there isn't. It's just an exposed engine, and it's really nice detail. Very cool looking. Really not much detail to speak of in the cockpit, and the figure just sort of sits in there very simply, very plainly. No control panel is in there at all, but you can just pretend that he's driving and really just love this sub-vehicle. It is well known that I prefer the more realistic military vehicles in GI Joe, but I have to admit this thing is really fun. It has these orange guns on the side, and really who cares what they're supposed to be? They're orange. The color scheme on this really precisely matches its parent vehicle with the balance of green, and gray, and orange. This is what the inside of the Havoc looks like without the reconnaissance vehicle in there, and there is some nice detail. It's pretty impressive. That's pretty cool. I apologize.  Then of course you can close it up without the recon car in there, and of course it does kind of look like there's something missing, but the vehicle is still fully functional without it, still has all of its armaments, and it still looks pretty good. Let's take a look at the driver cross country. He came with no accessories, so let's take a quick look at his articulation. He had the typical articulation for 1986 GI Joe action figures. That means he could turn his head from left to right like that. He could also look up and down. His neck was on a ball joint. He could move his arm up at the shoulder about so far. He could swivel it all the way around. He had a hinge at the elbow that allowed him to move at the elbow about 90 degrees. He had a swivel at the bicep that allowed him to swivel his arm all the way around. The figure was held together with a rubber O-ring that looped around the inside, so he could move at the torso a little bit. He could move his legs apart about so far. He could move his legs at the hip about 90 degrees, and he could move at the knee about 90 degrees. Let's take a look at the sculpt designing color of cross country, starting with his head. And on his head he has what looks like an American Civil War Confederate Army Keppie. Cross country is a Southerner, and he's wearing Confederate headgear. We're getting dangerously close to stereotype territory. And then he has this very weird head sculpt. I mean this face just looks very strange to me. He's got chubby cheeks, he looks kind of cherubic, and I don't know exactly what kind of expression that is on his face. To me this expression looks like stifling a fart. On his chest is this green vest, and it does have some decent detail, but it is a very light green, and it's getting very dangerously close to neon green. This vest is very reminiscent of the one on version 2 of Roadblock. It even has the same sort of red and black accent colors. In fact, really cross country's whole color scheme is reminiscent of version 2 of Roadblock, with the gray pants and the light green vest, and even the white sleeves. There's some weird stuff going on with this vest though. It's got this sort of black hose thing that goes from this pocket here over to this red shoulder pad. I have no idea what the function of this red shoulder pad would be, and I have no idea what this is. It's just sort of a strap that goes nowhere, and that does not continue to the back. It has this sort of clip here on the shoulder, but no such detail on the back. So I don't know what this is supposed to be. It's just a weird thing that doesn't seem to do anything. It also looks like we have an unpainted detail here. It looks like we have kind of a name patch or something like that right here, but that is unpainted, and on other figures that had these, a lot of them were painted like the one here on Roadblock, and then on Dusty even those patches were painted white. But not on cross country. They kind of skimped on the paint applications there and left that detail unpainted. A couple of my pet peeves are unpainted details and bright colors on G.I. Joe's. So we're really not off to a good start here. Cross country's arms feature white rolled up sleeves, and this very unusual sculpted feature here on both shoulders. I do not know what that's supposed to be. It doesn't look like it's supposed to be part of his white undershirt. It looks like it's some kind of a shoulder covering. It doesn't look like it's intended to be like a rank chevron or something like that. Even if it was, that would be the wrong rank for cross country. So I don't know what that is, but by golly that looks like another unpainted detail to me. On his forearms he has gray arm guards and brown gloves. And those are reasonably well detailed.  And now that would not be a confederate battle flag belt buckle, would it? Of course it is. If there were any doubt that it was, it's drawn in great detail here on cross country's entry in the order of battle. We have driven straight into the heart of Stereotype City. I still have to finish looking at this figure, don't I? I can't get out of it, can I? Alright, let's do it. On his legs he features those gray trousers, and he has these tear drop shaped pockets here on the sides that have zippers on them. Those just look really weird. It's a strange detail, it's just a splash of red here on the gray, and the shape is just odd. Then starting at the knees, his knees are white. And you might think these are knee pads, but they are not knee pads. These aren't the cool knee pads that I like. These are just painted knees, so those don't count. And then he has what looks like white boot coverings with a red strap on them. Why is he wearing boot coverings? I don't know. I don't want to look at this figure anymore, so let's look at his file card. This file card for cross country would have been printed on the back of the box that the Havoc came in. You're encouraged to cut these out and keep them. There's nothing on the other side, it's just the back of a box. This artwork, the portrait here of cross country is not from the front of the box of the Havoc. This is one of the very rare ones where he has a portrait that is different from the front of the package of the vehicle that he drives. The reason for that is probably because on the front packaging for the vehicle, he has shown face down driving the vehicle in the cockpit, and that doesn't make for a very good portrait. It says his code name is cross country hyphenated. It says he's the Havoc driver, and then it doesn't say file name here, as it normally does, it just says his name. That's kind of weird. His name is Robert M. Blaze. Referring back to cross country's entry in order of battle, this is where we see a difference in his name. Here it has his prototype file name, which is RLNW Slaughter, and that RLNW Slaughter name also comes up in the Marvel Age issue number 34 where there's a preview of the new Joe's for 1986, and cross country is in there again as RLNW Slaughter. So why would they change his file name? Well his last name was Slaughter, and he's an E5, which is a sergeant, so they probably didn't want him to get mixed up with a certain other sergeant with the last name of Slaughter. His primary military specialty is armor, well he's not very good if he thinks hiding behind a plate of glass is a good idea. Secondary military specialty is heavy equipment operator. His birthplace is Greensboro, North Carolina. With respect to people from North Carolina and people from the south in general, I know you don't all fit certain stereotypes, but that's not going to stop cross country from embodying every single one of them. This section says, cross country's father was a bulldozer operator and his mother drove a grader. You might say he was born to drive big yellow things that run on diesel. Coupled with his natural affinity for heavy machinery, his uncanny sense of direction and fearlessness under fire make him the man you want at the controls, whether you're riding into a hairy situation or trying to get out of one. Qualified expert with heavy laser cannon M16A2, M250 caliber machine gun and 45 autopistol. Top section reflects something that was done on some of these GI Joe file cards. It tells a story of how any skill that the character has that is useful to GI Joe came about from some kind of childhood experience or some kind of innate ability in them. They're just a natural at whatever they do. And maybe that is a way that they wanted to show that, I mean he's just really good and really skilled at his particular specialty, but really that's, I don't care for that too much. I'd much rather see somebody who didn't grow up with the particular skill set, who isn't a natural at it, but trained and worked hard and became proficient at it. That is a much more interesting story than a guy who grew up driving big machines and is still doing it. This quote down here says, Crank case might be a wild man behind the wheel of his aw striker, but cross country will steer that havoc of his across terrain that would break both axles of the RTV. This section is referring of course to this vehicle, the aw striker and its driver, Crank case. Of course, a tracked vehicle has natural advantages, but it is cross country's talent for sensing the most favorable grade, the shallowest mud and the firmest sand that makes the difference.  But I really I think what is interesting is that it sort of has a cross promotion here for the aw striker, a vehicle that came out a year before the havoc. In the GI Joe animated series, cross country made some appearances and the havoc made a lot of appearances. The GI Joe team was depicted as having a lot of these vehicles and they could be driven by anybody, not just cross country. In the cartoon though, the havoc was often shown being driven from up top in the gunner's seat like that. If the havoc is supposed to be driven in the gunner's seat like this, then what are the two guys in the cockpit supposed to do? In the GI Joe comic book series, cross country and the havoc were introduced in issue number 51, an issue in which the dread knocks rescued Zartan from GI Joe headquarters. In that issue, the havoc was set up as a rival to the dread knocks thunder machine and that is really not an obvious rivalry. These are very different vehicles with the thunder machine being sort of like a cobbled together Mad Max kind of vehicle with a jet engine on the back. So it looks like it'd be really fast whereas the havoc is a big green machine with treads and doesn't really look like it'd be very fast at all. So what do I think about cross country overall? I really do not like this action figure. I don't like his hat, I don't like his face sculpt, I don't like his green vest with the unpainted details, I don't like his white boot covers, I don't like his belt buckle, I just dislike this figure from top to bottom. Let's look at the havoc overall. This thing is weird. It looks like some kind of big piece of farm equipment. It's got this seat up on top that makes absolutely no sense. It's got the glass canopy that makes no sense. It's got the guns that elevate but they don't traverse and that makes no sense. It's got these orange accents and guns and weapons which good grief, it's just so strange. I like all that and you guys know I prefer the realistic military vehicles in GI Joe. As a kid I still really like this vehicle. I had a ton of fun with it. It has a lot of features, the little flying car in the back. That was just like a little bonus and yeah I used that quite a bit. I sort of just left behind my preference for realism with the havoc and I just sort of went into fantasy land and I just really enjoyed this vehicle even though really even at the time I recognized that this was completely impractical as a military vehicle. I think one of the reasons I liked it is because I really wanted more tanks in GI Joe. We had a few tanks but I wanted more and really they weren't producing a lot of like more traditional style tanks at the time. This was about as close as we could get to a tank and this of course is not a tank at all but I could roll this thing with my tanks and you know it would kind of fit in pretty well. As an adult collector I'd have to say you probably would enjoy having a havoc. Really even though it has a lot of features and a lot of parts there are really that many parts that are easily lost. You really just have to look out for these armor plates on the treads, the missiles, the engine cover and that's about it. That was my review of the havoc and its driver cross country. I hope you enjoyed it. Make sure you give it a thumbs up on YouTube and don't forget to subscribe. I've got a lot of great new GI Joe tour reviews coming up. You don't want to miss them and don't forget to like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter. You get a lot of updates there you don't get anywhere else. Tune in next time for another vintage GI Joe tour review. I'll see you next week. This is the new GI Joe Havoc. Nothing's too tough for Havoc. Nothing's too rough for Havoc. Look Cobra's fat. Cobra's got two face much more than Havoc. But Havoc's on the go. Havoc's out of Havoc. It comes a big surprise that gives more firepower to GI Joe. GI Joe. The adventure of GI Joe.


Good evening, experts. Welcome to the Hindi News Analysis by Shankar Ayes academy for the date 14 August 2019. These are the list of articles chosen for today's analysis. It has been provided along with the page numbers of different Hindu editions namely Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Tiruvannapuram edition. 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, it is provided also in the comments section. Let's move on to the first article analysis for today. This news article is in news because the election commission is said to have conducted its first meeting yesterday that is on 13 August 2019. This meeting is for the delimitation exercise in Jammu and Kashmir. This was necessitated under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act of 2019. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article has been highlighted here. The article states that the election commission has conducted a meeting to discuss about the delimitation exercise that has to be carried out in the Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory. We know that after the ascent of the President, the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Bill of 2019 has become an enforceable legislation and the legislation has reorganized the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories. According to the section 6 of Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act of 2019, we now have 28 states and 9 union territories. We also know that the Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory is made to have a legislative assembly and the union territory of Ladakh was made without a legislative assembly. So, this means elections have to be conducted in Jammu and Kashmir for the legislative assembly. Earlier, that is before the reorganization, the total number of seats in the legislative assembly of Jammu and Kashmir was 111. This includes 24 seats belonging to the region of Pakistan occupied Kashmir and 4 seats from the Ladakh region. So, if you subtract the 4 seats of Ladakh, the number of seats of present Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory in the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir Assembly is 107. But the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act of 2019 mentions three things with respect to the number of members in the legislative assembly. First thing it mentions is in the section 14 subsection 3. It states that the total number of seats in the legislative assembly of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir is to be filled by persons chosen by direct election shall be 107. Then secondly in section 60 it states that the number of seats in the legislative assembly of union territory of Jammu and Kashmir shall be increased from 107 to 114 and delimitation of the constituencies may be determined by the election commission. Then in section 15 it states the left-hand governor may nominate two members to the legislative assembly to give representation to women if in his opinion women are not adequately represented in the legislative assembly. The news article states that if the number is to be increased from 107 to 114 then the number of seats in the legislative assembly excluding the Pakistan occupied Kashmir is 90. Now Ladakh is not with Jammu and Kashmir. This effectively means there is an increase of seven members in the legislative assembly compared to the number of persons elected from the present territory of erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. This is because in the erstwhile state the present territory of Jammu and Kashmir union territory elected only 83 seats excluding the 24 seats from Pakistan occupied Kashmir. Now this number shall be increased to 90 as per section 60 of the JNK Reorganization Act of 2019. This means previous legislative assembly constituencies has to be redrawn so there has to be a lot of discussions for drawing the limits of the new legislative assembly constituencies. That is why the news article mentions that in what part of JNK the seven seats will be formed remains to be decided. Now here the word delimitation means to mark the boundary or limits of in our context it means to mark the boundaries of legislative assemblies of new union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Now the section 60 mentions that the delimitation for the purpose of increasing the number of seats from 107 to 114 may be determined by the election commission of India. Also section 62 clause 2 states that the readjustment of the constituencies as provided under section 60 in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir into assembly constituencies shall be carried by the delimitation commission to be constituted under the delimitation act of 2002. Now as per the section 14 subsection 6 of Rearmacition Act seats shall be reserved for the schedule casts and the schedule tribes in the legislative assembly of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The news article mentions that this provision could tip the scales of one region because this region has the population of around 8 lakhs. Here tip the scales means that something that could be the main deciding factor in favor of a particular region by reservation. People in this region are those who came as refugees from Sialkot to Jammu and Kashmir. These people have not been given any voting rights in the first 12 state legislative assembly but it is highly expected that they will be given voting rights for the upcoming election of legislative assembly of the new union territory. It is said that most of the persons among the refugees are persons belonging to the schedule casts. The news reports are saying that most of the refugees are at present are settled in camps across the Jammu region in the Jammu and Kashmir. And the section 60 clause 2 sub clause C of the Reorganization Act states that constituencies in which seats are to be reserved for the schedule casts and the schedule tribes shall be located as far as practicable in the areas where the proportion of their population to the total population is the largest. That is why the news article mentions that the provision could favor the reservation of seats for the schedule casts and schedule tribes could be in favor of the region that is dominated by the maximum number of persons belonging to the scheduled casts. All the efforts related to the delimitation has to be completed so that the elections for the legislative assembly can be conducted at the earliest. It is expected that if all these exercises are carried out as planned then the earliest possible time for assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir union territory would be in March 2020. With this we come to the end of this news analysis. Now this news article mentions few facts with respect to the delimitation discussions initiated by the election commission. These discussions are with respect to the seven extra seats which are necessitated under section 60 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act of 2019. The syllabus will be the same as that of the previous news article. This news article presents the statement made by the ex-officio member of the delimitation commission and the former chief election commissioner. He said that the increase in the number of seats was an issue which is a political decision of the parliament. Also he added that the commission would start the work of delimitation exercise as soon as possible as required under the law. The law he refers would be the delimitation act of 2002 and also the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act of 2019. The news article mentions the procedure that could be adopted in the delimiting exercise. For having some kind of equality with respect to the number of voters total population of union territory of Jammu and Kashmir will be divided by 114 seats. The news article says 114 but we know that this number also includes the 24 seats from the Pakistan occupied Kashmir region of Jammu and Kashmir. So we are not sure whether the total population will be inclusive of the number of people living in the Pakistan occupied region or will the number of seats with which the total population will be divided is to be 90. Now after finding the average number of voters for the required number of seats they have to also ensure that the boundary of constituencies are consistent and compatible as much as possible with the administrative units of union territories. These administrative units could be the divisions and the districts in the union territory. The news article mentions that the delimitation will be based on the 2011 census till the year 2026. This is based on section 14 subsection 7 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act of 2019. Now the part 5 of this act deals with the delimitation of constituencies. This part defines that the delimitation commission means the delimitation commission to be constituted under section 3 of the delimitation act of 2002. These commissions shall be constituted by the central government. The news article also talks about the people belonging to the scheduled tribes of Gujarat and Bakarwal. They follow a migratory pattern of lifestyle in search of resources such as water, grassland, etc. They trek upwards to mountainous areas in summers and in winters they travel downwards to the regions of Jammu. This is because they are mainly involved in animal rearing and therefore they are dependent on the grazing land. This is one of the main reasons for their migration lifestyle. Their lifestyle and migration pattern are therefore heavily influenced by geography. There is few other information that we can take from the news article such as about 56.2% of the population of Jammu and Kashmir lives in the division of Kashmir. There are two divisions in this one is Jammu division and the other is Kashmir division. The remaining population that is around 43.8% are living in the Jammu division. The district with the largest population in Jammu and Kashmir belongs to the Jammu division. This district is the Jammu district. This district is followed by the Srinagar district in the Kashmir division. Then the union territory of Ladakh has a population of around 2.7 lakhs. Now these are the sum of extra facts about Jammu and Kashmir that you can take note of. With this we have come to the end of this article analysis. This practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next article which is an editorial about the concerns raised about the National Medical Commission Act of 2019. Now remember that in the article it has been mentioned as bill but the bill was passed by both the houses of the parliament and the president also gave a cent on August 8th. So now this bill has become an act. The syllabus that can be linked with this discussion has been given here for your reference. The National Medical Commission Act of 2019 aims to improve the medical education system in India. According to the prime minister the act will improve transparency, accountability and quality in the governance of medical education in the country. But ever since its introduction as a bill it faced with protests by different sections of population including the medical professionals. This news article examines the important concerns that are raised by the protesters. Now let us discuss the important concerns that were raised and let us analyze from the author's point of view. The first concern is about the proposed national eligibility come entrance test that is NEAT and the national exit test that is NEXT. It has been proposed under section 14 and section 15 of the act respectively. According to the author in the past years a separate NEAT was being conducted for undergraduate and postgraduate courses and in addition to this there were different examinations for prominent medical institutions like AIMS that is All India Institute of Medical Sciences and JIPMA that is Javaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research. But the act proposes a single NEAT exam for admission to undergraduate medical education in all medical institutions that are regulated under this act. So this in turn avoids multiple counseling processes. Now in this the next examination will act as the final year MBBS examination across India. It is an entrance test to the postgraduate level. Next will be a licensate exam. It will provide license for medical graduates to practice. So according to this author this exam aims to reduce disparities or differences in the skill sets of doctors who are graduating from different institutions. Also this NEXT exam will be a single licensate exam for graduate across the world which means even foreign graduates are included in this exam. So the author states that the government has actually implemented a one nation one exam in the medical education. Then the second concern is about the section 32 of the act. This section authorizes the government to allow non-medical degree holders to practice medicine as community health providers. But the protesters believes that this will legalize quacks in the country. Here quack is a person who dishonestly claims to have special knowledge and skill in medicine. So the protesters believe that this act will create more frauds in the medical field. If you consider the 2011 census almost 70% of the population lives in the rural India. But according to the author the present ratio of doctors in urban and rural area is 3.8 is 21. So almost 27,000 doctors serve about 650,000 villages in India. The author mentions a WHO report which shows that nearly 80% of allopathy doctors in the rural areas are without a medical qualification. Here allopathy is the conventional or the modern medicine. Now this NMC act attempts to address this gap by utilizing modern medicine professional in the rural areas who are without a medical degree. That is who are actually not doctors. So they will provide primary and preventive health care. Now to support this provision of the act the author cites the example of China, Thailand and United Kingdom where such integration resulted in better health outcomes. And it is also to be noted that the Indian states of Assam and Chhattisgarh have experienced with community health workers. So the author believes that the move to provide limited license will not legalize quacks because the act mentions that they need to qualify certain criteria as specified by the regulation. Next the third concern is regarding the capping of the fees. Now this is given in the section 10 clause 1 sub clause I of the act. This provision allows the commission to determine the fees and all other charges with respect to 50% of the seats in private medical institutions and also when they deemed it to be universities. But those who criticize the act believe that at present the state government determines fees for minimum of 85% of seats in private medical institutions. So the cap of 50% would create a situation of economic reservation where only rich students will be able to get seats. The author says that it is an open secret that private medical colleges are capitation fee driven. By capitation fee the author means the fees that is collected by the private medical institutions and this fee is based on making profit only. Not only this the private medical colleges resort to discretionary management of quota and they often face charges of corruption. But if you consider the Indian Medical Council Act of 1956 there is no provision for fee regulation. So the author believes that the NMC Act removes this discretion and allows National Medical Commission to frame guidelines for determining not just fees but all other charges in that 50% of the seats. So in turn this will benefit the poor and meritorious students. The author says that setting up a medical college requires huge investment. So a cap on fees is necessary. But there is also a need for incentives to attract private investors. So the act also provides for the rating of medical colleges. This is expected to benefit students as they will be able to make informed decisions before seeking admissions to particular colleges. Then the next and fourth concern is regarding reducing the number of elected representatives and increasing the number of nominated representatives in the commission. The author cites the report of former vice chancellor of Nitya Yoke. According to that report the existing electoral process in the commission was flawed, compromised and it is not best suited for its functioning. In the present system the recognized doctors elect the members of Medical Council of India. But the new act proposes an extensive mix of elected and nominated representatives. The act also addresses the concerns of states. This is done by adding members from state medical councils and universities. Then the fifth concern is regarding the overriding powers that is given to the center. One of the such power is to remove members of NMC including the chairperson. The author says that the existing medical council of India does not pay attention to the government's directions all the time. But the citizens expect government to address the issues during public emergencies. Hence the government should be able to give directions so that the NMC must comply with the government policies. So if they do not comply with the policies then they can remove the members of NMC or they can even remove the chairperson of NMC. So the use of such authority would follow the principle of natural justice. It means that the opinion of NMC would be sought before giving directions. Then as a conclusion the author says that a section of the society has a negative perception against the select classes of the act. But at the same time they fail to highlight other features of the act. One of the such feature is that the act establishes the diplomat of national board under section 37 of the act. This recognizes the medical qualification granted by statutory or other bodies in India which are subjected to the regulations of the act. The act also promotes medical pluralism by encouraging the interface between homeopathy, Indian system of medicines and modern system of medicines. This is given under section 50 of the act. Here medical pluralism means the use of more than one medical system like conventional and model system to treat illness. The author says this act is outcome focused because it aims to increase the number of doctors. It aims to improve their quality and skills and it also aims to reduce corruption in the system. Also the section 16 of the act enables the central government to constitute autonomous boards with segregated functions such as autonomous boards for undergraduates, for postgraduate, for assessment and rating etc. This will avoid the conflict of interests and it will reduce rent seeking opportunities. That is it will reduce the manipulation of public policy for making profits. Then the section 34 of the act provides for imprisonment or fine or both for the quacks also. So the author believes that the act is a culmination or conclusion of efforts by successive governments to reform the medical education in the country. Such reforms are essential to assess the improvements in the healthcare. So the NMC act meets the primary need of more medical professionals in the country and it is just the beginning. With this we have come to the end of this article discussion. The displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next article analysis which is about GI tag. The discussion can be linked to the given syllabus that has been provided here for your reference. The news article states that the famous Pallani Panjamritham has been granted the geographical indication tag or the GI tag. It is to be noted that this is the first time a temple prasadam from the state of Tamil Nadu has been bestowed or granted with the GI tag. Here prasadam means the sacred food. Now also remember that one another famous prasadam already has a GI tag. That prasadam is Tirupati Laddu. It is from the state of Andhra Pradesh. It was given the tag in the year 2009. Now one prasadam from Tamil Nadu that is Pallani Panjamritham has been given the GI tag. The Pallani Panjamritham is a food stuff. If you see in the name Panjamritham, pancha means five. So, the panjamritham is a combination of five natural substances. They are banana, jaggery, cow ghee, honey and cardamom. Along with these natural substances, dates and diamond sugar candies are also added for the flavor. This panjamritham is an Abhishek prasadam. Which means it is a food that is a religious offering. It is one of the main offerings for Lord Dandayudapani Swami who is the presiding deity of Arunmegu Dandayudapani Swami temple. This temple is situated on the Pallani hills of Dindigul district in Tamil Nadu. So, the geographical area for production of panjamritham is the Pallani town in Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu. This panjamritham is served in a semi-solid state. Now, based on the ingredients, you can also say that this panjamritham is sweet in taste. Now, let us see some of the unique features of this sacred food. First, it is prepared in a natural method without addition of any preservatives or artificial ingredients. Then the Pallani Panjamritham that is originating from the Pallani is not subjected to any chemical process. Then not even a single drop of water is added during the preparation of the panjamritham. Now, this gives the Pallani Panjamritham its classic semi-solid consistency and a classic taste also. The Pallani Panjamritham is heated at a particular temperature. This keeps it fresh and consumable for a longer time as no preservatives are added to it. It is said that Pallani Panjamritham has a unique and aromatic flavor with medicinal properties as compared to other panjamritham that is produced in the place. Then if you see the method of its production also includes a unique process. This results in the panjamritham that is being produced in Pallani to have its own identity. The whole process of its production is automated. This is because there is an increasing demand and through this automated production it is ensured that hygienic aspects are highly maintained. In the olden days the Pallani Panjamritham was prepared on the top of the hill in the traditional manner and most of the preparation was manual only. But the demand for panjamritham was increasing so it was decided to mechanize and modernize the production units of Pallani Panjamritham. Then the temple authorities approached the central food technical research institute or CFTRI Mysore for the advice on the mechanization of production unit. Here mechanization means introduction of machines or automatic devices into a process. Then based on the advice of CFTRI a separate mechanized unit for preparation of Pallani Panjamritham was established. So at present the preparation of Pallani Panjamritham is fully automated and it is hygienically produced. Also the Pallani Panjamritham is prepared under the guidance given by the Central Food Technical Research Institute that is CFTRI Mysore. The raw materials are also subjected to CFTRI quality test and it is prepared only under the guidance of CFTRI report given by the CFTRI. Now also know that the CFTRI or Central Food Technical Research Institute is a constituent laboratory of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research New Delhi that is CFTRI is a CSIR laboratory. The CFTRI came into existence during 1950. Its objective is to advance the knowledge and to apply that knowledge in the area of food science and food technology for the society. Now let us revise what is GI tag and its importance which we discussed some 15 days ago. Normally as humans we have a desire for quality and genuine premium products. These products have distinct characteristics and they originate from a particular region. These distinct characteristics were the identification for that particular product and these products became so important that those particular regions started specializing in producing these unique products. This led to the identification of such goods as originating from a particular region and over a period of time those products became renowned or famous globally for its distinct characteristics. So demand for such products started rising among the consumers. Now this demand gave rise for counterfeit or fake products. These fake products began to damage the image of genuine products. So the genuine products have to be protected by safeguarding the interest of the producers and the interest of consumers also. This protection led to the evolution and conceptualization of geographical indications. So geographical indications or GIs are a class of intellectual property which is used primarily to identify products as originating from a particular geographical area. The term geographical indications was first used in TRIPS agreement that is trade related aspects of intellectual property rights agreement. According to this TRIPS agreement geographical indications are indications which identify a good or product as originating in a territory of a country or a region or locality in that territory. Now in that the product should have a given quality, reputation or other characteristic that is essentially attributable to its geographical origin. Then INJA also enacted the geographical indications of goods registration and protection act of 1999. This act came into force with effect from 15 September 2003. The act is administered by the controller general of patents designs and trademarks who is the registrar of geographical indications. Now also remember the geographical indications registry is located at Chennai. Now if you see the objective of this act is threefold. Firstly it is the specific law governing the geographical indications of goods in the country which could adequately protect the interest of producers of such goods. Secondly it excludes unauthorized persons from misusing geographical indications and it protects consumers from deception or duplication. And thirdly it promotes goods bearing Indian geographical indications in the export market also. Now this act defines a geographical indication as an indication which identifies such goods as agricultural goods, natural goods or manufactured goods as originating or manufactured in the territory of a country or a region or locality in that country. Then such goods should have the given quality reputation or other characteristic which is essentially attributable to its geographical origin. Then in case where such goods are manufactured goods then one of the activities of either the production of the good or processing of the good or preparation of the good that is concerned should take place in that territory or in that region or in that locality. Now the goods not only include agricultural natural or manufactured goods but also it includes any goods of handicraft or goods of industry and it also includes food stuff as we saw today. So now what is the benefit of registration of geographical indications? Now this registration confers legal protection to geographical indications in India. It prevents unauthorized use of a registered geographical indication by others. Then it provides legal protection to Indian geographical indications which in turn boost exports. Then it promotes economic prosperity of producers of those goods which is produced in a geographical territory. Now also remember that the registration of a geographical indication is valid for a period of 10 years only. After that it has to be renewed. Now some examples of this GI tags include Basmati rice, Darjeeling tea, Kanjipuram silk sari, Nakpur orange, Kolhapuri chappal, Bikaneri Bhujia, then Agra Peta. Now if you remember some 15 days ago we also discussed that Kodaikanal Malai Pundu and the Odisha Rasagulla was given the GI tag. So remember recently the Kodaikanal Malai Pundu, the Odisha Rasagulla and now the Parani Pancham Ratham has been granted the GI tag. With this we have come to the end of this article discussion. The practice question displayed here will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next article discussion which is about the decline in automobile sales. The discussion can be linked to the syllabus that has been given here for your reference. The automobile industry in India is witnessing a large-scale drop in sales. The monthly sales was declined by 18.71 percentage for July. According to the article, this was the worst ever decline in monthly sales in the last 19 years. Previously the biggest decline was witnessed in December 2000. There was a decline of 21.81 percentage. Now one of the main reason for this kind of decline is the poor consumer demand. Now this poor consumer demand forces the industry to go for cutting jobs in order to reduce the impact. Earlier the automobile industry demanded for a stimulus to reduce this decline. They have reiterated the same demand to the government ahead of the festive season. As per the report of automobile industry body SIAM that is Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, the passenger vehicle segment witnessed the worst decline. There was almost 31% decline in July 2019. Here the passenger vehicles includes cars, utility vehicles, vans, etc. All of these witnessed a decline in sales. Similarly, the two-wheeler sales has decreased by 16.82 percentage in July 2019. Now two-wheeler category includes scooters and motorcycles. Now for the commercial vehicles the decline in growth was 25.71 percentage for July 2019. So based on the reduction in sales the SIAM has demanded a revival package from the government. It said that the industry is doing everything to promote the sales such as providing huge discounts also. But still there is a decline in sales and this decline continues to result in loss of jobs. The industry body has admitted that casual and temporary workers are losing jobs. The decline in sales will lead to decline in component production. So it is expected to result in over a million job losses. Further with the decline in sales hundreds of dealerships are forced to shut down. So this will result in further job loss. If you remember earlier the industry representatives had met the union finance minister and they raised several demands such as rationalization of GST to the automobile sector. It is presently between 18 percentage to 28 percentage. Here by rationalization they mean the reduction in GST of automobile and the associated industries will bring down the final prices of the vehicle. So this will boost the demand. Next they also demanded the government to take steps to increase the liquidity in the economy. This is because the crisis that was associated with NBFCs that is non banking finance companies have affected the purchasing powers of the people. Usually the NBFCs finance the people to buy vehicles by providing loans. So the reduction in lending capacity of NBFCs following the crisis in the sector has reduced the flow of money in the economy. Then the industry also expected some sort of import duty to discourage the import of auto components from China. It is estimated that 27 percentage of total auto components which are worth over 1 billion US dollars are imported from China. Now this adversely impacts the less competitive Indian auto components manufacturers. So the industry expects a tariff duty on import of auto components from China. Then the industry also demanded to give more focus to the Make in India initiative. Because this initiative will give incentive for auto component manufacturers in India and it will be a desirable step to do. So this would enable them to be more competitive as compared to the foreign industries. Then they also demanded that as the BS6 pollution norms will be implemented by 1st April 2020 the government should give a stimulus package to the industry. Because the BS6 pollution norms requires huge additional investment by the automobile manufacturers to adhere to the norms. This would further increase the price of vehicles. So that is why the industry is expecting certain stimulus package from the government. Now it is to be noted that almost 1 million or 10 lakh people are directly employed by the automobile sector in India. The industries associated with the automobile industry such as small component makers, dealerships etc provides jobs for almost 19 million people that is they provide jobs for 1 crore 9 lakh people overall. So because of the recent crisis in the sector almost 2.3 lakh people have lost their jobs recently. So the government must look into the issue and they should address the concerns in the industry as soon as possible. With this we have come to the end of this article discussion. Now we have come to the last session for the day that is the practice questions discussion session. Now in this first question two statements have been given. We have to choose the correct statement. The first statement states India comprises of 29 states and 7 union territories. Now after reading this statement you may think this is a very simple statement but actually this statement is wrong because when the erstwhile state of Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated India had 29 states and 7 union territories because at that time Telangana became the 29th state. But now when the state of Jammu and Kashmir has been bifurcated it has been reorganized into two union territories. So that means from the 29 states we have lost one state that is one state has to be reduced. So now we have 28 states and we have additionally two union territories. So the total number of union territories is 9 union territories and also know that the section 6 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act of 2019 explicitly says that so now we have totally 28 states and 9 union territories. So this statement is wrong. Then if you look at the second statement it states 4 of the union territories are with legislative assembly. Now when we had 7 union territories we know that Delhi and Puducherry were the union territories which had legislative assembly. Now among the union territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir only Jammu and Kashmir has legislative assembly not Ladakh. So now totally we have only 3 union territories which are with legislative assembly. So this statement is also wrong. So the correct answer to this question is neither 1 nor 2. Now this next question is with respect to Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act of 2019. The first statement states it abolishes the legislative council that was in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. Now this statement is correct. This is because the section 57 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act of 2019 abolishes the legislative council of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Then if you look at the second statement it states it provides for increasing the number of seats in the legislative assembly of the union territory of JNK from 107 to 114. Now this statement is also correct because this statement is based on section 60 subsection 1 of the Reorganization Act. During our analysis we have analyzed these numbers and the numbers of seats with respect to the Pakistan occupied Kashmir, Ladakh and the region excluding Pakistan occupied Kashmir and Ladakh. So this statement is correct. Now if you look at the third statement it states the act provides for the nomination of two members to the legislative assembly to give representation to the Anglo-Indian community. If the lieutenant governor feels that they are not adequately represented in the legislative assembly. Now during the analysis we saw that under section 15 of the act the lieutenant governor of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir may nominate two members to the legislative assembly to give representation to women. If in his opinion women are not adequately represented in the legislative assembly but there is no mention of a particular community in this section. So we do not know whether they belong to Anglo-Indian community only or not. So this statement is wrong. Now after seeing the statement you may confuse it with the provisions of the Indian constitution in which the article 331 says that the president of India will nominate two members from Anglo-Indian community to the Lok Sabha. So do not confuse these two statements. The question asks for the correct statements. Here statement one and two are the correct statements. So the final answer to this question is option C one and two only. Now this question is based on geographical indications. Two statements have been given and we have to choose the correct statement. The first statement states the geographical indications of goods registration and protection act was enacted in the year 1999. So we have to ensure whether this act was enacted in this year or not. Yes this act was enacted in this year that is in the year 1999. So this statement is correct. If you look at the next statement it states the geographical indications registry is located at Chennai. Yes this statement is also correct. The geographical indications registry is located at Chennai only and also remember that the controller general of patents designs and trademarks is the registrar of geographical indications. The question asks for the correct statements. Here statement one and statement two both are correct. So the final correct answer to this question is option C both one and two. Now let us see one main question with respect to GS paper two. The question is the health sector in India needs continuous reforms to provide effective healthcare service. In this context analyze the concerns associated with the National Medical Commission Act of 2019. Now for answering this question you can say that this act aims to improve the medical education system in India. The prime minister's comment on this act that is he said that it will improve transparency accountability and quality in the governance of medical education in the country. Then for the concerns you can say the question asks to analyze the concerns raised by this act. Now during our discussion we discussed five concerns with respect to this act. So you can mention all of them such as the first concern was with respect to the proposed need and next examinations. This act proposes a single need exam for admission to undergraduate medical education in all medical institutions that are regulated under the act. You can say that this in turn avoids multiple counseling processes. Then you can say the next examination is a license sheet exam because it will provide license for medical graduates to practice medicine. So it will reduce the disparities in the skill sets of doctors who are graduating from different institutions. Then the next concern is with respect to the community health providers where you can say the protesters believe that this provision will legalize quacks in the country. Either you can support this statement or you can use the stand taken by the author of that editorial. Like you can say that the NMC act attempts to address the gap of doctors in the urban areas and the rural areas because this act provides for the utilization of modern medical professionals in the rural areas who are without medical degree to provide primary and preventive health care. You can say that this measure was successful in different countries such as China, Thailand and United Kingdom. Then you can say that the states of Assam and Chhattisgarh have experience of using the community health providers. So the other parts of the country can take example from these countries and states. Then the third concern was with respect to the capping of the fees because the act says that the commission will determine the fees and all other charges with respect to 50% of the seats in the private medical institutions and in the deemed to be universities. So this will benefit the poor and meritorious students but the critics feel that this is a lesser number of seats because currently the state governments determine the fees of private medical institutions for about 85% of seats. So they feel that the capping of fees with respect to only 50% of seats will provide for differences in admissions with respect to the poor sections and rich sections of the population. Then the next concern was with respect to the overriding powers which was given to the center by this act. Now the government says that the citizens expect government to address issues during the public emergencies. So that is why they have given overriding powers to the center. So like this you can mention the concerns which we discussed during the analysis and you can also add your own viewpoints based on today's analysis. With this we have come to the end of today's analysis sessions. 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Welcome to the ITU Studio, the World's Telecommunication Development Conference here in Kigali, Rwanda, where I'm very pleased to be joined this year today by Artie Holler, who is the Secretary-General of Gessoa, which is the Global Satellite Operators Association, and I would like you to welcome to the studio, Artie. Thank you, Max. It's great to be here again with you. Now, last time we met, you were here as Secretary-General of Gessoa, which was the EMEA Satellite Operators Association. Now you're here as Secretary-General of Gessoa. Perhaps you could tell us a little bit about this evolution and what has changed. Absolutely. Max, we have expanded to become the Global Satellite Operators Association in view of the fact that connectivity challenges are global, and global challenges require a global response. We had in our constitutional limitation in the membership criteria, and we decided it was time to remove that to enable also operators and satellite companies which are based either in the Americas or in the Asia-Pacific region to also join. It's very clear to us that policymakers want to bridge their digital divides no matter where they are, and we can only do that if we come together and speak with one voice which represents operators on all regions. Now, we've seen you at many ITU events. I wanted to ask you why is this event, WTDC here in Kigali, Rwanda, important to Gessoa? You know, this WTDC is particularly important. At the last one we talked about the digital divide being 3 billion people, and at this WTDC we're hearing how it has reduced to 2.9 billion. We could celebrate the achievement of 100 million new people that we have connected, but you know, I asked one of my members, particularly good at maths which I'm not good at, to do the maths for me and tell me, well, at that rate, how long would it take us to actually get rid of the digital divide globally? And would you believe it, it will take more than 100 years, Max? That is not something which I think the world and policymakers are ready to accept. We must accelerate it. And so, just so our members are here, we want to seize the momentum, follow the leadership of the ITU, which is inviting everybody to really step up to this challenge now. And satellite operators are very conscious of the responsibility that is incumbent on them to make sure that satellite can play its rightful role in helping to bridge the digital divide. Now, this WTDC has kicked off with the partner to connect, and a lot of pledges being made here has just so made a pledge, and if so, what is it? Yes, look, we're very conscious of the fact that climate emergencies and disasters resulting from climate change are on the rise, geopolitical tensions are on the rise and we're emerging from the pandemic. So, it is absolutely at the forefront of everybody's mind that we must bridge the inequalities that exist. And so, in view of that, Gisela has made two pledges. The first one is to increase the number of satellite data connections around the world by 250% by 2030 and to do so by preserving the space environment for future generations at the same time. And secondly, this is more of a programmatic pledge. We want to really do workshops on regions around the world to foster a greater understanding of how to leverage satellite connectivity. We think this is particularly important given the amount of innovation that's happening in our sector. There's so many new systems, new solutions, and it's obvious that policy makers may not necessarily know how to licence them, how to ensure their deployment. We're also creating the opportunity for our members to do trials to demonstrate affordable, meaningful connectivity for LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS all around the world. We also want to, of course, support more disasters. It's clear to administrations that satellites are essential when disaster strikes, but nonetheless we see that even in high-risk zones for countries like Mozambique, which has been struck by so many disasters, those countries that still are not prepared. So we want to really enhance that and make sure that countries are very prepared for disasters. And finally, we are going to work with the ITU to produce a satellite playbook to collect case studies, best practices and reference architectures for solutions from just so our members that can be replicated and scaled up in different countries around the world. All that sounds fabulous and it's very valuable and much needed. So, well, thank you very much for sharing all of that with us and we look forward to catching up with you again very soon and I'm sure we'll have a lot to talk about next time too. Thank you. Max, I wanted to say that we've already started with our pledge. Yesterday we signed a letter of understanding with the Rwanda and Space Agency to work concretely on supporting the deployment of satellite communications in rural Rwanda where this WTDC is taking place and I must say it's been a pledge to be here. I'm delighted that we've been able to really seize the momentum and I hope that we can meet again at the next WTDC and talk about a much reduced digital divide. Absolutely. Thanks so much. Thank you, Max. Cheers.


Out of Africa, 21 athletes were killed when extremely cold weather struck during an ultramarathon in the rugged Gansu province in northwestern China. The 100km race began on Saturday, May 22nd at 9am but around noon on Saturday, a mountainous section of the race was hit by a hail, freezing rain and gales that caused temperatures to plummet. A massive rescue effort was initiated with over 1,200 rescuers dispatched.


Look what happened yesterday when I lost my camera. I found it on top of the Water tank like four hours after I tried to find it anyway This is a stainless steel rod and this is just a piece of stainless steel sheet, you know folded like Like that Bolted in there and then this guy is just some weird connector I got when I bought a bunch of stainless steel. Anyway, it's just a 90 degree connector thing So this just goes in these holes and you can pick whichever hole you want to move the pontoon back and forth a little bit Anyway, that holds the pontoon's steady And I didn't want to put anything in the middle here Because the driver can paddle and if there's anything in the way there the driver can't paddle Anyway, I've also got one of these on the other side, but that pontoon is swung in so it's not doing anything And I also, you know when I couldn't find my camera made a Tail cone for this propeller back here and not put it on yet.  I could just cut teeth into this all the way around It might even be worth You know redoing the mount stuff to accommodate a bigger gear Because that would work really well the other idea would be to Cut a piece out of here either the same size or maybe slightly better and and take the edge and bend the teeth up and Do some kind of trickiness.  Anyway another idea would be to take some of this thin stainless and Bend it so it fits along all the teeth on there and then make you know the small gear out of a Solid chunk of stainless steel. I can find a chunk Big enough for the small gear somewhere Here's my propeller cone it's just a The steel tube that fits inside the current propeller tube I drill the hole in this in the correct spot so they The current bolt should go through this and hold it on and then I just laid some of that plastic You know this plastic. I'm using it for everything. It was just from I'll show you This is what I have left of it. It came from a tabletop from a boat. I Don't even know what the boat looked like but someone was getting rid of it, and I took it So I don't actually know what material it is Well other than some kind of plastic Another thing I got curious about was one of these You know rope winder helper thingies and I opened this one And it happens to have this gear in it, which looks like probably brass It's about the right size. I would have to bevel the teeth a little bit That's another possibility. I have a brass rod around here somewhere that could conceivably be Manipulated into a circle shape to make the teeth. I do want to match the the gear materials So one doesn't wear through the other Kind of leaning toward doing the stainless steel Still thinking though. So I have this piece of brass or bronze or some kind of copper alloy There's the cross section I'm pretty sure I Could convince this to become a circle Yeah, I wouldn't be able to bend it that way probably but this way. Yeah I couldn't take the current plastic gear shave it down from the outside that much You want to see what that piece of metal