Greetings dear aspirants, as a part of target UPSC prelims 2020 series, this video consists of a set of 55 important topics which are sourced from various sources like the Hindu, the business standard, life meant, and from various government sources like the Press Information Bureau, Neethi IO, then from ministry websites, e-gazet, etc. These are the list of 55 topics chosen for the month of February 2020, we have chosen these 55 topics and have presented an MCQ format along with necessary information that is required to be known from UPSC prelims exam perspective. The PDF link of this discussion is given in the description box in the best interest of the viewers. Now, let us begin with this session. Our first topic of the day is an economy based current affairs topic on countervailing duties. See as my gurus here at Shankaray's academy always insist, one of the key pillars to crack UPSC prelims is going through the previous year questions. It will give you a lot of insights on how to approach the questions, be it economy, be it science or any other subject for that matter. When it comes to economy, many aspirants have the fear factor that economy questions and the wordings are very tough but in fact it is one of the easiest scoring areas. Generally, majority of the economy based questions will secure basic understanding about a concept that was trending at that point of time. If you see NPA crisis is in the banking sector for the past three to four years and many interventions were taken by the government to address the NPA crisis like the PCA framework, project Sashak etc. If you see there was a question on an important feature of this project Sashak which was inter-creditor agreement and this was the question which appeared in 2019 UPSC prelims. If you know that this agreement is related to NPA you can arrive at the correct answer here which is option B. Similarly, if you see in 2018 prelims there was a question on merchant discount rate and that was the year when digital transactions were picking up very fast because the government was promoting digital India at that point of time. So if you see usually the questions are related to the current affairs of that particular year not just economy, even science and other subjects as well. So in these lines this question has been framed based on the recent current affairs that happened in February 2020. See this question is based on an administrative decision taken by the United States. The Office of the United States trade a presentative. In short USTR had published a notice in February 2020. It amended the list of developing and least developed countries that are eligible for preferential treatment with respect to countervailing duties investigation. And India and some other countries have been removed from this USA's list of developing countries. So there are no more relaxed standards and preferential treatment for India. So countries like India which are not given special consideration anymore will have lower levels of protection against a countervailing duty investigation by USA since February onwards. So this was the news. In this context what you need to know is about the countervailing duty. See as per directorate general of trade remedies that comes under the department of commerce which in turn comes under the ministry of commerce and industry. Countervailing duties are those duties that are imposed by India or any domestic country when that domestic country in this case India finds that a government in the exporting country provides subsidies or assistance to its local industry. This can mean the form of subsidized loans or tax exemptions or indirect payments or in any related form. For example consider USA as the exporting country that is the goods from USA are exported to India. Now when US provides such assistance the foreign suppliers and the manufacturers in USA would be able to potentially export and sell the goods for a price less than what the companies from India can manufacture and reasonably sell the goods in India. So in order to neutralize the adverse effects of the subsidies allowed for a particular product in exporting member country countervailing duties are imposed by the domestic country in this case it is India. Similarly any country can impose countervailing duties on any of the countries from which it imports if it feels that it is affected by the actions of the exporting country. So this is the basic concept of countervailing duty. So whenever you read important economy terms try to know the basic concept behind that term it will be more than helpful for you to crack economy related questions. Now let us see some details regarding this countervailing duty in India. See in India as per section 9 of the customs tariff act 1975 the central government may impose a countervailing duty not exceeding the amount of subsidy given by the exporting country. This may be done based on a notification in the official gazette. So based on this the central government notified customs tariff identification assessment and collection of countervailing duty on subsidized articles and determination of injury rules 1995. So these rules are the ones that govern the actions related to countervailing duties in India. Note that countervailing measures along with anti-dumping and anti-subsidies in India are administered by the directorate general of anti-dumping and allied duties and this directorate general functions under the department of commerce which in turn comes under the ministry of commerce and industry. So this directorate general of anti-dumping and allied duties is the designated authority as per the 1995 rules to conduct the countervailing duty investigation and make recommendation to the government for imposition of anti-subsidies measures. And such duties are finally imposed or levied by a notification of the ministry of finance. So here you should have an idea that while the department of commerce recommends the countervailing duty it is the ministry of finance which levies the countervailing duty. So note this important fact. So this is about the concept of countervailing duty and about the rules related to countervailing duty in India. Now let us look at the question which one of the following best describes the term countervailing duty sometimes seen in news. Look at option A it is a duty that a domestic government imposes on foreign imports that it believes are priced below fair market value. This option speaks about anti-dumping duty. See when a country exports the goods at a price lower than its normal value to another country it is dumping and it can have a distortive effect on international trade. So anti-dumping duty is basically a protectionist tariff which rectifies the situation arising out of dumping of goods and its trade distortive effects. So option A is about anti-dumping duty. Now look at option B tells that it is a tax imposed on import of commodities. Option B is also wrong because it simply means the customs duties. Now look at option C. Option C is the correct answer here as we just saw countervailing duties is a duty that domestic government imposes on foreign imports to neutralize the adverse effects of the subsidies allowed for a particular product in exporting member country. Option A and C might sound similar but you should know the difference between anti-dumping duty and countervailing duty here. Now look at option D it speaks about CES. In simple terms CES is a tax that is additionally levied as a percentage of existing tax amount. Here the phrase to counter import dependence has been given to confuse you. So option D here speaks about CES. Sometimes CES can also be levied to counter import dependence if you see there was yet another current affairs in the month of February where the central government was having plans to impose CES on the medical devices imports. So CES can also be used to counter import dependence. So through this question we have seen four different types of taxes or duties. Anti-dumping duty, customs duty, countervailing duty and about CES. So mostly in UPSC problems you will have such format of questions. If you know the underlying concept behind that particular terminology you can easily attempt the question. When we speak about countervailing duty at the global level we have an agreement. Under the World Trade Organization it is called as SCM agreement or the agreement on subsidies and countervailing measures. As the name indicates this agreement covers two topics subsidies and countervailing measures. So try to also know about this SCM agreement. Even for such global level agreements you do get questions in UPSC films and even those questions will be in a very simple format. For example if you see there was a question in 2016 problems about the amber box, blue box and green box subsidies. The question was very simple it is related to the affairs of which international organization. Here the correct answer is again the World Trade Organization. So always make yourself clear with the basic concepts related to the economic related topics. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is geography question based on the major ports in India. If you see in February 2020 the union cabinet gave nod for introducing major port authorities built 2020 in Lok Sabha and hence the topic was in news. Whenever you study such topics don't look at only one aspect of the topic because this particular topic major ports can also be approached from geography point of view. Now why we are telling this because if you see in 2018 there was a question on Kodekanan lake it was a geography based question. The question is which one of the following is an artificial lake. If you see the current affairs related to that particular question was there was a study which indicated high level of mercury in fishes in this Kodekanan lake. This was November 2017 news and we got this question in 2018 problems. The possible questions that can be asked from this particular news article are with respect to mercury, mercury pollution, biomagnification, bioaccumulation and about the geography aspect of Kodekanan lake and we got a question about Kodekanan lake. Similarly in this topic you can get a question related to the major ports, the port trusts that administer the major ports or the geography related aspect of the major ports. So on this basis we are referring this question to give you an idea about the geography of the major ports of India. We know that India has a very long coastline and India is strategically located on the world's shipping routes. Maritime transport handles around 70% of India's trading in value terms. If you see as per Ministry of Shipping there are 12 major ports in India and 200 minor ports in India that handle the maritime transport. The list of 12 major ports are given here for your reference. See as per Indian ports association it is mentioned that there are 13 major ports but go by the Ministry data which is 12 major ports because if you see Kolkata and Haldia are together managed by Kolkata port trust and this is the reason why the Ministry of Shipping has mentioned 12 major ports in India. Know that these ports which are called as major ports are administered based on union government laws. In this context the parliament enacted major port trusts act of 1963 to set up port trusts. So these port trusts act as administrative bodies for the respective ports. 11 out of these 12 major ports are notified under this act. One of the exception is Kamarajar port which is located in Ennur in Chennai. See the government of India decided to establish a new port of Ennur as a separate autonomous entity. This is in line with the liberalized economic process that was happening at that time. So this Ennur port was incorporated as a company in 1999 under the then Indian companies act of 1956. Later on if you see the company was renamed as Kamarajar port limited in 2014. So this is brief introduction about the major ports of India. Now in this table you can also find what kind of a port it is whether artificial port or river port or a natural harbour. See out of these ports Kolkata is the only river in port in India. Just have a look at this table make use of this table for your prelims exam. Now in this regard let us see the important provisions of the major port authorities bill 2020 that was introduced in Lok Sabha in the month of March. This bill seeks to provide for regulation operation and planning of major ports in India. Also vests the administration control and management of major ports with the boards of major port authorities. Also if you see this bill empowers the major ports to perform with greater efficiency on account of full autonomy in decision making and by modernizing the institutional framework of major ports. So this bill aims to replace the port trust in 11 major ports with board authorities. Also the role of tariff authority for major ports has been redefined. The port authority has now been given powers to fix tariff. Also the public private partnership operators will be free to fix tariff based on the market conditions. The board of port authority has been delegated the power to fix the scale of rates for other port services and assets including land. Then if you see this bill also provides for an adjudicatory board which will look into the disputes between the ports in public private partnership concessionists. Then there are also provisions for CSR and development of infrastructure by port authority. Then also there are provisions for inclusion of representation of state government in which the major port is situated. So if this bill is enacted the 11 port trusts will be replaced with board authorities and this will help in decentralizing decision making and it will also infuse professionalism in governance of major ports. So this will help in bringing transparency in the operations of major ports. This is in brief about this major port authority's bill 2020 which was introduced in Lok Sabha. Now let us look at this question. The question is straight forward it is a geography based question as we already told which one of the following major ports located on the eastern coast of India has a natural harbor. Now look at this map read the question again which one of the following major ports located on the eastern coast of India. Out of these four the ports that are located on the eastern coast of India are Tutu Kuran and Vishakapatnam. So the answer should be either between B or C. Out of these two Vishakapatnam has a natural harbor and Tutu Kuran has an artificial harbor. So here the correct answer is option C Vishakapatnam. Always reread the question twice or thrice. If you go by the keyword natural harbor then you would be confused between the options C and B Vishakapatnam and Manmukova. But the question is clear which of the following major ports located on the eastern coast of India. So always be sure to read the question twice before you mark the answer. So you can also expect questions from this angle. So always have an open approach. Try to approach a particular topic from various angles. In this case we have the quality angle about the bill that was introduced in Lok Sabha and then the geography angle which we are seeing now. So you can expect such questions in UPSC terms. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is based on the Ashkabad Agreement. India joined the Ashkabad Agreement in February 2018 and it has completed two years as of February 2020. This is an important agreement in improving India's Central Asia relations. See it is an international transport and transit corridor which is facilitating transportation of goods between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf. The founding members of this Ashkabad Agreement are Oman, Iran, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Later Kazakhstan and Pakistan joined this agreement. India joined this agreement in February 2018. So from this you can tell that the first statement of this three statement question is correct and the second statement is a wrong statement because neither India nor US are founding members of this agreement. Now look at the third statement. It tells that TAPI natural gas pipeline is a part of this agreement. This statement is wrong. It is not a part of this Ashkabad Agreement. We'll see more on this TAPI natural gas pipeline later. So the correct answer to this question is option A, one only since only the first statement is correct. Now let us see why Central Asian countries are important for India. See as the name indicates Central Asia is the central region of Asia. It extends from Caspian Sea in the West to the border of West China and the East. And it is bounded on the North by Russia and on the South by Iran, Afghanistan and China. This region consists of those countries which were a part of the former USSR like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tachkistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. Just have a look at this map for a better understanding about the Central Asian region. The first reason is the strategic location of Central Asia which makes it important for India to have a good relation with the Central Asian countries because the location of Central Asia as well as India is strategic. It connects Europe and Asia. So if India can establish friendly relations with Central Asia, it can access European countries. As the entire Central Asian region is landlocked, its trade potential is underutilized. So they offer huge potential for trade, investment and growth for India. Note that Central Asia is a huge depository of resources such as crude oil, natural gas, gold, copper, iron, et cetera. Also if you see the Central Asian countries have huge deposits of uranium. So all these resources can meet our industrial needs and ensure energy security. And having friendly relations with Central Asian countries will earn their support for India and various international fora. For example, seeking to become a permanent member in United Nations Security Council. So understanding the importance of this region, India launched Connect Central Asia Policy in the year 2012. See this is an all comprehensive approach covering political cooperation, economic cooperation, security cooperation, cultural connections and regional connectivity with the Central Asian countries. So joining this Ashkabat agreement will also help India to connect more with Central Asia. And apart from this India is also a part of TAPI pipeline. Here the word TAPI means Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. It is 1814 kilometer trans-country natural gas pipeline which is expected to bring natural gas from Galkanish gas field in Turkmenistan to India via Afghanistan and Pakistan. See this project is under development. The next significant development with Central Asia is the International North-South Transport Corridor. It is a multi-mode transport network consisting of ship rail and road routes. Once completed it will ensure connectivity from India to Russia and Europe through Afghanistan, Iran and Central Asia. And this project is also under development. Then if you see India's developing Chabahar port in Iran this port is a part of the trilateral transit agreement which is signed between India, Iran and Afghanistan. The strategic objective of developing this port is bypassing Pakistan in order to access Afghanistan which in turn will enable more access to Central Asia through the International North-South Transport Corridor. If you see in this year's union budget 100 crore rupees have been allocated by India for developing Chabahar port in Iran. So you can see various initiatives taken by India in order to improve its access and relations with the Central Asian countries. So this is in brief about India-Central Asia relations and as a part of this we saw this question on Ashkabat agreement. The correct answer is option A, one only. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is based on the recent discovery of kale fishes in Megalaya. See in February 2020 a team of experts from India, UK and Switzerland discovered a new kind of kale fish in Megalaya's Jainthia hills. With a size in excess of 40 centimeter, it was the largest known subterranean fish from today. The discoverers also said that this troglomorphic fish is a cave adapted fish. So what is this term troglomorphism based on which this question has been framed? The term troglomorphism often seen in news refers to. Here the correct answer is option A, adaptation of species living in the constant darkness It can be either caves or any subterranean surfaces. Know that the small creatures that have adapted to a permanent life in a cave are called as troglobites. They are so well adapted to life in a cave that they would be unable to survive in the surface environment. To survive in the darkness troglobites have highly developed senses of hearing, touch and smell. So what are the important adaptations of troglobites? See the darkness of the cave eliminates their need for sight as a result they are usually blind with undeveloped eyes that might be covered by a layer of skin. The darkness eliminates the advantage of camouflage coloring and hence they lose their pigments. Some of the most familiar types of troglobites are spiders, beetles, gastropods and fishes. So what is the significance of the discovery of cave fish in Meghalaya? All previous discoveries of cave fish from India have been of small fishes. The recent discovery of 40 centimeter plus cave fish indicates that the subterranean species could be a large one. According to the researchers, the new species is similar to golden mushy but differs in its depigmentation, also in lack of ice and its subterranean habitat. If you see golden mushy normally lives in fast flowing streams and rivers and also large reservoirs. Now how do the troglobites survive? See they are sedentary organisms that do not require to burn a lot of calories. If you see they obtain most of their food from scavenging. The diet might include small pieces of plant that we carried into the cave by running water or maybe the bacteria and plant that live in cave waters and even carcasses of animals that have died in the cave. So this is in brief about troglomorphism and troglobites. Sometimes you will get questions like troglomorphism in UPSC Prelims because if you see there was a question on Denisovan in 2019 UPSC Prelims. So UPSC usually gives the words that have sometimes appeared in newspapers or in some other media and it would ask the meaning of that term. So whenever you come across such terms try to have a basic idea about what the term is. So here the correct answer is option A, adaptation of species living in the constant darkness of caves. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about NLRP3. The question is the term NLRP3 sometimes seen in news is related to. Here the correct answer is option B, a gene that provides instructions for making cryopyrin protein which are involved in the immune system. See this NLRP3 gene was in news. In the month of February, there was a news article in Hindu titled how bats harbor several viruses yet how they do not get sick. So in this context let us look at this NLRP3 gene. The researchers have found that in bats this NLRP3 gene has a dampened or reduced activation as a response to injury or damage to tissues unlike humans or other animals. Now let us discuss this finding in brief. See bats are the only flying mammals to host large number of high profile viruses. They are hosts for Ebola virus, Nipah virus, Corona viruses such as SARS-MERS and even it is speculated that bats are the hosts for the COVID-19 virus which is SARS-CoV-2. If you see these viruses are capable of causing severe and often deadly disease in humans and animals. But if you see the bats which are hosts of such deadly viruses do not exhibit any sign or they exhibit minimal signs of the disease even when there are high viral loads of these viruses in the bats body. Now a research study has found the reason behind it. The reason why bats can harbor these viruses without getting affected is simply because of the bats special immune system. The special immune system enables the bats to avoid excessive virus induced inflammation. To understand this first you should understand about inflammation. See inflammation is a part of the immune response of a body. Inflammation is a normal physiological response that causes injured tissue to heal. See an inflammatory process starts when chemicals are released by the damaged tissue. In response to this inflammation, white blood cells make substances that cause cells to divide and grow to rebuild the tissue to help to repair the injury. And once the wound is healed, the inflammatory process ends. Sometimes inflammatory process may begin even if there is no injury and sometimes it does not end when it should. So this leads to chronic inflammation. So uncontrolled acute inflammation may become chronic and it contributes to a variety of chronic inflammatory diseases in animals and peoples who are infected with the viruses. So this is what normally happens. But what the researchers have found was that the inflammatory response in bats is dampened or reduced because of the dampened or reduced activation of an important protein called as NLRP3. This stands for NLR family pyridine domain containing three. Basically it is a gene. This NLRP3 gene provides instructions for making a protein called cryopyrin. Cryopyrin is found mainly in white blood cells and in cartilage forming cells. The NLR proteins are involved in the immune system. They help to start and regulate the immune system's response to injury, toxins, or invasion by microorganisms. But when this NLRP3 gene has a dampened activation, it leads to reduced inflammation. So this is what happens in bats' immune system. This process is in complete contrast to what is seen in mice and humans for disease-causing zoonotic viruses. So the reduced inflammatory response that is caused by the dampened activation of this NLRP3 gene supports an enhanced innate immune tolerance in bats rather than enhanced anti-viral defense. So this is the reason why the bats do not get affected even though they have numerous deadly viruses. So here the correct answer is option B, a gene that provides instructions for making cryopyrin protein which are involved in the immune system. Here option A speaks about CRISPR-Cas9. Option C is about SARS-CoV-2, which is the virus responsible for the present COVID-19 pandemic. And option D speaks about NAPR T1 gene, that is the nicotinate phosphoribosyltransferase gene, which has been identified as novel susceptibility gene for schizophrenia. Now let us move on to the next question. Now let us look at a question about a report. The question is which of the following releases the Global Social Mobility Report? Here the correct answer is option C, World Economic Forum. This World Economic Forum creates and publishes this Global Social Mobility Report. And as a part of this, we have the Global Social Mobility Index. Before looking at the report, let us see what do we mean by social mobility? So it can be understood as the movement in personal circumstances, either upwards or downwards of an individual in relation to those of their parents. In absolute terms, it is the ability of a child to experience a better life than their parents. The headline finding of this report is that most economies are failing to provide the conditions in which their citizens can thrive, often by a large margin. As a result, the individual's opportunities in life remain attached to their socioeconomic status at birth and continuing historical inequalities. This index reveals that only a handful of nations have the right conditions to foster social mobility. Most countries underperform in four areas. Fair wages, social protection, working conditions, and lifelong learning. The index ranks 82 economies. Overall, if you see the Nordic countries are the best performers. Denmark tops the rankings, which is closely followed by the countries of Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland. Among the G7 economies, if you see, Germany is most socially mobile, which is ranking 11th. And this is followed by France at the 12th position. Among the BRICS economies, if you see, Russia is the most socially mobile country. It has been ranked 39th. Next comes China with 45th rank, followed by Brazil at 60th rank, India at 76th rank, and South Africa at 77th rank. And we saw that this index has ranked 82 economies. So 76 means India has performed worst. Among the neighboring countries, if you see, Bangladesh has been ranked 78th, Sri Lanka 59th, and Pakistan 79th. So we can see that Sri Lanka has fared well when compared to India. So always, whenever you are looking at important reports and indices, try to compare India's ranking with BRICS nations or with the neighboring nations. So here the correct answer is option C, World Economic Forum. We have also given you a list of other reports that are released by World Economic Forum. You can make use of this data. Now, let us move on to the next question. This question is about active pharmaceutical ingredients. See, active pharmaceutical ingredients are also known as bulk drugs. According to the Drugs Prices Control Order of 2013, active pharmaceutical ingredients or bulk drug means any pharmaceutical product, chemical, biological, or plant product, including its salts, esters, isomers, analogs, and derivatives, which are used as such in any formulation or used as an ingredient in any formulation. So these are called as active pharmaceutical ingredients or bulk drugs. And they should conform to the standards specified in the Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940. In simple words, we can say that an active pharmaceutical ingredient is the chemical substance that is contained in a pharmaceutical, may it be tablets or your capsules or your syrups, which you consume in URL. So it is responsible for the therapeutic effect of an individual who consumes that pharmaceutical. If you see some pharmaceuticals, even contain more than one active pharmaceutical ingredient. So this is what we mean by active pharmaceutical ingredient. Now why this active pharmaceutical ingredient was a news because there were rumors that there was a shortage of active pharmaceutical ingredients and that there is a steep increase in the prices of medicines due to COVID-19 outbreak in China. It was frequently news in the months of February and March 2020. The reason is because India inputs various bulk drugs or APIs for producing medicines. If you see two thirds of the total imports of bulk drugs or drug intermediates are from China. So to tackle the situation, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority issued an order to monitor the production and availability of active pharmaceutical ingredients and their formulations in order to prevent black marketing and holding and also to ensure price compliance as per the Drugs Prices Control Order 2013. So this is the reason why this topic was a news and this topic is of high relevance from Tillam's perspective. And whenever you're studying about active pharmaceutical ingredients, also remember about the Katoch Committee Report of 2015. See in 2013, the central government constituted a high level committee known as Katoch Committee. Basically to study and identify the active pharmaceutical ingredients of critical importance and it also asked the committee to work out a package of interventions or concessions that is required to build domestic production capabilities and to examine their cost implications. These are some of the recommendations of this Katoch Committee, like establishing mega parks for APIs, like recommending a scheme for extending financial assistance to the states to acquire land and also for setting up common facilities. And there were also recommendations on financial investment, promoting stronger industry academy interaction, et cetera. At present, the government is examining these recommendations for formulating a policy for the promotion of manufacturing of bulk trucks in India. So this is in brief about active pharmaceutical ingredients and Katoch Committee. Now look at this question. It is a two statement question and you need to choose those statement or statements which are correct. Here, the first statement is incorrect. It speaks about a drug called as Lorca Serrin. This Lorca Serrin drug was also in use in the month of February. See, it is basically a weight loss drug as given in this statement. It is prescribed for use with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity. So the aim is weight loss and adults. See, this drug was in use because Indian doctors cautioned against the use of Lorca Serrin. Initially it was allowed in USA for marketing but later the United States Food and Drug Administration requested the drug manufacturer to voluntarily withdraw this Lorca Serrin drug because after a post-marketing trial it was found that there was a possible increased risk of cancer on consuming this drug. So the Indian doctors cautioned against the use of this Lorca Serrin drug in the month of February. So this was the news. So here the first statement is wrong. The second statement is correct. Katoch Committee report is related to APIs. So the correct answer to this question is option B, two only. So whenever you're studying about certain trending current affairs try to know if there are any committees or the committee reports related to the trending current affairs. As in this case, active pharmaceutical ingredients and Katoch Committee. Now, let us move on to the next question. This question is about coastal economic zones. First, let us look in detail about these coastal economic zones and then let us look at the question. As we know, the vision of the Sagar Mala program is to reduce logistics cost and to reduce time for the movement of export-import cargo, that is, exempt cargo and domestic cargo. So a step in this direction is the development of port-proximate industrial capacities near the coasts of India. In this regard, the concepts of coastal economic zones and coastal economic units have been introduced. Firstly, coastal economic zone is an important aspect of the Sagar Mala program and it will be the main vehicle for kick-starting port-led industrialization in India. These zones could be spatial economic regions that comprise of a group of coastal districts or districts with a strong linkage to the ports in that region. The coastal economic zones are also envisaged to tap synergies with the planned industrial corridor projects. Each coastal economic zone will consist of multiple industrial clusters that are categorized under energy, material and discrete industries. So coastal economic zone will typically comprise a few coastal or coast-proximate districts and will constitute a planning unit to align various infrastructure elements within the coastal economic zone. Each coastal economic zone could be in the immediate hinterland of ports, that is the existing ports and the newly proposed ports and within a radius of 100 kilometer with a sizable domestic market and export potential. Secondly, coastal economic units will be specific industrial estate projects with a demarcated boundary similar to the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor nodes. The coastal economic units will house the industrial clusters or projects that are proposed within the coastal economic zone. So each coastal economic zone will consist of multiple coastal economic units and more than one industrial cluster can be housed within a coastal economic unit and within each industrial cluster there can be several manufacturing units. Note that to accelerate the coastal economic units development process it is proposed that these coastal economic units be prioritized in locations where land parcels are available in areas which are close to a deep-draught port and which are with strong potential for manufacturing. So 14 coastal economic zones have been identified along the Indian coastline with each coastal state having one or more coastal economic zones and they have been identified as a part of the National Perspective Plan under the Sagar Mala program. So remember this fact. As we already saw, these 14 coastal economic zones are envisaged to tap synergies with the planned industrial corridors. If you see the government of India has planned for five industrial corridor projects to provide a thrust to manufacturing and industrialization, these are the five industrial corridors. So this is in brief about the coastal economic zones and coastal economic units. Now look at this question with reference to coastal economic zones which of the following statements is not correct. Here option A is correct. They are spatial economic zones comprising of a group of coastal districts or districts with a strong linkages to ports in that region. Option C is also correct. Each coastal economic zone will consist of multiple coastal economic units and option D is also correct. 14 coastal economic zones have been identified along the Indian coastline. Here option B is not correct because we saw that coastal economic zones are a part of Sagar Mala program, not Bharat Mala Pariyojna. Both are different. Bharat Mala Pariyojna is an umbrella program for the highway sector. It focuses on optimizing the efficiency of freight and passenger movement across India by bridging critical infrastructure gaps through interventions like developing economic corridors, inter corridors, feeder routes, national corridor efficiency improvement, border and international connectivity routes, coastal connectivity routes and port connectivity routes and green field expressways. So Bharat Mala Pariyojna is related to highway sector, roads and roads development. So here option B is the correct answer since the statement given in option B is not correct. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about two different topics that were in use in the month of February. One is about a bird species and the other is about a wildlife sanctuary because every year in prelims you get some form of question about wildlife sanctuaries or certain animal species. So let us move on to the topic. First let us look at this question. It is a two statement question about flame-throton bull bull and you need to choose the statement or statements that are correct. And within the first statement you can see Malay Mahadeshwara Hills Wildlife Sanctuary. So let us look at both these topics now. First let us look at about the bird species flame-throton bull bull. It is also called as rubigula why it wasn't used in the month of February because this bird was unveiled as the official mascot for the upcoming 2020 national games that is to be held in Goa. Here know that the flame-throton bull bull is the state bird of Goa. Now let us look at the protection status. See it is listed as least concern under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. According to IUCN rubigula's Geographic Range is the forests of western guards. They are present in the stage of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Also if you see this bird is listed under schedule four of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. So from this information you can tell that both the statements are incorrect. So the correct answer to this question is option D, neither one nor two. Now let us look at about Malay Mahadeshwara Hills Wildlife Sanctuary. Now why it wasn't used in the month of February because this Malay Mahadeshwara Hills Wildlife Sanctuary may be declared as the 51st Tiger Reserve in India. This means that as of now there is as on August 2019 there are 50 Tiger Reserves in India. Now coming to this Wildlife Sanctuary it is located in the Samrajnagar district of southern Karnataka. It was declared as a Wildlife Sanctuary in the year 2013. It includes the subdivisions of Kullekal, Hannur and Malay Mahadeshwara Hills. Now let us discuss in brief about the flora and fauna of this region. The forests in this region are principally dry deciduous forests that degrade to scrub forests in the fringe areas. And in between you can see patches of moist deciduous semi-evergreen, evergreen and shola forests that are occurring at varying altitudes. You can see animals like tiger, elephant, leopard, wild dog different species of deer and varieties of reptiles, birds, etc. in this Wildlife Sanctuary. Now if this Malay Mahadeshwara Hills Wildlife Sanctuary becomes a Tiger Reserve then the district in which this Wildlife Sanctuary is located that is the Samrajnagar district will have the rare distinction in the country of having three Tiger Reserves. Already if you see a portion of Bandipur Tiger Reserve and Biligiri Ranganatha Temple Tiger Reserve are within its territorial limits. So if this Malay Mahadeshwara Hills Wildlife Sanctuary becomes a Tiger Reserve then this district will have three Tiger Reserves within its territorial limits. At present if you see there are five Tiger Reserves in Karnataka, they are Badra Tiger Reserve, Dandali Anshi Tiger Reserve, then Bandipur, then Nagarhole and Biligiri Ranganatha Temple Tiger Reserve. So this is in brief about the Malay Mahadeshwara Hills Wildlife Sanctuary. So the correct answer to this question is option D neither one nor two. So always try to have an idea about the location with respect to the wildlife sanctuaries and any interesting fact regarding that wildlife sanctuary and with regards to the animals and birds that are frequently seen in news try to know their protection status. Especially the IUCN Protection Status M with schedule of Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 in India. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about long-term repo operations. See the Reserve Bank of India carried out long-term repo operations in the months of Feb and March this year. So this topic was in news in these months. Through this question let us understand what is meant by repo rate, what is meant by reverse repo rate and the possible consequences of repo rate. See the Reserve Bank of India carries out measures like liquid adjustment facility and marginal standing facility to control credit and liquidity in the system. If you see under liquid adjustment facility RBA carries out repo and reverse repo. So what are these? First let us see at repo which is also called as the repurchase rate. It is the rate at which the commercial banks borrow from the Reserve Bank of India by mortgaging their dated government securities or treasury bills. It is similar to how we take loans from banks by mortgaging our property. Now coming to reverse repo rate it is the rate at which RBA borrows from the commercial banks by mortgaging its dated government securities or treasury bills. To take out money from the system RBA borrows money from the banks. Generally if you see RBA does this in times of very high liquidity and inflation in the market. So these are the two components under liquid adjustment facility. Now if you look at marginal standing facility it is a loan facility that is given by the Reserve Bank of India to the banks. Usually if you see it is an overnight loan. The loan is given against the mortgage of dated securities, treasury bills and state development loans. And the loan size will be minimum one crore and further amounts will be in multiples of one crore. So this is in brief about marginal standing facility. So far we have seen liquid adjustment facility the two components under liquid adjustment facility and marginal standing facility. Now coming back to repo rate which we saw they are simply interest rates. When RBA gives money at low interest banks tend to take more money from RBA and they push the same money into market through cheap loans to consumers. But sometimes if you see banks won't pass on the cheap interest rate to the consumers due to its own issues. For example like the non-performing assets that each bank has. So what will actually happen is it will lead to poor transmission of monetary policy or less transmission of monetary policy. And this will result in low credit growth and low liquidity and it will diminish the economic growth in the long run. So to address this RBA introduced long term repo operations. This will facilitate the transmission of monetary policy actions and the flow of credit to the economy. So this will help in injecting liquidity in the banking system. See the loans under this long term repo operations will carry a tenure of one or three years. In general if you see the loans with long tenure have high interest rates. However if you see RBA is offering long term repo operations at the same policy repo rate. So remember this fact. Also if you see RBA announced that this LTRO scheme that is the long term repo operation scheme will be in addition to the existing liquidity adjustment facility and the marginal standing facility operations. Also remember this fact. See under this long term repo operations RBA pushed one lakh crore into the market. However all the sectors were not benefited from this move. Some sectors are still struggling with liquidity constraints or hindrances to market access. Therefore what RBA did in April 2020 was it announced targeted long term repo operations version two. So this targeted long term repo operations is to push liquidity into those sectors which are not having enough liquidity. So with the help of this targeted long term repo operations RBA is planned to inject Rs. 50,000 crore at the policy repo rate for 10 hours up to three years into the system. Also if you see the Reserve Bank of India has mandated that the loans that are available under these schemes have to be deployed within 30 days which means the banks have to perform the transmission of monetary policy. So the transmission of monetary policy will happen effectively. So this is about long term repo operations and targeted long term repo operations. Always remember that whenever cheap money is available there is a possibility of inflation. This is because the cheap money increases the demand. When the supply fails to meet the demand the prices will rise which is what we call it as demand pool inflation. Now let us get back to the question. It is a three statement question. Look at the first statement. It tells that the borrowings under long term repo operations carry same interest rate as that of policy repo rate. Yes, this statement is correct. We asked you to remember this fact. Now look at the second statement. It tells that this long term repo operation enhances the liquidity and facilitates the transmission of monetary policy. See RBA is offering long term or loans at normal repo rate. The purpose is basically to inject liquidity and for effective transmission of monetary policy. So this statement is also correct. Now look at the third statement. It tells that due to this long term repo operation there is a possibility of increased inflation. See this statement is also correct since there is always a possibility of increased inflation whenever cheap money is available. So always note that whenever you have a futuristic statement like this. In this instance possibility of increased inflation whenever such a statement is given take a broad view when you are answering. So this third statement is also correct. So here the correct answer is option D, 1, 2 and 3. See we have given the different methods of credit control like the conventional measures, non-conventional quantitative measures and non-conventional qualitative measures. Have this for your reference. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about mail guard tiger reserve. The question is straightforward in which of the following states is the mail guard tiger reserve locator. The correct answer here is option D Maharashtra. See we know that project tiger was launched by the government of India in the year 1973. The objective of the project is to protect tigers from extinction by ensuring a viable population in their natural habitats. It provides funding support to tiger range states for in situ conservation of tigers in designated tiger reserves. Under this project in the first phase in 1973 to 1974, nine tiger reserves were established across India. Mail guard tiger reserve was one of these nine tiger reserves. As we saw earlier, mail guard was the first tiger reserve to be declared from the state of Maharashtra. As of now it covers an area of more than 2700 square kilometer. This tiger reserve is situated in the Satpura hill ranges of central India. It lies in mail guard forests of Amarabhati district in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. Have an idea that Maharashtra has six tiger reserves. They are mail guard, Tadoba Andheri, Pench, Saiyadri, Navegaonakzeera and both tiger reserves. Out of these, mail guard tiger reserves is the largest. See this tiger reserve consists of five protected areas. They are Gugumal National Park, mail guard sanctuary, Nadnala, Ambabarwa and Van Sanctuaries. This mail guard tiger reserve is known for its unique ecosystems. It has rich biodiversity and varied habitats across its deep valleys and high hills. Some of the important animals found in mail guard tiger reserve are Rhesus macaque, Indian pangolins, Indian wolf, sloth bear, et cetera. Now why this tiger reserve wasn't news? Because there was prevalence of a medical condition called goiter amongst the Korku tribes who are living in this mail guard region. See Korku tribes reside in the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh. Whenever you come across any tribes in the news, try to know if that particular tribe is a particularly vulnerable tribal group or not. That is a PVTG group or not. These Korku tribes are not particularly vulnerable tribal group. So remember this fact. Coming to this medical condition called goiter, it refers to the abnormal enlargement of the thyroid gland. This can lead to breathing difficulties, cough, hoarseness of voice, difficulties following, especially with the solid foods. Know that iodine deficiency is the most common cause of goiter. Hence, goiter is also known as iodine deficiency disorder. And it was found that goiter was prevalent among the Korku tribes who are living in the mail guard region. So this was the news behind this question. Here the correct answer is option D, Maharashtra. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about national broadband mission. It was launched in 2019 by the Ministry of Communications. This mission aims to fast-track the growth of digital communications infrastructure. It also aims to bridge the digital divide and provide affordable and universal access of broadband for all across India. The objectives of this mission has three underlying principles. They are universality, affordability and quality. Universality can be achieved by the availability of broadband services to bridge the digital divide. And affordability can be achieved by availability of affordable broadband services to every citizen of India to bridge the socioeconomic divide. And qualities to be achieved by the availability of high-speed and highly reliable broadband access to all. So this mission has been structured with the strong emphasis on these three principles. So in order to achieve the vision of national broadband mission in the next five years, the main objective will be to provide broadband access to all villages by the year 2022. See, this ambitious project will involve laying down around 30 lakh kilometer route optical fiber cable. Then it involves increasing the tower density from 0.4 to 1 tower per thousand of population by the year 2024. So remember this difference. The objective is to provide broadband access to all villages by the year 2022. But the tower density target is by the year 2024. Next, if you see this mission also involves significantly improving the quality of services for mobile and internet. It envisages around 7 lakh crore rupees investments. And these are some of the other objectives of the mission, like developing broadband readiness index to create a digital fiber map of the digital communications network and infrastructure, et cetera. Next, know that this mission will be overseen by the governing council for broadband. This governing council is to be headed by the minister of communications and it will comprise of all these members. So it is expected that this national broadband mission will provide internet connectivity to one lakh villages which will push our economy to a five trillion dollar economy by the year 2024. See, some newspaper sources tell that this mission is an extension of Bharat Net but nowhere in government sources it is explicitly mentioned. Currently know that Bharat Net project's third phase is being implemented as a separate project only not under this national broadband mission. So don't confuse this mission with Bharat Net project. So this is in brief about this national broadband mission. Now, let us look at this question which among the following is are the objectives of recently launched national broadband mission. Here all the three are correct providing broadband access to all villages by 2022, creating a digital fiber map of the digital communications network and infrastructure then developing a broadband readiness index. So the correct answer here is option D, one, two and three. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is based on the telecom dispute settlement and appellate tribunal. Three statements are given and you need to choose the statement or statements which are correct. First, let us see in brief about this tribunal and then let us look at the question. See, in 1997, TRY Act was enacted. That is the telecom regulatory authority of India Act was enacted and based on this act telecom regulatory authority of India was established. But if you see, there was no proper functional clarity with respect to TRY. So in order to bring in functional clarity and strengthen the regulatory framework and also the dispute settlement mechanism in the telecommunication sector, this TRY Act of 1997 was amended in the year 2000 and based on this amended act, the telecom dispute settlement and appellate tribunal was set up. So this tribunal adjudicates disputes and disposes the appeals with a view to protect the interests of service providers and consumers of the telecom sector. Also, if you see the tribunal aims to promote and ensure orderly growth of the telecom sector in India. You know that the ambit is not only restricted to the telecom sector. In the later years, some other services were also included under the purview of the tribunal. In 2004, the government included broadcasting and cable services under the jurisdiction of the tribunal. And then if you see in 2017, the jurisdiction was also extended to matters that lay before the cyber appellate tribunal and also the airport economic regulatory authority appellate tribunal. So though the name is telecom dispute settlement and appellate tribunal, also know some other matters like cyber issues, airport economic regulatory issues are all adjudicated by this tribunal. Now let us discuss the composition of this tribunal. This tribunal consists of a chat person and two members who are appointed by the central government. The chat person should be or should have been a judge of the supreme court or the chief justice of a high court. And if you look at the members, they should have held a post of secretary to the government of India or any other equivalent post in the central or the state government for a period of not less than two years. The member can also be a person who is well versed in the field of technology, telecommunication, industry commerce or administration. Now let us discuss the powers and jurisdiction of the tribunal. This is very important as we just saw this tribunal exercises jurisdiction over telecom broadcasting, IT and airport tariff matters. And all these come under the respective legislations like the TRI Act of 1997, the Information Technology Act of 2000, then the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority of India Act 2008. Now if you see this tribunal exercises original jurisdiction as well as appellate jurisdiction with regards to telecom broadcasting and airport tariff matters. But when it comes to cyber matters, the tribunal exercises only the appellate jurisdiction. So remember this difference. Next, if you see this tribunal has the same powers of that of a civil court under the Court of Civil Procedure 1908. Now let us look in brief regarding the appeals after the verdict is pronounced by this tribunal. Again, it depends on the matters. With respect to telecom broadcasting and airport tariff matters, the tribunal's orders can be appealed to the Supreme Court. But if you see only on substantial questions of law. Also, if you see once the order is made by the tribunal with the consent of the parties, there can be no appeal. With regards to cyber matters, the tribunal's order can be appealed before high court. So this is in brief about telecom dispute settlement and appellate tribunal. If you see for the past six to eight months, this age-year issue in telecom sector wasn't frequent news. If you see some non-telecom public sector units like Oil India, Gale, we're all planning to move to this telecom dispute settlement and appellate tribunal against the Department of Telecom order of seeking age-year dues from these non-telecom PSUs. Again, if you see in the month of April, that is in this month, the Supreme Court extended the tenure of the chairperson of this tribunal. And the court also questioned the central government about the state of affairs of this tribunal. So this is in brief about this telecom dispute settlement and appellate tribunal. Now look at this question, three statement question, and you need to choose the correct statement or statements. Look at the first statement. It tells that this tribunal was set up as per the provisions of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act 1997. Yes, this statement is correct. So you can eliminate option D here. Now look at the second statement. It tells that the chairperson of the tribunal should have been the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India. This statement is wrong. We saw that the chairperson should be or should have been a judge of the Supreme Court or the Chief Justice of a High Court. So the second statement goes wrong. So you can eliminate option B here. Now the answer should be between option A or C. So you need to confirm if the third statement is correct or not. This tribunal exercises original jurisdiction as well as appellate jurisdiction on issues related to cyber matters. This statement is incorrect because we saw that this tribunal exercises only appellate jurisdiction with regards to cyber matters. It exercises original as well as appellate jurisdiction in regard to Telecom broadcasting and airport type of matters. So remember this difference. So here the correct answer is option A, one only. So whenever you are studying about any topic, try to know those facts that stand out. For example here, though the name is Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal, it also includes certain other dispute settlement under its ambit. And also if you see, the jurisdiction varies, depends on the matters that are taken under its scrutiny. So always try to remember such standalone facts. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about lithium triangle. See this lithium triangle was in use in the month of February 2020. The news was that reserves of lithium which are required for the production of the batteries of electric vehicles were found near Bengaluru in the state of Karnataka. And in this news, lithium triangle was discussed. Because if you see in August 2019, a joint venture company called as Karnich Bidesh India Elemental was set up with the participation of three central public sector enterprises which are national aluminum company that is NALCO, Hindustan Corporal Limited that is HCL and Mineral Exploration Company Limited, MECA. The objective of constituting this Karnich Bidesh India Limiter in short couple is to ensure a consistent supply of critical and strategic minerals to Indian domestic market. This also includes lithium. So in this context, a question on lithium triangle has been framed. See lithium is the lightest of methods which is widely used in phones, laptops, electric cars, et cetera. The demand for lithium has rapidly increased and the global market's annual consumption is consistently rising. This demand will further intensify since hybrid and electric vehicles, energy storage systems and portable electronics are becoming increasingly widespread. These are some of the details about lithium metal. See, it never occurs freely in nature but only in compounds. Lithium and its compounds have several industrial applications. One of the most important application is the lithium batteries and the lithium ion batteries which are used in electric vehicles. Now let us come to lithium triangle. The countries of Chile, Argentina and Bolivia where lithium reserves are found in huge quantities are together called as the lithium triangle. It is estimated that this lithium triangle holds more than 75% of world's supply beneath their salt flats and roughly about 54% of the world's lithium resources. See, this lithium triangle is one of the driest places on earth and this complicates the process of lithium extraction because the miners have to drill holes in the salt flats to pump salty mineral rich brine to the surface. Then they have to let the water evaporate for months at a time and this forms a mixture of potassium, manganese, borax and lithium salts. Then these salts are filtered and again they are left to evaporate once again. Then between 12 and 18 months once the filtering process is complete the lithium carbonate can be extracted. So this is quite a lengthy and laborious process. If you see out of these three countries Chile, Argentina and Bolivia Chile is the most advanced country with regards to lithium extraction and this is followed by Argentina. On the other hand if you see Bolivia is a very poor nation though it is rich in natural resources. So this makes the prospects of operating autonomous lithium mining projects in Bolivia. Now why is lithium so important for India as we saw it as a key raw material for making batteries and India is in the midst of setting large lithium ion battery plants in order to achieve all electric vehicles by the year 2030. Also India needs lithium batteries for solar panels and also to meet India's ambitions of achieving energy security. But at present if you see almost 100% of lithium ion batteries or cells are imported in India and India is not having huge amount of lithium reserves as well. Very rarely resources are found in India like the one which we saw earlier where small amount of reserves were found near Begudur. So in this context India is looking at the South America's lithium triangle to fulfill its increasing clean energy demands. And for this reason Kabbal, that is the Kanich-Bidesh India Limited was set up in August 2019. So whenever you study about lithium triangle the three countries are Chile, Argentina and Bolivia. Hence the correct answer is option C, 1, 4 and 5 only. Since the question asks which of the countries given above are part of lithium triangle. Argentina, Bolivia and Chile are part of lithium triangle. So the correct answer is option C. Now let us move on to the next question. This question mentions about two important agreements or records of the state of Assam. The first statement is about the recent accord which is comprehensive Bodo settlement agreement. First let us look at this agreement. It is also called as the Bodo accord or Bodo peace accord. It is basically a tripartite agreement that has been signed between the central government, the state government of Assam and the once banned Assam based in surgeon group National Democratic Front of Bodo land. This agreement was signed towards the end of January, 2020 and it was frequently in use in the month of February. See this agreement is aimed at bringing political and economic benefits to the Bodo tribe which is one of the largest tribes of Assam. And it will also ensure the territorial integrity of Assam. So by signing this agreement, it aims to end almost a 50 year old Bodo crisis. We have discussed about this crisis and about the previous accords in detail in our 28th January, the Hindu news analysis. We request the viewers to have a look at it to know about the background of this story. Now let us focus on some of the features of this agreement. Firstly, due to this agreement, over 1500 armed cadders will renounce violence and they will join the mainstream. This will ensure quick development of tribal areas and rehabilitate the members of various factions of this in surgeon group National Democratic Front of Bodo land. Secondly, a special development package of rupees 1,500 crores over three years will be given by the central government to undertake specific projects for the development of Bodo areas. Next, if you see this agreement aims to increase the scope and powers of the Bodo land territorial council and it also aims to streamline its functioning. So the present settlement as proposal to give more legislative, executive, administrative and financial powers to Bodo land territorial council. Next, if you see this agreement aims to resolve issues related to Bodo people who are residing outside Bodo land territorial area districts. As a part of this, there's Bodo land territorial area districts which is currently spread over the four districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Uddalguri will be redrawn and renamed as the Bodo land territorial region. As per the agreement, the villages dominated by Bodo's that are presently outside this Bodo land territorial area district would be included and those villages with non Bodo population would be excluded. So from this fact, you can tell that the first statement is incorrect because it is the Bodo land territorial area district which will be redrawn and renamed as Bodo land territorial region. It is not the Bodo land territorial council. So know this difference. Bodo land territorial council is basically an autonomous self-governing body within the state of Assam. It is provided constitutional protection under sixth schedule of Indian constitution. So here the first statement is incorrect. Now coming back to this 2020 tripartite agreement. These are the other features of the agreement like establishing a Bodo Kachari welfare council, also notifying Bodo land wage as an associate official land wage in the state of Assam, et cetera. You just have an idea that Bodo land wage is one of the land wages that is mentioned in the eighth schedule of Indian constitution. So this is in brief about this comprehensive Bodo settlement agreement which was signed in 2020. Now let us look at the second statement. It is about Assam accord. So now let us look at Assam accord in brief. See, the Assam accord was a memorandum of settlement which was signed in August 1985 between the representatives of the government of India and the leaders of the Assam movement. The All India Students Union launched a six year agitation in 1979 where they demanded for the identification and deportation of illegal immigrants from Assam. And this agitation came to an end with the signing of the Assam accord. Here the second statement is correct. It is because clause 11 of Assam accord is about restricting acquisition of immovable property by foreigners. This clause mentions that it will be ensured that the relevant law restricting acquisition of immovable property by foreigners in Assam is strictly enforced. So based on this, there is the Assam alienation of land regulation act of 1980 that restricts the acquisition of immovable property by the foreigners in the state of Assam. And these are some of the important clauses of this Assam accord. Just have an idea about it. So here the correct answer is option A11B since you need to choose those statements which are incorrect. See, there is one more current affairs which is linked to this Assam accord which is the NRC exercise that was carried out in Assam. The final NRC list was released in the month of August 2019 in Assam. So in this background, try to know about the important provisions of Assam accord and about the background of Assam accord. So in this way, try to cover the current affairs topics. So we have seen two important current affairs topics from the state of Assam. One is the Bodo Accord or the Comprehensive Bodo Settlement Agreement of 2020. And the second is the Assam Accord of 1985. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about electronically transmitted postal ballot system. See, the Election Commission of India used this electronically transmitted postal ballot system for the first time in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Now this system was not in news in the month of February. What was the news in the month of February was Aadha linked electronic voting system which is a model that is to be prepared by the Indian Institute of Technology Metros on behalf of the Election Commission of India. This new system will enable electors to cast their votes from any part of the country or even from abroad irrespective of where they are registered to vote in India. So this was the actual news. Based on this current affairs news and based on the electronically transmitted postal ballot system which was introduced by ECI in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, we have framed this question. Three statements are given and you need to choose those statements which are not correct. So before looking at the question, let us look at this electronically transmitted postal ballot system which was introduced for the first time for the service electors in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. It is basically a one way electronic system. See, in a one way electronic system, a blank postal ballot is electronically transmitted to the voter which is known as ePostal Ballot System. Voters who are entitled to postal ballot such as service voters can download the postal ballot and print the blank postal ballot and then they have to mark their vote. After marking their vote in the blank postal ballot, the same postal ballot will be returned to the concerned returning officer by post. So in this, if you see the electronic transmission is happening in one way one way and know that your proxy voting is not allowed, the class of electors who are eligible for this ballot system are, firstly, the service voters other than the classified service voters. Classified service voters are those who opt for proxy voting. You can note that service voters are those who are serving in the armed forces of the union, then those who are serving in force to which the Army Act of 1950 applies. That is the forces of SM rifles, CRPF, BSF, ITBP, SSB, NSG, CASF, et cetera. And next, those employed in a post outside India under the government of India, for example, the ambassadors of India and then member of an armed police force of a state who is serving outside that state. So all these categories form the list of service voters. And this is in brief about this electronically transmitted postal ballot system. Now let us come to the February current affairs which is the new other linked electronic system. See, it is a two way remote voting electronic system in a controlled environment. Here two way means that the voting will also be done electronically along with the transmission of postal ballot. That is, once a voter identity is well authenticated, then the voter will be able to cast or vote electronically through a secure encrypted system. And the same will reach the designated returning officer for counting. And this model uses blockchain technology. The voter identification and authorization will be done using a multi-layered IT enabled system with biometric devices and a web camera that will be a part of the system. Know that this new system is not an any time, anywhere, any device voting system. In this new method of voting, voters will have to reach a designated venue during a pre-desired period of time if they want to use this facility. For example, suppose if there is a Lok Sabha election and a voter who belongs to Chennai is at present residing in Delhi. So instead of returning to vote to his or her constituency or missing out on voting, the voter can reach a pre-designated spot that is set up by the election commission, say in this case, it's Delhi. So this new system, if it is being implemented by the election commission of India, it will enable the voters who are residing in other states and countries to cast their vote without traveling to the location where they have registered their vote. So in a way, the voter turnout will increase if this new system is to be implemented by the election commission of India. So this is in brief about the other linked electronic voting system. Now, based on both the ballot systems or the voting systems that we saw, we have framed this question. Three statements are given. Look at the first statement. It tells that the service voters are eligible in this method of voting, that is in electronically transmitted postal ballot system. Yes, this statement is correct. Now, look at the second statement. It tells that this electronically transmitted postal ballot system aims to facilitate the migrant voters to cast their votes with respect to of where they are registered to vote in the country. This statement is with respect to other linked electronic voting system. So the second statement is wrong. Now, look at the third statement. It tells that it is a two-way electronic voting system. Just by looking at this phrase, you can tell that it is wrong because we saw that electronically transmitted postal ballot system is a one-way electronic voting system, not a two-way. The new model, that is the other linked electronic voting system, is to be a two-way electronic voting system where the voting along with the transmission of postal ballot will be done electronically. So here, the correct answer is option C, two and three only because you need to choose those statements or statements that are not correct. So always be careful to read the entire question in completion and try to attempt it. Now, let us move on to the next question. This question is about national technical textiles mission. Three statements are given and you need to choose those statements which are correct. See, in February 2020, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had given approval for this mission. The outlay for this mission is 1,480 crores. This mission aims to position India as a global leader in technical textiles. This mission will have a four-year implementation period from the financial year 2020-2021 to 2023-2024. And during this period, there will be a mission directorate that will be operational under the Ministry of Textiles. So what are technical textiles? See, they are basically textile materials and products that are manufactured primarily for technical performance and functional properties rather than aesthetic characteristics. Based on their application areas, technical textiles are divided into several categories like acro textiles, build textiles, cloth textiles, geotextiles, sports textiles, mobile textiles, et cetera. For example, if you see, agrotech includes technical textile products that are used in agriculture, horticulture, fisheries and forestry. Some of the products are shade nets, mulching nets, then crop covers, fishing nets, et cetera. And if you see the mobile text segment is used in the construction of automobiles, railways, ships, aircraft and spacecraft. Some of the products include nylon, tirecord, seed, a poly-stree, airbeds, et cetera. If you remember in our December 2019 Target UPSC 2020 prelim series, we discussed about geotextiles as well. So all these are technical textiles. Now let us come back to this mission. This mission has four components. The first component is research, innovation and development. There are two objectives under this component. As you can see here, the second component focuses on promotion and market development. Here the aim is to improve the penetration level of technical textiles in India. The third component aims at export promotion. So under this component there is a plan to set up an export promotion council for technical textiles. The fourth and the final component is providing education, training and skill development for the faster growth of technical textiles segment. It will promote technical education with focus on the application areas covering engineering, medical, agriculture, agriculture and daily segments. So these are the four components under this national technical textiles mission. With this information in mind, let us look at this question. It is a three statement question and you need to choose the statement for statements which are correct. Look at the first statement. It tells that technical textiles are textile materials manufactured primarily for technical performance and functional properties rather than aesthetic characteristics. This statement is correct. Now look at the second statement. It tells that one of the objectives of this mission is to promote the fundamental research at fiber level to develop path breaking technological products in carbon fiber, aramid fiber and nylon fiber. This statement is also correct. Look at the third statement. It tells that a mission directorate under the ministry of science and technology will coordinate the implementation of this mission. This statement is incorrect. There will be a mission directorate which will be operational to implement this mission but it will function under the ministry of textiles not under the ministry of science and technology. So here the correct answer is option B, 1 and 2 only. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about democracy index. The question is India has slipped 10 places to 51st position in the global ranking of democracy index 2019. Which of the following institutions has released this index? Here the correct answer is option C, economic intelligence unit. See this economic intelligence unit is the research and analysis wing of the economist group which is based at United Kingdom. This economic intelligence unit compiles and releases this index. See this index provides a snapshot of the state of democracy worldwide for 165 independent states and two territories. This democracy index is based on five categories, electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, the functioning of government, political participation and political culture. Based on their scores on 16 indicators within these five categories, each country is then classified as one of the four types of regime. Full democracy whose scores are greater than eight then flawed democracy whose scores are greater than six and less than or equal to eight and then hybrid regime where scores are greater than four and less than or equal to six and finally the authoritarian regime where scores are less than or equal to four. The 12th edition of the democracy index which was released in the month of Jan finds that the average global score has fallen from 5.48 in 2018 to 5.44 in 2019. And this is the worst average global score since the first democracy index in 2006. See in this index India slipped 10 places to 51st position in the global ranking as given in the question. The primary cause for this downward trend is the erosion of civil liberties in India. India's overall score fell from 7.23 in 2018 to 6.90 in 2019. So India is included under flawed democracy category. So this is all that you need to know from this index. Also know that the economic intelligence unit releases government e-payments adoption ranking then global livability ranking and inclusive internet index. So the correct answer to this question is option C economic intelligence unit. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about pangolins. Pangolins were in use in the month of February because the world pangolin day is celebrated on 15th of February. And there was also one more news that scientists have successfully radio tagged Indian pangolin for the first time. Your radio tagging involves attaching a transmitter to pangolin to monitor its movement. So the radio tagging will help to understand its habits and also to understand the pangolin smuggling syndicates that involves right from poachers to smugglers. Now let us see what are pangolins. They are actually mammals but many people think they are reptiles. They are the only mammals that are fully covered in scales. So remember this fact, pangolins are mammals not reptiles. These pangolins use their scales to protect themselves from predators in the wild. That is if under threat, pangolins will immediately curl into a tight ball and it will use their sharp scale tails to defend themselves. And this is how they survive from their predators. See pangolins eat ants, termites and larvae and often they are called as the scaly ant eaters. They have no teeth and they pick up food with their sticky tongue know that their tongue can sometimes reach lengths greater than the animal's body. And also know that most of the pangolins are nocturnal mammals. There are eight types of pangolins across the world. The list is given here for your reference. Out of these eight types you can find Indian pangolin and Chinese pangolin manas in India. The Indian pangolin occurs sporadically throughout the plains and the Himalayan foothills to southern India. And in northeast India you can find the Chinese pangolin manas. This Chinese pangolins range extents to Southeast Asia. Now let us see the protection status of both these species. Both these species are listed under schedule one of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 and also under appendix one of sites. Whereas the IUCN status differs, the IUCN status of Indian pangolin is endangered whereas that of Chinese pangolin is critically endangered. Know that since 2016 all the eight pangolin species have been transferred from appendix two to appendix one of sites that is the convention on international trade and endangered species. This appendix one provides the highest degree of protection and it prohibits any international commercial trade and it is permitted only in exceptional cases. So we can see that pangolins are illegally traded i.e. they are trafficked animals. Why because their meat is considered a delicacy and also if you see pangolin scales are used in traditional medicine and folk remedies. So pangolins are always in high demand in countries like China, Vietnam and the nearby countries. Therefore to check the illegal trade all the eight pangolin species are protected under national and international laws and they are also placed in appendix one of sites. But if you see still there is growing international illegal trade in pangolins. So you can find that pangolins are among the most trafficked wildlife species in the world. This is in brief about pangolins. Now look at this question three statements are given and you need to choose those statements which are correct. Look at the first statement it tells that pangolins are a pelt species that are fully covered in scales. This statement is wrong and we saw that pangolins are the 1D mammals that are fully covered with scales. So you can eliminate statement one thereby you can eliminate options A and B. Now all you need to find is if the third statement is correct or not only Indian pangolin and Chinese pangolin man is found in India. Yes this statement is correct. So the correct answer here is option C two and three only. You need not even look at the second statement because it's quite factual. You might not be sure if all the eight species of pangolins are included in the appendix one of sites. So sometimes go by the elimination technique to arrive at the answer. Here if you are able to ensure that if the third statement is correct you can arrive at the answer which is option C two and three only. Now let us move on to the next question. This question has been framed based on a recent announcement made in the union budget 2020-2021. In this budget the government has increased the insurance cover on bank deposits from 1 lakh rupees to 5 lakh rupees. This means that in case of an unlikely bank failure deposits up to 5 lakh is insured and is paid back to the depositor. So who insures the bank deposits and what are the banks that are eligible for insurance of bank deposits? As you can see in this question the deposits are insured by deposit insurance and credit guarantee corporation. Know that it was established as per the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation Act of 1961. It was established for the purpose of insuring the deposits and guaranteeing the credit facilities. Now the question is which are those banks that are covered by deposit insurance scheme? It includes all commercial banks including the branches of foreign banks that are functioning in India. Then it includes local area banks and also regional rural banks and also it includes cooperative banks. So these are the banks that are covered by deposit insurance scheme of this Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation. So the deposits made in all these four banks are insured by Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation. Hence the correct answer is option D 1, 2, 3 and 4. Many times you get a question on union budget. It would be based on an announcement made in the union budget or based on some statistics that was released in the recent economics survey. So always try to know the relevant schemes, relevant statutory bodies related to a particular announcement or the relevant concepts related to a particular statistics. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about an important scheme of the government of India which is PM Kisan scheme. That is the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi. Now why it wasn't used in the month of February because this scheme completed one year of launch. It was formally launched in February 2019. Know that it is a central sector scheme. Central sector means 100% funding by the central government. The nodal ministry for implementing the scheme is the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. Now this scheme was launched by the government to augment the income of the farmers. So basically the scheme provides income support to all the land holding farmer families across the country. So this would enable the farmers to take care of their expenses related to agriculture and allied activities as well as their domestic needs. Under this scheme, a total amount of rupees 6,000 is transferred every year. It is being transferred in three installments. Once in four months, 2,000 rupees is being transferred in every installments. The scheme involves direct benefit transfer. So the monetary benefits would be directly transferred into the bank accounts of the farmers. Know that the entire responsibility of identification of beneficiaries is with the state governments and the union territory governments. See this scheme initially provided income support to all marginal farmers and small farmers' families. Marginal farmers are those who hold cultivable land up to one hectare and small farmers hold cultivable land up to two hectares. So initially the support was to marginal and small farmers. But if you see, in June 2019, its ambit was expanded to cover all the farmer families across India with respect to the size of their land holdings. But if you see, there are some exclusions. Like for example, those rich farmers who are income tax payers in the last assessment year or farmers whose families have professionals like doctors, engineers, lawyers and chartered accountants, et cetera, are excluded from this scheme. Then if you see it also excludes institutional landholders and farmer families in which one or more of its members are the present holders or where the former holders of constitutional posts. Likewise, there are similar such exclusions. You know that institutional holdings are those holdings such as government farms, sugarcane factories, cooperative farms, et cetera. Then if you see the scheme has made certain special provisions for the northeastern states where the land ownership rights are community based. It also has special provisions for forest dwellers of the state of Charkhan, which has not updated its land records. See based on the estimates of agriculture census 2015-2016, the number of beneficiaries to be covered under the scheme is about 14 crore. As of February 2020, over 8.46 crore farmer families have been benefited out of this scheme. So this is in brief about this PM Kisan scheme. Whenever you're studying about the scheme, know the aim of that scheme. Second, know which ministry implements the scheme. Third, try to know if it is a central sector scheme or a centrally sponsored scheme. And number four, who are the targeted beneficiaries under this scheme? So these four are the major aspects that you need to know whenever you're studying any scheme. Additionally, try to know any unique facts related to the schemes. With this background information in mind, let us look at this question. It is a three statement question and you need to choose the statement which are correct. From the given options, you can tell that the first statement is correct. It is the aim of this PM Kisan scheme. Now look at the second statement. It tells that it is a centrally sponsored scheme. This statement is wrong. We saw that it is a central sector scheme. So you can eliminate options B and B. Now we need to know if the third statement is correct or not. The third statement is correct. The scheme is being implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. So you have the correct answer is option C 1 and 3 only. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about micro-targeting. The question is, the term micro-targeting sometimes seen in news is related to, you have the correct answer is option D, a marketing strategy that uses consumer data and demographics to identify the interests of specific individuals or very small groups of like-minded individuals and then they influence their thoughts or actions. See it is basically a marketing strategy that uses people's data about what they like, who they are connected to, what their demographics are, what they have purchased and more. The purpose is to segment them into small groups for content targeting. See it is used mostly in online commercials but this term was first used during American elections campaign lobbying. So in this way, micro-targeting is a strategic process that is intended to influence the voters through the direct transmission of stimuli which are found based on the preferences and characteristics of an individual. First of all, micro-targeting requires collection of large amounts of data that are able to depict the political preferences and other non-political characteristics of voters. The data can either be manually collected or it could be acquired through data mining. Such kind of data includes information ranging from a person's name, address, voting history to more abstract information such as a person's opinion about political and non-political topics, their social activity and cultural background. After this information is gathered, this data is then processed with the aid of appropriate machine learning algorithms. Based on the algorithmic results, they can generate messages or they can plan actions that are aimed at influencing each specific subgroup or person. So by analyzing specific data sets, the political parties can achieve a highly detailed understanding of the voters' behavior, opinions and feelings of voters and this allows the political parties to cluster the voters in complex groups. Then what the political parties will do is that they will target with online political advertisements that are related to that particular cluster's concerns and that are in line with their opinions. And these online messages can only be seen by those voters in the targeted clusters. So this is what is called as micro-targeting. Now with the help of micro-targeting, the political parties can reach voters with customized information that is relevant to those voters. So in simple terms, we can say micro-targeting is a marketing strategy that uses consumer data and demographics to identify the interests of specific individuals or very small groups of like-minded individuals and then they influence their thoughts or actions. See, the important goal of micro-targeting is to know the target audience so well that messages get delivered through the targeted preferred communication channel itself. So this is in brief about micro-targeting, but if you see there are many concerns about micro-targeting, the first problem is that it uses personal data of users without their consent. The next issue is profiling. See, according to the Personal Data Protection Bill of 2019, profiling means any form of processing of personal data that analyzes or predicts the aspects concerning the behavior, attributes or interests of a data principle. Here data principle means the natural person to whom the personal data relates to. The next problem is that the users are not even aware of what they're being subjected to when they provide personal information. Also the informational autonomy of the voter is under serious threat and this may even cause serious harm to India's democratic nature. So these are some of the concerns that are surrounding the micro-targeting and this micro-targeting is one area to watch out for in problems as well as in needs. Across the globe in most of the countries, in most of the developed countries, this political micro-targeting has become a major issue. This is all about micro-targeting. The correct answer here is option D. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about organization of Islamic cooperation. It is a two statement question and you need to choose two statements which are correct. First, let us look in brief about this organization of Islamic cooperation. See, as per this organization of Islamic cooperation, it is the second largest intergovernmental organization after the United Nations with a membership of 57 countries that are spread across four continents of the world. This organization was established upon decision of the historic summit which took place in Morocco in the year 1969. The first OIC charter was adopted by the Third Islamic Conference of Foreign Minister session which was held in the year 1972.  It aims to safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in order to promote international peace and harmony among various people of the world. Whenever you're studying about any international organizations, try to know if India is a member or an observer or if it has any kind of association with that particular organization. With regards to OIC, India is neither a member nor an observer. If you see in 2019, India was invited to OIC meet as guest of honor. This is considered as major diplomatic victory for India since Pakistan tried to block this invite. Know that in 1969, for the first OIC meet, India was initially invited, but the invite was revoked at the behest of Pakistan. Since then, if you see Pakistan has used this OIC platform to criticize India over Kashmir issue. If you see, this OIC was also in the news in the month of February 2020 because of Pakistan. Pakistan demanded for a standalone OIC foreign minister meeting on Kashmir issue. But Saudi Arabia, which is a member of OIC, refused to accept Pakistan's demand. With regards to Kashmir issue, majority of the Muslim countries are split over whom to support India or Pakistan. If you see, India is having active relations with many Islam nations and India is also becoming geopolitically important. So many countries are favoring India now. In fact, if you see countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Turkey have favored observer status for India. We saw that India is neither a member nor an observer in this OIC as of now, but our neighboring countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Maldives are all members of OIC. So this is in brief about OIC. Now look at this question. Look at the first statement. It tells that India is one of the founding members of OIC. This statement is incorrect. India is not a member or an observer of OIC as of now. Now look at the second statement. It tells that all the members of Gulf Cooperation Council are members of organization of Islamic cooperation. So here we have one more organization which is Gulf Cooperation Council. Let us look at this, GCC NAF. See it is a regional intergovernmental organization which is located in Middle East. Currently this council has six members. And if you see it is basically a political and economic alliance. The six members are Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Owen. And all these six members of GCC are also members of OIC. That is the organization of Islamic cooperation. So the second statement is a correct statement. Now we need to choose those statements which are correct. The correct answer here is option B21. Additionally note that Iran and Iraq which are located in the Middle East are not a part of this Gulf Cooperation Council. If you see this council is basically led by Saudi Arabia which is a Sunni majority nation. And it is always against Iran which has Shia majority. This is the reason why Iran is not a part of this Gulf Cooperation Council. So this is in brief about organization of Islamic cooperation. Through the question we also saw about Gulf Cooperation Council. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is framed based on a new term that was discussed in the latest economic survey 2019-2020 which is Thali Nomics. An entire chapter was dedicated in the economic survey to discuss Thali Nomics, the economics of a plate of food in India. See it is an attempt to quantify what a common man pays for Thali across India. The main purpose is to understand the evolution of food prices over a period of time through this exercise. Here the time period taken for calculation is from 2006-2007 to 2019-2020. That is till the first half from April to October 2019. Now why food is focused because a price of a plate of food has the most direct effect on the common man. We would get to know if a plate of food is affordable to the common man. This survey tells that food and beverages constitute around 45.9% of the consumer price index combined. So let us see how Thali prices have been calculated and then we'll see how the affordability factor to purchase the Thali has been calculated. See Thali prices were constructed for 25 states and union territories using the average monthly price data for the period April 2006 to October 2019 from Labor Bureau. Two types of Thali were considered for the analysis. One is vegetarian Thali and the other is non-vegetarian Thali. Quantities for cereals, vegetables, pulses and non-vegetarian items were taken for each Thali assuming that at least two full meals would be consumed in a day. Based on this the Thali prices were calculated. So the Thali prices include the cost of raw cereals, vegetables, protein, as well as spices, condiments, cooking oil and fuel that are all needed to prepare the meal. Next, coming to the affordability factor, it was calculated using the daily wages that were derived from the annual survey of industries. Now let us see the findings. The survey has found that a worker has spent 70% of his or her daily wages on two vegetarian Thalis a day for a household of five in 2006, 2007. The same worker is spending only 50% of their income for the meals in 2019, 2020. By this the economic survey tries to conclude that the affordability of vegetarian Thali has improved 29% since 2006, 2007, while that for non-vegetarian Thalis have improved by 18%. So the survey tries to tell that the cost of food prices has reduced. Notably it tells that there was a shift in the dynamics of Thali prices from 2015, 2016 because it was a time period when many reform measures were introduced by the government to enhance the productivity of the agricultural sector through schemes like Pradhan Mantri, Krishi Sinchai, Yojana, soil health card scheme, et cetera. Also many reform measures were introduced to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of agricultural markets for better and more transparent price discovery like Enum, PMR scheme, et cetera. So all these measures reflected in a slowdown in the cost of food prices since 2015, 2016 as you can see in this picture. So this is what this economic survey tells. Now there is one issue with the daily wages data that was considered for calculation because we saw that it was derived from the annual survey of industries. See, this data deals only with those workers who are engaged in organized manufacturing sector. And these set of workers represent only 28% of the total manufacturing workforce. So we can see that it excludes workers from the unorganized sector who form a major proportion of the total manufacturing workforce. Also, if you see the rural and the agricultural workers were also excluded. So this data does not represent the actual affordability scenario of India. So these were some of the criticisms laid before this chapter, which is Thalinomics. So this is all about the Thalinomics chapter that you need to know. So based on this, a question has been framed. The latest economic survey 2019-20 discussed a new term called Thalinomics in this context which one of the following statements is not correct. Look at option A. It tells that the Thalinomics is an attempt to quantify what a common man pays for a Thali across India. Yes, this statement is correct. Look at option B. It tells that the main purpose is to understand the evolution of food prices over a period of time. Yes, this statement is also correct. Look at option C. It tells that the wages of workers engaged in unorganized sector were considered for the analysis. This statement is incorrect because we saw that the workers' wage data was taken from the annual survey of industries and this data represents only the organized workers from the manufacturing workforce. So option C is the correct answer here. Option D is correct. As we saw the year 2015-16 is considered as a year when there was a shift in the dynamics of Thali prices. So the correct answer here is option C. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about Pradhan Mantri Kani Chetra Kalyan Yojana. In this, Kani Chetra means mineral zone and Kalyan means welfare. From this meaning, you can easily say that both the statements that are given in this question are incorrect since they're not related to safeguarding cultural heritage of India. It is something related to minerals and mining. Now let us look at the scheme in detail. See, the scheme was launched in 2015. It is meant to provide for the welfare of areas and people who are affected by mining-related operations. It will be done by using the funds generated by district mineral foundations. The most productive mining areas in the country are largely those areas that are inhabited by the scheduled tribes. Therefore, this scheme is focused on safeguarding the health, environment and economic conditions of the tribals and providing them with opportunities to benefit from the vast mineral resources that are extracted from the areas where they live. So this scheme will be implemented by the district mineral foundations or DMMs. See, the Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation Amendment Act of 2015 mandated the setting up of district mineral foundations in all districts across India that are affected by mining-related operations. So these district mineral foundations will be a trust that is set up under the act as a nonprofit body and they will work for the interest and benefit of persons and areas affected by mining-related operations in such a manner as prescribed by the relevant state governments. So often, you can see in news that district mineral foundations in some of the states were doing some kind of welfare activities. If you see, in February, there was a news in the state of Madhya Pradesh where the district mineral foundation actually helped the farmers in Singrauli area to grow vegetables by granting monetary assistance. So whenever you see district mineral foundations, try to link with this Pradhan Mantri Kanid Shaitra Kalyan Yojana. These are the objectives of this scheme. One is to implement various developmental and welfare projects or programs in mining-affected areas that complement the existing ongoing schemes or projects of state governments and central government. Then if you see, it aims to minimize or mitigate the adverse impacts that occur during or after mining on the environment, health, and socioeconomics of people in the mining districts. And then it also aims to ensure long-term sustainable livelihoods for the affected people in mining areas. So this Singrauli news from Madhya Pradesh is one such example. Here I have an idea that all areas that are directly affected by mining-related operations, as well as those areas that are indirectly affected by such operations are covered under this scheme. Here directly affected areas means those areas where direct mining-related operations like excavation or mining or blasting or beneficiation or waste disposal takes place. And indirectly affected areas are those where the negative impacts of mining in the form of deterioration of water quality or soil quality or air quality, also reduction on stream flows, depletion of groundwater, congestion, pollution, et cetera, that all happen due to mining operations. This scheme includes all aspects of living to ensure substantial improvement in the quality of life. The high priority areas will get at least 60% share of the funds. These are some of the areas where the work will be carried out with the help of the funds from this scheme. And the balance funds will be spent for creating a supportive and conducive living environment like on making roads, bridges, railways, waterways, irrigation, and on alternative energy sources. So this way the government is facilitating mainstreaming of the people from lower state of society, the tribals and forest dwellers who have no money and who are affected the most from mining activities. Initially we saw that the funds generated by district mineral foundations will be used. Here, note that the central government has notified the rates of contribution that are payable by miners to these district mineral foundations. In case of all mining leases that are executed before 12th January 2015, which is the date of coming into force of the 2015 amendment act, the miners will have to contribute an amount equal to 30% of the royalty payable by them to the district mineral foundations. Where mining leases that are granted after this 12th January 2015, the rate of contribution would be 10% of the royalty payable. And using these funds that are generated by this contribution, the district mineral foundations are expected to implement this Pradhan Mantri Kani Chetra Kalyan Yoljana. So this is in detail about this Pradhan Mantri Kani Chetra Kalyan Yoljana. So whenever you're studying about the scheme, remember the district mineral foundations. So here the correct answer is option D, neither one nor two, since both these statements are not related to the scheme. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about solar orbiter mission. It was in news as it was launched in February 2020. This is a two statement question and you need to choose two statement or statements which are correct. Now let us see in brief about this mission. Then let us come back to the question. See it is a seven year mission which has been launched together by the European Space Agency and NASA. It is managed and financed mainly by the European Space Agency and NASA has provided the launcher and it has also contributed certain instruments. See the sun sends out a constant flow of charged particles which is called the solar wind. This solar wind ultimately travels past all the planets to some three times the distance to Pluto before being impeded by the interstellar medium. So this forms a giant bubble around the sun and its planets and this region is called as the heliosphere. So the solar wind that is emanating from the sun creates a bubble that extends far past the orbits of the planets and this bubble is the heliosphere. It is shaped like a long wind shock as it moves with the sun through interstellar space.  Now coming back to the solar orbiter mission, this mission will perform close-up, high-resolution studies of our sun and the inner heliosphere. With a combination of in situ and remote sensing instruments, the solar orbiter will address the central question of heliophysics. Like how does the sun create and control the heliosphere? So this is the primary scientific objective of this mission. Also if you see this mission tries to attempt certain top-level scientific questions which are given here for your reference. So on a whole, we can say that all these constitute the objective of this mission. So try to know the main objective of this mission. This solar orbiter is intended to bear the fierce heat and carry its telescopes to just one quarter of Earth's distance from a nearest star, which is sun. At its closest point, the spacecraft will be within the orbit of Mercury. At this point, the spacecraft will be exposed to sunlight 13 times more intense than what we feel on Earth. So this solar orbiter will be the first satellite to provide closer views of the sun's polar regions, which are very difficult to see from Earth. The solar orbiter will also provide images from high latitudes. It will also be able to see solar storms that are building up over an extended period from the same viewpoint. So it will be delivering data of parts of the sun that are not visible from the Earth. So this is in brief about this solar orbiter mission. Now with this information in mind, let us look at this question. It is a two statement question and you need to choose those statements or statements which are correct. Here, the first statement is correct. It is a cooperative mission between the European Space Agency and NASA. The second statement is incorrect because the aim of this mission is not to perform close up higher resolution studies of the sun and its corona. The objective of this mission is, how does the sun create and control the heliosphere? It is not about corona. So the second statement goes wrong. The correct answer to this question is option A one-only. If you remember, there is a Parker Solar Probe initiative which was launched into the space in August, 2018. To understand the sun's corona, we have discussed about this Parker Solar Probe in our September series. So the correct answer to this question is option A one-only. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about the national registry of assisted reproductive technology that is art clinics and banks in India, in short, called as NRACBI. It is a three-statement question and you need to choose the statements that are correct. First, let us see about this registry and then we shall get back to the question. See, according to the guidelines of art clinics in India, assisted reproductive technology includes all techniques that attempt to obtain a pregnancy by manipulating the sperm or the oocyte outside the body and transferring the gamete or embryo into the uterus. Here, ovum or oocyte is the female gamete that is produced in the ovary and oocytes and sperm are called as gametes. See, this registry works under the Indian Council of Medical Research. This registry was set up with a view to provide appropriate help and assistance to all those who are engaged in taking care of infertility problems across India through the practice of any techniques like in vitro fertilization, embryo transfer. If you see totally, there are 23 such techniques. Next, know that it is mandatory to all the art clinics and banks to register under this national registry. Each registrant will be given a unique registration number by the ICMR, that is the Indian Council of Medical Research and this could be used by the registrant in any legitimate purpose. As of now, if you see this registry as enrolled more than 500 art clinics in India, but the registry has not enrolled any art bank. So remember this major difference. See, the enrollment number has been given to those art clinics which have successfully submitted duly filled prescribed proforma and this enrollment is based on the minimum infrastructure facilities, trained manpower and procedure being undertaken at an art clinic. The enrollment number is neither a sign of registration nor a sign of accreditation. So remember this fact as well. Also remember, this registry has not accredited any art clinic or any art bank in India and currently no registration number has been issued to any art clinic or art bank. Only enrollment has been done and that too only to the art clinics as of now. Next thing which you need to know is that art clinic working on the principle other than those of modern medicines will not be recognized or accredited by ICMR. So those art clinics that uses other systems of medicine like homeopathy, Yunani, Ayurveda, Siddha, the traditional Tibetan medicine that is the Sova Rikpa medicine, they all need not apply to be registered. Now with respect to this registry, also know that recently in fact 2020, the union cabinet approved a historic bill for the welfare of women in the country. This bill is called as Assisted Reproductive Technology Regulation Bill of 2020. This bill provides for national registry and registration authority to maintain a central database and assist the national board and its functioning. The national board shall lay down code of conduct to be observed by persons who are working at clinics to set the minimum standards of physical infrastructure, laboratory and diagnostic equipment and export manpower to be employed by clinics and banks. So this is in brief about this national registry of art clinics and banks in India. Now with this information, let us look at this question. As we saw it is a three statement question and you need to choose those statements which are correct. Look at the first statement. It is wrong this registry functions under the Indian council of medical research, not central drug standard control organization. Look at the second statement. It tells that art clinics and banks may register under the national registry of art clinics and banks in India on voluntary basis. Now this statement is incorrect because we saw that it is mandatory to all the art clinics and banks to register under this national registry. Now look at the third statement. It tells that all art clinics using modern and traditional systems of medicines are recognized. This statement is also wrong. We saw that only those art clinics with modern system of medicine are recognized under this registry. So here all the three statements are wrong. The correct answer is option B, none of the above. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is basically a pair based question. Four pairs are given, zones and their purpose. Protective agriculture zone, coastal economic zone, special economic zone, national investment and manufacturing zone. See this question has been framed to discuss about protected agriculture zone. So what is this protected agriculture zone? See recently in the month of February, the government of Tamil Nadu passed the Tamil Nadu protected agricultural zone development bill 2020. To know why this bill was passed by Tamil Nadu in the month of February, you need to know about one more background news which was an amendment made to the environment impact assessment notification of 2006. See under this notification, prior environmental clearance is required for developmental projects across India. This notification basically classifies developmental projects into two major categories, category A and category B. Category A projects require a prior environmental clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Whereas category B projects require prior environmental clearance at the state level. Usually the state environment impact assessment authority issues the clearances. If you see under this category B, there are two subcategories, category B1 projects and category B2 projects. If you see those projects that are categorized under, category B2 does not require an environment impact assessment. Also they do not require scoping process and they're also exempted from public consultation. Now what happened in the month of January was the offshore and onshore oil and gas exploration projects were categorized as B2 projects. It means now there is no environment impact assessment required and also there is no necessity for public consultation for oil and gas exploration projects that are happening offshore and onshore. Also if you see for the past one, one and a half years, some oil and gas exploration projects have been happening in the Kaveri Delta, which is located in the state of Tamil Nadu. See the Kaveri Delta region is considered to be the rice bowl of Tamil Nadu. It accounts for a large part of the production of food grain and other agricultural produce in Tamil Nadu. So it basically ensures the food security of Tamil Nadu. But if you see the non-fumming activities like oil and gas exploration, we're affecting the agricultural activities in this Delta region and thus threatening the food security of Tamil Nadu. So in order to protect the agriculture in this region, the Tamil Nadu Protected Agricultural Zone Development Bill 2020 was introduced and passed in the state legislative assembly of Tamil Nadu. So this is the background news. This bill basically aims to establish a high-powered authority to advise the government on various measures to protect and improve the farming activities in order to increase the farm production and farm productivity to serve the interests of the farmers of Tamil Nadu. So what this act basically does is that it prohibits certain activities. To be specific, certain non-agricultural activities like setting up pubs ring, copper and aluminum, smelter plants in the Kaveri Delta region and also INN steel processing industries in the Kaveri Delta region. To be specific, in those areas that are declared as protected zones. Also if you see the exploration drilling and extraction of oil and natural gas which we were discussing now have all been banned in this region. This includes coal-bed methane extraction, shale gas extraction and other similar hydrocarbon extractions from this region. So this protected agricultural zone is basically a zone declared by the state government of Tamil Nadu in order to protect Kaveri Delta. The purpose is not to promote the export of agricultural commodities. So the first path goes wrong. So as a part of this question, we also saw one more topic which was the recent amendment made to the environment impact assessment notification of 2006. Now look at the second path, coastal economic zone. We discussed in detail about this coastal economic zone in our eighth question previously and the purpose is to develop port proximate industrial clusters. So the second path is correct. Now look at the third path, special economic zone, promote export of goods and services. Yes, this path is also correct. The main purpose of the special economic zone in India is to promote export of goods and services. In this background, note that the special economic zones policy was announced in the year 2000. Later the special economic zones act was passed in the year 2005. In simple terms, a special economic zone is a geographical region that has more liberal economic laws than the typical economic laws that are existing in the rest of India. These are some of the objectives of special economic zones like generation of additional economic activity, promotion of exports of goods and services as we saw and other related activities. So the third barrier is correct. Now look at the fourth path, national investment and manufacturing zone, promote world-class manufacturing activity. Yes, this path is correctly matched. See these zones are one of the most important instruments of national manufacturing policy of the year 2011. These are basically large areas of developed land with the required ecosystem for promoting world-class manufacturing activity. So it focuses on manufacturing, growth and employment generation. See these zones are different from the special economic zones in terms of size, level of infrastructure planning, governance structures related to regulating procedures and also different in terms of exit policies. So just try to know the difference between NIMZs and SEZs. So here the correct answer is option C, 2, 3 and 4. If you can eliminate the first pair, you can easily arrive at the answer which is option C. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is with respect to finance commission. First let us look at about finance commission. You might have often come across this finance commission in news. See finance commission is a constitutional body. It is constituted by the president under article 280 of Indian constitution. The finance commission is mainly to give its recommendations on distribution of tax revenues between the union and the states and amongst the states themselves. There are two distinctive features of the commission's work. It involves addressing the vertical imbalances between the taxation powers and the expenditure responsibilities of the center and the states respectively. And it also involves addressing equalization of all the public services across the states. This finance commission consists of a chairperson and four members. As per article 280 plus three of Indian constitution, it is the duty of finance commission to make recommendations to the president with respect to the distribution between the union and the states of the net proceeds of taxes, which are to be divided between them and also the allocation between the states of the respective shares of such proceeds. Then if you see it can make recommendation on the principles which should govern the grants in aid of the revenues of the states out of the consolidated fund of India. Then it can recommend the measures that are needed to augment the consolidated fund of a state to supplement the resources of the panchayats in the state. And this should be on the basis of recommendations made by the finance commission of the state. Then if you see finance commission can recommend the measures needed to augment the consolidated fund of a state to supplement the resources of the municipalities in the state on the basis of the recommendations made by the finance commission of the state. Then if you see the finance commission also make recommendations to the president on any other matter referred to the commission by the president in the interest of sound finance. So on all these matters the finance commission can make recommendations to the president. Now why this finance commission was news in the month of February is because the 15th finance commission submitted the report for the financial year 2020-2021 in the month of December 2019 to the president and the report of this 15th finance commission for the financial year 2020-2021 was tabled in the parliament on 1st of February 2020 when the union budget was also tabled in the parliament. So this is the reason why the finance commission was in news in the month of February. See initially this 15th finance commission was constituted by the president of India in 2017 to make recommendations for a period of five years from 1st April 2020 to 31st March 2025 but again in November 2019 a guest notification mandated this 15th finance commission to submit the report for the financial year 2020-2021 by 30th November 2019 and there after the final report for the period 1st April 2021 to 31st March 2026 by 30th of October 2020. So based on this only the 15th finance commission submitted its report for the financial year 2020-2021 in December 2019 and this report was tabled in the parliament in the month of February 2020. See this terms of reference of the 15th finance commission as some distinctive features like recommending monitorable performance criteria for important national flagship programs and then examining the possibility of setting up a permanent non-lapsable funding for India's defense needs. So there are some distinctive features in the terms of reference of this 15th finance commission. Now let us look at this question. The finance commission can make recommendations to the president among which of the following as we just saw the finance commission can make recommendations to the president on all these three matters. So here the correct answer is option D all the above. See finance commission is always an evergreen question in UPSC prelims and even in UPSC mains. If you remember even in 2019 prelims there was a question on finance commission and even in the previous years mains there were questions related to the terms of reference of the then finance commissions. So you can always expect a question on such evergreen topics. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is based on the recent populist movements that are happening across the globe. The question is blue hats sometimes seen in news is related to. Here the correct answer is option D Tashreen revolution. See it is a populist movement against the existing political setup in the country of Iraq. It started in October 2019 to basically protest against the corruption, unemployment and the inefficient public services in Iraq. This revolution led to the resignation of the prime minister of Iraq Adil Abdul Mahdi. This popular movement against the government is also called as October revolution and a section of people who are led by Iraqi cleric Moktada al-Sadr are called as blue hats. So blue hats is related to Tashreen revolution. Now let us see some other populist movements that are given in these options. First let us look at option A jasmine revolution. It is also called as Tunisian revolution. This is somewhat a near recent revolution which happened around the year 2011 in Tunisia. Here also the reasons are same corruption poverty political depression in Tunisia. So this revolution forced the then president Zinay al-Abidin bin Ali to step down in January 2011. The success of this uprising came to be known in the media as the jasmine revolution. And this revolution inspired a wave of similar protests throughout the Middle East region of Asia and northern region of Africa. So this is also considered as a starting point of Arab Spring which shook many Middle Eastern countries. So this is in brief about jasmine revolution. Now let us look at option B jilay juane movement. See this jilay j