uane movement is related to France. Jilay juane in French means yellow west. See this movement was nicknamed as jilay juane because the protesters wore the safety vest which were yellow and colored and hence it was called as jilay juane which is yellow west movement. This movement began in France towards the end of 2018. It was in response to France government's decision regarding green tax on fuel and this movement sparked a political crisis for the French government. This is in brief about jilay juane movement. Now let us look at option C umbrella revolution. This revolution happened in Hong Kong China. For many years Hong Kong was run by the United Kingdom as a part of the former British Empire. In 1997 the control of this Hong Kong city that is the Hong Kong territory was handed over to China. A special agreement was made with China which is called as one country two systems. This agreement was basically to make sure that Hong Kong has some independence from China. If you see similar such system as in place for Macau. See the umbrella revolution started in reaction to a decision made by China that it would allow elections in Hong Kong in 2017 but only from a list of candidates who are pre-approved by the Chinese government. Due to this decision by the Chinese government many people camped in the streets and they demanded the right to fully free leadership elections. It was called the umbrella movement because the protesters used umbrellas to protect themselves from the tear gas used by police. If you see in June 2019 again new protests started in Hong Kong. This was because of a new law that could have seen its citizens tried or taken to court for political crimes in China. Although this law was scrapped the protests still continue over issues like democracy and human rights in Hong Kong. So this is in brief about umbrella revolution. So far we have seen four populist movements through this question. Jasmine revolution which happened in Tunisia, Jilejana movement which happened in France, Umbrella revolution in Hong Kong and Tishreen revolution in Iraq. Here the correct answer is option D blue ads is related to Tishreen revolution. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about eastern guards environment outlook. See it was released in the month of February 2020 hence it was a news. Know that green's alliance for conservation of eastern guards in short GRACE and the council for green revolution have together released this eastern guards environment outlook. Know that the green's alliance for conservation of eastern guards is a conservation organization that has been initiated by the council for green revolution which is a non-profit environmental organization based at Hyderabad. See this outlook captures the profiles ecological significance, vital signs, the principal driving forces, various pressures, potential impacts, existing governance framework pertaining to eastern guards. According to this report, the degradation of the eastern guards is happening and it began a century ago and this degradation has accelerated since the 1970s. The ecosystem of the hills had lost their natural species composition, their forest structure, size, scale and character. So these are some of the major findings of the report. So based on this information you can answer 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 wrong. We saw that it is released by green's alliance for conservation of eastern guards and the council for green revolution. It is not released by the minister of environment, forest and climate change. The second statement here is correct. It is one of the findings of this report. So the correct answer to this question is option B, two only. Also if you see this outlook has reported that the tribes in this eastern guards region are also under threat their lands have become sites for secret dumping of toxic waste, illegal mining, poaching and hunting including human trafficking. So to conserve the existing biodiversity of this region, the report has recommended to declare the historically and culturally significant mountains of the eastern guards as UNESCO cultural heritage site. So this was one of the major recommendation of this outlook. You can find some of the recommendations given by this eastern guards environment outlook here. And here we have given you some facts about eastern guards which is self-explanatory. Just have an idea about these facts. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about medical education in India. This question has been framed based on the recent announcement made in the union budget 2020-2021. See in the budget it was proposed to set up viability gap funding window for setting up hospitals in public-private partnership mode. In the first phase which will cover the aspirational districts where presently there are no Ayushman M panel hospitals. And if you see this union budget also proposed to attach a medical college to an existing district hospital in public-private partnership mode. Those states that fully allow the facilities of the hospital to the medical college and who wish to provide land at a concession would be able to receive viability gap funding. So in this context let us discuss some of the important constitutional as well as statutory provisions regarding health care in India. Know that public health and sanitation hospitals and dispensaries is a state subject. And education including medical education is in the current list of the seven schedule of Indian constitution. So know this difference. Also if you see in 2019 there was current affairs with regards to health sector which was the enactment of national medical commission at 2019. As per the provisions of this act national medical commission will replace medical council of India. It was thought that by February this national medical commission would come into existence. But as of now medical council of India exists. In January 2020 there was one more news on this national medical commission. The chairperson of this national medical commission was appointed by the president. But know that as of now the national medical commission has not yet come into force. So these are some of the recent current affairs related to health sector in India. We saw that in the union budget public-private partnership mode in health care was permitted. This is under the existing establishment of medical college regulations. Of 1999 as per clause 25 it prescribes that the appropriate government may allow utilization of facilities of a hospital owned and managed by it for establishing a medical college by a person or agency or trust or society or company by entering into a memorandum of understanding for this purpose. Therefore the proposed step that is public-private partnership more in health care is eligible to be allowed legally. However the hospital to be linked with private medical college would be of minimum 300 beds with necessary infrastructural facilities that are capable of being developed into a teaching institution for the proposed medical college. So in this direction the Anithya Yogas come out with draft norms to link the existing private medical colleges with district hospitals through viability gap funding as announced in the union budget for the aspirational districts. So the government's intention is to offer the district hospitals to the private sector without compromising on the interest of patients in order to provide quality health care across India. But if you see there is strong criticism against this proposal of public-private partnership mode in health care because it may lead to dominance of corporate sector similar to telecom sector where government has lost the effective control over a period of time. So these are some of the concerns related to health sector announcement made in the union budget. Now look at this question three statements are given and you need to choose those statements which are correct. Here the first two statements are correct public health and sanitation hospitals and dispensaries is listed under the state list and education including medical education is listed in the concurrent list. But if you see here the third statement is incorrect because as per MCI's establishment of medical college regulations 1999 an appropriate government shall be permitted. Here the government can be the central government or the state governments. So here the central government has authority to allow private sector in medical education. So here the correct answer is option A one and two only. Now let us move on to the next question. In this question we will be discussing the administrative machinery of the election commission at the state level and we'll also discuss in brief about an important provision of the representation of the people act of 1951 which is section 28A. First let us see about the election administrative machinery at the state level. As per the representation of people act of 1951 the election commission of India in consultation with the state or union territory shall designate or nominate an officer of the state or union territory as the chief electoral officer. Under the superintendent's direction and control of the election commission the chief electoral officer of each state shall supervise the conduct of elections in the state. Similarly the election commission of India nominates or designates an officer of the state government as the district election officer in consultation with the state and he or she works under the superintendent's of the chief electoral officer. The district election officer shall coordinate and supervise all work in the district or the area within his or her jurisdiction in connection with the conduct of all elections. Similarly if you see the election commissioner of India nominates a returning officer for every constituency he or she shall be an officer of the state or the local authority and if you see the election commission of India is empowered to designate or nominate the same person as the returning officer for more than one constituency as well. So the returning officer is responsible for effectively conducting the elections in the manner provided by the representation of people act of 1951. Now coming back to district election officer see the district election officer is empowered to appoint a presiding officer for each polling station and such polling officers as he thinks necessary. The duty of the presiding officer and the polling officers is to keep order at the polling station and they also have to ensure fire poles. So this is in brief about the chief electoral officer the district election officers then about the returning officers and finally about the presiding officers and polling officers who are appointed by the district election officers. Now let us look at section 28a of the representation of people act of 1951. The section 28a says that the returning officer presiding officer polling officer etc are deemed to be on deputation to the election commission of India. Here also note that any police officer who is designated for the time being by the state government for the conduct of any election is also on deputation to the election commission of India. This period starts from the date of the notification calling for such election and ends with the date of declaration of the results of such election. So within this time period all these officers are considered to be on deputation to the election commission of India. So they will be reporting to the election commission of India. So they are subject to the control, superintendents and discipline of the election commission. This is why during elections we heard the news of ECI transferring and appointing police officers. So this is in brief about the section 28a of the representation of people act of 1951. Often during the elections you will get news on this section 28a. So it is always a perennial topic for you to know. Similarly we have section 29a which speaks about the registration of associations and bodies as political parties with the election commission. So don't confuse with section 28a and 29a. 28a is related to deputation to election commission. Here the consultation of the state government or the respective union territory government is necessary to appoint any officers as returning officer, residing officer or polling officers. So remember this fact. Now look at this question it is a two statement question and you need to choose those statements which are correct. Here the first statement is incorrect as we just saw the consultation of the respective state or union territory government is required to appoint an officer of the state or union territory government by the election commission. The second statement is correct any police officer designated for the conduct of state elections is subject to the control, superintendence and discipline of the election commission. So here the correct answer is option be two only since you need to choose the correct statements. Now let us move on to the next question. This question has been framed based on two indices one is Hank's annual misery index and the second one is global hunger index. Let us look at both these indices in brief and then let us look at the question. First let us look at misery index. See the concept of misery index was first developed by an American economist named Arthur Okun. We know that misery means the state of suffering or unhappiness. Hence Arthur Okun developed misery index as an economy indicator to show how an average citizen is performing economically. The two parameters of Okun's index was the prevalent unemployment rate and the inflation rate. See the indicator was initially applied to measure the health of the American economy under each president. Later this index was further modified by several economists. One major modification was by Robert Barrow who was also an other American economist. His index is known as Barrow misery index and few other changes was made by another American economist named Steve Hank. He built upon Barrow's index and began applying it to countries beyond the United States. So at present it is called as the Hank's annual misery index. This index has four components rate of unemployment, inflation rate, bank lending rate and the percentage change in real GDP per data. The higher readings on the first three elements are bad and make people more miserable. These are offset by a good that is GDP per capita growth and this is subtracted from the sum of bats. So this is how this Hank's annual misery index is calculated. See Hank's annual misery index for 2019 was released in the month of February 2020 and hence this question has been framed. This 2019 index assessed 95 countries. Out of these 95 countries India's ranked 35. If you seen 2018 index it was ranked 44. Here higher the rank it means the country is more miserable. So from both these years values we can tell that India's ranking has become more miserable. One major issue was the higher lending rates in India. So this is in brief about Hank's annual misery index. Now let us look at global hunger index. It is an annual report that is jointly released by concern worldwide and Irish aid agency and wealth hunger elf a German charity. This hunger index is calculated based on four indicators. The four indicators and their weightage is given here for your reference. This index ranks countries on a 100 point scale. Year zero is the best code that is the country has no hunger and 100 is the worst and based on the score the countries are classified into five low moderate serious alarming and extremely alarming. In 2019 the index was calculated for 117 countries. In this index India ranked 102nd out of the 117 countries. The score was 30.3 so it came under the serious category. India suffer from a serious level of hunger. See in 2000 India's score was 38.8 from 2000 the score has decreased continuously or the level of hunger has decreased except from 2000 to 2005. This graph will give you an idea about this course of India. You can make use of this in your main exam. This is in brief about Hank's annual misery index and the global hunger index. Now look at this question. It is a three statement question and you need to choose those statements which are not correct. The first two statements are correct. They describe the respective indices. The third statement is incorrect because we saw that Hank's annual misery index is prepared by an American economist Steve Hank. It is not released by concern worldwide and wealth hunger. Only the global hunger index is jointly released by both these institutions. So the third statement is incorrect. Hence the correct answer for this question is option C three only since you need to choose those statements that are incorrect. Carefully read the question before you attempt the answers. Now let us move on for the next question. This question is about NISTA program. See NISTA stands for National Initiative for School Heads and Teachers Holistic Advancement. It is a capacity building program for improving quality of school education through integrated teacher training. It aims to build competencies among all the teachers and school principals at the elementary stage. Know that NISTA is the world's largest teachers training program of its kind. This program is launched by the Department of School Education and Literacy which comes under the Ministry of Human Resource Development. See this program was launched in August 2019 under the centrally sponsored scheme of Samagra Seeksha. Here I have an idea that the erstwhile schemes of Server Seeksha Biyan, Rashtriya Magyamik Seeksha Biyan and strengthening of teacher training institutions have all been merged to form the scheme of Samagra Seeksha. This merger intends to give a holistic approach to school education. Now coming back to this NISTA program, the basic objective of this massive training program is to motivate and equip teachers and also to encourage and foster critical thinking in the students. So standardized training modules will be developed at national level for all states and union territories as a part of this program. Also this mega capacity building program has been integrated with technology. This will ensure smooth facilitation, availability of digital content and technology enable teaching methods to support the teachers. Also mobile app and learning management system based on Moodle that is modular object-oriented dynamic learning environment have been developed by NCRT. So this is in brief about this NISTA program that you need to know from exam point of view. Now look at this question two statements are given and you need to choose the statements which are correct. Look at the first statement it speaks about the objective of this program. It is correct. Look at the second statement it tells that this NISTA program is a central sector scheme under Samagra Seeksha for the year 2019-2020. This statement is wrong because we saw that it is a centrally sponsored scheme not a central sector scheme. So always have an idea about if a particular scheme is central sector scheme or a centrally sponsored scheme. So here the correct answer is option A, one one B. See in 2017 there was a question on Vidyanjali which was also an initiative of the Ministry of Human Resource Development. So sometimes you do get questions on the initiatives taken in education sector by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. So have an idea about this topic. Now here we have given you the highlights of this NISTA program and the expected outcomes. It is self-explanatory. So just have a look at the highlights and the expected outcomes of this NISTA program. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about the state of India's birds 2020 report. Two statements are given and you need to choose the correct statement or statements. First let us look at this report. See it is the first national level comprehensive assessment of the distribution range trends and abundance and conservation status for most of the bird species that regularly occur in India. It assesses the status of 867 bird species based on the data contributed by various citizen science efforts in India like Asian water bird census, bird count India, the e-bird platform, common bird monitoring program, Kerala bird atlas etc. It also includes the data uploaded by the bird watchers to the online platform e-bird. Know that this report is based on a joint study by 10 bodies that are mentioned in this picture. For example like the Bombay Natural History Society, Wetlands International, Wildlife Institute of India, Worldwide Fund for Nature, National Biodiversity Authority etc. See this report assesses the trends of decline in the bird population rather than finding out the causes. So this report is more about the trends. So just have an idea about this report. Now look at this question. Look at the first statement. It is correct. It describes about the report. It is the first comprehensive assessment of the distribution range, trends in abundance and the conservation status for most of the bird species that regularly occur in India. The second statement is wrong here. It is not released by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. It is rather a joint study conducted by 10 bodies as you can see in this picture. So the correct answer to this question is option A11D. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about spice and spice plus. The question is the terms spice and spice plus often seen in news refers to. Here the correct answer is option D and initiative of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to improve ease of doing business in India. See the Ministry of Corporate Affairs introduced spice in 2016. So what is the spice? It stands for simplified pro forma for incorporating company electronically. So it is basically a comprehensive electronic form that offers multiple services for incorporation of a company. The services provided our application for name reservation, incorporation of a company, directed identification number allotment, application of pan, etc. So in simple terms the spice platform aims to improve the ease of doing business in India. Now in order to further improve India's ease of doing business, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has replaced this existing spice form with spice plus form from the month of February. So this was the news. Here just have an idea that India was ranked 63rd out of 190 economies in the doing business 2020 report by the World Bank. This report basically indicates the ease of doing business in any country during the year 2019. If you remember in 2019 problems there was a question on the indicators of ease of doing business index. Now why that question was asked in the year 2019 was because India's rank improved in the ease of doing business index and if you remember the Government of India was quoting the improvement in rank in almost all its reports to show that doing business in India has improved. So this year try to have an idea about the initiatives taken by the Government of India to further improve the ease of doing business in India. So one such initiative is this spice plus. See this spice plus is an integrated web form which offers 10 services by 3 central government ministries and departments and one state government which is Maharashtra. The central ministries that are involved are Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Ministry of Labor and Department of Revenue that comes under the Ministry of Finance. So this platform would further save many procedures time and cost for starting a business in India and it would be applicable for all new company incorporations. Know that the spice plus as two parts which I mentioned here just have an idea about it. So spice and spice plus are initiatives of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to improve ease of doing business in India. So option is the correct answer. In this context also know about MCA 21. See it is an e-governance initiative of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. See this MCA 21 enables easy and secure access of the services of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to the corporate entities professionals and citizens of India. It basically enables the business community to register a company and file statutory documents quickly and easily. So this is yet another e-governance initiative of Ministry of Corporate Affairs. So whenever you are studying a current affairs topic in specific about the initiatives of a particular ministry try to also know the recent initiatives of that particular ministry. So try to compile it once and go through before the exam. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about vegetable oil and oil seeds economy of India. First let us know about vegetable oils. See they are group of fats that are derived from some seeds, nuts, seedle grains and fruits or even some parts of plants. Some of the oils are suitable for human consumption. They are called as edible vegetable oils and some oils are not suitable for human consumption. They are called as non-edible vegetable oils. Here also know that an edible oil or an edible fat can also be extracted from the animals. See India has a diverse agroecological condition. So it is favorable for growing many types of oil seed crops. There are nine annual oil seed crops in India. These include seven edible oil seeds. They are groundnut, rapeseed and mustard, then soybean, then sunflower, then sesame, and then safflower and nitrate. And the two non-edible oil seeds are castor and linseed. India is one of the major oil seeds grower. At the same time it is also one of the major importer of edible oils. India's vegetable oil economy is the world's fourth largest after USA, China and Brazil. Though being fourth largest, it is not the largest exporter but rather an importer of edible oils because of increased domestic consumption. Around 60 percentage of our edible oil demand is met from the imports. So the imported edible oil is more than the domestic production. Just remember this fact. It was estimated by the government that the total edible oil requirement by 2022 is at 33.2 million tons, assuming per capita consumption of about 22 kg per person a year. Therefore the government aims to meet at least half the demand from domestic sources by the year 2022. So these are some facts related to edible oil in India. Now we will see some different measures taken by the government of India to increase the production and productivity of oil seeds. One was the yellow revolution which was launched in 1986-1987 to increase the production of oil seeds like ground nut, mustard, soybeans, safflower, sesame, sunflower, Niger, linseed and castor. Also if you see it in order to increase the productivity and production of oil seeds, government of India is implementing national mission on oil seeds and oil pump. It is a centrally sponsored scheme that has been launched by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in the year 2014-15. When we tell centrally sponsored, the expenditure is shared between the central and the state governments. For general category of states, it is 60s to 40. For northeastern and Himalayan states, it is 90s to 10. And from 2018-19, the scheme has been subsumed under national food security mission. And all the intervention of this national mission on oil seeds and oil pump are undertaken as subcomponents of national food security mission. So these are some facts related to edible oils. Now why edible oils are important from the exam point of view is because in the previous two years, they have a question on edible vegetable oils or say vegetable oils as you can see here. So always try to know the relevant economy related facts regarding edible oil. Now look at this question, consider the following statements. Two statements are given and you need to choose the statement or statements that are correct. Look at the first statement. It tells that India is the largest exporter of edible vegetable oil. This statement is incorrect. India imports a huge quantity of edible vegetable oil. It is not the largest exporter. So the first statement goes wrong. Now look at the second statement. It tells that national mission on oil seeds and oil pump is a central sector scheme launched by Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare to increase the production of oil seeds. This statement is also incorrect because we saw that it is a centrally sponsored scheme not a central sector scheme. So the correct answer to this question is option D neither one nor two since you need to choose the correct statements. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about logistics performance index. See this index is an interactive benchmarking tool which is created to help countries to identify the challenges and opportunities that they face in their performance on trade logistics and what they can do to improve their performance. This index is part of the report which is named as Connecting to Compete. This report is a biennial report which is released by Worldman. This report provides information on logistics infrastructure, service provision, cross-border trade facilitation and other aspects. So as a part of this report logistics performance index is released. See the recent index was released for the year 2018. This index allows for comparisons across 160 countries. It consists of both qualitative and quantitative measures and helps the countries to build profiles of logistics friendliness. Then if you see this index measures performance along the logistics supply chain within a country and it offers two different perspectives one at the international level and other at the domestic level. The international logistics performance index provides qualitative evaluations of a country in six areas by its trading partners that is the logistics professionals who are working outside the country. The six areas or indicators are given here for your reference. Next if you look at the domestic logistics performance index it provides both qualitative and quantitative assessments of a country by the logistics professionals who are working inside that country. So there are two perspectives international and domestic. Now before looking at the findings of the index just have an idea about the classification of countries by the world bank based on income. There are basically four classifications based on the GNI per capita. They are low income economies, lower middle income economies, upper middle income economies and high income economies. In this India is in the lower middle income economy category. So just have an idea because this index uses this classification by the world bank for its assessment. Now these are the major findings of this index. In this index Germany is ranked at the top followed by Sweden. So whenever you are studying about any index try to have an idea about the findings related to India in that index in particular. Now with respect to India in this index it has noted that India has emphasized logistics among its high priority economic reforms to meet the challenges of the large size of India, its congested hubs and its internal barriers to trading goods and services. Then this index has noted the appointment of a special secretary for logistics who was in charge of cross cutting policies and coordination post the implementation of GST in India. Then it has also noted that in 2018 the Indian government has also commissioned a subnational logistic performance index applying this world bank logistic performance index concept. This index is called as Leeds index 2019. So this is about the findings of this index and in brief about this logistic performance index as a whole. Now let us look in brief about this Leeds index which we just saw. The Leeds index 2019 report has been prepared by a team of transportation and logistics professionals at Deloitte and academics under the guidance of the state cell department of commerce which comes under the ministry of commerce and industry. So this Leeds index 2019 is basically an effort by the ministry of commerce and industry to establish the baseline of performance in the logistics sector based on the perception of users and stakeholders at the state level. In this 2019 index Gujarat was ranked at the top followed by Punjab and Andhra Pradesh. Among the hilly eastern states Tripura was the top performer and among the union territories Chandigarh was selected as the best performing union territory. So this is in brief about this Leeds index. Now let us look at this question about logistics performance index. See very rarely you get questions in depth about a particular index. Usually if you see the question format will be who releases a particular index. Now this question has been framed basically to test your knowledge about this particular index based on the information that we saw. It is a three statement question and you need to choose the correct statements. Look at the first statement it tells that this index measures performance along the logistics supply chain within a country and offers two different perspectives at international and domestic level. Yes this statement is correct. Look at the second statement it tells that it is released by nearly by World Trade Organization. This statement is wrong because it is released by nearly it is correct but it is released by the World Bank not the World Trade Organization. So the second statement goes wrong. If the second statement is wrong you can easily arrive at the answer which is option A 1 only. Here the third statement is wrong because in this logistics performance index which was released for the year 2018 India was ranked at the 44th position. So it was not one among top 10 countries. So here the correct answer is option A 1 only. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is a pair based question. Paddy varieties are given and the specialty of the paddy varieties are given. You need to choose the correctly matched pair or pairs. Shaidri mega arsenic resistance. Pokali salinity tolerance. Muktoshri blast disease resistance. See this question has been framed based on the Muktoshri paddy variety which was in news. Before seeing this paddy variety you need to know in brief about what is meant by arsenic contamination. See arsenic is a compound that occurs naturally in the environment. As an element of the earth's crust more importantly beyond a safe and permissible limit arsenic should not enter human body because it is responsible for large-scale health effects in human beings. The presence of arsenic in groundwater beyond safe limit means it indicates that there is groundwater contamination by arsenic in that area. Here the safe limit refers to the permissible limit which is 0.05 milligram per liter in the groundwater. Sometimes if you see the soil in the region could also contain excess arsenic and it might also lead to arsenic contamination of groundwater. Some states in India have reported arsenic groundwater contamination one among them is West Bengal. See this arsenic enters human body in two ways one is through the drinking water and the other is through the food chain. Several research studies have confirmed that the arsenic in groundwater enters food chain through rice from the paddy crop that is cultivated in arsenic contaminated region. As a result several research studies were started to develop rice or a paddy variety that is resistant to arsenic. Now the news was that in the month of February the scientists from the agriculture department of West Bengal and the National Botanical Research Institute have developed and have commercialized a paddy variety which is resistant to arsenic. This variety is resistant to arsenic even if the soil or groundwater is contaminated by arsenic. The paddy variety is called as Muktoshri it is also called as IET 21845. So this paddy variety absorbs very less amount of arsenic from soil and water when compared to other varieties of rice and the commercial use of this crop was also allowed in West Bengal. So this is in brief about this paddy variety Muktoshri which is an arsenic resistant paddy variety. So here the third pair is incorrectly matched. Now let us see in brief about Chahidri mega. This paddy variety was a news in March 2020. It is basically a new red variety of paddy that was developed under the hybridization breeding method. It involves the cross-breeding of the best of Jyoti variety of paddy with that of Akkalu variety of paddy. See this Akkalu is a native variety which is disease resistant and protein rich paddy variety. So the hybrid paddy variety that is the Chahidri mega is also rich in protein content and it was found that the protein content is around 12.48 percentage which is much higher than the other red rice varieties. Also the yield per hectare of this variety is higher when compared to other red paddy varieties. One more speciality is that this paddy variety is also resistant to blast diseases. See blast disease or rice blast is basically a fungal disease that infects all the above-grown parts of the rice plant with leaf blast, neck rot and panicle blast which all causes significant losses in the field. So Chahidri mega paddy variety is for blast disease resistance. So the first pair is also wrong here. Both the first and third pair have been interchanged. Now look at the second pair Pukkali salinity resistance. This pair is correct. The term Pukkali refers to a salt tolerant traditional rice cultivar which is grown in the coastal saline soils of Kerala. The areas of Pukkali cultivation are famous as the Pukkali land and the rice produced in this tract is famously known as Pukkali rice. Also if you see there is a special system of farming with respect to Pukkali rice cultivation which has evolved through ages by the farmers of the area for the maximum utilization of available resources without affecting the ecosystem. What the farmers actually do is that after the paddy cultivation they use the fields for prawn or fish cultivation. So this Pukkali cultivation is one of the major natural organic farming of rice that is prevalent in Kerala because chemical fertilizers or plant protection chemicals are usually not applied to the crop. These varieties are world famous for their salinity tolerance and they are highly valuable as gene donors in international rice improvement programs for salinity tolerance. Also if you see this Pukkali rice variety is tolerant to soil acidity. Then if you see this Pukkali rice has got the GI tag from Kerala in the year 2800 the agriculture category. So these are some of the information regarding to Pukkali paddy variety. So here the second pair is only correct. The correct answer is option D 2 1 D. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about consumer welfare fund or CWF. The overall objective of this fund is to provide financial assistance to promote and protect the welfare of the consumers and to strengthen the consumer movement in the country. So for this purpose the consumer welfare fund rules were framed and notified in the Gazette of India in the year 1992 and once GST was introduced in India based on the enactment of Central Goods and Services Act of 2017 this consumer welfare fund has been set up under section 57 of this act from the time this act was enacted. So this consumer welfare fund rules have been incorporated in rule 97 of this CGST rules 2017. See the Department of Consumer Affairs that comes under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs Food and Public Distribution operates the fund at present. Initially it was set up by the Department of Revenue under the Central Excise and Salt Act of 1944. At present under rule 97 4 of the CGST rules 2017 a standing committee has been constituted to make recommendations for proper utilization of the money credited to this consumer welfare fund for the welfare of consumers and this committee is headed by the Secretary Department of Consumer Affairs. All those consumer awareness projects with national multi-state and pan-Indian coverage with innovative ideas will receive priority for funding from this consumer welfare fund. Also know that under the consumer welfare fund rules any agency or organization that are engaged in consumer welfare activities for a period of three years and registered under the Companies Act of 2013, Societies Registration Act, Cooperative Societies Act or any other law for the time being enforced are eligible for seeking financial assistance from this consumer welfare fund and the financial assistance will be given mainly for these purposes that are mentioned here like for innovative projects for spreading consumer literacy and awareness and programs for consumer education etc. So like this for many purposes financial assistance under this consumer welfare fund is given. This is in brief about this consumer welfare fund. With this information in mind let us look at this question. The question is which of the following statements about consumer welfare fund is not correct? Option A speaks about the objective of this fund it is a correct statement. Option B is also correct initially it was set up by the Department of Revenue under the Central Excise and Salt Act of 1944. Here option D is also correct because we just saw that spreading consumer literacy and awareness is one of the purposes for which financial assistance will be given under this fund. So the correct answer here is option C. Any agency or organization that is engaged in consumer welfare activities for a period of three years and registered under the Companies Act of 2013 is eligible for seeking financial assistance from the fund. It is not five years it should be three years. So the correct answer is option C. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about PISA portal. What is PISA portal recently seen in news? Four options are given and you need to choose the correct answer here. So you need to know what is meant by PISA portal. The full form of this portal is portal for affordable credit and interest subvention access. Subvention needs the grant of money from the government. See this portal is a centralized electronic platform for processing interest subvention on bank loans to beneficiaries under Dean Dayal, Antiyodhya Yojana, National Urban Diabetes Mission, in short DAYNU LM. This portal was launched in the year 2018 and the web platform has been designed and developed by Alhabad bank which is the nodal bank. So through this portal the government aims to connect directly with the beneficiaries ensuring that there is greater transparency and efficiency in delivery of services. Through this portal direct benefit transfer or dbt of subvention on monthly basis under Dean Dayal, Antiyodhya Yojana, National Urban Diabetes Mission will be given. So it will basically give the necessary financial support to the small entrepreneurs in the timely manner. From this you can arrive at the correct answer which is option B. Now what is this option A an application for online submission and monitoring of the proposals submitted by the proponents for seeking environment forest wildlife and CRZ appearances. It is basically Parivish portal the full form is proactive and responsive facilitation by interactive, virtual and environmental single window hub. If you remember we discussed in detail about this Parivish portal in our January edition of Target UPSC Prelims 2020 series. Now look at option C. Option C is about Santosh portal. See this portal is basically an implementation monitoring cell which has been constituted in the office of Minister of State independent charge for labor and employment in the month of January 2020. The objective of this Santosh portal is to promote transparency, accountability, effective delivery of public services and implementation of policies schemes of the Ministry of Labor and Employment at grass root level and this will happen through constant monitoring with the help of this portal. So this is in brief about Santosh portal. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is framed based on core of the core schemes. See core of the core schemes are sub classification of centrally sponsored schemes. As you know centrally sponsored schemes are those schemes which are implemented by the state government but sponsored by the central government with some share from the state government as well. So the financial burden is shared by both center and the state. The ratio of burden may vary like 50s to 50s, 60s to 40s, 70s to 30s or 75s to 25 or even 90s to 10 where the higher contribution will be by the central government. These schemes are framed by the central government in the state list of seven schedule of Indian constitution. The state's opinion was not considered much. Also if you see at the end of the ninth five year plan the number of centrally sponsored schemes was as high as 316. So this became a very contentious issue between the center and the states over center's role in the state space and encroachment of states physical space. So as a result in 2016 all the centrally sponsored schemes were rationalized and restructured based on the recommendations of subgroup of chief ministers. One important recommendation of this subgroup is that the total number of centrally sponsored schemes should not exceed 30. So all the centrally sponsored schemes were rationalized and classified into three lists. They are core of the core schemes, core schemes and optional schemes. Here know that the core of the core schemes and the core schemes have compulsory participation of states. However the states have discretion with respect to optional schemes. They can choose all the optional schemes or some of them. Know that for core of the core schemes the existing funding pattern would continue. For core schemes the funding pattern is 60s to 40 for the general states and 90s to 10 for special category states. Eight Northeastern states and three Himalayan states come under special category states. Then if you look for optional schemes the general category states get a funding on the ratio of 50s to 50 and for special category the funding is 80s to 20 ratio. And at present know that there are six core of the core schemes, 20 core schemes and two optional schemes. We have tabulated all these schemes here for your reference just take a note of it. So this is all that you need to know about core of the core schemes which is a subset of the centrally sponsored schemes. Which means the first statement is correct in this three statement question. In this table you can find that Mandrega is a core of the core scheme. So the second statement is also correct. Now look at the third statement it tells that with respect to core of the core schemes states participation is not mandated. This statement is wrong because for core of the core schemes and the core schemes states participation is compulsory. So here the correct answer is option B 1 and 2 only since you need to choose those statements which are correct. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about an initiative known as Suthrapik. The question is the initiative Suthrapik recently seen in news is here the correct answer is option C and inter ministerial initiative for research augmentation on prime products from indigenous cows. See it is an inter ministerial funding program. Suthrapik stands for scientific utilization through research augmentation prime products from indigenous cows. It has been planned with the support of various ministries like the ministry of science and technology through departments like the department of science and technology department of biotechnology department of scientific and industrial research under which comes the council of scientific and industrial research. Then if you see the ministry of Ayurveda yoga natural pathiyunani siddhan homeopathy that is the Irish ministries also involved then the ministry of new and renewable energies involved along with Indian council of agricultural research and Indian council of medical research. So it is an inter ministerial funding program. Under this program project proposals are invited from scientists, academicians to carry out R&D work and technology development which covers these five thematic areas. Uniqueness of indigenous cows prime products from indigenous cows for medicine and health then for agricultural applications and then for food and nutrition and finally for cow based utility items. More details on all these five thematic areas is given here for your reference. So here the correct answer is option C relates utropic India with indigenous cows. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about operation blizzard two statements are given and you need to choose those statements which are correct. First let us look at this operation blizzard know that it is a global law enforcement crackdown on illegal reptile trade. This operation was coordinated by Europol and Interpol and it involved agencies from 22 countries. This led to seizures ranging from live animals to high-end patient products. This operation saved thousands of animals from becoming wallets. The operational activities targeted aircraft passengers commercial cargo pet shops etc. This operation recognized the need for global information sharing and collaboration against the organized crime groups that are trading in live reptiles and reptile products. Here I have an idea that India did not participate in this operation blizzard. So this is in brief about this operation blizzard. Now with this information let us look at the question two statements are given and you need to choose the correct statements. Look at the first statement it talks about the conservation of critically dangerous reptiles whereas this operation is related to crackdown on illegal reptile trade. So the first statement goes wrong it is basically a law enforcement program where live animals were seized as a part of this program. It is not conservation rather it is a crackdown program. Now look at the second statement it tells that it is a joint initiative of International Union for Conservation of Nature and Worldwide Fund for Nature. This statement is also incorrect we saw that this crackdown was coordinated by Europol and Interpol. So here both the statements are incorrect the correct answer is option D neither one nor two. Now let us see in brief about Interpol it stands for International Crime Police Organization and it's an intergovernmental organization. It has 194 member countries it helps police in all 194 countries to work together to make the world a safer place. See the general secretary coordinates Interpol's day to day activities to fight a range of crimes. So this Interpol is run by the secretary general and it is staffed by both police and civilians. It is headquartered at Lyon and France. In each country an Interpol national central bureau provides the central point of contact for the general secretariat and other national central bureaus. Usually if you see this national central bureau is run by national police officials and it usually sits in the government ministry that is responsible for policing. In India if you see it is the central bureau of investigation. So remember this fact the general assembly is Interpol's governing body it brings all countries together once a year to take decisions. See all the 194 countries are connected via a communications system which is called as I-247. Countries use this secure network to contact each other and the general secretariat and this network also allows them to access Interpol's databases and services in real time. This is in brief about Interpol. So Interpol and Europol together coordinator operation Blizzard. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about Tropical Forest Alliance. Let us look at this alliance in brief now. See it is a global public private partnership that is dedicated to collaborative action in order to realize sustainable rural development and better growth opportunities across the world. This is based on reducing deforestation and sustainable land use management in tropical forest countries. See as of now this alliance includes more than 150 partners. They represent various groups like the private sector governments civil society organizations indigenous peoples groups and multilateral organizations. These groups are committed to reducing tropical deforestation that is associated with the production of palm oil soy beef pulp paper cocoa etc. Also the alliance catalyzes the power of collective action and responsibility so that forest positive becomes the new norm locally and globally. So what does this forest positive mean? It is inspired by the concept of carbon positive meaning that a company sequesters more carbon than it releases from its activities. In the same way forest positive means creating more forests than the forests that are being diverted and this will have an overall positive effect on the world's forests. In simpler terms it is the sustainable use of forests and forest resources. Note that this alliance was founded in 2012 at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. This summit was the third such conference held in Rio de Janeiro. Now we just have a brief recap about these summits. First one was the 1992 summit also called as Rio Summit or Earth Summit. Then after 10 years in 2002 there was one more world summit on sustainable development that was organized at Johannesburg in South Africa. So it was a Rio plus 10 summit because it happened after 10 years. Then again after 20 years of this 1992 summit there was one more summit which was held in 2012 at Rio which we are seeing now. It is the Rio 2012 or Rio plus 20 or the third earth summit. As a result of this summit there was focused political outcome document which contained clear and practical measures for implementing sustainable development. Here it is in this Rio plus 20 summit the member states decided to launch a process to develop a set of sustainable development goals and these goals were built upon the millennium development goals. So this is in brief about these three summits. Now coming back to Tropical Forest Alliance note that the secretary of this alliance is hosted by the World Economic Forum in Geneva Switzerland and it's funded by governments of the Netherlands, Norway, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. This is about the Tropical Forest Alliance. It is one of the environmental initiatives. So just remember about this alliance. Now look at this question. It is three statement question and you need to choose those statements which are correct. From what we saw now you can tell that all these three statements are correct. So the correct answer is option D 1, 2 and 3. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about two islands which were in news in the month of February. One is Kachatiwu Island and the second is Sagar Island. First let us look at Kachatiwu Island. See it is an uninhabited island which is located near Park Strait between India and Sri Lanka. At present this island is administered by Sri Lanka but know that before India's independence the island was owned by Ramnath Kingdom of the present day Ramnathapuram district which is located in the state of Tamil Nadu and after independence the island was owned by India but if you see in 1974 India and Sri Lanka signed a maritime agreement and based on this agreement the sovereignty over this Kachatiwu Island was confirmed over Sri Lanka and in 1976 Indian Sri Lanka again signed one more maritime agreement and as per this 1976 agreement each party shall have sovereignty over the historic waters and the territorial sea as well as the island set up falling on its side and it also recognizes the rights of navigation based on international laws. So as of now this Kachatiwu Island lies on the Sri Lankan side of the Indian Sri Lanka international maritime boundary line as you can see in this picture. See this island and the waters around this island is always a bone of contention due to the fishermen issue many times Indian fishermen cross the international maritime boundary line to Sri Lanka and they would be arrested and their vessels would be confiscated by the Sri Lankan Navy. So usually this island and the nearby waters are always in news. Even in the month of February some fishermen were captured by Sri Lankan Navy and hence it was in news. Now let us look about Sagar Island. See it is also known as Ganga Sagar or Sagar Dweep. This island is located in the Ganges Delta. It lies on the continental shelf of Bay of Bengal. See this island is a very large island and it is also a famous tourist destination that is located in the Sundarbans. See this island is also one of the most popular Hindu pilgrimage sites in India. See a fair called as Ganga Sagar Fair happens here. It is the second largest congregation of Hindu pilgrims after Kumbh Mela.  So this is in brief about Sagar Island. Now this island was in news in the month of February because that was a time when Covid-19 or the coronavirus outbreak started becoming more pronounced across the world. And if you see a Chinese vessel was stranded near this Sagar Island and in the month of February this vessel was allowed to enter Kolkata port. So this was the news in the month of February and this is all about Sagar Island that you need to know from exam point of view. Now look at this question. This question has been framed basically for you to have an idea about the geography related fact. Look at the first statement. It tells that Kachatibu Island is located near the park street. Yes, this statement is correct. Look at the second statement. It tells that Sagar Island is located in the Brahmaputra river in Assam. This statement is wrong. We saw that this island is located in the Ganges delta on the continental shelf of Bay of Bengal and it is a part of West Bengal state and it is not a river in island. River in island means an island which is located in the river. So here the second statement goes wrong. Now we need to choose the correct statement or statements for this question. The correct answer here is option A 1 only. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about Jagga mission. First let us look at this mission. See it is a mission of Odisha. It is Odisha liveable habitat mission. Jagga is society under housing and urban development department under government of Odisha. This society is headed by the chairman who is the chief secretary of Odisha. This Odisha liveable habitat mission Jagga aims at transforming the slums into liveable habitat with all necessary civic infrastructure and services. These infrastructure and services will be at par with the better of areas within the same urban local body. See this mission also aims to continuously improve the standard of the infrastructure and services and access to likelihood opportunities in the slums. This mission also aims at leveraging and converging various schemes programs funding opportunities. This will be done by strengthening collaboration among various departments, urban bodies, non-government organizations, financial institutions, international agencies, trusts, communities and other stakeholders. It will also provide advisory support to government of Odisha to examine options for policy reforms that are required for the sustainable transformation of lives of urban poor. Now this mission was in news recently since it received the World Habitat Award 2019. So let us look in brief about this award. This award is provided by an organization named as World Habitat. It is an independent charity basically which is working internationally to help bring the best housing to the people who need it the most. Know that World Habitat is an international not-for-profit organization which is established in the United Kingdom and know that World Habitat awards are operated in partnership by this World Habitat along with UN Habitat which is United Nations Human Settlements Program. These awards were established in the year 1985 for the identification and promotion of good habitat practices. They were initiated in 1987 as World Habitat contribution to the United Nations International Year of Shelter for the Homeless. These awards are presented on World Habitat Day which is organized in October each year by UN Habitat. The awards are still presented each year at a major UN Habitat event. So for the year 2019, Jaga Mission received the award. This is in brief about this Jaga Mission. Now look at this question. It is a two statement question and you need to choose the correct statement or statements. Look at the first statement. It is correct. It is Odisha Liveable Habitat Mission that aims at transforming the slums into liveable habitat with all necessary civic infrastructure and services. Now look at the second statement. It tells that this Jaga Mission is the only initiative to receive the World Habitat award 2019 from India. This statement is not correct because along with Jaga Mission, one more initiative got World Habitat Award 2019. The initiative is named as Restoration of Dignity and Human Rights of Indigenous Tribal Community in Karnataka. Note that this initiative is run by Action Aid India which is a part of the Global Federation of Action Aid International. Action Aid India with the Koragha Federation and Samagra Grameena Ashram works with the Koragha people and nine other tribal communities in the state of Karnataka to break the cycle of caste based oppression through social and economic empowerment of these tribal communities. So, the main focus of this project is to support Indigenous communities and access in government schemes to which the tribal communities are entitled to. Also, if you see this project has been seeking social justice for the Koragha tribe and other tribal communities. So, it is also supporting them to access their basic human rights and stand up against practices like Ajjadu. It is a degrading practice where the Koragha tribes are made to eat the leftover food from the upper caste households that are mixed with hair, fingernails and other inedible substances. So, through this community-led approach, this project empowers the marginalized tribal groups to resist oppressive practices like Ajjadu and access their basic human rights, restoring their dignity and transforming their lives. So, this initiative also received the World Habitat Award 2019 along with Jagamission. So, here the second statement goes wrong. The correct answer here is option A, one only since you need to choose the correct statement or statements. Now, let us move on to the next question. This question is about GSAT-1. See, it was in news in the month of February because the launch of this GSAT-1 was scheduled in March 2020 but due to technical reasons and due to COVID-19 outbreak across the world, this mission was indefinitely postponed. Now, let us see what is GSAT-1 and its purpose. GSAT-1 is an Earth Observation Satellite. It will be the first of the two planned Indian Earth Observation spacecraft that is to be placed in geostationary orbit. See, over the years, ISRO has sent many Earth observation satellites including GSATs, INSATs and RESATs but they were either placed in low Earth orbit or sun synchronous polar orbit. For the first time, ISRO is going to place an Earth imaging satellite in geostationary orbit. See, a geostationary orbit is an orbit at a height of 36,000 km above equator, a satellite in geostationary orbit, as an orbital period that is equal to Earth's rotational period. It simply means the satellite revolves around the Earth 24 hours, that is, in a day, in the same direction the Earth rotates. Therefore, the satellite appears nearly stationary in the sky when seen by a ground-based observer. So, this GSAT-1 will be placed in geostationary orbit and this GSAT-1 is to be launched using geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle F-10. Now, let us look at the objectives of this mission. One is to provide near real-time imaging of large area region of interest at frequent intervals, then quick monitoring of natural disasters, episodic events and any short-term events, then to obtain spectral signatures for agriculture, forestry, neurology, disaster warning, cloud properties, snow and glaciers and oceanography. Here, note that GSAT-1 will have high-resolution cameras so that we can keep a constant watch on our borders, monitor any changes in the geographical condition of India. Then it will also facilitate near real-time observation of the Indian subcontinent under cloud-free conditions at frequent intervals. So, this is all about GSAT-1. Now, look at this question. It is a two-statement question. Look at the first statement. It tells that GSAT is India's first Earth imaging satellite that will be launched in a geostationary orbit. Yes, this statement is correct. It is not yet launched. It is yet to be launched and if the statement had been, it is India's first Earth imaging satellite, then the statement might have gone wrong. So, always be careful when you are reading the statements. Since it will be launched in the geostationary orbit, it is going to be the first Earth imaging satellite that will be launched in geostationary orbit. Now, look at the second statement. This statement is also correct. It will facilitate near real-time observation of the Indian subcontinent under cloud-free conditions. So, here the correct answer is option C, both 1 and 2, since you have to choose the correct statements. Now, let us move on to the next question. This question is about national de-warming initiative. You need to choose those statements which are not correct with reference to this initiative. So, always be double careful when you are reading the questions, whether it is demanding for those statements which are correct or which are not correct. It is a three-statement question and you need to choose those statements which are not correct. See, this national de-warming initiative is nothing but conducting national de-warming day in short NDD. It is an initiative of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to make every child in India warm-free. You can tell that the first statement is not correct. It is an initiative of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, not Women and Child Development. See, it is one of the largest public health programs that are reaching large number of children during a short time period. It aims to reach more than 32.2 crore children in India. Now, such an initiative is important because worldwide if you see more than 836 million children are at risk of parasitic warm infections. And according to World Health Organization in India, 241 million children between the ages of 1 and 14 years are at risk of parasitic intestinal worms. So, what are these parasitic intestinal worms? They are also called as soil transmitted helmets or SDH in short. See, it is a subgroup within the group of helmet infections. It is caused specifically by those helmets which are transmitted through soil contaminated with fecal matter and thus they are called as soil transmitted helmets. The main species of soil transmitted helmets that infect people are the roundworms, the whipworms and the hookworms. This picture will clearly explain the transmission of how these helmets affect the human beings. Note that these infections can lead to anemia, malnutrition, impact mental and physical and cognitive development and reduced school participation. It is because they feed on host tissues including blood which leads to a loss of iron and protein and this often contributes to anemia and they can also increase the malabsorption of nutrients. If you see roundworms compete for vitamin A in the intestine, so they affect the host body. Now, this is the reason why this national deworming day is important. The objective of this national deworming day is to deworm all pre-school and school age children who are between the age of 1 to 19 years. Here note that both enteraled children and non enteraled children in the schools are covered. This is done through the platform of schools and ungun body centers. From this fact, you can tell that the second statement is wrong as well because it covers the children of the age group of 1 to 19 years not just under 5 years of age. We saw that this national deworming initiative is an initiative of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. This ministry is the nodal agency for implementing this initiative. It provides guidelines to all the states and union territories related to implementing deworming protocols. Note that this program is being implemented through the combined efforts of various departments like the Department of School Education and Literacy that comes under the Ministry of Human Resource and Development, then with the help of Ministry of Women and Child Development and Ministry of Jalshakti. See this national deworming day is conducted on 10th of February every year it started in the year 2015. Also if you see deworming is recommended for twice a year in those states where the prevalence of SDH infection is more than 20 percentage where the first round is conducted in February 10 and the second round in August 10. So on these days the children are administered with a tablet called as albendozone and also with one more tablet called as mebendozone. So note that these are the names of the deworming drugs that are used by the Government of India. Remember these names these tablets do not have any side effects and in case the dose gets missed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare carries out mop-up sessions so as to ensure that no child is left out. So with this fact you can tell that the third statement is also wrong because it is albendozone and mebendozone which are deworming drugs that are used in this initiative. Diclofenac is basically a major reason for the large-scale death of vultures because if you see diclofenac was commonly administered to cattle to treat inflammation and when the cattle died the vultures fed on the carcasses of these cattle and it led to the death of vultures. So relate diclofenac with vultures and albendozone and mebendozone with this deworming initiative. So here the correct answer is option C 1 2 and 3 since all the three statements are not correct and also note that this initiative is different from Mission Indra Dhanush. It does not come under Mission Indra Dhanush because Mission Indra Dhanush is basically an immunization drive and this national deworming initiative is related to deworming which is tackled with the help of tablets not with the help of vaccines whereas immunization drive is related to vaccines. So always try to know some small small differences whenever you come across such topics. Now let us move on to the next question. The question is true nat NTB sometimes seen in news is related to. Here the correct answer is option D it is a molecular diagnostic test for pulmonary and extra pulmonary tuberculosis. It can diagnose tuberculosis in one hour as well as this test is used for testing the resistance to the drug rifampicin. World Earth Organization has mentioned that this true nat NTB has high accuracy. So the correct answer is option D. See this drug has been developed by the Gova based small biotechnostics. This company was provided with technical assistance and resources by the foundation for innovative new diagnostics in order to help commercialize true nat. Also the Indian council for medical research had assessed and validated this diagnostic tool. It takes about 25 minutes to extract the DNA and another 35 minutes for diagnosis. Testing for rifampicin resistance takes an hour and it is done only if the sample tests positive for tuberculosis. Dear aspirants, we have covered a lot about this tuberculosis in this prelim series. We have covered what is meant by tuberculosis about the Indian programs to combat tuberculosis and about the World Earth Organization programs the UN goal and many other related things. If you remember in our November month current affairs we covered a device named CTB also which is a microscopic tool to detect the tuberculosis bacteria. So we request you to consolidate every current affairs on the tuberculosis as it might help you in the prelims exam. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about AF index 19. The question is the term AF index 19 recently in news is related to here the correct answer is option B defense cooperation. Know that AF index 19 is the first ever Africa India field training exercise in defense cooperation. It was held between the Indian army and 16 african nations. It focused on the exchange of best practices amongst the participating nations and also to strengthen the cooperation and defense preparedness and security. Now why this AF index was in news in the month of February because def expo 2020 was held in India. On the sidelines of this def expo 2020 the Lucknow declaration was adopted. This Lucknow declaration appreciated this first ever Africa India field training exercise AF index 19. Now let us see some key points mentioned in the Lucknow declaration. See the Lucknow declaration was adopted between India and the african nations on the sidelines of def expo 2020 as we saw. This def expo 2020 is a flagship biennial event of the ministry of defense and this is the 11th edition and it was held in Lucknow Uttar Pradesh for the first time in February. The main theme of this def expo India 2020 was India the emerging defense manufacturing hub and the focus was on digital transformation of defense and know that India and around 50 african nations jointly adopted the Lucknow declaration. This Lucknow declaration recognizes the african union theme for 2020 which aims to achieve conflict free africa without wars conflicts and human rights violations. The 2020 theme is silence the guns creating conducive conditions for african development. Also the declaration mentioned the joint efforts of India and Africa in peacekeeping and anti piracy operations. India has participated in almost all the peacekeeping operations in Africa. Apart from this this Lucknow declaration also focuses on terrorism and maritime security. It recognized terrorism, extremism, piracy and organized crimes such as human trafficking, drug trafficking and weapons smuggling as the common security challenges to both the african nations and to India. To counter them this Lucknow declaration calls for fighting against the growing threat of terrorism and also to ensure that no territory under their control is used to launch terror attacks on other nations. Then if you see this Lucknow declaration called for strengthening the human counter terrorism mechanisms and to ensure strict compliance with the UN security council sanctions on terrorism. If you see we have this UN security council 1267 that is called 67 resolution. This resolution encourages the countries to share intelligence on terrorism. They might urge the countries to take firm action against terrorism by disrupting terrorist networks, eliminating financing channels and halting cross border movements. Then if you see this declaration called for cooperation of India and Africa on the evolving concept of Indo-Pacific it welcomes african union's vision for peace and India's vision of saga that is security and growth for all in the region and it said that both the visions are coinciding. So as a whole if you see this Lucknow declaration revolves around the security relationship between India and african nations which aims to strengthen the relationship further by sharing information, intelligence, surveillance and mutual cooperation. So this is in brief about this AF index 19 through which we also saw about Lucknow declaration which was adopted between India and african nations on the sidelines of the DEF expo 2020. So here the correct answer is option B defense cooperation. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about AIDA asteroid impact and deflection assessment. See this topic is frequently appearing in the news and hence this question has been framed. See AIDA is a collaboration of asteroid researchers. The plan is to establish a planetary defense mechanism against huge asteroids. See in space science an asteroid hit is widely acknowledged as one of the most likely causes that may eventually cause the extinction of life on earth. So this AIDA is a larger international endeavour to save earth from asteroid collisions. Currently the mission is focused on double datamos asteroids. Datamos means twin in Greek. So this datamos is a twin or a binary asteroid system. The datamos primary body is approximately 780 meters across and its secondary body or moonlet is about 160 meters in size. The moonlet or the secondary body is more typical of the size of asteroids that could pose likely significant threat to earth. So the target of this mission is this secondary body or the moonlet out of this datamos. So as a part of AIDA two independent spacecrafts would be sent to datamos. One is the dart mission which is the double asteroid redirection test mission. It is an asteroid impactor of the NASA. The second is a follow-up asteroid runway spacecraft named Hera. See the dart spacecraft will deflect the moonlet by deliberately crashing itself into the moonlet at a speed of approximately 6.6 km per second. This dart is aided by an onboard camera and sophisticated autonomous navigation software. Note that this collision will change the speed of the moonlet in its orbit around the main body by a fraction of only 1%. Interestingly, if you see this will change the orbital period of the moonlet by several minutes which is enough to be observed and measured using telescopes on earth. So this is expected to happen in October 2022. The second spacecraft, Hera, will arrive about three years later to characterize datamos or the moonlet in great detail. In particular, it will perform detailed measurements of the physical properties of the body as well as its orbit to characterize the consequences of dart's kinetic impact. So this will use laser to study the impacted asteroid. So this Hera mission will pay a crucial role in providing a detailed post-mortem of the impacted asteroid and its crater. So this is about this EIDA, Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment. Note that EIDA is a joint collaboration between European Space Agency, then the German Aerospace Centre, then Kutz-Dazsier Observatory which is located in France, then NASA and also the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. So this is a joint collaboration of all these institutions. This is in brief about this Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment. Now let us look at this question. It is a two statement question and you need to choose those statements which are correct. Look at the first statement, it tells that NASA's dart mission is a part of this collaboration that is Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment. Yes, this statement is correct. Look at the second statement, it tells that the collaboration is a joint initiative of Roscosmos, NASA and Israel Space Agency. Remember Roscosmos which is the Russian Space Agency and Israel Space Agency are not a part of this Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment. Also if you see our Indian Space Research Organization is not a part of this Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment aspect. So remember this fact. So the second statement goes wrong here. The correct answer is option A, one only since you need to choose the correct statement or statements. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about our Future on Earth report 2020. Two statements are given and you need to choose the correct statement or statements. The first statement is about the aim of preparing this report and the second statement is who releases this report. See this topic was in news in the month of February because this report was released in February 2020. It was prepared by Future Earth which is a non-governmental organization. Know that Future Earth is a global network of scientists, researchers and innovators who are collaborating for a more sustainable planet. This report was released globally at different places and India was released by the South Asia Future Earth Regional Office. This office is located within the Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru of Karnataka. Know that this report is prepared with the aim of reducing carbon footprint and halting global warming below 2 degrees Celsius by the year 2050. This report lists five global risks to the earth which are failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation, then extreme weather events, then major biodiversity laws and ecosystem collapse, then food crisis and water crisis. Then if you see this report also talks about green deals. It tells that the green deals are transformative and hence the report urges the countries to fasten the green deal process. If you remember we have covered about European Union Green Deal in one of our previous videos. It proposes to make the European Union climate neutral by the year 2050. It includes tougher emissions targets, then increased support for biodiversity, then a revision of EU farming subsidies. So this is in brief about this our Future on Earth report 2020. Now coming back to the question, the first statement is correct because this is the aim of preparing this report to reduce carbon footprint and halting global warming. But the second statement is incorrect because this report is prepared by Future Earth and NGBO and it is released by the South Asia Future Earth Regional Office. For information, this foundation for environmental education that is FEE is related to blue flag certification and global forest fund. We have covered both these topics in our January 2020 target UPSC 2020 film series. So the correct answer to this question is option A, one only since the first statement is correct and you need to choose those statements which are correct. Now let us move on to the next question. This question is about the Prompt Corrective Action Framework of the Reserve Bank of India. See in the recent years many banks came out of the Prompt Corrective Action Framework and few are still under Prompt Corrective Action Framework and they have been monitored to bring them into a sound financial position. So often you can see news articles about this Prompt Corrective Action Framework Now let us look at what do we mean by Prompt Corrective Action Framework and how RBI is managing this framework. See RBI introduced this Prompt Corrective Action Framework to ensure that the banks are in good financial health. It is basically a framework under which the banks with weak financial position or weak financial metrics are put under watch by the Reserve Bank of India. So for this purpose the Reserve Bank of India has specified certain regulatory trigger points as a part of this Prompt Corrective Action Framework. There are three regulatory trigger points one is capital to risk weighted assets ratio in short CRAR, number two net non-performing assets that is NPA and number three return on assets ROA. In addition to these three the Reserve Bank of India has also set limits of leverage ratio. When any bank hits a trigger point the Prompt Corrective Action Framework is initiated and the bank's activities are restricted and know that as of now the Prompt Corrective Action Framework is applicable only to commercial banks and it is not extended to cooperative banks or non-banking financial companies or for the FMI that is financial market infrastructure. Now the quantitative limits of all these trigger points are not important from prelims perspective. Now what you need to know is understand the concepts of these trigger points and also about the leverage ratio. First let us start with CRAR that is capital to risk weighted assets ratio it is also called as capital adequacy ratio. See it is basically a measure of sufficient a bank's own capital to cover its risks. It is used to protect depositors and to promote the stability and efficiency of financial systems around the world. This CRAR is nothing but the ratio of the bank's capital to risk weighted assets of the banks. The formula is CRAR is equal to capital divided by risk weight assets of the banks into 100. Here capital includes both tier 1 capital that is equity and tier 2 capital debt. Tier 1 capital is nothing but the capital that is permanently and easily available to cushion the losses suffered by a bank without the bank being required to stop operating. For example the share capital of the public. Now if you look at tier 2 capital it consists of instruments that are debt and nature but they have a maturity period of at least five years. This tier 2 capital is the one that cushions losses in case the bank is mining up so it provides a lesser degree of protection to depositors and creditors and it is also used to absorb losses if a bank loses all its tier 1 capital. So to arrive at capital adequacy ratio that is CRAR both tier 1 and tier 2 capital are added and divided by the risk weighted assets into 100. So what is an risk weighted asset? See the Reserve Bank of India and its monetary policy assigns some risk to loans. This is based on the likely chance of a loan to be repaid or not repaid. For example loan to a normal vendor as less risk compared to giving loan to stockbroker. If a risk of additional 50% that is total 150% is attached to a stockbroker's loan of rupees 1000 it is counted as 1500 rupees instead of 1000 rupees. So all the loans and the assets with risks attached are added to arrive at the total risk weighted assets of a bank. If you see as per vessel 3 norms the banks have to maintain a capital to risk weighted assets ratio of 8%. About this there is a capital conservation buffer of 2.5% which should be maintained and this 2.5% can be withdrawn during financial stress. So this is all about capital to risk weighted assets ratio. Now let us look at non-performing assets which is the second trigger point. It refers to a classification for loans that are in default or in arrears. A loan is said to be in arrears when principal or interest payments are late or missed. Now let us look at the third trigger point which is return on assets. It is an indicator of how profitable a company is relative to its total assets. It is calculated by dividing a company's net income by total assets. So these are the three trigger points capital to risk weighted assets ratio non-performing asset and return on assets. Now let us look at the leverage ratio. It is the ratio between the capital measure and the exposure measure. Here the capital measure refers to the tier 1 capital and exposure measure refers to the assets created by the banks that is the loans given. So leverage ratio is equal to tier 1 capital divided by total assets. See leverage ratio looks at how much capital comes in the form of debt. As per vessel 3 norms minimum 3 percentage must be maintained. So when any of the trigger points is breached there is a bank of India can place restrictions like halting branch expansion stopping dividend payments or capping the bank's lending limit to one entity or sector. It can undertake special audits. It can undertake restructuring operations. It can activate recovery plan. It can ask the bank's promoters to bring in new management and it can even supersede the bank's boat. So there are many measures which RBI will take if a bank comes under prompt corrective action framework. Again remember that at present the prompt corrective action framework is applicable only to commercial banks. Also RBI is planning at present to extend to non-banking financial companies but as of now it is restricted only to commercial banks. So this is all about the prompt corrective action framework. Let's get back to the question. It is a three statement question and you need to choose those statements which are correct. Look at the first statement. It tells that it is a framework under which banks with weak financial metrics are put under watch and are ensured to maintain sound financial health. This statement is correct so you can eliminate option D. Now look at the second statement. It tells that this prompt corrective action framework is applicable only to commercial banks. Yes, this statement is also correct. There are plans by RBI to extend to the non-banking financial companies but it has not happened as of now. It is planning to bring a new supervisory system by the year 2022. Now look at the third statement. It tells that the only trigger point to fall into prompt corrective action framework is high net non-performing assets. We saw that there are three trigger points along with leverage ratio. So the third statement goes wrong. Here the correct answer is option B one and two since we have to choose those statements which are correct. With this we come to the end of this February 2020 series. 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