Welcome to the 7th part of Target 2020 Brilliant Series. So far we have seen more than 300 topics with reference to 6 months from July 2019 to December 2019. This video presents you 55 important topics that represent the current affairs of January 2020. All these topics will be discussed in MCQ format for better understanding and also to reflect the civil services preliminary examination. These topics have been sourced from current affairs sources such as Hindu newspaper, business standard etc. And information for these topics have been presented to you from authentic and government sources like Government Gazette, Press Information Bureau, Nithya Yoke, reports of various ministries etc. If you enjoy the content, if you like the video, click the like button, comment and share it among your friends and those who are in need of such resources. Now let us move on to the first question. What is Starling Mission sometime seen in news? A near-earth asteroid mission by NASA, a satellite constellation development project by SpaceX to deploy the world's most advanced broadband internet system. An upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider of CERN, a network of stratospheric balloons designed to bring internet connectivity to rural and remote communities worldwide. Option A corresponds to a mission of NASA wherein the spacecraft will travel to a near-earth asteroid Bennu and aims to bring a small sample of this asteroid back to Earth for studying purposes. This spacecraft is called Osiris-REx and the mission is Osiris-REx mission. It is the first mission of the United States to bring an asteroid sample to Earth. This mission launched in 2016 is expected to bring the sample to Earth in 2023. Option C corresponds to High-Lumine Project, which is to be commissioned by the year 2027. This project is related to increasing the performance of Large Hadron Collider of CERN by increasing luminosity. High luminosity, High-Lumine Project. CERN is a European organization for nuclear research. We discussed about this project in detail in our October 2019 video, which is a part of this Prelims 2020 series. Option D corresponds to Loon Mission. Loon is a subsidiary company of Alphabet. We heard about Alphabet in 2015 when Google was restructured. Coming to this Loon Mission, in this project, they aim to provide internet and mobile network coverage to unserved and underserved communities. They are going to achieve this by redesigning essential components of cell tower and placing them in a balloon which will carry them to an altitude of around 20 km above the Earth. So by having a network of balloons, this project aims to expand internet and mobile network access and it also says that it can even provide quick coverage to a location that is affected by natural disasters. So the correct answer for this question is Option B, a satellite constellation development project by SpaceX to deploy the world's most advanced broadband internet system. See, SpaceX is a private space company that is founded in 2002 by Elon Musk. It designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. Since 2019, this company is using its experience in building rockets and spacecraft so as to deploy world's most advanced broadband internet system. The objective of the mission is to provide fast and reliable internet in locations where now internet access is unreliable, expensive or completely unavailable. This they are going to achieve by launching batches of satellites to form a satellite constellation in space. In a single launch, a set of 60 satellites will be deployed at an altitude of 290 km initially and from here the satellites will be raised to an altitude of 550 km using the onboard thrusters. And during this phase of flight, the satellites are closely clustered which will look like a satellite constellation in space, how you are seeing it in this picture. Now this image is nothing but a still taken from a video captured by a satellite tracker in the Netherlands on May 24, 2019. SpaceX launched the first part of Starlink mission series, it launched first set of 60 satellites in a single launch. So the plan of this mission is to provide advanced broadband internet system to remote locations across the world. Right now it is targeting its initial service in Northern United States and Canada in 2020 and it plans to have a near global coverage by the end of next year that is 2021. It was in use in January because the third and fourth launch of this mission was done in January 2020. The fifth series was launched in February, sixth was launched in March, the seventh batch of 60 satellites was launched very recently on 22nd April. We can get such questions on foreign missions or programs or projects. Earlier in 2016 UPS prelims at Queston was asked regarding GL-10 that is Greased Lightning 10 which is an electric plane with 10 engines tested by NASA. So in this manner there could be a question on Starlink mission or any of the missions that we have just now discussed. Correct answer option B. Now let's move on to next question. With reference to convention on the conservation of migratory species of wild animals, consider the following statements. Four statements are given. Which of the statements given above are correct? First statement. It is an environmental treaty under the Aegis of United Nations Environment Program. It aims to protect terrestrial, aquatic and avian migratory species throughout their ranges. It is the only global convention specializing in the conservation of migratory species, their habitats and migration routes. India is a party to this convention. So this convention, CMS convention, it was frequently in use in the months of January and February because for the first time India has hosted the conference of parties of CMS convention. This was 13th COP that was held in Gandhinagar in Gujarat in February 2020. So this convention is a UN convention. It is an environmental treaty of United Nations under the Aegis of United Nations Environment Program. It is also called as born convention because the text of this convention was negotiated in the year 1979 in a place called born in Germany. The specialty of this convention is that it gives legal foundation to conserve not only terrestrial migratory species but also aquatic and avian migratory species throughout their range where conservation is to be achieved by international coordination. So this convention, it brings together the states through which migratory animals pass and also the range states of migratory species. The definition for range and range state is given here for your reference. And the specialty of this convention as stated by United Nations is that it is the only global convention specializing in the conservation of migratory species, their habitats and migration routes. And there are two appendices in this convention. When it comes to sites convention, there are three appendices. Here there are only two appendices. Appendix 1 lists those migratory species that are threatened with extinction. Strict protection is prescribed for species under Appendix 1. The range states were asked to conserve and restore the places where these species live. Then also to mitigate the obstacles to migration and also to control other factors that might endanger an appendix 1 species. Then those migratory species that need benefits from international cooperation are that would significantly benefit from international cooperation. They are listed in Appendix 2 of the convention. In other words, we can say that these are migratory species that are not under the threat of extinction. And as per this convention, one migratory species may be listed in both the appendices if the circumstances demand so. And for the purpose of conservation, mitigating the hurdles and challenges for migration and for various other purposes of this convention. The range states are encouraged to conclude global or regional agreements by this convention. So in all these aspects, this CMS convention, it acts as a framework convention. The agreements between the countries may range from legally binding treaties or to less formal instruments like memorandum of understanding. And these agreements, they can be adapted to the requirements of particular regions. These are the provisions which are unique feature of this convention on the conservation of migratory species of wild animals. See this convention entered into force on 1st November 1983 and as of 1st November 2019, the convention, the CMS convention had 130 parties, 129 countries and one organization that is European Union. And since 1983, India is also a state party to this convention. The secretariat of this convention is located in Bonn in Germany and there is also a scientific council. This provides advice to conference of parties on scientific matters. See conference of parties COP, it is the principal decision making organ of this convention. It meets once in every three years. This is important. So far, there have been 13 meetings of COP's. The first COP was held in the year 1985 and the recent COP, COP 13 was held in February 2020 at Gandhinagar in India. And India has been designated as the president of COP for next three years. As we told already, the 13th COP is special because it is the first COP of CMS convention that has been hosted in our country. Now the most important outcome for India because of this 13th COP is that India's proposal to include three species in appendix one was unanimously accepted and accordingly it was done. These are great Indian busted Asian elephant and Bengal floricum. We know that Asian elephants are very important. They help in regeneration of forests and grasslands by dispersing seeds. Whereas the great Indian busted, it acts as crucial indicator of grasslands ecosystem. We also know that elephants are national heritage animal in India and all these three species in our country, they are legally accorded highest protection under schedule one of wildlife protection act of 1972. The organizational structure of the CMS is given here for your reference. Now come to the question while observing the options. You can easily say that first statement is correct because it is given as correct statement in all the options. So let us shift our focus to second statement. It is also correct. We should not be diverted by seeing the term wild animals in the title of the convention. The convention aims to protect terrestrial migratory species, aquatic and avian migratory species as well. Here the term animals is used in the title because even if you see avian species, birds, they are also part of animalia kingdom. Now let's come to fourth statement. India has a party to this convention. This is correct. India has a party since the year 1983. So we have just confirmed that one, two and four are correct. We see which option says these three statements are correct. There is only one option option D that states one, two and four are correct. So correct answer for this question is option D, one, two, three and four. So third statement is also correct. It is the only global convention that specializes in conservation of migratory species. So this statement is a tax-tron example to tell us whenever we see superlatives like only, we should not immediately assume that the statement is wrong. Sometimes in some cases the statement will be correct as in this case. So it's important to keep such unique facts in mind. So the correct answer for this question is option D, one, two, three and four. Now let's move on to next question. This question is with reference to scheme of fund for accreditation and regeneration of traditional industries. Three statements are there. Which of the statements given above are correct. First statement, the scheme envisages to organize the traditional industries and artisans into clusters to make them competitive and provide support for their long-term sustainability and economy of scale. The scheme covers three types of interventions, namely soft interventions, hard interventions and thematic interventions. A non-governmental organization with expertise to undertake cluster development can be an implementing agency under the scheme. See the scheme of fund for accreditation and regeneration of traditional industries was launched in 2005-2006 by Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises of Government of India. See it aims to organize traditional industries and artisans into clusters and under the scheme support will be provided for the long-term sustainability and sustained employment of artisans. And here when we say traditional industry, it refers to an activity that leads to production of marketable products by using locally available raw material, skills and indigenous technology. And traditional industry cluster, it refers to a geographical concentration of sizable number of artisans or micro enterprises, suppliers of raw materials, traders, service providers. And members in this traditional industry cluster, they produce, process and service similar types of products and they face common opportunities and common threats. Traditional industries are broadly categorized into cardie industries, coir-based industries and village industries. There is one provision with respect to the geographical distribution of clusters throughout the country under the scheme which is at least 10% of the clusters they shall be located in north-eastern region, Jammu and Kashmir and hill states. And under the scheme there are three types of clusters. One is heritage cluster, then major clusters, then mini clusters. In heritage cluster we can see more than 1000 artisans up to 2500, then 500 to 1000 artisans can be major cluster. When the number of artisans in a cluster is up to 500, these clusters are called as mini clusters. In the scheme it also aims to improve or enhance the marketability of products produced by such clusters by providing support for new products, supporting in design intervention and also in improved packaging. And the scheme also aims to tap e-commerce as a major marketing channel of the products. Now one more objective is to improve the skill and capabilities of traditional artisans through training and exposure visits. The scheme also focuses on strengthening the cluster government systems with active participation of stakeholders. Here when we say stakeholders it refers to artisans, micro enterprises, suppliers of raw materials, traders, service providers etc. One of the main support mechanism of clusters is that it will help these artisans or these stakeholders to handle the emerging challenges and the emerging opportunities and to respond to them in a coherent manner. Under the scheme financial assistance is given to implementing agencies to undertake three types of interventions. These interventions are called as soft interventions, hard interventions and thematic interventions. They have been given here for your reference. The financial assistance provided for any specific project shall be subject to a maximum of 8 crore. This maximum of 8 crore is for heritage clusters. For major cluster there is a maximum limit of 3 crore, for mini cluster maximum limit of 1.5 crore. These limits may be upgraded in the future by the government. So who all can seek financial assistance under the scheme? In other words who all can be implementing agencies under the scheme? We should know that non-governmental organizations, institutions of central government and state governments, private sector, corporates and corporate social responsibility foundations, Panchayati Raj institutions with expertise to undertake cluster development, they can become implementing agency and they can seek financial assistance under the scheme for the welfare for cluster development of traditional industries and artisans. During the budget speech for the financial year 2019-20, the finance minister said that more common facility centers would be set up under the scheme to generating sustained employment opportunities for the artisans. Here we can see that common facility centers is one of the hard interventions under the scheme. The minister also stated that this scheme will focus three sectors bamboo, honey and cardy clusters. And in the last financial year there was also a target to set up 100 new clusters so as to ensure joining of 50,000 more artisans into this economic value chain or to facilitate development under the scheme. So with these information now let's come to the question. First statement is correct and it is the prime objective of the scheme. You can eliminate option B. The second statement is correct. There are three types of interventions, soft, hard and thematic interventions. Third statement is also correct. A non-governmental organization having expertise to undertake cluster development can be an implementing agency under the scheme. Correct answer option D, 1, 2 and 3. Now let's move on to next question. This question is with reference to Atal Bujil Yojana. Three statements have been given which of the statements given above are correct. It is a central sector scheme. The scheme is to be implemented for a three-year period from 2020-21 to 2022-23. One of the components is incentivizing the states for achievements in improved groundwater management practices. See Atal Bujil Yojana, it is also called as Atal Gel. It was in news in January 2020 as it was launched in the last week of December 2019 on the birth anniversary of former prime minister Sri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. On the same day, the prime minister also named the Rokhtang Tunnel as Atal Tunnel. See this Rokhtang Tunnel, it connects Manali in Himachal Pradesh with Leh in the Union territory of Ladakh. So in this context, let us see few important facts with reference to Atal Gel scheme. See Bujil or Bumi Gel refers to underground water. This scheme is formulated to address criticality or critical state of groundwater resources in our country. The scheme aims to improve groundwater management in priority areas through community participation. So when we say priority areas, as of now a total of 78 districts in seven states have been prioritized. And this scheme is to be implemented for a term of five-year period from 2020-21 to 2024-25. So it seeks to promote panchayath led groundwater management. It also will promote behavioral change in the use of water with primary focus on demand side management. That is to the community, there will be a call to conserve water and also to avoid wastage of water so as to reduce demand for groundwater. And this scheme has two components. One is to strengthen institutional arrangements available for sustainable groundwater management in the states. In this component, groundwater monitoring networks, water user associations, these institutional arrangements will be strengthened and there will also be capacity building. In the second component, states will be incentivized based on their performance in groundwater management practices. These practices include data dissemination, preparation of water security plans and implementing management interventions with convergence of various schemes and also adopting demand side management practices. The total outlay for this scheme is Rs. 6000 crore. 50% will be in the form of loan from World Bank. And remaining 50% will be funded by the central government through regular budgetary support. And the burden of repaying loan received from World Bank will also be taken by the center. So the important fact about this Attal Buja Leogena is that it is a central sector scheme meaning that states need not share financial burden for this scheme. So coming to this question, first statement is correct. Eliminate option B and option D. Now we have to confirm whether statement 2 is correct or not to whatever the correct answer. Statement 2 is incorrect because it is to be implemented for a 5 year period. So the correct answer is option A, 1 and 3 only. We should not confuse with the objectives of Jalsakthi Abhyan or Jal Jeevan Mission when we study Attal Buja Leogena. Jalsakthi Abhyan is a time-bound mission mode water conservation program. Last year it was held in two phases, first phase from July to September and second phase was from October to November. It's a water conservation campaign. Coming to Jal Jeevan Mission, it is a centrally sponsored scheme. One of the objectives is to provide functional household tap connection to every rural household by the year 2024. Then we also have National Water Mission. Recently it was also news as it organized a workshop on rainwater harvesting and artificial recharge structures. This workshop is titled as Catch the Rain Where it Falls, Rainwater Harvesting and Artificial Recharge Structures for Water Conservation. So we have given you the objectives of National Water Mission under the National Action Plan for Climate Change for your reference. So the correct answer option A, 1 and 3 only. Now let's move on to next question. This question is with reference to National Infrastructure Pipeline. Consider the following statements regarding the National Infrastructure Pipeline. Three statements are given, which of the statements given above are correct. It aims to invest more than Rs 100 lakh crore in infrastructure, both economic and social. Under National Infrastructure Pipeline, investment can be made in projects under construction, proposed greenfield projects, brownfield projects and projects at the conceptualization stage. The total capital expenditure under NIP is shared between center and states on 50s to 50 basis. See, according to a report of Task Force in Department of Economic Affairs of Ministry of Finance, India needs to spend about Rs 1.4 trillion or Rs 100 lakh crore on infrastructure if we have to achieve Rs 5 trillion of GDP by 2024-2025. Last year, that is in 2019, this task force was set up or constituted under the chairmanship of Secretary of Department of Economic Affairs The objective was to draw up a National Infrastructure Pipeline and accordingly, this task force has come up with a pipeline. See, when we say National Infrastructure Pipeline, it is an investment plan for a period of 6 years from financial year 2019-22, financial year 2024-25. The total capital expenditure in infrastructure sectors in India during these years is projected to be around Rs 102 lakh crore. These are going to be invested on more than 6,500 projects across various sectors. However, emphasis will be given to safe drinking water, access to clean and affordable energy, health care for all, modern railway stations, airports, bus terminals and world-class educational institutions. And this National Infrastructure Pipeline, it is also called as Infrastructure Vision 2025. And in addition to achieving the target of 5 trillion USD economy by 2025, this pipeline of infrastructure vision, it also aims to facilitate reforms in regulation and also in administration of public infrastructure services. These reforms shall be generic and also sectoral and it shall be as per the best practices followed in the globe. Then this pipeline aims to push India up in global rankings when it comes to public infrastructure. The respective examination perspective, we should note that this pipeline includes all projects, including those under construction, proposed greenfield projects, brownfield projects and even those projects that are still at the conceptualization stage. And investments here are going to be made for both economic infrastructure and also social infrastructure. When we say economic infrastructure, this means investment is to be made in roads, railways, power, telecom, civil aviation, ministry of new and renewable energy, steel commerce, tourism, defense production like that. When we say social infrastructure, this refers to school education, higher education, sports, agriculture, health, water resources, drinking water, housing and urban affairs, etc. NIP states that of around 100% of the total capital expenditure, 80% goes to roads, urban and housing, railways, power and irrigation. You can observe that close to 19.64 lakh crores are to be given for road sector whereas only 1.56 lakh crores together are to be given for the entire education sector. Here it includes both school and higher education. While the document says that emphasis will be given to healthcare for all, you can see that the allocation in lakh crores for healthcare is 1.69 lakh crores. The next important thing is the funding pattern under this pipeline. See, it is jointly funded by three players, center, states and also the private sector. Center and states will contribute 39% each for the total capital expenditure. The remaining 22% is said to be contributed by private sector. This is as per the plan, we have to see how private sector will able to contribute this much money for this pipeline in the coming times because of various issues faced in the economy. Now let's come to the question. It aims to invest more than Rs 100 lakh crore in infrastructure both economic and social. This statement is correct. So we can eliminate options B and options D because they do not say that the first statement is correct. Now we have to just confirm whether the second statement is correct or not. Under NIP investment can be made in projects under construction, proposed greenfield projects, brownfield projects and projects at the conceptualization stage. This statement is correct. So the correct answer for this question is option C, 1 and 2 only. Third statement is incorrect because the fund sharing pattern among center, states and private sector is as 39%, 39% and 22% respectively. Now let's move on to the next question. Which of the following are components of Rastri Arogyanidhi, an umbrella scheme implemented by Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare? Rastri Arogyanidhi, Health Minister's Cancer Patients Fund, Health Minister's Discretionary Grant, scheme for financial assistance for patients suffering from specified rare diseases. See, Rastri Arogyanidhi Society was set up in the year 1997 with initial contribution of about Rs 5 crore made by Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. At that time, the objective was to provide financial assistance to patients so as to give them medical treatment at any super-specialty government hospitals. Such financial assistance is to be provided to patients living below poverty line and if they are suffering from major life-threatening diseases. And as it was a society, it had a managing committee. In August 2018, the managing committee of this society decided to close the society with effect from 1st January 2019. So with effect from 1st January 2019, the functions of this RAN Society was given to the Department of Health and Family Welfare of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. So after this, a new umbrella scheme of Rastri Arogyanidhi was formulated by the Union Ministry. Under this scheme, financial assistance is given for poor patients to receive treatment at government hospitals. When we say poor patients, as informed already, patients belonging to families living below poverty line in their appropriate states and union territories. Here an application for financial assistance has to be submitted. The submission has to be made to the treating hospitals with supporting documents like income certification card, etc. The application has to be recommended by treating doctor and medical superintendent of the particular hospital. And on receipt of these applications, financial assistance will be approved within a period of one month. Here financial assistance of up to 15 lakh is provided for eligible patients in the form of one-time grant. This one-time grant will be forwarded to medical superintendent of the government hospital where the treatment is being received. And there are also revolving funds under this program that are set up in number of government hospitals. These revolving funds are set up so as to speed up the financial assistance provided to needy patients. So therefore powers have been delegated to medical superintendent or director of the government hospitals. So as to utilize funds up to 5 lakh for eligible patients in every case from this revolving fund. So one point to note here is under this umbrella scheme, funds are not released to states or union territories. Rather the funds are given to the medical superintendent of the hospitals where the eligible patients are receiving treatment. The most important part of this scheme is that it has three components. One is Rashtriya Aurogyanati under which financial assistance is provided for patients suffering from life-threatening diseases. And the next component is Health Minister's Cancer Patients Fund. Here the financial assistance is provided to patients suffering from cancer. And the third component is scheme for providing financial assistance to patients suffering from specified rare diseases. Now one of the specified diseases include lysosomal storage disorders in early stages for which enzyme replacement therapy is not available. And we have to also know that any life-saving procedure or any unspecified major illness or treatment or intervention. If not covered under any of the components of this scheme and if recommended by technical committee of this program. It could be considered for financial assistance. So coming to this question, Health Minister's Discretionary Grant is not a component under the scheme. So the correct answer is option C 1214. So what do we mean by Health Minister's Discretionary Grant? Under this grant a maximum amount of 125,000 is provided to patients whose annual family income is not more than 125,000. This amount is given as a grant to meet part of the expenditure on hospitalization or treatment. Received by the eligible beneficiaries in government hospitals. So correct answer option C now let's move on to next question. This question is with reference to Citizenship Amendment Act 2019. Any eligible person belonging to Hindus seek Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian community from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan. Who entered into India on or before the 31st day of December 2015 shall not be treated as illegal migrant. The special provisions of citizenship for above mentioned eligible persons is also applicable to the tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram or Tripura as included in the 6th schedule to the constitution. We know that the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 received the assent of the President on 12th December 2019 and in January there were a lot of protests against this legislation. Therefore for exam this year we may expect a question on citizenship in general or the question could be specific to this Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019. Last year prelims there was a question on the provisions of Maternity Benefit Amendment Act of 2017. So we may expect a question in this manner from CAA. See CAA 2019 deals with two set of individuals or two set of persons. One is persons who have come to India from three countries belonging to six religions. Secondly deals with OCA card holders. For OCA card holders it inserted a provision for cancelling their OCA card registration. It said that central government may by order cancel the registration of OCA card if such card holder has violated any of the provisions of Citizenship Act 1955 or if violated any of the provisions of any other law specified by the central government. Now for persons belonging to these six religions and who have come from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. First they shall not be treated as illegal migrants. This is because as per section 61 of Citizenship Act of 1955 there is one criterion for the application to acquire Indian citizenship by naturalization. That is at the time of application the person should not be an illegal migrant. Now secondly this amendment act it inserted section 6 capital B into the principal act of Citizenship Act 1955. Section 6B deals with Citizenship for the set of individuals who came to India from these three countries. But the section is not applicable to tribal area of Assam, Meghalaya, Misoram or Tripura as included in the sixth schedule to the constitution. And it is also not applicable to the areas covered under the inner line notified under Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation of 1873. Now in this map you can find Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Misoram arranged in anti-clockwise direction. So it's a geography based trick to remember that in the tribal areas of these states section 6B of CAA is not applicable. Now with respect to ILP we know that right now it is enforced in four northeastern states. What are those states? Arunachal Pradesh, its southern neighbour Nagaland, then Nagaland's southern neighbour Manipur, then Manipur's southern neighbour Misoram. In this way you can remember ILP states using geography. Now the CAA 2019 also relaxed qualification of aggregate period of residence for the persons who have come from the three countries so as to acquire citizenship through naturalization. For these persons the aggregate period of residence required is not less than five years. While this qualification in general for others is not less than 11 years. Therefore CAA 2019 fast tracks citizenship acquiring process for persons belonging to six religions from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Now coming to the question here both the statements are incorrect. First statement is incorrect because the date should be 31st day of December 2014. Second statement is incorrect because the special provisions for citizenship is not applicable to the tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Misoram and Tripura as included in 6th period. Correct answer option D neither one nor two. This question is with reference to blue flag certification and relaxation of some provisions under CAA result notification. Earlier in 2017 problems a question was passed with reference to Agmark certification mark. So we may expect a question in this regard with reference to blue flag certification. In the context of blue flag certification for beaches consider the following statements. Two statements have been given they are asking which of the statements given above are not correct. It is a permanent certification awarded by foundation for environmental education. Recently government of India relaxed the requirement of prior clearance under CAA result notification for some activities for all beaches to attain this certification. See this topic was in news in January because on 9th of January 2020 the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change published an order. This order relaxed some restrictions which were earlier placed on coastal regulation zones and the relaxation is for the purpose of blue flag certification. So in this context let us see about blue flag certification first and then we will see about the relaxation permitted in the coastal regulation zones. See blue flag certification is an internationally recognized eco-label that is awarded by a non-governmental environmental organization. This organization is foundation for environmental education shortly called as fee. This certification it is awarded to beaches, marinas and also to sustainable voting tourism operators. This NGO it is headquartered in Copenhagen in Denmark. Now the specialty of this certification is that if beaches in one country earns this reputation. It means that those beaches are environment friendly, those beaches are free from pollution and those beaches are safe and perfect for tourists. As a result it can contribute to the local economy and the tourism sector of the particular country. Now for a beach to get this certification it has to meet stringent standards around 33 standards in four areas. Now these four areas are important one is environmental education and information then environment management and conservation then safety and services then bathing water quality. These are the four areas and at the global level Spain tops the list with more number of beaches having such blue flag certification. If you see in India no beach has received this blue flag certification till now. There have been some news reports which have earlier stated that some beaches in India were certified but these reports are false. If you go to the official website of Blue Flag Global you can understand that no Indian beach have been so far awarded this certification. However government of India has identified around 13 beaches to develop necessary infrastructure to earn the certification. These beaches were identified in consultation with concerned state government or unitary government but it was found that to allow development of blue flag certification specific infrastructure some relaxation of rules in coastal regulation zones were required. Therefore on 9th January 2020 only for identified beaches a set of activities can be developed in coastal regulation zones. And for these set of activities prior clearance is not required under the provisions of CRSZ notification or island protection zone notification or island coastal regulation zone notifications. You can see some of the allowed activities include grey water treatment plant, solar power plant, parking facilities, outdoor play equipment or fitness equipment and fencing preferably by vegetative fencing. So these activities and facilities they shall be permitted in coastal regulation zones including islands however keeping a minimum distance of 10 meters from high tide line. Now come to the question first statement states it is a permanent certification. This statement is incorrect because blue flags are awarded for only one season. For next season or for each season these awards have to be renewed by constantly living up to the standards of the stringent criteria specified by the foundation for environmental education. And second statement states government of India relaxed the requirement of prior clearance for all beaches to attain the certification. Now this statement is wrong it is not for all beaches but only for identified beaches. So a stern blue flag certification and not for all beaches. So in this question both the statements are incorrect. Question asks for not correct statements both are not correct. Correct answer option C both 1 and 2. Now let us move on to next question. Now this question is with reference to future skills prime initiative. Two statements have been given which of the both statements are correct. It aims to train school children in the age group of 6 to 14 years to equip them with learning skills required for better performance in the future. It is a joint initiative of NASCOM and the government of India. NASCOM stands for National Association of Software and Service Companies. So before seeing about future skills prime initiative let us see the initiative called as future skills. It is an initiative of NASCOM in collaboration with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology of Government of India. This initiative of future skills was announced by Prime Minister in February 2018 at Hyderabad. The objective is to re-skill the IT industry workforce. In which area are we going to re-skill them? In the area of emerging technologies and emerging job roles. In other words the technologies and job roles of the future. And since the announcement of this initiative Ministry of Electronics and IT and NASCOM they have worked with the IT industry to re-skill or upskill more than 2 lakh IT employees by using this future skills platform. See this future skills platform is a digital learning platform. At present this platform offers re-skilling or upskilling of IT workforce in 10 emerging technologies across 70 new job roles and also across new skills. The 10 emerging technologies we can see artificial intelligence, blockchain, big data analytics, cyber security, cloud computing, internet of things, virtual reality, 3D printing, mobile technology and robotic process automation. So under this future skills platform NASCOM aims to re-skill or upskill around 2 million professionals and potential employees and students in the IT industry over a period of 5 years. What happened recently in the third week of December 2019? This future skills initiative it was expanded to future skills prime. As a result it was in news in December and also in Jan 2020. And it's a program for the future anyway it will be news hereafter as well. The expansion of future skills program was approved by Ministry of Electronics and IT in December. In this expanded program called PRIME here the goal is to train 4 lakh professionals in next 3 years. And for this purpose government of India has announced investing Rs 436 crore on this initiative over a period of next 3 years. Here PRIME stands for Program for re-skilling or upskilling of IT manpower for employability. So training under this PRIME initiative of future skills would be extended to 3 categories of beneficiaries. One is among IT industry professionals across different segments, then higher education students, then government officials. So when we say future skills PRIME program it's the expanded future skills program. And NASCOM states that this future skills PRIME initiative is one of the largest government led digital skilling initiatives in the world. The selling features of this expanded initiative is highlighted here for your reference. You can find that this program plans to give a skill wallet where on certification an individual will have the opportunity to receive up to Rs 12,000 as incentive from the government of India. And each learner will also get a skills passport where the competencies or certifications acquired by the learner will get accumulated. Now the common objective of both the future skills initiative and the future skills PRIME initiative is to showcase India as the global hub for talent development in emerging technologies and also in globally recognized process structures. And these programs they also aim to build a future ready workforce and also to accelerate the technology sector in achieving its skilling targets for the country. Now come to the question so the first statement is incorrect whereas the second statement is correct. Question asked for correct statement the correct answer is option B 2 only. Now let us move on to next question. Consider the following statements with reference to island development agency. Two statements have been given which of the statements given above are correct. It develops world heritage activities in small island developing states providing support for new nominations to the UNESCO's world heritage list and sustainable conservation and management practices for sites already inscribed. The agency was constituted at the UN conference on environment and development in the year 1992. Which of the statements given above are correct. See island development agency is a domestic initiative of government of India. Central government established this agency under the chairmanship of minister of home affairs. Nithya Yog says that India has around 1382 offshore identified islands. So an agency was needed for the purpose of sustainable development of these islands with the participation from the local community. Therefore this agency island development agency was set up on June 1 of 2017. One of the main purposes of this agency is to oversee the comprehensive development of islands. Now it was in news in January 2020 because this agency held its sixth meeting in New Delhi in January 2020. In that meeting the holistic development of island scheme was reviewed and note that this agency has mandated Nithya Yog to lead the whole country. To lead the holistic development of islands program. So in the oversight of this agency development plans for islands are prepared and they are being implemented in phases. These plans they focus on job creation for islanders mainly through two ways tourism promotion export of seafood and coconut based products that are made in the islands. As of now these plans are in implementation in four islands of Andaman and Nicobar and five islands of Lakshadweep. In the next phase or in the second phase suitable sites in 12 more islands of Andaman and Nicobar and five more islands in Lakshadweep will be covered. See this agency is also involved in strengthening infrastructure support in identified islands. This is done by executing projects for improving air connectivity, sea connectivity and also digital connectivity. There is a proposal to construct airports in Great Nicobar Island when it comes to Andaman and Nicobar Islands and in Minicoe Island of Lakshadweep. So as to catalyze development process in this region and in the front of digital connectivity. It is reported that port player and another seven islands in Andaman and Nicobar they will be digitally connected through submarine optical fiber cable by June 2020. So the island development agency and the programs under it they seek to improve communication services so as to facilitate setting up IT based enterprises and other MSME enterprises in various islands. This is to be done with incentives from a scheme called as Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar Islands industrial development scheme which was notified on 1st of January 2019. Now come to the question, the first statement it corresponds to UNESCO World Heritage program for small island developing states. This program was started in the year 2005. See small island developing states they are spread over Caribbean Sea, Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and also in South China Sea. These countries they were given special recognition in the UN conference on environment and development in Rio in 1992. Particularly in Agenda 21 document there is a chapter 17G. This chapter deals with small island development states. These countries they face challenges like growing population, limited resources, climate change, sea level rise, extreme weather events etc. And with respect to small island development states we should note that the year 2014 was declared by the United Nations General Assembly as the international year of small island development states. The second statement is also incorrect. Since both the statements are incorrect, question asks for correct statements. The correct answer for this question is option D neither one nor two. Now let's move on to next question. See this question, two statements have been given. They are asking which of the statements are correct. First statement, nosocomial transmission recorded in COVID-19 refers to transmission of an infection in hospital to a patient admitted for a reason other than the transmitted infection. The SARS outbreak of 2003 was much less infectious than COVID-19. So this question is in relation to the experiences observed in the present pandemic of COVID-19. See Corona viruses, they belong to a large family of viruses. Some of them cause illness in people, some circulate among animals like camels, cats, bats etc. Rarely animal Corona viruses they evolve and they jump species to infect human beings. And once human beings are infected, then the virus spreads among people. And coming to COVID-19 we are still uncertain about the precise animal origin of this disease. Among the human beings, COVID-19 infections they spread both directly and indirectly. When we say directly it refers to having direct contact with a respiratory droplet of an infected individual. And indirectly means by having contact with contaminated object or contaminated surfaces where the virus strain is present. Let's take this opportunity to also know about an initiative called as GIS aid. Now they may use this term in exam, they may ask the term GIS aid is in news what it is. In the options they may give it is a GIS aided navigation system like that. See this GIS aid was in news in January as China submitted genome sequence data of SARS coronavirus 2 to this GIS aid platform. Here GIS aid it stands for Global Initiative on Sharing All Influencer Data Platform. It was launched in May 2008. It was initially supported by US government. However, since 2010 Germany has become the official host of this platform. So as the name implies it promotes international sharing of all influenza virus sequences human viruses and also various geographical species specific data associated with avian viruses or other animal viruses. So for this purpose it also maintains a database called as AP flu database. So by having such an arrangement the objective is to help researchers to understand how viruses evolve, how they spread and how they become pandemics. Now the specialty of this platform is it gives due recognition to the owner of the data that was shared or uploaded. And it also gives due recognition to the intellectual property rights of the owner of the particular medical data or virus data that was shared into this platform. To be specific this GIS aid was actually a response to some of the earlier available public domain archives that were used to transfer such medical information. Now coming to the question first statement is about nosocomial infection. Here nosocomial transmission or nosocomial infection it refers to hospital acquired infection or transmission of a disease in a hospital. We can see such transmission among healthcare workers or among patients who are admitted for other diseases. It deals with the risk of contracting a communicable disease from the hospital. So it is in order to minimize and to avoid such kind of transmission personal protective equipment is mandated for healthcare workers and other workers who are available in hospitals and other healthcare facilities that are associated with COVID-19. Coming to the second statement it says the SARS outbreak of 2003 was much less infectious than COVID-19. The statement is correct because though the SARS outbreak was more deadlier than COVID-19 it was much less infectious than COVID-19. So the correct answer for this question is option C both 1 and 2 are correct. Now let's move on to next question. This question is with respect to ecological flow in river Ganga and its tributaries. It was a news in January as some of the projects were found to be non-compliant to the prescribed minimum environmental flows. Now come to this question two statements have been given which of the statements are correct. Some of the existing projects have been given a time period of three years to ensure compliance of desired environmental flow norms. The mini and micro projects which do not alter the flow characteristics of the river or stream significantly are exempted from the environmental flows. See earlier in October 2016 an order was notified in the government cassette. This order is called as River Ganga Rejuvenation Protection and Management Authorities Order of 2016. This order constituted an authority called as National Mission for Clean Ganga for Rejuvenation Protection and Management of River Ganga Basin. One of the duties of this authority is to determine the magnitude of ecological flow in river Ganga and its tributaries. These ecological flows or environmental flows or e-flows they are required to be maintained at different points in different areas at all times with the aim of ensuring water quality, environmentally sustainable rejuvenation and protection and management of river Ganga and its tributaries. So therefore in October 2018 National Mission for Clean Ganga published an order in the cassette. This order prescribed minimum environmental flows that have to be maintained in river Ganga and its tributaries in two stretches. One is Upper Ganga River Basin Stretch then the stretch of Main Stem of River Ganga. The Upper Ganga River Basin Stretch starts from originating glaciers and through respective confluences finally meeting at Devprayag upto Haridwar. And the Main Stem of River Ganga stretches from Haridwar of Uttarakhand to Unau in Uttar Pradesh. And minimum flows were prescribed for these two stretches throughout the year that is for all the months. And these are minimum environmental flows that should be maintained at locations downstream of various structures or projects that divert river flows. They might be diverting water for various purposes like irrigation, hydropower, industrial or other requirements. But with the minimum flow requirement they have to allow a certain proportion of water always. One important development took place last year in the principal order published in October 2018. Earlier this order gave a relaxation to existing projects that could not currently meet the norms of environmental flows. These projects were given a period of three years from the date of issue of this order to comply with the minimum environmental flows prescribed in the order. That is they need not comply immediately but they have to comply to this order by October 2021. What happened last year? This relaxation given in the principal order was amended. The amended order mentioned that existing projects that do not currently meet the norms of these environmental flows, they shall comply to the environmental flow norms before December 15 of 2019. So now come to the question. So the first statement is incorrect. This provision was earlier available in the principal order but it was amended in September 2019. So now this provision is not there. Statement one is incorrect. Second statement is correct. These mini and micro projects, if they do not alter the flow characteristics, they are exempted from the environmental flows. Correct answer option B2 only. This question is with reference to Rezina dialogue. Four statements have been given. They are asking which of the statements given above are correct. It is India's flagship geopolitical and geo-strategic conference. It is held at biennial intervals. The first edition of Rezina dialogue was held in 2016. The theme of the dialogue this year is 21 at 20 navigating the alpha century. See Rezina dialogue was in news in January as the fifth edition took place in Jan 14 to 16. It is India's flagship global conference engaging with geopolitics and also geo-economics. This dialogue is committed to address most challenging issues faced by the global community. The specialty of this program is it is a multi stakeholder cross sectoral discussion platform. It includes participation involvement of not only state representatives but also participation of global leaders in policy, in business, in media and also from civil society. Usually this conference is held in New Delhi annually. It is organized by Ministry of External Affairs in collaboration with Observer Research Foundation. The theme of the fifth edition conducted this year is 21 at 20 navigating the alpha century. It is like thinking about the 21st century in 2020 about how to navigate this alpha century. Last year the theme was a world reorder, new geometries, fluid partnerships and certain outcomes. The theme of first edition of Rezina dialogue was Asia, regional and global connectivity. Sometimes they may ask theme based questions as well. Earlier in 2017 they have asked this question where we can find a statement including theme of a particular conference. They gave the theme of the conference in 2016 as the theme for the very first edition of the conference. So in that sense it is important for us to know themes of present and recent years and also the themes of first edition of the event. In this context let us also see one more important global dialogue called as Shangri-La dialogue. It is called as Asia's premier defence summit. It is hosted by an international think tank called as International Institute for Strategic Studies. This dialogue is annually held in Singapore usually in the month of May or June with the support from the Government of Singapore. This year this dialogue was scheduled to be held in the first week of June in Singapore. However because of COVID-19 the event has been cancelled. The name Shangri-La is the name of the hotel where this event is held. Now because of the complete or dominating participation of state representatives, defence ministers etc. This Shangri-La dialogue it is also called as track 1 interaction that is coordinated by a track 2 organisation. Track 1 refers to government representatives, track 2 represents civil society, non-government entities. In this context if you see raising our dialogue it is track 1.5 diplomacy as it includes both state representatives and leaders in policy, business, media and civil society. Now the International Institute of Strategic Studies that hosts Shangri-La dialogue was founded in United Kingdom in 1958 with focus on nuclear deterrence and arms control. One of the very important publication of this institute is the military balance report. There is one another strategic international conference you might have heard news called as Munich Security Conference. See it is organised by a non-profit organisation called as Munich Security Conference Foundation. In February you might have seen in news that our external affairs minister participating this year's Munich Security Conference which is the 56th edition of such conference. Now coming to the question, first statement is correct, second statement is wrong, it is not held at biennial intervals. Since the first edition in 2016 it is being held annually, so eliminate option B. Third statement is correct and the fourth statement is also correct. Therefore the correct answer is option D, 1, 3 and 4. Now let's move on to next question. This question is with reference to Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Four statements have been given, they are asking which of the statements given above are correct. This topic was in news in January 2020 as it was reported that in this year India will be hosting Council of Heads of Government of SCO member countries. First statement, it is an intergovernmental international organisation with its secretariat based in Shanghai. It comprises eight member states with latest additions being India and Pakistan. It has observer status in United Nations General Assembly, Russian and Chinese languages are the official working languages of SCO. Now coming to SCO, see it is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation. Creation of this organisation was announced in the year 2001 by six countries, five countries were already part of Shanghai Five Mechanism and the other country was Uzbekistan. When we say Shanghai Five, it is a political association of five countries which is based on confidence building in the border area of five countries, then agreement on mutual reduction of armed forces in the border area. Shanghai Five includes Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. And with the accession of Uzbekistan into Shanghai Five in the year 2001, Shanghai Five was renamed as Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. In the next year in June 2002, the Charter of SCO was signed. This was signed at the Saint Petersburg Summit of Heads of State of SCO and it came into force in September 2003. So at that time there were six members in this organisation. In the Astana Summit in the year 2017, India and Pakistan were given full membership in this organisation. Astana is in Kazakhstan, it is also called as Nur Sultan. So right now the total membership is eight countries. It also has four observer states, Afghanistan, Iran, Belarus and Mongolia. And SCO has observer status in United Nations General Assembly and it has been the case since the year 2005. And in the present year, that is from July 2019 to July 2020, the SCO presidency is with Russian Federation. And since the inception, SCO has mainly focused on regional security issues, particularly in fight against regional terrorism, religious extremism and also ethnic separatism. Internal policy of this organisation is based on principles of mutual trust, benefit and equality. Whereas its external policy is stated to be based on the principles of non-alignment, non-targeting of any third country and also openness. It has two permanent bodies, SCO secretariat, it is based in Beijing. Just because the name has Shankai, we should not consider that its secretariat is in Shankai. Then the Executive Committee of RATS, that is the regional anti-terrorist structure, is in Taskand in Uzbekistan. And there are only two official working languages of this organisation, they are Russian and Chinese. Now come to this question, first statement is incorrect because it states its secretariat is based in Shankai, it is based in Beijing. In Beijing, we can also see the headquarters of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Once you find that the first statement is incorrect, you can easily arrive at the correct answer, option C23 and 4. There is also a business council of Shankai Cooperation Organization, it was founded in 2006. In 2006, it is a non-governmental entity or an independent institution that is headquartered in Moscow. Now let us move on to next question. Consider the following, Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine. Which of the countries given above are member states of Eurasian Economic Union? See, Eurasian Economic Union is an international organisation for regional economic integration among countries located in northern Eurasia. It was established by Treaty on Eurasian Economic Union. This treaty was signed by three countries, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russian Federation. This treaty was signed in May 2014 and it came into force on 1st January 2015. If you see on very next day, on 2nd Jan 2015, Armenia joined this union. And in the same year in the month of August, Kyrgyzstan also joined. So these are the five member countries part of this Eurasian Economic Union. Actually it was formed in response to economic and political influence of European Union and other western countries. So if you see the member nations of this Eurasian Economic Union, it includes three SEO members and Armenia and Belarus. The three SEO members are Russia and two case, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. To be very simple, this Eurasian Economic Union, it provides for free movement of goods, services, capital and labour among these five member states. So coming to this question, if you know that Russia is part of this union, you can eliminate option B. And we should note that Ukraine is not part of this Eurasian Economic Union. So we can eliminate option D. A correct answer for this question is option C. Now let's move on to next question. This question is with reference to Homer's Peace Initiative meeting, which was held in January 2020. Consider the following statements with reference to Homer's Peace Initiative. It is an initiative led by United States of America. Straight of Ormus connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Aden. Which of the above statements are correct? See this Homer's Peace Initiative was initially proposed by President of Iran in last year in the month of September. So this initiative is organized and led by Iran, not United States of America. As a part of this initiative, a meeting was arranged in January 2020. India along with China, Oman and Afghanistan did participate in this meeting. That is why it was in use. The mentioned objective of this initiative is to stabilize Straight of Ormus. So what Iran seeks under this initiative is regional cooperation, so as to keep Straight of Ormus secure. It seeks cooperation among the countries in the region which are Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Oman and also Yemen. So in this context, it is important for us to know and brief about this Straight of Ormus and also its importance. While most of the aspirants and viewers do well know about this Straight of Ormus, for some of our viewers the facts related to Straight of Ormus could be a new thing. See, it is a waterway. It connects Persian Gulf with Gulf of Oman, not Gulf of Aden. And this Straight, it separates Iran and Oman. Here you can see Iran and in this side you can see United Arab Emirates. But what about the top of this horn? Is it a place of United Arab Emirates? The answer is no. Because this is a peninsula called as Musandam Peninsula, which is a territory of Oman, not United Arab Emirates. Now the Straight of Ormus is important because it is gateway for significant amount of global oil supplies. 30% of sea-bond-traded crude oil, it passes through Straight of Ormus every single day. So why India calls for peace in this straight? One of the reasons is around 67% of India's oil imports and around 50% of India's liquefied natural gas imports comes through this straight. So stability, peace and security of this straight is of utmost importance for our country. Now let's come to the question. First statement is incorrect because it is an initiative led by Iran. Second statement is incorrect because Straight of Ormus connects Persian Gulf with Gulf of Oman. If you see, there is Straight of Babelmandem. It is this straight that connects Red Sea with Gulf of Aden. While Straight of Ormus connects Persian Gulf with Gulf of Oman. So here we find that both the statements are incorrect. Therefore the correct answer is option D, neither one nor two. This question is with reference to agreement on persons of Indian origin in Ceylon 1964. Consider the following statements. The agreement allows for according citizenship in Sri Lanka, Ceylon for some of the persons of Indian origin while some PAOs are to be repatriated to India. It was signed during the Prime Minister's ship of Lal Bhagadur Shastri. Which of the statements given above are correct? See Ceylon is the former name of Sri Lanka and this agreement on persons of Indian origin in Ceylon was signed between the then Prime Minister of India Lal Bhagadur Shastri and the then Prime Minister of Ceylon Sirimavo Bandaranayaka on 30th October 1964. Therefore this pact is also called as Sirimavo Bandaranayaka Lal Bhagadur pact. Now in the context of Sri Lanka, when we say persons of Indian origin most of them are historically from the present day Tamil Nadu. These persons are actually descendants of workers who were taken by the British to Ceylon in the 19th century and the early 20th century. They were taken to work in the hill plantations of tea, coffee and rubber in Sri Lanka. So when Ceylon became independent, a Sinhalese controlled national government was formed. As a result many persons of Indian origin were not given citizenship or they were rendered stateless. So in order to resolve the plight of these individuals an agreement was signed at the level of Prime Ministers of both the nations. The objective of this agreement is that all persons of Indian origin in Ceylon who have not been recognized either as citizens of India or as citizens of Ceylon they should become citizens of either country. Either they should become citizens of India or they should become citizens of Ceylon. They should not be rendered stateless. That is the very important point of this agreement. And at the time of agreement in 1964 persons of Indian origin coming under this category they were numbered at around 9,75,000. So at this agreement of 1964 it was mentioned that India would accept repatriation of 5,25,000 of these persons and their children. The agreement calls the children as the natural increase in this number. And Ceylon agreed to grant citizenship to 3,00,000 of these persons and their children. And all these things are to be carried out within a 15 year period from the date of this agreement. The status of remaining 1,50,000 persons they were to be determined by a separate agreement in the future. This agreement is what we call as agreement between India and Sri Lanka or Srimavu Indra Gandhi pact which was signed in the year 1974. And as per this 1974 agreement 75,000 that is 50% of the remaining persons will be given citizenship in Sri Lanka and 50% will be repatriated to India where they will be given Indian citizenship. So overall if you see as per Indo-Sri Lanka agreement of 1964 and 1974 India agreed to issue citizenship of about 6,00,000 persons whereas Sri Lanka agreed to issue citizenship of about 3,75,000 persons. Because of various issues and ethnic violence in Sri Lanka reports say that the commitments under 1964 agreement were only implemented in part in the agreed period of 15 years. Some sources say that by the year 1985 India granted citizenship to around 6,00,000 persons while Sri Lanka agreed to accept around 4.5 lakh individuals with children as its citizens. These two agreements they were in news with reference to Centres recent announcement made with reference to national population register and national register of Indian citizens. It was reported that some families who have become citizens in India after coming from Sri Lanka, these are persons of Indian origin reportedly they have lost many documents in transit after they have come to India. So they were expressing fears about how they will be able to prove their citizenship which they obtained legitimately in India when national register of Indian citizens is to be carried out. Now coming to this question the first statement is correct because part of persons of Indian origin they will be given citizenship in Sri Lanka and part of them will be repatriated to India where they will be given Indian citizenship. Second statement is also correct as it was signed during the Prime Minister's ship of Lal Bhagadur Shastri. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru passed away in May 1964. This agreement was signed in October 1964 at that time Mr. Lal Bhagadur Shastri was the prime minister. Correct answer option C both 1 and 2. Now let us move on to next question. This question is with reference to dedicated freight corridors in which of the following states both the eastern and western dedicated freight corridors pass through? Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, Rajasthan. Select the correct answer using the code given below. See when we say dedicated freight corridors these are railway corridors that are under construction in our country by Indian railways. They are being constructed to enable smooth transport of cargos. There are two corridors one is western freight corridor and the other is eastern freight corridor. The western freight corridor it covers a distance of 1,504 km from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Maharashtra to Dhadri in Uttar Pradesh. So between Maharashtra and UP it passes through three states Gujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana. Some of the important locations traversed by this corridor in Gujarat that are Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Palanpur in Rajasthan, Pulera in Haryana, Rewari. These locations are important as we can expect a map based films question with these locations. They may ask us to arrange from north to south or from south to north. So the western corridor here it passes through five states Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and UP. This corridor will help in the container transport requirements between the ports in Maharashtra and Gujarat and the northern hinterland. Now coming to eastern dedicated freight corridor, the length of the route is more than that of western dedicated freight corridor. Here the length is 1,856 km from Ludhiana in Punjab to Dhan Kuni in West Bengal. It has two segments, one double track segment between Dhan Kuni in West Bengal to Kurja in Uttar Pradesh and there is a single track segment of around 447 km between Ludhiana and Punjab to Kurja in Uttar Pradesh. It passes through Dhadri in Uttar Pradesh so now there is one state in which both the corridors pass through that is Uttar Pradesh. There is also one another state that is Haryana in which both these corridors pass through. The eastern corridor passes through six states Punjab, Haryana, UP, Bihar, Jharkhand and the extreme is in West Bengal on one side. This corridor is largely expected to help in coal and steel traffic. There is one special note here, the western dedicated freight corridor is proposed to join the eastern dedicated freight corridor in Uttar Pradesh at the location called as Dhadri. So both the corridors in this DFC project is being implemented by a special purpose vehicle created in October 2006. This SPV is called as Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited. It is a wholly owned public sector undertaking of Ministry of Railways. Recently, Government of India has reported that the two corridors are targeted to be completed in phases by December 2021. So in this question, the correct answer should contain one and three. Option B is the right answer. Now let's move on to next question. This question is with reference to Pradhan Mantri, Roskar, Protsahan, Yojana. Two statements are given, which of the statements are correct? The scheme provides financial support for eligible employees for being rendered unemployed. It is targeted for employees earning wages less than or equal to Rs. 15,000 per month. See, Roskar Protsahan means Encouraging Employment. So this scheme is designed to incentivize employers for generation of new employment. So first statement is incorrect. See, usually employer will contribute a total of 12% financial contribution for an employee. Part of this payment goes for Employee Pension Scheme and part of this contribution goes for Employees Providence Fund. So what happens under this scheme? See, in this scheme central government will be paying the employer's contribution which are made towards Employee Pension Scheme and Employees Providence Fund for new employees. And because government is contributing the finance for new employees, the employer is incentivized to create new employment opportunities. And this incentive is available for the first three years of employment of new employee. This scheme is being implemented by Ministry of Labor and Employment since August 2016. Therefore this scheme has a dual benefit. On one hand, the employer will be incentivized for increasing employment base for workers in the establishment. And it is in these establishments because of new job creation, a large number of workers will come and join and they will find jobs. A direct benefit is that these workers will have access to social security benefits of organized sector. This is because all establishments that are registered with Employees Providence Fund organization, they will be eligible to avail these benefits from the government. Actually earlier in the same scheme, government of India was paying only Employee Pension Scheme contribution of the employer for a new employee. But this was amended with effect from 1st April 2018. So now the contribution is for both Employee Pension Scheme and also for Employees Providence Fund. Now coming to eligibility criteria as we saw already, all establishments that are registered with Employees Providence Fund organization, they can apply for availing benefits. But there are some conditions. One of them is that the establishments, the company, they should have labor identification number which are allotted under SRAM Suvida Portal. It is this labor identification number that serves as primary reference number for all communication to be made under this scheme. And the eligible employer must have added new employees to the establishment. And this new employee should have other seeded universal account number. The entire system is online and other based with no human interface in the implementation of the scheme. Another important point is that the scheme is for new employees who are earning wages less than or equal to Rs. 15,000 per month. Even if the new employee changes her job to another new establishment, then that establishment can avail the scheme benefits for the remaining balance period in the 3 years. Now coming to the statements, first statement is incorrect because it is the objective of Atel Bimit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana, which is also a scheme under Ministry of Labor and Employment. Statement 2 is correct. So the answer for this question is option B, 2 only. Now let's move on to next question. This question is with reference to National Strategy for Financial Inclusion 2019-2024. Two statements have been given. Which of the statements given above are correct? First statement, it aims to make financial services available, accessible and affordable to all the citizens in a safe and transparent manner and to adopt a multi-stakeholder approach for sustainable financial inclusion. It was prepared by Nithya Yoke with an aim to make India a 5 trillion dollar economy by 2024-2025. See this National Strategy of Financial Inclusion. It is not a document prepared by Nithya Yoke, it is prepared by RISO Bank of India with the support of Financial Inclusion Advisory Committee. This Financial Inclusion Advisory Committee was constituted by RBI to lead the efforts with respect to greater financial inclusion. So it's an advisory committee with respect to matters on financial inclusion. And the National Strategy document has been developed by RBI also based on inputs and suggestions given by the central government and also other financial sector regulators, say SEBI, IRDAI and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority of India. Main takeaway from this National Strategy document are the key pillars of this strategy for financial inclusion. The base is that we have to leverage technology and we have to adopt multi-stakeholder approach for sustainable financial inclusion. Having this as base, we need six pillars. One is universal access to financial services. Then we have to provide basic set of financial services. Then there should be access to livelihood and skill development. Then there must be financial literacy, financial education and one of the most important pillar which is customer protection and grievance reversal and finally effective coordination. If we have these pillars, then we can make financial services not only available and accessible but also affordable to all citizens in a safe and transparent manner to support inclusive growth, resilient multi-stakeholder led growth. So here statement two is incorrect. Correct answer option A, one only. Now let's move on to next question. In this question, two statements have been given. Which of the statements given above are correct? E-Cubare is the core banking solution of the State Bank of India which provides a single current account for all its branches across the country. EB-CRAE is an E auction platform which provides single window access to information on properties up for E auction by the public sector banks. First let's see in brief about E-Cubare. See it's the platform of Banking Regulator Reserve Bank of India, not State Bank of India. It provides single current account for each bank across the country and these banks can access this account anywhere, anytime. And this is the core banking solution of RBA. When we say core banking solution, it is a network of branches of a particular bank. This helps banks to offer multitude of customer centric services from a single location and these services can be given on a 24 bar 7 basis. And because of this platform, customers of a bank can access their accounts from any branch anywhere irrespective of the physical location of opening their accounts. And as of now, almost all branches of commercial banks including regional rural banks have been brought into this E-Cubare core banking platform of RBA. Now let's see briefly about this EB-CRAE. See it's a platform for E auction. CRAEA means purchase or to buy or to hire in Hindi. So it's an E auction platform that enables online auction by public sector banks. This initiative was launched by Ministry of Finance. This platform gives links to all public sector bank E auction sites and there is also property search feature. So it gives a single window access to information with respect to what are the properties that are up for E auction. Comparison of similar properties and it also provides access to information about videos and photographs of uploaded properties. So here the first statement is incorrect because it is a core banking solution of RB. Second statement is correct. Correct answer option B, 2 only. Now let's move on to next question. This question is with reference to carbon disclosure project. CDP is a not-for-profit charity that runs the global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states and regions to manage their environmental impacts. As per the CDP India annual report 2019, India has the first developing economy with the maximum number of companies committing to science-based targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Which of the statements given above are correct? See this common disclosure project. It is a not-for-profit charity institution that is based in United Kingdom. It runs a global disclosure system to manage the environmental impacts of companies, investors, states, cities and regions. Its purpose is to prevent dangerous climate change and related environmental damage. So for this objective, it helps investors, companies and regions so as to take required actions by measuring and understanding the environmental impact of their presence in the world. This project is now having regional offices and local partners across 50 countries. We can see companies, cities and regions from more than 90 countries participating in this project on an annual basis. Last year it has released CDP India annual report 2019. Actually this report surveys the commitments made by companies in a particular country to science-based targets and it evaluates the climate change risk that these companies are exposed to. Targets here are called as science-based targets. A target adopted by a company will be called a science-based target if these targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are in line with the goals of Paris Agreement. That is, these targets should aim to limit global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and it should pursue efforts to limit global warming to even further by 1.5 degrees Celsius. The main takeaway from this 2019 report is that India secured fifth spot in this report and India has become the first developing economy with maximum number of companies committing to science-based targets. So by 2019, 38 companies have committed to these science-based targets. It was seen as a significant improvement from around 25 companies committing to targets in the year 2018. The first part is taken by the United States. The parameter here is the number of companies. So in the US there are more companies committing to science-based targets. This is followed by Japan, UK, France and then we come to the picture. So in this question, both the statements are correct. Therefore the correct answer is option C both 1 and 2. Now let's move on to the next question. Global climate risk index is published by. The correct answer for this question is option C, German watch. I know that German watch is also part of releasing climate change performance index along with new climate institute and climate action network. Now when we come to Mappelcroft, it releases climate change vulnerability index. United Nations Environment Programme, it releases emission gap report and global environment outlook. The global climate risk index 2020 was released in December 2019. Hence it was in use in December 2019 and also in Jan 2020. This index, it analyzes impacts of extreme weather events and associated socioeconomic data. It analyzes to what extent countries and regions were affected by weather related loss events or extreme weather events like storms, floods, heat waves etc. The most recent data available in this 2020 report is for the year 2018. It has also analyzed and reported for the past 20 years from 1999 to 2018 as well. It is an annual publication and the recent 2020 risk index is 15th edition of this analysis. The purpose of the analysis is to provide enough climate risk information at various forums at the international level with respect to climate policy debates. They are using four indicators for the purposes of ranking, number of deaths, number of deaths per one lakh inhabitants, absolute losses or some of losses in US dollars in purchasing power parity, losses per unit GDP in percentage, in other words losses in terms of GDP. For the year 2018, the most affected countries in the world first comes Japan, then Pilipines, then Germany. We are in the fifth position, that is India's the fifth most affected country in 2018 out of 181 countries and territories assessed by this German watch. In 2017, India was 14th most affected country due to climate risks. With respect to death toll in the year 2018, India has recorded the highest death toll because of climate risk. Two major reasons, one because of floods in the state of Kerala during 2018 monsoon, then because of heat waves. Report states that since 1992, around 25,000 Indians have died because of heat waves. So the correct answer for this question is option C, German watch. Now let's move on to the next question. This question is with reference to integrated road accident database. Two statements are given. It is an internet based central accident database management system. It is developed by National Highways Authority of India. Which of the statements given above are correct? See this topic was in news in January 2020 because on 13th January, Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways launched an IT tool called as integrated road accident database. So it's a central accident database management system to help in analyzing causes of road crashes, causes of road accidents. So as to help devising safety interventions to reduce such accidents in the future. According to world road statistics, which is annually released by International Road Federation, India has recorded the highest number of deaths in road accidents in the year 2018 in the world. This is followed by China and United States. As per Indian government, more than 1.5 lakh people have lost their lives in road crashes in the year 2018. So for a long time, a central integrated road accident database was felt necessary. And recently, such an IT tool was developed by Indian Institute of Technology, METRAS. And the project using this tool will be implemented by National Informatics Center. And this project involving integrated road accident database is supported by World Bank and the total project cost is around 250 crore. What this system does is it helps to develop and implement data-led road safety interventions so as to reduce road accidents in future. Having an accident database is also the first step towards achieving scientific road safety management. This database management system will be first launched in six states that have highest fatalities in terms of road accident related death. These states are Karnataka, Mathipadesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttapadesh. One specialty about this database system is that it can collect data across the country on different types of roads, be it national highways, state highways, city roads, etc. It is an internet-based IT solution. So therefore, various stakeholders, agencies such as public works department, police, they can feed details of information related to road accidents from their perspectives. This will include details like accident investigation, road engineering, the condition of the vehicle involved in the crash, etc. So all these data that are collected will be analyzed by a team at IIT METRAS who will suggest corrective measures in road design if accident is caused because of road design. So these kind of data-led interventions we can take using this database. Now we will see briefly with respect to National Informatics Centre. It is a premier science and tech institution under METI, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology established way back in 1976. It has rich experience in providing information and communication technology support and e-government support to the government. It has a network called as NICNet. It is using this network. It has institutional linkages with all ministries and departments of central government and also with state governments and union territories and also with district administrations in our country. So coming to this question, first statement is correct. Second statement is wrong because it is developed by IIT METRAS, not National Highways Authority of India. Correct answer option A1 only. Now let's move on to the next question. In the light of recent amendment to National Investigation Agency Act 2008 and NIA consider the following statements. Three statements are there. The NIA functions as central counter-terrorism law enforcement agency in India. Both central and state governments can designate special codes for the trial of scheduled offences. The amendment enhances the NIA's jurisdiction to investigate scheduled offences against Indians and against Indian interests beyond India. Which of the statements given above are correct? See we know that National Investigation Agency Act 2008, it constitutes National Investigation Agency. The purpose is to investigate and to prosecute offences that affect sovereignty of India, security and integrity of India, security of state that affect friendly relations with foreign states and other scheduled offences. When we say scheduled offences, these are offences that are categorized as offences under those laws that are mentioned in the schedule to the National Investigation Act of 2008. See National Investigation Agency, it functions as central counter-terrorism law enforcement agency in our country. It aims to create deterrence among existing terrorist groups and individuals and also among potential terrorist groups and individuals. And it also aims to develop as a storehouse of all terrorist related information. The superintendents of this agency, it is vested with the central government and the act actually impovers both center and states to designate special codes to try the scheduled offences. Now prior to the 2019 amendment, the act mentioned that both center and states can constitute special codes. Now after amendment, the act means both the center and states can designate court of session as special codes to try the scheduled offences. What happened in the amendment is, it enhanced the jurisdiction of this agency to investigate scheduled offences beyond India. That is, even if the offences are committed outside India against Indian citizens or against Indian interests, then NIA can investigate. And the amendment also enabled NIA to investigate offences related to human trafficking, counterfeit currency, manufacture or sale of prohibited arms, cyber terrorism and also offences under explosive substances act of 1908. Now these offences were added to the schedule of NIA act by the amendment. Now one more information, now with reference to the judgments given by designated special codes with respect to scheduled offences, the judgment can be appealed at the level of high court. Now come to the question, if you observe the given options, you can easily understand the first statement is correct. So we have to just verify whether second and third statements are correct or not. Second statement is correct because both central and state governments can designate special codes. To be specific, they can designate court of session as special codes. Our third statement is also correct because it enhances NIS jurisdiction to investigate scheduled offences committed outside India against Indians and Indian interests. Correct answer, option B, 1, 2 and 3. Now let's move on to next question. This question is with reference to project replan. Project replan sometimes seen in news is related to new technology for soft landing on the moon to reduce the plastic waste in nature. Safe recovery of crew module in case of any exigency before launch in human spaceflight program. Introduction of African cheetah in Indian forests. And this project is launched by Kadi and Village Industries Commission. They have launched this project as part of the commitment to Swachha Bharat Dabiyaan. When we say replan, it stands for reducing plastic in nature. In this project, what they do is plastic waste will be collected, then cleaned, chopped, beaten and they are treated for softness. Then what they will do is they will mix paper raw material or cotton, rags, pulp, 80% then 20% will be treated plastic in this ratio of 80s to 20. The plastic will be mixed with paper raw material and using this mixture, plastic mixed carry bags are made. So the correct answer for this question is option B to reduce plastic waste in nature. Now coming to Kadi and Village Industries Commission, see it is a statutory body or a statutory commission. Because it is established under section 4 of a statute called as Kadi and Village Industries Commission Act of 1956. Before this commission, there was All India Kadi and Village Industries Board. And since April 1957, this commission took over the works of the All India Kadi and Village Industries Board. This commission is an apex organization under ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises. It aims for the development of Kadi and Village Industries in rural areas in coordination with agencies that are engaged in rural development. There are three broad objectives, social objective of providing employment, economic objective of producing saleable articles. Then it has a wider objective to create self-reliance among poor and to build a strong rural community spirit. So the correct answer here is option B. Now let's move on to the next question. See this question. Recently, NASA's transiting exoplanet survey satellite has discovered TOI 700D. It is a double asteroid system in the solar system, a sun-like star in another galaxy, an exoplanet in the habitable zone of its star, an interstellar object found in our solar system. The correct answer for this question is option C, an exoplanet in the habitable zone of its star. See in the month of January 2020, NASA announced a discovery that its TESS mission has made. TESS stands for Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. And this discovery, it is about a system, a star system called as TOI 700. This system has a small cool star that is named as TOI 700. This system is located over 100 light years away and it is found in a constellation called as Dorado. When we say constellations, these are group of stars that forms a particular shape in the sky. And this star, TOI 700 was said to be 40% of mass and size of sun and about half of the surface temperature of sun. This star has three planets. They are named as TOI 700B, C and D. Note that these planets are tidally locked to their star. When we say tidally locked or tidal locking, it means that an orbiting astronomical body always has the same face towards the object it is orbiting. Here, these stars, they always have the same face towards this star called as TOI 700. Of these three planets, TOI 700D is very important. This is because it is the only planet in this star system that is available in the habitable zone of this TOI 700 star. And since it is just 20% larger than Earth, it is also generalized as an Earth-sized planet and it receives around 80% of the energy that sun provides to our Earth. And it is also the outermost planet in this star system. When we say habitable zone, it refers to that the area around the star, it is not too hot and not too cold. Therefore, there might be conditions to allow the presence of liquid water on the surface of the planet. And the habitable zone of a star is also called as Goldilocks zone. Now, if we come to this test mission called as Transitting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. Now, this word Transitting Exoplanet is very important as this mission uses transit photometry in the study of exoplanets. This test mission was designed and launched specifically to find Earth-sized planets or exoplanets that are orbiting nearby stars. It was launched recently in the year 2018 in a SpaceX rocket. See, it is an all-sky transit survey that can identify planets of all sizes. And because of this role, it is also called as NASA's Planet Hunter. And see, this mission finds exoplanets when they periodically block the part of light from their host stars. These are events that are called as transits. These are events that gives an understanding that there is a star and a planet is revolving this star. And when the repetitions and periodicity are observed, scientists can say more information on these planets and the star. This method of studying about exoplanets is called as transit photometry. Now, for this question, the correct answer is option C. Now, let's move on to the next question. This question is with reference to Snow-X. Snow-X, sometimes seen in news, is related to a program to conserve the snow leopard population in the high-altitude Himalayas, an Arctic research expedition using the research vessel Polar Stern, securing livelihoods, conservation, sustainable use and restoration of high-range Himalayan ecosystems, a program launched by NASA Terrestrial Hydrology Program to address important gaps in snow remote sensing knowledge. The correct answer for this question is option D. Option A corresponds to Project Snow Leopard. This project was launched in January 2009 to conserve the Snow Leopard species. The project is currently implemented in the geographical range of these species. Option B corresponds to Mosaic Expedition, the full-formist multidisciplinary drifting observatory for the study of Arctic climate. India is not a partner institution in this project, though an Indian from Kerala State was one among the researchers. And this expedition was recently news as Mr. Vishnu Nandan, the only Indian among the researchers have returned home. Option C is the project titled as Secure Himalayas. It's a project of Government of India and United Nations Development Program in high-altitude Himalayas. This project started in January 2017 and is scheduled to end by December 2023. The main focus of this project is to eradicate poverty in all its forms and dimensions among the local communities living in high-Himalayan ecosystems. Now let's come to Snow Eggs. See, this is a campaign launched by NASA. It aims to understand how much water is contained in each winter snowfall and how much water will be available if snow melts. This assessment is important because snow contains 40% to 95% air. And snow is important because melting of snow brings water to crops and it gives water to people living in downstream and it also feeds reservoirs, dams to generate electricity. And snow is important because it reflects up to 80% of sun's energy because of being white and thereby it gives coolness to the planet. So if you are losing snow, it means that Earth is absorbing more sunlight. That means it accelerates the global warming. So keeping all these things in mind, NASA launched Snow Eggs. See, it is a five-year program. It is being funded by NASA Terrestrial Hydrology Program. The main objective is to address most important gaps in the knowledge related to snow. So at present under this Snow Eggs program, the geographical focus is proposed to be in North America. Though NASA's overall target is to map global snow water in its future missions. This Snow Eggs is to be carried out by using various aerial campaigns or airborne campaigns and also by various other instruments and through remote sensing. So the correct answer here is option D. Now let's move on to the next question. Consider the following. Wildlife operations objective purpose. Save Kurma, Thunderstorm, Soft, Cold, Birbil. Which of the pairs given above are correctly matched? A multi-species operation by Interpol to protect live turtles and tortoises, to protect Tibetan antelope, to protect birds and cat species. So this question is based on special operations that were carried out by Wildlife Crime Control Bureau with respect to offenses against wildlife. Some of the special operations are directly conducted by this bureau. Some operations are coordinated by this Wildlife Crime Control Bureau. Now before we go on to the operations, see Wildlife Crime Control Bureau is a statutory multidisciplinary body. It is constituted by central government under Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. The purpose is to combat organized wildlife crime in our country. Its headquarters is in New Delhi. We are calling it as a statutory body because it has been established under section 38 capital Y of Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. There are several functions, two important functions. One is to collect and analyze intelligence with respect to organized wildlife criminal activities. And it has to disseminate the collected intelligence to state and other enforcement agencies so as to take appropriate action. Then one more function to establish a centralized wildlife crime data bank. Now let's come to some of the important operations carried out by this bureau. Here operation Save Kurma was conducted in December 2016 and January 2017 to focus on poaching, transportation and illegal trade off live turtles and tortoises. The word Kurma in Sanskrit it refers to tortoise and turtle. So deals with turtles and tortoises. In February 2017 Interpol launched an operation called as Operation Thunderbird. This operation is a multinational operation for multiple species. In India Wildlife Crime Control Bureau coordinated this operation. And after seeing the success of this operation Thunderbird, Interpol launched another operation called as Operation Thunderstorm in the same year in October 2017. Again this operation Thunderstorm is also a multi-species wildlife operation in India coordinated by Wildlife Crime Control Bureau. Operation Soft Coal it deals with illegal wildlife trade in Tibetan Antilope. Tibetan Antilope is also called as Chiru. This operation was conducted in October 2018 to March 2019. Operation Birbil it was conducted in November 2017. It is pertaining to illegal trade in all birds and cat species. Cat species also include big cats and because of various actions of Wildlife Crime Control Bureau. In 2018 it was awarded Asia Environment Enforcement Awards by United Nations Environment Program. So now coming to this question here we can find that save Kurma is incorrectly matched. So options should not contain one and two is also incorrectly matched. So correct answer is option C 3 and 4 only. Now let's move on to next question. This question is with reference to Yada Yada virus. Recently a group of researchers have discovered a virus called as Yada Yada virus in Australia. Which of the following is correct regarding the virus? They belong to the family of Corona viruses. They usually circulate among animals and the infected animals act as the vectors. The virus strain has more than 95% similarity with the Nipah virus. It is an alpha virus discovered recently among mosquitoes. This virus was detected in mosquitoes in the state of Victoria in Australia in 2016. The discovery was confirmed recently. See it is an alpha virus. In this context it is important for us to know about alpha viruses. See these are viruses which belong to the family Toga Viride. They are small, single stranded, positive sense RNA viruses. Even Chicken Gunya is also a member of Alpha virus genus in this family Toga Viride.  Typically mosquitoes. Some of the alpha viruses they cause brain infections and in some cases this also leads to deaths or fatalities. For example we can say diseases like Eastern equine encephalities, Venezuelan equine encephalities, Western equine encephalities.   The name itself is kept to represent the insignificant nature of this virus. Yadda Yadda is also you know colloquially called as blah blah blah. Or some statements of lesser importance. So the correct answer for this question is it is an alpha virus discovered recently among mosquitoes. Now let's move on to the next question. It was one of NASA's four great observatories. Decided to detect infrared radiation. After more than 16 years studying the universe in infrared light, its mission has come to an end. The above description suits which of the following. Even Horizon Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, Astrosat Hubble Space Telescope. See the correct answer for this question is Spitzer Space Telescope. See this space telescope was in news in January 2020 for two important reasons. One is that this telescope helped to confirm detection of a star system by transiting exoplanet survey satellite of NASA. We saw that TESS detected a star system named TOI-700 where it also found an earth-sized planet in the habitable zone of the star. This detection by TESS was confirmed by this Spitzer Space Telescope. For this it was in news in first week of January. In the last week of January 2020 NASA announced that the mission of Spitzer Space Telescope has come to an end. See it was a space-borne observatory. The goal of this telescope is to provide unique infrared view of the universe and also to give information about regions of space that are hidden from optical telescopes. This Spitzer Space Telescope was launched in August 2003. It is one of NASA's four great observatories. In fact, it is the final mission in these four observatories program. What are the other three observatories? One is Hubble Visible Light Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, then Compton Gamma-ray Observatory. This program demonstrated the use of different wavelengths of light to create a better picture of the universe. Now let's see some important discoveries of Spitzer. See it is the first telescope to see light from a planet that is from outside our solar system. It was also a very useful tool in detecting exoplanets and also in characterizing their atmospheres. It is best known for detecting seven Earth-sized planets in TRAPPIST-1 system. When we say TRAPPIST-1 system, it is the largest number of terrestrial planets that are found orbiting a single star. So what do we mean by terrestrial planets? See these are Earth-like planets that are made up of rocks or metals with a hard surface. In our solar system, four closest planets to the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, they are terrestrial planets. So when we say terrestrial planets, these are planets that are similar in structure and composition with Earth. Now come to the question. The correct answer for this question is option B. See, Event Horizon Telescope is an international collaboration to capture images of black holes. An Astrosat is India's first dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory. It was launched in September 2015. It helps in simultaneous multi-wavelength observations of various astronomical objects with a single satellite. It can study celestial sources in X-ray band, optical spectral band and also in UV spectral band at the same time. The scientific objectives of this mission has been highlighted here for your reference. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is with reference to Pratamandri G1 Yojana. Two statements are given. The scheme aims to provide basic civic amenities to improve the quality of life for forest dwellers. The scheme is an initiative of Ministry of Tribal Affairs. Which of the statements given above are correct? See, G1. It stands for Jaivindan Watavaran Anukul Fasal Avasesh Nivaran. Here Jaivindan means biofuel. Watavaran Anukul means environment friendly. Fasal Avasesh means crop remains and Nivaran means prevention. So it is a scheme for preventing crop residues from getting wasted and instead using them for the production of biofuels, which is environment friendly. In English, the scheme is given as a scheme for providing financial support to integrated bioethanol projects using ligno-cellulosic biomass and other renewable feedstock. In 2003, government launched ethanol blending in petrol program so as to blend ethanol in petrol. The program was launched to address environmental concerns because of fossil fuel burning so as to provide reverberation to farmers as crops play a very important role in the production of ethanol and it will also help us to reduce crude oil imports and thereby we can achieve savings in foreign exchange. Under this ethanol blending of petrol program, oil marketing companies, they are to blend up to 10% of ethanol in petrol. But in order to meet 10% ethanol blending target with a projected petrol demand in 2021-2022, about 450 crore litres of ethanol will be required. Now this 10% blending of ethanol in petrol was to be achieved by the year 2022. But if you see for the year 2017-18, only 150 crore litres of ethanol was procured. This means against the target of 10%, the available ethanol will help us to achieve only 4.22% blending in petrol. Presently if you see, the target kept for 2018-19 was 225 crore litres of ethanol supply but by November 2019 the supply was only 180 crore litres. We have national policy of biofuels 2018, what it has to say with respect to ethanol blending. It states that in 2018, the ethanol blending percentage in petrol is around 2% and biodiesel blending percentage in diesel is less than 0.1%. So what national policy of biofuels suggests is an indicative target of 20% blending of ethanol in petrol and 5% of blending of biodiesel in diesel to be achieved by the year 2030. So 10% of blending of ethanol in petrol to be achieved by 2022 and 20% to be achieved by 2030. So there is a mismatch between demand and supply of bioethanol. So to bridge this supply gap, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas came up with this Pradhan Mantri G1 Yojana. Now the scheme's main purpose is to provide viability gap funding to second generation bioethanol manufacturing projects. So by giving this support, more bioethanol will be manufactured or produced. So as to meet the demand of bioethanol for blending in petrol. When we say second generation bioethanol, it is also called as advanced bioethanol. These are produced from agricultural residues and byproducts, organic wastes and it also produced from woody, grassy waste materials as feedstock and also from biodegradable fractions of municipal and industrial waste. So therefore 2G bioethanol or second generation bioethanol is defined by this scheme as ethanol produced from biomass and cellulosic materials such as wood waste, agricultural and forestry residues, grasses, bagasse etc. Bagasse is nothing but dry pulpy residue that is left after the extraction of juice from sugarcane. So this is about second generation bioethanol. And when we say first generation or basic bioethanol, it is defined as ethanol produced from biomass such as sugar containing materials like sugarcane, sugar beet, sweet sorghum etc. And it is also produced from starch containing minerals, corn, cassava, rotten potatoes, algae etc. So this is the difference between first generation bioethanol or basic bioethanol against second generation bioethanol or advanced bioethanol. The government of India felt that in order to meet the 10% blending target in petrol by 2022, the first generation bioethanol will not be sufficient to achieve this target. So we need advanced bioethanol for that this scheme is devised. So using the fund in this scheme, we are going to support viability gap funding for 12 commercial projects and 10 demonstration projects. The scheme is also aiming to increase research and development in this area as well. Now who is the nodal agency or the implementing agency for the scheme? See it is centre for high technology. It is the implementation agency for the scheme. It is a technical body under Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. Now we have highlighted the objectives of the scheme here for a reference. In addition to reducing import dependence, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, addressing environment concerns, the scheme also aims to create rural and urban employment opportunities in 2G ethanol projects. It also aims to provide remunerative income for farmers who give waste agriculture residues for the production of bioethanol. It also contributes to Swatchabharath Mission as it supports the aggregation of non-food biofuel feedstocks. And it also aims to indigenize second generation biomass to ethanol technologies in India. Now if you come to the question, we can understand that both the statements given here are wrong. Both the statements have been given here to confuse you so as to create an association error with the word VAN to forest or forest dwellers like that. Both the statements are incorrect. The correct answer is option D, neither one nor two. In the context of Indian data relay satellite system, consider the following statements. The relay satellites help the ground stations to communicate with satellites in space. Relay satellites launched in low earth orbits give better coverage to satellites in geosynchronous orbit. ISRO launched Indian data relay satellite system in 2014 to stay in touch with all Indian satellites. Which of the statements given above are correct? See this topic was in news in January as ISRO announced that it is to launch this system in 2020-21. In this context, let us see what do we mean by a relay satellite and their importance in communicating with space assets like space satellites or future human spaceflight programs etc. See one of the requirement of ground stations to communicate with satellites is that a clear view or line of sight is required. When we do not have a clear view or line of sight of satellite, then communication between ground stations and the satellites become difficult. So to avoid such a situation, a space agency needs to build communication centers across the world, it becomes an expensive job. So to address this problem, relay satellites come into picture. These are satellites mostly kept in geosynchronous or geostationary orbits and they will always have a line of sight with ground stations in India. And these relay satellites, they relay or they handover the commands received from ground station to other satellites that are not in line of sight with the ground stations. Sometime what happens is a single relay satellite may not have a clear view with all the satellites for it to communicate. In such scenario, multiple satellites called a relay satellite system is used. Here a relay satellite is similar to a relay race where runners pass on the baton to the next runner to run the next leg of the race. A relay satellite also works in a similar manner as it passes information from the ground station to the satellites in space and it also can receive information from the satellites in space and can relate to ground stations. An example for relay satellite system would be tracking and data relay satellite system of NASA and it has 10 satellites to communicate with the space assets of NASA. Now note that we have not yet launched this India data relay satellite system. In January 2020, ISRO announced that it has started working on this series and the plan is to place the system in geostationary orbit so as to have a constant touch with Indian satellites, especially those satellites in low-earth orbits. When we say low-earth orbit, it is an orbit around Earth with an altitude of above 160 kilometers from the Earth's surface till 2000 kilometers. In the field of space, it is said that a data relay satellite in the geostationary orbit can see a low-altitude spacecraft for approximately half of an orbit. In that case, if we have two such relay satellites, if these two satellites are spaced 180 degrees apart in geostationary orbit, then theoretically they can provide continuous contact for any spacecraft in low-earth orbit. As these two satellites together will cover 360 degrees of orbit. So we are going to launch the system in 2020-21. The most important thing why we are going to launch it in this year is because we need to send this to space before we try Gaganian mission. Because once we launch Gaganian mission, ground stations have to stay in touch with Gaganian spacecraft all the time. If we could not communicate, then we need a relay system to help us to contact them. So for that purpose, ISRO is targeting to send first this India data relay satellite system and then Gaganian mission. Now come to the question. First statement, the relay satellites help the ground stations to communicate with satellites in space is correct. So we can eliminate options B and option C. Now we have to just confirm whether any one of statements 2 or 3 are incorrect, so as to arrive at the correct answer. See relay satellites launched in low-earth orbits give better coverage to satellites in geosynchronous orbit. This is not the case. This has to be in reverse. Relay satellites launched in geostationary orbits give better coverage to satellites in low-earth orbits. So correct answer becomes option A because second statement is incorrect. The third statement is also incorrect because we have not yet launched India data relay satellite system. We are going to launch it in this year or most probably by the beginning of next year. Now let's move on to next question. Consider the following statements with reference to Makran subduction zone. This subduction zone is also known as Andaman-Nikobar-Sumatra island subduction zone. This subduction zone is due to the divergence of Arabian plate from Eurasian plate. Which of the statements given above are correct. See this zone was in news as scientists at Indian National Centre for Oceanic Information Services stated that tsunamis off the coast of Iran and Pakistan could reach Indian shores. And one of the two potential source regions of earthquakes that may trigger tsunami is Makran subduction zone. The other zone being Andaman-Nikobar-Sumatra island subduction zone. And for this reason INCOIS has hosted a meeting of experts on probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment for the Makran region. See INCOIS stands for Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services established in 1999 as an autonomous body under Ministry of Earth Sciences at Hyderabad. It is a unit of earth science system organization under this ministry. That's why it is also called as SO INCOIS. The mandate of this centre is to provide ocean information and advisory services to society, industry, government agencies and also to scientific community. The information is to be based on continuous ocean observations. While this is a national system, let us also see an international system called as Indian Ocean tsunami warning and mitigation system. This was established by Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO. It became operational in 2013. It actually was established in response to the tragic tsunami of December 2004 that led to more than 2 lakh deaths in several countries bordering Indian Ocean. It is funded by a trust fund of United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. Now let's come to the potential earthquake source regions. You can see two potential source regions here in this picture. One is Makran subduction zone. Then the other is Indonesia subduction zone which is also called as Andaman-Nikobar-Sumatra island subduction zone. The Makran subduction zone, it was poorly understood because of lack of enough data to study about the zone. It is reported that tsunami waves generated by an earthquake in this zone can reach the shores of India, Iran, Oman, Pakistan and other nearby countries. Within few minutes with heights of several meters. So therefore this zone, it poses serious challenges to existing tsunami warning systems. We are calling it as Makran subduction zone. Subduction zone means two plates are meeting each other where convergence is taking place. One plate goes below the other plate. The denser plate will go below the other plate. The denser plate subjects below the other plate. Here two plates are involved. Arabian plate and Eurasian plate. Eurasian plate is a major plate. Arabian plate is a minor plate. The Arabian plate being denser than the Eurasian plate. It subjects below or it subjects against the Eurasian plate. Because of the convergence activity, the zone has become a potential source for generation of earthquakes. Now let's come to Indonesia subduction zone. Here Indo-Austral plate is subducting or moving down against Eurasian plate. This zone is known for high magnitude earthquakes that can trigger killer tsunami waves. Once it's tsunami, we witnessed on 26th December 2004 and the source of this earthquake is near Sumatra island of Indonesia. So better understanding of these subduction zones would help to enable better early tsunami warning system for Indian Ocean. Now come to the question. First statement is incorrect because Andaman Nikobar Sumatra island subduction zone is the name for Indonesia subduction zone. Second statement is also wrong because in Makran subduction zone, convergence of Arabian plate and Eurasian plate is taking place. Both the statements are incorrect. Question asks for correct statements. Correct answer option D. Neither one nor two. Now let us move on to next question. Consider the following with reference to vanilla islands recently seen in news. It includes Seychelles, Mauritius, Maldives, Madagascar and Komoros. They are situated in southwest region of Indonesia which of the statements given above are correct. So this question was framed with reference to operation Vanilla launched by Government of India in January 2020 with reference to devastating impacts of tropical cyclone Niyam over Madagascar. This operation is humanitarian assistance operation provided by Indian Navy to Madagascar. It was reported that the cyclone has affected the lives of more than one lakh people. The Indian Navy ship Airaavath has been deployed in the relief mission on Jan 26 to provide humanitarian assistance. The operation Vanilla launched by Indian Navy is the first international response when it comes to addressing humanitarian crisis in Madagascar with reference to tropical cyclone. See Madagascar is an island country in Indian Ocean region. It is situated off the southeast coast of Africa or it is situated in the southwest region of Indian Ocean. Tropic of Capricorn passes through Madagascar. It is separated from African mainland by Mozambique Channel. Now because of its location Madagascar and the islands surrounding Madagascar they are exposed to periodic cyclones and roads. It is said that Madagascar gets hit by an average of 3 to 4 cyclones every year between the months of November and April. The operation Vanilla is said to be meeting with India's vision of Sagar in the Indian Ocean region. Sagar stands for security and growth for all in the region. This concept was announced by Prime Minister in 2015 during his visit to Mauritius and other Indian Ocean islands and Sagar is the Indian vision for Indian Ocean. Now let's come to Vanilla islands. See there are six islands collectively called as Vanilla islands. These islands have together launched a brand name for them or a marketing brand for them because of a natural product, natural flavoring substance which is cooking ingredient Vanilla. These are islands such as Seychelles, Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros along with two regions of France. These are island regions of Reunion and Mayotte. Reunion and Mayotte islands are French overseas territories. All these six islands are situated in southwest Indian Ocean region. These islands are important because of their strategic location as they are situated on sea lines of communication to Africa. And of these Vanilla islands Seychelles, Mauritius, Madagascar and Comoros. They are members of African Union, they are members of Indian Ocean Commission and they are also members of Indian Ocean Rim Association and International Solar Alliance. See Indian Ocean Commission is the only African regional organization that is composed entirely of islands Comoros, Reunion islands of France, Madagascar, Mauritius and Seychelles. These islands are particularly vulnerable to natural disasters. So coming to the question, first statement is incorrect because it includes Maldives. Second statement is correct. Correct answer is option B2 only. Now let's move on to next question. Consider the following statements regarding the proposed green credit scheme. The scheme will allow private agencies to grow plantations which can be purchased and handed over to government by forest land user agencies as a compensation for the diverted forests. The green credit refers to the amount paid by the user agency for the acquisition of forest land for the diversion to non-forest uses. Which of the statements given above are correct? See it's a proposed scheme. If you see the existing system that is based on the provisions of Forest Conservation Act of 1980 and Forest Conservation Rules of 2003, a user agency that aims to divert a forest land for non-forest uses has to fulfill three main criteria. These are criteria to acquire and divert a forest land to non-forestry purposes like mining. One is that the user agency has to pay net present value of forest land that is to be acquired for diversion. Secondly, the user agency has to purchase an equal non-forest land that is contiguous to forest land and the agency has to hand over this non-forest land to the government or state forest department. Thirdly, the user agency has to pay costs for compensatory of forestation which is to be executed by the state forest department in the non-forest land given by the user agency. And in this existing method of compensatory of forestation, few challenges were faced.  Secondly, the state forest departments with their existing work pressure and work load they were found to be inefficient in the functioning of compensatory of forestation. So, as a solution to these challenges, a green credit scheme has been proposed. Under this scheme, a green area or a forest like environment or a plantation is developed by a private agency or even a village community. Now, the user agency who wants forest area for diversion to non-forest purposes has to purchase the certified green area and forward it to the state government or hand it over to the state government. The ecosystem services of the certified green area will be almost equal to the ecosystem services of the forest land that is acquired for diversion. This scheme is expected to make compensatory of forestation a much easier task. It was in news in January. News reports stated that forest advisory committee has almost approved this scheme for rollout. See, forest advisory committee is a statutory body under section 3 of Forest Conservation Act of 1980. It comes under the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Its objective is to grant approval for using forest land for non-forest purposes. Then it also advises the central government on matters relation to forest conservation. So, here the first statement is correct. The scheme will allow private agencies to grow plantations that can be purchased and handed over to the government by forest land user agencies as a compensation for the diverted forest. The second statement is incorrect because green credit refers to the amount spent by the user agency for purchasing the certified green area, not for purchasing the forest that is to be diverted to non-forest users. So, the correct answer here is option A, one-only. Before moving on to the next question, let us also see three important terms, green bonds, European green deal, green protocol under Suchitva Mission of Kerala. See, any bond if used to raise money or inves